Meet the Press – October 6, 2024

KRISTEN WELKER:

This Sunday: 2020 hindsight. With just 30 days until Election Day, Donald Trump's refusal to accept the 2020 results looms over the 2024 race.

GOV. TIM WALZ:

Did he lose the 2020 election?

SEN. JD VANCE:

Tim, I'm focused on the future.

GOV. TIM WALZ:

That's a damning non-answer.

KRISTEN WELKER:

– as the special counsel reveals new evidence in the federal election interference case –

They rigged the election. The election was rigged. I didn't rig it. They did.

KRISTEN WELKER:

And former Republican Congresswoman Liz Cheney hits the campaign trail with Vice President Kamala Harris.

I have never voted for a Democrat, but this year, I am proudly casting my vote for Vice President Kamala Harris.

No matter your political party, there's a place for you with us and in this campaign.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Plus: wider war. As the Middle East escalates into a regional war, fears grow the conflict is expanding to a new and more dangerous phase. And: return visit. Former President Trump returns to the Pennsylvania rally site where he survived an assassination attempt in July.

Over the past eight years, those who want to stop us from achieving this future have slandered me, impeached me, indicted me, tried to throw me off the ballot, and who knows? Maybe even tried to kill me.

KRISTEN WELKER:

My guests this morning: Republican Senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas and Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff of California. Joining me for insight and analysis are: NBC News Chief Washington Correspondent Andrea Mitchell; Amna Nawaz, co-anchor of PBS News Hour; Marc Short, former chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence; and former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki. Welcome to Sunday, it's Meet the Press.

ANNOUNCER:

From NBC News in Washington, the longest-running show in television history, this is Meet the Press with Kristen Welker.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Good Sunday morning. Election Day is now just 30 days away, and there are crises swirling at home and abroad. As Israel prepares to mark the one year anniversary of the October 7 terror attacks, the region is on edge for a potential retaliation after a massive missile attack by Iran. And 10 days after Hurricane Helene made landfall, hopes are fading for finding those still unaccounted for, as the death toll soars to at least 230. Vice President Kamala Harris touching down in Charlotte, North Carolina on Saturday, visiting a resource donation center.

The work that is happening here and that continues really is the best of what we can do to bring federal, state and local resources together, in a way that is coordinated with one purpose and one purpose only: which is bringing relief, support and help to the people who are most in need and desperate for help.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Meanwhile, in battleground Pennsylvania, former President Trump made a dramatic return to Butler, the place where a gunman tried to assassinate him nearly three months ago, He was joined on stage by billionaire Elon Musk and paid tribute to the supporter killed that day, while criticizing the Biden-Harris hurricane response.

This is a Katrina for them. This is one of the worst – they say it's the worst job ever done on helping people through the ravages of a hurricane.

KRISTEN WELKER:

And just a month before, Mr. Trump is on the ballot again, the former President's effort to overturn his election loss four years ago is back in focus. On Tuesday, Mr. Trump's running mate, JD Vance, refused to say during the vice presidential debate that the former president lost the 2020 election.

GOV. TIM WALZ:

Did he lose the 2020 election?

SEN. JD VANCE:

Tim, I'm focused on the future. Did Kamala Harris censor Americans from speaking their mind in the wake of the 2020 Covid situation?

GOV. TIM WALZ:

That is a damning – that is a damning non answer.

KRISTEN WELKER:

On Wednesday, a federal judge unsealed a filing in the election interference case against Mr. Trump. In the brief Special Counsel Jack Smith argues Mr. Trump is not immune from prosecution for his efforts to overturn the 2020 election, saying he was acting as a candidate. Mr. Trump criticized the release as a political act.

This was a weaponization of government, and that's why it was released 30 days before the election. They rigged the election. I didn't rig the election. They rigged the election.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Now, as a reminder, former President Trump and his allies brought more than 60 legal challenges after the 2020 election in an effort to overturn it. Nearly all of the cases were dropped or dismissed due to a lack of evidence. In a striking display on Thursday, former Republican congresswoman Liz Cheney campaigned for Vice President Harris.

Donald Trump was willing to sacrifice our Capitol to allow law enforcement officers to be beaten and brutalized in his name and to violate the law and the Constitution, in order to seize power for himself. I don't care if you are a Democrat or a Republican or an Independent, that is depravity, and we must never become numb to it.

KRISTEN WELKER:

And on Friday, in a surprise visit to the White House briefing room – his first in office – President Biden shared concerns about election violence.

REPORTER:

Do you have confidence that it will be a free and fair election and that it will be peaceful?

PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN:

I'm confident it will be free and fair. I don't know whether it will be peaceful. The things that Trump has said and the things that he said last time out, when he didn't like the outcome of the election, were very dangerous.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Former President Trump will return to Pennsylvania later this week, and former President Obama will kick off a battleground state blitz for Vice President Harris on Thursday, also in the Keystone State. I'm joined now by national political correspondent Steve Kornacki with the

latest on the state of the race. Steve, break it down for us.

STEVE KORNACKI:

Yeah, Kristen, let's start big picture nationally, here. We've been tracking this week to week, the average of all of the major national polls. Kamala Harris continuing with that three point advantage in the average over Donald Trump. But of course, Donald Trump lost the popular vote in each of the last two times he ran for president, and one of those times, in 2016, he was still able to win through the electoral college. So, let's take a closer look, then, at the states, at the seven core battleground states. Again, you're looking at our poll averages in here. The headline, obviously, continues to be: it's very close everywhere. But one thing to draw your attention to when you talk about Trump being in Pennsylvania, Obama coming in there, all of the attention: From Trump's standpoint, in terms of an efficient path to 270 electoral votes, it would look something like this. If Trump gets Georgia, okay – where he leads in the poll average by a point and a half – if he gets North Carolina, where he is literally tied in the polls right now, and where Trump won in 2020 – the only one of these battleground states Trump carried four years ago – then all Trump would need, on top of Georgia and North Carolina, would be Pennsylvania, where Harris does have a small lead in the averages now. But Trump getting those three would get him to 270. So, that's the importance for him and for Democrats, the importance of blocking that path for Trump in Pennsylvania. Taking a closer look, then, at the Keystone State, one of the reasons, besides its size, that this is of such interest to Trump and the Republicans, there's a trend here. You're looking at the Trump era. You're looking at party registration in Pennsylvania. And look at this, when Donald Trump first came on the scene, you know, back in 2016 the Democratic advantage in party registration in Pennsylvania was over 900,000 votes. 2020, look now in 2024 that's been cut almost in two thirds there, down to about 330,000. There's been a little bit of a boost for Democrats since Kamala Harris took over in registration, but the big picture trend here has been more competitive for Republicans in party registration. So, where are we looking in Pennsylvania, what's going to decide this state? Well, believe it or not, in the Trump era, there are only 10 counties in the entire state where Democrats perform better now than they did before Trump came along. However, some of these counties are very big. Focus on these four collar counties right outside Philadelphia – Delaware, Chester, Montgomery, Bucks – more than a fifth of the vote statewide is going to come out of there. And look what's been happening here. Last pre-Trump election in these collar counties outside Philly, Democrats won them. Obama won by nine points, about 120,000 votes. Look what happened in 2020: almost a 20 point Democratic margin, nearly a 300,000 vote margin. This is where the Democrats have been growing – suburbs, places with lots of concentrations of high college degrees. Can Harris do even better in those collar counties? That's critical for her. And then, from Trump's standpoint, there's a lot of rural counties in the state that have gotten redder, small, rural counties. But let's talk about this collection here. Some people call this the Latino belt of Pennsylvania. These are counties that have some small mid sized cities with rapidly growing Latino populations. And we've been talking about Trump improving, relative to 2020 and 2016, among Hispanic voters. Well, you can see it. Here are some of the cities in that Latino belt in Pennsylvania. Reading, Pennsylvania. It's 70% Latino. Now, it was overwhelmingly Democratic in 2020. Joe Biden won by 45 points. But look at that. That's down almost 20 points from 2012. Hazelton, Pennsylvania, more than 60% Hispanic. In 2012, Democrats won it narrowly. It's now a double-digit Trump place. Allentown, it has come down 10 points in its margin for Democrats. Can Trump grow new support in the Latino counties, the emerging Latino counties, with large populations of Latino voters in Pennsylvania? That's a key from his campaign standpoint, to the state – to the Keystone State. Kristen?

KRISTEN WELKER:

Well, key questions as we continue to keep our eyes on the Keystone State. Steve Kornacki, thank you so much.

STEVE KORNACKI:

You got it.

KRISTEN WELKER:

And joining me now is Republican senator Tom Cotton of Arkansas. Senator Cotton, welcome back to Meet the Press. Thank you so much for being here.

SEN. TOM COTTON:

Thanks for having me on, Kristen.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Let's start off by talking about Hurricane Helene. We know that former President Trump has made, quite frankly, a series of baseless claims, including that the Biden administration is intentionally withholding aid from areas where Republicans live, also saying that FEMA funds are being redirected to migrants. Both those claims have been debunked. They're false. Here's what Deanne Criswell, the FEMA administrator, had to say about it. Take a look:

DEANNE CRISWELL:

This level of misinformation creates the scenario where they won't even come to us, they won't even register. And I need people to register so they can get what they're eligible for through our programs.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Senator, what do you say to that criticism, that Mr. Trump is confusing people at a very time when they need help the most?

SEN. TOM COTTON:

Well, I don't think he's confusing anyone. I think the administration did get caught flat-footed here and that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have been proven to be over-matched by events again. If you hear from Brian Kemp, the governor of Georgia, who's very close to this, is monitoring it on the ground, Georgia's response, he said that the administration's response has been lackluster. I think there's an obvious difference between what happened in, in western North Carolina, northern Georgia, eastern Tennessee than the normal kind of hurricane impact we see. Most time – most of the time, hurricanes are hitting on the coast, hitting by definition flat land. They can cause devastating damage. But within some reasonable period of time, the waters recede, linemen can come in, trucks can come in and bring supplies. If you look at the geography of where Helene did the most damage, it's in the mountains where you have small narrow valleys. Even once the storm moved on and there's no more rain, often times these places only have one way in and out. So that's a very different challenge than what you see on coastal areas. And I think the administration from the very beginning should've been deploying military assets necessary, specifically helicopters to get in there. It took them days to do that. There's hundreds of military helicopters within flying distance of this area. That should've happened from the very beginning.

KRISTEN WELKER:

But, Senator, just a couple of points there. The governors themselves has said that they are satisfied with the federal response. Brian Kemp on Monday said, "We got what we needed." The Democratic governor of North Carolina said the state is "grateful for the support." We know that North Carolina got $27 million to western North Carolina specifically. There is no doubt that there are challenges in this recovery effort, but I'm asking you about the misinformation that the former president is spreading. Here's what the Charlotte Observer editorial board wrote: they wrote, quote, "Former President Donald Trump has politicized the situation at every turn, spreading falsehoods and conspiracies that fracture the community instead of bringing it together." Do you think Donald Trump should leave campaign politics out of disaster relief?

SEN. TOM COTTON:

Well, Kristen, again, you have Governor Kemp who said that the response has been lacking. I understand the Democratic governor of North Carolina is going to praise Joe Biden and Kamala Harris in the middle of an election season. But the simple fact is we're more than a week on, we're still not conducting recovery operations. They're still engaged in rescue operations because Kamala Harris and Joe Biden were slow to answer the bell here. They were slow-footed, and they were over matched by events. You even had the secretary of Homeland Security saying there's not enough money left in the fund. So it is the case that the administration itself, the secretary who oversees FEMA, said there's not enough money left in the fund. And they have been spending billions of dollars for the last four years to move migrants from our border, to put them up in hotels, and give them room service and maids. That's the – that's simply a fact.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Those funds are coming from a different federal fund not from disaster relief, just to be clear. And what DHS Secretary Mayorkas said is that it has the money it needs for now but not necessarily through the end of the year for future hurricanes. So there is a discussion about more funding. You're right about that. But, look, Henry McMaster, the Republican governor of South Carolina said federal assistance has "been superb." Glenn Youngkin said he's "incredibly appreciative of the rapid response." And again, Brian Kemp on Monday at least in part said, "We got what we need," while also saying, "Yes, there are some more things that we would like to see here in the state." My broader question to you, I think, is about this misinformation. Do you think this is a time to put falsehoods aside, like the idea that FEMA funds are being redirected to migrants, which is just not true?

SEN. TOM COTTON:

It is true that FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security have been spending billions of dollars on migrants. Now, I understand some people say they're separate funds, but we just passed a short-term spending bill. It's very common for the administration to come and ask for permission to move money between funds, especially to prepare for emergencies. And, second, I would note that this administration seems to have no problem finding money when they want to spend it on their priorities. When they need hundreds of billions of dollars to pay off student loans for graduate students in gender studies programs they somehow find it. When it's trying to get helicopters to deliver food and water and cellular service and life-saving medicine into these mountain valleys, they somehow can't seem to find the money.

KRISTEN WELKER:

And again, $110 million have been sent to survivors so far. And again, those are different funds than disaster relief funds. But let me ask you about something different. I want to talk about one of the big moments this week from the vice presidential debate. We just played it in the open, when Senator JD Vance refused to say that Donald Trump lost the 2020 election. I want to put this question to you, Senator, just to put this to rest: Can you say definitively here and now that Donald Trump did lose the 2020 election?

SEN. TOM COTTON:

Kristen, Joe Biden was elected president in 2020. It was an unfair election in many ways. I mean, you had states that were changing their election practices or election laws, sometimes in violation of their Constitution. You had networks combining with Big Tech to suppress what we now know to be a truthful story about Hunter Biden's laptop and the evidence that it exposed about Biden family corruption. So obviously Joe Biden was elected president. We know that in part because -

KRISTEN WELKER:

But did Trump lose? Just to the –

SEN. TOM COTTON:

Joe Biden was elected, Kristen. I mean, there's a process by which we elect presidents. There's votes in November. You have an Electoral College vote. You certify the election. And then you have the inauguration. Joe Biden was elected president. Everything has gone to hell in a handbasket as a result of it.

KRISTEN WELKER:

As you know, though, I mean, it has been stated that this was one of the most secure elections in U.S. history. But do you just not want to say that Trump lost? Why not just say the simple –

SEN. TOM COTTON:

Kristen –

KRISTEN WELKER:

If Biden is president can you just simply say, "Trump lost"?

SEN. TOM COTTON:

Joe – Joe Biden was elected president in 2020. That's why we have runaway inflation. That's why we have more than 10 million illegals in this country. And to go back to the point about the 2020 election, you – it was very irregular. You had networks, to include this networks, conspiring with Big Tech to suppress evidence of Biden family corruption. You had Democratic states and cities, like Pennsylvania, like Philadelphia, changing their election practices on the fly. That's one reason why President Trump and the Republican National Committee is so focused on election integrity in this election, to make sure that Democrats aren't doing things like they're trying to do in Pennsylvania –

KRISTEN WELKER:

And –

SEN. TOM COTTON:

– counting absentee and mail-in ballots that don't have dates –

KRISTEN WELKER:

Well –

SEN. TOM COTTON:

– or that have the wrong date.

KRISTEN WELKER:

And there's no proof that that happened. And again, just to be clear, as I said initially, Trump did take his case to court more than 60 times, didn't win those cases. Let me move on and ask you about January 6th though, this new evidence unsealed this week. Jack Smith in this filing says he has three witnesses, forensic experts, who will testify that when Donald Trump returned to the Ellipse he went to the dining room by the Oval Office where he watched coverage of the attack against the Capitol unfold, and he was of course on his phone on Twitter. A year ago I asked Donald Trump about what he was doing during that time. Look:

KRISTEN WELKER:

Tell me how you watched this all unfold. Were you in the dining room watching TV?

I'm not going to tell you. I'll tell the people later at an appropriate time.

KRISTEN WELKER:

I want to know who you called -

By the way -

KRISTEN WELKER:

– on that day -

– Nancy Pelosi –

KRISTEN WELKER:

I want to talk about that day.

Why would I tell you that?

KRISTEN WELKER:

Did you call military or law enforcement?

What?

KRISTEN WELKER:

Did you call military or law enforcement at the moment the Capitol was under attack?

I'm not going to tell you anything.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Senator, do you think Donald Trump showed leadership in those hours when the Capitol was under attack?

SEN. TOM COTTON:

Well, what I, what I think about what Jack Smith did this week is that it was a temper tantrum from a deranged fanatic who is angry that he keeps losing time and time again in the Supreme Court over the course of his career. This is unverified, un-cross-examined hearsay from grand jury testimony, which usually isn't revealed publicly for that reason. He went to court. He asked for special permission to file a brief that's four times as long as a normal brief and to have it disclosed less than 30 days before the election. This, this is professional misconduct in all likelihood by Jack Smith, and it should be investigated.

KRISTEN WELKER:

And just to be clear, the judge did unseal it. But just back to the question. Do you think Donald Trump showed leadership in those hours that the Capitol was under attack?

SEN. TOM COTTON:

Look, I know that President Trump said to the rallygoers who were here on the Ellipse in Washington that day that they should protest peacefully and patriotically.

KRISTEN WELKER:

It took him three hours to send that tweet telling them -

SEN. TOM COTTON:

I know that, I know he posted -

KRISTEN WELKER:

– to go home, Senator.

SEN. TOM COTTON:

– but, he posted videos and other messages on social media once some of those rallygoers started to riot at the Capitol, telling them to leave the Capitol, to not assault law enforcement. I know those things. What Jack Smith is asserting in this filing is unverified, un-cross-examined hearsay. This is, this is a perfect example of actual election interference, Jack Smith violating Department of Justice regulations to try to get out as much unverified so-called evidence as he has because he's angry that he lost and the Democrats don't think they can beat Donald Trump on issues like inflation and immigration.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Very, very quickly on Iran: Would you support Israel launching strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities, Senator?

SEN. TOM COTTON:

We should do what Joe Biden and Kamala Harris haven't done for a year. We should let Israel win and we should back Israel to the hilt.

KRISTEN WELKER:

So that's a yes?

SEN. TOM COTTON:

They will decide how to retaliate against Iran. Iran is our enemy. Israel needs our support. We should back them to the hilt in what they decide to do.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Should they go after the nuclear sites? Would you support that as a U.S. senator?

SEN. TOM COTTON:

I'm not going to, I'm not going to give Benjamin Netanyahu advice on what to target. I'm going to say that unlike Kamala Harris and Joe Biden, we should back Israel to the hilt. We should let them win against our common enemies.

KRISTEN WELKER:

All right. Senator Tom Cotton, thank you so much for being here today. Really -

SEN. TOM COTTON:

Thank you, Kristen.

KRISTEN WELKER:

– appreciate it. Good to see you. When we come back, Democratic congressman Adam Schiff of California joins me next.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Welcome back, and joining me now is Democratic Congressman Adam Schiff of California. Congressman Schiff, welcome back to Meet the Press.

REP. ADAM SCHIFF:

Great to be with you.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Well, it's great to have you. I want to start off by asking you about that unsealed brief that was filed by Jack Smith. We should note that it was unsealed by the judge. In it, he reveals new details about what happened on January 6th, including, he says, that when former President Trump was told that his then-Vice President Mike Pence had to be rushed out of where he was for safety, and that he was in danger, Trump's response was, "So what?" What was your reaction to hearing that, Congressman?

REP. ADAM SCHIFF:

Well, that was the most shocking part to me. It just reaffirmed, I think, what we all know about Donald Trump. And that is he cares about no one except himself, he cares about nothing. Not the Constitution, not our institutions, not the Capitol, not his own colleagues. Nothing but himself. And in that respect, that one exchange when the president is informed, as the vice president is essentially being sequestered in a safe place because his life is at risk, people are chanting, "Hang Mike Pence," the president's reaction is, "So what?" That, to me, is so telling and so powerful.

KRISTEN WELKER:

I want to ask you about the timing of all of this, Congressman, which you know has been in focus. A former federal prosecutor referred to this brief as Jack Smith's, quote, "October cheap shot." Donald Trump has accused the Justice Department of election interference, essentially by violating its longstanding practice not to take public steps in politically related cases close to an election. So, I wonder if you would weigh in on this. Do you think it was appropriate for this brief to be unsealed this close to the election, Congressman?

REP. ADAM SCHIFF:

I do think it was appropriate, and we have to look at why the delay was occasioned in the first place. And so much of the delay had to do with the defendant's stall tactics in the lower courts, in the appellate courts, in the Supreme Court. It had a lot to do with the Supreme Court's decision to wait until the last day of session, to wait until as close to the election as possible, because the Supreme Court – now, sadly, the legacy of the chief justice, Roberts, has become yet another partisan institution – decided to issue its decision at the latest moment. And then, what you see the special counsel do, is what he should do, which is promptly go back to the grand jury, get a superseding indictment that meets the new limits placed on evidence and charges in a presidential prosecution, bring that indictment forward, then file a brief before the district court to continue the process. So, I think the special counsel did what he should do, and I think the court was well within its discretion to make that public.

KRISTEN WELKER:

And yet, Congressman, just to remind you, this is what you said back in 2016 when then-FBI director James Comey reopened, essentially, the investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails. Take a look.

REP. ADAM SCHIFF:

The DOJ policies against making a statement about a pending or closed case, and certainly not doing it in the days leading up to an investigation, is there for a reason.

REP. ADAM SCHIFF:

I think this was the exercise of very poor judgment. I say that not just as a Clinton supporter, but someone who spent six years in the Department of Justice as an assistant U.S. attorney. You don't talk about pending cases, you certainly don't do it right around election time.

KRISTEN WELKER:

And again, that was reopened just days before the election. Why shouldn't that same standard apply now, Congressman?

REP. ADAM SCHIFF:

Because what you had there was the director of the FBI unilaterally making a decision to talk about an open investigation. It wasn't the filing in a court, it wasn't a decision by a judge weighing the policy, weighing the evidence. This was James Comey's unilateral decision in the weeks leading up to the election. That's very different. Prosecutors, before bringing a case – and this was before any case was brought by James Comey or prosecutors – speaking to the public about evidence in the case, doing so, indeed, days before the election, even not knowing what that evidence was. That is a very different circumstance than a court filing made under seal, as it was here.

KRISTEN WELKER:

This week, President Biden, as you know, said that he doesn't know if the election will be peaceful, though he does think it will be free and fair. Do you think this election will be peaceful, and free and fair, Congressman?

REP. ADAM SCHIFF:

I think what the president said was all too accurate. Shockingly, breathtakingly, tragically accurate. And that is yes, I think the election will be free and fair, but will it be free of violence at the end of the day? If it is close, if Donald Trump loses again, as I expect that he will, he will contest it. He has more reason to contest it than he did before. Not because of any flaw in the election, but because Donald Trump believes, and perhaps with reason, that if he doesn't succeed at the ballot box, he may be going to jail. So, he's going to challenge the results. And we saw, tragically, what happened when he did that four years earlier. And what's more, we see him laying the same foundation to fraudulently challenge the results once again, putting out the same big lies that he put out four years earlier. So, sadly, to hear an American president say that he cannot fully expect that this may be a peaceful transition of power, it breaks your heart. Because this is the legacy of Donald Trump, which is, we now cannot go into an election with full confidence that the results will be peaceful.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Let me shift now to the ongoing developments and escalations in the Middle East. I want to ask you to respond broadly to what you just heard from Senator Tom Cotton, who makes the case that we, quite frankly, hear from former President Trump, which is that part of why you have this unrest, this escalation in the Middle East, is because, as Cotton just said, he argues the Biden Administration has been weak in its foreign policy, in its policies toward the Middle East. What say you? How do you respond to that allegation that we have heard, quite frankly, not just from Cotton, but from a number of Republicans on the campaign trail?

REP. ADAM SCHIFF:

I think it's the kind of nonsense you hear on the campaign trail. Look, we are where we are, tragically one year after October 7th, because Hamas massacred, raped, tortured 1,200 people a year ago. And they still retain dozens and dozens of hostages, including Americans. Hezbollah, the day after Hamas began that war, expressed its solidarity with Hamas by also lobbing projectiles into Israel. That's why we are where we are. And you know, my heart breaks for the families of those hostages that have gone through a year of hell. But I think that we ought to, you know, try to put ourselves in the position of a state attacked the way Israel was. We would never accept the continued governance of a terrorist entity like Hamas. We would never accept a situation where our people are held hostage, as indeed they are today. We would never accept a situation where tens of thousands of our citizens couldn't return to their homes because a different terrorist group, Hezbollah, was continuing to attack them. That's why we are where we are. And Israel will retaliate. If I were advising the prime minister of Israel I would say, "Go after those ballistic missile factories, storage areas." That would be proportionate, in my view. But it would also help degrade Iran's capacity.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Well, that was going to be my follow-up question, which you just answered. So, I appreciate it. Let me turn now to the state of the race. Obviously, incredibly close nationally and in key battleground states. You told me the last time we were together on this program in July that Vice President Harris – who wasn't, of course, at the top of the ticket at the time – that you believed she could win the election overwhelmingly. Given how close this race is, Congressman, do you still believe realistically that Kamala Harris can win this race overwhelmingly?

REP. ADAM SCHIFF:

I do. You know, by the standards of today, I think she can win overwhelmingly. You know, given how divided the country is, "overwhelming" may be winning by 100,000 votes or 80,000 votes in these key battleground states. I think that's within her capacity to do. And I made that point because I was, at the time, urging that the torch be passed to her. And it was, and I think the effect has been dramatic. Young people who were disengaged are now engaged, interested, active, volunteering. So, I think we are well-poised to win this thing. But it is still scary close, and I can't remember a time in history when we had such a clear and dramatic choice about the direction the country would take, whether we'd move forward to an economy that works for everyone, with a democracy that is healthy and intact, or whether we move back to this terrible, you know, Trump American carnage. And I think faced with that prospect and that choice, Kamala Harris will win this race, and I'm very optimistic about the outcome.

KRISTEN WELKER:

All right, scary close. A little different than "overwhelmingly," but we heard you make your case. Congressman, thank you very much, Adam Schiff, for joining us –

REP. ADAM SCHIFF:

Well, if I could just say, the reason why the margin is so important is because they will challenge the results when they lose. Running up that margin as much as possible, and turning people out has to be our priority.

KRISTEN WELKER:

All right. Congressman Adam Schiff, thank you so much for joining us today. We really appreciate it. And when we come back, Election Day is now just 30 days away. The panel joins me next.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Welcome back. The panel is here: NBC News Chief Washington Correspondent and Chief Foreign Affairs Correspondent Andrea Mitchell; Amna Nawaz, co-anchor of PBS NewsHour; former White House press secretary Jen Psaki, host of "Inside with Jen Psaki;" and Marc Short, former chief of staff to Vice President Mike Pence. Thank you all for being here. I have to start out by saying we did not plan our outfits today.

ANDREA MITCHELL:

Marc's the outlier.

MARC SHORT:

Exactly. I think in a lot of ways today.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Since you're the outlier, I'm going to start with you, Marc, because you obviously have the most unique perspective on this filing that we all saw this week by Jack Smith that was released by the judge. And in it, we did learn that Donald Trump said, "So what?" when he heard that Mike Pence, when you all were being ushered to safety. What do you make of that? What was your gut reaction when you heard that?

MARC SHORT:

I confess, Kristen, I think there's been so many different reports about interactions there that I didn't find that new. And you have to recall that at the time that we had been evacuated and sequestered away is when President Trump tweeted out against the former vice president and I think encouraging more of the activity that was happening at the Capitol. So, I didn't find that as revelationary. I do think though that broader-picture concern is – is that Republicans I think often are now condoning or sort of giving excuses away for January 6th. I think it's a bigger concern about when you've crossed that bridge and said, I'm not gonna - we, as a party that believes in the rule of law, I'm going to put that aside and not make it a big issue, then it's easier to say, well, if we're going to abandon our position on life, I can walk away from that too, or ban our position on traditional marriage, or say we're no longer a party that believes in trade, or say we're not going to stand up for our allies on the foreign stage, or now say that we're the saviors of government-run health care. Like, you crossed that bridge on January 6th, and it makes it easier on each and every successive issue to continue to walk away from the things that made our party strong as Conservatives.

KRISTEN WELKER:

It's just a fascinating point. And, Jen, let me kick it to you because in addition to everything that Marc is saying, you heard Senator Tom Cotton here again not say that Trump lost the election, of course echoing what we heard from JD Vance on the debate stage. For folks who say, "why is this still a topic of conversation?" Trump is making it a topic of conversation. He talks about it at almost every rally.

JEN PSAKI:

Exactly. And – and the big reason it's a topic of conversation is because it's not a then problem. We're not looking in the rear-view mirror and analyzing what we should do to prevent it. It's a now problem. I mean, Donald Trump is running on the platform of running on the same election subversion playbook that he tried to make happen back in 2020. That is what he's doing now. He wants fake electors. He's going to challenge it. He is actively doing many of the same things he did leading up to the 2020 election. That is why it's central, and that's why people should care about it.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Andrea, what about that and that extraordinary moment where President Biden walked into the briefing room? As a former White House correspondent, you know all too well that doesn't happen very often –

ANDREA MITCHELL:

The first time since he's been president.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Yes. And he – he said he doesn't know if this election and the transfer of power will be peaceful.

ANDREA MITCHELL:

I think it's exactly because of what Jen was just saying, because of what Donald Trump is saying and JD Vance even more so, that the election was not won by Joe Biden. They won't concede that. And also what he's saying, even in Butler last night, to the rally, so what – what he said in 2020. I think it's also - he's the President of the United States. He's still the president. He sees the threat matrix. He gets the daily brief. And I think that the threat level is higher than it's ever been and that his law enforcement, his national security people, are really concerned about the domestic stuff.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Amna, what about that and – and the fact – as Andrea says, at the rally last night, Trump without any proof said maybe the assassination attempt was being carried out by essentially his political rivals. I've been talking to his allies who say, "Stop with the conspiracy theories. Focus on the economy. That's your strong point. Talk about immigration." What are you hearing when you talk to his allies?

AMNA NAWAZ:

I mean, the thing of it is, none of his advisors, none of the Republican strategists or donors I talk to, want him talking about any of this. They want him talking about the economy and immigration, issues where Republicans have the polling advantage among American voters, issues where they feel like they have a strong message and that Americans actually care about right now too. I mean, I can remember seven or eight months ago talking even to Republican leadership on the Hill, people like Senator John Thune, who said, "Now is the time for Trump to be reaching out to Nikki Haley voters and to be expanding his base, to reaching out to suburban women." He has done none of that. And Trump's problem has always been that he has a ceiling of support. It is maxed out on the number of people who believe that the 2020 election was stolen. That's not going to expand his base or bring him more votes.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Jen, talking about strategy, you think about the Harris campaign strategy has gotten some criticism as well for not being basically mixing it up enough, enough events that are unscripted. Former President Obama's going to be out on the campaign trail. Liz Cheney was with her out on the campaign trail. Are you starting to - are anticipating a strategy shift?

JEN PSAKI:

We've already seen them announce this, which I think is a great thing. Vice President Harris has a number of interviews she's doing over the next couple weeks. Walz, Tim Walz, who I think is a huge asset who hasn't been tapped into nearly enough over the last month, is going to be out there a great deal. And you're right. I mean, the thing is at this point, when everything matters, you have to take risks. And people may make mistakes. It's worth it. Put them out there and have them doing a bunch of stuff. But we've already seen them announce their plans to do exactly that.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Marc, does a Liz Cheney out on the campaign trail make a difference, do you think?

MARC SHORT:

I don't think so.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Can she - not at all? You don't think she –

MARC SHORT:

No.

KRISTEN WELKER:

– can peel off some voters around the edges?

MARC SHORT:

No. No, I don't think so. As Amna said, I think the reality is that the issue set is behind our backs for Republicans and yet we're not really prevailing because I think Trump is stuck in that 45% to 47% and not budging. This should be really, I think, a landslide year for Republicans. But we're not focused on the issues of immigration and the economy. And by diverting onto other topics, I think this is an advantage for the Harris campaign because it reverts the conversation back to January 6th as opposed to where Republicans should be talking.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Andrea –

ANDREA MITCHELL:

And – and I think they've got to double down on doing more interviews and serious interviews because what I'm hearing from Democratic and Republican businesspeople and a lot of men – and she's got such a big problem with men. I think there's an under-count of the Trump vote. I think there's misogynation in – in all of this, black and white men, big problem. But also, the business world, they don't think she is serious. They don't think she's a heavyweight. And a lot of this is gender, but she's got to be more specific about her economic plans.

KRISTEN WELKER:

You know, Amna, to Andrea's point, the gender divide is just so significant. You see the extent to which Harris is winning with women and that Trump is winning with men.

AMNA NAWAZ:

Mm-hm. It's huge. It's the largest we've had in modern history, seems to be getting bigger with time. Look, for people who know who they're going to bake for. We know, like, 80% of registered voters are kind of baked in, right? It's the – the latest PBS News poll now shows some 20% of folks say they're swayable in some way. 15% say, "I think I know who I'm voting for, but I might change my mind." 5% say, "I don't know who I'm – I'm voting for." But I think with the things they're looking for at this stage of the game, there's no one big event, right, that's going to change people's minds one way or the other. It comes down to the issues. It comes down to the economy, which is the number one issue, immigration and defense of democracy, which means different things depending on who you talk to.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Yeah, especially since there's no second debate scheduled. All right. We will be back with more. But when we come back, former President Jimmy Carter celebrated his 100th birthday this week. What he once told us about how important it is for a president to have a sense of humor. Our Meet The Press Minute is next. Stay with us.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Welcome back. The longest-living president in U.S. history, former President Jimmy Carter, celebrated his hundredth birthday this week in his home town of Plains, Georgia, 19 months after he entered hospice care. Four of the five other living presidents sent messages celebrating the milestone.

PRES. JOE BIDEN:

Mr. President, on behalf of the entire Biden family and the American people, happy 100th birthday.

Happy birthday and have a wonderful evening.

To my fellow president Jimmy Carter, happy 100th birthday.

Have a happy birthday, friend.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Carter joined Meet The Press for a joint interview with Gerald Ford in 2000. He reflected on his infamous campaign interview with Playboy Magazine and how he managed the fallout from his candid remarks.

Well, I think it's very, very important to have a sense of humor. But within yourself you've got to be resilient, and you've got to be able to take the hardships and the good days as well. I was – I was interested a while ago in President Ford's comment about the pardon hurting him. I don't think the pardon hurt him nearly as much as – as my comment to Playboy Magazine.

TIM RUSSERT:

There you go again.

So, you have those things come up so you - by the way, my wife didn't think that was funny at all. And I dropped about 12 percentage points overnight when that Playboy - by the way, it's still the best-selling issue.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Alright, when we come back, more with the panel next.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Welcome back. The panel is still here. Andrea, let me turn to you as we continue to follow these ongoing developments in the Middle East. Of course, now there is fighting on multiple fronts in Gaza and Lebanon, Israel, with new strikes overnight. You have new reporting about the thinking inside Israel about what might come next.

ANDREA MITCHELL:

I think Prime Minister Netanyahu – and on this he is aligned with his defense minister, unlike Gaza – they are all in. They are all in because Netanyahu believes and the Israeli senior officials had said so, in New York right after the strike that got Nasrallah, the Hezbollah leader – a senior official saying to some of us that the supreme leader in Iran has a plan to eradicate Israel from the face of the Earth by 2040. There is a time clock in his quarters, and they are counting down to it. So, they see this as first taking out Hezbollah, the insurance policy that Iran always had as its back, and decimating the leadership. Now taking out what they believe, what they said to us, are missiles and rockets buried underground in Southern Lebanon. That was going to be an attack similar to the Hamas attack on October 7th. So, here we are on the anniversary, and they seea window – an electoral window, U.S. officials saying to me. One said to me that President Biden is in a straitjacket, politically. That he can't go up against Israel on something as fundamental as Iran, and Iran I think will, perhaps in an escalatory way, take out military sites in a bigger way, move on to domestic oil fields, rather than their export facilities. But eventually, I think as this tit-for-tat continues and escalates, worst case, go after the nuclear, and what they can get, not the deepest underground sites that would require U.S. help. But they can do a lot of damage.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Amna. Go ahead.

JEN PSAKI:

I was going to jump in, because I think this is important for people to understand. I mean, one of the straitjackets is that Netanyahu is disincentivized to change anything about his behavior. Because remember, over a year ago, before the horrific events on October 7th, there were people marching in the streets. He was extremely unpopular. He's now far more popular. So, he's incentivized to be a consistent wartime leader in order to stay in power.

KRISTEN WELKER:

And he's basically not listening to the White House, Amna.

AMNA NAWAZ:

I mean the U.S.– I mean, look, despite tireless efforts by the White House and State Department officials I've talked to, the U.S. has largely been relegated to sort of observer status in a lot of this. They've been unable to prevent Netanyahu from using heavy bombs in heavily populated areas, from targeting medical facilities and shelters, to get a ceasefire across the line, to bring the hostages home. So, Netanyahu is prosecuting the war with one eye on Israel, and also one eye on the U.S. election. And I will say, the inability of the U.S. to be able to exert any influence here does have consequences. Because as Jen mentioned, for all the horrors of October 7th, for the desperate fight by families to bring hostages home, you now have 40,000 Palestinians dead, mostly women and children. And for millions, both here in the U.S. and around the world, they have seen leaders who they say are unwilling to fight for Palestinians, now Lebanese maybe Iranians, for their right to live and exist. And that has shifted something that can't be shifted back easily.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Marc?

MARC SHORT:

It was a year ago that 1,200 Israelis were killed, raped, murdered, beheaded. I don't think Netanyahu should be incentivized to do anything different. I think the reality is that during this administration you've seen Iran embolden. From the early days of the 2020 campaign, Joe Biden referred to Saudi Arabia as pariah. In the first weeks of their administration, they took the Houthis off the terror watch list. They have funded – Iran has funded the Houthis, Hezbollah, Hamas. Israel is surrounded by enemies who want them eradicated. He is protecting his own people, and we should be standing behind them.

JEN PSAKI:

This is a scary position to have. And this is why, if this becomes a political issue–

KRISTEN WELKER:

Well, talk about the politics of it. Yeah.

JEN PSAKI:

Because look, I think there was a period of time – this is a huge morality issue, this is a humanitarian issue. So, let me just say that first, with the death of Palestinians. Kamala Harris – Vice President Harris has brought the overwhelming majority of Democrats back, including in Michigan, where she has support of 94%, 95% of Democrats. Still a humanitarian crisis. If this becomes a contrast between Trump and Harris, that position leads to war in – a regional war –

MARC SHORT:

I think it already has.

JEN PSAKI:

– It leads to a more expansive war. But leadership is about reducing the likelihood of war and coming to a peaceful conclusion –

MARC SHORT:

It's also standing with our allies –

JEN PSAKI:

– It's not about beating your chest–

MARC SHORT:

– They are our strongest ally in the Middle East.

ANDREA MITCHELL:

But Marc, one of the things that has been lost in all of this – well, a terrible thing is the hostages and their families, whom we've become so close to –

KRISTEN WELKER:

Yes.

ANDREA MITCHELL:

– and feeling the rage and the frustration and the agony that they feel every day. What's also lost is that there was a different horizon. A year ago, I was in New York at the UN talking to the Saudis, the Israelis, the Americans. They were closing in on an agreement. And then Hamas seeing that jump-started – according to all evidence, jump-started what was the Hezbollah plan to eventually go after Israel. Upset the timetable. Iran did not know, Hezbollah did not know. They did - and I looked at the films, the rapes, the murders. There's IDF film that has not been seen publicly, and many of us have seen it. Journalists have seen it. And it's too graphic to put on television. But the fact is that that changed all of that. But Netanyahu had an opening. And I've been on these missions with Secretary Blinken from January on, working on the Saudi–

MARC SHORT:

Israel didn't break the ceasefire –

ANDREA MITCHELL:

– Saudi was–

MARC SHORT:

– Israel didn't break the ceasefire.

ANDREA MITCHELL:

But Saudi was ready-

MARC SHORT:

It was Hamas that attacked Israel –

KRISTEN WELKER:

Guys-

MARC SHORT:

– and Iran has been funding them.

ANDREA MITCHELL:

Wait one second -

KRISTEN WELKER:

Amna-

ANDREA MITCHELL:

The bottom line is that we've lost the opportunity for an Arab force to try to keep this and bring in the Saudis.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Ten seconds left-

AMNA NAWAZ:

Very, very shortly. This is an existential fight for Israel. Absolutely. I think Netanyahu's biggest critics are those who say that we can see both the humanity of Israelis who have the right to exist and the Palestinians who are caught in this crossfire.

KRISTEN WELKER:

Well, such a critical issue we continue to cover. Thank you for the conversation. Before we go, if you want to help those who have been impacted by Hurricane Helene, please consider giving to organizations like these. That is all for today. Thank you so much for watching. We will be back next week, because if it's Sunday, it's Meet the Press.