watley. -- from ohio. burke what a wonderful day what a great opportunity you have amongst the 168 for service for greator country. it's a special pleasure for me this morning to rise to offer the nomination of michael watley. we all know michael. we know what a wonderful service he's been to this committee and to the party into the nation. he's a lifelong republican who's worked for decades to support republican candidates atad every level in the united states in our party. he served with distinction as chairman of the north carolina republican party, general counsel of the rnc where he's done absolutely stellars work. and as our chairman michael will bring a focus and a dedication to the rnc and he will work relentlessly to reflect donald j. trump as our 47th president of the united united stae senate, expand our majority in the house of representatives, and help us in our individual states win elections up and down the ballot. mr. cochair, it is my honor to place the name of michael watley nomination. [

watley is a 2020 election denier who was hand picked by trump to succeed mcdaniel.t's more, trump's daughter- in-law laura will be co-chair. but with the 168 members did not vote on was a pair of resolutions that would bar the rnc from paying trump's legal bills. back with us election lawyer marc elias. >> first of all, marc, you were the lawyer for the dnc from like 2009 until 2023. so if -- this would never happen, but you know, it's happening for the republicans. so you know, maybe there's -- i don't know if there's an authoritarian feature in the democratic party but who knows, if folks came to you and said look the democratic nominee has some legal issues. you know, maybe they're parking tickets and not necessarily classified documents or you know, an insurrection. we have to pay some of the legal bills. what would you have said in that meeting. >> you know what i would have said but think about how far this has traveled you know. when -- when john mccain was the nominee, there was a genuine scandal over the fact that the rnc was paying for clothing for -- for

watley is clearly doing all the things he wanted getting rid of those folks.y are also trying to have it both ways. they are talking to these people and interviewing them and saying, was the 2020 election stolen? that will probably decide whether or not you will get in here. you are republican and have been republican your whole life. talk about the concept, one the parties are doing. and how that determines how you get into the job. >> the nail in the coffin was actually shortly after donald trump was elected. he did something very unusual which was made sure that the state party chairs of the republican party were basically anyone who was not a hard-core donald trump loyalist assured out. and by a few years later, around 2019, something like 80% of the state party chairs have been turned over. that is a very unusual thing to do when you are victorious. you don't go clean house. thanks for helping me with the election. let's keep doing what we are doing. and instead, donald trump has completely remade the rnc in his own image. one of the problems is donald tr

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

bid, the rnc installed a new leadership team hand-picked by trump himself, the chairman, michael watleyump's daughter-in-law, lara trump as cochair. with the parties new leadership in place, the rnc is facing its next hurdle, raising money. right now president biden and his allies have $130 million of cash on hand. for trump, that number is $65 million. trump noted the cash crunch during an acceptance speech, touting a donation chap that she claims has secured that day, but afterwards, she declined to say who actually wrote the check. questions are rising over how that money will be spent with an increasing number of the ex- president's supporters urging the rnc to open it up for trump's mounting legal bills. even members of congress are calling on the party to crack open the bank for the ex- president's personal legal problems. when asked if the rnc should bail trump out, marco rubio said i believe so, and senator lindsey graham said he would not object if the campaign arm came to the disgraced former presidents aid and trying to drain the dial, i will leave it up to the rnc to figure

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

watley and misses trump's remarks from the group's spring meeting in houston immediately following their>> 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 more focused on american people, and i am grateful for the opportunity to work with him to win an

how do you view this installation of watley and trump? >> reporter: i think it is horrific.s. i feel like this is officially, overtly, become the treatment legal defense fund. i would say stop donating to the party because the cantons are not going to see that money. think about where your funds are going. if you care about electing rational same republicans, focus on them directly or turn away from what this is. this is just an enabler for trumps and it is embarrassing. >> there are nbc news reports another has been fighting and discussion about how the rnc spends the money . a growing number of supporters wanted to spend it on his legal bills. what you think of the conflict? >> reporter: it means are people in the republican party who think the gop ought to function like , you know, a political party. that actually finds candidates, recruits them, supports them, get them on pallets and helps to fund their campaigns. they are up against this, you know, trump family machine, best trump family organization that says, you are here to funnel money to donald trump and to take ca

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

that's why watley was picked to run the rnc. the other side of the scenario is that when trump loses this election, or if trump loses this election, you are going to have the same narrative around stolen elections, a rigged election, all of that, and he will have the bodies in place to prosecute that case better and more effectively from that point forward, which he did not have less time, because, oh, i dunno, people actually believed the constitutional oath they took and their responsibility to the country to uphold the election results, and that got in the way. trump has largely cleared the way, and the cost will be to the rnc and the candidates running across the country in various state races and statewide races that are going to have to figure out how to find the resources and infrastructure they need to be successful, because if it ain't about trump, it certainly won't be about them. >> michael scherer, michael still mix a great point, which is, when you're talking about election integrity, as i said earlier, that is abou

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

then secondly, installing christina bobb on election integrity and putting lara trump in there and watleyere, either firing or reassigning or forcing to reapply a number of staffers, what is happening at the rnc, and is it a big deal? >> it is a big deal if you're running as a down-ballot candidate. it is a big deal if you're trying to, you know, create a lane in which these issues like election integrity actually is not an oxymoron, but there is i that process. yes, it is a big deal. you could see what they've done and what they are doing. this is the decapitation of the republican party as i once knew it and i once led it. a lot of theef fors that we put in place, you know from covering back in 2010, led to a lot of races that we otherwise wouldn't have won. and that is because we had boots on the ground in communities. we have community activists representing and being the face of the party. so we could win those for the first time two black judges to the texas supreme court. we could win a governorship in new mexico or in new jersey. show, the reality is, when you take all of the infr

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

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