If it's Friday, President Biden's homeland security chief heads for the water as communities brace for a potentially massive migrant post Covid search. And the US struggles under the weight of hyperparson political system that makes any kind of problem solving virtually impossible. Plus President Biden tries to tally stronger than expected jobs report and historically low unemployment as investors and voters grapple with stubbornly high inflation and an alarming strain of recent bank failures. And the leader of Russia's mercenary group lashes out at Putin's military vowing to withdraw from a key battle, saying Moscow has doomed their fighters to quote, senseless death.
Welcome to the press soundtrack. Tide reporting in Washington and whether you call it pragmatism, the ability to compromise or the art of finding common ground, getting things done in a lasting way in Washington has always relied on the middle, the center, everyone to describe it or the pragmatists. But right now, this political climate, climate marit feels like a dirty word to most politicians and a lot of other voters and it's leading to some dire consequences. Just look at the situation on the southern border.
Title 42 to the pandemic era of policy that blocked hundreds of migrants from crossing the southern border set to expire next week. Homeland Security Honda Mayor says that border today visiting with border agencies prepare for the incoming surge that's already pushed border communities to the brink. And as he told me on the press last Sunday, congressional action is needed to fix a broken system that is essentially being held together with executive branch duct tape and paper machete. In a different era, this is when a bipartisan working group of moderates would come to the rescue.
Think a gang. Where are the gangs? Back in 2013 the so called Gang of Eight came close with the deal overall US immigration system. It passed the nearly divided senate with nearly 2/3 support, a little over 2/3 support, but it met a partisan demise in the House.
But 2023 and 2013 in fact, here's one of the members of that 2013 Gang of Eight. Carolina Republicans in the gram earlier this week placing the oldest attack on Democrats and the Biden administration. But to the Biden administration, what the hell has to happen for you to change policy? At what point are you going to take this seriously?
At what point are you going to rise to the occasion? America is under siege here and you're sitting fiddling while everybody is burning in America. They repeal policies at work because the left has forced them to make political decisions on the border that's putting our country at risk. The facts are increased partisanship and A broken primary system has incentivized inaction.
It's all brought us to a point where the governing class is as small and as unpopular as it's ever been in Congress. Moderate Republicans, Alaska's Lisa Murkowski or Utah's Mitt Romney, they're more unpopular in the Republican Party than they are in the Democratic Party at times. How about moderate Democrats like Joe Manchin of West Virginia? He's a common target of liberal Ireland.
Senator Kirsten S Left the Democratic Party late last year amid blowback for her more moderate positions on a range of issues across the country. True moderate voters are being completely drowned out in our latest NBC News poll. Just 14% of respondents call them so strictly independent they don't lean one way or the other. It is a very small group of voters.
With both parties moving further away from each other and such a small coalition of true moderates in America, it's no wonder that the center simply can't hold. And when the center can't hold in American politics, nothing else can. And when you can't be a progressive or conservative but make peace in the middle and you're not treated as a progressive or conservative because you made peace in the middle, you can't accomplish anything. So let's begin with the latest from the southern border.
Whereas I mentioned communities and board officials are bracing for a search, our own Julia Ainsley is at the board for us. Chuck, I'm down here in Brownsville, Texas, along the Rio Grande, where just this morning and this sector they apprehended over 2300 migrants. Some of those migrants are back here now, even some children crossing now because they think this is the time to come. Of course, we expect even more migrants to be in this area and across the southern border next week when those COVID 19 restrictions are as Title 42 lift and more migrants will be allowed to come to the United States to claim asylum.
But border leaders who came down here for homeland security said not so fast. In fact, they're going to make more restrictive policies that will start next week to restrict asylum access. Anyone who didn't first make a claim for asylum in a country they passed around the way here could be deeds ineligible unless they meet certain criteria. By and large, though, these border communities are saying that they're preparing for a record breaking surge.
In fact, in Brownsville right here, they declared a state of emergency. The sheriff here says they need more federal support. In El Paso, Texas, they have over a thousand migrants sleeping on the street because it's the head of the search so today, the Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Morris, visited this very spot where I'm standing and spoke to the press and he also spoke to members of Border Patrol at people who will be enforcing these policies, the border policies especially come next week. During that search, I asked him if he's worried about Title 42 lifting.
And I asked him if our border is secure. Here's what he had to say. Are you worried about Title 42 lifting? I'm not worried about Title 42 lifting.
We recognize the challenge at the border. We recognize how serious the challenge is and how difficult it is, but worried we're not. Our responsibility is to plan and to execute on those plans. And that is indeed what we have done and continue to do.
Is our border secure? Our border is secure. Border is secure because we are maximizing our resources to deliver most effective results to our border with the most extraordinary workforce in the world. Julia Ainsley reporting from Brownsville Force.
Also joining me now in Capitol Hill is NBC's Julie Cirkin. And Julie, if this were a natural disaster hitting the state of Texas, there would be a bipartisan supplemental bill that would be passed by the House and Senate that would basically say, here you go, Executive branch. Here you go, dhs. Here you go, fema.
Here's extra money and resources. We know you need it. This is an emergency. We'll put, we'll put our policy debates aside here.
Is there any of that attitude right now? Because there is some basic resources DHS needs. But it seems as if Congress doesn't have any interest in providing that because of the partisan dividend. Oh, completely.
And if one thing over the last couple years since 2013 cemented this partisan divide on the border, it's the former president's comments of the border wall. And that's something Republicans privately admitted to me. They say all of this changed when the former president started using that rhetoric to push people to their corners. We do have a bipartisan bill on Title 42 that came to light yesterday.
That's from Senators Kirsten Sinema and Senator Thom Tillis. Also Senator Joe Manchin, not exactly the most popular figures around their Democratic colleagues. The two Gang of Eight members that you saw in that 2013 picture, Senator Durbin and Senator Menendez are hard pressed to get behind this bill. They've been trying to negotiate a more comprehensive order package.
That's not going to go anywhere. We know Republicans in the House are set to take up their bill next week. That's not going to pass in the Senate, of course. But what is interesting about some Hours, according to me, as a small victory here.
Tony Gonzalez actually signed onto that bill. He's that moderate Republican Democrat from Texas who essentially tanked Republicans efforts on putting forward a more string border security package earlier this year. We'll see what happens with that. I was going to say, what do you.
How should we look at this House bill? When I look at the highlights of it, it doesn't, it doesn't come across to me as something that's so unreasonable. It's not part of a negotiation. Look, Democrats are going to stand in line with Democrats.
I was talking to one moderate dentist this morning about this. They're nervous about this bill. Right. Because McCarthy is forcing them to vote on something.
They know it's a problem. It's going to come about a day on the day or day before 10:42 is set to expire. So this is obviously a big issue. But Kevin McCarthy certainly doesn't want to hand the administration a win here by trying to even hurry up and muscle through this Title 42 bill.
I mean, that's just not realistic. And what that bill essentially would do in the Senate, of course the House bill is more comprehensive. It's on the border wall, something Democrats called absolute non starter. But the Title 42 bill will do is it would temporarily allow the administration to expand this policy not by the basis of a public health emergency, but give them a tool essential essentially to get out mess.
It would go past 2024, past the election there. So we see what they're trying to achieve here, but unfortunately they're not gonna have a lot of good will around that. Yeah, maybe Title 42, the debt ceiling together. Julie.
Right. Very quickly On Title 42 in the Senate side, can you find eight other Democrats? You think I could get 60 votes? I assume it's the Democratic side that would be the hard, the hard, the harder expert in there.
It's so interesting. I was at that press conference where he played by Senator Lindsey Grant earlier this week. I asked him what other alternative do you want the title 42. His answer is that executive branch has all the tools in their toolkit to do this on their own.
They don't need Congress. Now you have this bill emerging. By the way, Senator CIS are also working on a more comprehensive package. Democrats privately are kind of upset that Cinema is taking the lead on this and they're being left out of these negotiations.
It's not going to get put on the floor by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer because his alliances are not so much of Senator cinema as they are with the more senior members of his team, have nothing to do. So everything's about politics, not the fact that it's the senator who actually represents the border there. All right, Julie Serkin on Capitol Hill for us. Julie, thank you.
Join me now on set. As someone who knows a lot about pragmatism in Washington, former Republican senator, defense secretary in the Obama administration, Chuck Hagel. Senator Hagen, good to see you. Thanks, John.
In a weird way, I don't know whether you're the right person to ask this, because you were a senator that sort of realized, and you were part of the Senate that realized. Well, it's definitely got done once the center sort of exerted itself. Right now, the center has been totally, I think, gutted right now, even maybe just gutted rhetorically, but it's been gutted in that building over there. That's what it was.
Well, Jock, the fact is, this is where I think you start. Representative government can't long exist without respect for each other and each other's opinions and compromise because there's only one alternative to that. That's authoritarian government. And so that's why when you look at the larger picture here, this is why, aside from the specific problems and issues, the seriousness of those, this is so dangerous because this has been continuing and it's getting worse and worse and each side responds to, no, we're not going to help the other side.
You just heard her reporting Chemical doesn't have enough muscle towards 42 bills. You know, the Biden administration doesn't want to negotiate. McCarthy might give them a win. And we're just sitting there going, well, at what point are we all in the same, Are we on the same team or not?
One of the things that I would say occasionally when I was in the Senate and give a speech on the Senate floor, I'd remind my colleagues, all my colleagues that we each took an oath of office when we got here. The oath of office was not to a, not to a philosophy, not to a president, but to the Constitution, the people. Our jobs were to make America better. Take a look at the problems, see if we can fix the problems.
That means coming together, and somehow that's evaporated somehow. That is not now the central point of government. Look, we invited you here. You want to number secretaries, former Secretary Defense have signed a letter to, basically to Tom Tupperwell, the senator for Alabama has been holding up defense Pentagon nominations.
Look, the senator's right to do this. Right. It's the, it's the Mr. Smith point, right?
That senator does have one senator can do these things. You know, 10 years ago a bunch of Secretary defense did that. Problem solved within a day or two. I'm curious, have you been surprised at how little impact you guys have had?
Well, that letter was sent out yesterday, so Wednesday. I'll give it some time. But you. I get it.
And to really think about what this means when you're holding one senator is holding all flag general officer nominees almost 280 number 33 and four star generals and admirals and we're locked into, we can't move on new commanders and new chairman, new chiefs until those are confirmed. The realization of the impact of that and the danger of that. It's astounding to me that the centers have not understood how dangerous this is. And if they don't change this, if they don't change it very quickly, there will be very difficult and serious consequences to our national security.
You know this is what something I was talking about before the show began, which is there's a lot of inexperienced people on Capitol Hill. Senator Tuckerville knew nothing about American politics before me. He will tell you this. I mean he was a football coach and he was a very active football coach that is more than a full time job and doing college football recruiting.
Do you get the sense that many folks don't understand the impact they're having on what it does to the military? I think so. I mean another element of this we mentioned in the letter is what it does to the families of these men and women who devote their lives and the family devote their lives too. And it puts them in limbo.
They can't move. But more to the point, I don't think they have many of them have any sense of the consequences of something like this. We've never seen anything like this. This has been going on for weeks and weeks and weeks and I hope the leadership and enough senators understand how serious this is to be able to move the Senator.
One thing that you said is important and we're not challenging this. Every representative of government has rights to challenge issues. But legitimate ways to do that. You can introduce legislation to change an issue with nbod, you can do a National Defense Authorization act, you can hold hearings a lot of ways, but not take our military leaders hostage.
That's what they're doing. They're taking a political hostage to what you want for your one parochial small issue. All right, let me get you to answer a question that I bet you many people ask you all the time is what the heck happened to the Republican Party and How does it get fixed? I do get to that question and I saw this coming years ago.
I got elected to the Senate in 1996. When I got elected, I was fortunate to have an opportunity to serve with really wonderful Democrat and Republicans in many World War II senators. The World War II senators had immense amount of respect and they made things work because of their background of the two obviously. Absolutely.
Big Democrat, big Republican, you know, forever. Yeah. World War II experience. Both wounded near death.
But you had one hand and you Hollings and Warner and. And when we lost those people, then the radical right of the party started to really take charge. I would say the Democrats also need to be held accountable on their side of this too. I think it's more obvious on the Republican side and I saw it.
I mean you start with Newt Garage's 1994 Contract with America. You will absolutely sign this in politics now is about absolutism. That's why it's like a religion. The other side are dumb and as a matter of fact they're worse than done.
They're unamerican. They hate America. And when you start out like that in politics, you're going to find a very bad place. You end up for the country and that's what we should all be about.
And put the country first. I said hoarse My design politics is to solve a dispute without weapon. It would be a bad idea. Crisis of confidence at the high court Another day, another revelation about an unusual financial arrangement tied to the Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his family.
What it means white matters and was next Plus Russia's mercenaries are launching a war of words on Moscow for battlefield failures in Ukraine. The latest from the war zone. Is this propaganda to spin our heads or is there something going on inside the gremlin? You're watching the press now.
Welcome back. As we said at the top of the show and certainly what I believe in as our hyper partisan environment that makes it impossible for us to find any solution, any problem whether it's a border, the debt ceiling, you name it. But it's also contributing to this crisis of confidence facing the spring Corps the lack of a solution there as well. Drip trip trip headlines by Justice Clinton Thomas continue today as the Washington Post reported that a judicial activist named Lender Leo directed fees to Thomas Jenny but was sure to make public mention this a and by the way, please don't mention her name.
It's the latest revelation about Thomas and an undisclosed financial ties to conservative activists or donor this may also be the first time Thomas the face scrutiny tied to someone who directly had business before the court. According to Washington Post, the same year those fees were directed Justice Thomas's wife, Leonard Leo's nonprofit judicial education project on a brief before the Supreme Court in a landmark voting rights case. So let's bring in the panel. I got Scott Wong, the senior congressional reporter for here for us at NBC News, Daniela Gibbs Lagaye, senior vice president for communications and strategy, the center for American Congress, and Brad Todd, a Republican strategist.
Scott, let me start with you. This is the drip, drip, drip keeps coming on this front. And this one, the unusual detail of having finding out that Leonard Leo specifically said, please don't mention Ginny by name. I mean, that's a version of smoking gun, although I don't know if it's illegal, what they did.
Well, and now it just fits this pattern. There's a crisis of confidence with the Supreme Court. You know, a large part of that has to do with Clarence Thomas. And you know, this GOP donor that is paying for lavish trips.
Now we learn that he's paying for school tuition, private school tuition for his grand nephew. Not a whole lot of disclosure. And so on. Capitol Hill conversation has fallen back into partisan terms.
Democrats like Dick Durbin, the Senate Judiciary Committee chairman wants, he's holding hearings. He wants a code of conduct for the Supreme Court. Republicans are saying, look, that's a whole separate branch of government. We don't have jurisdiction here.
And so Republicans, Democrats are talking past each other. You know, it's more evidence of, you know, the dysfunction on Capitol Hill. They can't even agree, you know, on how to govern the Supreme Court. But anyway, he's the head of the district branch now.
He's choosing not to do anything about it. That's because I do think there is separation of powers issue here. I mean, there is, but I know that there's more that Congress can do than absolutely nothing. And if you look at what's happening, I think Democrats, Republicans, the ones who aren't in Washington, D.C.
understand that this is ridiculous. I had more ethics on me as a staffer at the White House than they do on the Supreme Court. Everyone on my staff here, we have ethical guidelines we have to follow with our company and NBC. It's absolutely ridiculous.
You're talking about people who have business before the court giving money and literally writing down don't mention her name. Like you can't be any clearer than that. This is a problem. And Right.
It seems like the real problem is that this is a cancer that will spread. Meaning let's right now I know a lot of conservatives think this is a pylon client Thomas left. So we've already seen some conservative media go up from you. You and I both know what's happen.
Eventually we'll fetter all nine of them and nobody will have fake people anyone should have talked about. Clarence should talk about her had a book deal and she didn't recuse herself in her head case. We are starting to. We're going to slam the entire institution if John Roberts doesn't stop and do something.
I think, I don't think the burdens on John Roberts. I think the burdens on Senate Democrats to step back and recognize that there's a separation of power here. I think it's this expression. Democrats don't have a lot of confidence in their ability to hold the Senate.
They want to try to force Clarence Thomas out. They want to do it while they have 51 seat majority. Joe Biden as president. You don't think this is just a bad luck for the Supreme Court?
Again, I think it's a sign of death person Democrats. I think they want to push it out while they have a majority. They don't think it's sleep. How are you absolving John Roberts of any responsibility here?
I don't understand that. No responsibility over his court, over the ethics that should be guiding his court so that they do maintain the full faith. I think we have established judicial canons in this country. The justices have to follow those.
The public can make their mind up about it. They get a lifetime deal for a reason. Right. They're supposed to be on reach of this legislative branch so they're independent of it.
John Roberts's job is to run the Supreme Court and set the standard for practices. The real problem is confidence in the board and the public confidence has collapsed. I mean I put up some polling yesterday on the left. Oh disagree.
There's lack of confidence on both sides. It improves slightly on the right after Dobbs but it's been negative throughout the last because the entire judiciary meeting, the entire right wing is fond of attacking judges legitimacy recently. It's lost its legitimacy a long time. Well it depends on if it's been a partisan legitimacy on each side.
My point is guess what, everybody's now been hard and feathered. I mean the point is the entire court is seen as I think our judiciary branch in this country. I think what we're seeing in North Carolina, I think we saw a celebration of election in Wisconsin. I don't trust.
I think our judiciary branch has been overly politicized and I don't think it is trustworthy, left or right. And I think the public is starting to see that. Yeah. And so you have progressives now like Jamal Bowman, aoc, saying people like Clarence Thomas need to resign over these stories that have emerged.
They need to be impeached. You know, that is another. Will it happen? No, absolutely not.
And so we're stuck in the same situation. But there's something in the middle between impeachment and doing absolutely nothing. And that's what needs to be figured out. Well, that's my point here.
And going back to the larger issue, which is there are no grownups in the United States Senate. There's not a single. I'd like keep somebody point out to me, but there's very few grownups because we all know what's wrong with that scene. We all know what's wrong with the immigration issue and we all know what's wrong with the springboard situation.
Everybody's afraid of saying what they really think because. Okay, bounced by the base. Am I not wrong about this crime? Well, far more People in U.S.
senate fear losing the primary than fear losing the general election. And that's true both sides. And I don't think that's going to change anytime soon. Especially given the fact that Senate races now cost 75 or $80 million.
Most of that money comes from very ideological people giving 50 or $100 or $200 who small dollar money would make senators more ideological. That's an interesting thing. You buy that? The thesis that the small donor basis made as more partisans.
Absolutely not. No, no, I don't. I believe it's the large donations that are coming in, especially ones that are unchecked and unknown. That's what is corrupting our politics.
And that's why we need to get large corporations, we get money out of politics. On the Republicans side, the most moderate donors we have are the ones that write the largest checks. The most ideological ones are the ones that write the smallest checks. If you follow Harlan Crowe's notations, he's not as far right as some of the other donors that Harlan Crowe is John McKorn's chief fundraiser.
He's more of a chamber of commerce type donor. He's like a middle of a road guy. Well, I think the whole Overton window has shifted over the last years. I don't think you would call me wrong.
No, I would not have. I will give you that. Fair enough. And I probably still wouldn't.
Let me move the dec, Scott. You know, when Jet Young came out and said, hey, this is now June 1st. I thought a mistake the White House made was not moving up their meeting because if she's coming out to say, hey, this is even more dire, it's sooner. Why didn't the president say, guys, except Tuesday, coming Friday?
I was having a lot of conversations on the Hill just this week asking the same question. Why isn't there more urgency? Why are lawmakers heading off for a long weekend this weekend? Why are there.
Why do they continue to be recess weeks in the month of May when they have moved up this timetable to June 1st? I haven't gotten a good answer. I do that Kevin McCarthy has been traveling abroad, meeting with the Pope, meeting with other world leaders. And so that could have been part of this.
But you know, what could be more important right now than the full faith and credit of the United States? Daniel, don't you think this, you know, if the White House wants to sell this catastrophic urgency, they should call for their meeting earlier. And do you think that would have changed anything? The point is, if you're going to want the high ground, always take the high ground.
That's my point. If you choose when you need to be on high ground, I hear that, but I don't think moving up the meeting four days is like necessarily taking the high ground. They're going to have this meeting and we're going to see what happens. But, like, be very clear, if they had a meeting today or two days ago or whatever, we are still at a point where one party is like playing with the full faith of credit of the United States and another one is saying, let's do what we always do and let's not default on our bills that we have already spent that we've done all this time before.
Let's not make a political ploy and crater the economy. The House of Representatives has passed and increased the debt ceiling. Let's be clear, Joe Biden has not yet come through with something that Democrats will clear the Senate. And Biden promised us that his skillset was that he could negotiate in Congress, that he would be more bipartisan than Donald Trump has.
Now it's to time. Can Kevin McCarthy maneuver? He has. No, no, no.
This is an unpassable bill. He knows that. Can he move when the bill becomes more passable? When Joe Biden's suggesting something that's unpassable in the House?
I understand whenever it's agreed to, you know, at some point McCarthy has to stand up and do what? I'm saying that hurting Republicans in the U.S. house are like hurting cats and insult to cats. So I don't want to over promise here, but Kevin McCarthy has passed the bill.
Is Joe Biden's job become? We shall see. What's that's my curiosity. Is there a middle and I don't know if there's a middle that McCarthy's allowed to negotiate.
Scott, what's your second? There may be a middle, but it could cost Kevin McCarthy his job in the end. We've seen this before, haven't we? It's not a move.
It's not a fire strike back. I did not want this sequel. Daily Scott Wong, may the 5th be with you. You can hear more on the Disappearing center on the latest episode of the podcast.
Sat down with Robert Draper of the New York Times, who spent months interviewing Kirsten Sim about where moderates fit in today's pockets. We're right back. Watch me personally. Welcome back.
In a stunning public condemnation ahead of a Russian mercenary group railed against Moscow's military leaders, blaming them for the heavy losses suffered by his fighters. In a graphic and expletive laden rant made while standing over the dead bodies of Russian fighters, the Wagner group's leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, blamed the losses on the lack of ammunition support from Moscow, adding that he will withdraw his troops from the long contested city of Bakmu. The White House estimates Russia has suffered more than 100,000 casualties just since December, including 20,000 killed in action. Of those 20,000 killed, they estimate half.
We're from the Wagner group. Joining me now is Ellison Barber, who's in Key Force. I'll also be speaking with Michael Fall, our former ambassador to Moscow, and NBC News national security analysts. But let me get what's going on on the ground there, Alison, I have to say, and I'm going to talk to Mike more about whether we're being spun here by Russian propaganda or something has opened into the public sphere.
But what's the Ukrainian government's response to this? Ukrainian officials are not buying Prigozhin's claims here, to put it simply. I mean, you mentioned and showed some of that video, the videos themselves, they're shocking. They're incredibly graphic.
We have heard Prigozhin in the last week or so make this claim that he says Russia, Russia's Ministry of Defense is not providing them with enough ammunition. But in these videos, one, he's showing incredibly graphic images of just rows of dead soldiers. He's also specifically calling out some of Russia's top defense officials by name and angrily, if you don't send us more ammunition, we are going to leave this city by Wednesday. He claims at one point in one of these videos, all of them posted his social media accounts a month ago.
They meaning Russian defense officials stopped providing ammunition to us and we have been receiving no more than 10% of what's needed. So Ukraine's deputy defense minister, very quickly after these videos started circulating, said that Russia is desperately trying to seize the city of Bakmut by Tuesday, May 9. That's an important holiday in Russia, what's known as Victory Day. She says Russia is actually moving Wagner fighters from other directions and replacing them with paratrooper assault units that are currently fighting in the direction of Bakmud.
Then we also work from a spokesperson for the Eastern group of Ukraine's armed forces, claiming that Wagner's fighters are not dying because they lack ammunition. He says Ukrainian position in Bakmu have been hit 200 or hit 520 times just in the last day. He says Wagner sources are suffering such high rates because they're simply being out fought by Ukrainian forces. He says he believes that Prigozhin's claim here is a way to sort of justify, in his view, why they have not been able to take the city in over eight months and why, in his view, Wagner sources are failing here.
Chuck Ellison Barber on the ground for Keith Ellison. Thank you. Let me move over to Mike McFaul. Mike, look, you know, you know this world as well as anybody.
Are, are we being this propaganda or something happening here? No, Chuck, I think there's something happening here. What's to be gained by Vladimir Putin from having this open dispute between Prigozhin and the regular armed forces? They've been fighting, by the way, informally, privately for a long, long time, even going back to when I was the ambassador.
Think about it. If you're that commander, if you're the commander of the Russian armed forces and this private gu. His private military is showing up all over the place, you're not gonna like that no matter what. And they especially don't like it when they're losing.
And they have been in Bakhmut for a long time. As you were just discussing. This is the Battle of Stalingrad equivalent for this war, by the way. The Ukrainians have been battling and losing a lot of people there too.
This, I think, suggests that it hasn't gone well and Prigozhin is striking back. So this is a case look happened in this country where general on the ground in Iraq would say, hey, the folks in Washington don't know what they're talking about a general on the ground of Vietnam, you know, breaking rights to say, hey, the Washington know what they're talking about. So you think this is more in line of that? With one big exception.
Nobody's saying Putin doesn't know what he's talking about. Right. So there's other historical analogies. That was an indirect criticism of the president.
They would never criticize the president, but they are using public media and Prigozhin, remember Prigozhin is the same guy that interfered in our elections in 2016. He's got lots of different companies. He's in the disinformation business. I think he's doing this as a way to get President Putin's attention.
What is his ultimate ambition? Yeah, I mean, does he see himself as an heir to Putin? You know, many people speculate that. I think that's unlikely.
It doesn't mean he doesn't think that. I just think it's unlikely. Right. His public posture has grown significantly in the last year and a half.
Remember, he was always a behind the scenes guy. You're showing photos there that probably go back years and years because there were so few photos of him. Lately he's been public taking on the military and he wants to be to the right of everybody. Right.
He wants to say if this war goes badly, and so far it is going badly, had I been in charge and my guys been better armed, we could have won this war. I do think that's setting him up for some political future that he wants to try. Well, do you think it's possible Putin fires his commanders and puts it puts his chef in charge here? I don't.
I think it's unlikely. I think he'll keep him around. Likes to keep his options open. He likes to keep people guessing.
He's not gonna just throw them under the bus. But I don't think he would overthrow Gerasimov and his, you know, his defense minister, Shoigo. He's also a close personal friend of Putin that I think would cause even more troubles within the Russian military, the conventional military. Right.
Well, this is obviously, if there's, if this is real and this infighting is real, this is the time to strike. If you're the Ukrainians with your counter offensive, they're. They're infighting, they're not prepared. What's your sense?
I mean, it. There's been some questions about whether Ukraine has enough to actually succeed in this counter offense. Well, first two things, it's coming. There's no doubt in my mind.
I don't know when exactly and I don't know where exactly. Everybody presumes they know where this is going to be. When everybody's saying they know it's going to happen, it suggests to me there might be another plan. But they are ready.
They wanted more. They would like to be more prepared. They would like to have F16s, they would like to have ATACMs, these long range missile systems. But that debate is over for now.
According to the Biden administration, 98% of what they've asked for to do this counteroffensive has been supplied. And so I think it's coming. I think they're just waiting for the right conditions, weather conditions on the ground before they launch. Mike McFall on what was quite a dramatic sort of 24 hours with what may be going on inside the Russian military circles.
We shall see. It's great to talk with you sir. And we didn't even talk about the drones, Chuck. I know, I'm sorry.
That's three day old news Mike, come on now. Thank you brother Hub. The President touts a better than expected jobs report as he faces a potential economic disaster. The KKK Congress raised the nation's power in London.
You're watching me President welcome back. It has been an interesting week for the US economy to say the least. What began with the second largest bank value in American history. Is anyone better than expected jobs report the economy added 253,000 new jobs last month according to the Labor Department Wall Street's predictions.
The unemployment rate was also tad lower than expected. 3.4% tied for the lowest level since Neil Armstrong walk on the moon. Only new cabinet members to White House today. President Biden have those numbers while lashing out at the Republican economic agenda.
His comments come as he prepares to meet congressional leaders in just a few days out of avoiding catastrophic government to find fault. Unfortunately our I won't say Republican because I think they're not pretty well divided but my Maggie, Republicans in Congress are threatening to do all this progress by letting us quote default on the debt unless we agree to their demands. The two are totally unrelated whether you pay the debt or not. And let's get it straight, we're trying to hold the debt hostage to us to agree to some draconian cuts.
Mike Mull covers the White House RBC news. Michael, ask a question they asked Scott Wong earlier. You know last I think it was last Friday at this time Janet Young came out with a new estimate that said boy this we're going to hit the debt ceiling a little bit sooner than we thought first week in June, why didn't no White House move up the meeting? They did move up the meeting, Chuck.
They went from not having a meeting at all to really scrambling to put that meeting together next Tuesday. Remember, the White House position had really been even just 40 hours before that letter was released that the President had no intention still inviting Speaker McCarthy to come over to the White House. The White House press secretary, Japan acknowledged to me in the breathing room this week that that letter, they did have some events notice, but it did lead to the President making those calls to the big four. So they would have had it sooner if Kevin McCarthy wasn't off on his world tour, as the speaker often does during Congressional recess.
And so now we have this meeting. This is one of those two developments that really caught the White House's strategy off guard. The other one was the fact that the House Republicans managed to actually have something the White House has sort of been banking on the fact that McCarthy took 15 votes to Kevin. Speaker likely was never going to get 218 votes.
He got 217, which was enough to pass this budget plan. And so now you see the White House really making every effort to get to a maybe short term extension extension. June 1st certainly was sooner than they were expecting, most analysts were expecting. And so now they want to much more clearly link this to the budget fight that has to happen around the end of the federal fiscal year, which is September 30th.
You saw the President holding up his hands today, the rose. These are separate. But everyone here in Washington knows that that linkage of the two ultimately have everyone's face. I was just gonna say, Mike.
So that White House is okay with, essentially what you're saying is you think the compromise is going to be a short term lift and essentially we're going to guarantee a government shutdown and a debt ceiling and a debt to fall at the same time come September 30th. Well, that's the hope for the White House at this point. But remember, they don't even know that they have, let's say nine, ten Republican votes in the Senate get there, depending on whether we see die and Feinstein back next week. And where are the votes in the House to pass a clean increase at this stage when Republicans already go on record on this budget bill.
So this may be what the White House hopes to see happen. But I think all of us are really wondering whether or not this is going to happen. That's why even though the White House doesn't want to offer this in the Top tier of possibilities. You hear things like the 14th amendment mentioned as a potential fail safe.
The White House doesn't want to make a bigger thing of that because they don't want to take the pressure off these negotiations. They want to see Republicans come to the table and maybe get this part through. But they don't want necessarily take off the table because that might be the only way we get there. Unfortunately, I think there's a lot of members of Congress who need to feel the shock of the electric fence before they'll believe the fence has been electrified.
Hey, I want to play a sound by something the President said earlier today and ask you about it. Here it is. We've got a lot of work to do. I'm.
And I'm doing a major press conference this afternoon. So I love you all. I'd like to ask you a reason to come here. Well, that was news to a lot of us and it is now almost five o' clock here in the East.
I assume there is no press conference. Is there one in the works we don't know about? No, Chuck. All that happened after the President said that was he went out for tacos with Vice President Harris to celebrate Cinco de Mayo.
And so no press conference. What the President we think was referring to is the fact that he's about to in the next few minutes sit down with our MSMC colleague Stephanie Rule for an interview. This is the first interview he's done since remember he had announced his re election campaign a couple weeks ago. It's already been rearview mirror here.
And so he was maybe conflating those two but it only gave Republicans opportunity, especially the RC point. He hasn't done a solo news conference in Chuck. I don't even remember the last time he did. He obviously took a couple questions with the South Korean President last week.
But it's been been some time since he's been in a formal Q and A session with us in the White House. Yeah. And now let's sit down to mainstream media. It's, it's a, that's a moment.
I'm guessing the White House wish didn't happen today. That's right. Mike Mummerley at the White House Force. Mike, thank you.
Still ahead, a big finish for Florida's legislative session. They got big wins for the governor but they didn't really win anything. But all means for the 2024 race. You're watching the press now.
Welcome back. If it's Friday at least right now we've got a new episode of Meet the Press Reports. Because tonight we are kicking off a new season. Season six of our magazine show, we take a deep dive into a single issue.
And this week we are looking at Republican efforts to restrict drag performances. It's obviously a new battle in the culture wars. Republican state legislatures nationwide have been enacting more aggressive anti lgbtq, mostly really focusing on transgender Americans. In this week's episode, my colleague Antonio Hill traveled to Tennessee, which became the first state in the country to go a step further and pass an anti drag law in March.
Even though the laws temporarily blocked by a federal judge, its impact's already being felt by performers like Story Van Ness. Take a listen. As a transgender woman raised in Tennessee, she spent years hiding who she was. It wasn't until she turned 18 and stepped down onto her first drag show stage that she realized it didn't have to be that way.
And I didn't have the words for it. It was one of the few times I felt powerful, I felt seen, I felt right in my skin. I can do anything I need to do when I'm in drag. Wait, are all the children out of the building?
Not emotionally. I mean, like legally. For Story and her friend who performs under the name Harry Scary, it's begun to feel like their very existence is a political act. The agenda is to just exist and to not and to feel valid.
The agenda is to be able to go to the bathroom without having to worry about being punched in the face. State Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson, a Republican from Franklin, Tennessee, sponsored the new restrictive legislation. The law targets adult oriented performances that are harmful to minors. It doesn't say exactly how performances will be determined to be harmful or sexual.
Have you been to drag shows? Have not. But I've seen videos. I've seen videos of drag.
Well, and I guess I should say, have I been to places where a man was dressed as a woman and performing or singing? Maybe they were dressed as a Halloween party and they were dressed up as Dolly Parton. Of course I have. Are you trying to send a signal?
Of course. Some types of communities, some types of people aren't welcome here in Tennessee. The only signal I'm trying to send is that you shouldn't be doing sexual graphic. You shouldn't be simulating sex acts in front of children.
By the way, the law doesn't seem to target gentlemen's clubs or other things like that for what you can see Much more in. Jones reporting tonight, 10pm Eastern Time on News Now beyond man on Peacock and YouTube beginning on Sunday. And speaking of the culture wars, Ngop efforts to galvanize support around anti LGBTQ laws. Let's turn the state of floor forward.
We're going to run a Santas is wrapping up a whirlwind legislative session as he tries to tee up his bid for the presidency. Spent a busy 60 days for DeSantis, who used the Republican superimpoint and majority of the state legislature pass bills on everything from abortion, guns, immigration, social governance, all while leaning into major culture war issues. DeSantis shifted to the right, right, an apparent bid to woo primary voters who, as we mentioned repeatedly this hour, are increasingly more partisan and dug in. Joining me now is our senior national political reporter base in Florida, Matt Dixon.
And Matt, there's something about today in the end of the legislative session that doesn't feel like an exclamation point for DeSantis 2024. This feels like as successful as the session itself might have been, everything that happened sort of surrounding it really seemed to deflate the DeSantis presidential balloon a little bit. How do they feel in Tallahassee right now? I think they're hoping to use this as a bit of a reset because obviously Governor Santos has had a bad couple months.
Trump's attacking, you know, almost daily, at times a full number of bank. But he has gotten, as you just mentioned, there's some, some really big wins. And essentially his entire agenda has been given to him by a relatively compliant Republican legislature here. So what we're going to see, I think, over the next few weeks is DeSantis going across the state doing high profile bill signings and sort of outing his agenda in a bit of a victory lap in state, victory lap leading up to probably an early June presidential launch, which I think everyone thinks is still coming.
And they're hoping to sort of recapture that momentum and reset a little bit using the agenda that the Republican legislature here in Calassas has sort of just handed him. That's interesting in some ways do almost like a one last Florida tour before he hits the national trail. Yeah, I think that's right. I don't think he'll be doing things like bill signings and things out of state, but I do think there's going to be a healthy dose of sort of the optics that brought DeSantis to the national dance.
And there's going to be a lot of cultural war talking, some of him getting back to his comfort zone as he, you know, explains his agenda to, you know, his recently passed agenda to Florida voters and those beyond. I mean, a lot of those press conferences in state are not a lot of national attention. I know you've been talking to some Florida legislatures on the Republican side of the aisle. At times they said they've been exhausted by all of this at this session, sort of.
And I know some of them are fearing that this Disney stuff may only be the beginning, right. Not the end on that stuff. Has he lost luster with that group of folks or are they, you know, complaining but like, hey, no, they're still gonna rally around their guy. I mean, Luster is subjective.
I mean, he certainly has luster and sense of power. I mean, no one will get in his way here. I do think there are members who, as I mentioned previously, who aren't probably as high on him as they were before this session and, you know, sort of got that DeSantis fatigue. But I think overall, at the end of the day, if we tally up when the state level lawmakers here start making enforcements, I still think DeSantis is going to certainly run the legislature.
He's got a veto pen up coming, which I think everyone's aware of. So I think folks are going to sit on the sideline to start backing him to make sure they get all their local community and stuff. Sit down. You know, Big Suzy Wiles has another truck upper sleeve with the state legislature.
Real chance Trump picks them off. I don't think it's a clean sweep, but I don't think DeSantis has necessarily lost the legislature. There's going to be pockets of it and it's, you know, there's a whole bunch of Republicans here, a whole bunch of, you know, politically ambitious people that want stuff and having trouble with some. Well, as you were hinting at.
Yeah, he's got to be gutter worst case scenario for a bunch more legislative sessions and some of those guys are going to want to do stuff. Matt Dixon, who's based in Florida forest tracking our national political story there. Matt. Thank you.
Thank you all for being with us this hour. I'll be back Monday with more me depressed now. Hey, everyone, I'm Dylan Dryer, co host of the third hour of TODAY and mom to three wild boys. I've learned a lot my years as a parent, mostly that I don't have it all figured out yet.
And I'm not the only one. This is my new podcast, the Parent Chat. Each week I sit down with someone new for honest conversation and real quick world advice about parenting. I am over here just like winging it.
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