Meet the Press NOW – September 19

With 11 days to go until the September 30th funding deadline, the House is arguably further away from a spending agreement than it was at the beginning of the week. House Republicans on the Judiciary Committee grilled Attorney General Merrick Garland for more than five hours. Iowa voters react to Trump calling Florida’s six-week abortion ban a “terrible thing.” The Dow closed down slightly as markets reacted to the Federal Reserve’s decision to not raise interest rates this month.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) tells reporters he’ll take a short-term spending bill to the floor, whether he has the votes or not. Rep. Dusty Johnson (R-S.D.) and Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.) discuss negotiations over the bill as a potential shutdown looms. Cook Political Report Editor-in-Chief Amy Walter joins to talk about former President Donald Trump’s stance on abortion. Molly Ball, Svante Myrick and Garrett Ventry join the Meet the Press NOW roundtable.

Peter Baker, chief White House correspondent for the New York Times, joins Kristen Welker to analyze her interview with former President Trump — from his continued false statements surrounding the integrity of the 2020 election, to his surprise statement that he'd considered pardoning himself after January 6.

Kristen Welker makes her debut as Meet the Press moderator. In a wide-ranging interview, former President Donald Trump discusses the criminal charges against him, whether he would pardon himself, his account of January 6, House Republicans’ impeachment inquiry into President Biden, his position on abortion and foreign policy. NBC News Senior Legal Correspondent Laura Jarrett, New York Times Chief White House Correspondent Peter Baker and NBC News Washington Managing Editor Carol Lee join the Meet the Press roundtable.

As the UAW union goes on a historic strike, President Biden finds himself walking a fine line between supporting the movement and limiting its impact on the economy. Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) and Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) react to the latest on the picket lines. New MTP moderator Kristen Welker shares more from her exclusive interview with former President Donald Trump. Jorge Zamanillo, founding director of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Latino, discusses the dispute over the museum’s contents.