SUNDAY EXCLUSIVE: McCaskill on Trump: “Anxious to work with him … My job’s not to fight him”
NEW: Trump’s Approval Ratings Drops to Lowest Level Yet in NBC News/WSJ Poll
OCTOBER 29, 2017 – In an exclusive live interview, Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) told “Meet the Press” moderator Chuck Todd that President Trump’s comments on the Russia investigation this week were “too defensive.”
“I hope Congress will encourage that the Senate Intelligence Committee … complete their work,” said Portman. “And that we support this investigation that the Department of Justice has now appointed this special prosecutor. Let’s let him get to the bottom of it.”
He also addressed the factions inside the Republican Party right now, telling Todd: “I don’t think it’s new,” as well as how the tax reform proposal will “actually be reducing the deficit.” Watch the full Portman interview.
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) also exclusively joined the broadcast, and she addressed what she has in common with the president: “We have enough in common that he signed a number of my bills into law already. … We certainly agree on infrastructure.” She added: “I am anxious to work with him on those things. … My job’s not to fight him.” The Missouri senator also discussed leadership within the Democratic Party: “We have so many people that are trying to position themselves to run for president I think it’s hard to say who is the leader.” Watch the full interview.
New NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll numbers released this morning on the broadcast reveal that the president’s job approval rating is at 38 percent, his lowest since taking office and down five points since September. Read more from the new poll.
After President Trump declared the nation’s opioid crisis a “health emergency” earlier this week, Huntington, W.V. Fire Chief Jan Rader spoke with Todd about her daily battle against the epidemic: “It’s been years since we had a day where we didn’t have an overdose.” Rader’s fight is chronicled in “Heroin(e),” a Netflix original film and an official selection of The Meet the Press Film Festival in Collaboration with the American Film Institute (AFI). Watch the interview.
Republican strategist Al Cardenas, POLITICO’s Eliana Johnson, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews and The Cook Political Report’s Amy Walter joined this morning’s roundtable for analysis on the week in politics, including a discussion on the divide within the GOP.
Read the full transcript of this morning’s “Meet the Press” on MeetThePress.com.
For more from moderator Chuck Todd throughout the week, sign up for the “First Read” newsletter, and subscribe to the “1947: The Meet The Press Podcast” for on-demand interviews.
Tune in this coming Sunday, Nov. 5 for a special 70th anniversary edition of “Meet the Press,” the longest-running show in television history.
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