♪♪ right now on msnbc reports, the mystery this hour, how russia's black sea fleet was seriously damaged. the warship now reports it is sinking. was it a missile strike or an accidental fire? either way, all signs point to russian military incompetence. why one official is saying that russia's claims are difficult to believe. and president biden on the heels of announcing major aid for ukraine, confirming talks about sending high-level officials there. >> will you send senior officials to ukraine? >> we're making that decision now. >> we'll talk about the importance and the security steps that decision would trigger. plus, the suspect in the new york city subway shooting ordered held without bail. the chilling details in the

prosecutor's now filing and how his lawyers may be laying the groundwork for a mental health defense. what we're learning about the january 6th committee's new interview with stephen miller. someone the committee says was involved to get the 2020 election results overturned. i'm chris jansing. here to start us off, matt bradley and colonel brandon kerny, courtney let's start with this briefing we just had from the pentagon. and i want to play a little bit of what press secretary john kirby said about the impact of the damage to that russian warship. >> it's designed for air defense. that's -- that's what this ship is designed to do, not unlike our own cruisers. so it's going to have an impact on their capabilities, certainly in the near term. whether it has an impact on

their naval capabilities in the long term is just a -- was just unclear right now. >> courtney, what more do they know about the status of this warship and what exactly happened to it? >> so it seems to be moving he's still toward crimea. it was in the northern black sea when this mysterious fire broke out. what we're hearing from defense officials and just now on camera from pentagon press secretary john kirby is that they just don't yet know what the cause was. of course, the ukrainians are saying that they fired a neptune missile. it's an antiship missile and the russians are saying that there was a fire that broke out. it's not really clear if one or the other is true or, frankly, if both may be true, if there was a missile that was fired and then the russians weren't able to contain the fire. but john kirby say it is fire

continues to burn right now. they have no information about casualties, whether any russians were injured or killed in this fire and whatever happened here. the ship continues to move on its own, they believe, the u.s. believes at this point. but, again, this is still developing. what i would say, chris, is this could be indicative of where this next phase, part of this next phase of this offensive against the donbas is. everyone is talking a lot about the ground forces, the russian forces that will likely move into southeastern ukraine in the coming days or weeks. there's already about 65 battalion tactical groups in southeastern ukraine right now, but the assumption is that more will come in the coming days. the russians are actually already staging some helicopters. but beyond that, there is a big question about whether this next phase of this offensive, of this campaign, whether it involves more of a maritime component. there has not been much activity at sea since the russians

invaded. there have been a small number of russian cruise missiles fired into ukraine but it's been relatively small overall. the question is, will we see more of that in this offensive against the donbas? the u.s. may have telegraphed a little bit of a belief that there could be more of a maritime environment involved here when the u.s. announced yesterday that they were going to send unmanned naval craft for coastal defense to the ukrainians. they could potentially be used for antimine, for detecting mines that are floating in the northern black sea. again, u.s. is not saying at this point what caused the fire of the ship and it's not really clear whether it would be able to make its entire journey back to russia for repairs. >> it's hard to fathom how this is anything but yet another disastrous showing by russia. let's take the possibilities one by one. and you can break them down for us. if a ukrainian cruise missile hit that ship, this is a

flagship, wouldn't it have had a pretty sophisticated defense against a missile strike? >> you would think it would. but given the tactical ineptitude shown by the russian military so far, one has to wonder just how well prepared, how well trained those -- >> i'm sorry. i think there was a little bleed-through from courtney's microphone. let me ask you about option two. if somehow a fire started and then it was allowed to maybe reach the ammunition magazine and cause enough damage to at least partially disable the ship, what does that tell us about the crew and its training? >> again, chris, this is not a good testament for russian naval training. a fire at sea on board any ship is a potential catastrophe. it's just absolutely -- it's the nightmare for mariners.

and if it gets into the ammunition areas, this ship, if it survives, will be nothing short of a miracle on the part of the russian navy and able to get it to survive. it's just -- it doesn't look good for the future of them. >> matt bradley, it's hard to see this as anything other than another gut punch to russian moral and a boost to ukraine and its troops. but in the meantime, president zelenskyy made another plea for u.s. help. let me play a little bit of that. >> freedom must be armed better than tyranny. western countries have everything to make it happen. the number of people saved depends on them. arm ukraine now to defend freedom. >> that comes, matt, as the u.n. says more than 1.4 million people in the east are without running water. the besieged city of mariupol is facing more carnage.

the fighting intensifying in kharkiv. bring us up to speed on the latest and what you're seeing and hearing. >> yeah, chris, i don't know if you're hearing this right now, we're hearing an air raid siren that's going off behind me. i'm going to try to speak over it. what we're hearing, once again, as you mentioned, civilians being pummelled in the northeastern area of the country in kharkiv. we heard that there were ten fatalities -- excuse me, four fatalities and ten injuries among the casualties. that city has really been bombarded over the past several days. it had been for the past several weeks, there was a brief pause. now as you mention, as the russians tend to focus the battle towards the east, kharkiv, which is, again, kind of the unofficial capital of that part of the country, it's a russian-speaking city. that is a place where we could see a lot more action as, you know, the russian forces try to take all of the donbas region. not just the areas that they've

already claimed. here in kyiv, despite this air raid siren that just started blaring just now, it's been relatively quiet for the last couple of days. what we have been seeing more of is that devastation in the suburbs to the northeast and the northwest. we were just out today in the town of irpin which is a suburb and there was that bridge, the bridge that had been blown up by the ukrainians in order to halt the movement of the russian military. and we watched as they saw civilians struggle over the rubble of that bridge trying to get across this very small river and trying to get to safety. it was a harrowing site, but i was out there today and now it looks like as though they've built -- managed to build a small temporary bridge that's allowing traffic to go over it. that's a small glimmer of home from here in the capital of kyiv. i got to tell you, chris, we're still seeing bodies getting pulled out of rubble. we're still seeing war crimes

prosecutors who are walking around in some of these ruined suburbs, villages outside of the city. it's a terrible sight. it's a nightmare and it's one that's going to continue to haunt this ukrainian capital. >> mike memoli, obviously, that brings a real punctuation mark to what president zelenskyy said in that sound that we heard which is, arm ukraine now to defend freedom. two questions from your vantage point at the white house. first, there's a long list of new equipment the u.s. is sending after president biden and president zelenskyy spoke for, i guess, about an hour. are those things related? what about a high-level visit from a u.s. official to ukraine, potentially? >> you're right, chris, it was a long list of equipment that the u.s. is now providing in the latest batch of military assistance we're providing to ukraine. it includes drone technology that the u.s. is providing. one of the final pieces of the puzzle as it was coming together yesterday was are called mi-17

military helicopters that the u.s. ultimately did provide to the ukrainians. john kirby earlier confirmed that there was a little bit of a back-and-forth in the late stages of the process about whether they would provide those. in the end, they did do so. and that probably speaks to the conversations they were having, including with the two presidents directly speaking with their ukrainian counterparts about just precisely what they needed from the ukrainian perspective, basically anything we could give them. the u.s. has provided $3.2 billion in security assistance to ukraine throughout this process. the second question is an important one facing the administration now. what we saw, of course, in the last few weeks with the visit by british prime minister boris johnson as well as the head of the european union, ursula vander line, begs the question of whether a high-level member of the administration would go. there are discussions about sending a high-level official. but at this point, it does seem that most of the conversations

are about whether the u.s. would first re-install some of their diplomatic personnel in kyiv or lviv. we had originally moved our embassy personnel from the capital kyiv to lviv and ultimately into poland completely. there are discussions about potentially bringing them back into the country. and then you have the conversations about whether a high-level official, we're talking cabinet-level official, secretary of state blinken, secretary of defense lloyd austin, for instance. when president biden traveled near the border in poland a few weeks ago, the level of secrecy and logistics that went into that trip alone speaks to the fact it's much more complicated to send a u.s. president than, with all due respect to our friends across the pond, the prime minister of great britain. and so that's the conversations that are happening at a high level of the administration about who and when they can send somebody at a high level. >> where they're maybe moving to a new phase of this war. thanks to all of you.

coming up, what we're hearing from president biden right now in north carolina, making another public push to fight inflation. the alleged brooklyn subway shooter making his first court appearance this afternoon. his lawyer asking for a psych exam. we're live outside the courthouse. am we're live outside the courthouse on the face of the earth. keep dreaming. [music: “you can get it if you really want” by jimmy cliff] with hepatitis c i felt i couldn't be at my best for my family. in only 8 weeks with mavyret i was cured. i faced reminders of my hep c every day. i worried about my hep c. but in only 8 weeks with mavyret

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ow! right now president biden is in north carolina. you're seeing the live pictures here. he's pushing new legislation that he hopes will flatten the curve of those massive spikes in inflation. the president speaking at the largest historically black college or university in the country promoting a bill his administration says will boost u.s. competitiveness in the tech field. analysts say the u.s. lag in manufacturing is only worsening the ongoing supply chain crisis and pushing consumer prices upwards.

joining me now, jake sherman and an msnbc political contributor. good to see both of you. give us a reality check to start this. how much power does a president and congress have, really, to stall a massive spike in inflation? >> well, look, there's no dial in the oval office that turns inflation up or down. so joe biden as he's sitting there in the white house doesn't have a lot of really great options. congress plays a part in this. from the white house's perspective, you know, there are things they can do around the edges. they can release some oil from the strategic petroleum reserve, they can loosen up the supply chain problems that it really caused a lot of this inflation, and what they can really do is jawbone the economy. inflation ultimately -- it's a tech economic process, it's ultimately about expectations and what businesses and people expect prices to be in the future. if the president can set those

expectations and win the trust of the country, he can really have some impact in terms of the inflation expectations going forward and sort of blunt the impact of it. but, you know, that's dicey stuff and tricky to do in our polarized political climate. >> but when you're going to the store and eggs are twice what they used to be and every basic grocery that you buy has gone up 10%, 15%, 20% or more, it's a pretty hard sell. >> yeah, absolutely. look, inflation is terrible for presidents. politically it's really tough. americans feel the pain of inflation because your paycheck is getting less and less valuable every two weeks. you really notice it and inflation right now is incredibly high. it's higher than it's been in decades. the federal reserve thought for a while last year that it was going to be transitory, meaning it was going to pass. it was a result of the pandemic and the supply chain problems that we saw, getting products

around the world, that's turned out not to be true. inflation seems to be getting worse right now. politically, that's a disaster for a president heading into midterm elections because all of the voters, all of them, will feel this. and they're looking for somebody to blame and the person you blame is the guy at the top, whether or not he has a dial or not that can turn inflation up and down. >> is it possible to overstate the importance of this push by the president here? how much is on the line for the midterms and even frankly 2024 when it comes to the critical issue of inflation and the idea that obviously if democrats win -- lose control of the house and senate, the chance of him getting anything done of significance in the final two years of his first term probably aren't great. >> yeah, there's a few things to consider here. the chips bill, it's a bill that would reon shore creating chips.

now as ayman said, this bill is incredibly important to republicans and democrats, but it's not like turning a knob either, right? they could pass this bill today and not all u.s. chip manufacturing and other supply chain problems are going to be worked out. so that's an expectation that probably both democrats and republicans, by the way, this bill has passed the senate with 68 votes. it's widely bipartisan. there are some stuff to work out. but there's expectation setting that needs to be done here. let's talk about the political implications for a second. if people feel like their money is not going far enough, that's a problem for joe biden and for -- especially house democrats who are looking to hold on to their majority. full stop, that's a big problem. if you look at poll after poll, the president was at 33% approval rating. sure, that has to do with the pandemic, that probably has to

do with ukraine, we're on the brink of a war, perhaps, but that also has to do with the fact that inflation is high, the people feel like they can't buy what they need, gas is high, and democrats have talked about various ways to bring down gas prices, all sorts of things like that. those are not going to pass. there's a 60-vote threshold in the senate. those things are not going to come easy up here on capitol hill and that's a problem. >> so when we look -- we have a minute left -- when we look at what the president is doing today, and that was part of a reset, the white house wanted to get the president out there more, they think he's good at going into the heartland, they think he's great at talking to people. having said that, there's also a lot of really experienced people in this white house. joe biden among them. how much do they think things like this really can move the needle realistically? >> i can't imagine they think it's going to move the needle that much. there's political impact of having him out there. but the reality remains, 26 seats, that's the average that

the party out of power wins in a house in a president's first midterm, the house republicans are five-votes away from the majority in the house of representatives. those are the basic facts. they leave aside all of the rough factors for joe biden and democrats. >> thanks to both of you. coming up, what we know about a top trump aide's testimony before the january 6th committee today. what's next in the covid pandemic as cases rise once again. once again. 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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i'll get my onesies®. ♪ “baby one more time” by britney spears ♪ good to have you back, old friend. yeah, eyes on the road, benny. welcome to a new chapter in investing. [ding] e*trade now from morgan stanley. the suspect in tuesday's new york subway shooting will stay behind bars for now. within the past couple of hours, a federal judge ordered frank james held without bond. in court today, prosecutors said james entered the subway system in brooklyn before setting off smoke canisters and shooting ten people on tuesday morning on a subway car. they called the attack premeditated and say james had access to a stockpile of weapons. officers took him into custody after he called a tip line to turn himself. we heard from pete williams that police say they were closing in, anyway, after a witness posted on twitter after seeing him and then police flooded the area. we're also learning more about

why the cameras at that subway station didn't work. the mta says it was an issue with the internet connection. the broken cameras are believed to have slowed that initial investigation. joining me now is antonia hylton and cedric alexander. give us the lay of the land. what did we see at the first court appearance for the suspect? >> reporter: hi, chris. well, this was the first time frank james appeared in court and was advised of his charges in connection with the gruesome shooting from tuesday morning. as you mentioned, the judge ordered that he be detained indefinitely, but his team signaled that they may make a bail request. they made some health-related requests. they ask that he receive a psychiatric evaluation and make sure he had access to supplements that he needs for

cramps and issues in his legs. but for the most part, we really did not hear much from frank james himself. he nodded along at points indicating that he understood his charges but really this was a very short arraignment. he did not give any idea about the type of defense he and his team are planning to launch. the two public defenders addressed the meeting and it raised more questions than answers. they said to be cautious about, you know, early reports from media or police, that there can be inaccuracies or errors in those. they said that they know he called crime stoppers, as nbc news and others have reported, and told police he was at a mcdonald's on the east side and that's where they ended up apprehending him in that area. but they said that it was to help. take a listen to some of what one of his defenders shared with us. >> what we do know is this, yesterday mr. james saw his

photograph on the news. he called crimestoppers to help. he told them where he was. >> reporter: there is a lot more we still have to learn right now. of course, chris, not only about his motives, what he had with him, how premeditated this was, but also, of course, what his team is planning to say in his defense in the coming days. but already, people across new york are really raising questions about this 30-hour man hunt, in particular how he was able to continue riding on the subway. sources told nbc news that he had access to another subway card that allowed him to cross a platform and continue on in the system right after the attack. and so there are questions, of course, about him, but also about public safety and how all of this was able to unfold. chris? >> yeah, there's no doubt about that. cedric, it was chilling when we learned that the very subway across the platform that a lot of people fled to, because they thought they were getting away from the danger was probably the

same train he got on. look, this raises a lot of long-term questions, right? mayor adams had stepped up patrols in the subway system back in january after he took office. but what can more cops in the subway legitimately accomplish and what is it unrealistic to expect. i was down on that subway platform who had to take the train yesterday and they said they were concerned that it happened in spite of the fact that there were stepped-up patrols. >> we have to be very honest with ourselves is that the police there in new york and certainly those who worked in the city, they know the city well, and even though having police on those platforms, in those subways certainly served for prevention, nothing is 100%. so when you have these types of events, i think it's important to remember this, is that the city, nypd, the city itself, they have been involved in this

for a long time and these incidents, unfortunately, sadly, should not ever happen. their presence is very important. you heard the mayor there say that. they're stepping up efforts to do some things so that hopefully this never occurs again. but we have to be very honest with ourselves as well too, is that we have to stay diligent, we have to stay alert, we have to be there to support each other, should any type of event ever, hopefully never, like this ever occur again. one thing about new yorkers, they will come together. they will still get on those trains, go to work in the morning, go home at night, and they're going to be diligent. they're proud people. and they got a great police department that quite frankly did a very, very good job. even though a couple of cameras may have been down, that is not unusual. that could happen for a variety of reasons. unfortunately it happened that day. but the fact that this person committed that crime and within

a short number of hours, less than a day and a half later, he was in custody, that is great work for everyone in that community from police, technology and getting the word out about who he was. >> looking ahead, there's going to be a lot of conversations. they're already under way. about what can be done in the future. i mean, it is ranged from pretty sophisticated technology, some of it which has raised questions about privacy, all the way to what we did after 9/11 which is bag checks, random bag checks by police who are in the station. as you look at this problem, what makes sense to you? >> well, what makes sense to me is that we always have to remain diligent and we always have to try to incorporate as much technology as we can in our crime-fighting in our cities every day. there's going to be two things and two things that are going to help us fight crime. that is to continue the

utilization of technology as it continues to evolve and also police and community working together. those are two pieces around what city you live in. so if we think about it in that regard and understanding that we also must have -- take responsibility for our own personal protection, always being alert, being diligent, getting out, enjoying your freedoms, don't let this stop you or curtail you in any type of way, but stay together, stick together, look out for each other. it's the world we live in. but hopefully, we can get in front of some of these events and also do the things that help keep people like this subject off the street as well. >> thanks to both of you. also happening today, former senior adviser to former president donald trump, stephen miller, answering questions from the january 6th select committee. just last month he filed a

lawsuit trying to keep that committee from getting access to his phone records. bennie thompson has said that military helped prepare the speech trump gave right before the riot. joining us is ali vitali. what do we know, if anything, about miller's testimony, ali, and what do we know about what the committee hoped to get from him? >> reporter: we know that the white noise machines that are often on outside of the room that they do these hearings and virtual meetings, they were on this morning and we know that stephen miller has come to speak with the committee, doing so virtually this morning. this does come after a back-and-forth with miller over not wanting the committee to have access to his records, but also because the committee is interested in him for a variety of different reasons. you listed, for example, at the beginning that they're interested in the speech that he helped trump write, that trump gave at the ellipse on january 6th, but they're also interested

in the efforts that miller undertook to push the theory of the big lie, talking about unfounded claims of voter fraud, and, of course, any efforts that he may have undertaken with the trump campaign and other allies to push those false slates of electors from other states that would have invalidated the 2020 election results that showed that joe biden won the election. all of this shows the multiple prongs of the investigation at this point. but there's also some new interesting information that's come out even since they subpoenaed miller several weeks ago. specifically, those call logs from the white house that show that trump spoke with stephen miller for just shy of 30 minutes on the morning of january 6th. so a lot of questions about that there. and, of course, chris, this comes as there has been cooperation from some top figures in the trump white house. specifically people like kaley mcenany, but also trump family members, ivanka trump, jared

kushner, speaking to the committee in recent weeks. while there's varying information they can give the committee, it does show they're getting cooperation from the highest echelon from this white house and the inner most circles from trump's orbit, even though there are referrals being put out for peter navarro and dan scavino. the committee, as they try to wind down this phase and push ahead into a more public hearing phase, the fact that they're getting cooperation from people who are at the center of this and could potentially speak to trump's mind set on that day, what he was doing in those critical hours, all of that is important for the credibility of this committee as they move forward. and we know, by the way, chris, the chairman has said that he wants to finish all of this fact-finding by the end of the month and then we expect in may those public hearings to start. >> much more to come. thank you. and still ahead, the rnc's

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here's a look at some of the other top stories we're following right now. florida governor ron desantis signing a 15-week abortion ban into law. the law marking a significant blow to abortion access throughout the south because neighboring states have also restricted access. in kentucky, lawmakers overrode the governor's veto last night. they passed measures banning abortion after 15 weeks. advocates say the measures will force the state's two remaining abortion clinics to close immediately. the white house is publicly saying the country has finally arrived at a promising new stage in the fight against covid. despite a recent spike in cases in several states, officials say vaccines, tests and new

treatments are widely available and are helping stave off the most severe forms of the illness. but "politico" reports biden officials and others close to the federal response say there's still a lot of anxiety within the white house over whether the country really had entered a new era or maybe misread the situation. let's bring in medical contributor dr. ebony hilton, an associate professor of critical care medicine at the university of virginia. so good to see you. on "morning joe," scott gottlieb predicted big changes in the pandemic in the next two weeks. let me play that for you. >> i suspect we're only capturing 1 in 7, 1 in 8 infections because people are testing at home and this is going to be over sooner than we think. two more weeks, things may look different in terms of the pace of the infection here in the u.s. >> the question i guess for a lot of people is how, everyone wants to know, are we really

done with this, do we know? >> certainly not and, unfortunately, for 860 people yesterday, that was their last day of living due to covid-19. what we have to remember is that there is a lag of at least two weeks when we see cases rising and hospitalizations and deaths. unfortunately, we've seen cases start to creep up in over half of your states in the united states of america. so it definitely is one of those things where we have to remain hyper vigilant. >> there is a more contagious ba.2 subvariant and it's spreading rapidly. cases are up in 31 different states. but hospitalizations remain low. is that a sign the u.s. is heading toward living relatively safely with this virus? i've heard it compared to, it's going to be if you're fully vaccinated, if you have your three or four shots, be like catching a cold. >> right. and it's unfortunate that we used this gauge of deaths and hospitalizations as whether or not something is severe.

but unfortunately millions of americans right now who are living with covid can tell you that their life is anything but mild, when they no longer have the same cognitive abilities and a lack of attention span and their nerve endings are no longer working. those persons who have -- i have a mentee who has not been able to smell or taste since january of 2021. what does that mean when two of your five senses no longer work in your brain? that's a problem. and we know there are many others that joined the ranks of her, but also that are new newly diagnosed with diabetes, that have now complications of strokes and heart attacks that are stemming from direct infection with covid-19. so there's going to be a second wave after this pandemic, when we get to the end of this pandemic, of dealing with the long covid and the symptoms left in the wake of covid infection. >> for the reasons you just stated, there was an extension of the mask mandates on public transportation. we heard from the heads of u.s. airlines saying, look, our customers are over it, our staff

is over having to enforce this, and yet the mask mandate is going to continue for a little while longer. would you wear a mask on public transportation? what do you make of this controversy? are we at a point where people should be able to make their own individual choice about that? >> i'm certainly do wear one. what we know at this point, unfortunately, millions of parents are wondering when can my child even be eligible to be vaccinated. those 5 and under cannot be vaccinated from this virus. and what we do know is that even those children who have been vaccinated, from that 5 to 11-year-old group, we saw with omicron that even with two doses, there was a decrease in effectiveness. we're looking at doing booster doses for those children to protect them. so i know we're all tired. i'm tired as well. but until we have every american

available to be vaccinated, we have to do what we have to do in order to keep those most vulnerable protected. >> dr. ebony hill, always good to talk to you. up next, inside elon musk's bid to take over twitter and what twitter employees think about it. s like changes in weather. 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™. to help prevent bleeding gums, try saying hello gumwash with parodontax active gum health. it kills 99% of plaque bacteria and forms an antibacterial shield. try parodontax active gum health mouthwash.

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i know, i know, 2024 feels like lifetimes away, but the rnc is today saying they are not going to participate in any debates that are organized by the commission on presidential debates. now, this is the group that's overseeing general election debates for decades. the party voting unanimously within the past few hours to cut ties with the organization for what rnc ronna mcdaniels says is the commission's refusal to enact commonsense reforms to help ensure fair debates. the commission says they're a

nonpartisan commission and run by people in both parties. joining me now msnbc reporter. what does this mean, really? >> it appears to be the end of presidential debates as we've known them. there may still be debates between the republican and democratic presidential nominees in 2024, but they won't look like what we're familiar with. as you said, the commission has run these debates since 1988. there's three debates every election cycle. they're moderated by a well-known tv news anchor, and sometimes one of our colleagues, and the format has become pretty familiar and formalized by now. that's out the window as the republicans are saying they're not going to participate after former president donald trump in both of his campaigns claims that the commission and the debate process was rigged against him along with the media, the people who count the ballots and the rest of the democratic process. >> my understanding is that the rnc says they want to find

newer, better debate platforms. what does that mean? i've been covering debates since, i don't know, 1980 or something like that. there's always complaints about the questions. there's always people who perform better or worse and sometimes they have a great debate and sometimes debate and affect what their party thinks about debates in any given moment. what do they think the new platforms look lie? >> there's a debate about the debates. we don't know when it will look like and the democrats and the nominee will have to agree to any new format since you can't have a debate with one candidate. presumably because of based on former president trump's criticisms there will be fewer tough questions from the moderators. that's something he complained about but left up to the two rival campaigns in the heat of a presidential election to come

together and set terms which is the whole reason why the commission existed. and it is i think a real question about to agree to a debate at all. >> that is something that you mentioned that's critical that former president trump considered the front-runner should he run never liked the commission. thank you. another big story to follow is twitter is having an all company meeting about two hours from now about the offer to buy the company. offering $54.20 a share which he says is a significant premium that would value the social media giant at more than $40 billion. twitter stock plunging today after the announcement to $45. musk saying in his s.e.c. statement he wants to own the company and take it prift.

all after rejecting a seat on the company's board after buying 9% of twitter last week. joining us is mike isaac. come on. this is fascinating. musk is fascinating. but explain first of all what elon musk is trying to do here. do we know what a musk led twitter would look like? >> i think with elon it is a mixed bag and have no idea if he''s joking or telling the truth. he has more than 80 million followers, fans and uses it to do big moves in business. earlier today he did an interview on stage at ted basically saying he thinks twitter is almost too restrictive on speech right now

and he would probably make it a maximal free speech platform where mostly anything goes. it is all about sort of letting more voices proliferate across the service which some people are scared of what that might mean for safety or harassment. >> there are those questions. right? what it would look like. let's talk about what has to happen before he would get control. he is pricing the stock at $54.20 a share. one hand you say it's hard to imagine the deal not going through with a high valuation but there are arguments against it. right? >> totally. the board has been deliberating this morning. they have a fiduciary responsibility to consider the musk offer. there are folks outside the company, some largest

shareholders including kingdom holdings in saudi arabia which are saying that the offer is too low and feel like more value with twitter. higher growth targets in the year and could solicit bids or come back to musk saying we are not satisfied and would like some more. >> he is the world's richest man. net worth over $260 billion. does he have the liquidity for this? where is is financing coming from? >> that's a great point. today he said he technically could afford to buy it but agree. a lot of his money is tied up in his stock holdings and the many companies he owns at this point. folks point to the fact that the

s.e.c. filing this morning was very light on details where the money would come from, if he would team up with another activist firm so part of this whole maneuver could be maybe he is looking for other investors to come on and do this takeover with him but it is not a done deal by any means. >> look. you are a reporter. you are not a prognosticator. there's a thought that this will happen? what are people saying? >> yeah. i think right now the board, it is funny. the board in a pressure cooker and have to consider this bid but they have other options. they could go with a poison pill which essentially is a defensive move and i think they are strongly considering that. i don't think this is over. i think it may continue into the rest of the week. >> fascinating. mike isaac, tech reporter for

"new york times," thank you. thank you for watching this hour of msnbc. i'm chris jansing. "deadline: white house" starts after this where i can break. y. 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. ♪♪ [zoom call] ...pivot... work bye. vacation hi! book with priceline. 'cause when you save more, you can “no way!” more. no wayyyy. no waaayyy! no way! [phone ringing] hm. no way! no way! priceline. every trip is a big deal. see him? he's not checkin' the stats. he's finding some investment ideas with merrill. eyes on the ball baby.

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hi there, everyone. 4:00 in new york. so who would have predicted two months on day 50 in the war in ukraine we would come on the air with developing news of damage

to a russian flagship in the black sea? along with reports of kremlin forces in a stage of regrouping. yet here we are. on the first item a senior u.s. defense official said today they're not able to confirm claims made by ukraine that it was a cruise missile strike that forced the kremlin to reportedly haul their still burning vessel back to port. the russians say it was a fire. a really, really big fire and evidence this hour that other russian ships have moved out from the area where they were operating. meanwhile u.s. officials frame the stage of the conflict as a race against the clock. around $800 million in new u.s. military aid as russian forces seemingly regroup. in eastern ukraine. one that could involve tens of thousands of additional russian troops. here's jon kirby this morning