♪♪ good day. this is "andrea mitchell reports" in washington where president biden is preparing to make the first of three trips to pennsylvania in the next week. the beginning of a major midterm push. democrats try to save razor-thin house and senate majorities. biden's strategy is to return to broad themes that helped him win the white house, giving a prime time speech thursday night in philadelphia in front of the independence hall about saving the soul of the nation and the fight for democracy. today, he will be in wilkes-barre, contrasting his

plan to hire police to deal with crime against republican calls to de-fund the fbi. on labor day, the president will march in pittsburgh's labor day parade. afterwards, a stop in wisconsin. russia received a delivery of drones from issue ran to help fight ukraine. putin's forces launching a new round of shelling today in kharkiv. ukraine continues its counteroffensive in kherson. u.n. inspected will get access to the nuclear power plant in zaporizhzhia, the source of fears of a catastrophic potential radiation accident because of artillery fire in the area. serena triumphs in straight sets during a spectacular first round match at the u.s. open, sparking hopes of a magical run before her planned exit from the professional tour after this final grand slam. we begin this hour with

president biden. joining me now are peter alexander, mark murray, former congressman david jolly, donna edwards. peter, take us through what we can expect from president biden in his remarks today and his prime time speech later this week. >> reporter: the president will be going to pennsylvania three times over the course of the next seven days. the last trip he will go there on labor day as well. it's notable the president is focusing so much energy on that state that's a key battleground with re-election fights for governor, house and senate. specific to the president's trip there today, as you noted, he will leave here and focus on crime prevention, the economic stimulus package that he signed into law last year, how it helped state and local

governments there to add to their police resources in the state. a direct combating of the criticism that the democrats were trying to de-fund the police. the president is demonstrating he has done the opposite. the gun safety reform law that the president signed into law only a matter of months ago as well. ultimately, this is an effort to demonstrate that contrast. to say that the republican party, the party of donald trump, when it says it wants to de-fund the fbi -- in the words of administration officials, when it puts the lives of fbi agents at risk with comments, criticism following the seizure of documents from the mar-a-lago home of donald trump, that that is not supporting the police. they say you can't be pro police and say de-fund the fbi and support the insurrectionists at the same time. as for thursday's visit, the president will be demonstrating this contrast between the republicans and his administration on the issue of the threats to democracy right now. saying among other things that

he is focused on the future of democracy and democracy and he believes the message is still central to the efforts that democrats in this country face as we head into the midterms in the next couple of weeks. as mark will note right now, that issue is resonating. at one of the most recent polls, the thumb one issue for americans right now above cost of living and the economy is threats to the democracy. >> mark, pick it up from there. let's talk about the big picture of where the president is focusing in pennsylvania, importantly, and also, of course, wisconsin where he will be on labor day. >> look, control of the senate is coming down to almost a coin flip right now. we are a little more than two months away from midterm elections. republicans need to get a net gain of one seat to flip control of the united states senate, which stands at 50/50, with vice president kamala harris the

tiebreaking vote there. if democrats are able to end up winning in pennsylvania, flipping a seat that's held by retiring senator pat toomey, that makes the republican math harder. democrats get a pick up. boy, republicans need to go to arizona or to nevada to be able to win. what we have seen is that republicans, including in pennsylvania and also in arizona and georgia, have ended up with flawed candidates as their nominees. of course, flawed candidates can win. it makes it more difficult. as peter was mentioning, we have seen threats to democracy emerge as the number one issue. maybe most importantly of all, enthusiasm coming up for democrats. republicans are actually hoping that they can turn this back to a referendum against president biden. midterm elections are usually referendums on the current president. as gas prices have started to decline, donald trump is in the news, as democrats are getting

more enthusiastic after the roe v. wade overturning, all of a sudden this looks a little different than it did a few months ago. we are seeing republicans go back to talking about inflation, talking about prices, talking about out of control spending to get that from a choice election back to a referendum on president biden. >> of course, both pennsylvania and wisconsin have important governor races as as well as the senate races. >> the reason we are looking at these governor races, number one, because of the 2024 presidential election. election deniers who are running for governor and the certification process as we saw play out in the 2020 presidential race. also, abortion is important in these states as well. the governor being able to actually pass legislation that would end up passing abortion bans and restrictions or vetoing them. that could control for 2024 and certification and abortion is going to be playing a big role. >> that's key in pennsylvania

with marsiano would ban abortion. he led the effort to not certify joe biden in pennsylvania for donald trump. he marched on january 6. he has it all wrapped up in one candidate. >> yeah. it's going to be -- in pennsylvania, it has it all. >> he is perhaps the most controversial. there are others we will get to as well today. donna edwards, focusing on the president's speech later today in wilkes-barre, he is trying to show swing voters, democrats can be the party of law and order. 100,000 new police, campaigning against the republican -- the maga republican de-fund the fbi. back in 1993, with the biden crime bill, more police was really a big problem for him to overcome or hurdle, at least in

the 2020 campaign. >> i do think the president has been focused on police accountability and responsibility when it comes to policing. i think this is -- the president is really hitting his stride here. the passage of that gun safety legislation, which is the first gun safety measure in 30 years, i think the president feels very proud of that and will talk about that as he hits the campaign trail. the de-fund the fbi message at a time when we really need the highest levels of law enforcement on their game, especially considering the threats to democracy, i think gives the president a window into these issues that it was not in 1992 and '93 and that crime bill. i think the president is really hitting his stride going into

the end of the week where he is talking about democracy and preserving democracy. these are all issues that play to the president's strength. i think animate democratic voters. >> david, mitch mcconnell is shifting his strategy. here he is yesterday explaining why he held a fund-raiser for dr. oz, herschel walker and ted bud after making comments about the poor candidate quality. >> i pick up three of our candidates every summer i think have the best shot at winning. i invite them. i picked these three because i thought they were in critical states and had a good chance of winning. >> what level of confidence do you have in dr. oz's ability to win the race? >> very confident. i think oz has a great shot at winning. >> david jolly, why don't you deconstruct that. let's acknowledge that john

fedderman has challenges. the stroke which he didn't fully explain for some time. hasn't been able to campaign as effectively as he would want. dr. oz has made so many mistakes. >> yeah, that's right, andrea. mitch mcconnell might say he has great confidence, but he does not. mitch mcconnell knows he has a gop problem, georgia, ohio and pennsylvania. he acknowledged it a few weeks ago. it comes down to candidate recruitment. this should be a big year for republicans. they were hoping it would be. they have gotten everything wrong at this point. they thought they would go into november prosecuting a case against joe biden. voters are saying, this might be the most important issue. we are in an america where donald trump is front and center. it's not good for republicans. in the u.s. senate races, mitch mcconnell has awful candidates,

terrible candidates. that's not something he wants but is a reflection of the fact that this is donald trump's party, not mitch mcconnell's. what you see from mcconnell is nothing more than a mathematician with a big bank account knowing i have to spend money so i can be majority leader. >> you do have with dr. oz and herschel walker, two celebrity candidates. walker is a huge fan favorite for obvious reasons in georgia. football star. certainly not effective on the campaign trail. for anyone talking about senate qualifications. i also wanted to focus on something that the candidate running in arizona, blake masters, retweeted. associated press about diversity at the federal reserve, now that two black governors have been appointed to the fed board in washington, finally. finally confirmed belatedly, two

black economists, superb economic credentials. trying to say those minority candidates were responsible for the poor state of the economy, which is just such total nonsense. how does that help the republican party? >> it doesn't, andrea. there are many republican leaders today who simply do not want our national leadership to look like america. we can ask hard questions as to whether or not their values represent american values. what we saw from blake masters, we hear behind closed doors and occasionally you hear from leading candidates. it's a shameful moment, rightfully condemned. one that voters will have an opportunity to judge on november 8. >> nothing other than racism. peter, let's do a deeper dive on

the former president. we will talk about him in a moment. also, this retirement of secret service agent arenado. he was a central figure in hutchinson's testimony. he was the former head of the detail, an unlikely route to become head -- he became deputy chief of staff. >> reporter: you are right. this isn't just unlikely, it's almost unprecedented that someone would go from working with the secret service to joining an administration, the trump white house in a political office as the operations manager here. we learned tony arenado retired just yesterday. i spoke to him via text where he confirmed that. he said he was eligible earlier this year after 25 years. he decided to leave the secret service. he said he would be pursuing a job in the private sector but wouldn't detail specifically what that was. it's notable for a variety of reasons.

arenado was -- we are hearing -- scheduled to testify before department of homeland security investigators later this week, as soon as tomorrow. will that interview still happen? you will remember he was one of the individuals that cassidy hutchinson said she heard from, that he detailed the account that he was told about what happened inside the presidential suv where mr. trump became furious the agents wouldn't take him to the capitol. there were reports that mr. trump tried to gap one of the agents by the neck. some disputed those details. no one at the secret service is disputing the fact the president was furious and wanted to go to capitol hill. we were told initially that arenado and engel would testify. the secret service said so. but to this point, there's no indication that tony arenado has come before the committee to testify. back to you.

>> peter alexander, mark murray, david jolly and donna edwards, thanks to all. delay tactic. what could be behind donald trump's lawyers requesting a special master to review documents seized when the fbi searched mar-a-lago. this is "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. this is "andrl reports" on msnbc.

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is deciding whether to grant trump's request for a special master, a third party, to review the seized classified documents from his home. the justice department announced its initial review did turn up what could be protected by the lawyer client privilege. barbara, how concerned would you be if you are the justice department that trump is using delaying tactics, asking for the master, who could slow it all down? >> i think the one concern that i would have here, andrea, is it could slow down the investigation. more importantly, it could slow down the damage assessment the intelligence community wants to conduct. if documents have been spilled, so to speak, it could be we have sources overseas whose lives are in danger or that some of our

signals intelligence has been compromised. to me, that's the biggest concern here. >> chuck, how do you read the fact that this judge, who does outrank the federal magistrate, who had been presiding over this mar-a-lago search warrant, how do you read the fact that she said before even seeing the justice department's response that she was preliminary inclined to accept the request for a special master? >> a little bit hard to read her mind here, andrea. if i had to guess, it might be that she's concerned about the appearance of neutrality. look, the government creates filter teams all the time. this is not infrequent. they're good at it. when i was a federal prosecutor, i served on filter teams. i served on the other side, on the investigative teams.

she may think in a high profile case, they don't get much more high profile than this, that having a neutral third party is better for everybody. i'm with barb. i'm not sure it's necessary. seems like the government has done the work, could do the work, will do the work. if that's her concern, andrea, that might be why she signalled that intention before really even hearing from the government on it. >> barbara, if they do get this special master, would the former president and his lawyers gain access to the output from the search? would that mean beyond something that's privileged? >> not necessarily. the special master is a neutral. a person who i imagine could be a former judge or sitting judge or someone able to possess a security clearance. they will look through these things. donald trump does not have currently a security clearance. he is not at the moment able to

look through these things. neither are his lawyers, unless obtain those clearances, which could happen if the litigation continues. at the moment, i would imagine it would be just the special master who would review these things, segregate out anything privileged, either attorney client or other privilege. there's been an assertion of executive privilege. i think the special master would get marching orders from the judge as to what should be turned over to the zus 'tis department and what should be filt erd out. >> barbara, i may have to check this later. my understanding was that most former presidents do have ongoing security clearances so that their successors can consult them on ongoing investigations but that president biden, because of the casual way that donald trump handled classified material while he was president, specifically withdrew his security clearance. >> that's right.

it's a very unusual scenario. with all the things we have seen from former president donald trump, his loyalty to the united states was not something president biden was comfortable with. >> as this proceeds, is this a sideshow in terms of the importance of the search and other challenges to the search and the controversy that ensued? >> investigations have big, critical moments, momentous decisions. then they have lesser moments. first of all, i think the investigation continues while this judge hashes out these procedures to review the documents. second, one way or the other, whether a special master or an internal filter team to the department of justice, these documents will get reviewed. this part of the investigation will move forward. it's an interesting thing. barbara and i as former federal prosecutors like to think about it and talk about it.

in the end, i think this is not a big, critical do or die, make or break moment for the investigation. >> thanks so much for your perspectives, chuck rosenberg, barbara mccquade. lindsey graham said there would be riots in the streets if trump is prosecuted. other former officials have been. critics sounded a warning that that sounded like a threat. monday, graham tamped down his rhetoric. >> if there's a prosecution of donald trump for mishandling classified information, after the clinton debacle, there will be riots in the streets. i reject violence. i'm not calling for violence. violence is not the answer. >> joining me now is democratic congressman david cicilline of

rhode island, and trump impeachment manager, and his new book out today is titled "house on fire, fighting for democracy in the age of political arson." your reaction to what lindsey graham first said? is that an example of political arson? >> absolutely. thanks for having me. this is a continuation of a republican party that is defending the former president at all costs. this is an individual who promoted violence to stay in office, even after he lost the election. this is a perilous time for our country. it's why i wrote the book. i used my experience as a mayor, as a member of congress battling trump and trumpism for four years and then serving as an impeachment manager in the second impeachment to sound the alarm and use those experiences to write about as a way to make certain people understand that this midterm election is about the preservation of our democracy. every time we stand up to a

republican party that is attempting to poison our politics by promoting lies, we're defending democracy. that has to become the priority in the midterms and we have watched a republican party that was a party of low taxes and smaller government to become a party of chaos and confusion and qanon and marjorie taylor greene and the big lie. a thirst for power above everything else. i think democrats are delivering for the american people. i would not normally write a book. i felt like everyone has to do everything they can to really make certain people understand the emergency we are in and the importance of standing up to defend our democracy. >> you mentioned qanon. today, donald trump was promoting for the first time i believe qanon conspiracy theories on his platform. how worrying is that? >> very worrying. we have seen other republican members run for office and win based on this crazy conspiracy

theory of qanon, which is incredibly dangerous. to have the former president of the united states invoke these conspiracy theories -- this is an on the checklist of fascist leaders, this idea of a plot or conspiracy to use untruthful information to stoke violence, to advance a political ideology or political power. this is very dangerous stuff. i think it's really important for people to understand not only the former president needs to be held accountable for all of his misconduct, but that we are in a fight for the preservation of our democracy. i was pleased to see for the first time that showing up in polling as a top priority. all of the challenges will be easier to solve so long as we live in a democracy. they will be made more difficult if not impossible if we don't. >> things are looking up for democrats. the president's polling is up a bit post the roe v. wade decision. do you think there's a chance on holding on to the house? >> absolutely.

in fact, i think we're going to pick up a few seats and grow our majority. when we have the opportunity to remind the american people of all the work we have done to help small businesses get through this pandemic, to drive down the cost of prescription drugs, to make childcare less expensive, to bring real gun reform to our communities, all the things we did and all the legislation, republicans stood in the way of every single one of those pieces of legislation. democrats have delivered to working families, have made life better. that continues. republicans have stood in the way in their devotion to donald trump and trumpism, have blocked or attempted to block that progress. now they are offering a really dangerous platform that will support this stoking fear, anger and division and the former president. i think people will pick democrats who are delivering for them and putting people over politics, where the republican

party is singularly focused on getting back into power at whatever cost, even if it means accepting lies and promoting lies and violence and donald trump. that's not good for the country. >> that would be against all historic precedence. >> absolutely. >> we will see. thank you for being with us. now to round two. serena williams winning her first match at the u.s. open in spectacular form in what she says is her last grand slam tournament. this is "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. reports" on msnbc. ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪

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>> reporter: a stellar start for serena williams, earning a win in the first round of the u.s. open. the grand slam victory just weeks after the tennis star announced she will be evolving away from the sport. >> i prefer the word evolution. i'm at a stage of my life where i'm not necessarily retiring. i'm just evolving from tennis. >> reporter: joining her family to watch the match inside arthur ashe stadium, a star-studded crowd. bill clinton next to dr. ruth. hugh jackman and mike tyson. the u.s. open holding a special celebration. >> know that i love you so much. i'm so excited to be here. >> reporter: thousands of fans packing the grounds in the big apple. all for the chance to see the 40-year-old star play one last time. serena making her u.s. open

debut back in 1998. returning to new york the next year to win her first grand slam title at just 17 years old. that victory, the start of a legendary run. serena ultimately adding 23 grand slam singles titled to her collection so far. the second highest of all time. >> i never dreamt of having this much grand slams or titles. for me, it's all a bonus. >> reporter: her potential retirement kicking off a worldwide celebration with covers on "vogue" and "time". >> the years went by in a blink. >> reporter: a video tribute narrated by oprah winfrey. a new commercial honoring the tennis phenom's legacy voiced by beyonce. >> to love being one of a kind. to always love being you. >> reporter: with monday's victory, serena showing she's not ready to put her racket away just yet. the tennis icon saying, she's

looking forward to spending time off the court. focusing on her business ventures. and, of course, the most important job of all. being mom to her 4-year-old daughter. the mother and daughter duo wearing matching outfits at the open. >> i look forward to being a mom. >> reporter: this place is still buzzing about serena. here is a stat for you. with monday's victory, she has a major win in her teens, 20s, 30s and her 40s. you point out she's playing on wednesday. on thursday, she teams up with venus for the first time they will play together in doubles since they did it at the french open in 2018. they have got 14 grand slam doubles championships. two of them right here at the u.s. open. >> rehema, wish we were there. it's great to watch that. looking forward to wednesday night. maybe she will keep going.

and thursday, the doubles match. thank you. thanks so much. the lasting impact. a year after the chaotic withdrawal from afghanistan, a former u.s. military interpreter who managed to escape looking back now that he is here in the u.s. this is "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. ♪ birds flyin' high ♪ ♪ you know how i feel ♪ (coughing) ♪ breeze driftin' on by ♪ ♪ you know how i feel ♪ copd may have gotten you here, but you decide what's next. start a new day with trelegy. ♪ ...feelin' good ♪ no once-daily copd medicine has the power to treat copd in as many ways as trelegy. with three medicines in one inhaler, trelegy helps people breathe easier and improves lung function. it also helps prevent future flare-ups. trelegy won't replace a rescue inhaler for sudden breathing problems. tell your doctor if you have a heart condition or high blood pressure before taking it. do not take trelegy more than prescribed. trelegy may increase your risk of thrush,

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an afghan interpreter at the fall of kabul." how did you manage to get out? so many were left behind. they did get about 140,000 people out in that tumultuous ten-day period. >> thanks for having me on the show. as we say, since today marks the one- year anniversary, i would like to, regardless of the political decisions that have been made about afghanistan over the past 20 years, on behalf of my people and country, i would like to thank all men and women in uniform who served in my country to uphold democracy and freedom. i'm grateful and my people with grateful for those who were there last august to evacuate america's afghan allies and made sacrifices. i guarantee you that the sacrifices of all american men and women in uniform and otherwise will never be forgotten by afghans. the risk was high.

i stayed hidden in my home for three days. later, i got a text for an evacuation. as i got to the airport, they said the plan had been canceled. i have to go back. i did not want to risk going back. i was sure the taliban would not allow me back into the airport. i waited for 24 hours behind the airport. i was beaten by the taliban. i was under taliban fighting into the air every one minute, just emptying one magazine into the air to disburse people. it was like the judgment day some people say. i will not forget that. i served for eight years with the coalition forces in afghanistan. i was on the missions, on battlefield. i was not that terrified when i was last august. >> i know you met general petraeus, who speaks well of you, and other general

nickleson. in terms what you received for your work, do you think that there should be benefits for people like you who did manage to get to the u.s. and some people are having a really hard time surviving, struggling economically. >> all those who served with coalition forces and organizations in afghanistan were promised safe evacuation whenever it was needed to other countries around the world. me and my -- most of my countrymen, we never wanted to leave our country, because we have freedom, democracy. we were prospering. we were happy. all of a sudden, things changed just because of a political decision to withdraw all american forces followed by nato forced. i was forced to make this decision to leave my country and start life from scratch here in the u.s.

the decision has also been hard for my other countrymen and my people. but i'm very much concerned for those left behind. not only in afghanistan, in pakistan, in ukraine and other countries around the world. the u.s. government and other countries, canada, european countries and uk, they need to ease their immigration policies so they can make it easier for afghans to come to safety. i think we need a plan like the one that was put in place for the ukrainians, united for ukraine. we need something like that, united for afghans. i know that we are still individuals who are trying to evacuate people from afghanistan. the process is preventing them from doing so. >> his new book is "promises

debetrayed." thank you for being with us. joining us is ben rhodes. this goes back not just the year, of course, the year ago when the last u.s. troops left, but the original agreement made by donald trump with the taliban, the trump administration, without factoring in that very flawed government in afghanistan, but there's a big but. the military said, leave 2,500 troops. don't close the air base. that decision, a lot of the military officials say was critical. ben? >> i think when you look back at the withdrawal, the things that stood out is one bagram was closed, a hub for u.s. military activity, you saw a rapid deterioration of the circumstance. you saw a lack of capacity to evacuate afghans in that window of time between president

biden's announcement and the chaotic withdrawal at the end of august. therefore, they had to get as many people out in that short window as they could. i want to point out something that's important. i hear from a lot of afghans and people trying to resettle afghans who did get out in that evacuation but are stuck in the uae or in albania, in places where they are not welcome and they have no place to go forward to. a lot of those people could qualify based on the service they rendered. i hope we continue to try to do right by them. >> let's turn to ukraine. this is another conflict where we have huge challenges right now. now the u.n. nuclear inspectors have gotten to kyiv. we have seen them there today. these u.n. inspectors have a big challenge when they get to that nuclear facility. because the russians occupy it. the russians are going to give

them limited access to check safety. the ukrainian operators have been there. they have been under terrible conditions. the place is still in the middle of a combat zone. it's being used as a fort. >> yeah. i think what you need is you need damage assessment at that facility. what are the risks? what needs to be done to stabilize things there? then you need an action plan how to implement that. it's well and good that team is on the ground. that's an important step. you need some assurance you will have qualified people that are going to run that plant in a safe way to not endanger the civilian areas even as you have this conflict going around it. this is just one very delicate and dangerous piece of real estate in the middle of a war zone that's going to have to be secured. at the same time that the war is fluid. you have ukrainians announcing a counter offensive. ukraine trying to make progress in the south, anticipating war fatigue among supporters,

particularly in europe. this is a very fluid stage of the conflict. all eyes should be on that nuclear facility given the risks involved. >> ben rhodes, thank you very much. thanks on all counts. washed away. extreme flooding around this country leaving dozens dead and billions in damage. why are we seeing these devastating events? why we will see more in the future. "andrea mitchell reports" continues in just a moment.

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let's hear about this #7 pick, from a former #7 pick. juicy rotisserie-style chicken. you should've been #1. this isn't about the sandwich, is it chuck? it's not. the new subway series. what's your pick? severe weather is impacting millions of americans across the country. in mississippi nearly 200,000 residents in jackson are facing a water crisis after their water system was severely damaged by the latest flooding. the governor has declared a state of emergency and activating the national guard. >> replacing our largest city's infrastructure of running water with human distribution is a massively complicated logistical task. we need to provide it for up to 180,000 people for an unknown period of time. please stay safe.

do not drink the water. >> katherine joins me now, the chief scientist for the conservancy. this is a disaster. this is the entire capital of jackson, mississippi. and who knows what the situation elsewhere in the state. >> it illustrates how these disasters are three things. first of all, the extreme weather event. second of all, the exposer, the number of people in the infrastructure that's exposed to this hazard. and third of all, the vulnerability, how prepared or unprepared are we for the impacts. where you see the disaster is where all three of those factors coming through together like we see in jackson, mississippi, today. >> the u.s. has already experienced 5,000 year flood events.

climate change is just loading the dice against us making heavy rainfall more frequent. we'll see more storms moving from the midwest to the northeast today. so how do we cobat that in the near term or is there any way? >> you're absolutely right. climate change is loading the weather dice against us taking naturally occurring events and making them stronger, even more devastating, even more dangerous. we are not only seeing this in the united states. right now today, over 30 million people in pakistan are displaced because of historic rains. paris in france experienced record flooding after a major drought and heat wave. i live in dallas, fx, where we had significant flooding. we're seeing this all around the world as a result of a warming planet. what do we need to do? we need to reduce our emissions as much as possible, as soon as possible, the heat-trapping gases that wrapping an extra

blanket around our planet. we need to build resilience and take as much carbon out of the atmosphere through nature-based solutions as welk. there's no silver bullet, but is when it comes to climate solutions. >> in pakistan, more than a thousand people have already tied this. the secretary general is heading that way. it's tragic and covering an area the size of colorado. >> what we're seeing is a pat herb both in pakistan as well as here in the u.s., which is the people who are already vulnerable or they don't have insurance for their home, those are the people who are most impacted even though they are the very one who is have done the least to cause the problem in the first place. and that's why these climate impacts are not fair.

>> it's just so cruel and i don't know how the world can rally in these immediate emergencies, put there's a long-term solution and that's something that really does require legislation. so that's a political problem as well. katherine, thank you very much for your insights today. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." follow us online on facebook and on twitter. and i'll be back in a moment in for chris jansing today. stay with us after these brief messages. ssages ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ aleve x. its revolutionary rollerball design delivers fast, powerful, long-lasting pain relief.

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good afternoon, i'm andrea mitchell in for chris jansing. president biden returning to pennsylvania in the battle for the soul of america. just a few hours the president set to speak about crime in pennsylvania. kicking off the first of three trips to the state this week. critical to defeating donald trump in 2020. in that speech today, he's going to be playing offense pushing back on maga republican who is have called for defunding the fbi calling that a threat to our rule of law and pointing to the white house funding the hiring of 100,000 police. and growing on the contrast that he's been trying to paint between democrats and that wing of the republican