Meet the Press NOW — June 5

If it's Monday, new candidates and new scrutiny, as another Republican presidential hopeful jumps into the race, someone else says he's out, and it sounds the alarm about the number of candidates in the still-growing field. Plus, first to NBC, the federal grand jury investigating Trump's handling of classified documents is expected to meet this week, as the former president's lawyer met today with officials at the Justice Department. And close encounters, the military releases new footage capturing the moment a Chinese warship sailed directly into the path of a U.S. Navy destroyer, just days after another close call with Chinese military in the skies.

Hello, and welcome to Meet the Press Now, I'm Ryan Nobles, in for Kristen Welker, coming to you at the start of a busy week on the Republican presidential campaign trail, with one more candidate now officially in the field and more expected this week. Former Vice President Mike Pence filed paperwork with the FEC for a presidential run, ahead of an expected announcement Wednesday. And former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is expected to throw his hat in tomorrow. And North Dakota's Governor Doug Bergum is also expected to get in on Wednesday.

They're joining an already crowded field of candidates, all of them taking on the front runner, the former president, Donald Trump. By the end of this week, the primary field will go all the way to 11. It is reminiscent of the large and fractured field that Trump successfully bested to win the nomination in 2016. But one Republican today came forward with his deep concerns about the size of the field.

And that's New Hampshire's Governor, Chris Nunew. He announces he's not going to run for president. And will instead stay on the sidelines doing all he can to prevent Mr. Trump from winning the nomination.

Sudeu writes in an op-ed quote, our party is on a collision course toward electoral irrelevance without significant corrective action. The six are too high for a crowded field to hand the nomination to a candidate who earns just 35% of the vote. And I will help ensure this does not happen. Sudeu also urged the candidates in the race to confront Trump directly, something we have started to see more and more of in recent days or start contrast from just a month ago.

Mike Pence, Ron DeSantis, and Nikki Haley, all condemned Trump's recent praise of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-un. I was surprised to see that. I mean, I think one, Kim Jong-un is a murderous dictator. Whether it's my former running mate or anyone else, no one should be praising the dictator in North Korea or praising the leader of Russia.

Kim Jong-un is a thug. There's nothing good or decent about Kim Jong-un. As we get on, we also saw DeSantis taking aim at Trump's claim that he could fix the country in six months while Haley continues to criticize Trump's view of the January 6th attack on the Capitol. Don't let anyone tell you they can do this in 24 hours or in six months or anything like that.

This is going to be trench warfare. You got to understand how to use the levers of power. We pledge to do that. He thinks it was a beautiful day.

I think it was a terrible day. I'll always stand by that. Well, despite the warning from Senu Nune and the possibility that the former president could be indicted by the special counsel any day now, the Republican field keeps getting bigger and the chances of anyone beating Trump to the nomination seem to be getting smaller. Joining me now is my NBC just colleague Vaughn Hilliard who just got back from his second favorite home, Iowa, where he spent some time with the Republican presidential field.

So Vaughn, Senu Nune's staying out of the race, I think maybe a bit of a surprise to those of us that have been tracking it. But what was the big surprise was how declared if he was in sounding the alarm that Trump can't win in 2024. Our Republican voters listening, especially you talked to so many of them in Iowa this week. Right.

First of all, there's a receptiveness to candidates here and folks are not pushing back against having choices. People generally like choices and that is what is being given to them. And that's why at a catacall event, like we saw on Saturday when the entire Republican field, except for Donald Trump, were there, they got spent a whole afternoon listening to all of these candidates deliver 10 minutes, some speeches. And there's nobody, Ryan, I think that is galvanizing a movement at this point, much like eight years ago, right?

We were picking up on folks saying, we want Bernie Sanders, we want Bernie Sanders, which led all of us to be like Hillary Clinton has a real challenger. This time around, it's not like you're meeting decisive to Santis, to Santis, or Nikki Haley, Nikki Haley. But I've talked to great many folks who said that there's several candidates like and they want to keep listening, which suggests that it is not declaratively going to be Trump this go around, that there is competition. But when you have that diluted field, is there going to be anybody that is going to be able to create a political movement out of some of that support?

So what is Trump world saying about the Sunil-Nuapad? For Sunil-Nuapad, we should note that Donald Trump is working on a campaign track as well as an investigations lawyer track. Right now, today, his focus on his social media account was very much the legal end of which his lawyers meeting with the Department of Justice today. As for Sunil-Nu, Sunil-Nuap is declaring it to candidates that they're not doing well in pulling should be out by Christmas here.

And Donald Trump has welcomed a growing field. And I don't think we should move past, Ryan, the fact that today his former vice president, Mike Pence, formally filed his paperwork, not since vice president John Nance Garner back in 1940, challenged Franklin Delano Roosevelt for the presidency. And we have seen this sort of relationship, but vice president challenging his former president, right? This is something that is unusual, but it is the Republican Party in 2023 here.

And frankly, the next two months are going to be significant as candidates are qualified for the debate stage, but we're eight months away from the Iowa caucus. That's not actually that much time. Yeah, it's such a great point. So many things involving Donald Trump, we just kind of paper over these kind of monumental things.

And the idea that a former running mate would challenge the person that he ran with is pretty astounding. So let's talk about this field, you know, independent of Sunil, who we're going to still have 11 candidates this week. Isn't this kind of exactly what Trump was hoping for? This is exactly what he was hoping for.

And that, you know, he said last week, well, with Sean Hannity, that he likes the guy that's in ninth and tenth place, right? Because they take shots at the number two or number three candidate who they're trying to eclipse. I want to let you hear a little bit of Ace Hutchinson, just this last hour, one of those candidates in this field is he talks and essentially justifies his own inclusion in this field, but also the merits of having a big field here at this point. Take a listen.

The fact that three other candidates are jumping in there indicates that there's a wide-open lane for a non-Trump candidate. And whenever you look at the number this year, it's about half of what it was in 2016. So it's a different year. People know Donald Trump.

They're going to make their decision. And folks like Ace Hutchinson, Ryan, they're going to be competing with some of these other candidates with one, two, three percent just to get onto the stage show much of their attention here this summer. It should be on them getting on their bait stage rather than focusing on Donald Trump, the front runner. And then they also have to meet that unique donor threshold, which is going to be very difficult for these candidates who are barely registering in the polls.

All right, Vaughn, excellent report. Thank you as always. Let's talk about it now with our panel, Eugene Scott, senior politics reporter at Axios. Stephanie Shriock is a senior advisor at the Strategic Victory Fund and Brendan Bock, former advisor to speakers, John Boehner and Paul Ryan, and he's also on NBC News.

I'm going to post the same question to you guys that I posed to Vaughn. Eugene, is this big field exactly what Donald Trump wants? It certainly will work for him. We covered 2016 together and we know that he ran away with an advantage that wasn't the majority in part because there were so many people.

And it's really important to realize that people who weren't that different from one another. And so segments of the primary electorate who would have maybe gotten behind someone, one person and given Trump a real advantage didn't because they were divided between like two or three candidates who seemed to like top the same values that they had. Stephanie, I always think that in order to even think about running for president, your ego must be massive, right? Like in an environment like this where you have someone like Donald Trump who sucks up so much of the oxygen and there's already so many candidates in the race, what's going through the mind of some of these candidates like Doug Bergam and Chris Christie?

Where's their constituency? Where's their path to victory? Well, I think you heard it from A.S. Hutchinson, which is there's this theory that there is a non-Trump lane open.

But the problem is no one's going to be able to come out of that non-Trump lane when Trump is holding 45 to 50% in some polls in these. And that will change. They have to attack and they have to take them down. That's going to be the fight here.

But this isn't Trump of 2016 who started really nowhere. He starts with a pretty significant floor and he starts with a good fundraising base and people listen, he gets pressed every day. He gets pressed any time he wants it. And that's pretty hard to beat.

But the other side of that, Brendan, too, is that he also starts this time around with a significant amount of baggage that he didn't have in 2016. Yeah, but actually I think it's interesting. Chris and you know, in his op-ed there cited a poll that's Donald Trump only getting 35% of the book, but it's not hard to look for polls that actually show him beating Joe Biden or at least very close to Joe Biden. I think that's a really interesting thing that's going to buoy Donald Trump is because the big argument that basically all of them are making at this point is Donald Trump is a loser.

He can't get reelected. Well, when you start having these polls that Joe Biden is really unpopular and perhaps Donald Trump actually could beat him this time, it lowers the threshold there. Like there's some people who are like, I like Donald Trump, but I'm worried about him. Well, maybe I don't worry about him quite as much more.

Maybe we can make a run at it. That's Ron DeSantis' whole argument. That argument goes away. All it does is help Donald Trump.

Well, you opened the door to me talking about what Sonu had to say about Ron DeSantis. He doesn't mention him by name, but this is what he says in the op-ed. We must abandon the issues that are solely made for social media headlines, such as banning books or issuing curriculum fiots to local school districts hundreds of miles away from state capitals. We need to expand beyond the culture wars that alienate independence, young voters, and suburban moms.

And Eugene, when I read that, my first thought process was he might be right about winning a general election, but does he not understand the Republican primary voter? Because it's this set of issues that really seems to fire them up. Indeed, and I'm sure he does, but it's something that many of us have been thinking about, like how is DeSantis going to perform in general? I'm sure we all heard his speech very recently about attacking woke culture.

That's not something that really appeals to these demographics that, you know, self-identify a swing voters. And the demographics that he would need to beat a Biden, women, suburban voters, these young voters, his attacks really are not that popular outside of the GOP base. So Brendan, when you look at this field then, which of the candidates most exemplifies the things as soon as looking for? Well, that's endorsing anyone.

I don't think you'd do that. I still think that it is Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, and everybody else. Because everybody else is basically acting like this is the party of ten years ago when it's very clearly not. But I also think it's Ron DeSantis's fault largely that we have this large field.

Ron DeSantis kind of came out on the scene two months ago or whatever it was, and really showed himself to be potentially weak candidate. And that's why all these people think, maybe he's not the Trump alternative. Maybe there is somebody else who can feel that space. I don't know that that's really true.

I mean, I'm sure Doug Bergam is a nice guy. I'm sure Ryan Dobles has hired a name, he does. So I don't know exactly what his plan is, but until somebody else can knock any of them off the stage for his fault is Ron DeSantis may be in a general election. He knows what plays to base voters.

He knows how to get attention. And that's really what you need right now. Yeah. All right, so I want to play off more on this culture issue, Stephanie.

And it does seem as though Sunun wants the party to move away from it, but the candidates running seem to understand that that's what motivates their voters. Listen to what Nikki Haley said in a town hall last night. The idea that we have biological boys playing in girls sports, it is the women's issue of our time. How are we supposed to get our girls used to the fact that biological boys are in their locker rooms?

And then we wonder why a third of our teenage girls seriously contemplated suicide last year? We should be growing strong girls, confident girls. So I feel like if we had an AI generator and we took those words and put it in with Ron DeSantis's voice, you wouldn't question that at all, right? I mean, it's almost the same exact rhetoric.

These Republican candidates know what they've got to do. And it is this culture war in the primary. And to your point, you got to win a primary before you get a chance to win a general. Like, just that just that works.

There's no magic way around it. And so they know they've got to get through and pull off a bunch of Trump voters or a bunch of DeSantis voters. And they're going to go after these two guys on this issue. Now I'll say at the end of the day here, these issues are not what the American public in the general election are going to want to hear.

And even just already the record of Governor DeSantis in Florida is a terrible record to run on in suburban and ex-urban America. And women are not going to like the book banning. They're not going to like the six-week abortion ban, which frankly is one of the worst issues for this entire Republican. Well, it's interesting you point that out because we aren't showing Nikki Haley's voice.

Nikki Haley kind of leaning into some of these cultural wars, but she is trying to have it both ways on abortion. This is what she said about that last night. Take a listen to that. If a six-week ban theoretically came to your desk, would you sign it?

Well, why? I will answer that when you ask Kamala and Biden if they would agree to 37 weeks, 38 weeks, 39 weeks, then I'll answer your question. I understand your saying something where you get 60 votes, but in your view, you must have an opinion. Is 15 weeks where it would be theoretically?

I haven't talked to the senators. I don't know where 60 votes are. So, Jean, it seems she's not the only Republican candidate that struggled with this. It used to be before Roe v.

Wade was overturned a Republican candidate who could just say, I am pro-life and then kind of high to a certain extent behind that Supreme Court ruling. Now, they actually have to take a substantive policy position and they have had a very difficult time winning through that, especially with the general election in their future. Indeed, there's a little awareness that 2022 did not go the Republicans way in part because of where the party stood on abortion. And Roe v.

Wade really has not been as well received as some of the more conservative Republicans for some reason thought it would be. And so, individuals were trying to figure out how they can remain competitive and align with where most voters are, but still somehow get through a primary and not alienate people who would look at some of these restrictive abortion bans and say, this issue is not a issue alone will keep me from backing you, which they have done, which some voters have done in elections campaigns even since 2022. Do you think, Brendan, I mean, so does this been in Republican politics for a long time? I mean, the idea of being pro-life in a post-Roe world is a lot different than it was in a pre-Roe world.

Yeah, we never had to really answer that question. It was a Supreme Court and then the fight was always bebble, we'll solve this at the Supreme Court. And now the issue is that state capitals all across the country, different states are all defining this issue for us. You know, they're each picking their own, we've talked about we want some reasonable restrictions and places like Texas and Florida and Georgia are going well beyond what people think are reasonable.

I think as a political matter, it's probably best to just kind of pick a line where you want it to be and people will stop asking you about it quite so often because if you don't have an answer, they're just going to keep coming out, it's not a good thing to be talking about, but it shows the enormous gap between what base Republican voters demand versus what a general election electorate is going to be looking to see and that's where we're stuck and she remains stuck right there. Yeah, and I guess definitely Democrats are not going to stop talking about it, right? Well, absolutely not because, you know, to his point, you've got legislatures, full bans, legislatures pushing six-week bans. They are in law in some states.

They are completely, there's no access in some states. So, so people are feeling it. And on top of it, you're going to have pressure from far-right-wing organizations demanding that these presidential candidates promise that they'll sign a national abortion ban. You're going to have Senate candidates and House candidates promising national abortion ban just like they did last time.

They're going to have to answer that question while dealing with a far-right religious sect inside of the party. That's pretty powerful, particularly places like Iowa. Right, those advocacy organizations have a direct line to the high-frequency primary voters that pick presidential candidates. Terrific conversation, guys.

Eugene, Stephanie Brennan. I appreciate all being here. Thank you so much. Coming up, Trump's attorneys spotted at the Department of Justice today amid new developments in the Special Counsel investigation into the former president's handling of classified documents.

We'll have the very latest next. Plus, U.S. and Chinese officials meet in Beijing amid escalating tensions and increasingly provocative moves by the Chinese military. You're watching Meet the Press Now.

Welcome back. The former president's lawyers were seeing today at the Justice Department, NBC News has confirmed that they were meeting with Justice Department officials that did not include Attorney General Merigarland or Deputy AG Lisa Monaco. It comes as the grand jury investigating Mr. Trump's handling of classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago is expected to meet again.

NBC News Justice and intelligence correspondent Kendall Aynion joins me now from the DOJ. So, Ken, do we know why Trump's attorneys were at the Justice Department today? Not specifically, Ryan. Neither side is describing the contents of the meeting and the nature of the meeting.

But it's very common for lawyers of a defendant to come in and try to talk the Justice Department out of charging their client in a hyper-file case. That happens all the time. And there's every reason to believe that's what's going on here amid the other evidence that the investigation in the documents case appears to be wrapping up and coming to a close. So you may be expanding on that a little bit.

Does it mean that we could be getting close to a decision on an indictment? This meeting, plus the other evidence that we're seeing, which is that, for example, the grand jury in this case went dormant for the last month or so. And then now we were reporting on NBC News that they are poised to meet again this week. So it's possible that they could be meeting to vote on an indictment of President Trump.

We don't know that for sure. That's one of the possibilities. Grand juries are secret. They're unpredictable.

But we do know that the grand jury is her testimony from almost every conceivable witness who had any connection to the classified documents, the movement of those documents, and Mar-Lago, including more than a dozen staff members at Mar-Lago. So it really does feel like they're reaching the end and we're getting signals that a charging decision is imminent. So when they get to that final stage, maybe describe what happens in that grand jury room and they take a vote, how is it decided then that an indictment is going to be handed down? Well, there's an old saying that a prosecutor could convince the grand jury to indict a ham sandwich.

So it's not a high drama situation, like a murder case and 12 angry men. But there would be a vote. And then they would go in and tell the judge, sort of report to the judge that they've turned in what's known as a true bill in indictment. And then generally in DC, that indictment would go under seal.

And it would be unsealed only when the defendant in this case Donald Trump makes a first appearance in court. So after that indictment was voted on and they tell the judge, it goes to the clerk's office in the court. And then the prosecutors will begin making arrangements for Donald Trump to surrender and turn himself in in Washington DC and make a first appearance in court. And that's when likely we would see the charges and the nature of the indictment.

And I would imagine that when and if that happens, we should be clear. If it happens, it will be similar to the circus that we saw in New York when he was indicted by the Manhattan district attorney. Is there a chance that he wouldn't have to appear in person? Is it required that you have to appear in person at the federal level?

How does that process work? It's a great question. It's not required, but it's almost always done. But you know, the pandemic sort of created some new precedent.

So there were a lot of virtual first appearances in arraignments during the pandemic. So it is possible. It's theoretically possible that if he's indicted, he can make a first appearance via video conference. He's in Bedminster, New Jersey right now, his property there.

But generally, prosecutors like the defendant to appear in court and there's some things that they have to sign and some things that could work out with the probation office. So we'll have to see. It's likely that it'll appear. You're right.

We could expect we would expect a very circus-like atmosphere that happens. Okay, Ken Delaney and staying on top of it. We appreciate it. Thank you so much.

Turning now from the Justice Department to the Defense Department, which just released this video showing a close encounter between a US Navy destroyer and a Chinese warship in the Taiwan Strait over the weekend. According to the Pentagon, the Chinese ship came within just 150 yards of the American ship, forcing it to slow its course to avoid a collision. China is defending its actions, claiming the Strait is part of its economic zone and not international waters. The incident comes just a week after a Chinese fighter jet flew directly in front of the nose of a US reconnaissance plane over the South China Sea.

But despite these confrontations, a State Department official says that diplomats from the US and China have had candid and productive discussions today in Beijing. NBC's Courtney Cubey joins me now from the Pentagon. So Courtney, what is China's defense for these provocative moves? So China maintains that in fact the US exercising flying sailing in these areas is the provocation.

That's the provocative move and that the Chinese military is in fact responding to the US provocation. Of course, the US, as you would imagine, Ryan, completely denies that. So in the case of this US destroyer over the weekend in the Taiwan Strait, which by the way was exercising with a Canadian military ship, the US maintains that that is international waterways and they have every right to sail through that area. In the case of the recent incident between the US surveillance plane, the RC-135 and the Chinese military jet which flew directly in front of that US surveillance plane, well the Chinese maintain that over the South China Sea that is not international airspace and they also say that the area in the South China Sea is some of that is their territorial water.

But that's the exact reason that the US continues to fly and continues to sail in these areas. It's to try to break down that Chinese argument that they have gained some sort of territorial claim on this area and we heard that exact argument out of the White House at a briefing today from John Kirby. Here's what he had to say. No call for that.

It's unsafe, it's unprofessional. We're flying, we're sailing, we're operating in international airspace and international waters and both of those incidents were in complete compliance with international law. There was absolutely no need for the PLA to act as aggressively as they did. When you have pieces of metal that size whether it's in the air or on the sea and they're operating that close together, it wouldn't take much for an air in judgment or a mistake to get made and somebody could get hurt.

The US maintains that China is trying to change international norms by claiming that some of these areas are their territorial waters or their airspace and the US by doing these freedom of navigation operations is trying to break down the Chinese efforts to essentially change the law line. So is the US considering any kind of formal response? Does the Pentagon feel any pressure to respond to China in something like this? Not at this point and certainly not from the military perspective.

What they're trying to do is get the Chinese to talk. So we saw the earlier early last month in early May, the Pentagon asked the Chinese Minister of Defense to sit down and meet with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin. Both were scheduled to be in Singapore late last week for this annual defense conference. Well, several days before they both departed for Singapore, China declined.

The invitation, the two men had a very brief encounter. They shook hands at a dinner. They exchanged some very brief pleasantries but that was really it. The Pentagon continues to ask China to sit down and talk.

The big concern is that when you have incidents like this that have the potential to be very dangerous that without a line of communication it only exacerbates the situation. All right, now to the topic that all my neighborhood dads want answers to and that's the topic that was blowing up all of our text chains this week. Folks in DC hearing a loud sonic boom yesterday. What's the Pentagon saying about this?

Yeah, so what happened is there was actually this tragic event where this assessment of private plane, the pilot went unresponsive. Well, as is very standard when you have a plane that is operating off of its its charted path or a pilot that's not responding repeatedly, NORAD scrambled a number of F-16 fighter jets. The first two left out of Andrews Air Force Base yesterday and because they had to catch up with that plane very quickly, they were authorized to fly at a supersonic speed. Well, what we all learned here in the DC area yesterday is what that means is not to get too technical and scientific here, but when the plane is flying so fast, it's literally faster than the speed of sound.

All these molecules essentially build up around the plane, they all sort of come together and they create this almost like an explosion. That's what it sounds like. It sounds like thunder. Sometimes if you're close enough, it can feel like an earthquake.

It's called a sonic boom. But we're not used to hearing them around here, frankly, because it's very uncommon that US military aircraft will be flying at a supersonic speed over in the US. In this case, though, in order to catch up with the plane, they were authorized to do so they did catch up with it. They even fired off some flares to try to alert the pilot.

It became very clear according to officials that we spoke with that the pilot was unresponsive and tragically the plane crashed about two hours after the first call to get in touch with that pilot and everyone on board died. Very sad end to that, but we definitely are curiosity for many people in our neck of the woods for sure. I did not hear the sonic boom. I feel a little left out from that perspective.

But Courtney, thank you so much for your report. We appreciate it. Washington's death deal finally done. What's Congress cooking up next?

House Democrat Jared Moskowitz, join me next. You're watching Meet the Press Now. And we're back. After weeks of negotiations to raise the country's debt ceiling, Congress and the White House prove that when push comes to shove, Washington can still get things done.

But with the threat of a disastrous default behind them now, you might say that we're entering something of a silly season on Capitol Hill where we see bills that aren't aimed so much as becoming laws as they are aimed at sending a message, like an expected vote in the House tomorrow on a Republican bill that would prevent the government from banning gas stoves. This despite the White House saying that there is no plan to ban gas stoves. And joining me now on set to talk more about this is Democratic Congressman from Florida, Congressman Jared Moskowitz. Congressman, thank you for being here.

It's a pleasure. Let's talk about the debt ceiling first and we'll get to gas stove. Sure. I know you have a lot of interest.

Right. Both issues that are on the same wavelength. Yes, exactly. So from your perspective, and I talked a bit throughout this process and you seem to have a pretty middle of the road sense of all of this.

Were there any winners and losers here? Did the speaker come out on top of the president come out on top? What's your sense of it? Well, first of all, the winner was the American people because at the end of the day we did not default, which I think would have been catastrophic.

It would have been catastrophic for the American people. It would have been catastrophic for the world economy. It would have hurt the dollar in compared to the end and made China a winner. So I think American people were really the winners at the end of the day.

As far as the political politics, I mean, listen, obviously the speaker worked on a bill, he negotiated on a bill that a lot of his party voted against. I think the president did a really good job on getting that two year raise on the debt ceiling because the idea of a debt ceiling in the middle of a presidential election, I mean, that would have just been politicized to the 10th degree. And I really do think at that point the fault would have been possible because the default would have been used as a weapon to hurt someone in an election. As far as what else is, I'm happy we negotiated.

I always felt that that's where it was headed anyway. I've always been a believer that both sides should always be talking. This idea that we shouldn't be talking and shouldn't be meeting. But at the end of the day, I think the American people were the real winner.

All right. You said you plan on using the debt ceiling actually in your campaign messaging. This is something that you said in Axios. Mosquitz, you just won by five points in 2022, says he does plan to incorporate the debt ceiling into his campaign message, arguing that a vote for Democrats is a vote for normalcy on the issue.

And you said we already had Donald Trump saying live on CNN that the US should default. Imagine what he would say in January or February or March of the next year. Do you think your voters are paying attention to the debt ceiling? Do they know what's going on that that's something you can use as a pitch to them to see you reelected in the next campaign?

Well, obviously, thankfully, we didn't see like a decrease in our credit rating like we saw 10 years ago. So I don't know that they were paying attention to it as much this time as they were last time. Quite frankly, Washington has cried wolf a lot on the debt ceiling. So possibly people tune it out.

But I will say I was concerned when I see a former president of the United States saying we should default as if somehow the United States would just go to bankruptcy court, which is what that president is used to. Imagine what he would say. You're from now exactly my point, weaponizing, you know, the full faith and credit of the United States. So what I'm going to say to my voters is what I did say before is what you saw in the midterm election.

I was elected in the midterm election where Democrats did a lot better than everybody thought it's because I am pushing normal. I am pushing sanity. I am pushing logic. It's enough of all the noise.

I mean, we're not going to govern via Twitter. Okay. So let's talk about what's next. The debt ceiling has passed.

You do have some spending bills that you have to deal with in the very near future. Is this culture of bipartisanship something that can continue or are we going to be in another crisis mode in September worried that the government's going to run out of money to pay its bills? Well, the former emergency management director, I can tell you that this place works in crisis to crisis. I notice it because I feel comfortable, unfortunately, while it's happening because I'm used to that.

I do think, however, that we did show the American people that the adults in the room can get together and make a deal. And that's Republicans and Democrats getting together and making a deal that to the benefit of the American people and again to the world economy. But look, there are forces on both sides that would like to see us just fight and if we don't get 100% of what we want, make no deal. Is this new for the culture to come?

I mean, Republicans have been together on everything for about the first five and a half months. Now it's a real test to see what happens with the Freedom Caucus, do they try to pull away and cause chaos in Congress? I mean, should it be a message to the Freedom Caucus that 149 Republicans voted for this bill when they think about something like a motion to vacate that Kevin McCarthy seems to have the vast majority of his party behind him? Well, listen, let me say this to the Freedom Caucus.

There is no way, at least myself. I'm sure many other Democrats are going to turn the power over to the Freedom Caucus. So anything that they propose to try to throw the house into chaos, I'm not going to support that. That's interesting.

When it goes far as cutting a deal with Kevin McCarthy for a few Democrats to fill that gap to allow him to stay in the speakership? Well, look, I'll leave that up to my leadership to negotiate. But what I can tell you is that the Freedom Caucus comes forward, the idea that we would aid the Freedom Caucus and give more power to them is something that I can't consider. Okay, interesting.

All right. So let's talk about this vote tomorrow on a bill that protects GAFS stoves. You have a tongue in cheek amendment. I think it's at least a tongue in cheek amendment.

I'm trying to put the issue on the front burner. I mean, create the establishment of a gas stove czar. I mean, are you a little concerned that you're just contributing to the culture wars with an amendment like this? Or what's your point here?

What are you trying to do with the stabler? Well, look, this is silly, right? This is completely silly. A week after we just did that ceiling and made sure America didn't default.

My colleagues across the outcome, not with just one, but two bills on the war on gas stoves and somehow general electric is fighting the war on gas stoves. No one's trying to ban gas stoves. We have appliances. Everyone can get a gas stove if they want to get a gas stove.

If you have a gas stove, you can keep your gas stove. But we have regulations on all appliances. We have regulations on cars. There are energy standards.

And Republicans have turned this into some sort of culture war thing. They are prioritizing this. And as someone who's from Parkland, someone who graduated, martyrs, someone dubbed as high school, the idea that six months in the Congress in gun awareness prevention month, we're doing gas stoves. We've not had one hearing on school safety.

We've not had one hearing on gun violence. The last thing I haven't heard of any gas stoves walking into any schools and taking out 17 children. And so I just think that this is totally ridiculous. And yes, I'm using levity to point out the ridiculousness of what they're doing.

Okay. All right. Congressman Jared Moskowitz, I appreciate it. Always look forward to your assessment of things.

And a lot more to talk about as the eagles on. Thanks, Congressman. Appreciate you being here. I'm the only ones recalibrating after the debt limit deal, new reporting on how President Biden plans to pitch 2024 voters on his bipartisan record.

Will it work? That's next. You're watching the press now. Welcome back.

Fresh off a big bipartisan win on the debt ceiling. President Biden is ready to pivot back to his reelection campaign. NBC's Mike Memently reports that it's a quote return to previously scheduled programming, according to a White House senior advisor. The president hopes to showcase himself as a leader willing to reach across the aisle and build consensus while his Republican rivals spar with each other on the campaign trail.

I'm joined by Amy Walter, the publisher and editor-in-chief of the Cook Political Report. And Amy, our own Mike Memently reports that the president is not planning on taking a victory lap here on the debt deal. But should he, I mean, I was structuring his negotiations that he really doesn't have a serious primary challenge. We're going to get to that in a second.

But it's a lot different than the Republican candidates that need to really impress upon their base voters. The president here can start touting a general election message, which might mean showing he can cut a bipartisan deal. That's right. He did a little bit of a victory lap.

Maybe we'll call it, I don't know, a half a lap or something. A Friday night televised address the public about working together in a bipartisan way to solve this crisis. And certainly he was able to get some of the themes that we'll see on the campaign trail there as well. So, you've got to be going strong, keeping his top priorities from being gutted.

But you're exactly right, right? It's fascinating to me that you have a president who campaigned on returning to normal, being somebody who could work with Congress, somebody who could reach across the aisle, and not just on the debt ceiling, he's proven this, but on things like, as we know, the CHIPS Act and on infrastructure, on a gun bill, right? There are plenty of places where he's been able to do it. And yet his approval ratings are still somewhere in the low 40% range.

And even among Democrats, you don't hear a tremendous amount of enthusiasm around the idea of him running for a second term. I think so much of this goes back to a couple of things. One, the fact is there's one thing he can't do anything about, and that's how old he is. So, you can cut all the deals that you want, what people first see when they see Joe Biden is the image of who he is and what he looks like.

And the second is, I think what a victory looks like for many Democratic voters, especially younger voters, are the things that he campaigned on that he's been unable to follow through on. Student loan debt, for example, or DACA. Things like this that have been on the table for years and years and years, haven't been able to get through. And finally, your own poll back in April, I thought, tells the whole story of the challenge for Joe Biden when voters were asked to say who they voted for in the last election and why.

People said they voted for Biden, half of them said they voted for Biden because they liked him and the other half voted for him because they didn't like Donald Trump. Right. And that leads me to my next topic. That is a big part of Joe Biden's appeal.

That's it. He's not Donald Trump. And we're already starting to see some scuttle about challenges to him. We have R.K.

Jr. who's out there doing something. But also today, Cornell West just announced a third party. I covered Bernie Sanders in 2020.

So, I was around Cornell West. He's somebody with a strong base of support that people connect with. R.K. Jr.

has high 20% in some of these polls. Do either of these men threaten Joe Biden's appeal that he's not Donald Trump and that effort is he tries to coalesce that not Donald Trump vote. Right. So, they both can appeal to different constituencies, but the idea, especially among some of these voters who turned out only to vote against Donald Trump, these other two candidates may be a reason to vote for something rather than just vote against something.

But I think for the general election, the challenge for Democrats, for Biden, what you hear, I'm sure you hear as well. I hear from Democrats. Their number one concern is third party candidates. Right.

And that's what Cornell West would be. He doesn't need to get on the ballot in 50 states. The only thing to get on in Wisconsin and Arizona and Georgia, that and poll one or two percent, that could be enough to make Biden's success there really tend to be. We all remember Nader's role in 2000, right?

Right. And Jill Stein and etc. It's different. Obviously, these are different candidates.

It's a different time. But we know how narrow those margins are going to be regardless of what the campaign ultimately is. So, what do you make of R.K. This is somebody R.K.

Jr. Jr. You should be very clear about it. Very passionately anti-vaccine.

We know that he has connections to Steve Bannon, but he does have the last name, Kennedy. That's right. One question is how soon or when will we see Democratic affiliated groups going out and educating Democratic voters about who R.K. Jr.

is? Right now, he says, hi, he's he isn't the bull's because it's just only a idea. I doubt very many people know much about him. So when will we start to see sort of a sustained campaign highlighting many of the things you just did about some of the conspiracy theories and the anti-vaccine and the support from Steve Bannon to probably drive that support down.

But look, when you've got, I don't know, we've seen multiple people. It's about this anywhere from 30 to 50% of Democrats saying, boy, I'd like another option in 2024. We shouldn't be that surprised that somebody with a very well-known name is getting some of that vote. You know, it's always interesting that these candidates that are established, they decide not to entertain a primary challenger.

And I'm not saying that this is going to happen this time around, but Hillary Clinton thought she was just going to ride to the nomination and bring Sanders came in. Sometimes a little bit of competition strengthens the crime. It is good. And to really make your case to voters about why you are the best candidate, not just why this person is not good.

Right, right. Amy Weltzer, excellent analysis. I always appreciate you being here. Now let's turn to Davenport, Iowa, where there are new developments in that deadly building collapse.

City officials announced this morning that three bodies have been removed from the scene in the last 48 hours. Brendan Colvin, senior Ryan Hitchcock, and Daniel Preen have all been recovered, completing the search for victims one week after sections of the building crumbled to the ground. The news also coincides with new legal action. The first of what could be many lawsuits was filed today by a building resident.

That complaint, the complaint I should say, accuses the city, the building's owners, and the engineers and contractors who worked on the building of knowing the structure was failing, but intentionally keeping tenants in the dark despite there being a quote imminent danger to their lives. In total, nine people were rescued and three were killed as a result of the collapse. And up next, a Trump appointed federal judge just throughout Tennessee's first in the nation ban on drag shows calling it, quote, unconstitution. You're watching Meet the Press Now.

And welcome back. In the newest episode of Meet the Press reports, Chuck Todd takes a look at the art of the con diving into the stories behind some of America's most prominent modern-day grifters. And how famous figures like Elizabeth Holmes, San Dankman Freed, and Congressman George Santos were able to successfully scam people for so long. Take a look.

Elizabeth Holmes, the founder of blood testing startup Theranos, was once worth $4.5 billion and celebrate it as a woman who could own the future. You founded this company 12 years ago, right? Tell them how old you were. I was 19.

So this is the little tubes that we collect the samples in. We call them the nanotainer. And they're about this big. You get the same results that you get for Theranos if in fact you went to a doctor and had him take a vial of blood from your veins.

We do. But in 2015, the Wall Street Journal began unraveling the con, questioning whether Theranos' technology worked. This is what happens when you work to change things. And first they think you're crazy, then they fight you, and then all of a sudden you change the world.

At the end of May, Holmes reported a prison after being sentenced to more than 11 years for defrauding investors, including MediaMocal, Rupert Murdoch, Oracle's, Larry Ellison, and the Walton family, founders of Walmart. It kind of throws into question the success of some successful people who we might resent for being successful. Hey, famous people are just like us. I can get scammed, so can they.

Right. Grifters thrive in the margins, and their unlikely success. Pulling the wool over the eyes of the rich, powerful and well connected until a dramatic fall is a dark expression of the American dream. Just 14 years to the day after Bernie Madoff was arrested and charged with fraud in New York for orchestrating a $65 billion Ponzi scheme, Sam Bankman-Free, the founder of the Cryptocurrency Exchange FTX, was charged.

He faces 13 counts, including security fraud, money laundering, and campaign finance violations. Were you truthful with us today? I, I was as truthful as, as, you know, I'm knowledgeable to be. There's, there's something I wish I knew more about, but yes I was.

So let me ask you this. Do you agree that over time you also lied? Do you agree that I lied? I don't know if times when I lied?

The full episode of Meet the Press Report's Gritter Nation is available to stream right now on Peacock or YouTube. And we have an update now to a story that we first brought you in another recent Meet the Press Report episode on the rise of drag bans and anti-drag extremism in the United States. Drag queens in Tennessee can celebrate pride this month without the shadow of the state's looming drag ban after a federal judge rejected a law aimed at severely limiting drag performances late Friday night. The first of its kind law was signed into law by Governor Billy and March and was aimed at banning drag performances in all public places and anywhere with children present.

The same federal judge who temporarily blocked the ban back in March before it was set to go into effect ruled against the law entirely on Friday writing quote, the ban is both unconstitutionally vague and substantially over broad. The blocked law is just one of over 500 introduced in state legislatures around the country into regulating the freedom of the LGBTQ community. NBC is Antonio Hilton reporting on that story for Meet the Press Report since she joins me now. So Antonio what does this really mean for drag performers and the overall LGBTQ community in Tennessee right now?

What are you hearing from some of these drag queens and other performers that you talked to while you reported on the ban last month? So Ryan I got the chance to talk with some of them over the weekend as they reacted to the news. It came out very late Friday night so these were texts coming in on Saturday as people were waking up in the morning and there was this feeling of relief but also as one performer put it to me a concern about complacency. You know it's pride.

People want to celebrate. They want to go to parades. They want to go to dance parties out in the summertime and not be worried about being arrested under this law. But at the same time as you just mentioned there's a whole host of other laws that would impact LGBTQ people not just in Tennessee but around the country but to take Tennessee you know as the example here.

They passed a ban on gender affirming healthcare for transgender children. They worked on bills to allow teachers to deny using students pronouns and other bills that have to do with access to public space like bathrooms. So the communities there still feel like they're under attack so they feel like this is an initial and certainly a celebratory victory for them but they're still in the midst of a fight in a state like Tennessee. You mentioned that fight.

The court said the ban was unconstitutional because it was too broad and too vague. So is the Tennessee state government going to respond? Will they just craft legislation that has a bit more specificity to it? Well in terms of legislation we'll keep an eye on what they do next but we know that they have already responded.

Senator Jack Johnson the Senate Majority Leader there who I actually spent time with as part of our Meet the Press reports reporting. He immediately released a statement with his disappointment saying that this was a win for people who want children to be exposed to sexually explicit content. This goes back to what we've heard from lawmakers from activists around the country who've argued that drag required these kinds of restrictions because it was inherently sexual and threatening to children. But I should point out this judge was a Trump appointed judge.

You know this is not a judge who has a reputation for being extra liberal. And in fact the performers and folks who wanted to perform drag were nervous about what was going to happen as they move forward with this lawsuit. And what we've seen is some of the Republicans who I've spoken to upset that this judge didn't have their back on this issue. And so I think it could look like further legislation perhaps in the next session but we already know that they're going to be pushing the Attorney General there to appeal to the Sixth Circuit.

Okay and Tony Hilten thank you so much we appreciate that report. And before we go I want to take a moment to celebrate the big announcement here at Team Meet the Press this weekend. After nearly 10 years Chuck will be stepping down for Meet the Press at the end of the summer and passing the baton to Kristen Welker who will be the new moderator. Chuck will become NBC's chief political analyst.

So congratulations to both of my friends and colleagues. It's been a tremendous amount for me over the course of my career so I'm very happy for him. Super excited for Kristen. We're all looking forward to an exciting new chapter in the story History of Meet the Press.

And that does it for this hour. We're back tomorrow with more Meet the Press now. But NBC News now coverage continues with Halle Jackson right now. Hi it's Kate Snow NBC News anchor host of the podcast The Drink.

This month I'm grabbing a matcha latte with comedian Taylor Tomlinson. The drink is always about someone's journey to the top and Taylor's story is remarkable. She tells us all about her unlikely path from performing in churches all the way to headlining her own Netflix specials like her latest prodigal daughter. And she opens up about her religious upbringing, what drew her to stand up and how she feels when she gets on that stage.

Hope you'll listen and follow The Drink wherever you get your podcasts.