Meet the Press NOW — April 7

Meet the Press

NBC News

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3.6 • 3.8K Ratings

🗓️ 7 April 2026

⏱️ 50 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

President Trump's warns “a whole civilization will die tonight” unless Iran meets his deadline to make a deal and reopen the Strait of Hormuz. NBC News Chief Data Analyst Steve Kornacki previews the elections in Wisconsin and Georgia as voters head to the polls. NBC News Capitol Hill Correspondent Mel Zanona speaks with Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.) about a primary challenge from Rep. Julia Letlow (R-La.), who has President Trump's endorsement.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to meet the press now. I'm Monica Alba in Washington, where the world is waiting to see if President Trump follows through or backs off on his public threat to wipe out Iran and its people,
0:22.0	unless Tehran opens the Strait of Hormuz by 8 p.m. Eastern time, less than four hours from now.
0:28.3	The threat prompting fear from both Democrats and Republicans, as well as from world leaders
0:33.2	and officials in the Gulf region, that the war could spiral out of control.
0:38.3	Two U.S. officials tell NBC news that the Pentagon has prepared options for the president
0:42.3	that include targets in Iran used for both military and civilian purposes.
0:47.5	It comes after a stunning post on social media this morning, with the president warning,
0:52.1	quote, a whole civilization will die tonight if Iran
0:56.2	doesn't make a deal by his 8 p.m. deadline. That follows the president's comments yesterday that
1:01.7	every bridge in Iran will be decimated and every power plant will be exploding, never to be
1:07.2	used again. Today, Vice President Vance took a more moderate tone during a press
1:11.8	conference in Hungary, suggesting there were multiple off-ramps to avoid catastrophe.
1:17.0	I hope that they're smart. The president has set a deadline for about 12 hours from now in the
1:21.9	United States. We're going to find out, but there's going to be a lot of negotiation between now
1:25.5	and then, and I'm hopeful that it gets to a good resolution.
1:28.4	The President of the United States is a man who recognizes leverage, that if the Iranians want to
1:33.0	exact a certain amount of pain, the United States has the ability to exact much, much greater pain.
1:38.7	The President doesn't want to do that. I don't want to do that. That's why we're negotiating so
1:42.9	aggressively, but fundamentally the ball is in the Iranians court.
1:46.2	We feel confident that we can get a response, whether it's positive or negative, we're going to get a response from the Iranians by 8 o'clock tonight.
1:53.2	I hope they make the right response.
1:56.1	Iran, state media releasing these images today of what they say are civilians responding to the government's
	...

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