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if it's thursday, russia's flagship missile cruiser is taken out by an explosion, and its ships appear to be retreating from the area. as the u.s. pledges an additional $800 million in weapons and other assistance for ukraine. this as president biden hits the road again to address soaring costs here at home. what the latest poll numbers say about the president's economic standing and his political strategy to try and bounce back. and some key swing state democrats are distancing themselves from the administration's plan at the border. we'll tell you why and what it means with steve kornacki at the big board. that's all ahead in a busy hour. welcome to "meet the press daily." i'm chuck todd. right now the united states is working to confirm what has caused serious damage to a key russian warship at a pivotal moment in the war in ukraine. russian troops continuing to regroup and the u.s. and western

allies pledging more military support for ukrainian forces. ukrainian officials say their forces struck the russian cruiser in the black sea and that the ship has begun to sink. a senior pentagon official says the u.s. cannot yet confirm what caused the significant damage to the ship, and russian officials insist the warship is still afloat. here's what pentagon press secretary john kirby told msnbc earlier this morning. >> she was operating about 60 miles or so south of odesa and we know she suffered an explosion. it looks like from the images that we've been able to look at, it looks like a pretty sizeable explosion too. we don't know what caused that explosion. we do know that the ship is operating under her own power. we've seen social media reports that this may be a ukrainian coastal defense missile hit it. we can't rule that out, we just don't have enough information right now. >> all of this comes as the united states prepares to provide ukraine with an additional $800 million in

military aid including artillery, drones and helicopters. the biden administration may send a high-level official, basically that's one of four people, a cabinet secretary, high-ranking military leader, think blinken or austin, and the vice president or the president. president biden said no decision had been made about sending officials from his administration to ukraine. montana steve danes and victory an spartz today became the first elected u.s. officials to visit the ukrainian capital since the war began. meanwhile, russia is continuing its assault on the city of kharkiv where officials say more than 50 strikes have devastated the city in the last day alone. moscow is intensifying its threats against the west, warning of new nuclear deployments if sweden and finland end up joining nato as appears to be the case. joining me is matt bradley, clint watts is at our big board

in new york on russian troop movements and with me at the table, former ambassador to ukraine, bill taylor. let me start with mr. bradley in kyiv. matt, it's interesting to me and i'll be talking with bill taylor about this, that the u.s., which could confirm a missile strike via satellite imagery has not yet done that. and it does seem as if the ukrainians are pretty convinced they pulled this off. >> reporter: well, when you talk about what the ukrainians are convinced of, obviously they're going to want to boast about this because you know, chuck, this is a victory for them if it's true on so many more levels than just sinking that flagship. this is more than that because we're talking about this would be the first time that the ukrainians have actually sunk, and again if this is true, sunk a ship that wasn't docked at port. it was actually out at sea. so that's another big first for the ukrainian military and ukrainian armed forces. the other thing is that the ukrainians used their own

neptune missile system. unlike most of the armaments that are circling around here in ukraine, this is something that the ukrainians designed and built themselves. it's based off of soviet technology, but it represents some real leaps and bounds. so to be able to show that they used this neptune system in action to such lethal and devastating effect against the biggest of the russian ships, the flagship ship, that's something they're not really going to be backing down from, it's just too delicious. and you know the ukrainians have been blasting out quite a bit of their own propaganda. but at the same time a lot of that or at least most of it has turned out to be true, especially when you compare it to what we've been hearing from the russians. while it may seem immodest of them to crow about this without necessarily arriving at any real confirmation, you can't really blame them. >> matt, i'm curious, the intensifying russian missile strikes, is that from russian migs? is that ground to air?

what do we know about these missile strikes? >> reporter: you're referring to the ones in kharkiv? >> yes, in kharkiv, yes, yes, sorry. >> reporter: yeah, in kharkiv, this is something that we've been seeing from all sorts of places. one of the reasons why, if it ends up sinking, the explosion is so important because the russians have managed to use their naval fleet and all of their naval assets in the plaque sea to great effect when it comes to pounding not just mostly cities in the southern area and also here in kyiv. they really can bring a lot of hardware to bear on the capital and kharkiv and to the east. so when they hit a ship in the black sea, it really is a big deal for the entire country, because they're using all of those naval assets there to batter places like kharkiv. and so they're using naval assets, but they're also using anti-missile batteries and surface-to-surface missiles from over the border in russia. remember, kharkiv, where we've

seen tempo pick up so much in the last couple of days is only 30 miles from the russian border. >> matt bradley in kyiv for us. matt, thanks very much. let me go over to clint watts. clint, sometimes you just watch the reaction of a group of ships an it may tell you the fact that the russian ships have now tried to move farther away from the coast seems to be a tell that the russians know that something hit them from the coast. >> i think that's absolutely right, chuck. obviously we have to wait until the full body of evidence comes in, but if you just look at it on the face, this is not someone smoking a cigarette on the deck of the ship and set off an ammunition dump which is the way the russians are portraying it. oh, we just had a mistake and a bunch of ammo exploded. definitely not. 16 miles out, to orient people where this is at, we're talking about at about right here, so quite a ways out. if you look at social media and some of the discussions on it are quite remarkable.

there are a couple of things there. if you look at the actual ship, it is only able to detect with its radar 180 degrees. meaning the ship cannot sense everywhere. so the back third of that ship, you can see there's a radar array on it. it can only pick up in one direction. second, it was a storm last night. that storm makes it tougher for that radar to work. choppy seas, lots of interference. and the third thing is there's allegations that there was a drone out there which could have been used both in terms of a distraction or in terms of the targeting, able to bring a missile on. oftentimes to get a direct hit like that, a very specific hit, you would use something as a spotter orreconnaissance to bring a missile in. >> you just anticipated my next question. how is it done, but more importantly, did ukraine have the intelligence on their own or is this something we're likely -- are we helping them with targeting? >> i don't know on the latter, chuck, in terms of helping them

with targeting. but if they are using drones, and so that drone, the turkish drone that they use, it's very equal to the first drone i ever saw in the military in 2000 which our brigades use. it's a fairly unsophisticated drone. it could be flown out easily 60 miles into the ocean. and it was used as both a distraction and for essentially targeting a vessel, that would make complete sense. that neptune missile that the ukrainians we believe may have used against the ship, that would make sense that they did it on their own. that drone, if you went onto twitter, you can see them using those drones and publishing the footage for artillery strikes on russian troop defenses. you'll see russian troops moving around. they're filming those live. we also saw those in and around kyiv. the same thing happened. they were putting up those cost-effective drones using them for attack and reconnaissance to bring in artillery. so i think it's highly plausible

the ukrainians could have done this on their own. >> how much of the shelling of eastern ukraine by the russians is coming from the sea? >> that, it's hard to distinguish, chuck. here in the east when you kind of look at the map, much of this is really out of range in comparison to what you see here. if you look across the board just in terms of -- i'm going to switch to green here. all of this area here, you've seen mrs, multiple rocket systems being launched in at times from behind the russian border. russian jets fly along this border, drop missiles into the east. and then the indirect fire here, especially coming out of luhansk is in. the large ones come from the cruise missiles. some of those come off the navy out in the black sea, some come from inside russia. >> clint watts at our big board there explaining these russian troop movements. clint, thank you. as we said before, i've got bill

taylor here, former ambassador to ukraine. good to see you, sir. >> good to see you, chuck. >> you've been hearing these reports all morning. i'd love for you to share what you were sharing with me before the cameras went on, which was the almost excitement, if you will, that they pulled this off. you're confident they pulled it off, aren't you? >> i'm confident they pulled it off. i got early this morning a message from one of the many friends i've got there. this is a former minister of defense when i was there. he knows this issue. he knows what the capabilities are and he was absolutely confident in the fact that neptune missiles, as you've described, they made these. they constructed these. they manufactured these. >> this is not us transferring weaponry, not from the west. >> that will come, and that will be good to have. but these are ukrainian. and he was absolutely convinced that they were theirs. he accepted my congratulations. he was -- as you said, he was

excited about this. >> so this is great short-term news and there's no doubt about it. what we're seeing on the eastern side and what we're seeing with the russian propaganda seems to be this almost settling in with a russian strategy is to bleed ukraine and wait out the west because if you look at it from putin's point of view, waiting out the west is not the worst bet. you never know on that front. what does that mean for our level of support? what does that mean for the ukrainian resistance here? >> so the ukrainian resistance will continue. it will continue as long as they have the ability. as long as we can provide them with the ability and the resources and the weapons and the ammunition and the resupply and the fuel, all of those things that it takes to keep that fight going. they'll do that. the ukrainians have demonstrated that. look at mariupol. look at mariupol, look at the fight they have put up against all odds. >> it hasn't fallen. >> the city has not fallen. it is surrounded. >> this is going to be

pictures -- when we get into mariupol -- >> it's going to be horrible. >> asking a whole bunch of questions about something is genocide and a war crime, how long do we stay out? >> and that's different from what the ukrainians will have in the west. that is. they have this long border that we see is just funneling, flowing these weapons across it. that will continue. mariupol is surrounded, and yet they have still fought. >> are you surprised the russians haven't tried to stop these supply lines as aggressive low? my guess is they fear nato retaliation. >> they probably do. it's probably hard for them to find them. the ukrainians know how to get across those borders much better than the russians do and it's easier to do in that kind of terrain. but that flow will come. as long as that flow does come, continues to come, the ukrainians will fight. so if there's going to be bleeding, it's probably going to be on the russian side. but there is one other thing i am concerned about and that is this massive buildup of forces

with the requisite air power, the number of combat aircraft that is massing. i've got another friend who's out there and he's worried about what he sees in terms of the russian aircraft mounting and that attack in that part. >> what you were describing, what we saw in bucha was a bunch of soldiers who decided to lose it and be indiscriminate. what happens if the order goes down for migs to be indiscriminate? >> it's horrible. because in that part of the country it's flat. it's not -- it's not forested. it's easy for them to spot from the error their own drones. >> anti-aircraft. >> anti-aircraft. so that's really important. the anti-aircraft equipment for the ukrainians needs to get out there right now. it really needs to be there, because that's a real danger. >> finland and sweden coming to nato. we're going to start to look and you realize the only european nation left really is moldova,

ukraine. who's left if they come in? and how does ukraine not become a member of nato before this decade is over? >> you're absolutely right. it's hard to see what the distinction would be. you know, the ukrainians are looking at that themselves. they said we used to be part of the soviet union. so did the baltic states, estonia, latvia and lithuania. and the pols right next door are secure and confident in their ability to be protected by nato. what's the difference? and nato would be honored in some real sense to have ukraine in. i mean ukraine has shown it can fight the russians to a standstill. >> can the russians threaten finland and sweeten out of this? >> unlikely, i think.

they'll do what medvedev did and say we have these nuclear weapons that we can redeploy. that doesn't seem to be very effective or credible. >> so finland and sweden are not taking russian threats seriously? >> nato is. and if there were to be an attack on nato, then there's no doubt about it. the question is troops on the ground. you know, that is qualitatively different. >> that's one thing. do you distinguish between air support and ground support? and when it comes to nato involvement? >> so air support could be from nato allies, from the nato territory. but we could ensure that certainly no russian aircraft could come across that border. and of course the provision of those weapons to the ukrainians is a form of engagement as well. >> and do you sense -- i mean the one thing they are certainly

missing are some fighter jets. jake sullivan on my sunday show just simply said we're not transferring fighter jets from u.s. bases in germany, but he didn't say they couldn't be transferred from other countries that are close to ukraine. >> i understand those fighter jets or others like them are still in the mix. they're still a possibility. it would be good -- >> is it a logistical problem or is it a concern about escalation? >> i think now it's a logistical problem because i think we talked earlier about the comments about genocide. that ratchets up the urgency. and i think that message has gotten to the full biden administration, get these weapons there. >> bill taylor, we could do a lot more of this. i appreciate you coming on. >> thanks, chuck. >> thank you. still to come, president biden hits the road to address the issues hitting the economy at home as soaring inflation continues to plague democrats this november. and the administration's plan to lift the trump-era

limitations at the border. some democrats begin publicly breaking with the president on this. much more ahead. you're watching "meet the press daily." u' re watch ing "meet the daily. what goes on it... usually. ♪♪ in it... mostly. even what gets near your body. please please please take that outside. here to meet those high standards is the walgreens health and wellness brand. over 2000 products. rigorously tested. walgreens pharmacist recommended... and particularly kind to your wallet. ♪♪

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welcome back. president biden just touched down in north carolina. he's hitting the road again this week to talk about the economy. he's going to do it again early next week as well in another battleground state. inflation soaring at a pace we haven't seen in nearly two generations. as costs continue to rise, the president has seen his standing in the polls continue to decline. a new cnbc survey out this morning conducted by the same two polling firms that do the nbc news poll have president biden's job approval rating at a lackluster 38%. it's down three points since their december survey. down two points from our survey. same two polling firms that we use do this work for cnbc as well. when you look deeper into this poll, it looks like inflation and the overall economic attitudes are driving those

numbers. 48% say the cost of living is the most important issue facing america. it's by far the top issue. more than any other age group, you've been hearing about these problems with biden with young voters. voters under 35, this important part of the biden coalition, say this is the most important issue and it's ahead of everybody. and these folks think the economy is in worse shape than any other age group, folks under 35. overall president biden's approval on the economy sits at just 35%. the job approval and economic numbers are essentially starting to be in line. notably despite biden's efforts to tout strong job growth and gdp, a majority, 56%, believe there will be an economic recession during the next 12 months. bottom line, americans see rising costs as the single sign of pending economic doom. even the white house with some serious political challenges on this issue. what it takes to lower inflation is not something you want to run on. joining me now is biden whisperer mike memory. gary grunback following the

president in north carolina is also with us. mike, i had ron klain on my podcast earlier this week and he admitted breaking through on any message that isn't ukraine is very difficult right now. and if you do break through on ukraine and it's all you can talk about is inflation or you're not going to get anybody to listen. >> yeah, that's right, chuck, but it's interesting to look at what we're starting to see in terms of the white house schedule. ukraine has not just been occupying the president's time and attention primarily behind the scenes over the last two months, it's also been really the focus of all his public appearances for the most part since the state of the union address. and so what we're starting to see this week and continuing in the weeks ahead is not necessarily a new white house strategy, but a strategy that was on pause. remember, the state of the union address march 1st was supposed to really tee up a focus from the white house first on demonstrating that the president understood just how frustrated americans were with inflation. remember the empathy factor was

this undergirding theme of the speech that i understand the problem and here is a very complicated, but remember how detailed the state of the union address was plan to deal with it. multi-part plan. now we're seeing for the first time since i looked back since november, the president is doing two outside of washington public messaging events about his domestic agenda. this is something that they want to try and stick to more. it's something that's been enabled because kyiv, the imminent threat to the zelenskyy government has sort of receded as a primary concern for this white house. now, all of this is also driving what is going to be the legislative strategy moving forward. the white house has benefitted from the fact that we are not talking every day about the reconciliation bill, the daily machinations of is joe manchin in the white house and is sausage making being done. so that has helped him. the question is can the president build a little momentum heading into the last sort of months of legislating that will happen in congress this year so he can do more than

just go out to the country and say we have a plan but actually pass something that is more tang ill for the american people. >> mike, there are sort of three main things to tackle inflation that every expert in some form seems to talk about. two of them are in the hands of the elected government, one is in the hands of the federal reserve. raising interest rates, that's on the federal reserve. but the other two things that contain inflation are essentially more immigrants to work asap in order to stop wage growth or slow down wage growth, by the way, which is not something you want to tout, and we know how excited people are on the idea of bringing in more immigrant labor, and then the other is raising taxes. there is any chance they're going to pass a bill that would do those two things, increase the labor pool for lower wage workers with immigrant labor and with tax hikes? >> well, i think ron klain gave you some indication of their view of immigration, which is we put forward a bill on day one of

the administration and what have they done since? pretty much nothing. >> that was day one. >> that's right. there really hasn't been much juice in moving anything forward since, to the chagrin of immigration advocates. on the tax point, yes, the reconciliation bill will include higher taxes but only on the higher earners and that's part of what they hope to get through. >> mike memoli, as we call him our biden whisperer these days, mike, thanks very much. let's go to north carolina and what the intended message of the day is. gary grunback is down this with us. the white house will say they're not trying to break through the national headlines, they're hoping to be the lead at wral or on the local news tonight. what makes this north carolina stop important to north carolina voters, gary? >> reporter: yeah, if there's one thing we know about president biden is that he's an empathetic guy and we know that he knows that costs are high. food costs are high, gas prices are high. so he's been doing this week and

next week going to places across the country, getting out of the white house and talking to folks about the issues that matter to them. it also lines up with their administration priorities. he's here at greensboro, north carolina, at the nation's largest historically black college and university to talk about the bipartisan innovation act. this is something he hopes will bring a lot more production of semi conductors, those all-important chips that we've seen a lot of talk about during the pandemic not existing here in the country. that's going to bring back manufacturing here to this country. he's also talking about the importance of bringing s.t.e.m jobs in this country and north carolina specifically and that's why he's here. he'll meet with a number of students and faculty who want to get into these industries and do this sort of thing. he's also going to be talking about the bipartisan infrastructure law, the legislation that did pass, was signed by president biden and is available to communities all across the country to sign up for these grants, sign up for these programs to get the money whether to fix that bridge in

town or provide internet to those folks that need it. chuck. >> well, and look, as we know, the african american vote in north carolina, the only way democrats win statewide is when the african american vote is enthusiastic about coming out. so not a shock here to see the president trying to improve his standing with north carolina african americans. gary grunback, thank you. coming up, another key issue that could hurt democrats at the ballot box this november, immigration. our man, steve kornacki, is here and we'll break down the political fallout as the administration navigates this anticipated surge in migrants, assuming that may 23rd date holds, after this. you're watching "meet the press daily." g "mee t the pres s daily.

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and third as you know in baseball means three. digital tools so impressive, you just can't stop banking. what would you like the power to do? welcome back. may 23rd is the date the biden administration has set to end the border policy known as title 42. it was first enacted by president trump in response to covid. passed as a public health rule, it essentially turns asylum seekers away right at the border immediately. once the directive is lifted, the thousands of migrants that have been camped in mexico will enter the united states and make their asylum claims. since the biden administration announced its decision we've seen plenty of negative reactions from plenty of lawmakers, including a growing number of members from his own party thinking the potential of more border crossings may be bad politics in an election year. steve kornacki is at the big board with new polling on title

42, some insight on how the border issue is playing with voters right now. steve, i can tell you the conventional wisdom out there that this is one that swing voters seem to look like republicans on the issue of immigration. is that correct? >> that's what the numbers are certainly suggesting. let's take you through what we've got from our friends at morning consul here. on the bottom question here, the removal of trump-imposed covid border controls, biden's move to roll those back, here it is. overall 35% support biden rolling back those border controls. 54% oppose it. i think it's notable when you look at the question that morning consul is asking, they are including trump's name in it. we've seen so many poll questions in the past where the mere mention of trump's name creates that near 50-50 polarization. but even saying this is a trump policy that biden is trying to roll back, you've got 35% saying they support it, a majority,

54%, saying they oppose it. we can break it down a couple different ways. first there is the partisan divide. democrats mostly in favor of this, republicans almost universal leo posed but there's that independent number, 53/33 oppose among independents. also notably if you break this down by race and ethnicity, what's most striking is among hispanic voters it's close to a 50-50 issue. the morning consul comes back 44% support, 40% oppose. no clear preference among hispanic voters. last week we were here talking about four key voting groups. we were talking about based on gender, education being the defining fault lines. we asked morning consul how this polls among those four groups so check this out. here you go. men, with, without a college degree, women with, without a college degree and the numbers

don't look that much different. there was one group that seemed the swingiest of the four was women without a degree. and actually that's where you see the most opposition here, 29/57 in these morning consult numbers. >> this explains why whether it's maggie hassen or mandela barnes or mark kelly. we've just gone the array of democratic senate candidates. beto o'rourke running for governor. i mean this is -- this seems to be across the board. beto o'rourke part of that crew of presidential candidates that arguably took the democrats down this bad messaging path on immigration just four years -- three years ago. >> as you say, just take a look at some of these democrats who are up this year. and the divide here in terms of their public statements, it's a question of like maggie hassan signing on to that legislation that would block the biden administration from doing this.

kathy from nevada is saying she's opposed but hasn't signed on to the legislation. it's a question right now not so much are they going to say they're opposed to it, but republicans are going to try to force them to back that with actions, who's going to do that and who's going to resist that additional step. >> and the talking point of the morning is if you've extended the mask mandate for flights, why aren't you worried about a covid issue at the border. i tell you, that seems to be a hard one to explain if you're in the biden camp here. >> and that's what the polling is showing here. and that's part of what this legislation that hassan signed onto. you don't do away with title 42 until you've done away with the public health emergency first and then you come up with a plan. don't have any polling on that in particular. but maggie hassan up for re-election in a close state. mark kelly in arizona feel comfortable with that positioning on it. >> sadly, covid appears to be on

the uptick, at least in the northeast. i have a feeling that may 23rd date is not set in stone. steve kornacki at the big board for us, steve, thank you. >> you got it. up next, a little bit more in title 42. for one democratic lawmaker this border issue is close to home. congressman henry cuellar is facing a tough re-election battle. he'll join me after this. on battle he'll join me after this qulipta™ can help prevent migraine attacks. you can't prevent what's going on outside that's why qulipta™ helps what's going on inside. qulipta™ is a pill. gets right to work to prevent migraine attacks and keeps them away over time. qulipta™ blocks cgrp, a protein believed to be a cause of migraine attacks. qulipta™ is a preventive treatment for episodic migraine. most common side effects are nausea, constipation, and tiredness. learn how abbvie can help you save on qulipta™. for copd, ask your doctor about breztri. breztri gives you better breathing, symptom improvement, and helps prevent flare-ups. breztri won't replace a rescue inhaler

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welcome back. you just heard what voters think about title 42, the pandemic-era policy that halted most asylum claims at the southern border. the biden administration's plan to potentially lift it next month. some democratic lawmakers have signed on to legislation to block lifting the order and worries what migrants mean for their communities and what it means for their political standing with voters. i'm joined by texas congressman henry cuellar running for re-election in the 28th

district. he faces jessica cisneros next month. congressman, appreciate you being here. before i get to title 42, i've got to ask about the news about your campaign and your status. it's our understanding your lawyer has gotten assurances from the justice department that you're not a target of this justice department investigation which led to an fbi visit to your home. do you understand why the fbi came to your home? >> well, look, i have a deep respect for law enforcement. i've got three brothers that are peace officers. and again, will cooperate. at the end of the day they're going to show no wrongdoing and we're going to win this election, by the way. >> what assurance did you get that you're not a target? >> well, again, i'll let my attorneys speak to that. but again will cooperate. at the end of the day, chuck, i can assure there is no wrong doing and we're going to win

this re-election again. >> does this have to do with a relationship that some viewed as inappropriate with a donor? >> again, like i just said to you, chuck, i'll let my attorneys say that. but we're cooperating with law enforcement and i have a deep respect for law enforcement. i've got three brothers that are peace officers and we'll continue working with them. but at the end of the day, there will be no wrongdoing and we're going to win this re-election. if you're happy to talk about title 42 -- >> no, no, i am. but you pledged to voters that this is not going to -- if you win re-election this is not going to up-end your career. >> that is correct. they will show that there's no wrongdoing and we're going to win this re-election. >> let's talk about what's going on at the border right now. you've got the title 42 issue. but i first want to ask you about what the governor is doing. i know you've sent a letter to him saying that these extra inspections, that it's slowing

down the supply chain. it's almost intentionally slowing down the economy here, hurting the border business. do you understand why he's doing this? >> well, look, the only thing that dps or the state can do is to do mechanical checks. check the tires, check the brakes, check the windshield wipers. they cannot open up the cargo. so if they're trying to stop drugs or people from coming in, it's not doing that at all and add to the cost to the consumers. so the governor get the attention. that's not the right solution but we certainly look forward to working with him. >> and the decision to bus migrants to washington, d.c., do you think a political stunt like that is effective? >> well, again, keep in mind the average -- the supreme court decision in 2012 says that the

state does not have immigration policy. all here do is get volunteers, people who want to take a ride to washington, d.c. again, he's trying to get attention. but he cannot enforce immigration law because there's a supreme court said he cannot do that. >> the issue of title 42 and advocates for lifting it is that it really flies in the face of what america is supposed to be. you have an asylum claim around the world, the idea is we'll listen to it wherever you come from. we may not accept it and may eventually send you back, but it's sort of this is what the united states is about. why do you think it's important to keep these people from staying in the united states during their asylum process? >> well, let's first talk about asylum cases. if you put 100 people in front of an immigration judge, 88 to 90% of those people are going to have their cases rejected by the immigration judge. so why are we letting 100 people

in, 100% of them, when we should be only saying bienvenidos to 10 or 15%. the system has been to be more efficient. the way the administration with all due respect, and we've given them ideas, is not the way to handle the border situation. >> give me one idea right now that you think is easy to implement to ease this problem and make asylum seekers feel heard. >> first of all, we've got to give them the due process. so what we do is we have those immigration judges at the border and give them their day in court at that particular place. instead, what do we do with immigration judges? we send them to new york, chicago, miami. we need to have more immigration judges at the border. it took me two years, chuck, to get eight immigration judges in

laredo where we have thousands of people that come in. we've got to be more efficient and more effective. title 42 is a public health issue. it's a mixed message that the white house is sending. how can we have a public issue order extended for 90 days and say there's no health issue and get rid of title 42. all it does, it becomes a marketing process for the cartels to get more people into the united states. >> what is the hesitation about bringing the asylum court process to the border itself? >> i don't know. i've been fighting this issue for so many years. i think administrations, both democrats and republicans, they do it backwards. they send the judges to where the people usually ending up in new york and california. it's been a struggle trying to get them to bring more judges at the border so we can give them

their day in court. and again, if a judge says stay, then they stay. but if a judge says go, then we've got to send them back with all due respect. the way jeh johnson and president obama were doing it, i think we need to look at that playbook again. >> what would you be willing to support to help mexico improve the treatment of these asylum seekers? this has been one of the arguments that, hey, they're not exactly staying in the best of circumstances while they're in mexico. >> well, you know, again, there's ways that we can work with mexico. we can provide them -- if you're going to have them -- we can work with mexico, provide them more resources. or why not do this, chuck. i want to think outside the box. right now the coyotes come through, let's say, from guatemala to mexico. some of them never make it. if it's a young lady, a cartel might say you're going to stay here and work for us. or a young man, you look strong, we're going to make you part of this.

so why not do the asylum in those countries and then fly them in. $500 a ticket will be a lot cheaper than them paying $8,000 to the mexico cartels. keep in mind that in six months there were over 1 million individuals that came into the united states, just in six months. multiply that by $8,000, that's $8 billion that the cartels made. so the cartels are going to be enriched by title 42 going away on may 23rd. >> an interesting idea from you, congressman. i want to reinforce it here at the ending. you want to see these judges do it in guatemala, do it in honduras. send the asylum -- enhance our presence down there. interesting idea. the next time i hear from an administration official on this, i plan to ask them about your idea. congressman cuellar, thanks for coming on, appreciate it. for what it's worth we should note because he's in the middle of a campaign and we believe in this wholeheartedly

here, we are in touch with the cisneros campaign and hope to have her on the show very soon. still ahead, a sneak peek of "meet the press reports" on how football is and is not tackling issues of racial discrimination, not just on the level of the nfl. that's next. you're watching "meet the press daily." daily. part t keepin althy body. what goes on it... usually. ♪♪ in it... mostly. even what gets near your body. please please please take that outside. here to meet those high standards is the walgreens health and wellness brand. over 2000 products. rigorously tested. walgreens pharmacist recommended... and particularly kind to your wallet. ♪♪

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welcome back. if it's thursday we have a new

episode of our streaming show "meet the press reports," and tonight we are tackling the question of does the nfl have a race problem? the issue was thrusts back into the spotlight when the former miami dolphin's coach sued for the racist hiring practice, turning it into a class action suit. he was fired unexpectedly a month before. two more black coaches joined the class action lawsuit last week. the suit has forced the country to address race in the sport that tens of millions of americans tune into every week. joining me now, and this is one of the stories where the nfl simply feels 20 years behind the rest of the country? >> you know, chuck, i think

there are so many different ways to look at the nfl and race, and we decided to focus on head coaching because the numbers around this is so striking, and in the entire history of the league there have only been 25 black head coaches and that's striking when you look at the fact that a majority of the players are african american. and it's not a hidden secret, you know. current coaches and former coaches talk about this openly and it's something they discuss, and the issue is how are they going to solve it. tony dungy was the first black coach to win the super bowl but he's critical of the league he spent so many years of his life in. take a look. in 2021, black players were more than two-thirds identifying with african american or mixed

ration. currently there are only three black coaches in the entire league, and throughout the league's nearly 102-year history, only 25 black men held that position, and among them, tony dungy. >> the question is, does the nfl have a race problem? >> we do have a problem. >> tony dungy is one of the most recognizable names in football, and his career spans more than three decades, and in 2006 he led the indianapolis colts to a super bowl victory, the first black coach to ever win it all. i am struck that can you love the league and also be critical of it. >> i think one thing i learned from coach knoll is good players know their weaknesses and they work on their weaknesses. >> chuck, in the story we also talked to leslie frazier who is the coordinator for the buffalo

bills and says he gets all the time about this. and the other thing we are diving into, ownership, they are the ones who make the decisions on who to fire and there has never been a black owner in the nfl, chuck. >> there's one opening right now. the denver broncos, and i think the nfl actually really is trying very hard to see if they can get -- convince some wealthy african americans to bid for that team. it's a terrific piece, thank you for your hard work. thank you all for being with us this hour. you can catch this episode of "meet the press reports: race & football. it's available wherever you get programming for "meet the press." and msnbc's coverage continues right now with katy tur after this break.

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good to be with you. i am katy tur. frank r. was in court this afternoon, and one charge alone could put him in prison for the rest of his life, and more charges, possibly many more charges are expected.