Meet the Press NOW — September 30

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1:11Welcome to Meet the Press Now. I'm Kristen Welker. At any moment now, we expect President Trump to announce a major energy infrastructure investment. as the White House looks to bring down prices and boost vulnerable Republican candidates in the face of some serious political headwinds. While the president seemed to acknowledge his own midterm messaging shortfalls at a White House event this afternoon marking Hispanic Heritage Month, President Trump highlighted the need for Republicans, including himself, to do more to tout what they perceive as their accomplishments. No, we're doing great. But we don't what we're doing poorly and we're not getting the word out.

1:49I mean, we're just not getting it. That's why I'm going to be making. I thought I was finished campaigning. But in order to help Republicans, because we need the votes, we have to have the votes. Otherwise, we'll have these lunatics with the open borders. I've done a very bad job of explaining how how good the country is doing. We're doing better than any country in the world economically. According to a White House official, the president is set to announce a$54 billion investment to build a natural gas pipeline in Alaska. It's part of the administration's latest push to address affordability concerns ahead of the midterms.

2:26This proposal has the backing of Alaska Senator Dan Sullivan, who's expected to be in the Oval Office and is facing a competitive midterm challenge from Democrat Mary Peltola. Senator Sullivan hoping this announcement and his appearance alongside the president could provide an important boost to his reelection bid. It's the second time this week the president made a major announcement aimed at boosting vulnerable Republican candidates ahead of November. On Monday, Iowa Senate candidate Ashley Hinson and Congresswoman Marionette Miller-Meeks joined the president for an announcement of a new steel plant in their state.

3:02But at its core, this announcement does not address the main driver of rising prices, the ongoing war with Iran. A new poll showing 65 percent of voters disapprove of the president's handling of the economy. Voters also saying they believe the Democratic Party can do a better job handling the economy and cost of living compared to Republicans. Joining me now is NBC News Chief White House Correspondent Garrett Haake and NBC News Business and Data Correspondent Brian Chung. Garrett, let me start with you. What did you make of the president's, really what was a notable acknowledgement today. He says Republicans aren't doing enough to communicate what he perceives to be their accomplishments.

3:41I thought it was an interesting admission, Kristen, but it's also only part of the problem. I mean, it's a tale as old as time for presidents in the midterms to blame their troubles on communications. It's never a policy issue in the minds of presidents. Joe Biden didn't think it was. Barack Obama didn't think it was. Donald Trump in the first term didn't think it was a a policy problem, but it is, to a certain degree, a policy problem. Republicans, voters are telling us in poll after poll, focus groups, interviews, you name it, that they're unsatisfied with the steps that President Trump and his party, who control all the levers of power in Washington, have taken to make their lives more affordable.

4:16The president does think he has some things in his record, like his no tax on tips and overtime programs, that would be a better sell to those people. But none of those programs are going to put more money in people's pockets right now or make the cost of anything cheaper. So he has a policy problem and a communications problem to the degree that he has a communications problem, though. That's one of his own making. He has no press secretary. They don't conduct White House briefings here really at all. Any kind of regularity. There's been just one since Caroline Levitt left. And he tends to step on his own message with conflicting and sort of contradictory talking points and answers to questions on any given day.

4:54So both the policy and the communications problems are self-made for this White House with very little time to correct either now. Well, Garrett, you know, it's interesting. That's the backdrop to the fact that you have Senator Dan Sullivan, who's going to be in the Oval Office, we anticipate, with the president today. The second time this week, the president will have appeared with a vulnerable Republican. What do you make of what this signifies about the president's midterm strategy? Well, look, I mean, it's an interesting choice for Senator Sullivan. On the one hand, it does make sense. And this is a major investment in Alaska, although it's not one that has anything to do with affordability.

5:31I mean, the idea here is to move natural gas in its liquefied form from the north shore, the north slope where it's produced, to transport terminals where it will be exported. That might create more jobs, might create more investment in Alaska. But again, that's not something that's going to address short term affordability challenges. But it is a major investment in Alaska, and Sullivan wants to be seen getting some credit for that. But what we're seeing in polling and what I'm hearing from Republican strategists is that sort of the closer people are associated, Republicans are associated with President Trump, the lesser degree to which they have their own brands, the more trouble that they're in.

6:07So this is, to some degree, a calculated risk by Senator Sullivan to be here with President Trump in Washington a month before the election and not back home in Alaska campaigning. Well, and underscoring that point, Garrett, the issue at the root of all of this is the war with Iran. Right. And that is not going to be on display today in the Oval Office. Based on your conversations with your sources, does the president have a plan to address some of the key concerns that have been caused by the war with Iran? Or is he going to try to pivot and continue with this economic message? Yeah, look, the short answer is no.

6:44I mean, the president has made it pretty clear in his public statements and privately from Republican sources inside and outside of the White House that there's, you know, the Iran problem is sort of separate from the congressional calendar. The president doesn't feel any particular pressure politically to try to resolve the issue before the midterms. And he may not be able to even if he wants to. I mean, he has said that the Iranians are likely stringing him along here to try to do maximum damage to Republicans in the midterms. Certainly, historically, the Iranians have taken similar steps as relates to American elections.

7:16And so Iran is a bit of an albatross for the president. It's damaging in its own way. Respondents to various polls, including ours, don't think the president's handling it well on its own. And it's driving up the cost of living. But there's just very little that the president could do to address those two problems meaningfully in the 30-some-odd days he has left until the voting is over. Because, of course, in so many states, it's happening right now. Voting has already begun in many states. Garrett Haake, thank you so very much for starting us off from the White House. We really appreciate it.

7:46Brian Chung, let me turn to you because we did get some new economic data today to write down what we got and what it means. Yeah, it's kind of a tale of two sides of the coin for this Trump administration. On one hand, we got an update on economic growth in this country, which showed America growing at a pretty solid pace in the second quarter of this year. That's the period between April and June. The read from the BEA said that the economy grew by 2.2 percent. That's a big bump from the 1.5 % that they originally estimated for that. So yes, you want that number to be bigger. You want the economy to grow more.

8:16But that also coincided with more consumption that also came alongside inflation. That's the other side of the coin here. There's a measure called personal consumption expenditures, which came alongside this economic growth report, showing that prices in this country rose by 3.4 % between August of this year and August of last year. The Federal Reserve wants to see that number lower, not higher. and for the Trump administration, which has been dealing with these yearly figures around that 3.4 % figure for about three months. That's not encouraging. A lot of that is the war with Iran. But that underlying inflation is, of course, a big issue for the affordability that Garrett and you were just talking about.

8:51When you're talking about prices, one of the benchmarks we're looking at is mortgage rates. Mortgage rates have now gone up. What does that say about the state of the economy and how it might impact consumers? Right. The last read that we got, 7.6 percent, according to Mortgage News Daily. That is a huge rise from the 5.99 percent that it was just as recently as February. And the big story here is the expectations around the Federal Reserve. All of this is related. So those inflation numbers that I was just telling you about, how does the Federal Reserve usually respond to higher inflation? By raising interest rates.

9:24When they raise interest rates, that has the impact of raising consumer borrowing costs like mortgage rates as well. And the bigger picture outcome of all this is affordability. I mean, when people talk about affordability, it's not just prices at the pump or the prices that they have to pay at the store. It's the dream of home ownership. If it feels more out of reach because mortgage rates are now over one and a half percent more expensive than they were at the beginning of this year. If you're a brand new family, you want to get into a newer space that has an impact on your psyche over how you view this economy.

9:50And Brian, finally, we are getting a new report today from the Federal Reserve's independent watchdog. What's it saying? The president's already weighing in. Yeah, the president weighing in in just the last hour or so. This all has to do with the Federal Reserve's multibillion dollar investment project into a building on Constitution Avenue. The president saying, quote, this is Jerome Powell, the former Fed chair. Currently, Kevin Walsh is in that spot. And he should be forced to resign, according to the president. In this long post, the president also saying that he would like Attorney General Todd Blanche to look at this Inspector General report that was released by the Federal Reserve's IG earlier today, where that particular report did say that they found no cause or no reasonable grounds to believe that there was a violation of federal laws.

10:33The president was sort of suggesting as he asked the U.S. attorney for D.C. to look into Janine Pirro. Again, they didn't yield anything necessarily out of that report, but that led to a lot of scuttlebutt over the personnel on that board. Jerome Powell is still currently sitting on that board. As the governor said, he won't leave until that investigation is over. But the president seemingly, at least through Truth Social, not necessarily backing down from this particular obsession. Well, and we know and you've covered Jerome Powell has long been a target of President Trump's. Brian Chung, thank you so very much for being here.

11:02Yep. Really appreciate it. Well, we are following breaking news as we are learning new details about a terrifying incident on board a flight from the United Arab Emirates to Israel. According to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Dubai flight bound for Tel Aviv had to be diverted after a pilot stabbed his fellow pilot while seemingly trying to crash the plane. The airline says the plane with 174 people on board was secured by the crew and passengers and landed safely in Saudi Arabia. Passengers, nearly all of whom were Israeli, according to Netanyahu recorded video from the tarmac and described the chaos that unfolded midair.

11:42Take a look.

12:07In the front of the aircraft, there was a riot. Many people rushed over there. Apparently, one pilot stabbed the other. Just unimaginable. Netanyahu's office shared this video of the prime minister meeting with one of the passengers. He said saved the flight. You see the two hugging there. Passengers were eventually flown on a replacement plane to Tel Aviv, where they were greeted by loved ones. The alleged attacker is now in custody in Saudi Arabia, according to a U.S. official briefed on the matter. You can see the reunions there. Incredibly emotional. NBC News international correspondent Matt Bradley spoke to those frightened passengers.

12:50He joins me now from Tel Aviv. Matt, it's just unimaginable what those passengers survived, what that must have been like to have been on that plane. I know you've been tracking this throughout the day. What are investigators saying about this incident? And have they determined a motive yet? No, we haven't heard any of that. And in fact, it looks as though the perpetrator is in Saudi custody. So the Israelis have very little to say about anything that would come out of an interrogation. We can believe that the Saudis are interrogating him. He's also, of course, convalescing. The attacker was wounded as well by the passengers who came and attacked him after he had attacked his colleague, the co-pilot.

13:33So he's convalescing the pilot, who is an Indian national, is also in a hospital in Saudi Arabia. And I spoke with the spokesperson for the prime minister's office, and he described that dramatic and heroic effort to subdue the co-pilot. Here's what he told me. What he told the prime minister was that the co-pilot that was being attacked managed to click the cockpit release door button open. and that enabled the Israeli, together with some of the member of the crew, to burst through to the cockpit itself. And when they burst in there, what this Israeli hero told the Prime Minister was that the attacking pilot, he wasn't sitting in the pilot's chair, he was on his feet, he had a knife in his hands, and he was stabbing the co-pilot.

14:24And while at the same time was trying his hardest to disrupt the aircraft systems, to destroy the aircraft, to make sure that couldn't land.

14:35And now both the pilot, the co-pilot and that passenger, and really all the crew and all the passengers are being hailed by Netanyahu and many people here in Israel as heroes who, at great risk, saved an entire plane, as you mentioned, of nearly 180 people, almost all of them Israelis, many of them children. They certainly are heroes, Matt Bradley. It's just extraordinary the courage that they showed on that plane. You were able to speak to some of the passengers about what happened. We saw some of the reunions with their family members, just how emotional it was. I imagine they were incredibly emotional when you spoke to them.

15:16Well, as a matter of fact, they were incredibly eager to get out of the huge number of press who were mobbing after them. And I mean, that was something that I felt for them. We really needed to talk to them, but they were very, very eager to go home. I did manage to get a couple of people on camera who agreed to speak to American media. And really, the through current that I found in speaking to everybody was both confusion that they experienced on this flight and terror, the terror from the flight pummeling down and the confusion from the fact that nobody really even seemed to know what was going on for the vast majority of the passengers.

15:50Even after they landed in Saudi Arabia, many of the passengers said they didn't know what had happened and they didn't know if the threat had finally been abated. Here's what I heard from one passenger. We were so scared. We didn't know what was going to happen. Yeah, just a terrible and shocking experience. Did you think you were going to die? Yes. Was that when you were plummeting down? What were you thinking? Both when I was plummeting down and then throughout the rest of the flight, we were just, we didn't know what was going to happen and death was definitely an option. What did you see? What did you hear?

16:29Screaming, people running, panicking, blood.

16:38And Christian, of course, you know, you've been on a flight. You can be in the back of the plane and have no idea what's going on on the flight and the front of the plane. And that's what a lot of passengers experienced. The fact is they experienced that terror for hours, even after the plane managed to steady itself. even after the attacker was subdued. Many of them told me they had no idea what was going on, and they just didn't know if they were still in danger. Matt Bradley, incredible reporting and interviews. And again, to the heroes who were able to save all of those passengers on board, the entire world just applauding their bravery today.

17:18Matt Bradley, thank you so much. We really appreciate it. Now I'm joined by the former Homeland Security Secretary under former President Obama, Jay Johnson. Secretary Johnson, thank you so very much for being here. You heard Matt Bradley say those passengers were experiencing terror for hours because they didn't know what was going on. They just knew there was a major disruption to the plane. Had it been hijacked, would they survive? I know that you've been talking to TSA officials. What are you learning about this incident? 17 ,000 feet in two minutes is a lot. I'm sure a lot of passengers were, you know, praying at that point.

17:59This was an extraordinary combination of heroism and luck. The fact that there were off-duty pilots on the plane, able to fly the plane. If you look at the video of the pilot who was stabbed, he was in no condition to fly that plane. Americans should be asking, what about here in this country? Can the same thing happen in this country? And I have consulted some of my former colleagues. We in the United States do have varying levels of screening of flight crews. Some places it's TSA pre, some places it's a shorter line. There is also random screening, heightened screening of flight crews from time to time.

18:46And depending really on threat levels, it can vary. And the airlines, as I understand it, go through periodic mental health screenings of their pilots. And so nothing is nothing is impossible. I'd like to believe that here in this country, air safety would prevent something like this. but I'm certain that TSA, as we speak, is reevaluating their posture right now in light of in light of this incident. And frankly, this is an occasion where the DHS secretary and the TSA administrator ought to be out there answering these questions. Somebody who's in the seat now, who's most up to date on what we're doing for aviation security and what we're reevaluating.

19:32To follow up with you on that point, you say there's likely a review underway. Would you recommend stepped up security measures in this moment here in this country because of what happened on that? Well, I know what I don't know. I don't read daily intelligence reports anymore. What I do recommend is a reevaluation. I'm certain that if I were in office now, I'd be asking our aviation security officials reevaluate. I want to know what the current posture is and what more we might be able to do. We do have to worry about someone being inspired by an incident like this. And so at a minimum, a reevaluation is appropriate.

20:13We don't know the exact motive yet, Secretary Johnson, but based on what you do know, talk about the strength and the bravery of those passengers who stepped up in that moment. They stepped up in that moment, subdued the bad actor. No doubt there were heroic passengers who helped calm other passengers in this moment. And the off-duty flight crew that stepped forward to take over in that moment on a second's notice. Extraordinary, an extraordinary story, truly. I mean, we just marked the 25th anniversary of the September 11th attacks. Again, we do not know if this was terrorism or mental health issue, but everyone, I think, has those images in their head.

21:04Of course. How terrifying. Right. Right. 9-11 was, you know, a breach of aviation security. And these things do tend to come in waves in spates. And so I know from experience, TSA evaluates and reevaluates its security posture based upon what they see in the intel all the time. And this is certainly an occasion to do that now. All right. Secretary Jay Johnson, you're going to join us again at the end of the program. Thank you for being here early to help us break down this horrific event. Thank goodness all of the people on that plane survived. Thank you, Secretary Johnson. We appreciate it. Coming up, the AI boom.

21:48President Trump doubles down on his support of data center development, despite evidence of voter skepticism after meeting with top tech leaders at the White House. Plus, Defense Secretary Pete Heggseth addresses U.S. forces at Quantico as the Pentagon announces its withdrawal of troops from Iraq, even as the region remains mired in war. You're watching the press now.

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23:49Welcome back. We want to turn to Capitol Hill now where Senate Democrats just voted against a Republican-led bill aimed at protecting consumers from paying higher utility costs when new data centers are built in their communities. Now, a similar bill passed the House last week nearly unanimously. The issue has become increasingly contentious on the campaign trail amid growing backlash against data centers. Senate Democrats have decried today's measure as toothless. But today, Senator John Husted, who sponsored the legislation, slammed Democrats for blocking it. Look. The Ratepayer Protection Act is a fraud.

24:26It does not require any protections at all. We need real action on data centers. And what do Republicans decide all of a sudden to push forward? A bill that is totally optional. 206 Democrats in the House voted for it. I even got four Democrats in the Senate to vote for it. But Chuck Schumer made it clear that they're going to block it because he wants to talk about affordability but doesn't want to do anything about affordability. We gave everybody a chance to do something about affordability and the Democrats blocked it. Now, it comes as recent NBC News polling found 51 percent of voters say they're less likely to vote for a candidate who supports building data centers in their community.

25:09And a new Pew survey shows Americans across the ideological spectrum have increasingly negative views of data centers. On the airwaves, candidates are leaning into the issue in key races, including Ohio, where former Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown has been attacking Senator Husted on the issue. John Husted's called the face of data centers in Ohio. Now they're devouring our farmland, sucking up our water, and using our energy. I stood up to my own party and voted against giving your tax dollars to data centers. I stood up to Wall Street when they bought up Michigan homes. And I've been in the fight against data centers.

25:47Data Center Derek. They get data centers. His campaign gets bankrolled. You get stuck with the bill. We need data centers. Kate Conley took a massive six-figure payday from the AI companies. Data center David Crowley. Big tech wins. Wisconsin pays. But President Trump continues to tout data centers. Just yesterday promising big economic benefits and downplaying concerns. His embrace of them could hurt his party in November. And if you look at most, almost in all cases, The data centers have tremendously, the money being brought in, their taxes have gone down, their incomes have gone up, their value of their housing has gone up.

26:31Mr. President, are you concerned at all that your continued support of data centers could hurt Republicans in the midterms? I just have to do what's right. All I can tell you is that these big, powerful, very rich, very smart companies are going to be making massive contributions to communities. Those remarks coming after the president held a meeting with top AI tech leaders at the White House, signing what the president called a morally binding agreement for companies to self-regulate their industry after recent incidents raised concerns about the rapid advancement of the technology. Joining me now from the White House is NBC's Monica Alba.

27:09NBC's Julie Serkin has the very latest from Capitol Hill. And also with me, artificial official intelligence reporter, Jared Perlow. Thanks to all of you for joining me. Jared, I'm going to start with you on this. This quote, morally binding agreement, the president signed that with AI tech leaders yesterday. What are the goals of this accord? Well, it remains to be seen, Kristen. I think broadly what the president and the tech CEOs wanted to signal is that they're willing to take some sort of action. But everything that was laid out in this accord is purely voluntary. That's why President Trump called it morally binding.

27:45There's no legal mechanism to enforce any of the four key parts here. So I'll just break that down quickly. What the leading tech CEOs agreed to is to implement internal controls to make sure their AI systems don't go off the rails, to appoint an internal committee to make sure those controls are working, to invite an outside independent auditor into the company's business processes to make sure that they're living up to their safety goals and then empowering some sort of committee on the board of these companies to make sure that all the other steps are working in harmony. But again, I just want to highlight this is a voluntary accord.

28:18The top of the document actually says, we believe each company should. So I just want to underline, we believe that companies should. Nothing about that is binding. But I do just want to note how significant the meeting was. All of America's leading tech CEOs, AI CEOs were in that room, including Elon Musk, Jensen Huang, Greg Brockman from OpenAI, Dario Amadei from Anthropic. And I think if you had asked me just a couple of months ago, could there be some sort of meeting like this between all these tech giants? I probably would have said, no, that's preposterous. But there is no sort of binding agreement that came out of it.

28:52And I think it'll be really important to see what happens in the next couple of months. Yeah, Jared, I think you're right. I mean, the images out of that meeting alone are just extraordinary to see them all gathered there together. Heather, look, this weekend I had the opportunity to interview Bill Gates. He told me that, quote, no one thinks self-regulation is enough. Based on your conversations with tech leaders you're reporting, is that the message that they're sending to? It depends on who you're talking to. So I think we heard the direct opposite from Jensen Huang, who's founder, CEO of NVIDIA, one of the world's most valuable companies.

29:31They make all the hardware that power today's AI systems. He said that it's ultimately up to each individual company to make sure their products are safe. So he directly contradicts Bill Gates there in saying, no, we believe that self-regulation is an option. But I want to stress there are so many different tribes. There are so many different subgroups in the AI community. Some people do genuinely think that there is a non-zero chance AI kills all of humanity. I would put lots of people who work at Anthropic in that bucket. But there are also thousands, tens of thousands of rank-and-file software engineers who don't really believe that, who believe that this is going to be a significant technology, but that there aren't those sort of catastrophic risks.

30:07And I'll just say I was at OpenAI's biggest celebration of the year yesterday, and I talked with lots of people on the ground. They said, yeah, you know, we should pay attention to risks, but I don't think this is going to kill us all. So, you know, in a few words, it's complicated. Incredibly complicated. Jared, thank you. And thanks for sharing your reporting with us. We really appreciate it. Monica, let me turn to you. The president has made it very clear he does not want more AI regulation. He's worried that that could hurt the U.S. and the race for AI development with China. What are your sources telling you at the White House in terms of this strategy?

30:42Is there any concern that he is at odds with some of what we're hearing from these tech leaders? I think, Kristen, exactly what you guys were just discussing is the takeaway from some of the top senior White House officials today. The fact that this gathering even took place and that the president was able to bring cameras in to showcase this long lunch that they had where they did produce this accord. And then on top of that, decided to come out and take questions for more than 30 minutes standing in front of these tech titans in a pretty remarkable image in a place where the president doesn't usually take questions here at the White House on the north side of the campus.

31:17And it was because they basically wanted to extend the possibility of him standing with them and him able to point to the fact that he believes he's the only one who could have gathered this group together to discuss the future of AI for as long as possible. But of course, on the actual substance of this, there are still many, many questions of what, if anything, this will really do, whether this will result in any kind of a slowdown, which is what some of those industry leaders who were in the room with the president were pushing for. And also there's the question of whether this is ever codified.

31:49And this is actually in the accord. They say maybe we'll need laws and regulation down the road, but they really punt that for a future problem. And they don't address that, even though we know some of those leaders who met with the president were pushing him to try to consider something on that. But the president says that's not necessary right now. Kristen, well, we know lawmakers will continue to eye that debate that Julie, speaking of which, let me turn to you, because you actually spoke earlier today with Missouri Republican Senator Josh Hawley. What did he tell you about this debate, Julie?

32:21Kristen, I did speak to him in just some context here. He's currently holding a hearing as we speak, convened a hearing on rogue AI and the dangers of these models hacking into various systems. He actually invited the OpenAI CEO or somebody from that company to testify. It was a last minute letter sent Friday night. The company just responded to me, actually, a few moments ago, saying that they're deeply engaged with Congress, even though they missed this hearing on federal policies to advance AI safety and welcome regulation and guardrails from Congress. But when I talked to Holly about this, on one hand, he praised the actions by the president yesterday.

32:57But on the other hand, you have to remember that only Speaker Johnson attended that summit out of lawmakers here on Capitol Hill. And Holly actually wrote an opinion piece about the dangers of AI regulating itself. Take a listen to a little bit more of what I heard from him today. Well, I certainly think it's a good start, and I'm glad that the companies are willing to start down that road. I applaud the president for doing something. Of course, you know, I mean, Congress should do something, too, rather than to sit back and spectate. Congress needs to do its job. Number one, get the facts. But number two, I think we need to put some guardrails in place.

33:32And to me, the most sensible place to start is let's make the companies liable for the harm their agents cause. And we're seeing a lot of harm right now. meanwhile kristen let me take you into the hearing room because right now josh holly is hearing a witness in there who works with these companies before their models get put out on the market who is telling lawmakers that ai capabilities are advancing rapidly and surpassing human limits and the window to intervene is closing it's just extraordinary the warnings are extraordinary bill gates telling me that the technology he thinks has the possibility to claim as many as a billion lives, Julie.

34:12And look, as we're having this discussion, we talked about a little bit earlier, data center, the data center bill failed to advance in the Senate. Senator Schumer argued the bill is basically toothless. But we do know that four Democrats voted for it. What does it say, Julie, about how this issue is playing out in the midterms? Yeah, there you are. Ossoff and Warnock. Of course, Georgia senator is up for re-election in the midterm, certainly Ossoff, is Amy Klobuchar running for governor in her state. And Maggie Hassan, of course, wanting to stay in the Senate and knows how critical this issue is for her state as well.

34:47So that's super interesting. And it tells us, Kristen, that this is an issue that has become politicized because in the House, the same exact bill that would try to alleviate some of the costs that Americans are paying because of these data centers, specifically when it comes to electricity costs, Democrats in the Senate don't want to give John Husted that same win. And I actually walked with him after you saw that bite from him at the top of at the top of the segment. And I asked him, does he actually have enough to run on now? The president is sent to campaign in his state as well at the end of this week.

35:18And he essentially said, look, we tried. We put this bill out there. I'm trying to do something on affordability. And yet you only had those four Democratic senators who voted for it, thus killing the bill for now. Interestingly, Kristen, when I press Leader Schumer on this issue, because he has been sounding the alarm, He has been saying that the Senate can't leave until they handle this. And then, of course, instructed his members to vote against even this bill. I asked him about Jeffries supporting this bill in the House, AOC, all these lawmakers. And he essentially said, well, Jeffries had no choice.

35:48He had to support it, whatever that means. I thought that was fascinating. And then, of course, we saw that fail in the Senate today. Absolutely fascinating. And you take me back to Monica, because Monica, the president, set to campaign, as Julie just said, in Ohio this weekend. And this issue, as we have been talking about throughout this hour, is front and center between Houston and Brown. How does he plan to address this issue when he actually visits Monica? Yeah. And the president maybe has been advised by some to kind of walk this fine line of acknowledging that people don't want these data centers in their backyards.

36:22And he has kind of said that effectively. He's like, I know people may not want them directly in their neighborhood, but basically it comes down to he says, they have to have them, that the U.S. has to have these data centers in the president's view in order to contain and continue to be competitive with China. It says essentially that that is not an option. And so the president yesterday standing with all of these tech leaders that are also pushing for more data centers effectively made that argument. And when he is asked whether this is something that could hurt Republicans in the midterms, as you saw there, pressed by our own colleague Yamiche Alcindor, the president says, again, he understands why some may have that viewpoint, but that ultimately he argues there's an economic benefit to it.

37:05He tries to point to the job creation aspect to it. And so I think he will lean into that when he is campaigning in Ohio. But it is very obvious from those ads that you played with Democrat Sherrod Brown labeling Senator Husted as the face of data centers, that that is something that also potentially as a label could be extended to President Trump, who is also continually defending them. Kristen. Great conversation. We know that this is going to continue to be front and center as we're just about a month out from the midterms. Monica and Julie, thank you both so very much. Coming up next, the U.K.

37:40prime minister says for the first time he believes Iran is linked to an incident at a British air base earlier this week that led to five men being arrested on suspicion of terrorism. And we'll have that story next with Courtney Kuby, only on Meet the Press Now.

38:21Try YouTube Premium for two months free at youtube.com slash premium. Trial eligibility varies. Terms apply. Cancel any time. To every clinician finishing notes at 9 p.m., there is a faster way. Whisperflow is a voice-to-text app. You talk, it types in your EHR, your email, anywhere you type. Say the progress note, the referral letter, the patient instructions, and it comes out clean and formatted with your terminology spelled right. Four times faster than typing and HIPAA ready. Whisper Flow is free. Get it at whisperflow.ai. That's W-I-S-P-R flow dot A-I. Jimmy Conrad here and I have something to put on your radar.

39:05The Core Short from Viore. Because after getting my first pair, I was hooked. They work for everything that I like doing. Soccer, tennis, hoops, and lifting weights to name a few. And they're unbelievably comfortable. which is why I wear them doing everything else. They are designed to work for whatever your day throws at you. For our listeners, they're offering 20 % off your first purchase. So head to viori.com slash footy. That's V-U-O-R-I dot com slash F-O-O-T-Y. Exclusions apply. Visit the site for full details. Welcome back. We are following breaking news. The Pentagon making further cuts to the number of generals and admirals in the military.

39:43Defense Secretary Pete Heggseth announcing today he's directing the military to double the number of cuts he'd ordered last spring, making it a total reduction of 20 percent. The news coming on the same day the U.S. completed its withdrawal from Iraq, where American troops had been fighting ISIS in a mission that began 12 years ago. President Trump touting that milestone earlier today. So this day is a victory for the United States. It's a victory for Iraq. and a decisive victory over ISIS, which has been completely decimated, which is the reason we went in there in the first place. I decimated them and took them out in my first administration.

40:26So I don't know what took them so long to be making the announcement that I'm making today. NBC News senior national security correspondent Courtney Kuby joins me now. So, Court, Secretary Hegseth announced this reduction in the number of generals and admirals in the military. Did he say what the reason was? What are the implications? So the idea that he talked about when he first announced the 10 percent who were going to be reduced in 2025 was an idea of making the military less top heavy, essentially. So fewer general officers and more of the sort of mid-grade and lower level officers and enlisted, the ones who he says are doing the work and doing the fighting.

41:07Today, though, he spoke very openly about how the This elimination of now 20 percent, he bragged, by the way, about already having fired the first 10 percent, but adding another 10 percent, so 20 percent total of the general and flag officer corps being eliminated. He said that it had a pretty chilling comment about why he was doing that. He said that the people who didn't believe in the agenda that he laid out in the same Quantico speech exactly one year ago today, that they were gone. And then he said civilian control of the people who believe civilian control of the military is simply a suggestion.

41:45Well, they no longer work here. So it's a chilling statement for the secretary of defense to make, alluding to the fact that, look, if you don't agree with the agenda, you're going to be fired or you have to quit. Kristen, pretty striking message there from the defense secretary. The Pentagon, meanwhile, saying the U.S. military has completed its withdrawal from Iraq. That's significant. Courtney, what does it mean? And has this 12 year long mission to combat ISIS been a success in the eyes of Pentagon officials? So a coordinated ISIS in Iraq, President Trump is right that that doesn't really exist anymore.

42:24But to say that ISIS has been eliminated or decimated is just simply not true. The reality is the majority of the ISIS fighters and their leadership have simply moved to Africa. They have a presence in Somalia, a presence in the Sahel. Now, as far as the U.S. military leaving, this was actually announced and agreed to under the Biden administration, September of 2024, just before the election. They announced it then. They announced that they would begin this sort of phased withdrawal in October of 2025, so about a year ago, and that it would end today, the end of September 2026. But the counter ISIS mission, it's not like it's completely going away.

43:00They're simply moving the headquarters to Jordan. The idea is they can continue to monitor any kind of ISIS proliferation from there, Kristen. Court, I have to ask you about another big development today. The U.K. saying it now believes Iran was involved in that incident near a British air base used by U.S. troops. What's been the reaction at the Pentagon to that? What are they saying? Yeah, Kristen, we've been asking. We can't find anyone who can corroborate. They're not dismissing the statement in any way, but we can't find anyone who's able to corroborate it on their own. Now, they are making the point, the individuals we're speaking with, that, look, yes, the U.S.

43:35military does operate out of this base, and they have for decades, but it is a British Royal Air Force base. And because of that, they are responsible for the overall security and perimeter security specifically of that base. So they are referring to British authorities whenever we ask questions about it. European command is also saying that they are that they are in close coordination with the British authorities, but they have not said anything about that specific claim that Iran may have been in some way behind this this alleged or attempted attack. All right, Courtney Kuby, as always, covering a number of different angles for us.

44:09Court, thank you so very much. After the break, tipping point, the fight for control of Senate could all come down to Texas. And the all-important Hispanic vote as the candidates make their final push. We are live on the trail with Ryan Noble. Stay with us on Meet the Press Now.

44:36Welcome back. As Republicans find themselves defending their Senate seat in Texas, a key demographic is shifting away from the party. Hispanic voters, especially in the Rio Grand Valley, helped turn Texas's southern border red two years ago, marking a shift away from Democrats. But that support seems to be shifting back to Democrats. Recent polling shows Hispanic voters favoring Democrat James Tallarico over Republican Ken Paxton 54 to 36 percent. Tallarico and Paxton have both been courting Hispanic voters with Tallarico speaking to the U.S. Hispanic Business Council in South Texas today after Paxton addressed the group earlier in the week.

45:16Joining me now is NBC News Chief Capitol Hill Correspondent Ryan Nobles on the trail for us in Texas today. So, Ryan, what was James Tallarico's message to Hispanic voters today? You know, Chris, his message to Hispanic voters is not all that different than his message to the broader electorate, because what we found during our trip across Texas this week is that Hispanic voters are concerned very most about affordability. The difference in the messaging here is that the way the affordability crisis is hitting the Latin community is a little bit different than it is in some other communities. In particular, the heavy handed ice immigration raids by the Trump administration have made it difficult for business leaders here in this region to just find people to do simple tasks.

46:00And so you're seeing both Ken Paxton and James Tallarico make a pitch to these Hispanic business owners to find some sort of common ground to keep the border safe while at the same time rolling back some of this ice enforcement. Take a listen. right now we are told that we have to choose between security and welcoming immigrants who are going to make us richer and stronger and and we don't have to choose between those things we can do both if we have comprehensive immigration reform where we secure the border where we have an orderly process so we know who's coming into our country and we support our economy by welcoming immigrants who want to live the american dream we should have america first policy here we have We need to have a policy that benefits the Americas that are here.

46:46And that likely means that we have to let people in that can fulfill some of these jobs that we don't have enough people for. But right now, it is very much a bottom line issue for many of these Hispanic voters. They're seeing less in their pocketbooks. They're seeing less opportunity to make profit in their businesses. And right now, Republicans are in power and they're prepared to have them pay the price in November. Kristen. And Ryan, you've been talking to Hispanic voters as well. What have they been telling you? Well, the big thing they keep saying over and over again, Kristen, is that President Trump promised them something two years ago, and those promises have not been delivered.

47:26Listen to what one leading Democrat in the Texas legislature who represents the Hispanic community told me. I think so many folks voted for Donald Trump because they believe that the businessman would deliver a different economy, a better economy, a lower cost economy. And we've seen the opposite. In Spanish, it's called que te laven el coco, which means you get brainwashed. And I think a lot of Latinos feel the frustration right now. I mean, if you look at what happened in 2024 in South Texas and that red wave that came in, we vote people, not party. I think for the longest time, both parties have gotten it wrong with my community.

48:04Democrats historically have taken this for granted. Republicans historically have kind of villainized the community.

48:13And what's interesting, Kristen, is that James Tallarico is trying not to run as a bright blue Democrat. In fact, he told this crowd here today that he doesn't want to turn Texas blue. He wants to turn Texas purple. He thinks that's where the state fits best. And one other interesting thing that's happening here today, you saw, Kristen, James Tallarico, Ken Paxton speaking at different events on different days, even though it was for the same group. These two are not going to share a debate stage between now and Election Day because Ken Paxton refuses to agree to a debate. And that is a huge thing for the 31 million voters here in Texas to not have an opportunity to hear from both candidates at the same time.

48:50Yeah, absolutely. We're among those who has offered to host a debate. Ryan Nobles, thank you so much. We really appreciate it. To every clinician finishing notes at 9 p.m., there is a faster way. Whisperflow is a voice-to-text app. You talk, it types in your EHR, your email, anywhere you type. Say the progress note, the referral letter, the patient instructions, and it comes out clean and formatted with your terminology spelled right, four times faster than typing and HIPAA ready. Whisperflow is free. Get it at whisperflow.ai. That's W-I-S-P-R flow dot A-I.