the faculties, the academics say there's too much pressure from donors. we heard that in the hearing. >> yes. it's also worth pointing out while it was harvard, m.i.t. and penn's presidents there for the hearing, this is an issue being dealt with by every university and college in higher education in this country. the questions are serious and everyone is grappling with them. >> stephanie, it's a tough issue. thanks for kofshg it. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." remember, follow the show on social media @mitchellreports. "chris jansing reports" starts right now. good day. i'm chris jansing live at msnbc headquarters in new york city. in an unexpected and legally

fascinating move, he's calling on the supreme court to weigh in and decide on donald trump's claim that immunity, once and for all. meanwhile, no trump, no trial, at least for today. the former president's civil fraud trial on hold until tomorrow after he says he will not, in fact, testify as promised. so why the last-minute change of heart? could it impact the judge's thinking as he weighs the future of trump's business empire in new york. plus, it doesn't matter what the other candidates do. it doesn't matter what they say. quote, i'm voting for trump. those are the words of an iowa voter backing up the numbers in our new poll showing trump beating everyone else in the race combined. what are the chances any of that changes in the next five weeks? could harvard's governing board cut ties with president claudine gay just a year after she was chosen to lead the school over her remarks about anti-semitism

and how over 650 faculty members are on the record wanting her to keep her job. we start with the tale of two trials, two men facing the financially devastating reality that there is a price to be paid for telling lies. for donald trump, that price could be a quarter billion dollars and his company's exile from new york city. even with those stakes, the former president decided in a last-minute reversal, not to testify at his civil fraud trial today, skipping his final chance to defend his company and his reputation. different story in d.c. where his former attorney, roug rudy giuliani is facing the jury in person. we learned jury selection is complete and the trial will start when they come back from lunch. giuliani has been in court all day, just feet away from two election workers he wrongly accused of election fraught. i want to bring in lisa rubin

and nbc's vaughn hillyard, both with me here in new york. also with us, former federal prosecutor, renato mariotti. let's start with this breaking news. big move by jack smith. what do you make of it? >> i think it's a brilliant move. essentially what they're saying, we're going to do whatever we can to get a ruling on presidential immunity as we can. first we'll ask the court of appeals to expedite its briefing schedule, but not going to wait for them. in the meantime we're going to ask the supreme court for what's called certiorari where you leapfrog the court of appeals. my friend who is a law professor at the university of texas has written extensively about this. i asked him, how many times has this been used in recent years? it was granted zero times between august 2004 and february of '19.

but 19 times since february of 2019. it became a popular procedural maneuver during the trump years. you see the special counsel using it against the same allies that were the big benefactors of this mechanism during the trump years. >> renato, why so popular and why would jack smith decide to do this now? >> i too think this is an implicit exception that trump could use this issue to delay the trial. usually motions to dismiss aren't brought up on appeal before trial. they usually don't delay criminal trials. this is an issue that very well might. i think jack smith made a judgment call. he decided trump could slow play this appeal and try to use this as a way of delaying the trial. he has i think taken a very aggressive move to try to get an immediate decision on this as we

just discussed a moment ago, in order to essentially keep that march trial on track. >> so vaughn, it's one thing to talk about it as a trial strategy. how does it fit in as a political campaign strategy, if it is, delay, delay, delay? >> right now this is the one case, the one criminal case that donald trump is staring at that could take place before the 2024 election. each of the others we do not anticipate coming to conclusion until well into 2025. for donald trump and the ability to potentially delay this really just allows him to continue to keep these criminal prosecutions on the forefront of voters' minds without it ever actually being litigated inside a courtroom. for donald trump, this is his opportunity. you can see jack smith believing they can take this to the supreme court. if they can at least, under the situation of having it heard by the supreme court before the end of this next term, even if it's delayed, at least the supreme court would be making their

decision come june. so in that situation, while the march 4th trial date may not be the date that this trial begins, at least it would still happen in the intervening months before the november 2024 elections. >> given, renato, how important this is, how consequential to the election, what will they look at in deciding whether to take this case, and if they do, in deciding how they're going to rule? >> first of all, i think the supreme court should take this case. this case is going to end up in front of the supreme court. really, if the supreme court doesn't take this case now, it's going to be because they want to see what the d.c. circuit is going to say. they're going to say they would like the benefit of seeing what a lower court has to say. i really think this is a case that belongs to the supreme court. i wouldn't be surprised if the supreme court ultimately grants this -- i was going to say unusual request. as lisa points out, maybe not as unusual recently. i think we're going to look at

these issues, one thing i'll point out, chris, this is the rare criminal case that actually does have novel issues that have not been presented before. trump is arguing, for example, the fact that he was impeached and survived that trial gives him immunity. that's never happened before because no president has ever been indicted before. certainly no president has been impeached and then indicted. there are some issues here, but realistically when you look at the text of the constitution, they all appear to be losers for trump which is why this is something that ultimately the supreme court should resolve and get out of the way before there is a trial. >> so before this big breaking news today, lisa, the big news was that donald trump instead of staying contrary, i'm actually not going to be the final witness. you told me you had a feeling he shouldn't show.

why? >> there are a bunch of reasons i thought he wouldn't. let's start with the first being the existence of the gag order. i think trump's lawyers genuinely doubted whether their client could add lear to the gag order and, therefore, could have been inviting further sanctions that go well beyond fines. more importantly, every time donald trump has taken the stand or a witness chair at a deposition, in his own defense civilly and otherwise, he hasn't done himself any favors. that was true in the e. jean carroll case and the protest cases in front of trump tower in 2015, as it has been in this case where he testified on november 6th. a bunch of damning admissions, even though he didn't see them to be the case, he literally handled them a bouquet of courts to be presented. >> vaughn, we saw trump last

week. he was all in. he was going to go and he had his lawyers going out there and saying, well, it's against our better judgment, but he really wants to go out there and defend himself. what happened? what's the political calculation? we know what the legal calculation is. >> the legal calculation is the judge literally said he was drawing negative inferences from donald trump's own statements when he testified for those multiple hours months ago. but chris kise walked outside the courtroom and said it was the best performance he'd ever seen one of his clients give in his career. alina hava who very much plays the lawyer inside the courtroom, but also the political aide. she stood outside and said only cowards are afraid, only cowards don't show up. 48 hours later they announce donald trump was president going to come forward. for donald trump here politically, it provides him the opportunity to make the case to

the masses at large that he went and spoke the words and gave his true account of the trump organization to letitia james and took it to her. at the same time he was not going to allow himself to be played anymore by what he says is a corrupt prosecution and a corrupt judge. so for donald trump, he feels like he's done what he has to do. >> he can fundraise off of it whatever he decides ultimately. give us to speed, renato on what's happening with rudy giuliani. his trial is about damages, of course. in his case a federal jury will decide how much. as we said, the jury selection has and ended. they're about to start the trial. what will they be looking at to make that decision? >> ultimately the defense here is really that at this point, almost non-existent, there's no question these women have suffered. they'll be determining, whether

you're dealing with harms that are not out of pocket. it's easy if someone has been harmed, spent x number of dollars. those are the easy sorts of damages to calculated when you're looking at a receipt. it's a hard thing for a juror who is weighing these costs that you can't sum up into a receipt or invoice, where these women have been harmed in a way that you can't really put a number on. that's ultimately what the jury is going to be doing. it's not an easy job. candidly, you're looking at the photos now. you can't imagine a more sympathetic plaintiff here or a less sympathetic defendant than rudy giuliani. >> lisa, he is certainly right about that. many, many, many hours all of us watched of the january 6th hearings, it was riveting and heartbreaking to listen to moss and freeman, what they went

through, how their lives have been upended. i'm curious what you'll be listening for, both from them but also from -- do you think there are things that can play into other trials. >> i think what testimony ruby freeman and her daughter shaye moss give here, will be a good indication of what kind of witnesses they will make both, if the georgia rico case is tried, but also in the federal election interference case where there are also expected to be witnesses. again, what i'm expecting to hear from them is exactly what renato said, how do you quantify somebody's pain and suffering, how do you quantify that i used to be a person who wore my lady ruby t-shirt to the hospital and now i hide inside. we haven't seen her in public since that televised testimony. the same with her daughter. i'm interested in hearing them say how this has impacted their lives and how continued ongoing threats have made it difficult for them to have any semblance of the life they had before the

november 2020 elections. >> lisa rubin, vaughn hillyard, renato mariotti, thank you for being with us, especially for the breaking news. coming up, if a republican presidential hopeful drops out of a race, what happens to their supporters? new polling now suggests who benefits the most. communities are picking up the pieces after deadly tornadoes tore through tennessee, the harrowing stories of extreme loss and survival when we're back in 60 seconds. >> i just remember opening the closet door and just turning around. the wind just took me and i remember waking up on this side of my house. er waking up on thi of my house. 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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whopping 51% in the state that will vote first next year, 32 points ahead of his closest competitor ron desantis who has 19% support, nikki haley 16%. one poll respond dent said, it doesn't matter what the others say and do, his vote is going to trump no matter what. in fact, a whopping 49% say their minds are made up. 46% say they could still be persuaded to vote for another candidate. joining us, matthew dowd, senior msnbc political analyst. michael steele is former rnc chair and msnbc political analyst. this iowa pollster behind the survey says everything that can happen has happened in this contest, yet trump is now past the majority threshold with 51%. what's the game plan now?

>> the trump sources have spent $250 million in eight months and have gone from 15 points behind to more than 25 points behind in every key state including the latest iowa poll, in iowa, new hampshire, south carolina. they have fally fallen further behind. they haven't run a campaign to take on the main candidate in this race. everybody with the exception of chris christie who has had nothing to spend on media, has gone after each other. their strategy has made no sense for me from the start. it's all fed into donald trump dominating this. one of the numbers you didn't show, of the people that have made up their mind, donald trump wins the vast majority.

his support is more solid than ron desantis and nikki haley. my guess is they don't change their strategy in the course of this. this is a race where donald trump without ever appearing on a-bate stage, continues to sow up. >> is it that donald trump is right, he believes if he shot someone on fifth avenue, it would be fine. he has been operating on the idea that no matter what he does, no matter what he says, he can turn it into they're trying to hurt me, i need you to defend me, or is it both? >> it's more than that. it's more the realization that he knows his audience, knows his best, and knows the american public writ large better than we know ourselves. we think e we're not susceptible

to the giles and the sort of wonderful words of donald trump. apparently we are because, yeah, he could shoot someone and get away with it. he's done everything just short of that and gotten away with it. even though he's going through the trial process right now, even still, his numbers aren't diminishing, they're strethening. 46% are locked in, 46% ready to be persuaded. i think that 49% is higher, i think 46% is much lower. i think people don't want to let you know they've already locked in on donald trump. otherwise how is he beating by joe biden by four points, five points, seven points, ten points in various polls? there are a lot more people out there buying the lie, for whatever their rationale is, than are willing to freely admit it to the pollster who are part of the problem as far as a lot of these folks are concerned. don't even get them started on

the media. this all works to his advantage. he knows how to use and punk the people that are in play here. >> matthew, a couple of other polls from cnn show president biden now trailing former president trump in a pair of key battleground states, georgia. trump leads 49-44. although that is within the poll's margin of error. in michigan, trump leads biden 50% to 40%. that is outside the margin of error. do those numbers surprise you? >> no. here is what i think. i counsel your viewers to do this. average polls. one poll can be out of sync. donald trump is not 10 appointments ahead newspaper michigan. joe biden is also not winning michigan. just average the polls. here is my feeling about this race. i hope the they understand this. donald trump and joe biden are

basically even nationally. if you look at the average, they're basically even nationally. if they play an even race nationally, donald trump wins all the key states. he lost nationally by four or five points in 2020 and barely lost the key states. so that's what i think the biden campaign needs to know. at some point the biden campaign needs to let go of running this as a referendum on joe biden or on bidenomics. here are the choices, democracy versus dictatorship. the biden campaign hasn't done that enough, and i think they've spent way too much time, way too much time trying to make this is a referendum on bidenomics, and that today feeds right into republicans' hands. >> all right, michael. in that same poll, almost half the voters in michigan and georgia say this: if true, the

criminal charges trump faces relating to the effort to overturn the last presidential election should disqualify him from the presidency. should disqualify him, 46%. does this remind us of just how much can happen in 11 months? does it support matthew's theory about defense of democracy? or do you think -- you clearly do. the other poll, well, maybe people aren't saying exactly what they mean. >> oh, it's a lie. that is such a lie. it is such a lie. you know why it's a lie? >> why? >> because you watch presidential candidates stand on the stage and say if donald trump were a convicted felon standing before us in leg irons and an orange jumpsuit, that i would stand up and vote for him and support him for president. you have peter major, former

member of congress, voted for impeachment, running for the u.s. senate in michigan say, oh, donald trump, oh, all about the guy, love him, support him, no problem, even though i supported impeaching him, i think he'll be a better presidt, an anti-democratic republican presiden tn the pro-democrats democratic president. so no, those numbers to me are a lie. people are outright lying. if donald trump is convicted, if he's going through the trial process, they will be like those individuals on that stage and support him. that's the democrat problem. that's the point that matt has just made, that they have to move off of this. oh, let's talk bidenomics, let's talk about the country and remind people. this man himself has told us, not joe biden, not matthew doushgsd michael steele, he himself has told us he would be

a dictator for one day. who is a dictator for one dap, america? who in american history has been a dictator for one day? when the man tells you he's going to be a dictator and you have people out there saying, well, maybe, possibly, i'm soft, this is a real problem. >> matthew dowd, thank you so much for being with us. michael, you're going to stay with us. in tennessee, meantime, residents are facing destruction after tornadoes and severe storms killed at least six people and sent another 62 to the hospital. among those killed a mother and her 2-year-old son. local outlets reporting that when they were found, her arms were still wrapped around the toddler, crushed but their mobile home in the nashville suburb of madison. here is some of what we're hearing from survivors. >> literally felt like the whole house was shaking, the foundation. we could hear all the trees snapping. >> you could hear stuff flying everywhere.

it was crazy, crazy. it is terrifying. all this material stuff can be replaced, but friend can't. >> crazy and deadly. officials say the twisters packed winds of more than 150 miles per hour demolishing buildings in at least 15 counties. coming up, israeli leaders say they see the beginning of the end of hamas. what this might mean for hostages still trapped in gaza as conditions rapidly deteriorate. you're watching "chris jansing reports" only on msnbc. u're watg reports" only on msnbc

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i'm gonna be emotional,grams she's gonna be emotional,ein. but it's gonna be so worth it. i love that i can give back to one of our customers. i hope you enjoy these amazing gifts. oh my goodness. oh, you guys. i know you like wrestling, so we got you some vip tickets. you have made an impact. so have you. for you guys to be out here doing something like this, it restores a lot of faith in humanity. in gaza, there's intense fighting as civilians face what aid agencies describe as apocalyptic scenes right now and a health system that world health organization officials describe as being on its knees and collapsing. families are roaming the streets searching for shelter, food and clean water. the united nations says almost the entire population of gaza is

displaced right now, 1.9 million people. as the situation grows more and more dire, israeli prime minister netanyahu says this is, quote, the beginning of the end of hamas, but the fate of the 137 hostages still inside gaza remains unresolved as the qatari foreign minister says there's not the same willingness in the negotiations for their release. israel says 20 hostages have died in hamas captivity. for the freed hostages and their families, they mark a bittersweet hanukkah celebration. hallie jackson spoke to one father who whose wife and three small children were released two weeks ago, but the nightmare of captivity is keeping his 4-year-old son up at night. >> he's afraid to fall asleep. what he told us the other night was that he really wishes for the other hostages to return. obviously, you know, we all

started crying. >> reporter: then a surprise. his sons, drawn to the camera lights calling their dad to dinner. >> i want to bring in nbc's hala gorani from tel aviv. he says every day he's reliving a miracle now that his family is back. so many are still praying, hoping, craving a return of their loved ones. where do things stand right now? >> reporter: we're hearing from one of the released hostages, the name sharon aloni taken with her husband and 3-year-old twin girls. she told reuters it's a russian roulette in captivity. you don't know whether tomorrow morning they'll keep you alive or kill you. some of our viewers might remember her story. her twins were separated in captivity for ten days.

she was only with one of the two girls. the second one was brought to her by a woman in captivity. she says she was then kept under ground with 12 other hostages. as far as the situation in the gaza strip, and you mentioned it there, apocalyptic is what oxfam, the aid agency is calling it. about 2 million people are in the southern part of the gaza strip, being pushed into smaller and smaller enclaves, closer to the egyptian border. the jordanian foreign minister accused israel of wanting to empty gaza of its people because they're being pushed to the south to such a degree. benjamin netanyahu who is denying the claims calling them outrageous and false. the fighting is continuing. it's intensifying and spreading across the strip. it's putting tremendous pressure on the infrastructure, on hospitals and palestinians unable to get the most basic care, chris. >> hala gorani, thank you.

i want to bring in collin clark, director of research at the sur fan group. while nbc has not been able to independent verify, the qatari foreign minister says there's just not the same willingness for an exchange deal right now. what do you think the chances are there could be a deal? what's it going to take? >> it's going to be incredibly difficult. i think we need the continued pressure by the united states and then the facilitation that the qataris and the egyptians have played in the past. the israelis are convinced right now that military pressure is going to lead to some kind of breakthrough with the hostages. i'm not so sure. i think the narrow focus on the military strategy and the military approach of israel has been a bit myopic. i've heard very little from the netanyahu government about what a political end game would look like. >> admiral daniel hagari, the

idf spokesperson says they're searching for the leader of hamas in the south now and capturing and killing him is a goal of this war. i also saw another translation that said the goal of this war. in either case, what do you think the chances are that happens. even if it does, how does it change the calculation for the future of hamas? >> well, it's very possible that the israelis will be able to locate sinwar, to either capture or kill him. there's a long body of academic and imperial evidence looking at decapitation strategy that shows killing the leader doesn't show the insurgency or the reign of terror. it's one individual. there's a lot of redundancy built into these organizations. so the fight will continue without sinwar, it will be symbolic. beyond that it might not have much operational significance.

>> netanyahu said pretty much the opposite of that. he said this is the beginning of the end for hamas and used it as an opportunity to tell the fighters, the hamas fighters who are still out there, look, there's no reason for you to die. this is not going to go well for you. we are going to win this. but how likely is it that they're listening, number one? but also, is he -- even by suggesting the end of this war could be near, is that realistic? >> well, i think there's a couple of things going on here. first, this is reflective of pressure that the united states is applying to the netanyahu government, calling for some kind of timetable, sooner rather than later, to bring military operations to an end. i think the other piece, this is the netanyahu government moving the goal post. the initial objective as stated by the israelis was to fully eradicate hamas. now that they see that's likely

not possible, we've seen reports of about 5,000 hamas fighters killed out of about 30,000, now the new goal is removing sinwar, removing the leadership. that's quite a bit different than eradicating hamas. i think just in the last week we've seen a number of mixed messages coming out of the netanyahu government. so this is reflective, again, of pressure and of trying to kind of course correct for that initial strategic communications error from the government with this fairly lofty objective which is not going to be realizable. >> colin clarke, good to have you on the program. thank you. still to come, the ongoing fallout at the highest levels of american academia. can hundreds of professors help harvard's president keep her job? you're watching "chris jansing reports" only on msnbc. ing "chrg reports" only on msnbc using our technology to power different ways of learning. ♪

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today pressure is building for the presidents of harvard and m.i.t. to follow u. penn's president and step down after last week's heavily criticized congressional testimony on tichl on campus. but now more than 650 harvard faculty members are pushing back, signing a lf support for president claudine gay, specifically rejecting what they see as politically motivated pressure on academic-free freedom. "the new york times" reports that the harvard corporation which could decide the fate of the harvard president is set to meet today. here is nbc's stephanie gosk

with more. >> reporter: pressure is mounting less than a week after they testified before congress about rising anti-semitism on college campuses. >> does calling for the genocide of jews violate harvard's rules of bullying and harassment? yes or no. >> it can be depending on the context. >> it does not depend on the context. the answer is yes, and this is why you should resign. >> reporter: just days after giving a similar answer to the same question, the president of the university of pennsylvania, liz magill, resigned on saturday. republican elise stefanik who questioned the three university leaders posted "one down, three to go." harvard's president tried to clarify. according to the har very crimson more than 500 faculty. it comes as communities across

the air cope with rising tensions as wars in the middle east continue. back in october samantha woll, a well-known rabbi was found stabbed to death outside her home. this morning detroit police confirming a person of interest is in custody. police have said there's no evidence that the killing was a hate crime. anti-semitic threats have been on the rise since the war began. in california a couple speaking out after an attack police are calling a hate crime. both in their 70s, the couple say they were walking to synagogue when a man ran up behind them. >> all of a sudden i saw the guy hitting my husband with the belt and screaming -- sorry, give me you're rings, jew. >> reporter: they chased the man off and he was later caught and arrested by police. stephanie gosk, nbc news. >> back with me, msnbc political

analyst michael steele. we all know smifk is on the rise. this is only two sentences long. the key phrase urges harvard leadership, and i'm quoting here, to resist political pressures at odds with harvard's commitment to academic freedom. the harvard crimson, the newspaper, says the faculty members hold a wide range of views on gay's testimony, on her leadership, but they are united in the idea of keeping politics out of it. does politics have a role here? >> whether it wants to or not or you think it should or not, it does. elise stefanik played politics in her questioning rather successfully. but she set up a legitimate question, you know, tell me on campus, given what has happened on the campuses that brought you to this table in front of me as

a congress person, does anti-semitism have a place on your campus? calling for the genocide of jews, is that something you accept? she's right, the obvious answer is no, we don't accept it, it has no place. but the problem is, it is one of those questions that ultimately exposes a trap, and that is something that these universities, that a lot of conservatives, quite honestly, have complained about, not just in this context but over many years, that it allows certain speech to flourish on campus. and then when they get caught and called out on it, it becomes a problem for them. so that's the politics of it. elise sort of showed that when she said one down, two to go. it sort of delegitimized her

question, to prove it was all politics. that she wasn't interested in the answer but wanted to score the political point. you can see the back and forth here, the core of the question is a legitimate question for these university presidents that have seemingly been silent on some of the outrageous protests on their campus, but they're still legitimate protests under the first amendment and the political response from congress, one down two to go. >> michael steele, always good to see you, thank you. with one working week left on capitol hill, could a visit from ukraine's president push a foreign aid deal over the finish line? federal prosecutors have charged a man with threatening to kill a presidential candidate. we'll have the details in our next hour of "chris jansing reports" only on msnbc. r next hour of "chris jansing reports" only on msnbc ♪♪ it's a battle, you know i'm going to be there. keytruda and chemotherapy meant treating my cancer

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today congress is in the final week of its 2023 session, and there are still some key and very challenging deals that need to be made. the biggest question is whether a critical foreign aid package can get approved with money for israel and ukraine. today volodymyr zelenskyy begins arguably the diplomatic mission of his presidency. meeting in washington, d.c. already with u.s. military officers then tomorrow, he'll make a personal plea for more aid as he meets with president biden at the white house, with house speaker mike johnson and

an all senators meeting at the capitol as well. last hour we got a preview of his message in an address at the national defense university. >> let me be frank with you, friends, if there's anyone inspired by unresolved issues on capitol hill it's just putin, and his sick clique. they see the dreams come true when they see the delays or some scandals, and they see freedom to fall when the support of freedom fighters go down. >> nbc's sahil kapur reporting for us on capitol hill. also with us, jake sherman, cofounder of "punchbowl news" and an msnbc political contributor. where do negotiations on this aid package stand as zelenskyy gets ready to come to the hill.

>> reporter: i would not expect zelenskyy's visit to capitol hill to move the status of negotiations. many republicans say they are deeply dug into the idea that they will not move it under circumstances, unless there's a major immigration deal. unless zelenskyy can help find a way out of the immigration impasse, it's unlikely this is going to move the conversation on aid. with the negotiations, they are still struggling. the senate negotiators are negotiating, but there have been no breakthroughs over the weekend or this morning, according to one source i spoke to earlier today. there's been progress on tightening some asylum rules which democrats have been willing to give on. that's not enough for republicans. they want to resolve what they call capacity issues. the question of how many asylum seekers can the u.s. handle and they want to do it without releasing them into the u.s. while they wait. that has caused pushback, that hat uld lead to things like mass detentions, ramped up deportation authorities and some of the strongest pushbacke have seen is coming from the

congressional hispanic caucus. let's show the statement by alex padilla, they say they are iedbout trump era immigrationolicies. we agree on the need for congress to reform our immigration system and address the challenges at our border, but extreme republican demands to cut off legal pathways and deport long-term residents will not reduce unauthorized immigration. they will exacerbate current challenges. president biden has been willing to break with portions of his base when he perceives them as being on the wrong side of public opinion. in this case, it's going to be a delicate dance for the president to manage his base to achieve what no president has in the last two decades, which is a major immigration deal in congress, and the clock is ticking. he has this week before they're scheduled to go away. that would unlock his aid package to ukraine and israel if he's able to achieve it, and he's got to do all of this heading into a major election

year, chris. >> jake, let's talk about zelenskyy. his previous visits to capitol hill have been largely successful. but now, with war reaching a two-year mark in february, how much more difficult is this than previous trips? and do you agree with sahil that the chances, the odds are against him that he can break this stalemate? >> reporter: i completely agree with sahil for a number of reasons. what you're asking and sahil said this, what you're asking congress to do, what republicans are asking congress to do is to solve one of the most be devilling issues, which is the status of the boarder and migration laws. there's an intractable issue here. republicans want to clamp down on the people crossing the border. they want fewer people to cross the border. democrats want to process people quicker and don't necessarily want to bring the numbers down.

those are in direct conflict. that's number one. number two, there's a separate issue about why the aid package is more difficult than others. house republicans and senate republicans feel as if the administration has not given them justifications for the continued spending of taxpayer money in ukraine. they feel like the administration doesn't have a strategy, the ukrainians don't have a strategy, and they have not gotten any sufficient, in their view, answers as to how this war will proceed, progress, and wrap up at some point in the future. those are very difficult. >> if i can interrupt you there, is that a place where zelenskyy might be helpful, he might be able to say some things, i'm not going to pretend he's going to, you know, change everybody's mind, but could he at least help make progress, get things moving in what at least the white house ul as the right direction. >> sure. he could. he's a leader of another country. he's not a leader of the united states, and republicans have

wanted to hear from biden administration officials about how this war is going to wrap up and, what the u.s.'s commitment will be going forward. that's a lot to do in three or four days. and this obviously preceded this week, but congress is slated to leave on thursday. and the house and senate. i don't see them staying around unless something very major changes in the next 24 hours. >> we know how likely it is that anything gets done that's major in 24 hours. jake sherman, sahil kapur, thank you both so much. coming up, more on that breaking news out of the special counsel investigation with jack smith skipping appeals to ask the supreme court to weigh in on trump's much repeated claim that he has immunity from prosecution. that, savannah, if you don't get your moisturized hands off my body wash. why give your family just ordinary eggs when they can enjoy the best? eggland's best. the only eggs with more fresh and delicious taste.

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