right now on "ana cabrera reports," the countdown to new hampshire, new signs that ron desantis is giving up on the granite state. does that open a new lane for nikki haley. plus, writer e. jean carroll back on the stand this morning, who's not in the courtroom? donald trump, absent today after dramatic clashes with the judge. also ahead, the doj set to release a long-awaited report on the tragedy at robb elementary. what more it could reveal about the botched police response. and later, new u.s. strikes against houthi rebels in yemen. have these strikes done anything to stop attacks on commercial ships? ♪♪ so glad to be with you. it is 10:00 eastern. i'm ana cabrera reporting from new york, and we are just five days out now from the first in the nation primary and the big political contest of the 2024

race. new hampshire. and this morning, nikki haley who has put a lot of time in the state is campaigning alongside governor chris sununu. donald trump, meanwhile, spent last night in front of a crowd of about 300 delivering an hour-long rally speech ramping up his attacks on his former ambassador turned rival. and then there's ron desantis, who's apparently already given up on the fight for new hampshire. he is pulling out staff. he's sending them ahead to south carolina. joining us now from the campaign trail in new hampshire is nbc news correspondent ali vitali. also with us national political correspondent steve kornacki. is this essentially a two-person race in that state? haley we know has put a lot of time in new hampshire. what is her strategy in these final five days? >> reporter: well, it's a two-person race if you ask nikki haley. that's the message she's been hammering since the night she came in third in iowa. she told us and the crowd that was gathered there this is now a

binary between herself and her former boss. whether or not that's the case in the minds of voters, that remains to be seen. of course the polling tells the story that this is haley within the closest striking distance of the former president. there are some polls that show her within a few points. other polls show trump with a much larger margin. you look at the way each of them are talking about each other on the trail, haley is trying to make this a binary with her former boss. it's also clear trump has been focusing his ire on his former u.n. ambassador as well. watch these exchanges from the last day or so. >> a vote for nikki haley this tuesday is a vote for joe biden and a democrat congress this november because that's what's going to happen. >> it's not personal for me. i have no -- you know, people either want me to hate trump or love trump. that's not what it is. i just tell it on policy. i'm not going to talk about him personally. i don't care about that. i think politics is too personal, and i think that's why people are so frustrated right

now. >> reporter: and look, that is true for the way that haley tends to talk about trump. she does make policy and moral arguments about him, specifically on the foreign policy front, but at the same time, we know that the former president has also been one to have a no holds bar approach when it comes to going after his rivals. we saw it with ron desantis. now we're watching his train his fire on nikki haley. advisers of his have promised our team that this is going to be a real blitz from the former president as he tries to put as much distance as possible between himself and haley in the granite state, but again, this is a state where if there were any on the map that is most fertile for someone like nikki haley to come in from the side and surprise the political world. as much as i was with trump in 2015 and 2016 following that campaign and watching the way that he was able to coalesce a coalition here in new hampshire, this is a state that relies heavily on independents, on democrats and, yes, republicans,

but a lot of people can play in this primary. for someone like nikki haley, she has said to me before, she wants to create as big a tent as possible and this is the place for her to do it in. >> why does the size of the independent vote matter so much there in new hampshire? >> yeah, i mean, look, independents have the legal right in new hampshire to vote in primaries, but it's not just that, they do it traditionally in droves, and it can really change the outcomes of these primaries. we were just in iowa, how different is the new hampshire republican electorate than iowa. you can see in all sorts of categories, this is new hampshire in the last republican primary, 2016. the evangelical share less than half in new hampshire, more than half of a dropoff in new hampshire from iowa. independent voters you just mentioned, look at this, they were 16% in iowa on monday. last time in the new hampshire republican primary, they were 42%.

moderates. suburbanites, let's zoom in on those independents. that's massive. in a party primary, a republican party primary to have more than four in ten votes coming from non-republicans, from independents, that's a massive number. so take a look here. one other thing i do want to point out, new hampshire is half the size of iowa in terms of population, but look at this, the turnout is so much higher in this primary than in the caucuses. you've got a much bigger voting universe. independents making up such a big share of that. what you see here in the last going back to 2000, these are all republican primaries. this is in the republican primary what share the independents accounted for. 42% in '16, that's typically where the number comes in. you do see here everyone who won the independent vote in new hampshire here in the last three won -- excuse me, the last four, won the state. and the most dramatic one here and the one i think nikki

haley's looking for, you go back to 2000. look at that number. this is john mccain got 61% of the independent vote here. he actually lost republicans in the state, but he won the independent vote by 40 points, and what that ended up doing was that gave him a big win in the state. he won the state with 49%. nikki haley is trying to pull off something like that. losing with republicans, can she get a huge number with independents. could that give her the state, you know, the most recent poll this morning from suffolk has her down 14 in the state. it does have her ahead with independents. she needs independents to make up a big share of the electorate tuesday night, and she needs to get a big mccain sized victory among them if she's going to pull off a surprise tuesday. >> thank you for laying all of that out for us. much more on the 2024 race in a moment. we have some breaking news right now, we're just getting our first look at the justice department's exhaustive report on the botched police response to the school shooting in uvalde, texas, that left 21 people dead, and among them, 19 children. let's go right to nbc's ken

dilanian in uvalde for us, ken, what are we learning? >> reporter: ana, this is a massive report, the most comprehensive of several investigations into this awful incident, and what it found, first of all, it reinforces what we already knew about the profound failures by law enforcement that day, that fundamentally, the police who responded and it grew to some 400 officers did not follow basic protocols that have been developed for decades around active shooters. they didn't rush in and engage the shooter right away. a couple of police officers made a move to go into the room where the shooter was holed up. he fired his weapon, you'll recall seeing on video, and they backed off, and then a cascade of events unfolded which had them essentially waiting around. and we've seen the body cam videos, seeing those officers milling around in the hallway. what this report really underscores is that after that,

they had plenty of warning and plenty of knowledge that there were dying children, wounded children in those classrooms who had been shot by that gunman, and there were even further gunshots while they were waiting around, and yet they still didn't act, and the report is very critical. a lot of people are going to look at this report and say, you know, it affirms what we already knew. there's not a lot new in here. there are some new tidbits, some really disturbing new revelations including, for example, that there was miscommunications from authorities to pents about whether thildn had survived. so some parents whose children hadualldied were told that their children survived, and children who survived, their parents were told that they had died. it was such a chaotic and badly handled scene that those kind of errors were made, it was really tragic. in some cases it took as long as 12 hours for families to be notified about the status of their children.

the report also discusses errors in the medical response, the triage was not done correctly so that some pretty badly wounded children were not given the proper medical care right away that they needed. so there's -- it paints a picture of a really chaotic and awful situation. we all remember among those 400 law enforcement officers many of whom just self-deployed, they were from all kinds of agencies, federal, state, and local, and there was never a unified command. some parents -- and i've talked to some of them already -- are going to be dissatisfied with this report. they're going to believe it doesn't fully hold the people responsible accountable. for example, the report makes a point of not naming any of the officers involved here except the very senior commanders including pete arredondo who he was that uvalde school district police chief who sort of assumed command of the incident.

he's named, a few other people are named, but most of the people are not named, and one thing that community really wants, it's clear from talking to people here, is accountability. they want people held to account for the mistakes that they made. it's not clear whether they're going to be satisfied with that, but this is a very comprehensive report that exhaustively details some of the -- >> it's nearly 600 pages long, and there's still a lot of detail to dive into for our team. ken, as our team is going through it, we're learning of some of the things that stand out here in this report and something that catches my eye is the report highlights that survivors recalled hearing someone say, say help if you need help, and that when a child cried out, the shooter then entered the room and shot that child. so the report raises this possibility that at least four additional shots that rang out after the first barrage were the result of a comment that may

have come from a police officer asking, you know, say you need help if you need help, and then when a child responded, the shooter knew who their next target was, and that's just so, so, so heartbreaking. it just is like how does this happen. these are trained officers. >> reporter: it's absolutely awful. i'm so glad you highlighted. i remember reading that and thinking that is one of the most disturbing elements of this entire report. now, to be clear, they're not sure exactly who made that comment. there were some witnesses who thought the shooter made the comment and others who thought that it did come from the hallway, the police. but the report clearly raises the possibility that it was one of the officers who did that. if that happened, the report says that was a horrible mistake and raises questions about their training. you mentioned training. many of the officers on scene had little or no training in active shooter protocols or incident response, and some had

training that was incorrect this report found. for example, there was some training that the uvalde school district police engaged in that talked about how an active shooter situation can quickly morph into a hostage situation, that's not the case generally this report makes clear. active shooters remain active shooters, and the fundamental misunderstanding above all in the police response here was that they decided quickly that this was no longer an active shooter situation. it was a barricaded subject situation as they put it, and so that led them to stop what they were doing and reassess and take time, which should not have happened. they should have rushed in and engaged the shooter who was still terroriing those children, who was still alive, still armed, they didn't do that and that was a fundamental failure. >> our ryan reilly has also been digging into this report from the justice department, ryan, what stands out to you? >> yeah, you know, this is a

really extensive investigation, a lot of resources that the justice department poured into this. it was led by the cops department, which sort of took the overall approach to this, but a lot of components of the justice department aided in this investigation. they conducted more than 240 interviews as a course this, spent more than 50 days in uvalde working on this report. what the justice department wants to emphasize is they're trying to make sure there are lessons learned, this isn't just about the uvalde situation, that this can be lessons for other law enforcement agencies across the country who can sort of take heed of the warning here, look at their own policies, and try to prevent this thing from happening in the future. i'm sure this will be something that doj is going to try to push out as much as possible, get as much public attention on as possible and also individually get it to various law enforcement agencies across the country to sort of set these standards and make sure that other law enforcement agencies are prepared when tragedy

strikes in their neighborhood. >> and ken, i know you spoke with family members of some of the victims from this shooting. they were given a heads-up, right, about this report? i can only imagine how challenging it was for them to learn some of these details. >> reporter: absolutely, ana. it's another occasion where they have to relive this. we talked to the dad of jacqueline cevars who was tragically killed, one of the youngest victims. he talked about how you never recover from a loss like that. he did have to relive it. the families were briefed by the attorney general in a private meeting. one father of a boy who did survive, although he went through horrific things that no one should ever have to experience, he was very grateful that the attorney general of the united states came personally to uvalde to brief the families on this report, and he was hopeful

that this report would serve as a measure of accountability, would be a comprehensive review. i don't know if we have any sound from those interviews that we can play, but they were very compelling! let's listen. >> my daughter was the light of our life, you know. she was very special. she had that little spark to her, and when she came across to you, she just made you feel loved. >> it's changed him. he's not the same little boy that we left there that morning. he doesn't really go out on his own now. we're working with him, you know, he has separation issues. >> reporter: that's noah aronna's dad. he survived, but again, he may never be the same. it was just so sad talking to him. on the one hand, he's obviously very grateful that his son made it out alive, but as he said to me, my son saw things that no

human being should ever have to witness. things he can't even talk about to this day. he doesn't leave the house alone. it's just a really heartbreaking situation down here. >> and these were third and fourth graders that had to live through this and experience it, and as you point out, ken, that trauma still has an impact today for those who survived. ryan, we keep hearing the word accountability, that this report is supposed to help with accountability. we've seen a few people lose their jobs, but could there be any legal action, any further type of punishment for those who dropped the ball that led to many lives lost? >> certainly not as a direct result of this report. this is sort of unusual for what the justice department does. typicallyos of the justice department's work is focused on criminal investigation, and this was rll more sort of an overall review. they weren't looking at the heart forriminal offenses here that they could char, they were looking to more broadly look at what could be done in the future a what was

preventable here, the lsons learned that they want to give to other police agencies across the country. you can sort of think of it as the same way as a ferguson report or a baltimore report where the justice department went in and investigated the broader patterns and practices of those it police departments. this is sort of along those lines. it's run by the cops department and sort of more broadly looking. but they weren't looking directly at criminal charges to be brought necessarily here. that's something that's going to have to play its way out of course in state courts. >> i'm looking at one of the notes from appendix c in this page 405 of the report. it says personnel from responding agencies rarely trained and exercised in a multiagency environment. and ken, i'm just thinking back to when we were covering this in the aftermath, this was back in may of 2022, so it's been a year and a half plus since this incident unfolded, and one of the things that seemed to be a problem for the law enforcement

response was there were so many agencies that were part of the response, some 400 plus law enforcement personnel that ultimately responded, and it seemed like people didn't know who was in charge or who was supposed to be in charge. and so the blame was sort of dispersed as well as the responsibility for taking charge was sort of passed on or looked to somebody else to take the reins. has there been any i guess determination who was supposed to be the leadagency, and how that chain of command should have operated moving forward in order to prevent this going forward? >> reporter: it's a great question, ana, and a great observation. you're absolutely right. there are layers to this. the fact that there were so many law enforcement officers created a sense of inertia, a sense that it wasn't clear who was in

charge and maybe somebody else was going to do something, especially as the federal tactical units showed up. but the report does make it very clear that the initial senior officers on scene, including the chief of uvalde police and pete arredondo, the chief of uvalde school district police should have assumed incident command formally and even if they ultimately relinquished it later to state or federal authorities, they should have done it right away and led a team to engage that shooter and take him out, and they didn't. that was the fundamental failure. then as the situation went on, they also fault those state and local agencies for not assuming some kind of joint command. there were many senior well-trained law enforcement officials there who didn't take the initiative, and including, for example, ana, there was a lot made at the time if you remember about the border patrol tactical team that ultimately led the response more than an hour later to go in and engage and kill the shooter in a very brave manner.

they did that, they went in through the door and he shot at them, and they took him out, but this report makes clear that some members of that team were there a lot earlier with all the right equipment, the breaching tools, the high powered rifles and dithered and delayed and did not act. in part that's because they were deferring to the local commanders who were telling them to wait. and in part it's inexplicable. the report makes clear they should have acted. >> one of the first most senior officers on scene arrived very quickly and had 28 years of experience, so the fact that, you know, some of the officers were inexperienced isn't an excuse. joining us is jim cavanaugh retired atf special agent in charge. jim, what stands out to you from what we've learned in this report? >> well, i think the biggest thing to me is the leadership failure. the report talked about that, and of course we knew it, ana,

when this was covered when we were all, you know, on the air dealing with it, and we saw it. we talked about it. it stands out in the report as well because the leadership there, as ken outlined for us here, they didn't establish an on-scene commander. arredondo was standing a few feet from the door that needs to be breached. it's like, you know, we're put into commander in the first trench at the very front line when his main job is to make decisions. so where's the proper place for him to be? probably just outside that door to the outside at the end of the hallway where he can gather all the commanders that arrived from city police, border patrol, sheriff, state troopers, when their ranking people arrive, lieutenants, captains, majors, agents in charge, that's where they go. that's where decisions are made. and he failed to do what the commander does, makes decisions.

in a tactical operation like this, the critical thing is always reading, escalation and deescalation. an active shooter, the training always was the thing is escalating in your faces. so when it's escalaing in your face, then you press ahead to the active killer, and they didn't do that. they're going to have to stop for a second to breach a door. nobody can just go through a door. it's not -- you know, you need a tool, but if they had the breaching tools on site with border patrol tack or they could call the fire department and, you know, get them tools to breach the door, they needed to breach the door or get the key. they needed to get in the door or get in a window and they failed to do it. >> and jim, one of the things ken pointed out is in this report it's identified that the police force had had active shooter train just within a short time before all of this just months before the attack, and the course included wrong

information about what to do in the case of an active shooter suggesting, quote, an active shooter event can easily morph into a hostage crisis, and that of course changes then how you respond to the event. how does the training get it wrong? >> yeah, well, they got it wrong a lot of ways. first of all, they're training just the basic flow of the two or three officer stack that's going into it in response to the active killer. when we did that active shooter training back years ago post-columbine, i remember doing it with a bunch of officers and agents and, you know, i just locked the hallway door in the school we were training in. and when the stack of agents and offices came down the hall, the door was locked. the hallway door, the double door locked. and now it was a crisis because the door's locked, and they have rifles and side arms and bullet proof vests, but they can't get through the door. so then we talked about how are you going to deal with this, you've got to plan for this,

you've got to plan for the killer to lock the door. in virginia tech, the killer came with chains and locks that he locked the door to the campus buildings and we saw it also in pennsylvania at the little amish school. you've got to be prepared for that. commanders weren't prepared. they didn't make -- put themselves in the position to make the decisions because that's the leader's number one job to make decision. >> all right, jim cavanaugh, ken dilanian, ryan reilly, we expect some comments from merrick garland in uvalde later this afternoon. he's met with family members of victims, survivors. we'll stay on top of this story. up next for us, new reporting of who donald trump could be eyeing as a potential vp pick. plus, e. jean carroll back on the stand now after a heated day filled with repeated outbursts by the former president in court. and later, new cancer diagnoses expected to hit a record high this year, and cases

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back to the campaign trail now, the new hampshire primary just five days away, and we are seeing donald trump ramp up his attacks on nikki haley, who's in the state today while ron desantis is now looking towards south carolina. but one key factor in the granite state are the independent voters who make up such a big part of the electorate as steve kornacki pointed out. congressman crowley, it does seem like the independent vote is going to be something we all need to watch come next week. do you see independent voters potentially changing the trajectory of this race? >> i certainly do in new hampshire they make a big chunk of the voting block there, and i think they pride themselves on their independence as well. i think it's going to be very

interesting to watch new hampshire as this plays out the next few days. >> congressman dent, we have new reporting that new hampshire republicans are disappointed that nikki haley isn't fighting harder in their state after iowa noting that she's saying no to debates. she's taking fewer questions or no questions on stage at her events. in nbc news interviews with more than a half dozen republican officials and party strategists familiar with new hampshire presidential primaries, exactly none, zippo, thought haley would benefit by keeping her distance from voters. one veteran republican strategist said this. when you're in second place, you need to throw effing hell mary's. you have five nights left. are they right? >> haley certainly has to go full pedal to the metal. she does have to throw the hail mary. she must be more forceful and aggressive with trump right now.

it is stunning to me this her hill to die on. she needs to fight more forcefully. she needs to explain why trump should be disqualified and unfit. she is not making an aggressive enough case. she was right, by the way, not to debate. she should condition that on trump participating. nobody wants to see another debate between haley and desantis. she has to be much more aggressive and out there as she has been up to this in >> there is so much on the line for both haley and desantis. there are some flashing warning signs for desantis right nown the 2024 race. "the new york times" is reporting that, quote, as mr. desantis's team licked its wounds on wednesday, his super pac never backed down. trimmed operations in several places including nevada. other staff members were also laid off including almost the entire online war room team a person with knowledge of the matter said. trimming back operations at this stage in the campaign can't be a good sign for desantis. >> no, it's like he's the

quarterback and he has 90 yards to go with two seconds left on the clock. it's a really desperate hail mary for him right now. he has to re-evaluate his overall operation. that's why curtailing here, putting more focus on south carolina to try to weaken nikki haley looking elsewhere in terms of super tuesday. so look, i think ron desantis is on oxygen and his campaign is barely alive. >> on that point, congressman dent, what do you make of desantis's decision to focus most resources on south carolina? nikki haley's home state. >> well, desantis got smoked by 30 points in iowa. he's given up on new hampshire. so he's trying to throw a hail mary in south carolina. i agree with joe, i just don't see the path forward for ron desantis. in fact, the only hope for desantis at this point and maybe haley after new hampshire is they're hoping that somehow donald trump's convictions, potential convictions will somehow disqualify him and they'll be around to pick up the

pieces. that might be their only hope at this point. he's going to south carolina. i don't see any positive outcome for him down there, and the future doesn't look much better. >> ngressman dent, i want to ask you about trump's potential vp pick, he's been making noise, praising congresswoman elise stefanik lately, and according to one person at a mar-a-lago dinner in december, trump said, quote, she's a killer when talking about vp picks. she's set to join him for a new hampshire rally tomorrow. you served with stefanik in the house, what do you make of this? >> elise stefanik appeared on "meet the press" a few weeks ago, so i think it's clear that, you know, she is interested in serving as trump's vice president. she has stated publicly it would be an honor to serve in a trump administration. so i think she's pushing very hard to be that selection. there are others too, christie noem of south dakota. it seems like elise stefanik is

trying to position herself to have the inside track. trump seems to like her and she certainly is doing everything she can to carry his water. >> congressman crow lee, given elise stefanik was able to win a district that had initially voted for president obama in the past, and so some in the trump circle are seeing her as somebody who could potentially broaden voters for republicans if trump is the nominee in this case for 2024. what do you think? >> she was considered a rockefeller republican. that's very close to being a democrat everywhere else in the country, and she was very moderate person. i think she thinks that just by aping donald trump and referring to the convicts of 1/6 as hostages that that's going to get her somewhere. i think in many respects it's hurt her tremendously, i think. because there's no way donald trump is going to take someone from new york. she doesn't bring anything to the table. new york is a lost cause for trump. by having stefanik on the

ticket, it does nothing for him in the state. i think he's going to look elsewhere as charlie said to a nome as well as possibly nikki haley. they bring something to the table that stefanik simply doesn't do. >> former congressman joe crowley. thanks for sticking around. outbursts from donald trump as he comes face to face with e. jean carroll. with four criminal trial, koud the same be tolerated in those courts? plus, time running out to prevent a government shutdown on friday. is congress on track to stop it? and after a white house meeting are congressional leaders close to an immigration deal? close to an immigration deal and paper trading to help sharpen your skills, you can stay on top of the market from wherever you are. e*trade from morgan stanley power e*trade's easy-to-use tools make complex trading less complicated. custom scans help you find new trading opportunities, while an earnings tool helps you plan your trades and stay on top of the market. e*trade from morgan stanley

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. writer e. jean carroll is back on the stand in a new york courtroom right now. she is testifying for a second day in her multimillion dollar defamation suit against donald trump. again, this is the second trial, second defamation case, but this time trump is not in the

courtroom. it follows a dramatic day in court with outbursts from the former president while carroll was on the stand yesterday. the judge at one point threat threatened to bar him from the courtroom. let's talk about all this with nbc's vaughn hillyard and former federal prosecutor kristy greenberg. trump could be more subdued without trump there, but yesterday was wild. >> a lot of this started when alina habba, donald trump's attorney raised the objections requesting this trial be delayed because donald trump wanted to go and is now down in florida for his mother-in-law's funeral. the judge denied that request and that led to sparring between alina habba and donald trump, but then that is when e. jean carroll took the stand and throughout her testimony, donald trump could be heard whispering quite loudly, muttering quite loudly to alina habba and the judge multiple times requested for him to keep it down. that is when during thech break, the judge was very specific without the jury in the room. take a look at this exchange.

the judge saying mr. trump, i hope i don't have to consider excluding you from the trial. uerstand you are very eager for me to do that. trump responded i would love it. i would love it. the judge then, quote, i know you would because you just can't control yourself in this circumstance. apparently. you just can't, to which trump responded neither can you. donald trump is used to being in control of the trump organization, of his political operation, here in this courtroom he is not in control, and clearly that was coming out in great frustration for him yesterday. >> and another point yesterday, he slammed the table, he went after the judge directly calling him a nasty guy. what do you make of trump's behavior? you've been in courtrooms with sexual assault cases and seen other defendants in this situation. how do you look at this? >> so vaughn is exactly right. this is about control, and in particular where you have sexual assault victims who are

testifying and their sexual assaulter is in the courtroom a lot of times, they will do what they can to try to exert whatever control they have. this is the victim's time to tell their story. the liability as to the sexual assault has already been decided. this is just about damages, how much she was harmed, and he doesn't want the jury to hear all about how her life has been upended, and this is her chance to be able to tell her story. he doesn't want to do it. he wants to take back that control from her, and he doesn't want the jury to hear it. he wants to intimidate his victim. he wants to influence the jury, say that she's a con artist, say that, you know, he was saying things that oh, she got her memory back. all the things about liability, they've already been decided. he's trying to sow doubt in the jury's mind. he does not want the media to focus on what she is staying on the stand because it is so damaging to him. instead he wants to focus on his antics. he wants to be the center of attention and in control at all

times. in this courtroom, he can't be. this is a judge who does not suffer fools. i've appeared before him. he is a no nonsense judge. he's not going to tolerate these continued antics. >> when you say he's not going to tolerate, would you expect him to boot trump from the court? >> if it continues and there is a record of him continuing to be disruptive to witnesses, to the jury, to the process as a whole, he has to be able to control his courtroom. i do expect he would take appropriate measures to do so which could include booting him from the courtroom. >> so it seemed like trump is baiting him to do just that, right? is there any risk to barring trump from the courtroom? could it make a stronger appeals case? >> again, this is a very smart judge. he has a reputation for being tough and fair and smart, he's not going to do this without giving him a warning, which he did yesterday. he said i hope i don't have to do this. i'm giving you this warning to pipe down. you can confer with your

counsel, all defendants can, but you can't be loud. you can't slam the table. you can't be disruptive. and to the extent that he continues to ignore those warnings, the judge will have his record, and it's not going to get overturned on appeal. again, the judge has discretion to control his courtroom. >> this is another civil case, vaughn. he's got four criminal trials coming up. can we expect more of this? >> this is the part, if the federal election interference case begins on march 4th as it currently is schedo, we could very well expect donald trump to go inside of the krooms for those proceedings. especially if he feels like he has the republican nomination wrapped up. but tre's a wrinkle in all of thd that is that february 8th the u.s. supreme court oral argues over the 14th amendment disqualification clause, february 8th is the same day as the nevada caucus, and there are questions. how long could nikki haley and ron desantis stick around in this race, right? let's say donald trump winds handily new hampshire, there are going to be conversations about desantis and haley dropping out.

what if the u.s. court ruled he was disqualified. suddenly then you're wondering if the delegate process goes forward, this is a part where there's got to be another republican alternative, but they have dropped out. then who steps in. there's a lot of complications here, and for donald trump right now, he sees the courtroom as his priority, and that's why you don't see him much in iowa or new hampshire or many events planned ahead. for him, these criminal proceedings and these civil proceedings are at the forefront of his focus. >> hes campaigning in the courtroom. it's become part of his campaign strategy clearly in the courtroom campaign trail colliding is something we'll have to navigate a lot this cycle. thank you so much, christi greenberg and vaughn hillyard for all of that. turning to washington where congress has a day and a half left to avoid a partial government shutdown. it looks like they'll get a deal under the wire with the senate set to vote on a temporary spending bill in just a few hours and the house expected to take it up after that.

a deal could put speaker johnson in more hot water from his right as he faces a shrinking republican majority and is also facing pressure to strike a deal on the border and foreign aid. nbc's julie tsirkin is following all of this for us on capitol hill. let's start on the shutdown. are they going to get a deal done? >> hey, ana, look, nothing's settled until the bill makes its way to president biden's desk for a signature, it looks like at this point lawmakers trying to get out of town and get this done before the shutdown deadline that this is on a glide path both in the senate and the house to pass. even some of those conservative hard-liners who have warned johnson against going down this path have acknowledged there's really nothing they can do here aside from delaying the process and delay the inevitable. it looks like we will avoid this shutdown if they're able to get it done in time. punting the deadline to march, so i'm sorry to tell our viewers we will be talking about this again in a couple of weeks. moving to the second part of this, which is that supplemental.

this is that meeting that president biden had with the four congressional leaders with the top committee leaders as well trying to talk about a way forward on funding our allies, ukraine, on funding israel, taiwan, the war that is happening in gaza as well, also enacting strong policy changes to the border. that's something republicans have said they need to get done to unlock that foreign aid and biden hea directly from johnson yesterday who td him that he wants something as strong as possible on the border. in terms of timing on there, leader schumer, leader mcconnell were very optimistic yesterday they could potentially get this done and get the process started next week. in my conversations with these negotiators they still have outstanding issues. we'll see if they can get it done on time. >> thank you for staying on top of it for us. up next on "ana cabrera reports," more u.s. strikes on houthi targets in yemen overnight. what will it take to stop them? . what will it take to stop them honestly? i couldn't afford to get sick.

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welcome back. new this morning, concerns about rising tensions in the middle east with overnight the u.s. conducting yet a fourth round of strikes against houthi targets in yemen saying the military targeted 14 missiles that posed an immediate threat to ships in the region. and today, pakistan has carried out deadly strikes against targets inside iran, retaliating for attacks by tehran days ago. joining us from israel is nbc news chief foreign correspondent richard engel. let's start with this fourth u.s. strike against the houthis in yemen. is there any sign these strikes are weakening the houthis capacity to target vessels in the red sea? >> weakening their capacity to a degree, but not weakening their will, and it may seem like the middle east is falling apart, and there's conflicts that are breaking out in parts of the

middle east that people haven't been talking about for years, but they -- they're all connected. what we are seeing now since october, since the october 7th hamas attack in israel's military response is violent spreading in areas, in pockets all across the middle east, almost like a fire in a forest. you're seeing it in one place, then it jumps to another and jumps to another, and the united states and other countries are in some casesivel pouring gas on this fire. other places trying to put it out. there is a real danger here that any of these conflicts could spread and suddenly the entire region is in the midst of a conflagration. but in yemen, in the red sea, the houthi factor, no, we're not seeing the houthis backing down. in fact, we spoke to one of the top houthi leaders just yesterday, and even though the united states and biden administration has redesignated the houthis as a terrorist

organization and now carried out four strikes against the houthis, they say that they will continue to target ships, they say targeting ships bound for israel or connected to israel in solidarity with the palestinians and in solidarity with gaza. >> we have less than a minute here, but let's talk about the strikes inside iran from pakistan. what's going on there? >>. >> reporter: so like i said, it all connected. the houthis are backed by iran, and iran is showing its strength, and iran carried out a strike inside baa volusia stan, traditionally had bases and then pakistan responded. so it was a -- it is tit for tat attacks as we see iran either directly in this case or through proxies as is the case in yemen showing its power and hopefully

after the two sides now have demonstrated their willingness to go to the edge and use military strength that we can enter some sort of negotiations. countries around the region and governments around the region, around iran are calling for calm, even the taliban based in afghanistan is calling them to pull back from the edge. what we've been seeing here and we have been seeing this since october, more violence across the middle east and islamic world and iran, which feels very much that it is under threat with one of its other proxies, hamas, under attack, showing its strength where it can through its allies or directly. >> richard engel reporting for us in israel, thank you. up next on "ana cabrera reports," more than half the u.s. is covered in snow. and there is another storm on the move. and there is another storm on the move want luxury hair repair that doesn't cost $50? pantene's pro-vitamin formula repairs hair.

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this morning, more dangerous winter weather is on the way. today's forecast predicts more snow for the northeast, winter weather alerts for 66 million people and double digit negative temperatures from the northern plains to the rockies. and for the first time this winter, more than half the country is covered in snow. nbc's emilie ikeda is in a very snowy buffalo, new york, with the latest. emilie? >> right now the windchill is a

bone chilling 7 degrees, powering a relentless lake-effect snow machine. you see this area has recently been cleared. as i walk over here, you get a sense how deep the snow is. this area has seen snow for the past 14 days in a row. dumping so much snow, officials say, it is not just a matter of pushing it to the side, they have trucks coming in, picking up the snow and relocating the snow as brutal weather is bearing down on communities across the country. this morning, another powerful and dangerous winter storm is on the move. bitter cold from coast to coast. 66 million people are under winter weather alerts. those brutal conditions impacting air travel nationwide, with more than 5,000 flight delays and 1100 cancellations wednesday. >> every hour they would just say, oh, delay, delay, delay. >> reporter: state police say five family members were struck and killed by a tractor trailer,

on a snowy pennsylvania interstate after they left their vehicles following a separate crash. in hard-hit buffalo, more lake-effect snow is expected on top of the three plus feet that has buried the city in recent days. driving conditions overnight, treacherous. with authorities warning clearing this amount of snow can be dangerous. >> if you have a heart condition, you should avoid snow shoveling and even snow blowing. >> reporter: in the west, the weather closing roads and sending drivers sliding. with more than half of the country now covered in snow for the first time this winter, in illinois, windchills dipped as low as 40 below. tow truck drivers like david burts wearing special gear to work in freezing conditions. >> definitely. with the actual temperatures, to prevent any frostbite on your face. >> reporter: while snowplows are working around the clock, officials are urging people to use extreme caution because when we see these powerful wind gusts

come through, sometimes 35 miles an hour, they can pick up the snow and sometimes create whiteout conditions. plus, the snow isn't letting up for parts of western new york as they're expecting another foot through the weekend and in some areas an additional several feet on top of what we have already seen from this wild week of weather. back to you. >> mother nature is angry right now. emilie ikeda, thank you so much for bearing the brave and cold temperatures. now to a disturbing rise in cancer cases. in its new annual report, the american cancer society estimates 2 million people will be diagnosed with cancer this year. which will be a record high. that surge driven by an increase in cases of young americans with colorectal cancancer. what is causing this increase? nbc's anne thompson reports. >> reporter: sierra fuller was just hitting her stride,

building a trauma therapy practice and closing on a house with her husband steve. then at 32 years old, she was diagnosed with cancer, stage three b, requiring radiation, chemotherapy and surgery. did you have any family history of colorectal cancer? >> no. >> reporter: no. >> i got genetic testing done and i have no genetic markers for it either. >> reporter: her story, part of what the american cancer society says is an alarming trend, colorectal cancer is now the leading cause of cancer deaths in men under the age of 50, and the second among women of the same age. we do suspect something in the environment, but what that is, we don't know. likely it is a combination of things that is affecting our microbiomes that may be leading to why this is happening younger and younger. >> reporter: dr. kimmie ing is seeing a dramatic increase in patients in their 20s and 30s. younger people tend to have more

advanced cancers, correct? >> yes. the majority of our young patients who are diagnosed unfortunately are diagnosed with either stage three or four colorectal cancer. >> reporter: she says screening is crucial, especially with a family history of colorectal cancer. if not colonoscopies begin at 45. be aware of symptoms, including blood in the stool, abdominal pain and unintentional weight loss. now healthy, sierra is not wasting a minute, traveling and thinking about a family. her eggs preserved before her treatment. >> now, yes it would have to be surrogacy, it would be a completely different way to become a parent. >> reporter: finding the right pieces in the puzzle of life together. anne thompson, nbc news, boston. that does it for us today. thanks for joining. jose diaz-balart picks up our coverage right now. ning jose diaz-balart picks up our coverage right now good morning, it is 11:00 a.m. eastern, 8:00 a.m. pacific.

i'm jose diazar