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This Sunday, 2020 hindsight. With just 30 days until election Day, Donald Trump's refusal to accept the 2020 results loomed large over the 2024 race. Did he lose the 2020 election? Sam I'm focused on the future.
That is a damning non answer as the special counsel reveals new evidence in the federal election interference case. They rigged the election. The election was rigged. I didn't rig it.
They did. And former Republican Congressman Liz J. Campaign trail with Vice President Kamala Harris. I have never voted for a Democrat, but this year I am proudly casting my vote for Vice President Kamala Harris.
No matter your political party, there is a place for you with us and in this campaign. Plus, wider war. As the Middle east escalates into a regional war, fears grow. The conflict is expanding to a new and more dangerous phase.
And return visit former President Trump returns to the PEN rally site where he survived an assassination attempt in July. Over the past eight years, those who want to stop us from achieving this future have slandered me, impeached me, indicted me, tried to throw me off the ballot, and who knows, maybe even tried to kill me. My guest this morning, Republican Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas, and Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff of California. Joining me for insight and analysis are NBC News chief Washington correspondent Andrea Mitchell, Amina Vaz, co anchor of PBS NewsHour, Mark Short, former Chief of staff and Vice President Mike Pence, and former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki.
Welcome to Sunday. It's Meet the PRESS from NBC News in Washington, the longest running show in television history. This is MEET the PRESS with Kristen Walker. Good Sunday morning Election Day is now just 30 days away and there are crises swirling at home and abroad as Israel prepares to mark the one year anniversary of the October 7 terror attacks.
The region is on edge for a potential retaliation after a massive missile attack by Iran. And 10 days after Hurricane Helene made landfall, hopes are fading for finding those still unaccounted for as the death toll soars to at least 230. Vice President Kamala Harris touching down in Charlotte, North Carolina on Saturday, visiting a resource donation center. The work that is happening here and that continues really is the best of what we can do to bring federal, state and local resources together in a way that is coordinated with one purpose and one purpose only, which is bringing relief, support and help to the people who are most in need and desperate for help.
Meanwhile, a battle around Pennsylvania. Former President Trump made a dramatic return to Butler, the place where a gunman tried to assassinate him nearly three months ago. He was joined on stage by billionaire Elon Musk and paid tribute to the supporter killed that day while criticizing the Biden Harris hurricane response. This is a Katrina for them.
This is one of the worst, they say it's the worst job ever done on helping people through the ravages of a hurricane. And just a month before Mr. Trump is on the ballot again, the former president's effort to overturn his election loss four years ago is back in focus. On Tuesday, Mr.
Trump's running mate, Jamie Vance, refused to say during the vice presidential debate that the former President lost the 2020 election. Did he lose the 2020 election? Tim, I'm focused on the future. Did Kamala Harris censor Americans from speaking their mind in the wake of the 2020 Covid situation?
That's a damning non answer. On Wednesday, a federal judge on seal of filing in the election interference case against Mr. Trump. In the brief, special counsel Jack Smith argues Mr.
Trump is not immune from prosecution for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Saying he was acting as a candidate, Mr. Trump criticized a political act. This was a weaponization of government and that's why it was released 30 days before the election.
They rigged the election. I didn't rig the election. They rigged the election. Now as a reminder, former President Trump and his allies brought more than 60 legal challenges after the 2020 election in an effort to overturn it.
Nearly all of the cases were dropped or dismissed due to a lack of evidence. In a striking display on Thursday, former Republican Congressman Liz Cheney campaigned for Vice President Harris. Donald Trump was willing to sacrifice our capital to allow law enforcement officers to be beaten and brutalized in his name and to violate the law and the Constitution in order to seize power for himself. I don't care if you are a Democrat or a Republican or an independent.
That is depravity and we must never become young. And on Friday, in a surprise visit to the White House briefing room, his first in office, President Biden shared concerns about election violence. Do you have confidence that it will be a free and fair election and that it will be peaceful, I'm confident. Be free and fair.
I don't know whether it'll be peaceful. The things that Trump has said and the things that he said last time out when he didn't like the outcome of the election were very dangerous. Former President Trump will return to Pennsylvania later this week and former President Obama will kick off a battleground state blitz for Vice President Harris on Thursday, also in the Keystone State. I'm joined now by national political correspondent Steve Kornacki with the latest on the state of the race.
Steve, break it down for us. Yeah, Kristen, let's start big picture nationally here. We've been tracking this week to week the average of all of the major national polls. Kamala Harris continuing with that three point advantage in the average over Donald Trump.
But of course, Donald Trump lost the popular vote in each of the last two times he ran for president. And one of Those times in 2016, he was still able to win through the Electoral College. So let's take a closer look then at the states, at the seven core battleground states. Again, you're looking at our poll averages in here.
The headline obviously continues to be it's very close everywhere. But one thing to draw your attention to when you talk about Trump being in Pennsylvania, Obama coming in there, all of the attention from Trump's standpoint in terms of an efficient path to 270 electoral votes, it would look something like this. If Trump gets Georgia, okay, where he leads the poll average by a point and a half. If he gets North Carolina, where it is literally tied in the polls right now and where Trump won in 2020, the only one of these battleground states Trump carried four years ago, then all Trump would need on top of Georgia and North Car would be Pennsylvania, where Harris does have a small leading averages now, but Trump getting those three would get into 270.
So that's the importance for him and for Democrats, the importance of blocking that path for Trump in Pennsylvania. Taking a closer look then at the Keystone State, one of the reasons besides its size that this is of such interest to Trump and Republicans, there's a trend here. You're looking at the Trump era. You're looking at party registration in pen.
And look at this. When Donald Trump first came on the scene Back in 2016, the Democratic advantage in party registration in Pennsylvania was over 900,000 votes. 2020. Look now in 2024, that's been cut almost in two thirds there, down to about 330,000.
There's been a Little bit of a boost for Democrats And Kamala Harris took over in registration. But the big picture trend here has been more competitive for Republicans in party registration. So where are we looking in Pennsylvania? What's going to decide this state?
Well, believe it or not, in the Trump era There are only 10 counties in the entire state where than they did before Trump came along. However, some of these counties are very big. Focus on these four collar counties right outside Philadelphia, Delaware, Chester, Montgomery, Bucks. More than a fifth of the vote statewide is going to come out of there.
And look what's been happening here last pre Trump election in these collard counties outside Philly, Democrats won, Obama won by 9 points, about 120,000 votes. Look what happened in 2020. Almost a 20 point Democratic margin, nearly a 300,000 vote margin. This is where the Democrats have been growing suburbs, places with lots of concentrations of high college degrees.
Can Harris do even better in those colored counties? That's critical for her. And then from Trump's standpoint, there's a lot of rural counties in the state that have gotten better, small rural counties. But let's talk about this collection here.
Some people call this the Latino belt of Pennsylvania. These are counties that have some small mid sized cities with rapidly growing Latino populations. We've been talking about Trump improving relative to 2020 and 2016among Hispanic voters. Well you can see of the cities in that Latino Belton, Pennsylvania, Reading, Pennsylvania, it's 70% Latino now.
It was overwhelmingly Democratic in 2020. Joe Biden won by 45 points. But look at that, that's down almost 20 points from 2012. Hazleton, Pennsylvania, more than 60% Hispanic in 2012.
Democrats won it nearly it's now a double digit Trump place. Allentown, it has come down 10 points its margin for Democrats. Can Trump grow new support in the Latino counties, the emerging Latino counties, large populations of Latino voters in Penn State. That's a key from his campaign standpoint to the state to the Keystone State.
Kristen? Well, key questions as we continue to keep our eyes on the Keystone State. Steve Bernanke, thank you so much. You got it.
And joining me now is Republican Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas. Senator Cotton, welcome back to the press. Thank you so much for being here. Thanks for having me on Kristen.
Let's start off by talking about Hurricane Helene. We know that former President Trump has made quite frankly a series of baseless claim. Administration is intentionally withholding aid from areas where Republicans live. Also saying that FEMA funds are being redirected to migrants.
Both those claims have been debunked they're false. Here's what D.A. criswell, the FEMA administrator, had to say about it. Take a look.
This level of misinformation creates the scenario where they won't even come to us. They won't even register. And I need people to register so they can get what they're eligible for through our programs. Senator, what do you say to that criticism that Mr.
Trump is confusing people at a very time when they need help the most? Well, I don't think he's confusing anyone. I think the administration did get caught flat footed here and Joe Biden, Kamala Harris have proven to be overmatched by events. Again, if you hear from Brian Kemp, the governor of Georgia, who's very close to this, is monitoring it on the ground.
Georgia's response, he said that the administration's response has been lackluster. I think there's an obvious difference between what happened in western North Carolina, northern Georgia, eastern Tennessee than the normal kind of hurricane impact. Most of the time hurricanes are hitting on the coast, hitting by definition flat land. They can cause devastating damage.
But within some reasonable period of time, the water proceeds. Lime can come in, trucks can come in for supplies. If you look at the geography of where Helene did the most damage, it's in the mountains. We have small narrow valleys even once the storm moved on and there's no more rain.
Oftentimes these places only have one way in and out. So that's a very different challenge than what you see on coastal areas. I think the administration from the very beginning should have been deploying military assets necessary, specifically helicopters to get in there. It took them days to do that.
There's hundreds of military helicopters within flying distance of this area. That should have happened from the very beginning. But Senator, just a couple of points there. The governors themselves have said that they are satisfied with the federal sponsoring camp on Monday said we got what we needed.
The Democratic governor of North Carolina said the state is grateful for the support of North Carolina, $27 million to Western North Carolina specifically. There's no doubt that they challenges in this recovery effort. But I'm asking you about the misinformation that the former president is spreading. Here's the Charlotte observer editorial board wrote.
They wrote, quote, former President Donald Trump has politicized the situation at every turn, spreading falsehoods and conspiracies that fracture the community instead of bringing it together. Do you think Donald Trump should leave campaign politics out of disaster relief? Kristen, again you have Governor Kemp who said that the response has been lacking. I understand the Democratic governor of North Carolina is going to praise Joe Biden, Kamala Harris in the middle of election season.
But the simple fact is we're more than a week on. We're still not conducting recovery operations. They're still engaged in rescue operations because Kamala Harris and Joe Biden were slow to answer the bill here. They were slow footed and they were overmatched by events.
You even had the secretary of Homeland security saying there's not enough money left in the fund. So it is the case that the administration itself, the secretary who oversees Famous, said there's not enough money left in the fund. And they have been spending billions of dollars the last four years to move migrants from our border to put them up in hotels and give them room service and maize. That's simply the fact those funds are coming from a different federal fund, not from disaster relief.
Just to be clear. And what DHS Secretary Bjork has said is that it has the money it needs for now but not necessarily through the end of the year for future hurricanes. So there is a discussion about more funding, right? About that.
Henry McMaster, the Republican governor of South Carolina's a federal assistance has been superb. Glenn Youngkin said he's incredibly appreciative of the rapid response. And again, Brian Kemp on Monday at least in part said we got what we need while also saying yes, there are some more things that we would like to see here in the state. My broader question to you I think is about this misinformation.
Do you think this is the time to put falsehoods aside like the idea that FEMA funds are being redirected to migrants, which is not true? Look, it is true that FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security have been spending billions of dollars on migrants. I understand some people say they're separate funds, but we just passed short term spending bill. It's very common for the administration to come and ask for permission to move money between fines especially to prepare for emergencies.
And second, I would note that this administration seems to have no problem finding money when they want to spend it on their parties. When they need hundreds of billion dollars to pay off student loans for graduate students and gender studies programs, they somehow find it. When it's trying to get helicopters to deliver food and water and cellular service and life saving medicine into these mountain valleys, they somehow can't seem to find the money. And again, $110 million have been sent to survivors so far.
And again, those are different funds than disaster relief funds. Let me ask you about something different. I want to talk about one of the big moments this week from the vice presidential debate, we just played in the open when Senator J.D. vance refused to say lost the 2020 election.
I want to put this question to you, Senator, just to put this to rest. Can you say definitively here now that Donald Trump did lose the 2020? Christian Joe Biden was elected president in 2020. It was an unfair election in many ways.
I mean, you had states that were changing their election practices or election laws, sometimes in violation of the Constitution. You had networks combining with big tech to suppress what we now know to be a truth or story about Hunter Biden's laptop and the evidence that it exposed about Biden family corruption. So obviously, Joe Biden was elected president. We know that in part.
Did Trump lose? Did Josh. Joe Biden was elected, Kristen. There's a process by which we elect president.
There's votes in November. You have an Electoral College vote, you certify the election, and then you have the inauguration. Joe Biden was elected president, and everything's on Helen Hackett as a result of it. As you know, though, I mean, it has been stated that this was one of the most secure elections in U.S.
history. But do you just not want to say the Trump lost? Why not just say this in question? If Biden is president, can you just simply say, Trump lost, Joe Biden was elected President 2020.
That's why we have Runway inflation. That's why we have more than 10 million illegals in this country. And to go back to the point about the 2020 election, it was very irregular. You had networks to include this, networks conspiring big tech to suppress evidence of Biden family corruption.
You had Democratic states and cities like Pennsylvania, like Philadelphia, changing their election practices on the fly. That's one reason why President Trump and the Republican National Committee is so focused on election carrying this election to make sure that Democrats aren't doing things like they're trying to do in Pennsylvania, counting absentee and mail in ballots that don't have dates. And there's no proof of that happening. Again, just to be clear, as I said initially, Trump did take his case to court more than 60 times month didn't win those cases.
Let me move on and ask you about January 6th. So there's new evidence unsealed this week. Jack Smith in this filing says he has three witnesses, forensic experts who will testify that when Donald Trump returns to the Ellipse, he went to the dining room by Oval Office, where he watched coverage of the attack against the Capitol unfold. And he was of course, on his phone on Twitter.
A year ago I asked Donald Trump about what he was doing during that time. Look, tell me how you watched this all unfold. Were you in the diamond watching you? I'll tell people later at an appropriate time.
By the way, Nancy Pelosi, why would I do that? Did you call military law enforcement? What? Did you call military law enforcement?
At the moment, the Capitol doesn't have anything. Senator, do you think Donald Trump showed leadership in those hours when the Capitol was under attack? What I think about what Jack Smith did this week is it was a temper ketchum from a deranged fanatic who is angry that he keeps losing time and time again the Supreme Court over the course of his career. This is unverified, uncross examined hearsay from grand jury testimony which usually isn't revealed publicly.
For that reason he went to court. He asked for special permission to file a brief that's four times as long as a normal brief and they had it disclosed less than 30 days before the election. This is professional misconduct and all likely by Jackson. It should be investigated.
And just be clear, the judge did unseal it. But just back to the question, do you think Donald Trump showed leadership in those hours that the Capitol was under attack? Look, I know that President Trump said to the rally goers who were here on the Ellipse in Washington that day that they should protest peacefully and patriotically. It took him three hours to send that tweet telling them to go home.
He posted videos and other messages on social media Once some of those rally goers started to riot at the Capitol telling them to leave the Capitol to not salt law enforcement. I know those things. What Jack Smith is asserting in this filing is unverified, uncross, examine, hearsay. This is, this is perfect example of actual election interference.
Jack Smith violating Department of justice regulations to try to get out as much unverified so called evidence as he has because he's angry that he lost. And the Democrats don't think they beat Donald Trump on issues like inflation, immigration, very, very quickly on Iran. Would you support Israel launching strikes on Iran's nuclear facility? We should do what Joe Biden, Kamala Harris haven't done for a year.
We should let Israel win and we should back Israel to the hills. They will decide how to retaliate against Iran. Iran is our enemy. Israel needs our support.
We should back them through the hilt. And what they decide to do, should they go after the nuclear site, would you support that? Is it. I'm not going to give Benjamin Netanyahu advice on what to target.
I'm going to say that unlike Kamala Harris and Joe Biden, we should back his trolls to the hilt. We should let them win against our common enemies. All right. Senator Tom Cotton, thank you so much for being here today.
Really appreciate it. Good to see you. When we come back to Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff of California joins me. Welcome back.
And join me now is Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff of California. Congressman Schiff, welcome back to MEET THE press. Great to be with you. Well, it's great to have you.
I want to start off by asking you about that unsealed brief that was filed by Jack Smith. We should note that it was unsealed by the judge. In it, he reveals new details about what happened on January 6, including he says that when former President Trump was told that his then Vice President, Mike Pence had to be rushed out of where he was for safety and that he was in danger, Trump's response was so what, what was your reaction to hearing that? Congress?
Well, that was the most shocking part to me. It just reaffirmed, I think, what we all know about Donald Trump, and that is he cares about no one except himself. He cares about nothing, not the Constitution, not our institutions, not the Capitol, not his own colleagues, nothing but himself. And in that respect, that one exchange when the president is informed as the vice president is essentially being sequestered in a safe place because his life is at risk, people are chanting hang my Pence.
The president's reaction is so what? That to me is so telling and so powerful. I want to ask you about the timing of all of this, Congressman, which you know, has been in focus. A former federal prosecutor referred to this brief as Jack Smith's, quote, October cheap shop.
Donald Trump has accused the Justice Department of election interference essentially by violating its long standing practice not to take public steps in politically related cases close to an election. So I wonder if you would weigh in on this. Do you think it was appropriate for this brief to be unsealed this close to the election? Congressman?
I do think it was appropriate. And we have to look at why the delay was occasioned in the first place. And so much of the delay had to do with the defendants stall tactics in the lower courts and the appellate courts in the Supreme Court. It had a lot to do with the Supreme Court's decision to wait until the last day of session, to wait until as close to the election as possible.
Because the Supreme Court now, sadly, the legacy of the Chief Justice Roberts has become yet another partisan institution decided to issue its decision at the latest moment. And then what you see the special counsel do is what he should do, which is promptly go back to the grand jury, get a superseding indictment that meets the new limits placed on evidence and charges in a presidential prosecution, bring that indictment forward, then file a brief before the district court to continue the process. So I think the special counsel did what he should do and I think the court was well in its discretion to make that public. And yet, Congressman, just reminds you, this is what you said back in 2016 when then FBI Director James Comey reopened essentially the investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails.
Take a look. The DOJ policies against making a statement about a pen or closed case and certainly not doing it in the days leading up to investigations there for a reason. I think this was the exercise of very poor judgment. I say that not just as a Clinton supporter, but some have spent six years in the Department of Justice as an assistant years attorney.
You don't talk about pending cases. You certainly don't do it right around election time. And again. That was reopen just days before the election.
Why shouldn't that same standard apply now, Congressman? Because what you had there was the director of the FBI unilaterally making a decision to talk about an open investigation. It wasn't a filing in a court. It wasn't a decision by a judge weighing the policy, weighing the evidence.
This was James Comey's unilateral decision in the weeks leading up to the election. That's very different. Prosecutors before bringing a case, and this was before any case was brought by James Comey or prosecutors speaking to the public about evidence in the case, doing so, indeed, days before the election, even not knowing what that evidence was. That is a very different circumstance than a court filing made under seal, as it was here this week.
President Biden, as you know, said that he doesn't know if the election will be peaceful, though he does think it will be free and fair. Do you think this election will be peaceful and free and fair, Congressman? I think what the president said was all too accurate, shockingly, breathtakingly, tragically accurate. And that is, yes, I think the election be free and fair.
But will it be free of violence at the end of the day if it is close? If Donald Trump loses again, as I expect that he will, he will contest it. He has more reason to contest it than he did before, not because of any flaw in the election, but because Donald Trump believes, and perhaps with reason, that if he doesn't succeed at the ballot box, he may be going to jail. So he's going to challenge the results.
And we saw tragically what happened when he did that four years earlier. And that's where we see him laying the same foundation to fraudulently challenge the results once again putting out the same big lies that he put out four years earlier. So sadly, to hear an American president say that he cannot fully expect that this may be a peaceful transition of power, it breaks your heart because this is the legacy of Donald Trump, which is we now cannot go into an election with full confidence that the results will be peaceful. Let me shift now to the ongoing developments and escalations in the Middle East.
I want to ask you to respond broadly to what you just heard from Senator Tom Cotton, who makes the case that we quite frankly hear from former President Trump, which is that part of why you have this unrest, this escalation in the Middle east is because, as Cotton just said, he argues the Biden administration has been weak in its foreign policy and its policies toward the Middle East. What say you? How do you respond to that allegation that we have heard, quite frankly, not just from Cotton, but from a number of Republicans on the campaign trail? I think it's kind of nonsense.
You're here on the campaign trail. Look, we are where we are, tragically, one year after October 7th, because Hamas massacred, raped, tortured 1200 people a year ago and they still retain dozens and dozens of hostages, including Americans. Hezbollah, the day after Hamas began that war, expressed its solidarity with Hamas by also lobbing projectiles into Israel. That's why we are where we are.
And you know, my heart breaks for the families of those hostages of Gandhari YEAR of But I think that we ought to, you know, try to put ourselves in the position of state attack the way Israel was. We would never accept the continued governance of a terrorist entity like Hamas. We would never accept a situation where our people are held hostage, as indeed they are today. We would never accept a situation where tens of thousands of resistance couldn't return to their homes because a different terrorist group, Hezbollah, was continuing to attack them.
That's why we are where we are and Israel will retaliate. If I were advising the prime minister of Israel, I would say go after those ballistic missile factories, storage areas. That would be proportionate in my view, but it would also help degrade Iran's capacity. That was gonna be my follow up question which you just answered.
So I appreciate it. Let me turn now to the state of the race. Obviously, incredibly close nationally and in key battleground states. You told me the last time we were together on this program in July that Vice President Harris, who wasn't, of course, at the top of the ticket at the time, that you believe she could win the election overwhelmingly.
Given how close this race is, Congressman, do you still believe realistically that Kamala Harris can win this race? Overwhelmingly, I do. You know, by the standards of today, I think she can win overwhelmingly, you know, given how divided the country is, overwhelming, maybe winning by 100,000 votes or 80,000 votes in these key battleground states. I think that's within her capacity to do.
And I made that point because I was at the time urging that the torch be passed to her. And it was. And I think the effect has been dramatic. Young people who are disengaged are now engaged, interested, active volunteering.
So I think we are well poised to win this thing. But it is still scary close. And I can't remember a time in history when we had such a clear and dramatic choice about the direction the country would take, whether we move forward to an economy that works for everyone, with a democracy that is healthy and intact, or whether we move back to this terrible, you know, Trump American carnage. And I think faced with that prospect and that choice, Kamala Harris will win this race.
And, and I'm very optimistic about the outcome. All right. Scary close. A little different than overwhelmingly, but we heard you make your case, Congressman.
Thank you very much. If I could just say the reason, the reason why the margin is so important is because they will challenge the results when they lose. Running up that margin as much as possible and turning people out has to be our priority. All right, Congressman Adam Schiff, thank you so much for joining us today.
Really appreciate it. And when we come back, Election Day is now just 30 days away. The panel joins me next. Hey, guys, Willie Geist here reminding you to check out the Sunday Sit down podcast.
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Welcome back. The panel is here. NBC News chief Washington correspondent and chief foreign affairs correspondent Andrea Mitchell Amina Vaz, co anchor of PBS NewsHour, former White House press secretary Jen Psaki, host of Inside With Jen Psaki and Mark Short, former chief of staff the vice president, Mike Pence. Thank you all for being here.
I have to start out by saying we did not plan our outfit today. I think a lot of ways to. Since you get outline, I'm going to start with you, Mark, because you obviously have the most unique perspective on this filing that we all saw this week by Jack Smith that was released by the judge. And in it, we did learn that Donald Trump said so what when he heard that.
Mike Pence, when you all were being ushered to safety, what do you make of that? What was your gut reaction when you heard that? I confess, Kristen, I think there's been so many different reports about interactions there that I didn't find that new. And you have to recall that at the time that we had been evacuated in sequestered ways when President Trump tweeted out against the former vice president and I think encouraging more of the activity that happened in the Capitol.
So I didn't find that as revelationary. I do think, though, that broader picture concern is that as Republicans, I think often are now condoning or sort of giving excuses away for January6, I think it's a bigger concern about when you've crossed that bridge and said I'm not going to we as a party that leaves a rule of law, I'm going to put that aside and not make a big issue. Then it's easier to say, well, if we're going to be in a position of life, I can walk away from that too. Our banners on traditional marriage, or say we're no longer a party of beliefs in trade or say we're not going to stand up for our allies on the foreign stage, or now say we're the saviors of government run health care like you've crossed that bridge on January 6th.
It makes it easier on each and every successive issue to continue to walk away from things that made our party strong conservatives. It's just a fascinating point. And Jen, let me kick it to you because in addition to everything that Marcus said, you heard Senator Tom Cotton here again not say that Trump lost the election. Of course, echoing what we heard from JD Vance on debate stage, for folks who say, why is this still a topic of conversation?
Trump is making it a topic of conversation. He talks about it at almost every rally. Exactly. And the big reason it's a topic of conversation is because it's not a then problem.
We're not looking in the rearview mirror and analyzing what we should do to prevent it. It's an L problem. I mean, Donald Trump is running on the platform of running on the same election subversion playbook that he tried to make happen back in 2020. That is what he's, he wants fake electors.
He's going to challenge it. He is actively doing many of the same things he did leading up to the 2020 election. That is why it's central and that's why people should care about it. Andrea, what about that?
In that extraordinary moment where President Biden walked into the roofing room. As a former White House correspondent, you know all too well that doesn't happen very often times since he's been president. Yes. And he said he doesn't know if this election and transfer of power will be peaceful.
I think it's exactly because of what Jim was just saying, because of what Donald Trump is saying. And JD Vance even more so, that the election was not won by Joe Biden. Anyone can see that. And also what he's saying in the butler last night to the rally now, so what he said in 2020, I think it's also, he's the president of the United States.
He's still the president. He sees the threat matrix. He gets the daily brief. And I think that the threat level is higher than it's ever been and that his law enforcement, his national security people are really concerned about the domestic stuff.
I mean, what about that? And the fact Andrea says at the rally last night, Trump, without any proof said maybe the assassination attempt was being carried out by essentially his political rivals. I've been talking to his allies who say stop with the conspiracy theories, focus on the economy. That's your strong point.
Talk about immigration. What are you hearing when you talk to him? I'm the thing of it is none of his advisors, none of the Republican strategists or donors I talked to want him talking about any of this. They want him talking about the economy and immigration issues.
Republicans have a full advantage among American voters. Issues that they feel like they have a strong message that Americans actually care about right now too. I mean, I can remember seven or eight months ago talking to Republican leadership on the Hill of Alexander John Thune, who said now's the time for Trump to be reaching out to Nikki Haley voters and to be expanding his base to reaching out to suburban women. He has done none of that.
And Trump problem has always been that he has a ceiling of support. It is maxed out on the number of people who believe that the 2020 election was stolen. That's not going to expand his base or bring him more votes. Jen, talking about strategy, you think about the Harris campaign strategy has gotten some criticism as well for not being basically mixing it up enough.
Enough events that are unscripted for President Obama's gonna be out of the campaign trial was Cheney was with her out of the campaign trail. Are you starting to. Are you anticipating a strategy shift? We've already seen them announce this, which I think is a great thing.
Vice President Harris has a number of interviews she's doing over the next couple of weeks. Walton Walls, who I think is a huge asset who hasn't been tapped into nearly enough for the last month, is going to be out there a great deal. And you're right. I mean, the thing is at this point when everything matters, you have to take risks and people may make mistakes.
It's worth it. Put them out there and have them doing a bunch of stuff. But we've already seen them announce their plans to do it. That Mark, does the listing on the campaign trail make a difference, do you think?
Not at all. Do you think she can heal off some voters around the edges? I think the reality is that the issue set is behind our backs for Republicans and yet we're not really prevailing because I think Trump is stuck in that 45 to 47% and not budging. This should be really, I think a landslide year for Republicans, but we're not focused on the issues of immigration and the economy.
And by diverting on other topics, I think this is an advantage for Harris campaign because it reverts conversation back to January 6th as opposed to where public should be talking. I think they've got to double down on doing more interviews than serious interviews because what I'm hearing from Democratic and Republican business people and a lot of men and she's got such a big problem with men. And there's an undercount of the Trump vote. I think that there is miscegenation in all of this.
Black and white women, big problem. But also the business world. They don't think she is serious. They don't think she's a heavyweight.
And a lot of this is gender. But she's got to be more specific about her economic plans. You know, on to Andrew's point, the gender divide is just so significant. You see the extent to which Harris is winning with women and that Trump is winning with men.
It's huge. It's the largest modern history. It seems to be getting bigger with time. Look for people who know who they're going to bake for.
We know like 80% of registered voters are kind of baked in. Right. It's the latest PBS News poll now shows and 20% of folks say they're slayable in some way. 15% say think I know who I'm voting for but I might change my mind.
5%. So I don't know who I'm I'm voting for. But I think the things I'm looking for at this stage of the game is no.1 big event. Right.
That's going to change people's minds one way or the other. It comes down to the issues. It comes down to the economy, which is number one issue, immigration and defense and democracy, which means different things depending on who you talk. Yeah.
Especially since there's no second debate schedule. All right. We will be back with more. But when we come back, former President Jimmy Carter celebrated his 100th birthday this week.
When he once told us about how important it is for a president to have a sense of humor army the press minute is next. Stay with us. Welcome back. The longest living president in U.S.
history, former President Jimmy Carter celebrated his 100th birthday this week in his hometown of Plains, Georgia, 19 months after he entered hospice care. Four of the five other living presidents sent messages celebrating the milestone. Mr. President, on behalf of the entire Biden family and the American people, happy 100 birthday.
Happy birthday and have a wonderful evening. To my fellow president Jimmy Carter, happy 100th birthday. Have a happy birthday for Carter joined me the press for a joint interview with gerald Ford in 2000. He reflected on his infamous campaign interview with Playboy magazine and how he managed the fallout from his candid remarks.
Well, I think it's very, very important to have a sense of anyway but within yourself you've got to be resilient and you've got to be able to take the hardships and the good days as Well, I was interested while ago and President Ford's comment about the pardon hurting him, I don't think the partner hurt him nearly as much as my comment to Playboy magazine. There you go again. So you have those things come up. So you, you, you.
By the way, my wife didn't think that was funny at all. I dropped about 12% of sports overnight, by the way. It's still the best selling issue. Right.
Let me come back more with the panel next. Welcome back. The panel is still here. Andrea, let me turn to you as we continue to follow these ongoing developments in the Middle East.
Of course, now there is fighting on multiple fronts in Gaza and Lebanon, Israel with new strikes overnight. You have new reporting about the thinking inside Israel about what might come next. I think Prime Minister Netanyahu and on this, he is aligned with his defense minister, unlike Gaza. They are all in.
They're all in because Netanyahu believes and the Israeli officials, senior officials had said so. In New York right after the strike that got Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leader, a senior official saying to some of us that the supreme leader in Iran has a plan to eradicate Israel from the face of the Earth by 2040. There is a time clock in his quarters and they are counting down to it. So they see this as first taking out Hezbollah, the insurance policy that Iran always had as its back, and decimating leadership, now taking out what they believe.
What they said to us are missiles and rockets buried underground in southern Lebanon. That was going to be an attack similar to the Hamas attack on October 7. So here we are on the anniversary and they see a window, an electoral window. US Official saying to me, once said to me that President Biden is in a straitjacket politically, that he can't go up against Israel on something as fundamental as Iran.
And Iran, I think will perhaps in an escalatory way take out military sites in a big move on to domestic oil fields rather than their export facilities. But eventually, I think as this tit for tat continues and escalates, worse case, go after the nuclear and what they can get, not the deepest underground sites that would require US Help, but they can do a lot of damage. I was going to jump in because I think this is important for people to understand. I mean, one of the straitjackets is that Netanyahu is disincentivized to change anything about his behavior.
Because remember over a year ago, before the horrific events on October 7, there were people marching in the streets. He was extremely unpopular. He's now far more popular. So he's incentivized to be a consistent wartime leader in order to stay in power.
And he's basically not listening to the White House on that. I mean, the US look, despite tireless efforts by the White House and State Department officials to talk to us has largely been relegated to sort of observers status in a lot of this. They've been unable to prevent death now from using heavy bombs in heavily populated areas, from targeting medical facilities and shelters to get a ceasefire across the line to bring hostages homes. And this now is prosecuting the war with one eye on Israel and also one eye on the US Election.
And I will say the inability of the US to be able to exert any influence here does have consequences because Attend mentioned for all the horrors of October 7th, for the fight desperate by families to bring hostages home. You know, 40,000 Palestinians dead, mostly women and children, and for millions while here in the US and around the world, they have seen leaders who they say are unwilling to fight for Palestinians and Lebanese, maybe Iranians, for their rights to live and exist. And that has shifted something that can't be shifted that easily. It was a year ago that 1200 Israelis were killed, race raped, murdered, beheaded.
I don't think Netanyahu should be in San Abbas do anything different. I think the reality is that during this administration you've seen Iran and Bolton from the early days of the 2020 campaign. Joe Biden referred to Saudi Arabia's pariah. In the first weeks of their administration, they took the Houthis off the terror watch list.
They have funded Iran, has funded the Houthis, Hezbollah, Hamas. Israel is surrounded by enemies who want them eradicated. He has protecting his own people and we should be standing behind them. This is a scary position to have and this is why this becomes a political issue.
We'll talk about the politics because look, I think there was a period of time this is a huge moral morality issue. This is humanitarian issues. Only to say that first with the death of Palestinians, Kamala Harris, Vice President Harris has brought the overwhelming majority of Democrats back, including in Michigan where she has supported 94, 95% of Democrats. Still a humanitarian crisis.
If this becomes a contrast between Trump and Harris, that position leads to war in it leads to a more expansive war. But the leadership is about reducing the likelihood of war and coming to a position of strongest ally in the middle. One of the things that has been lost in all of this, a terrible thing, is the hostages and their families who we've become so close to and feeling the rage and the frustration and the agony that they feel every day. What's also lost is that there was a different horizon.
A year ago, I was in New York, the UN talking to the Saudis, the Israelis, the Americans. They were closing in on an agreement. And then Hamas seeing that jump started. According to all evidence, jump started.
What was the Hezbollah plan to eventually go after Israel? Upset the timetable. Iran did not know. Hezbollah did not know.
They did. And I've looked at the films, the rapes, the murders, their IDF film that has not been seen publicly. And many of us have seen it, journalists have seen it, and it's too graphic to put on television. But the fact is that that changed all that.
But Netanyahu had an opening. And I've been on these missions with Secretary Blinken from January on, working on the Saudi Israel ceasefire. It was Hamas that attacked Israel. Wait one second.
We've lost the opportunity for an Arab force to try to. Ten seconds. Absolutely. Now, whose biggest credits are those who say that we can see both the humanity of Israelis who have the right to exist and the Palestinians who are caught in this crossfire.
Well, such a critical issue we continue to cover. Thank you for the conversation. Before we go, if you want to help those who have been impacted by Hurricane Helene, please consider giving to organizations like. Like these.
That is all for today. Thank you so much for watching. We will be back next week because if it's Sunday, it's Meet the Press. Hey, everyone.
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