♪♪ good day. this is "andrea mitchell reports" in washington where there are reports about new pressure on attorney general merrick garland from inside the justice department to explain the fbi's search of former president trump's florida home. that pressure a response to the push by some republican lawmakers and far right extremist forums to misrepresent that search, a search mr. trump used as part of his justification for invoking his fifth amendment rights and

declining to answer more than 440 questions during a civil deposition in new york on wednesday. i will be joined by former national security advisor and u.n. ambassador john bolton to talk about the iranian plots to kill him and four other top trump national security officials and to get his reaction to the new legal troubles surrounding his former boss. and i will speak to chef and global humanitarian jose andres from ukraine to update the work by his non-profit to keep communities fed after more than five months of war. he met with president zelenskyy today. let's talk about the internal deliberations within the justice department. barbara, we understand that there are concerns inside the fbi and others that the fbi

chief chris wray was so careful about the justice department guidance that he did not push back when he was in nebraska yesterday against the false claims by the president and others the fbi could have planted information there. >> yeah. that is a baseless piece of disinformation. if this information is allowed to go unchallenged and exists in a vacuum, you can see why there's a strong desire by people of the justice department saying, no, look at this, we did everything right, we did everything by the book, we gave him every courtesy, even courtesies we don't give to other people. they are doing things by the book. to disclose the contents of that search warrant now could reveal facts that are sensitive and not known to the public. they want to keep quiet for now. it could disclose the identity of informants and descripters

about who tipped off the fbi in a way that would not be helpful. although, i understand the desire, i have experienced it many times myself, people are accusing you of all kinds of baseless things and you have the ability to deny it but you can't because you care more about the long game, about what is to happen in the end. that being said, i think there's room for something for merrick garland to say, we deny the allegations, the time will come to unseal this. here is how we do our work and why we don't talk about it. in general terms, without talking about this case. i think there might be room for that. i would love to see him do that. >> ashley, the president -- the former president, i should say, continuing to focus on monday's search in his social media account posting yesterday that an army of agents, not true, entered his home in a surprise attack. how does the justice department and the fbi deal with this if

they stick to the post-comey rule of being rigorous -- i should say post-bill barr rule about no leaks, no spin, no -- >> that's the challenge. there's the work the doj and the fbi and going back, mueller. then there's the pr wars, which, of course, again, if you are the doj or fbi in a post-comey, post-barr world and you came into office striving for that independence, you may not want to be a player, understandably so, in these pr wars. but that is what trump is so good at is seizing and winning the narrative, even if that narrative, as we have discussed a bit, is totally false.

there's nowhere he prefers to -- he likes to be a winner, but he is very comfortable as a victim, describing things as a witch hunt, he and his supporters are persecuted. that's what we see him do now. when you have an agency that for understandable reasons is unwilling or unable to respond, that gives the former president the upper hand purely from a pr standpoint, which is notable to begin with. you would never think that you could gain potentially the upper hand when your private residence is searched by the fbi. the fbi doesn't do that lightly. >> indeed. ken dilanian joining us now. a lot of crosscurrents here. we have been talking about chris wray not pushing back on the false allegation that the fbi could have planted evidence when they did that search. not a raid be an army as the

former president said. you have been tracking a possible incident in ohio with a man at an fbi field office. tell us what you know. >> reporter: that's right. two law enforcement sources briefed on the matter tell nbc news a man entered an fbi field office today in cincinnati and fired a nail gun at personnel. he held up an ar-15 style rifle before fleeing in a vehicle. a pursuit occurred on highway i71. the suspect got out of the car and there's a standoff. as you mentioned, this comes amid heightened threats to the fbi after the search of the former president's florida compound. no motive has been established. the identity of the suspect is not yet known. these kinds of attacks, sadly, on fbi offices around the country, are not uncommon. it will be important here to uncover the nature of this attack and the motive. >> chris wray who was silent on

the criticisms of the warranted raid by the president -- former president and his supporters, but we don't know if that's connected, fair enough. but chris wray did say the violence and threats against the fbi, you know, were completely unwarranted. >> reporter: that's right. i spoke with brian murphy yesterday. he is tracking what he called a huge uptick in online, very specific, credible violent threats against fbi personnel and fbi buildings. he had never seen anything like it in his career as an intelligence agent. these were not vague calls for violence. he said they were very specific, the kind they turned over to law enforcement immediately. they were very alarming to him. he said it spiked in the wake of this search at mar-a-lago. >> tell me about a nail gun.

was there anyone injured? define a nail gun. is it what it sounds like? >> reporter: it's a construction tool that is meant -- >> okay. sure. >> reporter: it's meant to forcefully pound nails into a wall or whatever but can fire them as projectiles and do a lot of damage. we don't know. we have not heard reports there were injuries. >> we had some live pictures up there of cincinnati. that may have been -- we saw people with bulletproof vets. i'm going to clarify what that was. more broadly, ken, what more do we know about some reports -- "the wall street journal" in one context and "newsweek" reporting there was an inside or in one case, an fbi informant after the visit in june -- let's put the predicate here. in june, justice department

officials, including a top official in charge of national security, visited mar-a-lago. the president was there for part of that, was there briefly, but met with people at mar-a-lago. it was possibly with a subpoena. whether or not the subpoena was served. to talk about what the archives was reporting were boxes, other materials, classified materials that had been found in the boxes that had been turned over, whether there was more material, and apparently was told there was not. and then after these cordial discussions, things went off the rails in the succeeding weeks. it was in june and only after that that it escalated where they would do a warranted search. the suggestion is that there was an insider or informant, someone from inside the trump world, perhaps, who told them there was more classified material there at mar-a-lago that still had not

been turned over. >> reporter: that's right. you have that right. the first thing to say is nbc news has not confirmed this reporting. nor have many other news organizations, frankly. but this all appears to go to the question of, how did they get from cardial discussions at mar-a-lago to fbi agents armed with a search warrant swarming the place, seizing documents? what this reporting in three places suggests is, a, the justice department and fbi that came to mar-a-lago in may and june may have had a grand jury subpoena which would explain why then if they thought the trump folks were flouting a grand jury subpoena, the next step would be to execute a search warrant, then as you mentioned, reporting that there was a person familiar with the documents who told the fbi that there were, in fact, more classified documents in these boxes than the trump people were letting on, essentially. in one case, "the wall street journal" described it as a

person familiar with the documents. in another case, they said it was a confidential human source. we have not confirmed either account. it wouldn't be unusual for the fbi to have guidance, something to prompt them to get that probable cause. they had to show evidence to a judge that a crime had been committed. potentially the crime of mishandling the classified information. they would need information to demonstrate that. it wouldn't be implausible that information would come from a source of some kind. >> the irony is that it was president trump's administration that in 2018 upgraded that from a misdemeanor to a felony in reaction to what they said hillary clinton had done back in 2015 and 2016. sam stein, let's talk about the pressure on merrick garland to say something in this post-comey world. he is not the post-bill barr

world. the counterargument is you have misinformation out there. it's leading to violent threats online. isn't there something you can say about what the justice department does and does not do more than they have been already? where do you come down? >> he could say something. as you alluded to, there's one sort of characteristic of merrick garland we know so far, it's this rigorous, by the book mentality. to that end, the protocol for the department is to not comment onion going investigations. there's a lot of lingering star tissue over what happened in 2016 with james comey making that highly public press conference around hillary clinton's email investigation and putting out a letter around the discovery of the anthony wiener laptop. there's been a corrective at the justice department to ensure that something like that simply doesn't happen again. the only way to properly ensure

it is to say nothing during the course of an investigation. of course, we live in really complicated times. there's an incredible amount of disinformation. there's threats online. it could rise to the level that doj says, we need to try to let the steam out a little bit. so far, we have gotten no indication that they're going to reverse course. >> ashley, i want to mention your reporting in "the washington post" about the dinner which has happened before and has happened with other presidents, a dinner with historians with the president, may 4th, i believe -- excuse me, august 4th. giving the president some broader context, their view of the threats to our democracy right now with the denial -- the election of denial -- election denial candidates with the threats, with january 6th. tell me about that. >> we did a story looking at some of these private previously

unreported meetings with president biden brought in historians, experts, in one case former president bill clinton. the most recent one was the one on august 4th. it was a group of historians, about five of them. it includes frequent msnbc guests among others. the commonality of these historians are their work and their current roles all grapple with autocracy versus democracy, the rising threat of totalitarian regimes. they were there to help president biden think through this existential crisis that his presidency and the nation is facing. >> ashley, it's fascinating. you can understand, the president and past presidents, except president trump, as far as we know, gathering these historians and talking to them

about trends. they can't discuss it publically. great reporting that you have that today. ken, i know you have to get back on the phone with your sources. if you have any updates from ohio or anything else, you know where we are. thank you for hustling over. barbara, of course, and sam. we are monitoring that breaking news from cincinnati. the fbi says a man entered a field office firing a nail gun at personnel. he held up an ar-15 rifle before driving away. there's a standoff with this person. we will bring you more details as they become available. the assassination plot. former trump national security advisor and u.n. ambassador john bolton joining me on the iranian plot to take his life. you are watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. new astepro allergy. no allergy spray is faster.

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has charged an iranian man with plotting to kill john bolton in the u.s. last year. a member of the iranian revolutionary guard believed to be in tehran is accused of offering $300,000 to a u.s. individual to kill ambassador bolton in retaliation for the trump administration's assassination of iranian military leader soleimani. he was not aware the person he was dealing with was an fbi informant. john bolton was out of the government at the time of the soleimani assassination by the u.s. in addition to bolton, the iranians have plotted to kill four other former top trump officials who dealt with iran. secretary of state mike pompeo, secretary of defense mark esper, former u.s. iran negotiator brian hook and bolton's successor robert o'brien, a person familiar telling nbc news. john bolton joins me now.

ambassador bolton, former national security advisor, we're glad you are here. >> so am i. >> safely here. let's talk about this plot. when were you first aware? >> i was told by the fbi in the spring roughly 2020, through the fbi's duty to warn procedure, which is for americans threatened by foreign governments or foreign sources. i received a series of these duty to warn notices going through 2020 into 2021, until close to thanksgiving in 2021 at a meeting at the fbi headquarters, a large meeting, i might say, where they told me how serious it was. that's when i suggested that perhaps since it stemmed from my days in the government, they might want to consider getting the secret service involved. i'm certainly aware of the general outlines for a long time. i had not seen the charging document that was unsealed tuesday and many of the details

in it were new to me. >> when you left as national security advisor, up until that time, in the fall of 2020, as i remember -- >> 2019. >> 2019, excuse me. you had security. you had secret service protection as the national security advisor and for all of the things you were dealing with. normally, when you leave the government, at that level, you retain security for some time afterwards. what happened in your case? >> the day i resigned, president trump cut off my secret service. >> is that normal? >> it's not normal. it's normal for donald trump but not for the institution. >> you didn't have security all that time, those months, when you knew there were threats, you had the fbi telling you? >> they were telling me in general terms. the duty to warn process is sometimes general.

i didn't consider doing anything, because i didn't hear them telling me anything that wasn't sort of goes with the territory material, up until the end, when i did suggest maybe they ought to call the secret service, which they did. the question was put to president biden. he authorized it for which i'm grateful. >> this complaint, as i read it, had an iranian member of the national guard, believed to be a member of the okuds force, the top level of their military organization, working online, finding someone and then offering a third person who ended up being an fbi informant, $300,000 to kill you and to do it at home or in the office, in a parking garage. at one point, according to the charging document, you helped the fbi by letting them photograph you, letting this supposed assassin, you know, or

his accomplice photograph you so that he would have the proof that he was on the job to keep the plot going so they could end up putting this charge -- >> i wasn't looking for a starring role. but i thought i could help out and was happy to do it. >> tell me, how did that go down? >> i think as you say, this was something that enabled the person to be strung along further. there was never any certainty this was the only threat. so there was a lot to learn. that's why i think actually the filing of this launching this criminal proceeding in my case and the unsealing of it is very important. it helps give the american public a greater sense of just exactly what this regime in tehran is capable of doing. the other people who may be threatened -- i won't get into specifics who they are, but you are getting close up on the

screen there. i'm sure they are accumulating evidence in the same way. this is the nature of the regime in iran. it's not just on threatening terrorist acts, killing americans on american soil. it is their general pattern of deception and dishonesty that characterizes essentially everything they do. >> the foreign ministry, of course, last night said that this was baseless accusations. your response to that? >> look, what happened on tuesday was the launching of a criminal proceeding in the united states through a criminal complaint. the presentation of this to a federal court, obtaining a search warrant, which i assume goes on to interpole. for the arrest. it's the beginning of a process that in the minds of people at the justice department could lead to a criminal prosecution under which the department would have to prove beyond a reasonable doubt every element of the charges they bring.

this is very serious for the u.s. government to do this. what they have got so far is enough to convince them that they could prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. >> there was a report in the charging document that the same person offered $1 million for another high-ranking official who those familiar tell me is mike pompeo. >> right. i don't know that myself. i did read with interest that the confidential human source asked if there was anybody else they wanted to go after. he said, yes, apparently naming mike pompeo. but he is surrounded by security. worry about him later. >> worry about him later. the fact is that iran and the u.s. are in the closing days, we are told, possibly of reviving the nuclear deal that was canceled under your watch and president trump's watch. at this time we're told tehran is making that critical decision. negotiators, u.s., iranian have

agreed on the final draft. it's up to the political leadership in iran. this could blow that up. >> i think going back into this deal is delusional. the original deal was bad. iran should never have been permitted to enrich you are rain uranium at all. the deal has notgotten better. the united states has been on its knees, making one concession after another. it endangers american security to go into this deal. the white house says, over here is the good negotiations on the iran nuclear deal. over here is the bad terrorism sort of thing. the minds of the leadership in iran are not compartmentalized. these are instruments of iranian power. their commitments are not worth the paper they are printed on. our friends and allies, israel, saudi arabia, bahrain, united

arab emirates and others, know what the iranian threat is and terrorism and nuclear, two sides of the same coin. >> there are others -- i interviews david petraeus who said as bad as the other threats were, we were safer with the nuclear deal than not. wasn't to ask you about something else. i was told one of the last issues, which we know, was whether to lift the terror designation imposed by the trump administration, on the revolutionary guard, the group that was out to get you, according to the charging documents, and that there was a counteroffer from the u.s. side to lift that designation if they would cancel all of these death plots against former u.s. officials. >> right. that's the same mentality that says we're better off having the deal. the fact is the deal itself is so inherently flawed, puts iran so close to a nuclear

capability, that it gave them all they wanted, even if they complied, which they did not. they said, we're not going to go after nuclear weapons. that commitment is worth just about as much as a commitment that says, we will stop trying to commit murder against american citizens on american soil. this regime in tehran will say anything to achieve its objectives. whether it's on the nuclear side or terror side. they are not dishonest about terrorism but honest about the nuclear issue. anybody who thinks we're going to advance american interest by agreeing with that regime i think is actually putting those interests at great risk. >> we will have to leave it there. you consider yourself safe now? >> look. in the hands of the secret service. if i'm not, i don't know what else i'm supposed to do. >> how has it affected your life? >> you learn to live with it. one thing i can say for certain, they're not going to silence me because of it. i hope people really have a

chance to understand the nature of this threat more fully. we will tell them the nature of the regime we're dealing with. >> thanks for being with us. summer strategy. can falling gas prices fuel wins for joe biden and the democrats as they press ahead? that's next. you are watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. you are watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc r tho, it may be because they have a high-risk factor - such as heart disease, diabetes, being overweight, asthma, or smoking. even if symptoms feel mild, these factors can increase your risk of covid-19 turning severe. so, if you're at high risk and test positive - don't wait - ask your healthcare provider right away if an authorized oral treatment is right for you. it's the all-new subway series menu. twelve irresistible new subs. the most epic sandwich roster ever created. ♪♪

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the national average for a gal of regular is now below $4. gas prices dropping two cents overnight to $3.99. gas prices are still up by more than 80 cents over last year. they are down from their peak in june of more than $5. tomorrow, members of the house are going to return from their august recess to vote on president biden's historic climate, health and tax package. potential final victory for democrats ahead of midterms. joining now is kate bedingfield. thanks for being with us. arguably, this has been a very good week. you have had a great week legislatively. gas prices are inching down. core inflation is still a problem. do you think this could add up to a better outlook for the democrats in the midterms? >> i think you are right, it's been a very good week for president biden and the democrats. it's been a good week for american families. we are on cusp of passing the inflation reduction act and

having it come to the president's desk. it's going to lower energy costs, health care costs, ensure medicare can negotiate for the lowest prescription drug prices, which is something people have wanted and we've been trying to get done for decades. as a result of president biden's leadership and work with the congressional democrats, we're on the cusp of getting that done. that in addition to what we're seeing economically, a month where we had 0% inflation this month. 500,000 jobs, that we see jobs, costs coming down. president biden's economic agenda is working. you are going to hear the president and theed a administration talking about that. >> you didn't get as much coverage as you might have liked. the president in the previous week was isolated with covid. you had a couple of bad breaks. he still has historically low

polls. that is dragging down democrats in a lot of the races. how do you counteract that? >> even as the president was isolated with covid, he was out and people were seeing him. we learned through a very non-traditional campaign in 2020 that even when you have to be in isolation, there's ways to reach people. the president was out during that time continuing to rack up wins. what we're going to do is continue to have the president out, making the case. a lot of these things that we're seeing congress pass in these last couple of weeks are things the president campaigned on. things he has been talking about. he has been making a case to the american people since 2019 and in some cases earlier that we need to do this. now we're on the cusp of these historic steps forward to tackle the climate crisis and to bring down costs, to address the things that people are worried about around their kitchen table. we will continue to be out

there. you will hear from the president. you mentioned trump. the other thing i would say, of course, the department of justice is entirely independent from the white house, as it should be. i would also note that president biden never shied away from the threat he believes that donald trump, january 6th and that extremist republican agenda poses to the country. you will continue to hear from him on that. as you have from the outset. >> in fact, i think there's an anniversary of that horrific march in charlottesville, which was -- he said the reason why he decided to run. >> that's right. >> saving the soul of the nation. according to "the washington post," he had an off the record dinner with historians, which presidents do, other than mr. trump, and that they warned him more seriously than they had before that they felt as a group, several of them felt that the future of the country is at stake right now.

how does the president feel about that? >> as you said, andrea, it was that awful march in august that spurred him. he tried to engage historians throughout this presidency. he has done a couple of these meetings. he wants to hear perspective on where our country has been in the past in moments of great inflection like this. there's no question that our rights are at risk, what we see as an extremist agenda from congressional republicans who are looking to take away rights across the country and what the president is doing is putting forward an agenda focused on protecting those rights, on protecting the right to women's health care, protecting our democracy. simultaneously, bringing down costs. focusing on the kitchen table issues.

this is something the president is extremely focused on. we're on the cusp of a historic victory, which comes on top of continuing good news on gas prices coming down faster than they have at any point in a decade. i believe over a dollar a gallon over the last few weeks. we see president biden make good progress on the economic agenda but to continue to advance an agenda that will protect your rights and our democracy. >> i have just seen now an fbi statement about this incident in ohio. i don't know if you are aware of what's been happening in ohio. according to the fbi, at about 9:15 this morning, eastern time, an armed subject, attempted to breach the visitor screening facility at the cincinnati field office of the fbi. upon the activation of an alarm and response by armed fbi special agents, the subject fled northbound on interstate 71. this is now a standoff with the

fbi, ohio state highway patrol, local law enforcement. we don't know whether this is linked with what's been going on and the online threats. i don't know if you know anything about this incident involving the fbi today. >> nothing more that i can share here. it's an unfolding situation. we will continue to mon it. >> obviously, they have to be concerned. do you think at some stage the attorney general has to ignore what is the standard guidance and say something about all these outrageous conspiracy theory comesing from the former president and many of his supporters about the search of his home? >> look, as you know well, obviously, president biden ran during the campaign, talked about the need to restore the independence of the justice department. the justice department should not be the president's personal lawyer. the justice department is independent. it makes its own decisions without interference from the white house. you have to direct those questions to the department of justice.

>> of course, we will. thank you, kate bedingfield for fielding those things on the fly. thanks for coming with a good week for the white house and the president. thank you sglchlt it's my pleasure. thank you for having me. >> you bet. deal or no deal? iran's supreme leader having the final word on whether to accept a renegotiated iran nuclear deal. what's at stake? what it means for the world coming up with former energy secretary ernest muniz, part of the team originally negotiating that deal. this is "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. ports" on msn. for copd, ask your doctor about breztri. breztri gives you better breathing, symptom improvement, and helps prevent flare-ups. breztri won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. it is not for asthma. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition... ...or high blood pressure before taking it.

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the u.s. and iran have been indirectly negotiating through eu intermediaries a possible return to the iran nuclear deal. for 17 months now. it was abandoned by trump. the european union has presented the final proposal accepted by

negotiators on all side but has to be accepted by the ayatollah and the rest of the iranian regime. joining us mr. muniz, who was one of the key negotiators of the original deal. it's great to see you. we're on the cusp of maybe something happening finally? maybe not. let's start talking about the status of the deal. a great deal of starts and stops. we had john bolton, who a vigorous opponent from the get go and is now under threat of assassination as a result of that. saying that it's -- you can never trust the iranians and that it was a bad deal from the start. do you think as reconstituted, this is a good enough deal and that it is worth it if iran does accept it? >> well, andrea, i have not seen the actual text that the eu tabled. what i understand is that we are

probably closer to a possible resumption of the agreement than we thought was the case. that's, again, as you said, no guarantee we will get across the finish line. let me say clearly -- john bolton and i have different views on this. i think the agreement was very much in our interest when president trump withdrew from it, it very much complicated the situation with nothing for the united states to gain as we have seen. is going back into the agreement in our interest? i would say it is. iran has been built up this nuclear enterprise since president trump withdrew. they would have to roll all of that back in the agreement. most importantly, they would have to restrict their stockpile of enriched uranium dramatically to 300 kilograms as we had in

the agreement. they are now up to 60 tons or something. i think it's worthwhile. we have to keep in mind that the original intent in 2015 was always that the jcpoa, the iran nuclear deal, was a stepping stone to then build up over years much more pressure and ideally success in addressing our other problems of regional interference in missiles and human rights records. that was all thrown out the window in 2018 with president trump's action. today, as i understand it, the real big hangup now is whether iran will agree to work with the iaea, international nuclear inspectors, to allow resolution of the uranium particles found in iran in places where they did

not declare it. that's an issue for them and the iaea. we have always treated the iaea as an independent industry. they must set the terms of resolution with iran. iran insisted upon reinventing history. our interests in 2015 and i think our interests today is not re-visiting that past. we know what they did in the past. the issue is making sure that all nuclear materials are in safeguarded condition under the eye of the international inspectors. >> on a different subject, you have to be familiar with zaporizhzhia, the largest nuclear power plant in all of europe. it was shelled again today. both ukraine and russia blaming each other. the state department calling again on russia not to have forces there in this nuclear power plant. what are your concerns?

they don't know what's happening inside. >> this is a very, very dangerous situation. i think there's no doubt that russia is to blame for having converted the zaporizhzhia plant. the largest nuclear plant in europe, essentially into a military base. essentially, the nuclear plant is a hostage they are using to protect themselves from response by the ukrainian military. we have long ago -- when the ukraine incursion by russia started back in february, very early on we emphasized that this was a new situation of having a country with a very large nuclear infrastructure in a war zone. unfortunately -- we proposed many things that had to be done

through international agreement and norms to resolve the situation. unfortunately, russia has chosen to make it worse. one thing which is not pointed out in my view -- at least i haven't heard pointed out, is that russia has and still aspires to be one of the major nuclear suppliers to a growing nuclear power industry globally, especially as nuclear power expands to address climate change issues. if russia ends up, frankly, being the cause of a significant nuclear accident, that aspiration, you may as well toss out the window, because it will have an enormous chilling affect on the role that nuclear power can play in addressing climate. >> so many issues are really all coming together right there in ukraine at that enormous nuclear

power plant. we don't flow how good their containment is. it's pretty horrifying. >> i might say, we know there are -- there's lots of spent fuel above ground in so-called dry if that was hit with a significant explosive, it would be a major issue, not only locally, but throughout europe and probably in parts of russia as well. >> ernest moniz, it's very good to see you. thank you for all your expertise. former energy sector. >> thank you. and the war zone chef. how do you feed hundreds of thousands of people in the middle of a war zone? chef jose andres joins us next from ukraine. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. rts" on msnbc.

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video today on twitter at a food warehouse in kyiv. >> we are a very simple machine, but sophisticated. with all of the people. >> say hi. for all the ukrainians. >> it's extraordinary. today, chef andres met with ukraine's president zelenskyy about what the world central kitchen is doing to help ukrainians, what more they can do. joining us now from kyiv is chef jose andres, it's founder of the world central kitchen and owner of think food group. thank you very much. it's great to see you again. you are expanding in the middle of the war. the war is grinding on, it's getting worse and worse. obviously, people in the east are especially at risk now. how are you managing to get these meals distributed? >> well, we need to understand that the war is happening in the east and in the south.

in ukraine, this ukraine, is functioning as you would say normal and we're here now in kyiv where you can see families walking and people in the cafe, in the restaurant. but the realities that we have for 12 or 15 million people that they've been displaced in south ukraine or refugees welcomed in many countries around europe and iran. and so the situation, we need to understand that in many parts of the ukraine, we have the structures that are totally destroyed. you have bridges that don't allow the normal flow of traffic to replenish the supermarkets. people that are out of jobs. so, what we are doing here, not only at world central kitchen, but many stations is covering the holes, covering the vacuum

that the war that keeps killing women, children, other people, in civilian neighborhoods. two weeks ago, we got two members sardoor and marina, two members, volunteers, who were in the kitchen, that they were killed as they were sleeping. and the community center of these little towns south of kyiv. we see this happening. that's why we need to stop the car, and people suffering these days to make sure food and water is not something they'll be missing. >> it's just appalling. tell me about your meeting with president zelenskyy today. what did he share with you? what did you explain to him about the situation? >> well, we tried to get times, he was busy, i was around

ukraine. you need to understand that we have over 5,000 ukrainians working with world central kitchen. these are people whose names are yulia and katia, and so many others, we are in more than 1,000 cities. really, what i wanted the president to do is meet yulia who is head of the operation in ukraine and meet tatia, one of the leaders of this operation. to see photos and see what exactly was in the world central kitchen, the ukrainians that they've been doing for the last 165 days. i was very proud here. and he thanked all of them. he's very aware that this world aside from democracy and liberty has to be won, too, if everybody supports the humanitarian effort. i think the biggest thing that europe has to do, united states,

canada, is coming together as one. and make sure on the humanitarian front we are next to the ukrainian people. one thing is clear, winter is coming. there's many places in the eastern part of ukraine that they have no water. no electricity. and we are going to have to be having a very, very rough winter. so, we are doing everything we can to get ready for september, october, one, the temperatures will start going down, and now it will start showing up where the people will need the help of europe, the help of america, the help of the world more than ever. >> bless you, jose andres, you have not forgotten the people of ukraine. thank you for joining us today and thank you for letting us know how important this is it. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." thanks for being with us. following online and

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♪♪ hello, everyone, i'm chris jansing live at msnbc headquarters in new york city. we are tracking breaking news out of ohio. that's where, just a short time ago, police got into a shoot-out with a man who broke into an fbi field office in cincinnati and fired a nail gun at law enforcement inside. i want