tv Jose Diaz- Balart Reports MSNBCW March 4, 2024 8:00am-9:00am PST
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america's democratic system of checks and balances this term? as again, the supreme court gears up to take another trump-related case, the presidential immunity question. >> right, and so i think these two cases read in combination will answer that question. if they, as they've done now, allowed trump to remain on the ballot and then give him immunity from prosecution, i think that will be a terrible day for the court from a political activism standpoint. if they say he can stay on the ballot but he doesn't have immunity and he has to go to trial and be held accountable or not accountable depending on how a jury rules, then i think it's a good day. and what we don't know from this current supreme case, this is more or less a civil case. we don't know whether the insurrectionist statute that is
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on the books and what implications would that have for trump were he convicted. >> thank you so much. got to leave it there today. very busy day. josé diaz-balart picks up our coverage right now. ♪♪ good morning, it is 11:00 a.m. eastern, 8:00 a.m. pacific. i'm josé diaz-balart. we begin with breaking news from the u.s. supreme court, which unanimously ruled that states cannot remove former president trump from the ballot over his actions leading to the january 6th attack on the capitol under the 14th amendment to the constitution. as the justices wrote in their opinion, quote, because the constitution makes congress rather than the states responsible for enforcing section 3 against federal officeholders and candidates we reverse. colorado secretary of state jena
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griswold reacted on x saying she was disappointed by the decision ask that colorado should be able to bar oath breaking insurrectionists from our ballot, and donald trump reacted on his social media website calling it a big win for america. with us now to talk more about this decision, nbc news justice and intelligence correspondent, ken dilanian. nbc news senior legal correspondent, laura jarrett. glenn kirschner, a former federal prosecutor e, also host of the justice matters podcast and car line polisi. what more did the justices have to say in this ruling? >> jose, the justices agreed on the notion that no single state should be able to exclue a presidential candidate from the ballot on the grounds of insurrection under this 14th amendment provision enacted after the civil war. they disagreed on the reasons, but they were unanimous in
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putting this thing to rest that had been a subject of debate for many, many months, and obviously three states had moved to disqualify mr. trump from the ballot, not just colorado. the supreme court did not, however, rule or opine on the question of whether or not donald trump committed insurrection. so in that sense, it's not 100% win for mr. trump. but it's a big deal. it's being called the most significant supreme court case affecting a presidential election since bush v. gore, but obviously not the most significant one this year because there's another one down the road about whether donald trump is immune from prosecution that could have even more import than this one. this 9-0 decision was sort of expected after we heard the liberal justices during the oral arguments casting doubt on the idea that colorado or any other state could exclude mr. trump from the ballot, but nonetheless, no dissents whatsoever sends a powerful message here today. >> laura, unanimous with two
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concurring opinions. what stood out to you in this opinion? >> one of the concurrences from justice barrett sort of high lighting the potentially explosive nature of this case, jose. barrett saying this is a time in the country to turn the temperature down and not up, and so even if the justices are in some disagreement about how far they should have taken this actual decision, in her view, this is not the time for the justices to sort of lay all that bare knowing the political consequences of a ruling this way, and as you can understand why it was procure yum, which means the court is speaking with one voice given the stakes involved here. it is interesting that for the liberals they describe the former president as an oath-breaking insurrectionist. that is not the type of languages you see from the justices in the majority, the bulk opinion. it's a notable phrase. i think many are wondering sort of how this sort of forecasts what the justices will do in another major decision, that
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it's going to be forced to grapple with next month having to do with the former president and whether he should be immune from prosecution at all. obviously the facts are different. the law is different in that case. the fact that they are unanimous today does sort of i think send a message about how the court views itself as an institution when the stakes are this high. >> and so glenn, how do you see the role of the court as an institution in this particular case? how do you see this court case having an impact nationally and down the years? >> yeah, jose, it's a great question. one of the implications for the court, not just the american people and the health and viability of american democracy, this is now the law of the land. 9-0. so it doesn't really make sense talking about whether this was a correctly decided opinion or an incorrectly decided opinion. it's the law of the land. and on page 12, they summarize what their ruling is. they say the responsibility for enforcing section 3's
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disqualification clause against federal officeholders and candidates rests with congress, not the states. what does that mean? it means the supreme court has just paved the way for an adjudicated insurrectionist, donald trump, adjudicated by the colorado state court. adjudicated by the colorado supreme court as an insurrectionist, paves his way to potentially retake the reins of federal power. it's hard to understand how we can have more confidence in congress's ability to make this consequential decision. that's what the supreme court has just said. it's up to congress. so what have they done? well, they've put it in the capable hands of folks like jim jordan, james comer, marjorie taylor greene, matt gaetz and others to have such a deep and abiding concern about the health of our democracy kind of separate and apart from politics to make this decision in the
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right way for the american people. i am not inspired, and i'm not confident that that will produce a result that's good for american democracy. >> and glenn, in that concurring opinion, one of the two, the one with by justice sotomayor, kagan, and jackson, they talk about the court's decision that has overreaching consequences in so many ways. so it is also significant that all nine essentially say, look, we have some disagreements on what other aspects this court is deciding on, but on this specific case, there is no disagreement. >> yeah, that's why i say it's the law of the land. we have to accept it whether it produces results that are pro democracy or that will ultimately be harmful to democracy is almost beside the point. it is the law of the land, an open question, jose, and i think one we'll be discussing in the
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weeks to come. what happens if donald trump is convicted of not insurrection because he's not charged with it but an insurrection-like charge that involved him trying to use force to overturn the results of a presidential election. does that equal congress acting because they passed the criminal laws that donald trump was then convicted under? i think the answer is likely to be no. so that means we will have to await some new action, some new legislation by congress to decide whether donald trump in the event he wins the election should be permitted to hold office again after he's been adjudicated as an insurrectionist. none of this makes a lot of sense. >> yeah, and i mean, caroline, it's so important the word insurrection, the legal weight of that, jack smith deciding not to include that word in his charges. what do you make of this decision today? >> yeah, no surprises for me jose, today.
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i think you know, it was likely that the court would rule unanimously in this per curiam decision. i anticipated they did not want to touch this insurrection issue p with a ten-foot pole. if they could make this decision on other grounds, i and others predicted that they would and they did so on really this procedural issue. what they're essentially saying to congress is we need a very explicit procedure and way in which to adjudicate this that you are going to go through so that we don't have to essentially. and you know, jack smith has gotten some flak for not indicting on the insurrection point. i don't think it will matter at this point either way. i agree with glenn on the question he posed, if he is convicted even in the january 6th case, that's not going to be enough under this opinion. >> so ken, what are the
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practical, real world implications of this ruling on the presidential campaign? >> well, the real world implications, jose, are that super tuesday happens tomorrow, including colorado and maine where mr. trump had been excluded from the ballot, those decision were stayed pending the outcome of this case. he's on the ballot, and voters will vote, and looks like he's headed to become the republican nominee for president. this 14th amendment provision is not going to stop that. >> the next big trump case to come before the court is that presidential immunity case this spring. how does this decision or does this decision tell us anything about what could be going forward? the court's view and decision on that other case. >> well, the court, at least the majority here doesn't really tip its hand as to how it views the substance of what the former president is accused of doing in the days leading up to january 6th and on that day when the capital was attacked, jose, but they're going to have to confront that directly when it comes to immunity.
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so just to remind everyone what they're facing there is on the week of april 22nd, they are expected to take up this case. he has tried to argue that he should be completely immune from prosecution, completely immune from charges related to his efforts to try to overturn the last election, obviously the special counsel's office has pushed back on that saying that he is not immune, and now the high court will decide it once and for all for everyone. but they are not going to be able to avoid what he did on january 6th in the same way that they have been able to avoid it here. remember, jose, the question hear about the 14th amendment had about five different things that they had to resolve, and several different outs, if you will. they had off-ramps here that they could take without having to directly address that issue of his own acts, his own behavior, whereas in the immunity issue, jose, they have to take that head on. they can't dodge it and they're going to have to resolve it and say something about it. >> how do you see, caroline, this immunity issue being handled by the supreme court going forward.
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>> yeah, i wish i could have a behind the scenes look at whether or not there's some -- going on for this case versus the other. look, it is a very much more meaty question on the immunity, and i think you'll see that they want to put their best foot forward in terms of another unanimous decision there. you know, i think that likely we will -- you know, everybody agrees that they will rule that there is no blanket printable immunity. the way in which they worded the order indicates that they might want to come to this question of the outer perimeter of presidential acts and whether or not there is criminal immunity for those types of alleged acts whereas the lower court rule didn't touch that question really, really just said we're not going to get to the question of whether or not the allegations or the alleged conduct was on the outer perimeter of your job description.
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we're just going to rule on the issue that there is no blanket presidential criminal immunity, and i think they may have tipped their hand, the supreme court in that order in the way in which they worded it that they might want some more fact finding on that issue. >> and laura, the timing of this, i mean, super tuesday is literally around the corner. they waited until today to have this. >> and we didn't find out, of course, until late yesterday, late yesterday afternoon, jose, that the court was even going to issue decisions. this was not a regularly scheduled day. the justices were not even on the bench today in order to actually provide the decision. typically they take the bench and they actually read sort of a short synopsis of it. that did not happen today. so clearly there was sort of a rush to have a completion of this case, jose, which you can understand for the voters who are sort of left in limbo about whether their votes would actually count, both in colorado and also maine where they were expected to go to the polls tomorrow. other voters who have participated in early voting in
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other states were sort of left wondering in places like illinois. they needed to resolve it quickly, but of course the timing here with the political calendar cannot be lost, and it's why so many had sort of scratched their heads about the fact that they had scheduled the immunity issue that we've been talking about all morning, that like final week in april wondering why not schedule it faster. cleary there's some tension, i think, in the court about whether to treat these cases sort of as trump being a normal defendant during normal times or whether there is actually something different here going on that they should be taking into crown. >> laura jarrett, ken dilanian, and caroline polisi, thank you so very much. >> we're back in 60 seconds with the political ramifications of the supreme court decision. former president donald trump is due to give a speech at mar-a-lago at the top of the hour. former trump organization cfo allen weisselberg just admitted to lying to
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investigators in trump's civil fraud trial. what this could mean for his former boss. you're watching "josé diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. ée diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. [dog whimpers] [thinking] why always the couch? does he need to go to puppy school? get his little puppy diploma? how much have i been spending on this little guy? when your questions about life turn into questions about money... there's erica. the virtual financial assistant to help you spend, save, and plan smarter. only from bank of america. if you're looking for a medicare supplement insurance plan that's smart now... i'm 65. and really smart later i'm 70-ish. consider an aarp medicare supplement insurance plan from unitedhealthcare. with this type of plan, you'll know upfront about how much your care costs. which makes planning your financial future easier. so call unitedhealthcare today to learn more about the only plans of their kind
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with the aarp name. and set yourself and your future self up with an aarp medicare supplement plan from unitedhealthcare. 15 past the hour. we are continuing to follow breaking news this morning, former president donald trump is set to deliver remarks at mar-a-lago in the next hour. it comes after the supreme court ruled unanimously that states cannot remove trump from primary ballots because of his actions leading up to january the 6th. three states tried to bar trump from the ballot, two of them, maine and colorado were set to vote tomorrow. joining us now, nbc news correspondent vaughn hillyard. good morning. the trump campaign as i'm sure, already using this to their political advantage. >> reporter: right. and donald trump has already put oit a social media post calling this a big win for america. of course his allies including the rnc have touted the decision by the supreme court, and the fact that it was a unanimous
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decision. there was concern from trump's team that in their own words including in those oral arguments last month in front of the supreme court that millions of americans would have their votes -- that they would be disenfranchised through this republican nominating process, and now tomorrow there are 16 states that are going to be going to the polls to vote in super tuesday and in each of those states, donald trump is dominating in polling, and we're looking at a reality, according to trump's team, that they believe they could hit the delegate threshold to become the presumptive nominees as soon as march 12th. if not march 12th, march 19th here. so we politically should be looking at this as a means to the reality that donald trump is very likely going to be on the general election ballot for the white house this november, jose. >> vaughn hillyard, thank you very much, appreciate it. with us now to talk more about this is victoria defrancesco soto, dean of the clinton school of public service at the university of arkansas and
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former florida congressman, carlos curbelo. victoria, what's your reaction to the supreme court's decision today? >> this is a win for former president trump, and this is going to be key so that narrative that trump has always had about him being the underdog, about him fighting the good fight against forces that want to keep him down. this is just the perfect narrative for him to take back to his base, right? this decision isn't necessarily going to change the minds of folks who might be on the fence, but it really is a further rallying solidifying gesture for his base. >> carlos, do you think this is going to have a huge impact on trump and his political advantage into this? >> jose, if we look at the results of the last presidential election, it was extremely close, so this isn't going to have a massive impact. we're not going to see massive shifts in polling, but because these elections are won on the margins, this matters, and this
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is, as we just heard going to help advance trump's victim hood narrative. he wants people to forget about the 6th of january. he wants people to believe that joe biden and democrats are trying to persecute him politically. they're trying to block him from returning to the white house. he's going to make the point that they're trying to interfere with elections. and this ruling, even though it was a sound ruling and the court is saying we're not going to take the place of the will of the american people, despite the fact that this could very well be a sound ruling, trump is going to use it, and he's going to frame it as a ruling that blocks democrats from trying to prevent him from participating in the next presidential election. >> victoria, do you think this comes as, you know, when colorado and maine, two of the three states have moved to bar trump from the ballot are set to vote on super tuesday tomorrow? do you think this could affect
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voter turnout there? >> i think it can. i think it's going to be part of that getting the base out, getting them excited. i also think this is going to help in terms of fund-raising as well because it is part of that messaging that mobilizes people, not just to turn out to vote, but to open up their wallet. i think this is key for donald trump who needs that money, who needs that money to campaign and to deal with the varying legal issues that continue. this isn't it, there's a lot more to come, and he's going to need to contend with that as we move forward to november. >> carlos, as we're living in a time of firsts in so many things, you know, you have a presidential candidate who, even the concurring opinion, you know, calls him an insurrectionist. in these different unique times we're living under, do you see that these kinds of things could
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play a factor in having people who are blindly supporting donald trump and the republican party, would it make any difference to them either way? >> jose, in terms of republicans, i think all of these cases they only reinforce most republicans' support for donald trump. i think the people we really have to watch are, you know, maybe the 10% of republicans who reject donald trump, what do they do this election? do they stay home? do they support joe biden the way many of them did in 2020? and then of course all the independent voters in these swing states, i mean, when you look at the last result, sure the electoral college victory was solid for president biden, but just a few tens of thousands of votes shifting in a few states would have yielded a different result. so those are the voters we need to watch. are they going to show up for
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joe biden again despite his low approval numbers, despite his frustrations with imfrags, inflation in the country. do those people stay home? to some of those people support donald trump this time? they are going to decide this election? >> victoria, how do you think the biden campaign is seeing this decision today? >> well, they've probably expected it. they're bracing for it, and i think they're looking to that full-on general campaign mode. we've all been putting our money on former president trump being the nominee, but this just makes it much closer to being official and the fact that he's going to be able to most likely wrap up the nomination within two weeks. i think this is definitely that firm shift into general election mode for the biden administration. >> on the 4th of march, just a day before super tuesday, victoria defrancesco soto and former congressman carlos curbelo, thank you so very much
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for being with us this morning. ahead, much more on the supreme court decision as it comes on the eve of super tuesday. what it could mean for voters. former trump organization cfo allen weisselberg pleads guilty to lying to investigators in trump's civil fraud trial. what we know next. you're watching "josé diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. ée diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. 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. ♪ ♪ limu emu & doug ♪ ( bell ringing) customize and save with libberty bibberty. liberty bushumal. libtreally blubatoo. mark that one. that was nice! i think you're supposed to stand over there. oh am i? thank you. so, a couple more? we'll just...we'll rip. we'll go quick. libu smeebo. libu bribu. limu bibu...and me. doug: he's an emu! only pay for what you need.
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breaking news out of new york city where former trump organization chief financial officer allen weisselberg has pleaded guilty to two counts of perjury over his testimony during trump's new york civil fraud trial. tom winter is with us this morning. tom, good morning, what more do we know about this? >> right, so this actually all went down in the last several minutes, jose, and allen weisselberg was brought into court, according to adam reiss who was in the courtroom in handcuffs pleading guilty. it's going to be two counts of perjury in the first degree. what he's pleading guilty to is two specific counts. it's all tied to the a.g.'s trial. you'll remember that weiss l weisselberg testified at that. he testified at the time of trial that he really wasn't across that, he wasn't across those misrepresentations that were made on multiple occasions
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except for the problem that forbes, the magazine had all sorts of communications that dated back to weisselberg apparently, according to them, trying to make certain claims and statements about this. and you remember this is all tied to the idea of trump's wealth, and forbes' inclusion of him on the wealthiest people in america list trump's team regularly interfaced with forbes trying to lobby for the former president's that his worth was at a certain level. this all dates back to that in that testimony, and the manhattan district attorney's office said that testimony was a lie. forbes came out with a story in the middle of his testimony saying the exact same thing. he's looking at a possible prison sentence of several months. he's going to be out until his sentencing on april 13th, and really this is kind of the last chapter t is presumed, for weisselberg because today's plea agreement does not include a cooperation agreement.
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we should not expect him back on the stand. there's no indication he's on anybody's witness list on the upcoming criminal trial involving those hush money payments in the former president's, manhattan district attorney identifies. this might be the end of it, the purpose perhaps for the district attorney's office according to a number of legal analysts we've spoken to, is a little bit of a reminder for folks that might testify at that trial that they are paying attention and are paying attention to whether or not people will be testifying truthfully. >> and tom, meanwhile, we have breaking news in another big story we've been following, a massachusetts air national guardsman accused of leaking thousands of classified documents is in court today? >> that's right, and he is just -- according to our colleague at nbc boston, alicia poe lumbar bow who's in that courtroom, he has signed the plea agreement. not clear whether or not he has told the judge that he is, in fact, guilty. but we should expect that shortly. prosecutors calling for up to 16 years in prison here. he faced, if he didn't strike this agreement up to 60 years in prison for this top secret and
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in some cases some of the classifications at very high levels, especially compartmentalized information involving foreign military. prosecutors say that as part of this agreement, they're going to calling for 16 years in prison. the minimum they could be someoned here according to the sentencing guidelines is 11 years. prosecutors will go for those 16 years, as part of this plea agreement he has to provide a detailed kind of debriefing to the u.s. intelligence community about specifically what about he took, how he took it and some of the information surrounding his crimes. this deal is contingent upon that. he's only 22 or 23 years old, so this really saves him from spending the bulk of his life in federal prison, jose. >> tom winter, thank you very much. up next, we are live in two super tuesday states with more reaction to the supreme court's ruling, the state's cannot remove trump from their ballots. plus, vice president harris's sharp words for israel
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35 past the hour. we continue to follow the breaking news from the supreme court ruling that states cannot remove donald trump from their primary ballots. it reverses a decision from colorado supreme court, colorado one of 16 states holding a primary tomorrow for super tuesday. it's the single biggest day of voting this season as the presidential race gets closer to becoming a biden/trump rematch. joining us now, nbc news correspondent hall lee vitale in texas and shaquille brewster in north carolina. ali, how is the haley campaign responding to the news out of the supreme court? >> reporter: well, look, they are also what's standing in the way, jose, of donald trump versus joe biden 2.0. the haley campaign just trying
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to keep grinding it out through at least tomorrow night's voting states, but in response to the colorado supreme court case, nothing new from the haley team quite yet, but based on what haley herself has said in the past, she is clear that she wanted the supreme court to make a decision just like this one. she thought it was a decision to get trump off of the ballot that should be made by voters and not the courts, so haley of course probably -- if she mentions this -- going to make glancing mention of it and, instead, just remain focused on her own path ahead. i do think we need to point out is quite, quite narrow, the slimmest of slimmest chances that she is able to in any way, shape, or form take this nomination from the former president. the fact that she wants to stay in as an alternative from voters in these super tuesday states and potentially beyond is of course the haley team's main focus. >> and so that may be haley team's main focus. what about the people who support haley, what are they saying about if trump is the
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nominee? >> reporter: i've been having a lot of those conversations too, as i've been traveling across the country, especially because nikki haley is pointing to the fact that in these primary contests, despite trump winning decisive victories, you know, 60% in south carolina, 70% in michigan, haley is also saying that the 30 to 40%, even 20% of voters she's been getting should not be ignored, and when you talk to those voters, it's clear thinker looking at haley as the alternative in large part because as haley often says, they don't want to have to decide between trump and biden again. the problem and potentially haley's legacy in terms of her voters might be conversations like these. >> what happens if it ends up being a trump versus biden rematch? where is your vote going to go in november? >> i will probably be voting for senator snow again because i can't vote for either of them. >> neither side represents -- at
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least neither extreme represents my feelings, my beliefs, and i couldn't vote for either one right now. >> it may be rfk. i don't know. i haven't really decided. it really depends. right now i have a positive tuesday and i'm just -- it's nikki all the way, nikki haley. >> reporter: and look, jose, there's two things that strike me from those conversations with voters. the first is that they need to be reached out to by the trump campaign because in many cases, even when i talk to republicans who may have voted for trump in the past, either 16, 20, or both, they say that they don't necessarily think they'll come back into the fold for him in the general election. they might just sit out, but then the other thing that strikes me is that all of those conversations we showed were female voters, especially when you look at women in suburbs, specifically places like georgia or north carolina where shaq is or michigan where shaq also spends so much of his time. those are areas where if those women stay home that is a
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problem. and if those women potentially go back to joe biden, that rebuilds the coalition that biden himself was able to cobble together in 2020. trump still struggles with those suburban women and nikki haley often argues on the stump, she's the person who could wring them back into the fold in a general election. you can't get to a general without getting to a primary, that's the haley problem. >> you're in north carolina today where nearly 700,000 people have already cast their ballots ahead of tomorrow's election. what are you hearing from voters there? >> reporter: hi there, jose, talking to voters you really get a sense of the uphill battle ali was just describing that nikki haley faces. on paper, north carolina looks like a state that it could be potentially fertile ground for nikki haley. she was the former governor of a neighboring state. this was a state if you look back in the 2016 primaries, donald trump just barely won, just won by about 3 percentage points over ted cruz. it's a state with a democratic governor, so a more moderate streak in these voters.
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but when you talk to many of these voters, you get a sense of how much more work nikki haley has to do. i spoke to many who said they didn't even know their former neighboring state governor was on the ballot for this election and many of them seeing this already as a general election matchup between joe biden and donald trump. i want you to listen to some of the conversations i've been having. >> he's a pretty good guy, seems to know what he's doing, he's helped the economy out. we had more jobs, we made more money, we didn't have as much taxes, things were a whole lot better when he was our president. >> what are those issues that you think about the most when you go and back biden? >> well, my thing is i'm looking for a man that's honest mostly, and we're standing in front of people, you know, he's already brought in a lot of jobs and stuff like that. >> now, despite many voters saying they see it already in that general election context,
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you had both republican primary candidates here in north carolina over the course of the weekend. nikki haley with two stops, you had donald trump with a stop in greensboro on saturday so the tension is definitely there. it remains to be seen whether or not nikki haley can overcome the momentum that's really against her at this point, jose. >> ali vitali and shaquille brewster, thank you both so very much. really appreciate it. steve kornacki is going to be at the big board along with rachel maddow and friends for special coverage of super tuesday tomorrow night, it all begins at 6:00 p.m. eastern, 3:00 p.m. pacific right here on msnbc. of course we're continuing to monitor the fallout from the supreme court's ballot ruling. and up next, vice president harris's sharp words for israel ahead of a critical meeting today of -- with a member of israel's war cabinet. you're watching "josé diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. é
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i feel refreshed because i am not struggling with cpap anymore. she looks great. i got inspire. great sleep at the click of a button. did she get implants? yeah, i got an implant, sheila!! it's inspire. learn more and view important safety information at inspiresleep.com 47 past the hour, vice president harris and national security adviser jake sullivan are set to meet with a member of israel's war cabinet, benny gantz at the white house. ahead of their meeting, harris called for an immediate pause to the fighting in gaza as negotiators still try to close in on a new deal. >> given the immense scale of
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suffering in gaza, there must be an immediate cease fire. for at least the next six weeks, which is what is currently on the table. >> the vice president's comments followed the first round of u.s. humanitarian air drops in gaza on saturday, the u.s. dropped pallets with 38,000 meals as the u.n. warnings of the risk of mass starvation. joining us now, monica alba at the white house and raf sanchez live in tel aviv. clearly the president said he had hoped to have a cease fire deal by today. of course that wasn't possible for so many reasons that we've been learning. what can we expect from today's meetings? >> yeah, and the white house is still hoping. they're still hopeful that this could happen in the coming days, but they also have been crystal clear about the many challenges, jose, that is the uphill battle to securing a deal, and what you
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saw there from the vice president yesterday is really a restating of the administration's position now for some time, which is that hamas needs to accept the deal that's on the table that has been signed off by the other parties that would institute a six-week pause in the fighting so that the remaining hostages in gaza can get out and so that a lot more humanitarian aid can get in, and you saw the vice president forcefully making that point, and she's going to continue making that point to benny gantz who is a member of the israeli war cabinet today. as the president said himself on friday, they need to urgently get more aid into gaza, and that is why you're seeing these air drops over the weekend. i'm told we are expecting more to come at some point, and then the u.s. is also exploring these other opportunities through the sea to potentially have a kind of portable port to provide even more aid through the water. so trying to really use every avenue possible to deliver more aid while pushing for this hostage negotiation and deal to
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come to fruition and being very clear with what the u.s. would like to see happen here, which we know from the president's own discussions with prime minister netanyahu have been conveyed directly, but they really of course want to see this shift into a new position and have been discussing other ways to continue to publicly add to that pressure, jose. >> yeah, i mean, raf, israel has said if there isn't a new hostage deal in six days, they may fall through with their invasion of rafah. where do the negotiations stand as of this hour? >> reporter: so jose, negotiations are continuing in thehour. >> reporter: the negotiations are continuing in cairo. taking part are mediators from u.s., from qatar, and from egypt as well as a senior delegation of hamas. not at the table are israeli negotiators. they tell me is the reason for that is hamas has not yet released a list of which of the
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hostages are still alive. now, we are out to hamas. we are asking them if that's true and why are they not releasing that list. but this israeli official says they are not sending a delegation until they get it. there are 134 hostages inside of gaza of whom 33 so far have confirmed to be dead, but many in israel suspect the real numbers may be higher and the israelis are saying it is critical they get that list before negotiations continue. we're also hearing there is intense american pressure to get this deal done before the start of ramadan, the islamic holy month, which begins on sunday. as monica was saying, it is not clear whether this is going to happen or not. we have seen optimistic predictions from the president about a timeline coming and going, but the israelis are saying that if this deal does
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not come together, they will push ahead with their threatened attack on rafah where some 1.4 million palestinian civilians are sheltering. there is still intense going on one city north of rafah so it's not clear the israelis are ready to mount that offensive just yet. they say they will give time for civilians to get out of the city beforehand, but humanitarian groups say there is nowhere safe in gaza for them to go at this point. the hopes from the white house is that this deal can come together in the next few days and that at minimum, an israeli attack on rafah can be delayed. >> where are the humanitarian groups insisting that for example they have access to those hostages? that has not been something that has been permitted by hamas. >> reporter: that's true. none of these groups, the red cross and others, have been able to reach these hostages.
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there was a deal brokered partly by france and qatar that was supposed to get medicine to these hostages. we know that among this group of 134 people, there are elderly people, there are people with very serious wounds they sustained during the hamas terror attack on october 7th. there are people with chronic conditions. this deal was supposed to get medicine to them. it remains unclear, frankly, whether this medicine that was ever delivered into gaza reached those hostages and jose, as you know, i've spent a lot of time in those tunnels where the israeli military says those hostages were held and we are hearing every day from the families here that time is running out for their loved ones. >> monica and raf, thank you both so very much. up next, we are just moments away from donald trump speaking at mar-a-lago after the supreme court ruled states cannot kick him off the ballots. you're watching jose diaz-balart reports on msnbc.
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57 past the hour. in moments, former president trump is set to deliver remarks at mar-a-lago after the supreme court ruled unanimously that states cannot remove trump from their primary ballots. vaughn, how do we expect these remarks to go? >> right, at 12:30 p.m. eastern, donald trump will walk outside of his mar-a-lago estate to address these cameras. this is a significant win for donald trump. 9-0. unanimous decision and keeps him on the ballot. with the expectation he performs well tomorrow and potentially wraps up this nomination as soon as march 12th of 19th, donald trump will appear on the ballot in november's general election. for donald trump, there's a lot legally at stake for him. in these arguments by his attorneys in front of the
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supreme court last month were notable because it is a sign of what is to come. we expect on april 22nd, oral arguments from his attorneys related to the presidential immunity claims as he tries to toss out the federal election interference charges against him. now, for donald trump, of course, we're just three weeks away, jose, from that march 25th trial start date on the criminal charges stemming from the hush money payments. so for donald trump, much of this comes down to the political. i want to let you listen to one voter in colorado ahead of colorado's primary tomorrow. >> this is what i expected. i didn't think that supreme court, which has three justices who are appointed by former president trump, would make a decision to remove him from the ballot. so this is absolutely what i thought was going to happen. >> so today, you could say today was a win for donald trump here. at the same time, he and his team are actively trying to find
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a potential lender to pay off not only the e. jean carroll damages but also settle the more than $400 million that he owes stemming from the civil fraud trial. of course, his chief financial officer pleading guilty today on perjury charges. a lot on the line for donald trump. >> thank you so much. that wraps up the hour for me. you can always reach me on social media at jd balart and you can watch clips from our show on youtube. thank you for the privilege of your time. "andrea mitchell reports" starts right now. right now on "andrea mitchell reports," in a unanimous decision, the u.s. supreme court keeps donald trump on the ballot. not just in colorado, but across the entire nation. securing the republican front-runner's position ahead of super tuesday. the former president will respond from mar-a-lago in a moment. and is tomorrow thend
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