front of you for all of us if we just look. the oscars i'm told are on the 10th of march and shawn, we'll will rooting for you. that wraps up the hour for me. i'm jose diaz-balart. you can always reach me on social media and you can watch clips from our show on youtube at msnbc.com/jdb. thank you for the privilege of your time. "andrea mitchell reports" starts right now. rea mitchell reports"s right now. right now on "andrea mitchell reports," president biden with a promise to the american people after three u.s. service members are killed in jordan and dozens more are injured. many seriously in a drone attack on a u.s. base. >> three brave souls in an attack on one of our bases and we shall respond. >> in just moments, andrea interviews the prime minister of qatar live to discuss efforts to broker another hostage deal with

hamas and widening violence in the region. also back home, as senate border talks approach the finish line, house republicans unveil articles of impeachment against president biden's homeland security secretary. hello. thank you for joining us. i'm ryan nobles in washington in for andrea mitchell but she'll be joining us shortly with an interview with the qatari prime minister and foreign minister, but first, ths. service members have been killed and nearly three dozen others injured in a drone attack in jordan. u.s. central command says the attack happened at a remote base on the border with syria and iraq called tower 22. the white house is blaming an iran-backed militia with president biden vowing the u.s. will respond. these are the first american service member fatalities from hostile fire since the war broke out between israel and hamas on

october 7th. courtney joins me now. so, have you, you actually have been to this base. what else can you tell us about the attack? >> yeah, it's a small, remote outpost in northeastern jordan. people may say why do we have troops there. two reasons. one is to train, advise, and assist the jordan military, but the bigger mission is to service a logistics hub for a u.s. military garrison. it's about 350 mainly army and air force at this small, remote outpost that i should say jordan does not generally discuss the existence of this base. it's very quiet when you're there. you're not allowed to get video. they don't like to discuss it because they're concerned about security concerns. a drone was packed with explosives was able to invade the air defenses on this outpost

and strike in the base, exploding right near a shelter where u.s. troops were sleeping. that's one of the big questions we have here today is how did this drone get past the systems that were supposed to protect those troops from this sort of an attack. but as you , three u.s. soldiers were killed in this attack. we expect to learn more about their identities and their identities and backgrounds later today, but upwards of three dozen other individuals were injured here. that ranges from cuts and bumps and bruises to traumatic brain injury all the way up to a number of individuals who had injuries so serious they had to be medevaced off this site. so this is the first time one of these iranian-backed militia groups have been successful in killing u.s. troops since october 7th. this is one of the scenarios that biden officials had been warning about and dreading since october 7th. >> thank you so much for that.

stay with us. but right now, we're going to go to the atlantic counsel here in washington where andrea and "the washington post's" post, i'm sor ry, we're going to bring courtney back to talk about the situation with this attack that took place. so, i know you said that you have actually been to this base. just how remote is it? for people that are trying to get a sense of this. >> yeah. it's not just that it's remote. also if you look at that satellite photo there, this is a very small outpost. it's right along the border with syria and right here a refugee camp. so it's very remote. again, jordan doesn't like to discuss it because they're concerned tha just the acknowledgment that there's a u.s. military outpost there could make it a target for a potential attack, but you know, one of the real concerns here is

what does this attack do for greater escalation in the region. >> thank you for that. stand by now. because we are going to have you come back and talk to us after we go to this interview right now that's taking place in washington. that's where andrea and david ignatius is beginning their interview with qatar's prime minister. >> agreement with a phased pause in the fighting? women and children first and to continue this in phases as you proceed with aid going in as well. this is being presented as we understand it now to hamas. in the past, they have insisted on an immediate, permanent cease fire before any hostages can be released. do you think there's a chance that they might agree to this or would their veto be a dealke >> first of all, i would like to thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak here and to be with you and david.

well, actually, i think that right now, i would describe it, the progress that we are making in the last couple of weeks, we are in a much better place than where we were a few weeks ago. we have seen that the whole process was working in november that resulted in the release of hostages and unfortunately, this process fell apart. and then the intensity of the war increased. that made the situation more complex as you have highlighted. that there was a clear command f o cease fire ahead of negotiations which i believe that we moved from that place to a place where it has potentially might lead to a cease fire permanently in the future. this is what we are all aiming

for because we've seen also the suffering of the people and we've seen them out of destruction. now our main role as mediators trying our best to get the negotiators, the hostages safely back to their homes. yet also stopping the bombing and continuation of civilians. we've seen the numbers are increasing dramatically and i mean, what i think that we are seeing is not resulting with the, is not getting any result to get the hostages back but the process is getting them back. now, on what you have, andrea, i don't know where you get all these details on the proposals and the framework, but i can say you are well informed.

we have i think yesterday was good progress made to get things back in shape and at least a foundation for work. we cannot say that this makes us, you know, in better shape very soon, but we are hoping actually to get to a place where they engage positively and constructively on the process. because we think that in today's world, i think that's would be the only way to get the situation deescalated and we hope that both parties taking this opportunity to get of course to make the war stop but also to get the hostages back. >> let me ask you as a follow up

whether if the united states retaliates against iran for the attack in jordan that killed these three american soldiers and dozens more are injured, if that were to happen, do you think that that would scuttle the deal? >> well, first of all, andrea, i express my condolences today to the secretary in our meeting for the loss of the three soldiers and we are hoping that the injured will -- >> to secretary blinken. >> to secretary blinken, yeah. recover soon and of course the attack that happened in jordan is condemned jordan's sovereignty and the cooperation of isis is not something that can be accepted.

what we've been warning is that this war has the potential of expanding and spillover in the region and we are seeing this building up unfortunately in the last three months. i hope that nothing will jeopardize the process yet to indefinitely have an impact one way or another it would have an impact on the region of security and we hope that things get continue not to get out of control. >> you said earlier an answer to andrea's question that you're waiting for an answer from hamas to this question of whether they're willing to accept prolonged pause in fighting but not a permanent end of the war, which as i understand, israel is not ready to offer. what if hamas says no? what's plan b here? because the situation as you know better than anyone on the

ground in gaza is horrific. >> well i think that, look, david, first of all, putting an end for this war now, it's becoming not only a demand of the people of the region, it's getting beyond this. we have seen the amount of destruction that happened. we have seen the number of victims. we cannot punish an entire population for an act. now, what would be the plan as an alternative for this deal, we have to seek for another way for another mean to get to a breakthrough where we can get a deal together. we cannot, we are an intermediary party here. we are not party of this conflict and we are trying our best to bridge the gap as the framework that yesterday being

agreed upon with all the parties was a framework based on what's being proposed by the israelis and what's being a counterproposal from hamas and we try to blend things together to come up with some sort of reasonable ground that brings everybody together. now we don't know and we cannot predict what hamas respond will be and we are sure that we will be faced with some challenges and obstacles, but -- and it's not an easy process, but we are committed to continue it. to carry forward and to come up with some solutions that provide ground to move. >> if they say no, are you prepared to pressure them? you have a lot of leverage on hamas. >> well, david, this is actually, this point that you have raised, i've been hearing this a lot about the leverage and the pressure, that qatar's

role needs to be understand clearly in this context. our role as mediator, we like to bring the parties to bridge the gaps between them. pressuring them, pressuring both of them by meetings, by commitment, by addressing the issues with some solutions. that's the pressure and the leverage. beyond this leverage, we don't see that as a superpower that can impose something on this party or the other party to bring them to that place. basically, we are using our offices to connect to bridge gaps to put solutions, to come up with some alternatives. that's what qatar has as an ability. and this way has worked. has worked previously in the process and has worked in the

process between u.s. and iran. has worked in the process between u.s. and taliban. and it's been working between ukraine and russia. so that's the way that qatar is operating. >> israel has today released evidence that its claim that these 12 employees of the u.n. agency had participated or supported the october 7th massacre and the evidence is compelling enough that the u.n. fired them. the united states and other countries have cut off funding temporarily while it's been investigated. doesn't this validate israel's claims against the u.n., which secretary blinken has said is the only game in town for getting aid in. the implications are that there will be more reluctance to get the aid in, which is to critical

to the civilians and critical to the hostage deal. >> actually, all of the u.n. is very important. we've been seeing the suffering that they have been facing with the cut of funding that's happened to them. not now only, but even the shortage in funding that's happened to them in the last few years. it's the only agency that can provide help and aid for the palestinians. now, if there are claims again, some of the stuff as i recall on -- been involved in this, these claims need to be investigated. they need to take fair measures according to their charter, but cannot be punished because of the act of some employees as long as they are complying with their -- >> including kidnapping a woman according to the allegation? >> no, actually none of the

fallout, we don't know about the allegation yet until the investigation come out yet. it's a behavior of an individual or a smaller group of people among tens of thousands who are working and cannot be like a way to live but then tell agency as adopting such act. we believe in the importance of the u.n. we believe in the importance as an agency and we believe also we have a confidence that they will follow what's their roles are. having them to follow. it's as they mentioned, they are taking all the measures. they are investigating and they fired them this morning. so at least they are doing their part as an agency, but it cannot be a laboring for the entire

agency. >> did israel agree as part of the agreement this weekend in paris, did israel agree to accelerate the aid deliveries which would be through the u.n.? >> actually, look, unfortunately, and this is something that we've been repeatingly saying. that's, it's not a way to use the humanitarian aid as a leverage or as a pressure on the people. people are dying from starvation. we have seen the suffering that they are going through is something unprecedented. we never seen before in any conflict. and just let us, you know, picture this. rez is the only conflict zone where people have nowhere to go to. no shelters. even with the safe zones they've been allocating for them since the start of the conflict, they've been bombed and no safe

corridors and no safe zones and there are no place safe for them over there. so, this shouldn't be part of any deal yet. unfortunately, it's been used as a bargaining chip all the time. >> as you said at the outset, we're on the edge of a much wider war. that would involve the united states, iran proxies, maybe even iran. so i want to ask you two questions. first, after this attack that killed the three americans in northern jordan, is kuo tar prepared to condemn that attack as something that is wrong? >> actually, i just mentioned that. we condemn any act that first of all try to undermine the security of a region or country like jordan or even killing soldiers who are part of

coalition that we are a member. so it's not something can be acceptable. yet we are saying that in order to get and to rescue the region from being going you know through like more and more suffering, through more excavation is to put down what's happening. that's a key thing. >> so you've favored at every stage mediation, diplomacy, and deescalation. i want to ask you if you are playing any mediating role now with the houthis and what messages your government is sending to iran with which you have good relation. >> actually, there's no mediation at all that we are planning with the houthis right now, but we are in continuous conversation with iran about the situation and the escalation.

we are continuous conversation with other -- >> what do you say to iran -- >> that we would like them to use their links with everyone, with all the forces to deescalate and not get the situation out of control as you just mentioned. about the houthis, what's happening. disrupting the trade in the red sea. something that's disrupting all of us. freedom of navigation. it's something that's very important for my region, for the world. and something unacceptable. yet we are seeing that the situation is boiling up here and everyone unfortunately is dancing on the edge and we have seen what's happened yesterday with the attack on, and killing the americans is a result of being trying to do some operations here and there to undermine the region's security

or to sure that some pressure yet it resulted in the killing of three soldiers. >> in leaked audio on israel's channel 12, prime minister netanyahu can be heard criticizing your country. criticizing qatar. he says i don't thank qatar. for the previous hostage releases. why? because for me, qatar is essentially no different from the u.n. it is essentially no different from the red cross and in a way, it's even more problematic. does that make it harder for you to deal with israel as you're dealing with israel this weekend in paris? >> well, honestly, andrea, i don't want to comment on such a statement. and we are not expecting things from him or from anyone. we understand our role. we believe it's important. we've been very honest from the beginning. we've been very transparent with

everyone and our role has proven that it's getting results and not just putting out some statements or using it for political exploitation. and being similar to the u.n. after the red cross humanitarian organizations. so we are proud to be among this club. >> the prime minister has also said he's against a palestinian state and that his goal is to eliminate hamas, its leadership and its fighters as part of his military campaign. do you think that that is possible without jeopardizing the lives of the hostages? >> well, first of all, all the way forward for us to have a peaceful region is a two state solution. that's what qatar stood for. that's what we are believing in. that's what we believe the

entire region has adopted a long time ago. and the two state solution will of course need like partners on the other side. if we see a leader on a side who's opposed such a solution, then what's the alternative? >> he would ask you how can we live side by side with people who are dedicated to our elimination. so can there be a two-state solution as long as hamas is in gaza? >> well, it's not, where hamas, the obstacles of two state solution back in after oslo and we didn't see anything implemented from there. in 2001, when our peace initiative was presented, did israel agree to at least engage in the process at that time or the israel in government? i think this it's not opposing the two state solution then just it's not something that happened

past of 7th of october. it was happening before that. so, for us, as our countries, as my country, we are a country which believes in peace. we support the palestinian cause. we support two people living side by side peacefully together. when we have seen hope in the '90s after oslo, qatar was the first country in the gulf to open a trade office and we had -- at that time. or trade relation at that time. yet we have seen that the other party or the partner for peace wasn't serious about it. that's when qatar decided just to close down this channel and just keep the ongoing working channel. >> getting back to hamas. hamas is dedicated to -- >> we'll allow david and andrea to continue that conversation,

but we're going to talk more about it now with an esteemed panel. joining us again, courtney, nbc foreign correspondent, matt bradley who's in tel aviv. richard haas, a seen your counselor for centerview partners. lieutenant general twitty, former deputy commander of the u.s. european command. of course, the former chief of staff at the pentagon and cia. courtney, just a couple things that kind of stood out. he said that they're in a better place than they were in terms of these hostage negotiations. he did condemn the deadly attack of these u.s. troops. and he seemed to express a degree of optimism in terms of the eventual release of these hostages and a potential cease fire. did you, in general, feel like there was an encouraging direction at least it seems from the prime minister's perspective? >> yeah, i totally agree with you, ryan, on a couple of things. on the hostages, he said look, it's up to hamas.

at the end of the day, we're still waiting to see what hamas says. if they agree to some sort of a deal to release these hostages. whatever that's going to look like. but he did point out that kuo qatar is trying to be a bridge between these competing, waring factions, and they hope they can continue to play that role. so he seemed to express some optimism on that. again, it's still up to hamas whether this is actually agreed to. he did condemn the attack against the americans at tower 22 and i thought it was interesting. he said that they are in constant or continuous conversation with iran about these attacks by these iranian-backed proxy groups and the message is they would like iran to deescalate the situation and not let the situation get out of control. but notably, david ignatius tried to jump in and get more detail about what those conversations looked like and the prime minister did not really bite on that question. but again, he did say that they

are talking to iran and trying to get them to deescalate this situation. >> so general twitty, let's talk though about the impact these strikes and the loss of life by american servicemen from hostile fire could have in terms of the further escalation in the region. this is a red line that the administration probably didn't want to deal with. at what point will the u.s. respond and what type of response is necessary in a situation like this? >> well, first of all, let me just say obviously that our u.s. deterrence posture in the middle east is not working at this point. you know, here to date, we've had over 150 attacks on u.s. forces on our interests in iraq. we've also had the houthis down south in yemen that have attacked commercial assets and our u.s. troops that are trying to secure those commercial assets. so we're in a precarious situation at this point.

of course, we do not want this war to expand. however, we must put in place deterrence and we must hold iraq, correction, iran, accountable for their actions. we have to stop playing whack a mole and hitting the proxies and go after the source. the instigator in all this. and this is iran. and i would say we have to be careful in our actions here when we strike back. iran in the persian gulf perhaps ships or iran that are stationed in syria. they have several units in syria. i would be careful not to strike directly in iran because we do not want to broaden this war any further than what it is today. >> so jeremy, i want to bring you into the conversation now. in particularly, your thoughts of what the qatari prime minister had to say about the hostage situation because it's

important to point out that there are still american hostages that are among those being held captive and that means the united states still has a very vested role, i mean they would have under any circumstances, but it's even more urgent given the fact there are still americans. >> we have six americans still being held hostage by the terrorists in gaza. that means the biden administration's principle focus to make sure the americans come out. there are more than 130 other israelis being held. there are other people from other countries being held. there is no way that israel is going to be able to ultimately achieve all of its military objectives with those hostages still there. the hostages in effect are human shields that are being held by the terrorists. so we've got to get the hostages home. i would also add that iran wants this war to expand to general twitty's point, ryan. iran has been funding hamas. iran has been funding hezbollah. iran has been funding the

houthis and they're funding these shia militia groups that are attacking the troops. you have to go back to the height of the iraq war when iran was supporting the projectiles, high powered ieds, killing american service members on the ground in iraq to see this level of a killing by a nation state against troops. you have to go back to the korean war to find the example of enemy aircraft killing u.s. ground troops and that's exactly what happened over the weekend. >> just shows how important this red line is that has been established and how the administration will respond. matt bradley, to you. the qatari prime minister who just spoke about the negotiations to get the hostages out and relief aid in. he said there was good progress. what are you hearing from israeli officials and specifically israeli prime minister netanyahu about these negotiations? >> well, ryan, we don't really

hear much from the israelis on this. we didn't in november and we don't know. most of the information we get is from the americans, from the qataris, sometimes from hamas themselves. but i spoke with the prime minister's office today and they said that look, this hasn't necessarily been approved yet by israel. this still has to go to the war cabinet and they're going to be meeting within the hour. tonight. that meeting could last until well into the night and then it goes to the full cabinet. where just about anything it sounds like could torpedo this deal from the israeli side. so there's still some deliberation to be done within the halls of power here in tel aviv and in jerusalem. there's a will the of discussion still to be done, but even with that, we had an israeli representative in paris speaking with bill burns and other representatives from egypt. the prime minister of qatar who was just speaking with andrea now. they were there. they had a place at the table. so the real obstacle still is

going to be hamas. now we understand that hamas said they are flexible now, but their original position has not necessarily waived. that was they are not going to be releasing any hostages until they get a full and final cease fire from the israelis. and that's something that the israelis have ruled out entirely and whether or not this deal moves forward is going to depend largely on hamas and whether or not they budge. they're the ones who hold the cars here. guys? >> so richard, one of the other interesting things that came out of that interview with andrea is the qatari prime minister said the only way forward is a two state solution. we've obviously seen the prime minister in israel kind of reject the notion of a two state solution. hamas has not necessarily been interested in that. how does that impact the greater conversation here in terms of the middle east and the goal of peace? is a two state solution something that is even realistically on the table? >> it's not realistically on the table at the moment. this israeli government opposed a two state solution.

hamas opposed the existence of a state of israel. but it's got to be the prospect of a political process has to be ultimately on the table. that will require an election in israel. and in order to get the right outcome i would say it will probably require the president of the united states becoming a de facto participant in the debate about that election to make the case for it. obviously, there will be israelis outside this government who will make the case for some type of satisfaction of palestinian political ambitions. now on the palestinian side, we don't have a partner. israel doesn't have a partner. so part of the process has to be to bill the political alternative to hamas and the current palestinian authority is not poised to be that. that's a process. sometimes in negotiations, you have to think about it in phases. we need a pre negotiation now. what we need to do over the next few years is create the pieces, the prerequisites of a successful political process. that ought to be our goal.

presumably at the end of that, there could be something like a two state solution under certain conditions but we can't go from here to there. too much has happened. across the political spectrum. so we can't try to accelerate this too much. >> is that frustrating, jeremy? given how much progress the united states, israel, saudi arabia in particular have made in terms of normalizing their relations? october 7th changed all that. >> it's a fabulous point. why has iran unleashed all of its violence through surrogates and proxies on america, our allies, our interests and troops? it's because israel and saudi arabia were on the cusp of making peace and that would have transformed the middle east. part of that deal would be the united states providing security guarantees to the kingdom of saudi arabia. iran has been unleashing violence and have been enganled

in a proxy war. hamas killed 50 americans. took 14 american hostages. they continue to hold six hostages. iran's surrogates and proxies have now unleashed 160 attacks against american troops. they've launched attacks against shipping where the united states and our commercial partners around the world are suffering. so this is an iranian strategy to disrupt this peace effort by israel, saudi arabia, and the united states. i think the biden administration down the street is probably considering significant upgrade of our military activity in the region to include strikes against iranian targets directly. that has to be on the table at this hour. >> richard, it was touched on in the interview with andrea and david and the prime minister is these new details about u.n. aid workers accused of aiding the october 7th hamas attacks. the u.s. has suspended its funding to this agency. how could this complicate

getting that critical into gaza? >> it will complicate it and undermines the u.n.'s reputation. i think we're going to have find private sector groups. ngos, if you will. to take a much larger role. because it will be a while before the u.n. will be an acceptable partner to say the least for israelis. it's going to complicate an already complicated situation. let's be honest. >> okay. courtney, matt, richard, lieutenant general twitty and jeremy, thank you all for that great conversation. border battles next. as the senate moves closer to a deal, house republicans hold firm against a new border security bill moving instead on articles of impeachment against secretary mayorcas. this is "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. mayorcas this is "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. that specializes in trauma. i've been doing flight nursing for 24 years. as you get older, your brain slows down and i had a fear that i wouldn't be able to keep up. i heard about prevagen from a friend.

i read the clinical study on it and it had good reviews. i've been taking prevagen now for five years and it's really helped me stay sharp and present. it's really worked for me. prevagen. at stores everywhere without a prescription.

committee and the house votes to impeach, there's little to no chance that two-thirds of the senate will move him from office. the department of homeland security is calling the move a farce and a distraction, claiming that house republicans do not want to fix the problem, they want to campaign on it. joining me now is politico's white house bureau chief and

host of way too early, jonathan lemire and former press secretaries to boehner and ryan, brendan buck. brendan, i have to scratch my head when it comes to the motivation here for house republicans because i have to administration's perspective, the more you try to impeach mayorcas, the more they're trying to defend him. if they want him out, is impeachment the way to go? >> i don't think there's a real way to get him out, but obviously the republicans have been telling their voters for a long time this all comes down to the administration's i guess willful disobedience as they're put it, of the law. we know that's not the case. but i think this is one of those situations where you have to appreciate the different ecosystems we all live in. now, immigration has become a top tier issue, but in republican circles, there is no issue that gets people more fired up, people are more rabid than anything else like the

immigration issues fires folks up and republicans have been banging this drum for a long time. and they have to do something about it at some point. obviously, there's a bipartisan bill in the works and we'll talk about that, but they clearly feel this is an easy place to put points on the board. polls show they hold an advantage with voters and keep this in the spotlight as opposed to other issues like abortion where maybe democrats are playing better. >> jonathan, secretary mayorcas, he's actually in the room for these deal talks. i see him on capitol hill pretty frequently. what impact would the impeachment push have on those negotiations? >> i mean, it's certainly won't help. the secretary has said he'll continue to be in negotiation. i think a real sense of pessimism has set in on these talks in recent days now that donald trump has come out so

strongly against them. being nakedly political about it. suggesting he wants this to be a campaign issue and that he wants it to remain outstanding until he can then deal with it when he's president. and there are some republicans in the senate who have said that's a terrible idea. that we won't get nearly as good of a deal next year even if we were to sweep control of congress and the white house, but there is real concern that even in the senate, it may have trouble getting through. that senator mcconnell may not get the votes he wants to advance it and the house is a tougher climb where speaker johnson has made it pretty clear he doesn't want to touch this, which imperils both the border security deal, a tough deal. we've heard from president biden saying he'll try to act as much he can on the border on his own and he would do so the moment he gets this legislation signed but he'll be limited if he doesn't get on. >> to that point, we're seeing

president biden take his toughest stance yet on immigration. even saying he'd shut down the border if it secures funding for ukraine. take a look at what the men had to say about it. >> if that bill was law today, i'd shut down the border today. >> please blame it on me. please. because they were getting ready to pass a very bad bill. this is the single greatest threat to our country right now. >> so brendan, you talked about that media ecosystem that maybe we're not all a part of in conservative circles where they're banging the drum to get something done on border negotiations. how does that respond if they've got a deal on the table but don't end up doing anything with it? >> yeah. just never going to be good enough. there's going to be no price to be paid as trump was clearly leaning into this. now, are they presenting an opportunity for president biden and democrats?

absolutely. i mean, you have republicans outright saying that they don't want to help the president in an election year and of course, you could bring that up. but i'm actually skeptical that this is going to be that the president and democrats will be able to wrestle this issue away from voters. time and time again, polls have showed that republicans are favored on the issue of the border by large margins. 30 points in an nbc poll last fall showed that people trust republicans more. now, could that be undermined here? could it slip in a meaningful enough way? perhaps. republicans are giving them all the ammunition they need. but i'm so frustrated because we're going to let politics get in the way. we haven't done immigration reform in this country in 30 years and this is as close as we're ever going to get. it shows you this is the most broken issue we have and we're not going to get there until things dramatically change in this country. >> to brendan's point, if they

turn this deal away, possibly the most conservative border package in four year, will there be any penalty for american voters? do they want this to be a campaign issue heading into the fall? >> i agree with brendan's first point. i think most republican voters when they hear about this, they won't be hold republicans pulled the plug. they'll instead hear the democrats be blamed that it wasn't tough enough and their conservative stalwarts were holding out. i don't think so. could it hurt republicans with independents and swing voters? sure. members of the house in biden districts, yes, they could be vulnerable. maybe some few senate republicans in toss up races and maybe this will come back to haunt donald trump. polling suggests americans want something tougher to be done at the border. i agree with brendan republicans have owned this issue to this point, but if biden and his team are able to make the case, maybe they can mitigate the political damage they would take and

republicans could get more of it. democrats are trying to go on the offensive about the border. that they want, they think this can be a better issue for them and they believe they can add it to a lengthy list of issues where they could draw contrast with donald trump and say that the republican front-runner would be unfit for office again. >> well, we'll first have to see if they can even get 60 votes because the more republican votes they get, they start to lose progressive democrats. it's going to be a very, very difficult needle to thread. thank you both. trump trials. next. the fallout from the $83 million decision against the former president and the big court rulings that could drop at any time. this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc .

we have breaking news from the white house where we just learned that president biden convened a meeting of his national security team to discuss the attack in jordan which left three american service members dead.

nbc news white house correspondent monica alba joining us with more. what can you tell us? >> reporter: some of the key players you'd expect in this type of situation room meeting, we're learning national security adviser jake sullivan, defense secretary lloyd austin, in addition to others. of course, all talking about this potential response after those three service members were killed in that drone attack in jordan. we know the president, while he was traveling in south carolina this weekend was briefed preetdly yesterday after this happened. he put out a lengthy statement. he vowed there would be some retaliation but he didn't want to, of course, telegraph the timing and location and how that would be carried out. we learned more information this morning from a spokesman from the national security council john kirby who was on the "today" show saying this was something where the options were still being considered, but the way this is typically laid out, they're presented to the president in a meeting like they

had this morning before he makes a decision about how exactly the u.s. is going to respond to these iranian-backed militant groups. this is something that for a long time, ryan, the president said if u.s. troops die as a result of any of these attacks or targeting, this would go to a new phase of response. that's a moment we're in to wait to learn more about that. there is a briefing coming up in a little bit from the white house where they'll lay some of that out. >> monica al barks thank you for that breaking news. we appreciate it. up next, how much will e. jean carroll actually see of the $83 million she was awarded by a new york jury? this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. "andrea mitl reports" only on msnbc it's the only medication that can treat a migraine when it strikes and prevent migraine attacks. treat and prevent, all in one.

don't take if allergic to nurtec. allergic reactions can occur, even days after using. most common side effects were nausea, indigestion, and stomach pain. relief is possible. talk to a doctor about nurtec odt. with powerful, easy-to-use tools, power e*trade makes complex trading easier. react to fast-moving markets with dynamic charting and a futures ladder that lets you place, flatten, or reverse orders so you won't miss an opportunity. e*trade from morgan stanley. z z

your record label is taking off. but so is your sound engineer. you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. indeed instant match instantly delivers quality candidates matching your job description. visit indeed.com/hire (rachael) i live with a broken phone i can't trade in. match(female friend)scription. ok, that's dramatic. a better plan is verizon... (rachael) oh, yeah. let's go! (vo) new and existing customers can trade in any samsung phone for a new galaxy s24+, watch and tablet, all on us! that's up to $1,800 in value. only on verizon.

hundreds of millions of dollars are on the line for donald trump this week in his civil fraud trial. a verdict in the case which could bar the trump organization from doing business in new york is expected to come any day. this just days after the former president was ordered to pay more than $83 million in defamation damages to writer e. jean carroll whom he was previously found to have sexually abused in the '90s. on cnn earlier carroll spoke about what it was like to testify face-to-face with donald trump. >> he was nothing. he's an emperor without clothes.

this decision bodes well for women across -- it came at a time when we needed that positive "we believe you" statement. so this win really was for every woman who stood up and has been knocked down. joining us law professor paul butler. donald trump saying he's going to appeal this verdict. can he do that? people are skeptical that he's ever going to pay? >> he can go to the u.s. court of appeals for the second circuit. if he loses there, the supreme court. i doubt he'll be successful on appeal. he's going to claim the judge was biased against him and he should have been allowed to tell the jury he did not sexually assault ms. carroll or defame her. the judge knew this was coming so he made careful findings that he supported with both the law and the evidence.

the other problem with the appeal is trump's lawyer, alina habba, was so out matched by carroll's lawyer. she led him mutter things while other people were testifying, she let him take the stand. in five minutes he crashed and burned. she let him dramatically stalk out of the courtroom during ms. kaplan's closing statement. most lawyers would yank their client back in their seat because they know how bad it looks in front of a jury. i think an appeals court will conclude that trump lost this case fair and square. >> how quickly will he have to start paying this penalty? >> that's going to take a moment. trump is allowed to just pay the whole amount, give it to the courthouse to hold if he wants. he did that with the $5 million in the earlier case. i don't know if he wants to come up with $83 million. if he doesn't want to do that,

he only has to pay 20% if he can find surety. i don't know if a lender is going to be willing to work with mr. trump. it's not just this $83 million. his financial liabilities are expanding so much. in the new york civil fraud case, judge engoran is going do sock it to him. >> let's talk about the outbursts donald trump conducted during this carroll trial. do you think the judges in the otheas have learned any lessons from the way judge kaplan handled him. >> again, judge kaplan was not having mr. trump's antics. he's known for a super orderly courtroom. a telephone went off in the courtroom and the judge kicked him out of the trial. hopefully what other judges learn, in some ways you have to treat trump like a preschooler. you have to say sit down and shut up. you have to very carefully

regulate what he's expected to say in court. again, when trump has lousy lawyers like alina habba, they don't advance his case. any lawyer worth her salt would have known the way trump was acting in this courtroom, not only disrespecting the law, disrespecting the judge and the jury, that the jury would let him have it. that's exactly what the jury did. >> we'll see what happens in the civil fraud trial, potentially $370 million in a judgment. make sure to catch rachel maddow's interview with e. jean carroll tonight at 9:00 eastern right here on msnbc. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." remember the follow the show on social media. you can follow me on facebook, x and graham. @ryanobles. "chris jansing reports" starts