- [narrator] we're coming together for our yearly service project and running a t-shirt fundraiser through custom ink to help the cause. plus, their design services team helped us get a design we love. come together for a cause. get started today at customink.com. good morning. it's 11:00 a.m. eastern, 8:00 a.m. pacific. i'm yamiche alcindor reporting from washington. happy july 4th. we begin this hour with president biden's scramble to save his re-election campaign. the president and his team have been ramping up efforts to control the damage from last week's debate, which left many democrats wondering about his

ability to serve another term. this week he's scheduled to travel to two battlegrounds, wisconsin and pennsylvania, and tomorrow he'll sit down with an interview with nbc's george stephanopoulos set to air tomorrow night. after that, he'll have calls with key democratic lawmakers, and met last night with democratic governors at the white house. with us now, nbc news white house correspondent allie raffa, amy parnes and brendan buck, a former press secretary for former house speaker john boehner and paul ryan. he's also an msnbc political analyst. so, thank you, all of you, for being here. ali, it is a busy schedule for a holiday week. what is the president hoping to accomplish with those trips that we just laid out and this big primetime interview with abc news? >> yeah, yamiche, the biden team is fully aware of the need now to get the president visible, to

get him in front of as many eyes as possible to try to dispel these growing concerns about his fitness to stay in the race and possibly serve a second term in office. tomorrow, as you said, he'll be holding a rally in battleground wisconsin, a state he narrowly won over former president trump in 2020. he'll be holding that rally and afterwards will sit down for his first lengthy tv interview since that poor debate performance last week. he'll be sitting down with abc news. and so, no doubt there are going to be a lot of eyes on that interview from voters, from the american people, but especially congressional democrats as they weigh whether to publicly back the president or as we see these growing number of congressional democrats publicly say that the president should step aside and make room for someone else to continue this race. we also know that the president this weekend on sunday he'll be going to pennsylvania for what the campaign says is a campaign

event. and all of this is coming as the biden team, the white house, the campaign, tries to reassure voters, donors, the american people, even within the president's own circle, and campaign staff and white house advisers he is fit to serve a second term. and this is not going to be an easy task. this is a lot for the biden team to juggle. they're trying to really create this image of solidarity between the president and the vice president, especially. they're trying to tamp down these concerns as we know the president privately is acknowledging this struggle, acknowledging that the damage done since last week, since last week's debate performance may be too large to overcome, according to multiple sources who have told nbc news. there is go to be a lot of eyes on these public events, but there is also going to be concern and eyes on whether the president can handle these unscripted moments, handle -- without using a teleprompter, a big opportunity for him to show that is going to be next week

during this nato summit here in washington, d.c., where he's expected to hold a press conference, yamiche. >> and you just laid it out, the stakes here are so high, if tomorrow night's interview doesn't go well, is that game over for president biden? is that what you're hearing? allie? >> reporter: the biden campaign is seeing this as a long term problem that they can fix. the president publicly is saying -- he said in one of his interviews with the black radio station this morning that he is going to perform a redo of 2020. they don't see that interview as something that -- the future of the campaign hinges on. so the biden team is fully aware this is going to be a big problem, but with a long-term solution, yamiche. >> yeah. and amy, what do you think about this, if this interview doesn't go well, is it game over? >> i mean what i'm hearing right now is that people are really frustrated that the president wasn't out there this week. he did that rally last week in

north carolina on friday, and then kind of went dark. he had a couple of little, you know, he could have come out, and he did come out to talk about immunity, a lot of my sources have been saying that was a perfect opportunity to get in front of a camera, to say, what is going on here, let me talk more about democracy, let me take your questions on what happened, to try to reverse course and change the narrative. but they missed a lot of opportunities this week and that is what has been frustrating a lot of people, donors, operatives, people that really love this man, they're all concerned about that. so it might be a little bit too little too late at that point. >> yeah. max, you, of course, served in the house. i wonder what conversations you're having with your former colleagues and how this is sort of being talked about among democrats. and among lawmakers in general. >> you're right. you're going to see -- if there is going to be any action, you're going to see that action come out of the house and particularly i think we should

keep our eyes on the front liners, right? those democrats in very competitive seats who have one responsibility and one responsibility only, and that is to hold on to their seat. but here's what i think is the overarching point. i have not spoken to one democrat or heard -- has anyone else spoken to a democrat in a position of power who is happy about this situation? not one. they all want joe biden to be the nominee and they're all extraordinarily proud of the president's record for the past four years, which makes it even more imperative that the president does everything that he can over the coming days to show that he is in a firm position to go forward. >> yeah. well, right now, there is this idea as democrats even privately are telling some of us that they want the president to continue, donald trump has kept a low profile, there is some reporting

that he wants president biden to stay in as well. i wonder what you're thinking about the strategy of president -- former president trump here when it comes to sort of being quieter than usual. >> yeah. credit to him for showing incredible discipline. even during the debate, he could have thrown a few more elbows than he did, and rallied the next day. they are smartly just letting joe biden twist in the wind here, because they're doing really nothing to help themselves, so while your opponent is struggling like this, the last thing donald trump wants to do is bring attention back to himself. so, we'll see how long that lasts, but it is a remarkably good strategy. but you raise a good point. the trump campaign and donald trump actually don't want joe biden to drop out. there has been a theory, i will say, on the right that joe biden was eventually going to drop out, that they were going to replace him and this doesn't surprise a lot of republicans. you watch fox news, they talk about this quite a bit. they think joe biden is the

easiest person to defeat and any effort to remove him is going to be called some kind of election interference. you're seeing some of that spin. they want joe biden to stay there, they know he's incapable of fixing some of the fundamental problems that voters see with him. >> yeah. and as these questions are continuing to swirl, amy, there is one big concern and it is for really the biden campaign donors. we have seen at least one big donor, netflix founder, reed hastings, call for biden to drop out of this race. how hard are -- is the biden campaign, the biden world keeping working to keep donors on board here as all these questions continue to swirl? >> they're trying pretty hard. they had a call this week with donors, 500 or so were on the call. but i talked to a lot of them after the call and they were not happy. they were frustrated. a lot of them had been pouring their heart and souls into this campaign and they can't believe where it is right now. and i'm speaking to a lot of them. i've spoken to some this morning

who say he's not helping himself. he hasn't done anything to help himself up to this point. and they're leaving a lot to chance by just saying, okay, we're doing this stephanopoulos interview on friday, and we're going to do campaign events next week and hold a press conference next week because this is unraveling minute by minute. and the longer this goes, the longer the president is sort of out of the spotlight, the more nervous a lot of these donors are getting. so i think that many more of them might come out in the coming days if the president doesn't quickly change course. >> yeah. and, max, back to you. you said a lot of democrats who want to see the president stay in, but i have to ask you, if the president were to leave, right now, of course, he's not doing that, is there enough time, you think, to coalesce around a new candidate and would that new candidate have to be the vp or would there be scenarios that maybe others could come in and what would that look like? >> i think that's two separate points. one, there is absolutely enough

time to coalesce around another candidate because the democratic party is so much more than one person, considering the fact that what we are up against. let's not forget that donald trump, yet again, showed himself to be an absolutely crazy person with no regard for our constitution and no capacity to actually answer substantive questions about his plans to address the economy, on national security, and to improve people's way of life. if something to happen, i think the natural choice is the vice president. i think it would be a foolhardy mistake to skip over her and it would offend quite a number of people, damage our coalition and not do service to her -- to her record. >> yeah. and, brennan, max here is saying there is time to coalesce people. i wonder, one, what you think of that and also is there really time to maybe win over those

independents with all of this chaos going on, when you think of people like the nikki haley voters? >> yeah, i agree that kamala harris is the obvious choice and it would be silly to try to disrupt and have the chaos of an open primary in the short truncated period of time. look, i think there is some obvious risks to kamala harris. she's going to be seen as more progressive than joe biden is, and they'll have to work to push back against that a little bit. but she could on the plus side energize the democratic coalition in a way that you have seen a lot of -- a lack of enthusiasm from a lot of really core constituencies in the democratic party and whether or not she could, you know, energize black vote, the youth vote, that has been struggling could actually be i think encouraging for them. she is still going to be an underdog, though. either way, this is a bad situation for -- if they have no good options and i understand why biden resisted stepping away in the first place.

>> yeah. certainly a lot of anxieties that i'm hearing and, allie, you're probably hearing that too. there is new reporting that president biden was seeing a doctor after the debate. what more can you tell us about that? >> reporter: yeah, yamiche. there was a lot of confusion over the last couple of days after we know the president privately told donors that he did see a doctor after. we know he had a cold on the debate stage last week and yesterday we heard press secretary karine jean-pierre saying despite the president having a cold, he has not seen a doctor since that debate performance. and we know his doctor travels alongside him for so many of these trips. so it caused a lot of confusion. the white house today is clarifying that, saying that the president hasn't had a physical since his last in february, but he has seen doctors regularly for brief check-ins and they say that several days after the debate, the president did check in with a doctor about that

mentioned cold from the press secretary. >> interesting information, given all the questions that the white house is fielding now. thank you so much to allie, amy, max, and brendan for all of your reporting and analysis. and next, thousands evacuated from a wildfire in northern california where containment efforts stand next. plus, the latest on hurricane beryl and where it is headed after battering parts of the caribbean. we're back in 90 seconds. of the caribbean. we're back in 90 seconds wait for insurance to approve a test or approve a medication. we didn't have to worry about any of those things

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more than 130 million people are under heat alerts as americans celebrate july 4th. and the blistering temperatures are also fueling wildfires out west. northern california, firefighters are working to contain the thomson wildfire. and nearly 30,000 people have been ordered to evacuate their homes nearby. nbc's steve patterson is in california with the latest. steve, thank you for being here. thousands have been already evacuated here, what are officials saying about the conditions? >> reporter: it is good news, bad news at a fire like this. the good news is that finally the winds have died down, allowing firefighters to get enough of a foot hold to put containment down on this fire. yesterday, they made significant progress, the wind is sort of just stagnant right now. they have 7% containment on a 3500 acre fire.

the bad news is what we're all feeling right now. it is 8:00 in the morning, it is almost about 95 degrees, it was 108 degrees yesterday for, like, eight hours. fire officials that we're speaking to say it will be hotter for longer today. the heat is awful when you're trying to put out a fire. it sits right on that dry brush where the flames are spreading. it saps all the moisture out of that brush and just makes a runway of fuel for a fire like this. it is very bad. and, imagine trying to do that when you have pounds of gear on, residents dealing with it as well, of course. 28,000 evacuated from their homes, fire officials aren't sure when they're going to release those mandatory evacuations. we're still in a state of emergency in this area. this is far from the only fire. there were about nine fires that started yesterday, just yesterday alone, about 17 major fires burning out west, firefighters, thousands of them, all across the west, spread out

trying to battle back. here, another piece of good news is lake orville, the fire burning on both sides of the lake, it is an excellent resource for gathering water and being able to make drops on the flames. this is still a battle on the front lines. about four structures torched, damaged, one of them behind me, some of them homes, four firefighters injured battling the fire as well. this is a dangerous situation. and it will continue to be so as long as this heat persists. yamiche? >> just heart breaking to see those images of those fires. thank you so much, steve patterson, for braving the heat for us. and while scorching heat poses major concerns for millions of americans, we're keeping a close eye on hurricane beryl as the deadly category 3 storm wreaks havoc across the caribbean. it spent more than 86 consecutive hours maintaining category 4 or category 5 status. and at least ten people have been killed by this storm, which

is now outside grand cayman, which with mexico in its sights. nbc's kathy park is monitoring the storm for us. what are officials saying about where this storm is heading, especially when we're looking at mexico and texas? >> reporter: good morning, yamiche. well, right now, hurricane beryl is showing no signs of slowing down. it has been weakened to a category 3, wind speeds are still clocking in at close to 120 miles per hour. right now it is still on track to just brush the cayman islands. the center of the storm will be about 60 miles south of grand cayman. that island is expected to feel some catastrophic winds, torrential rainfall. meanwhile, it doesn't end there. it will likely make landfall as it pushes ahead on the yucatan peninsula early tomorrow morning. it will slightly weaken at that point. but then it will churn up again. it will re-energize on the gulf

of mexico and models show hurricane beryl restrengthening to possibly a category 1 hurricane. and then making landfall closer to northern mexico or southern texas by this weekend. but, still, too early to tell at this point. but, yamiche, yesterday we were tracking very closely the conditions in jamaica. that island nation getting the brunt of hurricane beryl yesterday. we were seeing lots of dangerous conditions on the ground, as you can see, there are some images from yesterday, some torrential downpours, high winds, and this morning residents are getting a closer look at the damage, a lot of flooded roads in that area, and unfortunately two deaths are connected to the hurricane. but even before then, this was a storm that wreaked a lot of havoc in other caribbean islands, especially in the southeastern portion of the caribbean islands, places like st. vincent, grenada getting the brunt of the storm as well as

hurricane beryl made landfall earlier this week. one official in the community saying that neighborhoods were completely flattened. so a long road to recovery for those residents there. yamiche? >> kathy, a long road to recovery. a long road for this hurricane season, it is only july. which is just mind boggling. so, thank you so much, kathy. and coming up, new nbc news reporting about a potential glimpse into the future, the concerns former doj officials have about what trump could do if he's re-elected. plus, an nbc news exclusive about the criminal investigation into sean "diddy" combs. more after that, after a short break. ean "diddy" combs. more after that, after a short break.

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there are growing concerns about the department of justice's independence. and whether the supreme court's ruling on presidential immunity could change a president's powers. two former doj officials tell nbc news that the ruling would embolden trump giving him the opportunity to, quote, improperly pressure the justice department for his own political benefit. and to prosecute an enemy or go easy on an ally by saying he was executing his official duties as president. joining us now, former u.s. attorney and former deputy assistant attorney general harry lipman. thank you for being here. this ex-doj official who asked not to be named to nbc news, it

sets him up, trump, of course, to do the things he said, to investigate people, and send them to jail. so, harry, how concerned are you about this? we think about the fact that we're having this conversation on july 4th. >> it is july 4th, but for immunity, every day now is halloween, yamiche. these seem like outlandish scenarios, but what has been stopping trump so far, there were norms, strongly in place, he ran roughshod over them and the ultimate barriers would be criminal conduct and the supreme court just said don't worry about those at all. and as you said in your setup, it is what he said he will do. so, i think there is a lot of cause for concern. now, he can't do it alone. he needs the help of an attorney general. but certainly his last term showed that there is no absence of henchmen happy to trade a very prestigious post for doing what he says and just trying to keep the tracks from being set.

so it is a bona fide concern. there are so many bona fide concerns now that we -- that couldn't be, not in america. i think that day has passed now. >> yeah. and there are a lot of people, as you said, really learning how america functions. one of that is the powers and the oversight authority of doj, of the doj. which one of those has really presidents usually steered clear of and what levers do you think trump could potentially pull if he returns to office? his number one goal, he said, might be to prosecute his enemies. that does mean doj. presidents since watergate have steered very far clear and they haven't needed criminal penalties to do it. it just has been such a very sharp line in the sand as far as norms go. no one's come within miles of it. trump went past it and erased those completely.

now there is nothing on the other side, not even criminal violations. i don't see what would stop him except the good faith of people in the doj to say, well, if you do that, i'll resign, but there will be somebody else in the waiting when one doj person resigns to do his dirty business, it seems to me. >> yeah, and i'm thinking about as i listen to you, the fact that the liberals on the court say this really creates the president as a king. i wonder when you think about who can put a check on the president, whether it is former president trump or someone else down the line, who can put a check on the president if they say i'm working on a official capacity here? >> i think it is just us. it could be if he also had -- if the democrats take the senate, there is some soft checks, but he'll run roughshod over all of those. i think the lesson after monday is it is basically down to the electorate to foil at least what might be his extreme plans.

now, going forward, the supreme court has changed the balance of the branches and that's not going to stop. there may be a next trump in the waiting, but there hasn't been a previous trump in 200 years. so i think we just have to hope he's defeated and then we return to some kind of normal government where people do this brazenly, just because they think they can get away with it. >> yeah. and before we let you go, i want to turn to missouri, the attorney general in that state says he'll sue the state of new york over the hush money case of donald trump. the one where he was convicted and now faces sentencing. could this further delay sentencing in this case? >> so, i don't see this one. there is a -- we're already delayed somewhat. and it does show what happens in the wake of these cases. everybody into the pool. but they -- we had a couple cases recently have gone off on standing, that is you need to show your own injury, what he says is that the brag injured by

trying to take a candidate out, a right to have the candidate of their choice on the ballot, i don't think that's going to cut it in terms of an injury for the supreme court. nevertheless, there is go to be legal arguments rising out of the immunity opinion that trump will use to say some part of my case just can't stand and it needs to be retried. i don't see those as succeeding, but there are a few points that are definitely debatable. >> yeah. well, there is certainly a lot of questions after that immunity ruling by the supreme court. thank you so much, harry litman, for joining us. >> thank you. and while donald trump's legal drama plays out, the little drama for the democratic side is front and center in the 2024 race. the question over whether to replace joe biden after his debate performance or go all in is dividing the democratic party. but this is hardly the first time democrats have been divided weeks before a presidential

convention. in fact, as nbc news chuck todd reports, it is far more common than americans realize. >> reporter: for most of american history, the primary process didn't play a big role in how we picked presidents. the convention picked the candidate. >> the delegates chose john w. davis of west virginia. >> for the first 150 years of political conventions, that's all there was, was conflict, it could go to 100 -- >> reporter: healthy conflict. >> healthy conflict, sometimes not. >> reporter: in 1952, republicans nominated dwight eisenhower for president. two weeks late, democrats met in chicago without a clear nominee. earlier in the year, president harry truman tried to lobby then illinois governor adly stevenson to accept the nomination. >> truman asks him to be his successor. he wasn't sure he would run again and he said, why don't you run for the democratic nomination? and stevenson said, no, i would

rather run for re-election as governor of illinois. >> reporter: in late july, the democrats met in chicago and stevenson gave them a welcome speech that changed everything, whether he wanted it to or not. >> adlai stevenson spoke and gave a great speech. what this did was it created a groundswell for stevenson to be nominated, in a year he did not want to run, he thought he would lose, turned out to be right. >> he gave a glorious speech. at which time the democratic party said let's nominate him and that was the end of the game. >> we will never apologize for our leadership of the great events of this critical century all the way from woodrow wilson to harry truman. >> this announcement came from senator kennedy, not very long ago. >> reporter: the most famous example took place in 1960, when jfk shocked everyone and picked his primary rival lyndon baines

johnson as his running mate. >> that's a great story. >> i reached the conclusion to nominate senator lyndon b. johnson of texas for the office of vice president. >> there was no primary system to guarantee anybody the nomination. it was up for grabs. one time where the delegates in that room decided it. jack could be cold, calculating and think in terms of what works for him. and so the morning of -- after he had won the nomination for president, jack kennedy gets on the phone, calls up lyndon johnson and says i'll be there at 10:30, let's talk. he walked into the room, at the same hotel in los angeles, and he offered him the vice presidency, offered it to him. >> the motion is that the rules be suspended and that the honorable lyndon b. johnson be declared the nominee for vice president by acclimation.

as many as favor the notion vote aye. >> aye! >> and kennedy promised the nomination for vice president to stu simonton the night before, he promised him. so he got up and said, you know what, i'm looking at the electoral map, you know, like steve kornacki, here we go, we got to look at the map, and the map says you don't carry the south, you're losing. >> reporter: that was the real purpose of the conventions in those days. the party might show up with different factions, but they would leave, unified behind their ticket. >> such a fun look at that by our chuck todd with that reporting. tonight an in depth look at some of the brokered conventions. chuck digs through highlights of 80 years of republican and democratic conventions to bring us a half hour special at 10:30 eastern on nbc news now. and coming up, two years since the july 4th mass shooting at a parade, the city of highland park, illinois, is honoring the victims. we'll take you there after the

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in suburban chicago, the city of highland park is bringing its july 4th parade back two years after it was marred by tragedy. on this day in 2022, a lone gunman opened fire on the crowd at that parade, killing seven people and wounding more than 40 others. today, officials in highland park say they're reclaiming their right to celebrate the

fourth without fear, beginning with the remembrance ceremony for those lost. nbc's maggie vespa covered the shooting there two years ago and joins us from highland park. maggie, tell us more about what's happening there today and whether people really feel safe now. >> reporter: yeah, yamiche, that's a good question. clearly some people do, right? we're seeing people lining up for this parade like they would for any other parade. we have people saving their place with chairs, and if we walk a little bit, you see a sign you'll see there, this is a slogan that we're seeing around town, look at this, highland park strong. the city says the theme for today is actually sweet home highland park and for reference, the parade route is going to come down this street and come left at this intersection and for perspective, the shooting happens down that same street to the right. so they're going to avoid that block. they also have held a remembrance ceremony already today for the seven people that lost their lives in that mass shooting at the parade two years ago. we videoed the prep ahead of that. that was a closed ceremony, a lot of security there, metal

detectors, canines, people had to register online ahead of time. the mayor of highland park spoke there about why they wanted to kind of resurrect this tradition two years after the massacre. take a listen. >> i also feel like we have an obligation to this community's children in particular in the aftermath of july 4th, 2022. one of the third graders who came through city hall asked me, do we ever get to celebrate the fourth of july again? and i said, absolutely. so today is that first step. >> reporter: so this is her trying to make good on that promise. it is worth noting we heard yesterday from the mom of then 8-year-old cooper roberts, the little boy who was famously paralyzed, shot and paralyzed at the parade here two years ago. she said via a zoom press conference her family would not be attending here today. she said i don't think we can ever go to a parade again. so, definitely some mixed emotions here. this is painful for a lot of people, but others feeling like

they really want to press forward with the celebration here. >> yeah. people trying to move on, while also being still really dealing with that trauma and seeing that little boy's pictures, it is a reminder of how much this really was marred by that community. thank you so much, maggie. and turning now to an nbc news exclusive. new reporting that sean "diddy" combs is the subject of an ongoing criminal investigation, according to two sources familiar with that investigation. the same sources say there is already a federal grand jury in new york hearing evidence. as of now there is no indication that charges are about to be filed. chloe melas is here and she broke that story. so, chloe, tell me about sort of what you're hearing from your sources and what we know more about this grand jury that is meeting. >> good to see you. happy fourth.

two sources telling nbc news that sean "diddy" combs' legal team was alerted last week, they were notified by the southern district of new york, it is the district court that oversees manhattan, that is he the subject of a federal investigation. i want to be clear there are three things that you can be in a federal investigation. a witness, a subject, or a target. now, a subject of an investigation is someone who is within the scope of the criminal investigation. now, a target is when prosecutors likely intend to seek an indictment from a grand jury. now, that is subject to be upgraded, downgraded at any moment. you know, you may have heard of something called a target letter. we know from the sources that combs has not received a target letter, but the southern district of new york doesn't always send one. we do know that evidence is being presented in an ongoing manner to a new york sitting grand jury. it does not appear tha w broke

ninth civil suit being filed against him, an adult film star accusing him of sex trafficking for a number of years and he's denied this vehemently. but he's denied things before. cnn obtained that damning video of combs brutally beating his then girlfriend cassie ventura in a hotel in 2016 at a time when she filed a federal civil suit, his legal team said he would never, ever be a perpetrator of physical violence. and then that video comes out and he did take to social media to apologize, calling it really a one off moment.

but, again, this is all developing and i think we'll know more as the summer and the months progress. >> yeah. chloe melas, you did incredible work getting and breaking this story. and also, of course, reminding us of that horrible video we all watched of cassie being hurt by him. so, thank you so much for joining us. and next on this july 4th, historians and legal experts ringing the alarm after the supreme court's immunity ruling, where they warn our democracy could be heading. r democracy could be heading it wasn't easy. (lady) 35. (store customer) you're gonna be here forever. (man) i know. (employee) here is your wireless contract. (man) do i need a lawyer for this? those were hard days. representative. switch! now that i got a huge storage and battery upgrade... i'm officially done switching. (vo) new and existing customers get iphone 15 on us when they trade in any iphone, any condition. guaranteed. (man) i really wished you told me sooner. (roommate) i did.

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on a week when americans are celebrating the country's birthday, the supreme court ruling on presidential immunity is raising new questions about whether our democracy is on shaky ground. 248 years later. headlines and op-eds have doomsday scenarios at the court granted immune for official acts for presidents in office. joining us now is historian garrett graff, who won a pulitzer prize -- big a decision as being a pulitzer prize winner. happy to have you on here. there's a lot of concern when decisions of this magnitude come

about, especially when you think about the future of our democracy. the brennan center for justice says the high court's decision cannot possibly be the rule for any functioning democracy. do you agree with that? do you think this is the system breaking here? >> i think it is. i think this is a real sign that the guardrails of democracy that our founding fathers set up are not holding in this moment and that what we are -- this was a question that was widely settled and agreed upon right up until donald trump. the entire test of watergate was whether anyone in our system was above the law. the courts, congress and the constitution all in watergate agreed that the president was not above the law. here we have a new supreme court arguing something different. >> yeah. they are arguing something different.

after the decision you wrote, let me tell you when nixon said if the president does it, it's not illegal, no one believed that was true, no one believed it then. what's changed? i wonder if no one believed it i wonder what's changed, especially as you look at what we have see the allegations be. the overturning of the 2020 election one of the allegations here. >> one of the things that's important to recognize in this moment is that as much as we talk about donald trump and donald trump's threat to american democracy, donald tr mt the disease. this court decision on presidential immunity is a big indication that there is a substantial part of the republican party, a substantial part of the conservative movement that is pro autocracy, that is turning its back on democracy. ironically, we are seeing, of course, in this week of the 4th of july, which, of course, marks the declaration of independence,

a document that laid out a series of grievances by the american colonists against king george, under which this ruling would be official acts that the president of the united states would be able to do legally. >> there's a lot of questions here, not only about this ruling but also the court overall, the confidence in the court seen as record lows. should americans be confident in the judicial system at this moment? do you think there are paths to reform if there aren't the confidence that the supreme court has had in the past? >> there are obviously paths to reform. whether the country has the stamina or the will to push forward some of those reforms i think remains an open question. i don't think that american democracy has hit bottom yet.

that's part of what troubles me as a historian here. we are still in the midst of this crisis, and i don't think we can see where or how this ends yet. you have the president of the heritage foundation saying we are in a second american revolution, and it will be bloodless if the left lets it. that's a real threat of real political violence. >> definitely something to think about as we think about sort of where we are. you wrote "watergate, a new history." one we might want to read in these times. thank you so much. >> always a pleasure. next, the annual nathan's hot dog eating contest is ready to go. it's missing its a competitor. who will win? a live report you are sure to relish after the break.

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but i'm thinking of her the whole time. that's so much worse. why is that thing in bed with you? this is where it gets the best signal from the cell tower! i've tried everywhere else in the house! there's always a new excuse. well if we got xfinity you wouldn't have to mess around with the connection. therapy's tough, huh? -mmm. it's like a lot about me. [laughs] a home router should never be a home wrecker. oo this is a good book title. welcome back. it has become a july 4th tradition. just like barbecues and fire works, we are talking about the nathan's hot dog eating contest which gets underway in a few minutes. things are different this year. 16-time winner joey chestnut will not be competing. it's a lot. we have more. the big question is if joey chestnut is not there, where does this leave the competition this is who will win?

>> reporter: we saw a record broken. 51 hot dogs were consumed. that's a lot of hot dogs. that's the number to beat. joey chestnut not here. the favorite, 76 hot dogs his record to beat. if there is no man that can eat 50 hot dogs today, the women's champion may break the record and hold the title for the first time in this hot dog eating contest. that's something to think about. we will be closely watching that competition starting in a few minutes. you couldn't ask for better weather out here today. it's not too hot. you have a nice brief. what i can see out here, lots of people under their umbrella enjoying this good weather. very excited for the return of the fireworks on the hudson river. we caught up with some people about the celebration.

listen to what they said. >> there's probably no better place to enjoy and see american culture from a german perspective. what do you think? >> same. i like it. i want to see people eating hot dogs. >> that's what we are here for. >> are you bummed joey chestnut is not here? >> it's a pleasure to see anyone. it's amazing. i wouldn't be able to do it. i would have two, that's about it. >> reporter: two is my maximum. i don't know how anyone can consume 51. i will leave it to the pros. i had a hot dog this morning and that was too much. very excited to be here. a lot of folks eager to ring in the independence day celebrations. happy independence day. >> two hot dogs, it's low. i will take it. thank you so much for that report. i'm yamiche alcindor. enjoy your july 4th.