Meet the Press NOW — November 18

If it's Monday, new details emerge surrounding sexual misconduct allegations against two of President Electron's cabinet picks as Senate Republicans privately say they don't see a path for Matt Gates to be confirmed as Attorney general. Plus, President Biden gives Ukraine the green light to use long range US Missiles to strike deep inside Russian territory, marking major change in U.S. policy in the final months of the Biden administration. And Speaker Mike Johnson grapples with a razor thin majority in the House that could get even thinner, leaving the Republic leader with virtually no room for error for Congress to enact the Trump agenda.

Welcome to Meet the Press. Now I'm Yamiche Sendor in Washington. As President Elect Trump fills more top spots for his administration, we are learning new details about sexual misconduct allegations against his picks to run the Pentagon and the Department of Justice. Multiple sources tell NBC News that more than half of Senate Republicans are saying privately they don't see a path for former Congressman Matt Gates to be confirmed as attorney general.

That comes, as we've learned in recent days from an attorney that his client told the Health Ethics Committee, which was investigating Gates for alleged sexual misconduct and illicit drug use, that she saw Gates having sex with a minor. The 2017 house party. Gates denies those allegations and last week his surprise resignation from Congress effectively ended the bipartisan ethics investigation. The report on the findings of that investigation could still be released.

Sources tell NBC News the House Ethics Committee will meet Wednesday to discuss the report. This weekend, House Speaker Mike Johnson reiterated his opposition to its number one, my understanding is that the report is not finished. It's in a rough draft form, was not yet ready to be released. And since Matt Gates left the Congress, I don't think it's appropriate to do so.

In addition to Gates, a lawyer for Pete Hexseth has confirmed that the Fox News host and Trump's picture on the Pentagon paid a woman after she accused him of sexual assault in 2017. As the Washington Post reports, a friend of the accuser said a memo to the Trump transition team detailing the allegations. NBC News has not independently reviewed the memo. Hexaf's attorney called his client, quote, completely innocent.

And that attorney accused the woman of trying to extort Hexaf over a consensual encounter. Here's Oklahoma Republican Senator Mark Wage Mullen on Meet the Press. But do you think that this matter could sink Pete Hegseth's confirmation? It could.

As allegations come out. We'll figure out if as the Senate moves forward with the advising consent to the President of the United States and doing our constitutional duties. We'll figure out if he can get confirmed or not. And I do think that Pete's a good pick for this position.

Do you still absolutely plan to vote for him? Well, I do as of right now. I start with yes, but can I be moved off of that? I'm sure.

Meanwhile, Speaker Johnson is leaving, opening a path to allow President elect Trump to potentially avoid altogether messy confirmation fights. To do so, Johnson would give Trump the space to make recess appointments by possibly adjourning the U.S. house. Listen, I believe in the principle of a new president being able to choose his team.

And that used to not be a controversial notion. We're in a time of very divided government and a very partisan atmosphere in Washington. I wish it were not. I wish it the Senate would simply do its job of advising consent and allow the president to put the persons in his cabinet of his choosing.

But if this thing bogs down, it would be a great detriment to the country, to the American people. So we'll evaluate all that at the appropriate time and we'll make the appropriate decision. And joining me now NBC News is Dasha Burns for the latest on the Trump transition. Also that's NBC News as Tom Linter with the with more on the investigation into Matt Gates and NBC News as Ryan Nobles has the reaction to all of this from Capitol Hill.

So Dash, I want to start with you. How is President elect Donald Trump responding to these allegations of inappropriate sexual misconduct against both Matt Gates, his ag pic, and Pete Hegseth, his pick for secretary of defense? Well, big picture, yimmy. She is not backing down or backing away.

We got a statement specific to Hegseth where his communications director, Stephen Chung tells NBC News that Mr. Hegseth has vigorously denied any and all accusations and no charges were filed. We look forward to his confirma. And then one of his top advisors, James Blair was just on Fox News.

He was asked about Matt Gaetz and he said that the president's been very clear that he intends to see his nominees confirmed. And we're hopeful that our partners in the Senate will work closely with us to ensure that happens again. So no sign that there's at least publicly any sort of second guessing. We're moving away even from these most controversial picks so far.

You may well very interesting to see Donald Trump sticking by those picks. I also want to ask you, we got a new pick for Donald Trump's cabinet. He's tapped Chris Wright, who is CEO of a fracking company, to be secretary of energy. So what more should people know about Chris Wright, if you listen to President Elect Trump on the campaign trail, you heard it every rally, drill, baby, drill.

It was a mantra. It was repeated by his supporters and now it is coming to life in some of these picks, including this choice for energy secretary. Look, he is a staunch defender of fossil fuels. He's expected to try to maximize Mr.

Trump's goal of energy, energy production via oil and gas. And he is also in staunch opposition to the idea of fighting climate change. He has called some of the moves by Democratic activists on climate change, likening it to Soviet style communism, so very much a MAGA world choice when it comes to energy, fossil fuels, oil and gas being top priority and climate change being either not a priority at all or in fact a Khan in his book. I will note though that right now the US Is producing its highest levels of oil and gas in history under the Biden administration.

And it's not clear exactly how they would boost that much more in the Trump administration. And as you're talking about, of course him being sort of in line with all the Trump's views, we've seen a lot of picks in line with Trump's view. They become fast and furious. That being said, there are several key cabinet rolls.

They're still open. So what more do we know about open spots and how the Trump team is thinking about them? Specifically for his choice for treasury secretary, There's a bit of a knife fight going on right now between Howard Lutnick, who's a co transition chair, boisterous billionaire type, very much of the MAGA mold and more a traditional choice in Scott Bessett, who's a Wall street guy, a couple other Wall Streeters now in the mix as well. So will he go the traditional resume or not on Secretary of the Treasury?

And then we're also watching for FBI. There are again those two different worlds for which Trump could choose from a more traditional pick or someone who is seen more as a loyalist. And then of course, Department of Education is something I'm watching for to Yamiche, given how Trump and Zach Lies have talked about dismantling or completely pivoting that department which is also so critical to the people of Yamiche. Well, certainly a lot to look for as he continues to fill for his administration.

Thank you so much, Josh Burns. Now, Tom, I want to come to you. We've heard from the attorney for the woman who testified before the House Ethics Committee on these sexual misconduct allegations against Matt Gaetz. What more do we know about that testimony?

What she told that committee. Right. So Those are some of the details that we're still working on and actually trying in the process of getting an interview with that attorney who's been identified as Joel Leopard, and he's a civil attorney from basically the Orlando area. He sent a statement to NBC News on Friday night.

McClant testified to the House Ethics Committee that she witnessed Congressman Gates having sex with a minor at a house party in Orlando in 2017. One of the questions here, you know, we reported on this several years ago, Yamiche, whether or not Gates traveled and brought women for the purposes of sex to a trip to the Bahamas or if there was any sort of other travel outside the United States, that could be a violation of the man Act. The incident is just described by that attorney. It could be a violation of federal or and or state law in Florida.

But ultimately we know from reported from what Gates attorneys have said in our own reporting from the Justice Department that there were no charges filed in this case. That doesn't necessarily mean that somebody's quote, unquote, clear, as Gates has said. It doesn't necessarily mean that there was no untoward or wrongdoing that was done in fact by now former Congressman Gates. But it does mean that there's no charges.

And of course it is very important to point out the congressman throughout his steadfastly said that he is innocent of any sort of wrongdoing. When we asked the congressman, our colleague Ryan Noblesworth, I'm going to be speaking to, as the spokesperson for the congressman on Friday night, exactly what his response was to that report of the witness of viewing an illegal act, a potentially illegal act in 2017. He said, quote, Merrick Garland's DOJ cleared back aids and didn't charge him. Are you alleging Garland is part of a cover up?

So it's clear where the now former congressman is coming from on this issue. Yeah, it's clear. They're really pushing back here. The other thing that's really interesting if we think about this though is that the evidence Committee heard from the witness to the alleged misconduct, but not the alleged minor who allegedly engaged in the sexual misconduct with Mac case.

Do we know that the committee ever talked to the actual minor woman? It's still a little bit up in the air. There's been some reporting out there from competitors not verified by NBC News that there could have been a number of women that spoke to the committee. But whether they were as a witness to an event, whether they were subject to any sort of potential actions by the now former congressman, that's a little bit up in the air.

So there's a lot that we don't know about this committee report because it is secretive. It's not the type of thing that would typically come out until it is ready to come out. And sometimes, of course, there are leaks from Congress, some might say Congress leaks like the Titanic. But in this particular instance, in this ethics investigation, we actually have not heard a lot coming out from it.

We know what we know from the criminal investigation between either individuals that were spoken to by law enforcement or filing in a case of a cooperator, something who helped out potentially in that case, obviously again yielding no charges. But there were a number of things that were documented in the course of that investigation and some documents that surfaced Florida. So actually it was a little bit easier, kind of the opposite of what normally see to find out more about the criminal investigation than this ethics investigation, which is obviously still under wraps. Yeah, well, there's still time for leak, so we're going to keep our eye on that.

So thank you so much, Tom. Now, Ryan, Tom did sort of take some of the reporting that would have asked you about as he quoted you in your interview with that person for Mac, I want to ask you, what do you hear from lawmakers about these two separate allegations against magazines and P Hex and where do you think things stand in terms of the support for these two picks? That's just like how to steal my thunder, isn't it? I'm going to let slide today.

It's okay. It's all right. Yeah. But to your broader point about the kind of reaction that these nominees are getting here on Capitol Hill, you know, I think it's mixed.

I think there is a great deal of skepticism among Republicans in the Senate about whether or not both Pete Hedgeth and Tulsi Gabbard and Matt Gates have not only the credentials but the ethical background necessary to hold these incredibly important positions in the United States. And what we see developing here is a real test for the Senate. Are they going to be an actual check and balance on the executive branch? They're going to assert their constitutional rights, a colorful branch of government?

Or is their most important priority just to be loyal to Donald Trump and roll over for whatever desire he might have? It's important to keep in mind when we have this conversation that if for some reason one of these nominees does not make it through, it won't be because of Democrats. I mean, they will likely all vote no. But Republicans have more than enough votes to get them over the finish line.

They could as many as 53 senators, and it would mean that as many as four Republican senators would vote against one of these nominations to prevent them from going forward. So it is the Republicans that have questions about these nominees. And while I say they have questions, I would also remind you that not one of these Republican senators have come forward and said that they're a definitive note on any of these nominations. So this is a L ball and they all have a path to being confirmed at this point.

It's really a live ball. It's really interesting that all our reporting right now is that these lawmakers are saying in private that these paths might be rocky here. But I want to also ask you about this Ethics Committee report in the meeting on Wednesday. Is there any sort of precedent for possibly maybe it not going fully publicly being given to the senators here, and especially as Speaker Johnson saying this is a draft in draft form, how much we know about whether or not this is something that even could be shared given where it is in the process?

Well, the simple answer to your question is we don't know just how far along they are in this process, what the vehicle or mechanism might be for them to bring it out into the light of day. What we do know is that the committee can basically do whatever they want in this situation. There is no legal or statutory reason for them not to be able to release this report. Yes, they can no longer investigate Matt Gates because he does not fall into their jurisdiction anymore because he's no longer a member of Congress.

But that doesn't preclude the work that they've already. They've already collected all of this evidence. They've already done all these witness interviews. That material exists and it is the property of the House of Representatives.

What they choose to do with it. That is what we still don't know. We know that Republican senators desperately want to see this material. Do they perhaps have some of it transmitted to them, just the evidence, interline evidence, the transcribed interviews, the evidence that they collected and not the actual report that is compiled?

That's a possibility. I do think that there is a growing perhaps standoff between the Republican Senate and the Republican House over the custody of this material. Generally, the two sides work together pretty well to hand information back and forth. Could get to the point where there's even perhaps a subpoena request.

That would be unprecedented and would lead to quite a standoff. But at this point, there's really no indication what's going to happen to this material that most senators believe is vital to determine whether or not the vote yes or no. And the Gates confirmation. Yeah.

Well, thank you so much for breaking all that down for Capital Home. Sure. We'll have you back because things are busy, busy. Thank you so much.

Now, policy wise, President Elect Trump is making clear where his focus will be when he begins his secret term, and it is on immigration and the border. Earlier today, Trump responded, quote, true to a post on social media saying he's prepared to declare a national emergency and use military assets to make good on his mass deportation plan. That is also something he told NBC News earlier this month as a top priority, he said, regardless of the price tag. So joining me now for more on President elect Donald Trump's border plans is NBC News Homeland Security correspondent Julia Azel.

Julia, thanks for being here. Could you just give us a reality check here? I wonder what do we know about the president elect's actual plans, what he can do, what he's, what we think he might do when it comes to sort of the resources that will be at will when he becomes president. This is certainly something he wants to do.

We've known that even before the election. So I don't think that we should be sitting back and saying, oh, he's just trying to rile up and do tribal loons. This is something I think actually could be tried, not a matter how they do it. There are a number of scales.

There could be a call for the National Guard. We've used military for border enforcement for a long time, but it falls short. It stops at the line of anyone in the military, National Guard or active duty troops actually putting handcuffs on immigrants because that's enforcing domestic law with the military, which is a violation of constitutional things we have for the Constitution. We call it policy comitatas, which keeps the military from enforcing domestic law.

The only way to get around that, we understand, is considering this is by enacting a 1789 law that would basically call the immigrants in this country an alien invasion by a foreign government. Hard to see how that one stands up in courtyard, but we'll see just how far they cut it out. As you're talking about that, what do we know in terms of what he could unilaterally do and presumably what he could do with the full support of a Republican Congress. And if you talk about that, I wonder, you're talking about being handcuffs on people.

But I also want to have military assets. To me, jumping of water, if it can mean other things, too. Yeah. If it does mean jugs of water, that's okay.

He's used that before. I remember being at the border in 2018 when he thought that there was a caravan coming that didn't come, but there were active duty troops spending their holidays at the border just to build barricades, do basically anything short of interacting with migrants. But when you're talking about whether he needs congressional support, he doesn't come to the funding. He needs more manpower.

He needs more flights. He needs more ICE agents. He needs a local law enforcement to feel like they can actually help with this effort without being stymied from doing their own local law enforcement operation. So he's going to need Congress for the funding, but Congress can't get past legal challenges.

And if he does violate the Constitution by allowing the military to arrest immigrants and try to hang it on this wall, it doesn't look like he has a strong argument. I think that's where it end up in court. And the Supreme Court, as conservative as it is, does see a pretty clear line on this issue. Yeah.

And as you've been saying in your own reporting, this is in some ways, Mary, at least a bit of what did it his first term. So I wonder how much do we think this could differ from what he did the first time around, or do we think that this will just be sort of his first term, maybe even on steroids? He feels emboldened for sure. And I think we've seen that for the rhetoric.

We've seen Stephen Miller, Tom Homan, others talk about they have a clear mandate to go out and make a splash on this. They want it to be visible. They want to shock an awful strategy on immigration. And I think that they believe that they have the American public's backing in a way now that they did it in 2016, at least in the first term.

I know that they had conversations about how the message would be received by the American people. I think a lot of those considerations based on who's around the table now and, you know, the win that he just had. Some of those voices are much quieter now. So I think we could expect to see something very big.

But it's the same ideas that he had is the same, same strategy. I'm saying some of the people I'm still talking to, I'm having flashbacks eight years ago. There's so much being floated, you wonder what will stick. But clearly there's a need to make an impression on this.

Yeah. Yeah. Well, definitely a lot to cover and unbolding Trump with who feels like he has a mandate. So thanks so much.

And coming up, a live report from Brazil where President Biden is attending his final G20 summit with World leaders and face a stark warning from Russia in response to a major change in U.S. policy tied to the war in Ukraine. Plus, NBC News is exclusive reporting on the Trump transition team's plan to potentially court martial some military officers involved in the Biden administration's chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan. You're watching me the press now.

Welcome back. In a significant change in US Policy, President Biden has now authorized Ukraine to use US Supplied long range weapons to strike inside Russia. Ukraine has been seeking this policy change for months, especially as Russian and North Korean troops are now massing in preparation for a new offensive in response to Kremlin called by decision a quote leap intentions. This comes as Russia continues to attack Ukraine by air, launching a massive aerial bombardment just yesterday targeting Ukraine's energy grid and killing more than a dozen people.

Ukraine's air force says Russia launched 120 missiles and 90 drones in the attack. Joining me now is Mike Emily who's covering the president's trip and Rio de Janeiro now, of course, Mike, I'm a little jealous of your where you are right now. But that being said, why is President Biden allowing this now with Ukraine allowing them to use these missiles and is this part of his strategy to give Ukraine as much support as possible before President elect Trump takes office? Well, you mean for sorry.

It's not every day you have Christ the Redeemer behind you in your live shot. Photobomb here. I think we'll take advantage of that when we can. But certainly this is a major development on the part of the administration that really the pattern in practice for the thousand days of this war in Ukraine has been the Ukrainian government, President Zelensky advocating for more, more resources, more firepower, more tactical advantages from the administration from the west and the Biden administration slow walking in some cases, eventually though usually getting there to provide that kind of assistance they needed.

But these ATACMs that the Biden administration will now be allowing the Ukrainians to use to make potentially these kind of longer range strikes within Russian territory has been a particular journey for the president to get to yes on. But it does speak to the changing dynamics now as we're approaching the end of the Biden administration start of the Trump administration as both sides are looking to try to gain as much advantage as they can before potential negotiations over an end to this conflict. Conflict. The administration for its part though, as the Russians have been very strong in denouncing this with calling and escalation has really turned the tables to say the real escalation came on the part of the Russians when they invited and welcomed the deployment of thousands of North Korean soldiers into western Russia to prepare for a potential counter offensive to the gains that we saw Ukraine make into Russian territory into the cursed region.

So that was something that the White House was very clear about weeks ago publicly that they view as a major escalation. And it took several weeks for that response to come. And that's what we're now seeing. It is interesting as well.

You just see the reaction on the part of Republicans in Washington to this move because you have sort of the traditional, you know, hawks on Capitol Hill, chairman of the armed services can be welcoming this move, calling it a local. Then you also have allies of the incoming president worrying about calling this a potential dangerous move to potentially ignite as they're opening World War three for Donald Trump to have to inherit when he takes office in just over two months. Yeah, well, the other thing that's happening and while you're there in Rio, of course is because President Biden said his final leader summit. And it's interesting because we know when President Biden came into office, he was saying he was telling America's allies that America's back.

What kind of reaction is he getting now and how much are these leaders reacting to President elect coming back? Well, it really is striking to me when you think about the summits we've covered since the beginning of this administration together and the way in which President Biden wanted to assert the US Back on its front foot to highlight the forum like these to showcase alliances, as he was putting it three and a half years ago, America's back. Well, allies at the time were asking skeptically but for how long? And so it is a somewhat humble President Biden who has at the G20 summit now after attending APEC summit in Peru.

And we're seeing kind of a symbolic moment, the president missing the family photo today that was taken of the G20 leaders. There were a lot of reasons for it, but it was sort of a fitting capstone to what is a retreat from here, the US Potentially world stage. Yeah, definitely a capstone. And he said humble Biden.

So thank you so much, Mike, for joining us from Rio. Now let me bring in retired Lieutenant General Seth Twitty. He is the former deputy commander of US European Command and NBC News military analyst. So thank you so much for being here.

What do you make of this decision by the president to allow Ukraine to use U. S Supplied long range missiles inside Russia? And is it really maybe too little too late? Well, first of all, I welcome the move.

For the past almost three years now, the Ukrainians have been fighting with their hands to tied. They've had the limited ability to strike long range targets inside Russia. And so of course I welcome. You cannot go into a fight with your hands tied.

If you want them to win, you have to do everything possible and set them up for success to win. And I don't think it's a bit too late because as you can see by the pictures that you're showing, every single day the Russians are firing long range missiles and drones at the Ukrainians. This move here allows the Ukrainians to attack back attack deep inside Russia, to go after these launch sites that these muscles are coming from, to go after the drone sites, to go after the ammunition depots, to go after command and control centers. And so this will help particularly as the Ukrainians go into the winter lacking electricity and what little electricity that they have now.

Hopefully we can salvage some of that by allowing them to use long range strikes 200 miles into Russia. And as you talk about this, part of what the Biden administration is saying is that they're easing these restrictions because of the deployment of North Korean troops. So I wonder how significantly do you think these North Korean troops will possibly impact this war? I think they have the ability to impact this war significantly.

We think there are 10 to 12,000 North Korean troops. We don't know how many the North Koreans plan to send. But as you know, if the North Koreans get involved in this fight heavily, then they've augmented the Russians and have the ability to support the Russians in this fight. They could tell the edge here.

We just don't know. We have to wait and see what the the North Koreans will be doing in supporting this fight. And if you're talking about waiting and seeing there, the big wait and see is President elect Donald Trump. He could undo some of these authorities Biden has authorized.

What do you make of that and what kind of impact could that have on the battlefield? Well have a lot if we reduce our US funding. Keep in mind the US provides about 50% of the funding and the other European and our partners make up the other 50%. That's a huge burden for our European and other partners to try and make up that difference.

The US 50% as well as US military equipment that's already going on the ground, them trying to sustain that US Equipment and get us repair plan. So it could have a significant impact on how the Ukrainians execute this war if we decide to pull out of it. And how significant impact could the waning support among Republicans in Washington impact Zelensky's strategy on the battlefield, knowing that there may be a limit to how much weapons or aid or musicians might receive, if any at all. Yeah.

Then I think you're in a situation where diplomacy will have to be introduced into this war and there will have to be some type of resolution, whether it be the Russians maintain the land that they currently have or other some type of course of action. But I think you're limited at that point and you have to get a diplomatic solution and bring it into the war, whether it ends up being something akin to what is going on zone in Korea now with North Korea, South Korea with a demilitary zone, something of that, some type of frozen conflict. But I think that's where we would be headed at that point in time. Yeah.

Well, thank you so much, Lieutenant General Stephen. We really appreciate you coming on. And up next, the Trump transition team eyes potential treason charges for some military officers involved in the chaotic and deadly withdrawal from Afghanistan. That exclusive reporting live from the Pentagon is straight ahead.

You're watching me the best now. Hey, guys, Willie Geist here reminding you to check out the Sunday Sit down podcast. On this week's episode, I sit down with one of the biggest bands in the world, Mumford and Sons, as we get the boys together to talk about their new number one album, Prize Fight Rider, and the evolution of that irresistible foot stomping sound. You can get our conversation for free wherever you download your podcasts.

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President elect Donald Trump ran his campaign vowing retribution and going after his perceived enemies, including top military officers. Now NBC News has learned from a US Official. Any person familiar with the matter, the Trump transition team is weighing whether current and retired military officer officers involved in the chaotic US Withdrawal from Afghanistan could be court martialed. Officials working on the transition are looking at whether any military officer could be eligible for charges, including as serious as treason.

Of course, it was then President Donald Trump who made the deal with the Taliban back in 2020 to withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan. President Biden then completed the full withdrawal. Those administration underestimated just how the Afghan army was and how quickly the Afghan government would fall.

Join me now from the Pentagon of NBC News global security reporter Daniels. Thanks so much for being here, Dan. So what more do you know and do we know about the plan by the Trump transition team? And who was among those officers, do you think, involved in the withdrawal?

Who could be impacted by this? You know, it is a huge question mark and just extraordinary and really unprecedented. This kind of talk, even this kind of threat is unprecedented, really, in U.S. politics after the Second World War.

And keep in mind, as you said, that this withdrawal was something that was ordered. The military was ordered to withdraw US Troops from Afghanistan. And of course, the top generals recommended to President Biden to keep a small contingent there. So just on sheer logic, it's confusing.

Obviously, some of the top generals that might be in the crosshairs would be the chairman at the time, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Chairman Milley, who we all know Donald Trump is very hostile towards because he has made some critical statements once he retired. Also the head of Central Command at the time, General McKenzie, he's publicly stated that he takes responsibility for how the withdrawal unfolded. And of course, the State Department, a lot of civilians who were in charge at the time have been heavily criticized by both sides of the aisle and how some aspects of that withdrawal was handled. And of course, legally, I mean, it's not clear how this would hold up, if at all.

The military has its own strict code of justice, and court martials are not something that can just be, you know, carried out like a political hearing on the Hill. It's a legal process and there has to be evidence. And it's hard to see how that would hold up. Yeah, yeah.

Well, definitely hard to see what could happen. As you report, this comes, of course, all this comes as you reported, that Trump is also expected to purge top military officers at the Pentagon, which of course, is where you're reporting from today. So how are officials there reacting to some of these plans by the president elect? And how could this really impact the US Military?

What are you talking about there? You know, for anyone who serves in uniform, as well as the hundreds of thousands of civilians that serve around the world, for the Pentagon, they take the military's politically neutral status extremely seriously. And for senior officers especially, their attitude is they follow the orders of the commander in chief and they do not engage in politics. And it is completely taboo and unacceptable and actually not allowed and so the idea that perhaps Donald Trump would follow through on this threat and his pick for secretary of defense has talked about wanting to fire, quote, unquote, woke generals.

What exactly that means, it's not clear. But it does suggest some kind of a politically motivated purge potentially where perceived political inclinations are somehow brought up against particular generals or commanding officers. One of the issues that comes up a lot is this idea of diversity and that if a general or a senior officer was trying to promote diversity in the ranks, somehow that would be grounds for firing. And, of course, this has been a policy for decades.

The military has some to recruit the best people they could and to make sure the military reflected what the United States looked like. But the chairman who's coming, the current chairman, General C.Q. brown, is coming for a lot of criticism. He's a fighter pilot.

He got that. He earned that. You cannot fake your way into that job. So this is causing a lot of consternation, a lot of consternation, a lot of worry.

Definitely something we're going to continue to talk about. Thank you so much. And after the break, Democrats have some work to do to win back working class and rural voters. Will take a look at how those key voting blocks help deliver Trump a big win and where Democrats go from here.

You're WATCHING ME, THE PRESS now. Welcome back. In this election, Democrats lost around with multiple groups that have traditionally been part of the Democratic coalition. That includes working class voters who moved further away than ever from Democrats.

My colleague Alex reports today that union leaders say it's time to, quote, reconstruct the Democratic Party with one union leader saying Democrats haven't embraced working class people for decades. Democrats also lost even more ground this election with rural voters, a constituency which is a part of their coalition but has been trending more and more Republican over the past two decades. Joining me now is a reporter with a deep understanding of rural America, Chris Clayton, agricultural policy editor for the Progressive Farmers. Thanks for being here, Chris.

So you say a trip to Branson, Missouri, can explain how President elect Donald Trump's success among rural voters will carry him over toward this big win. So how. So what did you see there? You know, Branson's a big tourism town and thanks for having me, by the way.

But Branson is a big tourism town, but it's not a very big town. And when I was with dad Branson a couple weeks ago, you've got two giant stores that just sell Trump stuff, just Trump memorabilia. And then I was in another area of town with some high end shopping areas and kiosks and stores that just primarily sell Trump stuff. There's that.

You couldn't find a Harris T shirt anywhere. And it was just really reminded me that, you know, Trump's strength in rural America. And when we did our polling, you know, we were at 70% for Trump, and we thought that was a little high. Our polling was strictly farmers.

We thought maybe it was skewed a little bit high. Well, you know, you had counties in states like Pennsylvania where you had 30, 40,000 voters, and they had 75% of those voters in those counties voting for Trump. So his strength in rural America is unlike anything maybe we've seen in recent years. Well, that's going to be an incredibly important part of our analysis.

What I can tell you is that our focus has and always will be on delivering for everyday Americans that American dream that I talked about. It's been under assault for decades for a wide variety of reasons. Poorly negotiated trade deals, the outsourcing of good paying American jobs, the decline of unionization, and of course, the rise of automation have all jammed up people in the heartland of America, the Great Lake States, and working families all across the country. So why do you think that message didn't break through to working class and rural voters?

Well, first you've got to actually go out and be where those voters are at. And, you know, Harris's campaign did a lot of rallies in the battleground states, but they were all in cities primarily. You know, she was not going out to the rural areas. Trump was aggressively campaigning in rural areas.

And she also, you know, the campaign did not look to kind of flip a red state. You relied primarily on, quote, your blue wall. If you look at the red states that voted for Trump, the closest one was Ohio, where it was 55, 44. You just can't have that kind of spread everywhere.

You've got to go out and try to take a state away. And that means being out there, being out there in areas that you maybe just didn't campaign in. Yeah. I also want to ask you about the role of race and the Democratic support of the LGBTQ community.

Democrats are so that they support a diverse group of Americans, including transgender Americans. But how is that their, their appeal to those groups used against them, especially when it comes to real voters? Well, not just in real voters, but, you know, the thing I pointed to was, you know, for particularly the month of October, every single college and pro football game I watched, there was the advertisement criticizing Kamala Harris, Vice President Harris, on the transgender issues. That one single ad by the Trump campaign ran over and over and over practically every single break during the football game.

And it was that way for like a month. And it was a very effective ad. And, and there was no response to it. And I think that you can't just kind of ignore that constant criticism and hammering and, and it had an effect.

And I also want to ask you as you talk about sort of the effects that all these things have. There's of course President Elect Trump's policies that he's been talking about. He's been saying that he wants more tariffs, he's been saying that he wants to carry out mass deportation. But both of those could have a big impact on farms, on agriculture in this country.

So what do rural voters, what do working class voters, how do they see those issues given the fact that they are supporting Donald Trump? Well, border security was a very big issue among farmers that I talked to. And, and they felt like that that was one of the biggest issues that they, they had. Yet farmers do rely tremendously on, on undocumented workers.

We have maybe a million undocumented workers just in agriculture. So they're kind of believing and perceiving that it is not going to effective that Trump will not go after these workers. And you saw that you a story in the New York Times where this person was mentioning that they were concerned they were an undocumented person who supported Trump but believed that they might be deported. And so you just don't really know.

But if you take a look, it's not when it become Democrats, it's not the issues, it's a can. It must be something with the candidates because in Missouri, the past three years, Missouri has legalized cannabis. They raised the minimum wage 15 an hour and they voted for abortion rights. But among candidates it was a red, it's a red sweep.

So it's not so much maybe the issues, but something. There's a disconnect between the candidates and the issues out there and it's gonna be a long term problem for Democrats to try to win back real votes. Well, they're definitely trying. So thank you so much, Chris Clayton, for your time.

Thank you for having me. Thank you. And still to come, a reality check on Speaker Johnson's razor, the majority in the House and what it means, his ability to govern in the age of Trump. The panel's next year.

Watching the press now. Welcome back and buckle up because it could be a very bumpy ride for House Republicans at the start of the next Congress. As of right now there, they have 218 seats that is a one seat majority. Democrats, meanwhile, have 212 seats and there are just five races still uncalled.

House Speaker Mike Johnson is going to have no room for error as he tries to govern and implement President elect Donald Trump's sweeping agenda. Plus, as many as three House Republican seats could be vacated around the cert next Congress. Matt Gates has already resigned to pursue the role of Attorney General. And Lisa Panick and Michael Waltz have been tapped for roles in the new Trump administration.

For more on all this, I'm joined by Melanie Zinona, Senior Congressional reporter for Punch Bowl News and NBC News Political contributor. Also with us as Chris Paul, Alex, former White House Deputy Cabinet Secretary and senior advisor for the Biden campaign, Lenny Chen, Director of Domestic Policy Studies and a lecturer at Stanford's Public Policy Programs, also an NBC News contributor. So thank you all for being here. So Melanie, I'm start with you.

Republicans had trouble governing with a larger House majority, right? So now things are gonna get even smaller. How are things gonna get done? Yeah, that's a great question, one that Speaker M.

Johnson is asking himself at this very moment. I'm sure it's very possible that on day one of the Congress they could have exactly 218 Republicans, which means zero room for air. And listen, members, they get sick, they miss flights, they resign, they have children. These things happen on a day to day basis.

And so on any given day, it could tip the balance of power in the House. It'd be very difficult for those first 100 days for them to actually enact some of these big ticket agenda items that they had initially been planning to push there. Now we're hearing on Capitol Hill that they might sort of delay, that they might focus on government funding in the first few months and push the bigger stuff like the tax reform and all that later when those three Republicans that you mentioned were leading the Trump admin eventually filled because they will get filled. But this is a huge problem for Speaker McConsin, no doubt a huge problem that maybe he'll have to use and rely on Democrats to get some stuff done.

You think that's possible? I don't think so. I think in our divided parts of time that'd be a big challenge. But the reality is that a lot of these big ticket items, you need the momentum of that first couple months of the new administration, I think, to move this forward.

So if they want to do reconciliation twice in 25, which is what Speaker Johnson has talked about, they're going to need to move something pretty early for vehicle number one and Then you're looking at something maybe later in the year. So the notion of pushing it off is going to be very, very challenging. And I also see getting Democratic votes as being very challenging, too. So they're going to have to go with the majority they have.

And as you, as you noted, we've got a couple more seats. California. Let's figure out what's going to happen. Yeah.

And here's what I mean, if you're hacking Jeffries, how much pressure do you face to try to keep your Democratic caucus in line and make sure no one go over and try to help Mike Johnson? Yeah, I think that's the big question on the Democratic side is you got to know when to pick fights. And we've seen over the last few years where Republicans are able to do with a little bit of a majority and they've had some difficulties. Right.

Even picking a speaker was hard for them. Keeping the government open was hard for them. Democrats, I think, do a better job of being united. We'll see that here.

This coming cycle in 2017 remains a lot. We've been through this movie before. Right. And I think Democrats did a great job with Speaker Pelosi coming back and really unifying.

But at some point, you heard President Elect the other day talking about uniting the country. Let's see what they do. One of the things for Democrats to be hopeful about is Republicans have a problem overreaching. So once they start overreaching, that put some of those Republican members who are in the midterms and tough seats in a real challenging position.

So I think Jeffrey will do a great job uniting his party, but we don't have a lot of time to do it. One point I just think we need to make here is that this is a different environment than the last few years. Trump's Capitol on Capitol Hill is higher than it's probably ever been for. I think there's going to be a huge appetite among Republicans to not get in Trump's way, whether that's on nominations or legislation.

So, yes, they're working with the reserves of the majority. They have the history of divided and chaotic. But I do think these next few years they're going to want to take some sound for you real quick, which is Republican Senator Mullen speaking to Chris Walker yesterday on the press, talking about Donald Trump's Cabinet picks, in particular the House Committee, who's looking to possibly looking at least ethics report or ethics draft that they have on that case. Take a look at this.

Absolutely. And I believe the, I believe the Senate should have access to that. Now, should it be released to the public or not, that, that's, I guess that'll be part of the negotiations, but that should be definitely part of our decision making. Once again, I go back to it.

In Article 2, Section 2 in the Constitution, the, the Senate has to advise and consent these individuals in that process. We're going to get Matt Gates. The same chances will give all President Trump's nominees though I have no doubt that President Trump believes that Matt Gates is the right person to do the right, right job. But at the same time, the background of Matt Gates does matter.

Now, Melania Capit Hill leaks and leaks and leaks. We eventually see this. They're going to meet at my something they're going to discuss. Now Speaker M.

Johnson has said publicly he doesn't want them to release it. There's a ton of pressure from both sides on the committee. I'm skeptical that the Republicans on the committee are going to release it themselves, but it could leak. The Democrats could try to do themselves, although that would really put the future of this committee in jeopardy, or the Senate Republicans could try to get it for the confirmation hearing.

Do you see a path forward for Matt Gates's confirmation? We have Republican senators saying privately that they might not see a path forward, but publicly don't say it now. Well, I think it depends. I do think it depends on the outcome of what happens at report.

I think, you know, there's a lot of time between now and when hearings might be begin. There's a number of factors. But I will say that to your point, I think there's more unity amongst Congressional Republicans than there's been at any point in recent history. That applies both on the House side and the Senate side.

You've got a new leadership structure coming into place. So, you know, we'll have to see how that plays out. But I think it's too early to tell. And I think frankly you got to understand that public comments are one thing.

Public vote is very different from a private vote. So it's gonna be hard for Republicans to go against the president. Left. I want also specifically you'd ask about Elon Musk's influence in this.

We've seen now Brendan Curry's ally, Elon Musk as FX FCC chair of the pick. Being there is this sort of evidence of his influence and do we think Renaissance is even more influence? Tremendously influential. Look, I mean not just in terms of his relationship with the President elect, which looks to be a personal relationship, but also the media channels that Elon Musk has access to and the way in which the ecosystem can reinforce some of these picks.

So I absolutely think he's hugely influential. And I think that so far at least, influence has been toward disruption, which is exactly where the president elect wants the influence to be and wants the administration to look at to disrupt status quo going forward. Yeah. And first of all, how do you see all this as you as a Democrat are seeing all this play out?

A couple of quick thoughts. I was on the Biden Harris transition last time around. It was very methodical, very thoughtful in the approach. I'm surprised at how early some of these pics are coming out.

Right. And I think for Gates in particular, that's an explosive report. I do think it'll leak. I can imagine it not.

The question then becomes do they still back up Trump with Gates? And I think if they do, that puts I think for a lot of folks in the question whether or not they can hold the House in the midterms and then beyond. And with that in mind, Chris Clayton, I've heard him talking about Democrats and the work they need to do with working class voters. What do you think that the party needs to do to the party can recapture that by the midterms?

Yeah, I think they will. A couple things that happen quickly. One is there doesn't need an autopsy. I agree completely with Chris Clayton.

I also think and my biggest concern has to do with men. I think we've lost men in a big way of all races. It's a class issue. Yes.

It's a geographic issue. We've got a lot of work to do there. I saw earlier in your show that there is a DNC chair race that's kicked up. That's the first big fight for Democrats is going into the new year and then we've got to get ready for Virginia and then the midterms.

Not a lot of time. Melanie, I have to ask you, Donald Trump, President elect Trump is saying now he's not looking for retribution, especially when it comes to the press. How much can we really take him out of his word? I mean, look at what he's done already since he's become president.

A lot of these picks and decision making appear to be aimed at political retribution. This is what he said he was going to do. He said he's going to compile an enemies list. I think we need to believe Trump when he says those things because the evidence shows that it's explained exactly what he said.

Do you think that it makes sense to have a tradition at this point he's not. Well, you know, I mean, there's no saying to the winner of spoils, right? I mean, I think he's gonna have to decide how he wants to proceed. Very ambitious agenda for the American people.

I think that he's gonna focus on that, frankly, for the first hundred days or for six months. And we'll see how that all goes forward. Well, thank you so much, Jim. Al to Chris.

Thank you all for joining us. And I'm back tomorrow with more MEET THE PRESS now. But the news continues right now with Hallie Jackson. As the day wraps up, get a scoop on what's been happening with here's the scoop with a new podcast for NBC News with your host Gazian.

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