ful lady that loves me just as much as i love her. andrea canning: she makes you a better person? every day. understands your culture, your world? understands my culture. she's been there from the beginning. she knows everything about my mother. she called my mother mom when we were children because we played together. your mom knew her. yes. that makes it even more special. - yes. - it's like your mom-- picked her. andrea canning: --handpicked her, almost from above. right. and put her in my life. like your mom hand picked her almost from above. >> right. and put her in my life. >> that's all for this edition of "dateline." i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. this sunday, return to office. my exclusive interview with

president-elect donald trump. his plans for the economy and his promises for mass deportation. >> is it promises for mass deportation. is it your plan to deport everyone who is here illegally over the next four years? >> i think you have to do it. >> will he seek retribution against his political enemies? are you going to go after joe biden? >> i'm really looking to make our country successful. i'm not looking to go back into the past. retribution will be through success. plus, his vow to pardon those convicted of attacking the capitol on january 6th. >> i'm going to be acting very quickly. >> reporter: within your first 100 days, first day? >> first day. >> reporter: now that he's won the 2024 election, has he changed his mind about his 2020 loss? for the sake of unifying this country, will you concede the 2020 election and turn the page on that chapter? >> joining me for insight and analysis are nbc news managing washington editor carol lee.

"politico" playbook co-that eugene daniels. mark short, former chief of staff to vice president mike pence. and former white house press secretary jen psaki. welcome to sunday and a special edition of "meet the press." from nbc news in washington, the longest running show in television history. this is a special dition of "meet the press" with kristen welker. >> good sunday morning. president-elect donald trump is the first president to win nonconsecutive terms since grover cleveland. and we haven't heard from him extensively since his decisive victory until now. i sat down with the president-elect at trump tower in new york on friday for his first broadcast interview since winning the election. we spoke for nearly an hour and a half in a wide ranging conversation about what these next four years will look like. he told me his first 100 days will focus on bringing down

prices, addressing the border, and getting his cabinet picks confirmed. and i asked him what he'll do on his first day in office. i understand that on day one you're going to be signing a flurry of executive orders. >> a lot. >> reporter: can you give me what are the top ones people should know about? >> a lot will have to do with economics. a lot's going to do with energy. a lot's going to do -- having to do with the border. we're going to immediately strengthen up the border and do a real job. and some of the basics. >> i began the interview with one of the top issues for voters -- the economy and the cost of living. i want to delve into one of your signature promises on the campaign trail which was to end inflation, to lower prices. you are now proposing tariffs against the united states s' three biggest trading partners. economists of all stripes say that ultimately consumers pay the price of tariffs. >> i don't believe it. >> can you guarantee american

families won't pay more? >> i can't guarantee anything. i can't guarantee tomorrow. but i can say that if you look at my pre-covid we had the greatest economy in the history of our country. and i had a lot of tariffs on a lot of different countries. but in particular china. we took in hundreds of billions of dollars, and we well no inflation. in fact, when i handed it over, they didn't have inflation for a year and a half. they -- almost two years. just based on what i had created. and then they created inflation with energy and with spending too much. so i think we will -- i'm a big believer in tariffs. i think tariffs are the most beautiful world. it's going to make us rich. we're subsidizing canada to the tune of over -- $100 billion a year. we're subsidizing mexico for almost $300 billion. we shouldn't be -- why are we subsidizing countries?

if we're going to subsidize let it become a state. we're subsidizing mexico, canada, and many countries all over the world. and all i want to do is have a level, fast, but fair playing field. >> sir, your previous tariffs during your first administration cost americans some $80 billion, and now you have major companies from walmart, black and decker, auto zone, saying that any tariffs are going to force them to drive up prices for their consumers. how do you make sure that these ceos, that these companies don't, in fact, pass on the cost of tariffs to their consumers? >> they cost americans nothing. they made a great economy for us. they also solved another problem, if we were going to have problems having to do with wars and having to do with other things. tariffs -- i have stopped wars with tariffs by saying you guys want to fight, it's great, but both of you are going to pay tariffs to the united states at

100%. and they have many purposes, tariffs, if properly used. i don't say you use them like a madman, i say properly used. but it didn't cost this country anything. it made this country money, and we never really got the chance to go all out because we had to fight covid in the last part. we did it successfully. when i handed it over to biden, the stock market was higher than what it was just previous to covid coming in. it was actually higher. tariffs are a properly use -- properly used, a very powerful tool. not only economically but also for getting things outside of economics. >> are you actually going to impose these tariffs, or are they a negotiating tactic? >> i'll give an example. with canada and in particular mexico, we have millions of people pouring into our country. you agree with that. i spoke with the -- both, i spoke with justin trudeau, in fact, he flew to mar-a-lago

within about 15 seconds after the call. it was at mar-a-lago, we were having dinner, talking about it. i said, you have to close your borders because they're coming in the northern border, too, a lot. not like the southern border, but they're coming in the canadian border a lot. and drugs are pouring in almost as importantly, drugs are pouring in, maybe more importantly, drugs are pouring in at levels never seen before. ten times what we had. they're just pouring in. we can't have open borders. and i said to the president of mexico and to justin trudeau if it doesn't stop i'm going to put tariffs on your country at about 25%. >> the chairman of the federal reserve jerome powell said he will not leave his post even if you ask him to. will you try to replace jerome powell? >> no. i don't think so. i don't see it. but i think if i told him to he would. but if i asked him to, he probably would. i if i -- wouldn't. but if i told him to he would.

>> you don't have plans? >> no, i don't. >> okay. let's talk about mass dedeportation. you talked about people with criminal histories. >> correct. >> is it your plan to at the port everyone who is here illegally over the next four years? >> i think you have to do it. it's a very tough thing to do. it's -- but you have to have -- you have rules, regulations, laws, they came in illegally. the people that have been treated for unfairly are people that have been on line for ten years and come into the country. we're going to make it easy for people to come in in terms of they have to pass the test. they have to tell what the statue of liberty is, they have to love our country. they can't come out of prisons. we don't want people in for murder. we had 11,000 and 13,000 different estimates, 13,000 in 99 murderers released in our country the last three years.

they're walking down the streets, walking next to you and your family. >> the 13,000 figure i think goes back about 40 years -- >> no it doesn't. it's within the three-year period. it was during the biden term. that was fiction. this was done by the border patrol. 13,099 during the biden period of time. these are murderers. many of whom murdered more than one person. you don't want those people in this country. >> but you you're saying something, sir, that's significant. i want to make sure i'm clear. you're saying yes, you're going to focus on people with criminal histories, but everyone who's here illegally has to go is what you're saying. >> i'm saying we have to get the criminals out of our country. we have to get people that were taken out of mental institutions and put them back into their mental institution, no matter what country it is. do you know that venezuela, their prisons are -- are at the lowest point in terms of emptiness that they've ever been. they're taking their people out of those prisons by the thousands, and they're -- and just to get back because i know

exactly what you're getting at. number one, we're doing criminals, and we're going to do them really rapidly. we're getting the worst gang probably with ms13 and the venezuelan gangs are the worst in the world, vicious, violent people. and you see what they've done in colorado and other places. they're taking over -- literally taking over apartment complexes and doing it with impunity. they're in the real estate -- >> the local police say that is not the case in colorado. >> it's totally the case. >> they -- you don't believe the local police? >> i used to play it at my rallies every single night. breaking into doors, taking over the building. >> sir, you raised the point -- >> the police are afraid to do anything. >> you raised the point that the logistics are complicated. you said -- >> sure, they are. but everything's complicated. >> you need 24 times more i.c.e. at the tension capacity to deport -- detention capacity to deport more people, more agents, more judges, more planes.

is it realistic to at the port everyone who's here -- to deport everyone who's here illegal? >> they're costing us a fortune. we're starting with the criminals, and we got to do it. then we're starting with others. and we're going to see how it goes. >> who are the others? >> other people outside of criminals. we have convicted murderers. we don't mean people that are even on trial. we have people that have murdered numerous people are on our streets and in our farms. and we have to get them out of our country. >> what about dreamers, sir, dreamers who were brought to this country illegally as children? you said once in 2017 they, quote, shouldn't be very worried about being deported. should they beer whoeyed now? -- be worried now? >> the dreamers are going to come later, and we have to do something about the dreamers. these are people that have been brought here at a very young age, and many of these are middle-aged people now. they don't even speak the language of their country. and yes, we're going to do something about the dreamers. >> what are you going to do? >> i will work with the democrats on a plan. if we can come up with a plan -- but the democrats have made it

very difficult to do anything. republicans are very open to the dreamers. the dreamers, we're talking many years ago they were brought into this country, many years ago. some of them are no longer young people. and in many cases they've become successful. they have great jobs. in some cases they have small businesses. some cases they might have large businesses. and we're going to have to do something with them. and -- >> you want them to be able to stay? >> i do. i want to be able to work something out. and it should have been able to be worked out over the last three or four years and never got worked out. biden could have done it because he controlled, you know, congress to a certain extent. he could have done something, but they didn't do it. i never understood why because they always seemed to want to do it. when it comes down to it, they don't. i think we can work with the democrats and work something out. >> let me ask about another group of people, the estimated four million families in america who have mixed immigration status i'm talking about parents who might be here illegally, but the kids are here legally. your border czar --

>> the separation -- >> before -- there are two aspects to this. your border czar said they can be departed together. is that the plan? >> that way you keep the -- well, i don't want to be breaking up families. so the only way you don't break up the family is you keep them together, and you have to send them all back. >> even kids who are here legally? >> well, what you going to do? if they want to stay with the -- we have to have rules andlations. you can always -- and regulations. you can always find something that this doesn't work, that doesn't work. what's horrible is when we take a wonderful young woman who's with a criminal, and they show the woman and she could stay by the law, but they show the woman building taken out. or they want her out, and your cameras are focused on her as she's crying, as she's being taken out of our country. then the public turns against us. we have to do our job. and you have to have a series of standards and a series of laws. and in the end, look, our country is a mess.

>> let me ask you about some of your other promises on this topic. you promised to end birth right citizenship on day one. is that your plan? >> yeah, absolutely. >> the 14th amendment says, quote, all persons born in the united states are citizens. can you get around the 14th amendment with an executive action? >> we'll have to get a change, maybe have to go back to the people. but we have to end it. we're the only country that has it. >> through an executive action? >> we're the only country that has it. you know, if somebody sets a -- just a foot, one foot, you don't need two, on our land, congratulations, you are now a citizen of the united states of america. yes. we're going to end that. it's ridiculous. >> through executive action? >> well, if we can through executive action. i was going do it through executive action, but we had to fix covid first, to be honest with you. we have to end it. >> let's talk about health care. i've been talking to republican lawmakers on capitol hill. they say it's no longer feasible to repeal and replace obamacare because it's so entrenched in

the system. do you see it that way? is that now off the table repealing and ing obamacare? >> when john mccain let us down and miami ski or whatever vote murkowski voted it down, they did a great service. obamacare is lousy health care. expensive for the people, also for the country but for the people. it's lousy health care. when john mccain gave his thumbs down after saying for ten years that he wants to repeal and replace, okay, and then he came out and put his -- now famous thumbs down, and he became a hero to the left. just let me just tell you, if we find something better, i would love to do it. but unless we find -- one thing i have to say, i inherited obamacare or anything else you want -- 20 names. but i inherited it. and i had a decision to make with health and human services. i had a big decision to make, do

i make it as good as we can make it, or do i let it rot? and a lot of political people said let it rot. and let it be a failure. i said, that's not the right thing to do. i have very good people in the medical area that handle that. and i said, what do you want to do? said, we really have an obligation to make it as good as we can, and we did. we made it as good as we can make it. instead of making it bad where everybody would be calling for its repeal, i made it so that it works. now -- >> you did try to overturn it, sir. >> it's lousy -- >> you did have your justice department try to direct the supreme court to -- >> no, we got a surprising opinion, to be honest with you. if it would have been overturned we would have had much better health care right now. but right now we have something that i made the best of. i could have made the worst of it, and it would have fallen by the wayside. i did the right thing from a human standpoint. but you know, i'm sort of proud of my decision. at the same time, sometimes i

regret it. i told the people and gave them the money to do it. i said, fix it, make it work. because people would have suffered. but it's too bad that they've voted no. i wish john mccain -- i wish he -- he fought for ten years on repairing -- replacing obamacare for ten years. and then he voted against -- nobody understands it. >> sir, you said during the campaign you had concepts of a plan. do you have an actual plan at this point for health care? >> yes. we have concepts of a plan that would be better. >> still just concepts? do you have a fully developed plan? >> let me explain. we have the biggest health care companies looking at -- we have doctors, we're always looking. obamacare stinks. it's lousy. there are better answers. if we come up with a better answer, i would present it to democrats and everybody else. and i'd do something about it. until we have been that and they

can approve it we're not going through the big deal. i am the one who saved obamacare, i will say, and i did the right thing. i could have done the more political thing and killed it. all i had to do was starve it to death. >> you did have the department kill it -- >> kill it from a legal standpoint. from a physical standpoint i made it work. >> in your concept of a plan, sir, will people with pre-existing conditions still have coverage, and can you guarantee their prices will not go up? >> the answer is yes. they'll have coverage. you have to have it. >> what about their prices? what about their prices, sir? >> i want the prices to go down. i want to have better health care for less money. there are ways of doing it i believe. >> let's talk about abortion, sir. you have taken responsibility for overturning rooechd. you've said -- roe v. wade. you've said abortion is a state issue. there are steps that you could take as president to restrict abortion through executive action without congress. more than half of abortions in this country are medication abortions. will you restrict the availability of abortion pills

when you're in office? >> probably -- i'll probably stay with exactly what i've been saying for the last two years, and the answer is no. >> you commit to that. >> i commit. are things -- do things change? i think they change. i hate to go on shows like joe biden. i'm not going to give my son a pardon. i will not under any circumstances give him a pardon. i always knee he was going to -- knew he was going give a pardon. i don't like putting myself in a position like that. things too change. i don't think it's going to change at all. and when we come back, will president-elect donald trump direct his fbi director and attorney general to go after his political enemies? political enemies?

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facing allegations of past sexual misconduct and excessive drinking which he denies. mr. trump told me he has confidence in hegseth. i also asked him about his choice for fbi director, kash patel, a hard-line critic of the very agency he's been tapped to lead. you named kash patel to be the next fbi director. he has a list in his book of 60 people that he calls members of the so-called deep state. it includes democrats like joe biden and hillary clinton. it includes former members of your cabinet for christopher wray. you campaigned on destroying the deep state. do you want kash patel to launch investigations into people on that list? >> no. i mean, he's going to do what he thinks is right. >> do you think that's right? do you think that's right, sir? >> i tell will you -- if they think that somebody was dishonest or crooked or corrupt politician, i think he probably has an obligation to do it. but -- >> are you going to direct him to do it? >> no, not at all. we have two great people that --

him and pam. and pam bondi has been like a rocket ship. she's very popular, very good, and very fair. and kash patel is very fair. i'll tell you, i thought, ca may be difficult because he's, you know, strong conservative voice. and i don't know of anybody that's not singing his praises. the others day i was watching and trey gowdy, who is smart and respected in the party, he's kash's biggest fan. he said this is the most misunderstood man in politics. he's great i. guess they worked together on the russia hoax. you know trey gowdy, everybody respects him. and you know, just like him, others also -- i don't know of one negative -- i don't think he's going to have any negative votes. >> is it your expectation, though, that kash patel will pursue investigations against your political enemies? >> no, i don't think so. >> do you want to see that happen? >> if they were crooked, if they

did something wrong, if they have broken the law probably. they went after me. they went after me, and i did nothing wrong. >> let me ask you, you said president biden, quote, that you're going to appoint a real special prosecutor to go after joe biden. you said that -- >> where did i say that? where? >> you said that on truth social june 12th, 2023. "i will appoint a real from prosecutor to go after the most corrupt president in the history of the united states, joe biden, and the entire crime family." >> that part is true. >> are you going to go after joe biden? >> i'm really looking to make our country successful. i'm not looking to go back into the past. i'm looking to make our country successful. retribution will be through success. if we can make this country successful, that would be my greatest -- that would be such a great achievement. bring it back. we have a country now that's overridden with crime, that has millions of people that shouldn't be here, that should be in prisons in other countries, that should be in mental institutions. we have drug lords being dropped

into our country and told never go back to their country. i'm looking to make our country great. i'm looking to bring prices down because, you know, i -- i won on two things, the border, and more than immigration -- they like to say immigration i break it down more to the border. but i won on the border, and i won on groceries. it's a simple word -- groceries. like almost -- you know, who uses the word -- i started using the word, the groceries. when you buy apples, when you buy bacon, when you buy eggs, they were double and triple the price over a short period of time. i won an election based on. that we're going to bridge those prices way down. >> i want to pause here because what you're saying is significant. you wrote on truth social in 2023 that you're going to appoint a special prosecutor to go after joe biden. now you're saying you're not going to do that. >> i will say this -- no, i'm not doing that unless i find something that i think is reasonable. but that's not going to be my decision. that's going to be pam bondi's

decision. and to a different extent, kash patel. so they're there. i think they're both going get approved. but i -- why you ask me that, what they've done to me with weaponization is a disgrace. >> we'll get to some of that, sir -- >> wait. you can't do one without the other. the history of our country, nothing like this has ever happened. and i've won these cases. i've won everyone in the -- everyone in the process of being won. deranged jack smith is on his way back to the hague where he can execute people. this is where he should have stayed. i think he's dangerous even being there. but i'll tell you what, what they've done to me in terms of weaponization, indictments, impeachments, and everything else -- and in the end it probably helped because i got the biggest vote, the most votes any republican's gotten in history. >> pam bondi talks about investigating the investigators. do you want her to investigate jack smith? do you want to see jack smith --

>> i think he's corrupt. i think her to do whatever she's -- >> are you going to direct her to prosecute jack smith? >> i'm not. she's a smart person, a great attorney general in florida. she's experienced. i want her to do what she wants to do. i'm not going to instruct her. >> are you going to fire christopher wray who you appointed? >> i don't say i'm thrilled with him. he invaded my home. i'm suing the country over it. he invaded mar-a-lago. i'm very unhappy with the things he's done. and crime is at an all-time high. migrants are pouring into the country that are from prisons and mental institutions, as we've discussed. i can't say i'm thrilled. i don't want to -- again, i don't want to be joe biden and give you an answer and do the exact opposite. i'm going to do that. i certainly cannot be happy with him. you take a look at what's happened and then when i was shot in the ear, he said, maybe

it was shrapnel, where is the shrapnel coming from? is it coming from seven? i don't think so. -- from heaven? i don't think so. so we need somebody to -- you know, i have a lot of respect for the fbi. but the fbi's respect has between way down over the last number of years. >> don't you have to fire him in order to make room for pasche patel if he is -- kash patel if he is confirmed? >> if kash gets in he's taking somebody's place. the somebody is the man you're talking about. >> i asked you the last time we sat down for an interview if you were going to murderon yourself. you said no. -- pardon yourself. you said no. now that president biden has pardoned his son hunter, are you reconsidering, might you pardon yourself? >> i didn't do anything wrong. i was given the option, and the lawyers told me specifically, i don't have to go into who, but high up in the administration said, sir, if you pardon yourself you're going to look guilty, and you did nothing

wrong. oh, i had that option. i could have saved myself a lot of legal fees. but it turned out that i was right. look at what's gone on. everything's being dropped. i still have a fani willis, fani. a total hoax, that's a total hoax. all being dropped. >> i also asked the president-elect about nbc news' reporting that president biden is considering preemptive pardons for some of the people who have clasheded with mr. trump, including senator-elect adam schiff, dr. anthony fauci, and former congresswoman liz cheney. as part of his response, mr. trump lashed out at the january 6th committee, accusing of it unfairly targeting him and even of destroying its records which the committee denies. >> and cheney was behind it. and so was bennie thompson and everybody on that committee. >> we're going to -- >> for what they did, honestly, they should go to jail. >> so you think liz cheney

should go to jail? everyone why on the committee -- >> i think anybody that voted in favor -- >> are you going to direct your fbi director, your attorney general to send them to jail? >> not at all. i think they have to look at that. i'm going to focus on drill, baby, drill. >> and i asked the president-elect if he plans to follow through on his campaign promise to pardon those who attacked the capitol on january 6th including the more than 900 people who pleaded guilty to crimes. >> i want to look at everything. we're going to look at individual cases. >> everyone, okay. >> i'm going to be acting very quickly. >> within your first 100 days, first day? >> first they. >> first day? >> yeah. i'm looking -- >> issue these pardons? >> these people have been -- how long is it? three, four years. >> okay. >> by the way, they've been in there for years, and they're in a filthy, disgusting place that shouldn't even be allowed to be open. when we had in back, president-elect donald trump's message to the people who didn't

vote for him.

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welcome welcome back. the syrian government fell overnight, a stunning end to the more than 50-year rule of the assad family as rebs claimed damascus. -- rebels claimed damascus. i pressed the president-elect on range of foreign policy issues including u.s. support for ukraine and nato in his second administration. should ukraine prepare for less aid from the united states after you're sworn into office? >> probably. sure. >> you said you can end the war in 24 hours. you've even said you want to try to end it before you're sworn -- >> i'm trying to end it. >> you're actively trying to? >> i am. >> have you talked to president putin? >> no, i have not. you mean -- i don't want to say that, i haven't spoken to him recently. >> you've spoken to president putin since you've been elected? >> i don't want to say anything about that because i don't want to do anything that could impede the negotiation. >> you've talked about the other world leaders -- >> let me tell you -- >> okay.

>> there are people being killed in that war at levels that nobody's ever seen before. you have to go back to the second world war, and even that -- if you look -- you know what it is, it's the soldiers largely. the cities have been emptied out and demolished. the country has been democrat on issued. if -- demolished. if i won, which you know how i feel, i won't get into it because we don't need to start that argument. it was an easy argument proven more conclusively than the win i had on this one. >> you had -- >> that's your opinion, i disagree with. it had i assumed -- kept control, number one, israel wouldn't have happened. number two, ukraine would have never happened. it would have never happened, ukraine-russia. but the number. people that are being killed, soldiers, young, beautiful soldiers, hundreds of thousands of people are being killed, and you know it's very interesting. it's level. totally level. the battlefield's totally level.

you know what's happening, the only thing that stops a bullet, you know what it is -- a body. a human body. and the people that are being killed, hundreds of thousands on both sides, russia's lost probably 500,000. >> devastating. >> ukraine's lost higher than they say, probably 400,000. you're talking about hundreds of thousands of body laying all over field. it's the stupidest thing i've seen and should have never been allowed to happen. biden should have been able to stop it. >> sir, will the united states stay in nato while you're in office? >> in where? >> nato. do you commit that the united states will remain a member of nato while you're in office? >> again, they have to pay their bills. if they pay their bills, absolutely. >> not if they don't pay their bills. >> nato's take advantage of us. look, two things. number one they take advantage of us on trade meaning the european nations. they don't take our cars, our food product, they don't take anything. it's a disgrace. and on top of that, we defend

them. so it's a double whammy. so let me just tell you, i was able to get hundreds of billions of dollars put into nato just by a tough attitude. i said i'm not going to protect you unless you pay, and they started paying. and that amounted to more than $600 billion. that's a big thing. otherwise, they wouldn't be fighting. they wouldn't have any money to fight. if they're paying their bills and if i think they're doing a fair -- treating us fairly, the interior is absolutely i'd stay with nato. >> but if not, you would consider the possibility of -- >> absolutely, yeah. absolutely. >> okay. >> the president-elect is tasking elon musk, the billionaire ceo of tesla and spacex, to try to cut government spending along with one of mr. trump's primary rivals, businessman vivek ramaswamy. all of it putting a spotlight on what it could mean for entitlements and defense spending. you've attacked elon musk, vivek ramaswamy, to head up the department of government efficiency. >> correct. >> which proposes cuts to the

federal government. i think a lot of people hear that and get concerned about medicare and social security and medicaid. >> they're not going -- we're talking about -- >> defense spending. you won't touch medicare or social securiti? >> that's -- no. we're not touching social security -- other than we make it more efficient. the people are going to get what they're getting. >> entitlements off the table? >> we're not raising ages. >> i won't do it. and finally, i ask the president-elect about this extraordinary moment in time. he is taking office against the backdrop of a company that is so sharply divided. and when he has yet to concede the 2020 election, which he lost. sir, i don't have to tell you this because you've talked about it. it comes at a time when the country is deeply divided. and now you're going to be leading this country for the next four years. for the sake of unifying this country, will you concede the 2020 election and turn the page on that chapter? >> no. no. why would i do that?

let me tell you -- >> you won't ever -- >> you said the country is deeply divided? i'm not the president. joe biden's the president. >> you're going to be the president. >> i know. i'm not the president. so when you say it's deep leap divided, i agree. but biden's the president. i'm not. and he has been a dwider. and you know -- divider. and you know where he divided is more than anything else and it backfired, i think definitely, is weaponization. when he weaponized the justice department and went after his political opponent, me. he went after his political opponent violently because he knew he couldn't beat him. and i think it really was a bad thing. and it -- it really divided our country. >> sir, democrats have control of the white house now, they didn't in 2020. if they are going around stealing elections, why didn't they do it -- >> democrats have control now? >> of the white house. >> yeah. >> why didn't they steal this election? since they have more power now. >> because i think it was too big to rig. >> so you won't -- >> too big to rig. >> to the people who say that

you're now directing your justice department to investigate 2020 and they want to move on -- >> i haver -- pam is going to be great. by the way, just so you know -- so you know, i have the right to do that. but i'm not interested in that. >> you're not going to do that? >> i'm not interested -- i have the absolute right. i'm the chief law enforcement officer. you know that. i'm the president. but i'm not interested in that. you know what i'm interested in? drilling and getting prices down and stopping people from pouring into our border that come from prisons and mental institutions. >> one of the things that made this campaign unprecedented and extraordinary were the horrific attempts against your life. two assassination attempts. >> yeah. >> do you feel safe going into the white house for the next four years? >> i do. >> why? >> i have confidence in the secret service. i know the people. i got to know a lot of them, and i have confidence. it was a bad moment. something shouldn't have happened. but i have a lot of confidence. they've stepped it up.

they were restricted from giving the -- look, i do a rally and you were at many of them. 50,000 people. joe would have a rally, and they'd have 30 people. and he had more secret service than me. my secret service was always asking for more manpower/woman power. they were asking for more and more and more and couldn't get it. i'm not blaming them really because they were always fighting for more people. and they -- now, boy too we have it. >> i want to ask you, sir, one final question. what do you want to say to americans who didn't support you in this campaign? >> i'm going to treat you every bit as well as i have treated the greatest maga supporters. there's never been anything like maga in the history of this country. these people are so dedicated to making america great again. it's very simple. and i'm going treat them just the same as i treat maga. we're going to treat everybody good. we want success for our country, safety for our country. our country's under threat, as

you know. we have tremendous threat militarily because of the power of weapons and weaponry. tremendous threat. nobody talks about it, but it's tremendous threat. i want to treat everybody the same. i want to treat them well. at the end of this four years -- i have a big head start because i was there for four years fairly recently. a lot of bad things were done during the four years that i wasn't there. and mostly in what they've done in terms of our reputation overseas -- our reputation is so bad, so shot. i got to bring it back and have to bring back civilization to our country. our country is a crime pod. we have to get rid of crime. we have so many things to do. we have to do the prices, do all of that. but we have to get the criminals out of our country. we have to bring down crime. people have to be able to walk across the street to buy a of bread without being shot. that's going to happen. what i say to them is i love you, and we're going to all work

together. and we're going to bring it together. and you know what's going to bring it together successful -- i saw that -- just prior to covid coming in, i had polls that were the highest anyone -- mclaughlin and fabrisio said george washington and abraham lincoln if they came back from the dead and ran as president and vice president couldn't beat you, sir. we were doing so well, and i was getting along with the left. let's call it the left. we'll be nice. but i was getting along with people that you would consider liberal or progressive, as they like to say, at levels i never thought was possible. you know what it was, success was bringing the country together. that's what i want to do. when we come back, president-elect donald trump gives us a preview of his inaugural address. ral address.

welcome back. when mr. tr welcome back. when mr. trump is sworn in as in january, he will be the oldest person ever to assume the office. i asked mr. trump about what he will say in that inaugural address and whether he will release his medical records. let me ask you, sir, as you think about your inauguration. i region your first inaugural address, you talked about american carnage. have you thought about your message for your second inaugural address? >> i have. >> can you give us a preview? >> we're going to have a message that will make you happy, unity. a message of unity. again, i think success brings

unity. i've experienced that. i've experienced it in my first term, as i said. we're going to be talking about unity, and we're going to be talking about success. making our country safe, keeping people that shouldn't number our country out -- we have to do that. i know it doesn't sound nice, but we have to do that. basically it's going to be about bringing our country together. >> sir, when you think about your time in office, you are making history for a range of reasons including the fact you will be the oldest person to be sworn into office. do you commit to releasing your medical records? >> sure. i do it all the time. i think i've released four of them. >> not just a letter, though, your full medical report? the. >> i would. i think anybody should. but i mean, according to all the reports -- i don't want to -- is this a wood where i can knock wood? my reports are good, very strong. >> you plan to release them? >> sure. i have no problem with it. and you can watch our full interview with president-elect donald trump at msnbc.com. and when we in come back, the

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welcome back. the panel is here welcome back. the panel is here. nbc news managing washington editor, carol lee. eugene daniels, white house correspondent for "politico" and co-author of "politico" playbook. former white house press secretary jen psaki, host of "inside with jen psaki." and mark short, former chief of staff to vice president mike pence. thanks to all of you for being here on a very big sunday. carol, let me start with you. you broke the news earlier this week that president biden was going to pardon his son hunter, one of the many topics we discussed. what were your key takeaways from this conversation? >> a couple of things. you know, i was struck by how succinctly the president-elect summed up his mandate. he said i want on the border and opt groceries and how quickly he plans to move on those fronts. then his posture on retribution against his perceived political adversaries. you know, he is -- suggesting that he'll keep some distance from the fbi and the justice

department, in a way perhaps he didn't during his first term. though investigations will be left up to the people that i put -- those agencies. however, you know, some of these folks will probably public jail. you know, that message is -- comes off as a little mixed, and heaps saying it knowing that the people he's putting in these jobs are people who share his views on these issues. and so it will be very interesting to see how that plays out. >> it will be. eugene, to hear him back away from what he had posted on truth social that he did want to go after president biden. he backed away for that and said his success going to be his retribution. as carol notes, there was mixed messaging broadly speaking. he had strong language for the january 6th committee. >> yeah. one of the things that was most fascinating is he didn't seem combative in this interview, right, including those opponents. he said some names, bennie thompson, liz cheney, maybe they should be in jail, maybe not. that's someone else's decision. he didn't want to fight with you. that's something that he often

wants to do. it shows you, one, that feels emboldened. he won this election. he feels ready to move on. and i thought what was most fascinating is the -- there's no ideological purity with him. and that popped up over and over again. a patchwork of different policy prescriptions for things that usually, if you're a republican, those kind of -- you know, this, this, and, this that's what we care about. that wasn't here with donald trump. i think that kind of gives voters what they wanted which was not exactly a republican who's going to do all of the things that republicans typically do. >> a fascinating way to put it, mark, that there's no ideological purity that we heard. he was clear about his agenda items and feels he believes he has a mandate after his decisive win. >> he should. i thought he looked relax and confident covering a lot of topics. i think you'll see a flurry of activity from the first 100 days from the executive branch. something being under appreciated here from a legislative agenda is what is

the legislative agenda? the one item is going to renew the tax relief package from 2017. when that was passed 1,2 house republicans defected. -- 12 house republicans defected. there are 53 republican senators which should help in con firmtzs. but speaker -- confirmations. but speaker johnson will have a hard job. he's going to have one or two more members at all that can lose. getting legislation through the congress is going to be difficult. certainly if trump isn't getting his way, he's going to blame senate and house leadership for that. >> and those tax cuts are unpopular across the country. which is another challenge. >> come on. >> they are in ever piece of data. interesting that it's -- >> 1,000 case, kamala would have done a lot better if that was of the case. >> one of the things that struck me is the tone was different, but it doesn't mean it's a difference in his priorities or policies. when you listen to what he had to say about retribution, retribution will be through success. that's not saying he's not going to go after his political

enemies. what i heard was him trying to give some space for himself for plausible deny ability. pam bondi and kash patel are election deniers. kash patel has empathized with qanon. they know who the direction is. he doesn't need to direct them. they have passed the loyalty test. what struck me is moretown, not a difference -- more tone, not a difference in what he intends to do or what he wants the people he's nominating to do. >> a critical point. heats -- he's put hard-liners in charge of immigration policy. he said we are deporting everyone, though he says he wants to work out a deal for dreamers. >> i think that is where he stopped the most about when you think about what his policies are going to be, is immigration. when you went through tick by tick of the kinds of things that we're seeing, he had a lot of ideas. and it was kind of the most clarity we've gotten on fwrimz immigration from him.

he and his team feel like he has the backing of the american people, especially on mass deportation. in some polls 53% of americans say that they are for mass deportation. now, when you dig into kind of what that means and what you want to get your neighbors out of the country or what happens with children or -- when you see that woman that he's talking about getting pulled away, is that different. and he talked about it. most interestingly the public might turn against us on immigration so they have to be careful. >> carol? >> that was what struck me. he seems uncertain about you on some stuff will play out. yes, he's going to do it. but when you talk about birth right citizenship, first of all, there are other countries that have births right citizenship. it's not just the united states. but he said if we can do it by an executive order. maybe we have to take it to the people, suggesting a constitutional amendment on. deep deportations he talked about how this might play out publicly. he's talking about the cameras capturing the woman crying as she's deported. he said, then the public turns against us. he's not confident that this is going to play out exactly how he

wants. >> such a revelatory moment. jen, we talked about foreign policy, as well as we're watching what's happening in syria, the government has been toppled. i talked to him about ukraine and nato -- boy, he really left the door open to potentially pulling out of nato. >> he certainly did. which i don't think should be a surprise. and after you pushed him to answer if he had talked to vladimir putin. >> i tried. >> when you look at the statement he put out in response to assad fleeing the country, it was almost defensive of putin and defensive of the russians' interest. so this is definitely a massive shift. there is an allegiance, an affinity for russia that is different than what we have had it democratic and republican.sfor decades. >> mark -- republicans for decades. >> mark, there will likely be less funding for ukraine, in the last 30 seconds. >> that's been his position all along. the one celebrating most now in

the situation in syria is if the fact -- the ones we think are most concern read putin, the ayatollah, and tulsi gabbard. >> and guy the way, i asked about tulsi gabbard. he said he has confidence in her and pete hegseth, another embattled cabinet pick. thank you for the fantastic conversation. that is all for today. thank you for watching. we'll be back next week because if it's sunday, it is "meet the press." ♪♪ now incumbent upon all the opposition groups to seek a role in government earning syria.