Welcome to MEET THE press. Now, I'm Dave Gutierrez in Washington, where we're following multiple breaking news stories right now, including a big win for the president and Congress, a major development in the Trump administration's ongoing fight with Harvard University, with the White House now blocking Harvard from enrolling international students. But we begin with the latest developments on that apparent anti Semitic shooting in Washington, D.C. last night.
The suspect in that deadly shooting, two Israeli embassy staffers, is appearing in court this hour. Police say Elias Rodriguez opened fire around 9 o' clock last night outside the Capitol Jewish Museum just a few blocks from here. The victims, Darren Leshinsky and Sarah Milgram, a young couple about to be engaged, leaving an event at the museum which was hosted by the advocacy organization American Jewish Committee. Guy came up and looked like a gun.
I couldn't tell what it was, but I heard it afterwards, the shots. And he shot this young couple. He ran inside and yelled something. I couldn't, couldn't make out what he said.
He just ran up. It was, it was terrible. It was terrible, just devastating. After the shooting, investigators say Rodriguez walked into the museum where he was detained by building security.
While in custody, police say he shouted, free Palestine. Federal authorities are now handling the investigation with Attorney General Pambani telling reporters Rodriguez will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. What we saw last night was disgusting. I saw a young man's body being taken away who was about to get engaged.
He had an entire life in front of him and that was taken away. The hate has got to stop. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says he's spoken with President Trump, who expressed deep sorrow for the attack. Netanyahu has ordered security to be increased at Israeli missions around the world.
And Israel's ambassador to the US Says Israel will not be intimidated by attacks like this. I got the knock on the door a year and a half ago and my son was still. He died. And now I had to knock on the door and inform the parents of these young people that they've lost their children.
It's a very difficult time for us. We're in mourning. But the thing about the Jewish people is we know how to get up for morning with resilience and move on. We're going to move on.
The embassy is going to move on. All of Israel's representatives here are going to move on around the world, despite the incessant non stop verbal attacks and all physical attacks. NBC News justice intelligence correspondent Kendallane joins me along with NBC News law enforcement and intelligence correspondent Tom Winner. Ken, I want to start with you, walk us through what unfolded last night.
What more do we know? Okay, before you say this gunman was milling around, pacing around outside of this event at the museum behind me. And then when that young couple emerged, shot them. We were right across the street from the FBI Washington field office.
So FBI agents were among the people who responded right away. I tried to render aid to the victims, but they could not be saved. And then we're told the gunman dropped his weapon, walked into the museum and pretended to be a bystander and actually talked with a couple people inside until he revealed himself and chanted, as you saw there, this is being investigated as an act of terror. In fact, the deputy FBI director said in a post on X called this an act of terror.
He also said the authorities are investigating a document that appears to have been written by the alleged shooter that they're investigating, trying to definitely link to him which lays out a motive related to the war in Gaza and is consistent with him chanting free Palestine. The attorney general was here, as you said, didn't speak much about the investigation, but it did say that you consider look hard at this case as to whether it's a death penalty case. And we believe that the suspect will be in court, federal court, quite soon this hour. Ken, what more have you learned about the victims?
Yeah, as you played there, Jaron Yasminsky and Sarah Milgram were due to be engaged. They were supposed to go to Jerusalem where she was going to meet his family. She is from Kansas. Her parents didn't know about the engagement until they were told that their daughter had been killed.
They were a young couple, both of whom worked at the Israel Embassy of the United States. They met there, there fell in love there. It's just a tragic story. And Ken, this will be the first major case that interim U.S.
attorney Piro will handle. Have we heard from her or her office yet? We have not, but she has scheduled a news conference for this hour. Gabe, we expect to learn more about the charges against the suspect and how her office intends to proceed.
Kendallane at the scene for us. Ken, thank you. I want to turn now to Tom Winter. And Tom, investigators are looking at some of the suspect's writings.
What more do we know about what he may have written before the shooting? Sure. Get into that in just a second, Dan. We get a little bit of update now from the courtroom where they are expecting a 4:30 start time for this initial appearance where we will get some sort of indication of the charges that are going to be facing.
Elias Rodriguez of Course those could be changed at a later date. They could be additional charges that'll be filed. But that comes from our team in the courtroom. And then that's on top of the 445 Eastern Time press conference that Ken alluded to before.
As far as the writing, there's a number of social media posts, but there's also a post that was made in an online platform which seems to detail at length his reasons. Some of the reasons, the way that the sentences are constructed in the quotes, they don't quite seem to match up to historical quotes that we know about. It appears to be a little bit confused at points or at least confusing to me. And then as far as the ideology here, it's really just as kind of Ken hinted at there linked exactly to what he said himself in the course of being arrested last night in that video that you shown, which is that this is directly tied to the Israel Hamas war and that he is speaking out on behalf of his opinion of Palestine and Gaza.
And it's all related to that. So that's really the crux of it. It presents a bit of a challenge. You just heard it right there.
It presents a bit of a challenge as far as picking out the specific charge as to whether or not this is going to be more hate crime oriented, whether or not it's going to be terrorism oriented or some mixture of the two. There was a search warrant that was execut in Chicago where this individual is originally from. He's 31 years old and they're still putting together the timeline of when he was in Washington D.C. when he first got there.
And of course the question is why did he target this specific museum and this specific event? It appears that he's fired at these two individuals at random, close quarters, close point blank ranges. Officials have put it to us. And so unfortunately neither one of them really had a chance after this incident.
There will be questions asked and they're already being asked as to how this individual was able to shoot these two members of the Israeli government, drop the gun and then still go inside the museum. Was there enough of a uniform presence that was requested and brought to this event? What was the security posture? All those questions we'll get to obviously as we look at these two.
Quite a tragic. Yeah, definitely. Tom, you mentioned the search warrants out in the Chicago area where the suspect is from. We've been seeing video of the investigators there throughout.
Do we know anything more about what they may have discovered here or not yet? You know, this investigation has moved so fast. Gabe, and they're right now just trying to be able to file the initial charges, undoubtedly on complaint versus indictments. This won't even be heard by grand jury.
They'll just swear this out to an FBI agent in front of the judge and present these initial charges. Presumably given the violent nature of this crime, they will ask the judge to detain this individual pending trial. We won't likely even get a plea here today, which would presumably be not guilty. We won't even get that.
This is just opportunity to tell Rodriguez of the charges that are alleged against him, for him to talk to a judge and basically just kind of get this process started. Okay. Tom went to the latest on the investigation and will continue to monitor the story. Again, potential press conference later this hour.
But first I want to get to President Trump and his HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Speaking right now, the White House about the release of their Make America Healthy Again report that examines the root causes of chronic illness in children. Let's listen.
I guess it just doesn't stop with the children subpopulation also such as the ultra processed foods over medicalization and over prescription and widespread exposure to potentially toxic chemicals. Unlike other administrations, we will not be silenced or intimidated by the corporate lobbyists or special interest. And I want this group to do what they have to do. We have to spell it out.
In some cases it won't be nice or won't be pretty, but we have to do it. When you hear, when you hear 10,000, it was 1 in 10,000 and now it's 1 in 31 for autism. I think that's just a terrible thing. It has to be something on the outside has to be artificially induced.
Has to be. And we're not allow our public health system to be captured by the very industries it's supposed to oversee. So we're demanding the answers. The public is demanding the answers.
And that's why we're here already. We're phasing out eight of the most common artificial food dyes. And we ended the most serious conflicts of interest at the fda. A lot of conflicts over there.
Earlier this week we approved a SNAP waiver request from Nebraska so they can stop taxpayer dollars from being used to make our children obese. I understand. Requests from three more states will be approved shortly and more are expected to come in the following weeks. Over the next 80 days, the commission will build on its work in this report to develop a roadmap to bold and transformative public health reforms.
For our consideration is a consideration and we'll lay out the facts. Let me say congratulations to the entire Maha movement. This movement has become very hot. People are.
People are really going crazy over Maha and I look forward to continuing the historic progress. And I will say this, this whole group, this whole table, they're very. You know, I use a word because it's a beautiful word actually. The Democrats took it and they used it instead of the word liberal, they use the word progressive.
And normally I say you're very progressive, meaning you far. They're not progressive, you are progressive. They should be allowed to use that word. And I'm.
And so therefore I'm not going to use it to describe you, but you are far forward thinkers. You're amazing thinkers. And we appreciate having this tremendous talent around this table. The most respected people anywhere in the world.
And you know, I've been a fan of Bobby for years. He came up to see me 13, 14, 15 years ago, I remember, and he left and I made a couple of the statements that he made because I agreed with the same thing. And we both went through hell. Do you remember that?
It was a massive. But you know what? We turned out to be right. It was sort of interesting.
But I've been a friend of Bobby and he's been a foe too. You know, he's tried to stop a couple of my jobs. In one case, he did stop a job and I was really angry. And then about four months later, we went into like a depression and I saved a hell of a lot of money by the fact.
You're welcome. So I. Never mind. I always said thank you very much for stopping that big job I was gonna do.
But he's a fantastic guy and Bobby went with you all the way and your beautiful wife is right sitting in the front row and she's always been right there with you. And you know, it was very interesting when Bobby came. I really wanted Bobby to join and he was doing very well as a candidate. Really well.
He was being treated very unfairly by the other side, but he was doing so well that they treated you unfairly. They had no choice. I think they said in order to qualify, Nuke, you had to have 80% of the vote. Okay, do you remember that deal?
You have 80% of the vote in order to qualify to run against Joe Biden. And Bobby said that was a little unfair. That was about it. And he came on board and we got very lucky.
But you really helped and I want to thank you very much. So Bobby, if you say give him your thoughts, please. Well, thank you very much, Mr. President.
I do Want to say something, because I get a lot of credit for steering this administration towards the Maha movement. And I joined the campaign in August. I joined President Trump in August and became, you know, went from independent to his campaign. And.
But it was in June, and he made a speech specifically on this issue. It was a Maha speech before Maha existed. And I took note of that speech at the time and thought, there is a potential here for common ground. I want to thank you for your vision, for your courage, for standing up.
You know, President Trump is a populist president. He's a president. He's blamed for giving money to billionaires and all this stuff. We hear about that all the time.
But he is on the side of the middle class, the working class, the poor in this country, people. And I've been following. I've met every president since my uncle was president, and I've never seen a president, Democrat or Republican, that is willing to stand up to industry when it's the right thing to do and willing to talk about really difficult issues and to hold his stand on those issues. I've never seen anything like it.
And I'm very, very grateful to him. I've sat with industry again and again in a room with him and heard him say, we can't do that. We're going to do something different, deliver news that they didn't want to hear. Oh, I'm grateful for this.
This is a milestone. There's never in American history has the federal government taken a position on public health like this. And because of President Trump's leadership, it's not just one cabinet secretary, it's the entire government that is behind this report. And I can say, again, I talked a little bit about when I met Rachel Carson as a boy.
My uncle tried to do this, but he was killed and it never got done. And ever since then, we've been waiting for a president who would stand up and speak on behalf of the health of the American people and say there is no difference between good economic policy, good environmental policy, and good public health policy and good industrial policy. We can have all of them. We need a united cabinet, and we need to go forward as a single people.
I want to thank you for that, President Trump. And we're going to keep our ears on this event more than if any news happens. But first, I want to bring in NBC News medical report Erica Edwards. Erica, we just heard from Secretary Kennedy there hearing from President Trump as well.
This report focuses mostly on chronic diseases in children. But what specific areas is Secretary, Secretary Kennedy focusing on? And as I understand that there's not specific policy prescriptions here. Right.
Just proposals for new research. Full sense. That's exactly right. So this was a highly anticipated report showing whatever RFK has learned in his 100 days as the head of HHS.
He said this morning that our kids are the sickest in the world. He outlined multiple ways that they are highlighting diabetes, obesity, allergies, even autism. He really focused on ultra processed foods, food dyes, environmental toxins, sedentary lifestyles over prescribing medicines. But no one disagree that these are important issues.
Right. In fact, hundreds of studies have been launched to try to get to the bottom of these. And some experts said, you know, gosh, this report could have really been written on day one. There was really nothing new here.
But what wasn't included was other important issues related to kids. Alcohol, number one, guns. That is the number one cause of, you know, gun deaths among children. Also tobacco, the number one cause of preventable deaths in this country.
And most smokers do, in fact, start as kids. And that was not addressed in this report. So, Erica, how do you expect this report will be received by medical professionals? Yeah, so I think there's a lot here that doctors are saying is good, right?
No one disagrees that we should be getting rid of artificial dyes or ultra processed foods. It's clear that, you know, a lot of folks say that we need to get back to whole foods. But there are some things in this report that are missing. Right.
Doctors are saying that, you know, we study these things, we have had research when it comes to vaccines and why we need whole foods. So I think that what they're saying is that while this report lays out a lot of the problems, it's really thin on solutions. And as a critics of the report say, it does misrepresent some existing scientific consensus, right? That's right.
So one of the things that they highlighted was fluoride. For example, you know, doctors, dentists across the country and the world say that, you know, fluoride. The fact that fluoride in general has been, you know, villainized basically is misguided. They point to the fact that it is in general.
And we just lost Erica Edwards, our meta reporter. We thank her for that. Then we'll continue to monitor that event at the White House and bring you any news as it develops. All right, now, coming up, what's in, what's out, and what's next for President Trump's sweeping agenda bill in Congress?
As the spending package heads to the Senate, we could face a new batch of hurdles. We're live on the Hill at the very latest. Plus, the Trump administration escalates Harvard moving to bar the university from admitting international students. You're watching the PRESS now.
Stay with us. Welcome back. Some more breaking news out of the White House today. Another escalation in the Trump administration's ongoing feud with Harvard.
The administration announcing today that it was halting the Ivy League college's ability to enroll international students. Those students may get more than a core of Harvard student body, according to its enrollment data. The announcement comes a month after the government cut more than $2 billion in federal research funding to Harvard. The school has filed a lawsuit in an attempt to recoup some or all of that money.
MC News correspondent Antonio Co also happens to be a Harvard graduate, joins me now. Antonia, what is the Trump administration's justification for today's announcement? Well, their justification is basically that Harvard, they say, has not done enough to combat anti Semitism violence on campus and that they haven't complied with the many requests that this administration has made of them in recent months. As you just alluded to there, this has been a fight that has been brewing for quite a long time here.
This is just another escalation after Harvard basically said no to that original list of demands that the administration sent, which included things like, you know, requests for certain sort of sensitive data about the college campus and campus life, an ability for the administration to oversee and potentially have influence over things like hiring and firing and the shaping of certain departments and scholarship at the school. So this is now this next stage in this. But Harvard's president, Alan Garber, who is himself a proudly Jewish man, he's made all kinds of programic changes. He's led cross cultural dialogue on the campus and has consistently pushed back against this characterization of the school over the recent months.
What has Harvard's response been to the developments today? Well, they're out with a new statement, Gabe, saying that this is unlawful. And I'll read a piece of this for you now. The government's action is unlawful, they say.
We are fully committed to maintaining Harvard's ability to host our international students and scholars who hail from more than 140 countries and enrich the university and this nation immeasurably. So while we don't know what they're going to do in terms of potential legal action around this step, it seems from the language here that this may be part of their continued legal battle with the administration, which some experts say could stretch on and on for years here and potentially at some point gave Even escalate up to the Supreme Court. Antonia, so what happens now to the international students that are currently enrolled at Heart? Well, there's actually an immense amount of fear and chaos on the campus right now because of that question.
So on the one hand, in Secretary Noem's letter, it sounds like this mostly impacts the 2025-2026 school year. But because the program has been revoked immediately, what that means is for international students who are still on campus ahead of graduation, which comes next week, they actually have just lost their legal status in the US So there is a real question on campus right now, well, what do we do? There's not enough time for me to transfer to a new university, to do a new program. Do I need to immediately fly home or do I risk per, you know, finding VHS ICE at my campus door in the coming days?
That's a real question some students are asking themselves right now. A lot of unanswered questions. Antonio Hilton, thank you for your worry on those breaking developments and turning out Capitol Hill. Early this morning, after all night sessions in the Rules Committee and on the House floor, House Republicans advanced President Trump's sweeping tax and spending agenda, sending it off the Senate where Republicans have vowed to change it.
The Trump named one big beautiful bill act passed on the 250 to 214 vote with two Republicans joining, all Democrats voting no, one voting present and two absent for the vote. The bill only got to the finish line after last minute changes swayed moderate and hard line holdouts facilitated by President Trump. Top House Republicans praised the president as they took a victory lap after the vote. None of this would be possible without the leadership of President Trump, who every step of the way not only laid out the vision, ran a campaign on this vision, but every step of the way too, said whatever you need, let me know.
And he was there to help us. We stand ready to continue our work together to deliver on the one big beautiful bill as President Trump named it himself. We're gonna send that to his desk. We're gonna get there by Independence Day on July 4th and we're gonna celebrate a new golden age in America.
Now, a reminder of what's in this bill. It increases funding for immigration enforcement in the Pentagon while extending the 2017 tax cuts and temporarily ending taxes on tips and overtime they'll pay for by cutting funds for clean energy, food assistance and Medicaid. With those Medicaid spending cuts coming from adding work requirements and barring non confirmed citizens from the program. The president today on social media implored senators to Send the bill to his desk both as soon as possible, saying there is no time to waste.
Senate Republicans can pass this bill on party lines, but must deal with senators who want to make some changes as well. Let's listen. The Senate's gonna want to put a thumb stamp on this worldwide version of the bill. I asked the President about this last night and his instructions are pretty clear.
Don't cut Medicaid. A lot of it looks pretty good. I mean, if we protect it, we all agree that the Jobs and Tax Cuts act is the majority of what we're trying to accomplish here. So that's a good start.
Still, I think there's some opportunities for more efficiencies, more savings. I'm not persuadable to go against the principles of conservative government. I was elected and told people I wanted to come up here to try to make things fiscally responsible, to balance the budget. And I'm certainly not gonna vote to send things the opposite way.
Miami seniors, colleagues, Sahakapur all over this on Capitol Hill. So, Sahil, how did this bill pass? Hey, Gabriel. The bill passed by a one vote margin after a marathon overnight session by House Republicans when most Americans were fast asleep.
They pushed this through the Rules Committee last night and then immediately, within hours, moved it to the floor of the chamber. First advance the rule, which is the procedural set to bring it up. And then very early in the morning, they passed at 2:15 to 2:14. They lost a couple of votes.
Two of them missed the vote. Were apparently sleeping while it happened. They did this with a series of changes that placated conservatives and a handful of blue state members. Take a look at some of these changes here.
The Medicaid work requirements move up. They start earlier at the end of 2026 instead of 2029 when they had initially set them. The cap on state level tax deductions goes up to $40,000 from the current $10,000 above that $30,000 offer that these blue state Republicans mostly from New York said was not enough. It only applies to those who make less than half a million dollars a year.
And the clean phase out earlier, that was another demand that the conservative hardliners had. And then one of the more trivial changes, MAGA accounts for youth savings tax preferred accounts that people can make for their kids are renamed to Trump accounts. Control f replace with Trump accounts. Gabe.
And by the way, those two that missed the vote, yeah, at least one of them was sleeping. I didn't go for well with Speaker Johnson or President Trump for that matter. But on the subject of President Trump, you know, he's done this before where he's kind of stepped in at the last minute to get those remaining holdouts. Take this inside.
What happened this time? How involved was he in the final process here? Did he get into the details or how influential was he overnight? He certainly mattered.
I mean, President Trump hall a series of meetings with Republicans. He got in their heads. He demanded that they do this. Trump is not the type of person who's a policy wonk who takes them through the details and says, here's how this policy is going to work.
Here's the math of it, here's the estimates of it. That's not his style, that's not what anybody knows him to be. But he is very influential with them because he has an enormous amount of power over their constituents, especially these Republican members in solidly red districts whose voters may have a decade ago wanted them to stand up to the Republican establishment and be rebels and make trouble. Now they want these lawmakers to be cheerleader leaders for the Trump agenda.
And that is ultimately a very, very influential factor that got the Freedom Caucus in line. This group used to be known for struggling bills, for going against bills that added to the debt and this bill adds worth a 2 trillion to the debt. But at the end of the day, they know their constituents want them to support Trump's agenda. Trump knows that as well and he used that influence.
And so before I let you go, this is just phase one for the bill. The next phase is the Senate. What is expected there? What are the sticky points?
Yeah, there will be changes. Senators have big egos. They like to put their fingerprints on major pieces of legislation like this. But there are a number of specific issues we've talked to senators about that they want to see change.
There are multiple members of the Republican Senate conference that have issues with the aggressive spending cuts to Medicaid. They have cited a series of issues that want to change. You know, in addition to clean energy tax credit, some of them don't want those to be phased out of their states. And then the biggest issue is the debt.
Again, there are certain conservative members of the Senate that don't want to have trillions of dollars of the debt. Take a listen to the other Johnson, Senator Ron Johnson, what you have to say, we are stealing from our children in grandchildren 37 trillion debt and we're going to add to it as Republicans. That that is unacceptable. And that's why there's no way I'm going to vote for this bill in this current form.
Now, the good news for the White House gave is that they have a percentage terms, a larger margin in the Senate than Republicans have in the house. It's 53 to 47 in this day and age is not bad. They have to find a way to get 50 of those numbers because this bill is not subject to the filibilant. Remember, any changes are going to go back to the House of Representative.
So the idea of getting this done by that July 4th date that Speaker Johnson has still very much up in the air. Kapoor was on long nights this week on Capitol Hill. So thank you. And now we got an update that the breaking news we brought you at the top of the show, we now know the charges filed against the suspect and that deadly shooting of the two Israeli embassy staffers.
In a criminal complaint just unsealed, prosecutors say Elias Rodriguez will be charged with several counts including the murder of foreign officials, first degree murder and causing the death of a person through the use of a firearm. Rodriguez is expected to appear in federal court at this hour. We have a reporter in that courtroom. We'll bring you any additional developments as they happen.
Up ahead, crypto controversy on the menu. Exclusive MC News reporting on the Mike's Trump meme coin dinner where a seat at the table cost an average of more than a million dollars per plate near the details straight ahead. They're watching. We can press now.
We're back. Turning now to arguably the hottest dinner ticket in town tonight. More than 200 wealthy, mostly anonymous crypto buyers will have dinner with President Trump tonight after investing an average of more than a million dollars in the president's official cryptocurrency. The Senate Democrats press conference today dinner.
That dinner was a topic what is happening tonight, this private secret dinner in which individuals who have put money in Donald Trump's pocket get access to him is maybe the most corrupt of all the corruption. We are here today to talk about exactly one topic, corruption. Corruption in its ugliest form. Donald Trump is using the presidency of the United to make himself richer through crypto and he's doing it right out there in plain sight.
Tonight's dinner is raising a lot of questions about both who has access to the president and whether Trump and his family are using the office of the presidency to profit personally. At the Trump national golf club in D.C. a high powered dinner for a price, 220 winners of a contest and meet President Trump, the top holders of his crypto coin. I don't know much about it other than I launched it.
It was very successful. NBC News has learned each dinner gas paid between $55,037.7 million for the Trump Coin, according to an analysis by the blockchain analytics company Nansen. Based on the crypto wallets of the contest winners, the total $394 million. While the website for the contest says that the president is appearing at the dinner as a guest and not soliciting any funds for it, another side says that 80% of the Trump Coin project is owned by, affiliated or in business with Trump.
How unusual is this? This is unprecedented. Daniel Weiner researches money in politics at the NYU School of Law. To have the President of the United States participating in a dinner where the folks attending are paying money essentially into his own businesses is really something that we haven't seen before.
On Capitol Hill this week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio was asked about foreigners buying access to the President. I can't comment on the dinner. I know nothing about it. Yeah, I think that represents a real problem for this committee because there's clearly a way around the State Department for foreign individuals of significant influence and wealth to be able to directly lobby the president.
When asked about the dinner, the White House says the president is abiding by all conflict of interest laws. The President has been incredibly transparent with his own personal financial obligation throughout the years. The President is a successful businessman. I think frankly it's one of the many reasons that people reelected him back to self in order to get the much more president's spirit to dinner.
Just a moment. At first, while House Democrats were powerless to stop the largely party line vote on President Trump's agenda in the House, they are already vowing to use it as a centerpiece to their campaign to retake control of the House in the midterms. Here's Minority Leader King Jeffries earlier this morning when the story is told of the 119th Congress, when the votes are ultimately cast on that first Tuesday in November next year, that this day may very well turn out to be the day that House Republicans lost control of the United States House of Representatives. And joining me now here on Senators panel, Nicholas Wu, Congressional reporter for Politico for former North Dakota Democratic senator and CNBC contributor Heidi Hykap and Tiffany Smiley, Republican strategist and founder of Endeavor Pack.
Thank you all so much for joining me here. Nicholas, I want to start with you. You were on Capitol Hill every step on the way. Were you surprised that Republicans manage to pull this out?
You know, they kept this guessing up until the very last minute since there were some holdouts that had made themselves Known all along, folks like Chip Roy and Thomas Massey hard on conservatives. And then there were a few surprises along the way. But Republican leaders figured out what everyone wanted. There was there were talks overnight with the White House and they eventually got enough folks to either vote yes or in the case of one key member, vote present to get us over the finish line.
They basically didn't have the guts to stand up to Trump. Right. That's. Yeah.
This is the one piece of legislation on the floor that is the Senate piece of Trump's agenda. And to vote against it could very much be seen as voting against Trump. I want to play what your old colleague and Senate Chuck Schumer had to say on the floor this morning. That's in the coming days, Americans will take a look at Republicans big beautiful bill and discover it gets uglier and uglier the closer they look.
There's nothing beautiful about the biggest cuts to Medicaid in American history. Nothing beautiful about cutting SNAP benefits of children go hungry, can't learn to have productive lives. Nothing beautiful about cutting SNAP benefits by over $200 billion. Senate Democrats will oppose this morally bankrupt bill with every fiber in our being.
Every fiber. Sam, Democrats can only stop this bill in Congress, but they can run against it next year. Where would you start? Well, first off, I don't think you should assume that this is a foregone conclusion in the Senate.
You know, Ron Johnson has said he doesn't like it. We'll see what happens with the usual moderate holdouts, Susan and Lisa. But I think that, that if I'm a House member and they fix some of these problems in the Senate, change it. Now, I've been hung out to dry by the United States Senate because I've taken a leap off this, off this cliff that isn't going to become law.
But the more important thing I think on the House vote last night is this is in the face of a horrible bond sale and we're already seeing the bond markets respond to the massive debt deficit that's being driven up by this bill. And yet they still voted for it under the theory that I guess it doesn't matter how much debt deficit we have. I think you're hear that over and over in the House. Given what happened with the bond sale and we're already hearing it in the Senate actually by some Republicans, do you think those Republicans will have the guts to stand up to the president?
Look, I think they're standing up for the American people. And you know, I will say I was critical of their deadline of Speaker Johnson deadline, self imposed deadline that they call themselves. But look, they got it done. And President Trump is the President that knows how to work deals.
And he weighed in on Capitol Hill and things started to move. But this is the most pro business, pro family, pro American worker tax cut in American history. So it's really an opportunity. I know out on Main Street a lot of businesses, small businesses and families are holding their breath waiting for this to get through.
It's just the first step. But it's really a good sign for the future of American families. More money in their pockets is always a good idea. And looking ahead to the Senate, you know, assigned things that come to be the White House response we heard from today.
Caroline Levitt basically said that the holdouts in the House should be primary. And I want to put up the White House's statement before the House vote yesterday. The White House saying President Trump is committed to keeping his promises and failure to pass this bill would be the ultimate betrayal. Is that the ultimate sign of the punished power Trump has in this party?
Well, he was given a mandate from the American people to get this done for them. So it shows that Republicans are unified. They're actually working and bringing relief to American families. Meanwhile, the Democrats are trying to block it every turn.
I think it's important to know that every single Democrat voted against this bill. So you have to ask the question, are they in support of open borders, are they in support of higher taxes for Americans? And not only that, are they in support of illegal immigrants abusing Medicaid? Honestly, honestly, this bill is going to be, I think perceived once they, everything is exposed as the fraud for what it is for so called working Americans.
They didn't vote as unified. They vote, they voted terrified. Terrified of being primary. Terrified.
They all know better. And in the face of, I mean we should not underestimate what happened with the bond sale yesterday. People are saying, look, you're driving up debt and it's going to cost you more as a result of it because we don't trust the full faith and credit of the American government to the American people. And this is a shot across the bow from the investors.
It's like, like you can't, you might be able to fool them. The Republicans in Congress which aren't going to fond markets about what this means that were in blue states that were working on the cap. I'm sorry, come back. As the first breaking news coming out of D.C.
officials and investigators are providing that update we were expecting on last night's deadly shooting outside the Jewish Museum here at the Capitol. Let's listen to that. Being presented in court and charged with various crimes. 31 year old Elias Rodriguez of Chicago, Illinois is now charged by complaint after his initial appearance before US Magistrate Judge Matthew Charbaugh with the following murder in the first degree for the murder of 30 year old Yaron Levinsky, a foreign official and official guest of the United States.
Mr. Lushinski was here on official business for the State of Israel. The defendant Rodriguez is also charged with two counts of murder in the first degree for both Yaron Liszinski along with 26 year old Sarah Lynn Milgram of Kansas. In addition, there are several felony firearms charges for discharging a firearm in the middle of a violent crime and for causing the death of an individual through the use of that firearm.
Now this investigation is continuing and as you can see, we have most of the stakeholders here today who will be given an opportunity to speak with you. You. But what I want to be clear about today, since this is the first time you're hearing from me, is that this is a horrific crime and these crimes are not going to be tolerated by me and by this office. A young couple, at the beginning of their life's journey, about to be engaged in another country, had their bodies removed in the cold of the night in a foreign city in a body bag.
We are not going to tolerate that anymore. And I am not unaware, based upon my own background, of repercussions of this kind of case. This is the kind of case that picks at old swords and old stars. Because these kinds of cases remind us of what has happened in the past that we can never and must never forget.
I want to mention one thing. The Capital Jewish museum in Washington D.C. where this young couple had been at an event, was built around a brick building. That brick building was previously a synagogue called Adas Israel.
It was one of Washington's first synagogues, a congregation that was created in 1869. And Ulysses S. Grant, our President, actually attended the dedication of that synagogue. And so to this day, that synagogue in that area remains a cornerstone of the Jewish community in dc.
Let me also say that violence against anyone based on their religion is an act of cowardice. It is not an act of a hero. It is the kind of case that we will vigorously pursue. Anti Semitism will not be tolerated, especially in the nation's capital.
We're going to continue to investigate this as a hate crime and a crime of terrorism. And we will add additional charges as the evidence warrants. So this charging today is the initial charge. Remember, we're less than 24 hours from the crime itself, and we are working furiously and diligently with our partners behind me.
We've got massive amounts of evidence that we are betting, we are verifying, and we are reviewing doing. This is the start and not the beginning. And finally, let me say this. President Donald Trump appointed me to this position.
This is the nation's capital. We should all be proud of this capital. And the president wants D.C. safe.
And I and the partners behind me are going to do everything we can to make people proud of the city, whether they're from this city, from the country, or from other parts of the world. Thank you. Now I'm going to call on Mayor Muriel Bowser. Good afternoon.
I'm Muriel Bowser. I'm here of Washington, D.C. i want to thank Judge Pirro for inviting us today. I'm joined by the chief of the Metropolitan Police Department, Pamela A.
Smith. Metropolitan Police Department is the local D.C. police. We are here to echo what the U.S.
attorney has said, that this crime will not be tolerated in our city. We're grateful for the partnership with our federal partners. MPD and the FBI have worked hand in hand on this investigation and will continue to do so. I also want to acknowledge our families in Washington, D.C.
who are suffering and who are afraid and fearful for what this act has done to their sense of safety. But we know that feeling is represented around the globe. Earlier today, I convened a meeting with the mayor's Interfaith Council where we spoke with leaders of congregations and Jewish institutions across D.C. as well as D.C.
council members and the Attorney General for Washington, D.C. we heard our leaders reiterate messages of love and solidarity with the Jewish community. Sadly, we have had practice standing together as a community to fight anti Semitism, both in hate speech and in hateful acts. And so in this moment, we stand shoulder to shoulder as one community united in love, but also committed to justice for this young couple.
I also had the opportunity to speak with the Smalls family. And Sunny Smalls is well known in Washington, D.C. and his family has poured decades of time and love into making sure we have the Capitol Jewish museum in Washington, D.C. and one special aspect of that museum is that it celebrates local Jewish life.
It focuses on DC Jews and how they have been a part of our culture and building on the city that we love. So once again, our city stands with our community, working with our institutions to make sure we have all the resources that we need to support them. And with that judge, I'll turn it over to Chief Smith. Good afternoon, everyone.
I'm Chief Pamela Smith, Chief of Police of the Metropolitan Police Department. Let me begin by reiterating my condolences to the family and friends of Yaron Lazinski and Sarah Milgram. I also want to thank Mayor Mirror Bowser, Judge Pirro and Director Jensen for their collaborative effort and support around this tragic incident. What I also will say is that everyone at the Metropolitan Police Department is holding the family and their thoughts and their prayers.
Years our detectives have been working around the clock in close partnership with our federal partners. And this effort regarding this investigation has been a collaborative effort. All the agencies involved in this investigation have been coordinating seamlessly overnight. Members of the Metropolitan Police Department's Office of Homeland Security Intelligence are working in partnership with the FBI to analyze the suspect's activity prior to the shooting around D.C.
and I want to speak specifically to the community here in the District of Columbia around D.C. you will see an increased presence of law enforcement officers around the community. You will find us at around our faith based organizations. You will see an increased presence around our schools and places like the D.C.
jewish Community Center. We stand shoulder to shoulder with our Jewish community. I also met along with Mayor Bowser with some of our fake leaders. I was moved by their desire to ensure that we keep our city safe and we keep our Jewish community members safe.
And we are ready to support them any way possible as we move forward. Most folks in this city know that I take the relationships that we have with our religious communities very seriously. I want again express and remind the community that if you see something, say something, please let us know. Any information that you provide for us will utilize it in support of conducting this investigation.
I will now turn it over to the Assistant Director in Charge of the Washington Field Office, Steve Jensen. Thank you, Chief. As the Chief said, I'm Steve Jensen, I'm the Assistant Director in Charge of Washington Field Office for the FBI. And I'd like to start by reiterating what Director Patel pushed out publicly.
That the tragic murder of these two Israeli Embassy employees outside of the Capital Jewish Museum last night was both an act of terror and directed violence against the Jewish community. And it has the full and unwavering attention of the FBI. The FBI Washington Field Office JTTF has been locked up with NPD and with the assistance of FBI officers across the country, we're continuing to investigate and contact the subject associates, his family members and co workers. We are also executing search warrants for his electronic devices, reviewing his social media accounts and all of his Internet postings.
Regarding some Internet postings, we are aware of some writings that are purported to have been authored by the subject. Subject we're actively investigating to determine both the authorship and the attribution of these writings, if they belong to the subject or not. I'd like to thank our partners in the U.S. attorney's office for bringing these significant federal charges in quick order within 24 hours or less than of the time of this incident.
Make no mistake, this attack was targeted anti Semitic violence and it won't be tolerated. These significant charges are a step towards restoring justice for the victims and their families. But our work is not done. The FBI will continue to pursue all leads and use all available resources to investigate this attack.
We join MPD in affirming that there is no ongoing threat to this community. And we're also seeking assistance from the public. We do have gaps in this investigation. Currently.
We know the subject landed in the D.C. area on May 20 and then he was taken into custody on May 21. We're asking the public, anybody who had contact with the subject, anybody who knew his whereabouts or where he was located during that gap of time to contact the FBI at 1-800- call FBI or submit an online tip at tips.FBI.gov and with that, I will turn it back over to you. Thank you very much.
All right, we'll take a couple questions. Go ahead. You know, that's something that we're investigating right now. I think that Chief, you'd agree with me on that.
That's kind of thing. Do we know. And yeah, we're looking at that. There's a lot.
Everybody understand this is fluid. It's happening now. Go ahead. Can you speak to any possible nexus to terrorism?
And Assistant Director Jensen, are you confident that this gunman acted alone? Is there any indication at this point that he was inspired and also curious if the chief has any concerns about copycat attacks? Well, first of all, let me say that we're going to continue, as I said, to investigate this as an act of terrorism and as a hate crime. And as we do so, we will bring additional charges whenever those charges are warranted and provable.
And I suspect as we go forward before we get to the grand jury itself, that there will be more charges added as the day wreck. The scoop on what's been happening with here's the Scoop, a new podcast for NBC News. With your host, we'll take a deep dive into today's top stories with NBC News News' trusted journalist. It's a fresh take that's sharp, thoughtful and informative.
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