Meet the Press NOW — July 4

If it's Thursday. And independents gave me a call from President Biden as he speaks out in his first interview since last week's debate, admitting, quote, I screwed up, but rejecting calls to step aside. Plus, climate fireworks as hurricane barrel cuts a path of destruction in Jamaica and heads for Texas while a brutal life threatening heat wave bakes the West. And reborn on the fourth of July, Britain's head of the polls in a historic election that could deliver a landslide win for the labor party after 14 tournament years of conservative rule.

Welcome to MEET the press. Now I'm Davey Tears in Washington and happy Independence Day. We're wherever you're watching us. It's now been one week since his first debate with former President Donald Trump, and President Biden is still struggling with the aftermath of his performance that has many in his own party urging him to end his campaign in favor of someone who might have a better chance of winning.

Miami News colleagues report that President Biden has been torn between acceptance and defiance in the face of the massive shift that's occurring in the Democratic Party. In some conversations, he's acknowledged that the blowback from his debate performance may be too much overcome, while at other times he's been dismissive of any notion that he would end his re election campaign. Here's how he tried to explain his performance in a radio interview recorded yesterday. I had a bad night, had a bad night and the fact of the matter is that, you know, it was, I screwed up, I made a mistake and but I learned from my father, when you get knocked down, just get back up, get back up.

I was in a situation where why I didn't have a good debate. That's 90 minutes on stage. Look what I've done in 3.5 years. NBC News reports on Members of the president's family, particularly the first lady and his son Hunter, are urging him to shake up his campaign staff to ride the ship.

After talking to top congressional Democrats yesterday, the president met with nearly every Democratic governor either in person or virtually to express his determination to remain in the race. Outside the meeting, the governor's tried to show a united front. President Joe Biden is in it to win it and all of a sudden inflates our support to him because the stakes could not be higher. A path to victory in November is the number one priority.

And that's the number one priority of the president. So that's what we're trying to get done. The feedback was good. The conversation was honest and open.

And the actions that will come out of that will make sure that we're getting that message. Deal. And I think we came in, we were honest about the feedback we were getting. We were honest about the concern hearing from people.

And we're also honest about the fact that as the president continued to tell us and show us that he was all in, that we said that we would stand with him because as Governor Walt said, the president has always had our backs. We're going to have his back as well. However, some reporting indicates that those public pronouncements are just part of the story. According to the New York Times, more than a half dozen governors expressed concerns in the meeting about Biden's performance.

And political reports that Maine Governor Janet Mills and New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham worried that President Biden could lose their historically blue leading states this November. So join me now, NBC's Monica Alba the White House. And with me here on set is NBC's Julie Circuit. She covers Capitol Hill for us.

Thank you both so much for being here. Mark, I want to start with you. The headline on our website reads, Biden privately remains torn between defiance and acceptance. And it calls to set aside.

Done some great reporting on this. Take us inside the White House. What do you know? Well, we know, Gabe, that there are really a series of conversations that are taking place here with the president consulting aides, allies, family members about that disastrous debate performance.

And then some of those discussions, he appears pretty defiant, saying there's no way I'm leaving this race. I'm completely committed to it. And then others, he does concede, according to our reporting, that the blowback from what we saw on stage in Atlanta just may be too great simply to overcome. And so we know that right now, the campaign, the White House, the president himself, publicly, they are all projecting this public confidence that they are not changing course.

But again, privately, there is this acknowledgment and concession that what happened was so brave and so serious that even the president is sort of vacillating between these two camps and he's even raising questions, according to some of the sources that we spoke to, his inner circle, his family members, those who are closest to him, have wondered whether there need to be some staffing changes as a result as well. So that really just shows you how intense this last week has been for the president, even though he is trying to again, let people know that he wants to stay and be the Democratic nominee. Certainly some tough conversations going on, Monica. So how you can clear something out for us?

The press secretary, Jean Pierre, she told us yesterday that the president had not had any medical exams since February. And the president told us he had a checkup or told the governors he had a checkup for his cold after the debate. So why discrepancy here? Yeah, there is just a clear contradiction.

That's what it is that we have to call out here. Yesterday the White House press secretary said that at no point did President Biden get checked out by a doctor after the debate, despite their confession that he had a cold. And then just hours later, the president in a meeting with about 20 Democratic governors, when he was asked whether he had seen a doctor since the debate, he told them, according to people in the room, yeah, I was checked out by my doctor and I'm fine. These people said.

So he said that in the White House this morning in a statement confirmed that indeed he was visited by his personal physician, which shouldn't surprise anybody because any president, any administration, it's normal for that doctor to be traveling with him, to be with him day in and day out and that he could consult him for anything from as minor to a cold, anything more serious event needed to be addressed. You know, Monica, this afternoon we're getting some reports that the president may have told governors that he was looking for a lighter schedule or shouldn't work after 8pm what can you tell us about that? What have you been able to find out? Yeah, and thanks to my colleague Julie, who's on set with you, we were able to confirm this, according to people familiar with the president's comments that he did mention to governors that he would like to find more time to get more sleep, to rest, essentially.

And one way he suggested doing that would be to limit participating events after 8:00pm now, we just heard from California Governor Gavin Newsom, who was doing a gavel with reporters who broadly seemed to confirm the comments, at least generally. But Governor Newsom said that he took them a little bit more in jest and that he said, quote, he didn't think the president meant a literal 8pm bedtime. It was more figurative and that maybe some things would be trending toward that because the president had had that really jam packed early June with those foreign travels to France and to Italy that had been taxing and clearly had involved a lot of events that went outside the bounds of normal business hours. But that is also just what really contributes to presidency, being the presidency, where things could happen at any time of day or night.

And that is certainly something that is raising some eyebrows because there have been a lot of questions about the president and where he is on this matter, particularly it seems he even was bringing it up to those allies and governors last night. Yeah, that comment's only getting a lot of attention about the White House. Thank you so much. I'm joining now.

I should be circ. And Julie, you know, you cover the Hill for us. And House Democrats had me in yesterday talking about the state of the Biden campaign. What do we know about that?

JK this was leadership. This was House Democratic leadership. I checked in with sources before and after. They wouldn't even confirm to me that this was the agenda item they were talking about, although it was pretty obvious.

With the House out session for a week after the July 4th holiday days after the debate, you have several three members going rogue calling on President Biden to step aside. This is something leadership among House Democrats wants to get a hold of, but certainly this is something they're concerned about. And sources that I spoke to in other leadership positions told me that they had no advance warning. They were surprised when some of their colleagues came out and called on the president to step out of this race.

As someone says hello so frequently, were you surprised earlier this week and Clyburn, his comments, Nancy Pelosi, you know, early earlier in the week, some of their comments raised some eyebrows. Is the leadership really worried here? I mean, absolutely. There's no doubt about it.

There was also some gruntling behind the scenes of why it took the White House, why it took the president as long as it did to outreach to Democratic leadership, to Schumer, to Leader Jeffries, to all those who have his back, even now through this week, throughout the day, performance that he had and certainly they can't control, especially those frontline members, those vulnerable members. But what's interesting to me, Gabe, is that's not who you're hearing from here. Right. You're mostly hearing from those who are veterans of the House, who feel safe in their seats, who feel like they have to stick up for some of their vulnerable colleagues who are nervous now to have the ticket to take them down really quickly.

Before I let you go, there's some reporting flying out there on Politico, have one number, Reuters or another, how many House Democrats, maybe you're signing some sort of letter asking President Biden to leave his campaign. What's the lazy you're hearing on that? How many House Democrats are really on board with that or many of them waiting a couple more days before sight? I think the interview that President Biden is going to have with ABC tomorrow night is definitely a litmus test that many Democrats I spoke to are waiting for there's the other piece of this one Democratic lawmaker I spoke to, they said, look, I'm in text chains.

Not a single person agrees that the president should stay in this race. What they are concerned about is pushing too much on Biden, someone they support to get out of this race, whenever president resolved to stay in. So this is really a decision that the president has to make. They're waiting for him to make.

Julie Cuckner, Capita Hill correspondent, thank you so much. And joining me now for some political Insight on the 4th of July is former Florida Republican Congressman Carlos Cabello. He's now NBC News political analyst, of course, and former Alabama Democratic Senator Doug Jones. Gentlemen, thank you so much for being here on Fourth of July.

Happy Fourth. And Doug, I want to start with you. The only person that decides that he will run or stay in the race or not, of course, is the president. We've seen some rough polling and some calls from pundits he respects for him to step down.

Just talking about what the situation is over on Capitol Hill here with Julie. How critical is that interview tomorrow? Tomorrow and also his travel over the next couple days? Well, you know, look, I think the travel's gonna be more important than the interview.

I'm not one to really think that the interview will make an awful lot of difference. It may ease some concerns. It may do the opposite. I don't know.

But I'm glad he's doing it. Don't get me wrong. I'm glad he's doing it. But I've said all week I believe the president at the right time has got to get out there in the public.

It's not an interview situation that is going to reassure Democrats. It's gonna be getting out there with voters. It's getting out there without a strip. It'll be doing town halls or campaign events like he did in North Carolina.

That's where the real rubber meets the road, I think. And you know, look, I've seen polling. I've heard about the polling. But the fact of the matter is I think a lot of that polling is based on the news coverage and Democrats who can't keep their mouth shut off the record a little bit.

It's just been really frustrating to listen to the media and the Democrats who are saying one thing and really affecting these polls a little bit and not giving the president the space he needs. So, Doug, you think that the travel is I hear you on that. President Biden is very good, one on one with constituents and that's in his element. However, what some People are worried about here, some of his critics, also some Democrats, is that he's not doing so well these days without a teleprompter.

So, you know, he's gonna go to this rally tomorrow in Madison. I will be there. And then this weekend, he also go to another Pennsylvania. But you're talking about unscripted.

That's probably why a lot of people are looking at this interview with George Stephanopoulos, that it will be unscripted, and that's what got him into trouble last week. Yeah, but look, and I agree with that. I think that the interview can be important for sure. But I do think that he has to get out there with voters.

Voters have to see him, voters have to hear him. If it's a teleprompter, fine. If it's not a teleprompter, fine. He just gotta get out there.

That's what's going to get people, I think, reassured that he has got what it takes now and in the future to be president. I think he can do that. There is no doubt in my mind that he can do that. But I think he's got to get that and try to assume not only his Democratic colleagues, but the public.

And if he can do that, we go forward. If we can't, I trust Joe Biden's judgment to make the right decision. Always have for a long, long time. You know, Carlos, I want to turn to you.

I'm certainly not comparing the candidates directly. I'm just kind of big picture. I'm curious what your responses would be. The stimulus is, of course, different, but there are at least some similarities in terms of the potential chaos here to what Republicans faced back in 2016.

Back then, a large chunk of the party wanted to change nominees. We're not quite there yet, but people in power aren't budging here. Trump, though, in 2016, he powered through it and he won. Does this feel similar to you?

Yeah. I mean, these are different circumstances. Sure. There's a major element of chaos and instability.

Republicans won through it in 2016, and now you have Democrats going through it today. The difference here is the number. 75%. About 75% of Americans do not believe that President Biden has the mental capacity, the mental fitness to serve another four years.

So I really do think Democrats have two choices here. Stick with Joe Biden and almost certainly lose to Donald Trump or give someone else, probably Vice President Harris, the opportunity to compete and to win. I think it'd be very difficult for any candidate to win a race with that many Americans. Thinking that they just can't do the job.

With Donald Trump, it was different in 2016. It was about his scandals. We know that the American people have different tolerance levels for scandal depending on the person. Donald Trump was able to get through that.

I don't think that Joe Biden can successfully get through this and win the race. And Carlos, I want to dig into the archives here. You are someone who ran as a Republican back in 2016 while not voting for Donald Trump. I want to play an ad you ran in your successful reelection campaign.

Is this or teaching our kids now? Politicians from both parties bragging about offensive crass behavior, degrading women, lies and corruption. This election doesn't need to be about them. It's about you.

I'm Carlos Cabello and I approve this message. Forget these politicians. This election is about you. Hard to believe it's been eight years.

Carlos, what advice would you give to Democrats who would be dealing with an unpopular leader at the top of the ticket? Well, you're already seeing some of these Democrats distance themselves from President Trump. Congressman golden in Maine recently stated that although he is voting for President Biden, that is, he thinks that Donald Trump is going to win the race. That is a swing district there.

I really do think that a lot of these Democrats and swing districts need to make their own identities, build their own identities, separate from President Biden here in the last few months and really separate from whoever a Democrats put up unless it's a very centrifugal candidate because in these districts they are poised to get punished. I was able to survive that. It was difficult. Donald Trump lost my district by, I think over by 16 points.

And I was able to survive it. But that's, that's very tough to do. Carlos Cabello, Doug Jones, Congressman center, thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciate it.

And coming up, it is election day for America's closest ally. And Britain's Conservative Party is bracing for a rough night after 14 tumultuous years in power. While the latest from London later this hour. But first, we're tracking extreme weather on this holiday from Hurricane Barrel's path through the Caribbean to the dangerous heat in the Western states.

Stay with us. You're watching me, the press now. Welcome back. Hurricane Barrel may be weakening, but it is still a very dangerous storm as it keeps carrying a deadly path through the Caribbean.

It's Now a Category 2 hurricane with 110 mile per hour winds. Forecasters expect Barrel to make a landfall in Mexico late this weekend or early next week before heading north Towards Texas Barrel is now being blamed for at least nine deaths in the Caribbean, including two in Jamaica. The storm has also left hundreds of Jamaicans without homes, forcing them to live in shelters. And I'm joined now by the mayor of Kingston, Jamaica, Andrew Schwabe.

Andrew. Mayor, thank you so much for joining us. This storm intensified quickly. It looked like it was heading right for Jamaica.

There have been at least two deaths in that country. Any death is tragic. But in your city, do you feel like you dodged a bullet? Could this have been worse?

I would just say that Jamaica believe that we are a God blessed country. We have dodge bullet in your words and we are thankful for that. But we have been damaged not to the extent that we were expected. The rural part of the Kingston sent angel which I happened to lead have just left in those areas and we have seen where we have a lot of landslides, fallen trees and the JRPA lines are done.

The municipality working with its partners, the Lightenbau Company to see how best we can restore situations quick as possible time. So is much of the damage concentrated in the southwest part of the island? Is that where you saw the worst winds? Yes, in the southwest part of the island have been devastated.

The farming community there is like the center of this bed which is how to consider a bread basket. While I can't give you an official situation because we have persons in the field and making assessment but from all reports it has said we have been damaged deficit in those areas over the coming weeks. What do you expect Jamaica will need in terms of assistance? In terms of assistance.

But firstly we need to get our communities back up and running in terms of cleaning up. And I have indicated the assessment have not been done. But clearly there will be a need to have the focus on getting our power supply back up. So if you that was one aspect and to make sure that we have water for our people.

Certainly water always a concern in these situations. Also communication. How is the communication with the southwest part of the island? Is there still cell phone working?

Cell phone towers are difficult to reach some of those residents that may have damaged their homes. I myself have been trying to reach my family that second and I'm not able to reach them because even that because some of the situations where our lines are dumb persons cannot be able to even simple thing as to charge their phones. So that's the situation. I'm sure by our to the telecommunications company will give you a contraindication of what the situation is and how long it will take them to restore back to normal.

You know, Mayor this is just still the first week of July. How concerned are you that Jamaica and Kingston in particular could be facing another major hurricane this season? Well, we are very much concerned. At one stage my understanding was that there was something else coming there.

So we are very much concerned. We have to make sure we educate our people to how to prepare for hurricanes. The fact that we haven't had a hurricane in close to about 40 years, it means that sometimes you have to re educate our people as to prepareness and the local authority will certainly, will certainly lead in this effort. Mayor Swaby, Mayor Tinkston, Jamaica, thank you so much for joining us here and I hope that you're able to communicate with your family that's having a trouble being reach right now.

I really appreciate it. Thank you very much. Before I leave, Happy independence to you. Thank you very much Mayor.

We appreciate it. Now I want to turn now to Michelle Grossman. She joins me now. Michelle, where is barrel right now and where's it heading?

Hi there Gabe. Great to see you. Well, right now we are looking at the location 130 miles west of Grand Cayman. So continues to pull away from the Cayman Islands.

Still a very strong hurricane. We're one mile per hour away from a major hurricane in Category 3, which it was just a few hours ago. We can do a category two. But still so close to category three.

It continues to move very quickly to the northwest at 18 miles per hour. This has been a fast moving storm and that's good news. You want it in and out of here. We're going to see out of here but it's going to take a few more days.

So as we go through our time here, here it is a Category 2 storm. It's going to move throughout the Caribbean and then it will impact the Yucatan Peninsula. That's why we have tropical colors all across the Yucatan Peninsula. So we go drive the way part today still a category two is encountering some wind shear and that kind of shades out the top.

It weakens the storms. We're going to see a weekend a little bit more. Then it will be landfall over the UK tamponan fly as a Category 1 storm early tomorrow morning. Category 1 across the Yucatan and then it's going to jump into the Golf, enter the Gulf and we're going to see as a tropical storm.

This is Saturday at 6am, Sunday at 6am so it's going to take a little time to get there and then notice what happens. Here's this cone of concerns. We need to take this all into account but we See a landfall most models are indicating somewhere in northern Mexico along the coast or southern Texas. Either way we're looking at impact into southern Texas with some rain, some high wind, some high surf, regardless of where it's going to end up.

Now all these lines here, they're called spaghetti models. Any sort of indicate what models are out there, what we think they're gonn. So a lot of the models are making that turn towards the right and seeing that landfall somewhere in southern Texas. This is something we're gonna be watching over the next several days.

And Michelle, much of countries also still dealing with that record breaking heat. And how long will that last? Oh, it's gonna last. This is a problem.

It's very prolonged. We have kind of two key stories here. So 130 million Americans under heat alerts, that is a lot in the west we're looking at dry heat, but we're looking at prolonged heat days and days through the weekend into early next week. A lot of these places not easy to temperatures this high, 5 to 25 degrees above, but it's normal for this time of year.

We're not getting the relief at night. The temperatures are staying up overnight. That's where we get the rest and recovery for our body. So we're not seeing that there.

Lots of heat alerts in the west. And then we look at the Southwest, a little different story here. We're looking at temperatures well above normal for this time of year. But we're also looking high humidity.

So that's what we're dealing with, the heat index, what it feels like on our body. We're not able to cool off as quickly, so that's dangerous there as well. This is a setup ejection kind of dips in the middle here allows that cool air to come in, but it's high off to the east, it's high out to the west. So it's closing off any cold air from Canada and allowing that southerly flow in that warmer air, that hot air coming in.

So look at the west, we're looking at temperatures into the triple digits. Reading California 112. That is 15 degrees above normal. Same story.

And then look at the southwest. It's not just the triple digits in terms of the air temperature, it's the he and seas. Those are the orange boxes right next door to this. We're looking at 109.

That's what it feel like. That's what it feels like Today in Baton rouge, feeling like 1:13 in Memphis. Same stories we go throughout tomorrow. The middle country looking good.

As it sits a little lower but still high off to the west, off to the east, the road can triple digits once again. From Medford, Fresno, Phoenix, same stories. We head off to the west, 7 degrees above normal tomorrow in San Antonio. And then why did here K.

Because here's the big story too. It's not going anywhere. So we're going to see the same place DC over the next three days into the 90s. Back to you, Shell Grossman.

Busy 4th of July for you. Thank you so much for joining us. Thanks. And while some people can remain indoors during extreme heat on holidays like that, many people's jobs require them to be outside.

This week President Biden proposed new rules to protect 36 million American workers from extreme heat. Employers would be required to, among other things, provide shade and water as well as bricks during extreme heat. These climate fuel extreme weather events don't just affect people's lives, they also cost money, they hurt the economy and they have a significant negative psychological effect on people. Worker heat safety laws have already come under scrutiny from governors in red states.

A new law that took effect this week in Florida prohibits cities and counties from imposing their own heat protection rules on businesses. A law enacted in Texas last year also bars local regulations that include certain workplace standards. I'm joined now by Nazet Chacom, executive director of the Work Defense Project. Nazeth, thank you so much for joining us here on this holiday.

So what type of heat related protection should workers have? Yeah, our organization has been doing a lot of work in Texas for a long time to protect workers and we believe that it's critical that workers are allowed to at least receive rest rates every four hours to be able to rest from the heat and to be able to drink water. And as you mentioned, that's something that we have passed in the city of Austin and Dallas and was unfortunately eliminated by our governor last year with a bill that was passed. What do you make of the rules that President Biden proposed earlier this week?

Osha. I've been looking at this for a while, the Labor Department as well. Is that enough and do you think that that will make a difference here? I mean, those are rules are absolutely welcomed by organization in our community.

That's something that we have been advocating for as organization for many, many years. We see that as a right first step. But we also acknowledge that this action is still going to take a long time. OSHA is going to have to open up those proposed rules for comments and we hope that everyone will comment to make sure that we make those stronger but it's going to take years until it's implemented.

And so for us, it's a welcome step. But I think that our government needs to do more, both at the federal level and at the local level to make sure that workers are protected and that no one goes to work one day and unfortunately ends up not coming home. Because that's something that we've been seeing here in Texas due to extreme heat. Now, as you well know, industries for years have opposed these rules because they say it'd be difficult to implement them in different states or across the country and across different industries.

What do you make of that argument and what do you make of what we mentioned that some states are already trying to adopt rules to prevent these rules from taking effect. To us, it's just ridiculous. Like, I think that it's pretty easy to allow workers to take a breast break every four hours to go hydrate and drink water and no one should be dying. Like, the statistics are incredible.

From 2011 to 2021, over 400 workers died from heat related illness and a lot of them, over 30,000 got injured from heat related stress. So this is not something that we should be thinking about how difficult it is. We should be solutions oriented and really be thinking about what is the correct approach that we can take to make sure that workers are protected. And we know that the statistics are underreported.

There's many, many more people that have been injured due to heat illness in the job or how we can die. And our employers should be willing to do it. And we saw it. Austin was able to do it for many years.

Dallas was able to do it for many years. Employers were able to accommodate rest rates and different measures to prot. So you touched on this. You know, 2,300Americans died last year from heat related illnesses on the job.

But why is it so difficult to get an accurate tally of deaths from heat related illnesses? I mean, a lot of the times it's underreporting, it has to do with what's happening on the jobs. And something that I can tell you for us is that, you know, like a lot of the times our reports are not being included. In Texas, for example, we had someone that unfortunately lost his life, Mr.

Anthemo Ramirez, he was working at the Tesla Depot factory outside just right out of Austin in 2021 and he lost his life to heat illness. And that report was not included in the report that was submitted to the county. And so I think it's a lot of things that are happening where it's not being reported. And we want to make sure that OSHA is proposing those rules to ensure that we are getting accurate information about what's happening on the job sites to his workers.

This is Estracon. Thank you so much. And after the break, it has been a historic and controversial term of the suprem with rulings that could forever change American politics on the presidency. SCOTUS blogs.

Amy Howe joins me to break down the big decisions and their big consequences. They're watching me, the press now. Welcome back. Independence Day is a time to reflect on this country's values and our democracy.

So what better way to do that than to take a look at the historic Supreme Court term that just wrapped up earlier this week? This year, the justices issued some blockbuster rulings on everything from presidential immunity, abortion, gun rights, January 6th defendants, and the authority of federal agencies. So for more on this, I'm joined now by Amy Howe, reporter at SCOTUS blog. Amy, thank you so much for joining us on this Fourth of July.

You haven't been busy at all. So what were some of your biggest takeaways from this Supreme Court? This is a court that is very conservative. We heard discussion in previous terms about the idea that perhaps this was a 3:3 court with the court's three most conservative justices, Thomas Scorsese, Genolito, and then the three justices in the middle, Justice Amy Coney Barrett, Brett Kavanaugh and Chief Justice John Roberts, and then, of course, three liberal justices on the left.

But this was a court that was the big case is a 6:3 court with all of the conservatives voting together for the most part. And Amy, after overturning Roe, the court appeared to punt on the abortion issue for the most part this term. The pristine case, they said the plaintiffs didn't have standing and they also voted to dismiss the Idaho emergency abortion case. So should we expect these issues to come up again next year?

These issues could definitely return to the court, both of them. In the Idaho abortion case, this was a challenge brought by the Biden administration in the wake of the Dobbs decision. And this is a case in which there is a similar case out of Texas that could bubble up to the Supreme Court. The Idaho abortion case will go back to the lower courts.

And so that issue, too could bubble back up to the Supreme Court in those proceedings. Of course, this is an issue that if former President Trump were to take office, his Department of Justice could decide not to pursue it. And then the myth of pristine case. The Supreme Court did rule that the challengers in this case didn't have A legal right to sue known as standing.

But a couple of states are trying to continue the challenge in the lower courts. I mean, the court has also put itself in the middle of 2024 elections that issue that landmark ruling on presidential immunity. And that comes at a call for some justices to recuse themselves. And I wish struck, you know, just a couple of days ago, the Biden campaign almost seemed to, you know, attack the court.

I mean, not in those many words, but they really don't seem to have much confidence in the Supreme Court, a co equal branch of government. How much do you think that public trust is really eroded in the court? And how much do you think that's rattled the Chief Justice? So I do think there are polls on this.

This is not something that we need to guess about that public trust in the court is at historic lows. You know, frequently the Supreme Court will issue decisions and public perceptions of the Court will dip down. They often dip back up, either because it's important issues, new decisions, or people just focus on other things. But I think there's been a sustained focus on the Supreme Court in recent terms with all of these decisions coming out.

And I think it's on the one hand something that the Chief Justice, John Roberts is very concerned about. But on the other hand, the court is issuing these decisions and the chief justice is, to use a phra among equals. He only has one vote and he has been joining the Conservative majority, the Conservative supermajority on these issues. Amy Howe, reporter of SCOTUS flock.

Happy 4th. Thank you. And next we are live in London as voters in the UK go to polls where they're expected to send a resounding message to the current government. You're watching me Press now.

Stay with us. Talk about While Americans across the country are preparing their grills and getting ready for fireworks, voters in the UK are casting their ballots with polling stations set to close in less than 30 minutes. Remember back in May, while speaking in the rain, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak shocked the nation when he called for snap elections, kicking off a frantic six week campaign cycle. Sunak and the Conservative Party are deeply unpopular with the public.

And the recent polling in the UK projects a landslide victory from Gentlemen, ladies. And paving the way for the Left of Center party to return to 10 Downing street for the first time in 14 years. Joining me now from London, Zeny News International correspondent Ralph Sanchez Raph. Thank you so much for joining us on this Independence Day here in the US and what do you hear from voters today across the pond?

What do you know about the likely next prime minister and what would his relationship with either a Biden or Trump administration look like? So, Gabe, as you said, the polls close here about 15 minutes time. We're expecting to get exit polls then. And every indication we have is that the Progressive Labour Party is heading for a potentially landslide victory.

And that would mean the leader of that party, Keir Starmer, would become Britain's next prime minister. Tomorrow morning we'll walk through that famous black door of Downing Street. Now, Kierstar is a former prosecutor, a former human rights lawyer. He has been the leader of the Labour Party for the last four years, dragging it from his previous position on the far left back to the center grounds.

He is also a centrist on the international stage. He's a supporter of NATO, he's a supporter of Ukraine. Those are positions that potentially make him very compatible with President Biden, potentially less so with a second term. Donald Trump.

And we spoke earlier this week to both his campaign manager and to his biographer to get a sense of the man. Take a listen. Does Keir Starmer have what it takes to stand up to Donald Trump on the world stage? I think Keir Starmer will stand up for what he believes in when it comes to foreign policy.

Our support from NATO is the cornerstone of that would be. Mr. Led by his rather sort of quiet, sort of technocratic exterior, he has changed the Labour party in four years. President previously took 14 years to get their party back into place.

Now, Gabe, unlike the US Here in the UK there's no transition period between an election and a new government taking power. So assuming that Labour does win here, Summer will give his victory speech tonight. He'll sleep for a couple of hours. In the morning, he will head to Buckingham Palace.

Just down the road, he will meet King Charles and then he will immediately take up his post as the new prime minister of the United Kingdom. We've been talking here in the US About Democrats in disarray since the last general election in the UK though, in 2019. Since 2019, there have been three prime ministers. So quickly, if you can, how is the Conservative Party reacting to the turmoil from the past few years?

Yeah, again, voters here have been telling us consistently that they are just exhausted by the Conservative Party. It has presided over a period of just unprecedented chaos in this country since the 2016 Brexit referendum in the UK voted to leave the European Union. Since 2016, the Conservative Party is now on its fifth prime minister. And you'll remember that Boris Johnson was forced to resign from office after breaking his own COVID lockdown rules and attending legal parties here at Downing Street.

Never a dull moment in UK Politics, ranchers and London. Thank you so much. And meanwhile, back here in D.C. in just five days, Washington will host will play host the annual gallery of NATO leaders where the ongoing war in Ukraine and efforts to ensure long term support are expected to be a major focus.

President Zelensky once again will try to rally Western support for his country's war efforts and that includes a slew of meetings on Capitol Hill where he slated to meet with House Speaker Mike Johnson and Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries. It comes the support for Ukrainian Congress appears to be waning after took lawmakers more than six months the past the most recent foreign bill. Joining me now is Bill Taylor, former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine and vice president for Russia and Europe.

The US Institute of Peace. Ambassador, thank you so much for joining us. I want to start with Viktor Orban's visit to Ukraine earlier this week. What was your reaction to a Putin ally meeting?

ZELENSKY it's got to be a good thing that they're talking. It's just that it reflects Orban's new responsibilities, his temporary responsibilities as leader of the European Union. With those responsibilities and the EU is solidly supporting Ukraine. He had to be there.

He had to talk. So I think it's a good thing that they're talking. So there's some new reporting out there that during the NATO summit in D.C. next week that the alliance will offer a breach to Ukraine to NATO membership, essentially stationing a civilian official in Kyiv and having some sort of command as well in Germany.

What's your reaction to that? It's a good thing as well to demonstrate to the Ukrainians that they're on track on a bridge, that they are moving towards NATO membership. But is that going to be enough? Zelensky They've had a lot of conversations with President Zelensky.

He's not going to be surprised by this. He does want more. He wants to be a member. He recognizes himself that that's not going to happen while he's in a fight.

The membership itself, but the bridge to and concrete steps toward membership can happen. And NATO also appointed the outgoing Dutch prime minister as the next secretary general. What can we expect from him? More solid support for NATO unity, for more weapons to be pulling together to support the Ukrainians in their fight against the Russians.

He will be a strong proponent of NATO here in this city, in Washington as well as in Brussels. But how do you think he would deal with either the Trump Biden administration or Trump administration. Christian, he will say, I'm sure he'll deal with whoever the American people elect. And he recognizes the American people have strong support for both NATO and for Ukraine.

They say this over and over. They'll continue that that's what he'll be counting on for the next president. Meanwhile, Putin is meeting with Chinese President Xi for the second time in as many months or in several months, and he's attending some of Central Asian nations. What do you think will come out of that?

Probably not much. The Central Asian nations are kind of in the middle. The Chinese have been moving into Central Asia and that's made President Putin a little bit uncomfortable. So this discussion there will probably have some tensions in that, but by and large the focus is really going to be on Ukraine.

Speaking of the focus on Ukraine, Ambassador, we've spoken many times and we thank you for your expertise on Ukraine. Now that the headlines have moved elsewhere, where do you expect this war to go in months? And do you expect that the recent weapons that the US Is sending over there, do you think that make a difference? How do you see this playing out on the weapons?

It's already, they've already made a difference. The Russians took advantage of that lull, that pause that we caused, the United States caused in slowing down the support for Ukraine over the next six month period while we were dealing with that amendment by the supplemental. But where does it go? It depends a lot on us.

If we can provide, continue to provide that kind of support, then the Ukrainians will have the possibility of shooting deep into Russia and deep into occupied territory. Which will allow them to push the Russians back. Yeah, allow them to push Russians back, perhaps delay the war. But will it allow them to win?

Winning means getting the Russians out of their country. It doesn't have to happen immediately, it doesn't have to happen overnight or even militarily. It has to happen one way or the other to get the Russians out of that country. That.

But can he ever get the Russians out of the country? You know, speaking with, you know, President Zelensky, he doesn't, you know, he doesn't believe that Russia should be in Crimea yet. You know, they've been there now, you know, for a decade essentially. How does this war end without Ukraine giving up some territory at some point?

So the Russian stability ability to hold Crimea is actually at some risk. Now with the weapons weapon, long range missiles allows Ukrainians to make it very difficult for the Russians to stay in Crimea. They can take out that bridge, they can take out the land bridge that the Russians use to supply. They can make it very hard for the Russians in even in Crimea.

Sylvester, I want to ask you about some domestic politics that and how they're playing out on the world stage. Of course, we're dealing with the political fallout of President Biden's lackluster debate performance last week. How are our allies reacting to that and how are they dealing, watching what's going on here in the US with the uncertainty about how the elections can play out in the community? Elections are uncertain.

They know about elections. There are elections in Europe that are also going in different directions. They know how to deal with that. They also know that it's too soon to say anything about this coming election.

They also know, though, that the American people support Ukraine and NATO about the. Of course it's too soon about the election. But in terms of some of the concerns that we've been hearing from voters about potentially President Biden's age, his mental abilities or at least what many voters have been asking questions about following this debate, have you heard that from any allies and potentially dealing with the future Biden? I've certainly heard it from Ukrainians.

I got some calls over Ukraine. You've heard from Ukraine specifically about concerns about President Biden? Of course, of course. I mean, the Ukrainians follow our politics very closely.

Very closely. So they follow every debate, every pronouncement? Yes, they're concerned. They're concerned about the continued support from United States.

Continue support from the United States. But if I'm understanding you correctly, Ukrainians are also suggesting that they're concerned about President Biden's faculties. No, they're concerned about what this means for the continued support of Ukraine from the United States, no matter who's the president. Understood.

Thank you very much, Ambassador. We really appreciate your time and your expertise. Ambassador Taylor, thank you so much. And still ahead, I look at the wild history of political conventions.

You're watching MEET THE PRESS now. Welcome back. As you enjoy your Fourth of July gatherings and festivities today, the political world is just a few weeks away from its biggest party, also featuring a whole lot of red, white, Republican and Democratic conventions. In a new special, NBC News chief political analyst Chuck Todd takes a look at politics biggest spectacles and how they've changed over the years.

Here's a sneak peek. For most of American history, the primary process didn't play a big role in how we picked presidents. The convention picked the candidate. The delegates chose John W.

Davis of West Virginia. For the first 150 years of political conventions, that's all there was was conflict that could go to 103 battles. A healthy conflict, sometimes not. In 1952, Republicans nominated Dwight Eisenhower for president.

Two weeks later, Democrats met in Chicago without a clear nominee. Earlier in the year, President Harry Truman tried the lobby then Illinois Governor Adley Steven Stevenson to accept the nomination. And Truman asks him to be a successor. He wasn't sure he'd run again.

He said, why don't you run for the dark eye domination. And Stevenson turned down to know I'd rather run for reelection than scholar. In late July, the Democrats met in Chicago and Stevenson gave them a welcome speech that changed everything whether he wanted it to or not. Self criticism is the secret weapon of democracy.

Adlai Stevenson spoke in 1952, gave a great speech. So what this did was it created a groundswell for Stevenson to be nominated. And a year he did not want to run, thought he would lose. Turned out to be wrong.

He gave a glorious speech at which time the Democratic Party said let's nominate him. And that was the end of the game. We will never apologize for our leadership, for the great events of this critical century. All the way from Woodrow Wilson to Harry Troops.

This announcement came from Senator Kennedy not very long ago. The most famous example took place in 1960 when JFK shocked everyone and picked his primary rival Lyndon Baines Johnson as his running mate. That's a great story. I reached the conclusion it would be the best judgment of the convention to nominate Senator Lyndon B.

Johnson of Texas in the office of Vice President. There was no primary system to guarantee anybody the nomination. This was up for grabs. The one time where the delegates in that room decided Jack could be cold, calculating and think in terms of what works for him.

And so the morning of after he won the nomination for president, Jack Kennedy gets on the phone, calls up Lyndon Johnson says, I'll be up there at 10:30, let's talk. And then he walked into the room, they both the same Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles. And he offered him the Vice presidency. He offered it to him.

The motion is that the rules be suspended and that the honorable Lyndon Pete Johnson be declared the nominee for Vice President by acclamation. As many as favor, the motion will vote aye. And Kennedy had promised the nomination for Vice President to Stu Simon the night before. He had actually promised him.

Wow. So he got up and said, you know what? I'm looking at the electoral map. I Steve Konaki, he's going, here we go, look at the map.

And the map says, if you don't carry the south, you're losing. And that was the real purpose of the conventions and those the party might show up with different factions, but they would leave unified behind their ticket. And you can watch the entire Special tonight at 10:30 right here on News Now. And we're back tomorrow with more MEET THE Press.

Now. I'm David Pierre. And D.C. news now coverage continues with Hallie Jackson right now.

I'm Craig. Mel. Cheers. Cheers.

Cheers. I've always been a glass half full kind of guy, and now I'm talking to some people who look at the world that way, too. Some really fascinating folks who share their defining moments, their triumphs, their challenges, their stories, their fun and mechanical. So I hope you'll join me each week.

Who knows, you might just come away with your own glass half Full. Search Glass Half Full with Craig Melford for today on YouTube and wherever you get your podcast.