Meet the Press NOW – March 5

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The president and Elon Musk meet with Republican lawmakers on the future of the Trump agenda after last night's fiery and partisan address while Democrats face divisions over how to respond. Plus, the White House temporarily rolls back tariffs on automakers as the administration signals more rollbacks could be coming as it faces rising market volatility and growing concerns about prices and the economic fallout of a trade war. And President Trump cuts off U.S. intelligence sharing with Ukraine, further hampering Kiev's fight against Russian aggression as President Zelensky now looks to salvage what remains of U.S.

support. Welcome to Meet the Press Now. I'm Kristen Welker in Washington. As President Trump and Elon Musk press ahead with that swift and unrelenting agenda after last night's polarizing address to a joint session of Congress left Republicans cheering and Democrats boiling.

At the White House, President Trump met with members of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus today as leadership tries to corral the votes it needs to avoid a government shutdown next week. At the Capitol, Elon Musk met with Senate Republicans ahead of a meeting with House members tonight as tens of thousands of federal workers are put on the chopping block. The latest cuts coming for the Department of Veterans Affairs, where, according to an internal memo, the agency is looking to terminate more than 60,000 federal workers. It comes after the president's fiery address to Congress last night focusing on right-wing culture war issues and criticizing his political rivals.

This is my fifth such speech to Congress. And once again, I look at the Democrats in front of me and I realize there is absolutely nothing I can say to make them happy or to make them stand or smile or applaud. Nothing I can do. The media and our friends in the Democrat Party kept saying we needed new legislation.

We must have legislation to secure the border. But it turned out that all we really needed was a new president. We've ended the tyranny of so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion policies all across the entire federal government and indeed the private sector and our military. And our country will be woke no longer.

Those moments largely overshadowing the president's comments addressing growing economic concerns from rising prices and sweeping tariffs. Concerns which the White House tried to address today, announcing a temporary pause on tariffs for certain automakers while signaling a potential deal could be in the works to roll back tariffs on Canada and Mexico. Meanwhile, the frustration among Democrats and progressives in Washington remains on display after a number of them walked out of last night's address or held up signs in protest. Now, Texas Democratic Congressman Al Green is facing a potential censure vote on the House floor after being forcibly removed from the House chamber for clapping back at the president and refusing to sit down multiple times.

All of it despite pleas from the House's top Democrat to remain, quote, dignified during the address. Here's House Democratic Whip Catherine Clark today speaking to reporters about last night. Let's just talk for a moment about the hundred minutes that we saw yesterday that was not focused on the American people. So I am angry today.

I'm angry what I saw. Everything the American people put their trust in him to do. It is a betrayal. It is a betrayal.

So let's not talk about decorum when the plot is exposed and reiterated every single day. The bubbling anger among progressives stands in stark contrast to the official Democratic response to the president's address from Michigan Senator Alyssa Slotkin, who offered a calmer and more moderate roadmap for her struggling party. We just went through another fraught election season. Americans made it clear that prices are too high and that the government needs to be more responsive to their needs.

America wants change, but there's a responsible way to make change and a reckless way. And we can make that change without forgetting who we are as a country and as a democracy. Don't tune out. It's easy to be exhausted, but America needs you now more than ever.

If previous generations had not fought for this democracy, where would we be today? Go to town halls and demand they take action. That's what America is apple pie. Joining me now from the White House is NBC News senior White House correspondent Kelly O'Donnell and NBC News senior national political reporter Sahil Kapur is on Capitol Hill for us.

Kelly, let me start with you. The White House just announced they'll be giving an exemption to certain automakers from those tariffs that went into place against Canada, against Mexico. That happened earlier this week. What can you tell us about this exemption and what are the implications?

Well, the big three automakers reached out to the White House and wanted to address their concerns about what the tariffs would mean, especially as a result of the trade pact that President Trump put in in his first term, which was a kind of updated NAFTA, the USMCA, which binds together Canada, the United States and Mexico in a trading relationship. And so the result of that is that in the auto industry, there are parts necessary for American branded cars that are made in Canada, others in Mexico. And it's part of a complicated supply chain. And so having these tariffs would increase the cost for those elements of putting together new automobiles and the American automakers wanted to make clear to the president that they think that is a disadvantage and it is harmful to them.

And so through the conversation that was discussed by Caroline Leva, the president's press secretary, who said that the president agreed to give them a 30 day pause because he was concerned that they would be, quote, disadvantaged. Well, implicit in that is a recognition that tariffs do bring about costs that could affect American companies. And so whether this will be just the first of a series of these kinds of piecemeal negotiations, we don't know, but clearly the automakers have a lot of plot with the president and were able to convince him to put a pause on this. And we know from watching the president and tariffs while he is very committed to them, there are times he will back away if convinced.

Yeah, I see them as a negotiating tactic as well. Kelly, let me ask you about another big story we're tracking here. Of course, the government runs out of money in just over a week from now. We know that the president met with the ultra conservative members of the Freedom Caucus today.

What came from these talks? Are they moving forward with a plan to try to keep the government open? Well, they are talking about a plan to do that and that would keep spending at the current levels through the remainder of the fiscal year, which takes us to October 1st. That's the view of the Freedom Caucus members who were at the White House and spoke to reporters afterward.

This is a subset of the Republican Party, most conservative, often the ones who don't vote for these kinds of spending bills. And the clock is ticking and the president has indicated that he expects to get some kind of funding to keep the government open based only on Republican votes, not trying to reach across the aisle to get Democratic votes at this point. So watching this group of Freedom Caucus members is critical. And so they've given some tea leaves as to what they're looking for.

Kristen. All right, Kelly O'Donnell outside the White House on a very rainy day here in the nation's capital. Sahil, let me go to you indoors in the Capitol. Let's talk about what happened last night inside the chamber.

Al Green's disruption, of course, one of the biggest moments of the night overshadowed, quite frankly, at least the early part of the president's speech. Notably, Democratic leaders today told members to be civil during the speech. And there are calls now from Republicans to censure him. Where does this stand?

Is it possible that he is censured? Yeah, it's very possible, Kristen. The House is looking at bringing up the censure resolution just later this afternoon. Congressman Green yesterday, last night, was interrupting and yelling at President Trump during that speech about the issue of Medicaid.

He repeatedly said the words, you have no mandate to cut Medicaid. He was warned. He was told to stop. He refused to stop and he was ultimately escorted out of the building.

House Republicans are introducing and putting forward a resolution by Congressman Dan Newhouse, a Washington Republican that would censure Mr. Green for a breach of proper conduct. Democrats could try to vote this down. They could try to table it.

But Republicans are likely to stick together and get this passed. Not all Democrats were eager to align themselves with Mr. Green's tactics, even though, of course, they do agree with the opposition, with his opposition to cutting Medicaid. Does Al Green regret any of this?

Take a listen to what he said. I'd like to accept the punishment, but it's worth it to let people know that there are some of us who are going to stand up against this president's desire to cut Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security. And a censure, of course, is just an official public shaming. It requires the member to stand in the well of the House while the resolution is read out loud.

It doesn't have much of an impact beyond that person. So let me ask you about some of the activity there today on the Hill. Elon Musk meeting with Republican senators. He has a number of meetings today, right?

How did that go? And did any of these lawmakers express their outright opposition to the speed and breadth of these cuts? It was a long lunch meeting, Kristen. I saw Elon Musk walk to the economy is a national security issue.

She really laid out, to some extent, a roadmap of messaging. Three main points. I'll take through them. The middle-class economy, a strong national security, and defending democracy.

In your mind, congressman, is that the Democratic Party's platform right now, moving forward? Democrats have always supported those three priorities, and I note that Elissa Slotkin, my friend, has served in the national security area for many, many years. Donald Trump, in the longest speech in U.S. history for a joint address to Congress, never even mentioned veterans issues.

And we know that Trump's chaos and firing federal employees indiscriminately is particularly harming veterans because about one in four federal employees are veterans themselves. And his cuts to Medicaid is going to harm veterans because one in 10 veterans rely on Medicaid. And so Donald Trump's actions are not only harming our economy, they're harming our nation's veterans and our national security. The president, Republicans say they are not going to cut Medicaid.

They say they're not going to touch entitlements. I hear you saying that that's going to be on the chopping block. Are you saying you don't believe their promises? The Republicans are lying.

Let me tell you why. In the draconian budget that they passed, they directed the Energy and Commerce Committee to cut $880 billion. The only way that committee could do that is to cut Medicaid because if they cut everything else under their jurisdiction, that would only reach half of $880 billion. So the only way to do this with the law that Republicans want to pass in the budget would be to cut Medicaid by hundreds of millions of dollars.

Let me ask you one more about Senator Slotkin's speech. This is what Tom Nichols wrote in The Atlantic about her remarks. He wrote, quote, Slotkin failed to capture the hallucinatory nature of our national politics. Slotkin's address suffered from the same half-heartedness that has seized the Democrats since last November.

Her response and the behavior of the Democrats in general showed that they still fear being a full-throated opposition party because they believe that they will alienate voters who will somehow be offended at them for taking a stand against Trump's schemes. What is your response to that? Do you agree with that characterization at all, Congressman? I do not.

Democrats are fighting back. And we're also focused on kitchen table issues. As a result, if you look at Trump's approval ratings, he was plus 6, according to Reuters poll, in terms of approval-disapproval after the inauguration. Less than a month later, he's at minus 7 in the same poll, a swing of 13 points.

So Democratic messaging is affecting the Trump and bringing down his approval numbers to where he's now underwater. And the voters really do care about prices. That's on the top of every poll. And Donald Trump has done nothing to lower anyone's prices.

In fact, his tariffs, indiscriminate tariffs, are likely going to increase prices. Congressman, I guess the question here, you are in the minority in the House and the Senate, and of course, obviously, Republicans control the White House. How can Democrats fight back in this moment? So Democrats are fighting back every day by highlighting stories of, for example, veterans.

Leader Jeffries just did a terrific press conference today with three veterans who were treated very badly by Donald Trump, who were lied to and indiscriminately fired for no good reason. And we're also using everything we can legislatively. Leader Jeffries has set out a 10-point plan that's focused on three themes, legislation, mobilization, and litigation. Over 100 lawsuits have been filed, and a number of federal judges have stopped their unlawful executive orders that Donald Trump has promulgated.

I have to ask you about the government funding. It runs out of funding in just over a week. Speaker Johnson saying he will put a clean CR on the floor until September. Would you vote for that, Congressman?

I would be opposed to a year-long. It's not a clean CR because, by definition, a clean CR will mean that the Trump administration would execute what Congress passed into law. But right now, the Trump administration is not doing that. So unless I get assurances that the Trump administration is actually going to follow the law and follow the congressional appropriations bills, then I can't vote for it.

Congressman, can you get more specific with me? What kind of assurances specifically do you need to see in order to vote for this CR? Or else the government could potentially close down. I would love Donald Trump to simply say he's going to follow the law, that he's going to follow the law that Congress passes.

And if he says that, then I could support congressional appropriations bills. But if the president doesn't say that, then these congressional appropriations bills, he's just going to treat as a recommendation. There's no way I'm going to vote for that. When you say follow the law, very quickly, Congressman, you mean in terms of the cuts that we are seeing carried out by Elon Musk?

Is that what you're referring to? I'm seeing if Congress says we're going to fund the Department of Education, we can't have Donald Trump saying, you know, I'm just going to dismantle this department and not apply the law and not fund it. He cannot do that. He cannot take agencies that Congress has established, such as USAID, and simply dismantle that.

And by the way, the U.S. Supreme Court just ruled against the Trump administration, saying he can't just freeze all this funding to USAID. So I need Donald Trump to simply say he's going to follow the law. Otherwise, it's really hard for Democrats to support any appropriations bills if we have no assurance that the administration is going to treat them not just as recommendations, but actually as law.

All right, well, it's going to be a fascinating week plus stretch we have coming up. Congressman Ted Lieu, thank you so much for your time. We really appreciate it. Great to have you on the program.

Thank you. Coming up, what's next in the escalating trade war with America's top economic partners as the president announces a partial rollback of some of his tariffs after acknowledging they could cause, quote, a little disturbance. Plus, U.S.-Ukraine tensions are ratcheting up as Washington moves to cut off intel sharing with Kiev and stops a shipment of military equipment already en route. That reporting straight ahead.

You're watching Meet the Press Now. Welcome back. As we noted earlier, the White House is easing up on some of the tariffs it imposed on Canada and Mexico, giving the big three U.S. automakers a one-month exemption on vehicles coming through the United States neighbors to the north and south.

President Trump says he spoke to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau earlier today about the issue of tariffs, telling Trudeau that efforts to halt the flow of fentanyl were, quote, not good enough. It's worth noting more than 99% of all the fentanyl seized by border officials comes through the southern border, not Canada. President Trump acknowledged during his address last night that Americans will experience some pain as a result of the 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico and 20% tariffs on China. Tariffs are about making America rich again and making America great again.

And it's happening and it will happen rather quickly. There'll be a little disturbance, but we're okay with that. It won't be much. NBC News business and data correspondent Brian Chung joins me now.

Brian, thanks so much for being here. So let's talk about this one-month pause of tariffs on auto imports. What exactly does that mean and what's the difference for American shopping for cars right now? Yeah, well, you heard the president say yesterday there could be that little disturbance, but it sounds like that disturbance at least won't be for the automakers and people trying to buy a car, at least for the next month.

And that's because of an announcement from Press Secretary Caroline Leavitt that this will be not effective for the auto automotive industry, even though the 25% tariff on Canada and Mexico will still apply to every other category as of right now. But the reason why this is so significant is because the automakers are really going to be a big target of these tariffs because of the fact that so many auto parts come in from Mexico and then entire vehicles are assembled in Canada. So you can imagine that every single time any of those parts of the vehicle crosses the border, there's another 25% tariff that will get slapped there. That's the reason why you had some groups like the Anderson Economic Group projecting that the price of a car could go up by as much as $12,000 in some cases because you have multiple tariffs on the same vehicle that you would buy at the dealership just down the road from you.

So them getting this car out is pretty significant, although I want to point out two things. First off, it's just this industry that gets that carve out exemption. And also, this is just delaying it by one month. Maybe we'll revisit this at the beginning of April.

Yeah, we'll have to see if that happens. Let me ask you this, Brian. If all of the various tariffs that are in place right now do remain in place, when do you anticipate Americans will start to see that prices are going up, that they're paying more for goods? Yeah, I mean, not long from now because we've already heard some warnings from retailers like Best Buy, retailers like Target, warning as of yesterday when these tariffs took effect that, yeah, prices are likely going to increase for consumers.

Again, these are big companies that people are going to be familiar with because they probably shop there maybe on a weekly basis. So when you talk about Target, for example, they were specifically pointing to grocery prices because, again, we import so many fruits and vegetables from Mexico. We import potatoes and grains from Canada. Those are still subject to the 25% tariffs as of this Wednesday afternoon.

We'll see what happens down the line. But if that is the case, you can imagine that if President Trump last time around did leverage success. He did get China to buy $38 billion in commodities in 2022. That was part of the agreement that he signed.

They do know that President Trump has shown in the past that short-term pain can translate into some gains. And that's kind of where I think that that's the dairy executive that you were referring to was thinking about. And just big picture, what has the reaction been amongst your friends, amongst your neighbors to the President's address last night? Well, I was actually flying.

I was stuck in Denver and flew back very early this morning, so I haven't really been able to see a whole lot of other reaction from people about the speech. I think it was interesting that he did not talk much really at all about the tax bill and what they're looking to do there. And that's probably really surprising given that's the biggest thing legislatively going on right now is what's going to happen with the 2017 tax cuts before the end of the year. Well, Chris Clayton, we really appreciate you joining us today.

Thank you so much. Well, thank you for having me. I really appreciate it. We appreciate you being here.

We do want to turn now to some sad news from Capitol Hill. Democratic Representative Sylvester Turner of Texas died Tuesday night after suffering a medical emergency following the President's joint address to Congress. He had previously faced bone cancer. Turner had just begun his first term in Congress after a long career in Texas government serving as mayor of Houston from 2016 to 2024 and as a state lawmaker for over 25 years before that.

After Hurricane Harvey devastated his city in 2017, Turner joined Meet the Press to discuss recovery efforts and taking care of the people of Houston. Listen. We're going literally door-to-door with a lot of volunteers, first responders and others. Firefighters are going door-to-door to check on people's possibly anybody that we have left behind, especially seniors who may be in their home, but really don't appreciate the danger of living in homes dry now, but the mold is starting to set up.

Sheetrock needs to be pulled out. So that's going to be our local responsibility to watch out and take care of our neighbors. Our condolences to his family. Representative Sylvester Turner was 70 years old.

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Hey guys, Willie Geist here, reminding you to check out the Sunday Sit-Down podcast. On this week's episode, I sit down with one of the biggest bands in the world, Mumford & Sons, as we get the boys together to talk about their new number one album, Price Fighter, and the evolution of that irresistible foot stomping sound. You can get our conversation for free wherever you download your podcasts. Welcome back.

Last night in his address to Congress, President Trump once again called for the end of the war in Ukraine as he continues to ramp up pressure on Ukraine after falsely blaming President Zelensky for the war. As part of that pressure campaign, the White House announced today it was pausing intelligence sharing with Ukraine. That comes just days after the administration announced it was pausing U.S. military shipments to Ukraine.

Now, notably, this morning, both the CIA director and the National Security Advisor signaled this freeze in U.S. support could be lifted if Ukraine engages in talks with the U.S. President Zelensky put out a statement saying, I'm ready for peace and I want Donald Trump's leadership to bring about that peace. And so I think on the military front and the intelligence front, the pause that allowed that to happen, I think will go away.

I think if we can nail down these negotiations and move towards these negotiations and in fact put some confidence building measures on the table, then the President will take a hard look at lifting this pause. Joining me now is Courtney Kube outside of the Pentagon Court. Thanks so much for being here. So let's talk about this pause in intelligence sharing.

It comes, of course, after halting military shipments. What's the potential impact on the ground in Ukraine? Yeah, so on the military shipments, we learned today from a defense official that in fact there actually were some weapons and equipment that were en route to the region on Monday at 6 p.m. Eastern time.

They were stopped. They were halted and turned back. So that's one of the most practical ways that we can show that the U.S. was still flowing equipment and support into Ukraine even until this week when this pause started.

Now, the U.S. hadn't been sending the same level of equipment that we saw over the last three years where the Biden administration, frankly, it was a Herculean effort, logistics effort, to get so much billions of dollars worth of equipment and weapons literally to the front lines for Ukraine to be able to hold off the Russian advances of the last three years. But intelligence is a little bit different, Kristen. The U.S.

may be pausing or halting or whatever. The word is that they want to use for not providing direct intelligence to Ukraine during this time. But the U.S. is still sharing with a lot of allies who are close to Ukraine, and those allies are still sharing with Ukraine.

So on a day-to-day basis, yes, this does have a potential to impact Ukraine's ability to target the Russians on the battlefield, to know what may be coming at them on that battlefield. But the Ukrainian military and government are not completely in the dark about information that the United States may have and that they are sharing with allies. But the bigger question here is what impact do these two announcements, stopping weapons and equipment and stopping intelligence sharing with Ukraine, have on Ukraine and have on U.S. allies?

And the reality is the biggest impact of all in immediate sense right now is what this says about the U.S. relationship with Ukraine right now. Yeah, you're absolutely right, Courtney. I mean, what do you think, based on your reporting, it will take to get these talks back on track?

A mineral deal that the United States, that President Trump is happy with. I mean, that seems to be the biggest impediment right now. And then the other question is, what about some of the other things that we have heard President Trump and some of his advisors talk about? Remember, after that Oval Office meeting, we heard a lot of people close to Donald Trump talking about how President Zelensky should no longer be president.

There should be elections. He should step down. The critical question right now is, is that going to be a part of some sort of an agreement between the United States and Ukraine to restart the flow of weapons and equipment and to restart the flow of intelligence? At this point, Kristen, it really seems like it's about the minerals for now.

But I wouldn't be surprised if they add other caveats and other requirements for the relationship, the longer relationship going forward. Well, I know you are tracking it carefully. Courtney Kube, looking forward to having you on the panel this Sunday. Thank you so much for joining me.

Really appreciate it. Thanks. Coming up after the break, Vice President Vance and top administration officials take the president's law and order messaging to the southern border. Stay with us.

You're watching Meet the Press Now. Welcome back. Vice President Vance, along with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, are all at the U.S. southern border today as the Trump administration looks to tout its immigration crackdown following President Trump's address to Congress last night.

Moments ago, speaking to reporters, Vice President Vance slammed the Biden administration's immigration policy and, like President Trump last night, highlighted the drop in border crossings since President Trump returned to office. But it comes as NBC News is exclusively reporting that the administration is now rethinking its migrant detention plan at Guantanamo Bay in the face of logistical and financial hurdles. Joining me on set to discuss this is NBC News Homeland Security correspondent Julia Ainsley. Julia, thanks so much for being here.

So let's delve into your reporting. What did you learn? Yeah, well, I mean, there are just a number of hurdles. And it starts, Kristen, with the fact that when Trump signed that January 29th executive order trying to put 30,000 immigrants in Guantanamo Bay, that took people at the Department of Homeland Security and the Pentagon totally by surprise.

They had to go from scratch to create these plans. They started putting a lot of migrants and people who they considered high security threats in tents. And then what they did have in place is migrant operations center. I talked to people in the Biden administration who said that was a badly needed prepare.

It was going to take at least 15 to $20 million to even get that up to standards. And in the end, they do have to have standards to follow the ICE detention centers that are in the United States. And they are going to be holding immigrants there. It's different from what you would use in a prison, for example.

So, Julia, what Trump says really even moves the needle compared to all that Trump is doing. In other words, yeah, he says this, it's all going to be fine. You know, we'll see. I mean, Joe Biden said inflation was going to be transitory.

It turned out not to be. Trump says, don't worry, it's just going to be a little disturbance. We shall see, you know. Yeah, it's a really great point.

And again, I go back to, it's still the number one issue for voters. 62% of Americans saying they want him to do more to bring down prices. Eugene, let me stay with you and get your reaction to that moment, that extraordinary moment by Congressman Al Green. He interrupted, jeered the president, was removed from the chamber.

Now there's a potential process vote to censure him. What do you think the impact is and also just kind of the different way in which the Democrats were protesting? I think if anything like that had happened 15 years ago, say, 20 years ago, it would have been front page headlines, you know, censure, whatever. You know, today it's just like whatever, you know, that was his thing that he did last night.

This is after presidents have been, you know, shouted at during their State of the Union addresses and the like. So I don't think it has legs as a story. What do you think of that argument? I'm spending a lot of time worrying about the Democratic Party and whether I do.

But to me, what I saw last night is a party that just lacks a North Star and like a guiding light. You have this elderly man who goes out and makes a fool of himself on national TV in front of everybody. You have members who wouldn't even stand up when a 13-year-old kid with brain cancer was acknowledged. You have people holding up weird signs and it just seems to me that they're just a party in complete disarray.

But I think bigger than that is what happened in the U.S. Senate the day before in the vote to ban biological males participating in women's sports. 45 Democratic U.S. senators voted no.

That, to me, says this is a party still stuck pre-November 5th. And we know what happened on November 5th. They don't have like some guiding North Star right now. Shelby, what about the idea of a guiding North Star?

And you did have, of course, the response by Senator Alyssa Slotkin. Is what she said basically now going to be a roadmap for Democrats moving forward? I think it's to be determined that this was sort of her opportunity at the start of her speech. She did note, you know, a lot of people might not know who I am.

So there's an open lane for somebody perhaps like her or perhaps her to step up and sort of guide the Democratic Party into sort of a new age and a new era. But what I will say is last night what Democrats did, it benefited the White House in a way. You saw Carolyn Leavitt today at her press briefing. She opened talking about the Democratic protests.

And so I don't know that it had the effects that it was intended to. They were able to kind of sort of take that and use it as almost, you know, a weapon or pushback against them. Also, I doubt it was seen very negatively by the Democratic base. So it did play the Democratic base.

And I think the theater in the room last night is, I don't think it says important as what's happening now in those congressional districts. So what's the Democrats saying? I would advise the Democrats to go hold those town halls that the Republicans won't hold anymore. I want to talk about that.

I'm glad you raised that. I want to talk about that. Eugene, your response to the speech by Senator Slotkin. Did you find it to be a message that Democrats can potentially use moving forward?

Because right now they do seem to be a bit lost in the wilderness. Right. And look, it hasn't been all that long. There has not been a unified message.

I would go back to the Carville message. It's the economy, stupid. And if I were giving advice, I'd say pound that again and again and again. And I think developments, given the tariff situation, given just the general craziness, are likely to help you with that message.

Yeah. Let's talk about the town halls that Eugene references. I know that Republicans are saying, no, no, they're filled with people who are paid to be there. The reality is I spent time on Capitol Hill.

Republicans, some of them, not all of them, are expressing some real concern, not just about what's happening at town halls, but about their phones ringing off the hook. So people saying we don't like these cuts that we are seeing. What are you hearing from inside your party about how much real concern there is? Well, I do.

It hasn't reported out. Indivisible is a far left-wing organization that has been fueling many of these town halls around the country. Politico has reported out. Nancy Pelosi said that in 2009 during the Tea Party.

Yeah, I'm not saying that they're not normal, real people who are going to these. But I mean, a lot of what the media attention has revolved around, I think, are these activists who are showing up at these town halls. I personally, as a strategist who works on campaigns, I'm not real big on, I mean, the town halls are fine if they want to do them. But to me, it's not a make or break situation for a member of Congress.

Shelby, what are you hearing about this? Well, I do think Republicans, there is some level of concern. We've reported out. We've talked to Republicans who are hoping for more transparency and more communication into what's going on.

And I think that's the big thing that they're grappling with at the White House, how to give Republican lawmakers that because that's what they're asking for. And most of them are meeting with the House tonight. Okay, yeah, yeah. I just got there.

It's a really big Republican. So Democrats seize on this moment. I mean, do you anticipate, Eugene, that they may try to move to shut down the government over this and say, hey, we're not signing off on any CR unless we have assurances? Well, look, I see what position the Democrats in.

They're in the minority in both houses of Congress. If Republicans want to ram through, you know, a budget, they can do it. But Democrats don't have to vote for it if they don't like it. All right, guys, fantastic conversations.

Thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate it. It was a huge day after Shelby, Eugene and Lance. We are back tomorrow with more Meet the Press Now.

Thanks so much for joining us. The news continues with Hallie Jackson right now.