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right now an atmospheric river dubbed the pineapple express is bearing down on california and set to drop a foot of rain in places on the west coast. here's a live look at san francisco, the famous san francisco fog i promise in there is some where the bay ridge, but that's the kind of flock there dealing with. it's one of the many cities bracing for some what some forecasters are calling the largest storm of the season. further down the coast -- wind warning just moments ago. this is dumb is expected to cause for flooding and mudslides over the next few days, we'll have live reporting coming up in our next hour. the third party, should anyone be scared? i'm going to speak with -- the next hour starts right now. a very good day to all of you from msnbc -- alex witt reports, right now and unstable middle east. iran-backed houthi rebels vowing to strike back against

the u.s., after the united states the united kingdom struck 37 houthi targets in 13 different locations. this nbc news exclusive video received from aboard the uss eisenhower. president biden's national security adviser on meet the press this morning saying more strikes are coming, and not ruling out an attack inside iran. >> have you ruled out strikes inside iran? >> sitting here today on a national news program i'm not going to get into what we've ruled in and rolled out from the point of view of military action. what i will say is that the president is determined to respond forcefully to attacks on our people, the president also is looking not for a wider war in the middle east. >> over two dozen aircraft launching the eisenhower carrying 2000 pound bombs and precision guided missiles -- is the only journalist on board that ship.

>> defense officials tell us that these strikes that the u.s. has been carrying out are not part of the overall mission here called operation prosperity guardian to defend against houthi attacks, and in fact a defense officials say that they are taking these strikes under their self- defense authority as they see some of these drones as a potential imminent threat. the u.s. navy on this aircraft carrier stands on high alert and ready to continue to target those who these if they continue to threaten shipping in this region. >> our -- station in israel, the white house, and beyond. we're gonna go first to nbc's matt bradley, joining us from tel aviv. that, another welcome to you. what is the latest on these u.s. strikes, and on secretary of state blinken's visit to the region. >> it stands as we talked last hour, it's basically the same situation. we can talk about how antony blinken is going to be shoring up, i think, a lot of u.s. allies in the region just as the u.s. continues these

strikes against iran-backed groups. when you look at the list of countries that blinken is going to be visiting for his fist trip to the middle east, you are seeing a lot of different countries that are both allies of the united states, heavily critical of the united states's support for israel during its assault on the gaza strip, and inimical to iran. these are sunni nations that see themselves as essentially groups that are threatened by iran, they see iran as enemy number one, perhaps even more so than they may have seen israel in the past. that has been a subtle and gradual shift in the posture of all these countries throughout the middle east throughout the past decade, it is so much more important now and so much more central to the identity of all these different actors. when we talk about anthony blinken stream we can talk about the negotiations of the hostages, but really looming all of this is going to be

those strikes against those iran-backed groups. we heard senior government official speaking recently, and here's what he said. >> it began with the strikes on friday night but that's not the end of it. we intend to take additional strikes and additional action to continue to send a clear message that the united states will respond when our forces are attacked, or our people are killed. at this point we are still assessing the question of how many casualties there were among the militia groups,, and our military will continue to provide the president with those assessments. we do believe that the strikes had good effect integrating the capabilities of these militia groups to attack us. >> you just heard from from national security advisor jake sullivan, what he was talking about was evaluating the effect that these strikes had. remember that previous evaluations like this one of previous strikes against the houthis in yemen came back more or less saying that they didn't

think that their capabilities had been really degraded. they were still capable of firing against commercial shipping in the gulf of aden, and the red sea. whether or not these strikes are going to make a difference is hard to say. we're not all that much bigger than the strikes we've seen in the late january against the houthis, so this is certainly posturing symbolic blow against the houthis, they were striking more against the deep drain, more of these missile silos that are deep buried in the grounds in this mountainous terrain. whether or not they were effective we may know in the coming days and weeks. alex? >> okay, matt bradley in tel aviv. thank you so much for that report. let's go now to nbc's aaron gilchrist joining us from the white house. welcome to you, what are we hearing from the administration today -- there in the middle east? >> more strikes, that's what we're hearing from the administration, alex. you just saw -- jake sullivan the national security adviser did today with kristen welker

on meet the press. he made the rounds this morning talking about the strike that we saw on friday night and the fact that there will be more strikes that are directly connected to last weekend strike in jordan that resulted in the deaths of three american soldiers. the president, the secretary of defense, other leaders in the administration made clear that that was a bridge too far. that the strike there killing those americans was one that was going to warrant a more robust response from the administration them what perhaps we had seen in the red sea. we know, again math reference the fact that the release to other points in january where coalition forces struck houthi targets inside yemen. now we have the strike in jordan, excuse me the strike in jordan last weekend that resulted in the retaliatory strike friday night that hit 85 targets across seven sites in iraq and syria, and the administration's said you're going to see more strikes that will happen when and how the administration sees fit for those things to happen.

i do think it's worth noting that obviously we've had these other actions by the united states around the region, and the national security advisor jake sullivan was asked about that fact this morning on meet the press this morning, whether this is the united states engaging a wider war across the middle east. here's what he had to say to that. >> but these are distinct threats as well that we need to deal. with on their own basis. in the red sea we need to deal with the threat to commercial shipping. we are doing so with a coalition of countries. in iraq and syria we need to deal with threats to our troops and we are doing so -- the president ordered on friday night. what i will say is that the president is determined to respond forcefully to attacks on our people, the president is also not looking for a wider war in the middle east. >> that's an important point to make, i think, that the president is not looking for a wider war in the middle east. obviously when we look at the strikes that have been happening in yemen with

coalition forces, with the british, with other nations playing a assisting role, that is something that is connected to international shipping lanes, so to have that coalition the u.s. feels is the right course to take. when it comes to assaults that have happened that directly seemed target american forces, and in this case last weekend in jordan, kill american soldiers, the u.s. is going to go it alone to make sure that it does everything it can to take out the potential resources of these militia groups that are trained, funded, armed by iran, to try to make sure that they cannot go after sites that house americans in the future. alex? >> okay, aaron gilchrist. it makes sense. thank you so much for that. let's bring in right now clint watts, and this nbc -- distinguish research fellow at the foreign policy research institute, welcome to you. these attacks on the houthi ships in the red sea, as aaron was outlying -- in the last hour, separate from their

strikes in iraq and syria. one is self-defense, one's retaliation. how do they fit together in the larger picture, clint? >> alex, i think the key thing to look at is since october 7th of last year that's where there's been a sharp increase in attacks across all these groups, there's only one thing that connects them altogether, and that's iran. each of these are backed by the iranian revolutionary guard core, and particularly in syria and iraq the -- their form of special forces groups that goes out and works of these militias. all of the attacks from all these groups focused on the u.s., the uk, shipping lanes the red sea, they all have that sort of connection and i think the key point is iran has wanted to ratchet up and drive a wedge between the united states in the rest of the middle east, particularly with respect to israel. looking at the broader picture, all of this tries to -- in the larger regional war, it tries to bring the u.s. into that. what we're seeing in terms of

these strikes -- going after this strikes -- now going after those targets that are responsible for the attacks on the red sea. the question is, what will be the next step that the administration might take in between going to targets in iran, or will they go after iranian revolutionary guard corps targets that are somewhere in the region, but not necessarily in iran. >> i'm curious about the cadence of these attacks -- houthi rebels in the red sea yesterday. is there some sort of rhythm to this? is the timing of one operation consider one planning another? >> i think it is, alex. the message they likely wanted to send is we're going to sustain the response to this, we are going to be massive an overwhelming, but we're also going to be strategic. since the u.s. in the uk, they're going after the bristles, the logistics points, the ammunition supplies, in iraq and syria.

that was the key point there you heard from secretary austin as well, going after the communications nodes, the intelligence centers, the logistics that bring that all together. i'm really curious if there will be another and third increment and step up on this, and it also just shows the power of the u.s. to project force in many different locations. yemen, syria, iraq, these targets about close to gather. we're talking about thousands of miles, and different regions altogether. >> yeah,. let's say a cease-fire is reaching the israel hamas conflict, how does that impact the wider region? does it calm any of this apparent regional war, or has pandora's box been opened? >> i think it will be mixed, and it's largely based on the relationship between each of these proxies and iran, and their own sort of doing and their own self pursuit of targets. the houthis i think are different in some ways. yes they have support, they receive training in and weapons from iran, but we do see them

acting more independents. hitting targets out into the red sea, hitting other targets related to the united states, and that's because they've been in an ongoing civil war for boarded a decade, which -- fighting against the saudis. separately in iraq and syria, that coordination is much -- tighter -- war in iraq kicked off. i've a feeling they would probably back away more aggressively realizing the sort of pressure the united states could put on them. again, this is always the question with proxies. how much of a proxies actions is their own doing, things they've always wanted to do, how much of it is iran's bidding and how will we know when -- i think the answer is to come in the next few days. >> let's take a listen to some of what pentagon deputy -- told me about criticism by gop house members saying that the administration waited too long, and telegraphed the retaliatory strikes. take a listen, clint. >> i think the american people deserve to know what our

strategy is and how are going to hold people accountable. we didn't get into details, we didn't get into specific time lines, we said that we would hold these forces, these groups accountable at a time in place of our choosing. we love to do that. that's exactly what you saw last night. >> is there more to it strategically then wanting the american public to know the level of transparency? >> i would say i think it's curious in terms of the response, i'm sure those islamic resistance overtop roofs, those militias around with iran, when they did to the strike on tower 22 and were successful from their perspective of targeting a u.s. target outside of the borders of syria, they immediately went into a defensive posture knowing the u.s. was going to counterstrike. so i think the big question that is being -- they know that were coming have to have targeted available to make sense, the u.s. is gonna want to be a strategic with the targets they do pick, and that sometimes requires us to be more tactically patient in terms of the execution of what that strategy might be.

at the same point we're right on the edge of an all out regional war between many different entities, so you have to be clear, you have to let people know what the strategy is and what if the houthis or the one of these groups in the iraq war serious again kill u.s. service members, what we do then, what will be the next step. there's going to be a limited number of options that we can pursue at that point. >> okay, sobering. clint watts, thank you so much. >> as senator scramble to -- how speaker mike johnson pulls a surprise move this weekend that is not sitting well with the white house. we are back in 60 seconds. bac. , 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. >> woman: what's my safelite story? i see inspiration right through my glass. so when my windshield cracked, i chose safelite. they replaced the glass and recalibrated my safety system.

that's service i can trust. >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪ did you proposed a stand- alone israel aid package to kill this compromise deal in the senate? >> no. we've made very clear what the requirements of the house were, and that is to solve the problem at the border.

apparently the senate has not been able to come to an agreement, they've been suggesting text should be filed, maybe today but we, even told the same thing for months now. we've been awaiting their action, we cannot wait any longer, the house is willing to lead. the reason we have to take care this israel situation right now is because the situation is escalating. >> breaking use their, speaker mike johnson defending his surprise move to introduce a separate israel only aid package. but it comes as senate leaders will release details of their own border security foreign aid bill, in fact at any minute now. nbc's julia gesture is on capitol hill -- julia, welcome this texas is expected to be a couple hundred pages. as you get ready to come through, what are you looking for? >> yes alex, we are still waiting for the bill text which was promised by the end of this weekend, so i guess we have still have several more hours before it turns into a pumpkin at night, i suppose. we are looking for the price tag and the provisions, something that could be a holdup for these appropriators

is that senator chris murphy told reporters that the price tag is likely to be significantly more than the 14 billion dollars president biden had originally asked for border funding, and as far as the provision scow, senator kyrsten really broke down what is the end of catch and release would look like, and how that would actually speed up the process for legitimate asylum seekers as well as what she says is a key difference in current immigration law, which is not just permitting the president to have authority to shut down the border crossings reach a certain threshold, but requiring the department of homeland security to do so once it hits 5000 migrant crossings in a day, or seven-day period, or eight and a half thousand in one single day. really hoping to parse through those details sooner rather than later. we're still waiting, alex. >> can i ask also what's been the response to speaker johnson

separate israel only bill? >> yeah, so speaker johnson was not waiting for the senate to send over its comprehensive package. he put forward his own, which would provide more than 17 billion dollars to israel as well as u.s. forces in the region, without a pay for, and he has a razor thin margin in the house but you're already hearing from some lawmakers even on the other side of the aisle that they might be open to it. here's what the democratic leader said about that, this morning. >> we will of value way that legislation over the next few days, and then on tuesday morning houston mcgrath will meet as a caucus. >> so you might be open to it? >> to decide the way forward as it relates to america's national security priorities, the legislation being put forward by house republicans doesn't of that. the responsible approach is for a comprehensive one to address america's national security priorities. >> you hear that caveat there at the end that even with this

israel aid package the priority is especially for democrats is getting getting this border bill passed, and we'll see if enough republicans jumped on board to secure the border, as opposed to having this as a campaign issue to run on in november. alex? >> i guess we will see. keep your eye on the 200 pages or so heading your way. mark it on your calendar, it could be a day that begins to change the nature the 2024 election. here's a big question, will you be able to hear any of it? msnbc's lisa rubin joins me next. joins me next. migraine attacks, 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. ask about nurtec odt. ma, ma, ma— ( clears throat ) for fast sore throat relief, try vicks vapocool drops. with two times more menthol per drop, and powerful vicks vapors to vaporize sore throat pain. vicks vapocool drops. vaporize sore throat pain.

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trump's long list of legal battles is set to play out this week, and the one that might be the most far reaching is the one that begins on thursday, the nation's highest court is set to hear oral arguments on whether trump should remain on the ballot in november, based on the insurrection clause that in the u.s. constitution. it could be the landmark decision with significant repercussions for the former president, and here is what trump said earlier today about his numerous legal battles. >> these aren't indictments, these are biden indictments. >> how are you gonna get through it? >> washington d.c.. i just get through things, whatever this. i'm doing this for the country, i didn't need this. i could've had the greatest light, i could've had a nice time instead of doing a nice fair but tough interview with you, i could've had a very nice time in my life. i could have enjoyed it. but i enjoyed anyway, because we're gonna make america great again. >> joining me now is msnbc

legal analyst lisa rubin, who we love on the show. here's my question, are we going to be able to hear this? i know you'll have access to hear it, but will we be able to hear at? >> we're all going to be able to hear at. one of the innovations post covid that has benefited our country is that supreme court arguments are now accessible, each argument, threw audio. we won't be able to see it, unfortunately. nbc will have some folks in the courtroom who will be able to tell us about some of the dynamics that you cannot hear. who is looking at home, who is interrupting whom, how the justices are reacting with the body language. but everyone in america will be able to hear it, on msnbc, as it happens. >> what do you expect to hear? >> i expect to hear some tough questions from the justices about various arguments that trump is making here. some of which are sort of ludicrous, and some of which textual e.r. support-able. the one i find the most persuasive, i'm not saying i find it persuasive in the absolute, but the most persuasive is that the 14th

amendment section three only applies to the holding of office. not the running for office. and certainly not the running for office in a presidential primary. that may have some traction with justices who are not looking to disqualify trump from the ballot. >> when it comes to -- let's move to the classified documents case. special counsel jack smith on friday told a judge this, in a courtroom filing -- the trump team is trying to paint a quote, inaccurate distorted picture of events in order to -- by government's officials diligently doing their jobs. this filing is in response to a trump filing last month requesting documents, right? this is why the defense attorney was -- documentary relevant to his case. can you explain what is happening in this latest filing by jack smith? >> let's go back to why the trump folks file this motion in the first place, because jacks mitt is responding to it. they want more discovery, and specifically they want discovery from the prosecution team. they have to find the prosecution team to include all

sorts of people who are not conventionally prosecutors. that the fbi, the white house counsel's office, and multiple federal agencies. rebutting that, jack smith is saying while it is true that we have had some interaction with some of those agencies, you have cherry-pick facts that of -- wholly inconsistent with reality. to the extent, for example, there folks the top of the white house counsel office it was with the cooperation -- you designated as a representatives, as your liaison substantially with the national archives. those were not untoward conversations, those were one that we had that were perfectly respectful of the privilege you were starting at the time, they went incrementally and in a measured way, it's not as if we had an inkling that you stole documents on day one, and undo day two we raided mar-a-lago. here all the steps we took in between, and all the people we involved in between. >> this leads me to the new abc news reporting, i want to look at this and be very specific

about it, the special counsel jack smith's team has questioned several witnesses about two rooms, a closet and a so-called hidden room inside trump's residence at mar-a- lago, that the fbi missed and did not check while searching the estate in august 2022. sources familiar with the -- we want to know that nbc news is neither independently confirmed this. these details, and it's also unclear whether trump ever stored anything of a sensitive nature in any of these rooms. we also don't know the nature of this so-called hidden room, but all that caveat aside, what do you make of this development and how serious is it? >> it's a really serious development, because on one hand a former president trump is portraying the fbi as if they are part of this deep state cabal to get him, when in actuality the more we learn about the search that took place in august of 2022, the more we can see that they bent over backwards to accommodate the former president, they wear went in wearing plain clothes, they went in at a time when

they knew he wasn't at mar-a- lago, they were met with resistance from people on the property, and basically went faster and tried to go as expeditiously as they could, and now we're hearing from through the abc reporting that they didn't open up a particular closet because nobody could find tickly, and now they're asking witnesses about the supposed hinted room. that to me, as a group suggests what some other outlets are reporting, that there was a group within the fbi that was highly resistant to doing a search of the former presidents home, and in fact not the cabal that former president has been set -- out to get him. >> that group that was highly resistant, was there any clarity on why? was it because of the sensitive nature? was it for political leaning reasons? this is supposed to be an independent part of our government >> i think some of that reporting -- leads to yes, it would be yes because they believe that a former president's -- should be treated in a different way, but also because they weren't convinced that there was criminality there, and there

was this highly resistant group of people sort of forming ranks and saying this is not how we do business, this is not the fbi, this is not how we treat a former president. but behind that was probably some political sensibilities that were motivating those feelings to come forward. >> when you think of an fbi raid, which is not an official rate, -- they could certainly bust open a door if they wanted to, if they were looking for evidence, anywhere. >> absolutely. the former president complain bitterly for example damage to his wife's closet they knocked over things very carelessly, they didn't treat his possessions with respect that he thought they deserved. and yet it didn't occurred to anyone to knock down the story of a locked closet. why? because nobody can find the clearly. >> let's move to march 4th date, now clear from the calendar because we're still awaiting what the d.c. appeals court says as to whether the -- presidential immunity. what did you make of all of that, and the fact that now the hush money trial is scheduled

to go first. does that offered donald trump any advantage in anyway? >> let's start with the fact that tanya chutkan has made official what legal observers and experts throughout the country have thought for weeks, it was happening incrementally. she's scheduled a hearing for march 18th, a trial for april 2nd, and it came off the calendar. finally she made it official. why? because next week the court was supposed to send out jury questionnaires and they couldn't do that if the case was off the calendar. she's basically trying administratively to save the courts medford. in terms of whether donald trump's advantage by this, it remains to be seen whether the hush money case will be go forward and -- there's a february 15th pretrial hearing before -- he's the judge here in new york who presides over that case. but also presided over the trump organization criminal tax fraud case, in which allen weisselberg pled guilty, and the trump organization was --

lamppost all are fine. he's very familiar with matt the machinations of the trump organization. if that case goes forward, russians familiarity with donald trump will not be a good thing for trump. on the other hand, is it good for trump to have some of the least serious of these criminal indictments go forward? yes, because it plays into his complaint there out to get me, look at all these -- that they're pointing to. i like how alvin bragg is trying to make sure that those of us in the press understand his case, this isn't the case about money for sex, this is a case about interlock shun interference, ellen election interference perpetrated by donald trump and his allies to distract us from things that would've made it all unelectable. >> despite being out of time -- as we go back to that which presents itself on thursday, do you think there's any way that they ruled against donald trump? >> i don't, and i don't think it's necessarily about the makeup of the supreme court. i will not be surprised if you see a divide in this court that is greater than 54, not

upholding the colorado supreme court and holding that he is still eligible to be on the ballot, however when that immunity appeal reaches the same supreme court i also will not be surprised if they hold the president trump is not immune from prosecution in the federal elections interference case, in which that immunity appeal has come up, but by extension in the others as well. >> okay, much appreciated as always. thank you. happening today in texas, governor greg abbott is getting ready to host 14 republican governors at the border. they are expected to speak at the next hour, after a full weekend of protests. this comes as we still await -- priscilla thompson joins us from eagle pass, texas. welcome, priscilla. yesterday that rally was held around the border. what did you hear from those people? >> yeah, alex, good afternoon from a very windy eagle pass, texas. there were hundreds of people who turned out from across the country driving for hours as part of these quote take our border back rallies that were held in arizona, california,

and one here in texas. what's interesting is that most people i spoke to had never actually seen the u.s. mexico border for themselves, and a lot of them did come down here and were surprised by what they saw, some of them telling me that they expected it to be much worse, including one woman misty who told me this is why she felt it was important for her to be here, and see it in person, it really emphasizing that points. i want to play some of that conversation. >> you know, in order to make a movement move, that's what you gotta do first. you gotta move. so be part. come see for yourself, that we are not just listening to what everybody is shutting down your throat, whether be the left of the riot, open your own eyes. get your own opinion. >> alex, everyone that i spoke to at that rally is calling for more strict immigration laws and enforcement, some of them calling for the border to be shut down altogether, and of course in just about an hour governor greg abbott will be here along with 14 other

republican governors likely emphasizing that point as well and the need for more strict immigration laws. alex? >> priscilla thompson in eagle pass, thank you for the latest in their. meantime, the latest nbc polling and an important number, how trump conviction changes the 2024 race, that is a compelling story. i'm going to ask former obama press secretary robert gibbs about it, next. about it, next. ♪oh what a good time we will have♪ ♪you... can make it happen...♪

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you want to see who we are as americans? i'm peter dixon and in kenya... every epic footlong we built a hospital that provides maternal care. as a marine... we fought against the taliban

and their crimes against women. and in hillary clinton's state department... we took on gender-based violence in the congo. now extremists are banning abortion and contraception right here at home. so, i'm running for congress to help stop them. for your family... and mine. i approved this message because this is who we are. in minutes, president biden will leave l.a. and head to las vegas after sweeping all 55 delegates in south carolina's primary. he is hoping to ride the momentum for another win on tuesday, in nevada. he the more intriguing matchup will be back in south carolina on february 24th, when nikki haley and donald trump face-off in the republican party. joining us from charleston, south carolina, is nbc's greg hyatt. great, welcome to you. what did you hear on locals on why they voted for biden? >> good afternoon, alex.

a lot of the locals here in south carolina had mentioned that they are comfortable with the idea of president biden hypothetically matching up with former president trump in the november election. yes some of them had decided the fact that biden's order at 81 years old, and that's a concern for them but the bottom line is that they feel the biden has some unfinished business to take care of and they like to see him roll that out in the next agenda. take a listen to some of what they had to say yesterday when we spoke with them. >> i voted the way i voted because we don't need donald trump. not only in the white house, we don't need him for anything because you know what -- we know about donald trump. >> i like most of his policies, and of course they're far better than trump who is a, to put it bluntly he's a traitor. >> i think it's notable, we've talked about the fact that yes the democratic south carolina primary is already in the books

but the republican primary here in the state is still a few weeks away, and nikki haley is taking a more aggressive approach when it comes to taking on former president trump, she states that the former president has legal fees that would be a distraction, she talks that she has a favorable matchup with biden in a hypothetical matchup, and she talks that trump has chaos follows him, and even rolled out a slogan on the campaign trail on friday saying make america normal again. clearly the haley campaign is going after trump, she wants him to debate here here in the south carolina primary, there still time to go, that's a posture from the haley campaign, shall have an event later on the evening -- heading out west to california, a super tuesday state, they have an event showing that she is committed to staying in this race be on south carolina and into super tuesday. >> i wasn't aware that, but i think you for sharing all of it, greg hyatt. we appreciate you. let's bring in robert gibbs, msnbc political analyst and former white house press secretary. good to see you. let's get into this brand-new poll, robert.

it is released this morning from nbc and it shows president biden's approval rating at an all-time low, of 37%, can any of this be attributed to -- particularly the israel-hamas war? >> yeah, alex. i think there's no doubt about that, i think you see younger voters, the president's approval numbers down, the number that approve what is happening is in the israeli hamas war is significantly low. overall the poll is sobering, for the president and the presidents team. it demonstrates the challenging environment that the president finds himself in. nine months before an election day. there are some numbers in here that can give them pause, and their numbers in there that can give them i think some heartfelt theories that they're places they can go beyond just these top line numbers. >> what about the -- economic approval rating, because you

know that has also dipped, despite the many signs of the economy is improving. -- that is now down to 36%, it is a 2% drop in his approval from last month. what is the disconnect here, and what can the biden campaign do to turn this economic question around? >> well, alex, here's where i think one of the numbers that has to give them a boost, and that is when they ask in the polls the number of people that think this economy is going to be better in the next year, the same, or worse. the people that thought this economy was going to get worse in the next year went from 50 to 36, a 14-point improvement if you take that back to july nbc improvement it's a 16% improvement, so i think you've got to get people to the same before they can get them to better, so this is a good point for the biden campaign it's, good point for the white house and it likely demonstrates a lot of the consumer confidence numbers that we've seen over

the last two months, people are decidedly, less pessimistic about going forward i think economic numbers are going to be a lagging indicator and i think they're going to be the longest in the latest to catch up with where people are in their sentiments because i think people are still getting over the fact that a year and a half ago prices were really high. it was tough for people to pay for gas and pay for groceries and they were wondering where their wages were gonna go up, the numbers are now headed in the right direction on both those things, it just going to take some time i think, to catch up to where people sentiment is. that's i think what gives them some hope, i think though they have to take it a step further, alex to get into an economic contrast, spent a lot of time in the next six months or nine months every single day talking about what joe biden's four on the economy, and contrast that with where donald trump is on this economy. >> i do appreciate the silver

lining interpretation let's keep that theme shall we because there's a bit of good news for the biden camp with the new poll showing president biden ahead of donald trump's 50 to 44. it shows some big gains from recent polling among women, but how much can the biden camp take from this positive news. in your experience, what a group that has jumped into the biden camp really go back to trump? >> look, you want to see progress on every one of these polls. as it relates to women i think there's an economic argument to make, i think clearly there's a choice argument to make. i think to some degree you're looking at whether it's in iowa or a place like new hampshire, look at what nikki haley did with undeclared voters. i think there is a sliver of those voters in new hampshire and really in all of the swing states that joe biden and the campaign should and must be targeting. a lot of those are going to be female voters that have pause -- that maybe republicans but have pause about their economic

vision or their vision as it relates to roe v. wade. and that is a case that this president has to prosecute every single day. the longer the general election is for joe biden, and we're gonna have the longest general election in our history in 2024, i think the better because it gives him a chance to make the case, it gives him a chance to pick up on what nikki haley pointed out with your last story, she says there is a chaos caucus and make america normal, again that's a biden has to pick up on. >> i should've won by a t- shirt. but anyway, there's another big plus in some sense for the biden team. if donald trump is convicted of anything, an nbc poll turns around and president biden is ahead so first off what do you make of that, and secondly should democrats hang their hats on any such outcome. >> i think it's consistent with a lot of numbers that we've seen when you asked voters what they think about supporting

donald trump where he convicted. i would this is what i would say to democrats who are concerned about this election in any way shape or form. they campaign every day to -- things they can control and things that can't control, despite what donald trump may tell you, joe biden doesn't have any control over whether donald trump is convicted's. they go out every day and focus on what you can do to draw this contrast and let those other things take care of themselves there maybe a benefit in the long run but you can't really control the outcome. >> very quickly, and you concerned about a third party candidate? >> absolutely. and i think particularly a bobby kennedy or robert kennedy junior on a libertarian ticket because libertarians and that party are going to have access to ballots in states that are otherwise going to be hard for any third party candidate to get on. >> good point. robert gibbs, good to see you. thank you. a former trump white house insider told me why he is supporting president biden in 2024, you're going to hear that, and reaction from someone

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breaking news, as iran- backed houthi rebels are vowing to respond after this latest round of airstrikes from the u.s. and britain, meanwhile the biden administration saying there will be additional retribution strikes those three american soldiers killed in jordan, with strikes inside of iran not off the table joining me now is former -- denver is also the author of the breach, the untold story of the investigation into january 6th. welcome back my friend, lots of things to talk about but let's stay on this. i'm curious your response on the biden administration's actions so far hasn't been sufficient? would you support strikes inside of iran. >> that depends how far they want to go, with their warnings, and if they decided they wanted to retaliate from what we did, that's what's really important to me, and i

just want to tell people alex, i don't know if the b ones, people want to know the military -- p1 intelligence offers, i gotta mission plan this bombing strikes into afghanistan after 9/11. what you saw today is the ease of access. i really think this is going to temper iran's response because it's not the targets we hit, it's how easy we got them, and the b one is a very effective platform. think about this, they can hold -- munitions, 2000 pounders, they can easily put a gps kid on its, and that point it's very accurate. it was accurate in 2001, it's incredibly accurate so i think the fear that you have is when you have to actual be ones, or one -- by the way, i served with the 34th and i'm very proud of this, but when they're dropping that kind of ordinance -- i think it sends a message not to mess with us and i do approve of the other reaction that we had to this. >> given all your experience, what do you make of the future

plans potentially, where do you see this, how do you interpret what the united states is doing? >> there's a cascading effect, when you're doing mission planning you either strategically or operationally, once you do so, when you hit 80 plus targets, you're looking into logistics apply lines or maybe other types of -- when you're looking at this, what are they gonna do next and we already have our targets, it's not like we don't have something already in the hopper for their reaction, we know the other targets were hit downstream and upstream from the targets we hit so what the mission planners have they have courses of action, what they're doing is racking and stacking actual target that's on how we would respond based on iran's response. that's what iran should be worried about, don't think this is reactionary, the mission planners, especially the strategic planners, they already have an entire list of targets they can actually look into, almost encyclopedia of targets they can prioritize and identify, even though the munitions are best for them. the running down the course of action, the running down the collateral damage assessment

and why do i know this, this is because i did. that's what's happening right now they already have some courses of action or for some weapon jaxready, if something were to happen from iran next. >> what determines when they go, when they launch? >> a lot of times it's the type of threats that are in the area, and also when the targets are actually available so there's a lot that goes into loading the aircraft, whatever munitions you want to use, so when you're looking at the decks in your looking at the type of target you want to hit, there's different types of munitions, or something called a standard configuration loadout where -- where you want to actually put on the aircraft. that takes a little bit of time, and it's usually a 48 to 72-hour planning dak and it depends on how fast we want to run, then they're going to look at the weather, they're gonna look at actually with the conditions are on the train, they're gonna look at the threat population -- dental mission plan around that. that's actually determines the time, sometimes, it's not just weather but it's also the type of munitions are carrying on the aircraft, what aircraft are available, what's fueling looks like, and refueling, but also

the types of threats on the next set of targets they might hit. >> your experience is very valuable in these answers. let me also pivot to ask you about the report from the -- threats that are facing the election. those threats could include violence at polling places, or other locations, as well as in attempt to intimidate election workers, or cyberattacks in fact on election infrastructure. what needs to be done before november to make sure that our elections are protected? >> well you know, first of all we need to educate the public, alex. i know that you've been really into educating the public on the technical issues white have with a.i., or cyberattacks, or with even physical attacks on polling locations, election centers, or even -- election workers. there's two things that the american public need to be educated about, number one there's the actual robocalls, or a.i. calls, or a.i. videos that people might not be educated on, that could try just way people one way or another from foreign or

domestic threats, there's also the kinetic threat. which is the physical violence threat. i believe that one really does frighten me. of course the a.i. threats, and people talk about a.i. but there's a lot of other ways to get into networks besides a.i.. it's really the physical threats that might manifest as we get mutilates for ian summer of 2024, when you see the actual opponents start coalesce. yeah biden against trump, that's what worries me. and i think warning about the public about how they could be influenced, whether they should watch out for, that's the number one thing we need to do through public service announcements and things of that nature. >> i'm so happy, but i'm -- anthony scaramucci told me yesterday on the broadcast, about why he's going to support joe biden. remember, he was in the trump administration. take a listen. >> this is really about a threat to the american democracy and so you just have to take trump at his word, he wants to demolish the separation of powers, he said he wants to go after his

political adversaries and potentially poll fcc licenses of people on the air that disagree with him, so that's enough for me, it should really be enough for anybody that studies the constitution and recognizes how valuable that document has been. >> is it important for more former trump loyalists to speak out with the response support for joe biden? >> absolutely. when you see scaramucci or you see the sea adam king zinger, you see all these individuals -- if it's trump biden i'm voting for joe biden. it's really not much of a choice for anybody, if they're worried about law order, or even sanity, or somebody who buys into conspiracy theories for their own self aggrandizement, or self identifies as a dictator in talks about retribution. this is a person that you don't want anywhere near, i would say the oval office again. you do have a former president is running that has a lot of support, this is an individual that is out of touch with reality, or pretends that

attach with reality to actually ignite the base and try to make the base violence, or to do things outside of what normal behavior would be, so scaramucci is absolutely right, there is no question, if you're looking at what the former president has done, the people around him, the quality of people around him, which might be as high as a slog crawling on the grounds, i think when you look at the quality of people around on who he picks, who we surround him self, with there's nobody else to vote for than joe biden. i >> i gotta tell you, i root really enjoying nikki haley's latest campaign slogan, make american noble normal. again -- thank you so much my friend. meantime, back to the border. this time it's not about a so- called gods army convoy, it's about the texas governor again. we've got a live report, next. .