Meet the Press NOW — September 26

Foreign. To me, the press now. I'm Kristen Welder on a very busy day of breaking news, just 40 days until the election as New York City Mayor Eric Adams battles sweeping criminal charges tied to bribery and wire fraud. And Ukrainian President Zelensky huddles with President Biden.

Vice President Harris at the White House. But we begin with breaking news from the Gulf where Hurricane Helene is intensifying, lashing the Florida coast and expected to make landfall just hours from now, potentially as a Category 4 storm. Right now, Helene is at Category 3 strength with sustained winds of 120 miles per hour. Forecasters expect Florida's Big Bend region to take a direct hit with what the National Hurricane center warns will be an unsurvivable storm surge of up to 20ft.

Nearly all of Florida, Georgia and South Carolina under some form of tropical alert right now. These are live pictures from Lee County, Florida. As you can see, residents there are already contending with powerful winds and a strong storm surge. And line crews near Tallahassee are already preparing power lines as Governor Ron DeSantis warns that the devastation Helene may cause in northern Florida could be historic.

This area has not had a major hurricane hit in quite some time, and certainly nobody in recent memory has seen a storm of this magnitude that's hit. Every minute that goes by brings us closer to having conditions that are going to be simply too dangerous to navigate. The White House says President Biden and Vice President Harris have been briefed on the storm. The president has already approved emergency declarations for Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.

And while parts of Florida are already facing threats of a dangerous storm surge, federal officials warn Helene's devastation could extend well beyond the state. But Georgia, South Carolina, North Carolina, and those Appalachians, they're going to have up to 20 inches of rain in an area that can have significant flash flooding and that is really life threatening. And it comes so much faster than what we see from a storm surge. Right.

They're going to have less warning once the rain starts there. For more on Helen's track of potential impact, I'm joined by Al Row. So much for joining me. I know it's a really busy day for you.

You are great to be with us and to update us on the path of this hurricane. What communities are in the direct path right now, Helene? Well, right now, and one of the things we want to stress to folks, Kristen, is that this is a monster storm. It is really wild.

This thing's almost 500 miles in diameter and it is rapidly deepening. As far as we've already seen it intensify twice, rapidly intensify twice in the last 36 hours and it will probably continue to deepen and strengthen. So right now it's about 145 miles west of Tampa with 120 mile hour winds, needs to get to 130 to be a Category 4. But it's borderline, doesn't worry about the categories right now, worry about the effects.

For example, east side of the storm, tornadoes were a big problem. We have tornado watches stretching from the Carolinas all the way down to Key west and we already had some tornado warnings popping up in this. We also, as you mentioned, tropical storm warnings from Asheville, North Carolina all the way South Carolina. North Carolina, I'm sorry, all the way down to Key West.

Here's the system now. It's got plenty of a Runway of record warm ocean waters here in the Gulf where it could intensify, making landfall around 8 to 11 o' clock tonight. But even if it doesn't make four, it's still going to cause big problems. You asked about what places have to be worried about this.

Well, when you consider that the hurricane force windfield is 150 miles on either side of the system, that's going to be a big high impact storm. And then it continues to make its way up through Georgia, on into Tennessee, on into Kentucky bringing heavy rain and wind. Still a very powerful storm. Storm surge, of course the biggest problem, that's where we see the most deaths in that kind of activity.

10 to 20ft from Apalachicola, just to the south of Cedar Key, Tampa Bay could see an all time surge record. And here's the problem. We've already seen the surge starting. This is a wide continental shelf.

That means it's very shallow water. So when those winds start to push and pile that water up, that will funnel it right into from Apalachicola all the way to Cedar Key. And in fact the places we really have to worry about the high tides tonight as that system comes in. And some of this could travel about 25 miles inland along the Suwannee river with a 9 foot or more storm surge.

So we're going to be really watching that. Winds are going to be a big impact. Wind gusts to 100 mph in Cedar Key. Tallahassee could see wind gusts 90 to 100 mph and it will continue right on up to Atlanta with 50 mile per hour wind.

Knoxville 55. So we're gonna be looking at major airport delays, power outages from Atlanta all the way down to Tallahassee Some of these could last for weeks and with very heavy rain. In fact, we've already seen heavy rain in this area in the last 72 hours. More rain on top of it from Tallahassee to Asheville.

High risk of flooding with some places in the panhandle, 20 inches. But as you move up into the Appalachian, we can see upwards of a foot or more of rain crystal. So this is gonna be a high impact storm that will be cleaning up into next week. Wow.

And the images are just stunning that you showed there. Al Robor, we know you'll continue to track it. We'll watch reading tonight at night and of course tomorrow on today. Thank you so much.

We really appreciate it. I'm joined now by Tallahassee Mayor John Daly. Mayor Daly, thank you so much. Our thoughts with all of you there in Tallahassee and in Florida right now and everyone who's gonna be impacted by this storm, quite frankly, describe what you all are seeing there in Tallahassee right now, if you would like to.

Well, good afternoon. I gotta tell you, it's actually eerily calm right now, but we all know what's coming. This is a massive storm. It's been said before, Tallahassee has never seen a storm of this size in recorded history.

Hit us directly head on. Having said that, we've been preparing for the past week and unfortunately we know how to do hurricanes in North Florida and on the Gulf Coast. And so we are prepared. We have assets and personnel stationed all over the community to make sure that after the storm we can respond.

We have mutual aid crews from nine states as far away as Oklahoma that are in town helping us. We've tripled our workforce. I'm just encouraging everybody, now's the time. Let's be safe, let's be smart.

Check on your friends, your neighbors, but after the storm, let the professionals get out and do their job. So far, correct me if I'm wrong, but as of right now, no evacuation order for Tallahassee. Or walk me through why that is and what your guidance is to people who are in the path of the hurricane. That's a great question.

So Tallahassee is 30 miles inland from the coast. So while we are not as concerned in our community about the storm surge, I do know that the coastal counties do have mandatory evacuation and we do have shelters in Tallahassee that are open. However, we do have a mandatory evacuation for those that are living in manufactured homes. And quite frankly, if you don't feel safe at home, we have been encouraging people to either leave the area or to go to a shelter.

So while we do not have a countywide evacuation order in place, we have put in an evacuation order for manufactured housing. And are people listening and heeding your advice to stay indoors and if necessary, if they live in manufactured homes, to evacuate? Yeah, I'm real proud of Tallahassee. Not only are we the state capitol, but we're a collegiate community.

We have a student population of 70,000 students. And the presidents of Florida State, FAMU and Tallahassee State College have done a great job hoping to evacuate the students, encouraging them to go home, to be with their families wherever they may be from. Tallahassee residents have done a tremendous job over the past week preparing for the storm. And so we're ready.

The waiting game is a little bit of a mind game, as you can imagine here waiting for the storm to come. But the city has an institution, the county as an institution, Governor DeSantis and his team at the state and of course, President Biden and the federal team have all. We are all working together to make sure that we come out. We got saying in North Florida where Tallahassee, strong.

We're going to make it. We just don't know what Mother Nature is going to bring. Yeah, well, that was my next question. How much contact have you had with the governor, with the president?

Are you getting what you need from the state and federal government snare? We are. And I'm very appreciative of the Biden administration and their declaration, which cuts a lot of red tape and opens up a lot of resources. Had the opportunity to speak to Governor DeSantis yesterday.

He's been an incredible partner during the storms that we do have with his declaration as well. It cuts the red tape and opens up opportunities. Had a chance to speak to the secretary of Transportation, who is an incredible partner when it comes to we call it cut and toss, you know, cutting up the trees that are in the road. And of course, the relationship between the city, the county and the school board in the county is seamless.

We've got the right team. We are prepared. It's just a matter of how big is the storm, how intense will it be, and will it be a direct impact to Tallahassee? All right, well, Mayor John Daley again, our thoughts are with all of you.

Please stay safe. Thank you for taking time to update us. I want to know it's a very busy time for your community. Really appreciate it.

Thank you. And we will have much more on this storm later in the hour as we closely track this intensifying hurricane. But first, we do want to turn to that breaking news out of New York, where Mayor Eric Adams is rejecting calls for him to resign after federal prosecutors today unsealed a sprawling 57 page criminal indictment, including charges of wire fraud, bribery and solicitation of illegal foreign contributions. Prosecutors for the Southern District of New York alleging that for almost a decade Adams accepted more than $100,000 worth of lavish international travel benefits and sought foreign money in support of his mayoral campaign, describing it as a grave breach of the public's trust.

Public office is a privilege. We allege that Mayor Adams abused that privilege and broke the law, laws that are designed to ensure that officials like him serve the people, not the highest bidder, not a foreign bidder, and certainly not a foreign power. These are bright red lines and we realized that the mayor crossed them again and again for years. Early this morning, federal agents were seen outside the mayor's residence with a search warrant and a duffel bags.

Sources close to the mayor say Adam's phone was seized again and agents left the home after several hours. Mayor Adams spoke outside Gracie Mansion today, denying the allegations while appearing alongside community leaders as nearby protesters called for his extra. It's an unfortunate day and it's a painful day. But inside of all of that, it's a day where we'll finally reveal why for 10 months I have gone through this and I look forward to defending myself.

If it's campaign violations, I know I don't violate the campaigns. If it's foreign donors, I know I don't take money from foreign donors. As a reminder, these are not the only investigations swirling around Mayor Adams and his inner circle as New York City hall has been embroiled by scandal and resignations. Joining me now is NBC News law enforcement and intelligence correspondent Tom Winter.

Tom, thanks for being here. So let's dive right in. Break down what you know about this indictment. What were your key takeaways?

Well, I think the key takeaways as much as it was inside the indictment, it's what the U.S. attorney, Damian Williams said outside of it at his press conference, effectively Kristen, vowing more arrests. I mean, typically we hear, oh, there's going to be an additional ongoing investigation and we're still looking into things. But at this press conference and you're looking at it, and now you're looking at the head of the New York FBI field office.

They effectively said, look, we've got more arrests and we are going to hold more people accountable. That's a promise, not a threat. And so the question here Looking at the totality of what is charged, which is effectively a scheme or an alleged scheme where the mayor of New York City solicited foreign donations from Turkish businessmen or individuals associated with that country in exchange for various favors or potential acts in the government here in New York City. That's just one thread of what we've been reporting on for the past year plus, and that's just one thread of what our understanding is that federal prosecutors are looking at.

So now, where does this go from here? The conduct alleged goes back a much longer time period than we expected, going back nearly 10 years to when Adams was more of a local politician in Brooklyn. And now in some of these council you're looking at on screen, the maximum penalty goes up to 20 years. Now the question is they have them, they conducted yet another search at Gracie Mansion, which is where the mayor of the city of New York lives, whoever happens to be in office, where does this investigation go from here?

Considering the fact that these charges in the conduct that's alleged, Kristen, is just so serious, it's really such a striking development, particularly coming on the heels, as you say, Thomas, so many in his inner circle also being indicted under investigation, some prominent New York lawmakers, including Congressman Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, calling on the mayor to resign. But he's defiant, Tom. I mean, at least publicly, he is not showing any signs that he plans to do so. What are your sources telling you?

Well, President, that's right. He has been defiant at this defiant press conference this morning in response to that resignation called yesterday. Rather, he put out a defiant statement against the congresswoman from New York. And that was all prior to these charges becoming public.

Now that he's been charged, he's going through that initial moment of the press conference. He's got an attorney who is Alex Spiro, well known as represented a number of high profile defendants or clients in the past. Somebody will definitely speak out strongly for the mayor. The question is, is that once we eventually get through the room phase, which will either be Friday or Monday, once we get through that, that phase of this, Kristen, and they sit down, they look at the conduct and potentially other charges involving those in his inner circle.

Remember, this was a story anyway because so many folks that were close to the mayor had their phones taken or there were search warrants that were executed. The question is, Kristen, as the political pressure gets hotter, as he gets in the courtroom, will his mindset change? That is the question indeed. And I know you will continue to stay on top of all of these different angles.

Tom, Winter, thank you as always for your great reporting. For more now, I'm joined by former U.S. attorney and NBC News legal analyst Carol Lamb. Thank you so much for joining me.

Really appreciate it. I want to get your reaction to this indictment, Carol, based on what you know right now, how strong of a case do you think prosecutors have? Well, what we know is actually pretty good, Kristen, because this was, as it's called often a speaking indictment, a very thorough description of what the evidence is and what the allegations are. As a 57 page indictment, the big takeaways for me are really the severity and the ramifications what these allegations are.

If you take a step back and there are some things that are just absolute truths. Under federal law, you cannot have foreign nationals being involved in any way in federal, state or local elections. Mayor Adams is accused in his indictment of having violated that law quite severely. You also cannot exceed limits for individual donors.

And again, the allegation here is that he took donations from straw contributors. That is, there was a very wealthy individual and very wealthy company and they split up their donations and use straw donors to make contributions to his campaign. And finally, this fraud against the very city itself to take these incentive funds from the city itself based on illegal donations, that's a crime upon a crime. The depth and breadth of this indictment really indicates to me that the Southern District of New York has a very strong case.

Even if they lose some of the counts, they've got other counts that they are likely to prevail on. Do you think, given that they have said that there will likely be more indictments, do you think that Mayor Adams could in fact be facing more charges? Well, look, the very by definition, the fact that a conspiracy was charged in this indictment means that there were at least two players involved. And we've seen from the description in the indictment that many more than two people were involved.

There could be other aspects that are being investigated. And Tom ran through, you know, the fact that this investigation has been ongoing for a long time. But think about how complicated this indictment is. It involves another country and there are all sorts of diplomatic concerns that may be involved there because a lot of the players were in fact Turkish nationals.

There could be many other aspects. There could be tax aspects for all we know. So, yes, it is possible that the mayor will be facing other charges. There are certainly going to be other people who are charged in subsequent indictments or superseding indictment.

But these indictments are serious enough. You know, there actually doesn't need to be a lot more brought against the mayor of the city of New York. Let me ask you about the timeline of all this. His phone was initially seized about 10 months ago.

Given that we are talking about allegations that go back some 10 years, is this a fairly quick pace for this to be moving? And how do you anticipate this moving forward? Well, frankly, it doesn't surprise me at all, Kristen, that it has taken now, well, more than a year, probably a couple of years for this investigation to get to this point. And there are several reasons for that.

One reason is that it does involve a foreign country and everything slows down when you're talking about getting evidence from another country. You have to go through legal and diplomatic channels to get documents, for example, or to get testimony, sometimes by deposition. You're not even in live testimony for court. But another aspect here is that there are a lot of traps that the Southern District of New York probably had to run through.

I mean, the sensitive topics that involve probably the State Department and such, so, so they have to build a criminal case which is proof beyond a reasonable doubt. It's a very high standard. Then on top of that, they have to take into consideration all the diplomatic and sensitive issues that undoubtedly come up when you're talking about another country. All right, Carol Lam as thank you for helping us understand this complex legal picture.

We really appreciate it. Thank you. Coming up, as we mentioned, we are tracking Hurricane Helene. These are live pictures outside Tampa as officials step up their warnings to residents.

With the massive storm just hours away from landfall, we get the very latest from the ground ahead. But first, President Zelensky and Vice President Harris meeting Washington as the Ukrainian leader attempts to shore up support from US And Western allies in the war against Russia. Stay with us. You're watching the press now.

Welcome back. With just 40 days until the election, Vice President Harris is playing prominently in the Biden administration's foreign policy agenda. Last hour, she met with President Zelensky following his meeting with the President Harris reiterating her unwavering support for Ukraine, in contrast to former President Trump, who has signaled he would call U.S. military aid to an attempt to negotiate an end to the war with Russia.

While in the US Alencia was hoping to lay out his peace proposal for both presidential candidates. But Mr. Trump canceled that meeting, in part, we are told, because of Zelensky's recent criticisms of running H8. Meanwhile in the Middle east, the Biden administration is working furiously to try to secure a 21 day ceasefire between Israel and Hezbollah as tensions continue to ratchet up.

But upon his arrival in New York for the UN General Assembly. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed any notion of a pause in fighting, telling reporters Israel will continue to hit Hezbollah with all its might and will not stop until it achieves its goals. Joining me now is Richard Haas, President emeritus at the Council on Foreign Relations. Thank you so much for joining me.

I want to start with Ukraine President Zelensky strip. He's obviously hoping to meet with both presidential candidates, as I just talked about. Instead, former President Trump has been criticizing him on the campaign trail. House Republicans are accusing Zelensky interfering in the elections because he traveled to Pennsylvania.

How do you think President Zelensky is going to navigate this partisan divide that he's dealing with right now? With great difficulty. We've come a long way since the tradition where politics stop at the water's edge. Ukraine has really been something on political football for years now, going back to the Trump Zelensky phone call where he was looking for dirt on Biden.

So this is just the latest chapter. President has to be careful about what he said, what he says. He said one or two things about some comments by the Republicans that were probably ill advised. He should just take the policy.

And on the policy side of it, you know, President Trump is talking about his desire to stop the war. Well, the best way to stop the war is to show that American support for UKRA is not, is not uncertain that the United States is there for Ukraine. And President Putin has to conclude diplomacy is going to have a chance, that time is not on his side. The west is not going to get short of, short of breath.

And of course, the big question, and one of the big asks on the part of Zelensky that we're anticipating is for the approval to use U.S. weapons deeper inside Russia. Where do you think that discussion is going to anticipate the Biden administration will in fact approve that? The history of the last two and a half years has been that the Biden administration has gradually come around to providing additional weapons systems, to loosening up some of the constraints.

I think they should hear again. It's consistent with the idea that the Russians need to feel some of the pain of this war that would hopefully incentivize them to bring it to them. We shouldn't get ourselves. There's no game changer here militarily.

There's no way that any amount of weapon systems, under whatever constraints or even without constraints, are going to bring Ukraine to the point where it can go liberate all the land, the 20% or so of its territory that Russia is sitting on so the reason to loosen up the constraints again is to change Russian thinking and maybe bring them to the negotiating table. But the idea that you can Ukraine is ever going to reach a point militarily where it can push all Russian forces out of Ukraine, no matter how justified it may be or your desire will maybe it's simply not going to happen. Let's turn now to the Middle East. Prime Minister Netanyahu appearing to reject that ceasefire proposal by the US With Lebanon.

Does the administration still have influence over Netanyahu, particularly given that we're just six weeks out from the election? Not an awful lot. Part of the reason you say it's a lame duck administration, I think the Israelis, their general philosophy, better to ask for forgiveness than permission. I think they're also confident that they have a pretty deep base of political support in this country with Congress, with parts of the Jewish community, parts of the evangelical community also in Israel.

Let's be clear. While the war in Gaza is quite controversial and has divided the country, the question of what priority ought to be given to get an ostracus back. The war in the north is far more popular. To go after Hezbollah to basically do something about a situation where close to 70,000 Israelis cannot live in their homes.

There's a lot of support for the Israeli government moving in. Quite a it's hard to tell them they shouldn't. We wouldn't live in a situation where 70,000Americans couldn't live near the Canadian or Mexican borders. Now, I understand all the differences.

My point is simply that this is not a question where the United States is likely to have any real impact on Israeli policy. And it's such an important distinction to make. Richard Haas, thank you so much as always for your insights. We really appreciate it.

Thank you. Well, we want to turn now back to Hurricane Helene. We are expecting an update about 30 minutes from now from Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on his state's preparations for the storm. A state of emergency has already been declared in nearly all of Florida.

67 counties and several counties have issued mandatory evacuation orders ahead of Helene's expected landfall. Tonight. NBC News is Jesse Kersh is in Perry, Florida, the seat of Taylor county, one of the counties under a mandatory evacuation order. He joins us now.

Jesse, thanks so much for being here. What's the very latest on the ground looks pretty dry there, but clearly they're bracing for the worst. Yeah, Chris, we're starting to get a light trickle of mist is how I classify at this point. You saw truck drive Bonnie, largely quiet roads, but there Are still people here and that is not what officials want.

We do have buildings that are boarded up, others that are still open. The gas station, just a stone's throw from where I am right now is still open. The lights are still on. They're still pumping gas, which is good news for us because we want to make sure that we have the resources we need where we are going to be riding this storm out.

But a lot of people are here and the sheriff tells me that a ballpark, about half of the county, around 10,000 people he thinks, have not heeded the request for people to evacuate. And among those who have not evacuated, according to the sheriff, there's an estimated roughly 200 people who live along the coastline in low lying areas. And that is an area where we're looking at around a minimum of 10ft of storm surge, possibly as high as 20ft. And so that is effectively, to put it bluntly, something pretty darn close, if not entirely like a death sentence for people who stay along the coastline.

And the sheriff tells me that they're asking people who are going to ride out the storm or attempt to ride out the storm those areas to write their name, their Social Security number, their date of birth on their body so that their bodies can be identified by loved ones. That is what we are talking about. Those are the states. It is a life threatening storm.

Sheriff tell me he has lived in this county his entire life and he has never been worried about a storm. This one is worrying him. We are looking at something that is getting stronger, faster than it was earlier in its life cycle with hurricane Elaine. Really something that could potentially become a Category 4 hurricane.

This will be the third hurricane to hit the city of Perry in the last 18 months or so. Jesse's just incredibly honest to hear what the sheriff is telling residents who don't evacuate there. Hopefully everyone is keeping the order after particularly hearing your reports. Thank you so much for that.

Please stay safe. We really appreciate it. We want to turn now back to the campaign trail with a deeper look at one of the most important voting blocks in this election. Young men in battleground states.

In our latest deciders focus group in collaborations with collaboration with engages Syracuse University and Sago, we heard from a group of male voters under 30 from the blue wall states of Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin. As both our sessions showed, whether it was with voters leaning towards Harris or Trump, the dominant theme was the former president himself. Take a listen. How'd you end up in Harris?

I think the endorsement of Kamala Harris seems more like a rejection of Donald Trump. And the rejection of Donald Trump in the current Republican Party comes from, like, a few, either you call them beliefs or topics I feel strongly about, like LGBT rights, reproductive rights. So it makes it impossible to support anyone currently in the Republican Party. John, what about you?

I feel like it's just Kamala Harris, like a step in the right step in the right direction, even if it is like a small step. I extremely dislike MAGA politics, and a lot of the Republican Party is like, basically that. That extremists. And I just like it a lot.

And I feel like Kamala Eris would just be. It does kind of fall into, like, the less of the two evils, but I feel like there's a little bit more promise with her. How'd you end up with drunk? What was the process in your mind?

How'd you get there? Yeah, I think for me, at the end of it, I was looking at it honestly speaking, like, selfishly, which president's gonna actually make my life better, Whether it's as economically in terms of credit inflation or better job opportunities or tax breaks, I was just able to look at objectively which president's gonna have a clear closer achievement to be able to help my life become better. Joining me now is Margaretale, director of Syracuse University's Institute for Democracy, Journalism, and Citizenship, and one of the minds behind these focus groups. Margaret, I love these focus groups.

I mean, they are really the best indication that we have of where voters minds are at any given time. What were your key takeaways hearing from these male voters from Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin? Yeah, it's so interesting. And you're right.

I mean, we want to know about this group. Where are they going to go? What are they going to do? Donald Trump was hoping he could make inroads with young men who are not white.

Kamala Harris has focused much more on a message that appeals to women, but obviously wants as many men to vote for her as well. One of the clearest differences, and you saw it in some of these clips, was the idea that men who are leaning towards Trump like Trump, men who are leaning towards Harris dislike Trump. They're not like, oh, my God, Kamala Harris is the greatest thing that I've ever seen, or I'm excited or enthusiastic about her. And to be sure, by the way, there are voters who are voting for Trump and are enthusiastic about it.

There are voters, male voters, who are voting for Kamala Harris and are enthusias about it. But in this particular group, which is sort of skeptical, voters who are still in the Lean phase. It became very clear that Harris's best argument to win them is not necessarily that she is the candidate of her dreams, is that she's the alternative to Donald Trump who actually can get it. And you say something I think important, which is that they're still not 100% decided.

It's like where they're leaning right now. Do you get the sense that some of these opinions could shift even more just in listening to this focus group? You know, it's really hard to see a complete swing at this point in the race. If you're really leaning towards Donald Trump, it's highly unlikely you're gonna change your mind, go all the way to Harris and vice versa.

Most of the voters that you put in the undecided bucket, I think, are trying to decide whether they vote at all or whether to vote for a third party candidate. But there are some who really are trying to decide between the two major party candidates. And when they are, it tends to revolve around a couple of questions. The economy, reproductive rights, and the sort of chaos.

How do you conduct yourself personally and those the choices break down pretty clearly. People who are financially driven and believe that things would be better without Trump are leaning towards Trump. There are also people who are concerned about the economy, but they think this is the post Covid economy and that Donald Trump wouldn't make it any different. But for many of these voters, they're trying to balance, and we see this with women, too, but it's a little different with the male voters they're trying to balance.

Men are not going to have to decide whether they ever need to have an abortion, but they believe in personal autonomy, the ability to make decisions about your own body or their sister, girlfriend, wives, ability to make those decisions. But they also need to pay the rent, to put food on the table, to save, and they don't know if Trump can do it, but they remember they had more money in their pocket then less money in their pocket. Now that's all kind of in the soup of what they're trying to decide. Yeah.

Economy continues to be the top issue. Our poll showing Trump leads on that issue, but she has been narrowing the gap on that. Yes. Margaret Colliff, thank you so much.

Always great to see you. Appreciate you being here. Coming up, the House committee tasked with investigating the assassination attempt to former President Trump at his Butler, Pennsylvania rally just held its first hearing and things did get heated. That's straight ahead.

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You can get our conversation for free wherever you download your podcasts. Welcome back. Turning to the fight for Senate control now, the Democratic Senate campaign arm now says they're planning a multi million dollar ad by in Florida, in Texas, targeting the seats held by Republicans Rick Scott and Ted Cruz, those races widely viewed as long shots for Democrats. DSCC chair Gary Peters told reporters the investment was made after seeing evidence in the data that the two seats were competitive.

It comes after our friends at the Cook Political Report moved the Montana Senate race to lean Republican, which may have sent Democrats scrambling to find another path to try to hold on to control of that chamber. Joining me now on set, Eugene Daniels, White House correspondent and Playbook co author for Politico. He's also a senior NBC News political analyst Ronna Epton, executive director of MoveOn and Stephen Hayes, editor and CEO of the Dispatch. He is also an NBC News political analyst.

Thanks to all of you for being here. Let's start right there, Eugene. That move by the DSCC to try to expand the map, basically looking at Montana, say, boy, this looks bleak. Let's try to find some other paths.

Let's look to Florida, let's look to Texas. They aren't exactly easy paths. No, there's no easy path. Yeah, Florida is probably a little bit easier than Texas what's really interesting is that when I talked to folks months and months and months ago before things really heated up on the campaign trail about Florida, even the Biden, then Biden campaign, people were saying, Florida's a no go for us.

Nothing's gonna happen. So they do feel like things have changed since then. When it comes to Florida, both the campaign and the DSCC and other Democrats, I think Texas feels a little off for a lot of folks. I think they're probably right to have some concerns that Democrats are not gonna win there.

We've been hearing about Texas for a long time. Who is a little more interesting, probably to the demographics in Texas. But it feels like losing with football with Democrats every four years or two years and start thinking about Texas in a different way, it doesn't work out well. Rhonda, the other piece of this is that we're six weeks until the election.

Is it too late to make a big difference by pouring campaign cash into that area? Not at all. I mean, we've seen what Kamala Harris has done in just, you know, a few weeks of an election, and I think it's very possible that we can make a big, sizable difference in Texas and Florida. I think, in addition, the fact that she is in the race, she has created an adrenaline shot in the arm of Democrats in the base.

I think it has opened up these opportunities in Texas and Florida. So I see this as a big power move. That being said, this is going to be a really close election all across the board in the Senate is going to be tough to win, but I really think Democrats can pull it out. Stephen, how do you see this shaking?

Well, it's surprising Democrats can take a Senate to start there. I was down in Texas covering a Con Allred event with Liz Cheney where she endorsed him, she talked about him, she got his back. He's a good candidate. I think public polling has him within 4 or 5 points.

Private polling has a little bit closer. And Ted Cruz only beat Beto Rourke in 2018 by a point and a half. So if you're a Democrat or if you're an opponent of Ted Cruz, you look at those numbers, you say, oh, there's a chance that Ted Cruz has high unfavorables in Texas in a way that I think makes this closer than it otherwise would be. Greg Abbott beat, beat bet O' Rourke and Hoog in 20 race in 2022 by a lot more than that.

All right, let's turn to the presidential race now. Vice President Kamala Harris gave her first one on one interview to Stephanie Wolfe with msnbc, I want to play a little bit of, of their discussion on the biggest issue for voters, the economy. Look, and expanding that child tax credit. Or you mentioned housing before, giving that extra money for a first home.

If you can't raise corporate taxes or if GOP takes control of the Senate, where do you get the money to do that? Do you still afford those plans and borrow? Well, but we're gonna have to raise corporate taxes and we're gonna have to raise. We're gonna have to make sure that the biggest corporations and billionaires pay their fair share.

That's just it. It's about paying their fair share. What do you make of that answer? I've been talking to some Democrats who say, boy, they want her to sharpen that message a little bit.

Not necessarily about giving more detail, but giving a fuller picture of what she plans to do. I think Vice President Harris did an incredible job last night in that interview and laying out an economic agenda focused on building the middle class and making sure, in her words, don't claim their mind, that we're supporting folks to not just get by, but to get ahead. And that is the most detail I've heard of an economic agenda for people in this country in this presidential race so far. I think she was.

She did a great job in contrasting her agenda with Donald Trump's buzzwords and really showing that he's not. He has not laid out a plan for people in this country. Stephen. You know, Harris is trying to walk this fine line between letting people know how she's going to govern without getting two in the weeds, because we are six weeks until Election Day.

There aren't that many weeds to get into in the context of time. But what do you make of her strategy? And is she being effective at turning this into a referendum on Donald Trump? Look, I was somewhat surprised that she didn't answer by saying that she had grown up in the middle class, because that's the answer she likes to give to Professor Berkshire.

Everything. I didn't think there was much detail in that answer. I think a lot people would like more detail. This feels like, you know, the end of a football game.

When a team has a short leader at a close game, they're playing not to lose. That's what it feels like she's doing here. And I'm not sure the numbers support that strategy. I think she should give people more of what she plans to do as president.

I think she should get more detailed. People say in responding to pollsters questions, they have concerns about what she's, what she is saying. They don't know enough about her. She can fill in those gaps.

Yeah, I've been seeing people who say that, Eugene. She is playing it safe. And yes, they're only six weeks, but she might have to go outside of that comfort zone if she wants to take this over the finish line. To continue the football analogy, I mean, what we're seeing is this election is about bides.

Right. That has been hit for a long time. Right. You haven't seen President Biden give a lot of detail.

He was the candidate. Donald Trump sure doesn't give a lot of details about what he would do when it comes to the economy. And so it's about what you see. Vice President Harris interviewed her last week with the NBA panel.

We asked her some of these questions. She talked about the feelings that people have about the economy. She went into some of the details of what she would do. $50,000 here and there for small business.

But it is about the vibes, how people feel about it. There are a lot of frustrated Democrats that we're asking for more detail from her. While Donald Trump doesn't give much of a knee. But that's kind of where people are.

And for a long time, people have heard from him as a presidential candidate. This is the first time they have to be able to speak to that in some way. Yeah. Speaking of frustrations, they're frustrated Republicans in part because some of these controversies swirling around Republican lawmakers and candidates.

Obviously in North Carolina, the editorial candidate, Mark Robinson there. I want to talk a little bit about what the Republican congressman from Louisiana tweeted racist things about Haitians, among other things, saying they should leave America before election Day. He then deleted the tweet. Here's what Speaker Johnson had to say about that.

Clay Higgins is a dear friend of mine and a colleague from Louisiana and a very frank and outspoken person. He was approached on the floor by colleagues who said that was offensive. He went to the back. I just talked about it.

He said he went to the back and he prayed about it and he regretted and he pulled the post down. That's what you want the gentleman to do. I'm sure he probably regrets some of the language he used, but, you know, we move forward. We believe in redemption right now.

Steve, Congressman Higgins then seemed to indicate that he stood by the comments. How damaging is this overall when voters go to the polls to vote for president? I'll be obvious. I have no idea.

I mean, you'd think it would be really damaging when somebody treats horribly racist stuff we've seen that doesn't matter as much as I think a lot to. If he prayed about it, he should go back and pray some more because you can't say that you regret it. He didn't say you regretted it and then go back and say you stand by him. Ronna, what do you think of this?

It's an example of the character Congressman Higgins is. And I don't buy his apology at all. But I think it's another example of the type of politics Republican Party is driving here. The only way they can win is by splintering and sewing division and dividing the anti Trump coalition.

And that's the people are tired of it. Eugene, when I talk to Republicans, they say the way we're going to win in November presidential and down ballot races is to stay on message. And here is yet another example of the speaker of the House trying to deal with this continuing resolution, getting asked about some other controversy. Exactly.

It's racist, but it's also unhelpful. Right. Because they are trying to not that down ballot is where they really sit out of power. Right.

If Kamala Harris does end up winning, if they have the things to keep the House and beat the Senate, it's it. Right. There's nothing happening. And so it's unhelpful.

And when you talk to voters, right, the voters who everyone's looking at right in the middle, voters, that kind of stuff does not speak to them, whatever it turns them out. All right, guys, great conversation. Thank you so much. Eugene, Rana and Steven really appreciate it.

Still to come, the Secret Service must do better. That's a direct quote from Congressman Jason Crow in today's tense House hearing on how a gunman came so close to assassinating former President Trump at a Pennsylvania campaign rally. That congressman joins me next. You're WATCHING THE PRESS now.

Welcome back. Former President Donald Trump will return to the site of his attempted assassination in Butler, Pennsylvania, for the first time early next month. It comes as the House task force investigating the assassination attempts against the former president held its first hearing today. Committee chair Mike Kelly, who represents the Butler area, asked witnesses representing local law enforcement if they felt adequately prepared by Secret Service on July 13th.

We were certainly prepared for the missions that they had given us. There were additional things obviously that probably need covered, but they never asked us to do that. I feel that with them being the lead and we were in a request assist function, we provided what they asked for and we secured the inner perimeter of the farm showgrounds. And join me now is the ranking member of the House task force investigating the Trump assassination, Colorado Democrat Jason Crowe.

Congressman, thank you so much for being here. We really appreciate it. Thanks Kristen. I appreciate you having me.

Well, such a critical topic. I do want to start with what you said in your opening statement. You said the Secret Service is stretched too thin. Congress did just approve $231 million for the agency and their spending bill.

Do you think that adequately addresses your concerns or does more need to be done? Well, there's a couple of different categories of issues. So one is there were cascade. There was a cascading series of failures on July 13th in Butler, Pennsylvania.

So things that they had the resources and capability to do, things that their processes and their protocols required them to do, they just did not happen. So that raises a question about training, about command and control and about culture. The second issue is one about resources. You know, the Secret Service is undoubtedly stretch very thin.

Acting Director Rowe came before our task force a few weeks ago and said that his agents are redlined is the way that he described it. I mean they're working 80 plus hours a week. They're deployed three weeks out of a month. They've been doing so for a year.

So they're working harder than they've ever worked before because campaigning is differently different than it was just a few years ago. And the threat environment is higher than it's ever been. So you combine this perfect storm of a stretched thin service and under resourced service, being asked to do a lot in a high environment and then a series of failures that day and you see what happened and you as you lay out the enormity of how you see these challenges, what is the timeline for getting the Secret Service to a place where they do feel fully staffed, where they do feel fully prepared to protect, whether it be a former president or current president. Well, there's a longer term issue at play here and a shorter term issue.

The longer term is, you know, the size of the Secret Service, whether they're training, whether they're paradigm of how they provide security and work with local law enforcement and other agencies is actually the right method in the paradigm for the 21st century. And the threats that we face that we're looking at, but we're also predominantly looking at right now the short term challenges between now the election. We want to make sure that elected officials are safe. And that's why we are digging in.

We're providing oversight as quickly and expeditiously as possible. And that's also why Congress unanimously passed that $230 million. Because you can't mass produce Secret Service agents. It actually takes years to recruit them, to vet them, to train them, to get them out of presidential detail.

You know, five to seven years, actually, a minimum. So the question is now, with this additional resourcing, can they rely on Department of Defense and other federal agencies to backfill or provide additional security in the near term? Your colleagues in the Senate released a report that in part pointed to a lack of communication between the Secret Service for the assassination attempt in Butler, Pennsylvania. Do you believe that the Secret Service, that that lack of communication is ultimately the main.

Well, that was one really critical failure. There's no doubt about that. So I'm a former Army Ranger. I served in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I learned that operations like this, whether it's a military operation or a sophisticated law enforcement operation, command and control. So unity of command, but communication are essential. Without it, you can't do anything. And it was really clear there wasn't unity of command.

There were multiple command posts. They weren't talking to each other. The different agencies on site that they didn't even have communications that were interoperable. The perimeter was not secure.

The perimeter that was secure was too small. There was no drone coverage. There were many, many different things that went wrong that day. And we're looking at all of them.

You know, the House wanted to expand the scope, scope of the task force to also obviously look at the second assassination attempt as well. Will that be incorporated? How will that factor into the work that you all are doing there? Yeah, the House did vote, as you mentioned, to expand our jurisdictions.

We will look into the incident in Florida as well. We absolutely will undertake that. We have the ability to do it. We have the resources to do it, and we are going to undertake.

We actually already started our investigation, requesting documents and information. We have plans to start doing interviews for that incident as well. They're very different incidents. However, you know, we have another Pennsylvania scenario where it was very apparent numerous failures by the Secret Service in Florida.

There's no evident failure. Right. Actually, their system appeared to have worked as designed and the plot was indeed foiled. So.

But we're going to look at that. We're not going to take anything for granted. We're going to make sure that everything did indeed go right and whether there's a resourcing question as well. Yesterday, former President Trump seemed to suggest there was a link between Iran and these assassination attempts, even though authorities have indicated there isn't one.

Just to be clear, have you seen any indication or at this point, do you think that there is not one, that these are separate and unrelated incidents? Well, we haven't seen any indication in the Butler event, and it's too early in our investigation to tell any connection in the Florida event. We just started that in the past week. And we have to undertake the first phase of that investigation.

But what we do know is that Iran is showing an intent and actually taking some actions to attempt to harm or potentially assassinate current and former elected officials. And that is, you know, both Democrats and Republicans, you know, so this knows no party, but they certainly are showing their desire to do that in retaliation for the strike against Soliman, their commander, the special Republican Guard, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard under the Trump administration. So they've looked for many years to try to retaliate for that. And there is some intelligence that shows that they're looking for opportunities to do so.

So we have to be vigilant. This is serious stuff. We can't allow that to happen, obviously, and we're going to take it seriously and make sure that we're addressing it accordingly. And Congressman, just finally with the last 30 seconds, we have here, as you know, from where President Trump has also blamed some of the rhetoric Democrats for calling him a threat to democracy.

What is your response to that? Democrats have uniformly rejected incandent political violence from President Biden, the vice President Harris, Joaquin Jeffries, to me and all my colleagues. We've been very, very clear about that. And, you know, Americans can understand the difference between political rhetoric and having fierce debates and tough debates and calling for violence.

We certainly do not do that. Congressman Jason Crow, thank you so much. We really appreciate it. Thank you.

And before we go, we want to say a huge and heartfelt congratulations to Hoda Kotb, who announced today she will leave the Today show in the new year but still remain at NBC. Hoda has supported me every step of the way here at NBC, including when I was named Weekend TODAY co host. And she has been a huge inspiration to me and so many others. So, Hoda, congratulations.

We will miss seeing you with Savannah every morning. Hey, everyone, I'm Dylan Dryer, co host of the third hour of Today and mom to three wild boys. I've learned a lot my years as a parent, mostly that I don't have it all figured out yet. And I'm not the only one.

This is my new podcast, the Parent Chat. Each week I sit down with someone new for honest conversation and real world advice about parenting. I am over here just like winging it. Hey, I'm just trying to screw my own kit.

I'm not giving you advice on how to stream yourself. Search parent chat on YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts.