Meet the Press NOW — March 21

If it's Thursday, former President Trump has just days to come up with more than $460 million in bond money as the presumptive Republican nominee faces massive legal bills and a campaign war chest that lags far behind President Biden's. Plus, Attorney General Merrick Garland responds for the first time to questions about his handling Special counsel Robert Herr's report on President Biden's mishandling of classified documents and his memory lapses. And in the strongest language yet, the US Calls for an immediate and sustained ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in exchange for the release of all remaining hostages as Secretary of State Lincoln holds talks with Arab leaders in Egypt. Welcome to MEET the press.

Now, I'm Kristen Welker. We begin with a major cash crunch on multiple fronts for former President Don Trump. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee is facing a deadline in just four days to post a nearly half a billion dollar bond in the civil fraud case against him. Now, as of right now, he doesn't have the cash and he's running out of time to get it.

NBC News reports his struggle to secure funds is frustrating the former president, as is the possibility that New York Attorney General Letitia James could start seizing his assets. Mr. Trump publicly has said he has lots of cash, including earlier this week as he spoke to reporters after casting his vote in Florida primary. Have some of the greatest assets in the world and this is a rig trial.

This was a rig trial by a crooked judge and a crooked attorney general, and we're fighting it out with him. We have a lot of cash and we have a great company, but they want to take it away, or at least take the cash element away. Now, at the same time as Mr. Trump is struggling to come up with money he needs for his legal issues, new numbers show he also has money troubles when it comes to his presidential campaign.

The former president is trailing President Biden's fundraising efforts, significant with the Biden campaign raising more than double the Trump campaign in February. Now, of course, these numbers do not show the whole picture. There are groups that raise money on behalf of candidates as well as their respective parties. And just last month, Mr.

Trump's daughter in law, the newly minted Republican National Committee co chair, floated the idea that the RNC could pitch in to pay Trump's legal debt and that voters would be happy to help. Absolutely. That's why he's saying go find me asserted. That's why people are furious right now.

And they see the attacks against him. They feel like it's an attack not just on Donald Trump, but on this country, you can't have a country and call it the United States of America. That goes out of its way to target political opponents and try to bankrupt them and take down their companies, take down their families. So I think that is a big interest to people.

Absolutely. Meanwhile, President Biden seems to be reveling in his opponent's cash issues, joking twice in the past two days about Trump's mounting debt, first at a fundraiser last night in Dallas and then again just this afternoon in Houston. Telling the crowd, quote, the other day a defeated looking man came up to me and said, Mr. President, I need your help.

I'm being crushed with debt. I'm completely wiped out. I have to say I'm sorry, Donald, I can't help you. But cash is not the end all be all of presidential campaigns.

While Mr. Biden did outraise Mr. Trump in 2020, Hillary Clinton also outraised him in 2016. And election Mr.

Trump ultimately went on to win. Even as Trump's legal battles have brought legal bills, they also bring plenty of free media and rallying cry for his supporters, something the Trump campaign is counting on as the general election heats up. Joining me now to start us off today, our TV reporters, NBC News correspondent Garrett Hake, NBC News investigative correspondent Tom Winter and Ali Raffa is outside the White House for us. Garrett, I want to start with you.

You were behind this great reporting about Trump's frustrations with his legal and cash problems. Tell me what you're hearing, what a source is telling you inside Trump world. Cash problems extend between Trump personally and legal capacity to the campaign right now. They are very much in fundraising mode across the whole spectrum of everything that he needs to do between now November if he wants to be president again.

And I'm told that he and some of the people in his upper echelon, both within the campaign and sort of the broader circle around Mar a Lago are frustrated to be in this position. And as I sit here right now, there's still not a clear answer how they're going to get out of it. They've tried to. Some of his allies have hit up some of the major donors to suggest the possibility that people could guarantee his bond that has, as best I can tell, fallen flat.

They've not been able to win over the courts. They have this emergency appeal that could either be answered at any time or just ignored between now and Monday and seem to rule out the possibility of declaring bankruptcy, something that I don't think has any political appeal to them. So this is very Much an open question. And while it's all being asked and debated, we're not seeing Donald Trump.

We haven't seen him on the campaign trail other than that brief clip you showed when he went to vote on Tuesday. We don't have any public events scheduled for him anytime in the near future. Money is job one right now for the Trump campaign. I mean, it's fascinating.

There's talk of seizing his assets. And as you're noting, Garrett, he's been quite fiery about that. That could potentially energize some of the supporters around him. But that would be extraordinary.

It would be extraordinary. And I think there's a, there's another question to ask here, whether Letitia James wants to go down that road for fear of kind of stirring up the hornets nest here. And remember, I think we should have expectations set here. I don't think even in that scenario, you'd see somebody come in and padlock Trump Tower or take a sign off 40 Wall street or something like that.

What you'd be more likely to see our liens placed on these things. You might see bank accounts sealed, the kind of thing that we might frankly only have a visual of. If Donald Trump posts about it on True Social, there's an opportunity for him here to kind of try to make this into part of his cause, the idea that he's been unfairly targeted. But I think we see this somewhat in the fundraising numbers where his donations from small dollar donors have gone down over the course of his campaign.

But also just generally in the sort of phase we're in the campaign, there may be diminishing returns for stoking that level of outrage. The universe of people who are deciding who's gonna be the president as opposed to the Republican nominee is quite different. So while that's worked very well for him so far, it may not continue to work in the same way the further we get into the calendar. It's a really great point here.

Very quickly, I keep going back to this point we just set it up, which is that, yes, President Biden is out fundraising Donald Trump right now. He's got more money in the bank. But history tells us that doesn't necessarily predict which way a race is going to vote. Which way voters.

That's absolutely right. I mean, having the resources get your message out is everything. But you still have to have a message that sinks into voters if you're actually going to win. And I think that'll be the.

For Biden, he's got to reverse his, you know, negative numbers in terms of his job approval rating. That's what he can do in the job as president for free. That's not a money question here. Right.

And I think realistically speaking, by the time this race is over, both of these men are going to spend their hours, are going to spend something like a billion dollars a piece. So we're talking about money on a scale like we've never seen before in presidential elections. I don't think anybody's going to be truly cash strapped. So the advantage is certainly with Biden here.

But is it definitive? Is it the kind of thing that swings this race one way or another? I doubt it. Yeah.

Great reporting as always, Gary. Thanks for being here in person. Really appreciate it. Tom, let me turn to you.

We of course have some updates today in New York criminal case against Trump. What's the very latest, particularly as it relates to those documents that were turned over in this case and the delay that occurred there, Tom? Sure, Kristen. So it's all about Michael Cohen.

And depending upon who you talk to, he's the star witness for the Manhattan district attorney's office in this upcoming 34 count felony case against the former president. Obviously, the Republican frontrunner, as you and Garrett have been discussing prosecution, might say they're documents of the front runner. But either way, Michael Cohen expects a significant cross examination. What the defense Donald Trump is going to try to do is to impeach his credibility.

And how might they do that? Introduce all sorts of evidence that have already been gathered in the course of a wide ranging federal criminal investigation which Michael Cohen pleaded guilty to. And then of course, his subsequent guilty plea tied to special counsel Robert Mueller in his discussions with FBI agents there. And that's the reason in part why we're seeing this discussion about the documents today, because Manhattan prosecutors about a year ago and even before that had requested a whole slew of these documents from federal investigators.

And at the time, federal investigators turned over every document they thought might be responsive in their, in their view to the Manhattan district attorney's office. Fast forward to January of this year, Kristen. And it was Trump who served a subpoena on that office asking for additional information. Federal prosecutors, some of that information federal prosecutors got after they were requested it and provided information to the Manhattan district attorney's office.

Some of these requests were different and new and some of these requests had to do with things that the Manhattan district attorney office says that they already had or had turned over. All told, they say and they say the review is still ongoing here. That 270 pages of over 170,000 documents are relevant to their case in their belief. And of that, 172 pages are tied to Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation.

Of course, that's not connected to this particular case at all. So we'll continue to see the back and forth. It'll play out here on the docket, Criston, and then eventually have a hearing on Monday which might go a long way to explaining how all this happened, whether or not it's ultimately really relevant to how things proceed going forward, what the judge might do. And of course, the ultimate question, when we might get a trial date here.

Yes, we will be watching very closely. Let me just follow with you very quickly, Tom, on that final point. Tell us specifically what is going to happen at that hearing on Monday. Could we get a trial date potentially then or no?

Are we still in holding pattern? Yeah, I fully expect that we'll get some information as to whether or not there's going to be a trial date, whether or not the judge wants more information, whether he wants the defense to give them a little bit more time. And once they have a little more time to review some of these documents, I think all that's going to be made crystal clear on Monday. Kristen will have much better sense of where this is going.

Of course, with the delay that's already been entered in this case, we're running into Passover that is logistical challenges which you well know, involving the Secret Service and somebody who's a presumptive nominee. Excuse me. And of course, just getting everything together in time to have this in lower Manhattan. So there's a lot of different moving parts here.

And I do expect to get some inclination from the judge trial date here, if not an exact date on the books. It's all going to be focused on these documents. And some additional disclosures, by the way, were made from some other figures in the case that haven't gotten as much attention. So that should all likely be addressed on Monday.

The judge very strictly saying this is the only thing we're going to be talking about. So the idea of presidential immunity that's come up in this case and other things the judge has already said, I want to talk about that at all. All right. Well, we'll check back in with you Monday to get the full update there.

Tom, thanks so much. Really appreciate that. Al Ra, let me turn to you. I read that quote from President Biden clearly pouncing on former President Trump's legal or I should say financial troubles right now.

Is that going to be woven into a stump speech? Is that going to come part of the strategy? Because right now he's saying this. Closed door fundraisers.

That's right. Christian, you mentioned this is now the second time President Biden has made that joke. And it follows the shift we've seen over the last few months where the president, during these private, closed door, off camera fundraisers, is much more sharp in his criticism of Trump. He delivers these much more sharper attacks.

Whereas his public remarks, he is still sometimes referring as his predecessor, not even specifically naming him. But this was last night, the first time we heard him lean into former President Trump's finances and how they relate to his legal troubles. We know that there was a decision made by the Biden campaign months ago not to take advantage of his legal woes as political ammunition. But last night's comments was revealing in the sense that it showed that the campaign is now seeing these two as separate and they're seeing that Trump's finances are fair game to be attacked by President Biden.

So it's gonna be interesting to see whether we see more of this, whether we continue to see this in private fundraisers or whether this fills into more of the public view. But sources close to the campaign tell me today that they don't think that President Biden even needs to seize on this. They say that the Biden team has a near constant flow of ammunition against former President Trump from Trump himself in the form of his comments at rallies, in the form of his comments on his social media platforms. So it's going to be interesting to see how the Biden team goes forward with these financial remarks.

It certainly isn't. Just very quickly, Ally, there's going to be this unprecedented, massive fundraiser next week featuring all three Democratic presidents, former President Obama, former President Clinton set to join President Biden. What can you tell us about this? Yeah, this fundraiser taking place, everybody's taking a musical week from today in Manhattan.

And it really offers the Biden campaign an opportunity to reach out to Democratic donors from across the party spectrum. Also donors of all ages, as we see the Biden campaign continue to try to reach out and make some inroads with young voters. So part of the thinking behind having the former President Obama as well as former President Clinton, in addition to, obviously President Biden, is to reach a wider swath of the Democratic Party. And this fundraiser is to be extremely, extremely lucrative, with at least 3,000 people expected to be in attendance and more than $10 million expected to erase.

Christian. Yeah, former President Clinton was referred to as the explainer in chief in 2012 when he helped then President Obama win re election. So they are making it very clear they're going to be part of this effort. Great conversation, guys.

Thanks so much. Garrett, Tom and Ally really appreciate it. Coming up next, we are turning to a different kind of cash crunch. The clock is ticking again for Congress to pass a $1.2 trillion spending package to the government funding deadline tomorrow.

I'll talk to Republican lawmaker about that and a whole lot more. Plus, Attorney General Mayor Garland breaks the silence, speaking out the very first time after taking heat for releasing the full report by special Counsel Robert Her. That's ahead. Say with us.

You're watching THE PRESS now. Attorney General Merrick Garland is defending his decision to allow special Counsel Robert Herr to include language about President Biden's memory in his report. Her cited the president's quote, poor memory last month while explaining his decision not to bring charges tied to Mr. Biden's retention of classified documents.

President Biden, the White House and a number of Democrats said her assessment was unfair and out of line. Attorney General Garland also faced criticism for allowing her to include that language in his public report. Garland responded to those criticisms for the very first time today in exchange with NBC handle Lanyard. Take a look.

Did you think that was appropriate the language of the use characterized president's mental state? I said from the very beginning that I would make public the report of all the special counsels appointed during a period of my service that's consistent with the regulation which requires the special counsel to explain what the special counsel's decisions are. The idea that an attorney general would edit or redact or censor the special counsel's explanation for why the special counsel reached the decision the special counsel did. That's absurd.

MEC News justice and Intelligence correspondent Ken Delaney and joins me now. Ken, thank you so much for being here. Great job with that question. That was just extraordinary to hear him talk about it.

Basically, the special counsel report is written for the attorney general to say, here is how I arrived at this conclusion. And what you just heard the attorney general say is how could I possibly censor that? Because obviously the public has an interest in reading this report. What did you make of this answer?

So he didn't actually endorse the language that are used, obviously. But my sense of what he was saying was that it was within the bounds of an explanation. It wasn't gratuitous. And essentially that's what the career Justice Department official who reviewed this when Mr.

Beisler complained about it, that's what he decided as well. And Garland deferred to him. I think Garland's defending that decision. Do you think this could potentially be an ongoing issue for the attorney general?

How are people viewing this within the DOJ world? I think in terms of her report, it's basically over. But in terms of Garland's relationship with the White House, that may be irreparably damaged. There's no love lost from the White House to the Justice Department.

They make jokes about it over there like none of them are going to be working at the Biden White House. And you know, if Mr. Biden gets a second turn, it would not shock anybody really to see a different attorney general. It is just remarkable because just to remind everyone, Attorney General Merrick Garland appointed a special counsel for former President Trump appointed a special counsel to look into allegations against Hunter Biden appointed a special counsel to look into these allegations of the ways in which President Biden handled classified documents.

Part of his strategy, it seemed, Ken, was to try to say we're going to approach this from the fairest place possible. That's right. And they are very pleased, I think satisfied with those decisions and we'll defend them. I think that they handle it by the book.

But, you know, the White House is not happy with the direction that some of those things went off. Yeah, no doubt that's in the language in that report would have political implications. Kendall Lanyan, thank you so much. Great to see you.

And great question again. What is a busy day on Capitol Hill with must pass Senate bills working their way through the House and Senate all while Ukraine and Israel remains stalled and House Republicans appear to have stalled in their impeachment inquiry in the President Biden. Join me now is North Dakota Republican Congressman Kelly Armstrong. Congressman Armstrong, thank you so much for joining me.

I really appreciate it. Thanks for having me on. Well, I want to start with the ongoing impeachment inquiry into President Biden. There was another hearing, as you know, yesterday with some of Hunter Biden's business associates.

Here's what your Republican colleague Mike Lawler had to say this morning on Obviously Congress has oversight responsibility and should continue down that road. However, that does not mean that we should go towards impeachment. I have yet to see any evidence that would warrant the rise to impeachment. You obviously drew up the resolution to open the inquiry, but do you agree with Congressman Lawler?

I agree with Congressman Lawler that we currently don't have the votes on the Republican side to move forward with impeachment. The difference between this and a normal investigation is we obviously run up against the political clock. So eventually, sometime at some point in time in the future, Chairman Jordan, Chairman Comer are going to have to decide when we final, when we button this up, whether we continue to go for more interviews, more evidence, more documents. I personally think we should be working to get the audio tapes from special counsel her moving forward.

But that's the difference between political side and the legal side is they're gonna have to decide when it's time to write the report and figure out and move forward with whatever that report says. So just very clearly you have not you acknowledged there has been a smoking gun yet? No, I've always said that this is a problem with large scale financial cases. Whether it's political or not.

There's never what people call the proverbial smoking gun. That's not how these cases get proved in almost any courtroom anywhere in the country. I acknowledge the fact that we do not have the votes on the Republican side to move forward with impeach. I think that's just a math reality.

I mean that is a really fascinating thing to hear you say. I guess the question becomes how does this end then, Congressman, if you still don't have the votes this many months into this inquiry? Well, I don't know if you say it's this many months, we haven't finished inquiry yet. That's the difference.

That's where you have the difference between the investigative pressures and the investigative avenues you take versus the timeline pressures and the political pressures. And moving forward, I think there's obviously people that we have interviewed, there are different circumstances that we, that we've shown that clearly will probably warrant some criminal referrals amongst the people that are dealing with these things. But that's really going to be up to Chairman Cohen and Chairman Jordan as to how they want to finalize this and present a report to the Republican conference. I do want to get to criminal referrals in just one moment.

But very quickly, just bottom line me if you could. Congressman, do you anticipate that there will ultimately be a vote on impeachment? You know, I don't like to ballpark anything in this Congress. And so I mean we have a two up majority and all of that.

But I can tell you as it stands right now, there aren't the votes on Republican side to move forward. I know that now. Okay, you talked about criminal referrals. Can you give us an indication of who would be the target of those criminal referrals?

Well, sure. I mean from the very standpoint, I mean one of the frustrating things to me Is I used to do this work for a living. Is I keep hearing about all the legitimate business activity and all the different things that are going on and all these SARS reports. We obviously have taken money from foreign governments in order to influence American politics.

Foreign Agent Registration act comes to mind immediately. Obviously still to this point, after doing this, since I introduced that resolution inquiry in December and even before that, nobody's ever actually told me what the legitimate business purpose is. That sounds great, but with just the speed and velocity at which this money was moving from foreign entities and oftentimes adversaries to different people, a lot of the members of the Biden family, there are some real implications to that. Well, and again, there hasn't been a link established between Hunter Biden's business dealings and his father.

So just specifically, can you, when you talk about a criminal referral, who are you talking about? Hunter Biden. Who specifically are you talking about? Sure.

Hunter Biden's business partners, the people who are engaged in this. I think I actually, I mean, I haven't seen the sealed documents, but I'm pretty confident saying that one of the reasons that original plea deal fell through is because of projected immunity for FARA violations. And I think it's clear that they were taking money from foreign agents trying to influence American policy without registering as foreign lobbyists. Well, and just to be.

And again, nothing has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt at this point. But just very quickly. So at Hunter Biden, you're not playing any criminal. I'm saying that's where the evidence that we have now I think shows pretty clearly.

Okay, I want to move on to talking about some money matters. Now. You're a member of the Republican Study Committee. Let's talk about the budget proposal that was unveiled today.

It includes raising the retirement age for younger Americans from retirement. Is this something that you support and do you have a number? What do you think the retirement age should be and do you back this budget? You know, I know I came out this morning, I haven't seen it, but I think this is one of my frustrations.

When we end up in all these spending fights. We don't talk about mandatory spending, we don't talk about the health of Social Security, we don't talk about the health and Medicare. We don't talk about the health and Medicaid, we don't talk about those things. Some of those are entitlements.

Social Security obviously is not. When you pay into it, you get it back. But if somebody has a 16 year old daughter and a 13 year old son. If we don't figure out ways in which to deal with these programs in the future, then we're going to have real structural problems.

The benefits will be cut for everybody. So I always appreciate when people are willing to do it. I know the political ramifications of that stuff coming through. But even in all the spending fights we've had over the last eight months, until you start talking about mandatory spending, we are not really getting into the issue of the $34 trillion in debt.

Congressman Donald Trump, the Republican presumptive nominee, has been working on the details of this on cnbc. He said there's a lot to do on entitlements. He later said he would not touch Social Security or Medicare. Do you think he needs to clarify his position?

Should people know exactly where he stands and what he wants to do on entitlements? No. And I think the appropriate place to start this is you're not going to touch it. For anybody who's currently on it close to the age of retirement, that is really, really needing those things now.

But if you want to look at the long term health and viability, one of the reasons Social Security has structural problems is a great reason we're living longer, healthier lives. But with that we have changing and the workforce and all those things. The problem is it's a 20 year problem in two year election cycle. So I understand and I think President Trump actually agrees with the vast majority of American people who are currently honor near the age of Social Security or Medicare.

And I don't disagree with that either. But I think having reasonable, responsible solutions, our conversations about what those programs look like 20, 25, 30 years from now is something that we actually got elected to do and we shouldn't hide from it. Speaker Johnson has a plan to keep the government open. Will you support his plan?

Will you? Voting to keep the government open. You know we got it at 3am last night. I was very, very critical of Speaker Pelosi when we got jammed thousand page bills, it dropped on us and asked to vote with them in 24 hours.

I can tell you if I don't have time to get through all of this, this would be really difficult. I feel pretty hypocritical voting for without reading it when I was so critical of it last time. So we're gonna try to do everything we can get through my office here and move forward. But this is, I mean this is not the way to do this.

I understand Speaker Johnson's been put in a bad spot. It's the toughest politics. But really, really asking members to vote on 70 of government funding within getting legislation in less than 24 hours, it's just, I mean, it's not the way to run government. So you're not a yes yet, but you're not a no.

That's what I hear. Yeah, that's, I mean, I mean, there's some things in there. Studying it, I've already liked it. Plus, obviously, military pay, something near and dear to my heart.

Federal, federal public defenders got a bump, which they desperately need to administer justice. But there's also tons of things in there they don't like, which is always the case in these omnibuses. So it always ends up being a weighing of the totality. You can't wait the totality until you've read the middle.

All right. Congressman Kelly Armstrong, I really appreciate your perspective. We'll stay tuned and see what happens. You all have until Friday to get this done.

I really appreciate your perspective. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Coming up next, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken speaks reporters after meetings in the Middle east as the US Tries to rub up pressure on Israel by calling for an immediate and sustained ceasefire in Gaza.

Stay with us. You're watching THE PRESS now. Welcome back. Secretary State Anthony Blinken is in Egypt today for his sixth visit to the region since the Israel Hamas war broke out in October.

While in Cairo, Secretary Blinken met with several Middle east leaders, including officials from the Palestinian Authority, before he heads to Israel tomorrow. It comes as the US has put forward a draft UN Resolution calling for an immediate and sustained cease fire in Gaza that is tied to the release of all the remaining hostages still being held. It's the strongest language put forward by the Biden administration to date, which has used its veto authority at the UN to block other ceasefire efforts in support of Israel. During a joint press conference in Egypt, Secretary Blinken said the U.S.

continues to work towards a ceasefire, including ongoing hostage talks in Qatar. But he also reiterated that an Israeli military offensive in Rafah would be a mistake. There's a clear consensus around a number of shared priorities. First, the need for an immediate sustained ceasefire with release of hostages.

President Biden's been very clear that major non operation in Rafah would be a mistake and something that we can't support. There is no place for the many civilians who are massed in Gaza in Rafah, excuse me, to go to get out of harm's way. And for those that would heavily remain, it would it would be a matter of disaster. Joining me now is NBC News international correspondent Raf Sanchez in Tel Aviv.

Raf, thank you so much for joining me. So give you the key takeaways here. We know the Secretary had meetings with Arab leaders in Cairo. He's heading to Israel tomorrow.

How much can he actually get done on this trip? What are the real tangibles here? So the Secretary is making a couple of positive indications when it comes to those ceasefire talks underway right now in Qatar. He has said he believes that the gaps between Israel and Hamas are narrowing.

But perhaps more importantly, we're learning tonight from the Israeli government that CIA Director Bill Burns will be in Qatar tomorrow. Secretary will be here in Israel. The CIA director will be in Qatar. He'll be meeting his Israeli counterpart, the head of the Mossad, as well as the Prime Minister of Qatar and the head of Egyptian intelligence.

I gotta say, it seems unlikely that the CIA director would come all this way if it looked like these talks were going nowhere. So that is the good news, as it were. The Secretary also trying to pave the way for something longer term beyond that cease fire deal, which would be, as far as we understand it, a temporary ceasefire for six weeks. He is trying to get to a place where he can tell the Israelis, if you agree to end the war, if you agree to move towards a two state solution, there will be a big prize on the other side and that is the possibility of normalization with key Arab states like Saudi Arabia.

And the hope is that that will convince the Israelis to move in direction to say something they've been unwilling to do so far. Based on my conversations, that is the real pressure point, that chance at a normalization deal with Saudi Arabia. You're absolutely right. I want to ask you about this draft that was submitted by the US calling on the UN for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza in exchange for the return return of hostages.

Do you think and do you expect this will receive support at the UN calling on Israel? Do you think this will receive support at the un? It's a really good question, Kristen. The politics.

The UN Security Council can be a little unpredictable. The US says they will bring it up for a vote on Friday. That seems to suggest that they feel confident that they have the votes. Looking back at the previous three ceasefire resolutions, the most recent one was supported by 13 out of 15 members of the Security Council.

US vetoed it. The UK abstains. Everybody else voted in favor of an immediate ceasefire. Now that was a ceasefire without preconditions, not linked to a hostage deal.

That is unlike the American resolution where a ceasefire is conditional on a hostage deal. And the question is is whether other members of the Security Council can find a way to support that or if they will be concerns that the fighting will drag on and on and on as long as these ceasefire negotiations drag on. Raph, we always appreciate your fantastic reporting. I always say this, but I'll say it again.

Please continue to stay safe. We really appreciate it. After the Great March Madness, you 6th edition, we have new reporting on how one of the presumptive Republican nominees, former 2016 rivals, has made it onto the shortlist as a potential running mate. We'll explain.

You're watching the press now. Welcome back. There is a new name and it makes for potential running mate for former President Donald Trump, Florida Republican Senator and Trump's former 2016 primary rival Marco Ruby. Despite Article 2 of the Constitution forbidding a president and vice president from claiming the same state of residency.

Sources tell NBC News that Senator Rubio is moving up President Trump former President Trump's short list and the decision could be made by June. We caught up with Senator Rubio earlier today. Here's what he had to say about the buzz. Anybody who will be offered that should be honored.

But I've never spoken to anybody in the Trump world about it. So you've never had any conversations about it. So anybody who offered a chance to serve a country vice president should consider that to be honor and climbing public service. It's just not if that changes all they know.

But I'm not talking NBC. Dasha Burns is part of our IBC news team who broke the story. She joins me now from Florida. So Dasha, fantastic reporting.

I loved hearing from Senator Rubio there saying yes, it'll be honored, but he hasn't spoken to anyone about it. So just how seriously is the Trump campaign concerned him? Look, according to the sources that we've talked to, it is a serious and like a long list of contenders could probably fill an entire season of the Apprentice Christian. But he is moving up that list quickly, especially considering some of his qualifications here.

Like he's young, he's telegenic, he's had more experience in federal office than current Vice President Kamala Harris. And he is the Miami born son of working class Cuban immigrants. And this is a time when former President Trump feels pretty bullish about what he could do with the Hispanic voter demographic. And certainly a high profile name like Marco Rubio, he would be the first Latino on a major party presidential ticket.

That certainly could help with the Hispanic vote. And you mentioned the slight hitch there, that they are both Florida men. Well, Rubio could potentially resign his seat and move that could solve that problem. So something that's a bit complicated, but not something they couldn't solve for it, that's for sure.

We remember that former Vice President Dick Cheney moved his state of residency so that he could serve with former President George W. Bush. Dasha, just to remind our viewers, though Trump and Rubio were fierce rivals back in 2016, it's hard for a lot of people to see them on the same ticket. And you're also reporting that they could be eyeing a potential announcement or their speculation maybe in June.

What are you hearing and how long is the shortlist at this point? And I love how you put it that there are a lot of names under consideration. Yeah, look, Rubio is a serious contender. They did have some terse words for each other back in 2016.

You remember the rights of nickname. Little Marco. Rubio also went after Trump for having small hands. But it seems like they put that feud to the side over the last several years.

And other folks on the shortlist, Congresswoman Lisa Flanik, Senator Tim Scott, and retired neuroscience surgeon Ben Carson. Those are the names I'm hearing a lot. We know that Trump could be auditioning them over the next coming months to see who does well at rallies, who can help fundraise, which is of course a major concern for the campaign right now. He's going to let the reality show play out, though, if we know how the former president does things.

No, I would not be surprised. All right, Dasha Burns, thanks so much. Great reporting. Appreciate it.

Join me now, my great panel, White House correspondent Bloomberg Akayla Gardner, NBC News liberal analyst and host of what a Day podcast, Juanita Tolliver and Republican strategist Garrett Ventry. Thank you to all of you for being here. Garrett, I have to start with you and basically I asked you the same question I just asked Dasha, which is what is the reality check here? How seriously do you think former President Trump is considering this?

Yeah, I think he's considering a ton of options at this point. This been an ongoing story. Really. Even before a vote was cast in Iowa, everyone was speculating what Donald Trump's DP choice would be.

I think it was because this commanding leading wiped out competition. I was essentially the nominee. I do think we take a step back here. I think he likes Senator Rubio a lot.

He's an effective communicator. He' experience on Senate intel and a number of other things. And listen, President Trump has been known to fight with people like Lindsey Graham and become great allies later on. So that does Happen.

I think the president's going to draw this out a little bit here. I guess what we like to do. You saw this with the Supreme Court picks. I think he'll do the same thing with his VP here, kind of draw this out.

I think at the end of the day, he's going to look at someone who's loyal, who can add something to the ticket, who can go on his experience and implement his agenda as well. Is it a problem there, both from Florida? And I don't mean from a technical standpoint, but from a political standpoint. You have two people from Florida.

You're giving up that shot of having two different states. There's a delegate issue there, there's a Constitution issue there. So it's tricky. Also, Senator Rubio, and you're talking about, you know, Donald Trump's up in the polls right now, but you're giving up a prize Senate seat potential here as well.

That's something that's up. And if you're President Trump, I think he much, you know, after everything that's going on in New York, I don't think he wants to move to New York, New Jersey anytime soon. That's a very good point. On your way in here, how Democrats view this, obviously, he would be a powerful pick from the persp perspective of courting Latino voters, other voters of color.

I think Democrats will be quick to launch onto the fact that Rubio is also someone who Trump can control. Look at how he treated Vice President Pence. Look at how he planted a target on his back on January 6th. And so I think Democrats will raise questions of why would Marco Rubio want to subject himself not only to the bullying that he experienced in 2016, but to whatever efforts Trump may have in mind to undermine constitutional rights or a future election.

And so it doesn't seem as though this is a good fit. I do think there is something to the fact that, yes, according, like, you know, voters who have been more and more looking at the Republican Party more seriously, I think it's a factor here. But when you think about the reality of the job under someone like Donald Trump, as well as the auditioning process, I appreciate Dasha for emphasizing that. I had a little chuckle when you said that Marco Rubio is an effective communicator.

Because all I can think of is the grass at water moment, his State of the Union rebuttal. And so I feel like those are the things that Democrats are really gonna throw. Kayla, your colleagues at Bloomberg reported earlier this week that Vivek Ramaswam now no longer on the list of those being considered. What can you tell us about that and any surprise about that inside Trump world?

I think right now he's being considered for other potential. He's just being ruled out specifically for vp, obviously Rubio's and that you guys are reporting, Tim Scott at least, and Bonika still on the list for vp. But in general, I think what's been really fascinating is to see some of these people that Trump has made enemies with sort of come back. Right.

Loyalty is huge, Jamie. He's known to hold grudges and we see people like Rubio and I'm sure many other allies he's going to have to tap if he wants to fill out an experienced cabinet if he wins in November. Yeah, loyalty is top of the list for Donald Trump. There's no doubt about that.

Well, you know, let me ask you about the Democratic side and Obviously you have RFK Jr running, and there's some concern he's polling in the double digits. There's some concern that his independent bid could take away voters from President Biden. We reported this week that the Kennedy family is throwing their support firmly behind President Divide, including at the St. Patrick's Day event.

Look at them there. So many. What are you hearing about it? I'm hearing that the DNC is thrilled to have the support.

I'm also hearing that the DNC is allowing the Kennedy family to take it this on how they want to. Right. They also recognize the threat of a third party candidate in this race. They also recognize the threat of RFK Jr being someone who does spread misinformation regularly in terms of our democracy.

And so they're ready to go to bat, not just in this photo, but hitting the campaign trail doing media appearances. So when the DNC said this picture is worth a thousand words, it's worth a thousand words and multiple campaign stops. I do think timing is going to be the key here about when they engage and how much. But I do think considering the number of politically engaged family members in that photo alone, we're going to hear a lot from the kiddies in the coming months.

Yeah, it's a really good point, Garrett. I want to ask you about where we started this broadcast, which is we're talking about Donald Trump, Trump's cash problems as it relates to dealing with some of these legal matters and also as it relates to fundraising. President Biden is currently out fundraising. Him, the Biden campaign out with a new campaign memo.

They're saying that Trump is basically hiding his basement as he's Struggling to raise money. What do you make of that strategy and how significant do you think that these cash issues will be a drag on his campaign? Yeah, I mean, hiding basically just in highway rallies. I think that's, you know, that's an interesting spin.

I don't see President Biden on the campaign trail as much. But I would say this, if you take a step back, he was out spent 1.2 billion to 600 million in 2016. I don't think that was a big deal. He was outspent and outraised in 2020 as well.

I think if you're looking here at the polling, I mean Donald Trump is dominating Joe Biden in six key states that just came out. He's dominating the national polling and in the issues, he's breaking to his coalition too with African American voters, with Hispanic voters. There are big warning signs for Joe Biden here. I think with Donald Trump you're talking about, you can spend $2 trillion against him.

He's been well defined to voters over the last and he gets earned media. The guy golfs, you guys cover it. He does anything, you guys cover it. I think from that standpoint, you're seeing big donors come by.

He's got a big fundraiser on April 6. Some of the biggest Republican donors who had previously given to Haley and to Tim Scott and Ron DeSantis. I think he will catch up very quickly on this. Yeah, talking about winning over those Haley voters.

Kayla. You know, it's notable that President Biden is starting to take aim not at Trump's legal battles, but at this cash flow problem that he's having. They're kind of threading the needle. What do you make of that and do you expect that to be effective?

I think what they're really trying to tell is how much money that Biden has in scenario to geared for you. It's not the NLB obviously in 2016, Hillary Clinton outreach, all Trump two one. Trump obviously won that election here, but they see this a huge advantage. This is going to be one of the most expensive elections maybe in history.

And they're really using fundraising, higher staff and they believe this is going to be a ground game. They need people on the ground in some of these swing seats, knocking on doors, talking to people, getting those ones interactions and you need money to do that. It all comes down to the Brown game so often. I need a final note to you.

What do you make of this new strategy that we're seeing from President Biden making these quips, closed door fundraisers. Do you think he's going to start getting out in front of the podium and saying this in front of people poking fun at Trump's financial problems. The part of the strategy that is going to be most effective is getting under Trump's cancel, calling him broke. Don.

That's gonna be a thing that annoys him. That'd be something that he's gonna want to rebut and respond to. I do want to address something about the finances, though. I do.

Yes. It's about emphasizing how much money Biden has on hand. I do think the legal cases are tied into this as well, considering that he hasn't made Vaughn, considering that he doesn't have as much money that he expressed in these depositions previously. Right.

So, bro, Don has multiple applications that I think diverse are really gonna try to bring. All right, great conversation, you guys. Thanks so much for being here. Akayla, Juanita and Garrett really appreciate it.

And still to come, sounding the alarm on AI, we'll speak with a former DHS official who helped organize a working about how artificial intelligence could derail the 2024 presidential election. You're watching THE PRESS now. Welcome back. We're following some breaking news out of Idaho where authorities say they found two suspects involved in a shootout yesterday that left three police officers injured.

One of those suspects was an escaped prison inmate. They're now both in custody. Investigators have described the shooting as a planned ambush. Now authorities are providing a live update right now.

We are following those developments and we'll bring you any major details as soon as they become available. We want to turn down to concerns surrounding the forms of misinformation that could shape this year's election. We're talking about artificial intelligence, intelligence, deep fakes. We got a glimpse into the potential for chaos in the New Hampshire Democratic primary when a robocall featured fake audio of President Biden encouraging Democrats not to vote.

The person who made that robocall, which sparked a firestorm and is the subject of a multi state investigation, said it was scary how easy it was to create. It took him 20 minutes and cost $1. Earlier this week we brought you NBC News's exclusive reporting on an exercise conducted by experts who war gamed what might happen if deepfakes disrupted the general election. One of the organizers of that exercise called the results jarring.

And one of the organizers of that exercise, Miles Taylor, joins me now. He's the former DHS chief of staff and the co founder of the think tank the Future US Miles, thanks so much for joining me. I really appreciate it. Talk to me about this exercise, how did you divide it?

What were the key takeaways? Takeaways? Well, Kristen, what we wanted to do is make sure that we got a lot of key players in the room who would be affected by incidents like this if they happen in the 2024 election cycle. So we had media company CEOs, technology CEOs, former senior government officials who sat in those chairs before and responded to election threats.

And you ran some potential situations by them that our experts at the think tank imagine could happen in 2024. Examples of deepfakes showing people destroying ballots at key polling locations in Florida, or interactive deep fake robocalls in places like Arizona. And then we created a mock White House situation room and had those individuals play different roles and respond to those incidents. Now, Kristen, I'll tell you, I didn't expect that to be a white in the park, but definitely these scenarios resulted in a lot of confusion, a lot of chaos, and a general feeling at the end of the exercise that the federal government is not ready for what's about to hit us.

The other question, as you think about this, Miles, and as you run this exercise, do you think the country should be more concerned about foreign actors or domestic actors? Well, that's the thing. I think in previous election cycles we would have said the most sophisticated attacks are going to come from nation state adversaries. But this is the very pernicious thing about recent developments we've seen in artificial intelligence is a lot of those sophisticated capabilities are now in the hands of individuals.

I mean, Kristen, you and I and others remember very well when Donald Trump said it wasn't the Russians, it was an 800 pound man in his basement. That seemed ridiculous at the time. However, years later, the types of things the Russians did in 2016 now are indeed available to a man in his basement with limited time and effort. Effort.

And that's what we're up against this cycle. And we project that in the coming months in the lead up to the election, we're gonna see some pretty serious expansion of capabilities that people can avail themselves of in the AI realm. So we're trying to protect those, share those with federal officials, and make sure they're prepared for what you're likely to see in the lead up to election day. Miles, in addition to what you just mapped out, what are some other potential solutions and what can individual people be doing?

I mean, should everyone just hit the pause button when you see something suspect online? Well, Kristen, it sounds really banal to say that see something, say something is the right approach. But I will tell you, that actually did work for us when it came to counterterrorism. In fact, I asked for a study when I was chief of staff of DHS at how effective that campaign was.

We found that something like three in four terrorist attacks that we disrupted had a community nexus. In other words, someone in the community said something. Now that's somewhat analogous to what needs to happen as it comes to deepfakes and AI. We need people to report suspicious activity, but also to go to trusted sources for information about their elections, Secretaries of state and local election websites.

The last thing I'll say, that's really crucial. In addition to preparing law enforcement and federal agencies to actually use technology for good, we also just need wider public awareness. And so that's something that the future US is working on is raising awareness of those communities that we think are going to be targeted and training them. Kristen, to view these attacks the same way they view malware and spam in their inboxes.

The new Nigerian princes asking for you to wire them $10,000. They're actually going to be deepfakes and we've got to develop pattern recognition for that and inoculation to those types of attacks. Miles Taylor, it's such important information. Thank you so very much.

Please stay close and want to have you back and continue to get updates on us. Really appreciate it. And I will be back tomorrow with more Be the Press now. But the news continues with my friend Hallie Jackson.

I'm Craig. Mel. Cheers. Cheers.

Cheers. I've always been a glass half full kind of guy, and now I'm talking to people who look at the world that way, too. It's really fascinating. Folks who share their defining moments, their triumphs, their challenges, their stories are funny and quite candid.

So I hope you'll join me each week. Who knows, you might just come along with your own Glass half full search Glass Apple with Craig Northern From Today on YouTube and wherever you get your podcast.