right now on "andrea mitchell reports," the iran-back iran-backed houthis threaten to counter back. >> 14 nations and the united states all issued a warning to the houthis that this type of illegal and reckless activity needed to stop or there would be

consequences. last night, there were consequences. also this hour, the iowa caucus campaign blitz with haley and desantis battling for second place. if the latest polls are correct, donald trump has a 30-point lead. kristin welker joins me live from des moines to break it all down. former president trump refocusing on iowa after his fireworks during closing arguments at his civil fraud trial in manhattan. the judge promising his decision on how much to fine the former president and his adult sons before the end of the month. ♪♪ good day, everyone. i'm andrea mitchell back in washington. while u.s. forces in the wider middle east are bracing for retaliation after they struck back at houthi rebel forces in defiance of the ultimatums keeping up their attacks.

the pentagon and british allies bombed more than 60 targets inside yemen overnight that they say were used by the rebels to plan and launch dozens of attacks against commercial shipping routes vital to the world economy. the u.s. says the strikes were self-defense, using more than 100 precision guided munitions, including tomahawk missiles launched from warships, submarines and fighter jets. thousands of houthi supporters are protesting in yemen. they threaten revenge. they vowed to continue attacks in the red sea until israel ends its war in gaza. the saudis are calling for restraint. they fear it could jeopardize the fragile truce with the houthis reached after ten years of a brutal civil war.

pentagon officials say the u.s. is doing all it can to prevent broader regional conflict with iran and iran-backed groups. >> we do have concerns about a broadening escalation in the region. i think it's also very important to differentiate the conflict that's happening in gaza right now with what we are seeing in the red sea. the international community provided multiple warnings. last night, we took action. >> we begin with chief foreign correspondent richard engel, courtney kube and the former supreme allied commander of nato, admiral james stavridis. the assessments are underway. talk about the targeting last night and how the houthi factors will spread into this broader fight. how does it relate to what's happening in gaza?

>> reporter: what a group you've got. i can't wait to hear what they have to say as well. this was a long anticipated move. it was anticipated, i think even by the houthis. i spoke to a houthi leader a few days ago, one of the top three in the command structure there, that they would face some sort of retaliation for attacking commercial ships in the red sea. it's such a provocative action that it was anticipated, widely anticipated that there would be a military action. last night, we saw it. across the arab world today we are seeing something of a muted response. we are seeing some calls for caution some calls for restraint, even from saudi arabia, which does not support the houthis at all, supports the government that the houthis threw out of power. turkey expressed some concerns. we are hearing complaints from

the houthis who promise revenge, and from iranian-backed militia groups in iraq and syria. in general, across the broader arab world, there's been a lot of silence so far because the arab world depends on the red sea for shipping, depends on the red sea to move oil and other commodities. while there might be some public complaints to placate their own domestic population, we're not seeing tremendous protests on the streets in cairo, istanbul, and other places like that. one thing that is critical, i think, is the public opinion war. i think it was admiral kirby who you just played a moment ago saying that there needs to be this distinction between what happened in the red sea and the attack on the houthis and what's happening in ga. for the houthis and many people watching this conflict unfold on television, on stations like al

jazeera, there's no distinction, because the houthis say what they have been doing and what they say they will continue doing in the red sea is directly related to gaza. they say the reason they're attacking commercial ships is in order to impose a kind of blockade on israel the way that israel is imposing a blockade on gaza. something the biden administration disputes. >> courtney, pick it up there. you have the defense secretary lloyd austin giving his final sign-off to this from his hospital where he is being treated for complications after prostate cancer surgery. how did the joint operation come together? what are they saying at the pentagon? >> reporter: that's right. he was in the hospital. he remains there today. complications from the prostate cancer surgery. the actual targets and strike options have been coming together over a matter of weeks. the white house started looking at options in late 2023.

i think the real determining factor here has been the ability for them to build a coalition. we have been hearing the u.s. and british militaries who took the strikes last night, but u.s. officials have been quick to point out that other nations supported the strikes in a non-operational capacity. that's been really key. the u.s. did not want to go this alone. that's one of the reasons we saw the strikes come together and be carried out lastig. secretary austi did -- he was part of a video teleconference fromalr reed where they talked through the options. generally, that would be done in person. of course, he is hospitalized. we have continued to hear that he has been actively engaged in the discussions. we heard from john kirby about that just earlier this morning on msnbc. here is what he had to say. >> he was involved actively and intimately all day yesterday with the national security team here at white house and, of course, with the commander in

chief, with president biden. the defense secretary is going to stay in office. the president has full faith and confidence in him. >> reporter: so one of the other things that's taken more time to refine here is exactly what they wanted to go after with these strikes. there's two real goals here. one is to be able to deter the houthis' ability to continue to carry out these very dangerous and threatening attacks against ships in the red sea. they did that last night by going after warehouses, places where the houthis are storing or even assembling things like these one-way drones, where they store anti-ship cruise missiles and ballistic missiles. also going after radar sites that they use for targeting, launchers that they launch these things from. the goal to degrade their ability to stop the attacks. in addition to that, the hope is that this will deter. as we heard from richard and we have been hearing ever since last night is the houthis have

vowed already to strike back, to retaliate from these strikes. the reality here is if they do strike back in a very serious way, continuing with large-scale attacks against shipping, we could see follow-on attacks by the alliance against more houthi targets in yemen. >> admiral, i was traveling with secretary blinken. at every stop he is saying we are not seeking a wider conflict and that international shipping has to be protected. it's 40% of the shipping goes through those lanes and that it could affect -- it is affecting the worldwide economy as ships have to divert. >> indeed. there's no question that the houthis will bluster a lot. whether they continue to attack

i think we will know more in the next few days. worth remembering, just under a decade ago in 2016, the u.s. military struck houthi targets very similar scenario. and the houthis backed down. they stopped attacking shipping. go back to the late 1980s, iran was blocking shipping coming out of the arabian gulf by mining the strait of hormuse. in the operation praying mantis destroyed a fourth of the iranian navy. they got the message at that point. we may be in forore attacks, but i know the pentagon has more targets upheir sleeve. i do want to draw line under the coalition aspects of this. very important to track that. it's not just a nato coalition. there are gulf nations in this, arab nations, australia, new zealand, pacific nations as well as traditional nato allies are involved in all of this.

the houthis have been sent a message. it really needs to land not in yemen but in tehran. and all of this, frankly, houthis, hezbollah, hamas, they all begin with h, but the thing to remember is, they are all own and operated by iran. >> i was going to ask you about that. we were being told by those traveling with the secretary that iran is giving latitude to the houthis but is not necessarily directing these operations. what is your take? is the iranian regime behind this? are they going to become involved? we and they more drawn into this? >> i think the iranians will press through all three of these surrogates that they have created as well as the shia militias in iraq and syria. if you laid down a map of the ancient persian empire over

today's middle east, you would see and could drop pins into each of these operations essentially coming out of the grand strategy of tehran. i don't see anything that will change that underlying fundamental, which also gets into shia versus sunni within the face of islam. look for more challenges. unfortunately, this latest turn of the wheel, to me, raises the chances for wider regional conflict. again, let's hope the houthis and their masters in tehran get the message that was sent last night. >> what are you seeing, richard, from your perspective in terms of hezbollah in the north, what's happening in the west bank, of course, that's more of an internal problem within israel because of some of the aggressions by the israeli settlers? what about iran as well?

>> reporter: it's interesting, andrea. there isn't really an internal issue and an external issue right now, because we are in the age of social media, the age where everyone can exchange information, some of it false information, some of it deliberately distorted, some of it accurate, obviously. we haven't seen much from hezbollah today. we didn't see a rain of missiles coming down from the north. i've been speaking to several arab leaders, senior arab leaders and analysts across the region. what they are concerned about is that the united states, others, are going to be increasingly accused of hypocrisy, that they will not do much to stand up for the lives of palestinians, they will continue to veto resolutions calling for a cease-fire, but they will act immediately to protect global shipping, that palestinians don't matter as much as cargo

ships. there's the concern that if this continues, that that reality could spread among ordinary people across the region, and that could lead to this bigger conflict that admiral stavridis was talking about between sunnis and shias and who has legitimacy here? is it the people standing up for palestinian rights or those standing up for shipping in the red sea? >> of course, there have been attacks by iran-backed militias against u.s. forces in both iraq and syria. there's been a lot and criticism on the lot that there hasn't been enough deterrence after a lot of warning and a lot of signals. it happened last night. admiral, thank you so much. richard engel, courtney kube who has been on duty straight through as have richard. it's been a long night. thank you very much.

joining me now to talk more about the u.s. attack against houthi rebels in yemen and the rising tensions in the middle east, just back from traveling to nine countries with the state department, is the top spokesman for secretary blinken. ninecountries, seven days. how long was that? >> seven days. i hope you have gotten more sleep than me. >> maybe a tad, but not a whole lot. let's say your responsibilities are bigger than mine. at every stop the secretary was telegraphing that if the houthis kept attacking critical shipping lanes there could be consequences. the u.s. is not looking, he said, to expand the war beyond gaza. but the houthis and iran have a say in all of that. what do you expect to happen? how will the u.s. respond? >> i will respond to that by reiterating what the secretary said. the united states does not want

to escalate this conflict. we have made clear that from the beginning. the secretary thought it was very important thate have one on one conversations with leaders in the region where he could make absolutely clearhat while we will defend our interests, we will defend our personnel, as we have done, we have seen att against them in iraq and syria, and we will navigation and commercial om of shipping as we did last night, we do not want to escalate this conflict and we will not escalate this conflict. all of that said, there are important interests at stake for the united states. there are important interests at stake for the world. we will continue to take action to uphold those principles if and when it's necessary to do so. >> can you tell us anything about assessment of what was accomplished last night? >> i can't. my colleagues at the white house and pentagon can speak to that. there were a number of significant strikes that we believe had a positive affect. as to the actual assessments, i will leave that to my colleagues at the pentagon. >> do you know anything about

collateral damage, civilian casualties? >> again, i don't. it's another thing i will let my colleagues at the pentagon speak to. >> a former cia chief of staff said we are already in a de facto proxy war with iran. >> we see iran funding proxies throughout the middle east. we see them funding hezbollah, which has been attacking israel from the border -- from across the border in lebanon. we see attacks from the houthis. most sigg significantly, the at by hamas, which has been funded by iran going back for years. we see iran attacking the united states, our allies, our partners in the region. it's why we made clear we will take actions to hold iran accountable. you have seen the united states impose more than 400 sanctions on iran since the beginning of the administration. you have seen us take actions to counter their maligned activities throughout the

region. you have seen us take action against the proxy groups when they attack the united states. we have sent a clear message to iran. it was a message the secretary sent throughout this trip that we don't want to escalate this conflict. we don't think it's in the interest of the united states. we don't think it's in the interest of iran or the broader region or the world. we will be clear, we will defend the interests of the united states. iran should get that message loud and clear. >> the israeli prime minister has, according to reuters, issue aid statement saying that israel has made a deal with qatar to get medicine to hostages being held in gaza. do you know anything about that? >> i will let those two countries speak to that. we did discuss various arrangements when we were in qatar, meeting with the emir and the prime minister there, as well as in our meetings with prime minister netanyahu and the war cabinet. we discussed a number of ongoing efforts we have to secure the release of the hostages. it was work the united states

did to broker a deal through qatar to secure the release -- and i should say through egypt to secure the release during the first pause and their efforts to try to secure the release of more hostages. as always, we are not going to speak much to the efforts because we don't think they are helpful. any progress on that, including the delivery of medicine to hostages, is something the united states would greatly support. >> speaking about the secretary's trip, he was able to deliver a big carrot to israel, the possibility of diplomatic relations with saudi arabia. i know from my reporting how much prime minister netanyahu wants that. the arab leaders are willing to potentially rebuild gaza and help create a palestinian government to secure gaza if -- it's a big if, if the netanyahu government would agree to a tough decision for them, it's something they have not agreed to, which is a pathway for

palestinian rights, for a palestinian state. this prime minister and some of his ministers have refused. the secretary really ran into a brick wall with netanyahu and those right wing ministers. what is the chance israel will make the hard decision the secretary has been caming for, which could lead to a different future, a more secure future he says for all sides in the middle east? >> andrea, i will say this is the secretary's fourth trip to the middle east since october 7th. there was a difference in this trip from the first three. in the first three trips, the arab partners we went and talked to were not ready to discussion issues around the day after, reconstruction of gaza, security in gaza and governance in gaza. the secretary met with -- traveled to nine countries and met with leaders in each of those and was able to secure

agreements with the arab partners as well as with turkey they were ready to have conversations. they were ready to coordinate with the united states. they were ready to take real steps to improve the lives of the palestinian people in gaza and to look at how to rebuild gaza and establish palestinian-led governance in gaza. they were only willing to do that if israel was ready to take concrete steps to establish an independent palestinian state. the secretary when he went to israel did have this candid conversation with netanyahu and with other members of the israeli government. he made a speech to the israeli people to hear from him what the stakes were and what the potential benefits were. you could have real partners in the arab world, both to make assurances around israel's security, to ensure october 7th could never happen again. it's going to require tough choices. not just from arab partners but tough choices from israel. the united states can't make those tough choices for israel. we can't take motion tough

choices for any of the countries. what we can do is play a leadership role in presenting a vision that is different than the vision from october 7th but greater for integration and peace and prosperity in the region. that's the vision the secretary will continue to present and will continue to press in what i'm sure will be a number of future trips to the region in the coming weeks and months. >> thank you so much, matt miller. thanks for coming on after a very rigorous eight-day journey. >> thank you. ready to caucus. up next, kristin welker live in iowa and jen psaki backfrom biden's headquarters. you are watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. ea mitchell reports" on msnbc

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i'm asking you to go out there and brave the elements. >> i know it's going to be negative 15 on monday. i don't know what that is. i literally can't comprehend it. >> given the weather, no one knows what this turnout is going to be. >> the iowa caucus just 72 hours away. the republican field facing a new challenger, the extreme cold. iowans are tough. they are used to it. subzero temperatures and blizzard warnings have them cancelling events today. monday is scheduled to be the coldest caucus night ever. it will be negative 42. i can remember those cold nights. they are not fun. joining me is kristin welker and staying warm here at the desk with me is jen psaki.

sorry, kristin. we are in your studio. we are happy you are out there. trump has a commanding lead, 34 points in today's polling. iowa is, of course -- the others are battling for second place. how are they coping with the cold? >> keep the studio warm for me. it's frigid here. it's not deterring the enthusiasm for the caucuses on monday, i can tell you that. i spoke to a handful of undecided voters overnight. two of them say they are undecided. they are not concerned about the temperatures. they are planning to go and caucus. two voters who are undecided trying to decide between ron desantis and nikki haley. they are now going to vote for nikki haley, which may be a sign of the momentum that we have been talking about that nikki haley has over the past several weeks. in terms of what we are watching for, first, you talk about the

frontrunner, former president trump, and this commanding lead that he has. the question may be more not about whether he wins but how much he wins. as you say, he has a 30-point lead. if that's the case, he could be on track for an historic win. the last person to notch the highest victory here in a gop race was bob dole in 1988. he won by 13 points just for comparison. we are watching that fight for second place very closely. ron desantis is obviously exclusively focused on the state of iowa. he has visited all counties. if he has a third place win, that would be problematic. would he be able to stay in the race? would he take a hard look at his campaign? one of his advisors said they are in this for the long haul. if nikki haley doesn't have a

strong showing monday night, that could dent some of the momentum that we have seen her have in recent weeks. she's also looking toward new hampshire, particularly after chris christie dropped out of the race, looking to pick up some of his votes as she seeks to win that state. i spoke to one caucus goer who said iowans are built of hardy stock. don't expect the weather to be a deterrent. >> jen, what are you watching for monday night? >> it's really all about the expectations game. the truth is, you don't win the primary by winning the iowa caucus. it's just about how it sets you up for things after. trump expected to win by a lot. does haley get into the 20s or higher 20s? that may help her going into new hampshire. if desantis is crushed in third place or even fourth -- ramaswamy, he is not there in the polls as of now. if he does better than desantis, that makes it hard for desantis to say he is going to be in it

for the long haul. lots of things could happen. trump is the frontrunner. it could be interesting the next couple of weeks. >> i want to let you get out of the cold, kristin. quickly, when you talk to the candidates, is desantis -- is there any chance he would drop out before new hampshire if he does badly in iowa? >> there's always that chance, andrea. i interviewed him multiple times. he is defiant. he is in this for the long haul. i spoke with one of his top advisers overnight who underscored the point that they are not looking to drop out after iowa, no matter what happens. notably in his interview with dasha burns, she asked, what other state can you win? she pressed him on this. he couldn't pin down a state. not the case with nikki haley. she's within striking distance of former president donald trump. again, if you think about chris

christie's voters, 12% there in new hampshire, about half of them might go for nikki haley. that would give her momentum heading into south carolina. still uphill narrow path for the nomination. desantis defiant. the reality on the ground, he really has to have a strong showing here on monday night. >> in new hampshire, with an open primary, independents can cross over. they can register republican the day of. they would more likely go to m nikki haley than ron desantis. thank you so much. jen, i want to ask about your visit at the biden campaign headquarters. the biden campaign watching this from a distance. how well organized are they? there's been some reports of

concern among democrats, including the leading democrat, of course, barack obama, joe biden's former partner and boss. >> we talked about all of that. i wanted to go there because president biden gave his two most powerful speeches that he has done to date. a lot of democrats are saying, thank god. the question is, is this a kickoff of what's to come? the answer is yes. there's a lot of tactics they are working on. i know a lot of what's happening on campaigns is you don't see. that's what we talked about when i visited there tuesday. more to come on sunday. >> the fact is, democrats getting nervous about this, because they see so much attention as donald trump goes through the court hearings. we will talk about that later in the program. he becomes more popular with each legal setback. he is using this to create this myth that he is the victim here. it's helping him with his base. the question is, how is it going to help -- does it help or hurt

democrats? >> helping with his base. the wait the biden team sees it is the electorate is very different from the republican electorate. what they said when i asked them about this was basically, we have the receipts. donald trump is the star of his own negative attack ads. what they are trying to do is use traditional tactics, local media, african american media, meeting people where they are, and also using social media platforms as an organizing tool, which you don't always see front and center. that's a big part of the strategy from the people who are leading the campaign. >> one of the important things was when he, in iowa, on fox at the town hall, bragged, if you will, about -- he was the first person in 50 years who could get rid of roe v. wade. >> their mind is not just on the trump legal cases but on his record. abortion is a perfect example of that. also, he said he wanted the

economy to tank this week. they jumped on that as well. we did talk quite a bit about abortion as well, including with the people who are running the latino outreach team. to the surprise of them, it's an issue that's a big turnout issue in 2022. they see it as one that could be a big driver moving forward. >> nancy pelosi with you was talking about the health care issue. >> exactly. a big contrast. more than the legal cases, the domestic -- how they impact people's lives are front and center for the biden team as well as speaker pelosi said. >> covering it all. thanks to kristin welker in iowa, jen here. tune in to "meet the press" sunday morning for the best iowa preview. follow that up with great coverage on "inside with jen psaki." breaking news from the justice department today. federal prosecutors are now

seeking the death penalty for the 19-year-old who shot and killed ten people in a tops supermarket in buffalo, new york, in 2022. the shooting was racially motivated. he pleaded guilty in a state court and was sentenced to life in prison without patrol. attorney general garland imposed a moratorium on federal death penalty cases. will donald trump's remarks impact the judge's decision? that's next. you are watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc.

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the $370 million civil fraud trial against donald trump wrapped up yesterday afternoon, but not before the former president lashed out during closing arguments at the attorney general and against the judge, despite warnings by the judge. the judge is expected to issue a decision later this month on penalties for the former president after previously finding him liable for fraud. we are keeping an eye also on the georgia election interference case i fulton county where in theext hour, a judge there w consider motions -- pre-trial motions filed by donald trump and rudy

giuliani. a trial date has not been set in that case. with me now, ken dilanian. what are you looking for, ken, in today's proceedings, especially after the contentious closing argument? the judge said, i will give you five minutes, after saying he wouldn't. then trump went off. >> he sure did. these are two very different types of cases. civil case in new york, criminal case in georgia. donald trump has very little ability to influence the outcome of the proceedings with his usual bravado and bluster. he tried that in the closing arguments. he was shut down by the judge. nobody thinks the attacks he made are going to have any influence on the outcome of the case, which could hamper his business affairs ingeorgia, it' hearing. it's not terribly significant. they will try to get the case

tossed. that's a long shot. there's a lot of scheduling stuff that's going on. the real question is, how quickly can this judge down there get this case to trial? if it doesn't go to trial before donald trump is elected president, it's on hold. he is outside of the reach of the georgia law enforcement. it's a massive, sprawling racketeering case. this is one of a series of motion hearings. they seem to go on forever. we will see how quickly the judge gets it moving. >> there's the traffic situation among the four cases. >> that's right. >> delays in all of them because of the use of all of the motions. >> that's right. most people think that the jack smith election case is the one most likely to get to trial before americans start casting their votes. >> thank you so much, ken dilanian. let's bring in former manhattan assistant district attorney catherine christian. in georgia this week, trump's lawyers filing motions to dismiss the charges.

do you see that bearing fruit? is this just using the legal rights they have? >> just using the rights they have. they have a right to file the motion. it won't be granted. it's to cause delay. this judge has not allowed delay. i don't think it will cause delay. >> in the new york case, what do you expect? he said he would rule by the end of january. started writing or thinking through his opinion. he has had plenty of time. what could this mean for trump's sons and for the former president? >> i think it's all -- it seems like it's all going to be that the defendants are going to be found liable. now the judge might not find eric and donald junior and just the trump organization and donald trump. but i think from the way the evidence went in that there will probably be a finding of liability. will he agree to $370 million?

we don't know. if he finds liability, there will be a multimillion dollar disgorgement ruling. >> minutes ago we learned the oregon state supreme court will not remove donald trump from the state's primary and general election ballots. because of the possible future u.s. supreme court decision, after colorado did remove trump from the ballot, the supreme court said it will hear oral arguments in the case in february. what do you think the prospects are for some definitive precedent setting 14th amendment ruling to come from the court? >> oral arguments are february 8th. i think the supreme court -- the reason why they set that so soon is they want to have this decision. it could be as early as the end of february, before the march 5th super tuesday date. oregon declining to -- it was a smart move. the supreme court will decide this issue. there's no reason for oregon to

make a decision. >> catherine christian, thanks to you as always. house rules. next, a top house intelligence committee member joining me to discuss the chances of a government shutdown as fighting escalates in the middle east. no agreement on capitol hill. you are watching "andrea mitchell reports." this is msnbc. with bounce pet, you can cuddle and brush that hair off. bounce. it's the sheet. ♪ limu emu & doug ♪ ( bell ringing) customize and save with libberty bibberty. liberty bushumal. libtreally blubatoo. mark that one. that was nice! i think you're supposed to stand over there. oh am i? thank you. so, a couple more? we'll just...we'll rip. we'll go quick. libu smeebo. libu bribu. limu bibu...and me.

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capitol hill lawmakers are leaving washington for the long holiday weekend without a plan to prevent a partial government shutdown next friday. it does seem as though they just got back from the holiday break. mike johnson is under pressure from republican hardliners who are urging him to walk away from the spending deal he struck last week with democrats over the weekend. the speaker addressed reporters just in this past hour. >> our top line agreement remains. we are getting our next steps together. we are working toward a robust appropriations process. stay tuned for all of that to develop. >> joining me now is congressman jim himes, the top democrat on the house intelligence committee. thank you very much for being with us. some house republicans want deeper spending cuts along with big changes in the president's powers to let refugees remain in this country, the parole function. are we headed for a shutdown?

>> well, it feels that way. we started the week with good news which is that speaker johnson agreed with chuck schumer the numbers part of the deal that then speaker mccarthy agreed to with the president. it seemed like we were smooth sailing. as you know, two days ago, the republicans in anger at the speaker's agreement to stand by mccarthy's agreement took down a rule and basically brought the floor to a screeching halt. the underlying problem is, there are 40 or 50 republicans who regard working with democrats as something akin to treason. working with democrats as something akin to treason, and that's a terrible place to be to begin with, but it's an impossible place to be if there is just no way you're going to get 218 republican votes for anything. and we know that to be true. so you know, look, i hope speaker johnson does the right thing and abides by the agreement he made with chuck schumer. he'll get democratic support and

there will no be a shutdown. whether or not the republicans decide that would be with a crime grave enough to cost him his job, that is a chip roy freedom caucus question. >> and they've got basically a two vote majority now because of resignations so in such an evenly divided house, you're not going to get anything done unless there is a bipartisan compromise. let's turn to the houthis and the attack. this was telegraphed day after day. they issued a statement on january 3rd on wednesday last week, week before last, that any further attack would have consequences, and after saying that, the houthis did attack, and there were consequences. do you think it was enough, and do you think it will escalate throughout the region? >> well, i think we should be clear, andrea, that it was the houthis that were escalating this. when you're willy nilly launching missiles and drones

against international shipping in international waters, you know, you're engamging in a violation of international law. the houthis were escalating. myope is that the strikes that were taken last night serve to get the houthis to back down from this attack on international shipping. now, obviously a lot of the answer to that question lies in tehran. i do believe as ranking member of the intelligence committee and the briefings that i have received that, you know, tehran is in this war acting through its proxies, hamas, the houthis, hezbollah, et cetera. i do think that right now, remember, the iranians are looking at an election such as it may be. i do think that they like us have an interest in not seeing this war escalate into a massive regional war. so hopefully cooler heads will prevail and the houthis will stop attacking international shipping and, as horrible as it is, the war will be limited to the geography in which it is actually occurring. >> and have you heard anything to give you hope that there might be some negotiations on

the hostages despite the assassinations that took place, one against a hamas leader, another against a hezbollah leader? we were told, i just came back from this trip with secretary blinken, and we were told that qatar still believes that there can be some negotiations. >> well, there can be. you know, in the brutal machiavellian calculus, which almost always applies in the middle east, these hostages are bargaining chips for the terrorists of hamas. two things need to happen. number one, those negotiations need to continue. and number two, what really needs to happen here, we were just talking about iran. remember that the people who pull the strings for hamas, the people that provide the resources for hamas are in tehran. and hopefully iran recognizes that there is an immense amount of danger to the region with hamas continuing to hold the hostages. hopefully the qataris and the qataris have always played an

intermediary role in the region can say to hamas, you know, you guys need to -- you guys need to bring this deal to a close, return the hostages and proceed from there. again, in the middle east, as you know, as well as i do, andrea, oftentimes your best hopes are pretty quickly dashed. >> we can hope it will finally be otherwise, but congressman, jim himes, we're grateful to you, thank you very much for coming on today. >> thank you, andrea. and turning now to the latest on that frightening alaska airlines incident. the faa is now set to increase its oversight of boeing's manufacturing, just one day after announcing it is opening an investigation into that boeing 737 max-9 plane losing a door plug mid-flight. nbc's senior aviation correspondent tom costello joins us with the latest. this is pretty extraordinary. >> this is a major announcement from the faa. it comes one day after the faa said while the ntsb is

investigating the crash, faa now investigating what was going on inside boeing that allowed this plane with a defect to actually get out onto -- in the skies and now today the faa saying it is going to overhaul and expand its oversight of boeing, concerned that not only this plane came off the assembly line with a problem, others may too. take a listen to are right now what the faa chief said in a cnbc exclusive this morning. >> so this is a brand new air california. it has just come off the line, and it had significant problems, and we believe there are other manufacturing problems as well. so this is all about finding where the risks are. identifying the risks and mitigating them, so we're going to increase oversight by auditing the production process at boeing and at spirit. >> when he says spirit, spirit aerosystems kind the pg. boeing made that tube into a plane.

the faa's statement on the investigation is also very telling. take a look at what they said in their statement. the faa says this incident should have never happened. it cannot hpe again. faa formally notified boeing it is conducting an investigation to determine -- and this is critical -- if boeing failed to ensure completed products, in other words an, con formed to its approved design and were in a condition for safe operation in compliance with the faa. take a look at what boeing has said in response. boeing says we will fully cooperate and be transparent with the ntsb and the faa investigations. here's the nuance here and it's critical here, and your audience will get it, they're so smart. the faa is supposed to watch over the production process at boeing. but there aren't enough paid faa inspectors to watch the entire assembly line, so this was a big problem during the max 8 crashes. they delegate that responsibility to boeing employees who work on behalf of the faa.

eyes and ears on the ground, and now it appears that system hasn't been working and the faa wants to overul that system. back to you, andrea. >> tom costello, expert on all of this. thank you. and that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." it good to be back. remember, follow us on social media @mitchellreports. you can rewatch the best parts of thehow anytime on youtube. just go to msnbc.com/andrea. and be sure to catch the premier of "the weekend" tomorrow morning at 8:00 eastern. we're really excited about that, and "chris jansing reports" starts right now. is jansing rep starts right now (bobby) so, we switched to verizon business internet. easy. they have business grade internet, nationwide. fast, reliable, and easy to set up. (assistant) boom. instant makeover. (bobby) now this room is really working. (vo) make the switch. it's your business. it's your verizon.

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