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good day. i'm chris jansing live at msnbc headquarters in new york city. devastatingly cold weather is making these caucuses even more unpredictable in a state known for surprises. we have the latest on former president trump's bid to run away with a win tonight and the fight facing the other candidates to have a strofrng enough showing to stay in the race. we've got the latest straight ahead. plus, congress on the clock again. with just four days to go before a government shutdown, leaders of both parties float a plan to keep the lights on, but there's a catch. conservatives hate it. so will that sink it? iranian-backed rebels refusing to back down despite dozens of u.s. air strikes against their home base. another u.s.-owned ship attacked just a few hours ago in the red sea. this time they actually hit it.

so how is the u.s. going to respond? a lot to get to on this very busy day. we start in iowa where the first votes in what will almost certainly be one of the wildest election seasons in modern history will be cast in just a few hours. but for the first time in a long time, the biggest question isn't who's going to win, but who is brave enough to show up? right now temperatures across the state are well below zero. windchills hovering around minus 30. possibly dropping to 45 below. the candidates imploring their supporters to come out anyway. >> i get it. i know it's going to be cold. think about this. you get to set the direction for the country. >> obviously the weather is frigid. yet we've got large numbers of people coming out. they're very excited. we've worked hard for many months here to sign people up

that are definitely going to get out. >> you can't sit home. if you're sick as a dog, you say, darling, i got to make it. even if you vote and then pass away, it's worth it, remember. >> keep in mind record turnout for the iowa caucuses was in 2016. even then, just a quarter of all registered republicans showed up. given the weather, it's possible tonight's turnout could be a fraction of that. so a very small number of people with what could be a huge impact on defining this race. while donald trump comes into his third iowa caucus as the presumed front-runner, the margins will matter, not just for him, but, of course, for nikki haley, ron desantis and vivek ramaswamy. even if they can't win, they'll need a strong enough showing to justify staying in this race, at least until new hampshire's primary next week. we have correspondents spread out across iowa covering every angle of today's developments. i want to start with nbc's

vaughn hillyard who is at a team trump event set to start just an hour from now. so what's the mood, vaughn? somehow the trump campaign setting expectations for tonight? >> reporter: good afternoon, chris. marjorie taylor greene, matt gaetz, jim jordan, a cast of other members of congress who have backed donald trump are all going to be appearing here momentarily at fort dodge at a brewery. this is the final campaign event before the caucuses begin. donald trump's team feel like they have identified a pool of supporters, folks who not only caucused for him in 2016, but voted for him in the general election in 2020, and over the course of the last three years they have garnered even more contact information and it has been about activating those folks and getting them to turn out despite the cold. the question is, will they show up? listen to my conversation with

betsy showers yesterday amid that below 40 windchill. >> how much support is there between trump versus nikki haley and ron desantis. >> everybody is voting for trump, everybody. >> do you know anybody voting for desantis? >> no. >> nikki haley? >> no. you don't even see one sign for any of them. i might see a few desantis signs, but nikki haley, please. >> reporter: chris, the trump campaign is not only relying on first-time caucus-goers like betsy who did not take part in the caucus eight years ago, but was brought in during donald trump's presidency and registered to vote because of him. they're also looking at folks who didn't caucus for him eight years ago. i just got off the phone with luke beta. when i first met him in 2016, he was 27 years old, identified himself as an evangelical who

was going to caucus for marco rubio. i just talked to him on the phone, eight years later. he told me he intends to caucus tonight for donald trump, making the case that he's in the best position to beat joe biden in the general election and cited the economy under donald trump and also made reference to nikki haley's comment in which she said that new hampshire corrects, in her words, the decision of iowans which he said he and others took offense from. for donald trump it's a one-two punch. not only the new caucus-goers, but also those who didn't support him eight years ago but intend to caucus for him tonight. >> vaughn hillyard, thank you. nbc's ali vitali is covering nikki haley's final push. nikki haley is looking to ride the momentum of the last couple weeks into a second-place finish here. i'm wondering how confident her campaign is that they'll be able to pull it off and convincingly. >> the convincingly part i think

is going to be the open question. they've seen enough in polling that they feel like second place would be something that jolts the race more quickly into the position that they want it to be in, which is to say they want it to be underscored as a haley versus trump battle heading into new hampshire. they also feel in my conversations with people around the haley orbit that a third-place finish just reenforces the status quo. no matter what, they're pointing to two things, the fact that desantis previously said he was going to win iowa. now it's not even on the table. typically this time of year -- you referenced this in your introduction, none of these campaigns that aren't trump are making the case they can win. that's a forgone conclusion in the eyes of iowa caucus-goers. the other thing that nikki haley is looking at is what that could mean heading into new hampshire. even talking to voters this morning, she was telling them, you've got to get out to caucus.

watch. >> we're so excited. this is go time. this is what we've been waiting for. we've talked to everybody. they know we've got a job to do. they're not deterred. they're going to go out to the caucuses. do you think we have to be worried today? >> no! >> i'm not worried. reason one reason i think we're wondering if there's a reason to be worried -- though i have to say the haley campaign has brushed off concerns about enthusiasm. but in our new nbc news/"des moines register" poll, it shows a softness in enthusiasm among haley supporters. vaughn talked about the temperatures. i feel personally insulted every time i see the map that shows it's negative 4 degrees in des moines. at the same time, that's what voters are going up against. you have to have enthusiasm to get out into this cold and get to a caucus site and register your vote. they may have enough of that, but at the same time that is one of those things we won't know until we know, but the haley

team is certainly relying on that for their strategy of a one-two punch between iowa in a second place and trying to push their way into first in new hampshire that comes next. >> there's obviously enthusiasm, but there's also infrastructure, right? ground game. ron desantis has been all in on iowa which makes today, i would say arguably, the most important day of his political life. what are you hearing on the ground, and what about his much vaunted organization on the ground in iowa? can that be the difference? >> reporter: i think it kind of once again leads us to question whether or not the traditional models of campaigning still work in a trump era. you know this. the theory in iowa is get as many people on the ground here as early as yoe you can, get them knocking doors, making relationships in the community, recruiting people to be precinct captains, recruiting people to bring their friends to caucus. in theory ron desantis has done all of that and done it correctly. he's done the second most events in iowa, far more than trump and

double what nikki haley has done. he's had people on the ground reenforcing his ground game, both within his campaign, and the pac never back down which was responsible for spreading that message in terms of get out the vote for voters, his place here could be second, could be third. that's definitely not a win. our colleague hallie jackson was on the ground with him this morning basically saying, hey, is there a point that you'd drop out since you're falling so short of the metrics that you, yourself set? listen to what he told her. >> you're not dropping out no mat tert what? >> we're going on. we've been built for the long haul. it's about the accumulation of delegates. >> even if you come in third place, there's no chance you're dropping out? >> we're in it for the long haul. we'll do well. i know the media likes to do the speculation. >> just asking the questions. >> i'm excited for the votes to come in. that will be the first real data

point. >> reporter: there is one more tell about the desantis campaign's shifting strategy based on what they're seeing on the ground in iowa. for them the entire ball game was start strong in iowa. for nikki haley, her focus was always in a place like new hampshire. she has the endorsement of the sitting new hampshire governor, chris sununu. he's been a big surrogate for her both in the granite state and the hawkeye state. desantis sensing that reality and seeing the polls that both show trump in the lead but also haley within some of those polls within striking distance of the former president. desantis is saying he's not going to new hampshire next, instead he's saying he's going to make a stop in south carolina first and then make his way to new hampshire. it is a real tacit recognition of the fact that new hampshire is not friendly territory to him. he's hoping maybe that south carolina could be, too. i think many of us are looking at that as trump country as well. >> ali vitali, thank you for that. of course, it could not be a

primary election day without nbc's steve kornacki. okay. we have to remind folks every four years how these crazy caucuses work. so when will we start seeing a clear picture of the results tonight, steve, and what areas are you going to be focusing on? >> if it's any useful guide, in 2016, the last time they had competitive republican caucuses in iowa, 8:00 p.m. eastern time, 7:00 local, is when they close the doors and begin the proceedings. it took 36 minutes in 2016 to get our first report of results from inside one of those counties. really it was between the 9:00 and 10:00 hour eastern time that the vast majority of the vote came in. it really picks up fast. it was a close race in 2016, but by 10:20 p.m. the race had been called for ted cruz. in terms of where we're looking tonight, look, a good guide actually might be to show you the 2016 results. remember trump lost to ted cruz,

and marco rubio did well, nearly beat trump for second place. anything red here on this map, one of the big counties for trump in western ooi wah, pottawattamie. also in woodbury where sioux city is. the question in these cities, how much has he improved? that's the easy one we're looking for. the interesting won, two interesting ones here. look at the maroon on this map, the maroon are the counties that ted cruz won. not all, but most of these counties that ted cruz won were counties that also voted for rick santorum in 2012 who won the caucuses, and mick huckabee in 2008 who won the caucuses. cruz tapped into what they tapped into, winning the iowa caucuses in modern times has meant winning the evangelical vote. two-thirds of all votes cast in the republican caucuses were from evangelical voters. it's why cruz was able to beat trump. he won the evangelical vote. here is the northwest dramatic

example. we'll be looking at those 42 counties that went huckabee '08, sanitorium '12, cruz '16. sioux county, northwest iowa, this was trump's worst county in the state in 2016, only got 11% of the vote here. there's a lot of talk about how since iowa in 2016 trump has built a bond with evangelical voters. the polls show that. we want to show what that looks like in a county like this. conversely, from ron desantis' standpoint, if he's going to pull off any kind of surprise here he's talking about in that interview, he's really going hard after the evangelical vote in iowa. those 42 counties that the evangelical vote has loomed largest in in the last three elections, he's got to show it in those places, like sioux county, those counties that went for cruz, huckabee, santoru

here is the statewide result. five counties in 2016 went for marco rubio. not many counties, polk county where the state county is, biggest county in the state, almost 17% of the vote will come from polk county, rubio won it. why was rubio winning these counties, these are counties that tend to be urban, suburban, high concentration of college degrees, higher income. that was rubio's core base in 2016. that is also nikki haley's core base in these caucuses. you take a look at polk county, the big bedroom communities of dallas county, right outside des moines. johnson county, iowa city. if haley is going to have a breakout showing, this has to be the core of it. the five rubio counties, is she winning any of them, rolling up big numbers there? that could get her second place, could get her a strong story line she's looking to have coming out of tonight. >> steve kornacki, thank you.

in 60 seconds we'll dig into the candidates' strategy on this cold and critical day with the editor-in-chief of the iowa capital dispatch and former advisor to george w. bush and john mccain. don't go away. don't go away. that can treat a migraine when it strikes and prevent migraine attacks. treat and prevent, all in one. don't take if allergic to nurtec. allergic reactions can occur, even days after using. most common side effects were nausea, indigestion, and stomach pain. relief is possible. talk to a doctor about nurtec odt. my skin has been so much smoother so much more hydrated. it's olay! with olay hyaluronic body wash 95% of women had visibly-better skin. and my skin is so much more moisturized. see thethe right age forolay. neutrogena® retinol? that's whenever you want it to be. it has derm-proven retinol that targets vital cell turnover,

evens skin tone, and smooths fine lines. with visible results in just one week. neutrogena® retinol if you want to know who has the most at stake tonight in iowa, well, the campaign schedule might be a big clue. while donald trump and nikki haley are doing telerallies, ron desantis is still on the road. he's holding what will be his 136th, 137th and 138th events in iowa today according to "the des moines register" count knowing perhaps a weak showing tonight could be disastrous after putting in so much time and money, he's showing his face. historically, this is the state that not only starts the voting,

but also starts the winnowing process. mark mckinnon is former adviser to george w. bush and john mccain. and kathy debread vich formerly with "the des moines register." big picture, you know a loss in iowa isn't the end of a campaign. you were with john mccain in 2008, lost iowa and then won the nomination. what do you think we're going to learn tonight from trults? >> it's always really about expectations. the question is what will be the story out of tonight? donald trump is, of course, expected to win. he kind of raised his own expectations. the question is can ron desantis play second? he was all in in iowa. he invested everything he had to make it clear -- he initially said he would win iowa. if he doesn't at least play second, i think he's got a tough time coming out of iowa. usually we say there's three tickets out of iowa.

there may be only two. if nikki haley is at a close third or surprises with a second place or strong second place showing, that could propel her into new hampshire where she has a lot of momentum right now. the person with the most upside for tonight is really nikki haley. the problem is she's -- the good news for haley, she's consolidating the anti-trump out there. the bad news is there's not much anti-trump vote. in conditions as brutal as they are right now, i'd prefer to have people who have done this before. >> kathy, with a field so small, iowa is not going to force a bunch of candidates out this year. but you have long experience in this state. i wonder what is iowa's role likely to be when we look back on 2024? what are you looking for tonight? >> well, first of all, we have lost a lot of candidates. we started this race with more

than a dozen candidates. we've now cut that field in half. i do expect that iowa will fulfill its traditional role in deciding who will not be president. i think there will still be more attrition from this race after iowa. similar to what mark said, we're looking to see if nikki haley can meet or exceed her poll numbers. in your nb moines register" poll up 20 points over ron desantis, but her enthusiasm is soft. i think, as mark said, getting people out when they're not feeling that excited about the candidate is more difficult, especially when it's below zero. ron desantis does have a good ground organization. his people have knocked on my door here in des moines at least a couple times, three times i think in the last couple weeks. that really does help when

you're looking at trying to get people out of their houses, bring along friends and family and potentially get people who didn't know they were going to caucus to show up. that's h you beat your poll numbers. that's really what ron desantis needs if he wants to go forward as all. >> let me go back if i can, mark, to the graphic we just showed, which is about the enthusiasm levels that were registered in our poll. that's what a lot of people see as the problem for nikki haley, the people who are extremely, very enthusiastic about her are 39%, 62 for ron desantis and 88 for donald trump. when we talk again about the expectations game, what does a win for her have to look like? is it just coming in second? or does she have to come in second by a certain margin? >> well, that's a really interesting metric. and in presidential elections we look at enthusiasm and whether there's an enthusiasm gap. that's especially true when it's below zero.

if you're not enthusiastic about your candidate, you're sure as hell not going out in conditions like this. ron desantis may have spent enough time and money that his voters may be enthusiastic enough to get out there whereas haley's aren't. i think nikki haley, her big play is new hampshire. the big issue tonight is for desantis. he's all in here. he either is in or out as a result of tonight. the notion he's going to go to south carolina is already flagging to the rest of the world that he's really not playing in new hampshire. unless desantis can be have a strong second place showing tonight, i think he's out long term. >> kathy, let's talk a little bit about the weather. i want to show drone shots of ottumwa. you guys in iowa, i've known it, i've seen it, i have relatives there, i've been to caucuses there. you guys are hearty. is turnout the biggest unknown

here and potentially the biggest excuse if you don't do well? >> the turnout absolutely is a big unknown. you really add a level of uncertainty to results. whenever there's a low turnout election, and donald trump has said this many times on the campaign trail, he said if it's a low turn oud, bad things happen, unpredictable things happen. iowans are hearty, but as i like to say, we're not foodhardy. these are dangerous conditions. walking around in des moines i've almost fallen three times. the streets are icy. the sidewalks are acie. people are going to be very, very careful. i think donald trump benefits actually from the weather because he's got the highest enthusiasm level. he's also got a high level of young voters. >> so for those sitting in the

warmth of their homes, the tv ad numbers and streaming -- ad numbers in general are off the charts. according to the sec filings, super pac filings have been four times what it was in 2016. i want to play what some iowans have been saying. >> she made a joke. desantis has become a joke. >> don't believe a thing nikki haley says. >> ron desantis, losing and lying. >> haley even opposed trump's wall. >> haley disparages the caucuses and insults you. >> according to a politico analysis, $85 million in tv ads since the start of 2023 in a state with just under 2 million reg stert voters. what did they get, mark, for all that money? >> not a lot. that used to be my job in the presidential campaigns. i would always say at this point, in some place like iowa or new hampshire, it's great to be a tv station.

at this point it's just wallpaper. it's hard to be distinctive at a time when all you're seeing -- people generally tuned it out. if you haven't made an impact by now, just having a lot of tv on in the last few days of the xaip in a primary state is not going to have much impact. >> kathie, are people at this point just muting when the ads come on? >> when you ask people are they excited for the caucuses, they say i'm excited to get my tv back. i don't want to see all these ads. tv ads in the caucuses are kind of silly money in terms of the universe of people that you're actually going to reach. we mentioned that the record turnout is like 187,000 for a republican caucus. probably it will be lower than that. how much money are we spending per caucus-goer? a whole lot. >> we will do that calculation tomorrow, i promise you.

kathieobradovich, thank you very much. a bipartisan agreement in place to keep the government open until at least march. ultra conservative lawmakers are threatening to get in the way. we'll explain. we'll take you back to iowa and dig into how caucuses work. you're watching "chris jansing reports" only on msnbc. you're watching "chris jansing reports" only on msnbc i have moderate to severe crohn's disease. now, there's skyrizi. ♪ things are looking up, i've got symptom relief. ♪ ♪ control of my crohn's means everything to me. ♪ ♪ control is everything to me. ♪

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on capitol hill an impending government shutdown may be averted for now after congressional leaders struck a deal on a short-term bill that would fund the government through march. the bipartisan agreement between senate majority leader chuck schumer and house speaker mike johnson would need to pass both houses before noon on friday. it's still unclear if johnson has the votes among the more right wing members of his caucus. if it passes with democratic help, that could put his job in jeopardy. several moderate democrats have told nbc news they would be willing to vote to save his gavel if gop hardliners make a move to oust him. nbc's julie tsirkin is on capitol hill. here we go again, julie. what's the latest on this short-term deal, and what do we know about speaker johnson? does he have the votes to pass this? >> reporter: he doesn't have the republican votes to pass this. you'll remember back in november when he passed the stopgap funding measure that took us to the first deadline on january

19th and the second one on february 27bd, he lost more than 90 house republicans back then. you'll remember in the weeks following that vote he promised some of the hard-line members, listen, that's the last stopgap funding measure i'll put on the floor. now he's making a u-turn. as he's gotten further in this process, as he had the gavel, he's realizing it's a lot harder to govern in the way he's made those assurances to the hard line members. he's going to need a large swath of democrats to get him across the finish line. he'll need two-thirds of the house to support this bill. hard-line conservatives unhappy getting to this point. take a listen to what they said over the weekend. >> my view, secure the border. if the border is not secured, this government does not deserve to be funded. >> i think it's time for us to tell the government, look, you've got to secure the border or shut it down.

>> i told speaker johnson, if he made that deal in exchange for $60 billion for ukraine, i would vacate the chair. >> reporter: marjorie taylor greene told that to speaker johnson. a couple of them were in his office trying to get him to back off that agreement with schumer. this is the overarching theme of this. that's to fund the government for the entire year. you have conservatives not only upset with johnson for that. you heard byron donalds saying they should attach border spending. you have them now upset about yet another stopgap funding measure. you also have the national security measure supplemental at play. >> julie tsirkin, thank you. we're not where we need to be. that's a boeing executive announcing new quality inspection measures for their 737 max-9 jet following that terrifying mid air explosion ten

days ago. nbc's tom costello covers aviation for us. wow, they've got to restore confidence. they have to make it clear their planes are safe. what are they doing? >> listen, they're on full damage control. make no mistake about it. this is one of the most serious crises in boeing history. it comes five years after the fatal max 8 crashes. boeing announcing they're going to make more quality inspections a mandatory part of the process. they're going to include spirit aerosystems. that's the company that provided the fuselage with that bad door plug we've been talking about. also, they say they've identified 50 other points that they need to work on at spirit in the buildout process. they're offering airlines, complete oversight inspections. we've already seen alaska airlines announce it's not satisfied with boeing's quality control. alaska airlines themselves sending the spectors into boeing plants to double-check boeing's work. boeing will have an outside

review of quality control. all of that as the max-9 remains grounded, 179 planes. the faa saying it's not comfortable approving this plane for flight until it's done a thorough review of not just the door plug, but the plane and other concerns. specifically they say they're going to do 40 inspections of planes already with that door plug concern. they're going to run a full data analysis on it. then after reviewing that data analysis, will decide where they go from there. this boeing and faa inspection process that they now have to go through is a very long -- it's been described to me as 100-plus pages of specifics on how they're supposed to go through and check every door plug for any signs or problems. chris, the big question remains how or why were the door bolts on that door plug missing? four bolts. were they ever there to begin with? were they loose as they were on

other planes? there are real concerns about quality control at boeing and spirit aerosystems which provided the fuselage with the door plug that failed. >> i'd be curious to see any airline research for those two carriers about what they think people may be booking other airlines because they're nervous about whether their flight gets canceled. >> keep in mind the max-9 is grounded. inside how the iowa caucuses work and what voters are saying. first, on this martin luther king jr. day, his son laid a wreath at his father's monument in washington and he spoke about what king would think about our current political climate. >> we have to decide in life are we just going to go through life recording and going along to get along, or are we going to regulate peace and justice and freedom and humanity for all kind? that's what martin luther king

jr. would be telling us. we are far better than the behavior we're exhibiting as a nation. >> in atlanta, reverend berp niece king took part in a service at ebenezer baptist church, known as the spiritual home of her father. she wrote to him on social media. thank you for believing that we can defeat injustice without destroying each other. a parade marched through downtown savannah. across the country many other events had to be canceled because of the dangerous cold weather we're seeing. today would have been dr. martin luther king jr.'s 95th birthday. . 579 breaths to show 'em your stuff. every breath matters. don't let rsv take your breath away. protect yourself from rsv... ...with abrysvo, pfizer's rsv vaccine. abrysvo is a vaccine for the prevention of lower respiratory disease from rsv in people 60 years and older. rsv can be serious if you are 60 or older.

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it's no secret that iowa's first-in-the-nation caucuses are one of the more unique ways to choose a leader, not the typical day-long voting that could take a few minutes, iowa voters listen to speeches, talk about options and write down their choices in secret ballots. jacob soboroff is in auto tum wah. >> they'll hear speeches to convince them to come out and caucus, maybe as many as a thousand people. come with me. this is ottumwa high school.

it dates to about 1923. it's just an incredible place. they just celebrated their 100 years as you can see right here, go bulldogs. they're ail going to come down these stairs. the caucus is a little different from the democratic caucus which no longer happens and everybody is in the same room. here there's 22 different precincts is what's known as a super caucus location. everybody from the different parts of this county are going to come down this hallway into classrooms, as a matter of fact. so, for instance, there's classroom 120 right over here. usually you can see on the walls here, it's a spanish classroom. this evening it is going to be a singular precinct location. you're going to take your ballot, put it in a ballot box and count those ballots in this room. this is not where the official results are tabulated. that happens over here. come with me. ultimately, this place, like it was back in 2016 may very well prove interesting to the results and important to look at.

president trump won by maybe 35 percentage points. tonight if it's bigger, that will be entering and intickive of some type of shift. all the results from the classrooms will be brought down here into the cafeteria. they'll tabulate the results. they'll have a big white board in the cafeteria. that's where the results will be presented to the public. we'll get results here for the county and ultimately for iowa itself. >> jacob soboroff getting his steps in, thank you. i want to bring in nbc's priscilla thommal son in sioux city, iowa. what are are you hearing from voters with just hours left before the caucuses begin? >> reporter: chris, let me set the scene for you. we're in sioux county. this is the county where donald trump performed the worst in 2016. ted cruz won this county, went on to win the state.

that's thanks in part to the large evangelical population here. we're talking about 51% of iowa republican caucus-goers who identify as evangelical and say donald trump is their first pick. so we went down to northwestern college. we spoke to some first-time caucus-goers. all of them tell us that they are undecided but for different reasons. take a listen. >> i've seen a lot of commercials about nikki haley, and trump's been calling her a snake, i guess. so i guess i don't know if i can trust her. >> are you planning to caucus? >> it depends on how cold it is. the plan is tentative yes. i'm leaning nikki haley. >> donald trump did it all. he knows how to do it. he's experienced. so probably lean towards him. >> reporter: here is why that evangelical vote is so important. two out of three republican caucus-goers identified as

evangelical in the past. if trump can galvanize that voting bloc, it could really bode, if he wins here, sort of explain a little bit of how he is going to do across the state. i mentioned all of those folks said they were still undecided. a number of them said leaning towards trump. i was talking to an independent caucus-goer here who says he supports nikki haley, but not enough to go out and caucus for her. he's hearing from folks who maybe don't support donald trump but are nervous about saying that out loud, so seems to think that the polling may not bare out when folks go and write that name on that secret ballot tonight in the caucus room. we will certainly be watching closely for any signs of that. >> priscilla thompson, thank you. up next, new developments in defense secretary lloyd austin's health. what the pentagon is saying. a car ramming attack in israel leaves one dead and 17 injured. we'll take you there after the break. you're watching "chris jansing

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israel where a woman was killed, at least 17 people injured in what police say was a terror attack. two suspects are now in custody. that comes during anothe ongoing rise in tensions in the red sea. the u.s. military says an american container ship was hit by a houthi missile off the coast of yemen today. the impact reportedly caused a fire on board, although no one was injured. the houthis today vowed to continue attacking ships. apparently undeterred by a series of u.s.-led air strikes on its infrastructure in yemen. nbc's raf sanchez is reporting from tel aviv. so raf, on the red sea, tensions obviously continuing to rise. what more can you tell us about this latest back and forth? >> chris, the u.s. military says the houthis fired a ballistic missile off the southern coast of yemen. they hit this american-owned ship. it's called the gibraltar eagle. the missile causing damage, but no injuries, and this vessel apparently able to continue on

its journey. all of this coming just one day after the houthis apparently fired another missile towards an american warship in the red sea. that missile was intercepted by an american fire aircraft. as you said, chris, this all underscores that the houthis remain defiant. the u.s. and the uk carrying out this massive strike friday and saturday, over 100 missiles aimed at houthi launch sites, at houthi radar stations. all with the goal of deterring this iranian-backed militant group from carrying out these attacks on shipping in the red sea, and the houthis are making very very clear they are not deterred. they are proudly taking responsibility for today's attack on that american owned ship, and they say those attacks are going to continue, and the question on the desk of president biden, secretary austin now out of hospital, other american decision makers is do there need to be more

strikes against the houthis because the reality is if the goal was to make the red sea safe for shipping, these strikes so far have not achieved that objective, and a lot of antists warned that the houthis who have survived years of attacks from saudi arabia, who have survived a year's long civil war against the officially yemen government were unlikely to be deterred by a single wave of strikes. the houthis for their part are saying they will stop these attacks if there is a cease fire in gaza. unclear whether they would stick to that or not. but they say they were prepared to call off these attacks immediately if a cease fire is announced, chris. >> raf sanchez, thank you. well, former u.s. officials are reaffirming rock solid american support for taiwan after that island nation defied threats by china by electing a new president. unofficial delegation traveled to the island to meet with

taiwan's current and incoming president. china has lashed out at the u.s. for offering congratulations, describing the newly elected leader as a separatist and troublemaker who would increased likelihood of conflict want. in our next hour of "chris jansing reports," i'll talk to an iowa republican stratist who has worked on six presidential campaigns about how he sees things shaping up tonight. first, you can watch the best parts of our show anytime on you tube. go to msnbc.com/jansing, stay close, more "chris jansing reports" reports after this. ng reports" reports after this. honestly? i couldn't afford to get sick. i want to be there for this one. i can't if i'm sick. pneumococcal pneumonia is a potentially serious bacterial lung disease. you may be at risk if you're 19 to 64 with certain chronic conditions. or if you're 65 or older. don't pause a moment longer. ask your doctor or pharmacist about getting vaccinated

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you in this second hour of "chris jansing reports." at this hour donald trump's first verdict of 2024. not from a courtroom, but from iowa. will he put the competition on ice and could the bitter cold freeze out a lot of voters? we're live in sub zero iowa. the post caucus push. ron desantis says his campaign is built for the long haul, where he's headed after the first votes are cast. plus, granite state of mind, the new hampshire primary just eight days away. can nikki haley pull off a big upset? we're live in manchester. and tragedy at the border. u.s. officials