If it's Thursday, with 19 days to go, Vice President Harris pledges a break from President Biden in a testy Fox News interview, and former President Trump defends January 6 rioters at a town hall with Hispanic voters. And Israel confirms that it has killed the leader of Hamas and the mastermind of the October 7 terror attacks during an operation in Gaza, with the U.S. saying his death was confirmed by DNA testing. Plus, early voting begins in Battle Ground, North Carolina, as local officials make emergency accommodations, working to ensure that voters in places decimated by Hurricane Helene can still cast their ballot.
Welcome to the press now. I'm Kristen Welker in Washington on another huge day on the campaign trail, just 19 days out from Election Day. Both candidates are stepping out of their comfort zone, speaking directly to potentially unfriendly audiences. Vice President Harris sat down for an interview on Fox News, giving her clearest answer yet on a question that has dogged her campaign, how her presidency would be different from President Biden's.
My presidency will not be a continuation of Joe Biden's presidency. And like every new president that comes in to office, I will bring my life experiences, my professional experiences and fresh and new ideas. I represent a new generation of leadership. Your campaign slogan is a new way forward, and it's time to turn the page.
You've been Vice President for three and a half years, so what are you turning the page from? Well, first of all, turning the page from the last decade in which we've been burdened with the kind of rhetoric coming from Donald Trump that has been designed and implemented to divide our country. Now Harris, notably, still not giving any specifics when it comes to actual policy disagreements with the president. It comes as former President Trump took questions directly from Hispanic voters in a Univision town hall yesterday.
He was asked by one voter point blank about his conduct during the January 6th attack on the Capitol. That's changed. I want to give you the opportunity to try to win back my vote. What happened during January 6th, and the fact that, you know, you waited so long to take action while you're supported, we're attacking the Capitol.
Very importantly, you had hundreds of thousands of people come to Washington. They didn't come because of me. They came because of the election. They thought the election was a rigged election, and that's why they came.
Some of those people went down to the Capitol. I said peacefully and patriotically, nothing done wrong at all, nothing done wrong. There were no guns down there. We didn't have guns.
We didn't have guns, but we didn't have guns. There was a day of love from the standpoint of the millions, it's like hundreds of thousands. It could have been the largest group I've ever spoken before. Now, of course, many people there did have guns, and many of those who have been convicted or pleaded guilty if said they were there at the direction of former President Trump.
The format and the setting of the former president of some of the questions on topics that don't often come up at his rallies or in interviews with friendly media outlets. And at times, he struggled to give clear answers. Here's one example of that. Given the amount of amounting evidence of climate change, do you still believe it's a hoax?
Well, let me tell you, first of all, I built, you know, Okechobie Dam, and I did so much for Florida in terms of when I was president, and even as a private person, I built a lot. But I did the Okechobie Dam, which solved a big problem from the climate standpoint. So I always feel that with the climate, and I have been a great, I have been an environmentalist. I built many things.
I own Dorelle, right next door, and we did that in a very environment. I get awards, environmental awards, for the way I build it, for the water, the way I use the water, the sand, the mixing of the sand and the water. We have to have a strong country, and we have to have a nice climate. And there's nobody better at that, I think, at that combination than me.
But they're worried about the ocean rising in the 8th of an inch or a quarter of an inch in 300 years. What I'm worried about is nuclear weapons tomorrow. And of course, Trump has also called climate change a hoax. Now the Univision Town Hall comes as the Harris campaign has tried to spotlight Mr.
Trump's conduct in recent days, seizing on him, stepping, stopping questions midway through a town hall event on Monday to play music to his supporters for more than 30 minutes. Tuesday, he sidestepped questions during a Bloomberg interview about committing to a peaceful transfer of power. And in a Fox News Town Hall that aired yesterday, Mr. Trump doubled down on characterizing his political rivals as, quote, the enemy from within.
It is the enemy from within, and they're very dangerous. They're Marxists and communists and fascists, and they're sick. They're dangerous for our country. We have China.
We have Russia. We have all these countries. If you have a smart president, they can all be handled. The more difficult are the, you know, the Pelosi's, these people, they're so sick and they're so evil.
19 days ago, folks, joining me now on BC News, Chief White House correspondent Peter Alexander who's with the Vice President in La Crosse, Wisconsin, and NBC's von Hillier who is following the Trump campaign. Peter, let me start with you. Let's talk about the Harris campaign strategy in these closing days. The point was to have a contentious interview.
She didn't have a debate, of course, with former President Trump because he hasn't agreed to one. In many ways, as was noted in the New York Times, that exchange felt like a debate. What does the Harris campaign think they got out of that? Well, we heard from the Harris campaign's communications director Brian Fallon late last night, and he said that the campaign feels like an accomplished, but it was hoping to get out of that interview with Fox News that in part she was able to demonstrate her toughness, particularly for a group of audience, a group of voters, independents, and Nikki Haley's style Republicans, who they, the campaign believes, are still open to vote for Kamala Harris in this election season.
Think about Nikki Haley, Kristen. 17% of the vote nearly. She got in the primary in Pennsylvania. That, like Wisconsin and Michigan, those are going to be key battleground states.
That's the reason why they were in Pennsylvania. Just yesterday, alongside Liz Cheney, the Republican, who, of course, has now come out in support of Kamala Harris, as well as a hundred other Republicans who joined her there in that event yesterday. They hope that this is a way to sort of peel off at the edges, some of those independents in Haley style Republicans, Kristen. It's such a great point to highlight the Haley Republicans, because in some ways, whether you talk to Republicans or Democrats, those are the voters who could ultimately determine the outcome of this race, Peter.
Just looking forward, what are you anticipating in terms of strategy, Peter, because it has, she has obviously been doing a lot more interviews. Do you anticipate? She and Governor Wals will continue with that. Will they expand the number of interviews that they're doing, or will we see less of them?
Well, there are certainly a lot of voices within the Democratic party with a variety of opinions right now, and many of them are saying that the campaign has to be less cautious in these waning weeks here. We are going to see Kamala Harris in a cable news town hall that she's going to do next week over the course of the last several days, frankly, last week. She has been much more active with some of these interviews on podcasts, including with Charlemagne, the guy, the popular radio host, focusing specifically on black voters and specifically within that group, black male voters right now with some evidence that her support among that group has been slipping a bit from the Democrats have seen in the past. So I think that's where a little focus is going to be a force in the days ahead.
Yeah, and with a race this type losing around the margins can make a big difference. Peter, very quickly, I want to take a quick turn because as sometimes happens, you're out there on the campaign trail. There was major news on the world stage, Israel announcing the death of Hamas leader Yaya Sinwar, of course, behind the October 7th, the tax, the vice president weighing in on that. What were your key takeaways?
Yeah, what we heard from the vice president, I'll share with you in part what she said. She said that this moment gives us an opportunity to finally end the war in Gaza. She said that the war must end such that Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom, and self-determination. It's a lot there, but it demonstrates the sort of delicate balance that Kamala Harris is trying to strike right here.
Not really finding any real gaps policy-wise between herself and president Biden, but certainly recognizing in key states, including in Michigan where there's been real frustration among some of the Arab vote there, fears that they may not come out and support the Democrats to go around to make sure that you're both supporting Israel as well as those who are frustrated by the way that Israel has conducted this war. And of course, Kamala Harris is going to be in Michigan again tomorrow. Yeah, the race in Michigan could not be more competitive. Peter Alexander covering all the angles for us.
Thank you, von Hilliard, let me turn to you. Let's talk about that Trump Town Hall event with Univision. I think the biggest moment for a lot of folks was when he really doubled down on not apologizing for January 6th in any way, shape or form, despite the fact that voters said, look, I'm going to give you a chance to win back my vote. In many ways, it didn't seem like he was trying to win back that voter.
What is the campaign saying? Are there any plans for him to change his answer on January 6th? And I asked that, having just spoken to someone who is indicating that there's not going to be a real change? Oh, and it's really kind of posture.
He's helped the last three and a half years. It's defined. It's after January 6th. It was Donald Trump who chose not to show up on January 20th for the transfer of power, the inauguration of President Biden.
And Donald Trump has consistently defended his actions in the lead up to January 6th. And on that day of the attack, he still says that he should be the one in the White House here today and that there were individuals who were upset and rioted and that by and large, though, that there was a little violence that day, which of course, as you noted, that's just not reality. There were 140 police officers who were assaulted, five police officers who died by suicide in the months after the January 6th attack. And so for Donald Trump, though, we have, you know, is on the anniversary of January 6th or this year.
I asked him very directly whether he regretted any of his actions on that day. And he ignored my question. And we have seen instead Donald Trump try to turn the events of that day up on its head. But I think that that's where, as you and Peter were just discussing, where Kamala Harris and the Democratic campaign feels like they have an opening with reticent conservatives, the Liz Cheney, Nikki Haley type Republicans, and those independent voters that are still trying to make up their mind.
And to note, he really has not faced a serious line of questioning in quite some time on the events of January 6th. And so for Donald Trump, he has largely avoided what was really a very dismal end of his first presidency. And Von, we know that some of his allies are increasingly concerned that he's not focused on the issues that voters care about most, the economy and immigration. Overnight, he was posting about the week's old 60 Minutes interview with Harris.
He's complaining about the fact that Biden's no longer at the top of the ticket. What are you hearing inside Republican circles about their level of concern that Trump, still in a number of these instances, does not seem to be staying on the message that they think is the strongest footing for him? Right. There's more post about that 60 Minutes old interview on 60 Minutes between him and Kamala Harris.
And there is even about his own campaign, but also down ballot Senate candidates that are in hotly contested races in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada. And for Donald Trump, though, this is really, he has surrounded himself with the campaign operation in 2024 that has allowed him to dictate his messaging in the type of campaign that he runs. Unlike when we saw in the White House, when you had some forces in there, chiefs of staff who really, you know, contended with him to focus in on message that connected with specific Americans over policy. This go around.
You've seen a campaign that has so often tried to build him, you know, policy-type campaign events, but he may spend a couple of minutes focused on the economy or immigration. But much like you here in the podcast and the media interviews that he has done, he goes off on tangents that are really focused on the frustrations dating back to his first term to also the frustrations ever since leaving the White House. And with just over two weeks left here, of course, this is the time to win over those voters to convince them either to come, shift their vote from Joe Biden, Kamala Harris to you, but also to make the case to Republican voters that it's worth going out to the polls that we need you to get out there. It's hard to believe there's so little time left.
And Bon, we're getting some new information about the Al Smith dinner tonight. What can you tell us about that? Yeah. We know that Donald Trump is going to be attending the event.
This isn't every four years, it's annual tradition for the presidential candidates to come. Kamala Harris was originally not going to be part-taking. She has now recorded a video in which we'll be playing at that dinner tonight, Kristin. Okay.
And we also are learning that former First Lady Melania Trump will be attending with Donald Trump as well. She hasn't appeared with the former president since the convention. So we'll look out for that. Clearly, some headlines will come out of that.
Bon, thank you so much. Joining me now on set is Susan Page, Washington Bureau Chief of USA Today, Ashley Etienne for Communications Director for Vice President Harris, and Republican strategist Brad Todd Apologies. I have a little something in my throat. Susan, kick it off.
What are the two strategies and your takeaways from what we saw this week from Harrison? You know, I love what we saw this week. I love what we saw with a voter challenging Trump on something he hasn't been effectively challenged on for quite some time, and I saw Harris being forced to answer the most contentious questions. You know, you can argue whether Brett Baer should have interrupted or less or whatever.
I think it really served Kamala Harris' purposes for her to look tough to not melt down to handle it. So this was, I thought yesterday was like a great day in the campaign. I wish we had more days like at the other takeaway. It's tied.
We have a lot of polls, never more polls. All we know is it's a coin flip race, even as we go into the last two weeks and a half. It's such a great point because watching TV yesterday actually was really exciting though and then this feels like, okay, we're entering the homestraction, to Susan's point, hopefully we'll see a lot more of this. What is your assessment of how the vice president did because in many ways this was like a Worschach test.
Republicans, Trump supporters are saying, you know, she's still didn't answer some of these key questions. And yet, Harris supporters feel like she came to play and she delivered a very strong performance. Absolutely. I would agree with the Harris supporters.
She stepped into the lion's den and did not flinch. I mean, I was incredibly impressed with how she handled herself. It was clear that Brett Baer had an agenda. He tried to interrupt her, go at her, but she came out looking very presidential.
She held Donald Trump to his record to the fact that he has no plans. But I think most importantly, what she achieved is I think what the aim of the campaign, she looked strong. She looked tough. She got to dig into her record as attorney general to make the point.
I'm strong on crime. I'm tough on fighting drug cartels and the issue of fentanyl crossing our borders. So I think she actually performed highly well and achieved what she wanted to achieve. Brett, what does your take about what we all witnessed yesterday?
What were your key takeaways, particularly on Trump's answer when it came to January 6th? Well, I think first off, if you're really irritated with Trump about January 6th, you're probably already voting for Kamala Harris. You know, the election is going to be focused on immigration and the economy. And I thought that was what was most striking about her interview with Brett Harris, what she didn't do.
She presumably went to Fox to appeal to Republicans and independents who are uncomfortable with Donald Trump, or maybe not all the way there, maybe softly with him. Well, there are hesitations about Kamala Harris or that she's too liberal. And she didn't do anything in that interview to try to backtrack on it. Tell us how she's changed.
Here's how I was wrong in 2019 when I ran for president. I thought banning fracking was a good idea. Now I think it's a bad idea. And here's why.
And anybody else who thinks they should ban it, you're wrong too. I thought she should have challenged her party a little bit there and proven her medal as somebody who's learning and moving to the middle. I didn't see that. Actually, what about that point?
I would agree with that to some in some respects. I think what I would have preferred her see is to pivot a little more to Kamala Harris. Who is she as a leader? What does she believe?
Less about making distinctions around distinctions with president Biden, but more about what does this mean to move forward and to not go backwards to dig a little deeper into that to appeal to some of those Fox News voters that are still on the fence and not really sure which direction they're going to go. They're going to go. And so I'm not so sure that she fully made the case in persuaded anyone, but no doubt she looked strong in presidential. I think that was smart of her.
So what's your reporting on this? Armana Galba is reporting that there are conversations that Harris can't hit in the White House about the fact that she does increasingly need to distance herself. She did go further last night than we have heard her go before. She said, my presidency will not be a continuation of Joe Biden's presidency, and yet there wasn't that specific.
Here's how I'm going to be different. And look how long it took her to get to that point. You know, she was on the view and she said, I can't think of anything that would be different, which is a clearly unacceptable response to voters who are looking for change. And she needs to present herself as an agent.
And she needs to describe what that looks like. The biggest criticism I think of Kamala Harris at the moment is that voters don't understand what she would actually do in office. And part of that is what she would what would you do that is different from what they've seen the last four years. I think that is an unmet challenge.
She does have a couple of weeks to do it. It's still a 70% wrong track country. And she needs to say specifically, here's what the Biden administration and the Harris administration did wrong. Here's what we did wrong.
Voters are looking to see people who might learn from their mistakes. But can I also add, she actually infused some facts on Fox News, which I thought was really, really smart. She corrected Bear on where Donald Trump, his rhetoric, the effect of his rhetoric. So I thought that was also very important for her to do to go into the lines and challenge him on who Donald Trump is and what he represents and what he said and what that sort of threat would be for the American people.
You know, the lesson is take a risk. Yes. It's been an eye race. Yes.
It's been stuck since the conventions. Take a risk to shake things up. If you're a Democrat like Fox News and answering questions, that's smart. That's exactly what her allies have been saying.
We got to shake things up because the race is tied right now. And Donald Trump's baked in. It's a race about Kamala Harris. Yeah, it is.
Yeah, absolutely. There's so many things that are extraordinary about this race. One of them is that Trump still has not conceded that he lost in 2020. Senator JD Vance is running made has been asked over and over again.
If Trump lost the 2020 election, finally, he said this this week. Take a look. On the election of 2020, I've answered this question directly a million times. No.
I think there's serious problems in 2020. So did Donald Trump lose the election? Not by the words that I would use. I think that Big Tech rigged the election in 2020.
That's my view. And if you disagree with me, that's fine. And this is such a preposterous thing that the American media does. Do your job and focus on the problems the American people care about rather than bullsh** for four years ago.
So it's just remarkable. Of course, there's no evidence that Big Tech rigged the election that was deemed the safest in modern American history. What is the impact of that? How do you think that will play out in this race that is so tightly tied, basically?
So Vance says, let's look forward. Let's look forward. Are they going to accept the results with the election to lose? And we know that for a lot of their, we have questions about whether Donald Trump will accept the results of the election if he loses.
And we have questions now about whether many of his supporters will either. And one of the most damaging things about the refusal to admit that the 2020 election was fairly run and that Joe Biden is legitimately elected President of the United States is that has fed this great skepticism among a lot of Americans about whether he's really president and whether Kamala Harris will really be president if she wins in two and a half weeks. Yeah, and Brad, it's also fueled skepticism among a lot of voters about whether they should vote early. And that's actually hurt, Republicans.
We saw that in the midterms. But Democrats for play a role in this. We don't guys are opposing voter ID around the country. They wouldn't put voter ID in their national elections bill.
There's no effort by Democrats to find ways to build confidence back in the system. I think the question that Jenny Vance took is a trap for both sides. I think if you want to talk about the outcome of the 2020 election, the voters that are undecided, that's not what they're worried about. They're worried about getting this economy back going again.
They're worried about civil in the border. They're worried about America being able to be a force abroad for safety and calm and peace. I think both campaigns run real risk when they talk about the end of the last election. Actually, I'll let you respond to that last word.
I think, you know, Maya Angelou has a phrase which is, when someone shows you who they are the first time, believe them. So to these questions about moving forward, what can we expect from Trump? I think it's more of the same. I think he's going to accept the results of the election.
I think we can anticipate that there's going to be some violence that he's going to have another tantrum and potentially try to burn down the Capitol. I mean, that's what we can expect. I used to work for Speaker Pelosi. And we anticipated that January 6th is going to happen years before it actually happened.
And it did. You know, we warned when we did the impeachment fight that if we don't hold them accountable, it's only going to get worse. And I believe that in the American people should too. Well, everyone, I know hoping that this election is free from violence, political violence.
Thank you all so much for joining me. Really appreciate it. It's Susan H, Ashley Etienne and Brad Todd. Great conversation.
Coming up, Israel confirms it has killed the leader of Hamas, who was also the architect of the October 7th attacks, Yaya Sinwar, who got the very latest from the Pentagon and from Tel Aviv, plus early voting now underway in North Carolina as the state and its election officials continue the recovery from Hurricane Aline. Stay with us. You're watching me at the press now. Welcome back.
There is major breaking news out of the Middle East. Israel says that Hamas leader Yaya Sinwar, who play on the October 7th attack, is dead. A senior Israeli official tells NBC News that fingerprints on a body recovered after a firefight match those of Sinwar. In a televised address, Prime Minister Netanyahu praised the Israeli military, but cautioned that the war against Hamas is not over.
Earlier today, while on his way to Germany, President Biden spoke by phone with Netanyahu, raising the work of the IDF in a statement Biden called the death of Sinwar, quote, an opportunity for a day after in Gaza without Hamas in power. Sinwar was declared the head of Hamas's political branch back in August after the IDF killed Ishmael Hinnia in Tehran. He was also seen as a major obstacle to any potential ceasefire in Gaza. Joining me now is Khaled Karani and Tel Aviv, according to QB.
Is it the Pentagon? They've both been tracking this, covering this story. Hala, give us the very latest from the ground there. What more are you hearing from Israeli officials about this operation targeting Sinwar?
We have new information coming to us from Daniel Hagari, who's one of the main spokespeople for the Israeli military. We know that this operation took place yesterday and that they only identified the body of Yaya Sinwar today. Hagari said that last night Israeli forces identified three individuals fleeing from house to house. They engaged the terrorists, according to Hagari, who split up after being shot.
Yaya Sinwar fled alone. This is a remarkable detail. He fled alone into one of the buildings. And the forces used then a drone.
He, Hagari, Daniel Hagari, showed and predicted a video from that was taken captured by that drone, which essentially showed that drone flying into a bombed out building. And you see this kind of what looked like somebody who had been shot, who was kind of already wounded, not moving with any kind of energy whatsoever, throw, have hearted away a piece of wood at the drone, presumably, to try to get it away from him. So he was wounded in the hand from gunfire, which explains why he might have been in bad shape at that point. He was masked.
And at that point, Israeli military forces fired into the building, took the building down, and it's only the next day that they conducted a sweep of the location and realized that one of the deceased men looked a lot like Yaya Sinwar. And it's at that point then that they decided to conduct a formal identification. And they were able to, as you mentioned, Kristin, identify him through his fingerprints, his DNA. Yaya Sinwar spent 22 years in Israeli jail.
They had all that information about him, as well as his dental records. Just fascinating new details, Hala, and of course we just mentioned that Prime Minister Netanyahu spoke. He talked about the fact that this potentially opens the possibility for a day after plan. What more did Prime Minister Netanyahu say?
What were your key takeaways? Mikey, takeaways that he clearly said the war is not over. And we will continue with the full force that we've exhibited so far in Gaza. So whether it's the hostage families or Palestinians themselves, we have a crew inside Gaza that spoke to just ordinary Palestinians in the enclave.
If their hope was that somehow this would bring an end to the war, that some sort of ceasefire deal is now more likely now that Sinwar is dead, well, I think those hopes were dashed tonight because in his rhetoric and in his address, he left no doubt as to what his intentions were for the Gaza Strip, Kristin. Hala, very quickly, before I go over to Courtney, what's the reaction been from Israelis, particularly some of the hostage families? So the hostage family, some of whom were gathered in hostage square here in Tel Aviv, really have had the same message that they have been sending to their leaders since October 7th. They want their loved ones back.
They had hoped initially that perhaps the death of Sinwar would mean that some sort of deal could be struck. But who do you negotiate with now? As you mentioned in your introduction, Ismail Haniye was killed in Tehran now, Sinwar is dead. We don't know who's going to fill that vacuum and does it mean that a deal is more likely?
It's anyone's guess, but at this point, you know, you would be forgiven for thinking that it probably would make it harder to come to some sort of deal to get those hostages out. And there have been so many stops and starts and negotiations before this moment. Hala, thank you so much for your remarkable reporting there. Really appreciate it from Tel Aviv.
Courtney, let me go over to you. Let's talk about what the Pentagon is saying. How much did U.S. officials know about this operation?
So we have been hearing for the last several hours about how the U.S. has been helping the Israelis side by side, U.S. special operators Israeli military and U.S. intelligence officials in Israel, basically since October 7th, to try to track down and target Hamas leaders like Yaya Sinwar.
That being said, there are no indications at this point that the U.S. was directly involved in this operation that Hala just laid out there. So there's no indication that U.S. intelligence directly led to this.
Now, of course, the U.S. has been helping them with intelligence gathering, trying to target areas where leaders could be. So it's difficult to say whether the U.S. had any role at all, in this at all or not.
That being said, the officials, when all this started breaking early this morning, U.S. officials we spoke with were not aware of the possibility that Sinwar may have been killed yesterday. So I just say, I get the sense that this was, this caught a lot of people in the U.S. surprise.
And I have to say, this is really developing pretty quickly, Kristen, as you were talking to Hala, we got word that President Biden spoke with Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and that on that call, they spoke about how Secretary of State Antony Blinken would travel to Israel in the coming days to talk through all of this. So this is likely some of this potential, this hope that this may be an opening with the death of Yaya Sinwar. This may possibly be an opening for a ceasefire here, Secretary Blinken will engage in, I don't even know how many rounds he's done now of the shuttle diplomacy to the region to try to make just that happen, Kristen. So that is certainly a significant development, Courtney, thanks for bringing that to us in real time.
Try to put this, if you can. And I know this is such a complicated picture, but put it into context for folks who are watching Courtney, how much does the death of Sinwar impact Hamas's broader organization? So, you know, there's two ways to look at it. There is a military strategy of taking out leaders of a terrorist organization like this.
And you can point back to how many over the years, even bad daddy for ISIS and terror networks throughout the last several years, especially. The idea is that when you take out the leadership, you disable their command and control. You hinder their ability to talk to one another, to get information out to the field. The situation with Hamas, though, since October 7th is very changed from other terror networks that we would have seen and where this sort of taking out the leadership would have that sort of an impact.
The Hamas was very disaggregated. They have come under just tremendous and constant bombardment for the last 12 months now, plus. So I don't see it as having that kind of a military impact, but there is the larger strategic impact that this could have. And that really goes to the potential for diplomacy here.
What we have heard for months is that Sinwar has been this wrench in the progress towards a real ceasefire deal. He's not the only one who's been that wrench, but he has been one of the consistent ones. The hope here is that this could have larger strategic and diplomatic implications. Well, it is certainly a hugely significant development, Courtney QB.
We know you are reporting this out every minute. Thank you for bringing us all of the fast-breaking developments. We really appreciate it. Coming up next, voters are voting in Hurricane Ravage, North Carolina.
What Hurricane Helene's lingering impact could mean in the pivotal battle of real estate. Stay with us. You're watching with the press now. Get the best of NBC News with a subscription.
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It's more context and clarity from the reporters you trust. Download the NBC News app now and subscribe for more. Welcome back, early voting is now underway in the key battleground state of North Carolina just weeks after Hurricane Helene devastated parts of the state. Today's state election officials held a press conference saying early voting was open in all North Carolina counties, including those hard-hit areas, and offered reassurances about election procedures as they thank those who made it possible.
We are so grateful to everyone working to bring back some sense of normalcy to Western North Carolina. And we are grateful to everyone who is bringing back the infrastructure needed to run elections, the roads and the bridges, cell service, power, internet, and water, the things that are essential for everyday life, but are also important for us to make sure people can vote. Joining me now from Asheville, North Carolina, is NBC's Antonio Hilton. Antonio, thanks so much for joining me.
You are in an area that was hard hit by Hurricane Helene. How is that impacting early voting today? What's the mood there? Well, Kristin, the county has had to make a number of adjustments, emergency changes, to support people.
And that's because a number of the early voting sites that they had planned to use were severely impacted by the storm. Two were able to be repaired, but the county had to even go out and find an entirely new location that voters aren't used to so that they could have the capacity of the space to support the kind of early voting this state tends to see. Back in 2020, 65% of North Carolina voters utilized their in-person early voting option. And what we've heard today from officials is that they're on pace right now to track there or if not, get a little bit higher.
And so that's encouraging. The major concern here was a turnout concern. How might this storm keep people from even making it to the polls in the first place? We talked to a number of voters on all sides of these different issues.
And I want you to listen to some of the intimate conversations we had. Were you worried at all you wouldn't be able to make it to the polls? At some point, I thought about it, but I said, Lord, make a way. We get there.
Those people that are way back in the woods. Those are the ones that I pray for every day because a lot of people haven't even gotten aid right now. There is speaking frankly, no election when people are still worried about freezing the death. We're not worried about who becomes the next president because in four years when they're going, there's still going to be things in this valley and in these communities that's not going to be back in order.
Some of the Democrats have told us that this entire experience has actually galvanized them. They're more concerned than ever about climate change and more concerned about who's going to represent them at the federal level when it comes to those issues. But then as you just heard there from some of the young men, there's this feeling to in other communities of a lack of trust of faith in the federal government and kind of disconnect now. And so in a state where turnout matters, people win or lose elections, sometimes by just a couple hundred votes in North Carolina, where the chips fall, that's going to be really important here, Kristen.
It's just so fascinating to hear from those voters and Tonya Hilton. We know you'll continue to stay on top of this developing story. Thank you so much for being with us. We really appreciate it.
Coming up after the break, a rare moment of agreement from both campaigns. No tax on tips. Could the idea tip Nevada's swing voters one way or the other? We'll take a look.
You're watching Meet the Press Now. Stay with us. Hey guys, Willie Geist here reminding you to check out the Sunday sit down podcast. On this week's episode, I sit down with one of the biggest bands in the world, Mumford and Sons, as we get the boys together to talk about their new number one album, Prize Fighter and the evolution of that irresistible foot stomping sound.
You can get our conversation for free wherever you download your podcasts. Welcome back tonight. One of the most closely watched Senate races will be in focus as Nevada's Democratic Senator Jackie Rosen squares off with Republican Sam Brown in Las Vegas. Nevada is a state that could have major implications for who wins the Senate and the White House.
It comes as both Harris and Trump are battling for votes in the state to very different candidates ironically making a very similar pitch. No taxes on income from tips in a place where service workers drive the economy. Steve Patterson takes a closer look. Rachel Carone is an undecided voter in one of Nevada's most prized populations, service workers and this cycle with the economy top of mind one offering by both candidates as Rachel ready to order.
What do you think about having no tax on tips? I would love to have no tax on my tips. I want all the money I could possibly get with inflation and everything going on. COVID hit Nevada hard and it still hasn't recovered.
Its August unemployment rate was the worst of any state while above the national mark making this the buzziest phrase in the silver stick. Listen to this one. No tax on tips. Eliminate taxes on tips for service and hospitality workers.
Both presidential candidates have made exempting tips from federal taxes, a central theme of their campaigns in Nevada which boasts the highest percentage of tip workers in the nation. The message is even louder. No taxes on tips. Eliminate taxes on tips.
Radiumsal Brazil owns Pinyon bottle and Reno and isn't buying the hype. I think it is just a buzzword vote grab. I haven't heard anything that's not nothing more than a band-aid kind of situation. So far the candidates have given few details.
Former President Trump was first to make the announcement but doesn't specify income limits or which industries would qualify for the tax break while Harris' plan would only apply to workers in the service industry include caps and only exempt tips from income taxes, not payroll taxes. The end of the day folks are not necessarily went to a party but the economy is the biggest issue out here. In the bi-early battle for Nevada, the all-powerful culinary union is the Vanguard, thousands of foot soldiers getting up the vote. In the 2022 midterms, members not done over a million doors for Democrats across the state.
The union has endorsed Kamala Harris and they're already out in force. Working class folks aren't done. They're smart folks. They're used to hearing a lot of promises from politicians and part of the problem with Trump is that he lies and he lies a lot.
So folks are skeptical. Some economists are wary of the idea overall, projecting tax revenue to fall by some $200 billion over a decade and noting it would only help a fraction of workers. At Noble Pie parlor, bartender Craig Woodland's skepticism is on tap. I think that I need more information about it, you know what I mean?
I'd love to have more money in my pocket but I'd also love for that money to still be going towards my community. Any plan would have to pass through Congress. Still, Rachel is hoping it's a slogan that soon tads her pocketbook. Yeah, everything is super expensive right now so and I have two kids so any extra money that I could possibly have for Bill and Christmas is coming up.
What a fantastic report. M.C. Steve Patterson joins us now from Las Vegas. Steve, thank you for joining us with your great reporting.
So let's dig a little deeper now as you noted both presidential candidates are campaigning on no taxes on tips. But what about the Senate candidates? Jackie Rosen and Sam Brown. Where do they stand?
You know, it's it's just one of those issues that seems to be the one thing that everybody all parties in the state can agree on. Of course, Democratic incumbent Senator Jackie Rosen co-sponsoring legislation back in July called it no tax on tips act. So she's obviously for it. Sam Brown even takes it a step further.
Republican challenger telling one of our Trevor reporters in the topic of correctly a few months ago that it was his party's plan, his campaign's plan to roll this out even before Donald Trump said anything about it and that he may have been scoops by his own presidential candidates. Obviously he's for it as well. Expect to hear about it tonight in debate between both candidates. What a great little nugget there, Steve.
What are the other topics we can expect to hear about anticipate the economy abortion? What are you watching for? Yeah, you know, both sides are going to play to their base, right? So Brown will talk about border security and immigration even though this is not a border state.
It's a topic that's important to Republican voters writ large across the country. Jackie Rosen, meanwhile, expected to talk about reproductive rights and abortion. That is actually on the ballot enshrining reproductive rights, something that voters are looking forward to when they head to the polls coming up in just a few days as early voting starts tomorrow. But I think the old adage goes, if the country catches a cold, Nevada catches a flu when it comes to the economy.
So if they're talking about inflation, if they're talking about grocery prices and home prices, then they're not just missing an opportunity here. They're missing the point. The economy is top of mind for everybody in the state. Fantastic reporting.
Steve Patterson, thank you so much. We really appreciate it. Well, there are renewed calls for dramatic changes at the Secret Service in the wake of July's attempted assassination of former President Trump. An independent bipartisan review conducted by former law enforcement and government officials found systemic failures at the agency which enabled the assassination attempt to happen.
They also warned of another catastrophic security failure if the Secret Service does not make fundamental reform. The review echoes remarks made by Acting Secret Service Director Ronald Rowe, who called for a paradigm shift after a second attempted assassination of the former President last month. In an exclusive interview, NBC's Kaleo Donald Press Row about the state of his agency and the state of his leadership. They are recommending a leadership change.
Are you prepared for that? Well, what I'm focused on right now is making sure that I'm advocating for the men and women of the Secret Service that are out there doing the mission. And I'm trying to match the level of effort that they're doing right now to make sure that we are successful and I'm pushing myself and those around me to make sure that we're having those conversations with key decision makers so that I can advocate for them. And everything is on the table.
Everything from pay reform, retirement reform, getting an authorization to ensure that our personnel are paid for every hour that they work, that is my focus right now. Kaleo also asked Rowe whether the Secret Service could do more to protect Mr. Trump. Mr.
Trump's team has continued to ask for more. You have said you've provided the highest level of Secret Service protection. Is there more? Is there something that he could get that he is not receiving?
So we adjust our protected posture based on threat and following July 13th, we have increased the size of the former President's detail. He is receiving the highest level of Secret Service protection that is commensurate with the protection provided to the President of the United States. Is he satisfied based on your interactions with him? So I've had conversations with the former President.
He's very happy with his detail. He's actually publicly stated that. Well, what a fascinating and important interview. You can see more of Kaleo Donald's exclusive interview with Ronald Rowe tonight on NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt.
You don't want to miss that. And still the calm, the fight against anti-Semitism. As Jewish communities face an unprecedented series of attacks according to the Anti-Defamation League, the director of the ADL joins us next. Please stay with us.
You're watching with the press now. Welcome back. Turning now to the fight against anti-Semitism. According to the Anti-Defamation League, there have been more than 10,000 anti-Semitic incidents in the US since October 7th of last year.
That's the single highest one-year total since the ADL began tracking those numbers 45 years ago. The ADL says at least 1,200 of those incidents took place on college campuses. Within 2,000 happened at Jewish institutions, like synagogues, and more than 3,000 occurred during anti-Israel rallies. I'm joined now by Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO and National Director of the Anti-Defamation League.
Thank you so much for being here. I really appreciate it. I want to talk about anti-Semitism in just a moment, but I do want to start by getting your reaction to the breaking news of the day, the killing of Hamas leader Yaya Sinwar, the implications from your perspective. Well, look, Sinwar was an arch-terrorist who designed and implemented the 10-7 massacre, like a case of Soleimani or Bin Laden or Baghdadi or Hassan Asrallah.
I mean, this is an evil person. And it is a good thing that his reign of terror has ended, but I don't think we can really celebrate. I mean, there are still 100-plus hostages being held in captivity in Gaza. So many civilians have died, not only at the 1,200 Israelis who are butchered on 10-7 and thousands of Palestinians.
I don't think we can really celebrate until Hamas is really dismantled and we can rebuild in Gaza in a way that creates a demilitarized entity ready to make peace with Israel. The Palestinian people deserve that, the Israeli people deserve that. So I'm praying for that outcome, but this is a good step in that direction. Well, let's talk about anti-Semitism in this country.
It's October 7. I just reported we've seen the incidents increase since then. What is the status right now and what is your biggest concern? Look, it's fairly terrifying, Kristen, that, again, over the past year, 10,000 incidents, that's triple the number that we saw in the same period of time over the prior year.
And keep in mind that we've hit record highs at four of the past five years. So right now, our concern is really keeping Jewish people safe. As you said at the top of the segment, the level of vandalism at synagogues and Jewish day schools, the level of harassment of people on college campuses and in political spaces. And just in public places, look, Kristen, I worry about a campaign season that is normalizing anti-Semitism on both sides.
I think it's time for leaders to lead, whether you're president of the United States or university president of the school board, and just say, this has got to stop. Well, you take me to my next question, because how much responsibility do you place with school administrators on college campuses? How much responsibility do you place with the U.S. government, with Congress, and whoever occupies the White House?
That's a good question. Look, there's no doubt that there are multiple factors feeding into this. I think, indeed, you have sort of intellectuals, if you will, on college campuses radicalizing the students, feeding this mania, you have political candidates, we're saying in temperate things, whether it's about the great replacement theory or the Zionist entity, I mean, all of it's really got to stop. And it means all hands on deck, Kristen, there's no silver bullet.
We need campus leaders, elected officials, corporate executives, and leaders in civic society, all to stand together and say, let's stop the hate once and for all. Well, you bring up the rhetoric on the campaign trial. I do want to play something for you that Donald Trump said last month. He essentially said that Jewish Americans will be partially to blame if he loses take a look.
But who are these people? Who are the 60% that would vote? And I really believe that bad things, very bad things are going to happen. I'll put it to you very simply and as gently as I can.
I wasn't treated properly by the voters who happen to be Jewish. I don't know. Do they know what the hell is happening? If I don't win this election and the Jewish people would really have a lot to do with that, if that happens, because at 40%, I mean, 60% of the people voting for the enemy Israel, in my opinion, will cease to exist within two years.
What are the implications of that, Jonathan? There's so much to unpack there, but let's be clear. The other candidate is not the enemy. The Jewish people, you can't make them preemptively responsible for your own misfortune and scapegoating our community that way.
It's incredibly unhelpful. Now, the only thing that gives me some consolation, Christian, is the fact that he's also said Catholics should vote for him and the elderly will be responsible and so on in so many other communities. So he sort of offends everyone. But look, whether it's Donald Trump preemptively blaming the Jews or some people in the Democratic party referring to Governor Shapiro as genocide, Josh, you can find in temperance on both ends of the political spectrum.
None of it is okay. That is for sure. I want to ask you, we have 30 seconds left, but on the issue of hate, how do we combat hate in this country? All hands on deck.
People need to speak out when they hear something. Especially if it happens on your own side, Republicans call out Republicans, Democrats, Democrats. Secondly, share facts. We need to dial down the drama and apply council culture, not council culture.
And thirdly, we need to show strength, we need to get organized. We need to not just talk, but do. And I think that's maybe the most important thing of all. All right, Jonathan Greenblatt.
Thank you so much for sharing your very powerful message. We really appreciate it. Thank you. NBC News now coverage continues with Tom Costello in for Holly Jackson right now.
I'm Craig Malef. Cheers. Cheers. I've always been a glass half vote kind of guy.
And now I'm talking to some people who look at the world that way too. Some really fascinating folks who shared their defining moments, their triumphs, their challenges, their stories are funny and my candid. So I hope you'll join me each week. And who knows?
You might just come away with your own glass half vote. Search glass half vote with Craig Melvin from today on YouTube and wherever you get a podcast.