craig melvin this morning. jose diaz-balart will pick up the breaking news coverage right now. >> good morning, i'm jose diaz ballard on a very busy thursday. we're minutes away from listening to the president of the united states on this attack against the leader of isis in syria overnight. it is, as you can see there, the white house. it is a very important attack on a leader of isis that had really taken the reigns of isis since october of 2019 whel al baghdadi was taken out by the united states also in syria. as i say, president biden will be speaking to the nation about this raid that took out the leader of isis. it took place in northwest syria near the border with turkey. there were no u.s. casualties.

aid groups say 13 people were killed. take a look at this drone shot. some people are saying including six children and several women may have been killed in this raid after u.s. officials say the isis leader detonated a suicide bomb. the pentagon is expected to give a briefing at 12:30 eastern, 9:30 pacific later today. with me to talk about all of this is nbc news white house correspondent carol lee, pentagon correspondent kpourt any cube bee, clint watts from the foreign policy research institute and an msnbc national security analyst and retired four star general barry mccaffrey. carol, what have we learned about what the president is going to say when he speaks shortly? >> it's obvious the white house wants to take a victory lap on this, a significant success. the presidentish yuing a

statement saying he directed this operation in syria, thanked u.s. forces for this being a successful operation. we're also likely to get some details about what you've mentioned about civilians in the area that were killed. the administration is going to want to address that directly. the president was in the situation room monitoring this in realtime. we're told from u.s. officials there's a photo of the president doing that. it's worth noting this is something familiar to the president. this is a president who was vice president when the osama bin laden raid went down, and he was also in that room at that time. the president now as the leader, the commander-in-chief having something very similar happen on his watch. >> courtney, what more are we learning about this raid? >> it was a u.s. special operations raid.

in a lot of ways, if we think back to the bin laden raid, there's a lot of similarities. a lot of u.s. mill stair helicopters that came in under the cover of night, they set down a little ways off from the building that they were going to check out here. when they arrived on target via foot, they called out. according to a senior u.s. defense official, they called out into the building, they urged people to come out. we know some came out, some described to me only as civilians. but then within a matter of moments there was this eplosion on the third floor of the building and that was believed to have been carried out by the leader of isis who you mentioned earlier. when he detonated himself, as believed he detonated himself, he killed a number of civilians believed to be women and kids in the building, presumably some of thighs descendants.

we don't know that. these are details we're working the get rye now. we learned another thing similar to the bin laden raid is one of the helicopters, when it set down, there was some sort of maintenance issue, it was deemed unsafe to fly and the u.s. military detonated it on site before taking off. we know they were on site for a couple hours, presumably to do what they call exploit the site, try to find intelligence, anything they can figure out to give them more insight into isis and their operations because of the leader there. as you can see from the pictures we're watching here, it seems as if the building was very badly damaged in this detonation by this isis leader. it's unclear what they might have been able to e ploit from the site while they were there, jose. >> if my memory serves me well, that's exactly what baghdadi did

in 2019. he apparently detonated an explosive vest killing a lot of people. clint, what does the death of this isis leader mean for the future and how it affects the terror group? >> there's a couple of things to think about. like general mccaffrey was talking about earlier, there was a major standoff at a prison where they were trying to free many of their fighters. if you rewind ten years ago, part of the isis comeback was freeing of prisoners in iraq. that is a triggering point. you can see it as an early indicator of a group regenerating. this was a very smart raid to go after a group before it can get back on its feet. separately there's been a lot of desense in the ranks about who should be in charge. this leader was appointed by al baghdadi. it was sort of left to him. there was a lot of infighting

amongst these different groups throughout the islamic state. this will set up a chain reaction as they compete to get into control and regenerate themselves. this is a major setback for them. >> this thing took off almost the entirety of that second story. general mccaffrey, there seem to be some similarities with the 2011, 2nd of may if i recall correctly, attack on the compound of bin had den. how difficult is a mission like this?capable. there's both army aviation elements and army ground elements involved in it. the air force intelligence is always part of the planning. as clint says, i think this has a huge impact on these terrorist organizations.

when he detonated that bomb and blew himself up, and apparently civilian casualties with him, now they've got to re-establish their command and control. when they do that, u.s. intelligence will be watching, listening, trying to sort out who is the next one up in line. a very bold move by president biden, secretary austin and special operations forces. it's astonishing they can do these operations and not sustain u.s. casualties to boot. well done. >> absolutely. general, what kind of an infrastructure military and intelligence is needed to carry out something like this, and is there a difference, for example, with carrying out in syria versus pakistan like they had to do with bin laden? >> we have a very small and persistent presence inside syria. i'm astonished they can get away with this. it also includes u.s. army light

armor units. we have bradley fighting vehicles up there assisting kurdish allies trying to regain control of this giant prison which isis was determined to free their compatriots out of. we do have people on the ground. we do watch very carefully. by the way, it also affects iraq. isis is on a resurgence. there is chaos in the whole terrorism community between al qaeda who is up there, a break-away faction of al qaeda, another element that we believe is actively plotting attacks on the united states. the background, as you know, 600,000 or more dead in this syrian civil war, primarily by assad and russian forces. >> clint, take us a little bit to the structure of these terrorist organizations. if you are worried about keeping your leader alive and having to

go from place to place, you're certainly not able to be focused on carrying out terrorist activity. the infrastructure of this terrorist organization, how big of a blow is it to their mission of spreading terrorism when their leader is taken out? >> i think there's a couple key points here. they have smaller territorial regions which each have their own councils which report up to the central leadership. there's always been some contentious about why he was out in idlib, in syria, when the heartland is considered iraq. this has created contention as to why he would be in this area. secondly, i think this points to turkey. this was very close to the turkish border. that's where foreign fighters tend to flow in from.

the international aspect of this group really generated in recent years around idlib, al qaeda and isis in that area. >> we're seeing these immanuels out of the white house where clearly in just moments we'll see president biden come out and address the nation on that podium. carol, i'm just wondering, the president is very decisive on this act that took place overnight? or is that standard operating procedure? >> reporter: one of the things we've heard from the president, particularly as the u.s. has withdrawn troops from the region. you heard this when the president withdrew troops and ended the war in average, this question of how is the u.s. going to keep its eye on and be able to take out terrorist organizations, particularly isis if it decided to become bigger

than it has been in recent months. so think think, one of the things we're listening for from the president, is he going to say that the u.s. does have this capability and that this underscores that. >> general, 2019, al baghdadi taken out in syria. 2022, ibrahim al hashemi qurashi taken out. is syria now the epicenter of these terrorist organizations? >> who knows? if i had to say, the epicenter is more likely to be in paris, madrid, indonesia, the gulf region. this is a global phenomena. it's not going to go away. it's a continual attempt to protect our allies globally from home-grown terrorism reinforced by foreign fighters from places like syria. we are in a persistent state of

considerable danger. thank god for the fbi and u.s. law enforcement inside the united states. part of the effort to protect america obviously involves an active, on going, continuing attempt to tis rupt foreign terrorist organizations, and syria is clearly a part of it, syria and iraq. >> general, is the importance of having intelligence sources, even members of the armed forces in places like syria, is that really the game-changer in getting the intelligence and being able to carry out this type of targeted attacks? >> well, clearly our technical intelligence is magical. i'm talking about the national security security agency, the cia, eia, their ability to exploit foreign radio networks and telephone networks and using visual optics from drones is

astonishing. but when you're on the ground in syria and talking to kurdish allies and getting feedback from their own intelligence sources, it changes the game. >> matt bradley is in ukraine. that's the other big crisis facing the world. matt, as we await the president of the united states on this attack that took out the isis leader in syria, what are you hearing, matt, as far as the danger that ukraine is facing with a possible invasion? >> we just heard from if kremlin spokesperson. he responded to the announcement yesterday by the paint gone that 3,000 u.s. troops would be pushed further toward the

border. this tit for tat diplomacy, accusations back and forth. we heard that this movement of troops to the border is vindication as far as the kremlin is concerned. they've been saying this over and over and over again that the falt lies with the west, with the u.s. they're the ones on the aggressive posture. they're the ones that have been arming up. there's quite a bit of evidence to the contrary that shows the opposite, the russians bringing huge numbers of troops to the border in eastern ukraine. we heard from demetree peskov, he's been trying to say to the u.s., to stop being aggressive and stop escalating tensions. this is possibly the clearest example in russia's mind that it's the u.s. who is provoking these tensions. you remember two days ago when we saw in the security council, the fireworks and the rhetoric

back and forth. that's the kind of thing we can see again and again. both sides want to blame the other for bringing more troops to the border and escalating tensions. as we start to see more and more troops rolling in, we can start to see russia respond. this is exactly what they want. they see it as vindication, jose. >> so interesting to see the chicken and the egg issue. you send 130,000 troops to a border area, surround ukraine in three different areas and then when the united states and nato reacts on a preemptive way, then it's the fault of nato and the united states. you're close to one of the border areas. the impact of this crisis is -- the government is trying and you've been telling us this over the last couple days, trying to minimize that to have people not break out in fear.

>> reporter: in the last couple days there was a change in tune. last friday i was in the press conference with volodymyr zelensky, the president of ukraine. some version of the famous line from our own president that all we have to fear is fear itself from fdr generations ago, that fear is what is causing this to become a worse situation. his line was this was going to be damaging the economy. we've seen investment coming out. we've seen the ukrainian government having to pour in more of their own money to defend their currency. that's one of the real concerns they have. over the last couple days, over the weekend, they change their tune. now they're starting to say that yes, the threat is real. today we heard from the ukrainian government that we can't rule out the threat of an

invasion. i think a lot of people in ukraine, though, when they hear about the u.s.'s announcement that troops are going to be moving towards the border -- excuse me -- towards nato countries that are closer to russia, they're probably going to be thinking, look, do we need the provocation? do we need to see more nato troops coming to bear because they're not going to be defending us, not coming here to defend our people. they're defending nato and its allies much further afield. if russia does decide to invade ukraine, nato and its allies have already made it very clear they're not going to be putting boots on the ground to defend the ukraine people. for folks here, those sorts of reassurances from the rest have always running hollow and they ring hollow again. >> stay with me through out this hour, i want to go back to you spore radically to talk about this continuing breaking news of of ukraine. as we await the ar prooifl of president biden at the podium, i

want to bring in from capitol hill to talk about all of this, rhode island democratic congressman david cicilline -- sorry, cicilline. >> there you go. >> sorry about that. if you don't have a hyphen in your last name, i get confused. he sits on the house foreign affairs committee, part of the house delegation to visit ukraine last week. i want to apologize to you at the start of our conversation if i have to interrupt you when we see president biden appear. i want to begin by getting your thoughts of the leader of isis being killed overnight. >> an extraordinary achievement of the brave men and women of our intelligence and the military. congratulations to the president on his leadership. this will make a real difference in our fight against terrorism. this is the leader of isis, a very dangerous terrorist organization. it was done with all americans surviving by early reports.

we'll get briefed on it later today. this was a great success. >> what could this mean for u.s. policy in the middle east, do you think? >> i think after the departure from afghanistan, there's a lot of concern about the resurgence of isis. i think removal of their leader from the battlefield will make a real difference and slow their ability to reconstitute themselves. i think this is very significant. this is an ongoing battle to keep us safe. >> congressman, this afternoon you'll hear from secretary of state blinken about matters between russia and ukraine. what do you want to hear from them today? >> look, i just returned from ukraine. it was a bipartisan delegation. we were there really to make it clear that we stand with the ukraine people for their sovereignty and territorial integrity. i think the whole world is really united in understanding, look, we fought two world wars. we have a defensive alliance called nato to protect the peace

and security of the world. we're not going to let a thug redraw the line ps of a counted by force. ukraine people are prepared to fight for their own democracy. democracy is backsliding all over the world. this is one democracy that is young and emerging and getting stronger. i think it's important that we support their efforts. obviously we're not going to ever send troops to the ground. they're not a nato country. we don't have a commitment by the treaty, but they've made tremendous progress as a democrats, they're the western flank of nato. we need to send a message to vladimir putin that you can't just invade another country and take their territory. you're seeing ourl allies and the united states doing all we can to send a message, if you do this, you'll face crushing sanctions that will cripple your economy, hurt the oligarchs that you listen to and make the cost of military action by vladimir putin very, very great and persuade him not to do it. >> congressman, do you think the russians are going to invade?

>> i don't think anybody knows what vladimir putin's final decision will b. he has over 110,000 troops on the border. he's escalated this aggression in a very significant way. we have to help the ukrainians prepare for that possibility. i think president zelensky, whom we met with, is trying to balance not panicking his country but also making certain they're prepared for it. i think that's the right approach. they're determined, prepared to fight for their democracy. they made that very clear to us. it's important that we stand with them as other countries are seeing democratic backsliding. this is a country that's made a lot of progress, that we should do all we can to support and send a message to vladimir putin, you don't get to do this, to take a country by force. >> congressman cicilline, thank you very much. perfect timing on our conversation. let's check in with president biden.

>> last night, operating on my orders, the united states military forces successfully removed a major terrorist threat to the world, the global leader of isis known as harksaji abdullah. he took over as leader of isis in 2019 after the united states terror operation killed al baghdadi. since then isis has targeted americans, our allies and partners and countless civilians in the middle east, africa and south asia. hajj gentlemen abdullah oversaw the spread of isis terrorist groups around the world after savaging communities and murdering innocents. he was responsible for the recent brutal attack on a prison in northeast syria holding isis fighters which was swiftly addressed bid our brave partners in the syrian democratic forces. he was the driving force behind the joe paterno side of the

acidy people in northwestern iraq in 2014. we remember the gus wrenching stories and mass slaughters that wiped out entire villages. thousands of women and girls sold into slavery, raped and used as a weapon of war. thanks to the bravery of our troops, this horrible terrorist leader is no more. our forces tear read out the operation with their signature precision. i directed the department of defense to take every precaution possible to minimize civilian casualties. knowing he surrounded himself with family and children, we pursued a special forces raid at a much greater risk to our own people rather than targeting him with an air strike. we made this choice to minimize civilian casualties. our team is still compiling the report, but we do follow that as our troops approached to capture the terrorist in a final act of

desperate cowardness, with no regard to the lives of his own family or others in the building, he chose to blow himself up, not just with the vest but blow up the third floor rather than face justice, taking several members of his family with him, just as his predecessor did. i'm grateful for the immense courage, skill and determination of our u.s. forces who skillfully executed this incredibly challenging mission. the members of our military are the solid steel backbone of this nation, ready to fly into danger at a moment's notice to keep our country and the american people safe as well as our allies. i'm also grateful to the families of our service members. you serve right alongside these soldiers, sailors, marines, special forces, the loved ones, giving them the strength and support they need to do what they do. to our service members and their families, we're forever grateful for what you do for us, and we owe you a debt.

thank you. we're also aided by the partnership of the syrian democratic forces. i want the commend the intelligence community, department of defense and members of the national security team throughout the government whose meticulous and tireless work over the course of many months ensured that this mission succeeded. this operation is testament to america's reach and capability to take out terrorist threats no matter where they try to hide anywhere in the world. i'm determined to protect the american people from terrorist threats, and i'll take decisive action to protect this country and will continue working with our close allies and partners, the syrian democratic forces, iraqi security forces including the kurdish peshmerga and more than 80 members of the global coalition to keep pressure on isis to protect our homeland. we remain vigilant. we remain prepared. last night's operation took a major terrorist leader off the

battlefield and sent a strong message to terrorists around the world, we will come after you and find you. once again today, we continue our unceasing effort to keep the american people safe and the strength and security of our allies and partners around the world. i want to thank you all. may god bless you and may god protect our troops. i'm heading off to new york right now. i'm late. i thank you for your time. >> mr. president -- >> how many u.s. troops were involved, sir? >> mr. president, how many civilian casualties were there? >> there you saw the president as he know heads to new york talking about the extraordinary event that took place overnight in western syria where the leader of isis was taken out. with me now to continue our conversation, nbc news white house correspondent carol lee. clint watt, distinguished research fellow at the foreign policy research institute and an msnbc national security analyst and retired four star general

barry mccaffrey who is now a u.s. nbc military analyst. >> carol, a very short comment but to the point. i think he was very clear. >> jose, he made three points essentially, one is that the u.s. took a major terrorist threat off the battlefield. that was the first point the president made. he said this was an incredibly challenging mission and talked about how this threat -- the global network that this terrorist leader had in his roots, and he also then talked about how the details of this operation, saying they took every precaution possible. he noted the children, the civilians who were killed, that the terrorist surrounded himself by members of his family when he detonated that explosion which he said blew up almost the entire third floor where he holed himself up.

he also said this was a testament to america's reaching capability, essentially no matter where terrorists are, the u.s. will find them and hunt them down. this is a question the president has faced as the u.s. has made its military footprint smaller in certain parts of the world and including in syria. he said we will remain vigilant, we will remain prepared. again, sort of sending a warning shot that this is the first of what could be many if the u.s. feels it needs to conduct other operations like this. >> general, break down what you heard from the president's comments. i thought it was interesting that the president said he didn't just blow himself up using a vest, but rather used explosives to take out almost the entirety of that third floor. he had that place booby-trapped, ready to be taken down if he so

wished. >> i've blown up an awful lot of things in my life. that was one giant bomb he must have set up to totally eradicate the third floor and his family. i'm glad the president didn't take questions and get involved in an ongoing question as to what were the sources of intelligence and what does it all mean. the act stands for itself. i do believe -- there's always a skepticism, if you kill one, ten more will step forward. there's always a huge kayaw. this guy make it for three years. there's going to be considerable hesitancy, i might add, on the part of many -- not me, i don't want to be the next guy in charge. this was a good move by u.s. national security forces aided by the intelligence system. >> clint, when we look at the

picture and the different -- i guess drone shot of the third floor, it seems clear that part of that third floor may have just been not constructed. we see interior shots of it. this may not be the third floor, but clearly this was pretty important -- as the general was saying, this was a pretty massive explosion. >> that's correct. it's consistent with both el baghdadi when he was killed in 2014. you remember there was discussions about him trying to take his own life or potentially having a suicide vest. this is kind of standard opinion raeting procedure -- al kai za and isis will talk a lot about women and children but they always use them as human shields and will often take their lives in taking their own life. it's quite a cowardly act and quite consistent with their modus operandi. i think what's essential here is the u.s. forces were on the ground quite a while, tried to

even resolve this, based on richard engel's reporting, in a much more peaceful way, trying to get a surrender. i think it's remarkable that the u.s. military can go into a country as chaotic as syria, plant there for several hours and conduct this operation. i'm going to be curious if we see future operations based on the information that might be exploited from this raid. >> that's so interesting. we'll be speaking with richard engel in moments. general, is there some kind of coordination you feel going on with the authorities, be they national or local in that area of syria to be able to carry this out and spend such a long period of time there? >> well, i think clint makes a good point. it is incredible with such small isolated forces we can get in there, stay on the ground, attempt to have a peaceful capture of this terrorist leader

which obviously did not succeed. one thing deserves comment, our ability to exploit intelligence on the ground almost immediately. they don't take these documents and send them to centcom headquarters in florida and a month later we get some kind of a readout. they'll be looking for cell phones, radio frequencies, documents, and almost in near realtime they'll upload them. they'll decide what their next move is and they'll start carrying them out as quickly as they can. it's an incredible tool we have to protect america and these tier one special operation forces which i might add include air force, army, navy, you name it. it's a combined force, and it includes a very close connection to the cia and nsa. >> general mccaffrey, clint watts, carol lee, thank you for being with us. joining us is nbc news chief

fornt correspondent richard engel. richard, good morning. what do you know about this raid? >> reporter: so it was -- it's a village we happen to know quite well. i've been to the village on a number of occasions. it's a small village. once you've been there, you start to know people. we managed to speak to the owner of this three-story building, the building that was struck. he told us, as far as he knew, the building was rented out and that the person stayed on the top floor of the building, the third floor was a widow and her son and that below her were six other of her relatives. that's what the owner told us he thought was the case. we also spoke to a neighbor. the neighbor was in his home at the time. the owner is not in syria right now, that had been renting out the building. the neighbor told us around

12:50 he heart intense helicopters flying low. he thought they were going to take the roof off his house. a few minutes after hearing the helicopters passing overhead, he heard the sound of a military translator. the troops must have landed, approached on foot. as soon as he heard the assault, they didn't know what was going on, they thought maybe it was a russian assault, maybe a syrian government assault. this is still an active war zone, and there are a lot of islamic extremists in the area. they didn't know exactly what was going on. they knew there was a helicopter, assault of some kind. he stayed inside and was peeking out of the windows. a few minutes after the helicopters landed, he heard a man, a military translator with an iraqi accent calling out to the building, pleading with the members in the building. you're surrounded. there's no escape, we will come in, we will destroy the house, we will attack the building.

turn yourselves in, surrender. if you surrender, no harm will come of you. this continued for about half an hour, and then there was an exchange of fire. there was some gunshots coming out of the building. he thought it was small arms fire, ak-47s, even some pistols. it didn't last for very long. there were also u.s. troops firing back. then there was another attempt to get the people out. same kind of tone. we're warning you, we will destroy the building, save yourselves. then the translator seemed to be addressing a woman directly. in arabic, you can't tell the gender by the way you speak. the translator telling the woman, if you don't want to go outside, just sent your children, pleading with them. he said as far as he could tell no one did go. there's reporting from the pentagon that some civilians may have left. like i said, he couldn't see.

he was just listening to what was happening just a few hundred yards from him. after what he thought was about two hours, there was an explosion and the american helicopters left. >> so richard, this is an extraordinary narrative of what occurred here. this is clearly no attempt to do this as a surprise thing like what happened to el baghdadi or to bin laden. the conversation that this person was telling you was being carried out by this iraqi-accented translator, was there a two-way conversation or was it just one way? >> well, he could hear the loud speaker because obviously it was much, much louder. it did appear to him that there was a dialogue going back and forth, at least dialogue with a woman or a group of women because the translator clearly

had a line of sight on them and was addressing a woman saying, you should come out, if you don't want to come out, that's your choice, but at least let the children live. there was a kind of exchange of expression, hand signals, but a dialogue of sorts going on during this fairly long operation which ended up with the people inside this building dead and the third floor of the building blown off. >> we were just talking to general mccaffrey. he was saying he's been around a lot of explosions and this was looks like it was a pretty big explosion. richard, it seems like it could be -- the president actually referred to it. he said he not detonated his vest, but blew up the entire third floor. that was something they planned beforehand if something like this occurred. >> well, i was in syria when the

mission was launched against baghdadi, the previous isis leader, which, by the way, only about 15 miles from this operation, right along the turkish border. the way it worked, the intelligence was gathered closely by kurdish forces, the sdf, syrian democratic forces. we spoke with kurdish intelligence officials at the time who helped gather the information. they were tracking baghdadi, they were even able to extract dna samples by obtaining some of his underwear and some hair samples as well. so the way it worked, these isis leaders had different safe houses and they would go between them. when they traveled, they would also travel with a degree of explosives so that, if this eventuality were to happen, they could kill themselves, kill those around them so they wouldn't end up being taken alive and being sent to guantanamo or an american super

max or somewhere else, but that they did have a network of safe houses clearly along this turkish border area and that there was a significant number of explosives inside that staef house, enough to blow off the third floor. >> richard, thank you forgiving us a little geographic lesson there. i was wondering, hey, it's in syrian, in the western part, how close was it to 2019, october 2019. you're saying about 15 miles. that's extraordinary. richard engel, thank you for being with us this morning. very much appreciate your time. >> no problem. still ahead, an update on the troop buildup on the ukraine border. what's happening today on capitol hill. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports." g "jose diaz-balart reports. wooo, yeaa, woooooo

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violence with local leaders. this morning the white house unveiled new strategies to help release gun crime including new efforts to more aggressively go after gun laws ong the book and calling on congress to pass new funds for community policing. joining me now is congressman ritchie torres of new york. he represents the south bronx in new york city. congressman, great to see you this morning. the nypd's latest data shows crime is up more than 38%, shootings up 32% n. the bronx, shootings up 150% this week compared to this time last year. what do you need from the government to help address this rising crime? >> well, the new mayor, eric adams, is making every effort to confront the epidemic of gun violence in new york city. there's a limit to what can be done locally. even though new york state and new york city have the strictest

gun safety laws in the country, those laws will only take you so far when guns can so easily cross state lines. the majority of the guns uncovered here are coming from the iron pipeline from the south to the northeast. we need the federal government to crack down on the iron pipeline. >> the city just buried two nypd officers killed responding to a call. officer mora's funeral was just yesterday. what do you think is one of the key root issues that should be tackled first? >> well, one is gun safety. if we had a political system organized around common sense, every gun would have a serial number including ghost guns. every gun owner would be licensed and professionally trained and every gun sale would be subject to a complete background check. but we have a political system -- there's a political party in america that has an

almost fanatical opposition to even the most minimal standards of gun safety. that's the root of the problem. there are more guns flowing on the streets of new york and elsewhere in america than ever before. it's overwhelming. >> ghost guns are guns that have their numbers filed. all guns have a number on them. in the case of the two police officers that lost their lives in new york, that gun had been stolen and it was not in new york city, it was stolen from somewhere else. mayor adams spoke to my colleague gabe gutierrez ahead of the president's trip. here is part of what he had to say. >> does defunding the police work? >> no, it does not. it's the wrong bumper sticker. i have too police officers doing clerical duties. if you're inside, i want to know why you're inside. if you're not, i need you to put on your bull left proof vest and do what new yorkers hired you to do. >> what do you make of those

comments? >> i agree with the mayor. the defund police is dead in new york city and good riddance. any elected official advocating for the abolition and defunding of police is out of touch with reality and should not be taken seriously. >> thank you for clearing that up. i want to turn to another subject. this week more than a dozen historically black colleges and universities received blom threats. a law enforcement official says the fbi has identified six juvenile suspects from around the country. what more can be done to address this type of crime so horrendous? >> the dominant driver of domestic terrorism in the united states is white supremacist extremism. we have to allocate more funding to the non-profit security program which protects vulnerable communities from white supremacist extremism, from domestic terrorism. there has been a hate crime surge in america. >> congressman, i want to turn

to an issue very important to you i know, immigration reform. there has been a freeze on immigration reform. there's been no real progress. immigration reform was included in the build back better act which has president gone anywhere. how do you see any efforts from the house or the senate separate from build back better to deal with immigration? >> it's immensely frustrating, especially as a member of the house. the greatest obstruction on the path to progress has been the filibuster. as long as the senate has the filibuster, i have trouble imagining a path to immigration reform. so the key, the fundamental key to achieving immigration reform, as well as achieving gun safety and lbtd equality, it's abolishing the filibuster. we have to restore the senate because it's fundamentally broken and standing in the way

of progress. >> congressman ritchie torres, thank you for joining us this morning. we'll head to some of the troops trying to defend the tensions between ukraine and russia. you're watching jose dias balart reports. g jose dias balart reports. tion due to inflammation you take it on, by talking to your eyecare professional about restasis®... which may help you make more of your own tears with continued use twice a day, every day. restasis® helps increase your eye's natural ability to produce tears, which may be reduced by inflammation due to chronic dry eye. restasis® did not increase tear production in patients using anti-inflammatory eye drops or tear duct plugs. to help avoid eye injury and contamination, do not touch bottle tip to your eye or other surfaces. wait 15 minutes after use before inserting contact lenses. the most common side effect is a temporary burning sensation. ask your eye care professional about restasis®.

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52 past the hour. president biden ordered thousands of u.s. troops to be deployed to eastern europe. a thousand troops already in germany will head to romania, 2,000 troops will be heading to poland and germany most will be going from fort brag, north carolina. 8,500 are still on heightened alert. as russia called the deployment unfounded and destructive, it continues to build up its military presence along the border with ukraine and belarus. with me is cal perry at fort bragg, north carolina. it's a military post that has seen so many deployments over the years in different parts of the world. what's the mood there like? >> reporter: i think that's why the mood here is that this is

sort of a normal pace of operations. certainly that was the attitude when i spoke to the public affairs officer earlier this morning. when you look at the units that were chosen for this deployment, they're the units that are on high alert that are ready to go anyway. you mentioned the 82nd airborne, it advertises itself as ready to go within 24 hours. the 18th airborne core is the broader organization and they will send 300 members to germany. the military reminding us this is all in support of our allies. none will be headed to ukraine. when you look at the bigger picture being this is the biggest buildup of russian troops in europe since the cold war and sending u.s. troops to reinforce those allies is certainly a serious mission, especially in a place like poland, if the russians do choose to go into ukraine at all, the map changes

immediately, all the more reason to put these troops into theater. not clear when exactly it will happen. we understand these operations are ongoing. for security reasons we expect to find out the troops will be in place once they're already in place. jose. >> thank you very much. the new documentary by msnbc films, "love and the constitution" follows congressman and former constitutional law professor jamie raskin through the trump administration and donald trump's second impeachment trial, all while mourning the tragic loss of his son. >> it shouldn't be some kind of fetish document. it should be the living commitment that we all have to make democracy work in service of the common good. >> joining me now the director and executive producer of "love and the constitution" madeline

carter. great seeing you. why did you choose congressman raskin as your subject? >> well, jamie is my congressman and he's also on the house judiciary committee. so four years ago when i started this project, i approached jamie and asked him if i could follow him for a year. i assumed during that year that i would be covering trump's impeachment. i was expecting the mueller report to be released the summer of 2018. i was expecting that would be followed quickly by impeachment and that i would be having a front row seat by following jamie who is on the jacket. but things kept happening and i kept not having an ending to the film so i just kept filming for four years. >> that's remarkable. i mean, congressman raskin's son, tommy, took his own life at the end of 2020. he's very open in the film about

his grief and his family's grief. here's a little of what he shared. >> we were not the only family in that god awful year to lose a family member. if you add up covid-19, opioid deaths, gun violence and all of the other normal causes, millions of people lost loved ones. >> amen. >> we are indeed surrounded now by american carnage. >> it's so -- they're such private moments. was there ever a time when you were just like maybe i shouldn't -- you know, how do you deal with that? >> yes. there were many times when i was torn between my role as a documentarian and my role as a human being.

when tom died, i decided i was going to give jamie some space. i had known the congressman since he was 16. he and i were in the same freshman class at harvard together. strangely he was my roommate's boyfriend so i actually saw quite a lot of jamie that first year. >> he just buried a son. the next day the insurrection happens with his daughter at the capitol and then leads an

insurrection trial. what strikes me is he said it was a lifeline for him. >> yes, he felt that nancy pelosi offered him a life line by offering him the lead job. the reason was here drowning in sorrow and grief. he said in the film that he just didn't think he would be able to have any more purpose in his life after losing tom'. and then nancy pelosi offered him that job and it was -- it was, as he puts it, it was basically a reason to keep living, a reason to keep trying, a reason to keep fighting. >> i'm so glad that the congressman talks about that and about the difficulties and the pain and the scar and what happens, which can never be, you know, forgotten. madeline carter, thank you so much for being with me. i so appreciate it.

watch "love & the constitution" at 10 p.m. eastern on msnbc. i'm jose diaz-balart, you can always reach me on instagram. follow the show online. thank you so much for the privilege of your time. craig melvin picks up with more news next. more news next. a good thursday morning to you. craig melvin here from msnbc world headquarters in new york city. there's a lot to cover this morning. fast-moving developments. right now joint base andrews, as you can see president biden boarding air force i. as we speak, he is headed here to new york city to talk gun violence. it comes just minutes after the president addressed a raid that he directed in syria, the leader of isis died during that raid. >> last night's operation