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Meet the Press
Meet the Press NOW — June 8
00:51:48
President Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hold a phone call after Israel and Iran trade strikes for the first time since April’s ceasefire. President Trump abruptly ends NBC's "Meet the Press" interview after being challenged on his California election fraud claims. Maine voters weigh Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner’s controversial past ahead of Tuesday’s closely watched primary.
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Melanie Zanona
Welcome to Meet the PRESS now. I'm Melanie Zenona in Washington and we begin with the latest escalation in the Middle east with Israel and Iran trading fire for the first time in two months, threatening to drag the region into a wider war even as the US Tries to negotiate an end to the conflict. Early this morning, air raid sirens blaring in Tel Aviv after yesterday Iran launched missiles at Israel in response to Israel's continued military offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon. This video released by Iranian state TV showing the missile launches, though NBC News cannot verify the footage. Israel responded with strikes of their own. The IDF confirming it launched strikes throughout Iran, including on a petrochemical complex in southwest Iran. But there are now signs that Israel and Iran are willing to de escalate, at least for now. In a post on social media early this morning, President Trump calling on Israel and Iran to immediately stop shooting and then about an hour later posting, Israel and Iran are looking to do an immediate cease fire. Iran's president also taking to social media saying Tehran will not retreat in the face of any threat and quote, we have neither abandoned the field nor the negotiating table. In a video statement, Prime Minister Netanyahu saying for now the fire has been contained, but similarly warning that if Israel is attacked, it will respond with force. All of this happening as President Trump continues to try to get a deal with Iran to end the war and end its nuclear program. Here's what he told Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker about those nuclear negotiations in their exclusive interview on Friday afternoon.
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Kristen Welker
But, Mr. President, I'm curious because when you were campaigning, you said you would rip up the Iran nuclear deal but negotiate a better deal. Why didn't you negotiate a better deal at the time? Because after it was ripped up, there weren't guardrails and they escalated their production of enriched uranium.
- [03:10]
Donald Trump
Excuse me. It takes years to do these things. These people have been fighting for 47 years. They've been killing Americans. They've been taken off their legs and their arm and their faces have been hurt so badly and so horribly. I'm moving very fast. I'm into three months. You know, Vietnam lasted 19 years. I'm into my third month.
- [03:33]
Melanie Zanona
As for the concerns that Israel's operations against Hezbollah could derail any deal, President Trump telling the Financial Times, quote, netanyahu won't have any choice. I call the shots. I call all the shots. Joining me now is NBC News senior White House correspondent Gabe Gutierrez. NBC News chief foreign correspondent Richard Engel is in Jerusalem. And with me here on set are NBC News senior national national security correspondent Courtney Kuby and NBC News military analyst and retired Colonel Steve Warren. Thank you all so much for joining us to break this down. Gabe, I want to start with you over at the White House. How worried is the White House about the latest escalation in the region and could it derail the negotiations with Iran?
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Gabe Gutierrez
Well, Melanie, they're certainly on alert. You just saw that over the last 24 hours or so with President Trump on the phone with Prime Minister Netanyahu twice within that 24 hour period. You just also read his social media posts from overnight as well. But this is clearly not the first time that the president has been frustrated with Prime Minister Netanyahu and with the ongoing tensions between Israel and Iran. You recall it was just last year, nearly a year ago actually, that he used an expletive to say that both sides didn't know what they were doing regarding another flare up as well. So, yes, this is threatening to derail these ongoing peace negotiations. And I think that's why you saw the president get involved so much in these phone calls and urging Prime Minister Netanyahu to refrain from greater retaliation here so that the president can continue these peace negotiations.
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Melanie Zanona
Mel, speaking of that phone call, what more do we know about the phone call between the president and Prime Minister Netanyahu? And are the two leaders actually on the same page when it comes to the end goal of this war.
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Gabe Gutierrez
Well, what we know is that the president did urge Prime Minister Netanyahu not to retaliate. That's according to an Israeli official. And at this point, tensions seem to have calmed in the short term. But as we understand that Prime Minister Netanyahu is reserving the right to retaliate if Iran attacks again. But it was interesting what we heard over the weekend on Friday, actually, in that exclusive interview with our colleague Kristen, she pressed the president on whether he was, you know, was on the same page as Prime Minister Netanyahu. Of course, President Trump has tried to downplay any friction there, but he did say that they have disagreements that, you know, clearly we've seen before. But this all comes as really the goals of both administrations. Netanyahu in Israel and President Trump here in the US Seem to be diverging at this point. President Trump increasingly frustrated by how long this is going on for and the potential for it to drag on and hurt political prospects here domestically. Although he denies he's not going to be pushed into any sort of an agreement here in the short term. He has repeatedly been trying to argue the point to his domestic audience that this conflict has not dragged on nearly as long as other conflicts that the US has been involved with before. You know, mentioning Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam and saying that he's only been at it for several months. But this does come as he's facing this growing political pressure here at home,
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Melanie Zanona
though, and that interview with Kristen Welker and Trump, the president also appeared confident that the US Will ultimately secure Iran's so called nuclear dust, as he likes to call it. But Gabe, is it clear that Tehran is actually willing to give up its nuclear ambitions?
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Gabe Gutierrez
No, it's not. At this point, the president and White House officials have been repeatedly saying that, yes, the Iranians have agreed in some way to scale back their nuclear program, perhaps if not forever, at least for a period of, you know, 15 to 20 years. That that is part of the negotiations. But at this point, we don't have any indications. Nothing's been signed off on by the Iranians. And despite President Trump saying that the Americans would use their equipment to go in and take the so called nuclear dust from Iran, there are certainly real questions about how that would work in practice. And then, you know, there are just so many unanswered questions here too on whether Israel will continue in Lebanon, which the administration considers just a flare up, but for the Iranians is a very existential, you know, crucial part of this ongoing conflict. So a lot of unanswered questions here but the White House continues to maintain that these peace negotiations are still on track. And now that things have calmed down, at least in the last several hours in the Middle east, perhaps we could see some developments there. But many questions remain.
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Melanie Zanona
A lot of questions remain. Gabe, I know you'll be on top of it for us. Thank you so much. I want to turn on to Richard, who's over in Jerusalem for us. Richard, what is the mood like in the region today? And what more can you tell us about the magnitude of these strikes?
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Richard Engel
So just to continue what you were talking about with Gabe, both sides today appeared to pull back from the brink of a full scale resumption of hostilities. We saw this statement from Iran, several statements from Iran, in fact, saying that their message had been delivered, that this round is over, that they considered their response appropriate to the ongoing Israeli war against Hezbollah in Lebanon, but they reserved the right to continue to fight and to continue to negotiate. And you were quoting Prime Minister Netanyahu. He gave an address to the people in Hebrew and he said that Israel would respond if attacked again. But he also said that the war against Iran and against Hezbollah is not over. He said that Israel's never been stronger, they have never been weaker, and he will continue to fight them. And there have been renewed Israeli strikes just, just today in southern Lebanon against the, the city of Tyre in the
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Josh Orton
south of the country.
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Richard Engel
So it was not a calm day, but at least the, the major strikes, the ballistic missile strikes between Israel and Iran, the worst flare up since April that has paused. But it does not seem that the two sides have pulled back. They have acknowledged that this, this extended, that they acknowledged that President Trump intervened, but they're not over with the war. And they made that clear.
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Melanie Zanona
Well, to that exact point. Are there concerns that this escalation could spiral into a wider, full blown war?
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Richard Engel
I've spoken to a senior Arab official who's very concerned about that. Someone who's directly involved with negotiations is worried that Netanyahu's agenda is not finished, that Iran is not quite finished, that Iran is trying to reestablish its deterrence, re, establish or establish its control over the Strait of Hormuz. There's a lot of worry about the Yemenis. The Houthis fired a ballistic missile, according to the Israelis, at, at Israel today, also in solidarity with Iran and in solidarity with Hezbollah. And there is the threat that the Houthis could close another vital waterway, the waterway leading from the Suez Canal through the Red Sea to the Babel Mandep, where the Houthis are located. So there is a possibility for escalation. But I was just talking a short while ago to an Iranian expert, someone who's following these negotiations very closely. And when you do come to the brink of a disaster, there is also the possibility that all sides pull back a little bit when they realize how much there is to risk. So in the danger, there is an opportunity as well.
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Melanie Zanona
Richard Engle, thank you so much. Your reporting is, of course, invaluable to us. I want to bring the conversation here in the room with me. I have Courtney and the colonel on set, but I still want to start with you, Courtney, about these strikes between Israel and Iran. Was the US Involved in any way?
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Courtney Kuby
So at this point, we have no indication that the US Military was involved in any of the strikes. So essentially partnering with the Israelis to strike inside of Iran, and we still don't have any confirmation that the US Was involved in any of the defensive piece. So Iran launched quite a few ballistic missiles, and we're still not even sure if there may have even been some other projectiles at Israel. The US has historically, over the last year plus now been, or more than that, even been helping Israel with their defenses. But again, again, at this point, we don't have any confirmation that the US Was involved in either the offensive or the defensive of this.
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Melanie Zanona
And Colonel, what do you make of how quickly things escalated and do you think this will continue, especially if Israel does continue its operations in Lebanon?
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Steve Warren
It spiraled up very quickly. And keeping in mind that, you know, one of the reasons the Israelis struck into Beirut is, of course, because Hezbollah fired missiles into Israel just the other day. So, you know, Hezbollah is part of the wild card here that we really don't know. They're the hardest ones to control, probably the least reasonable, the least willing to talk. So that's the biggest problem, I think. But it's absolutely something that we need to keep a close eye on. American forces, of course, remain ready to help the Israelis if needed.
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Melanie Zanona
And the Houthi rebels also claimed some responsibility for some of the strikes in Israel. What do you make of their involvement in this conflict? And could we see more?
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Steve Warren
Yet another wild card? Right. Two big wild cards. And the Houthis, we don't know what they're going to do and they're hard to talk to. We don't have a lot of information about them, but we do know that they retain capability. They have an offensive, a missile capability. They've closed the straits to baba them in the past. And we know that they can do it again.
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Melanie Zanona
And Courtney, you had some really great reporting over the weekend about concerns in the Pentagon over Israel spying on the U.S. talk to me about that reporting.
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Carol Lee
Yeah.
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Courtney Kuby
So what we learned, and that's with our colleagues Gordon Lubold and Dan Delouse, is that the Pentagon recently increased the counterterrorism threat level for Israel against the United States. So basically what that means is the Defense Intelligence Agency put out this assessment that said that they are concerned about the increase or the level of spying that Israel is doing on US Government officials in recent weeks. This is particularly during the period of the ceasefire when we're told that Israel was trying to figure out from government officials where the US Was on the possibility of some sort of a deal with Iran. So because of that, the level is now increased to its highest and that is known as critical.
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Melanie Zanona
Colonel, is it unusual to see allies spy on each other and do you see this as an escalation by Israel?
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Steve Warren
I don't see this as an escalation. I see this as, look, you know, we share willingly massive amounts of intelligence with the Israelis and all of our allies, but at the same time, we don't share everything. And of course, in their own interest, they want to know everything, as Courtney said, they want to know what we're thinking regarding Iran, and that's what they're looking for. Listen, all of our allies spy on us. And P.S. we spy on all of our allies. So this is just part of, this is part of the game.
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Melanie Zanona
That's helpful context there, Courtney. I also want to ask you about the Pentagon saying today it disabled an oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman today that they say was violating the US Naval blockade. What's the latest on that blockade?
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Courtney Kuby
They've now turned around 134 ships. They fired at a number and disabled a number of them as well. It continues. I mean, the blockade is on both sides, right? Because remember, the US Military is carrying out a blockade and then the Iranians are as well. That is really what is leading to a lot of these escalations in the region because the US and the Iranians are just operating in very close proximity to one another. And we are now seeing on a near daily basis where one side or the other is just pushing a little closer to the other, seeing how far they can go. How close can the Iranians, the irgc, fly their drones to US Ships or to commercial ships that are in the Strait of Hormuz, and it's leading to these escalations? Again, we're seeing them on a near daily basis. And I think that's what the overall theme of all of this, whether we're talking about the firing between Israel and Iran or these continued conflicts between the US and the IRGC is the possibility of one of these interactions leading to some sort of a catastrophic event that then restarts the major combat operations. I think that's why there's so much tension in the region and realistically here in D.C. about this continued back and forth.
- [15:43]
Melanie Zanona
And Colonel, where do you think this goes next?
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Steve Warren
Well, so two things just to close out on what Courtney said, the biggest risk now, miscalculation, right. That's always the big risk in these tense moments. Where is it going to go next? Hopefully, you know, and hope's not the best course of action. But what we want to see happen is a diplomatic solution.
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Josh Orton
Right?
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Steve Warren
That's what we want. Everybody, as we heard earlier, everybody got close to the brink. Now they've backed off a little bit. Everyone's taken a breather, taking a breath. Let's let the diplomats talk and see if we can't get to peace.
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Melanie Zanona
Courtney, what are your thoughts on where this goes next?
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Courtney Kuby
I mean, I don't still don't understand exactly what this peace negotiation even looks like, frankly. So, but the president and those around him say that they are continuing these efforts with some sort of a negotiated peace here. As long as Lebanon and Hezbollah are a part of that, that's going to be a difficult deal to make because at this point, Prime Minister Netanyahu says that he is stopping with the firing back and forth at Iran, but he maintains the what he calls the right of self defense. So if Hezbollah fires into Israel, he is clearly going to fire back. And that's one of the big wild cards here. We talk so much about the Strait of Hormuz and the nuclear program, all of these difficult issues that they have to resolve. But as long as Israel and Hezbollah continue to trade fire, it's gonna be difficult to get any kind of a lasting peace.
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Melanie Zanona
Feel like we're any closer to a deal, but who knows? Colonel Courtney, thank you so much for joining us. Coming up, stormy weather and storming off after multiple weather related interruptions. President Trump abruptly ends his meeting with his Meet the Press interview with Kristen Walker as questions about his baseless claims of election fraud were asked that moment. And the fallout is next. Plus, major developments in those still undecided California race with Spencer Pratt now slipping to third place in the race for Los Angeles. Mayor Steve Kornacki will be here with the latest. You're watching MEET THE Press now.
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- [18:56]
Melanie Zanona
Welcome back. Turning now to the moment when President Trump abruptly ended his exclusive interview with Meet the Press as Kristen repeatedly pushed back on his false claims that the elections are rigged, including in California, where the votes are still being counted right now following last week's primaries. The winners have not yet been called in the race for governor or Los Angeles mayor. We should note California relies heavily on mail in ballots, which contributes to the slow ballot counting. President Trump is using that to sow doubts about the results. He has repeatedly called the elections rigged on social media, including last night when he posted, quote, has anybody been watching the crooked election going on in California? Two great Republican candidates are being cheated, and so is America. The president's baseless claims about election fraud led to this heated exchange with Kristen. And we should note, the interview, which was conducted on Friday, was interrupted multiple times by the sound of heavy rain. After 50 minutes, as you'll see, the president ended the interview.
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Donald Trump
Listen to me. Let's talk about tremendous evidence. There's nothing but evidence. The election was rigged. It was a dirty election, and it's happening again right now in California. This is happening right now in California. Right now it's. Look at, look at what's happening in California. In California it's. No, they're not. They're. They're dropping fast because it's a rigged election. Let me tell you, it's four days and they aren't even close to coming up. You know why they're doing that? Because they're cheating on the election.
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Kristen Welker
There's. What, do you have evidence to support?
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Donald Trump
All I have to do is look, all I have to do is.
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Kristen Welker
That's not.
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Donald Trump
And I listen and I listen to people and let's see what happens.
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Kristen Welker
But sir, that's not evidence.
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Donald Trump
You think it's appropriate.
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Kristen Welker
That's how they count the votes.
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Donald Trump
You think it's appropriate that they have an election and five days later they're nowhere close to picking local officials.
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Kristen Welker
Acknowledge they are slow. They're urging.
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Donald Trump
No, they're crooked.
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Kristen Welker
They're urging the votes to be counted quick. That's how they voted.
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Donald Trump
Crooked. Just like you're crooked. Your press is crooked and Meet the Press is crooked.
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Kristen Welker
To be fair, I'm not crooked.
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Donald Trump
But let's really. Well, you play right into their hands.
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Kristen Welker
Let's continue.
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Donald Trump
You're either crooked or you're stupid. You play right into their hands with this rep. You know that these elections are rigged. Your network knows that they're rigged. You know that I won an election in a landslide And I got 94 bad press. But Mr. President, you know why I got that? Because you have no credibility.
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Kristen Welker
But you've never presented evidence that it was rigged. Let's keep talking about. I want to talk about.
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Donald Trump
Todd, you have more evidence. There's more evidence than ever presented. Let's talk about your elections. In this country. We're like a third world country. Country. Your elections are crooked and you're crooked and Meet the Press is crooked and so is ABC and CBS and cnn one sided crooked network. So let's call it quits because I've had enough. Thank you, darling. Have a good time.
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Kristen Welker
Mr. President, let's please. I traveled all the way to Wisconsin.
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Donald Trump
I've sat.
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Kristen Welker
I know I sat in the rain with you for an hour on and
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Donald Trump
off in the rain. And I've given you enough time. You ought to straighten out your press because you know what? A country can never be great with a dishonest.
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Kristen Welker
Listen, we traveled all the way to Wisconsin for this interview.
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Melanie Zanona
We should note. You can watch Kristen's full interview with the president and read the entire Transcript online@nbcnews.com NBC News Senior Reporter Jane Timm, who covers election administration issues. She joins me now. Thank you so much for joining us, Jane. I want you to walk us through where things stand with the ballot counting and has there been any evidence of actual election fraud in California?
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Jane Timm
Hey, Mel. So we'll definitely just start there. There is no evidence of election fraud in California. California is notoriously slow for their count, how they count elections. They vote mostly by mail, as you said. And they also are a really, really big state with incredibly voter permissive policies. So if you mail your ballot before the election and it arrives a week late, as long as the postmark's there, it's still going to count. If your signature doesn't match, you have 22 days to fix it. The idea is that California has done these policies with voters access in mind, trying to make it as easy as possible for voters to get their ballots counted. So those are some of the reasons why it takes so long to count ballots. But I do think the most important thing to remember here is that it's just a ginormous state. Los Angeles has more absentee ballots than the entire state of Florida did in their 2024 primary. So it's just a whole lot of ballots to count. And while this is all going on, you know, there's a sort of a perfect storm of conditions that encourage this and made this sort of more fertile ground for this kind of misinformation. And Trump's what are routine election fraud claims just sort of take hold? Because while, you know, we're used to the ballots taking a while in California and feeling really slow, we also had this really compet governor's race where people were holding onto their ballots later than usual, not mailing them two weeks before election time, at which point election officials could have gotten a head start on processing those ballots. We had people holding onto them until the last day dropping them off in drop boxes so that there was so many ballots showing up on election night with a mountain of work for election officials to get through.
- [24:15]
Melanie Zanona
Those are such important points, Jane, especially the point about how this is actually not unusual for California, especially those of us who have covered these elections for a long time. We know inadorily takes, notoriously takes California a long time. But give us some context here about how typically long it does take to count ballots in California.
- [24:33]
Carol Lee
Yeah.
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Jane Timm
So we actually dug back into the archives with the decision desk today and we have a full screen we can put up here showing sort of how long we're used to these ballots taking where it takes sometimes 10, maybe 20 days to count all of these ballots. They've made recent changes in the last few years to try and shorten this period because I do think people want these results to come quicker. But with 80% of people voting by mail, it does take more time. And I think in case people don't maybe understand why it takes more time when people go to the polls in New York, I vote in person. So that means I go and I stand there and they check me in to see who I am, verify my identity in that way, and then I fill out my ballot and then I put it through the machine. That whole process is what takes more time if you're doing it by mail. So if you do it by mail, if I vote by mail in New York, they're going to verify my signature. This is how they do it in California, too. They're going to make sure that I'm a registered voter, that I haven't moved or become ineligible in some way. And then they're going to verify a signature and make sure that matches with my signature on file, and then they're going to check the ballot and run it through the tabulator. So that's why it takes more time for election officials to actually go through this.
- [25:46]
Melanie Zanona
And Jane, a federal prosecutor in California says his office has opened multiple investigations of California elections. What are those investigators actually looking for? Do we know why they opened these investigations and what is the status of those probes? Yeah, so I reached out to that
- [26:02]
Jane Timm
office today to sort of ask some more questions and got a pretty curt response that I'm on the mailing list and they would let me know. I was particularly interested to know why we know about these investigations, because the Department of Justice policy, of course, is that we don't, you know, inform people of ongoing investigations. That it's, you know, you usually hear about an investigation when charges maybe are brought or they find something wrong, but for now, they are not commenting on that. But we also know that that Department of justice office, that U.S. attorney's office, did debunk one of the most popular conspiracy theories about this election, the idea that there was a vote total upload that include no votes for Spencer Pratt in Los Angeles. We know that that vote update was split into two by the Associated Press, I think, and that that is why it sort of looked a little funny for about a minute online. And people are just so closely watching this that they found that. But again, this is just the way California counts their elections. And it sure feels slow, but it is how it is right now.
- [27:04]
Melanie Zanona
Jane, thank you for that incredibly important context and reporting. As for those undecided races in California where the top two finishers will advance to the general election, Republican Steve Hilton, who was endorsed by President Trump, is now in second place in the race for governor. Democrat Javier Becerra has already advanced to the November general election. And in the race for mayor of Los Angeles, City Council member and Democrat Nithya Raman now leads Republican reality TV star Spencer Pratt for second place. Incumbent Mayor Karen Bass has already advanced to November. Steve Kornacki is tracking it all and joins us now from the big board. Steve, so where do things stand in these key California races, both the race for governor and the race for Los Angeles mayor?
- [27:46]
Steve Kornacki
Yeah, well, I mean, as you're talking about, the ballots are still being tabulated here and there are still quite a few of them left here, not quite three quarters of the expected vote tallied statewide in that governor's race. But again, we've already projected Javier Becerra will be one of the two finalists here in the general election in the race for governor. And there is the difference between the leading Republican, Steve Hilton, and the other leading Democrat, Tom Steyer. You could see there a difference of about 300,000 votes again with more to come. But what we've been seeing over the last couple days here as these updates have been coming in from around the state, Steyer has not been closing the gap at the rate he wants to be doing it. It has been getting tighter between him and Hilton, but so far it's not been getting tighter at the pace Steyer would need it to, to overtake him with a number of ballots that are left right here. So again, that's another one of these features here talking about these late counted ballots, these late arriving vote by mail ballots that can come in up to a week after Election Day. Something we've been seeing here, something we are accustomed to seeing in California, is those votes tend to be very, very Democratic friendly votes here. And so that's one of the reasons we sort of expected that both Becerra and Steyer would improve their position as more votes have been counted. That indeed is what's happened. Becerra cementing the top spot right here, Steyer moving up on Hilton. But again, he has not been moving up on him at the pace he needs to if he's going to overtake him. So the possibility here that you will have a Democrat and a Republican as the two candidates in the general election here in the race for governor of California, certainly extremely, it's a lot More likely, I think that's going to happen than you're going to have two Democrats right there in the mayor's race. Again, you mentioned it there, the big development again, these late counted, late arriving vote by mail ballots being so overwhelmingly Democratic. We have seen the two Democrats here now cement the to take these lead. Karen Bassett cemented her lead here, the incumbent mayor there. She'll be one of the two finalists in Nithya Rahman moving up very dramatically in the last three or four days here to overtake Spencer Pratt there for second place. Again, about 83% we think of the expected vote in in LA. But again, just the way these updates have been coming, as overwhelmingly Democratic as they've been, there's no indication that that momentum for Ramen is going to stop and that she's not going to continue to increase that margin there over Pratt, potentially setting up a Bass Rahman general election in the race for mayor.
- [30:14]
Melanie Zanona
And Steve, compare for me how long it's taken to count ballots in California versus some other states.
- [30:19]
Steve Kornacki
Yeah, I mean again, this is like anytime it gets close in any race in California, since they've gone to the system, you're looking at days, you're looking at weeks. Just give you a sense here though, two other, you know, the other two largest states, Texas and Florida, you know, looking in March, Texas had its statewide primary. We're looking here time to get three
- [30:37]
Gabe Gutierrez
quarters of the vote.
- [30:38]
Steve Kornacki
How long does it take to get three quarters of the statewide vote reported out available to the public In Texas in March, it took three hours and 42 minutes. In the 2024 presidential election in the state of Florida, it took 40 minutes to get to 75%. California, as we just showed you, is not quite at 75% of his expected vote. And we're now on the day six since, since election Day. So again, these are different systems. There's as you were just talking about, it's heavy, heavy, heavy vote by mail in California, not in Texas. Florida's kind of split between they've got some vote by mail, they've got in person election day voting, they've got early voting. But keep in mind one of the justifications for that California system, they say, is, you know, turnout. It's all about prioritizing turnout over efficiency in reporting results. Well, 2024 presidential election, the statewide turnout, the voter turnout In California was 71%. In Florida it was 79%. So in the state that has the more efficient system there, it also had higher turnout rate.
- [31:43]
Melanie Zanona
Steve Kornacki at the big board, thank you Got it. Up next, not backing down. We've got more of Christine's exclusive interview with President Trump as he refuses to rule out taxpayer funded payments for January 6 rioters who attacked police officers. Stay with us on Meet the Press now. You know what's worse than a long wait? Flipping through old magazines in a waiting room. Instead, I power up Champa casino slots, blackjack, solitaire, roulette, Mingo and more. Boredom doesn't stand a chance. Take a few virtual laps with me.
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Melanie Zanona
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Melanie Zanona
Wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome back. More now from Kristen's Meet the Press interview with President Trump this weekend. The president continued to defend his $1.8 billion anti weaponization fund and refused to rule out giving payouts to January 6th rioters who stormed the Capitol and attacked police. The president also urged Congress to approve the fund despite bipartisan pushback and congressional testimony from his own acting attorney general last week that the fund was being abandoned, some lawmakers warning it could be used as a slush fund to pay the president's allies. As we mentioned, the interview, which was recorded on Friday in Wisconsin, was interrupted several times by heavy rain, which you'll hear. Here's some of what the President told Kristen.
- [34:14]
Kristen Welker
This 1.8 billion so called anti weaponization fund. It was going to compensate people who say the federal government weapons weaponize the legal system against them. It's been blocked by the courts, met with opposition from Republicans and Congress And Democrats.
- [34:31]
Donald Trump
Mostly Democrats.
- [34:32]
Kristen Welker
Some Democrats and some Republicans.
- [34:34]
Donald Trump
Very few Republicans.
- [34:35]
Kristen Welker
Just to be very clear, are you backing off the fund completely, as your acting Attorney General, Todd Blanche has said, or are you looking for another avenue to revise?
- [34:46]
Donald Trump
Let me explain what the fund is. People have been hurt so badly by radical left lunatics that worked for the Biden administration and Sleepy Joe. They're vicious, they're violent. What they did to people. And of course, they went after me more than anybody else. They raided Mar A Lago and all the other things. But people have been badly hurt. They've committed suicide. They've lost their jobs, they've lost their families, they've lost their wives. They've lost everything. They've lost everything over a fake weaponization
- [35:19]
Kristen Welker
of government for a way to revive it.
- [35:22]
Donald Trump
Well, look, it was up to me. I'd pay them the kind of money that they deserve. People have been destroyed. Lives have been destroyed. Many suicides. Think of it. People have committed suicide because a bunch of thugs went after them. You don't so many. Me, personally, I think the weaponization fund is a great idea and so do many other Republicans. You have to get it approved. If they get it approved, that's great. If they don't get it approved, I'd be disappointed.
- [35:52]
Kristen Welker
All right, we're going to motor through this.
- [35:56]
Donald Trump
But you have to understand, people have. This have been destroyed by crooked politicians and they should be reimbursed for that.
- [36:04]
Kristen Welker
Do you think anyone who attacked police officers on January 6 should get taxpayer money?
- [36:10]
Donald Trump
I wouldn't be inclined to say so, but I have to see it. I can tell you this. 97% of those people, you look at them, the FBI or whoever it was, because you had a lot of crooked cops. You had dirty cops. Comey was a dirty cop. A guy like Bolton was a dirty cop.
- [36:25]
Kristen Welker
There's no evidence.
- [36:26]
Donald Trump
Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Oh, you think Comey was a straight
- [36:29]
Kristen Welker
guy guilty to assaulting police?
- [36:31]
Donald Trump
Comey was a dirty cop.
- [36:32]
Melanie Zanona
No, no.
- [36:33]
Donald Trump
They had FBI. Listen to me. They had FBI agents ushering them into the building. They had FBI go into the building. Those people walking around, they're looking always in this thing. They weren't in. They were being ushered into the building.
- [36:48]
Melanie Zanona
Joining me now is NBC News senior justice reporter Ryan Reilly. Ryan, I want to start with what we just heard there from the president. He suggested, without evidence, that some of these rioters were set up by what he called crooked cops, crooked officials. He also said they were ushering people in. Give us a fact check on that.
- [37:05]
Ryan Reilly
I think he's sort of merging two separate false conspiracy theories there. There's the conspiracy theory that all these people were brought into the Capitol. There's like one video that's gone super viral before that shows a cop going like this. Basically that cop was pulling back the line. The line had already been broken. There were some incidents where the officers were overwhelmed. But then he's also bringing in the FBI too. The FBI wasn't on the scene ahead of any of this. There are a couple of sprinkled FBI inform, many of whom were affiliated with these right wing organizations, were trying to actually inform on Antifa was the reason that they were FBI informants who were in Washington that day. Four of them ended up going inside of the Capitol but were not directed to do so by the FBI. So he's sort of conflating a lot of the conspiracy theories that have been brought together to sort of undermine what actually happened on January 6th in that interview there.
- [37:51]
Melanie Zanona
And there's no evidence that there were FBI officials in the crowd egging people on, is that right?
- [37:56]
Ryan Reilly
That's right. The FBI afterwards came in to try to help out with the. Basically the riot control. Right. They responded to it, but there's no one on the scene there. There are a couple of informants, but they weren't directed to do anything by the FBI that day.
- [38:10]
Melanie Zanona
I also want to talk about your reporting that you had on Friday. So even without the anti weaponization fund, it turns out the Trump administration still does have the ability to pay some of these rioters. Talk to me about that.
- [38:21]
Ryan Reilly
Yeah, so the judgment fund has actually been identified sort of as this vulnerability for executive overreach. In the past you've had, excuse me, former Justice Department officials say that this is something that can be exploited by, you know, the executive branch. I just sort of give handouts. The case that the Trump administration keeps pointing to is when the Obama administration did this payout from sort of people who were discriminated against that had previously filed claims, but that was a very narrow subset and it had defined it was also overseen by a court. So it was a much different scenario. This judgment fund, though, does allow for settlements to be brought out to basically people who file lawsuits or make claims against the government. If the Justice Department was acting under normal controls, they'd have a bunch of reasons why they would be able to reject a lot of These claims of January 6th defendants off the bat, including the fact that a lot of these claims are done too old. So they were brought too late because they were brought, you know, over two years after this incident. There's also a ton of defenses that they would have under normal circumstances to say why cases should be dismissed. But if they wanted to pay out in some way, there are ways for them to find ways to do that.
- [39:19]
Melanie Zanona
And President Trump this afternoon, he did officially nominate Todd Blanche as his attorney general, which we were expecting. He's been doing that job in an acting capacity now for last two months. What more are you learning about this decision and if he's likely to be confirmed?
- [39:32]
Ryan Reilly
Yeah, I mean, I think there are going to be some questions for sure on the, on the Hill about this weaponization fund, exactly how it's going to play out. There's going to be a key hearing on Friday because of one of the lawsuits that was brought to sort of stop this. And I think we'll hear more about that. But, you know, Todd Blanche has gotten a lot of headlines by going after the exact sort of people that Donald Trump wants to go after. Right. So we've seen a lot. He did get a lot of news. He made progress. And a lot of cases that were sort of in the works were brought over the shelves or brought over the line. Most infamously, the James Comey Seychelles indictment, which is now, you know, is still ongoing. And it's a matter of like when that sort of will end up getting dismissed if it ever gets to trial.
- [40:09]
Melanie Zanona
Yeah, it's really hard to imagine that this is not going to become a huge issue in Blanche's confirmation hearing. Also, we should note that Thom Tillis, he's a key member of the Judiciary Committee, he said he has concerns about Blanche specifically as it relates to January 6th. So he's really going to press him on that issue. You mentioned that there is a hearing on Friday. There's a federal judge in Virginia temporary blocked this fund. Quickly, where does that case stand?
- [40:32]
Ryan Reilly
I mean, the Justice Department employees are going to have to go into court and say exactly where this is. And they said last Friday that is still held up because the Blanche thing. But. Right. Like, like we sort of pointed out, they can go around this. So I think the questions for lawmakers are going to be are they going to do more to stop just January six defendants from getting payouts rather than focusing solely on the $1.776 billion fund.
- [40:51]
Melanie Zanona
We'll be watching that very closely. Brian, thank you so much. Much more on the follow up from President Trump's Meet the Press interview, including his comments on the state of the economy and rising inflation and and gas prices. The panel's next on Meet the press now. Welcome back. Joining me now is our panel, Carol Lee, national security managing editor here at NBC Josh Orton, Democratic strategist and president of Demand justice and Stephen Hayes, editor and CEO of the Dispatch. He is also an NBC News political analyst. Thank you all so much for joining us. There's a lot to unpack here to break down this week, start off the week. Carol, I do want to start with you and what we heard from the president in his interview with Kristen Welker, continuing to leave open the door to paying January 6th rioters. How do you think that's going to play on Capitol Hill, especially given that it has held up reconciliation, which still has not passed the House, we should note.
- [41:47]
Carol Lee
I mean, it's obviously not going to go over well with those who are opposed to this and who spoke out against it. But at the same time, what we've seen from this president is he may be in one space in terms of what he thinks of a certain policy, and then there's the reality of where the policy is. And, you know, the acting attorney general said this is dead. The problem that the president also has is that there is a litany of times in history where he says he wants something and his staff figures out a way for him to get it. Now you have that judgment fund that Ryan Reilly talked about and reported on. So there's already a way to do this. But the president doesn't want to let this go. He clearly feels very strongly about it. He was very animated and in Kristen's interview about this. And so when you see him act in that way, one of the things that we've seen over time is that if he feels very strongly about something, he might pull it back a little bit to get what he wants over time, and then he'll figure out a way to do it in the future. And that's the big question now.
- [42:46]
Melanie Zanona
And Steven, also in that interview, the president downplayed the events of January 6th. Do you think that's something Republicans should be comfortable with or should be pushing back on more?
- [42:56]
Stephen Hayes
I mean, I would think that they might want to push back on it more. No. Look, I think there are a number of reasons that the president is angering Republicans on Capitol Hill right now, and this is one of them. No Republican running for office, not running for office anywhere, wants to be defending the president, suggesting that the people who committed those assaults and attacks on January 6 ought to be compensated for having done so. In recent interviews, he's also said that they were right, that they were vindicated because it Turns out in his mind, he did win the 2020 election. He keeps saying these things that Republicans on Capitol Hill, when you talk to him, say, enough, we don't want to do it anymore. We're sick of this. And so I think they've kind of reached the end of this. And that's one of the reasons I think he sort of spiraled in his interview with Kristen. He's had several of these incidents recently. He shouted at Benjamin Netanyahu in an expletive Laden rant. He shouted at Kaitlan Collins from cnn. He spiraled in his interview with Kristen. There's a pattern here, and it's not one that Republicans are happy about.
- [43:49]
Melanie Zanona
And Josh, I want to ask you about this fund. If the president does try to resurrect it in some form or fashion, do Democrats have any recourse without Republican help?
- [43:57]
Josh Orton
Well, yes. And I think what we're seeing here is a big problem for Trump. We know that January 6th is still radioactive. Look, demand justice actually did a poll in the days before this interview when we found in across nine battlegrounds, 10 Senate battleground states, 63% of all voters opposed the J6 pardons and 71% of independents opposed Trump's pardons. So this is a toxic interview, toxic subject for Republicans. None of his judge nominees will say the capitol's attacked on J6. So I think, look, there were sort of he's in kind of a between a rock and a hard place because on the one hand, he's obsessed with this issue, as yesterday's interview showed. But on the other hand, it is completely toxic, not just for Republicans, but for Republican Senate candidates, too.
- [44:37]
Melanie Zanona
I want to play some more of Trump's interview from yesterday, this part on the economy. Let's play that and we'll talk about it on the other side.
- [44:43]
Kristen Welker
Let me ask you about the economy. You got a strong jobs report today that beat expectations.
- [44:51]
Donald Trump
Not strong.
- [44:52]
Kristen Welker
Really strong beat expectations by how much? Triple 170,000 jobs created. And yet gas is up, diesel is up.
- [45:05]
Donald Trump
It's all coming down as soon as the war's over.
- [45:07]
Kristen Welker
70% of farmers say they can't afford fertilizer.
- [45:11]
Donald Trump
What's your farmers are doing very well.
- [45:13]
Kristen Welker
Well, let me ask you, what is your message to farmers, many who support you, but who struggle, who say nobody,
- [45:20]
Donald Trump
but better to farm. You know, I gave farmers last term $28 billion because China took advantage and other people and, you know, paid for it. China last year, you know, I had a great first term. I had the greatest economy ever. And you know, what? This one's blowing it away.
- [45:35]
Melanie Zanona
Carol, I want to ask you, how do you think that the White House is going to view that type of messaging coming from the president?
- [45:40]
Carol Lee
The risk in this is telling people that everything is fine when they know it's not fine is just not a recipe for success.
- [45:47]
Melanie Zanona
Joe Biden did it for four years.
- [45:49]
Carol Lee
Right. And it didn't work out. And the other problem with the president's messaging is he speaks in these absolutist terms, and he's always done that. You know, it's not most farmers. It's all farmers. And, you know, it's not things are going to come back. It's that they're immediately going to come back. And so he's making these promises that he's any expert who's analyzing what's going on with the economy right now has the war with Iran, will say it's not going to drop like a rock, like the way that president keeps, keeps promising people. And so he's kind of doing these two things that over the next bunch of months could really backfire on him.
- [46:24]
Melanie Zanona
On the topic of farmers, actually, my colleague Peter Nicholas talked to some Iowa farmers who said while they don't like where things are right now, they're still standing by the president. So what do you make of that statement?
- [46:32]
Stephen Hayes
Yeah, well, I mean, he's not right that all of the every single farmer supports Donald Trump, but he is right that many of them are sticking to them. I mean, I think he' swhe's done is he's given them rhetorical support both in his first term and in his second, saying, I stand by you, I'm for you. I do think you're starting to see that's one of the groups that's sort of losing their appetite for standing by the president when they're frustrated with them. And it'll be interesting to see if that continues.
- [46:55]
Melanie Zanona
And Josh, I want to get your perspective on this, too. Do you think that Iowa is actually a flippable Senate seat given some of this reporting?
- [47:01]
Josh Orton
I do. And while rhetorical support may be useful, it doesn't pay the mortgage. Right. And so I think one of the problems that Trump is facing here is that he keeps connecting relief to the economic problems, which are people's top concern. Bogglingly, he keeps connecting to the end of the war. And yet every day people are seeing escalation, a drag on no end in sight. And so I don't understand exactly what the plan is. He's not materially helping people. He's not you know, you've got corporations and data centers, people, you know, dominating people's lives. He's doing. He's not lifting a finger. He's just saying, I support you.
- [47:30]
Melanie Zanona
Steven, is there a chance we see sort of like a split ticket where people, you know, they sit out or they just don't vote because maybe they are unhappy with the president, but they're taking it out on senators and congressmen and women.
- [47:41]
Stephen Hayes
Yeah, I think that's not only possible. I think it's. If you look at the early polling, after the Paxton defeat of John Cornyn, there were some 30%, according to at least one poll, that suggested they weren't going to go vote of Cornyn voters. So they weren't going to go vote for Ken Paxton. That's got to be alarming, even if it comes right after. And there's a tendency to sort of rally around the party. You know, if it's a close race, you can't lose any of those votes.
- [48:02]
Melanie Zanona
I do want to switch topics because tomorrow is primary day in Maine and all eyes are on Democratic Senate candidate Graham Platner, who is expected to win despite navigating months of controversy, including Reddit posts from 2013 minimizing sexual assault in the military, a now covered tattoo on his chest that resembled a Nazi symbol, sexually explicit text messages sent to other women at the beginning of his marriage, and most recently, allegations from former girlfriends. A toxic, unsettling, and at times physically aggressive behavior. Now, Platner has acknowledged inappropriate behavior in his past and difficulties with PTSD after serving multiple tours in Iraq, but he has denied allegations of. Of physical violence. On Friday, Platner, addressing some of these controversies, including the most recent allegations at a campaign event in Bar harbor.
- [48:52]
Gabe Gutierrez
When politically motivated, serious and folk false accusations are made against me. Maine, you have my back. The state of Maine. The state of Maine raised me, and the state of Maine saved me. And to all of you out there, Maine, I will always have your back.
- [49:25]
Melanie Zanona
The controversies did not appear to deter the crowd, which responded to Platner with enthusiastic cheers multiple times as he thanked them for their support. But on Capitol Hill, Platner's candidacy clearly putting some Democrats in. In a difficult position.
- [49:41]
Jane Timm
Can he survive another scandal?
- [49:43]
Kristen Welker
You have five months here.
- [49:44]
Donald Trump
Well, it depends what I'm not. You know, I mean, obviously, if there was any evidence that comes out that there is actual domestic violence or assault, I have zero tolerance for that.
- [49:53]
Courtney Kuby
You've heard those allegations. Are those serious enough? If the other part is not true, are those serious enough to disqualify him.
- [50:01]
Ryan Reilly
That'll be up to the folks in Maine.
- [50:02]
Melanie Zanona
Of course. Of course it concerns me. But I will also say what concerns me, even at an even greater level is Susan Collins getting reelected.
- [50:11]
Jane Timm
And if folks are concerned about Mr.
- [50:14]
Melanie Zanona
Platner, wait till they hear about the Senate candidate in my state.
- [50:19]
Jane Timm
Ken Paxton.
- [50:21]
Melanie Zanona
We still have the panel with us. Carol, Josh and Steven. Carol, I want to turn to you on this. We just heard Ro Khanna talking about how he does have a red line here. You know, sometimes we see a disconnect between what Capitol Hill lawmakers are saying versus what's happening on the ground. But do you see a breaking point at least yet when it comes to Capitol Hill lawmakers?
- [50:39]
Carol Lee
Not among the Democrats, it doesn't. I mean, there are Democrats who have expressed discomfort. Congressman Dingell was on this program last week saying that she was uncomfortable with it. But no, everybody's standing by him for the most part. And the real test is going to be, I mean, that first question from Margaret Brennan was the question, you have five months, like what else comes out? And that's the risk that Democrats are going to take. But then, and you know, you heard the congresswoman there say, you know, what's better that what that risk ever risk is in that is better than the alternative. And that's the calculus that they're making.
- [51:10]
Melanie Zanona
Well, Josh, to that exact point, how are voters seeing this on the ground? And are we just at a moment where scandals don't matter anymore or is there just such an overwhelming desire to beat Susan Collins in Maine?
- [51:22]
Josh Orton
Well, it seems like the voters in Maine so far I haven't seen any evidence that they're backing away support from Platner. Look, I think he's addressing real problems that people are experiencing in their lives in a way that Susan Collins look, has been lockstep in Trump's agenda. Everybody remembers her betrayal of women when she voted for Brett Kavanaugh. And so I think, look, it's gonna be the voters are gonna decide who's gonna win based on who can best serve them. And I have to say some of these controversies I think are a little like, we don't need to keep regurgitating. We know about this tattoo because Graham Platner took off his shirt at a Jewish wedding and his combat buddy who got the tattoo with him has debunked this theory. Like enough with some of this stuff already. O concerned about their day to day lives and whether or not they have enough money to support their families.
- [52:05]
Melanie Zanona
Stephen, we've heard some Democrats, including Veronica Escobar she's one of the Democrats. We played in that clip pointing to Ken Paxton and some of his baggage and personal lives. I mean, do you think that's an effective strategy or does this risk getting into dangerous sort of what about ism territory?
- [52:19]
Stephen Hayes
Yeah, I mean, it's total. What about ism? Look, I mean, we've heard for a decade from Democrats who have criticized Donald Trump and the Republican Party for sort of the erosion of, of moral standards. And I've agreed with a lot of Democrats on those criticisms. It's just a lot to listen now to. Sitting Democrats say, yeah, no big deal. Nazi tattoo, who cares? Totenkopf, not a big deal. You know, his explanation didn't make sense when it was revealed in October. It doesn't make sense today. The fact that other people have said that. He called it my Totenkopf look. He's lying.
- [52:52]
Josh Orton
He's looking for.
- [52:53]
Stephen Hayes
He's not telling the truth. Other people have said that, too. And when he was asked about it directly, he couldn't answer for it. So when you can't answer your own questions about a tattoo that you've had for 20 years, when you're a self described military history buff, you've got a problem. And it's not a problem that Republicans have come up with.
- [53:07]
Melanie Zanona
And Carol, I want to talk more broadly about the Senate map. Obviously, Susan Collins has always been really tough to beat for Democrats. Do you think at some point they will look at Maine and say maybe we're better off as Democrats spending our money on places like Ohio or Iowa that have less problematic candidates and might be equally flippable for Democrats?
- [53:25]
Carol Lee
I mean, it's a great question and it really just depends on how this continues to shake out. To your point about his explanation of these things, you know, does that hold water over time? It's really going to. It's one of those things that's really just going to. What they need to figure out is if it can withstand these coming months and what else could possibly be out there? Because, you know, typically what we've seen in these kinds of stories is that there's an initial flow and then more comes out and more people come and speak out. Will that be the case here? We don't know, but they could ultimately be a situation where, yeah, the Democrats look at it and say, you know what? We gambled, we lost, and we're going to move on.
- [54:03]
Melanie Zanona
Josh, is there any chance the Democrats have buyers remorse for backing Platner in all of this?
- [54:08]
Josh Orton
I think Grant Platner is going to win the primary tomorrow. And I think he's going to defeat Susan Collins in November. I think Maine has had enough of Susan Collins.
- [54:15]
Melanie Zanona
Stephen, what's your view on kind of where is this actually going to take down his candidacy?
- [54:19]
Stephen Hayes
I think he's going to look, I think it's a hard argument for somebody to make the case against Susan Collins that she's that damaging and that threatening to Maine voters. I mean, she voted for Sonia Sotomayor. She backed other Democratic nominees. She opposed Amy Coney Barrett. She's one of the most bipartisan senators in the past three decades to argue that she's the threat that has to compel us to vote for the Nazi tattoo guy. That's a tough sell.
- [54:43]
Melanie Zanona
It's certainly one of the races we will be watching in the fall along with a whole spot of other guys. Thank you so much for joining us, Carol, Josh and Stephen. We are back tomorrow, though, with more MEET THE PRESS now. But before we go, a special programming note. Kristen Welker is hosting the first ever Meet the MOMENT Live event on Monday, June 29th at City Rewery in New York City. Her special guest will be Academy Award nominated actress, producer and mental health advocate Taraji P. Henson. Oh, so fun. Go to meetthepress.com to get tickets and secure your seats today. There's more ahead on NBC News. Now,
- [55:26]
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