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Conditions of buy offer includes 1% loyalty rate reduction for qualifying customers. Visit HyundaiCanda.com or your local deal for details. If it's Friday, New NBC News reported that former President Donald Trump's vice presidential shortlist is getting shorter while his campaign war chest is getting bigger, potentially topping President Biden's cash advantage in the race for the presidency. Plus, with major decisions still pending, the Supreme Court upholds a federal law barring domestic abusers from owning firearms, adding the Biden administration a victory on the key issue of gun safety ahead of November and long shot arguments and days of hagg raising new concerns over Florida judges approach to the classified documents case against former President Trump that still has no trial dates in sight.
Welcome to the press Al Peter Alexander here in Washington. We begin today with significant developments for Team Trump in the race for the White House. We've got fundraising reporting, new reporting showing the massive amount of cash of the Trump campaign brought in in the month of May. We also have new reporting that the former president is now narrowing down his choices for running mates.
This new reporting comes from my colleagues and it shows the North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum and Ohio Senator J.D. van Burge as the top finalist to join Mr. Trump on the Republican presidential ticket. Both men fielded questions about the potential VP slot this week and spoke glowingly about the man at the top of the ticket.
We're so lucky in the Republican Party that we've got so many strong, strong bench of people that are coming out, so many people that are out there making a difference in campaigning for President Trump. And when he makes that decision, it's solely up to him and he's the guy that controls the criteria. I know Trump very well. I like him.
He's in very good health. And so I think whoever he selects as vice president is gonna have a real opportunity to be very good vice president for the country for the next four years. And there are a lot of people who could serve that job. Sources telling me to news Florida Senator Marco Rubio remains in contention, but there are doubts about his enthusiasm for the job and concerns about the constitutional requirement that he and Mr.
Trump be from different states, of course, they're both from Florida. And according to this new reporting from memcu, there's also ongoing discussion right now on the topic of when the VP pick will be announced, with some favoring announcement around the RNC convention in Milwaukee that kicks off on July 15. Others are pushing reveal the pick around Mr. Trump's July 11 sentencing for his Manhattan hush money convince perhaps a way to try to eclipse what could be a negative news cycle.
But that guilty verdict was positive news, at least on the financial front for the campaign, sparking a rash of campaign donations that helped the Trump campaign close what really was a significant fundraising gap with President Biden. NBC News has learned from FEC reports that businessman and former RFA junior backer Timothy Mellon is his name wrote a $50 million check to approach Super PAC on the day of Mr. Trump's conviction last month. That was the largest single contribution recorded this cycle.
Campaign finance data released last night chose former President Trump of the RNC, outpacing President Biden and the DNC in the month of May. Of course, all caveats apply. This is an incomplete snapshot of the money situation without other big money affiliated groups. And when it comes to the key metric of how much cash they have on hand, here's what each campaign is saying that they have in their war chest.
For the first time this year, Mr. Trump's political apparatus appears to have more cash on hand than its Democratic rivals, potentially carving into one of President Biden's biggest advantages this cycle. And join me now on set is Ben Kamasar with more on those campaign cash numbers. Joshua Burns is in Philly for us.
The latest on the Trump Beefsteak. She's watching. And Gabe Gutierrez is at his post outside the White House for the very latest from the Trump campaign as well. We'll start with you, Ben, because you're in person.
So we'll get going. You have gone through all of these numbers as best we can. You cross the data for us, tell us what we know and what we don't know when it comes to the campaign fundraising. But also the biggest take away here is that there has been very much an evening in terms of this race exactly for months and months since the start of the campaign, the Biden campaign, its broad apparatus, has been out fundraising.
The Trump campaign, it has said that this has been such a straight for them. It's allowed them to really just build this massive operation while Trump was sort of mired in legal concerns or admired on his primary fight. Now in these last few months, we've seen things shift now, as you said, you know, this is new reporting just in this hour. Trump and his affiliate communities now say that they have more cash on hand than what the Biden campaign and his affiliates say.
You know, your caveats are important. We don't know everything. We can't see everything. But it kind of checks out from what we can look into.
And this really is a fundamental shift and something that really takes a blow to Biden's one of his strengths. So let's break down some of the details behind this. Right. It looks like that conviction on those 34 felony counts for Donald Trump was a business boom, as it were.
Right. They just started seeing all sorts of donations rush in. Yes. You know, it's a double sided coin.
I would imagine he probably would not have wanted to be confident for his legal liability. However, it is clear that it's been a massive fundraising boom. He talked about that Timothy Mellon donation. That's huge.
It's one of the largest donations individual we've seen in a while. And in the 24 hours after the conviction, Trump was able to bring in $150 million. Just that one period is according to the campaign. So there's some caveats there, but it bears down to the fundraising.
It does look like this has sort of supercharged this fundraising with a president. The Trump campaign, obviously they appear to even things out. But the advantage early on certainly was to Biden's camp. They have spent and are spending a lot of money right now.
I remember, you know, you talked to campaign, the run the campaign. This was an issue for them to respect the primary against Obama. They got beat up by the Obama folks before they could really engage on the other side. How much has the Biden folks, that team really emphasized this early on to try to redefine or again emphasize the definition, as it were, of Donald Trump?
No, it's a good question, really. This is what the Biden campaign points to as a long held durable advantage. They say, sure, we all knew that Donald Trump would catch up, but that's why we, using his Biden campaign, have been building out this large organization in swing states with tens of millions of dollars in messaging and millions of dollars in organizing on the ground in the key battlegrounds. So they say that, you know, they knew this was going to happen and that's why they put in all the early work.
The question is going to be ultimately, what bears fruit the early work or sort like, you know, last minute spike and sort of interesting, right, because Donald Trump, part of the thinking behind His VP was who's going to be able to help him raise some money. He may not need all that help these days. But I do want to talk about Ben. Thank you.
The VP conversation right now with Josh Burns again in Philadelphia. Head of the president speaking, the former president speaking there. Burgum advanced now at the top of the pack according to our reporting. What are we learning?
What are the strengths that Trump world views them as offering here? We started with a list of more than a dozen and now we're down to two, maybe three, of course, with the caveat, as always, that it is former President Trump and he could always pick a dark horse candidate we don't know about right now. But according to our reporting, it is Burgum and Banz are the top two, with Rubio serving that third place position. Look, you've been seeing Governor Burgum around a lot lately.
He's been dropped on the campaign trail. He went and visited him at the courthouse in New York twice. He's been fundraising for him. Former president likes that.
He is a good looking guy. This is something that he talks about central casting all the time. Right. He's someone who has experience in business.
He's wealthy, all pros for the Trump column. He's also, you know, a respectable governor, but not a sort of threatening figure, not someone who might overshadow the former president. On the other hand, you have Jamie Vance, the senator from Ohio, who is more of a MAGA firebrand. He has the benefit of having the backing of the former president's son, Don Jr.
They are very close. Don Jr. Is a huge proponent of Vance. He's young.
He's been a pretty fierce defender of the former president on the airwave. So that's a plus in his column. But he does have some baggage and some of the negative criticisms that he's put out there of the former President back in 2016, Marco Rubio, the Florida senator, still on the list, Peter, but he has that complication of also being a fellow resident of Florida. And there's this constitutional rule that delegates cannot vote for a president and a vice president from the same state.
So it would take a little bit more work and be a little bit more complicated if Rubio were the choice, which is a knock against it. But again, he is still on the table. So, Nacho, let's talk a little about the timing here, right? Because the conventional wisdom, and Donald Trump has said this publicly in some of his interviews, was that he was meaningful, trying to make this a big flashing announcement that would come at the convention to take place next month in Milwaukee.
But now there's some reporting that they may that those in Trump were looking at the option of doing it sooner than that. What is the thinking? Yes, Peter, point our sources. This is all still very much up for debate.
They're laying out the different options and playing with the pros and cons of each. The first option is announcing before July 11th. Really sentencing is playing a key role here. How do they work around the sentencing of the former president in New York?
Do they announce beforehand and have an extra news cycle where they can do more fundraising around that? But then maybe the con to that is that the sentencing could step on that new cycle. Do they decide to announce right around the sentencing date and try to potentially get away from a damaging news cycle or do they go the more conventional route and do a sort of show stopping glitzy announcement at the convention? And even if it is a convention, which day do they do it?
So all of that is still under debate here. Again, of course, a big conversation about how much value there is in the VP pick these days. Of course there is one debate between vice presidential candidate and the current vice president. So for good reason.
We'll all be watching. Joshua, thank you. Debut with the White House of a campaign Biden as we know as a candidate he's prepping for this debate. Walk us through their preparations which are said to be a bit more formal than the less formal preparations of Mr.
Trump. Yeah, that's right, Peter. President Biden expected to be at candidate for at least Monday and that debate prep is already underway. The president was asked on the way campaign yesterday reporter how the prep was going, gave a thumbs up and that debate prep is being led by his former chief of staff Ron Klain.
And we're told that the Biden team really sees this as an opportunity to reach an audience not have been tuning in so far during this election cycle. They really want to establish a contrast between President Biden and his opponent, former President Trump. Now after winning a coin toss, Peter, as you know, President Biden has chosen a podium on the right side of the stage. That was his preference.
And also former President Trump will deliver the last, excuse me, the last closing statement. President Biden will deliver the first closing statement here and gave you done some reporting and of the reporting with the Biden team and about how they're dealing with what they call these cheap fake videos. What are they telling you and how big of an issue is this? This is something that I think is increasingly become the radar for a Lot of Americans.
Yeah, that's right. In this election cycle, especially over the last couple of weeks, there's been uptick in these types of videos have been posted in the binding campaign has been responding more aggressively. And yes, as you said, we spoke with a Biden campaign official at their headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, and his conscience. Both sides are fighting this online war ahead of the debate, aggressively trying to own the narrative.
The video went viral faster than usual. President Biden at the G7 summit in Italy, surrounded by world leaders appearing to wander off before being pulled back to the group by the Italian prime minister. In reality, another camera angle showed the President was actually trying to greet skydivers who just finished the demonstration. But the Republican National Committee and conservative media quickly amplified the first angle, falsely claiming the President was meandering.
The Biden campaign is calling it a, quote, cheap fake. What is a cheap fake? Cheap fakes are these deceptively edited videos and they're a huge part of Donald Trump's campaign strategy. I think anytime you see a viral video like this, you should approach it with a level of skepticism because this is part of a deliberate strategy to deceive and and distract voters from his historically unpopular agenda.
Rob Flaherty is Biden's deputy campaign manager who's overseeing the escalating digital war and slamming the Trump campaign, saying it's increasingly taking videos out of context. We have to be more aggressive about monitoring, about intervening, about taking action against it, because it's just going to be such a centerpiece of how he's communicating. And how do you make that decision? Which videos do you choose to push back on?
Why did this one trigger that type of response? Well, we're always looking for what is starting to pick up velocity on the Internet, how quick are things moving? And we need a whole campaign approach to push back. This is not just a thing that happens online, it's a thing that happens in the mainstream media.
It's a thing that happens in people's social networks. So, you know, we need to bring every tool to bear to be able to push back, because these things are going to be coming in so frequently and so hot and heavy, because it is such a feature of Donald Trump's strategy, because this is what he talks about when you have nothing else to run on. That G7 video is upon a string of clips that some Republicans say raises concerns about President Biden's age and abilities like this. With President Biden standing still for several seconds on stage at a Hollywood fundraiser until former President Obama leads him off stage and another where he also stood still is people danced around him during a Juneteenth celebration.
The White House says the president did not freeze in these incidents, but was enjoying the moments. The chunkyman says the videos are not misleading and were not digitally altered. These are real, factual, visual representations of Joe Biden. The Biden campaign is trying to convince the American public not to believe their own eyes.
We are simply posting these videos for the world to see and to come to their own conclusion on which the American public has. There is nothing misleading about posting a video and allowing voters to decide how they feel about it. The Trump campaign argues that Biden team is taking the former president's words out of context. We're Gonna put a 100% tariff on every single car that comes across the line.
Now, if I don't get elected, it's gonna be a bloodbath. By claiming that comment referred to political violence instead of economic pain, then he said, if he loses, there's going to be a bloodbath. It's called the bloodbath hoax. Taking my words completely out of context.
There's always been misinformation during campaigns, but this election cycle, cyber experts expect much more of it, including AI generated deepfakes. Current informal officials tell NBC News that the FBI and Department of Homeland Security have no firm plan to alert the public about deepfakes or other false information during the 2024 election unless it's clearly coming from a foreign actor and poses a sufficiently grave threat. A digital battlefield raising questions about free speech, censorship, and partisan politics. In such a close campaign, do you think that these types of videos could make a difference?
Well, in a closed campaign, anything can make a difference. But with these videos in particular, we have to be vigilant because they are going to come at us quickly and frequently. And that's why people watching home be skeptical of things they see going viral, because these things are not there by accident. The big question will be here.
Who, in fact will decide what is misinformation and what is in here, the reporting there that the Biden administration and the FBI, Homeland Security don't have a firm plan to alert the public about false information. But the big question is this campaign moves into these next few months. Thank you for sharing us, sharing that with us. We want to share some breaking news right now.
This is coming to us from Arkansas, where eight people have been shot. And two of those victims, we are told, were killed in a shooting that took place at a grocery store in Arkansas. Police say someone opened fire inside the store in Forest Arkansas happened about 11:30 their time this morning. That's about 70 miles.
This community is south of Little Rock. A law enforcement officer is among the eight people who were shot. Police say that officer is expected to survive. Police also say that the shooter was shot and critically injured by law enforcement when they responded to that shooter has been taken into custody.
We do expect a news conference from there in Arkansas. Expect to happen in about 15 minutes. And when it does begin, we will bring it to you right here on MEET THE PRESS now. But up first, delay, delay, delay.
While the judge in former President Trump flashback documents faces raising eyebrows with her time consuming and unusual legal approach. We are live outside the courthouse for the first in three day long hearings just finished up. Plus, top progressives are rallying behind endangered incumbent Congressman Jalal Bowman as he fights a centrist Democratic challenger in what is one of the most expensive House primary races ever. You're watching MEET THE PRESS now.
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Conditions apply offer includes 1% loyalty rate reduction for qualifying customers. Visit hyundaicana.com or your local dealer details. Welcome back. As we await the Supreme Court's decision on whether Donald Trump has immunity in the federal election interference case, it has been another eventful day in the special counsel's other case against him.
Judge Eileen Cannon just wrapped up a hearing on Mr. Trump's motion to dismiss the classified documents case with the former president's lawyers arguing the special counsel Jack Smith's appointment was unconstitutional. The judge seemed skeptical of the defense's argument that the special counsel was subject to Senate confirmation. Most legal experts were skeptical before today's hearing even took place.
But the hearing itself highlights the scrutiny the judge Cannon is facing on how she has conducted this case to this point. There is still no trial date in sight with the judge who Mr. Trump appointed and is continuing hold hearings that some legal experts say are unnecessary and even dilatory. The New York Times is also reporting that she rejected suggestions to step aside from two fellow federal judges in South Florida.
We are joined now by NBC News justice intelligence correspondent Kendall Laney is outside the federal courthouse there in Fort Pierce, Florida. Also joining us now is former U.S. attorney and current NBC News legal analyst Carol Lamb. So let's Just let's put this in simple terms for folks that are not paying as close attention.
What was the purpose of this hearing today? Hey, Peter. So the purpose was to hear arguments about the defense motion that this case should be thrown out because Jack Smith's appointment as special counsel was not proper under the Constitution's appointment clause. And there's a lot of complicated arguments behind that.
But one of the interesting ones in novel ones is that Jack Smith was not Senate confirmed and he's actually what's known as a principal officer under the Constitution, not an inferior officer. And he's exercising a lot of power. And the Founders didn't intend for someone with that kind of power to use it without having been reviewed by the legislative branch, by the Senate. So therefore it's unconstitutional.
So that's a different argument than was made about Robert Mueller and David Weiss. Those people are also subject of arguments that they were appointed unconstitutionally and those lost at the appeals court level. So that's why a lot of people are questioning why the judge is having this day long hearing. Another extraordinary thing that happened today is that the judge allowed so called friends of the court, outside lawyers who are not litigating this case to come into her courtroom and argue about this constitutional issue that never happens in a criminal case at the trial court level.
What happened at the appeals court level but not at the trial court level? That really raised a lot of eyes and suggested that Judge Cannon is really dragging this thing out. She's a very inexperienced judge. This is her fifth trial since she's taking the bench.
And you know, her defenders say that she's just trying to ensure fairness here. But the result is that, you know, there are many unresolved disputes that still haven't been subject of hearing yet. We have where a year after the indictment, there's no trial date set and none in sight here. Thank you.
I'll ask Carol about this for a second. Carol, take a step back. For us who don't really understand this, in your experience as a federal prosecutor, have you witnessed a federal judge the way some characterize it, slow walk a case the way the judge can and has. How sort of remarkable, unusual does this appear to you?
Well, Peter, this is unusual. She's a federal judge, she's appointed by a President. She's been, she's been Senate confirmed. She can take this time to do it if she wants.
But what is concerning here is she's taking such a large amount time to deal with these issues that she's really ignoring another huge part of her job. She is a trial judge. There's a reason why trial judges are appointed to the trial judge, to the trial court, and that is because they have the responsibility for developing facts on the trial level that, you know, and have a jury or the judge herself make actual findings of facts. These issues that she's taking days to hear argument about, these are legal issues.
There's no evidence being taken. There are no people taking the stand and testifying about facts. And so she seems to be conflating her role as a trial judge with the role that an appellate court might play or the Supreme Court, which is just looking at legal issues. And that's a problem because although yes, she can take time and she can, of course, making legal decisions are important.
What people want from a trial judge, first and foremost is they want them to make a decision and get the show on the road so that facts can be determined. And she is ignoring a very large part of her job right now. So, Carol, let me ask you what former federal prosecutor in Florida, John Sale, is saying and defending Cannon. This is part of what he told Ken during Ken's reporting on the story.
He said, for the life of me, I don't understand why she's criticized for holding hearings in the case. It's extraordinarily important. The whole world's watching. She adds it or he adds it shows.
She's giving careful thought to it. If you take politics out of this, there should be no rush to judgment. So is it possible she's just being very meticulous on what is such a closely watched case? Well, again, you know, I think she's misapprehending the real importance of her role because she's not a law professor, she's not an appellate court judge or justice.
She needs to get these facts done. Because what the judge doesn't seem to understand is that she can hand ring about these issues, these legal issues. But whatever she decides, whether she decides that Daxmith was constitutionally appointed or not constitutionally appointed, she's not going to be the last word. There's a reason why the trial judge is just a single person, because she has to manage the court and get a trial underway.
There's a reason why the appellate court, which revisits the legal issues, has three people on that panel. It's because our system does not really have confidence that a single judge is always going to come up with the right legal answer. And there's a reason why our Supreme Court has nine justices on it because as you can see, they debate among themselves and they don't always agree. But Judge Cannon needs to do her primary job, which is being a judge who manages her courtroom, so that facts are developed and evidence is taken.
So, Ken, practically speaking, what does this mean? Right. If the desire was to delay things as it has been publicly, they've acknowledged as much as Trump's side, it appears that they at least succeed in that. Right?
That's right, Peter. 100%. This judge's approach to this case has played right into Donald Trump's hands. Whether that was intentional or whether that was a result of her meticulousness, it's really immaterial, because the bottom line is it's really inconceivable that this case could reach trial before November because there's so many other issues still be hashed out about the classified documents, which are very complicated, that take place behind closed doors.
So the bottom line is Judge Cannon's approach here means that the voters won't get this information about whether a jury thinks Donald Trump is guilty of compromising national security and obstructing justice. Carol, I can't just. Last question to you, which is, is there any higher court that could serve as a check on Judge Cannon in this way? Is there any way that she could be compelled to step aside, or is this what it's gonna look like?
I think Peter just hasn't gotten to that point yet. This is the way our system is built. She has life tenure. She can manage her courtroom the way she wants to manage it until there's an identifiable breach of a party's right.
And at this point, we haven't gotten there yet. You selected for this case randomly. It's not. Right.
Fairly. Fairly random. But if you actually look at the way she ended up with the case, you know, Jack Smith had to actually say that the events in this case occurred at Mar A Lago, which was actually in a certain area of the district. That kind of put her as one of maybe five or six judges who could potentially get the case.
And the way the wheel was drawn, she got. It wasn't a good day for Daxmith. I'm sure he wasn't happy about it, but that's, you know, when you're early date, those are the things that happen. You have to sort of deal with what you're.
Yeah. So there was a wheel. There was a smaller wheel based on where this case was basically focusing. Carol Lamb, I always appreciate your expertise, Kendall, and thanks for your reporting today.
My friend here. 81 decision today at the Supreme Court upholding the federal gun restrictions that bar domestic abusers from owning firearms. What it says about the justice's thoughts on gun rights, plus the key rulings that we are still waiting for this term. That's all I had next.
You watching me press now. Come back. As we mentioned, while we were still waiting on several major decisions from the Supreme Court, the court did issue its opinion in a closely watched gun case today. This was an 8 to 1 decision and the court upheld a federal law prohibiting people subjected to domestic violence restraining orders from having firearms.
Justice Clarence Thomas, he was the lone descender here and writing for the majority was the chief Justice John Roberts, who said the ruling was consistent with the Second Amendment, adding, quote, since the founding, our nation's firearm laws have included provisions preventing individuals who threaten physical harm to others from misusing firearms. Today's decision is a win for the Biden administration just a week after the high court struck down a ban on bump stocks, including now on status NBC News Washington correspondent Nishal Senor, who outside the court when the decision came, Danny beach, walk us through this decision in favor of the government. In some ways, this really is a step back from a previous ruling to found the broad right to possess firearms. That's right.
In 2022, the Supreme Court said that Americans have a right to bear arms outside of their homes. That was seen as a big, big step and a big win for Second Amendment rights activists. That being said today, the Supreme Court is really saying there is a limit to that. And it's interesting, this 8 to 1 decision because we talk about the fact that there's a 6, 3 conservative majority here, but the majority of the court obviously were siding on one side here.
And we heard a number of concurring opinions and a number of the justice wrote concurring opinions. So you had someone like Justice Kagan and Sotomayor saying that really even at our nation's founding, their abusive husbands maybe had more protections in the laws than the wives that they were abusing. We shouldn't stay that way. You also had Tanya Brown Jackson writing that the court really needs to think about how the laws that they're doing and the decisions that they're making play into real life.
And then you have any colony there is saying the Second Amendment is not absolute. That being said, of course, we had this sentence which was Clarence Thomas and he wrote that this is really a violation of the Second Amendment. He holds that people who are subject to this, which of course people who have violated domestic violence laws, but they are getting the due process that they're needed So a split here, interesting one. But the court really making limitations on the Second Amendment and inevitably talking about the 8 to 1 ruling here on Mithra Pristine of course the abortion pill that's used by more than half of abortions in this country right now.
It was a 9 nothing ruling by the court basically saying that they didn't have standing. Right. So they knocked down to lower court. The White House says let's be clear, mithripristone is not protected just yet.
What does that tell you about this conservative court and some of the concerns among more progressive liberal Americans including the president himself? It's interesting. I think you can't really glean what the future holds for this court but it tells you that there are issues where they can't agree on it with the Persona was that the doctors and anti abortion groups just didn't have the standing. It couldn't show that they were going to be harmed by this abortion pill being on the market.
But it also says that there's a lot of other decisions that serve can swing either way sort of put up for folks. There are number of decisions that I want to walk through because they're looking at the abortion related case that deals with Idaho near total B on abortion conflicts with federal law on emergency care. You also have that one because that one relates right to women who if there is an emergency if they can have an abortion in those circumstances. So this has the potential to really explode this issue again to the four.
Exactly. You have the federal government saying emergency care at times can mean you have to have an abortion. Idaho is saying well there's an exception for the life of the mother but the government saying well there's the health of the mother, there's a future fertility so someone could survive uterus taken out is the January 6th case. It's dealing with the structure of justice and letter not that will stay.
There's an opioid related case dealing with the Sackler family and Nazi cotton. And then there's the big big one which of course is the Trump immunity case. Whether or not the former president can be seen as absolutely immune from criminal prosecution. Him and of course all the other presidents that would come behind him.
The term normally ends again to June. This thing could spill into July. We may still have several months. Well it's hot so I'm hoping that it stays into June but we'll see.
Yeah, as a person who's outside the court that's a good thing. Oh for you Misha, I appreciate your reporting here. Thank you. And after the break.
One of Capitol Hill's biggest names and progressive politics is hitting the trail of New York right now to rally support for Democratic Congressman Jamal Bowman who is in the midst of a massively expensive and highly competitive primary race. This is getting national attention. You're watching Beat the Press now. Welcome back to.
The bide between progressives and centrists within the Democratic Party will be back on full display next Tuesday in New York's 16th congressional district. That's where Congressman Joel Bowman is trying to fend off a primary challenge from the Westchester County Executive George Latimer. Today Bowman is getting a boost from Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, who joined Bowman on the campaign trail held a rally with fellow progressive New Yorker Alexandria Ocasio Cortez tomorrow. It's been expensive this race.
A whopping $24 million spent on airwaves alone. Here's a sampling. Jamal Bowman keeps attacking President Biden and it's hurting New York. Bowman called President Biden a liar.
He voted against the President's infrastructure. Actors are spending millions to smear Jama Bowman. George Langley criticized for taking money from Trump donors opposition to Biden agenda. I used to beef with Jerome Bowman, but not anymore.
Bowman put his extreme ideology ahead of us to Republican doors, supporting Netanyahu's unpopular war over Biden's calls for peace. But Jamal Bowman always stands up for what's right. That's what we call matchup. That can keep Disney but it happens back to back on the airways in New York these days.
Join me now for more on this race. Ambie News senior national political reporter Sahil Kapoor. Sahil, how worried are progressives about this challenge from Latterburn and how much book can actually pay themselves as the one true ally to President Biden? Oh, they're worried, Peter.
You don't bring in Bernie Sanders and AOC in the final run up to an election. If you are closer to renomination, you know, without much of a challenge. This is a very serious threat to Congressman Jamal Bowman backed by millions and millions of dollars, eye popping sums of money which are unusual to see in a Democratic primary. And the reason for professors are taking this so seriously is that they're eager to hold the line with their now nine squad members.
They worry about what message it could send, what impact it could have on other progressives. One of their own gets taken out. Remember it's been six years since the squad was effectively formed and its members keep facing primary challenges and they've always beaten them back. They've never lost a single one of their members and this would be if Bowman loses the first loss.
A recent poll did find Bowman down by double digits, but polling is sparse in this race and it's still unclear what the outcome will be. There have been thousands of votes cast early. And this does seem to be striking a chord when you've got someone like Hillary Clinton dumping this race, endorsed against the incumbent of Bon Bowman. She attacked George Laverick.
Now Laver's alleys are accusing Bowman has shown this, you know, in that matchup of going after President Biden, voting against his infrastructure actor, trying to make this kind of referendum on him. And Bowman, for his part, is trying to counter that, touting his support for Biden, touting support for his measures on climate change, his attempts to combat gun violence, and saying his position, not Israel, which is a huge flashpoint in this race, is about standing on moral conviction. Let me ask you something very quickly about that topic. Bowman, obviously outspoken critic of the war, the critic of the war in Gaza right now, that this really amplifies larger divisions that exist between the president and progressives right now.
How does that weigh into this race? Yeah, it absolutely does. And the issue of Israel and Hamas, that war is the single biggest flashpoint in this race. But that's what driving some of the money that's coming in from pro Israel groups, including APAC affiliates.
It's what has prompted progressives to call together their own millions of dollars to try to defend Jamal Bowman. And it's also creating consternation within the New York Democratic delegation, even in fellow New York City area blue district that includes Congressman Bowman and Congressman Richie Torres. Let's show a tweet that Richie Torres put out after Bowman accused him on a recent podcast of being calculating with this pro Israel position towards this quote. I care as much about his opinion on me as I do by his opinion on how to properly pull a fire alarm.
That's referring to a recent incident that Bowman had last year or his opinion of how remaining in Congress. He says his opinion on me is worse, leaves no impression like his legs record here. So therefore, panel on this topic joining us as Drees Caloon, Washington bureau chief of the Economist Maurice Reese Kumar, president and CEO of Olatino and NBC News political analyst and Mark Short, former chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence. Also NBC News contributor Idris Sasky for Bernie Sanders is how Hillary Clinton endorsed Latimer.
This is like the 2016 campaign just revisiting itself right now. Democratic side. Yeah, yeah. It matters a lot.
Right. So Corey Bush is also facing a primary along these lines, Bowman is the most vulnerable squad member. He's got millions of money from APAC affiliates. He's also a poor guy.
Got the crypto lobby going after him. I mean, he's really taking it on and it looks like he's losing in the polls, at least that's what we know for now. And Richards, I mean obviously the challenge of a Democrats, right is to amplify the divisions within the party, particularly as it relates to the situation between Israel and Hamas. Right now this week you've seen the sort of blowing up of the relationship between Netanyahu and President Biden.
This is a real challenge for Democrats at a key time. Well, but I think what it does do is that it demonstrates that democracy is actually playing out the parties. Right. You actually have debate within the Democratic Party.
You actually have opposition and they're battling it out and the voters will decide. And that's a lot more to be said than we see on the Republican side where Republicans have tendency of all falling in line and they happen to be falling in line all under Donald Trump. That is a challenge. Mark, you know the following line by Donald Trump is something you've witnessed on your party side right now on this occasion.
I think this demonstrates usually the party that's united is the party that's succeeding. These divisions have the potential, the potential for Democrats. I think for sure they do. I think reality is that there's a lot more energy with base.
We have Bernie Sanders and AOC come out, but I think it's representative of his situation. I think that the Democrat Party, they're probably concerned about things he'll say to hurt other candidates in general election. When you're denying the reality of the attack on October 7th and saying they really didn't rape women and kill children, that's a real problem for Democrats. And so I think that the dynamics plans are concerned how this hurts them in the general election come November.
Mundo Jones, another race that we're watching not far away there as well. He's up against Mike Lawler in the state. Your thoughts on that as we keep close eyes of these more progressive Democrats? Well, I mean the same thing with Wonder Judge.
I think the biggest challenge that the Democrats are going to have overall is how are you going to continue differentiating yourself and making sure that what Biden's been doing is creating progress in communities. When you talk to a lot of these progressive voters, they don't see the results yet. And that is the biggest challenge going to members. How do you actually explain to them what They've actually been able to do like student loans, like lowering the cost of insulin, and the list goes on.
But right now they're still at communication gap. So while we see these debates happening, I think they're fine. Right now. It looks like the Democrats are going to take the House back.
The Senate is much more tenuous. And he's going to see what does Biden do when it comes to his communication strategy? You're smiling. Well, I think the reason that the communications have failed is because the record has failed.
It's hard to communicate when your record is bad as the administration is. So it's not a surprise. I'm having a hard time convincing younger voters, minority voters about their successor. You see, when you talk about the record has failed right now, like, I recognize the messaging has been good, but doesn't the Biden have Biden campaign have a good story to tell on bipartisan achievements?
He talks about infrastructure. He can talk about a variety of things that his predecessor was unsuccessful in achieving here. Expanding NATO, I recognize as war that didn't pre exist. But where do you think is the biggest weak spot that Joe Biden's going to have to defend when he's on the debate?
Sure. I think the biggest challenge for Joe Biden is he promised to say, I'm going to restore normalcy. I'm tired of the drama the Trump administration provides. And what you wake up, you look at here is you look at, you say, okay, I got war news from Europe.
I have war in the Middle East. I have inflation driving our economy. I have a crisis of the border. I have campus unrest.
I think it sets tens of people say, you know what, this isn't really normal that I was hoping for. If there's somebody asking you about the fundraising totals right now, because to the points that both of these two are making right now, there's now there's obviously always going to be a ton of money in this race. And all of a sudden, the money game is a lot closer to even than it was before. Donald Trump really benefited, didn't benefit legally, but politically from what happened in Manhattan.
For 34 felony convictions, he saw what appears to be more than $50 million just surge into the campaign coffers right now. Does that change things, his access to more money at this point? Yeah, definitely. I mean, just a few months ago, the Biden campaign was touting how much cash they had on hand.
The eventually ahead of the Trump administration or sorry, the Trump campaign, I should say, and saying basically that they were comfortably ahead. The polls look a little bit better then than they do now. And now they have the cash disadvantage as well. They could make the claim that their campaign is maybe a little bit more advanced than swing states, but in a lot of respects, they left behind.
And I think that this goes to policy question they were talking about. If you look at the President's campaign website, there is a policy page which looks like a remarkable thing. There is one on Donald Trump's website. Even though, as you said, there's a lot that he's done in last warriors they would like to talk about, but we don't really see that happen.
He's running as though he's, I think, a few points ahead and really I don't see what he is. Well. So the biggest moment, money aside, right, is it's free earned media. When they're on the base stage this week, they're both gonna get.
What is it next week? Next Thursday, still in June. Where are we in this race? But it's the first chance.
90 minutes for each of these two are side by side. The Biden campaign wanted this June racist unit. Well, Rich Teresa, because they want to shake up things because it's been a larger static race right now, and also, frankly, because they think a lot of Americans don't realize how Trump's gonna get a ticket and they're hoping to reinforce some of the negatives he has. I dare say some Americans may have moved past it.
There's a memory hole about his challenges. So what does Joe Biden need to accomplish most clearly on the debate stage on Thursday? I think one is contrast. Because when you talk about what we had under Trump, there was so much anxiety being at the wheel and he was able to demonstrate that he did everything he promised to do except Infrastructure Week.
Biden was able to complete that. But, you know, it's interesting. You start seeing Donald Trump and break down what he was saying at his most recent rally. It's the very first time that he started lowering expectations of his ability to actually go toe to toe with Joe.
And that tells you that he himself is nervous because he's not sure he's in the position that he would want to be going into the debate. Mark, you're going to be watching for what? Well, I think I'm looking for Joe Biden. I think he has more upside and more downside from this.
The reality is that if Donald Trump has a poor performance, his base isn't gonna leave him. It's locked in. Whereas I think people wanna know, does Joe Biden have the stamina is he able to sit there for that long of a period of time continue to go with cocurry answers back and forth. And so I think he's more upside but I think he also has more risk.
There's somebody asked one last thing we were talking about earlier with Biden campaign calls these chief fakes. Now what's so challenging? We work in the journalism businesses now. People's information streams come from a variety of different places that do not come from us often.
Right. So the campaigns are as mot. Certainly the Trump campaign has tried to put out what at times have been some misleading video showing Joe Biden appearing to Wanda Alpha. In fact he was saying hi to some to some skydivers.
There's another video that was more concerning. It appeared a lot of people because it didn't appear to get it in where he appeared to just sort of have Barack Obama walking off stage. How challenging is this climate right now? Because it really is a wild west world out there in terms of getting hold of those low information voters and changing their minds.
Yeah. It also shows you don't need AI to make de fakes. Right. You can just crop the video in the right way and suddenly you create a bad impression.
I think it has a lot of effects on the campaign. I think it reinforces kind of bunker mentality for Biden's folks. They're really worried about not making this kind of scene appear and making sure that he walks in a certain way and doesn't stumble and all the rest. But I think it just shows that this is the kind of thing we're talking about.
It contrasts a lot with the poles which have been relatively flat for these last few months. I mean this could be one of those we talked about high stakes. I think this one their stakes are particularly high. Right.
There are a lot of Americans. There's still the side is out there. We're going to meet them over the course of next week for some of our reporting. You know what they want to see and what do they see once they see the two men on stage together?
It's nice to see in person. Mark, as always Richard said thank you. And next, deep disappointment in fraying relations. I'm not talking with veteran diplomat to the beliefs about what is next for us Israel relations as Prime Minister Netanyahu faces mounting pressure and push back on a variety of fronts.
You're watching me the press now. Welcome back to my administration and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu keep clashing over claims that the US is withholding weapons to Israel. The White House, the State Department, the Pentagon, all reiterating that US Policy has not changed and that with the exception of the high payload 2,000 pound bombs, the US continues to provide weapons to Israel. But Prime Minister Netanyahu remains defiant.
In a statement in Hebrew on X, formerly Twitter, he wrote that he was willing to suffer personal attacks in order to secure the transfer of those weapons. And join me now is Ambassador Dennis Ross, the former US Envoy for the Mideast region and an NBC News foreign affairs analyst. I want to ask you if I can, about this in particular. We have witnessed what I think is a dramatic low point in the relationship between Israel and the United States right now.
Prime Minister Netanyahu at odds with the White House, at odds with his own military, it appeared in recent days. What do you make of what you're seeing right now? What is behind what we're looking at, what we've been witnessing? I think the key to understanding what's going on right now, Prime Minister Netanyahu's internal politics within the coalition itself.
He has extreme members, extreme right wing members of his coalition who want to see he's going to stand up to the United States. He has a military that is for the first time really questioning and highlighting the gaps between their views and the Prime Minister's. He has religious parties who are unhappy that a rabbi's bill is not going ahead. And he is in a place where he has very little maneuvering room.
And I think he's trying to show the right wing that he is someone who can stand up to the United States when it's required. I think he hopes that will create a coalescence within the right wing and in a sense reduce some of the friction within the current coalition. He realized he doesn't have a big margin to spare. So I think what you're seeing right now is more an internally driven set of concerns than anything else.
And Ambassador Ross, we have witnessed the sort of alienation, isolation of Israel on the glob stage. Right now. The US Is stuck with them with the exception of that one review that's taking place related to 2,000 pound bombs. The US President Biden has been providing them all the aid that they have wanted, has now okayed more additional billions of dollars in military aid to Israel right now.
But as it relates to Prime Minister Netanyahu, is he in this moment, is he helping make Israel stronger or is he ultimately making Israel weaker by sort of changing the way it is viewed globally? You know, I'm going to even focus specifically on this issue of raising questions about delivery of American equipment. You are facing an increasing level of exchange of interesting level of conflict in the northern border. You are facing Sinwar and Hamas.
The last thing in the world you want to do is convey an image that there's a breach between the United States and Israel for Nasrallah in Lebanon and Hezbollah. That tells him that if there's a problem between the US And Israel, Israel is really not going to go to an all out war with Hezbollah. If you're single and you see a bridge between the United States and Israel, that tells you the time is on your side. So I would put it very much in the context of how is this affecting Israel's deterrence against those that it's fighting right now or those who in fact it wants to deter from a larger conflict.
Ambassador Tezas Ross, I very much appreciate your expertise and your perspective on this issue. Thank you very much. We're keeping a close eye on it right now. I do want to say to our viewers that we are keeping a very close eye on another situation.
This one is playing out in Arkansas right now about 70 miles south of Little Rock. Officials there about to provide an update on the shooting that took place at a grocery store that killed two people, injured six others earlier today. We were anticipating hearing from the Arkansas State Police just a matter of moments from now. Mike Cavanaugh, our expert on all things related to police and law enforcement is joining us now as well.
Mike, if you could walk us through. Mike, I'm sorry. Jim Cavanaugh is the former ATF special agent. Sorry, I wasn't thinking about Mike, who I spoke to earlier in our broadcast.
I just want to ask you, Jim, specifically on this topic right now and what we witnessed. It looks like there was a shootout with law enforcement. They arrived quickly. What more can you tell us about what we've been learning from the situation there?
Well, it was earlier reports it was a rifle used in the attack, Peter. So, you know, it'll be interesting to see the state police and the sheriff tell us about that. What was the kind of weapon you used? We had the report of two dead and six wounded and an officer injured as well.
So it looks like the police officers, you know, as patrol officers, become the point of the spear, if you will, or the first, you know, soldier in the trench. When these active shooters go, he's the first patrol car. You know, it's not, it's not a SWAT team. It's, it's, it's the nine, 11 dispatches, the nearest deputy, the nearest police officer or state trooper, and they're the ones that usually intervene and get out and, you know, tell us what happened.
That's the Arkansas State Police there. So, yeah, Jim, we'll see. I'm sure we'll have a host of federallies and the state Police right now. We'll keep.
We'll keep this conversation going until we hear from them. We expect to hear from a colonel with the Arkansas State Police in just a moment, everyone. I'm Dylan Dreyer, co host of the third hour of Today and mom to three wild boys. I've learned a lot in my years as a parent, mostly that I don't have it all figured out yet.
And I'm not the only one. This is my new podcast, the Parent Chat. Each week I sit down with someone new for honest conversation and real world advice about parenting. I am over here just, like, winging it.
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