Meet the Press NOW – March 5

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Welcome to Meet the Press now.

I'm Kristen Welker, and that was the closing bell on Wall Street on day six of the US War with Iran.

Markets ending lower with the Dow at one point, plunging more than 1100 points,

but came back to close roughly down 800 points amid growing uncertainty.

And the price of oil surging again.

It has now gone up roughly 20% since the war began less than a week ago.

In just a few moments, we are expecting an update on the war from Defense Secretary Pied Hegseth,

and the top US military commander for the Middle East region.

We will bring you that press conference when it begins.

But we begin with breaking news, and that major shake up in the Trump administration.

The president announcing on his social media feed this afternoon that he's firing

Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Nome, and naming Oklahoma Senator Mark Wain Mullin as his

pick to replace her. Senator Mullin was attending a Senate lunch when he got a call from the president

telling reporters he was not expecting that call today. Take a look.

Listen, I am super excited about this opportunity.

It came at a not a complete surprise, but it came at a little bit of a surprise force.

We know that the Department of Homeland Security has a very broad jurisdiction.

And I think there's a lot of work that we need to do, and I'm excited about it.

Senator Sanders, are you going to vote for you? Do you expect other Democrats to vote for you?

I, I, the John Ari Textney, and of course you guys know John and our friends too,

and so I don't know. We're going to try to earn everybody's vote. I want people to understand.

I'm not, when I go into this position, yes, I'm a Republican, yes, I'm conservative,

but Department of Homeland Security is to keep everybody. Regardless if you support me,

if you don't support me, it regardless of what your thoughts are.

Now the move comes as several sources to LNBC News. The president was unhappy with secretary

Nome's testimony this week before House and Senate committees, including this exchange.

The president approved ahead of time, you spending 220 million dollars

running TV ads across the country in which you are featured prominently.

Yes, sir. We went through the legal processes. Did it correct?

Did the president work with OMB? Yes.

And one thing, Senator, I think would be helpful to know is how effective that communications

has been that overwhelmingly. Well, effective in your name recognition.

I personally just, I mean to me, it puts the president in a terribly awkward spot.

Now before announcing her firing, the White House today was pushing back on Nome's claims,

saying, quote, POTUS did not sign off on a 220 million dollar ad campaign.

Absolutely not. Joining me now to break all of this down, NBC News,

senior White House correspondent Gabe Gutierrez, and NBC News, senior homeland security correspondent

Julia Ainsley. Thanks to both of you for starting us off today with this big breaking news,

Gabe, let me start with you. Based on my conversations, this was not just one factor that led to her

outstair. Basically, there were a number of issues that just started piling up and became too great.

Well, certainly, Chris, and in the first indication today was the statement you just read,

absolutely not. It's rare that you get such pushback from the White House specifically,

after Secretary Nome was on Capitol Hill earlier this week, and that really got to the president.

$200 million for an ad campaign that tries to make her look good, certainly the president

seeing this and didn't want to be associated with it, White House pushing back that he did not

approve of it. But just in the last hour or so since the story has broken, Chris,

and we've also gotten a statement from an administration official. We are hearing and sharp pushback

on what the reason, or excuse me, laying out the reason for Nome's firing.

A administration official tells us that a culmination of her many unfortunate leadership failures,

including the fallout in Minnesota, the ad campaign, the allegations of infidelity,

the mismanagement of her staff, and her constant feuding with the heads of other agencies,

including CBP and ICE. Christie's drama, sadly, overshadowed and distracted from the

administration's extremely popular immigration agenda, which will continue in full force.

What a scathing statement from an administration official. Clearly, this must have been in the works,

but there was some fury here, and we're also learning too that there was a contentious call

earlier this week between Corey Lewandowski, a top Kristi Nome aide and the president himself.

Right, and those two go back so far. Well, Julia, just an extraordinary statement.

I mean, I've covered the White House for more than a decade. I can't remember the last time a

senior administration official released a statement like that against a cabinet secretary.

Julia, you have more on these mounting frustrations. Yeah, that's right. And with that contract,

so much focus, so much attention during the hearings of the $220 million contract that gave

reported on, but also we're reporting on another ad campaign. We understand that Kristi Nome handpicked

those same companies who worked on the ad campaign to give a $100 million contract for

an ICE recruitment campaign. And that came against the wishes of staff at ICE,

and we understand their jobs were actually threatened when they went against the secretary.

We have internal communications and three administration officials. So,

a lot of people coming out of the woodwork at this point, as they often do to say,

I have a story as well, sharing how this one ad campaign was really indicative of a larger problem

because as we heard so much during those hearings, it was Corey Lewandowski and Kristi Nome

who had the authority to approve any contract over $100 million. And so things started to really

fall within their purview to handpicked to decrease the competition on what should be a competitive

bidding process. And it got harder and harder for Nome to defend those decisions going forward.

And this, of course, comes after a very quick reactions after the deaths of Alex Pready

and Renan Nicole Good. And after that, that's when we already started to see some of her power fade.

Yeah, and some internal criticism really bubbled up at that time. Julia, what about that luxury

plane that became a real flashpoint? Yeah, right that down. It was interesting. I mean, we first

had those pictures here at NBC News, and those were put on about every poster board we could see

inside those hearing rooms. Here you see that bed. Kristi Nome said would be ripped out and

replaced with seats for deportees, which was a tough answer for some to swallow on these committees.

Of course, why not just get a regular plane where you could fit 100 people. I've been on those

planes before they look like any commercial aircraft. But instead she was asking for $70 million

for this plane, was she said would be used for a dual purpose for cabinet level travel, meaning

for her, and for deportations. And of course, that was something that DHS said would be a cost

saving measure. Again, these things got harder and harder when she was faced with Congress.

I will say as far as the members, both from Senate and House, I don't know if you all were struck

by this as well. But so many of these hearings have just been a time where we don't get a lot of

news. We don't get people asking the hard questions. We feel like they haven't read our reporting.

It's really just political showmanship. And this time, these people came very prepared.

And Republicans too. Absolutely. Yeah, like Kennedy and tell us, there were bipartisan fireworks.

And anytime you get that, you have to stop and take notice, Julia, you're absolutely right.

Gabe, Julia lays out this picture of the fact that Secretary Nome had really lost the confidence

of some of her own staffers. Let's turn to Senator Mark Wayne-Mullen. This is President Trump's

pick to replace Secretary Nome. He has to be confirmed. I'm told that that confirmation

process will move quite quickly. Talk about the support that he enjoys in the Senate.

Is he expected to get confirmed? Well, certainly he enjoys a lot of goodwill in the Senate.

And that probably was part of the calculation for why President Trump decided to choose

Senate. Now, we're also getting some interesting reporting from our Capitol Hill colleagues,

Melanie Zanona, who is speaking to a senator. He was at a luncheon today. And apparently,

he got some phone call rushed out of the room very quickly with his hand over his mouth. And,

you heard him there, speaking to reporters. He hadn't spoken to his wife yet earlier in the day.

This was surprising to him, but certainly this is seen by the administration as a pick.

The president called him a mega warrior in that post. Certainly, this is someone

that the president thinks can further his immigration agenda, who will be loyal to him,

and with these thin margins in Congress, who will get confirmed by the Senate.

Yeah, well, we'll watch that process play out very closely. Julia, let's talk about the backdrop

to all of this, which is the fact that DHS is effectively shut down right now over this

funding battle. Democrats say they're not funding DHS until some big changes are made,

particularly to these ICE operations. It does come in the wake of the deaths of the two U.S.

citizens that you cited. Do you think this changes the equation at all? In other words,

could this lead to the government reopening? Will this be enough to appease Democrats?

I think that's certainly the hope, and probably part of the calculation, and picking someone

like Mullin, Trump knows he's heading into midterms. He doesn't want a lot of drama. There

hasn't been as much of a shake-up, really no shake-ups in this cabinet. Think about what a change

that is. I covered five DHS secretaries under the first Trump administration. And so in this

case, with the DHS shut down, and what became clear during that hearing too, was that it was

known who chose what areas to shut down of DHS. To make those decisions to shut down SIZA

and TSA and Coast Guard, but keep CBP and ICE still operating. That was also in the spotlight.

And so now there could be more of an opening, as people think that Mullin might be more willing

to listen to them. Also, some news that went unnoticed is that they're ending a plan in El Paso,

Texas, where there have been four deaths of ICE detainees are going to shut down that detention

center. We just had that news last night. So these are small steps that are being taken behind

the scenes as this administration. I think it's trying to get closer to a point to reopen DHS.

No word yet on what they're going to do with the masks, though. That's also been a Democrat

sticking point. Yeah, the masks have been one of the big flashpoints, for sure. Gabe, stick around

for us. Julia, thank you so much for your great reporting. As always, we are waiting for that

update any minute now from Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on the war against Iran. It, of course,

does come as major questions remain about the decision to launch the war and the plans for

the next phase of the conflict. Earlier today, NBC Nightly News anchor Tom Yamis spoke to Iran's

foreign minister in an exclusive interview and asked him about the possibility of US troops in Iran.

President Trump has not ruled out boots on the ground in Iran. Are you afraid of a US invasion

in your country? No, we are waiting for them. You are waiting for the US military to invade

the ground troops? Yes, because we are confident that we can confront them and that would be a big

disaster for them. And we are prepared for any other eventuality, even a ground invasion.

So our soldiers are prepared for any scenario. Tom also asked about whether Iran could win this war

against the US. Here's what he said. The Pentagon says America is winning decisively. Do you think

they're wrong? Well, I think, you know, now six days after the war, it is clear that the US

has failed to achieve its main goal, which was a clean, rapid victory. They failed to achieve that

and now they are trying to justify why they did attack us and they have, you know, presented so

many different reasons, but none of them worked. And now they are talking about, you know, plan B.

And I believe that, you know, they plan B would be even a bigger failure. Can Iran win this war

and what does winning look like for Iran? Well, there is no winner in this war. Our win is to be

able to resist against, you know, their illegal, you know, goals. And this is what we have done

so far. So they have failed to achieve their goals and we have been able to resist against them,

to stand against the most powerful army of the world as they claim.

It's really a rare glimpse inside Tehran at a moment where the country is facing a massive

leadership vacuum following the death of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and many other

top officials. According to The New York Times, the assembly of experts, the body charged with

selecting the new leaders is considering announcing Ayatollah Khamenei's son as a successor.

And in an interview with Axios today, President Trump saying he needs to be personally involved in

selecting Iran's next leader and called Khamenei's son a quote lightweight. Here at home, the economic

consequences of the war are starting to be felt. As we noted, stocks fell today as oil prices

continued to surge. And for every day Americans gas prices are up on average 27 cents compared to

a week ago. Today, the administration trying to ease concerns with the White House press secretary

posting on social media, the president and his team are quote all over it. Meanwhile, on the ground

in the Middle East, more countries are being dragged into this regional conflict, including

in Azerbaijan and Lebanon. Back with me now, is NBC News Senior White House correspondent

Gabe Gutierrez, NBC News Senior National Security Correspondent Courtney QB, NBC News Senior Business

Correspondent Christine Romans, and NBC News Chief International Correspondent Kier Simmons,

thanks to all of you for being here. Gabe, let's talk about the justification and what is actually

happening with this conflict. There's been a lot of mixed messages about whether this is actually

a war. What is the administration saying? That's right. It really is incredible. When you hear

Republicans really contorting themselves trying to make this sound as if it's a military operation,

not a war. The president himself, though, over the last several days, he has called it a war,

even saying yesterday when he was heading to another event. Oh, I got to go look at the war.

In this particular case, Kristen, look, the administration is trying to protect an image of

strength. You saw it with Secretary Hegseth earlier this week and his news conferences you see it

with the president and his interviews today, speaking with broiders with Axios, also with a

political, as you said, trying to make it seem like he wants to be involved in the selection of

the next leader of Iran, the Iranian foreign minister, and his interview with Tom Yama saying

that won't happen, basically. But the president really sees this as trying to project this

image of strength and it goes back to what you hear from White House officials every time he

talked to him, oh, why is the US getting involved? The idea of peace through strength. That's a

refrain we hear over and over again. The president, again, trying to make the case that this was

justified and that he doesn't see, in one interview today, he referred to an unlimited stock

stockpile of weapons. That's just the president really trying to get the American people to buy in,

to his explanation, which has at times been contradicted by some of his top officials.

It's just extraordinary, the contradictory messages. Courtney, we know that the Defense

Secretary is going to be holding this press conference today. He's been holding regular press

conferences. You're usually there pressing him for answers. What are the top questions that are

outstanding as we go into this yet another day of conflict? So there's a lot of questions I don't

think we'll get most of them answered here, frankly. He's going to be with Admiral Brad Cooper,

who's the commander of CENTCOM, and we're hoping to get some actual facts out of him about this.

I mean, a couple of things that are just really open-ended right now is just how many more,

where are we in this war? So they've been pretty open about, you know, they've hit more than

2,500 targets at this point, but one target could be, it could be 10 different targets at one location.

So that doesn't really give us the sense of the scale and the scope and how far that along they

are in this conflict. Also, why haven't they had any of the nuclear sites? Is that on target?

Interesting. If so, is that going to be later in the campaign? We've got almost no

information about what the Iranians have been able to hit. We know that they have targeted

U.S. military installations all throughout the region as well as civilian infrastructure,

but we don't know a whole lot about what they've been able to actually destroy at the military

bases. So those are just some of the basic questions that we all have in addition to just a daily

update, operational update about what they've even seen just today. Yeah, absolutely. It's such

a fluid situation and it comes as one of the big issues looming for the White House. And frankly,

one of the big questions for the White House revolves around this issue of gas prices.

When you ask Americans, what's their number one issue? They say affordability. And kind of the

core of that is gas prices. You love gas prices and groceries, right? What are your sources telling

you about the level of concern about the fact that gas prices are up? Look, at least publicly,

the President is trying to shrug off the concern. He's saying, in an interview with Reuters,

he's saying, if they rise, they rise. Essentially trying to make the case that any short term

rising gas prices will not be a long-term effect. And administration is trying to make the case

that this will be a short operation, short war, whatever you want to call it. But we have been

hearing to your previous question about this mixed messaging here. You notice the President,

at least in the last couple of, in the last day or so, he really hasn't talked about the

Iranian people rising up and trying to topple this regime. The administration is making the

case. They keep stressing these four objectives, which he did mention briefly in that initial

social media post on Saturday. But they didn't now stressing that as those are the military

objectives. Bigger question is the political objectives. What happens with the regime change?

But now you hear the President talking about that he does want to be involved in picking the

next leader. So, which is it? Is it these four military objectives, which we have been hearing

about and we keep hearing this potential four to five week timeline, or does the President want

to be involved in regime change? Obviously, something much more complicated and something that

could take, who knows how long? Absolutely. The President acknowledging regime changes is

incredibly complicated. Courtney, let me go back to you because Reuters is reporting that President

Trump said he'd be, quote, all in for a Kurdish offensive. What exactly would that look like?

And how would that fit into the broader strategy understanding as you say there are major

questions about the strategy every day? Yeah, so there's a couple different ways it could unfold.

The most likely way, and I have to say, even with the President's comments on it,

we officials are insisting to us that no decision has been made to actually do this. So we don't

we don't think that at this point there's anything imminent about this. But the most likely way is

that the CIA or some intelligence agency would provide weapons to an opposition force. Now,

there are times where the US military will get involved, usually special operators.

That's often when they need some training as well, or they need some sort of like support.

We've seen that in places like Syria, right, with the Syrian Democratic forces and others.

Interestingly, in that Reuters interview, the President was asked if the US would provide some

sort of air cover as part of this, and he said, well, I'm not going to tell you that. So, you know,

the President Trump, yeah, we gave nose better. You both know better than I that when President

Trump says he doesn't want to say something that often means there's something to it.

Hours before we struck Iran, he said, oh, I don't want to tell you that.

Exactly.

Quite a scoop.

There you go.

Exactly.

It's potentially gun formation.

Gabe, you know, Iranian foreign minister Abbas Arachian, his interview with Tom Yamas,

said he's confident that Iran can counter a US ground invasion. First of all,

it's just remarkable that we're talking about the possibility of a ground invasion at all.

It's not something the White House is moving forward with certainly right now,

but what is their reaction to that sentiment from Iran's foreign minister?

Well, I actually think it's just coming in.

I did reach out to the White House in the last several hours since that interview became

public. They have not responded directly to that assertion by the Foreign Minister that he,

you know, essentially almost daring the US to come in and, you know, come in with a ground force.

So, we don't have an official response from the White House thus far. You know, publicly,

they have repeatedly said, you know, they haven't ruled out ground truths because they don't like,

you know, putting the president in any sort of box here. But, you know, politically, if you speak

with White House officials, you speak with the administration, there is some acknowledgement that

there is not a whole lot of appetite in the country for any sort of ground forces in there right

now. So, it's hard to see how, you know, in the short term, how, you know, the administration

can move in that direction. But again, you know, President Trump, if he's talking about potentially

being involved in the changing of this leader, hard to see how that doesn't happen on some level

without some sort of ground force. But, you know, we're waiting for a White House response to

the Iranian Foreign Minister who, you know, may be looking for some sort of an escalation here

to try and, you know, speak to other, you know, neighboring countries, you know, to try and

you know, make it seem like the US is the aggressor here. Yeah. And with some sort of ground force.

Yeah, no doubt. And Courtney Gay blaze out well, just how complicating putting ground forces would

be. What are you hearing about that? And just from an operational standpoint, how much more

challenging would it make getting out of Iran? So, there's also scales of, just like there are

scales of airstrikes and phases of this, there would be, there's the potential for scales of

troops on the ground, right? So, we don't have to have 130,000 troops invading like in Iraq,

going into Iran. There is the possibility that after the US conducts this military mission, right?

So, these four objectives they've laid out of destroying the military, the Navy, the Air Force,

the ballistic missile program. And then, it's not really clear if they want to destroy the nuclear

program or just somehow ensure that they won't pursue another nuclear weapon. But, it's not

unreasonable for the administration to be considering putting some ground troops in the later phases of

this to ensure some of these missions have been accomplished. Again, no one is talking about that

at this point, they're not taking it off the table. But I think we have the sense of boots on

the ground as being this massive ground invasion. And people kicking indoors, like we saw in Iraq,

and that doesn't have to be the case. And they can also, we keep talking about this,

they doesn't have to boots, it could be sneakers, it could be special operators, it could be,

you know, intelligence officials. All right. Courtney Gay, thank you both so much. And again,

we will dip into that press conference when it starts. And we'll probably come back to you,

court, appreciate it. Christine Romans, let me turn to you. I want to play more of what the

Iranian foreign minister said to Tom. This relates to the straight-of-our-mouse. Take a look.

If this war continues, will Iran try to close the straight-of-our-mouse?

But we have not closed it. It is the ships and tankers who don't try to pass through the

to cross the straight because they are, you know, concerned about being hit by either side.

So we have no intention to close it right now. But as the war continues, we will consider every

scenario. So Christine traffic in the straight-of-our-mouse, which is typically jammed with oil tankers,

has actually dropped nearly 90 percent compared to last week. What are the implications

if Iran closes the straight altogether? And every one of those red dots you're seeing

there are ships that are just stuck there. I mean, a big insurance conglomerate told us there

are a thousand ships vessels that are basically parked in the Persian Gulf region trying to figure

out what to do next. So if you were to physically close it, it wouldn't be any different than it is

today, which is essentially a self-closure. You're not really seeing ships go through there. And

this is a really important waterway for 20 percent of the world's oil supplies. Now we're told

that in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere, these producers, they're running out of storage facilities

for the crude oil that they're pumping right now. So at some point, you're not moving the crude oil

and then you can't pump as much either. And that starts to have like an echo effect in the market.

That echo is higher prices. Well, okay, so let's talk about the higher prices because it was

notable. President Trump downplayed the fact that prices are going up. He said, look, they might

go up right now, but they're going to come back down again soon. Is that the case? How tough

is it for prices to come down once they have gone up, Christine? Well, we're in the moment right now

where there is an expanding war in the Middle East. And that's why you are seeing oil prices rise.

And gas prices rise quickly. You've got gas prices rising as fast today as they did back in 2022

after Russia invaded Ukraine. And that was the beginning of a prolonged period for other

reasons as well, but a prolonged period of inflation and high energy prices. What's interesting

about this is the president until recently has been actually taking credit for lowering energy

prices and using it as an example of how his policies have defeated inflation. Today, you have

markets telling you they see the opposite happening here. They see a prolonged problem without

an off-ramp right now. And that's what markets are telling you here. And for American consumers,

I mean, a jump of $0.27 in just a few days, that is a notable budget shock. So the president

in that Reuters interview, very interesting saying he's not concerned about higher gas prices

for right now. He's saying that what they're doing, it's far more important what we're doing here

than to have gasoline prices go up a little bit. I mean, if this war were to resolve overnight,

would prices come down? Eventually, potentially, unless you have some other hot spot in the middle.

I mean, this is this is why diplomacy and this is why presidents have been very, very careful

to not do what this president has done because of the unintended consequences of kicking a hornet

stench that really drives up, really drives up gas prices and disrupts international oil supply.

And we know that in a midterm election season, gas prices, one of the biggest factors,

Christine Romans, thank you so much for that great reporting. I want to go to our Kier Simmons now

in the region. Kier, what's the latest there? You've been reporting on the fact that

there are not supposed to be explosions where you are and yet there have been. How has it been overnight

there? Yeah, well, we'd actually just saw some defensive fire in the distance in that direction.

Air defenses over in Abu Dhabi about an hour and a half drive from here also inside the UAE.

I smoke pouring from a world famous Marina, the Yaz Marina, some pretty swanky boats and yachts

there and we don't know what the damage is there. Just I just thought actually listening to you

and Christina talk, it's interesting that the way that Arakchi talked about the

straight of Hormuz was not just about the economics, it was political. So the reason he says that

they haven't closed the straight of Hormuz is because of China, because China wouldn't want them to.

So is she very eloquently laid out? Basically it is closed, but and this is the way that this

thing is geopolitical and global. If you think about what happened in the Red Sea with the Houthis

where they stopped shipping but then somehow the Chinese cargo ships managed to get through,

I think you'll see that in Hormuz that the Iranians will quietly say to the Chinese and other

friends, you can sell your ships through, we won't touch you. It's the fact that these ships might

get hit, these tankers might get hit, that is stopping them from traveling through the straights

of Hormuz because they are because they can't get insured. Now, just to your conversation about

with Court 2, fascinated to hear her talk about the kind of opaque goals on the US side, I just

suppose that against the Iranians, the Iranians goal is very, very clear, they are sharp-eyed about

what their plan is to do and that is to survive and you heard it in Tom's great interview with

the Foreign Minister, we'll play a piece of that where Tom talks to him about the risk to him

personally, take a listen. As we sit here and talk Minister, so much of Iran's leadership has

been killed. Do you fear for your own life? But everybody made me fear for his life in the time

of war, but I am doing my job, I am doing my duty and I would be honored if my blood is shed for

the sake of my country. That's quite simply what has now come down to, it comes down to

the Iranian regime's determination to survive and the Trump administration's determination that

it will not. Well, Kir, bring us up to speed on the very latest to get Americans who are in the

region who want to get home, back home. Yeah, well, they are bringing in charter flights and the

the State Department says that they are surging flights into this region and we are talking to

people who are getting on charter flights, we are talking to Americans who are finding their own

commercial flights out. It's really difficult and we're also talking to lots of families and

Americans who still can't get out and incredibly frustrated and say that there's a lack of

communication that they are registered and they're not hearing anything. There's one woman

here in Dubai who I've been talking to all week who has a WhatsApp group just for Americans who

want to leave, 400 people. She says around 10 have been told, have been communicated with so far.

I mean, if that's the real picture of what of the sort of broader landscape, if you like,

then that's pretty worrying, isn't it? Across the 14 or so countries that America says all Americans

should leave, there are around a million American citizens. Wow. All right. Well, Kir, I know you're

tracking all of it closely. Please stay safe. We really appreciate it. Good to see you as always.

We will have much more of NBC's exclusive interview with the Iranian Foreign Minister tonight,

only on nightly news with Tom Yamis. Coming up, as we mentioned, Secretary Hagstaff is expected to

speak to reporters just moments from now about the war against Iran. We'll bring you that press conference

life when it happens. Plus breaking news from Capitol Hill, Republican leadership now calling on

Texas Republican Congressman Tony Gonzalez to end his bid for reelection after Gonzalez admitted

to having an affair with a staffer, but only after he advanced to a runoff in this week's primary.

Stay with us. You're watching Meet the Press now.

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Welcome back on this incredibly busy day here in Washington. We've got breaking news on Capitol Hill,

where House Republican leadership is calling on Embattled Texas Republican Congressman

Tony Gonzalez to drop his reelection bid after he admitted to having an affair with the staffer,

which is against House rules. Allegations have been swirling for weeks that Gonzalez had sent

loot and inappropriate text messages to an aid in 2024 that aid died by suicide last year.

In an interview on Wednesday, Congressman Gonzalez said he didn't have anything to do with

her death, but apologize for the affair. Listen. You know, very, very direct

pags. I made a mistake, and I had a lapse in judgment, and there was a lack of faith.

And I take full responsibility for those actions. Since then, I've reconciled with my wife,

Angel. I've asked God to forgive me, which she has, and my faith is as strong as ever.

When you make mistakes like this, you know, it's never easy. It humbles you, but it's important to

kind of work through it all. We're going to go to the White House now, because President Trump

is talking about Iran. Let's go to the White House.

Schedule. And at levels that people have never seen before, actually,

we're destroying more of Iran's missiles and drone capability, every single hour,

knocking them out like nobody thought was possible. As soon as they set off a missile within four

minutes, the launcher gets hit. They don't know what's happening. But we have the greatest

military anywhere in the world. The Navy has gone 24 ships in three days. That's a lot of ships.

Their anti-aircraft weapons are gone. So they have no air force. They have no air defense.

All of their airplanes are gone. Their communications are gone.

Missiles are gone. Launches are gone. About 60 percent and 64 percent respectively.

Other than that, they're doing quite well. I said, what's left? But they're tough, and they want to

fight. And they're calling. They're saying, how do we make a deal? I said, you're being a little

bit late. And we want to fight now more than they do. We've had 47 years, depending on the way

you count it, but 47 years of horror with this group. And when you see somebody walking down the

street without their legs, without the arms whose faces so badly affected and hurt, it mostly came

from 95 percent salamone and Iran. And we, other presidents, lived with it. I didn't live with it.

And so our people are doing a great job. Again, the greatest military anyone's seen. Thank you.

Thank you very much. And yesterday, my administration announced a size of action to help keep down

the oil prices, including offering political risk insurance for tankers,

transiting into the Gulf, as you know, pretty dangerous territory. Further action to reduce pressure

on oil is eminent, and the oil seems to have pretty much stabilized. We had it very low,

but I had to take this little detour if it's okay with everybody. Scott, it's okay with you.

Scott, someone has to put up with it. He said, you have to do this now. I said, I have to do it,

Scott, right? But it's been very strong. And everybody, including Scott, everybody feels we had

really no choice. It was going to hit us if we didn't hit them, because they're crazy.

And in the long term, the actions were taken will dramatically increase the stability of the region

and oil prices and stock markets and everything else. You know, we set the all-time record in

history with the Dow going to 50,000. Dow was at 50,000, it was supposed to be maybe if we were

lucky within by the end of my presidency in four years. And we did it in my first year. We did

the S&P 500. We did that in a period of less than a year, and that was even tougher than the Dow.

They said, so was it going to happen? But we have a great country. We have a country that's never

done this well. We've had tremendous success in so many different ways. I built the military and

rebuilt it in my first term, and we're using it more than I'd like to use it, to be honest with you.

But when we use it, we found out it certainly did work, where we look at Venezuela,

where we look at the first attack, Midnight Hammer, in Iran, which we set the stage for what we're

doing right now. It's been pretty amazing. And I'm once again calling on all members of the

Iranian Revolutionary Guard, the military, and the police to lay down their arms. They're only

going to be killed. And now is the time to stand up for the Iranian people and help take back

your country. You're going to have a chance, after all these years, to take back your country,

accept immunity, we'll give you immunity, and we'll be giving you really the right side of history,

because that's what it is. So you'll be perfectly safe with total immunity, or you'll face

absolutely guaranteed death. And I don't want to see that. They don't want to see it either.

We also urge Iranian diplomats around the world to request asylum and to help us

shape a new and better Iran with great potential. It's a country with great potential as much

better future for Iran. It's now beginning. It's going to be, I think, a great future. And

the United States will ensure that whoever leads the country next to Iran will not

threaten America or its neighbors, Israel, anybody. If you look at what happened, they had

missiles aimed at all of these other countries, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE, many others that weren't

really involved very much. And they had missiles aimed, well, they were aimed there long before

this episode started. They were going after the entire Middle East, and then we came along.

We blew up their party. So we have phenomenal people. I want to thank all of the people that have

been involved. Marco, you've been doing a fantastic job. And you've been doing a fantastic job

on a place called Cuba. And A-Rod, A-Rod came in before I said, hey, do you want to come up to a

little award ceremony? He's gone to plenty of awards ceremonies. Thank you, A-Rod. Big fan.

But what's happening with Cuba is amazing. And we think that we want to finish this one first,

but that will be just a question of time before you. And a lot of unbelievable people are going to

be going back to Cuba. Hopefully not to stay. We want you back. And we don't want to lose you.

We don't want to make it so nice that they stay. But some people probably do want to stay. They

love Cuba so much. I hear it all the time. That was another one that wasn't supposed to happen.

Then as well as going great, it's been stabilized. We have a wonderful person. As your president

Delect, Kelsey Rodriguez, and she and her staff have been doing a fantastic job working with us. We're

taking out hundreds of millions of barrels of oil. And it's going to Houston and various other places

where it's being refined. And we're sending them back far more money than they've made in many

years. And actually, for short, it'll be more money than they've ever made and been as well as

working. So we've had a lot of a lot of countries in places that truly love, you would say football,

I would say soccer. But these are all countries that love football slash soccer. And so I think the

group likes it. And if you'd like, you could say, I know I'm a very exciting speaker, but you can

sit down if you'd like, okay? I'm looking at everybody standing. President Trump addressing Iran

while flanked by the 2025 Major League Soccer Champions, the president, touting the fact that he

says the U.S. military is ahead of schedule saying about Iran, they were going to hit us first

if we didn't hit them again, that the justification for taking action at this point. In time,

the president also acknowledging gas prices are going up, saying that his administration is doing

everything and its power to try to lower gas prices, noting the fact that this is a significant

issue for Americans. And reiterating his message to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard calling on them

to lay down their arms, saying that this is the moment to take their country back, saying that

it's up to the Iranian people, but that the U.S. will ensure that Iran's new leaders will no

longer be able to hit the United States and its neighbors. Let me head back to NBC's Gabe Gutierrez,

who is standing by for us, Gabe. What were your other key takeaways? What did I leave out?

Well, it was quite a surreal sight there, Kristen, with Leno Messi right behind the president

and President talking about what essentially a muscular foreign policy, not just in Iran, but also

in Cuba and Venezuela. But as you said, the president laying out what he views as a success is so

far in Iran. Also mentioning, Kristen, that they want to make a deal, even though that contradicts

with the Iranian foreign minister told our colleague, Tom Yamas, earlier today that there are no

act of negotiations underway and earlier this week. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that there

were no diplomatic talks underway with Iran right now. The president seeming to suggest that they

would want to make some sort of deal, though he didn't specify exactly what it was. He also talked

about what he views as great potential for Iran. And as you said, he laid out how his administration

or he said that his administration wants to keep a handle on gas prices. He also spoke about

the administration's, you know, how the military operation, the raid, the capture of Nicolas

Pedro that went as well is doing great. And he also suggested that there could be changes coming

to Cuba as well. But Kristen, this is the president, and again, trying to sell to the American people

that the war, or as he calls it now, an operation is succeeding in Iran.

Yeah, and gave it so important that you noted that he did talk about Cuba, made it very clear

that Cuba is clearly another country that he is eyeing next. Thank you so much, Gabe, really

appreciate you're sticking around for us. I want to go back to Capitol Hill. And Visi's Julie

thank you so much for your patience. We had to dip in to those remarks that the White House just

to remind viewers what you and I were about to talk about the fact that you had Republican leadership

now calling on Congressman Tony Gonzalez to drop his reelection bid after he did acknowledge that

he had an affair with a staffer who did tragically go on to die by suicide. Talk a little bit about

the state of play here. Do you get the sense that he's going to actually drop out of the race?

Well, that was the key question we had planned to ask him today, but unfortunately,

we've been outside of his office all day long and have not seen the Congressman and he missed the

votes on the war power resolution that just failed in the House. So that's the key question for him,

but I will point out that we did talk to Speaker Johnson, my colleague Melania Sonona and Lizzie

Johnson caught up with him a little bit earlier. He spoke to that extraordinary statement that his

leadership team put out take a listen to what he said, and we'll talk about it more on the other side.

Leadership put out a statement. It speaks for itself. We've encouraged him to drop out of the race

of reelection. I think that is the politically, that's a death penalty. I just want to underscore what

he said there at the end. He said politically, he believes that Tony Gonzalez's actions having

this affair and admitting to it last night with his staffer is a political death sentence. I think

it's also a notable person you asked me if Gonzalez is going to resign. Remember, Johnson and

his leadership team very carefully chose the words not seek reelection. Again, drop out of his runoff

bid in Texas because Johnson needs every vote he can get right now. Yeah, talk a little bit about

the margins and the fact that this comes, I mean, really an increased number of retirements, right?

An increased number of retirements. I would be remiss if I didn't mention Senator Steve

Danes who shocked just about everybody, including members of his team, when he decided not to run

for reelection minutes before the filing deadline closed in Montana for the Senate seat. Now,

this is notable. He's somebody who served as the chair of the NRC. His mission last cycle was to

elect Republicans to the Senate. So he's keenly aware of how Democrats, including Senator John

Tester, are trying to perhaps make a comeback for his Montana Senate seat. So notable that he filed,

or decided not to run for reelection minutes before the filing deadline. But you mentioned,

this is just a growing list of Republican retirements, Burgess Owens in the House, decided not

to seek reelection yesterday as well. It's the second highest total of House Republicans, not

seeking reelection. And Danes became the sixth Senator not to seek reelection in November. We

have Senator Tom Tillis, who is in as well, Cynthia Lemis, for example, in Wyoming. So a whole slate

of Republicans that are considering and deciding now, not to come back here, not to run for reelection.

And certainly this is going to have an impact on November. There are a number of Democrats who

have decided that too. But Republicans have a significant amount of seats open, a significant

amount of districts in play. And certainly Democrats are trying to do everything they can right now

to try and win back the House and the Senate, Kristen.

Julie Serkin, with the view from Capitol Hill, Julie, thank you so much. Really appreciate it.

And in addition to what's going on with Congressman Gonzalez, we are following several other

major stories out of Texas in the wake of this week's midterm primary elections. And the Republican

Senate primary, we're still awaiting President Trump to make an endorsement in the runoff between

Senator John Cornyn and State Attorney General Ken Paxton. The President announcing yesterday,

he'd endorse the candidate soon and urging the other candidate to drop out of the race once he

does. Meanwhile, Democrat James Salarico kicking off his general election campaign after winning

his primary with a direct appeal to supporters of his primary rival, Congressman Jasmine Crockett

during a victory speech last night. To the Congresswoman's supporters, I know I wasn't your first

choice, but I hope to earn your trust and earn your support. As your Democratic nominee,

it's on me to ensure you feel welcomed in, represented by, and proud of this campaign.

President Trump is going to endorse by all accounts. It looks like he is heading in the direction

of endorsing Senator John Cornyn, someone who had broken with him on a number of different issues.

So he cast him as a rhino. And of course, Ken Paxton painting himself as the mega choice.

But right now, Senator Cornyn has the lead in this runoff race. So what are you watching for?

Well, Trump likes to endorse candidates that win. And Cornyn is looking like that candidate

right now. But as you point out, there's a big delta there. You know, he's an establishment guy.

He actually ran against Don Thune to be the majority leader of the Senate in 2024.

And so that's not the typical Trump mold. And that's why I think we've seen the president hold

off us for so long. But now that it's down to two candidates, now that that House candidate is out

of this race, there's a lot of pressure from Senator Republican specifically on Trump to make a call

and to specifically put his way behind Senator Cornyn. And so we'll have to see whether or not he

heeds that within the next couple days or not. Yeah. And I think the timing's so important because

Republicans are chomping at the bit to really get to work against James Tallarico. And they

can't do that with this runoff race. Malik, let me turn to you because Ken Paxton tweeted this.

It was notable. I would consider dropping out of this race. If Senate leadership agrees to

lift the filibuster and passes the Save America Act that act that has to deal with voting,

does it sound like he's trying to save face? Do you get the sense that he is in fact considering

dropping out? Could that be the delay? Is it the president drums trying to convince him to drop

out of the race? Yeah. I think I saw something from him suggesting that he wasn't ready to drop

out of the race. And this is probably just another, you know, an extension of that. There will be

pressure on him. It looks by all accounts that Donald Trump will be endorsing Cornyn. I think that

Donald Trump wanted to be the kingmaker all along. And so he let the boys, you know, play it out.

And he's ultimately going to end up endorsing Cornyn. Now the big split is is that

MAGA, more of the MAGA people are behind Paxton as opposed to Cornyn himself. And so that's

probably going to be one of the things that we're going to be looking at. But ultimately, Donald Trump

is going to back Cornyn. And I don't know if he'll ultimately get out of the race. Paxton himself

maybe he'll do it a while. But I just don't think that he has much leverage, much like Jasmine

Crockett. You just don't have much leverage. Well, she'll weigh in on that point because Democrats

have James Tallerico. He's their general election candidate. Jasmine Crockett had made the argument.

She's the fighter. She said she's shown that in these hearings on Capitol Hill. She obviously

drove out the black vote on election night. And now the challenge for Tallerico is trying to drive

out some of Jasmine Crockett's supporters. A Democrat has not won a Senate seat in Texas, Joel,

in more than three decades. It has been full-schooled for Democrats. Do you think this year could be

different? I think this year could be different. You know, watching this Texas race move far has

been fascinating on that Republican side, this is really a financial decision by Donald Trump

Republicans. They have spent some $70 million to negatively defined Ken Paxton. So they're

pot committed to John Cornyn. If they don't get John Cornyn to win this runoff, they are probably

going to spend at least that much to try to save the candidate that they've been trashing for the

last four or five some odd months. On the Democratic side, you know, that Tallerico Crockett race was

a little bit of like, it's a test case for 2028 for Democrats. What is the theory that's going

to win? Is it going to be the person that can drive out the base? Or is it going to be the person

that can convince and persuade people in the middle independence and Republicans? Obviously,

in Texas, it seems like Tallerico had the advantage. Another thing I would bring up the centrality

of Latino voters. That's why James Tallerico won. He ran up his numbers in areas dits with Latino

voters. And that is a thing that should concern Republicans that he showed that proficiency in this

primary campaign. And we finally heard from James Tallerico last night. I'm going to play a little

bit Eleanor yet your take on the other side. Take a listen. We cannot defeat the politics of division

with more division. We can't win their game. We have to change the game. This campaign, this

campaign is rooted in a fierce love for the state, for this country, and most importantly,

for all of our neighbors. Eleanor Jules talking about how this could be a test case for what we see

in 2028. What do you make of that message that we just heard from Jules? I think I think this is

exactly what you were talking about, right? He's saying rather than try to divide as Democrats,

they should be focused on bringing together a coalition that can help them rest control back

from Republicans. And so, I mean, he, in comparison to Crockett, a far less combative candidate,

you know, someone who, again, was focused on drawing from all of these various pockets of support.

And clearly, that's something that resonated at least in Texas. So we'll have to see whether or not

that speaks in other races. Yeah, we will have to watch very closely. We're also,

believe watching very closely what happens with Tony Gonzalez. I think what's so fascinating

here, he got through primary night now in a runoff and then gives an interview. He's been asked

about these allegations over and over again, not confirming them, not confirming him. And then

in this interview, he said, yes, he made a mistake. He has apologized to God to his wife.

He says that he was in the wrong. And for Republican leadership, it just wasn't good enough.

They are calling on him to drop out of the race as Jules Circuit noted, not to resign from Congress

because the margins are so narrow. Where do you see this going? He has to get out. And this is

something that Republicans had been talking about before them. Now, conveniently, he did it once we

got to the runoff. And you have to remind the viewers that it is a runoff. And so there is another

Republican who will be running there. But I think he ultimately, once you have the leadership,

it's one thing for people online and the strategist out there to say that you need to do it.

But once you have the leadership of your own party saying that it's time to go,

it's time to go. So when he'll do that, I don't know, but I can't see him staying in the race

much longer. So how are Democrats watching this unfold? Does it become a broader issue or

do Democrats sort of take their distance from this? Well, two things about me. One, I thought it

was interesting that some two weeks ago Donald Trump was at a rally where Tony Gonzalez was. And

I think he congratulated him as this story, this embarrassing and really tragic story was

unraveling about his Gonzalez is a fair with his staffer and her deciding to take her own life,

which is just a speakable tragedy. The other piece I would bring up here is a little bit of what

you wanted to crystal. The margins are so thin. This has to be in the form of a step out of the race

and not a resignation. I would imagine there are plenty of Republicans around the country who,

if they had their brothers, they would be done with this and they would have Tony Gonzalez leave

Congress. But Mike Johnson doesn't have the margins. I mean, if Donald Trump needs to get any

significant legislation, needs to get support for Iran, this, this war of his that is a war of

choice for Republicans, he's going to need every Republican vote in the House and in the Senate.

He's already, we're not going to talk necessarily about this Christy gnome departing Homeland

Security and Mark Wayne Mullin, but you're, but, but we have one senator, one Senate Republican

who's leaving that reduces his margins there at least temporarily. And now you're talking about

potentially another House Republican. Talk about the implications of Christy gnome leaving.

We know that there were a whole number of reasons why the president decided to replace her at this

point. But as Joel is laying out, it is going to make things challenging in the Senate. He,

the governor will replace him, but I believe whoever he's replaced with is not allowed to run

for reelection. So that could become an open seat. Talk about kind of the ripple effect.

I mean, it's the same math. We saw the administration doing at the beginning of this term and

turn as far as appointing administration of, or members of Congress, two administration jobs,

right? They don't want to lose so many people that it opens up seats that they eventually lose control

of the chamber. And with Christy gnome specifically, I mean, I think it just really spoke to how

there's a big leash from the Trump administration. If you are an administration official,

but the one thing you cannot do is throw Trump under the buzz, and that's exactly what she did

when she testified before Congress. And I think that's why we're seeing her now hit the exits.

Lily, internally, I think people weren't overly surprised. But the timing, I mean, we wasn't

clear what the timing of this departure might look like. And as Eleanor is saying, that final straw,

based on my conversations, was that testimony yesterday where she said, oh, President Trump approved

the spending for the sad campaign. Yeah, you know, they say the straw that broke the camel's

back, well, that was during the hearing. And we have been hearing these murmurings about Christy

gnome even going towards the end of last year, whether or not she would be leaving the administration.

And a lot of people were unhappy. And I think because of what we've seen with Donald Trump's

immigration numbers, his numbers on immigration and how unpopular some of the actions that

Christy gnome has taken, I think that ultimately Donald Trump made the right decision with her.

All right, guys, we're unfortunately out of time. Thank you all so much for being here, Eleanor,

Joel and Malik, great conversation. We're back tomorrow with more of me the press now.

As we mentioned, we have live coverage of Secretary Hanks' press conference when it happens.

That's straight ahead on NBC News Now.

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