watching the waves go by. that's going to do it for me this hour. thank you for joining us. i'll be back at 1:00 p.m. in for chris jansing. remember, you can catch our show online around the clock and on other platforms. for now, i'm ana cabrera reporting from new york. jose diaz-balart picks up our coverage right now. good morning. 11:00 a.m. eastern, 8:00 a.m. pacific. i'm jose diaz-balart. we begin with the latest on the white house. donald trump and his running mate jd vance will be out on the campaign trail. meantime vice president harris's running mate tim walz will be attending fund raisers in colorado and massachusetts today. this comes one day after walz made his first solo appearance

speaking before a union convention in los angeles. he defended his military service after vance accused him of stolen valor. >> i am damn proud of my service to this country. and i firmly believe you should never denigrate another person's service record. anyone brave enough to put on that uniform for our great country including my opponent, i just have a few words. thank you for your service and sacrifice. >> vance responded, quote, i thank you for your service and sacrifice, but you shouldn't have lied about your service." joining me now are my guests and vaughn hillyard. we heard senator vance's

comments. will that be the end of this conversation? >> in no way do we expect this to be the end of the conversation. it solely gets at the heart of the u.s. military commitment overseas too. we have heard this democratic ticket criticize the former trump administration and its ticket for its commitment, for instance, to ukraine, and whether the u.s. in 2025 would continue to provide military aid, financial assistance as well to ukraine, and so this is where i think could be a welcome conversation from bothet of these men in a vice presidential debate. of course, jd vance served in the marine corps himself, served six years in iraq. for these two men, i think they're both eager to go toe to toe over their record and service, not only militarily, but in public office. if you're tim walz, you were in

the office and as governor. i think it's an expectation that we should continue to see this play out in the next 2 1/2 months, and especially we should expect a debate when that takes place. >> we heard trump is adding a new campaign event to his schedule? >> yes. he has a rally in north carolina and also in will, bury, pennsylvania. we have gotten word he'll be holding another press conference, this one at his bedminster club in new jersey. this is going to be taking place tomorrow afternoon at 4:30 eastern. of course, we all watched the mar-a-lago event play out, which was more than an hour.. kamala harris has not sat down for an interview or taken frequent questions.

he is now somebody trying to contract himself by going before the press in certain circumstances, and this is supposed to go at 4:30 p.m. tomorrow afternoon. jose. >> meanwhile tim walz has his first solo appearance. what do we know about the plans and the remainder of this week? >> we know governor walz and vice president harris are going to push back. he said donald trump wouldn't no things like making a flurry or working with fast food, things people in the middle class have to do. he's going to continue to defend his military record. and as he said, he can't wait to

get on the stage and debate him. that continues to be something he wants to do. we're also learning the harris/walz campaign has a robust calendar ahead. we know governor walz is going to be heading to omaha, nebraska. he's a native of nebraska. he's going to be holding a campaign event. on sunday, there will be a one-day bus tour that's going to feature vice president harris, governor walz, as well as their spouses. four of them, they're going to be going through pennsylvania, starting in pittsburgh, and doing sort of retail type of politics. it's not going to be the big campaign rallies. and then we're hearing, though, the plans are still tentative that there's likely going to be a campaign.

they're going to be traveling to milwaukee, wisconsin, and the dnc is going to be having their event in chicago all week. >> you know, vaughn, a new cook political report shows harris leading in five states, trump ahead in nevada. the race has essentially tied them. what are you hearing from the trump campaign about the state of the race as the momentum clearly appears to be in the vice president's favor? >> the record didn't look like this a month ago. the dynamics of the race has not changed since joe biden was at the top of the ticket. they believe in a couple of the key states that they have a coalition that they know will come out in support of donald trump and that when you look at some of the numbers among some

of the different demographic groups that they believe are crucial to donald trump's pathway to victory, they have not seen those numbers fluctuate. and they believe his favorite ratings are still high enough where ultimately over the course of 2 1/2 months and a couple of debates with kamala harris and a tv ad campaign that looks to help her, they will come in. they believe they are positioned financially as well as at least in polling numbers that they say that they have within some of these cases like pennsylvania, in georgia, in arizona, to believe they're in a good position here and to not look too intensely at some of the numbers here because they believe they're not wholly representative in the way they

see this that thank you both so very much. with us to continue the conversation, megan heys and matthew dowd, chief strategist for the bush-cheney campaign and senior analyst. megan, i want to start with battleground roll. they're going to d.c., which could increase their momentum and give them another bump. is this something they think could co? >> yeah. i think there's a poll that came out yesterday that shows that vice president harris is trusted more than donald trump. these are important things to keep moving the momentum

forward. it shows they have the momentum. they're gaining the support with organizing, financial backing and all of work has them going in a forward momentum. >> how do you orient or focus your campaign going forward to keep that momentum and to translate that momentum into actual votes the 5th of november? >> you know, when the vice president took over, they had over 1,200 employees on the ground in battleground states that are organizing and diej all the hard work. shape f so they will continue to move votes forward and they have people that have volunteered app

more. they need to continue to show what they're going to do to move the country in the next four years and what their vision is. >> matthew, when you see both of these organizations that really inhartd a lot from the president's campaign and them the trump/vance organization. matthew, how do you see those two organizations? how do you think they'll be handling the next couple of weeks? >> i think all are making notes that are reflective of who's at the top of the ticket. one is messaging and how they stay on. in both of those cases, the harris/walz ticket is way ahead. they're much more ahead on

message discipline because trump cannot stay on message. it's not in his capability. two, when you look at it, harris/walz is far ahead. p you have to try to win each day, the harris/walz effort today is much better positioned to win more days. trump has to catch up in both organization, and he has to figure out way not to by himself in message edgings if donald trump is going to be difficult. this is what he said in a conversation with elon musk just the other night. listen to this. listen to this. >> you, you're the greatest cutter. i mean, i look at what you do,

and you walk in and just say you to quit? >> the uaw files a federal labor charge against trump and mosque for threatening anden tile. for example t whole message is i rank out to the rank and file, the union members. is this going to have an impact on those voters? >> the first thing i would say, you don't go to a platform buy elon musk to establish message imaging. that's your first problem. the second thing, he's now does the key straights this. they all this dominant-force i

noticed this morning the teamsters president who seemed alet at times seemed to rip into donald trump over that same exact interview. you talk about being for the people but you seem to take plane in firing people. maybe donald trump thinks it's measured by his campaign, but it's not going well for his campaign. >> megan, listen to this. >> you have to give the local police the authority. our local police know everything about the criminals coming into

our country. they know our names, our middle names, what country they came from. we'll work with local police, and we have to get them out. >> melg err. it ee not only a miechl. bur it's a specific quality position that deportes ed mull. >> a lot of the people coming into our country are not criminals and don't deserve to be treated that way. they're coming here for a better life. no one is saying that there shouldn't be and no one is saying we should be working toward that, which the democrats did try to do. bum it's just degradeling to people. people need to listen to what donald trump is saying. he needs to deal with it.

he is telling people how he feels about people and what he'll do and people do need to listen. >> people do need to listen to what they're sayings because it matters, but is to say say immigration is tougher on the border. i've been hearing this for decades. i wonder, is this a position and policy that matters to people thought what you say. if the only clarity is i'm going

to deport millions of people, is it enough? >> no, it's not enough. first of all, it's not only not enough, but the majority of the people don't waets peep. we've had this conversation. they believe one-on-one hand we ought to have border security. on the other hand they ville hearts and i want to be dats our united states has exceeded the economy of almost every other developed country in our world is because of immigration. that has been the biggest diskrimm naj ear. i think the american public get it.

they fwloemt bleen item. he talked about building a wall, which he never did. he talked about mexico paying for it, which they never did. wee believe in a secure border. that's where the public is that thanks very much for being with us. up next, a report is out p. why u.s. officials say israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu actually complicated taums. . we'll tell you where it is right knew and where it's heading. you're watching. ching.

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in just over 2%. if you include the more volatile food and energy prices in the report, the gain was 0.2% and a 3.2% gain year over year. both of those, again, in line with expectations. what we did is learned a vocal price of what's driving prices in this country. about 90% of the increase in consumer prices on that month over month basis came from shelter costs alone. food prices rose by 0.2%. energy costs were pretty much flat. with food, we saw declines in cereal and bread, but egg prices rose by 5% there. traders are pricing in pretty much a certainty of interest

rate cuts at the fed's policy meeting in september. in fact, if you look at the data, the odds are roughly a 50% chance of a quarter rate cut next month and a 4% rate cut. what that means is if the feds accident cut the rate in september, you could see a lot more volatility ahead. but the beauty of it is they're going to have a chance to make more comments when the symposium comes in jackson hole. there's going to be a chance to see that and make public comment. right now the middle east is on alert as iran promises to

push ahead with a retaliatory strike. iran is still deciding how and when. meanwhile hamas is saying it already agreed to a cease-fire last month. joining us from jerusalem is richard engel. where do things stand right now? >> reporter: so prime minister netanyahu's office issued a statement a short while ago that it will send a delegation for talks that will take place in doha, qatar. they're telling nbc news the negotiations are still scheduled

to go ahead. hamas has said it's not going to send a delegate at least at this point. hamas's position is that this is a waste of time, unnecessary, and just an attempt to renesh goat yat what was any do itted in the past. the talks are going ahead in some capacity, but there's not a great deal of optimism. if you look at the overall situation, you can look at it in two ways. it's so risky right now and so much volatility that a cease-fire success is impossible to predict or you can look at it the other way, because there is so much risk and because iran could strike at any moment and says that it will, that there is incentives for negotiations

reach a cease-fire and agreement. it feels like we're at an inflection point in which these negotiations are critical because you either have progress or the algttive could be a greater escalation of this conflict. >> richard engel in jerusalem. thank you very much. coming up, one month after the attempted assassination of former president trump nb kr's nbc's morgan. >> do you think it could inner jazz christians in a different way? >> a thousand percent. way? >> a thousand percent. e treated? stop typing. start talking to a specialized urologist. because it could be peyronie's disease, or pd. it's a medical condition where there is a curve

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28 past the hour. it's been a little more than a month since a gunman tried the assassinate former president donald trump at a pennsylvania rally. for many of his supporters, that attack may have changed the way they see his candidacy and second term in office. joining us, nbc's morgan radford has been talking to those supporters. many of them evangelicals? >> many of them evangelicals. one of the things they explained is this assassination attack has

been top of mind with some of the supporters. they call it divine intervention. you can see it in the t-shirts and outfits they wear at these rallies. even more,s it's enforced a belief that existed well before. the former president has a role to play when it comes to religious policy right here on earth. >> we will fight. >> reporter: from the pulpit to the political stage -- >> give thanks and glory to god for sparing the life of president donald trump. >> reporter: there's a new type of language surrounding former president donald trump's campaign. >> divine intervention. >> god has his hand on him. >> reporter: doubling down after an assassination attempt in butler, pennsylvania, in which trump survived with only a minor ear injury. >> trump is alive.

>> from items to social media. the white evangelical supporters supported him at 81%. now it could strengthen his popularity amongst religious. they talked about everything from their goals for a second trump term to their fears if he doesn't win. >> we need to protect the babies. >> it's not logical for a man to pretend to be a woman and to compete at any sport. >> i'm ready for the bible hate speech. >> you believe the people on the left will vote -- >> reporter: allison painter says she was on the groulkds on january 6th. >> sow were talking to an insur

rexist. >> i was. >> we need to have christ back in our country. >> what does that look like to have christ back in our country? what does it look like politically? >> just like louisiana. put the ten commandments back in our classrooms. that's -- we need that. >> reporter: shane winnings is a pastor and ceo of promise keepers, a men's ministry group. he says there's a bigger message. >> my message to christians is if you don't want to be involved in politics, that's fine, but politics wants to be involved in you. >> do you think this has re-energized him? >> yes. >> reporter: while more than 40% of republicans believe trump was anoijted by god in a 2020 survey, that number dropped to just 18% three years later. >> one of the reason i whee we see trump and many others in this orbit using religious

language and specifically going to talk to christians and christian audiences is to try to reinforce those connections. >> connections in reconnecting with trump supporters. >> so if trump has been dividely protected, does that mean he has to listen to congress or man made entities? >> yes, he will. he can listen to himself. >> even if it's against the will of the american people or the supreme court or democrats? >> yes. >> so whatever for president trump? >> yeah. >> to put this in context, nearly 63% of americans consider themselves to be christians. it's important to note that not all christians are evangelicals. affect, they're only at 6%.

this is a group that's gotten much more republican in the last 30 years. their turnout will be key for the campaign in november. >> morgan read ford rms name thin. up next, ernesto is in puerto rico. humtder biden sought help for his company back in 2016. you're watching jose diaz-balart reports on msnbc. reports on msnbc safe step walk-in tub, you'll receive a free shower package. yes, a free shower package! and if you call today, you'll also receive 15% off your entire order. now you can enjoy the best of both worlds! the therapeutic benefits of a warm, soothing bath that can help increase mobility, relieve pain, boost energy,

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38 past the hour. near this hour, ernesto has strengthened into a hurricane as it takes aim at puerto rico. residents there are bracing for a dangerous storm surge and nearly a foot of rain. puerto rico's power grid is already fragile. the storm has knocked out power for more than 635,000 people, according to the power company there. joining us now, nbc meteorologist angie lassman. angie, good morning. where is ernesto and where is it headed? >> it's continuing to strengthen. we're going to see that happen over the next 24 to 36 hours. it's pulling away from puerto rico. notice the rain is still crossing over the island. it's still going to be a problem for them on the island. right now winds up to officially

75 miles an hour.. it's category 1 hurricane strength. we're going to slowly start to see this take more of a northerly turn as the day goes on. in the meantime we have tropical storm warnings for the virgin islands and puerto rico. you can see the rain starting to pull away. notice the heavy rain still problematic at this time. as we head through the rest of the day, additional rainfall. by the time we get through the rainfall, 10 to 16 inches in spots. as we look ahead to the next couple of days, we're going to continue as i said to see the system strength. it will be out over the open waters, likely becoming a category 2. and then take aim at bermuda. notice the path it takes. by the time we're talking, the weekend for bermuda, we'll see

those specific impacts come close here as you head into the weekend. if you're someone who heads by the coast, you're going to have to watch for the large swells, the dangerous curve. that will last at least through our weekend, ho e say. >> angie, as someone who has been able to learn from you for years, i know how much you know about hurricanes and the hurricane season. you've often talked about the east part of the hurricane being the dirty side, the most ferocious side of it. is that the side that's hitting puerto rico? >> yeah. that is oftentimes, especially that northeast quadrant. if you look at the forward motion of the hurricane, jose, the front quadrant is where we see the worst of it. it's where we see the worst of the tornados and heaviest rain. that's what's going to pull away from puerto rico and we'll start

to see better conditions, but we estill are going to see lots of rain. >> appreciate it. after the break, we'll take a look at the presidential race in florida. we'll speak with debbie wasserman schultz. congresswoman, always a pleasure to see you. we'll chat with you in just a minute. just a minute with wegovy®, i lost 35 pounds. and some lost over 46 pounds. ♪ ♪ and i'm keeping the weight off. wegovy® helps you lose weight and keep it off. i'm reducing my risk. wegovy® is the only fda-approved weight-management medicine that's proven to reduce risk of major cardiovascular events in adults with known heart disease and with either obesity or overweight. wegovy® shouldn't be used with semaglutide or glp-1 medicines. don't take wegovy® if you or your family had medullary thyroid cancer, multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2,

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a term policy? even a term policy! find out if you're sitting on a goldmine. call coventry direct today at the number on your screen, or visit coventrydirect.com. 46 past the hour. florida has gone from a purple state to a pretty solidly red state in the past couple of

election cycles, but a new tv poll finds donald trump leading vice president harris by five points in the sunshine state within the margin of error. with us now is florida democratic congresswoman debbie wasserman schultz. i thank you for your time. what do you think are the key issues that are going to decide the state of florida on the november 5th elections? >> well, jose, it's not just that suffolk poll yesterday. today there's an fau poll out that has the race closing to within three, so the suffolk poll is just outside the margin of error. the fau pohl is on the outside. i'm telling you. don't sleep on florida. we have been a purple state in every recent presidential election. obviously people are looking at the 2022 results.

floridians are absolutely concerned about maga extremism. they want to make sure the continued focus on improving the economy, creating jobs, lowering the cost of prescription drugs, making sure that the government double interfere with our reproductive health care positions, we have amendment 4 on the ballot that would restore reproductive rights to women and get government out of the bedroom and out of that decision-making, and that has overwhelming support. so we're going to -- we're going to surprise some people as we continue to move forward, and donald trump focuses on, you know, his mass deportation plan, which he's committed to doing as soon as he takes office. reinstating tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires, and focusing on the most extreme policies, which is not where florida voters are. >> i want to ask you about some of the issues that are facing

our world today. as we speak, israel is bracing for a retaliatory strike from iran. what do you, congresswoman, say to the israelis and the regime? >> we need to make sure that we have peace in this region, and that is all that israel and the united states for that matter hasser wanted. there would be no war. there would be no conflict if israel's enemies, sworn enemies, whether it's iran, hezbollahing hamas who have sworn to israel's destruction and to the killing of jews as part of their charters and iran as part of their mission if they just stand down and decide they want to live in peace and peace would return to the region. unfortunately that's not their goals.

president biden and vice president harris continue to work with hamas and qatar. they want to resolve this, bring the hostages home and end it on israel's doorstep and make sure that palestinians living in gaza can be free from hamas's threat. relentless pursuit of that goal is absolutely essential. >> now, i want to ask you about something that is happening so close to us here in the united states. you actually coauthored a bipartisan authorization on venezuela, calling for new u.s. sanctions on the maduro regime. what do you want to see happen, and how do you see that situation ending in venezuela? >> well, as someone who represents of the largest districts that venezuelan americans live in in the country, i'm focused on helping my friends and neighbors ensure there's a free and fair election in their country of origin, that

was -- whose transparency needs to be revealed. maduro immediately, obviously, started throwing the cloak over the result -- the true election results. i'm glad president biden, vice president harris recognized the rightful winner, gonzales that won the election. we need to keep that pressure up. the resolution i co-lead with my colleague is critical to up that pressure. then we also need to pass my voice act, which republicans didn't bring to the floor, to put sanctions on the supreme court and the electoral council in venezuela. we need to make sure it becomes harder for the maduro regime to stay in office and we get them back to the table to transition this regime to a democracy and make sure gonzales is able to be inaugurated as the true and

rightful president of venezuela. >> i appreciate your time. thank you for being with us. >> thank you so much. up next, what we are learning from records surrounding president biden's son hunter. we will talk to the reporter who broke the story next. you are watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. [laughter] [laughter and giggling] got real serious for a moment. —okay. —whoa! [indistinct chatters] [laughter and giggling] [laughter and giggling] -cologuard®? -cologuard. cologuard! -screen for colon cancer. -at home, like you want. -you the man! cologuard is for people 45+ at average risk, not high risk. false positive and negative results may occur.

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56 past the hour. this morning, new reaction as "the new york times" reporting

hunter biden sought assistance from the u.s. government on behalf of the ukrainian company. hunter wrote at least one letter to the u.s. ambassador in italy asking for help. his attorney telling nbc news, no meeting occurred, no project materialized, no request for anything in the u.s. was ever sought. only an introduction in italy was requested. a white house spokesperson said president biden was not aware when he was vice president about this outreach. joining us now "the new york times" reporter who broke the story. ken, great seeing you. what happened here? >> hunter biden was on the board of this ukrainian gas committee. it was seeking to expand internationally, including a line of business that focussed on geothermal energy. italy is a hotbed of this.

hunter biden and other officials reached out to a number of people in the italian government and the tuscan government and the u.s. government seeking to move this process along. what we got was correspondence showing that hunter biden had written to the u.s. ambassador to italy at the time seeking an introduction to the italian officials who could help alleviate these regulatory hurdles to this project. it raised concerns in the embassy when hunter biden reached out. both because this company is a ukrainian company, not a u.s. company, the u.s. government and its embassies through the commerce department does try to help u.s. companies and u.s. business people do business with foreign countries. that was not the

i talked to the former ambassador. he said that the embassy tried to avoid the perception that it was pulling strings on behalf of well-connected people. this would certainly fit into that category. as you mentioned, this didn't yield a meeting. nonetheless, just the outreach in and of itself was notable. that's why we wrote the story. >> ken, why are you finding out about this now? >> that's a great question. we had sought these documents some time ago. we reached out to officials in the u.s. government during president biden's campaign in 2019 and 2020. then after he s elected, we filed a freedom of information act request seeking information about hunter biden's outreach to various components of the state department, including the u.s. embassy in romania. these documents, showing the outreach to the u.s. embassy in italy, were ensnared in that

production. this is now three years -- more than three years after we filed the original request. certainly, there's a tendency, i think, among republicans particularly, to want to read into the timing the state department released these documents after joe biden dropped his re-election campaign. there's a slow moving bureaucracy behind this that explains the delay. >> thank you very much. appreciate your time. that wraps up the hour for me. i'm jose diaz-balart. he will be back at 2:00 p.m. eastern filling in for chris jansing. you can reach me on social media. thank you for the privilege of your time. andrea mitchell picks up with more news right now. right now on "andrea mitchell reports," tim walz in his first solo appearance since joining the ticket, fiercely defending his military service from republican attacks.