This Sunday, warning signs. A new NBC News poll shows an overwhelming majority of voters have concerns about President Biden and former President Donald Trump. I got the job done. I got it done.
As the GOP candidates get ready to debate for a second time without Trump, will any of them be able to break through? I don't think we need people who are in it for themselves seeking retribution. I'll ask former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie why Trump is still dominating the party. Plus shutdown risk.
House Republicans struggle to agree on spending bills and now another government shutdown is just days away. This is a whole concept and does it work? House Republicans continue to be in the midst of a civil war. Will Speaker McCarthy turn to Democrats for help?
I'll talk to Democratic Congressman James Clyburn of South Carolina and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. And taking bribes. Democratic Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey resisting calls to resign. The senator and his wife accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribes.
Federal agents found gold bars and cash stuffed in envelopes hidden in the senator's clothing. How damaging will this be for Senate Democrats? Joining me for insight and analysis are NBC News chief White House correspondent Peter Alexander, Amina Vaz, co anchor of PBS NewsHour, and Leanne Caldwell of the Washington Post. 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. Kristen welken, Good Sunday morning. Here in Washington, dysfunction is on full display.
The federal government is careening to a shutdown just one week from today with no deal in sight. As one top House Republican lawmaker told me overnight, quote, it appears that's where we're headed. As hardline Republicans dig in on their demands for deep spending cuts while threatening to replace Speaker McCarthy, who warned this week they want to, quote, burn the whole place down. Democratic Senator Bob Menendez is resisting calls to resign after being indicted for allegedly taking hundreds of thousands of dollars of bribes to benefit the Egyptian government.
Prosecutors are releasing stunning photos, including wads of cash they found stuffed into a monogram jacket when they searched the Menendez home, gold bars and the Mercedes Benz. The indictment appears to undercut Republican allegations of a two tiered system of justice. But it could also make it more difficult for Democrats to make a contrast with former President Trump, who's been indicted four in just days. Mr.
Trump's Republican rivals will try to make their own contrast at the second Republican debate at the Reagan Presidential Library. But is it too late to break through? Our brand new NBC News poll shows they have an uphill climb. I am joined now by national political correspondent Steve Kornacki to take us through all of the numbers.
Steve, it's so great to have you here. A lot of headlines in this new poll. Yeah. Kristen, you mentioned an uphill climb for these Republican opponents of Donald Trump.
Let's show folks from our new poll exactly how steep it is. Look at this Donald Trump brand new national poll of Republican primary voters. Nearly 60% support the former president. His nearest rival, Ron DeSantis, more than 40 points behind him.
Now, obviously, you can see here nobody else in single digits. And look at the movement, too, from the start of the summer. We pulled this back in June. Trump seemed to have a dominant lead then.
It has only gotten more dominant from 43 now. It was 1930 in June. And you can see here we asked the question, I think this gets to the heart of it. We asked Republicans, should Donald Trump be the leader of your party?
And now nearly 60% say yes. It wasn't quite 50 at the start of summer. Well, Stephen, what's so stunning about this number? A lot's happened since June.
We're talking two more indictments against former President Trump. So four in total and the first GOP primary debate. And yet Mr. Trump is just solidifying his lead with GOP voters.
And Kristen, you know this from talking to Republican critics of Trump from rival campaigns. Everything you just explained, they thought would take him down the peg this summer. Instead, he has only moved up. Here you see the numbers saying the party needs a new leader that has gone down.
So for Donald Trump, there nothing but good news. And raises this question. If Republicans go forward and nominate Trump again, this is what the rematch in our poll would look like right now. 46.
46. And you remember in 2020, Joe Biden actually won the popular vote by more than four points. And how about this? DeSantis, who sort of pitched himself as the electable version of Trump to Republicans, fares worse against Biden than Trump does.
We also tested Nikki Haley, the former ambassador. She actually leads Joe Biden by five narcoles. This is notable because she had such a strong showing in the first primary debate. Could that be the reason we're seeing this bump, Steve?
Possible. Let's have a pin in this one, though, because one thing our poll found, she's not nearly as well known as Trump and DeSantis. So more attention, more scrutiny, more tax, would this hold up? We'll see.
But obviously, the fact that the president is struggling this much against every Republican we put him up against raises the question, where is that coming from? The most obvious answer is just this, a simple question of job approval. Barely 40% approve of Joe Biden's performance. And we have to note, 56%, that's the highest disapproval rating for President Biden since he took office.
That's significant. Yes. Let's take a look at what's driving that too here. One big area, no surprise, it is the economy.
Look at this Contrast. This is April 21, months after Biden took office. Nearly half the country was satisfied with where the economy was then. Now barely one in four Americans satisfied with the economy.
Result of this, we found in enthusiasm gap between the two parties. We asked folks on a scale of 1 to 10, how enthusiastic are you about the presidential election? And you can see Republicans, Democrat, there is a gap right there. Where's the lag for Democrats?
We found a couple places. Non white voters, you can see significantly less enthusiastic than white voters. And then how about this age gap, the youngest group of voters who Democrats have been trying to get excited and motivated. A 50 point, nearly 50 point gap there.
So really knuckle battle is trying to make sure voters don't stay home. If you're Democrats. Yeah, that's it. And the problem for Democrats to it, lack of enthusiasm about the election.
There's clearly a lack of enthusiasm about the president himself because we asked primary voters on the Democratic side, do you want options next year besides Biden? 59% said yes, they do. This is not a normal number for an incumbent. We asked the same question a year before Donald Trump sought re election.
Of Republicans, only 37% won. More choices then. That's a very high number. Yeah, this is like the inverse of each other, these two numbers.
Exactly. So it raises the question to what else concerns Democrats. I think this gets to sort of the elephant in the room here. Biden's age and fitness.
I mean, look at this contrast. We've talked so much about Donald Trump, the indictments, the legal, they are clearly a major or moderate concern to the majority of Americans. But Biden's age and fitness for office, almost three out of four in our poll. This is Democrats, Republicans, Independents say it's a major or moderate concern for them.
How about Trump healing a few years younger than Biden? A full 27 point gap right there. This is looming as a major problem for the president too. It's notable because his strategy is to try to laugh off concerns about his age to see if they revisit that strategy.
All right. Fascinating stuff. C. Kornacky, thank you so much.
Well, as Republicans prepare debate in California on Wednesday night. Mr. Trump's opponents are taking him on for not showing up. I think it's a missed opportunity for Donald Trump and I think it's a missed opportunity for Republican voters.
He owes it to people to make the case and to defend his record. You can't be just not showing up to these things. And joining me now is former New Jersey Republican governor and presidential candidate Chris Christie. Governor Christie, welcome back to Meet the press.
Kristen, it's great to be back. Thank you so much for having me. Absolutely. Well, let's delve into these numbers.
You see there, former President Trump is solidifying his lead with GOP primary voters. You've been in this race since June, Governor. Why aren't you gaining more traction? Well, Kristen, look, I know you all spend a whole lot of money on national polls.
So I don't, I don't mean to go after the polling folks, but the fact is that national polls don't matter. We don't have a national primary. If you look at Donald Trump in the latest polls in both Iowa and New Hampshire, the two earliest states, he is barely at 40 in Iowa and he is under 40 at 34 and a 38 in New Hampshire. That means that between 60 and 65% of Republican voters in those two very important early states want an alternative.
And in those places like New Hampshire, I'm in second place behind Donald Trump. So, you know, this whole race is going to change where people actually vote, Kristen. And no offense to any poll that comes out now, but if it's a national poll, if we don't have a national primary, I don't spend more than three minutes thinking about it. Well, let's talk about New Hampshire.
You've obviously been very focused on New Hampshire. As you say, your polling is better there. But Governor, how do you win a 50 state race focusing on just a few states? Now, look, Kristen, you understand the way this works.
You're very experienced at this. The whole race will change when Iowa happens and the race will change in New Hampshire. And I'm telling you that if I beat Donald Trump in New Hampshire, and I plan to do so, that his sense of invincibility, his sense of inevitability will go away. And there are a lot of Republicans in those numbers.
Even in your national numbers, we're gonna be with Donald Trump just because they think he really is the only alternative to Joe Biden. When I beat him in New Hampshire, folks are gonna know he's not the only alternative to Joe Biden. And we'll do it just the way, by the way, Joe Biden did in 2020, you remember quite well. He lost Iowa, New Hampshire.
Everyone said he was dead. He won South Carolina and went on the sweet Super Tuesday states in places where he even had an organization and never spent one day campaigning. Momentum is everything in this race. I'll establish it in New Hampshire.
I understand one of the big arguments as you're making is that Donald Trump cannot win a general election. That's that we've heard from a lot of your rivals as well. And yet our poll shows that he is in a dead heat with President Biden. Do you need to shift your strategy at all?
Will we see that on display on the debate stage on Wednesday, Governor? Well, look, my strategy is not based on electability against Donald Trump. Donald Trump made a bunch of promises. I was on that stage in 2016, Kristen.
He made a bunch of promises to fellow Republicans and then fellow Americans in the fall and didn't deliver. He said that he was going to repeal and replace Obamacare and even the Republican Congress. He failed. He said he was going to build a big, beautiful wall across the entire border of Mexico.
He built 52 miles of new wall in four years. And the next guy's got to pay the first peso towards it. By the way, if he goes at that pace, if he got a second term, he don't need another 110 years as president to finish the wall. And I think most importantly, go ahead.
He says about the budget in four years and he added 7 trillion to the national debt, the worst record of any president in four years in American history. He broke his promises to the voters and we're making a case on that much more than we're making on electability. And yet, Governor, you supported him for re election despite everything you are saying. I want to focus on your background with President Trump.
You were the first major Republican to endorse him back in 2016. You stood by him through a number of controversies from the Muslim band to Access Hollywood tape Charlottesville. What do you say to voters who hear you now calling him an ugly, divisive, horrible autocrat and now feel like they're getting whiplash? Well, they shouldn't feel like it because I've explained it really well.
First off, I support him in 2016 because he was going to be the nominee and because I didn't want Hillary Clinton to be president of the United States. And I make no apologies for that. I still don't want Hillary Clinton to be president, United States. But I broke from the president very clearly for President Trump on election night 2020, when you stand before the American people behind the seal of the president east of the White House and say the election has been stolen when it wasn't, and there's no evidence to prove it's stolen now, nearly three years later.
That, to me, was a disqualifying moment for Donald Trump. He's continued to do that and worse since then. And so, you know, listen, American elections are about, about who's left to vote for. And I made the decisions I made then, and Donald Trump left me.
I didn't leave him. Governor Christie, let me press you on that, though, because as you know, that was not the first time that Donald Trump had claimed an election had been stolen. He claimed that 2016 in Iowa was stolen when Ted Cruz won. He said that there were claims of fraudulent elections throughout the 2020 election.
So this has been a pattern with him. I guess the question is, why did you take a stand back then? Well, I did take a stand when he said Iowa was stolen. I was on the stage and said that he did.
That was untrue. You have prepared for a debate in 2016 against Hillary Clinton when he said he wouldn't accept the election results, Governor, he didn't say, well, look, Kirsten, the fact of the matter is that I don't want Hillary Clinton to be president the United States. And this is much different, much different. When you're president, United States, and people think you actually know something, know something they don't know because you're president of the United States.
That's what made what he did in 2020 so destructive. And we know from looking at what's happened since then that lots of American people believed it because he was president, because they thought he knew things they didn't know. That goes much further than anything you just mentioned and, by the way, will not be the determinative thing in this election either. But people need to look at that history like I did, and that's why I broke from Governor Chrissy, let's move on to Senator Menendez.
Do you think his indictment undercuts the Republican argument that there are two tiers of justice in this country? I'm glad that the Justice Department acted. They acted on some very horrific facts. Look, I did this Christmas, you know, for seven years as the U.S.
attorney in Jersey, the fifth largest office in the country, we did 130 corruption cases and never were defeated. So I know a bit about this. There is no way that any public official has any legal or plausible or ethical explanation for having $500,000 in cash stuffed in jackets and envelopes throughout their home, gold bars that have the fingerprints and DNA of someone who you were attempting to fix the system for. I commend the Southern District of New York for doing the right thing.
And by the way, I do not believe the whole Department of Justice has done things that were wrong. I believe what David Weiss did in Delaware was wrong with Hunter Biden. And it gave people a sense that there were two tiers of Hunter Biden has now been indicted. But let me ask you point blank, would you run, would you run against Senator Menendez if you don't win in the fall?
No, I have no interest in being the United States Senate. You rule it out completely? Yes, I have. I have throughout my entire career.
I had a chance to appoint myself to the United States senate, Kristen, in 2013 when Frank Lautenberg passed away and I was governor. If I didn't appoint myself to the United States, and it's the easiest way to get there, I sure as heck I'm not going to run for it. Let me get your take on what's happening on Capitol Hill. The other big story, the fact that we're reading potentially toward a government shutdown.
Do you think Speaker McCarthy is showing strong leadership in this moment? Governor? I think Speaker McCarthy is managing a very difficult caucus under very difficult circumstances and doing the very best he can. And we're going to see he's paid to deliver results.
And we need to find a way to avoid a government shutdown. It will be bad for the economy. It'll be bad for the American. Do you think a speaker should survive, governor?
Does the speakership survive? I do. I think Kevin McCarthy will continue to be speaker through the 2024 election. And then if he's speaker in January 2025, I look forward to working with him as president to try to solve some of the problems that Joe Biden has created and solve some of the problems that Donald Trump didn't solve even though he promised he would.
And I'll say this, Kristen, you started off with some of the debates often. I'm looking forward to Wednesday night. I'm looking forward to continue to make my case. There it is.
It is unfortunate and selfish that Donald Trump's not going to be there. But I want to keep staying on that stage going forward. People should go to Chris Christie.com donate so that when Donald Trump does on the one they're waiting for. Let me get one more thought here.
One of the big sticking points is over Ukraine aid I know you have been very robust in saying that that should continue. But let me ask you on the subject of Ukraine, when you said that Donald Trump in his first impeachment for threatening to withhold military aid for Ukraine until President Zelensky agreed to announce investigation into Joe Biden, you said back then that Donald Trump's actions were, quote, a laudable public policy goal. Last month, you said, quote, Donald Trump blackmailed them over their military aid in an attempt to get dirt on Joe Biden, which is a governor. It's the latter.
And we learned much more. We learned at. Kirsten. We learned a great deal between when that comment was made, which is when the phone call was first released, to what we've learned now.
And that's the most important thing about someone who's running for president. What you need to do is to make sure that when you get all of the facts, you don't stay handcuffed to something that you said when you didn't know all the facts. And when you learn all of them, you make sure you lay it out and you let people know. Look, I was, I did that based on what I knew then.
Now that all the facts are out, we know exactly what he did. And by the way, he's also made very clear that he didn't want to be supportive of Ukraine anyway, Kristen. And he's made that clear by making clear he turned Ukraine over to Vladimir Putin in 24 hours if he became president again. That's not the kind of person we want the Oval Office.
That's the kind of person who will destabilize Europe and will destabilize the world by America not being a leader. Well, we know that Ukraine will be front and center on the debate stage this week. We'll be watching closely. Governor Chris Christie, thank you so much for your time.
Really appreciate it, Kristen. Thanks for having me. I look forward to being back. All right.
We do, too. Thank you. And when we come back, it's chaos on Capitol Hill with just days left before government shutdown. Democratic Congressman Jim Clyburn of South Carolina joins me next.
Welcome back. Speaking at the Congressional Black Caucus last night, President Biden took on the issue Democrats say is his top vulnerability. So I'm running again and you may have noticed a lot of people focus on my age. Well, I get it.
Believe me, I know better than anyone. But there's something else I know. When I came to office, this nation was flat on its back. I knew what to do.
I vaccinated the nation and rebuilt the economy. I wish I could say the threat to our democracies ended with our victory in 2020, but it didn't. Our democracy is still a stake. This as our new poll shows.
The President's approval among black voters is down 17 points since the first year of his presidency. Mr. Biden is also down by double digits among Latinos, voters without a college degree and independence. And as we mentioned, 59% of Democratic primary voters tell us they want to see a challenger to President Biden.
I'm joined now by co chair of the president's 2024 campaign, Democratic Congressman Jim Clyburn of South Carolina. He's of course also assistant Democratic leader in the House. Congressman Clyde, welcome back to Meet the Press. Thank you very much for having me back.
Let's delve into some of these numbers. Our poll shows that President Biden is in a dead heat with former President Trump, who has been indicted four times. Why is that? I think the American people are focused more on style than substance.
And that is the way it is in politics. Joe Biden is a man full of substance. The style is something you'll get from another candidate. You won't get it from him.
He believes in democracy. He believes in the American dream. And he does what he possibly can to help people fulfill that dream and maintain this democracy. And that is not the kind of stuff that you pull very well.
Congressman, our poll shows that the vast majority of Democrats want to see a challenger to President Biden. Is he the strongest candidate for 2024? I think he is the strongest candidate and I believe very strongly that the American people believe that as well. When you are out this far, I remember back, was it 2010 and 2012?
We got you locked in 2010 and in 2012, all the polls I saw said Obama had no chance of getting reelected, that Democrats wanted an alternative to Obama. What happened in 2012 is not history. He won very comfortably. And I think the same thing will happen here.
Well, as you know, in a close election, every single vote counts. As we laid out his support among some of his core groups, African Americans, Latinos, young voters has dropped. How do you make sure they don't stay at home, Congressman? They will not stay at home.
We understand what's at stake here. The problem with me is I spend too much time studying history and I see what's going on here. I know where the playbook came from that resulted in gender six. It came from the 1876 elections almost exactly.
Name the places at the same stage, alternative electors. They had a scheme put together with a playbook that came out of that election, now that people are beginning to focus on that. And let me say something else. I was in that hall last night.
I've been around here all week. African Americans coming from all over the country. If you think that he's lost 17% support among African Americans, you just got another thing coming. He is not in any trouble with African Americans in this country, I guarantee you that.
All right. Well, let's turn to Vice President Harris. Do you see her as the future of the Democratic Party? I see her as a part of that future, absolutely.
Is she the future of Democratic Party? Oh, she could very well be. I think she is running a very good campaign. Her speech last night was great.
And I look to her as a successor to this president. But I also know the history of that as well. It's not a given. You don't automatically move up.
She'll have to compete going forward with whoever may have dreams of aspirations. And I think she will acquit herself well. Well, I know that you are saying you don't look at polls too much, but our poll does show her favorability is actually lower than President Biden and even the former President Trump. Why do you think she's not resonating more with voters?
What do you think the issue is? Because when you compare the first woman of color and first woman to be vice president of the United States and compare that to all of the history before, you will get that. I think that during this campaign she would demonstrate that she did in that hall last night, that she knows exactly what she's doing. She has the capacity and the capability to be president of the United States, to call upon to do so.
Let's move on to what is happening where you spend your day, every day on Capitol Hill and the potential government shutdown that is looming. It seems like based on my conversations overnight talking to Republican sources, they are no closer to reaching a deal. Now there's some action in Senate potentially to try to get something that Democrats and Republicans can support. Tell me what you and other Democrats are specifically doing to try to avoid a shutdown here, Congressman.
Well, we believe, we Democrats believe very strongly. It's when you make a deal, you live by it. And the speaker made a deal to what the budget would look like. Democrats agreed to it, House Democrats, Democrats in the Senate, even Republicans in the Senate agreed to it.
They have mopped up to those top lines. And then all of a sudden McCarthy seems to be backing away from the deal because five or six people on this side of the aisle seem to be calling the shots. The tail wagging the dog is not the way you do this. Understood.
But don't Democrats, given that its potential government shutdown, bear some responsibility? Is there any conversations? Are you having conversations behind the scenes to try to keep the government open? He is a great leader, and I think he's doing exactly what needs to be done to keep the lines of communications open as we sit here today.
Do you think the government will shut down? Is it a foregone conclusion at this point? It is not a foregone conclusion, and I don't think we'll get to that point. I said no.
Let's talk about Senator Menendez, obviously indicted, as we've been talking about throughout the hour. Should he step down? I'm leaving that up to Democrats. In New Jersey.
They have a Democratic governor. But you're a Democrat. Doesn't this cast the cloud potentially over your party at a critical moment, should step up? I don't think so.
We have to compare apples to apples. And when you compare apples to apples, I don't think you compare a United States senator to the president of the United States. That's a big, big difference. Despite the fact that you have a long list of Democrats who are now calling on him to step down, despite the fact that he's been accused of taking bribes to help Egypt.
Again, innocent until proven guilty. These are serious allegations. They are serious and I read them and I hope they're true. I hope there's an explanation.
He says there is. I would like to hear it. But I'll leave it up to him and his friends among the Democrats in New Jersey. Let me ask you about the impeachment inquiry that is going to unfold this week on Capitol Hill.
I know that you and your fellow Democrats have called this pure politics, but big picture, they're trying to see if there's any link between Hunter Biden and the president and Hunter Biden's business dealings. Are you comfortable with a family member profiting off of their last name in this town? Well, you know, we all to some extent live so that our children can be proud of the names we've given them. I have three daughters and I want them to feel very comfortable being a Clyburn.
And I do know that that is very important for going forward. Now, that doesn't mean that I want them to do things that are unseemly to the name. I do want them to use the name for their benefit. And yet President Biden, according to one witness testimony, was on the phone 20 times with Hunter Biden's business associates who described as pleasantries, but is that appropriate?
Well, his associates said the reply I think it's appropriate to be a father to your son. And if your son is having a problem, and we all know the history of the problem that Hunter has with addiction and he's being a father to his son, you don't impeach a man for being a father to his children. Congressman Tim Clyburn, thank you so much for being here. Thank you very much.
We really appreciate it. And when we come back as President Biden gets ready to join striking auto workers in Michigan, is the White House push for electric vehicles at odds with what union workers want? Transportation Secretary Buttigieg joins me next. Welcome back.
With the UAW strike now in its second week, President Biden announced he's traveling to Michigan on Tuesday to, quote, join the picket line. With UAW members on strike against the nation's leading automakers, this triple come a day ahead of former President Trump's plan to visit Detroit. On Wednesday, it was announced just hours after the union's president, Shawn Fain, publicly invited the president. Joining me now is the secretary of Transportation, Pete Buttigieg.
Mr. Secretary, welcome back to the press. Thanks for having me on. We are going to get to the UAW strike.
But first I want to talk about this potential government shutdown. All sides dug in and the Republican House understanding the fight is over there. But take it behind the scenes. What is President Biden, the administration doing to try to avert a shutdown at this critical moment?
Well, President Biden and the speaker of the House, Captain McCarthy, reached a deal earlier this year. So the focus of the administration is to get the House Republicans to live up to a deal they already made. By the way, that wasn't the easiest deal to accept, including cuts. The things I was hoping to do in transportation.
Just to take one example this, the deal that we have now for some House Republicans to be propelling us toward a shutdown means, among other things, that air traffic control training would stop. It means that air traffic controllers who would continue going to the towers to work would not be getting paid. Think about how stressful of a job that is on the best of days. And now we'd be asking them to show up to work with the added stress of not getting a paycheck, not to mention that service members not getting paid, all of the other unacceptable things that would go along the shutter.
Mr. Secretary, I understand the fight is with the House. But again, if there's a shutdown that falls on everyone's shoulders. There is some movement potentially in the Democratic led Senate to try to reach a deal.
Is President Biden doing anything? Why not use his bullying pulpit more to try to avert this? Well, again the president is focusing, contracting the House on of the deal they already made. The Senate is ready to go, the administration is ready to go.
Does he have a role in this though and responsibility? Of course. And the most frustrating thing of course is that the president, the administration have a responsibility to make sure no matter what Congress does that the country keeps on succeeding. And that's what we're doing.
But we're doing it and he's leading us in doing it with a focus on not allowing shutdown in the first place. And by the way, the cuts that House Republicans are threatening shut down over would also cut into things very quickly. Do you think the shutdown is all inevitable at this point? It can't be.
We can't let it be. This is no way to run the government. The most powerful nation on earth. All right, let's turn to the UAW strike.
President Biden, who calls himself the most pro union president is heading there on Tuesday. As I said a day before former President Trump, the GOP frontrunner is going. Is President Biden going to try to avert any potential momentum Mr. Trump could gain with union workers, that critical voting block?
I think this is President Biden being who he is, which is a deeply pro worker president. You know, not only compared to the anti union tendencies the Trump administration, but compared to any other modern president. President Biden is proud to be the most unapologetically pro worker, pro union president we've had. And that's gonna be on display I think when he's on those picket lines now he and we want the auto companies, auto sector to succeed as well and are pushing parties to get to a win win deal that does the right by workers.
What's a win win deal? What does the president want to see out of this deal? Does he want the workers to get the pay increases that they're asking? What the president said is that when you have record profits in this industry, there ought to be record pay and record benefits going to the workers who are creating that value.
That's only fair, that's only sensible. By the way, it's in keeping with the great tradition of how the middle class was built in the first place. My hometown, South Bend, Indiana, home of UAW Local 5, Local 9, our middle class was built on those good paying jobs the unions and the president want to those Jobs are going to pay going into the future. Let me try pin you down a little bit more because one of the other items that labor workers are asking for more controversially is a four day work week with five days of pay.
Would the president support that? Does he think that's right? Ok. He supports them getting a record deal.
He and the administration are, we're not at the table, right. We're not part of the negotiations. We're not doing the numbers. That's for the companies and the unions to do.
But what the president is making clear is that he is leading an economy where people need to, as he says, the economy needs to grow from the bottom up, the middle down, not the top down. It's a stark contrast from the economic vision you saw in the last administration. What you see now with congressional Republicans who are more interested in corporate tax cuts and are anti union. Let me respond to one of the other issues at play here.
Some Republicans say that the push for electric vehicles to meet emission rules ultimately will cost workers jobs. How does the White House respond to that? And do you see that as a real problem? Workers are smarter than that.
And the UAW has made clear that they are not trying to pretend that we can trap Americans in the technologies of the past. Most people who are clear headed about this recognize the transition to that new technology that's already underway. It's happening with, without a scan under the Trump administration. They allow China to build an edge in that.
We're making sure that that is a made in America EV revolution. But EVs do require fewer jobs. What happens to those positions, Mr. Secretary?
We're going to see an auto sector grow on American soil where there will be more American jobs to be had. Yes, EVs are better vehicles, including in the sense that they have fewer moving parts. They don't break down as often. They also represent a huge growth area for America to reclaim more of the sector.
Remember after manufacturing recession under the last administration, we're seeing a manufacturing boom under this administration. This really can be a win, win, win. And to be clear, there's no going back. I'm just coming to the water industry with or without us.
The question is, will American workers thrive? Let me ask you about what we are seeing at the border. Recently the administration sent 800 active duty troops to the Texas border to deal with a surge in migrants in record numbers this past week. Was the Biden administration caught off guard by this latest surge of migrants?
What you saw was the administration as always responding as needed to conditions, being proactive where necessary. Are we caught off guard, though? Look, the president did what needed to be done. And often that involves a rapid response, like the rapid response that this administration directed.
But also what we see is a political dynamic where some people seem to prefer that the problem continue rather than to do something to actually solve it. And I have to say, that kind of reminds me of what's going down in the funding fight where some of the very same people who would line up to take a shot at the administration over something like air travel disruptions are also trying to disrupt us from training more air traffic controllers. Mr. Secretary, just finally, I want to get your reaction, reaction to an opinion piece by David Ignatius that got a lot of attention from Democrats.
Writing in the Washington Post, he says of the Biden Harris ticket, quote, it's painful to say that given my admiration for much of what they have accomplished, but if he President Biden and Harris campaign together in 2024, I think Biden risks undoing his greatest achievement, which was stopping Trump. How do you respond to that? Winning the election was the beginning, not the end, of President Biden's achievements. And since then, we have seen more jobs created than under any presidential term in American history.
We've seen an infrastructure bill that so many other presidents and Congresses promise and failed to deliver. The achievements are being stacked one on top of another, and that work needs to continue in the administration. Obviously, I can't talk about the campaign side in this capacity, but look, we've got a lot to be proud of, and I'm proud to serve under President Biden and Vice President Harris. All right, Secretary Buttigieg, thank you so much for joining the program this morning.
Really appreciate it. When we come back, the Republican presidential primary debate is just days away as the GOP struggles with an identity crisis. In the age of Donald Trump, we'll look at how one very prominent Republican once defined his party loyalty. Welcome back.
On Wednesday night, the Republican presidential candidates will meet for their second primary debate former President Trump is expected to skip. Once again, the debate will take place at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library. Even as the party struggles over whether to embrace or reject the politics of Reaganism. Ronald Reagan first joined this broadcast in 1966, when he was running to be governor of California as a candidate who'd switched parties.
Here's how he described himself. Since I've been a Republican and I was a Democrat most of my life, I believe that you play on the team. And I have participated the best of my ability. And I did Nothing in the 64 campaign that I didn't do in those other campaigns.
Your views change substantially in any regard since the 1964 campaign? No, as a matter of fact, my views haven't changed an awful lot since I was a Democrat. I believe then that anything, whether it came from labor management or government that imposed unfairly on the individual or the freedom of the individual, was tyranny and should be opposed. I still feel that way.
When we come back, President Biden has reached the highest disapproval rating of his presidency. How worried are Democrats? Plus, can Kevin McCarthy still do his job? The panel is next.
Welcome back. The panelists here, NBC News chief White House correspondent Peter Alexander. I'm the Nawaz co anchor of PBS NewsHour. And Leigh Ann Caldwell, co author of the Washington Post early 202 and anchor of Washington Post Live.
Thanks to all of you for being here today. Peter, I want to start it's a big issue, both the president's age and the issue of the economy. You showed the numbers on each of issues. Nearly three and four Americans had a real concern about Asia.
It's forced this White House, I think, to lean into two things. One is that contrast with Donald Trump earlier than they may have wanted to do. Based on the conversations I'm having with Democratic allies right now, we've heard it was on the topic of stamina that gets right to the topic of his age. That's a really fascinating point, trying to have that show of force with him standing there with President Zelensky.
Let me pivot to you on that point, because when you look at what voters are saying, I think we have this poll, look at how many of them say that they would potentially back a third party candidate. If you add it all up, it adds up to 14%. That has to be a real concern for the White House, for Biden allies because of course, a third party candidate, if one does get into the race till the end is thinking is it would hurt President Biden. And you know, there's a three point difference there between Mr.
Trump and Mr. Biden within the march of error on these kinds of polls. So not great numbers. And also that we're Hearing, of course, Mr.
Kennedy is considering a third party right now. He has already been polling in double digits in some cases. And just looking at potential Democratic primaries, this is why every single constituency matters. And that's why something like this UAW strike really makes a difference for President Biden, because this is a group that helped put Mr.
Trump into the White House in 2016 with just enough voters there in 2020 they broke for President Biden by about 56 to 42 over then President Trump. And in 2023, we're now seeing is a backsliding in support there. We're talking about voters who do not have a college degree. We've seen a softening of support there similar to the softening you covered earlier with black voters, young voters, Latino voters, independents.
Each of these core groups matters. And that enthusiasm gap is huge. It's a huge problem for the Biden administration. The concern, Leanne, that these core constituencies will stay at home.
You're talking to Democrats on Capitol Hill. What are they saying when they look at these numbers? What do they make of them? These numbers are consistent with past numbers that we've seen, these deep concerns about the economy.
Well, I think you and also the poll said something very similar from what I'm hearing from Democrats, the concern about the enthusiasm and the motivation. One thing the NBC poll pointed out today is that a majority of voters were more interested in voting for Biden because they did not like Donald Trump. And that is not a good sign to turning out the base. And so concerns on Capitol Hill are big.
But people are also saying it's kind of late like a change. It is. And I'm not to the point that you're making your Peter actually point that I'm just making about UAW here. You're going to have this split screen with President Biden in Michigan and former President Trump on Wednesday in Detroit.
He's trying to counter program the GOP primary debate. But talk about the politics of this decision to go because some union workers on the front line say don't turn this into a poll political event. We want to deal well Democratic officials, we should say NBC News sizzler had invited President Biden to come out on Labor Day to first make a visit. President Balk that is now going to be going after Sean Fein, the UW president invited him.
The key takeaways here are couple one of the White House is still trying to figure out exactly who the UAW President Sean Fain is. The president doesn't have a long relationship with him. He's a Bernie progressive right. So it's made it a little bit more complicated when the president gets out there this week, though when you speak to Democratic allies, as I have it in the last couple days, one, this is the most obvious thing for the president too.
This is core to who he is. But two, they also acknowledge there's a bit of a risk here because by going to pick a lines as he plans to do you also potentially own the outcome here. If it's not the one that UAW workers like, perhaps it could be a problem. It is a delicate, tricky political scene.
Fascinating point. Let's turn to the shutdown. Speaking of owning the outcome, Republicans are deadlocked. Leanne, it doesn't seem like there's an end in sight.
How does this end? Are we headed to a shutdown? We're absolutely headed towards a shutdown. Most people think that it's a shutdown.
This is a shutdown because Republicans cannot agree. It's not a shutdown because there's disagreement between Republicans and Democrats. And Kevin McCarthy has a choice. It is up to him on if he wants the government shutdown to try to govern with just Republicans or will he reach out to Democrats and try to avoid a shutdown?
We haven't seen that yet. I'm just saying we'll see. The president this week is a big week for the president because he's going to be going to Arizona the day after the debate by the Republicans. Right.
And the focus is it's been all about democracy with her. He's going to McCain Institute. But it's also about one other thing, bipartisanship. And in large part that's a reaction to what we're seeing happening on the Hill right now.
The White House is trying to brand is the Republican shutdown. Susan Collins even acknowledges things like this don't go well for Republicans. It's true. If there's a shutdown, you have Republicans saying, historically we bear the brunt of that.
That's going to hurt us. You have some Republicans saying that, right? You have that Republicans saying that. I spoke with the House Repox member, South Carolina Congressman Ralph Norman last week.
He said it's 100% where they're heading towards the shutdown. And look, because the math ain't math right, there's a certain amount of days left. Norman said that they want to see a top line number. They previously offered 1.471.
They haven't seen a top line number for leadership. Yes. But yeah, the idea is if there is a shutdown, it hurts the economy. We know that to be true.
And Republicans end up bearing most of that. We'll say to bring it full circle on this if the economy does get hit. That's also bad for this president, though, because you see inflation coming down, unemployment had historic lows. They need the economy to be better to strengthen the campaign next year.
All right. Well, fantastic conversation. Thank you, all of you. That is all for today.
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