If it's Thursday. Backing off on the border. New questions about the future of a long sought bipartisan deal as Republicans coalesce around the former president and his political priorities. Plus combative in the courtroom.
After a series of heated exchanges and rebukes from the judge, former President Trump takes the stand and testifies in his own defense in the E. Jean Carroll civil defamation trial. And President Biden touts better than expected economic numbers in the key battleground state as the White House makes a new plan to handle the uptick in political protests on the trail. Welcome to me the press Now.
I'm Kristen Welker in Washington, where today we are seeing the impact of former President Trump's rapid consolidation of support among Republicans after his historic wins in Iowa and New Hampshire. After months of bipartisan negotiations, there are indications that a deal on the border may be dead because of former President Trump and election year politics. Mr. Trump, who has been pressuring Congress to kill the deal, wants the border to remain a potent issue for the 2024 race.
And in a closed door meeting last night, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell reportedly acknowledged that reality and said, quote, we don't want to do anything to undermine Trump. It is an abrupt change for McConnell, who just hours earlier was publicly praising border negotiations. The American people expect us to do something about this problem and we're working hard on a bipartisan basis to try to come up with a piece of legislation will actually help again to solve this crisis at the border. Now some Senate Republicans have said negotiations are not yet dead, with Senator TILLIS Denying that McConnell was trying to defer to Trump on the border.
The end of those negotiations would also make it highly unlikely that aid to Ukraine and Israel gets through this Congress despite desperate requests from Ukrainian President Zelensky and appeals for people like Mitch McConnell. Take a listen. Russia is openly mocking the ticklishness of Western support for Ukraine. The world is acting not when or how, but whether the world's greatest superpower will start acting like one.
Which makes our work on the supplemental national security legislation even more urgent. Now there's no love loss between Leader McConnell and Mr. Trump, who spent the day in court testifying as part of that defamation lawsuit and who is continuing to claim presidents do have total immunity from prosecution. NBC signed the fours on Capitol Hill and n he's Vaughn Hilliard is following the Trump campaign.
Sahil, I have to start with you and this extraordinary reporting about what Lera McConnell has said that apparently he is backing away from a deal on the border and Ukraine amid concerns that could hurt Trump in 2024. There's now a little bit of confusion about exactly where he stands. Help clarify where do things stand? What's McConnell's position right now?
Sahil yeah, there's quite a bit of confusion, Kristen, even among Republican senators who were in the room about what Leader McConnell was saying. Some of them saw that he was potentially opening the door to back away from that immigration deal, essentially walk away from the whole package. McConnell in a separate meeting today tried to clarify that he was not withdrawing in support of negotiation, that he still supports Ukraine aid attached to a border security immigration deal. That's According to Senator McRami I talked to as he walked out of that meeting.
But there were some senators like Senator Ron Johnson, who's a McConnell critic, that he was puzzled by his comments that they were talk Ukraine and McConnell brought up the border and Ron Johnson's view, McConnell was making a lame excuse. That's a direct quote for the the fact that these negotiations have not gone quite so well. J.D. vance, the senator from Ohio, said he took McConnell to acknowledging the political difficulty, simply accepting, you know, talking about the reality of the election year.
Senator James Langford as well, the chief Republican negotiator. Let's put up on the screen what he said to reporters earlier today. I said, quote, okay, he was laying out the political realities of where things are. And kind of the elephant in the room conversation to say everyone knows this.
Let me just say this out loud. We're in the middle of presidential primary season, so that's just the shift that has occurred. And he's just acknowledge, acknowledging that is a reality, unquote. Chris is still not out yet, but McConnell and Senator say they still want to try to get the sun.
Wait, Sahil it sure does complicate things, even having a day of trying to work through exactly what McConnell was saying. Clearly there is this acknowledgment that the politics, it comes on the heels of those big wins by Trump in Iowa and New Hampshire. But I just wanna take a step back for a moment because McConnell, Republicans in the House, one of their main goals is to try to preserve a Republican majority, certainly in the House, to try to win a Republican majority in the Senate. And in talking to some of my sources, there's concern about not getting anything done, particularly in the wave of all the drama over the speakership.
How is that impacting these talks, I hope? Well, two very different situations on that front, Chris, and yes, the House Republican majority has been very little done. It's been a wildly unproductive Congress in terms of legislation that's actually passing become law, that they can go home to consider them brag about somehow Republican state don't think that matters, that the agenda won't really matter. That as long as President Trump does well at the top of the picket and the others can ride along with him on the Senate side, it's certainly different.
Yes, it would not be out of character for Mitch McConnell necessarily to let some political considerations factor in. He supports his deal. But on the other hand, Obama has been such an emphatic supporter of Ukraine aid and continuing US Assistance to Ukraine to try to defend itself against Russia. He supports NATO.
He's an ardent proponent of the post World War II order and wants to preserve that. He's also said many times in recent days that on a policy standpoint, he's seen a lot of these immigration negotiations over the last several decades. This is the most conservative deal that he has ever seen and that he thinks Republicans are ever going to get even if they sweep the election. So there's a real incentive here from a legacy standpoint as well to try get something done.
It's such an important point, Sahil. And you have Republicans who live in border states basically saying, let's just take the deal. We need to deal with this crisis at the border. Give us a sense though, Sahil, because part of the backdrop to this also is you have more and more Republicans consolidating their support publicly now around Donald Trump.
McConnell has not done that yet, we should note. But you do have more senators, more members of the House saying we're throwing our support behind Trump. And that's precisely the big picture factor that is coloring all of this because the Republicans are divided as to whether to take a half measure on a deal or some say kill the deal entirely and try to use this as a political wedge. Because President Biden's numbers really are weak on this issue of immigration.
And the board of voters do blame him for it. He is supporting this deal to try to mitigate that situation and give the executive branch more tools to combat and manage the flows at the border. But that's the division between Republicans in terms of Trump endorsements. He has won over more than half Republicans in both the House and the Senate conferences.
I've got some numbers written down here. 126 out of 2019 in the House I've endorsed, 31 Senate Republican out of 49 have endorsed 10 Republican skeptics of Trump. There are many at various points in the five stages of brief. Some of them have reached Acceptance after his you dominant victory in Iowa and little less dominant but also clear victory in New Hampshire including Senator John Cornyn says it's time for Republicans unify behind him.
The big difference is in the House entire Republican leadership team has endorsed Trump. Speaker Mike Johnson and all his deputies in the Senate, Mitch McConnell and his top deputy John Thune has still not endorsed Trump. Well, it's so fascinating to watch those dynamics unfold on the Hill. Vaughn, you have been waiting patiently.
Thank you, my friend. Let me turn over to you and get the reaction to all of this from inside Trump. What are they saying about these reported statements by McConnell and now the attempts to kind of soften what felt like he was pulling back from this deal. Right.
It's more quiet, Chris. And I think this is the delegates in to the extent that Donald Trump has ever delicate about anything the delegate, the delegate walk that he campaigning will have to take. It's a recognition that he has been at the forefront of calling out the crisis at the border and for Donald Trump understanding at that it is a key political issue for him. Just stick to the results in New Hampshire.
The exit polls from this primary on Tuesday showed on Republican primary voters about a third of them said that immigration was their top issue. Among those who said it was their top issue in voting 80% to 20% Donald Trump to Nikki Haley. It is a dominant issue that not only propelled Donald Trump politically in 2016, but Donald Trump on the campaign trail has made the case that he didn't talk about it enough in 2020 and that may have damaged him in the second presidential attempt here. And so notably on social media he has continually honed in on E.
Jean Carroll trial and his actual primary battle. But we've heard him quiet when it comes to actual immigration deal. Instead, we've heard the most coming from Speaker Johnson who has been the one articulating Donald Trump's opposition to this immigration deal that has been in the works. And Speaker Johnson making the case that Donald Trump is one of them to come to a halt to negotiating.
Wanna let you hear from Don between Nate and Chris and completely an old bite of his in which you can hear part of his rhetoric when talking about immigration on the campaign trail. On my first day back in the White House, I will terminate every open borders policy of the Biden administration, stop the invasion of our southern border and begin the largest domestic deportation operation in American history. We got a lot of work to do. They're poisoning the blood of our country.
That's what they've done. They poisoned mental institutions and prisons all over the world. Chris, when New Hampshire the other night. At each of his rallies over the course of the last month, he has continued to make immigration the dominant force and making the case that Democrats don't care about the border issue, instead making, of course, this is an extension of the conspiracy theory that they in fact want migrants to come to the United States so that they can make them voters and change the dynamic of the electorate in the country, which of course is just not true enough backed by evidence.
Yet Donald Trump is consistently, for his own political purposes, on the trail. Yeah, absolutely. And Vaughn, talk a little bit more about the strategy that you expect us to see from Donald Trump. Obviously, he's trying to apply pressure to Nikki Haley to drop out of the race.
We know that we are seeing other Republicans echo those calls. We also know he canceled an appearance tomorrow night in Arizona. What can you tell us about that? Right.
This is for Donald Trump. This is the difficulty, if you will say difficulty, between the courthouse and the campaign trial for him right now at a time in which these conversations dropping out on Capitol Hill. He was inside the courtroom today and testifying about in the Eugene Carroll defamation trial tomorrow. I am told that he will no longer be traveling to Arizona, the Republican Party, that he's going to be holding what they call a freedom fest major gathering of activists tomorrow night.
He's no longer now going to be attending that in the Keith swing state of Arizona. But for Donald Trump, this is a multifaceted campaign here at this point. And when we're talking about the immigration issue, this is one piece of law with elements of the economy that he has continually pointed to as aspects of the Biden administration that have not worked for the American people. And this has been a difficult part of the time in which the economy has improved.
The job unemployment rate is looking good, inflation has been streamlined going down. This is a moment here for him on the immigration issue that he doesn't want to let go of. Yeah, absolutely. It's an issue that works for him.
And Vaughn, it's really important to bring up the economy. I spoke to Republicans who say if the economy is showing real signs of improvement in November, that could be a political problem for whoever the Republican nominee ultimately is. Sahel and Vaughn, fantastic reporting as always. Thank you so much.
And as we mentioned before, President Trump testified in the Manhattan courtroom today in the defamation case that stemmed from the earlier trial that found him liable for sexually abusing writer Eugene Carroll. The former president was only on the stand for a few minutes and had A comment stricken from the record, along with an admonishment from the judge after he called Carroll's allegations fals. The trial will reconvene tomorrow for closing arguments. NBC has been outside the courthouse in Manhattan.
She has been covering all of the twists and turns. Yasmin, it is so great to have you. Thank you for being here. So what did we hear from Trump today?
His appearance was short, but he had some fiery comments. Right? Three minutes short, Kristen. Three minutes.
216. He took the stand, was sworn in. 219, and he was done. There was a lot of back and forth, only up to his testimony, because part of what was going on there was kind of setting the parameters for what the former president could and could not say.
The questions that were going to be asked by former president's attorneys, Alina Hamba, and laying out those parameters by Judge Kaplan. And part of that was saying, he can't come on the stand and say, why I didn't sexually assault her, because that's already been found. Right. He's already been found liable.
You can't go on the stand and say, this is a hoax. Right. I don't know her. She's not my type.
And all the things and the ways in which he's offended repeatedly, I'm EG Girl. Because he's already been found liable for those things in the previous trial. Instead, he took the stance. Three minutes.
He was asked two or three separate questions by Lena. Let me just read for you. Kind of the verb that you get from inside the courtroom by a producer on the ground there, Alina Hobba, saying you viewed your deposition. Yes, I did.
You stand by it 100%? Yes. Do you deny the allegations to defend yourself? Yes, I consider it a false accusation that was stricken by the judge.
Did you ever instruct anyone to hurt Ms. Carol? No, I just want to defend myself, my family, and frankly, the presidency. All struck by the way as well.
And that concluded then there was a very brief cross by Robert Kaplan, E. Jean Carroll's attorney, that was also subsequently about 90 seconds or so. Chris, I think two things to consider here. First and foremost was what did you refer from the deposition that was presented by E.
Jean Carroll's attorneys? I think one of the big standout moments in the deposition was, of course, what we have played repeatedly over and over, which was the moment in which Donald Trump was shown a picture of E. G. Carroll.
He identified her as his second wife, Marlon Naples. He said, I didn't know, obviously, Ean Carroll the time. And he identified Ethan Carroll as Marlon Maples in the deposition that was shown. The other part was the former president establishing his wealth.
Right. The extreme amount of wealth that he has and the details that he knows about as well. And then he subsequently asked if he knew about Eden Carroll's book, if he knew about the details that were in the book. They showed then a tweet afterwards that showed he in fact commented on the book even though he knew about the book or had he read the book.
The other thing I did to consider when the jury will be going to deliberations likely tomorrow afternoon, is the makeup of this jury. Right. It's not hugely significant, but the questions that were asked of the jurors I think are important. Right.
And the folks that were chosen were fairly kind of vague and innocuous about the news outlets they listened to. I didn't choose anybody from msnbc. I get my news from ABC or NBC News or New York Times or Washington Post. Everybody that they chose to be a part of this jury pool were much more vague about how involved they were in their intake of news and also who they voted for, which in fact they were asked.
Question, someone will talk about timeline tomorrow. They'll reconvene for closing arguments. Likely jury will go into the rations after lunch tomorrow and then we'll wait and see for a decision. We will.
It's going to be fascinating to see what they decide. Yasmin, I know you will be there covering all of it. Thank you so much. Really appreciate it.
Good to see you. Well, in another legal development tie to the former president, his former White House advisor Peter Navarro was sentenced to four months in prison today. Navarro was convicted in September on two counts of criminal contempt of Congress after refusing to testify and provide documents to the House select committee investigating the January 6 attack on the Capitol. Former White House advisor Steve Bannon was also sentenced to four months on a similar contempt conviction but is appealing his conviction and has yet to serve time.
Navarro's lawyer is seeking to delay the imposition of his sentence as well, citing, quote, novel issues in the case, including bars claimed that Trump had invoked executive privilege. Well, coming up, the latest moves to try to free the hostages being held in Gaza. The director of the CIA will hold high level meetings to try to broker a deal. Plus, President Biden hits the trail in battleground Wisconsin as his team prepares for more demonstrators and more disruptions as the election heats up.
What are they going to do about it? We'll tell you coming up next. You're WATCHING THE PRESS now. Welcome back.
President Biden is the battleground state of Wisconsin today. As we learned, the US economy grew by 3.3% in the final quarter of last year, beating Wall street expectations by more than a percentage point. In a statement, the White House called the data good news for the American families and American workers. In Wisconsin, the president touted what he sees as his accomplishments in a state that will be key in November.
14 million new jobs since I became president. 169 new jobs in Wisconsin, 200,000 in Minnesota, nearly 800,000 new manufacturing jobs nationwide. Good paying jobs. And employment has been the lowest, but below 4% for the longest stretch in 50 years.
That's our economic plan. Invest in America, invest in American products. Build in America. That's what we call Bidenomics now, notably, in contrast, his events in the past two days.
President Biden was not interrupted by protesters today, but NBC News does have exclusive new reporting that the Biden team is ramping up its strategy for dealing with more protests from the left and the right. Gary Grumbach is in Superior, Wisconsin, and he joins me now to break down everything. So, Gary, let's just start off with the president's message today on the economy. There it was again, Biden on it.
There's been some debate within the Democratic Party should he continue to use this term. Clearly he decided to today. He decided today. And it really shook me, Chris, when we were talking Yasmin.
The contrast could not be clearer today between Donald Trump, who was sitting in a New York City courtroom, and President Biden, who's out here around the country talking to voters and trying to convince them that his economic message and his administration accomplishments are what people want to see over the next four years. He was here in Superior, Wisconsin, really promoting a $5 billion grant from the bipartisan infrastructure bill that's going to go to 37 different infrastructure projects around the country. One of the biggest ones is here in Superior. It's called Blatnik Bridge.
It's a bridge that is being between Duluth and Superior, Wisconsin, and 30,000 people go over it every single day. It's a really massive, important bridge and a bridge that really is crumbling right now. We drove over it and we could tell it was actually crumbling as well. So this lady message that he's trying to get out and show people that this is the economic message that he thinks people want to see and you're just looking forward, what does the campaign have planned when it comes to visiting states like Wisconsin in the coming months?
Are we expecting his events, his travel to ramp up? Yeah, we're Expecting his travel to ramp up, especially in Wisconsin. The White House has sent three administration officials to Wisconsin just this week alone. Vice President Kamala Harris here on Monday on the anniversary of Rovers Wade and Treasury Secretary Jenny Yellow is going to be here tomorrow.
Clearly, Wisconsin state, they know they want to win and they need to win. Let me ask you, Gary, about this new reporting that NBC News has. As I said at the top, there weren't protesters at today's events, but there have been some protesters this week for Palestinian protesters. What is the White House's plan to deal with protesters in the coming weeks, in the coming months, and the concern that it could overshadow his message.
Yeah, this event today was certainly a small event which was actually in viol. So perhaps that is why there were no protests happening today. But the White House is understanding this is the problem when it interrupts the message of the president when he's on stage. So they clone a guy named Doug Landry.
He's an expert at campaigns and campaigns over the past several years. He has something that they believe can come in and come up with a Korean solution. Unlike Menla Armal Calaba said he can come up with a Korean solution to try to make sure these folks have a voice and their voices heard, but without interrupting the president. All right, Gary Grumbach, thank you so much for covering all the angles for us.
We really appreciate it. I'm joined now by Congressman Debbie Dingle, Democrat from Michigan. Congresswoman, thank you so much for joining us. I really appreciate it.
Always good to see you, Christine. It's good to see you. Let's start by talking about the economy. The president noting the fact that the economy is growing, inflation is down.
As you know, though if you look at the polls, of course, there's no polling on today's numbers, but it shows that the economy is still potential vulnerability for the president. Do you think the White House, do you think the president is doing enough to overcome this issue? Look, I think it's incumbent upon all of us that we are not doing a good enough job of ourselves giving credit to the president. I, in my own state, which is a Democratic state, with the governor who's one of my best friends, watch too many people take credit for money that came into the state that Joe Biden made sure came here.
And I tell this to my colleagues, I tell this to my state legislators, I tell it to my mayors. You need to give credit to where this money came from and they know it. Now our state legislators are going to get reelected if he doesn't do well. So I think we all have to be all in on telling the story of how these investments he's talking about today, how the economy is turning around after he took over this country during COVID at a terrible time.
And it's incumbent on all of us to tell the story. As you know, one of the key issues, though, is that voters say they look at the numbers and yet they don't necessarily feel it in their pocketbooks. What is your message to those voters who say, I want to feel like I have more money, like I have more economic security, and why, therefore, should I put this president back in office? So I think some of the good things we're seeing, like let's be one of the first things you feel I when I first got elected, my staff is tell me I shouldn't do this.
People didn't. I'm going back to doing it. I posted the cost of milk, eggs and Diet Coke. And you know what the price of gasoline is?
Well, right now, gasoline prices are going down. People are feeling it less in their pocketbook than they were. So it's going to be people feeling it. I mean, let's be real.
You are correct. It's how people feel. But I think what you saw at the end of the fourth quarter is what people are starting to feel. I feel, look, we got a lot of hard work ahead of us.
I live in a state that's competitive, but I said it can. It depends what the subject is. But on the economy, people are just feeling a little better. Well, let me follow up with you on that very point, because when I talked to you, it was about a month ago, you told me you were very concerned about the president standing in Michigan.
You said part of what you're saying now, which is he needs to talk more about the economy. Are you feeling as concerned or less concerned than when we spoke about a month ago? Look, I'm moving right until Election day. This is a competitive state.
I mean, everybody's focused now on how competitive it is. Donald Trump is going to spend a lot of time here and so is the president. So 16 Michigan is, quite frankly, probably the state or one of the states that will determine what the outcome is of this election. So it's a purple state.
Sometimes people want to say, oh, it's a blue state. It's not. And I'm going to take it seriously until the polls close Election day. Let me ask you about this endorsement.
He was endorsed yesterday by the United Auto Workers Union. What do you think the impact of that is going to be on Michigan. And do you wish that endorsement had taken place in Detroit, the headquarters? No, they had their annual CAP conference.
It's when they bring the CAP direct the clinical coordinators in from around the country. They have a couple thousand people there. We have UAW workers from one coast to the other. And it was, I think maybe you're hearing me just say I'm a tad better.
I'm going to be neurotic. I spent four days with those UAW workers and I think the president of the UAW laid it out very clearly. This is about facts. And he talks about what Donald Trump had done and said for the auto industry and what President Biden has done and delivered for the audio industry.
The contrast is stark. And I talked to those members. They were. Were penned out about quite the way he had laid it out.
Many people told me they think it was one of the strongest labor endorsements the president has received. Well, look, I want to follow up the odds. I was just discussing with Gary Grumbach, which is the president has been interrupted in recent days by protesters. In this case, they were pro Palestinian protesters.
But as you know, protesters go along with campaign events. It's part of our politics. The White House is apparently devising a plan to try to deal with protesters at events to try to make sure that his message is heard. My question for you is, do you think that's the right way to address this?
Are you concerned that his message is getting ground out? And does this suggest that the president might need to shift his policy when it comes to the Middle east crisis? So you're asking me a lot of different questions there, Christian. He is going to have to address.
I mean, I've been clear about that. In, in my home state, Gaza and Palestine are very serious issues. I've had. I mean, people died.
People are connected to both sides. What Hamas did was terrible. But more than 30, 000 people have died in Gaza. Now, I've spent actually most of my day with people in that community again, and they're upset and he's gonna have to talk to him.
That's a reality. So it's going to be one of issues. But you know what this would also tell you is compared to facts, remember that Donald Trump said he wanted to ban Muslims. He has done nothing with this community.
And frankly, I'm scared to death of what could happen in foreign affairs if he was going to be elected. Look, I'm somebody who has the far right and the, the pro. Palestinians have even a cop for a ceasefire and they Protest me up in. We have to learn how to deal with it.
We have to make sure that we are talking to them, that they're hearing and listening to us, but still talking about that overall message about why they will be the better president or the better candidate, period. Do you think President Biden should go so far as to call for a cease fire? Does he risk losing Michigan if he doesn't? Congressman, look, I'm not going to negotiate his foreign policy, but we all need to show there are people hurting on both sides.
But I mean, we have lost 12,000 children in Gaza. He himself says he's for a two state solution. He's not saying that. I mean, we've got to deal with this and we've got to deal with it soon.
I know it's complicated. I know it's not simple. But we're seeing too many people are dying. Point.
Yeah. Congressman Debbie Dingle, thank you. I always appreciate your time. Thank you so much for joining us.
Thank you. Coming up next, on to South Carolina, Nikki Haley takes her campaign to her home state, hitting Trump and telling him to, quote, bring it. You're watching it the present now. So we got out there, we did our thing and we said what we had to say and Donald Trump got out there and just threw a temper tantrum.
He pitched a bit. He was, he was insulted. He was doing what he does. But I know that's what he does when he's insecure.
I know that's what he does when he is threatened and he should feel threatened without a doubt. Welcome back. That was a defiant Nikki Haley taking on Donald Trump in some of her strongest language yet during a rally in her home state of South Carolina, a state she says she will compete it when it holds its primary 30 days from now. I'm joined now by Kate Dawson for South Carolina Republican Party chair and the Nikki Haley supporter.
Thank you so much for joining. I really appreciate it. Well, a privilege and pleasure to be with you, Kristen. Thank you.
So the primary is in 30 days. What needs to happen over these next 30 days to give you confidence that she can win? Because right now she is trailing Donald Trump by double digits. And most of the elected officials in your state have thrown their support behind Trump.
This is uphill. Kristen, let me unpack a little bit for you. So South Carolina, you've been here before. It's we're going to vote between 575,000 to 750,000 Republicans and center right voters.
A couple of things that happened. It took a long time to get rid of the Dirty Dozen and come up with just a two person race. So we've had a two person race for about six months, days. Nikki has come in second, New Hampshire with a good showing.
She worked hard. She's from Bamberg, S.C. lived about six years in the governor's mansion. Donald Trump is from Queens and he lived about four years in the White House.
So we move all that out the way and understand the people that are asking us what are we going to get out of the race, are we going withdrawal? And the answer is, hell no, we're not going to do that. This is Nikki Haley. She is tough, a strong woman.
The first ever woman elected is governor in the state of South Carolina. Not only that, I'm a minority woman. Several things have happened. Christian Trump, first of all in his, in his victory speech and then went on further to insult everybody.
And we're used to that. But what he's not used to is a very strong woman, good politician coming to her home state where they know her and love her. Donald Trump's got good numbers now, but he starts making mistakes. The best one he just did for us was when he said that he was going to go ahead and track everybody's money he was given to Nikki Haley as if he was going to turn into exactly what he's been complaining about is the government, if he's in charge of it, tracking who's giving her money.
Second of all, he got the best endorsement Nikki Haiti ever had was yesterday was Joe Biden said it's now a two person race, him and Donald Trump. Because Joe Biden doesn't want any part of that action with Nikki Hagee. None. Then on the third one, here comes the rnc.
Well, I think maybe you ought to, if you ought to step down, let us unite. That is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. We have, we've got 62 delegates out of 23, 67 left. This is a congressman, not a coronation.
This is the United States, not Cuba. We are ready to rumble down here. Donald Trump ought to debate Nikki Haley. Do it on NBC, do it on prime time.
We know he won't. He'll never end up debating Joe Biden because he won't debate Nikki Haley and he'll continue with his insults and stuff. We don't continue to talk about what it would look like with a new generation of Republicans in the White House. Well, we will take you up on that.
A debate on NBC and primetime. That sounds good to us here. I want to follow up with you. You made A couple of points on the point of South Carolina, is it fair to say that this is make or break for Nikki Haley?
I mean, does she have a pass if she can't win South Carolina? Well, we've got very generous double owners who believe in the change that we need in our government, the change we need in our country and believe that there's time for next generation to let our 80 year old politicians retire or go do something else. So we got a choice here. We got a couple 80 year old men who go run for presidency.
We're going to have Nikki Haley who if you look at the poll numbers, guarantee you that we probably can win the White House and that. But does she have a path after South Carolina? Doesn't she need to win South Carolina in order to keep her donors still on board, in order to convince her supporters to stay with her? She can't win in South Carolina, her home state?
Where can she win? What's her path? You could be right. We got 30 days to do that.
We got 30 days to do THAT, 30 days to tighten it up. It's only been a two person race for six days. Donald Trump seems to think that he's a nominee and he's not yet. But maybe, maybe he gets there.
We've got 50 delegates to go allocate South Carolina, they're allocated proportionally and then there'll be 102 delegates out of 2367 to go. So there is a path to victory. It does run through South Carolina. The only person ever to not become the nominee was Newt Gingrich who won 45, 46 counties and then Mitt Romney, Whitey Mountain, Florida.
But everyone who's ever run here have become the nominee. And we'll see. I think we stand a chance to move the numbers, move the needle. I see Super Tuesday, we'll probably have enough money to buy the thousand points of television it takes.
So I'll let Governor Haley decide when she wants to get out. But I can tell you there's not a whole lot of quid in the Kristen, just like you, she's pretty tough. Well, that's nice of you. I appreciate your saying that.
Let me get your reaction to this because you raised the rnc, I don't know if you've seen this yet, but NBC News has obtained a draft resolution by the RNC to declare Trump the party's presumptive nominee. Now of course, this is not official, it doesn't mean he is. But does that type of pressure from the rnc, from other Republicans who are endorsing president, former President Trump and calling Nikki Haley to get out of the race. How tough does that make it for her to stay in?
Well, let me explain this. I was on the Republican National Committee for seven years. Seven years. I get what the body does.
I get it's supposed to run elections and full and free. If the RNC thinks they have enough wisdom to go name the nominee and curtail to Trump's wishes, with only 62 delegates out of 2,367 that are left with only two states who have primaries and one a caucus, and they want to go ahead and name the nominee, then let me explain something to you. The RNC has lost its mission. They should quit and go reelect some people that don't want to have a coronation.
Donald Trump is not the sitting president. And we do offer that to George W. Bush. When I was president, we didn't have a primary.
We nominated him by executive committee. But that was it, too. The same way they're about to do. That was Joe Biden.
I'm not complaining about that. I've been on the Republican National Committee. I was chairman here for eight years. But Donald Trump didn't win.
He lost. And he lost in 2018. He lost in 2020. He lost in 2022.
So he's got to go run the primary, earn it back. That's what it is. The RNC has just said it's three letters, just like the irs. Three letters.
Most people don't know who it is. They certainly don't know who chairman is. It is a body that is there to make sure we nominate in a proper fashion. If they're going to try to go do that, then they are falling to the wheels of the White House.
They want to make sure they go to the White House Christmas party and have all the traffic to that. We need to have a contest if we want to remain a political party in the United States of America. All right. Well, I will leave it there.
Katon Dawson, thank you so much for joining us. We have 30 days, so I hope you'll come back and join us again. Really appreciate it hearing from you today. What a pleasure, Kristen.
Thank you. Thank you. Pleasure for us. After the break, more on how Capitol Hill Republicans are reacting as the former president's path to the nomination gets clearer and his grip over the Republican Party gets tighter.
You're watching me the press now. Welcome back. I'm joined now by my panel, Ian Caldwell, co author of the Washington Post, the early 202Amisha Cross, Democratic strategist and Brendan Buck for advisor to House speakers Vayner and Ryan and an NBC News political analyst. Welcome to all of you.
So let's talk about the state of play here on the campaign trail and what we are seeing unfold, which is defiance by Nikki Haley, who has really ramped up her attacks against the former president. I want to play a little bit. Everyone's reaction on the other side. Out of everything that he said in his rant, he didn't talk about the American people once.
He talked about revenge. Liam, she's shifting her messaging. She's making it tougher. 30 days till South Carolina.
She says she's in it. This is a candidate who has nothing to lose. So a candidate who was cautious for a while. She was strong but cautious until the final days before New Hampshire, especially attacking her challenger Donald Trump.
And now everything is loose. And so she is going to do whatever she wants. There's not a lot of stakes in the game at this point. We'll see how long she stays in the race.
We were talking earlier, probably a lot going to depend on how much money she has and if her donors stay with her. But to be clear, Donald Trump, even though he's still very angry and holding grudges against Nikki Haley for running against him, he and President Biden think that they are now in a general election. That's right. I mean, that is the extraordinary statement that came out this week.
President Biden said general election has begun. President talk about the donors. I mean, they're watching this unfold. They're watching Nikki Haley get tougher.
They're also watching Republicans coalesce around her and increasingly call for her to drop out of the race. What kind of impact does that have on the state of play? I think it's significant. And it's got to feel like the walls are closing on you a little bit.
Donors, your friends, you know, people who you who have allies of yours. Tim Scott, endorsing Donald Trump right before, I mean, it's got to feel like there's really no where to go now. It will come down to money. Ultimately, at some point she's going to have to make a credible case that there is a path here.
Now, we haven't seen any fresh polling in South Carolina. I don't think since New Hampshire, we haven't start seeing some numbers. If her recent attacks, which is relatively new development, don't start making any changes in the trajectory were headed, I think all of us are going to start. I think a lot of us realize that that is over.
She May it may be hard for her to credibly stand up there and say that the case. Yeah. As Kate Dawson said, ultimately she will make that call. And we should talk about, as Leanne just said, how the White House is responding, the statement from President Biden declaring that the primary is over basically before Nikki Haley decided that.
And it comes amidst this campaign shake up to bring in some big guns from the White House to be at the center of the campaign. Do you think this is an effective and necessary move by President Biden, who in some holds, Australian former President Trump? Absolutely. And we've known from the beginning that President Biden honestly wanted to run against President Trump again.
We know that. We know that he's we also know that this nation national, national polls are more moderates in America than there are mods of people. And we know that Donald Trump's base has not grown. He still does not have that moderate bill.
He still doesn't have that undecided vote. A race between Joe Biden and he would have been a much different race than one between him and former President Donald Trump. Yeah, I mean, we're going to talk about that a little bit because what New Hampshire did expose were those vulnerabilities for Trump, the fact that he does not have strong support when it comes to independence. He does not have strong support when it comes to moderates.
Yeah. I think the other side of that, though, is Joe Biden has wrote with independence as well, and that's ultimately what this election is going to come down to. Yes. Nikki Haley showed that Donald Trump is, you know, those, those educated suburban voters that we talked about for years and years and years now are still going to be very relevant.
The problem that Jo Biden has, he's had a lot of slippage there, too, in places that used to be strongholds for or had become recently strongholds for Democrats are slipping back to Republicans. I'm from Georgia. Suburbs and around Atlanta have been very unkind to Donald Trump. And all of a sudden you're seeing Georg tending towards Trump.
That is significant. And we watch what happens in the suburbs so closely to give us an indication about where those critical voters are leaning. Leigh and let's talk about how all of this is impacting what's happening on Capitol Hill because it looks like negotiators were getting close to a deal that would deal with the border as well as aid to Ukraine and Israel. Then in a private meeting, reports that Leader McConnell said they don't necessarily want to strike a deal that would undermine Trump and his re Election prospects.
He's trying to walk that back a little bit today, but where do things stand? Yeah. So the past 24 hours was a lot of chaos on Capitol Hill. You know, my reporting from that is that it was a one sided version that was sent out last night and reported last night, but that McConnell was laying out the paths that Republicans have.
You can. Donald Trump obviously doesn't want this. He wants to run on the border. McConnell acknowledges this is his key issue.
He thinks this is his winning path to the presidency. And McConnell, ack. That he will be the nominee, doesn't want to undercut him. On the other hand, McConnell's also making the case that there has will never be a time at this moment where there are, that Republicans will benefit from these negotiations on the border because every other border negotiations have involved the DREAM act that Democrats demand or legalization for immigrants.
And so who are in the country, undocumented immigrants from the country. And so things are kind of back on track now. But the question is, is how many Senate Republicans and when it gets to the House Republicans would defy Donald Trump. And that's the ultimate question here, given the semantics of what's happening in Congress.
And Trump is looming large in these negotiations, very important political issue. He's looming so large over these negotiations. And we should pick up on point because I've talked to Republicans and Democrats who say for President Biden, this would be a pretty big political gift if he could campaign and say I did something big on the border. And by the way, it allows Republicans to say that they accomplished something after the chaos swirling, ousting former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy.
No, absolutely. But they see this, Republican see this in two ways. They see Democrats running on abortion rights and they see themselves running on immigration. And because this is no longer just a border crisis.
I'm from Chicago. Chicago has a lot of unoccupied immigrants, many of whom are coming on a daily basis. This has become something that's also a tenuous issue for Democratic voters, particularly in those cities that we've seen, places like Texas and Florida, same migrants too. So I think that Biden has to thread a very thin line here where immigration might not have been a top issue across the country a few months ago.
It now certainly is, especially for cities, many cities that have consistently. Brendan, you have been there when these types of negotiations are unfolding. What do you make of the state of play? Right.
Dynamics. Another one is that a lot of these senators are probably looking at this bill, whatever it's about to be realized. It's nowhere, nowhere in the House. So do you want to vote for something that you know is not going to become law?
That makes it an even tougher vote. Now, theoretically, could they negotiate that point. But then it becomes really tenuous. I don't see how that console.
I had a really hard time getting invested in the idea. Immigration is the single hardest thing we ever do. And now you enter Donald Trump. This is always going to be awake from.
Donald Trump is never going to be before this. If Don Trump is against an immigration issue, it's just never going to pass. Thunders. All right.
Great conversation, you guys. Thank you so much. Lena, Misha and Brendan. Coming up next, new developments in the effort to free the remaining hostages being held in Gaza.
Will explain. Stay with us. You're watching the press now. Welcome back.
There are new developments today and the push for free hostages help by Hamas. CIA Director Bill Burns is headed to Europe this weekend in hopes of brokering a new deal to secure the release of the more than 100 hostages still in Gaza. Join me now is Raf Sanchez in Tel Aviv. So, Raf, let's talk about Bill Burns trip.
How big of a challenge is he facing as he tries to work a deal here? It's a big challenge, Chris. And the two sides remain very far apart. The last ceasefire deal collapsed on the 1st of December.
And in the nearly two months since then, the major sticking point for a new deal has been whether a ceasefire would be temporary or permanent. Hamas says no new deal until there is a permanent ceasefire, until there's an end to the war. Israel says the war will only end when Hamas is destroyed. And Bill Burns when he's meeting his Israeli counterpart, the head of the Mossad's spy agency, when he's meeting the Emir of Qatar, who has been the main mediator throughout this process in Europe this weekend, is going to be looking for a way to try to bridge those gaps to see if there is some way the two sides can meet in the middle and we can get some sort of deal that would lead to the release of some all of the Israeli hostages in exchange for a ceasefire that would allow more humanitarian aid into the civilians in Gaza.
And Zof, there's just so much pressure on Prime Minister Netanyahu right now to protect more civilian lives to halt the fighting. And yet he has been defiant. Talk about the pressure that is on him and whether you think this might be a moment where he tries to find a way to step back. Yeah, defines is the right word, Kristen.
You have seen the United States consistently saying Israel needs to scale down its military operations. It needs to allow more aid in. And he says no, the war will continue until there's what he calls total victory. It is not clear what that looks like.
And then here at home, he's under major, major pressure from the families of the remaining 136 or so hostages to make a deal to bring their loved ones home. They say every day time is running out. So a lot of pressure there must be excruciating for those families. Our thoughts are with them.
Ross Sanchez, thank you. I am back tomorrow with warming the press. Now the news continues with Tom Costello and for Hallie Jackson right now. Hey, everyone.
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