Meet the Press NOW — November 25

Hi there, and welcome to Meet the Press Now. I'm Ryan Nobles. As the White House welcomes Turkey's to the nation's capital and tries to avoid becoming a lame duck presidency. After a series of setbacks that raise questions of whether the president may be approaching the limits of his influence over his own party.

Right now, the president standing with the public is in perilous political territory with an approval rating that is significantly underwater across recent major polls. And his message on affordability has run afoul of voters, even as he, again, lauded the economy during the White House turkey pardon earlier today. I want to wish all Americans a very, very happy Thanksgiving. It's a great time of the year and our country is doing really well.

Economically, like we've never done before. And this Thanksgiving, we're also making incredible strides to make America affordable again. But a recent CVS poll finding that a sizable majority of Americans say his assessment of the economy doesn't reflect reality and that he's painting too rosy a picture. And since March, approval of his handling of the economy has steadily eroded by 15 points to just 36.

It comes as a major factor in the affordability equation for many Americans. The cost of healthcare is set to be front in Washington this holiday season. With affordable care out subsidies expiring at the end of the year and premiums set to skyrocket for millions. Treasury Secretary Scott Bess had teased an announcement on the issue this week.

But yesterday, press secretary Caroline Levitt largely dodged the issue and offered no timeline. I will tell you that healthcare is a topic of discussion that's happening very frequently and robustly. Inside the West Wing right now, the president's very much involved in these talks. And he's very focused on unveiling a healthcare proposal that will fix the system and will bring down costs for consumers as for the details of those discussions.

I'll let the president speak for himself. Now comes at a time where some in his party have flexed their independence from the president. Last week, a bill to force the release of the Epstein files, something the administration had resisted passed nearly unanimously. And a long time ally of the president, Marjorie Taylor Greene, announced her resignation from Congress after weeks of criticism of the president for what she sees as an abandonment of some key tenants of the magma movement.

Meanwhile, amid all of it, prosecutions of two of the president's perceived political foes have unraveled. Joining me now to talk about all of this, our new senior team at the White House, and that starts with Julie Circuit, John Allen. He's talking to voters in the swing state of Michigan. And Sal Hooker-Pour is on Capitol Hill to break it all down.

We also have Steve Kornacki at the big board. All right, Julie, let's start with you on the North Lawn. It's not a usual content for Turkey pardons. There was a lot of talk of the president and his achievements in things along those lines.

You know, how does the White House feel right now about its current situation and where things are in terms of the economy? Ryan, I might not be usual for other presidents and other Turkey pardons, but it is pretty typical in terms of the language and the rhetoric that we hear from President Trump at various events, from Turkey pardons to other more serious events happening with world leaders. And on the economy, I was here over the weekend as well. And it was very clear that the president has tried to put that top of mind.

Despite that polling that you see, he continues to try to elevate that issue, saying that his administration has been a great job on the economy, all the officials that were out on the Sunday shows this weekend making a point to tell that to the affordability issue, that he knows both so well from Amdani, the New York City Mayor, who liked who he had in his office on Friday, that is definitely something that he continues to try to highlight. I will tell you though, he did go out topic not just on the economy during this Turkey pardon, but also talking about his political rivals, making a joke that he wouldn't have part in Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi, even saying I shouldn't say that, also talking about other democratic rivals, including the past president Joe Biden, saying that he was in auto pen essentially to pardon the turkeys, which is something I know you have covered extensively as well. So making light of some of those topics, but following a series of setbacks, including with Democrats in Congress whom he had some tough words, some may say death threats to share for them after a group of them shared a video, essentially urging some military service members to ignore illegal order, something that is currently back and forth with his FBI and those members on Capitol Hill. Right, but Julie's got to do something on health care, right?

I mean, we are coming up to a deadline here at the end of the month. His own Treasury Secretary said that there was an announcement coming this week, but that appears to be not the case. Where do things stand right now in terms of the White House's approach to health care? That's a million-dollar question because we know during the government shutdown, of course, this was the biggest point from the Democratic side of the aisle in trying to hold out in reopening the government because they wanted Republicans in leadership by the president, which never fully happened and materialized, to promise to extend these expiring enhanced Affordable Care Act subsidies.

We know that the president directed some members on Capitol Hill to start working on a plan center. Will Cassidy has one center. Rick Scott released one of his own last week. But we also know that the president might have different feelings about these subsidies than Republicans trying to message on the Hill.

But this is something that Democrats did. The fact that they are expiring and that the Affordable Care Act needed to be subsidized is the fault of the Democrats. That's a tough message for any party to win an election as we've seen over the years. And certainly not something in terms of reality that the president wants to be carrying into the midterm election.

So the president may be at one point tried to form up some contours of a plan that would extend those subsidies in addition to perhaps providing people who are on the Affordable Care Act some flexibility using their health savings accounts. But just extending the subsidies is not going to fly with conservatives on the Hill. And I think that's where you saw some of the pushback in the hours after this was initially reported. Okay, Julie, thank you.

Let's move to Sahil to get the view from Capitol Hill. Obviously, health care is a major issue right now. Could he test the limits of the president's influence over his own party? In a second term, if he goes to them and says, guys, we need to extend these subsidies in some form or fashion, could they just?

Yeah, I absolutely will test the president's influence. Ryan, the first question is whether he actually releases a plan and is willing to fight for it here on Capitol Hill because whatever he does in that space, he's going to alienate some members of his party because Republicans are divided between those who want the Affordable Care Act funds to end entirely at the end of this year, mostly conservative members and those who want some form of extension of those funds who are mostly swing district members, not uncoincidentally because they have to win reelection while defending these premium hikes on their watch. So the question becomes, and the president do what he did earlier this year with conservatives on Capitol Hill. If he does want an AC funding extension, he was very adept at bending them to his will on things like passing government funding bills, appropriations bills, CRs, the big, beautiful bill, even the debt limit increase, which many House Republicans had never voted for before.

He was able to do that. Of course, he raised the question of the Epstein files, which was a major defeat for the president. If he does put out a health care plan, it will test whether the situation of the Epstein files when Republicans were willing to buck him, was it waft or whether that's a sort of a trend or whether president is losing his juice? Nevertheless, his own pollsters, President Trump's own pollsters have urged him to do something about extending the AC funds and warning him that it will be his party that gets blamed if they don't.

Yeah, there's a lot of front line Republicans that are concerned about that. So I'll stand by. We're going to come back to you in a second. But John, let's go and get the view of what things look like in Michigan.

This is obviously a key swing state. How much is affordability dominated the conversations that you're having with voters? It's everything, Ryan. I'm here in Lansing.

So I was just talking about politically competitive swing districts. There's one that surrounds Lansing. There's another one around where I was yesterday in Warren, Michigan, which is a suburb of Detroit that President Trump in April held his 100-day celebration where he told folks that prices were going to come down. But whether people are Republican or Democrats or independents, they told me that prices are through the roof.

And I think you can listen to some of that. You don't have to be deep into politics or deep into whatever to understand that things have gone up in price quite a bit. I thought gas prices would be a lot lower than what they are now. But they seem to be lagging.

Why did you think they'd be lower? Well, with all the drill, baby drill rhetoric, I thought that maybe they'd be lower by now. I think Biden and the administration had a good economy. And I think the Trump administration inherited that.

And we are still seeing that a year from now. I don't know. Well, I think things are still a little high, but we're still working on Biden's vote crap, you know. And next year when the beautiful bill goes into effects, things are going to get back more to normal, I believe.

And Ryan, as you can hear, people are frustrated, particularly with prices. They go to grocery stores, whether they're talking about beef, or they're talking, one gentleman talks to us about the cost of dog food, $300 a month for his three dogs. That's something they're very focused on. Also, interest rates for folks who are paying for mortgages are on car notes.

That is the topic of discussion. There will be plenty of time for them to focus on the race for the House and here in Michigan, also a big Senate race. But right now, they're just upset with how much things cost. It's interesting, though, John, that last while you talked to clearly, it seems to be a supporter of the president almost about his talking points, but he did concede that prices are too high.

I mean, how much longer do you think even the president's most die-hard supporters are willing to give him before things turn around? Well, it's interesting, Ryan. I think the folks who are the die-hard supporters are going to stay there. I think the problem for Republicans in Congress is that for some who are not die-hards, and even maybe for some who are die-hards, they may stay home, or even some, at least in that sort of independent swing group, might move over to a Democrat, talk to one guy today in Williamson, Michigan, who said that he's thinking about maybe just in the vote for Congress, voting for new blood next time.

That's the kind of thing that the National Republican Congressional Committee and the swing district Republicans are going to try to spend the next year tamping down. Obviously, they're hoping for a better turn in the economy. Yeah. OK.

John, thanks for that. Thanks for that reporting from the ground. So let's go back to you and talk about another key group that's probably going to play as big a role as any in the 26 midterms. They were a central focus of President Trump's success in 2024.

That's Latino voters. We're learning more and more that they're not a monolith. They're also not just going to follow one party orthodoxy. And definitely, what are you learning about Latino voters?

Yeah, that's right. Ryan, this was during my trip to Nevada last week. And the single biggest thing I heard from Latino voters there are that prices are so way too high. A food of groceries of housing, apparently car insurance premiums are soaring and going through the roof in Nevada.

Remember, Latinos are about one fifth of the Nevada electorate in 2020. Donald Trump lost that group by 26 points in 2024. He won them by two points. It's a stunning turnaround based primarily on the fact that Latino voters trusted over the Democrats and Kamala Harris to make the economy better in 2024 after several years of inflation.

I spoke to one Hispanic business owner, brewery in North Las Vegas who said that tariffs by the president are hurting his business. They've had to scale back canning of their own beers because the material, you know, the cost of those materials have been so high, which hurts distribution. They also see fewer customers in the brewery. In addition to that, there are immigration fears.

I talked to the leader of the local Latin Chamber of Commerce who said that some of his restaurant owners are worried that the chilling climate around deportation and raids are negatively impacting, you know, customers coming in. Now, the one bright spot, Ryan, is that Vegas still prides itself on being the entertainment and sports capital of the world. They hosted the Super Bowl last year, which brought in about a billion dollars. They hosted the Formula One race this past weekend, which is expected to bring almost that much.

It's everything in between those rare events where the Nevada economy is really struggling. And there's actually, oh, actually, thank you for that report. Appreciate the trip out to Las Vegas. Let's go to Steve Kornacke now for an opportunity to kind of tie everything together.

Steve, it's one thing for us to hear from voters on the ground. But then we have to look at the data to see if one or two anecdotal accounts of how voters are feeling actually is applying to everyone. What are the polls telling us right now about where things stand? You're right.

We're looking at numbers in the polls that have moved this fall and really moved I think starting with the government shutdown in a way that's concerning for the president and for his party. So take a look right now. This is the average, the real clear average, all the different polls that are out there right now in terms of Trump's approval rating 43% disapproval. You see is basically 55.

Here's the switch though from the start of the fall, basically from labor day. This is what it looked like. And again, remember, Trump as a president, his numbers have kind of been in a pretty narrow range historically speaking. And around labor day, he was doing, you know, by his own standard, his first and second term, he was doing pretty good.

4550 here, prove disapproved. And you can see that now that gap has more than doubled basically to 12 points in the course of the fall. And it really did accelerate during that shutdown in October. And we certainly saw that reflected, I think, in those results in New Jersey and Virginia.

Put this in some historical context here. Again, these are sort of modern presidents at this same point. We're looking at where their approval rating was. You see, again, we say Trump right now, 43%.

You know, this is basically a year out from the midterms for these previous presidents right here. And again, you see that Trump number, it's in basically that range. Remember, in the 2010 midterms, Obama and the Democrats got wiped out in 2013. Very bad midterm for the Democrats, 2018 Trump's first term, very bad midterm.

It was a blue wave, bad midterm for the Republicans. The interesting one here is Joe Biden, you see where his number was at this point in his term, the 22 midterms, the Republicans got control of the house, but it wasn't the red wave Republicans were expecting it actually was a Democrats held up better than they thought they were, especially given these numbers. Why? Because in those midterms and 22 Democrats ended up making Trump a big issue.

Trump ended up being a liability in some ways for Republicans in that midterm. And that's one of the things Republicans have kind of been hoping might help them in next year's midterms that Democrats, the Democratic Party's image has been so low in polling. And that's why I wanted to show you this. These are the two most recent polls we have since the November election about the views of each party.

Two polls so far. We'll see how this develops. You see the Republicans, 38 favorable, 39 unfavorable, well over 50 unfavorable in each one of these polls. Now, what we've been seeing for a while is that the Democrats were much more unpopular than Republicans, but in these two polls, not that big of a gap.

Look here in the Fox News poll, 3958 for the Republicans, 3958 for the Democrats in this economist. You got pull again, not much of a gap. So one of the things Republicans have been talking about is maybe being a bit of a boost for them in the midterms has been that the Democratic numbers had been so, so low in the two polls we've seen since the November elections, though, not a huge gap between the parties in these two polls. See if that's the start of a trend over the next year.

And we just end with this one, Ryan. This is the generic congressional ballot, which party do you want to control Congress? It's basically a five point advantage for Democrats right now. Now, at this same point in the 2018 cycle that Blue Wave midterm, it was twice as high.

So the climate is not that sort of five alarm, you might say, for the Republicans yet, but to be down five points a year out from the midterms with the trend lines were showing you that's very concerning for them. It does also seem that people just don't like any of the political parties on any level right now, Steve, and we'll have to see how that plays itself out in the midterm. Steve Kornaki has always terrific job. We appreciate it.

And it is the Tuesday before Thanksgiving. It's time to turn to a longstanding presidential tradition, the Turkey Pardon. This year's birds, gobble, and wattle rode the gravy train all the way from North Carolina to the people's house with wattle even making a pit stop in the briefing room this morning, where he received a warm welcome from the White House press corps next came the official pardon ceremony where President Trump served up clemency's for both turkeys. But as we mentioned, it did come with a heavy side of partisan politics.

The president carved into his predecessor and political opponents, joking that former president Joe Biden used an auto pen to issue last year's Turkey Pardon's. I have determined that last year's Turkey Pardon's are totally invalid. They're hereby null and void. The Turkey's known as pizza blossom last year, have been located and they were on their way to be processed.

In other words, to be killed. But I've stopped that journey and I am officially pardoning them and they will not be served for Thanksgiving dinner. When I first saw their pictures, I thought we should send them, uh, well, I shouldn't say this. I was going to call them Chuck and Nancy.

But then I realized I would be pardoning them. I would never pardon those two people. Politics aside, gobble and wattle are now off the chopping block and they will set to return home becoming Turkey ambassadors at North Carolina State. Though I'm not sure how safe they'll be in the wolf pack.

Get it. Speaking of Thanksgiving traditions, we will have special live coverage of the Macy's Thanksgiving day parade in North Carolina State. They're the wolf pack. That's a Thanksgiving day parade balloon inflation.

That's tomorrow at 2 p.m. Eastern right here on NBC News. Coming up though, progress and peril top U.S. and Russian officials meet in Abu Dhabi to hash out the details of a peace deal with Ukraine as Moscow bombs keep in a massive overhead attack.

We have new reporting on the rush to end the war. You're watching at the press now. Welcome back. President Trump appears to be cautiously optimistic about the progress made toward ending the war in Ukraine.

In a post on social media, President Trump says the initial 28-point plan has been fine tuned with input from both Russia and Ukraine saying there are only a few remaining points of disagreement. The president also says he's directing his special envoy Steve Whitcoff to meet with President Putin and Moscow while Army Secretary Driscoll meets with Ukrainians. It comes as U.S. Russian and Ukrainian officials are gathered in Abu Dhabi today after U.S.

and Ukrainian officials just met in Geneva. And today, Secretary Rubio participated in a virtual meeting with some European leaders. Now, despite the flurry of diplomatic efforts to end the war, Russia launched a wave of overnight strikes including on key, hitting a residential building and other civilian infrastructure. The mayor of Kyiv says seven people were killed and 20 others were injured in the attack.

Joining me now are NBC News Senior National Security Correspondent, Courtney QB and NBC News Chief International Correspondent, Kyiv Simmons. So, Courtney, where do things stand? It feels like this deal is never a deal until it's gone and maybe even passed then. But there does appear to be at least a degree of optimism from everyone involved.

Yeah. From the U.S. side and the Ukrainian side, definitely wearing some optimism. What's unclear is whether they're actually going to be able to resolve one of the main issues and that's just the territorial disputes here.

So what exactly will any Ukrainian land actually become Russian land? That's the real question is that that can never really be resolved here. But today, just in the last 12 hours or so, there has been this back and forth over whether maybe there is a deal, maybe there's not a deal. What we do know according to U.S.

officials is that Ukrainian delegation did inform the U.S. that they were willing to move forward with the deal as presented as you mentioned in these meetings that have been happening in the past few days, but it's just not clear if Russia is going to get there. What's remarkable about this is, number one, how quickly this has all been coming together. This has just been about a week now of meetings that started in key last week with Dandriscoll.

We just saw on screen there and some other army officials, they moved to Geneva, as you said, with Marco Rubio and Steve Whitkoff and Chair Kushner and others now into Abu Dhabi where Dandriscoll is leading a delegation discussing this with the Russians. But now we have officials who are saying, it's possible that we'll have President Zelensky sitting down with President Trump in Mar-a-Lago in the coming days, but the reality is it's not clear that any real agreement has been made between Russia and Ukraine, and that's what really matters. Yes, let's bring Kieran for that part of it. President Trump said that Steve Whitkoff is going to be meeting with President Putin in Moscow.

What are you watching for here? And is there any indication that Russia might be open to this? Yeah, I've been looking around for any shift in President Putin's stance, and so far there isn't any sign that he is changing his position. He's for a Minister Sergey Lavrov saying just today that they are expecting for there to be an agreement along the same lines, he says, as that which was set out between President Trump and President Putin at that summit in Alaska.

Now, of course, we don't know exactly what was agreed or what was talked about at that meeting, but the Russians are holding the line, if you like, in terms of their demands. One thing you can say about President Putin is that he has been clear and firm through these weeks and months, and even years about exactly what he wants, just exactly to the point the court he was making. He wants a certain amount of territory. He does not want Ukraine to have security guarantees.

He does not want to see NATO troops in Ukraine. And so while President Zelensky now is saying that he likes, effectively, perhaps not likes, but is comfortable with what's on the table at this stage, that's partly because it has been shifted away from Russian talking points towards more Ukrainian European talking points. The question isn't what President Zelensky thinks, the question is what President Putin thinks. Yeah, but is there a significant amount of pressure on President Zelensky to get a deal here?

And how significant is the role that European leaders are playing in shaping these negotiations, even if they're not directly involved? The Europeans are hugely significant, because although they continually are not brought to the table by the Trump administration in the negotiations, they kind of arrive late because they're not invited initially, they have the capacity to simply say no, and so does Ukraine. So they are very important. One of the things that's happening here is that the Europeans and the Ukrainians have understood that the one message you really send to President Trump is that you do want peace.

The Russians get that too. So both sides, we just heard the past few hours, Andrei Yomak, President Zelensky's kind of right-hand man, say no one say that Ukraine stands in the way of peace. The Russians understand that as well. So what you're seeing from both sides is a message, yes, yes, we do want to cease fire.

We do believe in negotiations, but that has to be in the terms that we see as our existential interests. And that's the real problem here. I mean, Courtney put it very well that there's a simple question of territory. That's one of the issues.

And the question is how do you resolve those things? The White House is talking about this as being some details that need to be worked out. These aren't details. They are fundamental to the whole conflict.

Yeah, part of the reason it's taken so long to come to some sort of an agreement here. Thank you for that. Courtney, let's go to you quickly though before we go. Dan Driscoll, not somebody that maybe a lot of our viewers are familiar with.

I mean, who is he? Can you make an effect that he's one of the leaders of this discussion? It's astonishing. I mean, frankly, it's a shocking decision by the Trump administration to put him in charge of this.

His background is he was in the army for a short time and he went to Yale Law School where he met a JD Vance who was slightly senior to him at Yale Law School. They became very close friends to this day. They remained very close friends with their families. When JD Vance got the knob, he was going to be the vice president of a running mate with Donald Trump.

He called Dan Driscoll and said, hey, come and help me. And Driscoll literally dropped everything he was doing and showed up and he campaigned with him for the next several months and became the army secretary. He has since he came into the Pentagon as the head of the civilian head of the army. The one thing I've been really struck by is he has been very open to admit the things he didn't know about the job when he came in.

He's taken a lot of advice from the military leaders, army leaders around him. And he has not been afraid to come in and flip some tables. He's come in and he's canceled legacy systems and contracts. He's working on issues like cleaning up housing, military barracks on basis, something that's been an issue for years.

And he's making enemies while he does it. But while he's also making making some enemies, he is really gaining the trust in the White House. And I think that's why we saw him. We've seen him in this diplomatic role.

I mean, putting him on the world stage, it's astonishing. And so far, especially what we heard from President Trump in the street social this afternoon, we're just praising him for what he's been doing, being able to do so far in the shuttle diplomacy. Okay, Courtney, thank you for that. Up next, politics and probes were falling new fallout as the FBI looks to interview a group of Democrats that President Trump accused of quote, seditious behavior for telling military troops they could disobey illegal orders.

Our panel is next. I'm gonna need the press. Now. Welcome back.

More fallout today over President Trump's attacks on democracy accuses of seditious behavior. The FBI now working to schedule interviews with those six Democrats who appeared in a video urging US service members not to comply with the legal orders. That's according to a person familiar with the efforts in a joint statement for of those Democrats accused the president of using the FBI as a tool to intimidate and harass members of Congress. The news coming a day after the Pentagon announced it was opening an investigation into one of those Democrats, Senator Mark Kelly, who served in the Navy for more than two decades as a pilot and retired as a captain.

The president called the video seditious behavior at the highest levels last week and called on the Democrats featured in it to be arrested and put on trial. We should know what potential federal crime offenses the FBI could be investigating remains unclear. I'm joined now by my panel, Susan Page, who's the Washington bureau chief for USA Today. And I just want to see, right, a Democratic strategist and founder and CEO of Blueprint Strategies and Landstrover, Republican strategist and former spokesperson for Doug Burgum's presidential campaign.

I invited you guys all in. So you can talk politics now so you don't have to worry about talking politics around the Thanksgiving table. So you guys are welcome for that. Susan, let's start with this attack by President Trump on these six Democrats.

And I keep thinking back to right before Donald Trump was charged when he was out of office with those penalties in New York and then ultimately investigation by Jack Smith. And at the time, Democrats were kind of rallying around these accusations and these charges. And it turned out to backfire on them in a big political way. But we see the same situation play out here with these attacks on these Democrats because they seem to be embracing the administration coming after them.

Yeah. As you noted, what crime were they accused of? They said that if you're a member of the military, you can and must disobey illegal orders. That's part of the military code of, you know, form, quote of conduct.

So they informed them of their obligation there. They didn't say anything about Donald Trump. Any illegal actions they were referring to, it was a provocative video, but wasn't an illegal one. It's hard for me to imagine anybody would look at any jury, any judge and say something illegal happened.

I'm going to start calling up for a court martial, you know, Navy veteran astronaut and charging with this. I think you would probably say, bring it on. Yeah. Lance, to Susan's point, you can quibble with the decision these Democrats made.

You can say this was a bad idea, but is it taking out a step too far to actually say they're guilty of some sort of crime? Well, I leave that up to the Department of Justice. But let's just think about what you just said. It's part of the code of conduct for the military.

We have the best trained military in the world. Why do they need six Democrats to come out and do a video to tell them that? The insinuation there is that they shouldn't be following orders. I think this is insubordination at a minimum.

I don't think we're too far off as a vicious behavior. I think it's something that absolutely should be taking a look at. And if you're not questioning this as an American, I think you should take a real hard look at what they're talking about. This is endangering our national security on the levels I haven't seen before ever.

The Democrats are so broken by Donald Trump. I think this is one of the dumbest things they've done in 10 years of Trump, and that is saying something. Lance, respectfully, I think you're going a little too far with how you're framing this. At the end of the day, the rule of law will prevail in this case, and I'm very confident in that because there will be life at the Donald Trump.

We also know this president has a history and political and mastering political retribution. We saw that with Comey. We saw that with his chains and others. And so this is far more nothing than a distraction from the real issues that Americans are facing.

And quite frankly, Donald Trump has a history of insulting those who serve that, who wear that uniform proudly. So, Lance, to kind of zero it on this, though, there is a difference in it. You can be critical of the decision these Democrats made all you want. You can make it a political issue.

You can run against them. But I'm asking using the uniform code of military justice, a court martial, using the Department of Justice to investigate it. I mean, it is what it is. The video is out there.

What's to be investigated? What is the reasoning for doing it? Why did they do it? I mean, why did they feel again?

If it's in the code of conduct, why do these members of the Democratic Party feel the need to make some video to tell members of the military what they already know they need to do and what they don't need to do? And so again, I think we should get to the bottom of what it is. Why they said it? I have no problem with the Department of Justice taking a look at this because again, at a minimum, in my view, it was encouraging insubordination.

And I think it does border unconsciousness. But now we're changing our tune a bit, Susan, respectfully, because before it was they was telling these Democrats were telling members of the military to ignore Donald Trump's orders. Now you're saying what we've all been saying, they did not say ignore Donald Trump or they said ignore illegal orders. That's the two totally different things.

You're saying one thing. You're saying one thing. Press Secretary saying one thing. And others.

The facts will be brought out in the court of law. The implication is clear with it. I don't think anybody's. No, no.

What? What? The decision though, that the guy's been cast here, right? The president decided he wants to take it into the courts and have a court system handle this, whether it's the military court or a regular court.

And we've already seen his acts of political retribution somewhat backfire on him, right? These case against James Comey and Letitia James, which I mentioned, they've been dismissed. The investigation into Adam Schiff has stalled. Is there an opportunity for Democrats to take advantage of this and put it backfire on President Trump?

You know, the biggest, I think the biggest potential for backfiring on President Trump is that this isn't what Americans care about. Americans don't care if James what happens with the James Comey case by and large of some Americans do, but most Americans don't. They care about what's going to happen with healthcare premiums when the Obamacare subsidies expire at the end of the year. And what's going to happen with grocery prices when I go to buy Thanksgiving dinner?

Those are the issues that Americans care about. And those are the issues that we see increasingly concerns about even some of the Americans who voted and elected Donald Trump that he's not paying attention to the issues that matter to them in their own life. So let's talk about one of those issues. And that is health care, which you mentioned, Susan.

I spoke yesterday to Republican Congressman Mike Kennedy of Utah. He is a doctor by trade, somebody who deals with health care on a day-to-day basis. I asked him about these health care premiums going up. And this is how he responded.

I'm eager to actually see what kind of policies we can put into place that are going to incentivize people to not only care about their own health care and have the right sort of incentives associated with their own health care, but also the costs associated with that health care when you have a third party pair and the people, the doctor and the patient are disengaged from that cost process. That's why we have one and a half trillion dollar demand associated with the Schumer shutdown and these Obamacare subsidies, which are not, there's so much waste, fraud and abuse associated with what's happening right now. So Lance, I want to try and zero in on this issue, specifically of the premium subsidies being extended. And it's something that President Trump's pollsters have told him that Americans want to see extended, that there could be a political cost associated with it.

But I really pressed Dr. Kennedy on this over and over again, and he said he has no interest in these subsidies being extended without significant and meaningful reform. Is there any scenario where House Republicans in particular will provide Mike Johnson or Donald Trump the votes to extend those health care subsidies, especially before December 31st? Well, I just want to take a step back.

Democrats created Obamacare. They created these subsidies and they set the day to end these subsidies. Now it's on Republicans to somehow clean up the mess that Democrats created. I disagree with you.

I disagree with you. No, I'm just noting that now the spin from the left is, now it's on Republicans to go ahead and solve this problem. It's on election. I'm getting against Obamacare.

So now it's their job. Yeah. And that's where my follow up is. I think it will behoove Republicans to come out with a package, whether it's on subsidies or whatever, and put it onto the Democrats, because I don't think there's any scenario where Democrats are going to sign on and say yes to something Donald Trump says, I encourage Republicans to step up to the plate, put something out there, because they're never going to go along with something.

What if they do with Donald Trump? Put something on the table that extends those subsidies, but also requires Democrats maybe to give on some other areas of health care? Are they willing to come to the table and make it? That's just to the conversation.

Seventy times in 15 years Republicans have tried to repeal and displace millions of Americans who enjoy the Affordable Care Act in one, number two, the party in charge earlier this year voted to implement the largest cut in American history, the health care, a trade dollar cut to Medicaid. And now we've talked about concepts of a plan for 15 years. What Republicans cannot run away from is the 18.2 million Americans in place that Donald Trump won in the last election. Who enjoyed those subsidy?

79% of Americans, Democrats, Republicans, and independents want those subsidies to continue. So I welcome this health care of this health care affordability conversation. I'm advocating for it. You guys will never go along with it.

The health care of the health care of the bill to continue. Susan, I'll let you have the last word here. If there isn't some sort of solution on health care, who are voters going to play? What are they going to blame?

They're going to blame the people who are in charge who control the White House, the House and the Senate. And this proved to be a very powerful issue, just the prospect of it. In the off-year elections, it will be an if it's not fixed. And I don't believe there's a scenario where it gets fixed.

It's going to be a huge issue in next year's midterm. Okay. Well, great guys. Thanks.

You got it all out of your system now. You're talking about football and grandkids and all those things. Exactly. I appreciate it.

I appreciate it being here. I appreciate it. I appreciate it. Still to come.

Meet one of the Democratic state lawmakers running to replace Iowa's Republican Senator Joni Ernst. That interview is next. I'll need the press now. Welcome back after a series of sweeping election night victories earlier this month.

Democrats are now turning their attention to the 2026 midterms, including in Ruby Red States like Iowa, where incumbent Senator Joni Ernst announced earlier this year she will not seek re-election. The battle for that open seat is already heating up with five candidates jumping into the Democratic primary. One of those candidates is State Senator Zach Wall, who gained national attention in 2011 for a viral speech testifying at the Iowa State House in support of same-sex marriage and is sharing his experience of being raised by two mothers. And joining me now is Democratic State Senator Zach Wall's of Iowa.

He's running for the Senate seat that's currently being held by Senator Joni Ernst. Thank you so much for being here, Senator. You've called yourself a new generation of Democrats, part of a new generation of Democrats. You've also made headlines.

You called on Senator Schumer to step down during the shutdown fight. In what ways do you think the Democratic party needs to change and why are you the candidate that represents that change? Right. It's great to be here and excited to have the chance to connect today.

You know, as we've been traveling all over the state going back to June when we launched this campaign, we heard from Iowans whether we're in big cities, small towns, all over the state about the cost of living crisis, out of control, corruption in Washington, D.C. It's crushing working class families, middle class families, retirees. We need folks in the Democratic party who are going to be laser focused on these issues. That is what this campaign is all about.

We need to take our government back from the billionaires, the big corporations that are doing better than ever. So we can actually build an economy that works for us, not just people at the very top. You mentioned that Senator Ernst has seen the strength of our campaign. She actually dropped out of the race just about a week after a poll found us leading her and had to imagine next November.

So we're really excited about the opportunity. So you talk about finding ways to bring down the cost of living. Do you think I always want to see someone who's just going to fight the current administration or do you need to be able to work with the administration to try and bring down the cost? Because if you're just fighting and not getting anything done, how's that help?

Yeah, Brian, it's a great question. What I would say is if the president or Republicans in the Congress put forward ideas that are actually good for the state of Iowa, I will work with anybody that might constituents exactly what I've done in the state Senate and certainly what I would do in the U.S. Senate. But unlike Ashley Hinson, who's been a rubber stamp for an agenda from the White House that has exploded costs in our state, I will stand up to the president when he wants to do things that are bad for our state.

And fundamentally, that's what this campaign is all about. Are we going to have somebody who works, whether it's for Chuck Schumer or Donald Trump or the billionaires or the big corporations, or are we going to have a senator who works for Iowans? And that's why I'm running for the U.S. Senate.

And I'll tell you, when it comes to Ashley Hinson, not all of your viewers may know, she's a MAGA Congresswoman from North East, it's funny, when she first got into the race back in September, I was saying she's kind of like the Midwestern, Marjorie Taylor Greene. But obviously I'm looking for a new comparison these days because MTG looks pretty moderate compared to Ashley Hinson. So I'm open to suggestions. That's interesting though that you describe her as a MAGA Congresswoman in somewhat of a negative context, especially because President Trump has been pretty popular in Iowa.

He won the state by 13 points. You haven't had a Democratic senator in more than a decade. How do you think that the Democratic brand could be better this time around and what are Democrats doing to try and win back what has really been a difficult period of time for you in Iowa politics? Well, look, I would push back on the characterization of Iowa as Ruby Rad.

There's no doubt that the president has had success here over the last three election, presidential elections. We still have a Democratic statewide elected official. We had some very close elections in 2022, even though that was a type of circle for Democrats here in the state. And we now have multiple competitive U.S.

House races. And I would say a very competitive U.S. Senate race. Again, as we've been traveling all over the state, what we've been hearing from people is that whether it's the tariffs that have done huge damage to our state's ag economy cuts from the Republican budget to things like rural hospitals, to food assistance, people are really unhappy.

That's why we've been able to win endorsements, not just from Democrats, but even some independents and Republicans, because people know that this campaign is about putting Iowa's first in. Anyone who wants to learn more, get involved, go to our website, sackwells.com to see heck of a lot more about what the campaign is doing. You mentioned affordability a couple of times already in this interview. It's obviously a major issue for voters heading into 2026.

We saw some elections earlier this month. We saw kind of two wings of your party that were successful in that pitch. You saw Mayor like Manami in New York, but you had the more moderate approach of the Governor Alex Spamberger in New Jersey and Virginia. Where do you rank on that spectrum?

Are you warm on? Donnie or more Spamberger? Spamberger. I say Ryan, I'm an Iowa Democrat.

That means making sure that we have an economy that works both in big cities like Des Moines or Iowa City, College of Channel where I grew up, I lived now next door in suburban community in Corville, or in the small towns of rural communities that I represented over in Cedar County and Muscatine County, both Pivot counties that Barack Obama carried twice in that then Donald Trump won in 2016, 2020, and 2024, and sometimes people ask me like, what has been the president's appeal in Iowa? And I would say fundamentally, it's that he's been the one who's been able to take on the establishment. Now, if you look at the actual consequences of his policies, it has actually made life a lot harder for people in our state over the last 10 months, and I don't think that there's anything that they're currently putting forward that's actually going to lower costs going forward. So that's the real difference now, and why does it really make opportunity here?

People don't like what they're seeing here in Iowa or across the country, and they're ready for a change, we say. It's time to rotate the crops. But it's likely that Republicans are going to try and tie you specifically to Mondai. That's a formula that they've been testing and races all across the country.

I mean, do you agree with his message of affordability as a path to affordability, some of the policies that he's promoting? Where do you, how do you view the pitch that he's making to voters and his plans for New York City? Yeah. Look, again, I don't live in New York.

I live in Iowa. We're a very long ways away. But what I did appreciate was that he, you know, had a, sounds like a productive conversation with President Trump in the White House, and hopefully you'll start to see some things happen that can actually get the cost of living crisis under control, whether you're in Brooklyn, New York or Brooklyn, Iowa. There's certainly, you know, a lot of places all over the country that are filling the effects of this right now.

And that's a big part of why I do think there's an incredible opportunity here in Iowa. Again, it's going to require a campaign like ours that's laser focused on these issues of affordability, focused on tackling political corruption. We always talk about the need to overturn Citizens United, I support strong term limits, banning congressional stock trading, because there's a link between the broken economy that's working great for people at the very top and not for middle class families and the corruption of our political system. And that's a message that's resonating, not just with Democrats, but with independents and Republicans as well.

Well, as a political reporter, there's been almost all those towns that you name check there. In Iowa, many times, I wish you the best of luck as you travel across your state. Senator Zach Wall, thank you so much for joining us. Have a happy Thanksgiving.

Thanks, Ryan. You too. Still ahead, Sudan, in crisis, one of the worst world, one of the worst humanitarian catastrophes is facing yet another setback. I'll talk to the leader of a global aid about the situation on the ground as the civil war rages on.

Stay with us. I'll meet the press now. Welcome back a major setback today to efforts to end one of the world's most devastating wars. Sudan's top general has rejected a proposed ceasefire offered by U.S.-led mediators.

The general calling it the offer the worst yet. The war between Sudan's military and a paramilitary group began more than two and a half years ago. It's killed more than 40,000 people, according to the U.N. It has also forced more than 14 million people to flee their homes and has lent out widespread famine.

President Trump even vowing last week to put more effort into ending the war when pressed by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. I said, eight wars, and I'll tell you, his majesty would like me to do something very powerful, having to do with Sudan. It was not on my charts to be involved in that. I thought it was just something that was crazy and out of control.

But I just see how important that is to you and to a lot of your friends in the room. Sudan, we're going to start working in Sudan. I didn't think that was one that was going to be so easy to do. And with me now is Jada Duan McKenna, she's the CEO of Mercy Corps, an international group that addresses humanitarian crises worldwide.

Jada, talk to us about the situation in Sudan. What are the conditions on the ground like right now? This is the world's worst humanitarian crisis ever recorded. You have widespread famine in parts of the country.

Colorado has been confirmed affecting about 120,000 people. Our team members themselves report people looking to eat animal-free peanut shells, really scrounging for food. A lot of people have been under siege, unable to move. We have a situation in al-Fashur right now where about 100,000 people are said to have tried to flee.

And only a little bit over 10,000 of them have actually reached a final destination. We also have a lot of confirmed reports of just awful violence. Rapes, torture, kidnapping, 70% of the hospital facilities destroyed. It's just a devastating situation that the people of Sudan have been in for far too long.

And as we mentioned, Sudan's talk generally just rejected a proposed ceasefire that was proposed by a US-led mediator. Are there any prospects for an end to the fighting anytime soon? We've had two years of this fighting and ceasefires that have been rejected or not held up. I hope that President Trump was sincere and is committed and we'll keep trying to work on a solution so that this no is not a final no, that people of Sudan don't deserve that.

You said it'll talk to us a little bit about the famine and the starvation. Is it possible to get any sort of relief into the area while the fighting is raging? I mean, how difficult has that made that process? It's very difficult.

However, Sudan has a very strong network of local organizations that are ready to work and moving around and doing their work, even as they themselves fight for that survival. We also have local teams on the ground. So we have a network of local Sudanese organizations that we've been working with in addition to our own people who are able to move around. It's very difficult.

We need more supplies in and it's very dangerous, but people are healthy. Okay. You mentioned President Trump. You're hoping that he's sincere about his efforts.

He has said that he wants to put more resources into ending the war in Sudan. What would that look like to you? What could President Trump do to actually try to bring this to an end? You know, this is a political mediation and a lot of different parties and countries have affiliations or relationships with the different sides of the war parties.

I do think the United States is uniquely positioned and I do hope that we continue to engage and try to work with our allies and others to bring this to an end, but we just need the sustained political attention on this. So that was what I was going to ask is just the fact that President Trump's talking about it. Is that draw the type of attention to the crisis? It makes people aware of it?

Could that alone or not alone? But could that go a long way to helping bring this to an end? We're encouraged when anyone talks about this because this has been the ignored crisis for a long time. It really has sustained attention, right?

So this ceasefire was rejected. Let's go back to the table. Let's keep the conversations going. Let's figure out how we get to a yes and what pressure needs to be applied.

Now is the time. And you mentioned that famine is a reality there already that people are starving. How much food and aid is needed right now? And if people were to donate, could they have confidence that it's going to get to the people who need it?

Yes, it's hard to say Sudan is a large country and I don't have the exact figures of what's needed. What I can tell you, what is needed to move that and to make it more available is we need complete, we need an immediate ceasefire for people to be able to move around for civilians to be safe. And we also need fully humanitarian access. There are areas of the country where we have not been able to get outside goods in, but there are areas of the country where there still are outside goods.

Markets within Sudan are still working to function. So we have been working through local NGOs to get direct assistance there. Well, thank you so much for bringing this to our attention. We appreciate it.

We appreciate you being here and we wish you a nice safe and happy Thanksgiving. And that's going to do it for us on Meet the Press Now. Thank you so much for watching. Have a very, very happy and safe Thanksgiving.

There is more news ahead on NBC News Now. I'm Craig Malef, cheers. Cheers. Cheers.

I've always been a glass half full kind of guy. And now I'm talking to some people who look at the world that way too. Some really fascinating folks who shared their good finding moments, their triumphs, their challenges, their stories are funny and you might get it. So I hope you'll join me each week.

And who knows? You might just come away with your own glass half full. Which glass half full with Craig Malef from today on YouTube and wherever you get a podcast.