Meet the Press NOW — November 12

If it's Tuesday, President elect Donald Trump assembles a team of loyalists as he taps Congressman Mike Waltz as his national security adviser and it sources to NBC News. He's expected to pick Senator Marco Rubio as the secretary of state and North Dakota Governor Kristi Noem as his homeland security secretary. Plus the fight for Senate majority lear heats up with Republicans looking to take full control of Washington as members humble behind closed doors ahead of tomorrow's meeting with the president elect and a Harris campaign co chair and sitting Democratic congressman speaks out what the party got wrong in 2024, what they need to do now to rebuild and reenergize the base. Welcome to MEET THE press.

Now I'm Nanisha Seder in Washington. The Trump transition is in full swing. The president elect key decisions on a number of important administration positions as he prepares the huddle with Republican leaders on Capitol Hill tomorrow to discuss his sweeping agenda. That comes as Republicans are on the verge of complete control of Washington.

First, the big job Secretary of state executing Trump's foreign policy. The president is expected to the president elect is expected to nominate Senator Marco Rubio, his former 2016 primary rival turn ally, according to sources familiar with the latter. Rubio is the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee with hawkish views on Latin America and Iran and skepticism about U.S. support for Ukraine.

Here's what he told Kristen on the press in September. Donald Trump will not say that he wants Ukraine to win the war. Are you concerned about the message that that sends to Vladimir Putin and the supreme Leader? No, because I think unfortunately I'm not on Russia's side.

But unfortunately the reality of it is that the way the war in Ukraine is going to end is with a negotiated settlement. And I want, and we want, I believe Donald Trump wants for Ukraine to have more leverage in that negotiation. But in order to be in a position to be a broker who can bring about that agreement, I think he's going to preserve what he says. He approaches these things as someone not in politics or diplomacy, but as someone with a background in business.

I would be comfortable with a deal that ends these hostilities and I think it's favorable to Ukraine, meaning that they have their own sovereignty, that they don't become a satellite state or a puppet state. At the end of the day, what the most important thing is that these hostilities and that Ukraine can go back to rebuilding its economy and people can move back. They've got millions of people had to leave that country. It's been devastating to them.

But that negotiation is going to be up to them. I just want them to have more leverage than Putin. A senior Biden administration official tells NBC's Andrew Mitchell that Rubio is a, quote, serious and qualified choice, especially compared to some other names that have been floated to lead the State Department. Rubio won't be the only Florida Republican joining Trump's inner circle.

Trump has also picked Congressman Mike Waltz, a former Green Beret and member of the House Select Committee on China, to serve as national security advisor. The president elect also announced another former presidential rival turned ally, Mike Hudaby, as his pick for U.S. ambassador to Israel. Plus, sources tell NBC News that Trump has affected the tap South Dakota Governor and one time VP Opal Christie Noem.

As Homeland Security secretary, she would oversee everything from the border to FEMA to the Secret Service. Every pick so far shares an important trait. They've all demonstrated fierce personal loyalty to Trump, and that's no accident. In an interview with podcaster Joe Rogan on the campaign trail, Trump said that disloyal appointees were his biggest mistake of his first administration.

The biggest mistake I made was I picked some people. I picked some great people, you know, but you don't think about that. I picked some people that I shouldn't have picked. I picked a few people that I shouldn't have picked.

And neocons. Yeah, neocons or bad people or just loyal people or people that were just people that were into the people that advice for more on the Trump transition, we have our NBC News team here on set. Garrett Haig has the latest from inside Trump World and Julia Ainsley has the latest on Trump staffing up on the crackdown at the border. So thank you both for being here.

I think we're going to see this a lot next four years, you two sitting side by side breaking stuff down. So, Gary, I want to come to you. We are now seeing some major positions in the administration be picked here. I wonder what you make of the order of this and what it means that there's significance of it is that we're seeing these positions be announced in this order.

Well, I think the order of the matters less than the positions because in many cases the positions have not actually been announced. Marco Rubio, for example, has not actually been formally confirmed by anybody. Some of this is just the pace the reporters were able to break news out of Mar A Lago, which is leaking like a sieve at the moment. But I think the selections themselves do matter.

I think that wooshing sound you heard last night was the foreign policy establishment of this town breathing a huge sigh of relief at the news that Marco Rubio would be chosen. There was a lot of concern in Washington that we would see someone more committed to America first ideologies are pulling back from the world stage. Whatever else we do. Marc Arubio, that's not him.

I think he's much more in line with traditional Republican thinking even as he has come around to backing Trump on some of his more controversial foreign policy decisions. I think you're seeing a robust and anti China, pro Israel, NATO skeptical but not antagonistic foreign policy team taking shape around Donald Trump. I suspect we'll see more of the same in the coming days. And Julie, I want to ask you as we talk about these picks, Christy Noem, of course is seen as the pick for DHS secretary.

Of course, our Homeland Security correspondent here. What are your biggest takeaways when you think of her? I mean, I was surprised, honestly, I tried to stay up on my beat, figure out who might be a top consider here. This name was not on my bigot card.

I don't think it was for a lot of people. Most people thought Chad Wolf, the last acting DHS Homeland Security secretary under Trump, would be back. He's been someone who's been very close to Stephen Miller, four years working with him at the America's First Policy Institute, which we know is really ingrained within coming administration, but known as someone who was once seen as a possible VP pick. I'm also told that Trump really likes to be adding more women to cabinet positions.

And again, it gets back to that common denominator. He talked about fierce loyalty. And I'm also told that Trump does like the throw some surprises, show everybody nobody can predict him, this is his show at the end and that you know, he's going to pick people based on who he wants. Now, does she have Homeland Security experience?

Not that I can tell. I mean, she was a governor of a state that's not a border state. She did weigh in on immigration issues, offered to send National Guard and razor wire down to Texas. But when she served in Congress, she was on the Ways and Means Committee.

I mean, it's not really a clear path to Homeland security here and she'll have a huge portfolio. I think. One thing someone pointed out to me today, in addition Tom Hamill we can talk about some more, is that the deputy at DHS will do the day to day running and staffing. So let's pay attention to how the rest of this agency comes together because this is a huge federal workforce and it's really been a human for anyone to manage.

And Gary, I remember you on the Christine Gnomes not having significant experiences as Julia points out. How does her profile fit among the other people that we've seen name. Now I was surprised by this announcement as we're making my sources in Trump world, if that tells you anything. It was reported late overnight this morning.

A lot of people were waking up to the news in close to Trump surprised by this announcement. I think it's possible that given Tom Holland being named as the czar, the centrality of immigration to the Trump White House, that that portfolio will largely exist within the White House. And it's possible, I'm speculating here a little bit that no one is someone who I think is being rewarded for loyalty and for her perceived ability to go out and sell the administration's agenda. I think I can imagine her being someone who trumpets would do a good job on television testifying for the House of the Senate, kind of selling those priorities perhaps more than ranking on a day to day basis.

That being said, as a sitting governor, she has some touch points with some of the other things that come to dhs like FEMA for disaster aid and some of the non border elements of what is a massive agency. So we'll see how the rest of that department gets flushed out on his staff. This one that has not been announced by Trump. It has been recorded so we'll see if it sticks.

Yeah, well, talking about the sort of border as being a big part of this, you bring up of course Tom Holman who has been named or is expected to be named the border czar. So tell us about that, Julian. I wonder if you could talk about how that sort of dovetails and connects with Trump's overall stated goal of making the immigration and mass deportations his top priority. Yes, and Hellman seems to be sticking more than normal at least at the moment because it is something that Trump put out himself.

No, we understand to get a call from Trump, but he hasn't announced it yet publicly. Now what this means is it's a very centralized White House. We've even seen since the 60s. The federal government has expanded.

There have been kind of little pieces of the executive branch of these agencies put inside. They get NSC being like the State Department where the borders are. It's bringing DHS and immigration policy inside the White House. And Tom Hom is going to have a power, honestly like someone maybe we haven't seen before when it comes to these deportations because he's going to be able to talk to the State Department and Say, put pressure on countries that are not taking back their nationals.

We can import more people to places like Venezuela or Nicaragua or China. He could put pressure on them that way. He could get Labor Department to do more workplace rates. He could get Health and Human Services to do things that would crack down on the number of unaccompanied children who were coming around.

There's a lot of power he will have. And we talked to Trump every day in the White House. Yeah, well, talking of power and sir, who's talking to Trump, who does have President Elect Trump's ear in this moment? I've heard a lot of exulting pictures of Elon Musk down in Mar?

A Lago. Who else is sort of there? Well, look, his chief of staff, Susie Wiles, is still probably the most key endorser or, excuse me, advisor on the payroll. I mean, some of his decisions probably made in a vacuum.

Elon Musk, I think you cannot overstay his influence right now. Archer has been basically not left Mar? A Lago since Election Day. He's a fairly constant presence there.

I think Jimmy Vanta's influence is being felt, as is the cadre advisors around him who are kind of newer converts to Trumpism who might be whispering his ear. We'll see if they're able to make more of an imprint on his choices going forward. What's the real question we're going to be asking a lot of for years? Who's talking to Trump and influencing?

So thank you so much to Erica. We'll be back here, I'm sure. And as President elect Donald Trump readies his Cabinet, Congressional Republicans are preparing for his arrival. Mr.

Trump will be here in Washington tomorrow to meet with President Biden. House Speaker Mike Johnson and the incoming Senate Republican leader will be chosen literally just moments before their meeting. Senator John Cornyn, Rick Scott and John Thuner all vying for that Majority leader role. And this morning, we caught up with Florida Senator Rick Scott as he made his pitch to fellow Republicans.

I think I'm uniquely positioned to help Trump agenda. Number one, I believe in it. Number two, I got a great work from the sheep M. With Mike Johnson in all leadership in the House, I'm up to see when I win.

I'm talking about the things that people say they care about. And so we'll see. There is also a lot of action in the U.S. house.

While NBC News has not yet called control of the chamber, Republicans appear poised to retain control, but their margins will once again be razor thin. And the president elects choice of House Republicans, at least the founding and Mike Waltz to serve in his administration, will temporarily shrink those margins even more. Today, both Speaker Mike Johnson and Majority Leader Steve Scalise issued something of a warning to President Electron. You can see his resolve already and how quickly he's making really good smart picks.

I know he's already pulled a few really talented people out of the House. Hopefully no more for a little while until special elections can come. President Trump fully understands, appreciates the math here. And it's just a numbers game.

You know, we believe we'll have a larger majority than we had last time. It's too early to handicap it, but we're optimistic about that. But every single vote will count. I don't expect that we will have more members leaving, but I'll leave it up to him.

And joining me now from Capitol Hill is NBC's Ryan Noble. So, Ryan, thanks for being here. We saw Speaker Johnson struggled with some majorities this Congress all year. How is he preparing for that possibility again?

Conversations already? I think he's going to a lot of the members that gave him some of a hard time during the first year of his speakership and talking to them about what he can do make the process easier. I think he also believes that there's an expectation that with Donald Trump in the White House, that he's gonna have a much easier time doing things that conservative Republicans don't like to do, like passing a budget to make the government doesn't shut down, raising the debt ceiling, things that often lead to fights among the conservative Franks of his party. That's not to say that there won't be some fights because there are members of the House Republican Caucus that probably want to go even further to the right than what Donald Trump will be willing to do when he is the president.

But Mike Johnson is pointing to his record of accomplishment here, the fact that he was able to retain the majority when there were a lot of questions as to whether or not he would be able to do, and is also showing the tight and close relationship that he has with the president elect as a reason for conservatives to help support him and this agenda when they actually take control of the gavel again in the new year. And Ryan, as you're talking about sort of what's going on there, I want to ask you about Republican control of both chambers, which looks likely. Now, I'm wondering, are we going to see a sort of unleash Trump here? Do you think there's going to be any sort of willingness by Republicans and Trump and Republicans have control of basically all of Washington to push back on President Elect Trump.

I think he's certainly going to have an extended honeymoon that maybe no president has ever seen before because of how decisive his election was and basically erase any sort of doubt as to whether or not the MAGA wing of the party is in charge of the Republican Party. It definitively is. And that's the reason that they control the House, the Senate and the presidency and protect the House. But that seems to be the direction it's going in.

So he's going to have an opportunity here to lay out an agenda. And it's going to be very difficult for any member of his party to push back on that agenda. But he's also going to have along with it the expectations of delivering on these promises that he made during the campaign, a lot of which didn't have a degree of specificity tied to them. So this is an opportunity, but also a challenge for the new president elect.

And I also want to ask you, as we continue to talk about President Elect Trump, where do things stand on the race for Senate Majority leader? And in particular, do we think that Trump is trying to sort of influence who ultimately gets this job? That should be surprising, how little Donald Trump is weighing in on the race. Percent of majority leader.

He could decide tomorrow who the next Senate Majority leader would be if he came out endorsed Rick Scott, John Thuner, John Corden, any one of those men would probably be on the black half of the Senate majority ship, even though it is a closed ballot. So the fact that he hasn't weighed in shows that he's leaving up to these senators to make that decision on their own. All three of them are demonstrating a willingness to enact his agenda and do so as quickly as possible. And even though Rick Scott has said that he's the one who is most aligned with Trump, all three men have a compelling case in that direction.

Well, certainly interesting not to see Donald Trump playing in on this race, but we'll know the results soon enough. So thank you so much, Ryan. Thank you. Coming up, my one on one interview with a Harris campaign co chair and member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus.

We'll talk about what went wrong for Democrats and how they plan to turn things around. You're watching me, the Press now. Welcome back. As you mentioned, Congress is back in session and Republican lawmakers are taking a victory lap as they prepare for day one of the new Trump administration.

Meanwhile, Democrats are discussing their path forward after a sweeping defeat on election night. Here's what House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffrey said about it this morning. We're going to have a family conversation that needs to be clear eyed, candid and comprehensive to figure out what happened on election night. We've got to, as Democrats, work with the incoming administration whenever and wherever possible and strongly disagree when necessary.

That's going to be the approach that we take. Thank you so much, Congressman, for being here. I want to start with the Democratic soul searching that we're seeing here. Last time you're on this program before the election, you talked about the Harris campaign reaching out to Latino voters, in particular Latino men, with Vice President Harris's economic agenda.

But we saw, of course, President Elect Trump make strong gains with those very voters. Why do you think those voters chose President Elect Trump over Vice President Harrison? What do you think needs happen to happen? Yeah.

Thank you. I mean, obviously, I think we're all very grateful to Vice president and her team. I think they did a phenomenal job in a short time for a campaign. I think what's really important right now is that the Democratic Party does a lot of listening.

I think we lost. We have to acknowledge that obviously not just the White House, but clearly the Senate. And we certainly would love to do better on the House and win more seats and actually win the House. And so acknowledging that we have work to do, especially on not just what the actual message is, which I believe is a message that we're the party of working class people, but actually also where we're communicating.

I think there are a lot of spaces out there, particularly where Latino men and other young men are engaged in or listening to that we're not present in this. Clearly something that has to change. I'm hopefully part of that and we all have to be a part of that. But the most important thing is to do the research right now and the list of work can do better.

And as you do that research, I wonder, in hindsight, do you think there were warning signs that Democrats missed or chose to even ignore as you look at what happened? Yeah. And I think about one, I think look at the Harris campaign invested heavily in the party, heavily on reaching young men and Latinos across the country. So we're seeing those investments in single day.

But I think back to this conversation I had. I was back in Nevada maybe a month before the election. I met with about 35, 40 undecided young Latino men, all probably in their 20s and 30s. And you know, these were all union folks, construction workers.

And one of the things they really spoke to was that they weren't hearing enough about what the Democratic Party wanted to do for them and they weren't hearing enough about the economy and working class issues. And the thing I asked them is where they were getting their information from. And none of them said cable news or newspapers. And these were folks who were getting information from YouTube channels, from podcasters, from digital media, from social media.

And so one big lesson for us is I think that we have to do a better job of communicating, especially in these communities like Latino and others, and actually go where they are actually consuming media. And that's something we have to do a much better job on. I think the Harris campaign, I think now understands that. I think as Democrats in House as well.

Yeah. And I had a lot of voters who really got a lot of information from WhatsApp talking about sort of people passing information to each other. Now, with that being said, I want to play with you some sound for Progressive Caucus Chair Congresswoman Pramila Jay Paul, what she said yesterday. Take a listen.

Clearly not enough voters knew what Democrats were going to do to make their lives better, particularly poor and working class Americans across this country. Look, I have said that I think we need to rebuild the party. I think for too long our party has been held hostage to big money interests. That's a strong message there.

You're of course a member of the Progressive Caucus. Do you agree that the Democratic Party needs to be wholly rebuilt? And what does that practically look like? I mean, first, obviously first what Troy J.

Paul said, I think at the start of comments, which was about making sure that we are communicating gender message out in a better way. I couldn't agree with more. I think, I think that we're just not in those spaces and we're not pushing our working class message. I think overall, I think we need to do right now is listen to our voters and listen to the American public as to what they are not they're learning about or hearing from us.

Overall, I think our party has a good team to be the party of working people. It's a party of health care, it's part of lowering costs. It's a party of unions. It's a party that has supported students, working class people.

I think those are things that we should be proud of, that we should continue to fight and push for. But absolutely, I think as far as where we're messaging those things, I think we've got to do a better job at. And I think we have to actually listen and take stock of what people are actually telling us, what they want to hear from us. So that's What I'm going to do, I'm going to look forward to that in the weeks ahead.

President Elect Trump has made clear that prioritizing mass deportation is going to be one of his biggest priorities. He's tapped Tom Holman to be his border czar. I want to play for you a little bit of what he said earlier this week. Some of these Democratic governments say they're going to stand in the way, they're going to make a hard course, a suggestion.

If that would help us get the hell out of the way, we're going to do it. So if we can't get assistance from New York City and we have to double the number of agents we send in New York City because we're going to do the job, we're going to do the job without you. We're with you. What's your response to that, especially when you think about what Democrats can do to block the mass deportation plan that seems to be coming, especially if Republicans have all this control in Washington.

Let me just first say that as an intruder myself, I think those comments and the way that he and the tribunal are talking about human beings, I think it's really, I think that this idea that would have mass support, millions of people from this country, hardworking people, are contributing. They're actually on a pathway, many of them, to residency or citizenship. I think, personally anti American, I think about the time of my life when I was here in this country as a college student trying to attain citizenship and what I felt at the moment, all these students are just trying their best to contribute to this country. So I think the better approach is actually working with Democrats on comprehensive immigration reform, not these attacks on migrants and working people.

I want to ask you one more thing, which is there's the guardrails here. How do Democrats get any sort of check on President Elect Trump's power when you think about the fact that he might have the Senate, the presidency and maybe even the House as well? Well, I think one, we're gonna have to call out every single lie, every single tragedy that they're trying to pose in the American people, programs that are trying to learn that actually hurts people. We've got to be loud, put as much energy and as put out there as much as possible.

Everywhere folks are consuming information. I think at the same time as Democrats and minority in the House, we actually did a pretty good job this last cycle, actually stopping a lot of really bad proposals by Republicans. They're going to need to work with Democrats on a variety of additions, including taxes and spending. So we've got to use our leverage and not be afraid to push back and fight for the people that are counting on us.

And I think that's really, really important. So we'll do what we can. But absolutely, if Republicans control all over as a government is going to be very hard work. That's what we got to try our hardest to do.

Yeah. Well, certainly there are going to be some fights that we'll be covering. So thank you so much, Anderson, for your time. Thank you.

Up next, it's been one week since Election Day and Steve Kornacki is still at the big board, a deep dive into the changing demographic coalitions that drove the last week's historic results. What they mean for the future of both parties. You're watching MEET THE PRESS now. Welcome back.

It's been exactly one week since Election Day. And as President elect Donald Trump picks key members of his administration, we're getting a clearer picture of how he won. Voters that reach Republican candidates could not. NBCC Kornacki breaks it all down at the big board.

Donald Trump, not only the president elect, but also on pace to win the national popular vote. First time in two decades a Republican has done that. And he's gonna win the popular vote because he's expanded demographically. The Republican coalition, the coalition that elected Trump in this election, it younger, it's more blue collar and it's more diverse than any Republican coalition really in modern political history.

I mean, take a look at this. Before Trump came along, you see pre Trump on the screen here. That means the last presidential election when Donald Trump wasn't a candidate. That would be 2012, 12 years ago.

So this is what the landscape looked like pre Trump in the 2012 presidential election. Voters under 30, the youngest group, were a overwhelming Democratic constituency by 23 points. Incomes under $50,000 a year, overwhelmingly Democratic, 22 points. Voters without a college degree, they were Democratic by four points.

That's pre Trump. Now, after this election, here's what these same groups look like. That margin for Democrats under 30 slashed basically in half. Voters under 50,000 have now swung all the way over to Republicans by 3 points.

Trump's margin, 3 points over Harris among voters with incomes under $50,000 in no degree. Look at that. Now, a 14 point Republican. Also on racial and ethnic lines.

Big shifts, too. Take a look at this. Black voters before Trump overwhelming Democratic constituency to point mildly at 87%. And black voters still are.

But that's a 15 point drop for Democrats from 87 down to 72. Here's what we really see Hispanic voters Pre Trump, a 44 point margin for Democrats in this election, just 6 points Harris over Trump, Asian American voters to look at this, before Trump, a 47 point margin for Democrats, that's a 32 point reduction down to just 15 in this election. So that coalition, when you look at how the share of the non white vote that Trump was able to get, what share of his overall vote non white voters accounted for, that is the most diverse Republican coalition that we've seen in I say modern political times. The consequence of that too is you take a look at outside the battleground where Trump made some of his biggest gains.

They were in states like New Jersey and New York and California, big blue states. He didn't win any of that, but he made big gains because of this kind of shift. And meanwhile, as this has happened to the Republican Party under Donald Trump, here's what happened to the Democratic Party, sort of the opposite movement we're seeing. Look, among white voters, both pre Trump and now overall Republican group, The margin was 20 points before Trump.

For Republicans among white voters down to 16. Now that doesn't look like too much, but white voters are about 70% almost of the electorate. So a 4 point drop, that's actually pretty significant 4 point shift toward the Democrats is what that's telling you. College educated voters.

Look at this, Democrats were, it was basically a tie. Democrats a very slight advantage before Trump. Now it's a big Democratic advantage and higher income earners. Before Trump Republicans by 10 points now Harris won them by 5 points last week.

So again shifts into two party coalitions here. One that allowed Donald Trump to win the popular vote in this election. And also it leaves the electorate overall. This is interesting after now three presidential elections of Donald Trump leading the Republican ticket overall, this is a less polarized, racially polarized electorate than it was pre Trump.

Thank you so much Steve Konaki for breaking that whole town for us. Now joining me now is our panel. Betsy Woodruff Swan is a national correspondent for political and NBC News contributor, Democratic strategist Dr. Now and Sarah Chamberlain, president and CEO of the Republican Main Street Partnership.

Well, thank you so much all of you for being here. Betsy, I want to start with you. He said something, Steve, of course at the big board a dead end. Still said the most diverse GOP coalition.

It really stuck out to me. Even this is a one time thing. Or did this coalition sort of come together, you think because of Donald Trump or is this something that Democrats are going to have to try to push back on for generations? The Way that Trump performed, particularly with Hispanic voters, is not that far off from how George W.

Bush did. Romney, of course, had a lot of struggles with reaching out to voters color. But what we're seeing is Trump in some ways replicate or try to replicate the coalitions that work for George W. Bush.

One thing I was thinking about this week is I remember having a conversation, honestly must have been 10 years ago for a story about black Republicans. And speaking of some black Republican operatives and they said the party just has given up on black voters. They wouldn't hire black consultants, black operatives, they recording black candidates, they were putting ads in black media. There was just this assumption by the Republican establishment in D.C.

that black voters were not winnable and they didn't try. And what we're seeing happen now with Trump, elegantly or inelegantly, is the Republican Party say, oh, we can compete for these votes, we can reach out to these voters. And that's something that have to base all this future like trial success on and something Democrats actually take really seriously. Yeah.

And one thing Democrats, a lot of people I've been talking to have take seriously also that you saw several Democratic senators win re election in battleground states that Vice President Harris lost. What do you make of that? When you think about this, about the fact that Republicans might be able to recreate this again, what does that have to say about the vice president of the campaign? She ran.

So I think the vice president did her best. I think there are a lot of issues around her campaign. You know, when she started, she didn't go through primaries and all of that. But the other thing that we're finding, our research, people want split governments, so they're ticket splitters.

You know, a lot of opponents have said they stop doing that, but they haven't. And especially the women, you know, they want Trump, but they want to check on him. So they wanted to try to get a Democratic House and Senate. So that's been interesting.

Ticket splitting is alive out there and will continue moving forward. And Doug, we just heard Congressman Garcia talk about the Democratic struggles with specifically Latin voters and working class voters. Do you think that Democrats here are back to square one? Do you think they have to recreate their entire brand for these voters?

Do you think they just need to be more places like WhatsApp and maybe TikTok and other places that people are gathering? I think we do have to take a look at our brand. If you look at the Harris advertising strategy, it's not as if she wasn't talking about strengthening the middle class and doing things on costs and prescription drugs and abortion. She was, she was running millions of dollars of ads on that.

There's something else going on that didn't allow that to break through. It broke through in Arizona with like Ruben Gallego. It broke through in Michigan with Alyssa Slotkin. But at a national level, we were dealing with I think serious headwinds with the president's numbers with the voters need for change.

This was a change election. Clearly we weren't seen as the party of change. But I think fundamentally there are some things about our brand we need to look at, be honest about it and figure out why what I believe is still the party of middle class and working people, why that is not breaking through the voters who should be where should be aligned with us on a lot of issues. Yeah, yeah.

It's interesting to think about sort Democrats have to do when it comes to sort of making that brand be attached to the presidential. Betsy, I want to read to you something that Rick Scott said because when President elect Trump was in his first administration, he had a deal with Republicans who had different roles than him on cavalry. Here here's Senator Rick Scott's a punch poll news. And of course Rick Scott is now running for senatorly leaders as a conference, not me, but as a conference we will be very clear about what we'll accomplish.

It will be identical to the Trump agenda. What can that's going to look like? And if that's the case, it's going to be, you think, the most powerful president in history. Given where he is and what his party think about him.

He's going to have extraordinary power not just because of his allies on Capitol Hill, but also because of the courts and the way he was able to get so many judges, the district circuit obviously supreme court level, confirmed what this means most slatedly. The number one thing to watch for, of course, is immigration. For Trump to actually carry out so many of his immigration process, he needs more money. He's getting more money to hire a border patrol and ICE agents.

He's getting a lot of money if he to actually detain and deport as many immigrants as he's promised to. There's stuff he can do in terms of the military budget bringing in, detailing agents from agencies like the FBI to help with immigration enforcement. But ultimately, if he wants to move at the scale he's talked about, Congress has to help. So that's going to be I think priority number one.

The fact of course that Stephen Miller, with his close allies is going to be deputy chief of staff for Policy signals that Trump's policy agenda and his immigration agenda, at least as soon as he's inaugurated, are going to be the deniably basically circle. So do you think there's going to be a line that Republicans might not want to cross when it comes to the power that they give President Trump and his policies altogether? What do you think? So there will be a line.

There's going to be a few lines. There's a lot of Republican partnerships conservatives have come in in both the Senate, you know, the gentleman in Pennsylvania is a member. We've added 21 new House members. So there will be a line.

Probably not in immigration though. Most of the members support where wants to go. But on other issues, you will see them fight back. And I do want to remember in the mid year our members are up for re election.

Donald Trump is not. So they want to make sure they get reacted. They don't want repeat of 2018. So you will see him be extremely powerful.

But I think you will see some kickback for sure. I also think as we think about sort of where things go from here, there are going to be some special elections now. Some Senate seats are going to have to be filled. Do you think they're going to be contested to be looking at a place like even Florida or Democrats sort of going to not be doing that?

Well, I think if you're a House Republican, you don't want Trump to be picking any more House Republicans because I think it's getting really close in terms of the margins we'll have to see. I mean, look, we've had a lot of good luck as a party in special elections over the last three years, four years. We've won a lot of them, even in places that were ruby red. So I don't think you can give up on anything yet.

There's still a lot of things we have to do in terms of sifting through these numbers. There's some serious conversations about, you know, our brand and other things. But the other thing about this election is that it was a change election. It was a very bad environment for Democrats.

We have to look at that along with some of the actual structural things that we need to change. Not overreact, but also not underreacting. What does that mean? We say not overreact, but not underreact.

I think there are a lot of Democrats. Let's just throw the whole thing out. Well, because what I'm saying is Joe Biden had a rating of 40%. The right track, wrong track number was in the 20s, low 30s the trust in the economy was very low.

So now that we're moving into Trump being president, he's going to have full control. Inflation's at 2.4%. Unemployment's at 4.1. What does it look like in a year?

So those dynamics change pretty quickly. I remember when they were saying we were gonna be in the wilderness in 2004, and then we won all forms of we wanna have Congress in 2006. They say these things all the time. So I think we have to be very serious about what we need to do with our party's brand and our industry image.

But there's also, I don't think we need to totally overreact because this was a very unique election. This carriage of social is gonna be so interesting. I think one of the last times we saw this happen in a really dramatic way, of course, was right after Romney loss in 2012 when the Republican Party put together as a GOP autopsy. Retrospectively, that autopsy is kind of hilarious.

It called for the party to stand for comprehensive immigration reform. It's that the party needed to have much more welcoming rhetoric which particularly all the Hispanic and Latino voters. Two or three years later, you have Trump talking about not sending their best from the infamous escalator ride. The question of who's in charge of what does the Democratic Party need to look at who writes whatever autopsy comes out just gonna be so important, really interesting, consequential for a Democratic point forward.

Certainly gonna be a big question as to what their autopsy looks like and what actually ultimately gets success for Democrats if that happens again. So thank you so much to Betsy, to Doug. Sarah, we appreciate you coming on. And after the break, NBC News goes behind the scenes with the Jordanian Air force as it delivers emergency manitraine aid into southern Gaza.

A live report from the Middle east is next. You're watching the press now. Welcome back. As we mentioned at the top of the show, President elect Donald Trump is expected to tap Senator Marco Rubio to serve as Secretary of State and Congressman Mike Waltz to serve as his National Security Advisor.

He's also expected to nominate former Governor Mike Huckabee to serve as the US Ambassador to Israel while the incoming administration takes shape. The current administration is still facing a tenuous situation in the Middle East. Israel is continuing strikes and targeting in Lebanon and Gaza. Gaza today the Israeli Prime Minister met with President Biden in the Oval Office as the US Continues to push for progress towards ceasefires in both regions.

Today is also the US deadline for Israel to increase its humanitarian aid into Gaza. A Deadline, a group say Israel has missed. NBC News chief Washington correspondent Andrea Mitchell is with me. Also joining me from Jordan is NBC News chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel.

So thank you both for being here. Such a treat to have you both here because you're both, of course, amazing legend at NBC News. I'm start with Andrea. So, Andrew, what is the reaction to Trump's hit of Marco Rubio from the standing but all over the story?

Well, there's positive reaction, especially from the Senate colleagues, Democrats as well as Republicans, obviously Republicans. But I talked to, you know, Jeff Merkley, for instance, a current senator, Doug Jones, a former Democratic senator. And they say he worked across the aisle. He's always been praised by his partner, the chair of intelligence, Mark Warner, for being bipartisan and being, you know, fully engaged when they're working on intelligence.

He's a member of the Gang of Eight. So he's got a lot of experience. He's 14 years of veteran. He's on the Foreign Relations Committee and Berkeley's on foreign relations with him, says that they've really worked together on a lot of things.

Now he is clearly in, you know, he's a China hawk. Not everyone agrees with that. A lot of Democrats do. So there's bipartisan support for a more aggressive posture towards China.

He voted against the Ukraine supplemental and some people said that was kind of an audition for Donald Trump because he'd been very pro Ukraine up until then. And this was the key weapons package that was supported by the Republican leadership. But he was one of 15 senators, Republicans who went against it. So that was one thing.

But they expect that he will be a really strong but knowledgeable advocate for the Trump foreign policy. Really, really interesting to hear sort of his background there. Trump also announced that he has chosen evangelical Christian Mike Huckabee as the U.S. ambassador to Israel.

You spend a lot of time of course, covering that countries will talk about your reaction and what your sources are telling you. Well, it's an unusual choice, but it's not an unusual choice for the Trump administration and for someone who is wanting to be very close and is close to Netanyahu and to this really conservative religious coalition led coalition. So it's there are minority coalition members who have the swing votes who have held that coalition together. They are very religious, deeply religious.

The new ambassador appointed to replace the current ambassador here is a very conservative settler from that, that movement, a rabbi, a scholar, but very, very right wing. And so this would be the analog to that, his evangelical I covered him when he was running for president he carried Iowa because of his evangelical support. Of course, he used to be, you know, his well known governor and Sarah Huckabee Sanders was, you know, the daughter of, now he's known as the father of Sarah Huckabee Sanders and she's more high profile. But it will appeal to certain religious conservative constituency around Netanyahu, certainly not others and a very deeply divided Israeli society.

You've seen the protests every night. Yeah, yeah. Well, definitely two key positions that I know will be watching that you'll be reporting on. So thank you so much, Andrea.

Now, Richard, I want to turn to you. You just joined the Jordanian Air force for a humanitarian mission. So what did you witness on the ground there in Gaza? So we flew over Gaza.

It is still impossible for foreign journalists to enter the Gaza Strip unless they go on rare embeds with the Israeli military military. The Gaza Strip is completely closed off. It is under siege and the US A month ago the Biden administration issued a stern letter warning Israel that unless it did more to allow aid into the Gaza Strip that it would cut or potentially cut military support. And then just a short while ago, the Biden administration said no, it has noticed some progress.

It is not going to reduce any military support for Israel. For now, UN and the UN and humanitarian groups say that nothing has been done, that Israel has not fulfilled its commitment, that it is not allowing more aid in. By truck and trucks are obviously the easiest way to get supplies in. You can cross the Israeli border, you cross in the Egyptian border and bring in tons and tons of material quite easily.

While that is extremely limited right now and it is really just a trickle, not enough apparently, however, for the US to say that it needs to carry out the sanctions that it threatened the air supply. The air route does continue. I went today with the Jordanian air force and we got on a C130 cargo plane. It flew over Gaza.

This was over southern Gaza, flying relatively low and slow and was carrying 8 tons of food and medical supplies, packaged goods, pasta, tomato sauce, olive oil. And when it got over an area in southern Gaza, opened up the back of the plane and the pallets were released and descended down in parachutes. We also had a crew in Gaza waiting for this with crowds of Gazans who are anticipating, eagerly anticipating this badly needed food relief because so little is getting in there. There's tremendous shortages, there's price gouging.

The cost of flour is exorbitant if you can find it. The same for gasoline. Soap is almost nearly impossible to find. So people were waiting just and as soon as they saw these parachutes, they started running.

One man said that he ran about two miles to get to the spot so he could be one of the first people there. But instead they were Palestinian gunmen, not Hamas, just Palestinian families who had gathered this aid for themselves were firing guns in the air to keep people away. And it's an indication that there was a complete breakdown of law and order after a year, year of war and siege in Gaza. Wow, Richard, thinking about that scene and the people there for eight is really striking.

So thank you so much for being there on the ground and earth stay in the air in Jordan. So thank you so much. And still to come, how Democrat Ruben Gallo won the race for Arizona Senate. Say that Vice President Harris is on Face to lose by more than 150,000 votes.

You're watching me the PRESS now. Welcome back. Democrats are celebrating a rare victory this election cycle in Arizona. NBC News to project that Ruben Gallego is the winner over Republican Carrie Lake in the race for the state's vacant Senate.

Gallego will become Arizona's first Latino senator. In an emotional speech overnight, he acknowledged his humble appeal. Upbringing. It was a dream for me to go to college.

It was a dream of my mom. Any of us ever went to college. She was hoping we just become good citizens. And we did.

And it's all due because this is the greatest country in the world. Democrats have now won all four Arizona Senate seats in the last 7 cent races in the last six years. That's incredible. And Gallego is one of four Democrats to win their Senate races in battleground states that Vice President Kamal Harris lost.

NBC News campaign. And that Alex Cabot is been literally living in Arizona. Thank you so much for this election year. He joins me now for Phoenix.

So Alex, what made Ruben Gallo, now Senator elect Gallago, successful in the state? Vice President Harris filled. Well, this race is really about two candidates who are looking to reform their political identity. For the Democrat Ruben Gallego, he rose through the political ranks here as a proud progressive.

But of course, Senate race is a statewide contest and there are 300,000 more registered Republicans than Democrats in this state. So he kind of reformed his political reputation, marring his rhetoric, marring his stances, particularly on issues like immigration. And he was successful in re sculpting his identity here for Kerry Lake. She also wanted to resculpt her own identity in 2022.

She ran for governor here. She lost that race. She refused to accept the results of that election. She took it to court and failed in attempts to overturn and she was really branded as an election denier.

So in 2024, she tried to stay away from the election denialism, at least compared to two years ago. She talked more about the issues, but she wasn' able to escape that political identity. Yamiche yeah, and it's also interesting that President Trump leads Harris by about 180,000 votes right now in Arizona, Gallego leads by about 72,000 votes. So who are these quarter of a million voters who went for Trump and Gallego, these split ticket voters?

Well, these Trump Gallego voters, if you want to find them, there's an important and powerful political sect here in Arizona known as McCain Republicans. They're more traditional conservatives who live here who subscribe to the political ethos of the late Senator John McCain. And in 2022, Harry Lake disparaged McCain Republicans. She told them to get the hell out of the Republican Party.

And a lot of them still have a bone to pick with Carrie Lake. So if you want to find Trump Gaga voters, McCain Republicans are a good place to start. Wow. Thank you so much for living and reporting in Arizona for us.

Us. And we're back tomorrow with more MEET the Press. Now. The news continues right now with Hallie Jackson.

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