Meet the Press NOW — October 26

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1:10Hi there. Welcome to Meet the Press Now. I'm Ryan Nobles in Washington. Just eight days to go until Election Day. And there is perhaps no better illustration of the darkening midterm environment for Republicans than where the president is going and what he is saying. This afternoon, the president will head to the deepest of red states, Mississippi, after this weekend in Michigan doubling down on racially charged attacks against Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed. I'm here to keep a jihadist Muslim Brotherhood member from becoming a United States senator, and that's the fact. We're not going to let that happen.

1:54Abdul Mohammed Al-Sayed, a man who should never be allowed inside the halls of our great, beautiful Capitol building in Washington, D.C. He would be the only senator that will have to go through a metal detector before he's allowed to go into the Senate. I want him to have a metal detector. If Abdul and the Democrats win, they will open the floodgates and invite hordes of jihadists to our shores, creating a nightmare of violence and terror until you cannot even have a Christmas. The president also saying that al-Sayed shouldn't be allowed on an airplane and bringing on stage the father of Todd Beamer, a passenger on United Flight 93, who helped storm the cockpit to stop 9-11 hijackers.

2:39Al-Sayed, who has repeatedly denied ties to the Muslim Brotherhood or any terrorist group for that matter, clapping back at some of the president's attacks. I get that the president of the United States takes personal offense to my first name. He doesn't mind as much when it's a shared name from the Saudis who are funding his son-in-law's private equity. Doesn't seem to mind as much when it's the Qataris who are giving him a$400 million private jet.

3:11He just seems to have trouble pronouncing it when it's my name. But y 'all, I don't care how he pronounces my name. I don't even care that he remembers my whole name because he can just go on and call me senator after November.

3:30Former President Obama rallied with El Sayyid over the weekend, rebuking President Trump's recent Islamophobic attacks. They will use lies and they will use fear and they will use division. and they may even use your name or your faith to somehow suggest that you are dangerous and less than trustworthy and less patriotic and less American than they are. We have seen this movie before I started it. I was, I'm the, I was, I was, I've got a long form birth certificate to prove it. This stuff didn't work on me, not in Michigan. It's not going to work on Abdul.

4:23Now, I'll say Adam, of course, locked in a tight race against Republican Mike Rogers, who was pressed by Kristen Welker on yesterday's Meet the Press about the president's rhetoric before their rally together in Michigan. President Trump says your opponent is a violent terrorist, violent. Again, there's just no proof of that. And he has denounced, he was asked directly if he denounces the Muslim Brotherhood. He has. Do you agree with calling him a violent terrorist? That's not true. Hold on. Do you agree with calling him a violent terrorist? You know what he did? He said, the guy said, are you going to answer the question?

4:55Hold on. Will you disavow? He said, yeah, absolutely. I'll answer the question. He never answered the question. Is that up to your standard? No, I don't. I've never called him a terrorist. I've never called him a terrorist. This this election is about me versus Abdul. The president now heading to Mississippi, a state he won by more than 20 points in 2024 to boost the reelection campaign of Republican Senator Sidney Hyde Smith, as her race against the Democrat Scott Cullum has seen a late burst of investment from both parties. And the RNC announcing today that the president will be going back to South Carolina this week, another deep red state after already making a stop there last week.

5:36Joining me now is our team of reporters. NBC News White House correspondent Monica Elba is in Corinth, Mississippi, where the president will be rallying tonight. NBC's Shaquille Brewster is in Detroit and NBC's Julie Serkin joins me on set. Monica, let's start with you. Out on the campaign trail. We mentioned that Mississippi is a state the president won by nearly 23 points last election. Why does he feel? It is pretty notable that the president is going to be here in deep red Mississippi with just eight days to go, so much so that some of the voters I was talking to in line outside of this arena were surprised themselves when they heard the news that the president was going to be coming here to Mississippi, given the significance of how precious his time is, how precious that resource is.

6:22And he is going to be here campaigning for Cindy Hyde-Smith. And these voters that I was speaking to, they are definitely loyal, ardent Trump supporters, but they acknowledge that there are people who are feeling the pinch on prices. These voters brought that up on their own and said that that was specifically because of what we're seeing with some of these policies that are even having Republicans, according to these Trump voters that I talked to lean in other directions. That is what they were ascribing some of this movement in the polls to. So there's an awareness here and a hope from Republicans that if the president is going to come here, he can boost turnout.

7:02He can motivate people in the words of one voter I talked to, to get off the couch and actually cast a ballot for election day in a place here like Mississippi, where some people think, oh, I don't need to show up to vote to support the GOP. So that is a really significant kind of backdrop to all of this. But we are in an arena that holds about 7 ,000 people that likely will be filled. There's a very long line outside of people waiting to get in here, Ryan. But I think it's significant, as you know, the sort of defensive strategy that the White House, that Republicans have to play here in terms of where he's going next, that tells you a lot about their concerns.

7:43And what's significant in a place here like Mississippi as well is that it just tells you about what has kind of gone viral, what has been talked about the most here. And it was an ad by Scott Colombe who was sort of poking fun at comments that Cindy Hyde-Smith had made about picking alternate proteins if the price of beef was too high. That ad went kind of viral. And notably also, Ryan Scott Colombe was just a few minutes from here earlier today and said he was going to come speak with Trump supporters outside of this rally to ask them what they care about, what they are going to be voting on and what kind of issues, saying that he wanted to talk to the voters who would typically support him, but also those who might not.

8:28So he was out here a short time ago trying to speak to some of those voters, which is an interesting strategy as well. We haven't seen many Democrats actually come to the physical Trump rally to try to get their message and pitch across. Brian. All right, Monica, I'm not sure you can hear me. It's pretty loud in that arena. Can you hear me? It looks like she can. Oh, you can. Great. Great. Just barely. OK, well, quickly, we saw the president ramp up his anti-Muslim attacks in recent campaigns against al-Sayed, also against Ilhan Omar. Could that be an increasing part of his closing message here?

9:08I couldn't hear the end of your question, Brian, but I think it was about Michigan and Abdul El-Sayed ramping up that rhetoric from the president. We have seen him call El-Sayed a jihadist, a terrorist for weeks, but he really ramped up that message yesterday when he was in Battleground Michigan, talking specifically about how if he is able to win, if he is a senator from Michigan, the president said he would need to, quote, go through a metal detector, that he would want him to go through a metal detector, arguing that he has ties to extremist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood, even though Abdul El-Sayed has said repeatedly in recent days that he doesn't.

9:51But all of this stems back to some messages from his half-sister that she posted on social media back in 2012 that have really been the subject of this campaign. But Ryan, as you and I both know and we've watched closely, this weekend the message did just take a bit of a darker tone with the president spending more time on that kind of incendiary language, those Islamophobic remarks that El-Sayed himself fired back at today saying that the president is effectively small-minded and weak calling those comments in that respect as being amounting to a, quote, bark. Brian. Yeah, interesting. The president also talking about people threatening the Capitol when there was a group of people carrying his flags that attempted to destroy the Capitol on January 6th.

10:38But we'll have to leave that there. All right, Monica Elba, thank you from Mississippi. Let's turn now to Michigan, where everyone is talking about this anti-Muslim rhetoric from the president. Shaq Brewster's on the ground there. Shaq, you've actually been talking to voters. How have these attacks been landing with those voters? Well, Ryan, it's definitely been a mixed bag. For some, they're flatly rejecting it. I spoke to someone this weekend during early voting. It was the first day of early voting, and he said that all he ever feels like he hears from Republicans and Mike Rogers is that Democrats are evil, and he wants to hear about issues and plans that will affect him.

11:14So he voted for El Syed. There were other people in other parts of the state that said that they hear these attacks and it is creating some suspicion, but that they want to do their own research. But then there are those who are fully internalizing this messaging that we're hearing from President Trump. And by the way, not just from President Trump, but when you're on the ground here, you hear the same messaging on television ads. You see it all throughout social media. Some of those folks are internalizing it and repeating it themselves. I want you to listen to a few of the conversations I had with some of those voters at Trump's rally last night.

11:47Mike Rogers, Abdul El-Sayed, have you voted yet? I haven't voted, but it will be for Mike Rogers. Why Mike Rogers? Because I don't like how the Muslim men treat their women. I'm not interested in anything Islamic. It's his religion, the fact that he's Muslim. Is that one of the reasons why you could never support him? 100%, because that is their religion. That is what they believe. We heard President Trump overnight refer to him as a Muslim Brotherhood jihadist. other times a terrorist. Is that language too far? No, I think he's seeing what his whole family is Hamas. You know, you can't just walk away from that.

12:25So what President Trump says is basically what he sees. Everybody else sees. And look, it bears repeating. El-Sayed has condemned Hamas. He's condemned the Muslim Brotherhood. You mentioned that. Monica has mentioned that. And for some voters that I talk to, it's not only about his religion. They do have deep policy disagreements with Democrats and El-Sayed, something that has come up repeatedly as his push for Medicare for all. But it is becoming, Ryan, increasingly hard to talk about this race without talking about that anti-Muslim sentiment that you're hearing from so many people, including the president.

13:02Yeah. And and check. It is interesting the way the candidate himself is handling this. He could try and run away from it. He could try and equivocate it. But we heard from Al-Sayed today in Detroit. It seems as though he's almost leaning into these attacks in his closing message. Yeah, you're seeing a few different things from him. He's not trying to spend too much time on it. But, of course, we are asking him about it repeatedly. We asked him his response to the comments that you heard from President Trump. For example, the Elevate or, excuse me, going on the Senate floor, the fact that President Trump wants him to go through a metal detector.

13:34I'll say I joke that it's because he has his Wolverine claws. But when asked about the impact of this and the strategy behind it, I want you to listen to what he said and how he tried to shift it back to his core messaging. When you don't want to talk about gas and groceries and seeing a doctor, you just start making exactly deflections and deceptions based on no evidence. But like that's their whole play. You know what that tells you? they have nothing to say about solving the problems in your life. That is a line that we've been hearing from him since he was first nominated, just right after that primary.

14:16These are attacks he's had to face, but they are definitely ramping up in this run up to Election Day, Ryan. And Shaq Brewster's all over it. As always, Shaq, thank you for that. Let's turn now to Julie, who's in studio with me now. We talk a lot about the president's travel, Julie. That might be a better indicator than even what the polls are telling us. He's now going back to South Carolina. He's kind of gone all in on Senator Darlene Graham, who's, of course, the late Lindsey Graham's sister. This seems to be a much tighter than expected race with Dr. Annie Andrews. Are Republicans actually concerned about this state?

14:47I mean, we'll go back to your reader of where the president is going. He wouldn't be going back to the same state twice less than a week apart if he wasn't a little bit concerned. And we're seeing the same play from the president in a place like Texas, both places where he handpicked the candidates in the race. Of course, in South Carolina, it is Darlene Graham, who is the sister of the late Senator Lindsey Graham. But she is having some trouble there. She's an unknown quantity. There were Republicans like Ralph Norman, the congressman, for example, that wanted this so badly and felt like he got knocked by the president.

15:16His son recently came out and said he's considering voting for Annie Andrews instead. And today we got this double endorsement for Dr. Annie Andrews, including from a former Republican governor. or he was a Democrat-turned-Republican, David Beasley of South Carolina, and his successor as well, Jim Hodges. Take a listen to what they said. Now, over the years, the two of us haven't always agreed on everything. But one thing we do agree on right now is this country is too divided, and the political rhetoric has gotten way, way out of hand. That is why we're coming together today to support Annie Andrews.

15:51Annie understands that leadership isn't about making people angrier. Well, it's about making things better. Obviously, that's notable there. Republicans are also spending in South Carolina more than they certainly were banking for. And that means they have to move money away from other races. States potentially they wanted to flip. Now they have to defend seats. Right. You think that money might be better spent in Georgia, for instance. Exactly. Instead it's being spent in South Carolina. Let's talk about another red state. The president going to Mississippi. I don't think anybody of us had that on our bingo card when this election season started.

16:21The Senate leadership's main super PAC, even launching a new attack ad. following the Democrats' decision to start spending in the race. How do we read the mood there right now, especially given that leadership's decided to get involved here? Yeah, look, leadership downplayed it. Sources that I spoke to said, well, the Democrats are spending, so we're going to throw a million in that race. The state isn't that expensive. The media markets are easier for them to handle. But I think we can read between the lines there, right? If they're spending in a place like Mississippi, where the president has won by exceedingly double digits, this is a red state, Sidney Hyde-Smith, an extremely conservative senator, And yet you see a Democrat like Scott Colom, an interesting Democrat at that, running so close to her in this state.

17:00And I think it's notable that the president is heading there tonight. He wouldn't be if he didn't feel like he needed to motivate his supporters, Republican Trump voters who wouldn't turn out maybe necessarily without him on the ballot in a place like Mississippi. But I also think it's what we've been talking about, the high cost of living, especially in a place like Mississippi, the agricultural community, the tariffs that have been slapped back and forth with Canada. All of those things have been resonating for voters. And I think it's why you see Republicans spending more and more money in these places.

17:28And is the president also going to go back to Ohio this week? And this fallout from the ad that Vivek Ramaswamy put out, the attack ad on his opponent, Amy Acton, featuring her estranged mother. They're doubling down on this. They're not backing down at all. In fact, this is what Ramaswamy had to say on Fox today. We're standing for truth. And so the irony is they're lying about an ad that was about her lying. The fact of the matter is I am running against somebody who is crazy, unstable and dishonest. This seems like it's a big issue for Republicans, not just the ones sharing a ticket with Ramoswami, but we've seen Republicans all across the country have to either distance themselves from this ad or at least answer questions about it.

18:12Ashley Henson in Iowa is a good example. on the same day, may I add, that President Trump came and held a rally and she attended and she sat in the audience as the president very forcefully defended this ad. This is an extremely sticky issue for Republicans. I said it last week and I'll say it again with you, Ryan. I'm curious to see if this affects and impacts women voters, particularly suburban women around the country. And these are all examples of things that you and I have been hearing before the Senate and House skipped town, which is that they want the president to stay focused. They want Republicans to be laser focused on the issues that actually matter to the Americans, which according to all of our polling and conversations like Shaq is having, is the economy.

18:50And yet you see something like this continued to be put into the ether and the president just putting a spotlight on it. We're not going to know if it works or doesn't work, but one thing is for sure, I doubt they'd be pulling out this card if they thought they were winning. Exactly. All right, Julie Serkin, thank you for that. We'll have much more coming up on the final push in the Michigan Senate race and the fallout from the president's darkening campaign rhetoric, Plus, the Trump administration's legal fight over Alaska's election results before we even have Alaska's election results. You're watching Meet the Press Now.

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20:29Welcome back. Black Attorney General Todd Blanche is defending the DOJ's lawsuit seeking to block the certification of Alaska's Senate election unless incumbent Senator Dan Sullivan wins. President Trump says that he directed the DOJ to file the suit, which argues that the appearance of another candidate named Dan Sullivan on the ballot could mislead voters. Here's some of what the attorney general said yesterday. There could be a crime, but the real wrong here is that Alaskans are going to be confused and will not have their vote heard. It is an obligation of the states to avoid confusion, among other things, confusion in the minds of voters in the election process.

21:06So the question is whether Alaska, by allowing this to happen, is violating the law and the federal law and the Constitution by allowing confusion in the ballot. Attorneys for Democratic candidate Mary Peltola are urging a federal judge to dismiss the lawsuit, calling it an unprecedented preemptive strike on Democratic elections. It comes as Peltola will be off the campaign trail for at least a few days. Her campaign announcing yesterday that she's rescheduling several events on the advice of medical professionals after sustaining minor injuries in a car crash on Saturday night. The campaign added that she's eager to get back on the trail.

21:46Joining me now is NBC News senior justice reporter Ryan Riley and former elections official in Maricopa County Stephen Richer. All right, Ryan, let's start with you. Let's talk more about this DOJ lawsuit. And exactly what is it that the administration is asking for? Well, a lot of the electors are sort of confused about what exactly DOJ is doing here, just because it's not a traditional role for the Justice Department to play. Especially, you know, traditionally, DOJ has tried to stay away from engaging in these direct topics, especially this close to an election. The question whether, you know, DOJ really has standing or a reason to bring this case forward.

22:19I'm really curious to find out how this is going to eventually play out just on what the experts have said about it here. But I think you've seen the attorney general sort of walk back some of the initial statements about this. And, of course, the fact that Donald Trump says he directed this to happen in the first place sort of hangs over all of this. Is this something that the Justice Department would have naturally done without that sort of intervention? And it all comes at a time just a few moments ago, Donald Trump just posted that he's offering a one million dollar reward for any evidence of voter fraud.

22:48You see it on your screen there. I don't know where that's going to be funded from. And if you just do the quick math on this, I mean, voter fraud is very rare. So it probably actually, you know, theoretically wouldn't be that expensive. But what Donald Trump has claimed is that millions of people voted illegally in 2016, in 2020. And so if you just do that math real quick, I mean, if you believe his claims about mass voter fraud, you're talking about trillions of dollars real quick. We've got some deficit problems coming up. He spent more than six years trying to find examples of mass voter fraud and done so unsuccessfully.

23:20unsuccessfully. So now he's looking for a million, he's throwing a million bucks at it to try and find something. Let's get back to Alaska, though, because there's already early voting underway. I mean, could that impact votes currently being cast? And where does the legal fight go from here? I think, you know, we're going to find more about this in the coming days, I think, once this gets before a judge. I mean, you know, I think it already has an impact on the election itself, on voters itself. Right now voters are hearing about this. And, you know, you would make the argument in the past that DOJ has stayed away from this because they don't want to be seen as putting a thumb on the scale.

23:53And what this is, is essentially putting a thumb on the scale and saying, you know, declaring that there could be some, you know, wrongdoing here and, you know, perhaps influencing how people are actually voting. It's a pattern that we've seen with a lot of cases where they've brought these cases that traditionally would not have been brought in this sort of 60-day period before elections. Speaking of which, the DOJ also failed, a lawsuit in California over the state's voter rolls. What's the latest in that legal fight? That's also, it's been assigned to a judge. Now there's an appeal, a process that will sort of go on there.

24:25That's another move where they're trying to get people who they believe could potentially be non-citizens off of the ballot. They have claimed upwards of 20 ,000, but a lot of these cross-checks, according to elections officials locally, haven't turned up. They've gotten bad information there. So it's a question of, you know, whether or not they're going to be able to prove that. You know, the Justice Department has put a lot of this effort into non-citizen voting, and they've come up with, I think, over 100 cases at this point. But just in terms of, you know, if you look at the overall scale of how many people vote in America, where you're talking about, you know, 170-some odd registered voters across the country, that's not a ton.

25:02And again, it's the state's job to run these elections, not the federal government. OK, thank you, Ryan. Let's turn now to Stephen, who is an expert in all of this. Let's talk about this DOJ lawsuit in Alaska. I mean, we're just eight days away from the from the actual voting day. Do you think the federal government has any standing in this case? No, I think that this is bizarre. And I don't think that voter confusion is an actionable item under the National Voter Registration Act, which is what the attorney general is putting forward here. And keep in mind that this has already been litigated in the place where it should be litigated, which is in state court.

25:41And it's gone all the way up to the Arizona or excuse me, the Alaska Supreme Court. And the Alaska Supreme Court has said both candidates can be on the ballot and that's how it's going to be. And so for the Justice Department to bring this up now at the last minute, it's very confusing. It's very interesting. Yeah. And not only that, the state court, as you see in the graphic on our screen, added this whole registered Republican and incumbent, which is not normally how the Alaska ballot works. So they've gone to great pains to make sure that voters know which Dan Sullivan they're voting for. Big picture, what do you make of these lawsuits that the DOJ is filing ahead of the elections?

26:21How concerned are you that it could undermine voter confidence in the actual outcome of these elections? Well, I think this represents a marked change in what the federal government has done so far, in that the federal government has spent a lot of time investigating past elections, whether in Arizona or whether in Fulton County, Georgia. It's also spent a lot of time trying to dictate how future elections will be administered, whether through the Save America Act or the responsibilities of the United States Postal Service. What this represents is the federal government trying to say to election administrators how to run the ongoing election, the election that is in front of them right now, what to do with 20 ,000 registered voters in California, what to do with the certification of Alaska's votes.

27:12And so that is really exceptional and fairly unprecedented. And Democrats have been worried for some time that the administration may do something to get in the way of these election results. What worries you the most? What options do you think the federal government or the administration has at their disposal that they may try and implement either before or after the election to maybe change the results of what we see in the vote? Yeah. So I think both of these cases are losers. And I think that when they get into the courts, election officials and the states do very, very well, as they have done over the past 18 months.

27:47Very, very well. What worries me is if the federal government tries to take a power through extra legal measures, such as not getting a warrant before going and seizing tabulation equipment, not getting a warrant before going into a voting location and taking out ballots. I think that would put us in, boy, a real mess and would be a dark place for the country to be in. I hope it doesn't happen, but if it does happen, it's very messy. could be called a constitutional crisis, I think, if it were to get to that point. All right, Stephen Richer, thank you so much for your expertise. We appreciate it.

28:25Up next, meet the candidate. We'll talk to the Democrat vying to defeat a Trump ally who's been at the center of a controversy in a key House district. You're watching Meet the Press now.

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29:59Welcome back. One of the places that House Democrats are eyeing as a potential pickup opportunity is Ohio's 7th Congressional District. That's where Democratic candidate Brian Poindexter is looking to unseat Republican Congressman Max Miller. Over the summer, Miller ignored calls for him to drop out of the race following domestic abuse allegations, which he denies. And joining me now is the Democratic candidate for Ohio's 7th congressional district, Brian Poindexter. Brian, thank you so much for being here. We're just eight days out from Election Day. You say you've been sprinting since day one.

30:32Tell me how you think you can win this district that President Trump won by double digits. Yeah, Ryan, thanks for having me. Yeah, they say we're in the sprint phase of the campaign, but I never got the memo. I've been sprinting since day one because this is a very gerrymandered district. I'm one by 11 points. But, you know, me being a blue collar worker, I have a lot in common with all of the folks in this district, whether you vote Republican, independent or Democrat. at. We all work hard in this district for a living. And I knew in that way, if I can reach people peer to peer, worker to worker, we'd have a chance.

31:08And here we are eight days out. And I feel like we we've gained a lot of ground. We've we've brought a lot of people into the campaign from all across the political spectrum, rallying around the the issues facing everybody in this district. So President Trump is going to be in Ohio on Wednesday. He's not going to be in your district specifically, but he, of course, has close ties with your opponent, Max Miller, who is the incumbent congressman there. Don't you think there's a chance that his presence in Ohio could motivate those Trump supporters to turn out and vote for your opponent? Well, people I've talked to all over this district, Democrats, Republicans, independents, we've given up hope that anybody in Washington, D.C.

31:49either knows what we're going through or even cares what we're going through. And we're seeing real momentum in my campaign, rally around the issues facing working families. You know, costs are out of control. This war in Iran is driving up costs for gas and fertilizer and things like that. You know, the blanket tariffs are making it hard on our farmers, driving up the cost of groceries, driving up costs of everyday goods. And the health care cuts, which have led to double digit increases here in the state of Ohio, you know, the ACA premiums have went up more than 85 percent for those enrolled in the ACA.

32:24And people are just tired of it and just ready for change. And, you know, we're very, you know, we're very excited by the number of people who jumped in, even Republican folks, because we're fighting for the issues of bringing out costs, lifting wages up and making work worth it again. Yeah, of course, your race has gotten a tremendous amount of attention, mainly because of the saga with Congressman Miller and the calls for his House Ethics Committee investigation into himself over his domestic violence allegations. Now, there could be a lot of people who may be turned off from voting for him because of this controversy.

33:01But why do you think they should vote for you? Well, every voter across the country, especially here in this district, they always ask themselves two questions when deciding who to vote for. One, the first question, why should we fire the person that's in there now? And we know the reasons. Yeah, he has his personal story going on, but his policies have been terrible on the families in this district. You know, he supports the war. Voted for it over six times. He supports the blanket tariffs. He supports the trillion dollars taken out of the health care system. You know, over and over and over again, he shows that he is completely out of touch with the working families in this district need or want.

33:39And that's so that answers question number one for voters. Question number two, why hire me? And, you know, I'm somebody who has more in common with the people in this district. I know what those policies what affect those policies have on the average everyday worker, because I myself am an average everyday worker. So, you know, I'm making a pitch that, you know, I'm going to go in there and vote against the war. I'm going to vote to undo the blanket tariffs. I'm going to vote to restore the health care cuts. But that's not I'm not just going there to undo what's been done. I'm also going to go there to fight to make sure we get wages up by raising the minimum wage, which hasn't been raised since 2009.

34:16Strengthen collective bargaining rights so more workers can form or join unions if they so choose. and I'll stand with people from all over the political spectrum, like Senator Bernie Marino, who wants to lift the cap on Social Security to make sure people can retire with dignity. And those are issues that people are rallying around because that affects anybody who works for a living. Yeah, you gave a long list of issues there that you might be focused on if you were to be elected. One thing I noticed you didn't mention was whether or not Democrats should pursue impeachment investigations into President Trump.

34:49So if Democrats get the majority back, they're certainly going to be in a position to conduct those investigations and potentially impeach the president yet again. Do you think the president has committed impeachable offenses? Well, I mean, I certainly don't agree with a lot of his policies. And, you know, my main mission when I go to Congress is to fight for working families. But I do I feel strongly that Congress has the power to conduct oversight over the president and his administration. And, you know, I'll look at, you know, the information presented to me as a Congress member. Right now I can speculate and, you know, I know what I know what's put out in the stratosphere of, you know, issues that he's he you know, he's undertaken.

35:35But I when I get become a member of Congress, when I see the information for myself, I'll make a decision at that time. OK, I want to talk to you a bit about some other things that could come across your plate. Should Democrats be successful? And one of them is dealing with members of the cabinet and Hakeem Jeffries, who is poised to be the Democratic leader, potentially the Speaker of the House, if Democrats were to win back the majority. He seemed to be eyeing a push to impeach the defense secretary, Pete Hegseth. I want to play a little bit of what Leader Jeffries had to say. Pete Hexeth needs to be pushed aside by the president, or we're going to have to deal with that situation if he is not.

36:16Would you support impeaching the defense secretary? Well, again, I fully believe in congressional oversight, and we should absolutely be making sure that the administration is following the law and making sure they're following the Constitution and not putting us in a position of weakness. I do believe that the secretary of defense has put us in a position of weakness. But, you know, my mission is to go there and fight for working families. That's my main goal. I know I can't make a statement one way or the other, whether I would support impeachment of the secretary of defense, because I want to see the facts laid out before I make a decision on that.

36:56OK, let's talk a little bit about Ohio. outside of Sherrod Brown in 2018, Democrats haven't really performed well in Ohio since the Obama era. What's your diagnosis? What has the Democratic Party done wrong in the Buckeye state? And what are you trying to do differently to try and win back some of those voters that may have voted for Democrats in the past, but haven't in a long while? Well, Ohio has always been a state that supports workers. And if like, you know, Think of 2016 when Donald Trump came on scene. He ran on bringing manufacturing back. He ran on becoming a golden age for workers again.

37:34And that just hasn't come to fruition. And Sherrod Brown does run well in Ohio because he's always took the stance of fighting for workers. And somewhere along the way, workers have thought that the Democratic Party doesn't fight for them. And in some ways, they're right. They're right. The Democratic Party got so caught up in fighting for all these other issues instead of the core issue of making sure people can afford to raise their families. And I think if we get back to the basics, you know, in your personal life, when you have bills piling up and you have a kid to go to the doctor and one go into a practice and, you know, life is just overwhelming.

38:17You go, you get back to the basics in your own life. You make sure you show up for work on time, you know, make sure you pay your mortgage and then all the other stuff you kind of deal with as you go. And I think in that way, the federal government needs to get back to the basics, make sure we're taking care of our workforce and, you know, make sure people can raise their family, make sure young people can afford to start a family. And I think we get that fixed. A lot of the other issues will take care of themselves. OK, we're going to leave it there. Brian Poindexter, candidate for Congress in Ohio.

38:47Thank you so much for joining us. Happy to be here and thanks for having me on. You can dive deeper into the 2026 midterms with access to polling, early vote data, expert analysis and more exclusive content, all with an NBC News subscription. You can scan the QR code on your screen now or visit NBC News dot com slash subscribe. We'll be right back with more. Meet the press now.

39:18abdul muhammad i'll say it a man who should never be allowed inside the halls of our great beautiful capitol building in washington dc we'll have to go through a metal detector before he's allowed to go into the senate i want him to have a metal detector welcome back that of course president trump campaigning in michigan over the weekend escalating his anti-Muslim rhetoric against Democratic Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed, who's locked in a tight race against the Republican candidate Mike Rogers. Joining me now is our panel, Carrie Dan, the managing editor of the Cook Political Report, my old boss, Amisha Cross, former campaign advisor to President Obama, and Ashley Davis, the former White House official in the George W.

40:00Bush administration. All right, Carrie, you can't tell me what to do anymore. I have to tell you what to do. But let's talk about this sound from the president. it seems like subtext is out the window, right? Like he is leaning into this idea of reminding every voter in Michigan that Abdul Syed is a Muslim. And if you're uncomfortable with that, don't vote for him. Well, and this has been the strategy, I think, since the day after the primary, the NRSC put out a statement the day after Abdul Syed won that primary using his full name. I don't think it's very controversial to say they were kind of telegraphing that this was going to be a major part of the strategy.

40:35What I do think is interesting here, Ryan, though, is that there are 400 ,000 Arab Americans in Michigan. Donald Trump made significant inroads with that community in 2024. He won Dearborn for the first time in 25 years. And what I do wonder in him leaning into this rhetoric, these are people who vote and may be very turned off by it. Yes, Mike Rogers, I think, is going to make inroads with Jewish voters because of Abdul al-Sayed's Muslim identity and the rhetoric that he's had. But I do wonder also about the president leaning so hard into talking about this community that largely voted for him two years ago and maybe turned off now.

41:13Yeah, Ashley, Kerry brings up a good point about the potential double-edged sword here by leaning into this anti-Muslim rhetoric. When Abdul Saeed won his primary here in part because of his opposition to the way Israel's conducting things in the Middle East. I mean, a pretty significant block of Republicans that feel that way as well. Is this a danger for Mike Rogers? How do you think this plays? Well, at this point, I actually think the race is baked. I think that you know, if you live in Michigan, who you're voting for. I mean, we've been talking about this, as you said, since he won the primary, that he's Muslim.

41:45Everyone knows he's Muslim. We can talk about every—listen, I don't agree with him on some of his comments he made after 9-11. However, you know what you're getting one way or the other, and Mike Rogers is being attached to Donald Trump. But listen, this is what I feel about the president, right or wrong. I mean, we've seen him say outlandish things since 2016. So we're not really ever surprised about it. However, he's seen something that it's working. So he knows exactly what he's doing, at least to some voters, whether it works. Do you think that's what it is, that he actually sees that it's working?

42:16Oh, I think so. I think that at least from what I understand, the messaging works with people that are on the fence, but I don't think there's that many people left that are on the fence. All right, Amisha, let's stay in Michigan because there's concerns for Democrats there as well, right? And Abdul El-Sayed has a problem with black voters. It's something that his old opponent, Haley Stevens, has talked about. His poll numbers of black voters have been lower than past exits for Democrats in Michigan. He's talked about the tensions between the Muslim and black and Arab communities in Michigan. Is this a worry?

42:48Are enough black voters going to turn out? I mean, And it feels like black voters have really got to turn out big for Democrats to win there. No, that's absolutely true. I mean, black voters in Michigan and black voter turnout was also one of the things that tank Kamala's campaign. And she's not Muslim. I think that at the end of the day, the thing that people have to remember about El-Sayed, but moreover, about the about the Muslim community in the Middle Eastern community, specifically in a place like like Detroit, is that there has been a longstanding history of friction in the local community amongst the two groups.

43:15This has absolutely nothing to do with what the Republican Party is doing right now or what President Trump is saying. as much as it does localized tensions and friction that have existed for decades. And it is unfair, in my belief, that El Sayed should have to overcome that because he's not somebody who did it himself. But the reality is that he does have to face it, that he does have to enrich trust, that he does have to call those out, community members, business owners, other individuals who literally have not made it necessarily welcoming between them and the black community there. But in addition to that, there are a lot of older black voters in Michigan who are going to really drive this race.

43:48And those older black voters are also extremely pragmatic voters. They lean more moderate. They're not necessarily ones who align with the socialist Democrats or those who lean to the far left. So there are some inroads that he has to do in a very short amount of time. Has he invested? Yes. But he's going to have to do a lot more in the next few days. We saw him bring in President Obama. Kamala Harris has come in. Rafael Warnock has come in. Are these all ways that black voters there can connect with El-Sayed if they see these folks that they admire come to their states and tell them to vote for Abdul El-Sayed?

44:19I think so. I also think that there is a little bit more there. At the end of the day, they know who El-Sayed is. Many of these individuals were people who visited the community clinics, the county organization that he happened to be a part of. They know who he is. I think that the friction and the tension exists beyond him. And those black black leaders who have come across across the country to come and make inroads into Michigan, I think, are interesting. The timing, I think, is a little bit quizzical because I would have argued that they should have come in weeks ago, that the last few days is a little bit hard.

44:47But in addition to that, the investment in Michigan has to be there. I would argue that, you know, the Democrats do not have nearly as much in their coffers as the Republicans do. However, what they do have at this critical juncture should go to the state. And there's been criticism of the outreach to black voters in Texas as well. I mean, if things don't go well for Democrats, I think that's something we're going to be looking back on. Kerry, I want to play more sound from the president. This is from Friday, where he was talking about Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar. She came into our country and she immediately announced that my constitutional rights allow me to tell you how to run the United States of America.

45:27She comes from a house country and she's telling us how to run the United States.

45:39So the president made those remarks on the Somali-born Minnesota congresswoman. He did that in Florida. For folks that are deciding if they want to show up and vote, is this the message they want to hear? Is that driving the vote, this Islamophobic message? Well, I think what's in both Omar and El-Sayed's case, these are candidates who are very progressive. Republicans, I think, have a problem if they're trying to paint Roy Cooper in North Carolina as being like AOC's best friend. Right. But these are candidates who are very progressive and are the face of, you know, either the Democratic Socialist movement or at least that wing of the party.

46:15if Republicans really want to prosecute the case against candidates like that and say Democrats are way too extreme, they're too liberal, they're, you know, they're socialists. These are the kind of candidates that you could credibly target with that attack. Instead, Donald Trump is choosing sort of this this complaint about their identity rather than policies that are probably unpopular with a lot of voters. And to your point, they could prosecute that case and tell more moderate Democrats like these guys are not for you. That's not what he's choosing to do. Just calling names. Ashley, let's talk about Mike Rogers there, though.

46:47He's had his own issues. He struggled with the question Sunday, are Republicans in anything less than a Trump plus 15 district? They're having a hard time threading a tough needle with their association to the president. How delicate of a dance is this for Mike Rogers? And do you think he's being successful in his efforts there? I think he's trying as hard as he can. But also, he knew that the president was coming there and let him come. But you have Mike Rogers, you have Susan Collins, you have Ashley Henson. and Iowa that are trying to walk this fine line because of tariffs, because of the war, because of diesel prices, because of gas prices.

47:24And listen, at this point, this is not unusual. I mean, in 2006, when we were in the Bush world, everyone broke with Bush. I mean, he couldn't go to Pennsylvania. He couldn't go to Ohio. So this isn't like the end of the world, I mean, as we know it in regards to political stuff. But I think that the administration knows that some of these candidates have to back from, back away from his policies that aren't popular. I mean, look what happened. I think it's too little too late in regards to the tariffs with Canada being rolled, some of them being rolled back for states like Maine and Michigan.

47:54I still think Susan Collins is going to win. I don't know about Mike Rogers, but they're doing what they have to do eight days out. Okay. All right. We're going to have to leave it there. Thank you all for being here. Carrie, Misha, Ashley. There's only eight more days, guys. Just take a deep breath. We're almost there. Who's counting? We appreciate it. Speaking of the midterms, I went duck hunting. Still to come. We hit the trail and ate a duck line. That is me with a headlamp on my forehead to talk to Democratic candidates who are making their support of gun rights a key part of their fight to unseat Republicans in those key races.

48:26You're watching Meet the Press Now. Stay here.

48:39Welcome back. One-way Democrats are looking to take back control of Congress is by making inroads with rural voters, especially in races that are unexpectedly competitive this year. In some of those key races, that means trying to change the narrative around guns. I traveled to some of those more rural districts and spoke to Democratic candidates about how they're looking to reshape an issue that has traditionally fallen along party lines. so many times where in rural Wisconsin, the window for hunting ducks starts early. I grew up hunting and fishing. It's a way of life for Mitchell Berman, an ER nurse and first time Democratic candidate for Congress.

49:20A way of life that involves a gun. Guns have been a part of your life. Where's the balance there? We can have common sense policy that will help reduce gun violence without infringing on the Second Amendment. Berman is part of a group of Democratic candidates hoping to start a new conversation around guns as part of a strategy to win back rural voters.

49:48Berman isn't alone. In South Texas, Democrat Bobby Polito has been a hunter his entire life. My oldest son, his name is Remington, named after the Remington 700 bolt action rifles. He, too, is hoping to meet rural voters where they are. Now, do we need smarter gun legislation? We do. And I'm willing to work on that. Does it do bans work? I think it's lazy legislating. In Alaska, Senate candidate Mary Peltola is touting her high grade from the NRA. I earned an A rating from the NRA. And Democrats from Maine to Tennessee are promising a new approach on guns. I'm Matt Dunlap. I've always defended our Second Amendment rights.

50:29And in Congress, I'll do the same. It is a fine line, especially when mass shootings and gun violence remain a fact of life in America. For Berman in Wisconsin, that means being willing to support serious gun control reforms, including universal background checks, safe storage laws and banning high capacity magazines. We can uphold the Second Amendment and still make sure that guns aren't falling into the hands of folks who shouldn't have them. Berman's Republican opponent, four-term incumbent Brian Steele, has an A rating with the NRA. Back in Texas, Polito argues the voters he talks to are sick of Washington's approach to complex issues like guns.

51:12Is there some sort of middle ground? Of course there's middle ground. People are saying, like, you know, don't be a don't be an activist, be a legislator. His opponent, incumbent Republican Monica de la Cruz, believes voters in this election are focused more on pocketbook issues and not the Second Amendment. Do you think that this is an issue that Democrats are finding some success with? Or do you buy their arguments that they're making about the Second Amendment? What is important to the people of South Texas is affordability. That's what they're talking about. I'm going to focus on what my community wants, not on all the other things that others are speaking about.

51:52In the Wisconsin duck blind, there was no luck. But Berman hopes his message on guns breaks through in a way that sends him to Washington. You know, there's a lot of opportunity for us to sit down at the table and work on policy that will actually help decrease gun violence in our country. without infringing on people's ability to target shoot and to be able to own guns for protection and for self-defense and be able to go out and go hunting. And we repeatedly reached out to Berman's opponent, Republican Congressman Brian Steele, for comment, but did not get a response. And that's going to do it for us today, but we're going to be back tomorrow with more Meet the Press Now.

52:35And as always, we are streaming free 24-7 on NBC News Now. Now, watch us wherever you stream live, including on YouTube and Roku. And you can watch us anywhere, anytime on the NBC News app. That does it for us today. We'll see you back here tomorrow. But there's more ahead on NBC News Now. Have a great day.

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