>> yeah, we talked so much about people. got to think about the pets too, right, i'm a dog dad. it is a tough time for everybody. make sure you feed, give water to your pets, keep an eye on your neighbors, a lot to think about these days. appreciate you, liz kreutz, stay cool out there. that's going to do it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." follow the show on social media @mitchellreports. you can follow me on social media @peteralexander. for the next few weeks i'll be on sundays fill-in moderating "meet the press." "chris jansing reports" starts right now. ♪♪ good day i'm chris jansing live at msnbc headquarters in new york city. it may be donald trump's best and most effective attack line, arguing the biden administration is out to get him and his followers, but will it still work? that familiar refrain hitting a sour note in the wake of hunter

biden's conviction. can republicans, voters, and trump himself explain away how a justice system they say has been weaponized by biden convicted the president the's own sun. it took an effort of herculean proportions clearing 50,000 tons of steel from 500 feet of water in less than three months after the key bridge collapse in baltimore. how soon can they start the next massive undertaking rebuilding the bridge itself? transportation secretary pete buttigieg joins me to discuss it in just a few minutes. and how old is too old to be in office? north dakota voters taking a shot at actually putting a number on it, 81. keep in mind, if they had their way at least a dozen and a half congressional lawmakers would be gone. could this new political push have legs? but we start with the hunter biden verdict causing some confusion in the republican ranks and sucking the air out of donald trump's claims that he's

been singled out, targeted by a weaponized justice system. as "the new york times" says, quote, many trump allies had been secretly rooting for an acquittal. the talking points wrote themselves. it would have been more evidence that the united states justice system was rigged in favor of the bidens and against the trumps. tuesday's guilty verdict was inconvenient to that narrative. it's also left trump's campaign and his allies scrambling to explain why hunter's verdict doesn't undercut their claims of a two-tiered justice system. >> today is the first step in delivering accountability for the biden crime family. >> two-tiered system of justice for some time. here is the president's son being convicted, does that undercut your claims? >> it doesn't. every case is different, and clearly the evidence was overwhelming here. >> there are two tiers of justice, and again, they wanted to let him off of everything. >> i want to bring in nbc's mike memoli who followed the biden trial in delaware, matt gorman

is a republican strategist, former communications director for the national republican congressional committee, and former senior communications adviser for the tim scott campaign. paul butler is a former federal prosecutor, georgetown law professor, and an msnbc legal analyst. so matt, is this simply an inconvenience when it comes to trump and republican messaging, or is there something more serious, a bigger problem than that at play? >> i don't think really much of it at all because i don't think any votes were going to be changed, just like i argued when it came to the trump verdict that any would be happening under hunter biden. moved on the economy, on maybe abortion or immigration, left and right, at the end of the day, the hunter biden verdict versus the trump verdict is not going to move any substantial voters, so maybe there might be, you know, some talking points might need to be updated, but it's not going to move or change any narratives. >> matt, republicans may actually have two problems here,

right? there's a sympathy factor. a lot of americans have had a connection to people with addictions and we've heard expressions that there is concern that this will maybe take some people who were in the middle and make them see joe biden in a more favorable light, and as "the wall street journal" reported this week, a not insignificant portion of the base, the republican base, are gun owners who see this as a second amendment issue. they believe hunter biden was actually unfairly prosecuted, so do republicans go after hunter potentially at their own peril? >> yeah, i mean, look, i don't think this was a case about addiction any more than technically the trump case was about paying off a porn star, right? it's about lying on a federal form, and the other was about falsifying business records. and so look, and also, you know, hunter is a 54-year-old adult. he's responsible for his actions in this case lying on that form -- >> likability and trust do pla

into presidential elections. >> sure, but hunter's not running for president -- >> but no, his dad is and the way his dad handled this, vis-a-vis the way some republicans want to talk about it. >> yeah, i mean, look, after hearing kind of a lot of how, you know, biden team talks about it, hearing some of the pictures or seeing some of the pictures coming out the other day, i wouldn't be surprised if there was a commutation. he's ruled out a pardon. i wouldn't be surprised if he goes back on the pardon promise or does some kind of commutation, based on the sentiment we're hearing from the biden team right now. >> mike, is there anything you're hearing that would suggest that the president would go back on when he has said very clearly both in writing and in public? >> well, in fact, chris, i just have some new reporting in the last few minutes after talking to a white house official because karine jean-pierre was asked this question about a commutation on air force one as the president is traveling to

italy and she maybe create add little confusion. she said she didn't have anything to say about that question. we know how quickly the president responded to that question about a pardon in that abc news interview, but a white house official telling me just moments ago that any discussion of commuting the sentence is premature because, as this official points out, there is not even a sentencing date, let alone a sentence to commute. this official also pointed to the statement that was released in the president's name yesterday after we got that verdict in which he said he would continue to respect the justice system as it moves forward. that's important, i think we also need to be realistic, chris, to matt's point about what might be different after election day, whether or not president biden wins re-election, either he'll be on his way out of office and looking at a potential new trump administration coming in or he'll be free of any potential future electoral consequences and may decide to do this, but i think that official is right that we are talking about a

potential sentence that you been -- could be simply probation and not even jail time. >> i want to hear what some trump voters out in pennsylvania told our nbc reporter about the hunter biden verdict. take a listen. >> god bless that man. he's been through an awful lot. i wish him -- i wish him well, i wish him well. >> i think there's this country personally has bigger issues, but i'm glad that there is -- nobody's above the law. i'm glad that the juries have been doing their job. >> at the same time, the nrcc is trying to fund-raise off this verdict selling biden & son shirts in quote, jumpsuit orange. there you see the picture. it seems particularly odd maybe because that group is built to help republicans in tough districts, including moderate districts. is there a disconnect between what republican lawmakers want to focus on and what republican voters want to focus on? >> well, chris, we often do see this disconnect, this gap between what is used to

potentially raise money and activate the base versus what is that money used to spend on when it comes to campaign advertising on the air waves, and so i think in this case, we certainly see that this is a motivating factor for those base voters, but maybe when we look at what the republicans are putting on the tv air waves this fall is different. i do think it was significant, though, chris, yesterday when not just the biden campaign was hands off as it relates to this hunter biden trial, so was the trump campaign. the topic of addiction was so part of the discussion throughout this trial and the biden campaign maintains it back fired when president trump four years ago went after hunter biden in this way, and so i think you saw so quickly, though, after this verdict that republicans were eager to push the conversation forward to the next trial that's coming in september as it relates to tax evasion. this trial may get even more difficult as it relates to revealing more about the sources of income, questions about whether hunter biden was actively lobbying or in courting

foreign interests that could be more politically problematic for this campaign as it moves forward, and that's certainly where republicans seemed to want to put the focus yesterday. >> i want to remind people, you worked at the nrcc, given the strategy that seems to be coming out of donald trump's campaign right now, which is different than it was in the previous campaign, keeping hands off on hunter biden at least to the extent of not coming out, not being critical in the way that some folks particularly on the far right were yesterday, would you have argued against those t-shirts? >> no, because i think mike put it pretty well, right? on one hand that -- the purpose of that is to raise money, to energize the base. clearly it will do that. i think as you'll see when ads come out in i think a couple more months, they're not going to be talking about hunter biden, again, economy, immigration, crime and the like. so i think one is to make sure the coffers are filled.

and then they'll be talking about issues the general public and independents will focus on. >> let me go back to the trial. there was an interesting article in "usa today," which talked to several jurors. one called the case heart wrenching. another said she felt this was a waste of taxpayer dollars, but that they followed what the jury instructions were and they voted guilty. but she asked this question, why couldn't they just fine him? what's the answer in your mind? and i guess maybe as an extension of that, you do wonder, should, for example, after the election assuming he wins joe biden decide on a commutation, maybe most of the american public would actually think, you know what? that's okay. >> yeah, so why couldn't they just fine him? they could or they could not have charged him at all. the reason they did charge him is because his name is hunter biden. he's been charged with crimes that few people get prosecuted

for. every year millions of people fill out the same atf form to purchase a firearm, only about 300 people a year get prosecuted for lying on that form. prosecutors only bring a case typically if the gun is used in a crime. hunter just possessed that gun for 11 days. it was never even loaded, and it was in a lock box for ten of these days. and chris, the same thing is true with the tax charges. most of us know people who don't pay their taxes for a while, and yes, it's a crime but usually it's handled by the irs as a civil matter. so hunter is actually being treated worse and for that reason, i think there's a good argument to be made for a pardon or a commutation of the sentence if he's sentenced to a period of incarceration. president biden could, but at least with regard to the pardon, he says he won't, and you could

contrast that approach with donald trump and how he used his pardon power to help people who were close to him like steve bannon, paul manafort and roger stone. i think it's hard to say on these facts that it's democrats who are weaponizing the department of justice. >> donald trump has been mast masterful at delaying his other three criminal trials. is there a way for hunter biden to delay his tax trial that you see or do you think there's any likelihood that there could be a plea deal? >> i think it's extremely unlikely to be delayed. it's already been delayed once because the lawyer for the president's son said that he needed more time to prepare for hunter's tax trial. it couldn't be too close to the gun form trial.

i think there's an extremely strong case for a plea bargain, just like hunter didn't have an obvious defense in the gun form trial, he doesn't have an obvious defense in the tax case, and as mike mentioned, if this case goes to trial, the details that come out are likely to be even more salacious than in the gun form trial. the indictment talks about rather than spending the money on his taxes, hunter used this money for sex workers, for fancy cars, and fancy hotel stays. so again, if this trial happens two months before the election, i think there are going to be political concerns for the president. plus, if he goes to trial and is convicted in the tax case, he could get more time based on his higher conviction for the gun case. so, chris, you could be sure that hunter's defense team is

urging him to consider a plea bargain so this tax case does not go to trial two months before the election. >> paul butler, mike memoli, thank you. matt gorman, you're going to stay with me. in 90 seconds, major news on the economy. brand new inflation numbers are out, and the fed is unveiling its interest rate decision in less than an hour. what it all tells us about the economy and what it might mean for the 2024 election. that's coming up. for the 2024 election. that's coming up ♪ i wanna hold you forever ♪ hey little bear bear. ♪ ♪ ♪ i'm gonna love you forever ♪ ♪ ♪ c'mon, bear. ♪ ♪ ♪ you don't...you don't have to worry... ♪ ♪ be by your side... i'll be there... ♪ ♪ with my arms wrapped around... ♪ you know what's brilliant?

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inflation report that came in cooler than expected. it sets the stage for a big decision from the fed less than an hour from now that could tell us whether relief from sky high interest rates could be coming soon. whether any amount of good economic news can change the equation for president biden remains an open question. voters consistently give him poor marks on inflation and the economy andat according to a ne pollco from battleground, ohio, large majority say they were better off under former president trump. eugene daniels is a "politico" white house correspondent and msnbces political contributor. nbc news senior business correspondent christine romans is with me here on set. this is shaping up, christine, to be an unusual epic day for economic news. what do we know and what are we

expecting. >> signs that inflation is cooling again. that's an important development after rapid progress on the inflation story last year, itde stalled outy at the beginning this ouyear. now you're seeing 3.3%, that's an improvement. and for more than a year now you'ven had wages rising faste than inflation, and so over time that could help people feel a littlele bit better about the overall economy, whatr it mean for the fed,l we will hear lat this afternoon whether the fed is still going to pencil in maybe two rateo cuts this yearf it believes it's doing its job on inflation, then rate cuts would be around the corner. remember, ulchris, this is stila very strong economy. you cut interest rates when an economy is weak. this anis, according to the wor banks, the strongest industrialized economy in the world right now. >> eugene, vice president harris is in charlotte right now and what the administration is calling the economic opportunity tour. so far oni polls suggest that t white house hasn't had a lot of success't convincing skeptical voters that biden andng harris e doing a good job on the economy. is there any messaging, any

piece of economic data you think that can breakthrough? >> at this point it doesn't seem like it, aright? what voters say about the economy when you talk to them, right, you can tell them all the macroeconomics, all of the numbers that we just went through. you can tell them that the world bank said this isn a great economy. when they don't feelths it, th don't care. there's been over years such a distrust in institutions and elites around the world and especially in this country.n people don't believe them. d i was in an uber yesterday, i was talking to my driver, and he asked me who's going to win. i told him i wasn't sure. asked him who he was interested in. he said he hoped i that donald trump came back, and i asked him why. he said because of the h econom. and i asked him, i said do you feel like joe biden is doing anything on the economy? he said he is but note enough d it's not happening fast enough. so what the biden harris campaign and the administration are dealing with is a group of people,gr the entire country

really that's impatient. they're impatient foren change. they're impatient for things to get better, and nowadays instead of sayingwa we'll give the pers eight years to make it get better, they want to see it much faster and that's what they're dealing with. t they have admitted to this. they hadn't done a good job of selling any of their accomplishments for g years, an so you know,co they're attempti to do that now, this economic tour that the vice president is on ise almost directly lookingo black men specifically, so they're a group that they're clearly concerned about. they are both runningrl out of time, and they feel like they have people f who are going to attempt here in a couple of months. >> so i want to dig into some of the numbers in this newhs maris poll of ohio, which shows trump leading biden by 7 percentage points. that is more than the margin of error. inflation and preserving democracy were tied as the most importantie issues, 59% say the and59 their families were bette off while trump was president, including 13% of democrats.

so how much urgency does that telegraphdo for biden? >> a lot. it tells them that he -- like i said, he should be running out of -- he's running out of that time. you know, one thing that they feel like democrats and liberals haveat talked to them about is like finding an enemy, right? because they can't be the bad guys. so they have to be able to tell voters who the bad guy is, and so you look at the kinds of thingsin they're doing on junk fees when it comes to airlines, concerts and those kinds of things. they're trying to tin get voter someone to be angry at, and then they, theat knights in shining armor are fighting those enemies. that'sse something they are tryg to do. that's probably the best they can do. they are workinge on things li housing because they -- and talking about theg things that landlords aren't tdoing, the people who have all the money aren't doing, and polling does show if you give voters an enemy, that is helpful for someone like biden and harris in a campaign.

>> eugene daniels, christine romans, thank you both very v much. and coming up, a critical shipping channel p,reopens aftea catastrophic bring collapse. u.s. transportation secretary pete buttigiegol joins us next talk about when the bridge itself will be back in action. you're watching "chris jansing reports" only on msnbc. ing "chrg reports" only on msnbc power e*trade's award-winning trading app makes trading easier. with its customizable options chain, easy-to-use tools and paper trading to help sharpen your skills, you can stay on top of the market from wherever you are. e*trade from morgan stanley power e*trade's easy to-use tools make complex trading less complicated. custom scans can help you find new trading opportunities, while an earnings tool helps you plan your trades and stay on top of the market. e*trade from morgan stanley upset stomach iberogast indigestion iberogast bloating iberogast thanks to a unique combination of herbs, iberogast helps relieve six digestive symptoms to help you feel better.

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a critical baltimore shipping channel is back to what

officials are calling business as usual, after a nearly $100 million cleanup of the collapsed francis scott key bridge. for 78 days, there's been little to no traffic through one of the busiest ports on the east coast because of the deadly bridge collapse. crews have worked around the clock to clear 50,000 tons of fallen steel and concrete from the patapsco river, the equivalent of 3,800 fully loaded dump trucks. now, the key question for millions of people who use that bridge every year is when will they start construction, and when will it be done? joining us now secretary of transportation, pete buttigieg. it's good to see you, mr. secretary. that's impressive stuff, those statistics about how quickly things got moved and just the volume of it is pretty extraordinary, but you know how constituents are. what have you done for me lately? the big unanswered questions people want to know is when will construction start, when will it be done? >> yeah, so today's big news is

one more step toward back to normal. it represents in less than 100 days getting those thousands, tens of thousands of tons of wreckage out of the harbor and having the port fully back to normal. from day one, president biden made clear that this administration was going to do everything it took to help the people of baltimore get back to normal for our department in the d.o.t., there are really two sides of that, getting the port back open and dealing with the consequences in the meantime that's been addressed and getting the bridge back up and dealing with the consequences of that in the meantime. the francis scott key bridge is not an ordinary bridge, this is the kind of scale that i sometimes call the cathedrals of our infrastructure. it marked the skyline of baltimore for as long as it stood. it took about five years to build. i believe with our help the maryland d.o.t. can meet or beat that time line on the next one, but i should say, you know, they're not just dusting off the

blueprints from the '70s and putting up the same bridge that they lost. they know that we should be designing and building bridges in the 2020s in a different way than what was common practice in the '70s, and so there is work that goes into that, making sure that it's the right design, making sure it's going to last into the 2070s and beyond skpshs and that's the process that's underway. we're supporting technical assistance, funding. we got the first $60 million identified. that's a down payment. they estimate 1.7 to $1.9 billion is what it's going to take, money that will have a return in terms of that supply chain connection and just that connection for commuters across -- across that critical route. >> building a new bridge better, which is what it sounds like you're determined and the folks who are behind this are determined to do is one thing. the second question is what about the ones that are still standing who, as we know there are so many of them throughout this country, that have issues,

structural problems. is everything being looked at with fresh eyes now? >> yeah, there are thousands of bridges around the country that need work, many of them have been closed or they have the load limited, which means they're still up and running, but you can't take a truck, a school bus, or importantly an ambulance across that route. you've got to go on a longer route. this is one of the reasons why president biden pushed so hard and we all worked so hard in the first year of this administration to get that infrastructure buildup. and part of what we're doing is building new bridges, part of what we're doing is shoring up some of the bridges we have against the different threats they face, whether it's the golden gate bridge, which is being shored up to make it more resilience to the next earthquake or questions about how to make sure that bridges are more resilient and resistant to the extremely rare but extremely serious threat of a ship strike. now, we're still looking to see some of the investigation and assessment that will tell us more about this particular circumstance, whether any bridge

could have withstood a direct impact from a ship of this size. we're talking about something like 250 million pounds, a level of force that's comparable to what you see in a rocket launch, but more recent bridge designs do have what are called dolphins or fenders or islands around their key support structures. i expect that's going to be part of the criteria and the conversations for repairing and replacing bridges for the balance of this 21st century, based partly on what we experienced here in baltimore earlier this year. >> back in the days after the catastrophic collapse of the bridge, you and i spoke and a lot of our conversation then focused on supply chain issues and i know that there was a lot of creative thinking, resilience with a lot of companies to make sure that they were mitigated to the extent that they could be, but when you say things are fully back to normal, i assume you're talking about the channel operationally. what about everything else that goes along with it and supply

chain issues, how close are things -- close are things to being back to normal? >> so i would say our supply chains showed a lot of resilience, in terms of the ability of other ports up and down the east coast to absorb some of the traffic that was diverted there because baltimore was unavailable. by the way, that wasn't just a ports issue. that complicated things for our railroads, our trucking networks, and throughout this process we've been sitting town, having conversations with shippers, truckers, with railroads, and of course with the ports to work through that and talk through that. those conversations continue. we do see things returning increasingly to normal here. it's difficult for me to describe, i'm speaking to you from the grounds of the port. if you're here, you see just a number of pieces of heavy equipment, tractors, loaders, some of the specialty of this port is getting those kinds of exports ready and something my -- i can tell you my three --

soon to be 3-year-old son who is obsessed with excavators, he'd just be going nuts out here. it's important to understand just how specialized that is. containers is one thing. there's no place in the country that can handle vehicles and heavy equipment quite like baltimore. it has been a disruption, but most of all, it's been a disruption for the workers hear, and i'm looking forward to spending some time later this afternoon with the long shore workers. they've been through so much. they already went through so much with covid, then they were dealt this blow and having them back to normal, having them back to work and having the financial security that comes with that is really one of the key reasons why we all considered it important to act quickly here. it's why governor moore was very focused on getting them back to normal. it's why i'm really just in awe of the work that was done by the unified command of the coast guard, the army corps of engineers and the 56 different federal, state, and local agencies that played a role in getting us to today where we mark the full reopening of port

operations. >> well, without a doubt a lot of people who worked a lot of overtime to make sure that it's gotten to this point so quickly, and not bad when you have a son who thinks that you've got a cool job either, and maybe one day he'll take it from you, who knows. transportation secretary pete buttigieg, thank you, much appreciated. >> thanks. one state tries to impose age restrictions on candidates. just as polls are showing a majority of americans think both men on the presidential ticket are too old to run. so how old is too old? that's next. old? that's next. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ chewy, a citi client, uses citi's financial expertise to help drive its growth and keep its supply chain moving, so more pet parents can get everything they need... right when they need it. keeping more pets, and families, happy. ♪♪

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how old is too old? in north dakota voters just approved a ballot measure that bars any congressional candidate from running if they would turn 81 before their term ends. it's almost certain to be challenged in court, but it's also almost certain to spark similar moves in other states. recent polling in minnesota shows the majority of voters there think both joe biden and donald trump are too old to be president. there have been similar national polls. and if the north dakota age limits were in place nationally, by our count 20 members of congress would be out of the running. back with me, republican strategist matt gorman and nbc's vaughn hillyard. so matt, are we at a place that

because the two men on the ballot are -- that there is a consideration of how old is too old, is that what polls are telling us the public wants? >> we could be. this might be the first percolation of this. i don't think we're all of a sudden going to see a ton of these, but maybe this is the first one and ten years down the line this becomes more of a thing. you're right, this is something that you hear over and over again, regardless of who they're voting for, they tend to believe that both are too old, and you can talk about who is at more liability, is a different question. the fact that we're trying to appeal to youth voters with both candidates in their high 70s, if not 80s, that's an issue. >> so this is interesting because back in the day when he was running for president, i spent time with a certain senator from vermont who a lot of people who thought was maybe too old by the name of bernie

sanders, and i went to a lot of rallies, and they were constantly populated by very young people. so i don't know, is it these particular people or is it a number, do you think? >> i think bernie was a unique one because he had a very interesting message, did appeal to a lot of young voters. in many ways he's the exception that i think proves a lot of the rule where you're seeing david plouffe who ran president obama's campaign. he was openly questioning, do democrats want to turn out younger votes. are they going to be for us. where you see that's difficult to appeal, unless you are bernie sanders who has the very unique message to reach those younger voters. >> yeah, octogenarians in the senate are not out of the realm, but look, as matt pointed out, vaughn, you talked to a lot of voters. i wonder how often the issue of age comes up. i know that this is new, this story about north dakota, but do you think that there is a

thought that there should be something in place to keep people who are 80, 81 in their 80s from running for office. >> oftentimes when we hear folks tell us they want term limits what they're really substituting that for and what they follow that statement with is there's too many old people in congress. and by my count in the u.s. senate right now, under the north dakota law, there would be seven senators who would not be able to be in the united states senate right now. of course state law, we could expect it to be challenged constitutionally. it could make its way to the u.s. supreme court, adding these kinds of limits on. it's oftentimes the older folks on the trail who tell me that we're questioning whether donald trump and joe biden are up for it. they try to imagine themselves at that age going in and operating like the commander in chief does, and it's usually the older folks who are more reticent or questioning the abilities of somebody like joe biden and donald trump's age to do this here, and it's oftentimes older folks that are looking to the younger

generations to be the inspiring ones. it's sort of an upside down effect which is often what we see and hear from folks in terms of what they're looking for from their generation. >> many locals, a conservative owned media group are pushing that in many circles, heavily questioned "wall street journal" report about biden's age and capability, dozens of local affiliates have used almost this same scripted segment, take a listen. >> "the wall street journal" is out with new reporting calling into question the mental fitness of president joe biden. >> and as national correspondent matt galka tells us the issue could be an election decider. >> so look, i mean, i was in local news for many years. you're very grateful when you get something from, you know, the parent company because that's one less thing that somebody who works for you on incredibly shrinking staffs has to take care of. having said that, i think there are a lot of people who if they watched objectively donald

trump's speech this past weekend, he's talking about sharks and electric batteries and all the tangents, you might wonder why he seems to take fewer hits on his mental acuity than joe biden, but is the right simply out messaging biden supporters, or with what's happening with sinclair, is there something more long-term and troubling if conservative owners are influencing local news? >> look, i don't think it's, you know, as kind of cynical or conspiratorial as something like that. look, chris and vaughn, we remember 2012. i mean, in 2012, the 2012 version of joe biden with the vp debate against paul ryan, it's not the same joe biden. he's lost a couple steps, and that's -- you know, and so i think when you look at that, it does kind of raise questions, and i think when you talk about liability in terms of why people would vote against him, i think age is right up there. as a liability for joe biden, we

have eyes, we have ears. we can see he's not the same person or candidate he was even a couple of years ago. i think it's a little different with trump and biden. i think what you're seeing with biden more consistently is kind of the dodderingness, slipping, the time magazine where he confuses putin and xi. trump will do that, but it's a little rarer. the rambling stuff, those are a hallmark of his speeches. we've been seeing that since -- >> i don't know if it's more rare by any stretch of the imagination. he confuses just the number of times he's confused biden and obama. >> well, again, i mean, we can point to this in the last week we saw biden do this pretty consistently. putin and xi in the time magazine africa, south americans, africa, it's pretty consistent with this. they hang onto the pelosi, nikki haley example. that was a couple of months ago. they're a little bit more rare. and look, if you want to vote against donald trump, there are other reasons. when you talk to folks that want to vote against joe biden, age

tends to come up at the top of the list. >> we're out of time, but you're chucking over there, vaughn, as someone who spent a lot of time listening to these speeches. >> i appreciate you and matt. i'll let you take it to commercial. >> i thank you both very much. coming up, the government's star witness just finished his testimony in the corruption trial of new jersey senator bob menendez. the latest from inside the courtroom coming up. and u.s. officials on high alert as russian warships conduct drills in the atlantic on the way to cuba. we'll speak to someone who is in havana right now in our next hour of "chris jansing reports." t hour of "chris jansing reports." ! of listerine to your routine. new science shows listerine is 5x more effective than floss at reducing plaque above the gumline. for a cleaner, healthier mouth. ahhhhh. listerine. feel the whoa! (♪♪) [shaking] itchy pet? (♪♪) with chewy, save 20% on your first pharmacy order so you can put an end to the itch.

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an emotional search for answers on capitol hill today where right now grief-stricken families are sitting side by side at a hearing investigating the safety and oversight of the v 22 osprey military aircraft after a string of fatal crashes. here's some of what some of the relatives told nbc news earlier today. >> it feels like we're >> it feels like we're honoring our son, and that's big. >> we're here because he can't be. >> john lit up the world for so many people. he loved what he did. he loved being a marine. he loved being a pilot, he loved being a dad, and he would never want his daughters growing up without his presence, and that's exactly why we're here. we're hoping this doesn't happen to any other families, and we're

hoping that we can advocate for a safer platform. i love seeing the v-22 fly and i want to take my daughters to an air show some day and say these are safer because of your daddy. >> courtney kube joins us from the pentagon. congress has said the pentagon has not provided key information from the past that's tied to their investigation of these deadly crashes. what new information is coming out today from this hearing. >> yeah, so this is the house oversight committee that's been looking into there's deadly crashes by the osprey the last six months or so. they have been telling our colleague they have not received the critical safety investigation reports from several of these recent crashes. now, chris, keep in mind these reports generally are classified, rarely if ever released publicly. but the house oversight committee says as part of the investigation, they need some of the information. now, among the issues that they and the military have been looking into, as far as these osprey crashes is something called a hard clutch engagement. we heard a little bit more about that today at this hearing.

in fact, we heard some details about how the military has been dealing with these hard clutch engagements, which have led to catastrophic mishaps and deadly crashes in the past. one of the ways is the military is now replacing the clutches once they reach 800 flying hours. and the head of air systems commands, admiral chebby, he addressed that today, and since they have changed this, since they started replacing the clutches after 800 flying hours, they have not had any more of thee incidents. even with that, he acknowledged today that has not eliminated the risk for these problems with the aircraft. and here's what he had to say about how he was handling these problems going forward. >> i will not certify the v-22 to return to unrestricted flight operations until i am satisfied that we have sufficiently addressed the issues that may affect the safety of the aircraft. based on the data that i have

today, i'm expecting that this will not occur before mid 2025. >> reporter: chris, why this is so critical is the aircraft were grounded after two really recent deadly crashes. and they've now been back in flight, but they have been on sort of a crawl/walk/run path. so they have slowly moved them in a sequenced way back into operations. what we have here today is an acknowledgment that before they go into full flying operations, again, the head of the naval air systems command saying that he wants to make sure that there are further changes that are made, and he wants to make sure that they continue to look into these potential problems before they go into this unrestricted flying area, and that could take more than another year, chris. >> wow, courtney kube, thank you. we have something else new this hour. the prosecution's star witness in the corruption trial of senator bob menendez has just finished his testimony, but not before a combative cross-examination where the

defense tried to discredit the new jersey businessman focusing in today on his drug and alcohol use and his past lies. nbc's tom winter is following this for us. one part i want you to talk about of this businessman and that testimony, that's not the only interesting thing that happened this morning. >> we just got passed a note from our colleague, jonathan dienst, now his testimony is expected to center around whether or not the senator was involved in some sort of an effort to get the u.s. attorney to stop an investigation into fred davies, a contract and businessman and developer in new jersey. he's one of the people who's on trial. he's also pleaded not guilty along with the senator, as far as any sort of a potential bribery scheme. that's an extraordinary thing for a sitting united states attorney or retired united states attorney to be called to

the witness stand as a federal corruption trial. that's something we'll be watching as far as testimony. back to what you alluded to and what's been referred to as the top witness or key witnesses, because he has pleaded guilty or a potential for cooperation and reduction of his sentence, juan uribe, his testimony has wrapped up. he spent approximately four days on the witness stand. certainly on several different fronts by the attorneys for not just menendez but some of the other people who have been tried in this case, specifically focusing on whether or not he used drugs or alcohol, and whether or not he went to the bar before the now infamous meeting that we talked about the other day where he's engaging with senator menendez about some of the investigations or things he would like to be sought at the new jersey state level, and whether or not he had a lot to drink prior to that meeting. he testified, look, i would not show up to a meeting with a sitting u.s. senator drunk. that's what he wanted to tell the jury.

as far as the other allegations against him, he has a criminal past, and he did bring up some of the lies that he has previously engaged in with law enforcement. so whether or not that ultimately impacts the jury in this case. uribe's testimony, as far as his cooperation or guilty plea, the trial may be lasting longer than projected. the judge today said, hey, we told the jury we would be out of here by july 4th. this appears to be going longer, so urging both sides to cut back and see if they can move forward in their questioning. >> i'll bet the jury is thrilled with that little bit of news. tom winter, thank you. just minutes from now, we expect a key interest rate decision from the federal reserve. we'll bring that to you at the top of the hour. r. “the darkness of bipolar depression made me feel like i was losing interest in the things i love. then i found a chance to let in the lyte.” discover caplyta. unlike some medicines that only treat bipolar i, caplyta is proven to deliver significant symptom

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it is good to be back with you on thisd