If it's Friday, former President Trump once again lashing out at the Special Counsel office, as he faces new criminal charges tied to his mishandling of classified documents, including new allegations he tried to erase potentially incriminating security camera footage. Plus, security concerns for the next potential batch of Trump indictments. Barricades are being installed around the Fulton County courthouse in Atlanta, where charging decisions in that case are expected soon, and security officials prepare for more charges in Washington, perhaps at the end of next week. And as major legal developments swirl around the former President, the current President tries to avoid the Trump vortex as Joe Biden hits the road to tout his economic agenda, maybe pick off an electoral vote in New England in the process.
Happy Friday. Welcome to Meet the Press Now. I'm Chuck Todd reporting from New York. And we're going to begin with the fallout from those new federal charges against former President and current Republican frontrunner Donald Trump with the classified documents case, as well as new evidence, a new defendant, and a new witness, which comes as we await a whole new set of indictments tied to the efforts to overturn the 2020 election.
So, to get us back to the classified documents situation, in a 60-page superseding indictment unsealed late yesterday in the classified documents case, the special counsel Jack Smith accused Mr. Trump of obstruction of justice when he allegedly tried to get his staff to erase Mar-a-Lago security footage that had been subpoenaed by the FBI. They have also charged him with an additional count of possessing classified documents, essentially confirming the report that the former president did, in fact, share a classified document about war plans with Iran with guests at his New Jersey golf club. You recall that conversation about the document was recorded on tape, and we've all heard it at this point.
Also, the former president now faces three additional criminal counts, one for the document he shared with guests and two for his alleged attempts to erase that security camera footage sought by investigators. Mr. Trump has lashed out at the new charges today on social media, not surprising, of course. He's calling them textbook third-world intimidation, once again trying to make it all about politics.
He's calling on Special Counsel Jack Smith and the Attorney General Merrick Garland to be thrown in jail while defending his actions this morning on a nationally syndicated radio show. These people, these are thugs. Jack Smith is a deranged Jack Smith. He's a prosecutor who's been overturned unanimously in the Supreme Court.
Vicious tactics. They went after two fine employees yesterday, fine people. And I don't think they think that the tapes were even changed. These were my tapes that we gave to them.
And they basically then say that's not enough. I don't think we would have had a game. I'm not sure that we would have even had a game at these security thefts. We handed them over to them.
I doubt we would have had to fight that. I doubt we would have had a game. But regardless, we gave it. So the employees he's referencing there are both employees at Mar-a-Lago.
One is his valet, Walter Nauta, who was previously charged as a co-conspirator in the case, and he now faces two additional charges. The other is Carlos D. Oliveira, a maintenance supervisor at Mar-a-Lago, who becomes the third defendant in this case. He's been charged in connection to that scheme to delete surveillance video as well as lying to investigators.
His attorney has declined to comment. All of this comes the day after sources told ABC News that the special counsel's office has already informed Mr. Trump's attorneys to expect another entirely new indictment in connection with efforts to overturn the 2020 election. All right, so we're going to unpack all this.
Joining me now, we've got outside of the president's New Jersey home in Bedminster, is Vaughn Hilliard. And with me here on set is our senior legal correspondent, Laura Jarrett, and Danny Savalos, a criminal defense attorney who's an NBC News legal analyst. Vaughn Hilliard, let me start with you. That was a very tired Donald Trump we heard, which may mean he is certainly, I don't want to overread into things, but you can kind of tell when stuff has been, he has been absorbing things.
And I guess my first question to you is, were they expecting this superseding indictment or did this blindside them? There's no indication that they were expecting anything to come out of Florida here from the special counsel's office. The attention was wholly on the January 6th investigation out of Washington, D.C., to his attorneys met with the special counsel's office yesterday in Washington, D.C. That is where the full attention was here.
And now the superseding indictment, it has implications potentially, we could expect that the defense team is going to want to push this trial back from May of next year to beyond the 2024 election. But you can hear in Donald Trump's voice, this is a man who for years has been able to, you know, entangle a web of lies, a web of explanations that are often off-base to the truth. And yet there's never been really true consequences. But this time, Donald Trump in just the last several months, in his own words, has given explanations about what unfolded in these classified documents investigation.
And yet he has only muddied the waters and made the future arguments from his legal defense counsel even tougher. And when you look at here now, the fact that you have Tavares, a security IT worker, who is clearly to some extent a key witness in this here for the prosecution, Donald Trump's own timeline is difficult because his lawyers said on June 3rd that they had turned over all relevant documents. And now in the superseding indictment, prosecutors are suggesting that there were conversations that existed between him, a maintenance worker, and Walt Nauta to delete footage that may have shown that, in fact, that they knew that more classified material was not only present, but had been moved. So what do we know?
We've been able to identify. It appears there's somebody cooperating with the special counsel that is an employee referred to Trump employee four in the superseding indictment. You refer to him as an IT guy. He appears to be the cooperating witness here.
It seems like the amounts of evidence and the specificity in which the prosecutors are describing direct quotes, including the quote from De Oliveira, that the boss wanted the server to be deleted, would suggest that either Tavares gave very detailed notes or somehow, some way, the prosecutors were able to have a recording in which they were able to transcribe such a specific quote here. We do know that Walt Nauta and De Oliveira are currently being, to the best of our knowledge, represented by lawyers who in the past have been paid by Trump's leadership PAC, Save America. And so for all intents and purposes, we believe right now these co-conspirators, co-defendants, are still very much lawyered to Donald Trump. And at least the story and the defense of the former president and his team would be eager to note.
How much of their fundraising right now is geared toward the campaign and how much of their fundraising is geared toward paying for legal defense? I mean, or is it just all in the same pile of money here? There's a lot of Americans that are on these email lists. And if you go and click on one of those Trump fundraising emails and you go and make a donation, 90% of your donation, it goes to the Trump 2024 campaign.
But then there's a 10% that goes to the Save America leadership PAC. And that PAC not only is used to advance his political purposes, but there are tens of thousands of dollars, according to financial records from 2022, that show the litany of lawyers not only representing Donald Trump, but his other allies that have had their own legal peril that those have been going on. On Monday is going to be a telling day because we'll actually get the financial records from 2023 and we'll be able to see the extent to which those lawyers representing some of these defendants have been paid here this year. Vaughn Hilliard with some of the political impact of this at Bedminster on the Trump beat correspondent.
Thank you. Let me bring in the legal team here. Laura Jarrett, Danny Savalos, a criminal defense attorney who's an NBC News legal analyst. Laura, explain to me why there has been, why this, I mean, the coverage of this new superseding indictment has been these are really damning new charges.
For some people, they're going to be like, oh, this is count 72, 73, 74. What makes this? Why are some people saying, whoa, this is a big deal? I think that the superseding indictment blows out of the water.
One of the primary defense that we've heard from the former president, which is I had the complete authority to take these documents. It was my right to take these documents. If you truly believe that you had the authority to take them, then why are you attempting to delete the security footage that shows you moving them around? And the prosecutors were going to use that to try to tell a story to the jury about a consciousness of guilt, about the idea that he knew this was wrong, and this is part of the cover-up story.
So why do we think, I mean, is it as obvious as it looks that Jack Smith just got another cooperating witness, was able to get enough evidence to put this in an indictment since the last one? Is that basically what this, what it looks like? I can certainly, one of the things we're trying to report out right now is what in the world is going on with this little Tavares. We have confirmed that that's employee four.
We have confirmed that once upon a time, he was represented by Stan Woodward, who also represents other witnesses in this case. So suddenly he is no longer, like Cassidy Hutchinson It's not about classified documents. It's about hush money payments and falsifying business records. Doesn't mean he's not going to try to delay it, but I think that of all the cases, that's ironically the one that might actually happen before the election.
Wow. So the case that's sort of... On the periphery. It's not about like undoing democracy, yes.
Right. And the other three, obviously, are much more serious. Do we assume, Danny, that Fannie Willis and Jack Smith are coordinating? Coordinating.
But I often wonder if there might even be a subtle bit of competition here. They're very conscious of who's going to indict who for what first. Well, competition. The feds always win.
They always win. By the way, that's something that people aren't talking about enough, which is that your odds are always a lot better in state court. I don't care if it's Fulton County. I've never had a case in Fulton County, but I can just tell you the odds are always better in state court, especially in a big county, high population county.
Those are usually the easier places to win. You virtually, and I'm saying this as somebody who's in federal court. I don't prefer to be in federal court. Federal court is a depressing place to be for a criminal defendant because they virtually almost always lose.
Is it surprising to them not to get a heads up on a superseding indictment or not? No, but it does speak to sort of what I think will probably be strained relations from here on out. Because they did, they sort of, they dropped this. They clearly met with, on the other case.
And we have every indication. Right. And the other three, obviously much more serious. Do we assume, Danny, that Fannie Willis and Jack Smith are coordinating?
Coordinating to a point. But I often wonder if there might even be a subtle bit of competition here. They're very conscious of who's going to indict who for what first. Competition.
The feds always win. They always win. By the way, that's something that people aren't talking about enough, which is that your odds are always a lot better in state court. I don't care if it's Fulton County.
I've never had a case in Fulton County, but I can just tell you the odds are always better in state court, especially in a big county, high population county. Those are usually the easier places to win. You virtually, and I'm saying this as somebody who's in federal court, I don't prefer to be in federal court. Federal court is a depressing place to be for a criminal defendant because they virtually almost always lose.
Is it surprising to them not to get a heads up on a superseding indictment or not? No, but it does speak to sort of what I think will probably be strained relations from here on out. Because they did, they sort of, they dropped this. They clearly met with, on the other case.
And we have every indication. Right. And the other three, obviously much more serious. Do we assume, Danny, that Fannie Willis and Jack Smith are coordinating?
Coordinating to a point. But I often wonder if there might even be a subtle bit of competition here. They're very conscious of who's going to indict who for what first. Competition.
The feds always win. They always win. By the way, that's something that people aren't talking about enough, which is that your odds are always a lot better in state court. I don't care if it's Fulton County.
I've never had a case in Fulton County, but I can just tell you the odds are always better in state court, especially in a big county, high population county. Those are usually the easier places to win. You virtually, and I'm saying this as somebody who's in federal court, I don't prefer to be in federal court. Federal court is a depressing place to be for a criminal defendant because they virtually almost always lose.
Isn't it surprising to them not to get a heads up on a superseding indictment or not? No, but it does speak to sort of what I think will probably be strained relations from here on out. Because they did, they sort of, they dropped this. They clearly met with, on the other case.
And we have every indication. Right. And the other three, obviously much more serious. Do we assume, Danny, that Fannie Willis and Jack Smith are coordinating?
Coordinating to a point. But I often wonder if there might even be a subtle bit of competition here. They're very conscious of who's going to indict who for what first. Competition.
The feds always win. They always win. By the way, that's something that people aren't talking about enough, which is that your odds are always a lot better in state court. I don't care if it's Fulton County.
I've never had a case in Fulton County. But I can just tell you the odds are always better in state court, especially in a big county, high population county. Those are usually the easier places to win. You virtually, and I'm saying this as somebody who's in federal court, I don't prefer to be in federal court.
Federal court is a depressing place to be for a criminal defendant because they virtually almost always lose. Is it surprising to them not to get a heads up on a superseding indictment or not? No, but it does speak to sort of what I think will probably be strained relations from here on out. Coming up, new reporting on how security officials in both Washington and Atlanta are preparing for more potential Trump charges that could come any day now.
Plus, more charges, more problems. How Republicans are reacting and defending Mr. Trump despite his mounting legal issues. You're watching Meet the Press Now.
Welcome back. A special counsel, Jack Smith, announces additional charges in the Mar-a-Lago classified documents case. There are security preparations underway in both Georgia and Washington, D.C. ahead of what is likely to be more potential indictments against the former president involving his efforts to overturn the election of January 6th in Washington and, of course, the infamous Georgia phone call.
As you can see, orange security barriers were spotted going up around the Fulton County Courthouse where Trump may be facing charges for his alleged role in trying to overturn the Georgia 2020 election. That was, as I talked about that phone call when he asked Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to find him 11,000 votes. District Attorney Fannie Willis has said she will be announcing charging decisions sometime this summer. Meanwhile, in D.C., U.S.
Secret Service and Metro PD were meeting yesterday as they begin to coordinate for another potential arraignment of the former president. Joining me now is our justice and intelligence correspondent, Ken Delaney. So, Ken, we've seen similar things in Miami. We saw similar things here.
I'm in New York in Manhattan. I think you were there that day as well. We actually haven't seen a lot of problems at those arraignments. How does that impact the planning in Atlanta and D.C.?
No, that's the good news, Chuck. But they're still going to plan for it because they have to be cautious. And there is an environment and atmosphere of very violent rhetoric, particularly after the last indictment. There was a lot of it.
There were lawmakers calling this indictment an act of war. And there's all kinds of rhetoric swirling around. And the concern is it only takes a couple of disturbed people. The good news, though, is you're right.
We haven't seen the kind of January 6th style violent demonstrations turning into riots around these various law enforcement activities related to the former president. And what I'm told by both private researchers and law enforcement officials, we haven't seen really an uptick of threats leading up to this expected indictment relating to the election of former President Donald Trump, in part because it's been a slow boil. I mean, it's been, it's been coming for a while. We know it.
They know it's coming. It's not going to come as a shock. But nonetheless, after that classified documents indictment, there was a lot of violent rhetoric coursing around. And I think we can expect that again.
And so, therefore, we can expect the security agencies to really beef up the profile and be ready for anything. Speaking of security, what kind of security are prosecutors getting? Well, that's interesting. You know, all in both special counsel Jack Smith and special counsel Robert Herr, who probably a lot of people wouldn't know if they ran into him in the grocery store, have full security details.
They walk around with bodyguards. And I don't think that was always the case with special counsels going back into history. I'm not even sure that Robert Mueller had one, because I remember there was a time where one of our reporters walked up to him at church to ask him a question. I don't remember any security detail being there, at least he didn't have a full time one.
So there's definitely a concern about security and such that they, you know, bodyguards are protecting the special counsels 24/7. All the attention justice has been getting, all of the rhetoric. What's morale like with rank and file prosecutors these days? You know, it's a mixed picture, right?
Nobody, like, particularly, it's more an issue with the FBI. The FBI is under assault daily in Congress by, particularly by Republicans. And the FBI is a Republican organization. You know, DOJ, less so.
And this is a Democratic administration, so all the political appointees are Democrats. They have their heads down. They're doing their work. They're very, you know, over here, they're doing, for example, like the patterns and practice lawsuit that was filed against or investigation announced against Memphis PD.
That kind of thing. They feel like they could really change policy. So they're not so concerned about the rhetoric. On the FBI side, though, there is a bit of a morale issue.
They're feeling a little bit ground down by, particularly this onslaught from Republican members of Congress, Chuck. No, and you can see it in a reference to one cultural issue very obliquely. The point being, is he's really leaning in more on what, look, you did it just now. Look, he's leaning on ESGs, he's leaning on this.
This isn't what everyday voters are worried about. I take that primary voters in Iowa might be fired up about it, but is it sort of losing, are you still forced through the trees here, right? Are you not seeing the bigger picture? Or is the message not seen as bigger?
No, I understand the concern. Chuck, I understand the concern. I don't think it's an illegitimate issue to discuss, but as you noted, he's in Iowa this week. He's talking to Iowans.
They do care about it. It is not the only subject he's covering. It is a big part of media coverage. And I would point out that a lot of the, well, DeSantis implemented many good economic policies.
What made him stand out nationally in terms of Florida's performance was that he opened Florida back up when that was a very controversial thing to do. Donald Trump and the mainstream media and the so-called experts were all against him on that. And yet he did it. I mentioned the schools benefit to children, but that also allowed their small and medium-sized businesses in Florida to thrive.
And it's why hundreds of thousands of people moved to Florida, was that freedom agenda that covered not just the cultural issues, but also economic issues. So I just, I partially agree with you in the sense that you can't just talk about cultural issues. I don't agree with the Wall Street Journal that that is not important in some way. It is very important to mainstream conservative grassroots Republican voters.
Let me ask you this. What is the metric? You've got donors who love to be blind, quote, backseat drivers to your campaign, as you might know. What is the metric that they should watch?
Yeah. What's the metric you would offer up right now to say, hey, the reset has worked? See, we are making progress. Because one of the things I'm, I'm wondering about is, what is that event coming up?
Is it the debate? Where can, where can the gutter DeSantis tell the doubters, hey, see everything. We've righted the ship. We had a tough start, but we're in good shape.
What's a metric that you would advise people to watch for to say, yeah, that that's proof that it's working. So obviously the debates are milestones in the campaign. And oftentimes they are make or break in both directions for various campaigns. And we can both, I'm sure rattle off examples of both from previous races.
Um, I would note that that's going to be particularly interesting contrast without Donald Trump there. Donald Trump lost the first presidential debate to Joe Biden. He is a good showman, but he is not a good debater because it highlights his weaknesses. Whereas in Ron DeSantis's case, it showcases his preparation, his brain power, and his application of it all to the benefit of ordinary Americans' lives.
So I look very forward to his performance in those debates as a place to expand his forward-looking vision for America. And a lot of what he did in Florida has national implications. And he keeps spelling those out. You talked about the military.
He's the only veteran running this week. He started that Monday in South Carolina. He's continued to roll out policies that connect his vision, including the cultural positions he's taken, for instance, in the military and how debilitating it is to the military, to a national commander-in-chief position. And the more he does that, the more American voters are going to appreciate how it's going to affect their lives and their state outside of Florida.
And I think that's going to make a lot of headway for him. Are you at all concerned that you're, as a super PAC, you guys are almost too engaged in winning the day-to-day social media news cycle? You know, there's been this critique that DeSantis' campaign is too online. They respond too much to what fires people up online.
Like, RFK Jr. is sort of a creature of the Internet. He doesn't really, like, the rest of the world doesn't really feel it or see it, right? It's really, really just the most passionate activists know what's going on with him.
And it does feel like a little bit too online. Do you at all accept that critique? No, I don't. I will tell you, as the founder of this super PAC, we intended from day one to be different among super PACs.
We've knocked over 1 million doors. We crossed the millionth door in South Carolina on behalf of the governor this week. There is no other campaign or super PAC that I'm even aware of is knocking doors at any scale. We're talking to voters one at a time so they can get to know Governor DeSantis' personal history in a way you don't get from a mailer or in these, you know, the TV back and forths.
That is much more personal. I'm a believer that hearts and minds are changed by people, not the news stations and not, you know, media and so forth. So that's a great success for us that no one else is even challenging us on. So you can expect to see this super PAC continue to behave differently than super PACs ever have before.
If Trump's not in the first debate, this could be a big contrast between DeSantis and Tim Scott. Do you think that's a good thing for your candidacy, for his candidacy? I think that, I don't think it's relevant necessarily to specifically Tim Scott so much as that a lot of Republican voters or those who may vote in Republican nominations, independents, for instance, vote in New Hampshire. They'll tune in and they'll start to get a feel for him that they haven't gotten yet.
You know, Chuck, you and I are not statistically normal in the amount of attention we pay to a race this far off this early. And yet there's a whole narrative around, oh, the polls say this, or as if we're at the closing gate and we're really barely at the starting gate. And his perseverance and work ethic are going to play a big role in his good performance in the debate and his gradual building toward victory when we turn the corner on 2024. Well, you better hope Yogi Bear has it right and that it's getting late early.
Anyway, Ken Cuccinelli from Never Back Down. Appreciate you coming on. Good to talk with you. After the break, the field, the vortex and the fallout.
The GOP's 2024 front runner now faces 74 criminal charges combined, state and federal. We're going to dig deeper into the political fallout of the former president and his party next. You're watching Meet the Press Now. Welcome back.
Three new charges in yesterday's superseding indictment in the special counsel's classified documents case may have a legal impact on Trump's future. But when it comes to politics, they barely made a drop in the bucket, at least not yet. When asked about the new charges, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy returned to a common refrain we've heard from many Republicans about previous charges against Donald Trump. He told reporters the charges are proof of a politicized two-tier justice system targeting President Trump and not President Biden for the documents he had in his possession, despite the very obvious difference here that there isn't evidence Biden's team defied a subpoena, tried to erase security tapes or obstructed government efforts to recover those documents.
Here's McCarthy. What concerns me is you had a sitting president that has a situation like this, but even worse, that had documents. But nothing's happened. You've had...
How is it worse? Because he's led there allegedly to be obstructing the investigation. He's under investigation, but he's not indicted. Why do they keep indicting Biden?
Who knows? No, it's forever. It might be who knows. That's the point.
Who knows? You're a Biden. So it's never going to happen. That's the difference.
And that's the frustration. All right, I'm joined today for our mini-panel, former Department of Homeland Security Secretary Jay Johnson and Rich Lowry, editor of The National Review. Come to New York to get the brain power of the two. It's good to see you both.
Jay, you work for Rudy Giuliani in the Southern District of New York, so you're a prosecutor. I want to ask you on the legal side of things. I understand that on the legal side of things, you know, how serious is this additional charge legally for Donald Trump? We'll talk of the politics in a minute, but legal.
In terms of his legal jeopardy? No more serious than the first indictment. It's additional counts, enables the government to offer additional evidence. You know, federal criminal practitioners, defense or prosecution, live by the federal sentencing guidelines.
I looked up the federal sentencing guidelines for a conviction on obstruction of justice charges, which is what he's charged with. The baseline is what we refer to as level 14. If you're at a level 14 with no prior criminal history, that is 15 to 21 months in jail. That's just the obstruction charge.
Just on the obstruction charge alone. What I fail to understand politically is how can a rational voter vote for a man who has a very realistic possibility of going to jail at some point? Well, the Trump may not happen before the election. Well, it may not happen before the election, but he's in real serious legal jeopardy.
So Ron DeSantis campaign struggle. Oh my God, the front runner's got indicted again. There's 74 counts. Like, in theory, this should be the path back.
Yeah. And it's not. It's not. And this was the key inflection point.
It's not necessarily anything DeSantis has done wrong. It was the Bragg indictment, which Trump is already leading in the polling averages. But then he's up another 10 points and he's been at that higher level ever since. Is Alvin Joe Biden is younger, but he knows how to defeat Donald Trump.
And so I think most Democrats, certainly most Democrats I speak to, um, are prepared to see Joe Biden only running for re-election because Trump's running. You think this would be a different conversation if Trump weren't running? Frankly, yes, I do. But if I can make one last point, look at the last three people who were elected president, where they were in July the year before the election.
Obama was a strong number two. Trump had just announced, wasn't taken seriously. And Biden was in single digits. Very quickly, Mitch McConnell, it feels like the reality, that statement he put out didn't sound like a guy who's going to stay in the Senate for a full term.
It just simply sounded like a guy that says, look, we're not doing leadership elections this time. That makes sense. But obviously that was a really concerning event. And I hope that the public.
How much does this scramble those Senate Republican leaderships? You think a lot? I think a lot, yeah. Yeah, it'll be a gentle.
Jay Johnson, Rich Lowry. It's good to see you guys. Thank you. We're going to continue to track the ongoing crisis in Nigeria as the country contends with the attempted coup of its democratically elected president.
And we in the United States are officially only calling it an attempted coup still because of some legal reasons, what it would mean for our troops that are there earlier today. The presidential guard, which barricaded President Bazoum inside the presidential palace, declared that their leader, General Tiani, was the new head of state and that the country's constitution has been suspended. The group that calls themselves the National Council for Safeguarding the Country claimed they will now exercise all legislative and executive power. And so while the leaders of this attempted coup called on international partners to cooperate with the new regime in a new statement today, the White House National Security Council is calling today's developments an unconstitutional seizure of power, but they are not calling it a coup because that would trigger U.S.
laws that require the State Department and Defense Department to cut off all foreign assistance, limit military partnerships. This afternoon, the NSE again called for President Bazoum's immediate and safe release. NBC News has been live on the ground in Nigeria's capital since the crisis began, and we will continue to bring you developments as they happen. We'll be right back.
Biden is hitting the road again, and this time he's traveling to Maine. It's his first visit to the state as president. Biden visited a textiles plant where he signed an executive order boosting incentives for manufacturing companies to produce new inventions domestically. But the trip comes as Biden continues to tout his Bidenomics message amid a wave of favorable economic news and statistics from the Federal Reserve easing concerns about a recession, better-than-expected GDP numbers, and a boost in consumer confidence.
This is an attempt to say, hey, give me some credit, is what he's looking for. Joining me now, NBC White House correspondent Allie Rafa. So, Allie, he went to a part of the state that he has not won politically. It was the Maine Switzer electoral votes.
He went to that second congressional district that has supported Trump two elections in a row with a message of bringing jobs back to the U.S. So clearly trying to appeal to that populous wing of Maine's electorate. Yeah, Chuck, the president clearly trying to chip away at some of that support for the former president in past elections, trying to a bank on what he hopes will be a success over a year from now come the 2024 election. And that sort of plays into what we've seen, this pattern from Team Biden where the president consistently goes to these locations across the country for these Bidenomics Investing in America events, these red districts or red-leaning districts that are led by Republicans who oppose the legislation that he's touting on the campaign trail.
He's taking credit for this booming economy that's been recovering. And that sort of goes into the larger argument that we saw the president present today. He talked about boosting manufacturing and continuing to keep innovation within the United States, cutting red tape, offering incentives to be able to do that. And that plays into the Biden team's long game here.
They want to own the economic messaging of the 2024 campaign period, Chuck. You know, Allie, it strikes me that we couldn't get this in until our last segment of our show today. Why? Because of the coverage of Trump and the indictments.
And one of the, I'm curious, is the White House frustrated that Trump legal issues consume so much attention that they can't get their message across or they'd rather have that than too much coverage of what they're doing? Definitely the latter. They see this as a benefit. They're making the argument that, you know, as Republicans struggle to sort of navigate the messaging around this myriad of controversies that we're seeing from Republicans, including the legal woes of the former president, they're sticking with this consistent economic messaging.
It may be, in some viewers' opinions, boring, but to the Biden team, it's a safe message that they can rely on to be a successful factor in the 2024 election. They're saying that, you know, there's really, the proof is in the pudding here. Republicans cannot argue with the cold hard facts, the cold numbers that the president is touting. And it's, as I said, evidence in really the regions that the president is going to on the campaign trail to tout these economic numbers.
All right, Ali Rafa covering the Biden White House for us. Ali, thank you. And thank you all for being with us this hour and this week. We'll be back with Monday with more Meet the Press Now.
Of course, on Sunday, it's Meet the Press on your local NBC News station. Chris Coons, Will Hurd, and the great Chuck Rosenberg. NBC News Now coverage continues with Tom Costello, who's sitting in for Hallie Jackson. Hey, everyone, I'm Dylan Dreyer, co-host of the third hour of Today and mom to three wild boys.
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