Meet the Press NOW — September 18

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1:02Welcome to Meet the Press. Now, I'm Kristen Wilker in Washington right now. President Trump is speaking in the Oval Office for an event on drug prices. We will take you to the White House if he starts taking questions from reporters. It comes as the Trump administration walks the line on its economic messaging, defending its agenda, while acknowledging voters frustration with high costs driven by the war with Iran. And as some Republicans on the ballot in November are increasingly distancing themselves from the president's policies. And now the president is lashing out at the press, saying in a social media post, he's banning several major media outlets from the White House because of their coverage and saying more bands are coming. Of course, it's unclear if he has the legal authority to do this considering the First Amendment. It comes as the president faces low marks from voters across a host of issues, including around the economy and the war with Iran, which has dramatically driven up fuel prices. Gas is up 50 percent since the start of the war with diesel reaching record highs, seeing a more than 70 percent increase since February.

2:04Meanwhile, oil closing over $100 a barrel for the seventh day in a row. The president has repeatedly sought to downplay those impacts promising a dramatic drop in prices when the war ends, though when that will be remains a moving target, recently suggesting it would be after election day. Right after the election, because they'd like to have it that way, but right after the election, oil prices are going to be tumbling downward. They're going to be tumbling down and we'll get them down. I think for gasoline, we'll get them below $2 a gallon. I have to say you have a little higher, you have a higher, it's a very inexpensive price to pay for what we've done. Remember that it's a little more. It's even if it was, frankly, even if it was a lot more, but that's going to come tumbling down. That's going to be like a rocket ship in reverse. You watch what's going to happen around. It's going to be a really good conclusion. It's going to happen. I say it's going to be a little bit after the election, but maybe not.

3:05Maybe it's before the election. The high prices and lack of an apparent off-rent for the war drawing new Republican criticism. Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski telling Punch-Bull News, quote, we've seen the long-term impacts in our industries, on our communities and on our people. And folks are saying, you know what? I'm not sure what was the goal here, Mr. President. Meanwhile, seven House Republicans joined Democrats to approve a measure to direct the president to end the conflict, unless he receives congressional authorization, including two Iowa representatives and tougher election campaigns. Campaining an Iowa today, Vice President J.D. Vance avoided the issue of the war, instead touting the administration's efforts to help farmers and slamming Democrats. Days in the Crat Party has decided that this country needs to not be preserved and built upon, but this country needs to be utterly transformed. And it's ordinary men and women in states like Iowa who are standing in the way.

4:06Ladies and gentlemen, the choice is this simple. It's common sense versus crazy. It comes as Democrats look to flip an Iowa Senate seat in their quest to retake the majority. Republican Congresswoman Ashley Hinson faces Democrat Josh Turek. Hinson notably was absent from the Vice President's event today, her office telling the Washington Post it was due to the scheduling conflict. Joining me now from the White House is Senior Policy Reporters, Shin and Petty Peace. Also with the NBC News Business and Economy reporter Ali Canal and Brienne Festand Steel, Chief Politics Reporter at the Des Moines Register, thanks to all of you for being here, Shin, and let me start with you. So talk about this event, President Trump, holding at the White House today on health care. What have we heard from him so far? Well, another one of these moves by the White House to try and get some credit with voters for efforts to lower drug prices. Obviously, cost of living atop issues. There's not many bright spots in the economy that the White House can point to as examples of how they've lowered prices. Drug prices is kind of one of those areas.

5:10This announcement today, though, is focused on Medicaid programs. It would really save states money by allowing states to get negotiated prices that are similar to what pharmaceutical companies charge in other countries. So if you're a patient, even if you're on Medicaid, you already probably pay a pretty low copay. So you're not necessarily going to see your drug price bill go down, but potentially, and we don't have many details on this, but potentially states could save money on Medicaid drug pricing. So just one more way the White House is kind of trying to get some credit here, and it does seem on the campaign trail. Republicans are really going to be talking a lot about drug prices as a bright spot they can point to. And Shannon, there's some breaking news because the President announced he plans to ban some news organizations from the White House. What are you hearing about that? Well, obviously, this just sort of coming out a few moments ago, still in a evolving situation. One of the news organizations he mentioned, CNN. I can see my colleagues from CNN down there working right now.

6:11So Shannon's physical, Shannon, we're going to hear from the President right now about the ban. Let's listen. Because they're fake news. And you get so tired of reading and seeing fake news. When you look at CNN, it's just fake. That's why the ratings are no good. When you look at MSN which used to be MSNBC, which some people call MSD and see Democratic National Committee, it's fake news. And when you look at P is political, I mean, they got a government, the government, under Biden game, like $8 million to keep him afloat. And the stories they wrote are fake. So there's a lot of news. And there may be others to join them. And maybe they can get better and would like to have men. But our country has to have honest news. You know, you don't have a country unless you have, as I say, borders, good voting, we're straightening them out. The borders are unbelievable. Nobody's coming to our country in the last 17 months illegally.

7:16But you need borders and you need fair free voting. And you know what you need? You need a free press. You need a fair press and an auspices. And see it. And you know it. And everybody knows that you're intelligent. I've known you a long time. You know how fake they're reporting is. It's one side of it. It's never good. I've done many, many. Look at the story today about favorite nations on drugs. You lower the drug causes by 50, 60, 70%. They won't even put it if they put it on. It'll be a leg. They will find a reason why that's a negative. Okay. No reason. No reason. No reason. No, it's really just cumulative stories over the last few years. You get sick of it. And you call them and you tell them I have very good experts like people behind me. Bobby Oz they call and they try and explain things to them. They know that they know it. They know it as well. They smart people.

8:17But they purposely write negative news and they do that because they want to try and diminish the Republicans and a Republican administration. And honestly, we've done a fantastic job. Look at the numbers. Look at the economic numbers. We have more money coming into our country today than ever before. We have the highest employment that we've ever had in history. All of these things are the lowest. We have the best poverty rate, the lowest poverty rate in the history of our country. And people are making more money today than they ever had. And we do have something that I'm very proud of. Iran will not have a nuclear weapon. Now for that, people are going to have to pay some extra gas. I think most people, if they had a vote on lower gas prices or letting Iran have a nuclear weapon, I'd be willing to vote that it would be a massive landslide. People don't want to have Iran have a nuclear weapon. And you know what? They won't. And the war is going to end soon. And when it ends, your gas prices are going to drop to a level that there were before maybe even lower. When I left Iowa just before I started this, I had no choice.

9:23I said to my people, I'd have to do an excursion down to Iran, the Islamic Republic of Iran, because they're going to have a nuclear. If we don't hit them with the B-2 bombers, they right now would have a nuclear weapon. And if they had it, it would be a matter of days. I equated somewhat to the Democrats. If they ever got into power, they will terminate the filibuster. And they will immediately have DC as a state. They will immediately have many other things take place. But DC and Puerto Rico would become immediately that gives them four more centers. That gives them lots of other things like 12 congressmen. They want to have ideally 21 Supreme Court justices. They will have everything they ever dreamed of. And frankly, Republicans should terminate the filibuster because if you don't do it, they're going to do it. And you can't let that happen.

10:23Mr. President, William Wilson would say to me, Mr. President, reports say the Holdout Drill in the Lindsay Clancy case. Excuse me, reports say the Holdout Drill in the Lindsay Clancy case and his family were docks and bread was so badly, he left them as a choosence. What's your take on that? I just don't know. I think the case is very sad. It's a horrible thing. She was on all sorts of drugs and she was very messed up. She killed three children, her three children. It's a very tough situation. And I know that the jury was certainly not a friendly one in terms of that one person. But it's not for me. Look at it, jury. And the jury was hung. And we'll see whether or not they have another trail. Mr. President, many leading Democrats have condemned our left streamer as a songwriter. What does your take on them? And do you think he's a liability for Democrats? I do. I think he's a terrible liability. I think he's got a power over some of these Democrats and he'll be voting that way. He's a communist. There's no question about it.

11:33And the Democrats have a lot of communists. And the communists can hold up the party because it only takes a few votes when you have a close election. Or you'll have a fairly close. I hope the Republicans are going to do well. But you're going to have, it's going to be pretty close. And a group of three, four, five, ten people can steer a party in a certain direction. That's, you know, both parties. Yeah, no, he's a guy who's very, I mean, his statements are so bad. How a Jewish person could vote for a Democrat is not even, if you think of it, not even believable. And yet they will. It's amazing. But it is not possible in a world of rationality that somebody who's Jewish, that somebody who's black could vote to be a Democrat, could vote for a Democrat. The things that have been said about different groups of people by them are incredible. And the mainstream Democrats, I know many of them, and I'm friendly with many of them, but they've gone way left because they've had no choice.

12:40Not because they don't believe it. They know communism has never worked. They know socialisms have worked. But these people are petrified of the radical left. And he's one of them. President, President, Polish leaders have expressed concerns that Russia may attack Ukrainian allies. Do you agree with that assessment? Well, I think they already have. They attack Ukrainian allies. They can attack Ukrainian allies for approximately five years. So I do agree with that. I think everyone agrees with that. Did you mean Ukrainian or not? I can. So Poland is there. Are they concerned that they're going to attack Poland? Yes, they might attack. Well, you have a great president. He was a big Trump fan. He was in 12th place. I endorse him. And now he's president. And he's doing a fantastic job. And he is, he's got it under control. He's got it under control. He's got it under control. And then comes when the race sells our film to the video outside of my house that they disagree with your immigration policies.

13:44You endorse from primary campaign. Do you still back her run and have you seen that video? Well, I do. And I have. I disagree with her. Look, I have a strong, a very strong, some movement, my movement. It probably, at least partially, won the election. When I got elected at the beginning and previous to my coming in, we had the most unsafe border, maybe anywhere in the world, maybe in history. 25 million people boarded from prisons from mental institutions, drug dealers, murders, 11,888 murders came in, all documented. They allowed them into a country. I have a very strong, she obviously doesn't have a very strong feeling for the border, but I do. And I understand what she's saying, but I have a very strong, I want because of my border. Now nobody thinks about it and we're, look, they just announced the numbers. Over the last 16 months, nobody zero. I even find that artically, but it's, it's done by a group of people that seem to sort of lean Democrat, you know, that I can't give me anything for nothing.

14:52And they say over the last 16 months, that one person came in through the southern border illegally, which is pretty hard to believe. But even if you said, if you did, but 25 million came in through by and a lot of them should never be here. Now I'm very strong in the borders and she isn't. And she's a nice person. I got her elected without me. She wouldn't have gotten elected. She ran against a person a number of years ago who was not even thought of a way to get elected. She's not even thought possible to lose. And then when I endorsed Maria, she ended up winning in the biggest surprise of in all of Congress for that, for that session, for that term. And Maria won only because of me. So she got a little bit soft in the border. I understand that. I understand that, but I just don't happen to be there. I don't have the press in trying in the first amendment. Thank you for telling me. Are you trying to intimidate the press from doing it? No, no, no. I dislike dishonest press like you. I think you're terrible. But I dislike dishonest. I like to see honest press.

16:00You're in the first administration you try to assemble a band against CNN and it didn't survive court challenge. What was I think that this? Well, we'll see. I mean, it didn't we didn't have to take it too far because the reporter that you're talking about discredited himself. He became a joke so he no longer was very effective. So it didn't matter. No, but I think it's good. I think it's good to point it out whether it survives or doesn't. I mean, I don't think a court should allow depends on the judge you get to be honest with you. I don't think that a court should allow fake news to be written day after day after day. I think that somebody has a right to keep them away. If they get a right to fall stores all the time. I don't think I've had. Look, I won the presidency. I won all seven swing states. I won the popular vote. I won 87% of the counties. That's why the maps are all red when you're looking at the two little blue lines on each on each coast. I won a landslide and I get no I get I don't get fair press. I get it from Breitbart.

17:08I get it from a little bit from Fox. Fox is the worst. I think Fox has frankly the worst polls in the whole business. I think they should have gotten rid of their polls this year ago. They've been called me wrong for 10 years. But my polls have been very good. I get good polls. I get good everything. But what I do ask is just a semblance of truth. CNN is fake news. MS now is fake news. The fake news. They know it. They put there for a reason. Politico was bailed out by our government from going out of business. I don't know. It was $8 million or something. But they were given this massive subsidy prior to my coming into office because they write only negative. You know, only negative. Now we've done something that nobody's ever done politically. I've had a political career like nobody else in history on occasion. It would be nice if we had some fairness. It's all fake news. This is a government to put a fine point on though. How is this action legal and constitutional considering the first amendment? And Governor Sanders, you were a White House press secretary. Do you agree with this plan to ban news outlets?

18:17Well, I'll just answer it again. I'll say it the same way. I don't think somebody should be allowed to come in and write fake stories. They're fake news. And that's why they have no credibility. That's why so I had 96% negative coverage during the election. And I want because they have no credibility. I get 96. I guess NBC was 93% negative. So 93 with all of the victories I've had everything's been a victory. It's all been a victory. And I won the election like nobody's ever seen anything like it. I get no, they never write a good story. They won't write a story about I just reduced drug prices by 40, 50, 60, 70, 80%. I will get a good story out of this. From some of them I will. I get one from him. I'll get one from him. I'll get a few of them. But it's sick. I mean, there's something wrong with a country that can allow people to write purposely.

19:20Negligate says now if they want to write them that's fine. But I don't have to let them into my into the people's house. Yeah, please. I think it's hard for you to argue against a free press when you're literally standing in the oval office asking questions. He's been more accessible and easier to talk to than any president in history. Think about the previous administration where you can barely get through a press conference. And yet you have the opportunity to stand here in the oval office and ask questions to the leader of the free world. I mean, that's pretty free. And you're standing here asking those questions. I think the president is right to support the First Amendment. But he's also right to ask that you be honest and fair. That's not an unreasonable. Well, look at the way he's treated. But he won a year and a half without having a press conference. A year and a half. And what was the question you asked the most? What is your favorite flavored ice cream? Okay. What I think you asked the question once.

20:25What ice cream do you like the best? I mean, I heard that question so many times. And you always say vanilla. That's a good news. I'm surprised you got that right. But you know, we say vanilla. Yeah, please. I want to know. I just aware that some of the John Therese isn't bringing the rate pay of protection act. He's not bringing the rate pay of protection act at the house past. Well, I'm talking to him about it. Let's see what happens. President, President, President G coming. Hey, there's great honor. China is one of the most impressive countries in the world. What signals is it saying that? I don't know about that. I think we're repressive. Also, we get fake news. We don't repress, but they write fake news. No, I think he's going to come. We get along very well. It's nice that we get along very well. We've had a good relationship. He'll be here next week. I can tell you this is too bad. We don't have the borrow open because if we did, we could have. We'd have thousands. We could have 2000 people having dinner. They would love to. We have a very tiny little room. That's good. Whether it's going to be squeezed out at about 125 or so people.

21:33But I literally could tell you that thousands of people would love to be at that dinner. This is a very tough ticket for me. I've felt a lot of very good friends of mine. You just can't come. We're going to have a very good meeting. We're going to have a meeting. We get along well. We're doing very well with China. I would say others maybe not so well, but we're doing very well with China. President Xi and I have a good relationship. I wouldn't have a lot of different deals. We intend we're not just doing it for our health. We're going to have some pretty important meetings. China's paying us a lot of tariffs. You remember I had it up to 145 percent at one point, but it was too much. It was really hurting them badly. I didn't want to do that. We get along very well. We have a good relationship. Now somebody said, oh, they spy on us. I said, maybe they do, but we spy on them too. I don't want to give any certified or classified information.

22:36They said, they spy on you, sir, and we spy on them too. Thank you. Thank you, sir. Shrioptsot Vespectrum News. Pennsylvania has reported four measles related deaths. What's your message to other states who might worry about a spread or outbreak coming in there? I think we're going to be in good shape. We have nothing against vaccinations for measles. You wanted to discuss that for a second, either Bob or us. We encourage people to vaccinate on all the CDC's websites. CDC has not received information about the measles death. We have a lot of measles that were waiting for that. We will put it up on our website when we hear that. We encourage people to vaccinate. One of the problems with Pennsylvania is that the governor has still very recently refused to cooperate with CDC.

23:39We were able to go in and end the outbreaks in all the other states, in South Dakota and Texas. In all the other states, we sent our FBI team into those states. When I offered them to governor Shapiro, he said, no, we don't need your help. They've got a bad governor in Pennsylvania. People just don't know it. He's close to incompetent Daniel. Daniel, Mr. President, so we're going to wait. The last week they could be delivering $500 due to the ACHES, to Newly American and the Middle East Americans who were overcharged via Obamacare. Can you talk about what it looked like? How do you always say that? Hundreds of millions of dollars for the overcharging that the Democrats did for Obamacare and other things. We found it. We gave it back to the people. We handed it back a lot of money. Thank you for bringing that up. The other thing is, as you know, because we're doing so well, taking in so much money on tariffs and other things, because we have more factories being built than at any time in the history of our country, including car plants and every other kind of plant, including AI, but including everything.

24:46We are giving Republicans, or when I say Republicans, because I think everybody is going to be Republican actually, but we're giving the people of our country who are adults. $5,000 if the Republicans win, because if the Republicans win, we're going to have a lot of money. If the Democrats win, we're going to go into a depression. And all these tax cuts and all the things that have made this economy so strong, and with the hottest nation in the world, all of the things that we will be taken away by the Democrats, every one of them, we're going to be taken away. The tax cuts, no tax on tips, no tax on social security for our seniors, no tax on overtime. All of that is going to be taken away. They all voted against it. They voted in favor of men playing women sports. They voted in favor of the transgender utilization of your children. You're going to be back to this. Right now it doesn't exist, but you're going to be back to it.

25:47If we win, because we have so much, because we are taking in so much money, we're going to give all people, not just everybody, that's an adult, $5,000. The only provisor was that have to spend it in this country. And when they spend it in the country, it's very inexpensive. What do you mean by fathers to come, and how is this bangling going? Is this going to come in terms of fake news? The New York Times is fake news. Washington Post is fake news. They're crummy papers, both doing very poorly, by the way. But we'll see, we're probably not going to display the paper anymore in the White House, those papers. But we haven't taken a step of throwing them out. But the fake news total. New York Times is so fake. Washington Post is disgusting. I don't get it. Why would they be, you know, we're doing so well, and they'll take the most positive story and make it as negative as possible. Maybe it's only for you when you agree with this. No, no, please.

26:47You're seeking to uncle next week. What is your message? Because last year you sort of said that they, the United Nations are helping animals, by your own. Well, last year, they wouldn't let my person in the teleprompter room, remember that? My teleprompter operator was banned from the room. He went out, came back and they wouldn't let him in. So standing there without a teleprompter, is it nice to have a president, and actually it was one of my best speeches. I don't know how that happened, but I'm, they're introducing ladies and gentlemen. The behalf of the United States, and I'm looking at the teleprompter screen, is totally blank. It was for more than half the speech. Somehow they let him in about half the speech. Probably they did that a purpose. And he should have been leaving the room for him. And he had to leave the room, come back. But you remember that? They turned off the escalator. Fortunately, my first lady was very strong. I was able to grab her back, or another part of her body, and it was actually a little bit lower than the back.

27:49And it kept me standing tall. I was standing very tall. But you remember I was going up in the, and it came to a dead stop. And this was, I built a lot of escalators. I put it a lot of escalators. You could have some beauties right over here. But they don't do that unless somebody wants, and then I got up to make my speech. And I said, I don't have a teleprompter. Can you imagine? And I think I spoke very well. And I said, a president that doesn't need a teleprompter. Sir, have you looked at any plans to demolish the Kennedy Center? There was an image of you from Air Force One? Well, it's a problem with the Kennedy Center. I should be very careful because Bobby Steadier wrote behind me. And I cherish that too. I actually like the name of Kennedy and Trump, Trump and Kennedy because it's shown by partisanship. It's shown a Republican party and a Democrat party working together. The problem with the Kennedy Center, it loses for years. It's lost between 60 and $100 million a year. It loses that every year.

28:54It's not an economically sound thing. Now, with all of that Carnegie Hall loses money, all of those places lose money. They need massive subsidy in order to sustain. They get very little from Congress. I'm ready to fix it, make it good. We have a hostile judge. We have a conflicted judge. His wife represents, I think, Barack Hussein Obama, but Biden represents Kamala, represents Democrats. She has a different name, so most people don't know that, but we were able to figure it out. But we have a very hostile judge. As I understand it, he gave us the right to go and do the job finally after. I could have started this job seven months ago. As you noticed, a big portion of ceiling fell down two days ago. Almost killed the security guard, Mr. Bylon. The place is a dump. It's been a dump for years. It's lost money for years. I can turn it around, fix it. But the question is, somebody's going to have to subsidize that for years to come because palaces of the arts lose tremendous amounts of money.

30:01The Kennedy Center for 25 years has lost a tremendous amount of money. And all I'm saying, I don't mind doing the job. But if I do the job, I think the Trump administration, including Bobby, but the Trump administration should be recognized. Why should I raise and put up and do all of this work, not only building it, which I'll do a better job building it than anybody else, anybody in America. But why should I do everything? And then for the rest of my life, I have to go out and raise money because by nature, by the nature of that type of an operation, you lose anywhere from 50 to 100, maybe even 150 million dollars here. I think if I do that, excuse me, I think if I do that, because we should be recognized with the Trump administration. If I'm willing and the administration is willing, we have a lot of people working very hard on it to save it. I can save it easily.

31:02But why should we be doing that and then raise money for the rest of our lives to keep it afloat, because that's what you have to do. If we get no recognition, I think the Trump administration should be recognized as having saved the Kennedy Center. Because nobody else can do it. I already raised $258 million from Congress, and they gave it to me because it's me in order to rebuild it and fix it. The problem is, once it's built, it's going to lose $100 million a year. And it was losing a lot of money. Before I got there, people said, oh, Trump got there. No, no. I came there to save it. The problem is we had a very hostile judge. We have a very outstanding board. The board is among the most successful people in the country. And they vote. We have a Congresswoman who is a person that never did a thing in her life, frankly. Never did anything constructive. All she does is complain. But saving the Kennedy Center is very, very tough. A tremendous amount of efforts. Once it's built, and I'll build it great, get it done on time like that building on time, under budget. It's going to be great.

32:10Like your heliport outside. It's already it's two months ahead of schedule. It's going to open. They're going to have an official opening on the 21st with the first helicopter landing. It's at its beautiful every but fact, they were going to sue me on the heliport. And then they saw how beautiful it was and they decided not to sue the same group that goes around suing everybody to stop progress. But if we're going to save the Kennedy Center, I think the Trump administration should be given recognition for doing so. Was it appropriate for your son to accept the gift of the son of his wedding festivity? Well, it's totally it's totally allowed. And a lot of people have parties and all but it's totally allowed. But as I understand that he paid him back. He didn't want to have that. So I hear he paid him back. A person they know is pretty I guess a friend of his. I gave him a wedding party. That's very common. I've heard of many people are given wedding parties. I've given. I've given. Well, I don't know. Maybe you didn't do a background check. But I've given. I've given wedding parties to numerous people. They get married. I give him a party. I give him parties in beautiful places like Mar-a-Lago and others. But I've given many. With all of that being said, I understand that Don's paid him back.

33:28Yes. No, I heard about that. I heard that. What I heard the story. I asked about it. He said, Don, I'm paying him back. That was a while ago. So I heard he's paying. I have to say though, giving a wedding party is pretty common. Mr. President, on the ban, what is that made in practice? Are you taking away the badges? Are you banning them from the pool? What does this actually mean? You say the ban. You know, you're not many bands I've involved. I got more bands going. On the premium website, what is that made in practice? Are you taking away the badges? Are you banning them from the pool? Are you banning them from the pool? Are you banning them from the pool? Are you banning them from the pool? Are you banning them from the pool or the office? What does that mean? I should've been. No, what does that mean? You should be banning the bands in the media outlets. The ban on the free press, right? A very simple ban. I don't want them in my office. I don't want them here. I would say the ban would go as far as you can. And if they could straighten themselves out, you know, if they could straighten themselves out, I'd love it. Look, they're very dishonest people. They write in a very dishonest way.

34:36ABC fake news gave me $16 million that was agreed to. $16 million that I won from ABC News because George Slough-Adopoulos wrote in corrects. CBS gave me $38 million because they broadcast Kamala Harris on 60 minutes. And the question board, no relationship to what she said. You saw that. I'm right now suing BBC because they have the granddaddy of them all. They have where I said walk freely and patriotically having to do with January 6th. And they put horrible fighting words into my mouth with me actually saying it. I said, I never said that. And when we checked, it was BBC actually changed my language. And they put words in my mouth. That's the third that I've seen so that we have numerous lawsuits. We'll be showing these people to. But the ban is because they are fake news. They cannot write the truth. And political is very bad. And political, frankly, I think what they did was illegal. They accepted the world's largest subscription. They got $8 million or something like that for a subscription to their stupid, you know, lightweight paper.

35:55But I will say political and MS now, which nobody ever heard of, and CNN, which is doing very poorly. The reason they do so poorly is because they have no credibility. And if they had credibility, I wouldn't be sitting here right now. So we are banning them. Yes, we are. And then maybe others to follow. Thank you very much everybody. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you guys. Thank you guys. Thank you guys. You've been listening to President Trump taking questions in the Oval Office after he announced on a social media post that he intended to ban CNN, MS now and political from the White House. He added a range of different questions, but many of them did relate to his announcement that he intended to ban those news outlets. He was pressed on the reason why and whether he was trying to, in fact, intimidate the press. He said, no, I just dislike the fake press like you. He said to one reporter there. He also said, I don't think a judge should allow the fake news to be written day after day.

37:01He was pressed on why and how this is constitutional given the First Amendment. And he responded and said he was going to give the same response, which is I don't think people should write fake stories. You also heard from his former press secretary there, Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas, who basically backed up the president and said, you all are here standing in the Oval Office asking the president questions. Again, there are a lot of questions about the mechanics of this. How it would work? Does he intend to take away the passes that these media outlets have? How does the White House plan to actually enforce the ban? We will cover the range of other topics that the president discussed from Iran to the visit of President Xi Jinping. But I want to go to Shinn and Petty Pissu standing by at the White House. Shinn, and what were your key takeaways in terms of the questions the president fielded about his ban on a number of news outlets?

38:03The president seemed very clear that he was banning these outlets because they were not giving him enough positive coverage. As you noted, he referred to it as fake news, fake stories, and then he would go on to talk about how they do not cover the positive things that he does, that he has high approval rating, or he won a certain number of electoral votes, and that he still does not get positive news coverage. So he was pretty clear in saying that this ban was related to their coverage and the lack of positive coverage they received. Now, the president has attempted to put restrictions on press access at the White House before. There was a conflict with the associated press that's been going on for over a year, again trying to ban AP photographers from accessing the White House, or certain parts of the White House. That was because of a dispute over the style guide and the Gulf of America versus the Gulf of Mexico. That quote-unquote ban was knocked down by a judge.

39:06There are appealing, so this is going back and forth, but there are also previous cases from Trump's first term where he tried to restrict access of specific reporters, and those bans were knocked down by the courts. Because there is a constitutionality right of First Amendment, and judges have said you can't essentially cherry pick access to the press because you don't like someone's views or you don't like their coverage. The president was asked about the constitutionality of this, he suggested he expects this to go to the courts. He said in his opinion it will come down to whether he gets a favorable judge or not, and of course he said that he felt those past judges weren't being fair or favorable to him. But that will likely be the next step, at least according to what the president is anticipating. And yeah, as far as the logistics of how this works, obviously Chris and you and I have worked in this White House together, we know how it goes, but for those watching at home, there's reporters from all over the world, media outlets large and small, who could access into the White House every day.

40:10They have a little pass, they swipe at the gate, they're letting through security, some have a workspace, some don't, they just work out of the briefing room chairs, some have a camera station set up like NBC does others have a little iPhone camera, and they come here and they film and they give their reports. So banning reporters from the White House would essentially mean that those reporters from CNN, MSNOW, Politico, would not be able to get into the gate, would not be able to do their reporting from here, go to the press office, ask the press officials about questions, access those events like when the president takes off on a helicopter. And so that's how they potentially could be affected if this is sort of an all out blanket ban on these news organizations coming into the White House. Yeah, and I think you make such an important point, Shannon, which is that there are reporters who come from all over the world to cover the White House, to cover the People's House. Shannon, as we're having this conversation, CNN has released its first reaction to the president's statement that he plans to ban them among with other, along with other news outlets, CNN writes CNN stands fully behind our White House team and they're fair and accurate reporting.

41:17We have a right under the U.S. Constitution to do that reporting without hindrance or interference from the government. Should the ban which President Trump threatened go ahead, it would be in a legal assault on that fundamental and constitutionally protected right, signaling that they may be taking legal action if this ban moves forward. And Shannon, we should note that the president was also pressed on the fact that he said he was going to ban potentially other news outlets. He was asked which outlets he didn't say specifically, but he did take the opportunity to lash out at the New York Times and the Washington Post as well. What are you going to be watching for in the coming weeks as it relates to this? Well, I mean, I think the question tomorrow would be whether those reporters are able to get access to the gates here. Like I said, I've seen some of our colleagues from those organizations are still here, still working. When they leave through that security gate, does their past work tomorrow and are they able to come in and do their reporting from the White House lawn, go into the press office as the press secretary what's going on, are they able to attend some of these wide public events that all other reporters have access to.

42:28There's some, like the overall office, there's sort of a select group, this press pool that gets access to those events because there's just so many reporters in this limited space. But for example, like when the president takes off from the helicopter, any reporter with a press pass can go there and shout a question to the president and see if he'll answer it and get that type of action and interaction when they start holding press briefings again. Well, all those reporters have access to the room, but I mean, we should kind of know, you know, at the start of business tomorrow, whether people are able to access the White House who work for those organizations. All right, we'll be watching that very closely, Shannon. Thank you so much. We should note a couple of other headlines that came from President Trump taking questions on Iran. He reiterated that he believes the war will end soon. He was asked about representative Maria Salazar who released a video saying that she opposed his mass deportation. He said, I disagree with her, but he also said, I understand what she's saying. Basically saying he acknowledges she's in a tough fight for re-election.

43:30He was asked about his upcoming meeting with President Xi Jinping of China set to take place next week. He said of President Xi we get along well and he reupt his pledge that each American will get $5,000 if Republicans are re-elected to the House and Senate. Coming up, making his case in Kansas, the Democratic Senate candidate trying to turn the seat blue for the first time in nearly a century. He's going to join us. Keep it right here. You're watching Meet the Press now. Hey, what's up, guys? It's Hayley Bailey. Okay, I need to tell you about something. I just got YouTube Premium. It's got tons of awesome features like offline downloads so I can download my favorite videos before I travel and watch them whenever I don't have Wi-Fi. Because we all know airplane Wi-Fi is the worst. I get ad free, I get back room play, and there's like a ton more in there. You should try it. If you like YouTube, you'll love YouTube Premium. Try it now for two months free at youtube.com slash premium. Try a eligibility varies. Terms apply. Can't fool anytime. That's a mouthful.

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45:38Welcome back. As Republicans continue to face headwinds on the economy and the war with Iran heading into the midterms, Democrats are looking to flip a deep red Senate seat they haven't won in nearly a century. Methodist pastor and moderate Democrat Adam Hamilton is looking to unseat Kansas incumbent Republican Senator Roger Marshall in a battle that is heating up. A new poll released today shows Hamilton leading Marshall by two points well within the margin of error. We should caution this data represents one poll. But it comes after former Kansas governor Republican Bill Graves crossed party lines and endorsed Hamilton's campaign earlier this week. Take a look. With our nation facing increasing partisan gridlock and division, its time Kansas does something different. For the last six years, Senator Roger Marshall has turned his back on Kansas. In contrast, Adam Hamilton stands as a bulwark of kindness, humility and service to others. And joining me now is Adam Hamilton. Thanks so much for being here. We really appreciate it.

46:43Christmas is joy to be with you. Thank you. It's great to have you. We are getting closer to November less than two months now. You have this new poll which shows you leading by a slim margin. We should note we have had polls showing the incumbent Republican in Kansas trailing before only to have them come back and win by more than ten points on election day. How confident are you that you can actually flip this seat and just as a reminder, it's been nearly a hundred years since Democrats of what a Senate seat in Kansas. We're going really excited right now. So when I travel across Kansas and Kansas, you've got to win not just Democrats and independents. You've got to win Republicans. We travel across the state about 30% of the people who come to each my events are Republicans. They're telling me I've never voted for a Democrat before. We've had leaders, I mean committee chairs, you know, in various counties, tell us we're voting for you. We've got obviously build graves, but others who are leaders, Republican leaders in the state saying we've got to do better. And I'm an independent minded Democrat. I'm somebody who wants to work across the aisle and build bridges instead of walls. And we feel really excited right now.

47:48Well, I want to get your reaction to something that Vice President JD Vance said when he attacked you in another Democratic Senate candidate of faith. Take a listen. In Kansas, the Democrats are running this guy. His name is Adam Hamilton for Senate. He's got kind of a G. Wiz. I'm a nice pastor vibe, but he's a man who tells his congregation not about the gospel of Jesus Christ, but that they need to repent for their white privilege while eating beef. In Texas, they're running a guy by the name of James Salarico, who says that God is non-binary and there are six genders. What is your reaction to his comments about you? Well, first of all, I felt a great excitement when I heard that he was in town rallying around rug, Germarshall. I thought the White House is the second most powerful man in the country to try to rescue my opponent.

48:48And then listening to what he says is just ridiculous. I actually had to laugh when I heard it. I thought seriously. And he goes on to attack my faith. He talks about somehow I'm not really a Christian. And I thought that's just so interesting. I would love to have a chance to have a conversation with you about faith for 45 years. Almost every morning I wake up, get down on my knees and say, here I am God, please use me. I've led thousands of people to faith in Christ and baptized thousands and thousands more. And I and you know this little line about repenting for eating beef while you know whatever was he said, repenting for being white while eating beef. I thought you don't even get this right. So there was a sermon and they took a little bits and pieces out of different paragraphs of it and sewed it together. And it's just it's desperation. And I just take that as a great sign that we're going to win in November. Well, let me part of the strategy also is to paint Democrats as radical. The vice president said this recently. If you're one of the few Republicans who's running against a Democrat who's not that crazy, then just talk about Abdul Al-Sahed. He's got enough material for the whole country.

49:54What do you make of that? Do you think that Dr. Abdul Al-Sahed is a drag on Democrats chances? You know, I'm not really paying any attention to Abdul Al-Sahed. I'm really interested in Kansas and in Kansas, we're interested in $6 diesel prices right now, $4 regular gasoline prices, phosphate for farmers. It's double the price it was before. We're looking at the fact that our kids can't afford to buy homes anymore that interest rates keep going up instead of going down. And all of these are self-inflicted wounds happening at the highest level. It's really Roger Marshall is supporting these things Republicans are supporting them. And it's hurting people in Kansas. People are voted for Roger Marshall last time voted for the president three times are saying enough is enough. The policies that they're pursuing are hurting people. And so that's what I'm focused on is how do we make life better for Kansas to stop the policies out of Washington that are actually hurting people in their everyday lives. So 51,000 people no longer have health insurance in Kansas. They did a year and a half ago because the decisions made by Roger Marshall and Republicans in Washington. Just big picture though. Do you think the Democratic Party is big enough for the progressive branches? That's something that you embrace.

51:01Yes, just like the Republican Party has its most conservative elements. You're going to have progressives and conservatives in the Democratic Party. I think there's room for people like me. And I am again an independent minded Democrat. The church I passed year we have 24,000 members, 9,000 Republicans, 9,000 are Democrats. I love my Republican members. I love my Democrat members. I care about the things they care about. And what I really care about is Washington working again where Republicans and Democrats come together to solve the government. To solve the really big problems like the dead national debt or you know, health care or immigration reform, all of these saying Social Security. We need Republicans and Democrats thought whole Republicans Democrats working together. And right now that's not what we have in my opponent. All right, Adam Hamilton. Thank you so very much for joining us and for your time today. We really appreciate it. Kristen, thank you so much. If anyone wants to know more about me, Hamilton for Kansas dot com. All right, there you go. You got it in. Thank you. Joining me now is our panel. Tia Mitchell, Washington Bureau Chief for the Atlanta Journal Constitution. Don Callaway, Democratic Strategist and former Democratic member of the Missouri House of Representatives.

52:09And Ashley Davis, former White House official in the Bush administration, thanks to all of you for being here. Let's start on this race and sort of this fight that we're seeing unfold. In some red states, what do you make of Mr. Hamilton's chances, the fact that he's up. I noted that we've seen in past races and Kansas. You know, the Democrat maybe has a narrow lead, but that election day comes around and it's the Republican candidate who's got the strong ground game and pulls out the victory. Yeah, I mean, we have to be cautious about those polls. Every poll showed that Hillary Clinton was going to beat Donald Trump in 2016. So we've learned our lesson, but polls are definitely a snapshot in time. They tell us something in the fact that in a state like Kansas, in states like Iowa and Alaska, that Democrats are doing well enough to be in striking distance. If not, you know, slightly ahead, even within the margin of error shows a lot. I mean, it shows he talked about the cost of diesel, the price of goods. That is what is top of mind to voters. I know that, you know, Vice President Vance and other Republicans are bringing in some of these culture war issues and getting at, you know, eating meat and where they go to church.

53:21That is not what is top of mind for most voters, including Republicans. They care about the cost of goods. All right. Let's talk because time is short about this media ban that President Trump announced. Actually, let me start with you. Here we are less than two months from the midterms. Do you think that type of an announcement helps or hurts Republicans? What do you, you know, does it energize the mega base? What's the impact do you think? So there's two things. Yes, I think it energizes the mega base. And I also think it energizes the Democrat base 100%. But I say this all the time with Donald Trump. He knows how to switch the conversation. So you know what we're talking about right now? The fact that he's banning people. We're not talking about gas prices as much. We're not talking about some of these other broad issues. And there's a part of me and I'm not in his brain, but it's like, what can we throw out there that's going to cause people to melt down and not talk about what the other issues are? And this is it.

54:24Yeah. What do you make of it? Don, do you see it that way? Do you agree with Ashley? Well, yeah, Ashley's right. He's very good at pivoting and deflecting. But let's be clear, this is the fascist playbook. And I know that fascism doesn't always resonate with people who aren't political scientists, but let's be clear. This is Russia. This is Hungary. This is the playbook that folks have started over in Europe and the far right globally to ban alternative views. This is an extraordinary threat to the free state and the First Amendment. Ashley, you're going to hear Democrats making that argument on the campaign trail. Does it hurt in some of these districts that are really good? It helps with independence for Democrats, of course. But I also think, and this is where I think it gets lost, is what are, what are they really losing access to or what are they not losing access to? But listen, it is, I'm going to throw everything against the wall. It's like the $5,000 that everyone's getting. We're throwing everything out there and we're going to call it. Listen, the base is going to be really happy about this. Not about Politico, I don't think anyone stands up besides us, but everybody, the others.

55:31Tia, put this into context. You and I have both covered the White House. There's, and Shannon Petty-Peace touched on this. There's a question about how practical this really is. And CNN has released a statement making it very clear if this ban moves forward, they will view that as crossing a legal line. News outlets have press passes that allow them into the White House. The question is, are they going to turn those press passes off? Yeah, and for organizations as big as like CNN, we're talking about dozens of people. We're not just talking about the reporters that people might see on air. There are editors, photographers, and producers that are often at the White House getting content. They have a tint there, just like NBC does. And so I think just logistically, how do you completely revoke access? But the other thing that we know, Kristen, is CNN is going to get scoops about the Trump administration, whether they're people are on the grounds or not. Because a lot of the big scoops don't come while you're there in person. They come through the sourcing. And that's going to happen. He's not going to be able to shut down coverage even if he tries to limit access.

56:43So, do you anticipate this is going to become a legal battle if in fact the president does move to revoke some of these presidents? Yes, and it should be. I mean, it is a blatant violation of the First Amendment. But it is absolutely a legal battle. And we've seen these types of legal battles before because this is not the first news organization he's banned. But I just want to say from a practical perspective, imagine let's play the parlor game for the one millionth time. Imagine if Barack Obama had tried to ban Fox News. What would that look like? What would the immediate blowback look like? It just simply wouldn't be fundamentally acceptable to anybody on the right or even in the center in this country. Ashley, what about that? No, I completely agree with you or George Bush or anybody else. But I think that what we're losing here if it goes to the courts and we lose the messaging. I mean, like the court system is just going to be a long process. And so does it stay in the headlines as it is now, which like tonight it's a big story. Well, the other story that we're tracking today, vice president JD Vance in Iowa actually hints in the Republican candidate there, not appearing with the vice president. She said she had a scheduling conflict.

57:51But just zooming out, this is a battleground. Tia, what do you make of the optics and the vice president's message, which is, Roan was not built in a day. That's his big thesis statement. Give us more time to finish the job. He's yeah, and I don't know the ins and outs of Ashley Hinton schedule, Hinton schedule. But when the vice president comes to your state, you normally clear your schedule. And so I think it's, it lends to the perception that she is choosing not to share a stage with him. And I think him the the vice president's messaging has been a little bit tough because he's not completely aligned with president Trump on some things where president Trump's like, I'm on the ballot vote for me. Everything's great. Keep it great. The vice president's being a little bit more realist, a little bit more pragmatic. And he's like, okay, we know that certain things aren't great. But give us some more time. We're going to keep working at it. Ashley, what about that sort of distance that we're seeing in their messages? So that shows to me that I'm not there with Kansas or even Texas. I'm there more with Texas than I am Kansas. But I think an eye what's a real situation. I mean, we were really the Democrats have a really good governor's candidate, which could hurt the Senate seat.

59:08And I think Ashley's made a strategic decision not to show up. John, you know, it's interesting because president Trump's message is twofold. Pretend I'm on the ballot. Also, if Republicans win, we're going to give you $5,000. Some Democrats have referred to that as a bribe. The White House says, look, it's not a bribe. But that aside, he does drive turnout when he's on the ballot. And again, to Ashley's point, both for the Republican and the Democratic base, how do you anticipate that's going to play in these midterms? He drives turnout, but he is extraordinarily unpopular right now. And so I think he'll have the converse effect of driving turnout against him. It's hard to use him in his magnetic personality, whether you're forward against it when diesel prices are $6 a gallon. That is a nonpartisan issue. It's affecting municipal and county budgets across the country. And it is immediately attributable to his personal policy. So I understand why Ashley didn't show up and they hadn't done to do it or schedule. All right, well, lot to watch with less than two months to go to you, Don and Ashley really appreciate it. Thank you all. We are back next week with more meat the press now. And if it's Sunday, it's meat the press on your local NBC news station.

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