Meet the Press NOW — May 5

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Welcome to meet the press now. I'm Monica Alba in Washington, where the Trump administration is downplaying concerns that the ceasefire between the U.S. and Iran is unraveling. Despite Iran's renewed aggression in the Strait of Hormuz, armed clashes with U.S. forces, and strikes in the region. As gas prices continue to rise, and the price of oil remains above $100 a barrel.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is wrapping up a briefing at the White House with reporters where he was pressed about the status of the war in Iran and the current U.S. operations to guide vessels through the strait. He told reporters that the war was, quote, over, but the turmoil in the strait was not. This is not an offensive operation. This is a defensive operation.

And what that means is very simple. There's no shooting unless we're shot at first. Okay, we're not attacking them. We're not, but if they're attacking us or they're attacking a ship, you need to respond to that. Look, the times come for Iran to make a sensible choice. And it's not easy for them to do that, obviously, because they have a fracture in their own leadership system. And apart from that, I mean, the top people in that government are, to say the least, you know, they're insane in the brain. And so we need to address that.

Operation is over. Epic Fury is the president notified Congress. We're done with that stage of it. Marco Rubio was adamant that Iran cannot be allowed to normalize control of the strait, tacitly acknowledging that Iran does in fact have control of the vital waterway, in direct contrast to what the president has said in recent weeks about the U.S. controlling the street. These guys have shut down the streets of our moves. This is what Iran is saying.

We will shut down the streets. No one can go through. No country in the world can go through unless we allow you to go through and you have to pay us. But our ships can go through, meaning the Iranian ships, as much as they want. That's crazy. This comes after we saw in this briefing today with the president and incredibly high gas prices. All of the news from the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Kane, who also held a briefing today. General Kane telling reporters that since the ceasefire began, Iran has attacked U.S. forces more than 10 times.

But saying those attacks are below the threshold of restarting major combat operations. Here's more from the Pentagon briefing. You said that the attacks by Iran so far are below the threshold of restarting major combat operations. What is that threshold? The threshold of restarting is a political decision above my pay grade. What I'll say is it's low harassing fire right now. The last 24 hours or so, Iran's fired at us. We fired at Iran.

I'm just going to ask you more directly. Is the ceasefire over? No, the ceasefire is not over. And ultimately, the president's going to make a decision whether anything were to escalate into a violation of a ceasefire. And today, President Trump would not say what would constitute a violation of that ceasefire. What do they need to do to violate the ceasefire? Well, you'll find out because I'll let you know. They know what to do and they know what to do.

And they know what not to do, more importantly, actually. As you know, the blockade's been amazing. It's like a piece of steel. Nobody's going to challenge the blockade. And I think it's working out very well. They play games, but let me just tell you, they want to make a deal. And who wouldn't? When your military is totally gone, we could do anything we want to them.

And despite the president's optimism about the U.S. naval blockade, transit through the Strait of Hormuz remains at a near standstill, with only one vessel making it through the channel today, according to analysts. And with so much of the world's oil supply frozen, gas prices continue to climb, reaching a new high during the war. Average price is now hitting $4.48 a gallon, up 50%. Meanwhile, in the Middle East, for the second consecutive day, the United Arab Emirates says it came under attack by missiles and drones from Iran. Tehran denies it carried out the attack, but yesterday Iran's foreign minister warned in a post on social media that the UAE

should be wary of, quote, being dragged back into quagmire by ill-wishers. And joining me now is NBC News Senior White House correspondent Garrett Haak, who was just in that briefing with Marco Rubio. We have NBC News, Senior National Security correspondent Courtney Kubi, and NBC News, military analyst, retired Army Colonel Steve Warren. Thank you all for starting us off. Garrett, I want to go to you on what we just heard from the secretary there. What stood out to you? Well, I think the main thing was the effort to reframe this project freedom as a benevolent action of the United States, the idea that the U.S. is trying to. trying to help out allies and partners all over the world.

And it has a humanitarian action for sailors who've been trapped in the Persian Gulf since this war started, not as military exercise as a consequence of Iran shutting the strait because of the war that the U.S. has been engaged on in Iran. I mean, it was a reframing around this new goal of opening the strait. And the secretary trying to link that to, you know, what if Iran had a nuclear weapon and this desire to keep the strait closed? what a disaster that would be. To me, it was just sort of a telling marker of how far we've come in the almost 10 weeks

since this conflict began. It was all about preventing Iran from having a nuclear weapon in a time where the strait was not even something that most Americans could find on a map to now, on this day, the Secretary of State spending almost an hour talking about the importance of reopening a global waterway that was before this conflict open. Yeah, having no issue at all compared to what we're seeing now.

And, Garrett, there was some mixed messaging that we've even seen just over the course of today from the Trump administration, insisting that the ceasefire does remain in place. So what is the status of negotiations right now between the U.S. and Iran, according to Marco Rubio? It's a great question. The country's top diplomat, the Secretary of State, puts some distance between himself at those negotiations, saying that this was something that, you know, Jared Kushner and Steve Witkoff have been heading up. He criticized Iran's leaders at one point as being insane. He called them radical clerics.

And he talked about the idea of a diplomatic solution as a conditional. He said if there could be a diplomatic outcome, none of that suggests a great deal of confidence in negotiations that haven't taken place in person in almost a month. And, you know, with the Secretary of State basically keeping an arm's length from something that you, you know, perhaps would not have heard that same kind of tone if he were optimistic that a deal could be reached. Yeah, Marco Rubio not participating in any of those negotiations coming up. He has another big trip coming up, though. He is set to travel to Italy and the Vatican. He was asked about that. And of course it comes as President Trump and the Pope have been feuding back and forth,

including specifically over the war in Iran. So how much of the Trump administration's foreign policy might loom over that expected meeting? It'll certainly be an element. I mean, the Secretary took some pains to say that this was a trip that was scheduled before that recent back and forth between the Pope and the President. This wasn't about that directly. He is himself a practicing Roman Catholic and I think provided a little bit of a different tone in his comments about the Pope, certainly than what we've heard from President Trump and said there's things he wants to work with the Vatican on, like aid to Cuba, like religious freedom in Africa.

So I think you certainly saw a degree of smoothing over of what had been somewhat of a strained relationship between the Vatican and the White House. That's something that certainly the Secretary is in a good position to continue to do while he's there. But again, the Pope is unlikely to back off his. message of peace. It's core to his message as Pope. It's core to the last Pope's message. This is not like anything new from the Vatican here. So I wouldn't expect that here, Pope Leo, change his tune in opposition to this and all wars just because the Secretary of States visiting him in the Vatican. Garrett, hey, kicking us off from the White House briefing room.

Thank you, Garrett. And Courtney, I do want to turn to you now because the Pentagon did also have a briefing today. So what more did we learn about U.S. military operations and the status of the ceasefire from their perspective. Yeah, I mean, despite the fact that President Trump in a radio interview late yesterday declined to say whether the ceasefire had been broken or not by the U.S. and Iran exchanging fire through near the Strait of Hormuz yesterday, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth was adamant about it and said, no, the ceasefire has not been broken. So interesting for him to sort of take a step ahead of where the president was willing to go

on the same issue. We learned a little bit more about exactly how this project freedom is going to operate. So far, we're still only aware of the two U.S. flagships that have transited through the straight, through that U.S. passageway. They transited through yesterday. Both were U.S. flagged. As of now, I've just checked again. We're not aware of any additional that have gone through, despite the fact that both the military

and the Secretary of Defense himself said that there are dozens of countries and shipping companies that have come forward saying that they're interested. in using this passageway. Iran did try to attack both of those ships using drones, missiles, and small boats, these small fast boats. The U.S. military was able to intercept the drones and the missiles and fire on those fastboats, blowing them up from attack helicopters in the air. So at this point, the big question is, what's going to happen going forward? Will additional ships come forward and use that passageway? And what will happen? Will they go through without any kind of provocations. And as we noted in the open, only one vessel was even able to transit the

Strait of Hormuz today. So how is the Pentagon justifying its claim that this operation to guide vessels through the passageway is working? So they did get through two of them through yesterday. So they're looking at that as a success. And I've been asking officials today, you know, what's the latest? What's happening with more ships going through? And they say, we're working through. There's all these people who are coming forward. But we've not gotten any specifics, despite asking many times, reporters in the briefing just there, we're also trying to press Secretary of State Marco Rubio about what countries have come forward and expressed any kind of interest in this as well. But he also declined to provide any kind of specifics or give

any sort of scope or scale of what that might look like. And court, we ask you this all the time, but it's so helpful to remind viewers, because as we're talking about the ceasefire is still holding, just remind us, what is the current U.S. military posture right now in the region? So there's There's three separate operations there right now, or missions, really, but many of the forces there are overlapping and in some cases are really assigned to all three of them. So there's Operation Epic Fury, despite the fact that we are hearing from Trump administration officials that that is over or terminated. In fact, the military component of that continues. The military sees that operation as being on pause right now. Next, we have this ongoing naval blockade that's been going on for several weeks.

There are a number of different ships. There are dozens of U.S. military aircraft assigned to that. And then now we have this Project Freedom. What's confusing about this is these are – the Pentagon has made it very clear that they see these as three completely separate and distinct missions or operations. But again, the ships, the aircraft, the personnel, many of them are simultaneously assigned to multiple missions at the same time. It's just a matter of which one they are actively engaging in at any given moment. That's why the situation is very confusing right now. Thank you, Courtney Kubey, for breaking down the complexities of all of that.

Appreciate it. And I want to continue that conversation specifically with Colonel Steve Warren, who is here on set with me. And as we did mention, General Kane said today that Iran has attacked U.S. forces 10 times, but that that is below the threshold of what they would use to potentially start combat operations. again, so what kind of message does that send to Iran about what it would take to violate the ceasefire? Does this mean that they can kind of test and take it further and further each time to see how far they can get? It's interesting. The president added on top of that, didn't he, when he said the Iranians

will know when it happens, right? So I think they will. The Iranians will continue to probe, they'll continue to press, to try to find out where those lines are. And this is common, right? In ceasefires, often what you see is this sort of jockeying back and forth. a violation here, a violation there, but nothing that will cause the entire thing to blow up. Is it clear to you what an actual violation would look like? What do you think that threshold would be? Well, I think the threshold would be if something gets through, right? So, you know, they fired several missiles, some drones. We managed to shoot those all down. If something gets through and does damage to an American warship, I think that will probably flip the switch.

And the Trump administration has continued to be, to say and tout that this operation of Project freedom has been successful so far. But one global shipping giant told NBC News that its risk assessment remains unchanged and the straight remains, as they view it, closed for transit. So is there a limit to what the military can do to reassure these shipping companies that it could be safe to go through? Yeah, I think, so what's going to happen, and this happens in every operation, it will take a little bit of time to generate the combat power, to get the systems in place, to get things sort of rocking and rolling, so to speak, right? And once that happens, I think we'll start to see confidence build. What the military has done is create this lane of sort of safe passage.

Admiral Brad Cooper, the commander of sent com, called it a thick layer of defense. So it's aircraft, it's ships, it's subsurface, it's everything, creating this barrier, this umbrella over the lane. Once ship captains, mariners start to feel comfortable with that, I think you'll see increased traffic through there. So, Colonel Warren, what you're describing, does that make it seem like what we're seeing now could become the status quo in the strait of Hormuz. Is this something that U.S. military operations could continue to support for how long? It could be. And in fact, you know, it's a strategic move, right? If we can open that straight, if this works, then the United States military can continue that blockade on Iran pretty much forever.

So if this works, it'll go on until the Iranians finally collapse, I believe. It will take time. It will take energy. It will take effort. The Navy can do it. it, we just have to be patient. And the way that the U.S. military has been talking about Operation Epic Fury as sort of one thing that has, quote, terminated for legal purposes, but the naval blockade and what we're talking about with Project Freedom, those are happening on different tracks, right? How should people understand and separate the two? It's tricky. It's really hard sometimes to separate them out. A lot of the separation that the military and the Pentagon and the White House are doing really are for legal purposes. I think to the common bystander, looking at all of this is one,

big operation is perfectly reasonable. What we're trying to do is get Iran to do something. And once that happens, the whole thing will end. Colonel Warren, thank you so much for your time today. We appreciate it. And before we go to break, we have some news that just broke in the last few moments. The suspect in the assassination attempt against the president at the White House Correspondence Dinner has just been hit with an additional charge, assault on an officer of the United States. That new charge comes after the Justice Department says it confirmed that Alan shot a U.S. Secret Service officer as he was making his way through the security checkpoint. And coming up, revenge is a dish best served at the polls.

We're live in Indiana where voters are voting and President Trump is trying to oust seven members of his own party in what will be a critical test of the president's power. You're watching meet the press now. And I'll tell you what I'm looking for tonight. in these key races.

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Here's to you to finding the best version of yourself with Silver Sea and to finding more. Visit silversie.com to learn more. It only happens every four years, and this time it's here, the biggest tournament in the world. Stadium shaking, flags waving, this is history, and you want to be there. But real life can make it tough, work, busy schedules, and the price. That's where Price Line comes in. Priceline has millions of deals on flights, hotels, and rental cars so you can go see it live. So find a great deal and make the trip happen.

Rally the crew, go see the game live, turn your dream trip into reality. Book now with Priceline. Welcome back. If it's Tuesday, voters are voting somewhere. And today, Vice President JD Vance is among those voters, casting a ballot in his home state of Ohio, where primaries for governor and Senate are expected to set up key races for November, as Democrats look to flip JD Vance's former Senate seat. Meanwhile, voting is also underway in Indiana, where state legislative races are taking center stage as President Trump and his allies have devoted serious political capital in an attempt to oust seven of the eight Republican state senators running for re-election who defied the president by voting against a redistricting effort in the state late last year.

Joining me now from St. John, Indiana is NBC correspondent Shaquille Brewster and breaking things down at the big board chief data analysts. Steve Kornacky. Shaq, I'll start with you on the ground there talking to voters. What are they telling you? And is there any concern from Republicans about spending so much time trying to oust certain other Republicans? You know, Monica, it's really a mixed bag based on the conversations that I've been having here. Some people have described it as essentially inside baseball to see this Republican-on-Republican fight. But for others, this is the reason. The redistricting effort is the reason why they came to the polls. today. And you talk about that political capital that the president and his allies have exerted on this race. We're talking about $12 million in state Senate races across the state that have been

spent on television ads. You compare that to last cycle, it was $500,000. So a lot of capital there that's turning into people coming out to vote on both sides of this issue. Listen to what some of them told me. I already knew that there was going to be a candidate that would come out that would probably be supported by Trump because of the redistricting effort, and specifically because of that, I chose to vote against that candidate. You wanted to see the state redistricted, it's congressional lines. That's right. And my representative didn't think so.

And I just came out here to show my disapproval and hopefully adjust it going forward. Now, one thing to watch is that Indiana is effectively an open primary race. you don't declare a party until you go into the ballot box. So I did talk to two more liberal voters who picked up Republican ballots today to support the incumbent senator who helped block those new maps, Monica. I know there has to be a method or something going on behind the lines that cannot be discussed because of the war. I have a truck over there and it's a diesel.

It costs to be $97 to fill it up. It costs to be $217 now. Oh, my God. I'm paying $5.50, $5.60 a gallon, and which is ridiculous. but I can't blame any particular party for that. And let's clarify this here. What you just heard from those folks are people telling me the top issues that were on their mind as they were coming to the polls. They were Republican voters.

They told me that they're concerned about the economy. They're concerned about gas prices. But the interesting thing, and you heard it in that sound there, is that they did not say they're concerned about gas prices, even though they know how much more they're paying is swaying their votes. These are folks who are voting in a Republican primary. They're part of that base. The big question will be what that does and how those more moderate swing voters, what they end up doing once we get closer to November, Monica.

Really interesting, Shaq Brewster. Thank you so much. I do want to turn to Steve Kornacki now. And so, okay, we just heard the view from voters. What are you watching for tonight in Indiana, Steve? Yeah, well, I mean, you see them right here. You actually got eight districts on the map that we've highlighted. Seven of them are the districts.

Shaq is talking about Republican states. state senators who voted against that mid-decade redistricting plan. The eighth is an open seat where there is a Trump-back candidate. But I think Shaq said it there. One of the things that I'm looking at here tonight as these results start coming in, and by the way, they're going to start coming in most of these districts at 6 o'clock Eastern, early poll closing in Indiana. But it is that question of an open primary.

No party registration in Indiana. And are you going to see Democrats coming into these Republican primaries for the chance to vote against Trump's candidate? This is a story that we have been telling since Trump came back to the White House. In special elections, in lower turnout elections like this, Democratic voters, a segment of a Democratic base at least, has been extremely motivated by the idea of going out to vote and registering its objection, its disapproval with Trump. They have those opportunities here in a lot of these districts tonight.

This is where Shaq was. This is the district where he was just reporting from the first district here. This is essentially the suburbs of Chicago right here. It's a swing district. Trump won it. but he won it narrowly in 2024, meaning there's a lot of Democrats in this district. If they turn out, if they take Republican ballots, you know, that could have helped the incumbent here. Dan Dernel is his name also right here.

This is just north of South Bend, sort of the Granger-Ell-Card area here. Again, Trump won the district, not overwhelmingly, especially close to South Bend here. There are a lot of Democratic voters there. Again, is that going to be a factor in this primary? Another district where that could loom large. How about this right here? Jim Buck here is the. Republican incumbent, he voted against that redistricting plan. This stretches from

Kokomo all the way down to the fast-growing, higher-income Indianapolis suburbs of Hamilton County. And again, this portion of the district here has been trending away from Trump and the Republicans since Trump came on the scene. Again, are you going to see Democrats getting involved there? By the way, this district, Mike Pence, the former vice president, obviously estranged from Donald Trump, got involved here. He publicly endorsed Buck in this district. You also got a district right here, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana. Again, you know, this at least corner of the district I've got right here, there's a lot of Democrats there. So that's something we're going to be looking for. Are the Democrats a factor in this? The Democrats have certainly

had no hesitation to vote in other special elections and primaries that we've been tracking for the last year plus. Is it going to be a story in this race tonight? And also is that Trump base? I'm highlighting areas where there's Democrats here, a lot of rural, small town areas here where Trump was winning by 30, 40, 50 points in the general election in 2024. Something we haven't seen since Trump came back to the White House is that core Trump base turning out in big numbers when Trump's not on the ballot in the elections that have taken place since he came back to the White House. Does his involvement, though, his direct unusual involvement in these races lead to much

bigger turnout in those areas? So it's sort of looking for where's the turnout coming from here? Are we seeing it surprisingly high from Democratic areas? Are we seeing it surprisingly high from rural small-town Trump areas? Is it about the same in both? That's going to be what we're looking at as these votes start to come in. It's going to be such an interesting test of the so-called revenge tour. And Steve, I know we're also watching a Michigan state legislature race, right,

to replace now Democratic congresswoman Kristen McDonnell rivet seat. What could the outcome there tell us about that? Yeah, let's head over here, sort of the mitten of Michigan here, Bay City, Saginaw. Look, this is one where if the Republicans were to win this, it would flip it. This is a state Senate seat in Michigan. It would actually move the Republicans into a tie in that chamber. Now, the Democrats would break the tie with the lieutenant governor. But this is one of those races. What I was just talking about here. This is a, as you said, this was a seat held by Democrats, now a special election. This is the recipe where Democrats have been running up the score since Trump came back to the White House. A special election on an odd date in the spring, not a high turn.

not a fair. We have seen in elections like this since Trump came back to the White House just a much more motivated Democratic base than a Republican base. The Democrats have been really overperforming in elections like this. So I would certainly say you'd make the Democrat the big favorite in this just based on everything since Trump came back to the White House. Republicans would love to have to be able to get this wind to crow about that. But they would have to do something here in this race tonight that they really haven't done since Trump came back to the White House. Steve Kornacki, thank you for all of that. And of course, tune in tonight for the latest edition of Steve Kornacki Cam, breaking down the latest election results as they come in. It all kicks off at 6 p.m. Eastern on NBCNews.com,

a little earlier today, so mark that down. Up next, we'll turn to Florida's redistricting war after Governor Ron DeSantis signed a new map into law that could give Republicans a boost in the battle for control of Congress. A Florida House Democrat whose district is among those being targeted, joins us next. Keep it here on Meet the Press now.

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it tough, work, busy schedules, and the price. That's where Price Line comes in. Priceline has millions of deals on flights, hotels, and rental cars so you can go see it live. So find a great deal and make the trip happen. Rally the crew, go see the game live, turn your dream trip into reality. Book now with Priceline. Welcome back. Florida Republicans' redistricting effort is already facing a legal challenge. Governor Ron DeSantis signing the state's new congressional map into law yesterday tweeting, signed, sealed, and delivered. Hours later, a civil group and group of Florida voters filed a lawsuit asking a state judge to block the new map, arguing that the redistricting effort violated the state's constitution. Florida is one of at least

eight states, both red and blue, that have redrawn their congressional maps ahead of this year's midterms, with additional states threatening to redraw their maps as well. Joining me now is Congresswoman Kathy Castor, Democrat from Florida, whose district in the Tampa area just became redder with this newly redrawn map. Congresswoman, thank you so much for joining us. You say you are going to run in your current district, right? Florida's 14th congressional district. So how much more challenging have Republicans just made it for your reelection effort?

So how do you justify what Democrats did in Virginia and California and what they're now talking about doing even in New York? Well, this is why Florida is a little bit different, that we had those fair district standards already in our Constitution that disallowed partisan gerrymandering. At least in California and Virginia, those states went back to the voters and asked, can we change a state constitution? Can we change the law? That was a respectful way to do it. The voters of California, Virginia said yes. Go ahead. Florida did not do that.

And now this court case was filed just over the past a couple of days, a couple of different groups, clearly on our state constitution. And ultimately, it will be up to the Florida Supreme Court. Are they simply puppets of Ron DeSantis? Or are they independent jurists that respect are the plain language in the Florida Supreme Court? ! !

Florida Constitution. And like I said, no matter how they draw these district boundaries, we've got to stand up to the policies that they're passing that makes life so unaffordable, whether it was the illegal tariffs, taking health care away or making it so expensive, high cost of groceries, and now taking us into a war without any public debate that is just gouging people when they drive up to the gas pump. Think about what it means to someone who drives for a living, the cost of diesel gas right now. Those are the calls to the office right now. How can we help address this affordability squeeze?

And they're angry that they're not going to get to vote on fair districts in their congressional elections. Well, I want to drill down on that because Democrats also said that the new Virginia map would be temporary. So after the midterms, do you think that Democrats should undo their partisan drawn maps in places like Virginia in the next? name of fairness that you're invoking? I think all across the country, we've got to move towards greater reforms across our electoral system. We've got to get huge, big, dark money back out of campaigns.

We should end this kind of gerrymandering nationwide. We need to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act to restore voting rights to people. This is, we're living through a time. that is not normal. This is not normal to undermine the foundations of democracy. There are a very powerful special interests that are pulling the strings in Washington, D.C., and they're doing it in Florida, too. They're trying to rig the game. They're trying to rig our democracy, and it is up to independently minded Americans all across the country. That really, at this point, doesn't matter how you register to vote, Democrat, Republican, or independent. Our democracy is at stake. Are we going to let these powerful special interests pull the strings and call the shots through the current

GOP and Trump aligned forces? Are we going to stand up for fair elections so that everyone's voice matters? I want to play what House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries had to say last month the day after Democrats redistricting victory in Virginia. Let's play that. Our message to Florida Republicans is F around and find out. If they go down the road, of a dissentish dummymander, the Florida Republicans are going to find themselves in the same situation as Texas Republicans who are on the run right now,

and under no circumstances are Texas Republicans picking up five seats. They'll be fortunate if they get two or three. While in California, we are going to get all five. The Republicans are dummymandering their way enter the minority before a single voters cast because they started this war and we're going to finish it. So your district is now much less Democratic than it was before this new map. So do you feel that

same level of confidence as Leader Hakeem Jeffries that this is going to backfire on Republicans? I do think it will. Yes, because it, like I said, it doesn't matter how you're registered to vote right now. Should we move to bottom? People are angry. They're angry. They feel betrayed by the Trump administration by the president. He said he was going to lower prices. He said he wasn't going to get us into foreign wars. And life is so soul-crushingly expensive. And people are going to vote their pocketbooks. And if you look at recent special elections, including a state Senate race right here in the Tampa Bay area, in a shocker. A Democrat was elected to the Florida Senate. He was outspent. 10 to 1. More Republicans voted than Democrats in that election, but people want change and they want people who are focused on their pocketbooks. And Congresswoman, on another topic, I want to get your reaction to this reconciliation bill that Senate Republicans unveiled late yesterday in addition to funding for ICE and CBP. It has an extra $1 billion for security-related measures for the

White House Ballroom Project. Realistically, is there anything that you and your fellow House Democrats can do to fight that? What I explain to my neighbors about what's going on in Washington, D.C., they can't believe it, that there are banners with the president's face on it hanging from the Department of Justice and the Department of Labor. He wants to mint gold coins with his face. He wants to build an arc to Trump. He's closed the Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Center, put his name on it, and now the ballroom, and now on our passports. This is a country where the president is, out of touch. And the GOP, they're out of touch. People want them solving problems, lowering the

cost of living, not spending money on self-aggrandizement projects for Trump. That is not the way we do not live in a monarchy. Listen to what Charles III said last week. So it's up to the people, ultimately, the power of the people to take back, to do a course correction so that they send to Washington, to see people who are going to look out for them and their bottom line. And before I let you go, I do just want to ask you about the conduct of some of your fellow House lawmakers. In the last month, we've seen two congressmen, Republican Tony Gonzalez and Democrat Eric Swalwell, resign amid sexual misconduct allegations and other sitting members of Congress are facing similar misconduct claims as well. Former Congressional Democrat,

Jackie Spire, a victim of assault while a staffer herself, is demanding bold action, telling Politico, quote, maybe we need to put padlocks on their zippers when they first get to Congress. I don't know, but it's got to be fixed and we've got to do something bold. Do you agree with her? And if so, what should be done? Yes, I have great respect for my former colleague, Jackie Spear. And she already led in great reform. But I served on the Ethics Committee in the past. It is broken. It is a black hole. It takes entirely too long.

So, yes, there needs to be significant reform and accountability. That Ethics Committee works entirely too slow. It's not as transparent as it needs to be. And so I encourage everyone to demand from their elected officials. First, better behavior, honest behavior, but swift recourse for those who break the law. Congresswoman Kathy Castor, thank you so much for your time today. We appreciate it. And as we mentioned, last night, Senate Republicans unveiled their $71 billion reconciliation package,

primarily aimed at funding ICE and Border Patrol without needing support from Democrats, after those agencies were left out of a deal to end the Homeland Security shutdown last week. Notably, the GOP package also includes $1 billion for security-related construction for the White House ballroom, despite the president's repeated promises that the project would be entirely funded by private donations. This is being financed privately. It's a donation that's being given by companies, very rich companies, very rich people. We did this, no charge to the taxpayer whatsoever. That one penny is being used from the federal government.

It comes as recent polling showed the ballroom is unpopular with the public, even if it's privately funded. Still, the president keeps finding ways to bring up the topic, even at events that have nothing to do with the ballroom. I didn't want to say this, but this is why we have to have all of the attributes of what we're planning at the White House. It's actually a larger room, and it's much more secure. It's drone-proof, it's bulletproof glass. We need the ballroom. I love construction. You see all those nice caterpillars and John Deers?

We have a lot of John Deers. That's a big dig, and we're building a ballroom. We have a lot of great service members here with us, too, and this beautiful. Beautiful building, isn't it? Beautiful. We're adding on to the building a little bit. This is a nice full room. You know, we have a ballroom being built. In about a year and a half, we'll be able to have about, I'd say, 10 times the number. Joining me now is our panel for the day. Nicholas Wu, congressional reporter for semaphore Democratic strategist, Joel Payne and Tiffany Smiley, founder of the Endeavor Pack. Thank you all for being here a lot to discuss.

I will start with you. So how significant is it that Republicans decided to include this potential money for the ballroom in their reconciliation package? And how much do you think the shooting at the White House correspondence dinner 10 days ago had to do with that decision? The addition of the ballroom money in this budget proposal came as somewhat of a surprise addition. I mean, this was something that Republicans have been talking about, finding some way to do a standalone bill for the ballroom. But, you know, this is the must-pass. legislative vehicle that's moving through the House and the Senate. And so this is the kind of thing where Republicans might try to attach that kind of funding. Now, the question is whether or not

this might lose the many votes among folks who might think that this is not something Congress should be spending money on. And do you think the dinner did sort of factor into this very moment, trying to push it ahead now? Very possibly. The dinner prompted a lot of calls from Republicans in the House and Senate to pass some kind of legislation to build a ballroom, to allocate money for it, to in some other way provide Congress a seal of approval on it, which is what the courts have asked for. And so this might be their way of trying to do so. And Tiffany, the president, as we just played there, I mean, he likes to bring up the ballroom and all of his other renovation projects as often as he can.

But does it risk making him look kind of distracted when there's so much else happening in the world and here domestically when he is that focused on things like that? Well, I think it's important to remember that we have a president who's not a career politician. He's a builder. He's a developer. He built New York City, high-rise towers. This is who he is, in a sense. And I appreciate that he is moving this forward. You look at all of the imminent threats on our president, multiple assassination attempts. One almost took him out when he was campaigning. This is very problematic. And it's problematic when you look into the future. So adding in that funding, it's for protection for our country, for our future presidents down the road. We need to be smart and innovative. and look at the threats that are imminent and posed direct threats to our president and our cabinet members, not just today and now what we're facing, but in the future. So it's like a bunker system. They need safety.

They need security. And you look at all of the threats from drones and all these new technologies that are now coming in and threatening our country. I see it as a good move for the future for protection of future presidents in the cabinet. So you can make that national security argument. But setting that aside, is it a best? look to then put taxpayers on the hook for this. I mean, $1 billion, especially when the polling that we've been talking about, he's so underwater specifically on this issue. Well, if it's going to protect our president and cabinet members and provide a safe place for them to have access

to events and public appearances, I think it's a very smart move. And something that, again, it's not just for President Trump. It's for the future of this country. And that's what the taxpayers would be funding. And Joel, what do you think about how Democrats should be engaging on these kinds of projects, because if they do that, do they then risk looking like they're unfocused on some of these more cost of living issues or broader affordability concerns if they're drilling down on the ballroom specifically, for instance? At its core, this is about priorities, right? The American people did not elect Donald Trump to cosplay as Bob Vila or Martha Stewart.

They elected him to lower their costs, to make things easier for them, to keep the peace throughout the world. He's delivering on none of those things. He's more interested in telling college students what to study on campus, what to watch, what you can watch on late night TV. He's more interested in telling you what to think about pop culture. He is not focused on the things he was elected to do. And that's not only a problem for him, but it's a problem for Republicans all up and down the ballot coming this November because I can guarantee you, I have a deep amount of respect for Tiffany. She'd much rather be talking about other issues than defending Donald Trump asking for a billion dollars for a ballroom.

And she and the Republicans who are on the ballot this November, that's what they have to do. They have to defend this president because he does not allow them to space to make smart political arguments. And that's the problem that Republicans are dealing with. But if Republicans do pass this package, then this is going to kind of maybe remove some of the legal hurdles that could potentially stop this, right? So isn't that kind of going to make a democratic effort to oppose it more complicated? If those arguments are out the window and the construction can proceed, what happens then? If Republicans want to exert the remainder of their political capital on these vanity projects, on these surface projects that do not make the American people's lives better, be my guest.

And if they want to go and they want to spend the next six months, spending all their money at the NRC, defending this, and sitting on panels like this and defending this, I'd be happy to serve a volley with them. Nicholas, the other big story today that we talked about on the show is this effort from the president. He's devoted a lot of resources in political capital to ousting these Republicans who, We're not on the same page with him when it comes to redistricting. We specifically talked about Indiana, where he is going against these state lawmakers who voted against the plan. But how big of a test do you think it's going to be for whether that is an actual test of the president's base and his influence on all of this?

This is very much a proxy in a lot of ways for the president's influence down ballot. And what I'm watching tonight is the degree to which this changes voting patterns that we might already see in what are generally, low turnout, kind of, you know, less engaged elections than you normally see on a national level. These are local races. Voters might be tuning in a little bit later. And there's been a huge influx of money in Indiana as part of this effort by the president to oust these lawmakers who oppose his redistricting effort. And so the question for me is not necessarily whether or so much voters were swayed by the redistricting argument, but more whether or not voters were swayed by the president putting his stamp on people. And Tiffany, jump in on that. I mean, how does this help

devoting all this money and time to this specifically the state legislature race, how does that help Republicans keep the House and the Senate? Yeah, well, I think this is definitely a test. And, you know, are voters motivated? Are they turned out because of this? I think we have, obviously, you know, the midterms are six months away. That's the real litmus test. Well, we will know how this really all plays out.

But Donald Trump is going to do what Donald Trump does. And he's made a commitment that he will campaign and be out there in the fight. every regard just as if he's running for president. Now he's not on the top of the ticket. So how does that play down in races? I think these candidates, these Republican candidates in these districts are going to have to be able to also stand on their own two feet. And they're going to have to make their case to the American people that they understand where they're at and that we are the party that will lead them into the future to a better economy, lower prices, and a better future. Something I like about Donald Trump is he's not always political, like a career political. Like a career

politician. And he's in a position now where he's able, he's making moves for our country that are longstanding. Very rarely do you get a president who's willing to do that. Usually it's short-term little gains to maintain power and to maintain a re-election. So I think this will be really interesting to watch how it all plays out. And Joel, if they, these voters do end up backing the Trump-indorce candidates in this? I mean, do you see that as a tougher or easier fight for Democrats in the election in November, kind of what would be the more ideal outcome that Democrats are actually hoping for here? Yeah, it's a good question. I mean, look, it's very clear that Donald Trump, Susie Wiles, his political operation, view their strength as holding their base, holding their base

politicians and electates, and showing strength and showing the facade of strength. I think that also says they have a lot weighing on what happens in Indiana tonight, just like they have a lot weighing on what in Kentucky with Thomas Massie. They have a lot weighing with other Republicans that they are trying to influence around the country. If they cannot hold those folks in line, that starts to crumble at the core of Donald Trump's political project. And I'd imagine that's what's concerned in the folks in the White House right now. And we're going to hear more from Vice President JD Vance, who's out campaigning in Iowa today, so that'll be interesting as well. Joel, Tiffany, and Nicholas, thank you all so much for this discussion. And still to come, humanitarian aid group

sound the alarm in Lebanon as Israel and Hezbollah ratchet up their attacks, with more than a million people now facing a hunger crisis. A World Central Kitchen Chef joins us from on the ground in Beirut. You're watching Meet the Press now.

Welcome back. Fighting is intensifying between the Israeli military and Iran's proxy group Hezbollah in Lebanon. despite a ceasefire. The IDF issuing new evacuation orders for several towns and villages this week in southern Lebanon amid a recent barrage of strikes. It comes as a humanitarian group is issuing a new warning about a deepening crisis in Lebanon as people continue to be forced from their homes by the conflict. A new report from the United Nations and Lebanon's Ministry of Agriculture says more than 1.2 million people in Lebanon could face acute hunger between now and August, which is about a quarter. of the people living in the country. Joining me now is World Central Kitchen Chef Aline Kamakian in Beirut. Alene, thank you so much for making time to speak with us today.

And you were on this show just a few weeks ago telling us about your work trying to feed families in Lebanon. Since then, this report has come out, warning of a food crisis. How concerning is this assessment to you? Well, it's very concerning because the amount of the people that are in the state of acute food insecurity is huge. Recent reports speak about 24% of the population. This is one out of four, and it's around 1,240,000 people that are without food, entire, I mean, like, 43% of the population, of the Lebanese population, are in need of humanitarian aid. Where Central Kitchen is doing an enormous job, we're preparing more and distributing more than 25,000 meal per day.

But again, the need is going much faster. Now, the internally displaced people has risen up to 1.3 million people, and only 100,000 of them are in shelters. primitive shelters. So things are getting every day worsened. You have daily, still from 50 to 70, airstrike. You have new warnings, new areas that is being evacuated. Nothing is stopping them. Nothing is stopping the war of continuing, and people are getting more and more desperate. Such difficult conditions. Can you tell me more about what you have seen there, on the ground? Are you noticing shortages of food? And has it been harder to access the ingredients you would need to make a basic meal? It is getting, still we can access, but it's getting

much more expensive. It's getting really expensive. You have the international inflation that is affecting, and you have the Lebanese war that is affecting. So you have prices are has risen up very fast. And what is the situation is that people cannot afford anymore, whether they are affected from the war or from poverty. You have both that is being, it's creating a huge crisis. And the UN report did talk about displacement, which you also mentioned of people as one of the factors

that's obviously contributing to this crisis, but it also mentions the conflict, which is disrupting farming and supply chain. So how much of an impact is that having? You have to know that 65% of the agriculture land in Lebanon are located in the south and the becca. Both of them are being heavily bombarded right now and white phosphorus and whatever you want. So you don't have an agriculture right now, pure agriculture in Lebanon. You have major, most of the farmers became internally displaced people.

So the agriculture is very weak. You have also the infrastructure, so there is no irrigation, there is no water. So you have this also that is affecting. So Lebanon is depending most of it 80 to 90% on importation. So this is what makes everything much more difficult and much more heavy to continue. You have more than 49,000 olive trees that are deliberately, derouted, derruted. And so you have all the trees and everything that is being burned. So this is also affecting a lot. In the south only, you have 40% of the farmers that they cannot arrive to

their lands. And officially, there is a ceasefire in place for now between Israel and Hezbollah. But as we've mentioned and noted, the fighting does continue. So has the ceasefire help to alleviate the humanitarian situation at all in your view these last few weeks? Well, the ceasefire is a complete joke. Okay, so I don't know how to explain, but the ceasefire made things worse, I guess, because people thought that they can go back to their, try to find their houses, try to find their homes, but unfortunately is a complete farce. So the ceasefire, people started to go back to the south, trying to find their houses, whatever left of it.

Unfortunately, the bombardment restarted. So we as humanitarian, we were like a bit, it's very difficult to arrive every place to distribute food because of the road, because of the people that are on the road and the war that the roads got bombarded. You cannot arrive every place. So the ceasefire, I'm sorry, but it's a complete farce. Aline, and in the short time that we have left, what do you make of the response from the international community? And do you think enough is being done to help Lebanon right now? Well, there's a word-centric kitchen is here.

There's a lot of NGO that's working. But unfortunately, the need is so big that all of us together, we're not able to cover it. It's a huge. The need is huge. International community is acting as if there is no war. But here on the ground, there is a huge, we're getting hit every day. So the need is huge. I don't know if we can. If we continue like this, it's a catastrophe. Chef Aline Kamakian, thank you so much for your time today and for your important efforts. We really appreciate it. Thank you. We will be back tomorrow with more Meet the Press now,

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