and we miss him. >> reporter: and if keith was listening, what would you say to keith? >> that i know he's in a great place. and keith would tell us to forgive becky. not to say that she doesn't have to be held accountable and that she doesn't have to suffer consequences, because that's a given and that's the right thing. but keith would actually want us to forgive becky. and i know that. and i would just tell keith, well done, your time on earth here was well done. >> that's all for this edition of dateline. i'm craig melvin, thank you for watching. for watching. ♪♪ ♪♪ this sunday, document this sunday, document defense. president biden forcefully defends his handling of classified documents after the special counsel declines to bring charges. >> i did not break the law. >> but is the president facing a bigger political risk after the special counsel raised questions about his age and memory? >> my memory is fine.

my memory -- take a look at what i've done since becoming president. >> i'll talk to biden's campaign co-chair, mitch landrieu. plus, the art of no deal. >> democracy is messy. >> we crushed crooked joe biden's disastrous open borders bill. >> republicans reject a bipartisan deal they demanded and then failed to impeach biden's homeland security secretary. >> the resolution is not adopted. >> the people at home sent me here to get stuff done and to solve problems. >> what is the point of being a senator if you have donald trump make all of the decisions for you? >> if congress won't fix the border, who will solve the problem? i'll talk exclusively to homeland security secretary alejandro mayorkas. and encouraging putin. donald trump says he would tell russia to attack nato allies who don't pay their bills. >> no, i would not protect you. in fact, i would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want.

>> would the nato alliance be in danger in a second trump term? i'll speak to former republican governor chris christie of new jersey. joining me for insight and analysis are nbc news chief white house correspondent peter alexander. amna nawaz, co-anchor of "pbs newshour." former house secretary jen psaki and brendan buck. welcome to sunday. it's "meet the press." ♪♪ >> announcer: from nbc news in washington, the longest-running show in television history, this is "meet the press" with kristen welker. good sunday morning. on a week in which republicans suffered embarrassing defeats on capitol hill, it was president biden who wound up dealing with perhaps the biggest crisis. democrats are reeling, using

words like nightmare and beyond devastating to describe special counsel robert hur's handling of classified documents. the special counsel found no criminal charges against president biden are warranted, but the president, quote, willfully retained classified materials after his vice presidency when he was a private citizen, including marked classified documents about afghanistan and notebooks containing sensitive intelligence sources and methods, which he shared with a ghostwriter, an allegation biden described, and it was found near a collapsed dog crate in biden's delaware garage. the report puts what it calls biden's diminished faculties and advanced age front and center. president biden fired back thursday. >> something the special counsel said in his report is that one of the reasons you were not charged is because, in his description, you are a

well-meaning elderly man with a poor memory. >> i'm well-meaning, i'm an elderly man, and i know what the hell i'm doing. >> do you take responsibility for being careless with classified material? >> i take responsibility for not having seen exactly what my staff was doing. >> now, according to the report, the president did not remember key dates about his term as vice president, and the report claims he did not remember even within several years of when his son beau died. >> how the hell dare he raise that. frankly, when i was asked the question, i thought it wasn't any of their damn business. i don't need anyone to remind me of when he passed away. >> and in a rare pushback from jill biden calling the report including the comments about beau inaccurate and personal, political attacks about joe, but democrats worry about the age issue already looming over president biden's re-election bid. 76% of voters have major or moderate concerns about biden

not having the mental or physical health for a second term. that includes more than half of democrats. it's an issue president biden has had to address for years. >> if i were to run they would judge me on my vitality. can i still run up the stairs of air force 2? do i have my faculties and i think it's totally legitimate to ask the questions. this is for the voters to decide. look at me, see if i know what i'm talking about and make the judgment. >> the only thing i can say to the american people, it's a legitimate question to ask anybody. watch me. >> this past week, president biden confused the names and countries of three world leaders in separate events. former president donald trump who is 77 has had his own flub saying nikki haley was in charge of the capitol on january 6th instead of nancy pelosi.

hoe he has pleaded not guilty to 40 counts of his mishandseling of documents and the two cases are different. while president biden alerted authorities and cooperated, former president trump, quote, did the opposite alleging ordering others to destroy documents. >> they ended up with the now famous raid on mar-a-lago. we're having a talk and they raided my house. if he's not going to be charged, that's up to them, but then i should not be charged. >> and joining me now is homeland security secretary alejandro mayorkas. secretary mayorkas, welcome back to "meet the press." thank you for being here. >> thank you for having me, kristen. >> we are going to talk about what's happening on capitol hill, but first i do want to talk about that special counsel report that we just discussed. ow obviously work very

closely with president biden as a member of his cabinet, and i wonder, have you ever seen anything that makes you question or concerned about his mental faculties? >> no, and let me take a step back because i served as a federal prosecutor for 12 years, kristen. the responsibility of the federal prosecutor is to investigate and learn the facts and apply the law to those facts. the prosecutor did this, the special counsel did this in the case, made a conclusion that there is no case, case closed, and then made gratuitous unnecessary and inaccurate personal remarks, and those are improper. the most difficult part about a meeting with president biden is preparing for it because he is sharp, intensely probing, detail-oriented, and focused. >> you are saying some of the details are gratuitous. the vice president called what was in the report politically motivated, and this was a special counsel that was appointed by the biden administration.

i wonder how you can ask people to have faith in the justice department investigating donald trump and not investigating biden? >> the justice department acts with unflinching integrity, and the attorney general of the united states personifies that every single day as do the career prosecutors and everyone in the department of justice. this special counsel report is an unfortunate deviation from the norms that guide the department of justice throughout its history. >> do you think that the president compromised national security in his handling of classified documents? this report says that he stored some of the nation's most sensitive secrets in his garage. is that responsible? >> it is my understanding that national security was not in any compromised by the retention of documents. the president, according to the report, cooperated fully with the special counsel's investigation.

>> let me ask you about what we are hearing from some ome call the 25 republicans. more than a dozen republican lawmakers are now calling for the 25th amendment to be invoked, just to give our viewers a sense of what that means it basically means the cabinet would have the authority to start the process of trying to remove the president if he or she is deemed incapable of serving. what is the reaction to those calls? has that ever been discussed? >> kristen, i don't engage in governing, and i follow the president's agenda, which i skrup usually do. i have to tell you, i have met with the president many, many times over the course of the past three years. i prepare intensely from those meetings and i follow up with those meeting to get the answers to the questions he has posed and he is probing and focused on the mission. >> as far as you know, the 25th amendment has not been discussed? >> not at all.

>> let's talk about what's happening on capitol hill. house republicans are plan for a second time to impeach you. they accuse you of willfully not following the laws and therefore not securing the border and lying about having control of it. mr. secretary, these are serious allegations. how do you respond? >> they're baseless allegations, kristen, and that's why i am not distracted by them and focused on the work of the department of homeland security. i'm inspired every single day by the remarkable work that 260,000 men and women in our department perform on behalf of the american public. i've got a busy day today after the show, a busy day of work. i've got a busy day monday, tuesday, wednesday, and so on. >> let me just ask you, though, big picture. you have now been in your position for three years, and let's talk about what's happened during those three years. more migrants have crossed the border illegally last year than ever before. the asylum cases backlog has

more than tripled since 2019. you yourself have said that more than 85% of migrants crossing the border illegally are being released into the u.s. as they await their court dates. let's just put impeachment aside for a minute. why do you deserve to keep your job, mr. secretary? >> kristen, the data that you cite is a powerful example of why we need legislation to fix what everyone agrees is a broken immigration system, and you take a snapshot of the data over the past three years. let's take a look at the last three years. that case backlog, which is about 3 million cases, has been growing year over year over year. the time between when we encounter an individual at the border and the time of the final adjudication of an asylum case has been years. five to seven years for years and years. i remember when i entered the department of homeland security in 2009, we were wrestling with these very same issues.

the system has not been fixed for 30 years. a bipartisan group of senators have now presented us with the tools and resources we need, the bipartisan group, and yet congress killed it before even reading it. >> no doubt there is gridlock on congress, but do you bear responsibility for what's happening with the border as the president himself has called a cry says? >> it certainly is a crisis, and while we don't bear responsibility for a broken system, we're doing a tremendous amount within that broken system, but fundamentally, fundamentally, congress is the only one who can fix it. >> you testified for years, really, that the border is secure and now in recent

comments president biden says it's not secure. do you now agree with president biden's assessment that it's not secure? >> kristen, the challenges of the border have been longstanding. the president correctly noted that those challenges have existed for ten years. >> so you agree with him? >> in fact, even longer. there is no question that we have a broken system. there is no question that we have a challenge, a crisis at the border and there is no question that congress needs to fix it, and we're doing everything we can within that broken system short of legislation to address what is not just a challenge for the united states, but one throughout our region. >> nbc news is reporting that president biden is right now considering taking some executive actions to deal with the border. as you know, republicans are calling for him to shut down the border right now, something that undoubtedly would face legal challenges, but, mr. secretary, why doesn't the president just shut down the border and let the courts just try to stop him? >> well, the fact of the matter, kristen, is that we have taken executive actions already. we continuously review what options are available to us, but those are always challenged in

the courts, and whether or not they see the light of day and actually are able to be operationalized is an open question. that is why -- that is why the bipartisan group of senators actually prepared and presented a piece of legislation that would, you know, basic in state auto, the ability to close the border for a limited period of time, an extreme measure, and it would be immune from court challenge because it is statutorily based. >> if it were done legislatively, no doubt you would have the legal challenges, but isn't trying to do something better than doing nothing at all? why doesn't president biden try to shut down the border? are you encouraging him to do that in? well, we have already taken important steps. we certainly haven't done nothing. i will tell you, we issued a regulation, the circumvention of lawful pathways, that increased

a rebuttable presumption of ineligibility for asylum seekers if they did not avail themselves of the lawful pathways that we built, and so we've done a tremendous amount. it's very important to remember we have removed, returned, or expelled more individuals in the past three years than the prior administration did in all four. >> let me ask you because i just heard you say that you are reviewing what is available to you, which suggests that you may be considering taking new executive actions. would that include potentially detaining families? >> kristen, let me be clear about what i said. we always explore what option are available to us that are permissible under the law, and if we think they are advantageous in achieving our mission, we institute them.

we have made a decision that we will not detain families. >> so that's off the table. detaining families. you've rejected in the past and you still reject it. it's absolutely off the table. that has not come back up. we rejected it some time ago. >> what about instituting the remain in mexico policy? that is something that you have terminated it, and are you considering reinstating it and having mexico do that? >> first of all, it depends on mexico's agreement and mexico has articulated publicly that it will not allow the reimplementation of remaining in mexico, number one. number two, it's been challenged in the courts and number three, remember something that remain in mexico was implemented in january of 2019. in 2019 there was almost a 100% increase in the number of encounters at our southwest board are over 2018. >> i have to ask you, finally, here we are on super bowl sunday. i know you were just out in las vegas.

you were dealing with security matters there. are you concerned about any threats on this super bowl sunday. will the super bowl be safe? >> we have no specific credible threat posed to the super bowl. we are always vigilant, always ready. i was visiting with 350 department of homeland security personnel that dedicate themselves to the safety and security of the super bowl and to the safety and security of the american people every single day. >> all right. secretary mayorkas, thank you so much. i hope you have time to watch the super bowl tonight. i appreciate your joining us very much. and when we come back, the national co-chair of president biden's 2024 campaign mitch landrieu joins me next. campaig landrieu joins me next does tha. now, save 50% on the sleep number limited edition smart bed. plus, free home delivery when you add an adjustable base. ends monday.

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welcome back. the white house, the biden campaign officials, appear to have settled on a strategy, attacking robert hur as politically motivated. vice president kamala harris defended the president on friday. >> the way that the president's demeanor in that report was characterized could not be more

wrong on the facts and clearly politically motivated, gratuitous. >> joining me now is mitch landrieu, national co-chair for president biden's campaign. welcome to "meet the press." thank you so much for being here. >> great to be with you. >> well, let's dive right in to that report. it was initiated by the special counsel appointed by president biden's attorney general. do you, does the campaign, accept this report as legitimate? >> well, of course. first of all, this was a 15-month investigation. the president and his team fully cooperated, and based on the law and the facts, which is what lawyers and special counsel are supposed to look on, the conclusion was that the president had engaged in no wrongdoing, period, end of story, but unfortunately, that's not where the special prosecutor left it.

he decided to add ad hominem gratuitous attacks about the president's -- the death of the president's son, which everybody knows is just an incredible personal thing as it is to any parent who has lost somebody, and then extra attacks that even senators like mitt romney and white house counsel and cobb was just ridiculous, and you can have the federal prosecutor comes out and say that. that's the thing that stung the most about it and the most important thing to remember is the president was found to have been engaged in no wrongdoing unlike president trump who has 91 felony count against him and in all of the depositions that president trump that says he doesn't remember and doesn't know over 1,000 times so the swooning over whether or not the president remembered the year that his son died and therefore is not fit to be president is just really sad and below the belt and unnecessary. >> well, just to be very clear, the report didn't say he wasn't engaged in any wrongdoing. in fact, it was quite firm in the fact that he mishandled

classified documents. he just wasn't indicted and criminally charged, but let me follow up with you. the documents found in president biden's -- >> kristen, wait. no, no, no. i'm not going to accept that premise. in an investigation, a special counsel determines based on the facts and the law about whether somebody engaged in criminal wrongdoing, and me found out that the president did, as a matter of fact, he's the only special counsel that's been engaged in this kind of activity that had to say that he could not indict somebody, and that is a fact, and so that's the big takeaway from this report from a legal perspective. >> from a legal perspective, that is absolutely right. he said he was not going to indict. >> thank you. >> let me ask --? because he didn't have the law and the facts to do it. >> well, right, but he did say that classified documents were mishandled and he said that

national security could have been jeopardized, but let me ask you this -- >> but, kristen, he didn't say -- no ma'am, i'm sorry. he didn't say national security was compromised. >> he said it could have been. >> but it was not, and the facts and the law suggested that the president was not engaged in criminal activity. to be distinguished between the former president who has 91 felony counts pending against him in four different cases. so let's just keep the facts right and not make false comparisons between the two, which people, unfortunately, do a lot of these days. >> speaking of that, here's how president trump referred to him, his storage of classified documents. he was asked about the fact that donald trump stored them in 2022. take a listen. >> how that could possibly happen, how anyone could be that irresponsible, and i thought, what data was in there that may compromise sources and methods? by that i mean names of people who helped, et cetera, and just totally irresponsible. >> was president biden's handling of classified documents

also totally irresponsible given that they were found, for example, in his garage? >> kristen, one of the reasons why there was a special counsel appointed was to gauge that very thing. you will also remember that vice president pence went through the same examination, and the conclusion was the same as it relates to vice president pence and then vice president biden. the special counsel concluded that the law and the facts and the evidence suggested that they could not bring any criminal prosecution against president biden and juxtaposed to the 91 felony counts in nature, in tone, and in context. they're not even close to being the same cases, and that's not what's the most egregious thing about this ad hominem report, and it is this attack that questioned the president's

capacity, and i want to speak to that very clearly because i can testify because i've been working very closely with this president for the past two years. i've been knowing him for 30 years. i have met with him personally, with two people, five, people, ten people, i have been on trips with him criss-crossing the country rebuilding america based on this incredible infrastructure bill that was passed, and i'm telling you this guy is tough. he's smart. he's on his game and as secretary mayorkas said a minute ago, when you go in to brief the president you better have your big boy pants on and this sense that he's not read per this job is a bucket of b.s. that's so deep your boots would get stuck in it. >> understand stood, but americans don't agree with what you're saying. our nbc news poll found 76% of voters are concerned about whether the president has the necessary mental and physical health to be president for a second term. what is the plan to convince voters otherwise? >> well, let's just say two things. this election will be about two men and two different visions for the country. president biden just the other night confused what day of the week it was. he is confused who the leader of north korea and china are. he's confused the leaders of hungary and turkey.

by the way, speaker mike johnson confused iraq and iran, and, of course, president trump doesn't know the difference between nancy pelosi and nikki haley. by the way, last night president trump saw fit to basically dump on nikki haley's husband who was serving in the military rid now because he has it around and that's what he continues to do. so the people of america will have to make a choice. are they for a guy like joe biden who wakes up every day thinking about the people of america and list lifting people up, or donald trump who already said, even when his lips are moving, e he's usually lying that he will be engaged in revenge and taking us backward. i think the choice is clear. you know what joe biden remembers? he remembers how to build 46,000 infrastructure projects and how to build one of the strong of the economies in the world. he remembers how to make sure that the unemployment rate stays as low as it is and that is why the president says watch me and

the president has demonstrated an incredible amount of accomplishment in a few short years that outpaced what donald trump has ever done, including creating 15 million jobs. >> people are watching him and again, 76% of them have those concerns and so do some of his donors. this is what "the washington post" is saying, quote, top biden donors were fielding calls and text messages from anxious democrats asking if other democrats still had time to jump into the presidential race. when is gavin getting in or whitmer or shapiro buzzed around circles. how do you respond to democrats who say they want to see someone else at the top of the ticket? >> i'm doing it now. the accomplishment has been second to none, and joe biden will be today. he is never, ever going to quit because he's not what he's done his entire life and not withstanding that he lost a child earlier in his life, and

he still got up and went to work. and he had difficulty with another son. he'll continue to do that and to move the country fard. >> did he miss the opportunity to speak during the super bowl and talk to 60 million people? people want to watch the super bowl and not hear from a politician and he made the right choice for himself at this time. >> mitch landrieu, thank you for join us this sunday. i appreciate it. >> thank you. when we come back, he said he'll do everything he can to stop donald trump from winning. former new jersey governor chris christie joins me next. christie joins me next stop donald trump fro hi, i'm jason. i've lost 228 pounds on golo.

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welcome back. while democrats are whispering concerns about their party's nominee, former new jersey governor chris christie has been vocally campaigning against the republican front-runner, calling endorsing donald trump in 2016 the biggest mistake of his political career. joining me now is former republican governor chris christie and author of "what

would reagan do: life lessons from the last great president." welcome back to "meet the press." thanks for being here. >> thanks. >> i want to dive right in to the special counsel report that we've been talking about throughout the morning. former attorney general eric holder said this about the report, way too many gratuitous remarks and is flatly inconsistent with longstanding doj traditions. did this report cross any lines for you? >> i don't think so. look, i did this, as you know for seven years as the u.s. attorney in the fifth largest office in the country. the fact is they had to give the reasons why they weren't prosecuting when you start off the report by saying that he willfully and knowingly retained classified documents. well, that's a violation of the law. so the question then for the prosecutor is then why aren't you bringing charges, and he gave two reasons. one was president biden's memory, lack of memory, his condition, and, secondly was

that president biden cooperated once documents were discovered, he let them go in and do whatever they needed to do to retrieve them as opposed to what president trump did. >> donald trump called the decision not to prosecute proof that there is, in fact, a two-tiered system of justice. do you agree with that assessment? >> no, because if there was a two-tiered system of justice what would have happened, they would have announced they weren't prosecuting and they wouldn't have given any reasons. i have to say the truth. in one respect i think the biden white house would have been happier if he had been charged than for that report to have come out in the midst of a re-election campaign. the fact is when you're questioning what 70-some percent of the american people are questioning, whether joe biden is too old for the job, and now you have an independent counsel, special counsel appointed by his own justice department, concluding that he couldn't bring a trial for that reason, that's much more damaging

politically than whether people would have agreed or disagreed with him being charged and look, in the end, this is the problem. both of these candidates are people who are being questioned for their competence and being questioned for their character and that's a problem for the american people. >> speaking of which, we've got a new set of comments from former president trump overnight. he basically is recounting a story, a conversation he says he had with one of the nato leaders about paying their fair share in the face of these threats by vladimir putin. let's take a look, and i'm going to get your reaction on the other side. >> one of the presidents of a big country stood up and said, sir, if we don't pay and we're attacked by russia will you protect us? i said you didn't pay, you're delinquent? he said yes. let's say that happened. no, i would not protect you. in fact, i would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want. you i've got to pay. you've got to pay your bills.

>> what do you make of that? >> this is why i've been saying for a long time that he's unfit to be president of the united states. it's one thing and think it's right for a president to say to a nato member, hey, you have to pay the dues you need to pay. i think the american people would expect that of a president, but the problem with donald trump is he can't just stop there. he's got to say i would encourage russia to do whatever the hell they wanted to you. that is absolutely inappropriate for a president of the united states or a candidate for president of the united states to be saying, but it is consistent with his love for dictators. >> it's inappropriate. do you think it poses a national security risk to make that kind of a comment? >> what poses a national security risk is the possibility that he could be president of the united states again. that's what poses a national security risk because we need to take him at his word, kristen. and the fact is that as i've said earlier, donald trump when he came into office in 2016 was scared. he was afraid to be president. he was afraid of mistakes he would make.

he knew he was not ready. and so as a result, he listened to a lot of very good people around him, general mattis, general kelly, and others about these issues. in a second term, he would not. >> you, of course, dropped out of the presidential race about a month ago, but you say you are still determined to stop former president trump from reaching the oval office again. how far are you willing to go to stop donald trump? >> i'm here, aren't i? that should answer your question. >> well, have you ruled out running as a third-party candidate? >> look, i think for anybody, what we should be focused on is how best to serve the country. and what i'm so concerned about in the primary was that our party -- many of the things that i said, members of our parts were saying in private all of the time and they say it to you,

too, about donald trump in private, and they're unwilling to do the hard work that's necessary to get out there and do it. listen, kristen, the primary were over at the first debate when six of the eight supported him as a convicted felon. >> have you ruled out running? >> i can't see anybody doing that at the moment, but no one knows what will happen going forward. someone would have to see a path with 270 electoral votes to do it, and i haven't looked at it and i have been out of a month. >> have you spoken to no labels? >> i haven't spoken to anyone at no labels nor has anyone in my campaign. >> you told republicans if they weren't working to elect donald trump they were looking to elect hillary clinton. let me put that back to you now. if you aren't working to elect president biden are you working to elect former president trump? >> i don't think so because i think what we have in this race is two really, really bad choices. >> how is it different?

those are the choices. >> it is different because this time we don't know if we'll have a third choice or not, and so i can't make a commitment. the one commitment i will make to you this morning is i'm not voting for donald trump under any circumstances. now who i might vote for i'll wait to see the complete field before i make my judgment. >> do you rule out voting for president biden? >> i can't see myself voting for president biden either. >> do you rule it out? >> look, i can't see myself voting for him because i don't agree with his policies and i have serious questions about his competence to serve another four years. do i rule it out, kristen? my guess is if those are my only two choices, i'll move to the senate vote. >> you keep talking about the fact that a third party likely won't get to 270. so it looks like those are going to be your two options and you've called donald trump a dictator and a threat to democracy and why not vote for his campaign for an alternative if your goal is to stop trump? >> if you disagree -- look, you have two different problems you have someone in joe biden who doesn't physically look up to serving another four years whose

policies i disagree with in the main. you have donald trump who i agree with a number of his policies, but i believe his character absolutely disqualifies him for the presidency. those are two awful choices. and, by the way, kristen, that's what 70% of the american people are saying right now, and so what i'd say about a third-party candidate is this. in my lifetime, i've never seen the situation more asking for a viable third-party candidate, but whether that will happen or not i don't know. >> let's talk about your new book "what would reagan do?" you write at this divided self-consumed moment in american history what we don't need are any more visions of american carnage or a leader who promises if given a second term would be retribution. retribution is a word that never once entered the reagan

campaign. >> no, they can't be because they can't be two diametrically opposed men than ronald reagan and donald trump. ronald reagan saw morning in america and donald trump saw american carnage. donald trump sees things in terms of retribution for himself. the only time retribution was ever used by ronald reagan was when he was going after america's enemies. >> let me ask you about something liz cheney has said, she's obviously said she's determined to beat donald trump as well. she thinks house republicans have been so corrupted by donald trump that it would be better to have democrats in control of congress. she said it presents a, quote, threat if there was a republican majority when it comes time to certify the election. do you agree that a republican majority in and of itself is a threat? >> i would say this, if you listen to elise stefanik's quotes this week saying if she were vice president, she wouldn't have certified the election, and she's a part of house leadership? that's certainly a concern.

what i would say is i want to see who is elected, and you will get mike lawler in new york and those are the republicans who will be responsible about certifying an election. so i don't think they'll ever get to a majority not to certify the election. >> have you considered leaving the republican party? >> no. i am ready to change the republican party. i will never stop fighting to change my party. i am a republican and that's what i will continue to be and i will work to change the party, and i wish that more people in the party would look to do the same thing. >> very quickly on taylor swift trying to get biden elected? >> outrageous. ridiculous, ridiculous. taylor swift is one of the great american success stories. we should be celebrating her not having all these crazy conspiracy theories, but this is the kind of thing that donald trump brings about. >> i know your beloved dallas cowboys are in the game and my eagles aren't, but we'll watch anyway. >> absolutely. >> thanks for being here, governor christie. we appreciate it. when we come back, it is super bowl sunday. our "meet the press" minute

looks at the big business behind the sport. that's next. big business behind the sport. that's next.

welcome back. if it's sunday it's "meet the press" and once a year it's also the super bowl. three decades ago buffalo bills super fan tim russert moderated the broadcast from pasadena. former quarterbacks roger staubach and jack kemp joined tim to talk about the business behind the game.

>> the super bowl is expected to make $30 million. hasn't this become just a big business and not the sport that you both played in? >> it is -- it definitely is big business, but it's exciting big business. i think it builds on itself and it's like a two-week tailgating party right now, you know, and companies get involved, and it's a reward system for their people and excitement. it's a healthy big business. >> we recognize that this is a sport and it's a game, it's entertainment and darwinian and it's survival and today bigger than life itself in many different ways, so the players are doing well. hopefully there is a profit to be made and it's providing a lot of jobs and a lot of opportunity and at the same time it's a tremendous opportunity and that's why you are here holding "meet the press". on super bowl sunday. >> it's call sports journalism, bob. >> it's called sports journalism.

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welcome back. the panel is here. nbc news chief white house correspondent peter alexander and co-anchor of "weekend today." amna nawaz, co-anchor of "pbs newshour." former white house press secretary jen psaki, host of "inside with jen psaki." thank you guys for being here on super bowl sunday. >> it is here. >> it is a jam-packed one. peter let me start with you because you were working your sources overnight and you got this extraordinary statement and email from the first lady basically blasting the special counsel report, and what are your sources telling you about that and a potential shift in strategy? >> she said among other things in the statement, she said robert hur was trying to score political points. she said, you don't measure the death of your son in years.

you measure it in grief. basically the thinking behind this was if the special counsel will be attacking our son and using him as a political weapon then she is going to have something to say about it which is why she spoke out and a person with the first lady said she was directly involved in the crafting of this email. she wanted to speak out in real american mom terms saying this wasn't just inaccurate, that it was inhumane and she wanted to make another argument that the first lady did there, that americans benefit from each of the president's 81 years. his experience, his expertise is what's allowed him to get things done. and quickly about the strategy going forward, you have to hear more from the president himself, the campaign, excuse me. the white house is focused on doing more of that and sending him out to some of the key battlegrounds and sending him

out for more off-the-cuff, authentic conversations, and it does expose him that he repeats the gaffes that are a concern. >> the gaffes are baked in. it's who joe biden is, he's the only one who can get out and fix this and yet here we are on super bowl sunday for a second year in a row. he declined to do the super bowl interview. was that a mistake, the chance to not see 60 million viewers and what do you make of what peter's saying? this shift in strategy? >> it's a close call if you're in the white house because the environment has changed since the tim russert clip of him hosting "meet the press" from the super bowl. that would never happen today. >> maybe next year you'll be at the super bowl. >> first of all, they were asked to cut it down to three minutes and any smart reporter would have asked him about things like gaza and events in the world and people are just trying to have chicken wings at this point. so i will say just to add to peter's point, i mean, if you're sitting in the white house and on the campaign right now, you're absolutely banging your head against the wall at the way the thursday report has been

covered, given all of the things that have happened this week, including -- and i know you asked chris christie about this -- the fact that donald trump yesterday suggested that vladimir putin should have free reign in attacking nato allies and what do we see is wall to wall coverage about whether a guy who is four years than his opponent is too old than his opponent. >> it's the president's job to bring that out and attack his opponent. the president is not taking an opportunity on super bowl sunday and he's not taking any opportunities. >> first of all, that's not true. it's not being covered. he's traveled just as much as donald trump, as barack obama. it is hard to break through the cloud of donald trump and this media environment. that is true. >> you know as well as anyone, he's done far fewer media and press conferences. you were at his press conferences and his predecessors, and we heard from

his spokespeople earlier that there is one behind closed doors who is super sharp, and when he steps out, it's there every time. they are behind closed doors with joe biden, and they're also seeing slippage. >> the challenge for the biden campaign is changing voters' minds because when you look at the poll, 76%, we're not talking 50%. 76% say they have these concerns. >> it's not an insignificant amount of people and the majority of democrats. the president's defense has always been and you ask me about my age, he says watch me. watch me do the work. and the fact is the chances to watch him do the work are just rare. he's done much fewer interviews and fewer news conferences than both presidents obama and donald trump at this point and i know we all have interview requests in and we would love to speak with you, but the fact is people are concerned. democratic officials on the ground are also concerned. not necessarily those in the room with him. they say he's sharp, he's competent, but they're worried about the growing perception. here's the thing though. the polls are asking, are you worried about president biden's

age, and they say yes. are you so worried that you will vote for the man who is facing 91 felony counts and that's where the rubber meets the road. >> the question is how much buzz is there in democratic circles about changing the washington ticket, and what is in the washington post? >> i was in the biden world for a year and a half in an official basis, and if they -- any time there was an anonymous person in "the washington post" suggesting that they wanted a change at the top of the ticket, they'd be in a fetal position under their desks. i don't hear a lot of people saying that's a reality of what may happen. there's always speculation of looking for the magical unicorn of somebody who has 50 years of foreign policy experience who is also 37 years old and can, like, run across the field at the super bowl to campaign for president, and that doesn't exist. what the biden campaign needs right now is for people to realize that, like, he is going to be the nominee. this is the choice. >> peter, let me ask you about

the point that jen brings up about nato. we all woke up to these comments that he had made overnight, effectively inviting putin to attack nato countries that don't pay their fair share. this is president biden's strength, foreign policy. where does the campaign think that they can try to make this distinction with president biden? >> i think there are a couple of things, and one of the points that jen just made right there, it's obvious they view donald trump as a real threat in terms of the contrast of the campaign, as a real threat not just to the united states and the global order that exists. think about the nato members and some of which who are coming out that the u.s. certainly under a new trump administration would be less reliable and there's no

one who would be more concerned about that right now than not a nato member though he would like to be which is volodymyr zelenskyy, the president of ukraine. right now they are short on am mission, as the president is trying to get new aid to ukraine and 60 billion to israel and it was ultimately the republicans as the white house wants to be on offense about. they want to focus on the republicans who said no to this. that's the message they think they should be focusing in on among others. >> ukraine aid is still being held up and they're still fighting over that and ukraine as peter says we can't continue to fight this war without this aid. >> look, i've had a lot of bad weeks on capitol hill in my time, but last week was nothing short of a train wreck. but it is the job of the president to call it out. it is not a novel strategy. barack obama ran very successfully against house republicans and got himself reelected and bill clinton did the same thing. at some point you need to see them take advantage. it doesn't really matter, and that's what i think is missing. the leadership of the white house to set the tone of the discussion we're having and so far i don't think i've really seen it. >> one of the things on this nato point, and i spoke to the

former nato chief not too long ago and he did point out that one good thing former president trump did was get the nato allies to increase the contribution which is a good thing. >> which was increasing before that under obama, just fact-checking. >> as much as our allies are watching and we're working toward a more isolationist posture, which could under another trump presidency, our adversaries are also watching china, north korea and watching there are very much probing weaknesses and even just a conversation about a weakening alliance is bad. >> former president trump said he would end aid to ukraine within 24 hours of becoming president. we talked about the nato comments from the former president and president trump just yesterday he was mocking nikki haley's husband who is serving overseas in africa and where is he? he's not side by side with his wife, and that doesn't sit well with the military. >> it got sharp rebuke from nikki haley and others.

thank you, guys for a great panel. that is all for today. thank you for watching. enjoy the super bowl, everyone. we will be back next week because if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." what's going on? >> first and goal. mahomes finds it. >> jackpot, kansas city! >> the kansas city chiefs are once again super bowl champions after