right now on ana cabrera reports, a solo unscripted and high stakes moment for the president. set to hold his first news conference since his disastrous debate. as lawmakers in his own party call for him to step aside from

the 2024 race. this hour, the growing list, which for the first time now includes a democratic senator, who says this is about the good of our country. plus, key biden aides heading to capitol hill this afternoon, can they stem the tide and convince skeptical democrats to fall back in line? and later, the countdown to milwaukee. republicans now four days away from their convention. so where is donald trump's pick for vp? good morning. it is 10:00 eastern. i'm ana cabrera reporting from los angeles today. in just hours, president biden will take questions at what could be the most closely watched press conference of his 50-year political career. it will be his first solo presser in roughly eight months. and the first since that debate against donald trump, that sent democrats into a tailspin. a dozen congressional democrats

have now called on biden to exit the race. a list that now includes a senator. and today, key biden aides will meet with senate democrats, despite all of this, president biden isn't budging, now lashing out at party elites, pundits, and pollsters. gabe gutierrez is at the white house. nbc's ali vitali is on capitol hill. and also with us, senior political correspondent for the hill, amy parnes, and peter baker. what is the feeling in the white house as the doubts in d.c. keep spiraling and the expectations for today's press conference? >> reporter: good morning. well, the white house and the campaign insist that president biden is staying in the race, and they view today's press conference as an unscripted event that will prove to his doubters, those on capitol hill, to donors, for example, that he is ready to do the job. now, as you mentioned, this is his first solo press conference of the year, and we understand it's now been pushed back an

hour because of nato's schedule. it's scheduled for 6:30 eastern time. this is something that washington, really many of president biden's critics, will be watching to see how he answers reporters' questions. we don't have an exact time for how long this press conference may last. the president has held other news conferences but those are often with foreign leaders and only offer two domestic reporters and two international reporters. this press conference is expected to go longer and he is expected to address head on these doubts about the future of his candidacy. >> and peter, the white house has told us they don't see today's news conference as a singularly high-stakes moment. are they misreading this situation? >> reporter: well, they say that unless he does well, in which

case they'll say it really was. the problem is really hard for the president even in a single news conference to settle the questions and concerns that are out there, because even if he does well, it doesn't mean he will continue to do well, as we have seen with him. he has moments where he can perform very strongly, gave a strong state of the union address a few months ago. people hung on, and then the debate showed he has moments that are not so good. they're trying to downplay expectations but this is the biggest test since the debate. there's no teleprompter. it's not a single one-on-one interview. the reporters will ask tough questions and they'll go on for a while, and late in the day where he's been said to be a little more fatigued and after a number of meetings with nato leaders today. >> we're looking at live pictures right now from the white house where we expect to see the president leave any minute to the nato summit at the mellon auditorium in d.c. we also have reported the

president's team will join a senate caucus lunch on the heels of more public defections in the past 24 hours, including the first democratic senator. what's the outlook? are senate democrats ready to have tough conversations with these aides? >> reporter: you're talking about that first democratic senator, and the reason i keep turning around is not because i'm not engaged in our conversation, but because that senator is walking down the hall behind us. i'm going to try to see if he'll come over and talk to us about the decision he made in an op-ed making him the first democratic senator to break ranks with the rest of the party and call for president biden to step down as the nominee. that's not to say other senators haven't been critical. senator michael bennet of colorado said yeah, i voiced concerns about the president's electability and he put his name to it. senator welch of vermont going a step further here, but as we're in the hallway talking with these senators, the meeting they're leading up to around

lunch time is with a trio of biden campaign aides who will try to push a path forward. a strategy for where things are. senator durbin, what do you need to hear from the biden campaign? senator welch, can you explain your decision here? >> excuse me. >> the senator saying he wrote about this. he wrote about coming to his decision. sorry for the hustle in there. it's a crowded space. but the senator saying he came to his sdig on asking the president to step down from the role as the party's standard bearer in an op-ed last night. he said he didn't want to expand on it, he already wrote about it. you saw dick durbin saying welch was the person to talk to. we also have blumenthal, who left the door open, saying he wants to give biden the space to

make a decision here. the reality is, biden has already made a decision. ana. >> i like your timing there. thanks for timing it out so we could have that moment. and keep on working it for us. we'll come back to you as you get more response from those senators and of course on the other side of the hill there, in congress, you have the democratic leader, hakeem jeffries, also saying he will be relaying concerns his members have about president biden's re-election bid, directly to the president. any idea when that will happen? >> reporter: yeah, this is something we reported yesterday. and my conversations with democratic members who have been huddled with their leader, hakeem jeffries, publicly, jefferies has been on message, supportive of the president and his re-election efforts. he was one of the first democratic leaders to get a call from the president in the aftermath of the debate performance about two weeks ago

now. our understanding, according to our sources, is that jefferies has heard plenty of concerns from within his democratic caucus ranks in the house. and that he says to those members that he will relay them to the president. now, when i asked jefferies about this yesterday, all he said is we're having family conversations. one reporter posited to him that biden is the patriarch of the family. certainly he should be involved at some point, but jefferies did not expand on how those concerns would be relaid. nothing is happening on a vacuum. members are on television clearly venting their frustration. you can't imagine the president is not already aware those concerns exist. >> amy, what are your thoughts on jefferies taking these grievances directly to president biden? >> reporter: i mean, i have heard personally that it's pretty bad internally over there. there are a lot of democrats who are upset about the direction. they were a little pleased in the beginning of the week when

the president was a little more vocal, a little more defiant. they're back to where they started after the debate, which is why this moment today is so pivotal for the president, because he has to quickly quiet concerns, which is why you're seeing his aides rush over to capitol hill today to kind of assuage all these worries from democrats in the senate. i think they're going to have to do the same very quickly in the house because it is a battle against time. they are trying to run out the clock. i think that's their strategy in a way, but they're also battling the clock. and the clock is ticking. and they don't have much time. i think that's why you heard the former house speaker nancy pelosi yesterday say what she said, and you're going to hear other leaders come out very quickly, i think, and say we're waiting on the president to make his decision. but he needs to make it now. >> gabe, actor, key biden bacter, democratic fund-raiser george clooney wrote that

stunning op-ed calling on biden to exit the race. you're getting some reaction from the biden camp? >> reporter: it wasn't just any hollywood actor. george clooney raised a lot of eyebrows because he's been a longtime democratic activist and donor and hosted a fund-raiser for president biden just several weeks ago. him coming out with that op-ed, i love joe biden, but we need a new nominee, it is now getting pushback from the biden campaign. a source familiar with the planning for the fund-raiser said part of the reason president biden returned to southern california so quickly after the g-7 summit in italy is because that was the day that work for george clooney, so this source added the fact that george clooney is now going after the president for what the source characterized as being tired during the fund-raiser is, quote, a little rich. the source also said that president biden stayed at that fund-raiser for quite a while,

for three hours, whereas george clooney just took a photo and left. certainly, a lot of pushback here. biden campaign seeming to want to quash this narrative and really pushing back strongly. a spokesperson for george clooney declined to comment on the record. >> amy, team biden getting into this tiff with clooney. this debate has gone beyond sidetracking his campaign message. when does this get settled? who do democrats accept president biden is staying or this hits a tipping point? >> i think that's why today is so important. they're going to be looking for the president to solidify or appease people at the moment and he's going to have to do more, which is why i think you're seeing the interview he's doing with lester holt on monday, but he's going to have to get out there more. more campaigning, more interviews, more off the cuff, and of course, i don't think this ever gets easier for him, even if he stays in, he's going

to be scrutinized, heavily scrutinized going forward because people are going to be looking for a gaffe or a blank stare, for anything to kind of hold against him. in some ways i think some democrats have acknowledged they kind of want that because they think that will get him to drop out quicker. you're hearing that, too. that's a rather interesting thread, too. >> peter, we have certainly seen a sense of urgency coming from president biden and his campaign. you report that his strategy has somewhat pivot. quote, biden has switched from defense to offense. taking a page outs of his predecessor's playbook to try to quash an internal uprising over his age and capacity rather than just show he's up to the job, mr. biden has opted to push back against those who say he is not. peter, it hasn't seemed to shut down any of the active debate behind closed doors on the hill or among voters. >> no, i think he had about 24 or 48 hours where it looked like

perhaps he could hold the dam. and use that aggressive strategy to keep democrats on board no matter how concerned they were. but i think you're right. last 24 hours, the comments by nancy pelosi yesterday seeming to indicate she did not accept that his decision was to stay in the race yet. the comments by george clooney in the op-ed, the comments by senator welch in his piece, all of this indicates this is not over. a lot of democrats have not wanted to embarrass the president on the world stage as he hosts the 75th anniversary of the nato alliance here in washington, but after the leaders leave town today, tomorrow and the weekend, you know, feel like it's kind of a jump ball and we'll see how things going. it's been hard for the biden team to keep democrats on board, simply because the anxiety they're feeling right now, you know, has been pent up for a long time. but kept under wraps because, of course, they want to beat donald trump. that's still the most important thing to most democrats. biden needs to convince them he's the guy still who can beat

donald trump. and that's going to be a tall order. >> and i just want to read a quote from the senator welch's statement that he put out his op-ed asking president biden to withdraw. he said it's not the elite in vermont talking to me. it's the working class mother with two kids and hoping to get the child care tax back. it's kids working in amare acore who are terrified all of the achievements of the biden administration on the environment are going to be erased if we get a trump presidency. it's a catastrophe. thank you all for giving us your reporting and your insights. and a big programming note, on monday as amy mentioned, nbc's lester holt sits down with president biden in an exclusive one-on-one interview. you can watch a preview or clip of that on nbc nightly news and see the full interview that will air in a special primetime special at 9:00 p.m. eastern on

nbc and nbc news now. more on the high stakes of president biden's press conference today and his political future, and for the nato alliance. plus, as world leaders calculate the impact of a potential trump return, new details about the trump campaign and if they're ready to potentially take on a different opponent. also, the jury in alec baldwin's trial seeing the chilling aftermath of the "rust" set shooting. the case being laid out in court. and feeling a finance pinch? the new inflation numbers just out. we're back in 90 seconds. y here. what. (man) ahhhhh! (woman) no, no, no, no, no! (vo) you break it. we take it. trade in any phone, in any condition and get a new iphone 15 with tons of storage, on us. only on verizon. for kids, summer break is the best. but for parents? well... that's why care.com makes it easy to find childcare that fits

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with fresh food pre-portioned for your dog's needs. it's an idea whose time has come. right now, world leaders are gathering as president biden prepares for a working session this morning. with those world leaders on the final day of nato's 75th anniversary summit in d.c. you can see some of those leaders greeting each other this morning. there's emmanuel macron from france there. all 32 nato members affirmed yesterday that ukraine is onats irreversible path to nato membership. later today, president biden will have a bilateral meeting with ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy. ahead of his high-stakes unscripted solo press conference. i'm going to bring in nbc news white house correspondent allie raffa now. bring us the latest from the summit, this new commitment to ukraine, and what we can expect from president biden's meeting with president zelenskyy later

today. >> reporter: yeah, of course, the headlines this week have been dominated with the growing fallout over president biden's poor debate performance, now two weeks ago today. there has been major progress, major announcements made during this nato summit this week. of course, we knew going into this week that major focus would be on ukraine, as president zelenskyy continues to plead for nato membership for his country. there was one point a progress on that made this week when nato announced they would appoint a representative in kyiv to serve as really a strengthener as an alliance. and there's more progress to be made as president biden holds this meeting with zelenskyy later today. we got a bit of a preview of what the president is expected to tell president zelenskyy from jake sullivan earlier today who said the president will

reiterate the u.s. support for ukraine continues to be demonstrated with these concrete actions by the biden administration. take a listen to his comments this morning. >> what president biden will tell president zelenskyy today is that our support for ukraine is not just rhetoric. it is a reality that is playing out. we have filled the munitions gap so that ukrainians won't run out of ammunition as they confront the russian aggressors. >> reporter: and we heard the president announce this new commitments at the beginning of the week when he opened up this summit announcing these new strategic air defense systems and announcing a new shipment of u.s.-made f-16s that u.s. officials say ukrainian pilots will be flying by the end of the summer. of course, looming over this whole summit are genuine concerns by some of these world leaders that the progress made this week could be reversed if former president trump wins a second term, so the president today, especially with this press conference later today, is aiming to reassure these world

leaders. >> okay, allie raffa, thank you so much. we'll keep an eye on the president's movements. joining us is former u.s. ambassador to russia, michael mcfaul. good to have you here. an irreversible path to membership to ukraine. are you surprised by how strong this language was? >> no, i'm not surprised. i think it's the appropriate language. i think it's better language than the last nato summit. and you just hit the most important adjective. irreversible. that's a good signal for mr. putin. that means it's not whether but when ukraine becomes a member of nato. that's very good news for ukraine, good news for nato as well, and bad news for putin. >> ukraine also got major support for its military, including those f-16s from the u.s. denmark, and the netherlands, and president zelenskyy say those f-16s bring just and lasting peace closer. demonstrating that terror must

fail everywhere and at any time. has this summit quelled the international concerns about whether the u.s. will continue to support ukraine? >> no. tragically, it hasn't. i'm here in washington speaking to many people at the summit. and of course, publicly, and the deliverables are fantastic. the nato alliance has never been stronger than it is today. two new members, defense spending that 2% target is now being hit by 23 members. that's up from nine at the beginning of the biden administration. that's all the good news. support for ukraine. the bad news is everybody is nervous about who will be the next president of the united states because mr. trump is on record as saying he doesn't think nato's -- he thinks nato's obsolete. even just yesterday he was making comments that made a lot of people in the nato alliance very nervous. so the alliance is strong today. but they're worried about where it might be if we have a new

president. >> right, that new president being an old president. that is donald trump, who by the way, is planning to meet with, we're told, hungary's viktor orban, just coming off the nato summit, with politico also reporting trump advisers have told allied countries that reduced intel sharing would be part of a broader plan to scale back u.s. support and cooperation with nato should he end up back in the white house. what kind of impact could that have? >> it just makes no sense. we're stronger when we have strong allies. and if they're well informed by sharing intelligence. the idea we're the only ones who have intelligence is not true. some of the countries close to russia have tremendously talented intelligence agencies and it's just a fundamental point that i think mr. trump doesn't understand about allies. you need to work with them and cooperate with them, not coerce them or shut them off.

that's just a fundamental difference president biden has when he's talking about and interacting with allies versus the way mr. trump today talks about him and the way president trump did when he was president. >> the biden campaign is out with a new ad about trump's relationship with nato and with russia's putin. let's watch. >> so why does donald trump keep siding with putin? he said he would walk away from nato and gave putin a green light to attack whoever he wants. >> i would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want. >> he sold out ukraine to empower putin. he attacks american intelligence and law enforcement and sides with putin instead. because this is who donald trump is. a lap dog for a dictator who blames america first. >> what would you be watching for, ambassador, as president biden has this press conference later today? >> well, i hope to hear about

the support for ukraine after their bilateral meeting today. that's a very important meeting for president zelenskyy. by the way, i would just note that mr. trump is meeting with viktor orban, who just saw putin and xi jinping before he came to this summit. he's not meeting with president zelenskyy. i think that's a very stark contrast between the two leaders and what i hope to hear from president biden is that our continuing commitment to ukraine, because we need ukraine to stop putin inside ukraine so that he didn't advance and threaten our nato allies. >> ambassador michael mcfaul, thank you so much for offering your perspective in this really important moment for the world. up next on ana cabrera reports, just days from the start of the rnc, a former trump opponent's, quote, change in schedule that has him back on the speaking roster. >> plus, new reporting about the trump team eyeing a landslide win. but so is your sound engineer.

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welcome back. republicans across the country are paging their bags and heading to milwaukee for their national convention just four days away now. but they'll still be missing one notable essential at the moment. a running mate for their presumptive nominee. vaughn hillyard joins us with his latest reporting and also with us, carlos curbelo. the doors open in four days. no pick yet for a vp. feels like we're down to the wire. are we? >> reporter: we are. halfway through the convention, our colleague is reporting there is a fund-raiser on the books wednesday night of the convention in which donald trump will appear alongside his vice presidential pick. in a radio interview yesterday, donald trump suggested that he would very well make the announcement at the convention itself in milwaukee, which begins on monday. he does have a rally in pennsylvania here this saturday,

on saturday afternoon, before flying to milwaukee. but donald trump has not shut the door on anyone specifically. he has continued to throw out the fact that it could very well be the likes of doug burgum, the north carolina governor. he suggests, though, he had some concern over the six-week abortion ban that he signed into law in the state just last year. on jd vance, the ohio senator, he remarked his beard reminded him of a younger abraham lincoln. when it comes to marco rubio, he said he liked how he performed at the doral rally and said he was popular and the fact they both claimed residence out of florida made it a little complicated but they could work through it. at the same time, there are dark horses in this. don't rule out the likes of elise stefanik or ben carson or a potential surprise. this is donald trump's ball game and he's going to make that choice, we're told, when he makes that choice. >> as far as what to expect at the convention, we have some new

reporting on ron desantis's role and a change for him. >> reporter: matt dixon reporting ron desantis will in fact be speaking at the republican national convention. not everybody who was a gop primary rival to donald trump over the last year will be. of course, we don't expect the likes of asa hutchinson or chris christie or mike pence. one other individual, nikki haley, who we're told did not receive an actual invite to the convention. take a listen to donald trump answering whether that was a slight and intentional. >> so you like to see her go? >> i don't know. i'm going to take a a look at it. she gave her delegates over. you know, there was a lot of bad blood there. she stayed too long. she was being soundly defeated at any place, but she wouldn't leave. >> trump's campaign team has over the course of the last month continued to push aside the relevance of nikki haley or

the support that she gained during the primaries believing it to be in large part anti-trump democrats or independents or republicans who weren't going to vote for trump, but her appearance at the convention would be a stark signal she's willing to play the maga game in 2024. >> let's talk more about the timing as the rnc prepares to meet in milwaukee, the democratic party is in turmoil with some lawmakers questioning president biden's place at the top of the ticket. what do you make of this moment and the bigger picture? >> what you see is a lot of confidence from former president trump and his campaign. you look at some of this moves like inviting ron desantis to the convention. we know donald trump isn't particularly fond of the florida governor. he wants to do everything possible to project unity while democrats are divided. you also look at what's happening with the republican party platform. for the first time, no mention

of national restrictions for abortion. no mention of traditional marriage. donald trump feels very confident, so you can see him drifting away from his base a little bit and trying to reach for some of those middle of the road voters that will decide this race in those eight or nine key states. a lot of confidence from the trump campaign right now. they feel that this vp announcement is going to give them a big boost, shift the attention to the republican convention next week while democrats continue figuring out how they're going to move forward. >> i wonder how confident he should be, because there's still a lot of uncertainty out there. tim alberta is out with a new piece in the atlantic detailing how the trump campaign is eyeing what they view as a potential landslide win against biden, but trump top advisers know their campaign has been engineered in every way from the voters they target to the viral memes they

create to defeat biden specifically. and privately, they're all but praying that he remains their opponent. how do you see the status of trump's bid related to that uncertainty volving who he's going to be taking on if it isn't president biden? >> it is really a mistake to get too confident at this point, especially when you don't know exactly who you're running against. so the trump campaign definitely would like to see president biden stay in. they know the playbook they need to run. they know it will be very difficult for president biden to grow support given that big question that a lot of voters have about whether or not he could serve a full term. so they're hoping that president biden stays in, but it could really be anyone from vice president harris to governor

newsom to people like mitch landrieu. >> who is the one you think would be most formidable to donald trump? >> look, i think the toughest candidate for donald trump to defeat would be a middle of the road democrat, someone who could appeal to the center of the country, who could win some of these swing states that president biden continues to fall further behind in. that would be what would be most dangerous for president trump, and i think he's preparing for that. that's why we see these shifts away from the abortion issue, away from traditional marriage to make sure if democrats do come up with this kind of centrist candidate, that trump can at least compete for those voters as well. >> thank you, gentlemen. up next, the jury in alec baldwin's involuntary manslaughter trial seeing video and hearing 911 audio from the dramatic aftermath of the "rust"

set shooting. what we can expect from his defense strategy. plus, hours and hours of closing arguments in the bribery trial of senator bob menendez. a live report from the courthouse, next. urthouse, next

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welcome back. any moment now, witness testimony is set to get back under way in alec baldwin's involuntary manslaughter trial. the jury heard from four witnesses in the trial's first

day yesterday, including the first law enforcement officials who arrived on the scene after the shooting. they also heard the 911 call and saw body cam footage of the chaotic scene. and while the prosecutors argue baldwin was negligent on set, his defense argued he didn't do anything wrong. >> cocks the hammer, points it straight at ms. hutchins and fires that gun. >> this was an unspeakable tragedy, but alec baldwin committed no crime. he was an actor acting. >> joining us now, katie phang, host of the katie phang show on msnbc, and msnbc's dana griffin, also here with me on set, and monitoring the trial. start us off with the reporting on what we can expect for today? >> we're already on witness four, she is the santa fe county crime scene investigator who had that first inkling that there mibe live rounds on the set

because she noticed what was the patine, it's supposed to be a brass color, but in this case, it was silver. she started setting aside some of the rounds, started shaging them. some did not make noise, which is an indicator it was possibly a live round. they sent those off to the fbi lab and it turned out six rounds turned out to be live. i feel like the prosecution is trying to set up laying the groundwork for what happened and what caused the shooting to happen. we all know allen baldwin did not load the gun, it was the armorer, but they're trying to establish, he didn't load the weapon, but because it was in his hand, they wand him to be held accountable. they say he broke the cardinal rule to never point a gun at anyone, but his defense said he was acting, this is not his fault. the prosecution has not given us the order of their next witnesses. >> the prosecution is up first, but the defense has a chance to

kroe cross-examine. they're already making their case. baldwin's defense team played the 911 call for the jury on the opening day of this trial to seemingly highlight the crew not placing blame on baldwin from the get-go. >> two people accidentally shot on a movie set by a prop gun. we need help immediately. >> yelled at me at lunch. >> accidentally shot. on a movie set with a prop gun. ad, it was his responsibility. not a word about alec baldwin. >> katie, what is the significance of this, and what could it signal about the broader defense strategy? >> the defense is going to be leaning in to be able to create reasonable doubt as we know

there are currently 16 jurs that are listening to this trial. 12 of which will ultimately be the ones to decide the fate of alec baldwin. in new mexico, the involuntary manslaughter statute is pro prosecution. was there willful regard from the defendant to the safety of others. was there a level of recklessless that would rise to the level of involuntary manslaughter. the defense made it clear that despite having this be an accident, despite it being the case that the armorer and the assistant director are the ones that were supposed to be checking what was going into the firearm in this case, there was a division of responsibility, meaning you have an armorer, you have an assistant director, a system of checks and balances that happen to insure the safety of everyone on set. all of that being said, the problem for the defense is this, i will admit i initially thought, gosh, this seems to be a layup for the defense.

this was an accident, an unintentional killing. however, the problem is even if you're an actor as we heard from dana, there's some basic safety guidelines that have to be adhered to. we have heard from the prosecution in the opening statement, a road map for the jury, we heard that alec baldwin repeatedly violated those basic safety guidelines. he had to himself insure what was going on with that firearm, and that is going to be a big problem for the defense. >> katie, some legal analysts have suggested if baldwin is ultimately convicted, it will be because he insisted in interviews with law enforcement, with news outlets that he didn't actually pull the trigger. help us make sense of that and why would it be a potential problem? >> when you're advising a potential client and they're facing criminal charges, you don't want them to speak. there could be the creation of

inconsistencies in the story. i expect the prosecution to harp on those repeated public statements made to law enforcement, to media, and others and to pick it all apart. the bigger picture going in is whether or not alec baldwin showed a willful disregard for the safety of not only the victim in the case but also another gentleman on the set who also got injured. >> katie phang, thank you. dana griffin, good to see you. >> now to developments in another high-profile case. closing arguments expected to wrap up today in the bribery trial of bob menendez. lawyers for one of menendez's co-defendants is expected to conclude his closing this morning and then prosecutors will have a chance at rebuttal. menendez has pleaded not guilty to 18 bribery charges. nbc's tom winter is outside the courthouse for us. these closing arguments started on monday.

when could the jury actually start deliberating? >> reporter: well, that's right. it's one of the complications when you have three people that are actually on trial here. adam fee, who represents bob menendez, still speaking at least as of several minutes ago. he's bringing up his own examples of text messages he believes will exonerate his client or raise reasonable doubt before this jury. back on monday, federal prosecutors used text messages themselves to show what they believe was corroborating evidence that the senator was aware of this alleged bribery scheme. as far as your question about the timing, once fee is done with his closing argument for the senator, he still have two other closing arguments for the other men that are facing trial here, and that's fred davies who is a new jersey developer who is prominent in this prosecution, and on top of that, we have the closing argument for the man tied to this whole halal meat

bribery scheme. we have those two closings and then federal prosecutors will have a chance to have a short rebuttal to the things raised by the defenses in their closing arguments and then the judge will instruct the jury. a long winded way of saying the jury should not be deliberated anytime soon. it could be late today or early tomorrow. it depends on the timing of these closing arguments. that was predicted, by the way, by the judge. she was hoping it would be in the jury's hands by the end of the week. it appears the timing is somewhat on track and we'll be listening to those arguments this afternoon to see if anything new is raised on behalf of the defendants or any daylight between the two and have to wait for nadine menendez's trial. >> thank you for staying on top of it and pulling it all together. >> up next on ana cabrera reports, groceries. rent, medical costs, a new

inflation report on the price you pay.

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we have this video just in. just moments ago, president biden arriving at the nato working session for the final day of the summit in washington. you see him speaking with some of his counterparts before he took a seat next to the nato secretary-general. after a couple of working sessions today, president biden will hold the first solo press conference of the year in the face of democratic doubts about his 2024 prospects. the press conference is scheduled to happen at 6:30 p.m. eastern. keep it right here on msnbc. inflation dipping in june with consumer prices rising just 3% in the last 12 months. that is lower than expected. actually the lowest inflation

has been since 2021. joining me now is christine romans. great news, obviously. how soon could americans actually feel the change? >> reporter: they are already starting to feel it. you can see that 3% rate is the lowest in about three years. when you look month on month, this is really important, prices fell 0.1% for gasoline. that is a really big heart of the equation. energy prices just one of her -- 1%. appliance prices fell, you saw prices for airlines fall, you saw a bunch of different categories that had actual declines in the sticker price. over the past couple of months there has been some relief for people, quite frankly, on certain items. not for shelter though. those prices remain pretty high overall. the overall inflation story is not vanquished.

3% is still higher than the federal reserve would like to see, of course. it is the coolest in years. 3% is the coolest in three years. remember the 9% inflation rate that was so terrible in 2021. this is a dramatic improvement. this feeds into the idea that the fed is starting to see a shift in the economy and might be able to start easing interest rates as soon as this fall. it would be a relief for a lot of american families and businesses, especially small businesses who have seen the higher rates hurt their bottom line. watching these numbers feeds into the idea that the economy is still stolid -- solid and sturdy but not red-hot and overheating and mail of the fed to take its foot off the brake and cut those interest rates that have been so high. >> when would that happen? when is the next time the fed makes that kind of decision? >> reporter: the going thinking on wall street would be september. may be a little bit which would

mean heading into next year you would have better borrowing costs for cars, for home loans, for credit cards. credit card interest rates have been so terrible. that has been a big problem for a lot of american families. >> christine romans, thanks a lot. i'm ana cabrera. thank you for joining us. jose diaz-balart picks up right after this. after this.

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