Meet the Press NOW – March 5

All right. Welcome to Ether Press Now I'm Kristen Welker. And that was the closing bell on Wall street on day six of the US War with Iran, markets ending lower with the Dow at one point plunging more than 1100 points, but came back to close roughly down 800 points in the growing uncertainty. And the price of oil surging again.

It has now gone up roughly 20% since the war began less than a week ago. In just a few moments, we are expecting an update on the war from Defense Secretary Pete Hagseth and the top US Military commander for the Middle east region. We will bring you that press conference when it begins. But we begin with breaking news and that major shake up in the Trump administration.

The president announcing on his social media feed this afternoon that he's firing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and naming Oklahoma Sen. Markway Mullen as his pick to replacer. Senator Mullen was attending a Senate lunch when he got a call from the president telling reporters he was not expecting that call today. Take a look.

Listen, I am super excited about this opportunity. It came at a, not a complete surprise, but it came a little bit surprise for us. You know, department Homeland Security Guard has a very broad jurisdiction and, and I think there's a lot of work that we need to do. And I'm excited about it.

I, I, John already text me. And of course, you guys know John, our friends too. And so, I don't know, I want people to understand I'm not when I go into this position. Yes, I'm a Republican.

Yes, I'm conservative, but you don't support me in regardless of what your thoughts are. Now, the move comes as several sources tell NBC News the president was unhappy with Secretary Noem's testimony this week before House and Senate committees, including this exchange the president approved ahead of time. You're spending $220 million running TV ads across the country in which you are featured prominently, sir. We went through the legal processes.

Did it correct? Yes. And one thing, Senator, I think would be helpful to know is how effective that communications has been. That's effective in your name recognition.

I mean, I, I personally just, I mean, to me, it puts the president in a terribly awkward spot. Now, before announcing her firing, the White House today was pushing back on Noam's claims, saying, quote, potus did not sign off on a $220 million ad campaign. Absolutely not. Join me now to break all of this down.

NBC News corresponding gate Gutierrez and NBC News senior Homeland Security correspondent Julia Ainsley. Thanks to both of you for starting us off today with this big breaking news game. Let me start with you. Based on my conversation, this was not just one factor that led to her ouster.

Basically, there were a number of issues that just started piling up and became too great. Well, certainly, Chris. And the first indications that I was saving. You just read.

Absolutely not. It's rare that you get such pushback from the White House, specifically after Secretary Noem was on Capitol Hill earlier this week and that really got to the president. $200 million for an ad campaign that tries to make her look good. Certainly the president seeing this and didn't want to be associated with it.

White House pushing out that he did not approve of it. But just in the last hour or so since this story is broken, Kristen, we've also got a statement from an administration official we are hearing and it's sharp pushback on what the reason or excuse me, laying out the reason for Noem's firing. Administration official tells us that a culmination of her many unfortunate leadership failures, including the fallout of Minnesota, the ad campaign, the allegations of infidelity, the mismanagement of her staff and her constant feuding with the heads of other agencies, including CBP and ice. Christie's drama sadly overshadowed and distracted from the administration's extremely popular immigration agenda, which will continue in full force.

What a scathing statement from an administration official. Clearly this must have been in the works. But there was some theory here and you know, we're also learning too that there was a contentious call earlier this week between Corey Lewandowski, a top Christine Home Aid and the president himself. Right.

That's to go back so far. Well, Julia, just an extraordinary statement. I've covered the White House for more than a decade. I can't remember the last time a senior administration official released a statement like that against the cabinet secretary.

Julia, you have more on these mountains frustration. Yeah, that's right. And with that contract had so much focus and so much attention during the hearings of this $220 million contract that gave reported on. But also we're reporting on another ad campaign.

We understand that Christine handpicked those same companies who were talking about that campaign to give $100 million contract for an ICE recruitment campaign. And that came against the wishes of staff at ice. And we understand their jobs are actually threatened when they went against the secretary. We have internal communications and three administration officials.

So a lot of people coming out of the woodwork at this point, as they often do, to say I have a story as well, sharing how this one ad campaign was really indicative of a larger problem because as we heard so much from this hearings, it was Gordowski and Christine Noem who had the authority to approve any contract over $100 million. And so things started to really fall within their purview to hand pick to decrease the competition on what should be a competitive bidding process. And it got hard and harder for Gnome to defend those decision. And this, of course, comes after her very quick reactions after the deaths of Alex Brady or Nicole Good.

And after that, that's when we already started to see some of her power fade. Yeah. And some internal criticism really bubbled up at that time. Julia, what about that luxury plane?

That became a real flashpoint. Yeah, break that down. It was interesting when we first had those pictures here in DC News, and those were put on about every poster board we could see inside those hearing rooms here, you see that bed, Christine said would be ripped out and replaced with seats for deportees, which was a tough answer for some to swallow on these amenities. Of course.

Why not just get a regular plane where you could fit 100 people? I've been on this plane before. They look like any commercial aircraft. But instead, she was asking for $7 million for this plane, which she said would be used for dual purpose, for cabinet level travel, meaning for her and for deportations.

And of course, that was something that DHS said would be a cost saving measurement. Again, these things got harder and harder when she was faced with Congress. I will say, as far as the members, those from Senate House, I don't know if you all were struck by this as well, but so many of these hearings have just been a time where we don't get a lot of news. We don't get people asking the hard questions.

We feel like they haven't read our reporting. It's really just political showmanship. And this time these people came very prepared. And Republicans too.

Absolutely. Yeah. Like Kennedy and fellow. They were bipartisan fireworks.

And anytime you get that, you have to stop and take notice. Julie, you're absolutely right, Gabe. Julie lays out this picture of the fact that Secretary Noem had really lost the confidence of some of her own staffers. Let's turn to Senator Mark Wayne Mullen.

This is President Trump's pick to replace Secretary Noem. He has to be confirmed. I'm told that that confirmation process will move quite quickly. Talk about the support that he enjoys in the Senate.

Is he expected to get confirmed? Well, certainly he knows a lot of goodwill in the Senate and that probably was part of the calculation for why President Trump decided to choose Senate. We're also getting some interesting reporting from our Capitol Hill colleagues. Melanie Zanona, who is speaking to a senator.

He had a lunch today. Apparently he got some phone call, rushed out of the room very quickly with his hand over his mouth. And, you know, you heard him there speaking to reporters. He hadn't spoken to his wife yet earlier today.

This is a very this was surprising to him, but certainly this is seen by the administration as a pick. The president called him a MAGA warrior in that post. Certainly this is someone who the president thinks can further his immigration agenda, who will be loyal to him. And with these thin margins in Congress, you know who will get confirmed by the Senate.

Yeah. But we'll watch that process play out very closely. Julia, let's talk about the backdrop to all of this, which is the fact that DHS is effectively shut down right now over this funding battle. Democrats say they're not funding DHS until some big changes are made, particularly to these ICE operations.

It does come in the wake of the deaths of the two US Citizens you cited. Do you think this changes the equation at all? In other words, could this lead to the government reopening? Will this be enough to appease Democrats?

I think that's certainly the hope and probably part of the calculation. And picking someone like Mullen, Trump knows he's heading into midterms. He doesn't want a lot of drama. There hasn't been as much of a shakeup with no shakeups in his cabinet.

I think I would have changed that as I covered five DHS secretaries of the first Trump administration. And so in this case with the DHS shutdown. And what it came clear during that hearing, too, was that it was known who chose what areas to shut down of dhs to make those decisions to shut down CISA and TSA and Coast Guard, but keep CDP and ICE still operating. That was also in the spotlight.

And so now there could be more of an opening as people think that Mullen might be more likely to listen to them. Also, some news that went unnoticed is that they're ending a plan in El Paso, Texas, where there have been four deaths of ict, shut down that detention center. We just had that news last night. So these are small steps that are being taken behind the scenes as this administration, I think, is trying to get closer to a point to reopen dhs.

No word yet on what they're going to do with the masks, though. That's also been a Democrat sticking point. Yeah, the masks have been one of the big flash points for sure, Gabe, stick around for us. Julia, thank you so much for great reporting as always.

We are waiting for that update. And eight minute now from Defense Secretary Pete on the war against Iran. It, of course, does come as major questions remain about the decision to launch the war and the plans for the next phase of the conflict. Earlier today, NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Yamas spoke to Iran's foreign minister in an exclusive interview and asked him about the possibility of US Troops in Iran.

President Trump has not ruled out boots on the ground in Iran. Are you afraid of a US Invasion in your country? No, we are waiting for them. You are waiting for the US Military to invade the ground troops?

Yes, because we are confident that we can confront them and that will be a big disaster for them. And we are prepared for any other eventuality, even, you know, a ground invasion. So our soldiers are prepared for any scenario. Tom also asked about whether Iran could win this war against the U.S.

here's what he said. The Pentagon says America is winning decisively. Do you think they're wrong? Well, I think, you know, now, six days after the war, it is clear that the US has failed to achieve its main goal, which was a clean, rapid victory.

They failed to achieve that and now they are trying to justify why they did attack us. And they have, you know, presented so many different reasons, but none of them work. And now they are talking about, you know, plan B. And I believe that, you know, they plan B would be even a bigger failure.

Can Iran win this war? And what does winning look like for Iran? Well, there is no winner in this war. Our win is to be able to resist against, you know, they've illegal, you know, goals.

And this is what we have done so far. So they have failed to achieve their goals and we have been able to resist against them, to stand against the most powerful army of the world, as they claim. It's really a rare glimpse inside Tehran at a moment where the country is facing a massive leadership vacuum following the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and many other top officials. According to the New York Times, the Assembly of Experts, the body charged with selecting the new leaders, is considering announcing Ayatollah Khan's son as a successor.

And in an interview with Axios today, President Trump saying he needs to be personally involved in selecting Iran's next leader and call company's son a, quote, lightweight. Here at home, the economic consequences of the war are starting to be felt. As we noted, stocks fell today as oil prices continue to surge. And for everyday Americans, gas Prices are up on average $0.27 compared to a week ago.

Today, the administration trying to ease concerns with the White House press secretary posting on social media. The president and his team are quote, all over it. Meanwhile, on the ground of the Middle east, four countries are being dragged into this regional conflict, including in Azerbaijan and Lebanon. Back with me now is NBC News senior White House Corsana Gabe Gutierrez, NBC News senior national security correspondent Courtney Kuby, NBC News senior business correspondent Christine Romans and NBC News chief international correspondent Keir Simmons.

Thanks to all of you for being. Okay, let's talk about the justification. What is actually happening with this conflict? There's been a lot of mixed messages about whether this is actually a war.

What is the administration saying? That's right. It really is incredible when you hear Republicans really contorting themselves trying to make this sound. It's a military operation, not a war.

The president himself though, over the last several days he has called it a war, even saying yesterday when he was saying to another event, oh, I gotta go look at the war in this particular case, Kristen, look, the administration is trying to protect the indigenous strength. You saw with Secretary Hexseth earlier this week in his news conferences. You see the president in his interviews today speaking with Reuters, with Axios, also with Politico. You know, as you said, trying to make it seem like he wants to be involved in the selection of the next leader of the Romney reigning foreign minister's interview with saying that won't happen basically.

But the president really sees this as, you know, trying to project this image of strength. And it goes back to what you hear from White House officials every time talk to him, the US Getting involved, the idea of peace through strength as we're framing here over and over again, the president again trying to make the case that this was justified and that he doesn't see, you know, in one interview today referred to an unlimited stock stockpile of weapons. You know, that's just the president really trying to get the American people to buy into to his explanation, which has at times been contradicted by some of his public officials. It's just extraordinary the contradictory messages.

Courtney, we know the defense secretary is going to be holding this press conference today. He's been holding regular press conferences. You're usually there pressing him for answers. What are the top questions that are outstanding as we go into this yet another day of conflict.

So there's a lot of questions that don't people get most of answer here, frankly. He's going to be with Admiral Brad Cooper, who's The commander of centcom and I'm hoping he gets natural facts out of him about this. But a couple things are just really open ended right now is just how many more, where are we in this war? So they've been pretty open about, you know, they've hit more than 2,500 targets at this point.

But one target could be, it could be 10 different targets at one location. So that doesn't really give us a sense of the scale and the scope of how far along they are in this conflict. Also, why aren't they any of the nuclear sites, is that on target? You know, if so, is that going to be later in the campaign?

We've got almost no information about what the Iranians have been able to hit. We know that they have targeted US Military installations all throughout the region as well as civilian infrastructure. But we don't know a whole lot about the actually destroyed the military bases. So those are some of the basic questions that we all have.

In addition to just a daily update, operational update about what they've even seen just today. Yeah, absolutely. It's such a fluid situation. And Gabe, it comes as one of the big issues.

One of the big questions for the White House revolves around this issue of gas prices. When you ask Americans what's their number one issue, they say affordability and kind of the core of that is gas prices. Gas prices and groceries. Right.

What are your sources telling you about the level of concern about the fact that gas prices are up? Look, at least publicly the president is trying to shrug off the concern. He's saying within interview with Reuters, just saying if they rise, they rise. Essentially trying to make the case that any short term rise in gas prices will not be a long term, you know, a long term effect.

The administration is trying to make the case that this will be a short, a short operation, short war, whatever you want to call it. But what we have been hearing through the previous question about this mixed messaging here, you notice the president at least in the last couple of days. So he really hasn't talked about the Iranian people rising up and trying to topple this regime. The administration is making case, they keep stressing these four objectives, which he did mention briefly in that initial social media post on Saturday.

But you know, they've been now stressing that as those are the military objectives, bigger question is the political objectives, what happens with regime change. But now you hear the president talking about that he doesn't want to be involved in picking the next leader. So which is it? Is it these four military objectives which we have been hearing about and we keep hearing this potential four or five week timeline or does the president want to be involved in regime change?

Obviously something much more complicated and something that could take who knows how long. Absolutely. The president acknowledging regime changes is incredibly complicated. Courtney, let me go back to you because Reuters is reporting that President Trump said he'd be, quote, all in for a Kurdish offensive.

What exactly would that look like and how would that fit into the broader strategy Understanding, as you say, there are major questions about the strategy every day. So there's a couple of ways it could unfold. The most likely way, and I have to say, even with the president's comic con, the officials are insisting to us that no decision has been made to actually do this. We don't think that at this point there's anything imminent about.

But the most likely way is that the CIA or some intelligence agency would provide weapons to an opposition force. Now, there are times where the US Military will get involved, usually special operators. That's often when they need some training as well or they need some sort of like support. We've seen that places like Syria, right.

With Syria Democratic Forces and others. Interestingly, in that Reuters interview, the president was asked if the US Would provide some sort of air cover as part of this. And he's not going to tell you that. So, you know, President Trump beheaded.

When President Trump says he wants to say something, that often means there's something to it. Hours before we struck Iran, he said, oh, I don't tell you exactly. There you go. Exactly.

Potentially confirmation, you know. Iranian foreign minister in his interview with Tom Yamaha said he's confident that Iran can counter a US Ground invasion. First of all, it's just remarkable that we're talking about the possibility of a ground invasion at all. It's not something the White House is moving forward with certainly right now.

But what is their reaction to that sentiment from Iran's foreign minister? Assuming it's just coming in and they reach out to White House last four hours since that interview became public, they have not responded directly to that assertion by the foreign minister that he essentially almost daring the US to come in and come in with a ground for. So we don't have an official response from the White House thus far. Publicly, they have repeatedly said they haven't ruled out ground truths because they don't like putting the president in any sort of box here.

But politically, if you speak with White House officials and speak with the administration, there is an acknowledgment that there isn't a whole lot of appetite in the country for any sort of ground forces in there right now. So it's hard to see how in the short term how the administration can move in that direction. But again, President Trump, if he's talking about potentially being involved in the changing of this leader, hard to see how that doesn't happen on some level without some sort of force. But we're waiting for a White House response to the Iranian foreign minister, who may be looking for some sort of an escalation here to try and speak to other neighboring countries to try and make it seem like the US Is the aggressor here and with a wisdom sort of ground forces.

Yeah, no doubt. And Courtney, Gabe lays out well just how complicated putting ground forces would be. What are you hearing about that? And just from an operational standpoint, how much more challenging would it make getting out of Iran?

So there's also scales of, just like there are scales of airstrikes and phases of this, there's the potential for scales of troops on the ground. Right. So we don't have to have 100, 130,000 troops invading like in Iraq going into Iran. There is a possibility that after the U.S.

conducts this military mission, right. So these four objectives, they laid out to destroy the military, the Navy, the Air Force, the ballistic missile program. And then so it really clear if they want to destroy the nuclear program or just somehow ensure that they won't pursue another nuclear weapon. But it's not unreasonable for the administration to be considering putting some ground troops in, in the later phases of this to ensure some of these missions have been accomplished.

Again, no one is talking about that at this point. They're not taking it off the table. But, but, but I think we have the sense of boots on the ground as being this massive ground invasion and people kicking in doors like we saw in Iraq, that doesn't have to be the case. And they can also keep talking about this.

They does not be boots. It could be secrets. It could be special operators, could be, you know, intelligent specialists. All right, Courtney, Gabe, thank you both so much.

And again, we will dip into that press conference when it starts and we'll probably come back to you court. Appreciate it. Christine Romans, I want to play more of what the Iranian foreign minister said to Tom. This relates to the Strait of Hormuz.

Take a look. If this war continues, will Iran try to close the Strait of Hormuz? They have not closed it. It is the ships and tankers who don't try to pass through the, to cross the strait because they are, you know, concerned about being hit by, by either side.

So we have no intention to close it right now. But as the war continues, we will consider every scenario. So, Christine, traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, which is typically jammed with oil tankers, it actually drops nearly 90% compared to last week. What are the implications if Iran closes the strait altogether?

And every one of those red dots you're seeing, there are ships that are just stuck there. I mean, a big insurance conglomerate told us there are a thousand ships, vessels that are basically parked in the Persian Gulf region trying to figure out what to do next. So if you were to physically close it, it wouldn't be different than it is today, which is essentially a self closure. You're not really seeing ships go through there.

And this is a really important waterway for 20% of the world's oil supplies. Now, we're told that in Saudi Arabia, else for these producers, they're running out of storage facilities for the crude oil that they're pumping right now. So at some point you're not moving the crude oil and you can't pump as much either. And that starts to have like an echo effect in the market.

That echo is higher prices. Well, okay, so let's talk about higher prices because it was notable President Trump downplayed the fact that prices are going up. He said, look, they might go up right now, but they're going to come back down again soon. Is that the case?

How tough is it for prices to come down once they have gone up? Christ. We're in the moment right now where there's an expanding war in the Middle east. And that's why you are seeing oil prices rise and gas prices rise quickly.

You got gas prices rising as fast today as they did back in 2022 after Russia invaded Ukraine. And that was the beginning of a prolonged period for other reasons as well, but a prolonged period of inflation and high energy prices. What's interesting about this is the president until recently has been actually taking credit for lowering energy prices and using it as an example of how his policies have defeated inflation. Today you have markets telling you they see the opposite happening here.

They see a prolonged problem without an off ramp right now. And that's what markets are telling you here. For American consumers, I mean, a jump of 27 cents in just a few days, that is a notable budget shock. So the president in that Reuters interview, very interesting, saying he's not concerned about higher gas prices for right now.

He's saying that what they're doing, it's far more important what we're doing here than have gasoline prices go up a little bit. I mean if this war were to resolve overnight, would prices come down eventually? Potentially, unless you have some other hotspot. I mean this is, this is why diplomacy and this is why President have been very, very careful to not do what this president has done because of the unintended consequences of kicking horns that really dries up, really dries up gas prices and disrupts international oil supply.

And we know that in the midterm election season, gas prices one of the biggest factors. Christine Romans, thank you so much for that great reporting. I want to go to our Kir Simmons now in the region. Kir, what's the latest there?

You've been reporting on the fact that, that they're not supposed to be explosions where you are and yet there have been how has it been overnight there? Yeah, we actually just saw some defensive fire in the distance in that direction. Air defences over and over. Dan, about an hour and a half drive from here.

Also inside the uae, smoke pouring from a world famous marina, the Yas Marina. Some pretty swanky boats and yachts there and we don't know what the damage is there. I just thought actually listening to you and Kristina talk, it's interesting that the way that Iraqi talked about the Strait of Hormuz was not just about the economics, it was political. So the reason he says that they haven't closed the Strait of Hormuz is because of China.

China wouldn't want them to. So as she very eloquently laid out, basically it is closed. But and this is the way that this thing is geopolitical and global. If you think about what happened in the Red Sea with the Houthis where they stopped shipping but then somehow the Chines, these cargo ships managed to get through.

I think you'll see that in Hormuz the Iranians will quietly say to the Chinese and other friends, you can sail your ships through, we won't touch you. It's the fact that these ships might get hit, these tankers might get hit that is stopping them from traveling through the Straits of Hormuz because they are, because they can't get insured. Now just to your conversation about with Cork too, fascinating to hear her talk about the kind of opaque goals on the US Side. I just suppose that against the Iranians, the Iranians goal is very, very clear.

They are sharp eyed about what they're planning to do and that is to survive. And you heard it in Tom's great interview with the foreign minister. We'll play a piece of that where Tom talks to him about the risks to him personally. Take a look.

Listen as we sit here and talk. Minister, so much of Iran's leadership has been killed. Do you fear for your own life? Well, everybody may fear for his life in the time of war, but, you know, I am doing my job.

I'm doing my duty. And I would be honored if my blood is shed for the sake of my country. That's quite simply what has now come down to. It comes down to the Iranian regime's determination to survive and the Trump administration's determination it will not.

Well, here, bring us up to speed on the very latest to get Americans who are in the region who want to get home, back home. Yeah. Well, they are bringing in chartered flights and the State Department says that they are surging flights into this region. We are talking to people who are getting on chartered flights.

We are talking to Americans who are finding their own commercial flights out. It's really difficult. And we're also talking to lots of families and Americans who still can't get out and are incredibly frustrated and say that there's a lack of communication, that they are registered and they're not hearing anything. There's one woman here in Dubai who I've been talking to all week who has a WhatsApp group just for Americans who want to leave.

400 people, she says around 10 have been told have been communicated with so far. I mean, if that's the real picture of the broader landscape, if you like, then that's pretty worrying, isn't it? Across the 14 or so countries, countries that America says all Americans should leave, there are around a million American citizens. Wow.

All right. Well, Kira, I know you're tracking all that closely. Please stay safe. We really appreciate it.

Good to see you as always. We will have much more of NBC's exclusive interview with the Iranian foreign minister tonight only on Nightly News with Tom Yanis. Coming up, as we mentioned, Secretary Axef is expected to speak to reporters just moments from now about the war against Iran. We'll bring you that press conference live when it happens.

Plus, breaking news from Capitol Hill. Republican leadership now calling on Texas Republican Congressman Tony Gonzalez to end his bid for re election after Gonzalez admitted to having an affair with a staffer, but only after he advanced to a runoff in this week's primary. Stay with us. You're watching me.

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Welcome back on this incredibly busy day here in Washington. We've got breaking news on Capitol Hill where House Republican leadership is calling on a battle. Texas Republican Congressman Tony Gondellas to drop his re election bid after he admitted to having an affair with a staffer, which is against House rules. Allegations have been swirling for weeks that Gonzalez had sent lewd and inappropriate text messages to an aide in 2024.

That aide died by suicide last year. In an interview on Wednesday, Congressman Gonzalez said he didn't have anything to do with her death, but apologized for the affair. Listen, you know, very, very direct pags. I made a mistake and I had a lapse in judgment and there was a lack of faith.

And I take full responsibility for those actions. Since then, I've reconciled with my wife, Angel. I've asked God to forgive me, which he has. And my faith is as strong as ever.

When you make mistakes like this, you know, it's never easy. It humbles you. But it's important to, to kind of work through it all. We're gonna go to the White House now because President Trump is talking about Iran.

Let's go to the White House schedule and at levels that people have never seen before. Actually, we're destroying more of Iran's missiles and drone capability every single hour, knocking them out like nobody thought was possible. As soon as they set off a missile within four minutes the launcher gets hit. They don't know what's happening.

But we have the greatest military anywhere in the world. Their Navy is gone, 24 ships in three days. That's a lot of ships. They're anti aircraft weapons are gone.

So they have no air force, they have no air defense. All of their airplanes are gone. The communications are gone, missiles are gone, launches are gone, about 60 and 64% respectively. Other than that, they're doing quite well.

I said, what's left? But they're tough and they want to fight and they're calling, they're saying, how do we make a deal? I said, you're being a little bit late and we want to fight now more than they do. We've had 47 years, depending on the way you count it, but 47 years of horror with this group.

And you know when you see somebody walking down the street without their legs, without the arms, whose face is so badly affected and hurt. It mostly came from 95% sale amount and Iran and we other presidents lived with it, I didn't live with it. And so our people are doing a great job. Again, the greatest military anyone's seen.

Thank you. Thank you very much. And yesterday my administration announced decisive action to help keep down the oil prices, including offering political risk insurance for tankers transiting into the Gulf. As, you know, pretty dangerous territory.

Further action to reduce pressure on oil is eminent. And the oil seems to have pretty much stabilized. We had it very low, but I had to take this little detour. If it's okay with everybody, Scott, it's okay with you.

Scott's the one has to put up with it. He said, you have to do this now. I said, I have to do it, Scott. Right.

But it's been very strong. And everybody, including Scott, everybody feels we had really no choice. It was gonna, they would hit us. We didn't hit them because they're crazy.

And in the long term, the actions we're taking will dramatically increase the stability of the region and oil prices and stock markets and everything else. You know, we set the all time record in history with the dow going to 50,000. So that was it. 50,000.

It was supposed to be. Maybe if we were lucky, within by the end of my presidency in four years. And we did it in my first year. We did the S&P 500.

We did that in a period of less than a year. And that was even tougher than the Dow. They said so wasn't going to happen. But we have a great country.

We have a country that's Never done this well. We've had tremendous success in so many different ways. I built the military and rebuilt it in my first term, and we're using it more than I'd like to use it, to be honest with you. But when we use it, we found out it certainly did work.

When we look at Venezuela, when we look at the first attack, Midnight Hammer, then Iran, which we set the stage for, what we're doing right now, it's been pretty amazing. And once again calling on all members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, the military and the police to lay down their arms. They're all going to be killed. And now is the time to stand up for the Iranian people and help take back your country.

You're going to have a chance after all these years to take back your country. Accept immunity. We'll give you immunity, and we'll be giving you really the right side of history, because that's what it is. So you'll be perfectly safe with total immunity, or you'll face absolutely guaranteed death.

And I don't want to see that. They don't want to see it either. We also urge Iranian diplomats around the world to request asylum and to help us shape a new and better Iran with great potential. It's a country with great potential.

Is much better future for Iran. It's now beginning. It's going to be, I think, a great future. And the United States will ensure that whoever leads the country next, Iran will not threaten America or its neighbors, Israel, anybody.

If you look at what happened, they had missiles aimed at all of these other countries, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, uae, many others that weren't really involved very much. And they had missiles A, they were aiming there long before this ever started. They were going after the entire middle age. And then we came along, we blew up their party.

So we have phenomenal people. I want to thank all of the people that have been involved. Marco, you've been doing a fantastic job, and you've been doing a fantastic job on a place called Cuba. And a rod came in before.

I said, hey, do you want to come up to a little award? He's got to plenty of award ceremonies. Thank you. A Rod, big fan.

But what's happening with Cuba is amazing. And we think that we want to finish this one first. But that will be just the question of time before you. And a lot of unbelievable people are going to be going back to Cuba, hopefully not to stay.

We want you back. We don't want to lose you. We don't want to make it so nice that they stay. But Some people probably do want to stay.

They love Cuba so much. I hear it all the time. That was another one that wasn't supposed to happen. Venezuela is going great.

It's been stabilized. We have a wonderful person as your president elect, Nelsey Rodriguez, and she and her staff have been doing a fantastic job working with us. We're taking out hundreds of millions of barrels of oil and it's going to Houston and various other places where it's being refined. And we're sending them back far more money than they've made in many years.

And actually very shortly it'll be more money than they've ever made. And Venezuela is working. So we've had a lot of, a lot of countries in places that truly love. You would say football, I would say soccer.

But these are all countries that love football slash soccer. And so I think the, the group likes it. And if you'd like, you could. I know I'm a very exciting speaker, but you can sit down if you'd like.

Okay. I'm looking at everybody. President Trump addressing Iran while flanked by the 2025 Major League Soccer champions. The president touting the fact that he says the US Military is ahead of schedule, saying about Iran, they were going to hit us first if we didn't hit them again.

That the justification for taking action at this point in time? The president also acknowledging gas prices are going up, saying that his administration is doing everything in its power to try to lower gas prices, noting the fact that this is a significant issue for Americans and reiterating his message to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, calling on them to lay down their arms, saying that this is the mom, take their country back, saying it's up to you Iranian people, but that the US Will ensure that Iran's new leaders will no longer be able to hit the United States and its neighbors. Let me head back to ndc, but who is standing by for us? Gabe, what were your other key takeaways?

What did I leave out? Well, it was a real sight there, Kristen, with Lama Messi right behind the president. The president talking about but essentially a muscular foreign policy not just in Iran, but also in Cuba and Venezuela. But as you said, the president laying out what he views as a successes so far in Iran, also mentioning Kristen that they want to make a deal, even though that contradicts with the Iranian foreign minister told our colleague Tom Yamas earlier today that there are no act of negotiations underway.

And earlier this week, Secretary Marco Rubio said that there were no diplomatic talks underway with Iran. Right now, the president seems to suggest that they would want to make some sort of deal, though he didn't specify exactly what it was. He also talked about what he views as great potential for Iran. And as you said, he laid out how his administration or he said that his administration wants to keep a handle on gas prices.

He also spoke about the administration's, you know, how the operate the military operation, the raid to capture Nicholas Maduro, that Venezuela is doing great. And he also suggested that there could be coming changes coming to Cuba as well. But Kristen, this is the president again trying to sell to the American people that the war, as he calls it now in operation, is succeeding in Iran. Yeah, I gave it so important that you noted that he did talk about Cuba, made it very clear that Cuba is clearly another country that he is eyeing next.

Thank you so much, Gabe. Really appreciate you sticking around for us. I'm going back to Capitol Hill. NBC's Julie Circuit.

Julie, thank you so much for your patience. We had to dip in to those who watched the White House just to remind viewers what you and I were about to talk about, the fact that you had Republican leadership now calling on Congressman Tony Gonzalez to drop his real election bid after he did acknowledge that he had an affair with a staffer who did tragically go on to die by suicide. Talk a little bit about the state of play here. Do you get the sense that he's going to actually drop out of the race?

Well, that was the key question we had planned to ask him today, but unfortunately we've been outside his office all day long and have not seen the congressman and he missed the votes on the war power resolution that just failed in the House. So that's the key question for him. I will point out that we did talk to Speaker Johnson and Kelly, Melanie's no. And Lindsey Jensen caught up with him a little bit earlier.

He spoke to that extraordinary statement that his leadership team put out tickles to when he said we'll talk about it more on your side. Leadership without a statement that speaks for himself. We encourage him to drop out re election. I think that is the politically that's a death penalty.

I just want to underscore what he said there at the end. He said politically, he believes that Tony Gonzalez's actions, having this affair and admitting to it last night with his staffer is a political death sentence. I think it's also notable, Christian, you ask me if Gonzalez is going to resign. Remember, Johnson and his leadership team very carefully chose the words not secret election again, drop out of his runoff bid in Texas Because Johnson needs every vote he can get right now.

Yeah. Talk a little bit about the margins and the fact that this comes really an increased number of retirements. Right. An increased number of retirements.

I would remit if I didn't mention Senator Steve Danes, who shocked us about everybody, including members of his team, when he decided not to run for re election minutes before the filing deadline closed in Montana for the Senate seat. Now, this is notable. He's somebody who served as the chair of the nrc. His mission last cycle was to elect Republicans in the Senate.

So he's keenly aware of how Democrats, including Senator John Test, are trying to perhaps make a comeback for his Montana Senate seat. So nobody filed or decided not to run for re election minutes before the filing deadline. But you mentioned this is just a growing list of Republican retirements for just Owens in the House, decided not to seek reelection yesterday as well. It's the second highest total of House Republicans not seeking reelection.

And Daines became the sixth senator not to seek re election in November. We have Senator Thom Tillis who is in as well. So the alumnus, for example, in Wyoming. So a whole slate of Republicans that are considering and deciding now not to come back here, not to run for election.

And certainly this would have an impact on November. There are a number of Democrats who decided that too. But Republicans have a significant amount of seats open, a significant amount of districts in play. And certainly Democrats are trying to do everything they can right now to try and win back the House and the Senate.

Kristen, Julie Serkin with you from Capitol Hill. Julie, thank you so much. Really appreciate it. And in addition to what's going on with Congressman Gonzalez, we are following several other major stories out of Texas in the wake of this week.

Midterm primary elections and the Republican Senate primary were still awaiting President Trump to make an endorsement in the runoff between Senator John Cornyn and State Attorney General Ken Paxton. The president announced yesterday he'd endorse a candidate soon and urging the other candidate to drop out of the race once he does. Meanwhile, Democrat James Hell Rico, kicking off his general election campaign after winning his primary with a direct appeal to supporters of his primary rival, Congressman Jasmine Crockett, during the victory speech last night to the congresswoman's supporters, I know I wasn't your first choice, but I hope to earn your trust and earn your support as your Democratic nominee. It's on me to ensure you feel welcomed in, represented by and proud of this campaign campaign.

Join me now is today's panel Eleanor Moore, congressional reporter for 74 show Payne, Democratic strategist and former senior aide for Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign. And Republican strategist Malik Abdul. Thanks to all of you for being here. Really appreciate it.

Eleanor, let me start with you. Everyone is watching and waiting to see who President Trump is going to endorse. By all accounts, it looks like he is heading in the direction of endorsing Senator John Cornyn, someone who had broken with him on a number of different issues. So he cast him as a rhino.

And, of course, Ken Paxton painting himself as the MAGA choice. But right now, Senator Cornyn has the lead in this runoff race. So what are you watching for? Well, John, Laura's candidates that win, and Cornyn is looking like that candidate right now, as you find out.

There's a big delta there. You know, he's an establishment guy. He actually ran against John to be the leader of the Senate in 2024. And so that's not the typical Trump mold.

And that's why we've seen the president hold office for so long. But now that it's down to two candidates, now that that House candidate is out of this ra, there's a lot of pressure from Senate Republicans specifically on Trump to make a Collins and specifically put his weight behind Senator Cornyn. And so we'll have to see whether or not he keeps that within a couple days or not. Yeah.

And I think the timing's so important because Republicans are chomping at the bit to really get to work against James Calarico, and they can't do that with this runoff race. Let me turn to you because Ken Paxton tweeted, this was notable. I would consider dropping out of this race if Senate leadership agrees to lift the filibuster and passes the Save America act, that act that has to deal with voting. Does it sound like he's trying to save face?

Do you get the sense that he is, in fact, considering dropping out? Could that be the delay? Is it the president? Trump's trying to convince him to drop out of the race?

I think I saw something from him suggesting that he wasn't ready to drop out of the race. And this is probably just another, you know, an extension of that. There will be pressure on him. It looks like all accounts that Donald Trump will be endorsing Colt Cornyn.

I think that Donald Trump wanted to be kingmaker all along, and so he let the boys, you know, play it out, and he's ultimately going to end up endorsing Cornyn. Now, the big split is that maga, more than maga people are behind Paxton as opposed to Cornyn himself. And so that's probably going to be one of the things that we're going to be looking at. But ultimately, Donald Trump is going to back Cornyn.

And I don't know if he'll ultimately get out of the race. Paxton himself, maybe he'll do it, but I just don't think that he has much leverage. Much like Jasmine Crockett, he just don't have much leverage. But to weigh in on that point, because Democrats have James Telo.

He's their general election candidate. Jasmine Crockett had made the argument she's the fighter. She said she's shown that in these hearings on Capitol Hill. She obviously drove out the black vote on election night.

And now the challenge for Tall Rico is trying to drive out some of Jasmine Crockett's supporters. A Democrat has not won a Senate seat in Texas, Joel, in more than three decades. It has been fool's gold for Democrats. Do you think this year could be different?

I think this year could be different. You know, watches Texas race so far has been fascinating on the Republican side, this is really a financial decision by Donald Trump. Republicans, they have spent some $70 million to negatively define Ken Paxton. So they're pot committed to John Cornyn.

If they don't get John Cornyn to win this runoff, they're probably going to spend at least that much to try to save the candidate they've been trashing for the last four or five some odd months. On the Democratic side, you know, that Talario Crockett race was a little bit of like it's a test case for 2028 for Democrats. What is the theory that's going to win? Is it going to be the person that can drive out the base or is going to be the person that can convince and persuade people in the middle, Independents and Republicans, obviously in Texas, it seems like Talario had the advantage.

Another thing I'll bring to centrality is Latin universe. That's why James tal up his numbers in areas bits with Latino voters. And that is the thing that should concern Republicans, that he showed that proficiency in this primary campaign. And we finally heard from James Salarico last night.

I'm gonna play a little bit. Elmore, get your take on the other side. Take a listen. We cannot defeat the politics of division with more division.

We can't win their game. We have to change the game. This campaign, this campaign is rooted in a fierce love for the state, for this country, and most importantly for all of our neighbors. Eleanor, Joel's talking about how this could be a test case for what we see in 2028.

What do you make of that message that we just heard from Joel? I think that is exactly what you're talking about, right? Is he saying rather than try to divide as Democrats, they should be focused on bringing together a coalition that can help them rest control back from Republicans. And so, I mean, he, in comparison to Crockett, a less much, far less comb, you know, someone who again, was focused on trying from all these areas of support.

And clearly that's something that resonated, at least in Texas. We'll have to see whether or not that speaks in other races. Yeah, we will have to watch very closely. We're also watching very closely what happens with Tony Gonzalez.

I think was a fascinating year. He got through primary night, now in a runoff, and then gives an interview. He's been asked about these allegations over and over again, not confirming them, not confirming them. And then in this interview saying, yes, he made a mistake.

He has apologized to God, to his wife. He says that he was in the wrong and for Republican leadership, it just wasn't good enough. They are calling on him to drop out of the race, which he circulated, not to resign from Congress because the margins are so narrow. Where do you see this going?

He has to get out. And this is something that Republicans have been talking about before. Now, conveniently, he did it once we got to the runoff. And you have to remind viewers that it is a runoff.

And so there is another Republican who will be running there. But I think he ultimately, once you have the leadership, it's one thing for people online and the strategists out there to say that you need to do it. But once you have the leadership of your own party saying that it's time to go, it's time to go. So when he'll do that, I don't know.

But I can't see him saying in the race much longer. So how are Democrats watching this unfold? Does it become a broader issue or do Democrats sort of take their distance from this? Well, two things about me.

One, I thought it was interesting some two weeks ago, Donald Trump was at rally where Tony Gonzalez was, and I think he congratulated him as this story, this embarrassing and really tragic story was unraveling about his Gonzalez affair with his staffer and her deciding to take her own life, which is unspeakable, tragic. The other piece I bring up here is a little bit of what you put into Christopher. The margins are so thin. This has to be in the form of a step out of the race and not a resignation.

I would imagine there are plenty of Republicans around the country who, if they had their druthers, they would be done with this and they would have $20,000 to leave Congress. But Mike Johnson doesn't have the margins. I mean, if Donald Trump needs to get any significant legislation, needs to get support for Iran, this war of his, that is a war choice for Republicans. He's going to need every Republican vote in the House and in the Senate, he's already.

We're not going to talk necessarily about this. Christine Home departing Homeland Security and Mark Twain Holland, but we have one senator, one Senate Republican who's leaving that reduces his margins. There it is, temporarily. And now you're talking about potentially another House Republican.

Talk about the implications of Christina leaving. We know that there were a whole number of reasons why the President decided to replace her at this point. But as Joel is laying out, it is going to make things challenging in the Senate. He, with the governor, will replace him, but I believe, believe whoever he's replaced with is not allowed to run for re elections.

So that could become an open seat. Talk about kind of the ripple effect. I mean, it's the same math we saw the administration doing at the beginning of this term as far as appointing administration affairs, members of Congress to administration jobs. Right.

They don't want to lose so many people that opens up seat, they eventually lose control of the chamber. And with Christine specifically, I mean, this really spoke to how there's a big leash from the Trump administration, if you are administration official. But the one that he went on to do is throw Trump under the bus. And that's exactly what she had when she testified before Congress.

And I think that's why we're seeing here now at the exits. Internally, I think people were overly surprised, but the timing, I mean, it wasn't clear what the timing of this departure might look like. And as Eleanor is saying, that final straw, based on my conversations, was that testimony yesterday where she said, oh, President Trump approves the spending for this ad campaign. You know, they say the straw that broke the camel's back.

Well, that was during the hearing. And we've been hearing these murmurings about Christy Noem even going towards the end of last year, whether or not she would be leading the administration. And a lot of people were unhappy. And I think because of what we've seen with Donald Trump's immigration numbers, his numbers on immigration and how unpopular some of the actions that Kirsty Nolan has taken, I think that ultimately Donald Trump made the right decision with her for sure.

All right, guys, we're unfortunately out of time. Thank you all so much for being here. Ellen or Joel and Malik, great conversation. We're back tomorrow with warm me the press.

Now, as we mentioned, we have live coverage of Secretary Hicks's press conference when it happens. That's straight ahead on NBC News now. Hey, everyone. I'm Dylan Dryer, co host of the third hour of TODAY and mom to three wild boys.

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