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an amusement park is like whooping cough, it's not just for kids. whooping cough is highly contagious for people of any age. and it can cause violent uncontrollable coughing fits. ask your doctor or pharmacist about whooping cough vaccination because it's not just for kids. to the many investigations now that have followed the january 6th insurrection. and today a judge in steve bannon's trial, he was found guilty of contempt of congress for refusing to comply with subpoenas. keeping the door open to bannon to maybe get his case thrown out a judge asked bannon's legal

team for more information on the grounds they should have been able to call members of the select committee as witnesses. no decision on that. we've been watching it. if you've been reading the signs, the tea leaves over the last 24 hours, they've been pointing to this man, former president trump. nbc news reporting the investigation into january 6th now includes an inquiry into the actions of former president donald trump. i want to bring in keith williams, ali vitt lalty, ms nbc news analyst andrew wiseman. let's talk about the nuance here. yes, the confirmation from an official that they are questioning, the prosecutors are questioning witnesses in front of a grand jury about donald trump. it certainly does not mean, based on your reporting that there is a criminal investigation open. that's important. >> well, yeah. i think the best way to think about this, and this is based on what several officials have said about the reporting that was first in "the washington post,"

is that what they want to know bright now is what happened? and that's the stage that the investigation, where they are now, so they've been sort of tightening the circle around the former president, talking, first of all, to the people involved in the capitol riot and then maybe the people who helped lead that. and then the effort to have slates of electors from states that president biden won. and the effort to have vice president pence either give credit to or count those, or somehow discount the slates that came from the biden -- you know, toss-up states. and they want to know what the president was saying to all of those people about these things. so, it's really in the fact-gathering stage here. i think what they're trying to say is, yes, we are investigating this. that doesn't mean we have quote-unquote opened a criminal investigation of president trump which they see as something different. >> pete, it's important uance,

thank you. ali, let me go to you, i want to know about the reaction especially with democrats here. >> well democrats and republican alike believe this would be a big home hit if they were actually investigating the former president but what all the senators that we spoke to today seem to have in common that they know they're onlookers as well. that this is a decision that rests solely with the attorney general and department of justice. hallie, you have investigators saying they should move forward and that trump should be held accountable if that's what doj says. but then interesting comments from republicans too, listen. >> i think anybody in the united states would expect the justice department, whether it's the highest person in the country or the lowest person in the country, to do equal justice. >> i hope that the attorney general will apply the law in a fair and even-handed matter. >> that's just ridiculous for me

tour comment over, you know, what some grand jury may be looking at. i don't see anything to prosecute over. >> reporter: and hallie, senator graham's comments perhaps unsurprising especially given the fact in just the last 24 hours he gave a full-throated endorsement to trump running again in 2024. and, look, there is the complication, perhaps, that the former president could run again and become an active political candidate. but just as the january 6th committee has said that shouldn't be the deciding factor, that no one is above the law. that is the thing that we continue to hear echoed here, even from people on trump's own side of the aisle. >> ali, thank you for that. peter, you're standing by. andrew, let me go to you as it relates to the reporting. help us understand the subtleties of this. >> yeah. so, it does seem like a lot of word salad. because you seem to have questioning of trump, and yet, they're pushing back, doj seems

to be pushing back, saying, no, it's an investigation of trump's actions. and the way i look at this, merrick garland yesterday in the interview with lester holt could not have been clearer that there's an investigation of everything around the january 6 events. in fact, he didn't limit it to what happened on january 6th itself. he said any illegality involving the transfer of power. so, he was very clear. and i think the reason you're not hearing the department say the investigation is open on person "a," "b" or "c," has to do with the justice department's policy of respecting the civil liberties of those people under investigation. and it's fairly rare for the department to say who is the target of the subject of the investigation. that's why think you heard merrick garland give a very full-throated defense of the scope of the investigation and the breadth of it without actually naming names. so that at least is my read for

why you're getting this, you know, is it trump or is it trump's actions. >> andrew, stand by. i want to share a bit of breaking news that overplay it. but i think it's worth noting here. the federal investigators, nbc news has learned, have obtained a search war the cell phone of john eastman, widely considered to be the architect of this plot to steal the election. the phone was apparently seized on july 12th, according to a new court filing and right now the inspector general at the doj has that phone. it was taken initially on the 22nd but investigators were not actually able to get the contents until they got the second search warrant. ali, let me go to you, it speaks to what you and andrew spoke about the very piece investigation and the doj collecting evidence there. >> reporter: exactly, the fact that they're doing this in realtime, we knew they were

going after john eastman's phone and the fact that they couldn't get it and now have the second warrant into the cell phone. we know some of the conversations he was having, eastman was at the center of this whole fake slate of electors plot that they were teasing out during the course of the hearings. we know it's a focus for doj as they delved into what was happening in the aftermath of the 2020 election. the other thing i'm keeping in mind, hallie, after we talked about the january 6th and doj committee being commit on parallel tracks, what the january 6th committee did, even though they were not speaking to the legal courts they were doing this for the court of public opinion. we also now kind of have a road map in terms of when doj makes a move to talk to particular people like marc short and going after john eastman's cell phone. we know in many cases what the people said at the january 6th committee. we've seen it on video deposition alternatively, we've seen them testify live. we have a little road map what

the people actually say and what they would likely be telling the department of justice so we watched them say it publicly. parallel tracks but perhaps more insight into what we would usually get into something that the doj is doing behind closed doors just because we already know these people. >> yeah, we're seeing some of these people publicly. andrea, you mentioned the merrick garland interview with lester holt and what he said and why that was significant. i want to play a piece of this, something that the attorney general told lester. >> we will hold accountable fin who is criminally responsible for attempting to interfere with the transfer of legitimate lawful transfer of power from one administration to the next. >> andrea, what would your expectation be here, moving forward for where the doj goes now and the time line for next steps? >> well the time line is, i think, the key. because there is a ticking clock. and i think that what you're ultimately going to have to see

is the department trying to get witnesses. and putting pressure on or charging people like mark meadows. i think they're going to try and defeat the claim of executive privilege by pat cipollone, which he asserted in the january 6th committee hearings that i think is probably invalid. and i think you'll see the department pushing on that, in order to get more evidence. and just quickly switching to the eastman phone that was obtained only june 22nd pursuant to a warrant. but the court said all that the department of justice could do is take the phone. they could not search the phone. and they had to come back with a more specific warrant that specifically said, what crimes they want to look for evidence for. so, while the department was allowed to take the phone, they were not allowed to search the phone. so this is really the follow-up that the court required in order to actually look at the contents

of the phone. and just for our viewers, i wouldn't expect to hear anything soon on that. because there probably is going to be a clean team. that is, a separate team of lawyers and agents who need to look at this because of attorney/client privilege issues. people remember that happened when there was a serve of michael cohen's phone. so that is a very long process to do that kind of scrubbing to make sure you're acomplying with the attorney/client privilege. it's a follow-on to that june 22nd search and it shows progress by the department of justice. but i think this is one where it's going to take some time for them to really extract whatever is on john eastman's phone and for the prosecution team to actually get their hands on it. >> andrew wiseman, thank you for that. ali vitali, appreciate you joining us with your reporting

as well. so, a little over two weeks to go to the wisconsin primary just in the last hour, it sets up it alex lasry an executive with the milwaukee bucks basketball team announcing he's dropping out of the senate race, basically clearing the way for mandela barnes to take on the person on the other side of the screen, ron johnson in november. it sets up a race because it's so important when it comes to control of the senate. the nbc news team labeling this was a toss-up. shaq brewster, walk us through the scene here. lasry seen so close, especially the polling here. >> yeah, when you look at the public polling, ha hallie, what they tell me and nbc news, the private polling, internal polling is looking different. that that played into the ultimate decision that you saw from the milwaukee bucks executive alex lasry.

the barnes campaign released a poll showing barnes was actually up more than double digits in this race. something that aides and advisers said changed over the past couple of weeks in the campaign. that led to what we saw today, alex lasry having meetings with folks like tammy baldwin and tony evers in making that ultimate decision to drop out of the race, despite pouring more than $12 millionch his own money into this race. and that's despite more than 160,000 people in the state of wisconsin already returning the absentee ballot. listen to what alex lasry had to say today. >> i'm proud of the campaign we ran. i thought we ran an incredibly strong one, one where we went from, you know, close to zero support to a strong second. at the end of the day, this campaign wasn't about me, this campaign was about the people of wisconsin. and it is clear that the best person to defeat ron johnson is

lieutenant governor mandela barnes. and i'm proud to be able to stand up here and support him. >> hallie, i spoke to alex lasry about two or three weeks ago for a story we were doing on this wisconsin race. one thing he made clear to me, he did not plan to go negative in the race. he flooded money to get on the airwaves, pod ads with him, his wife and daughter. he said he was never going to go negative in the race. based on democratic voters in the state, that's their main focus, defeating ron johnson, they city johnson as a senator who is vulnerable. in the state, that polling shows most voters, when you look at the marquette poll, most voters do have johnson unfavorably. this is a key seat that could help secure the elections midterm. that's why you see this

coalescing, hallie. >> appreciate that. house speaker nancy pelosi appears to be holding her ground in a rare split something that republicans are siding with her, the trauma over the potential visit to taiwan. today, democrats and republicans rallying behind pelosi, encouraging her to go along with the trip. the president and white house saying, quote, not a good idea as tensions between taiwan and china escalate. and could be the highest in 25 years according to the ap and china is not happy about it, threatening what they describe as forceful measures if the trip moves forward. a threat that will probably come up tomorrow when president biden and chinese president xi jinping are set to talk. i want to lincoln in allie raffa. allie, with top lawmakers to join, but what is the signal that she's digging in? >> yeah, hallie, a lot of controversy over this trip from

both sides of pennsylvania avenue, the last few days. as you said, china threatening, quote, those forceful measures if pelosi is to take the trip to taiwan which we know that china sees as rightfully theirs. china now sparking fears that klein could take advantage of this situation, exacerbate u.s. tensions with the country, possibly annex taiwan while pelosi is there. as you said, in this very rare, as you and i are both familiar with, very rare show of unity, republicans are now saying they are backing pelosi in supporting her in going to taiwan. listen to the house gop steve scalise. >> why would it be an international incident for the speaker of the house, or anybody tied to the united states government to go and show support for an ally of ours. our friends and our allies are watching this real closely. because if they see the bad guys able to threaten the united states, that means no country is

safe from tyranny. >> republicans and democrats echoing that sentiment saying that the united states can't be bullied or intimidated. that it has to show its support for taiwan. and now we're hearing from house foreign affairs ranking member michael mccall saying he and others were invited by pelosi to go along on the trip in august. neither the white house nor pelosi's office is obviously confirming this because of security reasons. mccall said he won't be able to go because of scheduling conflicts but it still looks like the trip is going to happen and if and when it does, pelosi will be the highest ranking official to visit taiwan since 1987. probably a topic in the phone call tomorrow between biden and xi. we're looking to find out whether two airlines will be one

airline and make it more expensive to catch a flight. a vote happening now whether spirit airlines will become part of frontier. most experts do not think this will pass. then what, spirited only has a potential lineup, jetblue, a multimillion-dollar bidding war happening for months. joining me leslie josephs who covers the aviation industry. leslie, good to see you, tell us how the vote is going, what you think will happen, what does it mean for fliers? frequent fliers? frequent fliers? it's like another delay on top of another delay. but the vote has begun. what we've been hearing in sources is that -- this will not pass. there are not enough -- there is not enough shareholder support for this. however, never say never. there's always a chance for a curveball. like you said, there is another rebound lined up.

and that's jetblue, frontier and spirit, they're very similar business models, you know, that no frills service in change for low fare and fees for everything else. choosing your seat, cabin baggage, things like that. whereas, jetblue is a little more high-tech. screens on the back of the seats, they offer snacks for free and beverages. and they have a lot more in common with some of the big legacy airlines. all three of these airlines are trying to grow. travel has bounced back. i don't know if you've been at an airport recently, considered wall-to-wall people in some of the country's busiest airports, they're trying to capitalize on that. there's a shortage of planes, narrow bodied planes. the airbus single engine jets and pilots. and they have been trying to convince and it looks like

successfully, for spirit shareholders to vote the deal down. we're going to find out in the next few minute what is the verdict is. those shareholders are not voting on jetblue per se. they're only voting on the frontier deal. we're going to find out what happens after that, if there is a deal. by no means is the story over once that happens. you have to get through the doj, and this is the doj that has vowed to take a strong stance in anything that's anti-competitive. and airline is a key area that they're already looking at. >> cnbc's leslie jacobs, thank you. the far right borderline fringy cable network one that happens to be the favorite of president trump and home to outlandish claims about the 2020 election. oan getting dropped by its last big tv carrier, verizon, at the end of the week, losing access to 20 million subscribers.

it comes that oan is getting sued over the claims that the 2020 election was stolen. those are lies, not stolen, and including dominion voting systems that took votes from donald trump to joe biden. doesn't happen. this is an interesting moment here for this particular network, but also for the far right ecosystem in general. >> yeah. look, this has been a company that's been dying for a year now. they had a bunch of carriage deals that fell off. another block of 20 million subscribers in general between at&t u-verse, all of the cable providers. they were just tired of it. they didn't have to carry this, pushing this stuff. as you see in the graphic, they're down to pretty much streaming services. they have directv, a massive provider, they lost that a year

ago as well. they're down to smaller services now. and it's in part because of these incredible lies they told shortly after the election about it being stolen. >> verizon says negotiations were focused on economics as they always are but oan failed to agree to fair terms. this comes after directv dropped oan in april. what does that say as far as the reasoning for cutting of the ties? >> yeah, there's not a massive need for this, in part because they were so tied up in the big lie. and they had to drop all the claims. they were basically an hn message thread come to life. they were citing people like ron watkins who ran hn, as part of the coverage for the dominion voting experience. that led them to a bunch of

lawsuits they were sued by lady reuben freeman. people that saw at the january 6th hearings a couple weeks because they brought them into the public eye as public election workers. these people -- sorry, these groups, these election companies, they are suing oan. but dominion is still in a lawsuit with them. so they're running out of space in time to do anything impactful. and they have lost -- they've hemorrhaged viewers over the last years. >> have we heard anything from oan? >> yeah, they're literally making pleas to liberals on their air to call their cable company for free speech. unfortunately for them, that's not how it works. >> appreciate all of you being with us on this hour of msnbc reports. you can see us on twitter,

hallie on msnbc. you can find us on the streaming channel "nbc news now." for show number two, nicolle wallace picks up with "deadline white house" right after the break. ight after the break. so we need something super distinctive... dad's work, meet daughter's playtime. thankfully, meta portal auto pans and zooms to keep you in frame. and the meeting on track. meta portal. the smart video calling device that makes work from home work for you.

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possible criminal culpability of the ex-president who was behind it all. the drumbeat that has only grown louder as hundreds of his supporters have been arrested by the justice department for their conduct during the attack on the u.s. capitol. some of them charged with crimes as serious as seditious conspiracy and as the public and investigative work in the january 6th select committee has revealed that january 6th was actually the culmination of a complex plot to overturn the results of the 2020 election overseeing and directed at every turn by donald j. trump. an administration official confirms that doj is indeed investigating donald trump's actions as part of its criminal probe into january 6th and the efforts to overturn the 2020 election. that major development was first reported by our friends at the washington post, from that washington post report, quote, prosecutors who are questioning witnesses before a grand jury including two top aides to