for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." remember to follow the show on social media @mitchellreports, and you can rewatch the best parts of our show anytime on youtube. just go to msnbc.com/andrea. "chris jansing reports" starts right now. ♪♪ good day. i'm chris jansing live at msnbc headquarters in new york city. three major addresses in the coming hours, one marking a beginning, one an ending, and one marking the divisions in our politics and our world. right now vice president harris is in indiana speaking to a historically black sorority, but as excitement surrounds the ground she is breaking for women of color, it's coming up against the reality of racism and sexism, attacks already being leveled. president joe biden is preparing to tell the nation why he dropped out of the 2024 race and how he plans to finish the job. how tonight's historic address could shape his final six months

after 50 years of public service. and a last ditch effort to win over a deeply divided congress. in the next hour, israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu will address lawmakers looking for more support in his war against hamas. but let's begin with kamala harris, right now addressing one of the nation's largest historically black sororities. just as republicans are introducing racism into the race for president, it didn't take long, and it's making many republicans nervous. they know it's a losing strategy, but here's what donald trump had to say on a press call hosted by the republican national committee. >> she was by far the nastiest to joe biden. now, that's why i was so surprised he took her. there was nobody nastier than her. she played the race card at a level that you rarely see. >> one version of attacks being echoed by his supporters in congress. >> are you suggesting she was a dei hire?

>> 100%, she was a dei hire. >> apparently they feel or a lot of democrats feel they have to stick with her because of her ethnic background. >> i think she was a dei hire, and i think that that's what we're seeing, and i just don't think that they have anybody else. i just think that they're in real disarray. >> those comments aren't the only thing, though, that's making republicans apprehensive. kamala harris has energized her party, a new poll suggests she's doing better against trump than joe biden did, and a new memo from her campaign plots an aggressive course to victory. vote.org now says there has been a 700% increase in daily new voter registrations. nbc chief white house correspondent peter alexander is with us. also here, brendan buck former aide to house speakers paul ryan and john boehner and an msnbc

political analyst. eddie glaude is professor at princeton university and an msnbc political analyst. great to have you all here. so, peter, this is a fun appearance, right, for kamala harris being with all her sisters there, but what's the latest on the little tougher job that she's got right now, vetting the potential vice presidential pick? >> reporter: i will say as we've been talking, we've been listening to kamala harris out the other ear. she just praised president biden ahead of the remarks he's going to deliver tonight. this has really been a symbiotic relationship as he has helped try to fuel her campaign as she has helped try to fuel his shaping of his legacy going forward. as it relates to the vice presidential selection process right now based on my conversations and those of my colleagues, it appears that the list includes at least five individuals who have already received vetting materials and then a couple of other individuals about whom we don't know whether they have received those materials just yet. but we are told by multiple sources that they are actively being considered. first, to those who have received materials, they include

a series of different governors. josh shapiro of pennsylvania, tim walz of minnesota, gretchen whitmer of michigan, though she has said she intends for now to stay in her position as the governor of the state of michigan, and of course roy cooper, a person who as a former a.g. had a close relationship to kamala harris in the past. also on that list receiving materials, the arizona senator mark kelly. separately a source overnight told me that we should circle the name andy beshear, the kentucky governor getting much attention and today reiterating that pete buttigieg, the transportation secretary right now is on that list of names getting serious attention. buttigieg wouldn't need perhaps the same type of vetting given the fact that he's already a member of the biden cabinet. according to yamiche alcindor who has spoken to a series of people familiar with the thinking of harris's team and this process, they say among other things they are looking for someone who may particularly be able to reach out to speak to older white voters and to

suburban women in particular. someone who in effect might be able to soften some of the edges of kamala harris right now who obviously is a historic figure and would be the first black woman president were she to win. but the desire is to keep expanding not just the base as she has had success to this point sort of with her outreach related to black and latino and young voters right now, but also get some of that wider electorate as well, that includes those suburban voters, women who were so critical in joe biden's victory in 2020 and those older white voters, notably many of those names, frankly every one of those names on that list right now is a white american. >> peter alexander, thank you. eddie, soften the edges is something that hillary clinton knows something about. whatever the research shows, we know what that is. and also the speaker of how the mike johnson, this just came out. he talked to members, he thinks they understand this ought to be an election about the comparison of policies, not personalities.

he was asked specifically about the dei comments, and he says this is not about personalities. not exactly a denunciation. >> no, and speaker johnson can't put that genie back in the bottle. what do i mean by that, the maga movement has had at its core, at its root a kind of grievance, a sense that the browning of the nation has thrown everyone into kind of a panic about is this the america that they themselves know. and so donald trump has appealed, since he came on the stage, since he came down those escalators to the ugly dimensions of american life, and so the idea that dei or crt or affirmative action can no longer be appealed to, that you can now go back to racial dog whistles and not explicit racial grievance, i don't think that makes any sense given what maga has been all about since its beginnings. >> i want to talk a little bit about former house speaker kevin mccarthy because he has a different take than speaker

johnson. here's what he said. >> attacks i've heard republicans give that are totally stupid and dumb to do is the dei attack. that is a mistake for any leader to go out and say that on the republican side. this dei, that seems like a petty -- she is the vice president of the united states. she is the former u.s. senator. these congressmen that are saying it, they're wrong. >> so brendan, that's from a man who was speaker just in october. what can you say about the shift we've seen in the party just over these months? >> well, i wholeheartedly agree with kevin mccarthy. these folks just can't help themselves. look, it's important to appreciate your median house republican has no idea what it takes to win a general election. all they ever care about is winning a primary, and guffawing at dei jokes at a county gop barbecue is very different than

going out and winning the white house. this campaign on the republican side has been a departure that has been marked somewhat by discipline by the trump campaign, they have been able to stay focused on the message they wanted to do. if this becomes, you know, a new side show for republicans, always having to track down the latest house member who makes a racially tinged remark is going to backfire. the people who are going to win this election are not people at those county gop barbecues. it's people in the middle, educated women who are going to be rappelled by comments like that. i think they would be very wise to listen to kevin mccarthy there. >> it's a tradition, i think, eddie, and i don't know if it even makes sense or not, we tend to think that vice -- history shows us vice presidential picks don't change any race, right? people vote the top of the ticket generally speaking. but is it clear what might work for kamala harris, what might

not, who it might be, who could help appeal to where they think there are gaps in her appeal and who doesn't? >> so let's pull back just for a quick second. so remember the way in which many republicans characterize joe biden's choice of kamala harris. she's a dei choice, she only was chosen because she's a black woman, a woman of color, dada dada, but it's not a dei choice if you're thinking about the midwest, do i need to appoint a guy who's from ohio. do i need to get someone from the south so i can get texas. those aren't viewed as dei decisions, even though we're talking about region. and here we're asking the question, how might she think of a ticket that would appeal to a broad swath of americans and that could deepen our chances. is that read as a dei choice? of course not because what's underneath this, what's underneath the entire debate has always been race. so when we ask this question in terms of normal politics,

traditional politics, it's okay to ask it, right, chris? when we ask it in this instance, here we are again, back at square one. so i think she has to make a choice for a vice president that will expand the map, that will deepen her chances, make her chances even better and ignore the foolishness that's coming out from the other side. >> you know, brendan, a source also told yamiche that the campaign is batting around internally which potential running mates will appeal in short order to that 1 or 2% of voters in that handful six battleground states that will likely decide the election. usually here vice presidential picks don't matter, but i wonder if given the shortened time period if given the fact that people are looking more and more at change, how crazy change is, does a vice presidential pick matter more this year? >> well, as somebody who worked

for paul ryan in 2012 and we lost wisconsin, i agree that they don't matter too much. i think it would be wise for the harris campaign to take a minute and figure out exactly what the battlefield is. we know that when biden was the nominee they had to win the midwest. pennsylvania, michigan, wisconsin. now, if that is still the state of play and that is what they think they have to do, that may lead you in one direction. now, the playing field could be completely different if kamala harris can energize different demographics, younger voters, black voters, hispanic voters in a way that joe biden couldn't. maybe an arizona is now in play. maybe a georgia is in play, that may call for something different. the other question is do you want to lean into the change? do you want to maybe put a gretchen whitmer and say we're going to have two women on this ticket or do you want to do something that says we're going to play it safe. we're going to hedge a little. i'm sure they're doing all kinds

of surveys and polling right now to figure that out. those are the questions i think they need to answer before they make any decisions. >> let's talk about president biden tonight, he's going to talk about his decision to drop out of the race, but also what he can do in the final six months. our nbc colleague jenna bush after he dropped out of the race, daughter and granddaughter of presidents spoke emotionally about when her grandfather lost his re-election bid. we have to remember politicians are actually human. their families are actually human, and it made me think about when he called in to headquarters to kamala harris, he spoke briefly. he spoke incredibly supportively. he spoke what sounded like from the heart, and then when she gave him an opportunity when she came out to jump in, he barely did. he let her have that moment. doug emhoff talked about when they first met the family, he

called doug's -- the second gentleman's parents, right? is tonight also a chanc -- i'm not going to pretend this could be a healing moment for the nation in any large sense, but to go back to what he said when he first ran for president that he wanted to bring people together. he wanted it not to be such a divisive country. >> we talk about deficits a lot in this country, but we don't talk about the deficits of statesmen and women. people who model what it means to be committed to the ideals of the country,magnanimity. he's going to reveal how all too human he is. they're going to offer us a language to imagine ourselves as better people, a better country. could it very well be the case that we're at the cusp of a

moment, chris, where our differences are not undergirded by our hhatreds. where our differences can just be and maybe this decision, a decision to my mind as a student of the american project, a decision that is of the sort of george washington's decision not to assume power infinite, right? this decision shows us a level of sacrifice, a level of dedication, a level of decency that maybe can inspire us to be different kinds of people together, and i think the language tonight is not only about him personally, it's about us as a country. can we be together differently? and maybe president biden can give us a language, a pathway for that. >> and even maybe as we go back and we see people going back to the old tropes, we can also look at the fact that not only do we have a ground breaking woman at the top of the ticket, she's talking about potentially a gay running mate. how different would that be in this country. brendan buck, eddie glaude,

thank you so much. and up next, president biden set to address the nation tonight after his decision to step aside. we've got a live report from the white house with more details after this. house with more deta after this the itch and rash of moderate to severe eczema disrupts my skin, night and day. despite treatment, it's still not under control. but now i have rinvoq. a once-daily pill that reduces the itch and helps clear the rash of eczema —fast. some taking rinvoq felt significant itch relief as early as 2 days— and some achieved dramatic skin clearance as early as 2 weeks. many saw clear or almost-clear skin. plus, many had clearer skin and less itch, even at 3 years. rinvoq can lower your ability to fight infections, including tb. serious infections and blood clots, some fatal, cancers including lymphoma and skin, heart attack, stroke, and gi tears occurred. people 50 and older with a heart disease risk factor have an increased risk of death. serious allergic reactions can occur. tell your doctor if you are or may become pregnant.

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tonight president biden from the oval office, that most historic of settings for an address like no other, telling the nation how he will finish the job after dropping out of the race. in "the new york times," peter baker put it is this way.

biden returns to a vastly different presidency with six months to go. he is now that creature most dreaded in the oval office, a lame duck, a commander in chief on the way out who is being challenged to assert his relevance even as the world moves on. nbc news reports that white house staff will gather to watch the president's remarks together. let's bring in nbc news white house correspondent monica alba. in some ways, mon, this is a chance for joe biden to write i guess almost a first person draft of his legacy, right, even with six months to go. what do we know about his message? >> exactly, chris. this is a man who for years has talked about being a respecter of fate and trying to place his own moment in history in context of what we're experiencing, and i think he's going to try to do a lot more than that by talking about his 50 years in public office, but also what he sees as his major accomplishments of the last three and a half, and then

he's going to try to lay out a road map for what he thinks he might still be able to accomplish despite the difficult conditions of a lame duck presidency and being so close to an election and the congress that we are dealing with in this moment in time. but he's also really going to try to talk about this in the frame of what this means for vice president harris and his way of passing the torch to her, and we are told by white house officials that essentially much of what his legacy could in the immediate be defined by is whatever happens with her in the election. if she is successful in november, that will automatically be so much more potentially important to joe biden's legacy in terms of history looking back on the person who made this consequential decision to step aside at this moment when for weeks he had been so dug in and intent on staying in the race to allow for his vice president to try to now take this challenge and earn and win the democratic nomination. so he's going to be hinting at

all of that while talking about this moment in political history and why he does feel that vice president harris is the right person in this moment but also why he believes that he really had this importance during his first term and only term in office now to do the things that he feels he was meant to do there. so there will be a little bit of a spiritual sense to all of this. there will be some reflection, certainly some introspection, and then just this larger message to americans about how he got to this place, his decision-making, and then what he envisions for these next couple of months where he is going to set the bar a little higher for what he wants to accomplish. we'll see if that's possible, chris. >> monica alba, thank you. be sure to tune in to special coverage of that address beginning tonight at 7:00 p.m. eastern right here on msnbc. now to the other big address, this one by israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu who just met with speaker mike johnson. a new capitol fence is in place, protests are already starting

there in d.c. you see folks lining up. that's just minutes away from the first time netanyahu will address congress since hamas's october 7th attack that has killed more than 1,200 people. in the 291 days since then, 44 of the 120 kidnapped hostages are believed to have died, and the palestinian health ministry says that israel's war on gaza has killed more than 39,000 people. nbc's julie tsirkin is reporting from capitol hill, a lot has shifted since netanyahu accepted this invitation. so what are we looking for today? >> so much has shifted, and you know, notably who you won't see over his shoulder during his address is of course the vice president, kamala harris, who is campaigning today, instead bebe will meet with her tomorrow separately. he will meet with president biden, and on friday he will travel to mar-a-lago where he will meet former president trump, of course, because those two are now essentially the front runners, harris and trump.

but today, of course, a long-awaited joint address of congress by netanyahu. last month this invitation officially went out to him from speaker of the house mike johnson, also the democratic leader of the senate, chuck schumer, as well as hakeem jeffries and mitch mcconnell. you saw that photo op, you see it on your screen, that happened a couple of moments ago between the four leaders and netanyahu. let's take a listen to what he had to tell the leaders before his address. >> i appreciate the fact that you have invited me to address this great assembly, the world's greatest democracy. our enemies will not breach our walls today, and our wall is not made up only of our own soldiers, our brave heroes, but also the friendship and alliance with the great united states of america. that is very much expressed here today, and i thank you for giving me this opportunity. >> reporter: now, netanyahu no

stranger to divisiveness in american politics. last time he was here was in 2015 under then president barack obama where dozens of democrats skipped his address, including then vice president biden. today we expect many of them as well in congress to skip his address, protests that netanyahu will be facing inside the chamber, boycotts to his speech, and also outside the chamber where thousands of protesters are expected here to protest his handling of that war in gaza. >> julie tsirkin, thank you. and up next, what the fbi director just told congress about what the shooter who attempted to assassinate former president trump googled right before that attempt. and we're less than an hour away from the key dnc meeting as it pushes forward with plans for a virtual roll call before the convention. a former dnc ceo joins us after this. s after this this long to get put on the shelf like a porcelain doll. if you have postmenopausal osteoporosis and are at high risk for fracture,

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new details about the shooter and the attempted assassination of former president trump. we're learning that he googled how far away lee harvey oswald was when he fatally shot president john f. kennedy. nbc's sahil kapur joins me from capitol hill where christopher wray is testifying. >> reporter: some new revelations already today from fbi director christopher wray. in his testimony before the house judiciary committee, specifically that the shooter,

20-year-old thomas crooks had researched the jfk assassination from 1963, specifically ray telling the committee that on july 6th, crooks searched online ", how far away was oswald from kennedy. wray also said that he may have had a firearm with a collapsible stock that allowed him to more easily conceal and carry the weapon, which might explain why he wasn't seen by spectators and other rally goers walking around with a gun, why he made it up to that roof so easily without being spotted. he fired at least eight shots, that he flew a drone roughly 200 yards away from that main stage a couple of hours before the rally, and he said authorities recovered that drone in crooks' car. in addition, they found a drone controller and a couple of explosive devices as well that could be remotely detonated. ray did say it doesn't look like a remote detonation would have worked. beyond that, wray said the fbi was continuing to investigate the situation.

let's play some of that testimony. >> we are bringing all the resources of the fbi to bear, both criminal and national security. now, there's a whole lot of work underway and still a lot of work to do in our understanding of what happened and why will continue to evolve, but we're going to leave no stone unturned. the shooter may be deceased, but the fbi's investigation is very much ongoing. >> reporter: and congress will con to investigate this with the chairman of this committee, the republican jim jordan making clear he wants the play by play, the minute by play, the second by second this went down. just minutes from now a crucial dnc rules committee meeting is set to get underway. it's where they will lay out the plan for selecting their new presidential nominee as the party and its de facto nominee face a tight two-week deadline to get the top of the ticket locked in. now, this meeting is happening at the same time that the trump campaign has filed an fec

complaint against kamala harris accusing her of violating campaign finance laws by taking over the millions of dollars that are in president biden's campaign coffers. joining me now, former ceo of the dnc, former senior adviser to pete buttigieg and former executive director of emily's list, jess o'connell. good to see you. how do you think this rules committee meeting is going to play out? because everybody wants to know how is this going to work logistically? >> yeah, that's what they're doing. they're going to keep things on track. they're going to talk about how they envision the convention's going to go, they're going to talk a little bit about a potential virtual vote, which is something that they have been working on for several months. there's some ballot access issues about getting on the ballot in a couple of states like ohio, oklahoma, california, washington, a number of states. this was probably going to happen anyway even under president biden, so they're going to talk about a virtual vote. don't expect that it will happen probably before the convention, maybe not this month.

and you know, and they're going to also talk about, you know, just ensuring that this process is orderly. the thing that i know about the dnc and the people that are running this is they're not new to these issues, to these rules committees. they're going to run an orderly process. they're going to ensure that people are heard. you can really learn a lot about how delegates work and this party works. it's transparent. it's on their website at the dnc, so that's what they're focused on is just making sure everything is buttoned up. >> so i want to ask the control room, which they love it when i call things in realtime, but if they can put that graphic back up, which has the calendar on it. august 7th, right, where it says may require president and vp candidate names, is that how you read it that she's going to have to choose a running mate by august 7th? >> i think those are part of the rules they're working through. i will say this from a political standpoint, the pressure's going

to be there. i think there's -- you know, there's just over 100 days until this election happens and so i know that they are working really hard, obviously, there's a lot of great reporting about the candidates that are being vetted. the good thing for democrats right now is that the bench is deep. all of these candidates that could be vp are great. the issue is actually working their way through them. i think as it relates to picking the vp, we're looking at polling and vetting and vibes, and if all those things are going to play a role here. >> let me ask you finally, we've only got less than a minute. you know the trump team has filed that b complaint against harris. they think she's not entitled to the campaign funds, do you think that could tie things up? >> i don't think it's going to tie things up. the only thing that's going to happen is we can expect to see lots of lawsuits coming from the republicans. that's their playbook. the only one that's going to benefit from that is the lawyers they're paying. >> jess o'connell, always good to see you. appreciate it. coming up, the voice of the voters, what we're now hearing

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they're getting nervous. the democratic momentum over kamala harris is translating to republican angst. msnbc political analyst, elise jordan is in madison, wisconsin, where she spoke to women trump voters and, wow, was it interesting. give us your key takeaways. >> so these were female trump voters who are actually in green bay, wisconsin, and we spoke to them in the aftermath of vice president kamala harris being the new democratic nominee, and it was fascinating because there was such a shift in attitude. from what i observed just a month earlier when i was in wisconsin for focus groups. just a month earlier, trump voters were pretty confident about a donald trump victory, and now with kamala harris as

the new nominee, they aren't so sure, chris. >> do you think that having vice president kamala harris as the nominee dramatically changes donald trump's odds of winning? >> i'm worried about it. >> i think she's going to go for the minority and female and younger voters. >> progressive. >> everybody's excited about her, and that scares me, you know, because trump has to reconfigure where he's going and how they're going to outsmart her. >> how do you perceive vice president harris compared to president biden in terms of competency and experience? >> i think she's worse. she doesn't even know what's going on at the border, and that's what she was supposed to be doing.

i mean, as a school teacher, if i did not do what i was supposed to be doing, you better believe my job would be in jeopardy. not only was her job not in jeopardy, she was just handed a promotion. >> is there anyone that kamala harris could appoint as her vice president that you would find reassuring? would make you consider voting for her? >> oh, no, would never consider voting for her. >> rfk jr. way before her. >> reporter: chris, these are voters who are pretty dug in to who they're going to vote for. we weren't listening to them thinking that they were going to suddenly change and switch sides when they're consistent republican trump supporters, but it's an important window into the attacks vice president

harris is going to face now that she's the nominee and how republicans are adjusting their game plan to attack her, to attack her competency and to try to make the case that she is no better than joe biden, and so that's what the harris campaign now has to deal with. >> yeah, and just the switch in confidence after the rnc, they seem to be feeling invincible how kamala harris has changed all that. such great stuff, elise jordan, thank you. meantime in d.c., the protests are growing on capitol hill, a lot of those protesters on the move. in less than 20 minutes, we're going to hear israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu speak to congress. we'll go there live, so stay close, more "chris jansing reports" right after this. swingin' by, carl. no problem. so, what are all of those for? ah, this one lets me adjust the bass. add more guitar. maybe some drums. wow, so many choices. yeah. like schwab. i can get full-service wealth management, advice, invest on my own, and trade on thinkorswim. you know carl is the only frontman you need...

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we are watching capitol hill where in just moments, the israeli prime minister will deliver an address before a congress divided over the ongoing war against hamas and

before a country distracted by a dramatically changed presidential race. benjamin netanyahu's appearance today is meant to bolster support for the ongoing fight to eliminate hamas, but it will be met by some empty seats on one side of the chamber. dozens of democrats are boycotting his remarks with the republican house speaker mike johnson warning members directly that disruptions to netanyahu's speech will not be tolerated and that the sergeant at arms will make arrests if necessary. security has also been tightened outside the capitol where a number of protests are taking place. before the end of the week netanyahu will meet with president biden, vice president harris, and former president donald trump. part of his balancing act in an uncertain u.s. election year. joining me now my colleague and nbc chief foreign affairs correspondent andrea mitchell, nbc capitol hill correspondent ali vitali, nbc's white house correspondent monica alba, nbc news chief international analyst and former supreme allied

commander of nato, admiral james stavridis, former deputy national security adviser under president obama, ben rhodes, and former aide to speakers paul ryan and john boehner and an msnbc political analyst, brendan buck. fantastic panel, andrea, i'm going to start with you. the prime minister indeed is coming into a very different washington than the one that first invited him. what do you see as his challenge today? >> his biggest challenge is to get attention and to try to do a speech of conciliation, a bipartisan speech, which is what he talked about doing, but right now, of course america is completely consumed with first the assassination attempt against former president trump, the political transition with president biden agreeing to stand down, the flurry of activity as democrats coalesced around, you know kamala harris, so that is the main focus here, and instead it's becoming a very

politicized speech. also there's been a lot of criticism from the hostage families whom i've been with as well for the last couple of days, and he's got several meetings scheduled, in fact, with the president tomorrow, with the hostage families, along with the president tomorrow, that will be very unusual, and then he's going to be going to a meeting in mar-a-lago with president trump. so that is, you know, part of what he's doing. now, there were a lot of -- more than three dozen members of congress who are not attending. one of them is senator martin heinrich from new mexico. i talked to him about that, why he's not going to be attending today. >> i would like to see bibi netanyahu be a more constructive, constructive, forward leaning solution-seeking partner in all of this. >> and one of those not attending is also the center pro tem, patty terry, third in line

for the presidency. she normally would be behind him on the podium. that will be the foreign relations chairman, ben cardin, because she is protesting it. these senators think it is too partisan, and that he should not be doing this right now. he should be focused on the hostage release, that's part of the criticism of him coming here today. >> i want to bring in gary grumbach. he has been tracking multiple protests around the capitol today. what looked to be the largest one is getting on the move. what are you seeing where you are, gary? >> reporter: we are seeing thousands of people here outside on the west front of the u.s. capitol. what we're seeing here are protests that are pro-israel, pro-palestinian, all anti netanyahu, and all looking to bring the hostages home. i want to give you a sense of what this looks like. we're outside the federal courthouse in washington, d.c. we have a sense of what the city

looks like here. these are folks from all over the country. some of them tell me they have taken buses, some from florida, some as far as iowa. we're going to show you what the police presence looks like out here. the entire u.s. capitol is surrounded by these bike racks, with the police line, do not cross. there's a line of officers, metro police department, department of homeland security. and some of the security precautions include homeland security drones that get put up at large events so they can see from above the overhead of what this protest looks like. it seems like it has been largely a calm protest. we did get a report of pepper spray being used at the front of the protest. we aren't sure exactly what the surrounding issues were with that. but for a moment, the police officers did put on their gas masks, as you can see, they are off now. they are no longer wearing gas masks. there are thousands of people. what these folks hope to do is

send a message to benjamin netanyahu, calling what they call a citizens arrest of benjamin netanyahu by surrounding the u.s. capitol with folks. i'm not sure there's enough folks to be able to do that. also the cops, i believe, are stopping them about halfway up the capitol. that's their goal. they want to send a message here loud and clear, chris. >> gary grumbach, thank you so much for that. ali vitali, look, you see those protesters. we know how politically charged this has been. how many phone calls members of congress have gotten throughout this war. the way roll call put it, they said many democrats are approaching the occasion with baited breath and dread. what are you hearing from lawmakers who decided to boycott the speech today? >> reporter: that assessment is about right, chris, according to the mostly democrats but handful of republicans who have also expressed concern about the fact that netanyahu is here amid the foreign landscape with the israel-hamas war ongoing. you look, for example, you see in the chamber, speaker mike

johnson, beginning the proceedings there, as he's flanked on his other side by senator ben cardin. andrea points this out. i think it underscores the political reality as much as the mood on capitol hill. cardin is not the person that would typically be seated next to the speaker. that would either be vice president kamala harris who has a campaign scheduling conflict or the highest ranking senate democrat, patty murray. she said she did not want to take that seat. you see senator ben cardin sitting there next to the speaker of the house. it really does speak to the political realities but there are those who, like senator chuck schumer, disagree with having netanyahu here and disagree with the role that he has played. but they're still going to be going. watch. >> even though i disagree with many of bibi netanyahu's policies, i will attend this speech because the united states' relationship with israel remains ironclad and transcends

any prime minister or president and we must do all we can to get our hostages home. >> reporter: on the other side of this, as we continue watching the house floor, chris, i'm stuck by the fact that speaker emerita, nancy pelosi will not be in attendance today, nor will tom massey, who is a house republican. most of them are staunchly in line with having netanyahu here, but for massey, he says, in his words, i don't feel like being a prop, so i won't be attending. >> andrea, let me pick it up there. you have been meeting apart from the politics of this, the emotional weight of this. you have been talking with family members of hostages. many of them deeply frustrated with prime minister netanyahu. some of them i know will be watching the speech from the gallery today. what did they tell you? >> first of all, they're very angry at a meeting they had with him on monday night. they thought he was going to talk about the release, the negotiations to get their loved ones home. instead, on his plane, he

brought with him supporters, israeli families supporting him. and they were over ridden by their comments in this meeting. and they felt that it was just aimed at the domestic, israeli audience. it was all in hebrew, and not answering their questions. they're happy they're going to get the meeting at the white house, which they think will uniquely pressure netanyahu to begin to deal with the fact that they want to have these talks across the finish line. they think it's within reach, and some of the u.s. officials are saying that as well. but that there are continuing obstacles from both sides that have to be ironed out. there was an announcement today that the israeli negotiators will not be returning to the talks, chris, until after these meetings here, after his speech here, to see how his meetings go. so that's another five, six days before they'll even get back into business at the bargaining table. one in particular very

passionate today, jonathan, his son is one of the hostages taken from near oz, the kibbutz on october 7th. his daughter is seven months old. she was born two months after he was taken hostage. his wife and two older daughters also waiting for him to be released and his anger is such that he's not going to the speech. he thinks it's a waste of his time. take a listen. >> there are just endless excuses and rationalizations from our prime minister as to why to simply draw this out. the vast majority of israelis already understand that his main goal right now is political survival. i understood that our prime minister, and there's no pleasure in me saying this has come here for political theater

and not much more than that, for domestic consumption within israel to fortify his base. >> ben rhodes, you were deputy national security adviser the last time netanyahu came here for a speech. that was at the invitation of speaker boehner, without notifying president obama and vice president biden that he was coming to attack the iran negotiations that were underway for the iran nuclear deal, and it caused a lot of friction. what are you expecting, and what do you think the purpose of this speech is at this time? >> well, yeah, andrea. i think he's considerably weaker, netanyahu is, today, than he was when he came here in 2015. the realities back then, he commanded a lot of attention. the iran nuclear deal was one of the biggest in the country. this time he's totally overshadowed by what americans are focused on, domestic politics. back then, he had a firmer base

of support in israel. he's more popular than he has been before inside israel. he's not coming with the weight of the leadership credibility that he had back home in 2015. this time there's a lot of frustration, and a lot of belief rightfully so, i think, that he's just trying to cling to power. his main priority is keeping a far right coalition happy so they'll prop him up and keep him in power. what most israelis want is for there to be a cease fire that involves a deal to get the hostages back, and a lot of israelis would like to vote for a new prime minister. he's serving his own political interests by trying to show he's someone to be on the world stage, has drawn a lot of support from the united states. while he thinks that serves his own political interests, what's being shown today is not in israel's interest. israel's interest is bipartisan support from the united states, to show how solid and deep that is. what's on display with protests and members boycotting, and

members going, chuck schumer, expressing a belief they would rather this wasn't happening. that's not a bipartisan show of support. what netanyahu has done is turn the u.s.-israeli relationship into a deeply partisan issue in this country, and that's not in the long term good for israel. i think he's adminished leader arriving in a washington that is distracted on other issues and also a holdout to what the u.s. government has been trying to achieve, obtaining the cease fire. the u.s. government put out weeks ago, president biden, that there was an israel proposal on the table that could get this done. each time, the israeli negotiators advanced the proposal, netanyahu has often himself at the last minute, said things or done things that punted this forward and drug this out, which contributes to that frustration, that what he's mainly interested in is political survival. i'm not sure that he's going to get the boost he wants out of this, and i'm also not sure that he's going to reach aud