former president donald trump heading into the center of the storm as we speak. for the first time since leaving the white house back in washington. about to talk with a pretty friendly crowd. you see it on the left side of your screen. that's the microphone from where he will speak. but just about a mile and a half away from that investigation that is still going on into his actions or inaction on january 6th. what we know about what he may say or not and whether this is a preview of an expected 2024 run. with an nbc news exclusive interview on this whole topic coming in right now. new comments from attorney general merrick garland on the january 6th investigation.

what he's telling our own lester holt about holding those responsible accountable and whether it matters if they happen to be a former president or running for president. also this hour we're set to hear from one of president biden's top economic advisers as the fed kicks off a two-day meeting as we speak with interest rates probably heading up again. plus my exclusive interview. one on one with trevor reed. the marine now back in the u.s. after being imprisoned in russia for nearly three years. his advice to brittney griner, who's in court today, and what he says the white house should be doing. i'm hallie jackson in washington with a jam-packed show for you today. i want to bring in nbc news correspondent vaughn hillyard, who is posted up in the location where mr. trump is set to give that speech. nbc news capitol hill correspondent ali vitali is with us. justice reporter ryan riley joins us along with "washington post" political investigative reporter josh dausee and former republican congresswoman from virginia barbara comstock. vaughn, i'll give you the floor first with the expectations for donald trump coming now as we

said really in the shadow of the capitol, of the attack on the capitol, of the investigation into the attack on the capitol. we saw him lash out against that a little bit over the weekend as president biden is basically calling out donald trump's hypocrisy, essentially, with the former president expected to give a kind of law and order speech and president biden in just the last 24 hours saying hey, you can't be pro cop and pro insurrection, as he put it. >> right. and hallie, we're actually just getting the first images of the former president, who has arrived by plane in here to washington, d.c. this is his first trip back to washington, d.c. since leaving 552 days ago, since leaving the south lawn via marine one on january 20th, 2021, just hours before joe biden was sworn into office. in this gathering here in the heart of downtown washington, d.c. is a reunion of sorts. you are looking at numerous trump former officials here as well as former cabinet officials. republican members from the

senate and from the house of representatives here. a spokesman has outlined this speech as being focused on, quote, public safety. but there's a long history in which the former president has shown an eagerness to go away from just a policy-focused address. you know, it was back over in june he was at the faith and freedom coalition and the focus was going to be on issues related to faith and religion and yet he focused so much of that speech defending himself from the investigations, the numerous investigations into his role on january 6th. the question is to what extent does he return to washington, d.c. to further make himself frankly a martyr in this? he has spent these last weeks outlining himself as somebody who democrats are keenly focused on taking power from and keeping power from not only in 2022 but a potential presidential race in 2024 here. and that is where this speech here is really the former president sending a message that he is still very much a player

in this republican party today. >> i want to let folks know, vaughn, you're there, your eyes and ears on the ground there. barring some extraordinarily newsworthy moment, it's not like we're going to take this speech live, right? donald trump has shown that he in speech after speech, and he's given them on the quote unquote campaign trail unofficially, if you will, that he will continue to spread these election fraud lies, these lies that are at the very center of what the january 6th committee is investigating and now ryan riley, let me go to you. suggestions that perhaps the doj is expanding its investigation beyond simply the rioters, the insurrectionists who were at the capitol, beyond the so-called fake electors scheme. we know that former pence chief of staff marc short has testified for this grand jury. and now we're hearing from merrick garland, the attorney general, in this exclusive interview with our own lester holt on a day when donald trump is in d.c., a city where investigations into his conduct literally surround him. >> that's right. you know, it's sort of a joke on

the doj beat about merrick garland referring to the facts and the law. and what is remarkable about this new lester holt interview is that it gets him a little bit outside of what he's said previously. when he's talked previously he's been very specific about the january 6th attack itself, but in these new comments he actually expands on that and talks about this investigation being about the lawful transfer of power itself. so i believe we have a clip from this interview with lester holt and merrick garland. >> you said in no uncertain terms the other day that no one is above the law. >> yeah. >> that said, the indictment of the former president, perhaps candidate for president, would arguably tear the country apart. is that your concern? as you make your decision down the road here, do you have to think about things like that? >> look, we pursue justice without fear or favor. we intend to hold anyone, everyone who is criminally

responsible for the events surrounding january 6th, for any attempt to interfere with the lawful transfer of power from one administration to another, accountable. that's what we do. we don't pay any attention to other issues with respect to that. >> so if donald trump were to become a candidate for president again, that would not change your schedule or how you move forward or don't move forward? >> i'll say again that we will hold accountable anyone who is criminally responsible for attempting to interfere with the transfer, legitimate lawful transfer of power from one administration to the next. >> so merrick garland, a very by the books guy, a former judge, almost a supreme court justice of course, and is very careful with his language. and i think that expansion from talking specifically justice about january 6th to talking about the lawful transfer of power, especially coupled with the news we've learned just yesterday about who we've heard testifying before this federal grand jury, is a significant marker, milestone on this

investigation as it broadens out beyond just the individuals who entered the capitol on january 6th itself. >> yeah, i'm glad we were able to bring folks that interview with lester and merrick garland. we're obviously going to have more tonight on "nightly news" at 6:30 eastern. josh, let me go to you for a minute. we referenced this. president biden taking this opportunity in just the last 24 hours here to go after donald trump in a pretty rare, pretty direct attack, very specifically saying that donald trump did not have the courage to act on january 6th. timing here. how intentional was that from president biden? >> well, he certainly has not engaged with former president trump that often by name and that directly. and as you've seen these things play out over the last few months, few weeks, few months, a lot of folks in former president trump's orbit are gearing up for him to run again. i mean, if you poll his advisers, most of them say they expect him to announce for president later this year. and you look at a potential rematch here of trump versus

biden. i mean, president biden has said repeatedly that he plans to run, and you look today. i've been told his speech today is going to be -- former president trump's speech is going to have a lot of sharp repudiations of president biden and what he's done in office, as vaughn so correctly noted, who knows what he'll really say, but that's how it has been prepared. and i think you're seeing the former president trump, you'll see him more and more aggressively try and start attacking president biden. he's done a lot already. but you're going to see him as he starts to run again. so if you're president biden i think he said repeatedly he wouldn't mind taking on president trump again. and some of the folks around him i think see it as i think a thing to point out, the only person that beat trump last time. he actually took him on and won. >> josh, stand by for a second because ali, let me talk to you about the other piece of this too. and then congresswoman comstock, i'll come to you. but ali, vaughn is in the room here. if you look at the list of speakers at this particular event, there are a lot of

high-profile people. notably absent, anyone from senate republican leadership. what does that say to you? >> yeah, notably absent were the key members of republican leadership anyway, people like mitch mcconnell, john thune, john barrasso, joni ernst technically had a speaking slot there at some point this week. rick scott, same thing. but again, they have different calculations. and even just looking at those five or so members of republican leadership here in congress gives you a sense of the variety of ways that republicans on the hill are having to contend with donald trump. even just look in the middle of the screen. you've got ted cruz there, who has his own machinations and his own considerations for potentially running for president again. you've got lindsey graham at that conference saying he thinks that trump should run again and anyone who's saying that he shouldn't isn't being helpful to the conversation. there's a lot of different threads to tug on here in terms of how republicans are trying to both hug trump as the leader of the party but then also chart their own political futures.

and we see it less in the policy making here on capitol hill. we see it in the fund-raising, in the way they'll spend weekends at mar-a-lago or up at bedminster and certainly the endorsement game for the midterms is where trump's power is most keenly felt. but here on the hill in terms of the actual day to day you really don't feel the influence of the former president that much in part because of the conversation that you and vaughn were having, which is that he's not a guy who's coming to the table right now with policy prescriptions for the future. instead his brand of politics has always been more personal in terms of fighting back against people in the party that he doesn't think represent that america first agenda. it has never been a policy-centric platform that trump has run on. so when you think about it here on the hill, we're not seeing his influence day to day, but you do see it at a moment like this when he comes to the hill's back yard, returns to washington and airs potential grievances about the past as he looks ahead to the future. >> there's much that's been said

about this potential donald trump-mike pence match-up come 2024. and the two are both delivering speeches, both in washington today. congresswoman comstock, let me play a little bit for you about what vice president pence had to say. >> i don't know that the president and i differ on issues. but we may differ on focus. now, some people may choose to focus on the past. but elections are about the future. and i believe conservatives must focus on the future to win back america. >> so on the one hand, congresswoman comstock, i think that is an encapsulation from former vice president mike pence of the way that he is looking to lay claim to some degree to sort of trump world folks given that he was on the ticket, he was in the white house when donald trump was in office, but on the other hand it does seem in some ways to be an opportunity or an

attempt by mike pence to look past the huge elephant in the room here, which is january 6th, that this insurrection happened, that donald trump based on the account from the january 6th committee did nothing, did nothing behind the scenes, was actively they saychoosing not to do anything while rioters were storming the capitol and he's actively continuing, they point out, to try to push these election fraud lies. >> listen, i think the walls are closing in on donald trump, and i think mike pence's staff testifying shows that. you know, i mean, not only did he not choose to do anything on january 7th he then lied about it and said that he had ordered the national guard when in fact it was general milley and mike pence who ordered the national guard. in fact, on january 6th donald trump only made that speech after he knew that pence and milley had ordered the guard. remember, that was when mark meadows called milley and said hey, you've got to say donald

trump did it, not mike pence. the walls are closing in because donald trump's campaign staff told him he lost. his family told him he lost. this has all been testified under oath. his justice department told him he lost. his white house counsel. so this is all under oath. trump witnesses saying he lost. then those 187 minutes when the vice president's staff said he did nothing. and last night you had marc short saying there was almost violence, it came that close. and the walls are closing in. and there's going to be more and more testimony in the grand jury that i think is going to be much more detailed than what we have already heard, that is going to be very -- put donald trump very much in danger, put mark meadows in danger. and i think you're going to see a lot -- see indictments and see a lot more legal problems. so i think a lot of those people who are in the room today, a lot of the former staff that vaughn hillyard talked about, i think

they're mostly there because they want to spend that $100 million that donald trump has before he has to spend it on all of his legal bills. >> josh, based on your reporting, how much concern is there inside the trump orbit about the january 6th investigations, plural? >> well, there's certainly some concern that it's doing political damage to him. i mean, his advisers will show polls, there was one today from morning consult. there's been a lot of others that show him having a lot of durability and still dominating the republican pafrpty. but they worry about erosion of this. i mean, particularly on the cassidy hutchinson testimony. some of the testimony about his personal conduct. it's not that they think republican voters are going to turn off of him en masse but that there will be other alternatives and people will say he was a good president but it's just time to move on among gop primary voters. that's what his advisers worry about. they also have a panoply of other worries. you have the grand jury that's investigating all of this, doj. you have georgia and fulton county subpoenaing lots of different folks around the

former president. you have investigations still going on in new york. i'm not saying they seem a little less worried from our reporting. but there's a lot of legal swirling. i mean, i want to be careful and not say that any of this is going to lead to his demise. he with don't know. there's been how many times over the years, hallie, where there's been some sort of investigation and he somehow emerged and seemed to withstand it pretty strongly. i don't think we can jump to any conclusions. but i certainly think the j-6 committee has left more of a mark than his people thought it was going to originally, at least according to my sourcing. i mean, there's all these other things going on around him that are not great right now. again, they're not conclusive. we don't know what's going to happen. but the georgia probe, the j6 committee continuing into the fall, doj, there's a lot of things piling on top of each other. >> josh dawsey, thank you. vaughn hillyard, ryan reilly, ali vitali and former congresswoman barbara comstock. really appreciate your time today. up next, the fed meeting right now, looking at maybe some

movement related to your money with wall street down. interest rates probably about to go up yet again. plus the new challenge to obamacare happening now in a texas court. why conservatives are suing over coverage for stuff like flu shots and vaccines. and we'll have part of my exclusive conversation with trevor reed. after two years in a russian prison, what he's saying the white house should be doing for other americans detained overseas. and his mission now, raising awareness for those like brittney griner, paul whelan and more. >> is the white house, is the president doing enough in your view to get them out? n your view to get them out i'm still riding toward what's next. even with higher stroke risk due to afib not caused b eliquis. eliquis reduces stroke risk better than warfarin.

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right now at the white house we're about to get an update on the economy from one of the president's top advisers while across town you've got the fed meeting right now, starting this pretty high-stakes two-day meeting. the focus of course interest rates. and here's what we're watching. first, will the fed raise rates for the second month in a row? the anticipation from experts is

that the answer will be yes. so then the question is how much. and especially how will that affect your money? your retirement accounts. your investments on wall street. and three, is another interest rate hike going to do anything to bring down inflation? all of it as we're getting new numbers on consumer confidence, which fell for the third straight month. i want to bring in nbc news senior business analyst and host of msnbc's "11th hour" stephanie ruhle along with cnbc senior analyst ron insana. stephanie, let me start with you because interest rates have been going up for months. quarter point hike in march as you know, to 3/4 of a point in june. and this is a real tightrope act from the fed between getting a handle on inflation but not sending the and i into a recession here. talk us through this. >> i mean, you just nailed it right there. the fed has to address inflation. prices are getting higher and higher. and even though wages have been going up, that's irrelevant when everything in your life costs more. so what's the one tool they can use? well, it's raising interest

rates. but here's why that's tricky because in theory, sure, you want prices to go down. but when interest rates go up, how does that affect you and me? well, if we currently have a mortgage, a fixed rate mortgage, it won't do anything. if we have a floating rate, a variable, it will go up. if we're out there looking to get a mortgage now, it will certainly be more expensive than it was just a few months ago. same thing with your credit card. if you've got a student loan that's a private student loan, there's a chance what you paid there could go up. and if you're saying what's a quarter point, what's a point, it adds up. and it's a whole lot of money. so in the short term what they're trying to do is cool down the economy because things are running so hot. but in doing so it makes life difficult, and we already know, whether you're talking about the grocery store or the gas pump, where things are getting cheaper but certainly not as cheap as they were a year ago, people don't feel good about it. that's why consumer confidence is where it is. not in a good place. >> ron, let me go to you because there's a bunch of economic news this week. as you know, as stephanie knows, check out this calendar. like i said at the top, we've

got new consumer confidence numbers out this morning. those were again down. tomorrow it's all about the fed. we're going to hear from jay powell about how much he's going to raise these interest rates if that happens, which everybody expects. on thursday the new gdp numbers for the second quarter comes out. on friday new inflation data on top of all that we're watching for earnings reports for some of the biggest u.s. companies getting released all week. apple, microsoft, meta, the owner of facebook. it's a lot. tell me what you're watching for most critically in the days to come. >> everything, hallie. walmart dropped a bomb on wall street after the close yesterday, said it lowered its profit guidance for the year. inflation is cutting into consumer spending, and so now they're marking down excess inventory that they have elsewhere in things like apparel and people are trading down from beef to chicken. and this has hit all retailers. target, costco, amazon, the online group. shopify is laying off 10% of its workforce. so the real big deal, though, obviously is the fed tomorrow. it's probably a 3/4-point increase in interest rates for the second straight month.

again, largest in quite a long time. and then the guidance that the fed gives tomorrow is going to be increasingly important. are they going to stay as on strict a course of interest rate hikes beyond tomorrow as they have been over the last several weeks. even though we're seeing signs and we'll see them on thursday when that gdp report comes out that the economy is slowing in a very noticeable and measurable fashion. >> ron insana, stephanie ruhle, thank you both very much. appreciate it. next up, what brittney griner's defense team is arguing in russian court today, hours before the wnba star is expected to take the stand. plus inside the sprint on capitol hill to pass bills on same-sex marriage, drug pricing, computer chips and more, all before senators leave town. democratic senator patty murray will join us live after the break. murray will join us live after the break. when you have technology that's easier to control... that can scale across all your clouds...

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watch. >> do you want to say something to cherelle? how do you feel? do you have any complaints? >> no, no complaints. just waiting patiently. >> the news on griner coming as i sat down exclusively with one of the few americans who has some kind of understanding what it's like to be detained by the kremlin. because he was. former marine trevor reed, released in a prisoner swap back in april, and making very clear in our discussion that he is so grateful to the biden administration and to president biden for getting him home but telling us he also thinks president biden should do more to try to help griner and paul whelan, another american who's also been detained in russia. >> is the white house, is the president doing enough in your view to get them out? >> you know, i can't say 100% what the white house is or is not doing. that's obviously not public information. but in my opinion, the white

house has the ability to get them out extremely fast, and they clearly have chosen not to do that. so no, in my opinion they're not doing enough. >> reed told me that he wants to use the platform that he has now to raise awareness about not just brittney griner, not just paul whelan, but others who are detained overseas, other americans. he's clearly very passionate about it. and for him it's personal. i asked him about paul whelan, the american who's been detained in russia since 2018. reed had written whelan a letter. i asked him more about that after reed's release. watch. >> what went through your mind when you found out and you realized you were getting released, you were getting sent home, but paul was still back in russia detained? >> yeah, it was extremely difficult for me. i didn't find that out until i was already on the plane on the way home.

but you know -- i'm sorry. it's not a good feeling. you have a strong feeling of guilt there that you're leaving one of your brothers behind. that was difficult. and i knew that as soon as i got out i would do everything that i could to fight for paul whelan to be returned to the united states. >> and that, reed says, is part of his mission now. i want to bring in nbc news chief foreign correspondent and msnbc host of course andrea mitchell. andrea, good to have you on. you have been all over the story of not just paul whelan and trevor reed but brittney griner too. and i understand as it relates to her we -- tomorrow's kind of the big day in russian court when she is expected to testify i think on her behalf? >> that's right. this is the first time, hallie, we're going to hear from her in

court. speaking in her own defense. she's been working on this for a couple of weeks since she pleaded guilty, as you know, about two weeks ago. and she's going to speak in her own defense, explain that this was a mistake, she was packing in a hurry, the cannabis oil was in her suitcase, she didn't realize it. her defense argued today that the russians don't have the real evidence because they don't have -- they didn't have the right scales, they couldn't measure it, so they don't really have any way of knowing how much there was and that it was medical cannabis, prescribed by her physicians back home, that she's had a lot of sports injured. you know, she's played ball there for seven years. she was one of the stars in basketball. these women who go over from the wnba every year. and play overseas because they can't make enough money during the season back here. unlike the men in the nba. and you know, that wage disparity is the fundamental root of this problem, why they were there in the first place. but in any case, she's going to defend herself tomorrow and i

guess throw herself on the mercy of the court. she's apologized. she'll apologize again. and then the prosecutors will question her. the defense will question her. this could be a long session. it's going to happen around 7:00 eastern. >> and i know you'll be all over that. talk to me a little about the state department response here because you heard reed on the one hand -- and you'll see more of it tonight at 5:00 eastern, andrea on my other show on msnbc. but reed says he is sthoonkful to the biden administration. he also simultaneously is feeling frustrated at the public pace of process. the state department is saying they're doing all they can, right? >> absolutely. they've got this hostage team working on it. they've been working on paul whelan. and ultimately they think the kremlin is going to want to trade. we hear from official media there, from tass, the official state media, that they want viktor bout back, who's a crony of putin's and an arms dealer. he's serving a 25-year sentence here in the u.s. but that would have to be decided at the presidential level. i was talking to people at the

state department yesterday as was my producer abigail williams and you know, they say they're doing everything that they can, but they've got to move putin at a time when we have the worst relations are russia that we've had since the cold war. just this past weekend, you know, putin agreed to a deal with turkey and the u.n. to let grain, 20 million tons of grain get out to feed starving people in africa and the next day bombed the port, bombed odesa, the port city. odesa, rather, the port city, where the grain was supposed to move. so that deal blew up literally and now they're trying to put it back together. so the question is how do you trust vladimir putin? but they did get trevor reed out, as you point out, and i can understand his emotions. and he says he feels guilty. i mean, that's very clear. but it's not only paul whelan. i've been asking about mark fogle, who is a man who was bringing in medical marijuana and had taught a lot of the children of embassy diplomats,

taught them russian. and i don't know why he is not even considered wrongfully detained. i tried to get answers to that yesterday and was unable to. >> andrea mitchell live for us there in the washington newsroom. andrea, thank you for being on the story for us. we appreciate it. and as i mentioned more of my exclusive interview airs with trevor reed tonight at 5:00 over on "hallie jackson now" on nbc news now. back here in washington. a busy day in the senate with democrats hoping to get their chamber moving on the right to contraception act, meant to protect access to birth control, which passed the house mostly on party lines last week. earlier today saw the senate moving ahead with the so-called chips plus bill. this is the one that sounds kind of nerdy but is actually kind of super important. it would help, many people say, bolster semiconductor production in the u.s. to try to counter china's production levels. senate majority leader chuck schumer is hoping for a quick debate and a final vote at some point this week. senate democrats are also trying to see if they have the votes to pass another bill, one that would codify federal protection for same-sex marriage. that bill got some bipartisan support. 47 republicans signed op when it

passed the house last week but it's still not clear if or when or if it's going to make it through the senate. democrats may be able to go it alone on drug prices so long as the senate parliamentarian lets them pass it through the simple majority process of reconciliation. i want to bring in democratic senator from washington patty murray, chair of the senate committee on health, education labor and pensions. you saw the calendar, you know the calendar, you are living the calendar, senator murray. i know that this push, let me start here, to pass the right to contraception act, is one that is important to you. talk about the urgency on this and where you are with republican support to actually be able to try to get it done. >> hallie-i never thought i'd be talking to you about a bill to protect the right to contraception in my life in this country. but here we are. we heard a supreme court justice say that he believes it's not protected after the roe decision. we've seen a number of state legislatures now move to stop women from being able to purchase contraception. and we saw in the house 195

republicans last week voted against a woman's ability to purchase contraception in this country. so tomorrow we are moving on the floor to put into law the right for people to buy contraception in this country so there is no question. >> and let me ask you about that second part of the question too. republican support. are you hearing from your colleagues across the aisle on this? do you believe that you can get ten members of the gop to back you up on this push? >> right now we have not heard from any of them on what they intend to do tomorrow. we intend to ask unanimous consent to move it forward. it just seems to me like just a non-brainer. yes, of course americans should be able to buy contraceptive drugs. that should just not be questioned. but apparently in these days there are people in the republican party who think that we shouldn't be able to. so we'll find out tomorrow. we're working hard. we want to show the american people where we stand and what their rights should be in this country. >> and to that point there's also this bill that we mentioned that would codify the right to

same-sex marriage in this country. what are the prospects for that? we keep hearing i think dribs and drabs from various -- and i say republicans because obviously democrats would need some republicans to get on board there about where they stand. what's your sense as democrats move now to try to shore up some of these rights for americans given the supreme court ruling on dobbs? >> yes, we believe also that we need to codify protections for same-sex marriage in this country for the same reason that i described to you on contraception. we are now trying to get republicans to support us on that. several have come out and said they would. but we all know the numbers. we need ten republicans. they need to stand up and show the american people where we stand. we expect to have a vote on that next week. >> let's talk chips because it appears that that bill is moving slowly but moving perhaps toward a vote in the senate there. we heard from minority leader mitch mcconnell, who seems to be on board with the semiconductor bill. sort of with the caveat that democrats would not push through a recon siltation bill on climate, on prescription drug prices, et cetera.

do you believe that that is a fair and worthwhile trade-off? >> well, we're not trading that off. we're going to move to the chips bill tomorrow. i expect that we will have republican votes to support us. this is so important, we all understand what chips are today. how many people have tried to buy a car or a kid's toy or a washington machine as we have watched the supply chain issues just really crumble over the last two years because of the covid pandemic? and were not able to buy it or we're seeing inflation because we don't have enough available. we are saying this country is going to build its own supply of chips. we're going to back it at the federal level. and we're going to make sure that we build chips here, american jobs, in our own country so that we fix the supply chain and lower the cost for americans on all of those critical products that require chips. >> before i let you go i just want to ask you about some of the developing news that is happening as we speak, senator, which is the attorney general of the united states, merrick garland, sitting down with our own lester holt.

i don't flow if you had a chance to listen to any piece of that interview but lester pressed him on the idea of donald trump potentially being held accountable by the department of justice. how do you see that unfolding? >> well, i am watching the doj as everyone is. we've watched -- i was here in the capitol. i was captured in my room. i know what we went through. the american people are now seeing what happened to their democracy when a number of people, insurrectionists promoted by donald trump, came to the capitol and tried to overtake our votes with brute force. and i believe that people need to be held accountable, and i'm hoping that's what the doj will do. >> senator patty murray, thank you for being back on the show with us. we appreciate your time this afternoon. thanks. >> thank you. >> next up, obamacare coverage is at stake in a texas courtroom today where that 12-year-old law is back on trial. y where that 1w y where that 1w is back on trial it disrupts my skin with rash.

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some of the other top stories we're following right now today. russia is announcing it will quit the international space station after 2024, withdrawing altogether to build its own space station according to russian state media. now signaling they'd rather cooperate with china's space program instead of nasa. a self-described supporter of former president donald trump who assaulted police officers at the capitol on january 6th has been sentenced to five years in prison. the video evidence mark ponder is seen attacking police with a flag pole before entering the capitol. ponder now has among the longest prison sentences related to the riot. and excessive heat warnings are in place for parts of the pacific northwest where it is real hot. temperatures expected to get to as high as 110 degrees in oregon and in washington. to texas now where today obamacare is back in federal court because a group of conservative activists in texas are challenging the part of the aca, the affordable care act, that requires coverage of preventative services. so what's at stake? access to things like immunizations like your annual

flu shot, for example. hiv prevention drugs. and preventative screenings like some of those used to detect cancer. this whole issue is going in front of the same texas judge who ruled that the affordable care act was unconstitutional in 2018. of course the supreme court voted to uphold it. let me bring in nbc news justice correspondent pete williams, who is here to break it down for us. so pete, talk us through what the issue is in front of the federal court now and sort of of what's at stake, how this could unfold. >> sure. well, these texas residents and employers are challenging the requirement that health insurance providers have to cover some forms of preventative care. you mentioned some. sexually transmitted disease screenings, depression checks, preexposure drugs that help prevent hiv infection. and they make two claims. they say first of all the law forces them to buy health insurance that provides coverage that they don't need and they don't want. and they say that makes it more expensive. and then they say having to buy that insurance violates their religious freedom and encourages

prostitution, promiscuity, intravenous drug use and homosexual behavior. and they filed their lawsuit in fort worth before that judge who as you noted voted against obamacare before only to be reversed by the supreme court. the biden administration says this is congress's doing, that it's congress that designed the affordable care act to cover preventative care and that it's in the public interest because the public interest is served by helping to prevent the spread of hiv and sexually transmitted diseases and it also says the case should be thrown out anyway because the challengers can't prove that their premiums are actually any higher because of these provisions. so the government says how are they harmed? and some of them, the justice department says, hallie, don't even have health insurance in the first place. >> pete williams live for us in d.c. to break that down for us. pete, thanks for keeping an eye on that for us. appreciate it. next up the cdc says the u.s. is the global leader in known monkeypox cases. we'll talk more about why the white house has not yet declared this a public health emergency. after the break.

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by a group of georgia voters. she was an obstructionist. you cannot be a member of congress if you participate in insurrection or rebellion. obviously this all revolves around january 6th. let me bring in nbc news correspondent ken dilanian, bring us up to speed. >> hallie, there have been a series of these charges against some members of congress, including paul arguing, if you've engaged in rebellion or insurrection none of these claims have been successful and it wasn't successful in her case. this was the third ruling on this issue. a fulton county judge in atlanta has ruled that the plaintiffs did not make the case that marjorie taylor greene engaged in insurrection, even though in the course of the court hearing a text message emerged in which she appeared to have called for donald trump to declare martial law as the january 6th insurrection was unfolding.

nonetheless, the judges rule that wasn't enough to declare her ineligible to run for re-election. it's a heavily republican district. she's favored to win. so she's clear to stand for re-election, hallie. >> ken dilanian, thanks for that update. we want to turn to the monkeypox outbreak, and experts that the u.s. is in their words losing daylight, running out of time to try to contain the outbreak if that's still possible. right now the u.s. leads the world in known or suspected cases reporting more than 3,400 infections and counting according to the cdc about ten times higher than a month ago. officials have already tried to do more testing. they've made tens of thousands of vaccines available. there are also plans to release another 1.5 million plus doses over the next few months. still, limited supplies have not really matched the exploding demand so far. without a white house coordinator to streamline a federal response, dr. anthony fauci says he has some concerns too. >> you've always got to look at

a situation like this and say we've got to do better than we've done because it's a serious problem. >> joining me now is dr. kavita patel, msnbc medical contributor and former obama white house policy director. the timing here, this monkeypox outbreak showing up on the scene right when people are really aware of infectious diseases and having a lot of public awareness about what this means. talk to me about how you see the response and next steps that would be most useful here. >> yeah, hallie, look, getting out more testing, certainly getting out more vaccine, which is getting better in places like new york, washington, d.c., some of the places we've seen the numbers climbing the highest, that's the good thing. you always have to ask what more can we do? number one, we need better coordination with the states on data collection. we are making assumptions about which populations are at the highest risk and not understanding when we start to see more widespread community spread. hallie, we know it's occurring. we need data coordination.

we need all the things that we learn how to do in covid, but frankly, we need federal coordination and funding. i think that's something that has to be said. none of what we could have -- what we did in covid when we started to actually measure things and do what was necessary to protect the public could have happened without that funding, and we're looking at the same requirements to contain this. >> so then talk through that connection to what "the washington post" is reporting now that the biden administration is weighing declaring a public health emergency. you understand policy. you understand public health policy inside an administration, what would be in like the pro and con column for that? >> yeah, so pros on the public health emergency declaration is that it pushes out basically, you know, requirements to states for data collection, coordination and even importantly, we've all gotten used to those words emergency use authorization. there is a treatment that's scarce. it's something called tpax, we can give it to patients with monkeypox, especially for severe cases -- public health emergency

can make it a little easier for the fda to give us this as a emergency use authorization, create some liability shield. it also creates the ability for the federal government to issue waivers or state governments to do things, especially in states where they do see numbers climbing. so we have, i think, at our disposal the public health emergency, a number of other federal actions that could take place, but we're going to need the white house to trigger them. where i think they're coming from politically is we're still dealing with a covid surge and a pandemic that the administration trying to message on how to keep the public safe. we have not seen an increasing number of hospitalizations and fatalities with monkeypox yet. that's the balance, when to declare an emergency and how soon to activate it. i think we need to call this what it is, it's an emergency. >> dr. kavita patel, thank you very much for being with us this afternoon. appreciate you watching this hour of msnbc. you can find us on twitter and on nbc news now, our nbc

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