Meet the Press NOW — June 13

If his Thursday, former President Donald Trump returns to Capitol Hill the first time he's been there since his criminal conviction in the January 6th insurrection rallying Republicans in the House and sending around an anti-crime, anti-immigration, and anti-biden election message. Plus, President Biden signs a 10-year security pact with Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky at the G7 Italy, speaking reporters for the first time about his son's conviction on criminal gun charges. And the unanimous ruling from the Supreme Court, a major decision on a widely used abortion pill that can remain on the market, according to the court, at least for now, is a significant setback for anti-abortion advocates. But Democrats are arguing the ruling is not a win, it is only a warning about the abortion rights fight ahead.

Welcome to Meet the Press now, I'm Peter Alexander on What Was A Busy Day here in Washington. As the former President Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, made his first trip to the Capitol grounds, the Capitol complex, since the January 6th attack for his first meeting with Republican lawmakers since his criminal conviction. In the words of one of his top congressional allies, he was greeted with a quote, peck rally from Republicans. The former president started this day behind closed doors with House Republicans pitching a 2025 agenda of tariffs and deportations while also reportedly maligning the Justice Department to source in the room, tells NBC News that Mr.

Trump also called Milwaukee the site of the upcoming Republican National Committee Convention, horrible, and that it was overrun by crime. Republican lawmakers emerged from the meeting to drive home their supports of the former president. We are at 100% unified behind his candidacy and are ready to get to work on behalf of the American people. Anybody who thought that this president was going to be down after the sham trial, after that crooked trial that he we saw in New York, I think again, it's only given him even more energy.

After I fixed the country, he hit immigration, he hit crime, he hit, you know, all the hot points that this country's thinking about. It's a best speech I've ever heard. We believe we're going to win back the White House and the Senate and grow the House majority and when we do that, we will not waste a moment. After a closed-order discussion with the business leaders, Mr.

Trump met with Republican senators and said they are in lockstep with him all the way. We have great unity. We have great common sense. A lot of very smart people in this room and a lot of people that love our country, they love our country beyond just about all else.

This is an outstanding group of people. I'm with them 1,000%. There was me 1,000%. We agreed just about on everything and if there isn't, we work it out.

And I've had a really great relationship with just about everybody here, with everybody here, just about all of the senators and if it wasn't fantastic, it gets worked out. And we have one thing in mind and that's making our country great. Mr. Trump's visit comes as congressional Republicans are looking at ways to use their power to undermine his guilty verdict in Manhattan and to disrupt local and federal investigations tied to the former president.

A group of Senate Republicans led by Vice Presidential, J.D. Vance, have said that they will try to hold up presidential appointments in response to, quote, the current administration's persecution of President Donald Trump, political reports that Mr. Trump asked House Speaker Mike Johnson to find a way to, quote, overturn his Manhattan conviction. Of course, that was done in New York.

It was not a federal court proceeding. They also report that the speaker might be warming to the idea of trying to defund special counsel, Jack Smith, to thwart the criminal investigations of some in the Mr. Trump's mishandling and classified documents and his actions surrounding the January 6th insurrection. The riot we saw on Capitol Hill that day, joining me now from the latest on Capitol Hill is NBC's alley of Italian.

So let's pull back the curtain on some of those closed door meetings. What did they talk about inside? What was the mood like among Republicans and among the former president's team? He looked pretty good in terms of feeling good about the way things went.

And there was a lot of, a lot of positive talk about him from his closest allies. He seemed to and certainly the message for most Republicans coming out of this meeting, I would say the majority of them that I spoke to was, this is a party that gets unified and this is a party that wants to head into November with the full strength of every piece of the Republican base behind them. Certainly outside the House Republican conference this morning, you saw the enthusiasm that Congressman Ralph Norman and other Republicans used when talking about these remarks. They were really wide ranging.

Certainly this morning they began by giving him an early birthday celebration that then continued onto the Senate meetings as if every senator needed the chance to wish him a happy birthday and be part of the chorus, literally singing to the future nominee of the Republican party in advance of his birthday a few weeks from now. But the other topics that were covered were policy-based and it really felt like Trump was riffing on a whole range of things from abortion as a key issue in the election all the way through tax policy and also urging Republicans, especially those on the House side who had some trouble with keeping their speakers, to be nice to each other, trying to put some bad blood behind them. When you talk about putting bad blood behind them, Senator Mitch McConnell was at the meeting with the former president. It's the first time they've been in a room together in years.

The first time they've spoken since Trump left office, McConnell, you will remember Peter was blistering in his criticism of the former president for the role that he said Trump played morally on January 6th. That criticism is not something McConnell has backed away from since. He has been consistent in saying that he would support the nominee though as well. That explains a little bit of what we saw today behind the scenes, at least what brought McConnell into the fold again.

Yeah, of course, and it's striking as anything to give you a sense of what they were trying to accomplish with this visit. Notice that a New York Times photographer was invited into that room to capture that photo. In some way, they could sort of put out what they would like to have affected to be a press release to say, hey, look, we're all good here. We're all unified, as he says.

There were a lot of vice presidential hopefuls who were with the former president today. We saw J.D. Vance over his shoulder. Tim Scott was in the room.

I was struck by watching Ted Cruz, who had fought for the last presidential nomination against him who he attacked, repeatedly attacking his father and his family, sort of smiling along here. But what did you make of the vice presidential hopefuls there? This is exactly the image that Republicans wanted to come away from. Most of the members who are behind him right now are people who have been behind Trump consistently.

You don't, for example, see in that image, Congressman John Thune, who was critical and then ultimately endorsed Trump. You don't see Senator Mitch McConnell standing right next to him, but of course we did see them in the meeting, and that speaks to the larger unity message. In terms of the way that he talked about the vice presidential contenders, it was a lot of the same things we've heard him say publicly, only saying them now to the senator's faces and with all the senators who are being considered in the same room. I mean, you've got J.D.

Vance there rubbing shoulders with the other folks who are vying against him for that vice presidential position. I asked Senator Marco Rubio, who's one of those that's in contention, were there any head tilts or nods in this meeting about the VP? He said, no, it's not that kind of a meeting, but he also spoke to the larger stakes here when I said, what does it say that even McConnell was in this room today? He says, we're Republicans, we want to win, I mean, we work in politics, sort of saying the quiet part out loud here, but this is a moment for Republicans by and large to come together.

I do think we need to know there were two Republicans that were not in that room today, Senators Lisa Murkowski and Senator Susan Collins, consistent critics of the former president, and when I spoke with Murkowski today, she reiterated to me what she had told me back when she and North Nikki Haley, which is that she's not going to vote for Trump, she's not happy with the Republican or Democratic candidates, sort of leaves her without a home right now, politically. Yeah, like a good point there, and it was notable to also see Steve Dane standing side by side with the former president. He was relying on Mr. Trump as much as anybody to try to support some of the more mainstream ish as it were candidates as opposed to more conservative MAGA Republicans who they think could make life a lot more difficult for them, come the elections down ballot this fall.

Ali, thank you joining me now, my NBC News colleagues, Jonathan Allen, Dasha Burns, who of course follows the Trump campaign for us, former North Dakota Democratic Senator Heidi Heitkamp is with us. She is now a CNBC contributor and former Pennsylvania Republican Congressman Charlie Dent is at the table as well. Dr. Let me ask you, because this is what you do for a living, you were there, you talked a lot of folks ahead of time, you talked to them after as they exited the room right now, this was sort of the image that they wanted today, right?

The idea that, hey, we are all back together, despite all the divisions, you may have heard about this is the unified front, are they satisfied that that was accomplished here? Yeah, I mean, Unity was hammered over and over and over again, Representative Matt Gaetz said this was a pep rally for Trump, and that is pretty striking considering the last time he was on Capitol Hill was on January 6th, and you had people like Senator Tim Scott who, and Mike Pence has spoken, Vice President Mike Pence has spoken, there's an excerpt where he talks about how Scott was one of the first people he saw when he came out of, you know, that came out of where they were keeping him safe, and Scott said thank you and asked to pray with Mike Pence. Now, Tim Scott is on the short list for VP, right? And so this was really everyone coming together to say, this is our guy, and this might be the guy that helps us win elections, by the way, because if you look at polling right now, Trump is pulling better than most of the folks down ballot right now, not the same case for Biden.

I think that was another part of the Trump campaign, sort of trying to contrast where Republicans are at with their leader of the party versus Democrats. It was funny, I was watching, I was flipping around the channels afterward, I was saying this was a very sort of discipline set of remarks by Donald Trump that lasted maybe five minutes total. No questions, also from the press. Per usual, right?

He calls it a press conference, doesn't allow reporters to ask questions. But notably, they called it such a discipline day when only a matter of hours ago he ripped on Milwaukee, the city in a critical battleground state where he's going to be hosting a Republican convention. For now, Charlie, let me ask you, we're talking about January 6th for a moment here. The president wasn't there at January 6th, but let's be clear, that was like a defining moment in his career.

So to be back on the Capitol steps in some form close by was a big moment for a lot of Americans watching it. He did meet with Mitch McConnell today. McConnell had this to say about him after impeachment. Take a listen.

There's no question. None. The president Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of the day. No question about it.

The people who stormed this building believe they were acting on the wishes and instructions of their president. The president of the free world cannot spend weeks thundering that shadowy forces are stealing our country. And then, fame surprise when people believe him and do reckless things. So of course he is the outgoing Senate majority leader.

There'll be a new one like the one of the men who was in that room. We could find out John Cornyn wasn't there. But of course there are a lot of others who want that position. What does this say about the Republican party that Mitch McConnell is most powerful figure in the Senate right now said that several years ago and today is hand in hand with the former president?

Well, I think there was a lot of awkwardness to this whole being particularly in the Senate. I think there are at least four or five of the senators or Republican senators who voted to convict him. Senator Todd Young has been critical. So this is a, look, there's a lot of happy talk about unity.

I'm not so sure they are so unified. I mean, there's the Larry Hogan trashing by Lara Trump that is also hanging over this. So I still think there's a lot of a lot of discomfort among Republicans, particularly Senate Republicans, because of the way Trump and his family have handled the Hogan matter. And of course, the events of January 6, which many of them haven't gotten over.

So this is more of a facade than the real display of unity. Mostly because they need a little Trump love to win their own seats at home. Is that just as simple as that? Well, yeah, but you know, but look, there was just a special election in Ohio a couple days ago, where the Republican candidate significantly underperformed that Trump won that district by 29 points.

So Republican candidate won it by nine or nine or 10 points. Not that special elections are indicative of what will happen in a general election, but you have to really take a look at that. That's a very Trumpy district. It's clear to me that the, when people are voting, you know, they're saying something different than what we're saying.

Senator for Democrats watching Donald Trump on Capitol Hill today, right? This was, this sort of hit a lot of Democrats in the face like, Oh my gosh, we might be doing this again. Well, absolutely. And I think this had less to do with unity in their party because everybody's going to rally around the flag eventually.

It had something to do with Trump wanting to tell the public I'm presidential. I can come into this room, have cordial relationships with my own party, move it agenda forward. This was all about the image for Trump because, you know, he's trying to wipe out what, what I think is a lot of chaos in terms of his banter back and forth, certainly after his trial, and he's trying to now find a different place to stand in and a different format. And I think, you know, in that case, maybe he accomplished something today for himself.

John, let me ask you about this. I mentioned earlier, the former president earlier in that behind closed door meeting referring to Milwaukee as horrible. It's not the first time he sit on what he's used as liberal bastions, right? The sort of bluer cities, the major cities in the country right now.

The campaign, his campaign is pushing back saying he was referring to alleged voter fraud and crime in the city. But that, obviously, if you're living in Milwaukee right now, if you live in the suburbs of Milwaukee in Waukeshire, elsewhere, you can't see that and be like, what the heck? I mean, that can't be what the president was trying to do today. I mean, I'd be surprised if this would actually turn any votes.

It's an old-swill politics for people from outside the cities to attack the cities. You got to stay in Wisconsin. That's on the front of your paper. Absolutely.

You'll read it. It might upset you a little bit. My guess is it's going to be more upsetting to people who aren't without Trump blaming. Look, we just looked at the United States Senate where you had everybody from Mitch McConnell who was hiding from the Trump mob to Josh Hawley who was fist-pumping for the Trump mob, huddling with Trump today.

So I don't think he's going to lose any base there. I think it's fascinating, though, that if you're going to pick on a Wisconsin place as a Republican, that he went from Milwaukee and not Madison, which to any Wisconsin Republican is known as the big liberal bastion, and it's where the biggest set of votes are going to come for, Joe Biden. Is that strategically smart? To trash Milwaukee?

No, but at the end of the day, probably not going to hurt him too much, but he's not going to get a whole lot of votes out of Milwaukee. But no other politicians should do that. I think about this. His base has become working-class men and women, right?

Milwaukee, Madison, mainly liberal elites, Milwaukee's full of so-called Reagan Democrats. It's full of union members. I don't think when people pick on your, you're sitting here going to take it all that personally, but I think it just shows that even in the most controlled of circumstances, this guy can't be controlled, right? I mean, he's going to say something that will be, well, we eclipse the other headlines, and that's what the comment on Milwaukee did, took away from his message.

Let me ask you a quick question about your home state since you're sitting here in front of me. There's a guy named Doug Burgum. Yeah. Doug Burgum, obviously high on the list.

J.D. Vance, Doug Burgum, the names I keep hearing at the top of the list of the former president right now. What should Americans know about Doug Burgum? Do you think he would be a good vice president of the United States?

So I think Doug Burgum is a traditional classic Republican, and so that's an interesting contrast. He's never been mega back in our state. He has always been kind of, okay, how do we move an economic agenda forward? And so I think for a lot of people who think Donald Trump sold this guy, and he's not a fist-pumper.

He's not Josh Hawley. Maybe he'll bring us back to a party that is pro-business, pro-trade, pro-American enterprises. So I think in some ways it's smart for the president to consider him. And he's got money.

Yeah. Well, I don't think he's going to stop spending money on this race if he's not the vice-presidential nominee. I think he's going to continue. Because that's his future, right?

He's young. I guess. He's got a walkthrough of heaven, he's going to be sore to six around with his foot. We're all young and beautiful.

Those are all the viewers. Hi, thank you, Charlie. That's nice to see you, John Allen. Josh Burns, pretty usual.

Thank you. Coming up, President Biden stands with President Zelensky on the World's stage and addresses his son's criminal conviction on camera for the first time. We're going to take you live to Italy at the G7. Next, plus Senate Republicans just voted to block a bill that would safeguard access to IVF treatments as the reproductive rights fight ramps up in the courts, in Congress, and in the religious fabric of American society more on all of it ahead.

You're watching me at the press now. Welcome back, President Biden. His first on camera comments today about his son, Hunter Biden's felony conviction in his federal gun trial, reiterating his support for his son and his trust in the American justice system. I'm extremely proud of my son Hunter.

He has overcome an addiction. He is one of the brightest, most decent men I know. And I am satisfied that I'm not going to do anything I said I'd buy by the jury decision. I will do that and I'll not pardon him.

The President also later confirmed me to my NBC News colleague, Gae Gutierrez, before leaving the stage that he would not commute Hunter Biden's sentence either. Those comments came during a signing ceremony on a joint news conference with President Zelensky for a new 10-year bilateral security agreement in an effort to sort of signal America's long-term commitment to Ukraine. This follows a rapid succession of other announcements aimed at imposing consequences on Russia and reassuring America's allies, including new U.S. sanctions on Moscow's financial system and an agreement by G7 leaders to use frozen Russian assets to back a $50 billion loan to Ukraine to help them buy weapons and ammunition as well as to begin rebuilding damaged infrastructure throughout the country.

There was a lot of rebuilding to take place, but only when this war finally concludes and joining me now from Italy is my White House colleague, Monica Alba. Monica, break down what this new security agreement means for the U.S. and the Ukraine relationship is Zelensky himself said, this includes the provision of advanced defense systems like Patriots and fighter jet squadrons, plural, he said. Yeah, things that President Zelensky has been asking for for months, Peter, and the president apologized to President Zelensky just a week ago when the two were together in France for how long it took Congress to approve that supplemental funding.

And during those months where it was in doubt, there were these conversations going on behind the scenes about the security agreement between the U.S. and Ukraine that the president was hoping could be solidified by around now, and it is a 10-year-long commitment to this defense cooperation. And what's significant about that is, of course, the longevity and the meaning behind the message that this sends to Russia, they hope. And the president said that that was really his intention, that if President Putin thinks he can outlast Ukraine and the U.S.

and the international community that has really banded together behind Ukraine and its defense against Russian aggression, that President Putin would be mistaken to think that. Now what this doesn't do is commit anything like U.S. troops on the ground in Ukraine as they continue to defend really critical territory, but it's a sign of how the president hopes this will continue, no matter who is in office, and of course we know during this real re-election fight, it's possible that former President Trump could be back in office and it's unclear exactly what he would do when it comes to supporting Ukraine. Though, of course, we know he has made many comments about withdrawing from NATO and suggesting that if people are not paying their fair share when it comes to defense spending, that they essentially, he has said Russia has the right to do whatever it wants to those countries.

So plenty in terms of the political backdrop here, but also this really important relationship between the U.S. and Ukraine in southern Italy here today. And of course, making a bit of news on the ceasefire negotiations as well, obviously the president keep a very close eye on that. A lot of the allies between these meetings right now want to see a resolution and they want to see it quickly.

Yeah, they're really pushing for that and the president, of course, is the one who laid out these details about two weeks ago for what he hopes will be a multi-phase plan for the war to end in Gaza and he has really urged all of these leaders and everybody around the world to pressure Hamas to accept the current proposal that's on the table, but he also said that he really wasn't sure and didn't want to predict when that might happen, even though we heard from everybody from Secretary Blinken to the national security adviser that the time for this war to end is upon us and they are really stressing that they're hoping this happens soon, but it's just very unclear exactly when that could take place there. Yeah, at the end of the day, it comes to Yaya Sinwar, he is the leader of Hamas, believed to be deep underground right now in Gaza, the hope is that he will say yes to the ceasefire as so many others. America is real and a lot of allies have said they are on board, Monica Alba on the ground for us in Italy, Monica, safe travels, we appreciate your reporting and for more on today's meetings at the G7. I'm joined on set by Bill Taylor, the former U.S.

ambassador to Ukraine and vice president for Russia and Europe at the U.S. Institute of Peace. Ambassador Taylor, always nice to see you in person as opposed to via satellite. Let me just get to it with you.

This 10-year security agreement announced today. What is the simple message the president is trying to send to America's allies and to its adversaries with this announcement? Strong message is we are there to support Ukraine. We are not getting tired.

We are going to continue this support. The support is on the military side. It's on the intelligence side. It's on training.

It's also on the economic side, sanctions were mentioned in this report. So this is a demonstration of U.S. commitment to this cause. So I want to follow up on that.

And I want to remind the audience who's seeing you. And they're like, I think I know that ambassador. You, of course, sir, just say to Ukraine during the Trump administration when the former president issued what was described as the quid pro quo on Ukraine aid in exchange for damaging information on the Biden family, something he was impeached for was later acquitted. But as you know, President Biden and Zelensky, they signed this agreement today, and there's a big sense broadly in the conversations I had with foreign leaders when I was traveling with him at the D-Day commemorations last week.

And France, that there's real concern about what happens if there is a Trump, a second Trump term right now. How much of this was to sort of Trump-proof things and how much of this was sort of focused on that desire to tell allies, hey, we recognize your concerns and we're trying to accommodate this? I think the main purpose of this agreement is to demonstrate long-term support. Yes.

The Donald Trump coming as the next president, I guess, is a simple question. But I've made it clear, I want more money from our European allies, I don't think we should be spending more money on Ukraine. As I said, I get it done on day one, that means Ukraine has to settle for the losses it has and we're done here. Peter, you could say that.

He probably won't. We don't know what's in his head about this. He's given, as you've indicated, different messages on Ukraine. He allowed that $61 billion to go through.

He supported the Speaker when the Speaker was trying to push it through. So there's some indications there. But this is binding on this administration. This agreement is executive agreement.

It's binding as it says the force of law for this administration, but the next administration could come in and change it. There's no doubt about that. And Europeans are concerned about that. The Ukrainians are concerned about that.

They are doing what they can to prepare. In any case, the President is asking this question and he said, the US people, the American people, they support this and he's right about that. And the Congress supports that. He's right about that.

So he is hoping that any President will reflect that interest. There was a big announcement that came out of the G7 today. This of course is about the $50 billion loan that was agreed to by these allies. They say it would be backed up by frozen Russian assets right now.

Is that doable? Walk us through the desire there. It's definitely doable. So it hasn't been done before.

It has not been done before. A lot of legal work has gone into this and now the legal issue seemed to have been addressed. There's some political work and that seems to be addressed. So the Europeans and the Americans now, to be fair, the administration was not initially on board on this.

They've looked at it and they've concluded this is a good idea. They concluded that this money, this is Russian central bank money. This belongs to the Russian government. Not to any individual.

It's the Russians are the ones that have damaged so damaged Ukraine, it makes sense for them to pay for the reconstruction. So how to do that? And a lot of different ideas. This one is a pretty innovative idea.

There's about $280 billion sitting in frozen accounts in mostly in Belgium. Interestingly enough, where it's drawing interest, that interest is about $3 billion a year. That $3 billion a year can pay the premiums on a loan. The Americans apparently, Americans are going to provide this loan, will take the interest from this $300 billion, $280 billion, $3 billion a year and pay it back and that will allow the loan to be $50 billion.

Let me ask you a quick question about the American journalist from the Wall Street Journal, Evan Grishkovich, who has been held wrongly detained by the Russians for far too long at this point. We know now today that there is going to be a trial the Russians said for him, who knows exactly when that takes place. With Brittany Grindr there needed to be a trial so they could have that conviction before they were willing to turn her over in an exchange with the US. Does that give you some hope that we are nearing resolutions for Evan?

That's been the pattern. That's been the pattern. A swap makes some sense. I don't know who's involved in the other side.

But once a conviction has come, which is almost foregone, then they could move to the next stage. It's always a pleasure to have you here. I appreciate it. Thank you very much.

And coming up next right here, the Supreme Court ruling that one of the nations was widely used abortion medications will stay on the market. We're going to dig into the ruling, the legal fallout and much more. It's all next. We're watching the press.

Welcome back. We turned out. What was a major ruling from the Supreme Court? Justice's upheld access to a widely used abortion pill in the unanimous decision.

The court rejected a challenge to the FDA approval of Mythopristone that was brought by a group of anti-abortion rights doctors ruling that the group did not have a standing needed to bring the case. Justice Brett Kavanaugh wrote the opinion on behalf of the justices saying in part, quote, the plaintiffs do not prescribe or use Mythopristone and the FDA is not requiring them to do or refrain from doing so. Rather, the plaintiffs want the FDA to make Mythopristone more difficult for other doctors to prescribe and for pregnant women to obtain under Article 3 of the Constitution, a plaintiff's desire to make a drug less available for others does not establish standing to sue. And joining me now on set is NBC News, Washington correspondent, Yamiche Alcindor, also with me as Caroline Kitchener, the national reporter for the Washington Post, who covers the issue of abortion.

Caroline, I want to get to you in a moment. Yamiche, you can walk us through this. This was a unanimous decision. The first thing that we heard from campaign aides for the Biden side and from the president himself is, this is not done.

Make no mistake. This is about standing. This doesn't rule out the potential efforts to try to get rid of Mythopristone and the access of abortion medications. That's right.

Now, this was the most significant abortion ruling since this court overturned, Roe v. Wade, about two years ago. That being said, this was a ruling in a decision on standing, which means that the doctors and these anti-abortion groups that sued the FDA to try to curtail access to Mythopristone, they just simply did not, they were not able to show that they were injured in any way. And there were really hints of this during the oral arguments you had, Brett Kavanaugh, of course, is a conservative part, that six-three conservative majority.

Yes, well, doctors, you can already say that you don't want to perform an abortion. You can already say that you don't want to prescribe an abortion medication. So why would you be here in our court trying to sue? You can walk others for having access to it.

Exactly. So this really means, though, that there could be other people in a separate case that comes for it. I mean, you should possibly, that says, I took my personal and I was harmed by it. It could be a doctor who said I was forced to prescribe it.

So there is some window and some opening here, and that talking point that you heard from Democrats, which I heard all day, sitting outside the Supreme Court, texting people. This isn't over. It's not safe overall. But we should say for women who are watching this, my personal and for now, it's accessible in exactly the way it was yesterday.

So give us a walk us through this. There is one more abortion case on deck. Can you tell us about that? And obviously, we expect the court's decisions to be made before the end of this month.

So what does that, and where does it stand? That, we have not gotten that decision yet. It's really a decision that's focused on an Idaho role. It's really a near total bandit in that state on abortion.

And the Biden administration is essentially saying that there is a federal law called Antala, which is really about emergency care. They're saying that Idaho's near total amount of abortion conflicts with federal law that says that you have to be able to give people emergency care, which includes if someone is having an abortion or having a miscarriage, if there's some complications there, you can't just say, well, I don't want to help you and put people's lives in danger. And this is, of course, a lot of the stories that we hear from Democrats, they say women are having miscarriages in bathrooms. We hear from the vice president a lot who was very quick to come out and talk about this ruling.

So there's really, I think, a lot there that's still to be watched there. So we're still watching that case along with the 26 other, 25 other, including that case. We're waiting for the Supreme Court to make. And you mentioned you're going to be joining me on our panel on Meet the Press this Sunday.

We'll look forward to more of your new reporting then when we see you. And Caroline, let me ask you, as you mentioned, the court did not have to grapple with the issue, really, because they dismissed it on standing. So how are those anti-abortion rights groups viewing this right now? How are they exploring other routes perhaps to bring medication abortion back before the courts?

Well, I had multiple people today from the anti-abortion side say to me, this is not over. We are not done. There are a lot of different things that they could do next. I mean, one, as you mentioned, is certainly continuing this case with different plaintiffs.

There are already different plaintiffs waiting in the wings. Several states have actually had the green light already to join the litigation, saying that they have been harmed as a state. But I think the sort of the biggest way that abortion pills could conceivably be cracked down on over the course of the next year is if Trump wins. There is a lot that a Trump administration could do with an anti-abortion head of the FDA and anti-abortion head of HHS to implement a lot of additional restrictions that would make abortion pills much harder to get at nationwide.

Are we likely to see more of the sort of targeting of conservative judges like Judge Kesmeric in this case? I mean, I think that's hard to say. I mean, Kesmeric is already playing a role by green lighting these additional plaintiffs. So I think it's fair to say that these groups are likely to target the conservative judges and that Kesmeric may still have more of a role to play as well.

So let's walk through the political implications of this decision today. We heard from President Biden saying, in part, today's decision does not change the fact that the fight for reproductive freedom continues. It does not change the fact that the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade two years ago and women lost the fundamental freedom.

So how crucial is this topic, reproductive rights, reproductive freedom to Democrats? And their electoral hopes, every time I talk to them, they talk about democracy, reproductive rights and the economy? I mean, I think it's enormously important for Democrats. And they are looking to these Supreme Court cases, which are sort of big moments where the nation is paying attention to abortion to make these points, no matter how the Supreme Court rules.

You know, like you said, they were out there today saying, you know, yes, this is a victory for abortion rights, but it's a temporary one and it's one that could very much change with the election. You know, what was striking for me is as this is played by the Republicans right now, Donald Trump, who was here in Washington today, has waffled on this issue of abortion for months, frankly, for years, he said it's up to the States now that that's his final sort of position. But even talking to Republicans about it today, privately, he drew mixed reaction. Is that I mean, are voters like where do voters fall on this issue right now?

The former president has made clear this is not a good issue for him and for Republicans. And frankly, there's real concern in my conversations with Republicans about the states where there are abortion related ballot items that will be there this fall that it may motivate voters. I mean, I think President, former President Trump is trying really hard right now to walk a very fine line and strike a very difficult balance, you know, by saying that it is up to the States. But then, you know, you saw about, you know, a month ago, a month or two ago, when the Arizona Supreme Court came down with a decision saying, you know, we're greenlighting this 1800s abortion ban, then you sort of saw him step back and say, oh, wait, wait, you know, we shouldn't leave this, we shouldn't leave this to that decision to that court, that state court, you know, we should we should try to try to do something about this.

So that was very interesting, I think, because it doesn't seem like he wants to entirely leave it to the States. Well, we're going to be watching this very closely. I know a lot of Americans will be as well. It's always a pleasure to have you here, Carolina, very much appreciate your time and your expertise on this topic.

And coming up next after the break, more developments in a debate over reproductive rights as a nation's largest Protestant group sends a message, a major message, the evangelical movement, by formally opposing in vitro fertilization. That story is next. You're watching the press now. This afternoon is expected Republicans blocked a Democratic-led effort in the Senate to enshrine protections for in vitro fertilization into law after Democrats blocked a narrower Republican bill last night ahead of the vote, all 49 Senate Republicans signed a letter in support of the fertility treatment accusing Democrats of what they called scare tactics.

This week, the debate over IVF treatments also surfaced at the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation's largest Protestant denomination sent a major message to the evangelical community yesterday by voting to formally oppose IVF treatments. That aligns with the Alabama Supreme Court ruling in March that frozen embryos are considered children with full human rights. That ruling temporarily stopped IVF treatments in the state forcing the Alabama legislature to intervene. And joining me now is Elizabeth Dias, National Religion Correspondent for the New York Times.

She is also the co-author of the fall of Roe, the rise of a new America. Elizabeth, thank you for joining me. I do want to begin on this vote by the Southern Baptist Convention. It is, it's not a ban, so tell us what, what does this vote?

Tell us why did they choose to hold it? And as we talk about the largest Protestant denomination in the country, is there a consensus on the ethics of IVF? This was a monumental decision by the delegates at the Southern Baptist Convention. That's the first time that this movement, which as you said, is the largest evangelical largest Protestant denomination in the US.

It's the first time that they've made this formal statement about IVF. And this is so important because what we've watched since the overturning of Roe, and even in the Supreme Court, decisions are the fight to further limit access to abortion. We're seeing this doubling down by a conservative, Christian minority of the country that is eager to press ahead with their goals, not just of limiting abortion, but of taking that to its logical conclusion. So that here, that is what happens if you have a religious belief that life begins at conception, a group of Southern Baptists decided, okay, we have to follow that through.

Let's put forward a measure to oppose IVF. And this is already controversial within the community. That's a denomination of 13 million people. This is a group of 10,000 that voted for this, but it's quite dramatic.

It's right in the 10,000 voted representing a group of 13 million in this country. How does the approach to IVF sort of compare to other Christian denominations? Well, Catholics actually, in their theology, tends to be more posing of IVF than evangelical traditions. But there's been a move recently over the last several years, maybe this past decade of emerging of conservative Catholic and evangelical ideologies, largely because of politics, right?

We're watching politics, the American church, not just church-shaper politics in this country. So what happens next, I think, especially for evangelical millennial women who were very vocal after the Alabama ruling saying they're great fears about what this could mean. I'm very curious to see what they do next, but we have to pay attention to what's happening with the role of religion, especially Christianity, in changing the very makeup of American families. And Elizabeth, let's put this in a little bit of a political context here, which we can't ignore.

Right? This comes just months after the Alabama court ruling and as lawmakers are grappling, obviously, with potential protections for IVF, what kind of political influence does a group like the Southern Baptist Convention that we saw today have on issues like this? What does it tell us about the way this debate's going to go in Washington as we move forward? Well, it's notable that former President Trump addressed a segment of this very same conference, right?

And even though he has been more vocal saying things like he would protect IVF, he also was continuing to court this hard edge of the conservative Christian, right? And when he was the particular section he was speaking to was actually the group within this convention that wants the total abolition of abortion, often without exceptions of any kind. So they are influential. They're very active in politics.

And as I spoke the fall of Roe, the rise of the New America documents, it was this more under the radar network of conservative Christians who worked for years, ultimately resulting in the overturning of Roe v. Wade. And so- No, I'm sorry. I didn't interrupt you.

I was just going to say as a final thought, I just wanted your take given you covered the intersection of this topic and religion, of course, and given them if a person ruling today by the nation's highest court, what you're hearing within those communities and reaction to that. And to the point that a lot of the president himself was saying, this seems like a fight that is not done yet. Well, the lawyers who were arguing to restrict and if a person who lost today, they're with the Alliance Defending Freedom, they were major players in the overturning of Roe v. We document all their behind the scenes work in the book and they're not stopping, right?

This is a long game. This is a movement that thinks in generations, not just political cycles. And so this, it's for them is a loss, but it's not the end. Elizabeth, I really appreciate your time and expertise still to come right here.

Biden's border backlash. My one-on-one interview with the head of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, as she urges the administration to drop its crackdown on asylum claims. That is next. Stay with us.

You're watching me at the press now. Welcome back and effort to shore up support among Latino voters. The Biden campaign is launching a new ad playing up its economic message. Here's a look.

I know what it's like to struggle. I know many American families are fighting every day to get by. That's why no one, especially a billionaire like Donald Trump, will stop. Not me from fighting the lower cost for food and rent, because hard work and families deserve a chance to get ahead.

The ad comes as President Biden is facing criticism from some Democrats over the executive action he took last week to crack down on asylum claims at the Southern border. The ACLU announced yesterday that it was suing the White House over the new asylum rule that came a day after a group of 18 House Democrats urged the president in a letter to drop the asylum rule. Meanwhile, several Homeland Security officials tell NBC News that the number of migrants crossing illegally has fallen by 25 percent in the week since the President signed that executive took that executive action. And officials, or we should note officials though, are still releasing some of those border crossers inside the United States and joining me now is Congresswoman Annette Parakan Parakan.

Parakan there. I think I did all right. Democrat from California and the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus Congresswoman. I appreciate your being here.

Thanks for making time to speak to us. The number of migrants as we noted crossing of the U.S. illegally is down by about 25 percent according to the Department of Homeland Security since the President took this executive action. There have of course been some glitches to this point, but would you at least agree that it has been effective in trying to stem the flow of migrants entry in the U.S.

illegally? Well, first of all, it's too early to tell. Generally when there's a new worst, we always see a little bit of a drop off. So it's too early to tell whether it's being, it's effective or not.

I think the greater concern that I have and members of our caucus have is whether people who have valid asylum claims are being turned away. And that is what U.S. law provides that we should be able to do here, and that's an American value we have. Do you can see that the administration, it does have a legal authority though to do what has done to this point.

So is that or are you suggesting that they do not have the authority to against effectively not allow those asylum seekers into the United States? Well, that's why there's a lawsuit going on, right? A court will make that decision. We know that when the former President uses the authority, it was actually struck down.

So that's something that the courts will decide, not for me to decide. But what we have been asking the President to do is if you're going to take action, that's enforcement only, that doesn't work for Latino voters and it's not going to help with our messaging to Latinos across the country. So if you have to do enforcement policies, make sure that you pair them with something passive, something we can go in and talk about and making sure that we're providing protections, for example, for undocumented folks that have been in this country for a very long time. We've been, we've promised this for a long time.

Congress has failed to act, but the President can. And that is what we continue to encourage him and implore him to do as quickly as possible. Let me ask you, there has of course been widespread agreement about the urgent need to sort of address the crisis of migrants illegally entering the United States right now, a record number having done since President Biden took office. What do you think he should have done in the course of the last several years?

Well, the first problem is that Republicans don't want to help do anything. And so they're preventing our ability to get the resources that are really needed at the southern border, for more infrastructure, more processing, more judges, all of that. Acknowledging all of that, they say that the President could do things unilaterally here as well. They claim that he could shut down the border unilaterally.

What do you think he could do unilaterally acknowledging the Republicans and Republicans to provide any help in this effort? Well, I think there's got to be, the first question is, are there ways that we can provide more resources? There are some that say in book in this effort to act saying that there is a crisis will allow that ability to give more resources down there. We have to make sure that there's more pathways so that people don't have to come between the courts of entry.

But that's why they're coming between the courts of entry, because they can't go to a court of entry. They either can't, or they can't get an appointment on the CBP 1 app, right? That's already full. So people that are desperate fleeing violence need a pathway to come here.

And right now, what we're doing is we're saying, nope, no pathways. We're not going to do it. And that's where we believe is contrary to what the asylum law provides and what it should provide. There's the policy.

There is also the politics, as you know, well here right now, President Biden won the Hispanic and Latino vote by 32 points in 2020, but our own recent polling from April shows President Biden leading Donald Trump by just 10 points right now among Latino voters in a hypothetical two-way race. He's 17 points, apparently, under water according to the recent polling, when it comes to Latino voters approval of the way he is handling his job. How does he turn those numbers around? What in particular is the president failing to say to resonate with the Latino community, acknowledging like any community does not amount with it?

Well, that's very true. What polls are polls. One poll says one thing, another poll says something else. What we got to do is we got to go engage.

This is something that Hispanic caucus has done. It's taken this Hispanic caucus on the road to go into these growing Latino populated areas to talk about what we have done, but then what he's going to continue to do and to finish the job. If you take a look at the information and the data, what he is fighting for is what Latinos want. And just take a look at women's reproductive rights, what's happening across this country with states that are limiting access to women's reproductive rights and abortion.

You have Latinos overwhelmingly believe that this is a right they should have. Nevada is a good, just a place to look at. 81% of Latinos are believed that there should be the ability for women to get reproductive health care and an abortion. That's something Trump didn't even talk about in his last rally.

No, not. And Latino is widely like a lot of Americans right now talk about their top priority being the economy. The reproductive rights is clearly important as well. That's why the president focuses on the topic of the economy, not identity politics, but on pocketbook issues in this latest ad that he is doing right now, should Latinos be satisfied with the way the president has handled the economy.

Prices remain too high for a lot of Americans. Inflation, acknowledging coming out of a pandemic was quite high, 40 year record it hit only a couple of years ago. Should they be satisfied with this handling of the economy? I think that you definitely need to look and say Biden has done a whole bunch of things for Latinos as it impacts the economy.

Unemployment is our low number. The price of insulin is coming down. There's a lot of things we could talk about, but people don't feel it. And that is what is happening.

People don't feel it yet. Some of these policies haven't gotten into effect yet. The infrastructure law, another example, it's creating jobs. What kind of jobs?

Construction jobs. Those are economic issues. They don't make them feel it. They don't feel it yet.

And you only got five months on election day. Some of that, some of that is the policies haven't been implemented yet. I mean, just take a look at the IRA and the energy savings there, right? The energy savings are people don't feel because they haven't been ruled out yet.

And this is the whole argument. Look, this president inherited a horrible situation with Donald Trump with COVID. He brought us back from COVID, right? We put money into the American Rescue Plan.

We put money in the infrastructure. All these things. Now we need to let him finish the job. And these four more years to do that.

So we need to go across this country. We need to talk about what's been done, but also what he is going to continue to do along with House Democrats to make sure that they're in a better position. And let's not forget here. The contrast is that Donald Trump is not for Latinos.

It's not for making sure that he's not watching out for their economic interests. He's for more tax cuts for the rich. That is not the population we're talking about with Latinos. Yeah, Congressman, and that better gone.

I appreciate your time. Thank you so much for being with us. Thank you. Just kidding.

And I'm back tomorrow with more of the press now. NBC News now coverage continues with Tom Costello in for Hallie Jackson. Hey, it's Kate Snow, NBC News anchor and host of The Drink. This month, Demi Lovato is my guest, the global superstar tells me that she is the happiest she's ever been right now.

But getting there, it wasn't simple. Demi opens up about starting in Hollywood Young and why she now thinks she may have started too soon. She talks about recovery, her new marriage, and the deeply personal reason behind her new cookbook. The drink is always about the journey to the top, and this was an honest conversation about what that takes.

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