>> good evening once again i'm stephanie ruhle, at msnbc

headquarters here in new york city. we continue our breaking news coverage of this evening of u.s. air strikes against iran- backed militias in iraq and syria. the military action is a sharp escalation in the administration's effort to stop the rising threat from iran- backed groups across the middle east. earlier this evening, u.s. central command released video of one of the b one bomber's used to carry out the air strikes, and in a call with reporters and national security council spokesperson laid out the details of the attack. >> u.s. military forces struck more than 85 targets at seven facilities utilized by the revolutionary guard groups. three of the facilities in iraq, four of them are in syria. numerous aircraft, including b1 bombers, dispatched from the united states were involved in this operation, firing more than 125 precision guided munitions over the course of about 30 minutes.

target facilities included command and control centers as well as headquarters buildings and intelligence centers, rocket, missiles, and drone storage facilities, and supply chain facilities. >> tonight's action is in retaliation for a drone strike that killed american soldiers in jordan last weekend. they are the first american deaths after more than 160 attacks on u.s. and allied targets since the start of the israel-hamas war and october. today, just hours before the u.s. strike, president biden went to dover airport base in delaware to honor those fallen soldiers in a ceremony known as a dignified transfer. this evening, biden issued a strong statement saying the following, it starts again today. we will continue at times and places of our choosing. the united states does not seek conflict in the middle east or anywhere in the world.

but let all who might seek to do us harm know this, if you harm and american we will respond. that defense secretary lloyd austin was clear that there would be more military action to come, saying in a statement, if this is the start of our response. we begin our coverage tonight with senior white house correspondent kelly o'donnell live at the white house. kelly, thank you for being here at this late hour. help us understand this, what will the white house consider when they are making a decision about the next steps, and how much further this could go? >> reporter: well, stephanie, they have given out some expectation settings that this is a starting point, that this will be multi tiered. and we've already seen tonight these strikes inside two different countries, iraq and syria, and we've been given guidance that they do not anticipate any strikes within iran. and that's part of the

collaboration that is so important here, where president biden and his team want to send a very strong message to iran and the militant groups that it influences, and arms, and encourage us to take action, but does not want to do so much that would provoke an -- an inescapable result of iran and the u.s. and direct conflict. as close as this feels. and at the same time, what we expect is that they do, after they do a battlefield assessment, damage from the night, we'll have a better sense of what remains to be targeted. and they'll also be studying ongoing movements of any of these groups and how they're trying to respond to what the u.s. has now done. there is a potential for something in the cyber realm as well. we don't know yet about that because the officials we spoke

to tonight wanted to be careful to not get ahead of next steps. but the next steps will in fact come. some of the factors that we're at play here tonight, we are told, in nearly a week since the deadly strike on americans, that part of what they were looking for was proper weather. that gave them the conditions tonight to carry out these strikes in a way that officials told us they believe or effective and did not have collateral damage of civilians. they at least work to try to prevent that. so it gives you a sense that they're trying to send a message. they are trying to have a message, have some boundaries, some proportionality. but also to make clear that this is not something where the u.s. is trying to put, provoke, but we'll continue to press to the greatest capabilities that have really been exercising a lot of reckless behavior towards the u.s. in those 160 attacks you mentioned. and now only rising to the level of lethality where american soldiers were killed. this is aimed to block that activity that's part of what we have to be watching for in the days to come.

steph? >> kelly o'donnell, thank you very much. now, let's turn to peter baker, chief white house correspondent for the new york times. retired u.s. army general barry mccaffrey joins us as well. he's a decorated combat veteran in vietnam and a former battlefield commander in the persian gulf. and nayyera haq, also a former white house senior director and former state department senior advisor. general mccaffrey, help us understand this. what is your take on the u.s. actions tonight? >> well, pretty carefully coordinated, very thoughtful response, significant military action, higher than we've seen in that tit-for-tat responses in the last several months. it was an impressive display of air power. the b1 supersonic bombers, flying 13,000 mile round trip, all occurring under the target in 30 minutes, anomie action -- most of it stand off precision strike missiles, i'm sure. and probably, targeted, principally, on the -- so i think the biden team is very thoughtful, experienced people.

secretary blinken, austin said that there is more to come, a tiered response, very effective. >> nayyera, let's talk about the diplomacy ahead. secretary of state blinken is going back to the region next week. he got a whole bunch of stops, saudi arabia, egypt, qatar, israel, and the west bank. how can he approach these talks after the strike? >> it only strengthens the u.s.'s presence in the region right now. it's not only gonna show a force of strength, but it reminds bad actors in the region that the united states would hope other people accountable when they come after u.s. personnel. and the challenge of course is that the united states has folks and military bases in saudi arabia, in qatar. and of course, israel on the other side of the persian golf, is another ally. all of that is about boxing in iran in this moment so israel

also has launched some of its own strikes against iranian military forces. this is going to be an opportunity to really bring folks to the table and think about what would a solution, a two state solution, something meaningful do to bring saudi arabia and israel together to finally get that peace deal, and potentially, have everyone unified in pushing back against iran's forces. >> peter, for people who are not following this closely, connect what's going on with the iran-backed group with what happened on october 7th? -- peter? >> sorry. the terrorist attack on october 7th is like these other groups backed by iran. it's part of the access of resistance across the. region and there's a question, of course, of how directly iran is dictating specific action, whether they are supplying weapons, they're supplying material and resources to hamas

and these other groups. these other groups are taking action against american, israeli, and other allied targets in the last four months, in response to what they say is israel's illegitimate and operation against gaza. and there is, you know, the houthis in the red sea, and forces in iraq and syria attacking american forces, it's all connected to the war between israel and hamas right now. and that's why the hostage deal that blinken and others in the administration are trying to broker is so critical because they believe they can negotiate a deal between israel and hamas to pause the fighting for as long as six, eight weeks, something longer perhaps, in order to get the hostages that hamas has held out. that is not only a quite war between israel and hamas for a while, it's probably quite these proxy wars that are going around the region as well. the last cease-fire, seven days in november, to release some of the hostages. the other groups, like the houthis, and the malicious and iraq and syria, also stood down

for a while. >> the u.s. struck iran best known military unit, the revolutionary guard. what do we need to know about them, and help us understand how russia fits into all of this? >> well, iran has been supplying russia with drones, drones that then russia uses on the war in ukraine. it's the same type of drone that was used, that killed the american forces in 22. the fact that these strikes, retaliatory strikes, we're in syria and iraq, also goes to the balance of power, and who else is trying to put a foothold in the season. russia has been involved in extensive ways in propping up the regime in syria, certainly taking advantage of the chaos in iraq, which after 20 years of having been in that iraq war, we are still dealing with militants active over there. the use of term proxies for

iraq. but iran calls them their resistant revolutionary forces. so there's an ideology that's driving all of this activity against the united states. >> general, could the usps situation where they're fighting multiple groups in the middle east? you've got the militias that iran support and iraq and syria plus others? >> well, no question. we are in a very low grade regional war. it's primarily orchestrated,, coordinated by iran, funded by iran. training, active leadership, legislation by senior officers in the quds fourth. the question is how do we keep it bounded. i think one of the challenges with the white house now in the coming months, the presence in the region in iraq, 2500 troops, and 900 in syria, and allies in jordan and elsewhere. we claim that it's an anti-i. s. i. s. corpse, a sunni muslim

terrorist group fighting against iraq, primarily, and a group of shia militias and shia army. it's backed by shia iran. i don't think this war -- i agree with peter baker completely. the conflict in gaza is now out of control and has fueled a lot of the anger, particularly on the arab street. but when gaza fighting stops, and it will stop, probably within a month or so, the question will remain, is iran still trying to be a hegemonic power in the middle east, both militarily, politically? the answer is yes. we have to think through the day after the war starts. >> why do you think that fighting in gaza is going to stop within one month or so? >> the israelis are touched by international condemnation, anger. they're losing the information

war. i think if they keep fighting another few weeks, they will add to that pressure on the hamas brutal, despicable leadership that killed and abducted, tortured, raped, and murdered their own citizens. they're going to stop fighting. it's an economic problem for the israelis. they have at one point 500,000 reverses reservists called. they've achieved a lot of their aim. but again, the questions are political, not military. who is going to govern gaza? it's not gonna be the palestinian authority, a corrupt and incompetent -- the israelis will never live with hamas coming out of fighting and rebuilding for the next time. so where is the pan arab solution, economic, political, and military and security governance of gaza? that's what secretary blinken, with all his brilliance and experience, kind of tried to sort out. >> peter, the white house is a very clearly messaging that they hope to stop attacks in

the region without escalation. but is that a realistic thing? this is extraordinarily complicated. >> well, yes, obviously, you don't know for sure. they're kind of calibrated, they're not hitting inside of iran. they're hitting targets at night, after having telegraph after several days, so presumably not a lot of actual casualties. but they're trying to make a point. and the question is, they'll hit them hard enough, whenever a future strike happens over the weekend. to make that point and to deter iran from, you know, and those proxies from continuing what they've been doing. the history suggests that that hasn't worked so far. so we will see. the question is whether it escalates, i mean, i think that you're careful enough that you don't see the obvious predicament to launch a full scale war, and american intelligence said they don't want a full scale war against the united states.

it's probably avoided that escalation that the president is afraid of, concerned about. the question is whether or not it's hard enough that these strikes, to deter future actions that have been so dangerous for american troops, and cause a loss of life of service men over the weekend. >> the u.s. suggested that were not planning to strike inside iraq. what do you make inside of that? >> the idea of not escalating further, it's a key part of this. and there are other targets that the united states can also put into place. iran has navy vessels sitting in the red sea that are currently giving the houthis that insulation, of how the houthis can be the ones to target american installation. potentially that can be a next step. the idea of backing inside iran, though, would be considered more along the lines of what some of the john boltons of the world are asking for, a move towards regime change. iran at this point have not used proxies or launched attacks on u.s. soil. so that type of parallel is still important in this context. >> peter, the president was

asked -- for those american soldiers that were killed in jordan, that was just before the bombings took place tonight. do you believe that these events happened on the same day for a reason? what's the message here. >> well, john kirby, the national security spokesperson, said no, there's absolutely no connection whatsoever with the timing of today's service at dover airport space when they received the three bodies back. it just happened to be the day the military thought it was most advantageous operation, obviously, now for several days. and what the joint chief said, joint chief of staff said, they joined -- the weather was most advantageous at this point. obviously, that we can strike, we can strike in bad weather, but american air forces have a better opportunity if the weather is clear, as far as their say. i don't think it's necessarily connected. but that juxtaposition of the imaging, of course, is powerful, because you see the

president of the united states, you see that military officers, making those caskets out of the plane, putting them -- it reminds you of what happened last sunday, and why it is that the air force is striking those targets in iraq and syria. >> before we go, let's take a quick look ahead. general, what do you expect to see next, in terms of a u. s. military response? could it be cyberattacks? >> first of all, i think the intelligence shift, -- they all want to ground, radios, radar. within 48 hours of a better view of who moved and where they are now. i don't think it's gonna stop. this will be multi phased. they're gonna be quite careful, as peter pointed out. look, they didn't strike at all. they didn't strike inside iran. they didn't even strike the

houthis. they're carrying howitzers, shooting down drones, but they were not part of this so-called retaliation measure. so there are not out of the hook. i think they're gonna try and degrade capabilities to attract u.s. forces in the region. they will largely accomplish that path. >> general mccaffrey, thank you so much. peter, nayyera, thank you as well. when we return, we continue to follow the breaking news out of the middle east, with reactions from the ground. later, a big win for donald trump after his federal election trial is postponed indefinitely. but an even bigger win for the biden administration after the country gets and you jobs report. the 11th hour just getting underway on a busy friday night. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ covid-19 from breaking your momentum. you may have already been vaccinated against the flu, but don't forget this season's updated covid-19 shot too.

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we continue to follow breaking news as the u.s. response against iran-backed militias has begun. reaction is beginning to come in from israel. nbc news correspondent matt bradley joins us from tel aviv. pulitzer prize-winning journalist david rohde is also with us. he is msnbc editor for national security. matt, to you first, what are you seeing there? >> reporter: well, we are hearing that the israelis, initially they said, they were not responsible for the attacks. and this is something that we

heard at the initial stages of this fighting. it was not clear exactly who is firing, mistakes made offer of these attacks. but what we are beginning to hear, we're expecting to probably hear, it's shabbat right now. probably most of the leaders are gonna be huddling with their families. but they're also going to be talking to other leaders, talking about the implication. you know, this is a war that goes beyond just iraq and syria, stephanie. this is something that involves the entire so-called axis of resistance, all of these iranian proxy groups throughout the region, and it's going to involve hamas and the gaza strip, hezbollah in lebanon, each of these groups are gonna have implications for what is going on here in israel. now, one thing to watch is the extent to which israel gets attacked, or israel is forced into the fight. that could push this into a region wide war.

and that's one of the things that of course the united states has hoped they're going to avoid. and the iranians themselves have been saying that they hope they want to avoid. one of the things, missing targets, the iranian mainland itself. we've been seeing strikes against iranian proxies. the u.s. has said they are not finished, and that they will continue, probably for weeks. but the big question is, and this is being closely watched here in tel aviv, whether or not there's reprisal against the reprisals. retaliation by some of these groups against israel itself. and again, that could invite a region wide war, the likes of which we haven't seen in our lifetimes. we've never seen this whole region in the war for generations. we've never seen one unified fight involving, you know, one major power like iran and all of its proxies throughout the region. and that could be hugely destructive. and, again, as we are seeing in the gaza strip, it would be the civilian population in the region that will carry the load for something like that. stephanie? >> david, we might not want a wider war in the middle east, but our actions are instigating one.

>> at this point, it was a measured response. we're just starting. this is going to be a long running campaign, and the big step, the big issue coming up, i think it's gonna be shipping in the red sea. it's gonna be -- the u.s. attacking the houthis in yemen, driving up the cost of shipping. there are many large shipping firms that won't send goods through that area anymore. and so, you have this jobs report for president biden, and it's, it will continue if this drags out, if there are attacks on ships. that's the problem for the president. >> matt, help us understand, how do these strikes could affect the war between israel and hamas. by the people they are concerned about the conflict? >> reporter: i mean, what we saw, two nights ago, yeah, two nights ago, people celebrating in the streets of rafah, a city in southern gaza, right on the border between the gaza strip and egypt. they thought that it was gonna be some sort of peace deal

about to happen. we've heard from hamas today, just two officials, one of them saying that terms of a peace treaty, that was inked in paris between the united states and israel, egypt, and the prime minister of qatar, that it looks as though that might not be as close to finalizing as those people in rafah and many people in the region had hoped. so, you know, this kind of fighting, this fight in the middle east could make a deal like that. some sort of cease-fire even a pause in the fighting, release of hostages held by hamas and other groups in the gaza strip, it makes it look a little bit further off. but as we've seen in some of these other groups, we thought that they kata'ib hezbollah, a group like hamas and the gaza strip, backed by iran. they're trying to step away as fast as they can even though they're much implicated in the killing of those three american troops in northeast jordan. you know, they've said they're

not going to be attacking the u.s. anymore. so it looks as though a lot of groups throughout the region may be following suit, trying to tamp down the situation that looks like it could be on the precipice of just getting completely out of control, and like i said, bringing this whole region to a wider war. we don't really know how these other groups are going to react because when we talk about these iranian proxy groups, they are really are proxies. there are not puppets-- it's not as iran is pulling the strings for all of them. we won't necessarily see them all acting in concert as a reaction to this. we will rest necessarily see hezbollah and lebanon or hamas in the gaza strip directly reacting to the u.s. strikes. though iran has said that they will continue to retaliate against the u.s., as long as u.s. fight against it is iranian-backed troops. >> david, a wider and more complicated war would be very bad for president biden, politically, going into this election. how could russia meddle with this? if you think of one world leader that is more aligned with president trump, it's vladimir putin. and he's can certainly muck things up here. >> there's no question who

vladimir putin wants to see back in the white house, given that trump has promised the u. s. would stop back in ukraine. that will be a huge victory for russia. if there is any way that russia can destabilize the situation, if there is any way they could get oil prices to come up, shipping prices, as i talked about earlier. essentially, the biden administration is sort of walking an incredibly narrow tightrope. they want to respond and look strong and they need to do that domestically, that's important for these strikes. but they don't want to bring attention so high that it sparks a regional war that matt was talking about. i think a key factor is this framework, this deal in paris -- >> to help us understand it. break it down for us -- >> yes. so, the one time when the war in gaza seemed to calm down was the short pauses that occurred -- >> early on. >> early on. and then the fighting resumed for more than a month. again, there is more pressure building on prime minister netanyahu, and the families of these hostages are pushing for

a pause. there's a an agreement that was a brokered in paris, adjusted framework. and right now, hamas, will they accept this basic framework? it's three phases, but it would follow the pattern of last time. the release of israeli prisoners initially followed by the release of palestinian prisoners. and a big problem is that none of the numbers have been decided. how many palestinians will be released for every israeli hostage? so, it's very important to watch anthony blinken's trip next week. is there talk of specific numbers and exchanges, because if they can get, now it's a six- week cease-fire -- it's probably being pushed by the u.s., qatar, and egypt. that would bring temperatures down and it would help a great

deal. >> if these strikes make that framework more or less likely, though? >> i think more likely. there are measured. again, a tight rope, juggling, balancing these different things. if there was no u.s. response between the three u.s. soldiers, that's a problem in the region for the u.s. and for biden domestically. so i think you would see more of this, these continued attacks, the key thing to watch in the cease-fire, and more exchanges of hostages, prisoners and gaza, and that is what will calm the region down. the question is can, you know, the outside world, can the united states get hamas and israel to agree to that. >> it's a big can. david, thank you for joining us on this night. matt, stay safe where you are, and thank you for joining us so early. when we come back, we're gonna check in on two other big stories of the day. the latest jobs report and trump's latest legal troubles, and maybe a win, when the 11th hour continues. ♪ ♪ ♪ continues. ♪ ♪ ♪ which penetrates deep to target the source of pain with nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medicine directly at the source. voltaren, the joy of movement. i know what it's like to perform through pain. if you're like me, one of the millions suffering from pain caused by migraine, nurtec odt may help. it's the only medication that can treat a migraine when it strikes and prevent migraine attacks.

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♪ ♪ ♪ we will get back to the breaking news coverage in the middle east in just moments. but there was plenty of big news here at home today, including about our economy. a strong economy. we had a good jobs report, more than 350,000 jobs were added in january. that was nearly double what analysts expected. and the unemployment rate held steady at 3. 7%. this is just the latest, best time for the economy and americans are finally starting to feel better about all of it. fed chair jerome powell earlier this week said a rare statement. >> this is a good situation, to be honest. this is a good economy. >> that is not something that

you hear from him often. joining me now, ron insana, my dear friend, cnbc senior analyst. ron, people or debating, will it be a hard landing, will it be a soft landing? there seems to be no landing. this is a great news. very good news across the board. what's your assessment? >> unambiguously good news and not only we're gonna get a strong employment report, the unemployment rate has been below 4% for 24 straight months. that is the longest stretch since the mid 1960s. wages are growing faster than inflation. the reserve puts out a realtime estimate of growth for the u.s. economy. in the first quarter, the quarter that we are in right now, it's expected to grow as much as 4%, which is faster than we were at the end of last year. so, no landing is the correct assessment at this point in time. >> even right-wing media sort of finally acting throughout the day -- you know, normally, they would say, but this, but that -- but finally they say,

you know what? the truth is the truth. the numbers are good. so, you are hearing that, you know, we all can hear well that people are told the economy isn't strong. that is now changing. there's so much good data that people can say, well, it's not so good. do you think people will start to feel it more? >> we are seeing it in the consumer sentiment, consumer confidence -- >> it's up. >> we're not seeing it in the polling because people are responding to the economy based on the party to which they belong. so if you are a republican that you think the economy is not doing good, according to the polls, if you are a democrat you think it's doing better. i do think that people are feeling a bit -- stephanie, the stock market is at an all-time high for the s&p 500 and the dow jones. americans have over six trillion dollars in cash in money markets, funds, that goes to eight trillion if you count -- >> we don't know what that means. >> they have a lot of cash on hand to consumer spending remains strong for some time to come, which means the economy is not likely to slow down anytime soon. so, this is a, not just a good economy. this is about as good as it gets. you know, back in the 1990s,

when the growth was faster than inflation, that was a new environment. all-time -- hike what we are saying, the one wrinkle is the fact that prices overall in a post pandemic world are higher than they were before the pandemic. but employment is better, and inflation has slowed considerably and wages are up. it's good news all around. >> not a wrinkle but at risk. let's talk about what's happening overseas, these u. s. strikes tonight, do you think they will stop the houthis from continuing to attack cargo ships, right? attacking those cargo ships is forcing those cargoships to make massive turns around an entire continent to make their way around the world, which could definitely impact prices, worsen inflation, hit oil prices. >> if it were to be a very protracted series of events, yes, this could be a problem for inflation. i don't necessarily think that's gonna translate in a way that some people fear. yes, shipping costs have gone up rather dramatically as a result of this. but if indeed it that gets tamped down and we start seeing ships go back to the red sea

and out through the gulf and instead of going around the horn of africa, taking a more typical route that they usually undertake, then you don't have to worry too much about that. what's been interesting about this entire process, if you can call it that, is that energy prices, crude oil is in the low 70 dollar range. natural gas is around $2 for 1000 cubic feet and heating oil is down even though we've had a cold snap. energy prices have not been affected by this, shipping costs have been. but i don't think that's going to be in the long run a problem for inflation. >> and, of course, we are pumping more oil in the u.s. -- >> 15 and a half million barrels per day. >> before i let you go, you know wall street. you know politics. you also know the state of new jersey. >> i do. >> today, a trump fund-raiser event, in it, it's that nikki haley was backed by wall street and globalists. last i checked, or you tell me, who are members of the trump golf club? who are members of mar-a-lago? who pays $200,000 an entry fee? that to me is not coal miners or union members.

>> look, there are parts of new jersey, populated by hedge fund managers, wall street people, and others. whether it's those counties in new jersey, or in the south where it's expensive -- in bedminster. new jersey is relatively wealthy state. it will be unfair to suggest -- >> this idea when donald trump is trying to convince his donors, a broader audience, that those wealthy backers of nikki haley -- he spends a lot of time with those. >> i'm not sure he's been entirely accepted by the wealthy community. i know from past experiences, people in his business did not equate his success to their own. in the real estate business. >> ron insana, you covered everything for us tonight. thank you. while president biden spoke on how the economy could affect his reelection, there are new developments in that legal cases that donald trump may be dealing with throughout his campaign. today, judge tanya chutkan is indefinitely postponing trump's federal election interference trial as he wait for the federal appeals court to rule on his claim of presidential

immunity. in georgia, d. a. fani willis now admits to a personal relationship with the lead prosecutor in the trump trial, man she hired. let's bring in former new york prosecutor and civil rights attorney charles coleman. charles -- charles, is donald trump getting exactly what he wanted, delay is this the best -- >> not yet, stephanie. i think he's on the path that he would like but i think ultimately what we're going to see here is that that's going to have a very quick and short end. and when i say that, what i'm referring to, the fact that while these cases are delayed, the prosecutions are moving forward. expect that donald trump is going to at some point move forward with a motion to dismiss along a stronger ground around election interference

because he is being the presumptive nominee. at that point, he would have to delegates necessarily to claim a republican nomination. he's going to try and delay this even further. but it's still going to move forward. we heard from merrick garland last week. we talked about the fact that, the department of justice typically does not prosecute cases within a certain timeframe before an election. but that doesn't apply here because these cases are already going. so i do suspect that he is feelling pretty good right now about the fact that he stated this off. but we've not seen the last of these cases go forward nor have we seen the last of his legal maneuvers in trying to get these cases dismissed. >> fani willis move, it doesn't mean that her case against donald trump should be thrown out? but in terms of public opinion, how bad is this? for her. >> it's not good. i think it started exactly

right, stephanie. it's important to understand that whatever is going on with fani willis in terms of her personal life and her decisions as a lead prosecutor in fulton county don't have anything to do with trump's guilt or innocence with respect to the 19 codefendants that are part of this legal case. and that's important for viewers to understand. what is happening here, your question, it's very important to point out that they are trying to damage the reputation of that office and the reputation of her as a lead prosecutor in such a way that you can expect to see repeated attacks on her character and her decision-making going forward. in such a way that they're hoping they may be able to get one hold out on that jury who's unable to convict donald trump. so this is really a strategy that is throwing whatever they can against the wall hoping it sticks. it's not the best news for fani willis, but it's certainly not a nail in the coffin. >> charles, long before a jury is even seated, which case is time sensitive. and the scrutiny she's going to be under, the hearings that are going to be in soon, they could hugely delay this whole thing. so for the sake of time, should she consider stepping down and taking herself out of the narrative, or will that open a whole new can of worms? >> it opens a whole new can of worms and i don't think that's a good idea.

i think that ultimately, because her office is the one that conducted the investigation, even if she removes herself from this, it's going to create more of a cloud of doubt around everything that's being used to prosecute donald trump. and so, and that is not going to be a good move. but remember, when i first started talking about all of these cases, i told, on your show, america that they were going to get an up close, front row seat in all of the different ways that lawyers can use maneuvers to try and push the legal system. that's what's happening. that's what you are saying donald trump do. i don't think that fani willis needs to step down. i think it creates more problems than it solves, ultimately, this is something that they will have to deal with. but if she stays the court, i do think she would be able to effectively prosecute this case. >> when you look at where all of these nickel situation stand, have people been relying too much on the legal system to decide whether or not donald trump will be the republican nominee? >> i think it's played too much

of a factor, and i am glad that you asked that question. i think, ultimately, people have had this wait and see mentality around donald trump, and quite frankly, the evidence is there, you can make the decision for yourself. that's what they're talking about the court of public opinion as a person who is voting or whether you're talking about the actual legal court of law, when you are thinking about whether donald trump should, in fact, be held accountable credibly for what he has done. ultimately, look at what you know. look at the facts as they are coming out and make a decision. waiting for a conviction or acquittal in a case like this, as to make a determination as to whether you think this man is fit to be the next president of the united states of america is a huge mistake. >> charles coleman, thank you so much. you at home, make sure you tune into msnbc sunday night at nine pm eastern. our friend charles teams up the correspondent for a msnbc special, black man in america, road to 2024, you don't want to miss it. still ahead, we are continuing to follow the breaking news in the middle east, live reports

on the region. our chief international correspondent keir simmons is here when the 11th hour continues. hour continues.

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correspondent keir simmons joins us live from iraq, where multiple targets were hit. keir, it is early morning where you are. u.s. forces have hit more than 85 targets. it's now 8 hours after the initial strikes. what is the mood? what are you seeing there? >>, you can see that it's not before eight a. m. and a morning here, and the lights have come up in the region. this will be the moment now when the u.s. and centcom will be able to use satellite imagery to assess the kind of damage. they believe that the targets have been hit, that the targets they were aiming for have been hit. they will now be able to assess that. overnight though, we are getting reports from organizations that make it their business to try to understand what is happening in

places like syria. the human exertion of rights -- 18 militants killed, 26 targets destroyed in the u.s. air strikes in eastern syria. that is an area where it is known that the iranian-backed militia are based on the border along the one with iraq here. -- again along on that border. what it does appear to be is that these u.s. strikes, while extensive, 85 targets, are in a limited space, along the border with iraq and syria, which reaches the jordanian border. that is where the three u.s. service women and men were killed. once again suggesting that while it's a powerful message, it's also a limited message. those are the two messages that

the u.s. is trying to send to tehran. we will strike back but at the same time, we are limiting. that is the briefing that we had overnight, that this has been calculated directly related to the killing of those three u.s. service members. >> keir, when you talk about how physically close each of these countries are to one another, could this put pressure on the iraqi government to distance itself from the u.s. and move closer to iran? >> it could. it's a really complex picture here in iraq, and let me give you an example of that steph, this morning. one analyst is reporting that iran is saying that it got warning of these strikes. it got warning of these strikes, because baghdad was warned. of course, the u.s. saying it

did warn baghdad because iraq is a partner of the u.s.. it's also a partner of iran. think about the complexity of that. you need to give iraqi a warning, because it's supposed to be a partner, but immediately, that message is sent over to iran. that is just one example. you ask the question because the danger in iraq, if you hit iraq more powerfully, then effectively, there are places in iraq that don't border syria the way that i described. what you potentially do is push the iraqis more towards iran, increased a man's for the u.s. to leave iraq. that's what the iran wants. they had to should teach a crucial calls, to push america out of the region and to put pressure on israel. on that final point, we are hearing this morning at about four a. m., the syrian say, they detected strikes by israeli ground south at the damascus on target there, hours after the american strike. what does that tell you? it tells you that there is an awful lot of iranian influence and position inside syria, for

example. will not be hit by the u.s.. fundamentally, the big question is whether what happened overnight is really going to put pressure on iran to change the strategy. >> keir, thank you so very much for joining us. and on that note, i wish you a very good and safe night. from all of our colleagues across the networks of nbc news, thank you for staying up late with us. see you at the end of monday and throughout the entire weekend. we'll have breaking coverage of the situation taking place in the middle east. stay with us. with us. as the world keeps moving, help prevent covid-19 from breaking your momentum. you may have already been vaccinated against the flu, but don't forget this season's updated covid-19 shot too. -we're done. -what about these? looks right. nooo... nooo... quick, the quicker picker upper! bounty absorbs spills like a sponge. and is 2x more absorbent so you can use less.

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good evening, i am jonathan capehart. we begin the saturd