Transcripts For MSNBC Meet the Press 20240924 : comparemela.

When we fight, we win with just six weeks until election day, Vice President Kamala Harris is leading former President Donald Trump in our new Nbc News Poll. We are the underdog in this race, and we have some hard work ahead of us. We dont need votes. What we need is honesty in the election. Which side is more energized in the final sprint of the campaign . Steve kornacki will break down the results. Plus, controversial comments. We are staying in this race. We are in it to win it. The republican nominee after he once called Himself A Black Nazi and defended slavery on a porn site. Weve got folks running for governor that are proud to refer to themselves as nazis. How will it impact the critical Battleground State and escalating attacks. Israel Target Hezbollah leaders Inside Lebanon after a wave of attacks targeting the militant Groups Communication devices. Is the war spreading into a wider conflict . My guests this morning, democratic senator John Fetterman of pennsylvania and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. Joining me for Insight And Analysis are nbc News Chief white House Correspondent Peter alexander, amy walter, editor in chief of the cook political report. Former democratic Congresswoman Stephanie Murphy and former republican congressman, Carlos Curbelo. Welcome to sunday. Its Meet The Press. Announcer from Nbc News in washington, the longest running show in television history, this is Meet The Press with kristen welker. Good sunday morning. We begin with our brandnew Nbc News Poll and the headline, Vice President harris is leading former President Trump nationally by five point, 49 to 44 among registered voters, that is within the margin of error, but its a shift from her last poll in july when mr. Trump led president biden by two points before Bidens Exit from the race. This week both candidates crisscrossed key Battleground States. If Kamala Harris is reelected, she will kill The American Dream forever. Shes not competent to be president , either, but i dont want to be rude. Someone who suggests we should terminate the Constitution Of The United States should never again stand behind the seal of the president of the united states theres a dramatic change in how positively voters view harris. Her 21point Net Swing from negative to positive is unmatched by a major Party Candidate in Nbc News Polling going back to 1989, and harris is winning the Change Argument by nine points. Steve kornacki will take us through the numbers just moments from now. Also this morning, sources are telling Nbc News former President Trump is facing calls from his allies and from within his own campaign to pull his endorsement from scandalplagued gubernatorial Candidate Mark Robinson after mr. Trumps past support. This is Martin Luther King on steroids, okay . Now robinson did not attend a rally mr. Trump held in North Carolina on saturday. Mr. Trump didnt mention robinson, and so far there are no plans for the former president to drop his endorsement. On thursday, cnn reported robinson, who is currently the states lieutenant governor, posted a series of comments on the Message Board of a Pornography Website more than a decade ago, including referring to himself as a black nazi and expressing support for reinstating slavery. Mr. Robinson said that the online posts are fakes, generated by artificial intelligence. Those are not the words of Mark Robinson. Clarence thomas once said he was the victim of a hightech lynching. Well, it looks like Mark Robinson is too. The Harris Campaign is out with a new ad, Tying Former President Trump To Robinson on the issue of abortion. Hes been an unbelievable lieutenant governor, Mark Robinson. For me, there is no compromise on abortion. Abortion in this country is about killing a child because you arent responsible enough to keep your skirt down. Ive been with him a lot and ive gotten to know him, and hes outstanding. Lauren make spoke with Jd Vance on saturday. Are you comfortable with Mark Robinson as republican governor of income . The allegations are out there, but the allegations arent necessarily reality and what i say its up to Mark Robinson and North Carolina whether he wants to be governor and whether he wants to stay in the race. Do you believe theyre not his posts . I dont not believe him. I dont believe him. Sometimes they have to play out in the court of public opinion. Harris came to michigan and sat down with Oprah Winfrey and talked about immigration and gun violence. Either you are in favor of the second amendment and you want to take guns away. Im in favor of universal background checks. Im a gun opener. Tim walz is a gun owner. I did not know that. If someone breaks into my house, theyre getting shot. With just 44 days until election day, voting is underway in virginia, south dakota, and minnesota. I am joined now by National Political Correspondent Steve Kornacki to take us through the numbers. Steve, a lot of headlines here. Certainly, kristen. Youre looking at the biggest. Harris, 49, trump, 44. Fivepoint advantage ahead of trump in this poll against Donald Trump, and if we zoom out here and look at the bigger significance of this Finding And Weve been polling the 2024 race going back to next year and you can see these are all of the results on the left side of the screen from when Joe Biden was still the democratic candidate and this is our first poll since harris switched in and look at that result. You can see that the race has been completely reshaped since harris took the top of the ticket. Completely and one of those things powering that lead. There is a pretty pronounced gender gap. Harris is leading in our poll by 21 polls. Among men, trump is leading by 12. That is a 33point gender gap. Thats enormous what were seeing here, too. Take a look at this, the debate happening in the next couple of weeks. 20 said that debate made them more likely to support harris and that might be helping her as well here and then theres this, the view, the overall perception of Kamala Harris. Before she got in the race there was talk that her numbers didnt look better than bidens. She was 54 and now this is what you see. We have to pause here because this is the largest increase that we have seen for any politician since george w. Bush in the wake of the September 11th attacks on this issue. Yeah, absolutely, kristen. I mean, we were seeing numbers like this for years for Kamala Harris, and now youre seeing a very different story, and what goes into that, that new level on popularity that she has, Take A Look here. Call this up, some of the groups that have gravitated the most toward harris and black voters, 24point Increase and independents 20, young voters. This is a group where Joe Biden when he was still in, he was pulling up very, very good numbers and harris, a 24point Job among voters under 30 and look at it this way, and put it in comparison with biden and the national candidates this year, shes the only one, Kamala Harris in our poll with the higher positive score than a negative score. Compare that to trump and look at Jd Vance, trumps running mate, the lowest positive score. But you have to look at trump, the highest negative rating. There it is. The only one over 50 , the majority there. Take a look at the issues here, the most important issues here. Youve got inflation. The economy. Add together inflation and the economy, youre talking about 40 of the electorate inciting that. And Take A Look at the issues here. This was trump versus biden. Thats what youre seeing right here. This is harris versus biden. Trump still has the advantage of the economy. Its nine points. It used to be 22. On the border, its 21 now. Thats a big advantage. It used to be 35. We talked about age being an issue and the mental physical health now and harris, a 20point Advantage over trump. Republican sources say if former President Trump would stick to the issues like the economy he would do better and it shows it. Harris, Thats Part of the success that shes had has been eroding that. Look at it this way. A lot of positive news for Kamala Harris and democrats. Look back to october 2020, very similar. Harris has jumped into a threepoint net positive rating, thats where Joe Biden was in 2020. Trump is pretty much in the same place, a little bit worse in terms of views of him in 2020. But heres the difference. In 2020 60 of the country thought it was on the wrong track and twothirds say the country is on the wrong track. In 2020 came within a handful of votes in the few states of winning in the Electoral College against the challenger and overall, not that much of a different setup here and certainly in the Electoral College within reach for him. Just fascinating findings, steve, with just six weeks to go. Here it is. Thank you, kristen. And joining me now is senator John Fetterman of pennsylvania. Senator fetterman, Welcome Back to Meet The Press. Hi. Its great to be here. Hi. Well, it is great to have you. Lets start with the results of the poll. It shows that Vice President harris is leading former President Trump by five points nationally, still almost twothirds of voters saying Household Incomes are falling behind compared to inflation. Why should pennsylvania voters trust that harris can turn things around when so many voters say they dont feel the results of the Biden Harris policies, senator . Yeah. Well, its five points, and thats encouraging. And im not going to say i dont have to drive for four and a half hours to have a rally for democrats in rural counties. So its going to be very close, and youre going to see polls. The Washington Post had a poll that was effectively tied and another had harris up, but regardless, i promise you, pennsylvania will be very close. Otherwise if its not, its going to be a great nice surprise, but im expecting a very close and competitive race through. It usually is in pennsylvania. I want to shift now to North Carolina, another competitive state. Mark robinson, the republican nominee for governor, recordally made incredibly controversial posts on a pornographic website. Hes denied making those posts. Former President Trump has not dropped his endorsement of robinson, and i wonder if you think it is fair for voters to judge a candidate based on who they endorse, senator . Well, of course, but its great news for the democrats. I think robinson hes the new Dream Candidate to run against back in 2018 i talked to Governor Wolf i thought Scott Wagner was the Dream Candidate that could run, and we smoked him by 21 points, and Doug Mastriano came out in 22, and thats the best candidate that you can buy in, and the Shapiro Campaign spent billions of dollars to promote him as well too. Then robinsons like, hey, hold my beer, and trumps not going to walk back because hes not going to admit what a disaster that is, but its nice hes going to win as a democratic governor, but im not sure the impact it will have at the topline. It would be wonderful and almost Ball Game if harris wins North Carolina, but shes made North Carolina competitive already, and then after robinson, now were in the best possible situation to win. Let me ask you about another topic, the second apparent Assassination Attempt against former President Trump this week. This is what his running made Jd Vance had to say in the wake of it. Take a look. The difference between conservatives and liberals is No One has tried to kill Kamala Harris in the last couple of months and two people now have tried to kill Donald Trump in the last couple of months. Id say thats pretty strong evidence that the left needs to tone down the rhetoric and needs to cut this crap out. Somebodys going to get hurt by it. Senator, whats your response to senator Jd Vance . I dont know, who is actually listening to what vance says . Its been months already. No ones really listening to him anymore. He has developed the reputation to say dumb things, pointless things and offend everybody and hes been picked as the most unpopular pick in history and No Ones listening to him. Im certainly not. And here we are right now. To the substance of his charge, though, hed say id say thats pretty strong evidence that the left needs to tone down the rhetoric and needs to cut this blank out. How do you respond to that specific part of what he says . Thats absolutely absurd. Every democrat condemned the Assassination Attempts, and i did as well too. Theyre talking about eating the dogs and saying outlandish kind of things, and now lets just have a serious conversation about this election and not talking about that empty kind of rhetoric from somebody like Jd Vance. I want to ask you about something that Vice President Kamala Harris said this week. She was talking about Gun Ownership with Oprah Winfrey. She said, quote, if Somebody Breaks into my house, theyre going to get shot. You, senator, are a gun owner. As the leader of a party that prides itself on advocating for gun safety, was it responsible for Vice President harris to make those comments . Absolutely. I think the vast majority of americans, if you had somebody breaking into your house that might be there to harm you, youd probably have the right to shoot them, and i think that the vast majority of americans would agree with that. Let me talk about another big issue, i should say, the issue of fracking. Vice president harris once supported a Ban On Fracking when she was running for president in 2020. She even sued the Obama Administration to prevent fracking off ca