Meet the Press NOW – April 3

[Music] if it's Wednesday April showers bring a muddy 2024 forecast as both Biden and Trump P their leads in the presidential primaries while running neck and neck in the latest Battleground State polls plus President Biden says he's outraged and heartbroken after an Israeli air strike killed seven World Central kitchen workers in Gaza as Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu faces mounting pressure from all sides to do more to protect civilians and lower Rising Regional tensions and we're following

the devastating Fallout in Taiwan where at least nine people are dead and nearly 1,000 more are injured from a major 7.4 magnitude earthquake the strongest hit the island in a quarter [Music] Century welcome to Meet the Press now I'm Garrett hake in Washington both parties presumptive nominees added to their delegate totals after primary victories in four states last night there's no drama anymore in these primaries but when it comes to the November general election well that sure looks like it'

s going to be a nailbiter pretty much every National and Battleground poll these days has the race between President Biden and former president Trump within the margin of error we got another one of those today a new Wall Street Journal poll shows President Biden slightly trailing his Republican opponent in six out of seven key Battleground States every state is within the margin of error mind you now it's only April now as our own Chuck Todd points out many key swing voters this election are no

t in any rush to make up their minds especially when it comes to these two historically unpopular candidates what motivates these swing voters could be totally outside of the current or former president's control which brings us to the issues because that seems to be where both campaigns actually see some certainty they know what fires up their base voters for the Biden campaign it's abortion as it looks to capitalize on that ruling this week that will put the issue on the ballot in Florida rele

asing this ad blaming the former president for the state of Reproductive Rights in the country because for 54 years they were trying to get roie weight terminated and I did it and I'm proud to have done it Donald Trump ran to overturn roie weade now in 2024 he's running to pass a national ban on a woman's right to choose I'm running to make gry weigh the law of the land again meanwhile Mr Trump engaged in some downright raw red meat rhetoric on the issue of the Border yesterday attacking Mr Bide

n while speaking to his supporters in Battleground Wisconsin I'm here tonight to declare that Joe Biden's border bloodbath remember they used the name bloodbath I was talking about something entirely different but this is a border bloodbath ends the day I take the oath of office with your vote I will seal the Border I will will stop The Invasion I will end the Carnage Bloodshed and killing the former president also used his rally to again falsely claim that he won Wisconsin back in 2020 which le

ads us to an enormous Wild Card heading into November right now and those are the very rules of this democracy today the former president joined a push by Nebraska's Republican Governor to have the state's legislature change the way Nebraska dos out its electoral votes in a way that could almost certainly benefit the former president to be clear the effort faces major hurdles due to opposition from State House Democrats and Independence and just due to the time left in the legislative session in

Nebraska but it's yet another example of Donald Trump exerting his considerable influence over his party at the national and the local level which has grown more receptive not less to his conspiracy theories about the last election and the administration of the next one and joining me now to break this all down is NBC News Chief political analyst Chuck Todd Chuck I want to put up something you wrote in your column this idea that all of this is a warning not to overreact to any poll Trend you se

e developing between now and October you talk about voters who are the most fickle about the current political situation the more fickle they are the higher the variance in both the likelihood to vote and where this vote goes you cannot tell us to ignore the polls until October well but I you don't have to and we won't they'll be we're going to get these releases but the the point is the movement to me doesn't matter until these last voters come right where are they going to go they're the decid

ers and that my point is the voters were trying to figure out the unenthusiastic partisans right your base turnout and these double haters yeah they're not going to decide now now they may asked by a pollster say I'm for Kennedy now I'm for this like I think you will see my point is it's going to be volatility that really yeah they're still undecided come October which is why ultimately it's that movement there and I will point out one thing about the polls that I think is something to keep in m

ind I think this is it's possible we look back this is Peak Trump because he's he just won and and he hasn't been put through the billion dollar ringer that he's about to go through correct meanwhile Biden he has more room to grow now maybe he never grows okay I mean I still have room to grow and I've yet to I never got to six feet so I mean you know but in theory there are more potential voters for him to get so for trump it feels like he's kind of topped out the thing that's so counterintuitiv

e about all this to me is you've got an election in which average voters even low ID voters know more about these two candidates than like any other two candidates in history and yet there's still so much uncertainty I think that's a hard Circle to square well if you don't well I think it all depends on what your expectation of politics is and I think that this is something not to go too meta no I I I you know and I I wrote about this a couple weeks ago because I do think that there are some peo

ple that go into The Ballot Box what does it mean for me mhm and then there's some some people go on the ballot boxes what's best for the what's best what I think is best for the country and you and I don't know which voter is doing that their vote counts the same and I think this group of Voters the reason why they're undecided is because I think they they're they're mostly I think they're thinking well I don't know which way is the right way because I look and I'm like you know it could be the

y're exhausted from The Divide I I will say this the other warning I was putting out there is don't assume that just because the last two elections basically were identical results except with literally a flip that we're going to have three straight it's it's like vetting on black on the rouette table three St you think well it's going to keep going sure but there's equal odds that there's not and in fact there's actually greater odds that it won't and in if you look at our own history there's g

reater odds that we're more likely to see a more decisive move either direction I think if Trump wins he wins it all yeah you know govering thing and I think the likelihood that Biden gets everything is higher than we than we fully realized um what I liked about your framing is it helps me understand why we've seen Donald Trump run the race he hasb been which has been no Outreach whatsoever to the Nikki Haley voters there's no pivot there's no move to the center it's to squash those unenthusiast

ic partisans on the Democratic side like you're right you do want to stay home because Joe Biden does suck right that is like the whole basis of the Trump campaign right now I think it is I think Nega making people feel unnerved about their guy 100% I I I do think that's Trump's strategy if there is one you know what I mean it's certainly been his strategy over the years in order to how does he become popular make other people unpopular it's a frame that makes sense while I have you as our resid

ent Florida man I want to ask you about the Florida Supreme Court part of this there was so much you know Sunshine if you will from Democrats yesterday even to just call Florida winnable how realistic does that seem to you on the presidential level or perhaps on the down ballot level having abortion Democrats favorite issue at the center of this campaign look let's the big favor that abortion rights Advocates were given was greenlighting the six we ban right because now you have a stark Choice i

t's one or the other that's right you either are a state that restricts abortions completely you're a state that's going to allow it pure and simple um but what I I I think we underestimate the intelligence of the voter meaning the voter there are plenty of Voters who understand they vote on this and then they can vote any other way they want elsewhere now do you get more youth turnout that's a big deal okay if you get more youth turnout and that is the key that's what we saw in Kansas right if

suddenly voters under 40 are coming out in numbers that they came out for Obama numbers that they came out then that that's how you lose Florida by three points remember Biden only lost Florida by three points this is you know we're we're so we saw what happened in 22 and we're all like oh my God right it's probably Florida's probably more like a fivepoint state generically could turn out make it two or three the problem is what it would take to win the state the Democrats haven't done that's th

ey've yet to register voters for the last 300 years in the State of Florida but at least the last three they Florida is a four-year project right all the time you cannot just light switch don't even get me started on Texas we'll do this we'll do that in our second hour but we got to leave it there Chuck Todd thank you for sharing your analysis with us on this and joining us now from where else the big board is NBC News National political correspondent Steve coraki and so Steve from Florida to Wi

sconsin now one of our Premier Battleground States they had their primary there last night what do we know this morning about Wisconsin as we headed to November that perhaps we didn't know yesterday yeah I well I think we know what we knew yesterday largely which is it's going to be a Battleground that could be decisive in this election and obviously the margins the last two elections and it's not just the last two elections outside of the Obama years the margins in Wisconsin have been close for

a long time here so you could see Biden winning it by t0 of a percent here a margin of 20,000 in 2020 and I think the places to look on this map we'll be talking a lot about them between now and election day and certainly on Election night you look in the suburbs here of Milwaukee particularly wakasa County oaki County these are still big Republican suburbs but they've become a lot less Republican since Donald Trump came along and even between 16 and 20 this is a big reason Trump won the state

in 16 lost in 20 he didn't get as much out of Ozaki and wakashaw counties in 2020 as he did in 16 Trump also in 2016 had big surges in counties that have midsize small cities in them places like Brown County where Green Bay is you know places like Lacrosse County where lacrosse is and the problem Trump had again in 20120 was he still won Brown County here but he didn't win it by as much as he did in 16 so he's got to improve he's got to stop the losses in places like the suburbs stop the losses

in places like Green Bay and he's actually got a claw back there some that he gave up in 2020 because the other problem Trump has is this one right here Madison State Capital University of Wisconsin it's growing in population it's getting more and more democratic and I think Democrats can squeeze even more out of here so we'll be talking certainly a lot about those Dynamics it's going to be fascinating to watch and Steve we mentioned at the top a push by Trump and some Republicans to change the

Electoral uh vote distribution in Nebraska the critical Battleground state of Nebraska can you walk us through why that would be such a big deal this November yeah I mean I'll take you through a scenario here and I think you could see how this one electoral vote could actually be huge in this election so this is where things ended in 2020 36 232 Biden first thing to remember we had a census since then some State some states got more electoral votes some got less so if you ran the election all ov

er again and you got the exact same result in terms of the states it would now be 303 235 just on population shift Trump gains three electoral votes now we've been saying mathematically what is Trump's most efficient way to get from there to 270 we'll just start working in order here of the states in terms of how close they were in 20 this was the closest 20 he lost Arizona about 10,000 votes sake of argument what happens if Trump wins Arizona there you go he'd move to 246 second closest Georgia

just under 12,000 votes in 2020 if Trump were to get Georgia now he's up to 262 and this is where Nebraska comes in because right now with Arizona and Georgia Trump would need one of the big big 10 states that he lost Wisconsin Michigan or pen pania but what happens if Nebraska changes this rule then another state comes into play and it's one that Republicans are very bullish on it's Nevada Nevada was blue and 16 and 20 but the margin's only about two points and demographically Republicans thin

k this is a state where they got a future so look what happens if Trump gets Nevada 268 right now but if Nebraska changes the rules that congressional district there it is don't do it 269 269 and that's a reminder if it is a tie the house breaks the tie and it's not every member who votes it's every state delegation and the Republicans are expected to control more delegations than Democrats so the expectation is if it ever landed this way it's Advantage Trump Steve coraki haunting our nightmares

for months to come with the 269 269 tie Steve thank you for breaking it all down for us you got it and coming up in the aftermath of that F fatal IDF air strike on a humanitarian Aid Convoy the message from the the White House and from World Central Kitchen founder Jose Andre is that Israel must do better how Israel's top officials are responding next plus new domestic Fallout from the war against Hamas will take you inside President Biden's tense meeting with the Muslim Community leaders and w

hat it could mean for Biden's campaign hopes in November you're watching Meet the Press [Music] now welcome back we just learned that President Biden is expected to speak with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu tomorrow it'll be their first conversation since seven Aid workers with World Central Kitchen were killed by an Israeli air strike in Gaza and it comes as Netanyahu is facing increasing domestic pressure last night demonstrators clashed with police outside the prime minister's residence and

what has become the most significant anti-government protest since the War Began in October and today Benny Gan a member of the war cabinet and political rival to Netanyahu called for early elections to be held in September to quote prevent a rift in the nation in an oped today Chef Jose Andre founder of world Central Kitchen describes the seven Aid workers who were killed in that Israeli strike as the best of humanity who risked everything to get food to the people who need it he also wrote qu

ote Israel is better than the way this war is being ra waged it's better than blocking food and medicine to civilians it is better than killing Aid workers who had coordinated their movements with the Israel Defense forces all this comes after President Biden also condemned the strike saying that Israel was not doing enough to protect Aid workers or civilians NBC News International correspondent RAF Sanchez has more from Tel Aviv the bodies of those slain seven World Central Kitchen Aid workers

have now crossed out of Gaza into Egypt as part of their long journey home for burial they go with tributes from around the world including from President Biden who calls fearless and brave and leveled some of the most serious criticism at Israel that we have seen from the president yet he said simply Israel is not doing enough to protect either civilians or Aid workers and that this is part of the reason that it has been so difficult to get a distributed inside of the Gaza Strip is that it is s

imply not safe for humanitarians the UN says the killing of these seven a workers not en isolated incident around 200 humanitarians have been killed in Gaza since the start of the war the vast majority of them Palestinians among the seven World Central Kitchen staff who were identified overnight 33-year-old Jacob Flickinger he is a was a dual US Canadian citizen who was part of the relief operation at World Central kitchen now these Israeli military making public the initial findings of its prob

e into this deadly series of air strikes they say this was a misidentification of those three World Central Kitchen Vehicles they say it happened at night in a complex wartime environment and that this is a tragic mistake which they deeply regret but the Israeli military is facing a number of questions World Central Kitchen says that its Vehicles were clearly identified with its symbol and that it coordinated with the Israeli military about their movements ahead of time the charity also telling

NBC news that two days before the deadly air strike they believe an Israeli sniper shot at one of those Vehicles they say the bullet damaged a wing mirror nobody was hurt but that they filed a complaint with the Israeli military we asked the IDF about this shooting incident they did not come back to us this is having a major impact on the humanitarian Mission inside of Gaza World Central Kitchen has paused its own Aid operations we saw those three ships heading from Cypress to Gaza turning aroun

d and heading back a number of other Aid organizations also putting their operations inside of Gaza on pause so this is a major blow to the humanitarian effort at a time when it is needed the most back to you all right that was rth Sanchez reporting I want to bring in now Kelly O'Donnell she's outside the White House so Kelly as we mentioned President Biden has leveled some of his harshest criticisms now at Israel this statement following the strike on the world Central kitchen workers but is th

ere any sign that it won't just be his rhetoric shifting that perhaps the administration's policy towards Israel might follow well so far when we've been pressing top officials about this the answer we're getting back is that there is not a change in policy that the US still believes that it will have a partner in Israel and will defend Israel and will provide military weapons for sale to Israel and that that is ongoing however what is certainly notable is that the president's tone has changed d

ramatically and that he has certainly put pressure on Israel to do something different here and to recognize the scope and scale of the reaction and the horror of famine in Gaza civilians uh dying at a very high rate and suffering and now these prominent Aid workers among many who have been killed we're talking about the Jose Andre group the world Central Kitchen there have been many more Aid workers from various organizations that have also died in this conflict so the message from the White Ho

use is that Israel is not doing enough and that we expect will be delivered in the direct conversation between the president and prime minister Netanyahu their relationship has long been tense but it is also a deep and long lasting relationship they've known each other some 40 years and so this will be an opportunity for the president if he is going to change policy to do it voice to voice over the phone yeah they've made clear both of them that they have a pretty candid speaking relationship an

d Kelly the President also had these scaled back Ramadan events overnight some Muslim leaders rejected the invitation to even come take us inside the room what do we know about what happened very different from a couple of years ago when this holiday was celebrated at the White House in the East room with a big public event officials say that what was requested from Muslim leaders in the Community was a working group meeting and then they did have time to break the fast but small scale very quie

t and very different than what we might have otherwise expected at the same time some of those who are directly involved in this wanted that face-to-face meeting we are told in order to confront the administration to talk candidly uh not a time for celebration when their uh fellow Muslims are suffering in Gaza and so this is a very different tone now the white says that they wanted to respect that request to have a working meeting they understood that there would be uh candid words and difficult

circumstances they also say that they are having these meetings on an ongoing basis below the president's level and with this they wanted the president to be involved in these conversations directly so different than what we've seen in the past but also this moment is quite different as well yes it is Kelly O'Donnell thank you and joining me now is retired Admiral James stes former NATO Supreme Allied commander and now NBC News Chief International analyst so Admiral as a former Commander what's

your reaction to this strike on these World Central kitchen workers the Convoy was clearly marked they coordinated with the IDF how did this go so wrong uh clearly the Israelis felt they had a senior Hamas operative we've watched them use this kind of technique uh drones missiles taking out convoys uh in this case just deeply flawed intelligence heartbreaking tragic um the Israelis will pull this apart I'm quite confident uh they will fully admit to their mistakes uh certainly the United States

has had instances of this kind of event always tragic and uh my heart goes out to those workers who are real heroes in every Dimension how important is it for Israel to take really serious responsibility for this I think there's a lot of talk that this could be a turning point in the war or at least how the rest of the world looks at Israel's handling of the War uh Israel has already lost the international narrative clearly the vast majority of countries uh believe Israel has gone way way too f

ar is violating the laws of war um and this incident will add fuel to that fire Israel needs to tactically stand up take full responsibility show what happened discipline those involved that's very important and then strategically at the same time Israel needs to pull back the lens get the aid flowing into Gaza loosen the constraints on these Aid convoys I think it is going to be a turning point in the way Israel approaches the war and it must be do you think it's a turning point in the debate a

bout conditioning us Aid to Israel the Biden Administration has continued to provide military assistance at some point the US surely becomes or at least looks culpable to the rest of the world for this kind of thing no absolutely right and the way the Administration has been looking at it I think correctly is that it's not an on and off switch right of 100% Aid or zero% it's it's a rat they're dialing up the pressure on the Israelis you see that in a number of different dimensions the next click

on that reest that is going to be stopping uh providing offensive weapons to the Israelis I got to think that's being communicated uh offstage sov voce to the Israelis um we do that as friends of the Israelis in the sense that it will push them toward the behavior that will help them in the long term and I want to ask you about the strike that would on any other day be the top news in the war this strike on the Iranian Consulate in Syria Israel has had no comment on the strike but somebody did

it so is a strike on a consulate is that a legitimate Target does that violate international law what are we dealing with here um in the sense that Israel and Iran have no diplomatic relations and are already engaged in a shadow War I would argue it is in fact a legitimate Target for the Israeli Defense Forces you'll get some International lawyers who would disagree with me on that and say nope it's a diplomatic compound but I think from an Israeli perspective uh when they listen to the leadersh

ip of Iran talk about wiping Israel off the face of the Earth about the houy attacks on Israeli shipping about Hezbollah launching missiles day after day and Hamas above all a creature of Iran uh raping torturing mutilating Israeli citizens I think it's a legitimate Target now Iran has vowed to retaliate for this but I feel like we've heard that from them before what will their response or lack thereof tell us about their appetite to escalate this into a broader war in the region Iran has no app

etite to turn this into a broad war with Israel because they know if they did that the United States ultimately would end up with Israel and that would lead to extremely destructive effect on the Iranian Armed Forces so what I suspect Iran will do is launch some additional weapons from Hezbollah they might undertake a kind of a assassination attempt against senior Israeli officials look Israel will take care of itself I don't see Iran taking on a big massive campaign because they know at the end

of the day they'd be on the losing end of that conflict all right Admiral James SES thank you for your time and for your expertise today you bet thank you Garrett and turning now to that devastating earthquake today in Taiwan at least nine people are dead and close to a thousand injured after a powerful 7.4 magnitude Quake struck the east coast of the island this morning as you can see here buildings shook some collapsed just as people were headed to work and to school it was the strongest Quak

e to hit the country in 25 years right now Rescuers are working to free over 140 people who are still trapped more than a 100 buildings have been damaged strong aftershocks followed the initial earthquakes including a 6.5 magnitude tremor the Biden Administration says it is monitoring the events and is prepared to offer any assistance Taiwan may need up next as former president Trump ramps up his rhetoric On the Border a controversial Texas border law allowing local police to arrest and detain i

llegal migrants he's back in court today you're watching Meet the Press [Music] now welcome back the Biden Administration is once again facing off against the state of Texas over a controversial immigration law in this case the one dubbed sb4 that would allow state law enforcement officials to arrest detain and Deport individuals suspected of crossing the border illegally today a three-judge panel heard oral arguments on whether that law is constitutional or if it conflicts with existing Federal

immigration policy right now the law has been temporarily blocked from going into effect as it makes its way through the appeals process but regardless of how the appeals court rules it's yet another contentious case that appears headed to the Supreme Court joining me now is NBC News Homeland Security correspondent Julia anley so Julia you followed these arguments today what stood out to you and what do we think happens next well I'd say what stood out to me Garett is the fact that Texas kind o

f did an about face on what this law means in the first place oh good yeah so that that's where we started this morning and the lawyer arguing for the State of Texas said look maybe Texas went too far those were the words we heard and he said that in fact what could happen if Mexico refuses to take back migrants deported by Texas as Mexico said it will refuse to do so that these migrants would instead just be handed over to CBP Customs and Border Protection at a Port of Entry that's where migran

ts end up when they cross the border today Garrett so it really circumvents the whole purpose of why Texas would do this in the first place they would have them arrested and sentenced for trespassing that's something they're already doing now perhaps Texas judges could get involved and local law enforcement would feel empowered to start arresting people in the interior of the state that could be a change but it's really not the sb4 that was signed into law it's not the sb4 that they've described

and what they've put into briefs to this court or the Supreme Court and it was a real surprise here and in fact the three judge panel started asking the folks from the federal government arguing for the justice department is this something you could agree to it just got into this really weird hypothetical territory yeah that is very strange so I want to ask you also about the former president he's been ramping up his rhetoric still farther On the Border talking about the idea of a border blood

bath give us the reality check here about the the violent crime real life statistics both at the border and and from migrants well I actually was just speaking to some folks yesterday who have been looking at the most recent numbers from the state of Texas because that's the only state that actually records immigration status of people that they arrest and for people arrested for in charge with homicide they are more likely to be US citizens in other words illegal immigrants commit crimes overal

l on a lower rate per capita than US citizens do and as far as the numbers at the border right now we're not talking about record highs we saw that last year this year they've been around five to 6,000 illegal Crossings per day certainly not exactly where they want to be but it's not the dire five alarm fire that we saw last year the other part of this that's interesting is the former president has been saying that Mexico will negotiate with him better he will negotiate with Mexico somehow more

effectively than President Biden has on this issue what do we know about the state of that relationship and what are mexic officials saying about all of the Border uh drama that we're experiencing on the Northern side of it right now well Mexican officials tell me that it is a policy of this Administration and likely the next one to be as Cooperative as possible with the United States they don't mess around with their largest trading partner uh Mexico is also our largest trading partner that's a

relationship that needs to stay but the Trump Camp really wants to ramp up pressure on Mexico to take back more migrants to interdict more migrants on their way to the United States and they could do that in pretty harsh ways including tariffs it's a question of is Trump willing to play with the economy and global trade on that scale so that's certainly something I'm watching for and something you might be watching for too as you listen to Trump's rhetoric definitely and there's a presidential

election in Mexico this year so all of these balls soon that's right all right Julia Angley thank you for that reporting and after the break poll problems and Battleground bids I'll talk to a democratic lawmaker from Michigan as President Biden battles political headwinds in a state that is a must win for his campaign in November congresswoman Haley Stevens joins me next you're watching Meet the Press [Music] now this is a very important state you win Michigan you win the election welcome back t

hat was Donald Trump yesterday in Michigan making a statement that many people in both campaigns probably agree with a state where he leads President Biden according to the new Wall Street Journal poll of battleground States although that lead is within the margin of eror Biden's allies worry that President Biden's support for Israel and its war with Hamas could be hurting his chances in the state considering its sizable Arab American population I'm joined Now by congresswoman Haley Stevens a De

mocrat from Michigan and a surrogate for the Biden Harris campaign congresswoman thank you for being here so let's go big picture how does President Biden put that winning Coalition back together and win in Michigan again well that's what the Biden campaign is working on every single day with a commitment to open 30 off offices by the end of this month uh last month we opened an office in Oakland County to to Great Fanfare they're working on that Coalition building they're running a fun inclusiv

e uh compassionate oriented campaign that is firing people up and most importantly they're not taking anything for granted Joe Biden is a consistent steady successful leader who has delivered on his promises time and time again and he has a continued vision for this country he wants to continue to tackle gun violence he wants to continue to deliver for our clean energy economy and most importantly for voters in Michigan he wants to stand up for women's rights he wants to codify row we can trust

Joe Biden to do that we certainly cannot go back to Donald Trump and his plan to implement a six- week abortion ban and and take this country backwards it's not going to work it didn't work in 2020 and it's certainly not going to work in 2024 what message do you think the president received from the more than 100,000 michiganders who voted uncommitted in the primary last month and what does he intend to do to win those folks back well certainly the president understands that people have a right

to exercise their opinion and their voice and you can't have a better leader than Joe Biden in this moment because he's a listener and he's a leader at the same time and so he's meeting people with the compassion and the dedication that they deserve on a very complicated and tough issue there's no doubt a tremendous amount of pain in both our Arab and Jewish Community since October 7th everybody wants to see war end and War not go on uh it it's harrowing to watch the images and see this go on da

yto day and I believe that Joe Biden has a plan uh and he spoke about that very clearly in the State of the Union about his dedication to providing humanitarian support and also continuing to stand by our our longstanding Ally which is which is Israel Joe Biden's record's very clear on that front Donald Trump over the page I don't dispute that last point but I will ask I mean is is listening enough I mean these arab-american voters are really angry in a lot of cases I mean the idea that the pres

ident has listened compassionately does not seem to be enough to win over somebody who's going to go out in the cold and and write down uncommitted as a message to him specifically that this isn't working that's a great follow-up question and look it's responsible listening and it's also action oriented listening it it's not just paying lip service uh it is hearing directly uh from voters and from constituencies and and look the the foreign policy approach that the Biden Administration has uh be

en taking and and certainly we've heard this from Jake Sullivan it has been transparent uh it has been consistent and and also it has been very communicative so what we're not going to see is Joe Biden take a80 uh degree uh turn in another Direction but what he is doing is doubling down on the commitment to humanitarian support and to Aid he is trying to work with Congress on the right package I don't think that you're going to see this President sign something that doesn't include that humanita

rian Aid which in a lot of my conversations with stakeholders and folks on the ground that is absolutely essential here right we have a failed state in Hamas and the and their leadership that has truly endangered and hurt people in Gaza we all know that needs to go we need to rebuild you see the Biden Administration putting forward a plan to rebuild and again not taking anything for granted and this is this is one issue that that has large ramifications in the state of Michigan but look at how J

oe Biden has delivered for our manufacturing economy we we had six Automotive plants shutter under Donald Trump one here in Michigan and yet we've had 350,000 manufacturing jobs in just my state alone get created under Joe Biden I got manufacturing crawling crawling out the the you know all over our our state here in Oakland County to Mid Michigan from solar to battery to obviously Automotive a record Automotive contract uh cut and something that Joe Biden endorsed and supported along the way st

ay in by our UAW workers don't take that stuff for granted because you you see how Joe Biden is communicating and leading at the same time I I'm hearing you say that this state even will be decided by many more issues than just this war you mentioned the UAW workers I'm curious about that endorsement that the president got from the UAW has he done enough to communicate uh both the value of that endorsement and the idea that he is specifically Pro worker not just sort of pro-union conceptually to

the degree you see a difference between those things well it it was certainly a ringing moment to see UAW president Shan Fain at the State of the Union I was certainly very proud uh to to see that and what is going to take place over these next six to seven months with the with the Biden campaign is work in the union halls it's not just big rallies you saw the president uh come into Michigan come to region one here uh UAW region one uh over in m home county not holding a big rally but engaging

with workers learning their stories winning over their votes it's those nooks and crannies that are so deeply important yes people love to go to a political rally you see participation on that front but they also want to know who they're voting for they want to connect with uh their their president and they want to hear their V his vision and so I believe that this campaign is doing this and and and frankly I'm a part of it and we're we're getting into the weeds here and that's going to pay divi

dends in the neighborhoods the precinct work the the the the voter operation work that's going to be so critical to November just wait and see because I got a bet that my District's turning out the most number of democratic votes of any congressional district in in in the state I got a little competition going on with my colleague Debbie dingles so we will mark this tape for that moment and check it in six or seven months now Congressman Haley Stevens thank you for coming on good to see you and

still to come Trump on the spot how the former president and now Florida resident is responding after his home state paved the way for a six-week ban on abortion with the issue now set to appear on the November ballot the panel's next you're watching Meet the Press [Music] now welcome back turning back now to the campaign Trail where the State of Florida has put for former president Trump into something of a box on the issue of abortion after its Supreme Court paved the way for a strict six- we

ban on the procedure to take effect while also putting the issue on the ballot this November that means Florida voters will get to vote on potentially overturning that ban and codifying abortion protections up until viability while they also cast their vote for president it's something of a dream scenario for some Democrats in their Rivals backyard reporter yesterday asked Florida resident Donald Trump how he would vote on that abortion ballot initiative here's what he had to say what I'm going

to do is make a statement on it next week I'm going to have a formal statement I'm going to make it on next week and that's an issue that we should win the row v Wade issue is a issue that we should win it was sent back to the States the states are going to really Dominate and I think that's what you're seeing but I'm going to make a statement on that next week and it'll be a very concise statement what should we prepare for could that be a change in position no not a change in position it's goi

ng to be something that uh is very important you know you have to go with your heart you have to go with your spirit and it's going to be something that I don't think people would be overly surprised but we also have to remember we have to win elections it's very important you have to win elections otherwise you go back to where you were there were a lot of words spoken there but none of them was an immediate answer on where Mr Trump stands on the Florida abortion initiative Beyond him basically

saying as he so often does to stay tuned joining me now on set is Molly ball senior political correspondent for the Wall Street Journal Mo Ali Democratic strategist and executive director of The Georgetown University Institute of politics and public service and Brendan Buck former adviser to Republican house speakers Paul Ryan and John Boehner he's also an NBC News political analyst and the only person taller than me allowed to participate in this panel um Molly we'll start on the abortion issu

e here Donald Trump has been on every side of this issue over his political career does it behoove him to take one specific position if not now ever probably not I mean and what you heard him say there uh was was was very suggestive uh and I'll be eager to hear if he does in fact take a a concise and firm position as he says he's going to do next week but uh he seems to be hinting uh that you know he saying we have to win elections which signals to me that he's not going to give the pro lifers a

ll they want uh and he's saying that the states are going to dominate which suggests to me that he's not going to come out in favor of some sort of a national ban uh which is what a lot of the pro-life movement wants you know advocating for Congress to pass some sort of limit whether it's you know 15 or 16 weeks as he's hinted in the past uh or something more or less restrictive so that those are the tea leaves that I read in his statement but as you say he tends to do this thing where he takes

all sides of an issue and lets everybody here what they want to uh and and and so I wouldn't put it past him to just keep doing that but Brandon we talk about this kind of box that the State of Florida put him in I think that reporter asked the right question Donald Trump the voter you could say we're going to give it to the States but at some point Donald Trump the voter has to say say 6 weeks or 24 weeks when he casts his ballot presumably he has to answer that question at some point uh if he

keeps getting asked it I I recognize that's a big presumption here but what you know talk to me through the sort of implications of where he lands if it's a binary choice between those two options what he also saw there was the tactic that we're familiar with Donald Trump which is saying I'm going to release a plan later us it's usually two weeks out but now it's one week so we'll be I'll be surprised if he actually lets himself get pinned down on it I think he realizes there's no good answer fo

r here for the reasons that Molly laid out the Florida issue has put it back in front of him but one thing we do know is he's worried about this he's thinking about this we we've seen reported that he's talking about a 16 we B he he knows that he needs to find some safe ground problem is I don't think any Republican has found really safe ground for a general election on this and as Molly pointed out there are so many constituencies that have been asking for something for so long but what we what

we've actually seen in a lot of polling and and actually in voting in places there are a lot of Republican voters who don't agree with the sort of uh long Republican position on this so uh I don't know where he's going to land but I'm sure it will disappoint a lot of people Mo isn't the risk of sort of just saying you kick it to the state that then you own every State's policy whether it's a six-week ban or no ban at all you were basically responsible for all of that and the Biden campaign's no

t waiting here right they have tried to nail Donald Trump on his boasting about ending row talk to me about the ways that Democrats can best take advantage of the hemming and Hauling here from the former president yeah I mean I like many people left when he said I'll give you an answer next week right but you know I I suspect that if I'm the Biden campaign I don't need that because Donald Trump said everything he needs to say already right when he went out there and took credit for the overturni

ng of roie Wade when he says I did that I overturned roie Wade by pointing all these justices that's what matters to the Biden campaign they have that ad they are running that they are going to Contin to run against him as the guy that that was responsible for putting States like Florida in this position because you're exactly right now it doesn't matter what Donald Trump says what each state does is now going to be the next battle in this war over abortion rights and reproductive freedom and it

's a war politically that Democrats are eager to keep fighting he is also a master at muddying the waters though and I think that's clearly what he's trying to do here and he could potentially use these State I I've been talking about for a long time the Republican party has no position so every state we're at the whims of State lawmakers and that's never a good place to be but he could use it to his advantage and say I think Florida was too extreme I think Oklahoma was too extreme and try to lo

ok make himself moderate of course Democrats are going to say something different but it does give him an opportunity to muddle muddle things a little but if he ever gets the debate he's so plaintively asking for that could be thrown back in his face effectively too Molly if I consult my tactical political handbook here it would tell me that the the party that is more united on an issue like this almost always wins the debate when the party is completely splintered as Brenan indicates Republican

s are it blows up in their faces do you think Democrats can stay United on a defend row platform kind of let that mean whatever it means to voters and run that through November as effectively as they have over the last year or so well I would say on the one hand yes I do think the Democrats stay United on this because as much as uh you know the there have been attempts to get them to answer more question questions about things like late term abortions we haven't seen that resonate with voters pe

ople just don't seem uh to care about that end of things uh but you know I also think it's important to to remember that we don't know how this interacts with a presidential election this is the first presidential election since the fall of row and what we have seen in elections that were candidate elections that were not ballot initiatives specifically on abortion is that this issue is actually very unpredictable you know I was in Florida in uh in advance of the 2022 midterms and went to a even

t where Ronda sanz's opponent Charlie Christ was surrounded by abortion rights activists holding signs and saying you can't reelect Ronda santis he's going to he's already limited abortion and he's going to do it more voters were not persuaded by that even if they were on that side of the issue when it came to a candidate they were looking at it more holistically so you can't just look at this as simplistically as saying Democrats are on the right side of this important issue therefore they win

the election right a ballot measure especially alone is not a silver bullet want to change here a little bit mode talk about a change in thinking that appears to be existing among Democrats when it comes to Donald Trump not any of you many of our viewers don't get to listen to quite as many of his rallies as I do so I want to play you some of a something of a super cut of what he had to say last night on the campaign trail in Wisconsin let's listen I'm not the threat to democracy Joe Biden and t

he fascists that control him and they do control him are the real threat to democracy the radical left Democrats rigged the presidential election in 2020 and we're not going to to allow them to rig the presidential election in 2024 2024 is our final battle with you at my side we will demolish the Deep State we will expel the war mongers we will drive out the globalists we will cast out the Communist Marxist and fascist we will throw off the sick political class that hates our country they absolu

tely hate our country we will route the fake news media we will drain the swamp and we will liberate our country from these tyrants and villains I mean there's some pretty wild Fantastical outlandish stuff there and what I've noticed recently from Democrats is a desire to make sure that people see that as a democratic strategist where do you land on the idea of more Trump not less is better for electing Democrats and specifically Joe Biden look I think Donald Trump is one of the best salespeople

for Joe Biden having said that having said that that's that is only part of the equation right I want Donald Trump out there as much as possible because I think when people hear that it it reminds them of sort of all the cringe that was the lead up to the 2020 election right it just reminds them of that icky feeling that we all had heading into that election but Democrats have to offer more they can't just make this a referendum on Trump though they could what they need to do is continue and Jo

e Biden needs to continue to tell people here is what the alternative looks like he needs to say here's what I am going to do while he's talking about all this crazy stuff looking backwards while he's talking still talking about the 2020 election and overturning and all these conspiracy theories here's what I'm going to do to make your life a little bit easier that cannot in this election especially given where both candidates are in terms of approval ratings they cannot just rest on Trump's unp

opularity remind people of it but offer the alternative do you agree with the relative risk of that especially if Trump if this is April Trump's going to get further off the deep end by November I think there is risk in letting him set the tone of the campaign and that's what he is a master at is we're going to talk about what I want to talk about and if we let Donald Trump just talk about only immigration or or or any of that stuff that is to his Advantage no no matter what the context is if on

e person gets to define the issues that we're talking about they wi certainly the Biden Camp need to engage in there as well I I I don't I don't know if if if we're turning attention back to Donald to Joe Biden's policy platforms are necessary the answer but I think Joe Biden needs to engage in pointing out exactly the danger behind some of those things and attack a little more on those things that's an excellent point and one we're going to have to end on Mo Brendan Molly thank you all for comi

ng in and thank you all for watching we're back tomorrow with more Meet the Press now the news continues with hlee Jackson right now thanks for watching stay updated about breaking news and top stories on the NBC News app or follow us on social media