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exhausted with this same old tired playbook. >> they've destroyed the fabric of our country. millions of people let in. >> in their first face-off on the debate stage, vice president kamala harris puts former president donald trump on the defensive. >> donald trump actually has no plan for you because he is more interested in defending himself than he is in looking out for you. >> she's going to do all these wonderful things. why hasn't she done it? she's been there for three and a half years? >> will debate change the minds of undecided voters. steve kornacki takes us inside the key battlegrounds. plus, doubling down. the debate over immigration takes a disturbing turn over donald trump's unfounded claims that haitian immigrants in springfield, ohio, are abusing animals. >> they're eating the dogs, the people that came in, they're eating the cats. >> it's a right-wing conspiracy theory. >> and swift voting. >> register to vote for

something else, it's very important. >> taylor swift uses her voice to back kamala harris in a surprise endorsement. how powerful is her seal of approval? my guest this morning, republican vice presidential nominee j.d. vance and former democratic presidential candidate pete buttigieg. joining me for insight and analysis are nbc news senior washington correspondent hallie jackson. jonathan martin of politico. symone sanders townsend, former chief spokesperson for vice president kamala harris and marc short, former chief of staff to mike pence. welcome to sunday. it's "meet the press". from nbc news in washington, the longest running show in television history, this is "meet the press" with kristen welker. good sunday morning, we are just 51 days away from election day and after the first debate this past week the race is still

incredibly close. former president trump's allies want him to spend these critical final days talking about the issues on voters' minds, the economy, health care, immigration and focusing on the vice president's vulnerability, instead, mr. trump spend the week falsely claiming that migrants are eating pets in a small town in ohio and defending his association with a far-right agitator who other republicans have condemned. on tuesday night former president trump and vice president harris faced off for what may r been the most important 90 minutes of the campaign. >> donald trump was fired by 81 million people. clearly, he is having a very difficult time processing that. >> i've never seen a worst period of time. people can't go out and buy cereal, bacon or eggs or anything else. >> during the course of his rallies he talks about fictional characters like hannibal lector, and wind mills cause cancer and the one thing you will not hear him talk about is you. >> we have the big of the

rallies and the most incredible rallies in the history of politics. >> he doubled down on baseless claims that he made on the stage that members of the haitian population in springfield, ohio are abusing pets and city officials say there is no evidence of that. >> in springfield, ohio, they're eating the dogs, they're eating the cats and they're eating the pets of the people that live there. they take in the geese. you know where the geese are in the park and they're, like, and even walking off with their pets. my dog's been taken! >> this morning sprengfield is on edge after days of bomb threats that closed public schools, government buildings and hospitals. former president trump also defended his association with far-right activist laura lumer who traveled with him as he made multiple stops on wednesday on the 23rd anniversary of the

september 11th attacks. she posted a video that called the 9/11 attacks an inside job. this morning she posted a racist tweet about vice president harris. some republicans are condemning her. north carolina writing, quote, laura lumer is a crazy conspiracy theorist who is intended on dividing republicans. there are real concerns about lumer and trump's relationship and worried lumer can cost him votes. during a news conference on friday mr. trump downplayed his connection to lumer, but did not disavow her statement. >> what about you do you feel that laura lumer brings to you and has nobody told you about the conspiracy theories that she has promoted? >> no, i don't know that much about it. i know she's a big fan of the campaign, but i really don't know. >> what does she bring to you? >> i would say that -- she springs a spirit to us that a lot of people have.

we have very spirited people. >> later, he posted on social media, laura lumer doesn't work for the campaign and she's a private citizen and longtime supporters. i disagree with the statement she made and like the millions who support me, she is tired of watching the left marxist attack me. i am joined now by national political correspondent steve kornacki. steve, what does it look like post-debate? >> first of all, this is the national poll average here of harris ahead by two points. the nbc news average of the major national polls over the last two weeks, and that means just about half of the polls that are in this average have now been conducted after that debate and you see harris with a two-point lead nationally and one of the things we've talked about is in the last two elections when donald trump ran

2016 and 2020, he lost to the popular vote in both of those elections, but almost won the electoral college in 2020 and did win the electoral college in 2016 and here are the states that we think will determine the electoral college, the seven core battleground states and the nbc news poll average here, they are very, very close. you see harris with slight advantages in some of these trump in georgia and arizona, north carolina tied and would also flag for you and remember in 2016 and 2020, one of the stories of the election, polls were off and they were off in specific places. two of the states this missed the biggest in polling in the last election were michigan and wisconsin and notice those are the states right now where harris has the strongest advantages in the polling. in 2016, trump voters, blue collar trump voters were underestimated in the polls. it's a question. has that been fixed or is that

something that might happen again? here's a big f and i stress if, but this is just to show you, if we take the states that are blue, the trump red north carolina tied and we plugged it in to the 270 map that would have harris at 276, trump, 246 and from trump's standpoint even looking at this, here's the path that he's going to win this presidential election. right now, again, with that small lead in the poll average in george a north carolina tied and remember, trump did carry north carolina in 2016 and 2020. so let's say trump were able, but if trump were to get north carolina then he would need one of wisconsin, michigan, pennsylvania. three states he carried in 2016 that he lost to joe biden in 2020, but you'll see right here just with georgia and carolina, if he wins pennsylvania he's got

when he needs. if he wins michigan, he's got what he needs. if he wins wisconsin, he's got what he needs. bottom line, the trump path pretty simple there, the harris path, protect those three, we'll see what happens, kristen, going forward. >> a fight to the finish. steve kornacki, thank you so much. joining me now is former president trump's running mate j.d. vance of ohio. welcome back to "meet the press". >> good morning, kristen. thanks for having me. >> thanks so much for being here. i want to start with the topic of abortion, the issue of a federal abortion ban came up in the debate this week including the comments that you made here on this program last month. take a look. >> if such a piece of legislation landed on donald trump's desk would he veto it? >> yeah, if you're not supporting it as a president of the united states you fundamentally -- >> would he veto a federal

abortion ban? >> he said that explicitly that he would. >> here's what donald trump said on the debate stage. >> would you veto a national abortion ban. >> i won't have to. >> if you can answer yes or no. j.d. vance said you would veto. >> i didn't discuss it with j.d. i don't mind if he has a certain view, but i really didn't. >> senator vance, just to clarify once and for all if donald trump were to be elected if a federal abortion ban were to land on his desk would he veto it? >> kristen, you saw the president say we hadn't discussed it. we haven't discussed it because it's not realistic. that's the point he made during the debate. he's made it clear he doesn't want a national abortion ban and he wants it made by the state. alabama can make a different decision from california and

we're a big country, the best way for us to facilitate us coming together is by allowing the individual state to make their own abortion policy and president trump has been clear, he wouldn't support it and he wouldn't sign it and frankly, kristen, it's a ridiculous hypothetical because if a national abortion ban was brought before the united states senate right now it would get at best ten senators out of a hundred. i think we should talk about issues that actually might come before the president like our approach to lowering energy prices and lowering grocery prices to making housing more affordable which have all gone in the wrong direction under kamala harris' policies and his point is that it was a hypothetical and not a hypothetical that would cross his desk. >> just to put a fine point on this, you're saying he wouldn't support it, but would he veto it? >> i think i've learned my lesson on speaking for the president before he and i have talked about an issue.

when he said at the debate which is quite explicit is he won't veto a piece of legislation that won't come before the president in the first place. >> let's talk more broadly about the issue of health care. former president trust said he had, quote, concepts of a plan to replace the affordable care act. here's what he has said in the past, look. >> we will will have a health care plan that's going to be second to none. >> we have two plans coming out. we have the concept of the plan. we'll be announcing that in about two months, maybe less. >> senator, can you clarify, what is donald trump's health care plan? >> first of all, kristen, let's back up a little bit to 2017-2018 when obama care was collapsing under the weight of the regulatory burdens and collapsing under the lack of funding and donald trump had two choices. he could have destroyed the

program or he could build upon it and make it better so americans wouldn't choose a lot of health care. he chose to build upon the plan even though it came from his predecessor. it is to fix problems even if he disagreed with the original legislation to fix the american people's problems and not just to blow things up because it happened to be implemented by your predecessor and i think kamala harris should have taken the abraham accords despite building on it and could build more. you want to make sure pre-existing conditions are covered. you want to make sure people have access to the doctors that they need and you want to implement deregulatory agenda so people can choose a health care plan that fits them. think about it, a young american doesn't have the same health care needs as a 65-year-old american. a 65-year-old american in good health has much different health care needs than a 65-year-old

american with a chronic condition. the best way to do that is to promote more choice in the health care system and not have a one size fits all approach that puts a lot of people into the same insurance pools, into the same risk pools that actually makes it harder for people make the right choices for their health care. >> you mentioned obama, 20 million people are getting health care through obamacare. the question is and you're laying out benchmarks here, but why should voters believe when a plan is forthcoming when you've heard donald trump say so many times in the past that he'll put forward a plan and it still hasn't happened yet. >> donald trump governed for four years and he protected those 20 million americans from losing health coverage. he protected a lot more additional americans from losing their health coverage and he ensureded that people able to access coverage for the first time. members of my own family, for

example, got health care. we have a record to run on. he does have a plan to how to fix american health care, but a lot of of it goes down, kristen to deregulating the insurance market so that people can choose a plan that actually maches sense for them. on the one hand, fix the problems of obama care and on the other hand, kristen, making sure people make good choices. >> what i'm hearing is obama care stays in place. there was a lot of attention, as you know on former president trump's baseless claims about migrants eating pets in springfield, ohio, claims you first shared online, senator earlier this week. local authorities now say there have been no credible reports of migrants hurting pets or animals and in fact, neo-nazis are now taking credit, frankly, for pushing these rumors mainstream. why are you continuing to double and triple down on these baseless claims? >> two important points here,

kristen. first of all, i have heard first hand from multiple constituents, people when made 911 calls a month ago, a year ago who are making these complaints. i trust the constituents more than i do the american media that have shown no interest in what happened in springfield until we started sharing cat memes which is disgraceful kamala harris has led to skyrocketing costs in springfield and rising rates of crime and rising rates of communicable diseases. they've dropped 20,000 immigrants into a town of 40,000 and it's cost a coast of social problems and we should be talking about why kamala harris has done this to this small town and the media and the democrats ignored it for an entire year. kristen, i was talking about this on the senate banking committee months ago, nobody would pay attention to it until we started sharing the 911 calls of people in springfield saying the migrants are eating the

geese, and i think that's really, really shameful that no one cared about it or paid attention to it. >> yet, senator officials, the mayor, local officials say there's no evidence of what you're saying that it's baseless. those claims. can you make the argument about immigration without making the claims, senator? why not just make an argument about immigration? why do you have to delve into repeating these baseless claims that again, senator, have been repeated by neo-nazis? >> kristen, i hear you saying that they're baseless, but i'm not repeating them because i invented them out of thin air. i'm inventing them because our constituents are saying that's happening. >> there's no evidence. >> a migrant eating a cat, clearly these rumors are out there because constituents are seeing it with their own eyes and some of them are talking about. look, we should talk about and should primarily talk about the effect that this has had on car

insurance rates and disease rates and those are the things that i'm spending 95% of my time talking about, kristen and the media didn't care about this story until we started sharing the 911 call about the geese. that's abindictment of the american media, but the real problem here, kristen and let me just finish this point, kamala harris opened the border with no plan for how to assimilate 20,000 people and it's made the community worse off and that's what we should focus on. >> the mayor from dayton in the vid why you're talking about and the police chief responded forcefully to the new video you referenced and said there's absolutely no evidence to even remotely suggest that immigrants are eating pets. >> let me ask you, though. in october of 2016, you said this, quote, trump makes people i care about afraid. immigrants, muslims, et cetera because of this i find him reprehensible. god wants better of us. this week in springfield, buildings were closed because of bomb threats, haitian immigrants say they are afraid for their

lives. are you now doing the very thing you once called reprehensible, senator? >> well, first of all, kristen, we condemn all acts of violence and all threats of violence, but kristen, the reason they changed my mind on donald trump is actually perfectly highlighted by what's going on in springfield because the media and the kamala harris campaign, they've been calling the residents of springfield racists. they've been lying about them and they've been saying that they make up these reports of migrants eating geese and they completely ignored the public health disaster that is unfolding in springfield at this very minute. >> senator, what about the haitian immigrants --? because donald trump believes, kristen -- let me finish this point, kristen and feel free to follow up. donald trump is the only person who brought springfield to national attention and is the only president who is going to fight for the residents and not just the right to live safely in their communities, but for the right to complain about what's going on in their own community. i think it's disgraceful that

kamala harris has heard these complaints and has decided to call people racist instead of actually trying to make their lives better by undoing her open border, but i know you had a question. >> again, because we're almost out of time. haitian immigrants are saying they're afraid for their lives. i want to shift for another topic. i've been talking to allies of former president trump who are outraged and alarmed that donald trump has been traveling with laura lumer.he supports white nationalism. she spreads conspiracy theeres and including the september attacks are an inside job. she recently said that kamala harris whose mother was indian, if she wins in november, quote, the white house will smell like curry. senator, you are married to an indian-american woman. what was your reaction to hearing those comments specifically? >> kristen, i want to go back to what you said about haitian migrants to begin with because

you didn't get a chance to respond. we don't blame the haitian migrants for coming to springfield and we blame kamala harris for people getting dropped in a smaller town. you asked about laura lumer. she said something about curry in the white house that i first read about and i knew you would ask me about it. i make a mean chicken curry, and i don't think it's insulting for anybody to talk about the dietary preferences and what they want to do in the white house. i think what laura lumer said is not what we should be focused on and we should be focused on the policies and issues. do i agree about what laura lumer said about kamala harris? no, i don't. i don't think this is an issue of national import. is laura lumer running for president? no. kamala harris is running for president and whether you're eating curry at your dinner table or fried chicken, things have gotten more expensive

thanks to the policies and let's talk about the person running for the president of the united states and not a social media correspondent with donald trump. >> are you and your wife offended that even trump allies said are blatantly racist? >> kristen, i just told you i don't like those comments and we should focus on kamala harris' failures and i don't look at the internet for every single thing to be offended by and kamala harris has been a disaster and we have to undo her policies and that's what we should be focused on and by the way, when i say we, i mean the american media. kamala harris opened the border and we should talk about her failure as a leader and not a social media analyst who supports donald trump. >> thank you for your time. we appreciate it. >> thanks, kristen. see you. when we come back, former presidential candidate pete buttigieg joins me next.

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welcome back. joining me now is former democratic presidential candidate pete buttigieg. mr. buttigieg, welcome back to "meet the press". >> good morning. great to be with you. it is great to have you here, let's start where i left off in part with senator vance. we were talking about the situation in springfield, ohio. he has blamed the biden-harris administration and its policies for the fact that there has been an influx of haitian migrants. it's the result of a -- a policy called temporary protective status which allowed hundreds of thousands of haitian migrants who have been fleeing poverty and violence to potentially seek shelter here. the springfield, ohio, mayor said that immigrants have put a strain on resources.

how do you respond to those who say it's been a strain on resources. >> springfield, ohio, is dealing with rapid population growth some of it connected with immigration. the challenges there, and the mayor is focused on how to bring the community together, move it forward and help it grow. what is not going to help that mayor and what is not going to help the community is the kind of chaos inflicted on them by a national campaign deciding to make them a lightning rod over wild rumors and urban legends about people eating cats or dogs or geese whatever it's going to be tomorrow. let's be very clear, that community and the very real people who are dealing with some really ugly stuff right now like the bomb threats are having that inflicted on them as part of the strategy from a campaign that wants to talk about anything but

their actual record and their actual agenda. donald trump and j.d. vance cannot afford for this campaign to be about things like how donald trump eliminated the right to choose and continues to leave the door open to signing a national abortion ban. they definitely don't want this campaign to be about things like how we had a manufacturing recession under donald trump and what we have to do to keep the manufacturing boom that is going on right now going. these are not things they want to talk about. they don't want to talk about the particulars of the trump-vance health plan because they don't have one. they have this so-called concept of a health plan that's around the corner and he's been saying that for nine years. they have to get us talking about something else and the crazier the better and they go for something that is so outrageous that you actually can't ignore it. the media can't ignore what's going on because very real pain has been inflicted and fear, by the way, on people in this

community and other communities around the country and yet, if we take the bait and are completely diverted by it then we're not talking about what the campaign is supposed to be about which is the future of the american people. >> president biden did issue some of the most restrictive executive actions of any democrat after illegal border crossings reached historic level. that did anger some democrats who said the asylum restrictions went too far. if vice president is elected should she keep those executive actions in place? >> i think her response is going to reflect the conditions and the reality just as president biden was forced to take steps that are a response to the reality that we experienced with the coast post-covid migration surge and plus the failure of congress to act. let's remember, we wouldn't be here in this particular situation if donald trump hadn't intervened to sabotage a bipartisan deal that was worked

out with republicans and democrats on what to do with the border and by the way, that legislation and the executive action is true, is more conservative than what some in the democratic party would like to do, but again, we're not having a serious policy debate about immigration or another issue and if we got j.d. vance on your program basically debating exactly how racist it is to talk about the things that laura loomer has talked about. this is the kind of sideshow that they want to take the main stage so that they don't have to talk about anything sears and it's a reminder of just how exhausting it was to deal with this the first time donald trump was president. america would be in for another four years of this exhausting chaos every time we check the news if they come back to power. >> let me zoom out and ask you broadly speaking, obviously, this has been the topic of discussion, vice president harris has shifted her position on several policy issues when

she first ran for president in 2019. she initially wanted to ban fracking, now she doesn't and she wanted penalties for illill border crossings and now she doesn't. she supported made care for all and now she doesn't. to the voters who have concerns about this, if she's elected, why won't she change her mind again? >> well, look, you develop your policies based on what you see happening in the world around you and what you are able to accomplish in washington. you take the example of immigration and we just talk about what's changed over the last five years and lots of ideas were being kicked around five years ago when there was basically zero climate policy during the trump years. it's called the inflation reduction act and it does not include a ban on fracking, but what it has done is caused a lot of factories to be built right now in places like where i grew up and places like where j.d.

vance grew up creating jobs in a new energy economy and good old-fashioned jobs that would be destroyed if donald trump follows through on his promise to get rid of the inflation reduction act and those are the policies we are working with and every election is about the future and not the past and that future looks very different depending on who is about to win. >> i think voters do have a lot of questions about the vice president's policies and how specificsly she sees her administration and she sat down for her first solo interview on friday. she was asked about how the harris administration would differ from the biden administration. here's what she had to say. >> my approach is about new ideas, new policies that are directed at the current moment and also to be very honest with you, my focus is very much in what we need to do over the next ten, 20 years to catch up to the 21st century and capacity, but

also challenges. >> does the vice president need to give more specifics to that answer how a harris administration would differ from a biden administration if she wants to win this election? >> yeah. look, you can go on her website and get specifics on everything from the exact percentage point that she thinks is appropriate to the capital gains tax to how she thinks more housing will be built in this country and i'm sure over the coming days in the campaign there will be more conversations that will bring more details to light. she's also a pragmatic person who knows the reality of policy is that there's a give and take around your core values, principles and goals in order to get things done and that's certainly been the experience of the last four years and the policy framework we've emerged was something set in stone in the presidential campaign and then turned in every reality, but here's what i'll say. when it comes to policy, there are very clear and specific

policies. donald trump is for tariffs. she believes in making the wealthy pay their fair share and she put out the exact percentage point so that they are paying their fair share. donald trump eliminated the right to choose. you couldn't even get a straight answer on j.d. vance right now on whether he would veto the ban, or any conversation about policy it's very clear what the differences are, but we have a lot of unanswered questions on the trump side and the best way to answer those questions is to look at what promises he did keep when he was president, tax cuts for the rich and ending the right to choose. >> just very quickly, about ten seconds, mr. buttigieg, as you know, trump does bet or the economy than vice president harris. is she running out of time to

make her case? >> she's going to keep making her case and the more americans contemplate the division with hers on standing with workers and the middle class, the more they're going to like our economic message and not their unpopular project 2025 vision. >> all right, pete buttigieg, thank you very much for joining us. i really appreciate it. when we come back, after this week's debate, the fight for swing voters is now playing out in the battleground states. who has the advantage? our panel is next. weathertech products are designed and manufactured in america using only american raw materials. most competitors make things seven thousand miles away... and then wonder why they don't fit. with weathertech in your vehicle you may hear angels singing as you marvel, how do they do it? simple. american technology and american workers deliver quality... not imported junk for a few bucks less. get the gold standard in floorliners and support america. find your fit at wt.com

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welcome back. the panel is here. nbc news senior washington correspondent hallie jackson, anchor of "sunday nightly news," jonathan martin, senior political correspondent for politico. symone sanders townsend, former chief spokesperson for vice president harris and marc short, former chief of staff to vice president mike pence. thank you, all of you, for being here. hallie, you and i have been chewing on this all week long together. we just got this new nbc news-ipsos poll. harris has a narrow lead within the margin of error. polls show, the bigger majority

of voters think she won the debate, but what's the impact here? where are we in the race? >> hot scoop, it's still really close and still very competitive. you heard it here first. in conversations i heard from a biden campaign aide, they said we knew this race would be close. the vibes are good essentially, but there's a lot of work to do on the ground and we have to do it and prosecute the case and when you look at this poll it does show that yeah, voters think she won the debate, but it doesn't catalyze much movement on the ground, if you will, the trump camp felt she didn't effectively prosecute the difference if you talked about what he would do nor did they think she made the case and they've been talking about this . . . comes to president trump, peope can build a with him on stage is

talk about consistently taking the bait that kamala harris laid out essentially. >> he took every piece of bait, and jonathan, i know that you've been talking to republicans about this. the fallout from the debate and conspiracy theory upon conspiracy theory and talking with laura loomer. >> they rather deepen than broaden it. most candidates for president do both. you mobilize your base and persuade undecideds. trump is much more a mobilizer only. he's not trying to persuade the voter in the political center. he's not trying to get the george w. bush or marc short republican, if you will. he's trying to get more like minded people. here's the reveal, after labor day, trump rolls out tulsi gabbard. and kamala harris has dick

cheney. you want those that don't want to vote at all or vote for him. i think kamala harris gets the voter that would never vote for donald trump. >> is still has not happened yet, marc short, to that point, is the trump strategy working? we're talking about baseless claims in springfield, ohio, instead of his allies and supporters want him talking about which is his immigration policy and the economy, his strongest suit. >> i think it's an enormously missed opportunity. trump's not going to lose support. his supporters are locked in. it was a huge missed opportunity to prosecute the case against the biden-harris administration on the border, on the economy and the tax increases and how much you inherited family wealth and talking about haitianing me

rants stealing dogs and cats and the rally crowds. it's an enormous missed opportunity. it would make sense if you're trying to deepen your support in a multi-candidate field and ironically the trump campaign made sure this is a binary choice to help push kennedy out of the race. >> do you think harris is doing enough to capitalize on this moment and is she building up what seems to be some momentum coming up. >> i think so, they've had an aggressive tour coming out of this debate and we started to see more local television interviews. frankly, i think that's what they should have been doing. if people are not watching the national news, they are turning on the 5:00 and 7:00 news and seeing those clips makes a difference. i think that this strategy that the trump campaign has employed, it is donald trump's strategy is the deepened the up ort he has

and it will turn off people that maybe they're not sure that they were going to vote for kamala harris and tim walz and they're seeing what donald trump is doing, maybe i just need to get out there and vote. >> just this morning i was talking to republicans and is anyone going to vote for donald trump? >> no. what's the other alternative? these folks are not going to support kamala harris and do we love everything he does? no, and are we going to get behind him? and i think you're seeing it to mention more and more now especially, even top officials inside the trump administration will acknowledge it's a distraction and they don't want to see it. they don't like it. >> kamala harris has been running a campaign of reassurance trying to reassure voters in the political center, and don't worry about my 2019 stances and here's my convention speech, wrapped in red, white and blue. it's been a smart campaign and i still think she has to go one step further to really reel in

more of those voters who are kept cal about trump and not totally sold on her. >> all these new registered voters and si think that makes a difference like the polls that we're seeing, what is a likely voter in an election where there's new record new reg strands? i don't think we know what the electorate looks like and there could be more democratic base voters that were previously unengaged and now they're going to the polls. >> is there going to be a second debate and should there be? >> i don't think any of us know, kristen. donald trump is known to change his opinion and -- and if polls continue to go the wrong way, it's probably less than 50/50. >> it was interesting to hear vice presidential nominee say he's learned his lesson any no longer speaks for donald trump on the issue of a national abortion ban, hallie. >> he probably could have spoken to any former white house press secretary and learned that

lesson, too. it's an issue that you raised with him weeks ago that continues to be making news. >> yeah. >> j.d. vance is happy to go out and defend trump at every turn, but i'll tell you, there were a lot of folks watching that interview on tv and is it worth it for j.d. vance. >> it's also an important issue for voters and they haven't talked about it. >> stick around. when we come back, will taylor swift's know dorsment type 2 diabetes? discover the ozempic® tri-zone. ♪ ♪ i got the power of 3. i lowered my a1c, cv risk, and lost some weight. in studies, the majority of people reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it. i'm under 7. ozempic® lowers the risk of major cardiovascular events such as stroke, heart attack, or death in adults also with known heart disease. i'm lowering my risk. adults lost up to 14 pounds. i lost some weight. ozempic® isn't for people with type 1 diabetes.

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welcome back. this week mega-star taylor swift surprised even the harris campaign by announcing her support for the vice president in an instagram post to her more than 280 million followers after the debate writing i'm voting for kamala harris because she fights for the rights and causes, i believe, a warrior to champion them. or -- over the 24 hours following her announcement. how much do celebrity

endorsements matter? in 2016 actor george clooney joined "meet the press" to talk about the influence and money public figures can bring to the table. >> there is a difference between the koch brothers and us, you know? the difference is if i succeed -- if we succeed in electing an entire congress which would be quite a success and a senate and a president, you know, the tax policies that they would enact would probably cost us a lot more money, quite honestly. the koch brothers would profit if they get their way and that's what we -- there's no profit for us in this. understanding this, the koch brothers have said that they'll spend $900 million not on the presidency, but on the down ticket, on the senators and the congressmen and the gubernatorial races and local races, and so our job is to try and -- and counter that in some way. >> when we come back, we're expecting more political star power on the campaign trail. will it help energize voters?

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i came to bayview hunter's point, ask your doctor about once-daily trelegy for copd where there was only one pediatrician to serve more than 10,000 children. daniel lurie said, i'm going to help. we opened a clinic for our most vulnerable children. i have worked shoulder to shoulder with him as we have brought solutions where people thought the problem was unsolvable. daniel doesn't take excuses. he holds himself accountable. and i know that he can do it for the city of san francisco. welcome back. the panel is still here. marc short, i've been talking to allies of former president trump throughout the past several days. they are really bothered by the fact laura loomer, conspiracy theorist, has been traveling with him on this plane to the

9/11 memorial, for example. do you think his statement and what we heard today from senator j.d. vance will be enough to put that criticism to rest? their concerns, it will hurt him with voters in places like north carolina and georgia which have a high portions and populations of indian american voters. >> i feel like trump's supporters are locked in. having seen some of the videos that the biden/harris white house put out on social media, i'm not willing to see the democratic party as normalcy. having seen that, this is an unnecessary distraction. they should be prosecuting their case and if the media is talking about laura loomer every day, it's a missed opportunity to be on the offense. >> i am old enough to remember when a certain democratic candidate had a past that people felt was problematic. some of the statements the pastor had made, and obama distanced himself from his pastor because the whole speech

about -- laura loomer are not in the same vain at all. to be clear, what she is saying is it's problematic. the problem is she's on the plane with the former president of the united states of america, potential president, and what she is saying to him seems to be making its way onto the stage. >> his staff is embarrassed by it. certainly people on capitol hill are embarrassed by her. you saw the comments from gop lawmakers. it's the candidate. he's not embarrassed by her. he wants people like that around because they say nice things to him. frankly, he's sympathetic to her views. this is the bottom line challenge for the gop. this is your karen date. it's not laura loomer, it's donald j. trump. are you for that or against that. the center piece of his campaign is demagoguing immigrants.

is that what you want your standard bearer to do. >> what so many people are saying, we are so close to election. there's not time for this distraction. the harris campaign is celebrating after they got a huge endorsement in the minutes after the debate. taylor swift, her hundreds of millions of followers -- >> 280. >> yes, i know you know. how big of an impact does this have? does it matter? >> i'm not a swifty. let's talk about it. she is a huge figure. nothing to be embarrassed about if i was. which is this, like i think the harris campaign maybe would have wanted a little bit of a different timing because she ended up having a good -- based on the polls, voters feel she ended up winning the debate. the taylor swift endorsement, let's be humble. we don't know what it's going to mean. she got 300, 400,000 people to get over to the voter registration site. did they actually register? we don't know.

we can look back after numbers oprah endorsed obama. this abc news poll out today says 6% of people, only 6% says this endorsement makes them more likely to vote for kamala harris. >> wow. >> is that going to be enough? we don't know. she has a ton of star power. she has a big platform and she's using it for one of the candidates. >> she's one to watch. the voter registration deadlines in key battleground states. keep an eye on those. if they do rise, it will be right before those deadlines to get voters to register to vote. you can't go to the swift concert unless you show a register to vote. >> we should note the obamas are going to be fundraising for the vice president. obviously will be out campaigning as well as clinton. >> i think the reality is the democratic party is more united at this point. i think that that's going to be a challenge.

back to your previous conversation on laura loomer, trump is always a contrarian. the more the press tells him he can't do it, the more he will dig in and want to wrap himself around it. again, i don't think it's helpful. >> there's not a whole lot of time left. that's for sure. >> literally tomorrow in pennsylvania people start voting. early voting starts tomorrow. by the end of this month voters will be going to the polls in michigan. so it is i think just critical, frankly, for both of the campaigns to really hunker down. the campaign, y'all know, every single day makes a difference. what happens in a week in a campaign is more like three months sometimes when it comes to governing. this strategy, kamala harris looks like she is playing to win. donald trump, i don't know. >> jonathan, the next big event is the vp debate. and it's stunning to think they could have the final word in this race if there is no second debate. again, it's an if.

we watch and we wait to see. how high are the stakes are people going to watch? could that change minds? >> it could change some minds at the margins. i think not a ton. certainly i think tim walz could reinforce the campaign of reassurance that i mentioned a minute ago for kamala harris. aimed at that sort of middle of the road voter that's never going to vote to trump but isn't quite sure they can get to kamala harris. i do think she has to do a little bit more especially on the immigration issue. this is the focal point for donald trump going after immigrants. turn off a lot of americans. she's got to find a way, kirsten, to say, yes, we're a nation of immigrants. we're also a nation of laws. talking about the border and border security. how does she find that balance? if she can find that balance on that issue in particular it will be crucial for her success. >> the bottom line in the fractured media landscape, there are not that many opportunities to reach 70 million americans all at once. that's where debates i think are useful to candidates. >> absolutely.

thank you. fantastic conversation. really appreciate it. that is all for today. thank you so much for watching. we'll be back next week because if it's sunday, it's "meet the press."

i came to bayview hunter's point, where there was only one pediatrician to serve more than 10,000 children. daniel lurie said, i'm going to help. we opened a clinic for our most vulnerable children. i have worked shoulder to shoulder with him as we have brought solutions where people thought the problem was unsolvable. daniel doesn't take excuses. he holds himself accountable. and i know that he can do it for the city of san francisco. bounced from one doctor to the next. does it have to be like this? at kaiser permanente, we have a different kind of healthcare... so, how did you like doctor lum? ...where all of us work together for all that is you.