Meet the Press NOW — October 1

Welcome to a very special edition of Meet the Press Now live from New York on this very busy Tuesday. In just a few hours, Governor Tim Walz and Senator JD Vance will take the stage for the first and only vice presidential debate in what is very likely the final debate before election day, which is now just five weeks away. But of course, we do begin with breaking news from the Middle East. After Iran launched a massive barrage of nearly 200 missiles at Israel today, the latest escalation in the ongoing regional conflict.

Iran's Revolutionary Guard court called the attack retaliation for the Israeli strikes that killed the leaders of both Hamas and Hezbollah. This was the scene in Tel Aviv earlier as sirens blared, warning people to seek shelter. Loud bombs could be heard, and you can see those flashes of light there as Israel's Iron Dome intercepted Iran's missiles, such as a stunning sight in the sky. A similar scene unfolded simultaneously in Jerusalem, the barrage of missiles coming in several waves.

A spokesperson for the Israeli military says most of the missiles were intercepted. The early assessment from both Israeli and US officials is that they are not aware of casualties. As the attack unfolded in Israel, President Biden and Vice President Harris met with their national security teams in the White House Situation Room, the president directing the US military to assist in shooting down any missiles targeting Israel. At the White House briefing today, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan called the attack a significant escalation by Iran.

Listen, obviously, this is a significant escalation by Iran, a significant event, and it is equally significant that we were able to step up with with Israel and create a situation in which no one was killed in this attack in Israel. So far as we know it this time, we are proud of the actions that we've taken alongside Israel to protect and defend Israel. We have made clear that there will be consequences of your consequences for this attack and we will work with Israel to make that the case. And we have got a huge team to start us off joining me now.

NBC's Aaron McLachlan is in Jerusalem. NBC's Courtney QB is at the Pentagon. NBC's Monica Alba is outside the White House and I'm also joined by retired Lieutenant General Steph Twitty, former deputy commander of US European Command and in NBC News military analyst Aaron. I have to start with you in the region.

Talk about how successful Israel was at defending itself in this instance and does Israel believe that this is the extent of Iran's retaliation or are they bracing for more? Well, Christian, at this point, Iran says the attack is over unless Israel decides to retaliate. We just heard there from the NSA's Jake Sullivan say that the attack was, quote, defeated and ineffective. We also just heard from an Israeli military spokesperson say that more than 180 missiles were fired from Iran toward Israel.

A majority of those missiles were intercepted by Israel as well as a defensive coalition that this spokesperson said was led by the United States unclear at this point if other countries were involved. This military spokesperson said that there was limited damage done in central Israel as a result of the missiles that somehow made it through that defense system. And also, there were impacts in southern Israel in terms of casualties. We are hearing that two people were lightly wounded as a result of this missile strike that according to Israeli medics.

Israeli officials are calling this a significant escalation. And Aaron, of course, the question becomes what happens next based on your conversations with your sources as Israel signaled one way or another whether it intends to respond with a direct attack? Well, the Israeli military spokespeople are saying that there will be a response. The question, of course, will be how will that response be calibrated a number of factors will play into that and sort of to give you a sense of perspective here.

The last time that Iran launched a barrage of missiles on Israel was back in April at the time. Iran launched and estimated according to Israeli military sources 110 to 120 missiles this time, 180 ballistic missiles. So this is a significant escalation. That will be a factor in Israel's response also will be a factor.

The fact that there were only two people according to Israeli medics lightly wounded, the damage done Israeli military spokesperson saying that a school was hit in central Israel as a result of the attack. So all of that will go into how Israel will calibrate their response. But I do think it is worth pointing out how according to the Israeli military, the US was a lead in that defensive coalition. And what the US wants will also be a very significant factor in terms of calibrating that response.

And what we know the US has been adamant about throughout this entire fraught time period is a de-escalation, the United States very much wants to avoid that that regional war. And we heard President Biden just over the weekend, Aaron, in fact, say that what he wants to see is a ceasefire agreement, Aaron underscoring the fact that the tensions continue to escalate in the region. There were also reports of gunfire in Tel Aviv. What more can you tell us about that?

Yeah, that's right. That was an attack that happened just before this missile strike, just before 730 local time, according to the Israeli police, two gunmen opened fire in Jaffa, which is near Tel Aviv. They were apparently on a local train. They got off the train.

And then one of the gunmen began indiscriminately firing, killing 6 and wounding 9. Both of the gunmen have been shot and killed by Israeli police. That according to Israeli officials, medics were on the scene. It was really a really chilling scene there in Jaffa tonight.

Aaron McLaughlin, thank you so much for your fantastic reporting from the region. Please continue to stay safe, my friend. We really appreciate it. Courtney, QB, let me turn to you.

You and I have been tracking working our sources throughout the weekend into this week as the region really braced for a potential counter attack by Iran retaliation in the wake of Israel, of course, taking out the leader of Hezbollah. What are your sources telling you about what might happen next, Court? Everything is on the table, frankly, at this point. I mean, candidly, there is a widespread belief that Israel will respond in some way, but it's really not clear at this point what they may do.

Now, I will say we keep getting directed back to what happened in April. And I will say so far that guidance has been pretty accurate. In April, Iran launched over 300 projectiles. The vast majority of them were shot down.

Israel responded quickly with a pretty targeted strike inside Iran that more than anything else was really intended to send a message to Iran that Israel has the ability to strike well inside the country and to really hold their nuclear facilities at risk here. The question is, today's attack, where it is similar to April's, is that it was hundreds of projectiles, but it was a little bit different in scale in that even though there were fewer total projectiles, ballistic missiles simply have a different message and a different impact than some of the projectiles and even the lawyering munitions that Iran launched back in April. What I mean is these are precise weapons. They move, frankly, much faster at a ballistic trajectory and then something like a smaller drone.

And they have the potential to have a much bigger payload and have a much bigger impact on the ground. They're also difficult to intercept. I mean, after years of conflict, I think people may lose sight of just how difficult it is to intercept a ballistic missile. We're literally talking about essentially hitting a bullet with a bullet here to take these things down.

So when you look at what happened today, upwards of 200 of these ballistic missiles, it seems that the vast majority of them were actually intercepted by various systems. It is quite a feat. But all that being said, the fact that they were all so far that we know of ballistic missiles used in this attack today, it does escalate in or it is more serious than we saw in April, even though the total number of projectiles was actually less. So all that is that it stands to reason that Israel would respond in some way.

We've been asking officials, if US officials and others may be urging them not to, you'll remember an April President Biden saying to Bibi Netanyahu take the win after they knock down the vast majority of the projectiles fired then. We haven't heard that same kind of language yet at this point yet, Kristen. It's such an important point and reminder there, Courtney, and just to be really clear and so fascinating to hear you talk about the differences between this attack and the attack in April. And as you mentioned, the US really did help to intercept a number of those missiles that were fired back in April.

What role did the Pentagon play in this attack, Court? So it seems for now it was a smaller role in the total number of projectiles or missiles that the US was involved in here. We know that they fired at least 12 interceptors, because it's not even clear if all those interceptors actually struck an incoming missile or not. The Pentagon's is still assessing that and trying to figure it out.

So it does seem like the US from a purely defensive position or role was slightly smaller than it was back in April. What we don't know is whether the US was involved in helping the Israelis detect the missiles when they were launched. So remember, the US military has a series of ground-based and sea-based radars throughout the region. They have the ability to detect a ballistic missile when it fires within seconds to help with trajectory with where it could land.

We don't yet know if the US was able to share that information with the Israelis. Courtney, QB of the Pentagon, thank you so much. We really appreciate all your great information. As always, Monica, let me go to you outside of the White House.

You've obviously been all over this story since early this morning, talking to your sources. Take us behind the scenes as this was all unfolding. What was happening at the White House while these missiles were being launched? Well, we know, Kristen, that since early this morning, President Biden, Vice President Harris and their top national security officials were huddled.

We're convening. We're trying to figure out, based on these indications, when this attack was going to take place. And then there were a series of situation room meetings and they were monitoring, as you see there, the events in real time. And I can tell you that we just heard from President Biden on this for the first time on camera, since this has happened today, he was in a spray related to the devastation from Hurricane Helene and he was asked by reporters.

And he echoed some of the things we heard from national security adviser Sullivan. But he did talk about specifically how this attack was ineffective. It was defeated by Israel's own air defense capabilities and systems with an assist from the US and the president underscored something that we've heard him say dozens of times in the last year or so, which is that the US, and I quote, he said, is fully, fully, fully supportive of Israel. So expect that to be something that the administration continues to talk about.

But at the same time, they are teasing that there will be some kind of a response to Israel that's appropriate, that will have some consequences, and that that's something that the US and Israel will be discussing and that there could be some kind of larger conversation about what that looks like now when that takes place. That's an open question as you've been discussing. But the president all day long behind the scenes here was monitoring this. We know that key security officials were speaking to their counterparts, for instance, the Secretary of Defense and others, certainly as this was ongoing.

And this is a case where really right now the US is saying they're very encouraged by the fact that there don't appear to be any Israeli deaths connected specifically to the barrage of missile attacks. But they're also stressing that the fog of war in these moments means that things are fluid and things can still change. But the president's top priority in all of this Kristen, as you know, has been to try to tamp down the temperature to be sure that there isn't a wider war and it's this kind of backwards thinking you could say a little bit that something like what we saw today could imply that that will be the case that you sort of escalate to then deescalate. Now, whether that is a reality, that's still very, very fluid, but that certainly with the White House has been talking about and hoping for, but it's unclear now in terms of the response in the region, what that means and how that can escalate.

Monica, thank you so much for your great reporting. And we are going to play that sound you just alluded to from President Biden. Here's the question words about Iran's missile attack on Israel today. That my direction in the United States military actively supported the defense of Israel, and we're still assessing the impact.

But based on what we know now, the attackers have had defeated and ineffective, and this is testament to Israeli military capability and U.S. military. I'm also a testament to intensive planning between the United States and Israel to anticipate and defend against it, raise of attack we expected. Make no mistake, the United States is fully fully supportive of Israel.

And I just got into spending morning and part of the afternoon in the situation room, and meeting with my whole national security team, and consulting with the Israelis directly because of their impact on us. And the national security team has been, as I said, constant contact with Israeli officials in the counterparts. And this is going to continue to be brought to me throughout the day. We're still out to share updates, and when we get them, and we'll do that, and now I want to turn to what we're going to talk about today.

The damage done by this is hard working. My top priority, and I mean, it's a lot of my top priority is to ensure the communities devastated by this hurricane, get the help and support they need as quickly as possible, as quickly as possible, as we watch the storm from a Gulf region forum. And we were just listening to President Biden for the first time speak on camera and address the Iran missile attack on Israel, making it very clear that the United States stands firmly with Israel that the U.S. is still assessing the situation.

I want to go out to Lieutenant General Steph Twitty, Lieutenant General, I'd like your reaction to what you just heard from President Biden also, what you're anticipating in terms of a response from Israel. Good to be with you this afternoon. What I'll tell you about the response with Israel, I don't think it's a question about if Israel will respond, it's about when. If you can imagine, think about 200 ballistic missiles being attacked or shot at the United States.

Would we defend the country and would we also attack the country that did that to us? And so Israel views Iran as an existential threat, and I think they will retaliate, and I think they have an opportunity to weaken Iran just like their weak and Hezbollah, that we can Hamas. I also think they'll go after the IRGC and Syria and Iraq, and we could anticipate them going after the nuclear capability in Iran. So that's sort of how I see things as we go through the evening.

Is there at this point, because we heard President Biden over the weekend say that what he wants to see ultimately is a de-escalation of these tensions, and he wants to see at least a temporary ceasefire, is there any off-ramp at this point? How do these tensions begin to start to simmer down, if what we are seeing are these continued escalations, Lieutenant General? As you know, this is multi-complex. You first have to start with October the 7th, and you know that's still simmering, and Hamas is still simmering, and the Israelis are still fighting in Gaza, although the tension is now on Hezbollah and Iran.

And then we have the issue with the Houthis, who are in solid area with Hamas and Gaza, and then we have Hezbollah in the North. They continue to fire missiles into Northern Israel, distillating 60,000 or so Israelis. And then we have the Iran, the big daddy of them all, that's controlling things. And so, in order to tamper this down, it starts with Iran.

And that's where I see the Arab communities coming in to try and help out in this situation, folks like Carter, Jordan, Saudi, stepping up to help out here. But until we get the situation in Gaza and in control, I think we'll continue to see these type of actions, the simmering and bawling over actions, both in Israel, Iran, and proxies. All right, Lieutenant General Seth, Tony, thank you so much for bringing us, your expertise and your insights today. We really appreciate it.

And coming up, Countdown to debate night in America, we're live in the spin room, ahead of tonight's running make match up with Governor Tim Walz and Senator JD Vanz, set to meet just hours from now. And before we go to break, we're taking a look back at memorable moments from past VP debates. In 1984, Geraldine Ferraro made history as the first female vice presidential candidate and pushed back against then vice president George H.W. Bush when he seemed to condescend to her.

Take a look. Let me help you with the difference between Iran and the embassy in Lebanon. Iran, we were held by a foreign government. In, in Lebanon, you had a wanton, terrorist action where the government opposed it.

Let me just say, first of all, did I almost resent Vice President Bush, your patronizing attitude that you have to teach me about foreign policy. Welcome back. As we mentioned, the unrest in the Middle East is just one of several major news stories with potential far-reaching political consequences that we're tracking as the vice presidential nominees prepare for their first and only debate. This is potentially the last debate between any of the candidates with former President Trump yet to agree to a second debate against vice president Harris.

Both campaigns have been seeking to temper expectations for their candidates. With the Harris campaign saying their plan is to let Governor Walz be himself against a more experienced debater in Senator Vance. And the Trump campaign describing Walz as a veteran politician who is quote, very good in debates. But when former President Trump was asked by our own Garrett Hake about why he hasn't given his running mate any direct debate advice, Mr.

Trump said quote, he doesn't need a lot of advice. He's a pro. It comes as our latest NBC news poll shows Governor Two Walz is viewed more positively among voters than any candidate on either ticket with Senator Jamie Vance at the bottom. Joining me now from the spin run is NBC's Garrett Hake covering the Trump campaign and NBC's senior White House correspondent Kelly O'Donnell who has the very latest from the Harris campaign.

Garrett, let me start with you. You spoke to Donald Trump about what he wants to see for Vance tonight. What were your key takeaways? Well, of course, I don't think it's too much of a surprise.

He wants Jamie Vance to be aggressive and he wants him to be aggressive, particularly on the issue of immigration, which has been the animating issue for Donald Trump throughout his political career and also on inflation. I think ironically probably both of these men have the same person they want to talk about the most tonight. And that's Kamala Harris. I think we're going to see Jamie Vance on the attack tonight.

And you know, as with all things with Trump, I'm sure Donald Trump wants to hear some positivity from Vance about him. But I think really we're going to see Vance in that traditional attack on the world tonight. And Kelly O, let me go to you. What is the Harris campaign strategy for Governor Tim Wall's heading into tonight?

The stakes, quite frankly, could not be higher for him. Well, it's an opportunity, they believe, to tell the story of the Harris Wall's ticket, the plan for the country and to try to focus on voters and not on any skirmishes between the two candidates. They really want him to stay on point. They expect that Jamie Vance will try to get under his skin.

We'll try to provoke him. We'll challenge him directly. And the plan, according to the prep they've been working on, is to be able to kind of wall that off and be able to speak to voters about the things they think matter most to them. And certainly, this is one of those, they call it a data point in the campaign.

Not one of the marquee events, although we would all argue, it's one of the big events, trying to tamp down expectations. And Governor Wall's has done debates during his campaigns for Governor and to some extent, in his time in Congress. But they like to focus on the fact that a Yale educated lawyer like JD Vance, even though he's new to the national political scene, is a very skilled debater. And so they're trying to present Governor Wall's as the likable coach dad and father who will be speaking in a way that connects to voters.

So they're going to try to position him that way tonight, Kristin. Garrett, you know, it's interesting because if you look back at past Vance debates, he does not shy away from being combative. I've spoken to some Trump allies, they say, okay, fine, be combative, but also he's got to walk that fine line. He's got to try to win over some of those undecided, those moderate voters who don't find him to be likable.

And quite frankly, or turned off by things like conspiracy theories. What are you hearing in that regard? Are we going to get a combative Senator JD Vance tonight, Garrett? That's my expectation.

I mean, likability has never been Vance's political strength. And I don't mean that to sound particularly derogatory. That's just not his style. He wants to go out and be a fighter.

He wants to be someone who can kind of translate the whole MAGA movement to a broader audience. But he's not going to go out there to try to make himself the most popular person on that debate stage. That's never been the Trump strategy overall. They believe that when this is all said, none of these four candidates are going to be popular.

So I do think it's going to be mostly attack from Vance. He has experience not really on the debate stage. I've only run for office once, but he's pretty skilled at parrying with reporters. He did it in the halls of Congress quite often when I was just starting to cover him.

And he does it still on the campaign trail. Now he uses the audience as a prop sometimes, but he does it almost every single event. So I think it'll be good on his feet on that sort of thing. That's right.

Exactly. A lot of reps with sometimes hostile questions. But in terms of selling himself and raising his own favorability, I'd be surprised. I'm not sure he cares about that.

That isn't the thing that drives him. Whereas walls has this dad energy that they say something that cuts both ways, I suppose. And that he has been able to use humor and to have sort of an online presence that has been sort of additive that the Harris team thinks. And they really hope that he can try to reach voters who haven't decided yet.

And one of the things that the walls and Harris side say about JD Vance is they think he is going to be playing at least two apart to the audience of Donald Trump. Another safe bet. Yeah, an audience of one for Senator JD Vance. But Kelly, let me follow up with you.

Because when I talk to allies of vice president Harris and governor walls, their big concern is, quite frankly, this is one of his big, if not only unscripted events that we will have seen him in since he got into this campaign. Is he ready to counter punch if Senator Vance goes on the attack? Well, one of the things they have told me is that their preparation with people to judge playing Senator Vance was focused on not being pulled into that kind of a back and forth, but trying to stick to his own message. One of the curious things about this is that Tim Walz really propelled himself to the running mate short list by his ability to be good on television as a surrogate for Kamala Harris and Democrats broadly even President Biden when he was still in the race.

And we have not seen a lot of that. He's been doing what they say are constituent media, which can be podcasters and local groups and that kind of thing. He's not done a lot on the national stage since he's been a candidate out on the campaign trail all the time, but not as much on the interview and maybe the back and forth of the unscripted moment. So that could be a test for him tonight.

Certainly will be Kelly Owen Garrett. Great one, two punch from the spin room. Really appreciate both of your joining me. And we are going to speech representatives from both campaigns in just a moment.

But first, I want to turn to the ongoing devastation across the Southeast. Of course, this is following Hurricane Helene. The White House now says that President Biden will travel to North and South Carolina tomorrow to survey the historic levels of damage in places like Asheville. Parts of North Carolina remain without power still and running water.

The state's governor says communities quote were wiped off the map. At least 134 people have died as a result of Helene and many are still accounted for. FEMA officials said today that the Red Cross has received 3,000 new requests from people looking for loved ones in the past 24 hours. And with just five weeks to go until election day, the hurricane is causing significant disruptions to election activities in North Carolina.

A dozen election offices are closed and mail service is suspended to many areas of the state where 190,000 ballots were mailed last week. Some of those ballots are likely delayed or even destroyed. Election officials today urging patients as they work to evaluate what needs to be done to fix the problem. This storm is like nothing we've seen in our lifetimes in Western North Carolina.

The destruction is unprecedented and this level of uncertainty. This close to election day is daunting. This will be an ongoing process now and to election day and even after election day. We do not have all the answers right now, but we are diligently working to figure them out.

Now, early in person voting is scheduled to begin in North Carolina three weeks from now. Coming up next, we'll get the view from inside the campaigns heading into debate night, R&C co-chair Laura Trump and Paris Wells Communications Director, Michael Tyler. We'll both be here next. But first, a look back to 1988 and one of the most memorable VP debate moments ever.

A Smackdown of Senator Dan Flail by Senator Lloyd Benson. Here it is. I had as much experience in the Congress as Jack Kennedy did when he sought the presidency. Senator.

I served with Jack Kennedy. I knew Jack Kennedy. Jack Kennedy was a friend of mine. Senator, you're no Jack Kennedy.

And welcome back. We are just hours away from what is likely one of the last unscripted events of the 2024 election calendar, the vice presidential debate. Joining me now is Laura Trump. She is a co-chair of the Republican National Committee and a surrogate for the Trump campaign.

Thank you so much for joining me on a busy night for you. I really appreciate it. Oh, you got it. Thanks, Kristen.

So let's start off with the stakes tonight. Couldn't be any higher. What does Senator Vance need to do in order to walk away from tonight and say that was a success? Yeah, well, listen, I think that you've been able to see Donald Trump out on the campaign trail quite a bit.

You've been able to see JD Vance out on the campaign trail quite a bit. But we really haven't, Kristen, seen Tim Walz out there quite as much as you have his counterpart in JD Vance. And so I think that there are a lot of questions that people want to have answered from Governor Walz this evening. And I think that if the moderators don't pose those questions, I think JD Vance probably will.

He probably will ask if there are so many things that you and Kamala Harris say, you want to get done. Why is it that in three and a half years while she's been in the White House, she hasn't been able to do those things. You look at things like the economy, immigration. Those are the top two issues for the American people.

I suspect that you are going to hear Tim Walz press quite a bit on that. Again, if not by the moderator, certainly by JD Vance. But JD Vance on the other side of things has the four years of Donald Trump to tell while he was in the White House. People remember how much better the economy was, how much more money they had in their pocket, how much safer they felt in their communities, how much more secure our southern border was, and look at what's going on in the Middle East right now.

We have the Abraham Accords Peace Agreement signed in the Middle East with Donald J Trump in the White House. I'm sure you'll hear that tonight from JD Vance. Well, we should say that a new FBI statistics actually show that crime is down, but I want to turn to the Middle East actually since you bring it up. And as you say, former President Trump has a record on the Middle East, and of course the Biden-Harris administration has a record on the Middle East.

Part of the criticism of former President Trump's record on the Middle East is that he tore up the Iran nuclear deal. Of course, there were contours there to try to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. He said it didn't go far enough. He said he was going to get a better deal, but he never did that.

Why should Americans have confidence he will be able to get a better deal in a second term when he wasn't able to do it in the first four years he was in office? Well, first of all, let me just reference the FBI statistics that you point out actually are slightly inaccurate. They don't fully reflect what's going on in every community around the country. But when it comes to Iran, look at where Iran was with Donald Trump in the White House.

Let's talk about the fact that because we were energy independent, Iran didn't have the amount of funding and money that it currently has right now. Because we are dependent now on foreign oil, whether it's from Venezuela, Russia, or places like the Middle East, Iran has been able to enrich itself. And that has allowed them to fund Hamas, Hezbollah, the proxies across the region, which is causing the issue, that we're seeing right now. It is peace through strength.

That's what you saw with Donald Trump in the White House. And you don't even have to take my word for it. Look at how things were going around the world. When Donald Trump was president, you didn't have any new wars breaking out.

You actually again, had those peace agreements. And so people can actually go back to a time when he was in the White House and look at what he did. The proof was in the pudding. Well, and some of the funding that you mentioned is actually frozen.

And the criticism is that after the Iran nuclear deal was ripped up, Iran got closer to developing a nuclear weapon and became emboldened. But let me ask you, let me ask you about this moment, if I could, because I wonder what if former President Trump were to be elected. What would he do in this moment? What does he think the response should look like from Israel?

Well, look, I think the sad thing is because we didn't even have to see a moment like this. And Donald Trump himself constantly talks about the fact that you wouldn't have the war between Russia and Ukraine that you have right now. And you wouldn't see this disaster breaking out in the Middle East. It's literally on fire right now.

And what would he do in this situation? He would make sure that you take funding away from Iran. So it stops having the ability to fund these terrorist organizations. He would actually go in and make sure that they know that the Americans back with 100% certainty are closest Middle Eastern ally in Israel.

There is a wavering from the current administration when it comes to Israel. They want to play things both ways. And I think that's been very detrimental to the entire region. The reality of this situation is the weakness and ineffectiveness of the foreign policy of the Biden-Harris administration has led us down this path.

It started with the withdrawal from Afghanistan. It started whenever we cut off the Keystone XL pipeline and took away so much strength that we had around the world and made ourselves weaker as a country and destabilized the entire world, including the Middle East. And again, the administration would argue that they're absolutely not funding terrorism. And we did just hear President Biden say the administration does firmly stand by Israel and has dispatched more US military assets to the region and has been in the region in some years.

But let me turn to something else that we heard from the former president this week. He said individuals were being denied aid in North Carolina because they voted for him. My colleague Garrett Hake pressed him, asked him where he was getting that information from yesterday. He didn't answer.

Do you have evidence? Do you know where those claims are coming from? I actually do not. But what I will tell you is that North Carolina is my home state.

What has happened in the western part of the state is absolutely devastating. And I know people are hurting there right now. You saw Donald Trump yesterday about Austin, Georgia. He was there to survey the damage and talk to officials on the ground.

I'm very happy to hear that President Biden is going to go to where some of the disasters own himself. And I hope that they can get to people in North Carolina, Georgia and the entire region, everything they need. This is a vital situation. And unfortunately, we have seen a lot more death, I think, than predicted.

So I'm not sure about any of those statistics. And you're right, it is absolutely devastating. I think we can all say our thoughts are with the folks in North Carolina, Georgia, all of the areas that have been impacted by the hurricane. I want to play you something that the former president said about.

And he seemed to sharpen his tone a little bit as it relates to the vice president. Obviously, let me know he's a self-proclaimed counter puncher. But this is something that he said about the vice president in recent weeks. Take a listen.

Kamala is mentally impaired. Joe Biden became mentally impaired. Kamala was born that way. She was born that way.

She is a very dumb person. And we can't do that. We can't do that. I don't want to be rude.

I don't want to be rude. I don't want to be rude. Laura, he also called Governor Tim Walz a quote moron. And I ask you this in the context of having spoken to some of his allies who say, look, they are locked in tough races for reelection.

They're worried that kind of rhetoric could not only hurt him, but their chances in down ballot races. What do you say to that into their concerns? Yeah, I think a lot of people, Kristen, wonder what kind of a very intelligent individual as borders are would leave our border wide open. You would see tens of millions of people illegally come here.

We've had 300,000 Americans die from fentanyl overdoses and poisoning across this country. That's coming up through our southern border. I recently went to you in my Arizona. And the statistic that 30% of the women who are coming up through our southern border are sexually assaulted or raped, they actually believe the people who live there, it's much higher than that.

It's more like 50 or 50 plus percent. This has been a horrific thing for our country, a horrific thing for the people who are actually making that journey. And that was Kamala Harris's number one charge. That was her number one thing that she was supposed to be doing.

She was given that task by Joe Biden. And although she's trying to distance herself from that, that is pretty hard for Americans to swallow. It's hurting our educational system, turning our health care system across this country, ask the people of Aurora, Colorado, who've had an entire apartment complex taken over by Venezuelan gang. It's very problematic.

Officials in that community say that's not the case, just to be very clear. I'll tell you, and just walk over the border open quickly, the turning people, it is a disaster right now in this country. And I'll tell you in the White House right now, it's Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. You know, it's important just to point out border crossings are at their lowest levels since 2019 after President Biden passed those executive actions.

Fentanyl, the vast majority brought in by U.S. citizens through legal reports of entry. But let me get back to the crux of the question, because I understand the arguments you want to make. I understand we're probably going to hear that from Senator Vance tonight on the debate stage too.

But I want your take Laura on this language calling Kamala Harris saying she was born mentally incompetent, saying that Tim Walz is a moron. Is that language that you think best represents your father in law, the Republican party, just the language? Well, I'll tell you, this is Donald Trump, and he has never tried to make himself out to be anyone other than who he is. And obviously he's kind of joking around there with the crowd at a Trump rally when he says those things.

But the reality stands as to what I just said, and it does beg the question as to what the heck has been going on in that White House. What I'll tell you as it relates to the down ballot races is that Donald Trump has a history of helping all of the people, all the candidates on the Republican side of the ticket in down ballot races. He traditionally pulls higher than all of the down ballot candidates, and he traditionally lifts them up. So any concerns anyone has about Donald Trump being on the ticket with them, on the Republican side, I really don't buy.

I think the Democrats are probably worried about losing the Senate and possibly not being able to gain any ground in the house because Donald Trump is on the ticket. Let me ask you about a very different story out of North Carolina, the embattled gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson, of course, recently reported that he made very controversial comments online. Your father-in-law said he didn't know the situation. But let me ask you, would you vote for Mark Robinson this November?

Are you comfortable with what he posted online? Well, unfortunately, I think it's been up to Mark Robinson to clarify anything if there's been a mistake in the reporting. And I think we'll all have to wait to hear directly from him on that. Obviously, we really haven't yet.

He hasn't had the opportunity as far as I know to clear his name on anything. I'm not a voting citizen of the state of North Carolina. I vote in the state of Florida, and obviously that will be up to the citizens of the state. What I can tell you is what has been alleged against him does not represent in any way the Republican Party in any way, shape, or form.

And it's very disappointing to see that that has come out if it needed is true. Mark, you raised actually a good point, which is that we haven't, he says it's not true. And a lot of Republicans have said, okay, if it's not true, show us the evidence, convince us that it's not true. You have just made the point he hasn't done that yet.

Do you believe his denials, Laura? I don't know that that's up to me again. I think it's up to him to show us as you're just saying. And so I think we'll have to wait and see what ultimately he comes up with.

All right, Laura Trump, I know it is a very busy night for you. I appreciate your preview of the debate. A lot of what we're probably going to hear tonight on that stage, and great to see you as always. Thank you.

All right. Well, we want to note that Michael Tyler from the Harris Wells campaign was scheduled to join us. He had to cancel last minute, but we look forward to having him back on the show very soon. We do have much more ahead as we count down to debate.

But first, a look back to 1992. The third party VP candidate brought a bit of unintended comedic relief to debate night. Take a listen. Admiral Stockdale, your opening statement, please, sir?

Who am I? Why am I here? Can we give Admiral Stockdale a chance to jump in here if he wants to? I would like to get in, I feel like I'm an observer to ping pong game.

Admiral Stockdale, I didn't have my hearing aid turned out to me again. And welcome back, the vice presidential debate. We'll kick off in just over four hours. At the same time, we're watching breaking news, of course, out of the Middle East and the ongoing hurricane recovery and a US port strike that could potentially strain the economy.

At midnight, tens of thousands of longshoremen went on strike, shutting down major ports along the East and Gulf coasts. The union is seeking pay raises and limits on automation at ports. Experts say the work stoppage could rattle supply chains and raise prices for consumers, and it could cost the economy up to $4.5 billion a day. And of course, this is coming as voters say, the economy is their top issue.

Joining me now to look ahead to tonight's debate is we will have Simone Sanders Townsend coming up and go host of the weekend on MSNBC and former senior advisor, Vice President Harris. And we do have Republican strategist Matt Gorman. Matt, I'm great. How are you?

You are going to carry us until Simone joins us. Let's start right there. And this really, what can only be described as an extraordinary backdrop. The escalations and tensions that we're seeing in the Middle East today, the port strike, and of course, the hurricane response, which both sides are using to make political.

Simone, who's there? Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah.

And look, at a very tactical level, the vans and walls teams are huddling. I can almost guarantee you because what they thought was going to be the first question or first, maybe two questions two days ago. I'm sure it'd be very different now than you had the answers to all of those things. So I think that's, they're certainly doing some last minute debate prep there.

But you're right, this long term strike is very concerning. If they don't get this fixed in time, you're seeing anecdotal reports online of, you know, things not being able to be found in stories even this quickly. You know, what did you make of what we heard from Lawrence Trump? One of the things I found fascinating, it was a clear preview.

I think of what we're going to hear from Senator JD Vance. You heard her lead into the economy. You heard her arguments on foreign policy. And I anticipate that's a little bit of a blueprint for exactly what Vance is going to say tonight.

And Governor Tim Walz is going to have to be ready to parry those attacks that are going to come this way. Yeah, absolutely. Just in the last, you know, say four to six hours, you've seen the Trump campaign take a very proactive stance on attacking the Harris campaign on Iran and really making that very clear contrast. Now, look, the Vance foreign policy might be a little different than water Republicans, but he won't have no kind of trouble lining up on this.

And I thought you're right, whether it was Larry Trump and then Kelly and Garrett earlier in the show, you're seeing a lot of previews of where this is hopefully to go. I thought it was very interesting that when Kelly was talking about how Walz is going to try and stay in a silo and almost in a way, ignore the attacks, we'll see that can happen. That will be fascinating because as you and I've actually been talking about, Vance is pretty good at parrying attacks. And he's good at flipping the switch.

We saw that in one very notable moment from one of his debates with Tim Ryan and which Tim Ryan tried to accuse him basically of supporting replacement theory. Senator Vance, or he wasn't Senator at the time, candidate Vance at the time, revealed he had biracial children. He flipped the entire conversation around on its head. He is known for being a pretty skilled debater, even though he's trying to lower expectations.

I'm so glad you brought that circumstance up because that was a scenario where they didn't preview that attack in advance. It wasn't something that Vance had really rebutted any of those criticisms before the campaign trail. They saved that for the stage of the night of the debate. I'm really curious and while I'm looking for, kind of talking to some of the Vance team, do they do something similar?

And again, talk with some of the folks that are close to Vance, he's very aware of some of the vulnerabilities, very aware that the challenge he has when it comes to this is image and favor abilities. And so he's not going to shy away from that. I also understand that what I can hear the word is disarm. He's trying to disarm some of the critiques and make that contrast as you heard a little bit with Garrett contrast four years of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in the four years of Donald Trump.

Well, it's interesting, Matt, because if you look at the polls, one of Senator Vance's biggest challenges heading into tonight, is that of all of these four candidates, he has the lower favor abilities. In fact, the highest negative ratings of our NBC poll for a vice presidential candidate in our polls history. What does he need to do to try to reverse that? Does he need to try to reverse that?

Garrett says that's not really his focus. You know, I was on the press right before JD was picked. I talked about what he needed to do was really remind the world that he was a veteran. He was a before wall, was going to be the only veteran of the four back then Biden was the ticket.

And he needs to kind of go back to basis a little bit. You know, his announcement by just nature, the fact that Biden was struggling at the time, it got sandwiched in between Joe Biden struggles and the convention. So he needs to, in a way, as best as he can, reintroduce him to the American people. But more importantly, the casual political observer, the person doesn't obsess over it, but might tune in tonight.

Well, since you're so good at having your political analyst hat on, keep it on for Governor Wells, because in talking to Democrats, they say, quite frankly, they're big concern. And you referenced this is the fact that he hasn't really been in unscripted moments. This is going to be his biggest stage yet. It's going to be an unscripted moment.

The stakes could not be higher in part, Matt, because this is effectively like the start of the closing arguments for both of these campaigns. If I were the Tim Walz, folks, I would go back and look at the Joe Biden and Paul Ryan debate as a template, where in 2012, you know, nobody thought that Paul Ryan was, you know, less than smart, wasn't as articulate than Joe Biden. They all thought he had an advantage there. But Joe Biden, frankly, just Irish, you know, I think just like Joe Biden and Tim Walz, high emotional intelligence, I would have, if I was Tim Walz, lean into that.

Well, we have a special guest, Sanders, down to hello. Thank you for being here, Simone. Can you pick up on where Matt just left off? Because we're talking about the fact that the challenge tonight for Governor Walls is that he hasn't been seen in a lot of unscripted events.

He's got high favorability ratings. But again, it's that test of, is he going to be nimble, especially against a Senator Vance, who quite frankly is pretty good at throwing a pun. I mean, he's a good debater in Senator Vance's. I would also argue though that while Governor Walls doesn't have a lot of national debate experience, I mean, the man was a high school teacher and a football coach.

And so one could argue that he builds his editorial skills in line then. But you know, I think that the challenge, I think the big challenge for Governor Walls and frankly, JD Vance tonight are in fact, too, a lot of focus is going to be unusually on the people standing on stage. Usually, vice presidential debates are what they say. They're inconsequential, they're not statistically significant.

This one is, and he's going to have to do the really important job because a lot of voters still say they want to know more about vice president Harris's policy, not getting mucked down in the back and forth and still finding ways to pivot and talk about her policy, bringing it back to her. But also, ensuring his good answers don't think like military service. And then what I'm seeing now about his trips to China and Hong Kong and Tiananmen Square is like, what is going on prior to the debate? That hit up on that point.

I mean, Simone, I think raises a key thing that we all need to be thinking about tonight, which is that this vice presidential debate takes on a whole new meaning. How much impact do you think it could have on the top of the ticket? In the era of the last 10 years, when Ken is really relying more on friendly media and really talk their bases, debates have become bigger because it's one of the few times where if you think of the campaigns, parallel train tracks, it's where the train tracks converge, right? And that is, I think, why it's not just you're talking your bases or the hardcore political junkies.

You're talking to casual person. I think that is very interesting. And to go back to the point you made before, why JD and his team are very careful about going and doing Sunday shows with people who they thought could moderate tonight. Obviously, Margaret Brennan will be part of the moderate.

Really with them now. That's a really fascinating point. Simone, look, one of the things that remains unanswered about a Harris administration is how is she different from President Biden? She says, I'm not President Biden.

Also, what is she going to do on day one? Do you think that Governor Walz needs to come ready to fill in some of those blanks that folks say they still have when they think about Vice President Harris? Look, I don't think you're going to hear anything new from Governor Walz tonight because the vice presidential debates are not where you break the news. There are some rules when you're the VP and you're going into the running and you're going into a debate.

One of the rules is carry the top of the ticket's message, contrast, contrast, that is anchored in that message and do no harm. That is Governor Walz's job tonight. But on top of that, he's got a little extra to do. Again, he's going to have to give some good answers on his own.

He might be asked about why he hasn't done a lot of media interviews. And then obviously, given what is happening with Iran and Israel and Iran's missile strikes, I think the poor policy questions might bubble up to the top in this debate just because of the climate that we're all in. And so I have no doubt that he is ready to maybe answer those questions, but will the answer be forceful? How do you deliver the answer to debate to a part-party performance and performance piece is key?

We have about 30 seconds left on the point of Do No Harm. We know Senator Vance has at times gotten ahead of Donald Trump. He even said to me in my lesson with him, I've learned my lesson. I'm not going to speak for him.

Do you think he has to be careful about that tonight? I don't think it's in the forefront of his mind. I think it goes back to his economy, immigration. If those that take away from Vance come another night, it's a good night for him.

All right, you guys. Great conversation. Thank you, Matt and Simone. Appreciate it.

Well, before we go, today we are wishing former President Jimmy Carter a very happy 100th birthday. The White House is celebrating the milestone with this birthday display on the North Lawn, and celebrations and tributes are also underway in Carter's home town of Plains, Georgia. The 39th president is not only America's longest living president. He's also the first president to ever reach the age of 100.

Happy birthday. We're back tomorrow with more meets the press now. And of course, tonight you can watch our special continuing coverage of the debate right here on NBC News Now. The news continues with Hallie Jackson right now.