good afternoon, everybody. i'm yasmin vossoughian here in new york. we are gearing up for what might be the busiest monday news day in years. you have closing arguments hours away in the kyle rittenhouse trial. we'll take you to a city on edge. steve bannon set to surrender to authorities and make his first court appearance tomorrow.

we've got new reporting on who might be next up for criminal charges. president biden set to sign his infrastructure bill on monday, as well. even as the house is preparing to pass his build back better bill. all of that plus a special report. who is really to blame for inflation? when it comes to rising gas prices, a journalist is putting the blame on the saudi government bent on pun iring the biden administration for the stance of the murder of a journalist. that's ahead, as well. we begin with developments for former white house chief of staff meadows. a short time ago a committee member congressman schiff said they're moving quickly. meadows failed to appear for a deposition on friday. and repeatedly defied congressional subpoenas. the news arrives mere days after the indictment of former trump top aide steve bannon set to turn himself over to authorities

tomorrow after being charged with contempt of congress. with me is julie sirken and paul butler. julie, bannon expected to self surrender tomorrow and not one to follow the law. are investigators confident at this point it's going to go smoothly? >> reporter: yasmin, as far as we know from the justice department sources is that, yes, steve bannon, you said it right there, he is good at evading the law and obstructing justice in situations like this. we know -- we expect at least that he will turn himself in in the morning and show up for a court appearance in the afternoon. he can stall. there are tactics that he can take with his lawyers to make this last months if not years and leads me to the next point is we don't know if bannon is

convicted on the two counts of criminal contempt of congress if the commit tee will hear from him. if they will receive that testimony. the committee has sights set on mark meadow, president trump's former chief of staff. he was subpoenaed by the committee last week. the committee now considering possibly a quick criminal contempt referral for meadows. let's listen to acongressman schiff on the house select panel and what he had to say this morning on "meet the press." >> we have been moving quickly to make the decisions and we will with mr. meadows also. when ultimately witnesses decide as meadows has that they're not going to bother to show up and have that contempt for the law it forces our hand and we'll move quickly. >> reporter: schiff more direct

than others. he's saying we are quickly going to move forward with a control contempt referrals for meadows. we expect more subpoenas to come down in the coming weeks for other trump officials. >> paul butler, what do you expect? do you think the way things have gone for bannon scares folks like meadows to testify? so far it hasn't necessarily worked. >> yes but this is the most serious charge for any of trump's cronies who have been stonewalling this january 6th investigation. tomorrow bannon will surrender to law enforcement. he'll be book, fingerprinted and the clerk will call the name of the case. the united states of america versus steven bannon.

things will start to get real. >> what are some of the stalling tactics? julie talked about them a little bit. what are the stalling tactics ban i don't know's lawyers could use going forward? >> he'll resort to the donald trump litigation strategy of losing on the merits but winning by running out the clock. so he'll argue his weak executive privilege claim and hope that it takes until the 2022 midterms for the courts to figure it out. the problem for bannon is that even if republicans win the house and the january 6 investigation goes away the criminal case does not. i imagine that the house still wants bannon's testimony. he seemed to know in advance that january 6 was going to be an actual insurrection. what did he talk with trump about? house investigators are probably open to a deal when and if

bannon decides to follow the law and like any other citizen. >> paul, react to what adam schiff had to say about the referral for mark meadows. what type of message does that send? he is in a different bucket than steve bannon is. >> yes. bannon's is the first prosecution for contempt of congress since 1983. bannon has a particularly weak executive privilege claim because he wasn't even working in the administration around january 6th. so bannon's prosecution is major for two reasons. they could get crucial evidence from other witnesses like mark meadows. but the other really important message this ends is that the justice department under attorney general merrick garland is willing to hold people and the trump administration accountable.

>> accountable. julie, thank you. paul, stick with us. we'll talk about what's happening in kenosha, wisconsin, in a moment. with that awant to move to wisconsin. a city on edge right now. as tensions are mounting in anticipation of tomorrow's closing arguments in the trial of 18-year-old kyle rittenhouse. allison barber is there for us. talk about the mood on the ground. the governor is not taking chances after dispatching 500 national guard members. >> reporter: yeah. there is a bit of a quiet tension here. people are going about the normal lives. things are calm and not really protests outside the courthouse but people worry what might come with a verdict regardless of that verdict. this is a very divisive case and people are paying close

attention. to give you an idea of the tensions yesterday it was discovered that someone posted the home address of a prosecutor. it was quickly taken down by the group's administrator but people saw that as a veiled threat and people are worried what potentially could happen after the jury delivers a verdict. >> i was talking about it. >> watching it a lot. >> up dates on every part of it. >> i hear from my mom in pennsylvania. >> my mom in florida messaged me yesterday, too. everyone is talking and worried. everyone is in limbo. we're fragile and everyone is on edge either way. that violence will happen again and since the -- all of this has happened, the city has been not itself with more violence.

everyone is fragile. and scary to think about that. >> reporter: so tomorrow the judge will deliver jury instructions and then each side will have two and a half hours or closing arguments. theoretically it is possible that this case could be in the hands of the jury as early as tomorrow night. yasmin? >> ellison, thank you. want to bring paul butler back in and what we have ahead for us. let's talk about the five felony charges the jury is considering here. talk us through those and what is more likely to land a conviction. >> in their closing statement, prosecutors need to persuade the case is about a young man with an illegal gun who went on a shooting rampage at a black lives matter protest. they'll argue that mr. rittenhouse went to kenosha

looking for trouble and he found it. under the law if rittenhouse was the aggressor, if he started the fight with all three of his victims he would not be entitled to claim self defense. >> the judge, paul, has allowed the jury to consider whether rittenhouse provoked rosenbaum into attacking him and negate the argument of the defense which is self defense. how's that going to play out? >> i think this case was probably won or lost when rittenhouse took the stand and that was a better day for the defense than the prosecution. rittenhouse was very well prepared for his testimony. and he held up well under cross-examine. he has to establish he faced a deadly threat.

the first victim tried to get the gun. the second attacked him with a skateboard and the third pointed a gun at him. if the jury credits this testimony by rittenhouse it could find him not guilty. >> so you think rittenhouse's testimony might be enough for him to get off here? >> i think that the prosecution has an uphill battle here. again, they were able to elicit favorable testimony in the cross-examination of rittenhouse and the other witnesses. but the reality is this is a very difficult case for the prosecution. >> want to read for you from a nbc piece talking about the judge's role in this. schroeder the longest serving circuit judge in wisconsin had a reputation for being a jurist whom defendants have sought to avoid. a judge was assigned to his jurisdiction because of the high

volume of requests for a different judge, a list about 250 people long. how much could this judge's conduct over the last week or so affect the verdict in this case? >> it could have a huge impact on the verdict but most of what the judge has done is allowed under the law. he has the discretion to make the decisions he has so tomorrow he has to explain the law to the jury without favoring one side or another and that's straightforward. judges follow standard written jury instructions. on issues like self defense and how the government proves the case beyond a reasonable doubt. for this judge, being objective may be a problem because so far most of the rulings have favored

the defense. >> paul butler, thank you. appreciate it. thank you for sticking with us. still ahead, as the president prepares to sign the infrastructure bill into law the administration out in force to try to ease inflation fears. i talk to an analyst who says the fears should not cause congress to shrink from action on the economy. plus the school mask mandate in florida. are they moving too fast to ditch the face coverings for kids? that answer is coming up next. ♪♪ this... is the planning effect. this is how it feels to know you have a wealth plan that covers everything that's important to you.

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welcome back. rising prices. across the united states. americans' basic needs like gas and food fueling concerns about the country's economic outlook. the government reporting a steepest inflation in over three decades in week. a 6.2 increase in prices due to supply chain disruptions.

so the growing anxiety creating a potential hurdle for president biden trying to get through this $1.75 trillion social spending plan before the end of the year. joe manchin expressed the concern over this spike in inflation, possibly putting the president's agenda back in peril, but should that worry be tied to passing this legislation? joining me now is ron insani. senior adviser for schroeder north america. you have to clear things up for us. i appreciate you joining us on this. inflation first. i had kevin o'leary on yesterday and i got a lot of pushback afterwards because he essentially said because of the huge inflation numbers build back better should be dead. it's not going to work. you think, though, however, that's a mistake. tying the two together is not

what should be done, especially when you hear senator manchin doing the same. >> yeah. i think a whole host of individuals and some very prominent economists misperceive the situation. this is much more akin to a post-war economy. something i wrote about for cnbc.com. looking at the disruptions of world war i and ii and korea and the pandemic we did this and then demand comes back but the global economy is not producing what it did prior to the pandemic so you have demand normalizing and a massive shortage of goods and even some services. under the circumstances prices grow up. we saw it in 1919 and 1946. this is very little to do with the president's agendas and the

massive supply disruptions, goods shortages, labor shortages that we experience right now and can be traced back to the pandemic. >> to be clear and to get you on the record for that, you don't think folks should be scared off coming to the 1.75 trillion soft infrastructure bill because of the inflation numbers? >> no. i don't think they're linked and the infrastructure bill is inherently anti-inflation. as you increase the productive capacity of the economy and makes it more efficient it is better why there's nothing that inflationay unless you say that government spending or excessive government spending always produces inflation. we don't know that to be the case and quite frankly as you look at the different things on the screen none have gone up in price because of government spending or zero interest rate

policy from the fed. >> you suggest to deal with this inflation issue like the marshall plan? >> yeah. absolutely. you increase supply. don't try to suppress demand not running at peak levels why gdp above 2019 but areas of the economy have not come back. leisure travel has. business travel hasn't. short 100,000 truckers not delivering goods to stores online or bricks and mortar. we are short goods and services and should be moving to increase the supply and not much demand down or back away from necessary programs because of the fears of inflation. >> let me quickly challenge you because how is it this administration can increase supply when this is a global issue? we talk about getting china on

board. right? this is a lot more complicated -- >> vietnam. >> exactly. than domestic. >> it is extremely complicated why won't go away tomorrow. the fed mistakenly used the word transitory talking about inflation and some high prices persisted for years. raising interest rates won't solve the problem. maybe we need as some people suggested members of the national guard to get things into store. we have 120 ships off the coast of los angeles or thereabouts that still need to be docked and unloaded so this is a different problem than a fiscal or monetary policy. >> are there predictions that this would happen? pre-pandemic? >> i don't think so. it's inevitable. we shutt down the global economy and then only partially reopened it and demand rebounded faster

than supply. >> got it. >> by definition prices have to go up under those circumstances. i don't think anybody thought because of the delta variant to have that second wave and second period to suppress output. you can't get new cars and appliances. all these types of things are still being disrupted and puts upward pressure on items and this is like a post-war economy than an end of business cycle where factories at 100% of capacity and can't keep up with demand. >> it is an unprecedented time. we can't compare it. ron, thank you. >> '47 and 1919. >> exactly. coming up, illinois congressman with his thoughts on

the atmosphere on capitol hill and then a preview of the infrastructure bill signing conversation at the top of the hour. also, could a border pry sis in europe lead to a russian invasion? the fears that vladimir putin is about to act. we'll be right back. right back. tide pods child-guard pack helps keep your laundry pacs in a safe place and your child safer. to close, twist until it clicks. tide pods child-guard packaging. people with moderate to severe psoriasis, or psoriatic arthritis, are rethinking the choices they make like the splash they create the way they exaggerate the surprises they initiate. otezla. it's a choice you can make. otezla is not an injection or a cream it's a pill that treats differently. for psoriasis, 75% clearer skin is achievable, with reduced redness, thickness, and scaliness of plaques. for psoriatic arthritis, otezla is proven to reduce joint swelling,

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let's talk sports for a moment. nfl quarterback ben roethlisberger is not playing in the steelers game against the lions right now due to a positive covid test. because he is vaccinated he can play again once he has two negative tests. meanwhile aaron rodgers will be back in action against the seahawks. the unvaccinated rodgers had to sit out the full ten days in the nfl covid protocols. a fifth wave have officials

stressing vigilance. in florida students don't have to wear masks. this week the last holdout school districts will lift mandates as cases trend downwards. nbc's stephanie stanton is in wind mere, florida, outside orlando, for us. how are parents reacting to the latest change? >> reporter: reaction is mixed because all school chirp here in florida can go mask free with a parent approval but this is because of the state drop in covid cases and not everyone is on board. here in the sunshine state we have one of the lowest rates in the country. and that is prompting as you said three remaining school districts to opt out of mask mandates, to drop the mask mandates. here this is in orange county

and one of those districts with the mask mandate and now dropping it. you may recall in august florida governor desantis said that school districts could not mandate masks or would be fined and several including here that defied the governor and now the counties are the final of that group to drop their mask mandates. we have a chance to talk to some parents and here are some of their reactions. >> all i want is my child to get a proper education without having to wear a mask. >> my kids will continue to wear masks. i understand there are vaccines and whatnot. i'm more on the cautious side. these are my babies. >> reporter: statewide about 67%

of the population here in florida is fully vaccinated and the positive rate very low. 2.5%. of course all of this coming as vaccine romouts for kids 5 and older are implemented so good news coming out of the sunshine state but still vigilant because while the cases are very low here we have seen what's happened in other areas. >> just quickly, were they planning to get the kids vaccinated or have they? >> reporter: i don't know about those two particular individuals but i can tell you that that is also a big flashpoint because there are many parents who are hesitant to get the kids vaccinated. you have three groups, the people first in loon, the fence sitters and the people saying no way. i'm not going to do it. that will be interesting to see how that plays out. >> stephanie, thank you. coming up at 4:00 p.m. i'll talk

to experts about the school mask debate and whether it is time to relax regulations nationwide. queen elizabeth forced a mill tire remembrance ceremony due to a sprained back and les than two hours before the ceremony was set to begin. the concern is deepening. the palace insists that the injury is unrelated and needs to rest for two weeks. the rapidly changing tensions between belarus and russia. the european union said that the leader offered thousands of tourist visas to refugees. when they arrived he pushed them across the border into eu countries, mainly poland. now thousands of refugees on the

border freezing and stuck. the eu said it's a gangster style approach to fight sanctions. it could get worse. european governments threatened belarus with deeper sacs this week. its leader countered with what sounded like a trump car. he could stop a flow of gas to the west. the mos row bureau chief for "the new york times" joining me now. thank you for joining us on this. great to talk to you. i find it fascinating that luke -- i'm sure he could have anticipated to make putin angry. >> in russia. that's right. >> so where do we go from here? when you have a situation like

that, putin basically slapped in the gas by alexander luke schenn coe and saying this oil will flow despite what the leader said? >> yeah. that gets at that complex relationship between them. putin being his biggest ally, benefactor. but at the same time trying to keep his distance from russia. with this migrant crisis he is trying to force the europeans to talk to them and deal with him and seems like it is going to backfire leading to even more sanctions against belarus and putting russia on the hook to have to support belarus even

more. >> there's video of soldiers destroying fence put up by poland. what will happen it seems from the reporting to these people that are stuck there? cold and hungry seeking refuge or wanting to seek refuge in the eu. >> there doesn't seem to be a way out. in particular for those people. broadly what the ou is trying to do is yet the airlines that fly to belarus to stop flying potentially migrants. they have succeeded in getting iraq and syria to stop flying to belarus. turkish airlines has agreed to stop flying citizens of iraq into other countries. what happens to the thousands of people already in belarus? there have been in germany, they have floated having ukraine

somehow take in these asylum seekers and put them in camps there but not something that ukraine wants to do. so it's really a very significant impasse that could get more serious. >> just quickly, you bring up ukraine. bloomberg is reporting a possible threat from russia to invade ukraine once again. want to play a bit from secretary of state blinken's thinking about this. >> the united states commitment to ukraine's independence, sovereignty, integrity is ironclad. that's something that i said again to dimitri today. it's a position that will not change. we stand with ukraine. >> is that enough of a sort of defense of ukraine to stop putin? >> no.

russia has very much made it clear it cares more about ukraine than the u.s. does and has the ability to escalate and the appetite to escalate further. whether or not that happens in this case remains to be seen. russia threatened an invasion earlier this year back in the spring and didn't happen. this time a lot of experts say the escalatory threat is more severe looking at the way russia' troops are moving but a lot of ways this could go and putin enjoys keeping the west and crew crane off balance. but concerned about where ukraine is going and willing to put a lot on the lip. >> i think vladimir putin wants to keep the west off balance.

anton, thank you. the insurrection in the spotlight. the podcast host sharon joins me live with why that day could have been so much worse and what americans can learn from it. ♪ there are beautiful ideas that remain in the dark. but with our new multi-cloud experience, you have the flexibility you need to unveil them to the world. ♪ at t-mobile for business, unconventional thinking means we see things differently, so you can focus on what matters most. whether it's ensuring food arrives as fresh as when it departs... keeping crews connected as they help build communities... or providing patients the care they need, even at home. we are the leader in 5g and a partner who

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if you want laundry to smell fresh for weeks make sure you have downy unstopables in-wash scent boosters. shop online for downy unstopables, including our new, lighter scent. welcome back. the january 6th insurrection is called among many things an assault on american democracy and a threat to its future. in one of the latest episodes of

her podcast my next guest sat down with businessman david rubenstein to discuss how that day highlights the cracks in the country's core belief system and how much worse things could have been without what he calls america's dna. >> just like humans have millions of genes, we have millions of genes in our dna pool. but i try to cite 13 of hem which are the ones that people would probably know, but the ones that people might not think about is the belief 2349 american dream, that you can rise up from the bottom and come to the top and diversity or belief in separation of pour powers and the transfer of power and the things that are part of the dna and i say in the beginning of the book as you probably know that had we got had the pieces in the dna the events of the election and the january 6 could have turned out

differently. >> joining me now is sharon mcman host of the sharon says so podcast. thank you for joining us on this. i want to expand on what we heard and talking about america's dna and how things could have turned out differently had the dna not been what it was but if we look ahead and the possibility of that happening it may not stick the next time around. >> i think democracy is who america is. and i think people absolutely are unwilling to see lack of a peaceful transfer of power and make us who we are and to abandon the principles is to abandon what america is. let's talk about civility in politic just want to play some

of the conversation with andrea reeve who used to work on the hill and the white house and the take on politicians and bipartisan. >> i think that most of them have america's best interests at heart or they would not be there in the first place why it is a hard job and you get a lot of crap for it and i don't think anybody is up for that and i think generally really good people go about solving problems differently and that is it. sometimes we don't and sometimes we agree. but they just have different ways of solving a problem and doesn't make them unpatrioting or un-american. >> i think a lot of folks would argue with your guest there, especially when you look at mark meadows, kevin mccarthy, folks

that seemed to placate the former president with threats against the nature of what this country is. >> i don't think it's fair to say 100% of the leaders have the best interests of america at heart. i don't think we can make the broad proclamations nor do i think everyone in congress is out to ruin america. there are amazing people trying to do good work in congress right now and doesn't mean there's not bad apples in the mix. >> thank you. tune in to sharon says so. coming up, more than just pain at the pump. with rising costs, why our next guest believes a murderous maniac is the driving force of global inflation. we'll explain after the break.

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welcome back. across america inflation is driving the cost of gasoline higher but nowhere is it as bad as california boasting the highest gas prices in the country. nbc's scott cohn is in the bay area with more on this. walk us through what you see out there today. >> reporter: well, we are here in san jose and you can see what we see. $5.09 a gallon for regular at

this station and not as if we have to go far to find this. this is common everywhere. the statewide average in california, $4.67 and higher than hawaii. it is not that great anywhere you go. $3.41 the national average today. a year ago we were paying in the neighborhood of $2 a gallon on average nationwide. the same basic phenomenon you were talking about with ron. the demand for fuel has come back as the pandemic subsided. supply has not met that demand. and the ultimate result is the prices coming to gasoline. that creates some enormous pressures on the white house, now from both sides of the aisle. >> when fuel is in a crunch everything is dominos. we can put our finger on the scale with something called the

svr, the strategic petroleum reserve. we need immediate relief at the gas pump and the place to look is the strategic petroleum reserve and why i urge the administration that tap that reserve, get the prices down. >> reporter: the white house said that it's not ruled out releases oil from the spr but the reality is that the reserve is not set up to control prices. there's not enough to release to have a great impact on prices. they're also looking at getting the federal trade commission to look into price gauging and taking this opportunity to talk about the infrastructure law and the build back better act to increase electric vehicles and the real issue is supply and demand getting the supply to come back to sop up that demand and not happen until next year.

>> scott cohn, thank you. who's to blame for those rising gas prices? a new article has a very clear answer titled the main driver of inflation is a murderous maniac in riyadh. it reads in part, saudi crown prince bin salman is enacting revenge on democrats in general and president biden specifically for the party's standoffish attitude. good to talk to you. quite a title there. >> good to be with you. >> listen. you look at the prices. $5.09 a gallon is astounding. to think about. how much is this refusal by opec and the saudis when it comes to

opec, how much is affecting the overall economy in the united states and inflation? >> i quote a senior adviser in the senate who thinks that it's overwhelming. folks in the national security space tell you the same thing. they don't have the same voice that some of the partisan individuals discussing this matter do. we really not had much of a discourse. president biden several days ago in a speech in a town hall before cnn said there's individuals in the middle east that wanted to meet with him and he would not meet and blamed the rising price of gas on that. owing to his role in the authorization of the murder of journalist khashoggi.

so you have the president saying this. i have folks in congress saying it to me and the national security apparatus sharing this view. >> so this is really a policy choice by mbs essentially to hold in a way the democrats hostage and to favor the republicans. seems like in the trump administration asking for a favor from mbs toen crease output that's what he did. >> yeah. that grants credence to the claims that under the trump administration president trump requested from them that they increase production so that it could lower the price of gas at an important time, right before the midterm elections of 2018. and now president biden asks for the same thing and mbs is not doing that and this is a clear example of control where we can compare what happens under

pretty similar circumstances and one administration to the next. >> let's read the way you end the piece. republicans could have a grip on a lever to move approval ratings or ballots up or down at will and all it takes is looking the oh way. pretty daunting for democrats. what are they to do about this? >> i think at first start to talk about this publicly instead of the president say it and folks in the national security space without the same freedom to address the public because they operate in the shadows have a more public debate about the oil tyranny in opec and coming to be a contested political situation with the coming midterm elections. >> thank you. coming up, could dads be the key to making paid family leave a priority?

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hi, everybody. i'm yasmin vossoughian. welcome and thanks for sticking around. republican party turning on its own. new audio of drmpl unleashing on the former vice president as disloyal, ungrateful and unlikely to be on the 2024 ticket. just when you thought he couldn't go lower wait until you hear what he says now. this as he sends supportive messages to steve bannon. >> and now that witnesses see that if they don't cooperate, if they don't fulfill the lawful duty when subpoenaed they too may be prosecuted it will have a strong focusing effect on their decision