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 firing back after

they say texas kept the feds from helping a woman and two children who died crossing the rio grande. our nbc news reporters are following all of the latest developments. we begin with donald trump getting a warm embrace from frigid iowa. nbc's garrett haake is just north of des moines. garrett, what is the former president saying in his closing pitch? >> reporter: good afternoon, from what will surely be a donald trump jr. event here today in ankeny as the trump team tries to lock in the results of what we have seen in poll after poll over the last couple of weeks. a dominant lead here in the hawk eye state. at his last major rally yesterday, donald trump basically tried to welcome in all the disparate elements of his movement here in this state, be they first time cause of action -- caucus goers, evangelicals, and warned primarily against their biggest enemy which he views as

complacency. listen to what he told a call in indianola yesterday. >> a victory over all the liars, cheaters, frauds, crooks, creeps, perverts and other nice people. the entire world will be listening to you, and i believe that iowa is going to speak loud and clear. you're first in the nation for a reason. >> reporter: presumably in that laundry list of people he wanted folks to score points, ron desantis and nikki haley. the former president spent a significant amount of time going after his former u.n. ambassador haley at the same rally, trying to put distance between he and her in this state. really warning folks that despite the cold, despite what they read or see on tv or hear about in the polls, they have to caucus tonight. they cannot take anything for granted, in part, he and his

team until about a week ago have been raising the expectations. >> garrett haake, always great to see you. thank you so much. in the meantime, ron desantis is zeroing in on his post caucus fight against his rival, nikki haley. nbc's dasha burns is in west des moines where desantis will be holding his caucus party enough. it's not enough that they have a caucus tonight and the results matter a little bit, but they have gone ahead and are trading barbs over what happens next. tell us about it. >> reporter: let's take a little step back here, chris, because ron desantis is the candidate that at the outset of this primary was a rising star in the republican party. he was the guy that everyone was looking to to unseat trump as the standard bearer of the republican party, and he was the guy that was saying not so long ago that he was going to win iowa. now, he's campaigning here as the underdog. he's fighting for second place for that mantle to take on trump, not just nationally but

in this state where he has gone all in with all of his resources. this is certainly not where he thought he would be. he's trading barbs not with the front runner, donald trump, but with nikki haley as they're fighting it out for second place. take a listen to the two of them talking about the next step here. instead of going straight to new hampshire, desantis has decided he's going straight from iowa to south carolina. no doubt an attempt to sort of taunt nikki haley on her home turf. take a listen. >> obviously new hampshire has 20 delegates, iowa has 40. nevada has a caucus. i'm participating, donald trump is participating. nikki haley is not even participating in that. she'll win zero delegates in nevada. the whole name of this game is to win a majority of the delegates, so we're competing for every delegate we can. >> he has only played in iowa, he's invisible in new hampshire, south carolina, he's fourth and fifth place in both of those. i welcome him to south carolina,

but we're headed to new hampshire, that's the next state to vote. somebody might want to tell him that. >> reporter: and look, it seems both of them have made the calculation that they're going to wait and hold their fire against former president trump until they can knock each other out of this race. for florida governor ron desantis, if he doesn't have a strong showing in iowa, his campaign, he says, is built for the long haul, realistically, the donors are going to dry up. the momentum is going to slow to a halt here if he doesn't come in second, and a strong second at that given all of the resources that he's put in here. but for nikki haley, she also has a problem. she's got momentum in new hampshire, she's in striking distance. south carolina, that is trump country. i traveled across that state a couple of months ago. it is not the same state it was when she was governor there. it's redder, more conservative, and it is much more in favor of donald trump than it was just a little while ago, and if ron

desantis does drop out of this race, our math has shown this in the polling, the majority of his ballot share does go to donald trump. so desantis dropping out doesn't necessarily help haley perhaps as much as she would like it to. >> the dominance of trump. >> the longest week in politics might be the eight days between iowa and the new hampshire primary. shaquille brewster reports from manchester. a major chunk of the political world is about to move to the granite states. i've watched the planes take off, buses load up. what's waiting for them where you are? >> you're looking at a fundamentally different e lakt -- electorate in new hampshire. less evangelical, and you have a bigger share of independent voters that will be participating in this primary, and because of that, you're seeing a fundamentally different

dynamic here in new hampshire. you look at the polling. you heard dasha explain it there. nikki haley is in striking distance. donald trump is still ahead, but you have some polls showing her within 10 percentage points of the former president. the former president already planning a slew of events in new hampshire. he'll be here almost every day between now or between tomorrow and the actual primary. i have been talking to voters about how they're viewing this. how they're looking at what's happening in iowa, and influencing their decision and what they plan to do next week, and listen to some of those conversations. >> you got to take the good with the bad. it's almost like you got to flip a coin at this point. >> i saw it in your face. seems like you're struggling with this decision. >> yes, i think it's a make or break election in this country. >> the iowa caucuses will influence how you look at the candidates once they get here? >> i think so, yeah. >> it means nothing to me. >> reporter: iowa means nothing?

>> yes. i'm an independent, but i'm going to vote for nikki haley to slow trump's momentum. >> reporter: you see new hampshire voters looking at this as a way, some of them, as a way to slow down trump's momentum. one other factor here, the polls that i mentioned that show nikki haley within striking distance. most of those were down before former new jersey governor chris christie left the race. he was a candidate who was polling in third place, had a consistent 11, 12% in the same polls. there's an open question as to where his voters go. i checked with some voters who i met at his campaign suspension from last week, and the voters said they didn't know what they would be doing. the majority said they're looking at nikki haley. it depends on what happens tonight in iowa, as that iowa result will have an impact in how strong those new hampshire voters see the candidates. >> shaquille brewster, fascinating stuff. there is an issue not only

dominating the iowa caucuses, but the 2024 race in general. that is immigration. a heated battle is now playing out between the state of texas and the biden administration following the drowning deaths of three migrants. nbc's morgan chesky is following that story from eagle pass. morgan, exactly what happened there? >> reporter: yeah, chris, good afternoon. two different events being described. one from the biden administration's point of view, another from the state of texas. late friday evening, the department of homeland security reporting that officials near eagle pass received a call from mexican authorities reporting that a woman and two children were drowning in the rio grande. they claimed that by the time they arrived to the area known as shelby park, it was blocked off by state officials, members of the national guard there, and that they were unable to reach the migrants in the water. on the state side, however, chris, they are claiming that by the time border patrol agents

arrived, those migrants had already drowned and were in the process of being recovered by mexican authorities. today, a cease and desist letter coming from the justice department to the state of texas basically asking them to stop blocking border patrol agents or any federal official, for that matter from being able to access specifically this area along the u.s./mexico border so that they can do their job, giving them just a couple of days to respond to this before receiving more legal action. of course, you look at this tragedy, just the latest chapter in a saga between the state of texas and the biden administration. we do know that governor greg abbott defended the decision for the state to essentially protect its borders saying it's up to them. he can no longer rely on the biden administration. the president asked a question as he was leaving the white house today, what is his message

to governor abbott. he declined to say anything explicitly. the cease and desist letter essentially sums that up. meanwhile, the numbers have dropped off when it comes to border crossings, chris, but important to note that that is typical for this time of year. chris. >> morgan chesky, thank you. up next, the coldest caucuses ever. iowa voters braving snow and temperatures hitting minus 10 degrees in some places. the forecast and just how hard the weather may make it to physically get to a caucus when we're back in 60 seconds. >> you know, my jeep did not start this morning given the cold temperatures. i had to uber into the office. a lot of iowans are going through that. e going through that all-day and all-nigt heartburn acid prevention with just one pill a day. choose acid prevention. choose nexium.

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stranded on the side of the road, completely buried in snow or something close to it. in des moines, it feels like 21 below 0 with the windchill. for context, that's just 5 degrees warmer than the south pole right now. so freezing that, look at this guy, throws water into the air and it instantly turns to snow. all of this as the 2024 republican campaigns make one final push to win over caucus goers before they gather less than six hours from now. msnbc meteorologist bill karins has the latest forecast for us. bill, what does it looks like for tonight's caucus and all across the country? >> iowans are tough. they say this is no big deal. i think most of us would not be thrilled to be out in weather like this. the cold blast has been with us for three days. people have gotten used to it over the last couple of days. the weekend was frigid too. i plotted every temperature gauge in the state of iowa here, to show you the range that we have. these are the actually temperatures.

the only location that is zero or above is in the very southwest corner of the state. shenandoah is the warmest spot in the state at 1 degree, and then when we factor in the wind blowing, this is how it feels on your skin, it's much worse. many areas are in the negative 20 range, a few spots close to negative 36 we see there. it's kind of widespread. davenport is negative 26. you get the idea. everyone heading out, it's going to be windy, not snowing at least. obviously there's ice everywhere from the snowstorm we had a couple of days ago. this is the forecast as we go throughout the evening. frigid winds, a chance of frostbite if you get caught out in it. if you're prepared for it, run to your car, heat it up. get back in later, everything should be just fine. other areas of the country haven't been as lucky. this has been a significant day for snow in the south. i mean, we don't see this that often. nashville, 5 inches, memphis 4 inches. the dogs are running in the backyards, having a great time. even alabama had 2 inches.

this later tonight will slide to the east coast and come to the northeast. areas we have been talking about with the snow drought, how it's been two years almost. d.c., baltimore, philly, and new york. the snow is on the way, snow hard in areas of northern mississippi, alabama, tennessee. virginia is starting to snow. tonight in the d.c. area breaks out. tomorrow morning when you wake up in new york, there should be 1 to 3 inches of snow out there. not a big ordeal. because everyone is going back to school and work, the morning commute could be dicey in the northeast. >> i walk, so i'll just make sure that i have my snow boots on. bill karins, thank you so much. it is so cold in iowa. i'm cold just watching people. i want to bring in david kochel, an iowa gop strategist who worked on six campaigns, include mitt romney and jeb bush. good to see you. i want to play for you what voters told our correspondents about the weather there. >> reporter: how cold would it

have to be to not caucus on monday night? >> an astronomical 80 blow. >> reporter: how concerned are you about the weather on monday night? >> not concerned at all. the blizzard slows us down, but the cold weather won't stop us at all. >> brave souls. turnout has never been huge in iowa. it isn't generally for primaries. how much do you think the cold will affect turnout and the results tonight? how much of a question mark is it right now? >> reporter: it's a real question mark. i mean, it is really cold here. we're used to temperatures 0, 10 degrees, 20 degrees. we all, you know, have to get our kids to school and get in our cars and go to work. people are used to that. minus 30, minus 40 windchill. that's a different thing. now you're talking about your car doesn't turn over, your battery might die. if you're in a ditch anywhere,

nobody is coming by because the roads are empty today and will be probably tonight. so we're in a different toir. i think it will affect turnout a lot. in 2016, we had 180,000 republicans participate. i have been thinking maybe 150,000 for this caucus. we'll see a lower turnout, and that can often bring with it a surprise. >> obviously as a journalist, we're always looking for surprises, it makes for good copy. but you are the expert in iowa on the expectations game. beyond just a first place finish, do you think that there's a margin of victory donald trump has to have before people start to think, oh, maybe he is a little vulnerable? >> i don't know that it's a margin of victory there's two campaigns, trump versus expectations for himself, and haley and desantis fighting it out for second. if trump's clear politics average is 51%, if he falls

short of 50%, what that means is half of iowans said no, they want to go somewhere else. that's his expectation, i think, and then you've got the race for second place, haley and desantis, who has the momentum, who's got the machinery. haley appears to have the momentum. desantis has invest add lot of money in his organization, hoping it comes through for him. that's going to be the bigger story of the night. it's going to have to be trump and one other candidate if there's any chance of blocking him from the nomination. >> we talked about in 2008 mike huckabee ran the iowa caucus, thanks to what he called the pizza ranch strategies. he stopped at those locations. candidates have been trying to replicate that strategy. including vivek ramaswamy, considering that this strategy has delivered results for little known candidates, when you talk

about a surprise, what are the chances that vivek ramaswamy delivers one? >> i'm not a believer in the vivek ramaswamy theory here. i think if you like vivek ramaswamy, you're voting for trump. they have the same message. for evangelicals to move as a block, to all go together, like they did for huckabee, santorum and ted cruz. level leaders have endorsed ron desantis, but trump has a significant amount of support among evangelicals as well. so what we're going to see with christian voters is they're really split for the first time since 2000. i don't know if anybody can capitalize on a strategy. that's what we're going to watch for tonight. are they die hards, are they going to come out in a big bloc.

>> david kochel, thank you very much. >> thanks, chris. still ahead an emotional speech from the d.a., the accusations she answered in the middle of a church service. so i'm doing all i can to help lower my risk of breaking a bone. for postmenopausal women with osteoporosis at high risk for fracture taking calcium and vitamin d may not be enough. adding prolia® is proven to help strengthen bones and reduce spine fracture risk by 68% with 1 shot every 6 months. do not take prolia® if you have low blood calcium, are pregnant, are allergic to it, or take xgeva®. serious allergic reactions like low blood pressure, trouble breathing, throat tightness, face, lip or tongue swelling, rash, itching or hives have happened. tell your doctor about dental problems as severe jaw bone problems may happen with prolia®, or about pain in your hip, groin, or thigh, as unusual thigh bone fractures have occurred. talk to your doctor before stopping, skipping, or delaying prolia®, as spine and other fractures have occurred. serious side effects, like low blood calcium,

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join the millions of people taking back their privacy by downloading duckduckgo on all your devices today. . the georgia d.a. investigating donald trump and 18 codefendants for election interference is fighting back against allegations of this conduct that accuses her and her critics of racism.

speaking at a church on sunday, fulton county d.a. fani willis became emotional while talking about what she has endured since she took up the case against trump. >> god, you did not tell me that people would call me the n-word more than they call me fani. you did not tell me as a woman of color it would not matter what i did, my motive, my talent, my ability, and my character would be constantly attacked. god, you did not tell me my home would be swept multiple times for bombings. or that most days and nights that i would spend them in isolation because that was the safest place to be. dear god, i do not want to be like those who attack me. i never want to be a marjorie taylor greene who has never met me but has allowed her spirit to be filled with hate. how does this woman who has the

honor of being a leader in my state, how is it that she has not reached out to me? >> joining us now, glenn kirschner, former federal prosecutor and msnbc legal analyst. her story, unfortunately, has been repeated too many times by people who have been involved in one way or another in the sphere of donald trump. this was also her first public speaking appearance since one of trump's codefendants alleged in a court filing that she had an improper romantic relationship with the special prosecutor she hired. that filing accuses them of financially benefitting from the relationship. here's some of what she said about that. >> god, wasn't it them that attacked this lawyer of impeccable credentials, been a judge more than ten years, run a private practice more than 20. represented businesses in civil litigation.

i ain't done, y'all, served as a prosecutor, a criminal defense lawyer, special assistant attorney general. they ain't just giving this to black man. how come, god, the same black man i hired -- >> so she's making a defense of the qualifications of the special prosecutor, but she did not confirm or deny allegations. there are a couple, but more specifically that they profited from his appointment, funded by taxpayers, which is what the critics are saying. are there still legitimate questions she should answer, glenn? >> i think time will tell, and i'm sure there will be some great investigative reporting by the "atlanta journal-constitution," and other publications. but for a moment, let's assume they had a previous personal relationship because i think that helps frame our discussion. it raises two questions, will that have any impact on the

legal proceedings in the enormous codefendant case that's being prosecuted in georgia? the answer is almost certainly no. it will have no impact on the legal proceedings. will it have an impact in the court of public opinion? it certainly could, and we should talk about how that is. let's talk about the legal issue presented. you know, there are times when folks who are involved in a case might have prior or even current personal relationships, so there's kind of that intertwining of the personal and the professional. where it becomes a significant legal issue is where, for example, a judge might have had a prior personal relationship with an attorney general on the prosecution team, an attorney on the defense team with a witness who might be called by either side as part of the litigation because that can raise the specter of a potential conflict, and that's when judges typically are required to recuse themselves from the case.

or it could be that folks on the prosecution team maybe had a prior relationship with somebody on the defense team. that also can raise the specter of a conflict of interest that can become a legal issue. fani willis has assembled the team, a pretty big, sizable team that she believes is appropriate to, you know, tackle this prosecution. the 19 codefendant conspiracy case. as is being reported, she hired multiple special counsel. they're all reportedly being paid the same. this gentleman that she hired, nathan wade has prior experience as a defense attorney, as, i believe, a municipal court judge. he obviously brings a certain skill set to the trial team, the prosecution team. and if we hypothetically, they had a prior relationship, it really will not impact the legal proceedings because they're all kind of on the same team. there's no conflict. now, in the court of public

opinion, we can see donald trump potentially trying to exploit this, maybe even misrepresenting the nature of it. why? because his goal is always to try the case in court of public opinion, and undermine the public's confidence not only in the institutions but in the outcome in the event he ends up being held accountable and convicted at trial. >> well, he's already done it as recently as this weekend. he talked about it very critically. i don't want to put words in your mouth. so if you think this case is not strong, is it less about getting the charges dismissed but more, when you talk about public opinion, sowing seeds of doubt or controversy in the minds of potential jurors? >> it absolutely is, and that's why jury selection in this case, chris, is going to be so important, and i am quite sure judge mcafee will conduct a very sort of searing and probing inquiry of each and every

potential juror to see what they may have heard about the case whether they have formed any opinions about the guilt or innocence of the defendants and whether they can try the case based only on the evidence they hear in court and nothing else they may have learned. and i'm confident they're going to be able to impanel a fair and impartial jury to hear this case, and i think this story attacking fani willis for having a personal relationship potentially with one of the team members is going to sort of melt away and not become legally significant. >> glenn kirschner, always good to see you, thanks. and we have some heartbreaking news to share, the principal wounded in an iowa school shooting earlier this month has died after ten days in the hospital. principal dan marburger was among the three staff members and four students who were injured when a 17-year-old gunman opened fire in perry high school. his daughter wrote then, as i heard of a gunman, i instantly

had a feeling my dad would be a victim as he would put himself in harm's way for the benefit of the kids and staff, that the tried to talk the gunman down and distract him long enough for students to flee the cafeteria's breakfast program. a 6th grader was killed before the gunman turned the gun only himself. iowa governor kim reynolds ordered all flags to be lowered to half staff until mar burger's funeral in honor of him. democrats announced some big updates for biden's reelection push. we've got that next. we've got that next. with ubrelvy, there's another option. one dose works fast to eliminate migraine pain treat it anytime, anywhere. without worrying where you are or if it's too late. do not take with strong cyp3a4 inhibitors. allergic reactions to ubrelvy can happen. most common side effects were nausea and sleepiness. migraine pain relief starts with u.

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well, the republican presidential race is focused on iowa. the biden campaign is about to throw a little victory party of its own. less than an hour from now, they will officially announce some historic fundraising numbers as the general election starts to take shape tonight. nbc's mike memoli is in south carolina traveling with vice president harris. also with us, democratic strategist and former senior aide on the biden harris campaign, adrienne elrod. mike, tell us more about these fundraising numbers. >> reporter: chris, i have been hearing from some sources for a few weeks now that the biden campaign felt like they were going to beat their own expectations as to how much money they raised at the end of 2023, and what better day to make it official when the

republicans are starting their nomination process. $97 million raised in the final three months of 2023. that's an improvement on 71 million, 72 million that they raised in the two previous quarters. bigger, $117 million. that's how much the biden campaign has in the bank to start the year 2024. to put that in perspective, the campaign says, look, the republicans in iowa have spent $100 million combined on the air waves, just trying to get out the caucus votes for tonight. that's a significant advantage or the incumbent as we start this year. if you look under the hood of the numbers they're talking about, especially as it relates to grass roots support, the average donation, just about $40. 97% of the donors gave less than $200. that means that they can keep going back to these donors over and over again, through the course of this year. and, chris, we have to also mention another factor that boosted the biden campaign fundraising, it was the end of the hollywood writing strike.

we know southern california is an atm machine for democratic politicians. the biden campaign was able to get back to southern california and do some fundraisers there. that also boosted this number. >> maybe a little bit of counter programming by the biden team, given that this is a republican caucus day. i want to play something, though, that one of the cochairs of the biden campaign, hollywood exec jeffrey katzenberg said this morning on "morning joe" previewing this press conference that's coming up. >> over a million people have contributed to joe biden's campaign. so that is a level of enthusiasm and commitment and grass roots support which was essentially in his 2020 campaign, which i just don't think is being reflected in sort of the beltway gossip. >> is this, do you think, realistically going to quiet concerns from democrats about biden's reelection fight or is it just a matter of they're worried donald trump doesn't really need a lot of money. he gets attention no matter what he does.

he gets more free advertising than anybody in the history of campaigns. >> i think it's sort of two-fold, chris. certainly i hope this calms down the bedwetters. we do this well in the democratic party. we're constantly stressed. constantly nervous. you cannot underestimate how significant these numbers are for the biden campaign. no candidate has had this much cash on hand. as jeffrey katzenberg mentioned, one of the chairs of the campaign, we have a significant number of grass roots donors, over a million have donated. these are huge statistics, this is more than president obama raised, more than secretary clinton, you know, at this time, and the other important factor, i think, to consider is q4 of the off year, which is the last quarter of the year before the presidential cycle is usually the hardest quarter to raise money. the fact that the biden campaign raised nearly $100 million. they have $117 million cash on

hand. a lot of this money is coming from the grass roots. it is really hard to justify how significant these numbers are at this stage of the game, and again, to all of my democratic friends out there and all of those who are going to support the biden/harris campaign, calm down, take a deep breath. channel your energy to volunteering, instead of going on twitter and causing consternation. this is a good place to be, and the biden campaign is only going to build on these numbers. >> we heard a lot of consternation or read a lot of consternation. there was a big newspaper article, i'm sure you saw it, that some of the people who should be at headquarters are actually at the white house and people are spread too thin. anyway, as part of the plan to build infrastructure, the campaign announced a couple of big additions to their staff. john kerry leaving as a kind of environmental guru is going over to the campaign. former john stewart producer is going to be doing a lot of messaging.

how much do you think those kinds of moves can help post iowa as we start to really get a sense of where this campaign is going? >> yeah, look, it's pretty significant. mitch landrieu who ran the infrastructure implementation, he's going to be a top campaign surrogate. john kerry was the presidential nominee for the democratic party in 2024, he's going to be over as a top surrogate. i think some of this is so silly about who's in the west wing versus who is on the campaign. jen o'malley-dillon who ran the biden campaign in 2020 is in the west wing as one of the top advisers. anita dunn is in the white house, and then you've got julia rodriguez and lucas gifford and so many incredible people on the campaign. we have the top brain trust between the democratic party between the dnc, the white house and the campaign. everyone should just, again, sit back and be happy about all the talent that we have that are all

working together to ensure that biden/harris gets reelected. >> exuding calm, adrienne elrod, thank you, mike memoli, good to have you my friend. the biggest concerns we're hearing inside the pentagon. but first, some harrowing images out of south western iceland after the volcano there erupted for the second time in less than a month. lava spewing into the town just 30 miles from the capital. the eruption raged an entire settlement of homes. they evacuated everyone and no injuries have been reported. i take prevagen? i don't have a problem with my memory." memory loss is, is not something that occurs overnight. i started noticing subtle lapses in memory. i want people to know that prevagen has worked for me. it's helped my memory.

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about their dogs changing for the better. the farmer's dog is just our way to help people take care of them. ♪ we have new nbc news reporting now about the growing fears that donald trump, if he wins back the presidency, could use the military in dictatorial ways. lawmakers and public interest groups have expressed concern that trump will install loyalists at the pentagon and try to use the armed forces to combat protests or even use them if the midterm elections, say, didn't go his way. nbc's courtney kube is reporting on this for us. what are the biggest questions surrounding how trump could use the military and is anything being done to get ahead of it? >> reporter: so this is really based on things now that president p is no longer in office, a number of senior

officials who served under him wtten books laying out certain scenarios that occurred that maybe the public didn't know about at the time and now starting to raise alarm bells about how a second term president trump could try to do things in a similar vein. so one example would be using the military to quell protesters in the streets. according to a book by a number of officials, former defense secretary mark esper. we also had a book from former national security adviser john bolton, talking about the sports soft things that president trump talked about in high level, oval office meetings, using the military for ways that could be seen as overstepping his bounds. now, the concern according to a number of officials who we spoke to over the course of pointing this out for weeks, frankly, chris, was that while in the first term, there were people around president trump who would push back on some of these idea, a second trump term, we could see more loyalists supporting

him, and serving in his administration who may not push back as forcefully, and some of the ideas, for instance, in his first term, talking about potentially launching missiles into mexico. secretary esper, former secretary esper said he pushed back on that calling it an act of war. he wrote about that in his book. the concern again, chris, is that in a next trump administration, there may not necessarily be people in place who would push back as forcefully on some of these ideas. this all goes to a bigger problem that candidly is something i have been hearing about here at the pentagon for years now, and that is the growing concerns surrounding the politicalization of the military. we have heard about it from former chairman of the joint chiefs going back to all the way when we had secretary of defense robert gates here. the concern was that the military is increasingly being seen as a potentially, a unit that could be politicized by presidents, and the officials who we spoke with, they really pointed that out here.

another real concern with a second president trump term would be some of the things that, again, he threatened like pulling the u.s. out of nato, and we have seen some lawmakers who have taken action to try to prevent that, even before the selection frankly kicks off. we don't even have a republican nominee yet, but lawmakers on capitol hill, trying to cut off some of the potential things that a next president trump could even try to bring to bear. again, like pulling the u.s. out of nato. that would be much more difficult because of actions on capitol hill, chris. >> courtney kube with some very sobering reporting. thank you for that. i want to bring in republican congressman zach nun of iowa, a member of a four country caucus, a bipartisan group of iraq and afghanistan combat veterans serving in congress. i wonder, congressman, when you guys get together, and i'm assuming women too, if you have conversations how worried are folks like you. you spent, i think, almost 20

years in the air force. how many of your conversations are about concerns surrounding politicalization of the military in general? >> first and foremost, thanks so much. i think this is really important. every member, particularly of the freshmen class, republican and democrats, we have worked together for pragmatic solutions. i'm a commander in the u.s. air force reserves. i have spokesperson an oath to support and defend the constitution of the united states as have so many of my brothers and sisters. i'm going to be very specific on this front. i don't there's any merit to claims, and candidly, i think this is based on people who want to sell books, get clicks on social media, the military is committed to the american people, the constitution that we have sworn an oath to defend and to the countries like the united states we have not only sworn our life to but the countries we have served in overseas. democrat, republican, the military is a reflection of the entire country, and not some, you know, iranian revolutionary

guards corps, that's going to be summoned up by anybody, democrat or republican. our responsibility is to the people of the united states. that's why i'm proud to continue to serve, and now we're in a new deployment mission to washington, d.c. to bring that kind of common sense back to what's happening in washington. >> i know you haven't endorsed anyone in this race, but we are living in a very uncertain world right now, israel-hamas war, war in ukraine, chinese aggression. that's starters, right. as a combat veteran, is there a republican or republicans who are running right now for president who you believe is ready to deal with this worldwide instability on day one? >> yeah, so you know, being in iowa i get to see these candidates firsthand, come to states and have conversations with fellow colleagues, and see what they think are the great national security risks. unequivocally it's the risk to

the country itself, it's our southern border, nearly 12 million illegal got aways in the last several years that have gotten into the country, including ones that want to set up sleeper cells in the united states, and certainly a russia that is bellicose. we need to be looking at what moscow, teheran, pea i don't think -- pyongyang, and bay beijing are doing. they can step into the white house have a proven history of leading affirmatively to protect the country both on the southern boarder and in actions overseas. in my combat operations in afghanistan, off the coast of russia f you don't stand up to a totallytarian regime, they need a push one step further. we need a white house, that candidly has allowed russia to besiege ukrainement what happens with hamas, unanswered by the

united states when we still have u.s. citizens who are being held hostage. we need to use all instruments of national power, not just the military, including our economic, our information, as well as our diplomatic in combination with our military to be able to push back on totalitarian autocrats around the world. i feel firmly the folks i talked with in iowa who want to be the next commander in chief could meet that stepping into office day one. >> we have less than a minute left. take off your military hat and put on a political one. we had a long time political analyst in iowa saying he thinks this weather is so extremely cold, it could indeed depress turnout. what are you watching for tonight in the 30 seconds we have left? >> yeah, i'll just say, you know what, it is nearly 30 degrees below with the windchill. i shovelled out of my driveway this morning. we've got dead car batteries, and guess what, that's pretty much a standard monday in iowa when it's january. i think iowans are committed to this.

they're going to be turning out. they're excited about this. people are energized. we take our first in the nation duties very enthusiastically, and i think we're going to see independents, republicans, and maybe some democrats come out here and really be involved in shaping this first line conversation on who's going to end up being the next commander in chief of the united states. it gets to start right here in iowa but it's the entire country's voice. we're proud to take this role. we take it seriously. >> i hope your battery turns over when you go to leave tonight. thank you for being on the program. preciate it. and that's going to do it for us this hour. make sure to joining us for "chris jansing reports" every weekday 1:00 to 3:00 eastern here on msnbc. our coverage continues with "katy tur reports" live from new hampshire right after the break. . safelite came right to us, and we could see exactly when they'd arrive with a replacement we could trust. that's service the way we want it. >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪

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insurance. good to be with you, i'm katy tur coming to you today from, wait for it, manchester, new hampshire. so why new hampshire on this iowa caucus day? well, because as nikki haley undiplomatically put it, new hampshire is where the race starts to really matter. iowa, as much as we love her, rarely picks a winner. while new hampshire has repeatedly given a b12 shot to the underdog. bill clinton in '92, john mccain in