good morning. 11:00 a.m. eastern, 8:00 a.m. pacific. i'm jose diaz-balart. we begin this hour with breaking news, former president donald trump's legal team has asked to delay his hush money trial sentencing until after the presidential election. joining us now, msnbc legal correspondent lisa rubin, also with us nbc news correspondent vaughn hillyard and, lisa, good

morning. what more are we learning about this? >> jose, what we're learning this morning is that former president trump's lawyers are asking judge juan merchan to move the date of his sentencing, which is currently scheduled for september 18th to some date after the election. now, judge merchan has a pending motion before him to vacate the verdict. that motion is supposed to be decided by september 18th. by september 16th, a couple of days before. the conventional wisdom is he's going to deny it and move on to sentencing. they're telling him, you should hold the sentencing if at all until after the election and one of most interesting features they say is if you deny our motion to set aside the verdict, by postponing the sentencing, you will allow us to pursue appellate options. that's a signal that former president trump is not going to take a decision from judge merchan lying down, but is thinking about going to either state and/or federal appeals courts to try and fight the verdict before any sentencing hearing could happen.

>> and, lisa, so far the judge has denied all of the motions that the trump team has presented to it. >> i mean, jose, he has granted motions here and there, but he has denied the post trial motions so far including a motion to recuse himself from the case, that was the third such motion which he denied earlier this week. in this letter today, they are saying because you have denied the motion to recuse, by postponing the sentencing until after the election, any conflict that we see would be alleviated by your having the sentencing after any election with which your daughter is allegedly affiliated. the campaign continues to say that judge merchan's daughter is affiliated with the biden harris campaign, her firm has denied that saying they do no work for the biden-harris campaign and haven't been engaged in activities since 2023. >> what is the political

calculus for team trump? >> right, we actually saw, to lisa's point here, we saw yesterday on social media donald trump bemoan the fact there is a gag order that is still placed on him related to this case. he is able to go on the attack against witnesses, even the jury, judge merchan himself as well as district attorney alvin bragg. but the part of the gag order that remains is the inability for him to go on the attack or talk about members, family members of the court, which would be judge merchan's daughter, who, todd blanche, in this letter to the court, is implying is politically motivated, and has, because of his familial connection to her apparent work that they allege she is a part of through the company that she at one time worked for, and is therefore under the auspices of being unable to be a fair arbiter in this sentencing or in the decision to come on september

16th of whether to toss the verdict out from the jury altogether under the immunity argument that donald trump's attorneys have now placed before judge merchan. so, september 16th is when we should note that decision from judge merchan as it pertains to the motion to dismiss on presidential immunity claims. and then september 18th is the sentencing, and part of what they outline in the letter is the fact that the sentencing will come after early voting in some states has already commenced and some of the key battleground states or potential battleground states including minnesota, virginia, they begin voting on september 20th and so you see where the timeline here, it is getting all scrunched together, of course, the first presidential debate in which we anticipate both being on stage is september 10th, which would be one week before that september 18th sentencing, so, there is a lot on the line for donald trump here and clearly he and his attorney todd blanche are making the case that the american public should not have

the sentencing laid before them and that donald trump should have the opportunity to appeal any sentencing until after the election. i just want to read you one very specific line from the bottom of this letter from todd blanche. it says, quote, setting aside naked election interference objectives there is no valid counterveiling reason for the court to keep the current sentencing date on the calendar, there is no basis for continuing to rush. i note todd blanche's use of the words election interference objectives. we heard donald trump in a social media post suggest that the gag order on him being unable to talk about judge merchan's daughter is also election interference, we have seen donald trump in the last days begin to lay the foundation for claiming that the 2024 election has been rigged and stolen due to election interference. of course, we'll leave it up to others to make that determination. it is clear what donald trump and his attorneys are outline is as sentencing in this case, the way in which they would

politically frame it to the mass public at large across the country. >> lisa rubin, thank you. vaughn, stay with us, we're going to continue our conversation. a short time from now, president biden and vice president harris will be traveling to maryland for their first major political event since the vice president replaced the president at the top of the ticket. meanwhile, later this afternoon, former president trump will be holding a news conference at his golf club in bedminster, new jersey, this comes one day after he delivered a speech on the economy that frequently veered into appearance attacks on the vice president. >> she cast the tie breaking votes that gave us record inflation and for nearly four years kamala has crackled as the american economy has burned. what happened to her laugh? i haven't heard her laugh in about a week? that's why they keep her off the stage. that's why she's disappeared. >> vaughn hillyard is back with us and joining our conversation, kayla gardener, white house

correspondent for bloomberg, tara setmayer, former communications director and co-founder and ceo of the seneca project, and msnbc political analyst basil smikle, former executive director of the new york state democratic party. so, vaughn, what can we expect to hear from the former president this afternoon, where you are? >> right, we're just about five hours away from when this press conference is slated to begin at his bedminster club. the question is, does it look like what we saw at mar-a-lago, just one week ago, what do these questions look like? yesterday, that event last night, it was billed as being an economic address, but as exhibited by that bite that you played from donald trump, he went off on tangents and he himself even suggested that he is told by his campaign that the economy is the major issue, but followed up directly questioning whether that is actually in fact the case. and a lot of this comes down to the fact that there is a reality that inflation has impacted americans over the course of the last four years.

but at the same time, the data is showing that inflation has cooled down, it is under 3% here, unemployment in the country remains low. it was just a little over a week ago that donald trump on the day that the stock market took a hit, he called it the kamala crash, suggesting that the stock market was going to implode and that ultimately there would be a 1929 style great depression under a kamala harris economy. of course, the stock market in the last week and a half is uprighted. what he was implying was going to happen did not happen here. so, really for donald trump, he's lacked a clear coherent focus message over the course of the last month, but let's be very clear, we saw a similar type of campaigning from donald trump in 2016 and 2020, what makes this different though, you could argue, in both those locations you didn't see him quite with his back up against the wall in the battleground state polling like you do here now. for donald trump, i think today is going to be another indication of where he views his own campaign in a type of messaging he, not his campaign,

he feels is the most prudent to go forward with in order to try to pull off a win, again, with early voting beginning in several states, a little over a month from now. >> yeah, and what can we expect today from the big event featuring president biden and the vice president? >> yeah, well, this is the first time we're seeing these two together on a stage ever since kamala harris announced her intention to seek the nomination. we did see them at the campaign headquarters the day after that announcement. he was by phone, of course, because he had covid, but i do think the location of this event is very telling. they will be in maryland, in prince georges county, a very blue county, majority black county and not a county that harris or biden really have to worry about. and i think that really shows she does have a risk here in tieing herself too closely to biden when it comes to the economy. they'll be talking about lowering prescription drug prices, something very popular as a policy, but not necessarily overall with the economy when it was tied to biden. so i'm interested to see how

closely she is going to associate herself with her time in the administration. she has talked about biden's policy, but also has been very careful about talking about her time in the senate, talking about her time as attorney general, going after for profit colleges and wall street banks. i'm interested to see how she's going to strike that balance because so far she's really been able to detach herself from some of those low perspectives and low sentiments about biden's handling of the economy and really giving hope there was a financial times poll that showed more voters trusted her than trump to handle the economy, which is something we haven't seen for decades when it comes to a democratic presidential nominee. >> yeah, and you were just mentioning this, this comes on the heels of that major announcement expected on the lowering of costs of some of the most widely used drugs for seniors. >> absolutely. and that's what they're going to be talking about today. those ten drugs that have now -- we will have -- we will reveal the prices and that's something that biden worked on and, again, these are things that harris is

talking about on the campaign trail because they are popular. but the change now is the messenger. voters seem to be more hopeful now that it is harris and getting her sort of the benefit of the doubt. they know she was biden's governing partner, she also recognize that she was the vice president and not necessarily calling the shots. >> and, vaughn, overnight, more controversial statements about women kept emerging about jd vance's past. what did he have to say there? >> right, this all comes down to the fact that jd vance is still very much of a political novice, if you will, only having served in the u.s. senate for a year and a half. and some of his old past comments on abortion, and family matters are coming to light here. i want to let you listen to part of his remarks on a podcast in 2020 in which there was a host who was asking him about his own family dynamics and his view on them. take a listen.

>> they spoil him, sort of all the classic stuff that grandparents do to grandchildren. it makes him a much better human being to have exposure to his grandparents. and the evidence on this by the way is super clear. that's the whole purpose of the post menopausal female in theory. >> when your child was born, did your in-laws and particularly your mother-in-law show up in some huge way? she lived with us for a year. >> right. >> so i didn't know the answer to that. >> weird unadvertised feature of marrying an indian woman. >> yeah. >> i want to read part of a statement from the spokesman for vance responding to that audio that has come out from 2020 in which the spokesman says in part, quote, the media dishonestly is putting words in jd's mouth. he does not agree with what the host said. goes on to say, jd was complimenting the selflessness of his mother-in-law for being

willing to help care for her grandchildren, millions of grandparents across our country do the same every day. we also now know that jd vance and tim walz appear as if they will be appearing on a vp debate stage on october 1st. >> and, hillary clinton took those comments and tweeted a short time ago, childless cat ladies, postmenopausal females, is the republican ticket aware that women can vote? how much damage is this having? >> well, it is not what i think, it is what the polls are showing already. this is damaging. and kamala harris is pulling ahead of donald trump in swing states like pennsylvania. we saw the quinnipiac poll come out this week that showed that she is leading trump not only 50-47 with likely voters, but with women. 55% to 41% over donald trump. women do not like being constantly insulted about their intelligence, about their looks, about their fertility, about

their roles in society. women are sick and tired of this and they won't go back. that is part of kamala harris' campaign slogan, and it is resonating. and when you have a presidential ticket that demonstrates this level of constant misogyny, it is going to upset women voters. we are the largest population. so, it is not a good way to start off your candidacy with multiple insults against women coming from your vice presidential candidate and we already know donald trump's litany of insults and problems with women also, that he's been an adjudicated rapist and had to pay e. jean carroll a hundred million dollars in defamation. this combination here, this gender gap we're seeing develop in this election is going to be significant particularly in the battleground states where women are more motivated than ever and you also have abortion initiatives on the ballot in states like arizona, florida now

is possibly in play, nevada, there are eight states that have abortion initiatives on the ballot and women are coming out in droves and it is across party lines. this spells trouble for trump. >> and jd vance announced a short time ago has agreed to debate tim walz on october 1st on cbs. vance is calling for a second debate on the 18th of september. what do you make of this back and forth that seems as though both of these candidates are looking forward to a debate? >> they're both looking forward to the debate for probably different reasons. in the sense that jd vance wants to continue to make his case but also carry the water for donald trump and the ways that, you know, we have been talking about. and that tara outlined, the narrative and rhetoric that is both bullying when you think about the ways that donald trump sort of approaches his campaign,

but also in the way that he talks down to and is very patronizing with respect to women and the sovereignty that women have over their own bodies. where as tim walz is going to bring a very different tactic. i always say that he's -- he often demonstrates his background as a teacher and a coach and he has this great ability to distill complex issues in a way that is relatable to voters and he also is very motivating as a coach would be to get out and tell voters that you may want to still support us and vote for us, but you have to have a plan, it is not enough to just have hope, which he talked about at the union rally the other day and so, i think that the style favors walz in that debate, and i think he's looking forward to bringing that difference, that split screen to the public to be able to, you know, make that --

to the voters, to make that clear choice and distinction. >> and there are 82 days until the election. is there a time for both campaigns to define or in some cases redefine their messages? >> well, it is interesting, because to vaughn's point earlier in terms of donald trump's tactic, it has been to insult kamala harris and all that does is feed into the kamala harris support, which is really where this race has been chained so significantly, gone from an anti-trump campaign on the left to a pro-kamala campaign. and what that does is deputizes every supporter to push back and defend her. so the more that donald trump seeks to define her, the more he is creating a wall of defense for her. and so i think his attempts to try to define her have largely

backfired as she continues to define herself. it is very, very quickly, the interesting thing about being in prince georges county in maryland, i think speaks also to that economic message she's going to try to promote in addition to drug prices which she may talk about. prince georges county for a lot of african american homeowners, they lost a lot of equity going back to the financial collapse of 2008. there is a question about wealth creation in communities of color, which i think the campaign really wants to start hammering home as part of that larger economic message. >> vaughn hillyard, kayla gardener, tara setmayer and basil smikle, thank you. breaking news last hour, new charges filed in connection with the accidental overdose death of actor matthew perry. we'll break down what we know as of right now. plus, hurricane ernesto is growing stronger as it barrels up the caribbean. we'll take you to bermuda next. also breaking overnight, the

president of columbia university stepping down months after israel hamas war protests swept the university's campus. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. t t the university's market. e*trade from morgan stanley with powerful, easy-to-use tools, power e*trade makes complex trading easier. react to fast-moving markets with dynamic charting and a futures ladder that lets you place, flatten, or reverse orders so you won't miss an opportunity. e*trade from morgan stanley 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! (♪♪) imagine checking your own heart with medical precision from anywhere. introducing kardiamobile 6l, the fda-cleared ekg

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in october. his death was ruled an accident. the l.a. county medical examiner's office attributed his death to the acute effects of ketamine. joining us now, nbc's steve patterson and with us, misty maris, defense attorney and dr. vin gupta, nbc news medical contributor. steve, what more have we learned about the arrest and these charges? >> yeah, the freshness is in the spirit of what you just said, multiple people charged in connection with perry's death. we had been reporting that at least one person arrested. so those multiple people may be part of the larger investigation that has been ongoing now for months. this large federal investigation. lapd, dea, u.s. postal service in case something was transferred through the mail, all headed by the u.s. attorney's office, really since perry died ten months ago at his home in october in that hot tub and learning about sort of the acute amount of ketamine in his system. we don't know the details, the

particulars of who has been arrested, who has been charged, but, of course, we can draw conclusions based on precedence of cases like this before. did doctors play a role in this? did they prescribe or distribute the ketamine that killed perry? did illegal drug dealers play any part in this? were they involved in either the distribution or even the supply of the fatal dosage? and did any friends or associates sort of make those connections to what we know. we're going to lrn a whole lot more later on this morning. the federal indictment set to be unsealed. we should hear also from federal prosecutors that are overseeing this case as well. meanwhile, we're starting to hear from family, of course, the morrison family, keith morrison, matthew perry's stepfather, saying we are and still are heart broken by matthew's death, but it has helped to know law enforcement has taken this case very seriously. we look forward to justice taking its course. and that justice playing out as

we're seeing this morning. we should learn more in just a matter of hours. jose? >> misty, again, so early on, but what do you think potential charges do you see here? >> well, there are a couple of implications just based on the agencies that are actually investigating this case. you're talking about lapd in conjunction with the dea and the united states post office. that indicates something that is a larger drug ring than just the locality because you got federal agencies involved. you could see anyone in the chain of distribution relating to these drugs be charged with possession, distribution, and that would depend on their position in that drug chain. we know that there were seized many electronic devices that could help unravel who was involved. if you're talking about doctors who may have been prescribing drugs to somebody who was a known drug addict, in a unique position to understand that

risk, so you could seeing some beyond the chain of distribution, you could see charges that relate to manslaughter or something more severe under different legal theories. there is many different legal theorys that could be at play and we're likely to learn more today at the press conference and when the warrants become public. >> and doctor, if you would, kind of explain what is ketamine, its use and its possible abuse. >> well, jose, you know, ketamine is something we use often within the four walls of a hospital. and intravenous form, some of your viewers may have family members or themselves experienced this, this is an anesthetic we often use because in most cases, within procedures, it allows us to safely anesthetize somebody but maybe not to worry as much about lowering blood pressure or compromising their breathing. however, is that's within the four walls of a hospital. we're seeing now at lower doses within an intranasal form, the

fda approved an intranasal form of ketamine for treatment of treatment resistant depression in closely monitored, but however what is happening here is there are many oral forms of ketamine that are not regulated by the fda that are on the black market, that have unclear dosing and that have no indication for use for treatment of depression or any type of psychiatric disorder. and that's the problem here. there is a lot of compounding ketamine on the black market available on the street, perhaps maybe a physician might be prescribing, that should not be used and taken orally or in any form for treatment of depression and that's the concern here. >> and so, there is -- there is -- there is the over the counter -- is that fda nasal product, is this over the counter or you need a medical prescription for it? and then where is this -- all this, i guess, counterfeit or,

you know, the ketamine that is available off hospitals, where is that coming from? >> well, you know, your first question, the intranasal form, something to discuss if you're somebody or have a loved one who might have depression or treatment resistant depression, have a conversation with a medical provider, it is a prescription only medication, fda approved for that indication. specific guardrails. ketamine is -- adult rated ketamine is a recreational drug, unfortunately. this is something widely available across society. it is an illicit drug in many forms. and it can be distributed in oral form and bought on the black market unfortunately. so that unclear how the source of this, i think this is going to be part of the investigation. but this is something unfortunately that is widely available, we know fentanyl and other narcotics are laced across other illicit products causing

respiratory depression. the big problem here is in the unregulated forms of ketamine. we don't know what the dose is. and that's what the fda is saying. they issued a warning in 2023, lots of these forms of ketamine are out there, unregulated. we don't know the strength of ketamine in these oral forms that might be used for pain or might be used for depression that people are taking and buying from untrustworthy sources. that are not regulated. as a result, concerns like respiratory depression are really paramount here and that's appears what happened here, a dose of ketamine was taken that was a lot higher than it was anticipated, i'm speculating a bit, but that caused respiratory depression. >> thank you so much for being with us this morning. up next, an update on ernesto's impact on puerto rico as forecasters warn it could strengthen to a cat 3 storm in 24 hours. plus, pop superstar taylor swift is set to take the stage

in london for her first show after last week's foiled terror plot in austria. we'll take you to the sold out stadium next. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. nt you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. voltaren... for long lasting arthritis pain relief. (♪♪)

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31 past the hour this morning. bermuda is under hurricane warning as ernesto heads north. the storm triggering dangerous rip currents along the east coast as it intensifies and could strengthen to a major cat

3 hurricane by tomorrow. yesterday, ernesto battled puerto rico as a tropical storm, bringing heavy rain and winds, knocking out power to more than 700,000 people. nbc's guad venegas is with us this morning from south hampton, bermuda. ernesto created a lot of damage in puerto rico and is now headed your way. what is the latest? >> reporter: well, the national hurricane issued that hurricane warning for bermuda as you mentioned. authorities here are preparing. they held a press conference yesterday, reminding residents of what they have to do before the storm reaches bermuda to have food, water, and all the necessities they know to prepare because, of course, this is an area that gets a lot of storms. we spoke to some of the residents who say they feel like they're ready, but authorities will have another presser today to give more information. meanwhile, in puerto rico, the latest update indicates more than 400,000, close to 500,000 customers are still without

power. luma energy said the weather kept them from going out and using their helicopters to inspect power lines yesterday. and this is one of the reasons why they still had power outages. today, the weather improved in puerto rico and luma is expected to go out and inspect a lot of these power lines to see if there is damage. we know that some power lines have been damaged as well as utility poles and that's one of the reasons why they have these outages. now, what is happening in puerto rico, though, is that people don't know how long the power will be out. when luma energy spoke duringing a presser yesterday, they couldn't tell customers when the power is expected to be back. add to the fact that people are having issues with running water, something the government is also working on. the good news is that president biden approved the emergency declaration, which will bring more resources for local governments as they continue assessing the damage today

there. >> guad venegas in bermuda, thank you very much. overnight, the president of columbia university announced she is resigning months after her handling of campus protests against the israel-hamas war. minouche shafik, the first woman to ever lead the university, faced repeated calls to step down. joining us now is nbc's antonia hylton. good morning. what did she have to say in her announcement? >> good morning, jose. well, i would describe this letter as somber, but resolute. she described her decision to step away from the university and she's going to be taking on a new role with the house of lords in the uk. i want to read one part of this statement to you. she wrote, it has been distressing for the community, for me as president and on a personal level to find myself, colleagues and students the subject of threats and abuse. and i read that part to you, jose, because a source with direct knowledge of her decision

told me that this was really the dividing line for her, the immense pressure and the way she saw it impacting not just herself, but her family. you have to recall this is somebody who is really getting criticism from all sides, from some jewish studentses and israeli students who described feeling unsafe on campus. then students who were in the encampment, involved in activism, many of whom i should mention were jewish as well, who said they felt unsafe because of the police presence on campus, and who also had criticisms, they felt she did not respect school policies around academic freedom and intellectual debate. so, this is a situation that frankly just became untenable. jose? >> antonia hylton, thank you very much. meanwhile, in the middle east, high stakes talks are set to happen today as hamas says it is losing faith in the u.s.' ability to mediate a cease-fire in gaza.

and breaking this morning, a russian american ballerina sentenced after being accused of high treason. we'll tell you why. this is just days after a major prisoner swap between russia and the u.s. and its allies. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. s. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. . suddenly life's feeling a little more automatic. like doors opening wherever i go... [sound of airplane overhead] even the ground is moving for me! y'all seeing this? wild! and i don't even have to activate anything. oooooohhh... automatic sashimi! earn cash back that automatically adjusts to how you spend with the citi custom cash® card. [mind blown explosion noise] hi, my name is damian clark. and if you have both medicare and medicaid, i have some really encouraging news that you'll definitely want to hear. depending on the plans available in your area, you may be eligible to get extra benefits with a humana medicare advantage dual-eligible special needs plan. all these plans include a healthy

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41 past the hour. back with more breaking news. today, a russian court announced it has sentence the a dual

u.s.-russian citizen to 12 years in prison for high treason. ksenia karelina was accused of raising money for the ukrainian military. now, according to her former employer, she gifted $51 to a ukrainian charity in the u.s. nbc news has not confirmed that figure and was not able to independently verify the nature of the alleged donation. karelina was arrested back in february, pleaded guilty in a closed trial last week. today, cease-fire negotiations are set to take place in qatar as u.s. officials worked to try and end the israel-hamas war. but a senior hamas official says they will not be participating. the senior official said hamas would only go to implement what they all agreed to in a u.s.-backed deal last month. but without a deal, the cost of the war continues to grow with the hamas-run ministry of health now saying more than 40,000 people have been killed in gaza. joining us now, nbc's raf

sanchez from tel aviv and evelyn farkas of the mccain institute and the former senior adviser to the supreme allied commander europe. what are we learning about the talks today? >> reporter: israel's delegation took off from here in tel aviv earlier. they will be meeting with the american delegation led by cia director bill burns as well as egyptian and qatari mediators. as you said, hamas will not be there. they are saying that as far as they are concerned, they have agreed to the broad outlines of a deal, the demands are on the table and it is up to israel to agree to them. the hope from the biden administration is not that cia director bill burns is going to emerge from a hotel room in qatar with a piece of paper that ends this ten-month war and brings the hostages out after more than 300 days in captivity. but they are hoping to make

significant progress and to have enough so that the egyptians and the qataris can go to hamas in the coming days and try to coax them back into these negotiations. now, jose, hamas striking a hard line as we talked about, they are now under the political leadership of sinwar, the mastermind of the october 7th attack. but israel is also maing life difficult according to foreign officials. they say prime minister benjamin netanyahu continues adding new demands. i'll give you two examples of some of the most contentious slightly technical issues that the u.s. is hoping to make progress on today, one is this question of the egypt-gaza border. israeli forces seized control of that border in early may. israel is saying they need to remain there to prevent hamas from smuggling weapons back into gaza. hamas is saying that is a total nonstarter, israeli forces need to withdraw from the border.

the other big sticking point is this question of israeli checkpoints, which currently divide north and south gaza. israel is saying those are important for making sure that hamas fighters don't return to the north of the strip. hamas is saying there needs to be free movement of palestinian civilians during the cease-fire phase. so these are technical issues, they are complicated. the americans, the qataris and the egyptians have been looking at them for a long time and their hope is to make some progress on them today. >> raf sanchez, thank you very much. evelyn, taking off of what raf was mentioning about these differences, these technical issues that are there. i know you just got back from israel. what did you learn about tensions there and how these types of difficult issues can really be overcome or can they? >> yeah, i mean, jose, so, just to add to what raf said, you

know, i think the fundamental problem is that israel is not fighting this war against hamas in the most effective fashion. they are going in, they're taking out hamas fighters where they can, and then they're leaving and then the hamas fighters are coming back. and as much as people don't like the idea of israel coming in, the israeli defense forces coming in, and taking control over gaza again, i think it is the only way to get us to a future where the palestinians can control the territory again because you need to establish security. and as long as the israelis can make the argument that hamas is a threat, they will resist. we know that prime minister netanyahu is also frankly an obstacle and members of his cabinet are obstacles also to a peace deal or the cease-fire to release the hostages, which is tragic to say the least. so, i heard from -- >> how are they? how are they the biggest

obstacle? >> well, because right now the far right is saying they need to eliminate, and these are members of the prime minister's cabinet, they're saying they need to eliminate the hamas fighters, and the idf commanders and former idf commanders and including, of course, the current defense minister in israel are saying you can't eliminate, you can't completely eliminate hamas, but israeli and u.s. military experts have said that they are sufficiently degraded, that hamas is sufficiently degraded, that they can make a cease-fire deal right now and move to, you know, a kind of a peaceful resolution. and i think that that sounds to me also very reasonable. again, as long as you can have some force coming in and providing security in the interim and it is probably going to be the israeli, but the far right is resisting right now. there are other obstacles they're throwing up, they have to do with the west bank and

fundamentally their desire not to have a two-state solution. raf talked about the obstacles. there is another obstacle, right there in benjamin netanyahu's cabinet and in his own mind. >> and, meanwhile, evelyn, we're all waiting to see what, if anything, iran does, potential retaliatory strike from iran following the asassination following of the top officials. do you see that situation in any way diffusing? >> well, they have said, so hezbollah has said, the iranians have said, if there is peace in gaza, then maybe they would consider, you know, holding off, certainly hezbollah said that. but we don't see, you know, the likelihood we talked about how it is not likely there is going to be peace. we're still hearing from them, that they're bracing as you say in your caption right there, bracing for strikes. the iranians have not said they're not going to strike, and

this is going to be ex-platory potentially depending on how the israelis react, but all it does is prolong the suffering and increase the risk to the hostages every day that goes by. there is a risk to them and the people of palestine, the palestinian people in gaza are suffering. >> true and also iran continues to be an ever increasing threat, not only to its neighbors, but as we see since 1979 how it has been completely affecting its own people. >> right. i mean, jose, more pressure needs to be put clearly on iran. we can't negotiate without having a threat of some kind of action happening that is negative to iran. and i would argue also to hamas and frankly, you know, our israeli allies need to understand that we want a cease-fire, we want our american hostages released, we want the

israeli hostages released. when i was in israel, as you mentioned in june, the israeli people, they think the number one goal for their government should be release of the hostages, not the destruction of every last hamas fighter. >> evelyn farkas, thank you very much. great seeing you. >> thank you. next, an exclusive report from the u.s.' southern border, where the texas governor has vowed to keep busing migrants to cities up north. but he's facing one major roadblock. we'll tell you what it is. and in just four days, tens of thousands of visitors will descend on chicago for the democratic national convention. how the city is preparing. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. u diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. choose from personalized apparel, backpacks & accessories, decor to freshen up their spac, and gifts their teacher will love. when you need back-to-school supplies under $40

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and free delivery when you add any base. shop now at a sleep number store near you. this morning new details on a story we have been following. greg abbott has doubled down on his commitment to keep bussing migrants to cities across the u.s. exclusive reporting from nbc news shows those buses have not been rolling consistently for months. julia ainsley has the story. what did you learn? >> reporter: i'm here in downtown el paso, outside sacred heart church. there were hundreds of migrants sleeping on the streets outside here because the shelter was too full. now the shelter is back to serving the homeless community of el paso. that's because of the decline in the crossings. we know in the past few weeks, they have seen fewer than 2,000

migrants crossing per day. that's compared to more than 4,000 in may and over 8,000 of that record high in december. what that means in texas is that for republican governor greg abbott, he is not able to fill the buses that he wants to use to take migrants from texas to cities like chicago, new york, philadelphia, l.a., d.c. and others. when we started calling, officials in the cities and non-profits, we could not find any evidence that abbott lab able to send buses to those cities since june. the suburbs of chicago, denver, new york city have not recorded any abbott-sent buses since june and d.c. has not had a single bus this year. philadelphia and l.a. haven't seen buses since december and january. that's all because there are fewer migrants. we reached out to abbott's office. they said there are fewer migrants. they will continue to send buses as they can fill them. they pointed to their policies

for the drop. abbott introduced harder policies using his own law enforcement here in texas. biden administration points to their asylum policy which started in early june and restricts asylum. the heat in the summer can make it perilous. mexico doing more interdiction. there's a threefold increase by mexico of u.s.-bound migrants. if these numbers stay low or continue to drop, it could really change the way immigration is discussed going into the november election. especially if the harris campaign is able to look at this biden administration policy and claim credit for the sharp decrease. >> thank you so very much. we are just four days away from the start of the democratic national convention.

up to 50,000 visitors and huge security challenges. chicago police say they are ready to take on the big event and the large demonstrations that are expected to take place. joining us from chicago is nbc's shaquille brewster. you spoke with folks in the police department. what are they telling you about how they are preparing? >> reporter: jose, chicago's police superintendent said they are ready. you see some of the physical barriers going up. they said they are ready for possible protests. the superintendent says he welcomes people to come in to peacefully demonstrate. he has a warning for anyone with bad intentions. >> we're not going to allow people to show up to chicago and commit acts of violence against our residents, visitors. we will put an end to that as soon as we see it. do we want to clash with people?

absolutely not. do we want to have fights in the streets with people? absolutely not. i want to make one thing clear. i want to make this perfectly clear. we need to know the difference between rioting and protesting. >> reporter: protest organizers saying the largest demonstration is set for monday. they told a judge in some of the legal battles that they are expecting between 20 to 25,000 people. i should note the chicago police department is getting assistance from local law enforcement across the state of illinois. those officers won't be on patrols in the neighborhood, but the superintendent telling me they will receive 12 to 18 hours of training and be provided with body cameras. >> thank you very much. appreciate it. just in a couple moments, taylor swift will play a week

after a foiled terror plot canceled her concerts in vienna. joining us in london is asha heranog. what is it like there? >> reporter: so much excitement. you would never know that what happened in vienna happened. people here extremely pleased to be here. 90,000 people make thirg way -- making their way. everything associated with swift mania is on show today. you touched on it, people have been concerned following what they saw in australia. austria police arresting up to three teenagers following that alleged terror plot which they managed to foil. there has been concern among fans that we have spoken to here today that people are noticing there are extra police officers out here. we have seen officers speaking

to people, interacting with individuals. there are rules about what you are able to bring inside. very small bags are allowed inside. there are metal detectors to allow ticket holders to be searched. we have been speaking to people a little about the security but also about that swift excitement. >> thank you very much. really appreciate it. this is the first of five concerts that taylor swift will hold in london. appreciate that. that wraps up the hour for me. i'm jose diaz-balart. i will be back at 2:00 p.m. eastern. you can watch clips from our show on youtube. thank you for the privilege of your time. andrea mitchell picks up with more news right now. right now on "andrea mitchell reports," president biden and vice president harris back on stage together in suburban maryland days before the president's farewell

appearance on the