memory alive virginia? >> we have pictures all of the house. every night, for he goes to bed and every morning, i will say good but night to, him ahmed levy more. -tel > -tel s day, stronger, more energizing, more united ever in its history biden warns russia about trying to outlast ukraine on the battlefield. but hopes continue to go unfulfilled as they run low on ammunition. has the west done enough to help ukraine win the war in i'll talk to national security adviser jake sullivan. plus military readiness. pentagon officials warn a single republican senator's block on top military promotions is now impacting national security. >> this is a national security

issue. it's a readiness issue. >> as the republican-led house adds more restrictions on the pentagon's abortion and transgender policies. polarizing culture war issues now added to a new defense spending bill. >> think the democrats think we should pay taxpayer money to pay for abortion and pay for wokism in our military. do they want disneyland to train our military? >> how will the democrats respond? i'll talk to dan sullivan of alaska and tammy duckworth of illinois. >> and doubting desantis. more evidence florida governor ron desantis' campaign is struggling, laying off staff and burning through campaign cash too quickly and it's only july. >> i don't worry about anything, man. we've got a plan. >> can his campaign bounce back? >> plus, director christopher nolan talks to me about his new film telling the story of jay oppenheimer and his creation of the atomic bomb. >> right now, for example, they literally refer to this right

now as their oppenheimer moment. >> joining me for insight and analysis are carol lee, democratic pollster cornell belcher, and republican strategist sara fagen. welcome to sunday, it's "meet the press." ♪♪ >> from nbc news in washington, the longest-running show in television history, this is "meet the press" with chuck todd. good sunday morning. this week we saw some good news on the economy, inflation cooling, and more signs the 2024 campaign is heating up, which we're going to get to, but the big of the story of the week was in lithuania where members of the north atlantic treaty organization met to expand the coalition and discuss their alliance and even expand the scope of nato owe focus perhaps to asia and it's some of the most consequential decisions of his presidency, 16 months into the war in ukraine.

russia is actually much weaker, and the nato alliance president putin hoped would crumble now borders the entire baltic sea. even as ukraine runs low on ammunition and awaits nato admission for itself, president biden predicted the alliance would help the invaded nation outlast putin on the battlefield. >> putin's already lost the war. putin has a real problem. how does he move from here? what does he do? >> perhaps the most remarkable part of all of this is perhaps how they've succeeded to help fight a proxy war between ukraine and russia without putting any american groups on the ground or any boots on the ground. just this week u.s. made cluster munitions in many countries and some u.s. lawmakers oppose. five years after president donald trump stood next to vladimir putin in helsinki, finland, and came to his defense in 2016 election interference, president biden went to that same world capital, which is now a nato ally and promised unity

against the russian president and tried to reassure the world the u.s. commitment was a lasting one. >> i absolutely guarantee it. there is no question. there's overwhelming support from the american people. there's overwhelming support from the members of the congress both house and senate and both parties notwithstanding the fact of extreme elements of one party. we will stand together. >> joining me to discuss this is the national security adviser to the president, jake sullivan. welcome back to "meet the press." >> thanks for having me, chuck. >> let me start with the assurances or lack of assurances that ukraine is publicly asking for when it comes to nato membership. let me ask it this way. their concern is this. by not having some sort of concrete commitment that it means that the it of nato's membership to nato is still going to be there for negotiating an end to this war

with russia. how do you draw that line in the sand that says, you know, are you willing to say nato's future membership in -- ukraine's future membership in nato will never be a part in negotiating the end of this war? >> well, i'm not sure we could have said it more clearly than the 31 allies said in the nato communique, chuck, which is ukraine's future will be in nato. period. full stop. that was a single, clear sentence. it's not subject to negotiation with any country including russia. it's a subject only for the allies and for ukraine, and what the rest of the document that was released at the nato summit said was that we will work on a pathway between here and when ukraine actually joins to ensure that ukraine gets an invitation to join nato when all allies agree and the necessary conditions are met, but that is not going to be subject to negotiation to russia. >> it's that phrase, "necessary

conditions," right? and i know you've already scrapped that they'll get the fast track that both finland and sweden got, but it's even that phrase seems to irritate ukraine. any reason to keep that in there? >> well, what nato allies have said is that every member of the alliance and every country that seeks to come into nato has to meet certain democratic reform standards and ukraine's own national prarjs, which it agreed with nato some years ago indicates that there are further steps it needs to take along the democratic reform path, and if you talk to ukrainian civil society activists and members of the ukrainian government they would say they want to continue down that reform path. nato will work with ukraine to make sure those reforms are completed and when they are complete, ukraine would be very much in a position to step forward and meet all of the requirements for coming into nato. >> by the way, do you think

ukraine can hold parliamentary elections this fall? >> well, first, ultimately, the decision about how to play out parliamentary elections is up to ukraine itself. it's not up to the united states. so i'm not going to opine on the steps they need to take to make sure they're staying consistent with the constitution. only that we want to see the rule of law, democracy, and fidelity to the constitution are respected, and ukraine will play out with respect to the elections this fall. >> would it be a problem for the united states if they postponed those elections? >> i'm not going to get into hypotheticals. we are in regular contact with the ukrainians about making sure as i said before and that they are following the law and they are remaining true to their democratic ideals and we'll continue to do that in the months ahead. >> i want to talk about what's going on with vladimir putin. we have crossed his so-called red line. finland joining nato, was a red line. increasing nato troops in europe was a red line at one time for

him. supplying fighter jets and tanks to ukraine was one time considered a red line, providing long-range missile systems. we've done all of those things. why do you think that -- number one, why do you think there hasn't been a response by him, number one 1 and why do we -- why do we take any other red line seriously with him? >> well, at the beginning of this war, president biden laid out the american position, which was we are going to take dramatic, bold steps to help ukraine defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity. we were going to ensure and sustain the unity of the west and we were going to make sure that we did not end up in world war iii was russian, meaning u.s. troops fighting russian troops in ukraine or anywhere else. we have stood by those three

basic precepts throughout this conflict and as the conflict has evolved the nature of our assistance to ukraine has involved with it and we, of course, have learned along the way about what is possible and not possible. i can't speak to what's in the mind of president putin. all i can say is that the basic u.s. position in this comes down to a single, clear point which is we are going to support ukraine without having u.s. boots on the ground and american soldiers fighting russian soldiers and that will remain consistent throughout the course of this conflict. >> are you concerned that vladimir putin will use the american political calendar that he wants to buy time and see what happens in the november 2024 elections? >> it's fair to say that vladimir putin since before this conflict began had certain misconceptions about the u.s. and the west. he thought the united states would not step up and support ukraine. he thought that the u.s. and our european allies, nato, would not be able to sustain unity. he thought the ukrainians themselves would wither and collapse in the face of the russian attack. he's been proven wrong time and

time again, and he was proven wrong again in vilnius this past week when the nato alliance came out stronger, larger, and more unified than at any point in history. so if, in fact, he is betting on american resolve to falter or fail he is going to continue losing that bet. that's all i can say. >> really? you don't think betting on a different party becoming controlling the white house to -- that that isn't a bet he should make? >> well, what i'm saying is that the united states, our nato allies, and a larger coalition of nations around the world that have stepped up to provide unprecedented levels of support to ukraine, all of that has flown in the face of vladimir putin's expectations, and i think he will continue to have his expectations dashed that the west is going to falter or crack in this, and all we can do in the biden administration is get up every single day and work as hard as we possibly can

alongside our allies and partners to get ukraine what it needs as fast as it needs it to be able to succeed on this effort. >> two things on the decision on cluster munitions. number one, i understand the rationale. it's been explained, and you've painstakingly explained it. i know this is not a unanimous decision in nato, but have we not lost our moral authority on something like this as a leader on this stuff? we just got rid of our chemical weapons, and we've been trying to lead the world in getting rid of that, and we tried to rhetorically lead the world in trying to get rid of these barbaric weapons, and then here we are now still going into our stockpile and giving them to an ally. does that not harm our moral authority? >> well, chuck, our moral authority has not derived from being a signatory to the convention against cluster munitions. we are not, we have not been at

any point since that convention came into effect. neither has ukraine. our moral authority and ukraine's moral authority in this conflict comes from the fact that we are supporting a country under brutal, vicious attack by its neighbor with missiles and bombs raining down on its cities, killing it's civilians, destroying its schools, churches, its hospitals, and the idea that providing ukraine with a weapon in order for them to be able to defend their homeland, protect their civilians, is somehow a challenge to our moral authority, and i find that questionable. i would say we're stepping up to give ukraine what it needs in order to not be defenseless in the face of a russian onslaught. we are not going to leave ukraine defenseless and the president was determined on this point and we remain committed to that. >> is the united states out of the manufacturing of new cluster munitions? are we not -- will we replenish this stockpile or not?

>> our current plan is not to replenish that stockpile. it is rather to build up the capacity to produce the unitary round of the 155, the non-cluster munition round of ammunition. we began that process months ago as we anticipated the need for continuing supply to ukraine, but it takes time, and that is why we need a bridge from today when we need to ensure that ukraine has the necessary supply of ammunition to a few months down the road when we believe we can supply enough of the unitary round to meet ukraine's defense needs. >> jake sullivan, i have to leave there. i know you have a busy morning ahead of you. i appreciate you coming on and sharing the administration's perspective. thank you, sir. >> thanks for having me. this week tommy tuberville was featured on the presidential stage when the president chastised him on helsinki for his hold on hundreds of military promotions.

>> he's jeopardizing u.s. security with the what he's doing. i expect the republican party to stand up. stand up and do something about it. >> and joining me now is a member of the senate arms services committee, a military veteran himself, and he attended the nato summit and the senator from alaska. thank you for getting up extraordinarily early, although, i don't think the sun sets where you are. so good morning. >> good morning, chuck. it's good to be back on the show from alaska. >> let me start with that question right there. respond to the president there that he is hoping the rest of this republican party, the senate republicans is basically what he's saying, will be able to talk senator tuberville out of what he's doing, considering the house has sent over a bill with an amendment on it. isn't it fair to say it's a legislative process and what senator tuberville is doing is now unnecessary and harmful? >> well, i hope we get a chance to talk about the nato summit. >> we will. >> let me address that. the president, my democratic colleagues are talking about

this as a big national security issue. i think we should be clear the biggest national security issue from my perspective, chuck, is the biden administration is continuing to put forward defense budget cuts during what everybody and the president agrees with this and so does the secretary of defense thinks it's the most dangerous time since world war ii, right? the budget for next year will take us below 3% of gdp spending. that's the lowest level in almost 70 years. to me that's the biggest national security threat and readiness threat we have facing us, and that's something the president needs to address directly. now to senator tuberville, you know, as you know, every senator has the right to place holds on nominees on an issue of policy importance. i certainly have done this myself. i'm here in alaska right now. i had a hold on the secretary of the army, the chief of the staff

of the army to get them to change the togs when they're going to remove a brigade combat team and the combat team from alaska. i know my friend tammy duckworth is going to be on your show next, and look, she's a war hero. very few americans have sacrificed for their country like she has, but senator duckworth has had the exact same hold that tommy tuberville does a couple of years ago on generals to be promoted. here's the bottom line, and i think you're gettingalal it, ani think we're getting closer here. every single one of these kind of holds, 99% of them get resolved through compromise and what needs to happen, the secretary of defense, senator tuberville, chuck schumer need to sit down and have that.

i encouraged this. you may have seen secretary austin reached out to senator tuberville, i appreciate that, and i think to your point there will be opportunities to get to that compromise like we have on all these holds that happen regularly in the senate. >> i do want to get back to the nato meeting. you were there. i want to talk about the number of meetings of china and the china. it went from one in madrid to over a dozen mentions here. look, is nato expansion into the asia arena inevitable over the next two decades? >> oh, i think it is. i think it was a positive summit. it wasn't just the mention of china, several times, almost 20 times by my count. chuck, you probably saw the leaders who were there who was the prime minister of japan,

prime minister of australia, the president of korea, our senate delegation had the opportunity to meet with those leaders, and i think that was a really strong signal with regard to nato. my big message to all the leaders in nato during the summit, and it's something we talked about with the president jake sullivan when we were over there. one of the critical issues that we have to keep pushing with regard to nato is to get the rest of our allies to step up and do their part. you know, we want this alliance, which is one of the most successful military alliances in history, to be strong, to be sustainable, but it's undermined the sustainability of nato when only seven of 31 members of nato currently meet their 2% of gdp obligation for defense spending. and, look, in my view, it has the potential to undermine, even

support for ukraine in the near-term and longer term, the support for nato. so we need our other nato allies to step up and some are doing it and sweden is joining, as you know and they'll hit 2% off the bat. some are laggards and canada is barely above 2% and it's unacceptable in a bipartisan way very quickly. do you give president biden credit for the nato expansion? sweden and finland, nobody saw that coming four years ago. >> yes, i do. look, i give president biden credit for keeping the unity of nato, revitalizing nato as your opening piece did, as setting out the framework for this war of aggression, which is we're going to provide significant military assets and intelligence, but we're not going to commit u.s. troops. so i give them credit for that. where i don't give them credit and you and i talked about this is in two areas. one is the slow rolling and self-deterrence that we've had and the administration's had with giving the ukrainians the

weapons systems that they need. the last time i was on the show with you and jake sullivan, we talked about the f-16s. i predicted they would do it and it's been too darn long and that's exactly what happened and the other issue, i already mentioned it -- >> with the defense spending. >> -- we're cutting defense spending, and it's a very dangerous world. everybody agrees we should not be going below 3% of defense spending. the current budget shrinks the army, shrinks the navy, and shrinks the marine corps. that is the wrong thing to give to vladimir putin. >> it is up in raw dollars, but i don't want to get into that. we can debate what cuts are like in washington. people have a different view. i want to ask you something george will wrote very quickly here. he wrote this. vladimir putin use fifth column is not in kyiv but the republican party, and putin has two hopes for mortifying rescue from the ukraine blunder and one is the election of trump which compliments his weekly admirations and the election of

desantis. are you concerned and should ukraine be concerned that the election of donald trump could harm our support? >> well, look, in terms of the republican party, i think there are some elected officials right now. i think there's been some very positive news that hasn't been talked about. there was this debate in the republican conference in the senate about cutting off aid to ukraine. a couple of members wanted to send a letter to the president. we debated it. i strongly was opposed to that. three republican senators signed this letter, and that's not very strong, and you saw the mbaa that was marked up in the house. all of the amendments that were called off on cutting off ukraine went down strongly in a bipartisan way. so i think elected republican officials right now in the senate, in the house are still strongly supportive of ukraine. we need to make sure our other allies -- >> is will right --

>> we need to make sure, and i tell ukrainians this all the time. here's my point. i think that current elected officials can have a strong impact on whoever the next president is. when president trump was president, i pressed him on the issue of nato quite a lot, and so did many other members. i'll tell you one thing president trump did quite well was press this 2% of gdp issue -- by the way, president biden has been doing that. president obama did it as well. so i think the current elected republican leadership in the house and senate strongly supports nato, and i think that's the most important thing to look at right now in term of that issue. >> as i said, i really appreciate you getting up very early for us in anchorage. senator dan sullivan. republican from alaska. >> very early. >> who knows. maybe you stayed up very late. >> good to be with you. >> more on the politics of military readiness with democrat tammy duckworth of illinois. s. > > >> more on the p

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welcome back to "meet the press." this week the republican-led house narrowly passed the defense authorizations act, but it weighed it down with a lot of culture war restrictions and the welcome back to "meet the press." this week the republican-led house narrowly passed the defense authorizations act, but it weighed it down with a lot of culture war restrictions and the pentagon's abortion and transgender policies. military finding rests with finding a compromise between the house and senate bills because the house bill is dead on arrival in the senate. military promotions continue to be held up as we were discussing with senator sullivan. joining me now is army veteran and senator from illinois, tammy duckworth. tammy, welcome back to "meet the press." >> great to be back. thanks for having me. >> let's start with the military promotions and what tuberville's been doing. you heard your colleague senator sullivan say, hey, look, it's a senator's prerogative. you've done it.

a lot r people have been doing it, and if it's about pentagon policy versus when it's not, i think is certainly fair game here. so let me ask this, what are you willing to have a vote? tuberville wants a vote. are you willing to put a vote on this on the floor? is this the best way out of this? >> we've given him many options for a vote and he's turned them all down. joni ernst has a bill where senator tuberville is, and he declined that vote, and the republican leadership had offered him multiple off-ramps, and he's backed himself into a corner. what he's saying is would democrats have to pass a national codification of roe v. wade? we would love that, but obviously that's not going to happen any time soon with the senate split as close as it is. i'll say what president biden has said. it is bizarre for senator

tuberville to say he's not jeopardizing national security when he injects politics into the defense process. and, frankly, this is not the time to do it. not when there is a war going on in europe and when it is vital to the global order and for him to jeopardize the national security by preventing our military leaders to take their positions and do their jobs is really beyond distressing. it is just that. it is jeopardization to our national security. >> is there any other way around this or is this power of one senator hold something that is one senator and this is the way the senate works? >> well, in part, i mean, one of the things we can do is we can vote on each individual nominee, but that would take well into

next year. the process is very slow. what senator tuberville is doing is upsetting how we normally confirm candidates. we would take all 250 officers and say okay, with unanimous consent, let's go ahead and promote all of these officers and generally there's unanimous consent and senator tuberville is saying no, i want this done one by one. there are so many promotions that were going to fall further and further behind, and we cannot get this done. senator sullivan is a good friend of mine and we've shared many of the same concerns and then he's right. this is something that is done often in the senate, but not to the extent that senator tuberville is doing it. i only held for 14 days and that was over alexander vindman being retaliated against by the trump white house, and right now senator tuberville is jeopardizing our nation's ability to lead the free world at a time when there's a war in europe because he wants to inject politics into this. >> want to ask you the same question about nato expansion. do you think nato expansion to asia is inevitable over the next decade or so? >> i think it is. i agree with my friend and

frankly, it already has started to do that with our successful office agreement between the uk, australia and the united states. our asian allies, i travel extensively throughout the indo-pacific. our asian allies are looking very closely to what happened with ukraine and realize there is a greater need to participate themselves in nato as well as nato allies coming back into the indo-pacific region. i think what vladimir putin has done, not only has he expanded nato, he's strengthened the resolve of countries like japan, korea, and taiwan and other nations. even the asean nations put out statements condemning russia. he's united the world against what he's doing there. >> i know you're chair of the environmental justice caucus. what i'm going to do later in the show, obviously, we've had

the hottest temperatures on earth in the month of july so far. among the proposals to deal with extreme heat is some -- i was talking with the chief heat adviser of phoenix, and he wants hot -- extremely hot days to be considered natural disasters and national emergencies and have fema funding kick in on that. it would mean a lot more money for fema if we could fund fema that way. do you think that's something that's coming and should be a role for fema? >> you know, i don't think so, but i will tell you one of the things that we can do to cool the earth back down is to transition into greener energy alternatives. my home state of illinois is a big energy state. we have more nuclear reactors than anyone else. we grew 100,000 new jobs in ten years, and of course, biofuels and this is where we really need to turn and look at companies like united airlines that is

looking to go -- to be a leader when it comes to sustainable aviation fuel. there's nothing better than good, old american-grown corn and soybean to grow the biofuels that will lead us into a greener future. >> and i want to ask about the supreme court. i know there are a lot of progressive democrats that would like to see the president and other democrats speak out about court expansion rather than maybe trying to work within the rules that exist. where are you on this? >> you know, i think i'm not opposed to court expansion, but i'm not certainly there where i would support it at this point in time. i think what we need to do is what we are continuing to do, and my senior senator durbin is doing a great job of confirming justices to all of the various levels of federal benches so that we have folks in place who can be elevated to the supreme court who are not going to be the activist judges like gorsuch who, by the way, did not tell

the truth, who told senator collins that he would not oppose the work to overturn roe v. wade, and that's exactly what he did, similarly, justices like amy coney barrett, and we need to look at where we are in confirming judiciary appointments across the country. >> senator tammy duckworth of illinois, appreciate you coming on and sharing your perspective with us. >> thank you. before we go to break, christopher wray had to fend off house republican attacks this week in a congressional hearing, wray, a trump appointee and registered republican, somehow he was helping law enforcement weaponize the fbi in the branch. these fears about the fbi is nothing new. back in 1976, then presidential candidate jimmy carter detailed his fears of how politics could corrupt the fbi and the justice department and the post-watergate era. take a listen. >> the first thing we need to do is to make sure that the fbi is completely professionalized once

again and is removed from politics. i would like to remove the attorney general from the cabinet. have the attorney general appointed for a certain period of time, for five to seven years, and have a senate confirm that appointment and not remove that person from office unless the president and the leaders of congress have designated a special prosecutor determine not adequately performed and the duties of that office. i think this removal of the attorney general from politics would let the fbi seek its natural role as a non-political, professional organization. >> turn the justice department into the federal reserve? interesting. when we come back, republican presidential candidates gather in iowa minus the front-runner, former president donald trump. can anyone take down the runaway favorite in the first part of the season? the panel is next. t part of the season the panel is next.

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what are you working on? a bomb. it's happening, isn't it? this is the most important thing to every happen in the history of the world! welcome back. the panel is here. carol lee of the welcome back. the panel is here. carol lee of the washington nbc news washington editor, sara

fagan, a little more intimate here. let's start with ron desantis news. you know, every month since february there has been a story about ron desantis has problems. in february, impatience because he had. gotten in. in march, they started looking at other challengers. in april, it was, uh-oh, there was already a shakeup and he hadn't formally been announced. in may, more donors fretting and in june the campaign launch itself fizzled and once again here we are and his report was the picture of a bloated campaign that we've seen before in the scott walker parallels from 2015 are suddenly here. is this a time to panic in desantis world? >> well, you can see it in the sense they already had this shakeup. there's expected to be more to come in that space, and the

s.e.c. report, what it did was underscore and confirm a lot of the concerns that donors had that people who wanted desantis to be an alternative have. when you talked to allies of the governor they will say one strategy is win iowa, put in the work, grind it out and the question is do they have the resources to go the distance like that, and right now what you're seeing is he has big donor support and president trump and how he executes this strategy -- he's got too many maxed-out donors already. he only got 14% of this all from small donors. there was a story about oh, yeah, they're trying to be more honest about the small donor fund-raising, and i think that's what you do when you want to explain away why you're doing this. there is also this one campaign where their eyes got bigger than

their stomach. >> they were running the campaign of inevitability and it was them and trump and you see chris christie on the rise in new hampshire. you see tim scott becoming the darling of donors. they had to fundamentally adjust their mind-set, which is that they're going to have to knock off everyone else and then be the person who takes on trump and there's plenty of time to do that and he has plenty of resources to do that, but he is going to have to fundamentally adjust his strategy. >> cornell, a lot of desantis supporters will point to something that you were a part of, which was 2007, barack obama, you know, donors were fretting. how come he hasn't caught hillary yet? is that fair, or is that missing something? >> well, the dynamics are very different here. one of the things that -- look, i would argue that it's really early, and that this -- >> i don't argue that, but i don't think -- >> i don't think it's early either. i was going to get to that point, but you also see one of the things that is most

disturbing about desantis is that he's losing support, and all of the polls that we're seeing now, he's weaker now than he was a month ago or two months ago. we never saw that with barack obama and barack obama started out 20 points behind hillary where we made the argument that this is not the national election. we will take the state by state, but barack obama wasn't losing support. desantis has shown up and voters have taken a look and they pulled back from him. >> i do think that cornell makes an important point. that has been -- you just see it. >> it is a good point, which is what i sort of stand by in my statement, which is that you have to shift your mind-set here, which is why you have to survive on the debate stage, acknowledge that you're probably not going to be the winner of the debate and start to downplay expectations. and then inch by inch, go win iowa, which is what the campaign

is saying is a big part of their strategy. they'll have to win iowa and if that were to happen then certainly we'd be having a very different conversation. >> part of the issue with desantis trying to downplay expectations and kind of run as if he's the underdog now is that it's not part of his brand. his brand is a winner. i'm strong. i'm going to beat trump. i'm the alternative. it's me. it will be interesting to watch how he tries to navigate that because it is so counterintuitive to how he's presented himself. >> can i make a quick point? >> yes. >> the problem is that you've got to make it up in the debates. i think debates now become more important because, look -- >> what happens if there's no trump in the debate? if you're desantis, he needs trump in that debate. >> i totally disagree. this is kind of my pointing which is this is no longer an election between trump and desantis. it's an election between trump and everyone else. who is going to be -- >> if you're desantis would you

not want trump in the first debate and contrast yourself with tim scott? >> potentially. potentially. this is where they have to have a fundamental mind shift because they're not going to clear the field. >> they messed up, they had a shot and they blew it. >> they had a shot and now the field is on the ascent. >> if i'm trump i don't get in the debate. if i were trump i wouldn't do in the debate because you're 30 point ahead and the only thing you can do is take punches out of the debate stage. >> carol, before we go, we talked about what's going on with the defense bill and the military promotions and the white house wants to make this more public. >> they've dialed it up, and you heard the president weigh in on this, but what i am told by administration officials is starting this week, they're going to point to very specific examples of how this is affecting everything from the chain of command to military facilities in different states to military families including in alabama. huntsville has a large military population there, and so they're going to lean in in that sense and the through line that they're going to draw to the presidential race or that's inherent in this is what tuberville is doing, and what was passed in the national

defense authorization act on the house with the transgender care and equity and diverse programs, that is in direct correlation to the republican party as a whole under the trump -- >> sara, how would you advise tommy tuberville. it looks like he's looking for an exit ramp and doesn't know how to find it. >> as senator sullivan said, there's going to be a chance during this debate in the senate to horse trade some of these various amendments and to figure out what is the path forward and that's -- he'll probably need his colleagues at this point to give him that off-ramp. >> all right. >> thank you, guys. when we come back, the country was hit with a destructive heat wave this week as temperatures reached their highest recorded levels on earth and we'll take a look at the numbers. "data download" is next.

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♪♪ ♪♪ welcome back. "data down load" ♪♪ ♪♪ welcome back. "data download" time, as reports of record heat waves and wildfires and floods come in, the potential impacts of climate change have begun to feel very real and becoming an everyday part of our lives, and if there's one lesson from this summer's extreme weather that maybe no place is truly safe, no matter where you live in america, and, frankly, around the globe. look, this is the average global temperature and in the month of july we have hit, look at this first week of july. we have broken the record.

this is the hottest average temperature that we've ever recorded on earth and it's two degrees higher than what is normal and two degrees and huge and it makes a huge difference and you make all that kind of heat, you know what you end up having? high water temperatures. 97 degrees in florida. that's not normal. this is the temperature of the water around key west. when you have the temperature that high, it puts krl reefs at risk. if you have coral reefs die, you get rid of natural flood protection, you get rid of fish, industry, it has a huge economic impact and a huge obviously environmental impact and this heat wave is not just in the water or in the atlantic ocean, it's in the air in phoenix. look at these recorded temperatures this week. three straight days of 115 degrees or more. this is not the feels like temperature that you hear about from your local weather person. this is the actual air temperature in phoenix. so that's heat. how about water? that two-day rain event in vermont caused all sorts of problems and this extreme weather.

they couldn't handle and overall in new england we had over 2 million people under flood alerts because of all the rain that came down and just started overflowing these rivers in vermont, and of course, if you lived on the east coast you knew about the wildfire smoke. 120 million people have been impacted by that. so water, smoke, heated oceans, heated air. guess what? this month, the whole world and the whole nation is experiencing what extreme weather is like. when we dom back, my conversation with director christopher nolan on his new film "oppenheimer." >> if we have an atomic device, we might start a chain reaction that destroys the whole world. that destroys the whole world.

welcome back. it was 78 years ago today that a group of scientists led by jay welcome back. it was 78 years ago today that a group of scientists led by jay robert oppenheimer gathered at the trinity site near los alamos, new mexico, to test the very first atomic bomb. of course, a few weeks later a bomb would be dropped on hiroshima.

the successful test shook not only northern new mexico, but the entire world. the creation and fallout from the nuclear arms race is featured on the big screen in universal's new movie "oppenheimer." >> you're saying that there's a chance that when we push that button, we destroy the world? >> the chances are near zero. >> near zero? >> what do you want from theory alone? >> zero would be nice. >> on saturday, i sat down with the writer/director of the film, christopher nolan along with a panel of physicists to discuss why telling the story of oppenheimer is so important. >> why did you feel this movie needed to be made? there was a great story that you talked about your own kids and they were going -- i wonder if we have to worry about nuclear weapons anymore, and this is before russia invaded ukraine and your response was this is why i have to make the movie. >> yeah. sadly, with everything happening

in the world, right now no one is asking that question anymore, but to me there were two answers for that. maybe that's one of the reason to make the film, and the other is that the story itself particularly found is the story of robert oppenheimer's life and his relationship with the manhattan project involved some of the most dramatic elements i've ever encountered in anybody's story, fictional or real. so for me, everything really was about wanting to dive into his head and really try and live his experience with him, and in that way, when i talked to everybody and everyone involved in the film and we're trying to keep people in his point of view, and in this way achieve judgment, and the hope is that by achieving that and go through the story that way you sort of leave the film with some unsettling questions and some troubling issues. >> do you think we'll keep re-examining oppenheimer as our

understanding of quantum physics continues, as our taming of the atom continues, as our ability if we get to 30 years away from being 30 years away with fusion and all those things, will we continue to re-litigate his legacy? >> i hope so. when i talked to the leading researchers in the field of a.i. right now, for example, they literally refer to this right now as their oppenheimer moment. they're looking to his story to say, what are the responsibilities for scientists developing new technologies that may have unintended consequences? >> do you think silicon valley is thinking that right now? do you think they understand this is an oppenheimer moment? >> they say that they do, and that's -- that's helpful, but at least it's in the conversation, you know, and i hope that that thought process will continue. i mean, i think i'm not saying that oppenheimer's story offers

easy answers to those questions, but it at least can serve as a cautionary tale. it at least can show where some of those responsibilities lie. >> christophering if i could get you to do two screenings, one screening would be to the u.s. congress. what would you hope they would take away from this? >> i think more than anything coming out of making the film and as it starts to go out to the world i realize that we talked about this earlier, our relationship with the fear of nuclear weapons ebbs and flows with the geopolitical situation. it shouldn't because the threat is constant, and very often when you look back at history, some of the closest moments have been in times of calm geo politically. even though the situation in ukraine puts it at the forefront of people's mind, the thing is nuclear weapons are an extraordinarily dangerous thing to have lying around the house, and it is not something we should ever forget about, and it is not something we should take lightly and one of the things

that frightens me the most about -- you talk about coming home from work and anxiety, what i hear in the media and reasonable people talking about tactical nuclear weapons, ads if this distinction can be made and can be made via first politicians and media warming us up to the idea that perhaps there's a certain size of nuclear weapons that would be acceptable as opposed to large ones. >> one more screening i want you to have which is in silicon valley, and what do you want those guys to take away from this film? >> i think what i would want them to take away is the concept of accountability, not to sideline the conversation to the labor disputes going on in hollywood right now, but a lot of it, when they're talking about things like ai and when we talk about these issues, they ultimately boil down to the same thing, which is when you innovate with technology, you have to maintain accountability,

and the rise of companies over the last 15 years and bandied about the word algorithm and not knowing what it means in any mathematical sense. people in my world don't want to take responsibility for whatever the algorithm does, and apply it to a.i., that's a terrifying possibility. terrifying. not least because as a.i. systems go into the defense infrastructure ultimately they'll be in charge of nuclear weapons, and if we allow people to say that that's a separate entity from the person who is wielding, programming, putting that a.i. into use, then it has to be about accountability. we have to hold people accountable with what they do with the tools that they have. >> as you can see there. a.i. and nuke, ouch. "oppenheimer" can be seen in theaters in imax nationwide this week on friday, july 21st. this week's episode of "meet the press" reports is on the living wage and andrew yang who advocated a universal minimum

income of $1,000 a month on the fight many americans have to make ends meet. that episode and all of season 6 is available on peacock and youtube. that's all we have for today. thanks for watching because if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." there's no case here. it comes under the presidential records act. i'm allowed to do this. i'm allowed to have all the records i want. in fact, if "new york times," believe it or not, did an article. please, please, please, mr. president, may we have all the documents? it only applies to me. it doesn't apply to anyone else. >> donald trump falsely claiming the presidential records act gives him the right to take classified documents. it