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tv   Meet the Press  NBC  March 10, 2024 8:00am-9:00am PDT

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. this sunday, campaign kickoff. >> oh, you don't like that bill, huh? >> a combative president biden makes his case for a second
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term, taking on concerns over his age and threats to democracy. >> you can't love your country only when you win. >> while donald trump becomes the presumptive gop nominee after nikki haley drops out, but holds off endorsing. >> november 5th is going to go down as the single most important day in the history of our country. >> this is now his time for choosing. >> how will trump and biden battle in the next eight months? >> everything joe biden touches turnses to [ bleep ]. >> when he says he wants to be a dictator, i believe him. >> will they face off on a debate stage? >> that's a choice that is going to be decided upon soon and we'll keep you posted. >> could a third-party candidate act as a spoiler? my guest this morning democratic senator raphael warnock of georgia, republican senator lindsay graham of south carolina and democratic congressman adam schiff of california now competing for a u.s. senate seat
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this fall. joining me for insight and analysis are nbc news senior white house correspondent kelly o'donnell. politico playbook co-author eugene daniels, marc morial, the president of the national urban league and republican strategist sara fagan. welcome to sunday. it's "meet the press". >> from nbc news in washington, the longest running show in television history. this is "meet the press" with kristen welker. good sunday morning. the general election race for the white house has officially started this week and on saturday, president biden and former president trump faced off in battleground georgia, a state mr. biden won in 2020 by fewer than 12,000 votes. mr. biden wasted no time taking aim at the former president including for hosting hungarian autocrat viktor orban at his
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mar-a-lago club on friday. >> here's a guy kicking off his campaign with marjorie taylor green. it can tell you a lot about a person with who he's coming with and yesterday he was hosting at his club viktororban who said he doesn't think democracy works. when he says he wants to be a dictator, i believe him. >> new this morning nbc news is first to report that biden's re-election effort brought in $10 million in the 24 hours following his state of the union address, a record haul for his campaign. the biden team is leaning into its early cash edge against former president trump launching a new ad that takes on the issue of his age directly while contrasting his record with mr. trump's. >> look, i'm not a young guy. that's no secret, but here's the deal, i understand how to get things done for the american people. donald trump believes the job of the president is to take care of
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donald trump. i believe the job of the president is to fight for you, the american people and that's what i'm doing. >> the ad is the first in a $30 million blitz that will target key battleground states over the next six weeks. biden's georgia visit follows a stop in pennsylvania on friday. next week he'll barnstorm key states including new hampshire, wisconsin and michigan. vice president harris was in arizona and nevada this weekend and cabinet secretaries are hitting the road to sell president biden's agenda, as well. 60 miles away from president biden's event in rome, georgia, former president trump painted a dark picture of america calling the press criminals and mocking president biden for having a stutter. >> two nights ago we all heard crooked joe's angry dark, hate-filled rant of a state of the union address. wasn't it -- didn't it bring us together -- i'm going to bring the country -- together.
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i'm going to bring it together. everything joe biden touches turns to [ bleep ]. everything. >> and joining me now is democratic senator raphael warnock on georgia who campaigned with the president saturday in atlanta. senator warnock, welcome back to "meet the press." >> good morning, happy sunday morning to you. >> happy sunday morning to you. thank you so much for being here. well, you just heard what former president trump had to say about president biden, an indication that this campaign is already shaping up to be a brutal one. how should president biden respond to those types of attacks, senator? >> well, sadly, if i were to ask you are you surprised, is anybody surprised by what we heard coming out of the mouth of the former president? the answer is no. this is who donald trump is, and i have to tell you as the father of a 5-year-old and a 7-year-old it's terrible when you have to
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bleep the words from a former president. joe biden is try, tested and true. he's seen this nonsense before. he saw it and experienced it the other night with the other side heckling in the middle of the president's speech, and he pressed on because he's not focused on himself. unlike his challenger, he's not focused on what this election means for him as donald trump runs from the jailhouse. he's focused on what this election means for the american people, the people of georgia and he spoke with power the other night about the future. >> let's talk about your home state now, georgia. president biden won it narrowly in 2020 by 4,000 votes. now polls show he's trailing former president trump. you're not going to be on the ballot this year. what would you say to democrats who say they are afraid that georgia is out of reach?
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>> i say soldier on. as someone who has had his name on the ballot in georgia five times in three years i know a little bit about what it means to run in georgia and the road to the white house leads straight through georgia. he won bay 12,000 votes or less than 12,000 votes, votes, by the way, the ex president tried to steal, but he's president of the united states and georgia's going to show up in a strong way for joe biden. >> let me ask you about this twist we learneded about this week, no labels is reportedly considering georgia's former republican lieutenant governor jeff duncan to potentially lead a unity ticket. how could that impact the results of georgia? could that make it all but nearly impossible for joe biden to win? >> listen, it's still relatively
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early in the campaign season, and i think that the more we hear from the donald trump that we just heard from a little while ago, the clearer it's going to be for people that at the end of the day this is a binary choice, and the question is do you want the america of january 5th that sent its first black senator from georgia, its first jewish senator from georgia to the united states senate or do you want the america of january 6th pushed forward by a president who continues to advance the big lie about the election and behind that lie is the lie that this new multi-racial democracy does not get to determine the future of the country? he's looking backward. joe biden is looking forward, and i think at the end of the day the people of georgia will see that choice, that binary choice very clearly and they'll do the right thing for joe biden as they did for me.
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>> but senator, if no labels were to run a unity ticket, one that included jeff duncan, could that not spoil the race for joe biden? you don't deny that, do you? >> listen, i think that the people of georgia are, at the end of the day, asking who is in the fight for them? and as i sat the other night and listened to the president's speech i'll tell you, i said to my colleagues i don't know if that was joe biden or joe lewis because the man came out fighting and he never let up and he's not going to let up between now and november. i think the people of georgia will recognize that when it came time to forgive the student debt of people who have just been mired debt, young people who have had a mortgage just trying to deal with their future, that joe biden, with one hand behind his back, with the republicans
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suing him did $238 billion student debt relief and the man's got receipts and the people of georgia will show up for him in november. >> let me ask you this, neither president biden or vice president harris has committed to president biden debating mr. trump. do you think the american people deserve to see these two candidates debate in a general election? >> listen, i think the debate is already under way and again, this is a binary choice -- >> but senator, should they formally debate. you know what i'm asking, senator. should there be a formal debate between president biden and former president trump. >> i support debates, but i'm not a part of the president's campaign. i represent the people of georgia and the united states senate, and i think we're going to hear a fierce argument in the months ahead and the contrast couldn't be clearer.
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>> let's talk about the war in the middle east. in the state of the union address president biden announced the u.s. is building a port to get more humanitarian aid into gaza and could take as long as 60 days. doctors without borders called it a real distraction from the real problem and israel's indiscriminate and campaign and punishing siege. is sending more aid enough, senator, when innocent civilians are being killed and are dying every day? >> listen, we have got to find our way quickly to the path that leads to peace. that's yet other night on the floor of the united states senate i pushed for a ceasefire. i think the president, i know the president is working hard to get to a ceasefire. mr. netanyahu has got to recognize that we've already seen the deaths of some 30,000
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palestinians, many of them innocent women, men and children. you know, i think about this, not just as a senator, and even not just as a pastor, but as a father. last night as i was putting my own children to bed and dealing with my son as he was dealing with an incessant cough i thought about parents in gaza. it's a terrible thing as a parent when your kid is sick, and there i was just dealing with a cold. i thought about the fact that there are parents in gaza right now who are dealing with the ordinary challenges that children deal with who have seen amputations of children without anesthesia, there are children who are wounded with no living weapons -- no living relatives, and so we've got to find our way to peace quickly while at the same time trying to get humanitarian aid in there as quickly as possible. >> you take me to my next point.
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in an interview with msnbc's jonathan kapart, president biden said he would never leave israel. do you think there should be a red line when it comes to supporting israel? >> i think that we've got to continue to lean on mr. netanyahu. we've got to insist that this cannot continue in this way. the way a war is carried out is important. >> but do you have a red line, senator? do you have a red line? is there a red line particularly when it comes to going into rafah, for example? >> i stated that very clearly the other night on the floor of the united states senate that i think that to go into rafah, the humanitarian experts, the folks who are trying to get aid in, the folks who have no political dog in this fight have said that if they go into rafah you could lose up to 85,000 more palestinians in six months, i
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think that that is morally unjustifiable and unconscionable, and as we make our way to the holy season of ramadan and passover, thereafter, i hope people will dig deep into the moral cisterns dug by ancestors that they will reach today the highest ideals and our humanity, sent to the children and find our way to the path for peace. >> senator, let me ask you about another developing story in your state. fani willis could be thrown off of donald trump's 2020 interference after having a relationship with the lead prosecutor although she argues there was no improp righty. do you think that relationship undercuts the integrity of the case and should she step down? >> listen, we are watching our judicial process play out, and i know that there are folks,
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unfortunately, in the state of georgia, politicians who are trying to put their hand on the scale. i'm not going to pound on, i'm not going to add to that. i will watch this process play out and we will see where the chips fall, but at the end of the day, here's what donald trump deserves. he deserves to have a fair trial before a jury of his peers and in this case, as voters of georgia, we need to see that play out. >> and given that, do you think that the optics have become so complicated around this that fani willis should step down for the better good of the case that you just talked about? >> well, listen, i think this case is being played out before a judge and the judge will have to be based on optics and on the law. we believe no one is above the law including donald trump.
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>> senator raphael warnock, thank you very much for joining uses on this sunday, we really appreciate it. when we come back, republican senator lindsay graham of south carolina joi me next. if you're living with hiv, imagine being good to go without daily hiv pills. good to go binge-watch. good to go out even later. with cabenuva, there's no pausing for daily hiv pills. for adults who are undetectable, cabenuva is the only complete, long-acting hiv treatment you can get every other month. it's two injections from a healthcare provider, just 6 times a year. don't receive cabenuva if you're allergic to its ingredients, or if you're taking certain medicines, which may interact with cabenuva. serious side effects include allergic reactions, post-injection reactions, liver problems, and depression. if you have a rash and other allergic reaction symptoms, stop cabenuva and get medical help right away. tell your doctor if you have liver or kidney problems, mental health concerns and if you are pregnant, breastfeeding, or considering pregnancy. some of the most common side effects include
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welcome back. more than two years into the war in ukraine, the death toll and desperation are growing as ukraine's troops are rationing ammunition while congress debates what to do next $60 bill onin aid to ukraine is stalled on capitol hill. in his state of the union address, president biden pleaded with congress to act. >> if anybody in this ring thinks putin will stop at ukraine, i assure you he will not. i say this to congress, we have to stand up to putin. send me a bipartisan national security bill. history is literally watching. >> joining me now is republican senator lindsay graham of south
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carolina. welcome back to "meet the press". >> thank you very much. >> thank you for being here. i want to start with israel. i want to start with how he responsed to msnbc's jonathan capehart about the hot mike moment where he will have a come to jesus moment with president netanyahu. >> he's hurting, in my view being he's hurting israel more than helping israel by making the rest of the world, it's contrary to what he stands for and i think it's a big mistake. >> do you agree that prime minister netanyahu is hurting israel by not doing more to address the humanitarian crisis. >> no, i don't. i would like to help the humanitarian crisis, when the president of the united states talks about bibi and not hamas we're missing the boat here. we should be talking about red lines against iran.
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israel is not killing american soldiers and iran is through their proxies. heir holding iran accountable for killing soldiers and attacking shipping. we should be all in and helping israel. we should try to help the humanitarian crisis, but don't say or do anything that would empower the enemy. >> president biden does spend a lot of time talking about hamas and the issue here is there not more that israel can do to help the humanitarian crisis for their own port? >> stay tuned in that area. i think israel will be coming up with some relief ideas, but the line that struck me the most in the state of the union, he told hamas if you release the hostages the war will be over. is the president saying if the hostages are released they can stay in power and that ends the conflict? president trump believes it's non-negotiable when it comes to hamas.
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they have to be destroyed and can't be in charge. i'm challenging the biden administration today to clear this up. you cannot allow hamas to stay in power. you can't allow them to have six brigades and we have to have a none-no negotiable policy with hamas. >> president biden does stand behind that. >> and the war is over if he released the hostages. it will not be over. >> and the hostage negotiation and the potential ceasefire, those talks have reportedly stalled. let's move on to ukraine. you have always supported aid to ukraine and it's critical to keep putin from invading nato allies and now former president trump said he would only support it if it came in the form of a loan and that's not typically how the united states supports our allies. why do you think that's the best course of action rid now, senator? >> we are $34 trillion in debt and nobody wants to help ukraine
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more than i do, but president trump is trying to do two things here. help an ally, but tell the american people, pay us back if you can. i think most americans would like to help ukraine, but the idea of giving and never being repaid. and he mentioned this to me playing golf, why not a loan? $34 trillion in debt you need to be thinking about the american people just not allies. so i think the loan is the way to get the aid to ukraine. he will be speaking, president trump to the speaker tomorrow or tuesday about turning the aid into a loan and forgivable and no interest and you get back on your feet, try to pay us back. >> trump told you he's going to reach out to the speaker. are you confident that this something the white house would sign on to? >> i can't imagine any member of congress would object to try to get our allies to pay us back
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when we are $34 trillion in debt if they can. we're talking about a waivable, no-interest loan, but the idea of not putting -- not changing when you are this far in debt, i think most people would welcome it. >> let me ask you to respond to something that alaska senator lisa murkowski had to say about the influence of former president trump. let's not exist as a senate if we have to ask permission from donald trump for everything we do. let's just do our work. is donald trump ultimately calling the shot in the senate, senator graham? >> no. i mean, i voted against things that, you know, he doesn't like. the point is to lisa, would you support the idea that our ally should pay us back if they can when we are $34 trillion in debt? this is america in action. it's not isolationism, but it is considering the needs of the american people. i hope to be going to ukraine soon, and i hope to be able to
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tell them the aid is coming and it will be in the form of a loan and pay us back if you can. i want russia to know, if you think ukraine's going to be out of this fight you're dead wrong. >> senator mitt romney said ukraine's economy has just been devastated, that there's no possible way that they'll be able to pay back a loan. what if they can't pay back this loan, senator? >> it will be waivable, no interest. we're not trying to make money here. we're trying to protect the american people. they're sitting on some of the most rich mineral deposits in the history of europe. if they can get back on their feet with our help, see if they can pay us back. same with taiwan so senator romney, what's wrong with people with asking to pay us back if they can? >> let me move to the border now, another area where former president trump has had an influence. there was a deal that came together. >> right. >> in the senate, it never got an actual vote and you were in favor of it and here's what you
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said in january. >> this is the best chance i've seen since i've been up here to have true border security reform. to those who hope that president trump win, and i hope he does, that we will get a better deal. you won't. >> in the state of the union address, president biden accused trump of effectively playing politics and derailing this deal. is he right, senator? you really supported this and then turned against it? there was no real parole reform. the man who killed blake was paroled in the united states and came from venezuela. so president biden is apologizing for calling him an illegal immigrant, the alleged murderer and he went to the family of miss riley to apologize for the country who allowed him to get in. there rl be border security attached to the loan idea. >> a couple of things, president biden said that the term that is now use side undocumented, but
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let me get back on on. >> which really pisses me off. >> senator, let me get back to this deal, though, because the border security union endorsed this bill. isn't something better than nothing given the crisis that you are talking about? >> good question. they also endorsed my idea, have a break less moment at 5,000. when you get to 5,000 a day you shut down the border. the border patrol said 1,000 a day is a crisis and 5,000 is a disaster. there will be a bill. remain in mexico is the key. the border patrol told me that if you go back to remain in mexico 70% of it goes away. i think the house will pass a remain in mexico bill. >> you know remain in mexico is dead on arrival in the senate. >> no, it's not. >> at this current point in time it doesn't have the votes in the senate. >> we'll see. >> let's move on to something that happened at mar-a-lago on friday. donald trump met with hungarian
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prime minister viktor orban. for our viewers to remind them, he believes liberal democracy didn't work, he's packed courts with loyalists and seized control of media outlets, he's friends with putin, he's friends with xi. this is what trump said about orban on friday. >> there's nobody who is better, smarter or a better leader than viktor orban, the prime minister of hungary and does a great job. he's a non-controversial figure because he says this is the way it's going to be and that's the end of it, right? he's the boss. >> do you think viktor orban's leadership is something that trump aspires to in a second term? >> think the best way to judge president trump's second term is by what he did in his first term. russia didn't invade on president trump's watch. hamas didn't try to destroy israel on his watch. the taliban weren't in charge on
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his watch. here's what i i would say, if you're worried about world being on fire, you're right. if you think joe biden's policies has weakened enemies you're right. >> former president trump has talked about being a dictator on day one, it's nice to have a strong man, and he's talked about retribution. >> he said retribution would be success. who knocked trump off the ballot in colorado? who knocked trump off the ballot in maine? there is a liberal jihad against everything trump. i'm not -- >> those were republicans. >> i'm worried about joe biden destroying the world. >> those were republicans in the supreme court that he has put them back on the ballot as you know. >> is trump bad for this country. no -- >> joe biden's policies are bad for america and have got the world on fire. >> senator, just be very clear,
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though, he is aligning himself with viktor orban. >> who is a member of nato who voted to let sweden in. >> reluctantly. >> orban is not on the ballot. you have to vote between trump and biden, biden has screwed the world up everywhere you can. broken borders and the world is on fire, if he's back and if he's with it and energetic, get in a room with donald trump and debate. take questions from people like yourself rather than reading a teleprompter if there's ever an election in the history of america that deserved a debate between the two candidates it's this election. trump just told me the campaign just told me, any time anywhere, let's debate. >> very quickly, just one more point before we move on to my very last question. trump has said to putin that he would welcome him invading a nato country, senator, if they didn't pay their bills. should people not hear that
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rhetoric and feel as though he is potentially aligning himself with the type of leadership that orban has shown? >> that was in reference to nato paying their fair share. there are 19 nations that don't pay the 2% they're supposed to. >> he's inviting to invade a nato country. >> you shouldn't say that. >> the point is russia didn't invade ukraine when trump was president. the world, the arabs recognize israel through the abraham accords when trump was president. if you want to look at who is the most stable person for the world, biden versus trump, trump wins in a landslide. >> just to be very clear you mentioned a lot of different things when you talk about the afghanistan withdrawal, that's something that trump had actually put into place before biden got into office. >> because it happened when he was in office. let's move on to tiktok very quickly. the house is planning to vote this coming week that would force the chinese company to
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face tiktok or face being banned. trump nationally favored banning tiktok. now he's opposed and expressing his opposition. do you support banning tiktok? where do you fall? >> tiktok doesn't fall into the hand of the chinese communist policy. i know this about social mead why. they're ruining america and sexual predators abound on these sites and you can't sue social media companies and there's no regulatory body and that's what i'm focused on. banning tiktok, maybe that's necessary to protect american data from china, but if you can find a way to avoid that, that would be good, too. >> you were a strong supporter of it in 2020? >> i understand people like tiktok, i would like to keep tiktok running, but not have our data used by the communist chinese party. >> how do you vote on this? ? i don't know yet. i am being honest with you. i'm definitely conflicted. one thing i'm not conflicted
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it looks like we're going to the general, ladies and gentlemen. within hours of our announcement a certain kevin mccarthy kicked me off of the intelligence committee. trump attacked mead in rally after rally and that was called wednesday, but you've had my back every step of the way. >> welcome back. democratic congressman adam schiff was the top vote getter in this week's primary to replace the late california senator dianne feinstein, facing off against republican steve garvey a former major baseball league player. welcome back to "meet the press". >> great to be with you. it is so great to have you. let's talk about your race, your
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former appointment congresswoman katie porter is now saying that the california senate race was, of course, rigged. that's a term trump used to describe the 2020 election. porter said she was responding to, quote, an onslaught of billions -- billionaires spending millions against her. what do you make of her using the term "rigged"? >> first of all, katie porter ran a very tough campaign as did barbara lee. they both called to extend very gracious congratulations this week so i have nothing, but respect for my colleagues. that term rigged, though is a very loaded term in the year of trump. it connotes fraud, ballot stuffing and false claims like those of donald trump, and i think what's remarkable is democrats very quickly rallied to say no, we don't use that language. the election was legitimate, and this is a sharp contrast to how the republican party treats allegations of rigged elections which is they've gone along with
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them. indeed, they're urging president trump to pardon the january 6th insurrectionists if he ever got a chance. so a very different reaction among the parties to any kind of challenge to our democracy or suggestion that elections are illegitimate, but look, my opponents have been very gracious and i have nothing, but respect for them. >> congressman, just to be very clear, katie porter conceded when she called you? >> she congratulated me, which i certainly view it as a concession and she was very gracious in her message to me, and i appreciated the call. look, i've been on both sides of elections and winning them and losing them and it's tough. we're in a tough business, but her call could not have been more gracious. >> your campaign spent millions of dollars in tv ads spotlighting the profile of former baseball star republican steve garvey effectively elevating him over a number of your democratic challengers and
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as a result republican turnout really boomed in a number of districts including a lot of districts the democrats were trying to hold on to or flip. are you concerned that your actions may have helped republicans to hold on to the house in 2024? >>. >> no, not at all. we have a jungle primary in california, all of us were on the debate stage, the lone republican steve garvey and three democrats and yes, i emphasized my record of getting things done in california, of protecting our democracy and our rights and freedoms including reproductive freedom and i also went after steve garvey as did other democrats. the challenge my democrats had less garvey-consolidated republicans and their inability to gain democrat support. my support among democrats were more than twice my closest democratic colleague. in terms of a turnout, this is a democratic cycle and running for
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senate it is the presidential candidates who drive turnout or fail to drive turnout and we have to make sure in november that we turn out all these voters and frankly not having one democrat not spending millions to bash another democrat is helpful in the down ballot races because a lot more of those resources will now go over to winning over democratic seats. >> you do take me to my next question which is that your victory speech was interrupted by pro-palestinian protesters. are you concerned that president biden's full-throated support of israel could overshadow some of these races and could cost seats up and down the ballot? >> look, i think president biden is doing when he should do is figure out what's the right answer, what's right policy, how do we bring this conflict to an end? how do we make sure that a terrorist group like hamas is no longer controlling gaza? how do we get to a two-state solution and he's approaching it from what's the right thing to do any then figuring out what
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are the political consequences and how do i deal with them instead of the other way around? and frankly, i think that's exactly what he should do? we'll have to work hard to motivate and turn out young people in particular. i think he's got a phenomenal record to appeal to young people and no one's done more to reduce the burden of student debt than joe biden and no one has done more to attack gun violence than joe biden and a whole host of issues young people care about, he's got an incredible record and we can't take anything for granted and i think the highest priority has to be in turning young people out to vote. >> congressman, let me ask you about this development this weekend. u.s. intelligence officials are planning to provide briefings for donald trump once he, if he officially secures the nomination, despite the fact that he's facing 40 felony charges for his handling of classified documents. as the former chair of the house intelligence committee do you think it's appropriate for him to receive intelligence
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briefings? >> well, that is the practice, but we've never had a situation where one of the candidates for president has been so criminally negligent when it comes to handling if not worse, when it comes to handling classified information. so i have to hope and knowing the intelligence community as i do, that they will dumb down the briefing for donald trump, that is they will give him no more information than absolutely necessary, nothing that would reveal sources or methods because we can't trust that he will do the right thing with that information. he's been so reckless. so, yes, it does concern me. it is part of a long tradition. they will be wary of when they share with him and they should. >> final question here, congressman, let's talk about this tiktok debate on capitol hill. the house expected to vote next week on a bill that would really crack down on the social media site. do you support a ban of tiktok? will you vote for this legislation?
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>> i need to look at the legislation. i have not supported a ban on tiktok in my view when it comes to a platform or vehicle for speech. we need to look for the least restrictive means of meeting our objectives. there are real privacy concerns and security concerns and is there a way to meet those without banning a platform that millions of people like using. this is a divestiture bill, but i need to study it more before i make a decision. >> we'll watch it closely and let us know once you have made a decision. congressman schiff, thank you very much for joining us this morning. we really appreciate it and when we come back, the response to the president's state of the union is always a difficult assignment. we look back at a tradition that started in 1966.
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welcome back. the state of the union response which alabama senator katie britt delivered this week is a
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tradition that dates back to 1966. that year senator everett dirkson and then-congressman -- president lyndon johnson. gerald ford joined that broadcast the day before the speech to defend this novel idea. >> we believe that the public needs and deserves the other side of the coin, that they should get both sides of the appraisal of the state of the union both domestic and international, and we will make some specific recommendations legislatively speaking, senator dirksen will make be onner is vagdzs and comments and perhaps recommendations concerning international affairs. >> would a rude person call this a kind of 66 campaign document, mr. ford? >> i hope not. we will try to be objective. we will try to give the american people the other side, the -- we believe this will help to strengthen the american political system and for that reason we're giving it. >> when we come back, it's the
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re-match voters said they didn't want. now the biden-trump race will play out over the next 240 days. our pan is next.
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welcome back. the panel is here. nbc news senior white house correspondent kelly o'donnell.
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eugene daniels, white house correspondent for politico, co-author of politico playbook. marc morial president of the national urban league and republican strategist sara fagan. thank you all for being here. >> thank you. >> -- on a very busy sunday. the biden campaign raised $$10 million after the state of the union address after delivering a speech that frankly, fired up his base and now he's barnstorming key states. how are his allies feeling about this reset? >> they're feeling that that money is showing the attempt to show the vigor really worked. they view march as a building and scaling time where they will try to make sure they have their volunteers, their organization and their state parties and later for the persuasion, right now, if there's an infrastructure week in politics that's what they're talking about. springing forward into building those key groups that will help support the campaign going forward.
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initially, they feel strong about how the president performed and they know they've got to take that on the road. >> they sure do, and eugene yesterday with these dueling, events in georgia it showed how brutal and combative this campaign is going to be. how is biden going to be approaching that? does he feel he has to match trump's combativeness? ? >> i think it's less than matching trump's combativeness, but showing he has a fight. they're very happy with him showing vigor. they wanted to see someone who would fight for them and that's something they know they have to continue. we'll have to keep seeing, right? president biden feels in his bones that democracy is on the line and people want to see him -- and he has to do the other part of it, right? he has to show a future and talk about the things that he'll do for america so there has to be a balance and the combative nature is going to continue throughout
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this election. >> sara fagan, we'll all buckle up as we wait for that combative race to unfold and intensify. look, mike speaker of the house called president biden's speech hyperpartisan, and one of the challenges, i think for president biden and trump is in order to win they have to reach out to those nikki haley voters, those independent, moderate voters. what is your sense about who is doing the better job of reaching out to them right now. >> traditionally the state of the union would be about crossing the aisle and bringing more independents and moderates to his side and that was not what he did on thursday, but if you think about where he is politically, profound weakness in the democratic base. he is underperforming among many of his constituents and groups so that speech appears to be designed and it appears to have evidence that was helpful and worked in shoring up support among his base. he did make a strategic error,
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though, in my view, he tied funding for ukraine to vladimir putin's aggression in europe and he made it harder for republicans to vote to support that aid in doing so, and he missed an opportunity to reach out to those nikki haley voters who align more with biden on these foreign policy issues than they do with trump and that was a blunder. >> absolutely. marc, let me turn to you because sara talks about key constituents. the national urban league just completed its report on the state of black america. what did you find and how does it relate to this race? >> thank you for having me. so we looked at three different things. number one is it's the 60th anniversary since the passage of the civil rights act of 1964 and one question is has the nation changed and has it had an impact? look at this panel, look at this newsroom, look at america and the congress the change for people of color and women has been absolutely profound, and that has to be underscored.
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however, we also looked at disparities between black and white americans, and those disparities not withstanding the change have not significantly narrowed, particularly in the last 20 years. only a narrowing of maybe a few percentage points. at this rate we're 180 years away from parity. number two, we note the attacks on this progress. they come in the form of voter suppression, voter purges, attacks on democracy, attacks on equal opportunity and deni, banning of books and attacks to try to thwart this progress and we did a biden black scorecard to look at his promises and his performances and it told us is, here is someone who made commitments to black america, written, specific, enumerated and someone who substantially followed through on many of those commitments with a list of
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unfinished business. voting rights, living wages, child tax credit, justice and police accountability. >> you know, and that's so notable because sara fagan, look at this, if you look at black adults who identify as republican or republican leaning it's grown six points since 2021. marc lays out what's been accomplished, but says there's still work that needs to be done. why do you think we're seeing that? >> i think there are a couple of reasons. primarily it's economic. we're coming out of this very high inflationary period and it's cooled, but still, you know, food costs and housing costs. these are higher percentages of people's take home budgets and so if you're a working class american of any color you have really been impacted by that and so voters overwhelmingly consider trump, the trump economy to have worked better for them than the biden economy and that's affected black americans and i think on
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cultural issues, as well, there is a percentage of black americans that looks at the progressive wing of the democratic party and thinks i don't have much in common with voters or elected officials who believe abortion should be available on demand up to the ninth month, and on some of these gender issues. they're more aligned with a conservative viewpoint than they are of the progressive wing of the democrat. >> no doubt the -- >> i think this is important, let's not obsess over february polls. if we had followed february polls there would be no president reagan, no president clinton and no president obama. these polls don't mean anything because the campaign is beginning and engagement with vote sers now starting. >> we have a long way to go. kelly, how does the campaign deal with this and obviously, we've been talking about debates a lot and this is a chance for them to reach out to all voters. >> from the trump side, they're saying anywhere, any time, any moderator and it is their
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intention to say no toed by know debating. this is about distraction and this is the trump taunt of 2024, and there will be a time and place for that. one of the things that the biden team is doing right now which is is adressing this conversation is what i call micro event where they go into a family's home and shoot a video there and they talk it to a small business owner and why would they give an hour to citizens in they want to see him as warm anden gaming and they can assess his age and they are able to communicate in their communities, to be advocates down the line. >> eugene, final point, you've got the last 30 seconds. >> all of that is exactly right. they want this president to be seen as someone who is helping the everyday americans and when you have those black voters and i talked to the folks that he's talked to they feel differently about him and now you have the president explaining the kinds of things that he has done for them and that is something that
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this administration has failed to do. we have a lot of time to go before that ends, but they'll be doing that. >> all right. great conversation. that is all for today. thank you for watching. we will be back next week because if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." ♪♪ ♪♪ top of the
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world. >> a lot of stars on sunday night ba

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