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If it's Tuesday, wake me up with September ends. Congress returns to chaos with an impeachment threat, a potential government shutdown, mounting leadership concerns, and the Trump trials all looming over Washington. Plus, the sentencing trial for Proud Boys leader Enrique Tario is underway right now, as he faces what could be the longest prison sentence given to any January 6th defendant so far. And a text-sized political drama as local lawmakers begin their historic impeachment trial to potentially remove Attorney General Ken Paxton, a Republican in longtime Trump ally from office, over sweeping allegations of corruption and abuse of power.
Welcome to be the press now. I'm Kristen Welker in Washington. As we've raised for a post-laborate stretch of political chaos and uncertainty with party leaders mired in legal trouble and questions about their fitness for office, beginning with the Republican front-runner and de facto leader of the GOP, Donald Trump, who's preparing to face another arraignment tomorrow in racketeering charges in Georgia. Yet despite his legal issues, he is running away with the Republican presidential nomination, 46 points on his closest competitor in a new Wall Street Journal poll.
In a number that is shortest with a lot of Democrats, Mr. Trump is tied with President Biden in a potential 2024 rematch. Yesterday, at a Labor Day event in Philadelphia, President Biden hinted at a potential shift in political strategy, as he touted his record while also taking direct aid at his likely reelection rival. We also passed the bipartisan infrastructure law.
You can't have the strongest economy in the world, with a second-rate infrastructure. Can you believe we used to have the best infrastructure in the world? And then we fell to number 13 in the world, Rhodes Bridges entered the whole deal. 13, the United States of America, 13th of the world.
But guess what? Guess what? The great real estate builder, the last guy here, he didn't build a damn thing. Under my predecessor, Infrastructure Week became a punchline.
On my watch, infrastructure has been a decade and it's a headline. Now, those comments come as more voters say, Mr. Trump, not Mr. Biden, has a stronger record of accomplishment as president and has a vision for the future.
Meanwhile, President Biden is also facing renewed concerns among voters about his age and fitness for office, with 73% saying he's too old to run for president, and just 36% saying he's mentally up for the job. It was an issue, Mr. Biden addressed yesterday as well. Someone said, you know, that Biden didn't get an old.
Man, I'll tell you what. Well, guess what? Guess what? I can't, you know, the only thing that comes today is a little bit of wisdom.
I've been doing this long, and I guess what? I'm going to continue to do with your help. Now, adding to the uncertainty, looming chaos at the Capitol as Congress soon heads back to Washington, they have just 25 days to pass spending bills to a verdict of government shutdown, while several House Republicans are pushing hard for a presidential impeachment inquiry. We're also watching for the return of Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell, who's facing serious questions about his ability to serve after freezing in front of cameras last week for the second time this year, and he just spoke on the Senate floor for the first time since that episode.
Those of us to be affected here in Washington. Now, one particular moment of my time back home has received its fair sense of attention. Apparently, we don't have that video. We'll come back to that in just a little bit, but our NBC team is here to help make sense of the mess.
Monica Alba's outside the White House at El Capore has the latest in Capitol Hill, and Garrett Hake is following the former president. Monica, let me start with you. We laid out all of that polling. Any panic at the White House today?
Well, look, this is a White House that has consistently seen polls that are not good for them and has simply tried to dismiss them as saying, we're very far away from the election, and we're not focused on what's going on with some of the punditry or what's happening with some of the experts here, and that they claim they're very focused on what they're trying to do day in and day out in this administration and the work of the president, and they point to all these things when it comes to implementation of legislation that he was able to sign into law last year, things like that. But certainly when you look at this polling, and certainly when you look at many voters who continue to say that age is a top concern for them when they look to President Biden, we know that over the last couple of months, he's taken this strategy of really trying to lean into age a little bit more. For a while there, he was trying not to talk about that, and instead now he uses humor to deflect it a little bit, and he always does pivot back to this point that he likes to make, that he says with these decades of experience that add up to his 80-year-old age comes a lot of wisdom, and a lot that he can bring to the job, and certainly you're going to see the White House try to continue to make that contrast with his likely opponent with the current Republican front-runner Donald Trump, even though they're not going to go and talk about the justice department investigation, or the special counsel probe, certainly they're going to keep a wall up with that. But they are going to begin to make this contrast very clear when it comes to what this president thinks he can deliver for the American people, versus what four years of Donald Trump they're going to argue gave to those while he was in office.
So they are going to start to do that a little bit more effectively. We're told by campaign and political advisors, and I think yesterday was a clear preview, Kristen. It certainly seemed like, Monica, he was sharpening his tone. That's for sure.
What about Surround a little bit in Sahel, go to you? Obviously, Monica is talking about how the White House is processing these concerns about age, president's age and fitness for office. I want you to just pick up on where I left off in the introduction with leader McConnell. What did he say because obviously there are now concerns about his health, his fitness for office after he froze for a second time.
What did he say when he spoke on the Senate floor? That's absolutely right, Kristen. Senator McConnell is trying to project the message that everything is fine, and he is here back in the Senate for its return, that he is ready to get back to work. Now, Garrett and I both just moments ago watched him walk from his office to the Senate floor as a short walk.
He acknowledged reporters but did not take any questions, which is fully standard from McConnell in those situations. McConnell gave a fairly usual floor speech where he touched on a number of things. One line stood out to me where he says, quote, one particular moment of my time back home has received its fair share of attention in the press over the past week, but I assure you August was a busy and productive month for me and my staff back in the Commonwealth. He's saying, don't let that one moment you saw in video overshadow this, I'm back and I'm ready to do the work.
The big question here, Kristen, is whether he still has the confidence of his Senate Republican members, his critics on the outside can say whatever they want, they can't force him to step down. Kentucky voters don't get a say and that's the until 2026 when it's back up for reelection. The people who matter here are the Senate Republican members who will decide whether or not he stays there later. Probably none of them have come out and pulled their support for him over health concerns, even though he kind of bookended this August recess with two of these freeze up moments, one in late July, one in late August.
We'll hear later today and throughout this week how they feel about it. Yeah, we certainly will. Gary, let me just ping upon over to you because what are your sources telling you? How much concern is there amongst Reagan's Republicans about Leader McConnell's health?
Well, interestingly, as much as I hear from Republicans, I also hear from Democrats concerned about McConnell, who's expected to be a key player in the events of the next month. He's one of the most pro Ukraine, Ukraine funding Republicans in the Senate. He's spoken at great length and in many occasions in favor of providing additional resources to that country and it's Oregon's Russia. And just now on the Senate floor, even he talked about the need to pass the appropriations bills to fund the government on a bipartisan basis through regular order, as has been done through the Senate.
At this moment, McConnell is functionally serving as an ally of some of the key Democratic priorities in the funding fights that we're about to have over the next month. So his ability to be a strong voice on the Republican side, two Republican voters and amongst Republican senators at this juncture is going to be critical to basically anything getting across the finish line and us not slipping into a shutdown or some protracted battle about how to keep the government open in which policies that kind of a big chunk of the non-Maga lawmakers in both parties on Capitol Hill want to see done. McConnell is critical to getting any of that across the finish line. Yeah, he certainly is.
That's for sure. Michael, let me go back to you. We are going to delve into those spending battles in just a moment. But the other big headline there at the White House is obviously the first lady testing positive for COVID yesterday from the podium today.
Press Secretary Cruz on PR so the president would mask when he was in close proximity to others. He's still testing negative. What do we know about how she's doing and any potential disruptions the president's plans to attend the G20 summit? That's the big question, Chris.
And we do know the first lady continues to experience some mild symptoms. She's going to continue to isolate in Delaware for the remainder of the week. The president did test negative last night. He tested negative again today.
He was in the East Room for that Medal of Honor ceremony. He wore a mask on the way in and then, of course, he presented the recipient and then he left actually quite quickly after that so that he wasn't there for the entirety of the ceremony, perhaps again, to try to make sure that because he was a close contact and his exposure to the first lady, that he isn't lingering with people indoors for too long. And they have said he will continue to wear a mask indoors and that when he's at a distance from people, he'll take it off and he'll continue to be regularly tested. But he is set to leave the White House on Thursday for India and for Vietnam.
Some very high stakes meetings on the global stage that certainly the White House would really like to see the president be able to go to, but there's a question here about the timing and if perhaps he were to fall ill and test positive, would they even know that in time before he gets there, it's something that they have to contend with on the ground. So we asked the White House and certainly you did as well, Kristen, in the briefing today about all these contingency plans and they simply just don't want to get ahead of the yet or address any hypothetical. So they're hoping that he's going to be able to continue now. This is the second time the first lady has had COVID.
She and the president both had it last summer. They both took Pax Libed. They both had rebound cases. So just a little bit of that context, all coming back this summer though, of course, we're in a very different picture where we were when it comes to that pandemic.
And that's a big point the White House is making as well while still taking these precautions now. And a part of the mix, Monica, in addition to the trip, the COVID diagnosis, the fact that there are these spending battles that are about to unfold on the hill, the Republicans are signaling they may be very serious about potential impeachment inquiry. The White House is ramping up in preparation. What are you hearing about that, Monica?
And this was great reporting by my colleague, Sahil there that the team was able to put together, which really is about something that for months they've considered and known was a possibility, but they really ramped up in the month of August. And that is that if Republicans do decide to go forward with an impeachment inquiry, which by the way, the White House is very quick to say, we don't even know if they're going to end up having the evidence for that. And some Republicans privately concede that they don't know specifically what impeachment would actually look like in this avenue. So there are questions certainly about whether it will even happen and what it will look like.
But if it does come to pass, there are about two dozen staffers, lawyers and aides who are working out of the White House Council's office, who are ready to fact check and respond to all of this, and they've been going through to try to prepare for this potential situation in the fall. And they do know, and there's a real appreciation, that a possible impeachment inquiry could collide with a possible government shutdown. So they're just trying to see this collision course and try to get ahead of it for now. But again, they're not even sure it will definitely happen, because they say they would like to see more evidence for what they would bring that to floor on person.
Well, that sets us up perfectly for Sahel. Sahel, what did your reporting tell you about how likely these two scenarios are, this potential impeachment inquiry, and then, of course, also this potential government shutdown. Both sides seem very far apart of watching and reporting throughout the day. We're not dealing with one issue, we're dealing with several issues here.
That's absolutely right, Kristen. This is going to be a chaotic and deeply uncertain month. The way things are going to unfold over the next few weeks, yes, there is a possibility of that collision course. On September 30th, when the government funding deadline comes up, sometime over the next few weeks, Kevin McCarthy, the speaker, is going to get asked about whether he does, in fact, want to move forward with an impeachment inquiry.
He has suggested that that is all but inevitable. But importantly, McCarthy has also said he will hold a vote. He told the conservative website Breitbart that he's not going to unilaterally move to open that impeachment inquiry. And it's not clear he has the support of two 18 members of the House.
He doesn't have a whole lot of votes to lose. And then on government funding, you know, I covered a number of these government funding fights. I've covered every shutdown over the last decade. And usually it's one thing, Kristen, one fight that leads to the shutdown.
This time, there's so many different fights. It's hard to know how they all get resolved in time. And these fights are being driven once again by the Freedom Caucus. They want to cut spending levels below what was agreed to in a recent two-year budget deal.
They want to attach conservative policy provisions on things like immigration, but have no real chance of getting through the Democratic-led Senate, much less signed by President Biden. There is a push to defund prosecutors, federal and state, who have secured indictments in former President Trump, and Marjorie Taylor Greene is explicitly connecting the two things by saying she's not going to defund the government unless the House votes to open an impeachment inquiry. So how all of that gets resolved, far from clear. Speaker McCarthy's got a very difficult task ahead of him over the coming weeks.
He certainly does, and you'll be covering every twist and turn. We know that. So we'll get it. Hey, click here.
Let me ask you about someone who's watching all of this unfold closely, which is former President Trump. He's also, of course, watching the legal battles unfold. His former chief of staff, who did not guilty, ahead of tomorrow's arraignment. What can you tell us?
Yeah, Kristin Mark Meadows became one of the last of the 19 code defendants in the Georgia case to file a waiver, saying they will not show up for arraignment tomorrow, but they want to basically turn their homework in remotely and plead not guilty. Now, all of those code defendants have done so. So a marathon, what happens is it'll be a marathon day of arraignment. tomorrow, in Fulton County, appears to be focused more on one new hearing that's going to pop up about a couple of these code defendants.
Kenneth Cheesebrow and Sidney Powell, both attorneys associated with the Trump campaign, trying to separate their cases from Mr. Trump and the rest of the code defendants because they want to move quickly when Mr. Trump and the others want to move slowly. I think we should get used to this posture here where we're going to see flurry of paperwork, significant amounts of hearings and additional filings as all of these defendants move to best position themselves ahead of the trial there that will start eventually, Kristin, and we'll be on camera eventually, but the process of getting there, I think, could be quite time consuming.
So buckle up and be ready to try to stay on top of all of those details. We are buckled up, Garrett. Let me give you the final word here. I mean, to what extent is the full president who's clearly emboldened politically by these indictments?
How much is he putting a sum on the scale of what happens on the Hill when you're talking about the impeachment inquiry, something that he has said that McCarthy should move forward with him. We were talking about this government shutdown. Yeah, look, in terms of spending, the former president is not especially interested in the finer details of government spending. He wasn't all that interested in it when he was the current president of the United States.
That's just not how he operates, but he is interested in the impeachment's plural, both the idea that House Republicans continue to investigate Joe Biden, particularly as it relates to Ukraine, which I'll remember, of course, is what he got impeached for the first time, essentially pushing for investigations in that case by Ukraine, of then candidate Joe Biden, which led to the first impeachment. And the second thing he's interested in is getting his own impeachments expunged. Remember, we talked a good deal about that before the House and Senate left on recess. It's something that some of his allies on the Hill were very interested in, that he was very interested in, and that Kevin McCarthy seems to be interested in.
Some of the errors come out of that balloon in recent weeks, but I wouldn't be surprised to see it inflate again now that lawmakers are back in town. All right, well, we have a lot to watch in the coming weeks. Thank you all for starting us off, Monica Sahel and Garrett. Appreciate it.
And coming up, extremism in America will have the latest fallout as the former leader of the Proud Boys is sentenced for Israel in the January 6th insurrection. But first, we're digging deeper into the state of the 2024 race in new polling that is ringing alarm bells for both parties. The panel's next. You're watching Meet the Press Now.
Welcome back. Another poll, another sign of Donald Trump's dominance in the 2024 Republican primary. Fresh numbers from CNN have former President Trump polling at 52%, 34 points ahead of his closest competitor, Rhonda Santis. Compare that to his 46th point lead in Wall Street Journal poll that we showed you.
Anyway, you slice it bottom line here. Mr. Trump is either leading the field by a lot or by a whole lot. Joining me now is our panel political congressional reporter, Daniel Diaz.
Democratic strategist Amisha Cross and Republican strategist Rick Tyler. He's also an NBC political analyst. Thanks to all of you for being here. So, Daniela, let's start with this mess on Capitol Hill.
What do you make of it? Does it get resolter? Is the government going to shut down? Are we going to see an impeachment inquiry?
It just depends who has the power right now, right? The Senate seems to be very united. McConnell and Schumer, we just heard from them, you know, moments ago saying they want to move forward to prevent a government shutdown. So, really, the player here that we're going to have all eyes on is next week, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy and how he's going to deal with the different factions of his party who some want cuts to federal spending.
Some are okay with moving forward with a stock debt bill so that they can fund the government to pass these appropriations bills, prevent a shutdown. And, you know, he really wants to stay speaker and these conservatives continue to threaten, you know, specifically Chip Roy, he had a Twitter X, I should say X, the red last night continuing to say he wants to cut spending. So, we're going to have to keep an eye on how this all plays out because McCarthy is walking a very fine line here to please all factions of his party. But, you know, they're not back yet this week, it's the Senate back.
So, that's who we're hearing from. Right, Kevin, Danielle makes the point that Speaker McCarthy is yet again in the spot like his speakership is yet again in the spot like talk about how big of a test this is for him and do you anticipate do you think that former President Trump is in his ear in this moment? Probably. Look, McCarthy has to decide whether he wants to be the leader of the party and his house caucus and more importantly, whether Republicans can prove they can govern.
You can't get big tax cuts when you have marginal when you have small margins in the body. It just doesn't work that way. The way you get long-term systemic change is you're convinced enough of the country to send the people who want that kind of change to Congress. They didn't.
It is split. The Congress has a responsibility to govern and they're not governing. And when did a shutdown ever benefit the Republican Party? Like ever?
Because every time it gets shut down, no matter whose fault it is, it's always going to be blamed on the Republicans and it's just going to show people that they're not ready to govern. I mean, one thing that we saw earlier this year was that the White House underestimated McCarthy and his ability to actually get his conference to pass legislation. Do you think that the White House runs the rest of doing that again? And I spoke to, I was in the briefing room today and I asked them, like, how involved is the president going to be?
Do you think do you expect him to get involved in this? Given the stakes? I do. Given the stakes and the timeline where, you know, fastly approaching election year, there's also still the primary stakes that are out looking at Biden's current polling numbers.
Spoiler alert, they don't look that great. At this point, I think that he is going to get involved. A little bit more of a light hand. I don't think he's going to go into a press circle around it, but I do think that he's going to get involved because he quite frankly has to.
The stakes are too high for the American public. We know that the interest rates are in a tenable for many people. We know that there's going to be another housing crisis in tandem with student loan debt repayment. We know that there are a lot of people who literally can't keep their heads above water.
They cannot afford to have a crisis of this and acknowledging that to a point you made earlier, there's no win here for Republicans to actually, you know, push forward with a stall of that sort. But the American public would be the one to have heard the most. And that blame game is something this White House doesn't want. And frankly, I don't think it's something McCarthy was odd.
You know, what do you make of that? Adding to what you just said, you nailed it. But we're already seeing the messaging from Democrats, and of course, Biden being the leader of the Democratic Party, that it is going to be Republican salt if there's a shutdown. Schumer has been saying it repeatedly.
And that is what we're going to hear from the rank and file too. They are all united on this, and they all want to make sure the American people know, and that is obviously organized, that if there is a shutdown, it's because of the conservatives in the House. One of the things that's interesting is that Marjorie Taylor Green is saying, I'm not going to vote for this if we're not stripping funding for the investigations into former President Trump. I'm not going to support Ukraine funding.
I mean, Rick, obviously a lot of this is aimed at energizing the base. I hope not, but unfortunately it does seem that way. Look, I don't like the politics of impeachment without evidence. If there's evidence, and let's look at an investigation, we don't investigate because we think there might be evidence.
And there's been a long-going investigation and there is no evidence. Similarly, I don't like the politics of the 14th Amendment. I think those things are very dangerous. 14th Amendment is a way, essentially, to keep former President Trump from getting on the ballot in a certain state.
Because he was proven to be part of an insurrection. Well, Jack Smith didn't feel that way because he didn't charge him with anything related to an insurrection. They didn't do that in Georgia either. He's been charged with conspiracy.
But so, you know, those things are going to go nowhere. And I think in both cases, they will just strengthen each of the candidates. I mean, it's such an interesting point because we saw when former President Trump was impeached twice, there's a political upside to that. And the White House is basically banking on, look, if this does happen, which, as you heard Monica say in her reporting at the top of the show, they're not convinced it's going to happen, but if it happens, they're going to be prepared.
And they're going to be prepared to try to spin it around. And as Rick says, politics are very tricky. Absolutely. Well, the thing about impeachment is typically, and we've seen this with Clinton as well, when impeachment happens, the likelihood of the approval rating going down tremendously for the leader is actually very minimal.
We would like to think that these things are really driving the American public, quite frankly, they don't, not to the matter at which I think those who present them actually believe that they do. And at best, it could actually be a boost. Yeah, it was a boost for Clinton as well as former President Trump, Danielle. That's true.
I do want to add to what you said earlier about McCarthy, McCarthy knows that it's very tricky. He has not yet endorsed Trump, let's remember that. He also wants to pass the statement earlier. Yes, he wants to pass the CR.
He doesn't want to straight down. He understands what that means politically for his party. He is really struggling right now, and of course, impeachment would start in the House, right? And McCarthy has already said that if there is a sort of impeachment effort that it will start in the House and it will be a vote.
That is how it started with Democrats, and McCarthy has already said that it's what he plans to do as well. And that's where we don't know, we'll go forward. Wait and see, how much pressure do you think he's under from Republicans to go forward with this? That's all he's wanted.
He has it right now. He's had it longer than even some people predicted, even after the debt limit fight. And it's important to know that he's struggling again with the conservatives. You have more to tell the Green behind him.
That's not a concern. I'm talking more about the House, Supreme Caucus member. She's not part of it anymore. Let's remember those really conservative Republicans, most of them supporting Trump.
Some of them are not, but still very, very conservative, who are threatening to oust him because of that motion of AKA. Only one member of Congress can vote to motion of AKA the speaker, and he knows that he's dealing with that. So he could obviously continue down this path where he pleases all the factions of his party. And he's done that before.
It's just a matter of how is he going to do that this time? Let's talk about another leader, President Biden, Amisha, who had this very sharp shift in Tony yesterday when he was in Philadelphia, speaking to union members, talking about the former guy, as he said, quote unquote, who had this office. He took some of his sharpest attacks against former President Trump, frankly, that we've heard from former President Biden quite some time. Absolutely, and quite frankly, I'm excited about it.
I've been waiting for the fighting side of President Joe Biden to come out for a while now. This isn't an election cycle where you can have someone who only talks about the wins or the legislative wins or the policy wins that have been made by the Democratic Party. He is going to have to get in the wrestling match with former President Trump. The impeachments didn't matter.
The 90-plus felony charges didn't matter. The mugshot didn't matter. He's going to have to call Trump out for who he is for what he is instead of that contrast. And I think that he's finally reached the point in recognizing that the other things aren't necessarily working, so it's time to make that happen.
And Rick, he doesn't want to get into the legal battles that the former president is facing for a range of different reasons, but as Amisha points out, his messaging on the economy hasn't been breaking through. And here you have polls showing that two are tied. He's tied with former President Trump. You know, which is really kind of scary.
What President Biden, I think, is trying to do is with the Republican Party or the other candidate, say for Chris Christie, who's not going to be the nominee in all likelihood. And as I said, similarly, is actually run against Donald Trump. And you can do that by pointing out his horrible record as president, even from a conservative Republican perspective, he has a horrible record as president. What's ironic about the Republican Party is they don't want to take on Donald Trump, but they honestly didn't realize that if Donald Trump is the nominee, I believe they will get wiped out up and down the ticket in November.
And maybe that's the best thing, because this party needs to be wiped out to be reformed, because this is not a winning. This is not, Trump is not their winning ticket. It is not a strategy for a governing majority. All right.
Well, we will leave it there. Thank you, great conversation, Daniela Amisha and Rick. Appreciate it. After the break of political drama, deep in the heart of Texas, we're live at the Capitol in Austin where the impeachment trial of the state's Attorney General is now underway, as he faces sweeping charges tied to allegations of corruption and abuse of office.
You're watching the press now. Welcome back, turning now to a once-in-a-century political development. The impeachment trial of Texas State, of a Texas State official, Attorney General Kent Halston is underway in Austin, Texas right now. These are live pictures from the trial of the first witness testifying.
As impeachment managers and Paxton's lawyers began opening statements this afternoon, earlier today, Paxton was presented with 16 articles of impeachment that included seven instances of abuse of office and two instances of constitutional bribery. Now back in May, the Republican controlled Texas House voted overwhelmingly to issue the articles against Paxton after report service, accusing the Attorney General of abusing his office to help a prominent Texas real estate investor in return for the investor's help covering up Paxton's extramural affair. Now, Texas Senators, 18 Republicans and 12 Democrats will hear the case and rule on Paxton's future in office. That excludes Paxton's wife who is a sitting senator but cannot vote on the proceedings.
Joining me now to discuss this, I'm the senior reporter, Jane Tim, who's following the trial in Austin, Texas, and I'm also joined by Zach Despark, politics reporter for the Texas Tribune. Thank you both for joining me for this really historic day in Texas. Jane, let me start with you and just walk us through what has happened so far. What are your key takeaways from this first day of trial?
So how some future managers have just called their first witness in the chamber behind me when I left the room to come out and talk with you, Kristen. He was going over, essentially, his conservative bonafides, trying to convince him that the senior staff, which is one of the first witnesses who was called, of Paxton, the ones who reported him to the FBI in 2020 for success suspected corruption. Our conservatives, not rhinos, which is one of the first questions that they were asked. Now, of course, this all fits into these allegations of corruption that were passed overwhelmingly by the House of Representatives.
Now, Republican Rep Andrew Mer, one of the Republicans in those House of Future Managers, he had this to say in his brief opening statements. Let's take a listen. The oath of office that we all took to protect the citizens of state and to uphold the laws of this state and this constitution means something. It isn't just words on paper.
It's literally an oath to God. And Mr. Paxton had an obligation not to abuse his office for his own benefit. He betrayed his constituents and the sacred public trust that's been given him.
Mer spoke for less than 20 minutes of the hour of a lot of time for the opening statements. He promised that the witness testimony would offer chilling detail on just how slowly the staff of Attorney General Paxton learned about what he called the slow creep of corruption of their former boss. Jane Tim, thank you for your reporting now from Austin, Texas. We really appreciate it.
Zach, let me turn to you. Now, let's do a little bit of a deeper dive into these accusations. We're talking about 16 articles of impeachment, more than 4,000 pages of documents detailing these accusations break down what the key takeaways are for you and also this relationship between Paxton and the businessman, Nate Hall, if you would. Nor, well, as you mentioned, the crux of this impeachment trial is about the relationship between Attorney General Paxton and Nate Hall, a real estate investor here in Austin.
Essentially, the house managers are alleging that Paxton repeatedly abused his office to help Mr. Paal, essentially letting Paul use the powers of the Attorney General by influencing an outside counsel that Paxton had hired without telling the rest of the staff and use that outside lawyer to go after the enemies of Nate Paul, including police who had raided his house, including business rivals, including people he was involved in lawsuits with. And how were the articles of impeachment presented today? Talk a little bit about the optics of this and what actually stood out to you witnessing this really historic moment there.
Sure, you mentioned that the house overwhelmingly voted to bring these articles impeachment to the Senate, the House and the Senate are both controlled by Republicans. So really, the audience here is the Republican senators in the upper chamber who were ultimately determined whether Paxton is convicted. The drama from this morning is there were a bunch of pretrial motions brought by Paxton's team asking senators to dismiss the case outhanded would have ended all day. They wouldn't be a trial.
Senator said, no, we want to hear the evidence here at most Paxton only got 10 of the 30 votes. So there is a sense that Paxton could be in real trouble here because he had so little support among Republicans in the vote so far today. How extraordinary is that? I mean, nationally, we don't see that, right?
We have not seen a break with the leader of the GOP former President Trump. And yet here you have a very different situation in Texas. Why do you think that is? I think the house, the volume of evidence that they presented like you mentioned, they published 4,000 pages of evidence last week.
They presented this in several hearings in the spring when they brought the articles of impeachment. What the House is trying to do is say, there is so much evidence here that it is not consumable, it is not politically possible for the Republican senators to ignore this, even though Can Paxton, like they are, is a Republican. Really fascinating politics that play there. And one of the other elements that just makes such a unique circumstance is that his wife is a sitting state senator and also on the witness list.
What are you expecting of that? And to what extent do these charges of this extramarital affair play into what's unfolding there at the Capitol? It's certainly interesting and also awkward spectacle to have Mrs. Paxton, Senator Paxton present for the whole trial, even though she is not voting.
We expect that there will be significant times spent in detail discussing the affair, not for salacious reasons, but purely because it relates according to the house managers so closely as to why Ken Paxton was doing his thing from a poll. Because in a poll, they say, with helping cover up the affair and helping him carry out the affair. And just finally, what will you be looking for in the days ahead as this trial unfolds? We will be seeing if there's any movement to suggest that the political calculus has changed for those Republican members who will ultimately decide the outcome.
So far, they've said they want to hear the evidence. If that's going to be the case the rest of the way, I think Mr. Paxton can be in trouble. Zach Desparth, thank you so much.
Really appreciate a great conversation, great reporting. Thanks. And as we say around here, if it's Tuesday, someone's voting somewhere, and today that somewhere is Rhode Island and Utah, where both states are holding special house primary elections. Rhode Island's first congressional district is voting to replace resigning Democrat David Sussolini.
The Democratic primary is crowded and features a lieutenant governor, a former White House aide, and a former state representative, whoever wins, the Democratic primary is likely to take the seat. Similar situation unfolding in Utah, where voters in the second congressional district are voting to replace retiring Republican Congress with Chris Stewart. The Republican primary could be a signal of Utah voters feeling Stewart former President Trump, with a Trump critic and former state legislator facing off against a former Stewart staffer, and former Republican National Committee member. The Republican primary winner will be the heavy favorite to win that seat.
We will watch both races closely, of course. Coming up next, the former leader of the Proud Boys is being sentenced for his role in the January 6th insurrection. As we speak, we'll have the very latest next. You're watching the press now.
Welcome back. As we speak, a federal judge is sentencing the former chair of the Proud Boys for his role in January 6th. Enrique Tario is one of four Proud Boys convicted of seditious conspiracy in connection with the attack on the Capitol. Tario wasn't actually at the Capitol on the 6th, because he'd been arrested days earlier for actions to pro-Trump rally in Washington.
But prosecutors say he's still helped orchestrate the attack, describing him as a general, not a soldier. Four of Tario's fellow Proud Boys were sentenced last week. Each of them received at least 10 years in prison. Join me now to discuss this.
NBC News Justice and Intelligence correspondent, Kendall Anion, and with me is Cynthia Miller, Idris Professor at American University, and director of its polarization and extremism research and innovation lab. She's also author of Eight in the Homeland, The New Global Far Right. Thanks to both of you for being here and personally appreciate it. Ken, let me start with you.
Bring us up to speed with the latest that's happening in court. And the significance of the fact that Tario wasn't there on January 6th. That's right. So according to our producer who's in the courthouse, Tario has just approached the bench to give a statement, a final appeal before the judge hands down the sentence before that some family members of his talked.
But the big picture here is that prosecutors are seeking an extraordinary sentence, 33 years in prison, longer than a lot of people who are convicted of murder get in this country. And Enrique Tario didn't kill anybody, but prosecutors would say he tried to murder our democracy that day. And that they really came to Washington, intent on doing violence to try to keep Donald Trump in power. And Tario wasn't there, but there were a lot of text messages at the trial showing that he was exhorting his followers from afar.
And then afterwards, he said, make no mistake, we did this, and he celebrated the attack. We are waiting for his sentencing, any tea leaves into what it might be, and just looking broadly speaking, the sentence is so far for the Proud Boys, it's actually been later than what the government has requested. That's right. And for that reason, I don't think the government's going to get the 33 years in prison.
Because they didn't get the larger sentences for these other Proud Boys, you see on your screen. But Tario may still get the longest sentence of any generous sentence if he gets 19 years or more. The guidelines, federal sentence guidelines, call for between 27 and 34. So the judge is significantly departing downward for all these defendants.
And it's interesting to wonder whether the Justice Department may appeal that ultimately. What do you make of those lighter sentences? Well, I think even those lighter sentences are still a pretty big deal. I mean, these guys are losing their livelihoods for a couple of decades, almost in some cases.
I mean, one of them says, what he really wants us to be on his kid's PGA. Well, you've lost that shot. You know, you're losing your chance to be a parent and active engaged parent. And I think what we're seeing here is even if those sentences aren't rising to the federal, what they could have been, what the prosecutors wanted.
This is a strong signal that these are serious charges. This is these guys are traders. They're going in the history books in ways that their families are going to be ashamed of forever. And these are serious and rare charges that they have been found guilty of.
And just zooming out a little bit, what is the current state of these types of groups, the Proud Boys, the both keepers? Have they been weakened in the wake of January 6 in these subsequent trials that we're watching unfold? Well, we have seen some groups get weakened, and I think it's worth noting that there has been some unraveling and the organized unlawful militia movements and the organized white supremacist movements as well. But the Proud Boys have not really weakened that much.
They've just pivoted. They're opportunistic. They've moved to kind of protests at violent protests or protests that carry kind of a whiff of violence at drag story hours at anti-transgender activism. They're trying to generate mainstream support from other things that they think are of interest to conservative mainstream voters.
What, based on all of your work, do you think that trying to combat these groups in the Justice Department is the way to and through these charges is the most effective way to weaken them? Or does there need to be a whole of government, whole of society approach, frankly? Well, these groups, first of all, I think it's really important to remember. The Proud Boys are a terrorist entity in Canada and New Zealand.
In other words, in some of our closest allies, they're really dangerous groups. But groups themselves, individuals who are members of groups, are still the minority of defendants charged with crimes at the capital and of political violence and hate-fuel violence in our country more generally. So we have a bigger problem of unaffiliated violent actors, and that has to be combated with prevention that's much more upstream. And just to put a fine point on it, we are seeing extremism and violence connected to an increase on the rise.
Absolutely. We have record-breaking anti-Semitism. We have spikes in hate crimes in every category right now. We have over a dozen people arrested recently for threats against election officials.
We have political violence heating up, and we're not even at the one-year mark before the election. So what we really need is, in these cases in particular, these people are motivated by disinformation, by misinformation, by belief and conspiracies. We need media literacy, digital literacy, things that can also, in a whole of government way, teach people to reject this propaganda. You can pick up on that point, because I think Professor Idris Miller picks up on one of the significant things, which is that we're approaching another election.
That's right. How concerned is the Justice Department about this type of violence as we approach yet another election? And is it all systems go in terms of trying to combat it and get ahead of it? Extremely concerned, not just the Justice Department, all agencies of government, the White House, they're having meetings about this, because, as Cynthia said, threats to public officials to election officials have really skyrocketed.
And while this capital, these prosecutions of these capital writers may have sent a deterrent message for that kind of violence, we're still seeing, as you said, the lone wolf problem all across the country and the FBI and other agencies are on alert to try to stop it. And finally, Ken, the Justice Department is appealing. Some of the Oathkeeper's sentences. Where do you see that going?
How's that going? So it's a rare thing, right? They filed a notice of appeal. They haven't actually appealed yet.
They need the solicitor general's permission to even do that. But they may argue that these sentences were too light, according to the guidelines. And they may do the same thing in these Oathkeeper sentences, sorry, Proud Boys sentences, because they're just so intent that this was a different kind of crime. It threatened American democracy.
It could have sent things in really dangerous directions day after January 6th. Cynthia, let me give you the final point here. How do you think we as a country turn the temperature down on this? Well, I think first of all, we all need to remember what some of the values are of an inclusive democracy.
Groups like this are anti-democratic, but they're also targeting minorities across the country in a lot of ways. I mean, so people feel terrorized. And I think leaning into some of our shared values and remembering what we stand for as a country is really important. And helping people recognize and reject the kind of propaganda that steers them away from that is credible.
And also the education that you're involved in helping people have. Thank you so much to both of you. Ken and Cynthia appreciate a great conversation, important conversation. And still to come on the world stage, President Biden prepares to meet with G20 leaders overseas.
As President Putin prepares to meet with North Korea's Kim Jong-un to broker a weapons deal. Love the very latest next. You're watching the press. Welcome back.
President Biden is set to leave Washington later this week for a major gathering of world leaders at the G20 Summit in India. President Xi Jinping is not expected to attend. President Biden told reporters this weekend he's disappointed by Xi's expected absence. It comes in escalating tensions and reporting by the Wall Street Journal that the U.S.
has tracked about 100 incidents of Chinese nationals trying to access American military installations. Additionally, U.S. officials say they're also concerned about China's continued military support for Russia in its war with Ukraine. Moscow, meanwhile, may be seeking military aid for North Korea as well.
The White House has Vladimir Putin plans to meet this month with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. NBC News, Warren Coruscant, Matt Bradley joins me, Matt. Thanks so much for being here. So let's start with that Wall Street Journal report about Chinese spying.
What do you know? What's the very latest there? Yeah, I mean, it's a pretty strange report. And I mean, what it's showing is Chinese nationals who appear to be trying to just walk on to U.S.
bases. And in some cases, even swim on with scuba gear so they can take photographs. Now, it really does raise a lot of concerns about the integrity of a lot of these U.S. bases.
But really what it shows is that the Chinese are willing to use these unconventional, untraditional methods, really blunt instruments, just using tons of manpower just to try to get small gains in terms of intelligence. And of course, it makes the mind wonder how many people actually made it through and were able to complete their missions. These 100 people that you mentioned caught in the last couple of years, you know, those are only the people who were actually caught, and none of them faced espionage charges. All of them were faced with minor charges like trespassing.
So, you know, the U.S. legal system has a hard time dealing with that. And that's one of the things that Wall Street Journal article actually brought up was the fact that, you know, in China, if U.S. intelligence agents were trying to do that in China, they would be charged with espionage and throwing jail for years and years.
And that's not the case here. So they can kind of get away with this. Really interesting point there, Matt, and obviously it just adds to these ongoing tensions between the U.S. and China.
It was widely anticipated that President Biden would meet with President Xi at the G20 summit. Obviously that's not going to happen. Now that President Xi is not going to be there. I asked the National Security Advisor today, when might they meet?
And he didn't give us any indication that there was a meeting imminent between these two leaders. So how does his absence complicate this already very fraught, complicated relationship? Yeah, I mean, Kristen, you know, U.S. China relations are at a low right now, of course.
But, you know, there's a snub here, for sure. She hasn't missed a single G20 meeting since he took power back in 2012. So this is definitely, there's something up. You know, it's not that he thinks he's going to be on holiday.
If there is a snub, it's most likely not aimed at Joe Biden. It's probably more likely aimed at India and Narendra Modi, because there's this ongoing border dispute that has often come to blows, literal blows, fist fights in the Himalayan mountains on that border between India and China. So that is most likely what this snub is about. But, you know, as we heard from Joe Biden just today, he said he thinks he is going to be seeing Xi, and that's probably referring to an economic conference of Asian nations in November in San Francisco.
So that could be the next step. Interesting. Well, we will watch for that. Let me ask you about North Korea.
We're going to go around the Horn here, Matt. As I said at the top, the White House is watching the fact that there are these reports that Kim Jong-un and Putin are planning to meet to discuss arms deals. Again, the National Security Advisor today from the briefing room expressed real concern about that. How likely is it, though, based on your reporting that North Korea actually agrees to back Russia?
Well, I think the real question isn't so much whether North Korea will agree, because I think North Korea does have a lot to gain and maybe very little to lose from backing Russia. You know, they get some sort of legitimacy, some sort of place on the world stage in Russia. It wasn't so long ago that Russia was joining in the UN Security Council in bashing North Korea and pushing for resolutions against Pyongyang. So this is a major shift in the relationship, and Pyongyang might want to take advantage of that.
The question really is, does North Korea have any military equipment, any conventional weapons, ammunition that's worth using on a battlefield that really, in Eastern Ukraine, we're talking about a battlefield that now, after so much Western weaponry, has been shipped to that front line, is now a showcase of really a lot of the most advanced armaments in the world. So will North Korean arms take a balance on that kind of battlefield? It's kind of unclear whether this means anything more than a diplomatic gesture and sort of pariah states coming in from the cold. And well, we're about out of time, Matt Bradley, but obviously all of this with pretty significant implications potentially for the war in Ukraine, which is the backdrop to all of this with the U.S.
trying to get more aid, both financial and military to Ukraine. Matt Bradley, thank you so much for your fantastic reporting. It's always really appreciated. And thank you for being with us this hour.
We are back tomorrow with more Meet the Press Now. NBC News Now coverage continues with Halle Jackson right now. Hey everyone, I'm Dylan Dryer, co-host of the Third Hour of Today and Mom to Three Wild Boys. I've learned a lot in my years as a parent, mostly that I don't have it all figured out yet, and I'm not the only one.
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