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I'm Kristen Welker. I just wrapped up another episode of Meet the Press where I interviewed Senator Lindsey Graham, the top Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, and Congressman Debbie Dingle, a Democrat from Michigan. Senators are working against the clock this weekend to try to land a critical border security deal, a compromise that could then unlock a broader package promising aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan. It's funding President Zelensky desperately needs.
The Ukrainian president flew into the US this appear to do little to move the needle with a growing number of Republicans souring on the idea of sending aid to Ukraine and others delaying the funding to try to get tougher immigration policies out of their Democratic colleagues. To give us a better sense of all, I'm sitting here now with NBC News national security and Pentagon correspondent Courtney Cubby. Courtney, welcome to postgame. Thanks for sticking around with us.
Thanks so much for having me. Appreciate it. Let's start right there. Let's talk with President about President Zelensky's visit to the Hill this week.
It comes as Democrats and Republicans in the White House are trying to get this deal at the border. But once they work through those ticking points, then they have to deal with aid to Ukraine and Israel. Was President Zelensky successful at making his case that aid to Ukraine is still necessary? Yeah, you know, it's been two pretty tough years in Ukraine, but President Zelensky himself had a difficult week this week.
He came here hoping that his star power that's really, you know, been able to work for him on previous visits. He hoped that it would be able to convey his message, which is I need more funding. I need continued flow of weapons and equipment, especially ammunition, and I need it now. The time is now.
And I gotta say, he didn't turn a lot of minds. A lot of people were already against this funding publicly and privately. They didn't seem to change their minds with his visit. So it was a tough week.
From on top of that, frankly. Then the European Union said that they were going to move towards Ukraine becoming a Member, not a surprise. It's not going to happen anytime soon, most likely. But then we had Hungary's prime minister come out and veto a $55 billion aid package for Ukraine.
So two difficult days, I will say. President Zelensky has, he's really got this down. You know, what he needs to do to come to the US to convince lawmakers. He knows that he needs to stay above the domestic political fray.
But the reality is that the political, domestic political arguments this week, they overtook his message. It just simply did not resonate what he needs. And I guess, like Christian, he needs that money now. The, the, they are running low on money to continue to send these five.
And then we're seeing it in the packages. They are smaller than they have been for months. Well, I was going to ask you, Cordon, you're so right to make that point. He understands the domestic politics so well.
And when he comes here, he's weaving in and out and navigating that. And yet, to your point, you still have a number of Republicans questioning whether they are going to back more funding. Give us the reality on the ground, on the battlefield, because, of course, we know there's been a lot of talk that Ukraine is, that this war is stalemated. Basically.
It's, it's, I mean, people in the middle, in the Pentagon have been describing it to me as war of inches, meaning that there, there are gains, you know, and they're not always by Ukraine. Ukraine actually had a pretty good tactical win this week along the Dnipro river. That will set them up for a better space for the winter. But small gains that they're making, and they're coming at a very high cost, not just in Ukrainian troops lives, frankly, and injuries and casualties, but in the amount of artillery and ammunition they're expending.
I really can't stress that enough. They, even with this huge influx of weapons and ammunition that the United States and other countries have been giving them, they still aren't making a lot of advances. And this has been a difficult lesson for people in the Pentagon to come around to over the last several months. And the other backdrop here is what we're looking at.
We're less than a month from Iowa. We are moving into a political season where any kind of funding for Ukraine is only going to get more and more difficult to pass. They have to do it now or it's only going to become more treacherous of a reality. You're absolutely right.
As soon as that calendar hits January 1st, all of this gets more complicated. Courtney and I was Talking to Senator Lindsay Graham, he said, yes, we are making progress. We are not there yet. He thinks that they'll get a deal on the border and they'll get something broader done in the new year.
But it doesn't look like we're gonna start the new year and have Congress announce immediately a package. We'll have to wait and see what happens. Of course, part of this is funding for Israel, and there's starting to be a lot of debate around that. Should it be conditioned on Israel having a very clear plan to limit civilian deaths?
You know, the National Security Advisor, Jake Sullivan, was in the region this week. He met with Prime Minister Netanyahu. He sent the message from the White House that Israel needs to do more. And now the Defense Secretary.
Yeah, Defense Secretary and the. And the new chairman of the General Silky Brown, are both heading Israel this week, and they're all going to footstep the message that Jake Sullivan carried, which was the US Continues to support the war against Hamas, but they need the Israelis. The IDF need to transition into a different phase of this conflict. Essentially what they're calling it is they're sort of looking at it as there's been a high intensity phase with massive amounts of airstrikes, this ground offensive that just rolled into Gaza.
And they want it to be more of a targeted intelligence dr, Small group, special operations missions, specifically going after Hamas leaders. And I gotta tell you, Jake Sullivan, they do not put timelines on things. But he said that the United States is looking for the IDF to transition to this more targeted and tailored mission in weeks, not months. And he called on the Israelis to show results that they are being more careful with civilian casualties.
This is a really big shift from where the White house was on October 7th and 8th and the weeks after that. President Biden doesn't seem to have shifted away from his strategy of hugging Israel close. You know, maintaining access, maintaining influence with them. And it has worked.
It has worked. But we are seeing, even from he and him, we heard this week that he said that Israelis need to be more careful. They are shifting the message here away from where we have been over the last two months. And Courtney, as we talked about on the show, the way in which President Biden is embracing Israel has hurt him in some places politically here at home.
I spoke with Congresswoman Debbie Dingell in her state of Michigan, which has a very large Muslim population. There has been a backlash, a growing number of people calling for a ceasefire. Debbie Dingle said it's time for a ceasefire. Doesn't seem like the Administration is going to get to that point, though.
No, I mean, this week they were out on an island with a UN resolution that called for humanitarian ceasefire. 153 nations voted in favor. The US was 110. That did not.
And what's really striking about that is some of the nations that the US Is opposing on that include some of the closest allies that the US Has. The UK And Germany abstained from voting, but Japan, Canada, they voted in favor. So historically, very close US Allies are on the opposite side of this argument right now with the United States. And it is putting the US In a more isolated position.
I think it's fascinating to think about, you know, what we're hearing publicly now, shift in tone from Dick Sullivan. Oh, we will hear from Secretary Austin, General Brown this week. I can only imagine that that shift in language that we're hearing publicly must be so much stronger behind the scenes in these meetings that they're having with the Israelis, talking about the need for them to take more care and spilling casualties. 19,000 people according to Hamas health ministry have been killed, many women and children, and we don't even know how many hundred thousands they be buried in the rubble right now.
It is a humanitarian catastrophe right now. Yeah. And you make such an important point that what we're hearing publicly is just so different than these conversations that are taking place privately. Court, of course, this week you had rare access to a defense manufacturer in Alabama working to set up defenses against threats from space.
What can you tell us about that? What are the key takeaways and what it means as it relates to the space arms race between the US And China? So I mean, for space geeks like me, this is super cool because I got to go in and look at some of the things that the US Is doing and the majority of the program of defensive and offensive and space to classify. So it's really difficult to destroy, especially in TV because there's no video.
So we got access to this facility where they're working on some of these defenses. I would say the biggest concern right now that the US has is China's ability to put what's called a hypersonic live vehicle up in space. This is a missile. It's a super fast missile.
They launch up into space, then it goes into orbit and it orbits the Earth over and over and over. And the scary part is they can pull it right out of orbit and it hits the ground at a tremendous velocity with no warning for air defense and missile defense systems on the ground. So, and just for perspective here, if you had a brick, just a normal household brick flying in orbit like that, and you dropped it. It could destroy a building like the US Capitol without any explosives on it.
So now think about the impact of a missile doing that. So this is a huge concern. China has tested this capability already. They've shown the ability to do it.
It's not perfect yet, but they have the ability to do it. The only real thing to defend against defense against this space, lasers. Because what do you have, you need to stop it in space before it goes back to the atmosphere. Or potentially terrestrial based, ground based lasers as well.
So these are the kinds of things that they're working on to United Launch Alliance. They're also working on another just super cool idea, satellites in space that have giant robotic arms, China's field of that already as well. So think about it. They put these up out there.
The idea is that the arms are supposed to be fixing other satellites. You know, they can work in space. They don't have to send other, you know, a crew up there to do something. But what China's also showing the ability to do, take those robotic arms, grab onto another satellite and pull it into a junk orbit.
So think about that. They have the ability to go after US satellites and pull them out orbits. They can't see, they can't communicate. There's very real threats in space.
And there's a concern that the next war here on Earth could actually start in space. But your report was extraordinary. I saw it. You got that access.
It's so incredible. Big picture, how concerned is the United States that the US Is behind China when it comes to this technology? So they are. The US Is working on it, and in many ways they are keeping up with China.
In fact, the reality is the US Is still ahead of China in space. But China is putting so much money and effort into their program and specifically their research, development and fielding of things that they are moving faster than the US and they will catch up and surpass the US at some point in the near future. What's hard is they work in a very different way. You know, our acquisition process, you know, it's wonky, it's kind of geeky.
But the research and development at the Pentagon, in the military, holds back development. That's why we have companies like United Launch Alliance. We're doing these things in the civilian world and selling the product to the Pentagon for them to use in space. But the reality is a lot of the infrastructure and architecture in space is civilian, not military.
Wow. Well, it's. I just learned so much sitting here. I learned so much from your reporting.
Space geek. I love it. Thank goodness for space geeks like you, political geeks like me. Thank you, Court.
This was so great. I know it's a busy time. You're busy with the holidays. Hope you have a great holiday.
Thank you too. Happy Holidays. Happy Holidays. Drop off in a new Hyundai Launcher today with $0 down during the Hyundai Advantage Sales event.
Take advantage of the $1,000 spring drive bonus and lease the 2026 lingerie essential for just $73 weekly at 4.99% for 60 months. And you're covered by Elantra's best in class five year new car Warranty. Now that's the Hyundai Advantage. Conditions apply.
Offer includes 1% loyalty rate reduction for qualifying customers. Visit.