Meet the Press NOW — January 27

Welcome to Meet the Press Now, I'm Kelly O'Donnell in Washington, where the White House appears to be shifting strategy amid the growing fallout and public outrage after deadly shootings by federal officers in Minneapolis. Right now, President Trump is on the ground in Iowa, where he's set to speak on his economic agenda as the White House tries to pull the headlines back to the President's affordability agenda and away from the backlash over his immigration crackdown in Minneapolis. We will bring you the President's remarks live when those happen, and this all comes as the administration has entered damage control mode over its deadly actions in Minnesota. Maybe the President, most ago, calling the killing of ICU nurse, Alex Prady, by patrol, border patrol agent, very unfortunate, after earlier today telling reporters that he would personally oversee the investigation into prete shooting.

I want to see the investigation, I want to be watching over it, I want a very honorable and honest investigation, I have to see it myself. That investigation already facing enormous scrutiny after White House officials made inflammatory claims about the incident and the victim that are contradicted by multiple videos from the scene. The administration is now switching up its team on the ground in Minneapolis, pulling out controversial border patrol commander Greg Bovino, who has been seen using aggressive tactics against demonstrators. The President was asked about that moments ago.

Mr. President, why did you decide to shake a new leadership team in Minnesota and say, Tom, I do that all the time. I shake up teams. Everybody here.

These are a lot of owners of farms and places, and you shake up your team, but they can't do the crops fast enough. Look, we have an incredible team. We did something that nobody said was possible. We didn't go back to Congress and ask for legislation.

We closed the border, and in the last eight months they have, and this is actually hard to believe nobody crossed the border. Bovino's place, the president sending in borders are Tom Hohman, who met with local officials today, including Governor Walz, saying in a statement that he reiterated Minnesota's priorities to Hohman, including impartial investigations into the shootings involving those federal agents and a swift, significant reduction in the number of federal forces in Minnesota. Walz also announcing that he's appointed a liaison from the State Department of Public Safety to work with Hohman. President Trump says Hohman will report directly to him by passing DHS Secretary Noam, but he's also telling reporters today that he remains happy with the job Noam is doing.

I think he's done a very good job. I think he's done a very good job. The border is totally secure. You know, you forget, we had a border that I inherited when millions of people were coming through.

The White House also says it plans to reduce the number of Border Patrol agents in Minneapolis. The shifts in the administration strategy come amid a major backlash among Democrats and a growing number of Republicans. 12 Senate Republicans are now calling for an independent investigation into Freddie's killing, with some Republican governors now also speaking out. We need to have respect for law enforcement officers in the country.

They are law enforcement officers. And so they being the White House need to recalibrate on what needs to be done to make sure that that respect is going to be reinstilled and that's not an easy task, especially under the current circumstances. But I know that they're working on a game plan to make sure that they are going to, let's say, recalibrate and maybe work from a different direction to ensure that they get back to what they wanted to do to begin with, and that is to remove people from the country who are here illegally. I think the death of Americans, what we're seeing on TV, it's causing deep concerns over federal tactics and accountability.

Americans don't like what they're seeing right now. You know, we believe in federalism and state rights and nobody likes feds coming into their state. And so what's the goal right now? Is it to deport every single non-US citizen?

I don't think that's what Americans want. That criticism from governors comes as new polling shows approval of the president's immigration policy has fallen to its lowest level since his return to the White House a year ago, as he also wrestles with low approval on the economy and the cost of living. The issues he's expected to make his focus when he speaks in Iowa this hour. Now joining me is our team of reporters, NBC senior White House correspondent Gabe Gutierrez, NBC's Morgan Chesky is in Minneapolis and also with me, NBC senior justice reporter Ryan Riley and NBC news, legal affairs reporter Gary Grumbock.

Gabe, let me begin with you. And what can you tell us about how the president has processed these events and how they've unfolded the reaction to it and these changes he's making? What stands out to you? Well, Kelly, this has been a dramatic shift in tone of the last several days.

As you've mentioned, and according to the senior administration official, the president was shuttling between the Oval Office and his private dining room here at the White House on Saturday watching the news coverage unfold. And according to this official, he grew increasingly disturbed by the violence that he's been seeing on the ground in Minneapolis. And this official adding that the president doesn't like to see chaos under his watch. And so fast forward through Monday morning, when you heard the president make that announcement that he was sending borders on Tom Holman to take over operations in Minneapolis.

Yes, this is a significant shift in tone. And this comes after top advisors to the president, including his deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, and also officials with the Department of Homeland Security had made several assertions on Saturday that appeared not to have been borne out by the video evidence. So far made public. You just heard the president, you know, disagreeing with some of his top officials in terms of the characterization of a prey who was shot.

So certainly this has been a significant change of the last several days in the White House now shaking up this leadership with that sound by you just played from the president, president saying that, you know, he can shake up his team if they're not doing, if they're not getting the job done essentially, Kelly. Let's take a look at some more of what the president said today. This was our first chance to see him on camera extensively asking and answering questions from reporters about the shooting. So let's look and get a sense of what the president says here as he was questioned by reporters.

So notable there gave of course he is distancing himself from Stephen Miller's comments that painted pretty as an assassin and then also at the same time he's taken some resistance from notable gun rights groups, the NRA and others about the claims that he and now others in the administration have made about you're not supposed to have a gun at a protest, which of course is in conflict with the Second Amendment. What is your sense of how the president is walking that line and how it may be drawing further criticism? You know, Kelly's very interesting the president said that today and also double done that again in the event just a few moments ago in Iowa saying he didn't like it, the Freddie had a gun. Certain members of his administration have had to clean up their comments from earlier in the weekend, the FBI director, Cash Patel, reiterating his commitment to the Second Amendment after making some initial comments suggesting that that protestor should not have had a gun.

But certainly you address this in your question, Kelly, the NRA, other gun rights groups don't like to hear that kind of language that while the, you know, the protestor, according to the administration, they argue that he may have been trying to impede law enforcement. These gun rights groups, they argue, well, that may be the case, but you can't tell Americans not to show up anywhere with a gun if they are legally allowed to do so and Freddie by on locations was a legal firearm owner. So while members of the administration have tried to back kind of clean up those comments and stress that they do believe in the Second Amendment, the president today coming out and saying that he does not think Freddie should have had a weapon at that protest, Kelly. There'll be more to hear about that.

I'm sure. Thank you, Gabe. We appreciate it. And all the question you've been doing of the administration on this as well.

Let's turn now to Morgan who is in Minnesota to get a sense of what the reaction on the ground is now that people are learning about their shift in the administration and how they're going to change up the staffing. Is that easing concerns? What are people telling you? Yeah.

Kelly, great question. I think it's too early to say that there's any cautious optimism here. I think there's more curiosity and even a little apprehension just because of what this community has witnessed over the last several weeks here, seeing the killing of Renee Good on the streets of Minneapolis reacting to that and then to have that followed several weeks later by the shooting of Alex Freddie, not far from where I'm standing, which now led to this growing memorial just created a sense of sadness of anger and frustration. And so with the people that I've spoken to today who have come to pay their respects to Freddie, they are looking at this leadership change with ICE operations and they certainly are acknowledging on one hand that it appears to be a shift.

They are well aware of the conversations that home is having with Governor Tim Walz and Mayor Jacob Fry today, but they are waiting to see what happens now in the next few days in the next few weeks to see if this what they called a kind of an environment of fear that has pervaded this area continues to do so. One woman telling me that she knows a friend who aren't letting their children go to school because they're concerned of the ICE rates here. Others businesses keeping their doors locked and operating in a come up and knock basis hoping that that would protect them from potential ICE warrants. So that even if you're not directly affected by that, the degree of separation here is very minimal.

And I think that's why we've seen such a collective response, a pushback rather, against the activities here by federal agents Kelly. And are you getting a sense Morgan that people on the street are more or less willing to take out their phones and take video of these interactions? Is there a sense that they know those videos made a critical difference or they might draw the attention of ICE? Is there a sense of how people are feeling about showing up and being on the street?

Is it too risky or is it something they feel an even greater responsibility to do? They certainly don't feel discouraged to do so, particularly in light of the multiple anger angles that capture that fatal encounter with Alex Freddie giving not one, not two, but half a dozen views of him being taken to the ground by federal agents and then shot repeatedly. I asked that very question, you know, to people here the other day, when you watch these videos, what did you see take place? Someone said murder another said an execution and even in sub-zero temperatures, not today, and days prior, that certainly didn't appear to significantly discourage some people from coming out.

We know that within Minneapolis Kelly, there is an organized system of communication on the activities of ICE agents. I haven't had a chance to speak to them personally, but that almost operates as a separate entity from some of the demonstrations, some of the protests that we've seen in and around this area. But there is certainly no relief here just yet too early for that, very much a wait and see, because these folks have now been going on three weeks of an anxious feeling of fear and in some cases, almost hopelessness, whenever they hear federal officials say that Alex Freddie approached these agents with a gun and then they can see multiple videos contradicting that entirely. Kelly.

Morgan, thank you so much. And we'll stay in touch with you as people get a sense of, are these changes something that they can feel or is it something that's going to need time to play out? So we thank you for that. I'm going to turn out Orion Riley and tell us what you are getting a sense of.

We know that Greg Bovino left Minneapolis today. He had been the commander of Border Patrol who was positioned there for a long time, drew a lot of controversy. Now Tom Holman is in charge. Is it clear to you how operations in Minneapolis could change what it would look like under Holman versus Bovino?

Yeah, with Bovino, it was not only as you pointed to his actions on the streets, everybody's also getting into fights on social media with sitting members of Congress, which was kind of extraordinary. He had this sort of role that was created specifically for him in this structure. It was not a position that existed before. And obviously getting in addition to those actions on the streets, a lot of the rhetoric that he's been using about this, including instantly labeling the officers who killed the victim in this case as the victims and the victim as some sort of suspect, I think, was in this initial push where the Trump administration was just getting a lot of the plain facts and observable facts that Americans can see with their own eyes out.

I mean, with Tom Holman coming in, it is interesting because, of course, Mr. Holman has his own ethical issues aside from this that he's addressed on this very program. He was caught up in this FBI sting operation, which involved a Calvabay filled with $50,000 in cash, allegedly the part of this investigation. That investigation was shut down.

Mr. Holman has denied any criminal wrongdoing, but on this very program, he danced around the question of what exactly happened to that $50,000 in cash that was involved in that investigation. So it is sort of remarkable to have someone with those sort of issues come into this very volatile scenario in the position of someone who's going to be sort of a reformer, so to see. But what he's spoken about in terms of the operation and typically his rhetoric has been around is focusing on the worst of the worst.

And so perhaps we will see some sort of shift, but I think the people in Minnesota and Minneapolis are certainly going to be waiting to see and if this changes actually take place on the ground, Kelly. A lot more to come there, Ryan. Thank you so much. I'm going to turn to Gary now because we've also seen a number of legal developments that are directly related to the events involving Alex Freddie and the actions of federal officers in Minnesota.

What are the courts saying? What are you watching? There's a couple. There's five or six different lawsuits.

One of the biggest lawsuits that we are seeing right now has to do with the whole operation itself, Operation Metro Surge, and whether or not it is legally happening in the city of Minneapolis and St. Paul area. A judge has not yet made a ruling on that, but she's being asked to either by the state of Minnesota, take out 3,000 members of the Border Patrol, of members of ICE, that are currently there and get them out of the state. That's what Tim Walz wants.

That's what the Attorney General like, Keith Ellison wants. We'll see if that happens. She did not seem like terribly inclined to go all the way on that perhaps there is some sort of middle ground that could be reached there between the parties. Another really big case that we are following has to do with the evidence retention related to the death of Alex Freddie.

Where is that gone? Where is the cell phone that he was showing using in the videos that we've now seen many of them? And what's on those body cameras, those body one cameras by the CBP officers, all of that and they come out and that's in that judicial system as well. It's been interesting and you and inside our team are always tracking when the briefs are filed and that has produced a lot of detail that we had not otherwise known about the pattern of where evidence was going.

Who was in custody of it? What the court wanted to know and to try to ensure that that evidence is not destroyed. That was a key part of this. That was a key part of this.

And they're upset in Minnesota with how the Trump administration is acting in court. They are violating court orders left and right and a chief judge today in a separate case unrelated to Alex Freddie. There's a man that has been in the US for 30 years from Ecuador, been in the US illegally. He was picked up on January 6th.

The judge told him 10 days ago, told the government, you have to say you have a week, so let this man have his due process. They didn't do it. And now he was about to hold the acting ice director in contempt, but they've released the man. The government has released the man to avoid putting the acting ice director on the stand in court in Minnesota.

And those kinds of issues, the tension between the court and the government and their representations bleeds into concern about can the public trust whatever comes next? Is that something you're seeing? That's absolutely something we're seeing in not only in Minnesota, but around the country, right? We've seen several different times, especially related on topic immigration, the Trump administration is doing one thing and going to judges and the attorneys from the DOJ are seeing a very different thing in court.

Thank you so much, Gary. We appreciate it. And coming up, as we mentioned, we are keeping our eyes on President Trump, who's in Iowa. We expect him to speak and deliver remarks.

You see the lectern right there, known as the blue goose for those in the White House trivia. That's what that's called. It's his first public speech since the tragic killing of Alex Freddie and Minneapolis. We don't yet know if the president will reference that or if he'll stay focused on the economic message.

And then plus the White House is under pressure, a growing number of Republican senators call for an investigation into Saturday's fatal shooting, Democrats are threatening to shut down the government over DHS and ICE funding, we're covering all of this growing fallout on Capitol Hill and you're watching Meet the Press Now. Welcome back. The list is growing. More than a dozen Republican senators are now publicly calling for an investigation into the killing of Alex Freddie by a Border Patrol officer this weekend.

Just moments ago, Majority Leader John Thune joining those calls in a speech on the Senate floor. And this comes as the conduct of ICE and Border Patrol are under increasing scrutiny on both sides of the aisle. In the House, the chair of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Homeland Security, which oversees DHS funding, said in a statement and I'm quoting here, a pivot to ICE's core mission in Minnesota is needed. Now, at the same time Senate Democrats are poised to block a DHS funding bill later this week.

And that effectively shuts down the government only partially over the tactics of ICE. And Democrats in the House are also saying they would like to see impeachment action move against Homeland Security Secretary Kristin Christie. No, even if she is not removed, they still want to take that step. And joining me now from Capitol Hill is NBC's Julie Serkin.

Julie, this is a count I know you're keeping close track of to see the movement on this. It is rare for Republicans to push back against the president. And yet this is an issue in a moment when they are doing just that. Rand Paul has called for hearings and for officials to testify under oath.

And where do you think this is heading? Yeah. And Kelly, if I could just start with that hearing, it is going to take place on February 12th. Senator Paul, who is the chair of the Homeland Security Committee, an important gavel to have at this moment, somebody who has not seen eye to eye with the president, has called for a full investigation, has criticized the events that we saw unfold in Minnesota over the weekend.

How federal officials reacted to that. But thanks to Gnome, the Homeland Security Secretary, immigration officials will testify before his committee, the heads of ICP and other agencies related to immigration enforcement. And certainly the list of Republicans calling for an investigation is notable. Not only are they typical foes of the administration, like Susan Collins, for example, who is the head of the Appropriations Committee, a very important position she has, but take a look at your screen.

There are even more than that. I just heard, in fact, Steve Danes, a senator from Montana who's doing a hit next to me for another network saying that they all agree that investigation is needed, but certainly an investigation, Kelly, is different for calls to withhold funding so that they can then hold administration accountable and really use the power of the person, which is the oversight power that Congress has to investigate this further. Well, you're really getting at the heart of it there. The levers that, especially Democrats in the minority, can't have.

It does include oversight using public hearings. That's one measure of it. Another is controlling how funding does or does not move forward. And so this notion of a partial government shutdown, how likely is it and how significant would an impact be?

Is there any off-ramp this time? I think it's extremely likely, Kelly. I wouldn't say that a couple of days ago, because Democrats had no appetite to take this kind of step. They even acknowledged that withholding funding for DHS means a little for what administration is able to do.

In terms of continuing their ICE activity, that was funded in many ways separately as part of the Republican bill last year. But I'll tell you, I talked to a moderate Senate Democrat who told me they are incredibly dug in on this. They told me it is not if it is when Republicans would have to make the decision to split off the DHS funding bill from the rest of the bills. They passed six of them already.

They had an agreement to deal with the other six, but Democrats are saying here, including leader Schumer, by the way, that Republicans are going to have to split that funding off or risk shutting down the government, at least partially, and they put that on them. And in terms of what Democrats are putting together now, leader Thune said they have to have a list of reforms, a list of ask, they have not yet presented Republicans with that list. But I'm told by that Senate Democrat that I spoke to, that leadership is asking them to put together a list of realistic proposals, of realistic reforms, not just handshake agreements, but something that will be signed into law, for example, having to do with the power that state governments have and coordination with the federal government in this ICE activity, in having federal agents and officials on their streets, that could be one reform, but something that has real teeth. That is still an open question.

Whether Republicans will agree to that, whether the White House will agree to that. But we know, Kelly, the Democrats are even having those conversations on our own. Julie, you said us perfectly for our panel where we can continue on these important issues in joining me now is Eleanor Mueller, White House economics reporter for Semaphore, Antoine C. Wright, Democratic strategist and founder and CEO of Blueprint Strategies and Republican strategist, Matt Gorman.

Eleanor, let me start with you. Obviously, these tools on the Hill to try to bring about some change. Democrats are going to try to do that. Are we in the zone of simply sending a message to the administration, or do you think there is a real opportunity for policy changes that might help to achieve some of their goals of quieting things now?

That is the core tension, right? As Senator Republicans have said, hey, Democrats, you have a problem with how the ICE has been doing. Take this to the White House. Strike an agreement with them on what you would like to see from ICE.

And what we're hearing from Democrats, like Dr. Sanders, that that's not enough. They want something in legislation, something along the lines of what Julie was describing, and whether or not there's a middle ground to be found there, I think remains to be seen, but it certainly is fair to say that agreement by Friday, Thursday, is unlikely. And Matt, we've seen something we don't often see from this White House, and that is a distancing, kind of an encapsulating of the President, separate from some of his most senior aides, Stephen Miller, Cristino, Cash Patel, based on things they had said in the early hours of this crisis in Minnesota.

Is that enough to call the waters for the administration, or does the President need to do more? Look, I think this was heading late last week before they're shooting toward the de-escalation as Ellison and Vance had a pretty productive meeting. I think that at the end of the day, the solution in Minneapolis proper and the Senate will likely be paired somehow. I think with home and going over there, it's a first step to really also decouple this on the ground in Minneapolis.

Again, whether there's some agreement on how the tanners are honored, whether it's a heart reset across the board in terms of the number of personnel with ICE up there, I think what we're underestimating is the ability for them to strike a deal on Minneapolis proper, and that also inform what happens in the Senate, too. Is it fair to say, though, this was kind of a stunning moment for the White House to make this pivot? I think it is one of those things where you're having when you have 12 senators, including Steve Daines, John Thune. Again, one thing to note.

Friends in the White House. Friends in the White House. And Thune and Kristi Noem were also tight. Members of the South Dakota delegation together back in the day, as she was governor, obviously he was a senator and former representative.

So, that is notable as well. Antoine, when we look at how voters have shifted their views on immigration, that may have been the issue that helped get the president elected both times in 2016 and in 24. We've seen now that a new Reuters poll says that 58%, they've gone too far referring to the actions for enforcement of the plan for mass deportations. A CBS Ugov poll found 52% say ICE operations make communities less safe.

But is this something that you think will have a staying power toward November? Or is this really about the moment we're in right now when we live in a world where the issues change so quickly and we'll be back to economic issues? I think people lumped together immigration as one collective issue. The president ran specifically on the border.

He did not run on ICE agents being rogue, murdering people on camera in front of the world, behaving like we've seen them before. In no disrespect to the 12 senators who may have found their voice now, at the end of the day, it should not have taken 12 people being shot since September, two people being executed. It's a public eye, but we have a camera for them to adjust their posture about ISIS over each. The fact that they're violating the Constitution every single day, we've seen them go into places without a warrant.

We've seen them do things that in any other circumstance would not be acceptable. So it doesn't matter what the politics are. I think the Democrats are right. Their strategy is a must, not a plus.

At the end of the day, Democrats are going to have to continue to control the message if we want this to resonate going into November into the November election season. And look, we cannot take our foot off the gas about the failures of Donald Trump on the immigration standpoint, but also an economic standpoint. Do you see this as an opening for Democrats? If they can coalesce their message, it's still we're so close to the crisis itself.

I don't want to get overly political about it, but how they use this moment toward November. Sometimes Democrats struggle with sticking with a message. I agree with that. I think this is more about accountability and the continued pattern of failures by this Republican majority and this Republican president, particularly from an economic standpoint.

And now you have from an immigration standpoint, the president is underwar on every single major issue that this country is facing, including those he was able to win over voters on in November. I think we have to keep the pressure and the momentum if we want to pretend to penetrate going into the election season. So as we said here, we're waiting on the president who's in Iowa. He's scheduled to speak.

He's running a little behind doing an interview. We understand. We understand that he will be able to try to steer this back to the economic issue that got him this date in Iowa to begin with. This is about the midterm strategy, going out, talking about affordability, cost of living, an issue where he's been reluctant at times to engage on that.

Do you see that as a pivot he'll make today or do you feel the president will also have to acknowledge some of the concerns the public is feeling about these immigration operations? We've seen it already. I mean, he touched down in Iowa. He immediately had to answer questions about the death over the weekend.

The fact that the man who was killed had gone on him, which has put the Republican party as he got earlier in some hot water with the NRA, but we've watched him a ton to make this pivot, right? He's tried to move it from foreign policy issues like Venezuela, like Greenland to focusing on affordability, especially as Republicans who are up for election in November, face heat over costs that are still going up, even though he hasn't made progress slowing that sense. And whether or not he manages to land that message to deliver the speech that he's set out to deliver today will happen. We'll be watching.

We'll be watching for sure. And certainly we know Susie Wiles, his chief of staff wants to see the president out on the road. I was at state. He has won multiple times.

There's a big race there for the Senate seat that is opening up. Do you get a sense that the president now has a test also about what we would say not that long ago, the competency test of talking about you have a crisis that you didn't necessarily intend, meaning they intended the operation. They didn't this terrible shooting death is a consequence. And how he handles this now?

And he says, I want to take on looking at the investigation home and reports directly to me. Is that a moment for the president to try to, in some ways, engage himself directly in this? Yeah. I think he wants a short circuit as an issue because I think both Republicans and Democrats across the board, we all can agree that kind of number one issue.

There's opportunity costs being lost by both parties. If you're not engaging on that and talking about that. So I think that's the key here so they can disengage this issue and get back on the economy. There are some positive economic indicators.

That is going to be the test here. I was also, I would note, it's an open seat. Joan Yerin's obviously retiring actually. That could be something to keep an eye on.

It's been reliable. We're a Republican of the late, both at the presidential level and down ballot. Maybe it might be closer than I think a lot of people expect this election cycle. Respectfully, Matt, this administration and this Republican majority have zero credibility on the economy.

Maganomics has been a failure. The electricity, gas, groceries, all the things that are basic necessities for America are sky high and way to out of pocket and out of reach. The president has denied that we have an affordability crisis. Never mind the fact that 25 million people have seen the healthcare premium sky rocket just because of his lack of action.

But the other part, he limps into Iowa, where Democrats are old performing two or more special election seats that have happened at the local level. But also, he limps into Iowa with a group of farmers who are pissed off with him because of his lack of action on the economy. And they are begging for something from his wife, from an economic rehabilitation standpoint. So the president is going to Iowa, I think, in a crisis and he's trying to divert the attention away from what real Americans want to be talking about.

And I know he'll also try to talk about successes at the border. He'll try to pivot to that. And he surrounded himself with some farmers today, so he's definitely trying to connect with them, knowing how important they are in the culture as well as the voting influence in Iowa. So we're going to be watching for the president.

I'm going to say thank you to each of you. We will see if our conversation is borne out in the specifics of what he chooses to talk about. Eleanor, Matt, and Antoine, thank you so much. We really appreciate it.

Up next. The other big story that we've all been living, the cold plunge, life-threatening windchills and record low temperatures threaten tens of millions across the US as another winter storm. Another winter storm looms. We'll break down the latest forecast.

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And welcome back. We're still waiting on the present, so we're turning now to weather and intense cold as blanketing large sections of the country today, following that massive winter storm that swept across the country this weekend. And that storm is now being blamed for at least 43 deaths, that arctic air stretching from the Great Lakes to the Gulf Coast. Around 170 million people are under severe cold alerts.

At the start of the day, as many as 500,000 customers were without power, nearly 200,000 of those in Tennessee. Now, to give you an idea of just how expansive the frigid conditions are, close to 80% of Americans, more than 250 million people will experience below freezing temperatures over the next seven days. NBC's George Siles filed this report from a very cold Nashville. That bitter glass of winter continues.

Now the sun has been coming out for a little bit, and that's helped some of this ice starts to melt. Unfortunately, a lot of this is expected to re-freeze once the sun sets, because the temperatures are struggling to get into the double digit behind me is World Central Kitchen. They're actually helping feed families that are looking for a hot meal during this prolonged winter event. Officials, unfortunately, have said across the south that the death toll continues to climb.

Officials hope that that number stabilizes at some point, but with the power outages that we're seeing, still more than 100,000 here in the Nashville area alone and well over half a million across the south here. Those numbers could continue to fluctuate, because again, as the temperatures continue to plummet, it's so hard for these linemen and workers to go out and do these repair works. To that end, though, a lot of people, a lot of residents here, crediting so many of the workers that have been out here in these conditions, helping restore as many people as they have to the grid. Now, again, unfortunately, it doesn't seem that there is any real light at the end of this frigid tunnel with a lot of these temperatures looking to stick around for at least the remainder of the week.

Now, maybe hard to see from this point of view, but there are just a number of trees that are still coated with ice, and so many of them are so happy that at any point you hear just blankets of ice falling on the ground. I spoke to one individual who said he was out and about. It was about midday at his home. And he heard a branch fall.

He said, if he was out there trying to clean up, that branch could have likely killed him. So it's really delaying a lot of the cleanup for residents who are just eager to try and get to normal feel, normal, especially after three days or so now without power officials urging people to just be patient while they do their best to get people back on the grid as soon as possible. We still know that there is that potential for more snow in the northeast, but it is still creating a travel headache where a lot of people with these conditions, this tumultuous travel period with a lot of roadways that are still trying to be treated again as the road refreeze again. This event is so unprecedented for so many people.

It has been a rough go. And again, we are all just like everyone else trying to stay warm in these real for conditions. Back to you. Oh, George, please do stay warm.

We know how chilly it is beyond duty for that kind of work. And we thank you for that report. Join me now as NBC News meteorologist Bill Cairns and Bill, we both are in the warmth of the studios. We've got this.

We've got the better straw here. Where do we stand with frigid conditions across the country? And dare I even say it, I don't even want to acknowledge I'm hearing there's more snow coming. It's an interesting thing goes in the beginning of the winter, everyone's like, they want to see snow in the first snow.

It's exciting. And you get that first snow storm. Everyone's like, okay, all right, we're ready. And then when it comes time for the second one, everyone's like, all right, I'm done.

Yep, no more. Yeah. So I get that sentiment. My snow banks are about two feet high.

I don't need them to be four feet by the end of the weekend. So let's first get into the temperatures. We're starting to eliminate people in the south from the cold headlines. Now we're down to 72 million.

Mostly the extreme cold mornings are in central Ohio, all the way through central areas of Indiana, especially Indianapolis area. It's cold and natural. But that's in the shade. Remember, the temperature's taken in the shade.

So in the sun, with the solar rays coming down and hitting you and also the branches and the ice we're doing a little bit of melting today, Dallas finally getting some significant melting done. It will re freeze in many areas, but we're heading in the right direction. For now. Here's the issue.

Another significant cold shot is coming down Friday, Saturday, Sunday into Monday morning. All the blue dots on this map show you a record low should be set. Focus your attention down here. Record lows all the way to South Florida.

That's going to get people's attention. Miami, when you go into Sunday morning, you could be 36 degrees. That's a big deal in South Florida, even coming close to freezing. That freeze line could be all the way down to Lake Oak and Shelby.

So that's going to be significant. Look at Nashville. Seven, nine, Raleigh, 14, 14, 17, so we got this cold air in place and it may just trigger a coastal storm. Now it looks like a high possibility that we're going to get this coastal storm and we're going to actually see it pushing off the coast, but the question is how close will the moisture be because ocean storms sometimes they stay out to sea and we don't see the precipitation over us.

It looks like a safe bed that we're going to get areas of the Carolinas with some light snow, especially Saturday night into early Sunday morning. Then it looks like the storms mostly going to miss the northeast. We may get some in Cape Cod out in areas of coastal New Jersey, also in the outer banks. But Kelly, this does not look anything even close to the storm we just dealt with.

It looks like a glancing blow at this point. And I think a lot of us are okay with that. When a glancing blow is the good news. I'll take it.

Thank you, Bill. We appreciate it. We know you'll be tracking it in the days ahead. Now, and then after the break, the Iran in crisis activists now say more than 6,000 people there have been killed in the regime's violent crackdown on protests as a massive U.S.

warship arrives in the region where the conflict goes from here will be a big question for us. Please keep it here on Meet the Press Now. Welcome back. A U.S.

military aircraft carrier and its accompanying warships have arrived in the Middle East. The U.S. Abraham Lincoln's arrival in the region provides the Trump administration with more capabilities if it chooses to take action. President Trump has threatened to use military force against Tehran over its bloody crackdown on anti-government protesters.

Although we've seen how the president backed off those threats after claiming earlier this month that the killings there of those protesters had stopped. Now, according to the U.S.-based human rights group, that death toll, in fact, continues to climb with the Iranian regime's crackdown resulting in the deaths of more than 6,000 people with many more feared debt. Meanwhile, Iran's currency, either we all, hit a new low versus the dollar and the nation's deteriorating economic conditions have fueled the anti-government protests since they began in late December. And NBC News, senior national security correspondent, Courtney Kubias here now, and Courtney, when I know you've been tracking the movements of these sort of capabilities from the military, what does this say to you, and does it suggest that this is a time for all of us to be kind of paying more attention?

I think we need to be paying attention all the time right now to Iran, because the carrier strike group doesn't mean that the U.S. suddenly has the ability to strike inside Iran, but every time they add more, whether it's the strike group and all of the air assets with it, whether it's additional ground-based air assets, so things like fighter squadrons, or whether it's air defense systems that are also land-based, every time they move more and more of them in, it becomes safer for the U.S. to carry those out, because they have more forward, they have more defenses, all of that. So the more that's there, the more possible it is for the military, go to the president and say, we're already, if you want to do something.

And one of the things that we often talk about when we're talking about this in the newsroom is if there were a strike, what would the intent be, what would the targets look like? Can you give us a picture of what has been discussed? And what's the policy, right? What is the policy here?

So I mean, there's three main buckets, sort of what they could hit. The first one would be what we know by Prime Minister Netanyahu urged the president to hit over the holidays when he was at Mar-a-Lago, and that is to go after their ballistic missile systems and their programs, the missiles themselves and the launchers. The second would be to go after their nuclear facilities, their nuclear program, which we saw the U.S. do back in June, that seems a little less likely.

And then the third one that seems, based off the rhetoric that we're hearing from the Trump administration, that seems the most likely is to go after leadership. And that is because the president himself has promised that he would support the protesters with their efforts to overthrow the regime, the way you do that as you go after their leadership. And help is on the way, as one of the notable comments he made. We saw how there was a buildup of these military capabilities outside Venezuela, and then there was military action.

And now as a result of some of what we've seen, not only the Maduro extraction, but those boats that have been blown up. You're seeing legal action now. How unusual is this, and is there a way for this to shape or affect how the Pentagon is conducting these operations? So this is the first time that we've actually seen someone sue the United States for these boat strikes.

So, of course, these are the now three dozen or so strikes that the U.S. military has taken on boats that are allegedly carrying drugs from Venezuela, the administration claims coming to the United States, killing at least 125 different people, while the families of two of those individuals have now sued the U.S. today. And they are basically claiming that it was unlawful death on the high seas.

And because this occurred more than three nautical miles from the United States, there's actually a federal tort that gives them the ability, even though they're not United States citizens, to sue in federal court. They are doing that so far. We heard from the Trump administration. They are defending that strike.

We heard on October 14th, Kelly. That'll be a fascinating situation to watch. And we know you'll be on top of it. Thank you so much, Courtney.

And we're going to turn now to Israel, where the military says it has recovered the body of the last remaining hostage who was held in Gaza, more than two years after the October 7th attack. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the recovery a, quote, extraordinary achievement. NBC News, international correspondent Matt Bradley filed this report for us on what has become known as hostage swear in Tel Aviv. So, the clock has literally stopped on Israel's hostage crisis in the Gaza Strip, and for the vast majority of Israelis, Israel's war in Gaza is also the main goal by far, was freeing all of those remaining hostages, and for most Israelis, that objective has been met.

But there's still an enormous military operation in the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian officials in Gaza, which almost half of which is still ruled by Hamas, say that nearly 500 people have been killed by Israeli attacks in the months since that ceasefire that was negotiated by the Trump administration came into place, and they're also still suffering so much being lashed by winter winds and rain. The vast majority of the population there is still living in tents and buildings that are all the completely destroyed in these days have continually fallen on the displaced people inside of them. It's a desperate situation. And one that somebody there are hoping, we'll see a translation from big diplomatic victories and ceremonies like what we're seeing here, changing the circumstances on the ground in the Gaza Strip.

But also, there's a lot of uncertainty ahead. This formally moves from phase one of the ceasefire into phase two, even though Trump administration ongoing, see if we can't announce already about two weeks ago that phase one was over. Phase two is beginning, for Israel phase two is beginning now, but there's no timeline for a phase three. There's no quid for a quote between the Israelis or Hamas in phase two.

Coming now is uncharted territory, even though we got some new details about what phase two would look like, post-gas of governance, some visions of the future of Reconstruction in the Gaza Strip at Davos last week. We still don't know exactly how this is going to proceed. A lot of the topics that are going to be covered in phase two are still the subject of keepers, diplomatic negotiations. But for now, this is one of those rare moments when all signs of this conflict can cheer.

Things are going relatively well. And thanks, Matt, for that report, and still to come, new reporting on the state of health care and affordability in the United States with millions looking to cut back on soaring costs. It is coming up next on Meet the Press Now. Welcome back.

We're now starting to see some of the fallout from Congress' inability to extend affordable care act subsidies with NBC News now reporting that many Obamacare enrollees have switched to cheaper plans that are known as bronze plans. Those plans keep premiums relatively low, but lead to higher costs for recipients who need substantial medical care. NBC News health and medical reporter Berkeley Lovelace joins me now in studio. And this is an interesting thing to track.

How do people respond when their prices go up? What are you seeing? And what do you expect? Yeah.

So what we're seeing is people are choosing plans with lower premiums, but really high deductible. So these bronze plans basically have deductibles ranging from $7,000 to $8,000 a year. I actually spoke to a woman in Arizona who heard deductible was $18,000. And she said she might.

They need a catastrophic event, a big hospitalization or something like that to reach that deductible. And so that's what these plans were meant for healthy adults who don't use much health care. And now we're seeing a broader group of people, potentially people who are sick who are choosing these bronze plans because they can't afford it. And so this is a really interesting shift right now.

Of course, this is stemming from the loss of the enhanced tax credits under the ACA. And so now we're seeing people drop enrollment is down about $800,000 compared to last year, but we're also seeing people move over to these cheaper plans. And so enrollment being down. So more people are without insurance at all.

And then you're saying that there are people who have insurance, but it's much more limited. And in some ways, it's costly if they do, in fact, have medical issues. So let's also talk about what's happening in the picture of vaccines and how that's conflicting between what our pediatrician's saying and what has the government said. What do you find it?

Yeah. So bottom line is AAP is still recommending 18 vaccines for children versus 11 for the CDC. And so the CDC has dropped vaccines for COVID, RSV, the flu, rotavirus, meningitis, and also hepatitis A and B. And so pediatricians right now are really concerned that we can see more kids going to the hospital.

And we'll also see more kids out of school because they're sick and unvaccinated right now. We're seeing the measles outbreak in South Carolina just today just broke a record for the number of measles outbreaks in the United States. And so we're going to see more kids out of school and potentially more kids in the hospital. And the pediatrician's association, are they sending any signals about how they want parents to respond?

Because there are big signals when you look at what they are saying and what the federal government is saying. So right now, they're hoping that people really pay attention to their state and local health officials for guidance on this right now. Currently, they're having kind of a lot of a push out there to get parents to get their children vaccinated right now. Currently, insurers are also still covering the vaccines that were previously covered before the CDC changed its guidance.

So there's all that right now. Great. Terrific. Thank you so much.

This is so important for people, especially as they're seeing these outbreaks and kids' schools being affected and loss of all of that productivity and all of that. We know you will continue tracking it. Thank you so much, Berkeley. And we'll be back tomorrow, of course, with more Meet the Press now.

And don't go anywhere. There is more news ahead on NBC News 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 Maguetz, and this is Trace of Suspicion, an all-new podcast from Dateline.

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