Meet the Press NOW — June 16

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Welcome to meet the press now. I'm Monica Alba in Washington, and we begin with the president on the world stage, touting the U.S. agreement with Iran and previewing the next stage of the deal, all while the administration is refusing to make public the text and specific details of the preliminary framework, which is set to be signed in Switzerland on Friday. Senior U.S. officials say that agreement, which is only about a page and a half long, opens a 60-day window to negotiate further on Iran's nuclear program. Alongside Key Gulf allies today, President Trump said he expects that next phase of negotiations will be, quote, easier.

Here's more from the president. It's a 16-day period or so. I think it's going to happen fairly on time. We've been both involved. I think they're going to want to get it done. Iran wants to get it done. and they have to get back to business. And the relationship is now normalized.

So I think it's going to go pretty quickly. There's so much interest in the text of the document. Why not release the document? Oh, I will. Why don't release it before? Well, because I'd like to get a formal setting first before we do that. But I have no problem with that. It's a great document.

Here's what it says. Iran will never have a nuclear weapon. That's where it says. But I will, actually, I'll not only release it, I'll probably have a press conference and read it to use word by word. And as the world waits to see those specifics, several key questions persist, including whether Israel and Hezbollah or not party to the agreement will cease firing, a demand Iran says is in the agreement.

President Trump today criticizing some of Israel's recent strikes on Lebanon. I've had a great relationship with BB, but now BB has to be more responsible with respect to Lebanon. Now, I'm not happy with the way Israel has handled themselves with Lebanon and with Hezbollah. They should have been able to do the job faster. It just goes on forever. And when that happens, it throws a negative light on the big deal, and that's the deal with Iran. So when you ask me about maybe an unbelievable relationship. But Israel would have been blown up a long time ago, and I know.

I've got me room. There are also looming questions about the Trump administration's insistence that no U.S. money will go to Iran as part of the agreement, which the president repeated today at the G7, even as Iranian state media claim, part of the agreement includes the release of billions of dollars of frozen Iranian assets. My colleague, Tom Yamas, pressed Vice President JD Vance on what specifically Iran needs to do to secure those funds. I want to understand this in the simplest terms. what does Iran need to do before they can be rewarded? What do they have to do to get that money? Do they have to give up their enriched uranium? Well, we're going to stagger it, right?

So giving up the enriched stockpile of uranium, that's the thing that we have focused the most on. They will get benefits for doing that. The cessation of funding of terrorist organization, they will get benefits from that, making their country investable. They will get benefits from that. So what this is set up as is as they perform,

their end of the bargain, then more and more benefits flow to them. If they do less, then less, potentially nothing flows to them. Meanwhile, President Trump appears to already be trying to put the Iran war behind him and signaling he will turn his attention back to the war in Ukraine. A deal to end that war remains elusive, but President Trump did meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky for almost an hour on the sidelines of the G7, according to a U.S. official. And joining me now, is NBC News, senior White House correspondent Gabe Gutierrez in Geneva. NBC News International correspondent Matt Bradley is in Tel Aviv. And also with me on set here is Evelyn Farcus, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense

for Russia and Ukraine. She's now the executive director at the McCain Institute. Thank you all for getting us started. Gabe, we are maybe learning a few new details about this deal right now, or are we going to have to wait until Friday to really get a total sense of this after that signing ceremony? Well, Monica, we are hearing broad strokes, but as you say, the details likely won't come until Friday. And now the president promising that he might do a press conference and read it all aloud.

Now, what the administration has been saying is that, look, this tentative framework would reopen the strait of Hormuz and the U.S. naval blockade. You heard our colleague Tom Yamas press, the vice president, about certain rewards that the vice president says would be staggered. Something else that's getting attention is whether Iran would have access to this $300 billion reconstruction fund created by Gulf allies to help prepare Iran for some of the damages. It's our understanding that Iran might have access to that based on those certain benchmarks. But again, Monica, we don't have specific details about what those benchmarks are. And senior U.S. officials aren't clarifying that. So until we hear the actual text of this document, this memorandum of understanding, a lot of those questions still remain up in the air, Monica.

And, Gabe, how is the administration reacting to the comparisons between this memorandum and President Obama's JCPOA? Look, senior U.S. officials are very responsive and they are irritated, it seems, when they have any comparison here to. to the deal, the Iran nuclear deal under the Obama administration. You heard the vice president push back strongly against that. He says that, you know, in this case, Iran's nuclear program has essentially been wiped out, which was different in his view than it was under the Obama administration. He also tries trying to make the case that Iran's Arab neighbors are more on board with this framework than they were with the JCPOA.

And White House officials, for the last several weeks, have been trying to argue whenever this comes up that the Trump administration is acting from a position of strength rather than what they view is weakness under the Obama administration. But Democrats, and former President Obama himself has really been questioning how much better this deal will end up being than what was achieved during the Obama administration. Again, we're still waiting on the finer points of this agreement, potentially on Friday, Monica. And, Gabe, we should note that oil prices are below $80 a barrel, which is notable. So is the administration optimistic that that could be enough to revive their economic message ahead of the midterms? Well, in their view, it's certainly a step in the right direction. Look, we've been hearing from White House officials, and you know this well, that they have been saying that as soon as this Iran conflict is over, that they see gas prices coming down swiftly. The president has been repeating that in virtually every public appearance that he has been at over the last several weeks and really months for that matter.

So certainly the administration is seizing on these falling oil prices, these falling gas prices. It remains to be seen whether this will continue over the next couple of months ahead of the midterms. But the president himself today, and he references in your introduction, he seems very eager to move on from the war against Iran. even saying that he wants it in the rearview mirror. And today at the G7, there really seemed to be a shift in focus to the Ukraine war. Certainly there was new bombing in Kiev overnight. A centuries-old monastery was hit. And so European allies really want to see some movement when it comes to the war in Ukraine. And we heard President Trump, even today, signaling and saying himself that he would like to see Russia strike a peace deal here, Monica. Gabe Gutierrez traveling with the president. Thanks so much for that, Gabe. I do want to turn to Matt now, who is in Tel Aviv. Matt, do you get the sense that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is willing to go against President Trump's wishes here and continue Israel's offensive in Lebanon? Yeah, I don't get that impression at all. I mean, what we're hearing right now from Benjamin Netanyahu was something like contrition last night when he addressed the entire country. He was on the defensive, and it was clear this was supposed to. to be some sort of victory lap. You know, we've heard the United States declaring victory. We've heard the Iranians declaring victory. The Israelis are very much left out of the party.

And Benjamin Netanyahu really sought to assure the public here in Israel that this was going to be a deal that would have averted a catastrophe, a move by Iran that would have tried to eradicate the Jewish state. There's no real evidence of that still. But he has been facing a barrage of criticism from his political allies and his rivals over the past couple of days. And listen, Monica, as we've been hearing, we don't even know what's in this deal. So the political jeopardy that Benjamin Netanyahu faces on Friday, when the actual terms of this deal are going to be, in theory, read out and presented to the world, he could be facing a lot more really withering criticism and only a months before a crucial election. Yeah, Matt, let's talk a little bit more about that.

You touched on the politics. Of course, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is facing those elections. in Israel. So how do you expect he will navigate the next couple of months with all that political pressure at home? I really don't know, Monica. But the fact is, it's going to be very interesting to see because Benjamin Netanyahu, you could say he's a man who just doesn't really, really often lose. He is a political survivor, a consummate survivor in it when it comes to Israeli politics. He's been at the helm or next to the helm for decades. He is the longest serving prime minister in Israeli history outstripping Ben-Gurian. And the fact is, is that he has survived, well, maybe not worse, but quite a bit before.

We have to remember the public here is very, very angry. There is a bit of buyer's remorse here when it comes to Benjamin Netanyahu tethering the state of Israel to President Trump's capricious whims. He enlisted President Trump, or at least that's the narrative that we've been hearing, that it was Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who pushed Trump to attack Iran with Israel on February 28th. Now, this is a nightmare situation for the Israelis. They no longer have the political ability to attack Iran on their own and finish the job. The regime remains intact. And now, negotiators are talking about things like freeing up money for the Iranian regime,

something that is completely anathema to the Israeli political class who have been talking forever about how it's not just about limiting Iran's ability to create a nuclear weapon, but also their ballistic missile capability and their ability, to finance their proxy groups like Hezbollah and Lebanon, which is long then, repeatedly, a game changer and a possible deal breaker and could be again. Matt Bradley in Israel, thank you so much for your reporting. And Evelyn, I do want to turn to Ukraine now, but first I'm going to place something that President Trump said about the status of those negotiations.

Are you going to have a special focus on Ukraine? I'm going to look. Now we focused on Iran. We were focused on Iran. It's going to be in the back, in the rear view, we'll be. I just, we have nothing to do with it. We sell weapons to them.

We don't even give them. But the only reason I'm in, I don't like to see 25,000 young people die every month. Every month, 25,000 people die. Young people, they're just starting their life. They go to this front and they get blown up. And Ukraine is losing a lot of people, too. I mean, the whole thing is ridiculous.

So, yeah, I'm going to do whatever I can. Whatever he can. Okay. Well, Evelyn, do you think European leaders are kind of happy to see this focus back on Ukraine? Do you think they will take President Trump at his word? They're probably having mixed emotions about this, Monica, because on the one hand, of course, the Europeans want peace. On the other hand, what we've seen from President Trump is a willingness to put pressure on Ukraine but not on Russia. And the Europeans understand that right now is the moment to put pressure on Russia.

They talked about 25,000. It's actually more like 30,000 Russian troops are being killed or wounded, removed from the battlefield monthly by Ukraine. And they're not really able to replace them. And then Russia has a lot of economic pressure also being exercised against it. And Vladimir Putin politically can't address all of these things right now very effectively. So they're at the weakest point that they've been militarily, economically, and politically in Russia.

This is the moment to put pressure on. The Europeans are ready with sanctions. President Trump did not say he's ready with sanctions. Tell me more about your assessment of the war right now. You say this is sort of a unique moment for this. So you would see Ukraine, and your estimation, as potentially having the upper hand in these negotiations? Yes.

I think so because militarily, let's look at the battlefield. The Ukrainians are striking in the rear. Even last night, they struck an oil refinery in the Moscow area, right? they are taking out Russia's oil and gas depots. These facilities are required not just to make money by export for export, but also to provide fuel that's affordable for the Russians. The second part of it is that the Ukrainians have started hitting the logistics lines across the border, so across the front line, where the Russians need to go to connect

them to Crimea. So they're cutting Crimea off effectively, and Crimea is a huge base. So militarily, Ukraine has an advantage. Economically, Russia, again, is being squeezed because of the oil. The sanctions, yes, although the U.S. has given them some relief, but also taking out the depos. And they don't have an access to foreign reserves that's unending. So those are dwindling as well. It's setting the battlefield aside.

And just quickly in the few seconds that we have left, the House did pass this $8 billion loan aid package for Ukraine. what's your sense that it could pass in the Senate? And would that be enough if it got over the finish line? Well, it could pass in the Senate because we know on the flip side, so there's the assistant side, but there's the sanction side. And on the sanction side, we know there's the Lindsey Graham, Richard Blumenthal, legislation sanctioning Russia. There's over 80 senators who have signed up.

So that's even veto proof. The question is whether, you know, the Senate leadership brings it to the floor. And then what does President Trump do? because, of course, he doesn't want to sanction Russia and he doesn't want to assist Ukraine, it seems, but he would be under a lot of pressure. And the American people, they do speak through Congress. Congress does represent bipartisan support for Ukraine.

Evelyn Farcas, thank you so much for your expertise. We appreciate it. And I do want to turn now to some breaking news here at home with the FBI saying that it foiled a plot to attack Sunday night's UFC fight at the White House. According to authorities, a ring of more than a dozen people were communicating online in connection with the plot, which included plans to use drones, outfitted with explosives and shooters, to fire at the potentially fleeing crowd. Now, details of the alleged plot are laid out in a criminal complaint against this Ohio man, a 19-year-old named Tyson Proper, who's now charged with attempted murder and other counts after allegedly admitting he helped to plan the attack. The Justice Department also announcing the arrests of four other individuals from Missouri,

Nebraska, and California in connection with the plot. Earlier today, the Secret Service said the investigation is not over and some of the individuals involved in the plot were still on the loose. This is still an active ongoing investigation. Just because we're done with Freedom 250 or that particular event doesn't mean we're going to stop. There are still suspects at large and we're going to work it until everyone's identified. President Trump telling reporters he hadn't heard about the alleged plot when asked about it at

the G7 summit today, Vice President JD Vance, meanwhile, calling it a quote terrorist plot and blaming far-left rhetoric, even though it remains unclear how this group may have been radicalized. And joining me now here is NBC News Chief Justice. Guys doing crazy stuff. That is a coordinated planned terrorist plot. Thank God we thwarted it, but we've got to do more of that stuff. It doesn't surprise me at all because, again, so much of the far-left rhetoric is driving itself towards violence. It spins people up into these crazy situations where they feel like I'm not going to argue

against somebody or I'm not going to debate somebody or even vote against a politician. I'm going to go and commit violence. NBC News, Chief Justice and National Affairs correspondent Kelly O'Donnell joins me now, along with NBC News National Law Enforcement and Intelligence correspondent Tom Winter. Thank you both for being here. So, Kelly, what specifically? do we know about this plot? Well, what makes it so disturbing is that this was a group of men who were in different states, but were communicating regularly using social media and encrypted chats.

They were also gathering the tools needed to carry out a plot, acquiring weapons, drones, having the tactical gear, the camping gear. They outlined a plan where they said that their target was to go after the UFC fight that we saw happen on the White House grounds on Sunday, to do a multi-stage attempt, to have drones that would deliver explosives, disperse the crowd, and then others who would be snipers trying to attack those as they flee. Again, it is a wild kind of idea, but what is so concerning to the investigators we've been talking with all day is they were spending money, acquiring the materials, accumulating the tools needed, and that makes it very dangerous.

We've seen in other plots where it doesn't take an elaborate, a plan for someone to do real damage. And this was a number of individuals who were brought together by ideologies that are described as being anti-government, concern about billionaires, a whole range of grievances that seem to be fueling this. Really disturbing details. Tom, have investigators said how and perhaps even more importantly when they became aware of the alleged plot and how long was it actually in the works? Yeah, Monica, it was less than a week ago, Wednesday at approximately 9 p.m. when a parent of one of the individuals that's been charged in this case, Tyson Proper, his mother called local police and had some serious concerns. Within 20 minutes,

police had some pretty serious concerns too because they found what was effectively in arsenal. Apparently this individual, according to the charging documents, had emptied the $3,000 in graduation money that he had to go out and purchase weapons and ammunition, according again to the charging documents. You're looking at the charges that he's now facing. And so that really started a clock because they were able to get some statements from him after he received his Miranda warnings and were able to get into his phone. There they discovered a signal chat. And off of that, there were also four or five additional signal chats with different players and some of the individuals that we saw that Kelly was talking about earlier that have been charged in this case.

So they started to put together the fact that they had a network. They had a number of different groups of people that were there to go back to the old 2001 saying, if you will, Monica, and there was a real concern at that point that they needed to track down who all those individuals are. To be clear, they have not identified all of them as of this hour. There are a number that are still need to be arrested and taken into custody and a number that need to continue to be identified. So this is very much an active and ongoing investigation. Kelly, jumping on that point exactly, and the Secret Service does say that there are people who are still at large who were apparently involved in this. So do we know how extensive this

was and how many more people they may still be looking for? They have roughly two dozen individuals that they have identified by username or actual identity. They've been working through some of that, exploring those chats, using some of the technology, working with the technology companies get access to know what's the IP address, what is the phone number associated, doing all of that very extensive legwork. And what they're finding on these chats are the photos, the descriptions, a lot of the details of the plot being sort of laid out in those conversations. There are conversations going on now with other potential suspects, I'm told by investigators.

There could be more arrests. Part of the concern, though, is also that now that this has been revealed publicly, might that either hinder or attract others to come forward? We don't know the answer to that yet. Always the concern about those copycats potentially, too. And Tom, here's part of the criminal complaint against Tyson proper about communications within the alleged group involved in this plot. It says members of the group believe that the United States needed to,

to be torn down so that it could be rebuilt. And according to proper, this attack was designed to, quote, jumpstart a revolution in the United States. So how does this plot that we're talking about fit into the broader landscape of threats of political violence right now? It fits in quite well based on the types of threats that we've been seeing. This is an idea of accelerationism that basically we need to get to a point where there's chaos in society and that there is a upheaval in the way that we have things. There's references to the Epstein files and the handling of those. There's a reference to AI data centers and the amount of water that they use. But really it fits a much broader pattern here of individuals that are looking. They have a number of grievances. They try to

associate with like-minded individuals. And it fits in with the overall theme of political violence. We're done with these high-profile events. This summer, we know the president's says he's going to hold a massive rally around the 4th of July on the National Mall. What are the security concerns there, given this alleged plot, and also the shooting at the White House Correspondence Dinner? Well, it makes it all very tangible and real and not some long away kind of thought. People recognize it can happen, and it can happen suddenly, and it can even be very disruptive,

even when a plot does not result in anyone being shot or killed. We saw that at the correspondence dinner, where one office. took around to his vest, but no one died there, and yet it was so disruptive and upsetting. Big events coming for the 4th of July holiday, all the celebrations for the nation's anniversary. I'm told Secret Service has a very engaged, active, adjusting plan for the president's security, but they also know that limiting his time exposed in public areas is certainly an issue, being out on the mall or at a graduation during the season when he gives a graduation, commencement address or this where he was on the lawn for a very extended period of time.

That's always a concern and they're actively trying to mitigate with lots of law enforcement partners from local and state and other federal agencies. So much work that goes into that behind the scenes. Kelly and Tom, thank you so much for that. We will be following this story closely and will bring you any major developments as we get them. Coming up, if it's Tuesday, voters are voting in key primaries that will once again test President Trump's endorsement power, and set up some of the most closely watched races this November. We're live in Georgia with a view from voters.

Plus, Steve Kornacki's at the Big Board with what to watch for as the votes start coming in. You're watching Meet the Press now. I think we should have an open relationship. Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. Let's definitely do that. With our cars. Oh, Flexcar. Yeah, that's what I meant to. Flexcar is the first and only month-to-month Carleys.

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Visit SiriusXM.com slash Marine to learn more. Welcome back. If it's Tuesday, voters are voting somewhere. And today, that somewhere includes Georgia, where President Trump weighed in with a late endorsement in a closely watched Republican Senate runoff. He's backing Congressman Mike Collins over former football coach Derek Dooley in a race that will determine who will challenge incumbent Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff in November. Georgia voters will also decide which Republican candidate will advance in the governor's race. President Trump has backed Lieutenant Governor Bert Jay Jones over businessman Rick Jackson. Joining me now from Atlanta is NBC's Priscilla Thompson. And breaking things down at the big board is chief data analyst Steve Kornacki.

Priscilla, let's start with you. What are you hearing from voters there? And how much is the president's last-minute endorsement influencing their decision in these races, if at all? Yeah, Monica, a rainy election day here in Georgia. But that is not stopping voters from coming out. And we spoke to some voters who were on the fence heading into this Tuesday election. And ultimately, say it was Trump's endorsement that made the decision for them, particularly in that Senate race. But there are others who said that they had already made up their minds before that last minute endorsement.

And they were sticking with it. I want to play some of what we heard from voters today. Trump, no, what he said didn't matter to me. Well, it was with me. I did go back and forth. But then I wound up sticking with Bert Jay Jones. It just seemed like it took a long time for Trump to make up his. mind. So it was kind of like, you know, if he.

Really? If he would have endorsed him in the beginning, it would have given you a good feeling that that's the guy he wants in there, you know? But wait until the last minute, just kind of like, well, I don't know whether to or not or put my name on him. And Monica, I will tell you one thing that we are hearing a lot from voters about what is helping them make their decision is all of these attack ads. We know that particularly in that gubernatorial race, a billionaire businessman Rick Jackson has spent more than $100 million of his own money in this race just with all over the airways with these attack ads. And voters today telling us that they were tired of them, some of them calling it a smear

campaign. And so voters were definitely talking a lot about those ads. Monica? And Priscilla, you touched on this, but what are some of the other issues that are top of mind for voters as they head to the polls? Yeah. So when I talk to voters about the actual issues, I got. Some interesting responses. Some people talked about very local issues like taxes and things like that.

And others just said that they were looking for someone who was conservative, someone who matched their beliefs and their values. But it was really hard to nail folks down today on specific issues. And I even press people, you know, what about gas prices? The war in Iran is any of that on your mind as you're heading in to vote today? And many of them said that, you know, Iran could not have a nuclear war, a nuclear weapon. They felt that this war had to happen and that, yes, prices are up. but they expect that prices would go down and really were just looking for candidate to align with their conservative values

and would keep sort of rowing the boat in the same direction. But I think the question is when the general election comes with Republicans looking to unseat Democratic Senator Jon Ossoff, how that is going to appeal and play with a general electorate. Priscilla Thompson, thank you for being there. And Steve, I want to turn to you now. What are you going to be watching for tonight in these key races? Yeah, let's go through here in Georgia.

Start with that Senate race here. Mike Collins, Dooley, remind you of what happened in the preliminary here. Susan Collins finished first, and it was a pretty healthy margin for Susan Collins over Dooley. A couple things stand out when you look at that map. Dooley supports so much of it. That's his shade of red right there. So much of his support was concentrated right there in the Atlanta metro area. The problem for Dooley was when you got outside of there, a lot of the rural areas of the state, he was a very distant third.

Meanwhile, Susan Collins, you could see that shade of red there from north all the way to south. Susan Collins had sort of broad geographic support. And even where he wasn't winning, Susan Collins was coming in second. He was either first or second in every county. So Dooley has to expand his support. He's got to get a huge number out of that Atlanta metro area. He's got to get big turnout there. And he has to find a way to expand his support.

This is sort of the area to watch because the third candidate, Buddy Carter, the congressman from the first district. As you could see, this is the district that he represents. He ran up the score here. Susan Collins came in second. And Dooley was an afterthought. There's a lot of voters up for grabs here. These were Carter's voters. He's not in the runoff.

So this is sort of the voters up for grabs. But Dooley, I think the clear underdog coming into this thing, that governor's race will obviously very competitive here. This is what it looked like in the preliminary. One interesting thing I'm going to be keeping an eye on again here, sort of in this Atlanta metro area. What's interesting, see this third candidate, Brad Raffensperger. He actually won a county here, and he did very well in this Atlanta metro area.

Brad Raffensperger, remember, the secretary of this. state who earned Trump's ire. He didn't go along with Trump's claims about the 2020 election in Georgia. Brad Raffensperger had a fair amount of support in this area, and he's an ally of Brian Kemp, the governor. Brian Kemp coming out at the last minute and endorsing Jay Jones. Jay Jones, I don't think, was a natural choice for a lot of those voters, but are those voters now with Brian Kemp getting on board for Jay Jones? Are those voters going to gravitate towards him at the end? It's an interesting dynamic to watch there. And then, of course, over the border to the west of Georgia in Alabama. We've got the runoff here for the U.S. Senate race on the Republican

side. Barry Moore, Trump endorsed Jared Hudson, who made the runoff against him some clear geographic distinctions we're going to be watching tonight. More a congressman from South Alabama. He did extremely well down here. His part of the state. Look, Hudson, his support was so concentrated in the Birmingham metro area. Also Tuscaloosa out there as well. This is the area, I think, to watch tonight. Huntsville, it's actually, city of Huntsville is now actually the largest in Alabama. A lot of growth up here. And North Alabama actually sort of not the natural base for either one of these candidates. In fact, it was the third candidate, Steve Marshall, who actually won one of the big counties up here. So I think that North Alabama is going to be the area that might decide it there tonight.

And Steve, quickly, before we let you go, there's also a primary election in the nation's capital for mayor. So what are you watching for here in our backyard? Yeah, take a look here at this Democratic primary for mayor in Washington, D.C. Let's see if we can get those candidates up on the screen right there. thought we could. Hang on a minute. I want to test this. There they are. Okay. Sorry for bearing with me right there. But I think generally the two frontrunners here are acknowledged to be the councilwoman, Janice Lewis, George, who's running as a democratic socialist in this race. She's led in the limited polling. There's been there. Kenyon McDuffie appears to be her main challenger, former councilman, former prosecutor, her main challenger. He's got a lot of support from the business

community. The outgoing mayor, Muriel Bowser, has said very complimentary things about him. But it's going to be interesting to see the numbers tonight because this is ultimately going to be settled not tonight but by ranked choice voting going through that. So how these candidates stack up is certainly going to be interesting to watch tonight as DC will end up with a new mayor this year. Steve Kornacki, thank you so much for all of that important information. And be sure to tune in to the Kornacki cam tonight. Steve will be tracking all of the results in real time starting at 7 p.m. Eastern on NBCNews.com and on YouTube. Next, it's not easy being green. There's a growing problem on the national mall. Despite President Trump's multimillion dollar project to clean up the reflecting pool, algae is turning it quite green again.

We'll take you there live. Keep it here on Meet the Press now. Hey everyone, it's me, Morgan Stewart, and I have a new podcast called The Morgan Stewart Show. Join me each week as I talk about pop culture, fashion, my personal life, and just a warning, I'm going to be giving my opinion on everything. I'll also have some really fun guests to join in on the fun. The Morgan Stewart Show is out now. Listen and follow wherever you get your podcast or watch full video on YouTube. With the Vivgard-Hitrullo, F-Gar Tigamad Alpha, and Hyaluronidase QVC, pre-filled syringe, self-injection is in your hands. It's your treatment routine. You set the time and same day each week. Take the pre-filled syringe with you on vacation

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Welcome back. Joining me now is our panel, Eleanor Mueller, White House economics reporter for Semaphore, Terranes, Democratic Strategist and President and CEO of New Blue Interactive, and Pletka, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. Thank you all for being here, ladies. Eleanor, I do want to start with you and what we've been talking about at the beginning of the show with this framework, this potential memorandum of understanding that they've signed but haven't released the text on. When we had the ceasefire in place in early April, we still saw all of these minor violations of it. So do you think if we continue to see that between the U.S. and Iran, the U.S., the White House could sort of set that aside and still declare victory here and try to

really move on from this? Is that what you expect? We'll see? I think so. I think Trump is looking really hard for an off ramp here. He wants a deal. He can say is better than Obama's deal, but still a deal that ends this war that brings gas prices back down. Some of the things we've heard are on the table from U.S. officials like a billion dollar funds, like weavers of oil sanctions, an unfreezing of assets. Those are huge carrots here. And I think tell us a lot about just how hard, again, the administration is trying to wrap this. up. And they're kind of letting this play out in real time because they haven't released the text. Everybody can debate about what might actually be in it before we actually see it.

Danny, quickly, I want to play something that former President Obama said about this potential deal over the weekend. Let's take a listen to that. It is doubtful that any agreement that arises is going to be significantly different or a significant improvement from the deal that we had in the first place. Is he right about that? You know, I'm going to get excommunicated from the conservative movement and the Republican Party. But no, he's completely right. It is not a question of what was possible. It was easily possible to do a better deal than the JCPOA, the Obama-Iran nuclear deal,

which was flawed in many ways at the beginning and then had all these sunsets that mean that it really is no relevance anymore at all. It wasn't hard to be better than that. But Donald Trump, and again, we don't know because he won't release it. And people keep saying contradictory things. But what we have seen so far suggests that not only is this worse than the JCPOA, this is just nothing at all. It's just a set of what you called carrots. I would call them lovely ice cream Sundays for the Iranians. With a lot of question marks, exactly, about how that's going to work for them.

Terran, we even saw John Thune today say that he asked the White House to say, to see the text but was told, nope, not yet. You may see it when everybody else does on Friday. So could that sort of bipartisan frustration cast a pretty long shadow on whatever this ends up coalescing around? I do think this is one of those issues where you can have more bipartisan agreement and cast that shadow that everybody's having a lot of doubt and a lot of confusion and so many question marks.

There's so much undecided and not releasing it just makes that so much worse. And Eleanor, how do you think this will play in the midterms for the, the president. Is it the kind of thing where even though this is going to kick off a 60-day period, he can tout this agreement during that time and then continue to maybe even extend it as we get closer to November? Do you think this will help him revive his economic message? I think a lot rides on what happens with gas prices. Obviously, the longer the straight was closed, the longer it's going to take gas prices to come down. And those are unique in that it's so easy for people to connect the dots between what they're paying at the pump, what is happening

in Iran, whose fault it is. how fast traffic resumes through the street, how fast people see that reflected again at the gas station, I think will make all the difference. Danny, what do you think his message will be on the campaign trail? How will the president frame this? I think a lot depends on how this turns out. I mean, you know, my suspicion about why this isn't being shared

is because the people who signed it were lying to the president about what was in it. Everything I've heard from inside the White House suggest that the president doesn't actually know what is in the deal. Maybe. Yeah, well, you know, in laws. I mean, you just can't trust him. But so that's problem A.

Problem B, how does he sell it? He's Donald Trump. He could sell, you know, he could sell ICE in Alaska. I'm not worried about that. What I'm really worried about is that this all blows up into a huge fiasco. Taryn, and does this put Democrats, though, in a tricky spot? because does it make it look like if they're criticizing this, they're rooting for the war to keep going endlessly or for the economy to stay in a negative place?

I don't think so. I think we can thread the needle here to remind people about what's happening. I mean, I think there's so many other things that are going on in this country where it's an example of spending money and not making progress or finding out that something isn't quite what it seems. And I think that's the angle that people will take in talking about it. Okay, pause right here, this conversation. We're going to come back to this group. But I do want to provide an update to a story that has been a major focus for the president, which is the reflecting pool on the national mall. The Washington landmark, of course, reopened last week after a $14 million project intended to fix leaks in the pool and address algae blooms. Now, the work included painting of the pool's floor in a color called American flag blue.

But just days later, that paint job is now obscured by algae growth turning the water green. The Interior Department says it is working to remove the algae in multiple ways, including dumping hydrogen peroxide into the water and deploying, quote, ozone-impregnated nanobbles. Yes, that's a real phrase. But it's unclear how long those will take to work or whether the solutions will even work long term. The reflecting pool is just one of a number of D.C. renovation projects that the President has devoted significant time and attention to in recent months, despite the ongoing Iran. conflict and sinking approval ratings. NBC chief Washington correspondent, Andrea Mitchell, joins us live from where else the reflecting pool, Andrea, always the dogged reporter going straight to the scene. I do want to ask you, how is the Interior Department saying they're going to fix this issue and how long might it take? Well, how long it may take is an open question, but you precisely explain what marine biologists say is the fix. Now, behind me, I think you can see they are now vacuuming algae from the bottom of the reflecting pool.

But the problem is that as soon as it opened, and you know, Monica, as you've described, how much the president has cared about this. last month he even came here one evening to inspect for himself the progress it cost more than 14 million dollars he had said originally in april it would take one week and cost two million dollars that exploded and he also had a no-bid contract with someone that somebody knew from his bedminster golf course so now that it is finished it is indeed green i can attest to the fact of no marine biologist, as you know, but it's green. It's very green. And the algae appeared almost overnight. And the reason is that it is hot. The inflecting pool is very big. It's shallow water.

And it produces algae. The interior department said that it was the residue from dirty pipes. Well, now they say that algae are blooming. That's the description. And it's a is the fact that is hot weather remains to be seen whether the dark American flag blue paint, which had never existed before, absorbs more heat and makes it even warmer than it otherwise has been. But until today, it was well into the 90s. Very hot weather. And that caused the algae to bloom. The fix, as you asked, is the oxide impregnated nanobbles killing the algae and the food source for the algae. And hydrogen peroxide, which was poured in this morning,

that are the two things, and then they vacuum up the dead algae. Whether it's going to be finished, as the summer proceeds, the experts tell us that this is likely to keep blooming. They'll last for about 10 days, the bloom, get the fix, and then they will reappear.

And that is the very green reflecting. You touched on the cost. This is ballooned past that initial $2 million that the president said it would be initially. So how much more could these fixes add to that total, you think? They don't tell us. They're not telling us that. They just keep saying that they're doing this fix. They're indicating that it will be one and done. But according to the marine biologists, this is going to be a recurring problem during the winter, rather during the summer months,

not so much during the winter months. And as the president himself has shown, this reflecting pool is longer than the height of the Empire State Building. As you know, he is frequently shown the comparison to the heights, the size, the scale of this project. But it goes from the Lincoln Memorial famously all the way to the World War II Memorial at the other end, and it is an historic spot. But there had been algae here, we're told since 1922 when it was first constructed, because Washington has always been hot in the summer. Monica. Andrea Mitchell, NBC's Chief Washington, and for today,

marine biologist expert, we appreciate your reporting. Thank you so much for being there. You bet. And the panel is still here. So, Eleanor, let's talk a little bit about that because the reason we're doing this segment and talking about this so much is because it's the president who is often bringing this up. In cabinet meetings, in other events that are on a totally different topic,

He spends a pretty long amount of time talking about these renovation projects, right? And we should point out that some of these are taxpayer funded, right? So is there any effort, you think, to steer the president away from focusing on these issues? I think the president is a very difficult person to steer generally. And I've been in the Oval Office when he's talking about the pool. I've been there when he's talking about the renovations to the White House, the ballroom, the arch. He comes from the real estate industry. He likes it, these types of tactile projects.

And he likes them, let's be real, when there's things like gas. prices that he'd rather not talk about. And so the fact that some of these things are coming in over budget, I think is probably not making him very happy. Obviously, the ballroom also was recently reported to be costing much more than it first expected to you, whether or not that that's something that reaches regular people, especially people who voted for him in the last election, I think it's an outstanding question. Yeah, and the president had said that it was going to be potentially funded by private donors. Now it looks like that may not be the case for the Ballroom Project in particular from the Washington Post reporting today.

Danny, we have also reported that his fixation has made some Republicans uncomfortable. I want to play something that Senator Kramer had to say about these projects. No one gives her rats, pajamas about the infrastructure in Washington. But the president talks a lot. Yeah, no, he does. He cares about it. It's fine. But people, though. Do you think that a lot of that is then sucking oxygen away from what Republicans maybe should be messaging on ahead of the midterms? Well, it's, it's, no, I don't think that. I think we should be able to do all of those things. for whatever reason we're not perhaps um perhaps we should be spending more time talking about those

things okay so he says that no one cares but also that it doesn't take away from the midterm message do you agree with that i think the president's choices and allocation of time are going to be an eternal mystery to the american people uh let alone to to to me but we we all live in the district of columbia it's it's nice to see that someone wants the district to look nicer uh anybody of water gets algae in it. I was just telling you before. My pool keeps getting algae in it. It's an endless problem. I don't have marine biologists. I wish I did. In the scope of things, this just, you know, it's not taking away. It's just a distraction. That's all it is. But, Taryn, do you think there is a genuine accountability discussion here, or do Democrats

appear, but out of touch if they keep coming back to some of these very expensive projects? I think the way to connect the two is that you look at how he came in with government efficiency and Doge and getting rid of jobs. the D.C. area. And then you're spending $14 million on the reflecting pool, and it's an absolute failure. So, and it wasn't a thought-out process in the right way, right? So those are the kinds of things that infuriate the people who not just live here, but across the country as they're seeing a gorgeous ballroom, and then they're going to the grocery store at the gas pump, and they're like, gosh, this is so expensive. This is not what I, you know, signed up for.

And I think that's the contrast. And he's going to be building a gigantic arch, it sounds like, too. So there are more projects to come. It's not just the ones that we touched on today. Ladies, thank you so much. Taryn, Danny, and Eleanor really appreciate it. Thanks for being here. And still to come, early voting is underway in New York City's crowded and competitive race to replace retiring Congressman Jerry Nadler with affordability and threats to democracy, top of mind for voters. My next guest is one of the Democrats vying to represent the Deep Blue District.

We'll meet the candidate next on Meet the Press Now. Welcome back. Turning now to a key primary battle that we've been following on the show. Next week, Democrats in Manhattan will choose their candidate to replace retiring congressman Jerry Nadler in New York's deep blue 12th congressional district, with early voting already underway. The Democratic primary features a crowded field of candidates, including two New York State Assembly members, Jack Schlossberg, the grandson of John F. Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and George Conway, a vocal Trump critic who was married to a former Trump advisor. The race has also attracted tens of millions of dollars in spending from super PACs backed by artificial intelligence companies, as well as former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. And joining me

now is Laura Dunn, one of the candidates in that race. Laura, thank you so much for being here. And as we mentioned, many of your opponents in this race do have big name recognition and big financial backing. So what's been your strategy to stand out in this crowded field? Well, thanks so much for having me on. The men are getting a lot of attention. But I'm someone who has the most federal policy and legislative experience of any candidate. So that's what I've been telling voters on the ground that I helped draft and pass the 2013 Violence Against Women Act. I did that as a victim advocate. I actually went office to office in the Capitol, Democrat and Republicans alike, and advocated for two years in law school to pass that legislation.

I then worked on the rulemaking committee, advised White House task forces, even clerked on the Senate judiciary, and did some policy work for both Joe Biden. and Hillary Clinton's campaign. So I'm out there telling voters I had the experience to lead on day one. I may not have all the money, but that's actually a good thing because we don't want dark money in this race. We don't want super PACs. We don't want billionaires. We want people who fight for you and I, the middle class, the working class.

Well, one of the big questions for Democrats, if they do take back the House, is whether they should impeach President Trump. You've said that that should be a day one priority. Here's what minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, said about impeachment. on Meet the Press Sunday. Let's play that. Do you agree if Democrats take back the House, will you move to impeach President Trump? We haven't ruled anything in or ruled anything out in terms of accountability. What we have said is that our focus is going to be to make life more affordable for the American people.

Laura, what do you make of his answer? I have heard Mr. Hakeem Jeffries kind of speak out against impeachment as a top priority. and that's a shame. I'm the accountability candidate. I'm fighting for congressional term limits, ending insider trading, ethical standards to the Supreme Court, and of course removing Donald Trump and his administration who have violated the Constitution, who have disrespected the rule of law. The world is watching, and we have to remember if Trump stays in his position, he's going to try to veto everything that the Senate and the House does. And I'm hoping that both of those will be blue after November. So it has to be a top priority, and I'm really disappointed that candidates like

Michael Lashar have said this is an impossibility, that this is a fantasy world. That's unacceptable. We have to hold the line. And that's something I'll do in Congress as someone who's already sued Donald Trump in my civil rights work. Well, let me just push back on that and ask you what you would say to the argument that some make that impeachment could only emboldened President Trump and his supporters, as we saw the last time it happened. Well, impeachment is step one, right? The House impeaches and then the Senate convicts. And the question really isn't the impeachment. It's the conviction, can we get the Senate to be more bipartisan and really stand for the Constitution and not keep playing these political games? And I think the answer is yes. We saw during the TSA

issue with funding a bipartisan Senate come together when FISA was going to be renewed. We saw a bipartisan Senate come together. I think Donald Trump is getting weakened. I think the mega base is moving away. Everyone's disgusted by the amount of money being wasted on reflection pools, the war, you name it. And I don't think he's nearly as powerful. It's time to tell the emperor he has no clothes. Well, this primary has kind of turned into a proxy fight between AI companies who are pouring millions into the race, which started with that super PAC connected to Open AI, which was spending on attacks against State Assembly member Alex Boris, who has advocated for more guardrails on AI companies.

What do you make of these companies getting involved in the race the way they are right now? I really view that issue as a Trojan horse. Alex Boris has taken money from the head of Anthropic, from crypto funders. He actually has a lot of overlap with Trump donors. And so I actually think it's a fake kind of fight. He went from Palantir to Anthropic. He's big AI, no matter what, he's actually gone against four different state assembly bills that were meant to have consumer protection.

And that just raises a lot of questions in my mind. So I understand that there's a lot of money flooding in. That's not just against Alex Boris. That's for Michael Lasher, and it's for Alex Boris. And the challenge really is for New York voters to actually look at every person in their qualifications and not get caught up in the height of marketing.

And the New York mayor has worked with the president on housing, among other issues, to find some kind of common ground. Could you see yourself working with President Trump to advance some your priorities? I will do whatever it takes to make sure that New Yorkers have more affordability.

And the City of Yes Project is an excellent one. I very much support my mayor and all that he's done. And it is about serving the constituents first and foremost and leaving the political games behind. That said, I still hope that Donald Trump is impeached as a lawyer. I have seen his disrespect for the Constitution and rule of law. And our economy will not survive, but that continues. Laura Dunn, thank you so much for your time. We really appreciate it. And good luck. We will be back tomorrow with much more Meet the Press Now. And as always, there will be more news coming up ahead on NBC News Now with Halley Jackson Now.

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