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Transcripts. Meet the Press – May 18, 2025 Fmr. Vice President Mike Pence, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), Andrea Mitchell, Amna Nawaz, Stephen Hayes and Ashley Etienne. May 18, 2025, 11:49 AM EDT. KRISTEN WELKER: This Sunday: out of office. My exclusive interview with former Vice President Mike Pence. FMR. VICE PRES. MIKE PENCE: I've never been a fan of American presidents criticizing America on foreign soil. KRISTEN WELKER: His thoughts on the second Trump administration and the direction of the Republican Party. FMR. VICE PRES. MIKE PENCE: There's no question in this administration that he is...

Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell is speaking out against President Donald Trump’s sweeping tariff plans, warning that starting trade wars with U.S. economic partners could force higher costs on American families and businesses. Trump’s “aggressive proposals leave big, lingering concerns for American industry and workers,” the senator from Kentucky wrote in an op-ed Wednesday in Louisville’s Courier-Journal. The op-ed is a rare example of a senior Republican in Congress who is willing to publicly criticize the president’s economic strategy. Trump, who has called tariff his “favorite word,” recently slapped broad import duties on Canada, Mexico and China, plus additional tariffs on...

Toxic RINO Senator Mitch McConnell on Wednesday voted ‘no’ on Tulsi Gabbard’s confirmation vote. The Senate voted 52-48 to confirm Tulsi Gabbard as the next Director of National Intelligence. McConnell was the lone RINO who voted against President Trump’s nominee. Recall that McConnell was also one of the three Senators to vote against Pete Hegseth’s confirmation as Defense Secretary. Shortly after the confirmation vote on Wednesday, McConnell went off on Tulsi Gabbard. McConnell said Tulsi Gabbard’s record proves she is “unworthy of the highest public trust.” Per Fox News’ Chad Pergram: [The Senate’s power of advice and consent is not...

Paul Ryan, one of the most prominent national Republicans in Wisconsin history, is also notable as one of leading Republicans to reject the GOP’s current standard bearer, former President Donald Trump. Ryan, of Janesville, represented Wisconsin’s First Congressional District for 20 years and served as speaker from 2015 to 2019, when, after three years of clashing with Trump, he did not seek re-election. (He currently serves in a number of corporate roles.) In a 30-minute interview with Milwaukee Magazine in late May, Ryan shared his views on Trump’s rematch with President Joe Biden, the state of the GOP, national affairs...

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said he laughs at the term “America first,” an increasingly common phrase heard in the Republican Party regarding U.S. foreign policy that he finds “disorienting.” Romney said during an interview with MSNBC’s “The 11th Hour with Stephanie Ruhle” earlier this week that growing isolationism in the GOP is “unimaginable” considering its past leaders, like former Presidents Reagan, George H.W. Bush and George W. Bush, as well as former Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). Romney argued the term, popularized by former President Trump, “flows” in from talk radio and TV, where “outrageous” things are embraced by the party’s...

Republican Sen. Mitt Romeny doesn't want to endorse anyone for president because he thinks putting his name behind any candidate will be a 'kiss of death' as he prepares to leave Congress at the end of his term in 2025. The Utah senator wishes his colleague Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) would be on the Democratic ticket rather than President Joe Biden. While Romeny wouldn't reveal on Sunday who he plans to vote for, he said he will absolutely not cast his ballot for former President Donald Trump.

Henry Kissinger, who died on Wednesday night at the age of 100, was the most enduringly influential secretary of state in the history of the United States. He was also the most controversial. But the influence matters far more than the controversy. His critics have wasted no time in ignoring the old injunction that no ill should be spoken of the recently deceased. The scurrilous magazine Rolling Stone led with the repulsive headline 'Henry Kissinger, War Criminal Beloved by America's Ruling Class, Finally Dies'. At a time when anti-Semitism has again reared its ugly head in the wake of the...

President Joe Biden is rumored to be planning a speech on themes related to “threats” to democracy, according to reports. Multiple outlets detail the speech, which has yet to be officially confirmed, will take place in Arizona, quite possibly on September 28 — the day after the second Republican primary debate. The New York Times cites an individual familiar with the planning, who revealed that the speech could be delivered at the McCain Institute.

Bidenomics is a train wreck. But unlike E. Palestine Ohio, the site of a train derailment and massive toxic spill (for which Biden has yet to visit), Bidenomics is a continuing train wreck. The first chart is the record decline in US net cash farm income. Now in negative growth! Second, US office vacancy rate is now higher than the peak during the financial crisis. Under Bidenomics, US debt is now near $33 trillion. Up 19% under Biden. And while not Biden’s fault, the US has promised $194 TRILLION in unfunded liabilities. Biden won’t do anything to halt the entitlement...

Former transportation secretary Elaine Chao fired back at former President Trump for his racist remarks about her — insisting his attacks reveal “a whole lot more about him than it will ever say about Asian Americans.” Chao, 69 — who has been frequently been referred to by the former president as “Coco Chow” — issued the rare rebuke of the former president on Tuesday. “When I was young, some people deliberately misspelled or mispronounced my name,” Chao, who was born in Taiwan, said in a statement to Politico. “Asian Americans have worked hard to change that experience for the next...