Meet the Press NOW – June 28

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If it's Wednesday, new details emerge on the unprecedented plot against Putin, suggesting top Russian military officials didn't just know about the armed rebellion. Some even supported it. Plus, it's Donald Trump's party. Amid more witness testimony, more legal peril.

There's more evidence of Donald Trump's grip on the GOP and control over the conservative echo chamber. And President Biden hits the road trying to sell skeptical voters on his economic agenda as his campaign faces an electorate that is deeply skeptical of the country's future and the president's abilities to do the job. Happy Wednesday and welcome to Meet the Press now. I'm Chuck Todd reporting from Florida.

We begin today with new reporting on the rebellion that is royal Russia and raise new questions about Vladimir Putin's hold on power in Moscow. The latest details of what was going on behind the scenes in the days ahead of the revolt read like something out of a Tom Clancy novel. The Wall Street Journal, citing Western officials, is reporting that the leader of the rebellion, the Wagner Group's Yevgeny Fregosin, was planning to capture Russia's military leadership. This was not about Putin, but the military leadership.

And that he was forced to launch his operation sooner than he wanted because Moscow's intelligence agencies had become aware of his plot. Also today, there are times reporting that U.S. officials believe a senior Russian general, the man who once commanded Russian forces in Ukraine for being sacked earlier this year, but still kept in the leadership, had advanced knowledge of the mutiny, raising questions of disloyalty inside Putin's inner circle. The Times also reports that American officials said there are signs that other Russian generals may have supported Fregosin's aims as well.

This morning, a Kremlin spokesperson responded to that report calling it, quote, speculation and gossip. You should know, NBC News has not confirmed either report, but again, we're dealing with the Russians here, okay, is a feature of misinformation and deflection and things like this. So all of this, we're very open source about this, and we're very skeptical at the same time. Meanwhile, Putin is trying to restore his image in standing, with propaganda projecting calm and control in Moscow and within the Russian military.

But as the president and the secretary of state made clear today, the events of the last few days have made it quite clear that Putin does indeed have a domestic problem on his hands. This is fundamentally an internal matter that the Russians and Putin are going to have to reckon with, but you had a direct challenge to Putin's authority from Fregosin. You see dissension in the ranks, and it's not as if you need a satellite to figure that out. The question for Putin and the world is just how deep do these cracks inside the regime go?

What happens next? The playbook of both authoritarians, when they have had their power questioned, is that they need a quick moment to try to demonstrate renewed rifts on power. So join me now, Michael McCall, the former U.S. ambassador to Russia, an NBC News international affairs analyst, and Peter Baker, the chief white house correspondent for the New York Times, former Moscow bureau chief for the Washington Post and NBC News political analyst.

I want to start with you, because it's your colleagues in the New York Times that reported this idea that a high-ranking general inside the Russian military leadership, very friendly with Fregosin, may have been helping on the inside so revoking. What can you tell us about him? Well, that's exactly right. And that's, of course, what Vladimir Putin is most afraid of.

Not just that Fregosin was a threat to him, but that it represented something larger. Clearly, the theory of the case that Fregosin's troops were moving toward Moscow was that they would pick up support from the regular military. Because, of course, his 25,000 troops, if that's the right number, were not going to be able to overwhelm the entirety of the Russian armed forces. The idea is, as we've seen through Russian history, that regular troops would join in.

It didn't actually happen in any large numbers. But this report now, by my colleagues, suggests why he might have thought it would, right? That he had, perhaps, connections with top generals about his goal and what he might be doing. Now, there's a report by the Moscow Times, a very well-respected English-language paper, that he may, in fact, now be in trouble.

So that Fregosin, in fact, he may be arrested. That hasn't been confirmed yet. But, of course, you can imagine what would happen if you were Vladimir Putin and you learned that one of your generals, if not many of your generals, knew what was about to happen. Look, I'm glad you pointed out that article.

I was about to point it out with you, Mike McFall. But also to say, look, none of us have confirmed it. We haven't. Obviously, the New York Times hasn't.

But, Mike, is this a show of force? Or is this rooting out somebody who may have truly been a part of this? Well, Chuck, we don't know. Let's keep saying that.

And the Moscow Times have reported it. Lots of bloggers close to following this war have reported it. And Sutter Beacon was arrested. They're saying he was arrested on Sunday, July 25th.

June 25th, excuse me. So we'll have to wait and see. But we do know a few facts. Sutter Beacon was close to Pregosin.

That is well known. He was kind of his handler. He was put in charge of the forces in Ukraine when it wasn't going well. And the bloggers close to the military, the kind of pro-nationalistic groups, they all applauded this.

They said, OK, fine, we have a fighter here. And then mysteriously, he was demoted. And Gerasimov was put in charge. And they were all upset about that.

Those are things we know. Number two, Sutter Beacon gave a hostage tape. I can't think of a better word. When the rebellion was going on, he put out a video message.

And he says, Wagner soldiers, Wagner fighters, put your weapons down. I watched that several times. He sounded like he was drunk to me, Chuck. I'm just speculating.

He did not look like he was happy to be giving that message. And another guy did, too, General Alexeyov, a similar kind of message. And then just hours later, Alexeyov showed up in Rostov chatting with Pergoshan. So there's a lot we don't know here.

But I would not be surprised if he was arrested. But it's also, if that's true, very dangerous for Vladimir Putin. Because this guy is popular not just with the Wagner fighters, but with Russian soldiers as well. Peter Baker, are you surprised that Putin seems to have this distant relationship with his military leaders?

I mean, the idea that somebody that high up could be doing this without his knowledge. I mean, I take it this is not a guy that's in there looking at the maps all the time. Yeah, I mean, look, Vladimir Putin is a creature of security services more than he has in the military. He didn't serve in the military, he served in the KGB.

So his power base has always been with the modern-day versions of that agency, the FSB, the SVR, GRU. He has not been, you know, he's catered, obviously, to the military over the years, but he's not of them. And I think that that suggests that there's a weakness there, at least in the upper ranks. Remember, why would the upper ranks be upset?

For a lot of reasons the ambassador just talked about. The war has been going badly. Their people have been the ones who are getting, you know, slaughtered on the battlefield. They feel like they've not gotten the support they need.

The leadership in Moscow, that's Pergoshan's indictment, has been incompetent. And so, you know, it wouldn't necessarily be surprising that the professional military was sour on this war, given how badly it's gone, given that they've been led, in effect, to such a disastrous outcome. Michael Fall, how advantageous is it to us publicly to let the world know how much we knew about this, and how much of this is too much? That's a good question, Chuck.

I don't have a great answer. I would say two things. I'm always surprised when the intelligence folks tell us about something that happened, and then they tell us what we knew about this all along. That's an interesting thing.

I know, but I think it's actually useful, but not too far. It's useful, at least when I look at it. If the CIA knew about this, you know, weeks ago, surely the Russian FSB, the Russian intelligence, knew about it, and it suggests that they knew about it, and they didn't do anything about that. That is another, you know, there are many cuts here at Putin's authority as being really in charge.

That just adds to another one. I think quietly, not publicly, we use that information. We use this whole fiasco to talk to people like Xi Jinping and Modi and a bunch of defense centers around the world to say, hey, you put your bets on this guy. You said you think he's a strong leader.

He's not a strong leader. Things are getting out of control. Why are they getting out of control? Because Putin invaded Ukraine.

I think that's really important for people to understand. None of this would be happening if he didn't invade Ukraine, and the longer that war goes on, my prediction is there will be more episodes like this. So if you're Xi Jinping, and all you care about is stability in Russia, and maybe you care about your buddy Putin staying in power, maybe it's time to put a little more pressure on him to say, time to wrap this up so you can get your own house in order. Peter, do you have any indication that U.S.

diplomats are sending that message? Well, the message U.S. diplomats have sent in the last few days is it wasn't us. You know, this is not some sort of a CIA-provoked uprising that had nothing to do with it.

Because that's usually the first page of the Kremlin playbook, to blame any domestic troubles on the United States and the West to say it's all about them, not about us. They haven't done that. I don't know that we've had other kind of communication. I haven't heard of that at this point.

Mike might know better. But I think the point is to whatever information that is being put out by the American side is probably being put out selectively in order to undermine the credibility of the regime to the point that the ambassador was talking about with their allies or at least the neutral states like India and Brazil and so forth. You know, we don't know a lot about what's going on. It's worth remembering that.

There are intrigues within intrigues here. And here at Larry Putin, I think the most worrisome thing is you have to look around the room and not be entirely sure who's on the other side and who's not. Yeah, that's amazing. Mike McFaul, the question that I certainly hear the most from people that ask me what I know and I say why I always ask Mike, which is how is Berghausen still alive and do you expect him to survive?

Again, great question. Don't have a great answer, so I'm going to speculate like we all are doing. Thank you, Peter, for reminding us what we don't know. I would say two things.

Chuck, if he kills him now, he makes a martyr out of him at a time when all those Wagner mercenaries are still armed. Remember, Putin went on television in this dramatic speech pleading with these guys to join his side. The people that were traitors just a few days ago, he called heroes, and he was trying to split them from the commanders, from Berghausen and his commanders. So that suggests to me he's still got a Wagner problem.

He doesn't want to, you know, in any way inflame them. I suspect if he finally gets that under control and gets them to a base in Belarus or they might join some special forces. By the way, he had another concession in that speech. Really important.

Not getting enough attention. He didn't say you have to join the army, which was the old offer. He said you can join the army or other forces. And that, to me, was a giant concession.

You don't have to go fight with Gerasov off the guy you hate. You can go be part of some special military operation to other people. But once he gets that under control, if I were Berghausen, then I would be very fearful. Fascinating.

Putin's got to micromanage in so many different ways. That's when you know you are losing your grip. You're not sure which copos to trust. Mike McFall, former ambassador of Russia.

Peter Baker, former Moscow bureau chief of New York Times, chief political analyst these days. Thank you both. Let me now bring in a member of the Ukrainian parliament, Kira Rudik. Honorable Rudik, thank you for joining.

Let me just start with, look, you're watching what happens in Russia at the same time you're still being bombarded by the Russian military. In some ways, how do you keep everybody focused on the mission? Hello, thank you so much for having me. Well, you know, when we were watching what was going on in Russia, we were cheering for both teams.

Because let me make it very, very clear, there were no good guys there. And indeed, the coup was not stopping them from attacking us almost every single night. And we're not stopping them of launching a missile attack on the Pits area in Kramatorsk, where 11 people died just yesterday. And our emergency services are still trying to find people under the rubbles.

However, we look at it as a chance because we hope that this event was very demotivating for Russian soldiers. Because they should be really confused, not knowing whom to trust, and having double thoughts, definitely. Looking at what is going on and their potential future, that it is not decided and that things can change really, really quickly. On another point, what we were discussing here broadly in Ukraine was, when we were watching this coup, have you noticed that Russian people, they didn't take a part in it at all?

So there were no people blocking the streets against Prigozhin or supporting him and going with him to Moscow. They were basically like observers. And for us in Ukraine, it is almost unthinkable because we take a huge part in everything that's happening in the country. We have gone through a couple of revolutions, and we basically have changed what the world thinks of how the war would go with the fact that we took it in our hands.

Ms. Riddick, I'm curious how important you think it is for the Russian people to hear from Yevgeni Prigozhin, who very loudly said, hey, Ukraine, this wasn't a Nazi country, they weren't getting ready to invade us. How important do you think it was for a Russian military leader like Prigozhin, even a rogue one like that, to say the same thing President Zelensky had said for a year and a half? I don't think that Russian people really care a lot about military operation or the mission of it.

I think if you take a random hundred people and ask them why Russia invaded Ukraine and what is going on, not too many of them would be able to explain. They would try to repeat what they heard, but they would not think a lot about it. You know, it was one of our major mistakes at the very beginning of the full-scale invasion because we had high hopes that Russians just don't know what's going on, and if we explained to them well, they would go on the streets, they would protest, that they would try to stop Putin. But no matter how much effort we and our allies had, it just didn't happen.

They didn't care much. So I don't think that they really reacted to that. You see how they were greeting Prigozhin like a hero, sending him flowers, and I think right now the latest research is showing that he's receiving like 60% of trust of Russians or something. But it's just like as a symbol.

But as a murderer, as a strong Russian man, a person capable of sending a bloody hammock to the European Parliament, but not a person who is not telling the truth. President Zelensky, next month is expected to ask leaders of NATO for a full-fledged political invitation to go. The fact of the matter is Ukraine may become the largest army in Europe, which raises the question, why wouldn't NATO want Ukraine as a member? But what's the message that President Zelensky should take to this NATO meeting?

We are defending the Europe right now, all European countries, because I think there are no illusions of what's going to happen if Ukraine stops doing that. So this is why we think that we would make the alliance stronger, same way as we would become stronger being a part of the alliance. And this is the most important message. And this is what President Zelensky was saying in the address to Ukrainian Parliament today, that we are going to become a member of NATO.

I don't think anybody has any particular objections on that. The problem is with when, how, and what would be the process. But what we really need is the strong assurance that this will happen soon. And making sure that we are only becoming stronger and receiving all the necessary weapons to fight Russians back, but also to win the war.

We have very high hopes for the NATO summit. And you know, over the last 16 months, we have learned to hear the word no so many times about everything, about tanks, about candidacy to the European Union, about Patriot missiles, about fighter jets, that we know that when we hear the word no, it's just a beginning of the path for us. And we know to push forward. And we know that this is our next goal, to become a member of NATO.

It is harder and harder, at least in my understanding, for NATO to explain why they wouldn't invite Ukraine at this point. You're right. I'm a member of the Ukrainian Parliament. Thank you for coming on and sharing your perspective with us.

Coming up, Special Counsel Jack Smith sits down with two key witnesses in his ongoing criminal probe into Donald Trump's efforts over to the 2020 election. Remember, he's got two investigations of Trump going on right now. The latest on Trump's legal peril is his political defenders. That's next plus, I'm smoking.

Millions in the South, basically scorching in deadly heat wave as smoky skies and polluted air hits millions more in the Midwest and mid-Atlantic and in Spain. I'll explain the latest forecast ahead. You're watching the press now. Did you know that everyday activities like ASMR can actually be healthy for you?

Right now, you're improving your heart health, boosting your brain activity, and lowering your stress. Manulife wants you to see healthy living differently so you can live a longer, healthier life. Visit manulife.ca slash health to learn more ways Manulife can help. Welcome back.

It's the criminal case against former President Trump over his handling of classified documents proceeds in Florida. The special counsel, Jack Smith, is now pressing on with his other criminal investigation of the former president, the one surrounding his interference in the 2020 election and the events that led up to January 6th. Today, the special counsel's team interviewed Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, who Trump infamously asked to find him the 11,000-plus votes he said he needed to win in that state. Special counsel's office has also spoken to former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, according to one of Giuliani's advisors.

Meanwhile, we've got more evidence today of the former president's continued crypto on the GOP. We've got some new parts for NBC News poll we've been releasing over the last day. And GOP primary voters, their views overwhelmingly align with those of the former president. They're more likely to back a candidate who says Trump won in 2020 and supports pardoning January 6th writers.

They're less likely to back a candidate who opposes Trump's positions on AD Ukraine, fighting businesses over LGBTQ issues or cuts to Social Security and Medicare. Another window in the former president's hold of the party came as House Speaker Kevin McCarthy was forced to backtrack on these comments, these comments, questioning whether Trump was the most electable Republican in 2024. Can he win that election? Yeah, he can.

He can. The question is, is he the strongest to win the election? I don't know that answer, but can somebody, can anybody beat Biden? Yeah, anybody can beat Biden.

Can Biden beat other people? Yes, Biden can beat him. It's on any given day. Hours later, after McCarthy was correctly identifying the political situation of the GOP, he told Breitbart, Trump is stronger today than he was in 2016, which is also a very interesting technical answer.

He didn't say he was the strongest candidate in 2024. He just simply said, he's stronger now than he was in 16. So he'll come forward to me now from Capitol Hill. And so he'll, look, the Kevin McCarthy, you know, watching him do this, you know, his, you know, his open, the stuff he says the first time, the Benghazi thing, Chuck, it is a pattern.

McCarthy does, you know, has in the past, briefly stepped out of line with Trump, with MAGA World, but he has a tendency to work to try to win him back. And that's what McCarthy seems to be doing here. Yes, he did that interview with, excuse me, with Breitbart. He also put out a fundraising text message yesterday afternoon, in which he said, quote, Trump is the strongest opponent of Biden.

He put strongest at all caps. He urged his supporters to stand with Trump now, which sure sounds to me like an endorsement, although that's not what he or his office is calling it. For Trump, you know, he has been willing to accept these instances where McCarthy briefly steps out of line because McCarthy always works to win him back. In this case, McCarthy was simply saying a politer version of what many Republicans are privately saying, which is that Trump isn't the strongest candidate.

McCarthy didn't even say that. He simply questioned it. And, you know, that's kind of a mortal sin in MAGA World. You don't do that.

You don't question the former president's electoral strength, even though there are three elections in which, you know, there's significant evidence to do that. But we see here McCarthy trying to win Trump back. And, you know, Trump has accepted this sort of approach from McCarthy in the past, as long as McCarthy repents. Is there any, is there any timetable on McCarthy endorsing?

I mean, as the Speaker of the House, I assume he's supposed to be the, the official, I think, doesn't have any tangible impact. What's more significant is what McCarthy is doing with the levers of power in the House of Representatives. He's using the official levers of power to bolster Trump in a whole variety of ways. He's punishing his most outspoken Democratic critics, Eric Swalwell, Adam Schiff.

There's a recent censure of Schiff. He created a select committee on the weaponization of government that in many ways promotes Trump's narrative that there's a kind of a so-called deep state conspiracy against him. They're going after prosecutors that have charged Trump. They now want to expunge his two impeachments.

That's what's really significant here, that McCarthy is, you know, using power that he has to help Trump to boost him. And yet, the president's still not grateful enough. So, Kapoor, reporting for us from Capitol Hill right now. So, thank you.

So, let's dive into this a little bit more. I'm joined now by Democratic pollster Marjorie O'Meara, former Florida Republican Congressman Carlos Corbello, who's of course an NBC News analyst. Carlos, you're Kevin McCarthy. Listen to everything Stahill noted that he's delivered for Trump.

This weaponization committee, this sort of Adam Schiff, bogus vote, all of these little things. They're nothing but window dressing. The impeachment expungements are meaningless to anybody except for Donald Trump. And yet, when he speaks the truth, which is Donald Trump, we don't know if he's the strongest candidate against Joe Biden, a pretty honest assessment.

He gets lambasted here. What do you make of it? Chuck, met with a complaint, with a call either personally from him or from his team. And while most congressional Republicans agree with Kevin McCarthy, that Donald Trump is not the strongest candidate for Republicans, that Donald Trump is not good for the long term of the Republican Party or for the country.

Of course, they don't say this publicly, but there are a good 10 to 20 true believers, Trump true believers in the house. And McCarthy only has a three or four votes to spare on any given day. So McCarthy knows that Trump can activate these members at any given moment and make his life impossible as Speaker of the Republican House. Well, let's talk about what I want to have both of you on here.

And Margie, you being a pollster, you know, sometimes I wonder, do you look at what the Republicans are doing and go, I can't believe they're doing this. I can't believe they're going down this road. I mean, when you look at the issue things that we tested, January supporting January 6th writers and all these things, and they're popular among Trump's base, and they turn off independent voters. Forget the Democrats.

We know they're not with them, but they turn off independent voters. It doesn't look like a party that is trying to do everything they can to defeat Joe Biden. I mean, I must think about that almost every day. I mean, it was funny for us to see the speaker really use the language of a polling aggregator, like who's to say what the polls will show down the road, right?

There was something funny about that. But yes, when you look at some of the Republican primary positions that the Republican candidate for president have already been out in front with, it shows no interest in really healing the country and bringing it together. It really is about the, you know, the positions solely for a primary, and it is moving the primary electorate even farther away from where the country is. And I think it's really important to remember where Americans are.

I mean, for example, when it comes to the president, a majority, this is from Navigator poll we released on Tuesday. A majority feel the president has committed a crime. This report is indictment. They feel he's unfit for president.

It's a majority position. Some of the other positions of the Republican primary party right now in terms of total abortion bans, those are single digit positions. Those are not unifying positions. And it really leads to this fractured feeling that voters of both parties tell me in focus groups every night that they feel.

Carlos, there's no doubt about it. Other than promising not to cut Social Security and Medicare to balance the budget, what could you run on that's popular in the Republican primary like that? You couldn't run on pardoning January 6th riders in that district, I don't think. You can't run on a six-week abortion bid.

I mean, this does put truly swing district Republicans in a tough spot. And Chuck, what's shocking to me is that the other GOP presidential primary candidates aren't leading on this issue. They aren't going to the voters and explaining, look at what happened in 2018. Look at what happened in 2020 in swing states and swing districts.

Look at what happened in 2022 in swing states and swing districts. Those candidates that were closely aligned with Trump were all defeated. Even some people who weren't closely aligned with Trump were defeated because of his drag on Republican candidates. What do these people have to lose?

I mean, if they do nothing, Trump is going to win. If they don't distinguish themselves, if they don't convince a sufficient number of Republican primary voters that their way is better, that Republicans need a better or different candidate, they're going to lose and Trump is going to win. So it's up to them to lead the voters and to explain to the voters why the status quo is no good for the Republican Party. Maggie, let's flip the script here.

Donald Trump is enormously unpopular with middle-of-the-road voters. He can't seem to connect with swing voters. You have an election that is very far away. The polls at this stage really reflect what people are coming to the table with in terms of their partisanship rather than what will happen at the end of a back-and-forth exchange.

And Margie, I apologize there. I have a Margaret in my own house. I'm here so many. She's a Marge and a Maggie sometimes, so I apologize.

It's bad. Old things are bad. It's okay. No, no, no.

But to go back again, what should the White House be? Is there anything that can be done to sort of reassure voters who are not reassured about the president's abilities to finish four more years? Is there anything they can do other than him just going out more? Well, we've seen this.

We did a dialogue group during the State of the Union, and we saw market increases. People were watching the State of the Union. They were watching the president speak, not through the filter of, I don't want to say cable news, but not through the filter of their news of choice or their commentary of choice. And views for the president of popularity, up for the job, views on whether or not they share his values, all these important metrics move considerably, even with Republicans, and move across the board.

So having the president out speaking like he's doing right now, talking about his record, talking about where the country's going, those are the kinds of things that people respond to. And, Carlos Corbello, why do you think more Republicans aren't concerned about Trump's ability to do the job? Well, unfortunately, Donald Trump has become a cult leader in the Republican Party, but I will tell you, Chuck, a sufficient number of Republicans do have concerns about Donald Trump, and that's why Democrats have won races in swing districts and swing states in the last three election cycles. So, yes, Joe Biden is a historically weak incumbent for re-election, but the concerns about Donald Trump among a sufficient number of middle-of-the-road Republican voters, and obviously many independent voters, are very strong, and it's not impossible for Donald Trump to win, and Democrats have to be aware of that.

But it would be very difficult, and we have three election cycles to demonstrate that. We don't have to wonder what's going to happen. Yeah, I was just going to say, apparently it takes three kicks to the head by a mule. Michael Mara, Carlos Corbello, maybe more than that.

Thank you both. Up next, scorching heat in the South, and millions of Americans and even some Europeans are once again dealing with smoky skies and dangerous air quality, driven by those Canadian wildfires. That's right, the folks in the westernmost parts of Europe getting that smoke. Watch the big press now.

Welcome back. Between extreme heat and smoky skies, much of the country is dealing with some form of extreme weather today. Temperatures in Texas are among the hottest on Earth right now, as several cities across that state have hit or even passed the 110-degree mark this week. Across the state, it's also tough on that grid.

As you know, Texas has its own electric grid. Across the state, nine people have died as a result of heat in recent days, and it's pushing. That power grid with its limit of electrical use was at an all-time high yesterday in Texas, according to the company that operates the state's power grid. And while the South is dealing with scorching heat, parts of the Midwest and Northeast are under poor air quality alerts again, as Canadian wildfire smoke is once again impacting the United States.

127 million people are now at risk. This time, it's Minneapolis, Chicago, and Detroit that are getting hit the hardest. Remember the last time it was further east and in the Atlantic. And ready for this, the smoke from those Canadian wildfires is now trapped all across the Atlantic, reaching as far as stain.

So let's get a little bit more on all of this. Our new meteorologist, Bill Karen, is going to break down the state of this extreme weather across the United States today. And Bill, it's the clickbait headline, but wow, the smoke made it all the way across the Atlantic. 2,000 miles.

And I was questioning, how's that even possible? You just think it has to disperse slowly as it goes across the Atlantic. And actually, someone sent me a famous book that goes back to like the 1930s when this last happened. So I guess it happened before in Europe, but extremely rare.

And this smoke that's coming down now from Quebec, I mean, it sat yes last night and hasn't moved. I mean, that's the problem right now. Usually the air flows across the country, but now we've got a DC filling New York to the air quality alerts. And now we're up to 127 million Americans.

It's a little over a third. One out of every three people in the country has some kind of air quality alert. When you get the purple on the map, that's why we call it very hazardous. And not just for people that, sensitive groups.

Very hazardous for anyone that's going to be outside breathing for an extended period of time. And on and off, that's been the case in Chicago from Madison, Indianapolis isn't bad all day long. Detroit, same with Cleveland. And it really cut off line 16.

Are we canceling sporting events? Are we canceling out for sporting events? I believe that they were thinking about postponing the Cubs game last night. I'm not sure if they're still home tonight or not or if the schedule changed going into the weekend.

But yeah, I mean, when they had games in the Northeast when it was like, especially when you get into purple air, the Guardians, if they're home today, I didn't check, but that would be unhealthy. That would be smart to cancel that. Yeah, and I noticed that Washington, D.C. now was up into the orange.

So that has changed. So slowly, some of this is seeping towards the east. New York's still good. And Boston's still good.

And the air quality forecast, we are going to take the smoke and continue pushing it east. But this time, it's actually going to break apart, Chuck. It's not going to be like, you know, two, three weeks ago for the East Coast tomorrow. You'll notice, especially the sunrise and sunset, that orange kind of glow, but it won't be like the apocalypse.

And let's talk Texas real quick because they always have that grid that they can get overdone very quickly. How many more days of this extreme heat should they expect because that grid can sometimes not hold? Yeah, I think one thing you'll find interesting, I just read this, the solar being produced in Texas is so strong today that they actually had to shut some of it off because, you know, the blazing sun, so that's a good sign for renewables, by the way, that it's working. So as far as the heat goes, we got a little bit of a break in South Texas.

They deserve it. They need it. Del Rio 10 straight days of record high. I don't think you're going to break it today.

But the humidity with the heat is spreading and Little Rock's one of the worst locations. It feels like 115 degrees in Little Rock right now in the shade. And this is what's going to spread over the next two days throughout the South. So as far as everyone wants to know, we'll stick around all weekend.

We'll stick around for the 4th. Things are going to moderate. It's still going to be hot. It's the 4th of July holiday.

It's supposed to be hot, but it's not going to be this excessive crazy heat. You know, Memphis Saturday is 100. We get the 93 on Monday. Other areas like Atlanta go from the upper 90s to mid-90s.

So I think we'll have a lot less of these headlines, Chuck, after we get past the next two days. All right, Bill Cairns, with the latest on what we can expect over this long, one hot, one national holiday, two weeks off, apparently. Bill Cairns, thank you. After the break, Nikki Haley hits the trail on Battleground New Hampshire one day after hitting Trump's quote, moral weakness on China.

We're on the ground in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Next, you're watching the Press Now. Welcome back. Republican presidential candidate Nikki Haley is back on the campaign trail holding a little events in New Hampshire today.

She's not alone. There's quite a few candidates in New Hampshire. The trip comes after Haley broke from many of her fellow Republican primary candidates yesterday and chose to use the day to criticize former President Donald Trump. Haley hit the former president not in his legal troubles, but with his relationship with China's President Xi Jinping, saying he showed quote, moral weakness in his approach to China during his administration.

Well, our correspondent who covers the Haley campaign is Hallie Patelie. She's in Portsmouth right now. And it's very interesting with Nikki Haley, Ali, is that so today we're recording that Nikki Haley is taking on Donald Trump. And if you told me in three days we're recording that Nikki Haley is backing up on Donald Trump on something, that wouldn't be a surprise.

Is this a pivot to pay attention to? Or is this just a China-specific hit? You know, Chuck, I don't even have to wait three days to tell you in this instance because yesterday at the American Enterprise Institute, conservative thing tank in D.C., at that speech, yes, she did hit Trump for moral weakness on China and not doing enough in U.S.-China relations to tilt the balance of power back in the U.S. direction.

Now today, she gave very similar themes to her speech, her former boss, perhaps in the clearest terms that we've heard yet. But out here on the campaign trail, we did not hear her directly reference him. And I think that's one of the things that I seized on with voters after. It's something that I think they took note of.

And I was in some ways surprised, especially given New Hampshire is such Trump country, the way that these voters talk to me. I mean, listen to this, watch. I went in with a very open mind. I wanted to hear what she had to say.

And she's just so strong in foreign policy, which makes me realize that's what's going to be important in this election. Is that a top issue for you? Definitely, yes. I didn't hear you guys say Trump.

you just were talking about that i love his policies i love his policies but i just it makes me feel to think of four years of what we went through with him to have that happen again so if you both know it's really early in the process i found not just those two voters saying that though but another man as well who was here listening to nikki haley saying that he wants someone else whether it's a census or haley he doesn't care who he just thinks that by the time you get to december this cannot be a 14 15 person primary because that only benefits trump as you and i talked about that's not something that voters are internalizing as well and as they're candidate shopping right now they're trying to figure out all right who are the two or three that should be left but there is an openness i'm just curious who runs these events for haley is it a super PAC or is it the campaign do you notice both groups there do they not bump into each other um i'm just curious how that campaign works i know they have some money issues that might be more in the super PAC than the day-to-day campaign you see both entities yeah i mean certainly not to the degree that we see it with the status folks where the campaign is basically the super PAC i think here for haley today's event was run by morgan ortega's aligned group that's why the foreign policy focus but generally speaking it's the haley campaign that puts these on i think the super PAC in haley land is supposed to be something that sort of bolsters eventually on the airwaves and spaces like that but again you're right the money is not here to the extent that it's there with other 2024 contenders yeah i know it's very interesting i noticed she's already kind of living off the land so i had a feeling this wasn't her then today and she's doing having to do more of those that does sometimes that's a yellow flag about some finance issues i always have a wonderful backdrop at portsmouth good luck trying to get some fun back uh thank you still come the president hits the road to push his economic agenda the white house tries to win over skeptical and struggling voters heading into 2024 i'll talk to a senior advisor on economics to the president next you're watching the press now welcome back turning now to a noble shifted messaging strategy from the white house as president biden faces voters anxious about the future of the economy and skeptical of his ability to handle the issue president biden hit the road today with an address on bidenomics embracing a term that has been used widely by his critics to knock his record on the economy kind of like obamacare they've chosen to embrace it now the president is trying to rebrand the term as his administration makes the argument that its policies are working and the economy is recovering bidenomics is about building an economy from the middle out the bottom up not the top down bidenomics we're turning this around i believe that every american willing to work hard should be able to get a job no matter where they are in the heartland in small towns in every part of this country to raise their kids on a good paycheck and keep their roots where they grew up that's bidenomics while there have been some good economic indicators out there inflation has slowed down and unemployment is extraordinarily low and consumer confidence is sticking back up it hasn't yet convinced voters and who knows if that is an explanation that everybody lives in lives in their own uh world or if it's real you know april poll from our friends at tmc just 14 percent said the economy was excellent or good 85 percent said the economy was fair or poor so joining me now is james for senior advisor president biden's also served in the last two democratic white houses and gene it's fascinating to me because in the summer of 95 and the summer of 2011 my gosh you and i probably had this conversation in summer 2011 here it is the democratic administration feels like it has to explain what it's done in the economy to a group of voters now by 2012 barack obama had won this argument by 1996 bill clinton won this argument do you think you're in the same position or is this a tougher sell look i think there's a lot of reasons to be positive about uh voters and uh the appreciation of bidenomics and uh president biden's record um look we understand i mean we've all dealt with the last few years of the pandemic uh you know yes i will tell you and you will know that uh inflation in the united states is lower than in the rest of the g7 that it's only been 2.2 percent the last three months but we understand people have to deal with the pandemic with covet with some higher prices and that may have affected people's sense of the economy but a few positive points chuck one when you ask people about their job satisfaction or their personal financial satisfaction it's pretty positive number two overwhelming majorities support what the president's doing so when people understand did you know that president biden has passed this major infrastructure or the semiconductor or that the issue you heard from the previous president that didn't go so well has succeeded magnificently under president biden which is reinvesting america a manufacturing boom you hear that from independent sources all the time and my last point would be there is one time we saw a test and that was the midterm elections and you know a lot of i was on a lot of shows where people were saying exactly this but you know all voters are down but when they actually went to the polls they judged that uh president biden's economic record or that he was fighting on their behalf or that things were getting better was enough for him to have historic gains in the gubernatorial to actually hold a senate and gain a speech so let's just say that's been the one true test of voters and it actually went you know i understand some of that was the reaction to dobbs but certainly it also reflected the fact that that there was more satisfaction with the economic record than some of those polls show look i take your point on people feeling more satisfied perhaps in their own job but you know i think one of the real reasons why people don't feel like this is a good economy is that they're either trapped in the house they live in or uh they can't sell their house that they'd like to sell because interest rates are too high right like i do think the housing end of this is probably why you're having a hard time convincing people this is a healing economy you know chuck these are all good things to discuss and i don't know that you or i could give a definitive answer i would say that one of the things that's been more encouraging on core inflation is we are starting to see you know rental prices come down that's good for renters you know maybe people feel differently if they're a homeowner but i think that the real issue is that we had a remarkably robust recovery that uh like historically low unemployment has now led to real wage gains which led to record job creation um but you know you weren't gonna have five percent growth or five hundred thousand jobs forever we're in that period of transition uh the federal reserve is is giving the economy some tough medicine that's having some perhaps positive effect we'll have some positive effect on core inflation and renters but some negative effect uh you know those things will will go through and people have to make a judgment but i think overall when you hear the president talking about binomics about the idea that it's not about trickle down it's about investing in people it's about uh bringing uh public investment here you know you talk about you and i talking 20 30 years ago it used to be if the government was investing it was going to crowd out private investment now we've seen when you do infrastructure semiconductors when you commit to manufacturing 500 billion crowds in that's going to offer this economy a lot of resilience and over the next year a lot of people are going to be seeing those benefits in programs they support that every day every month more people are going to see as benefiting them due to bidenomics all right let me ask you a long-term question here today the cbo came out with a projection on u.s debt it's going to record 107 percent of gdp now again i accept the notion that all of the all of the you know the sky is falling over the last 30 years oh my god we're gonna go to 50 percent 75 percent 80 percent and this economy handles it and it handles it is 100 percent of gdp too much well there are different levels of debt there's the public debt which is what we should be concerned about i think that there is different disputes right now there's less i think clarity on what is the exact amount than there might have been 10 years ago and i think that's something that that's not just a democrat republican issue serious economists debate that i do think that um i do think that uh having responsible fiscal discipline is something the president believes in in in his case having a robust recovery having american rescue plan get the recovery going well did lead to exceptional revenues that brought the deficit down up you know but we've also seen there's been a complete rejection of the president's proposals that are cutting spending by looking for lower drug costs and we cover on big farmer asking the most well-off to pay their fair share and we're not seeing a bipartisan willingness to i think consider some of those measures which would be critical to deficit reduction right well gene i think we all know we won't care about the that until after the fact until after it impacts everything never before gene sperling on behalf of the white house thank you and thank you all for being here i'll be back tomorrow with more meet the press now and this news now coverage continues right now notice how some homes sell faster in your neighborhood it's not luck it's local know-how remax agents know 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