Meet the Press NOW — Feb. 20

[Music] if it's Tuesday an emotional and defiant Nikki Haley down in the polls and at risk of being walloped in her homestate primary vows to stay in the Republican race attacking front runner Donald Trump as unhinged and unstable plus the US prepares to unleash what it calls major sanctions on Russia in response to Alexi nal's death and in an attempt to remind Congress of the high stakes with the war in Ukraine about to enter a third year and the potential for further escalation in tensions wit

h Iran as the Pentagon confirms that Iran backed mili militants appear to have sex successfully taken out a US drone using a surface to air [Music] missile hello and welcome to Meet the Press now I'm Ryan nobles with four days to go and until the South Carolina Republican primary a defiant Nikki Haley is pledging that she will stay in the race Beyond her home state even as polls warn that she's looking at a double- digigit loss there and virtually zero path to the nomination still the former Gov

ernor and former un Ambassador delivered a fiery and emotional set of remarks today in South Carolina in an attempt to justify her decision to stay in the race ramping up her rhetoric against former president Trump and warning that he'd be a disaster for the party in November I'm not afraid to say the hard truths out loud I feel no need to Kiss the Ring I have no fear of Trump's retribution I'm not I'm not looking for anything from him he's gotten more unstable and unhinged he spends more time i

n courtrooms than he does on the campaign Trail he refuses to debate he's completely distracted and everything is about him he's so obsessed with his own demons from the past he can't focus on delivering the future Americans deserve Haley also delivered some of the most emotional comments that we've ever seen from her on the campaign Trail talking about her husband who deployed overseas and who's been a target of Mr trumps in recent weeks I wish Michael was here today and I wish our children and

I could see him tonight but we can't he's serving on the other side of the world where conflict is the norm where terrorists hide among the innocent where Iran's terrorist proxies are now attacking American troops this is Michael's second deployment it was hard for us to say goodbye to him the first time when he deployed to Afghanistan it was even harder last summer when he deployed to Africa now that speech comes as another poll of likely South Carolina primary voters shows that Haley is trail

ing by nearly 30 points to former president Donald Trump and that's in our home state based on the state's rules it's possible she earns zero delegates in that contest ahead of her remarks today the Trump campaign slammed Haley in a memo calling her a quote wailing loser and claiming the true state of Nikki Haley's campaign broken down out of ideas out of gas and completely outperformed by every measure by Donald Trump NBC's Ali Vali is on the ground in South Carolina covering the Haley campaign

so the one thing we know for sure Ally is that Nikki Haley's not not dropping out of the race but we didn't get that much insight into what her super Tuesday plan is or how she plans to start winning delegates where was that in the speech today yeah and of course that is the big question not just are you going to stay in and keep going which clearly she answered yes after weeks of really saying a lot of this in interviews that I've done with her and interviews that she's done on other networks

saying it on the on the stump this was really her biggest megaphone to say hey I'm not going anywhere at least not until after super Tuesday but you're right what's missing was the strategy clearly she has the will in terms of strategy we've at least seen her travel schedule unveiled in the last few hours it's going to include an immediate stop to Michigan which has its voting day just a few days after South Carolina voters go to the polls here this weekend but then after that she's going to be

going to Colorado Utah Virginia Massachusetts really trying to cover as much ground as she possibly can in the leadup to March 5th that's going to be the real Do or Die day for her campaign and all of the reporting that I've done around the delegate strategy is that it's one that really isn't a lot of these states while they might have Coalition potential in their demographics that allow her to build with Independents or even Democrats that's fine but it doesn't allow her to necessarily compete

in states that have win or take all rules in their primary that's true of South Carolina but it's also true of other states going down the stretch places like Texas and that makes it really hard for her because even if she gets some percentage of the vote not winning there means not winning delegates and of course delegates are the ball game when you go into the convention and you know this speech really does culminate weeks of increased attacks on Donald Trump perhaps some would say too little

too late but is there any concern that she might be turning off the Republican Base by going after the former president considering she is still competing at a Republican primary and she's aware of the fact that as much as she's trying to appeal to Independence and potentially Democrats who can vote in some of these open primaries she does at the end of the day need to do better with Republican base voters the kind of people who make up the majority of the electorate in States like South Carolin

a what it means to be a republican in these states though has changed a lot since Haley was on the ballot here for her most recent gubinatorial bid and now in the age of trump what it means to be a republican in these places sometimes means being a magga Republican and of course that means you don't win those voters unless you're Trump I do think that with Nikki Haley when we think about the culmination of the attacks yes we've seen her ratchet up her rhetoric and I do think you're right I've he

ard this from so many sources that it's too little too late in this primary but you're also potentially seeing the wear and tear of this campaign on the candidate herself I mean I was really struck today when I was in the room listening to that speech the way that she choked up talking about her husband Ryan it's a refrain that she does almost every single time she's on the campaign Trail talking about his deployment talking about the toll it takes on her family but today watching her show that

kind of physical emotion was really rare and I think it could be a reminder for all of us at the end of the day these candidates are human and it's tough to run for president yeah that's true that is sometimes hard easy to forget Ally thank you so much for that report we appreciate it and joining me now is someone who knows that thing too about running against Donald Trump's been in a similar situation to the one Nikki Haley finds herself in and that's the former Ohio governor John Kasich he's o

f course also an NBC News political analyst so you know first governor just your reaction to Ambassador Haley's speech today if you weren't on board for does this change your mind at all well I mean look I think it was an emotional uh talk for her um she's you know it's a lot of frustration out there I I know what that feels like it's tough though in your own in your own home state you know I might remind you ran that I beat Donald Trump by 12 points in Ohio that would have been a tough one to t

ake a defeat there but I finally got out when I knew mathematically he couldn't be stopped from the nomination the question is what is our strategy here and I think I think she's just waiting to see you know if something could happen where he could collapse but there's another interesting thing if something were to happen to Donald Trump I I'm not sure she would just have a free pass to be the nominee I think there'd be a lot of people that would jump in but all things being equal Ryan you've be

en covering this for a long time right now it is Donald Trump's party I happen to not like that but that's exactly where we are and that's what she's running up against and I wonder you you this idea that perhaps she's waiting for him to implode which I feel like there's been a lot of never Trump Republicans that have been waiting for Donald Trump to implode for six or eight years but is she still trying to present herself as an alternative because if so it doesn't seem as as though anybody's bi

ting on that and is is being an alternative meaningfully different enough to entice those that may be on the fence I look I Ryan unless something happens she's not going to she's got to go to super Tuesday she doesn't have the organization on super Tuesday she doesn't have the organization in most of these states so this is this is not because she's trying to go to the convention and have enough delegates to beat Donald Trump that's not what this is I think she's waiting to see if something migh

t happen and the other thing is I think there her donors I think her donors people who have lots of money who are willing to put money into this to try to have some kind of a message sent I think that's why she's she's really you know still alive in terms of the finance the fundraising uh back in the day when I knew that it was mathematically impossible for me to stop Trump I actually the day I announced I'd had a fundraiser scheduled in Baltimore Maryland and I I just decided I'm not going to t

ake people's money now because the fact is I can't win and we'd have to ask her exactly how she feels about that and maybe she just feels that her message is really critical I would like to see more of the specifics of what she wants to do I think that would serve her well I've noticed that you you know talking about Trump being unhinged and all that which I think I I would agree he is I I'd like to see what the positive stuff is that she wants to do and you say we want a generational change wha

t does that mean I think that would serve her well regardless of how this all turns out the fact that she has a a bold impressive Visionary forward-looking message would serve her very well and I think she has to think about that in my opinion and I'm also fascinated by her future and she seemed to answer some of those questions today she said she doesn't care to be Trump's vice president she said she doesn't even care about potentially running for president in the future but how what do you thi

nk her next ACT is once she does exit the stage does she take the Ted Cruz route and just kind of fall in line behind Trump or does she go the Le cheny route and become a vocal critic what's the next stage yeah I don't know that that she would fall in line I just can't see how she would do that um look let's just let's just respect her for the fact that she wants to say something she wants to stay out there she's getting hammered by people left and right but she's hanging in there I believe Ryan

that she needs to articulate a much more definitive uh message about what she would want to see us do I mean this is an exciting time in America with the change in technology with the the possible use of AI to in a positive way to solve Health Care problems to help our kids get better education there's so much let's hear more about that and if she can do that and set the stage for what could be the next generation of Republicans I think she puts herself in a good position but uh look right now

it's emotional for her she's working very hard her husband is not here in the country he's serving uh you know our country overseas this was a a moment when you know it was emotional I went through that myself I felt it at times all candidates who are really committed and strong and want to hang in there they all go through these moments me I think at some point she needs to Pivot to these are the four or five or six things that I would do to distinguish yourself from the New Politics of the Rep

ublican party which doesn't look at all like the politics in the party of Ronald Reagan at all yeah we need to change that Governor Kasich a few people know the position that Nikki Hy finds herself in better than you so we appreciate your perspective today sir thank you for being thanks for all your coverage you're doing a fantastic job out there keep at it all right thank you sir I appreciate it thank you always welcome anybody back that gives me compliments uh so there's four people here that

want to do that my colleague NBC Garrett H who covers congress with me and sits next to me in a very small Booth he also covers the Trump campaign for NBC our senior political editor Mark Murray F Shakir who's also been annoyed by me many times on the campaign Trail as a senior adviser to Senator Bernie Sanders and Danielle ala a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and an NBC News contributor so Mark uh we read a little bit of this Trump campaign memo that just came out uh and bas

ically aside from the kind of personal negative things they said about Nikki Haley the kind of the central thesis here is that she just has a math problem that's a pretty inescapable fact for her isn't it yeah the math problem starts in South Carolina Ryan where the latest polls have her trailing close to about 30 points or more uh the latest poll coming out of USA Today suffk so that's bad number one and if that is the kind of margin that we end up seeing on Saturday night it will be the bigges

t defeat that any uh presidential C candidate has faced in their own home state you ended up having a 19point loss by Marco Rubio in 2016 a 12-point loss for Elizabeth Warren in Massachusetts John Kasich you were just hearing won his state of Ohio Nikki Haley would not be able to win her own state but Ryan you end up alluding to the delegate math overall so once we get past South Carolina on super Tuesday we have at least nine states that end up having a win or take all in some form or fashion i

f you get 50% or more of the delegates out Statewide or congressional district and so when we go to super Tuesday and then the contest of March uh March 12th and then March 19th according to our political unit's math Donald Trump probably is going to be very close to surpassing the magic number needed for the nomination maybe as early as March 12th but certainly by the time you get to March 19th that is her hurdle right now and as governor casic was just kind of making the point she has to say h

ow how am I going to be able to because at some point if math does not work out you have to ask yourself well what next and Danny I want to go to you quick on this because you and I were talking about it before you think there's a strategy here that maybe her donors and the people that support her are like stay in just in case something happens right I think there's a just in case for her donors they are committed they're loaded well it it makes a difference right money makes a big difference in

all these campaigns that's what Senator KAS said as well and I think that for them she is the next Generation they're either waiting for Donald Trump to collapse or they're waiting for Donald Trump to lose and then starting to rebuild the party and they want her at the center of that so that doesn't necess mean winning this time around it's about building for the future it's an investment yeah but Garrett I I'm interested in the Trump campaign's response to all this because they keep telling yo

u that they're Nikki Haley's not a serious threat we're not worried about her but they're spending a lot of time hammering her still she still seems to be annoying uh them listen to this ad they released earlier today you got bad information I fought the game gas tax in South Carolina Nikki Haley is proposing a hike on the state's gasoline tax Nikki offered a 10cent gas tax increase in South Carolina let's increase the gas tax by 10 cents over the next 3 years if you have to lie to win you don't

deserve to [Music] win I'm Donald J Trump and I approve this message first of all we should point out how much the Trump campaign has changed uh with a very local ad very well researched and specific something they might not have done four or eight years ago but explain to me why the investment you know they're trailing President Biden when it comes to fundraising overall why do they feel the need to do this well there a couple pieces to this Mark Murray taught me a long time ago to pay less at

tention to what candidates say and to pay more attention to where they spend their money and where they send their candidate they are spending money against Nikki Haley and they are still sending Donald Trump to these primary States he's in South Carolina as we speak now if they believed as they say in that memo that this race is over and they can just deprive Nikki Haley of oxygen and she would go away they wouldn't be doing either of those things so some of that may be a strategic necessity th

at they feel to to truly beat her and end this race sooner rather than later some of it also might be the personal uh animus between these two candidates and Donald Trump's personal style which is you wonder what the campaign says about ignoring someone to have them go away Donald Trump is not capable of ignoring someone who is on the campaign Trail attacking him every day he can do it for a short period of time but the idea that he would ever totally turn his back on Nikki Haley and just wait f

or her to drop out is totally anathema to the way that he runs a campaign or the way that he runs his life frankly so I think that's where you see some of that tension there but the reality here is this entire primary has been the what if something happens Republican primary you can't convince me that any of these candidates ever had a credible plan to beat Donald Trump that didn't include somewhere in step two or three written or Unwritten something happens get he gets convicted by somebody or

he falls down a flight of stairs I mean whatever nobody ever really connected the dots all the way through from here's what I bring to the table and why the Republican base is going to reject this guy and choose me that's never been there and I don't think it's there now so Faz I want to play a little more of Haley speech today take a listen and then I'll have you respond after in New Hampshire Trump lost 46% of the votes oops that's not good we're talking about almost half of our voters what do

es it say about an incumbent who's losing nearly half of his party it spells disaster in November I translate that into her saying that he's got a general election problem here is that is is she making a good case yeah and interestingly in the Republican primary electorate they don't seem to be too concerned about the general election argument um because she'd have a stronger one than Donald Trump right know most public polling I think shows her uh doing better than Donald Trump against Joe Bide

n as the Democrat wants to see Joe Biden elected it's nice to see that Republicans uh voters don't care as much about that I do think it's interesting though that as you think about their strategy it's I you know the question that Garrett was just raising about like what what was their strategy behind the scenes to go after Haley I mean I do think the personal grievance of trump that night when you know he thought that maybe she might back out of this race and decided not to he was certainly AG

grieved but then from that moment on they've decided to really make her somebody who they wanted to attack and I think the you know if you think about the politics of Donald Trump he wakes up every morning for a fight he wakes up every morning swinging and I think there is something to Donald Trump in the campaign wanting somebody still in the primary who they are pretty damn confident they're going to defeat who they can just kind of whip and beat and it's you know it's the way that they operat

e it's their it's their mentality and I think had they wanted a goal of her being out of the race they could have graciously moved into a place on that night say Hey you know this this is over she's going to be gone but yeah I appreciate her running and raising issues and I'm moving on to Joe Biden he I think there's something to the strategy they've decided you know the animous of trump and the way in which we swing needs to be done in this very aggressive way can I can I make one point on that

because I think you're exactly right I think it's also about the point you were making Donald Trump doesn't believe that Nikki Haley is the future of this party he believes that the Maga movement is the future of this party and there's something to that young conservatives aren't saying they want to be like Reagan and they want to be like Nikki Haley they want to be like Donald Trump and Tucker Carlson I mean he has changed the direction of this party and by stomping out Nikki Haley as opposed

to letting her fade away and kind of keep whatever Ora around herself about a possible future of the party he can further kind of cement that control about the future of the Republican party but my point is some of those people like that is my point like they like the the TR Tucker the Joe R whoever they like this coment they want to see that I don't know speaking of somebody who knows probably more young conservatives than you do uh I don't think that's necessarily true I mean I think I I well

you know look it's it may be a Triumph of of of Hope over experience yeah I'm looking for all the young Reagan knites the of representes yes yes you're right you're right but again I don't I when I look at for example the things that are the prison for me Ukraine for example supporting Ukraine supporting Israel these are actually reaganite policies we've got 80% of Americans among them are some young conservatives think Young conservatives feel that way Charlie Kirk wing of the party but Charlie

Kirk isn't the only person in the Republican party and again I think that we have always the problem in the Republican Party of the loud versus is the majority these people are loud now what I thought was most interesting about what you said is what I don't get yes I get Donald Trump lives for for the Animus of the moment right you know and he always wants to be mad at somebody because he's kind of a mad guy but what I don't understand is he can be mad at Joe Biden why is he bothering if she is

the dust beneath his chariot wheels as my mother likes to say then why is he bothering that I think is inexplicable unless what you said Is Right which is that he has some fear maybe he thinks he's going to fall down the stairs who knows yeah right and this before we go quickly here I want to talk about our beat on on Capitol Hill we saw speaker Johnson at Mara Lago over the weekend meeting with Donald Trump uh you know there's been some sort of optimism that perhaps they can get the supplement

al Aid package done I can't imagine that optimism continues to flicker if he's heading down to Mar Lago to Kiss the Ring it certainly doesn't seem helpful I mean I suppose he could be going down to try to make the tough sales pitch in person you know Donald Trump like most politicians when you walk out of the room you know they want to feel like you agreed with them and they want to feel like they agreed with you right so maybe it's easier to make that pitch in person uh but boy I mean that is g

oing to be really tough sledding I mean my theory has always been that the only way the Ukraine Aid the supplemental gets done is if it's attached to a government funding bill or something where conservatives can say look we had no other choice but to pass this thing but we'll see where this ends up Mark could it hurt them though in the general election if they turn their backs on Ukraine uh but yes and so you know overall the polling shows that the you support for Ukraine is a majority position

but it's not an 8020 issue at all and particularly with a lot of Republicans against that at all but we are already seeing the Biden campaign and Democrats really want to fight on this Turf now I'm not necessarily sure that we're going to end in October and early November with ads about NATO and Ukraine but certainly at least the past week has allowed the Biden campaign to say hey we're getting the focus off of our shoulders and putting them on to Donald Trump and so they've been effective usin

g using that foreign policy issue that way F just to put a button on this though but does the Biden campaign risk alienating some progressives if they lean too hard not necessarily into Ukraine but the situation in Israel well I was I was going to Ukraine I would worry more about workingclass voters right I do think you have to be mindful that as you head into the later part of this year and you're making a pitch for Ukraine which is fine partisan politics fine for a commander-in-chief argument

against Trump say I'm thinking about American interests here you also got to you're going into Michigan you're saying yes I care about Ukraine but I care about you more I care about your life more I'm gonna bring jobs here I'm gonna increase your wages I care about your health care he's got an argument to make but you don't want it to be buried under the prioritization of Ukraine I do think that that would be a concern to mind to working classers in Wisconsin Michigan Pennsylvania great conversa

tion guys thank you all for being here I appreciate it so much Garrett Mark Faz and Danielle thank you all and if you want more of this kind of great Insight you need to sign up for our new po itics newsletter also known as Mark Murray's baby it's called from the politics desk and it features news and Analysis from our Fantastic Team including Mark you can learn more and sign up on nbcnews.com newsletters or you can scan this QR code on your screen right now isn't technology marvelous still ahea

d the White House previews major new sanctions against Russia following the death of longtime Kremlin critic and opposition leader Alexi navali plus Hunter Biden's lawyers accused Federal prosecutors of making a mistake as they put together their case against the president's son alleging that they mistook sawdust for cocaine you're watching Meet the Press [Music] now welcome back the White House today is again pushing for Congress to pass the National Security bill that would provide more than $

60 billion in Aid to Ukraine National SEC security Communications adviser John Kirby said today that it is quote the most powerful thing the US can do to stand up to Putin but in the meantime John Kirby said today that President Biden will be announcing a major sanctions package to hold Russia accountable for the death of opposition leader Alexi naly that announcement is expected Friday one day before the two-year anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine meanwhile Putin continues to crack dow

n on dissent in Russia the Russian FSB announcing it has detained a Russian American dual citizen on suspicion of treason for allegedly raising money to support Ukraine's war effort the White House and state department say they are working to obtain more information as well as a secure Consular access for that individual but we go now to uh news from the chief foreign correspondent on the ground Richard Engle who has more on the circumstances surrounding nal's death Alexi nal's family has decide

d that they are going to crack this case to solve what they firmly believe was an assassination authorized by Russian President Vladimir Putin and there are already human rights groups starting to poke holes in the Russian government's official stance the government has not said much about Alexis naal and if you look through the Russian newspapers and Russian media they're barely talking about it at all as if this all never happened and as if he didn't exist they are it seems trying to erase him

from history but the official account as Limited at as it is is that navali while serving time at this penal colony in in Siberia went for a walk collapsed and then died around 2 p.m. but human rights groups a an opposition newspaper both supported by naval's uh followers believe that there's more to it and they want to crack this case crack what they believe is is the assassination and uh they say that two intelligence operatives from the FSB which is the uh these are the this is the human rig

hts groups uh the Human Rights group said that these two FSB agents went to the prison two days before navali died in order to turn off CCTV cameras to turn off listing devices uh they say that the night before there was also activity unusual activity in the prison that the prisoners were locked inside their cells and then there was an announced inspection that morning uh before he before he died all of this uh they say is suspicious points to something more uh than just the official count of a

prisoner going for a walk suddenly uh falling ill and dying and they say that they are determined to uncover the truth all right Richard Engle thank you for that reporting let me now bring in Evelyn farcus who's the executive director of the McCain Institute and a former deput assistant secretary for defense for Russia Ukraine and Eurasia Evelyn thank you for being here of course you were just at the Munich security conference tell me what the mood was like what were you hearing from us allies a

nd partners about the debate in Congress over USA to Ukraine yeah thanks for having me on um you know going into the conference I actually flew in with the Congressional Delegation and people were not optimistic about getting funding for Ukraine they didn't think it was impossible but they weren't feeling um very positive I think they were feeling down because the leader of the the Republican leader of the delegation Lindsey Graham had opted to go instead to the southern border you know there's

just a feeling that some of the supporters of Ukraine are wobbling um and of course on the far right um they're attacking the policy and then on Friday we got the horrible news that um that Alexa Nali had been killed and of course it was murder whether it was done you know on one day or over the course of a long time and then finally he was again given the final blow on Friday doesn't really matter the Russian State decided that he was too dangerous to have alive and that was something that real

ly re reverberated all weekend long and just kind of put a damp dampen the mood overall well give us just an assessment of of what the situation is like on the ground we know that Ukraine's been rationing whatever weapons and ammunition it has but what can you tell us about Russia's Manpower in its stockpiles when it comes to fighting this war do they significantly outmatch Ukraine right now yeah they still significantly outmatch Ukraine what Ukraine has is greater will um part of why I think Vl

adimir Putin decided to kill navali now was because there was an opposition leader who initially was permitted by the Russian government to run against Putin because he was viewed as he's a kind of a government guy um but he started to develop a a platform that was anti-war and 200 ,000 people signed a petition on his behalf and many people lined up in different parts of Russia so I think the Russian government is worried that there's a big anti-war sentiment that of course impacts their ability

to to have Manpower into the foreseeable future of course they can use Force um and they're willing to use Force the way that Ukraine won't because Ukraine's a democracy although Ukraine can have a draft um so they have a problem in terms of will but they do have more equipment they do have more resources right now it's a larger country um with more people and with more material and the ability to if they have access to funds and Technology to ramp up their industry they are still struggling um

but you know Putin thinks he's going to have more time we do have some exclusive reporting that the White House is now looking at providing long range missiles to Ukraine if of course and it's a big if Congress is able to pass more money now these missiles of course could strike well beyond the front line IND Russian territory do you think this is a right move and and is this a tactical decision or more of a symbolic move by the administration oh my God this is this is really significant and it

's so long overdue um because the ukrainians need to be able to hit Russian military targets wherever they are including in Russian territory they have been doing it just over the Border but but because of the range they haven't been able to you know consistently attack um far enough away without putting their own Manpower or their own drones and other equipment in danger the attacks the long range artillery that we gave the Russians thus far has not been long enough or a high enough range long

enough range to get to Crimea if the Russians have this kind of artillery they can take at we saw that that that when the Europeans gave them the storm Shadows they were able to actually reestablish reassert control over the maritime area and the Black Sea if they had attack thems longer range attack thems from us they could attack the Kirch Street the Kirch straight Bridge which is that long bridge that connects Russian Mainland to Crimea um that's a resupply route for the military so there are

things they can do that will be real game changers not symbolic okay Evelyn farcus thank you for that we appreciate it still ahead the US vetos a un Security Council resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire and the Israel Hamas war and Israel reies for a new Gaza ground Invasion despite warnings from the White House we are on the ground with the latest you're watching Meet the Press [Music] now welcome back a un Security Council resolution calling for an immediate end to the war in Gaza fa

iled today after the US used its veto authority to block it un ambassador to the or I'm sorry US ambassador to the UN defended the decision saying that the resolution could hurt ongoing hostage negotiations any action this Council takes right now should help not hinder these sensitive and ongoing negotiations and we believe that the resolution on the table right now would in fact negatively impact those negotiations demanding an immediate unconditional ceasefire without an agreement requiring Ha

mas to release the hostages will not bring about a durable peace the us instead is circulating an alternative resolution that does not call for an immediate ceasefire but instead pushes for a temporary ceasefire as part of the ongoing talks the US draft also opposes Israel's anticipated ground offense of Inda warning of immense harm to civilians now it all comes amid those intensive negotiations trying to secure the release of more hostages by Hamas with President Biden once again dispatching hi

s top mid East advisor to the region joining me now is NBC News International correspondent ra Sanchez he's in Tel Aviv so R how are countries in the region reacting to the US veto at the UN today we're hearing a lot of criticism Ryan not just from the Palestinians which you would expects but also from American Partners in the region like Egypt like Jordan like Saudi Arabia who were saying they wanted to see this resolution bringing about an immediate ceasefire in Gaza to go through there are 15

members of the UN Security Council 13 of them voted in favor of this resolution the UK a close American Ally abstains and so it was Linda Thomas Greenfield the US ambassador to the UN who cast that lonely vote that ultimately blocked this resolution now this is the third time the US has blocked a ceasefire resolution at the UN Security Council each time it has looked diplomatically isolated but as you heard in that sound you played from the Ambassador the US believes this ceasefire resolution c

ounterproductive in terms of those talks to try to release the hostages all right let's let's talk more about those talks R and what do we know about Brett McGurk's trip is there any sign that he'll be able to make any progress or is it just going to be more resistance as the latest senior Biden Administration official to come to the region to try to jump these talks we had CIA director Bill Burns here last week he was in Cairo meeting with officials from Egypt Qatar and Israel at this point des

pite this very intensive American shuttle diplomacy involving senior figures in the Biden Administration the gaps between Israel and Hamas remain very significant that's according to Israeli officials you heard prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying that hamas's demands at this point are what he called delusional and just to give you a couple of examples of where these gaps are Israel is saying any ceasefire will be temporary while the hostages come out and then it will resume its War includin

g this offensive on the city of Rafa and Southern Gaza where half the population of the Gaza Strip is Sheltering Hamas says it's not going to release any hostages without a permanent ceasefire to end the war altogether also a big disagreement over how many prisoners Israel is going to need to release from its jails in exchange for those hostages ran all right ra Sanchez thank you for that report we're also following another significant development in the midd East this afternoon the Pentagon con

firmed that a US drone that crashed yesterday off the coast of Yemen was indeed shot down by iran-backed houthi rebels it comes as houthi rebels in Yemen also struck a british-owned commercial ship as well as two us-owned ships in the Red Sea yesterday joining me now is NBC News Pentagon correspondent Courtney Cub So Courtney what do we know about this us drone and how significant of an escalation would this be by the houthis so it's an mq9 Reaper it's a large drone we've been asking if it was a

rmed at the time it has the ability to carry missiles on it but we haven't gotten a good answer to that yet Ryan but to your question about this being a potential escalation yes that is absolutely true if the houthis were able as the Pentagon is now saying they believe the houthis were able to shoot this down with a surface to air missile there is a concern it's an escalation but I got to say it's not unprecedented the hoies did down another us drone several months ago since all of this started

on no November 19th with the back and forth and the houthis firing on commercial ships in the Red Sea in the Gulf of Aiden and as you said there has been what seems to be an uptick in those houie attacks and the US responses over the last 48 hours or so Sunday we saw the British commercial vessel which was fired on with a ballistic missile by the houthis it was struck and it was disabled to the point that the crew had to abandon the vessel then yesterday on Monday there were two US ships that we

re targeted one by a houi drone the other by aoui missile neither of them struck those us owned ships but one of them was damaged by what's likely some shrapnel or something from the attack now in in addition to this the houthis fired multiple other project projectiles including at least 10 other drones attempting to go after commercial ships and even potentially one US military ship there in the region the US has continued to take what the military calls self-defense or even Dynamic strikes aga

inst who the Targets in Yemen basically what that means Ryan is they'll see some houy materials maybe missile launchers or drones moving around with the potential or likelihood that the houthis are about to fire something and the US military will come in and they'll strike that location that that will that is according to military officials stopping the houthis from going after ships in the Red Sea and that may be why in recent weeks there has been a little bit of a Slowdown in the hou's ability

to go after ships the US has conducted more and more of these self-defense strikes Ryan yeah and and maybe expand on that a little bit uh does it it seem as though the houthis are starting to be deterred a little bit at least by the way the US military is responding I I got to say it doesn't seem that way at all now there's there's two things here that these strikes are really intended to do and frankly the military presence there the US and the Coalition the the goal is not only to deter the h

oies but also to slowly degrade their capabilities so that they can't continue these attacks what's clear is the deterrence really is not working at this point the houthis are firing or attempting to fire just about every single day what we don't know is the degradation piece though Ryan it's not clear how much of their capability may have been degraded by these ongoing strikes yet okay Courtney CU thank you for that reporting as always we appreciate it up next new charges in the Kansas City sho

oting that killed one person and injured 20 others at a Super Bowl celebration plus an FBI informant who claims whose claims I should say were key to the gop's Biden impeachment inquiry faces a judge today charged with lying about a so-called bribery [Music] scheme welcome back we are following some breaking news out of Kansas City that's where prosecutors say theyve just announced that they've charged two adults with murder in connection with last week's deadly shooting at the city's celebrator

y Super Bowl Parade those two adults Dominic Miller and Linda May face several charges including second-degree murder the new charges come after two juveniles were taken into custody last week on gun related charges one woman was killed and more than 20 others were injured in the shooting which happened as the Super Bowl celebrations were wrapping up police say a dispute among several people led to the shooting and turning to a developing story a little more than an hour from now an FBI informan

t whose bribery allegations were a big part of the house impeachments inquiry into President Biden will be in court on charges that he was lying to investigators the special counsel investigating Hunter Biden has charged the informant Alexander Smirnoff with two counts of false testimony and falsification of Records according to the indictments smof had been an FBI Source since 2010 but he began giving false derogatory information about the bidens after Joe Biden ran for president in 2020 NBC Ne

ws justice reporter Ryan Riley joins me now so what should we expect at today's hearing Ryan well here's the kicker we just got a filing from federal prosecutors here and it's something he might have kind of anticipated leading up to this point it turns out according to Federal prosecutors uh that this individual the former FBI informant told them uh that in in fact Russian uh intelligence officials were involved in passing along this false information uh about the bidens back in 2020 which sort

of set all of this off and as you sort of mentioned has been really sort of a Lynch pin of uh the Republican efforts against uh Joe Biden they've pointed back to that over and over again saying that this FBI Source uh this credible FBI Source who had been with the FBI affiliated with the FBI uh since 2010 had in fact told that uh to uh his FBI Handler back in 2020 and sort of gave it this credibility and this just sort of guts all of back because now of course he has been criminally charged wit

h lying uh to the FBI about those contacts and what the FBI or what the prosecutors are saying in this new filing is that you know the work of Russian intelligence officials might have been involved here at least that's what this individual the FBI informant the former FBI informant is now uh saying you know Ryan I I think it's important to point out as this does serve as kind of a backbone to the impeachment inquiry one of the things that Democrats were arguing when Republicans brought this up

is that these tip sheets which is kind of the the the basis of this smear-off allegation are not reliable sources of information as it relates to an investigation and wasn't it for this exact reason that that there was the potential that the source wouldn't be telling the truth exactly and it's also why initially at least the FBI really resisted putting out these documents and saying that you know they weren't saying just because it's uh it's actually in an FBI document and relaying what this in

dividual says doesn't mean that it's been vetted or investigated all it is is just sort of this allegation that has come from yeah sure someone who had been an FBI Source but really the the Republicans really push for this uh during the summer they threatened to hold the FBI director in contempt unless they got hands on this document they really put a lot of their effort into getting this document and this was sort of the centerpiece of this investigation and now it just all collapses and falls

apart um based on you know this these charges against this guy who was lying and apparently according to Federal officials now uh at the at the you know involved with Russian intelligence that was what was pushing those efforts against Biden back during the 2020 campaign Ryan yeah uh we'll have to see if it changes uh the course of the impeachment inquiry there are no signs of that quite yet but let's shift Focus now and talk about Hunter Biden the president's son uh his attorney firing back aft

er special counsel David Weiss over some evidence against him what what exactly are they claiming here so actually they're citing this case as well um in their court filings uh but they're also saying that in fact uh Federal prosecutors or investigators mistook uh what was mistook cocaine uh for some basically some wood chips that was in a photo right so there was this exchange a little bit hard to explain but essentially there was this which showed some lines on a counter um and what this excha

nge was about from Hunter Biden's old messages was saying that there was this Carpenter who said that he had to make a choice between uh doing drugs and doing or rather being uh doing cocaine or continuing to be a carpenter and he chose being a carpenter and sort of as a joke had lined up uh these wood chips along the way um and that what the hunter Biden's attorneys are saying is essentially the feds presented that as evidence in their charges uh against Hunter Biden here about his his drug use

when in fact they were just mistaking wood chips or you know wood carvings uh for cocaine and they're also citing uh you know this these new charges against the FBI informant saying that this case really should have never gone forward and really the reason that they took this plea deal back last summer was in part because they thought there were still potential far charges hanging over his head when in fact that was all based off of these lies from the FBI informant Ryan okay Ryan Riley packed

a lot in there sir I appreciate it of course the president's brother on Capitol Hill tomorrow James Biden and next a growing push to officially Mark the Lunar New Year as a public holiday in cities and states across the country you're watching Meet the Press [Music] now welcome back earlier this month millions of asian-americans celebrated the start of the Lunar New Year but just four states recognized the celebration as a state holiday right now lawmakers in Washington state where about 10% of

the population is Asian are trying to pass legislation to officially join the list I'm joined Now by one of the lawmakers leading that effort state representative mean Tron or Tai mean Tai sorry about that uh so tell me uh state representative why is it so important for Washington to recognize the Lunar New Year as an official holiday well thank you so much uh for uh for allowing me to have this opportunity to uh share with your viewer um to answer that question I probably best uh stating that u

m um two weeks ago I uh have the opportunity to uh join in the Luna New Year at a local middle school and at that celebration we have a table of uh young children um learning how to make a paper dragon learning how to make um a Red Envelope as part of the the celebrations uh when it's come to Luna New Year and um seeing how how the uh the senior the older people sharing their stories of um of their time learning the how it is in their own family in their own life um Luna new year has impacted th

em has put a great imprint in their memories of what it's like to be Asian and Asian americant and uh pass it down to the next Generations so this piece of leg ation is about recognizing Asian-American Pacific Islanders and native Hawaiians as part of our state they are critically uh important uh Community who contribute um not only uh in our economic development but certainly that riched cultural heritage and by recognizing Luna new year as our state holidays we give oursel an opportunity to br

idge the cultural understanding and creating opportunities for uh for us to learn from one another and you had a previous effort to try and make the Lunar New Year estate holiday but that didn't uh pass what makes this proposal different well this proposal is a little bit different in term of it is a observed holiday and it's not a fiscal holiday it's very much aligned or similar rather um as what has passed in California and Colorado um it it would be recognized as a legislative uh recognized h

olidays um without the fiscal impa impact however i' like to take this opportunity to uh put a plugged in uh for us to really have Luna new year as a national uh holiday right um and and really pin uh the piece of legislation that congresswoman Grace main has been um introduced um at at the federal level let's talk more about that and and congresswoman has uh introduced that she's actually reintroduced a proposal to make it a Federal holiday it hasn't had much traction why do why do you think it

would be better and we have to answer this quick if you can why would it be better for the entire country to recognize it as opposed to just as a state-by-state basis because we are the country of 50 States because we are united because we are the people who move together and really recognize each other regardless of which state we reside in the Asian-American is the fastest growing community in our nation so by this recognition we doing things together versus state by state all right well than

k you so much Washington state representative Ty I appreciate you being here thank you so much and I'll thank you for having me I'll be back tomorrow with more Meet the Press now but NBC News Now coverage continues with hie 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