If it's Friday. 11 days to go. Former President Trump and Vice President Harris hold dueling campaign events in Texas with Harris focusing in on reproductive rights alongside Beyonce as Trump ramps up his anti immigrant rhetoric. Plus the big lie 2.0 how Trump and his allies are seeking to undermine trust in the election with false claims about non citizens voting laying the groundwork for disputing the election results.
And we're following multiple attempts to interfere in the election process in a number of key states, including a new investigation into thousands of fraudulent voter registration applications in Pennsylvania as officials work to keep the votes safe and secure. Hi. Welcome to Media Press. Now I'm Ryan Nobles in Washington.
And here we go. We are 11 days out from election day with VOT presidential candidates today outside the traditional battleground map in Texas, where everything is bigger, including their closing messages, starting with Vice President Harris in Houston to deliver what her campaign is billing as a major address on reproductive rights, which, oh, by the way, will include a performance from Beyonce. The Harris campaign is also out with a new ad hammering Trump's fitness for office, using audio from his former chief of staff, John Kelly. Do you think he's a fascist?
We surely fall into the general definition of a fascist. The far right, authoritarian utranationalist political ideology, a movement characterized by a dictatorial leader. He admires people who are dictators. He caught his world once it hit some good things.
True. If he was left to his own devices, would he be a dictator if he didn't have people around him? When somebody's the president, the authority is. For his part, Mr.
Trump has responded by calling General Kelly a stupid person with made up stories. Still, Harris is expected to hammer home Kelly's comments next week when she speaks at a site where four years ago on January 6, Mr. Trump rallied his supporters to march to the Capitol to disrupt the certification of the election that he lost. As for former President Trump, he's in Austin, Texas today to appear on the Joe Rogan podcast intensifying his campaign strategy targeting male voters.
While the race is a dead heat, there is a noticeable and growing gap in confidence between Harris allies and the Trump campaign. This week we've seen multiple headlines about Democratic hand wringing and doubts about the vice president's chances of winning. Now contrast that with the brazen confidence from Trump as he tries to claim that his victory is a certainty. I'm not supposed to say it, but we are leading by so much.
Even states that are typically never in play for 50, 60, 70 years, their team will get it. Go, sir. New Hampshire is in play. I said, oh, that's nice.
Let's make a trip, let's make a trip. But the fact is that states, other states too, big states are all in play now, those most common as a former president and his allies laid the groundwork to claim fraud even if none exists if he loses like he did in 2020. Except this time, as Miami Museum's colleague Randy's and Drowsy reports, Mr. Trump and his allies are more organized as they rally around unsubstantiated claims about non citizens voting.
In fact, the former president pushed those claims about non citizen voting this afternoon in Texas, criticizing the federal judge's decision to grant a Department of justice request to block Virginia from systematically removing alleged non citizens voter rolls this close to an election. Removing illegal voters off the voting row should be a big priority for this country. And yet instead we're scorned by a judge. This is blatantly unamerican and it's election interference and Kamala Harris is behind it very much.
Let's bring in a couple of our NBC News reporters from the trail. Yamiche Sindor is in Houston, head of a big Harris rally with Beyonce. And Garrett Cake is following the Trump campaign in Austin. Yamiche Garrett, I don't expect that we thought you both would be in Texas this close to an election, but here we are.
Yamiche, let's start with you. Today's event something of a departure from Harris's norm. She's not in a battleground. She's putting a big focus on abortion rights.
What should we expect tonight? What we should expect tonight is Vice President Harris to really nationalize this event. So yes, we are in Texas. It's not a battleground state though.
There is the Senate race with Ted Cruz, Democrats trying to get him out of office and put all are there. But that being said, the vice president is coming here to take Browns for the consequences of abortion restrictions that she believes put the lives of women in danger and that she'll be standing alongside a number of women and men to say that their their family members and their loved one themselves have been put at risk and had life threatening complications because of these abortion restrictions. Of course, as you know, she is going to be here with some big names, Beyonce being probably the biggest, of course with also Willie Nelson. And the idea there is to really make sure that this is an event that has sort of elevation to make sure that people are really paying attention here.
Ryan, how does this match with her plan closing argument speech that she's playing for next week at the else is she just trying to check all these boxes before election Day? Well, part of, part of what this really means is that she is going to be leaning in on this idea that the freedom that she talks about and that she plans to talk about at the ellipse that they're going to be. We're having some audio issues. We can hear you.
We can hear you talking about the freedoms that really are taking this election. And of course she's going to defend the Constitution, the principles of America and that Donald Trump would be a threat to democracy and would be focused on people being in the military and quid being loyal to him and that loyal to the Constitution. So tonight I want to place this down for you. Hopefully we have it a Vice President Harris talking about sort of what it take in his election.
Take a listen. One of the highest priorities for the American people right now is bringing down cost. And that is the priority of my agenda and will be the priority of my work when I'm elected president of the United States. My priority includes fighting for our democracy, including fighting for the freedom of people to make decisions about their own body, including what we must do to speak out against threats to our democracy.
The vice president also expected to say that core President Donald Trump has an enemies list and that she has a due list on that to be listed freedom that were taken away when Aurora has other things on there like cutting taxes for millions of Americans, legalizing recreational marijuana, having access and having Americans have access to better health care and better support when it comes to both taking care of their parents that she split out that's connected in some ways that argue that even tonight on the idea that she has a vision of America that is free on the America that continues to really uphold his ideals. And Donald Trump doesn't have that or respect that. Ryan. Okay, Yamiche in Houston, Texas, you thanks for that and let's go to Garrett now.
Garrett, we've shown how the Trump campaign seems very confident about where they stand right now, which may be a bit different than the Harris campaign is presenting themselves right now. Confidence never a problem for Donald Trump or the people around him. Is that based in reality? Do they really believe that the numbers telling them that they're going to win this campaign easily or is this a way to try and insulate their candidate from any sort of negative news about their campaign?
Because when he thinks he might be losing, he tends to go off the rail sometimes one of the campaign believes are going to win this easily. Ryan but the way One Trump insider explained to me yesterday is they do think they're in the driver's seat in this race, but they still have to keep the car on the road. The concern for them is that Harris is very close to them and all these swing state polls are seeing much of the same data that we are and that their candidate is still Donald Trump. He's unpredictable and the environment that we're in is unpredictable.
And so I get a sense that they're not really taking anything for granted. But the projection of confidence is also key to their strategy. Trump's been saying for months and months now that the only way he could lose is fraud. That's sort of part of the part ego, part strategy.
And you're continue to hear that all the way up to election Day. But I think no matter what the vote counting says, you're probably going to hear Donald Trump come out and say that he has won or is winning the race long before anybody's going to call in one direction or another. Yeah, let me expand on that a little bit because of course we remember when he claimed a picture prematurely in 2020. At some level, it's pretty easy to project confidence when you know what you'll be saying on election night.
Right. I mean, is that their posture right now at least make everyone believe that they're winning even if that's not the case? I think it's part of it. I think it's also a matter of keeping Donald Trump kind of within the bumpers when he believes he's winning.
He's probably more likely to follow advice and less likely to revert to his worst instincts. And also their view is that kind of people want to be part of a winner. They want to project that. They have this big robust campaign operation which I think is particularly compelling.
We consider the audience that they find that I was still out there to be persuaded, which is most of these young checked out politically men, mostly white men, who they're trying to turn from sort Trump curious into actual Trump voters. They want to be part of something, I think the thinking goes. And that's the way the Trump campaign is trying to present themselves in these last couple days. And we know the campaign, they would love for the former president to be completely focused on the issues on Kamala Harris's record, the Biden White House.
Is that what coming out of his mouth though, on the campaign trail as we get closer to election Day? No. At least not entirely. Right.
I mean, look, this event here in Austin was one of those where there was less structure Placed around Donald Trump. Yeah, Law enforcement in the audience. He had pictures of victims of what he calls migrant crimes surrounding him on stage. That was meant to be the core focus of his remarks here.
And for the majority of the time he was speaking, it was. But Trump also could not help himself going on digressions, attacking the media and specifically attacking organizations who've been covering him skeptically, let's say in the last couple days, including the Atlantic, who published that blockbuster story a few nights ago. Look at this. A magazine that's a failing magazine run by a guy named Goldberg, came out with a story, bad story about me that I had told them I was gonna do something.
And there was phony stories by a general that got fired. And he's a whack job. Whack job in general. It's funny when you fire people, see, Biden has never fired anybody, but when you fire people for doing a bad job, they get a little bit angry.
Somehow it just seems to work. But he was a nut job to start off with. This was the same magazine that said that I said about dead soldiers, that there was something. What was it?
Suckers and losers. Think of it. I'm supposed to be standing there over the graves of soldiers with people around me, military people or whatever, making a statement like that. No, I mean, can you imagine Ryan?
Ryan, if you think the universe of people who might be swayed by the John Kelly story in the Atlantic is small, imagine the universe of people who might be swayed by an anti Atlantic magazine. Talking point is even smaller. Perhaps the staff of the New Yorker, if they're still sitting wondering how they feel about Trump, might, you know, engage in some rivalry with the Atlantic. But like, who does that?
It doesn't convince anyone. It's just Trump being Trump and doing the work of a campaign spokesman would probably be better off doing. Yeah, it's more about his own personal vendor than it is actually moving voters. Garrett, thank you so much.
Appreciate your reporting as always. And as we know just moments ago, even before a single ballot has been counted, former President Trump, his allies appear to be laying the groundwork to dispute the election results. NBC News reports that in contrast to 2020, when Trump is backers tossed out an array of false election interference allegations made them ludicrous and quickly struck down by courts, Republicans in this election cycle are almost entirely focused on the specter of non citizen voting. Now, to be clear, there's no evidence that there are large numbers of non citizens voting for president.
That is of course illegal. But as we said, the former president brought it up again today on the campaign trail in Texas. He's also made a claim on social media at rallies and even during the debate with Kamala Harris. And those false claims are being echoed on Capitol Hill, where more than 200 Republican members of Congress have posted on social media about non citizens voting this year.
That's according to the public interest group at Advanced Democracy. Brandy Zadrozny, she's a senior reporter for NBC News and she's behind the story on that. It's called The Big Lie 2.0. She covers misinformation, disinformation and extremism on the Internet.
And she joins me now. So, Brandi, talk to me. Who is behind this big lie 2.0? Well, Donald Trump, to give credit where credit's due, but he has a lot of lieutenants working for him.
And I think that the person I write about a lot in this story, her name is Cleta Mitchell and she is a former Oklahoma legislator. She used to be a progressive, but she sort of switched to the Tea Party in the early aughts and she made it her mission to root out voter fraud. Again, like you said many times, voter fraud is vanishingly rare. It doesn't really happen very much.
And when it does, in no way does it happen in numbers that really affect elections. So it's just not true. There's been study after study, including, you know, from libertarian think tank Cato Institute, which says this is not happening. But she made her mission it was.
And she raised lots of money and became a very, she's very good at her job and became very powerful and very conservative organizations. And but she's still sort of niche, right? Like, people knew this wasn't happening. And then Donald Trump came along and Donald Trump decided that non citizen voting was a huge problem.
He used it in 2020 to claim among lots of other things, that it had been rigged against him. But his main focus in 2020 was mail in balloting. Right? That's where all the fraud was supposed to come in 2020.
What Republicans have realized during that time is actually mail in voting is pretty great for voter turnout. You probably shouldn't dissuade your voters from using that. And so instead we're focused all in on non citizen voting. Cleta Mitchell was on the Georgia call with Trump to Raffensperger where Trump asked him to find some 11,000 votes needed to win the state.
She was not indicted for that, but she didn't lose her job at her fancy D.C. law firm. She resign. And she said that that moment was sort of her origin story.
It only emboldened her. And from there she started this group called the Election Integrity Network. She started another sister group called the Only Citizens Vote Coalition. And these folks, thousands of folks have been signing up as poll washers, poll watchers, election officials.
They've been really trying to sort of flood that zone. And what they've done in the meantime is their media and weekly meetings. We got several of these meetings linked to us, their media and weekly meetings to discuss the specter of non citizen voting and really to watch a conspiracy theory be born in real time. It was a disquieting experience.
And why do they think that this particular claim about non citizens voting will be more effective in 2024 than their baseless claims of 2020? Well, I don't think they think it's more effective. I mean, it is kind of effective because of a couple of reasons. One, it's incredibly difficult to debunk something that isn't happening.
It's hard to prove something is not happening. And so that's been sort. The second thing is it fits really well in with their overall anti immigrant message. Anyway, that has been Donald Trump's main talking point since he came down the escalator.
And so, you know, it's good messaging, it's hard to refute. And then it doesn't really matter if it's not true because they're just using it right now. They're using it as the basis for dozens of lawsuits all throughout the country and in swing states to claim that nonsense and voting is causing, you know, havoc, causing widespread fraud. And so the fact is that those lawsuits have been filed pretty darn late in the game.
So they probably most of them will not be decided before the election. But when there is the election and then should Donald Trump lose, his allies can and he can point to all those lawsuits as a way to legitimize the conspiracy theory. Look at all the things in the courts. You know, we have lawsuits about that.
And so, you know, again, it's not, it's not true. So it's not effective in that way. And it will never be true, but it doesn't really have to be. Okay.
Right. Is a gross terrific report. Thank you so much for being on. We appreciate it.
Coming up, securing the vote. An arsonist in Phoenix damages more than a dozen ballots. Allegations of at least a dozen fraudulent ballots in Colorado and a foiled cyber attack targeting the activity voting in Georgia. We'll have all the latest details on that.
Plus I'll talk to the top elections official in battleground Pennsylvania as officials that investigate thousands of fraudulent voter registration applications in the key county. You're watching MEET THE PRESS now. Welcome back. More than 33 million mail in and early in person votes have been cast nationally.
And as voters cast their ballots, multiple states are dealing with issues and launching investigations into various election related incidents. First in Colorado, secretary of state's office confirmed yesterday that at least a dozen mail ballots were stolen, fraudulently filled out and then submitted. Officials say nearly all the stolen ballots were stopped during the signature verification process with the exception of three ballots that were counted before election officials were able to identify them. In Georgia, state officials say they recently fell off a cyber attack aimed at their absentee voting website.
Well, it's not clear who was behind the attacks. The officials have suggested that it could be a foreign actor. And in the critical state of Pennsylvania, officials in Bucks county are investigating a fake video that went viral on social media appearing to show mail in ballots being opened and destroyed. In Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, officials announced today they're investigating as many as 2500 fraudulent voter registration applications.
I'll speak to the secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in just a moment. The first of run Miami senior senior reporter Jane Tim, who's covering all these issues. So Jane, here we are 11 days away from election day. Stories like these should we expect to hear leading up to the election?
You know, I think you're going to see quite a few. There's a hurricane of forces going on here. Misinformation, disinformation at an all time high while trusting election systems and trusting government at an all time low. So you have both genuine issues like what we're seeing in Pennsylvania, which is an important story where officials caught an attempt to falsely register fake voters or register voters without their permission in Lancaster.
We should stress the routine processes of election systems, but you also have a fair amount of confusion, distrust, sort of fake videos like this. Earlier this week I chased in a tip about white robed people in a polling site with cameras. And when I got to the bottom of it, it turned out they were Halloween costumes, people wearing those ghosts and doing those TikTok trends in a polling site. So at the end of the day, you have both the real and the sort of unsure and the conf.
They're both going to affect voters because of how polarized our election system has become and how much falsehoods have been spread about American democracy. Yeah. And I wonder, what are you hearing from election officials? Do they think they're going to be able to keep up with all these rights in the election, whether it be the cyber attacks of disinformation or other ballot concerns.
You know, these people are tired and they're overworked, but I think they're prepared. These are people who have been working for years knowing it was going to be this tense, knowing it was going to be this sort of polarized and politicized. But I don't think we can overstate how much the system's working. You know, people are voting, turnout is extremely high and lines are staying low, but time to wait and in line.
You know, when I called around to election officials a couple days into early voting, they were like, you know, our first day we had a couple hookups, figuring out a couple things, but now our lines are down under 30 minutes. We're getting voters in and out. Despite historic turnout in Pennsylvania, it wasn't an abundance of vigilance or some sort of extraordina action that caught an attempt to corrupt. It was routine policies.
Is the election system working as it should? Okay, Jane, thanks for staying on top of it for us. We appreciate it. Let's now talk to one of the men responsible for making sure this election goes off well, and that is the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, Al Schmidt.
Mr. Secretary, I know you are incredibly busy, so we very much feel fortunate to have the chance to talk to you. Let's start with this issue in Lancaster county that James is talking about. And officials there say the election workers identify about 2,500 voter registration forms that may be fraudulent.
What do you know about who is behind this? What the DA is calling a large scale canvassing operation. And there. And could there be other counties affected by it?
We've been in touch with Lancaster county several times in the last couple of days to provide some. Some guidance for what to do when it became apparent that they have received some number of voter registration or mail in ballot applications that appear to be fraudulent. Important that you handle cases like this responsibly. I think from what I can understand, Lancaster County's done.
Lancaster County's done a great job so far in handling this responsibly. But it's important that when something like this occurs, it is caught. I think it was very good that they were very public about it so that people know that there are checks and safeguards in this process to prevent anything like this from succeeding. But do you have any information yet as to who could be behind this?
And is this operation continuing? Could it happen in other counties in Penn or maybe other parts of the country? Well, we understand from the county that there was an outside organization collecting registrations and submitted them right before the voter registration deadline. Okay, so how do you then reassure your constituents, the voters in pen, that there won't be fraudulent ballots cast if there are attempts like this to make that happen?
Well, there's verification that goes into the voter registration process and the mail in ballot application process. Pennsylvania is one of those states where you have to apply to vote by mail. Ballots just don't get sent out to everyone. And when you apply, you provide your charter's license number or your last Voyager Social Security number.
So there is a verification, identity confirmation aspect in all of this. In terms of what we're seeing in Lancaster, again, when you apply register to vote, you're providing your Social Security number, your driver's license number, your name, address, birthday, and all the rest. So they're able to do a verification to determine whether this is an actual legitimate vote or not. So you're telling us the system work is what you say?
In this case, yes. And when you have cases like this, it should encourage people to have more faith in the system, not less. When you have situations like this occur, however infrequently, and that's it's infrequent. That's why it's certainly newsworthy.
Because of the safeguards in the Pennsylvania voter registration and mail in ballot process, things like this would get caught, as is the case in Lancaster. Let's move on to the other incident that we talked about earlier in Bucks county, where there appeared to be a fake video circulating of mail in ballots being opened and destroyed. What more can you tell us about that incident and the investigation that's underway? You know, it's interesting, from talking to people who are around elections and election administration a lot, it is conspicuously fake.
None of the envelopes are sealed. There's no return address on any of them or anything else like that. So it really stands out to us. But probably for most voters, it could look convincing, and that's distressing because things like this are intended to keep people from voting or to undermine confidence in our election results.
So when we identify them, we need to be very public and make sure that voters are not deceived by these bad faith efforts to undermine confidence in our electoral process. This probably won't be the last time this happens, especially between now and election Day and maybe even beyond election Day while you're counting the votes. I mean, how can you prepare for another attempt to spread a fake viral video to undermine that confidence in the voting process? Well, we certainly can't prevent it from being spread other than to make sure that whenever people have questions, we answer those questions.
And whenever there is a mis or disinformation, that we call it out and confront it so that people aren't deceived. Like something like that to me was not particularly convincing to others, it might be convincing. It could be a lot more sophisticated than that. But even in 2020, things like this don't have to have any basis in fact at all.
People, unfortun, unfortunately, don't always turn to trusted sources of information. And that's really what we need people to do, turn to trusted sources of information when it comes to answering questions about elections. Let's talk about another challenge that you and your colleagues are facing, and that's foreign election interference. I'm gonna place something from CISA Director Jen Eastern, familiar today.
Take a listen. The stakes are pretty high for our foreign adversaries because it's been very clear that they are intent on interfering in our presidential election for their own interests. They have been more active using more sophisticated techniques. And that's why we cannot allow Americans to fall prey.
And you're up here in Georgia, said they fended off a cyber attack. Losing from a foreign country is you're facing similar incidents in Pennsylvania. How are you tracking foreign influence in your state? We work very closely with federal, state and local partners to make sure that our election infrastructure is secure, especially as it relates to any cybersecurity threats.
We work closely with Pennsylvania National Guard and others who are always testing and monitoring our systems so that even if there is an attempt, however unsuccessful, we'll be aware of it. And we've reported on steps that others have taken to ensure the safety of their election workers. One example being a couple of county Arizona. Their tabulation centers are even at snipers on the roof and drones to protect the election workers.
There are other kinds of pen that are increasing security because of similar safety concerns. You know, one development from a Lesson learned in 2020 is the Shapiro administration organized an election threat task force that I lead that's made up of federal, state and local partners involved in law enforcement and election administration. So that if we do encounter any of the ugliness that many of us experienced in 20, everyone will be prepared with open lines of communication. Law enforcement can do its job.
So our election officials can do their job, which is to take the responsibility of county voters votes and not let them in any way be intimidated by threats of violence or anything like that. Okay, Secretary, I hope you get some sleep between now and November 5th. So we appreciate your time. No chance.
Thank you very much. Up next, the latest installment of our Deciders focus group, talking to a group that could make all the difference in 11 days. Voters who sat out the last election but plan to vote in this one. Which way they're leaning.
Why? That's next. You're watching the PRESS now. Welcome back.
In an election this close that the voters that could decide this race are the same voters, voters who didn't make a decision in the last election. According to the last three NBC News national polls, Donald Trump has a 10 point advantage on voters who did not cast the ballot in the 2020 midterms or in 2022. And our latest installment of the NBC News Deciders focus group produced a collaboration with Gageous at Syracuse University and Sega. We spoke to 12 voters in battleground states who sat out the 2020 election to plan to vote this time around.
The majority of these voters say that they are leaning toward Donald Trump for one simple reason, the economy. There's a little bit of that discussion on the issue of the economy. If Harris came to you and asked, what do I need to do to change your mind and vote for me, what would you tell her? You got to tell me what you're actually campaigning for.
What are your policies? I don't need to know that you were raised in a middle class family. I need to know what you plan on doing with the economy. What's your plan for the border, what's your plan for everything.
I need to know your stance is not you. I'd ask her where she's been for the last three and a half years. If Trump came to you and he asked, what do I need to do to change your mind and vote for me, what would you go tell him? I need you to understand the middle class struggle, the lower class struggle.
You've never, I don't, I don't know much about his upbringing, but I feel like he could just lend a better ear and maybe understands what the rest of us have gone through just because he hasn't been there for more. Now I'm joined by Margaret Halif, who was the director of Syracuse University's Institute for Democracy, Journalism and Citizenship. So, Margaret, I mean, simple question here. What's changed between 2020 and 2024 to convince these voters that they need to actually get on cast a ballot.
Right. It's so interesting and it's a good reminder that you're on the side of voters or voters who don't vote in every Election are not a model if they have different reasons. So we heard from a couple of these voters that they had Covid or were sick last time around. One guy was moving.
They literally couldn't get to the polls on the day they were supposed to vote. Didn't make plans for others. They just didn't think the stakes were as high last time around. They think the stakes are higher this time.
One voter, really, really interesting, said when it push comes to stuff, she's not sure that she's actually going to vote because she's more worried about either making the wrong choice. I guess you only find out after the fact if you think it was the wrong choice or that people will be angry with her if she voted a way they disagree with. And we asked, well, do you think, won't people be angry with you if you didn't vote? And it was the most important election ever.
And she said, not as angry as I think people will be if I make a choice they disagree with. So there's a lot of reasons. She also doesn't have to tell them. Right, Exactly.
And I do want to play for you a revealing exchange between the moderator, Rich. They had the woman named Zaire. It's a little long, but it's worth it. Just listen to how she's leaning.
Which way are you leaning? I'm leaning. It makes me nauseous, honestly, like talking and thinking about it. It really makes me physically sick, to be honest, because I'm leaning towards protecting my rights, my body, my daughter's body.
Women's reproductive rights, especially in the black community, is something that should be taken very seriously. I would say I'm more 60, 40. Trump still has 40. Because in my community, during the Trump administration, my individual, my close community, we have more money in our household than some of them had ever seen in their entire lives.
And that spoke volumes. So just make sure I'm hearing you correctly. So the case for Trump is the economy. The case for Harris is women's reproductive rights.
Is that the bottom line I'm hearing and your mind, the women's reproductive rights is just a peg or two higher than the economic concerns. That's the theory of the cases right now. I mean, that's the two arguments kind of clashing and really could be the deciding force in the election. But there was an extraordinary moment in this focus group, and let me tell you what it was.
You're right. This is exactly it. Trump's strongest argument is, you had more money in your pocket when I was president, and it's their fault and if you like me again, I'll give you more money. I mean, who knows if that's true.
But that's the argument. A lot of people are buying it. Harris's biggest strength is clearly her stance as a supporter of abortion rights, reproductive rights, people's right to make decisions about their own bodies, especially with women. That resonates.
The question is, if it's rock, paper, scissors, which one is more important to people? We heard from this voter that she's leaning towards Harris because of abortion rights. But when a voter in this focus group found out that or sort of thought realized, well, abortion's legal in my state. And former President Trump has said he's turning it up to the states, it's up to each state to decide upon concluding that her own rights exist in her state.
She was like, you know what? I think I'm with Trump now. We literally saw the vote shift before our very eyes. And it was a jaw dropping moment for everybody watching those focus groups behind the scenes, the ABC reporters and me and our focus group moderator.
Because the idea is people really are motivated right now, at least these swingable voters, by money, the memory of money in their pocket and their own rights, not the sisterhood's rights. That's not true for all voters. There are some women who either already made up their minds and for whom abortion is a paramount issue. But for these voters that are on the and juggling between money in my pocket or the theoretical right to make reproductive choices for myself, as long as they are taken care of, what that panel showed is that may be enough for them.
So it's really, really interesting. Okay, Margaret, very revealing. Thank you so much for the and now we're turn to an extraordinary moment today in Arizona where President Biden issued what he called a long overdue formal apology to the Native American community for the government run an Indian boarding school system that separated generations of Native American children from their families and sought to erase their identity and culture. President Biden acknowledged the role the federal government played in the dark 150 year chapter in US history as the US forcibly tried to assimilate indigenous children by sending them to boarding schools where many of them were physically and sexually obliged.
With nearly 1000 documented native child deaths, though that number is likely much higher. Here's some of what President Biden said speaking at the Gila River Indian Community, his first diplomatic visit to a tribal nation. As President, I formally apologize as President of the United States of America for what we did. I formally apologize.
Federal Indian boarding school policy the pain it has caused will always be a significant mark of shame, a blot on American history. We're a great nation with the greatest of nations. We do not erase history. We make history.
We learn from history and we remember so we can heal as a nation. And still to come, new Israeli strikes in Gaza and southern Lebanon as negotiators prepare to resume cease fire talks this weekend. A live report from Beirut is next. You're watching Meet the President now.
Welcome back. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken is on his way back to Washington. First lay his trip to the Middle east to try and resume diplomatic negotiations for a ceasefire in the region. This after Israel confirmed that it killed Hamasir Yahya Sinwar last week.
President Biden's urge leaders in the region, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, to use this opportunity to end the conflict and secure the release of all the remaining hostages in Gaza. But despite Secretary Blinken's push to end the hostilities, Israel continues to launch strikes into the Gaza Strip and Lebanon as the region is still bracing for the possibility of a more direct conflict between Israel and Iran. Joining out is Matt Bradley. He's live in Beirut.
Secretary Blinken, he's already on his way back to the US after his visit to the region. There's only sense that he made any progress on the diplomatic back front. Well, it's not quite clear whether he made progress himself, but there is progress in the sense that everybody's going back to the negotiating table on Sunday in Doha and Qatar to renew these talks to free those 100 remaining hostages in the Gaza Strip and maybe bring something like peace to Gaza and possibly even here to Lebanon, where there's been now a lower scale war than what we're seeing in Gaza for the past year over the border with Lebanon. Now, this is maybe because of in part anti Blinkin's 11th trip to the Middle east, which most of these have been almost entirely fruitless on the last bits of these negotiations, despite the flurry of diplomacy we've been seeing for months now.
But there is this effort to try to come to agreement because of the death of Yor at the hands of the Israelis just a couple of weeks ago. He was killed. And that for a lot of people, not just in Israel, not just in Washington, even throughout the Middle east here, believe that that leaves something of an opening for a new round of negotiations that could see peace in the offing. There's also another opening this time in Cairo.
There was a new head of intelligence by the Egyptians that was just appointed in the past couple of days. And this man, not a household name, he hasn't risen up in the ranks of Egyptian intelligence, which is crucial to the Egyptian negotiating effort. But he proposed basically an idea for a shorter pause, maybe only like a week, and a smaller number of hostages to be released in that exchange, basically under the pretense or the idea, excuse me, that there could be some piece of a more permanent basis if there's a glimpse or a gasket piece on a shorter term, whether or not that works. Well, that's something we'll have to see come Sunday in Doha.
Matt, Lebanese officials also blaming Israel for a strike to kill three journalists. What more do we know about this and what the IDF is saying about the incident? Yeah, well, these were three television journalists working for pro Hezbollah and pro Iranian channels. And we don't know any details of exactly what was happening.
But this is something that has attracted widespread condemnation. And this is not the first time we've seen several journalists killed by the Israelis here in Lebanon, particularly along that southern border. Obviously, we've known this for a while. We've seen, well, more than 100 journalists killed in the Gaza Strip.
So we're also hearing from the Israelis saying that they have been identifying certain members of Al Jazeera and the Gaza Strip as being members of hazard Hamas. So a lot of folks are saying the Israelis are not doing enough to protect journalists in all of these theaters. Comment. Okay.
Matt Bradley, thank you for that report. After the break, a brazen scheme embraced by a leading House Republican to assign all of North Carolina's 16 electoral votes to Trump before the votes are even counted. We'll explain next. You're WATCHING ME THE PRESS now.
Welcome back. Turning to a new and disturbing suggestion from one of former President Trump's allies on Capitol Hill, Freedom Caucus chairman and Maryland Republican Congressman Andy Harris was recorded saying that North Carolina should consider allocating its electoral votes to Donald Trump before the ballots are counted because of damage caused by Hurricane Helene in traditionally Republican areas. Congressman Harris was responding to a pro Trump activist who was urging Republican legislators in key states to ignore the will of the voters and award their electors directly to. In a statement to NBC News, Congressman Harris called it a, quote, theoretical conversation and said that it had been taken out of context.
Joining me now on set is Gail Gardner is White House correspondent for Bloomberg News Megan Hayes, a Democratic strategist and former special assistant to President Biden and Mark Lauder, the former Trump campaign director of strategic communication. So, Mark, I'm gonna go you first on this. Is there any place for this Kind of comment. Should there be even the hint of a suggestion that state legislatures should intervene in a war letter votes before we even counter ballot?
It's a theoretically bad idea. To paraphrase the congressman, if there's concern, I think there is concern to make sure because obviously the devastation in North Carolina, let's redouble the efforts to make sure that every access is provided. So everyone who wants to come and exercise the right to vote, should the Trump campaign come out and say we don't want this to happen, let's reject this idea completely. Well, I mean, as a former person on the campaign, I'd say no, because it becomes a new cycle for the rest of the day and you're winning the new cycle.
So let's let just be a theoretical idea that quickly dies. To be clear, if you watch the video, they are talking about theoretically, they're talking about this as if this is something that should happen and that they should push it right away. And Andy Harris is not a nobody. Right.
He is now the chairman of the Freedom Caucus, which is very closely aligned with former President Trump. Does this mean it could be percolately more on the far right than we're even paying attention to? These are the kind of comments that really concern Democrats because they feel like they might have to be in this long legal stretch when it comes to the election. We know this election is incredibly close and deadlocked.
So it's gonna take a long time already, like they have these problems on top of that. Those are the things that really worry Paris campaign dnc and Trump has already been casting doubt on the election before any votes have been cast. So this is certainly a sentiment and a rhetoric that Democrats are certainly aware. So I think is it enough just to condemn it and say that it's a bad idea?
Should Democrats also be on guard that this could potentially be a lawsuit down the road? I mean, this type of conversation is helpful in general. I think it does just so you know, to content. It makes people think that there isn't something wrong with the.
I agree with the Trump campaign should not say anything. This is not their fight to have. There's nothing really to say. It makes it more of a news cycle, but it is problematic.
It is something we should be looking out for. But I just think these are all hand comments. I think North Carolina is doing a good job to make sure people who were suffered, you know, displacement from the hurricane are able to vote because the state is actually doing what they need to do here. Okay, let's turn now to what we cover at the top of this hour, Kayla, and that's the confidence gap between Republicans and Democrats in general.
This is kind of their posture. Republicans always feel maybe more confident. They should be. Democrats are always more nervous than maybe should be.
It seems more pronounced this time around. What do you think is behind that? Yeah, well, here's a contingent call herself the underdog in this race. She said that from the very beginning.
And she sort of has to do that. Right. She came into this like this race very late. And so she has to still prove to go over that she can take this job, take up this mantle from President Biden.
And we have Trump who's been very overly confident. I think that has been the posture of the Republican Party really since the RNC here. But what does this mean for voters really? I think that they are sort of looking for some humility here.
They don't want someone who believes that they should just already earn their vote. Mark, I wish inside the campaign, how does President Trump receive this information? Could you go to him and say, Mr. President, we don't think the numbers look good right now, or do you need to pump him up and say, you're winning, sir, I promise he'd be more like if it's not where he needs to be, then where do I need to go?
What do I need to say to change that narrative? Because you still have 11 days. I think right now I want to say they feel confident because no one in politics, either side feels confident until it's done. That's our job to worry.
But he's leading all sorts of battleground states right now. According to the Real Career Politics average, for the first time since August 4th, the RCP national average is tied. And I'm a number of members guy. The final vote total was 4.5% in 2020, but really came down to 43,000 votes in three states.
Tide is actually winning for Republicans on in the Electoral College. So should the Democrats be trying to convince their voters that they're a little more confident than what we're seeing them display publicly? No. People vote.
They need to keep people sure. People are going to round to vote. Part of this when people are nervous, anxious, they might turn around to vote more? I don't think I'm going to stay home thinking, oh, I'm a Democrat, I'm going to vote for the vice president.
But then since you guys are so nervous now, I'm going to say home. That's just not how the human psyche works. But I also think that people need to understand that they still need to be trying to blow out. They still be knocking on doors, fundraising, and still a thing.
And I think that they are still driving momentum. I think part of it is just this is what Democrats doing. I think what she's. So what is this?
What is the vice president focusing around the right places. She's spent a lot of time trying to find those kind of middle of the road, even perhaps Republican votes. She's not even in the swing state today. I mean, where does her closing message need to be designed toward at this point?
So I think she's doing what she needs, getting people to know how she's been raised for 98 over. Just over 98. But she's also making a contrast of who she is versus the former president. I think that's a really important narrative.
But the vice president's job is to get out there and do these events and talk to voters and continue to make sure people understand where she's coming from. Then there's another operator of the campaign that's knocking on doors and getting people out to vote, organizing people on how they're going to be voting. And that is very separate. And that's probably 90% of the campaign is the organization on the ground, which the Harris campaign has done a very good job of having that apparatus in place.
And so she's doing what she needs to be doing and doing these rallies, doing these events, doing these big message events. And you know, just Beyonce shout out last night, like these are things that are driving new cycles. And so that's what I campaign in the city. So, Mark, I want to put out a statement that Speaker Johnson admission column put out.
This was in response to Kamala Harris repeating John Kelly's comments on Donald Trump. They say the vice president's words more closely resemble those of President Trump's second Whitney assassin than her own earlier appearance. Civility. Labeling, labeling a political opponent as a fascist risks inviting another would be assassin to try robbing voters of their choice before election Day.
Donald Trump's called Kamala Harris a lot of mean things, a lot of tough accusations. And this is also not Kamala Harris calling President Trump a fascist. This is his former chief of staff. Try and make sense of this statement for me.
Do you think it's appropriate given where we are in the race right now? Well, Jim Kelly obviously is entitled to his opinion, but Kamala Harris is leaning into it and she's repeating it over and over again. So she might as well be calling him that. And she has called him that in the past we've called them socialists since the days of Reagan.
You know, they've used various labels for us. I don't like the Hitler references. I don't like, you know, to use a liberal favorite term, dog whistles that basically mean Hitler. I think that crosses too much too far.
Trump campaign actually put out a video today of a 94 year old Auschwitz survivor who basically said no one in American politics should ever be compared to Hitler. You're gonna use that name. You better be talking about. Let's get back.
Because they're talking about the fascist claim and your strategic communicator, that's what you do. If you had video of a former Kamala Harris chief of staff calling her a fascist, would you just let it sit there or would you use it? I think it depends on the situation. I mean this is something they have built into their narrative for a long time.
It is their closes argument. I don't think it's going to be an effective one because we've been calling each other names for as long as I've been in politics and we'll always continue to do so. Is it fair to say though that it could lead to another person attempting to assassinate him though? When I remember the fact we had millions of people go into service, hundreds of thousands of die to eliminate fascism and to take out Adolf Hitler and they sacrificed their lives on shores that are not even our own.
I think that's, that's drawing it too far. Okay, I'll let you close. You know, when the goal here is to reach this small group of undecided voters here in the last bit of this campaign, which. What do you think the campaign should be focusing on to get there?
Well, right now the Harris campaign is really in a phase of trying to create this binary which is really leaning into those comments that we saw from Donald Kelly, leaning into this theme of democracy. Harris is going to be at the National Mall next Tuesday, the same spot where Donald Trump gave that speech on January 6th. So they believe that this democracy issue could really help them with base voters. But I think people could also argue that maybe she's not focusing as much time on the economy and immigration on some of these policy issues that really matter.
And also this is sort of big thing. People know this about Donald Trump's character and these controversies and it's really hard to see how anything could be that surprising. This sincerely shift this race when it comes to Donald Trump. The lemonade.
You'll have a predictor white now in Canada. Take it back. I'm just kidding, Mark. I hope you guys appreciate being here.
We're gonna be back with more Monday of Meet the Press. Now it is obviously crunch time, and if it's Sunday, it's Meet the Press on your local NBC station. Chris is going to interview the Republican vice presidential nominee, J.D. vance, and she'll have an exclusive interview with Senator Bern Sanders.
This continues out with Tom Castellan for Hallie Jackson right now. Hey, everyone. I'm Dylan Dryer, co host of the third hour of TODAY and mom to three wild boys. I've learned a lot my years as a parent, mostly that I don't have it all figured out yet.
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