good to be with you. i'm katy tur. everyone wants to be the exception and not the rule. as you've no doubt heard over and over, the rule is that the party that holds the white house usually loses seats in the mid terms. now keep in mind averages are tricky, but if we're talking numbers, history tells us on average that means 26 seats in the house and four seats in the senate. right now congress looks like this: in the house democrats have a margin of nine seats. in the senate it's 50/50 but controlled by dems with vice president kamala harris' tie breaking vote.

that historically thinking would mean democrats is should lose the house in november. there have been only three exception since the 1930s. 1934 after fdr passed the new deal, 1998 after republicans overdid the lewinsky scandal and 2002 in the aftermath of 9/11, which makes this moment so, so, so interesting because we could be in for another exception to that rule, at least partially. while holding the house is still going to be tough for the democrats, the senate suddenly looks a lot better and it is not just democratic spin. here was republican senate minority leader mitch mcconnell yesterday. >> i think there's probably a greater likelihood the house flips than the senate. senate races are just different. they're statewide. candidate quality has a lot to do with the outcome.

>> quote, candidate quality has a lot to do with the outcome. he did not mention names but our friend at punch bowl news say it is an implied dig at former president donald trump who played a key role in endorsing candidates in arizona, pennsylvania and georgia. in arizona, polling shows trump-backed blake masters consistently eight to ten points behind senator mark kelly. in pennsylvania, trump-backed mehmet is behind his opponent, john federman. and walker who, released an add about putting a gun to his wife's ahead is in a toss-up. and there's concern in washington and potentially marco rubio in florida. there are a number of big policy issues at play as well, including the reaction to abortion and the passage of the

inflation reduction act, which democrats hope will energize not just their base but independents, not to mention the wild cards of inflation and the investigation into donald trump. while there are 81 long days left before the election, let us take a moment on a summer friday to put our fingers up in the air to see which way the wind is blowing. to help do that and help explain what split control of congress would look like, we have senior national political reporter sahid kapur, washington bureau chief susan page, larry sabato and co-founder of punch bowl news, john bresnahan. sahil, the democrats feel better than a couple months ago when things were not looking good. >> mitch mcconnell is a realist and numbers guy. frankly, the numbers for a lot of his candidates don't look particularly good right now. we're seeing him talk about

candidate quality. it's not a phrase he would use accidentally or lightly, starting with a quartet of trump-endorsed candidates in crucial states that could decide the senate. mehmet oz is unpopular in pennsylvania, got bloodied up in a republican primary and has struggled to recover. in ohio, j.d. vance, this is a state republicans should be walking away with, it's increasingly a conservative state and vance is polling neck and neck with tim ryan, the democratic challenger. and blake masters trailing by 8 point. arizona voters were more concerned about blake masters' connection to donald trump than they were the democratic incumbent mark kelly's connection to joe biden. again, remarkable to see an election that could potentially be more about the former president than the current

president. and wisconsin ron johnson, the two-term republican incumbent is deeply unpopular in his state. his favorable numbers are upside down and wisconsin voters according to a fox news poll out yesterday see him as more extreme than his democratic challenger. you see on the screen there, mandela barnes who republicans thought would be easy prey to beat. put all this together and mcconnell is probably having negative flashbacks of 2010 and 2012 when they nominated extreme candidates and threw away their shot at gaining a senate majority in both those years. the caveat in all of this, it is august. the trend line between now and november of an election year typically moves against the party in power. republicans need only one net gain in the senate. mcconnell staring down that republicans could blow it again, katy. >> you've been studying this. talk to me about what is at play

here. >> well, first, and i think sahil summarized it very well but if the election were held today, we'll play that game for a moment, democrats would almost certainly hold the senate and probably add a seat or two. that's burning mitch mcconnell. because if the candidates he wanted to be selected in certain states like georgia and arizona and several others had been picked, i suspect we'd be talking about how large the republican majority would be, though it wouldn't have been very large, maybe a seat or two. so the long and short is that this is not all that rare when it's the senate since world war ii there have been 19 mid-term elections. 17 of the 19 have seen the out-of-power party gain house seats but only 13 of the 19 have seen the out-of-power party in the white house gain senate seats. so it is very possible that democrats could at least hold

their tie, acknowledging that lots of things can happen between now and november. >> what about this south florida poll that shows val demings ahead of marco rubio. this is africans as, after the overturning of roe v. wade. is that an outliner or an indication of the blowback from that decision, larry? >> i think the dobbs decision has had an enormous impact. and there's actually a negative synergy there with the dominance of donald trump. almost every day, almost every night you hear more about donald trump than you hear about the incumbent president of the united states. believe it or not, that's helping democrats. they ought to hope donald trump remains in the headlines because it will motivate democratic voters and then the overturning of roe, this is something that actually has finally energized democrats and even young democrats, younger voters and i

suspect it will last all the way to november because people are so angry. >> there's data collected by target smart on the reaction to roe and how it's translated into registering to vote and there's a surge of women registering to vote and those favor democrats in states where abortion is not legal. in pennsylvania women have accounted for more than 56% of new registrants in that time period. in wisconsin women have outregistered men by 15.6%. historically speaking and i know i said this earlier as well, but abortion has been a single-voter issue for those on the right or a single issue for voters for those on the right. i guess i wonder is this -- we've said this before as well -- is this the dog catching

the car for the republicans? is this going to be something that was great to campaign on but ultimately terrible to have to govern on? >> we're going to find out. it certainly looks that way. one reason i think democrats had trouble making supporters of abortion rights make it their single issue was because roe v. wade provided a safety net there that voters thought they'd had voters to rely on and that's gone now. suddenly it is the number one issue for democrats in any number of states. there's a big gender gap on it. women are more alarmed about the repeal of roe v. wade and they are more likely to be energized to go and vote. we saw that in kansas and elsewhere. it's one of three big things that have happened that have turned things around i think for democrats in the mid terms. one is gas prices going down. the second is congress doing

some big things, including passing the climate change bill. the third is the supreme court overturning roe v. wade. those three have really helped democrats get off the ground from where we were looking at a wave election. we're not looking at that anymore for republicans. >> do we know how donald trump and the investigations into him are playing out yet? there had been a feeling among republicans that there was donald trump fatigue, there was that poll from "the new york times" that said that half of republicans wanted somebody else to run. does donald trump being back in the news, back in the headlines every day, the talk about him running again as we lead up to the mid terms, does that help republicans or does that help democrats? >> well, it energizes his core supporters to get out and vote, even though he's not on the ballot, but it does even more to energize and unite democrats. i think trump is a bigger force for a democratic turnout than joe biden is. >> all right, let's talk about capitol hill. let talk about congress. what would it mean if the democrats retained control of

the senate but lose control of the house? >> you know, it's a fascinating dynamic and we explored it today in our a.m. issue. i do think -- i do think the majority that would come in in the house would be a very strident, hard core, pro-trump majority and i do think biden would be -- i think they would try and impeach biden, might try to impeach merrick garland, and the homeland security secretary. i think they'll go after a number of, you know, biden administration official, including the president. i think they'll, you know, hunter biden will be a huge play for them. but i do think, you know, you're not going to get anywhere that's not going to -- joe biden is not going to be removed from office via impeachment. that's not going to happen. but if republicans spend their time doing that and

investigating, i know that plays to the base but does that help them in the next election? we'll have to see. i know clearly trump will enjoy it. that might satisfy his own political ambitions but i don't think that would help them. i want to go back to your point about trump, though. i have house democrats saying to me i had very senior democrat say to me that he was lighting a candle every day that trump announces that he running again by september. they're praying for trump to announce that he's running again. >> because they think it will help them? >> oh, my god, yes. if there's one thing that democrats don't like, it's donald trump. moderates and progressives may go after each other, there may be questions about biden's future, about the agenda, but the one thing they don't like is donald trump. to go to the points everybody has made, things have been going democrats' way. it's clearly still not a good political environment for them.

they're still probably likely to lose the house but they've been going their way. you know, i do think that if biden to get to respectable, somewhere in the low 40s, that's a huge boost for them because he was really, you know -- i mean, he's huge underwater in some of these states. if he can get it, they can moderate where biden is. he's still going to be unpopular. if they get it to where he's somewhere between 40 and 45, that's an enormous difference. that could make a difference in a georgia where warnock is going to have to run far ahead of where biden is. could make a difference in nevada. i think the race comes down to nevada and georgia. i think that's the key two races there. you know, if they can get something out of biden, i think that's a huge difference for them. >> let me ask you, larry, about the house. what are the chances right now that something changes and democrats suddenly feel more

ahead in the house? is it a losing battle just in terms of the way the map looks right now and the way these disabilities have been redrawn in some of these congressional districts? >> well, it's very, very tough obviously for democrats to keep a majority. but to me the most important thing for democrats other than maybe winning the house, which i don't think they'll do, is to keep the margin close enough so that if president biden is elected to a second term or some other democrat is running as the nominee and is elected in 2024, that will be enough to sweep x number of democrats back into the house and give them a majority again. they can keep the senate probably and get a majority of some size in the house. that would be ideal for the democrats and i think it's much more realistic than expecting all of the trends that we see this other respects to suddenly move in the other direction. that's asking a lot with two and a half months to go.

>> larry, susan, sean, thank you all very much for starting us off today. coming up what we learned from mar-a-lago and a couple of documents. and they're giving it all up. why so many teachers are saying why the job they love isn't worth it anymore. first, though, it's not getting better near the big nuclear power play in ukraine. what russia has done. and what about those increasing worries about what could happen there and what it would mean for all of europe. like it's taken so many others. that's why i've made it my mission to talk about getting screened and ask people to share their reasons why. i screen for my growing family. being with them means everything to me. i screen for my girls. they're always surprising me. i screen for my son. i'm his biggest fan.

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. the fears around an attack in europe's largest nuclear facility have increased. russia told its workers at the zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant not to show up today. ukraine worries that means russia is ready to power down the plant and cut the country off. this comes after repeated shelling inside the complex with both ukraine and russia blaming

each other. joining me from kyiv is megan fitzgerald. these fears, megan, surrounding that power plant and what it would mean not just for ukraine, the shutting off, but the attack of it but also europe. >> reporter: yeah, you're absolutely right. we have heard today from ukrainian energy officials who say that they have intelligence to suggest that right now russia is actively working on shutting down that nuclear power plant. we had an opportunity to speak with an energy expert today who says this is an incredibly dangerous and risky operation, that one mistake could lead to a leak, could mean we're looking at radioactive material seeping out of the plant and spreading throughout ukraine, throughout europe and even possibly beyond. we know that the u.n. secretary-general who is in ukraine has called again on russia to allow international scientists to get inside that nuclear plant for an inspection.

that sentiment echoed today by the president of france, emanual macron and reports are that putin is open to having inspectors going inside that plant but earlier today we heard from russian ministry officials who said that they're looking at inspectors getting in there sometime in early september. ukrainian officials are saying, look, we can't wait. this is an immediate situation that needs to be rectified now, september is too long to wait. >> i wonder what's happening in odesa right now. it seems pretty calm over there but there is still talk about russia's desire to take that port city. >> reporter: well, so what we know right now is that actually the u.n. secretary-general is there. he went there today for a tour to kind of look at the progress that's being made. we know that as of august 1st there was a deal brokered between the u.n. and turkey with

russia and ukraine, this agreement that said that there wouldn't be shelling at the port, they would allow these ships packed with tons and hundreds of tons of grain and other food material to leave these ports to other countries that are in desperate need of this food, places like africa, along with asia and into the middle east. and we're talking about countries, 82 countries that are facing food insecurity, 45 that are on the brink of famine. today the u.n. secretary-general saying that this mission is working, that there are more vessels that are getting ready to leave ukraine over the last two weeks that this operation has been in place. they've already seen 21 ships leave the port. they're talking about more than 600,000 tons of food that are going to these countries that are anxiously awaiting this food to try and curve this crisis that we're seeing across the

world, katy. >> coming up, why a texas school board voted to remove dozens of books from library shelves, including the bible. >> and what is driving more than half of teachers in america to quit a job they once thought was a calling? >> part of what we saw and what was happening that kind of made us go i don't think i can do this anymore. at least for now. >> they might fire you to are doing this interview. >> well, they can't fire me because i quit. ♪ ♪

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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. teachers are quitting across the country, struggling under low pay, pandemic and growing culture wars. 70% of teachers in texas are considering leaving the profession, the highest number recorded since the survey began in 1980. joining me is antonia hylton. you talked to some parents from south lake, which you know very well. not some parents, some teachers. tell me what they were telling you. >> well, teachers in south lake

and across texas are fed up right now. pandemic, low pay. but these new laws that are restricting the ways they can talk about race and history in the classroom, for many of them, that's been the breaking point. they feel they aren't respected or paid enough to put up with all this. they want to get out of teaching altogether. take a look. for seven years adam burns loved his job at a middle school technology teacher. after a members of conservative political action committee won the majority of seats on the school board and passed laws on how to address racism in the classroom, adam and his wife brandy, who is black, thought of his 11-year-old son. did you feel you could be true to yourself and stay in this job? >> not at all. >> reporter: he quit in july. his contract requires him to stay until they find his

replacement. >> my message to be to be true to yourself. to the district i would just say it's time to start listening to the people that you employ. >> reporter: given exhaustion and stress from the covid pandemic, one survey finds as many as 55% of america's educators are considering leaving the profession. in south lake, texas, nbc news has covered extensively conflicts and app active civil rights investigation into the treatment of minority and lgbtq children in the carroll district. 93 teachers left that district last year. >> here's three teachers -- >> three really good teachers. kids loved us and learned from us. >> reporter: tim hamilton taught spanish for five years. >> the almost decade i spent in the district, that was worthless. that meant nothing to them. >> carroll schools did not

comment on any personnel matters regarding the teachers we spoke with. kim ross quit last spring after teaching algebra for 13 years. >> part of what we saw made us go i don't think i can do this anymore. at least for now. >> reporter: they might fire you for doing this interview. >> they can't fire me because i quit. >> reporter: 70% of texas teachers are considering leaving the profession entirely. >> educators are feeling less support. not just from the elected officials, that we've felt for a long time but also an increase of lack of support from our parents because of all the political rhetoric that is being thrown around about who we are. >> reporter: if this continues, what's going to happen to the public schools? >> we're going to see a lot more classrooms without teachers. and we're going to see even less people wanting to come into

education. >> reporter: despite losing 16% of its teachers last year, the carroll district said it has only three open positions currently, which it expects to fill shortly and is implementing raises and instructional coaches to help those still there. adam hopes his colleagues and his young son understand why he chose to speak out. does it upset you to think this might be the end of the road for you for teaching? >> it was a big leap for myself and my family for me to do this and realizing that i don't feel like there's really a place for me. yeah, it's really tough. >> parents, how do they feel about all this? >> parents in this community are really frustrated. in terms of impact for them, that your seeing reduced class offerings, some larger class sizes and teachers taking on really high workloads and are be open with the parents about how exhausted and strained they are right now. >> what about the kids? are they frustrated by this?

do they feel like what happened to my school? it was normal a few years ago and now everyone's fighting with each other over -- >> some of them do. many of the young kids have in idea what's been going on over the last couple of years. teachers have sent me messages they're receiving from parents and saying you're my favorite teacher and i really respect the decision you made. >> it can feel like a loss. >> we all remember the teachers we love. >> and it takes time to build those relationships and you learn better when you like your teacher, when you've got a good rapport. i do feel for the children in that district. thank you so much. and another texas school district purged 31 previously approved books from their library shelves.

even the bible is under review. the books were challenged earlier this year before being green lit by a committee of staff and parents and community members. so what exactly changed? why did they get removed again? the keller school board added three members of the conservative pac. laney haus is the mother of four children enrolled and served on the committee that reviewed the ann frank book that has now been removed. laney, thanks so much for being here. i want to you help explain to me what happened here. you guys said okay and suddenly it was not okay to have these books in school? >> right. every book got a different committee. i was in a pool of parent and community members who volunteered to participate in the committees and my name was called up and i got the "diary of ann frank" and the person who

challenged the book did not show up to the committee to share what their concerns were and the rest of us on the committee, i think there were seven or eight of us parents, community members, educators, librarians, we all sat flabbergasted like why are we here? we discussed the book and unanimously decided to put it back on the library shelves. we knew this book, especially in the graphic novel version, which makes it so accessible to people who have difficulty reading. >> "the new york times" said about this graphic novel that they believed it was so good, such a good representation of what was in that book and so good at communicating the diary of ann frank they thought maybe it would replace the diary itself because it was so moving for children. >> it was. >> what does it mean to have that gone from the curriculum? >> it was frustrating because we thought we saved it. we walked out so excited we

saved this book and then we got a new school board and the dynamic shifted. the school board said we don't like the outcomes of all of the book challenges in the spring and we're going to overturn all of them and they must all be re-reviewed according to our new guidelines that we've set. it devastating. i believe there's been enough pushback that they're going to put the bible and anne frank back on the shelves. but i'm really concerned about all the other books on this list. it's a detriment to all of our kids. >> what is a conservative pac doing getting involved? >> that's a question we're all asking. they were just celebrating. they interviewed steve bannon. they celebrated the takeover of four school districts. we're dis gussed.

i don't think political conferrings should be happening in our el men think schools. we can have the wars somewhere else. >> what about making parental rights a priority? it seems like they're depriorityizing your right and but they're allowing -- they can review instructional materials. and they can access student records. how does that make it feel, sending your kids to school in texas? >> in some ways it's terrifying. we have a group of parents in the community who are sending in ultimately spies, get teachers' classrooms reporting. and then they're blasting them in the community to try and get them fired. our teachers are unso much duress and they're really great teachers. we have had a really great

experience with all of the educators and they're under so much duress, they can't actually teach our kids anymore. they're so worried they're going to get turned in and blasted ons so media and fired, they can't even teach ela anymore, can't teach biology that some kid. >> can't teach biology. laney, thank you so much for being with us. we appreciate your time and helping us understand what's happening down there. good luck to you. >> thank you so much. thank you. >> and coming up, what happened to women's freedom? a 34-year-old mother is now facing two -- i'm sorry, a 34-year-old mother of two is now facing 34 years in a saudi arabian prison for tweets. and and evidence might be

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d.o.j. has just six days to justify why all or at least most of the affidavit for the search of donald trump's home should remained sealed. judge reinhart said the government has not met its burden of why the document should stay unwraps. the justice department says unsealing it would cause significant and irreparable damage to its ongoing investigation and that evidence might be destroyed. reinhart, who has reviewed the document multiple times says parts can be made public without impeding the probe. as for donald trump, yesterday proved he is more interested in looking like he wants the affidavit released. one of his lawyers was present at yesterday's court hearing but just to watch. team trump has yet to make any official position in court on the matter. joining me now is justice reporter ryan reilly and lisa

rubin, msnbc legal analyst. we got the motion to seal unsealed yesterday. we also got the application for the warrant unsealed. ryan, when the justice department says evidence might be destroyed in this motion to seal, what do you take from that? >> i think there could be additional evidence that could be destroyed. sort of what it seems. i do think we are in sort of a unique situation and that normally this information wouldn't be coming out. this is obviously some unprecedented territory that we're in and that's why you sort of saw this press conference that merrick garland had to begin with donald trump made the decision to make the search warrant execution on his home public. it's an interesting position of merrick garland. the central motivation has here

to be about enforcing the law and deter people who might be inclined to do something like this in the future but it's also dealing with a former president. you know, there's a lot of complications that comes when you're dealing with an investigation of a form are former president. the attorney general doesn't live in a monastery, has to know what's going on around him. it's an awkward position for the d.o.j. to be fighting this battle with trump, who has this mega phone, as opposed to the justice department that has to abide by a set of rules, which former president trump doesn't have to abide to. it is sort of this unequal battlefield that we're seeing right now and we're having cable news on this on a regular basis, these battles that would be something that would be. >> because it's unprecedented.

we have never been in a situation like this. donald trump is out there trying to demean and diminish it every single day so it becomes newsworthy. i know i'm kind of focusing on this but evidence might be destroyed. what is d.o.j. saying here, that donald trump might destroy evidence, that his orbit might destroy evidence, that others might destroy evidence? can you glean anything from that or is it just so vague that it could be anything? >> i would say evidence at mar-a-lago could be destroyed and by whom, they're not saying. on the other hand, we've got a circumscribed circle of people who could have access to those documents, even considering that the former president might have allowed access to people who were not within the official sphere who should have touched. so your original question, is

this a dig deal? yeah, it's a really big deal. the department of justice often says in search warrant applications we can't allow the warrant to be unsealed because it would create an incentive to destroy documents. on the other hand, it's stark to see that in writing with respect to any former president. now, on the other hand -- go ahead. >> no, no, no, you go ahead. i want to hear your on the other hand. >> on the other hand, this is a person where the basis for the warrant, one of the three statuary bases for the warrant, is 18 u.s.c. 1519. that's not solely about the removal of government or classified documents. that's about the concealment, destruction, mutilation, alteration of those documents. so when you're going in and your predicate for the warrant already is that you believe somebody has messed with these documents in some way, shape or form. it's not that unusual to say unsealing the warrant would

create a further incentive to mess with them further. >> what's the bar for the justice when he's looking a what the the d.o.j. gives back to him. how does he decide what should be redacted and what should not? >> it's a really tough question. judge reinhart is himself a former prosecutor and a criminal defense lawyer. he's been on both sides of this. usually magistrate judges will defer to the department of justice when they say that releasing certain information could compromise the future of the investigation. on the other hand, as ryan noted, we are in uncharted waters right now with respect to the investigation of any former president and particularly with respect to this former president, who is choosing to use, as ryan said, his mega phone but his lawyers aren't using their microphones. they have not entered an appearance in this court at all. they haven't filed anything in terms of releasing the affidavit

and didn't speak in court. they could ask to see those redactions or participate in the process and they haven't done that yet either. that should tell you something. i think the judge wants to be helpful. he also wants to combat the significant disinformation on the trump world. >> thank you very much. i have a feeling we're going to be talking about this quite a bit going forward. we appreciate it. and saudi arabia, which has been lauded for giving women more freedom in recent years, just sentenced a mother of two to 345 34 years in prison for tweeting. 34 years in prison for tweeting.

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to help keep everyone connected from wherever we go. well at at&t we'll help you find the right wireless plan for you. so, you can stay connected to all your drivers and stores on america's most reliable 5g network. that sounds just paw-fect. terrier-iffic i labra-dore you round of a-paws at&t 5g is fast, reliable and secure for your business. a woman in saudi arabia has been sentenced to 34 years in prison for tweeting. she is a saudi national who lives in the united kingdom. she was visiting her home country when she was arrested, just a few days before she was due to fly back to the uk. authorities there say her tweets and retweets supporting freedom of speech and women's rights in saudi arabia were intended to disturb public order and destabilize the state. joining me now is the online executive editor of "the new

yorker" and msnbc contributor david rohde. david, this story is hard to understand. especially since mbs has been doing this whitewashing of his reputation since khashoggi, especially since he was ushered into power initially before the khashoggi stuff, allowing women to drive, giving them more freedoms outside of the house, this is incongruous, it doesn't make sense. women don't have more freedom if you jail a mother of two for 32 years for tweeting. >> it's the latest example of how he's essentially lied to the west. you're right, he portrayed himself as this great modernizer but he's been anything but. what's astonishing, so it's 34 years in jail, she was mostly retweeting activists' tweets, then she has a 34-year travel ban on top of that. and she wasn't a very active user. she was studying dentistry in the uk.

again, this is just i think a harrowing warning to anyone who challenges mohammed bin salman or the saudi royal family, they'll receive this kind of unjustifiable, insanely harsh punishment. i'm amazed this has happened. >> as i understand it, she initially got a few years behind bars. she appealed it. i guess as a punishment, they made it 34 years. >> yes, she was originally sentenced to six years last year and she dared appeal that. and then they added this 34-year sentence. she's also a shiite muslim, they're a minority group in saudi arabia. so there's fears that there's discrimination against shiites, that the majority sunni saudi royal family has cracked down on in the past. the fist bump with mohammed bin salman when president biden visited saudi arabia, gas prices have dropped since then, but this to me shows, again, how we

cannot have a long term relationship with mohammed bin salman. you know, this is just -- it's the highest sentence ever for a saudi dissident engaged in nonviolent activity. it's just extraordinary. >> you say we cannot have a relationship, our country cannot have a relationship with mbs. i mean, they have oil. we want oil. we're still dependent on oil. until we turn to different technology, green technology, and get off oil, are we going to be forced to have a relationship with somebody like this? is the only way we can change the behavior of other countries, where they jail a mother of two for 34 years for tweeting, is the only way to change it when we have leverage, and we're not going to get leverage until we get off oil? >> yes, in the long term that's true. but you can call this out, publicly criticize this. during president biden's trip to saudi arabia, he asked about the murder of jamal khashoggi, the "washington post" journalist.

an nbc journalist shouted a question to mohammed bin salman about the murder of khashoggi. journalists can call him out, u.s. officials should continue to call him out, but let's not delude ourselves that mbs is in any way a modernizer. >> i heard about the story yesterday, it's been going on for a while. i haven't heard from anybody, correct me if i'm wrong, from the united states government about this case. >> ned price, state department spokesman, was asked about it by a journalist and he said, you know, that the right -- the freedom of expression should be defended and he criticized the sentence. but silence from the white house. so we should hear much more from the biden administration about this. again, president biden, you know, this is a battle, a moment of democracy versus authoritarianism. so call out mohammed bin salman for this unjust and cruel sentence to this mother of two. >> if she stays in prison, she will not be out until she is 102 years old.

david rhodes, thank you for joining us. that's going to do it for me today. joe fryer picks up our coverage next. next ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ever leave your clothes in the dryer and find a wrinkled mess? try downy wrinkle guard fabric softener! wrinkle guard penetrates deep into fibers, leaving clothes so soft, wrinkles don't want to stick around. make mornings smoother with downy wrinkle guard fabric softener.

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go golo. (soft music) as we come on the air, another big announcement from the white house. the pentagon just announcing a new round of cash is on its way to ukraine's war chest. the new aid package is valued at nearly $800 million. we'll tell you what ukraine is going to do with that money and we'll have an update on that nuclear standoff threatening all of europe. also this hour the latest on the investigation into former president trump. and the scramble at the doj to redact portions of that affidavit used to obtain the mar-a-lago search warrant. plus kobe bryant's widow appearing in a los angeles courtroom this afternoon. her emotional testimony in the federal trial over photos from the crash that killed her husband and her daughter. why the prime minister of