Meet the Press NOW — January 8

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If it's Monday, one week to the Iowa caucuses, Republican candidates barring storming the Hawkeyes gate as front runner Donald Trump amps up his attacks and threats of political revenge against President Biden. Plus, President Biden hits the trail and hits former President Trump on the issue of political violence as his campaign courts black voters at the historic mother Emanuel Church were white supremacists massacred nine people in 2015. And the White House is standing by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin. I mean, growing scrutiny over the Pentagon's failure to tell the public and the president for days that the nation's top military official is in the ICU.

Hello and welcome to Meet the Press now on Ryan Nobles in Washington, just one week until the formal kickoff of the 2024 presidential campaign, the Iowa Republican caucuses. So let's get right to the action on the trail. Former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley is trying to make a major push for a surprise second place finish over Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, which could give Haley a campaign a jolt of momentum heading into New Hampshire. Now, some polls have her within striking distance of Donald Trump in the granite state.

It could be the Haley campaign's best hope to seriously challenge the far and away front runner Donald Trump for the nomination. The Haley campaign is out with this new ad looking to bolster her credentials with conservative primary voters amid a barrage of attacks from arrivals, including the former president. Imagine a president with grit and grace, a different style, not a name from the past. Your family deserves a border secured, an economy restored, a nation respected.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump and Joe Biden are clearly looking past the primary and ahead to November as he hits the trail in Iowa. The former president took the social media claiming that he had blanket immunity tied to his efforts to overturn Biden's 2020 election victory, while also suggesting that if he won the presidency back, he'd have to justice department indict Joe Biden as an act of political and legal payback. President Biden also on the trail today with another major campaign event to kick off 2024, this time warning about the potential for political violence and highlighting President Trump's actions around January 6th, while speaking at Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston, South Carolina, where white supremacists killed nine people in 2015. These actions were among the worst derelictions of duty by any president-American history.

And it sent over turn a free and fair election by force and violence. Let me say what others can now. We must reject political violence in America. Always, not sometimes, always.

It's never appropriate. And joining me now from Iowa is our NBC team of reporters, Volna Hillier is at Trump HQ in Urbandale, Dasha Burns is in Des Moines, and Priscilla Thompson joins us from the on the road near Boone, Iowa as she travels back to Des Moines, Priscilla in action there. Volna, let's start with you though, a week out from Iowa. I mean, does the Trump campaign feel that he can't be caught?

I mean, most of his opponents are there on the ground, but Trump doesn't really have much of a full schedule ahead of him, especially at the stage of the race. We're right, Ryan. They're absolutely slow walking to next Monday. Look, Donald Trump outside of a Fox News town all year in the state on Wednesday has no political rallies until this upcoming weekend.

The caucus is on Monday. If you compare Ron DeSantis's number of events to Donald Trump's number of events in Iowa, since launching their candidacy, Donald Trump 34, Ron DeSantis more than 160. And if you look at just the last month alone, Donald Trump has spent just five days here. Compare that to Nikki Haley's 12, and Ron DeSantis is 15, and don't forget to make friends.

Well, I mean, it's 23. You know, for the campaign, they've seen the polling, and it's been consistent over the last year. Donald Trump with a 30-point advantage. And yet, this is the caucus here, and they feel pretty good about the operation they've built up, learning from eight years ago, Ryan, when they didn't have that same type of turnout operation.

Of course, he lost the 10 crews then. And now they say they have 1800 precinct captains across the state, and they intend to have a decisive victory here. I want to let you though, listen to a nude ad from the Superpack, MAGA Ink, that is aligned with Donald Trump, because while they feel confident, they are looking ahead also to New Hampshire. And they see Nikki Haley is pulling well in that state, and they see hers as potential targets.

Take a listen. Haley even opposed Trump's wall, and Haley repeatedly pushed amnesty for illegals. We don't need to talk about them as criminals. They're not in Nikki Haley too weak, too liberal to fix the border.

So Donald Trump is all but seething the ground here this week to Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis, even letting him go to Ode-Toe on the debate stage midweek. But for Donald Trump, he's spending time in Mar-Lago, and he's even going to be appearing in the court room. Voluntarily, we should note, in D.C. for a hearing tomorrow, and then on Thursday for closing arguments, the New York civil fraud trial, right?

And the vote is there an argument to be made that getting out on the campaign trail isn't going to do much good, because he isn't really presenting anything new. I mean, we saw him here over the weekend. It just seemed to be a recurring theme of his greatest hits. Obviously, that plays well with the base, but is there some risk about this rhetoric heading into a general election, especially if he thinks he already has to think so now?

Of course, there's concerns about the general election, and frankly, the number of folks that you talk to that are even looking at DeSantis and Haley to caucus, that say that they would vote for Donald Trump come to the general election. But now I was talking to Carol County GOP chairman here this weekend. Donald Trump is not visited Carol County, and he told me, look, everybody has an opinion of Donald Trump at this point. You either like him or you don't, and for Donald Trump's camp, they feel that they have the most enthusiasm among their supporters, and the polling data bears that out.

And frankly, he can go to those court hearings in D.C. and New York, and he can draw a lot of attention from being there. He doesn't need to be out in rural Iowa, because the polling hasn't changed, and he has not suffered any consequences. This is one GOP chairman told me, Donald Trump is unlike any other political creature there is.

Okay, Vaughn, thank you so much. We appreciate it. Let's go to Dasha now. She also in Iowa, just a week out from the caucuses.

But Dasha, I'd like to say this is not there, in part because of the weather, in part because of issues that he had to deal with back in his home state of Florida. Is the weather the best case scenario for him, though, in terms of slowing down his main opponents that were on the ground there already today? Well, look, Ryan, it's right. It's true.

He's not in the state today. He's in Florida. He has to give his state of the state address tomorrow. The weather, yeah, it's a factor here in Iowa.

It's tapping down some of the energy that other candidates have right now, but it could also slow things down on caucus night when it's supposed to be really, really chilly here. So right now, you can really feel the crunch to the caucuses. I'm at the Rama Swami headquarters right now, where folks are making calls to voters right now, trying to get that enthusiasm up, trying to recruit last minute precinct captains, who are going to try to make sure that the voters in their precincts are getting out despite the weather. And listen, the thing is, the scientist has poured so many resources into the state.

He's really run almost a perfect campaign in Iowa. He's not in the right endorsements from the governor, from Bob Vanderplatz, who's a huge evangelical leader. He's not a really impressive ground game here. So what's the problem, right?

Well, the problem is, if you do all of the right things and you still come up short here, that really puts a damper on your ability to argue viability going forward. So if he is not successful in Iowa, where they have done all of the right things and they have really invested, then going into New Hampshire and going into South Carolina and looking down the line, I asked him in our interview, is there another state besides Iowa that you can name, that you might be able to win? He couldn't name a state Ryan. Yeah.

And speaking of those interviews that you did last week, I know you talked to all the candidates in your closing arguments series. And does it, do you get a sense, and you kind of alluded to it here a little bit, but beyond Ron DeSantis, is there anyone where if they don't get the strong performance in Iowa, that's going to be the end of the road for them? I wonder if perhaps the candidate, who's room you're standing in right now, if it applies to him as well? Well, look, he's saying that they're going to shock the world on January 15th.

That's been the line I've been hearing a lot here, as folks have been calling voters saying, help us surprise everyone. And look, Iowa voters, they do break late caucuses, are notoriously unpredictable, because they're just so different than a traditional primary. And Ramaswami is committed to staying in this as long as he possibly can. He was talking earlier about staying in it till 2033, right?

So we'll see what happens on January 16th. Everyone is saying that they're going to go the distance. I've heard that from DeSantis, I've heard that from Haley. I've heard that from Ramaswami, but everyone has practical limitations.

Haley, for example, South Carolina, that could be where she hits a wall because I've been there. I traveled the state. That is Trump country. It is a very different state than when she was governor.

It's become more red, more conservative. Haley does well with moderates, not so much with more far-right conservative voters. And if she can't win her home state, there again, she has trouble making that argument that she can move forward from there. She told me in our interview, if she doesn't win South Carolina, she thinks she can still survive and can still win this thing.

But there are practical implications. Don't her money starts to dry up. Enthusiasm really starts to dry up once you can't really argue your case as well. Any more, Ryan?

Ben, with plenty of Canada, Joshua told me they were never dropping out only to see them do that exactly the very next day. So you put it very well. Joshua Burns, thank you so much for that. Now, let's head out on the road with Priscilla Thompson, who is driving on her way to an event in Iowa, braving the elements we should point out because the weather there is a little sketchy.

So you're talking to the voters, Priscilla, which is, of course, the most important component to what we're going to see play out here in Iowa. How are they responding to the candidates? And is there room for persuasion right now? Or are their minds made up?

Ryan, time is running out for that persuasion. And I will say the candidate who does have minds made up here is former President Trump. And to give you a sense of how we have spent the stay, we have been road tripping across the state, talking to voters. We started in Dallas County.

We drove in our southeast to Carroll County. And now we are headed through Boone, Iowa, talking to voters everywhere we go. And the two things that I've heard. I have spoken to Trump supporters who say definitively they are coming out on caucus night.

They do intend to support them. And then the majority of average Iowa voters that I've spoken to have said they don't plan to caucus at all for various reasons. And I want to play you some of those conversations. First, one with a Republican voter, and then a second with an independent voter.

Take a listen to why they said they're not interested in caucusing. I don't think there's any point in caucusing right now. Trump is going to be the nominee. I don't know if there's just a point.

Do you like a halyard of fans at all? Do you think it's worth getting out to caucus for one of them in the hopes that they might get into? No, I mean, I am not a fan of either of them, too. I think we are slim pickens in the Republican party right now.

I sometimes think they get a little too, I don't want to say hollywood style, but they just seem to grandstand a little when they're when they're in caucusing. And you asked about undecided voters. I have met one undecided voter today. She caucus for former president Trump in the past.

She says that she likes his policies but doesn't like his communication style. But one week out, still not decided. None of those other candidates have broken through for her with just one week to go. And let's talk a little bit about the weather that you're experiencing right now.

I mean, it's not great today. Could be bad for the next week. And of course, the important part about a caucus is you've got to physically be there. You can't mail in your caucus vote.

I mean, how concerned are they about voters getting to these gyms and libraries and fellowship halls in order to actually participate in this next week? Yeah, that is a huge concern. I've talked to some of those folks who said they're not going because they're like, they've got other things to do and they don't want to be out in the snow and to give you a sense of the enthusiasm. Looks like we lost Priscilla.

So maybe the weather is rough, Priscilla. Thank you for that. Please stay safe and let's move on to the other side of this race. And as we mentioned up top, President Biden is also on the trail today in South Carolina, where he spoke at the Mother Emanuel Church in Charleston, which of course is the site of the racist massacre in 2015 that killed nine parishioners.

His speech was meant to focus on extremism and it drew heavily on the same themes and talking points from his Friday speech on threats to democracy, including attacking his likely opponent, the former President Donald Trump and his hard right followers. You don't have respect for the 81 million people who voted the other way. Vote for my candidates. In their world, these Americans, including you, don't count.

But that's not the real world. That's not democracy. That's not America. In America, we all count.

And losers are going to talk to concede when they lose. And he's a loser. Senior White House correspondent Gabe Gutierrez is with the president in South Carolina. He joins me now.

So Gabe, today's speech comes off his big appeal on threats to democracy last week. Why does the White House think that this is the best message to kick off 2024? Well, hey there, Ryan. The Biden campaign feels that this is the issue heading into 2024, this existential threat to democracy, which President Biden has been talking about now for several months.

You mentioned that speech on Friday. That was the first campaign stop of this year. Several months ago, he was talking about threats to democracy over in Arizona, the McCain Institute. This is a message that the Biden campaign, at least, feels will resonate with voters because it is so important.

Certainly other issues important do, but they feel that this is the main issue heading into 2024. There is a lot of questions though about whether Ryan Black voters here in South Carolina, whether they think it is the main issue. And last day or so, we've been speaking with voters here in Charleston. And they have concerns about the Biden administration.

They feel that there have been some broken promises. They have wanted the president to do more on things like student debt relief and prescription drug coverage. Take a listen to what some of them told me. I feel like my generation, my peers, we were promised that student loans would be erased and that hasn't happened.

I think that police reform is also important to us and also voting rights. Well, this idea that the Democratic Party has kind of pandered to Black people and promising them all these things. And then they get in office and kind of feels like they are forgotten. I think that's kind of like the sentiment that a lot of people have.

And I think that's one of the reasons now where people, especially young people care more about who the right person for the job is versus like, what's the right party? Now, Ryan, of course, the White House did take action on student loans. The Supreme Court that ruled that the Biden administration had overstepped. And yet still the White House says that it has why got some student loans for some Americans.

But that's the question, Ryan. Despite the Biden administration taking action on some of these issues, real voters give them credit for it, Ryan. Yeah. And of course, we saw during the speech, kind of the real world issues that Joe Biden is dealing with as president of the United States and the impact it could have on his candidacy, as there were protesters that attempted to interrupt his speech calling for a ceasefire.

Does this highlight the challenge for Biden this time around as he tries to recreate that successful 2020 coalition? Are the divisions in his party deeper than they were four years ago? Certainly appears that way, and you're right. That incident did highlight those deep divisions within the party.

There were several protesters, at least two of them shouting in the middle of his speech of these five protesters were escorted out. Now, I should point out that he was in front of a very friendly crowd here at Mother Emanuel Church. They drowned out the protesters by saying four more years, and it received standing ovations when he came into the church. But certainly, Ryan, in addition to the concerns about whether the Biden administration is doing enough for Black voters, the coalition you mentioned, the Biden campaign going to have to try to win over some of these progressives who are unhappy with how his administration has been dealing with the Israel- Hamas war, Ryan.

Yeah, and it may not be that they vote for Donald Trump, but that they just stay home, which would be just as big a problem for Joe Biden, all right? Gabe Goudiara is alive from Charleston, South Carolina. Thank you, Gabe, for that report. Coming up, one of Congress's most outspoken Biden allies, now says that he's very concerned about the president's political standing as Democrats fight to hold on to the White House.

I'll talk to a Biden campaign advisor next. Plus, Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrives in Tel Aviv, the latest push to stop the war from spreading is Israel's military claims to have destroyed Hamas in Northern Gaza. We'll have the latest developments. You're watching Beat the Press now.

Welcome back. Top Democrats are sounding the alarm the president of Biden's reelection campaign is not resonating with voters as the president hits the campaign trail for the first time this year with remarks in Pennsylvania and South Carolina. The Washington Post reported this weekend that former President Obama voiced his concerns to Biden about his campaign strategy in a recent face-to-face meeting. And prominent South Carolina Congressman Jim Clyburn, who was critical to Biden's breakthrough win in the state in 2020, and introduced Biden before his speech today, is publicly warning that the president's message about his record just isn't reaching voters.

Take a listen. If I'm not worried, I'm very concerned that I've told him what my concerns are. I have no problem with the Biden administration and what he has done. My problem is we have not been able to break through that MAGA wall in order to get to people exactly what this president has done.

And I'm joined now by Pennsylvania State Representative and a member of the 2024 Biden Harris Campaign Advisory Board, Malcolm Kenyatta. Malcolm, thanks for being here. We appreciate it. You know, the president, he's been campaigning on stopping Trump and extremism in the United States.

Is that enough? Does he need to try and tell voters about his record of accomplishment in his first term and make it feel real to them? Is there a need to be more to his campaign than just stopping Trump? You know, the president today gave another powerful speech that I think spoke to what this campaign is centering and what I think most people understand.

Our democracy is the guarantor of all the other rights that we depend on. When we think about the right to make your own health care decisions, what is necessary to continue to grow our economy so more people had access to the American promise. When you think about what people who come from neighborhoods like mine in North Philadelphia, what we know needs to be done, the work that needs to be finished, on making opportunities more easily accessible, none of that is possible if we don't protect and preserve our democracy. And that's the point that the president so firmly made today, while also talking about his record of success on everything from canceling over 137 billion dollars in student loan debt on his critical executive orders around policing, on the work that he's done around gun violence more than any president.

This was the guy that got the assault weapons ban done. And as he said the day, he's going to get it done again. And so I think the president is talking about his record of success, but he's also making sure that we never lose sight of the fact that we can't allow democracy to die on our watch. You heard Congressman Clyburn there.

He feels confident that the president's done a good job, but he just seems to be concerned about whether or not that is resonating with voters, particularly members of the Black community. I mean, you can argue the Black voters are the foundation of the foundation of winning strategy for Democrats, particularly at the presidential level. I mean, how concerned are you about the wavering support by Black Americans, which of course is a key demographic for the Biden campaign? You know, anybody in Democratic politics who's smart listens to Jim Clyburn.

And I listened to all of what he said. And what he said was that he doesn't, you know, believe that the polls are an accurate reflection of where people are and that what the president did today is going to be critical to him doing what he did four years ago in beating Donald Trump once again. He talked about the need to show up and the president to personally invigorously make his case for what he has accomplished and for what he wants to do when he's been elected to a second term. And that's why the president's speech today was so important because he did that.

He talked about cutting the cost of insulin to $35 a month, beating the pharmaceutical industry by allowing us to finally negotiate drug prices. And I'll tell you Ryan, for me, all these things were talking about are deeply personal. You know, I lost both of my parents by the time I was 27. Both of them struggled with diabetes.

They didn't have access to the type of health care that every single American deserves. And so to have a president who doesn't just talk about cutting those costs for all Americans, but has actually gotten it done, that's a record of success. And if we allow Donald Trump to appoint more Supreme Court justices, not only will we not have the continued work that the president's done on student loans, but a national abortion ban, which President Trump, you know, and all the other Republicans have made it clear they would sign it to got to their desk, that Supreme Court would uphold it just like they overturned a row. So this president has given back to back speeches that has made it more clear to me than ever that not only do we need him for four more years, but he's ready for this fight and he's going to win.

So let me talk to you about the divide within the Democratic Party. And President Biden today was interrupted by ceasefire protesters today that believe the situation in Israel, with Israel and Hamas has to need to come to some sort of a stop. You are a progressive member of your party. Are you concerned that the war between Israel and Hamas will lose Biden, some of the left leaning part of his Democratic coalition that was so important to his victory in 2020?

You know, I'll point you to the comments that the president made during his speech where he said he's doing everything he can to not only deal with horrific human costs, but continue to work all the relationships that he has. And I think, you know, as we go forward in this campaign, it should be clear to everybody that the president's deep and intimate knowledge of foreign affairs, the relationships that he has, his ability to work diplomatically, to try to do everything that needs to be done in this moment. I'm grateful that we have him. This is not a president who's writing love letters to dictators or a president who, you know, has made it clear he's going to stand with our adversaries like China and Russia instead of standing with the American people and the American worker.

You know, the president is making clear with these speeches and, you know, and I and others are making clear that this is going to be a critical choice. This is the most important choice that we are going to make as a nation, whether or not we are going to allow into the White House a guy who has said he's a dictator. And the other day, he doubled down. You know, he went through a rambling story where he talked about, you know, one of the Fox News hosts, I'm trying to help him clarify that he didn't mean he was going to be a dictator.

He doubled down and said, no, that's what I said. That's what I meant. This is the guy who overturned Roe v. Wade and is proud of it.

This is the guy who instituted the Muslim ban and said he would do it again. This is the guy who wants to round up immigrants all across our country and put them into camps. And so President Biden is drawing the stark contrast that every voter is going to be faced with. Do we want somebody like somebody said in that audience and mother in annual church?

Do we want somebody who is a good man? Or do we want somebody who has shown no respect for our democracy, no respect for advancing a serious policy agenda on any of the issues that matter to me and to other progressives? Or do we want to elect somebody who has listened, who has advanced an agenda and created administration where our voice is prominently represented? And so I know what my choice is going to be.

Well, in your state, obviously, I'd be crucial to all of this in Pennsylvania. You may be a state representative of the Biden campaign advisory board member Malcolm Kignada. Well, thanks so much for being here. We appreciate it.

Up next, the Pentagon and the White House have some explaining to do after the nation's Pentagon chief was secretly hospitalized with the public and key members of the Biden administration totally in the dark. The latest fallout is next. We're watching with the president. Welcome back.

We continue to learn new details about the mysterious hospitalization of defense secretary Lloyd Austin and why Pentagon officials failed to disclose it not only to the public, but also to the president. Last week, Austin was admitted to the ICU at Walter Reed Medical Center after experiencing severe pain following an elective medical procedure. Yet it took defense officials three days to inform the White House and his own deputy secretary about his hospitalization. According to administration officials, Biden still has full trust and confidence in the defense secretary.

It is not currently considering firing him. Meanwhile, the top Republican on the Senate armed services committee calling the delayed disclosure a quote, shocking defiance of the law. Meanwhile, in the House, she'll be conference chairwoman, Elise Stefanik released a statement today calling for Austin's resignation. For more on this, I'm joined now by Courtney Cuba, Pentagon and Aaron Gilchrist who is at the White House.

So Courtney, what do we know about Secretary Austin's condition and how this all unfolded? We don't really know anything about what initially caused this hospitalization. So we know that on December 22nd, he had some sort of an elective medical procedure. We don't know what that was at all, any details at all, other than it caused him to spend one night at Walter Reed Hospital.

He was discharged on the 23rd fast forward to New Year's Day, January 1st. He started experiencing some severe pain that officials here say was directly related to this medical procedure. And it was severe enough, and the situation urgent enough, that he went via ambulance to Walter Reed Medical Center on Monday evening, New Year's Day. And by the next day, his condition had worsened to the point where he could no longer fulfill the duties of his office.

And he transferred some of his authorities and responsibilities to his deputy secretary, Kathleen Hicks. Now, she was on vacation at the time in Puerto Rico. And she was not told why the responsibilities were falling on her until two days later on Thursday when both Secretary of Defense, Deputy Secretary of Defense Catholics and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan were finally informed that Secretary Austin was not only in the hospital, but he was in the intensive care unit. A few more details that we've learned today.

There were the majority of the senior defense officials in this building, including the secretaries of the services and the members of the Joint Chiefs. They were not told about this until Friday. Also, members of Congress, senior members of Congress, not told until Friday. But Austin's chief of staff and his senior military aide, and important to us here in the press corridor here, the press secretary, Major General Pat Ryder, they were all told on Tuesday.

But still Ryan, we know that senior members in this administration were still not informed for at least 48 more hours that Secretary Austin was in the hospital. Where I will say Ryan, he remains tonight. Yeah, I mean, I guess that's what's remarkable about all of this is that it took so long for the Pentagon to not only publicly disclose this, but to let the White House and these high-ranking White House officials know about this. Do we have any idea why they kept it a secret as long as they did?

We don't. So what's confusing here is whether there was a concerted effort not to share this information, or whether it was just a, I mean, frankly, almost an oversight. We know there are procedures for just about everything that occurs in this building, and especially when you're talking about something as serious as the health of the Secretary of Defense. But that being said, the closest thing that we've gotten to any sort of an explanation for how this happened was the Chief of Staff Kelly Maximan, she was notified about 24 hours after Secretary Austin was admitted to the hospital.

So on Tuesday, January 2nd, she was notified he was there. Well, she had the flu at the time. So we're told that because of her illness, she did not notify the White House for 48 hours until Thursday. We've asked a lot of questions about how that would be the case, whether there would be redundancies, someone else in the front of his front office who would notify the White House or maybe was her illness just so very severe that she couldn't make a phone call and let the White House know we don't have answers to that.

I will say the Pentagon is reviewing their procedures here. And that includes the Pentagon's General Council is looking into some of the things that you mentioned in the lead-in including whether they may have in any laws or statutes that were violated here during this notification process. So in other words, were they required by law to notify the White House, the National Military Command Center, someone to let them know if Secretary Austin's condition was there a law that may have been broken here, Ryan. The General Council here is looking into that.

That's probably something Congress is very interested in as well. Courtney Cooby, thank you so much for that. Aaron, let's go to you now at the White House. I mean, how are they responding to all of this?

Well, the White House is saying that the President has complete confidence. Those are the words the press secretary used today when she spoke to reporters about this issue at length with the spokesman for the National Security Council as well, saying that the President appreciates the fact that Secretary Austin took responsibility for the lack of disclosure on this and that he did put out a statement about it over the weekend, Ryan. At the same time, there were questions about whether the President would be asking Secretary Austin for his resignation and the National Security Council spokesman John Kirby, a retired Navy Admiral, I should note, said that that was not a conversation, that there was no expectation of that. The President values Secretary Austin's advice and his leadership and that they expect that when he's better, he will be returning to his post, returning to the Pentagon.

That's the view from the White House right now, Ryan. Yeah, of course, Aaron, this comes at a time where there are two hot wars that the U.S. is not directly involved in, but obviously has a huge interest in. Does that have, did all of this have any impact on U.S.

operations? I mean, the short answer to that is no. We know that there was a National Security Council call with President Biden and Vice President Harris. On New Year's Day, Secretary Austin, the best of our knowledge was a part of that phone call on New Year's Day and was able to fulfill his function, giving advice to the President in that setting before he was rushed to the hospital, as Courtney just described.

And so as the military operates, my operations continue in whatever capacities they do, in particular, you talked about the Middle East and in Ukraine in terms of their observation and the activities that would be happening. They would still go on, as you might expect. The commanders on the ground were making immediate decisions. And when it comes to larger issues, for example, the Christmas Day strike that was ordered by President Biden, those are the sorts of things where you would expect that the Secretary of Defense would be directly engaged with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, with the National Security Advisor in giving advice to the President.

And there wasn't a situation like that over the course of last week where there was a need to get the President on the phone to make a decision like that. And so it seems as though no operations were interrupted. I'm sure this isn't the end of this for sure. Aaron Gilchrist, thank you so much at the White House.

We appreciate it. We're not going to turn to some breaking news. United Airlines is now saying its inspections have found loose bolts on several Boeing 737 MAX-9 aircraft. The FAA has grounded dozens of MAX-9 planes after a panel blew out mid-flight on an Alaska Airlines flight headed from Portland, Oregon to Ontario, California.

No one was seriously hurt. United, which is the largest operator of the MAX-9s, says it's on a number of instances in which bolts need additional tightening. Alaska Airlines, which is also conducting inspections, is not commented. Boeing, meanwhile, says it's provided airlines with instructions on how to conduct these inspections properly.

And after the break, Congress makes a deal. We have details on the new spending agreement between House and Senate leaders when it could pass both chambers and what it means for lawmakers and their jam-packed agenda. The panel is next. We're watching to get the president.

Welcome back. Congress has taken a major step toward addressing one of its top items on the agenda when it returns to Capitol Hill tomorrow, simply keeping the government open. It seems like a basic form and responsibility of Congress. House Speaker Mike Johnson and the Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced a deal late yesterday that would set spending limits for 2024.

Now, in a bizarre twist of fate, the deal would keep the so-called top-line spending levels in line with a deal that was struck last year by President Biden and then House Speaker Kevin McCarthy. You'll remember that deal ultimately cost McCarthy's job. In a letter to colleagues, the newspaper conceded that not everyone would be satisfied with this deal. He was right about that.

But they would move the process forward and prioritize funding for conservative goals. From what I'm joined by my panel, USA Today, Washington Bureau Chief Susan Page, former New York Congressman and former chair of the House Democratic Caucus, Joe Crowley, and Republican strategist Jim Dornan. So, Susan, let's start with you. This is a step, a step toward avoiding a shutdown.

But they still have a lot of work to do. They've got to fill all these numbers out. They have a deadline coming up next week to get this all done. I mean, we still are facing the wrong possibility of a shutdown here.

Entirely possible. But I think it's interesting that Speaker Johnson has agreed to this deal, knowing that it was the one that made him speaker because it ended the last speaker. And he also has hit two other agencies, struck the yields kind of at the last minute that averted shutdowns. So, I think it is possible, but it involves relying on Democratic votes.

And that is a hard pill for a lot of Republicans to swallow. And I wonder, Jim, is this what my Johnson's willing to do? Is he ready to isolate the Freedom Caucus? Because simple math would tell you that 20 people shouldn't be running the entire Republican House conference.

But his predecessor, Kevin McCarthy, allowed them to do so. Do you think my Johnson's ready to take on the Freedom Caucus? I think it's still early enough in a speakership that he has credibility to be able to do it, and he is one of them, meaning the Freedom Caucus guys. So, yeah, and I think they'll get some Democrat votes, too, because there's something in there for everybody.

Is it perfect? Absolutely not. But it's never going to be perfect for either side. So, I think this has a legitimate job, a legitimate way of passing.

Congressman Crowley, if I had asked you this question six months ago, before we'd ever thought of Speaker Mike Johnson, do you think there's ever a scenario whereby Democrats might be willing to partner up with Mike Johnson to get these big ticket items done? And at the same time, protect him from a potential motion to vacate to try and isolate the Freedom Caucus and make them irrelevant? I think the likelihood of a vote to vacate is really slim at this point. The Republicans can't do this again.

I think they're stuck right now. In some respects, they're stuck with Mike Johnson for better or for worse. I do think it's a good thing that the top line numbers are in. Whether or not they will lead Democratic votes to pass it remains to be seen to raise a thin margin right now, a majority.

But when the first time you use Democratic votes to pass this, it happened perfectly with Paul Ryan, as well as with John Boehner, and it certainly happened with Kevin McCarthy. And so, I think it'll probably have to happen again here. It's certainly going to happen. And how quickly could the Freedom Caucus turn on Mike Johnson?

The Congressman seems to think he's got at least some sort of a honeymoon period, but if he makes a deal on the spending package, potentially makes a deal on a supplemental, which is also in the offing, put the Freedom Caucus revolt and how soon could that happen? Oh, absolutely. They could turn on a dime. But I think that he again, I think he has credibility with him.

His conservative bona fides are there. And I think they probably would be willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Some of them. I mean, maybe some of the Matt Gaetz's of the world may not.

But and I think he probably pulls over some problem solvers from on the D side. So I think I think he'll do it. You know, the problem is that Freedom Caucus, many of them don't think this would be such a terrible thing to shut down the government. And they don't see the concern about the political repercussions for Republicans is not one that many of them are willing to acknowledge.

And he can only lose two of them. Only two votes. If he's going to rely only on Republicans, that's just not realistic. And I can actually say we got a majority of Democrats supporting it.

Well, you see the outliers will be folks from the far left who don't want the cuts in domestic spending. It's basically flat the military spending, but there'll be some minor cuts in domestic spending. And they're against that. So it'd be the opposite.

It's one of these weird scenarios I've found covering Congress is that there seems to be more than enough votes to get most of this stuff done. It's getting it to the floor. It's a problem. It's always about, you know, who controls the Congress?

The speaker has the control of the floor. What bills get to the floor under what type of rule and under what circumstances is completely controlled by the majority. The minority of the House has really very few tools at that point. You speak as if you know something.

Both ends of the stick. Yeah. But Susan, you know, one of the things I think is interesting is having been there and living lived around this up there was it seems or there was an opportunity for Kevin McCarthy to work for Democrats. But when he opened the impeachment inquiry, it seemed that Democrats were like, I don't want to be a part of anything that helps you.

Mike Johnson seems to have some wiggle room with Democrats that are willing and open to the idea of working with him. But he's talking about impeaching Alejandro my orchas. They're going to have a resolution on that this week. They're pushing forward with the impeachment inquiry of President Biden.

How toxic are those efforts by House Republicans when it comes to negotiating these big deals that they have to get done? You know, it's strange that Mike Johnson, who has not much history in position of prominence has better relationships really with both the White House and Democrats in Congress than his predecessor did. But he's still he's walking the same tightrope that they were walking. Yeah.

It's a honeymoon still for them, too. I think Democrats are. But doesn't this make that honeymoon more difficult? They absolutely does.

And I agree with you completely, Congressman. I mean, I think he needs to strike all the yarns hot. Yeah. But impeachment, that is a toxic matter.

And especially an impeachment of President Biden without really evidence of wrongdoing. I mean, they want to see impeachment inquiry without coming up with some reason that you might want to impeach. Well, you mentioned that about the lack of evidence in the impeachment inquiry. But it does seem as though they may have some ground to stand on with this move to hold Hunter Biden in contempt of Congress, right?

Jim, they're going to vote on that resolution this week. They released the report today. How do you feel about Hunter Biden's role in all of this? And is he guilty of contempt of Congress for defying the subpoena?

Well, he is guilty of bad PR because standing on the steps of the Capitol and saying, I'm not going to go. It was a very bad move. I think that prompted Republicans to say, OK, we're going to get you then. So, you know, I don't know.

I'm like everybody else. What evidence? Show me if there's bribery there. I have not seen anything of the sort.

I hear keep hearing about checks for 12 grand here and there and everywhere. I mean, show me the money. Yeah. Do you feel is Hunter maybe damaging his father's situation?

Look, I think Hunter Biden is a very damaged individual. I think he has caught the great deal of pain for his family and for himself. He's been addicted to drugs. People have addictions will lie.

They will cheat. They will steal their own families to meet that need. The same thing with Donald Trump, though, who's addicted to power. He will lie.

He will cheat. He will steal and hurt his own family to maintain that, the money and the power. And in that sense, I see the comparisons between the two. Other than that, Hunter Biden, he's a sorrowful person.

And it's painful to watch. I think it's certainly painful for the president to see his son be exploited the way in which he's being done by this Congress. And let's turn to 2024. Let's talk about the comment that Donald Trump made on Saturday on January 6 about some of the defendants connected in connection with the attack on the Capitol.

Let's take a listen. And with your help, we're going to bring back our country. We're going to bring it back from hell, because this country has been in hell what they've done. And they ought to, you know what they ought to do?

They ought to release the J6 hostages. They've suffered enough. They ought to release them. I call them hostages.

Some people call them prisoners. I call them hostages. Release the J6 hostages, Joe. Release them, Joe.

You can do it real easy, Joe. So we're talking about individuals who have been charged with illegally entering the Capitol on January 6 in some cases, attacking police officers, interesting to use the word hostage during a time where there are actual hostages being held by Hamas in the Middle East. I mean, how does this do general election voters are they paying attention to this in the state? And these are hundreds of people who have pleaded guilty or have been convicted of crimes and sent to prison or jail.

As a result, that's hard to see them as hostages in courtrooms run by judges appointed by both Democrats and Republicans, including judges appointed by Donald Trump. I think this helps them with Republicans. It gends up his ground. But man, I think this hurts him in a general election with independent voters to look at this and just shake their heads.

Yeah, Joe. Absolutely. And how many hostages have rinsacked a sacred place and gotten away with it? So I think it's an insult to us, to our intelligence as voters in this country.

And you'd also see the talking points that way all the way down to at least the father. And I think there'll be an indelible stain of her political soul having referred to him as hostages yesterday. I mean, the press, I think it was horrendous and awful to see that happen as one of the members of the House leadership. It's disgusting and disgraceful.

Okay, I'm going to leave it there. Thank you all for being here. We appreciate it. And still to come, NBC News embeds with Israeli forces inside Gaza as the IDF focuses its firepower on the enclaves central and southern regions that footage and live report from Tel Aviv is next.

You're watching meet the press now. Welcome back, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken has now landed in Israel as he continues his diplomatic push to try and ease tensions in the media, mid-east and limit the spread of an already escalating conflict. While then Tel Aviv, Blinken is expected to discuss the direction of Israel's military campaign and once again push for more to be done to protect civilians inside of Gaza. His latest visit to the region also comes as more countries start to question what a post-war Gaza would look like.

While speaking to reporters today after meeting with Arab leaders, Secretary Blinken laid out a framework for the future of the region while also cautioning those objectives still face major hurdles. We agreed to work together and to coordinate our efforts to help Gaza stabilize and recover, to chart a political path forward for the Palestinians, and to work toward long-term peace, security and stability in the region as a whole. I also found across the board that the countries we visited leaders we spent time with are prepared to make the necessary commitments to make the hard decisions, to advance all of these objectives, to advance this vision to the region. Joining me now is Raf Sanchez who is back in Tel Aviv after embedding with the IDF inside Gaza.

So Raf, what did you see while you were inside Gaza? What stood out the most to you? Well, Brian, one of the enduring questions we've had is how is it possible that three months since this war when the Israeli military has frankly laid waste much of Gaza claims that it is defeating Hamas? How is it that Hamas is still able to fire rockets as they did tonight, sending Israelis running to bomb shelters?

And we got a partial answer to that question in Gaza earlier today. The Israeli military took us to see what they said was the largest rocket and munitions production factory that they have discovered inside Gaza during these months of the war. This Ryan is basically a series of above and below-ground production hubs according to the IDF connected by tunnels. These rockets are assembled in different places and then they are moved through the tunnels to the places that they are launched from.

It appeared to be a pretty sophisticated operation. We asked the Israeli military to consider it a failure that Hamas retains this ability to fire rockets three months on. They insist that they are tamping down the rocket fire. The other thing that was so striking, Ryan, is we were in an area of central Gaza that was once fairly densely populated, home to hundreds of thousands of people.

We did not see a single Palestinian civilian. There was destruction and devastation as far as the eye could see and you just find yourself thinking, when are these people going to be able to return home? Are they going to have any homes to be able to return to? And this reconstruction effort, it is going to take years if not decades and it is going to cost a lot of money and it is not clear who is going to pay for the reconstruction of Gaza without some kind of commitment that there isn't going to be a war like this again.

Of course, Secretary Blinken is now back on the ground in Israel, every met with a number of Arab leaders. How much can you accomplish in those meetings with Israeli officials and what will you be looking for? Yeah, it's a good question. So when senior US officials have come to Israel over these recent months, they have usually gone home with some kind of tangible.

When Jake Sullivan was here in December, he got the Karem Shalom crossing into Gaza open for more humanitarian aid. It's likely Secretary Blinken will want some further commitment that he can show to the American public, to the world, frankly, that Israel is listening when the US says there needs to be more humanitarian aid going into Gaza. He has a number of other priorities, one of which is getting the far right ministers who sit around the security cabinet table in Benjamin Netanyahu's government to tone down their rhetoric because we have been hearing over and over again from them. They want to expel Palestinians from Gaza, something the US says is unacceptable.

Right. Okay, Rob, thanks so much. We appreciate it. And thank you for being with us this hour.

We're back tomorrow with more Meet the Press now and be seeing whose coverage continues on with Hallie Jackson right now.