Meet the Press NOW — September 1

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If it's Friday. Looming gloom as Washington faces leadership concerns in the Senate, unlikely impeachment inquiry in the House, potential government shutdown across the country, maybe even a televised trial tied to President Trump. That could all happen in the next 90 days. Plus, another proud boy is sentenced to prison for 10 years, assaulting officer and attacking the Capitol on January 6th.

Now we await the group's leader and his fate next week. And takes a major gun loophole as the administration tries to piece together a plan to get the White House closer to a key policy promise, universal background checks. But will this gambit work? Happy Friday and welcome to me, the press.

Now. I'm Chuck Tide reporting from Washington. And as we turn the calendar to September officially and we brace for fall, which could include a government shutdown and impeachment, televised criminal trial, how tied to Trump, all amid an active presidential campaign and the potential for a leadership crisis on Capitol Hill at any moment. Is Washington brave for all that?

In a word, no. When lawmakers return to Capitol Hill this month, they will have less than 30 days to avoid government shutdown. The White House is already asking Congress to pass a short term funding bill to essentially kick the can to December and keep the government open. And in a letter to his colleagues, Senate Majority Leader Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer is preemptively already trying to blame House Republicans for any potential shutdown.

And then to complicate matters, there are growing concerns about Senate Republican leadership himself after he appeared to freeze on camera for a second time in recent weeks. Some Republicans urging McConnell to give them more information about himself. Yesterday, the 81 year old McConnell received some notable words of support from the 80 year old leader at the White House. It's not at all unusual to have the response that sometimes happens to the Mitch when you've had a severe concussion.

It's part of a, it's part of the recovery. And so I'm confident he's going to be back. Meanwhile, White House is also preparing for battle on another front. They've decided to stand up an impeachment war room of two dozen lawyers, aids and communication staffers in order to prepare to lead an aggressive response to what is increasingly likely an impeachment inquiry that will probably be hard to stop from becoming a full fledged impeachment after The Speaker Kev McCarthy called it a quote, natural step forward.

YSA tells me news the goal is to allow the administration to focus on governing and not get bogged down in minutiae the investigations. Although you desire a whole bunch of lawyers start a war room, it's hard to say that you haven't decided to at least have a separate office that will be bogged down. Good luck with all of that. And amid a potential impeachment in shutdown will come to serve one of the criminal trials tied to Donald Trump.

And for full county judge rule that finalist's RICO case against the former president in his 18 co defendants will be televised in live stream. And that the trial for at least one of the defendants will begin next month. Right now, the DA's office says it wants to start the trial for everyone in the case, including Trump on that day as well. The lawyers of the former president are asking that he's tried separately and that they need more time considering the sheer volume of independence and overall complexity of the case.

So let's get into all of these near term potential problems here, ladies and Washington's plan to navigate this mess. You're sorry, I've got to get started. We got Monica Al over at the White House on the beat there. Julia Circuit is on Capitol Hill.

Monica, let me start with the acknowledgment. I mean, the White House is, you know, there's, they could have easily said we think this impeachment stuff is crazy and we're not going to be focusing on it all. And instead they go the other way, like, all right, go hire us some lawyers. It feels like the opposite of saying it's a way to make sure they don't get bogged down.

Well, it's an acknowledgment how seriously they are taking it. Check. Absolutely. And some who we spoke to said, look, this really started in earnest as something that we were going to need to address on day one of Republicans taking control of the House of Representatives because it's something they had talked about, it's something they suggested and we need to really take it at face value.

And then really it's been the month of August where it became a lot more real and where they did detail more people in that attempt to kind of wall it off from the other business of the White House and what they're doing every day. So we now know that these lawyers, these staffers are sort of doing the ultimate fact checking and trying to go through what they call a thinly based evidence for trying to justify this impeachment inquiry. They're trying to say that even Speaker McCarthy and some of his allies can't point to the exact grounds for what they're going to bring impeachment on. They're trying to kind of put pieces together they don't quite have yet, but still they're to Things like the 1998 Bill Clinton impeachment has a bit of a roadmap for how they feel they can try to come out and respond aggressively and they hope try to have Republicans pay the political price here because they're going to try to paint them as overreaching if there isn't something completely firm or obvious, because so far these claims have been unproven about tomorrow's visit by President Biden to the big bend of Florida.

Do we have an idea of his itinerary? We do. We know, for instance, that he's going to be meeting with Governor DeSantis. Of course, we saw a little bit of this last year with Hurricane Ian, and we knew that at the time the two leaders were really kind of battling publicly over things like Covid and things like the migrants on the plane to Martha's Vineyard.

And they set all that aside for the actual visit on the ground in Florida. And I think that's exactly what you can expect for tomorrow. The White House is saying it's not a time for politics. Even, of course, President Biden is going to go there and continue to say that really the need to address some of these things brought by climate change and the real emergency here that we're dealing with, with the confluence of natural disasters of last couple of weeks is something that, of course, Republicans have taken a very different approach to, but that they're saying he's not really going to go into any kind of an offensive with, of course, Governor Santos, who last year wasn't a candidate for president but now is they're going to try to really put that to the side so they can focus.

But the main thing the president is going to be pushing on tomorrow is this FEMA recovery money and the fact that all of this now hinges on this potential government shutdown and sending agreement that FEMA is really pushing more, saying we're going to run out of money, we're going to try to do the best we can my out Maui is the number one priority and then everything else. But that's a very, very long list. And then of course, there's still all the recovery they're still doing with Ian, as you know, Chuck. And there's Ukraine funding which could be tied to all of this, which creates another sticky political situation as well.

Macabre. Thank you for getting us started there. Julie Circumnavi, move over to your side and begin things with the Chuck Schumer sort of letter to, to his colleagues, his dear colleague letter, laying out obviously what he believes should be the framework for government funding negotiations. What I found interesting about the letter is he really purported to almost speak for both parties in the Senate.

And let me ask you, how many Senate Republicans do you think Chuck should be speaking for in that letter? Well, you heard about minority McConnell said right before he had that freeze this week. Right. He essentially said don't look the Senate Republicans to bail House Republicans out as they try to pass bills that are lower than those spending levels they had agreed upon with.

At least Speaker McCarthy agreed upon with President Biden. So he thinks he's speaking for a good amount of them. And I'll tell you, Susan Collins yesterday, the top Republican appropriator said McConnell called her and they're in agreement about Senate business going forward. And that includes a possible couple bills that Schumer wants to bring up in September that have to do with government funding that the Senate already passed in the House has not completed their work on just to show that the Senate is operating a bipartisan way.

And hey, look at the House. Look at House Republicans trying to shut everything down. And I talked to Senator Tammy Duckard today, was here presiding over Senate pro forma. She's only one of the building we all kind of crowded all over her when it comes to this.

And she said right away it's House Republicans are going to be blamed for a government shutdown. So I also think the impeachment angle of this is certainly not happening in a vacuum. McCarthy. Well, I was just going to say you just read my mind in my follow up here.

So look, the Freedom Caucus is trying to extract something they got to I feel like Kevin McCarthy is trying to say, look, what do you want? You want to do a shutdown or you want to do impeachment? Because I'm not going to do both. Well, in many ways he's going to maybe have to do both.

Right. We're colliding with the government shutdown deadline at the end of the month. At the same time, I'm told Ken McCarthy was on the phone with not only members of the House for Democratic this week with a full conference On Monday before McConnell even made those remarks, which I thought were really interesting because he's really tried to stay out of this. He's tried to really put all this on McCarthy.

Now he's getting involved. But on Monday he had a conversation with this whole conference in which he said look, government shut down. We're not going to be able to continue with some of these investig fact checking there. They certainly can in many ways.

But he also told them the Senate is not going to bail us out on this. So the only chance they have to make any progress in curtailing and curbing government spending, so to speak, is in his words to try to get the can down the word it wrote and pass the CR. We still don't know when that timeline is from McCarthy though, because he hasn't said the next 60 days are gonna be crazy. We just don't know which days are gonna be craziest.

But either way, get some rest this weekend Julie, because you won't get any rest already. September 4th. Thanks very much. National political correspondent for Time magazine Townsend, former senior Vice Vice president Harris host of Simone MSNC and Stephen Hayes, the editor CEO of Dispatch, NBC News political analyst.

And I am bringing up a whole Ukraine and the disaster funding there because I think that is gonna be Molly. I know we're also used to Washington being dysfunctional and there's sort of a like Mitch McConnell to be a symbol of somebody that figures out her find function in dysfunction. But now we now have him around and this really looks like we're gonna hit another level. Yeah.

You know, along the lines of what Julius was saying, my sources in Congress mostly feel like the struck down is a matter of when, not if. It just looks impossible to get out. Now on the other hand, we have seen Kevin McCarthy get out of a series of jams over the course of this year. Debt ceiling is the biggest one and the debt ceiling was a huge test for him and he passed it and they did get a deal.

And whose test did he pass? He passed the test of Washington because he got it funded. Because I think the Freedom Caucus likes the deal he cut. They don't like the deal he cut, but they did go along with it.

And they have been sort of casting about for ways to exert leverage ever since. And so this is the next jam he has to get out of. And he knows and you can tell from what he's talking about it, that he knows he's going to have to give them something. They are already making demands and it's just a matter of whether they can come to some kind of.

I think the Freedom Caucus is in a very interesting position here. They also have to decide whether they are negotiating in good faith or whether their actual goal is to shut down the government. Right. Is that what they want?

Because they have in the past really been more interested in sort of obstruction than deal making. So is there a deal be had with them or do they see the shutdown as a whole? See, I want to back up a second though, because I really feel like more than ever we just see this glaring divide inside the party. Senate Republicans are one place, House Republicans are another.

And they really are reflective of MAGA winning the Republican Party nationally, establishing a Republican Party action. Yeah, very much. I think to Molly's point, it could be very well that the House Republicans, particularly the Freedom Caucus, want. That's the goal.

That's what needs to end. Trump's asking for anything. And if you think about in the context of the promises that Joe Biden made when he was running for president, I can govern through this. I can bring people together.

They're not crazy for thinking that if people look at Washington, they say, look, this is just more chaos. We're all going to sit around here and say like, wow, look what the House, what the Freedom Caucus did to try to leverage Kevin McCarthy. People aren't paying attention to that. They're going to look at Washington and say, no, no, this is totally dysfunctional.

And Joe Biden is sort of Washington portion of this. I mean, some trials starting out now, you know, I know this is gonna feature Trump yet, but it's gonna feature Trump's evidence. That's also gonna add to this. You can't tell me.

And there are some people who are angling from impeachment simply as a way to counter program. It's just, you know, you ask about the Freedom Caucuses, what they want, and I also argue the various wings of the Republican Party apparatus around the country, like there's a divide in Georgia between the Republicans in the state House and the governor. Right. And some Republicans in the state House.

And the question is, do you wanna be right or do you wanna win? That's what you just talked about when, you know, I come from progressive politics, working with the Sanders wing of the party. Always we have these conversations, do you wanna be right? Or if you want to win, you have to forego what you think is right.

Whatever Your right is to get the thing done. I think that there are far more. Again, this is a small group of people that allow microphones in the Freedom Caucus in the House, but also some of these Republicans across the country in these state legislatures, small group, large microphones. And I think that they really just want to be right.

They do not want to win. It is interesting that Kevin McArthur doesn't want forces to have a lot on this stuff. That's right. Which tells you he knows it's bad politics.

Which tells you I don't know which win of the party actually belongs to. Well, and he's done that quite artfully, actually. Right. I would argue that the way he was able to get something like the debt ceiling done is by giving the far right a lot of what they want.

So that. And they're under illusions that he's actually one of them. I think sort of spiritually. But he has done a lot of things that they want and allow them to be a bigger part of the process than they were certainly under any previous Republican speaker.

So, you know, but. But at the same time, that ceiling deal has with more Democratic than Republican votes, and they do not want to see him do it again. Do that again. And that is.

It looks like the only way that something is going to get done is with a substantial amount of Democratic votes just because the Republican majority is so narrow. So it's a very, very tricky needle of rubber. How does this get done about McConnell? I don't know.

I don't have any idea. I would not want to go out on that. That's what I mean. Like, this doesn't feel like your skills.

I know you're sort of like, whatever you think of McConnell, he knows how to land the plane in rocky. He does. He's a pilot that knows how to land in terrible situations. He does.

I do think it was meaningful that on the front end of this, he was sort of saying, this isn't me. Like I'm not there for all of it. Right. Like there is some principle.

I do think he was smart to say that Mitch McConnell does everything he does for a reason. He doesn't say things by accident. He doesn't freelance. So this was, I think, planned to my point about Kevin McCarthy.

I was talking to a Republican member of Congress who said, in effect, Kevin McCarthy really doesn't believe anything. It that he's not part of the House reading box. This is somebody who doesn't believe anything. He's a piece of player.

He's a political player. Getting to Be speaker was the goal here, figuring out how to maneuver and get his lips. You'll fall for anything. Kevin McCarthy, Simone, both the impeachments on Clinton and the first one on Trump, they both saw approval rating bump Clinton a lot.

Trump mildly. In a weird way, could Republicans be doing the Biden campaign in favor by rallying the base. If they end up like essentially forcing impeachment, could it end up boomeranging? I think it depends on how aggressively the White House fights this.

And I think that's why their warm operation that our NBC News supporters are. Are you surprised they're doing this this quickly? No, I think that they understand that this could be quite damaging because to see this point, people are not paying attention like we are. Okay.

We're the political professionals, if you will. But both like, like my mother, my sister, who's like, wait, hold on. They're not watching the posturing. All they see is House.

The members of Congress are saying, the president did this. Did he do that? I don't know. It seems untoward when there's no unfortunate there.

So the White House has to fight it aggressively to ensure that the people understand that this is nothing but political games and they're playing with your tax dollars and not doing their jobs. What's the, what's this October 23rd? If that's when that trial, first trial starts. Even if it's Kenneth Cheeseboro.

Right. And that's the first trial that starts Atlanta, and it's televised and every cable channel is covering it, you're carrying it, all this stuff. Do we have any idea what that environment looks like? Well, look, on the one hand, obviously giant media circus and people are losing their screens.

But I wonder if people's appetite is waning for all of this drama. I do wonder if, you know, the conduct alleged, while obviously very important and serious and don't take anything away from that. If people feel like, okay, this is something that happened a ago. And like, I think we see this with, you know, a lot of the Trump stuff that people are tired of, the sort of constant sort of noise machine.

And a lot of people, I hear from a lot of people that have tuned out all of it. So I do wonder if, you know, we're not talking about like, you know, the Nixon impeachment hearings or even the first Trump impeachment hearings where there was a real sense of tension. I see. I keep getting asked the same question when I'm doing my talk to the affiliates today to talk about Sundays Meet the Press, which is just gonna help her Trump.

And I'm like, I don't know. Right. I don't like to pretend I do. I can make a case that galvanizes supporters.

I can make a case that generous six hearings did do some damage to him over time. So, you know, I don't think that's gonna be good for the country. Right. I mean, I think it depends to a certain extent on how much people pay attention.

Obviously. Can his supporters be more galvanized than they are? What does that look like? What does that mean?

Let's say Trump has 35% of the Republican Party, the hardcore mega base, 35%. Are they gonna be more mega? Like they're voting more Mega on January 6th. So really I'm worried about that.

I mean, I do think there's so much volatility heading in the next 14 months. These trials and what we've just seen, the reaction to, the problem with trials and the problem with to me it's like white hat, black hat. Like these are bad guys. And you're seeing people say like they're jailing these guys rock war veterans and political prisoners trying to pick up the guns.

Like it is scary. The rhetoric is happening on the very far right, very concerning. And I think that that is why look, I think what's happening in Georgia is very important because it is accountability. We didn't have we only got a mug shot because of Fonny Willis and the sheriff in Georgia.

We are going to be able to see inside the courtroom because of finale Willis and the Georgia laws. This should put some pressure on federal judges. I think we should get all of you. You can't look, I accept the no camera but the spring court case is live audio.

There's no reason why federal court can't do live audio. And my father. Happy Friday. Enjoy this the enduring consequences of January 6th.

As we were just discussing today for their roles in the attack on the Capitol with the latest next plus Republican presidential candidates begin to win it out. Changes from stats. Can you get can you find ways to stay in the Ricks? That's ahead.

Watching me personally. We are back. It's been another dramatic day in federal record here Washington D.C. as two more Proud Boys are being sentenced for their roles in the attack of the Capitol.

And as we speak of federal judge is sentencing Ethan Nordine with prosecutors recommending he faced 27 years in prison. And hours ago judge sentenced Dominic Pizzola to 10 years in prison following his conviction on seven felony charges including assaulting officer. Prosecutors have been seeking it from your since the only One of the five proud boys who was not convicted of seditious conspiracy, which is the most serious charge you could have here at their trial. His sentence is still among the most severe, though tied to January 6th.

In all, the Justice Department has reported making more than 1100 arrests in connection with the act on the Capitol. Joined now by our justice and health is correspondent Kendallinian. Also with me is former RNC general counsel Ben Ginsburg. Where he's going to, we're going to constitutional law school with him in a minute or two.

But let me get to these sentences. Ken in the provost. And once again, what the government asked for about that kind of. Yeah.

And whether they're satisfied with that or whether that's a long enough sentence depends on your perspective. Right. The average murder sentence in the United States is 20 years. So these are lengthy sentences for people who didn't commit murder.

But the prosecution asked for 30 plus years in some cases because they view this as an assault on democracy. Sure. And they view the proud boys as a vanguard. Every major breach of the Capitol was conducted.

You might as well. You didn't say trader, but you're getting there. Exactly. Now, pazola was a picture in that video, that iconic video smashing the window with the police shield, which was the first breach of the capital.

Other proud boys were responsible for other breaches. The government wanted to send a message. These guys are the worst. They're worse than the O keepers.

This judge just did not go along with us. What's left? I mean, how many more left to sentence? And are we.

How much of this phase of the January 6th. Right. You know, this was. There's gonna be a lot of criticism when we do an attraction report this bottom up approach.

But as the Jack Smith trial comes into focus in the next six months, how many more of the actual trials of people who did the physical attack on the capital are left to do? Well, if you talk to Ryan Reilly, he just wrote a book about this. Our colleague and expert, he believes, he says there are hundreds and hundreds more of these people who have yet to even be by the FBI. You know, there's a massive amount of people in videos that the FBI is trying to figure out who they are.

Some they know of but haven't been arrested. So this is gonna go on for a while. We're 1100 plus defendants charging these cases and it could go to 2000. Some people believe now this is an ongoing project.

This will continue. That they are not gonna. They're gonna try to identify every single person that attacked that guy. They are determined to do that despite some resistance in some parts of the country in the fi the Justice Department because it consumes a lot of resources.

But it's important to send that message. A lot of people feel Enrique Tarrio, the head proud boys next week. Do we think the judge will be leaning on this one too? I don't know about lenient.

My question is will he give Tario a longer sentence than Stuart Rhodes who got 18 years later the O keeper who also wasn't physically present at the Capitol. Remember, Tario was not there. But prosecutors say Tarrio was instrumental in making this happen. He was giving orders, he was celebrating as was happening.

So they really want him to be the longest. They view him as one of the chief coordinators. Absolutely. And a bad guy for other reasons based on other conduct.

And so it'll be really interesting to see what this Donald Trump appointed judge does in this case. Thank you, sir. Appreciate it. Ben Ginsberg, it's been a long time.

Good to see you. Appreciate you coming on. Let me start with the, the larger decision here of the Justice Department on the bottom up approach. Right.

They started bottom and then we're, and look, there's been some criticism that the reason we're in the middle of a presidential campaign as we get to the Trump portion of this is because they took this bottom up approach. Are we doing some Monday morning quarterbacking here or is this, was this always potentially a, a mistaken strategy? Well, I mean I think that the traditional way to run a case like this is to start from the bottom and work your way up because that way you get people at the bottom creating a more fulsome picture of what the leaders did. So when you bring the leaders to trial, you actually have more evidence to do it.

So I suspect that this was done the way prosecutors normally do cases without much regard for the political. Now you can discuss whether they should have more recognized the fact that this would land in a presidential campaigns campaign in adapting this strategy for this look, you've, you have a unique, you've had a unique, you've had unique jobs over the years where you have been in this nexus of sort of when the politics and the law collide. And so when we're watching when you see what Georgia brought and I'm just curious as you see this attempt to mark Meadow saying, hey, I was acting as an officer of the executive branch in the federal government. I shouldn't be tried in a state court.

I'm just curious what kind of you think that's a, you think he has A viable case to make, or you think this is just. This is just something you try to see if he can get away with? I think you have to, if you're representing Mark Meadows, bring this case and try and get it removed to federal court. I mean, there are traditionally, by the norms of the United States, a difference between official actions and political actions.

And what he's doing in talking about a vote is a political act. If this was all about a call to Brad Raffensperger or Brian Kemp, that said, what do you need for resources to stop potential violence? Legitimate official act. Once you start being on the phone call to find the additional votes and you start showing up in counting centers, then it's a much more difficult case to bring.

But remember, the Trump administration always blurred the lines, I mean, really raceful lines, between official and political. They had the Republican national convention in 2020 at the White House, something no other Republican or Democratic candidate would have dreamed of doing. Well, look, you were general counsel of multiple campaigns. There's no way you would have given legal advice to say, hey, this is legal to do, right?

No, look, we jumped through hoops to be sure that when there were events at the White House of a political nature, like thank you for donors, that there was no fundraising going on and it was strictly in the residential part of the White House and not the official West Wing. Let me ask you about the 14th Amendment idea and the different. Based on your interpretation of the 14th Amendment, do you think there's a. Do you think that our friend Judge has a point here or not?

Well, I think he certainly has a point about Section 3 of the 14th Amendment saying that an insurrectionist can't be president. I think that the difficulty with the argument is that nobody but the intelligentsia has actually said that Donald Trump was involved in an insurrection. The Senate of the United States did not impeach him or say that he was an insurrectionist. No court of law has said that.

And so I think that's the leap that's going to have to be taken. And what this position does is have a Secretary of State reject the notion of a Donald Trump candidacy and hope that goes up to the Supreme Court. And then the Supreme Court makes a finding that Donald Trump was engaged in an insurrection without any court case to develop the facts of that sufficiently to do it. Yeah, I was just gonna say, does the 14th amendment make more sense if he gets convicted in Georgia or if he gets convicted by Jack Smith?

Well, I'm not sure it does, because none of those convictions are gonna be over insurrection. I mean, my fear is that where this issue is actually gonna come to Bear is on January 6th of 2025 when they open the Electoral College votes and members of Congress can despite the passage of the Electoral Count act reform still disqualify on the basis of constitutional infirmities. And that's where you get into the fight, which is why the argument that they should go up to the Supreme Court before then does make some sense. Interesting than I have so many other fun little questions for you.

I could have played this game with you, but unfortunately I have a. I have some amount of time. Exactly. I'll be in touch.

All right, next my 101 with 2024 public candidates, he faces questions about futures campaign, how quickly the field needs to call us around a Trump alternative. Welcome back. To borrow phrase from the late great Yogi Berra, it's been literally in this Republican presidential primary as field tries to chip away from under Donald Trump's commanding following last week's debate which he did not attend. Since then we got the field's first candidate to suspend his campaign, Miami Mayor city of Miami Francis Suarez, who did not make the bait stage and live by his pledge that anybody he thought that didn't make the bait stage, I get out.

Some candidates appear eager to use last week's performances will eventually springboard their campaign gains. Others are choosing a lower post debate profile according to numbers that have been Crunchfire. NBC Newsleton Tim Scott have held the most public events since last Wednesday. Chris Christie will hurt Asa Hutchinson and Donald Trump have not had any public events since the debate.

Joining now is One of the 2024 candidates, former Arkansas Governor Asa Hudson. Governor, nice to see you this morning for this opportunity. Sorry. Great to be with you, Joe.

Let me start with this. Look, you have any public event since the debate, you're in Arkansas right now. You're not on the trail of Labor Day weekend yet. I know you're arriving in New Hampshire on Monday.

You gotta make the next debate stage to keep this going. What's with the lack of campaign events? Well, first of all, we're going to be in New Hampshire on Labor Day, which is next Monday, followed by a number of appearances in Iowa and a full schedule over about three or four states coming up all September. And so as you know, Chuck, you also have to raise money.

And so our campaign is fully engaged raising money, having the events next week. And part of that is the design to make sure we're on the debate stage in Simi Valley at the Reagan Library, which I expect to be if you're not? Is that it? Well, you know, we'll wait and see how that turns out, but I expect to be there.

And Chuck, you know that many people didn't think I was gonna make the last debate stage. And I heard your prognosticators already say you don't think we're make the next one at the Reagan library. So I intend to prove it all wrong. I expect to be there.

This is a really critical part of the campaign. When people are looking at alternatives to Donald Trump, they're measuring the field, they're looking at the debate. Who can help solve the problem of the economy, who can address the fentanyl crisis that we have, who can make sure that we make the right decisions in terms of foreign policy. So the debate is the opportunity to make that case, as well as these public appearances we have scheduled.

Look, and I know you guys hate when we do this, but, you know, you look at the field and it's sorted in different categories of candidates who have certain perspective here. It does feel like yourself, former Governor Chris Christie, Mc Jersey and former Vice President Mike Pence, the three of you, in some ways, you have very similar case. You're making, you know, pro constitution, sort of questioning what the behavior of the former president. Do you think it's almost a bit crowded that you just don't have that in some ways, the three of you are eating into each other's support?

Well, sure. The answer is yes. You know, we both, we divide some of the votes between us, just like Viva Ramaswamy and Ron DeSantis divide the vote between them as to who's trying to be the most Trump like. And so, yeah, there's a division there.

And this is going to sort out everybody. Particular media wants to see the last chapter of the book before we actually get to the very beginning. And so we've got a ways to go and we're excited to know how this turns out in February and beyond. But let's let the voters have a part of the say so in this, and this is going to play out very well over the coming months.

Now, you should joke. There's two types of people. Two types of people, two types of people. Ones that open a book and read the last page first and ones that don't.

And I know the people read the last page first because they want to just kick some maps to them, want to make sure they knew what they missed. But I'm with you. I'll at least find out what happened happen. But do you concur With Governor Chris of New Hampshire, who's like, look, everybody's got to be sober about this and that.

Don't be Don Quixote. Essentially. You accept that premise too, that there's a point here if, you know, if you're not selling what you're, if you're not buying what you're selling, find somebody else that maybe isn't a Trump like figure. No, I agree.

And Chris Sununu said, you know, winter, everybody needs to reevaluate. We're not winter yet. And winter goes into January. And so, you know, and then Mitt Romney made the point that we ought to be closing ranks before Super Tuesday.

And so there's that time. But absolutely, I evaluate it every day. You know, what's the donor support? Right now we got a boost coming out of the last debate.

Debate. What are we looking at in our poll numbers? So all of those are evaluations that we have to make. But right now we're making the case that I'm ready to lead the United States, America, as president.

Have you thought about what does it say about this process that a guy like Vivek Ramaswamy could end up on center stage? Well, sure. You know, I was prepared for debate, not a food fight. And, you know, we got into a little bit of slugfest there.

So, you know, we got to engage in that way and, you know, it's a little bit disappointing. But at the same time, I understand the media wants to have an entertainment part of a debate and it shouldn't be boring. I'm glad. You know, climate change is a good illustration of it.

One question was asked, I was the only one that raised my hand. And yet, you know, the disruption came from Governor DeSantis. And so there was no follow up ever, any effort on this important topic? No, it didn't come across.

I guess that's what I'm trying to get at here. I, I imagine I go back, it had to be frustrating to see this because, you know, he's not done anything and he just sort of has talked his way. Just by showing up in a green room on a cable news channel, he got to center stage. It just feels like, is the process that broken?

You know, should it work this way? Well, it's the America's view of the presidency. I mean, you have Donald Trump, who was an entertainer with no political experience, jumped in the fray and then people think they can mimic that with no experience, as Vivek Ramaswamy has offered. And so, you know, the American public has to take a chance here.

And make a decision. Do you want somebody who's been a governor who's balanced the budget, who understands the security issues of the United States of America and has an understanding of Republican principles? These are evaluations the public has to make versus somebody who's going to be a bomb thrower, a new idea every day and what direction they go take our country. Yeah, no, it is, it is amazing sometimes that for this job, sometimes the resumes get ignored.

Governor ASA Hudson, former Governor, Arkansas be safe on the trail. We'll be watching all week. Thank you, Todd. Great to be with you.

Thank you, Governor. Now checking the latest on Hurricane Idalia recovery efforts in Florida. The weakened storm brings rain up the coast today as well. Four Gulf coast residents and business owners are beginning to assess the damage after the powerful category free storm did make claim fall Wednesday at Keaton beach.

That's about 70 miles southwest of Tallahassee. Governor dissensions reported the data majority power outages will be restored by the weekend, but as of now, there are still over 80,000 customers that do not have power. Meanwhile, President Biden called for an additional $4 billion in federal funding for emergency disasters during his visitors yesterday that he will head to Florida tomorrow to survey the storm's damage after the break. Guns in America Then the Biden administration closed a major gun loophole without a law being passed by Congress.

They're gonna give it a shot, but will it work? We'll talk about it after the record. Press now back. The administration announced yesterday is going to take new action to try to close one of the largest remaining loopholes in the federal background check system for gun sales.

The loophole, which has been known as the gun show loophole, allows unlicensed sellers to sell firearms or gun shows and even online without requiring otherwise mandated background checks. The person they sell it to because the sales are considered, quote, private. This new proposal put forward by the ATF and backed by the Department of Justice would require all gun sellers to conduct background checks, period. Even those who don't sell an ATF licensed brick and mortar store.

So to understand how this could be could work and join out that Chris Brown, she's president of the United Bray United Against Gun Violence. Chris Knife isu, thanks for coming in. So first of all, why do we think this is constitutional? Well, because the Congress has passed the bipartisan Safer Communities act, which says specifically that ATF has to issue a rule to basically close what we call the gun show loophole and the Internet sale loophole.

And that's precisely what ATF has done so they're not advancing this regulation in the absence of congressional authority to do so. You're arguing that Congress did give them this authority? Absolutely. Hold them right.

A rule. Now this is something. There's going to be a lawsuit because that's how this world works. Are you confident that it's going to be upheld?

Yes, I am confident because they're very focused in this rule on exactly what Congress said, which is we want to ensure that any dealer making a profit off the sale of firearms is regulated as a federally licensed firearms dealer, no matter where they're selling over the Internet or gun shows. And that's exactly. Those are the two places. You're not targeting the person who's selling a shop into their neighbor.

No. Right. I would like Congress to provide the authority for universal background checks. That is not what.

That is not covered by this rule. Okay. This is specifically basically the two bigger gaps here, which is gun shows themselves. All right, let's.

And ignorant. Let's talk about enforcement. Yes. Because you tell me why I'm the incentive here.

This is really an enforce. Oh, absolutely. What does enforcement look like? So enforcement here looks like any other regime under all of our laws.

We're just talking at the break chat. We have speed limits across this country. And how are those enforced? Randomly by ensuring that there's a police officer who's noting your radar, etc.

Here we have gun shows, thousands of them, that have proliferated. And we have Internet sales of guns. So ATF and in some cases state and local police with authority need to monitor the sales that are happening there and ensure that every single person subject to this rule, which by the way, ATF estimates that will be between 30,000 and 300,000 entities now operating with no license at all. It is some online, but it's mostly gun shows.

And let's keep this in mind. The brady law passed 30 years ago, applied to federally licensed firearms dealers because there was no Internet and gun shows were not big business. They are today. And it is estimated that one in five gun sales is happening with no background check at all because those entities are not subject to a rule like this.

So is ATF going to play a proactive role at gun shows so they can actually show up and say, hey, if you're making a sale, then you know, here's. You can use our system here to quickly do that gun check? I certainly. Well, they're not going to do that.

But certainly if sales are happening and it's not just the atf, the state police can do this. Too, where there is no background check happening. And it should be happening, which is basically anyone who sets up a vending system at a gun show is probably selling more than one gunjack or else they wouldn't be there. So you suspect that in order to have enforcement work, you know, you may have just straw buyers that will.

In the same way you check for. Are you. Are you carding people to make sure they don't drink? You're not serving underage people.

Same type of thing. But it's undercover age. Yes, exactly. And what about online?

That seems to be a little harder to use. Like same things, straw. The way the FBI might try to get to deal with a potential terrorist. I think certainly the potential is there for that kind of enforcement.

What we don't want, Chuck, is for us to be representing victims of gun violence suing arms list. Brady has two pending cases against arms list because someone who was a prohibited purchaser went on arms list, bought the firearm with no background check. Once someone is dead, our role is not to try to bring litigation after that. We would much rather see the enforcement happen beforehand.

So, yes, I would encourage that to happen. Chris Brown will be watching to see if this rule is enforced the way you described. Because it's the way you described it looks like it could be very effective. Yes, I hope so.

Well, President Biden's name being missing from the ballot. New Hampshire Democratic primary. One of the latest in a standout between national Democrats and state officials over Biden's plan to shake up the primary. Now, believe it or not, today's an important deadline, as in September 1st.

Watch me. Welcome back. So will Joe Biden's name be on the New Hampshire primary ballot? We don't know because of course we know that President Biden decided they wanted to strip New Hampshire if it's first of the nation status, at least on the Democratic side, and hand that to South Carolina.

But saying you want to do these things and actually having the various entities agree, including our friends in New Hampshire, to come across this is a bit more difficult. So we'll see after 2020, Democratic one at the next primary calendar, better reflect its party overall. And the belief was that either Iowa, New Hampshire reflect the party, and that's why South Carolina, that's why Georgia and even Michigan was put on all of this. But the real issue here, we don't have a primer.

We know it's going to probably be at a minimum eight days after Iowa and there's gonna be some Democrats on the ballot. The question is, will Joe Biden's name be there. So join me now. Boston Globe reporter James Pindell, and this is his first appearance as an official NBC News contributor.

Mr. Pindell, I think we met back in the days and I was just a hack and hotline. You were hacket politics and age. And here we are.

Man, there you go. So look, the bottom line is a mess. The New Hampshire primary is going to happen. So number one, I want to ask you, when do we expect the New Hampshire primary to happen?

Hard stop. January 23rd. That's eight days after Iowa. Okay.

Yes, they're going to offer a Democratic primary ballot. We'll go by his name beyond that ballot likely. No, today is an important day because today is the last day where New Hampshire Democrats are supposed to submit plans to the DNC as to how they will change the state law. They will no longer be first and allow for early voting.

Of course, New Jersey Democrats say they don't want that, but they're also not in charge and conquered. It's Republican House, Republican Senate, Republican Governor Chris and they're like, you know, pound sand on that entire idea. So look, on the 14th, in a few days, September 14th, the DNC will probably rule that New Hampshire is not in compliance and you're not in compliance. And Joe Biden probably will not be putting his name on the course.

I said January 23rd. The date has not been set and historic of the date is not set until deeper into the fall. But the assumption is, I mean, if I correctly from state law, it has to be usually eight days after the first caucus in Iowa is January 15th, hence why we assume the 23rd is the most likely date. That will be.

Look, obviously what's significant here is while the delegates are reported, there'd be a quote will be referred to in political terms as a beauty contest on the Democratic side. And it's going to feature some gadflies, including probably Marianne Williamson and the man with a famous name, but some Aveli Robert Kennedy here. Right. Chuck, I'm going to say seven words.

I'm going to say them slowly and then I'm going to say them twice. And you can repeat after me after that. You want New Hampshire's primary will always be first. New Hampsham's primary will always be first.

The question is will New Hampshire's primary always matter? And that's what I think we're really kind of trying to deal with now. If it matters, it matters. If candidates show up, if Candace put the name on the ballot and if the media acts like this is an actual big deal.

And those are huge question marks on the Republican side. Absolutely. It's going to matter. We are four and a half months from the first votes.

Yeah. We do know what the Republican counties are going to be. Obviously the Democratic side. This thing is a total mess.

Can I be a skeptic here though that it might not matter in the Republican side either? Not because of whether the delegates count, but just because the nature the primaries that have so many independents in it that it's sort of not reflective of the Republican Party and almost any other state. You know, I thought you were saying something different. I thought you'd say because of the new primaries are all these different court cases.

If Donald Trump is going to go down, I'm not ready to go that I'm not ready to go down that road yet. But I mean I'm saying that the New Hampshire Republican electorate does not look like it is the least like there any Republican electorate in the past country. Well, right. I mean look, this is where the first four states is where he's obviously the most vulnerable.

But if the goal is to both have a party nominee that has your values in terms of the base, you have states that can do that. The evangelical base obviously has their states. More traditional Republicans or MAGA has their states. And if there's a balance there to say that there's also a goal of finding the best candidate for the general election, then having a swing state like New Hampshire is important and obviously that has their as well.

This is what the DNC said they wanted on the Democratic side. They want to push swing states up so they dominated have a better so there's an argument being made for but I hear your point. James Pendle. It's gonna be great to have you on the team and get your knowledge on here exclusively all the time.

Good to see you my friend. Thanks for being and thank you all for being with us this hour. We'll be back on Monday with more Beat the Press now hit Sunday. It's me for us to look station interviews with the secretary of commerce.

We just got back from China. Romano and the New Hampshire government. We just talk about Kristen. Don't miss it.

The news continues with my friend Aaron Gilchrist who's sitting in proud Jackson. Hey, it's Kate Snow, NBC News anchor and host of the Drink this month. Demi Lovato is my guest. The global superstar tells me that she is the happiest she's ever been right now.

But getting there, it wasn't simple. Demi opens up about starting in Hollywood young and why she now thinks she may have started too soon. She talks about recovery, her new marriage, and the deeply personal reason behind her new cookbook. The Drink is always about the journey to the top, and this was an honest conversation about what that takes.

Hope you'll listen and follow the Drink wherever you get your podcast.