cochair, it is my honor to place the name of michael watley nomination. [applause] will thank you, jen. national committeewoman from texas and job our state chairman for what i'm the purpose of seconding animation. casey. >> thank youtl cochair. for all of you who know michael you know he has three priorities to lead us to victory inic november. that is get out theve vote, protect t the ballot and raise e money. in northch carolina we all know michael has built one of the most successful election day operations in the country, and this year, last year we asked michael a lotot of questions because we wanted to do what he did in north carolina and kentucky. and as we all know he returns every phone call. he was so helpful to us and detect some off the work that he helped us layed the groundwork r help us get the decision in a court of appeals that a set precedent for future elections in kentucky. joe was infallible to a trap as a resource. as general counsel, michael has been just a machine with fundraising and i'm confident as your treasurer that every doll

along with michael watley and his daughter-in-law, lara trump, the ex-president senior campaign adviserill also be the rnc's chief operating officer. is the maga takeover of the gop officially complete? >> yeah. i mean, look for it i think it has been this way for a long time. remember, even when she took that job, she still had to take the romney out of her name. so there has a lot of trump appeasement, but i would say that what is pretty interesting about that is that they kind of ended up being removed because they weren't killing it with the fundraising. so they put rumps daughter-in- law. i don't know if that will help with the fundraising. i mean, some of what is happening is that these large donors have some pods about pain a billionaire's legal fees, as they well said. i am not convinced, the theatrics of her holding up a -- trump and not a huge surprise. and then trump later ripped using to answer questions about it that is very trump -like friend. but she is not in a position to raise money and then you have donors who had relationships with ronna are now like, what did you do

. >>> the republican national committee just voted to elect michael watley and lara trump as co-chairs. lara trump is the daughter-in-law of the former president and these votes complete donald trump's takeover of the party's political and fund-raising machine. michael watley, a supporter of false theories of voter fraud will carry the top title. >>> uvalde, texas city council looking into the police response to the 2022 robb elementary shooting cleared police officers of any wrongdoing in their delayed response, that angered family members of the victims. the conclusion that thepolice officers were to blame for failing to act. voters in ireland are casting their ballots about whether to change their constitution which says a woman's place is in the home. the vote is to remove the revens and broaden the definition of a family. scott? >> contessa, thank you. contessa brewer. come up, "calls of the day." steph's largest position a new upgrade and amd next. and more. thank you very much. [applause] ask, "now what?" here's what. you go with prudential to protect, empower and grow. with eve

if the money is going for donald trump's legal bills which michael watley every last time give to donaldmp's legal bills but if it's going there it's not going to knock on doors and not going to mail or television ads and not going to recruit volunteers and god willing not going to your voter suppression lawsuits. so every dime is donald trump. >> i want to give ronna mcdaniel just a moment and i don't want to gloss over. because she said something -- >> i sent flowers. >> she said a lot of things. >> i did. >> neither did i. >> see a photo of that bouquet. she said something in the good- bye remarks that i think is worth a listen. >> here's the thing -- i worry about the most is something we can control. which is our internal -- cohesion. we want to make sure that we're united as we head into this next election. seven years ago i talked a lot about unity. i talk about it all the time. you guys hear me. we cannot win if we're divided. we can only win through addition, we cannot win through subtraction which is why i worked diligently to expand our tent. there are people who are more ente

there is michael watley, the chair who we know never hear anything about which is very odd.the service of the donald trump show, they stopped doing the things that a political party those that the republican national committee is meant to do, not only to deliver the white house but to deliver those down ballot races we talked about earlier. >> that is the critical thing. the one note from me is -- in it. one? >> one. >> your first note. >> first note, who is the chair of the rnc? is it lara trump or is it michael whatley? i can't tell because i haven't heard the chair of the party speak on everything. and lara trump is the one giving the interviews and making the claims. for example, we have lara trump -- let's play this nbc news interview she did recently. >> is it going to be the position of the rnc in 2024 that the 2020 election was not fairly decided or that it was stolen somehow? >> i think we are passed that. i think we learned a lot. the past is the past and unfortunately, we had to learn some hard lessons in 2020. >> why is he asking her? why is that interview not wi

has already installed his loyalists at the rnc, it is a signal of what to come and along with michael watley daughter-in-law, lara trump, the ex-president's senior campaign adviser will also be made the rnc chief operating officer. is the mega takeover of the gop officially complete?>> yeah, look, it has been this way for a long time and remember, even when she took the job, she still had to take romney out of her name, so there has been a lot of trump appeasement. but i would say that what is pretty interesting about this, you know, she ended up being removed because they weren't killing it with the fundraising. so they put in trump's daughter- in-law. i don't know that will help with the fundraising. some of what is happening is, donors have some pause about paying the legal fees, as they should. i'm not convinced, it is not a huge surprise of her holding a check, then later refusing to answer questions about the check. but, i do think, in a funny way, she is kind of in a terrible position because she's not in a better position to raise money and you have all these donors who had real rela

in houston on friday, the republican national committee elected michael watley to replace ronna mcdanielchair. both received the endorsement of former president trump who told me exclusively in an interview last month at mar-a-lago that a changes were coming to the rnc leadership, and certainly they have. joining me right now is the woman herself, the can chair, the new cochair of the rnc, lara trump, who begins day one on monday, tomorrow. lara, great to see you. congratulations. >> thank you so much, maria. i really appreciate it. maria: what is your priority leading the rnc right now? >> well, you just heard from the top law enforcement officer in the country, merrick garland, that he doesn't want voter id anywhere, that he wants to basically give access, as you just heard from him, to anyone whether they are legally able to vote or not. that is a huge problem. we have three pillars that we need to focus on at the rnc to insure victory on november 5th; turn out the vote, protect the vote and raise money. but i would argue that maybe the most important of those three is protecting the

the national committee elected donald trump's choices of michael watley and laura trump the former president'sghter-in-law who wasaccompanied by her husband eric and two high-ranking officers at a meeting friday. the rnc's operations will be ran by the top campaign. and we scroll down a little bit further into this story, it mentions now with the rnc's3" merger with the donald trump campaign advisors hope to quickly make up the deficits in joint fundraising by being allowed to collect larger checks and the rnc will be working with the donald graham campaign on field operation in swing states get out to vote efforts, and legal challenges to voting procedures and potentially contesting outcomes. the last bit from this article the rnc paid millions of dollars of donald trump's legal bills in 2000 2022 until he declared his canada see for -- 2022- 2023 and he declared his candidacy. next up we will hear from richard in newport, north carolina, on our independent line. what is your top news story? caller: good morning. first of all, it is not the democratic or the falsehoods, it is the democratic p

the man replacing her is michael watley, a passionate election denier.le trump's daughter-in-law, lara trump, was named rnc cochair. other than being a trump, lara trump's qualification for the role appears to be this. >> god does not call the qualified. he qualifies the called. lord, trump is the embodiment of this truth. >> now that the trump takeover is complete, the rnc apparently intends to allocate its resources to words election denialism. >> we are going to make sure that every single penny of every dollar raised goes towards one goal, which is winning. how do we do that? we have to have election integrity like we've never seen before. >> we have hired in place election integrity directors in battleground states who were already recruiting and training tens of thousands of volunteers to serve as poll judges, workers, observers, who will act as real-time monitors whenever votes are being cast and counted. and we will do more. >> joining me now is the chair of the democratic national committee, jamie harrison. chairman, it is great to see you. i'm

the committee unanimously elected michael watley as its share. laura trump was elected as coach or. we will hear from the next the rnc spring meeting in houston. first outgoing chair rhonda mcdaniel urging fellow republicans to unite, vote early, and improve messaging on abortion. >> there are no new members of the national committee ratified. it is my pleasure to welcome one german and congratulate him on his election. welcome as a new member. [applause] i also want to congratulate the many new national committeethrod territories. today, american samoa is the 25th state to cast votes in the republican process, thank you for your hard work to send our candidate donald j. trump to the white house and with that, join me in thanking president trump for his work for our party andfr the overwhelming success he has achieved earning the support of over 90%f and did the knowledget only our presumptive nominee, but will be the next president of the united states. [cheers and applause] ■3 good morning fellow republicans, how are you? are you proud to be republicans today?t thank you all so mu

hours from now, to most likely select their new chair and co-chair, which is his hand-picked michael watleya trump, his daughter-in-law. for donald trump, to walk today with a clear message that he was able to win in each one of the 16 states would be a defining moment for him atop this republican party and send a clear message to others to get in line, that this republican primary is all but over. >> kelly, let's talk about donald trump, heading for a likely 2020 rematch with the president. as joe biden prepares for thursday's state of the union, he is facing national polls showing him trailing mr. trump. >> reporter: a challenging time but also a time of opportunity, according to the biden campaign. they view this as the juxtaposition of super tuesday and the state of the union as a moment when many voters, who have been busy living their lives and not as tuned in as perhaps your viewers are about the state of the national political scene, that this will be a galvanizing moment when many voters will view this as a clear choice, whether it's the choice they want in terms of the rematch tha

we have michael watley, lara trump now at the helm.his is ronna mcdaniel this week stepping down >> i'm stepping aside today because i have long prompt promised to put the nominee and their plans for the rnc first wins the white house is a too important. president trump deserves to have the team in place he wants at the rnc. aishah: how important is this? >> i think it's critical to the trump campaign to have folks like the secret weapon that a lot of people aren't talking about, he'll be doing the running of the place day-to-day, or really focusing in on the general election which we're totally in the general election in march already, and the trump team is focused on winning back those six states. you know, the problem for joe biden right now is all the targeted races are races he won in 2020. that tells you about the state of the campaign. it's all about joe biden -- [inaudible] if aishah: it's going to be a long eight months, is it? oh, my gosh. i'm already exhausted thinking about it. but hopefully, we'll get a debate or two. joe

and michael watley, who is the current north carolina chair, as national chair, also has the role of is the dominant feature here. and so the party will have fun this summer trying to get boots on the ground and resources when all the dollars will go pay for donald trump's legal fees. >> can i say one more point. i think a lot has been made about the republican party's outreach if you will to black and latino voters. but the program where the rnc staff and field staff are engaging with particularly latino or african american committees of color across the country. again, i think the new york times poll said 27% of people are for donald trump. >> 27? somebody high. >> it is interesting given the split screen of what you are seeing from the biden administration is a campaign for the reelect. vice president kamala harris making history this week with an important message on reproductive rights. after the break, a congresswoman from pennsylvania joining us. you are watching the weekend. ♪ and with once-daily trelegy, it can still be beautiful. because with 3 medicines in 1 inhaler, trele

believe in coincidences, so we are in decision 2024, you have laura trump, cochair of the rnc, michael watley is a elections here and i have christina bob, who's the senior person in charge of election integrity and then you have laura trump talking about poll workers being trained and the thing that stopped me dead in my tracks is when she talked about having these rnc trained poll workers physically handling ballots and that really freaks me out because it's stacking it right, it's been trying to stack it so legitimate voting can't take place. >> you are exactly right, why would it be important for laura trump to have maga republicans touching ballots? think about that. unless they are actually there to change the vote, or to somehow impact the election through other means than voters actually casting their vote, why would it matter the party registration of a poll worker? in jurisdictions across the country, you have nonpartisan employees, volunteers, who are poll workers but then there are parties that get to a point in most jurisdictions an observer, where they stand and watch and make s

rhonda mcdaniels to step down then hand-picked leadership to head up the national party including michael watleychair of the north carolina republican party and his daughter-in-law, laura trump, as co-chair. >> if there is anyone paying attention to the details of 2024, it is donald trump, who is now co-running the rnc. laura trump, why? because he understands that the devil is in the details so he puts his brilliant daughter-in- law in charge of the rnc apparatus. you want the ball in the hands of the best player on the field. that player is donald trump. i can guarantee you we will win because we are coming together. >> i've been doing this a while. those are the words of a man who really wants to get on that ticket. but, the overall point senator scott makes is right, because the rnc party has fallen now into the hands of donald trump and the question is what that is going to entail. this week got a little bit of a hint and some notable new hires, specifically, new lawyers focused on election related concerns and what they are calling election integrity, which i am putting in quotes because i

with michael watley and his daughter-in-law, laura trump, the party is now fully formed in trump's image. >> we are going to determine the fate of not only the united states, but of the entire world and this body, the rnc, is going to be the vanguard of a movement that will work tirelessly every single day to elect our nominee donald j. trump. >> we are going to make sure that every single penny of every dollar raised goes towards one goal which is winning. >> joining me now is former rnc chair ronna mcdaniel. welcome back to "meet the press" thanks for being here. >> thanks for having me. >> let's start with your decision to step down as rnc chair. if you can take me behind the scenes a little bit. were you pushed out of your role? >> there's no question that as rnc chair we have to remain neutral andee we had debates and there was tension and friction that started during that process. it was well played out in the media, and i knew at that point when i was doing that role and we were going to have debates that when the nominee came forward and it was likely to be president trump that t

the committee unanimously elected michael watley as its share. laura trump was elected as coach or.ring meeting in houston. first outgoing chair rhonda mcdaniel urging fellow republicans to unite, vote early, and improve messaging on abortion. >> there are no new members of the national committee ratified. it is my pleasure to welcome one german and congratulate him on his election. weom

it will be led by a trump ally michael watley with his daughter-in-law, laura, leading the chair. >>ically ban tiktok here in the united states. it is a move that is angering fans of the social media platform. where does this battle go from here? we have savannah sellers with more. >> reporter: the battle to ban tiktok intensifying in washington with leaders confirming they will vote on the bill next week to ban unless it is sold by bytedance. >> we cannot have a foreign controlled social media app. >> reporter: tiktok urged users to call members of congress and demand they vote against it. sydney, who makes money as an influencer, did just that. >> what would it mean for you? >> that is my career. my career would be gone. >> reporter: lawmakers say their phones rang off the hook. >> i went into mom mode. i know tiktok has weaponized our young people. i took it and got on the phone and tried to explain why we are doing what we are doing. >> reporter: the pressure campaign appears to have back fired in a rare show of bipartisanship, the committee voted in favor of the legislation. thi

. >> i do wonder if there's sort of a tell in the hand picking of michael watley and this legal team.ive this litigation. if they're sort of already presupposing the outcome here, mark. >> i think that's exactly right. i think that's a very smart point people should pick up and pay attention to. two lawsuits were filed by the rnc since he took over. both of them are to force states, nevada and michigan, to engage in voter. now that's a curious thing for a new rnc chair to use as their kickoff. why sue two swing states to try to force them to engage in voter purposes. one might say it's because they want to be a -- that's possible. i don't think they're going to win the lawsuits and i think they probably know that. the other is they are setting up a grievance structure that will set themselves up when donald trump loses the election to point back and say, you see, the problem all along was these loaded voter. the unwillingness of the courts to do the right thing. i worry a president who incited an insurrection in 2021 and is speaking about blood baths six months before the election, wh

the republican national committee installed two new officials hand-picked by donald trump and michael watleyrnc chairman. bartram, the former presence daughter and i will be co-chair of the party. they were both elected unanimously. while this replaces ron mcdaniel, who was selected by trump after he won the 2016 election. with the backers firmly in place to leave the party, the rnc will turn its focus towards raising money for trump's campaign which has significantly less cash on hand than the biting campaign does. for more i am joined by tom nichols, staff writer for the atlantic and author of the book our own worst enemy: the assault within unmonitored democracy. and olivia try served as a senior adviser to former vice president mike pence and is now executive director of 97% of bipartisan dem reform organization bring it is not unusual for presidential nominee to take over the party's apparatus. it is normal for someone from the family to take over an official party role? >> reporter: no, and not in the way that the they are turning this into extension of the trump personality cult. it i

and michael watley is trying to prove himself to donald trump he's up to the task being even more ruthlesslyon one. option two i think speaks to part of the truth on why i think this is break glass. he's trying to leave these staff no place to go, right? from this point forward if someone works at the rnc whether they are the receptionist, the lawyer, the digital director, a fund raiser, whoever they are from this point forward you know one thing about them. they have pledged fealty to the biggest of the big lie, that the election in 2020 was false. they know that will have career implications for them. they know that will have implications for them on how they're perceived on the outside, and donald trump wants it that way. he wants these people believing that the only way through this is with him. >> well, what's amazing i mean, matt dowd, i -- the democracy piece is a tragedy, and it's why we're covering this story. and the political part of me says the reason there's no one named mastriano, lake or odd is in office is because they believe your political opponent is a loser. it's just so

the republican national committee elected trump's choices of michael watley and laura trump the formeresident's daughter-in-law, who accompanied by eric trump as the two highest ranking officers at the rnc friday. if we scroll down further into this story, it mentioned that now, with the rnc's mergers with the trump campaign, advisors hope to make up the deficit through fundraising vehicles allowed to col checks. they are expected to work jointly with the trump campaign on field operations in swing statesut the vote efforts, and legal challenges to trump procedures. the rnc. paid millions of dollars of trump oscar legal bills in 2021 and 2022 until he declared his candidacy. the committee declined to consider a proposal from henry farber to prevent the committee from resuming such payments. next, we will hear from richard in newport, north carolina on our independent line. what is your top story? caller: guest: good morning -- caller: good morning. first of all, it's not the democratic party. that's a it is the democrat party. it's always been known as the democratic party. thout. next

michael whiteley, former general counsel for the rnc chair from the longtime head. laura trump, the former president's daughter-in-w, took over as cochair of the ornition. next, some of mr. watley trump's remarks from the group's spring meeting in houston immediately following their election. >> i want to open this morning with several notes of gratitude. i want to thank members of the rnc for entrus me with this position at this critical time. i have been overwhelmed by the support and encouragement that i have receive weeks as i have tad to the members of the committee. knowing that i have the opportunity to work with and for all ofvçexciting. i want to thank ronna mcdaniel for her grade envi■hck■ sionchar chair. she has been a friend and , for her leadership and service to the republican party and our candidates across the country. [applause] i would also like to thank my family. sam, michage and mary kate. although they could not be with us here today, school still come they have been amazingly supportive and i could not even contemplate this journey without having them beside me. xgy, i wld like to thank president trump f his trust and support. there is no one who has been