Quantico Roll Call; Clock Ticking on Capitol Hill

Summary

Podcast Summary: "Quantico Roll Call; Clock Ticking on Capitol Hill"

Podcast: Here’s the Scoop (NBC News)
Date: September 30, 2025
Host: Yasmin Vesugian
Guests: Courtney Kuby (NBC National Security Correspondent), Col. Jack Jacobs (NBC Military Analyst), Ryan Nobles (Capitol Hill Correspondent)

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Overview

This episode of "Here's the Scoop" delves into two of the day's major national stories: a sweeping, controversial military overhaul announced at a historic gathering in Quantico, Virginia, and the looming federal government shutdown as Congress reaches an impasse over spending. The hosts unpack dramatic policy changes for the Pentagon under President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, explore their implications for service members, and analyze the tense political standoff on Capitol Hill, before running through several major news headlines.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Dramatic Overhaul at the Pentagon: Quantico Roll Call

Secretary Hegseth's Ten New Directives and Rebranding

• Event: Hundreds of top military leaders were convened at Quantico by President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
• Directives:
  • End to DEI (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion) offices and practices
  • Abolishing “identity months” and climate change initiatives
  • Overhaul of physical fitness and grooming standards
  • Rebranding the Pentagon as the historic "Department of War"
  • Tougher, restored basic training, with authorization for drill sergeants to physically motivate recruits
• Notable Quote (Hegseth):

  “No more identity months, DEI offices, dudes in dresses. No more climate change worship. No more division distraction or gender delusions. No more debris... we are done with that shit.” – Pete Hegseth [01:36]

Physical & Grooming Standards

• Hegseth sharply criticized “fat troops,” insisting,

  “It's completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon and leading commands... It’s a bad look.” – Pete Hegseth [02:05]

Changes to Basic Training

• Orders to restore harsher, old-fashioned basic training with more drill sergeant authority.

• “We're empowering drill sergeants to instill healthy fear in new recruits... yes, they can shark attack, they can toss bunks, they can swear. And yes, they can put their hands on recruits.” – Pete Hegseth [03:22]

Impact on Women and Black Service Members

• Grooming standards could disproportionately impact Black men. For women, combat roles would require meeting the same physical standards as men – potentially excluding most women from those positions.

  “If women can make it, excellent. If not, it is what it is. If that means no women qualify for some combat jobs, so be it.” – Pete Hegseth [05:02]

Reactions from the Military and Analysis

Reporting by Courtney Kuby

• Military crowd was "stoic... muted but polite clapping. No cheering" [06:25]
• These rollbacks would mark a "major cultural change" to the military’s current posture, especially for women and Black service members [02:32–04:30]
• On crowd’s reception:

  “At the end of the Secretary Hegseth speech, there was what I would call a muted but polite clapping. No cheering or anything... to President Trump's speech. It was almost silent throughout the more than hour of him speaking.” – Courtney Kuby [06:25]

Analysis from Col. Jack Jacobs

• Never before has there been an assemblage of this many high-ranking officers; historic and possibly without precedent [07:51]
• Skeptical about implementing uniform physical standards:

  “The physical standards that he talked about repeatedly are the kinds of standards we used to have years ago. But things have changed... extremely difficult to have everybody achieve the same physical standards.” – Col. Jack Jacobs [08:41]

• On the value of military diversity:

  “You wind up with a greater pool of people to defend the Republic... We either hang together or we will surely hang separately. We need to hang together and divisiveness is not going to get us there.” – Col. Jack Jacobs [12:30]

• Sees difficulty in rolling back progress on gender inclusion, noting many women already serve and excel in combat roles

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2. Government Shutdown Looming on Capitol Hill

The Countdown to Shutdown

• If Congress does not pass a spending bill by midnight, the government fully shuts down [15:28, segment begins]

• “The shutdown meter is spiking. I think we're probably at 95% of the chances of there being a shutdown... The vibe here is that the two sides seem willing to go over the cliff.” – Ryan Nobles [16:50]

Who is Affected?

• A full shutdown would halt pay for nearly all federal agencies with no protections for military or veterans' benefits this time [17:19]
• Two classes of federal workers:
  • “Accepted” (formerly “essential”): Must work without pay (FBI, TSA, CIA, etc.)
  • Furloughed: Not working and not paid, with anxiety about layoffs [18:35]

  • “Federal workers are the ones most directly impacted by a government shutdown. And the ones that are gonna feel it first.” – Ryan Nobles [19:42]

• Congressional members are paid through the shutdown, unlike most staff or federal workers

Intractable Partisan Conflict

• The debate is highly personal, with both sides entrenched.
• Use of AI-generated misinformation (Trump posting a fake audio of Schumer, racist imagery towards Jeffries)
• Long shutdown is likely (“The longest shutdown ever was 38 days. I'm not saying that we're going to break that record, but I think that's a good marker.” – Ryan Nobles [20:34])

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3. Major Headlines Recap (Rapid Fire)

Trump-Pfizer Medicaid Drug Deal

• New model pegs U.S. drug prices to those in wealthy countries, $70 billion pledged by Pfizer to U.S. operations, launch of Trump Rx drug portal

Gaza Peace Deal Proposal

• U.S. and Israel propose: Immediate ceasefire, hostage release, phased Israeli withdrawal, Hamas disarmament, transitional governance for Gaza
• Hamas has "three or four days" to respond

  “All the Arab countries are signed up, the Muslim countries... we're just waiting for Hamas, and Hamas is either going to be doing it or not. And if it's not, it's going to be a very sad end.” – President Trump [23:15]

Tech Lawsuit Settlements

• YouTube settles with Trump ($24.5 million); majority to White House ballroom, $2.5M to plaintiffs, follows similar payouts from Meta/X for channel bans [23:33]

U.S. Plans Mass Deportation of Iranians

• U.S. to deport 400 undocumented Iranians amid growing concerns about executions in Iran

New York Mets' Collapse

• Mets lose playoff chances against the Marlins despite one of the highest payrolls.

  “You'd think that $300-plus million the Mets are dishing out to their players would mean something... Team owner Steve Cohen wrote a statement apologizing to fans saying you did your part by showing up and supporting the team. We didn't do our part.” – Yasmin Vesugian [25:21]

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Notable Quotes & Moments (with Timestamps)

• “No more identity months, DEI offices, dudes in dresses. No more climate change worship... we are done with that shit.”
  — Pete Hegseth [01:36]

• “If that means no women qualify for some combat jobs, so be it.”
  — Pete Hegseth [05:02]

• “It was almost silent throughout the more than hour of him speaking.”
  — Courtney Kuby on Trump's speech reception [06:25]

• "I've never seen an assemblage of high ranking officers all in one spot ever..."
  — Col. Jack Jacobs [07:51]

• "You wind up with a greater pool of people to defend the Republic... We either hang together or we will surely hang separately."
  — Col. Jack Jacobs [12:30]

• “The shutdown meter is spiking. I think we're probably at 95% probability...”
  — Ryan Nobles [16:50]

• “All the Arab countries are signed up, the Muslim countries all signed up, Israel's all signed up. We're just waiting for Hamas....”
  — President Trump [23:15]

• "Team owner Steve Cohen wrote a statement apologizing to fans saying you did your part by showing up and supporting the team. We didn't do our part."
  — Yasmin Vesugian [25:21]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• [00:46] – Show starts, Yasmin introduces main stories
• [01:36] – Hegseth's directives and Pentagon rebranding
• [02:22] – Courtney Kuby discusses impact on women and Black Americans
• [03:22] – Hegseth on restoring tough basic training
• [05:02] – Hegseth: “So be it” attitude toward women failing new standards
• [06:25] – Crowd’s reaction at Quantico event
• [07:51] – Col. Jack Jacobs on historic nature of the event
• [10:35] – Hegseth’s previous explicit opposition to women in combat
• [12:30] – Jacobs' defense of a diverse, inclusive military
• [15:28] – Government shutdown segment starts
• [16:50] – Ryan Nobles: 95% chance of shutdown
• [18:35] – “Accepted” and “furloughed” worker classifications
• [20:34] – Shutdown could be long; both sides combative
• [22:30+] – Rapid-fire major headlines (drug pricing, Gaza plan, tech lawsuits, etc.)
• [25:17] – Mets' loss and team owner’s apology

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Tone, Style, and Flow

The episode is brisk, informed, and at times wry—true to the “quick, clear, and insightful” promise. It interweaves straight reporting with insider context and critical analysis, mixing breaking news urgency with moments of candor and dry humor (e.g., Mets apology). Direct quotes and dialogue segments retain the original language and frankness of the speakers.

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For Listeners Who Missed the Episode

This episode delivers a comprehensive snapshot of a day when powerful and contentious federal decisions—on military culture and personnel, on government operations and budgets—are set to reshape American life and politics, with strong personalities and deep divides on display both in the Pentagon and on Capitol Hill. The rapid-fire headlines segment further grounds listeners in key developments on foreign policy, tech, and sports.

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End of summary.

Transcript

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[Yasmin Vesugian]

Welcome to Here's a scoop from NBC News. I'm Yasmin Vesugian. Today on the show, it is the final countdown. It's just hours before the government could shut down, how long Hamas has to accept the peace deal laid out by President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and why the New York Mets are apologizing to their fans. Up first, though, hundreds of the nation's top military leaders were abruptly summoned to Quantico, Virginia, where both President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth took the stage. Hegseth rolled out 10 new directives for the armed forces, vowing to root out what he called wokeness, overhaul physical fitness standards and rebrand the Pentagon itself. Defense Department, he declared, will now be known by a new old name, the Department of War. Hexa started the speech outlining how the Trump administration is putting an end to DEI related policies.

[Pete Hegseth]

No more identity months, DEI offices, dudes in dresses. No more climate change worship. No more division distraction or gender delusions. No more debris. As I've said before and will say again, we are done with that shit.

[Yasmin Vesugian]

He also said that all officers must maintain physical fitness and grooming standards. Criticizing members he called, quote, fat troops.

[Pete Hegseth]

It's completely unacceptable to see fat generals and admirals in the halls of the Pentagon and leading commands around the country and the world. It's a bad look. It is bad. And it's not who we are.

[Yasmin Vesugian]

For more on this, I want to start with senior national security correspondent Courtney Kuby. Hi, Courtney. Hi.

[Courtney Kuby]

Thanks for having me.

[Yasmin Vesugian]

It's been quite a day, to say the least. You and I spoke yesterday about our anticipation of this meeting, and now it's happened. What have you been hearing?

[Courtney Kuby]

I mean, this speech today represented a major cultural change to the military. Of all of the things he announced today go through. Women will be directly impacted by some of these. We could see African American soldiers also impacted. A huge change for recruits for how they can be treated when they come into basic training. I expected major cultural changes out of this. If, in fact, these are enacted.

[Yasmin Vesugian]

Can you expand on that a little bit, Cor, just so we can understand that? How would it change when it comes to recruits, for instance? And then how do you think women and black Americans would be impacted?

[Courtney Kuby]

So for recruits, two major things. The secretary said that he no longer wants hazing to be weaponized and that he is going to give authorization for commanders to, quote, put their hands on recruits as a way to, quote, motivate them.

[Pete Hegseth]

Basic training is being restored to what it should be, scary, tough and disciplined. We're empowering drill sergeants to instill healthy fear in new recruits, ensuring that future war fighters are forged. Yes, they can shark attack, they can toss bunks, they can swear. And yes, they can put their hands on recruits.

[Courtney Kuby]

In the past, some of these things have been done. But over time, there has been a recognition by many in the military, particularly commanders, that it's not productive to haze the troops. You know what? Sometimes they're known in basic training as shark attacks, where a drill sergeant or some of the commanders will sort of circle or recruit when they're first coming in and they scream at them and they sort of overwhelm them and overpower them in some ways, most times just by yelling at them. Well, that's, for the most part, that has just been completely eliminated. If it's happening, we're not aware of it. The putting their hands on recruits, though, that is big, dramatic change if, in fact, that goes forward. And the idea is, the secretary thinks that. That men and women in uniform just aren't tough enough and that these are the kinds of things that will toughen them up. He talked a lot about the need for the military to be tougher and stronger.

[Yasmin Vesugian]

And what about women and black Americans?

[Courtney Kuby]

The black Americans will be impacted by grooming standards that will, in some ways eliminate certain, specifically men, African American men from serving in the military for women. He's essentially saying that all service members have to meet what is known as sort of the male standard for certain.

[Yasmin Vesugian]

So if you can do what a man can do, then you can qualify. Otherwise, you can't.

[Courtney Kuby]

Precisely. And he even had something to say about it. He said, look, this may disqualify some women from serving, but if that's the case, so be it.

[Pete Hegseth]

When it comes to any job that requires physical power to perform in combat, those physical standards must be high and gender neutral. If women can make it, excellent. If not, it is what it is. If that means no women qualify for some combat jobs, so be it.

[Yasmin Vesugian]

But to be clear, this is a Secretary of Defense who has said on different occasions that he does not support women serving in the military very openly.

[Courtney Kuby]

And specifically serving in combat positions. And that's where this is really going to impact women. We should expect to see women not be able to make the cut for some of these combat roles. Now, that being said, I do not in any way want to diminish the fact that many, many women can meet all of these standards and have met their standards. And frankly, there are men who are gonna have a hard time meeting some of these standards. So it's not just women. But the reality is, given the secretary's past comments about how he does not think that women should serve in combat roles, this is very clearly an effort to try to accomplish what he has said many times, and that is, he believes that women put men in combat roles in danger because they simply aren't as strong. That's his belief.

[Yasmin Vesugian]

So, Courtney, yesterday when you and I spoke, you said you were gonna be watching for the reaction in the crowd. I know that you weren't in the room. What are you learning, though, about the reaction from the crowd and how folks took in this message?

[Courtney Kuby]

Yeah, fortunately, there were some pool reporters in there, so we were able to get a sense. And there were photographers, and the majority of the time, it was. They were stoic. There was very little reaction. There was very little clapping. At the end of the Secretary Hegseth speech, there was what I would call a muted but polite clapping. No cheering or anything like that to President Trump's speech. It was almost silent throughout the more than hour of him speaking. There was, again, a polite clap when he walked in. People stood. It stood at attention, as would be standard. He's their commander in chief. But there was very little reaction from the crowd. And the president made reference to it at the beginning, saying, I've never walked.

[Colonel Jack Jacobs]

Into a room so silent before. This is very. Don't laugh. Don't laugh. You're not allowed to do that.

[Courtney Kuby]

I mean, this is what we were expecting because it wouldn't be appropriate for them to sit there and cheer to what was a lot of political commentary from President Trump. That's just not appropriate for them to do while they're in uniform. As you mentioned, we couldn't be in the room, and so we don't really know. Was just to see the faces of some of the people in there who we know to see if there was any reaction on their faces. And unfortunately, we just simply weren't able to see.

[Yasmin Vesugian]

Courtney qb, thank you.

[Courtney Kuby]

Thanks.

[Yasmin Vesugian]

All right, next we are going to turn to retired Army Colonel Jack Jacobs, who was an NBC News military analyst. It has been. Colonel JACK Quite a morning, to say the least, for the military. Have you ever seen a meeting like this before?

[Colonel Jack Jacobs]

I've never seen an assemblage of high ranking officers all in one spot ever. And I think it's never taken place before, certainly not when I was serving starting in 1965, not during the Korean War, not even during the Second World War where leaders were taken from all over the world from where they're supervising the defense of the Republic in the far corners of the world, put them all in one spot for what even Trump advertised as being just a pep talk.

[Yasmin Vesugian]

It's interesting because it started with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and a speech that he made which I would go so far as to say was more over the top than the President's speech. What did you make of the Secretary of Defense's speech?

[Colonel Jack Jacobs]

Well, it was extremely practiced, as you saw. Don't forget, he's a, he's more a television personality than he was a national security expert. So he knows exactly what it's supposed to look like. And he read his speech and he was very, very good at it. There are a couple of interesting things about it. The first is that the physical standards that he talked about repeatedly are the kinds of standards that we used to have years ago. But things have changed in the military and it's going to be extremely difficult to have everybody achieve the same physical standards he's talking about. And so I think you can expect practically that what he touted as being service wide is not going to be service wide.

[Yasmin Vesugian]

I mean, listen, I don't mean to kind of pat my own back, but I actually did a piece for NBC News a couple months ago in which I had to see if I could actually qualify for the Army. And I didn't just qualify. Colonel JACK I qualified for combat. So isn't there a distinction between the qualifications for being, for instance, a cook, right, that gets deployed versus someone who is qualifying for combat.

[Colonel Jack Jacobs]

What he's proposing is that there not be if you roll the tape forward and say, look, here's what we're going to do, we're going to have difficult standards for everybody and you're going to have to pass them, the real argument inside the Military establishment will be. Where are you going to draw the line?

[Yasmin Vesugian]

I want to get into the messaging here, Colonel Jack of it all, because over the last two decades, we could argue that the military has transformed in allowing, for instance, women to take on combat roles. This is the Secretary of Defense on the Sean Ryan show before he was officially in that role. You don't like women in combat?

[Pete Hegseth]

No.

[Ryan Nobles]

Why not?

[Pete Hegseth]

I love women service members who contribute amazingly because everything about men and women serving together makes the situation more complicated, and complication in combat means casualties are worse.

[Yasmin Vesugian]

What do you make of this transition away from the diversification of the military combat roles and what that would do for us on the battlefield?

[Colonel Jack Jacobs]

Well, you're talking to somebody who believes in universal service. I think everybody is lucky enough to live in a free country owes it something in the form of service without respect to who you are, where you come from. Irania and in the Second World War, that's exactly what we had. We had something like 19 or 20 million people in uniform that made up the greatest generation and saved the world. If people are held to a standard and they can meet them, as far as I'm concerned, that's all that matters. It's unlikely that they're going to be able to undo what they've done in the area you're talking about over a very short period of time. I think this is one of the little knobbly points that it's going to be difficult for the Defense Department to get over. They've already got women in combat roles, some of whom can outperform men. They can certainly outperform me. I'm 100,000 years old. I think the view of the Defense Department is that this is. This is some problem at the margins. It's something we'll figure out on the ground later on. It's the period between these are the standards and this is the execution that becomes the difficult part.

[Yasmin Vesugian]

I got one last question for you, Colonel Jack, because as we talk about Secretary Hegseth saying that he wants to do away with diversity, equity and inclusion, what advantage do we have as an armed services in having a diverse set of folks that are serving?

[Colonel Jack Jacobs]

Two things. First is you wind up with a greater pool of people to defend the Republic. And second, you wind up having a larger number of people who've actually made a commitment to defend the Republic. One is operational. The second one is sort of psychological. Think about if we had universal service instead of outsourcing the defense of the Republic to a very small number of young men and women who are willing to do it. Everybody you meet has had the same experience as you. You've all been part of something larger than yourself. I'm always reminded the observation of Benjamin Franklin, who before the Revolutionary War wrote, we either hang together or we will surely hang separately. We need to hang together and divisiveness is not going to get us there.

[Yasmin Vesugian]

Colonel Jack Jacobs, you are not a million years old. I'm sure you could still fight alongside the best of them out there. We appreciate you, sir. Thank you.

[Colonel Jack Jacobs]

Thank you.

[Yasmin Vesugian]

We are going to take a quick break and when we're back, shut down Showdown on the Hill. But before we break, as one of our listeners, your feedback very much matters. We'd like to hear what you like, what you don't like, and everything in between. Just head to nbcnews.com survey and share your thoughts. Again, that is nbcnews.com survey. Your input will help us keep making. Here's the scoop. Even better.

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[Courtney Kuby]

We are going to get this party started.

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[Colonel Jack Jacobs]

Big game tonight.

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[Ryan Nobles]

I'm Jorge Ramos.

[Yasmin Vesugian]

And I'm Paula Ramos.

[Ryan Nobles]

Together we're launching the Moment, a new podcast about what it means to live through a time as uncertain as this one.

[Yasmin Vesugian]

We sit down with politicians, artists and activists to bring you depth and analysis from a unique Latino perspective.

[Ryan Nobles]

The Moment is a space for the conversations we've been having as father and daughter for years. Listen to the Moment with Jorge Ramos.

[Yasmin Vesugian]

And Paola ramos on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And we are back with here's the scoop from NBC News. When the clock strikes midnight tonight, the government is turning into a pumpkin. That is right. Funding is gonna run out at 12:01am and Congress is a very long ways away from agreeing on a spending bill. You got federal workers bracing to see whether they're going to be without any paychecks and talks are not making any progress. Instead, we are seeing a lot of finger pointing at the Capitol and it's getting kind of ugly. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer spoke after a meeting with the president yesterday alongside House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries.

[Ryan Nobles]

Their bill has not one iota of Democratic input. That is never how we've done this before.

[Yasmin Vesugian]

And then a few hours later, the president made a crude post about the moment using fake AI generated audio to make it sound like Schumer said Democrats, quote, have no voters anymore because of our woke trans bs. President Trump also added a sombrero and a mustache to Jeffries. So with that, I want to bring in chief Capitol Hill correspondent Ryan Nobles. Hi, Ryan.

[Ryan Nobles]

Hey.

[Yasmin Vesugian]

Yes, let's talk shutdown. What's it looking like right now?

[Ryan Nobles]

Yeah, the shutdown meter is spiking. I think we're probably at 95% of the chances of there being a shutdown. And you know, you get a vibe when you've covered these, and I've covered many shutdowns and many shutdown threats, and the vibe here is that the two sides seem willing to go over the cliff.

[Yasmin Vesugian]

The thing is, if we do go into a shutdown, this is going to be a total shutdown. We've seen previous shutdowns before in which there have been partial shutdowns, but this would be a complete shutdown of essentially federal workforce.

[Ryan Nobles]

That's exactly right. And the last partial shutdown we dealt with was in 2018. And the big difference between that one and the one that we could encounter here was that the military and veterans benefits were largely protected this time around. There are none of those protections. You know, there are caveats in the law that allow for Social Security benefits and Medicare payments and veterans benefits to still take place. But you know, if you're one of the government agencies that's going to run out of funding at the end of September in a couple of hours, there's nothing to protect that from lapsing. So we're going to see military on duty service members who are going to be forced to come in and answer their responsibility for their mission, who may not get a paycheck, there is going to be pain here. The likes of which we haven't seen probably going all the way back to 2013. But it comes at a time where Democrats feel as though they have no other option but to take on the Trump administration, and they feel like they can't let it wait any longer.

[Yasmin Vesugian]

You were mentioning earlier about who's going to be affected. I want to get into that a little bit more because I think a lot of folks get confused as to who's affected and who's not affected during these shutdowns. Right. For instance, if you're working for the CIA, you're working for the FBI, any kind of federal agencies, you're going to still have to show up to work, but you're not going to get paid.

[Ryan Nobles]

Yeah. So there's two classes of federal workers. One is described as accepted, which is accepted with an E, which is a term that they used, used to be called essential, but now they call them accepted. Those accepted workers still have to show up to work every day. That would be the people you're talking about, the FBI agents, the CIA agents, the TSA officers, people along those lines. Depending on which agency they're with, they won't be paid during that period of time. And then there's a whole other class of federal worker that doesn't fall under that category that will just be furloughed. They won't come to work during this period of time. And it's within that group of furloughed workers that I think are most concerned that that furlough could turn into a permanent layoff. Now, keep in mind that, you know, the federal government did pass a bill during the 2018 shutdown that guaranteed that all federal workers that lose pay during a shutdown will get it back after the fact that. Which actually cost the taxpayer a lot more money. It was $3 billion it cost taxpayers in 2018, and that wasn't even a full government shutdown. So there's no doubt that federal workers are the ones most directly impacted by a government shutdown. And the ones that are gonna feel.

[Yasmin Vesugian]

It first, there's someone else whose pay is protected as well, which is Congress. So the folks that are actually shutting down the government are continuing to get paid.

[Ryan Nobles]

Let's make that even more clear. It's not Congress. It's just the members of Congress. So if you're a staff member, if you're a legislative aide or a chief of staff, or the people that work at the cafeterias in the Capitol. You have to keep in mind that Capitol Hill is like a little city. Those people will be furloughed. They won't get paid, but the members of Congress definitely will still get a paycheck. And it actually is shocking to me that over this period of time when there have been so many of these government shutdowns and members of Congress have taken so much heat for still collecting a paycheck check that they have not rectified that.

[Yasmin Vesugian]

How much of a loggerheads are we at with this thing in that how long is it going to stretch out, you think?

[Ryan Nobles]

I think this could be a long one. And the main reason that I think that is that the back and forth in the debate has gotten personal. It'd be one thing if they were fighting over the contours of the policy and they have strong held opinions about whether or not they should extend the ACA subsidies or that there should be some clawback of the Medicaid cuts from the big beautiful bill. But now you see President Trump putting out this offensive AI video and then the Democrats responding by posting pictures of President Trump and Jeffrey Epstein. This just shows how they're not in a mood to get along. They're in a mood for a fight. And I don't know how long it's going to take to get out of fight mode. The longest shutdown ever was 38 days. I'm not saying that we're going to be break that record, but I think that's a good marker by which to judge where things stand right now.

[Yasmin Vesugian]

Not to spike folks anxiety, but today feels like a fighting kind of day. Ryan Nobles, thank you.

[Ryan Nobles]

I'm not fighting with you though. Yaz.

[Yasmin Vesugian]

No.

[Ryan Nobles]

You and I are always on the same team.

[Yasmin Vesugian]

Never. Thank you, Ryan.

[Ryan Nobles]

Thanks guys.

[Yasmin Vesugian]

All right, let's get to some headlines. President Trump announced a deal with Pfizer to slash Medicaid drug costs, adopting a quote, most favored nation model that pegs US Prices to the lowest charged in other wealthy countries. In return, according to the president, Pfizer is going to pour $70 billion into US manufacturing and research. The White House also rolled out Trump Rx, a new portal offering some drugs at government negotiated rates. While the plan aims to ease Medicaid budgets and lower costs for low income patients, it is unclear how how much relief individuals are actually going to see at the pharmacy. The comprehensive peace plan for Gaza proposed by the US And Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has received support from Israel and several Arab and Muslim majority countries. The 20 point proposal calls for an immediate ceasefire, the release of all remaining Israeli hostages within 72 hours, and a phased withdrawal of Israeli forces from parts of the Gaza Strip. In exchange, Israel would release a number of Palestinian prisoners and allow a significant increase in humanitarian aid and reconstruction materials. The plan also stipulates that Hamas would disarm and have no future role in governing Gaza, which would be managed by a transitional, apolitical Palestinian committee and an international stabilization force. While Israel's prime minister has publicly backed the proposal, Hamas response is still pending. This morning, asked about how long Hamas had to consider the deal, President Trump had this to say as he was about to board Marine One we're going.

[Colonel Jack Jacobs]

To do about three or four days. We'll see how it is. All of the Arab countries are signed up, the Muslim countries all signed up, Israel's all signed up. We're just waiting for Hamas, and Hamas is either going to be doing it or not. And if it's not, it's going to be a very sad end.

[Yasmin Vesugian]

Sticking with President Trump, YouTube has agreed to a 24.5 million settlement to resolve a lawsuit filed by the president over the suspension of his channel after the January 6 attack on the US Capitol. According to court filings, the settlement allocates $22 million of the funds to a White House ballroom construction project, with the remaining 2.5 million to be distributed amongst other plaintiffs, including the American Conservative Union. The resolution does not include admission of wrongdoing by YouTube, which had argued that its actions were a matter of editorial discretion and did not violate Trump's First Amendment rights. The settlement follows similar multimillion dollar payouts from Meta and X, formerly known as Twitter, bringing the total from these three cases to over $60 million. A senior official in Tehran said the United States planned to deport about 400 undocumented Iranian nationals back to Iran. The Iranian Foreign Ministry Director General Hossein Noshavadi told the semi official Tasnim News agency that 120 of the individuals selected for deportation would return to Iran within one or two days. Iran has faced criticism this week as United nations human rights experts signal the quote, dramatic escalation in executions inside Iran after there were more than 1,000 people killed just this year. Meet the Mets.

[Ryan Nobles]

Meet the Mets.

[Yasmin Vesugian]

If you have been personally victimized by the New York Mets, you are not alone. The Mets had the fumble of the century in the second half of their game on the final day of the regular season, the Miami Marlins, a team that has the lowest payroll in MLB right now, beat the Mets 40 ball.

[Lifelock Advertiser]

Game over, season over.

[Yasmin Vesugian]

You'd think that 300 plus million dollars the Mets are dishing out to their players would mean something. Instead, the Mets lost their chance the playoffs after having such a strong first half of the MLB season. Team owner Steve Cohen wrote a statement apologizing to fans saying you did your part by showing up and supporting the team. We didn't do our part. Hey, you guys, there is always next year. All right, that's gonna do it for us at Here's a Scoop from NBC News. I'm Yasmin Vesugin. We'll be back tomorrow with whatever the day may bring. And if you like what you heard, then like us back. Subscribe to Here's a Scoop wherever you get your podcasts. Oh, and before you go, don't forget to take our quick [e-mail] survey. Your feedback means a lot.

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