Meet the Press NOW – May 1

If letting go sounds like, or evening's taste like, and getting away feels like, you've got a sense of New Brunswick. It's here, the Ford is a big deal. Not yet, the Ford is a big deal. Oh guys, just wait, the Ford is a big deal event is on.

Really? Now, hurry until at least a 2026 Maverick XLT hybrid all-wheel drive for $197 by weekly at 5.29% APR for 60 months with $29.95 down. That's like $99 a week. The Ford is a big deal event.

Visit your Ontario Ford store or Ford.ca. If it's Wednesday, a six-week ban on abortion takes effect in Florida. Arizona lawmakers are voting right now to reverse a near total abortion ban, and the Biden campaign aims to keep the abortion issue in the spotlight, blaming a lack of access on former President Trump. Plus, hundreds more protesters are arrested on campuses across the country, including pro-Palestinian demonstrators who occupy the building at Columbia University, as both politicians and police try to crack down on the growing unrest.

And former President Donald Trump hits the campaign trail for the first time since the start of his historic criminal trial, listing the battleground states of Wisconsin and Michigan before heading back to court tomorrow. And welcome to Meet the Press now, I'm Aaron Gilchrist, as we follow breaking news amid a rapidly shifting landscape of abortion access in America. In Florida, we're tracking the fallout from that state's six-week ban officially in effect today. And in Arizona, right now, the state senate is voting to repeal a pending near total ban, all of it with major ramifications, not just for women's health care in the two battleground states, but for the 2024 presidential race as well.

We begin in Arizona where the state senate is in session as we speak, and voting on a bill to repeal the state's controversial 1864 near total ban on abortion, with both supporters and opponents gathered outside. This moment, two Republicans have joined Democrats in supporting that repeal, likely giving it enough support to pass when the vote is called. Now, here's some of what we heard from Republicans on the floor this afternoon. As a pro-life myself, we should be pushing for the maximum protection for unborn children that can be sustained over time.

I am here to protect more babies, I vote I. Abortion is one of the tenets, one of the ground, one of the principles of the Republican Party. And yet, again, we have two Republicans voting with the Democrats to repeal an abortion ban while saying I'm pro-life. But even with the repeal, the civil war era ban may still temporarily go into effect thanks to some complicated legislative procedures in Arizona.

Now, the vote comes as Florida's six-week ban officially went into effect today, making it the latest and most significant southern state to restrict access to the procedure before many women even know they're pregnant. The six-week ban does have some exceptions, including exceptions up to 15 weeks for rape, incest, and human trafficking as well as exceptions for the life of the mother. But for millions of women, the new law effectively cuts off access to the procedure in that region. Opponents of abortion say that's a good thing.

In a state, the Kaiser Family Foundation says has seen out-of-state patients triple over the past five years. Florida is a pro-life state, we're a conservative state, we've always been moving in a pro-life direction. We should not be allowing abortions, and we certainly shouldn't be providing abortion tourism for other states in the South. Meanwhile, supporters of abortion rights are viewing the restrictive law as a rallying cry, looking ahead to a ballot initiative that would codify abortion access through viability if it succeeds.

Speaking in Jacksonville this afternoon, Vice President Kamala Harris slamming the law while using her remarks to attack former President Trump and tie him to state-level abortion bans. Across our nation, we witness a full-on assault state-by-state on reproductive freedom, and understand who is to blame. Former President Donald Trump did this. More than 20 states have abortion bans.

More than 20 Trump abortion bans. As of this morning, four million women in this state woke up with fewer reproductive freedoms than they had last night. This has been new reality under a Trump abortion ban. Joining me now from outside the State House in Phoenix is NBC News campaign in-bed, Alex Tabitz, and in Jacksonville, Florida, where the Vice President just spoke, NBC's Marissa Parra.

Alex, I'll start with you on this. The Senate looks like it's likely to repeal this law in Arizona. Where does the repeal effort go from here? How soon is this going to get to the governor's desk?

Aaron, we're expecting this repeal effort to actually get onto Governor Hobson's desk in the coming days, but it's important to note that here in Arizona, there is a rule that bills don't actually become law 90 days after the legislative session ends. Last year, legislative session ended around July. So what does that mean in practical terms? That means that between June 27th, when this 1864 ban is expected to go into effect July, August, in September, this 1864 near total abortion ban or that exception for rape or incest could still technically be enforced in the state of Arizona, even if the Senate repeal goes through.

Aaron? So 90 days after the end of the session, Alex, is there any indication about whether Republicans might try to extend the session and therefore extend the effect of this law? There have been rumblings about exactly that, Aaron, but there's also been a leaked GOP strategy document which showed a Republican plan to put additional abortion referendums on the November ballot. There is another abortion referendum on the November ballot that we extend abortion rights through field viability, which is about 24 weeks.

The Republicans here in Arizona may be trying to get other abortion referendums on the ballot with stricter abortion laws. But that seems to be the route that they're heading on this abortion rights battle, Aaron. And so how are abortion rights supporters reacting to what's going on today in the state capitol there? Well, actually right behind me, just a few minutes ago, there was a supporter of abortion rights dancing, a bit prematurely because it's not officially yet, but dancing and celebrating this impending potential repeal.

What I talked to her, and she said, this is just a small win. She's aware of the gap of time this summer where the 1864 ban still could be enforced. And she says that the 15 week ban, which was the law of the land before this 1864 ban, is still not enough. She wants this fetal viability abortion law to be enshrined into the state's constitution.

That's her goal. Well, Marissa, let me turn to you here in Florida. This ban will now be in effect in that state when voters head to the polls come November. How might this effect turn out, for example, around the proposed constitutional amendment to enshrine this excess?

Hey, Aaron, well, I've been talking to voters about this since April 1st, when we found out that the six week ban would be going into effect starting today. And so I would say over the last month, talking to voters anecdotally off camera around the state, different parts of the state, I would say anecdotally I've heard from different voters saying that this would draw them to the ballot. But a couple things to point out here. Obviously, there's two separate questions we can look at when it comes to the political impacts of this being a six week ban and amendment four when abortion rights are on the ballot and just to add clarification, amendment four would protect abortion rights up until, quote, viability.

That's roughly 24 weeks, and that would essentially replace the current six week ban. So there's the question on how would this potentially have an impact on how Florida votes overall? Would it bring more support for the Democrats or the conservatives? And then also will amendment for pass overall.

And so something I thought was interesting talking to voters over the last month or so is there have been people that have been saying that they would vote against their own party in order to vote how they feel about amendment four. But when I would ask them, what's the most important voting issue for you for them, rather? There were very few that would say was abortion for the most part, the most important voting issue was the economy. So there's a lot of time between now and November.

So let's see how much that really holds true between now and then. But I want to take you to what we're hearing from those who pushed for the six week abortion ban. You're gonna hear from a co-sponsor, a co-sponsor of the six week ban, and you're also gonna hear from Governor DeSantis who signed and of course pushed for this ban overall. Take a listen.

So I think that these things get worded in ways that are intentionally misleading. The court dropped the ball because they're really supposed to be a guard on that, but the reality is now voters are gonna be presented. And I think that once they know what this actually means that it'll be in trouble. We're going to be writing other newspapers.

We're going to be speaking to the voters. We're going to be speaking in a wide variety of formats to inform the voters that this isn't just pushing back on our heartbeat bills, not pushing back on the 15 week bill. In fact, it's taking us way in the other direction toward, which does not reflect the values of Florida. I want to point out something else that was interesting here, Aaron.

When we look at the mobilization on both sides, we have the conservatives and you heard from two of them just now talking about how they will, they plan to mobilize. But we really haven't seen that effort in the same way that we've seen on the other side. And perhaps that speaks to this confidence that conservatives have, that Florida on its right word trend will continue to stay on that track that we've seen in recent years, which we've been reporting on. And so there may be is that confidence that they don't need to start as soon as the Democrats feel they need to.

We saw an immediate push from Democrats. The Yes On 4 campaign kicked off just a couple of weeks ago. It was honestly the very same day within minutes of that decision dropping from the state Supreme Court that the Yes On 4 campaign really started to mobilize. So perhaps speaking to the lack of confidence from the Democrats on whether or not they can get this through without pushing as hard as they are already.

Yeah, I'm almost out of time with you, but I do want to ask you very quickly. Vice President Harris was in Florida this afternoon. Do state Democrats there welcome the attention that they're getting from the Biden campaign. The president was there.

I think it was last week. Do they have the same sort of confidence as the campaign that this law makes Florida a little more in play in play, contrary perhaps to conventional thinking? Great question. I'll try to answer as quickly as possible.

And just for everyone to be aware of, we're a part of the Miami Deciders team, if you will, and part of what we're looking at is where Miami and Florida fits into the 2024 campaign overall, the 2024 election overall. So I consulted with my fellow producer, Alec Hernandez. And he pointed out something that was really interesting. And it's so true.

We've been talking about how in a lot of ways Florida Democrats have felt like Florida kind of gets lost in the conversation in the mix until now, because there has been a lack of visits from the president and the vice president. That's something that I have heard before. But in this last week, we have seen a visit from the president and the vice president on abortion specifically. I think that's very telling.

Could be helpful when it comes to fundraising as well. Aaron? Marissa Para for us in Florida. Alex Tabith for us in Arizona.

Thank you both. Well, as we mentioned, Florida's six-week abortion ban is expected to have reverberations far beyond Florida and even beyond the Southeast. Let's say it saw nearly 8,000 abortions for out-of-state patients in 2023. Now, people will have to travel farther to Virginia or Illinois to seek care.

And that means some people will not get the care that they need at all. Joining me now is Dr. Chelsea Daniels, a Florida abortion provider and member of the Committee to Protect Healthcare's Reproductive Freedom Task Force. And NBC's Yamiche Alcindor is in Virginia, where clinics are preparing for a possible influx of patients.

Dr. Daniels, I want to start with your reaction now that this is the law of the land in Florida. Practically, what does a ban after six weeks mean for women and for practitioners? Yeah, thank you so much for having me on.

This is obviously so important for all of us to be thinking of. What a six-week ban means? What any abortion ban means is that we are infringing upon the rights of patients to make decisions about their body and about their lives and their futures. And it also means that the very important patient-doctor relationship is in jeopardy when the patients and doctors no longer feel that they can make decisions between themselves in a private, personal and scientific way.

You provide abortions in other states as well. But what sort of communication is there between providers in Florida and providers in other states to get women the care that they need the information they need now that they can't get that care in Florida necessarily? Yeah, we are lucky to have a very, very robust team of patient navigators who are working tirelessly to redirect patients to other states when they are over the six-week gestational when they're in Florida. But that said, in the numbers that you yourself just mentioned, there is simply no state or a no clinic that can possibly handle all of the volume.

And that is because this is basic healthcare that needs to be available in the community's locations live, not hundreds or thousands of miles away across state lines. This is such a complex issue. Can you talk to us a little bit about this time frame we're referencing this six weeks into pregnancy, which we know doesn't mean six weeks of knowing that you're pregnant necessarily. Help us understand that and some of the complicating factors in this Florida law.

Yeah, I think this is such an important question and one that I have with patients every day that the medical standard of measuring pregnancy is from the first day of the last menstrual period. So that means that if you, your last menstrual period was, let's say April 1st, then that means that today, May 1st, if you missed your period, you are technically already four weeks pregnant, which means that you have two weeks to figure out that you're pregnant and get into a clinic all before you hit six weeks. But that is a perfect world. That's a person who has a period exactly every four weeks and that is not every person.

There are many reasons why people will have irregular periods, in which case, missing a period by even a day wouldn't seem abnormal and would therefore delay care and makes a six-week limit to just absolutely devastating for most of my patients. You know, we're not just talking about numbers and legislation written on paper here. We are talking about real people. I mentioned that earlier that this cuts off access for women across the South in some ways, but who does this most effect?

Who are the people that we're most concerned about from your perspective when it comes to folks who are seeking abortion care? Yeah, thank you for this question. I think it's so important. We know that in states where there are already the highest maternal mortality outcomes that disproportionately affect black and brown women, these are the same states that are enacting abortion restriction that only further drive a wedge in these outcomes.

And that is because abortion exists on the spectrum of reproductive health care and pregnancy-related care. And in order to provide patients with evidence-based care, we need to be able to practice evidence-based medicine and that includes abortion care. Well, Dr. Chelsea Daniels, we appreciate you educating us a bit this afternoon.

Thank you so much for your time. Yamiche, I wanna turn to you in Virginia. You're at one of the clinics, one of those out of state clinics in Virginia now. How are providers there getting ready?

How are they preparing now that Florida has further restricted abortion access? Well, a clinic like this one, which is a whole women's health clinic, is really preparing for an influx of patients. They're extending hours. They're also looking for more healthcare providers, doctors and nurses to provide more abortion care.

And in this case, just two weeks ago, they extended the gestational age that women can get abortions. It used to be 16 weeks now, it's 18 weeks, so they're really trying hard to beef that up. And I should tell you that they told me, before Rome was overturned, it was rare that they saw a patient out of state now, just in 2024. 25% of patients coming to this clinic already are now from out of state.

And they decided to go up and up and up. They also told me that 63% of those patients, that they require some sort of financial aid because they're having so much financial hardship, not just getting to Virginia, but also finding childcare, because many of the people that come here are already mothers, they also have to deal with paying for hotels, paying for gas, so there's a lot of stuff at play there. And the CEO of this clinic tells me that she wants to possibly open up more abortion clinics in Virginia in the South, where there would be a border, so that if you were driving up from a place like Florida or Alabama or Mississippi or a number of those Southeast states, that you'll be able to get to abortion clinic even sooner. So they're really trying to do a lot here to get women that they think they need here, Aaron.

And in the meantime, I mean, what's their message to patients who are traveling to them to try to get care? Well, they are really trying to put patients at ease. And they give us really rare access to their abortion clinic today. They're not seeing patients, so we're able to walk around and I want to show you a bit of where I am in a recovery room, where women come if they've had an abortion.

So if you go and you can see a little bit of the procedure room there on the camera show when you sort of wear everything happens, and when they leave that procedure room, they come here and they're able to sit in these comfortable chairs, they're able to have these purple blankets, they're able to sit in this sort of calm environment, they're also able to write in journals to other women that might have abortion care after them and sort of anonymous messages, telling them that it's okay and that they're going to be encouraged. And I'm told by the healthcare professionals here that their message is that they want patients to feel at ease because so many patients come here, they're exhausted, they're nervous, they have all sorts of worries and they want to become here and feel as though they are finally at the place where they're going to be respected, given dignity and also just felt like part of the family here. So the abortion providers here are really just stressing that women should come here, they also said that they shouldn't, they don't have to tell people when they go back to their state wherever that is that they had an abortion, they can just say that they were pregnant and that they had some bleeding. So interesting that there are directions that they're giving women here, Aaron.

All right, Yamiche Alcindor for us in Virginia today. Yamiche, thank you. Well coming up, clashes on campus. We are live at Columbia University where hundreds of demonstrators were arrested overnight and a live report from UCLA after violence broke out between protesters and counter-protesters at a pro-Palestinian encampment.

Plus the view from the White House as the president faces mounting pressure at home and abroad to secure a ceasefire deal between Israel and Hamas and address the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. Don't go anywhere, you're watching Meet the Press Now. Welcome back, it's been another tense day on college campuses nationwide as protests continue over the Israel Hamas War and police continue to assess how to respond. Take a look at the scene at the University of Wisconsin in Madison.

This was earlier today. Police are breaking up an encampment of protesters. At least 12 people were arrested. You can see some of the scuffling going on here.

Four law enforcement officers were also hurt there. Now the New York Police Department, meanwhile, just released this video of its officers clearing Hamilton Hall at Columbia University. This was last night after it had been occupied by demonstrators. We do want to note here that the NYPD recorded and edited this footage.

Police arrested nearly 300 people over the course of the night across multiple campuses. And in California, classes at UCLA have been canceled after this violent clash between pro-Palestinian protesters and counter-protesters overnight. Video shows what appears to be fireworks being set off in the middle of the fighting there. More than 1,500 people have now been arrested in protests on college campuses nationwide in just the last two weeks or so.

NBC's Antonio Hilton is just outside Columbia University in New York for us again today. See Patterson is at UCLA in Los Angeles for us. Now, Antonio, I'll start with you here. What's been the reaction from students there at Columbia to what we saw last night?

All the arrests we saw. Aaron, students are frustrated. They are angry. Many of them have described it as a really sad and disturbing scene.

They feel like they're reliving in a way what happened on April 18th when the NYPD first entered campus to dismantle the encampment to arrest of 100 plus students then. And about a little over 100 were arrested again last night, including students who actually had nothing to do with what was happening inside Hamilton Hall, who were protesting on the street or on campus or in surrounding areas. There were students who ended up barricaded inside of their dorm rooms, unable to travel. We heard about students who were having trouble getting to other buildings on campus where they wanted to access things like medications.

I had a conversation with a student government member who described listening to all the students who she serves and tries to help and feeling at times very stressed about what it was going to be like to manage the night and all the different feelings and emotions and political views of the students here. And so the one thing people seem to agree on is that even though the encampment is shut down, there's nobody left in Hamilton Hall. There's tension. The pain is still very present on campus.

Even at this moment that historically should be all about senior parties and having fun before graduation, Aaron. And Antonio, I understand that police are still on campus there. New York City Police are still on the campus there. What do we know about their function at this point and how long they might be there?

They're going to be on and around campus until May 17th, that's two days after graduation. And so what students tell me is that this is going to mean that it's very unlikely that we see something like an encampment get rebuilt again, which is what happened after the first time. The NYPD came and left. Students essentially went right back to the kind of protests that they were hosting all along.

But now with the consistent presence, they think those kinds of protests are going to spill out into public streets at times. There may be some kind of action that takes place at commencement itself. But overall, it will appear much quieter. The one thing I hear from students that doesn't change the way that they feel.

Pro-Palestinian students feel that their free speech hasn't been honored by the university, that the negotiations fell apart because they couldn't have an honest conversation with administrators. And then Jewish students that I speak to feel like they've also been left out in the cold here, that the university should have done something for them to keep them safer so much sooner so that it never had to get here, Aaron. Well, Steve, let me turn to you at UCLA. We saw the literal fireworks there at that university overnight.

Talk to us about what sparks the violence there. You know, there have been tensions between protesters and counter protesters here for days. And frankly, this encampment, which is to my left, we can walk it, I can show it to you, has been built up over that amount of time. The footprint keeps getting larger, right?

And it is, as you would imagine, a magnet, a target for those counter protesters. So they show up all the time. I don't think anybody expected though that counter protesters would come in the middle of the night. And what happened happened, which is that they clashed quite frankly and honestly for hours, according to students and according to protesters that we spoke to.

And you mentioned fireworks. There were fireworks, there's reports of pepper spray, pipes, metal pipes, wood planks, anything that anybody could grab, became part of the fight, which honestly was horrible. And by the time we got here, this place looked like a war zone. If you wanna come back to me, I can show you how much has been done.

Now they started to board this up so you can't see it as well, but this didn't look like this when we got here. Crews have been out here and I mean, cruisers and protesters, people who live here, they've been building this back up all day long. Thankfully, it is now peaceful on campus, classes are canceled, as far as we know for the rest of the day. And that's allowed because there is a heavy police presence, allowed them to sort of build this back up.

But again, it becomes another target come nightfall. So everybody is tense here, Aaron. All right, Steve, and Tony, let me turn back to you for one last question, as you've been covering these protests, I believe for a couple of weeks now, what exactly as you understand that have these protesters been demanding? You talked about negotiations there at Columbia.

What can you tell us? The central request or demand has been divestment from the state of Israel. So what does divestment mean? That means asking the university to cut ties with any company, organization, business, doing work with or heavily associated with Israel.

Some examples would be Amazon, it would be Microsoft, it would be defense contractors that are involved in the US government sending arms to Israel right now. And the real question that comes up when you talk to students about divestment is how useful would this really be? If you cut ties with Amazon, that doesn't mean Jeff Bezos goes broke and stops doing what he's doing. But the students believe that it is a university, an academic space, that they have a sort of moral obligation to take a stance, and that that can have, whether it's political sway on somebody like the president or sway across the globe, that they want their university to take a step like that, to show a sort of symbolic position on the matter.

But right now, as it stands here at Columbia, the university has made clear they have no plans to divest from Israel. Aaron. All right, and Tonya Hilton for us. I'm at Hatton, Steve Patterson, and Los Angeles.

Thank you both. Now, as we've been reporting, the campus protests and the Israel-Hamas War are putting significant political pressure on President Biden. Today, the White House announced that the president will address the rise in anti-Semitism when he speaks at a Holocaust memorial ceremony on Capitol Hill next week. But as my colleague Monica Alba reports, top US officials see a potential ceasefire deal in the Israel-Hamas War, which would also secure the release of hostages, as possibly the only way to begin to quiet the campus protests.

And Monica Alba joins me now from our post down near the White House. So Monica, there have been more and more calls for the president to say something, to do more about the demonstrations that we've been seeing. What do we know about the speech he plans to get next week? Yeah, and there have been calls from Democrats, from his own allies in the party, certainly Aaron, for the president to be a bit more outspoken on this issue.

And so far, today, for instance, he has not weighed in publicly on what we saw happen at Columbia and UCLA overnight. His own top officials are discussing this, is saying that the president does support people who want to peacefully protest within the bounds of the law. But that, if anything, beers into violent actions or rhetoric, certainly they are condemning those, and the White House has been doing that for the course of this week. This speech that you're mentioning that's going to take place next week was a pre-planned ceremony that is connected to the Holocaust memorial events that are taking place next week.

But we did just learn about the president's participation today. So we are told he is going to be speaking in very forceful terms about the scourge of anti-Semitism and what he feels his administration has been able to do to try to combat some of that. And he may lay out some steps about what else he thinks needs to happen. But that is, of course, coming at a very relevant moment because we know the White House has been identifying some of this anti-Semitic language that has come out of some of these protests that they do talk about in the really most forceful and strongest of terms in terms of condemning them.

And we should expect that to continue. Monica, we know that Secretary Blinken is back in the Middle East working there. Talk a little bit about the pressure here for the administration. Have the protests that we've seen on college campuses put additional pressure on the administration to push for this ceasefire agreement to actually come together this time?

Well, we know that the administration has been pursuing a deal like this for months, and there have been painstaking diplomatic efforts that have been on track separate from everything we're seeing on college campuses in recent weeks. So administration officials would say, we are very interested in a ceasefire deal to release the hostages to get more humanitarian aid into Gaza. And that has been a top priority for a long time before we saw this kind of anger erupt, but certainly officials concede that if there is a potential agreement that does happen in the coming days, that one of the side benefits would be to quell some of this political blowback, that this could help to kind of lower some of the temperature and the tensions that we're seeing. And some protesters have been very vocal about calling for a ceasefire, but also many are calling for a permanent ceasefire.

And this would be something like a six-week pause in the fighting to allow for the hostages to get out and to get more aid in. But then there's an open question about what happens after that and how the president and his administration would navigate that challenge. Erin. All right, Monica Alba force here in Washington, Monica.

Thank you. Well, some breaking news now out of Arizona, where we've been following the efforts to repeal that state's controversial 1864 law, a near total ban on abortion. There are just moments ago, the state Senate and Arizona passed a bill to repeal that civil war era law with two Republicans joining Democrats in this effort. Now, reacting to the vote, the governor just issued a statement and said that she, quote, looks forward to quickly signing the repeal into law.

But we should note too, as we've reported, this 1864 law could be temporarily enforced, because by Arizona law, the repeal wouldn't take effect until 90 days after the legislative session ends in that state. We're going to keep following this in the hours and days to come as well. Up next here from the courtroom to the campaign trail. Former President Trump holds his first campaign rally since his Hushmani trial started, trying to take advantage of a break from being in court.

We are live in battleground Wisconsin. Next. Welcome back with his Hushmani trial on break now. Former President Donald Trump is out of the courtroom and on the campaign trail today.

The presumptive Republican nominee just wrapping a speech in Wisconsin. From there, we know he's going to head to Michigan. Both are state study one in 2016, but lost four years later. Now, these are Mr.

Trump's first rallies since that Hushmani trial started. They become a day after the judge in that case, held him in contempt and threatened him with jail time following his repeated violations of a gag order. The judge will hold another hearing tomorrow on additional alleged violations. NBC correspondent Shaq Rooster is in Waka Shah, Wisconsin, for us now where Mr.

Trump is campaigning. Shaq, we can obviously see the things have wrapped up there already. Talk to us about what we saw in her today from the former president. Well, look, Aaron, these trips are a concession almost.

That Michigan and Wisconsin are going to be key in this election. Of course, both states were ones that he lost in 2020 after winning back in 2016. And he made clear on stage that he's watching things closely, talking about poll numbers, celebrating the fact that the Republican National Convention will be in Milwaukee. So he'll be back here in the state of Wisconsin.

But look, the specific location of this event is also important here. And that's Waka Shah County, because this is a county that Republicans have won handily for years in years. But in 2016, while Republicans won it, you started to see the margins begin to narrow. And that is a trend that Republicans here on a statewide level and that the campaign, Trump campaign, is clearly trying to reverse today, trying to use economy and the economic message as a way to do it.

That was clear when you heard what Mr. Trump had to say on stage, that there was a lot of other topics on his mind, Aaron. Well, we know that the Hush Money Trial Shack is on a lot of other people's minds right now, right? And the judge in this case threatened to jail the former president to be continued to violate the gag order that's in place there.

Does the campaign have any concern about what former president Trump might say as he's out on the campaign trail, considering the warning that he received from the judge in this case? I mean, look, we know how Donald Trump acts. So if there is any concern from the campaign, you have to couple that with the fact that Donald Trump, once he hits the stage, once he's in front of a big crowd, is going to do what he wants to do. And that's something that we saw today.

I wanted to play you a little bit of what we heard from him about his legal troubles, and specifically that ongoing trial that he's currently taking a break from in New York. I got indicted. I'm a president of the United States. And I got indicted.

Think of it, for nothing. I have a crooked judge. He's a totally conflicted judge. And unfortunately, it's a 95% or so Democrat area, other than that, things are wonderful.

You mentioned that gag order. Those comments were fairly limited and fairly restrictive. But he talked about plenty of the other legal troubles that he's facing, even made one comment about his actions on January 6th that Jack Smith may find somewhat interesting if that case does get to trial before the election. But Aaron, this is a sensitive issue for Mr.

Trump. He says that he wants to be on the trail instead of having to spend time in that New York City courtroom. But you see, when he gets on the trail, especially in front of these rallies, again, especially in front of these big crowds that are cheering him on and sometimes egging him on, it's really hard for him to control what he has to say. And we'll see what happens and what he does say at his next stop tonight in Michigan, Aaron.

All right, Shaquille Brewster for us in Wisconsin today. Thank you, Shaquille. Let me bring in our panel now, Eugene Daniels. White House correspondent for Politico, former Maryland Democratic Congresswoman Donna Edwards, and Stephen Hayes, editor and CEO of the Dispatch, all NBC News political analysts.

Thanks for being here today. I do want to start Eugene with you. Donald Trump, returning to the campaign trail today, obviously, he said that the trial that's happening in New York has made it difficult, it's not impossible for him to really be out on the campaign trail like he wants to be, is the campaign on the whole being hurt by the trial that's going on in New York in any way? I guess the travel is being hurt, right?

But a key part of his message is that they are coming after me because they want to come after you. And so that means him being in court Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, is actually probably helpful with his base, right? When you talk to independents, when you talk to people who are Republicans who didn't vote for Trump in 2020 or thinking about it again because they're not big fans of Joe Biden, these are things they don't like. It makes the Republican party feel like it's chaotic, that the leader is chaotic.

It reminds them of the Trump years and how they felt during those times. And so it's not very helpful who comes to a general election electorate. Well, Steve, let me ask you, and I want to put up a few things that we saw from the Time Magazine interview that the former president did. Trump said that he would use the National Guard to conduct the largest deportation operation in US history, impose a 10% rather tariff on all imports, and consider pardoning everyone convicted of crimes related to January 6.

Are these popular ideas? Is this something that Team Trump thinks the mainstream electorate is going to agree with? So no, they're not popular ideas to the broader electorate. I think Eugene makes the appropriate and important distinction.

For Trump's base, they hear this and they love it. They cheer at the rallies. I mean, I think what you saw with the Time Magazine interview, which I thought was very well done, asking Donald Trump, what are you gonna do in his second term? He talks about these things at his campaign rallies.

And what you had in the Time Magazine interview is sort of a campaign rally speech on blast and addressing the stuff, not apologizing for any of the things that he says in his campaign rallies. And in some ways going further and saying, no, I mean it when I say that I'm gonna do these things. That appeals, I think, to his base, it puts him, I think, in jeopardy with the people, including people in Waukesha County. I'm from Waukesha, which is just one county over from Waukesha.

And Donald Trump lost 6,000 votes between 2016 and 2020 in Waukesha County alone. And it's a very, very heavily Republican county, very important for Republicans to win with huge margins if they're gonna win the state. And Donald, right now, the Biden campaign doesn't seem to be focused necessarily on these potential policy points from former President Trump. Instead, abortion has been the main thrust of their focus, particularly in the last month or so, and tying Donald Trump to what we're seeing around the country.

Is that strategy one that you think that a salient that will be useful in a winning strategy? Well, I think I do think for a number of the electorate, it is a motivating strategy. And so even if voters don't identify abortion rights as their number one choice, it is something that motivates voters to the polls. We've seen that from since 2018 in the overturning of Roe.

And so I think it's, and given what's happening now in the states and states like Florida and other places, Arizona, it is really important for Democrats to hone in on bringing those voters to the polls. And I think abortion rights is a motivating issue. And what the campaign has done, and Democrats have started to do is take abortion and tie it into this larger conversation about freedom, right? And so Vice President Harris can talk about abortion as much as she has.

The president can focus on what she's much more comfortable with talking about larger freedoms. And I talked to the campaign and Harris staffers a couple of weeks ago, she has started to change her abortion events into campaign events. It used to be from the official side, but she told her team, I want to go after Donald Trump by name, a lot more I want to be able to tell people, you know, sign on for this referendum. There are people with clipboards in here and they want to put this on the ballot.

And so they're thinking differently. And more importantly, she feels like it's a responsibility for her in the campaign to call them like Trump's bans, right? So because he's trying to change the way that he's talking about abortion. I can't help but to wonder though, how risky that might be.

If you're focusing on this topic, as you said, Donna, that's not at the top of most people's concerns, list of concerns, how much of a risk is it to drill down on that and not talk more about how you're going to make the economy better for people who's, you know, who are still dealing with difficulties paying bills and such. Look, the Biden campaign doesn't ignore the economy and these other things that are motivating voters, but to Eugene's point, this combination of like freedom and reproductive freedom and especially around issues of democracy, voters are larger, very concerned about the state of our democracy. And this makes sense in terms of a message to those voters. And remember, we're talking about thin slice of voters, independent voters, women voters who are going to be motivated by issues like this and they don't like the chaos of the other party.

Eugene, I do want to play a little bit of what we heard from President Trump about abortion today. Listen to this. Some people are unhappy because it's too liberal a policy or too conservative a policy, but we brought it back into the States where it has to be an over a period of time that works out and it's taken a lot of the controversy out and it's been a good thing. And you also have to remember as a politician, you also have to get elected because if you don't get elected, it goes back into the federal government perhaps and then you have one policy that's not going to work, but you have to get elected.

You have to go with your heart. I always say, very important. You have to go with your heart. You have to do what's right, but you also have to get elected because if you don't get elected, a lot of bad things will happen beyond the abortion issue.

So some of this, we don't necessarily hear him taking a hard position on, I'll do or not do one thing or the other. Is this an issue of him not having real convictions on this issue or is it, I'll say what I need to say in the campaign season. I think it's both. I mean, we've seen him have all types of different issues over the years when it comes to abortion, right?

When he was in New York and he was kind of just a New York billionaire that said brash things, he was pro-abortion and pro-reproductive access. And that's changed over time and even in the interview with Time saying that, you know, the states put women in jail, that was up to the states. And so he has this message now that is kind of wanting it both ways. And when you talk to people in the pro-choice and the pro-life camps, neither are happy, right?

Both of them say they want to hear people that have a very clear message, that have clear convictions on this. I don't think you're gonna hear that. I will say the thing that Donald Trump has brought to politics is like just at times just kind of like pulling the veil back, talking about, no, the reason I did this is because of politics, right? Like that, I think that part of it is interesting that most politicians don't do that.

So it's helpful for us. And you see what you did in that answer, right? I mean, you said on the one hand, it's really important to sort of act out a conviction, do the right thing, vote the way that you want to vote. But there's also politics and you have to pay attention to politics.

And he was trying to marry the two. In fact, I think the two, as his long history and abortion suggests, are sometimes at odds. And Republicans are struggling right now in particular, because they're not in a position to put Democrats on the defensive, on some radical positions and abortions that Democrats have, as a party. I mean, if you look at the polling, Democratic parties, not where most Americans are in terms of restrictions on abortion, in terms of access to abortion for all nine months of a pregnancy.

Republicans are struggling so much with their own messaging on that. That is actually just not accurate at all. And it doesn't reflect where Democrats are and where the majority of American people are. You don't think there are Democrats who support abortion still not?

Who support? In favor of late to report? Who support abortion rights and are satisfied with the limits that were imposed under Roe v. Wade.

And we'd be happy to go back to that. And Donald Trump's position in the Republican Party position is nowhere near America at all. There are a lot of Democrats who favor abortion on demand all the way to the Democratic Party. The clock always works against us in these conversations.

We appreciate you being here today, though. We did a round of time. Eugene, Donna, Stephen, thank you all. Silicon, how Democrats are looking to tackle the issue of abortion in Florida, war in the Middle East, and anti-Semitism across America.

You're watching Meet the Press Now. And welcome back. This hour, we have focused on two major issues, the continued pro-Palestinian protests roiling college campuses around the country and the fallout from sweeping abortion bans around this nation. So let's bring in someone who sits at the center of both of those issues.

Joining me now is Florida Democratic Congressman Debbie Wasserman Schultz. Congressman, thank you so much for making time for us today. I do want to start with your state's six-week abortion ban that went into effect today. What are you hearing from your constituents right now?

And as an elected leader, what are you going to do to combat this law and its implementation? Aaron, I'm hearing agony from women across the state who are now going to be suffering over the next six months, hopefully not much longer than that because we have a constitutional amendment on the ballot that will allow Floridians to enshrine abortion rights in our state constitution that over a million Floridians signed a petition to put on the ballot. But I'm hearing the kind of agony that comes from when the government, when a politician, when a judge inserts themselves in between a woman and her family and their doctor on deeply personal health care decisions. And for the next six months, at least, in Florida, we have a near total abortion ban regardless of the circumstances, I mean, in only the most extreme situations like the absolute certain death of the mother if an abortion doesn't take place.

And essentially, that ends the opportunity for a woman to have access to this deeply personal health care really anywhere in the southeast. And it is the MAGA extremists led by Donald Trump that perpetrated this horrific decision on us. You've touched on a few things that I want to ask you about here, particularly this ballot issue, a ballot measure that's going to be voted on in November, essentially would allow the standard laid out in Roe to stay in effect there in Florida. What's the pitch that you make to Floridians today as you talk to people about supporting that measure?

Well, the overwhelming majority of Floridians supports a woman's rights to make her own deeply personal health care decisions along with her family in conjunction with her health care provider. And what the amendments would do in our constitution, but it was ensure that we embed that right in the state constitution up to the point of viability. We had that right as part of our privacy in our state constitution for 35 years. Ron DeSantis's state supreme court overturned a 35 year right as a result of Donald Trump bragging that he put a supreme court in place that overturned Roe.

And so it has been part of the DNA of the MAGA extremist Republican party to take away the most deeply personal rights of women. And this is playing out all over the country. And starting today, we're in the most extreme situation with a near total ban before most women even though they're pregnant, Aaron. I can tell you that as a mom of three kids, for my third child, my youngest daughter, I didn't know I was pregnant with her until I was eight weeks pregnant.

And God prevented anything went wrong in Florida under the law now. And abortion would not have been an option for me. That may just... Democrats like yourself are hoping that the abortion referendum is gonna get Floridians to vote for your candidates as well, not just for this ballot measure.

How confident, how sure are you that voters are gonna hit yes? And then also support Democratic names on the ballot when they go to vote in November. Should Democrats be running hand in hand with this referendum issue this year? Well, if you look at the more than a million signatures that we got, it was nearly a million and a half signatures that got the constitutional amendment on the ballot.

We only needed about 899, 890,000. And 20% of those signatures were from Republicans. So this is not a partisan issue. And I think that voters in Florida, understanding that Roe is gone and that we have a former president running for office again, who refuses to say whether or not he would sign a national abortion ban in place if he became president again.

I'm certain that means that he will, who actually the other day said that women deserve to be prosecuted and deserve to be essentially hunted by police in the event that they have an abortion. So their rights are not safe and they'll be voting for, I think families across Florida will vote for pro-reproductive freedom candidates. And that that will result in Democrats getting elected because Republicans are an anti-choice extremist, anti-reproductive freedom parties. I do want to change gears in the minute I have left.

Your protests are continuing at college campuses around this country. We saw hundreds of arrests last night at Columbia University in New York. We know now that President Biden will deliver a speech on anti-Semitism next week. What would you like to hear from the president?

Well, today is the first day of Jewish American Heritage Month, a month in which in the United States, we commemorate and educate and raise awareness about the important contributions that Jews have made through our rich history in the United States. I'm glad to hear that President Biden is gonna be making that important speech on anti-Semitism. And particularly on our college campuses, you certainly have a first amendment right to peacefully express your opinion. But that right ends when you start to infringe on the rights to others' safety, when you jeopardize the safety or cause interference with students who have the right to go to class and the right to be able to participate in things like graduations.

So the lawlessness that has occurred on these campuses was, has not been a peaceful protest. And in fact, has called for things like Intifada, which is the violent overthrow of a Jewish and democratic state. That's what Hamas and Hezbollah are committed to. And that's unfortunately what many of these students and their outside agitators supporters have been advocating.

That's not peaceful first amendment protection speech. Congresswoman, we've heard from progressives who say they will not support President Biden. They may not support him in November because of his Israel Hamas policies. Are you, you are a supporter of President Biden, obviously.

You've called for a temporary ceasefire. Is there a way to get voters to show up in November if they feel this strongly about the president's policy or are they lost? Let me just be clear, I didn't call for a temporary ceasefire. What I called for and has consistently called for is that Hamas needs to accept the deal that has been offered and negotiated by Qatar and Egypt, Israel and the United States to release the remaining 133 hostages.

And a pause in the fighting would occur in conjunction with that. That needs to happen and that there would be prisoners that are being, Palestinian prisoners that are being held that would be released as well. So I just want to make sure what my position is and that that's clear. We have an election coming up that I think will hinge around the most important issues right now, whether voters want to elect a president like Donald Trump was that was extremist and chaotic and who's among his first actions was to enact a Muslim ban and prevent people just because of their faith from being able to travel to this country, immigrate to this country, adopt anti LGBTQ plus policies who has supported banning books, banning speech, infringed and it's proud of the anti-row Supreme Court that he installed.

So it's a pretty clear contrast. We have Joe Biden who supports reproductive freedom, who supports making sure that we have a diverse rich tapestry of Americans that are welcoming to immigrants and the contrast couldn't be more clear. That's why I think that it's going to drive the overwhelming majority of voters' decisions when they go to the polls and I think they'll choose to reelect Joe Biden as a result because that contrast is so clear. Okay, Congressman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, we appreciate your time, thank you.

Thank you, Aaron. My pleasure. And we are back with more Meet the Press now tomorrow. The news continues right now with Hallie Jackson.