good morning, 11:00 a.m. eastern and 8:00 a.m. pacific. i'm jose diaz-balart. we're hours away from a historic moment in our nation's politics. tonight, the democratic national convention kicks off in chicago where this week vice president harris will formally accept the nomination for president. she is the first woman of color to top a major party's presidential ticket. democrats will hold a symbolic roll call vote tomorrow since the vice president was virtually nominated earlier this month.

tonight marks a critical moment for president biden who will deliver a speech making the case for vice president harris after dropping out of the 2024 race just four weeks ago, amid mounting pressure from the party. since president biden's exit, vice president harris has gained traction in recent polling. new national numbers show a deeply competitive race with the vice president leading donald trump 49% to 45% but still within the margin of error and as the vice president prepares for her primetime debut on thursday, here's some of what she said about her big speech. >> it's almost done. there's little tweaks and i'm going to, you know, work on it probably starting tomorrow for the next couple of days but it's coming along. there will be a lot about what i believe is a way forward, a new way forward and bringing everyone along in that. >> joining us now mike memoli live in chicago and nbc news chief washington correspondent

and msnbc anchor andrea mitchell. andrea, good morning. tonight is all about joe biden. what's the significance of this moment? >> reporter: it will could not be more significant. it's historic, the fact that joe biden turned over reluctantly his nomination to his vice president. the fact that he did it for the good of the party, that he made the ultimate political sacrifice for the good of the party because he was persuaded, persuaded that the house and the senate, if not the presidency, would not -- would not be a win for the democrats. he said as much in his farewell that he thought he could do it, the leaders of the house, the senate, the democratic party leaders did not think he could, not after that disastrous debate so today is coming into a hall where a lot of these delegate, they chose him in all the

primaries overwhelmingly, so this is his audience but he's speaking also, of course, to the nation. doing it gracefully and trying to build up kamala harris at the same time as she is trying to define herself. this is the awkward part of it because he's going to describe why he chose her, how she was a team player, that she's part of everything that he did, and at the same time, she is using the next four days to try to separate herself gracefully and not disloyally from the president who chose her, you know, four years ago, 3 1/2 years ago and make the case that she is strong enough and be an independent decision-maker heading into this election. >> yeah, i mean, mike, this was clearly not the convention president biden was planning for initially. the first lady is going to introduce him tonight. what can we expect to hear tonight? >> well, jose, it really has been a dizzying few weeks for the democratic party to say the least, right?

it's still less than a month since president biden made that consequential decision to drop out of the race, so certainly he's coming into chicago with a very different convention plan than he had a month ago, but really his message is going to be very similar to what had been the message of his campaign over the last year and a half. i'm told by a biden adviser the president does still want to lay out the very stark view of this election that he believes donald trump still is a threat to our democracy. he will urge all the delegates in the room and voters across the country to do their part to making sure that he is kept from the oval office. but he also wants to talk with great pride about the accomplishments of his time in office as well. he will make the point first that vice president harris was an important partner in getting these things done but also wants it to be a tribute to the american people and will talk about the very difficult situation he inherited when he came into office, the peak of the pandemic, the job loss that we were seeing, the significant toll that americans were facing in their lives, and the ways they've made significant progress economically and across

the board and that he is very proud of. this is a very different moment for the president. we will see the first lady as she introduces her husband, speaks ahead of her husband, really speak as one adviser put it about his character in the way only the spouse can then we'll see the president and his vice president, the new nominee for the democratic party share a moment on stage which will be a part of an emotional and powerful fight for these delegates and the president will leave chicago and have that pass the torch moment because he does want vice president harris to have her moment the rest of the week to speak about the future as well. >> demonstrations unfolded last night in chicago. how are democrats going to handle these protests? >> very carefully. i mean, they want to make sure that it does not take away from the message, the broader message of their convention. they also have to worry about

demonstrations inside the hall. jose, there are some uncommitted delgados largely in michigan, some in minnesota who did not choose joe biden, because they object to his policies on the war. so, you can see that those are some very loud demonstrations outside. the security is terrific so far. they are well guarded from the hall and that is one of their resentments. they're so far away. the fencing is up. it's a secret service federal run operation with, of course, lots of local police and police from outside districts the state all brought in so the security could not be tighter. what they don't know and especially with tensions high in the wake of the, you know, the horrible assassination attempt against former president trump, they don't know if there's some lone player out there trying to do something untoward and that's why they are being held at such

removal and this is going to be a tense situation and what they don't want, of course, is the horrible optics of 1968. they had a successful democratic convention. it was later called by a leading commission, a federal commission a police riot caused because the protesters were so badly abused. so none of that is at all in the works here in chicago, but the hope for a cease-fire agreement, jose, as you very well know was that that would have beening weeks, months ago, if not last week, but that tentative agreement is now as we speak being negotiated in israel with secretary of state blinken and prime minister netanyahu and hamas has said that they don't agree to the changes that were made by the u.s., by qatar and egypt last week to try to bridge the gaps, the gaps between the

two, so the secretary of state is there to try to close those negotiating gaps, and, of course, there's a lot of resentment within the administration as has been projected of last-minute objections from israel's prime minister when he was in washington last month as well as in recent weeks and recent attacks in gaza which they say are not helpful, as well as the assassination in tehran of the hamas negotiator on these talks. a lot of behind-the-scenes talk to, you know, among the officials about that, the thought that that might take the sting out of it, that's the biggest legacy that joe biden is still hoping to achieve, hoping to inch towards it somehow this week. >> no one covers that better than andrea mitchell. andrea, thank you so much. mike memoli, really appreciate you both being with us this morning and joining us now with more victoria francesca soto.

she is an msnbc political analyst and christina greer, associate professor of political science at fordham university. victoria, tonight, the president is going to address the party that pressured him essentially to drop from the race just about a month ago. what does tonight represent for him? >> tonight we've heard a lot of talk of passing the baton so i think there's that, i also think it's doing it with grace and fortitude. in addition to showing that he is a team player that he has the best interest of the country in mind, this is also such an important opportunity, jose, for him to tout what he has done, that he has laid the foundational policy work over the last four years to be able to catapult kamala harris into the position that we now see. so, i think it's accepting that there was this transition but also a moment to reflect and tout all of those wins that

because of the policy lag, you may get a policy path that will take a little bit for the policies to be seen and felt. he can really dig down into that and do so in bringing the democratic family together. >> christina, while the latest polling showing the vice president making gains nationally she'll still trailing trump on key issue, the economy and immigration. what does this week represent for her efforts to chip away at trump's lead on these issues? >> well, keep in mind as mike laid out it hasn't even been a month, jose, so the dnc will do two things, reintroduce her to the public as vicky said, lay out the policy wins of the biden/harris administration and then pass the baton but in the post dnc kamala harris and tim walz, don't forget. she chose a vp who could be an asset to her on the campaign trail and will likely lay out a policy prescriptive but wouldn't

be surprised if she had the equivalent of obama's big philadelphia speech where obama -- it was his big race speech that shifted how people saw his vision of the country. if we see kamala harris link her biography to the border to immigration to how it relates to the economy, her middle class upbringing. we've seen that in some of the big speeches she's given but will probably see a lot more specific policies post-dnc that will help the american voter make a clearer decisions to -- >> do you think that will be post-dnc she will lay out detailed policy positions, or could this week, she's only speaking once but could this week be a week where some other policy positions are inaugurated? >> right, i think a lot of the surrogates will sort of start to bridge things together. her speech, though, to not just the democratic party but the american public will re reearn produce her to them. that's the role of the vice presidency. most people don't pay attention closely and they're not

responsible for a lot of things at the top of the ticket so she'll do many things in her speech on thursday night. but post-dnc is where we'll start to get into the minutia and details with some of what some of the voters are -- >> i'm wondering what you think that the -- how difficult is it for her, victoria, to separate herself from some of the biden record, and how difficult is it going forward for her to say even though i was the vice president and didn't have much responsibility as chris teen father said, that is something i should be credited with. >> right, and that is such a difficult position, right? because she did spend the last four years in the white house but i think really it comes down to the skill of framing and i think picking a differentiated frame in terms of the big picture so whereas joe biden during his convention speech

four years ago was focused on democracy, on darkness and lightness, here we see that kamala harris is most likely going to be focused on the future, so i think that is one piece where it's related but it's different. i think in terms of the economy letting joe biden set up the win, but then letting kamala harris and her team talk about the tangibles about what this means so we got the negotiations going but this is what it's going to mean in your pocketbook. this is what it's going to meet in your day-to-day so i think it's doing that and when she gets hit with immigration and with the economy, she'll dig in and say, you know what, this is how it's broken and this is how i'm going to fix it so you have to confront it head on because if not the republicans will frame it for you so i think she has to be strong and on the offensive on these immigration and economy pieces. >> christina, the other big issue tonight we'll hear from three women placed in medical peril because of state abortion

bans. what does this tell you about the role of reproductive rights that will be playing in harris' campaign? >> as i've said before and keep saying emily's list has shown us when abortion is on the ballot, democrats win and so unlike j.d. vance who says women don't want to talk about that, they care about pocketbook issues and we know voters go to the polls based on pocketbook issue, the democrats can easily say forcing a woman to have a child that she isn't prepared for is a pocketbook issue. forcing a family to is also a pocketbook issue. if we're moving away from the moral conversation as to whether or not abortion should be legal, let's go to the constitutional question, should the government allow a woman to choose autonomy over her own body and hearing from three women who have real stories which represent millions of women and young women across the country and families across the country who have had to make very difficult decisions, this is a way of bringing a very important moral constitutional and economic issue into the fore

and not being parade to talk about it. when they talk about it, they win elections. >> this has been a very good three weeks for vice president harris. do you think that that momentum will obviously there's a bump that comes from the convention. >> of course. >> but is this something she can carry through until november? >> time will tell. however, there are some great signs. the electoral college math is complicated for democrat, right? i don't think anyone is confused as to whether or not democrats can inwin the popular vote as they have for the past several elections, however, the surrogates are on message. tim walz, a fantastic vp choice who connects with people as an educator, i may be a little bias but we know he can get out there and naturally talk to people about issues that have affected his family and wins that he's had as governor as an executive of a state, mind you now, he is the third minnesotan as a vp choice which is luck would have it is great for the democrats so i think there may be a bit of a

drop-off over time but they're in good stead right now. >> the land of vp choices and tickets but also more importantly the land of prince. >> that's all we need to know. >> victoria francesco soto, thank you very much for joining us. 6:00 p.m. eastern, joy reid, ari melber and alex wagner kick off special programming from chicago. 8:00 p.m., the rest of our prime time hosts join in. up next an exclusive look at new polling from two major latino organizations. what it shows about what's important to the second largest voting bloc in the country. plus, how donald trump is planning to counter-program the dnc and overseas, what happened this morning as secretary of state antony blinken met with prime minister of israel benjamin netanyahu about ending the war in gaza. we're back in 90 seconds. you're watching "jose

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vice president harris entering the election. we want to note the research firm conducting the poll has ties to democrats and president biden. joining us now frankie miranda, president of the hispanic federation, frankie, always great seeing you, my friend. first of all, i want to thank you for being with us. i know this is some information that you just gathered. i appreciate you sharing it with us. what are some of your key takeaways from the poll? >> well, jose, one of the first things that happened after the announcement of president biden and, of course, when vice president harris started to talk about becoming the nominee, we started hearing from nonprofit organizations on the ground doing voter registration, nonpartisan organizations and your own operation, we started to hear an enthusiasm and it's verified by this poll that says that 73% of registered latino voters are certain that they will vote in the election and that 50% of responders replying

that they are more interested in voting because of the new reality on the race of the presidential election so for us as organizations this opens up the possibility of engaging people that before were not interested in talking about the election or even registering to vote. >> you know, engage, engaging is such an important term that you bring up, frankie. i mean, if you look at this poll, the top three issues are all centered around the economy in this poll. so, what do campaigns need to do to engage with latinos on these issues? >> first of all, just completely destroyed their ideas about what exactly is what is interested in our community. we want to talk about pocketbook issues, and it is interesting that in our research also we still have a large group of people that are still unsure about what are the policy proposals that candidates have right now, so this is an

important opportunity to start engaging nonprofit groups on the ground, engaging community and do it in a linguistically and confident way because while we're seeing the new excitement is from women, younger latinos and spanish-speaking latinos, that is a critical part of these conversations. >> interesting. immigration and abortion, frankie, are not in the top three issues of major concerns to latino voters. where do they come in? >> well, the important thing about these polls is what we are trying to say is these are -- latinos are contributing to every single aspect and the economy is extremely important for them. they have been completely impacted by the pandemic and have been slow in the pandemic recovery, so our community needs to talk more about what are the opportunities and it's interesting that this week vp harris started to talk about some of these pocketbook issues,

and that is consistent to what our polling people were asking us to talk more about and asking the campaigns to talk more about. >> and, you know, when we talk about the latino vote, i always say there's no latino vote. there are just latino voters. 1 million latinos in the united states turn 18 years of age every year in our country. 1 million a year and to not focus on them is to the great peril of everyone else. frankie, always a pleasure to see you, my friend. thanks for being with us. >> thank you for having me. [ speaking in a global language ] former president trump tries to clean up his comments on the medal of honor award and protests have begun at the dnc. how chicago police will handle what could be a crowd of thousands. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc.

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27 past the hour. former president trump and republicans won't be laying low as democrats hold their convention. today trump and j.d. vance will be in pennsylvania. trump will be in york for what's being billed as an economic and energy event. vance will be holding a similar discussion in philadelphia. just two of the many events they plan to hold this week. with us now nbc's dasha burns in

york, pennsylvania and brandon buck, he is an msnbc political analyst. so, dasha, how are trump events planning to counter-program the dnc? >> this is probably the busiest week on the campaign trail for the former president in quite some time. he's hitting multiple battleground states this week. here in pennsylvania, he will be giving remarks at this factory behind he mere expected to focus on manufacturing, the economy, on energy which, of course, as you know is critical to battleground pennsylvania and he will take a trip down to border to co-cheese county, an issue where he feels he has an edge against kamala harris. he'll highlight that and head to vegas, another all-important area in the state of nevada, jose, this is an all-out blitz from the trump campaign as he tries to get some of the attention during a week that's going to be largely focused on the democrats. >> brendan, do you think there's

something republicans could do that could blunt the momentum that clearly appears on the vice president's side? >> what they're trying to do, donald trump's entire career, his biggest strength to be the center of attention and really control what we're talking about and make the other side have to respond to it. i think what he's struggling with is not just the fact that kamala harris has had a great month, she's had a historic month but he can't get the attention back. he's not the center of attention. when he does get it, it doesn't get him a whole lot. i think he used to believe as long as people were talking about him, that was good and now we're at a situation where the focus on him at least the way he's campaigning these days only hurts him. he needs to figure out not only how to get attention but to do so in a way that doesn't damage himself and puts the harris campaign on the defensive. >> talk about the attention and what the attention is geared towards. south carolina senator lindsey graham had this advice for trump

on "meet the press." take a listen. >> president trump can win this election. his policies are good for america and if you have a policy debate for president, he wins. donald trump, the provocateur, the showman may not win this election so i'm looking for president trump to show up in the last 80 days to define what he will do for our country to fix broken borders, to lower inflation. >> yeah, so many have said just something similar like that. do you think there's any chance that this will matter to former president trump? >> i feel like we're going to be in october with clips like that with other republicans urging him to be more focused on the issues people care about. it's not who he is and increasingly he's been struggling to figure out how to be disciplined. look, there are plenty of issues where kamala harris is very vulnerable and i do think that this is going to become a bit more of a conventional campaign,

if you will, over the next few months. she's had an incredible month and been able to sort of glide through. that won't last forever. there will be debates. she has to do media and she'll be asked tough questions about her record. that doesn't matter if the attention around donald trump is about questioning of her race or calling her dumb. those things are not going to advance anything that he is trying to do. it's all within his control and i think that's ultimately what the election will come down to. can donald trump break out of his personality defects and i don't know that we can count on that. >> trump trying to clarify remarks he made last week about the medal of honor. what is he now saying? >> this is another headline distracting from what his campaign wants to talk about which is the issues but the former president made some comments about the medal of honor that, you know, some people who have served in this country found offensive.

take a listen to what he said when he was asked about it. >> people that get the congressional medal of honor which i've given to many are often horribly wounded or dead. they're often dead. they get it posthumously and when you get the congressional medal of honor, i always consider that to be the ultimate but it is a painful thing to get it. when you get the presidential medal of freedom, it's usually for other things like you've achieved great success in sports or you've achieved great success someplace else. >> again, this is the challenge. they're creating events that really specifically try to target these policy issues. he's haing the backdrop of a factory and will be at the border. they're trying to build out sets as you saw with those grocery props at his press conference to try to get the focus on the policy, but it's former president trump. he talks for a long time and

this those long, long speeches he gets off message and ends up making headlines for other issues rather than just policy, jose. >> dasha and brendan, thank you both so much. up next who is protesting and why as the dnc gets under way in chicago. plus, some of the big names we're expecting to hear from in the run-up to vice president harris' accepting the presidential nomination later this week. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc.

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37 past the hour. protests are under way as the democratic national convention begins later today. protesters rallied on sunday and tens of thousands are expected to demonstrate across the city this week. many of them protesting the biden administration's handling of the israel/hamas war. joining us from chicago is shaquille brewster. shaq, good morning. how is the city prepared for this week? >> reporter: well, jose, you probably saw in some of that video that there's a heavy police presence throughout the city. you go closer to the major venues, you see high fencing in place. you see screening barriers in place to make sure that only credentialed people can go inside but i spoke to the police superintendent who said he's welcoming protesters here if they are peaceful and he's encouraging that and one of the largest protests we're expecting of the dnc is set to begin in about 90 minutes from now, tell

you, it's a coalition of groups having a press conference in the background and their main message on some of the signs, it's focused on the war in gaza. i want you to listen to a conversation i had with one of the organizers. and i don't think we have that video ready, but the main message that you kept hearing from folks who have traveled. one person told me he traveled seven hours to come here is that they want democrats to know the people here want a cease-fire and want the united states to end aid to israel. that's the main message. despite that you have many groups here, many different issues that folks say they are going to be focused on as they have their rally and go and march through the city of chicago getting within blocks of the united center, jose. >> shaquille brewster giving us the information with and without the sound bites. you do it brilliantly. meanwhile inside the

convention hall delegates will hear from president biden, first lady jill biden and former secretary of state hillary clinton. throughout the week they'll be hearing from other big name speakers as they rally around vice president harris and governor walz. nbc's monica alba is in the convention hall in chicago. who else do we expect to hear from this week and what themes are they expected to touch on? >> well, it's really an example, jose, of the sort of high wattage power in the democratic party. we're talking about former presidents, former president barack obama, former president bill clinton will be speaking specifically to vice president harris' leadership and we're also going to be hearing tonight, for instance, from former secretary of state hillary clinton who, of course, was the nominee for the democrats in 2016, and tonight president biden will give that keynote address reflecting on his own history of public service but also really passing the torch and specifically dr. jill biden is going to

acknowledge some of the people who were unwavering in their loyalty to her husband but, of course, acknowledging and rallying now around the vice president as well and then later in the week you're going to be hearing from governor tim walz who, of course, is going to kind of introduce himself for the first time to such a large audience as the vice presidential nominee and in terms of the themes, they're really trying to paint this in the context for the people tonight which happens to be then senator harris' campaign slogan in the 2020 cycle and then they'll try to present it as the bold vision for america's future. and the new way forward which is now what vice president harris is trying to use as her own motto for this 80-day campaign and she will close that out in the same vein, for our future when she speaks thursday evening in the keynote address with the

balloon drop and everything for a convention really, jose, that just four weeks ago was going to look so different and be focused in such a different manner, but throughout the entirety of the week many democrats are making the point here that when you look at the party unity, how they rallied around and coalesced around kamala harris so quickly, they believe that that stands in stark contrast to the republican party where if you look at what happened in milwaukee, there weren't former republican presidents like george w. bush, for instance, speaking there, of course, there weren't major republican officials necessarily from past administrations speaking on behalf of donald trump and so that is something you can expect to continue to hear this week that democrats are trying to tout their own cohesion going into this even though just some weeks ago we saw how fractured the party was, how divided it was over the debate on whether joe biden should stay at the top of the ticket so they're trying to put some of that behind them

by focusing now on the energy and the enthusiasm that they see around vice president harris. >> thank you so very much. now to breaking news from new york where the manhattan district attorney's office is responding to donald trump's efforts to delay sentencing in his new york hush money case which right now is set for the 18th of september. msnbc legal correspondent lisa ruben is with us. lisa, good morning. what did the manhattan d.a.'s office have to say? >> well, jose, the manhattan d.a.'s office had to say a lot on one hand and not much on the other. first they're telling judge mer shan they'll defibrillator to whatever he wants but then flag a number of issues on both sides with respect to trump's request to delay the sentencing. on one hand they take umbrage at a number of points that trump raises in his letter that appear to take pot shots at the d.a. but substantively they are acknowledging the supreme court's decision doesn't have a

lot to say whether evidentiary rulings are appealable and given that and given that the sentencing is scheduled for just two days after judge mer shan is scheduled to decide whether to set aside the verdict on the basis of those evidentiary rulings, they say trump could go to an appellate court and upend preparationses for sentences which is likely to be costly and complicated and they are throwing it back to the judge to say whatever you want to do, we'll be ready. antony blinken says the latest people for a cease-fire deal might be the last chance. plus, the biden administration officially opens its new program today allowing undocumented spouses of u.s. citizens to apply for residency. we'll introduce you to an arizona family who says the program could change their lives. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. like ours is spoiling their dogs. good, real food is simple.

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cease-fire and to put everyone on a better path to enduring peace and security. >> meanwhile, amid escalate tensions american airlines announced it is suspending operations to and from israel through the end of march 2025. joining us from tel aviv is raf sanchez. what's the latest on secretary blinken's visit there? >> reporter: well, jose, the secretary just wrapped up a meeting with israel's defense minister. we expect that he is going to speak to the press a little bit later on this afternoon, but the key meeting is the one that you mentioned, a two-and-a-half-hour one-on-one sitdown with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu. no other aides in the room, just these two leaders, which gives you a sense of the sensitivity. netanyahu's office says this was a constructive meeting, and that israel is on board with the proposal that the american side laid out in doha last week. now, netanyahu's support,

obviously, critical, but there's no deal unless hamas also agrees, and jose, we are hearing very negative noises from hamas at this point. they say that american proposal makes too many concessions to israel. they say they are not planning to send a delegation to cairo to continue negotiations later on this week. the reality is this is a negotiation. it may be hamas is just driving a hard bargain, and we were waiting to hear from the secretary about why he believes this deal can get done this week. jose? >> meanwhile, raf, i know you've been following these reports about a failed terror attack in tel aviv last night. it could have been very, very dangerous. >> reporter: yeah, that's exactly right. there was a major explosion in south tel aviv last night. israeli police are confirming today it was a failed terror attack. one person was killed, but an israeli security official tells me that person is believed to have been a terror operative, an

israeli civilian, who was passing by on a scooter was moderately injured, but hamas is confirming this was an attempted suicide bombing and that has people here extremely rattled. it has been nearly 20 years since the last suicide bombing here in tel aviv, and hamas is promising to return to that bloody tactic as part of this ongoing confrontation with israel. >> raf, it seems it's just the backpack that the bomb was in detonated earlier? >> reporter: that's our understanding. it seems like this explosive went off accidentally. it went off too early, but the expectation is that this bomber was trying to cause more damage than he ultimately did. >> raf sanchez in tel aviv, thanks so much. up next, as democrats get ready for their big week in chicago, they're also rolling out a new program protecting some undocumented immigrants here in the u.s. how it could not only change

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55 past the hour today. former republican congressman george santos is expected to plead guilty to multiple charges related to campaign finance fraud, according to two sources familiar with the matter. santos, who was indicted last year on 23 counts of wire fraud, aggravated identity theft, and

making materially false statements to federal elections commission, was set to go to trial in new york next month. last december, santos became just the third lawmaker since the civil war to be expelled from the house of representatives following a house investigation and federal indictment. as democrats kick off their national convention today, they're also rolling out a major immigration initiative. the new program, known as parole in place, will make it easier for undocumented people married to u.s. citizens to apply for green cards. nbc's david noriega joins us from los angeles. you spoke to a family applying to the new program. there are millions and millions of mixed immigration status families in the united states. what did you learn from that family? >> reporter: yeah, jose, let me tell you about this couple. rodrigo was brought to the u.s. when he was 5 years old from

mexico, without papers. he's married to ashley, who who's from california, also latina, and rodrigo found out he was undocumented when he was 16, and i realized he couldn't get a regular, above the table job. he currently works mainly painting houses, but he aspires to more. he's expecting his first child in the next couple months. he wants a job with retirement benefits, insurance, and as the system exists now, for him to apply to legalize his status, he would have to leave the country first and risk being separated from ashley, who's 7 months pregnant, for potentially years. now, what this program does is it eliminates that obstacle. rod can apply to legalize his status from inside the united states. this is huge for them. it has the potential to really meaningfully change their lives at this very critical moment. so, i asked them not only about that, about the impact that it's going to have on them, but also about ashley, who's a u.s. citizen, and how she's intending to vote in november. take to listen to what they said. >> we would be able to actually do the things that we want to do. we have a lot of really high goals to reach.

we want to both be homeowners. i don't want everything to just be on my name. i want him to have the same opportunities that i have. >> is it fair to say you're considering voting for the democrats now? >> yeah. i'm considering it. is this just a ploy for votes, or is this something that you -- that they're really taking serious and actually going to follow through with? and then i'll make my decision. >> reporter: that's a swing vote, jose. ashley voted for trump in the last election and was prepared to do so again this year until the parole in place program happened, and also, i should say, until biden dropped out of the race. there are about 15,000 people who qualify for this program in arizona, and biden won arizona by about 10,000 votes so that gives you a sense of how much this program could move the needle. >> thank you so much. before we go, some good news to share about a life-saving gift from one sortie sister to another. >> i have exciting news for you.

i'm a match. >> no, megan, you're not. >> yes. >> this is a phone call. jessica haas will never forget it. >> i'm excited to be able to do this for you. >> oh, my god, i love you so much. >> it's the moment she found out her old college sr sorority sister, megan schultz, was a match to donate a kidney. she met megan 18 years ago when they were both members of pi beta phi sorority. >> what was going through your mind and through your heart? >> i couldn't believe it. i get a second chance at life because of her. i'm 37. i'll get a longer life with megan's kidney. she's an angel in so many ways. >> it's a gift, also, that really, in many ways, will transcend time. >> being able to show her a little bit of love so that she can be healthy and just be

herself out there in the world, spreading so much joy, it is really an honor to be able to do that. >> and they're expecting to undergo their surgery in november. that wraps up the hour for me. i'm jose diaz-balart. you can reach me on social media. you can watch clips from this show on youtube. thank you for the privilege of your time. andrew mitchell picks up with more news right now live in chicago. ♪♪ and right now, on a special edition of andrea mitchell reports, we are live in chicago from the democratic national convention all this week. as vice president kamala harris and her running mate, tim walz, top the democratic ticket, after a whirlwind month sparked by joe biden's unprecedented exit from the race. tonight, president biden's farewell to the democrats in the hall and the nation, and his complicated handoff to his vice president, delivering a primetime speech that could be his last big moment as the party's leader.