washington, new movement with the house getting ready to vote on an assault weapons ban today before lawmakers leave town for august break. when and how we expect that vote to go down. in the senate, all political eyes on one key democrat as the party races to advance a major surprise spending bill. you see her right there. where kyrsten sinema stands. and new reporting from "the washington post" on more missing text messages leading up to the attack on the capitol not from the secret service but two top

trump administration officials. details of that new reporting ahead as well. and later on, we don't have the manpower as the doj's january 6th probe expands, sources telling our team resources are at a breaking point. what we're learning about the most wide-ranging investigation in justice department history coming up as well. i'm in for hallie jackson. want to get to ali vitali on capitol hill. what i am hearing as we wrap up this incredibly surprising week to say the least is that there is a procedural vote happening in the next couple minutes. walk us through what you know. >> reporter: yeah. certainly a week with a lot of twists and turns here between the senate and the house. the house leaving town now, at least for the next week or so, and doing it with a flurry of activity before they get there, setting up this vote, this

procedural motion in just a few minutes that's going to be a vote on the rule to get onto the actual vote on an assault weapons ban. in talking to house speaker nancy pelosi earlier today, she told reporters with a knowing smile that, yes, she expects this assault weapons ban to pass. of course even if the house passes it, it does not have the ability to get pass in the the senate based on the numbers and the landscape there. that's the reality of a 50/50 senate. nevertheless, this is a priority for democrats but not one that didn't come with a little bit of drama this morning and overnight last night. initially, this assault weapons ban was supposed to be packaged with other bills including from democrats spanberger and got heimer. those were police funding bills that progressives were upset about because they didn't want to, a, have to vote on a police funding bill that didn't have the accountability measures they want ed to see it in, but also in the words of one progressive aide i was talking to, they

don't want to vote on a police funding bill at all. the counterpoint to that is that this is a bill that's very important to frontline democrats but nevertheless another aide told me that the decoupling of the assault weapons ban from that police funding legislation was a win for progressives. now as we look to this rule vote in just a few minutes, the thing that i'm looking for, if they're able to get on with it, to actually pass the rule and ultimately get on to the assault weapons ban. the assumption is yes. speaker pelosi is not someone who usually brings things to the floor if she doesn't have the votes. but if we are to see this vote stay open for longer than, i don't know, 30, 45 minutes, that could be a sign that there is a little trouble here. so that's what we're watching out for. we expect it to go off in the way that democrats want it to, allowing them to vote in an assault weapons ban later this afternoon, but that's what we're watching for in this procedural voting. could be a real tell. >> congress has certainly had some momentum over the last

couple days. the biden administration looking at these as possible wins for them ahead of the midterm elections. i am curious, though, because a couple hours ago we learned democratic congressman dean phillips admitted during an interview that he does not want the president to run again in 2024. this is not something we hear from inside the democratic party, even if they are thinking it, and yet here he is saying it publicly and admitting it's not going to be obviously well received, wondering how it's being received on the hill this afternoon. >> reporter: you're right these are not the things we typically hear publicly. it doesn't mean this is not what we've been hearing on the hill and with my other conversations with democrats in the last few months quietly and privately. there is some handwringing, a lot of handwringing, frankly, within the democratic ranks about the role that biden will play going forward and the fact he still says he's going to run for president again in 2024.

our colleagues at the other side of pennsylvania avenue in the white house unit, mike memoli around carol lee among them, led the reporting that the white house is aware of the handwringing around biden's candidacy and they're sort of leveraging soft power, keeping their friends close but enemies or potential rivals closer, a sort of frenemies relationship there in the lead-up to the unofficial start of the 2024 cycle. but, look, the fact that you have someone like dean phillips saying that he thinks that someone younger should come up, this is sort of the parlor game in washington right now. i think it's a valid question to start asking, especially when you look at the fact as i was talking with majority leader schumer yesterday and joe manchin made this point as well in the aftermath of rolling out his thinking around reconciliation, joe biden was not involved in the talks around reconciliation. what schumer and manchin both said is they kept these talks between them. it's not just on reconciliation, though. president biden, while he's been

generally aware of the contours of these deals, was also not one of the negotiators in the gun bill that passed the senate democrats a few weeks ago. it's not entirely abnormal. there have certainly been other presidents who have not been deeply steeped in the weeds of legislating on capitol hill. but at the same time, as someone who covered biden's candidacy, now as president, despite the fact he campaigned as someone who was a master of the senate, who understood the inner workings of this body, he is someone who has largely stayed out of the legislative fray. i just think as people who love to cover politics, it's interesting to watch that play out. >> quickly, even though he is wasn't a part of the negotiation, was schumer picking up the phone and saying by the way this is quietly happening on the side despite what you may be hearing that man chinn is a no-go? >> i actually asked that question when i got some one-on-one time with him yesterday, and he said that manchin wanted to keep these conversations very small, just between schumer and manchin, and

i actually asked, so, but you were keeping biden apprised of this? he said not on a day-to-day basis but that the white house and schumer generally knew what was going on on this. >> wow. interesting. all right. ali vitali, as always, always providing a little nugget for us to think about. thank you, my friend. >> reporter: i try. later this hour -- you do better than try -- punch bowl's founder will talk about how much the democrats can get done. let's talk about some missing text messages again. so first you had the secret service. now it's ghs. new reporting from "the washington post" revealing in fact there is more missing text messages from more trump administration officials during that period leading up to the january 6th attack on the capitol. the phones of former president trump's acting homeland security

secretary and acting deputy secretary ken cuccinelli were wiped back in january of 2021. according to an internal record obtained by "the washington post," texts were los in a quote, unquote reset of their government phones when they left their jobs back in january of 2021 in preparation for the new administration. all of this as both the january 6th committee and the doj are investigating what role the former president and his allies played in the attack on the capitol. cuccinelli, wolf, and the dhs office of inspector general did not immediately respond to "washington post's" requests for comment. want to bring in now more details on this. once again, we have the story of missing text messages that were, in fact, lost because of a wipe, right, of these text messages in changing hands of the administration. talk to me about what we know as to why this happened, when it happened, and what these text

messages could have actually provided in filling some holes, plugging some homes in the story we have learned throughout the january 6th investigation. >> of course we would want to know more about what cuccinelli and wolf were saying to one another and to their counterparts on the day of january 6th. now, chad wolf was actually traveling overseas at the time, but of course he would have had ways to communicate with people back at home. but this was the end of their tenure. chad wolf resigned soon after january 6th. ken cuccinelli would have left with the administration later that month with the changeover. and when they did, they handed in their government phones and they say it was dhs that was then in charge of the records and how they preserved them and that they wiped their phones. that is standard so they're not necessarily pinning this on cuccinelli and wolf themselves, but the fax is these messages that could have provided more insight to the committee as they pieced together the evidence of that day particularly why law

enforcement was not more responsive as we reported here before, we know that there were armed officers standing in the basement of the reagan building just blocks from the capitol waiting for a command to leave and go to the capitol that never came. all these messages would be key in understanding the events of the day and the lack of response that allowed the insurrection to rise to the fever pitch that it did. and now, because these messages are also missing, that's one more key piece of information from the department of homeland security, also including secret service, falls under this large department, that we now won't have when the committee or when doj is putting together the pieces of that day and finding out who was really calling the shots. >> so i know that cuccinelli and wolf are responding on twitter to this reporting from "the washington post" and some of the reporting nbc did as well. what are they saying? what is their response? >> they're saying, look, first they're calling it out as being

inaccurate, but they're not pointing to anything specific in these articles that are inaccurate. but chad wolf and cuccinelli said they did what they were told, followed protocol and turned in their government-issued cell phone when they left. they didn't wipe anything before they handed it over. chad wolf saying i complied with all data retention laws, returned all my equipment fully loaded, meaning with all the materials still on it, to the department, full stop. dhs has all my text, emails, phone logs, schedule, et cetera. any issues with missing data needs to be addressed with dhs. to imploy otherwise is lazy reporting, clearly taking stab at "the washington post" there. but he is saying refer to questions to the department, not to me. ken cuccinelli relaying this text message he had with a friend today basically saying, look, the "washington post" is going after you for handing in your government phone, just like you were supposed to do and having it erased by security personnel when you were no longer in a position to control what they did. so, here, cuccinelli is basically using his firebrand we

were so used to seeing when he was in this position at dhs, a very close ally of trump's. trump did appoint him immigration czar at a period of time. he's wanting to fire back at "the washington post" here. really what it comes down to here, there's really not a lot of gray area. it's that these men handed in their phones and dhs did not properly record or log this information as they would have been required to do by the federal records act. it's one more thing, one more piece of information we now won't get, and it's another question as to why dhs continued to not comply whether its be with secret service or with these top-level secretaries and acting secretaries why they wouldn't take the time to preserve it. >> yeah. why was the ball dropped? major, major concern there to say the least. julie, thank you. talking about new fears today of the justice department's january 6th

investigation, the most wide-ranging in history, might be nearing a breaking point. in the 19 months since the attack, federal officials have made about 850 arrests, still a fraction of the 2,500 who entered the capitol on that day. logistically, all of these cases, plus the doj's separate probe into the fake elector scheme, its sparked concern amongst more than a dozen sources familiar with the investigation about whether the doj actually has the resources that it needs to continue. nbc news justice reporter ryan reilly has more on this. talk to us about some of these concerns, the issues here, and how the doj is actually trying to stay on top of it. >> after january 6th, we saw a lot of cases coming forward at a record clip and the docket builds up in d.c. quickly. they continued to roll in over the course of the past 18 to 19 months, but in recent months there's ban little bit of a slowdown. there have been still cases going forward but it's definitely slowed down compared

to what we are seeing on a weekly basis in the past. a lot of this is docket. you figure there are so many steps on arrest process, including getting local resources to execute that arrest, and have a prosecutor to bring that case to fruition. there's a lot that goes into this, a lot of resources. right now if you think of it as a metaphor, you can imagine all of these assistant u.s. attorneys who are handling these cases sort of juggling all of these and they have all these ongoing business. it's like "i love lucy." if you keep cases coming in, it will get overwhelmed. you need more manpower in order to get these cases through. as you told the numbers, they told the story. some of the crimes have a five-year statute of limitations so we have about 3 1/2 more years when doj can still bring charges forward. you look at those pure numbers and based on how many case thifs been bringing in recent months they're never going to make it.

hundreds of these cases are just sitting ready and waiting for the fbi to take action. we have hundreds of individuals who have yet to be arrested include manager of them who are very well-known within the greater community of january 6th actors. but there's just a lot that has to go into this and every time these cases go forward, they need to make sure they have the resources. so there's going to be more resources coming in over labor day, after labor day, says the u.s. attorney, so that will hopefully relieve the pressure, but you need a real emphasis on resources going forward. >> yeah. i mean, if you're looking at just numbers game here, it seems like a major uphill battle for the department of justice and the investigations ongoing and that need to begin. ryan reilly, thank you. for more on all things january 6th, tune in tonight. ari melber "inside trump's election plot" gets under way at

6:00 p.m. and 9:00 p.m. eastern right here on msnbc. don't miss that. still ahead, is house speaker nancy pelosi still planning a trip to taiwan? president xi saying, quets those will play with fire will perish." and entering the final weekend before pivotal primaries in arizona, missouri, and michigan. what to expect from one race that will set up a defining matchup for control of the senate. and why former president trump is facing backlash from families of 9/11 victims. the unknown is not empty. it's a storm that crashes, and consumes, replacing thought with worry. but one thing can calm uncertainty. an answer. uncovered through exploration, teamwork, and innovation. an answer that leads to even more answers.

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all right. welcome back. 9/11 family members and survivors today blasting a saudi arabia-backed golf tournament hosted at former president trump's national golf club in bedminster, new jersey, just 15 miles from ground zero. the families saying players are getting blood money from the government accused of supporting

the 9/11 attacks. the families also taking aim at the former president who defended hosting the tournament and claimed falsely yesterday that nobody has got on the bottom of 9/11. listen to this. >> to see a former president two days ago claim that he doesn't know about our outrage and doesn't know who was behind 9/11, that is the worst feeling that these family members can get when we're not even getting through to a former president. that is the worst form of greed and worst to form of evil. >> nbc's gabe gutierrez is going to pick up the story from bedminster for us. >> reporter: outrage boiling over around the liv golf tournament funded by saudi arabia and teeing off today at former president trump's new jersey club. 9/11 families slamming the saudi arabian government and the tournament. trump now defending it. >> nobody's got on the bottom of 9/11, unfortunately, and they

should have. >> reporter: 15 of the 19 hijackers on 9/11 were audi nationals and in a 2016 fox interview, trump blamed the attacks on saudi arabia. this woman lost her husband on 9/11. he was on the 104th floor of the north tower, furious at the former president's comments. when you heard that, what went through your head? >> well, he sounds like a fool. >> reporter: the former president playing in yesterday's pro-am with his son, eric, and seen next to golf legend and liv ceo greg norman and mohamed bin salman. u.s. intelligence says it was the prince who ordered the torture and killing of "washington post" journalist kamal khashoggi. there was a u.s. intelligence report and u.s. government documents showing links between the 9/11 hijackers and saudi associates. earlier this month, president

biden drew international criticism by traveling to saudi arabia and fist bumping the crown prince. attracted by much bigger cash purses a growing list of some of golf's biggest names have chosen to play in the liv series instead of the pga tour. >> this is an opportunity that gives me a chance to have the most balance in my life going forward. >> reporter: liv golf tells nbc news the 9/11 families have our deepest sympathy. while some may not agree, we believe golf is a force for good around the world. >> the kingdom is throwing billions of dollars into a pr stunt. >> thanks to gabe gutierrez for that. right now, democrats are working to keep their legislative momentum moving forward with a vote on an assault weapons ban planned in the house today. but when it comes to the senate's massive reconciliation bill, are they celebrating too soon?

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right now, house members set to vote soon on an assault weapons ban before leaving town for august recess. this surprise vote is coming a midst this new momentum from democrats in both chambers, really, with the senate announcing yet another surprise this week, chuck schumer and joe manchin striking a deal on big investments in health care and climate. senate democrats are racing to pass that bill before they leave in less than ten days. but that's still an if, by the way. they need the support of every democratic senator, but it is not clear that they have it yet. and by the way, they all need to stay healthy amidst it all. want to bring in john bresnahan, co-founder of punchbowl news to talk more about this. i say that because the healthy part is an incredibly important aspect when it comes to the senate. they have to vote in person. we've been seeing so many people fall prey to covid in the last

couple days, joe manchin being one of them. it could curtail anything getting a cross the finish line if more and more folks are testing positive. let's talk first, john, about how it is, right, this spending bill came to fruition when just two weeks or so ago we thought this thing was dead. >> yeah. chuck schumer announced he could not get a deal with joe manchin and he was going to proceed with the much narrower reconciliation bill, a technical term for spending and budget bill that would cover medicare prescription drug negotiations and would do two years of obamacare subsidies. big issues but not what democrats have been looking for. behind the scenes, manchin -- and he would walk by and say i'm still at the table, and we're like, okay, thanks, senator, we know. but he really was. behind the scenes he was talking

to -- he was still talking to schumer. have to give shum err bunch of credit here, and manchin will. i interviewed manchin for about 20 minutes the other day. you know, behind the scenes he and schumer went back at it a third time. they've been trying on this for at least ten months. so they went back at it a third time and were able to get together on a deal that raised some corporate taxes, puts some money with the irs, obamacare, medicare prescription drugs, and a bunch of energy and client revisions. it's a $740 billion bill, and it's a big deal. it's not where democrats were last year. they were $3.5 trillion. but this is a big deal that they were even able to get this. >> how much of this when it comes to manchin was about preserving his legacy, john? >> you know, manchin talks about -- look, he's clearly aware of everything's been written about him since december.

he's gotten crushed from progressives over this issue, over build back better, over the filibuster, voting rights, he even said to me i've been taking a hell of a beating for the last eight months. you know, he knows about it. but he also -- look, manchin is concerned about inflation. you have to give him credit for that because he's been talking about it. inflation is still, you know, 9%. it's a huge issue. he's concerned about energy prices. he's the chairman of the energy and natural resources committee. i think people -- you know, i think talking about manchin's legacy, he's the only democrat that could be a senator from west virginia. he's the only one who could hold that seat for democrats. so, you know, he thinks about his own standing back home all the time, but, you know, i do think he's, you know -- i don't think he's worried about the legacy. i think he feels like i need to get things done and he's been into that. i mean, that's his nature. i need to get things done. he doesn't like to do partisan

bills if he can avoid it. >> just quickly, john, because i have to go, but make it quick on kyrsten sinema. where is she on this? do we know? >> no, and she's not telling us. sinema, you know, quickly, she keeps her own counsel, she plays it very close to the vest. you can see her walking out of the senate yesterday. she wasn't talking to reporters. that's her staffer yelling at us. so, you know, look, sinema will do her due diligence, she'll be ready to go on this and tell us when she's ready. >> john bresnahan, thank you. i'll let you get to that beeping sound, whatever that was going on. >> that's the house. >> there you go. thank you. thank you for talking through it. we appreciate it. all right. comedian jon stewart firing back against senators who voted against a bill known as the pact act, a wildly supported bipartisan measure that would have expanded medical coverage

to the more than 3.5 million veterans who are exposed to topic burn pits during the wars in iraq and afghanistan. the bill suddenly failed in the senate on wednesday when 25 republican senators who backed it just a month ago reversed their support. this morning on "morning joe," he called the failure despicable. watch. >> and i'll say this. the most despicable part of this whole thing is watching on the senate floor ted cruz fist bumping and then patting each other on the back when they blocked this bill. john hawley and at the toomey celebrating their victory over veterans with cancer. >> all right. want to turn now to an msnbc exclusive. we have new interviews with top gop candidates in arizona's senate race just days before republican voters are set to cast their ballots on this

tuesday. most notably with trump-backed candidate blake master, leading in the polls, about building a strong challenge from jim layman, a solar power company executive. i want to bring in now nbc news's juan hilliard on the grown for us in phoenix and who has these exclusive interviews. talk us through this, vaughn. what stood out to you? >> reporter: we ran around town the last 48 hours tracking both candidates down here. one will lk a household name. there are other contenders but these two have been at the top of polls, millions of dollars spent in their kand da dis. notably both are acolytes of donald trump. as you are about to hear, both of them tell me they would have objected to the 2020 certification process if they had been in the u.s. congress at the time. of course, they would be taking on mark kelly, the incumbent democrat, this november. take a listen to parent of our

exchange. transforming the judiciary, helped -- >> i believe what hawley and cruz did was right. i think their constituents have a lot of concerns. i think fair-minded people look at all the irregularities. before certifying the election, you have to make sure it was all legit. i think they were asking for some time and that was what they objected to, and i think that was a fine thing to do. >> in arizona, we were extensve in that audit. the only state in the country. unfortunately, it's indetermined. >> would you have objectsed? >> absolutely because you have to go back and find out what went on. >> reporter: now, to be clear, joe biden legitimately won the election here in arizona by just over 10,000 votes, repeated audits have shown that he was the legitimate winner of arizona. nonetheless, for these republican u.s. senate candidates, the 2020 election is still such a central part of their campaigns. and blake masters was the candidate here that has been endorsed by donald trump.

he appeared alongside him at a rally a week ago. and we have seen him pulled away in numerous polls here. for blake masters, you know, this is an opportunity for him to take on mark kelly if he were, to in fact pull off this primary win. i asked jim layman last night about the endorsement by trump of blake masters and he told me that, you know, not everybody is perfect and that sometimes people get things wrong. he said donald trump made a, quote, bad pick in pav p.a. of course referring to mehmet oz who we have seen trailing to john fedderman by a significant margin. he hopes he'll pull off that win tuesday night and get that chance against mark kelly in november. >> vaughn hillyard, thank you. coming up, we are live in the capital city of kyiv in ukraine as dozens of p.o.w.s are killed with ukraine and russia pointing blame. first nbc news exclusive reporting on why we're now

seeing a drop in undocumented migrants crossing the southern border. that's coming up. for too lona has been squeezing americans for every penny, and inflation has only added to the pain. but congress has a historic opportunity to deliver relief, by passing a bill to let medicare negotiate lower drug prices and put money back in the pockets of seniors. 87% of americans support the plan, and applaud the senators who are standing up to big pharma. let's make history. vote yes to let medicare negotiate lower drug prices.

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so you can... astepro and go. all right. welcome back. new exclusive reporting from nbc news finding the number of migrants crossing the border is dropping driven in part by u.s. operations targeting smugglers in central america. arrests of undocumented migrants crossing the southern border have fall bin nearly 14% from an all-time high back in may. and the president officially declaring a major disaster in kentucky today where governor andy beshear announced the death toll from devastating flashflooding in that state climbing to 16 including six children. this video just coming in of water rescues being conducted by the kentucky national guard on thursday evening. governor beshear saying earlier the state made around 50 air rescues and hundreds of boat

rescues yesterday alone. emergency officials saying there are still people missing and forecasters now calling for more rain this weekend even as homes and businesses are still under water after flood washed away homes and roads in the eastern part of the state. this is what's left of an elementary school in perry county. elsewhere, residents were simply shocked by how fast it all happened. >> everybody knows everybody around here. everybody tries to help, but when it comes this fast, it's -- ain't nothing you can do. >> this is terrible. this is something i never thought i would dream of seeing. >> as many as 4 million people remain under flood alerts across kentucky as well as southern ohio, west virginia, and southwestern virginia as well. overseas, dozens of ukrainian p.o.w.s held in russian-controlled territory in eastern ukraine are feared dead today as the two countries trade blame for the missile strike on

the prison that held them, russia claiming ukraine used a u.s.-supplied rocket system to hit the facility, killing at least 40 soldiers, while ukraine vehemently denies responsibility instead accusing moscow of shelling the prison to cover up its own war crimes. nbc news has not been able to independently verify the claim from either side. want to bring in nbc's josh lederman from kyiv. what more do we know about this, josh? >> reporter: the russian military came out almost immediately after this strike and accused ukraine's government of launching a missile strike at this camp killing 40 of their own prisoners of war and wounding about 75 others. the russian argument for why ukraine's military would bomb its own prisoners of war is a little convoluted, but i'll try to walk you through it. russia's military says ukrainian soldiers know that when they defect and are captured by the russians that they're treated so

well that scores of ukrainian soldiers are now turning themselves over so that ukraine attacked its own prisoners of war to try to dissuade more of its troops from surrendering. we've heard all day from ukrainian officials saying that is absurd, that they launched no such strikes at this camp in a separatist-held area of the donbas, and, in fact, they say that this is a false flag operation by russia that constitutes terrorism and war crimes. they're also saying that they believe that this may have been conducted by a group called the back waggener group, a russian paramilitary force, an army for hire owned by an oligarch close to vladimir putin, and tonight president zelenskyy met with top national security officials in the ukrainian capital and issued a statement afterwards calming on not only the united nations but also the international red cross to investigate what he is calling war crimes as we see

countries around the world decrying what happened today at this prison camp, ramping up pressure on ukraine, on others to investigate and hold russia accountable for the war crimes that they're now being accused of, not only in this incident but in so many incidents we've seen before this across the country of ukraine. >> josh lederman for us, thank you, josh. good to talk to you. just hours ago house speaker nancy pelosi fielding a question about her trip to asia today as so many wonder if that trip will include a stop in taiwan. pelosi refusing to discuss travel specifics citing security conference but did, in fact, say this. >> the president earlier in his term talked about a strong emphasis on the asian pacific. we want the congress of the united states to be part of that initiative. i'm very excited should we go to the countries that you'll be hearing about along the way.

>> so, these new comments are coming in the wake of a call yesterday between president biden and chinese president xi where the two discussed tensions over taiwan. i want to bring in now ali on capitol hill. it's interesting, because i'm wondering what you make of this response we're hearing from the speaker, especially given our reporting that a stop in taiwan is actually listed as, quote, unquote, tentative on her itinerary. >> reporter: yeah, that response from pelosi raising more questions than answers. that's because sources are telling scott wong, a member of our capitol hill team, that pelosi will be going to several stops during this trip to asia, to malaysia, south korea, japan. as you saw in that clip there, and later on in that presser, she repeatedly dodged questions about whether she would go to taiwan, saying that it's a matter of security, that's why she's not going to give any information about that.

but the security concerns that she cited are exactly the reason that military officials are giving for why they don't want this trip to happen. they're saying this is just not the right time for this to happen right now, that they're scared this could possibly escalate tension between the u.s. and china because we know china considers taiwan its own, its doesn't recognize taiwan's independence. so we're seeing examples of this tension between the u.s. and china already. take a look at this tweet about chinese state media they they released a couple minutes after pelosi had that news conference. they're saying in this tweet that the chinese government, quote, has the right to forcibly dispel pelosi's plane and the u.s. fighter jets if they enter taiwan, adding, quote, if ineffective, then shoot them down. we know chinese president xi told president biden in a phone call yesterday essentially if you play with fire you'll get burned. >> wow. >> reporter: we've heard of one house democrat even saying a chinese embassy official called his office demanding that he pressure pelosi to call this

trip off. but believe it or not, this controversy is actually uniting republicans and democrats here on capitol hill. they're saying that pelosi sticking with this plan to go to taiwan really sends this message of unity, that the u.s. can't be bullied or intimidated. so if and when she does go, she would become the highest ranking u.s. official to step foot in taiwan since newt gingrich in 1997. >> when will we know, allie? will we not know unless she sets foot in there, or will we be told before she goes? >> reporter: it's likely if she does go that listen the case because that's what we've seen often with these house and senate delegations that have made surprise trips into ukraine in recent months. we're finding out from press releases or even statements from ukrainian president zelenskyy or tweets of pictures and such. so it is likely that in the coming days we would only find

out about this when it is actually happening. >> allie raffa for us. thank you. good to talk to you. >> when we come back, a salute to pete williams as he begins his retirement after nearly 30 years with nbc news. announce diabetes? discover the power of 3 in the ozempic® tri-zone. in my ozempic® tri-zone, i lowered my a1c, cv risk, and lost some weight. announcer: ozempic® provides powerful a1c reduction. in studies, the majority of people reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it. ozempic® lowers the risk of major cardiovascular events such as stroke, heart attack, or death in adults also with known heart disease. and you may lose weight. adults lost up to 14 pounds. ozempic® isn't for people with type 1 diabetes. don't share needles or pens, or reuse needles. don't take ozempic® if you or your family ever had medullary thyroid cancer, or have multiple endocrine neoplasia syndrome type 2, or if allergic to it. stop ozempic® and get medical help right away if you get a lump or swelling

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welcome back. we want to end today with a tribute to our own pete williams who is retiring after nearly 30 years of covering the supreme court and the department of justice for us here at nbc news. my colleague and the anchor of this hour hallie jackson has a look at pete and his remarkable career. >> pete williams might hate this report. it doesn't have any scoops. it's probably overwritten, so let's do the pete thing and let's get to it. everything he's done over three decades, five administrations and approximately 465 trillion live shots, that's hyperbole, pete hates that. >> pete williams. >> pete williams, nbc news, at the supreme court. >> he's covered the court and the department of justice for years, a super stressful beat, but if the guy sweats he wouldn't know it. watch how steady he is in 2000

on florida's voting machines that decided that year's presidential election live on air. >> if there is no room for a recount this election is over for vice president al gore. >> yes, sir, and i -- i see nothing in -- that in any way is incompatible with that, tom. >> it did take pete a couple of decades to get to the nightly news after starting off in the '70s in kasper, wyoming, doing local tv and radio. >> pete williams, ktv news. >> he joined dick cheney and when cheney became defense secretary under george h.w. bush pete headed to the pentagon, too, as the spokesperson there. >> okay. let's see. good afternoon, and i do have a few announcements for you. >> he shifted back to news joining nbc in 1993 and by 2012 he hit legend status with this moment getting the court's decision on the affordable care act right. the bottom line is the supreme court has upheld the health care case after other outlets had incorrectly reported the opposite.

the next year pete taught a master class in accuracy during the boston marathon bombers. >> several law enforcement sources have confirmed he is alive and in custody. >> even former president obama noticed how good pete was. >> and that's what great journalism is and that's what great journalists do, and that's why, for example, pete williams' new nickname around the nbc newsroom is big papi. >> it's not like pete needed a big finale, he broke one last huge story when justice stephen briar retired a few months ago. >> pete's had the kind of career that boils his competitor alive with envy, but the funny thing is they like him. everyone does, because even nor than what pete's done is who he is, kind and helpful and smart, intimidatingly smart, but he never makes a big thing about it. he's a gracious colleague and a gracious host, legitimately hilarious, by the way. totally deadpan.

to be roasted by pete is a badge of honor and sure, retirement means more time for his drum lessons and his trips to jackson hole, but there's a reason why our bosses always say wait for pete because, as the saying goes around here, in pete we trust. i get you do, too, and that pretty much says it all. >> my thanks to hallie jackson for that incredible report and congratulations to pete williams on a well-earned retirement. we love you and we will miss you. that does it for us. thanks for watching this hour of msnbc. "deadline: white house" starts after a very quick break. after a very quick break s, and consumes, replacing thought with worry. but one thing can calm uncertainty. an answer. uncovered through exploration, teamwork, and innovation. an answer that leads to even more answers. mayo clinic. you know where to go.

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start for free at godaddy.com/startfree ♪♪ ♪♪ hi there, everyone. it's 4:00 in the east and the mystery surrounding the deadly capitol insurrection appear to be growing as the twin investigations into january 6th expand their reach deep into trump world and brand-new reporting raises questions of a potential, possible cover-up by a whole host of trump officials and allies tied in one way or another to the deadly insurrection. "the washington post" today is reporting on yet more missing text messages, this time from the department of homeland security's two most senior officials that would be acting secretary chad wolf and acting deputy secretary ken cuccinelli. "the washington post" says messages from both officials from a, quote, key period leading up to the january 6th attack are gone and that while thens