made a startling discovery-- some human remains. officer: the collin county medical examiner's office has examined the recovered remains and this morning has positively identified the remains as those of christina morris. josh mankiewicz: it had been 42 months since christina morris went missing, and as one chapter closes, another opens. police and prosecutors are continuing the investigation in an ongoing effort to seek justice for christina and her family. craig melvin: that's all for this edition of dateline. i'm craig melvin. thank you for watching. [music playing] >> this sunday. executive this sunday, executive orders. >> the american people have spoken. >> donald trump returns to the

white house, moving quickly to enact his second-term agenda, issuing sweeping pardons for january 6th rioters. >> some of those people with the police, true, but they were very minor incidents. >> you just blanket pardon all of them without consequence? i think that that sounds -- sends a horrible message to our law enforcement officers. plus, show of force. president trump orders u.s. troops to the southern border as he ramps up his mass deportation plan. >> we're getting the bad, hard criminals out. these are murderers, these are people that have been as bad as you get. and trade war. >> if you don't make your product in america, which is your prerogative, then very simply you will have to pay a tariff. >> president trump threatens steep tariffs on the united states' largest trading partners. >> all we want is fairness. we just want a level playing field. >> but will mr. trump's tariffs actually end up punishing american consumers more?

my guests this morning republican senator lindsey graham of south carolina and democratic senator adam schiff of california. joining me for insight and analysis are nbc news senior white house correspondent garrett haake, leigh ann caldwell, chief washington correspondent for puck, former republican congressman carlos curbelo and ashley etienne former communications director to vice president harris. welcome to sunday. it's "meet the press." >> announcer: from nbc news in washington, the longest running show in television history, this is "meet the press" with kristen welker. good sunday morning. in his frenzied first week in office president trump is testing the limits of his presidential power, racing to fulfill campaign promises to reshape the federal government and to settle scores. >> many people thought it was impossible for me to stage such a historic political comeback,

but as you see today here i am, the american people have spoken. >> on his first night as president mr. trump granting a blanket pardon to virtually all of the roughly 1,500 defendants in the january 6th capitol attack and commuting the sentences of the remaining 14. >> you would agree that it's never acceptable to assault a police officer. >> sure. >> so then if i can among those you pardoned, dj rodriguez drove a stun gun into the neck of a d.c. police officer who was abducted by the mob that day. he later confessed on video to the fbi and pleaded guilty for his crimes. why does he deserve a pardon? >> well, we will take a look at everything, but i can say this, murderers today are not even charged. >> president trump's decision to pardon all defendants, including violent offenders, opposed by 60% of americans and even his own vice president suggested in the days before the pardons were handed out violent offenders wouldn't be included.

>> if you protested peacefully on january 6th and you have had merrick garland's department of justice treat you like a gang member, you should be pardoned. if you committed violence on that day, obviously you shouldn't be pardoned. and there's a little bit of a gray area there, but we're very much committed to seeing the equal administration of law. >> the president also signing executive orders aimed at shutting down the southern border and ramping up deportations. the first of 1,500 additional troops touching down in el paso, texas, to support border security. according to an internal memo obtained by nbc news the trump administration is also allowing i.c.e. officials to quickly deport migrants who were legally allowed into the country temporarily under the biden administration. president trump is already running into the constitutional limits of his executive authority. his plan to end automatic citizenship for children born on american soil, known as birthright citizenship, blocked by a federal judge.

>> obviously we will appeal it. they've put it before a certain judge in seattle, i guess, right? and there's no surprise it's with that judge. >> on a trip to disaster recovery areas in north carolina and california president trump embraced his political opponents but also floated the possibility of eliminating fema entirely, proposing the white house send disaster relief directly to the states. >> i think frankly fema is not good. fema has turned out to be a disaster. i think we're going to recommend that fema go away. >> now, a president does not have the power to shut down fema and would need congress to give him the authority to remake or get rid of any agency. president trump was also reminded of the sflat's guardrails on friday night when pete hegseth became the second cabinet member in history to be confirmed on a tie-breaking vote. hegseth was approved by the smallest margin for any confirmed defense secretary. three republican senators, susan

collins, lisa murkowski and mitch mcconnell joined all democrats to oppose him. >> i was disturbed about his comments on women in the military. i read the portion of his book in which he basically says that women should be moms and questions whether they should be in the military at all, much less in combat roles. >> senator mcconnell called the role of defense secretary, quote, a daily test with staggering consequences for the security of the american people and our global interests, writing, mr. hegseth has failed as yet to demonstrate that he will pass this test. hegseth was sworn in on saturday and was pressed by nbc news. >> secretary hegseth, why should women in the armed service trust you? >> guys, let me answer that for the new secretary. all people in our armed services should trust him because he looks out for them and will

fight for them and will make sure we have the kind of military we can all be proud in -- that we can all be proud of and, again, when we send them to do a job, with do it well, quickly and we get the hell out of there. >> joining me now is republican senator lindsey graham of south carolina. senator graham, welcome back to "meet the press." >> thank you very much. >> thanks so much for being here in-person, it's great to see you. i do want to start with pete hegseth, he was just confirmed to be defense secretary by the narrow west margin in history. >> right. >> senator mcconnell voted no and he said he wasn't convinced that mr. hegseth has ready to manage 3 million people and a budget of nearly a trillion dollars. you, of course, voted yes, but, senator, do you share any of senator mcconnell's reservations about pete hegseth? >> you know, what i do, i vote for almost everybody, i voted for lloyd austin and i get a lot of crap on our side when i do that, but i think pete will be taking the department in a new direction, he will be more focused on war fighting, i think

lloyd austin is a nice man but it was a tough four years. i will leave it up to senator mcconnell to explain his vote. at the end of the day i was okay. now, all of these accusations against him were disturbing, but they were never proven and he did a really good job at the hearing and that's what got me to yes. >> all right. let's move on to president trump's agenda, his mass deportation plans. he wants to deport the 11 million people who are here in this country illegally. you are proposing a $100 billion package which by some estimates would deport about a million people. so, senator, my question for you is what happens? what is the plan for the remaining 10 million people who are here illegally? >> i'm not so sure they're going to deport 11 million people. he said they're going to deport people here that are part of gangs, that are criminals. there's 1.4 million who have had their case fully adjudicated and they are still here. there's about 680,000 convicted

of serious crimes. but here is the question for the republican party, we talk about doing this, but we don't have the resources -- we haven't given the trump team the resources. tom holeman the border czar said without money from congress i can't do this. he needs to hire more i.c.e. agents, he needs to finish the wall and technology, he needs to go to 150,000 beds to make this work. to my republican colleagues particularly in the house as we fiddle our immigration plans are hitting walls, we're not building walls, we're hitting walls. we need to give tom homan the money to execute the plan he's come up with and without congressional funding this is going to hit a wall. >> i want to talk to you about the strategy in just a moment but to follow up on something you said, president trump said to me he wants to deport everyone who is here illegally, whether they have a criminal history or whether they don't. >> yeah. >> with the exception

potentially of dreamers. >> he mentioned dreamers. >> that were brought here as kids when they were children. but, senator, are you saying that the plan is not to deport everyone who is here illegally. >> i will let them speak as to what their plans r the public is actually with supporting criminal illegal immigrants, the public is with supporting everybody that came in during biden's four years. he wants to do something on daca. here is what i would tell our team, without more money tom homan is hitting a wall. so we need to do two bills and reconciliation, the first bill should be $100 billion for the border, $200 billion for national security. put those points on the board, give tom the tools he needs to execute a mass deportation strategy to deal with a mass illegal immigration problem created by biden without new money he cannot do this. >> let me ask you about president trump's executive order that he signed on birthright citizenship. >> yeah. >> essentially trying to end birthright citizenship, which allows people who are born in this country to be citizens.

it's enshrined in the 14th amendment of the constitution. federal judge blocked that this week, put it on hold. do you think the supreme court will side with president trump on birthright citizenship? >> i think there is a good chance. i introduced legislation to end birthright citizenship years ago. canada, mexico and the united states are like three of the 20 economic powers in the country, there are three of us that do this, maybe brazil. it's a magnet for illegal immigration. here is what i learned yesterday, i didn't know, there are about 215,000 people born in this country to illegal immigrants and got the benefit of birthright citizenship. that's 7% of all the babies born in the country. i think when it comes to illegal immigration if you want to turn off the spigot, change this policy. i think it's a cheap way to award citizenship. you should not be a citizen simply because you were born here. you have to have some connection to the jurisdiction of the united states. >> but you think that the supreme court will agree? >> i don't know. >> to change the constitution?

it's enshrined in the constitution. >> he's doing it through executive order. there's one case on this in 1898, a chinese immigrant who was here lawfully and the court said he had a lawful connection to the country. they've never decided the question can a child born of illegal immigrant no connection to the country do they automatically get birthright citizenship. that is an unanswered question. i think we will know here pretty soon. >> we will watch it closely. let's turn now to president trump's decision to pardon, to give blanket pardons to everyone who was convicted of crimes on january 6th, including the 172 people who pleaded guilty to assaulting law enforcement officers. even his own vice president said, quote, if you committed violence on that day, obviously you shouldn't be pardoned. do you believe that president trump was wrong to issue these blanket pardons to the january 6th defendants? >> number one, he had the legal authority to do it but i fear you will get more violence. pardoning the people who went into the capitol and beat up a police officer, violently, i

think was a mistake because it seems to suggest that's an okay thing to do. kamala harris wanted to raise bail money for people burning down minneapolis, you know, biden pardoned half his family going out the door. i think most americans if this continues to see this as ain't bruce of the pardon power that we will revisit the pardon power of the president if this continues, but as to pardoning violent people who beat up cops, i think that's a mistake. >> so you think it was a mistake by president trump to issue these blanket pardons. what message does it convey to law enforcement and have you conveyed that directly to mr. trump? >> there's really been no better support of law enforcement in general and there are a lot of people who support president trump in law enforcement who didn't like this but he said it during the campaign. he is not tricking people. biden promised not to pardon his family, he did. trump said i'm going to pardon these people. the fact that he did it was no surprise. i will be consistent here, i

don't like the idea of baling people out of jail or pardoning people who burned down cities and beat up cops, whether you are republican or a democrat. >> okay. let me ask you about president trump's decision to revoke security clearance from some of his -- i should say security protection -- >> right. >> -- from some of his former top aides, including mike pompeo, his former secretary of state, his former national security adviser john bolton. both of them have received -- >> and brian hook. >> and they've received threats from iran. what is your reaction and do you think that president trump should actually reverse course on that one? >> well, i told senator tom cotton the intelligence committee chair and he got a briefing and told me -- he asked a very good question to the briefers, if it was you and your family would you want a protective detail and they said yes. so it needs to be on an as-needed basis. you know, we don't get protection as former senators or congressman. the idea of giving protection to

everybody makes no sense, but if there is a legitimate threat against people who have served our government from a foreign adversary i don't want to pull that protection. i think you will see the senate particularly get a briefing about this and engage the white house to see if we can get some relief because i fear it will chill out how people will serve in the future. >> so you disagree with the decision to revoke their security protection it sounds like. >> president -- if it's needed i want to keep it. >> do you -- >> it seems to me that the threat levels justify the continuation of the program, but i will know more next week. >> we know that john bolton has been a critic of the president. do you see this as political retribution? >> you know, president trump said something -- it's true you can't get protection for all of your life. the question is do you deserve protection because you served in an administration, you stood up to a foreign adversary and they want to kill you? i know this, they've been trying to assassinate president trump, that's a fact.

and i believe the threat streams may not be at that same level to pompeo, brian hook or bolton, but the last thing we want to do in this country is tell somebody come into our government, you know, come up with policies to stand up to rogue nations like iran, they come after you, we pull the rug on you. we don't need to do that. >> a couple more. we're almost out of time. tulsi gabbert will have her confirmation hearing this week for director of national intelligence. some of your republican colleagues still have a number of questions for her about meeting with serious dictator bashar al assad, about supporting edward snowden who of course leaked state secrets. do you trust tulsi gabbard with the nation's most closely held secrets. >> i tend to vote for members of both parties. why did you go to syria? what did you do regarding assad? why do you think edward snowden should be held as a hero? i certainly don't. we will see how the hearing

goes. richard burr will introduce her and he is one of my dearest friends. we will see. >> senator, can you say right now are you a yes on tulsi gabbert? >> i want to see how the hearing goes. i'm inclined to be yes on everybody. there are some questions she will be asked that i want to hear the answers to. >> so you are a we'll see, not a yes. >> we'll see. >> on friday night president trump removed as you know 18 independent inspectors general. just for folks so they know what that means these are watch dogs in key departments from defense to the state department, veterans' affairs. what do you say to those who believe that president trump is going to replace these watch dogs with loyalists? >> you know, i'm not overly worried about that. it's not the first time people have come in and put their team in place. when you win an election you want people in your administration that reflect your views. i'm not worried about that. the other stuff, the security detail bothers me because it sends a signal to future service. tulsi gabbard, i'm inclined to

vote for everybody but i want to hear her thinking about assad and snowden but we'll see. >> we quickly the law says -- >> 30 days. >> 30 days notice. he didn't do that. do you think he related the law? >> technically, yeah, but he has the authority to do it so i'm not losing a whole lot of sleep that he wants to change the personnel out. i just want to make sure that he gets off to a good start, i think he has, i'm very supportive of what he wants to do with america. i want to give his team more money for the border. let me end on this to my house republican colleagues in the house and the senate, if we don't give tom homan more resources, all the things we've promised with he would do during the campaign are going to fall flat. without money he can't do what he promised to do. >> senator lindsey graham please come back and join us again soon. >> i will. >> thank you for being here. i really appreciate it. when we come back democratic senator adam schiff of california joins me next.

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>> welcome back.

welcome back. joining me now is democratic senator adam schiff of california. senator schiff, welcome back to "meet the press." >> great to be with you. >> it's great to have you here in-person. thank you for joining us. i want to start on president trump's sweeping pardons of the january 6th convicts. when he was on the campaign trail he said he was going to look at each by a case to case basis. he also never ruled out pardoning those who had criminal convictions, who pleaded guilty to assaulting police officers, for example. were you surprised by these blanket pardons, senator? >> i don't know if i can say that i was surprised, but i was certainly appalled by them and i was glad to hear senator graham share that concern over pardoning people who violently attacked police and beat them, bear sprayed them, crushed them in doorways, people who were utterly unrepentant for assaulting law enforcement. this not only is a terrible additional injury to those law enforcement officers, but also this was a crime that was

committed in furtherance of trying to stop the transfer of power after donald trump lost the election. so part of a bigger political crime, and it sends a message to others out there if you use violence to keep donald trump in power or use violence in the service of donald trump, he will have your back. i guess what he said after the charlottesville neo-nazi rally, vis-a-vis the proud boys, stand by and stand back or whatever his language was, he really meant it because he did have their back ultimately. >> the other pardons that were in focus this past week were of course those issued by president biden as he was on his way out of the white house, issued pardons to family members. here is what he said about president trump potentially issuing pardons to his family members. take a look. >> it concerns me in terms of what kind of precedent it sets and how the rest of the world looks at us as a nation of laws

and justice. >> senator, do you think that president biden pardoning his own family members sets, as he says, a bad precedent? >> absolutely. he was right when he made those remarks, he was wrong to give these pardons and, among other things, what it says now to the trump family and to president trump's kids, they can engage in any kind of malfeasance, criminality, graft, whatever, and they can expect a pardon on the way out the door. that is not a message you want to send to this family or really any family occupying the white house. >> it's interesting, >> it's interesting, your senat had this to say about president biden pardoning his family members. he says, quote, it's harder to stand on the high ground and make a critique of the trump pardons on january 6th when president biden is pardoning family members. do you agree with that? does it make it harder to criticize president trump's decision to issue those blanket pardons to the january 6th convicts? >> i think it muddies the issue

to a degree, but there is no comparing even the ill-considered pardon of his own family members with pardoning hundreds and hundreds of people who violently attacked police. they are not the same thing. nevertheless, none of these precedents are good, but the most damaging, most destructive, is to pardon people who are using violence against law enforcement in your service. i can't imagine a more destructive precedent than that one. >> of course, president biden did issue pardons to members of the january 6th committee, you were on the january 6 committee. it came after president trump said that he thought the entire january 6th committee should go to jail. what's interesting, senator, you had been quite vocal, you didn't want president biden to give you a pardon, you went so far as to convey that to the white house. what are you going to do about the fact that you have now been given a pardon? are you going to accept it or are you planning to look for some type of legal recourse to

reject it? >> we are looking at it. i'm not sure there's much to be done given that it went to the whole committee. this is also, i think, unprecedented. in the first instance it was a result of the president threatening -- wrongfully threatening to go after people who oversee this misconduct in a legitimate committee process. nevertheless, we will have to look at this as a committee to see if there's anything to be done. >> what does that mean you're going to look at it? does that mean that you will make a decision collectively about whether to accept these pardons? >> we have tried to operate together as a committee and i think the law is unclear because this is, frankly, uncharted territory whether pardons of this nature are like a law in which you're powerful to say yay or nay or there's something different. >> it is quite murky but it sounds like what you're saying is we will look at it but mostly you're going to have to accept this pardon whether you like it or not. >> it may not be actionable one way or another unless there is actually some bogus effort to prosecute the committee. >> let's talk about president

trump's agenda now, particularly on immigration and the border. congress of course passed a bill to address the border. some of your democratic colleagues from border states actually signed on. this is the laken riley act, a bill, just so folks understand, that would effectively allow law enforcement to detain and deport those who have been convicted of theft-related crimes. in a statement explaining his vote your colleague, arizona's democratic senator ruben gallego said this, quote, we must give law enforcement the means to take action when illegal immigrants break the law to prevent situations like what occurred to laken riley, who was, of course, killed by someone who was undocumented. you voted no on that. how do you respond to senator gallego? >> look, the administration already has the authority to detain people that have committed violent crimes for deportation and they should, but this bill is so broad that if you are a dreamer and you take a tube of toothpaste from the

store, you can be detained for deportation. that to me is a terrible overreach. so the president already has the authority. i don't mind confirming he has the authority, but i don't want to broaden that to be able to deport dreamers for taking a tube of toothpaste. >> what do you say to those who would argue that your vote ignores the security concerns that voters expressed in this last election? >> i would say, look, i support the deportation of people who commit violent crime.support ar randomized raids on people that detain american citizens, that detain members of the military, because this is what we're seeing happening around the country, we're seeing a kind of chaos in which -- in contradiction of the president's commitment that he was going to start focused on violent criminals, they're just detaining anyone. they're going into workplaces and anyone who looks like they should be detained is getting detained without, it seems, rhyme or reason.

that doesn't make sense and i think it's inhumane. but what's more, they also said -- the president also said that his top priority was bringing down the price of things. mass deportations of farmworkers in california, maybe half the workforce, are going to drive food prices through the roof. mass deportation of construction workers are going to drive housing prices even more through the roof. so which is it going to be? what is his real priority? is it addressing the economic concerns of americans or is it going to be this kind of mass deportation, family separation, randomized raids, which is what we're seeing. >> let's talk now, senator, about the fire disaster in your state, the debate over how to get disaster relief funds. the big question, will it be a stand-alone package or will it have to be tied to some other priorities like increasing the debt limit? i had this conversation with the house speaker mike johnson last weekend. take a look. >> are you and can you commit

that california disaster relief won't have strings attached? >> no, i won't commit that because we have a serious problem in california. >> so it could be linked to the debt limit. >> potentially that's one of the things we're speak being. >> the debt limit is the nation's borrowing limit for those watching. what is your response to speaker johnson? >> that is just shameful. americans are hurting right now. when his state was hit by katrina i fought to get aid for katrina, i went with a congressional delegation a year later to see how the recovery was going and to raise issues about how slow it was and how we needed to bring more urgency to it. i never even thought for a moment, okay, this is a red state, maybe we shouldn't provide aid or maybe we should tie it to some unrelated policy objective. i think it is shameful what he is saying and let me say this, as a californian, we have given more to the recovery of other states than any other state in the union. you do not want to go down this road. none of us want to go down this

road and, look, i'm glad the president went to california, i urged him to go to california, he did. i felt he could not help but be moved by seeing the scope of the devastation. i think he was moved. but let's not go down the road of trying to tie unrelated policy matters when people are hurting. >> very quickly, senator, if it was the only way to get aid to your state do you rule out voting for something that links disaster relief to something else, just yes or no? >> i am not going to go down the road for the first time ever of conditioning aid to americans who are hurting with unrelated policy matters. we're just not going to go there. >> finally, senator, i have to get your take on president trump's decision to fire 18 inspectors general. i just had this conversation with senator lindsey graham. in legislation which you originally sponsored presidents have to give a 30-day notice to congress that they are going to do this. you heard senator graham just said technically he may have violated the law by not

notifying congress. is there anything that congress can do about this decision by president trump? >> there's a lot that we can do and i have to say as someone who introduced the protecting our democracy act which was designed in part to protect inspector generals, to write off this clear violation of law by saying, well, technically he broke the law. yeah, he broke the law. not just any law, but a law meant to crowd out waste, fraud and abuse and, yeah, the remedies congress has. we have the power of the purse, we have the power right now to confirm or not confirm people for cabinet positions that control agencies or would control agencies whose inspector jenlts generals have just been fired. let's remember in his first term he fired an inspector general for providing complaints to congress. firing an inspector general for saying his pandemic response had flaws. the american people if we don't

have good and independent inspector generals will see the swamp refill, they will see rampsee rampant waste fraud, they will see corruption. it may be the president's goal here when he's got a meme coin that's making him billions is to remove anyone that's going to call the public attention to malfeasance. >> senator adam schiff, thank you for being here. we really appreciate it. please visit us again soon. when we come back president trump is moving sw for imprint? >> certain. certainty matters. when you need certain promo gear, you can be certain for imprints. got it. quality apparel. got it. drinkware got it. bags. hi tech outdoor. got it, got it, got it. so go get it at four imprint.com for imprint

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nine tablets for just $7 is try friday plans.com when you need brutal honesty. when you. >> need answers. >> first thing in the morning. when you need to go deep inside washington and hear from someone who's been there. you need. your morning joe weekdays at six only on msnbc. >> welcome back. the panel is welcome back. the panel is here. nbc news senior white house correspondent garrett ett haake leigh ann caldwell, chief washington correspondent for puck, communications director for vice president harris and speaker pelosi, ashley etienne, and former republican congressman carlos curbelo of florida. thanks to all of you for being here after a whirlwind first week for president trump in the

white house. garrett, let me start with you. we learned yesterday he's going to address a joint session of congress on march 4th. it comes after this week where he signed all of these executive orders, pardoned the january 6th convicts, even hit the road to north carolina and california. what are your sources telling you about the pace? is it going to continue in in same way? >> i'm getting tired just hearing you. look, buckle up. this is the way the trump campaign operated, this is what we should expect from white house for the foreseeable future. they had a long runway and a long time to plan what they wanted the first couple weeks to look like. we know they have a honey room period, senator graham willing to give them grace on what republican lawmakers disagree. they want to take advantage of that. i think the senator is also correct that at some point they will start running out of money. that will make this more difficult. you can have the shock and awe campaign on immigration and things you can do with the stroke of the pen but they will have to get their legislative

operation in gear and we haven't seen that yet. >> it is such a great point and the reality of the calendar is looming large over this president. in 18 months everyone's focus is going to shift to the midterms and this is his second term after all. so the white house, the president, really feeling the pressure of that calendar that's looming over him, the honeymoon that's not going to last very long. >> absolutely. the first year of a president's new term is always the most productive, that's where they have the most political capital as well. garrett used the words buckle up, that's exactly what i'm hearing from republican aides and lawmakers on capitol hill. they expect it's going to be not only a busy but also a very di difficult and complicated first year. he has a very slim majority in the -- in the congress, it's going to be very difficult on the congressional level to pass his agenda because of that slim majority, and what is essentially sometimes a divided republican conference. but as far as the first week has gone, i'm told that from

republicans not only on trump's team but also on capitol hill, promises made, promises kept. they are very thrilled with how this first week went. >> well, to promises made, promises kept, carlos, now the action really does turn to capitol hill to leigh ann's point. you heard senator graham said we have to do the border first. there is a big debate over that. we see the differences between trump 2.0 and how he first entered order and didn't know how the white house worked. now he has that experience and the four years in between that he had to think about it. >> big advantage this time. few people get to do this job once, sit out four years and prepare to do it again and you're seeing that because they knew exactly what they wanted to do, how they were going to do it. they knew they were get challenges and are prepared for that. he does need to work with the congress if they want to enact lasting legislation, legislation changes that will withstand the test of time, it has to go

through congress. these eo's they get challenged in court, new administration comes, wipes them away, we're seeing that now. it's important for republicans to learn from the lessons of 2017 when it was the same scenario, republican trifecta. whole year without a major piece of legislation. that tax cut and jobs act was not passed until the end of 2017. what senator graham is saying is right, we need to get something on the board now, show the people we can get something done and use the momentum to do other things. >> ashley, it's so interesting because there is a big debate in the democratic party right now how much should they be working with president trump on some of these agenda items like the border, which is part of the reason why he won, and like bringing down prices. hakeem jeffries last week said he's open to working with president trump on that. what are folks telling you and what do you think democrats should do moving forward strategically so that they are more competitive in the midterms in the next presidential -- >> yeah, the posture is going to

be to work with the president where we can and hakeem jeffries has demonstrated that he can work with president trump in his first term, but where we disagree where the democrats are going to stand their ground. i know the white house is saying promises -- and republicans are saying promises kept, but the one that's not kept is on the economy. the president said he had a mandate, he said day one he was going to lower prices. here we are almost a week in, 100 executive orders later and nothing substantial on the economy. in fact, he's walking it all back saying it's too tough, it's too hard to lower prices, i can't guarantee that the american people won't pay more based on my tariffs. this is creating an opportunity for democrats. they're going to have to hold trump accountable to his word on lowering prices and i would even suggest they take a playbook -- out of trump's playbook, go across the country, every corner of the country holding his feet to the fire and making this point -- or raising this question is he on your side or is he not on your side? i thought he said he was going to lower costs and he actually hasn't. that would be my mandate to the

democratic party. stay laser focused on his promises and hold him accountable. >> it's interesting because more than any other issue he likely be judged on whether he can bring down prices, garrett. one of the big promises kept that he did not most course verse y'all was to blanket pardon all of the january 6th convicts. you have reporting that it was actually a rather last-minute decision, right? >> that's right. donald trump had been campaigning on the idea he would pardon at least some of the january 6th defendants for years and when he talked to you about it he had suggested this would be done on a case by days basis. my reporting was that there was not exactly the patience necessary to go through this on a case-by-case basis. he later said it would be too cumbersome. ultimately they made the decision to go big here. i think you will see this across the issues including confirmations which we will talk about later but trump is personally willing to kind of take the political risk and political hits on these things. i think you saw it play out even in your interview with senator graham. i don't grey, but what are you going to do about it? nothing.

they hope there will be enough other chum in the water that people will move on from the things they don't like and focus on the things that they do. i think that's sort of what you're seeing with those pardons. >> carlos? >> i think there's no question in my mind that president biden's pardon-fest at the end of his presidency surely influenced the incoming president. i know there was a lot of doubt, consternation inside the team as to how to handle some of these most egregious offenders and i think when president biden did what he did, trump just said, hey, what the hell, let's just -- >> sorry to step in here, congressman. the reality is we have to level set with the american people. these two pardons are not the same thing. trump went around the country promising retribution so joe biden to some degree tried to protect those who were on donald trump's enemy list. you know, i agree with senator graham, this sets a deadly, dangerous precedence to pardon those who committed such an egregious -- the most egregious crime against american democracy

not only is it an a ffront to or institutions but the men and women who put their lives on the lines. to the senators what are you going to do about it? >> there is some talk about reviewing pardon power. >> there's talk about it but most of the talk is coming from democrats. democrats do not control congress right now, maybe republicans will get to it eventually if, as lindsey graham said, if it continues to happen and the pardon power continues to be abused. but this is not a top priority on congress' agenda right now. >> and to be clear, the whole thing is horrible. all the pardons are horrible, but i think the difference is that joe biden said he was different and he didn't end up being all that different. >> all right. well, guys, stand by. speaking of pardons, when we come back, the presidential pardon is in the spotlight this week as we're discussing, and it's in

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if a defective product, motor vehicle accident or medical vehicle accident or medical malpractice caused a one one 1000. >> welcome back. within welcome back. within a single day of transferring power, president trump and former president biden issued an unprecedented wave of pardons. another moment when pardons were in focus? back in 1974 when president gerald ford granted a full, free, and absolute pardon to former president richard nixon for any crimes he might have committed during the watergate scandal. just an hour after ford's announcement democratic senator he had mon musky joined "meet

the press" with this warning. >> pardons are usually granted at the point when the accused is in jeopardy of punishment and we have not reached that point in mr. nixon's case. if we were to, you know, follow this precedent to grant pardons to people even before they are indicted, we would indeed broaden that power, i think, to a dangerous extent, and i would not welcome that as a lawyer. i would not welcome that kind of broadening of the pardoning power. you don't pardon until the accused is in jeopardy of punishment, going to jail or otherwise. when we come back, president trump's defense secretary pete hegseth was confirmed by a rare tie-breaking vote. are any of his (tony hawk) i still love to surf, snowboard, and of course, skate, so i take qunol magnesium to support my muscle and bone health. qunol's high-absorption magnesium glycinate helps me get the full benefits of magnesium. qunol. the brand i trust. easy. just choose from our

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>> calm. >> download the free app now. >> welcome back! the panel welcome back. the panel is still here. so we are gearing up for another very busy week, garrett, of confirmation hearings. rfk for health and human

services, kash patel for fbi director and tulsi gabbard who has been tapped for director of national intelligence. you have new reporting about the white house's strategy to really try to turn up the heat to make sure they get the votes they need on some of these couldn't verse yalg picks. >> it's part of the white house strategy, they expect some outside groups to start spinning up in defense of tulsi gabbard and also kind of as a warning to people who might oppose her. they view this as pass/fail for senators, you are with us or against us on everybody. you don't get bonus points for voting for 07% of their nominees. when i talked to a senior white house adviser -- excuse me, senior white house official yesterday they made this point clearly that gabbard has to step up, too. they want to see her follow pete hegseth's playbook and fight harder for this job, show that she understands the seriousness of what she's being asked to do in top of these intel agencies and hearing from white house officials and hill sources there's a lot of expectation that this hearing will be very critical. if she gets to the hearing and gets to the floor, that's one thing, but if she stumbles in this hearing she could be in

serious trouble. >> leigh ann, i thought it was fascinating that senator lindsey graham said he is a we willy see. he didn't say i'm a yes. he is one of the senators who has been most vocal about saying president trump deserves his picks to be in place. senator langford saying he is in yes on tulsi gabbard. what are you hearing about the top concerns in her uphill bat snl. >> as garrett said this hearing will be extremely critical. not only the public part of the hearing but, remember, this is in front of the intelligence committee. they will adjourn to go into a classified session. we will not have access to that, but that also is going to be extremely important for these senators. i have heard that some of her meetings with some senators have not gone particularly well and there are a lot of concerns. and the senators we are looking out for are the ones who are most concerned with national security, where this is a top priority of theirs. lindsey graham falls in that category. >> yeah, i mean, carlos, it is fascinating. the national security concerns,

the concerns over her two meetings with syrian president bashar al assad, the dictator there. this is really becoming a bit of a loyalty test for republicans in the senate. what are you hearing? >> well, remember, kristen, since the advent of the tea party the greatest fear for any congressional republican is a primary challenge. so this is a real problem for a lot of republicans. however, there is another threat out there which is the 2026 midterms and some of these senators will have tough reelection fights, i know in the house a lot of people are thinking about 2026 already. so the squeeze is on for republicans. sure, there's trump loyalty, but there's also how viable are they in general elections and tulsi gabbard, who i think will do well in terms of her temperament, the substance of her answers that might be a different question because she's going to get some very tough questions, but this might be an opportunity for some republican senators to distinguish themselves. >> ashley, what are you expect to go see from democrats? there is a big debate over whether democrats were robust enough in their line of

questioning to pete hegseth. now, i've been talking to democrats who said, yes, we were. this is the republican show. but what are you hearing in terms of what they're gearing up for this week? >> i mean, it's very clear that competency and -- and character don't matter anymore. especially not when it comes to these nominees. i think that is what i mostly hear from democrats. they're going to seize on those two points. as it relates to tulsi gabbard, i think the concern there is that she's going to be in charge of our national security and there's all of these questions about whether or not she's miced. you can't have someone in charge of national security that is not beyond reproach and their loyalty to the country. i also think it creates an opportunity for some republicans that want to distinguish to the congressman's point, want to distinguish themselves from the president to say no to gabbard, these questions and she was a

former democrat. >> i don't know there is a huge appetite to break from president trump right now among republicans. >> senator tillis ands others might want to -- >> tillis is another one who is in cycle. he has two problems, he will have to not get primaried by michael whatley, the rnc chair, and he has to run again he survives a primary in a 50/50 state. so phyllis is in a tough spot and someone who this white house official who i spoke to yesterday indicated if tillis was trying to get a pocket veto on pete hegseth to basically get him out of the running without voting no, that's not how this is going to work. you will have to be willing to vote no on the floor and that is a very -- that is a bridge too far for some of these republicans. >> leigh ann, a lot of people were on pins and needles what was tillis going to do, to garrett's point, mcconnell was a no vote. i got a text message from steve bannon who said mcconnell is going to face repercussions for

that politically speaking. what do you make -- gerrit dismisses it. >> yeah. >> talk about that box. >> i dismiss that, too, for mcconnell specifically. he is in his last two years most likely of serving. he has -- he cares -- he is one of those national security people who cares a lot about it. he's not worried about any sort of political repercussions. he is in his yolo mode. they can lose three republicans, j.d. vance can be the tiebreaker. the thing is no one wants to be that -- and you can find the three, mcconnell, collins, murkowski. no one wants to be that fourth that sinks a nominee. so it's going to be three or it's going to be six. >> seven. >> yeah. >> matt gaetz after he was sunk there was a thinking that can we cross him again? mcconnell might be the only one in yolo mode, in other words. >> look, at some point some of

these members are going to break with the president on some issue. i think the sooner they do it probably the better kind of rip off the band-aid, figure out what that looks like, and also send a message to the president that he has to work with them, right? because there's all these confirmations but then there's also legislation and specifically when they start working on tax reform, that's going to be a very messy fight. >> who is going to remember two years from now how you voted on tulsi gabbard as a nominee, a former democrat. i don't know that many republicans are going to hold that against you. >> let me ask you because there's going to be a lot of focus on rfk jr. as well, for example, and one of the big questions people have will democrats try to expose some of the divides between him on an issue like abortion, for example. will they go there? what do you think? >> well, i mean, abortion is an interesting issue. it's somewhat nullified in this last election. you had republican women voting for the reproductive rights and voting for donald trump. i'm not sure that that issue is as potent as we'd like for it to be going into this next cycle.

i don't project that -- or predict that folks would vote against rfk. i think he's going to sail through. >> you think gabbard is the one. >> i think gabbard is the one and my advice to democrats would be hyper focus on her and make it a national security issue. this is not about politics, this is about the security of our nation and allies. >> thank you so much. that is all for today. thank you for watching. we will be back next week because if it's sunday, it's "meet the press." and go birds! >> estimates are. >> that there. >> are 11 million undocumented. >> immigrants in this. >> country r