Meet the Press NOW — November 9

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1:24his own terms and the staying power of independent filmmaking. And of course, I had to ask, what's the secret to his decades-long marriage to supermodel Christy Turlington? We talk about all of it. I hope you'll join us for The Drink, Listen, and Follow wherever you get your podcasts.

1:52Hi there and welcome to Meet the Press Now. I'm Ryan Nobles in Washington, where the House and Senate are back in session for the first time since Democrats sweeping midterm victories. There is, of course, a lot to get done in the lame duck session, including government funding and brewing leadership fights. But the first thing up may be the impeachment of Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth after Republican Congressman Thomas Massey introduced impeachment articles this afternoon. Secretary Hegseth said he will hold a press conference tomorrow to address the effort to impeach him. At the same time, preparations are underway for the next Congress amid new signs of uncertainty and volatility, with both Democrats and the White House sending mixed messages about their agendas for the next two years and their willingness to work across the aisle.

2:38Those mixed signals, perhaps most notable from the president, who is still coming to terms with last week's blue wave, acknowledging in an interview with CBS's 60 Minutes that part of his agenda may have cost his party at the ballot box. We also took people that had good jobs, that created one violation for breaking of the law, and that was that they came into the country illegally. So you think your deportation policy went too far? It was too tough. I think it might be too tough, yeah. And a lot of people would say that it's great, but a lot of people think it's too tough. What does the deal look like with the Democrats?

3:15I think ultimately that hurt me. The president in that interview also suggested a willingness to work with Democrats on an immigration deal. But that comes after President Trump elevated MAGA firebrand and the architect of his hardline immigration agenda, Stephen Miller, to be his new chief of staff, a potential sign that the administration is preparing for a more aggressive and confrontational approach for the next two years. Meanwhile, Democrats are eyeing an ambitious agenda, with some vowing to investigate the administration while also delivering on their campaign promises to lower costs, which would require working with the administration.

3:52If I spent the next two years, my first two years in the Senate in investigations, I'd be deeply disappointed. But let's focus on helping the American people. And I'll tell you, the Democrats, if they don't, if we don't figure that out and get to work on helping people, this is going to be a one and done kind of, you know, kind of blue wave. Don't worry about Miller. Do I think we can work with Trump? Maybe. I'm not by no means guaranteeing it, but it is certainly worth the effort. There's, of course, no more Susie Wiles. It's Stephen Miller, who you've commented on. Do you think you can be a viable partner for Democrats?

4:24No. Is there anyone in the administration who you think can be a good legislative partner? Stephen Miller is a stone cold racist. His track record speaks for itself. And I've got zero interest in working with that kind of individual. OK, newly elected members of Congress arrived on Capitol Hill today for their new member orientation, with jockeying already underway for key leadership roles that will shape the future of both parties. Joining me now is NBC News' Kelly O'Donnell. She's at the White House. NBC News senior national political reporter Sahil Kapoor is on Capitol Hill. And with me on set is NBC News senior homeland security correspondent Julia Ainsley.

5:06Kelly, let's start with you on the North Lawn. The president signaled he would be willing to work with Democrats, including on immigration reform. But is it clear to you whether that conciliatory approach will carry through the last two years of his presidency? I mean, do you expect the president will, how will he even approach this lame duck period to begin with? Well, certainly the president has already backed away from that initial tone of congratulating Democrats and saying that they had won and that he accepted the result. He raised the issue of could the results be accurate. So he threw a little shade on the results, even though he and his administration are moving forward and accepting it.

5:45The president has also called for the passage in this lame duck period of a bipartisan bill that relates to permitting that would try to speed along energy related products and if process and if that could be achieved, there is some sense that it might over time make it easier for new energy infrastructure to be built in the country. And that might ultimately be affordable for the public and help, but not the kind of short term fix that many Americans certainly wanted to express the need for in their votes. So the president knows he's got a limited time left. He has said some of the things that lead toward the potential for deal making.

6:26But it's a little too soon to tell. And it may be affected by other things that influence how the president is feeling about his standing. Right. Yeah, I think that's probably a good way to put it. We do know that some Democrats are looking at impeachment proceedings into members of the president's cabinet. Over the weekend, the president said some Democrats should go to jail for threatening those investigations. I want to play for you something that Attorney General Todd Blanche said over the weekend. The Constitution sees it as my job. Just in every administration, the Department of Justice represents members of the executive who are brought in front of Congress.

6:59So there is nothing unique to me saying that. Every attorney general in history represents members of the administration. If you work in this administration, you have a lawyer. It's me. And we will defend you. So what do we make of his comments and how he views his role as attorney general? Well, that's puzzling because the Constitution does not provide that authority. The attorney general's role comes from a separate piece of legislation enacted in 1789. And it does say he is the attorney for the United States and he can give advice and opinions to executive branch employees. That is different than representing a given employee of the executive branch who might be called to appear before a committee if there's oversight functions that are coming with Democrats getting the gavel.

7:49So he is a fierce defender of the president. He certainly was the president's personal lawyer. He has narrowed any perceived gap between himself as attorney general and the administration. Some other administrations have tried to have a brighter line, a firmer wall between the actions of the Department of Justice and the White House. Todd Blanche views it differently. He has appeared at campaign events during the midterm season, and he was a certainly an outspoken advocate for protecting executive branch employees, whether they're cabinet officials or others who work in the White House. That interpretation, as he described, it doesn't seem to meet with the sort of core responsibilities of being the U.S.

8:32Attorney General. OK, Kelly O'Donnell, thank you for that. Let's move down Pennsylvania Avenue to where Sahil Kapoor is. The House and Senate back in session today. Sahil, what are the latest and biggest agenda items on the to-do list before Democrats take control in January? It's the same building, Ryan, but the vibes feel very, very different here after the blue tsunami, especially talking to some new members here during the orientation. You can kind of get that sense. There's a tall to do list for the existing Congress before the new members come in, starting with a government funding bill.

9:02They have to get that done by December 11th in order to avoid a shutdown. They've got to pass a farm bill. They've got to do a national defense authorization act. Act. They need to decide whether to extend and how Section 702, FISA, the Warrantless Surveillance Program, which expired several months ago. There's a Senate vote coming up soon on permitting reform for construction projects. Are they going to finish that or is that going to fall by the wayside? A college sports bill passed the Senate. The House and the Senate are not quite on board with the same one. They've got to figure out what to do about that.

9:30Senate Republicans want to do a bunch of nominations before they relinquish power. And there's the impeachment of Pete Hegseth coming up in the House. Within two legislative days since Tom Massey introduced it today. That is privileged. And there's a real chance it passes the House. We don't know that for sure yet, but all it takes is a couple of Republicans siding with Democrats and maybe attendants moving it one way or the other. The through line in all of this, Ryan, is that Democrats feel very empowered by their election victories. There's already talk about not funding the Pentagon, not funding the government without some guarantee that money is cut off for the Iran war, or at least that's brought to an end.

10:03The big question for Republicans is how much they're willing to compromise with Democrats to get some of this stuff done before they relinquish power in January and Democrats seize control of some of the biggest majorities they've seen since 2009. And you mentioned kind of the different era up there. I was up there earlier today. I felt more like coming back from spring break than necessarily the first day of school because it is coming to the end of the year. But we had this kind of collision of the old guard and the new guard. It's new member orientation today on the Hill. Democrats and Republicans getting ready to hold their leadership elections.

10:35I mean, what should we be watching for as these lawmakers jockey for positions? I'm watching the rumblings of discontent within both parties about the leadership situation on the Senate Republican side. They're expected to meet tomorrow pretty quickly after the election to hold their leadership elections. Those members you see on the screen have called for delaying it. It's not really clear that's going to happen. Senator John Thune, the current majority leader, is still clearly in poll position to win the race to become minority leader for the next two years until someone else announces that they're running.

11:04I will expect Thune to win that race. On the Democratic side, they still have some time. They're not meeting quite as quickly as Senate Republicans are. But Senator Chuck Schumer, expecting to become majority leader for the next two years, he's facing some grassroots pressure on the left to, you know, among folks who want to find a replacement. I'm told Senator Chris Van Hollen, who recently closed the door to running, is now reopening it. A source familiar with his thinking tells me that he has received an outpouring of calls and that running for majority leader is now an active consideration.

11:36He's in active listening mode on that. The door is not shut. This source says, once again, until someone announces that they're actually challenging Chuck Schumer, he is still likely to win that. And finally, Ryan, on the House side, we're definitely going to get a new Republican leader because Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the House, is stepping aside. He's not going to run again. That's going to be between his current second in command, Steve Scalise, and Jim Jordan, the current judiciary chairman. All right. We'll see how that shakes itself out. Sahil Kapoor, thank you for that. Let's bring Julia into the conversation now.

12:03Julia, you and I kind of both responded to Hakeem Jeffries' response to Stephen Miller. We just flatly said he can't work with him. You've covered Stephen Miller for a long time. I mean, what do we think of him in this role and how will he interface with the Congress? Yeah, I mean, I've been watching the evolution of Stephen Miller in American politics for over a decade now, when he first came to work with Trump in his first campaign after being a legislative aide for Jeff Sessions. And that's where a lot of these principles that Stephen Miller has now were formed. It's hard to imagine as chief of staff that he would let go of some of these ideas.

12:39Things like the third country deportations or 20 ,000 people have been deported to countries that aren't their own, including Africa, where they don't have due process. He also is architect of family separation at the border. He is someone who truly will believe dogmatically in this idea not just of deterring immigrants from coming to the United States, but that anyone who is here illegally or even people who entered legally in many cases shouldn't be here. He's claimed America is for Americans and Americans only, as he said in a 2024 campaign rally, and he's repeated that. So with this decision to bring in Stephen Miller as chief of staff, obviously the chief of staff has to handle more than just immigration.

13:17But as you look at Trump trying to hold out immigration as the first olive branch to working with Democrats, it's really hard to see how he can square both of these. And it may speak more to the fact that Trump himself is really wrestling right now with the tone that he needs to strike after these election results. Because at the end of the day, right, it is the president's call. Right. But and he did seem to acknowledge that his deportation agenda had gone too far. Yeah. Does Stephen Miller respond to that and take corrective action? I mean, does anybody expect this to be reined in at all? I mean, you know, I think the thing we have to remind people watching this interview is that that those words were spoken just hours before he named Stephen Miller as chief of staff, but not after.

13:56So we weren't able to have the interviewer follow up and say, well, then why did you name Stephen Miller? For all we know, Miller could have been in the room as he said that. But what was so interesting about what Trump said in that interview is he made it seem like it's just a matter of numbers. We either deport people who are non-criminal or we leave them here. He didn't mention vehicle pursuits. He didn't mention breaking into people's homes and violating the Fourth Amendment without a search warrant. He didn't mention the racial profiling a lot of people have claimed when they're targeted by ICE.

14:23And he certainly didn't mention deporting people to third countries or to prisons like Seacott in El Salvador. The tactics are part of this. It's not just the do we deport or do we not. And so what we've heard that Trump might be willing to talk about the DREAM Act, that just seems like such a stretch, not only for Trump, but for Democrats who would have to come to the table really expecting a real change. And if Stephen Miller, as chief of staff, is supposed to be brokering these negotiations, it's just really hard to see how we get there, especially because in the time I've covered immigration, we've been very close before in 2013, even with Biden, with different actors.

14:57With these characters, it seems even less likely. All right. All right. Julia, thanks for being on top of that. We appreciate it. And as we mentioned, the newly elected members of Congress are in Washington today for new member orientation, even as multiple House races and two key Senate races remain uncalled. In Alaska, Democrat Mary Peltola maintains her razor thin lead over incumbent Republican Senator Dan Sullivan. And in Mississippi, Democrat Scott Colombe is narrowly leading incumbent Republican Sidney Hyde-Smith with a key ballot deadline looming tomorrow. Joining me now is NBC News national correspondent Aaron Gilchrist.

15:33He is in Jackson, Mississippi, where they are still counting. So, Aaron, update us here. What is the status of the vote counting in Mississippi? And what is important about tomorrow's key deadline on provisional ballots? Well, Ryan, we're learning there are some very unique aspects to elections here in Mississippi. You asked about the status of the vote counting. The NBC News decision desk has determined about 97 percent of the expected vote is in at this point. And so there aren't a ton of votes left to be counted here. But you talk about those provisional ballots, the affidavit ballots that they as they call them here in Mississippi and these mail in ballots.

16:09There's a deadline tomorrow for those mail in ballots to be in. And then these affidavit ballots are, it's a little more nuanced, a little more complex, really, if you will. I can show you here in the room, here in Hines County, the largest county by population here in Mississippi. Toward the back of the room there, you can see some folks who are standing kind of in these cubicle areas. And that's where the election commissioners here in Hines County have been all day long looking at some of these affidavit ballots. And their responsibility at this point is to verify that those ballots can be counted.

16:42This is something that's happening, we believe, potentially in counties all around the state of Mississippi today. And here in Hines County, we know that tomorrow that process, for the most part, should be completed here. And then those votes would start to be counted on Wednesday with the this coming Friday, Ryan, the date that every county in the state has to certify their ballots, their election, the elections to the state secretary here in Mississippi, Ryan. And we know that Mississippi doesn't have an automatic recount procedure. So what happens if either candidate does want to challenge the results?

17:17Yeah, it's interesting. Normally there's like a threshold that would trigger an automatic recount in most every state around the country. Or you could have a campaign ask for a recount in some places. They would then be required to pay for it. Here in Mississippi, that's just not an option. There isn't a statute, a state law that allows for a recounting of votes. And so if for some reason one of the campaigns here decided that they wanted to challenge the election results, they wanted to demand a recount, they would have to go to court. They would have to be a hearing and a judge would have to order that to happen.

17:47And then there's still a question about whether there's a procedure really that would allow for that to happen. So it's something that's a possibility, but we have to get to and past Friday when the certification happens at the county level to see if that's even something that would be needed or possible. And of course, we would hear from the campaigns if that was something they were going to go forward with, Ryan. OK, so it may not be over even when we think it's over. Aaron Gilchrist in Jackson, Mississippi. Aaron, thank you for that. Coming up, covert affairs. Multiple investigations are underway as NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang admits he had an affair with an alleged Chinese spy.

18:23The economic and national security fallout for the AI giant as U.S. officials respond. Plus, the blueprint from rising costs to impeachment votes to working with the Trump administration, a top House Democratic leader joins us on his party's top priorities in the upcoming Congress. You're watching Meet the Press Now.

18:59reporting and exclusive articles. Plus, more insight, analysis and content only for subscribers. When you really look inside these numbers, it's more context and clarity from the reporters you trust. Download the NBC News app now and subscribe for more.

19:19Welcome back. NVIDIA, one of the global leaders in the AI boom has announced that it's conducting an independent investigation into allegations that its CEO was the target of a Chinese espionage campaign. CEO Jensen Huang told employees this weekend that he would cooperate with the investigation while also acknowledging he was unfaithful to his wife. Multiple outlets report that extramarital affair was with Chinese businesswoman Alice Huang, a woman that the U.S. intelligence community has concluded is a Chinese spy, that according to a person familiar with the matter. NVIDIA's board says it has no reason to believe that company secrets or national security have been compromised.

19:59The company has faced scrutiny over its sale of advanced chips to China despite U.S. restrictions. According to the New York Times, Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned White House official about Huang's entanglement with an alleged spy this past spring. Rubio told reporters yesterday he could not comment on the matter. Jensen Huang is a close ally of President Trump, even traveling with him to China earlier this year. The president defended him when asked about the investigation late yesterday. I have not spoken to him about it. I just know he's a fine person, but you never know what is going on.

20:34I'm sure, I hope everything's fine. He's done such an incredible job. Do you wish that you had acted on the intelligence when you were briefed about the spy? No, I don't think so. I think, you know, I think he's an honorable guy. I think he probably has an excuse for it. You have to hear it now. You can't do that with people. NBC News intelligence reporter Dan DeLuce joins me now, along with NBC News business and data correspondent Brian Chung. So, Dan, there's obviously two components to this. There's the economic component of it and the national security component. Let's dive into the national security component with you.

21:06If the intelligence assessment is accurate, what are some areas of national security that could potentially be compromised? I think from China's point of view, the sky's the limit, right? This is someone who has been friendly with the president, who has spent a lot of time with them, had conversations. So that's gold to a foreign intelligence agency. What is the U.S. president saying in confidence to one of our country's most important CEOs? Okay. Then there are all sorts of sensitive uses of this technology. The military uses it. The intelligence agencies are using in developing AI. What insight could they learn about how the U.S.

21:41is developing AI tools for very sensitive weapons or intelligence gathering efforts, right? And then they also would possibly get some commercial information that would be really vital, right? Like what details of NVIDIA's production that's kind of held confidentially might be useful to China. Yeah. And what led to the intelligence assessment that Alice Wong was a Chinese spy? How did they figure that out? Well, they're not saying, but generally in these cases, people's telephones and email communications are tapped. And the U.S. has a pretty powerful eavesdropping capability. So that's a very distinct possibility.

22:18And if she were, in fact, a spy for China, would there be any level of information beyond what you told us that Beijing could even get from Jensen Huang himself? Is that possible? That's a question. Everyone's hoping that's not the case. We don't have any indication that is the case. But again, there could be an inadvertent scenario where maybe he accidentally shares some information somehow. And then we don't even know if she placed some kind of listening devices or surveillance equipment without him knowing when she was around him or with him. So huge amount of questions here. And this, of course, is a very old play out of the spy playbook.

22:59Yeah. And do we have any evidence at this point that Jensen's Wong had been compromised? I mean, wouldn't any CEO of a company like NVIDIA lobby for looser export controls on his products? I think that that position he has, other CEOs share that with them. Some of them do. So that's not damning in and of itself. No. But of course, everything now is in question because of the judgment that he exercised in this case. Yeah. Is the intelligence community saying whether she was recruited to have a relationship with him or whether she was recruited to spy after China learned of their relationship? This is a chicken and egg thing here.

23:31Yeah, it's a good question. We don't know. There's been some reporting that indicated perhaps it was the latter, that once they saw she had this relationship, the access to him, that's when they recruited her. But there are other indications. You could make another argument that her background is very murky, very opaque. She doesn't have much of an electronic profile. And she kind of popped out of nowhere and became a pretty senior executive. So maybe this was planned earlier. It does sound like it's read out of a movie, but this is real life. All right, Dan, thanks for that. Let's talk about the economic impacts of all this now with Brian Chung.

24:05NVIDIA, I mean, this is one of the biggest companies in the world. A lot of our 401ks probably rely on NVIDIA right now. They announced that they are conducting an independent investigation into the matter. What does an independent investigation look like, especially what involves someone as powerful and as influential as Jensen Huang? Yeah, well, look, this is something that's not going to be done overnight. This is going to involve figuring out what firm is going to be responsible for doing this. Again, if it's an independent investigation, it often is the case that a company will contract out to some other company to do an investigation.

24:35That investigation will likely involve a look at the communications between Jensen Huang and this particular individual. There will also be questions, to your point that you were just talking about with Dan, over the sequencing of this. At what point did this relationship begin? And at what point was there a compromised relationship between Huang and this person and the relationship between Beijing and this person? So I think these are all going to be things that are going to be wrapped together. And I do think that another big piece of this puzzle here, Ryan, is at what point, if there was any, did the U.S.

25:06government flag Huang and or NVIDIA to the fact that there was this alarming relationship between this particular person and the Chinese government? These are all going to be things that this independent commission will be tasked with looking at. And it's a big job for them, right? Because NVIDIA has become one of the biggest and most influential companies in the AI revolution. How does this story impact its position in the AI sector? Well, I mean, this is a company that we're talking about here that at times bobbles between, you know, the most valuable company in the world along the likes of Apple and Google, depending on where the stock market is trading.

25:41And here's a quick stat for you. NVIDIA fell by over 4 % in trading today, which is pretty notable when you consider it was a broad green day across Wall Street. Just that singular action, because this is such a huge company, that meant that this company lost almost$200 billion in value in a single day. What NVIDIA does, to the point that you suggested, is really impactful for the overall market and to your 401ks as well. Because as a company of this type of scale, a lot of these passive funds do hold shares of NVIDIA. It is just a company that is unavoidable given its clear influence in the AI development.

26:14And as this investigation plays itself out, the internal investigation, how could Jensen Huang be held accountable by the company that he helped build? Yeah, and we should point out that for right now, the board is saying that they have no reason to believe that either national security or NVIDIA secrets will be compromised. And they also say that Huang will continue to lead the company while they go about this investigation. But of course, the natural question here is if there is something alarming in that investigation that's turned up, would that lead to Jensen Huang having to leave the company?

26:44This is the co-founder of this massive company at the center of the AI build out. And I think it's raised some questions over whether or not Jensen Huang and NVIDIA are too big to fail here. But you have to remember, there have been other corporate stories like at McDonald's or Boeing where their leaders have been caught in moments of infidelity, even without the national security implications. And the board ultimately pushed them out. Could that happen here with NVIDIA as well? I think that's a real possibility that some analysts I'm hearing from are saying is definitely not out of the question here.

27:11Yeah, infidelity can be a problem, even if it doesn't have a national security component in terms of how you run a company. Brian, thank you so much for that. We appreciate it. Up next, as the House weighs impeaching Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, I'll speak to the chair of the House Democratic Caucus. Congressman Pete Aguilar is standing by. You're watching Meet the Press Now.

27:39welcome back as we mentioned Republican Congressman Thomas Massey has followed articles of impeachment against Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth triggering a vote to potentially impeach the secretary later this week Congressman Massey spoke to reporters moments ago and was asked if he believes his impeachment resolution will pass. My hope is that this will make it to the Senate. I don't know if we have enough votes. I have no idea. I haven't spent time on the phone calling people. I'm doing this because it's the right thing to do. Everybody gets to take this vote. I suspect there may be members of Congress who want to put a little daylight between themselves in this war or themselves in this administration.

28:20House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries says that Democrats are a hard yes on impeaching Secretary Hegseth. Some Republicans are also thought to be considering voting for the resolution. And joining me now is Congressman Pete Aguilar of California. He's currently the chair of the House Democratic Caucus, and he's running to be the majority whip in the upcoming Congress. Congressman, thank you so much for being here. You posted online this morning, it's time to send Pete Hegseth packing. Do you think that there are enough votes to pass Congressman Massey's resolution under this Congress? And is the full Democratic caucus ready to vote for this?

28:55I think it's very clear to the caucus, to the Democratic caucus and the Republican conference, that the American people have lost faith in Pete Hegseth. This is an Iran war that he has presided over that is failing at every step. It's leading to rising costs that people face. And each and every time Congress has asked questions, Pete Hegseth doesn't have the answers. So I think that members are going to have to make their own decision. But I am a yes. Leader Jeffries is a yes. The leadership team, I would imagine, is a yes. And I think, by and large, Democrats believe that Pete Hegseth needs to go.

29:36But this is right. And this is like a race to the bottom with this cabinet. I mean, this is a corrupt cabinet. Pete Hexeth is the first here. And this is a bipartisan resolution that is being offered, by the way. But we'll get to the bottom of it and we'll see where the caucus and the conference ends up. Even if it were to pass, it would likely be largely symbolic. It seems unlikely the Senate would vote to convict him in the next two months. So is this something that your Democratic majority would be interested in bringing back in the new Congress? Is impeaching and removing Secretary Hegseth going to be a priority, a top priority for you in the new Congress?

30:16Well, let's see what the Senate does. We shouldn't be making decisions for January just yet. You know, this is in front of us right now. This is the decision that we have. But we have been very clear we are focused on lowering the cost for the American public. But we also want to root out corruption and hold the crooks accountable. And so we will be doing that. We will have an agenda that focuses on all of those. And if we need to, we are prepared to use this tool. But right now, this is the vote in front of us. And we'll see how it goes. And then we'll see what the Senate wants to wants to do with this.

30:54But obviously, there are questions that many people have about excess leadership. He should have to answer to those in public. OK, let's talk now about President Trump's post this morning, which appeared to cast doubt on the election results, talking about, quote, early voting dumps and voting machines. I know that you and your fellow Democrats did table talk exercises because you were concerned about the possibility that the president could challenge the election results. He initially seemed to think or at least seemed to say that he accepted them. Are you still worried about the possibility of the president trying to challenge your big win from last Tuesday?

31:30No, our focus all along was to win seats, but to win them big enough that not even the president could cast any doubt or rig these rig these elections. And so that's exactly what we've done. We want in such a big way. There is no way anybody believes that these elections were not accurate. In fact, the president has even gone on TV multiple times and said that. So that's what you know, that is what's concerning about that post. It doesn't really match what he has said in live interviews the last couple of days. So I don't know who's in control of his social media, but it certainly doesn't seem like some of the words he said in the past.

32:12But this is a president who likes to say multiple things and take multiple positions on the same issue. So it's not surprising to me or anyone in the American public. Yeah, well, that actually leads into my next question, because he is still going to be president for the next two years. And even though you did win healthy majorities on Tuesday, you're going to have to work with President Trump. Can this new Democrat led Congress deliver on its affordability agenda while President Trump is still in the White House? How do you achieve that? Don't you have to work with him? We'll work with anyone.

32:43We've said very clearly we'll work with anyone, anywhere to deliver real relief for the American people. The American people are getting crushed with costs, housing, gas, groceries, utilities, everyday goods. the American people are getting crushed. They want relief. They want help. And this Republican conference has ignored them, ignored their pleas and ignored their financial situation for too long. And so we are in a position now that we can govern and we can pass legislation to address that. We'll work with our partners in the Senate and we'll ensure that these are legislative products that can come out of both houses, and then we'll put it on the president's desk.

33:25That's our job. Our job is to propose legislation that helps people. We plan on doing that. And if the president is real, if the president wants to work on those issues, then we are happy to let him sign bills that we produce. But if the president just wants to call names and talk about putting lawmakers in jail, then we're just going to keep putting affordability bills on his desk and holding his administration accountable. Yeah, I guess that's what I'm trying to interpret here. Do you think this is a situation where you can work with the White House ahead of time, find some areas of common agreement, craft legislation that you think he can sign?

34:03Or is it your plan just to pass legislation and almost dare him to veto it or not sign it? We are willing to work with anyone in any party, in any chamber, 16 blocks away or here on Capitol Hill, if they are genuinely concerned about lowering the costs that people face. If he's not concerned about that, then we'll have to work on different strategies to just send them the bills. But if they want to engage and work with us, we're happy to do that. Okay. Let's talk about the president at least hinting about this idea of some sort of immigration reform, as he did in the 60 Minutes interview last night.

34:40Would Democrats consider a deal on immigration with the White House while, And if the White House were to continue their hardline deportation policies and quotas. It's hard to imagine that a White House that is led by Stephen Miller would be serious about immigration reform. This is someone who has championed separating families and the deportation forces in every neighborhood. But look, we're interested in dealing with solutions and we want to fix this broken immigration system and ensure that they can't do the behavior. that they are doing. So if this White House is willing to engage with us, then we'll engage with them on those solutions.

35:21You mentioned before that your conference is not going to back away from your oversight responsibility. I want to play what Congressman Garcia, he's poised to be the next chair of the House Oversight Committee. This is what he said yesterday about investigating the Trump family, specifically Don Jr. So, yes, you're going to investigate them. Absolutely. Are you going to call them in to testify? They should be expected to answer questions. And this is the grift that is happening on the American public as the Trumps are billions of dollars richer. It's a version of this question a million times, but I think it bears repeating.

35:59Are you able to have that laser focus on your affordability agenda while at the same time conducting these robust investigations? Could one of these agenda items get distracted by the other? It's not an either or, especially when the grift of this White House is costing the American public real, real dollars. We are seeing that the American public, the gas prices are up. They're having to pay over$850 more per household in gasoline expenses. Why should they shoulder that burden when the president's own portfolio on oil and gas goes up, you know, 30 or 40 million dollars? That's that's the direct line that that we are talking about, that this grift in this White House is costing the American public and it deserves to be held accountable.

36:53So that's exactly what Robert Garcia is talking about and looking at there. We're laser focused on the affordability crisis, but we can't ignore the fact that the grift of the Trump family is costing the American people. And then before we go, will Leader Jeffries become the next Speaker of the House, even though there have been some members, new incoming members that have questioned whether or not he's the right guy for the job? Are you confident that he will be the next Speaker of the House? Leader Jeffries will be the next Speaker of the House. I have been honored to nominate him in the past, and I look forward to being able to stand up and to say his name and for Hakeem Jeffries to be the next Speaker of the House.

37:35I don't lose any sleep over that vote. It's going to happen. All right, Congressman, thank you. Hi, I'm Kate Snow, NBC News anchor and host of the NBC News podcast, The Drink. This month, I'm having a non-alcoholic Guinness with filmmaker, actor, and writer Ed Burns. You know him from movies like Saving Private Ryan and 27 Dresses, but you will not believe what it took to get his first movie made, including tracking down legendary actor-director Robert Redford. Ed and I talk about how he built his career on his own terms and the staying power of independent filmmaking. And of course I had to ask, what's the secret to his decades-long marriage to supermodel Christy Turlington?

38:14We talk about all of it. I hope you'll join us for the drink, Listen and follow wherever you get your podcasts.