Meet the Press NOW – October 12

Foreign. Welcome to Meet the Press Now. I'm Kristen welcome reporting in Washington where we're following breaking news out of Israel and Gaza, including new developments tied to the White House's response and a rising American death toll. As the war between Israel and Hamas rapidly escalates in size, soap and agony.

With Israeli ground forces mobilizing for potential invasion in response to Moss's brutal attack, Gaza is being pummeled from the air. This is new drone video showing entire blocks reduced to rubble in Gaza City. This was the moment a building complex was virtually destroyed. It happened earlier today.

Now Gaza has been plunged into a humanitarian catastrophe. Hospitals are being overrun, have no access to new supplies, and the Red Cross warned earlier today that hospital backup generators are in danger of running out of fuel within hours. These are live pictures of the Gaza skyline. As you can see, there is virtually no electricity there right now.

The UN reports more than 300,000 Gazans have been displaced with essentially nowhere to go while in Israel. Earlier today, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken pledged the United States unwavering support, but urged its leaders to avoid civilian deaths as it ramps up its military response. How Israel does this matters? We democracies distinguish ourselves from terrorists by striving for a different standard, even when it's difficult and holding ourselves to account.

When we fall short, our humanity, the value that we place on human life and human dignity, that's what makes us who we are. And we count them among our greatest strengths. That's why it's so important to take every possible precaution to avoid harming civilians. Overall, the war's death toll has risen to more than 2,700, with at least 1,400 in Gaza.

And at 1,300 in Israel killed since Saturday, the number of Americans killed has now risen to 27. And we still have little information about the exact number of Americans currently being held hostage. Secretary Blinken spoke to a dual American Israeli citizen who survived the horrific attack on that music festival. She begged for hostages to remain a top priority.

We were saved by Mary F. But there are friends that we love that aren't. Thank you for being here. It's really important and if there's any way to, like, first priority.

First priority are friends. Thank you so much for being here. I'm so sorry to meet another horrific story there. And we're getting new and agonizing accounts of unspeakable and barbaric acts of terrorism by Hamas.

As the Israeli military secures more areas along the border, finding more victims of the attack. This afternoon, Lincoln described the depravity of the Hamas attack, speaking about images shown to him by the Israeli government in graphic detail. It's hard to find the right words. It's beyond what anyone would ever want to imagine, much less actually see a God for the experience, a baby, an infant riddled with bullets, soldiers beheaded, young people burned alive in their cars or their highway rooms.

I could go on, but it's simply depravity in the worst imaginable way. So painful to listen to that. NBC's Ross Sanchez is on the ground at the site of that music festival where 260 were killed. And he filed this report.

This is our first time inside the Supernova festival since that attack in the early hours of Saturday morning. This was a place of music, a place of dancing, a place of joy. And now there's just a deathly, deathly silence here. This was one of the artistic tents at the festival.

You can see people here were painting, they were expressing themselves. And this is just one of these many scenes we've seen all across southern Israel. A place that is frozen in time. We don't know the person who painted this.

Are they still alive? Have they been kidnapped? Are they inside of Gaza? Over here is one of the parked cars.

This symbol is spray painted by the Israeli military and it shows that this car has been searched, that there's no explosives in it. And if you just come around, you can see, as in every one of these cars, there are the makings of everything you'd need for a fun weekend at a music festival. It looks like this person has paint. There's chocolate in there, there's Kleenex, there's extra oner.

You just follow me over this way. Israeli authorities say that there were about three and a half thousand people at this festival, at least 260 of whom were killed in the terrorist attack. And this was really where the violence started. People were out here, they were dancing, the music was loud.

But you can see in videos, some of them start to realize that something is wrong. And some of them are even pointing towards the black dots on the horizon, which are the Hamas paragliders coming in. This was what was the main bar at the festival. And you can see everywhere there, just half drunk bottles of Johnnie Walker whiskey, of vodka.

People were having a good time here at 6am when this murderous wave swept in. And one of the many, many painful questions, where was the army? We were so close to the Gaza border here. This is an area that was at risk.

And the Israeli military, when you ask them how is it that you are unable to protect this site, unable to protect all these different areas across southern Israel? They say clearly mistakes were made. Clearly this was a massive failure. They say there will be time after this war to answer those painful questions.

But for many of the families of young people who died here, they waited day after agonizing day for news, hoping and praying that their loved ones might still be alive. And many of them found out they weren't. Back to you, just chilling details. Our thanks to Raf Sanchez for that reporting, all of the tremendous reporting he has been doing.

I now want to bring in my colleague Kelly o', Donnell, who is at the White House. Kelly, I know it's been another very busy day at the White House, and one of the big focuses today has been over the that deal that the administration struck with Iran, unfreezing the $6 billion in Iranian assets. They are now essentially putting a hold on them. Right.

What's the very latest there, Kelly? Well, after. Good afternoon. We have been able to learn from our reporting that lawmakers have been told in a bipartisan fashion that that money, which the US has had oversight of, would not be dispersed.

None had been dispersed. There have been critics who have been concerned that it is a resource that allowed Iran to spend its own money in other ways in financing Hamas and so forth. And so there's been a lot of focus on this $6 billion figure. Publicly, the White House is not saying that it is frozen, even though our reporting indicates they have told that to lawmakers and so forth.

Our colleague Lester Holt spoke with Secretary of State Antony Blinken today during his visit, and they discussed this issue. And here's a portion of that conversation. Iran was having trouble actually using the funds which has always been allowed to use for humanitarian purposes under our sanctions. Under our laws, we always carve out humanitarian food, medicine, medical equipment.

So what we did is we moved the money from one account in South Korea to another account in Qatar, where the money can actually be used, but under the supervision of our Treasury Department, only free monetary purposes. And not a dollar of that money has been spent today. And we retain the right to freeze that account. And is that what you've technically done now, by stopping distribution from that account?

As I said, there has been no distribution from the account. There's no question to stop it. There hasn't been any. And we retain the right to formal freezing.

And so even there, you sense that Secretary Blink is trying to be careful. And in the White House briefing, I asked John Kirby, who speaks on behalf of the National Security Council, if the White House is not wanting to acknowledge a new freezing of these assets publicly because that could somehow be linked in terms of the percept, the narrative, the takeaway that they are somehow linking that to culpability of Iran with respect to the Hamas attacks, and they just won't engage on that. So our reporting tells us this resource is no longer available to Iran at the moment, but the administration is not saying so publicly beyond the way you heard the secretary of State describe that the US has always had oversight and that no money has been spent. Kristen, we did see you pressing John Kirby on that very issue.

Kelly, before I let you go, very quickly, just take us behind the scenes there at the White House. You know, the president has been holding a series of high level calls since this attack first happened. What's the very latest that's happening there? Well, what we understand is that so much of the president's public schedule has sort of been put on hold and allowing him to have ongoing meetings and calls with his own national security team with outreach to leaders and partners around the world.

And there has been a lot of trying to assess what next steps are available. One of the things that was talked about today is that through the State Department, the U.S. will provide charter flights to try to facilitate Americans leading Israel who have not been able to get commercial flights. Other steps to try to reach out to families of those who are concerned and a focus on what's happening here in the homeland to secure this country, especially in places where American Jews might be concerned, like synagogues and other gathering places.

Kristen? All right, Kelly. Donald Cardinal, the Engels Trust from the White House. Kelly, thank you so much.

Really appreciate it. I now want to bring In Congressman Michael McCall, Republican from Texas to chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Congressman, thank you so much for joining me this afternoon. I really appreciate it.

Oh, thanks, Kristen. Thanks for having me. I want to ask you about this latest intelligence that you've said you received, that Egypt actually warned Israel about a possible attack from Hamas. I want to note that even before you made those comments, Prime Minister Netanyahu's office put out a statement saying that he did not receive any intelligence about any attack from Egypt.

So I just want to be very clear. Do you stand by what you said and what more can you tell us about it? Well, this was initially reported by the Washington Post, and I don't, I personally, I don't think it rose to Prime Minister Netanyahu's level for many reasons that I probably can't get into. But first and foremost, I think if he was aware of any warning of intelligence of value, he would have immediately responded to this threat.

But you know, the fact is Hamas was planning for months, someone say six months to a year on this operation and yet it went completely undetected. So this is in some ways almost like a 9, 11 for Israel. And I think the time to analyze why wasn't this, you know, found out beforehand, just like we didn't know about the hijackers. That time and place will come.

I think right now they have a big job on their hands with Gaza. And just to follow very quickly, do you have a sense of how high the warnings went? I don't, I think it may have been at very lower levels. I don't think it went to the Prime Minister.

But I really can't comment on this any further. And I do think I know Bibi Netanyahu very well and I know his personality. I know if he was aware of any threat to Israel from Hamas, he would have acted immediately. Let's talk about what the world is anticipating next.

The Israeli government signaling it is preparing for a ground attack. Do you support that course of action? Do you think it is the right course of action given of course there are still hostages in Gaza? Well, it's very dangerous.

The first step you've seen is taking out command and control within Gaza. And that's what you see with the missile strikes into Gaza. The second phase is a far more dangerous one that's going house to house, building to building to free the hostages and to eliminate the Hamas terrorists. We, we have a lot of good experience at that doing that.

We had that in Iraq and Fallujah in 2004. Our special operators were over there training the IDF along with the FBI Hostage Rescue Team. But this is good, this is, this is where you're going to see more violence. It's going to get to war is not better.

It's not going to be over days or maybe weeks. It'll probably take months for them to clear out the terrorists in self defense. I would argue after what they did and just invading with a horrible massacre. You said the kibbutz near Gaza just last year after 4,500 rockets came in from Gaza.

And I remember getting the call that all, all the individuals there were massacred, including the daycare center where the children were, which is the saddest part of all this. It's absolutely devastating, Congressman. It's hard to even put into words and as you describe that there just underscores how close to home it Hits for so many people here. I wonder, as you think about this ground offensive, do you think there should be any parameters around it?

I think the strategic objective in my mind is to contain Hamas in Gaza. I know Netanyahu's orders are to eliminate all terrorists in Gaza and that from a military standpoint will be a very difficult operation. And I know that's what they want to achieve. From the United States perspective, we don't want to see this escalate.

You got Hezbollah in Lebanon, 100,000 rockets that can overload the Iron Dome that's already under depleted. Now you've got terrorists in Syria, you got Iran backed militias, Shia militias in Iraq, and even the Taliban's been talking about trying to get in. So we don't want to see like a global jihad Mecca, if you will, or a movement towards Israel and Jerusalem. I think that's a strategy United States is to contain this in the Gaza Strip.

And how concerned are you about that very idea that this could become a wider war, that we could see Syria and Lebanon become engaged, a three front war. Very concerned. You saw today, Hamas is calling for a global jihad. And what you're going to see tomorrow are going to be protests all over the world perhaps, and we're going to see that in the United States.

I worry about the synagogues in the United States and protection of the synagogues here in the U.S. but what we don't want to see is what we saw with ISIS and the caliphate, where you had fighters from all over the world converge into Syria at that time. We don't want to see a repeat of that in Jerusalem. Let me ask you about the Palestinian civilians living in Gaza.

The United States has talked about the goal of helping to secure the safe passage of those currently in Gaza. But how realistic is that, Congressman, given the violence that's unfolding? And how do you make sure you get the civilians out without helping Hamas? It's very difficult.

But I think it's important to note that the Palestinians and Hamas are two different things. The Palestinian people by and large do not support Hamas. Hamas is a terrorist organization who oppress the Palestinians and they're the roadblock to peace in the Middle east, you know, with Israel. So as long as you have Hamas there, the Palestinian people will not be free from this oppression.

But to your point, you know, how do you vet Palestinians of Gaza at this dangerous point in time? I don't know how you go on the ground to even evacuate, much less vet them to go to get outside of Gaza. And you know, since it's a humanitarian crisis of extreme proportions. It's very, very sad to see what happened in Israel, but I think what you're going to see in Gaza as well.

I want to ask you about some comments by former President Trump who was critical of Prime Minister Netanyahu and he called Hezbollah very smart. What was your reaction to hearing that and are you comfortable with that rhetoric by the GOP front runner? I'm not. I'm not.

I'm not pro Hamas. I'm not pro Hezbollah. I'm not pro Iran. I'm pro Israel.

And that has been my party's platform. We've always been pro Israel. And any enemy of Israel, an enemy of the United States. Do you think that kind of language is disqualifying?

What do you make of for President Trump saying that? Well, I mean, he's going to have to explain that. I'm going to be at the Republican Jewish Coalition Convention in Las Vegas in a couple of weeks. I know the presidential candidates will be there and I think they're all going to have to, you know, basically put forward their comments about their position where they stand on Israel.

Very quickly, before I let you go, obviously the House is without a speaker of the House. Congressman Scalise doesn't seem to have the votes yet, at least to become speaker. Doesn't seem like there's going to be a vote this week. What is your anticipation?

Do you think there will be a vote? And what would you like to see happen to me? You know, my job is to see threats around the world. And, you know, I think the biggest threat I see here is that we don't have a speaker in the chair.

We cannot govern. And so our adversaries look at that as weakness. Certainly Chairman Xi in China says democracy is dysfunctional and I don't want to prove him right. Putin loves this, right?

The ayatollah really likes this. The more we cannot govern if we don't have a speaker in the chair, we can't pass my resolution, co sponsored by 415 members, condemning Hamas and supporting Israel. We also can't pass, which is very important, a supplemental aid package to Israel to replenish the Iron Dome for precision guided weapons. None of this aid can go in without the Congress being functional and having a speaker in the chair.

I told that to my conference this morning, that this is a very dangerous, dangerous time and we can't play politics with it right now. Do you think there will be a vote for a new House speaker by the end of this week? You know, honestly, Chris If I could, if I could tell that I'd probably be a rich man in Vegas. I never thought, you know, Kevin McCarthy be vacated from the chair, much less what the hour is, that we'll have a vote on speaker.

All I know is that the longer this goes on, the more dangerous, dangerous it is for the United States and the American people. Congressman Michael McCauley, really appreciate your time and your perspective. Thank you so much for joining us this afternoon. Thank you, Kristen.

Thanks for having me. Good to have you here. Coming up, the view from inside Israel's military as it prepares for potential ground invasion of Gaza in response to those atrocities by Hamas. Plus, the White House lashes out at President Trump after he calls Hezbollah an Iran back terrorist organization.

Quote, very smart. As we're just discussing, we'll have the very latest fallout. You're watching THE PRESS now. Welcome back.

Amid the Israeli shelling of Gaza, there are mounting fears this war could be widening. Syria is now reporting that Israel also struck airports in Damascus and Aleppo, damaging landing strips and putting them out of service. Israeli troops are also amassing to the country's border with Lebanon, where the group Hezbollah is based. NBC News national security analyst Watts has more on what a potential three front war would look like.

As we approach the end of the first week since Hamas and their deadly terrorist attacks in Israel, everyone's wanting to know could this expand into a three front war? What they mean by that specifically is here in southern Lebanon is Hezbollah. Hezbollah is a terrorist group war in 2006 with Israel. There have been shots fired back and forth, rockets, some skirmishes already.

We've also seen some indirect fire coming in from Syria over the Golan Heights as well. Israeli forces have already got up on that border just in the last few hours. We've also seen airstrikes against Damascus and Aleppo, both of those airports as well. Sensing that there could be some issues here.

Israel is suspecting there separately in the occupied West Bank. Israel had lots of forces there over the past summer due to skirmishes and some uprisings that had happened there. And then right now we're all focused here on Gaza. Let's zoom in a little bit to understand a little bit what the situation looks like right now as Israeli forces are mounting what might be a counter offensive here in a military zone.

What you might see is a push through any of these border walls and trying to really divide the sector up in many different ways. That really raises the question of the humanitarian situation right now. If we look at where this is, it principally is around Rafah. There are Gates to the north, up here and to the south.

But this gate with Rafah is actually just for supplies. Humanitarian aid could come through there. The Egyptians are holding it closed at the moment. But more important is what we could see in terms of Rafah.

This sector down here is undergoing an intense humanitarian crisis already. And what will the international community do to try and relieve that situation in the coming days? Clint Watts, thank you for that reporting. Joining me now is Israeli Defense Forces spokesperson Major Ben Walsh.

Major Woolhouse, I just first want to extend my condolences to you and everyone in Israel for the loss of life, the atrocities that you have suffered. I am so very sorry. Thank you. And we deeply appreciate the American support.

We have Secretary Blinken here today and hearing President Biden's word words and seeing it down in action with the corporation, with senior military leaders between Israel and the U.S. we deeply appreciate the support. Well, I want to begin by kind of starting off where we just left off, which is the Rafah gate and the humanitarian crisis that you heard my colleague Clint Watts talking about. Can you confirm that the Rafah gate, which is basically the passage between Gaza and Egypt, that it's open right now, that people are able to exit through there?

We don't control the Rafah crossing as previously noted by your correspondence. What I would note is that I mentioned the northern crossing, the Erez crossing, which does border with Israel. And that crossing was attacked by Hamas on Saturday. You can see it on social media footage.

They invaded that crossing. They absolutely destroyed it. That was a crossing which before Saturday, thousands of thousands would pass through every day to work inside Israel. And Hamas terrorists killed and abducted that crossing.

So that crossing I had to show, and we know that there has been discussion about, and the Biden administration has talked about this as well, trying to create a safe passage for civilians. Do you think that's realistic in this very moment, especially given everything that you just talked about? We are making efforts to mitigate harm to the civilian population. Warnings on their TV channels, on the radios.

We drop leglets telling them to stay away from us position. But we have to remember that this is the situation that Hamas is making. Fifteen years Hamas has controlled Gaza and what does it have to show for? It controls over 2 million people.

Instead of supporting them, instead of helping Gaza flourish, it's giving us terror. It's giving us thousands of terrorists streaming across the border, brutally massacring our children and women, ducking them into Gaza. And so we have to make sure that that stops and that that cannot continue. I want to ask you about what people can expect in the coming days.

We obviously have been talking about the possibility of a ground invasion by Israeli forces. I know that you can't give me specific details, but is a ground invasion imminent? I think we've made our position and our priority very clear. Our clear is to make sure that what's happened over the past few days will not repeat itself.

Our position is clear that Hamas is a constant rocket fire indiscriminately into our civilian populations cannot continue. And we'll do what's needed to make sure that happens. And when you think about eradicating Hamas, as we have heard the prime minister talk about, is there a way to do that while also mitigating civilian deaths in the region? Well, we only target our Hamas military targets.

That is our enemy. We have no intent or desire to harm the civilian population. We take steps to mitigate that harm. But I think it is clear, it is clear that we cannot have a repeat of what's happened in the past few days.

And yes, this is a protracted fight. It's a difficult fight. It's a fight of Hamas's own making. We will do what we have to do.

And before I let you go, how concerned are you about this becoming a wider war with Syria, potentially Lebanon becoming involved? Well, we are certainly concerned and I think the world is concerned. World leaders have made it very clear that Hezbollah and other terrorist organizations, Iranian proxies in the region should not even think of joining with rights. And that's why we've en mass forces.

We have called up over 300,000 grounds reserve duty forces and we'll deploy them on the northern border and southern border. We've had some attacks from Lebanon and from Syria which were repelled. And we're watching those borders very carefully. All right, Major Ben Wilhouse again, thank you so much for joining us.

We really do appreciate it. And coming up, we're going to dive deeper into the humanitarian crisis that's happening in Gaza right now with the House of Representatives paralyzed. Love the very latest on the race for speaker as Congressman Steve Solis struggles to find the Republican votes he needs. You're watching Meet the Press now.

Welcome back. As the US Pledges its unwavering support for Israel and as the White House looks at Congress for additional aid, the House of Representatives remains paralyzed with Republicans again unable to coalesce around their candidate for Speaker. The House Republican Conference met this afternoon in hopes of getting in line behind Steve Solis, the speaker nominee they voted on yesterday. But NBC News counts 16 Republicans who remain unconvinced, which would leave him well short of a majority on the floor coming out of the meeting.

Still, he said that the conference will continue to meet until they have the votes to go to the floor. Here's what he said. I'm not cutting any deals. I want to meet in front of all of our members, answer every question, and just continue to work through to unite and bring our conference together and address issues as they come up.

The good news is our support continues to grow. We're continuing to work to narrow the gap. And that's going on. We're going to continue the meetings.

Join me now is New York Republican Congressman Mike Waller. Congressman, thank you so much for joining me this afternoon. Really appreciate it. Thanks for having me.

So let's start with the very latest from the Hill. You were just in the House Republican Conference meeting. We heard someone in the room said, and I'm going to quote this, not even Jesus himself could get to 217. So given that, from everything you've heard, do you think there is a path to get Steve Solutions.

Anyone in the gavel at this point? Look, there's going to have to be. We were elected to serve as a House Republican majority to serve as a check and balance on the Biden administration. The American people expect us to govern.

I won a district that Joe fine won by 10 points that has 70,000 more Democrats than Republicans because I talked about the issues that mattered to people, from crime and public safety to the border crisis to spending and taxes. And that's what the American people want us to get back to work on. So everybody's gonna have to put their big boy pants on and, you know, really put aside their, their personal petty grievances and elect a speaker, whether it's Scalise or someone else that can get to 217 and we can get back to the work of the American people. Do you think Steve Scalise can get to 2:17?

I mean, what's your best guess at this point about who actually makes it to 217? Look, I think Leader Scalise is a good man. I think he is someone who has obviously been in the leadership of our party for a number of years. People know, they know him well.

I think obviously he got a majority of the vote yesterday, and I think people want to rally behind him. But there is definitely a number of folks who are not supporting him at this point. And so I think he really, we had a long meeting today. I know he's meeting with a few folks soon to continue these discussions but ultimately, we have to make a decision.

Either you have to 17 or you don't. And if you don't, then obviously we need to go back to the drawing board and get another candidate. What would your plan be? And would you support giving the speaker of pro tem McHenry more power so that you can actually get back to the work of trying to pass the bills?

Look, I think there's some, some fine folks who, you know, if this doesn't work, may step forward. But, you know, certainly if we can't resolve this in the next 24, 48 hours, I think we need to look at giving the speaker pro tem more authority so that he can conduct the business of the House while the conference works out the details. But again, this is why this never should have happened. Eight Republicans teamed up with 208 Democrats to remove a duly elected speaker without cause.

Now, this was done a few days before the terrorist attack in Israel, but given the dire situation, I hope people recognize this was a big mistake. And whatever perceived personal or political gain there was for the eight individuals on the Republican side and the 208 Democrats who teamed up on this, it was a colossal mistake to do this. And, you know, now we're dealing with the consequences of a paralyzed House while we try to elect a new speaker. You talk about the weight that is hanging over you given what is happening in Israel.

What is the mood right now in the conference? I know you all are in the meeting tonight. Look, last week I talked about, you know, Festivus and airing of the grievances. It's far beyond Festivus.

I think people are angry, they're disgusted, they're frustrated, you know, and really disillusioned at the moment. And we need to come together, we need to find a path forward. And it really goes beyond leadership. To me, this is about 221 folks being able to work as a team, as a conference, as a majority that the American people elected.

We have to find a path forward. And Congressman, because you are so determined to have a Speaker in place, do you know who your plan B would be? A Tom Cole, for example. Who should step up if it's not going to be Steve Scalise, Jim Jordan?

I think that's going to have to be the discussion. If Steve cannot get to 2, who's your pick? Who's your pick for a plan B? I have, I have a few thoughts on it.

I'm going to share it at the moment. But look, I think Steve deserves the space to try and get to 217. And if he can't, then we need to. We need to move ahead.

And I think he's got to. He's got to make that decision soon. You know, based on these conversations, I want to ask you just big picture, because this is the second time that your conference has struggled to pick a speaker, obviously, in about nine months. At some point, do you worry that it could cost Republicans the majority in the House, that it sends a message that you can't govern?

Well, as I said last week, I think it was the single most destructive thing I've ever seen in politics. I started as an intern for John McCain back in 2008, and I've been around politics 15 years. This. This was disruptive, and it was unnecessary.

It was unwarranted. And I think obviously it torpedoed the work that we were doing as a majority on behalf of the American people. At the end of the day, it's not about me. It's not about the conference.

It's about the American people. They elected a House Republican majority for a reason. One party rule does not work. You need checks and balances.

You need to be able to push back on the $5 trillion in reckless new spending under the Biden administration. The poorest southern border where 6 million migrants have crossed, many of them illegally. Fentanyl pouring into our communities, killing 70,000Americans last year. These are real crises.

And we have a responsibility to govern, to lead, and to put our egos aside and focus on the task at hand. And I think, you know, there's. It's obviously going to come to a head. We're going to elect a speaker.

But, you know, certainly been a very frustrating week. And you've talked about the urgency because of the war in Israel. I do want to ask you about some comments by former President Trump, who called Hezbollah, quote, smart from launching their attack at this very moment. He's, of course, also called North Korea's leader, Kim Jong Jong, Russia.

Vladimir Putin, smart as well. What do you make of that kind of language? Do you think it's disqualifying? Look, to me, the state of Israel is our greatest ally and friend.

They are the only democracy in the Middle East. They are a beacon of hope. And so much work has been done over 75 years to strengthen that relationship and to ensure Israel's right to exist. Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, the greatest state sponsor of terror.

These are, you know, states and entities that are focused on wiping Israel off the face of the earth. That is neither smart nor good. And we need to understand this is a fight of good versus evil, right versus wrong. We stand shoulder to shoulder with Israel and I will never waver in my support for Israel.

We must hold Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran and any other bad actors that think this is the moment to strike accountable. Congressman Mike Lawler, we will leave it there. Thank you so much for joining us on what a very busy day for you. Really appreciate it.

Thanks, person. After the break, the panel joins me to talk about the crisis in the House as Republicans can't find the votes for speaker. Plus the 2024 candidates react before President Trump calling Hezbollah very smart. You're watching MEET THE PRESS now.

Welcome back. As the war between Israel and Hamas continues to escalate, so calls for humanitarian aid for the civilians in Gaza. An estimated 2 million Palestinians live in Gaza and the UN now estimates more than 300, 000 people have been displaced. Meanwhile, Gaza has been plunged into darkness after the region's sole power plant ran out of fuel due to Israeli blockades.

The UN Is now calling on all relevant parties to facilitate safe access for humanitarian goods and personnel. ME News foreign correspondent Josh Lemons in Tel Aviv. So, Josh, what is the very latest with that humanitarian situation that's unfolding in Gaza? The situation in the Gaza Strip was bad before this most recent war.

It has gotten far worse. And in the hours and days ahead, sad to say, it is going to get even worse. As you mentioned, the power plant is now no longer operating, has no fuel. So everyday gas have any electricity unless they have their own private generators and happen to have fuel.

We're hearing that the hospitals in Gaza, they're down to at this point, two, maybe three days left of fuel for their own generators with hospital administrators saying once they lose electricity, those hospitals essentially just become giant morgues. They're also running out of medical supplies, medications as well as other basic necessities to try to keep people alive. And unfortunately, the situation is not appearing to get any better anytime soon. Israel's government course has said they're putting a full siege on Gaza until all of those hostages are released, meaning no food, no water, no fuel, no other assistance heading into the Gaza Strip from Israel.

And of course, Josh, there's been so much discussion about opening up humanitarian corridors. We heard the president talking about this. I was just thinking about the idea of spokesperson about this and he underscored how challenging that task is. What is being done to try to give people safe passage?

Well, it's very difficult. The US Government, as you have reported, has been working both with the Israelis and the Egyptians on possibly coming up with some safe corridors for people to get out of the Gaza civilians, that seems almost impossible. With a crossing with the Israel border. The main pedestrian crossing, the Aris crossing has basically been destroyed.

And the Israelis have no appetite at this point to let Gazans come into Israel in security situation. So a lot of focus is pushing the Egyptians to let people go through the small border between the Gaza Strip and Egypt. But so far no agreement from the Egyptians either to allow Gazan out. So right now if you are civilian Gaza Strip and you are bracing for what is coming, you simply have no way out.

Is there any way to get humanitarian aid in to the Gaza Strip, Josh? At this point, yeah, that is another parallel effort that is underway to try to get aid in mainly through that crossing with Egypt. There's been a lot of disagreement that the Egyptians have maintains that the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip is open for humanitarian and shipments. They've even identified an airport in the Sinai Peninsula they say aid planes should bring assistance to.

But we also heard for a spokesperson for the Palestinian agencies that is at that facility, that border crossing saying no, that's wrong. It's been closed for days, no aid is coming through. And so right now it's a very Murky situation. The U.S.

other nations are pushing Egypt to allow humanitarian aid through that border. But the Israelis have also warned that if they see stuff coming through there that they don't think is humanitarian, that they may bomb it. And so is a very curious situation for humanitarian organizations to try and get that badly needed assistance into Gaza Strip. Josh, thank you so much for your great reporting.

As always, please continue to stay safe. We appreciate it. And turning now to the domestic reaction to the MoS attacks in Israel, former President Trump made some highly inflammatory comments at campaign rally in Florida last night calling Iran backed terrorist group Hezbollah smart while criticizing Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu over past grievances. Take a listen.

Two nights ago I read all of Biden security people, can you imagine national defense people? And they said, gee, I hope Hezbollah doesn't attack from the north because that's the most vulnerable spot. I said, wait a minute. You know, Hezbollah is very smart.

They're all very smart. I'll never forget that Bibi Netanyahu let us down. That was a very terrible thing. I will say that.

And so when I see sometimes the intelligence, you talk about the intelligence or you talk about some of the things that went wrong over the last week, they've got to straighten it out because they're fighting potentially a very big force. While his comments were quickly condemned by other Republican primary candidates in the Biden administration, the White House released a statement this morning saying we don't comment on 2024. Statements like this are dangerous and unhinged. It's completely lost on us why any American would ever praise an Iran backed terrorist organization as smart or have any objection to the United States warning terrorists not to attack Israel.

I'm joined now by today's panel political national political reporter and NBC News contributor Betsy Witch of Swan, Vi Nayak, president of the center for American Progress Action Fund and Republican strategist and NBC News political analyst Brendan Buck. Thanks to all of you for joining me. Really appreciate it. Betsy, let me start with you.

In the reaction that we're seeing from Mr. Trump's Republican rivals and a lot of people are saying for the first time Ron Sanderson's actually maybe taking the gloves off. Here's what he had to say. He says, quote, terrorists have murdered at least 1,200 Israelis and 22Americans that are holding more hostage.

So it's absurd that anyone, much less someone running for president, would choose now to attack our friend and ally, much less praise Hezbollah terrorists as very smart. What do you make of the reaction will have any impact on the Trump campaign? I cannot imagine that this will harm him whatsoever in the Republican primary. It's both an extraordinary and wild thing to say.

And it's also very much a piece of types of comments that he's been making for his entire time in public life. Trump has said similar things about Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping, other adversaries of the United States. The fact that it's Hezbollah at this moment is certainly a step further. I think that he's gone, but it's not a huge step.

And again, his supporters in the Republican base are just so devoted and committed that I don't see this making much of a difference whatsoever. Now, it's something that would come back to haunt him in the general election, no question. But that's the story of his entire campaign thus far. Yeah.

I mean, Brendan, I think Betsy hits the nail on which is there's always this surprise factor with these comments. Right. But it never has an impact and it certainly doesn't seem like it will in the primary. Yeah, I can't imagine this is going to be the one thing that's going to take down so many times.

But absolutely, if you're a Democratic ad maker, we don't know how long this war is going to go on. But if this is still part of the American psyche, going into the election next year. And you can replay Trump praising Hezbollah. I mean, it's one thing to praise Putin recently.

These are actual terrorist organizations that he is now praising. And of course, it all comes down to his character flaw, where anybody who criticizes him, he feels like he needs to be. The root of this is that Netanyahu said that Joe Biden won the election, and that's apparently a bridge too far for Donald Trump. And so now he's going to side with terrorists over our allies in Israel.

It's such a fascinating break movie because, of course, when Trump was in office, that was one of the signature pieces of his foreign policy is a very close relationship with Prime Minister Netanyahu that, as Brendan points out, has now clearly been fractured. I thought the White House's response was interesting because it was so forceful. Of course, we have the president directly take him on over this, but I wouldn't be surprised if we did. Well, I actually think this will become, you know, again, we don't know how long this war will last.

It really could be a long conversation. And part of the question that Americans might be facing is who do we want in the Oval Office? And I think we saw real contrast this week with the President Biden offering a really strong defense of Israel, looking very strong. And here, you know, Trump praising terrorists.

I mean, this is a terrorist organization that's killed Americans. Now, don't forget, the context in this moment is especially galling. But this is an institution that has killed Americans. His prisoner was being very smart.

It's a great point, because this is a real test, I think, particularly general election, as you're saying, Betsy, because it's a commander in chief moment. And basically, we saw this week President Biden, frankly, make some of the strongest comments about the US Standing with Israel that we've ever heard, frankly, from an American president. He ran on a promise to restore America's stability and, frankly, stability on the world stage. I mean, to what extent is this a huge test for the current commander in chief?

There's no question that incredibly violent and tumultuous moments like the one we're in can define a presidency. And that the way that this conflict pans out has the potential to have a huge role going into 2024 in the way that that election shapes up, of course, the. To say the obvious. It's unpredictable.

We know it's going to be violent and horrible and there'll be a colossal amount of death. We don't know exactly what that will look like, and we don't know how current role could shift or change. We don't know how it's going to affect the US's relationship with our allies in Europe in particular, who are often not quite as shoulder, shoulder to use the President's terms as the United States is. This is also a major test for Congress.

Random and of course Republicans in the House are still struggling to choose their speaker of the House. And I was Talking to Congressman McCullen, he said this makes the United States very vulnerable. This is, this goes beyond just the chaos and the discord. Yeah.

I mean it'd be one thing if it's a small termination. We got this figured out by next week. But it's very clear the rest of the world that potentially the United States is not coming to the rescue. We don't have a functioning legislature.

I mean there are a number of consequences for that in the short term and the long term. Look, I think we throw around the term like constitutional crisis a little too much. But if we're on from now and we don't have a Speaker and we can't do anything because our House of Representatives is defunct, we are potentially facing that and it has consequences for national security. But also every day Americans, we can't fund governments who don't have a speaker.

Do you think that's possible? We could be a month out and then there's still no. I mean it doesn't seem to be a clear path right now. If he speaks to US to get 217 votes, I absolutely agree.

I don't think anybody can get 217 votes. Yeah, I think the point makes is really important which is if this was a one off situation, it might be not quite as alarming and concerning, but I think this is, you know, a decade or more in the making and we're now to the point where Republicans are showing they cannot govern and that means that the United States government in the current context cannot function. We were talking about Democrats potential role. Of course there was a question were they going to come to the rescue of Speaker McCarthy?

They decided not to. It was a choice that they made. They discussed it. Could they in this moment decide to come to the rescue of whoever the nominee is right now?

It sneaks police. My sense is that Democrats want to see this government function. And I think the moment we're in right now where we have allies in Ukraine and in Israel who need the US to show leadership that they do want this government function, I do think they would want to see some sort of agreement in terms of how that becomes a Partnership. I don't think they're going to allow, you know, provide the votes to Steve's felice to continue in Kishner.

I think they're going to provide the votes to Steve's felice to continue to push for a ban on abortion. You know, so I think there have to be some sort of agreement. And I don't know how long everyone can tolerate this. I think it's the same kind of pressure on moderate Republicans.

There are 18 Republicans in districts Joe Biden want. How long can they continue to be a part of this dysfunction and not demonstrate that actually they care about the country more than their party? Betsy, what does your reporting tell you about what's actually happening? And is there any clarity about who might.

And I tried to push in my interviews with the two lawmakers there. Who's the plan B? I just. We're not going to get any names.

I talked to a couple Republican sources earlier today and the consensus is that it's a total mess. The hope is that Khalees would lock up really fast and that didn't happen. And what that means is, from the folks I've talked to, this could take a really long time. There was a moment of wishful thinking that maybe McCarthy's problems were a McCarthy problem.

And now it's clear that that's not even sort of true. It hasn't had very little to do with McCarthy. In fact, what multiple folks have told me is that Scalise is actually in a worse place than McCarthy was because McCarthy spent so much time doing favors and raising money and scratching backs and helping people to get himself to where he was. And it still didn't work.

Scalise hasn't done that. And he's got a bunch of other factors to create big problems for him. He hasn't locked it up yet. One member I spoke to said that if he doesn't get locked up today, it could be a long.

Wow. I had one source text me that this small majority could cost Republicans. The small minority could cost Republicans this majority in the next election. Brendan, do you think those are the stakes?

Yeah, absolutely. And we only have a 4, 5 seat majority now. And you have to begin about keeping it now, especially because you have members who don't seem to appreciate how much, how thin the majority is. They're all operating for what works for them in their own districts and blown the place.

That may work in the deep red district. I'll tell you, those 18 other districts, it's really dumb. Do you see Democrats kind of flicking their jobs, saying this gives us an opening. All the more reason not to jump in and potentially help.

I actually think right now, in the current moment, Democrats are pretty frustrated that we're not governing. And we are less than 45 days away from another shutdown. But I think long term, this is probably to the benefit of Democrats. All right.

Well, I'll watch it closely. Thank you. And I'm back tomorrow with more of the press. Now NBC NEWS now continues with Hallie Jackson.

Right now, he was a young Marine. She didn't care about convention. They made a life together. Then one night, the Marine died.

And then the death investigation took a wild, unexpected and utterly bizarre turn. I'm Josh Mankiewicz, and this is Trace of Suspicion, an all new podcast from Data Lab. Listen to all episodes of Trace of Suspicion now, wherever you get your podcasts.