If it's Thursday, 12 days to go. And Vice President Harris appears to be going all in on Trump, calling the former president unstable, unhinged, unfit to serve, and a fascist. But new polling just out from CNBC has the presidential race in a dead heat, with voters in battleground states saying they trust Trump over Harris with their top issue, the economy. And a major announcement by the Los Angeles district attorney expected this hour on whether or not prosecutors will move to re-sentence or potentially free Lyle and Eric Menendez for the infamous killing of their parents in 1989.
Welcome to Meet the Press Now. I'm Kristen Welker with just 12 days to go in an incredibly tight presidential race. Both candidates are turning their focus to their closing messages. Vice President Harris turning up the heat on former President Donald Trump to fire up her base and to perhaps also convince that small sliver of persuadable Republican voters that the former president is unfit for office.
Yesterday during a CNN town hall, Vice President Harris called Mr. Trump a fascist after Trump's former White House chief of staff said publicly he met the definition of a fascist. Let me ask you tonight, do you think Donald Trump is a fascist? Yes, I do.
Yes, I do. His longest serving chief of staff gave an interview recently in the last two weeks of this election talking about how dangerous Donald Trump is. I think of it as he's just putting out a 911 call to the American people. Understand what could happen if Donald Trump were back in the White House.
I believe Donald Trump is a danger to the well-being and security of America. He's going to sit there unstable, unhinged, plotting his revenge, plotting his retribution, creating an enemy's list. Now it comes as the Harris campaign today is touting its endorsements from conservatives and former Trump allies. I am really very proud to announce that we've had some endorsements this morning as we've been rolling out endorsements.
But two leaders in the Republican Party, the mayor of Waukesha, and then, of course, former Representative Fred Upton. And this continues to be, I think, evidence of the fact that people who have been leaders in our country, regardless of their political party, understand what's at stake. And they are weighing in courageously in many cases in support of what we need to have, which is a president of the United States who understands the obligation to uphold the Constitution of the United States and our democracy. We will speak with former Congressman Fred Upton in just a moment.
Meanwhile, former President Trump is closing his campaign with increasingly harsh red meat rhetoric, missing talking points on immigration in the economy, with intensifying vows of political revenge against his perceived enemies and personal attacks against the vice president. She's not a smart person. She's a low IQ individual. She is.
She is. She's a low IQ person. We are running against the most radical, most incompetent, most unfit vice president in the history of our country. No one respects her.
No one trusts her. No one takes her seriously. She means nothing. She is purely a vessel.
She can't put two sentences together. Now, all of it comes as our new poll from our colleagues at CNBC shows Trump virtually tied with Harris among registered voters in key battleground states. Let's bring in NBC's Yamiche Alcindor, who is following the Harris campaign, and NBC's Vaughn Hilliard, who's been covering the Trump campaign. Yamiche, let me start with you.
And this closing message that we are hearing from Vice President Harris, it's very different than how she started this campaign, which was with a vow to return joy to the campaign trail. She described the former president as weird. Now she is saying he is a fascist. He's a threat to democracy.
Very similar to what we heard from President Biden when he was at the top of the ticket. Is the Harris campaign confident that this is the best way to close? Well, this is what I've been spending my entire day talking to people about today. In the Harris campaign, a number of officials told me they do feel confident that talking about Donald Trump as a threat to democracy, talking about the idea that he would be unhinged and even more scary if he were to be elected again, that that is how they think they're going to be able to reach those persuadable voters, those reluctant voters, maybe those voters who are conservative, who voted for Nikki Haley, who are maybe thinking, I don't know if I agree with all of her policies and can I really get over that to vote for her?
So they're really trying to say, well, let's not talk about policy. Let's just talk about the future of the democracy. And that is going to be someone in Kamala Harris that's going to uphold that. So they do feel confident that.
So I have been talking to some Democratic strategists who say they are worried that she's talking too much about Donald Trump, sounding too much like Joe Biden and not doing enough to really define what would make her the best person qualified for the job. And if I could say, we're talking about joy. I know we have Vaughn here. I am going to be going to the Beyonce event tomorrow.
So there is a little joy. And also, Vaughn, she did do this before Taylor Swift. So I just want to also make that point to Vaughn that Beyonce did show up before Taylor Swift. Vaughn, what's the reaction, by the way, inside the Trump campaign to the fact that here you have Beyonce out on the campaign trail.
They're clearly bringing out their biggest names and broadly speaking, the way that Harris is closing out this race. Right. Also, to be very clear here, this is like a year long back and forth over basic music preferences here. And so I'm glad that Yamiche gets her moment.
Taylor Swift, I don't think, is going to be out on the campaign trail. It appears in the final 12 days, let alone for Donald Trump. But I may have to change beats if she does. But look, let's be clear about Donald Trump, right?
His echelon of celebrities is more in the likes of Marjorie Taylor Greene, Tulsi Gabbard, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. last night in Duluth, Georgia, in Gwinnett County, just outside of Atlanta. That's who was up on stage with him.
Tucker Carlson. These were the big stars that are hitting the campaign trail with him. And these are the folks that the Trump campaign believes can help galvanize that base of support on social media and making sure that the word gets out there to perhaps folks that, you know, may not see exactly ideologically in line with either the old fashioned conservative Republican Party or Donald Trump's let's care of all the goods coming into the country Republican Party. But that is where you see this breadth of individuals that he is aligning himself with to suggest that the MAGA movement is open, broad and welcoming of new supporters, even those who didn't vote for him in 2016 and 2020.
And let's talk with both of you about the gender gap, because each of the candidates are simultaneously trying to energize the gender that they are strongest with. Obviously, for Harris, that is women. For Trump, that is men. While also trying to pick off some of those with their weaker gender, if you will.
Vaughn, how's that playing out the Trump campaign? This is exactly for them, exactly going at this one time how they wanted to go. Of course, they'd love to win over a greater share of women. Donald Trump placed blame for the 2022 midterm losses for U.S.
Senate and gubernatorial candidates on some of those candidates positions on abortion, particularly suggesting that they weren't able to win over a greater share of women because they were advocating for too restrictive of statewide measures around abortion. But for Donald Trump, in order to compensate for the losses that they expect among women voters around the country, is to juice and win among men heavily. And that is where you're seeing Donald Trump play to this sort of alpha male strongman figure. And you see that gender gap there is significant, particularly we, I think, on election night are going to be talking about young men, Gen Z, 18 to 29 year olds who, if Donald Trump is able to win young male voters, that is a part of the electorate that could very well close the gap in places like Arizona and in Georgia.
He is on the campus this evening of Arizona State University in Tempe, Arizona. On Saturday, he's going to the Pennsylvania. He's going to the College campus of Penn State. And when you see like last night, you're seeing a younger, more male following for him.
And for them, they believe that that could very well be a difference. If you pair that with a couple extra percentage points among voters of color for them, as long as the Harris campaign doesn't also turn out record numbers in the same way that Joe Biden in 2020, they feel good about where they're at. It is extraordinary to see his numbers go up with younger men, with black men as well. Yamiche, I know you were in Philadelphia.
You were talking to black male voters. What did they tell you about how they're viewing this race? It's really interesting. I think still most black men are going to be supporting Vice President Harris.
But we're talking about them because all it takes is a few percentage points and things could swing in a different direction. Donald Trump only needs three, four points more than he than he did in 2020 to maybe really make a big difference here. I spent a lot of time in Philadelphia, which I know, you know, well, I spent like four or five hours in a barbershop and just watched people argue about this. And some of the things that came up were, one, her race, not just people saying, well, what is what race is she, which, of course, 80 percent say they're leveling off and 10 percent say they're going down, which is not what the data say, but you can't argue people say, look, the data say this and people say, well, it's really my life experience that is governing how I feel about things.
And then the next part of the question, maybe to jump a little bit ahead, is the issue, is are people keeping pace with inflation? And more than 60 percent say they're not. They believe their incomes are not going up along with inflation, even though the last year we've seen real or inflation-adjusted earnings have one of their best years in the past 10. It's just fascinating to dig into the numbers.
The other key finding here is that people are expecting the economy to get better in the next year. What do you make of that? What's behind those numbers? So we have gone back now.
I've been doing this poll, if you can believe it, for something like 17 years now, every quarter forever. And it seems that every four years we get a jump in this things are going to get better. And it's driven by now we had a jump in Republicans saying things are going to get better and a jump in Democrats who think things are going to get better, which you might expect, by the way, with a poll that's tied evenly where both sides think they have a flip of a coin chance of winning here. So we did get this little bump on things getting better.
The other time is interesting, Kristen, when we see things, people think things are going to get better is when things are really bad right now. So in the middle of the great financial crisis, everybody said, well, things are terrible now. We think they're going to get better in the future. That tends to be the way people believe things.
But you're right, there's a big political aspect. But the economy has been doing pretty well. We have a low unemployment rate. We have strong growth.
And again, real wages have made a really strong turnaround, but perhaps not enough to show up in the polls. Well, thank you for digging into all of the numbers for us. Steve Leesman, always great to have you and have your fantastic insights. Really appreciate it.
Coming up, I'll talk to a longtime Republican lawmaker from one of the most important battleground states who says for the first time ever, he is casting a presidential ballot for a Democrat. My conversation with former Michigan Congressman Fred Upton about his decision to back Vice President Harris next. Plus, any minute now, we're expecting an update from Los Angeles County's top prosecutor on the infamous Menendez brothers case and a move that could allow the brothers to go free. We'll bring you those remarks live when they happen.
Stay with us. You're watching Meet the Press now. Welcome back. As we showed you, Vice President Harris today is touting multiple new endorsements, including in battleground Wisconsin from the mayor of Waukesha, Sean Riley, who said he is supporting a Democrat for president for the first time.
Waukesha County has been a longtime stronghold for Republicans. Mayor Riley, a former Republican, is urging voters in Wisconsin to vote for Harris. Meanwhile, next door in Michigan, former Congressman Fred Upton, one of the 10 House Republicans who voted to impeach Donald Trump following the January 6th attack on the Capitol, announced he already voted for Vice President Harris. In a statement, Upton said he has never voted for a Democrat for president until now and says Donald Trump is, quote, unfit to serve as commander in chief again.
Joining me now is former Republican Congressman from Michigan, Fred Upton. Congressman, thank you for being here. Always a pleasure. Appreciate it very much.
A big day for you, a busy day for you. You are now the latest Republican to come out and endorse Vice President Kamala Harris. Why now? Why was this the moment when you thought that was appropriate?
Well, for me, it was appropriate because I was doing a whole number of bipartisan events throughout Michigan and here in D.C. And I just thought I didn't want to taint that. So I said, you know, I got people are calling me. I just said, just got to wait till that's over and then I'll make a decision.
But, you know, Michigan is a key state. And, you know, as as we know, the old famous line, you know, evil only persists when good men stay silent. So I'd like to think I'm a good man, but I'm joining a lot of other former Republican members of Congress, more than 30, in fact, that have now said we're not going to support the incumbent or the former incumbent President Trump. We're going to go with Harris.
Let me ask you about that, because you think about Congresswoman Liz Cheney, for example. She's been out campaigning with Vice President Harris. Do you think her support, your support, is it making a difference with moderate Republicans? Do you think it's enough?
I think that it does. And again, Michigan is such a complex state. I mean, between the Gaza issue and the UAW, the leadership and some of the rank and file, it's a purple state for a reason. And the big purple areas in Michigan, they're Grand Rapids, they're Kalamazoo, they're Battle Creek, and they're Oakland County in Ann Arbor, which is a little bit to the left.
But Oakland County next to it. And what's happened now is between Susan Ford, President Ford's daughter, myself, Joe Schwartz, former Republican colleague, mayor, very popular mayor of Grand Rapids, of Battle Creek, rather, and Dave Trott, former Republican House member. We've all come out and endorsed Harris. And the reason is she can actually, I think, put together a coalition together of Republicans and Democrats.
She talked about that last night. Immigration, she'll take that bipartisan proposal that Trump was able to stop. She knows about energy independence. You know, I know Tim Walz because I served with him for 12 years in the House.
He supported the pipeline, the Keystone pipeline, when he was in the House. He knows the importance of that, of energy independence. Is this a vote for Kamala Harris, an endorsement for Kamala Harris, or against Donald Trump? No, it is for Harris.
So, for Harris, it's the first time I've ever voted for a Democrat for president. I mean, I've split my ticket before for down the ballot races. I've never voted until now for a Democrat for president. But it's, you know, the world is so complex.
We have to work together. It's going to be a divided Washington after the election. And somehow we have to put Humpty Dumpty back together again. Well, you talk about the bipartisan immigration bill.
Do you support, broadly speaking, her other policies? Or do you still align yourself more closely with Trump policies? For example, he's calling for mass deportation. Well, no, I don't support that.
And neither does she. And that was not part of the bill that James Lankford helped craft. He looked for more border wall. He looked for more border agents.
And he looked for more judges to rule on the asylum cases. You really have to do that through legislation. You can't really do that by executive order. You can't just willy-nilly do that.
It's got to come through legislation. So do you support her other policies, though? On immigration? Broadly speaking.
Are you backing her when it comes to immigration, when it comes to reproductive rights? She wants to codify Roe, for example. That's going to be hard with the Congress legislation. You need 60 votes in the Senate to get things done.
But I supported the effort in Michigan, the ballot initiative two years ago, that removed what would have been a ban on abortion, even for the life of the mother, as some states now have pursued. Let's talk about Michigan. Because you talked about how complex the mix of voters is in Michigan. I've been talking to my sources in Michigan who say, boy, they are really worried.
Harris allies about her ability to win. Because it is so close. Because you have a large swath of voters there who are opposed to the Biden administration's handling of the war in the Middle East, for example. How do you see this playing out in Michigan?
How close is this? Do you think she can pull out a win? Yes, she can win. It's razor close right now.
And you've got to remember, going back to the presidential primary earlier this year, there are more than 100,000 Democrats who voted no preference instead of voting for Joe Biden. The mayor of Dearborn, I don't know him, but he's of Palestinian descent. He has endorsed Trump. So with that comes votes.
Endorsements do mean something. And people do look for their leaders for support. But you've got that issue. You've got the UAW issue, the division between some of the workers, rank and file, and the leadership.
And Michigan is a purple state. And there's, you know, people, you know, we don't register by party in Michigan. Unlike a lot of states or us. You know, I was with a registered Republican in Illinois yesterday.
And she said, you know, I can't vote for Trump. I would vote for a bag of Fritos before I voted for him. But what am I going to do? And she's a registered Republican.
What do you make of Vice President Harris's closing argument? Is this the right way to close to focus on the fact that Sean Kelly and others are calling him a fascist to cast him as a threat to the democracy? Or should she be talking about pocketbook issues and reproductive rights? I think pocketbook issues is a better way to finish up.
But remember, it's still 12 days. I mean, all of us that are watching this, there's a new poll. You know, I'll get a an email And they called it a tip, and that's how they rescued it. Absolutely terrifying.
All right, Ken Delanian, thank you so much for bringing us the very latest details. Really appreciate it. Coming up after the break, from Obama to Beyonce, we're digging deeper into the Harris campaign's closing pitch on the trail and on the airwaves with just 12 days to go. The panel is next.
Welcome back. As we mentioned, Vice President Harris's closing message is focusing on former President Trump's character and fitness for office and will even include a rally at the site of Mr. Trump's address on January 6th, ahead of the attack on the Capitol. But on the airwaves, Harris's team is running a more issues-focused campaign.
Here are the two ads that have the most money behind them nationally. Take a look. If he wins, he'll ignore all checks that rein in a president's power. It's all in Trump's Project 2025 agenda.
What does that mean for you? Higher costs on groceries, cuts to Social Security and Medicare, more tax breaks for billionaires, and a national abortion ban putting women's health at risk. 64,000 pregnancies from rape have occurred in states with total abortion bans. And Trump did this.
Women and girls need to have choices. With Kamala Harris, we do. Joining me now on set is Rhonda Colvin, Senior Political Correspondent for The Washington Post, Juanita Tolliver, Democratic Strategist and NBC News Political Analyst and author of the book, A More Perfect Party. And Brendan Buck, former advisor to House Speakers John Boehner and Paul Ryan.
He's also an NBC News Political Analyst. Guys, thank you so much for being here. Really appreciate it. Let me start with you, Rhonda.
Let's talk about this closing argument that we are hearing from Vice President Kamala Harris. We saw that in her big town hall event last night. She is focusing on trying to cast Trump as a threat to democracy and as a fascist, as John Kelly, his former chief of staff, has called him. What are your sources telling you about whether they think this is an effective way to close?
You know, when you look back at how campaigns are run before, usually at the beginning of the cycle, their candidate introduced themselves. And then around now is when they would have that closing argument of don't go for the other person and here's why, or here's my policies, and this is why you don't need to support the other ticket. But I would argue her entire campaign so far has been a closing argument. And I say that because she has been trying to underline this stark contrast between the two.
So even last night's town hall, she, you know, talked about the comments from John Kelly. She brought up, you know, issues with Trump and not paying for the wall, like you said, or having Mexico pay for the wall. So she's trying to make sure that she has that stark contrast, that this is my party, this is my ticket. He's over here having retaliation politics, talking about retribution.
And she wants to make sure she underscores that in the final days. All right, and guys, we just got a two-minute warning to that press conference in LA for the Menendez brothers. So very quickly, Juanita, your take on her closing argument and Brendan, we'll get you in. I definitely think it's going to be a mix of her positive vision for the future, as well as, again, the contrast with Donald Trump.
I think she is very smart to paint an explicit picture of what a second Trump term could look like as he says things on the campaign trail, like enemies within, talking about deploying the US military against citizens. There are concrete examples that she can point to. And she keeps saying it to the American public. All you have to do is listen to his words for yourself.
And that paints a very clear picture. Brendan, what's your take? She's going to be holding that big speech on the ellipse next week. Yeah, I think going to the National Mall is powerful.
Talking about Donald Trump being a threat to democracy can feel a little abstract. But when you remind people what happened on January 6th and you set that as your backdrop and you make it, there are real consequences to it. I think that can be a lot more effective. But I do think they need to make sure that they're sticking to some more tangible issues as well.
I guess that's my question. I mean, what about undecided voters, Juanita, who are saying, we do want to know what her day one plan is. What is her top piece of legislation that she wants to pass? Some of the questions that she got last night, but didn't really give a direct answer to.
I think what she's trying to do is cover as much ground as possible. Because when she wasn't giving a direct answer, for example, to what's that one thing you want to pass through Congress. She's like, well, there's a lot I want to pass through Congress, reproductive rights protections, gun law legislation. Like there's so much that she wants to do.
I do think getting a little bit tighter in this closing days is important. Like we know she's going to talk about abortion rights down in Texas with Beyonce tomorrow, right? Like I think she is going to have the opportunity to do that. Yeah.
How much does an event like that matter, Brendan, having a big name come out and obviously a big issue, but in deep red Texas. Well, the state obviously not in play. But at the end of the campaign here, you're trying to get eyeballs. You're trying to get attention nationally.
The entire country. There's a lot of swing states. And so being able to draw that much attention to yourself at this stage, you know, Donald Trump's going to Madison Square Garden. It's not because he thinks he's going to win New York.
He thinks that's a big event. So that's the concept. Yeah. And we're still waiting for this press conference to start.
Rhonda, let me ask you about the closing argument that we're hearing from Donald Trump. The closing argument that his campaign, his allies would like him to have would be one focused on the economy and immigration. He's talking about those things, but boy, he's talking about a whole lot of other things as well, including Arnold Palmer getting out of the shot. I mean, you know, are they concerned that he's not focused enough on those key issues?
I think we've heard that from national Republicans too. Republicans on the Hill who wanted him to stay on the message because the economy, that's a strong message. A lot of people are unhappy with grocery prices. So you would think that he would stick to that, but we aren't seeing that and we haven't seen it for weeks.
So I don't think that will change in the next week. You might hear some of it, but we have heard him just discuss, you know, retaliation. Just a few. I think it was yesterday.
He talked about firing the federal prosecutor over the January 6th case. So it just feels like that is what he wants to talk about, whether or not Republicans on the ballot want him to talk about it or national Republicans. But somebody needs to pay the price for it. If anything, the polls have been moving closer towards it.
I will say the price is he has turned off that many more voters. He has not expanded his reach. He has not expanded his base. And what this is about is that extra 10 to 15,000 people in Pennsylvania or Arizona or Nevada.
I guess what I'm saying is over the last several weeks, there's not a large movement, but the movement has been towards Donald Trump as he's been saying all of these things and she has been more focused on the issues. I wish that there were more consequences for things like this, but it just hasn't been. You know, I just spoke with former Republican Congressman and Brendan, let me put this question to you. Fred Upton.
He said this is the first time he's voted for a Democrat at the top of the ticket. And of course he voted to impeach former President Trump over January 6th. Do those types of endorsements make a difference? Does Liz Cheney's endorsement make a difference?
Do they win over some disaffected Republican moderate Republican voters? Ever so little and maybe in an election this close, it can matter. I'm glad that he's that he's doing it. The campaign clearly thinks that this matters because she's the candidate herself is spending time with Liz Cheney.
If they didn't think that there were some people in the middle, they wouldn't be doing that type of thing. And I think the other thing to add there, that's why she's emphasizing General Kelly's comments because she knows repeating that Trump thinks that veterans who are, have experienced disabilities in the line of service are people he doesn't want to photograph with. That's going to turn off military families. That's going to turn people who are related to these individuals who have suffered.
Absolutely. Rhonda, we are having this conversation against the backdrop of an historic gender gap. And we are seeing that play out inside both campaigns, their strategies, not just to energize the gender with which they're the strongest, but to try to pick off some of the voters in their weakest gender. We're seeing that with the Harris campaign, for example, trying to energize male voters, young male voters and black male voters.
Yeah, that's right. We have seen her do a series of interviews trying to reach out to younger black male voters. I think her whole campaign in this last stretch has been focusing on, you know, crossing all T's, dotting all I's, all, you know, showing that they are a big tent. That's something we saw at the DNC as well.
And to your point about Republicans, I think that's one of the most fascinating things I've seen on the trail is see how many Republicans, you know, former members of Congress, former, you know, executive level level Republicans saying that they are It could be the real X factor in this election, Savannah. There's no doubt about that. Just zooming out a little bit. What was your biggest takeaway from this poll overall?
So on the number, I don't love it. I'm sorry to say it's a negative one. But I think it's an important one. 77% of these young people said that they believed the country is on the wrong track.
Only 22% felt positively about it. What I think from talking to a lot of these young voters, this really has to do about is the divisiveness in addition to that economy. So the issues that maybe you can vote on, but also just sort of this fever pitch. Of course, the punches that we're seeing both of the candidates take at each other.
These young people are just like, this is a lot. When I was in Wisconsin yesterday, one of them opened their mailbox. It's just packed to the brim, right with political ads, these leaflets they're getting in the mail. They can barely walk to class without being asked six times, are you registered to vote?
So they just feel like it's all a lot. It makes them feel like things are on the wrong track. It is interesting, though, because of course, a lot of them have different ideas about who can put us on the right track. Yeah.
And as you point out, Savannah, if Gen Z turns out to vote in big numbers, that could make a big difference in this election. Thank you so much for your great reporting and analysis. I want to get some reaction from my panel. So Rhonda, what do you make of those numbers?
I mean, striking to hear Savannah talk about the fact that economy, the cost of living still the top issue. And yet again, similarly to our NBC News poll, abortion is really the most motivating issue. Yeah. And that matches reporting I've heard on the trail as well, is that young people, they are thinking about the future a lot more than other generations.
They're thinking about the cost of living. You have Harris, who has been saying, although we haven't heard a lot about her policies surrounding housing, she has said that that is a priority for the administration. So there's that. Reproductive rights, that does make a lot of sense and also matches what I've heard from younger voters as well.
And you have to also think about them as this section of our electorate who they've been through a lot. You know, in their formative years, they had the COVID pandemic. Many of them, Trump was probably the first president that they were paying attention to. So when she mentioned about tone and how they feel about the direction of the country, I do think that that might be in the back of their mind.
Is this the tone that I want to, you know, raise children with and move forward in my life with? Juanita, what were your big takeaways from hearing those numbers? All it did was remind me of the impact that Gen Z had in 2022. They delivered history-defining results for Democrats with massive turnouts.
And I think that's something they are poised to do again. I think it does get to the point that she raised around who they believe is the right choice to guide the nation forward. But if abortion is that mobilizing issue, I think we can point to Kamala Harris. Brendan.
Yeah, obviously, Gen Z going for the Democrats is not a surprise. But what we did see is that it's not going for the Democrat as much as we've seen in the past. And I think that is something that gets to what Donald Trump's strategy has been, which is to go after young male voters. And that is an interesting but risky proposition.
They say they're going to turn out and vote. We'll see. I mean, we're talking about low propensity voters who don't typically historically participate in elections. Can Donald Trump, and he sort of outsourced his whole operation, figure out how to turn those people who like him, they listen to him on podcasts, do they actually show up and vote?
That's the big question. Yeah. Well, guys, we covered a lot of ground today. Thank you very much, Rhonda, Juanita, and Brendan.
Really appreciate it. We're still waiting for that press conference out of Los Angeles on Menendez brothers. We will bring that to you as soon as it happens. Meanwhile, early in-person voting is now underway in Maryland.
The state has gone Democratic in every presidential race since 1988, but Maryland is far less reliably blue in down-ballot races. Former Republican governor Larry Hogan is now running for Senate against Democrat Angela Alsobrooks. He spoke to NBC's Gary Grumbach about the state of the race this morning. I feel pretty good.
Get my sunglasses on. Yeah, we feel good. We're trending in the right direction. We think that we're gonna pull this one off.
Lightning's gonna strike three times in Maryland. Every single time they've counted us out, every single time we've been a huge underdog, and every single time we've won. And Gary Grumbach joins me now. Great interview, Gary.
Thanks for being here. So Larry Hogan's obviously been incredibly critical of Donald Trump. He says that he is someone who will protect reproductive rights, but is that enough to get him over the finish line? I think we'll see what happens there.
He's walking a very fine line here. He's somebody who has not endorsed Donald Trump. He's somebody who has said he will not vote for Donald Trump, but Donald Trump has said he will endorse him and support him, which is a very interesting thing. You don't usually see it go that way.
We also know he calls himself a pro-choice Republican, something we also don't see a lot with one of the biggest issues to voters this election cycle. We're here in Anne Arundel County. We've been talking to voters all day, and they say they were very happy with Larry Hogan as governor. Many of them say they would like to see him as a U.S.
senator. Angela Alsobrooks, who's running in the Democratic Party for U.S. Senate, she was the county executive out in Prince George's County, one of the biggest counties in the state of Maryland. She says she would like to make sure that people are not snowed by the idea of the bipartisanship that he is trying to portray, because the numbers in the Senate really do matter as it relates to the next four years.
Talking to a number of voters today about their thoughts about Larry Hogan. Here's what they had to say. He's been great. I mean, he knows how to play fair with both parties.
He just, he was a great governor. He just, he knows how to play fair. And that's important. Somebody who can play fair with somebody.
Yes. You know, he was governor here for like eight years. And you know, he did a fairly well job, given that he's worked against. And as we have seen here at Anne Arundel County all day, a line of folks waiting to vote early.
We have seen hundreds and hundreds of folks coming in, and there's several ways to vote inside. You've got the paper ballots where folks are filling out with a pen and the electronic way to do it as well. So folks are excited to be here, excited to vote on the first day of early voting here in Maryland. Great interviews there, Gary Grumbach.
Thank you so much. We really appreciate it. And we are still waiting on the press conference in Los Angeles regarding the future of the Menendez brothers. NBC News will bring that to you as soon as it happens.
I am back tomorrow with more Meet the Press Now. The news continues with Hallie Jackson right now. I'm Craig Melvin. Cheers.
Cheers. Cheers. I've always been a glass half full kind of guy. And now I'm talking to people who look at the world that way too.
Some really fascinating folks who share their defining moments, their triumphs, their challenges. Their stories are funny and quite candid. So I hope you'll join me each week. And who knows, you might just come away with your own glass half full.
Search Glass Half Full with Craig Melvin from today on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts.