If it's Thursday. Massive legislation and massive win for the White House. The President's sprawling mega bill is now headed to his desk to be signed into law after a grueling fight to get it through the House and over the finish line. Plus, Democrats vow to fight on all the way to the midterms after House night morning leader Hakeem Jeffries delivers a record breaking four speech opposing the legislation.
And detainees begin arriving at the facility dubbed Alligator Alcatraz. After I got an in depth look inside the new migrant detention center and pressed the acting Heights director about humanitarian concerns surrounding its very existence. Welcome to Meet the Press Now I'm Dave Coutiers in Washington, where it's been yet another historic day that will shape the future of American politics. The House of Representatives passing President Trump's signature domestic policy legislation.
It includes trillions of dollars in tax cut extensions, hundreds of billions in new funding for the President's immigration crackdown, and dramatic cuts to entitlement programs like Medicaid. The sprawling bill passed after a grueling 48 hours of arm twisting, closed door negotiations and marathon rounds of voting on the House floor. It all led to this. The motion is adopted.
The moment Speaker Johnson gaveled in the final vote by an incredibly slim margin, 218 to 214, largely on party lines, with Republicans Thomas Nassi of Kentucky and Dwight Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania voting with all the Democrats against the legislation. After the vote, Speaker Johnson signed it and gave credit to his conference for getting the bill passed. The beauty of unified government is this is exactly how it can work. And how it's supposed to work is that you have an interaction between executive and legislative branches because that's what's best for the people.
And that coordination is going to yield great results. They're going to feel this pretty quickly. Wages will rise. I think House to household income will go up.
I think the job participation rate will increase dramatically. I think unemployment will be low. The bill now heads to the President's dashboard. He's expected to hold a signing ceremony tomorrow at 5pm Eastern.
The White House also says the President will speak at length about the bill at his event in Iowa tonight. In a statement, the White House celebrated the bill, saying the pro growth policies will lead to, quote, an economic boom I've never seen before. Getting his major piece of legislation over the finish line was tumultuous at best and did not come without some major hurdles and delay tactics. Starting yesterday, when the House held open a procedural vote for more than seven hours, making it the longest vote in modern Congressional history.
Speaker Johnson continued to work behind the scenes to corral his conference and assuage concerns that bill's steep cuts to Medicaid could backfire on them politically. And then today, we saw Democrats final stand against the president's mega bill, with Minority Leader Akeem Jeffries delivering a record breaking 8 hour and 44 minute speech on the House floor railing against the bill. And that's exactly why every single Democrat stands in strong opposition to this bill, because we're standing up for the American people. This reckless Republican budget is an immoral document.
We're going to continue as House Democrats to take our sweet time on behalf of the American people because the issues are too significant. We're gonna press on until victory is won. I yield back. Jeffrey's clearly looking to fire up Democrats about their prospects in next year's midterms, even going so far as to nickname that effort project 2026.
Joining now their team of reporters, NBC News senior national political reporter Sahil Kapoor, NBC News White House correspondent Monica Alba, and NBC News senior business correspondent Christine Romans. Thank you all so much for joining me. Saha, I want to start with you, though. What's the moonlight on Capitol Hill right now that the Republicans were able to get the president's bill across the finish line?
And what does it say about the politics of this moment and the power the president continues to wield over the party? Okay, Republican leaders are certainly very elated right now. They have good reason to be. Usually it takes multiple laws to pass provisions of this magnitude, but they made a pretty daring bet that they could stack the president's entire domestic agenda, really everything they could fit through this budget reconciliation process in one massive package.
$4.5 million in tax cuts, more than a trillion dollars in spending cuts, and that just about every Republican in these narrow majorities would ultimately vote for it. And to that end, they were right. Despite all the complaining, despite all the criticisms of the objecting that we heard from Republicans across the spectrum throughout, from politically vulnerable members to some of the most conservative hardline members, nearly every one of them folded in the end and said they're not going to say no to President Trump's agenda. That was the case of the whole that Republican leaders had all along.
That absolutely speaks to the level of power that President Trump has accumulated. The Republican Party of a decade ago had various different power centers, you know, that would have the backs of members to make serious demands, to push for their own priorities and withhold votes unless they were met. Those factions are all gone now. They' collapsed into one Donald Trump.
He's the only game in town. Just two Republicans at the end of it were willing to say no to him. One of them is Tom Massey of Kentucky. He has opposed Trump in the past and survived reelection.
He told me he has Trump anti bodies for that. The second one is Congressman Brian's Patrick. This one is a little bit of a surprise. He represents one of the very few districts that President Trump lost in 2024 and still represented by Republican.
He said the Medicaid cuts go too far for him. And Monica, speaking of president's power, what do we know about his role in flipping those key bumps? It seems like it was key, Gabe. He was really engaged yesterday for almost the entire day either in meetings, in person with some of these holdouts who came to the White House to express their final concerns and on the phone he was even speaking with key members, key lawmakers and with the House speaker around 1am this morning trying to really get all of this finalized and get it to where it was able to pass this afternoon.
The President had even said he was okay with the deadline sliding a little bit. This was a self imposed July 4th deadline that, that he had put out there. But then ultimately the fact that it did pass today and he's going to be able to sign it tomorrow with a lot of fanfare I might add at the White House. He's going to essentially attach this bill signing to a previously planned military family picnic that is taking place on the South Lawn to mark the holiday and then he's going to cap the evening off with the traditional White House Fourth of July celebration where they gather to watch fireworks and the fact that there are even going to be some flyovers to additionally celebrate the military is really going to cap a day I think for this president that he's going to call historic, that he's going to tout as a major, major victory.
Now that's how we got to this point. And again the President will be somebody who I think takes a lot of credit for his work as it got very close to the one yard line but now raises this larger question is raised about how he will answer for some of the bill that are not as popular. And the White House is already trying to dismiss those today saying that this is going to create a lot of growth in the economy. They're going to try to put it and market it that way.
But then of course there are these answers for candidate Trump who claims he would not make cuts to Medicaid. Now with the nonpartisan Congressional budget office saying as many as 11 million people will be stripped of their health care as a result of this law. Monica, you mentioned what we expect from the president tomorrow. Have we heard from the president so far himself yet this afternoon?
I know he's heading to Iowa later on tonight, right? Yeah. And the White House says that much of his speech tonight is going to be dedicated to this major legislative victory. He spent an earlier part of the afternoon meeting with free hostage Idan Alexander, who was in Hamas captivity for more than 580 days.
The White House put out a video of that earlier today. So he's been attending to some other matters, the White House says. And again, he's trying to perhaps get an Israel and Hamas cease fire over the finish line for next week. We know the Israeli prime minister is set to come to meet with President Trump.
So he's trying to juggle a couple of those different things. And then tonight is supposed to be the speech, but he leaves the White House as he so often does, Gabe, when he gets to Air Force One. It's possible he could talk to reporters there because you better believe he's going to want to spike the ball, so to speak, on this big victory. Like usual, busy times on the White House.
Speak, Monica Asaha, and turn back to you. I don't leave. Your deference delayed the vote for almost nine hours. As we said, what is next for Democrats here?
What's the messaging strategy going forward? Well, Democrats are even have the votes torpedo this bill despite their best efforts. And that's because Republicans use a process where they can pass it on their own using their majorities and by passing a filibuster in the Senate. But what Democrats can do is a try to win the battle of public opinion.
So far, polls indicate they are winning the battle of public opinion. The bill is not popular. A recent FOX News poll found that the bill is about 20 points underwater with a country at large. That is the point that Democrats are going to try to press forward.
They're going to try to capitalize on that and make these Republicans pay a political price in the next midterm election. Take a listen to what Minority Leader King Jeffrey, who's trying to come speak for the House next time, said in his record. I know that there are people concerned with what's happening in America, but understand what our journey teaches us is that after Project 2025 comes Project 2026 and you will have an opportunity to end this national nightmare. Now, the argument you will hear over and over and over again from Democrats that Republicans are Cutting taxes for the wealthiest Americans and for billionaires paying for it, like cutting healthcare, Medicaid and food stamps for the working class.
It's very reminiscent of the message that Democrats use in 2018 ahead of that blue wave when Republic of them tried to repeal the AC unsuccessfully, but passed the original term tax cut, which has now just been extended. So you mentioned this tax cut extension also, everybody who's been talking about the changes in Medicaid, when will people actually start to feel the impact of what's in this bill? Yeah, let's look at a timeline on this. The Trump tax cuts were set to expire at the end of this year.
They will not expire. They have now been extended. So starting 2025 next year, those strong tax cuts will largely continue in existing form with some changes. No tax on over time.
There's a temporary provision for four years. You'll include those two. It's not really clear exactly how many people would benefit from the tax because there's a deduction there. The vast majority of those workers, or at least a very, very significant number of them, don't pay enough in taxes to really benefit from that deduction.
The food stamp work requirements start as early as 2025 and the Medicaid work requirements, one of the most significant pieces of this starts on the last day of 2026 at the latest. Although there seems to be some possibility that allows states to trigger them earlier. So the savings are going to come a little bit later. Thanks for that timeline.
What are some of the other winners and losers of this deal? Yeah, we can consider several of them, Gabe. For the winners, the biggest winners are a high earning taxpayers. There will be some, you know, tech workers and those who make overtime will pay less in taxes as a result of this.
The fossil fuel industry is a real winner because the government just took away a huge incentive for clean energy. Stephen Miller, the architects of the mass deportation agenda, huge winners. They now give over $100 billion to carry out that agenda. The military gets a boost of $100 billion as well.
More than that. And as far as the losers go, it's gonna be Medicaid and SNAP recipients. Millions of them are gonna lose their coverage or have to fill out these new paperwork requirements, you know, proving their eligibility, proving they're working at least 80 hours a month. Republicans argue that these are just able bodied adults who should be required to work, not people with disabilities or people who have young kids.
So they're gonna press that point again and again. The question is how many people are gonna fall through the cracks. As a result of this red tape, hospitals and providers are all gonna take a hit. There's one rural hospital out in Nebraska that's already announced it's closing.
Cash strapped. Things are gonna get worse as a result of this bill and the clean energy industry, big loser in this bill, about half a trillion dollars in incentives were taken away. Lastly, Gabe, deficit costs. Massive losers in this bill.
Despite the messaging from Republicans, this bill increases the deficit by more than $3 trillion. Budget Office and Nicola, I wanna go quickly back to you. We talked about the role that the President played here, but do we know exactly what he offered to get some of these GOP holdouts on board? Well, senior White House officials don't want to get too specific on that because they really point out that obviously nothing changed between the Senate version and the House version that ultimately passed because had there been any kind of amendment or even a change to a single word, it would have to go back through that process.
So they're trying to argue that really being willing to hear their concerns, to have a conversation, but that there weren't going to be any side deals as it relates to this particular legislation. But what we've heard from some House members who are part of these conversations is the idea that the President did promise on future conversations about future legislation or other kinds of ideas of legislation that could come up in the future, that he would be willing to perhaps listen to their input or give them what they were looking for. But in the end, there isn't any kind of a real concession here that had to be made. The Republicans who had all of their issues raised ultimately in the end said, okay, I'm gonna get in line and get behind the President.
Monica, about the White House Hakakort on Capitol Hill. We thank you. Now turn to Christine Roman, the senior business correspondent who's been waiting so patiently. Christine, thank you for that.
As Monica noted. Well, first I want you to kind of take it back here and get a big picture here. As Monica noted, the President has been posting about this. He's been counting this as a pro growth piece of legislation.
Give us a reality check. What will the economic, economic impact of this legislation be? I mean, the benefits go predominantly to high earners and companies. You know, this 100A write off that so many businesses were really happy about and writing off research and development.
So the Treasury Secretary is saying just the, just the clarity for business that this has been resolved, this tax limbo hanging over them has been resolved and that will be explosive for the American economy. That's the position of the White House. Then you have the hospital industry, the health care industry, which, for example, today's job support showed another month of strong jobs creation. Hospitals have been really important for the economy, especially over the past 20 years or so.
They're gearing up for these big cuts that will affect them. And their perspective is this. You know, Medicaid is a check that goes into a poor person's pocket. It's money that goes to pay a lab tech, a janitor, a doctor, a nurse, a hospital.
And so they're really concerned about that's going to mean overall for the economy. And Christine, first of all, the markets did very well. That's what the White House is saying. We also, as you said, we got the latest jobs report.
The U.S. adding 147,000 jobs in the month of June, unemployment falling to 4.1%. You touched on this a little bit. But what should we make of those numbers?
You know, it's still a resilient job market. And that's, it's been remarkable. This is the job market you haven't been able to count down in the past three or four years. But you look under the hood, you can see half of that job creation was from state and local governments.
You had federal jobs lost or just the tip of the spirit of probably those doge cuts starting to affect that. And so that's pretty, that's not sustainable when so much the job creatures not the private sector, but state, local, state, local government. So we're gonna watch that really, really closely here. And again, you've got more deadlines, trade deadlines, lines looming, but still waiting for some clarity.
But stocks, stocks seem to think the president is not gonna put big tariffs on again. So we'll see. Maybe they're wrong. Yeah, certainly a lot to watch.
And not to mention that. Why not talk more about that? The President's July 9 tariff deadline is also. That's next week.
Hard to believe, but what could that mean for businesses and consumers? I know with Vietnam, but are we expecting more? Well, we need more details too, as you know. I mean, the President puts in social media, posts, progress, but we haven't seen this stuff paired up yet.
Right. So that's what we're really kind of waiting for. And the Treasury Secretary keeps saying that, look, if you're not negotiating good faith, you could have a big tariff put on you on July 9th. But clearly, clearly business and markets don't, don't want that.
The question is, how much progress are they really making? And will, will these tariff rates change. You know, if you're a business owner and you're getting ready for the big holiday shopping season, you still don't know for sure what your tariff rates are going to be, what the costs are going to be at the at the borders and the ports come October 1st. And so that the worry is that has that SRD has a chilling effect on hiring the weeks and months ahead.
Our senior business correspondent, Christine Romans, thank you so much. And coming up, Democrats prepare for the political battle ahead as the president's mega bill is about to become law. I'm joined by top House Democrats that unpack the Democratic response and strategy here. Plus, an agenda unleashed for the bill's passing and other recent victories for the White House say about the president's power, influence and what comes next.
You're watching BEAT THE PRESS now. Stay with us. And welcome back. As we've been discussing, it's been quite a day on Capitol Hill.
Let's turn now to one of the members who cast the vote. Joining me now is California Democratic Congressman Robert Garcia. He is the newly minted ranking member on the House Oversight Committee. Congressman, thank you so much for joining us.
Look, Congressman Hakeem Jeffries directly tied today's vote to next year's midterm elections using the term Project 2020. Do you see things the same way? I think the leader is absolutely right. I mean, first, this bill is horrific for the American public.
And certainly it is crazy that you would have Republicans in competitive districts voting to rip away health care, rip away food assistance so they can give huge tax breaks to billionaires. And so I think that Republicans deal with on the table, they're going to harm the American public and there will be consequences for that. I think one way that we can stop this Trump agenda is surely going back to majority in 2026. Congressman, you brought up healthcare.
President Trump is saying that the Medicaid changes aren't really cuts and that this bill will merely preserve Medicaid for folks who really need it. You know, he has a pretty big megaphone, obviously, as president. Are you concerned that it's just going to be louder than yours? Well, the president always has the loudest megaphone.
We know that already. But we're going to be out there campaigning across the country. We're going to be going town halls. We're going to spam a lot of migrate, going to Republican districts that have been doing and communicating how harmful this bill actually is.
And it's not just us saying it. It's the independent analysis, the commercial budget office. It's governors, including governors in red states, that are actually saying don't actually harm Medicaid. And so we know that health care can be impacted not just by the loss of Medicaid, but also the impacts to Obamacare.
And it goes beyond that. It's not just that. It's also the food assistance. You can actually have school districts across the country having to make decisions because of cuts and funding, but the type of food assists they give to the kids.
And look, last November, the economy and cost of living overshadowed pretty much every other campaign issue. Why are you so sure that Medicaid cuts will move the needle more than tax cuts? We know that people in this country rely on their health care and that Medicaid is a lifesaver for so many things. If you yourself aren't on Medicaid, then you have a family member, you have a parent or a grandparent.
So it touches every family across this country. So it's critically important. But it's not just about Medicaid. It's why is that actual cut happening?
It's because there's this transfer of wealth from the middle class and working class families that's about to go to the richest people in this country to billionaires and millionaires are receiving permanent tax cuts in this bill. And so it's important the American public know why the cuts are happening and who's actually better. Congressman, I want to play what Speaker Johnson said on the floor earlier today about the social safety net. Pregnant women, children, seniors, single mothers, the disabled and the low income Americans among us receiving Medicaid and snap.
We have the peace of mind of knowing that we've made these safety nets stronger with our reform. We're going to make sure that Americans who do need and deserve those critical programs won't have to compete against people who can work but choose not to do so. That's not right. Congressman, what's your reaction to that?
I mean, those are just lies. If you talk to anyone that's been in the hall of Congress trying to lobby and meet with public lawmakers, people with disabilities, folks in wheelchairs, sick seniors, people that are dependent on their health care, like veterans across this country, they would tell you that they are going to be impacted and that their dependence on programs like snap, for example, in food assistance is critical to them surviving. Let's be clear. This bill removes millions of dollars from food assistance.
Millions of states, raging states, each state can move tens of millions of dollars. And you think about impact across the country, you look at the actual raw numbers the estimates, and this is, by the way, independent analysis. It's somewhere between 16 and 17 million people that could lose these benefits and healthcare. And so it's really serious.
And I think it's truly forces the speaker by making up his own passive figures. A lot of the American public, and I want to switch now to the topic of immigration. Republicans, a lot of them have been presenting what's in this bill as a national security issue. And according to a recent NBC News poll, 51% of Americans do approve of President Trump's handling of the border and immigration.
That's an embassy News decision. Best poll. Is that something that you and Democrats really want to be against? Well, obviously some polls where the president also underwater immigration issues.
But at the end of the day, what this bill also does is it supercharges isis, doubles essentially the funding. Look, if you take the budgets of, like the FBI, for example, another agency, logistics, intelligence agencies, and you combine them all together, that budget is actually not going to be less than the new budget for ICE is going to be. So the idea ICE is going to have more resources than the FBI is crazy. And why?
So we can deport and arrest people without criminal records. We can deport united citizens so we can ensure what people don't have due process in this country so that Donald Trump can implement his immigration agenda. I think it's really shameful that we're in this direction and in a moment where we know that about 60% of folks are being apprehended, have not been convicted of anything. Actually, I think ice, more money is just being more terror in our communities.
So your colleague Susan Dubini told us that she believes that the more people learn about this bill, the more they oppose it. Is that a major obstacle for you? A recent Fox News poll said that fewer than one in five registered voters say that they have a good understanding of what's in this bill. So are you just having a tough time getting people to tune in at this point?
Obviously, a lot of competing information for folks out there. We know that people are receiving information in a lot of different ways. That's why we are going to spend the next few weeks and months ahead of us talking about how horrific this action was by the Republicans and Donald Trump. We're going to spend a large part of our congressional recess.
I certainly will be in Republican districts talking to voters directly and asking folks like Data Valdeo in California, in the Central Valley, why he would vote to cut Medicaid when he has more Medicaid recipients in his district than Any other district in the state of California, it's going to impact farm workers and day laborers and small business owners. Republicans have to be held accountable for their corruption and why they supporting this bill. Speaking of Republicans accountable, what about Democrats? And hear this.
Kyle Harris ran on extending the 2017 Trump tax cuts for those making under $400,000 a year. Why didn't we see Democrats put up their own counter legislation to this Trump mat? At least it's a messaging tool. I mean, we weren't happy to have worked with Republicans on any part of this bill, but they had no interest.
They slammed it through the Senate, they slammed it through the House. And they made it clear on day one that they weren't actually interested in actual tax cuts for middle class families or low income families. They were interested by making permanent tax cuts for billionaires and millionaires. That was their focus on day one.
They had no interest in bipartisanship. And on top of that, they made ICE even more larger than terrorized communities. They took away Healthcare from 60 to 70 million people. They removed Buddhist systems.
And so they did not work with us. We could actually work together to make this bill better. And they chose not to do so. And Congressman, you are the newly minted monkey member of the House Oversight Committee.
If Democrats do take control of the House, what would your plans be? Well, I think oversight is obviously the harder Congress does. We're focused on accountability and transparency. There's two main things.
One, we are going to hold Donald Trump, his corruption and the corruption of those who are trying to harm the American public accountable. We think about this foreign claim and this crypto scheme he throws enriching himself and his family and his foreign investment deals. That's got to be investigated. It's got to be accountability.
And at the same time, we've got to rebuild our government and our agencies post doge. That is not government efficiency. We can actually work to make government work better for the public. That's the mission of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
And we look forward that we're ahead. Representative Robert G. Of California. Congressman, thank you so much for your time.
Thank you. Answering now to note the breaking news out of the White House today. The president announcing on social media this morning that he would be speaking with Russian President Vladimir Putin at 10am but as of this moment, the White House has not provided what's known as a readout from that conversation. The Kremlin described the call as a frank and substantive discussion.
According to the Kremlin, Putin told President Trump that Russia will not step back from its goals in Ukraine, but was still interested in negotiating an end to the war comes just days after the Pentagon announced it was pausing a weapon shipment to Ukraine, citing concerns over the US Military's stockpiles. It also comes as Russia's intensifying its offensive against Ukraine, conducting some of the largest attacks since the war began more than three years ago. Next, President Trump is on something of a winning streak. My panel joins me to break down the political outlook and potential warning signs for both parties ahead.
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Visit today.comxfinity for full offer terms and details. Welcome back. Today's House vote on president's agenda bill caps a pretty good couple weeks for President Trump, starting with those US Military strikes on Iran's nuclear program with minimal retaliation from Tehran. The president also getting a boost from a major Supreme Court victory, placing new restrictions on the judiciary branch's ability to check his power.
And there have been some hopeful signs economically for the White House as well, including the framework of a trade deal with a key trading partner, Vietnam, in addition to a jobs report that showed continued resiliency in the US labor market. For more on all that, I'm joined now by the panel. Francesca Chambers, White House correspondent for USA TODAY Don Edwards, former Democratic congresswoman from Maryland and now an NBC News political analyst and Lance Trover, Republican strategist who served as a spokesman for Doug Bergen's presidential campaign. Thank you all so much for joining me.
Francesca, I want to start with you. So is there any doubt that President Trump simply owns a Republican Party right now? Well, and don't hear too much right, we were talking about this during the break. We talked about how in the Senate, Thom Tillis was one of the only holdouts on this bill.
And then he promptly announced that he wasn't running for re election after President Trump said that he would try to find a primary challenger for him in North Carolina, you know, a very key state. And it really tells you where the Republican Party is at the time. Of course, Rand Paul was also a no, and then Collins were respected Fewer than there could have been. The vice president, a real opportunity for him to show what he brought to the ticket, what he brought to the White House and why many presidents choose to have former senators on the ticket clearly has all his power.
Did you ever think that this bill was not going to pass? At least for me it never really thought it wouldn't pass. Given his track record with Republicans. I wasn't sure what happened before July 4th.
How critical was that deadline you think for getting it passed? I think the date was in question. You all long had Ron Johnson saying, well I couldn't get to a yes on this. And you heard some other lawmakers who just wanted the president and the House leadership to make a deal with them on certain things.
They were concerned about whether it was Medicaid or was that cell cap. But to your point about the deadline, we've all been in this town long enough to know that without some sort of deadline and John Wayne, the Congress can't get things done. If they had pushed it all the way to the end of recess and we only get it done before August recess, you could have ran into a situation where that would have just rushed out on it. Lance would.
They just kept talking if there was a deadline here. I mean you'd have to be the deadline on that. I prefer the former conversation about all that. Yeah, absolutely.
I think we're looking at one of the most consequential six month time periods of any presidential term, certainly in my memory. And I think what also makes it more profound is it's the first six months of a second term president and what he has been initially done, this bill today is ginormous the tax package. But we saw happen with Iran. We've seen the job market holding up.
We've seen the border close. We've seen a number of executive orders which the Supreme Court last week, you know, basically said can go forward. This has been an incredible six months. I don't think they Democrats can deny, I mean what has been accomplished.
He has and as we mentioned in the introduction, he has got a lot of wins last couple weeks. But what about these Republicans? Just a few days ago we're arguing that deficit, this would blow up the deficit. There was going to be cuts to Medicaid.
How do you just turn around on a dime and vote for this today? Look, everybody's got concerns about the bill and we saw there are a number of issues. I mean the salt issue being one of them. We had the lawmakers like Mike Walder and Nicola Lo and others there Always are going to be issues that come right which are going to have to come together to pass the bill.
I'm with you. This thing's always in the past because failure was an option. The president had stakes so much on it. It was always going to get for Congress.
Donna, did the. How did Democrats play this? Well, I think very smartly. I think if you listen to.
I do. I think, I think if you listen to Hakeem Jeffrey's remarks during the course of that nine hours, you can see where Democrats are going in terms of laying down a marker for this bill. I think that they're going to pick, you know, a couple of issues, three or four issues that they're going to hammer on between now and November 2026. And I think that they're all gonna have to really stay on message and stamp in line.
I know this is something that gets complicated for my party, but I think it's gonna be really important because otherwise you're not gonna be able to communicate with the American people about what's in this bill and who gets hurt. Poor people, seniors, anybody who receives nutrition programs, they're all going to be hurt. Those are working class people who supported Donald Trump. He betrayed them in this legislation.
I mean, taking money out of the, out of the mouths or food out of the mouths of children in order to satisfy billionaires and give them tax cuts, that's not gonna go over well with the American people. And Democrats, though, we're gonna have to tell the story. Lance, what's the point of the Freedom Caucus right now? Again, I'm not here.
I'm not gonna pick and choose an attack. They've got their issues and they have stepped out. There are people who are in the governing majority who stepped out, but everybody got a little bit what they want. Everybody got things that they didn't want.
That's part of negotiation that works. And look, they get a big deal. I think Republicans have a lot to run on this bill. And you talk about the nrtta, they're going to go on offense and talk about the tax cuts versus the tax increases that the Democrats want.
No tax on overtime, no tax on tips. That's why they're really disagreeable with your working people. That is going to be huge in states like Nevada and other districts around countries of. Fine, then I'm going home.
And I'm counting all this positive stuff that's coming. Francesca, I want to put up some of our reporting. I'll let you follow up on that. But there's another point from our Friends at notice about a meeting the president had with moderate Republicans yesterday says that according to three sources of direct knowledge of the comments, the president told Republicans at this meeting there are three things Congress should not touch if they want to win elections.
Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security. But we're touching Medicaid in this bill. When number responded to Trump. According to the three sources, Trump may be immune to political blowback, but what about the Republican House members who are on the ballot?
Well, and senators as well. Those things that notice reported the president. That is consistently what President Trump said. He said publicly that he didn't think that Republicans should touch those things, including in the 2024 campaign.
But the thing that lawmakers had been worried about, as you correctly point out here, had been the Medicaid cuts. And of course, some were also concerned about the deficit spending as well. Now, as it pertains to whether or not this is always a done deal, you know, I think back to the president's press conference on Friday when I asked him about the bill and asked him what he was trying, what he was doing to try and get Republicans on board. And he said at one point, I think we're doing fine.
But he didn't sound super confident. And he made an appeal at that point to try and be like I will Democrats vote for this new we're just Spiderman out on this. Which I thought was so interesting at the time to try and put pressure on some. So maybe some Democrats.
We thought he did. And that signaled to me that he wasn't necessarily confident that they would get this over. The official Is he gonna have to go out and this I mean, we heard from colleague Margaret earlier that the speech is plenty of giving at the rally tonight in Iowa will focus on victory. What do you think you'll have to do in the coming months to be able to sell this to the American people?
Well, the delay itself was part of what the White House felt they needed to do to sell this to the American people in time for the internal election. They looked back to what Joe Biden did and felt like they needed more time than they had. The Democrats had had as long as the tax bill in his first administration that this helped to extend. They thought that there simply wasn't enough time.
So time itself is a large part of the argument here. Your old colleague Susan Delpene told us yesterday that she hopes the midterms will be a referendum on this package. King Jeffries today saying Talking about Project 2026, how big of a deal do you think this will be in next year's midterms. Well, I think it's going to factor really hugely.
I mean, first of all, you're not going to be able to sell to the American people that 12 million people are losing their health care coverage or sell to states that they're going to have to the difference. You're not gonna sell to the American people that children who need nutrition programs for breakfast and lunch are gonna be able to get that because they've lost the money in this, in this bill. And so again, I think it's gonna be really incumbent on Democrats to stick to message. Don't choose everything under the sun in this bill.
There's a lot of bad stuff in it. Pick out a handful of things and then run on those. Jessica, really quickly as we're running on time, we'll talk about, yes, the presidency. On winning street, there is something significant.
He has not had one on today he spoke with Vladimir Putin. We still don't know what's going on with the war in Ukraine. What do you make of that? Well, last week when he was at the NATO summit, he also acknowledged this has been more difficult than he once thought it would be to be able to solve this work.
He also said that he had some issues with Linz in the past. He was more focused on Vladimir Putin when he made that comment. At the time then we saw him speak against Putin. We don't know from the US Side what they discussed during that call.
As you noted before, the Russians saying that they reiterated their position. And Lance, I'll give you the last word, winning streak for the president. What would you like to see as his next one? I mean, I mean there's been so many in this.
Look, I think what you're going to see out of them, given the Supreme Court decision last week, I think you're gonna see more executive orders coming on, issues like gender affirming care and these universities and where they've been stepping out of line, at least according to the administration. Alright, Lance, Donna Francesca, thank you so much for joining me here on the panel. Really appreciate it. Snap the break.
An inside look at the swampland migrant detention facility dubbed by its supporters as allocated arctres. And what the acting ICE director had to say about humanitarian concerns about the facility only come back. You're WATCHING me, the press now. Welcome back.
Turning now to several developing stories surrounding the Trump administration's immigration crackdown. First, in a potential setback for the White House, a federal judge is blocking the administration's asylum ban at the US Southern border The judge ruled late yesterday that the president exceeded his authority by issuing a proclamation declaring illegal immigration and emergency and blocking all migrants from claiming asylum or other protections. The judge says it would delay the effect of date of his over 14 days to allow the Trump administration to appeal, which the White House says it will do. And that ruling came as migrants began arriving yesterday at the controversial new detention center known as Alligator Alcatraz.
The facility, on the side of an old airport in Florida Everglades, was built in just eight dates and is surrounded by swampland inhabited by alligators, snakes and otherwise life. I toured the center with acting ICE director Todd Lyons, who told me his agency does not intend on keeping detainees there for more than two weeks. Who is going to be on these best? Is it going to be the worst of the worst?
Is it going to be people in Florida or all across the country? So right now we're focused on the state of Florida. Anyone that our 287G partners encounter. If someone is here and the criminality is really bad, we'll use this as a staging to go on our longer term detention facilities.
But again, we want to focus on those individuals that have the opportunity to sell people. But each one, each case, the house table be looked at individually. Is the administration still going after the worst of the worst? We are, we are.
Like I said, that's my commitment is that we are still going after the worst of worse. But like any law enforcement agency, if we do encounter someone on the outside or through the course of no law enforcement investigation, we do come across people that are just irregularly, we will no longer turn blind. I also press them on humanitarian concerns about the conditions there. What do you say to critics who argue that this is inhumane?
You know, what I would say is that I overall, compared to all the other agencies that detain individuals, we have the highest detention standards out of any law enforcement. So we ensure that people are detained, you know, humanely, that they have medical care, they have access to their, the legal services while they're here, religious services. But what I would say is, you know, things like this are necessary because there are so many individuals that have seen an immigration judge that have been ordered roof in the United States. And you know, like I said, we want to ensure that we will be able back in a safe human manner, but we want you to do it quickly, you know, not only like I said, but just for cost saving our government.
And as ISIS acting director defends the conditions at his new facility in Florida, attorneys for Kilmar Abrego Garcia are describing both physical and psychological torture they say their clients suffered while being held at a notorious mega prison in El Salvador. In a court filing yesterday, attorneys say Abrego Garcia, quote, faced mistreatment, quote, including but not limited to severe beating, severe sleep deprivation, inadequate nutrition and psychological torture, and he suffered a significant deterioration in his physical condition and lost approximately 31 pounds, adding that he was deported to El Salvador in March. Grego Garcia was deported in March. The Supreme Court ruled in April that his removal was illegal and ordered the Trump administration to facilitate his return, which eventually happened last month.
Month. He now faces federal criminal charges. In yesterday's filings, his attorneys argued that the federal government's treatment of him was illegal and violated his Fifth Amendment right to due process. Instead of come HHS Secretary ROBERT F.
Kennedy jr's brand new vaccine advisory panel met for the first time last week and they're signaling big changes are coming. But that could be for America's health when we return. You're watching BEAT THE PRESS now. Welcome back.
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. A longtime peddler misinformation surrounding vaccine safety has been moving to reshape U.S. vaccine policy, raising alarm within much of the medical community.
According to new reports, the FDA's top vaccine official moved last month to limit the use of two Covid vaccines that had been approved, approved, overruling recommendations by agency medical experts who plan to approve the shots for everyone 12 and older. It all comes after the new members of the CDC's vaccine advisory committee who were handpicked by Secretary Kennedy after he brought the fire. All 17 of its previous members met for the first time last week. Among the agenda items was a presentation by a Kennedy ally on a debunked claim that a mercury based preservative which has been removed from nearly all U.S.
vaccines had links to autism. The committee also announced it would take a look at the childhood vaccine schedule and scrutinize vaccines that have been approved for decades. Joining me now is Dr. Paul Offit, Director of the Vaccine Education center, the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, and the former member of the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.
Doctor, thank you so much for joining us here at the Press. Now you've served on an advisory panel. So how unusual is it for a CDC or an FDA official to overrule the advice of the committee? And how concerned are you that medical professionals are getting left out of the policy making process of all this?
Well, I think anti vaccine activists have for decades been shouting from the sidelines now they're making policy. Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Eliminated the 17 people on the ACIP Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices that had the kind of expertise and experience that we needed to get good decision making.
Now he's replaced them with people who are like him, science denialists and anti vaccine activists and to some extent conspiracy theorists. So now you're going to see an erosion of vaccine using this country as he gets what he wants. RSK Jr which is to make vaccines less available, less affordable and more fear. It's a dangerous time.
And doctor, I want to turn to the childhood vaccine schedule that we mentioned. What do parents need to know if the CDC decides to make changes? Well, the good news is there are sort of these parallel advisory committees like the American Academy Pediatrics national foundation with Experiencies have now formed together and are working with insurance companies to make sure that if the current acip, which is really an anti vaccine Committee on Immunization Practices makes bad recommendations, that at least you can turn to them and insurance companies will cover vaccines that they recommend even if the ACIP doesn't. So I think that's good.
What worries me is that the CDC is also being eroded and there are people who quit the CDC because they feel that their data are being misrepresented or suppressed. Where can parents go if they're looking for other resources about vaccine safety and what vaccines their children should be getting? I think the trusted doctor and healthcare professional, I think that they will be able to get the kind of information that they need to make the decisions because for the most part right now the medical and scientific community are ignoring the ACIP as they should because have made a terrible decision last time on this influenza vaccine containing climate. That was an anti science decision.
And the person who did the presentation was an anti vaccine activist who gave that presentation without ever having her presentation reviewed by subject matter experts. And are you surprised by how quickly how sweeping these changes have been the US vaccine policy and guardrails are in place to prevent the whole system from unraveling? Yes, I think Robert Kennedy Jr. Has got what he wanted.
He's an anti vaccine activist who's now taken over the system. And what worries me is what happened recently with the Global Alliance Vaccine Initiative. So this is a global alliance where the United States participates and roughly a billion children have been vaccinated through this program worldwide. There's probably say 20 million lives.
And he just withdrew from that program, which tells you it's perfectly willing to let children not be vaccinated in this world. And I think it's perfectly willing for children not to be vaccinated in this country. Country. How easily could a future HHS secretary or another administration reinstate some of the policies that Secretary Kennedy has rolled back?
I think that can happen. I do. I think that if things get bad enough and we do what we need to do, which is to ask ROBERT F. Kennedy jr.
To step down from this position, I do think we can put in place an advisory committee for administration practicing and read this and say a lot of what's been lost at the CDC to get this back again. I do. And doctor, there are still vacancies at the CDC's vaccine advisor panel. What will you be watching for as those positions get filled?
Well, you'd like to think that they would bring on people who actually go with the good science instead of this sort of anti vaccine activism that's going on. And you'd like to think that's true. But you know, what really has to happen is there are six members of that committee who would never pass a confirmation and they shouldn't be there, there. And doctor, just big picture for us, how concerned are you that future vaccine advisory committees will lose credibility?
Well, it's sad it's become partisan to the extent it has. Public policy is always to some extent political because it depends on resources. But it does have to be partisan. I think that we will regain our senses and put things back in place fairly quickly.
I do believe that for right now, it's going to be a rough time. Dr. Offit, thank you so much for your time, sir. Thank you and thank you for watching.
We'll be back Monday with more MEET the PRESS Now. And if it's Sunday, it's a special edition of Beat the Press featuring Kristen's Meet the Moment interviews with actress Olivia Munn, legendary broadcaster Bob Costas Khan, Academy founder Saul Khan, and poet Amanda Gorman. Don't miss it. NBC News now coverage continues with Tom Costello in for Hallie Jackson right now.
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