and it's only available to comcast business internet customers. so boost your bottom line by switching today. comcast business. powering possibilities.™ as we are coming on the air, new fighting in ukraine overseas and here at home a new fight brewing over the $33 billion ask from president biden. the request for a new round of help for ukrainians tangled up in congress. why an idea to fold it in with a new round of covid aid is a non-starter with some. more big explosions hitting kyiv. in the last couple hours as night falls there. not long after the u.n. secretary-general was on the ground to look at the damage in the area. we have our team standing by at the white house and in the war zone. we are following the other big money move by the president saying he is weighing whether to cancel a chunk of student loan

debt. what our sources are saying about how much he is willing to waive off and when. a former nypd officer taing the stand to defend his role in the january 6 attack. i'm hallie jackson in washington along with our nbc news team. matt bradley in ukraine. mike memoli at the white house, garrett haake is on capitol hill. matt, we are getting reports about explosions in kyiv, missile strikes there. what can you tell us? >> reporter: as always, i want to tell you why i'm doing this in this hotel room. there is a curfew. there is a blackout. that's why we can't go outside. we are from inside a hotel room observing the local laws. this is how you see it throughout the country. as you can see, there are some serious implications. tonight, kyiv the center part of the city that until now was

spared by the ruthless attacks moscow had been leading on the ukrainian capital, now two explosions in the center of the city which is to the center west. a lot of the journalists and people i know working and living in kyiv, they in that district of the city. we have been seeing images of those -- what looks like air strikes with a column of smoke rising from each. this just goes to show -- it probably is a deliberate reminder by russia, by vladimir putin that they are putting kyiv on notice. even weeks after they withdrew after their aborted, failed attempt to what it looked like replace the government, his effort to de-nazify ukraine. maybe taking zelenskyy and replaying him with a pro-kremlin government, that failed.

it looks as though once again vladimir putin is hoping to remind ukrainians that there is no safe place in ukraine. it could be assumed in my part of the country, this is a more dangerous part. but there are air strikes hitting as far west as lviv where we have staffers. it goes to show, vladimir putin wants to put and keep this country on notice, even weeks after he said that he is going to be focusing into the east of the country, that aggressive assault on the donbas region. we have seen that effort have some results. we saw a city fall a couple days ago. those are modest achievements for a russian military that has been humiliated time and time again. some of the military analysts i'm listening to, they have been saying that we are actually seeing something in the way of progress. we are actually seeing the russian military take the lessons they have learned from the failures in the western part of the country and apply them to their assault in the east.

so far, still all we are seeing are cruise missiles and artillery firing. we are not seeing troops on the ground moving to retake or to take territory that would show that russia has applied the lessons it learned and is using them to lethal affect in the east. this assault, it hasn't happened in any real way with measurable results. >> matt bradley, thank you. the white house is hoping to inject some serious and we mean serious help with this $33 billion request from president biden. you have more of the argument he is making to congress and all americans. i know garrett has more on this, too, as far as the impact it is having on lawmakers. matt, let me start with you. >> reporter: that $33 billion headline number is as some administration officials described to our team yesterday when we first reported on the scope, massive. when you consider the last funding request that the

president got approved by congress in early march, it was about $14 billion. this is 2 1/2 times that amount, meant to last through the end of the federal government fiscal year, through the end of september. when you break those numbers down, i think it's more significant the message the president is sending. $20 billion for military assistance as the administration is putting it, to keep the weapons and ammunition flowing. that percentage of the larger package is significant because military aid in that last package in march was much smaller. we are seeing more than $8 billion for economic aid to the ukrainian government, to help keep the lights on, to help pay for the functioning of government in ukraine. also interestingly, $500 million of this package is not for foreign use but to boost domestic food production here as we deal with the fallout of a significant -- of a food change with the bread basket of the world as ukraine and russia are

termed. here is how the president made the case for what he acknowledged was a significant ask. >> throughout our history, we have learned that when dictators do not pay the price for their aggression, they cause for chaos and engage in more aggression. they keep moving. the cost, the threats to america and the world, keep rising. we can't let this happen. >> reporter: two notes about what happens next with garrett to have more to say. the last time president biden sent a funding request to congress, they went even further. they added to the initial request, something that could happen again. as you heard the president, he sent this up for ukraine relief, but he reiterated a request for $22 billion for covid relief funding he has been pushing for. the mechanism how these things are linked moving forward is the next big question facing the biden white house. >> you tee us up for garrett.

hellene cooper is joining us. garrett, the linkage is not sitting well with some members of the senate. >> reporter: that's right. you have this $33 billion ukraine aid package. that will be popular with bipartisan support in both chambers. mitch mcconnell said he was inclined towards that package which lawmakers are looking at now. democratic leadership would like to pair the ukraine aid with a covid relief bill. it's been negotiated that's sitting on schumer's desk. he would love to put these two together and vote on both. the problem there, republicans have said they will not support this bill which they have negotiated for covid relief unless they get a vote on the unrelated provision, title 42, the immigration public health measure that has been controversial. they want that included as well. democrats don't.

it's possible that it might pass even in the senate, which would cause problems with progressives in the house. it creates a political mess. right now, there's no clear decision that's been made about how to solve it. everyone from the number three democrat on the senate side saying let's do these together, i read carefully speaker pelosi's statement on the ukraine portion of the aid, she did not mention covid in that statement. it's clear that no affirmative decision has been made. the politics of this and moving both of those together could be tricky. >> garrett, mem, thank you. let me pick up with the aid package. intended to cover presumably five more months of a war. it's five more months. when you talk to the pentagon, is that what they anticipate, the war will last at least five months longer? >> they are anticipating it could last much -- possibly last much longer than that. if we are lucky, maybe we will be looking at five months.

the hope in the best case scenario, the administration, the united states, allies hope that they can provide a ton of weaponry to the ukrainians in the next few weeks and that they will be able to stymie the russian military in the east to the point then that they force vladimir putin to the negotiating table in ernest. so far, he has been at the negotiating table. he sent deputies there. they haven't been serious. what the allies and united states wants is for russia to get serious, to get pushed back to the point that they negotiate in ernest and that they are serious and ukraine can get the vast majority, if not all of its territory intact. that's the best case scenario. nobody is banking on that. the worry is that this could go on for months and months and into the future.

that would not be good for nato, for the united states or for ukraine. or for russia for that matter. >> let me talk about what we are hearing from the pentagon. a senior u.s. defense official and i'm sure you hear the same that russia is making what they call slow and uneven incremental progress in the donbas. russia has 92 tactical groups in ukraine and 60% of its howitzers there. what else are we hearing? what does this say to you? >> this is an assessment we got this morning from the pentagon. part of their daily briefings on the state of play of the war. one of the things that i found the most interesting this morning out of this assessment is they have not seen signs that -- real signs that the russian military has learned from its mistakes over the last two months. they are making slow and steady

progress. that is a step up from the last two months when they went racing to kyiv and got bogged down and got ahead of supply lines and troops were left floundering. you mentioned earlier on this very broadcast the fact that we see a lot of artillery fire. you are not seeing russian troops coming in. at the end of the day, what several defense officials have said to me is the russian military is almost like a coin of the don rumsfeld, you go to war with the military you have. they may have learned some lessons this is the same military. they may have a general who is in charge, but he has the same troops who do not have a real nco-type culture, unlike the american military where the troops down the line are not empowered to make decisions for themselves, tactical decisions or even strategic decisions. you are not seeing big progress.

but you are seeing incremental, slow progress. >> it's good to see you. thank you. we are getting breaking news from capitol hill in the last 3 1/2 minutes as it relates to the january 6 investigation. new information from the chairman of the committee talking to our team about how many public hearings we will see, when they will start and a lot more. she's scrambling to a camera. all of this happening at one january 6 defendant takes the stand in his own defense. how the retired cop charged with assaulting a capitol police officer is explaining a video like this to the jury. how president biden is responding to the big question, is he going to forgive student loan dead? . moderna asking for a green light for the littlest kids. all of it coming up. e littlest . all of it coming up.

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we want to get to breaking news out of the january 6 select committee. nbc news in the past couple of minutes has learned new details about the next phase of that investigation. from committee chair bennie thompson, including when the long anticipated public hearings are going to be and some new requests for republican lawmakers to appear. let me bring in correspondent -- capitol hill ali vitally. at least eight public hearings. we know how many. we know when. they will start in june. viewers will know and we are old enough to remember when hearings were going to start in february or march or maybe april. this is concrete information about when some of what the january 6 select committee is learning about will be made public. let me start with that piece, talk to us about that. >> reporter: exactly. we have seen the hearing timing on this shift. the latest is june. we are getting a lot more

details from chairman thompson. i was talking to him on his way out of voting in the house chamber. he told our team that there will be at least eight hearings. he did not detail the specifics of what they would be. he did promise that they are going to craft the narrative for the american people using up to 1,000 exhibits that they have from all of their hundreds of depositions and the tens of thousands of documents that they have received from witnesses. he is clearly starting to at least publically message what these hearings are going to look like. i would note, there is also the idea that there are still a few key depositions left to happen, specifically rudy giuliani and donald trump junior. both of those men are in talks with the committee to come in at some point and cooperate. i asked chairman thompson about that. he didn't say when those were going to happen. he said those two names are on the list in his words. if you are going by process of

deduction, if they want to start those in june, they will want to do those depositions in may. may starts this weekend. it could be soon. >> we are looking at a condensed time line for that piece. there's the republican lawmakers that they want to talk to. based on -- you will tell us more about this. it sounds like they are going to re-ask some of the republican lawmakers to show up. that's going to include senators, right? >> reporter: yeah. that's right. i was asking the chairman who he was going to re-ask to appear before the committee. when i saw him a few days ago he said that was a key topic of discussion, especially around house minority leader kevin mccarthy because of the new audio recordings in the days after january 6. mccarthy going to be re-asked. thompson says that's by the end of the week. it sounds like it's coming tomorrow. it's not just mccarthy. thompson told me there's going to be at least three lawmakers, all of them are going to be republicans. he said some would be from the house. we know they have made asks of a

handful of house lawmakers who said no. i specifically asked, are there going to get senators? he said yes. >> you specifically asked about senator cruz and lee? >> reporter: i did. i said, are they senator cruz and lee or are they among them? he did not answer specifically. i would note at the end of march, we asked senator ted cruz if he talked to the january 6 committee, if he would talk to the january 6 committee. he said that he had nothing to say to them and hadn't heard from them. that could change tomorrow if the time line that thompson laid out -- we know cruz that took on a role in the former president's orbit in ways to potentially overturn the election. >> i think it's important to call it out here, re-ask these lawmakers. because so far, the committee has not put the legal muscle behind, for example, a subpoena to the lawmakers which would be

an explosive step if it were to happen. emphasis on if. >> reporter: yeah. i said to chairman thompson, what happens when they say no again? for those lawmakers who have been asked to appear in front of the committee and said they're not going to? he said we will cross that bridge when we come to it. it would be a significant step to subpoena them. we think that they are still just asking. they are not, as you said, putting the legal muscle behind this and making it a subpoena. that's going to be something that's in the next few weeks the committee is going to have to decide. i asked chairman thompson about that. i said, isn't the clock ticking on this? he said that they were going to have those conversations. they have been having those conversations for weeks. it sounds like this is going to be the last moment of asking and then they have to decide if they are ready to do more than that. >> one of the reasons why members of the january 6 select committee have wanted to hold these public hearings was to lay out a narrative, was to show how

this went down, who was behind it, how this insurrection was fomented to the american people, to get beyond the beltway audience and get this out more publically. there was a lot of discussion of, will it be primetime? what's the audience? are you getting clarity on that? >> reporter: yeah. we are getting clarity on the number of hearings at this point. i did specifically ask -- they want to set the narrative. we know that. other members of the committee have said they wanted -- they think these findings are going to blow the roof off the house is one thing that jamie raskin said a few days ago. they are setting expectations high. the thing that i asked thompson just a few minutes ago was, these leaks from mark meadows' text messages, if they undercut the work at all. really what it's doing is putting some of the headlines that the committee might want to control out into the public before the committee has even gotten a chance to write the public narrative on this. thompson cast those fears aside when he was talking to me earlier. certainly, it's something i

think a lot of democrats that i talked to are concerned about is the idea that could they have what happened with the mueller report and bill barr stealing the narrative on that, is that what could be happening through some of the leaks we have seen recently? the chairman dismissing that. speaking more candidly than we have heard him about what the hearings could look like and, of course, the sheer number of them. eight of them starting in june. we don't know how long they will go for, but eight is a lot. >> yeah. especially if they do them every week or for eight days in a row. we don't know how that will lay out. we are not seeing video of chairman thompson telling you this because you caught up with him at a spot we couldn't have a camera. >> reporter: on the steps of the house. >> great reporting. i appreciate you bringing it to us. there's another development. this former nypd officer accused of assaulting police on that day, he is on stand testifying

in his defense. thomas webster, the second to take the stand to speak for himself. the video shows webster using a flagpole to attack a member of d.c.'s police department. webster and his attorneys have previously indicated he would mount a self-defense argument in court. this is the video that is at hand. their argument is going to be it was the officer who instigated this. ryan, you have been monitoring it. how is it going with webster on the stand? >> reporter: it's interesting. i came from the courtroom. he is laying out this story about him being hit by what he called a freight train. if you look at the video and what's plain as day is he came up to the barriers and eventually an officer hit him with an open palm. what this former new york police department officer is trying to

claim and shaping a narrative around is that he was just very upset about the use of force that had been used against other protesters, came up to the line and claims that this d.c. police officer had taunted him and invited him over the line and wanted to get into a fight, even though what you see on the video, the former nypd officer is saying, take your s off, your stuff off, to use an alternative word. it doesn't match up with what's coming in the video. in a restrained way, he is writing a narrative around what the video shows. this is a former new york city police department officer. he has a lot of opportunity and a lot of experience testifying on the stand. that's something you didn't see with this initial defendant who took the stand. he was more nervous. who knows? this new york police department officer has testified countless times over 20 years. he has experience shaping narratives. >> ryan, i'm glad you are on top

of this. carefully skirting fcc guidelines. appreciate it. next up, what's the fda's most aggressive move ever to regulate the tobacco industry. one that experts say could save hundreds of thousands of lives. the potential pandemic break did the through for little kids not able to get vaccinated and their anxious parents coming up. their anxious parents coming up.

big news if you are one of the 40 plus manage americans who has student loan debt. president biden hinting you might get a break soon. >> i am considering dealing with some debt reduction. i am not considering $50,000 debt reduction. i'm in the process of taking a hard look at whether or not there are -- there will be additional debt forgiveness. >> a freeze on student loan payments went into affect on the start of the pandemic. it was extended for the seventh time. people don't have to start paying back the loans until august. chances you or somebody you know would benefit if the president did forgive some student loan debt. one in eight people you know has debt from college.

the president has executive authority to forgive any amount of debt. republicans are planning a bill to block him from doing that. experts say any action on loan debt would face legal challenges. it's a politically interesting discussion to have. you have those on the left who have suggested, $50,000 or up. president biden is saying it's not 50, but there will be some amount. when are we going to know specifics, and how would this work? >> reporter: that's right. some significant news coming for young americans saddled with student debt. president biden saying in the strongest terms he has so far, that he is taking a hard look at using his executive authority to forgive some portion of student debt. he is not going to forgive $50,000. it's less than that. a source told me any action that president biden takes will likely be linked to income. he is not going to give people

of means relief when they have the ability to pay off these loans. as for a time frame, he said a couple of weeks. unclear if that means a couple of weeks in trump standard time. you know what i'm talking about. this has sparked the predictable debate on capitol hill with democrats cheering on this effort and republicans saying, no, no, no, hit the brakes. mitt romney suggested it was a political move. put his tweet on the screen. he called it a bribe. he said what comes next? senator sanders, one of the most outspoken proponents of forgiven student debt said mr. romney supports bribes in the form of tax cuts for the wealthy but is shocked by the idea that working americans might get help paying off student debt. does he know people are people?

senator lisa murkowski, the moderate republican from alaska said, this is an idea worth looking at. she does worry if that's forgiven for this generation, what happens in ten years? we will have to pay off the loans. she wants a long-term solution. this comes just about six months before a major midterm election why young voters are disengaged, unhappy with what they perceive as a lack of progress from president biden. this is perceived and one way the president can show those young voters he is fighting for them, remind them why they should support democrats. >> the white house press secretary confirming that the president is considering this and confirming something you mentioned, which is this is likely to not be a universal benefit. millionaires and billionaires would be unlikely to receive this benefit.

thank you very much. appreciate you bringing us that. news in the health world. moderna is announcing they want emergency use authorization of their covid vaccine for the only group that cannot get the shot. the fda should make the decision in june. that's the expectation. it's not necessarily super particularly effective against less serious cases of covid. the data shows it protects against serious illness. that's because of how contagious the new omicron variant is. dr. offett, good to have you back. you have a unique perspective. you are on the panel that would approve the vaccine for young kids or recommend it to the next step. what are you looking for in the data? can you give us insight -- i know you well enough that the answer is probably no -- which

way you will lean? >> you know me well enough. you and i are looking at a press release. what's going to happen is that our fda committee will get a 100-page report from the committee. we will have all the data. the fda will give us a 100-page report. we will look at all the safety and efficacy information. one that's is that the vaccines that we are giving now are developed to prevent that original strain, the strain that came out of china. the viruses now, omicron, ba.2 and the subvariants are immune evasive. and protection against mild disease. that's why you see these data which are generated that the six month to less than 2-year-old has 51% efficacy. 2 to 6, it's 37% efficacy.

as long as you get protection against serious disease, that's what you are going for. keep children out of the hospital. >> if you are looking at -- you are a parent of a little kid -- we have seen numbers that shows that there are some parents who are hesitant to give their kids this vaccine. you see the numbers on the screen. 21% of parents said they would get their child vaccinated right away. 26% would wait and see. 15% would do it only if required. 35% say not. if you are a parent who has hesitancy and you see 37% efficacy, as a medical professional and somebody who looks at this, what do you say to the parents about getting their kids the vaccine? >> that's protection against mild illness. the goal here is protect against severe illness. parents are hesitant. we have had a vaccine for 12 to 15-year-olds since last may. 55% of those children are vaccinated. we have had a vaccine for 5 to

11-year-olds since november. 25% of those children are vaccinated. i suspect were this recommended in june, i suspect fewer than 25% would be vaccinated. we tend to think our children are invulnerable. they are much less likely to develop severe disease. 1,000 deaths in children, which is .1% but children can be hospitalized and can die. as long as you have a safe vaccine and certainly one that's highly effective against serious illness, i think it's worth using. >> thank you so much. we will see you again in a few weeks as this continues to pick up steam. speaking of the fda, there's a plan out to ban menthol cigarettes as well as flavored cigars. to try to stop kids from becoming smokers. to help current smokers quit, too. to look at racial health disparities. let me bring in dr. john torres. this is one of the headlines that comes out in a press

release. a two-month question and comment period. but it's very big news, particularly when it comes to black smokers. explain. >> this is big news we have been waiting for. back in 2009, that's when the administration and fda said, we are going to change things. we are going to get rid of flavored cigarettes. they left menthol on table. we will look at that. fast forward to 2022 and they are looking at it and coming out with a plan. they are going to have a comment period. they will look at getting the plan authorized and put into law banning these menthol cigarettes. menthol cigarettes for smokers, they tend to be smoother. so children particularly older children, teenagers, start earlier with menthol cigarettes because it doesn't have harshness. they have a harder time quitting. certain minority groups, blacks and latinos, they have a high proportion of people who smoke cigarettes, menthol cigarettes, around 85% for the black community, 66% for the latino community.

it's hitting them disproportionally. advocacy groups have been saying, we need to have this proposal in place. the fda is looking at it. they laid out the proposal. hopefully, this will affect it over the next year or so, we will get this in place. >> thank you for that update. appreciate it. still ahead, how wall street is reacting to today's gdp report. we will have a check on the market right before the close and your money in the last couple minutes of trading. we will talk to the first ever openly trans state lawmaker next. s state lawmaker next

in the house this week, in the building behind us, you have dozens of republicans trying to force a vote on legislation that would ban trans women and girls from competing with the team of their gender identity. that carries the signature of 62 republicans, short of the 218

they need to get the bill out for a vote on the floor. it's called the protection of women and girls in sports act. it was introduced in january of last year. it held up in a democrat controlled house committee. part of a push by republicans at the state, local and federal level to curb lgbtq+ rights. with more bills being introduced this year than any year past. it's only april. joining me now is virginia state delegate danica roem. it's nice to have you here on set. thank you for being here. >> it's good to see you. >> you talk about playing youth sports as what you describe as a closet case trans kid. the struggles that came with that. we described some of the efforts happening on the federal level. we talked about was happening on the state level. what does that do to a student like you, for example, as you used to be, that are going through the process?

>> the first thing it does is you have elected representatives singling out and stigmatiing their constituents, the most vulnerable people they are elected to serve. public service is supposed to be about constituent service. you can't conduct constituent service if you are attacking trans kids. you are supposed to represent them like you are supposed to represent anyone else. in my book, i talk a lot about what it was like feeling that it wasn't safe for me to come out. the angst and things that come with that. at the same time, a lot of trans people have to be resilient. we have to realize for every time we make progress, there will always be people who want to bring lgbtq+ children back. one case i make is the power to own your own narrative and to set fire to the stories you don't want to be in anymore, that includes at the ballot box, that includes when you deal with

government, because if you were in a position where you have to be vulnerable enough to be visible and to have your civil rights preserved, that means there's going to be people who are going to be awful to you. there are going to be people who are going to ostracize you. we know in our history of lgbtq people and civil rights that we have to be our best leaders. we can't wait for other people to come in for us. as the new executive director of emerge virginia, my job is to recruit democratic women to run for office. if you want to make change, be someone who runs for office. be someone who makes that change. with the help of a lot of people, i unseated a 26-year incumbent. we passed 32 of my bills into law since i was sworn in january 10, 2018. when i look at what we have done in virginia and versus the forces of people trying to bring

it back, i want to tell trans kids to just be yourself, better than anyone else could. you are the only one who can. >> you sit in a statehouse. we see so much energy around this. you have more anti-lgbtq+ bills passed than any year before. we have been reporting on just last night what happened in tennessee, what's happening there. this bill advancing that would let public school teachers misgender trans students in their classroom. what is your message to republicans putting their energy into these things? >> politicians who attack their constituents shouldn't be politicians anymore. it's going to take democratic women, lgbtq people, people who really want to see positive, inclusive change to step up, run quality campaigns and do something that helps people.

we passed ten of my bills to feed hungry kids in school. mitch mcconnell is trying to end universal free school meals. this is something regardless of ideology, parents and school staff and students alike should be able to look at this and say, let's do better. i outlined some of that in the book in terms of what we can do better. while we talk about that, i also just want to emphasize when we work on the things that unite us like infrastructure in my district, fixing route 28, environmental protection, like my bill that we passed to ban above ground transmission lines along the i66 corridor, there's still so much we can do together and we can include all of our most vulnerable constituents as we are doing it. don't stigmatize trans kids. >> you are talking about moves made in virginia, which is the state that you are in and where you represent. how do you see the climate in that state for the trans

community? >> because of the amazing progress we had when we had our democratic trifecta for the last two years, we were able to pass about two dozen pro lgbtq equality bills. i talk about my battle on the house floor for one of those in particular and what we had to do to get bipartisan support. one of the other delegates trying to make a martyr out of a teacher who was intentionally refusing to properly gender one of the students, i pushed back on this and said, i know these trans kids personally. the best thing that you can do is welcome them, to celebrate them and respect them because of who they are, not despite it and not for what discriminatory politicians tell them they are supposed to be. >> you first ran for office, you had someone dig up stuff -- dirt to try to use against you. why do that?

why surface the lows, as you might call them, of your life? >> think of being your authentic self. when i launched my first campaign, i was -- this is in 2017. i was unemployed, uninsured, driving unemployed, uninsured and driving a 1992 dodge shadow whose color was primary blue and i was working for $15 an hour with no benefits as a newspaper editor in maryland right across the river and i had been working as a weekend delivery driver in arlington, virginia, for $5 an hour plus tip, and you know, when that is the setting that you have when you enterpublic service and enter a campaign you are very cognizant of what it means to not only struggle, but what it means to have to overcome all of these barriers that were set up and designed for you to fail and especially as a transwoman.

virginia isn't the solely for the rich and powerful. why can't the rest of us run for office and unseat the very politicians all across this country right now who are signaling out and stigmatizing their own constituents. why can't we control our own destiny. when you look at my could have in virginia, where not only have we passed 32 of my bills, but we've passed them with bipartisan support every single one of them including nine that passed the state senate earlier this year. if an out transwoman from the south and holding it that way and being good at constituent service because i have a a staff that is so good, across the country it's possible. we don't have to concede defeat on this. we can win and we can win with the message of inclusivity and with the message of constituent service and with the message

that reminds people that those people who are the public who are being served and they come first and not the people trying to stigmatize them. >> danica, thank you for being with us today. >> thank you. >> if you were looking for the governor of florida. you wouldn't have found him on the east coast at all. instead, ron desantis hopped on a flight to vegas to stump for the republican candidate for senate in nevada and to try to flip the seat currently held by katherine cortez masto, unofficially, you know what desantis was doing. sparking up some 2024 chatter because even the republican candidate he was there for was just the opening act for the governor, watch? >> i'm blessed to have known ron for almost 20 years. we served together in the u.s. navy. [ cheering ] and i'm honored to introduce my

dear friend, a great patriot and america's governor ron desantis! >> joining us now is nbc news correspondent guad venegas. talk to us about the reasoning behind desantis going to nevada and whether the people you're talking to see this as an opening act to what a lot of people presume will be ultimately a presidential campaign for him. >> ellie, it's two things happening at once. wow have ron desantis, a personal friend of adam. they both said they knew each other even before they were in politics. they were roommates and you have a friend who right now is very high profile and is becoming the face of the republican party, ron desantis coming to nevada coming to support his friend who is looking to win the republican primary and face katherine cortez-masto and what republicans want to do is they want to fliep the u.s. senate seat in nevada. you can't help to notice that he comes to the state where he can

find some supporters for what could possibly happen in 2024. in fact, we'll show you a short clip of some of the merchandise we saw outside of the event. >> we have desantis 2024. we really hope he runs because we have, like, 2,000 of these hats already made. >> you've already printed desantis 2024 hats. >> that's how much we believe. >> i should also add that ted cruz was also in nevada working with adam laxalt, and where republicans are hoping to flip the senate seat it will be a tough battle because democrats are still on top and this has been won by the democrats. president biden won the last election. it will be tough. republicans like adam laxalt will have to win over those non-partisan undecided voters in northern nevada if they want to take over that senate seat here while ron desantis came here and

it was a win-win situation as we saw. >> guad venegas, thanks so much. appreciate your reporting. good to see you. >> a few minutes left on the trading day on wall street where stocks are up and soaring even on today's report where the economy shrank in the first quarter. jolene kent is here. are we headed for a recession? help us understand. >> hey, hallie. that is a very important question right now and a ton of data behind this gdp number so yes, the commerce department reported it shrank for the first three months of this year compared to last year and the worse since 2020. there was strong business investment and solid consumer spending despite omicron blanketing the country. what's driving this shrinkage is the growing trade deficit. exports were down 9.6% while imports were up 1.4%. imports skyrocketing on the big dai hand from u.s. consumers and

the u.s. exports dropped because global spending right now really is weaker so that brought gdp down. the supply chain problems are also at work here and we saw less and slower growth of inventory investments, but when you look deeper, consumer spending was up 2.7% compared to last year and the unemployment claims are still at historic lows and inflation very much hurting everyone's ability to spend money. that was 8.5% in march, still 40-year highs and the fed is trying to cool those highs and you have mortgage rates, a doozy for a lot of people out there shopping and the 30-year fixed is the highest since 2009 and that's got rising rates and that's pushing mortgage applications down, but this is, you know, perhaps a blip, perhaps not.

looking forward, the economy looks to the current quarter going up by 2.6%. it lags pretty far behind the 5% number we saw last year, so not good for the biden administration, though. these numbers not great, but president biden saying today in a statement that he's blaming this gdp decline and the u.s. economy continues to be super resilient in the face of historic challenges. so a lot of factors going on here, but that's really the peek under the hood of that gdp number that you saw today, hallie. >> jo ling kent, thank you very much. appreciate that breakdown and appreciate you watching this hour. "deadline: white house" starts right after the break. "deadline: white house" starts "deadline: white house" starts right after the break. but it's not just about savings. it's about the friends we make along the way. you said it, flo. and don't forget to floss before you brush.

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♪♪ hi there, everyone. it's 4:00 in new york. what does it each mean for those of us on planet earth to be a republican in the year of 2022. a wave of primary contests across the country ahead of the midterm elections reveals that the main fault line in the gop is one thing, fidelity to a dangerous conspiracy theory that led to a deadly domestic terror attack at the u.s. capitol. the big lie. the lie goes like this, that the 2020 election was stolen from donald j. trump. the governor who was at the capitol on january 6th and faces a