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.

>> i'm going to say it again as clearly as i can. i am damn proud of my service to this country. anyone brave enough to put on that uniform, including my opponent, i just have a few simple words. thank you for your service and sacrifice. former president trump campaigns in north carolina, his campaign says to talk about the economy. iran vowing to retaliation for israel's presumed assassination of the cease-fire negoti negotiator. america is asserting diplomatic pressure to prevent a war. >> we will see what iran does and we will see what happens if there's any attack. i'm not giving up. the president of the naacp joining me on how to counteract a new georgia law that could impact voters in predominantly black districts. ♪♪

good day, everyone. i'm andrea mitchell in washington. the road show to the democratic national convention is taking shape with kamala harris and tim walz planning to hit the road on a bus tour through the critical battleground of pennsylvania this weekend. after walz campaigned in nebraska, trying to nail down the reliable democratic electoral vote in the state of his birth. this as donald trump rallies in north carolina today. vance is heading to michigan while continuing to accuse walz of lying about his military service in combat. walz defended himself in his first public response on the subject at his first solo campaign outing yesterday. >> anyone brave enough to put on that uniform for our great country, including my opponent, i have a few simple words. thank you for your service and sacrifice.

>> walz did serve in the army national guard for 24 years, including overseas, but never in a war zone. the harris campaign says walz misspoke when he made these comments at a gun reform event in 2018. >> we can make sure those weapons of war that i carried in war is the only place where those weapons are at. >> vance is not letting up. responding to walz by writing -- >> joining us now, mike memoli and yasmine abdutala. vance could bring up the service again at the campaign stops today. they seem to be focused in on that.

it's an echo of the swift voting of john kerry back in 2004. how worried is the harris campaign these attacks could stick? >> reporter: of course, it's important to remember that this was an abbreviated running mate service with an abbreviated vet of all the potential vp candidates. as now tim walz is on the ticket for only just over a week at this point, it's clear there are going to be more comments like this that surface, both from critics of the harris-walz ticket, but also comments of his own will come out through more press coverage as well. as i have been talking to harris advisors as well as people close to governor walz, they say it's important for them to come out quickly and try to address these issues as they surface as quickly and forthrightly as possible. as it relates to walz's service in the national guard, there are two interesting components to this. one is the timing, of course, of his eventual retirement from the national guard. yes, he had filed his candidacy paperwork to run for congress

ahead of learning officially his unit would be deploying. remember the context of this moment in 2005 when the situation in iraq was deteriorating. more and more national guard units were being deployed. there was an awareness this was possible. walz adviors want to by respectful that this was a complicated time. he won his seat because of the opposition growing in this country to the war in iraq at this point. they have to be aggressive in counteracting the criticism that they are getting from -- especially from j.d. vance. to see governor walz out there to speak respectfully of vance's service was something that was intentional. they are trying to neutralize the issue moving forward. >> donald trump taking his promise for the largest deportation in u.s. history a step further when he asked how he would accomplish this.

this is from spectrum news yesterday. >> you have to give the local police the authority. our police are incredible, law enforcement. we will give them immunity. they are always being tortured by the radical left who wants to de-fund them. >> that is clearly red meat for the base. he hasn't explained how he would pay for it nor bringing up that he almost single handedly spiked that immigration bill a few months ago. also, he is speaking about the economy in north carolina. new numbers show inflation dropping below 3% for the first time since 2021. he did issue on truth social a misleading graphic showing it going up and it's coming down. that's good news for harris. >> it is. vice president harris has inherited this campaign in many ways at an opportune time.

economic indicators have been improving over the last several months are reaching a point where she can really tout the economy and the biden-harris administration's accomplishments on the economy while trying to distance herself from some of the more unpopular parts of the way voters associated president biden with high inflation and unaffordable costs. in terms of trump's immigration comment, it will be interesting to see how the vice president chooses to address those. she has taken this approach on immigration where she has, as you noted, talked about how republicans -- there's been surging migration and there isn't better border control measures because republicans did not support a bipartisan border control measure that came up in the senate earlier this year. as you said, after president trump told republicans not to support it because he did not want to deliver president biden a win. she hasn't had public events yet this week. we will see her tomorrow with

president biden. then, on friday, in north carolina where she rolls out her economic policy. it will be interesting to see how she chooses to respond to that. that's fairly alarming rhetoric saying law enforcement would be unfettered in how they could -- and unchecked in how they could deal with immigrants. that's red meat for trump's base. the bigger question is whether that appeals to anyone outside of trump's base. immigration is a key issue. trump does seem to be using more extreme rhetoric on a number of areas in recent weeks. >> mike, "the new york times" reported that hunter biden sought assistance from the u.s. ambassador for italy for a lucrative energy project while joe biden was vice president. he was not aware that the son was reaching out to the embassy in italy. hunter's attorney says nothing materialized. he was simply asking for a meeting. is this more fodder for republicans? >> reporter: i think we can certainly expect that congressman combcomber, among

others, will be quick to try to seize on this when congress does return. the reporting from "the new york times" is interesting. it doesn't necessarily add new information to our understanding of what was already a very difficult political situation for the president and his family. there was this understanding that during a fraught moment for the biden family, in the years following beau's death, that hunter was engaged in business dealings that made things uncomfortable for the vice president's office that they were encroaching upon foreign policy matters. all indications based on the reporting in this case are that despite hunter reaching out to the italian u.s. ambassador to italy in this case, that the situation was handled appropriately by the embassy staff there. nothing did come of this as hunter biden stated.

it reminds us that hunter does face another trial which will put him in the headlines in early september. of course, has his own sentencing from the previous conviction. >> all painful politically and personally for the first family. thank you both so much. back on the trail. in 90 seconds, we will turn to the trump campaign. the former president makes his way to north carolina today. you are watching "andrea mitchell reports." this is msnbc. this is msnbc.

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later this afternoon, donald trump is holding a rally in asheville, north carolina, to talk about the economy. his second visit to the tar heel state in three weeks. joining me now from asheville is nbc news correspondent garrett haake. an important state, a state that has gone back and forth and that donald trump thinks he can hold. give us a preview of what we expect at the rally. >> reporter: look, this is a critical state for republicans, a state they have held since 2008. it's the second biggest prize on the battleground map after pennsylvania. a critical place for donald trump to deliver what his campaign believes is a critical message, trying to focus on the economy. trying to tie kamala harris to what has been persistently high inflation. today's cpi report notwithstanding. so many republicans believe that if donald trump can stay within the bumpers and stay focussed on

the economy and stay focused on tieing kamala harris to joe biden and to joe biden's policy, he will be president of the united states again. he has proven thus far unable to stay that focused. today's speech explicitly billed as an economic speech by the campaign, buttressed by press releases and digital media components, all backing up that argument, feels to me like the campaign giving him all the scaffolding it can to force him into this critical talking point, critical issue set as we start to turn towards the home stretch of the campaign. >> trump won north carolina by only 75,000 votes in 2020. this is a very important -- obviously, an important state. is it going to be difficult -- you go ahead. one more question after. >> reporter: yeah, we have seen him here quite a bit. i expect we will continue to see him here more.

vance has been here quite a bit. his campaign knows their easiest path to 270 electoral votes is to hold on to north carolina, win back georgia, another state he lost by a vanishingly small margin, and win pennsylvania. if they win those three states, the rest can be blue. donald trump will be president. expect a heavy focus on north carolina for him. a state that he believes should behave more culturally like south carolina or like alabama, when it's trended more towards democrats, at least demographically in recent years. democrat fighting the demographic shift of north carolina. again, a state that has been republican in national elections since 2008 when obama won. >> do you expect you will see the lieutenant governor with him? >> reporter: it's a great question. we have asked the campaign and the republican governor's association for information. this is a state that has had democratic governors. has one even now despite the

fact that it's in the republican column for presidential races. being able to tailgate off donald trump would be helpful to the lieutenant governor here. no confirmation yesterday on whether he will be here or speaking. >> garrett haake, we will be watching. thank you. joining us now is brendan buck, former senior advisor to house speakers boehner and ryan. last night haley had blunt words for the trump campaign on fox. the way it's been focusing on kamala harris. let's listen. >> quit whining about her. the campaign is not going to win talking about crowd sizes. it's not going to win talking about what race kamala harris is. it's not going to win talking about whether she's dumb. it's not -- you candidate win on -- you can't win on those things. >> it's a message a lot are saying or thinking.

>> or within the maga crowd. she's right. i don't know why she's surprised. everybody seems to be screaming at him to stay focused and talk about the things that people care about. he is the most undisciplined candidate any of us have ever seen. he must be a nightmare to manage as a campaign. the issue is not that he doesn't talk about the economy. of course, he does. it's not that he doesn't talk about immigration. of course, he does. the issue is that he gets so distracted by these other things that none of the key messages are breaking through. he can't bring himself accept the fact someone is getting more attention to him. his ego won't allow him to move past those things. as long as kamala harris has energetic crowds and shows momentum and a sense of joy on her campaign, it's going to drive him crazy. he will continue to keep stepping in these things. it's a winnable race for him. i question whether escapable of

doing what's necessary to win. >> later today in all critical north carolina, it's an open question as to whether donald trump is going to campaign with that very controversial lieutenant governor. he is a holocaust denier. he opposes women's rights to vote. he called school shooting survivors, spoiled, angry, know it all children. this is extreme by any standards. he is running for governor. are they going to be together on the trail today? >> you would think the campaign would be smart enough not to have him there. at the same time, this is the consequence of their own making. donald trump is the reason why this person is at the top of the governors race for the party. there are countless seats that republicans have lost because we put up ridiculous candidates.

this is another situation where there's a completely winnable race, the governor of north carolina should be someone in play for republicans. we keep nominating these fringe characters. it's because donald trump normalized these things, made it possible, made the republican party that i have proudly belonged to for a long time look completely foreign. we don't recognize it because these are the people that excite people these days. i don't have a lot of sympathy for him. his campaign would be smart to keep him away. donald trump probably doesn't care about things like that. >> brendan buck, as always, thank you very much. storm clouds we are keeping an eye on. ernesto strengthening off the coast of puerto rico. expected to hit bermuda saturday. puerto rico was slammed with rain and flooding, leaving hundreds of thousands without power. we follow the storm's track as it heads north. possibly towards the

mid-atlantic and northeast. we will bring you update throughout the day here on msnbc. next, how the ukrainian military's advance into russia is impacting vladimir putin's war tactics. you are watching "andrea mitchell reports." this is msnbc. [coughing] copd hasn't been pretty. it's tough to breathe and tough to keep wondering if this is as good as it gets. but trelegy has shown me that there's still beauty and breath to be had. because with three medicines in one inhaler, trelegy keeps my airways open and prevents future flare-ups. and with one dose a day, trelegy improves lung function so i can breathe more freely all day and night. trelegy won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. do not take trelegy more than prescribed. trelegy may increase your risk of thrush, pneumonia, and osteoporosis.

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russia, announcing today its forces advanced farther into the kursk region. it's the first time there has been a foreign incursion into russia since world war ii. ukraine releasing this video they say showing russian soldiers surrendering earlier this month. nbc news has not been able to independently -- there's the video. can't independently verify that video. ukraine says it controls 74 villages in that region, close to ukraine's northern border. the state department says this does not violate u.s. policy against cross-border raiding because ukraine is defending itself from russian attacks launched from that area. moscow has begun withdrawing troops from ukraine, bringing them back home to fight off kyiv's offensive. joining me now is the former u.s. ambassador to russia, john sullivan. he was ambassador under both presidents biden and trump. he was the u.s. deputy of state. his new book, which is terrific,

is "midnight in moscow, a memoir from the front line of russia's war against the west." i cannot tell folks how great this is. >> you are very kind. >> just the back story of what it's like to be u.s. ambassador in russia and actually behind the front lines when we did not know whether nato and the u.s. were going to get involved. all the talk about the prisoner exchange. i want to start on today. going across the border, ukraine has been complaining loudly for two year news to that they had their hands cuffed because they could not retaliate against raids from the north. >> right. >> finally, the u.s. is saying, okay, which nato allies have been saying they should have been able to do all along. >> listen, i've been sharing since i heard they crossed the border in large numbers, they have seized a large amount of

territory. it's been a huge personal, political and strategic setback for putin. he is severely embarrassed by this. he had to address it, declare an emergency. pro-kremlin commentators and state media are asking, how could this have happened? the soldiers that you saw in that video -- i know it hasn't been verified. but i understand large numbers of russian troops have been killed, taken prisoner. what's significant is, these are conscripts. they weren't sent to ukraine. they and their families were told, you are conscripts. you don't have training. you are not going to ukraine. now they are getting killed and captured in russia. by the way, under russian law, right now they are not entitled to special compensation that they would get if they were kill order captured on the other side of the border in ukraine. political problem for putin. >> the russian people aren't told there's a war. they are told it's a special operation.

>> a special military operation. >> they arrest people who say it's a war. they arrest journalists who say it's a war, as we know. let me ask you about putin. you have sat across from him. you first met him when you were credentialed. >> right. >> i want to ask you about that. how do you think he is going to react to this and the embarrassment? >> it reminds me of what happened last year. severe embarrassment. significant threat to putin. he sort of -- he dismantled, disabled the threat. but he didn't forget what had happened. took his revenge by killing. he will push ukrainians out. the significant thing is, that's going to distract. he is going to have to remove troops from ukraine to do that. it's going to take the pressure

off ukraine in ukrainian territory. >> you describe colorfully when you first printed your credentials, sizing up putin, the former kgb guy, you described him as a mafia figure. >> yes. >> like paulie in -- >> the narrator says, big paulie moves slowly because big paulie didn't have to move fast for anybody. that's putin's approach to life, to his status as the president of the russian federation. he keeps u.s. presidents, the pope waiting. >> he has this policy of aggressively arresting americans, detaining them, trying them, keeping them. you had to deal most memorably with paul whelan and trevor

reed. how was it to visit them? when trevor got out by paul, who was sentenced to 16 years, we have seen the excitement, the thrill of whelan's return just two weeks ago at joint base andrews and his reuniting with his family. what was it like? we see him with the president. what was it like to have to -- >> that was hard for paul. it was hard for his family. he at that point had been detained for years before -- had been arrested long before -- >> both former marines. >> both former marines. trevor was released. trevor was upset when he learned on the plane that paul wasn't going to be coming with him. paul whelan had to serve almost six years, about five and a half years as an innocent american. it used to infuriate me as the u.s. ambassador and u.s. citizen

that the russian government would target americans, would target us based on who we are, our citizenship. then i would stop and think, you know, they often treat their own people just as badly. they are equal opportunity abusers of civil rights. >> we have marc fogel left behind, among others. >> thank you for mentioning that. marc was a teacher in moscow where our embassy children went to school. he was a beloved teacher at the school. he was arrested before brittney griner, basically for the same charge. she got a nine-year sentence. marc got a 14-year sentence. i'm really concerned about marc and his family. we have had americans released. it's like paul's situation. he is left behind. not forgotten. i know there are many, including me, who are advocating for getting him out. >> again, you dedicate this to

your wonderful wife grace who developed cancer while you were continuing to serve under joe biden. of course, you lost her. she was extraordinary. you are extraordinary. >> thank you. >> i can't thank you enough. the book is "midnight in moscow." it's a great read. >> thank you. coming up, dead heat. new battleground polling putting new pressure on the trump campaign. stay with us. this is "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc.

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you are looking at former president trump moments ago. this is palm beach, florida. he is voting early in florida's primary ahead of his trip later today to battleground north carolina where he will have a rally. we will keep track of him. if he comes out and speaks, we will share it with you. he didn't talk going in, as you can see. weeks after kamala harris replaced president trump -- president biden, rather, on the ticket, to run against former president trump, new polling of the battleground states from the cook political report shows in a head-to-head matchup, the vice president leading in arizona, michigan, north carolina, pennsylvania and wisconsin. the two still are tied in georgia. donald trump leads in nevada. these numbers are all within the

margin of error. joining me now is nbc news senior political editor mark murray, republican strategist and former communication director doug high and donna edwards. mark, what do the numbers tell you? usual caution flag by campaign standards, before the dnc, this is still early. it's early in kamala harris' campaign. there's the novelty of her and tim walz. what does it tell you in terms of trends? >> this is a new race. you end up looking at a situation where in the past cook political report polling, in the margin of error, you have a situation where donald trump was the one with sizable leads in nevada, north carolina and arizona. we end up looking where harris now not only in the three big battlegrounds but might be able to play in north carolina and

georgia and arizona. you make a good point. this is still in the three-week honeymoon phase. it's interesting to see what the political terrain looks like whenever she faces her first real adversity and the first real attacks coming from the trump campaign. >> the attacks against vice president already. donna, they have to make it work for them. they have the potential problem of protesters, pro-palestinian protesters and others who might be gathering in chicago. what are the big challenges? how does she organize around that? >> look, i think that there's no question, especially as you see it in the polls, that the trend lines are moving toward harris and walz in this campaign. there are only a few weeks left. this is a very shortened time frame. i think what it means is that the harris-walz campaign has to put together a ground game to make sure they can add that on top of what they are doing in

the media. capitalize on what is undoubtedly going to be another bounce coming out of the convention and really make that work for them. if i were in the donald trump camp, i would be worried. all the trends seem to be flowing toward vice president harris at this point. >> doug, the labor vote is so important. he would know how donald trump has done well in pro-labor western pennsylvania, in michigan, other critical states. looking ahead to that, he had this conversation with elon musk. i don't know how to describe it. he praised what musk and others have done to punish striking workers. let's listen.

>> how does that play? the uaw have filed an unfair labor practices complaint with the national labor relations board for that. >> this is consistent with donald trump in two ways. he likes saying, you are fired. also, donald trump gets himself into trouble because he has, as you termed it, meandering conversations. as we have this conversation about when is kamala harris going to do an interview, who would she do it with? part of the risk that political people have is -- candidates and their communications people will emphasize, the friendlier interviews tend to be the harder ones to do. more mistakes happen because you are relaxed. if you are going up against andrea mitchell, you are scared for anything that can happen. >> this is a friendly set. >> if you sit down with somebody who will throw softballs, you relax. that's where you make mistakes.

donald trump was thinking out loud because he was relaxed. i have seen it time and time again. >> donna, when we talk about the campaign going forward, how are they handling the attack -- initial attack, biggest attack so far against the running mate tim walz on him having misspoken in 2018 about his military service? they're saying that is akin to bragging about his service -- false claims of valor. >> you are talking to a military brat here. i can tell you, among military families, service members, this is not going to play very well at all, i think. attacking a 24-year veteran of the national guard. i think at the end of the day, this is going to be much ado about nothing and could end up alienating voters that trump definitely needs to have closer

to his camp. i heard tim walz's defense of his own record. he is the best defender of his time in the service. >> donna, speaking of donald trump, here he is. >> we appreciate it. we think we're doing very well. we just had a poll that shows we're doing very well. we have an interesting couple of months ahead of us. i'm going to north carolina right now. we're going to speak on the economy. it's basically a speech on what's going on with our economy. it's gone very bad under this group of people with inflation, with the economy itself. so many other things. the other thing we're going to talk on is crime. if you look at the migrant crime in new york, it's been out of control. it is everywhere, as i predicted a long time ago. we will talk a little bit about crime. all of the people that have come into our country illegally, millions and millions.

i think it's close to 20 million, maybe more than 20 million. they shouldn't have been allowed to come here. it's causing tremendous problems, death. it's been a horror show. nobody has seen anything like it. it's only going to get worse. they should not have allowed this to happen to our country. i'm leaving for north carolina. do you have a question? >> yes, sir. what has the fbi told you about the hack on the campaign? >> they are looking at it. they're doing it very professionally. it looks like it's iran. iran doing it. iran is no friend of mine. a lot of bad signals get sent. looks like it's iran doing it. the reason is because i was strong on iran. i was protecting people in the middle east that maybe they aren't so happy about that. that's what it seems to be, iran. >> is that what the fbi told you? >> i don't want to say exactly. it's iran.

>> there's evidence of people who were there who have proven things false. >> i can't say who was there. i can tell you about ours. we have the biggest crowds in the history of politics. we have crowds that nobody has ever seen before. we continue to have that. we have a level of enthusiasm that nobody has seen before. they want to make america great again. that's what's happening. we're going to make it great again. we have a failing nation. we're in a failing nation. becoming a third world nation. we're not going to let that happen. thank you very much. thank you, everybody. >> donald trump repeating, first of all, his claims about crowd size, calling it a failing nation, trying to cast the economy in a bad light. people are feeling inflation is a problem. here with mark and doug and donna. mark, let's talk about that. inflation is -- they were good numbers today. it's coming down. there's going to be a fed cut that everybody is predicting.

the size is now the question. the numbers are better. but it's the biggest problem. and immigration is a big problem. those two points he is making. however, he is saying it's iran and that they -- if they did hack him, it's because of his past postures. there's now indication that the democrats were also spearfished by whoever did this and likely iran. >> what struck me was, he said, i'm going to north carolina to talk about the issues, to talk about the economy, to talk about crime, to talk about immigration. that is what a lot of republican strategists have been saying, please talk about the issues. >> then what happened? >> then, all good plans go out the window sometimes. we will see if he follows the script. it's interesting that he says he is going to do it. you are right. when you look at the overall economic numbers, the jobs that are created, gdp, there are a lot of good things for the biden-harris administration to

tout. where republicans have been going at is the the cost of living. that has been going down. any polling that's out there, including in the new cook political report battleground polls, you end up having donald trump with an advantage on the economy and cost of living. however, this is interesting to me, harris actually has been able to cut into that lead more than biden has. that leads me to believe in a lot of ways that this race before joe biden's exit was shaping up to be a referendum on him. you remove him from the equation, all of a sudden, that economic picture looks better for democrats. >> doug, you want to weigh in. >> republicans are stopping the term inflation. they talk about costs. inflation is a term we use in washington and new york. people in asheville, north carolina, they don't use that. what you see republicans doing at the rnc and various campaigns is, here is what gas costs, here is what milk costs, here is what an apartment cost on january 20, 2021 and here is what it costs now. those numbers are bad for the

harris campaign. it's what trump should be emphasizing every day. he can go in any meandering direction he chooses. >> donna, harris is still, as doug and mark have pointed out -- she's underwater on the economy. he gets more credit from all voters on the economy than she does. >> except that you are beginning to see -- i think in some of the battleground state polls, things that were attributable to biden are not necessarily, at least in voters' minds, attributable to kamala harris. i think there's still a story to be told here by kamala harris and her team about the economy, about where they want to take the economy. those messages do slowly but surly seem to be seeping through. i think this was always going to be a close election. it's going to be a close election. i think nobody should take their foot on the brakes, least of all

the harris-walz team. >> thanks to you, donna, to doug and to mark. a programming note on politics. i will be in chicago. "andrea mitchell reports" will be live from the democratic national convention in chicago next week. don't miss our very special coverage. coming up, the threat level. iran still threatening to retaliate against israel. can they be deterred by the u.s. military buildup and diplomatic pressure? you are watching "andrea mitchell reports." this is msnbc. c. what causes a curve down there?

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here's to getting better with age. here's to beating these two every thursday. help fuel today with boost high protein, complete nutrition you need, and the flavor you love. so, here's to now... now available: boost max! in the middle east, cease-fire and hostage release talks are scheduled for tomorrow in qatar. hamas says it will not be there. accusing israeli prime minister netanyahu of stalling to but ha it will not be there accusing israeli prime minister netanyahu of stalling to keep the war going. israel says it's hamas that's stalling by continuing to hold hostages in gaza. u.s. officials say netanyahu has introduced new conditions

complicating those talks aimed at freeing the hostages. iran is rejecting calls from the u.s. and europe not to retaliate against israel for the assassination of hamas leader ismail haniyeh in tehran two weeks ago. a senior u.s. official telling nbc news that iran is still deciding how and when to respond. and joining me now from tell kyiv is nbc news international correspondent raf sanchez. raf, everyone has been on alert. it's been painful for israel, certainly painful for gaza, which has been under continuous attack in khan yunis and other areas that have been repeatedly attacked. what do we expect from the talks if they do get underway tomorrow? we understand that cia director bill burns is going, israel is going to send a delegation, but hamas, are they going to send anyone? >> reporter: so andrea, hamas is saying they are not going to send anybody to these talks. hamas's position is we've made our demands clear, and now the

mediators need to find a way to get benjamin netanyahu to agree to them. as you know, andrea, the format of these talks has never been israeli negotiators on one side of the table, hamas negotiators on the other side of the table, and they're talking to each other. instead, it has been separate rooms, often separate countries at separate times. the fact that hamas is not showing up in person to qatar tomorrow is not necessarily fatal to the talks, diplomat briefed on the situation says the mediating countries, the u.s., egypt, and qatar expect to brief hamas on the outcome of that interaction with the israelis before hand, but that does not mean, andrea, that expectations are high, and the white house has really been trying to set expectations here saying it is not like the mediators are going to emerge from the room after several hours of talks on thursday with a signed agreement in their hands to end the fighting in gaza and to get those hostages out. but as you said, this is a high

stakes moment. cia director bill burns will be there and the hope is to at least make some progress. andrea. >> and we've seen the impact also on this extended war in gaza, the heartbreaking video of those four-day old twins, their mother according to witnesses killed by israeli strikes. what else do we know? there's the father. he had just left the apartment to get their birth certificates. >> reporter: yeah, that's exactly right, the father's name is mohammad. this is a family from northern gaza, and he had gone out to get birth certificates for his newly born children just four days old, and according to people on the ground in gaza, he went back to his apartment to find it had been hit by an israeli strike. his newly born twins killed, his wife killed, and you can see it is just a picture of grief on his face. we don't yet know from the israeli military what exactly it

was that they were targeting when this family was killed, but scenes like this are playing out every day in gaza, and it is a stark, stark reminder of the urgency that people feel about getting to a cease fire to end the suffering of these palestinian civilians ten months into this war. many of these families displaced over and over again, and also, of course, those israeli hostages, 300 plus days now, many of them have been held underground. andrea. >> their families increasingly angry and afraid as well. raf sanchez, thank you so much. and voting rights, the backlash against a new program inbattleground georgia that could take black voters off the rolls before election day without them knowing it. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. it. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. complete nutrition you need, and the flavor you love. so, here's to now...

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the naacp is calling on the department of justice to open an investigation into georgia's online voter registration removal process. this comes after the state launched a cancellation portal that makes it easy for people to remove someone else's voter registration without them even knowing it. joining us now is derrick johnson, president and ceo of the naacp. mr. johnson, thank you. tell us how this works. how did it happen, and how did they pull this off without anyone knowing? >> it's unfortunate that anyone can -- it's unfortunate that maga is able to remove someone from the voting rolls without their knowledge and without any evidence that they should be removed. we should be in a democracy with where the policy priorities are on the table if people can make

a choice. you shouldn't be able to cheat your way to win in the election. the naacp are calling on the department of justice to step in to ensure that every qualified voter can exercise an effective ballot and that we have an election that's more reflective of the will of the american people and not stolen by conservative and maga republicans. >> and how would this work? what jurisdiction would the justice department have? would it be under the voting rights act? >> well, it is a federal election, and so in that case, they are infringing on the right of voters to participate in a federal election. there are components of the voting rights act that can be invoked, but in general, the state of georgia should not allow an unknown third party to remove a large number of voters without those voters' knowledge. we're talking about citizens who are qualified voters who have done everything necessary to participate in the election, and

they should be able to cast an effective ballot. maga republicans should not be able to steal any elections. american citizens should be outraged as we ensure the integrity of this democracy and the integrity of the election process. >> and is it local election boards or supervisors, how do they -- are they cherry picking just people by name and districts in minority areas, or do they have people, individual people they are targeting? >> we first got notice, our state conference president, because the local board of elections got notice from the state, so andrea, you can go on, log on and have me remove from the voter roll in georgia, and then it comes to the local election board. that should not be the case under any circumstances. once individuals are registered and qualified, they should be allowed to participate in this

election, and we should not allow any set of interest to steal the election by removing qualified individuals from the act of voting. it's a say credit right. it is what makes us the leading democracy, and we should protect that under all costs. >> and that's a lot of where the election could be won or lost across the country in these local changes. the naacp head, derrick johnson, thank you. we have new video this hour, president biden dropping by an economic event for social media creators and influencers after getting more good news on inflation this morning. the president touting that the u.s. beat inflation and saying there will be a so-called soft landing. mr. biden also joking he's looking for a job. >> that's why i invited you to the white house because i'm looking for a job. [ laughter ]

>> the jobs number and inflation are improving, but i think he'll find plenty of things to do. that it does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." remember, 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" with ana cabrera starts right now. hello, i'm ana cabrera in for chris jansing live at msnbc headquarters in new york city. breaking from the boss, vice president kamala harris set to roll out her economic vision later this week. how much or how little is she preparing to distance herself from president biden and his policies? plus, israel on offense and defense at the same time, launching new attacks in gaza, while bracing for an assault from iran and hezbollah. iran's supreme leader today rejecting