Meet the Press NOW — June 9

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Welcome to meet the press now. I'm Melanie Zanona in Washington, and if it's Tuesday, voters are voting. And the next couple of months could get increasingly nasty. Right now, four states are holding primary races, including in Maine, where Democrats are grappling with a controversy-plagued candidate in a must-win Senate seat. Meanwhile, President Trump is ramping up his baseless claims of election fraud. Reigniting fears, he may not accept the results of his party loses control of Congress in November. Starting in Maine, Graham Platner is expected to win tonight's Democratic Senate primary,

despite months of controversy dogging his campaign. Yesterday, Graham Platner's former political director, Genevieve McDonald's, who resigned in October, slammed her former boss in an op-ed, saying, quote, Graham Platner is not someone who would be good for Maine or good for the country. In that same op-ed, McDonald also raised numerous controversies facing Graham Platner, including recent allegations from former girlfriends of toxic, unsettling, and at times physically aggressive behavior. Now, Plattenor has acknowledged inappropriate behavior in his past

and difficulties with PTSD after serving multiple tours in Iraq. But he has denied allegations of physical violence. His rival, Republican Senator Susan Collins, noting these controversies while speaking to reporters on Capitol Hill today. The allegations against Graham Platner are extremely troubling and serious, and he owes the people of Maine a detailed insert. Still, the swirl of controversies around Graham Platner's campaign doesn't seem to be deterring his supporters on Capitol Hill or in Maine.

Earlier today, some voters telling my colleague Ryan Noble's, Graham Platner is still the better choice over Susan Collins. It gives me pause, of course. There's no perfect candidate that I'm going to be like, yes, you are absolutely the most perfect human being. We have limited choices, and from the choices that I've been given, I feel like that's the best choice. There's this stuff that's come out against them.

When you weigh those things, you think that might be better. Well, we'll see, you know. Who knows what the future will hold, but what we got now ain't working. I hate saying this, but sometimes I feel like it's the lesser of two evils when you come to these things. It's still tough, but, you know, the good thing about elections is if he doesn't own up to it and keep his word to the state of Maine, we can vote again in a couple of years. Today's elections come as votes are still being counted in California from last week's primaries. One of the spots in the governor's race still uncalled. But Democrat Nithya Raman did edge out Republican Spencer Pratt to advance to the general election in the Los Angeles mayor's race.

The slow process, which we should note is typical for the state, is driving baseless fraud allegations from the president and even top Republicans. The president continuing to rail against California's elections on social media, calling them, quote, rigged and crooked. After he walked out of his interview with my colleague Kristen Welker when she pushed him about his fraud claims on Friday. Meanwhile, on Capitol Hill, Republican leaders bolstering those claims with their own skepticism. Here's Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson. I think California is playing around with this. But what evidence is there to prove that there was a way? Look, I don't.

Some of these efforts are so diabolical and so far upstream, it is impossible to prove. But I think everybody knows instinctively something is wrong here. And that's a concern. Joining me now is our NBC News team, Chief Data analyst Steve Kornacki at the Big Board, Chief Capitol Hill correspondent Ryan Nobles on the ground in Maine at the White House, Chief Justice and National Affairs correspondent Kelly O'Donnell. And with me on set, national political reporter Ben Kamazar. A lot to dig into here.

I do want to start with Steve at the big board. Let's get to today's races later. But first, walk me through that call in the L.A. mayor's race. Yeah, I mean, look, the story since election night itself, when at the end of election night, Spencer, Pratt was in second place? The incumbent mayor, Karen Bass, was he in first place there? The story since then has been that the late arriving, the late counted, late processed, vote by mail, has been overwhelmingly democratic. And it's been particularly good for Nithya Raman.

And so each update that we've been getting since election night has been very favorable to Raman, has been very tough for Pratt. She had a pretty big gap that she had to erase there coming out of election night. But with each update over the past week, she'd be getting closer and closer. She passed him about two days ago. Rahman climbed just ahead of Pratt. Yesterday's update, she beat him again by about 20,000 votes in that update. So her margin over Pratt, you can see, has now climbed. It's nearly three points.

It's over 20,000 votes. There are still some votes to come in here. But that trend, that trajectory, there's no reason to expect that in the next update as they continue to go through that, that sort of late arriving, that late vote by mail, that it's not going to similarly favor Rahman and, in fact, probably going to open up even a bigger margin between her and Pratt. So enough there's certainly for Rahman to advance to that general election against Bass. And again, probably ends up being by an even wider margin over Pratt than you see right now. And Steve, what are you watching for tonight across these various primaries? Yeah, no, look, I think Maine really is the big story here.

She was originally running against Graham Platner in the primary. She suspended her campaign during the spring. But in the last week, pointedly, she has made clear to the public that her name is still on the ballot. welcome to vote for her if they want. There's also another candidate who is a registered right-in candidate. So I think the question really here is, say, what kind of message are Democratic primary voters sending here? Is there a signal from them that they're squarely behind Graham Platner, that the controversies of the past week have not given them pause? Or are they using this primary as a way of signaling that they have concerns themselves about Graham Platner? So where would you kind of

set the bar for this? Well, look, it's sort of a subjective question. But I think one thing, that's worth pointing out is that there was a poll taken about two weeks ago. It was after Mills had withdrawn from the primary campaign, and it was before this latest barrage of scandal around Graham Platner. What did that poll show? It's from the University of New Hampshire, and it had Graham Platner running at 76 percent, okay? And then the combined other names on the ballot getting just over 20 percent. So he was getting about three quarters of the vote when it looked like he was on a glide path to the nomination and the party seemed to be in sort of consolidation mode behind him. So I'd use that sort of as a benchmark tonight.

If he is somewhere in that range or certainly above it, you know, that's a pretty resounding signal perhaps of the party still still pretty united behind him. But if his number starts to drop from that, starts to drop from that significantly, I think that might be an indication that in the final days, final week or so with this campaign, you did have Democratic primary voters moving away from him and sending a signal that they share some of those concerns. And one other thing to note on this race, too, by the way, the early voting did begin about a month ago, and there were tens of thousands of votes that already had been cast in this primary, again, before this last round of controversy for Graham Platner.

So he also probably banked some votes in that period, too. Really important context. Steve Kornacki, thank you. I want to head up now to Maine, where Ryan Nobles is. We heard some of your conversations with voters at the top of the show. But, Ryan, what else have you heard from folks on the ground? Yeah, it is interesting, Melanie, to actually be here in this state and talk to voters about their feelings and their thoughts about Graham Platner. And we definitely sense to a voter base that is conflicted about all of this. They don't necessarily feel comfortable with these allegations against Graham Platner, but they also very much like him as a candidate and his policies. I'm talking specifically about Democratic voters.

But we did talk to one woman in particular whose number one concern is making sure that Susan Collins no longer represents her in the United States Senate. She's not necessarily thrilled with Graham Platner and she was going through a bit of an existential crisis as she walked into the voting booth this morning. Take a listen to what she told us.

If I really thought Mills had a chance, I may vote for her just as to give Graham Platner a message that not everybody is really for him. Yeah, yeah. I mean, as a Democrat, then, I mean, are you concerned that if he's your nominee, that you might have a hard time winning the seat? Yes. So if Graham Platner does, it doesn't seem as though he's on track to win. Do you still feel comfortable voting for him in November? Do you feel like, is it? Oh, I would definitely. Yeah, I will not vote for anybody who is not a Democrat. And that woman, Judy, was her name. She really kind of encapsulated most of the conversations that we had with Democrats that, that at, At the end of the day, they view it as a binary choice.

They certainly don't approve of some of the accusations against Graham Platner, but most either forgive him or believe that he's heading toward a road of redemption, and they still like him better than Susan Collins. And I'll tell you, Mel, we talked to Judy as she was on her way into the voting booth. Frank Thorpe, our producer, caught up with her afterwards to find out which way she ended up going. She ultimately voted for Graham Platner because she said it was a choice between sending him a message and sending the establishment a message, she felt it was more important

to send that message to the establishment. We'll have to see if that's the message that's being sent when the polls close here tonight. Absolutely fascinating. Ryan, looking ahead now, what's it going to take for Graham Platner to beat Susan Collins in November?

She's obviously such a proven, resilient candidate. Democrats have tried to take her down before. Yeah, and that's the other side of this story, right? Mel, because the other thing we did was we talked to quite a few Republicans, and they are increasingly confident with every single passing day that the more controversies that surround Graham Platner, the

easier the path will be for Susan Collins. You know, the Republicans we talked to said over and over again, Susan Collins has been doubted numerous times in this state. In fact, the last two election cycles, Democrats thought that they were poised to kick her out of office and she won comfortably. They feel that that that is the exact scenario that's being set up right now, that because of the issues surrounding Graham Platner, and the fact that Susan Collins is a, known quantity who has a very specific and deep connection with the voters here, that that will overcome any negative feelings about the Republicans nationwide or any particular connection to Donald Trump that Susan Collins may have. Republicans feel confident about their chances

here. And that could be a problem for Democrats because Maine is a state that they have to have if they have any hope of winning back to Senate majority. No doubt. Ryan Noble is on a very tough assignment for us in Maine in June. We appreciate your reporting. taking one for the team there. I do want to bring it now to D.C. where it's not maybe as nice as Maine, but we're having a pretty nice day. Kelly O'Donnell is over at the White House for us. I want to dig into some of these election fraud claims. We mentioned that the president is once again alleging that an election is rigged. Kelly, what does that tell us about the president's strategy, potentially heading into November? And do you think this is going to be something that he claims

in every race where a Republican loses? Well, Mel, it is a well-worn playbook for President Trump to try to raise suspicions about how elections are being conducted. And at times, we see different levels of that strategy. Clearly here, he saw some popular support behind Spencer Pratt. And when that evaporated as the votes were counted, that brings out that discussion from the president about there must be something flawed. What we don't hear from the president is any evidence presented about this. He does not get into the kind of nitty-gritty about the numbers of available voters, what the process is and so forth. What he is looking to do is to raise those doubts, especially if an election of any type,

primary or general does not go his way. What we don't hear from the president is much discussion of troubled elections when his favored candidates do well. The president also talks a lot about mail-in ballots, even though he has personally used them while he's been president to vote in Florida while here at the White House. But that, influx of mail-in ballots that Steve talked about that helped to move away from Pratt and in favor of the secondary Democratic candidate. The president has conditioned many of his own supporters against mail-in ballots. At least he gives that message. So not surprising to see more Democrats using that tool of how to conduct votes as an individual. So the president, well-worn strategy,

applied in different ways. This time we're seeing it in California, where he likes to go against, especially a well-defined blue state and its state level leadership and certainly the city of Los Angeles. There was hope that perhaps there was an opening for Republicans given all of the turmoil related to the fires. Apparently that did not happen as the votes were cast and then counted. The president putting this right in his sights. The larger implication is when the president talks about this, Will he take any federal action to try to interfere with elections around the country this midterm year? Of course, states manage elections, not the federal government. Mel?

Kelly O'Don, thank you so much. I want to turn now to Ben Kamsar, who's on set with me here. Let's pick up where Kelly left off about these election denialism claims that we are still seeing from the president, from Republicans on Capitol Hill. How big of a problem could this potentially be in November, especially considering there are so many competitive house races. in California. Yeah, I think Kelly hit the nail on the head, kind of with the distinction here, right? So first off, rhetorically,

we've seen this playbook before. We're going to see it again. We're seeing a play out right now. It is not surprising to see the president raise these claims and try to gin up his base, gin up supporters, into casting doubt on an election without sort of that secondary, you know, giving them the proof.

And frankly, he has the grip of Republican lawmakers, so it's going to be hard to see that many of them really taking too much of a step out against, sort of the comments that he's been making. But the distinction is, okay, so then what, right? So there's the court of public opinion or maybe a court of public opinion on his own side, but then is he going to present evidence in a court of law? Because ultimately, you need proof in order to actually, you know, adjudicate anything and to actually, you know, investigate and make these and actually take action here. So I think that's the big question. We're going to probably

hear a lot about a lot of talk and a lot of words. Are we going to see proof? And so far we have not seen that. I also want to talk about Maine elected Democrats, largely sticking by Graham Platner, at least so far. What does your reporting tell you about how Democrats are actually feeling behind the scenes? And do you think there is potentially some red line that could be crossed where they would cut bait with Graham Platner? Yeah, I mean, I think right now we don't see that Graham Platner is in danger. We don't think he's in danger of losing his primary, right? So there's that piece of it. I think a lot of Democrats, went over to Ryan's point, too. It's, you know, a lot of them are trying to weigh this like parlor game, right? Of, well, I really don't want to use their turn. I really

don't want Susan Collins to be my senator, so what's the best path to doing that? Right now, if Graham Platner's the nominee, it is, you know, was expected to be the nominee, and that doesn't change, then a lot of them will probably end up coming home to Graham Platner. The question is, right, this is what we know now in what, early June? There's a lot more runway here for all of the Apple books and Republic, you know, a couple blocks away from here at the National Party headquarters and the Republican side. If this is all that's there, maybe Graham Platner can, you know, turn the page year. The question is, what don't we know? And how will that play out? Yeah, and I'm sure a lot of Democrats asking themselves that very question. By backing, though, a problematic candidate in Maine, are Democrats

going to come off as hypocritical, especially as they try to point the finger at Ken Paxton in Texas? It's a good question. We saw this kind of with Al Frank and the former senator in Minnesota. There were allegations against him of inappropriate conduct, not to this not physical violence or not assault. It was making inappropriate gestures and inappropriate. touching, I believe, if I remember correctly. And that was coming at the same time as some very different and very serious allegations against Roy Moore, the Alabama Senate candidate. Then some Democrats thought that it would be a good idea to distance themselves from Franken

to not do exactly, to basically say, we're going to deal with our own house and look at Republicans over here not dealing with their own house, right? So you have seen that in the past. Ultimately, though, I don't think it's going to matter that much as far as this goes because, oh, there's going to be so much money, tens of millions of dollars spent in these races. to fight these fights in the races. I think ultimately it's going to be about the candidates themselves in those states and less about a bleedover effect from one state to the other.

And quickly, is there a path for Democrats winning back the Senate without Maine? Without Maine? Boy, I don't know. I don't think so. I mean, you have to think about this is a state that Democrats need to win. If they're going to need to win states like Maine and then push into pretty decently Republican territory, states that Trump won by 10 points. So I don't think that there really is.

is a path if you take off one of the lower hanging fruits off the board. All while needing to defend these seats like in Michigan, which we'll talk about later in the show. Ben, thank you so much. Coming up, President Trump says the U.S. will retaliate after Iranian forces shot down a U.S. Army helicopter near the Strait of Hermuz, leading to the rescue of two pilots. We have the latest on the incident and what it means for the war and peace talks. Plus, Speaker Johnson at the White House, as President Trump's polarizing pick to lead America's most powerful intelligence agencies puts a key surveillance law in jeopardy. You're watching. Meet the Press now.

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rules that keep you inspired to reach your goals. Go to today.com slash start and download now because it's never too late to start today. Subscription automatically renews each year at 6599 plus taxes and peace until canceled. Offer ends July 31st, 2026. Price is subject to change. Visit today.com slash start for full offer terms and details. Welcome back. Turning now to breaking news out of the Middle East. President Trump is blaming Iran for shooting down a U.S. Apache helicopter that was patrolling the Strait of her moves. In a post on social media this afternoon, President Trump saying the U.S. must respond. According to the Pentagon, the two crew members in that helicopter were rescued within approximately two hours by an unmanned boat, a first for the U.S. military.

The Pentagon also saying the two soldiers are in stable condition. It comes as overnight, President Trump once again appeared optimistic that I deal with Iran is imminent, laying out this new timetable. We're in the final throws of what will be a very, very good deal that will not allow in any way, shape, or form nuclear weapons, et cetera. And the straight will open up right away. It'll open up immediately upon signing, which could be in two or three days. Did you say two or three days or two or three weeks?

Two or three days. You'll be signing a piece. No, no, we have a good chance of doing it. We should be able to do it in one hour, if you want to. want to know the truth. Now, we should note the president has been saying for weeks now that the U.S. and Iran are close to a deal. Joining me now to help break some of this down is NBC News senior White House correspondent Gabe Gutierrez

and NBC News senior national security correspondent Courtney Kubi. I want to start over at the White House with Gabe. The president said the U.S. will respond to this helicopter. But do we know what that actually means, Gabe? Is he willing to put a potential deal with Iran at first? risk. Well, we don't know what exactly retaliation will mean. This all just unfolded over the last several hours with the president posting on social media, as you just referenced, that the U.S. must respond. And we've been asking White House officials about what that could look like.

No response so far on exactly what the president might do. But we have heard from him over the last several days, and really over the past several weeks, as you referenced, that a deal with Iran is close. He said this repeatedly over and over again, that timeline very squishy. And last night, overnight, we heard from the president that it could come in two or three days. Now, the president has previously tried to make the argument that these back and forth attacks between Israel and Iran were not a violation of the ceasefire. He viewed them as one-offs that did not risk a further escalation. But this is the first time where, you know, now the U.S. is threatening direct retaliation by U.S. forces. So it is unclear where we go from here, but we have no indication, Mel,

that the White House views this as a major escalation that could restart major combat operations. Gabe, I know you'll stay on top of it for us. Thank you. I want to turn now to Courtney, who's on set with me. What more are you learning about this helicopter crash? And how did these unmanned boats or sea drones, I guess they're called, actually work? So we know that, in fact, there was an Iranian drone that that smashed into this helicopter. That's what brought it down. It's a two-seater Apache attack helicopter. It went down in the Strait of Hormuz.

And that was when this rescue mission, which fortunately both of the soldiers on border are both fine. They're receiving medical treatment. But that was when this rescue mission turned into something kind of cool. It was one of these sea-based drones that the U.S. military

has had operating out of Bahrain now for several years. It's called Task Force 59. The military was able to send these drones drones out. You can see some of them there. And these aren't tiny little drones. Like you might think of them. I know that some people probably think it's like a remote controlled little boat on the water. It's not that. We're talking about 24, 25 foot boats. Yeah, that's massive. Yeah, look at that one right there. They send them out. They have the ability to basically scan an area. They use artificial intelligence. Well, they were able to find the two crew. They were floating in the water in the dark waters in the middle of the night of the Strait of Hormuz. They found them. They were able to get on board, take them a little distance away where a helicopter was able to take them out of the water.

and they're now receiving medical treatment. But their injuries are not expected to be life-threatening, though. And this is a first for the U.S. military? This has never happened before? It is. Using these drones in this way. I mean, generally, they're used in that area to establish patterns of life. So they watch the water and they figure out if maybe there's smugglers, if there's, you know, potential terrorists that are moving through the area. We got to spend some time with them a couple of years ago.

And one of the things that they were really watching for then were any evidence of Houthi unmanned vessels that were moving through the area. So this is the first time they've been used to save a lot. a couple of soldiers' lives. How much does the shootdown increase concerns about the ability to operate safely in the Strait of Hermuz, especially since that has been such a sticking point throughout these negotiations? Iran has been launching drones in this part of the Strait of Hormuz every single day for days now. So this, again, is just another one of the incidents that really illustrates the danger that exists right now with these two militaries that are operating so close to one another in that area.

if in fact, remember, President Trump himself has said that one thing that would make him potentially move back to major combat operations is if U.S. troops are killed. So in this case, you know, very fortunately they were both taken out of the water safely. But this is exactly the kind of incident that could have one relatively minor incident have major strategic implications with the U.S. potentially returning to major combat operations. And we are seeing things like this happen every single day with these close calls. I also want to talk to you about this other story that we've been following that you, been covering David Rush, the CIA officer, who had $40 million of gold bars in his home. He's accused of creating a fake top secret intelligence program. Talk to me more. What do we know about this program? And how is it even possible that he was able to create it without raising

any suspicion for so long? As we peel back the onion of this story, it is just more and more fascinating how this guy was able to get away with this for so long, not just fabricating his background and getting everyone around him to believe it, but getting to this very a relatively senior level in the CIA. And then now what we're learning, this is according to reporting from Dandelus and Gordon Lubald, our colleagues, is that he was able to create this made-up special access program that because of the nature of a special access program,

basically it's so secretive that only people who know about it are on a need-to-know basis. And he was able to convince several of his CIA colleagues to be a part of this made-up phony program, And then they were able to take millions of dollars, as you mentioned, 300 gold bars, more than 30 Rolex watches, $2 million in currency. They were able to take it all potentially for his own personal gain. I mean, as we unfold this, it's just remarkable what he was able to do at the U.S.'s top intelligence agency, the Central Intelligence Agency, for years. Wild, crazy stuff, Courtney. Thank you so much for that reporting.

Up next, why Vice President JD Vance wants his administration to launch. a criminal investigation into his former VP rival. That story is next on Meet the Press now.

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Learn more at Xfinity.com slash same-day Wi-Fi. Welcome back. Congressional reauthorization of a critical but controversial surveillance tool isn't jeopardy right now, just days before it's set to expire. A bipartisan deal for a long-term extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence. Surveillance Act, which allows the government to spy on foreigners outside the U.S. without a warrant, fell apart over opposition from Democrats and even some Republicans to the president's appointment

of Bill Pulte, a Trump ally with no intelligence experience as acting director of national intelligence. I think the announcement last week had really complicated our ability to move forward on FISA. I am concerned that we let FISA, that events would. allow byzly go dark at a time when you need to have heightened intelligence and our ability to gather in a way that's going to keep us all safe. Is Bill Pulte qualified for that position in your view? I think that's, that is the challenge that we have in front of us and why it has caused the complications with BISO.

After a meeting today at the White House, House Speaker Mike Johnson would not answer questions about the president's plans for Bill Pulte. and instead accused Democrats of putting politics ahead of national security. They were working on a bipartisan, bicameral solution to extend FISA, and then political gains began. So the Democrats are now, have taken a hostage on this, and they're suggesting that they might not advance it. We're hoping they can get that together. We cannot allow FISA to go dark. It would be a dangerous prospect, and I think everybody who is reasonable understands that.

Will he dump polity? I'm not going to speak for the president, and I'm not going to talk about anything that we discussed privately among leadership here. NBC News, senior national political reporter Sahel Kapoor joins me now from Capitol Hill, where he has been following it all for us. Sahil, I want to start with that Trump Johnson meeting. Is there anything more you can tell us about what was

accomplished or not accomplished at that meeting? Mel, I'm told this meeting took place at the White House from late morning to early afternoon that it was a long meeting that it featured Speaker Johnson, President Trump, and some others in the administration. Now, the details are a little bit murky there, but as you just heard, Johnson made the case for extending FISA Section 702 when speaking to reporters after he got back. He said they cannot let it go dark. He called it a productive meeting, and he very notably declined to say when asked whether the president will dump Bill Pulte in order to secure the Democratic votes. He called those private conversations.

That is, of course, the big roadblock here. And the fact that Johnson didn't simply take that off the table, which he likely would have if Trump conveyed as much. says that this is very much a live ball, and the administration appears to be considering a whole host of options in order to find the votes to move FISA 7-02 to reauthorization ahead of its expiration this Friday. And Sahel, as you mentioned, the deadline is Friday. That's just three days from now. What do you expect will happen between now and Friday, and are there any other potential off-ramps to prevent this law from expiring?

They need some sort of breakthrough right now, Mel. There is no path to getting it done. Democrats are firmly against renewing this extraordinary spying power while the president is putting, even on an acting basis, Bill Pulte ally, who, as you mentioned, does not have experience in intelligence. He would have essentially the power to oversee Section 702. The House Minority Leader, Hakeem Jeffries, called this a hand grenade tossed by President Trump into already sensitive negotiations. As you know, there's been a longstanding tug of war between national security hawks and privacy hawks about whether FISA Section 702

needs reforms in the form of requiring the administration to get a warrant in order to sweep up any data they collect as part of this process on American citizens. Meanwhile, you've got John Thune, the Senate Majority Leader, Republican, who just said moments ago that he is encouraging the White House

to pick a permanent successor to Tulsi Gabbard for DNI. He thinks maybe that'll unlock the vote. It's not clear to me right now that Democrats are going to be placated by a potential separate permanent successor as long as Bill Pulte is going to be in there, even on an acting basis at this point. And Sahel, I also want to turn to reconciliation.

The House plans to vote pretty soon, I believe, on reconciliation, which is also the Immigration Border Patrol bill that was passed by the Senate earlier this month. But there was some drama leading up to this evening's vote. Walk us through that. Yeah. So firstly, the final bill should be coming up for a vote here on the House floor in just moments. And yes, there was a little bit of drama. You know, this is the type of thing you would think is fairly simple and straight.

This is simply funding ICE and Border Patrol at status quo levels as part of the appropriations process. No separate strings attached or no ornaments. But in these house margins, nothing is simple and straightforward. They struggle to get the rule pass when two Republicans, Chip Roy and Tim Burchett originally withheld their votes. They ultimately got the rule passed by the slender margin of 213 to 211, meaning on the final vote with the absences right now, even one Republican no could take the bill down.

Now, the upside melt is that five Republicans are not here. They could theoretically come back. So if they fall one or two votes short, they may be able to pass it later this week. But once again, these tiny margins in the House majority creating more problems for Republican leadership. To that point, Sahel, very quickly, do you think the bill is actually going to pass? It seems so because Chip Roy told reporters that they were trying to work out some issues. They were trying to resolve the problems. And he indicated that he's very likely to support this bill.

Sahel Kapoor, thank you. Turning now to the Justice Department and Vice President JD Vance, urging the DOJ to investigate his rival from the 2024 election. The vice president referring Minnesota governor and former vice presidential candidate Tim Walz to the DOJ for a criminal fraud investigation in connection to social services programs. JD Vance also pushing for the Justice Department to investigate Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison. The vice president saying on social media, Minnesota state officials are not above the law, and if they facilitated fraud, lied under oath about what they knew, or harassed and intimidated whistleblowers, they must face justice. JD Vance says his referral was prompted by a report by the House Oversight Committee published yesterday that claims Walls and Ellison were aware of fraud in federally funded social security programs. They did not take steps to stop it.

In a statement to NBC News, Ellison said the allegations were unfounded and a political stunt. Walls has dismissed past allegations against him as politically motivated. After the break, meet the candidate. Michigan lieutenant governor and candidate for Secretary of State Garland Gilchrist joins me on set. As Democrats grapple with issues tied to election integrity and redistricting, keep it here. This is Meet the Press now.

Welcome back. As President Trump makes claims of election fraud in California's primary election without offering any evidence, Democratic candidates fear it could offer a preview of what's to come in November's midterms and are preparing for the possibility that their own races could be challenged. Earlier this year, the president demanded that elections be nationalized and specifically called out Atlanta, Philadelphia, and Detroit for holding what he alleged to be rigged and crooked elections. Again, offering no evidence of fraud. Joining me now is Michigan's lieutenant governor Garland Gilchrest, who is also running for Michigan Secretary of State. Thank you so much for joining us. There's just so much to discuss with you. But I do want to start with the election fraud claims, especially because the president has singled out Detroit before. What is your reaction to hearing these new claims that the president is making in regards to the L.A. mayor's race? It's the same old, same old with Donald Trump. As a Detroit voter, it is offensive to me that he always challenges election results he doesn't like. And it's not an accident that he targeted black cities in particular.

It's part of this broader project nationally redistricting away black members of Congress. This is a generational assault on just votes, voting in voters, and democracy around the country. And we as, you know, democratic leaders in states, we cannot stand for it. And frankly, as the next Secretary of State of Michigan, I won't stand for it. I won't tolerate, you know, someone trying to us. the Constitution to take away our state's authority to manage and oversee our elections and make sure our voters can vote and have it count. He also sued Michigan a number of times over the 2020 results.

He's warned that legal threats could come in the future. What specific concerns do you actually have about what could potentially happen in the future? They're certainly going to continue to be creative and aggressive legally, but I'm concerned about the fact that in 2020, Trump's his allies, they were literally banging on the windows in the doors where ballots were being counted. in the city of Detroit. And I expect them to get, you know, more violent and more dangerous. We're preparing for those kind of realities with federal agents and just, again, people

who are just doing Trump's bidding coming in and trying to wreak havoc in Michigan. How can you stop that? And are you prepared for the possibility of federal agents, for example, being sent into places like Detroit? We certainly have the most aggressive legal strategy that you've ever seen. And I'll carry that forward to make sure that we can try to preempt any actions that they will take. But we're ready for people, community organizations, attorneys, but also sort of

the state police, local law enforcement, we're ready to make sure that federal agents don't take away Michiganers' rights by standing in the way of them and their votes. Is the legal aspect of this? Is that enough, though, to stop something like this? We need to meet them wherever they are. So when they brought people to try to, you know, again, bang down the doors where people were getting their votes counted because they were so worried about how people in Detroit voted, then we have to meet them in the streets too.

This has become a part of your campaign for Secretary of State. And to be honest, I think 10 years ago, us covering something like a local Secretary of State race probably wouldn't have met the bar for national coverage, but it is because of these continued election fraud claims that the president continues to make. So in the race, you've defended the right to vote, but what does that actually look like to you? And how does that differentiate you from the other Democrats in the race? Well, look, Michigan is a state that matters. We are decisive in terms of presidential elections. And who is running the election in Michigan in 2020, is the person who gets elected in 2026. And I'm going to make sure the Sandshofer again, votes and voting and voters

in our democracy. And what sets me apart from my MAGA Republican opponent is he is a Secretary of State that will do whatever the president says to be responsible and accountable to the president, rather than being responsible and accountable to the 10 million people who call Michigan home and response to our voters and making sure that they can have their constitutional rights protected. I will defend that legally. I will defend that using the bully pulpit of my office and telling the story and being just more clear and can tell the truth more aggressively than they're going to lie about the elections. We've seen how aggressive this president is lying about the election. He lies about the Detroit results more than any other election.

He cannot tell the truth, but we can tell the truth more aggressively than they can. You mentioned redistricting. There was a Supreme Court ruling that gutted the Voting Rights Act, enabling a lot of states, particularly in the South, to redistrict. Do you think that blue-shades states should take advantage of that and redistrict in their own states? I think that blue states have already tried to step up and to meet this moment in this challenge. And we have to fight this fire. I mean, look, they are specifically attacking, not those Democratic seats, but black,

but Democratic seats that are held by black members of Congress, trying to gut the CBC as well. That is gutting the conscience of the Congress. That is not an accident. This is a moral threat to how our nation moves forward. And so, again, election officials have a responsibility. Democratic leaders in blue states have a responsibility. And in a state like Michigan, you know, we're going to make sure we protect our voting rights. I want to ask you about Michigan's Democratic Senate primary.

there are three very different candidates in the race. I know you haven't weighed in, but there are some Democrats who are saying there's concern about electability, general election electability for some of these candidates and that you elect someone too progressive or too far left. It's difficult to win in a state like Michigan. What is your response to that?

Do you think there is a risk of elevating someone who's too far progressive and out of step with the general population? I'm going to support who comes out of that Democratic primary so that we can win in November. And I believe who comes out of that primary is going to be someone who is directly responsible. to the needs, concerns, and the energy of Michigan voters.

So as a candidate for Secretary of State, I won our Democratic Convention by pulling together a broad coalition of progressives, of business-minded, of young people, of seniors, a more broad coalition than anybody else been able to put together in Michigan. That coalition is the foundation of our victory in November. And that is grounded in the fact that as Lieutenant Governor, I've been to all 83 counties of Michigan at least three times, listen to people, responding to them, delivering results from them and making sure they know that I'm going to stand up to this president. That is what people want from our candidates up and down the ticket for every office.

I'm going to deliver that as Secretary of State and I'm going to work together with all of our other nominees to make sure we win in November. While I have you, I do want to ask about AI and data centers. You were a former software engineer, I understand. Would you support a moratorium on more data centers? Look, I'm the only software engineer who's elected statewide in America right now, and I will be as Secretary of State. And we need to make sure that these companies don't come in and bully our communities.

What makes me as upset the data centers and their environmental impact and the concerns that are real about that is the fact that these are some of the biggest, richest, wealthiest companies with some of the smartest people, but their tactic is bullying small communities and punking them into taking data centers. That is not acceptable. They need to respect the people that live in these communities where they want to put their huge buildings and listen to what they want and their concerns instead of being so arrogant. It's an illustration of how corporate power bullies people, and that is unacceptable. We live in a democracy where voters should get to choose how I move forward, not what's happened just what the corporations will. So you think there should be a ban then? I think we should really make sure that those cities that are not coming in our communities by bullying. Lieutenant Governor, thank you so much for joining us. We really appreciate it.

Thank you for your time. And the panel will dig deeper into the state of play ahead of the midterms. Keep it here on Meet the Press Now. Welcome back. Joining me now is the panel. NBC News senior congressional reporter, Scott Wong, Democratic strateger and founder of Solidarity Strategies, Chuck Rocha, and Republican strategist, Annalise Keller. Thank you all so much for joining us. We have a lot to dig into. But I want to start with what we talked about at the top of the show, which was Maine. Scott, of course, all eyes on Graham Platner. What are you looking out for tonight? And is there a margin that he needs to achieve in order to have what is considered a successful night for him?

I think his number needs to be overwhelming. It needs to say to voters and to the political community, look, I'm in charge here. I'm dominating this race. I think it's interesting. When we look at polls that have recently been conducted here, there was an internal poll that Graham Platner put out that showed him at 64% over primary challengers. there was a University of New Hampshire poll that put him at 76%. If he's hovering around those 60 to 70% numbers, I think he's in good shape.

If it falls closer to a simple majority, 50%, I think he's in real trouble. And you think it could spark some nervousness among Democrats? Well, I think it's interesting that, you know, Janet Mills, as we've discussed, has, you know, she says, oh, look, I've suspended my campaign, but with a wink at a nod saying, hey voters, I'm still on the ballot. Yeah. And sticking by him, though, Ro Khanna, Bernie Sanders, two prominent progressive lawmakers on Capitol Hill, Graham Platner and Graham, or Ro Khanna, excuse me, just put out a video. I want to play a portion of that.

What do you say to someone that says, oh, Roe, I agree with Graham's policies. I'm glad you're going there. But you know, after the stuff coming out, I just, my granddaughter. What do you say to someone like that? If you believe in transformational politics, you need to to believe in the ability for people to transform. And I came out of the infantry at a time where, like, you sucked it up. Were you getting help or no? No, God, no, which is why I was self-medicated. I thought that video was so fascinating.

It seemed like it was an attempt to sort of soften his image. But Chuck, is there a risk for Democrats that it looks like they're giving him a pass for misconduct? I think you weigh that against in winning an election on who he can invite back to the party and who he turns off. Like, I am a pragmatist. I'm paid to win elections. and the way you win elections is getting the most votes and you come up with a scenario to do that. So I think Democrats are staying steadfast for the time being.

To Scott's point, if he doesn't get 60, 70 or 80 percent today, becomes a cautionary tale because there's a certain amount of the elector that may be turned off by this. But what we don't talk about is there's a whole group of people that are motivated to vote against or vote for something that's not the establishment that's outside of the norm. People are tired of doctors and lawyers with good ties and suits and they're looking for regular people. And guess what?

Regular people have a lot of flaws. And I think the one thing that he has going for him is that he's looked into the camera and said, I'm a flawed man. I'm not perfect. And I'm ashamed of what I was back then when I came home from war. And I was messed up. There's a lot of people that gravitate towards that. Not saying there's a small group of people that it turns off as well with other things.

Those are the two conflicting narratives. Do you think he needs to do more, though, than just videos like that? I think he's went and done 80 town halls. And in Maine, that's a lot. As a guy who's run a presidential campaign, as a guy who's run Senate campaigns, if you've done 80 town halls in Maine, that's a lot of talking to people. And Elise, obviously, the other factor here is Senator Susan Collins. She has been so hard for Democrats to beat.

So far, though, it's kind of interesting. She has avoided really going after Graham Platner that hard over these allegations. Do you think that as we shift into the general election, that strategy will change? You know, it might. I mean, there's obviously going to be a lot of outside forces that'll come in and do some of that fighting for her. She hasn't really had to do anything at this point. I mean, he's done it to himself. She's really sat back.

You know, and I do want to go back to that video that you played, he's, he is, he is, really deflecting what's, to say, this happened years and years ago. I mean, these allegations that we're talking about, this was in his current marriage that a year, a year and a half ago is when these allegations were coming up. So I think that that is really what's difficult for people to wrap their heads around. I think they understand that people are flawed, but they're looking at this person saying, you know, hey, you told us there was nothing else out there. You're a changed person. You are this transformational candidate. Yet all of these issues, I mean, this, you know, platform that he was on to solicit with these women. You know, that was active up until a very

recent moment. So I think that's the disconnect that he's going to have to answer for. And while there might be people who are attracted to this, there are a lot of people who are going to stay at home. They're going to say maybe Susan Collins is not the person that I want to vote for, but they're going to say Graham Platner has turned me off and he has too much baggage. And I don't trust his judgment. And because of that, I'm going to just stay away. You know, there's no one, this is not a presidential election. There are people who just generally don't vote in midterm cycles. And I think that that is where I'm going to be watching. Scott, I do want to turn to the election fraud, the election denialism. We are continuing to see that on Capitol Hill.

I was pretty struck, maybe I shouldn't be that surprised, that the Speaker of the House yesterday perpetuated and bolstered some of these claims from the president. I mean, do you think this is something that Republicans should do more to distance themselves from? Or do you think at least the leadership, there's no upside for them and, you know, pushing back on Trump. Well, we haven't seen Mike Johnson show any daylight with the president of the United States. I do think those comments are troubling both from the president and from the Speaker of the House to, you know, state without any sort of evidence that there's widespread fraud happening in the California elections. Let's just be very clear about what this is really about.

in California, they accept ballots, mail-in ballots, or you can drop off your ballot all the way through election day. So those thousands and thousands of ballots are being counted. It's an effort to try to expand voting accessibility rather than to restrict it. So I just think it's important to state what the California rules are. And, you know, one conversation I will say I've had recently with California law. and a state attorney general, both Democrats, they were talking about some of this rhetoric to try to undermine the California election system. And the fear that they stated was that they

fear that President Trump, in the midterms, is going to try to send DOJ in there to seize ballots. This is a real fear that Democrats on Capitol Hill and around the country are talking about, you know, ahead of the midterms. And the House could come down to California. We've seen that time and time again. It's going to be very close. Yeah. Chuck, speaking of those California election laws, Congressman Ro Khanna, who I mentioned earlier, he posted something on social media I thought was interesting. He said a close friend of mine is canceling his voter registration today. He is convinced Spencer Pratt was robbed of the election. Regardless, we need to figure out in California how we can get the vote counted faster and results tabulated so it does not drag on. I mean,

do you think he's right here? Or do you think there are more needs to be done in order to speed up and shore up trust in the election process. There's always more that can be done as a guy who looks every night at election night, like tonight on what's come in, where did it come from? We will know as soon as possible. And especially in California, where they have a lot of money and they love to brag about being the fourth largest economy. But there's no saying on the farms where I grew up in East Texas about what's going on

right now with Donald Trump. And if you lie long enough about having a horse, eventually somebody will buy you a saddle. And that's what he's guaranteed though, is he won't tell out of the people so much that people will believe him, not everybody. But enough of them, to Scott's point, leading into the midterms, Republicans are going to lose in the midterms. We just don't know how much. But if they lose by a good bit, he wants to turn to the camera and be like, just like by election, just like California, it's all rigged. And that's what we're leading into that nobody's talking about.

I also want to get to South Carolina. There's also primaries there. Lindsey Grant is trying to fend off a runoff. He's up against a MAGA candidate who's really going against him over his support for the war in Iran. Annalise, what are you looking out for it? And do you think that Graham can fend off? this challenger from his right. Yeah, I'll be watching that race. I'll also be watching the governor's race. I do think Lindsey Graham probably holds on. It will be, you know, curious to watch, obviously, South Carolina is an extremely red MAGA state. So look, I think that does say something to where he's, his policies have been coming down with respect to Iran. But I'm especially watching the governor's race. I'm very curious to see. It is. There's about five candidates there right now. She's pulling low double digits. I don't anticipate her making. the runoff. She has not been endorsed by President Trump. She's indicating that it's her support

for releasing the Epstein files that has led to, you know, sort of the fracture between her and the president. But I also think it's underappreciated that Henry McMaster has a lot of sway with President Trump. Of course, he's the former lieutenant governor and the governor, and who I think leaned a lot on President Trump to ensure his selected endorsement there in South Carolina. So I think Pam, I think she probably has the best shot, but of course it'll be a runoff there. One of many races we will be watching tonight. Thank you so much. Chuck, Annalise, and Scott. Thank you for joining us.

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