Left is too far, and the biggest thing we learned this week. My guests, senator cory booker of new jersey, and former housing secretary, Julian Castro of texas. Plus, historic meeting. President trump meets with kim jongun at the dmz. Then becomes the first sitting president to step foot into north korea, as the two sides agree to more talks. And crisis at the border. This heartbreaking photo becomes the indelible image of desperation and despair as stories emerge of neglected children in detention centers. Ill talk to our republican senator leader John Barrasso of wyoming. Joining me for insight and analysis are nbc news capitol hill correspondent kasie hunt, democratic pollster, White House Correspondent for pbs news hour, and republican strategist al cardena. Welcome to sunday. Its meet the press. From nbc news in washington, the longest running show in television history, this is meet the press with chuck todd. Good sunday morning. Were going to get to the big political news of the week in a moment, but were going to begin this morning with President Trumps visit with north Koreas Kim Jongun at the dmz. It was an historic first as the two agreed to resume their efforts at a nuclear agreement. Good to see you again. I didnt expect to meet you at this place. The president then walked over the border, briefly, becoming the first sitting u. S. President to step into north korea. Afterwards, mr. Trump spoke to reporters. Its just an honor to be with you. It was an honor you asked me to step over that line. I was proud to step over the line. Nbc news chief Foreign CorrespondentRichard Engel is the at dmz. Okay, richard, is this just a moment for a headline, or is there some substance to this . Reporter well, a little bit of both, frankly. He went and built rapport with kim jongun, and that is important. Diplomacy, personal relationships are critical, especially when youre dealing with a country like north korea, a total oneman show. Having a personal relationship, being able to pick up the phone, bringing him into your inner circle, introducing him to your family, showing him the love, that does matter, and it could lead to further diplomatic breakthroughs. It certainly restarts the talks after the last summit with kim jongun not going very well and ending in a stalemate. So thats good. Dynamism is good. Spontaneity is good. There were a lot of people who criticized the Previous Administration because they didnt know how to reach out to it. President trump is saying hes willing to break the rules. That kind of thing works with tyrants, works with kim jongun. He also got kim jongun out of his comfort zone. If you look at those image, kim jongun seemed totally confused to be surrounded by reporters in this unfamiliar situation, having questions thrown at him. So all thats positive. The negative thing is how he is spinning it. Hes telling reporters, telling the world through twitter and speeches that he saved the korean peninsula, that this region was on the brink of war, that only he was able to sweep in, and i think hes counting on the American People not knowing current events, not knowing that it wasnt on the brink of war before he became president. It actually got a lot worse after he was elected. So hes telling the world that he saved the world when, in fact, to a degree, hes saved things from himself. All right, richard. A familiar pattern, perhaps, as weve seen with other instances here. Richard engel in korea for us. Richard, thanks very much. Now to this weeks big political news and what we think we learned from the two nights of democratic president ial debates. We think we learned the partys center of gravity or at least the candidates believe the partys center of gravity has moved sharply to the left, especially on issues Like Health Care and immigration. We learned that Kamala Harris big viral moment proved she was worthy of the hype. We learned that joe biden has no path to this nomination. He still has to earn it. We also should learn to be cautious about putting too much stock into the social media analysis and twitter chatter postdebate. Realize this, 64 of people who watch the debates on television were 55 or older. Thats not exactly the social media progressive demographic. And those older viewers may be more sympathetic to biden. Most of all, we learned that this nomination battle is wide open with no prohibitive favorite. In a party trying to decide exactly how far to the left it wants to go. I respect senator harris, but you know, we all know that 30 seconds to 60 seconds on a Campaign Debate exchange cant do justice to a lifetime committed to civil rights. Reporter Vice President biden is on defense after that bruising debate performance in a race that now appears wide open. I agree that everybody wants no, no, my time is up. Reporter bidens apparent political vulnerabilities were on display thursday night as senator Kamala Harris punctured his aura of inevitability. It was hurtful to hear you talk about the reputations of two United States senators who built their reputations and career on the segregation of race in this country. You also worked with them to oppose bussing. And you know, there was a little girl in california who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools, and she was bussed to school every day. And that little girl was me. Mischaracterization of my position across the board. I did not praise racists. That is not true. Number one. Number two, if we want to have this campaign litigated on who supports civil rights and whether i did or not, im happy to do that. Reporter harris has since doubled down. I just think he and i have a difference of opinion and also difference of opinion on states rights. I never, ever opposed voluntary bussing. Reporter the central premise of bidens campaign is hes the democrat best equipped to take on President Trump and beat him. What is that first issue for your presidency . The first thing i would do is make sure that we defeat donald trump. Period. Reporter biden has shown durability over months, where his record has been litigated in the press, but after the debate, some democrats are calling him a fragile front runner. Who do you think can go up against President Trump . I feel like harris definitely could. Reporter as the party shifts to the left, harris again found herself backtracking on the issue of governmentrun health care. Who here would abolish their private Health Insurance in favor of a governmentrun plan . Reporter but after the debate, harris said she misunderstood the question. Do you believe that private insurance should be eliminated in this country . No. You dont . No, i do not. But you raised your hand. The question was would you give up your private insurance for that option, and i said yes. Reporter the debates have showcased the partys leftward shift on the economy, health care, taxes, and National Security policy, led by Senators Elizabeth Warren calling out the names of the monopolists. Reporter and Bernie Sanders. We will have medicare for all. Reporter and on immigration. Raise your hand if your government plan would provide coverage for undocumented immigrants. And joining me now is president ial candidate, democratic senator cory booker of new jersey. Senator, welcome back to meet the press, sir. Good to be on. Great to see you on wednesday night too. Yes, it was. Let me start with what happened on thursday night because i want to hear your reaction to the back and forth between Vice President biden and senator harris, specifically senator harris critique. Do you believe her critique was fair and accurate on the Vice President s record . Look, i was talking about the Vice President s comments well before the debate where he used words like boy in a way that caused a lot of hurt and harm. I called him out on it. Instead of coming forward and saying, i could have said that better, or let me tell you what i meant, he fell into a defensive crouch and tried to reassign blame and said i should apologize to him. Whoever our nominee is going to be, whoever the next president is going to be, really needs to be someone who can talk openly and honestly about race with vulnerability because none of us are perfect. But really call this country to common ground, to reconciliation. Im not sure if Vice President biden is up to that task given the way this last three weeks have played out. Frankly, i know whoever is that nominee needs to be able to pull this country together because we need to reconcile. I want to play a quote the Vice President said on friday that you took some issue with on twitter. Let me play that quote and get you to react on the other side. Here it is. We got to recognize that kid wearing a hoodie may very well be the next poet laureate and not a gang banger. Now, after your criticism on twitter, the Vice President s campaign put out their own statement. I want to put it up and then get you to react. Vice president biden, like many leaders over the years, was calling direct attention to the daily experiences faced by many africanamerican men around the country and the perceived socalled threat from people like Trayvon Martin who were deemed criminal while wearing a hoodie. As the context of his remarks noted, we need to make sure black mothers feel confident when they send their child out on the streets that theyre going to feel safe. But they didnt address the use of the word gangbanger, which was the issue you had. Explain. Again, as a guy growing up, a young black guy in america, who was followed, surveilled, being perceived to be a threat, again, this is just another example of just conversations or lessons that joe biden shouldnt have to learn. Theres a lot of his record from bussing to the 1994 crime bill. I was in law school when that was going on when you saw africanamerican men being arrested at rates that were unconscionable. I came from yale and stanford, where people were using marijuana, using drugs, but lived in a country where theres no difference between drug usage and drug selling between blacks and whites, but africanamericans are almost four times more likely to be incarcerated for those things. And these are very typical, painful issues to the point now that because of a lot of legislation that joe biden endorsed, this war on drugs, which has been a war on people, weve now had a 500 increase in the prison population since 1980, overwhelmingly black and brown. Theres more africanamericans under criminal supervision today than all the slaves in 1850. These are real, painful, hurtful issues. Again, we need nominees that can speak to this in a way that heals, that brings people together, that rises us up as a country to not only deal with historic and systemic racism but helps us to come together and deal with our common purpose and common cause. Do you think the Vice President is just incapable of that because of his record . That because of this lengthy record that no matter whether he disavows it or not, that that disqualifies him to be the nominee for a Democratic Party in the 21st century . Well, a lot of democrats that were involved with the 1994 crime bill have spoken very hopely with vulnerability, talking about their mistakes. So that doesnt disqualify you. But what weve seen from the Vice President over the last month is an inability to talk candidly about the mistakes he made, about things he could have done better, about how some of the decisions he made at the time in difficult context actually have resulted in really bad outcomes. And this is a bad culture where you cant admit mistakes, where you cant speak to your vulnerabilities and your imperfections. We all have them, but when it comes to difficult issues with race, if you cant talk openly and honestly about your own development on these issues, i think its very hard to lead our country forward so that we actually can deal with our past and rise to a better common cause and common future. We have one destiny in this nation. Right now the Vice President to me is not doing a good job at bringing folks together. In fact, hes and ive heard this from people all around the country. Hes causing a lot of frustration and even pain with his words. I want to ask you a larger philosophical question about the party here, which is simply this. Take the issue of health care and the question of where do you guys disagree and where do you agree. If you were coming in from a foreign country, you would say, everybody seems to agree on where they want to take health care. Theres just a disagreement on the speed with which you guys would do universal health care. But it feels like theres a huge divide. You have tried to straddle this progressive and sort of mainstream wing of the party, trying to sell progressives everybodys got to be brought along together. Where is that line for you . Well, again, for me its very practical. I actually was a chief executive. I had to run new jerseys largest city. I always spoke to what our ideals were, where we were going, what the destination would be, but i never let perfect be the enemy of the good, especially in communities like in newark where we desperately needed some good. We needed some progress. And so this, to me, is not as complicated a debate as youre framing it. The goal that most americans hold is that the wealthiest nation on the planet earth should have everyone having access to highquality, Affordable Health care. I believe the best way to get there in this imperfect system would be medicare for all, but i also know that on day one as president , people want to see their Prescription Drug costs go down. People want to see a pathway to having Lower Health Care cost thats why putting that public option out, letting people buy in, lowering the cost of health care, these are the urgencies that i would deal with as a chief executive from my experience as a chief executive. Senator cory booker, unfortunately, thats all the time i have. I hope to have you back sooner. We can talk more issues there. I appreciate you coming on and sharing your views. Thank you for participating in the debates. Thank you very much. And joining me now from san antonio is president ial candidate, former housing secretary Julian Castro. Secretary castro, welcome back to meet the press. Good to be with you. You had an event friday night in austin, sold out, after your debate performance. Be honest with me here. How important did you feel these first debates were going to be for your candidacy in particular . Very important, yeah. I knew coming in that more people were going to be watching this debate than had been tuned in to any event in the campaign so far. People had their first opportunity to start comparing candidates. I wanted to introduce myself to a lot of folks because, as you note, chuck, my name i. D. Has been lower than some of the other candidates. I also think and i think, you know, my takeaway from it is probably the most helpful thing people saw when it comes to me and my candidacy after wednesday night is that the number one question i get asked when i talk to voters in iowa, here in texas, california, new hampshire, wherever, is they have this kind of anxiety about the democratic nominee and whether the nominee can go toe to toe on the debate stage with donald trump. Can you hold your own . What they saw was that i have a strong, compelling vision for the future of the country and that i can hold my own when im challenged on a debate stage. I can go toe to toe with donald trump. I think thats an important hurdle for voters, especially this year. I want to talk about your sort of signature moment in that debate, when you went up you and beto orourke had a back and forth about the issue of essentially decriminalizing one part of immigration law. You want to see it done. I want to get you to react to something Fareed Zakaria wrote in the Washington Post earlier this week. If things continue to spiral downward in americas southern border seems out of control, trumps tough rhetoric and hardline stance will become increasingly attractive. The rise of populism in the western world is almost everywhere, tied to fears of out of control immigration. His point being this, that the democrats have to also have a plan to figure out this increase in my grags, itimmigration. Its happening all over the world. Some of its impacted by climate change. Others, authoritarian rule. What does that plan look like in a Castro Administration . Im glad you asked. As you probably know, chuck, i was actually the first candidate in early april to put out a comprehensive immigration plan, and my first answer would be if youre out there and youre saying, what in the world is going on . 144,000 people came to the southern border last month. I agree with you. We need to address this. But theres a smarter, more effective, and more humane way to address this. Ill give you an example of that. Weve known for years that people are coming from Central America. In 2014, we had a lot of people that also came. In the years subsequent to that, we did too. The first thing this president should have done is what ive called for, which is a 21st century plan to partner with these northern triangle countries that many of these people are coming from, whether its honduras or el salvador or guatemala, so people can find safety and opportunity at home instead of having to come to the United States. If im elected president , im going to go to work right away to make sure that we partner with those countries to stem the flow of peop