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Meet the Press
Meet the Press NOW — March 30
00:49:50
President Trump doubles down on his threats to strike Iran’s civilian energy and water infrastructure if a deal isn't reached with the country soon. Some TSA workers begin receiving back pay as the longest partial government shutdown in U.S. history continues with no end in sight. A sanctioned Russian oil tanker is set to dock in Cuba, breaking an effective blockade imposed by the Trump administration.
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Kelly Clarkson
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- [01:10]
Ryan Nobles
Hi there. Welcome to Meet the Press. Now I'm Ryan Nobles in Washington where President Trump is once again threatening to strike Iran's energy grid and water supply while simultaneously touting the status of diplomatic talks with Tehran to end the war. And while suggesting the US could take the oil in Iran, all as war continues to send shockwaves through the economy here at home. This morning, President Trump posting on social media that the U.S. is in, quote, serious discussions with Iran, but warning that if a deal is not reached soon and if the Strait of Hormuz is not immediately reopened by the President's April deadline, the US Will blow up and completely obliterate Iran's civilian energy and water infrastructure. It comes as the President spoke to reporters on Air Force One late yesterday and suggested that a deal could come soon.
- [02:00]
President Donald Trump
I would only say that we're doing extremely well in that negotiation, but you never know with Iran because we negotiate with them and then we always have to blow them up.
- [02:10]
Ryan Nobles
Sir, could you foresee a deal in
- [02:12]
Caroline Levitt
Iran this upcoming week?
- [02:13]
President Donald Trump
I do see a deal In Iran, yeah. Mr. President, could be soon.
- [02:18]
Ryan Nobles
Now, despite that, Iran says there have been no direct negotiations between Tehran and Washington and called the Trump administration's 15 point plan to end the war, quote, unrealistic and unreasonable. But today, White House press secretary Caroline Levitt pushing back, saying Iran is eager
- [02:35]
Caroline Levitt
to negotiate it's no surprise that we are seeing the remaining elements of the regime become increasingly eager to end the destruction and come to the negotiating table while they still can. Despite all of the public posturing you hear from the regime and false reporting, talks are continuing and going well. If the Iranians reject this golden opportunity, the greatest military in the history of the world continues to stand by to provide President Trump with every option available to ensure this regime continues to pay a grave price.
- [03:08]
Ryan Nobles
If an American sitting at home hearing him say, I want to talk, but I keep seeing them send troops to that region, what are they to make of what's going on? There's two tracks here.
- [03:18]
Caroline Levitt
The President has always said that diplomacy is his number one option and priority.
- [03:24]
Ryan Nobles
And as this war enters a fifth week, it shows no sign of slowing down. Over the weekend, the Iran backed Houthi rebel group getting involved for the first time firing missiles at Israel. Meanwhile, President Trump is raising the prospect of seizing Iran's oil, telling the Financial Times, quote, to be honest with you, my favorite thing is to take the oil in Iran. But some stupid people back in the U.S. say, why are you doing that? But they're stupid people. He goes on to suggest the US could seize Kharga island, which is responsible for more than 90% of Iran's oil exports here at home. The national average for a gallon of regular gas is now just under $4, up 34% since the start of the war. And oil prices settled at over $102 per barrel today, the first time it settled over 100 bucks since the start of the war. Joining me now is our team of reporters covering all the angles of this war. NBC News senior White House correspondent Garrett Hake, NBC News senior national security correspondent Courtney Kuby. NBC News international correspondent Raf Sanchez is in Doha. NBC News senior national correspondent Stephanie Gosk is in Tel Aviv. And NBC News business and data correspondent Brian Chung is at the New York Stock Exchange. Let's go to the North Lawn first, Garrett. There seems to be quite a bit of daylight between what the President is saying and what the Iranians are saying publicly. What do we actually know about the state of these negotiations?
- [04:50]
Garrett Haake
Yeah, I mean, frustratingly little Ryan. I mean, I bet the only thing that's been publicly acknowledged by both sides is the idea that there are intermediaries passing some degree of messages between the two parties. But the Iranians have denied any direct talks at all, even as the White House has suggested that they have been fruitful thus far. I mean, it's hard to describe how much daylight There is between the public positionings of these two parties, I think in the Iranians, the President has met someone who are a culture, a regime that is as comfortable using really bellicose social media language and threats as he is. One of the top Iranian officials today posted an image of flag draped American coffins on social media, suggesting that that would be the fate of Americans should this ground incursion idea come to fruition. But I tried to ask Caroline Levitt today about some of the President's own rhetoric and this idea that the US Would go so far as to strike power plants, desalinization plants, the kind of civilian infrastructure that is off limits by the generally accepted laws of wars that seem to be part of his ongoing pressure campaign on Iran. And, well, just listen to what she said. Why is the President threatening what would amount to potentially a war crime with the US Military? And how do you square that with the administration repeatedly saying that the US does not target civilians?
- [06:09]
Caroline Levitt
Look, the President has made it quite clear to the Iranian regime at this moment in time, as evidenced by the statement that you just read, that their best move is to make a deal or else the United States armed forces has capabilities beyond their wildest imagination and the President is not afraid to use them. That's not what I said, Garrett.
- [06:30]
Garrett Haake
Now, the press secretary said several times during the course of this briefing today what the strategic military goals here, Right? It's the same stuff we've been hearing for the last five destroying their Navy, destroying the drones and the missile manufacturing capability, and capping or eliminating the nuclear program. I tried to put a finer point in all of this and ask her how destroying desalinization plants that produce drinking water would further any of those goals. And she didn't answer. Ryan. And to me, I think the point here from the White House is to try to give sort of the biggest, scariest sounding consequences for the Iranians, even if the specifics don't appear to be something that the President is perhaps prepared
- [07:06]
Ryan Nobles
to follow through upon and then beyond what they're threatening militarily. The president now raising the possibility of taking Iran's oil. He did this in an interview with the Financial Times. Do we have any specifics as to how that could play out?
- [07:19]
Garrett Haake
No. But to do it would probably require significant American ground forces on Hog island and perhaps in other places in Iran. And Ryan, as a student of Donald Trump, I have to tell you this is one of the issues on which he has been the most consistent across not just his public political career, but going back to when he first started flirting with running for office in the 1980s. Really, the idea of seizing Iran and later Iraq's oil reserves as part of any conflict with those countries is as seminal to the way that Donald Trump thinks about American power and the way that wars should be fought and diplomacy should be done, as is his belief that tariffs can solve a lot of issues. And so. Well, I don't know the specifics of what the administration has planned here or how feasible it is. The idea that this is something that the President is seriously considering, I think makes a ton of sense. It's just foundational to his view about why you would go to war with a natural resource rich country in the first place.
- [08:17]
Ryan Nobles
Right. Okay. Garrett Hake live from the White House. Garrett, thanks for that. Let's turn now to Courtney, who's in studio with me now. So, Courtney, the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, says that the Pentagon is preparing options for the presidency, how he described it. What more do we know about those options?
- [08:29]
Kelly Clarkson
Yeah, so as far as we know, it's still the same three we've been talking about now for several days. And that is what you were just talking to Garrett about, the possibility of the US Sort of seizing Kharg island or the Iran oil infrastructure. In that case, it's about cutting off the revenue to Iran and then potentially using that as leverage as part of these, whatever these negotiations or diplomacy, ongoing diplomacy efforts are. There's still some sort of a military effort to go into the Strait of Hormuz. You can see it there. And that idea seems to stem around having some of these US military potentially on some of these islands here. You can see them there. Laraq Qureshi, some of the other ones, Abu Musa. And the idea is you have military on those islands. That way you're stopping the Iranian military from being able to disperse boats, drones, whatever it is off of them and threaten the Strait. And then the most dangerous option of all is to go in and go after the highly enriched uranium, which, as we know, the US Already struck three of the facilities last June. But it's not really clear whether any or all of that still remains intact. It's, of course, in a gaseous form. It can be taken out, but a lot of it's just buried deep underground. These are the kinds of options that the US has had, many of them, frankly, on the books for a while and that get dusted off probably every single day right now while they look at the potential options for the President.
- [09:44]
Ryan Nobles
And the administration keeps kind of going back and forth about the possibility of ground troops not taking it off the table, but not embracing the idea either. But when the President tells the Financial Times that taking Iran's oil could be part of the calculus and that it would take. It would mean taking Carg island, which is their main oil export. You can't do that without ground troops.
- [10:03]
Kelly Clarkson
I don't know how you could. I mean, remember, the US already hit, I think it was 90 different sites on Carg Island a week or two ago. So they've taken out a lot of the infrastructure there, and there was a ton of military infrastructure there, but it's not clear that it's all completely decimated. So the only way that you could really take Kharg island is either to blockade or completely surround it, which would take a military effort or to send troops in there to actually hold it. And it's about five miles long, it's only about 20 miles off the coast of Iran. Taking it would be somewhat difficult to start with, but hold, holding it would be extremely dangerous because Iran would just pummel that island with drones, with aircraft, with ballistic missiles, anything that they can to try to threaten the Americans who would be on that island. The one good thing that the US has going for them if they decide to do something like that is they have air superiority. So they could put a combat air patrol over the island constantly. That could be shooting down incoming. But it would be a very dangerous endeavor if they were to do it.
- [11:00]
Ryan Nobles
And speaking of danger, what more do we know about the Iranian attack on an American air base in Saudi Arabia on Friday? Was there a lot of damage? How many injuries?
- [11:08]
Kelly Clarkson
There were. There was quite a bit of damage. We know there were about a dozen people who were injured. Two were slightly more, were more serious than the others. It seems as if this was a number of different, you know, traumatic brain injuries, concussions. But there were two with more serious injuries, wounds. None of them were life threatening, but there were at least one and possibly more than that aircraft that were damaged as part of this. I think what's really important to keep in mind here is there have been more than 300 injured Americans so far in this. A lot of them have been, again, concussive or traumatic brain injuries. So the blast, Right. Iran is going after US Military bases in the region just about every single day. And while most of the incoming drones, missiles, whatever they are, are shot down, they can still have an impact. Even an interceptor hitting a missile, when it, when the debris falls to the ground, that is a shrapnel wound potentially to people underneath but it's not just that there have been so many interceptors expended during the course of this that it is. It is genuinely very dangerous for the US Military to be at those bases in the region. It's not just civilians that Iran's going after, and they are targeting them.
- [12:15]
Ryan Nobles
Well, okay. All right, Courtney, thank you for that. Let's go overseas now. And Raf Sanchez is standing by. Raf, you spoke with the Ukrainian President, Zelensky, and he told you that Russia took satellite images of the US Base in Saudi Arabia days before Iran attacked that site. As Courtney outlined that injured some U.S. troops. What more did he tell you?
- [12:37]
Raf Sanchez
Yeah, Ryan, so he was telling us that Russia is regularly sharing intelligence with the Iranians to help them target US Forces in the Middle East. And he gave the specific example of that US Base in Saudi Arabia that Courtney was just talking about, the Prince Sultan base. He says in the days before it was attacked on Friday by the Iranians, the Russians took satellite images of it not once, not twice, but three times. And he went on to explain the significance of three different images. Take a listen.
- [13:08]
Volodymyr Zelensky
We know that if they make images once they are preparing, if they make images, the second time, it's like simulation. The third time, it means that one, two days, they will attack. Do they help Iranians? Of course. How many percent? 100%.
- [13:30]
Raf Sanchez
But just so I'm clear, what you were saying.
- [13:32]
Volodymyr Zelensky
Yeah.
- [13:32]
Raf Sanchez
You believe Russia is actively helping Iran target American forces in the Middle east right now?
- [13:38]
Volodymyr Zelensky
I think that Russia, in Russian interest to help Iranians, and I not believe, I know that they share information.
- [13:55]
Raf Sanchez
And he went on to say that he believes Vladimir Putin is hoping for a long, dragged out war in the Middle East. He says the high oil prices are helping the Kremlin. It means more tax revenue for the Russian war machine. And also, as Courtney was saying, the interceptor missiles made by the United States, which Ukraine says it needs to defend its own cities from Russian ballistic missiles and drones are now in enormous demand here in the Middle East, East. And it would very much be in Putin's interest for that supply of missiles to be split between the two.
- [14:27]
Ryan Nobles
Right. It's easy to forget how all of this is interconnected. Let's talk more now about President Trump in Iran. In President Trump saying that Iran's going to allow 20 oil tankers to transit through the Strait of Hormuz, he described that as a gift to him. Today, Caroline Levitt rejected that notion and said, or rejected the notion I should say, that Iran was cherry picking which vessels can pass through the Strait what's the reality check there? What's actually happening?
- [14:55]
Raf Sanchez
So I'm just assuming for a second that the White House is telling the truth, that the Iranians, as a gift to President Trump, have allowed or will allow 30 oil tankers through 10 last week, 20 in the coming days. That is 30 oil tankers over the course of about a week before the war, 110 ships were going through the Strait of Hormuz every single day. So 30 tankers, it's just neither here nor they are. And the proof of that is in the oil markets because the prices are not coming down. Oil traders are not impressed by these claims. I spoke to some maritime analysts last week. They could not see any evidence in the Data of these 10 ships that President Trump was talking about. There are some ships that are passing through the Strait of Hormuz, Ryan, but they are passing through what's being called the Tehran toll booth. The Iranians are controlling which ships are going out and they are charging some of them as much as $2 million to transit. And I do think, Ryan, the language is very telling. The fact that the president is referring to it as a gift speaks to the fact that the Iranians are very much in charge of the strait right now and it is in their gift whether or not tankers go through.
- [16:06]
Ryan Nobles
Right. Okay. All right, Raf Sanchez, thanks for that. Let's move now to Israel and Stephanie Goss is standing by for us there. Stephanie, Israeli's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that their military will widen its ground campaign in southern Lebanon. What can we expect from that?
- [16:24]
Stephanie Gosk
Yeah, Ryan will remember Lebanon is where Hezbollah is and that of the Iranian backed proxies funded armed by Iran, this one is probably the most important and it has been a front, a violent front for Israel for a long time. And Hezbollah started launching attacks in support of Iran during this war. Israel clear now, in this moment, taking advantage of it. And Netanyahu saying that in his words, he wants to fundamentally change that border. So what does that mean? More Israeli troops, more attacks? The idf, the Israeli Defense Force is saying that they have bombed 100 apartment buildings in southern Beirut. You have right now more than a thousand people who have been killed. You have more than a million people who have been displaced in a country that is about 6 million people large. What's interesting about this particular moment though, Ryan, is that you have a lot of people, particularly those in southern Lebanon, that are just tired of war, they are tired of the bombs. Even people that might have had an affinity to or supported Hezbollah, they are Angry that they are being dragged into this and a lot of them are being displaced from their homes. It has destabilized the country. But very clearly, Netanyahu taking advantage of this moment to perhaps clip the wings permanently off of a group that has antagonized this country for a long time.
- [17:44]
Ryan Nobles
Of course, they're not the only proxy group in the region, though. Stephanie, we're now starting to see the Houthis launch strikes on Israel. What does that mean for Israel's ability to defend itself?
- [17:56]
Stephanie Gosk
Yeah, well, they still can. I mean, the tactics are effectively the same, shooting down the same kinds of rockets on the Houthis, launching those attacks. But. But it also is significant for another reason, and that's the geography of the region. You have an important strait there, the Babam and Dab Strait, which leads into the Red Sea. And while, you know, we've been talking a lot about the Strait of Hormuz and the cutting off of oil exports, that is a critical shipping line. The Houthis have bombed it in the past. If they try to put a chokehold on that, it leads up the Red Sea into the Suez Canal. That could be just another front opening up in this war and a potential global economic problem.
- [18:35]
Julia Ainslie
Right.
- [18:35]
Ryan Nobles
Stephanie Gosk in Tel Aviv. Stephanie, thank you for that. Let's come back stateside now. Brian Chung is standing by outside the stock exchange. So, Brian, President Trump said today in a social media post that the US Is in serious discussions with Iran to end the war, but then he also threatened to blow up their energy plants. I have to imagine the markets are reacting to both sides of this conversation.
- [18:57]
Volodymyr Zelensky
Yeah, Ryan, it's really a glass half full, glass half empty situation, because as you point out, the glass half full is okay. Yeah. There could be a resolution here with the President seemingly expressing optimism over the discussions with Iran. But then the glass half empty scenario is, of course, if those discussions don't go well, well, then the President's going to try to follow through on his promise to bomb some of those energy facilities in Iran. Now, I should point out that the markets are kind of reflecting that what does that mean? Type of interpretation, because you have the markets mixed. Dow Jones did end the day positive, up about 1. 10 of a percent. But then the S&P 500, arguably the more broad based measure of the market, flirting with a red day, closing the day around 4. 10 of a percent down. I should point out that the markets have had a very bad few weeks ever since this war began. We've been talking so much about this with the major indexes, the Nasdaq, the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones all down over 7% since the beginning of this war. And the Dow Jones and the Nasdaq have hit a correction territory. That's when they declined by 10% from their most recent highs. The S P 500, I should point out, almost got to that point today. It didn't. But all of this reflecting this uncertainty, especially with crude oil prices continuing to march higher. You mentioned it. It's worth hashing again one more time. WTI crude oil ending the day up over $102 per barrel. That is the first time, Ryan, that it's closed above $100 since 2022.
- [20:24]
Ryan Nobles
And of course, that brings us back to the impact on Main Street. The Dow and the S and P being down so much is obviously affecting a lot of people's 401k's but that crude oil price is the impact you see when you go to the gas station every day. The national average for gas nearing $4 a gallon. Do you expect that price to continue to rise? And what could it take for that number to come down?
- [20:47]
Volodymyr Zelensky
Yeah, and here's the thing is that despite all of the president's optimism about the discussions with Iran, the crude oil markets don't appear to be taking that in stride, as Raf pointed out. So again, you have crude oil prices rising today. And for that reason, we do expect prices at the pump to rise as well. The talking point is that for every $10 a barrel of oil trades higher, that's another 25 cents per gallon that we pay at the pump. And so as you look at those national averages from AAA right Now, flirting with $4 a gallon, it's currently at $3.99. Well, the expectation is even though there have been some of these, you know, optimistic headlines around the developments in the Middle east, it seems like those prices are going to continue to trickle down to the form of higher prices at the pump. I should point out a number of states in the country are already seeing prices well above that in California and Arizona. So it depends on where you live. But the story broadly is still gas prices a lot more expensive now than they were a month ago when prices were on average a dollar cheaper per gallon.
- [21:45]
Ryan Nobles
Okay, Brian Chung wrapping up our little trip around the world on this busy news day. Brian, thank you for that. Coming up, 45 days and counting and no end in sight for what is now the longest government shutdown in US History. But while Congress is short on solutions, there's plenty of finger pointing going around. Plus, as TSA workers are expecting to be paid today for the first time in weeks, we're live reporting from one of the airports that has seen some of the longest wait times in the country. You're watching Meet the Press now.
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why have I asked my electrician I
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Ryan Nobles
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Because I was so moved by how
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Ryan Nobles
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Garrett Haake
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- [23:47]
Ryan Nobles
welcome back. The Department of Homeland Security has now been shut down for 45 days, making it the longest partial government shutdown in US history. And there's no end in sight. Both the House and the Senate are scheduled to be out of town for the next two weeks. Lawmakers left town on Friday after House Republicans rejected a unanimously passed Senate bill which would have funded most of DHS except for ICE and Border Patrol. Instead, the House passed a short term bill to fund the whole department. That bill has no viable path in the Senate. The gridlock is creating tensions within the Republican Party even as speaker of the House Mike Johnson says he gave his Senate counterpart, Majority Leader John Thune, a heads up about the vote. I told him it shouldn't be a surprise to anybody that we would not be able to do that. We're not going to split apart two of the most important agencies in the government and leave them hanging like that. We just couldn't do it.
- [24:39]
Julia Ainslie
Do you still have.
- [24:41]
NBC News Announcer
Yes.
- [24:43]
Ryan Nobles
Last week, President Trump expressed support for the Senate plan, but he seemed to change his tune last night when asked by my colleague Julie Serkin if he was caught off guard by the Senate vote. Take a listen.
- [24:55]
President Donald Trump
It's a shame. They should really just go to a filibuster. They should terminate the filibuster and they should vote. That's what I think. Look, I think the Senate is playing, playing too soft. The Republicans are wonderful people, but we're dealing with very sick individuals. The Democrats are sick. There's something wrong. They're like terrorists and we have to protect our country.
- [25:20]
Ryan Nobles
Meanwhile, over the weekend, members in both chambers and on both sides of the aisle pointing fingers over who is to blame for the ongoing funding lapse. You had the Senate, as you pointed out with Mr. Homan, pass a bipartisan bill unanimously in the United States Senate to say, look, let's fund everybody else and let's deal with this thorny issue about ice. And then you had the Republican House say, hell, no, we're not doing that. The House stayed later than we were scheduled to stay to take up a bill to fully fund the department and send it back over to the Senate. So the bill is over in the Senate. The Senate's got options. They've got to come back and deal with it.
- [25:58]
Volodymyr Zelensky
For the Americans that are standing in line right now at the airports know that that's because Speaker Johnson cared about his job more than what you are going through in your lives.
- [26:07]
Angie.com Announcer
Let's be clear. Whatever procedural differences we have between the House and the Senate, the reason we're at this impasse is that Democrats are using long TSA lines to throw a temper tantrum about deportations of violent criminal illegal aliens and funding of ICE and Border Patrol.
- [26:28]
Ryan Nobles
Joining me now is the aforementioned NBC News Capitol Hill correspondent Julie Serkin, who was on Air Force One with the president last night. So, Julie, lawmakers, it seemed like they were getting optimistic at the end of last week that they could get a deal. Now it seems way more pessimistic that there's a path to open dhs. Is there any way this happens anytime soon?
- [26:47]
Julie Serkin
Not from where I'm sitting. I certainly don't see a path forward. But you mentioned lawmakers going on recess. I think they could maybe get an earful at home.
- [26:54]
Ryan Nobles
Right.
- [26:54]
Julie Serkin
Like as they're flying into the airports, as they're seeing their constituents suffer, as they're potentially holding some town halls, maybe that could move the needle here. But as it stands right now, Leader Thune is still saying he's not going to bring his members home. Excuse me, back to the Capitol. There's no reason to, because Senate Democrats are saying they're not going to vote for this thing. And now we find ourselves in a situation where, as you heard from the president there, even he said he doesn't like the Senate bill. So I think they're really in a jam here. Normally, to get out of shutdowns, we see those long lines doing their work to have Congress come back and actually agree to something. But since the president's paying those TSA workers, maybe that'll blunt some of that pressure.
- [27:30]
Ryan Nobles
You know, it's interesting you make that point about whether or not Senator Thune would call them back. We see social media lighting up with all these covert photos of members of Congress in Las Vegas, Lindsey Graham at Disney World. TMZ has made it their personal mission to try and out all these guys for not being in Washington. The Speaker's approach to this has been, until I know we have something that can get 60 votes, it doesn't make any sense for them to be here. Is that a tenable position to take, given the outrage that so many Americans have that they're not here doing their job?
- [28:00]
Julie Serkin
Yeah. And Americans are dealing with these lines also on spring break, trying to travel. I spoke to a number of them in airports over the last two weeks. They say we might just cancel our plans altogether. And of course, the juxtaposition of members of Congress is living their lives. You mentioned Lindsey Graham, and Disney is certainly not helping out. I think it is completely untenable for Leader Thune to continue to say we're not going to call our members back. But call them back to do what? To make the situation worse. You know as well as I do that pressure really builds and works when there's a deadline and there is something for them to return to and really squeeze them on. I don't see it happening on this. But Caroline Levitt, the White House press Secretary, said today she thinks members of Congress should head back. So maybe if the president puts some pressure on him.
- [28:39]
Ryan Nobles
And speaking of pressure from the President, I mean, you talked to him about this last night on Air Force One. He's been continuing to float this idea of using the filibuster to Try and push this through without any Democrat support. The Leader Thune has been very clear eyed about this, that that's just not going to happen. There aren't 51 votes in the Senate to make that change. Does he seem to understand that or does he still seem to think like his force of nature might be enough to convince them to go otherwise?
- [29:04]
Julie Serkin
I think it's the latter. And I asked him in a follow up specifically, do you still have confidence in Leader Thune? I mean, he says he can't get the votes to break the filibuster. And President Trump said, you know what, he told me that too. But that's part of the job of being a leader. He has to find the votes. And speaking of getting rid of the filibuster, you know, one tool they're talking about, Ryan, at least among Senate Republicans, is to fund all of DHS using reconciliation. So using that 51 vote threshold to get it done, that's going to be a tall order for them, too. And President Trump knows that. So the short answer of this is, unfortunately for millions of Americans, there's still no solution in sight here. But one thing is very clear. The President last night said he won't sign a bill unless ICE funding is in it. See if he changes his mind. But as of now, that's where he stands.
- [29:44]
Ryan Nobles
I mean, he's been all over the map on that. What's interesting, though, is President Trump's interpretation of leadership. Right. His leadership model is, I'm gonna tell you what to do and you're gonna do it because I'm the leader. Thune has a much different view of this. Right. He is in charge of 53 other senators who were duly elected by their constituents. He's really not their boss. He has to reflect how they feel about it. That's a different form of leadership, isn't it?
- [30:07]
Julie Serkin
It's a completely different form of leadership. And the Senate is so different than the House. These guys are running six year terms, right? In the House, they're running every two years. They're always on the campaign trail, essentially. So the Senate members have a different calculus than the House members do. I mean, the fact that they passed the bill without ICE funding unanimously should tell you everything you need to know. Any one of the Republican senators could have objected, and they didn't until the
- [30:31]
Ryan Nobles
House did, including many of them that are on the Internet complaining that no one objected. They could have done that too. Right?
- [30:37]
Julie Serkin
Right.
- [30:37]
Ryan Nobles
Senator Mike Lee. Julie, thank you so much. Up next, it's not just the long lines at airports across the country. Tens of thousands of other federal employees who help keep America safe who still aren't being paid as the shutdown drags on. Stay with us on Meet the Press.
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Angie.com Announcer
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Ryan Nobles
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- [32:28]
Ryan Nobles
welcome back. Thousands of TSA employees who have worked without pay during this partial government shutdown are set to receive paycheck for the first time in more than four weeks. The checks coming after President Trump signed an executive order on Friday instructing the Department of Homeland Security to pay TSA officers immediately. Now, despite that order, air travelers are still facing hours long security lines at major airports. And it comes as DHS employees at other department agencies like FEMA and CISA continue to work without pay. NBC News correspondent Priscilla Thompson joins me now from George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston. Also with me is NBC News senior Homeland Security correspondent Julia Ainslie. Priscilla, they're going to make you start paying rent there because you've been there for so long covering this story. Had the TSA lines, have they gotten any shorter since President Trump signed that order to Pay TSA officers. Is there any sort of an impression that there's a chicken and egg that we can deduce from this?
- [33:24]
Priscilla Thompson
Yeah, you know, Ryan, it does. It is starting to feel like I live here, but I'm going to step out of the way and let you see for yourself. We're talking about a drastic change here at Houston's Bush Intercontinental where last week we saw lines up to four hours and now you can see passengers virtually walking right up to an agent or an officer and being able to give them their ID and go through that screening process. And we've been looking at airports throughout the day. Baltimore, New York, Philadelphia, all wait times of under a half hour. I will tell you, travelers here and I'm sure across the country certainly relieved. I want to play some of my conversations with some of the families, folks here in Houston. What were you expecting when you got to the airport? Chaos. Chaos. And what do you see?
- [34:06]
Ryan Nobles
Looking great. Looking great. We just said how excited we are. They can take away all this. We don't need it no more.
- [34:11]
Priscilla Thompson
Yeah, no line. What are you seeing right now?
- [34:14]
Garrett Haake
Not that long.
- [34:15]
Ryan Nobles
Not as long of a wait as I expected.
- [34:17]
Priscilla Thompson
What were you expecting?
- [34:19]
Garrett Haake
Like super long line stopped.
- [34:21]
Julia Ainslie
Yeah.
- [34:21]
Ryan Nobles
Not making my flight on time.
- [34:23]
Priscilla Thompson
Yeah, but none of that because the officers are getting paid today.
- [34:25]
Garrett Haake
Yes, ma'. Am.
- [34:29]
Priscilla Thompson
And we were even seeing some of those long lines over the weekend and those continued high call out rates. But today those paychecks hit, according to DHS officers received two back paychecks today. I spoke to one officer and I asked her how she was doing and she said great. She said much better. So very good signs here on the ground, Ryan.
- [34:49]
Ryan Nobles
But, but Priscilla, are they nervous at all that this isn't a long term solution? Do they expect to get paid again in two weeks? Could we see this all crop back up again if this problem isn't solved?
- [35:03]
Priscilla Thompson
Yeah. So I did speak to one of the TSA officers who's sort of a union rep in the sort of New England east coast area. And what he was saying is that they do expect that they'll continue to receive this emergency relief. Caroline Levitt was asked about this during the press conference earlier today and didn't exactly give a clear answer on whether that relief would continue. But that officer did say that yes, if that emergency relief does not continue and we are back in this position again in two weeks, that it would be a tragedy not only for morale and in terms of recruiting the more than 500 officers back who quit during the shutdown, but just in Terms of these officers feeling as though that is how their position is viewed, that they can sort of be toyed with in this way as we saw some of them really struggling to make ends meet during this time. So officers saying, we'd be right back where we were just a few days ago with these long lines again.
- [35:53]
Ryan Nobles
Okay, so Priscilla, for now, things are better in Houston. We appreciate that. Let's bring Julia in now to talk more about the long term impacts here. And you know, Priscilla raises a pretty good point, Julia, that I know you've been trying to pin down. There really isn't any guarantee when this funding runs out and how long these TSA officers can expect to be paid.
- [36:12]
Julia Ainslie
No, in fact, it's almost that they're being strategic, vague about it at this point because if you think about it, they want a message to Congress that a deal should be made, but they don't want a message to TSA employees that they only have two weeks of guaranteed pay before they're questioning whether or not they can pay their mortgages or, you know, basic needs again. And so at this point, we've gone to dhs, we've gone to the White House, we've gone to the Office of Management and Budget, and they can't answer two key questions. One is, will these agents be paid after this two week period? Because they've only decided to pay what they would refer to as the 4 and 5 pay periods of this year. And will they be paid the six? They haven't answered that. Then there's a question of three. What happened is the shutdown came right in the middle of a pay period. And so some of those agents received partial paychecks. Will they receive any back pay on that partial paycheck? We also haven't gotten an answer on that. And that's key for a lot of these people who are already not living on a very high salary.
- [37:08]
Ryan Nobles
We should also point out they did the work. It's not as if they were furloughed and sat home.
- [37:12]
Tiffany Smiley
Absolutely.
- [37:12]
Ryan Nobles
This is absolutely money that they're entitled to. I'm obsessed, Julia, with this idea. Yes, the TSA officers are front facing. They're the ones who are kind of, we're seeing the impacts of it directly, but there's this whole security safety net that we rely on in emergency management and cybersecurity and the Coast Guard that's also funded through dhs. And so many of those employees haven't gotten a paycheck either. And there's no plan for them to be paid.
- [37:35]
Julia Ainslie
Yeah, that's right. That also includes FEMA and Secret Service as well, and as well as the non military version of the Coast Guard. The people who are civilian employees and fema. If you think about people who are responding to disasters, making sure money gets out to state and local jurisdictions, responding to any kind of disasters, those are really critical agencies. And it's not necessarily an agency that everybody's dealing with day to day like they would a TSA line, but it does really have impact on communities. And so that is the position the White House is in now. Could they have gotten funding for all of those people if the president hadn't rolled out an emergency declaration for tsa? Hard to say. But what do they do going forward? Do they continue this emergency funding situation? ICE and cbp, by the way, who are the very reason why we're in this stall? The stalemate in the first place in Congress. They are getting paid through the big beautiful bill.
- [38:27]
Ryan Nobles
Right, Right. And I think of cybersecurity. We're not supposed to know the bad things that they're stopping from happening.
- [38:32]
Julie Serkin
Sure.
- [38:33]
Julia Ainslie
And that even ensures that our water mains aren't tampered with. I mean, critical infrastructure goes far beyond cyber.
- [38:39]
Ryan Nobles
And you heard Priscilla mention about the 500 TSA workers that have resigned. This idea that you could just hire 500 more men.
- [38:45]
Julie Serkin
500?
- [38:45]
Julia Ainslie
Yeah.
- [38:46]
Ryan Nobles
And get them back on the job. It's a pretty complicated process to get them up to speed, right?
- [38:49]
Julia Ainslie
It is. I mean, by the time of recruitment to vetting to all of the training they do both in an academy and on the job, it's about four to six months in some cases. And so that's not something that they can just bring on and bring in more people to fill in a gap. And if they do, with what funds? Because it doesn't seem they'd be able to use recruitment bonuses or get any money for a recruitment campaign, it would be just enough to tie over the existing labor force that they already have at tsa. So I don't think this is the end of the headaches.
- [39:17]
Ryan Nobles
And when I talk about this from a Capitol Hill perspective, Julia, and they asked me how the shutdown is going, I say it's a mess. I feel it's the same version.
- [39:23]
Julia Ainslie
I think so.
- [39:24]
Ryan Nobles
Same answer for you on the other side. A real mess with no real sign of it coming to an end. Julia Ainsley, thank you so much. After the break, tanker turnaround. President Trump allows a ship full of Russian oil to deliver much needed fuel to Cuba, despite what's effectively been a months long energy blockade of the island by the Trump administration. Details on that next on MEET THE press. Now. Welcome back and get ready for liftoff. The countdown is literally on to NASA's first crude Artemis flight. The 49 hour 40 minute countdown is set to hit zero at 62024 on Wednesday. That's when four astronauts will blast off on an out and back mission around the moon. Earlier today, NASA said the weather forecast shows an 80% chance of favorable weather conditions. But we're expecting more information at a press conference next hour as final preparations are underway. We'll of course bring you live special coverage starting at 6pm Wednesday right here on NBC News. Now how excited? Turning now to a little way south of the Space Coast, President Trump now says he has no problem with a Russian tanker full of crude oil delivering a shipment to Cuba, breaking what has effectively been a Trump administration blockade on oil reaching the country. The Russian tanker is scheduled to dock at the Cuban port of Monstad on Tuesday, making it the first full oil shipment in nearly three months. The lack of fuel has exacerbated an ongoing energy crisis on the island. Aboard Air Force One last night, President Trump defended his decision not to stop the Russian ship, which is sanctioned by the U.S. take a listen.
- [41:08]
OnDeck/Wayfair/Prolon Announcer
Do you worry that that helps Vladimir Putin, though?
- [41:11]
President Donald Trump
Doesn't help him. He loses one boatload of oil. That's all it is. If he wants to do that and if other countries want to do it, doesn't bother me much. I'd prefer letting it in, whether it's Russia or anybody else, because the people need heat and cooling and all of the other things that you need.
- [41:31]
Ryan Nobles
Today. The White House press secretary insisted the move was not a change in policy as it relates to Cuba. I'm joined now for more on this by NBC News correspondent George Solis, who is in Miami. So, George, tell me, how big of a help will this delivery of oil be for the people of Cuba?
- [41:47]
George Solis
Yeah, hey, Ryan, that's a great setup. I mean, again, to really exclamate the point here. This has been a country that's been without fear fuel for three months. So if everything goes as planned, this is going to be a huge lifeline for so many there in the country. Obviously, it's a band aid to a much larger problem, and that's assuming everything goes according to plan. All eyes, of course, are on the port of Matanzas. Even when we were on the ground in Cuba, it was hard for our team to maneuver because of the lack of fuel there. When you could find fuel, it was going for as much as $40 a gallon. Gallon on the black market, obviously a steal compared to some of the fuel prices that are currently out there right now. And that's where it was available. We actually stopped by one line of taxi drivers who were just in line, slept in their cars for five gallons of gas. And that's if they had a government issued card. So it really puts things into perspective just how much desperation there's growing. There's even reports of people that have been trying to manufacture their own fuel. But of course, the risk there is, you put that in your car or any vehicle vehicle, it could be a huge problem. So again, all eyes on the port right now for the arrival of this Russian tanker. And we're looking at, again, potentially nine, maybe 10 days of oil fuel, excuse me, should everything get unloaded as scheduled? So we talk about help. It is going to be a monumental help for the people of Cuba there. Ryan.
- [43:05]
Ryan Nobles
And the White House press secretary did leave open the door that more ships could come to Cuba. What more can you tell us about that?
- [43:10]
George Solis
That Caroline Levitt today, of course, saying that this is not a change in policy, as you mentioned, this is really just an act of humanitarian aid, frankly, at this point. But again, reiterating that this is really going to be happening on a case by case basis. One country that we should keep an eye on, of course, is Mexico, who says that they believe that they have the right to help out Cuba, which they've done so in the past. Whether or not we see that kind of help arriving here in the next coming days or weeks even, remains to be seen, Ryan.
- [43:40]
Ryan Nobles
And of course, there is the ongoing military threat that the Cubans probably feel on an everyday basis. The president had said that after Iran, Cuba would be quote, next. Take a listen to a little more of what he had to say about that topic.
- [43:55]
President Donald Trump
Cuba's a mess. It's a failing country and they're going to be next within a short period of time it's going to fail and we will be there to help it out.
- [44:07]
Ryan Nobles
How have the people in Cuba been reacting to those comments? And is there a sense that Cuba is on the brink of, quote, failing, as the president describes it?
- [44:15]
George Solis
Yeah. Let me answer the first part of that question. So when we spoke to people there on the ground in Havana, they're obviously well aware of the conversations between Havana and Washington. Frankly, a lot of people really placing blame on both sides and a lot of them saying, I'm not interested in the politics, I just want to know when I'm going to have lights on. When am I going to be able to put fuel in my car? When can I put things in my fridge? The risk of him spoiling because we're dealing with these rampant power outages. Now, as far as this conversation of collapse you just had not long ago, Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Castillo tell Kristen Welker that really, if you look at who's to blame, it would be the US who's putting so much resources, not just on the economic embargo, but this fuel embargo as well. The prime deputy foreign minister there had very strong words about all of this. But of course, again, we're looking at the arrival of this Russian tanker and how much fuel it's going to provide here for a country that desperately needs it here. Ryan.
- [45:11]
Ryan Nobles
Okay. George Solis in Miami. Thanks, George. Still to come, the not so full House. What what the ever increasing number of House retirements means for the balance of power, the midterm elections and both parties push for generational change. This is MEET THE PRESS now. Welcome back. As Congress seems mired in gridlock at every turn, Republican Congressman Sam Graves, who is the chairman of the powerful Transportation Committee, is now the latest in a long list of members calling it quits, 57 members, 21 Democrats, 36 Republicans say they're just done with this. They're not going to seek reelection in 2026. That's the second highest number of House retirements in nearly a century. Joining me now is our panel, Dan Marika, who's the co anchor of the Early Brief newsletter at the Washington Post Arshi Siddiqui, a Democratic strategist and a former senior aide, former Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Tiffany Smiley, the founder of the Endeavor Pack. So, Dan, newsflash. Being a member of Congress isn't that great of a job, and people are starting to figure that out. What are the members saying when they say they don't want to do this anymore? Is it personal reasons or is there just a general sense that this is just not a job they want?
- [46:28]
Angie.com Announcer
It runs the gamut. I would say. There are some who say I want to spend more time with my family. There are some who are getting older. We've covered the fact that we have an age problem in Congress to some degree. There are many who are running for state office, which I think is really interesting because oftentimes state office was seen as the launching point for a congressional bid, but now it's sort of the opposite. People go to Congress, realize they hate it there, and go back to their home state to run for Secretary of state, what have you. It does speak to. I mean, would you want to be a member of Congress right now? Really and truly, the acrimony is the point. Most of what is done is done on social media to score points. They aren't getting much done actually, legislatively, there's been a shutdown going on and they can't agree on that. So there's a lot of folks who just are done with it. I think Democrats are celebrating it more than Republicans because this is usually what happens in big wave elections is you see a lot of retirements from one party and that other party benefits from that. My question is the people who have left Congress and are now running to go back, like, I think they should be studied in some sort of scientific way. Because leaving Congress, you often go home and realize that, you know, maybe this wasn't the best place, but there are a lot of people who are running to go back. And I think that is fascinating at this moment that there are folks who are saying, no, I want more of this.
- [47:38]
Ryan Nobles
You know, Tiffany, I find it interesting to Dan's point about the fact that it's so difficult to get basic stuff done and almost being non productive seems to resonate more with voters, if you understand where I'm going with this. I think when we see kind of the back and forth with what's happening with the shutdown right now. The thing I keep thinking every time I talk to these members is, man, aren't you gonna be penalized by your constituents? And actually it's the opposite. They're worried that if they cut a deal that they're gonna be penalized by their constituents. Is this a problem with the way things currently sit?
- [48:12]
Tiffany Smiley
Well, I think the Democrats are more worried that they will be penalized by the far left progressive side of their party and not judge their voters.
- [48:21]
Ryan Nobles
So you don't think Mike Johnson' worried about that at all from the far right?
- [48:24]
Tiffany Smiley
I think overall, outside the Beltway, I live in the real America. I talk to Americans every single day from all walks of life. And everyone is incredibly frustrated with Congress. I mean, look what we have going on today. We have the Senate or Congress, everyone on recess for two weeks while TSA is not getting paychecks, DHS is not funded. The American people are suffering. I mean, agents are having to go to food banks and get food, yet Congress is taking a vacation. I think that they forget that when they sign up for this job. It's called public service. And what we need is more people, less degrees, more People, more farmers, more teachers who are willing to get into Congress and do the actual work of the American people and their constituents. Less paydays, less career politicians who are there for a payday. There are benefits, insider trading, they can go get rich. And the American people are really tired of that.
- [49:19]
Ryan Nobles
But, but you're exactly right. And Arshi, I want you to weigh in on this as well. Cuz I've asked, every time I ask a Republican or a Democrat, what are you gonna do? And the shutdown, they say all the things that you're saying. I'm so sick of these lines. I'm so sick of this. Can you believe that this is happening to these people? And I'm like, well, gee, if I only was talking to somebody that could solve the problem. And every single time we talk about it, the first thing they do is say, well, the other guy is not doing this. And I think that's what's been frustrating me the most about this process, Arshi, is that I have yet to have a member stand up. I take that back. Tom Suozny and Brian Fitzpatrick have said this is something we should do together, but for the most part it's just what can I do to push the other side down as opposed to coming together and find something that neither of us are gonna love 100% but will get these TSA officers paid? Why is that not happening?
- [50:07]
Arshi Siddiqui
Well, we did have a bipartisan moment last week when the Senate came together. They said, let's have more time, let's pass everything else excepte DHS and CPB and then give us more time to actually figure out this ICE piece. And that was a missed opportunity in the House. We saw the speaker really cater to the kind of right wing, you know, on a bipartisan piece, I would say Democrats would very much agree that Congress should be in session. So of course the speaker could have, and this is what Democrats are saying. The speaker could have absolutely had the vote that he had to extend everything. When that failed, he could also have brought up the bipartisan bill that had just passed the Senate and then we wouldn't be in this situation. So I think there was a bipartisan moment. It was a fleeting moment. And now where we are today is a much more difficult moment.
- [50:57]
Ryan Nobles
Okay, but how did we get here to begin with? Right, right. Because the Democrats decided that they were gonna take a stand on this. And I'm not saying they're right or wrong, I'm just saying that the effort from the very beginning has been an effort to knock the other guy down as opposed to trying to find a way to come together.
- [51:11]
Angie.com Announcer
Oftentimes shutdowns are kind of decided politically by who to blame. And it's why the party in power is often the party that's blamed because they have the most power. And that's true here in Washington. But actually Republicans had done a very good job, I think, at getting Democrats on the hook to a degree, until this vote by Mike Johnson. You know this better than anybody. You questioned him very well around that vote that it almost was like Mike Johnson pushed everyone out of the car and took the wheel. And now Republicans are behind the wheel on the shutdown. Wow. Republicans are out and Democrats are not in D.C. but, you know, we look at this through a political lens. You also have to look at this through a human lens. TSA is often one of the few times people actually have a touchstone with their government. It's running better today, which is great. But for that many weeks that it's been so chaotic, you wonder why people don't like their institutions.
- [51:58]
Ryan Nobles
I understand they get called inside that building. It's all about scoring points within that group of people. And they sometimes Forget what's happening 10ft outside those doors. Could this come back to haunt all of them at some point?
- [52:10]
Tiffany Smiley
Well, I think right now it's going to haunt the Democrats, especially heading into the midterms because what they wanted was to create chaos, to show the American people these long lines on the news. Right. And TSA agents not getting paid and hang it on the Republicans. And I think in some sense, sense, Donald Trump sidestepped them and got funding. Today finally, TSA agents are getting paychecks, funding that became available through the big beautiful bill and turned around and hung it back on the Democrats and through his executive order and just showed like the Republicans are here for the American people. Now I will be critical of Congress because if they were really serious about it, they'd be sitting here right now trying to solve the problem.
- [52:52]
Ryan Nobles
You have the last words.
- [52:53]
Arshi Siddiqui
I would just say that I think this is a more deep seated policy issue on ice. And what I think became very clear for House Republicans, they are not going to, they do not want to make any sort of reforms, basic reforms to ice, putting ICE officers on par with the rest of law enforcement. So I think this is a policy issue. There was a bipartisan moment. It was missed. And I think actually with independent voters there, it's going to be very clear that Republicans could have made a bought more time for negotiations and they chose not to. So that chaos, I think always goes to the party.
- [53:24]
Ryan Nobles
We'll have to see how much the average person can see through the nuance of this issue and all the different things and are just sick and tired of all of it and maybe they just don't show up. All right, Dan, Archie, Tiffany, thank you all for being here. We'll be back tomorrow with more Meet the Press now, but there's more news ahead, as always, right now on NBC News. Now.
- [53:41]
NBC News Announcer
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