Meet the Press NOW – October 18

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I'm Jared Hake reporting in Washington, where it's been another frantic day on Capitol Hill. House Republicans failed for the second straight time to elect a speaker on the House floor, leaving Republicans scrambling and Congress still without a speaker. We'll head to the Hill for the very latest in just a moment, but we begin with the deteriorating situation in the Middle East. Right now.

President Biden is returning to Washington after an historic and a whirlwind trip to wartime Israel, which was roiled by flaring tensions in the region following a deadly explosion at a Gaza hospital which ignited demonstrations across the Middle east and clashes outside the US Embassy in Beirut. It comes as President Biden US national security officials are now publicly countering Hamas claims that Israel was responsible for the blast, which killed more than 400 people, according to the Palestinian Health Authority. According to two senior US Officials, the US has an independent assessment that it was actually a Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket that misfired and hit the hospital and that Israel was not responsible. We're getting new pictures from inside Gaza as the humanitarian crisis worsts, including video showing the moment of yesterday's horrific blast.

We're also seeing images of the immediate aftermath of the explosion, with one doctor at the hospital describing the scene to NBC News as, quote, absolute carnage. The US Assessment of what caused the explosion dovetails with the Israeli military's analysis, which also blames Palestinian Islamic Jihad. But neither assessment for Israel or the United States has quelled the anger spreading across the Middle east from neighboring Lebanon and Jordan all the way to Iraq and Iran, with protesters taking the streets and clashing outside US And Israeli embassies. We're also seeing protests here at home, including both inside and outside the capital complex, including one group of demonstrators calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.

And then there were the protests in the west bank, where the rising tension derailed part of the president's midi's visit, canceling a summit with Arab leaders and complicating U.S. efforts tied to hostages and humanitarian aid. President Biden did meet with Prime Minister Netanyahu and Israeli officials, reiterating US Support following the deadly Hamas terrorist attack. And while in Tel Aviv, President Biden had an emotional meeting with Israeli first responders and with families impacted by the attack.

We were there in the first moment seeing the atrocities that happened. These were women that were raped and then murdered. The children, little babies that were torn around, taken away from the parents, murdered in front of their parents. I was able to steal and try to rescue them.

And my mom, with the great bravery and the street smart, was able to stay focused. President Biden also announced additional $100 million in humanitarian assistance for Palestinians, as Israel simultaneously said it would not interfere with humanitarian supplies from Egypt into Gaza as long as that aid does not reach Hamas. Right now, it's unclear if any aid is able to reach Gaza, where more than a million people have been displaced with virtually nowhere to go as Israel prepares for potential ground invasion of Gaza. The president redoubled his support for the alienation, but he also cautioned Israeli leaders not to be consumed by rage and to heed the lessons America learned in its response to 911 terror attacks.

You can't look at what has happened here to your mothers, your fathers, your grandparents, sons, daughters, children, even babies, not scream out for justice. Justice must be done. But I caution this. While you feel that rage, don't be consumed by it.

After 9 11, we were enraged in the United States. While we sought justice and got justice, we also made mistakes. I'm the first US President to visit Israel in time of war. I made wartime decisions.

I know the choices are never clear or easy. For the leadership, there's always cost. It requires being deliberate, requires asking very hard questions. It requires clarity about the objectives and an honest assessment about whether the path you're on will achieve those objectives.

The vast majority of Palestinians are not Hamas. Hamas does not represent the Palestinian people. Joining me now is our team of reporters Ellison Barber at the Israel Gaza border, Matt Bradley's invader Lebanon. And I'm also joined on set by NBC News Global security reporter Dan Delus, justice and intelligence correspondent Ken Lane, and NBC News chief Washington correspondent and chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell.

And Ellison, what's the latest on the hospital bombing and what are we hearing about the casualties and just the back and forth over who is at fault? Yeah, I mean, there's still been difficulty in establishing the exact death toll here. The Ministry of Health in Gaza, the director, they have said for 14 hours or so now that part of the problem for establishing an exact death toll is that this was so catastrophic. He said a lot of the victims, the bodies coming to them, they are dismembered, body parts, they are charged, and that's made it difficult to get an exact number.

One of the main hospitals in Gaza City now treating a lot of people who were injured in that other hospital explosion, as well as collecting the bodies at their hospital. They've estimated the death toll somewhere around 250. Gaza's health ministry had previously thought, they said it could be up to 500 people dead. They've revised out a bit now saying they think it's just a little bit over 400.

But the big question and the thing we cannot answer independently or confirm for you from NBC News is who is responsible for this? Israel is adamant in saying they have nothing to do with this. They have released footage as well as audio recordings they say prove that this was the result of a rocket fired by the militant group inside Gaza, Islamic Jihad, and it misfired and hit the hospital, the United States. They have said they have seen that evidence present, Biden included, and they believe Israel was not responsible for what happened at this hospital.

But most of the Arab world, regional leaders, as well as the groups inside of Gaza, they don't believe that at all. Islamic Jihad has said that Israel is lying here and they claim that based on the size of the explosion, the angle that the bomb fell at, that this was not something they did, that they do not have weapons of that capability, that it had to be, in their view, a bombardment from the air like the ones Israel has been carrying out. I spoke to a couple of people inside of Gaza tonight, civilians, and they told me they feel that there is no question in their mind that this didn't happen from a group inside of Gaza. They believe that this was something that happened because of Israeli air strikes.

But the truth is here right now, we do not know. The world wants to know who did this because it is catastrophic and we know there have been mass casualties. A lot of the victims here speaking with doctors, treating them, barrier, it is women and children, many of them, who were simply sheltering inside of that hospital because they thought it was going to be the safest place for them to be at the blast obviously had a huge political impact, too. It contributed to the derailment, basically, of the second half of the president's trip where he was supposed to meet with Arab leaders.

But how was the president received during his visit to Israel today amongst the Israeli leadership, Israeli population, very well received. I mean, Israel and the United States have a very long history together, a strong relationship. His visit was a welcome one. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had asked him to come to Israel to show solidarity days ago.

So they were glad to have that. Inside of Gaza, a different story. They felt that the visit was frustrating. They did not want to see President Biden meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

And people, people we've spoken to, they have talked to us about that, saying with this discussion of aid, their answer to all of that was that they didn't really care about it right now. They said they wanted the bombing to stop, and that's not something that's going to happen. But there is now maybe a bit of hope that at least some humanitarian aid could get inside. But people who we have spoken to, Palestinians inside Gaza, they weren't pleased to see President Biden here at all here.

Elsa. Barbara, thank you for that reporting. Do stay safe. And Matt, turning to you in Lebanon now, what are you seeing and hearing on the streets there, and how much concern is there that this moment, this blast, could be the thing that perhaps draws Hezbollah into the war?

Yeah, I mean, that's a big question. Everyone wants to know whether Hezbollah is going to begin in the war. It's a question we've been asking for the better part of the past 10 days. But I was at the US embassy where we saw the tail end of what was going on there.

A lot of violence. The police have just dispersed the crowd. You could still smell the tear gas in the air. That was clearly just a thrust of anger against the US Why the US Will the Israelis don't happen in this year.

They have no diplomatic relations with Lebanon. But when I went to a Hezbollah rally earlier in the day in the neighborhood of Dahya, which is a Hezbollah stronghold just outside of Beirut here, there was a lot of mention of the United States just alongside Israel, a lot of mention of Joe Biden in the same breath as they were mentioning Benjamin Netanyahu, Israeli Prime Minister, to the folks there who were supporting Hezbollah, there is simply no daylight between Israel and the United States between Netanyahu and Biden. So they don't see any differences of the United States as complicit entirely in the crimes, that they see Israel as oppressing the Palestinian people. And I asked some of them, of course, everybody there believes that Israel was the one who bombed that hospital last night.

And I asked one man, you know, what if you did have just undisputable proof that it was an errant missile from one of the Palestinian fighting groups? And he said, look, we will still be out here. We will still be protesting, even though the hospital was the impetus for this day of rage that Hezbollah called. This is something that is a catharsis that has been going on for generations.

They're still angry in Israel. They're still angry in the United States. And last night's tragedy is almost a moot point, whether or not that will be enough to drag Hezbollah to the world. There was a lot of talk about that from speakers on the stage.

And the people that we spoke to, they said that Hezbollah is ready. You could hear people talking about how they're ready to be martyrs. There were small children in the crowd who were talking about death to Israel and death to the United States. Speaking of death in an almost a way that comes from heritage.

This is something that has been part of that Hezbollah community and part of this country for quite a long time. But this is a country that's been ravaged by war in the past, and a lot of folks here are tired of war. They had one back in 2006. It nearly brought this nation to its knees.

And while the rest of the Arab world is really overflowing with anger towards the Israelis and towards the Americans, it will likely take a decision either from Hezbollah or possibly from Iran to put Hezbollah into this war and for it to drag the rest of the region along with it. Matt Bradley for us in Lebanon tonight. Matt, do stay safe as well. And Tantalus, I turn to you because there's a lot hanging on this US intel assessment here that this was not Israel that caused this explosion.

How does the intelligence community gather this information? What kind of tools are at their disposal? How confident should we be in the decisions that are the conclusions they're coming to? Well, the US Spends a lot of money on this, on this intelligence they have.

So they have satellites, they have a way of reading heat signatures from any kind of rocket or missile launch. They have, of course, intercepts and eavesdropping, which they mentioned earlier today, the one has, which is rare. And of course, they have human sources on the Ground that might be quite limited right now in Gaza. So I think it's interesting that they did mention they had intercepts and they're saying now very clearly they don't think Israeli forces are responsible.

The National Security Council put a fairly detailed statement outlining why they think they know what they think they know. That's unusual in and of itself, is it not? And should we ever expect to see any of that raw data? Is that the kind of thing they would ever put out?

I mean to mass point it might not ever matter. But if that evidence exists, should it or will it ever be made public? Really good question. I think there is some consideration of that, but we could not hear confirm from the administration whether they're going to declassify.

We saw that in Ukraine though. They've been very aggressive when it comes to the Russians and the invasion of Ukraine and they have declassified intelligence really in an unprecedented way. We don't know if they're going to do that in this case. Penalty.

We've seen some violent protests overseas, mostly peaceful protests here domestically so far, but there is concern about potential for violence here domestically. What are you hearing on that front across the country? A heightened threat environment is the phrase that law enforcement intelligence officials are using. And they're basing that largely on a flood of extremist posts on social media.

So it's not the old model of intelligence about a terrorism cell operating in the US the big fear is lone extremists radicalized by what they're seeing online. And there's a lot of horrible hateful stuff online, including from Al Qaeda related groups of neo Nazis calling for attacks on Jewish groups and other targets in the United States and Europe. We've already seen a shooting in Brussels that may have been motivated in part. Absolutely.

So it goes. So there's a lot of concern about a heightened environment of violence. Is this the kind of thing we're just going to operate at this very high level for as long as this war goes on? I mean, is there enough sort of specific data points that point us in any one direction or is the expectation that this is the threat environment we're going to be dealing with?

It certainly will be a raised threat environment. It seems like the hospital bombing has exacerbated that even more and I think we can expect that to abate a bit. But in terms as long as this war continues, there will be a threat environment. Under the President's visit today, obviously a huge moment for him on the world stage.

Talk about the degree to which it was A success. The deliverables he did or did not achieve here and how this trip will be viewed across the world. The president in Israel in more time. Well, certainly his main goal, his original goal as laid out by administration officials to us before he left, was much, much broader.

It was to be in Israel as well as in Jordan, meeting with Arab and Palestinian leaders. He was trying to get the humanitarian aid in not only the short term, but for the long term in what US Officials said was going to be weeks if not months of intense war and a high casualty rate in Israel. He was trying to limit the casualties by limiting the, let's just say the their goals, making them define their goals and limiting the expanse of the war, the ground invasion. They could go in in a more targeted way, trying to protect hostages, for instance, as well as trying to protect the civilians in Gaza because of the impact of civilian deaths in terms of public opinion, in terms of war, in terms of igniting the rest of the region, in terms of expanding the war to Hezbollah, to the west bank, to other fronts throughout the region.

And none of that was possible because of the hospital blast. The tragedy of the hospital blast is of course immediately to the victims and to the people in Gaza, the survivors, the casualties. But the larger tragedy, beyond the immediate pain and the suffering and the death of the victims, is to the so called peace process, to the diplomacy to get humanitarian aid in. They still haven't gotten that aid in.

You've got 350Americans now in Gaza asking the State Department to get us out, get us out through that Rafah crossing overdependent we talk about specifically you. And I've been at this table three days in row now for three days. We've talked about the possibility of opening Rafa Crossing, $100 million in aid. What's the realistic chances of that aid getting in and getting to the people who need it?

It's aid getting in and people getting out. I was talking to the head of the International Red Cross today on our program. Tons sitting there. Now.

American diplomats have still not gotten closer than 150 miles from the Rafa gate because Egypt is keeping them outside the so called security zone. But who's going to if these people, if it does, if it were open, who's going to clear these people, help them with consular assistance, get them to hotels, get them to other places to live? Israel is still saying that it will cooperate, but they have also resisted in some ways by not declaring a safe zone. So those are the missions that Tony Blaggen Franklin was working on since last Thursday in Israel and again Sunday when he came back to Israel and Monday.

And to this point it still hasn't happened. Perhaps it would have happened to the hospital last had not gone off. We don't, we can't say there's a way to prove that. But so all of that could not be accomplished.

What I don't know, what we can't ascertain is what happened in the war room in terms of getting Israel to scale back on its very aggressive, you know, goals for the ground war. And the administration is reluctant to say we're tying their hands, we're limiting them, we're not going to dictate to them. But is a big but they are telling them the reality. And Netanyahu acknowledged that in his public comments this morning with the president that we know we have to limit, we will always try to limit the casualties and then their buddies, but we have to do what we have to do.

And it's urban warfare. We've seen it in Muslim art groups have seen it in Muslim Fallujah, elsewhere Kabul. It is the worst kind of warfare, as our colleague Jim Stavides says. You know, it's just a horror for the troops of all.

And we've got an IDF spokesperson on there now who are going to talk about some of that war cabinet stuff. Dan, I'll come back to you for a minute because we talk about one of the things that was in this NSC read on this. They talk about open source intelligence. And one of the pieces about intelligence we know about there is this Al Jazeera tape of the bombing.

If we show that to people, I wonder if you could walk us through what we see here and why this is the kind of thing that intelligence experts are interested in. This is this Al Jazeera video that, you know, talk us through what we're seeing here and why this is the kind of data point that would matter. I mean, there are many data points. This would just be one of them.

I think they would look at the trajectory of the projectile. They would be looking at the size of the explosion, the timing of it. But more importantly, they would also look at the crater that's left by that projectile. And there's been a lot of open source investigators outside of government who say the crater resembles a rocket, does not resemble a large kind of bomb that would come from a military aircraft.

And so therefore, that has raised a lot of questions about the original account that Hamas gave. And of course, really this is about information warfare too. Right. So we were talking about declassifying.

At some point it becomes too late, a narrative takes hold and Hamas was able to come up with a casualty figure really fast. Andrea, I've been thinking about what Matt Bradley said for a long time about anything that matter to so many people. But does it matter to those governments that wouldn't meet with President Biden, the Egyptians, to the Palestinian authorities, The Jordanians, if U.S. intelligence able to go down and say, look, this is the data we have, does it matter diplomatically in those nations and to the sort of broader it may matter in terms of personal trust and relationships between Biden or Tony Blinken and their counterparts, but it doesn't matter to the street, doesn't matter to their feeling of vulnerability because their large populations, especially in Jordan, the third of the population is Palestinian, they feel vulnerable and they don't feel able to help with a hostage deal, make peace, normalize relations would be the farthest out to do those things with either Israel or the United States right now because they are afraid of violence.

We have violent crowds outside our embassies in Jordan and you know, in Beirut, Lebanon already overnight, the west bank is becoming, it's erupting as our colleague Richard Engle is reporting. It hadn't been there been three or four, the incidents up until the hospital incident and then, you know, all of a sudden places that had been relatively peaceful until then started erupting. So that's where you see the reactions in Europe and elsewhere as well as in the United States with getting back to the beginning of our conversation just now when you were talking about what's happening online, the scare mongering and the lying and the social media from far, you know, radical groups and Nazi groups and others in the US that's the real concern. All right, I'm Gabby up there.

Andrew Mitchell Daluzkel, I'm so grateful for having all of your expertise on this story right now. And coming up, what's next in the Israeli military's mission to take out Hamas and what the future of Gaza and its refugees looks like. I'll speak to an Israeli military official. Plus, there is still no speaker.

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Download the NBC News app now and subscribe for more. Welcome back to the ongoing diplomatic efforts in the Middle East. The US Vetoed a UN Resolution today that called for humanitarian pause to deliver aid and supplies into Gaza. After the vote, US Ambassador Linda Thomas Greenfield urged the Security Council to let diplomacy play out, adding that President Biden is engaging at the highest levels to prevent the conflict from spreading.

The ambassador also criticized the resolution for not including language about Israel's right to self defense following Hamas attack that killed more than 1400 people in Israel. Every member state should condemn Hamas's terrorism and cruelty and every member state should call on Hamas to cease its endless barrage of rockets against Israel. This is not complicated, it's not controversial. This is the bare minimum.

I'm joined now by Major Jerome Spielman, a spokesman for the Israeli Defense Forces. Major, thank you for being with us. And I want to start with those high level diplomatic conversations. What can you tell us about the conversations that took place today between President Biden and the work out there?

Well, I can tell you, I think what we've all seen, which is that the United States is truly the ally of Israel. We truly are sharing moral, a moral affinity with each other. We're both democracies. We both understand that it's our duty in the areas that we live in the world to protect democracy and to be fair and reminded.

And I think the President's comments both in the way that he very carefully weighed the disinformation that was put out by Islamic Jihad and the blame about Israel. He understood with Pentagon officials that Israel was not responsible for the hospital blast. And his deep understanding of the pain that Israel is going through and really the yearning for those 200 hostages who as we're speaking right now, there's a nine month old baby that's lost in Gaza with terrorism. It's so unbearable that I think that was really the moral support and the inspiration along with some helpful information.

President Biden did talk about the fact that we should not allow rage to consume us. And I don't think that's what Israel is. I think what Israel is focused on is treating a solution to a really huge problem, which is Hamas. Was there any ask by President Biden to either slow down or put some kind of specific parameters around any ground offensive that may take place in Gaza?

Look, I wasn't a fly in the wall that room. As interesting as it would be, what I can tell you is as a military officer and as somebody in the idf, all the way down the chain of command, our goal is incredibly clear following last Saturday's 11 days ago attack that if Hamas exists, Israel cannot exist. The two cannot coexist. Hamas revealed its mask.

It took off its mask, revealed its evil face, massacred our civilians. Under no circumstances are we going to allow Hamas to exist. And I think the fact that the US has two places now entering the Mediterranean senir US is simply an acknowledgment for the United States that we are going to move forward with this and that if any other regional actors decide to try to get involved in this, the US is standing firmly by our side on the hostages, which becomes such a huge international story. There's been some reporting that Hamas offered to release some of those hostages.

Some of civilian hostages at the bombing stopped. Obviously that was before this hospital blast, if any was complicated, everything. Is there any offer on that front from Hamas that the IDF would take seriously? The hostage issue is one that's being held very, very quietly.

We're not speaking about anything publicly. We have a general, two generals in Israel that are dealing with this issue. What I can't tell you and what we said from the very beginning, first of all, these hostages in Israel are like family. There's only 10 million people here.

We know everybody. What I can tell you is that we saw this from the beginning. Hamas, they think the hostages are going to keep them safe and prevent us from continuing with our goal. They're incorrect.

We're going to hold them accountable. For what they did. Major, forgive me for interrupting you, but we're going to go now to President Biden speaking on Air Force One and just pause for a second listen to the President. Virtually every mass shooting, every circumstance where large number of people have been victimized and lost, I spoke with I learned a long time ago that you all ruining your life as well.

Lincoln over shoulder when someone's going through something is beyond their comprehension. If they see someone who they think understands or maybe they do something not the same similar, it gives them some sense of hope. And I always get criticized sometimes when I'm stepping when I go to these events, I stay for three to four hours, answer all the questions. But it matters.

It matters a lot. And, and look, I thought some of you have gone through a hell of a lot more than I've gone through and a lot more than other people have gone through. You understand? So it's just, it's just people are looking for just something to grab something that gives them some sense sense of hope and that's if I can do a little bit of that then it's, you know, worth doing done for me.

So do you think it's necessary for you to come here to get this? What do you think? You talked about the House. Do you have any view of Jim Jordan and his prediction?

You have a view of Jim Jordan's current recommendation? No. 0 people all over the region are upset the hospital and don't necessarily believe you and the Israelis that they didn't have any messaging people in the streets right now. Well, I can understand why in this circumstance they wouldn't.

I can understand that but I would notice I don't say things like that unless I have faith in the source in which I'm not. Our Defense Department says it's highly unlikely that Israelis a different footprint and intercepted. So anyway and so that's why I even notice I didn't say it first. I want to make sure that I knew and look and I'm not suggesting that Hamas to look what he did it either.

I said oh thank I don't know how to shish, you know. And it's not the first time Hamas has launched something that didn't function. So I, I don't know all the detail but I do know the people at the Defense Department whom I respect and intelligent I respect to be as highly improbable that Israel will be. Mr.

President, are there Israelis operating within the rules of war that you talked about last week being so important? Thanks. Appreciate it. All right.

So that was The President speaking on Air Force One. Pretty unusual for this president to speak to the reporters on Air Force One on camera in that manner. You saw the Secretary of State standing over his shoulder. We missed a bit of the top of that.

And we'll try to come back to any news that we may have missed from the top. But you heard the President, I believe, discussing his meeting with some of those survivors and first responders that we talked about at the beginning of this broadcast, answering question about the hospital bombing, which has become kind of the dominant moment in this story over the last couple days. I don't know if Major Spielman is still with us, but, but Major, I want to ask you about that. The President has been pre clear what US Intelligence has said about that attack.

And he said, he said again, there is highly unlikely that this was an Israeli strike of any kind. The previous statements from the U.S. although the president said there suggests this was a different group, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, not Hamas even that might have been responsible for that. What more information does the IDF have about that strike?

And if it was this third group, does that change the parameters of what the IDF would go after in Gaza? We target that group as well. Look, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas do share a common godfather, we'll call it, which is Iran. They're both heavily funded by Iran, directed by Iran.

At times they've worked together with Iran. In this specific case, what we can see is that from the launch site, these were Palestinian Islamic Jihad rockets that were aimed towards Israel. It was Hamas who took advantage immediately of the situation as soon as the rockets landed in the hospital, having no information, even according to phone calls we intercepted, knowing it was Palestinian Jihad, they immediately launched on a public relations care campaign against Israel, as your previous speakers all said. Your previous guest said this launched a series of riots throughout the world.

And unfortunately one of the big issues that we have is actually with the press that ran these headlines right away with no verification, taking Hamas murderous terrorist regime as a verified source and now trying to pull that story back and put it back in the hat and relate the facts is a very difficult thing to do. But Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas are both in this together. Anybody who's threatening his order Israelis is a target for Israel. We're going to return Safety security to our own, to our own citizens.

Major Spilling, we appreciate you coming on. I'll just say I'll put our coverage up against anybody's. I think we were very clear about what we knew and didn't know on this broadcast yesterday when Nasir was breaking. Thank you for saying so, and I appreciate you coming on to discuss this today.

I'm sorry the President of the United States stepped on time, but you're a military man. You understand command work. So Major Doran Skillman, thank you for coming on. And I want to turn out Josh Letterman, who's right on the ground in Tel Aviv.

And Josh, I'm curious just for your reaction to IDF spokesperson there, Major Spielman, talk about the idea that it will not just be Hamas as a target of the IDF now, that this is going to be, you know, a broader effort to attack these other terrorist groups in Gaza and how this moment, this hospital bombing, might change the scope and direction of this war. Yeah, I think that's a really important question. Gary, you heard that Israel military spokesman saying that it's not just Hamas, it's also other military groups such as Palestinian Islamic Jihad that are legitimate targets to the Israeli military if they are threatening Israel. It's really interesting in those remarks that President Biden just made to the president, Air Force One, which first of all are extraordinary.

It's almost unprecedented to have the president come back and speak on live television from Air Force One. Typically when the president comes back to the back party Air Force One to speak for reporters, it's often record. It's considered off camera at a minimum. For the president to do that in a televised way is extremely rare.

But he also referred to Hamas as it being highly unlikely that it was Israelis saying that he did not think necessarily that Hamas deliberately attacked that hospital. Now, all of the indications from both Israel and the US have been that they thought it was Pasinian Islam, Shahid as a distinct group. Whether the president there was simply speaking colloquially and sort of lumping together those two groups is unclear. Or whether he was suggesting that there might be some indication that Hamas was involved.

But we have not known to be the case so far. But the military spokesman there from Israel, clearly they're making a distinction, but also making clear that in this effort against Hamas, in this likely ground incursion that we are expecting from the Israelis, that they will also see other militant groups such as Palestinians as a legitimate target. Yeah, I'm glad you made the point about Air Force One. I can't think of another instance in which this president has spoken to the cameras on Air Force One during his presidency.

You know, I'm not an encyclopedic knowledge of it, but I can't think of another single instance. Joshua, thank you for your expertise. I know you're gonna sail over the diplomatic part of the story, which is only gonna get more complicated in the days ahead. Josh.

Larry Force in Tel Aviv. But up next, two weeks now without a speaker and still no clear path forward for House Republicans after Congressman Jim Jordan failed for a second floor vote today on a second straight day. Love the latest reporting, plus my review of the key Republican holdout. But anyway, you're watching ME press now.

Welcome back. Another day, another failed speaker vote in the House as Republicans are once again unable to or unwilling to fall in line behind their nominee in the states. It's Ohio's Jim Jordan who actually lost support on the second speaker ballot. Compared to yesterday's task rally, he's still well short of the 217 votes he would need to get a majority.

In this case, there were 22 Republicans who voted for someone other than Jordan, two more than yesterday's count. Nevertheless, Jordan told reporters he's not dropping out of his race. No source tells our Hill team there are no more votes scheduled tonight as Republicans plan their next step forward. And what we've heard, frustration is high.

The status quo right now is unacceptable to the American public and we are hurting our country when we are performing like this. This thing was designed to work. It's a human factor that's involved and we don't have to be able to settle our differences and move ahead. House business needs to be conducted.

We have a looming deadline that we need to face in mid November and the American people expect us to go back to work. One of the things, well, hey, why don't you just vote for y speaker and then get back to work? I want to make sure we have the right speaker. Not a quick speaker, though.

The right speaker that will guide us through the rest of our 118congress and journey now is New York Republican Congressman Nick Maloda. He voted for former New York Republican Congressman Lee Zeldin on both speaker ballots this week. And Congressman, just talk to me a little bit about what the move was like on the floor today, the mood on your colleagues and what you see as the path forward at this time. Yeah, the move has been hectic for a good couple of weeks now.

Eight Republicans set a fire, 210 Democrats threw gasoline on that fire. Knowing that when we get to this point, normally it takes months, if not years to build a campaign to be the speaker of the House. There's a lot of relationships. There's a lot of policy issues that get developed on one's path to the speakership.

We're at day 14. I think it is right now. It's frustrating we don't have a speaker, but it's certainly no surprise the 218 folks who set us down this path to vacate the chair and leave us in this purgatory of sorts where we don't have a speaker. The mood on the floor is hectic.

It's a bit chaotic. It's unfortunate. There's real business to be done in this country. It ought to be done.

But like Mr. Womack and Mr. Jimenez, I share the notion that we need the right person to be the speaker who has the right policy priorities. That's what's gonna take to get my support.

Can you identify that person? I mean, is there anyone in America right now who can get 217 votes on the House floor? So evidently not. Not right now.

I twice have nominated my predecessor, Lee Zeldin, a blue state Republican who knows how to win in the suburbs, who knows about issues related to crime, about the economy, other things that matter in swing districts like mine. I was proud to use his name twice. That should be a message. That should be a message that whoever is going to be the House Speaker, a Republican, needs to ensure that districts like mine are not forgotten.

There are important programs in my district with rel flood insurance, post 911 victims compensation, salt. There are big policy priorities in my district that ought to be addressed. I've announced those as criteria for anybody running for speaker, whether it's Steve Scalise, Jim Jordan, Kevin Hearn or anybody else to earn my vote. Those individuals need to have a sensitivity towards those policy priorities and to keep the government open while we pursue our commitment to America.

Yes, the government is broken. Yes, the Biden administration needs to a better job on our border. Yes, we need to cut spending in particular places, but we need to keep the government open while doing so. I will only give my vote to a candidate who properly demonstrates their ability to do so.

We saw you talking to Jim Jordan on the floor. What have those conversations been like today? Continue now and is there an active conversation between you and perhaps these other New York Republicans and Jim Jordan about getting your votes? Yes.

Mr. Jordan called me at 10:45 last night and attempt to win my vote. I've become a block of votes with Republicans also from Long Island, Anthony Diasposito and Andrew Barbarino. And we want to make sure that any candidate for speaker knows quite firmly that this ought to be a policy issue focused on things that can make our districts and our country better.

I'm not settling for the. Hey, Nick, I'm going to work on that. Your issues are important to me. I want to see folks co sponsor bills to keep the government open.

I want to see folks make public statements and support salt. I want to hear a speaker designate candidate say that he would fund the 911 victim compensation fund, that he would fund the National Flood Insurance program. These are policy priorities important to my constituents, important to the country and I'm going to insist on them in the next speaker of the House. Does it need to step aside at this point so that somebody else gets a chance to try to earn these votes?

You know that's the decision that Mr. Jordan is going to make. You know, we may need a couple of week pause on this. And like I said earlier, it has taken previous individuals years to gain 217 to 18 members.

You don't have a couple weeks, you have less than a month until government funding runs out. Does that mean you support this effort to empower Patrick McHenry or somebody else as a temporary speaker so you don't go into the shutdown you just said you're committed to avoiding. Will you be into it if you'd like to. Sorry.

That's what I want to say. I think the speaker pro temporary, though it's a Latin term, should not be confusing to anybody. That is the temporary speaker who has every right, responsibility and authority to act. In fact one would say he has a duty tax in the absence of the speaker, much like a Vice president would act in the absence or in vacancy of the office of presence.

It is literally in the title temporary Speaker. That individual has authority fact that that position was contemplated post 911 where we thought about losing multiple elected officials at our highest levels of government. I don't think his vote of the House is even required to empower individual. Patrick's a humble individual in many cases.

I don't think he's eager to seek that power, but I think he actually is when his authority to act upon. Yeah, he seems eager to just do anything. But based on my interactions with him, I also want to ask you a little bit about the tactics that have gone into this and the sort of toxic environment that seems to be taking place in the Republican conference on these votes. Your colleague Don Bacon from Nebraska has shared some pre inflammatory text messages that were he says were sent anonymously to his wife pressuring him to vote for Jim Jordan.

We heard from other members about their staff receiving vitriol either behind the scenes or in public on social media. Has this situation gotten out of hand in terms of just being toxic among Republicans right now. Now I hear you saying I'm the Republicans, but there's plenty of toxicity to go around on both sides of the aisle in this town. And we would not be in this position but for problem solvers, Democrats not quitting country before their own politics.

We could have tabled this motion of AK two weeks ago. Kevin McCarthy puts a clean CR on the table to fund the government to ensure that our troops are paid, our borders are paid, our airports are running. He put a bipartisan CR on the floor and the next day eight of my most conservative colleagues sought to remove him and 210 Democrats joined in that and problem solvers Democrats should have put their country before their own politics and they should have tabled that motion while we iron things out. There's plenty of toxicity in this, in this town, but it should not be assigned to just one party.

I think there's an interesting and potentially troubling dynamic developing here where the Republicans who are most likely work with Democrats are the ones who are most angry at Democrats for the fact that we are in this situation for not coming to Kevin McCarthy. Are you concerned in a situation like to keep the government open that there is now too much bad blood between folks like yourself and more moderate Democrats who would want to work together on some of these other issues that it's gonna be difficult to kind of, you know, cover up those wounds basically and get the work done if and when you guys are ever able to do work again. Yeah, I used to work with a police chief who said it was predictable, it was preventable. And this sort of hectic, this sort of chaos was absolutely predictable by the eight Republicans and two and ten Democrats who set us down this path.

And absolutely, and you can tell by the look on my face, there's a bunch of people who are poed in this town because we thought we had more faith, we thought we had more credibility with folks from the other side of the aisle. That turned out not to be the case. It's going to take some time to repair that within the problem solver's caucus. We probably need to call the hurdle a little bit.

There are too many folks in that organization who claim, who feign that they are able to reach across the aisle. But when push comes to shove, they were too eager to indulge in the politics of the political upside. Throwing out a Republican speaker who twice who he raised the debt ceiling and he kept the government funded, did the right thing and pushed King to show he ensured there was continuity of our government, funding of our government and they joined in throwing him out. That's unfortunate.

Well, he did then turn around and blame them for getting to that place. But Congressman Nickelodo, we're out of time. I appreciate you coming on and sharing your perspective. And something tells me we could be having a similar conversation tomorrow.

So thanks for coming on. We showed you some of the surprise remarks that President Biden made reports moments ago. This is apparently now while refueling in Germany, we learned on his way back to Washington. In his remarks, he told reporters that he had negotiated an agreement with Egypt to allow 20 trucks worth of humanitarian aid into Gaza.

And as President Biden travels back from Israel, he's now got his own political crisis waiting at home. There are new poll numbers today from CNBC that reveal that President Biden's overall approval has fallen to 37% this month, is the second lowest approval rating of his entire presidency. And so now President Biden's numbers on foreign policy are actually even lower than that. Only 31% of voters today approve of the job that he's doing in that area.

I'm joined now by our panel to talk through all of this NPR Politic Report. Deepa Shisha Ram is here, host of Simone on mnsnbc, former senior advisor Vice President Kamala Harris is Simone Sanders Townsend. And Gary Ventry, founder of GRV Strategies and a former senior communications advisor to the Senate Judiciary Committee. So Deepa also reviewed one of those poll numbers.

Tell us about the US Response to the war, the president's response to it and agree with people are paying attention to his response at all. Yeah. I mean if you look at what Biden sees as a strength of his, it's his foreign policy experience. Right.

We've known that from his years in the Senate, his years as vice president, now as president. Douanettis definitely considers that a strong point for him. So the fact that those numbers are looking worse on that end for him is pretty interesting to me and something to about worry. Watch as this crisis continues to unfold.

I think as people are starting to pay attention more and more to what's going on Israel in Gaza, we have to look at the generational divides in the polling because we know that younger voters are perceiving this issue far differently than older voters. Democrats and Republicans are of course split and also by biracial lines. You know, the approval ratings for President Biden are looking a little different. Small someone how worrying should this be the way asking we've been through so many rounds of talking about how their economic messaging has struggled.

This in theory is sort of firmer ground for the president. He likes to work on foreign affairs issues. He's very comfortable in this arena and still struggling there. How concerned should they be?

I don't think one poll should, you know, throw the White House in this array, but I think they need to pay attention to what you can just describe as a generational divide as it relates to the issue of the Middle east, specifically Israel, the West bank and Gaza. And these generational divides are real. It is a real landmine, if you will, that Democrats have to navigate within their party and any and, you know, look, Joe Biden and I mean, you saw the president speaking very comfortably with knowledge, deep knowledge and experience about, you know, he's always talking about how long he's known Prime Minister Netanyahu. Obviously, he's a former chair of the Senate Formulation Committee, and so he is very proud of his foreign policy prowess and the relationships that he has built.

But there is a generation of Democrats that do not know the foreign policy landscape that Joe Biden knows. There's a generation of young Democrats that feel quite differently given what they've seen and they themselves have experienced. And I'm not suggesting that the White House needs to or that the president even is going to just change it up how he's operating and doing business. But I think it has to be taken into account.

And I don't know if the speech that he gave today spoke to the entirety of the big tent that is a Democratic Party elect. Well, his numbers on Israel are a little bit better, specifically to Your point of 42% approval on that issue, higher than, you know, his issue on foreign affairs and how much this is built into the system here right now, where you've got total polarization. Like, would any president be seeing dramatically different numbers on these issues or is this sort of like baked in with the frustration that Americans feel about the political system in general right now? There's definitely general frustration from Americans about our political systems more divided than Cybertania.

If you look at polling, the ability to get independent, those numbers are shrinking as well here. But I do think both with his handling of foreign policy and domestic policy, we're talking about a 30% approval rating there. That's a bipartisan rejection. If you look at the polling head of President Trump, too, President Trump's up for in that poll and independent are breaking President Trump's way.

That's obviously a big warning sign for the Biden administration going into 2024. If you step back here, it really, you have to look at the three Crises that Joe Biden has dealt with international areas that dealt with Afghanistan being toppled by the television ban, Russia invading Ukraine, now Israel being in a terrorist attack from the last year. And so there's been some weakness on the world stage here that I think voters have a concern of it. So that's something they're going to have to address going in 2024.

And I also go along those lines. You look at the domestic numbers, there are a lot of people that look at the money that doesn't go into Ukraine and say, well, why do we have millions of dollars for Ukraine? We don't have money domestically. Now tell people and people what were the stakes of the president.

Obviously, like you don't, you don't plan to get around pole numbers, but obviously the president never has a bigger microphone than when you're traveling on the world stage and have an opportunity to present themselves as the face of America. Right. And this was, you know, the point of him going on this trip. Obviously the war zone is his second time traveling to a war zone this year.

It is a lot of attention on a trip like this. Of course, the Jordan aspect of the trip was canceled, but you did see Biden spend a significant amount of time on the grounds in Israel today, about seven hours total meeting with Netanyahu and the Israeli war cabinet. But I think the thing we have to pay attention to is this increasingly concerning humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza. There were hundreds of protesters at the Capitol earlier today.

There were protesters outside the White House yesterday. I think that's something that's only going to happen more that the White House will have to address. We saw his remarks there. A speaking reporter is on Air Force One, which is pretty unusual for the president to come back to the press cabin to speak about this.

20 trucks of humanitarian aid coming into Gaza, but we still haven't heard about how people in Gaza, civilians, Palestinians, would be able to get out if they choose to. They cannot leave their 500Americans in Gaza right now who are stuck. And I think as the days go on, this is going to be something that the president and the White House doesn't have to answer for. The flip side of this whole coin is, you know, President Trump has hand slapped for his comments about Hezbollah.

It was not a great moment for him, I think you would agree. And some moderate Republicans, some form policy hawks, appraise the way that Joe Biden has handled the Israel crisis in general. Is there an opening for Jo Biden to peel away some of Donald Trump's support on these issues? Because of the aggressive way in which he's approached this issue.

I think president will try again. He's got deep foreign policy knowledge again. Chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He is vice president president here.

I think we take a step back though. President Trump when he was president here, moving the city to Jerusalem, obviously trying to do the Abraham Accords, those type of things. He's a very pro Israel present here and he decimated a lot of terrorist organizations. When you look at ISIS became a non factor under President Trump.

So I think President Trump people look at his record versus Joe Biden's record in White House, I think that he has a stronger record on those issues. I'm pivoted here to the domestic part of this because someone for the president right now you have an opportunity to look even bigger. In this environment where the House Republicans cannot get their act together. How do Democrats has the White House take advantage of this moment where the President is off looking presidential and House Republicans look like the gang of King Shoestra.

Look, I think you saw the president on our first one, basically see his new comments about Jim Jordan and laughed. Laughter I think. And I talked to a number of House Democrats. I've texted them since they were in that very short caucus meeting.

And what I heard is they have two goals. One, to keep Jim Jordan from getting the gavel, which they seem they feel that they've been successful at thus far. And the second goal is reopen the government. When I ask how are you all planning to do that?

Are you willing to work with Republicans? They unequivocally, all of them that I spoke with, the number of folks in leadership said yes. Yet they have not been approached by Republicans yet. They do not think that that willingness to work in by partisan fashion is something that Republicans within the House caucus are willing to take up just yet.

Does Jim Jordan have many rounds of this left in him and what does his failure thus far say about Donald Trump's endorsement? The House Republican Conference is supposed to be like Donald Trump's base. At his base. They're not doing.

He's not doing. Mr. Jordan. Yeah.

We need to remember some of these moderate members. Maybe President Trump's endorsement doesn't play out as strongly. I think it locks down the, you know, 85% of the caucus is very pro Trump. Obviously more nuances there.

I would say Jordan's gonna have to do here two things. They don't want you to stop the bleeding next round. He absolutely. He's gonna try and win back those four deflectors.

Now he Added two new votes. He's got to win back the deflectors. If you look at McCarthy's path, McCarthy lost votes in the third round too. So he's got to show some move in a positive direction here.

He's got to sit down with members like Loloto who you're interviewing. These modern members ease are concerned on funding the government. E's are concerned on going into 2024, what he's gonna do. Their fundraising are going on offense in those districts.

I do think Jim Jordan has spoken to his team. He's gonna take the next couple hours here, I think, to try and get those folks on board, have those tough one on one meetings. I do ultimately think he's gonna get very close situating them. I think I'll give you a very quick last word here.

I was gonna say they're working against the clock. I mean, like you mentioned earlier, this is not a matter of months that we have here. It's a matter of weeks until the government shutting down again, which knows when it impacts so many people's eyes. I talked to folks who were prepared to be furloughed a couple weeks ago and we're now looking at the calendar, looking at November and thinking, thinking, okay, well I'm probably not gonna be working in November again.

So this is something that's happening in the background as House probably trying to sort this out. There are people around the country who are really watching this and becoming very concerned. Congress putting themselves on yet another short deadline. Who knows who'll be running for sure on their adventur, Simon Sanders.

Thank you all. We wish we had more time. We had like 80 minutes of news and a 60 minute show today. Thank you for all for being with us and for watching this outcome will be back tomorrow.

We'll meet the press now. NBC News now coverage continues with Hallie Jackson. I'm Craig. Mel.

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