>> there was no discussion of any matter pending before the department or any matter pending before any other body, there was no discussion of benghazi, no discussion of the state department e-mails by way of example. >> so social or not, the optics are creating this political uproar causing some democrats to cringe and republicans to cry foul over it. want to start with justice correspondent pete williams. pete, is this a departure from what loretta lynch has previously said? >> well, the justice department says no, thomas. they say that she's been broadly hinting that this is the step she was going to take just as recently as a couple of weeks ago when she appeared on all the sunday morning programs, including "meet the press." she said she would be guided by i don't think those were exact words, but she said this would go through the career justice department prosecutor. she was responding to the question of whether she would recuse herself and she said she wouldn't discuss exactly what the internal justice department

steps would be, but what we are told by senior justice department officials this morning is that this has always been her plan, to defer to the guidance, to the recommendations by career justice department prosecutors. that's the way these cases normally work anyway. the only question where there's a little uncertainty here is precisely what her exact role will be. these officials say she's not simply going to sort of ministerially accept whatever they say and pass it on and just put her signature on it automatically but that she will be strongly guided by, she will defer to all but, basically, take their recommendations, that her role will be largely guided by what the career folks say. and i have to say that this has been what she strongly is hinting at whenever she's asked about this in the past several months, because many republicans

have said that' given the fact she's an appointee of the president, there should be a special prosecutor here and that's a frequent call whenever there's a politically touchy case in the justice department. and most attorneys will say you know what, this is our job, this is what we're supposed to do and that's what basically she's saying as well. we expect her to perhaps say a little more about this when she talks at the aspen institute later this morning but that's basically what's being said today. >> just so we connect the dots, so everybody understands, comey will finish, the fbi finishes their investigation, they pass on that investigation and recommendations to the doj, and now the integrity and credibility of the department of justice has a whiff of impropriety because of loretta lynch having this impromptu meeting with bill clinton. while she says career prosecutors will decide, does she still hold that ace up her sleeve to overrule any type of decision that career prosecutors would make about moving forward with an indictment?

>> i guess an ace up the sleeve would be considered cheating. >> well, she is appointed by the democrats. i'm just saying. >> setting that aside, i see the point of your question. just to be clear about this process, there's nothing unusual here. this is the normal way it goes. on any criminal case, the fbi investigates something, makes a recommendation to the justice department, and then the career lawyers look at it and most of the time, it ends there. but on a politically sensitive case like this or high profile case like this, i guess is the better way to say it, the senior folks, senior career folks, will look at it and then it will go to the attorney general. so you know, i think she clearly recognizes the point you're making here, that this has always been a politically sensitive point only exacerbated by this meeting with the president that she didn't plan earlier this week, and i think that's why you're seeing these statements here that she wants to make clear that she will be

strongly guided by -- what they are trying to say here is that she still will play a role in this but that they will have a very strong role here. she maintains still the fact that she's the attorney general, she's not recusing herself, but that she will all but i guess is the way to say it, all but defer to whatever they recommend. >> reminding everybody about the credibility and integrity of the institution of the department of justice. pete williams, thank you very much. i appreciate it. see you later in this hour. donald trump wasting no time of making political hay out of the lynch and clinton meeting. take a look. >> i thought the people that told me, you know, i said no way. there's just no way that's going to happen. and it happened and i am just, i'm flabbergasted by it. i think it's amazing. i have never seen anything like that before. >> nbc's katy tur has been traveling with the trump campaign for over a year now and is there in colorado. donald trump is speaking later today at the western conservative summit.

we know donald trump has taken to twitter over this, and this really does play into his campaign narrative to infer that the political establishment is rigged. >> reporter: absolutely. this is an opening for him and he's certainly going to use it, tweeting just a few minutes ago, take a look at what happened with bill clinton, the system is totally rigged. does anybody really believe that meeting was just a coincidence? you're right, this plays exactly into the campaign narrative. they trying to paint hillary clinton as somebody who is untrustworthy, that the clintons are out there for their own political gain, not the well-being of the american public, and this sort of back room meeting, this shady meeting that was only caught by reporters the way trump wants to paint it, they are saying it's just another example of why you can't trust her to be president of the united states. so this works within their narrative and they will take advantage of it as much as they can. remember, whenever he has an option, to hit hillary clinton on her forthcomingness or truthfulness, he is going to take that.

>> so we know you're in colorado. the western conservative summit which is going to be taking place later today. what's the expectation of how trump's going to be received there? >> reporter: it's interesting. we are not entirely sure how he's going to be received here. remember, back during the state gop convention he didn't win a single delegate. ted cruz got all of them. he was very angry about it, tweeted that the system was rigged. meanwhile, the state senator, cory gardner, came out and said if you can't figure out a convention, who's to say you will be able to defeat isis. he's not popular here among the establishment. this is also the headquarters of ground zero, if you will, of the free delegate movement led by kendal unruh, people trying to get his nomination thrown out of the convention by allowing delegates to vote their conscience and for somebody else. he doesn't have a lot of popularity with the establishment in this state. but he's coming and he's going to be trying to make amends, if you will. he will have a fund-raiser,

meeting with top dollar donors. he will also be at this convention trying to woo conservatives and evangelicals in this state. hillary clinton is at a disadvantage here as well. she is only polling neck and neck with him according to the cbs poll and in the caucus, she lost to bernie sanders. but she is outspending him $3 million to zero on the air right now. she does have an advantage like this. but perhaps donald trump's biggest disadvantage in the state is that there's a very high population of minorities, latinos, and so far, we have seen in poll after poll that he does not do well with the latino vote. >> katy tur, see you later today. thank you very much. i want to bring in our colleague, nbc's kelly o'donnell. kelly has some news this morning on trump's possible running mate. brief us on what you have gotten up to speed on. >> reporter: well, we can break this morning that indiana governor mike pence will be traveling today to meet with donald trump. this is a very big development. the indiana governor who is a social conservative and he is

someone who is credible with the establishment, having spent a dozen years here in washington in the u.s. house of representatives. mike pence is being vetted for the running mate slot, and now this is moving to a phase where there is that personal interaction. now, only yesterday, the governor told reporters that he had not spoken with donald trump since before the may 3rd indiana primary. now, you may remember at that time, pence had sort of a split endorsement. he praised donald trump for being able to voice the frustration of voters, but said he would personally cast his ballot with ted cruz. politically this is very important for mike pence, because he is on the ballot in november seeking a second term as indiana's governor. it's a tight race. so this elevates mike pence in the national conversation and for donald trump, if this moves forward in the process, pence brings some credibility with social and christian conservatives and he can speak washington, which we know is something that donald trump says he wants to have in a running

mate. so this is breaking news this morning, that governor mike pence will travel to meet with donald trump. now, sources in the campaign for governor pence will only say they cannot add anything beyond what the governor said yesterday and the governor said that he would not speak to hypotheticals. we know that is a chasm very wide in politics, leaving the door open. >> we are just several weeks away from getting to cleveland and we expect to know then who this vp pick is. who else would be in that top tier of the potential to round out a top ticket other than now this breaking news of pence? >> reporter: well, i can tell you from my own reporting that in the vetting process, governor chris christie of new jersey, the former house speaker newt gingrich, governor mike pence. when i say in the vetting process, this is a two, even three-step process in vetting. initially the legal team hired by the trump campaign can look at public available source material. candidates' voting record if they have been in elective

office, things they said in the past. that can all be done without the knowledge and cooperation of the potential running mate. then it goes to a next phase, where that legal team has created a questionnaire that is in excess of 100 questions. it will ask the potential running mate things about their personal views, things about their social media habits, seeks information about their medical history, their financial history, and some of the questions would sort of fill out a job interview. that phase is happening now. i'm also told from sources that there is a new sense of urgency inside trump world to try to move this process along, to give donald tru some flexibility should he choose to announce a running mate before the cleveland convention. that begins monday, the 18th. why would that be necessary? well, there's been some really rough periods here for donald trump and one thing that he could do is if he were to name someone that would reassure members of the republican party, that could be very effective going into the convention.

it might do something to quiet those delegates who are talking about voting their conscience and perhaps not sticking with trump if they have been obligated to do so through the voting process. so picking up the pace on donald trump veep vetting is a sign of the organization within the campaign. it is also a sign that donald trump may want to have more flexibility in what he does in making that announcement. publicly he said at the convention, there are very important signs according to my reporting that he might want additional time to do that prior to cleveland. so the news this morning is governor mike pence will be traveling to meet with donald trump. that is a significant development that will raise his stakes in the veepstakes and at the same time, we know for certain that there are at least three people being vetted, christie, gingrich, pence, and there are others on the list i am told who are of interest to the campaign, not entirely sure yet how far they have gone in that process. >> i just want to play for everybody how quickly this story has advanced where mike pence spoke to reporters yesterday and

fielded a question about this topic. listen to his answer. >> you know, i think you would have to talk to their campaign about who they're looking at or who they're not looking at. i will cut to the chase. i haven't spoken to donald trump since before the indiana primary and i certainly have never spoken to him about that topic. >> all right. so he's going to cut to the chase. now the chase seems to be on. this courtship could be really happening and he would be as you say, one that can handle the washington-speak. donald trump really needs that to round out his personality when it comes to having someone who is a career politician. >> reporter: and for the effectiveness, if they were to be elected, trump and whomever his running mate is, working in washington is a critical part of any success in a new administration. that would be true for hillary clinton, too, and whomever she chooses to be her running mate. someone who can help get the job done. for pence, he had served in republican house leadership and had served in a subset of the

republican house, a very conservative group called the republican study committee. that really speaks to conservatives around the country, social conservatiscons about the constitution, rooted in the right wing of the party. that's a place where donald trump does not naturally reside. that gives him some benefit. governor pence, if you carefully analyze what he said, i have no reason to believe any of that is not completely true. he had not spoken to donald trump. that doesn't mean the campaign has not spoken to the governor. and he also said referring you back to the campaign. that is classic speak whether it's democrat or republican, when the person potentially being vetted refers you back to the campaign, that is a very safe answer and one that i'm told in both campaigns in this cycle as well as cycles past, they encourage those who they are looking at to demur on this point and to refer back on the campaign. it doesn't do anyone any good to have this get ahead of them in the public domain. there is some buzz factor that

can be helpful to everyone, donald trump in this instance can test the reaction to a mike pence name or newt gingrich or chris christie and certainly for the governor who is running for re-election in a state where donald trump won decisively, being considered is part of this conversation certainly can't hurt. >> we know that pence made those comments after he made an announcement, they were celebrating bringing 300 new jobs to indianapolis. job growth plays into the donald trump narrative as well. we will see where this goes. >> fun to watch. >> yes. it will be an interesting july. happy july 1st. we got a lot going on later this month. that's for sure. let's bring in -- >> reporter: no rest over the weekend, my friend. >> nbc's kerry dann never gets rest and she joins us about the political fallout for the bill clinton/loretta lynch meeting. we were talking about this, with pete, about any whiff of impropriety. obviously this is a hot case, sensitive case. the doj wants to keep its

credibility intact because there are going to be critics, no matter what happens, from the left and the right, about how this advances or not. so how is loretta lynch trying to remind everybody about the integrity of her job and the institution later today in colorado? >> as pete williams and andrea mitchell have reported, this was a move that loretta lynch had been talking about, had taken under consideration, to announce formally that she will defer essentially to the fbi's findings and not be in any way interfere with what the fbi finds. it's a move that for political reasons she probably perhaps should have done weeks or even months ago. but this process was clearly accelerated by the reporting out of that meeting that she had with bill clinton at the phoenix airport. that certainlyly accelerated it. had she not made this move today over the holiday weekend, the drum beat would have only gotten louder and louder, even perhaps with democrats weighing in on the need for her to perhaps create some distance between

herself and the investigation. i think this really underscores that this was an unforced error by bill clinton in allowing that meeting to happen, and to have it be reported out. it raises some questions about obviously the optics. both sides obviously, they say the investigation was in no way discussed. they were talking about golf and their grandkids but certainly with the controversy swirling around this, the optics of having that meeting reported out are very damaging to hillary clinton. they are probably sighing a little with relief that loretta lynch is making this announcement. it does raise the question of who's staffing bill clinton that there wasn't a senior adviser there to tell him this probably wasn't a great move, this is not probably something we want to -- the headline in light of so much controversy swirling around the e-mails. clearly, what she's going to try to do is create a very, very bright line saying that she will in no way interfere, overrule, she will accept whatever the fbi

and james comey bring to her. >> could be part of the short game charm offensive but long term damage. >> reporter: long game, long game. >> thanks so much. see you later this hour. we want to move to breaking news out of turkey this morning regarding the identity of one of the masterminds behind the istanbul terror attacks. how is security getting beefed up here in the u.s. at airports ahead of the holiday weekend? ♪

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an update now with breaking news out of turkey. police identifying and telling nbc news they believe they know the mastermind behind tuesday's terror attacks in istanbul. nbc's matt bradley is there and has the very latest on this. matt, what can you tell us about who they believe it to be? >> reporter: thanks, thomas. we know from nbc has word from

turkish officials that this man is ahmed shitayev. he is well known to global intelligence agencies who go after jihadi groups but no one knows where he is. he does have one decidedly strong tell. he has one arm. in fact, he has a sort of menacing nickname to go with it. he's known as ahmed one-arm. this man is something of a dirty piece of work. he spent some time in prison in russia. that's where he lost his arm to gangrene. he escaped that prison in 2003, did less than a year of prison in sweden on arms smuggling charges. again, no one knows where he is now. the fact that he's russian and was directing three jihadis from the russian and central asian region points to what could be a new emerging wrinkle in this whole isis drama. now, a lot of men from this region have been known to populate the upper ranks of islamic state but they have

rarely been forward deployed beyond the battlefields in the group's self-declared caliphate in iraq and syria. so this is new. if this represents an emerging trend, it could mean that isis tapping into a new reservoir of foreign recruits who could move with greater ease across international borders. already, this is having a knock-on effect on high level diplomacy here in turkey. turkey is rapidly improving its relationship with russia and just today, president erdogan in a rousing speech following friday prayers said that turkey will take ten terrorists for every one turkish martyr. thomas? >> matt bradley in istanbul, thanks very much. so what are we doing here at home within our own borders to combat isis? malcolm nance is author of "defeating isis, who they are, how they fight and what they believe." so now that we have more

information and the identity of who this mastermind is, what does that tell us about the intelligence profile of isis and how they were able to pull this off? >> well, i find it fascinating that they used the cell to bring essentially caucasian russians with the exception of uzbek because they are slightly asian features but bring them out and not use operatives from the middle east or sub-saharan africa in turkey where they would actually blend a little better. if you have been to turkey you will know there's a very large russian tourism industry in that country as well. so it appears that they are using agents who have a much better capacity to look like the tourists that they would attack. >> how does this enhance our opportunity to thwart potential isis network attacks? >> well, certainly if it has anything to do with operating against the russians, we do have

a level of cooperation with russia despite some difficulties in the past with identifying agents who come from the chechen, dagestani and these regions that were former soviet union. so that means that if they do use these operatives outside of turkey, outside of the syrian-iraq region, we do have some background information on them. but for the united states, we are going to have to keep our vigilance for anyone that comes out of that region that transitions through turkey. it is almost standard that turkey is the transition for all attacks that isis performs throughout europe and the greater world. >> we know turkey's border has been problematic and porous. what is the u.s. doing to enhance tourist visa approval and also immigration concerns and proper vetting?

should that be triple checked, quadruple checked in light of what we are watching and how the network operates? >> well, certainly since the mass migration that's come out of syria through turkey across the aegean sea and what we have seen coming out of libya, customs and border controls are being tripled and quadruple checked. it's not just good fenough that we do that. we have to use the multi lateral agreements we have in place right now and cross-correlate everyone that's coming into europe through the intelligence agencies of europe. our strength comes from the fact that we have allies and all of these allies operate in unison to check the people who may try to transition or transit to another country. >> we think about those transitioning, that does not stop americans who are radicalized and are fully accessible to weapons within our own country to be able to pull off isis inspired attacks. >> you are absolutely right.

our risk in the west is not directed terrorist attacks who have links to isis command and control and were deployed out of raqqah. our problem is that we have inspirational terrorism where the belief system that they buy into the belief system of this jihadist ideology and then they are sent out as lone jihadis, that's what they call them, to go out, buy weapons legally and carry out mass murder. we need to understand that that occurs within the mind of an individual and unless they give us some sort of intelligence, it's very hard to detect. >> msnbc terror analyst malcolm nance, appreciate it. we have more details ahead about what's going to take place in cleveland and the battle over the republican convention rules that's under way. we have the document. it could kill the stop trump movement in its track. plus, millions of americans plan to fly over this holiday weekend but how tough is security going to be following the istanbul attacks? we will explain and give you a preview.

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in the wake of the istanbul attack, travelers here in america will see enhanced security at airports over the holiday weekend. we had homeland security secretary jeh johnson saying you could expect to see security, more of it, more k-9 units, more police personnel at your local airport. msnbc is live at laguardia airport here in new york. explain what you have eyewitnessed about enhanced security and if that's impacting travel or wait times. >> reporter: good morning. with u.s. officials more and more certain that the istanbul attack was indeed the work of isis, the transportation security administration, tsa, is not taking any chances. they are assuming it was isis, it was terrorism, and that the u.s. could be the focus of the next attack. to that end, there's been a beefed up visible security presence, that means more officers walking through, even soldiers walking through, but a lot of the action is also going on behind the scenes where you can't see it.

through those doors, we have all seen the airport marked no access. we recently took a trip through one of those doors to take a look at the tsa's operation in search of not only guns and knives but also explosives. take a look. >> when you talk about a knife, everybody knows what a knife looks like. everybody knows what a gun looks like so we can tell somebody look for a gun. it's fairly simple. when we say explosives, what does a bomb look like? now, if you watched a lot of saturday morning cartoons, then this is what a bomb looks like. but is that really what the bad guys are going to use? the answer of course is no. so we look at all these other options. >> reporter: the things on this table are training devices. >> exactly. >> one of the things for us is when we find something or hear about something overseas, these guys are on it within just a few hours trying to build it, replicate it and train our people on it so that we are aware of it. >> reporter: so i see a camera there, for example. you built that, replicated it, someone must have used that

somewhere. how do you detect something like that? >> that's the real challenge. all it is is really a simple matter of adding a cucouple wir. all the property goes through x-ray but this is a small change to see so it's really challenging to see on x-ray. we want to expose them, get them thinking to that. >> reporter: this is orlando. it's going to theme parks, it's families. everyone has a camera. how do you pick out that one? >> this is an example, we have to look at children's toys and we see tons of them but this is something these guys built, shrank wrapped themselves. but you can make explosives. the only thing that limits what you can make are your imagination. you can make them look like virtually anything. that's the challenge for us is that why would we look at somebody's doll baby, why look at their coloring book. we don't really know that it is what it's represented to be unless we check it out.

>> reporter: that operation you saw at the orlando international airport is typical of operations nationwide. it's constantly changing. anywhere in the world where there's an explosion and terror attack the tsa is responding, building a model of whatever technology was used and working on a way to detect it. we as customers of course are focused on the lines, the delays and the tsa tells me they are working on customer service and customer experience but not to the detriment of security. that's their number one priority. if they make it to september it will be 15 years without a major attack on a u.s. airline or airport and that right now is their goal. in terms of wait times and delays at the airport there is one problem on this fourth of july weekend. that is fireworks. you cannot take them on planes. these signs are up around the country. heed them before you get to the airport and everybody will have a quicker trip. thomas? >> you would think that would be baked into a little common sense before travel. good to remind everybody. really amazing work of seeing what the tsa folks, common day, every day things people travel with, whether a baby doll or

coloring books, even an altoids box. did they talk about whether or not they have creative minds behind the scenes that are trying to think two, three steps ahead of what might be purposed as a bomb? >> reporter: they did, thomas. and they do. in fact, the federal government famously has teams of people who are not from the establishment intelligence community, writers, academics, who are doing just that, thinking creatively, using their expansive imaginations in every way possible to think of things that no one on earth has yet to think of and prepare before it's even necessary. >> tony, great to see you. thank you. so joining me now is brigham mccowan, former senior executive for the department of transportation during the george w. bush administration. good to have you with me. were you amazed there at that look behind the scenes of what was behind used, the tsa examples from coloring books to

altoids boxes and from your time under george w. bush, how have things advanced to what the tsa was first alerted to to what we witness now? >> the only constant in life is change. one of the things the tsa has done a very good job at over the last several years is anticipating what the new threats are, how those threats evolve. i'm not really surprised at all, because while most of us think about going through the line, there's so much more going on behind the scenes and you know, thank goodness they are out there thinking about these things. >> absolutely. what's your best advice for people that are traveling this weekend? >> my best advice is get to the airport a little bit early and although a lot of us have become accustomed to flying after 9/11, we forget simple things. if you are going to bring a water bottle, make sure it's empty. make sure you don't have too much makeup that doesn't fit in the quart size ziploc baggy. make sure you know what line to go into and what you need to take off. these type of efforts, tsa is

working on, but we can help ourselves getting through security. >> we rely on the tsa and have gotten used to the tsa being part of our lives. do you think we have gotten as travelers overly reliant on trusting them to do the work that we could be eyewitnesses to? >> that's a great question. i don't know. i think most of us as we are in the airport, we do look around. if you see an unattended bag just sitting there, speak up and say something. if you see somebody who seems like they're just obviously interested in where the police are moving around or how tsa is doing things like they're taking mental notes, speak up and go tell somebody. because what we do know is attacks are methodically planned out well in advance. they are not just spur of the moment type of events. so i think each one of us can help out quite a bit. >> brigham, thank you, sir. happy furthourth of july weeken

you. the push to stop trump has new opposition. the new idea that could bring a lot of potential drama before the start of the republican national convention in cleveland. and we are monitoring the very latest about attorney general loretta lynch. she is expected to speak about the ongoing clinton e-mail investigation from the fbi and how the doj is going to be handling it. stay with us. duo fusion! new, two in one heartburn relief. the antacid goes to work in seconds... and the acid reducer lasts up to 12 hours in one chewable tablet. try new duo fusion. from the makers of zantac. with usaa is awesome. homeowners insurance life insurance automobile insurance i spent 20 years active duty they still refer to me as "gunnery sergeant" when i call being a usaa member because of my service in the military to pass that on to my kids something that makes me happy my name is roger zapata and i'm a usaa member for life. usaa. we know what it means to serve.

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all right. so we have been talking about loretta lynch speaking later this morning in colorado from the aspen ideas festival. this is where she's going to be reminding everybody about the integrity of her position as the attorney general and whatever is decided by the fbi in the ongoing investigation of hillary clinton's e-mails and having a private server will be recognized and the recommendations followed through by the department of justice, by career prosecutors there. all of this is stemming after there was an impromptu meeting

between loretta lynch and bill clinton on the tarmac in phoenix. two planes intersected and they have referred to this as just a social meeting, where they talked about golf and grandkids. but there has been a backlash of folks feeling that this was optically inappropriate as the doj continues to wait for comey's finalized investigation and whether or not there would be any type of formal prosecution moving forward with indictments over the private e-mail server and hillary clinton's e-mails. we will have our eye on that and bring it to you when it happens here on msnbc. viagra single packs... so guys with ed can... take viagra when they need it. ask your doctor if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take viagra if you take nitrates for chest pain or adempas® for pulmonary hypertension.

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jen stops working, but her aleve doesn't. hey mom! because aleve can last 4 hours longer than tylenol 8 hour. what will you do with your aleve hours? so the republican national convention is set to get under way in just over two weeks and already, we have our first look at a potential rules change that could really shake things up and even solidify the nomination before the convention gets started. msnbc's chief legal correspondent ari melber has the very latest for us. >> the fight over the rules at the republican national convention is now under way.

our legal unit has obtained the first official rule proposal. now, this is an amendment that if passed, would lock in donald trump for the nomination. the draft rule would keep all the rules from the 2012 convention. it states any amendments to the party rules would not take effect until after this year's convention is over. the plan's pretty simple and clear. the author says he hasn't endorsed any candidate but republicans shouldn't change the rule in the middle of the game and take politics out of it. the rules committee meets thursday and friday before the convention. if they pass a plan like this, it would stop the anti-trump movement dead in its tracks. but of course, a lot more mischief is possible between now and then. we will be reporting on it from cleveland. back to you guys. >> ari melber, thank you. appreciate it. another major factor, announcing donald trump's vice presidential pick. nbc's kelly o'donnell reporting earlier this morning that indiana governor mike pence is traveling today to meet with

donald trump. nbc's kerry dann is back with us. let's talk about pence and who he adds in terms of or who is in the top tier. he's added to the top tier basically for the trump team. >> mike pence is a governor and also served in the u.s. house for 12 years. he represented especially when he was in the house a very socially conservative wing of the party. that's going to be good news to social conservatives and evangelicals who are skeptical of trump's commitment to their causes. other people in the top tier for donald trump, nbc news confirms both chris christie and newt gingrich are actively being vetted by the trump campaign. they are two former rivals who went on to endorse trump and especially in the case of chris christie has basically been at his right hand since that endorsement. two people who have shown a lot of loyalty to the candidate and also who are people who are closer to quote, household names among this list of vetting. gop sources also indicate there are some other people who are in the mix for the job. some of their names that have

been tossed around are current senators bob corker and jon thune. others may bring knowledge of the senate, establishment credentials to the table. it's not clear how excited they would be to be joining a ticket and where the vetting process may be for them. >> newt gingrich is still in the hunt, correct? >> correct. absolutely. nbc confirms he is actively being vetted. that was confirmed last night. he has been one of the candidates that has been very close to trump in advising him. some of the caveat, he has two ex-wives so between the two candidates, they would have six wives between them. he is also older than donald trump, a consideration for those who are concerned about potential health issues. newt gingrich is 73 years old so even older than the candidate himself. a couple things to keep in mind there. he does come to the table with a lot of experience as speaker of the house, obviously, and a lot of voters know who he is and rooted for him in 2012 when he was running for president. >> lot of institutional knowledge for sure. is there anyone out of that list

that really helps with the electoral map? >> well, that's one thing that clearly is not a huge consideration to the trump campaign. chris christie is not particularly popular in his home state. newt gingrich is from georgia, a state that nbc news classifies as a republican state right now. there aren't a whole lot of geographical advantages here but the trump campaign along this entire process has made fairly clear that they are not necessarily interested in trying to make a pick that helps in the electoral college. they want to make somebody who is a governing partner for somebody who by the way has no military or previous governing experience. >> carrie, thanks again. appreciate it. as we have been talking about this hour, the expectation of attorney general loretta lynch will be speaking roughly in about 12 minutes. she's going to be giving remarks at the aspen ideas festival in colorado. she is going to be addressing how the doj and she herself as attorney general will handle the fbi recommendations about hillary clinton's e-mail server and those e-mails.

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all right. we are moments away from hearing from attorney general loretta lynch. she is scheduled to speak coming up at the aspen ideas festival in colorado, and is expected to address the decision to accept the recommendation of career justice department prosecutors in respect to the fbi probe of the hillary clinton e-mail private server investigation. it comes after there was an impromptu and private meeting between the a.g. and former president bill clinton on board her government plane on the tarmac of a phoenix airport. nbc justice correspondent pete williams joins me once again. pete, do you have any updated information about what will be addressed about lynch's intentions about the fbi investigation? >> yeah. this is first of all, we have to say, an unusual thing for the attorney general to publicly explain what she's going to say. but what the justice department folks that we have be talking to

say that she will make public what she had already decided privately and has been hinting at for the past couple of weeks. namely, that when the advice comes from the recommendation comes from the fbi about whether to charge anyone criminally in this case and remember, there's a lot of people that could potentially be criminally charged here, it's not just about hillary clinton, that recommendation will go to the career folks at justice. they will look at it, make a recommendation. that will go to the senior career people and what they say is she will be guided by or largely defer to their choice. they are not saying that she's 100% going to simply ministerially say okay, whatever you say, that she will still be in the process, but that she's going to strongly defer to them and they say she's been in essence foaming the runways for this possibility or this decision for the last couple weeks in her public statements

in wip shich she said she will r to the career folks. we will be looking to how she threads the needle on this. >> word by word. pete williams, thank you. appreciate it. coming up, the great escape is on. we have a record number of americans expected to hit the roads over the july 4th holiday weekend. already on the roads? luke russert is driving up the i-95 corridor from washington to new york and is in orioles orange. he went through baltimore. the orioles are in seattle so he's not stopping by an orioles game. where's he off to?

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welcome back. drivers are gassed up and ready to hit the road in anticipation of a long holiday weekend. roughly 36 million people will be driving their way towards their independence day celebration. nbc's luke russert is in the car driving along i-95. to give us an eyewitness report

about any backups or traffic. you got an early start. what are you seeing? >> reporter: thomas, all clear. we left d.c. at 8:55 a.m. we just hit delaware about 10:50, two hours to delaware, not bad on 95. 15 minutes in there for a coffee break. this will be the busiest fourth of july travel day in the history of fourth of july travel days. the reason, this is the lowest gas prices since 2005. so people are going to be out there on the roads as you said, 36 million americans moving around. about 370,000 of those 36 million will have a roadside incident so god willing, that's not us. if you do have an incident, remember to pull over, stay safe and just wait it out, don't get hit. so far, everything has been pretty smooth along 95. we might even be in 30 rock pretty soon. you have to have some lunch waiting for me. lastly, i know your heart is in maryland so i picked up this maryland heart sticker for you.

>> so nice. >> reporter: i know it's everything you always wanted. >> can you get some burger cookies and deliver them to 30 rock, too? i want burger cookies. >> reporter: i should get the crabs and utz chips for you with old bay on them. >> i dare you, get as many truckers as you can to honk their horn in your next live shot. you have gone by two mack trucks. >> reporter: we'll do it, buddy. >> drive safe. thanks so much. that wraps up this hour of "msnbc live." see you back at 2:00 p.m. eastern. hopefully with a big box of burger cookies. stay tuned. tamron hall picks up the coverage right now. right now on msnbc we are awaiting attorney general loretta lynch's first public comments since it was announced she won't overrule the decision made by federal prosecutors and the fbi in the investigation into hillary clinton's e-mail server. this as she faces growing

questions over a private meeting with former president bill clinton on a government plane. plus, nbc has learned indiana governor mike pence is traveling today to meet with donald trump. pence is one of the top contenders that's emerged on a list of possible running mates. we'll have the very latest on who else is on that list. coming up in the wake of the istanbul terror attack, security has been stepped up across the country. how might that affect your fourth of july travel plans? good morning. i'm tamron hall. coming to you live from our msnbc headquarters in new york. we begin with that breaking news and what's being called an unusual move, attorney general loretta lynch is about to speak publicly about the investigation of hillary clinton's private e-mail server after days of controversy over a private meeting she had with former president bill clinton on a plane in arizona. lynch is speaking at an event in aspen and is expected to say she will accept the findings of prosecutors and not override their decisions. both lynch and clinton have