Meet the Press NOW — May 20

If it's Tuesday, President Trump hits Capitol Hill, telling Republican holdouts to get in line. Now behind a sweeping mega bill that contains its top priorities. The House Republicans plan to hold a committee meeting tomorrow at one in the morning to try and get the bill over the finish line this week. Plus, the Justice Department charges a Democratic congresswoman from New Jersey accusing her of assaulting two federal agents outside an ICE detention center.

And Democrats condemn the charges as baseless and political intimidation. And Elon Musk says he's going to spend, quote, a lot less money on politics going forward, marking a major reversal for the world's richest man and prominent Trump supporter, who was the single biggest donor in the 2024 election. Welcome to Beat the Press Now. I'm Gilchrist in Washington, where House leadership today played their trump card in the form of President Trump himself, hoping to get the conference to stop fighting and get a deal done on the president's sweeping tax and spending bill.

And as of right now, the results of that play are inconclusive. President Trump was met with enthusiastic applause when he entered the House Republicans meeting earlier today, as you can see in this video shared by a member of Congress. But he came with a stern message for the holdout factions of background of battleground moderates and Freedom Caucus hardliners. Get this bill passed.

Now. Here's what the president had to say on the way out of the meeting. He's really a meeting of unity. We have tremendous unity.

There's a lot of love in the room. I think we have bigger dreams. I think anybody that didn't support him as a Republican, I would consider it before. It's a great bill.

It's a great bill for America. More importantly, the sources tell us that President Trump urged blue state moderates to end their push for an increased cap on state and local tax deductions. While Trump campaigned on increasing the salt cap. He was dismissive of the idea on the way into the meeting.

Well, salt is a very interesting thing because the governors of New York and Illinois, those are the people that want this. And the Democrats say the biggest beneficiary if we do that are governors from New York, Illinois and California. And those governors are the ones that blew it because they weren't able to get it. Now, sources tell us the president also hammered Republican hardliners who want additional cuts to Medicaid, urging them not to quote f around with the program and focus only on waste, fraud and abuse, a sentiment we heard several times from the president today.

We're not doing any kind of anything meaningful the only thing we're cutting is waste, fraud and abuse. With Medicaid. Waste, fraud and abuse, there's tremendous waste, fraud and abuse. We're telling you three things, waste, fraud and abuse.

We're not changing Medicaid and we're not changing Medicare and we're not changing Social Security. The only thing we're leaving exactly isn't was other than obviously waste, fraud and abuse. We're strengthening it. We're going to make these things even stronger.

All right, we'll take you live now. Some breaking news. President Trump in the Oval Office along with his defense secretary speaking to reporters. Let's listen in.

I promised the American people that I would build a cutting edge missile defense shield to protect our homeland from the threat of foreign missile attack. And that's what we're doing today. I'm pleased to announce that we have officially selected an architecture for this state of the art system that will deploy next generation technologies across the land, sea and space, including space based sensors and interceptors. And Canada has called us and they want to be a part of it.

So we'll be talking to them. They want to have protection also. So as usual, we help Canada do the best we can. This design for the Golden Dome will integrate with our existing defense capabilities.

It should be fully operational before the end of my term. So we'll have it done in about three years. Once fully constructed, the Golden Dome will be capable of intercepting missiles even if they are launched from other sides of the world and even if they are launched from space. And we will have the best system ever built.

As you know, we helped Israel with theirs and it was very successful. And now we have technology that's even far advanced from that. But including hypersonic missiles, ballistic missiles and advanced cruise missiles, all of them will be knocked out of the air. We will truly be completing the job that President Reagan started 40 years ago, forever ending the missile threat to the American homeland.

And the success rate is very close to 100%, which is incredible when you think of it. You shooting bullets out of the air. I'm also pleased to report that the one big beautiful bill will include $25 billion for the Golden Dome to help construction get underway. That's the initial sort of down posit.

And we have probably. You're talking about General, we're talking about $175 billion. Total cost of this one is completed this afternoon. I'm also announcing that I will appoint very importantly General Goodline to lead the ambitious new effort as the direct reporting program manager for the Golden Dome.

Very talented man, and I'm very honored to have been the one that helped created Space Force. Space Force has turned out to be a tremendous success. We were third in space, and now we're number one in space by a lot. It's not even close.

And Mike is a four star Space Force general, the recipient of the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, one of the most respected people in the world having to do with defense. You know, we have offensive, we have defense. But he's good at offense, too. And he has an unmatched background in missile warning technology and defense procurement.

General Goodlein also knows that we need to move fast. No one is more qualified for his job. And everybody. This was a universal acceptance of General Goodline.

Everybody that knows him and knows everybody else has said there's only one man for the job. So I have a feeling about the right guy. But now I'd like to invite Secretary Hexath and the General to please say a few words and describe the system a little bit. And we appreciate you being here.

The press has really been very fair over the last period of a couple of months. I don't know what happened to you. So much more exciting the other way, but you've been very, very fair. We have very high poll numbers, the highest we've ever had.

And I think we're doing a great job. We had a tremendous trip to the Middle east, as you know. It was a really amazing trip. And now I came home and this is the one.

I was really looking forward to this day because this is very important for the success and even survival of our country. It's a medieval world out there. So this is something that goes a long way toward the survival of this great country. And as I said, we'll be discussing Canada.

They want to hook in and they want to see if they can be a part of it. Sort of makes sense. I guess. That's what I was talking about from day one, you know, just automatically makes sense.

And it won't be very difficult to do, but they'll pay their fair share. Thank you very much, everybody. And Pete, go ahead. Well, Mr.

President, add this to the long and growing list of promises made in promises. Cap. Ultimately, this right here, the Golden Dome for America is game changer. It's a generational investment in security of America and Americans.

Mr. President, you said we're going to secure our southern border into 1% operational control after the previous administration allowed an invasion of of people into our country. President Reagan four years ago cast the Vision four. The technology wasn't There, now it is.

And you're following through to say we will protect the homeland from cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, hypersonic missiles, drones, whether they're conventional or nuclear. And it's not lost on Mr. Also that you had the vision to start the Space Force and here we are, the other side. We didn't need it.

Here we are in the OLAF office with one of the leaders of the Space Force in General Gutline leading the charge on putting in place a game changing golden dome for America. So sir, it's honored to be part of this bold initiative. We're going to get to work on it. We have been since you signed the executive order on January 27th.

We've been fast forward on this. We're here on this day and this is just one stop in delivering this defense of the homeland, which is something you charge us with doing. And we'll keep going until it's completed, sir. Thank you, Pete.

Pete's done a great job by the way. Thank you very much, General. Today's a great debate of nations. We doubled down on protection of homeland.

As you're aware, our adversaries have become very capable and very intent on holding the homeland at risk. While we have been focused on keeping the peace overseas, our adversaries have been quickly modernizing their nuclear forces, building up ballistic missiles capable of hosting multiple warheads, building out hypersonic missiles capable of attacking the United States within an hour and traveling at 6,000 miles an hour, building cruise missiles that navigate around our radar and our defenses, building submarines that can sneak up on our shores, and worse yet, building space weapons. It is time that we change that equation to start doubling down the protection of the homeland. Building Dome is a bold and aggressive approach to hurry up and protect the homeland from our adversaries.

We owe it to our children and our children's children to protect them and afford them a quality of life that we have all grown up enjoying. Building Dome will afford that. I greatly appreciate your trust in me and your nomination in me and your trust in the team to deliver this. It is a great day for America and also very importantly, we're the only ones that have this, we call it super technology.

Nobody else has it and nobody else has nearly really near what we have. So this is a very exciting project. This is something that will, I mean the General said close to 100% protection. So that's something we need.

I think it's a very. And everything's going to be made in the USA by the way, very important. So it's something that I've been looking forward to for a long time. And I just notice you too, Jim, you're standing there behind you is a very important document, Declaration of Independence.

And that was in the vault for many decades under, right under this area. Vaults with pictures on top of Abraham Lincoln. You see, that was the original Abraham Lincoln, the original Washington. Does everybody know who the middle was?

General Grant. And so it's very exciting to look over here and above Ronald Reagan, you have Thomas Jefferson and Monroe from the Monroe document. And you know who that is, right? Andrew Jackson listening to President Trump and the rest of the national security team in the Oval Office.

We're going to go back to that if the president starts to take some questions here. But first, I want to bring in our NBC News national security reporter, Gordon Lubel to talk a little about what we've heard today from the president and some of your reporting in advance of the president's announcement today. Obviously, we know he's spoken about a golden dome system and now the official announcement that in fact they've selected an architect or selected architecture for a missile defense system. What's it up to you?

What we heard from officials today and what you've been able to learn in your reporting about what this is. Yeah, this seems like a signature initiative for President Trump. And this is where we're seeing is kind of initial elements of him laying the groundwork publicly about what he wants to do, what he wants to achieve. This is going to be a several year project.

But as he said just now, you know, they're trying to identify a $25 billion, kind of believe it's a down payment on what is going to be a long project that's going to cost tens of billions of dollars. He said maybe $175 billion in total once it's all said and done. Can you help us understand what this is? I mean, we hear golden dome and even as we talked about the Iron Dome in Israel, there's some people who think there's a literal dome.

It is not that. What exactly is the president proposing to build for security purposes in this country? Right. And so I think that the plan is still kind of underway in his mind and in the government's mind, administration's mind.

But this is a patchwork of different systems to defend the US against a variety of different threats, whether it's ballistic, Ms. Cruise missiles, hypersonic missiles from as far away as China, potentially, and even drones that can come and potentially be used to harm Americans on the US Territory. So would we expect to start seeing missile Batteries set up in fields in Oklahoma and somewhere in California and Maine. Exactly.

I think that there are elements of this whole plan that can be put into place relatively soon over the course of months. I don't know that Americans are going to see necessarily a lot of it per se. I think the administration probably will take pains to tout the elements that get into places they do. But I think over time, you will see more of these systems, some to be developed, some already in American inventory in place to kind of build this, sew this system together over several years.

One of the questions people are asking is, is something like this necessary in the United States? Do we need a missile defense system to be built in this country? What's the threat that exists that would necessitate something like this? That question has been answered, sure, yes and no.

I think that this is in line with the President's issue of America first, protecting the homeland, sealing the border, and making sure that the skies over the US Are safe. And so, you know, although right now the US does not appear to be under threat from places like China, Russia, Iran, others, that could change. And this system over time would defend against any number of those kinds of systems, missiles. All right, we leave it there for now.

Gordon, thank you. Appreciate your reporting on this. We'll continue to watch the President's remarks from the White House. And as we were saying at the top of this program, the President's appearance on Capitol Hill today does not seem to have persuaded the Republicans needed to to get the bill across the finish line, this funding bill we've been talking about.

According to Punchbowl News, the SALT caucus of moderate Republicans told Speaker Johnson after the meeting they are still a no on the package as it stands. And Freedom Caucus Chair Andy Harris told reporters, quote, the President's, I don't think convinced enough people that the bill is adequate the way it is. Nevertheless, it appears to be full speed ahead for House Republicans. His leadership is continuing to ramp up the pressure on the conference to vote.

This week. We're going to deliver this week. We're going to bring the bill. Failure absolutely is not an option.

We've got to get this done. President Trump's one big, beautiful bill is going to require one big, beautiful vote. And this is our shot. Best chance.

This is our best chance we'll ever have in our lifetimes, any of us, in any of our lifetimes, to deliver on the mandate hand down by so many Americans. All right, let's get back to the Oval Office now. President Trump has answered some questions from reporters Gathering in the real list. It would be prohibitively expensive, potentially ineffective and could trigger an arms race in space.

What do you say to those critics about that? Well, the role is about as close to perfect as you can have in terms of real production. I told you Canada wants to be a part of it, which would be a fairly small expansion. But we'll work with them on pricing.

We'll be dealing with them on pricing. They know about it very much. It has to be a part of it. Actually, I think vest has to be a part of it.

I think it's something that is great. If you can afford to do it, we can afford to do it. You know, we took in $5.1 trillion in the last four days in the Middle East. And when you think about it, that's, this is a tiny fraction of that.

But we make it all here. We're going to make it all here. We have. When I will tell you, an adversary told me, a very big adversary told me the most brilliant people in the world of Silicon Valley said we cannot duplicate them.

We can't. This is somebody that I won't tell you it is, but DPMA is we have the most brilliant minds in the world doing this kind of thing. The equipment, the space, the computers, everything but said that we just can't duplicate what you have there in Silicon Valley. We never have been able to.

It is a very strong group of people and very strong minds, but they can't. So we have things that nobody else can have. You see what we've done, helping Israel with that you probably wouldn't have in Israel. They launched probably 500 missiles altogether and I think one half of a missile that through and that was only falling to the ground of scrap metal.

It's pretty amazing. And this is, this is a, in terms of technology far advanced from that system. Have you addressed Russia's ventures in space with a space based nuclear weapon and told Putin to stop in your conversations with him? We haven't discussed it, but at the right time we will.

The goal of keeping Americans safe with this. Can you talk about the timeline, how long this takes complete. We think it's going to be about a little bit less than three years and we'll have a big phase in very early. We're starting immediately with $25 billion.

It'll cost about $175 billion completed, but we think in two and a half to three years. Are you confident you get the funding needed from Congress quickly? It's amazing how easy this one is to fund you know some funny stuff and some is easy when we say when they save everyone's lives in a crazy world. It seems to be very easy to get.

Yeah, we've already spoken. Everybody we have to speak to everybody's in I would say Dan, everybody's in line here, sir. 25 billion is a down payment in the budget reconciliation though right now people actually love it all Russia all. You heard about the reports on a military buildup along the borders towards Finland and Norway?

No, I don't worry about that at all. They're going to be very safe. Those are two countries going to be very safe. And the secondary is saying today that he's hoping for you to imposing sanctions on Russia.

Are you considering that? Well, that's going to be my determination. That's going to be nobody else's determination. We'll see how Russia behaves.

We see what's going to happen. You know we have a pretty we have a pretty critical time right now. I talked yesterday for two and a half hours with President Putin. As you know.

I also spoke to all of the European or to many of them leaders but they were representing the whole and I think we had a very good conversations Yesterday. Please. Thanks. Mr.

President. What companies have asked on who will be building it? I think I'll let you answer that. You can mention some of your yours from Alaska is involved and Alaska is a big part of it because location perfect.

I think it's your first line of defense in certain instances. And Kevin will tell you that the states you know but honestly all Georgia is going to be very big. Florida is going to be very big. They're all going to be very big.

Jim, do you want to talk about Indiana? In Fort Wayne, Indiana, where I live, we make all the space satellites at L3Harris across the board. We're the top manufacturing state in the country. By the way, the tariffs have been very good for auto manufacturing, but this is going to be really good for the defense industry in my state.

There's so much money involved here. There are going to be a lot of American companies involved in making dumb. You might also say you're talking about the tariffs. Here's some of the biggest oil plants in the world moving into India only for One reason, maybe two reasons.

November 5th and the tariffs. But the tariffs have driven tremendous business into this country. But you have one of the biggest in the world, the Honda Civics, the new Honda Civic made in Indiana. GM has added jobs.

Eli Lilly moving pharmaceutical manufacturing from China to the United States. $27 billion. You go on and on with good news in India and across the country. Because of terrorists, our country was cold as ice a year ago.

And now we have the hottest country in the world. This is the hottest country in the world. Nobody even close you look at even this last trip that I made, the respect that is paid to our country. We went from being left out all over the world and now we're the hottest country in the world by far.

Dan, go ahead, please. Mr. Mr. President, I think when you look at the system that you've laid out, it's an idea.

Executive order, a layer of defense. So you have initial ground based missile interceptors which are made by some of the big defense companies, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon. But the beauty of your vision, Mr. President, is that it's layered, it's open architecture and it goes up in space.

So this is going to be some of the new defense tech companies that are very interested in it and can bring missile defense at a cost that I don't think you said, Mr. President, is unimaginable in terms of how much lower the cost is. So it's all across the board in terms of companies. Senator Kramer and I just met with a bunch of last week that are interested in this.

And you said it earlier, Mr. President, our technology sector is head and shoulders above any other place in the world. And they're gonna be a key part of this. And I think that's why it makes it so exciting.

Mr. President, I want to think this, and you alluded to this. The new autonomous space age defense ecosystem is more about Silicon Valley than it is about a big metal, right? And so what's exciting about this is it makes it available to everybody to participate, to compete.

Big companies, mid sized companies, small companies. General the perfect person again to sort all that out because he understands how it has to work together ultimately. And Pete May, we'll close with you. We've been discussing this for a long time, Peter.

I used to discuss it when I was going to go on a show that he did very well, tremendous ratings, but all we wanted to talk about was the military. He wanted to talk about anything else. We used to talk about this. How about you closing it out?

Yes, sir. I mean, like I said, without your vision, willing to say and do things when other people wanted to look away, the threat didn't exist, or we focus on foreign adventurism, some other threat that we've been told is affecting us. When you look at the data, sir, from Russia to communist Chinese and other, their capabilities, what they're trying to do supersede us and threaten us? How do we find the best innovators, the best military leaders, the best companies, tech companies.

You mentioned open architecture. That's exactly right. So multiple companies can pour into this. It's a layered defense.

So if you miss at one, you catch at the next. And it integrates existing technologies that can speak to each other. So it moves quickly while also investing in further ranging space interceptors. So our adversaries are going to pay a lot of attention to this, just like they have to President Trump from day one.

So you're defending the homeland, defending American people. It's going to benefit my kids, grandkids, all parts in this room. So thank you for your leadership. Great job, everybody.

Thank you. Thank you very much. All right, let's bring in NBC News senior White House correspondent Kelly o' Donnell has been listening along with us here to President Trump and his members of the Senate as well as well as Defense Secretary Kelly. We knew that this was an idea that President Trump had talked about over at least the last several months.

And now this has gone from an idea to something that has now been set in motion, the effort to build this new missile defense system. What's it up to you? What we are today? Well, certainly the president likes these orchestrated moments where an idea on policy or something that trails back to the campaign period where he talked about a concept can move to the next level.

So they like to showcase these moments and a long way from this being an actual part of the defense. But this is the president trying to put his imprint on the national defense. And there are arguments for why this has a value going forward with the unpredictable nature of the world and sophisticated technology capabilities that are growing and changing. An unusual opportunity to work with Canada in the sense that there's always been a long relationship, one that has been frayed during the time the president's in office.

So his a couple of references to including Canada are notable as well. So this is a moment where the president is focused on trying to stack up deliverables and to keep that pace going. Again, a long way from the real reality of how this would work. But an important step to say that they have moved this from concept to the next stage of taking action.

So that's what stood out to me at this point. All right, Kelly, I'll ask you to stick with us here as I also bring in NBC News chief Capitol Hill correspondence correspondent Ryan Nobles. We heard the president right in there reference Medicaid. As we know, that's an issue that has been Top of mind here in Washington, particularly on the Hill.

Ryan, I want you to take us to the room, if you can. This morning, the President Trump met with the Republican caucus in the House there. What did President Trump say to Republicans today? Well, it says time to vote yes, that there's been enough debate.

There's been enough back and forth between the relatively small group of House Republicans that are unhappy with the form and fashion of this big, massive budget reconciliation package that really serves as the foundation of the Trump administration's agenda. And specifically called out that group of moderate Republicans from New York and California, New Jersey, who are looking for an increase in the state local tax deduction. And then he also called out the hardcore conservative Republicans, the deficit hawks who are looking for steeper cuts to social programs like Medicaid and snap. He told the SALT Republicans, the cap you got is enough time to vote yes.

He told the House conservatives, the cuts that you have are enough and it's time to move on. And he even used some harsh language around Medicaid, making sure that he made it clear that he did not want to see any further cuts to Medicaid. So he made that very aggressive pitch to the folks inside that room. But I can tell you're in talking to many of those different groups outside of that meeting after it ended.

The SALT Republicans in particular appear to be holding their ground. Many of them say they're still a no. They just wrapped up a meeting with Speaker Johnson where there is some level of indication that there could be some movement, perhaps getting at least a little bit more than what they currently have. But it does seem that at least in that meeting this morning, it wasn't enough by having Donald Trump say to them, you have to vote yes now for them to sway or change their positions.

There's and Ryan, I do very quickly want to play some some sounds and video from earlier today in exchange that you had with President Trump. We'll talk about here in a second. Let's play. I never mentioned the word losing patience.

Why don't you go back to your source and tell her liars if the source even exists. But Ryan, if I heard you correctly, it doesn't seem like the president having been there today, is really going to speed this up and this issue of patience may become a bigger issue in the days to come. Yeah. And I do think maybe the president was parsing the back and forth that we had there, whether he actually used the word patience maybe up for debate.

But I can tell you on the record, we had several Republicans come out of that room and tell us that the president was visibly frustrated that there were so many House Republicans that were still unwilling to commit to voting yes. And he was making it very clear that he was running out of the ability to allow them to continue to debate this because he wants this done as soon as possible. And Speaker Johnson has set a very aggressive timeline for getting this passed. He'd like it done before the Memorial Day weekend, before members of Congress head out on the Memorial Day holiday in order to hand the bill over to the Senate so that they can have it passed by the Fourth of July holiday, which is an extraordinarily fast timeline, especially for a piece of legislation this big.

So he may have made equivalent with the exact wording of our reporting from inside the room, but we're very confident that he was making it clear that that he wants this debate to be over with, that he wants to move on. And he very directly called out those that are still on the sidelines and told them they need to get in the game and it's time to vote yes. All right. Well, Kelly, Don, let me bring you back to the conversation here.

If there is, in fact, an impasse that continues on this issue, should we expect the president to get even more involved in making this happen? Well, certainly the president has now set a marker that he's willing to engage, and so there could be more. And of course, even if it gets through the House, as the speaker anticipates, then the Senate has its own schedule, its own clock, its own priorities. One of the challenges for the president here is he's asking these members who are from the states where there is a higher level of state and local taxes paid, and in his own 2017 tax package, the one that he wants extended now, that's where this cap came in, a limit on how much of that tax payment that an individual can deduct from their their income.

And so in states where there's high taxation, people are paying more. And that is something that these lawmakers have run on to try to restore that something the president has talked about wanting to restore. And the difficulty is it's real money. And with the other priorities that the president wants, including extending the tax cuts, including beefing up border security and so forth, they have to figure out where does the money come from.

And because it's a relatively smaller number of members, and as the president likes to point out, many of them come from loose states. When you think of New York, New Jersey, where there's very high property tax rates, there's higher income tax rates and those taxpayers have their ability to deduct their taxes capped, whereas people who live in Florida don't have those taxes and other places as well. So the president is asking these numbers to go against their own self interest for the larger bill. And that's a really challenging thing to do politically, especially when promises were made by many to try to restore that deduction that existed prior to 2017.

The President reportedly threatened to primary those who hold up this package. Do we expect that that is a tool that the White House is actually likely to use immediate in this process? It may not be a formal White House approach because we see how the president uses his posts on true social and his comments and public venues to put pressure on lawmakers or to lift up those who comply with the things he's looking for or who agree with his positions. We've seen that even in recent days where he's heaping praise on certain lawmakers who have appeared in interviews where he where they are supportive of him.

So the president can wield that power all on his own and has shown a willingness to do so. And Ryan, last question to you here. We you referenced it. The president using some helpful language and talking about not touching Medicaid.

Talk to me a little bit more about that. Does it look like there's some validity to what he said about this? Is this a package that does not touch Medicaid? Well, not if you believe the analysis that are done that has been done by the independent economists that review this type of legislation and try to figure out the type of impact that it could have on most Americans.

Now, the president is being very clear with conservatives that he doesn't want it to go further than where it currently exists. But even under his current machination, the Congressional Budget Office predicts that anywhere between 8 to 8 million people could lose their health insurance benefits. And that's something that is going to impact a lot of these congressional districts that have a very high percentage of their constituents that are utilizing Medicaid. So there's definitely an effort here by Republicans to message and sell this version of the bill, something that's only going to reform Medicaid and get rid of waste, fraud and abuse, but then not do anything to hurt the beneficiaries.

Democrats strongly disagree on that point. They're making that point over and over and over again. And they certainly are going to make that point as we get closer and closer to the 2026 midterm elections there. All right.

We'll leave it there for now. Ryan Nobles, Kelly o', Donnell thank you both. And coming up, the latest on the Justice Department's criminal charges against a city New Jersey congresswoman and the backlash from Democrats. You're watching Meet the Press now get the best of NBC News with a subscription, fewer ads, fee for access and exclusive content.

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Listen daily on Spotify. Welcome back. Another big story on Capitol Hill today. House Democrats are accusing the Trump administration of trying to intimidate members of Congress.

The Justice Department filed charges against a Democratic lawmaker alleging that she assaulted agents outside an immigration detention facility in New Jersey. Congresswoman Lamica McIver, seen here in red, is now charged with assaulting law enforcement officers during this protest earlier this month. MacGyver calling the charges purely political and saying she found out about them on social media. Look, it's political intimidation and I'm looking forward to my Danforth, right?

Yeah. Were you aware of these charges before he was put on Twitter? That's how he found out, Correct? Top Democrats are calling on the Justice Department to drop the charges against MacGyver.

Those charges are baseless and politically motivated. Three reasons why. First, Cosmo MacGyver had his statutory authority to be at that detention center. She was conducting her oversight duties.

Second, if what she did was purportedly so awful that it results in criminal charges, how is it possible they literally gave Her a tour of the facility afterwards. And third, she was trying to prevent the unlawful arrest of the mayor in Newark. And guess what? She was right.

Because the Trump Justice Department dropped all charges against the mayor of Newark. NBC News justice and intelligence correspondent Kendall Lane is joining us now to talk about this. So, Ken, help us say, what are the specific charges this congresswoman is now facing and sort of what happens now? Yeah.

Representative McIver is charged with two felony counts of assaulting federal officers, carry a penalty of up to eight years in prison. This is very serious. And in the criminal complaint, the Justice Department alleges that she essentially slammed her forearm into the back of one of these ICE agents, Homeland Security agents. And they have several photographs that appear to show that.

When you look at the video, it's clear this was a scuffle, not a violent kind of assault. It's kind of thing that happens in police protests all the time. It's extremely rare that these kinds of charges brought, particularly against a member of Congress. So the Justice Department has a policy of consulting with the Public Integrity Unit before it brings charges against a member of Congress like this.

Do we know if the DOJ is following this policy? This policy is still in place. Just in the last 30 minutes, our colleague Ryan Reilly has confirmed the fact that policy was not followed in this case. And the context here is that the public hearing section has been dramatically downsized.

Many of the senior leaders of that section have resigned over the Eric Adams prosecution are dropping those charges. And, you know, that was just a guideline. It's not a legal requirement. And the trainer was free to waive it.

Apparently, in this case, she did. But I think more importantly, people should understand what this unit does. These are usually career lawyers inside the Justice Department that their job is to look at cases involving potentially members of government and whether there's an action that's political or legal. Right.

So these are the people that specialize in political corruption cases across the country. That's their expertise. And so the idea is they are the guardrails to make sure that some White House official is not trying to order an investigation into a political opponent. They're there to make sure that the law and the case is sound.

And so that guardrail has essentially been taken away. And then there's a question of why one and not the other. We know the mayor of Newark was detained, but the charges against him were ultimately dropped. He was involved in the same incident.

Do we have an understanding of why that went away with these charges and manipulation? Well, one answer is that he was just charged with misdemeanor trespass. He's not accused of striking anyone or assaulting anyone. But also, a U.S.

attorney in New Jersey, Elena Haba, formerly Donald Trump's lawyer, said publicly that she offered to some kind of resolution of the congressman. She didn't explicitly say what it was, but perhaps it was a plea deal to plead guilty of the misdemeanor, to apologize. And she claimed that the congresswoman was not interested in doing that. We haven't heard the congresswoman's side of that story, but that could possibly explain why this case went in that direction.

All right, much more to come on this. King Lanyard, appreciate it. Thank you. Up next, Israel steps up its military operation against Hamas, as aid groups warn the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is reaching new levels of desperation.

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Visit today.com affinity for full on returns and details. Welcome back. Secretary of State Marco Rubio testified on Capitol Hill today about the Trump administration's foreign policy priorities, including its efforts to end the war in Gaza. Rubio was asked about efforts to move Palestinians to other countries in that region.

Here is some of what he said. Yes, we've asked countries preliminarily whether they would be open to accepting people not as a permanent situation, but as a bridge towards reconstructions that include Libya. I'm not aware of Libya. Now, five people with knowledge of the effort told NBC News the Trump administration is working on a plan to permanently relocate up to a million Palestinians from the Gaza Strip to Libya.

It comes as Israel once again intensifies its military operations in Gaza and as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces increased international pressure after vowing to take full control over the Gaza strike Strip. The UK Canada and France issued a joint statement opposing the expansion of military operations and urging Israel to lift its restrictions on humanitarian aid entering Gaza. NBC News international correspondent Matt Bradley is in Tel Aviv and filed this report. Yeah, we heard from the United nations and the Israelis that yesterday there were about a dozen aid trucks that went in.

Our own teams on the ground in the Gaza Strip said there was no evidence that aid actually entered the Gaza Strip. Yesterday. It sounds like today those trucks are on the move. And the United nations had said that they have permission for 100 aid trucks to enter the Gaza Strip.

Well, as we heard from the UN's humanitarian chief, he said that this is just a drop in the ocean for the more than 2 million people in the Gaza Strip who now have been without aid from outside that enclave for nearly three months. And we heard from this same man. He said that 14,000 babies could die within the next 48 hours in the Gaza Strip if the status quo in terms of malnutrition and aid persists. Now we've also heard in just the past couple of weeks from a UN affiliated body that monitors nutrition and food throughout the world.

They said that by September, parts of the Gaza Strip could reach catastrophic levels of famine. So we're talking about a need that is very, very strong. And when the Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister of Israel said he is trying to meet, but he said he's only going to be doing that because he's facing substantial pressure from his allies. And he said that this was a red line that he had heard from allies.

They don't want to see starvation in the Gaza Strip. It's clear that Benjamin Netanyahu, prime minister, is fending off attack attacks from his right flank. Politically, a lot of folks here in Israel are angry that aid could be let into the Gaza Strip, and they are determined not to let it fall into the hands of Hamas, who they say and they have consistently accused of taking the aid to profit for themselves and to give to their own fighters. Now, Hamas has denied these claims, but the fact is that the situation in the Gaza Strip is getting worse militarily as well.

We heard that Gideon's Chariots, and that is the Israeli term for this new offensive in the Gaza Strip was launched over the weekend with massive bombardments up and down that enclave that is going to make the situation for civilians there even worse. Matt Bradley, NBC News, Tel Aviv. And our thanks to Matt Bradley for that reporting. Still to come today, no more Elon Musk Bucks, the billionaire Trump ally speaks out on his decision to rein in his future campaign donations, what that means for Republicans and the midterms next.

You're watching MEET THE. Welcome back. Elon Musk has said he plans to step back from his role in the Trump administration, spending less time at the White House. But now the world's wealthiest man says he'll take a step back from spending money on politics as well.

I think in terms of political spending. I'm going to do a lot less in the future. And why is that? I think I've done enough.

Is it because of Bobak? Well, if I see a reason to do political spending the future, I will do it. I don't currently see a reason. Musk, of course, was President Trump's largest campaign donor, spending more than $250 million on the 2024 race.

Joining me now to discuss is Daniela Diaz, congressional reporter for Note, Megan Hayes, former specialist assistant to President Biden and Republican strategist TW Origi. And a lot to talk about here. Let's start with Elon Musca Yellow. We sort of knew this announcement, or at least the conversation around it might have been happening.

Is this something that comes as a surprise to hear, the lonely spending this money, or is this a businessman making a business decision? I'm not surprised. I don't know if anyone else at the table is surprised. I mean, he's received a lot of blowback.

That question really is because of the negative polling that has come for his efforts in the federal government, the attack from Democrats, repeated attack from Democrats for what he's done. His Tesla stock has fallen because of his role in the federal government. So it's not a huge surprise that he's now phasing out. I'm sure Republicans are not happy here that he won't be spending the same amount of money that he always has or at least did this last term.

But. But he did sound defeated there. I was pretty surprised by the tone and the lack of energy that was not really real. Must be seen.

Yeah. I'm curious about your perspective on this. I mean, he's not exactly the most popular person in the political world right now, at least in terms of how voters see him in so many cases. Is this something that Republicans should be concerned about or is this something they should be happy about going forward into the midterms?

Well, first of all, I think he was under no illusion that he would remain popular trying to do the things he's trying to do in federal government. Secondly, of course, Republicans were very pumped he donated that he put that much money in. If you're asking the question, has he done enough? Yeah, when you donate $200 million, I think you have done enough, especially when the president of the United States are elected in large part because of your efforts.

People around the country won their races because of their efforts. But he also said if he finds a reason to donate again, he will a wobble change between now and the midterms between the next presidential election. I would not count him out. $200 million is less than 1/10 of 1% of his net worth.

I think he can afford to go in again, so I wouldn't count him out. Hey, call me skeptical. Little start to donating his contract structure right now for his federal contracts that he has. But also I think that he's starting to realize that campaigning is much different than governing and actually doing something that he wanted to do.

He could fall massively short on doses that he promised, like getting up there with chainsaw and being out there is, you know, that's popular, but the actual governing is so much harder than campaigning. I think he's gonna realize that. And just since he announced his whole guy, I think it's thought it was about for $100 or something. What do you think this does for Democrats?

I think about the Wisconsin judicial race where Elon Musk put money into and that was something he was something that Democrats were able to sort of use out there. Does that change with a statement like this about not spending so much money? No, because the dam is already done. He's already done so much of the federal government.

He's already been out there so much. And his money will have impacts long as in the turns. I think that Democrats will use that talking point going against him in turns in 26 without fail. Let's talk about President Trump to Capitol Hill today.

Danielle, you were on the Hill. I was there. This was the visit to the Republican conference today. In his comments with them, they the deal at all.

Do you think there's been some movement on getting this bill to the next level? And this is the report I've been doing all day. So great question for you because I'm fresh off the Hill. I talked to dozens of Republicans about the comments that he made behind closed doors, which of course we'll know become public pretty quickly.

You know, I was listening to Ryan's hit earlier. He described it as colorful words around Medicaid saying, don't mess with Medicaid. He said a little harsher than that. It's really interesting because depending on who you spoke to, whether it was a moderate Republican who's fighting those Medicaid cuts or a conservative Republican who wants steeper spending, they heard something different from the president today.

He didn't get into very deep specifics. He really kept it with general and it really sounded like he was frustrated. He's ready for this process to be done. He's ready for the Senate to start the reconciliation process because that's going to be a whole other battle for him.

And he really wants to enact his massive bill. That would of course, continue the spending cuts would do a lot of things in poor security and energy policy. If you make the point, I want to have the piece of your reporting on the screen today. And he said.

As a meeting wrapped up, one House Republican told notice it was hard to determine what Trump was really pitching. He's not a detail guy, this GOP member said of Trump. So you know, what impact does a visit like this even have then? If does he care about what's in the bill or is it really just get it done so we can stop talking about it?

Every Republican I talk to really feels like he's the closer. PW Pie does this just as well as I do, that he is really the one who's best at coming in and rallying the troops and getting them to really come forward and pass these things. So they needed him today. So you think we're gonna see these SALT Republicans take whatever Johnson ultimately puts in front of them to make a vote to vote on?

Yes. I think you even heard some reporting earlier about some of the movement that the New York Republicans have said that has been made. Look, Donald Trump is absolutely the best whip for this conference. Tymer does a great job, but Donald Trump is the guy.

He does not want to see his tax bill fall by the wayside. The American people have a huge tax cut under his. As you alluded to. There will be a reconciliation process.

We are not out of the woods yet. But the fact of the matter is we need to get this thing over the finish line. People don't want to be here for more than we can. It will get done.

I want to put up a quote from Punchbowl News inside the room here. This is what President Trump reportedly told New York Republican Congressman Mike Lawler. I know your district better than you do. If you lose because you salt, you are going to lose anyway.

We know that Lawler is one of three Republican seats that the president lost last time around. What's your reaction to Democratic strategies hearing something like that? I think that Democrats will be happy for these Republicans take vote on. I think they're more than thrilled they are going to vote to have their district.

I think that they talking point looting into the midterms. So I think that when Donald Trump is saying anything, some of these Republicans, they are purple districts. They're not standing on principle. They're saying that they want to continue to win and they understand that Donald Trump President until they are deciding whether they're going to continue with.

Right now, before we run out of time, I want to talk about the congresswoman from New Jersey and the charges that she's now facing. Congressman MacGyver, TW Some people make the argument that this is political. Right. So do you think these actions are warranted?

These charges have been placed against the congresswoman now, Ball don't lie. The tape. Don't lie. It's really hard to watch.

Look, I understand they have oversight duties with ice. I understand they have their differences of opinion with ice. But those are men and women in uniform serving a function that is absolutely unbecoming of the office. She absolutely tried to push this guy out of the way.

It was a physical altercation. If that was not a member of Congress, they'd be facing charges. It's completely appropriate for her to face charges, Daniela, that there was argument made or someone trying to make an argument that this was. That there wasn't a law that was broken here.

Democrats had been pushing back on this House leadership, Democratic leadership been pushing back on this, saying, why was she allowed to tour the facility then if she had broken the law, committed a felony in the moments before? Absolutely. She was the only one. I mean, she was with two members of Congress, Robert Menendez and Bonnie Watson Colem.

They were not charged. She was charged. She said, I'll have my gangor Democratic leadership standing behind her. In many ways, this is going to be a powerful moment for them, too.

They are able to really fight back on the Trump administration in a very public way. They knew what they were doing when they win, thinking there could have been some drama there. It's not a huge surprise in S and P's, but it's really interesting that this is unfolding right now and that she was the one that was charged. So what do you make of it?

How do Democrats need to handle this moment, handle this issue, respond to what's going to play out? We think they need to lean into opposition at the doj. Right. These are now people who are in political position that are able to charge for those that would never happen in any other administration.

At the doj, they got rid of all the career lawyers that would have made the decision to charge for. So they're going to emphasize that this is politicizing the DOJ and politicizing her arrest. And also this is keeping immigration in the news, which is the only topic that Republicans can fight on right now that they're turning upside down the polling on. It's the only topic that they have had any success on in the first couple months of the Trump administration.

I don't know if I would go the politicization of the DOJ route given what we saw in the last four years, the Biden years. But look again, the men, women of ICE do great work. They are, they are putting themselves in harm's weight with forced immigration law, which is the law of the land. And you have to be responsible for your own actions by your member of Congress union.

All right, that is where we'll have to leave it for today. This is gonna be a conversation about between t. Obviously this actually goes to trial and we'll be talking about more. Daniella, Megan, TW thank you all for being here today.

We are back tomorrow with more MEET THE Press. Now I'll see you from this chair tomorrow afternoon. But the news continues right now with Hallie Jackson. Cigarette?

He was a young Marine. She didn't care about convention. They made a life together. Then one night the Marine died.

And then the death investigation took a wild, unexp and utterly bizarre turn. I'm Josh Matiewitz and this is Trace of Suspicion, an all new podcast from Dayline. Listen to all episodes of Trace of Suspicion. Now, wherever you get your podcasts.