If it's Tuesday, President Biden taught his strategy to get under Donald Trump's skin at the debate. As the former president tries to raise expectations for his opponent, his campaign gets closer to a vice presidential announcement that can happen at any moment. Philosopher Voters are voting right now in some of the most contentious, competitive, expensive primaries of 2024 that can see well known members of Congress in both New York and Colorado lose their jobs. And the US Surgeon general declares gun violence a public health crisis in America, urging the public to take one of the nation's deadliest and most polarizing issues out of the political arena and into the realm of public health.
Welcome to MEET THE PRESS Now. I'm Yamiche Shal Sender. We're just two days away from the first presidential debate and we're learning more about the strategies of both campaigns at NBC. Can now report before President Trump's vice presidential announcement could be imminent.
President Biden remains at Camp David where advisors are preparing him for the possibility of a more discipline and policy focused Donald Trump on the debate stage, rather than the bombastic and, in Trump's own words, nasty version of the former president that he often showcases as his rallies. Sources tell NBC News that President Biden's goal will be to bring out the nastier version. Trump on the debate stage. The Biden campaign is attacking Trump on the airways right now.
The potential preview Thursday night strategy. Donald Trump loves to attack Joe Biden. Joe Biden because he's focused on revenge and he has no plan to help the middle class. Meanwhile, the Trump campaign has ridiculed Biden for staying behind closed doors, highlighting the former president's quote, busy schedule as a key part of his own debate prep.
But at the same time, Trump appears to be reevaluating his opponent. After calling him the worst debater last month, Trump is now painting Bide as a more worthy opponent. According to our reporting, Trump allies are wary of repeating the same mistake they made ahead of President Biden State of the Union speech when they set expectations so low that Biden easily surpassed them. Our own Dr.
Burns questioned a Trump campaign spokesperson about that change. Former president did recently sort of change this to a little bit, saying that he wouldn't underestimate President Biden, that he could be a worthy debater. Is that a change in expectations setting there? No.
Again, like I said, two things can be true at the same time. Joe Biden has been cognitively declining again. Anyone who watches him or listens to him talk watches him trip over his own feet, fall up the stairs on Air Force One can see that. But Joe Biden at the end of the day is still a career politician who has been doing this for decades.
The former president and his campaign have also turned to a familiar debate strategy, attacking the debate moderators and the host network, suggesting they won't be fair. We should note both the Biden and Trump teams agree to the terms of the debate ahead. The big night. Sources are also telling NBC News Trump could announce his vice presidential pick before Thursday.
That comes after Mr. Trump told NBC News that he already decided who his VP will be and that they will likely attend the Thursday debate with him. Sources say there have been discussions about moving up the timeline and making a splash sooner, though the timing is not yet final. North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum and Ohio Senator J.D.
band are believed to be the top contenders. Speaking to NBC News earlier today, Governor Burgum dodged the question on whether he plans to speak with the former president before the debate. Governor, do you have any plans to speak with former President Trump ahead of the debate on Thursday? Well, looking forward to the debate for sure.
We'll get in Atlanta. Do you have any plans to speak with the former president? Thank you for being here. The tribal conference, have you had any conversations with him this week about vice president?
Joining me now from the White House, NBC News is Monica Alba and Dasha Burns in West Palm beach covering President Trump. So, Monica, I want to start with you. We have two days ago, what do we know about how things are going at Camp David and where do things stand on the president Biden City Press? Well, he has been at Camp David for the last five days now.
You mentioned he has really been juggling his day job, the presidency, with these intensive sessions with close aides and advisors. I'm told he's really been huddling with them for various hours at a time, going topic by topic on what they expect will come up in the debate while also getting some national security briefings and the latest updates on some of the extreme weather that we're seeing around the country. So he's doing a little multitasking there, which is also what they believe the president will have to do on Thursday night, which is try to present his own vision while trying to be very clear about certain things that Donald Trump may or may not bring up on Thursday and wanting the president, according to those who are familiar with his prep, to be able to really call on certain things and on some certain key issues, like when it comes to reproductive rights or when it comes to the ability to protect democracy in this country but in terms of these conversations and how that's going, they are trying to basically prepare for any kind of version of Donald Trump that may show up there in Atlanta. And they know that it could be the more familiar Donald Trump who has been on display at rallies in a more bombastic style, or it could be someone who might appear the way he has in certain recent local news interviews, who is a little bit more disciplined compared to the alternative, or it could be a total combination of those two.
So they're trying to prepare for all that. And they can see the Biden campaign. There's a fine line to walk here because they want President Biden to come out of this appearing like the adult in the room. So they're trying to also argue that doesn't really matter which version of the former president shows up, as long as President Biden is able to deliver those really key lines that certain viewers can take away on.
Again, some of those key promises he'll try to make the future and about what he would do with another four years in the White House. But then also the warnings that we believe he's going to try to really convey on what would happen if Donald Trump were to win back the White House. Now, I wonder if the White House has also announced, though, that while the president is, of course, staying behind closed doors right now, he is planning to hold a rally on Friday in battleground North Carolina. This is battleground to them.
So why North Carolina? Yeah, this is really a state that the Biden team has been eyeing now for months that they think is really potentially within grasp here, within reach. Now, they admit that there are definitely some crosswinds that they need to contend with, but they really feel like they want to make an investment in North Carolina and they want to kind of present the idea that it is winnable for them and that they're going to really show that. And they feel like what better way to do that than to really go there after the debate and try to ride some of that momentum from the evening to try to talk about why they feel these key issues that likely will have come up in the debate really matter to the voters of North Carolina.
And some of the Biden campaign folks have been highlighting the race there for governor and some of the more extreme comments made by the Republican candidate as something that maybe will turn off voters who otherwise could have voted for the GOP candidate there that could help them with independence or other kinds of voters that could help them swing it that way. Well, definitely something that we're going to be watching how they try to get into North Carolina. So thank you so much, my reporting. And Dasha, I want to turn to you and this new reporting from you and our colleagues.
Sources around Trump say he could announce his VP pick before Thursday's debate. So of course, it's Tuesday. What does that timing look like right now? And I wonder, when we look at this, is there a sort of a movement on the top contenders here?
We know sort of who the final names are. So you mean, look, this has been a moving target for the Trump campaign for a while now. We heard from the former president publicly that he was going to planning to announce at the convention or just before. But one source told me that that started to shift a couple of weeks ago.
And last week, about early last week, there was a definitive shift away from announcing at the convention. And now today, our colleagues reporting first NBC News, all these four sources telling us that the former president could announce who his vice presidential choice is as soon as this week. And several of those sources telling us it could come before Thursday's debate image. And they're working with some interesting timing here because you've got the debate on Thursday.
You've got sentencing for his convention in New York on July 11th. And then just days after that, you have the convention. So they've been working around trying to play out the pros and cons of these different moments, these different news cycles. And it seems they might be landing on this week, though, I have to win.
The CA caveat the Trump team has been brushing off saying that anyone telling you they know who or when President Trump will choose his VP is lying unless that person is named Donald J. Trump. That's a line we've heard from the campaign this entire time. I also want to ask you, the date will provide this opportunity for Trump to appeal the really disaffected Republicans and get them to return hopefully in his mind, to the full.
That includes supporters of his last Republican opponent being, of course, Nikki Haley. You spoke to some of those Haley voters. Are they still persuadable? Yeah, that's right.
I mean, some of these Haley voters, especially in Pennsylvania, where they held their primary well after Haley dropped out of the race. So they decided to come out. They decided to cast their ballots for somebody who was no longer in the race, had no chance of winning. Right.
They did it to send a message. And some of them are persuadable, but they're not necessarily deciding between voting for Trump or Biden. They're deciding whether they're going to vote for one of the two or stay home or cast a prot vote and this is what we learned from our trip to Erie Pen. This is not your mother or father's Republican party and some people don't feel anymore politically homeless is how Republican voters in Erie County, Pennsylvania often describe themselves if they don't want to vote for former President Trump.
You voted in the Pennsylvania primary for a candidate that wasn't in the race anymore. Why? I just thought it was important that my voice was heard and I think to really send a message that there are others out there like me, you know, that would prefer an alternative to President Trump. So I thought it was important just to ensure support for Governor Haley.
Kurt is not alone. Nikki Haley won 20% of Republican primary voters in his home county of Erie, Pennsylvania after leaving the race and more than 16% of battleground Pennsylvania overall. Part of a protest vote pattern seen around the country. The question now where do those voters go in November?
Right now my probably be between a Biden and a protest vote. The Biden campaign says it's doing substantive outreach to welcome and win over these Republican voters, including a seven figure ad buy the debate. A major moment for these voters. A 90 minute debate on his feet with no notes is going to tell the nation whether Biden's able to run for another four years or not.
Dave voted for Trump in 2016 and President Biden in 2020. After voting for Haley in this year's primary, he struggles with voting for either man in November. There are a lot of people that don't love Trump. Oh tons, absolutely.
What's where do you think that's coming from? Because they don't like Biden. The inflation and the immigration primarily. So I will be voting for Trump.
Like Nikki Haley who says she plans to vote for Trump, some of these Republican voters will go home to the Republican nominee. But Local political scientist Dr. Jeffrey Bloodworth says some of these voters are shift permanently. The Nick of Haley voters in Erie county are the same as they are everywhere in America.
They're college educated Republicans who live in the suburbs. The Democrats and Republicans are kind of trading coalitions. Even brown and African American working class voters are more are moving to Republican party. In exchange the Democrats are gaining college educated voters.
Haley voters Rich and Mary are part of that shift. You have another opportunity to vote in November. What are you going to do? I'm going to vote for Joe Biden.
Same here. You think there's a silent Biden voter out there? I do. I know there is.
I know there's a silent men and women. We want to talk about it. We're all going to vote for Joe Biden, but they're not ready to call themselves Democrats. At one point I thought about switching registration.
I got very close. Yeah. And I finally decided I'm not really a Democrat anymish. Both candidates have made multiple trips to Pennsylvania this year.
The battleground that they're fighting fiercely over the former president just rallying in Philly this past weekend. Yeah. Joshua, really great reporting and really interesting to see them sort of not wanting consoles. Keep them across the building for Biden.
I want to ask you before you go about some news that happened today. And that is that the New York City, the New York judge here in that hush money trial, he partially lifted a gag order on Trump. I already have fundraising emails with the Trump campaign in my inbox right now for you do too. But I wonder, can you talk a little bit about sort of how this might change things and whether or not you'll see a former president going after people now?
So what he can do now that he couldn't do before is talk about the witnesses in this case and talk, talk about the jurors. So he can't identify them, but he can talk about them. And as he continues to call this trial unfair, he can now incorporate that kind of messaging into his rhetoric. What he still cannot do is go after the family members of anyone in the court of D.A.
bragg family members, Judge Rashawn's family members or any of the other counselors in this case. The people that are exempt from that, though the Trump can criticize are Judge Rashawn and D.A. bragg himself. Image.
Yeah. Yeah. Well, definitely interesting to see that we're partially lifted. Thank you so much from Florida.
And NBC News will have special coverage and live announcements of the first presentation today hosted by CNN streaming right here on NBC News. Now, special coverage begins at 7pm Eastern on Thursday. Definitely don't miss it. And turning now to some other developments in electoral politics because like this, like to say around here, if it is a Tuesday, voters are voting somewhere and today those somewheres are New York, Colorado, Utah and South Carolina.
The Marquis race is in New York's 16th congressional district. That is where progressive Democrat and member of the so called squad, Jamal Bowman is facing a serious primary challenge from Westchester County Executive George Latimer. The contest has been bitter, personal and historically expensive. It's also become a proxy fight in the Democratic Party divisions over Israel and the Hamas war.
Meanwhile, over in Colorado, one of the Republican Party's most controversial figures, Congressman Congresswoman Lauren Boebert has shaken up the map by switching districts. She narrowly won Colorado's third district back in 2022. And today she faces a crowded primary to become the GOP's nominee in Colorado's deep red 4th district. The 4th district is also holding a separate special election today to finish out Congressman Ken bus KE term after he resigned in March.
Joining me now from Mount Vernon, New York is NBC News as Ali Vitali, who's been closely following this moment Latimer race for us. And also with me is of course Steve Kornacki at the big board to break down a tough year for House incumbent. So I wanna start with you. It's Election Day.
You're in New York, of course, in that 16th congressional district. What have you been seeing and hearing from voters today? Is there any indication that Bowman is gonna be able to sort of draw the support he needs to remain in Congress? Let me I've met Oman voters, I've met Latimer voters.
And that makes sense because Mount Vernon is an area of Westchester county that both candidates were targeting. When I was with them at the crisscross the district over the weekend. Both of them were making closing arguments, specifically in the Mount Vernon area, trying to get voters out to the polls. Now whether or not they were successful or whether or not people early voted, I guess we'll see when the results in the polls close tonight.
But I've seen a very slow trickle of voters here today. We've been here about 6:30 this morning too, on and off. And so we haven' seen a rush of people to the polls. That doesn't mean again that they're not voting.
Early voting was definitely something that voters could avail themselves of here. But look for voters who are voting for Latimer. They said that they paid attention to the way the Bowman has conducted himself. In the closing days of this campaign, there were various rallies and various moments where he had an expletive laden sort of closing pitch that Latimer himself picked up on and tried to contrast their tones, saying he was more diplomatic and didn't want to use language like that, especially if he were elevated to the position of a sitting congressperson.
One voter echoed that. They said they expect someone who's gonna be in that position to use better language and to have better decorum. And that's part of why they were voting for Lima. On the other side of this, we see the parts of the argument where black voters specifically have said to me they want to continue voting for Bowman because they feel he can best represent the interests of this district.
It is a diverse district, but there's also a heavy Jewish population here, which is where the Israel, Gaza issue really comes into play. As you and I were talking about y there are so many various dynamics here on race, on the money, flowing in, on Democratic divides, on the issue of Israel and Gaza, but also just for progressive Democrats facing tough challenges. So many layers. And there's some lessons learned regardless of how this goes tonight.
Certainly. And you talk about the layers. I mean, the money is one big part of this. It's also, of course, the national implications.
I wonder if has any of that had impact on how folks are watching this race. You know, I haven't heard any voters say to me I'm voting for Louder because of Hillary Clinton's endorsement. Nor have they said I'm voting for Bowman because of Senator Bernie Sanders or Congressman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez. But certainly those are the marquee names that weighed in on this race.
I think what's more reflective is the ways that people are saying and yesterday when I 2 days ago when I was Latimer, he had local clergy who were with him saying that over his 30 years in office here, they have seen him around this district. They made the contrast themselves. They haven't seen as much of Bowman, but Bowman has taken a more national and media driven approach. See which one wins out.
Yeah. Well, thank you so much again for sticking around and having all that reporting from York. I can't wait to see what happens. And Steve, of course, you're back at the big board.
So we just heard from Ali about sort of how things are looking on the ground. Is it surprising that Jamal Balman is facing the tough primary in this district? You know, honestly it isn't because he did have it wasn't close in terms of, you know, his next opponent to him, but he had a tricky primary two years ago. Let's just take a look here at the district.
Here's the matchup tonight. And what you see here is the district alleys in Westchester County. Westchester County's up here. It's almost the entire district.
Not quite. It's going to be, you know, between 90 to 95% of the votes that are cast tonight, they're going to come out of Westchester county portion of the district anyway. You do also have a slice of the Bronx that's going to be between 5 and 10% of the district. Now in 2022, when I say Bowman had a tricky prior year, he had multiple challengers.
So there wasn't one who Everybody kind of coalesced around who wanted to beat Bowman. He had multiple challengers. That said in the Westchester portion of the district, you only have 52% of the vote. The combination of all the other Democrats running against in that primary in Westchester got 48%.
And there are some towns in Westchester county where Bowman didn't just lose two years ago, he got blown out. So keep that in mind. Also in the Bronx section, he got 91% of the vote. His nearest opponent got 9% there.
So, you know, he already had a bit of a problem here in Westchester. The controversies of the last year or so, certainly after October 7, but also the alarm bell incident in the Capitol. You got to think his position. It's hard already for the Westchester.
The position got worse there. It wouldn't take much for him to lose this seat. So we've seen what the polls say. We'll see how that matches up here with reality tonight.
Yeah, I just want to ask you about incumbent and they're saying power here. You have obviously Bowman is an incumbent. What are we seeing there? Yeah, so let's take a look here.
Okay to go. All right, Colorado here, Lauren Boebert, bit of a different story here. The circumstances different. You know, Boebert, we're in the fourth district right now in the fourth district is over here.
It's the Eastern Plains and it stretches into the southern excerpts of Denver. So this, this right here is Douglas County. This is actually gonna be about half the vote in the district. He's gonna come out as exurburbing County.
Otherwise the entire Eastern Plains here, you're bordering to Nebraska, you're born in Kansas, even touch the Oklahoma of the Oklahoma panhandle there Previously Boulder was out here in the third district and she ran into some trouble in 2022, as you may recall. You know, less than a thousand votes, she survived in her re election. This district is still a Republican district, but it had gotten less Republican. Trump won it himself.
Trump won the district by 8 points. Not sure why this isn't writing, but Trump won this district. It's supposed to be an eight ball. Trump won the district by eight points in 2020.
Meanwhile, where Boebert has now moved, Trump won it by 19 points. So Boebert running for reelection here was a very iffy proposition. She didn't live in the 4th district before, but she can win the primary. Winning the general election, much less complicated in the fourth.
And then what happened is she got a big break in this prim like we talked about Bowman two years ago. Multiple Republican primary candidates in this race. You see two of them here. This list goes on and on.
There is not consolidated opposition to Boebert in this district. So she comes in with national name recognition. That certainly extends to the fourth, with plenty of money and then with extremely divided competition here. So the odds of Boebert winning tonight certainly has a very decent chance on paper of winning the district.
If she can. She's probably not gonna have to sweat the general election like she did in western Colorado, seems quite accurately. No one breaks it down like you. So thank you so much for being an intrigue to you in person.
You too. Thank you much. And coming up, Julian Assange, the infamous founder of WikiLeaks at the center of one of the largest disclosures of classified in Vote US History, has now agreed to a plea deal with the Justice Department. Plus Benjamin Netanyahu's newest political crisis.
Why a ruling from Israel's Supreme Court could end Israel's governing coalition. You're watching me the PRESS now. Welcome back. The years long legal battle over one of the long, the largest and most damaging leaks.
Classified material in American history appears to be coming to an end. The Justice Department announced an apparent plea deal with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. Right now, Assange is on his way to the US Territory of the Marian Islands and northern Marian Islands where he's expected to plead guilty on espionage and espionage charge. According to court documents yesterday, Assange will be sentenced to 62 months of prison, but he will be credited for the five plus years he served in a high security British prison.
That means he'll be free to return to his native Australia. Assange famously leaked troves of confidential State Department cables as well as US Military documents about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. And during the 2016 presidential election, his platform, WikiLeaks, released thousands of emails that were stolen from the DNC by Russian hackers looking to help the Trump campaign. Joining me now is NBC News justice reporter Ryan Reilly.
Ryan, thanks for being here. So for many who may not remember who Julian Assange is, could you talk a little bit about him? And also how notable is this plea deal, especially in the shadow of an election year? Yeah, you gotta take yourself back to the first Obama term and really several iPhone generations ago when you're talking about this, this was sort of when we were first starting out, when this was all bubbling up in 2010 is when a lot of these documents were released.
So we really are talking about almost 15 years here. The conspiracy really started in late 20 2009. So it's really been a long time. And I think when you look at this overall, with what the Justice Department ended up here with a five year sentence ess time served in that London prison, you have to look at what they were sort of weighing, right?
Because the whole thing with plea deals is that one ends up happy in the end. And really what you're looking at is Chelsea Manning ultimately got a step into commute sentence by former President Barack Obama of seven years in federal prison. So I think just your probably average viewer, it would make a ton of sense for the person who actually was in the military, who actually had that classified, had that classified reading, was allowed to get those documents, actually provide those documents to the publisher to end up with less time than the publisher himself. And obviously the WikiLeaks raises a lot of these general First Amendment concerns because it's basically really tough to draw that line under the law of where regular media outlet starts and where your sort of WikiLeaks outlet begins, right, because you're talking about publishing all of these documents and raw materials.
But often source documents are something like that. Media outlets publish on their own, even if they do more selective publishing of them and really report around them and not sort of just dump them all generically online, which is sort of what the leaks did here. So it was a really tough face and there are a lot of risks potentially bringing it back here. You'd have to bring it for a jury, you'd have all that litigation.
And that's even if you were able to get it out of Britain in the first place, if you're able to even support Amanda to let this case go forward and bring it to the United States. There have been fight after fight after fight over a variety of issues that they have brought up in this case to try to keep this in mind and stop the extradition of Assange. So essentially this is a case now that five years after it was brought, it's going to be wrapped up and sort of set aside and passed over. But I think you're definitely going to have some folks in the intelligence community who are upset saying that this doesn't send a strong enough message, especially when it's someone who doesn't actually have to serve anytime in the United States.
So there might be some fallout within the intelligence community over this. But overall, when you look at what they were weighing and the risk of bringing this to the United States, you can sort of see why they would go forward with this dealing. Well, certainly a lot of things going on, especially A lot of risks and calculations here that you break down so well. So thank you so much, Ryan Riley.
And up next, NBC News embeds with the US Navy on the coast of Gaza. We get a firsthand look at the peer built by the US get desperately needed humanitarian aid into Gaza, but it isn't going as planned. You're watching me, the press now. Welcome back.
Today, Israel's defense minister was at the Pentagon meeting with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin amid growing concerns about the escalating conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. Secretary Austin once again reiterated the administration's support for Israel and its right to defend itself. But he also raised alarm bells about what a conflict along Israel's northern border could mean for the region. Region.
Israel's provocations threatened to drag the Israeli and Lebanese people into a war that they do not want. Such a war would be, would be a catastrophe for Lebanon and it would be devastating for innocent Israeli and Lebanese civilians. Another war between Israel and his left could easily become a regional war with terrible consequences for the Middle East. While he emphasized the need for a ceasefire in Gaza, Secretary Austin also urged Israel to do more to protect Palestinian civilians and increase the flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza.
That comes as the Pentagon continues to face questions about the effectiveness of its US Built temporary peer as aid distribution appears stalled in these news, Pentagon correspondent Courtney Qb was on the pier off the Gaza coast and filed this report. Report this is JLOX Joint Logistics over the shore. It's a temporary US Military care system that's been anchored into the beach here in Gaza to deliver humanitarian aid to the Palestinian people. Now even though this system has delivered millions of pounds of aid, nothing has been distributed inside Gaza since June 9th.
So there are now pallet after pallet that are piled up on the shore there waiting to go to these desperate people. But it's not just security that proves itself to be a limitation to this pure system, the waves. Right now it's actually relatively calm in the Mediterranean, but you can see that the pier itself is floating around. Once these waves get to about 4ft high, the system has been completely taken off the beach, dismantled and go back to the shore in Israel to a port in Ashdod to weigh out the waves.
If they don't take it apart, it risks being damaged. And that's what happened several weeks ago, taking the entire system offline. Days now the question is when will the United nations or the World Food Program restart deliveries and get some of this aid off the beach? And the people in Gaza, really incredible reporting there by quoting QB off that pier off the coast of Gaza.
Thank you for that. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Benjamin continues to try this to hold his tenuous governing coalition together despite intensifying wartime pressure. And today, Israel's high court delivered a potential blow to his political standing. The court ruled that ultra Orthodox Jewish men who represent a key part of Anyahu's governing coalition must be drafted into the military.
For more on this, I'm joined now by NBC News international correspondent Josh Letterman. So, Josh, thanks for being here. So how is Benjamin reacting to this ruling? And could it really collapse his already fragile coalition?
Coalition? We've heard from Netanyahu's Likud Party in each saying that they're surprised and disappointed by this ruling. It's suggesting it wasn't really necessary because there's legislation that Netanyahu is working on to actually codify these exemptions for a more limited portion of the population, essentially trying to give something to both sides. Okay, we're going to enlist a few more ultra Orthodox, but still maintain some exemptions.
And that effort to split the babies is really reflective of the crisis in Netanyahu finds himself in. He cannot successfully appease all sides here. He's either going to offend overwhelming part of the population that supports and wants the ultra Orthodox to be drafted to do their part to protect the nation while it's at war, or he's going to deeply upset the two ultra Orthodox parties that are part of this coalition and who are threatening to pull out if these exemptions are not protected. And so you can see why this is an impossible situation for him and why the potential withdrawal of those two parties could possibly lead to Netanyahu losing power.
Yeah, and this is really a striking decision by the Israeli Supreme Court. How much did ongoing war with Hamas factor into the court's opinion? Well, it certainly factors into the climate in which this decision is being made, because the Israeli public is very attuned to the sacrifices that they're making for this war. You have tens of thousands of Israelis who are either in the IDF or the reserves who have been away from their families.
They've been risking their lives, in some cases giving their lives. As this war has been fought in, the military is stressed very thin, but that's actually not a direct reason for the timing of this decision, which has more to do with the fact that the law that created and allowed these exemptions actually expired way back in 2017. And since then, there have been various delays. The government or the courts have allowed extensions to it, while they hoped that there would be a broader legislation to address this more head on.
And the Supreme Court finally said, time's up. There's no law right now on the books that says there should be an exemption. And so these individuals simply have to serve. Well, Josh Letterman, thank you so much for that reporting on really what is gonna be something we're watching very closely.
And after the break, the US Surgeon general says America's gun violence problem is now a public health crisis. Talk to a public health expert about the about why the designation matters and whether it could help save lives. You're watching THE PRESS now. Welcome back.
Today, the nation's top doctor declared a new public health emergency for something that kills more than 48,000 people a year. But it isn't a disease or a virus. It's guns. In a historic Surgeon General Vet Murphy declared firearm violence a public health crisis that comes as we approach the midway point of a year in which at least 249 mass shootings have been reported in the U.S.
according to the Gun Violence Archive. That's ro three mass shootings every two days. Dr. Murphy explained his decision this morning on MSNBC.
It is a public health issue that merits a public health approach. And we've taken public health approaches to challenges like tobacco car accident related deaths over the years, and we've been able to reduce the toll of those public health challenges. We can do the same thing here with gun violence. And it's urgent that we do so.
I'm joined now by Dr. Megan Ranney, Dean of the Yale Public School of Health Public health, I want to say, pushed public health approach to gun violence just last month. You're here now, and I want to instantly talk to you about what the significance of declaring gun violence a public health crisis is. Speaking I am not just a public health professional and dean, but also an emergency physician.
Over the course of my career, I have taken care of hundreds of victims of gun violence, gun homicide, gun suicide, gun domestic violence. But it's not just taking care of the people who've been shot. I've also taken care of their mothers and fathers, their siblings, their community members, their friends, each of whom experience health harms from a gunshot wound. And the surgeon general.
Labeling this epidemic as what it is, a public health crisis gives us tools and a forward path to try to reduce those health harms, certainly to reduce the number of people who are shot and killed by a gun each year, but also to address that horrible ripple effect that this epidemic has on our American society. And as you just said, you have a holistic view of this from a number of different angles, including, as you said, talking to the families and those who left behind this gun violence. You wrote about a four step process to addressing gun violence as a public health crisis. What are the.
So the first step is that we measure it. We say how common is it and who does it affect? The second step is that we evaluate who's at risk or who's protected. All other things equal.
What makes someone more likely to be on the wrong side of a gun or less likely to get shot. Then using those tools and those analyses, we start designing interventions. We try to figure out what might work to protect people or to reduce the risk of harm. That might be economic incentives, things like how you know for driving you get a bonus on your insurance if you haven't gotten a ticket or haven't gotten a crash.
Maybe there are economic drivers we can use to reduce the risk of harm. Maybe there are individual level educational programs. I'm working on some of those myself. With programs like 4H on a National level to help reduce the risk of kids, parents or instructors being involved in shootings.
It might be structural change. Things like putting in guns. Gardens into vacant lots have been shown to reduce the risk of shootings in the community around them. And of course there might be policies that make a difference.
Laws like safe storage laws or red flag laws. So after that third step where we've developed and tested interventions, the fourth step is that we scale up what works. We don't waste time or taxpayer dollars on doing things that aren't going to make a difference. But we take the tools that we have and put them out in place.
And as you just laid out those steps, do you think that the Surgeon General, that his declaration today is following part of the approaches you just outlined? Very much so. When you read that report, really the first part of it is laying out those numbers. How common is it?
Who does it affect? We know, for example, that gun deaths, about 2/3 of them are suicides. Those mostly affect older white men. But gun homicides disproportionately affect young black men.
He talks about that and more the data behind it. Then he talks about what do we know about risk and protective factors and what don't we know. He calls for better data. You quoted Unicorn Violence Archive, which is an amazing source of data on gun shootings across the US That's a non profit.
It's crazy that we have this epidemic and we don't have good government or hospital data. Who's getting shot and where. The Surgeon General calls that out. And then he highlights the things that we already know that work and the need for more research to give us more solutions that are acceptable and usable by communities.
He calls out the importance of a harm reduction approach where, of course, we love to get to zero injuries or deaths, but gosh, I'll take any progress right now. And he talks about some of the ways we can get there. As he talks about that, he also talks about the politics. Here's what he told the New York Times.
The surgeon general said, quote, this issue has been politicized, has been polarized over time. But I think when we understand that this is a public health issue, we have the opportunity to take it out of the realm of politics and put it into the realm of public health. Now, of course, I cover politics and I've seen this issue be really polarizing to Americans and politicians. Do you think that you can really treat gun violence as a health crisis without also politicizing this issue?
Absolutely. I'll give you a couple examples. Why? The first, of course, is that no one wants their loved one shot or killed by a gun.
And so that's the first way that it depoliticizes it. It puts us all on the same page. The second is a very personal example. I testified for the Senate Judiciary Committee last November around exactly this issue.
And I will tell you, we have folks from both sides of the aisle that were fully supportive. And we've seen this, of course, in the bipartisan Sea for Communities act that was passed last year, co sponsored by Senator Cornyn and by Senator Murphy from Connecticut. So there's great, actual, tangible examples. And then the third thing you mean is that I actually think this is the space for media to step up.
So often coverage of these horrible shootings happens only from a political perspective instead of also talking about how we as healthcare providers or public health professionals can help make a difference and provide healing and can most of all provide hope to a country that too often worries to become hopeless and has just given up on trying to address this issue. Now, this is certainly an issue I know a lot of people would want hope to be there. Thank you so much. Dr.
Megan Ranney, of course, the dean of the Yale School of Public Health. Thank you. Thank you. And still to come, primaries, politics and the debate stage.
It's a major week in race for president and the race for the control of Congress. The panel's next. You're watching MEET THE PRESS now. Welcome back.
I'm now joined by Steve Israel, former Democratic congressman from New York. He's now director of the Cornell University Institute of Politics and Global Affairs. And also with me, Neil Rothman, senior writer for National Review. So, Steve Job one, thank you for remembering all you work in these days.
It was a great way to start a conversation. But of course, there's a lot going on in Westchester county today, so I want to focus your attention there. Tell me a bit about what you think that state that racism tells of the Democratic Party. Well, this is a race, it's primary between an incumbent, Jamal Bowman and House of Representatives and his challenger, the county executive of Westchester, George Latimer.
And I think this is a race that is magnified by the headlines. Context matters in elections. In the context of this race is Israel and Gaza. I believe that that's become kind of a semi issue.
Congressman Bowman, who represents one of the largest Jewish constituencies in the country, has been very critical of Israel, has made some statements that many people thought went a little bit too far. And George Latimer has challenged him. This teaches us several things. Number one, $25 million will be in this race.
It's the most expensive Democratic primary in history. And secondly, it's going to tell us whether to what extent headlines in Israel, a continued and prolonged war, to what extent does it impact American politics. I would suggest that this primary would be the primary it is without that sentinel issue being debated there. If Jamaican Bowman lo that's a warning for the squad and other progressives.
You know, I believe that every race is its own race. I've shared Democratic campaign committee and you know, I'm not sure that there are templates. But it will concern some members of the squad if Bowman Bowman goes down. But it will also energize various elements of the squad.
If he goes down, they're going to believe that they're going to need to reorganize, get some energy and reclaim seats that seem to be in jeopardy. Yeah. And no, it's, you know, Seymour talking about this idea that every race is its own race. But Jamal Bowman, of course, has had a number of sort of issues that have happened in hot water.
Do you think of any one issue that makes him more vulnerable and maybe even likely to lose tonight or at least more vulnerable tonight? Oh, yeah, it's Israel. It's most certainly Israel. It is the Greece which he has premised his entire political career on his opposition to Israel.
It is the issue that jazzes him most. It fires him up. It fires up the space. He gets him out of bed in the morning.
And it is something that has energized establishmentarian Democrats to oppose him outright as Hillary Clinton did, or to hold and train their fire until the very last minute. Like for example Speaker King Jeffries did today, only reluctantly endorsing as a member of his his caucus, which is tantamount to a non endorsement. This district has become something of a, an indication of the tension within the Democratic party. Representative Bowman replaced Elliot Angle, if you recall.
More southern Democrats more comfortable with extroverted American foreign policy and powers of opponents vision is diametrically opposed. And I think that what you're seeing from more southern quarters of the Democratic Party is absolutely a warning to squad type progressives that they would prefer to, you know, have their enthusiasm, engage their voters, energize their voters, but certainly not turn off the bill of the electorate as Congressman Bellum has done. Yeah, we're talking about sort of how you speak to the electoracy. There's going to be this big debate of course on Thursday.
I wonder what you're thinking about it. Maybe who has the upper hand here, who might be benefit the most here. This is something very important how you speak to the electorate. Let's understand this debate.
The electorate is largely decided. The 85% of people watching that debate have made their decision. They're locked in. 15% may be undecided.
That's the persuasive electorate that both President Biden and former President Trump need to message to. And in my view what Biden needs to do is simply remind those voters what they didn't like about Donald Trump, why they voted against him in 2020 and due to contrast on policy. This is a guy who wants to raise tariffs, which means prices go up. I President Biden, I reduce the price of insulin, capped it.
I'm reducing prescription costs. This is the President who brought us the Dobbs decision which is creating radical policies at the state level. I will continue to fight that decision and ensure reproductive rights. That contrast is very important.
So of course he is right now what President Biden needs to do. What do you think poor President Trump needs to do? Well, he's a much easier job frankly. Joe Biden is deeply underwater, is pretty unpopular and Donald Trump needs to do what Joe Biden did him in 2020, which is simply to present himself as a competent, capable alternative.
And if Donald Trump meets that threshold, Joe Biden's gonna be in a little bit of trouble with respect to your advice. And I don't think you're wrong necessarily that his accomplishments are valuable to the persuadable voters, but his base is not enlivened by that they are not moved to go out to the polls or even watch this debate. As the poll suggests, more Trump voters are enthusiast watches debate than Joe Biden voters. The former president needs this to be a negative partisanship election.
He needs to establish a contrast that enthuses Democrats not to vote for him necessarily. I'm sure he'd love that, but it seems to be off the table. What he needs is to have them really focused on what the prospect of a second Trump term would be and to be terrified of that and turn out as a result of that. So I'd expect to see a lot of reminding him of what Trump was.
Haley Butlers that are gonna be watching this. Nikki haleybillers have said in just about every poll that they're willing to come home to Donald Trump. So while you have these 20% or so, the Republican elector that turns out to vote against Donald Trump, every poll of general elector has found Trump winning 90, 90 of the Republican Party, which suggests that those voters want to come home and vote for Donald Trump. They are sending a message to Donald Trump that he hope has received.
But whatever it's received or not, they seem to be signing their intention to vote for Donald Trump. You guys expect the Republican Party to be relatively cohesive in voting against Joe Biden if not for Donald Trump November? Joe Biden needs to have the exact same phenomenon happen on the Democratic side. Those Nikki Kelly voters matter in seven states in one congressional district in Nebraska.
Let's remember this is Electoral College. So those Nikki Kelly voters, they're just not going to influence the Electoral College except for those battlegrounds. And so it is tantamount for Joe Biden at this debate to speak to them and make this a referendum not on Joe Biden, but on Donald Trump. And Donald Trump has the same challenge.
Make this a referendum on Jo. And I've been talking to some Biden folks who are sort of gearing up for this VP pick by Trump. They're basically going to try to say whoever this person is is basically a mini Trump. What do you think the advantage here is?
The variant sort of advantage of the VP pick can be. First of all, here's my question. Donald Trump enabled gallows to be built in the Capitol to presumably hang Mike Pence. Donald Trump has called Mike Pence a traitor.
Who would want to be Donald Trump's vice president. True that. Apparently a lot of people know that too, and quite a few more auditioning. In fact, a lot of them are auditioning on those terms.
And you hear J.D. vance talk, or Elise Stefanik or some others there pose the question, would you do what Mike Pence would not on January 6th? And some of them choose not to answer the Pence, the Pantsis and the world say with gusto, yes, we would. That will tell us a whole lot about how Donald Trump intends to govern in his second term.
If one of the primary factors he applies to choosing his vice president is whether or not they would have the gumption to do what my Pence simply refused do on January 6th. You think we get it before Thursday, the day before Thursday? Kind of doubt? I don't think so.
He wants Donald Trump to master suspense. He does not want to step on the lead before Thursday. Yeah. All right.
Well, Steve, it's ridiculous. Thank you both for being here, for breaking all this down. We'll be back tomorrow with more MEET THE press. Now the news continues right now with Yasmin Fuzik, who is in for Holly Jackson right now.
I'm Greg Knelf. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers.
I've always been a glass half full kind of guy, and now I'm talking to some people who look at the world that way, too. Some really fascinating folks who share their defining moments, their triumphs, their challenges. Their stories are fun and quite candid. So I hope you'll join me each week.
Who knows, you might just come away with your own glass half Full. Search Glass Half Full with Craig Melton From Today on YouTube and we'll let you get it.