Meet the Press NOW — September 15

If it's Monday, new evidence and new details about Charlie Kirk's alleged assassin, including the gunman's background and relationships as investigators search for a motive. Plus, President Trump and his administration signal a potential crackdown on groups aligned with Democrats telling NBC News that the quote, radical left stands in the way of the nation's ability to heal in the wake of Kirk's killing. And top U.S. and Chinese officials say they have agreed to a framework for a deal that will prevent TikTok from being banned in the U.S., if President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping said to finalize the agreement this week.

Welcome to Meet the Press Now, I'm Yamiche Alcindor, and we begin with the latest on the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Investigators are seeking answers about the alleged gunman's motives as the White House vows to respond to Kirk's death, signaling a crackdown on what the president calls, quote, the radical left. Right now, investigators are gathering evidence connecting the 22-year-old suspect, Tyler Robinson, to the scene of last week's shooting on the campus of the Utah Valley University. This morning, FBI Director Cash Mattel said that authorities found Robinson's DNA on a screwdriver and on a towel wrapped around the gun he allegedly used.

Utah's governor yesterday on Meet the Press provided this update on a search for the motive. We can confirm that again, according to family and people that we're interviewing, he does come from a conservative family, but his ideology was very different than his family, and so that's part of it. We do know that the roommate that we had originally talked about, we can confirm that that roommate is a boyfriend who is transitioning from male to female. The why behind this?

Again, we're all drawing lots of conclusions and how someone like this could be radicalized, and I think that those are important questions for us to ask and important questions for us to answer. We expect to learn more about the evidence against Robinson tomorrow when he is set to be formally charged in connection with the shooting. We are also waiting to hear from President Trump this hour as he signs a presidential memorandum that comes after the president told NBC News this weekend that he'd like to see the nation heal in the wake of Charlie Kirk's killing. He also said, quote, we're dealing with a radical left group of lunatics and they don't play fair and they never did.

We should reiterate that authorities don't yet appear to have a full picture of Robinson's alleged motive. Today, Vice President JD Vans who escorted Kirk's casket to Arizona on board Air Force 2 doubled down on that rhetoric while filing while filling in, I should say, as the host of the Charlie Kirk show. We have to talk about this incredibly destructive movement of left wing extremism that has grown up over the last few years, and I believe is part of the reason why Charlie was killed by an assassin's bullet. We're going to talk about how to dismantle that and how to bring real unity, real unity that can only come when we tell the truth and everybody knows that they can speak their mind about the issues of the day without being cut down by a murderer's gun.

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Steven Miller used even more sinister terms. He referred to a, quote, vast domestic terror movement on the left, notably the president and his top deputies are not addressing or acknowledging the threat of right wing extremism that exists in this country. Meanwhile, the president confirmed that he will attend Charlie Kirk's funeral next Sunday. It is set to take place at State Farm Stadium, home of the NFL's Arizona Cardinals.

The massive venue is emblematic of Kirk's influence among conservatives. Republican Senator Lindsey Graham called his assassination more than just an act of political violence. The bottom line here is that we all reject political violence, but let me just be honest with you. President Trump nor do I see this as they all kind of do it moment.

I see this as an attack on a political movement. I see this being different. Charlie Kirk is one of the top three people in the country that allowed President Trump to win in 2024 by his efforts. And I think President Trump sees this as an attack on his political movement, what he created a year ago.

People tried to blow his head off. So this is not for me. They all do it. This is unique and different.

This is an attack on a movement by using violence. And that's the way most Republicans see this join me now from arm Utah is NBC News correspondent Steve Patterson, also with me is NBC News White House correspondent Monica Alba and NBC News Justice reporter Ryan Riley. So Steve, first to you, you're there in Utah. What have we learned over the last 24 hours about the suspect in this shooting?

Quite a bit, you mean? Primarily from the statements of public and private officials, namely Governor Spencer Cox, who spoke out over the weekend and Cash Patel, the FBI director, who spoke out this morning. I want to show you something though. First of all, they've opened campus up a little bit, right?

This is the amphitheater, where Kirk was shot down there. You may hear this horrible noise in a few seconds. That's the saw. They're tearing up some of the grass that was there and then there it is, and then laying in the concrete to try to change how this looks, of course, after that tragedy just a few days ago.

But we want to talk about the investigation. We know obviously investigators are trying to put together a profile, right? To that end, Governor Cox speaking over the weekend, telling NBC News, telling the nation really that essentially the suspected shooter Robinson is not cooperating, huge, likely bottleneck in the investigation because he's not talking to investigators and he's not cooperating with the investigation. That is a counter to, again, what you mentioned, what we heard about the roommate.

The roommate, the governor says, is appears to be in a romantic relationship with Robinson but has been cooperating with investigators, is talking to investigators, wants to help the investigation according to the governor, and somebody that apparently had no idea about the shooting was shocked to learn, A, that the shooting took place and B, that Robinson was the suspected shooter. The governor is speaking a little bit more about Robinson, saying that just a few years ago, this was somebody that was considered a normal kid, a college student, somebody that was intelligent and emotionally kind but was falling deeper and deeper into this whole of politics and the catalyst for that he's saying was the internet culture, that this was somebody that was terminally online, steeped in internet, meme culture, and something that the governor described as a darkness. Many more details coming out, we're going to learn a whole lot more, of course, tomorrow when those formal charges are fired and we get the filed and we get the first court appearance. And Steve, as you're saying and talking about all the evidence and sort of information that authorities are getting from those who knew Robinson and know Robinson, what other evidence have investigators gathered, we're hearing about DNA?

Yeah, so first of all, let's talk about the DNA, right? I mean, that would have been collected because we're in this atrium, right? The shooter's position, likely beyond these buildings, you might not be able to see it from this vantage point. They found and discovered a screwdriver, the DNA that they found on the screwdriver matched DNA that they found on a towel, what's the towel?

The towel was used to wrap that weapon, the bolt action high powered rifle that was found in the woods, very nearby to where I'm standing after he hopped off of the roof and then ran through a neighborhood. They say those two pieces of evidence matched the DNA, a DNA match, according to Patel, very important, very key part of unlocking this investigation. The other piece of this, of course, I mentioned is the digital footprint, right? What are the text messages?

What are the message boards look like? What are some of these gaming communities that we hear from investigators that he was a part of? To that end, Patel mentioned a series of text messages which seem to indicate that he wanted to plan something certainly around Kirk being here. We know through discussions investigators say between Robinson and his family that he knew Kirk was coming and that he had definitely some misgivings about Kirk's message and who he was.

All of that sort of part of the evidence gathered, again, we should learn a whole lot more tomorrow with those formal charges. We'll definitely be looking to see what else we learned tomorrow. Thanks so much for taking us on this scene as the university is trying to move on and change the way it looks. It's really fascinating.

Thanks so much, Steve. And, Monica, you're nearby the White House President Trump said he hopes the nation will heal following the assassination of Charlie Kirk, but he's also repeatedly blaming the radical left. So what's the White House's thinking here? Yeah.

And the president had said, Yamiche, that this was going to be something that they were going to have more details on and we're still waiting for those, but we got really extensive comments from the vice president, from the president's deputy chief of staff, from the chief of staff herself and many others, who appeared on the Charlie Kirk podcast that was hosted from the White House today, from the office of the vice president, since he was such a close friend of Charlie Kirk. He said he wanted to be able to host these remembrances and reflections, but in addition to that and paying tribute to Charlie Kirk's life, they laid out a little bit of a roadmap as to what could come next. And it was the president who said he wanted to go after these specific and his words left wing organizations that, again, in the words and the view of the White House, fomented some of this perhaps inspired, again, that is their position on that, as we still wait to learn a lot more about what led to this horrendous shooting, but this is a situation where the White House is trying to put an action plan out there and saying that they're going to tackle it and that they are going to have more announcements on that that we're still waiting for more specifics. Yamiche.

Well, Monica, as you said, the White House is playing together this action plan. What more do we know about that action plan? Do we know what groups they have top of mind? It sounds like Stephen Miller, again, the deputy chief of staff or policy is somebody who is going to be leading on this, but we did hear a little bit more from the vice president and from that conversation as to what we might see, listen.

We are going to channel all of the anger that we have over the organized campaign that led to this assassination to uproot and dismantle these terrorist networks. The organized riots, the organized street violence, the organized campaigns of dehumanization, vilification, posting people's addresses, combining that with messaging, this design to trigger inside violence and the actual organized cells that carry out and facilitate the violence. It is a vast domestic terror movement. With God as my witness, we are going to use every resource we have at the Department of Justice Homeland Security and throughout this government to identify, disrupt, dismantle and destroy these networks and make America safe again for the American people.

Now Stephen Miller in those comments also said that one of the last messages that he exchanged with Charlie Kirk was actually on this topic and so he is saying that he is going to take that as a direct motivation to implement this, but again we're still waiting for the details though you did see the agencies that Stephen Miller referred to there and it sounds like there will be more to come from the Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security on that. There's certainly strong words from Stephen Miller there. Thank you so much Monica from nearby the White House and Ryan I want to come to you, the FBI Director. He's been giving out a lot of information in real time.

Of course at one point he said the suspect for the shooting was in custody, then he said he wasn't and he had been released. Now he was this morning talking about DNA evidence being found. How unusual is it for the FBI Director to be given as much information? Very unusual.

Social media first, sort of post-first way of that he's going about this job. Very huge departure from normal bureau protocols and normally you don't really necessarily need to have the FBI Director on the scene and there's a ton of complications that having Cash Patel involved in this investigation brings about. Not only now that he's sort of walked the scene, could he potentially be called as an expert, broke the news about the DNA, that sort of thing is sort of all layups that you're giving to the defense team down the line. But also there's not necessarily a federal nexus here.

This was, I just talked to actually the foremost expert from DOJ on domestic terrorism. This was an act of domestic terrorism and we should be clear about that, but it probably won't be charged on the federal level because there is no just domestic terrorism law that can be charged. And so finding the federal hook here is going to be very tricky and so ultimately state authorities may be moving forward and the FBI won't be taking so much of a leadership role in this case. And it's interesting because you had a great story out over the weekend about all the criticism that Cash Patel is getting.

Tell me about that criticism and how is he defending himself? Yeah, I mean he's trying to push back on it and I think trying to own a lot of these sort of basic steps that have gone through, but there's just a lot of tension within the bureau. Remember a lot of people who had the most expertise in domestic terrorism because they dealt with an act of domestic terrorism across the street at the Capitol just a few years ago have been pushed out of the bureau. There's still this nervousness, this pressure that a lot of people within the bureau are feeling and especially when you see these explicitly political firings that have been coming from Cash Patel himself, that sends a real chilling effect throughout the bureau.

So the bureau just isn't operating at its best capacity right now. It just doesn't have the personnel in place to handle a really tense moment like this. I've been speaking for months with people who have been worried about when the pressure actually comes, how is the FBI going to handle it if there was some massive attack and I think we're seeing some real cracks right here through this process in the wake of Charlie Kirk's killing. Yeah, and it's interesting because as I talk to White House officials, they continue to say the president has confidence in Cash Patel, but really interesting to see whether or not that shifts at all.

So thanks so much, Ryan. And now joining me as an expert on political violence, Robert Pape, professor of political science at the University of Chicago. Thank you so much for being here. So you're exactly the person that we want to talk to you in this moment.

Authorities still have not provided an alleged motive for the shooting, but when we talk about the assassination of Charlie Kirk as part of this larger trend of political violence, what stood out for you, especially from the reaction and the impact of the shooting over the last few days? Well, the first thing to say about the motive is we don't have the detailed motive on why the shooter attacked Charlie Kirk. However, we have a pretty good macro picture. You'll recall the governor of Utah.

Others talk about he came from a liberal ideology that word fascist on the casing. So we really can expect there's going to be more and more information that he had a what we would call a liberal ideology that said that's very different than saying there's this vast network of groups and organizations that are fomenting terrorism the way you might think of ISIS. Now, I've studied political violence for 30 years. I'm one of the world's experts on ISIS.

I'm one of the world's experts on al-Qaeda. So when we hear the language disrupt, dismantle, what we usually are focusing on are the organizations or the sanctuary areas of a terrorist group. So that is what you just heard in this. And this is very different than saying, well, the shooter had a liberal ideology or was driven by political violence from the left.

This is a different level and will naturally produce a tremendous amount of fear in the 75 to 80 million Democrats in the in the in the in the country. I want to play for if I can is what the vice president said today while hosting Charlie Kirk's podcast, take a listen. But the data is clear. People on the left are much likelier to defend and celebrate political violence.

This is not a both sides problem. If both sides have a problem, one side has a much bigger and malignant problem. And that is the truth we must be told. So is he right there?

Does the data support the idea that there's a sort of single problem on one ideology? No, and I'm sorry to just get into the facts here, but let's just go since 2022 in the United States. What you are seeing is rising political violence against both the right and the left coming from both the right and the left. So 2022, we see the assassination plot against a conservative Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh.

We also see the assassination attempt against Democratic Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, missed her almost killed her husband. Yes. A year ago, we saw two assassination attempts against Republican candidate for president Donald Trump. In April of this year, we saw an assassination attempt against the Democratic governor of Pennsylvania, Josh Shapiro, came within minutes of burning him and his family to death.

And then in June of this year, we saw multiple assassinations and other assassination attempts against Democratic political leaders in the state of Minnesota. And now, of course, we have seen the assassination death of Charlie Kirk, one of the leading political figures in MAGA. That is a picture, as you can see, of rising political violence on both the right and the left. The era of violent populism and what marks this era is actually how political violence is rising on both sides of the political spectrum, almost at exactly the same time.

Now, of course, if you're part of the community that's just been hit, you will feel very intensely that that's coming to you. Since then, in June, it was the Democrats who were saying that it's just all coming from the conservatives, and I was on the media saying, no, it wasn't, it was more balanced. The truth is, it's more balanced, but we have wounded communities now on both the right and the left. And basically, you're saying it's on both sides, Professor, which is really an important point in this moment.

So I want to say thank you so much for bringing your expertise. It's so great to have you in a moment like this. And we're now, of course, following some breaking news moments ago, President Trump posted on social media that the US military carried out a second strike targeting drug cartels that he says were transporting illegal narcotics, illegal narcotics to the US. The president also posting this video.

It follows a similar strike carried out earlier this month in the Southern Caribbean, and it comes as the Trump administration looks to ramp up pressure on the Maduro regime in Venezuela. Now as NBC News senior national security correspondent, Courtney Cubie and Monica Alba is back with us. She's still outside the White House. So Courtney, I'll come to you.

What more do we know about this strike? So far, all we really know is what President Trump posted on Truth Socially said that this was the second strike, as you mentioned, Yamiche. Three males, he says, who had left Venezuela, who he claims were narco-traffickers, he calls them specifically terrorists, he says were killed in action. This is the second strike, as you mentioned, in just under a week last Tuesday, the US military taking another strike that killed, in that case, 11 individuals who the US claimed were part of a cartel known as Trende Aragua.

Of course, the US placed TDA under a foreign terrorist organization designation earlier this year, but that strike has raised a lot of legal questions about the US's ability, their legal authority, to strike at a boat like this. Since then, we have heard from a number of different Trump administration officials about that very issue, defending it, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, saying that he has the ultimate authority, complete and total authority, to carry out these sorts of strikes. But that being said, Yamiche, we have gotten very little fidelity or detail about exactly what happened in this strike, including exactly how long the US was watching the individuals in the strike last week, exactly what kind of aircraft carried it out. And even Capitol Hill has not gotten answers to all of their questions, including the legal authority, I suspect that, as you're seeing on the screen here today, right now, the second strike is going to raise similar questions about whether the Trump administration has the ability, as they say, to be striking these boats.

Remember, right after the first one last week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that it was probably headed to the Caribbean, maybe headed to the US. They changed that talking point as well, now saying more specifically that they believe these drugs are headed to the United States and present a direct threat to the American public. Well, a lot of questions, especially when you talk about the legal authority here, Monica, what should we make of the President's decision to increasingly go after drug cartels in this specific way? Yeah, this is something that the President says he's also going to continue to do in this lengthy post.

He also says and notes, by the way, that no US forces were harmed in this strike, but he says with a large warning in Capitol letters, if you are transporting drugs that can kill Americans, we are hunting you. That's the language that the President is using, saying that the illicit activities by these cartels have brought devastating consequences on American communities for decades, killing millions of American citizens, the President writing no longer. And we know Yamiche that he is supposed to be having an event coming up where he is signing a proclamation, we believe on a separate topic, not related to this, but as you know so well, he often takes questions in these settings in the Oval Office, and since this is something that has just happened today, it's likely he may want to talk about it more, but I would expect this is something that the White House says they will continue to do if the President authorizes it because he does want to be sure to, from not just a messaging standpoint, send a very direct, clear message to the Maduro regime and to anyone else, he says, that will be bringing illegal drugs to the US. And Monica, as you say that he wants to send this message to the Maduro regime, is this really all about really forcing a regime change, does the White House believe that these kinds of strikes could lead to Maduro's ouster?

I think it's part of the pressure, certainly, that the White House is applying, but diplomatically, they are saying that first they want to continue these conversations, but that the President has always said that when he chooses to and wants to act, he will, Yamesh. Yeah. Well, thank you so much to Courtney and Tamonica for coming with us and sharing your reporting as this breaking news continues to unfold. And coming up, we'll turn to Capitol Hill as lawmakers look to beef up security and growing concerns about the rise of political violence, the House lawmaker who reported that his office had been vandalized over the summer is next.

Plus, New York Governor Kathy Hookle endorses Democratic Socialists, Saran Madani for mayor, a major move as other prominent New York Democrats hold off on rallying around the progressive front runner. You're watching Meet the Press Now. Welcome back. Tonight House Speaker Mike Johnson is set to lead a vigil at the Capitol honoring Charlie Kirk.

It comes as lawmakers try to grapple with the fallout over Kirk's death, including what it means for the current political environment and what it could mean for their own future security. Joining me now is Democratic Congressman from Illinois, Brad Schneider. Thank you so much for being here, Congressman. So the country continues to grapple with the fallout of the killing of Charlie Kirk.

How have you been handling it, Congressman? And what do you think this moment just means about the current political environment? Well, thanks for having me. And let's be clear from the start, political violence is never acceptable.

It doesn't matter whether it's coming from the right, the left, the center, front, back. Political violence has no place in our country. We are a country that was founded in the idea of bringing people from disparate places with different ideas together. Our Congress was established to have that function of debate and within that debate to move our country forward.

And we have to protect that. And it is being under, it is under attack from so many angles. The assassination of Charlie Kirk was a great tragedy. The fact that it happened in front of so many thousands of people online is just adding to the devastation.

And the rhetoric around it is only making things more tense and more precarious. We have to work to bring people together. We have to remember that we are one America, different ideas, different places, different histories and perspectives. But one country, one country that when we work together can tackle only any challenge the world might present us.

Well, Congressman, as you talk about the idea that we have to really think of ourselves as one unified America, today while hosting the Charlie Kirk podcast, Vice President JD Dan said he believes left wing extremism is part of the reason Charlie Kirk was killed. How worried are you that that kind of rhetoric by anyone really will deepen the divide in this sort of us versus that mentality? It should concern us all. Charlie Kirk was murdered, assassinated because one individual decided to take a gun, climb up on a roof and kill Charlie Kirk in the prime of his life, leaving his kids without a father, his wife, a young widow, and we should all mourn that and condemn it without any equivocation.

We have seen similar instances, I live in Highland Park, Illinois three years ago, a deranged gunman climbed up on a roof with a gun and fired 83 shots in 90 seconds, taking seven beautiful lives from us and devastating our community. This is wrong, it is bad and we have to condemn it. And rather than trying to create more divisions rather than pointing fingers at one side or the other as the only problem, the problem is on the extremes, it is on the fringes and these are fringe ideas, people who are rising up and taking arms to commit violence. We have to not let it become normal and we have to make sure that those people are identified, stop before they can act and when they do act prosecuted to the full extent of the law.

And Congressman over the weekend I spoke to your colleagues, Stephen Cohen of Tennessee, he said in the aftermath there has been a lot of conversations about the security of lawmakers. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries briefed House Democrats last night about extending or even enhancing security spending. Do you think that is enough, is it feasible also, is it really about getting more security or is it possible that it really has to be about toning down the rhetoric? It is not any of the door.

We have to do both. Yes, we need more security. We need security when we are at home in our district going around to events, we need security in our offices not just to protect members of Congress but to protect their staff, protect the community at large. We have folks visiting our office to come talk about cases issues that we are helping them with to share their ideas or concerns with me as the representative and they need to be safe and secure in doing that.

So we have to have more security but the most important thing we have to do is tone down the rhetoric and end this vilification of the other that they are not just someone you disagree with but someone that you have to go out and seek to destroy whether it is professionally personally or with violence. Yeah. And as you talk about this, I want to turn now to government funding which is of course another topic that is on a lot of minds of lawmakers, you're the chair of the new Democrat coalition and last week your coalition outlined a policy agenda including immigration and border security, lowering costs of the living for Americans and affordable housing, how do you advance that agenda while being in the minority and are you willing to shut down the government to get some of that done? You should never shut down the government.

I mean we need to work together to keep the government open working for the American people. Not just the new Democrats have been very clear on this that we want to keep the government open but also recognize that the Republicans have the majority in the House. They have the majority in the Senate. Donald Trump is a Republican in the White House.

They have the votes to do whatever they want but if they can't do it with just Republicans and they want the support of the Democrats, there are things that we expect to do for the American people, one of which is to protect Americans' health care. The bill that the Republicans passed on a party line vote earlier this summer took away or will take away health care for more than 17 million Americans. I think that's wrong. I want to restore that.

We're looking at families seeing a huge price increases in their health care. If Congress doesn't act to extend the premium tax credit, a family, a couple who are looking at retirement five, ten years from now making $80,000 a year, making ends meet but certainly not getting rich and struggling to get ahead. If Congress doesn't act, their premium is likely to go up $18,000 a year. That's just wrong.

So we are fighting and trying to convince our Republican colleagues to join us in making health care more affordable, to lowering the cost on groceries, on housing, on energy. We're trying to do that and work together. New Dems put out our platform last winter, lowering costs, growing our economy, safe and secure communities, healthy communities, making sure we have a strong national security national offense and we're working to do that every single day. Congressman, you just said that you want to get all these things accomplished.

What are you willing to do to get that accomplished and is forcing a shutdown part of a tool that you might use? The Democrats aren't forcing, don't have the power to shut down the government. The Republicans have a majority in the House and in the Senate and the White House. What we're willing to do, what new Dems have always done, which I've done since I came to Congress, is work across the caucus and reach across the aisle to find common ground, to find where we can work put together ideas, develop policies that will help the American people, that will lower costs, make our communities healthier and safer for our families and make sure America is strong both at home and projecting our interests and protecting our people around the world.

We'll work with anyone on that, Democrat, Republican, anyone with an open mind and a good idea. I want to turn to one other topic, which is the President's crackdown on crime. The Trump administration appears to have walked back its threat to send the National Guard to Chicago. Are you surprised that the President backed down from that fight and do you think possibly they could still be sent at a different time?

Well, the President changes mine from day to day, minute to minute. I am proud of Governor Pritzker and all my colleagues who stood up to the President and said, we don't want you sending in the National Guard to terrorize our communities. We welcome the administration, Congress, working together to help promote security in our communities, to invest in more police officers and resources to address crime within our communities, to support social workers, to go into our schools and make sure our kids are learning the skills and lessons they need to succeed in the 21st century economy and have a good, healthy life going forward. That's what we want to work on, that's what the new Dems are about, that's what the Democrats are about and our hand is open and welcoming to work with our Republican colleagues to do just that.

But we'll see if those hands end up actually working together. Thank you so much, Congressman, for joining us. Thank you. And up next, President Trump and Chinese officials say they've reached an agreement that could transfer ownership of TikTok and keep it running in the U.S.

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Welcome back. The US and China say they've reached a framework deal that would prevent the social media giant TikTok from shutting down in the US. Here's Treasury Secretary Scott Besant making the announcement earlier today while in Madrid for trade talks with China. We have a framework for a TikTok deal.

The two leaders, President Trump and Party Chair Xi, will speak on Friday to complete the deal. But we do have a framework for a deal with TikTok. The announcement comes just days before a Wednesday deadline for TikTok to be sold to a US buyer or face a ban in the US. TikTok was briefly shut down in January, just days before President Trump's inauguration, but it was back up online thanks to assurances from President Trump that he would side-set the law and would not enforce it.

The president has unilaterally extended the sale deadline to keep TikTok operational in the US several times, and joining me now is NBC News senior business correspondent Christine Romans, who's also of course our TikTok expert today. So Christine, what more do we know about this framework of a deal and what can it mean for the status of TikTok operations in the US? We don't know a lot about this framework. We know that essentially the Treasury Secretary said that the two leaders would speak on Friday, and they were going to allow them to do that announcement.

He said he was not going to talk about the commercial details of the deal other than there are two private parties that have agreed here. We've heard from China, we've heard from the US leadership. We have not heard from TikTok itself, so TBD on what exactly the deal is. The president is sort of teased that young people in the United States would be happy about this, presuming that it will allow TikTok to remain operational in the US.

A lot of my cousins and teenagers are definitely happy to hear this news. I want to ask you about another big topic, which is the Federal Reserve is meeting tomorrow. Where are we expecting from that meeting, and could they actually go forward and vote for rate cuts despite the rise in inflation that we learned about last week? Yeah, I mean the conventional wisdom or the consensus really amishes that there will be a trim to the key interest rate.

When the Fed meets, it meets tomorrow, and Wednesday afternoon will get that final decision at 2 p.m. eastern time. So we are expecting a rate cut. You're right.

What they're doing is they're balancing here their concern about a weakening job market with their concern about still too high inflation. If you cut interest rates when inflation is too high, it can make it worse. But if you don't cut interest rates to support a weakening job market, that can be worse as well. That's really as a tightrope.

Yeah. Well, we also of course, as we talk about the Federal Reserve, have to talk about President Trump's efforts to fire Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook, which was halted by a lower court. Do we expect Lisa Cook to attend the meeting tomorrow, and is she going to vote? She has, as of this moment, the legal right to do her job at the Federal Reserve, as a Federal Reserve governor, to go to that meeting and to vote the next day.

You know, the White House has appealed, has gone to a DC Circuit Court, and has appealed this and says they want her off the job. They want to stay. They want her off the job for this meeting, but we have not heard. There was a filing deadline yesterday, but that appeals court has not brought down any kind of news on this, right, says not taking it up as far as we know yet.

So as of this moment, she can still, she can still vote. But you know what's really remarkable in my time covering the Fed, usually the drama is around what the Federal Reserve is going to do with its key benchmark interest rate, not around who's actually going to be sitting around the table. This is a new one. Yeah.

I mean, maybe we didn't know all the Federal Reserve governor's names now we do, so thank you so much, Christine, for your reporting. And we'll be back with more Meet the Press now, sir, shortly. Welcome back. It's been nearly three months since Iran, Mom, Donnie became the Democratic Party's nominee for New York City Mayor.

And just yesterday, New York's Democratic governor officially endorsed his bid for mayor, writing in the New York Times, I didn't leave my conversations with Mr. Donnie aligned with him on every issue, but I'm confident that he has the courage, urgency and optimism New York City needs to lead it through the challenges of this moment. Today, Mom, Donnie, thank the governor for her support. I'm excited to welcome Governor Hocho to our movement and to show the partnership at hand between City Hall and Albany in fighting to make the most expensive city in the United States of America affordable and in fighting back against an authoritarian administration that seeks to tear apart the very fabric of this city.

Meanwhile, President Trump has taken an intense interest in the race, and he's seemingly threatened to withhold federal funding from New York, posting on a social media, Washington will be watching the situation very closely, no reason to be sending good money after bad. Joining me now is our panel, Nicholas Wu, congressional reporter for Politico, Democratic strategist, Amisha Cross, and Rob Bluey, president and executive editor of the Daily Signal. So, thank you all for being here. So, Nicholas, I'm going to start with you.

Are you more surprised that it took the Democratic governor this long to endorse or that it came before the two Democratic leaders in Congress? It's really an extraordinary situation that we're in, that it's gone to this point where you have top Democratic officials who haven't endorsed the top Democratic official in the largest city in their state. But what's the issue here is that by doing this, Governor Hokel has preempted the minority leader and the Senate minority leader and the House minority leader and the House minority leader, Mr. Schumer and Mr.

Jeffries, in doing so, and this now, for better or for worse, puts a lot of pressure on those two to either weigh in and endorse or stay on the sidelines. And Amisha, as I was driving to work today, I thought to myself, this is big news that the Democratic governor is endorsing the Democratic mayor, in other words, you would just be thinking this is what they do. But I wonder now, when you think about Senator Van Halen saying that Democrats who haven't voiced their support from Amdani are actually being spineless. So do you think this does put more pressure on Democrats, especially of course the leaders in Congress?

Absolutely. And I think that Van Halen was on point because what this shows, first of all, the Democratic, you know, the Democratic party is polling numbers amongst voting Democrats are in the hole. But in addition to that, they're asking me to do something. A lot of the policies and the platforms that Mondani ran on were actually very popular in New York City.

So for Democrats who are looking towards a new generation, wanting to be responsive to what people are asking them when it comes to rising costs, particularly housing, it makes sense for them to endorse. And being mindful that this is tradition, the primary is over. It wouldn't make sense for them to stand down during the primary. I mean, it was hard fought, but at the end of the day, Mondani won, and he didn't win by a little bit.

He won. We saw the concession less than 24 hours before, after the race was called, and at the end of the day, it is high time for Democrats in leadership who were in the minority, who were hoping, at least in terms of the House minority leader, to be in the majority in the next election cycle to ensure that they also stand behind this man. They can release the same type of statement. You don't have to agree with every single thing he ran on.

But at this point, I think that it does not bode well for Democrats, especially those in leadership, to not endorse. Yeah, and it's remarkable when you think about it. Rob, I want to play for you some of what the president said about the rest of the people running for mayor. Take a listen.

So you got Cuomo, Sleewa, and Adams, are you calling for those three to drop out? Well, I think they have to have one one today. And it would look to me like Cuomo, frankly, is leading the other two. And look, I'm a Republican, but Curtis is not exactly prime time.

So interesting that he's essentially almost endorsing Cuomo there. How strange is it that he's not backing the Republican candidate? I think Trump knows that Cuomo has the only chance of beating Mondani in a head-to-head race. And that's essentially what he's acknowledging there.

Ultimately, what's going to happen is I perhaps one of them drops out. I don't see Curtis Sleewa dropping out of this race. He seems to in it till the end. And that's probably going to hand the race to Mondani.

At the same time, if you look at the political calculus of Kathy Hochl, she realizes that as she runs for her own re-election, she needs to appeal to that left-wing constituency in the Democratic Party, but also, Mondani needs to work with Albany if she is re-elected as governor to get across some of the things that he wants to accomplish from a policy perspective. So ultimately, this is a tricky situation in New York City for both Republicans and Democrats. No, I think that he's exactly right, because for Hochl, I think that she's a unique strategist. She recognizes that she's got her own primary, that she's going to be fighting very toughly in, but also that there is a large constituency base that Mondani has.

And one that he brought to the fold that typically doesn't even come out in election cycles. That fold is not going away anytime too soon. So to the point of he's talking about housing, he's talking about affordability. These are things that are also going to be handled at the state level.

So he's going to have to have a certain level of coalition built at the state in the same way that Chicago and Governor Pritzker had to do. When you don't have those conversations and you're not bringing it together, then it's impossible to build that type of policy that actually moves beyond campaign promise to actuality. And then that's, is that true that Democrats are going to still have this issue, and it's maybe even some of the same Democrats that are withholding their endorsement. They're going to have to talk about the same issues that my mom, Donnie, has been popular on.

Yeah. In conversations I've had with House Democrats, interesting to see how everyone kind of projects their own lessons from his win onto their own politics, a lot of so even moderate Democrats. Well, we have to pause here on the president is making an announcement from the Oval Office. So we're going to go to him right now.

I'm Craig Melvin. Cheers. Cheers. Cheers.

I've always been a glass half full kind of guy. And now I'm talking to some people who look at the world that way too. Some really fascinating folks who share their defining moments, their triumphs, challenges, their stories are funny and my candid. So I hope you'll join me each week and who knows?

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