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If it's Monday, former President Trump and the nation bracing for a potential historic indictment. Republicans in Congress rally around Mr. Trump as another witness testifies before a New York grand jury. Plus, Russia's Vladimir Putin and China's Xi Jinping hold a wartime meeting in Moscow, flaunting the alliance of America's two biggest adversaries as Beijing weighs deepening its involvement in the war in Ukraine.
And global banks, the U.S. economy, and the Fed all under pressure as UBS agrees to buy Swiss banking giant Credit Suisse in the latest move by banks and regulators to avert a full-blown financial crisis. Welcome to Be The Press Now. I'm Kristen Welker at the start of what could be a historic week in American politics.
As the country braces for former President Trump's potential indictment, which would mark the first time in American history a former U.S. president has ever faced criminal charges. Mr. Trump set off a firestorm over the weekend when he claimed, without evidence, that he was going to be arrested tomorrow in the Manhattan DA's investigation into hush money payments he made to adult film star Stormy Daniels.
That, of course, happened before the 2016 election. The former president also called on his supporters to protest. A Trump spokesperson clarified he hasn't been notified of an arrest. Still indications are that an indictment could be imminent, as the grand jury meets right now, hearing from a witness at the request of Mr.
Trump's legal team, suggesting Trump's lawyers are expecting charges. That witness is Robert Costello, a former legal advisor to Michael Cohen, who has been a key witness in the DA's case. He's expected to testify that Cohen is a liar. The political fallout has been, in a word, intense, as Republicans in Congress largely rally around Mr.
Trump and his potential 2024 rivals react. Today, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis took a swipe at the Manhattan DA, maligning him as a Soros-funded prosecutor. Over the weekend, former Vice President Mike Pence criticized the investigation as an act of the, quote, radical left. Also today, the Republican chairs of the House Judiciary and Oversight Committees also assailed the Manhattan DA's probe as a politically motivated prosecution, demanding that DA Alvin Bragg testify before Congress about the case.
And while House Speaker Kevin McCarthy notably broke with Mr. Trump's call for protest against the investigation, he has directed congressional committees to investigate if federal funds are being used for, quote, politically motivated prosecutions. Here was McCarthy yesterday. You can go through law after lawyer after lawyer after lawyer.
We'll tell you this is the weakest case out there. Trying to make a misdemeanor a felony. The timeline doesn't work because it's too long past. And doing it after a person for political purposes.
And the last thing we want or have is somebody putting their thumb on the scale simply because they don't agree with somebody else's political view. That is what's wrong and that's what infuriates people. And this will not hold up in court. Now it's worth noting that former President Trump has not been indicted and we don't know exactly what charges he might face.
His lawyers say he did nothing illegal and prosecutors are pursuing felony charges based on untested legal theories. But we do know our political system appears to be on the brink of a legal and political fight unlike anything this country has ever seen. And this is just one of several active criminal investigations involving former President Trump. NBC's Gabe Gutierrez is outside the DA's office in Manhattan.
NBC's Ali Vitale is in Orlando where House Republicans are gathered for a retreat. NBC's Von Hilliard is in West Palm Beach, Florida near President Trump's Mar-a-Lago home. And also with us is former federal prosecutor and NBC News legal analyst Carol Lamb. Thanks so much to all of you for being with me today and starting us off on this incredibly busy day and weekend.
I want to start with you as we laid out at the top. Robert Costello testifying today before the grand jury. What are you hearing about what's happening behind you? Well, hi there, Chris.
And good afternoon. Well, yes, Robert Costello came here just a few hours ago in a vehicle. Did not stop the comment. But as you mentioned, Chris, he is expected to testify that Michael Cohen, who he was a former legal advisor to, that Cohen is a liar and convicted perjurer.
And he was here at the request of Mr. Trump's illegal team. And Michael Cohen now standing by and understands inside that building as well as a rebuttal witness. But Chris, you mentioned that former President Trump over the weekend said that he would be arrested on Tuesday, called for protest.
Yes, we do not know the exact timing of this grand jury investigation, but legal experts do say that it does appear and that it might be nearing its conclusion. Now, over the weekend, Chris, we understand from several sources involved here in New York City that several law enforcement agencies are preparing for the very complicated logistics and security concerns that would involve the potential indictment of a former president of the United States. As you said, unprecedented in American politics. Just today, we've noticed an increased security presence here outside the district attorney's office as well as some extra steel barricades that are being put up outside.
But again, we have no indications on when this grand jury investigation might wrap up. But right now, what we do understand is that Robert Costello is back there testifying in front of the grand jury that could continue potentially over the next several hours. Michael Cohen also in the building, potentially acting as a rebuttal witness. Well, Gabe, let me just quickly follow up with you about that, because again, it's our expectation that Robert Costello is essentially testifying that Michael Cohen is a liar.
What role do we think that Michael Cohen might play today? How impactful would that be? Well, certainly, Chris. Look, Michael Cohen has spent a lot of time here testifying in front of the grand jury and meeting 20 times with prosecutors throughout the course of this investigation.
He is being brought here as a rebuttal witness, because this is, of course, the last minute. There was a time, late last week, Chris, and we were getting indications that this grand jury investigation might be wrapping up. Over the weekend, we got word that at the request of Mr. Trump's legal team, Robert Costello, what's coming here, and that Robert Costello's testimony would essentially serve as a way to blow in a hole and the prosecution's star witness undermining Michael Cohen's credibility, and the thinking being is that Michael Cohen would be allowed to respond to any of the allegations that Robert Costello would put forth.
Again, legal experts saying that this does indicate that we are getting closer and closer to a possible conclusion here, although we do not have any indications for certain that an indictment is imminent. All right. Gabe Gutierrez in New York in the center of it all. Gabe, thank you.
Ali Vitale, let me turn to you. In Orlando, you're there where Republicans are gathered for a retreat. What's the reaction that you're hearing when you talk to your sources there? Well, Kristen, by and large, this is not a conference that was set up to be about Donald Trump, but that is definitely what this conference has become, because even you look at last night, House leadership on the Republican side I did a press conference with reporters.
It was an hour long. The first 30 minutes were topics that they were self-selecting. They were choosing to talk about their policy priorities, the things that they hope to do with the House Republican majority. And then when it got to reporter questions, almost all of them were around Donald Trump, this potential indictment.
And of course, the way that Trump himself has urged people to protest, and in Trump's own words, take our country back. This is language that is really a mirror image of the things that he was saying before January 6th. You can't think about this current moment, and the preparations are being made near where Gabe is without thinking about what Trump's words incited on the 6th. That's something I asked McCarthy about yesterday, asking the speaker if he condoned those calls for protests.
And this is what he told me. Watch. I don't think people should protest this, no. And I think President Trump, if you talk to him, he doesn't believe that either.
He's not talking in a harmful way, and nobody should. Nobody should harm one another in this. And this is why you should really make law equal, because if that was the case, nothing would happen here. So McCarthy there, Kristen, acting as sort of a Trump interpreter, it seems, trying to explain away Trump's words, even though we can all read them plainly on paper.
He was pressed again on the idea of January 6th looming over all of this, and he again just urged calmness, and then pivoted back to the Republican talking point that we have heard time and again from not just people here at this House Republican retreat, but also on the campaign trail. The guy I also covered simultaneously, Ron DeSantis, is here in the state of Florida, saying that this is political in nature. And what we're watching from the House Republican side of this is the ways that they're trying to churn on that and actually mount a counteroffensive that comes from the fact that they actually have the numbers in Congress. Ali, let me follow up with you very quickly, because House Republicans are calling on Alvin Bragg to come and testify.
I want to read you a portion of their letter. It writes, you are reportedly about to engage in an unprecedented abuse of prosecutorial authority, the indictment of a former president of the United States and current declared candidate for that office. If these reports are accurate, your actions will erode confidence in the even-handed application of justice and unilaterally interfere in the course of the 2024 presidential election. Seems like they're accusing him of election interferes.
What are the implications of this? And you see the names at the bottom of that letter. You've got three powerful committee chairmen, but the one that I'm looking at the most closely is Chairman Jim Jordan, not just because he's the head of the Judiciary Committee, but also because he's the head of the House Select Committee on what they're calling weaponization of government. This could nicely fit with that committee's detailed work as well.
So we're going to watch to see which of these committees they actually asked Bragg to come before, or if this is some kind of joint investigation between admin, oversight, judiciary, and weaponization. This is the first step, though. It's an ask, not a subpoena. We'll see if it gets to the subpoena point.
All right, well, I know you have got a busy rest of your afternoon. Ali Vitale, thank you so much for your great reporting there. Yvonne, let me turn to you in West Palm Beach. You've been talking to your sources there.
What are they telling you about former President Trump's mood? This is obviously a moment that he sees as a potential valiant cry for his base. Right, and actually, I think that Donald Trump speaks for himself so well in this regard, Kristen, because if you were to go to his true social media account over the last 72 hours, he has consistently posted, most posts in all caps, frustrations with the investigation into him. Obviously, on Saturday is when he suggested that he was going to be arrested on Tuesday.
There was no basis for that assertion because the district attorney's office had yet to even charge him with any alleged crimes. But for Donald Trump, over the course of these last three days, he has suggested not only that Michael Cohen is not a credible witness. Of course, there are a lot of layers to Michael Cohen as a human when we talk about him over the years and his cooperation and the extent to which he has cooperated with federal and local prosecutors as well as the likes of the Manhattan district attorney. But then he's also taken aim directly at Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney.
And just to give you an idea earlier today, in one particular post, he essentially suggested that Alvin Bragg is the one who should be investigated for, in his words, presidential election interference. Of course, making a play to the investigations that at one time surrounded Donald Trump in potential collusion with Russian individuals. And that's where Alvin Bragg, the focus has gone from not only Donald Trump, but also the House GOP, calling into question the veracity and what actually the prosecutors have against Donald Trump. Of course, if he were to be charged, it would go before a jury and it would be up to that jury to decide whether Donald Trump was guilty or not.
But very quickly, because this is obviously not the only case swirling around the former president and he's trying to actually get the grand jury in Atlanta squashed. What can you tell us about that? That may have the broader implications because the grand jury there is looking into efforts to overturn the results in Georgia. Right, his attorneys in Georgia working specifically on that Fulton County district attorney's investigation into a large effort by Donald Trump and others to overturn Georgia's 2020 election results.
They filed with the courts today a 51-page filing in which they called for the special grand jury's report which was completed earlier this year that was a wide-ranging investigation in which there were multiple individuals, a former associate of Donald Trump, Lindsey Graham, Rudy Giuliani, that sat with that special grand jury that came up with this report that now is in the hands of the Fulton County district attorney as she decides whether to try to seek charges against Donald Trump and others. In that 51-page report, they say that the special grand jury's efforts were unconstitutional and that there were improprieties by Fannie Willis and her own public statements suggesting that this was politically motivated. Of course, that would ultimately come down to the courts to determine whether that has any standing or not, Christian. All right, Vaughn Hilliard and West Palm Beach, a very windy West Palm Beach.
Thank you, Vaughn, for braving the wind for us. Carol, I'm so glad that we have you Well, the fact that the district attorney in Manhattan is using a grand jury suggests that he's going after a felony. You don't actually have to use a grand jury if you're only going to bring a misdemeanor charge. And in this case, the misdemeanor charge is the falsification of business records.
That, in other words, the money that he paid to or reimbursed Michael Cohen for for the hush money paid to Stormy Daniels was put on the books as something else, as a legitimate legal expense, which, of course, paying hush money to a porn star is not. What turns it into a felony is if that payment is used in furtherance of or to conceal another crime. And that is the big question mark here. What is the district attorney?
If that is the felony charge he's pursuing, what is he going to charge as that other crime? If it's a violation of federal election law, if it's a violation of state election law, or perhaps even a concealment or misrepresentation on the organization's tax returns, that is also a possibility. So that is what would turn it into a felony charge. And we just don't have any information at this point what that charge is going to be.
Okay, we do know that Robert Pastello, former Trump attorney, is there testifying before the grand jury today. What do you make of that? Is this a Hail Mary by the Trump team? Or could this have a real impact?
Could this change the ultimate decision that is made? I think it is a little bit of a Hail Mary here. What the reports coming out are is that he's basically going to call Michael Cohen a liar. We all know that Michael Cohen has lied in the past.
We all know that he's been convicted of felonies. He's pled guilty to felonies, and he has served time. So this is what I would characterize likely as being an anti-character witness. In other words, someone that the defense has put forward as somebody they would like the grand jury to hear from who will say that you have heard from an unsavory character and you should not believe what he says.
That is their right under New York state law, and they are hearing from Mr. Costello right now and his opinion of Michael Cohen. But whether he is going to be able to contradict the corroborating evidence that the district attorney has for Michael Cohen's testimony, I think that's the key question that the grand jury is going to have to decide. You know, it's interesting, Carol, what is your sense of that?
I mean, is there any truth to what the House Speaker said? You know, it's... I don't know whether people are necessarily saying that the stronger case is in Georgia. They may be saying the more relevant and perhaps more important case is in Georgia, but the fact that the case may be more significant or more important does not necessarily mean that it is the best evidence case.
But, you know, the evidence in the Georgia case does consist in part of recorded telephone calls. So that is very strong evidence. But you have to look very closely at what the charges are and what the evidence is supporting those charges, and that differs between states. States don't necessarily all have the same laws.
So it will be very interesting to see what transpires in Georgia as well. And I want to ask you about the pressure that we are seeing have you ever experienced anything like it? Can you put it into context for us? And could it actually be a violation of the law in and of itself?
When there's an investigation going on, and if you are a prosecutor, there are certain things that you have to your advantage. You have grand jury proceedings that take place without the defendant there, without the defense counsel there, without even a judge there. You can do a lot of things in confidence, confidentially. It lets you move the investigation, usually without a lot of people knowing what's going on in the investigation.
But the defense also has an advantage in that they can go out and say whatever they want. And they can say it publicly. So until an indictment is actually returned, most of what we hear is from the voice of the people representing the potential defendant. And I think it's important to bear that in mind.
If and when indictments come out in either New York or Georgia, at that time, those district attorneys will be able to speak more about what is in those indictments. All right, Carol, thank you so much for your perspective. We really appreciate it. And before that, give you Thierry's Al-Gitale and Vaughn Hilliard.
Really appreciate all of you for getting us started. Coming up, we'll dig deeper into the scope of the political fallout of a potentially historic indictment of the former president. The panel is next. Plus, political unrest over...
overseas. French President Macron faces a no-confidence vote after a weekend of protesting clashes. You're watching Meet the Press Now. Welcome back.
As we mentioned, many Republicans have rallied around former President Trump this weekend after he claimed that his arrest was scheduled for tomorrow. But one Republican we didn't immediately hear from was his chief presidential primary rival, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. That is until today. The governor broke his silence at a press conference condemning Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg while also echoing some of the unsavory accusations against Mr.
Trump. Take a listen. I've not seen any facts yet, and so I don't know what's going to happen. But I do know this.
The Manhattan district attorney is a Soros-funded prosecutor. I don't know what goes into paying much money to a porn star to secure silence over some type of alleged affair. I just can't speak to that. But what I can speak to is that if you have a prosecutor who is ignoring crimes happening every single day in his jurisdiction and he chooses to go back many, many years ago to try to use something about porn star hush money payments, you know, that's an example of pursuing a political agenda and weaponizing the office.
Joining me now on set is Asma Khalid, White House correspondent for NPR, Maria Teresa Kumar, president and CEO of Voto Latino. She is also an NBC News contributor and Republican strategist Doug High. Thanks so much to all of you for being here. Asma, I'm going to start with you.
This strategy by the former president announcing that he could be indicted calling protesters to come out so notable that House Leader McCarthy said, well, no, that's not what he meant. What's behind the strategy? He clearly sees this as an opportunity to rally. Yeah, and I think it's exactly what we've seen occur, right?
And even Republican critics of his who have been trying to distance themselves from the former president have come out. You've seen Mike Pence, you've seen now Ron DeSantis, potential rivals of his, ultimately rally around him. And I think that it's, I mean, look, politically, I would say it was rather strategic of him to do. I think it also, though, raises the question that I've been saying for a long time, which is that I think the Republican base is still very enamored with Donald Trump and it is extremely difficult to separate themselves.
And this is a case, you know, just proof of that. Yeah, Doug, unpack what we've heard from Republicans and Ron DeSantis in particular, because he obviously got that laugh line there, poked a little fun at the situation broadly, but was very much in line with what we've heard from other Republicans attacking D.A. Alvin Breck. Yeah, the Ron DeSantis statement had something for everybody.
He wanted to find the anti-Trump piece, it was there. He wanted to find him backing Trump, it was there. DeSantis is more than any other Republican right now. He's operating in a very strategic way.
Everything he does or doesn't do is very intentional. He didn't come out and say anything immediately. He wanted to see what everybody else was saying. Saw that they were all backing Trump, knew he had to do that as well, but, and he reminds Republican voters who, yes, they're still enamored with Trump, but are also sort of exhausted that this always continues, right?
Maybe not that 30% part of the party that's never going anywhere on Trump, but that 70% that liked him or didn't, but they're just ready to move on. There's a reason why, and I think you'll see DeSantis trying to use other opportunities to say things like that. Yeah, so what are your thoughts? Do you think this energizes his base?
So I actually thought that DeSantis was so clever, because he dropped the name George Soros, because he knows that that makes money. That is a fundraising tool for his newsletters and his base, and then he poked fun at the president trying to say, I am canon, I have his values, but I don't have his luggage. Let me make sure I don't have his baggage, so I am the person that you should be considering. So I thought, to your point, it reminded me, he was very actually Trump-esque, and he had a little bit for everybody, but it all pointed back to making sure he looked like a person that should be the next candidate for the Republican Party.
I'm glad you bring up the George Soros line, because a lot of people hear that as a dog whistle. I mean, is there a risk in that in a general election? Well, we have a million risks when we come to general elections on this, right? We look at what Trump's doing as being very smart in what he's doing for the primary.
In the general indictment, really bad. You don't want to do that. When I see Republicans throw the word George Soros out there, yes, it can be a dog whistle. I also think it says quite often, I don't think anything substantive to say, so that's part of the mad lib word salad that I'll add to it.
Yeah, but I think the challenge with George Soros is, we also recognize the anti-Semitic undertones that the dog whistle has, and I think he is naming that in a way that we, as a public, have to understand what that dog whistle actually signifies for a particular part of the Republican base. And also, though he's saying, this is what heard from all the Republicans as far as it's politically charged action, and I mean, that's what he's saying, I guess, by naming Soros. Yeah, the thing that really strikes me about this moment is that here you have the former president calling protesters to come out, and, you know, McCarthy very quick to say, no, we don't think people should protest. Is there a concern that, not that this will replicate what was on January 6th, but it does have similar tone.
It has those echoes, right, and definitely those parallels. I believe even today at the White House, they were asking about national security concerns, and our understanding right now is that the White House isn't really preparing for anything out of the ordinary for tomorrow, if there were to be an indictment. But yeah, I don't think anybody could have heard the former president's words and not felt like there was this very eerie echo to his rally to troops ahead of January 6th. And that's part of the challenge with Republican messaging here is, if this is outrageous and politically motivated and a witch hunt and all that you say is, well, then it should be protested.
The natural thing to do is to go to protest it. But Kevin and the other Republican leaders should know, oh, God, don't come here again. They know what the stakes are. Well, I think that the fact that there was no red wave along with this, the Republicans realized that they don't have the crowd.
Part of it was because the January 6th, he did such a great job of exposing the big lie to the majority of Americans. That included a lot of independents and moderate Republicans. I mean, if you recall, there was a couple of folks that were prosecuted saying, I went there because I thought that my democracy was under attack, and then I learned of a big lie. And I think those are the people that he was trying to mobilize that now cannot.
I'm curious, Marissa, how should the president respond? The White House have all been working on our sources. I haven't gotten very far in terms of being very good. But do you think once he announces he's running for office, which is the expectation, should he talk about this or should he not?
Well, I think, first of all, the fact that he's letting the Justice Department and he's allowing the New York D.A. to do their job, no one is above the law. And this idea that let's actually focus on Jordan when you broke the law in New York, that's nonsense. Everybody should be prosecuted.
I think what he's going to do is consider he's saying we have the best law enforcement, the best laws on the books and the best institutions, and let that take its course for whatever should be prosecuted. Awesome. What are your sources? I don't know anything about how to respond to this, but I do think it's a very delicate argument for the president to make.
Absolutely. I think we can get some clues maybe looking at how he navigated the midterms, which was to speak broadly about democracy being on the ballot without always explicitly calling out his predecessor by name. On the issue of President Biden today, he issued his first veto, essentially a GOP effort to curtail retirement planners' ability to take other factors into account when making retirement plans like the environment, social, and governance factors. What do you make of this veto?
What's this? Well, as you said, it's his first veto, and that in itself, I think, is significant, right, because he's now dealing with a Republican House, and that shows, you know, sort of just the challenges that he faces. But ultimately, you know, we were, I think, discussing the story that President Biden has to navigate, I think, a very sort of difficult terrain that he figures out, and likely is when you run for re-election, where he's going to be, right? And there are some places and some issues where we've seen him move to the middle, whether that's on crime, whether that's even on issues of climate at times.
And in this, I think, we saw recognition of where the base of the Democratic Party is. This was, in and of itself, a rule created by his own Department of Labor. You're absolutely right. We've seen him move to the middle on a number of different topics, which have frustrated progressives, Mary Teresa, but they're also giving him the room to do it.
Exactly right. And I think it's because he's preparing his candidacy for 2024, and he recognizes that he needs a wide breadth of voters in order to maintain the House, the Senate, and the White House. And so you're seeing him tack more right, but it's because he gave so much to the progressives in the beginning two years of his term. Doug, what do you make of this, and how will Republicans play this in the general election?
Does it make him a stronger general election candidate, or do you think they're going to start pouncing? Oh, they'll start, and they already have started. What's interesting to me about Biden's statement is he told us exactly how he's going to run for re-election. This was a MAGA bill that he vetoed.
He made it very clear on that. And so it's very consistent with what he was saying last year, and he's going to continue that's his 2024 message. Yeah, he thinks it worked in the mid-term, so he's clearly doubling down on that. All right, thank you so much, Asama Maria, Teresa, and Doug.
Great conversation. Really appreciate it. Coming up next, deepening ties between America's biggest adversaries is the president of Russia and China. We meet face-to-face in Moscow.
We're going to dig into it. You're watching me press now. Welcome back. Chinese President Xi Jinping is in Moscow today for a three-day state visit, his first trip to Russia since Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine.
Now, according to Russian state media, the two leaders met for over four hours. According to the Russian and Chinese government, Putin and Xi greeted each other as, quote, dear friends, and praised each other's leadership as China and Russia looked to deepen their no-limits partnership. The visit comes after Putin made a surprise trip under the cover of darkness to Russian-occupied Mariupol, even as the International Criminal Court accuses Putin of committing war crimes. China, meanwhile, continues to try to position itself as a global diplomatic power after unveiling its own 12-point peace proposal.
NBC News foreign correspondent Janice Mackey-Frayer is in Beijing with more. Christine, Chinese officials have been framing this visit as a mission for peace, though China's role as a peacemaker in the Ukraine war is highly debatable. China has long straddled the issue, still refuses to call it an invasion, and over the past year has gone out of its way to ensure that it doesn't strain ties with Vladimir Putin. The two leaders consider themselves close friends, though the China-Russia relationship itself is more pragmatic, it's almost unsentimental, it's based on trade, and this common strategic view that's aligned against the U.S.
and against American foreign policy. A key moment actually came two weeks ago when Xi Jinping made that speech naming the U.S. as leading the Western effort to contain China. That was unprecedented, and now we're seeing a sort of follow-through in making this trip.
He's wanting to ensure that Russia stays in line with that view, that China doesn't need Russia to win the war, but it can't have Russia lose the war either. So Xi Jinping is pushing this 12-point plan to come up with an agreement to the Ukraine crisis, is what they call it, but it's unlikely there's going to be any agreement that's going to be seen as meaningful by all sides. And the optics of this visit are not so good. Still, Xi Jinping is unlikely to leave Moscow empty-handed or embarrassed.
There will be some trade deals, they will show off how close their ties have become. There is a very deep economic dependence on China right now for Russia. For the U.S., it's saying that it's opposed to any sort of deal that would effectively amount to the ratification of Russian conquest. But that Xi Jinping, the leader of a powerful country, would even make a visit to Moscow as the war in Ukraine is raging is already hugely symbolic for Putin.
Kristen? Janice Mackey-Frayer, thank you for that reporting. I want to bring in Bonnie Lin, director of the China Power Project at CSI. Bonnie, thank you so much for joining me.
Really appreciate it. I just want to talk to you first, big picture, because the White House, as you know, American officials are very concerned about this meeting. Their concern is that it runs the risk of emboldening Russia, that these two allies will be even closer. What do you see as the biggest concern with this meeting?
So I think there are multiple reasons for why China is going to Moscow right now. As discussed earlier, one of the reasons is to strengthen the China-Russia relationship. And that relationship is becoming stronger and stronger, particularly as both countries are increasing the United States as an adversary. On the Ukraine front, there is a real risk that both China and Russia have come from this meeting, arguing for a ceasefire.
But that ceasefire might not take Ukrainian interest at all, and it could be a ceasefire that really tries to end the war on Russia's terms. But the act of trying to push for an end to the Ukraine conflict is China's attempt to portray itself as a peacemaker. And it's possible, as a peace broker, and it's possible that parts of the international community could buy into that, and could be, in other words, not really understanding what role China might actually be playing in conflict. And let me follow up with you on that point.
Is the goal for China to embolden itself on the world stage? Is that the ultimate thing that China is after here? I think China definitely is seeking a larger platform, global platform, and also to strengthen its overall relations as well as international influence. Because what's clear from the Chinese messaging is that Xi's visit to Russia now is the first visit as he secured his third term as president.
So it's a very significant first visit abroad. And he's choosing Russia because he used Russia as a clear partner that will support Chinese interests, support Xi's own initiatives, and will likely, from the end of these three days, will likely see an outcome that will be beneficial to China strategically. Our team here at NBC News, Carolee Courtney, can be reported last week that the U.S. is really trying to tamp down its rhetoric ahead of this meeting.
And also, given that China has been considering whether to give Russia lethal aid, do you think that is the right strategic move for the U.S., or does it carry risks? So I think the United States has been careful of what we're saying, but we've also been not shy in voicing our concerns, right? As you mentioned, we voiced our concern that China might think about providing Russia with lethal aid. We are voicing concern about the timing of this particular meeting, as well as what the outcomes might mean for the conflict in Ukraine.
So I don't think we are being too cautious in our approach towards China or Russia prior to this meeting. Does the U.S. have any tools in its toolbox right now to counter this, what appears to be, growing alliance between China and Russia? I mean, what is your perspective on what next steps should look like?
Sure. So we have, I think, two really powerful tools. One is our allies and partners. So China, even if it has a strong relationship with Russia, is very cognizant that it can't lose Europe in the process, right?
So that's why China has tried to straddle its position on Ukraine for so long, making it appear like China hasn't taken a side between Russia and Ukraine. The other thing that we have on our side is also the power and threat of economic sanctions. My understanding is, to date, one of the reasons why China has not provided lethal aid to Russia is because of both the fear of negative reactions from Europe, international community broadly, but also the potential impact of U.S. economic sanctions on China.
Should China provide lethal aid? And Bonnie, just very quickly, obviously the big news at the end of last week was that the ICC essentially waged this indictment against Vladimir Putin for war crimes. How might that factor into the meetings that are going to be taking place over the next several days here between China and Russia? To be frank, I don't think China factors that into account, right?
China is viewing this as an international organization that is not part of criticizing Russia or criticizing Putin. So from its perspective, it is an outside organization trying to damage Putin, a close friend of Xi Jinping, and Xi has made it clear. So if anything, what we're likely to see is this designation of Putin further move the two sides closer together, as both are now increasing, viewing the other as being labeled and judged inappropriately from their perspective from the international community. All right, Bonnie Lynn, thank you so much from the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Really appreciate your perspective on this critical day. After the break, global begging turmoil, pressure on U.S. regulators and one senator's accusations that the chair of the Fed has failed the public. That's next.
You're watching The Press Now. Welcome back. Protesters took to the streets in France again today as French President Emmanuel Macron's government survived two no-confidence votes in Parliament. It comes after Macron used a controversial executive power last week to force through unpopular pension reforms, including raising the retirement age from 62 to 64.
Protests over the reforms, which have been building since January, boiled over this weekend, with 70,000 protesting across France on Saturday alone, according to the Ministry of the Interior. The country's labor unions are calling for a nationwide strike on Thursday. Joining me now, I'm Harris's NBC's foreign correspondent, Megan Fitzgerald. Megan, you've been covering this from the beginning.
So talk about what you're seeing there right now in terms of the protests and the reaction. Good to be with you. I mean, we have been seeing protests play out all throughout the country, most certainly here in Paris. There's still some demonstrations going on here now, but for the most part, police have been successful in dispersing protests, and we haven't seen any of these protests turn violent.
But look, we had a chance to talk to these demonstrators who say this is just the beginning. They will continue to protest. And of course, as you mentioned, there's that national strike that's coming up on Thursday that has the potential to bring this country to a halt. But these protesters are angry for several reasons.
One is because this is a society that really values that work-life balance. They work to live. They appreciate their 35-hour work week. They appreciate their vacation.
And they also say that they pay more in taxes than the majority of other European countries in return. They look forward to retiring early. Of course, that no longer is the case here. But they're also upset and very angry at the fact that President Macron just pushed this legislation through by passing a vote in Parliament.
And they say it was incredibly undemocratic the way that he did it and that he failed to listen to the will of the people opposite. All right, Megan Fitzgerald in Paris for us. Megan, thank you so much. Really appreciate it.
We want to turn now to the turmoil and continue to roll the global banking industry. Yesterday, Swiss banking giant UBS agreed to buy its alien rival, Credit Suisse, for $3.2 billion. It was a deal negotiated in part with Swiss government regulators as they looked to stem the threat of contagion in the global banking system. Credit Suisse shares fell sharply last week after the bank reported a massive loss in accounting problems.
The buyout was cheered by both U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, who used the statement to emphasize their view that the U.S. financial system remained, quote, resilient. It comes as U.S.
regulators are facing scrutiny from lawmakers in Congress about their oversight in the U.S. banking system and the stunning collapse of Silicon Valley Bank. Yesterday, one of the more outspoken critics of the Federal Reserve, Senator Warren, told Chuck she believes Powell has failed on the job. For these big banks that could take down the banking system, that could take down a lot of small businesses and medium-sized businesses, we've got to have tough regulators.
That means, and I'm going to say it again, we've got to have an independent investigation. Powell needs to turn around the regulations that are in place right now. Congress needs to step up and roll back the changes that were made in 2018, and we need to hold these CDOs accountable. That's how we have a safe and secure banking system.
Joining me now is NBC Business and Data Reporter Brian Chung. Brian, thanks so much for being here. You've been all over this story. So let's talk about what happened over the weekend.
The Swiss government hoping that lasting $54 billion loan to Credit Suisse would be enough to bail it out. Where are things today? Yeah, well, clearly that wasn't enough because the Swiss government had to help broker a deal for another Swiss bank, UBS, to come in and rescue this bank. Credit Suisse is one of the largest firms in the world.
It was actually defined as systemic by international financial regulators, such that if any of the banks on that list, like Credit Suisse, were to go under, it could create a global financial crisis. That's the reason why the government had to move in so swiftly to save that institution, the reason why the U.S. Treasury Secretary and the Federal Reserve Chair even had a comment on that. So it's pretty remarkable to see this bank, which, by the way, is magnitudes larger than Silicon Valley, need help over the weekend.
But again, that resolution hopefully stopping the bleeding that could have happened internationally and then spilled back over into the United States. Are we seeing any impact on U.S. markets, Brian? Yeah, well, markets did bounce back here in the States.
If you look at the Dow, over 1% as of the market closed today. So it seems like investors are reacting positively that there are buyers for some of these assets. That also comes alongside news that one of those banks that failed Signature Bank from two weekends ago. They got bought by, in part, another bank here in New York.
So it shows that there are some buyers that perhaps confidence that banks can come in to buy other banks. And Brian, just very quickly, all eyes are going to be on the Fed on Wednesday. What would the impact of even a very small rate hike be? Yeah, well, I mean, this is a challenge because if the Fed raises rates too fast, they could break another bank.
If they don't raise rates fast enough, that could not do the job on inflation. The Fed's going to have to thread that needle. Expectation, they go by either a quarter point or they might not move at all. We'll have to see on Wednesday afternoon.
All right, Brian Chong, thank you so much. Really appreciate it. Still to come inside the renewed push for equity after a study showed black veterans were being denied mental health benefits more often than their white counterparts. The reporter behind that story joins me next.
You're watching Meet the Press now. Welcome back. We have an update now on an NBC News exclusive report we first brought you last month about historic discrimination against black veterans. This previously unreleased report from the VA revealed the discriminatory disparity in health care benefits for black veterans wasn't just historic, but was recent as well.
The advocacy group, the Black Veterans Project, says thousands of documents prove black veterans as recently as 2017 were being denied PTSD benefits at a higher rate than their white counterparts. The group gave the documents to NBC's Lucy Bustamante, who has been reporting on inequality for black veterans for NBC. Take a look. This report called the 2017 grant rate analysis of PTSD disability claims shows black veterans have the highest rate of denial compared to other ethnicities.
Only 43% had claims approved in comparison to the national average of 55%. White veterans had a higher rate of approval of 57%, two points higher than the national average. But Yale Veterans Legal Services Clinic reports this report was never published for the public to see. So there was a meeting at some point about the role of minorities in the VA and it seems like someone pulled together a presentation on that front and then that presentation wound up not making it anywhere.
And then separately, it seems fairly clear to us that they had the data because they have been talking about it and they had the data but when we had previously asked for this information, they told us that they didn't have it. It was impossible to collect. NBC News anchor from WCAU. Lucy Bustamante joins me to break down these findings.
So Lucy, we just spoke to you a couple weeks ago about this. Here you are back with this extraordinary update. What I can't wrap my head around, these disparities continued as recently as six years ago. Exactly.
And what's important to know about this report is that this is information that Yale Center for Veterans Legal Services has been asking for. This is information that their own employees have been asking for. We have spoken to many VA workers who say this is something that they told us didn't exist. It was only discovered through litigation, through lawsuits of veterans who said that I'm a veteran of color and I was denied for years my PTSD disability claim.
And apparently it turns out that they're certainly not alone. So once again, it's 43% denial rate. And that is, it puts them at a huge disadvantage. And it's very sad because there's one VA worker that we spoke to, Kristen, who says that these are numbers that they've been meeting and they believe it's over fear of litigation.
Well, let me follow up with you on that because you and I know you've been working on this from some of our other partners at other stations and you've been talking to folks who've been directly impacted by these disparities. What are they telling you? What is the biggest impact on them? Well, PTSD is one of the invisible wounds of war.
And so, for example, our station in San Francisco, our investigative reporter out there began to ban interview a veteran named Ronnie Forbes He kept applying, kept applying and it wasn't a teller's camera that actually represented him publicly where the next day he was approved. Our station in Connecticut covered Kyle Jones, a reporter out there covered Conley Monk, which was actually the lawsuit that got this information revealed. And it took him 40 years, Kristen, to get his PTSD disability claim approved. And that was because he had to prove that he was worth it despite his dishonorable discharge, that those behaviors that led to dishonorable discharge were related to his PTSD.
And it's so painful to hear that. You can't imagine what that waiting was like. I think we have sound from the former VA advocate, Kayla Williams, who talks about this a little bit more. There are some folks in VA who don't want to look for or look at these problems.
They're worried that if disparities are found, that that will harm the trust that veterans have in VA. We've let this problem fester for another decade and let folks get disparate decisions being made for a decade. When if folks had just done the work, identified the problems and then put in place solutions a decade ago, we could have avoided a decade's worth of harm. Lucy, what do you make of that?
And why didn't it happen a decade ago? Why didn't it happen a decade ago? We have heard from quite a few people, Kayla included, that the leaders of the VA were afraid that it would open a flood of litigation, which you know what, Kristen, it's happening anyway right now. The other thing that was so interesting, she used to run the Center for Women Veterans.
And she said, I had the data I needed to be able to target my veteran population, women that were claiming PTSD because of sexual assault in the military versus combat PTSD. And I was able to help these women veterans because I knew that they had a problem. So why is it that our counterparts who are black female veterans don't get this information put out about themselves that help us better serve them? So it's a lot of emotion that they just hope this particular report that we now know they've had and the VA has not confirmed that they released.
Well, we'll hopefully get some change. It's critical you're shining a light on it. Thank you so much, Ms. Cusimante, for being here to report on it for us.
We really appreciate it. And thank you for being with us this hour. I'm back tomorrow with more Meet the Press Now. NBC News Now coverage continues with Hallie Jackson right now.
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