2026 Midterms Begin Amid Iran War, Economic Woes, Epstein Scandal

16:31Ari Melber:New information crossing from the Pentagon, which has released the names of four American soldiers killed in this Iran war. They were killed in Kuwait. That was during an unmanned aircraft system attack. They were all based in Des Moines. In total, Pentagon has confirmed six Americans have died thus far in this Iran operation and the surrounding battles and threats. I'm back with our panel. Rev, that actually just crossed since we came on air. And the whole nation, I think, owes the debt of gratitude to everyone in uniform. They go out there and serve regardless of the mission or their personal views on it.

17:12Ari Melber:That's our system. But tonight, voters are weighing in. And do you think the way this has been rolled out and what the Iran attack is will weigh on the minds of some voters? Absolutely.

17:25Michele Norris:I believe it will weigh heavily on the minds of some voters. Six people on the day that many of them are going to vote. Some have already early voted, but many of them are going to vote. They're hearing on the news six people dead in a war that he promised we were not going to war. And in a situation, it's not clear why we're going to war. Don't forget, we've heard two or three different reasons from him and Secretary of State Marco Rubio and others. That's why we've been there. Rubio said we wanted to throw the first blow because they were going to hit Israel and then they would hit us. Trump says something totally opposite.

18:02Michele Norris:So it's all over the place. Why are we there? But we see people are dying. And at the same time, we're seeing prices go up. We're seeing your FBI directors partying and high fiving and jumping around in the dugout or in the locker room of the team. All of this at the same time with Kristi Noem fighting a Republican during the hearings today. All of this at the same time does not occur to their benefit as people are going to the polls, Republican or Democrat.

18:33Ari Melber:And Michelle, we are getting our arms around the data here in Texas, which has a hotly contested primary in both parties for Senate Democrats over a million and a half ballots. Republicans, one point three. That's from Vote Hub. And we can we can put that up when we have it. But there is an enthusiasm gap in the polling. It appears it may also exist in the voting.

19:00Reverend Al Sharpton:And that that predates what happened, as I said, over the weekend. And many people will probably go out to the polls because they're really concerned about this. But if you were talking about Kash Patel in the locker room, I mean, let's not forget that on the night that this happened, Donald Trump was at a MAGA fundraiser, you know, surrounded by people dancing, partying. That is just an award that was launched from a golf resort in Florida, you know, not even from the White House. He has said that this is a war of necessity. He repeated that again today. I really doubt that most people see that this is a war of necessity.

19:33Reverend Al Sharpton:They deserve an explanation. And one of the reasons they also deserve an explanation is part of your job as the commander in chief is to rally the public to support the troops, to make sure that the people are supporting and that they understand what the troops are putting their lives on the line for. And he has not done that. And I remember talking to people during the Gulf War and asking servicemen and women, do you understand what you're fighting for? And sometimes there would be this long pause. You know, they couldn't even articulate it themselves. That is a really bad position to put our military in.

20:06Reverend Al Sharpton:And it's a horrible position to put the public in to watch people that they love and respect fighting a war that they do not understand. understand.

20:13Ari Melber:Yeah. Powerful words here as we see what the voters are going to say, at least in these states tonight. Michelle Norris, Reverend Sharpton, thanks to both of you. The Rev actually mentioned a Republican senator tearing into the embattled homeland security chief. And we're going to get into that tonight, plus the Epstein scandal update. The Trump cabinet member who lied about all this will testify and the scrutiny on the rationale for war. We touched on this, but we're going to fact check why Donald Trump keeps changing the goal, even as we're already deep into this exchange with Iran. The great, talented and highly experienced ambassador and former peace negotiator Dennis Ross is back with me tonight.

21:04Ari Melber:We began our midterm special coverage tonight touching on how the war is affecting the voters potentially, and we're going to be watching all that tonight. Now we turn to the policy in the Middle East directly. The president says he may be open to supporting militia groups in Iran, taking up arms to dislodge the regime, which is both a tacit acknowledgement that so far the killing of Khomeini has not changed how Iran runs yet, the Wall Street Journal reporting on that, which also raises questions about what our plans are. Meanwhile, an Iranian drone hit the American consulate in Dubai.

21:51Ari Melber:There you can see the impact, the smoke and fire rising after the attack. U.S. officials did say they were able to account for all personnel. The Pentagon also releasing video of U.S. airstrikes on Iran's mobile missile launchers. All this amid growing scrutiny on what Trump's rationale for war is and if it keeps changing depending on the day or who's talking. Trump has said that he felt Iran would launch attacks soon. That's part of why he moved first, which is kind of a preemptive attack argument. U.S. intelligence assessments have indicated there was not a looming or preemptive strike expected from Iran, at least according to what we knew.

22:29Ari Melber:That's the latest in several justifications.

22:33Michele Norris:Our objective is to defend the American people. We would soon have had missiles capable of reaching our beautiful America. Our country itself would be under threat, and it was very nearly under threat. The United States is conducting an operation to eliminate the threat of Iran's short-range ballistic missiles. He wanted to make sure that Iran could never have a nuclear weapon. We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action, the threat posed by their navy. We hope that the Iranian people can overthrow this government. This is not a so-called regime change war, but the regime sure did change.

23:11Michele Norris:If we didn't do it, they were going to attack first.

23:15Ari Melber:I felt strongly about that. Back with us now is Ambassador Dennis Ross, a longtime Middle East expert. He served as a peace negotiator and a diplomat across several administrations, working in the Obama administration. There you can see him in the Oval Office with the president and the secretary of state at the time. We also want to remind everyone, when you think about how long this history runs, on the left, you see Bibi Netanyahu, who is back again, the leader of Israel. And you have him there with Yasser Arafat and Ambassador Ross all the way back in 1997. We should mention his latest book on the region, Statecraft 2.0, What America Needs to Learn in a Multipolar World, is available now.

23:58Ari Melber:Welcome back. You remember that photo, that moment? Yeah, I've just changed a little bit.

24:03Reverend Al Sharpton:Not much.

24:05Ari Melber:Yeah, well, that's the passage of time is something we all have in common, even across the great barrier that separated those two men and their peoples. But I show that because you've lived through so much of this. The last time you were here, we discussed some of what might actually change on the sort of chessboard. And I'm curious how that compares with the way the administration is talking about it, which each day floats different reasons for what we're doing.

24:35Reverend Al Sharpton:I think one of the hardest things to come to grips with is what you're raising. What is the objective here? You know, good statecraft is always characterized by you marry your objectives and means. Now, you can't really marry means to objectives unless the objectives themselves are clear. So thinking through the objectives is really important. We keep getting a different explanation for what the objective is. We just rehearsed as I was watching all these different accounts. Now, it may be that President Trump deliberately wants to keep the definition of objectives quite fluid because it frees him off to basically decide on his own at a certain point, OK, I will define the objective after the war is over and I can claim that we succeeded.

25:18Reverend Al Sharpton:That's very possible. It may account for why no one seems to be able to give you one clear objective And the president himself seems to emphasize different points at different times

25:30Ari Melber:And I'll jump in to say that the question there then becomes Is that for substance, negotiators like a certain amount of flexibility And you actually get a good outcome Or is it for PR, which is something that this former reality show host, now president, is versed in Because when Vietnam didn't go the way successive administrations wanted, there was the old saying, declare victory and leave, which was a face-saving spin, but didn't mean that it was worth the blood or treasure or that we had a good outcome.

26:04Reverend Al Sharpton:Look, it's very possible that the president could be in a position quite soon to claim the following. A, I said, I, the president, said that if they killed a lot of their citizens, they would pay a price. In this case, how many paid the price? And I also said they wouldn't be in a position where they could threaten any of their neighbors. And I put them in a position where they can't threaten any of their neighbors. He could actually adopt a unilateral position along those lines and say, if they continue to fire, then they'll pay a much bigger price, but we've achieved our objective. Now, the irony is it would be easier to make that case if that had been the objective from the beginning.

26:46Reverend Al Sharpton:If you are waiting to explain your objective until after it's over, because you think that allows you to present this in the best possible light, it unfortunately puts you in a position where the expectations you've generated don't necessarily match what you're now saying. That's why I say you really want to be quite clear on the objectives you have in mind, not only for the reasons, Ari, that you're saying. You want to sell it to the American public. If you're never explaining what the objective is, you're raising doubts among the American public. Well, what is this about? What is the purpose here?

27:19Reverend Al Sharpton:Why are we doing it? It actually makes it harder to sustain domestic political support for what you're doing. The fact is what we're doing right now is clearly designed to weaken the regime. The other night when I was on with you, I said, I think the objective is probably regime weakening, not regime change. And I still think that's probably what it is. and it's not necessarily the worst thing in the world, but it's a lot easier to sell that. And I mean that in a positive way, if you're clear about it. But if you're not going to be clear about it, then it leaves it up to everybody to try to imagine.

27:53Reverend Al Sharpton:What is this really about? And when people begin to imagine, then they begin to look for conspiracy theories. And that's never a particularly healthy thing.

28:02Ari Melber:Yeah, and the president hasn't been clear about those lines because of his style, if you want to call it that diplomatically. he muses about things. He says, well, the next leader, you know, hopefully be better or it could be as bad. Take a look to the president musing.

28:21Michele Norris:Well, most of the people we had in mind are dead. So, you know, we had some in mind from that group that is dead. And now we have another group. They may be dead also based on reports. So I guess you have a third wave coming in. Pretty sure we're not going to know anybody.

28:40Ari Melber:And he goes on to say, you know, the next person, we just hope they're not as as bad as the previous person. I'm curious your reaction to that. And then in the limited time we have, we talk about the weakening. Do you have a sense we showed your long history in the region, your time dealing with both parties? You know, we got a lot of people who talk about all this stuff and have never been anywhere. You've done this for 40 years and you talked to Arafat and Netanyahu and Likud and the cutout groups and the Hamas intermediaries. do you have a sense yet of how it plays in the in the region around iran where groups and other states that viewed it as this tyrannical terror supporting mighty nation regionally maybe not compared to the u.s or russia but regionally are watching it going up was it never as strong as they thought or is it too early to read the the region that way i'm not sure it's too early to

29:33Reverend Al Sharpton:read the region that way. I think in fact the region before this nobody actually wanted. I know there's some nuance, there's some discussions of what the Saudis really wanted. I think the Saudis given their preference would have preferred calm but as if they felt we were going to engage in a conflict then they wanted us to be decisive in terms of what we did. The region I can tell you for sure is always worried we're going to start something then leave with them being exposed. So their attitude in advance was we prefer it to be calm. Now, what's most striking is Iran has made a bet. Iran believed that they could put pressure on the Gulf states who would then put pressure on us to stop.

30:15Reverend Al Sharpton:What they've done by not just hitting American bases in these countries, but by hitting all sorts of civilian targets is they've turned all these countries that would have preferred to stay out of this, they've now put them in a position where they're prepared increasingly, I think, not just to defend themselves with our help, which we are doing with them because we have central command and a lot of this has been rehearsed with them, but they appear prepared to actually take offensive action in response to what the Iranians are doing. The Iranians, in other words, have succeeded in creating a much stronger coalescence among the Gulf states.

30:51Reverend Al Sharpton:We had, you know, we had a effect, I don't want to trivialize, but we had a feud between Saudi Arabia and the UAE going on. There were clashes between them. And that's gone now. Now that's been, that relationship has been cemented again because of Iran. So Iran has succeeded not only in bringing everybody together, but think about it. This is a U.S.-Israeli operation, the first one in history. And we have the Gulf states who are prepared to join with it. Now, that's a really interesting realignment in the region. And that's thanks to the strategy that the Iranians have adopted. Just one comment on the first part of the question.

31:29Reverend Al Sharpton:My reaction to the president talking about the people we might have talked to are all dead. We had the ability to target them. If we were planning to talk to some of them, well, why would you target those? If you have in mind a strategy for who you're prepared to deal with afterwards, well, then presumably, A, you have some context to them, even if it's indirect. and B, the one thing you want to be sure of is you don't go after them. So it looks to me as if maybe we had this in mind, but we didn't really connect the dots in terms of our strategy. So we've made it more difficult to determine what comes next.

32:10Reverend Al Sharpton:And I think that's fair.

32:13Ari Melber:Yeah, and without minimizing or oversimplifying, there may be folks in the National Security Council and the intelligence services and the policy planning who are playing chess and thinking four moves ahead. To your point, you don't attack a whole Iranian government summit meeting if you wanted to keep two of those people as your potential plan B, but they're being overseen by leadership that is at best improv dancing and saying, well, I'm improv-ing on this. I'll just go with how it feels. I mean, the president literally said, I felt like they were going to hit us first, which is not military talk, not military strategy and speaks to the gap we're seeing.

32:56Ari Melber:And Secretary Rubio trying his best to re-explain or sane wash things that Trump then withdraws hours later. And we're in the early days of this. So everyone can hope that it works out. You've identified accurately places where it could work out. And yet it doesn't seem like they're maximizing that possibility with some of the leadership. So again, we've got the midterms. We've got a lot going on tonight, Ambassador. I'm happy you could make time for us. Always good to be with you. Appreciate it. Coming up, we have a breakdown on Republicans going after the DHS chief and accountability in the Epstein scandal.

33:29Ari Melber:A key lawmaker joins me next.

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34:04Michele Norris:Why have I asked my electrician I found on Angie.com to bury my pet hamster Nibbles in our yard for me? Because I was so moved by how carefully he buried my electrical wires, I knew I could trust him to bury my sweet Nibbles after his untimely end. Huh. Nibbles. Gone too soon. May he scurry in peace. Hey, sorry about your pet, but I just wire stuff. Nibbles would have loved you like a brother. Connecting homeowners with skilled pros for over 30 years. Angie, the one you trust to find the ones you trust. Find pros for all your home projects at Angie.com. You know that thing where you get an amazing pair of shoes at a really great price?

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35:03Reverend Al Sharpton:DSW, let us surprise you.

35:11Ari Melber:We have breaking news on how Congress is dealing with the Epstein scandal. Number one, Trump's embattled Commerce Secretary, who was caught lying about visiting Epstein Island, has agreed to testify again. He has spoken to some degree about Epstein. He was also Epstein's former neighbor. And the Oversight Committee has a new letter out tonight calling on a range of new witnesses to agree to testimony. It is a demand letter, and they have subpoena power if they want to raise the stakes. and it includes a host of people, including former Obama White House lawyer Kathy Rumler. Her spokesman says she welcomes the opportunity to appear, so that suggests progress.

35:49Ari Melber:But overall, she is part of seven new individuals. These would be new witnesses subjected to this interview process, including Bill Gates, Epstein's longtime assistant Leslie Groff, who we learned from the files, was under DOJ scrutiny, and some other big names. This is a developing story. I'm joined by Congressman Robert Garcia, who's a top Democrat on oversight, part of this whole process. What can you tell me about this letter tonight and what happens if those some of those on here don't agree?

36:20Michele Norris:Well, look, I first let me just begin by saying that we support those names. These are individuals that we have actually directly requested Chairman Comer to subpoena and to get testimony from. We have been pretty consistent in also forcing votes. We were going to force another vote tomorrow on Howard Lutnick. I'm glad now that Secretary Lutnick is going to come forward without any sort of subpoena and testify willingly. And if these other individuals will do the same, that is going to be a very important step for transparency and to ensure that we get the full truth on the Epstein files in this investigation.

36:57Michele Norris:So we've said from day one, we will talk to anyone. We don't care what party they are, who they serve with, or how powerful they are. If they know any information about Jeffrey Epstein. If they don't come forward. If they don't, then we should send out a subpoena to every single one of them to come forward and force a testimony.

37:15Ari Melber:This list includes individuals who we know substantively were in the orbit. Leon Black was someone who had a lot of money going back and forth with Epstein. and Rumler ultimately recently was pushed out of Goldman Sachs. The files show a whole range of interactions. Do you also view this as part of the overall progress or do you view this as weighted in the other direction of partisanship in that Doug Band is tied to Clinton, Rumler is tied to a Democratic administration, although many other Republican administration officials are not on this list. How do you view this list of names?

37:55Michele Norris:Look, I think I think obviously there has been clearly been some kind of partisan direction from Republicans. And you think you've seen that in the last few weeks. And certainly, I think when the president who has called this investigation a hoax, but then, you know, a week later, we'll say that he wants Republicans to only go after Democrats. I mean, clearly there is a partisan nature. But at the same time, we want an opportunity to talk to anyone that was in Epstein's orbit. And so we don't really care their political party. If they have information, they should come forward and talk, which is why folks like Howard Lutnick, who's obviously the Commerce Secretary, should come before our committee.

38:32Michele Norris:But I also want to remind the chairman and everyone else that the person that appears in the files, certainly more than all the folks you just mentioned, is actually Donald Trump. So if you really want to get to the bottom of what actually happened and why there's this cover up, the person we should sit and talk with is President Trump.

38:48Ari Melber:To that point, here's what Witness and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said.

38:56Reverend Al Sharpton:I think that it would be in keeping with the scope of the investigation of this committee to set up a deposition with President Trump, given what's in the files and given past and prior conduct, he would be on my witness list. He clearly knows what he did. He knows what others did.

39:29Ari Melber:Congressman, many people view that as a long shot, but so was a bipartisan vote that you and Ro Khanna and Massey and others ultimately got to force out the files. What would be the path to that? And what are you doing about any misleading redactions or held back documents at this juncture?

39:50Michele Norris:Well, I think one is, obviously, we've set a new precedent, and we've supported it, by the way. We wanted to talk to Bill Clinton. We're glad that he came in. We set a new precedent to have in, certainly, presidents, former presidents come testify. And so we will, again, ask President Trump to come and voluntarily meet and sit down with our committee. And if not, there's other actions we can take. And certainly, in the majority, we're going to try to force that action. And if not, then, Donald Trump won't be the president forever. And so we are going to ensure that we get to the truth. As it relates to missing documents, we continue to find that the DOJ is removing more and more documents from the files.

40:28Michele Norris:There's been reporting on that. It's completely outrageous. Remember, they've only produced about 50 % of them. And so when people talk about releasing the files, that's not over. The Epstein files have not been released. We've had a partial release.

40:42Ari Melber:To jump in, let's say people are listening to you. let's say they agree or that sounds right. And here we are now going into another month, March, after this deadline of December. When do you sue? When do you take other measures?

40:55Michele Norris:So the power of suing, as you know, within the House is decided by the House majority to sue as a Congress. But we are working with outside groups. There are outside groups right now that have already filed certain lawsuits. Those are going to continue. And the pressure of the American public has actually made a real difference. I mean, think about just a few months ago and where we're at today. We have forced subpoena votes. We've forced a Transparency Act law. We've talked to folks. Incredible. I'm only jumping in to say, yeah, you've done a lot for the minority.

41:24Ari Melber:Do you think Massey would join you on suing? I mean, go ahead.

41:28Michele Norris:I think that we are building Republicans, a bipartisan coalition to get more and more folks to ensure that as a body, we demand the rest of those files. So there's a lot happening right now in the works for that very thing to happen. But what's important is the pressure has to also come for the American public. Right now, I mean, over 70 percent of Republicans and Democrats believe that all the Epstein files should be released. It's an important issue. It's, in fact, Donald Trump's worst performing issue when you look at polling and survey work. And so Republicans need to do the right thing here.

42:02Michele Norris:This is about survivors. We are making incredible progress. This investigation is just getting started. It's not a hoax. And Donald Trump should come and testify in front of the committee.

42:13Ari Melber:Congressman Garcia, thank you very much on what is a busy news night in many ways. Appreciate it. We'll be right back.

42:21Ari Melber:The midterms, which get underway with tonight's primaries and Rachel standing by in about seven minutes, are always a referendum on the incumbents. That hurt the Democrats in past cycles, but it could hurt Donald Trump's party a lot in this cycle. Consider the ICE deportations, detentions, and tactics. DHS Chief Noem testified today this is the first time she has had to sit down under oath in this setting, a setting, I should say, since the killings of Renee Good and Alex Petty in Minnesota. And there were Republicans going after the record and the facts versus how she has led. Here's Republican Senator Tillis.

43:02Michele Norris:And what we've seen is a disaster under your leadership, Ms. Noam, a disaster. What we've seen is innocent people getting detained that turn out are American citizens. I could talk about the culture that's been created here with Stephen Miller aiding and abetting. The fact that you can't admit to a mistake, which looks like under investigation, it's going to prove that Ms. Good and Mr. Pretty probably should not have been shot in the face and in the back. We're an exceptional nation. And one of the reasons we're exceptional is we expect exceptional leadership. And you've demonstrated anything but that.

43:42Ari Melber:And on it went. Strong words from a Republican senator about the facts. Those Americans were killed by their government, overseen by the Trump administration. And according to that longtime Republican, it was an avoidable, unnecessary killing of Americans and one that we are at risk of repeating because he says this Trump official won't even admit the obvious mistake. Those Americans should not have been killed. We are gearing up tonight for the special coverage, and that's coming right up.

44:17Michele Norris:Why have I asked my electrician I found on Angie.com to bury my pet hamster Nibbles in our yard for me? Because I was so moved by how carefully he buried my electrical wires. I knew I could trust him to bury my sweet Nibbles after his untimely end. Huh. Nibbles. Gone too soon. May he scurry in peace. Hey, sorry about your pet, but I just wire stuff. Nibbles would have loved you like a brother. Connecting homeowners with skilled pros for over 30 years. Angie. The one you trust to find the ones you trust. Find pros for all your home projects at Angie.com.