Meet the Press NOW – January 8

Foreign. Welker we begin with breaking news out of Southern California. These are live pictures of the smoke above Los Angeles county where fast moving wildfires are burning out of control as emergency officials struggle to combat a lethal combination of powerful winds and dry conditions. As you can see here, entire neighborhoods have been leveled by these fires.

At least two people are reported dead so far and more than 80,000 have been forced to evacuate. Hundreds of thousands are without power and millions more are in the danger zone. So right now local, state and federal officials are fighting four major fires burning along the coast which have already burned thousands of acres. Some of the worst devastation so far from the Palisades fire which is now the most destructive in LA history.

It's now more than 11,000 acres, destroying at least a thousand buildings. Between the Sale Panama mountains in the Pacific Ocean it is 0% contained. And there's also the Eaton fire which has killed at least two people today. It's exploded in size, going from 3,000 acres to more than 10,000.

In the Pasadena and Aladina area, it's also close to 0% contained. President Biden, who was in South California, Southern California before the wildfires broke out, was briefed by emergency officials this afternoon along with Governor Gavin Newsom. They called the situation right now historic. What we saw here in the last 24 hours is unprecedented.

I've never seen anything like this. Fires driven by the type of winds that we saw up to 100 miles an hour. We knew this was. There's a potential for significant threat to our constituents due to the weather event.

High, high, high winds. I've never seen the winds in my 25 year career. So we lean forward as much as possible now. One positive development in the efforts to contain these fires.

Los Angeles near. Karen Bass says the fire department helicopters have resumed air operations. They had been grounded earlier because of the extreme weather conditions. The size and strength of these fires was matched only by the speed at which they spread.

Some evacuees were forced to abandon their cars in the middle of the road just to make it to safety. My colleague Jacob Sobroff, who grew up in the Palisades, described just how devastating this fire has been for the community he calls home. In this town, the staples of the community are gone. The two grocery stores, doctor's offices, the dry cleaners, the local public library.

Several schools are gone and countless homes. I dread to know the number when it's all said and done. I think that many people wonder what a worst case scenario would look like in the event of something like the big one. The earthquake.

But this is far beyond, I imagine his lifelong resident of Los Angeles, NBC Steve Patterson is announced in California and NBC neurologist Bill Karens joins me right here in studio. See if I want to start with you. What's the very latest there on the ground? Of course, an echo.

Echo. Jacob said the damage here, the devastation as the sun rose today, unbelievable. But firefighters are still in it. We are still facing these wind driven flames really in the smoldering that we've been seeing in the ruins of homes.

You can see some of those behind me in the, you can look over here. This is brand new. This just started a few minutes ago. This home obviously was fully engulfed as we saw it earlier.

Started in the attic. It started spreading for the rest of the house. The fire department got on scene, essentially put it out and left. But it was clear that the fire wasn't all the way out.

It's because firefighters are stretched so thin that they're effectively, as you would imagine, doing triage. Right. There's another fire that's just beyond the street, way bigger than the one that's burning here. And that's been happening really consistently all day long in every neighborhood that we've been in in this area.

Basically, street to street, you can see a whole row of homes that have burned down. So the situation is there are way too many firefight fires per firefighter. They are spread out all across this region, darling, as we mentioned, three major fires. But these tiny spot fires that pop up in people's homes, it's really tragic to see me see neighbors helping neighbors.

This neighbor here with the orange bucket, we've been seeing him trying to put protection on homes like the one that's next door. So that doesn't spread. But people here are also out of water because the water pressure has been turned on in so many homes. And it's been relieved as the fire spreads from home down.

So very, very difficult, tragic situation and one the likes of which we've never seen. Kristen. The images, Steve, are just heartbreaking, as are the images of those neighbors helping neighbors, as you say, a reminder that this is a community of people that's really just being torn apart. What are the biggest challenges right now for firefighters?

You mentioned the challenge with the water supply and obviously the very strong water supply. As you mentioned, wind. I mean, the aircraft have not been able to get up in the air because the winds have been too strong. Thankfully, there's a lull in that.

We're hoping, I'm hoping Bill, Karen will tell you that it's almost over. We can start to sort of feel the winds dying down in this area at least, but it's still enough to spread embers. And those embers attach to more roofs and those roofs start more fires. And firefighters then have to leave a scene like this, which you know was a fully engulfed fire, dampen it out as much, as much as they can, and then move to the next much worse fire.

So they just spread far too thin. It is manpower, it is air power, it is water power. As you mentioned, the pressure in a neighborhood like this where a lot of water, PVC pipes spilling out, gushing out because people didn't have time to turn off their water before they left. So there just isn't that pressure in this area to really combat a fire like this, especially when it's a neighborhood with a fire hose trying to do the best you can, it's really almost impossible.

And then, of course, I mean, a lot of these firefighters, as on all of these fires, they're working 12 to 36 to 48 hour shifts non stop. There is no break here and there really hasn't consistently been because there's not really presence locking a place like this down so neighbors are able to get in and out, which means firefighters have to worry about saving lives. And that's really what they're concerned about at this point. Just doing triage, trying to get the worst of the flames down so it doesn't spread for Kristen.

All right, Steve Patterson there on the ground for us. Thank you so much, Steve. Please continue to stay safe. We really appreciate your great reporting.

I want to turn now to Bill. Karen. So, Bill, you heard that plea from Steve Patterson to give us some good news that perhaps conditions are starting to improve. Are they?

What's the latest that you're seeing? They're starting to see the ways are dying and they're going to get better and the firefighters are finally going to start to get the upper hand on some of these lasers. And it's just amazing what you're watching. Typically we have these fires, we send our correspondence reporters out there to show you the stories.

It seems to be the challenge for them to even be in front of live flames. The fact that like live shot after live shot, we have reporters that are driving up, oh, that house is on fire. And then drives them around us, that house is on fire. Just gives you a scope of just how incredible and how widespread this devastation is.

And where Steve was located, as one house was on fire. So the firefighters were there and then they left. What's Happening is that the embers are blowing. All attics have vents.

What the problem is is that somehow the embers are actually getting inside the vents. And once the fires start in the attics, the firefighters are getting up on those houses and moving to other ones because they know they can't contain it once it's inside that roof line. So that's the example of exactly what you were just watching there. So let's get into the fires because we have the two huge ones.

We've got a couple of little spot ones that are smaller. I haven't heard any huge issues from those. We're mostly going to focus here on the Eaten Fire and also the Palisade fire. Palisades fire is one that has by far consumed the most structures.

But yeah, we're still waiting to see how the total numbers here for the Eaten fire. That's where Steve was located, by the way, right here to the northeast of la. And the problem with the Eating fire is the winds we have in the northeast. So it's blowing down straight over la and the air quality has been horrendous all day long right through downtown.

And that's not going to stop. And you notice that the wind have died off. So now it's not like blowing quickly out now. It's just a lingering smoke that's just going to sit over the same areas.

And the winds are still up in isolated areas. You notice that in downtown LA, we're at 5 LA export, 26 mile per hour winds. This is the Palisades fire area. So we still got gusty problems there.

Relative humidity, that's the amount of moisture in here is still really dry. So that means the fire can burn really fast. You're like wind in a fireplace. It just doesn't want to burn.

If it's really dry, it burns quickly. And we have low relative humidity like this. This is just means the fires can form really quickly. We have another couple hours of the high wind warning.

So some of the winds have come down, but not all. By about 6pm, all of the winds after the sunset will come down. And that's when I think our air assets are going to start to get the upper hand and stop the spread of these fires. As fast they'll be able to spot them, they'll be able to see them.

After the sunsets, we're going to have a helicop up there like mod in the sky trying to get a grip on these fires because at this point they haven't been able to do anything. All right, Bill, Karen, we will continue to check in with you throughout the evening. Really appreciate it. Thank you.

Joining me now is Malibu Mayor Doug Stewart. Mayor Stewart, thank you for being here. Our hearts, our thoughts are with you and your entire community right now. Thank you very much.

It's been, it's been 24 hours. I know. It has just been devastating there. Can you describe the situation in Malibu at this hour?

And is your community right now people who need to evacuate it? Evacuated? Well, a couple points about this. First off, this is our third fire in three months.

We've had one virtually every month now since November. And this is by far the biggest and most devastating. The situation on the ground is the last night as the Palisades fire in Los Angeles city moved over to us on our eastern edge of the Malibu. It's 21 miles long along the coast and about one third of our city is under mandatory evacuations now.

And we've had serious damage on this eastern side. Homes along the beachfronts, homes, the ones in the hills that are above it, major damage. We haven't done an assessment yet, but we know that there's a lot of loss of property there and there's been injuries. And you ask about mandatory evacuations.

About a third of the city's under mandatory evacuations. The rest of the city's on a warning. Hopefully the fire stays where it is and we don't have to worry about anybody else having to leave and no further damage to the structures other than what's already taking place. But at the moment, it's still pushing and shoved.

We're still not out of the woods on this thing yet. Mayor, we of course, saw these remarkable images of communities coming together. So first question, did people keep evacuation orders? And second of all, can you describe for us how your community is coming together to pull through this?

Well, you asked a question about the mandatory evacuations. We had injuries with people, several, thank goodness, but we had injuries, people who did not obey the evacuation orders and decided they wanted to stay and maybe fight the fire or just didn't want to leave. And that's the risk that happens out of this. And unfortunately, it takes firefighters away from the fire, takes first responders away from fighting the fire.

So it's not a win win for anybody to stay behind. But we've only had a few instances like this that I'm aware of so far. But it's sad to see it occur. It's needless now as far as the community goes when they route Mellon, we're a small town, we're 20 square miles along some of the most pristine area in the world, if not just in California.

And there's only 10,000 permanent residents here. So we know each other. This is a small town and it's not unlikely to go to the grocery store and see everybody. You know, I mean, it's a community.

So, yes, we're pulling together. It's. It's devastating. It's not what we wanted to have happen here in January 2025.

We'll pull through it from all the strong. We'll make it work. Are you getting, Mayor, what you need from the state and federal government? What is your biggest concern right now in these next several hours?

Well, I think we're getting everything possible could ask for. And we've got first responders coming from all over the state and outside the state to fight the fires. And unfortunately, it's zero containment on the fire that we're facing here right now. Palisade's fires that you're seeing.

And I understand there's resources coming from everywhere. So it's not a shortage of resour. The challenge we're going to have is going to be the repopulation, rebuilding. This is a major loss of property and residents.

It's a residence. It's not like. It's not like you can go somewhere else in malware, get an apartment or whatever. There's not that many homes.

It's going to be tough. Well, please know that our thoughts are with you. And I think I speak for the entire country. We are all holding you in our hearts right now.

We're so sorry for what you're going through. We do hope that they get control of these fires as quickly as soonly possible. Thank you, Mayor. Really appreciate it.

Thank you. Appreciate it very much. And I'm joined now by Congressman Sydney Campbell Dove, whose district includes parts of Los Angeles County. Congressman, thank you for joining me.

Same message to you. I am so sorry for what you and your constituents are going through. Yeah, this has been a devastating 36 hours. I went to bed last night or tried to call in as many constituents and friends and family members as I could.

I finally was able to get in contact with my F this morning. It is really about just making sure that folks are safe and that they are heeding the evacuation warnings. You know, I represent a portion of South LA which had two fires and luckily they were contained, but there's zero containment across the largest county in the country. And everyone I know is working as hard as they can to put these fires out.

We know that the winds are an issue. There are also water access problems. What are you hearing from officials in your district? Do they feel as though they have the resources they need to fight these fires?

I think so. I mean, we have seen a coordinated effort, local, federal, state and county, all working together. I was on the phone with the Board of Supervisors, with the governor. We've been in contact with the White House.

Everyone is in a concerted effort to do what we can to help. We've sent out a letter, the entire California congressional delegation asking for funds. And remember, Governor Newsom asked for help. President Biden responded immediately.

FEMA is on the ground in California. We are working. Have firefighters come in from Arizona and Nevada Department of Defense is lending support. Naval, the Reserve National Guard is serving is bringing people here.

We have air tankers. You know, last night we were not able to do airdrops because the winds were so strong. And so, you know, that put us at a disadvantage. But the Calvary has come.

Well, we are had just been looking at live pictures and we're seeing pictures of the flames right now that are engulfing parts of Southern California. I do want to get your response to something that President elect Trump has posted online blaming Governor Newsom for this fire. He posted on social media today, referring to a governor with an expletive and then saying he refused to sign the water restoration declaration before him that would have allowed millions of gallons of water from excess rain and snow melt from the north to flow daily in the many parts of California, including the areas that are currently burning in a virtually apocalyptic way. He is to blame for this, says President elect Trump.

How do you respond to that? Well, my mother always tells me, if you don't have anything nice to say about someone, then just keep your mouth shut. The declaration that he was talking about is about a Northern California issue. The challenges that we've seen in the palace and Pacific Palisades in Canyon have to do with a municipal water system that is not designed to fight fires.

We were not able to get water to these communities through airdrops because of the wind. So my focus is on containing the fires and getting the people power that we need to fight the fires. And then we can talk about rebuilding and assessing what's next. And Congressman, as you watch this crisis unfold, first of all, are you planning to go home to be there with your constituents?

And secondly, what are your biggest concerns? I do plan to go home. Folks are deeply concerned. I was on the phone with a friend who actually had to drive through Palisades to get to her parents in my district because there was no power, they didn't have water and there were fires nearby.

This is the best argument for why we need the federal government, why we should be fighting for our federal dollars, why we should be making sure that we are thoroughly funding and resourcing agencies rather than cutting them down or dismantling them. You know, my constituents are calling me. They're asking for help. They're asking for more help, not less help.

So we should be talking about how we fully resource our government rather than how we dismantle it. Congressman Kamu Gardev, again, our thoughts are with you and everyone in Los Angeles and California who's being impacted right now. Thank you so much for joining us. Thank you.

And we are following the wildfire situation closely and we'll bring you any updates as we get them. Earlier today as part of our Meet the Moment series, I sat down with poet and activist Amanda Gorman, who four years ago made history as the youngest poet to perform at a presidential inauguration. I started by asking Gorman, who's a Los Angeles native, about the ongoing wildfire emergency. Before we delve into your new book of poetry, I do want to ask you about the fires that are burning in California.

You live there? Do you have a home there? How is your home? How are your family and friends?

Our hearts go out to all of you. Oh, thank you so much. That means a lot. I am from Los Angeles and I live there now.

And I think we're seeing this both locally but also globally with the climate crisis. Californians are pretty hearty, strong people and we to deal with disaster and tragedy. But every single year, it seems there's an uptick in what we have to face from the forces of nature. And so I'm just really grateful that the first responders were so quick to act and that the community is rallying the way that it is because there's a lot more.

It seems to come as we face this together, but we're holding strong. So thank you so much. You can watch more of my one on one interview with Amanda Gorman on the press. Coming up, we'll have much more on the federal response to those uncontrolled wildfires after President Biden met today with local officials working to keep Los Angeles residents safe.

Plus, a new interview from the president reflecting on his decision to drop out of the race against Donald Trump and his belief that he could have won if he hadn't dropped out. And more of what the president elect is saying about these wildfires, blaming California Governor Newsom and the Biden administration. We'll delve into all of it. Stay with us.

You're WATCHING me, THE PRESS now. Welcome back. President Biden is on his way Back to Washington, D.C. right now from California where, as we mentioned, he received a briefing on the latest efforts to contain the Los Angeles area wildfires.

He comes as Biden revealed in an exit interview published today that he believes he could have won reelection in November if he'd stayed in the race. He told USA TODAY it's, quote, presumptuous to say that, but I think, yes, based on the polling. He also acknowledged he may not have had the vigor to serve another four years, saying, quote, who the hell knows? So far, so good.

But who knows what I'm gonna be like when I'm 86 years old. Join me now to discuss all this is Eric Gail Christ from the White House. So, Aaron, look, let's delve into this. As we mentioned, President Biden first will start with him in California today.

He happened to be there on a previously scheduled trip. He was not far from the evacuation zones. What can you tell us about the coordination between the state and federal government and the message that we heard from the president today? Yeah, Kristen, we did hear directly from the president about how the federal government is assisting Cal Fire and local teams with battling these massive fires there.

He was about five miles away from the evacuation zone near Santa Monica. President Biden has approved a major disaster declaration for California. We learned that today. And this is something that will let residents get immediate access to money and to resources to start the recovery process.

We also know that the president has dispatched his FEMA administrator, Dan Criswell to California. She'll be there on Friday to assist to assess the community's needs that her agency may be able to help with. FEMALE Already approved last night a grant to reimburse California for firefighting costs. That's potentially something that would cover a majority of those types of costs.

We also know from the White house that the U.S. forest Service is making 10 federal firefighting helicopters available in addition to five large air tankers. These are tankers that can dump 2 to 4,000 gallons of retard at a time on the fires there. Even the Defense Department, we understand, has been tasked with making resources and National Guard personnel available there in the Los Angeles area.

The president also said that Navy helicopters are coming out from San Diego. Kristen, those are going to be armed with these buckets that can drop water wherever they may be needed. Aaron, let's turn now to the president's exit interview. I talked through one of the big headlines that he believes he could have won had he stayed in the race.

What else stood out to you? Yeah, he covered quite a few topics in this USA Exit interview. He did, I believe, lasted about an hour. And he's thought that he could have beaten Donald Trump if he had not dropped out of the race is something that he has suggested in the days and months after he did leave the race for the White House, in fact.

And so to have that be a part of this conversation, to have him say it so plainly, was something I think I made some headlines. He was also asked about the president elect in particular and said he didn't think that Donald Trump knows as much substantively as he does about infrastructure, for example, about some of the other issues that President Biden tried to tackle over the last four years he's been in office. There's also the idea of preemptive pardons, Kristen. We reported that Biden and senior advisors have discussed that idea of pardoning people who may be targeted by the incoming administration for investigations or some sort of legal action.

They told USA Today, but he hasn't quite made a decision yet on issuing those pardons. Kristen, fascinating stuff. We'll continue to track all of it. Aaron, thank you so much for your reporting as always.

Really appreciate it. Well, President Elect Trump is also on his way to Washington where he is expected to meet with Senate Republicans and pay respects to former President Jimmy Carter at the Capitol later this afternoon. Throughout the day, the president elect has been posting about the California wildfires on his true social account in his series of posts criticizing both President Biden and Governor Gavin Newsom for their handling of the fires. Join me now is Garrett Hake, who's covering all things Trump transition and of course, Capitol Hill as well.

Garrett, thanks so much for being here. So let's start right there. The president elect blaming the Biden administration for the fires in California. Let me read one of his posts to you.

He says, quote, no water in the fire hydrants, no money in fema. This is what Joe Biden is leaving me. Thanks, Joe. Of course, some of that is exaggerated to say the least, but talk a little bit about the reaction that you're hearing.

Well, look, I think it's something we're probably going to have to get used to with President Elect Trump in which no reaction, politically speaking, is over the line. And we saw this during his first term, the idea of criticizing states for their handling of disasters while those disasters were still alive. He has very strong opinions about wildfires and forest fires specifically. And I Don't think he's gonna be shy about trying to score political points against perceived enemies, even when the facts are only questionably on his side.

As you might imagine, Democrats have been reacting quite negatively to the president elect's tone on this. And Republicans have largely taken the opportunity to distance himself from him, only the sense that he's not president yet. So they don't feel like they have to own it entirely. But I think this is the tip of the proverbial iceberg for disaster response in terms of the politics of it as we enter Trump administration 2.0.

Well, this was prepared to enter Trump administration 2.0, Garrett. We know that he's gonna be meeting with Senate Republicans today. And it comes as there's this big debate, it's a process debate over how to move forward with his agenda. People like you and I love this type of debate because it's fascinating.

How are they going to get his priorities passed on the border on taxes? Are they going to lump it all together? Are they going to do it separately? He indicated to the House speaker he wants it all lumped together.

But the Senate Majority Leader, John soon, has said it makes much more sense to try to move forward with a single package that deals with the border in a robust way. What are you anticipating as the President prepares to meet with Senate Republicans? Yeah, there's a lot of rank and file Republican vote chambers who just want Donald Trump to make a decision on this and go with it. They are ready to execute, but they need some direction as to how.

I was going back to refreshing myself on President Biden's two reconciliation bills when she tried to pass things with a party line voter. Remember, that process was changed a little bit because of COVID But the second bill started as one big bill, then they broke off infrastructure and everything that became the Inflation Reduction act. Passed much later, 16 months later as a separate bill. I think that's a situation in which those who like the two bill idea see that they could be going now.

They might want to do this all at once, but events might conspire to make this process slower and involve more bills just might. Well, it's gonna be a busy evening on Capitol Hill there, Garrett. Thank you, my friend. Really appreciate it.

Coming up next, I'll talk to a House Democrat about the first bill to pass the House since the new Congress was sworn in. And what's next as Democrats charged their path forward in a Republican controlled Washington. Stay with us. You're watching the press now.

Welcome back. Republicans wanted to send a message with the first bill they brought up in the new Congress, the Republican controlled House passed, passed the Lake and Riley act yesterday, which would, among other things, require the Homeland Security Secretary to detain people in the country illegally who commit certain crimes. In the last session of Congress, House Democrats supported the bill. This time, 48 Democrats joined.

All Republicans voting yes. And it looks like it will have support from seven Democrats as well. In the way that Trump's win, some Democrats appear to be saying the party needs to change. Joining now is Oregon Democratic Congresswoman Val Hoyle.

Congressman Hoyle, thank you so much for being here today. Really appreciate it. Thanks for having me. Well, it's great to have you.

And I do want to start by talking about what's happening out in California, those devastating fires. Given everything that we've seen today from President Elect Trump, are you confident that disaster relief can get passed through this Congress and ultimately get his signature? I certainly hope so. Look, in Oregon, we've had to deal with wildfires, you know, ever increasingly dangerous wildfires.

In the 2020 fires in Oregon, where we had had, you know, similar really strong winds, I was evacuated. And every year since, we've had to figure out how to deal with these wildfires. As climate change gets more extreme, we're dealing with drier conditions and then combined with the Santa Ana winds, you know, it's very hard to start these fires once they stop. I know that presidents from both parties have put politics aside when sending disaster aid.

I hope that Congress can pass something through and that President Trump will remember that he's the president for the entire country and send disaster relief. These are things, whether it's transportation, infrastructure, disaster relief, that generally are bipartisan, because regardless of party, this is a type of action that people agree that government should be responsible for. All right, well, we will watch and see what happens there. I do want to turn to the Lake and Riley Act.

You voted yes after voting no on it in the last Congress. Some folks may see that as having to do with November's election results. Why did you change your vote, Congresswoman? So I voted no because I, you know, work very closely with my counties.

I represent a lot of rural communities and work very closely with law enforcement. And what they were saying is that they felt like this bill was an unfunded mandate. We're already reducing jail beds, and we're having to lay off our deputy sheriffs. My county is the size just, just my one county and I represent six is the size of the state of Connecticut.

And we have two, maybe three deputy sheriffs on at the same time, what they said was if we have to pick up every single person who has shot, lifted, committed, you know, non violent crimes and then wait for Homeland Security or ICE come pick these people up to do the job of the federal government without funding, that really limits their ability to keep, you know, our communities safe. Now what I did do was listen to my constituents who really wanted to know. They felt like this bill said that there should be equal treatment under the law for citizens, for non citizens. And I know that this bill will go to the Senate and I am hopeful that they will make the changes needed so that this, this policy can be carried out.

The law already exists that if someone commits a violence crime and they are undocumented, that they will be, they will serve their time and then be deported. So we already have that protection. I do feel like this poor young woman's death has been politicized for, you know, for, for reasons that don't have anything to do with protecting our communities, but rather for political purposes. And I did vote yes because I'll always listen to my constituents and I'm working with my senators to see if they can address the concerns that law enforcement and my counties have.

You know, you take me to my next question, which is how Democrats are planning to approach these next four years. And your colleague, Democratic and progressive Congressman Alexandra Casio Cortez, said something really interesting to say. She says the reason why I think oftentimes Democrats occasionally lose elections is because we're too reflexively anti Republican and that we don't lean into an ambitious vision for working class Americans strongly enough. Do you agree with that assessment, Congressman?

And do you put that at the root of why Democrats did lose across the board in 2024? Yes, I agree. 100. I mean, the bottom line is if we look at where we lost elections, I mean, I'm in one of the few purple districts in the country because of extreme gerrymandering across the country.

We have very few districts where, you know, you can't win by just Republicans or just Democrats. I mean, 42 of my voters are Democrat or Republican. So I work with people from both sides. I passed five bills that got signed into law by the president.

Every single one was bipartisan. I've only served in the minority in Congress. And the things I work on, transportation infrastructure, wildfire resilience, ensuring that our wildland firefighters get paid, all of those things are bipartisan and I will continue to work on those things. However, if we look at how we performed in every swing state, union members outperformed non union members in every single demographic in terms of voting for Kamala Harris because people trust their unions to speak to working people.

As we've seen, the divide of Democrats have more college educated supporters versus non college educated supporters. When I talk to people in the conservative rural parts of my district, they feel like Democrats are talking down to them, like they want to do things out of some sense of no global obligation, when really what people want is an opportunity to have that path to the middle class like they used to have for us, whether it's the Rust Belt or for us with the timber industry. And I think we need to do a better job. So let me ask you about your plan specifically.

You join the Department of Government Efficiency Caucus or doge. That committee that bears the same name will be led by Elon Musk and Viktor Ramaswamy. They are promising they are aiming to cut federal spending. President Elect Trump, in my interview with me, told me that entitlements are off the table.

He doesn't want them touched. But is that realistic? Will you be able to find cuts without touching entitlements? Congresswoman?

Absolutely. Anyone that thinks that we can't have government efficiency here, we don't need government efficiency. And I think this is where, as Democrats, we have to be responsible. Responsible.

We. I came here to be a good steward of taxpayer dollars. That means making sure that dollars come back and serve our taxpayers, you know, in the way that. In the best way possible, in the most efficient way possible.

If we look at the Department of Defense we just gave another $10 billion to. They just failed their seventh audit. Right. Almost 50 of the money at the Department of Defense goes to contractors who consistently overcharge with no oversight and no accountability.

We can save a lot of money there with Medicare, Medicare Advantage, right. We need to look at the places where we can save money while still delivering for the American people. I joined the DOGE Caucus, which is different than the committee which is chaired by Marjorie Taylor Greene. In my experience, in the two years I've been here, I haven't seen her work in a bipartisan way or an authentic, authentic way to get things done.

She politicizes everything. I'm not on that committee. Elon Musk. They're advisors to the President.

They're not in government. The caucus is a group of Democrats and Republicans, mostly Republicans, who are coming together to find savings. Now, the other thing that we do when we're in the room and some progressive groups said we shouldn't be in the room, I don't understand that. We need to say that when they say they want to cut things, exactly what's going to happen?

You want to cut Social Security. I have more Social Security recipients in my district than 87 of the districts in the country. And President Trump said he would not cut Social Security or Medicare or the va. So we need to deliver services efficiently and also call out when they are saying things that I actually are going to save money but rather are just going to privatize our government services.

And you know, I need, we need to be in the room to do that. And that's how I joined caucus. Finally, Congressman, let me just ask you. President Biden granted an interview to USA Today.

He was asked if he believes he would have won November's election had he stayed in the race. Here's a portion of what he had to say. He says, quote, it's presumptuous to say that, but I think yes, Biden said, adding he based that view on polling he had reviewed. Do you agree with President Biden?

You think he could have won had he stayed in the race? You know, I was in, I'm in a purple seat and I know that President Biden would won my district. So, you know, I wasn't paying attention to the other districts. Here's what I know, the kind of, of message that Joe Biden had and what Joe Biden has delivered, which is bringing jobs back to the America, bringing jobs back to the United States, you know, expanding the economy from the middle out, really working for working people and strengthening unions.

That's a message that that carries in my district. So I know we would win one my district with the amount of money that you had Elon Musk and other billionaires spending on disinformation. We're in a post truth reality. So it's very hard to say.

All right, Congressman Valhoyle, please come back again soon. Thanks so much for being here. We really appreciate it. Thank you.

And we have much more news still ahead. Stay with us. You're watching THE PRESS now. Welcome back.

Joining me now to talk a little politics is Basil Michael, former executive director of the New York State Democratic Party. He's also an NBC News political analyst. And Pete C. Former White House spokesman in the George W.

Bush administration. Great to see both of you. Thanks so much for being here. Pete, I want to start with you.

And we have to start on that press conference with President Elect Trump yesterday. He made some pretty eyebrow raising statements. He suggested he could use military force to acquire the Panama Canal and Greenland. He talked about using economic force to Annex Canada, of course, outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says that's never going to happen.

How seriously do you think folks should take what President Trump said yesterday? We don't know clearly what the end game is here, but what we do know is Donald Trump fancies himself a master negotiator. And the best negotiators take nothing off the table. You go back to Richard Nixon.

There was this madman theory. He wanted our allies and adversaries across the world to be concerned that he was willing to do anything. And that was a negotiation tactic similar to what Donald Trump is doing. But when it comes to Greenland specifically, I just find this all really comical because Harry Truman, who is rated as one of the top 10 presidents in the history of this country, also wanted to buy Greenland.

We just didn't know until 50 years after his presidency. The difference with Donald Trump is he's transparent about it. He talks about it out loud, and people know what's on his mind. That's a fascinating historical point.

Basil, let me turn to you now. I want to play a little bit of what California Democratic Congressman Pete Aguilar had to say yesterday and get your response. Donald Trump is going to have a lot of press conferences. He's going to say a lot of things, and some of them are just going to continue to be crazy.

We're not falling for the trap. Is that the right approach, Basil, what do you think? Well, we just heard that he embraces the madman theory. So to add to that earlier, on top of that, that, you know he's going to say crazy things, that clearly is the tactic.

Right? Chaos is the currency with him. And that's the. That's the concern.

In a relatively short period of time, we've gone from neoconservatism to neoconialism. And I think voters could have to find a way to wrap their head around what that means. When you start talking about going after buying back the Panama Canal and going after Greenland, I wonder what that actually means to the voter that believes that he was going to bring prices down, because that's clearly apparently why they voted for. I don't see that connection.

And maybe he has the every tension of making that connection, but it is just, I think it's just also a strain right on the resources, on the bureaucracy, on even as a voter, how you interpret the messaging coming from him. If you know these wide patterns. Pendulum swings become really problematic after a while because the voters focused on themselves. And there as going back to your conversation with the congresswoman, finding a way and a pathway into the middle class.

How does these, how do these conversations, Pete, can you pick up on that point? And part of what fascinates me about this entire discussion Basil touched on this is where this fits into Trump's vision of conservatism. His foreign policy is based on America first foreign policy. And yet what he is saying really fits into an expansionist ideology.

How do the two fit together? He's certainly been anti interventionist, but one to, to the point that was made about focusing on prices in the economy. A president needs to walk and chew gum at the same time, let's be clear about that. But if you talk about Greenland, there are plenty of analysts who will tell you that it serves a strategic purpose as it relates to Russia.

The Panama Canal has been essentially overtaken by the Chinese. So there are America first components to this. Again, we don't know exactly what the end game is, but there is some historical context, particularly for Greenland and for wanting it to make sure that America is protected from one of our biggest and most powerful adversaries. And that being Putin's Russia.

And of course Panama did come out today and said they do have control over the Panama Canal. Even though you're right, PETA, China has had some engagement in what happens there. Basil, let me turn to you and shift gears a little bit here. We have to talk about these comments by President Elect Biden.

He gave an exclusive interview to USA Today, an hour long interview which has been rare quite frankly in his presidency. He's had very few interviews and press conferences as compared to his predecessors. He says, and I'm going to quote him, he was asked could have won if he stayed in the race. He said, quote, it's presumptuous to say that, but I think yes, Biden said, adding he based that view on polling he had reviewed.

That's why I'm curious if you reviewed any of that polling because the public polling didn't suggest that. What do you make of what President Biden had to say? Well, I think he could have won. That's why I was so adamant that everyone saying he should step aside, should shut up and let the leader of the party actually continue to run for president.

I'm not mad that Kamala Harris got a jurisdiction, wait, happen. But I'm glad he got there ultimately because there was a tremendous amount of enthusiasm that I didn't think was there before and I get that. But ultimately there are a lot of folks that felt that, you know, the attacks on him being clearly the way that he did. He was after that debate was going to be so problematic with drag down and take it.

I was one of the folks that felt that way and still felt it feel that way. Having said that, I go back again to the conversation you had with Conor McQueen. I'm not sure that any Democrat would have won this year considering the amount of misinformation and disinformation, considering the ways in which the Republicans and the Trump campaign specifically were going so deeply into communities, they were sending mail to black voters saying the Democrats would take away your Newport cigarettes. You know, I mean, this was something that was so pervasive that I don't know that in the time that Democrats had to turn this around, we would have been able to do it.

Pete, we have one minute left. I'm going to give it to you, let you respond to what we just heard from Basil. What do you make of what he just said? Does he have a point?

What I took away from this interview was a word that Susan Page used at the very beginning of that article, and that was Joe Biden was defensive. Here he is on his way out. He believes that he has a very positive record and yet he is defensive. I was there in the White House press office as we were conducting these very similar interviews at the end of the George W.

Bush term, and he was at peace with his presidency and the decisions that he made. He was not defensive. He was happy to explain and articulate what was behind those decisions, but he was at peace with what history would write. In the end, it's clear to me that Joe Biden is not.

All right, guys, fantastic conversation. I really appreciate it. Basil, Michael, P.C. hope to see you both back here soon.

Thank you. Coming up next, the latest installment of our Meet the Cabinet series taking a deep dive into who President Elect Trump picked to carry out his mass deportation plan. You're watching the PRESS now. That's next.

Welcome back. We've got some brand new exclusive reporting from NBC News that President Trump is considering conducting a high profile raid targeting undocumented immigrants at a workplace in the D.C. area. In the first days of his presidency.

The president elect has vowed to carry out the largest deportation operation in the history of the United States States. And the man who will be largely responsible for that policy is his pick to be border czar. Tom Homan, NBC News campaign mbed Alex Tabit takes a deep dive into Homan's background in the latest installment of our Meet the Cabinet series. America's borders will be strong, sealed and secure very easily.

Get ready. Tom Homan, President Elect Donald Trump has picked Tom Homan to be his border czar. Tom Homan, is he central Kelsey, by the way, Tom Holman, the former acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, got his start as a police officer in his hometown, West Carthage, New York. Then he became a border patrol agent rising through the ranks before being tapped to run ISIS deportation branch by President Barack Obama.

We're not going to ship 12 million people out of the United States of America. According to Department of Homeland Security data, the agency removed more than 3 million immigrants in the country illegally while Obama was in charge from 2009 to 2016. And Homeland received a presidential rank award from Obama Obama in 2015 for his service. And yes, we will build the wall.

We've already started planning under President Trump. Homan got a promotion serving as the acting director of U.S. immigration Customs Enforcement. Every president I've worked for said to go secure a border.

President Trump actually did it, taking on Democratic lawmakers critical of Trump's immigration policies. Do you want to know why this issue exists? You need to look in the mirror, Mr. Holman.

And facing criticism for defending Trump's zero tolerance policy which led to thousands of families being separated at the border. I've sick and prior to hearing about the family separation, you're not still being sued over there, so come give. I don't give. After his retirement in 2018, Holman took it on a roll as contributor on Fox News and joined the Heritage foundation which crafted Broadway 2025.

He also became a vocal critic of President Biden. Biden is the first president president in American history to come into office in unsecure a border. Who the hell does that? Since being named as Trump supporters are a role that doesn't require send confirmation home has made frequent appearances on conservative media outlets outlining the details of the president elects immigration plans including mass deportations and how the military might assist in those plans.

They could help ground transportation, they could help with airplane. They can help with infrastructure building. And he's also threatening legal action for local officials who don't cooperate with Trump's mass deportation plan. If they cross a line in Peters, if they cross that line and only harbor can certainly go on, I'm going to seek prosecution.

Alex Habit, NBC News. And our thanks to Alex for that great reporting. I will be back tomorrow with more of the press now, but the news continues. My friend, Hallie Jackson.

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