Im going to thank frank, elise, carol and matt. My colleague chuck todds going to pick up our coverage of the president s Press Conference. The beef and all of the different things, pork, very big on pork. But if you look and you see, i actually think they put out a statement. Theyre starting to buy very heavily our ag again. They want to make a deal. The question is do we want to make a deal . If smc doesnt pass through congress, is that the end of nafta . I dont want to answer that question but you know how i feel about nafta. I think nafta is the worst trade deal ever made. I also think the World Trade Organization was not one of the greats. Not one of the greats. That was the creation of china which went like a rocket ship from the day they signed. It was terrible. No, were going to find out. Thats going to be a very interesting question. With nancy and chuck and all of
these people focussing on the witch hunt because they cant beat us at the ballot. They cant beat us at the ballot and theyre not going to win the president ial. We have great polls. We have internal polls that are ohio, iowa, pennsylvanias looking good, north carolina. We just won two races that a lot of people thought we were going to lose both of those races. One was down 17 points three weeks before the race and he ended up winning by a substantial margin. By a substantial margin. Dan bishop. Then we had a second race, as you know, and he was up one or two points and he ended up winning by, what was it, 25 points or some incredible. Ill ask you folks. I dont want to be inaccurate. We have breaking news, trump exaggerated. But he won by many, many points. And he was leading by maybe two, maybe three, but he won by in the 20s. So its been so were looking
great in north carolina. Looking great in florida. And you had one or two congressmen, democrats saying, listen, we cant beat him at the election, so lets impeach him. Right . Didnt you hear al green. Thats a beauty. Hes a real beauty, that guy. But he said very distinctively, it was all over the place. I dont know, theyre trying to lose that tape i guess. But he said we cant essentially he said we cant beat him. Lets impeach him. Thats pretty thats pretty dangerous stuff. Steve, go ahead. Thank you, sir. You had expressed some concerns about the precedent of releasing the transcript yeah, i dont like it. Why did you go ahead and do it . Because i was getting such fake news and i thought it would be better. Now theyre asking for the first Phone Conversation. Ill release that, too, if thats important to you. I had a cons previous on a previous election plateau that he had hit. The current president hit a couple of different plateaus, and i spoke to him previous to the call that we released. Which was a very innocent call. Very, very innocent. Very nice call. And as he said, we were i wasnt pushed, meaning pressured. He wasnt pressured at all. But i dont like the concept of releasing calls because when a president or a Prime Minister or a king or a queen calls the United States you dont like to say, gee, were going to release your call to the Fake News Media and theyre going to make you look like a fool. What happens is its hard to do business that way. You want to have people feel comfortable. So i hated it, but you folks were saying such lies, such horrible things about a call that was so innocent and so nice. In fact, Lindsey Graham said to me when he read it, it was very interesting, hes a good man, hes a smart man. He said i cant believe it. I never knew you could be this really nice to a person. He said i cannot believe it. You were so i didnt think you had that in you to be so nice. I was nice. Im nice to a lot of people. People dont understand that. But i was. He was shocked that it was such a nice call. He said there is nothing here. And all fair people say the same thing. But i dont like the precedent, steve. I dont like it where youre dealing with Heads Of State and to think that their call is going to be released. But i felt that and, you know, we spoke to ukraine about it. Mike actually called up his counterpart and we spoke to ukraine about it because we wanted to because it could have been if they didnt want us to do it, we would not have done it. But he actually said that was a very innocent call. You can release it all you want. And are you now braced to a long Impeachment Saga . Well, i thought we won. I thought it was dead. It was dead. The mueller report, no obstruction, no collusion, you
look at all the things that happened. Corey lewandowski was fantastic the other day as a person that they have been tormenting. You look at all the people that theyve tormented. All the legal fees. People came here with bright eyes. They wanted to make life so great for other people and they left where they spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees that they didnt have and its a sad thing what these democrats have done to ruin lives is so sad. Ive seen people with only good intention, they came to washington because they wanted to make the United States and the world a better place. And they went home, they were dark. They got hit by muellers subpoenas. I think there were 2,500 subpoenas or some ridiculous number. 500 people were interviewed and yet they dont interview joe biden . And his son . If youre a democrat you have automatic protection. Thats years and years of people
putting in certain people into positions. But when you look at all of the all of the trauma that these fakers have caused. And the press, look, the press is much of the press is not only fake, its corrupt. These stories they write are corrupt theyre so wrong. And they know that. You know, it used to be i used to get great press until i ran for politics. I used to be the king of getting good press. I was very good at it. I got good. They covered me well for what otherwise i probably wouldnt be here. Once i ran i said, boy, this is incredible. But if you see the way they treat my family used to be treated great. My family works so hard. The people that work with me. These people, all of these people, they work so hard. Theyve done such look, we have the greatest economy weve ever had. We have a military, 2. 5 trillion. Weve rebuilt our military. You dont hear the vets complain. We got choice approved. It couldnt be approved. But when you see what happened
with the viciousness, and when you see little adam schiff Go Out And Lie and lie and stand at the mic. Smart guy, by the way. Stand at the mic and act like hes so serious. And then he goes into a room with nadler and they must laugh their asses off. They must laugh their asses off. But its so bad for our country. People have said rush limbaugh, great man, sean hannity said it, a lot of people have said it, mark levin. They said they dont know if one man anywhere in the world with all the men they know or woman that could handle what ive had to handle. And i think thats true. But i handle it. To me its like putting on a suit. All right. How about one more question question on the economy. A question on the economy. Go ahead. Sir, hi. Go ahead. Hi, mr. President. Vpi tv from caracas, venezuela. Wow. How are you doing over there . Pretty bad. Our situation is pretty bad. I would say pretty bad, yeah. Its sad. But we are fighting. It was one of the great countries and one of the richest countries not so long ago, 15 years ago. Its incredible. But we are going to make it. I agree with that. And were helping you. Yeah. Were helping you. Yeah, i know be, and thank y go ahead. I have two questions to take advantage of this. Maduro travelled to russia and to north korea. Two of the most antagonist nations in the u. S. interests. What can be done to contain this what are they looking for in that country and because the special envoy said that the russian are willing to negotiate. This is one question. And the other, mr. President , you say that the socialists is one of the biggest challengers. You said yesterday in the United Nations. But the region is far from safe. Maduros still a dictator full in power, in argentina and brazil are under threat about the socialists and populists. Are you worried about it . Well, i just say that socialism will never happen in the United States. Cant happen in the United States. And venezuela, unfortunately, i have to use your country as the example of what socialism can do, how it can tear the fabric of a country apart. Because i know a lot about venezuela. Ive had many, many friends of mine come from venezuela. They live many of them in miami. A certain section of miami. I wont say the section because theyll say im thinking about my business but im not. They are fantastic people. They liked your president. They vote overwhelmingly for me. They like what im doing for venezuela. We have venezuela very much in our hearts and very much in our
sights and were watching it very carefully. And you know what i would say . Were giving millions and millions of dollars in aid. Not that we want to from the maduro standpoint, but we have to because on a humanitarian people are dying. They have no food. They have no water. They have no nothing. No medicine. The hospitals are closed or dont even have electricity. Its so sad to see. Let me just say that we have it under control. We are watching it very carefully. And were going to be very, very russia is negotiating were watching it very carefully, including other countries that may or may not be playing game. Were watching it very closely. But you know if russia is talking with u. S. Or guaido, what can you tell about us . Just put this in the back of your mind, its all going to be fine. We know everything you said and its all going to be fine. Were very much involved. We very much know whats going on and were very much involved, okay . Thank you all very much. Thank you. Thank you very much. Well, its been quite a day of trump News Conferences, both planned and unplanned and some lets say interesting quotes from the commander in chief these days. Were going to break a lot of this down. Welcome to wednesday. Its meet the press daily. Good evening. Im chuck todd in washington where its another incredibly fastmoving day of breaking news. Youve been listening to the president. That was the official postUnited NationsGeneral Assembly appearance Press Conference. Largely evading Reporter Questions about the appropriateness of his efforts to get ukraine to investigate his political rival joe biden. At one point the president claimed the news was part of a hoebs explicitly meant to distract from all of his work at the United Nations this week. The democrats did this hoax during the United Nations week. It was perfect. Because this way it takes away from this tremendous
achievements that were taking care of doing, that were involved in. In New York City at the United Nations. So that was all planned, like everything else, it was all planned. And the witch hunt continues. But theyre getting hit hard on this witch hunt. Because when they look at the information, its a joke. Impeachment for that . When you have a wonderful meeting or you have a wonderful Phone Conversation . In some ways that was it was sort of embhlematic of his day when he went to create Conspiracy Theories nobodys ever heard of. Those people have heard of that make no sense. In other points interpreting his call in a way that only he is interpreting. President trump seemed to double down on claims that he didnt do anything wrong with ukraines president. The president went after
democrats and said Speaker Pelosi seems to have been tacke over by the radical left. Detailing the president s july phone call with ukraines president revealing that trump asked ukraine to investigate biden, two, investigate the russia probes origins, and, three, chase down something about a server among other things. Just like sometimes when the president is doing a Press Conference and doesnt quite finish a thought, that is what one point in this dont call it a transcript transcript that it came through there. Now, most republicans today are publicly insisting that there is no skoncandal in here. I told you this was a day of breaking news. The president today met with of all people ukrainians president zelenskiy who told reporters he did not feel pushed by the president s requests in that phone call. And that discussion, of course, is purportedly part of the whistleblower complaint that is finally being made available to congress, house and Senate IntelligenceCommittee Members are right now going not quite one by one but very close filing
into the skicif, the secure are where they can view classified material. Theyre doing that as we talk right now. And all of this is happening ahead of some potentially explosive testimony tomorrow from the Inspector General who deemed that complaint urgent and credible and the nations spy chief who initially blocked who they initially blocked from essentially going to congress with this whistleblower complaint. So a lot more drama as a source has told nbc news that the spy chief, the director of National IntelligenceJoseph Maguire actually vowed to resign if he could not testify to congress. Saying, quote, he never considered resigning but not that he never threatened to, for what its worth. Of course theres been a ton of political reaction today as the allegations surrounding the president are now essentially the center of a formal Impeachment Inquiry. Weve got a lot oh gto get to, t to unpack. Let me go to white house
correspondent Kristen Welker. She just finished up at the president s News Conference in New York City. Kristen, let me start with first, that look like a very tired President Trump. And i know normally he avoids Public Events at this time of the day. You know, he keeps some odd hours so this might be one of his but he seemed amazingly sort of reserved, almost subdued. Reporter subdued and maybe some simmering anger there as well, chuck. It was remarkable because he started this event with a monologue effectively that went on for quite some time. He ticked through what he saw as his accomplishments at this u. N. General assembly. And then he only took a few questions from reporters. If you compare what just happened here to what we witnessed one year ago, it was two completely different President Trumps. Last year he took questions for over an hour. This year, again, only taking a few questions. Clearly on defense about the developments on capitol hill, about the fact that House Speaker nancy pelosi is now officially opening an Impeachment Inquiry. So President Trump did answer questions throughout the day, including by our own hallie jackson, about essentially how can you justify asking a foreign leader for help to investigate your political rival . Eamon javers of cnbc asked him that very question. He instead of directly answering it went off on a bit of a tangent. Right. Reporter and started to point the finger at his predecessor, obama. But the bottom line, chuck, this is a president who is feeling embattled right now. Some of his allies think there may be some political benefit in this moment. I heard you talk about some of the republicans who put out statements today, saying nothing to see in this call. Some of those same republicans are privately telling reporters, actually, theyre concerned about the contents of the call. Yep. Reporter some of the president s closest allies
saying, gee, i wish he hadnt done that. So i think this is a white house that realizes this is a different political moment. Yep. Reporter you saw that reflected here, chuck. Its true. I thought it was intriguing to me that the president went out of his way to say all House Republicans were going to vote with all house republicademocra the whistleblower complaint. Reporter right. Something told me they needed to do that because mccarthy probably wasnt holding the line. There were probably republicans that werent willing to essentially vote against The Democrats on that issue. So reporter i think thats a really important point, chuck, and likely giving Mccarthiy Cov cover her. Thats right. Reporter of course, we know the reaction has been mixed among republicans with some scratching their heads about whether or not this was a good idea to release this memo of the call. Yep. Reporter and of course you and i have been talking about the fact that theres been a pretty big debate going on inside the white house about
whether or not they were going to release this. There were some officials who were concerned about yeah. Reporter what this call would show. So here we have the contents. It is quite gray and, of course, democrats are pouncing on this and saying it is highly problematic if not impeachable, chuck. I dont know how gray it is. Anyway, Kristen Welker doesnt seem gray. I dont know if theres gray area in here, but thats very generous there. Kristen welker covering the president. Thanks very much. Let me move to julia ainsley. Shes live outside the Department Of Justice. Garrett haake is live on capitol hill for us. Julia, i want to start with you because the unusual role that the Justice Department played here became more un