ytng. lester holt: and ready for his place in law enforcement history-- a dea agent who was obsessed with the hunt for the most wanted drug lord in the world. i think that's where people had gotten caught up before, is that they just become almost infatuated with the man, with the legend, with the myth. and for me, that was never the case. it was about the challenge. it was about the hunt. that's all that mattered. that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm andrea canning. thanks for watching. ♪♪ this sunday, rising ♪♪ this sunday, rising threats. >> i think the bigger problem is

it's coming from within. >> with just two weeks to election day, former president trump refuses to commit to a peaceful transfer of power and ramps up the rhetoric against his political opponents. >> a second trump term would be a huge risk for america and dangerous. >> plus, breaking from biden? >> my presidency will not be a continuation of joe biden's presidency. >> vice president harris walks a fine line of charting her own path, but not fully distancing herself from president biden. >> vice presidents are not the presidents. my guest this morning, josh shapiro, and lindsey graham of south carolina. and game changers w millions of fans and billions of dollars, women's sports are breaking record. >> i feel like we just came to the end of all of the excuses of why nobody likes women's sports and it turns out everybody

watches women's sports. >> our meet the moment conversation with sports icons megan rapinoe and sue byrd. >> if you want to look like a genius, invest now, get onboard now. joining me for insight and analysis are, nbc news washington managing editor carol lee. laura leslie, capital bureau chief for wral tv in raleigh, north carolina. ashley etienne, former communications adviser to vice president harris, and republican strategist brendan buck. 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 kristen welker. good sunday morning. with just 16 days until election day, the candidates' closing arguments are starting to take shape. vice president harris who launched her campaign vowing to return joy to politics is now questioning former president trump's fitness for office and

casting him as a threat to democracy. former president trump is intensifying his attacks against his political opponents and coarsening his language in what remains a razor-tight race. >> you have to tell kamala harris that you've had enough, that you just can't take it anymore. we can't send your [ bleep ] vice president. >> he has no plans for how he will address the needs of the american people. he is only focused on himself and now he's ducking debates and canceling interviews because of exhaustion. >> polling has consistently found that president biden is a drag on harris' candidacy and voters are eager for a new direction. and this morning, nbc news has learned that with just two weeks

left in the campaign, there are currently no plans for harris to appear on the trial with biden before election day. the vice president is trying to put space between herself and her boss, while she continues to be pressed on what exactly she would do differently. >> my presidency will not be a continuation of joe biden's presidency. and like every new president that comes into office, i will bring my life experiences, my professional experiences and fresh and new ideas. i represent a new generation of leadership. >> president biden said this week that every president has to cut their own path. what is one policy that you would have done differently over these last three and a half years than president biden? >> i mean, to be very candid with you, even including mike pence, vice presidents are not critical to the president. >> for his part, former president trump is doubling down on his dark rhetoric. >> it is the enemy from within and they're very dangerous.

they're marxists and communists and fascists. and we have china. we have russia, we have all these countries. if we have a smart president they can all be handled. the more difficult, the pelosis, these people that are so sick and they're so evil. >> in a town hall of latino voters on wednesday an audience member who identified himself as a republican pressed trump on the january 6th attack on the capitol. >> i want to give you the opportunity to try to win back my vote. what happened during january 6 and the fact that, you know, you waited so long to take action while your supporters were attacking the capitol. >> they didn't come because of me. they came because of the election. they thought the election was a rigged election and that's why they came. some of those people came to the capitol. i said peacefully and patriotically. nothing was done wrong.

that was a day of love from the standpoint of millions. and it's hundreds of thousands and it could have been -- the largest group i've ever spoken before. >> former president obama is making his closing arguments as early voting gets under way. he campaigned for harris this weekend in arizona and nevada with a message to disaffected republicans. >> being here in tucson, i'm thinking about my friend john mccain. i mean, one of the most disturbing things about this election and -- and donald trump's rise in politics is how we seem to have set aside the values that people like john mccain stood for. >> now, mr. obama will be in michigan, wisconsin on tuesday, before making his first appearance with harris in georgia on thursday. former first lady michelle obama will join harris on the trial for the first time on saturday in michigan. early in-person voting began in detroit and trump and vice president harris will campaign this weekend. i'm joined now by national

political correspondent steve kornacki. for more on where the race stands, is steve, i know you're looking at the battleground states today. >> i'm looking at the one you just mentioned, our polling averages in the battleground states. they're all close, but what's the closest right now? look at that, michigan, the you go back to the last election there. you just heard it from barack obama there. barack obama and democrats won michigan. and they flipped it and moved back to the democrats in 2020. the key is between 2012 and 2020, the trump era, the state as a whole got a lot less democratic. keep that in mind, we split it into three categories here. one way to think about it. one is despite the state getting

less democratic, there are 12 counties that got more democratic. by 2020 a 14-point biden blowout. there's only nine of them, one-third. state, each one of these has a higher share of white voters with college degrees than the statewide average. we talk about that in the core base highlighted here. next year, these are place where is trump made gains between 2012, 2016 and where he held those gains in 2020. you do see geographically, it's a fair amount of the state, but populationwise, this is only 15% of the state. talk about genesee county where clinton is, the democratic margin to ten. can trump sweet more out of it

populationwise. is this half the state in terms of voters. these are places where trump made gains, sometimes big gains in '16 and lost ground in 2020. this is where the state is won or lost. look at saginaw county. this is sort of a core, a swing county. you got just outside of detroit, macomb county, the big suburb of detroit. obama won them, trump won them by double digits in 2016 and gave that ground in dwun. that's a key one. and the city itself in wayne county, the biggest in the state, within wayne county, we're looking, you know, at the city of detroit. democrats worried about black voter support. in dearborn, a large population. we're going to be looking on election night that

israel-palestine vote. >> joining me senator lindsey graham of south carolina. welcome back to "meet the press". >> thank you very much. >> thanks for being here in person. i want to start about talking about former president trump's rhetoric in the closing days of the campaign. he's been intensifying his attacks against his opponents and take a listen to what he has to say. >> it is the enemy from within and they're very dangerous. we have china. we have russia, we have all these counties. if you have a smart president, they can all be handled. the more difficult part, you know, the pelosis, these people that are so sick and they're so evil. >> senator, the enemy from within, is that a winning closing message for the former president? >> well, we do have enemies within. we've got afghan nationals that are going to attack us on election day but as to the democratic agenda, i think it will change america

fundamentally that they want to pack the court. they want to go to 13-9. they want to eliminate the electoral college. they want to make d.c. and puerto rico states. so, i think their agenda is really radical. but when you talk aboutout rhetoric, they tried to blow his head off. there's one candidate in this race who has been shot at and hit in the ear and we're lucky they didn't blow his head off and another guy tried to kill him the next week. i'm not overly impressed about the rhetoric game here. >> you are talking about the afghan national. he's talking about they -- who are you talking about when you say "they." who are you talking about when you say "they? >> i'm talking about the democrat -- the democratic agenda that they're going to push for this country turns our country upside down.

it fundamentally changes who we are as a nation and we will stop it at the ballot box. >> senator, is that type of rhetoric the way to win over undecided disaffected republicans? >> look, we're winning and going to win, not because of what donald trump is saying, but because of what they've done for four years. you know why donald trump is going to win this election? 70% of the people think we're going in the wrong direction and when vice president is asked what would you do different? she said nothing comes to mind. the american people will not tolerate four more years of affordability crisis, a world on fire, a broken border, energy dependence. trump's going to win because they have failed the american people. they're trying to disqualify him. have you heard lately, let me tell you why you should vote for me because i'm going to make your life better. it's all about trump and they've got no other game to play. >> let me tell you what retired four star general mark milley, someone you have praised in the past, has had to say

about donald trump. of course, he's donald trump's former chairman joint chiefs of staff. he told bob woodward, quote, no one has been as dangerous to this country as donald trump. now, i realize he's a total fascist. a fascist to the core. why shouldn't donald trump voters trust him on this, senator? >> he has a right to his opinion. but this is a man who oversaw 20 years of the training of the iraqi army that folded like a cheap suit. i like general milley, but i disagree with him. you know what i fear? i fear four more years of a biden/harris policy. i fear holding israel back so they can't win the war they have to win to survive. i fear four more years of holding ukraine back. four more years of broken borders. four more years of not drilling for oil and gas. four more years of high food prices.

the threat to the world is the policies of this administration. to general milley, you have a right to your opinion, but i don't fear donald trump. i fear what's going on in the world today, if you want the world to stay on fire, vote for her. if you want to keep paying high prices for everything that costs to live, vote for her. >> senator, you've known general milley for years -- >> i think he's wrong. >> john kelly, his former chief of staff. former president trump was telling him to go after his opponents. >> i think they're wrong. >> repeatedly, here he was, he was always telling me that we need to use the fbi and the irs to go after people. it was constant and obsessive. >> these are talking points -- >> no, no. he's the former chief of staff. >> i think they're totally wrong. it was joe biden who got afghanistan that led to the russian invasion of ukraine. it was kamala harris, the border czar, that opened up our border to 10 million illegal immigrants running wild, women getting raped and killed and terrorists residing in our back yard.

it was their decision to stop energy production and making us more energy independent and it was their decision to abandon israel at their time of need when it came to weapons. >> senator, the u.s. is making more energy than at any point. >> i think they're wrong -- >> but they worked for donald trump. >> you know what? i know, but -- >> these former trump administration officials. >> to every republican supporting her, what the hell are you doing? you are supporting the most radical nominee in the history of american politics. the green new deal, medicare for all. she was the last person in the room before biden decided to withdraw from afghanistan. she was the border czar. she cast the tie-breaking vote for an inflation reduction act that gives you high prices? what are you doing? you are trying to convince me that donald trump's rhetoric is the danger to this country? the danger to this country is the policies of biden and harris, her fingerprints are all over this disaster and i can't take four more years of this crap. >> all right.

>> when you support her, you're supporting four more years of garbage politics. >> senator, i want to get through -- >> what are you doing as a republican blessing this stuff? >> i want to ask you about january 6th. which did come up in a town hall this week. so i want to ask you about it. a voter said trump had lost his vote. he asked trump win back my vote. trump called it a day of love. senator, you were there on january 6th, lawmakers running for their lives. >> yeah, sure. >> more than 140 law enforcement officials injured that day. some were beaten with baseball bats and flag poles. that what you consider a day of love, senator? >> most didn't enter the capitol. the ones who did need to be punished. most people who came up there thought the i election was stolen. at the end of the day the people who broke into the capitol are being punished, and i support that. here we are 16 days before the election and you haven't asked me how kamala harris will get america on the right track.

>> i'm going to talk to josh shapiro about that. >> now, wait a minute, all the questions have been about donald trump's rhetoric. they haven't been about how do we make america safe and prosperous again. they have no plan and president trump does. >> senator, just to get to the day of love -- we're going to get to foreign policy -- the day of law, do you agree with that? >> the people there -- most people there didn't attack the capitol. they came out of love of the country. the people who did attack the capitol, they're in jail. that's where they need to be. >> 160 people pleaded guilty for their action that's day. let me ask you about -- >> why has trump done so well? because people have lost hope in her changing their lives. >> let me ask you about the middle east and the developments significant this week. >> right. >> of course, israel announced that it did kill the leader of hamas. president biden on friday said

this is an opportunity to end the war. do you agree there's a window here? >> there's a window here not only to end the fighting. with the death of sinwar, the door is now open to not only find a way to get israel to turn over gaza and eventually lebanon, but to have it replaced by an arab coalition offering a better life to the palestinians. i've never been more hopeful that normalization between saudi arabia and israel is possible. i've been working with the biden administration over a year and a half. i think we're very close. >> wow. very quickly. are you anticipating there will be a counterattack by israel against iran soon, senator? >> yes. >> how soon? >> very. >> very soon. >> within a matter of hours? >> i don't have any direct knowledge, but i know they're serious about hitting back. i think it will be soon. i think it will be hard hit, but again, the more you can

diminish iran, hezbollah and hamas, better for the region. i think a normalization deal between saudi arabia and israel which is the key is more possible than ever. >> senator lindsey graham, always great to see you. thank you for being here. when we come back, democratic governor josh shapiro of pennsylvania joins me next. ♪♪ ♪ so you and your partner can experience the heights of intimacy. new eroxon ed treatment gel.

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>> going forward there is no question that i bring my own experiences and my own life experiences. >> is there a policy that stands out to you in particular, either -- >> sure. my approach to what we need to do around medicare covering home health care borne out of my experience of taking care of my mother. my priority on housing. one, because i know what it means. affordable housing and the ability to buy a home. >> governor, given how unpopular polls show president biden is, has vice president harris done enough to distance herself from president biden? >> you know, kristen, i think what is clear, this is a race not between kamala harris and joe biden, but between kamala harris and donald trump, and on that there are clear contrasts. kamala harris wants to cut taxes for the middle class and small businesses. donald trump's poses and his

economic policies, would raise costs for middle class families. i think kamala harris has a strong and confident approach to foreign policy to try and calm tensions overseas. donald trump just wants to throw a grenade in everything and create more chaos and more -- more suffering across the globe. i think you have a clear contrast on freedom between those two candidates. kamala harris wants to restore a road. donald trump brags about how he's ripped away the freedom from millions of women across this country, so listen. i think you have a clear contrast between kamala harris and donald trump. and voters are going to the polls, literally right now, all across america. focusing on that choice. not a choice between kamala harris and joe biden. >> i understand what you're saying, governor, but polls do show that more americans feel as though president biden's policies have hurt them rather than helped them. so can you name one key policy difference between vice president harris and president biden? how would her administration look different?

>> you know, i've been really encouraged by the amount of energy kamala harris, vice president harris, has put into focusing on how she will cut taxes for small businesses. the focus on child care credit extension. that's something i don't hear in pennsylvania. we've seen that work to ease the burden on families. i think the focus on those kinds of things are particularly important, and those are the kinds of things that kamala harris has brought specifically to this race. >> those aren't necessarily differences, though. they're an expansion or a tweak to some extent to what's been done. can you name one policy difference? >> well, listen, again, the contrast i am focused on, kristen, is between her and donald trump. and on that, i think, it is clearly different. i don't want to go back to donald trump when he was in charge of this country. remember the record. i know there are still people that have maybe a little brain fog, they don't remember what it was like. under donald trump, you had more

chaos and you had less jobs and you had a whole lot less freedom. i don't think we want to the go back to a time of chaos. i want a stable, strong leader and that's kamala harris. >> governor, i don't have to tell you this, but polls are basically deadlocked in your state in pennsylvania and they have been that way for weeks, there are a myriad of different reasons for why that is. but senator john fetterman said that one of the factors is the assassination attempt against former president trump that took place in pennsylvania. take a look at what he has to say. >> trump has created a special kind of a hold and he's remade the party and he has a special kind of place in pennsylvania, and i think that only deepened after that first assassination attempt. >> do you agree with that assessment, governor? >> well, i think if past is prolog, we're get for another close race here in pennsylvania.

let me explain. the 2016, the race was decided by 44,000 votes. donald trump won here in pennsylvania. in 2020, the race was settled by 80,000 votes. joe biden won. in both instances it came down to a point or less. so the fact that you have polls showing that it's a jump ball, a statistical dead heat maybe and kamala harris is up a point or so, that is not a shock. we are used to close elections here in pennsylvania, and i choose not to worry about that. i choose to work right through it. we understand that this election likely will come down to tens of thousands of votes. it's why i am all over pennsylvania doing everything i can, for the vice president. why i am on this blue wall bus tour with governor gretchen whitmer respectively and we'll be in state college after spending a whole bunch of time in western pennsylvania yesterday and before that, michigan and wisconsin. we understand these races are close.

you've got to compete for every vote. and while we're a big state, we're still a retail state. you got to show up. and i'm encouraged by the fact that the vice president has been here so much and is committed to coming back here many times before election day. >> governor, let's talk about the middle east and you just heard me talk about that with senator graham and vice president harris has struggled to shore up support from young voters who want to see an immediate end to the war in gaza, in the wake of the death of yahya sinwar. do you think that if there is a ceasefire deal that's brokered, that could have an impact and if there isn't a peacefire deal that is brokered, could that hurt harris with the key groups i just mentioned? >> look, obviously, the situation in the middle east is dire and obviously, it's having an impact on our politics here at home. first, let's acknowledge that sinwar was a bad man with blood on his hands. he was a terrorist who killed people in israel, who killed

people throughout the region, who killed americans. he was the mastermind behind october 7th that left 1200 dead and about 250 in captivity including americans. women brutally sexually assaulted and violated by hamas, the terrorist group that sinwar led. i am glad he is dead. it is my hope that that can bring some modicum of peace to the families, the victims of those on october 7th and it is also my hope that this can perhaps create the opportunity for a pause in the fighting. if the hostages can come home and we can have a ceasefire, and immediately look to creating stability in the middle east where gaza can be rebuilt and it would be my hope that we can have meaningful negotiations with nations all throughout the middle east and it will create the opportunity to construct a two-state solution. so i am hopeful that with this terrorist death that we can

hopefully create some break in the action, a return of these hostages and creating some stability in the region. >> governor, let me ask you about a development we learned overnight. elop musk says he would be giving away over million dollars every day to random voters who signed a super pac petition. you are a former attorney general. is this legal? >> i think there are real questions with how he is spending money in this race, how the dark money is flowing not just into pennsylvania, but apparently now into the pockets of pa pennsylvanians. that is deeply concerning. look, musk, obviously has a right to be able to express his views, and he's made it very, very clear that he supports donald trump and we have a difference of opinion. i don't deny him that right, but when you start flowing this kind of money into politics i think it raises serious questions that folks may want to take a look at. >> you think it might not be legal, yes or no?

>> i think it's something that law enforcement can take a look at. i'm not the attorney general of pennsylvania anymore, i'm the governor, but it does raise some serious questions. >> all right. i have to end the interview by saying from one pennsylvanian to another, go, birds. we'll be watching the game today. >> go, birds! all right, kristen. thank you. >> governor shapiro, thank you so much for joining the program. we really appreciate it. when we come back, the closing arguments on the campaign trail, donald trump warns of the enemy within as vice president harris calls him unstable. the panel is next. tresemme flawless curls defining mousse. 24 hour. hydrating curl definition. style your life the way you want. ♪♪ tresemme, style your way.

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welcome back. the panel is here. nbc news managing washington editor welcome back. the panel is here. nbc news managing washington editor carol lee. ashley etienne, former communications director for vice president harris.

laura leslie, capitol bureau chief at wral tv in raleigh, north carolina, and brendan buck, former adviser to house speakers ryan and boehner. thanks to all of you for being here. oh, my goodness, 16 days, carol lee. i can't believe it, we are seeing these closing arguments take shape. we've been talking about them throughout the morning. the dark rhetoric coming from trump. kamala harris seems to be abandoning to some extent her message of joy. what is the strategy inside the harris campaign in these closing days? >> well, the strategy is first, the way to think about this according to campaign officials, you have two weeks. in the next few days the effort is to focus on the final stages of their persuasion campaign and a lot of leaning into and criticizing former president trump. that's something that the campaign officials say that they will continue to do. they will continue to seize on his comments every day and amplify them through election day, but they're going to shift

starting on thursday with this rally that vice president harris is having with former president obama and that is according to campaign officials when they kick into the sprint to the end and the get out the vote effort where she will fine-tune her closing argument which will include former president trump and criticizing him. but also what she has to offer, what her vision is. a lot of do you want to go back? she is the candidate of the future and a little less of her biography and we'll see her fine-tune that, four or five days from now. >> it's just fascinating, ashley, to pick up on that point, because that speaks to the big looming question that i was just speaking about with governor shapiro, which is what is a harris administration going to look like compared to a biden administration question. she's filling in the gaps each time with each answer, but has she done enough? what are your sources telling you?

>> my sources are telling me a little bit of what carol is saying here. i wrote an op-ed for "the new york times" and i made a recommendation to the vice president that she needs to lean into her why. why is she the right leader for this moment and why does it matter to the american voters and that is her greatest contrast with donald trump. what i know about her in those rooms. she's compassionate and she sees people and she has a heart for their circumstances and their hopes and their dreams and that's her greatest contrast with donald trump and that's what makes her the leader for this moment. so, in her closing argument, i anticipate that she will lean into this question of why is she the right leader to draw that contrast, but also get back to optimism and get back to the your vision for the nation and remind this country of what it is that makes this country exceptional and it's not donald trump and his policies of division. >> speaking of the contrast, donald trump is certainly creating one, brendan, with his rhetoric.

enemy from within, calling january 6 a beautiful day and all of the things i was talking to senator graham about and i put the same question to you, is this a way that he can win over the very small sliver of undecided voters? how does this help him and is it just about getting out the debate. >> it's the rantings of a disturbed man, but it doesn't matter much. the persuasion window of donald trump is closed, whether you like him, loathe him. you have an opinion on donald trump. i think the problem for the harris campaign is once again, we are being sucked into the vortex of donald trump. it's not about anything substantive and she is now being forced to respond to whatever bizarre thing he did that day, and the real challenge and the homestretch of the campaign is how do you get attention? how do you get someone to hear your message? once again, we are following around the bouncing ball of donald trump and it doesn't matter what he says. it's just that we are talking about him and not the message that she needs to deliver. >> laura, so glad you are here from north carolina.

>> thanks. >> this all comes against the backdrop. it's on already. people are voting in north carolina and of course, there were concerns about whether folks would be able to cast their ballots in the wake of hurricane helene, but record numbers so far. >> absolutely. we had a record turnout across the state on thursday, i was there on the ground talking to voters. people who are there are not your normal first day voters. people that there are, no, we don't usually come the first day, but we felt like it this year because it was important. >> wow. >> i will say the election officials and state lawmakers have bent over backward to make sure that all these people can cast their ballots even in the state, the 25 counties that were impacted by helene and they have set it up so voters from that area can get the mail-in ballots and then can hand-deliver their ballots to any voting site in the entire state. and they will be chain of custody handed back to that person's county. so they're going above and beyond. >> it's extraordinary the steps that they're taking to make sure

people can cast their ballots. and, carol, this all comes, you do have some new reporting about the role that president biden is going to play in these closing days. >> that's right. one campaign official described it as tailored which is a very gentle way of saying you should not expect to see president biden out there front and center on the campaign trail. we are told that there are no current plans for president biden to appear with vice president harris on the campaign trail between now and election day, and look, there's a number of reasons for that. it really underscores his unpopularity, and the concerns within the campaign that locking arms with president biden is really -- could undermine her message that she's going to be her own president if she were to win and not a second biden term. >> can i just say it was remarkable that josh shapiro was here as a surrogate for the campaign and they still can't come up with an answer to what she would do differently than the president. by a two-to-one margin people think the country is headed in the wrong direction. they obviously know she flubbed

the answer when she couldn't think about it. they still haven't figured out a good option other than expand medicare. >> think the governor leaned in on several issues where the vice president would take a different posture and stance, more aggressive stance than president biden from taxes to child care taxes and benefits, benefits for small businesses. but the one issue that i think that she needs to really lean into because it affects 48 million people and this is her thoughts and ideas about how to address this sandwich generation. i happen to be one of those that's caring for my ailing father as well as my daughter. i think that is a very potent message. that is something biden didn't do anything on that she rolled out a robust policy agenda on that. i think it would have great resonance with everyday voters. >> it's standard issue policy -- >> it's actually not. >> it doesn't feel like it's in contrast with the sitting president. >> well, he has no policies. he's only got concepts. so it's always a great contrast. >> let me bring you into this.

how are voters in north carolina responding to this? are they -- is this an issue that they care about, this rhetoric that we're hearing from harris and from trump? the dark rhetoric from trump and the questions that harris is getting about the differences between her and biden? >> i think the high turnout that we've seen already is proof that people really are engaged in this election and paying a lot of attention to it. the thing is, north carolina is a really hard state. we have not had a presidential outcome outside of the poll's margin of error for 20 years, right? this year we have hurricane helene to throw into that. we also have a lieutenant governor mike robinson who is the republican candidate for lieutenant governor who has had his own imbroglio right now and so the question is now that will weigh on the polls and how that might suppress turnout or not. >> what i'm hearing from the harris campaign, and what i'm hearing is numbers are off the charts, sporadic democratic voters who are turning out for an early vote and that is an incredibly encouraging sign. for harris.

>> that's really the key in north carolina. the clinton campaign knew this in 2016. she was on campus at n.c. state the night before the election trying to energize young voters and i think we'll see more of the obamas, for example, coming to campuses to talk to young voters. >> she sure is. >> final word? >> that's exactly right. the obamas are a huge part of the closing argument, the get out the vote effort. you have barack obama with harris on thursday and then you have michelle obama, her first appearance on the campaign trail with vice president harris on saturday and then, you know, it's a sprint to the end. >> all hands on deck from this moment forward. guys, thank you so much. fantastic conversation. and when we come back, vice president kamala harris doesn't talk much about the history she would make if she were to become the first female president. we look back 67 years to what eleanor roosevelt once told us about breaking that barrier. our "meet the press minute" is next. of magnesium. qunol, the brand i trust.

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welcome back. michelle and barack obama are welcome back. michelle and barack obama are hitting the campaign trail with vice president harris this week in georgia and michigan after some democrats expressed concerns about the former first lady's absence from the trail. this wouldn't be the first time a former first lady re-emerged on the political stage with significant influence. eleanor roosevelt joined "meet the press" in 1957 having turned to diplomacy after leaving the white house following a high-profile visit with the soviet leader, she had established a national presence in her own right.

>> on this program last week you were suggested as a possible candidate for president yourself. >> what? >> president for nomination. >> i am 73 years old. wake up. >> i didn't make the nomination. do you think we shall ever have a woman president? >> yes. of course, we will. >> how soon? >> oh, i don't know how soon. that depends on how many women do well in offices and how many women win offices and are appointed. you can't tell, but some day it will happen. when you get to the point where you look at people in politics and in positions of political importance as people and not as either women or men. >> just extraordinary to hear from her. when we come back, game-changers. 2024 has been a record-breaking year for women's sports. sports icon megan rapinoe and sue bird join our meet the

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2024 has marked what might be the biggest year on record for women's sports in america. from the wnba finals currently welcome back. 2024 has marked what might be the biggest year on record for women's sports in america. from the wnba finals currently under way breaking records for viewership to american women winning more than half of the country's gold medals at the olympics in paris, if american women were their own country they would have placed third in overall medal count. two trailblazing athletes, megan rapinoe and sue bird say the talent and the fans have always been there, but now the rest of the country is finally catching up to what they've always known. everyone watches women's sports. the two sports icons and fiances have a new podcast, where they and their guests give an insider's perspective in what is happening in the world of women's elite sports. i sat down with rapinoe and bird

for a "meet the moment" conversation about this remarkable moment. >> let's talk about where we are in women's sports. the women's ncaa basketball tournament had more viewers than men's this year. women made up 50% of team usa for the first time in olympic history. megan, when you think about those numbers, what does that say about where we are as a country? >> we always say this, but everybody's catching up. right? everybody knows now what we've known for a long time. like, when sue played in the final four, her stadium was sold out and, like, that was already happening then. the u.s. women's national team, they've been winning gold medals for a long time. u.s. women in the olympics have dominated for a very long time and now you're seeing the investment match the quality and the ability of the players. you are seeing the investment match the appetite that the fans have and the demand from the

fans. the demand from the fans has been there the whole time. things haven't been available, whether that's on streaming or whether that's on tv or whatever it may be, and i think this moment is, like, i feel like we just came to the end of all of the excuses of like, nobody likes women's sports and turns out everybody likes it, it turns out everybody watches women's sports, everybody is into it. turns out we're really entertaining. we're amazing off the court. we care about our teammates. we care about our community. we care about politics and we care about making the world a better place and it's an incredibly desirable product for people to watch, for players to play in, for sponsors to sponsor, for people to put on tv. so it's like, we always just feel like we've been knowing this is ready. and i feel like everyone else is now ready for that. >> and i think about other stars like caitlin clark, angel reese, these women who are now like the

two of you in the spotlight. >> superstars. >> and superstars, and just at the top of their game. i wonder what you would say to them, what you have said to them about how to both be focused on your sport and your craft, but also manage all of that pressure, which is a lot. >> yeah. it's really fun, rewarding and also interesting to watch these younger athletes step into their professional careers obviously caitlin and angel are two great examples. what i see immediately, i think so much has to do with n.i.l. in college. so much earlier these athletes are thinking about themselves as businesses and as brands and it's amazing because they're carrying that with them to the wnba and so everything is just bigger. they just seem so much more self-aware in that way, in a business sense than i ever was at that age, i would say that you ever were, because that just wasn't our world, right? but now they're in that world.

my only advice is to make sure they keep basketball the main thing because at the end of the day that is your vehicle. it's your vehicle to angel reese has a podcast. it's her vehicle to be a podcaster, right? whatever caitlin ends up doing, it's the vehicle to get you to that point. so you always want to make sure that part doesn't fall off. >> well, and, of course, sports is a business as well. last year deloitte forecasted that 2024 would be the first year that revenue for women's elite sports would surpass $1 billion. but where do you put it in the arc of what you need to accomplish and what more needs to be done in. >> megan and i talk about this all of the time. a lot of times we're not looked at based on our potential, right? whether it's a young athlete, someone who has already accomplished a lot and it's never, like, oh, let me invest in this and look five to ten years because i see something. it's always, okay, what have you

done? and do you deserve to be paid now based on what you did do? but never looking to the future. i would challenge corporate sponsorships, companies, businesses, tv networks, to start looking at us based on our potential, not what they think is going to happen and not relates wait and see in a couple of years see if this is real. >> what is your message, if you could speak to lawmakers, to people who have the ability to change things and not just in sports, but across all industries. what's the message to them? >> i think in so many ways i would love for people to just believe in it and that would be reflected in the policies that they craft up, but that's obviously not the case and it's been very entrenched. people don't really think about it, but public investment in men's team is in likely the hundreds of billions. we're talking stadiums, practice facilities, invest around, like, building, you know, the kind of like restaurants and the scene around the stadiums. a lot of that is done with public money. show me the area where billions of dollars have been invested into women's sports, women,

young girls, education, any of that. so, like, i think from a holistic perspective, there's so much you need to do. >> you've both been so celebrated and recently your number was retired by the seattle rain and you have a street named after you in seattle. sue, what are those moments like? >> so, those are powerful. they're powerful. they're meaningful. i think where i've landed with it is, you know, you play the game, maybe you set some records and you win some championships and yes, the memory is always there, but there's always another athlete that comes and breaks one of your records or maybe wins more gold medals and then you start to realize, okay. so what's this other impact that i've had? i think when you are honored in a way of a jersey retirement, in the case for me with the street being named after me, those last forever. and that, really, i think is an

indicator of your legacy and more than that, it's a see it, be it moment for a young girl out there. we've actually changed the world in that way because i didn't have athletes that had jerseys retired and streets named after them and i want to do that one day and now there are generations to see what they achieved and try to do that. >> you used that word "legacy" which is so powerful. megan, what do you think your legacy will be? >> that's a hard question to for other people to answer. i think part of the legacy is growing the individual teams and growing the sport, to think about where the sport is now for a trinity rodman versus where it was when i was growing up is massively different. there's a million people that are involved in that, but to have our little fingerprints on it in some way, when i think about legacy, i think of seeing more, like, openly gay people in the stands and families and seeing black lives matter flags in the stands and seeing groundbreaking cbas and seeing equal pay and seeing the team

continue to win which has always been the legacy, which is the legacy that i picked up from other people. now these players get to take it to a whole new level and blow us out of the water and that's exciting for us and meaningful for us is we built something that was sturdy to stand on and now they're flying. >> our thanks to megan rapinoe and sue bird for that fantastic conversation. to see my full "meet the moment" interview with them go to meetthepress.com. that is all for today. thank you so much for watching and we'll be back next week because if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪