iraqi security forces that continue to battle remnants of the islamic state. some really serious ramifications if that happens. >> of course we saw what happened in afghanistan, perhaps something like that plays out if u.s. forces leave iraq as well. thank you both for being here. we appreciate it. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." andrea will be back tomorrow, you can follow me on social media @ryan nobles. follow the show on social media @mitchellreports and you can rewatch the the best parts of our show at any time on youtube, just go to msnbc.com/andrea. for now, "chris jansing reports" starts right now. ♪♪ good afternoon, i'm chris jansing live from msnbc headquarters in new york city. will donald trump testify in front of a jury for the first time in more than a decade? we could find out anytime now as the e. jean carroll trial gets

underway once again. and the other major question, if he does take the stand, can he stay within the parameters set by the judge and what are the consequences if he doesn't? we're live at the courthouse. plus, nikki haley sending a message to trump that sounds a lot like you don't scare me. her new fund-raising hall that has him threatening her donors and has given her new energy. >> the political elites in this state and around the country have said that we just need to let donald trump have this. we are not going to sit there and just give up. . and the severe weather that just won't stop. among the dramatic new images, this woman, how she got stranded on top of her car for 14 long hours before she was rescued. we begin with donald trump off the campaign trail and back in a federal courthouse today. e. jean carroll's lawyers have

rested their case and trump's team just started the defense in a trial to determine if he has toay the writer millions of dollars for defaming her. trump has said he will sty, something he hasn't done before a jury since 2013. if he does, there are strict rules in place. he would be barred from telling the jury he did not sexually abuse carroll or that she fabricated her story. those lines of attack, though, are all over his social media posts. we counted more than three dozen tweets, new articles or videos he shared targeting e. jean carroll in just two hours late last night. msnbc's yasmin vossoughian is reporting for us at the new york courthouse. also with us is paul butler, former federal prosecutor, professor at georgetown law and an msnbc legal analyst. eugene daniels is "politico's" white house correspondent, co-author of playbook and an msnbc political contributor. welcome all, okay, yasmin, as i understand it right now, a long

time friend of carroll just finished her testimony, trump's lawyer treated her as a hostile witness. what happened? >> reporter: so she's still in testimony as we speak, chris, and she is being treated as a hostile witness. for those that don't know, i just want to explain quickly what a hostile witness is, it just takes about two seconds or so, alana habba because she called e. jean carroll's friend up to the witness stand that she can lead her with questions. i.e. give leading questions. i'll give you an example. at one point she says during prior trial, you said ms. carroll's narcissism had run amuck, didn't you. normally if it was your witness, you wouldn't necessarily ask a question like that. instead she asked this leading question, and that's why she kind of declared that this was a hostile witness, and she went on with questions like that that

you said that she was heading towards narcissism, she was kind of dining out on these sexual assault claims she made in 2019. she was having parties, did you attend any of these parties. was security under threat after these revelations came out in 2019. how did her personality change? did she seem like she was enjoying these things. that was kind of the case, and then of course it went to e. jean carroll's attorneys and they tried to establish the fact that, listen, maybe she was speaking in this way, saying, for instance, texting her daughter that e. jean carroll was leaning towards more narcissistic behavior because, for instance, she had thought possibly that her security was under threat, right? once this excerpt came out, carol morton thought her security was under threat and

she wanted to distance herself from carroll. she said multiple times during her testimony that many of the things she said were kind of hyperbolic, she was blowing things out of proportion and looks back on some of those text messages in retrospect and sees that now. there's been some back and forth and what she offered then in 2019 when these revelations were first made and also the exchanges she had with e. jean carroll initially when she came to her about the sexual assault when it initially happened. one other thing i want to say, chris, because you led into me with the idea that the former president may or may not testify. really we don't know the answer to that. it was presented as e. jean carroll's attorneys had rested their case as to whether or not the former president would testify. there was some back and forth on that. and judge kaplan essentially said, look, i'm going to decide when the time comes. habba is making the argument that they want to present the state of mind of the former president of the united states during these allegations of

defamation that they have been presenting throughout the trial, and so e. jean carroll's attorneys are like, we have to see a preview of that, we want to know what the former president is going to say before he actually says it because you know -- and we've been saying this throughout the day, there are restrictions on his testimony. the former president can't get on the stand and say i did not sexually assault e. jean carroll. he's already been found liable for that. he cannot say i did not defame e. jean carroll. he's been found liable for all those things, so her attorneys want a preview of his testimony before judge kaplan agrees as to whether or not he can testify in front of this jury. if it happens, it could happen any moment! and that is of course assuming that he doesn't change his mind as he has in the past. all right, paul, let's talk about what's happened today. at one point carroll's lawyers played part of donald trump's deposition from back in 2022 including when he mixed up e. jean carroll with his ex-wife. here it is. >> you have in front of you a

black and white photograph that we've marked as djt 23. >> i don't even know who the woman -- let's see. i don't know -- it's marla. >> you're saying marla's in that photo? >> that's marla, yeah, that's my wife. >> which woman are you pointing to? >> here. >> the person you were pointing to is e. jean carroll. >> so he said it was marla maples. it was actually e. jean carroll. he said previously that she's not his type, e. jean carroll is not his type. what's the strategy in showing this at trial today, paul? >> you know, it's to damage trump's credibility. he doesn't even recognize his own wife. you know, he probably will try to use that as part of his claim that he had never met ms. carroll, but guess what, when he claimed that in 2019 that he'd never met ms. carroll and that

her claims were totally false and that she was just trying to sell a book, the first trial found that those statements by trump were lies and that they were defamatory. so in this trial, the jury and mr. trump have to accept those findings as fact. the only issue is how much in damages trump has to pay ms. carroll based on his e previous lies. and so all trump would testify about if he actually takes the stand is whether she was damaged as much as she claimed that she was. it's really hard to see trump sticking to those requirements, though. if he does testify -- and i think that's a big if, if he does, based on precedent, he's likely to stray way outside the rules of evidence, and this judge will let him have it. >> well, let him have it meaning say you're done or let him have it like are there really potential consequences for him in a case like, that paul?

>> there could be big consequences. there could be civil fines. the judge could charge him a whole lot of money. in theory, the judge could order him to be held in contempt, which means that there would be another trial in which trump would be liable for being found guilty of the criminal sanction of contempt, and he could be locked up. i think that that's unlikely. what's far more likely is the judge will either greatly limit trump's testimony, and again, if he crosses the line, he's going to be fined big bucks. >> so eugene, just as we were coming on the air, we went into lunch break at court, and as we know, donald trump has often come out to the assembled media to speak to them to make a political statement so to say he's off the campaign trail, maybe a little bit of an exaggeration, even though he's at the courthouse, but let's talk about the assumption that he might be able to testify

here. how does he turn something like that to his political advantage? >> yeah, i mean here's already been doing it, right? there is no world in which donald trump, in my view as someone who's been covering him this entire time, goes on the stand and is able to stick to those rules, right? when you talk to folks who have been his lawyer in the past -- you can talk to him before he goes in and say these are the things they told you you cannot do or say, he is likely to stray out of that because at the center of his -- technically re-election campaign, his third run for the white house, he is trying to tell voters and has told his voters the reason they are coming after me is because they're coming after you, right? i am the person standing in between you and the deep state. i am the person standing between you and these democratic prosecutors. all things that, you know, have worked for him for a long time because grievance politics is at the center of how donald trump

thinks about these things, and so for him to be able to go on the stand, he is likely to be able to say all the things that he has been trying to -- he's been truthing, you know, not tweeting, but truthing, and however that judge handles that, donald trump wants to be able to do that. that is at the center of how he thinks about these things. we've seen that already in the case in new york, right? and something that we should all remember is that when he's at these things, this isn't really about the folks in the room. it's not about the jury. he is talking to his voters. he is talking to potential voters, and he's not really thinking about the political ramifications that it might not work for him in the general election because he's thinking about shoring up his support and going back to the grievance politics that is center to how donald trump has become a political figure in this country. >> i want to bring in msnbc legal analyst lisa rubin who just came out of the courtroom for us. so yasmin kind of gave us a lay of the land, talked to us about carol martin's testimony today. i'm very curious about the mood

inside the courtroom and the reaction of donald trump as you saw it. >> reporter: donald trump was very subdued today, chris, relative to what he has been, far lessdemonstrative, less whispering, no audible statements that i could hear from my perch in the fifth row of the courtroom. the most important thing that went on in the courtroom has nothing to do with live testimony. it wasn't robbie meyers, it certainly wasn't carol martin. the most important thing that happened was playing of video clips from prior depositions as well as statements he made on the campaign trail. and in particular, we heard clips of his deposition, as i predicted, from the deposition he gave in the new york attorney general's civil fraud case where he boasted at length about the value of his brand, how much cash he has on hand, how he might value properties like doral or mar-a-lago in comparison to his total portfolio. overall, he was boasting upon

boasting about his total net worth, and that's a factor that this jury will be called upon to consider in assessing what pete buttigiegtive e da punitive damages are appropriate. prior to his potentially taking the stand later this afternoon, that deposition testimony not only included his doubling down on the defamatory statements that are at issue from june of 2019, but also included the moment where he was confronted with the photograph of e. jean carroll and her then husband john johnson meeting donald and ivana trump in 1987. that moment, as you'll remember, is infamous. donald trump looks down having already defamed e. jean carroll saying she's not his typ, and yet mistakes e. jean carroll for his second wife, marla maples. i think that was the most silent the room has been was watching those clips from donald trump's

deposition, and then of course there's the weird journalistic experience of watching donald trump watch donald trump and having practically zero reaction. >> that is fascinating. let me ask you about this afternoon, critical, will he or won't he testify? did you get any indication from him or his lawyers about whether he still wants to do that and where the judge is on this, what kinds of questions he's going to want answered before he makes a decision. >> reporter: this is a situation where what the judge has in store for donald trump and what donald trump himself wants might be two very different things. donald trump has given all indicia of his intent to testify. susan necklace who's one of his criminal defense lawyers here in new york already here today. his spokesperson steve chung in court, boris epshteyn in court too. the trump world is out in full force to watch this. on the other hand, judge lou

kaplan told everyone before the afternoon break, i want you, counsel, to come back at 1:50. the jury will have a little bit longer. but there's some matters i need to address with counsel before the afternoon. and really, those matters could only be those in respect of donald trump's planned testimony because there are no more witnesses. the only other thing that defense counsel could do beyond calling donald trump to the stand is introduce their own deposition clips, and to my knowledge, they're not planning to do so. so stay tuned, watch ahead for what judge kaplan is going to decide he needs to do before and if donald trump takes the stand. but part of his power has been in not revealing what his plan is. earlier today, one of e. jean carroll's lawyers got up and asked judge kaplan to force alina habba to tell us what about the -- of donald trump's

testimony will be. judge kaplan wouldn't make a decision on that. i think he is maintaining tight control over his courtroom by not revealing to us what he's going to do and when. we'll have to learn after the lunch break, chris. >> all right, so we're going to stand by for that. eugene, worth reminding folks that in the original trial donald trump was ordered to pay $5 million. now she's seeking at least 10 million in compensatory damages. that's money. that's something that could be fought about depending on what happens here. having said that, from your conversations with donald trump's team and i'm talking about his political team, do they think that there's any downside even if he is told pay millions of dollars in this case? >> yeah, i mean, yes, sort of. part of it is when you push them to get them to be really, really honest and introspective about this, they know it's not a gd

thing for your candidate to have to pay someone for the things that he is accused of and has been found liable of doing. but they do see a way as they have always done is to -- bad things that happen to donald trump for his political benefit, we have seen, i think we've all been surprised since 2015 at how durable he's been able to do that. i think about often the access hollywood tape where he bragged about the things that he bragged about, and yet, he is still at the center of republican politics. how can we get rid of them, is it possible, and they jumped on the trump train, and so they use that to his political benefit, and now he has laid the groundwork for years, years, telling people like i said earlier, they are coming after me because of you. i am the only thing standing between you and the people who want to take all of your fill in the blank thing of the day. donald trump does not want to give any money, right? this is a man who, you know, at

the center of him is wanting to be seen in new york city as like a strong man, as someone who came in new york city, had this career, this amazing career, this big businessman, you know, but also at the center of that was him being a womanizer, right? he loved women, all of those things. so these things are coming back to haunt him. like i said, his team often feels like they're able to spin these things into his political benefit. >> eugene daniels, paul butler, and lieu is a rubin, thank you all so much. in just 60 seconds, nikki haley isn't just attacking her former boss, she's outright taunting him. could this escalation help her redefine the race now in her home state? >> get on a debate stage and let's go. [ cheers and applause ] bring it, donald, show me what you got. ok, i lied. noooo!

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south carolina's primary is getting very nasty very, very fast. while a lot of voters clearly like nikki haley's decision to stay in the fight against donald trump, donating a million dollars to her campaign, trump has responded with a threat posting on truth social, anybody that makes a contribution to bird brain from this point forth will be permanently barred from the maga camp, we don't want them and will no accept them. she responded, well, in that case donate here. let's go. and even now just moments ago, launching merch, a t-shirt that says barred permanently. if haley is going to go down, she's going to go down fighting, but she doesn't actually buy the conventional wisdom. >> donald trump got out there and just threw a temper tantrum.

[ applause ] he pitched a fit. he was insulting. he was doing what he does, but i know that's what he does when he's insecure. i know that's what he does when he is threatened, and he should feel threatened without a doubt. >> i want to bring in former rnc chairman msnbc and host of "the weekend" on msnbc, michael steele. also with us, nbc's vaughn hillyard who has been following the trump campaign. michael, the haley campaign says that million dollars they've raised since tuesday came from 200,000 donors, all 50 states, 95% of the donations were $200 or less. does that tell us anything? >> no. because money doesn't vote. >> nothing? >> no, stop, no. how many campaigns can i tell you about -- and vaughn, you've seen where the guy, the gal with the most money loses. what does that tell you?

the reality of it is nikki's got to translate votes for her. she's 30 points down in her home state, and that means you got to make up two points a day, right? and so great fund-raising. i'd be curious to know was that maga money or was that, you know, donor money? who was the money coming from and will they be in the vote? was most of that national money that came from outside of south carolina? because if it came from maryland, guess what, that maryland money can't vote in that primary. so we got to stay focused and real on the challenge in front of her. it's great theater. it's great reporting for us to talk about, but at the end of the day, you're 30 points down in a state in which the turnout vote is 75% evangelical. yeah, you were the governor of the state, but your u.s.

senators, both of them have endorsed your opponent. the majority of your congressional delegation is with your opponent. they have operationalized on the ground for donald trump, so this is the reality in front of kki. so this bravado is great now, but you should have been doing that eight months ago because galvanizing, trying to galvanize that vote now with donald trump clearly on the offensive against you makes this much more daunting to get those two points you need every day between now and your primary in south carolina. >> so vaughn, there's a lot of folks in the too little too late category, right? but she's still going to be coming to new york here to talk to potential voters on wall street next week. what's donald trump's plan now? >> donald trump's plan is to go all in in attacking her. i think we have actually seen very little of donald trump and

what he is capable of in terms of his what one would i think -- this is not editorializing might be atrocious attacks against nikki haley. yes, he has suggested that he doesn't know where she came from. of course she was born in south carolina. he has questioned whether hes she is qualified to run for president. but just here this morning here in a social media post online posted, reposted an image of a younger nikki haley and that included the quote about in which she said that she was teased as a young woman in south carolina for being brown, and he was mocking her comments insinuating that she wasn't actually dark skinned enough to have been considered brown. that is the depths to which donald trump is capable of going here in this primary process. frankly, he has not felt like he has had a serious competitor at this point, but we saw this eight years ago, and for nikki haley, this is on her home turf, and michael just said it, she is

up against the odds. she is on an island by herself. the one main surrogate she had in this presidential election is the governor of new hampshire, chris sununu. in south carolina it is essentially her against the world, and i have been to countless now over the last year rallies in south carolina of donald trump, tens of thousands of folks that have shown up to see him here, and i've had conversations repeatedly with folks, what about tim scott? what about nikki haley? your own home state representatives, and time and again, they told me, you know, we don't think all that bad of them necessarily, but donald trump is our man, and we're going back to him, and frankly, she's been running a presidential campaign for 344 days. she only has 30 days left to change the trajectory of this presidential race. >> a long time to the point of donald trump's attacks, michael, a long-time republican operati in south carolina toldthe w york times," in fact, to expect le new level of vitriol, dirty tricksed by trump, by his spoers at haley. over the past cpl of days online influencers with close ties to the trump campaignav

posted misogynistic, highl sexualized videos and images of her on social media. one of the videos was produced by a grum called the dilly meme team. it uses deep fake technology to put the sexual innuendo in her own voice. will it work? i mean, or will it -- i mean, it seems like it's all so much from the same playbook. does it appeal beyond the people who are already with trump no matter what? >> i think a lot of that stuff is click bait. i think vaughn put his finger on the core of this at this point. the south carolina republican base knows where they're going. they're voting for donald trump. and so, you know, this stuff is just entertainment. this is somebody's going to -- this is part of the grift, right? we've now elevated it. people are going to go click on it. advertisers are happy. that's what all that's about. that's not going to tinge nikki

or pull her down from where she already is. no, this is -- that's a whole separate thing. that's the entertainment portion of our program, folks. the reality is where vaughn laid the tens of thousands of people that he sees when donald trump rolls up into south carolina, okay, 10,000 come to see him, a thousand go to see nikki. that's her problem. and that 10,000 that goes see him, they're voting. they're going to be in the game. they're part of that armorment that donald trump has to help him in south carolina reinforced now by the gratuitous endorsement of tim scott, by the, you know, the ongoing feckless, you know, adherence to trump by senator graham. so that's his support network. what is hers? who are the state leaders that are pushing and organizing on the ground for her

over the next 30 days, and that is the quintessential challenge she has. so all this other stuff is on the entertainment side, it's on the grift side for those people who are engaging in it, and donald trump will revel in it. because he doesn't -- he can just sort of reference it and make, you know, occasional accusations that he knows their lies, but yeah, who cares. that's where he is in this. he doesn't like the attacks personally, and that will get under his skin, but organizationally, what has happened with trump versus 2016 and even 2020, he's better organized on the ground and his troops are ready to go pull the lever for him. >> michael steele and vaughn hillyard, thank you, guys, appreciate it. coming up, the feds are blocking assembly of some of boeing's jets, what that means for travelers and the company. and alabama preparing for an execution using a highly controversial method never before used on humans and that even veterinarians question for

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boeing's embattled ceo arriving back on capitol hill today and refusing to say whether he'd agree to testify in a public senate hearing on the company's growing safety concerns. that was happening just as there are major developments in the boeing max 9 investigation.

the faa says it is temporarily freezing future production of boeing's max planes and laying out the exact steps that airlines must take to get those jets inspected and back to flight. this is impacting two u.s. airlines, alaska and united, not delta as implied by the video we showed a few moments ago. nbc news senior correspondent tom costello covers aviation for us. this is an unprecedented step by the faa. what can you tell us? >> it's a very big step and it really underscores the fact that boeing has had so much confidence and trust in it lost, airline trust, faa trust, that faa is halting the expansion of the 737 max production line, that's essentially the government coming in and saying you can't continue to expand your production of this plane until you prove that you've got quality control under control and today they're doing a safety and quality standdown of boeing to work on exactly that. >> nearly three weeks since the

blowout on that alaska airlines flight over portland grounded every max 9 nationwide, alaska says it's already preparing for final faa inspections and its first max 9 flight coming this friday, resuming its full schedule on february 2nd. united said its flights will return starting sunday, but the faa now says it is freezing future production of all boeing 737s, announcing it will not grant any production expansion of the max until we are satisfied that the quality control issues uncovered during this process are resolved. >> i'm more than frustrated and disappointed. i am angry. >> in an exclusive interview, alaska airlines ceo had a similar demand. >> my demand on boeing is what are they going to do to improve their quality programs in house. >> under intense pressure, boeing's ceo david calhoun met with senators on capitol hill wednesday, nbc's ryan nobles was there. >> mr. calhoun, what's your

message to passengers concerned about flying on your planes? >> we fly safe planes. we don't put airplanes in the air that we don't have 100% confidence in. >> reporter: before those existing max 9 flights can fly again, they'll have to pass a rigorous inspection process, just laid out by the faa. >> this is the door plug. >> that's the door plug right there. >> reporter: in the u.s. only united and alaska fly the max 9. it's taking roughly ten hours to inspect every door plug. they're checking to see whether the bolts are in place, one, two, three, and four, and whether those bolts are secure. and then they're having to check measurements and gaps and torques. it is a long process. in some cases that can take 12 hours per door plug. the two airlines taking it on now to get more customers flying as soon as this weekend. today we're hearing that members of the congress, senators in particular say that there will be congressional hearings into this problem with the max 9, and boeing's response, boeing and the airlines say that plane will not fly until every technician

signs off and they're 100% sure it is, in fact, safe, and at faa specifications. chris. >> tom costello, thank you. in just the last hour, nbc news confirmed that cia director bill burns is expected to travel to europe this weekend to meet with israel's spy chief and the qatari prime minister hoping to broker a new hostage deal. that's according to a diplomat with knowledge of the matter. more than 100 hostages are still believed to be in gaza. negotiations for their release have all but broken down recently with israel and hamas sharply divided on the prospect of an extended cease fire. and six nuns kidnapped in haiti last week are now free. the "associated press" reports -- the "associated press" quotes the archbishop of port-au-prince who says the nuns and two others were released yesterday. it is not clear whether a ransom was paid or who exactly was behind the kidnapping. it triggered a furious outcry in

haiti over the government's inability to stem a surge of gang-related violence. right after the break, an incredible rescue from raging flood waters after 14 hours. you're watching "chris jansing reports" only on msnbc. ing "chrg reports" only on msnbc (applause) finally, we can eat. ♪ you know you make me wanna... ♪ and then we looked around and said, "wait a minute, this isn't even our stroller!" (laughter) you live with your parents, but you own a house in the metaverse? mm-hmm. cool! here's to getting financially ready for anything. and here's to being single and ready to mingle. who's ready to cha-cha? ( ♪♪ ) there's nothing better than a subway series footlong. except when you add on an all new footlong sidekick. we're talking a $2 footlong churro. $3 footlong pretzel

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it's a real life action film or horror movie. a woman risking a rainy night drive over a bridge near san francisco, but it's too dark for

her to realize it's flooded. the current picks her car up with so much force it flips over. she has to swim out and crawl onto what was the underside of her car and then spends 14 hours alone in the rushing waters until someone finally spots her. the highway patrol helicopter then came to her rescue. which brings us to today and winter storms adding to the already dangerous conditions in areas like that one that are already reeling from flash floods and freezing temperatures. in texas, waters were so high near houston that firefighters had to rescue at least 17 people and 15 pets after a river overflowed. flooding so extreme even horses couldn't get out without help. and then there's this, an alligator still alive but stuck in frozen waters with just his snout peeking out. it's called brumation, when alligators go into a sort of cold coma to survive frosty conditions. now let's take you to chattanooga, tennessee, where

drastic temperature changes led to water main breaks. nbc's kathy park is there, so what's going on and how is the area dealing with these extreme weather shifts? >> good afternoon to you, my producer deb is calling this a weather whiplash we're experiencing here in the state of tennessee because this time last week we were sitting in the teens, and i just checked here in chattanooga, we are in the 60s and climbing, so a big change in the temperature, but of course that other big headline that we're tracking here across the south, including tennessee is the potential for flooding, and keep in mind, chris, this time last week we had the cold temperatures. but we also had a significant amount of snowfall, places like knoxville got more than 8 inches of snow. typically that area gets about 4 inches for the entire winter season. so all that snow, of course, has meted or continues to melt. then you have several rounds of rain that is pushing through the area today over the next few days, and if you can take a look behind me, this is the chick

maga damn, and 700,000 gallons of water is spilling over at this time. of course tba is managing this dam right now. they are managing the water flow, but of course the runoff is a big deal that they are keeping a close watch on. take a listen. >> when you add the snow melt and then the rainfall today, what does that equal for you? >> it equals to quite a bit more spilling as you can see. we're putting a lot of water out because the amount of runoff between ice and snow along with water on top of it, differing portions of the valley got differing amounts of precipitation. therefore, it's allowing us to kind of adjust to make sure we have the least amount of impacts. much like everything at your house, it's kind of hard to have a 50 degree swing. >> reporter: and chris, we should note that this dam is critical because it holds all that runoff back and it prevents flooding in cities like chattanooga and other cities

farther downstream, but fortunately, as of now, there are no major reports of flooding in this area, but of course the low lying areas, the streams and creeks, they're slowly saturdaying to fill up. >> kathy park against actually kind of an eerie backdrop, thank you for that. the nation's latest economic numbers are in. they're better than expected. the gdp went up 3.3% at the end of 2023. another sign arguing against a recession that many forecasters once thought was inevitable. joining me, nbc business and data correspondent brian cheung, break down the numbers for us, brian. >> there are a lot of numbers in this. at the end of the day, what we need to recognize is that we saw a pretty good amount of economic growth in this country over the course of 2023 that many people thought into 2023 was going to have a recession where these type of numbers could be negative. instead what we saw was over the full-year period of 2023, the economy grew by 2.5% and that 3.3% figure which covers the last quarter of last year was also above what economists had expected prior to the new

numbers being released this morning. so what accounted for that boost? it came from the american consumer, which accounts for about two-thirds of the economy, they were going out and spending to a degree that a lot of people didn't expect with high inflation coming into 2023, so maybe that bodes well for 2024 as well. >> brian cheung, thank you for that. coming up, the planned execution by a method never before used and barely researched raising questions by ethicists, human rights advocates and the u.n. what's behind the controversy? we've got the details and legal and moral implications after this. moral implications after this 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. having asthma, copd, diabetes, or heart disease

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harnessing ai to plant new beginnings. ♪ so when minds grow, opportunities follow. tonight alabama is set to execute a man, essentially suffocating a person to death. it would be the first time a prisoner execution has been done like this anywhere in the world according to the death penalty information center. and while supporters claim it's actually more humane, nitrogen

gas is a method that the american veterinary medical association says is unacceptable for most mammals. the alabama inmate at the center of this ethical controversy, convicted murderer kenneth smith who survived a botched attempt at lethal injection 14 months ago. the supreme court has declined to stop this execution. nbc's morgan chesky is following it for us. also with me, debra den know, professor and the founding director of the neuroscience and law center at forden law school. good to have both of you with us. walk us through who kenneth smith is and what we expect today. >> reporter: yeah, chris, kenneth eugene smith was convicted in a murder for hire n 1988. he was convicted in 1989, won on appeal, and was reconvicted in 1996. and that's important because it was in '96, chris, that a jury recommended smith receive life in prison. the judge, however, overruled that and issued the death

penalty, which as of this moment, alabama judges are no longer allowed to do. that's what put him on the path where he's set to be executed tonight by this form of execution. that has never been done before. his legal team arguing that it is a form of cruel and unusual punishment and that it's new. the court agreeing with him that it is quote, new and novel, but saying they failed in their efforts to prove this would be cruel and unusual, the main argument being that should any oxygen be able to get under this mask while the nitrogen is being administered, critics say it could prolong the death, even leave smith in a vegetative state where he could suffer for an unknown amount of time. chris. >> you have spent 30 years studying executions in this country. what do you see as the main concerns of this method? >> i see many concerns with this method. the main one is the fact that we don't know how it's going to

take place. alabama certainly doesn't because it's never been used before. along with all the predicted concerns of, you know, vomiting and dying slowly or surviving in a vegetative state, et cetera, is the notion that alabama certainly is not the least bit prepared to do this. >> you pointed us to an australian doctor who has actually used nitrogen apoxia for assisted suicide. help us understand how this is different. that doctor called it horrifically wrong, cheap and nasty. >> the doctor testified on behalf of kenneth smith, visited alabama, and saw the mask that's going to be used or the type of mask and concluded this was unjustifiable. so he has rendered the assisted suicides of over 50 people, and

he uses an entirely different kind of technique. so the fact that the person who probably knows most about how to assist suicide of an individual with nitrogen gas, the fact that that person is so against what's going to happen to kenneth smith basically says it all in my mind. >> when smith faced lethal injection 14 months ago, prison workers tried and failed to set the iv line. he laid in the execution room for four hours. he's not alone in facing a botched execution attempt. is there a way that has not had problems? >> i think the method that's the least cruel is the firing squad. it's a puzzle to me why alabama has to go and invent a new method about which they know nothing and not use a method that we've used for over the course of a century. and it's the most widely used

method in the world. we already know that the firing squad is botch free. it renders death in probably within seconds, and it's a dignified death. people's families who have watched a firing squad execution draw the opinion that it's not cruel. so for alabama to do this is sort of a bit of thinkery. they're trying to look medical and humane, when in fact, they're seemingly inviting torture. >> and yet in nebraska there's a bill that would allow this pure nitrogen method. is there a precedent that is potentially being set here with this execution and do you believe that whatever happens with this attempt other states might consider following suit? >> it's always hard to make these kinds of predictions. we do know from history with the introduction of everything from electrocution to lethal gas to

lethal injection that states have started to follow a new method, even before the execution has taken place. so this is all in the state's desperate effort to attempt the death penalty at any cost. the fact that they would adopt a method that nobody had used says it all. >> how many countries have the death penalty. >> very few. we're the most executing western country that exists right now. >> thank you so much, we appreciate your expertise and sharing it with us. still to come, the disgraced spanish soccer boss accused of sexually assaulting one of the team's players could soon have his day in court. known for lessons that matter. known for lessons that matter. known for being a free spirit. no one wants to be known for cancer, but a treatment can be.

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. welcome back to the second hour of "chris jansing reports,"

and there have just been some dramatic moments in a courtroom at the trial for e. jean carroll's defamation tape against donald trump. let me read to you exactly what happened in the court. the judge asked, ms. habba, alina habba, he asked her whether or not she had any other witnesses and she said simply, yes, mr. trump, to which the judge says before he takes the stand, i have a few things to say. msnbc's yasmin vossoughian is outside the courthouse in new york. also with me, former prosecutor, kristy greenberg, and msnbc legal analyst, paul butler. so the judge had a few things to say, what were they? >> reporter: he did. and again, chris, excuse me for doing this, as you're looking down at my phone, so am i because we're getting this straight from adam reese inside the courtroom. i want to read kind of what we're hearing from the judge to make sure we're getting this thing right. and this is