Meet the Press NOW — October 15

Hi, there. Welcome to Meet the Press Now. I'm Ryan Nobles in Washington with just three weeks until Election Day. We're tracking the fallout of a particularly strange episode, even for a campaign that's anything but normal.

Last night at a town hall of an outside Philadelphia with South Dakota's Republican governor, Christine Om, former President Trump stopped taking questions and turned the event into something of a personal DJ session following a pair of medical incidents in the crowd as some complained about the heat in the room. For 45 minutes, the Republican nominees stood on stage listening to 10 tracks of music back to back to back as the audience of supporters watched. They don't want to give us air conditioning. It's too expensive.

It costs too much anyway. But they're both okay. They're both in good shape. That's wonderful.

Would anybody else like to faint? Please raise your hand. Let's do it now. Please raise your hand.

You know what we could do though. If my guys can do it, how about, we'll do a little music. Let's make this a musical first. Oh, looky, looky.

Put on Pavarotti singing, Abbe Maria. Nice and loud. Turn it up louder. We want a little action here.

Turn it up louder. Let's not do any more questions. Let's just listen to music. Let's make it into it from music.

Who the hell wants to hear questions? This is the band. Play YMCA. Go ahead.

Let's go. Nice and loud. This is nobody leaving. Keep going.

Keep going. Shouldn't we keep going? All right. Turn that music up.

Turn it up. Great song. Well, Trump's campaign's communication director called that event that you just saw a snippet of a quote, Total Love Fest and that Mr. Trump posted online that the event was quote, so different.

But it ended up being a great evening. The Harris campaign looked at it a little bit differently. They say that Trump looked lost, confused and frozen on stage, circulating another clip from the rally where he mistakenly urges voters to show up to the polls on January 5th, that's two months after election day. The vice president's social media account posting, quote, hope he's okay.

The odd episode comes at a crucial time in the campaign, and arguably the most crucial battleground state. At a moment, when vice president Harris is looking to regain momentum and attacking Mr. Trump on his fitness for office, she was also on Pennsylvania last night where she urged voters to watch his rallies while pointing to recent comments from Mr. Trump that he would consider using the US military against his domestic political rivals.

So after all these years, we know who Donald Trump is. He is someone who will stop at nothing, to claim power for himself. And you don't have to take my word for it. I've said for a while now, watch his rallies.

Listen to his words. He tells us who he is. And he tells us what he would do if he is elected president. Donald Trump is increasingly unstable and unhinged.

And he is out for unchecked power. That's what he's looking for. Now this all comes as Harris is trying to put the focus on her rival's health, calling on him to release his medical records after she released her own over the weekend. The response from Mr.

Trump was to lash out challenging Harris to a cognitive test, claiming without any proof that his medical records are perfect and that Harris' seasonal allergies are, quote, deeply serious conditions that clearly impact her functioning. Joining me now, NBC's Dasha Burns, she was at that Trump event in Pennsylvania last night. And NBC is senior at White House correspondent, Kelly O'Donnell, who is covering the Harris campaign for us today. Dasha, let's go to you first.

You were in the room. We played a short snippet for our viewing audience. You had a view of it that none of us did. Tell us how the crowd reacted.

Yeah, look, Ryan, I've been to countless Trump events and I can tell you this one was certainly unique. There was surprise both in the press pen and in the audience when things took that turn to an evening of music with former President Trump, that playlist that you played there ranged from Pavarotti and Andre Bocelli, he's a big opera fan to Guns N' Roses and Elvis. The audience, though, once it did take that turn, they hung around. They stayed.

They listened. They felt like this was kind of an intimate evening, an intimate connection with the former president. His campaign says that when a campaign officer telling me that he gave those audience members a taste of what dinners at Mar-a-Lago are like. Apparently, he often takes over in DJs on weekend evenings at Mar-a-Lago at his club there.

I take a listen to how some of the voters in the audience responded. It was a town hall and I didn't expect him to take more questions. I thought he would talk longer. However, I still will vote for him.

I think it's a very good day to date. And the concert was great. I felt like I was sitting in a room with him. Just him.

I could have been here another hour and another two hours. That was wonderful. Perfect music for the time. And look, Ryan, the campaign is happy with this.

One source close to the campaign telling me that they loved it. They felt like this was him taking in the moment, having a moment with his supporters. The strategic question here, though, is this was a massive media market outside of Philadelphia in a critical battleground state. And he didn't take a lot of questions and spent a whole lot of time playing music.

But again, those his supporters and allies feel like he's an unconventional candidate. Only he can do something like this. And they ultimately think this speaks to his authenticity, Ryan. You mentioned he didn't take many questions last night, but he did sit for an interview with Bloomberg today.

He was able to stay on a message during that. Bloomberg, the focus was the economy. Look, it was in Chicago, Illinois. When I asked the campaign, why they're heading to another state that's not a battleground.

They said it's because of that economic message. And he did talk about his policy on taxes on tariffs. He was pressed about how analyses from economists show that his tariffs might balloon the national deficit. He said that he believes it's going to bring more production, more manufacturing back to the United States.

The conversation did take a turn though to a topic that his campaign and his supporters want him to stay away from, which is January 6. He claimed that there was a peaceful transfer of power in 2020, despite what we all reported on and witnessed on January 6. Again, that is something that the campaign wants to avoid talking about at all costs. The closing message they are gunning for is the economy and immigration, Ryan.

Okay, Dr. Burns, she's an Atlanta with the former president. Let's move now to Kelly O'Donnell. Talk to us, Kelly, about what the reaction has been from the Harris campaign on this event last night.

Did they see this playing into their plans of hitting Trump on his fitness for office? Well, certainly Kamala Harris has been raising those questions and so has Governor Tim Walzer running mate. And it wasn't so long ago when age was a big issue in his campaign when Joe Biden was still at the top of the ticket. And certainly Kamala Harris has returned to raising that issue about Donald Trump's fitness, his non-responsiveness to certain situations in terms of questions and so forth.

She has certainly been under pressure to provide policies and specific plans. And he had an opportunity to speak to voters, to take their questions, to talk about substance. And we saw what happened where however unconventional he is, and he has been for all the years he's been in national political life, we're three weeks away from the campaign election day, the pinnacle of the campaign, and he opted to not directly talk to voters when he had the chance to do so. So the Harris campaign wants to show that, wants to say it's about him, meaning the former president, and not about the voters.

And they've certainly talked about things that they're concerned about as well when he's raised the issue of utilizing the National Guard or an extension of the military to respond to some of what he has described as an enemy within. And he has described that as protesters as radical left. He has invoked the name of Adam Schiff, who is a sitting member of Congress and is on the ballot in California for the U.S. Senate race, and to use those resources, which may not even be lawful under certain circumstances, to respond.

And Governor Tim Walz reacted to that when he was on the campaign trail. Of course, remember, Tim Walz had served 24 years in the National Guard in his day. Here's Governor Walz. He suggested that he is going to send the military against the enemy from within.

Now, I want you to think about it. In other words, Americans who don't support him. Just to be clear, if any of your neighbors or friends or anybody thinks about that, you know what he's talking about? He's talking about you.

I'll tell you what. We'll let the lawyers decide if what he said was treason. But what I know is it's a call for violence, plain and simple, and it's pretty damn un-American if you ask me. And what Governor Walz said there echoes a lot of what we've heard from Kamala Harris as well, criticizing Donald Trump for being about himself, not about the voters, not about the future.

And as she would describe him, a danger if he were to return to the White House, right? Kelly, the Vice President is going to be in Detroit today, she has a town hall there targeting black men. Then she's off to some swing states. What should we expect?

Well, this is an effort for her to try to really work on voter groups where she has some work to do. And there is a gender gap, certainly, with men of all backgrounds, and African-American men are a part of that. So she's going to have a conversation. And she's going to do this outreach, which is really about trying to show that she is willing to go anywhere and describing herself as an underdog and spending time in those critical states.

Kelly O'Donnell on the North Lawn of the White House. Kelly, thank you for that. Let's talk more about this now with our panel. Joining me now on set.

NBC News. My NBC was colleague Garrett Hake to lose all the Renita, the White House bureau chief for the Washington Post. Megan Hake is a Democratic strategist and former special assistant to President Biden and Republican strategist and certified member of the Bill's Mafia, Garrett Venturing, which is always good at this table. Thank you all for being here.

I appreciate it. Let's start with Garrett Hake first because he goes to more Trump rallies than any of us. I used to go to Trump rallies a lot, but now Garrett, you handle that for us. You're welcome.

Yeah, exactly. I mean, this was odd even for Trump's standards. But is anybody in his campaign worried about this? At least not publicly, no.

They certainly don't seem particularly exercised about what we saw last night. If anything, the most I could get out of anybody in Trump rolls, either it was probably a missed opportunity. I mean, here he is in the Philadelphia, Selberbs, the largest media market of any of the seven states that are in play right now. And the only thing that anybody in that media market is going to be talking about is this weird DJ mopen here.

He's got problems with suburban voters. He's got problems in Philadelphia. Nothing he did last night solves any of that. But no, they're not freaking out about this.

I mean, I'm on the Trump campaign. It's kind of taken in as an article of faith that his supporters are locked in and the way he's going to push other people into his camp, not pull them, right? You're going to come to his camp because of what you don't like about Kamala Harris and you accept to certain degree what you don't like about him. That's their theory.

Good news is we all get to find out if it's true or not. Well, let's drill down on that to this. Because this isn't the first time that Trump's been off script. He often goes this way.

And he's defended his rhetorical style. Take a listen to how he's explained it. You've got to be able to finish a thought. So I said, no, I'm just telling you, basic, it's called the weave.

It's all these different things happen. The fake news. And there's a lot of them back there. You know, for a town hall, there's a lot of people.

But the fake news likes to say, the fake news likes to say, oh, he was rambling. No, no. That's not rambling. I do the weave.

You know what the weave is? I'll talk about like nine different things. And they all come back brilliantly together. Brilliantly.

So I think sometimes we often talk about Donald Trump in kind of a macro sense, right? This is how everyone reacts to him. But this races become micro, right? It's about 1% in seven states or more.

Is there an impact that this could directly have on that 1% that maybe we're missing? Well, first of all, a lot of people aren't watching Trump's rally. They aren't seeing the weave in place unless there are those locked in supporters who are with him already, who understand the weave, who understand what he's saying when he makes these one off comments or things that sound weird to a normal audience or a standard audience. They understand and they translate everything that he's saying.

But for people that he actually needs to win, the 1% the people who are undecided at this moment, the people who are deciding between Trump and Harris or the people who are deciding between staying home and voting, they are not necessarily going to be swayed by these bizarre things that he's doing. A lot of those people are already concerned that, you know, the last time he was in office, there was so much chaos, there was so much unmistaken sense of not knowing what was going on that a lot of those people do not want that again. And so when he does the weave, when he does these very weird and strange and bizarre things, a lot of those people are turned off. And so like I said, I don't think that he won over a lot of votes with his DJ performance yesterday, but I think it's clear that his campaign has already made the calculation that they're going to go forward with this strategy or lack of strategy and hope that their voters come out and turn out in a high enough number to win the race.

All right. So Garrett Ventry, if we were in this conversation six months ago and it was Joe Biden that stopped at Town Hall in the middle of an event and started playing music and DJing, how would you respond to that? Well, I don't think he'd be able to DJ like that. I mean, listen, this is something, I think a lot of folks know this, he does this at Mar-a-Lago quite often actually.

I've been there many times when he's done this. So I guess folks got to experience DJ Trump instead of DJ Khaled in Philadelphia. So I think that part, you know, listen, the bottom line is the other day, I don't think this is going to matter going into general. But you've had eight years of Donald Trump doing these type of things.

Now you can make that the question of voters were not questioning Donald Trump's mental cognitive abilities the way they were Joe Biden. And that's number one. And number two, we're talking about these voters that need to be won over. You know what Kamala Harris is wildly underperforming both Hillary Clinton's numbers in 2016, Joe Biden's numbers in 2020 with African-American voters and with Hispanic voters.

You're talking about 78% right now in New York Times, Biden and Clinton were getting well over 90. And you're talking about in the NBC poll that you guys released a few weeks ago with Hispanic voters, Obama won Hispanic voters by over 40, Clinton won by over 30, Biden won by over 30, she's down 14. She has a massive problem with the Democratic coalition right now. It's not Trump.

We need to go over these voters. He is winning them over. She is vastly underperforming. So I think here's point, Megan.

He says that we are questioning Donald Trump's cognitive ability despite events like this. And I don't mean we. I mean, generally, is that the fault of the Harris campaign? Are they not pointing this out?

Well, enough. I think they are pointing it out. I mean, they're calling for medical records to be released. But I think the problem is what people think of Donald Trump is already baked in.

For better or worse, it is already baked in. And there's no turning back. He's not going to step down like Joe Biden did. So this is what we're at.

It's also three weeks away. Well, the Harris campaign does need to focus on their coalition and bringing those people together. But yesterday's missed opportunity. And Joe Biden widened the margin in those four Philadelphia, or suburbs of Philadelphia about 100,000 votes.

And he only won Pennsylvania by 80,000 votes. So it's a missed opportunity to pull any of those voters away back into his camp. And I do think that it's about pushing people in and not pulling people in. So it'll be interesting to see how it happens.

But they definitely aren't needing to work on their coalition. But these events don't, I think, help them at all. Okay. So there's been a blending of the age attacks with the unfitness for office.

It hasn't stuck the way that it did for Joe Biden. But voters just see Trump's age fundamentally different than they did Joe Biden's even though he is going to be in his 80s if he's reelected the president of the United States. Yeah, he actually talked about this during his Bloomberg interview. That's where he would hire a CEO who's a 78.

And he talked about all the people that he knows that are in their 80s that are very sharp. I think because he is so forceful, because he sort of has a louder personality than Joe Biden does, he didn't face the same kinds of challenges about his age. Even though a lot of times the things that he says he mixes up names, he does things that Joe Biden did when he was running and he got a lot of bad negative press for it. Trump doesn't just sort of bolster through it.

And so because he's a more forceful person because his stage presence is much stronger than Joe Biden's was. He doesn't get as much of the blowback. There are people who are out there saying that we don't want an 82 year old president who is how old president, former president Trump would be if he were to become president again. And so that is an issue for a slice of voters and then a very close race.

It just takes a slice of voters who are uncomfortable with a single aspect of when candidates have changed their race. And how does the impact here? You see almost immediately Trump supporters rallying around him where when this happened with Biden, obviously the democratic establishment collapsed as a result of it. Talk about the difference there.

I mean, but this is the difference between these two parties and their supporters were large. I mean, we've talked about this in another context. You look at like our ABC poll that had the race 4848, Democrats see a tide poll, I think the sky is falling and panic. Republicans see a tide poll.

We're going to win by 10. You know, like these parties approach the same data in fundamentally different ways a lot of the time. And you see that here as well with the rallying around effect with Trump. To me, my operating theory of this whole race is that nobody in this country is actually undecided about Donald Trump.

Every single American voter who's been paying attention for the last eight years knows what they think about Donald Trump. And people are undecided about Kamala Harris. And so whether this, I don't know if this hurts Trump, except that it hands Kamala Harris a talking point, a weapon, a way to contrast herself with him in a way that might be useful. But you know, if you thought Trump was mentally unfit before this moment, you think it more now and if you think he's just a unique figure on the American political stage, then you probably think that stuff.

Yeah. Do you agree with that, Garrett, that's more about Kamala Harris at this point than it is about Donald Trump? It does. Well, I push back that their age is even a similar thing.

You're not talking about Joe Biden was calling lids at 5 p.m. You're talking about, you know, his staff was not wanting him to work after five. You've never seen that when Trump was in office and you're not seen on the campaign trail. He's traveling sometimes till two in the morning, then doing events at eight, nine, but Trump is in office.

He had executive time until lunch. I mean, you're talking about his staff didn't have to carve out time and say he can't work during these hours. That's a different, that's a much different situation right there. So that's one point there.

Now, there is, Harris is going to have to make an argument. Her big argument is this. She has to convince voters that her policies on immigration and the economy are going to be different than Joe Biden's unpopular policies. The problem is it's called the Biden-Harris administration.

She is supported these things. And one of the things that's going to come back to bite her is really that the situation on the view when she said there's nothing really different between her and Joe Biden. That is a big problem. Voters have soured on Biden's agenda.

That's the problem going into the number. Do you accept that premise though that the Biden agenda is unpopular? So, I mean, to note it's that it's unpopular. I don't think it's necessarily fair.

That's unpopular. I think that they have done a lot for people. I think that's the way to see the economy move in positive directions. But I will say that the problem is that Trump isn't talking about those things and people, like we're all sitting around talking about her and her on the view, but you don't see the campaign capitalized.

You don't see ads out there. You don't see them driving at home in the battleground. And I think that's a missed opportunity on the Trump campaign to really drive that message home. And I do think it's going to start coming about the contrast between character and I think that no one that decided on Donald Trump, but people are like, can I blive with four more years of this?

Is it what they did for my economy in the pocketbook? And what I thought was the price of gas, price of groceries. Is that going to be that impactful or am I worried about the kind of person he is? And I think that's where people are going to make an decision now.

As you guys said before, we went on the air. It's going to be a long time. Right? A long 20 days until we get to a election.

It's the first one. It's a long one. It was a lot of that. Garrett Hake, Toulouse, Olrinipa, Meghan Hayes, Garrett Ventry.

We'll just need one more Garrett on this panel. Good to go. All right. Thank you all for being here.

We appreciate it. Coming up, we're going down to Georgia as voters begin casting early ballots in that crucial swing state. But first, we have breaking news, the Afghanistan branch of ISIS, directed in Afghan National once worked for the CIA to try and conduct an election day terror attack on US soil. You're watching Meet the Press Now.

Welcome back. We are following some breaking news. NBC News has exclusive reporting that the Afghanistan branch of ISIS was responsible for directing that Afghan man's alleged election day terror plot in the US. That Afghan National also worked as a CIA guard was arrested last week in Oklahoma.

Officials say he was planning on buying two AK-47 rifles, as well as ammunition, and that he was planning to attack large gatherings on Election Day. NBC News Justice and intelligence correspondent, Kendall Aynan, joins me now. This is scary. I mean, what makes these allegations so surprising?

It is scary, Ryan, because the vast majority of terror plots unfolding over the last ten years in this country were so-called lone wolves. Self-directed, people who radicalize online. It's frightening to counterterrorism officials the idea that a foreign terror organization can reach inside the United States, communicate with people on the ground, and direct a terror attack. Now, our sources haven't said, described the details of how this was directed, but we know from the FBI criminal complaint that this man was intending to shoot large numbers of people on Election Day.

He was in communication with someone who knew was a member of ISIS, and he was marinating an ISIS propaganda. We've also reported that a relative of his has been arrested in France for plotting a terror attack there, and that his mother, who still lives in Afghanistan, is an ISIS supporter. So this is frightening stuff for counterterrorism. Wow.

So obviously they were able to catch this before it happened, but is there a concern that ISIS Kay could be directing other members to carry out similar plots? Yeah, there's absolutely a concern. We've not heard about any specific intelligence, but that's the thing. You know, they weren't aware of this person who was living with his wife and child in Oklahoma City having come here.

As you said, worked for the CIA, got permission to enter the United States, passed some vetting, were told by administration officials, and yet, you know, this plot happened and they unraveled in the last few months, but they certainly didn't see it coming. We were talking about this before today, and we haven't heard in a while. ISIS Kay, who are they, and what other attacks did they carry out? Yeah, so the attack in Moscow earlier this year, the theater, they attempted attacks at the Olympics, and of course, they're responsible for the deaths of 13 service members at Abigade in Afghanistan in 2021, to the extent that people are still worried about Islamic extremist terrorism.

It's not about al Qaeda. It's not about the old ISIS from Iraq and Syria. These are the guys. They're in Afghanistan.

They have somewhat of a safe haven, and they are causing a lot of headaches for the intelligence. Okay. Candelating with that breaking news, Ken. Thank you for being here.

We appreciate it. Early voting is now underway in one of the most important states in the 2024 election. Georgia, Georgia election officials say they've seen a record turnout for the first day of in-person voting in the battleground state. More than 230,000 people have already cast their ballots today.

It comes as new results from our NBC News poll show that a majority of Americans, 52%, say they have a plan to vote early or have already voted. And there's a stark partisan divide when it comes to how ballots are going to be cast. Vice President Kamala Harris has a 17-point lead among those who planned to vote before election day or who have already voted. While former President Trump leads among those planning to vote on election day by a 21-point margin.

Meanwhile, a major legal decision today on how the results in Georgia will be determined. A superior court judge ruled that officials in Georgia's largest county must certify the results by the deadline set in law. It's a defeat to conservatives in Trump allies who argue for the authority or to delay or potentially reject certification. Joining me now from Atlanta is Gabe Gutierrez.

Gabe Boding began today in Georgia. What are voters saying about what motivated them to cast their ballots early? Hi there, Ryan. Well, yes, a record-breaking day here in Georgia.

And we have seen a lot of enthusiasm from those voters who showed up at polling places like this one. And actually, Ryan, this polling place is new. It was opened up in part to help avoid what happened here in Georgia four years ago where there were long lines, people waiting for hours. We haven't heard of any of that today.

But we had heard of a lot of people at the polls shattering the previous record for in-person or the first day of in-person voting, which was just 135,000 people. That was four years ago. We spoke with some of the voters who showed up this morning. Listen to what they had to say.

So, Mark, why you're among the first early voters here in Georgia. Why did you contour with it? I just wanted to avoid any issues I could have in my election day. I figured the line to be shorter.

And with my schedule, it's tough to know for sure if I'd be able to come on the election day. It was our constitutional duty to make a change. It's time for a change in the country. It's time for revision.

It's time for things to really, really improve. So that's why I got here at this point. So this critical battleground state, Ryan, as you know, seen as extremely important for both campaigns. And, Gabe, you mentioned that it was a record-breaking day, but there's obviously other things happening as it relates to voting in Georgia.

Can you tell us about a ruling by the Fulton County Superior Court Judge and the impact that that could have on the race? Yeah. That's another major issue as we head into this election, Ryan, in this state, in particular, the issue of election integrity. And for the last several months, really, for the better part of this year, Republicans, as you know, in Georgia, have been trying to tighten election rules to fight what they consider, what they call any potential voter fraud here.

Well, today, a significant development, a Fulton County Superior Judge, issued an 11-page ruling saying that it was mandatory for election superintendents to certify election results, even if there are allegations of fraud. Now, the election superintendents should pass that. Those allegations belong to proper authorities, but the judge ruled that it was their duty by law to certify those election results by the following Monday after the election. And that rejected claims by an election board member who had previously voted not to certify the results during the presidential primary here earlier this year.

Still, Ryan, this is all going to play out in the courts. There are several legal challenges to a number of election rules here in Georgia. It all is part of the landscape here in this crucial battleground state, heading into the final stretch of the campaign. Yeah, and it could be a very, very close race there, so we're going to be watching it very closely.

Gabe Gutierrez in Atlanta Force, thanks, Gabe. And on next NBC News, goes behind the scenes with Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries on his quest to win the House majority and the speakership. That's next. You're watching me at the press now.

Welcome back. Control of Congress is up for grabs in November, but out of the 435 seats, only a small number of them are truly competitive. Right now, Republicans hold a very slim majority in the House. And Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries, is hoping to change that.

NBC's Ally Vitaly travels to New Mexico's second district, one of the seats that will be essential for Democrats to win if they have a hope of any shot at winning back the House. She sat down there with the minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries. Take a look. With that, I'd like to introduce our next speaker, the House, Hakeem Jeffries.

You could put odds on taking back from the majority, becoming speaker. What are the odds of putting on it? Well, I'm not necessarily a betting man, but we are working as hard as we can. I'm saying 5149, if you don't give me another number.

The only numbers Hakeem Jeffries cares about are the ones on election day. Slim House margins mean flipping a mere four seats would give Democrats the majority, and Jeffries and historic speakership. We're going to re-elect Jay Vasquez as the Congressman from the Second Congressional District in New Mexico. Thank you.

The road to controlling the House goes through seats like this one. Why is it back from Brooklyn in Albuquerque, New Mexico? Well, it's important for us to keep our foot on the gas pedal. New Mexico's Second Congressional is one of the tightest races on the map.

It's one of more than two dozen flippable seats that could decide if it's Jeffries or a Republican holding the gavel cum January. Jeffries is bouncing between swing states from Arizona to Oregon, New Mexico to Pennsylvania, and all important California and New York. January 6 showed just how important who sits in the speaker's chair can be. Let's go.

Let's just start. We're prepared to affirm the will of the American people. Do you believe Mike Johnson is too? It remains to be seen whether extreme Republicans are prepared to certify the election if Kamala Harris is successful, and that's a very troubling development.

Speaker Johnson is the Republican leader Jeffries deals with now, but it was Johnson's predecessor, ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy, who set the tone for this chaotic Congress. Through all of the extraordinary and unprecedented events, I've come to the conclusion that calm is an intentional decision. House Democrats have been hard at work. Trump may prove easier said than done for Jeffries than his fellow Democrats if Trump is back in the White House.

We will find bipartisan common ground with our Republican colleagues on any issue traditional Republican colleagues. Trump's not so traditional, huh? Traditional Republican colleagues. Whenever and wherever possible in order to make life better for the American people.

But we will push back against extremism whenever necessary. This is what we are dealing with? Taking back the gavel means saying Congress is to do list. What's the first thing that Democrats will do?

Well, we'll figure out the order of the legislation that will move on the House floor, but it's fair to say that a top priority is to make sure that we pass, as we've done before, the Women's Health Protection Act in order to restore the protections of Roe v. Wade. Now voters will decide if House Democrats get that chance. And NBC News Capitol correspondent, Ali Vitale joins me now in a fascinating conversation with the minority leader, Ali.

But let's, I mean, we're not talking about him as Speaker of the House until they win the House. How realistic are their chances? And he's not really talking about himself as Speaker of the House either because he knows that this is a game of margins within margins within margins. In the same way, we talk about it being a margin of error, race at the presidential.

That's the kind of game of inches we're talking about at the House. There's just about over two dozen seats that are swinging enough to potentially flip. And then you get into the real nitty gritty of it is some of them are in New York. One of them is in New Mexico.

Another one could be in Iowa. Another one could be in Kansas. You know, there's all these different places where they've got to play defense and offense. And again, the magic number is four for them.

If they flip at least four seats, then they take control of the House. And then it's a case of being careful what you wish for in the same way that it was by the Congress we've been covering for the last two years because this game of razor thin margins in the House is extremely difficult to navigate. So winning in the end could be a easy part. And it is really unique from the Senate and the presidential race in that these backgrounds are all different, right?

I mean, there's no presidential campaign in New Mexico, right? Exactly, there's no presidential campaign in New Mexico. And the issues that Gabe Vasquez is talking about there on the ground, yes, they focused on abortion in Project 2025. But when I was there, I asked him and he said affordability and housing was the key thing.

I was in New York just over the weekend talking with Congressman Pat Ryan on the Democratic side, Mike Lawler on the Republican side, in their districts, both of which are swing. One for the Democrats, obviously they're playing defense and Lawler's district are trying to go on offense. But for them, it was the same thing. It was affordability.

It was housing. It was a Hudson River cleanup project. I mean, these are not the national issues. And so in the end, all politics is local.

But in their attempts to nationalize it, Project 2025 has really become the common thread. Trying to pull out all the different pieces of that 900-plus page project and trying to apply it at a grassroots level. It's been a long time since we've talked about Speaker of the House on the Democratic party. Was it Nancy Pelosi?

Absolutely. What kind of sense do we get of what type of speaker our game Jeffers might be? And that was one of the questions that I asked him. And you and I both know when he wants to be on message and talk about something, that is what people do.

And certainly when it came to this, I asked him his reaction to the name Nancy Pelosi. He played a quick board association game. He still says, great speaker of all time. But he would be the next speaker for the Democrats since Pelosi.

He would be historic in his own right, the first black person ever elected to that stature within Congress. But he has really run this caucus through a very chaotic period. As someone who takes in information, listening to his members, and then quietly makes his decisions and guides the caucus that way. Pelosi, of course, rolled with an iron fist.

We all know that. Her stories are infamous. Jeffries sets a very different tone and cuts a different profile. But in a Trump-Washington, subtlety never wins.

I think he knows that. Yeah. Allie, you wrote the book literally on women being denied the presidency. So there's no better person to talk to about this.

We obviously have a situation where a woman is once again on the precipice of perhaps making their way into the Oval Office. And it seems as though women are going to play an even more crucial role in this campaign. They are always super important. But it's white women in particular that helped Donald Trump win in 2016.

What's the difference between 2016 and 2020 and where we are now? Yeah, helped him win in 2016. And then he improved, although he lost in 2020, of course. He improved with that group of voters as well.

Historically speaking, white women do tend to vote majority Republicans. So Trump is not doing anything specific or interesting just to himself. At the same time, though, you look at our NBC News poll that we just had up on the screen. From September to October, Trump saw an eight-point swing in his direction.

Kamala Harris was plus six with white women voters. Now in our latest October poll, she is minus two. Obviously, that's a problem for Harris. But for her, she's still winning women overall.

And if you're the Harris campaign, the goal is, all right, maybe we win some, maybe we lose some on white women who are clearly in the decision phase right now. But for the Harris team and Democrats, they know black women turning out has been the core of their constituency and it needs to be again. But if they do over 50% with white women, Kamala Harris, it would be very difficult for them to lose the election. It would be extremely difficult for them to lose the election, especially in the key states or whatever.

Okay, good talk to y'all down. But we've got to go. All right, still ahead. The strange Trump town hall, Pennsylvania politics in the path to the White House.

I'll talk to a local political reporter who's been on the trail talking to voters in the Keystone state. This is a race enters the final stretch. You're watching the press now. Welcome back.

As we mentioned both Vice President Harris and former president Trump kicked off their week campaigning in battleground Pennsylvania. With Harris returning to the Keystone state tomorrow and Mr. Trump back over this weekend. But today it's their running mates hitting the key battleground with Governor Tim Walz and Pittsburgh.

And it's surrounding counties and Senator JD Vance outside Philadelphia. It comes as the Commonwealth and its 19 electoral votes. Good very well decided who wins the White House in November. Joining me now fresh off a tour talking to voters in Pennsylvania's Lauren make our politics reporter from our affiliate in Philadelphia Lauren.

It's always great to have you on. We talked at the top of the hour about last night's Trump event outside Philadelphia. Whether or not that's going to move any voters. You recently crisscross the state talking to these voters.

What do you think it's going to move on to side folks with just a few weeks to go? You know as we travel across Pennsylvania most of the people we talk to have chosen a candidate but not all of them. Some people especially some students we talk to told us they weren't happy with either candidate. Some don't choosing a candidate.

Some voters though say they just are having trouble making up their minds here are some of them that we met as our tour in our tour cross Pennsylvania. I'm wishing there were a third candidate. They're not really excited about either one of the two over there. What do you wish you had out of a candidate that you feel like you don't have this here?

Somebody that we knew better. Somebody who had a little bit more of a solid track record. I am still kind of undecided. It's probably going to be the last minute.

Decision for me personally if I'm being honest. Is that typical for you? So normally I'm conservative. I'm normally Republican.

But with the two options we have in front of us it doesn't leave a lot for choice. So it's going to be a tough decision for sure. I just want to see what their plan is really for the economy moving forward. That last thing that that voters told me about wanting to hear more about the economy.

That's something that I have heard repeatedly from voters that they want to hear more about the candidates plans for the economy. For the finances that will impact that. And Lauren Harris walls have been in western Pennsylvania this week with Trump and dance in the Philly suburbs. What areas of the state are you watching the closest and for those of us that don't live in Pennsylvania?

Where do you think the biggest surprises will be? One of the places that we visited on this four cross Pennsylvania was Erie County. That is considered a Bell weather county. It's gone back and forth from Democrats and Republicans.

But I got to tell you another place that I'm really going to be watching carefully is right where I am right now in Philadelphia. This is a obviously an area that has a lot of Democrats. And certainly we have heard the questions of whether former President Trump will appeal more to black men and whether he'll be able to win some of them over. But really a big question here in Philadelphia is whether people come out to vote.

Period. Turn out here has not reached where it was back when President Obama ran in 2008 since then. It was close to 69% then it was about 66 and a half percent in 2020 and it was lower in 2016. So whether people here in Philadelphia whether voters here in Philadelphia come out to vote really could make a difference in particular for Democrats, especially in a Pennsylvania where margins are handy.

Pretty small. Yeah, but of course we got a big Senate race there as well. Lauren make on top of all of it for us from Philadelphia. And maybe the most important swing state on the map Lauren make.

Thank you so much. We appreciate it. And after the break, the case against TikTok, minor view with California's Attorney General as he leads a coalition of states suing TikTok, accusing the social media app of harming the mental health of children and teens. You're watching with the press now.

Welcome back. As TikTok heads to court to challenge legislation that could lead to a nationwide ban, the company is facing new legal issues this after the attorneys general of 13 states in the District of Columbia filed separate lawsuits against TikTok, accusing it of harming children's mental health. According to the suits filed last week, TikTok is violating those states laws by falsely claiming its services are safe for young people. TikTok defended its actions in a statement to NBC News and quote, we strongly disagree with these claims, many of which we believe to be inaccurate and misleading.

We provide robust safeguards, proactively remove suspected underage users, and a voluntarily launched safety features such as default screen time limits, family pairing and privacy by default for minors under 16. We've endeavored to work with the attorneys general for more than two years and it is incredibly disappointing that they have taken this step rather than to work with us on constructive solutions to industry wide challenges. Joining me now to talk more about this is California's attorney general, Rob Bonta. Mr.

Attorney General, I want to start first with your reaction to TikTok statement. How would you respond to that? Ironic for them to talk about inaccuracy and misleading approaches when they're the ones that have been inaccurate with their representations. They're the ones that have been misleading and their disappointment is perplexing.

They have not been forthcoming in addressing this issue. And so we can come upon us as attorney general, me as the attorney general for the largest state in the nation, the largest state Department of Justice in the nation to make sure that we're protecting our kids. They are harming our kids knowingly. They are lying to families, to children, to the public.

They are preying on children's psychological vulnerabilities, including their differences in executive functioning and self-regulation, trying to addict them and being incredibly successful in doing so. They want addictive, compulsive, excessive use and they're getting it and kids are getting hurt, whether it be anxiety, depression, suicidal ideation, body image challenges, learning loss, sleep deprivation. TikTok is deliberately harming our kids and lying about it and saying that safety is a priority and saying that they have approaches that keep kids safe. They do not.

So ironic statement from TikTok at best. As a father of four, including a couple teenagers, this is something that does keep me up at night, but I struggle with this because I wonder what you can actually do to rein this in. What's the objective with this lawsuit? What do you want to see changed?

Look, I join you as a concerned father of three who all are on social media. And they join the rest of the nation's children in being on social media. 60% of those 13 to 17 years old in America are on TikTok, 17% are on it all the time. And parents, of course, have an important role to play to talk to our kids as I have.

I'm sure as parents across the nation have to limit, frequency, limit, duration of use. But this is not a fair fight. TikTok is a billion dollar entity that is doing research and investing in the best ways to adapt your and my children to exploit them, to harm them, to manipulate them, to hurt them. So this case seeks injunctive relief, it seeks an end to those features and designs that harm our children.

Things like beauty filters, which create a harmful body self image, things like infinite scroll and auto play, like the push notifications, likes and comments, TikTok live and TikTok stores, which take advantage of the fear of missing out. All of those have approaches that can be different than the ones being used. Right now, TikTok is pursuing endless profit on the backs of our children while they harm them. They could limit the duration, limit the time that TikTok can be available.

They could reduce access to beauty filters. They could, instead of using an algorithmic personalized feed, use a organic feed. So they cannot have push notifications in the middle of the night or when kids are in school. These are all common sense things.

And I want your four kids, my three kids, the kids of America's parents to be safe from TikTok has been planning and scheming to harm them. They're doing it right now. And we're there to say no, to use our power, our authority to prevent them from breaking a lot hurting our kids. I noticed that the Hearst campaign currently has a TikTok account.

The Biden campaign had a TikTok account. Even Governor Gavin Newsom in your state has a TikTok account. How do you reconcile these campaigns, elected officials using this platform while at the same time you say that it's harmful to children? Look, I have a TikTok account as well.

And that's the whole point that this is so prevalent. Young people and adults are all on TikTok. And there is both promise and pitfalls in use of social media. The promise of connecting people throughout the nation, sometimes throughout the world connecting loved ones, creating jobs, all good things.

That's the promise. There are also pitfalls like deliberate, deceptive efforts to addict our children. You can capture the promise, the good things, and guard against and end the pitfalls, the bad things that are hurting our kids. So there is no hypocrisy or conflict in the fact that Vice President Harris or Governor Newsom or I use TikTok.

We just want to take the bad features, the designs that are hurting our kids. We want those removed while we continue to have the promise of TikTok and other social media platforms. Okay, Attorney General Rob, thank you so much for being here. We appreciate it.

Thanks for having me. And before we go, we have some very important news to get to. Yes, I went there. Too cute and cuddly.

Giant pandas landed in the United States this morning on their way to becoming the national zoo's newest residents. Queen Bao and Bao Li are three years old and flew from China on a FedEx plane nicknamed the Panda Express. The first pandas China has sent to Washington in almost a quarter century. Their arrival comes less than a year after DC's last giant pandas were sent back to China and marks the latest chapter in a beloved global breeding and conservation program.

That's going to be a little while before the public can see the new panda pair. They'll be quarantined in the Panda House for at least a month. And then they'll take a few more weeks to settle into their new habitat. So the in-person pandemonium will have to wait for a little bit.

But for everyone here at Team Meet the Press, we are all very much looking forward to it, as I know Halley Jackson is as well. We're going to be back tomorrow with more Meet the Press now, but NBC News now coverage continues with Panda Lover, Halley Jackson, right now. Take a fuck out.