Meet the Press NOW — May 22

If it's Wednesday. New efforts today to get charges dropped in the Mar A Lago classified documents case amid new revelations about Donald Trump's alleged efforts to obstruct justice. And a new crazy conspiracy theory about an FBI assassination plot. And the United nations says it's been forced to halt food deliveries in Rafah due to a lack of supplies and warns that a newly built US Aid pier in Gaza may fail.

Plus, President Biden ramps up his battle to claw back support with crucial voters heading into November with new polls showing a rising number of black voters backing former President Trump. Welcome to MEET the press. Now I'm Gabe Gutierrez and we begin with a number of developments tied to former President Donald Trump's Mar A Lago classified documents case. Judge Aileen Cannon just wrapped up a hearing on a motion filed by Mr.

Trump's valet and co defendant Walt Nota to dismiss the charges against all three defendants, including Mr. Trump and that contest. We're learning of new evidence of obstruction by Mr. Trump himself and as a presumptive Republican nominee and his allies are pushing an outlandish conspiracy theory tied to the case, falsely suggesting the FBI's search of Mar A Lago was part of an effort by the Biden administration to assassinate Trump.

That's beginning with his newly unsealed court records which are revealing more information about the case against the former president and his co defendants. Those records include these photos from June of 2022 and appear to show NADA moving boxes of documents, one of which contained classified markings out of the storage room at Mar A Lago. I also contained in a supporting document unsealed yesterday new evidence of possible obstruction by Mr. Trump, suggesting he intentionally shielded the movement of documents that come from cameras at his estate.

All this Mr. Trump, along with his far right allies in Congress and the media are wrongly interpreting a line from court filings to suggest the FBI was prepared to assassinate the former president at Mar A Lago. This was an attempted assassination attempt on Donald John Trump. Are people associated with him?

They wanted a gunfight. They brought a method. They had use of deadly force authorized by the director of the FBI and Merrick Garland. The former president himself also posted on social media echoing the conspiracy theory theory saying quote, crooked Joe Biden's DOJ and their illegal and unconstitutional rate of Mar A Lago authorized the FBI to use deadly lethal force.

The conspiracy theory is tied to the FI's use of force policy which is in the department's manual and which it employs for nearly every search warrant. The policy was part of the FBI search warrant process at Mar a Lago. And included in court documents, it states that law enforcement officers of the Department of Justice may use deadly force only when necessary. The false claim prompted the FBI to release this statement.

The FBI follows standard protocol in this search, as we do for all search warrants, which includes a standard policy statement limiting the use of deadly force. No one ordered additional steps to be taken, and there was no departure from the norm in this matter. It is unclear how hard the former president or his allies will continue to push this conspiracy theory, but we've seen this type of disinformation grow and metastasize before. And on Capitol Hill this morning, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer issued this warning.

What Donald Trump said, falsely suggesting his political opponents are out to kill him, is beyond the pale and is the stuff that leads to political violence. And it's despicable for members of Congress to spread Donald Trump's lies. This is how people get killed, how the seeds of political violence are sowed, and how people lose faith in this democracy. Donald Trump has no regard for that.

And I'm joined now by NBC News correspondent Dasha Burns outside the federal courthouse in Fort Pierce, Florida. And also with me is NBC News justice reporter Ryan Reilly and NBC News chief political analyst Shakta. Thank you all so much for joining us. Dasha, I want to start with you.

What was the purpose of today's hearing in Florida? Yeah, okay. You just laid out so much there. There are a lot of developments in relation to this case, but today the focus was two motions to dismiss, one that was on the part of Walt Nada, Trump's body, and really focus on him.

And there the defense is alleging that when a special counsel, Jack Smith, indicted Nada, he did so with selected and vindictive prosecution, arguing that it was a form of retaliation aimed at punishing Nada for not fully cooperating with the investigation. Now, this part of the day got a little bit heated, a little testy when the prosecution that was representing the special counsel's office got up to refute those arguments. He was very passionate at one point, calling those arguments garbage. And at one point in an exchange with Judge Hannity, she had to tell him to calm down.

So a lot of fire in the courtroom today. Later in the afternoon, all the hearings are wrapped up at this point. But later this afternoon, there was an argument in the second motion to dismiss that included former President Trump. And there the defense attorneys for Trump, Nada and Carlos de Oliveira were arguing that there was a procedural failure when it comes to this industrial indictment saying that, quote, in plain language and distinct violations of criminal law, it fails to comprehensively set forth and instead represents a personal and political attack against former President Trump, essentially arguing there's no crime here.

This is just political persecution. Which of course is something we've heard consistently on the campaign trail from former President Trump himself, prosecutors for refuting that allegation as well. So Dasha, quite a day in the courtroom as you just laid out. What can we expect a chain to issue a room?

We don't know. What I can tell you is that it has been pretty slow going with this case this week. We were supposed to actually have a trial start date, but she delayed that indefinitely. And it's really taking each of these pre trial motions, motions to dismiss, motions surrounding certain evidence, taking them one step at a time, really kind of dragging this out.

So it's at this point unlikely that we will see a trial until the very least after November. And we know there are a lot of questions marks in relation to what happens after the election gave so a lot of questions. Dasha, what did you know? What have we learned from the NCA documents in this case?

What are your biggest takeaway over the last 36 hours or so? Quite, quite a lot, Dave, you laid some of that out. I mean number one, those photos of Walt, nada. Prosecution says that is additional evidence showing that he was part of the conspiracy to conceal classified documents.

This was taken on June 1, 2022, around the time that lawyers for former President Trump were supposed to go into a storage room at Mar A Lago to review documents to see if there are any classified materials that should be given back to the government. The other thing that we learned is that there were additional documents Mark classified found in Trump's bedroom months after the FBI search at Mar A Lago. And the judge that was overseeing all of those proceedings actually wrote on the record saying no excuses provided as to how the former president could misclassify marked documents in own bedroom. So a lot coming out of there.

I know you'll talk about the FBI piece of it too. Quite a bit of fallout from those documents unsealed as we hear those arguments today. Dasha Burns live for us in four years. Dasha, thank you.

I want to turn out of Ryan Riley and I want to ask you the same question I asked Dasha. You were looking at this over the last 36 hours or so. What did you take away from those unsealed documents? What surprised them?

I mean there definitely little pieces of it that we can sort of sketch together the timeline. But overall, I think the biggest political story you've come out, this is something that sort of just bubbled up on Twitter. This one I'm pretty familiar with because she covers a lot of the January 6th cases. And she essentially took this piece of information that was included about what the FBI had planned ahead of this raid on Mar A Lago and sensationalized it, blew it up and made it this under this huge conspiracy.

And I wanted to ask you about that, that conspiracy theory and walk us through step by step, how did this conspiracy theory really metastasize? Yeah. So if you step back and take this, you know, from the widest angle, Right. We should remember that Donald Trump was in.

It was. He was not in Florida when all this took place. And actually the reason that the FBI chose to make the search after this back and forth with DOJ over a very long time in which the FBI is actually kind of pushing back and not wanting to actually go do this search. They chose ultimately to do the search at a time when they knew Donald Trump was nowhere near it.

So this is an assassination plot. It's the worst assassination plot. This is where he was at the very time that they were actually making the search. And these are just really standard documents.

And you've even seen some really right wing former FBI special agents who especially want to get rid of the FBI even say that this isn't quite really what we're talking about here. It's a really conspiracy theory based off of these just standard documents that the FI does in every single case, preparing for contingencies. But this was really just like in case that happened. Ryan is someone who covers the Justice Department.

This lady offers, what is the FBI's policy on the use of deathly force? Yeah. So, I mean, right. They try to avoid it as much as humanly possible.

It's the last resort. And they have these contingencies. They'll also have like a map for where the closest hospital is that could handle really, you know, high trauma patients. But really they try.

The overall thing is that they try to calm the situation down as much as possible. They did do that, reach out to the Secret Service and tell them that they were coming. They really just tried to really just lower attentions and make this system as possible. How unusual is that the FBI actually issued a statement here?

Very unusual. But I think, you know, in this media environment, they're doing a little quicker punches, a little bit pushback to a lot of this misinformation because it bubbles up so quickly. Ryan Ryle, thank you so much. I want to turn now too.

Chuck Todd. Chuck, great, great to have you here. When you heard about this conspiracy the last 24 hours, did it surprise you that it kind of went mainstream so quickly? No.

I mean this is the ecosystem that we have now especially, I mean we really are so fragmented. Right. In certain ecosystems. Look, I, I, I spent a lot of time when I in the morning with all sorts of newsletters.

One of them is called newsguard. This is Stephen Burle who's been trying to clean up journalism for a long time. They actually did a pretty good forensic study of how did this, how did this get to where it got. And this was really as much as out that this is a, this was less a Trump fueled conspiracy than Marjorie Taylor Greene, that she was the true supercharger of this.

But you know, Bannon, you know, this is sort of Bannon's M.O. bannon is a misinformer. It's intentional, right? I don't know whether it's mis or dis is the grammatical order to use here, but this is a feature, not a bug, right?

It's sort of misdirection constantly. And notice what? We're not talking about the feminine qualified documents. Next with it feels like an intentional misdirection.

Hey, pay no attention to the actual news. Pay attention to the, this, frankly, this sort of manufactured news here. Sort of like I remember there's no beer called tea Snow. Hey, our beers in specially lined cans.

All beers in specially lined cans. But you know, it's sort of a similar thing here. You know, Chuck, I've been there since the last couple years. I'm sure you have too.

How much of a contradiction is here? The Republican Party used to want to build itself as a party of law and order. Over the last few years, it keeps talking about the deep state. And here, what about going after the FBI's policy and the use of deadly force?

This go against everything the Republican Party at least several years ago claim to be what there is. I mean it's down from martyr Green. This is not that Republican Party. This is not the point.

And the point isn't even to whether you're supporting or not supporting. The point is to win the moment, right? Win this new cycle, whatever it is, win the day. And in some ways, that's all Donald Trump has been doing.

What can he do to create a firestorm today that distracts people from focusing on this over here? Sometimes this is his trial, sometimes this is some scandal, sometimes this is a bad poll. But Every day. You know, this is.

And I kind of think sometimes we all take debate collectively, sometimes we're forced to because the FBI asked about a state and all these things. But this does feel like a story that then in some ways we reported on it more than the actual spreading of the story itself. So, Chuck, I want to turn now to your call from today, the campaign shake up that Biden needed. Does the president stand to benefit more than Trump with his new debate on schedule?

Whether does he seem to benefit more? I don't put it this way. The states are higher. The point was he couldn't afford to wait till September.

You cannot. The summer has gone already. The two conventions aren't placed to move message for voters that you mean and the Olympics are the Olympics. And I think this Olympics in particular because it's Paris, I think Americans are really going to be focused on.

It's going to be a tonic of a distraction. We're going to be excited about it. I don't just say that because I don't care. We're desperate to feel unified and this will be a moment for that.

He couldn't afford to wait till Labor Day to do this. And he has to. At least. He has to, at least.

And if it's really bad, he has more time. Right? He has more time to recover. But I do think the likely outcome is the country looks at this and goes, ugh, yeah.

And that this ends up being a shockingly good moment for a guy named ROBERT F. KENNEDY jr. To that point, can President Biden recover from a bad debate? Performance would be disaster for him.

Is it possible for him to recover? And what is a bad debate? That's what I was just going to say. Is it.

Is it where somehow Trump has decidedly won the debate and Biden does? I mean, I don't want to speculate what that looks like. If things get really bad, there's going to be a lot of hanging in the Democratic Party and the convention hasn't started. And what about bad performance for Trump?

I don't know if bad performance matters with him. It could hurt short term, make her financially. But it's not like you have a bunch of party elders that wish Trump would go away. Trump heard party elders on the Biden side.

There are a bunch of party elders that are not as convinced they're nominated as the guy. So if you would look at it, if Trump falls on his face, I don't know who would push him out. If Biden falls on his face, there are a lot of people that might want to push him out. That's probably what I would argue is the two differences in the, in, in the way both parties view they're not.

Shaktt, always good to have you here for your expert. Thanks. Thank you so much. And coming up inside the White House's efforts to boost President Biden with groups that will be key to his re election.

Al senior advisor to the president, it signs that he's struggling to win over both young voters and black voters. But first, I'll speak to an aid worker inside a war zone in Gaza. Been conflicting reports about whether any of the much needed aid is getting from that new temporary peer to the Palestinians. You're watching Read the PRESS now.

Welcome back. We turn to new criticism and scrutiny facing Israel more than seven months into the war. In a historic move, the leaders of Spain, Ireland and Norway announced plans to formally recognize an independent Palestinian state. While the move is largely symbolic, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netan slam the announcements, calling them a reward for terrorism.

The White House was also critical of the decision by its European partners while simultaneously raising concerns about Israel's growing diplomatic isolation. Each country is entitled to make its own determinations, but the US Position on this is clear. President Biden has just said it's been on the record supporting two state solutions. He has been equally emphatic on the record that that two state solution should be brought about through direct negotiations through the parties, not through unilateral recognitions.

We certainly have seen a growing course of voices, including voices that had previously been in support of Israel, drifted in another direction. That is of concern to us because we do not believe that that contributes to Israel's long term security or vitality. Meanwhile, on the ground in Gaza, the humanitarian situation is growing more dire. The UN Agency for Palestinian Refugees announced yesterday it was holding all food deliveries to the southern city of Rafah, citing a lack of supplies.

The White House saying today that aid from that floating dock off the coast of Gaza has been distributed to Palestinian civilians. That's different than what the Pentagon told reporters yesterday, which was that deliveries from that dock have yet to reach Palestinian civilians. So joining me now is NBC News Pentagon correspondent Courtney QV Courtney, what do you make of that seeming disconnect within the administration about the status of that aid from the pier? And what are some of the hold ups that has delayed getting that aid to Palestinian civilians?

Those are the exact questions we've been asking for the last 24 hours. And I have to tell you, it's still a little bit unclear. Here's what we know at this point, more than 650, somewhere in the neighborhood of 670 metric tons have of aid have been delivered through this pier system. So again, it goes to a dock out a couple miles off the shore.

The aid goes on the trucks. The trucks are put onto small boats. Those boats go to a causeway, they drive off onto a beach. That's where the aid is, then dropped off on the beach at a location the Pentagon is calling mustering area.

It's an area where they're putting all this aid. Well, that's where it gets a little bit unclear exactly where this aid is going, Gabe. So NGOs, aid groups are supposed to pick up the aid there and take it to their warehouses. Now, as of yesterday, as you said, we were told that despite the fact that some of these groups had been able to get some of the aid they had not been able to distribute to Palestinian civilians in the area, we are now told that at least some of the aid has made its way to the warehouses and maybe some has been distributed.

But again, we don't have a lot of fidelity on it. The reason that this is such a difficult situation to unpack from standing here at the Pentagon game is the fact that it is these private groups, in some cases it's the World Food Program groups who are doing this distribution in a dangerous environment. We know of at least one case where one of the convoys was raided where there were some individuals who were able to loot some of that the aid, off of a convoy or at a warehouse. Again, that's also not very clear, but we just don't have a lot of fidelity of exactly how much of that massive amount of aid, 1, 670 and 70 metric tons have actually made, have actually made its way to the civilians that were.

So Inid and Gordon, you just touched on this, but there's reports that crowds of civilians are intercepting aid trucks on their transportation routes inside Gaza. How often does that happen? Does that complicate the distribution efforts? See, and that's another thing that's also really difficult for us to discern at this point.

We have officials who are telling us we're aware of at least one case where that has happened, but beyond that, they're looking at the possibility of others, but we just don't have a lot of fidelity. We're asking the questions here, but again, the fact that the aid is turned over at the beach at that area to these other groups, the US Military just doesn't have a whole lot of fidelity. They're trying to get answers and so are we. The one thing that we can say now is we are being told by US officials here and as you mentioned, Jake said on the podium that at least some aid today they believe has made its way to civilians.

We just don't know how much yet. According to Kibi. Thank you. And joining me now is Hisham Mahana, spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross was inside Gaza.

Thank you so much for joining us. And Heam, you were just in RAFAH where the UN now estimates more than 800,000 people have evacuated. What did you see there while you were on the ground? Good evening, thank you for having me.

The situation deteriorates by the hour across the Gaza Strip, particularly in the Rafah governance where hundreds of thousands of people had to flee after evacuation orders were issued by these radio authorities on May 6th. I could see many families walking on foot for long mines and carrying their children and whatever they could carry from their belongings. Others could afford to hire a car, drag by donkeys or other means of transportation of vehicles. People are headed to areas without clear destination.

The areas they were instructed to move to are empty sanded areas without proper infrastructure, with no adequate access to healthcare, clean water, drinking water, sufficient amounts of food and definitely no guarantees for safety or security. So they have moved from living in tents or makeshift tents to other areas that are even luci put to inherit their families and their babies there. Such a difficult situation. The White House said today that aid from the pier is getting to civilians.

That's different from what the Pentagon said yesterday. What are you seeing on the ground International across the ICRC becomes any effort from anyone who would help lead to alleviate the suffering of the civilians in Gaza Strip. We witnessed amounts of aid coming through the pier over the past few days. However, it cannot be sufficient, cannot fulfill the needs of almost 2 million people across the Gaza Strip and it cannot replace the most efficient mean of transporting aid which is land transport.

There are crossing that used to be the main gateway not only for trucks loaded with humanitarian aid into Gaza, but also for humanitarian teens, including surgeons and nurses who should be working out from, you know, the few remaining hospitals that are functional. And also it used to be the exit way for thousands of patients and injured people entitled to receive medical healthcare abroad. Now this has been closed for more than for closely, you know, three weeks now due to the military operation in Rafah and there's a significant decrease in the amount of aid comparing to what used to enter Gaza before the start of the military operation and Hijab. I want to be clear Here.

So the UN says that it is halting food deliveries in Rafah because it's run out of supplies. What specifically is the status of the Red Cross's supplies? Do you have enough? You said you need more aid, but you know, do you have at least enough to get a little bit?

Well, I can give you an example of one of the humanitarian activities, the ICRC Women in Gaza, which is supporting community kitchen centers, distributing thousands of hot meals for thousands of families on daily basis. Our target was 50,000 meals on day basis. Unfortunately, it decreased to only 10,000 because we were not able to access areas where the majority of the population now is existing, including Rafah and Yunus. We're trying to do our best to try to overcome challenges.

However, we are still also short on other supplies like fuel, which is urgently needed not only to maintain such activity, but also to maintain the entire humanitarian operation going. We have recently established a field hospital in Rafah, in southwest Rafah, and it consumes an average of 600 liters per day of fuel. We have sufficient quantities that would keep the hospital running for a few weeks. But if the situation continues like this, this may impact also our operation adapting hospital.

Like many other humanitarian organizations in Gaza and Hisham, the International Criminal Court is accusing top Israeli and Hamas officials of war crimes and crimes against humanity. Do those accusations align with what you've seen on the ground in Gaza? Well, this is not a matter of specialty politician political cross. We have an ongoing bilateral dialogue with both parties of the conflict, including the charitable authorities.

And behind the poll source, we discuss any issues that we witness on the ground, not only during scope of historically. And this is a way that the ICRC pursues in its dialogue with farces of conflict around the globe historically, which gives the ICRC the trust and the access that no one else can enjoy, especially for those deprived of freedom or Vietnamese or presidents of war. And I want to talk about the hostages as well. We've been speaking so much about the aa, which is incredibly important.

But back in November, as part of the temporary ceasefire, the Red Cross was supposed to get access to the hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza. Does the ICRC have any new insight into what conditions those remaining hostages may be in within seven months into this war? This is one of the main priorities of the ismaturist Cross is to ensure that hostages receive the treatment and the health care they are entitled to or to be the national Italian law. Same like for the Palestinian cities.

As a u international organization in the Italian intermediary, the express Cross does not involve in negotiations that would lead to a political agreement. However we are, we stand ready to support any political agreement once both parties have the political will to reach one. The ceasefire deal that lasted for one week back in November was a stark example of a success of negotiations that helped reign families on both sides of the border together. Families on both sides of the border are still suffering.

There's a wide open cut wound of separation and we are more than happy. We are very much urging both parties to do this again as soon as possible because it's literally life saving and it's a human need that this has to come to a closure. Hisham Mahana, spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross, joining us from inside Gaza. Heshan, thank you so much for your time.

Stay safe. And after the break, if it's Wednesday, you know what that means. We got election results in multiple states, including California's special election to fill former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy seek. You're watching MEET THE PRESS Now.

Stay with us. Welcome back. If it's Wednesday, that means somebody voted somewhere yesterday. Here are the big headlines from Tuesday's elections.

Republican Vince Fong won the special election to fill former House Speaker Kevin McCarthy's old House seat in California. Fong was a former McCarthy staffer and had McCarthy's backing. His election will bring a small bit of breathing room for the razor thin House Republican majority. In Oregon, it was a tough night of primaries for progressive Democrats.

National Democrats preferred candidate Janelle Bynum defeated progressive Jamie McLeod Spinner in the 5th district primary. McCloud Spinner was nominee in 2022 and narrowly lost, a race a lot of Democrats thought was winnable. Biden will face the incumbent Republican in what will be one of the most closely watched House races this November. And in the Portland area, Maxine Dexter beat Sushi Jayapal, sister of Progressive caucus Chair Pramila Jayapal, in the primary to succeed longtime Congressman Earl Lumenauer.

Staying in the Portland area with about two thirds of all votes counted, Multnomah County District Attorney Mike Schmidt is in danger of losing to longtime prosecutor and former Republican Nathan Vasquez. Vasquez ran a tough on crime platform against a progressive incumbent who's faced criticism on everything from his handling of protests in 2020 to gun violence and drug crime. Instead of Congress, Democrats put abortion right at the center of their 2024 campaigns. Louisiana lawmakers are moving towards criminalizing the possession of abortion medications without a prescription.

Well, dig into the politics of it all. They're watching MEET THE PRESS now. Welcome back. The Louisiana State Senate is set to vote on a bill that would make abortion pills a controlled dangerous substance.

If signed by the governor, it would further criminalize abortion access and stingray as one of the strictest bans in the country. The Biden campaign is slamming the bill and blaming former President Trump for it, citing his role in overturning Roe v. Wade. Ahead of November, Democrats are working to put Republicans on defense on a range of reproductive issues, including contraception.

Democrats latest move comes after yesterday former president the former president seem to suggest he be open to restrictions on birth control before clarifying his position later in the day. Source tells NBC News that Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer plans to force a vote on a bill federally codifying protections for contraceptives in June. Today, Republicans dismissed it as a messaging bill. I suspected would be some members to support him.

He's going to do the sort of political messaging bill because he knows he's Underwood in a couple states and he's trying to create a political foothold for some of the incumbents. Joining me now is our panel, Leanne Caldwell, Washington Post live anchor and co author of the early 202 Democratic strategist, former Obama campaign advisor Misha Crossing, Stephen Hayes, editor and CEO of the Dispatch and an NBC News contributor. Thank you all so much for joining us. Leanne, I want to start with you.

We've reached a point in the election cycle. We're talking about messaging bills. So which is the better play at this point, the one on reproductive rights or the border bill that the Senate sets to vote on tomorrow? Well, there are two different reasons for that.

The reason for the border bill is because Democrats are trying to look like they care about the border. Democrat sources tell me that, look, we don't think we're going to win. People, they really care. Well, they care enough to not lose the election on it.

It's so interesting because a couple years ago, Democrats just didn't like talking about the board. Really a couple months ago, that really changed when they thought it could help them politically with Republicans and such, it totally shifted. But they also looked at the polls. The border is about equal with the economy.

For in many polls on what voters care about. And Democrats realize that they have to address it. And so this border vote tomorrow is again, not to show that they are going to try to win on the issue, but at least like carve out some of their voters or some votes so that they don't completely lose. Now, on the flip side, you have the issue of abortion, contraception, ivf.

Democrats are way ahead on that issue. And they want to keep pounding that issue and reminding voters where they are, that they are the party of choice. And on that point, Misha, the Biden administration is going all in on reproductive rights. But is there a danger here of conflating contraception with, you know, IVF and abortion rights?

It's all under the same umbrella, of course, but they're all very different. They're putting on the same umbrella because a lot of conservative states are. I think the way that some of these policies are being written and the way that many conservatives, particularly in red states are having this conversation, they have also been attacking contraception. We talked about our control pills as well.

And quite frankly, they have limited them in many cases. And this existed before the selection cycle. We know that when we talk about them denying many Republican members in nine exchange of Medicaid, the United States of Medicaid. You also deny fundamental services to women who are in power, racial who meet those guidelines, who actually qualify for Medicaid.

So I think that it's very important that they talk about this. But thus far we have Sarah to definitely understand the difference between abortion rights idea as well as women's contraceptive options who are having that conversation. But I think that in many cases, Republicans are trying to broaden this and we've seen those extreme measures of what that means for women across country. And Steven is Democrats best messenger on the abortion issue at this point.

Donald Trump. I mean, it's interesting. You know, you mentioned the comment that he said yesterday and he said, you know, I'm going to have a full contraception policy out in the next couple of weeks. And we've heard this from Donald Trump many, many times before.

There's almost never a policy. Look, I think what Republicans are facing is there is tremendous confusion. There's not even a message for Republicans at all. And I think that starts the die and Donald Trump is a bad mess.

Right. You know, Donald Trump has done this several times before. He'll say, oh, et's is ahead of policy announcement. He did that, you know, a couple months ago, I think I was in Michigan for immigration event.

He said, oh, we'll have my abortion policy a week or so. In the Time magazine interview, he kept saying, oh, I'll do, you know, make another policy in no, and we are too. But nothing really seems to be, you know, definite with that when it comes to Donald Trump. You think that hurts him at all with any potential voters?

I mean, it hasn't hurt him so far. Look, I think abortion can be an issue immigration issue, the economy could be an issue, but this is much more likely to be revived election. I think Donald Trump is not nobody's going to press him, but we certainly don't need the Republican Party. He's going to press him to lay out a detailed policy agenda.

The Republican Party set aside their platform at the convention and said we're for whatever that guy's for. So they're not going to push him on policy. I think it's up to Borders to push him and try when he makes a promise, we should be there asking him, where's your plan? Where's your plan?

You know, method Prostitone is one of two major abortion cases before the Supreme Court. Now June is fast approaching. Do you think, you know, could that decision, whatever it is, could that have as much of an impact on this election as Dobbs did two years ago? How much could it shake up this risk?

Well, it'll be another reminder of, of the status of these rights and that these rights for women are under are could be taken away depending on how the court rules, what the state legislatures do. And so this is another instance of just keeping it in the news front and center of headlines and that Democrats think is good for them. Right. And Misha, on that point, you know, this is an issue that can literally be on the ballot in four states.

Several more say they have signatures needed. Do you really think that this will be the boom that Democrats think it will be, you know, this November? Do you think it will turn out these voters that seem some of them have lost enthusiasm for the president? Women are very powerful in this country and there are more women than voters now than never have been registered and actually acted at the polls because this is something that affects women across this country.

I definitely think there's no reason to step off the gas now if you're a Democrat or if you are Joe Biden in running for the presidency and having this conversation and putting them in this reductive rights front and center. As someone who has had to take mispresso before, I have had. It is a very difficult process to make that decision. It is also one in which I trusted my doctors for my medical condition at the time and one that I might not even be here today if I was able to make.

So I think that for people who have, who are based on those decisions, having an elected leader tell you that you cannot, based on whatever reason, religious or otherwise, they come up with or because they just want to be able to, you know, tell you what to do with your body to and including criminalizing those doctors. That is a real problem because it puts women's lives at risk. Stephen, I want to talk about something that we brought up earlier, earlier in the program. The misinformation from, you know, some Republicans, including Donald Trump, talking about how he claims that President Biden authorized the DOJ to use deadly force on him during that search of Mar A Lago.

What do you make of that? You know, is this another example of, as I was talking about Chuck Cott earlier, you know, the Republican Party, just this mushrooming misinformation just within a 24 hour period. What do you think of? I mean, it's really troubling, especially if you follow the way that the story became a bigger story.

It was a pretty well known conspiracy theorist on the right, got the documents, mischaracterized what they said, stripped them of context. The next thing you know, you had the House Republicans on the Judiciary Committee retweeting it. You had other Republican members of Congress retweeting it. And then it sort of took on a life of its own.

And when some actual reporting came in and said, well, this is actually a standard operating procedure, this is language that is routine in FBI operations briefs, it didn't matter to them. So they doubled and tripled down and said this is about assassinating Donald Trump. My concern about this is much less to do with the election itself and much more to do with the people who are receiving this message and believe it and believe it. What that means for us in the post election period is scary and we're running a lot of time.

But you know, on that point of who's receiving this message, I want to read some reporting from the Atlantic about young voters in particular, view the former president, if we can put that up. They view Donald Trump as an entertaining character. They don't know much about his agenda, but they're gravitating towards him not because of their political beliefs, but out of sheer curiosity. How troubling should that be for Democrats?

That's huge for Democrats that young voters are part of the Democratic base. And polls have proven what that statement just said. More and more young people under 20, under 30, I believe it is, are moving toward Donald Trump compared to the last election. And so President Biden and his team, they know that they have a lot of work to do.

Thank you so much. Leanne Calwar, Misha Cross and Stephen Hayes, thank you all for joining us here on the panel. And still come look at the view from the White House as the Biden administration looks to ramp up outreach to key voters and drum up support what they see as their top accomplishments. You're watching Meet the Press.

Now say with us. I'm here tonight to say the nation also needs all of you. And I mean that sincerely. You matter.

You matter. Let's be clear, because of your vote. It's the only reason I'm standing here as president of the United States of America, period. Welcome back.

That was President Biden over the weekend speaking at an NAACP dinner in Michigan. And his analysis about Black voters in 2020 is spot on. President Biden was a choice of 87 of Black voters in the 2020 exit poll, propelling him to victory in battleground states like Michigan, Georgia and Pennsylvania. But this time around, it appears that support is wavering.

President Biden's support was at just 71% among black voters in our most recent NBC News poll, and that is down 17 points from those 2020 exits. And he's been even lower in some recent background polls. President Biden's speech to the NAACP was part of a weekend of events targeting black voters in Michigan and Georgia. As president, Biden aims to solidify the support of his 2020 coalition.

And joining me now is White House senior advisor Steve Benjamin. He serves as a White House director of Public Engagement. Steve, thanks so much for joining us. Now, let's get right to it.

President Biden spent the weekend talking to black voters in a couple of battleground states. And recent polling has Trump winning more than 20% of the black vote in battleground state. That's about double we got across the board in 2020. Black voters were a key part of President Biden's coalition in 2020.

So why does it appear he's losing support now? Look, I'm gonna talk about the election. That's not what I do. And honestly, I really follow polling.

I know election days, people voting and that. And they obviously will have their say there. I will tell you this just anecdotally from my vantage point here as director of Office of Public Engagement. I get out to the communities, usually two cities every single week.

I listen closely to people. I'm a big believer that, you know, I gave you two ears and one mouth for reasons to listen quite as much as you talk. And just being on the ground with the president. Georgia and Michigan this weekend, significant excited support.

Looking at the president's record now, he says not bomb basketball bluster. Look at the president's record of achievement. Record unemployment all across this country, under 4% for 27 months running a record loan. Unemployment in the Black community, 15 million new jobs.

He announced this this past week, $16 billion of historically Black colleges and universities, a record as well. And then obviously, what we're gonna talk about today, 200 judges appointed under President Biden's watch. Of that 64% of them winning, 62% of diverse candidates, including obviously the top of the list of Dr. Brown Jackson, the social justice of the United States Supreme Court, and more African American women appointed to the bench than every president in the history of the country combined.

Those are accomplishments that were down and resound with the people across this country. So African American voters, which I believe that we think about later in the street year, the campaign handle that. We'll talk about the issues relevant to the White House right now. And Steve, I will get to the judges.

And I know the White House is touting that number, but I do want to point something out that you said. You don't look at polls well, it's just that your colleague, White House Communications Director Ben Levold, he did share a poll that had the president in Nevada tied with his opponent. So do you care only about polls that show you doing well? All right, I'm not sure about the last part of the question.

I will tell you this, that I've spent time in Milwaukee, Detroit, Chicago and New Mexico and Texas and Atlanta just in the last few weeks alone. The president's record is sound. It's thoughtful. The proof is in the pudding.

You think about his work. Bring the country back from the greatest pandemic since 1980, the greatest economic disruption since 1929, and the greatest social rest since 1968 after the murder of George Floyd has led the country back to the economic renaissance. And I believe that as people get closer to November, that's what I'll pay attention to. And I appreciate the consequent question about the election, but it's not my job to talk about elections.

So we're gonna move on to something else right now. I got to see just one, one thing. At the end of my previous question, what you said you didn't hear was, do you only care about polls that show polls that show you doing well? No, I think I was clear enough to doubt care about polls at all.

How do we polls? But let's keep on moving. So, Steve, young voters are another key group for President Biden. Many of them were just kids when Trump was elected, when Charlottesville happened, when he responded to Covid.

So some voters were just 10 years old when Trump became president. So how do you reach young voters who just don't have much of a memory of the Trump era. Well, I guess a lot of young people have. Two amazing young people in my household, a 19 year old rising college sophomore and a high school senior whose destin I'm convinced maybe be president someday.

As much as she loves politics and public service, you know, the world which she lives is very different now in which people are receiving news in very different ways. And sometimes it's good news, sometimes it's bad news. Sometimes algorithms decide what young people look at. I will tell you that when you invest time and listen very closely, young people, as I did on the President's behalf at Morehouse just two Fridays ago, listen closely not just to their concerns, with their hopes and dreams and you narrowly tailor a message that goes directly to them.

It hits. That's why the presence of speech of Morehouse was such a huge success this past Sunday. And with that type of thoughtfulness and approach and yes, taking into account the way in which we communicate with people as we do in office every single day, we'll network young people. I do have a youth liaison in our office who does it every single day and we'll keep on pushing there.

And Steve, I know you're the director of Public Engagement. So has there been any new outreach to Arab American voters in Michigan, for example? Sure. We are constantly, obviously, essentially, obviously not as familiar with the work that our office does.

We have Office of Public Engagement. We work very closely with constituencies all across civil society every single day. We work across about 40 different portfolios, have a team that spend time with the day in retreat in which we literally engage our Arab, Muslims, Muslim, Palestinian constituents every single day, Jewish constituents every single day, seniors, our veterans, our civil rights portfolio. This is work that happens every day, not just when the cameras are on.

So we make sure there's constant engagement with our emotional liaison as well as our diaspora liaison who works for our community that's non Muslim. So it happens everyday, Gabe, and love to have you come up with something and actually see the work being done and maybe not following what some folks might be saying out in other communities. Well, Steve, for the record, I've been to Michigan multiple times and I do know that the White House does reach out to many different communities. But I do want to ask you a question that we were talking about earlier about the judges that milestone 200 federal judges, you know, that have been confirmed by the Biden administration, gave the president winter wins the second term.

You know, the odds of Democrats maintaining control of the Senate are continuous. So is there a push within the administration to really leave no seats open by the end of this term? Well, no. The president has worked very carefully and closely in a bipartisan way with Republican senators and Democratic senators from across the country to make sure we put highly qualified, impartial and fair judges on the bench.

And that's why he's able to reach this milestone. Pace dedicated to making sure that a diverse group of candidates from all across the country focus on independence and freedom and liberty on the major issues that affecting our communities every single day. From the ones by the autonomy and protecting their right to make their own health care choices or protecting the sacrifice saying rights of franchise, right to vote or even protecting the rights of men and women to organize labor unions. We have pushed hard and as a result of the present solutionship, we've reached a small stone.

We should keep on moving. We'll keep on moving and in a hope and pray that the president has the opportunity to do again another four years and continue to break records and making sure that we have a bench that not only recognizes the ethnic diversity of this country, but also the professional diversity, making sure we have more civil rights lawyers, more public defenders, more people with diverse backgrounds. We have a number of those who have military service. It's important to the president and we're going to continue working across the aisle regardless of who's controlling the Senate to make that happen.

Stephen Benjamin, White House Director of Public Engagement, we really appreciate time. Thank you. And we're back tomorrow with more Meet the Press Now. I'm JP the news continues with Hallie Jackson.

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