♪♪ beautiful shot of the golden gate bridge in san francisco this morning. welcome back to the fourth hour of "morning joe." 9:00 a.m. in the east coast, 6:00 a.m. out west. we've got a lot to get to this morning including new reporting

from nbc news on how some republican senate candidates are looking to turn the page in a fall starting with a major ad blitz. that comes as for the first time ever voters seem lukewarm, the ones who are lukewarm on sitting president joe biden, still plan to vote for his party in november. >> and we've been saying this for some time between the president's approval ratings and the generic ballot tests, joe biden is now in the mid-40s according to gallop and other polls. >> we'll talk about that. and longtime trump ally steve bannon expects to be charged in a state criminal case -- >> again? >> stemming into an investigation into his role in a charity that was supposed to have used private funds to build the wall of the u.s./mexico border. >> but didn't do it and isn't

that really what donald trump did lying about the stop the steal money, where he got hundreds of millions of dollars and lied about the money being used for that -- again, here's another example, here's another parallel between what somebody else does and they get charged and donald trump doesn't because, of course, we have learned over the past six years that donald trump, up until now, at least, has been above the law. >> as for steve bannon, we'll explain how a pardon from then-president trump for the same charges doesn't protect bannon this time. also ahead, bracing for blackouts. extreme heat out west pushing california's power grid to the limits as officials are now pleading with residents to limit their electricity use. a lot to get to this hour. willie? >> we'll have more on that in just a minute. but let's start with the reporting from "the washington post." people familiar with the matter telling the people a document

describing a foreign government's nuclear secrets was among the top secret items the fbi seized from mar-a-lago about a month ago. let's bring in one of the reporters behind that report, national investigate reporter carol leonnig. good morning. it's good to see you. i want to read from you piece, documents about such highly classified operations require special clearances on a need-to-know basis. not just top secret clearance. some special access programs can have as few as a couple dozen government personnel authorized to know of an operation's existence. records are kept under lock and key in a secure compartmented information facility with a designated control officer to keep careful tabs on their location. but such documents were stored at mar-a-lago with uncertain security. more than 18 months after trump left the white house. carol, let's be clear about what kind of documents we're talking about here.

you just laid out how secure they really are and even if you work in the national security apparatus high up, that's no guarantee that you can have eyes on this stuff. what kind of documents are we talked about specifically here. >> there are two buckets of documents that we discovered and thought was news worthy enough to publish this story. the first bucket was information that describes or details a foreign government's nuclear capability. and nuclear capability is pretty vague. it could be anything from a foreign government's attempt to build a nuclear program or its nuclear readiness now to wage nuclear war. we don't know. but that's the first bucket of records. the second bucket of records that we learned were extraordinarily sensitive and seized at trump's mar-a-lago club were records that were so extraordinarily sensitive that they involved the most secretive

programs of the united states to the degree that only a president, a cabinet-level official, or somebody of a cabinet rank could authorize persons to review the records. so to put that in perspective, people who were at the top of the biden administration of national security, many of them were not able to look at these records. and yet they were stored for 18 months at especially, you know, a beach club. unknown at this point under what kind of lock and key. normally these kinds of documents not only are they so closely guarded that only certain people can be authorized to be reviewing them on a need-to-know basis, but they are also so sensitive that there are special protocols for the kinds of facilities they're stored in, the lock and key measures that are used for saves or vaults where they're kept and also there is a special protocol for

tracking whenever those documents are removed from their locked facility to be reviewed, say, by a president or national security adviser. there's a protocol for tracking when those documents are removed and making sure they're returned to their safe locked position. obviously that's not how they were kept in mar-a-lago. the fact that individuals at the top echelons of our government couldn't review these records because they didn't have the clearance to do so is really worrisome because nobody at mar-a-lago would have the clearance to review this information. >> you know, carol, this week -- this weekend and i guess yesterday -- or the day before, former attorney general barr had said there were really no precedence for a president taking documents like this to mar-a-lago, to a beach club,

taking it out of a government facility just never happened before. i'm curious, this level of top-secret classification, have we seen that -- it's more of a rhetorical question but i'm going to ask it anyway. have we seen anything this sensitive in any of the cases we've heard about? hillary clinton's server, director petraeus, sandy berger? those high-profile cases where cia directors and national security advisers got in trouble with the law? has anything ever approached this law of sensitivity? >> even though your question, joe, is rhetorical and important, i will just say that, you know, it's easy to say absolutely not. i would say my gut instinct is absolutely not. i know the details of hillary

clinton's server materials, the inspector general's review of those documents, i know the details of what sandy berger put in his suit pocket, john deutsch, i know a little bit less about, but i would say it's almost impossible to conceive that any of the records reached this level. you know, imagine the defense department's black ops for inserting itself in a government that's unstable and trying to keep the unstable government from being toppled by a coup. that's the kind of program, the level of security we're talking about, where a dozen or two dozen people are aware of it. no, that kind of material has not been in other cases before. and i would add one more thing to your question, joe, which is, i've been getting calls from people in the last 24 hours, trump team, trump world individuals, i'll describe them.

people who have been associated with the former president, and they said this is a completely self-inflicted gunshot wounds. these are documents that should have returned. just as bill barr said, there is no doubt in the world that these are the government's records, they need protection, they're not donald trump's. and these individuals say donald trump is paying a political price for the information that's leaking out and the information that's being revealed in our reporting, that he had lots of opportunities to return things that he knew were sensitive. >> so, carol, did your sources tell you whether these nuclear secrets from another nation involved a country that already had obtained nuclear weapons or from a country that was developing nuclear weapons, like iran? >> it's exactly the right question, one we've been asking repeatedly. but we do not -- we have not met

the standard for publishing this information. we do not know with certainty and we won't publish until we do. >> and have your sources confirmed to you that it was these nuclear documents that ultimately was the trigger that made the fbi, made the department of justice realize they had no other choice but to actually move in with a legal search and get these documents back under lock and key. >> the answer to that question, i'm going to be a little fuzzy about and just say that our information right now and more things will be learned, no doubt, and we will publish them as we learn them with certainty, but our information right now is that the government did not know with certainty that this is what they would find. instead, they wanted to be extremely broad, extremely careful and comprehensive. in their subpoena in may for all

the records at the -- all the records at mar-a-lago, they asked for every classification marking almost under the sun and it included the classification that covers these nuclear weapon and nuclear capability records. but our information at the moment is they didn't know with certainty this was what they would find and, indeed, it is what they found. >> "washington post" national investigative reporter, carol leonnig, thank you. incredible work. looking forward to more. really appreciate it. >> thank you so much for being with us, carol. >> that's quite a revelation. >> and willie, just one thing that we've learned from talking to carol, that there -- we still don't know. we've been showing pictures of countries that have already acquired nuclear weapons. but carol right now couldn't confirm that it was one of those countries or perhaps a country

like iran who is developing nuclear weapons and i must say it would be far different if you were talking about the united kingdom or israel and where they were with nuclear capabilities versus, say, iran or another country that was trying to develop nuclear capabilities. >> yeah. we just don't know at this point. we may find out down the road. but the fact remains the more we hear about the story, the more that's published, the more that's disclosed, the worse it gets. they can't waive this off as a bunch of insignificant documents, as a paperwork issue or a storage issue. these are classified documents. some of them so top secret that high-level national security officials can't see them, are not allowed to see them that were stashed away at mar-a-lago. that's just the bottom-line truth for everything else you here from his defenders, that's the truth. >> and just to give everybody an idea of how protected this

information is, i remember in the late 1990s sitting on the armed services committee and having a classified briefing and being warned that it was a classified briefing and to not let any of the information get out about that briefing. and i discussed it before on the show, before we knew about the specifics of this, i remember that briefing was where north korea and their nuclear program would be in 10, 15, 20 years. so a nuclear assessment of where a country was going with their nuclear program decades down the road was classified. yet donald trump has documents in his beach resort of where they are today which shows you, again, just how extraordinarily sensitive that information was.

and the fact that he took it out of a government building and had it in his beach resort and it wasn't even secured could not have been secured adequately. it just shows how reckless he was and how this was politically a self-inflicted wound. >> and the question remains why. it's one you've been asking this morning. why did he take this material home with him? what was the plan? we heard a couple days ago it was because he wanted to preserve them for the trump library which is not how that works at all, putting things in your library, put them in your basement from the white house. why? why does he have them? we'll find out. and i suspect there are a lot of people in the justice department doing just that right now. meanwhile, more trouble in his orbit. nearly two years after being pardoned by then-president trump in a federal fraud case, steve bannon is expected to face a new criminal indictment in new york. the former trump strategist will surrender to new york state

prosecutors tomorrow. the manhattan district attorney's office would not confirm or comment on that report. but bannon himself seemed to confirm that in a statement last night. the da's office opened an investigation into bannon's connection with we build the wall. he pocketed $1 million in the scheme. he was then, though, pardoned by trump in that case. we should point out, presidential pardons extend only to federal cases and charges and not to state ones. so to jog people's memories, joe, the federal case that he was pardoned on was the one where he was pulled off a yacht two summers ago. he was pardoned in that case. remember, just two months ago, steve bannon was convicted of contempt of congress and now he says he's going to turn himself in tomorrow in this state case being handled by the manhattan da that looks like it's on that

potential fraud committed around we build the wall organization where a lot of people pocketed money from supporters that was supposed to go to build the wall on the southern border. >> and we talk about how trumpers are always trying to distract -- trumpers in congress, trumpers in the media, always trying to distract. nobody talking about why would he take top secret documents that even members of his own cabinet couldn't see because they were so highly classified unless they had special reason to see it. and of course when things start looking bad there, they make up a conspiracy theory about the irs going in and kicking down doors in iowa with ar-15s and killing iowans and middle-class americans. steve bannon gets in trouble for fraud, this guy keeps getting in trouble, and what does he do? he does the old, blame a jew

routine. that's his defense. if you look at his statement last night, it's a jew's fault. it's george soros' fault. it couldn't be that he committed fraud. he blames george soros. and a disturbing report about the largest nuclear power plant in europe saying a safe zone needs to be put in place immediately to avoid disaster. we'll have a report from ukraine. plus, republican candidates in key states try to turn the page after a somewhat difficult summer on the campaign trail. but now infighting between top gop senate officials could hamper the reset. >> these races, by the way, they're all going to be close in the end. and how democrats are winning the so-called meh voter. meh. how that could swing the midterm election?

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6:22 in the morning. wow. it's a beautiful shot. 9:22 here on the east coast. donald trump announced he will hold a rally with ohio's republican senate nominee jd vance next week. it's scheduled at the same time the beloved buckeyes of ohio state play toledo. tim ryan tweeted a photoshowing the scheduling conflict saying, dude just doesn't get it. >> he really doesn't.

by the way, you talk to republican donors and they will tell you the same thing that tim ryan is saying right now, that actually jd vance has just been an incredibly lazy candidate. this is according to gop fund raisers and also people inside the republican party that the guy seems disinterested, gets in fights with gop donors, doesn't act like he wants to be out there. man, there's -- there are better ways to spend your summer and fall than getting involved in something that you clearly hate, and this butters guy clearly does not like doing this as much as he likes being in silicon valley conferences with those little vests on that all those silicon valley guys do at those conferences and everything. exactly. and sipping -- what do they sip there. it used to be lattes. but it's probably some bubbly drink.

what do they sell? >> bubble tea. i don't know. >> probably green tea. chased with some avocado. >> chai. >> it's great. i'm not knocking people who do that, okay? >> it's been a slow fund-raising summer overall. >> bottom line is, this guy doesn't act like he wants to be out there, doesn't act like he wants to be campaigning and so if you don't like campaigning in ohio and you don't like seeing people, just schedule your event when the buckeyes play. >> it's like scheduling a rally in alabama up against the tide. you just don't do it. he's having trouble raising money. he has a couple of big backers who can pump money into his campaign but he's been outraised by a lot by tim ryan. polling shows them neck and neck. it's going to be a tight race. that's in a state that was plus eight for donald trump last time

around and really has gone red in the last few cycles. tim ryan, a guy whose credentials as a native ohioan aren't in question is doing well in a state that should be tough for him. >> it's been a slow fund-raising summer overall for the republican party and in an attempt to make up lost ground, republican campaign groups are planning a nine-figure ad blitz in key states. let's bring in senior national political reporter sahil kapur. he's author of the new nbc report entitled gop senate hopefuls look to emerge from a summer slump, but fall recriminations are already flying. tell us more. >> reporter: the cavalry is arriving for candidates who have spent the summer struggling with one crisis after another. they're far behind the eight ball. republican donors are nervous.

the campaign committee has a major cash crunch right now and they're relying on this outside group called the leadership fund. they have $169 million ad blitz planned between now, this week, really starting yesterday, and the election day to bombard the airwave and is try to recover lost ground for these republican candidates. it goes across eight states. they've had to move some reservations around, some of the stuff was booked earlier, they're canceling some ad buys for a short period of time in arizona. even they have had to recalibrate. republicans had expected to be in a commanding position by this point on labor day. and it's not looking like a sure thing at all. in fact, right now if you ask most analysts you would probably rather be the democrats than the republicans. there's still time to recover this. but those recriminations are already beginning which is not a great sign for republicans. there's already finger-pointing, some of them say it's rick

scott's fault, some of them say it's mitch mcconnell's fault, some of them say it's donald trump's fault, and some say it's all three of them, that they need to figure this out, find a way to unify. they've been struggling to do that while democrats seem unusually galvanized by various things, most notably the supreme court's abortion decision. >> stay with us for this next story. voters who are lukewarm on president biden still plan to support democratic candidates this fall by and large citing pew research. amy walter writes this, among the 17% of voters say they somewhat disapprove of biden, 43% say they're planning to vote democratic this fall compared to 29%. those who are meh about biden are voting for democrats. this is not something we've seen before. amy notes as well in the last five midterm elections for which

pew had data, somewhat disapprovers of the sitting president have never been this supportive of his party in the upcoming election. and amy joins us now. i'll let you flesh this out a little bit. president biden's approval numbers have come up some, a couple of polls showing him up in the 45% range in the last couple of weeks. but this is an interesting question. people say, i don't have strong feelings or i don't really love joe biden, but is this just a rejection of what they're seeing on the other side of the ticket? >> that's a -- that's the question, right? and what we know normally in midterm elections is that about 90% of the people who disapprove of the sitting president vote against that president's party, against the candidate down ballot of that president's party and those who say they think the president is doing a good job or pretty good job vote for that party. but here we have as i cited in

that story from pew research that suggests that we've never had voters who are, like, they don't deeply dislike the president, but they said they don't really like him that much saying, you know, for now, i would go with a democratic candidate over a republican and i think we have a couple of factors at play. one is that so many of these voters are younger. they may be democratic leaning, they're upset with biden for different reasons. maybe that he's not progressive enough. but they look at the other side and they say, i can't show up and vote for republicans. and i think we've been seeing this pattern, willie, for quite some time. remember in 2016 there was that small but important group of voters who said, i don't like hillary clinton, i don't like donald trump, i've got to pick one of them, and in the end they broke disproportionately for donald trump. these conflicted voters, voters who say, i don't know, i have

two terrible choices, the big question for democrats is, will they show up and vote at all? they're younger, they're not as engaged in elections. for democrats, keeping those folks focused on the things that make them angry about republicans, namely abortion but also donald trump. >> you mentioned abortion. a new "wall street journal" poll finds abortion access is changing the political landscape ahead of the midterms. democrats are now beating republicans in the generic congressional ballot. 47% to 44%. while that is within the poll's margin of error, republicans had a five-point advantage over democrats in march. so much has changed. voters pointed to the overturning of roe v. wade as the single issue more likely to make them vote in november. that is ahead of four other issues tested including inflation, border security, gun violence and the fbi search of

mar-a-lago. white suburban women, a key group moved by the abortion issue, have shifted to democrats by a margin of 52 to 40%. case in point, michigan where new polling shows a growing lead for governor gretchen whitmer. the democrat has a 13-point advantage over tudor dixon. that's up two points from polling done in early july. the detroit news points to the issue of abortion as a reason for whitmer's large lead. it's ahead of inflation, education and the economy. huge issues. the lead pollster told the detroit news the election should, quote, be about democratic president joe biden and it's not, it's about abortion. dixon has made headlines for her hard-line stance on the procedure last month. she told a detroit tv station

that she opposes exceptions for rape and rape victims could find healing through having the baby. >> she also said that a 14-year-old raped by her uncle should be forced -- compelled by the state to have the baby and said that a 14-year-old being raped by her uncle was the perfect example. her words. as to why she doesn't believe in exceptions for rape or incest even for 14-year-old girls. amy, obviously the extreme position taken by many republican candidates from arizona to michigan, even scaring off people who have traditionally referred to them as prolife voters.

and it now has an -- i know you do this every day. you have to be hearing this all the time. but what i keep hearing from republican pollsters and democratic pollsters are, we just don't know if any of these numbers are going to be right. and they'll point to kansas. like the prolife forces are supposed to win by two points, they lost by 18 or 19. they're saying, we're doing the best we can do, but we have no idea who is going to come out and vote. kansas taught us that. >> that's right. and these turnout -- low turnout elections where democrats did a lot better than they were supposed to as well. what happens when we have regular turnout. i talked to the same folks probably that you do, lots of strategists out there doing the shruggy emoji. we don't know. this is the first time in 50 years we've had to confront this. what's the most surprising, joe, is that everybody saw this coming.

as soon as that decision came down in june, there were republican candidates who could have seen that -- that it was a potential issue and moderated themselves. they know the issue of abortion, most voters are somewhere within the 40-yard line. they want some exceptions, but they don't want abortion without any restrictions at all. what instead happened was, so many of these primaries produced the most extreme candidates and i think republicans were just hoping that they could push through the economy, ignore abortion and the economy would drive them through. the special election in new york proved that that is not enough. so my big question is, what do republicans do now? we've seen some of them sort of go in and scrub their websites of references to abortion, but many of them are on tape making these claims, tudor dixon being

a prime example of this with no exceptions whatsoever. are we going to see republicans now go in and start trying to protect themselves or proactively try to moderate themselves in the way we've seen democrats try to preemptively push away attacks from republicans about being soft on crime, about defunding the police. we've seen so many democrats come out, try to take that off the table, but we just haven't seen republicans do that on abortion. >> publisher and editor in chief of the cook political report, amy walter. thank you so much for coming on this morning. >> thanks a lot, amy. >> tell us -- at the end of the day, are you sensing with the new funding blitz for republicans, are you sensing the belief by dr. oz's campaign, by

the ohio candidate, by masters in arizona, are you sensing growing confidence that those races are going to tighten up and we may actually have sort of a return to normalcy in those states where, you know, in ohio that's a plus eight republican state. it shouldn't be this close. are they feeling a bit of a lift from this money coming in? >> tighten up, absolutely, joe. the idea that pennsylvania, which is such a close competitive state could be double digits as it is in some polls for john fetterman does not pass the smell test. everyone expects that race to tighten up, including in pennsylvania as well as arizona where mark kelly has a significant lead. to your point, i would call it more a hope than a confidence among these republican candidates that this money coming in from the senate leadership fund will help them. specifically what these groups are going to try to do is go negative here. make this -- try to refocus this

election, make it about biden, biden, biden, inflation, inflation, inflation, talk about anything except abortion. if you really think about it, this group that's allied with mitch mcconnell, mcconnell's masterpiece for elections was 2014. that was the seinfeld election. it was a show about nothing. he just made it all about president obama, don't talk about any of your positions, be a blank slate and try to win over this universe of swing voters who are not happy with the way things are going but are generally okay with both parties and will support the party out of power. as you were just talking about with amy, voters don't seem to be reacting that way this time. voters don't seem -- many of them, at least, don't see two viable parties for them. the fact that donald trump is back in the spotlight makes it hard for republicans to make this is a referendum as opposed to a choice. so these republicans certainly have their work cut out for them. >> senior national political

reporter for nbc news, sahil kapur. thank you very much for your reporting this morning. >> great to have you on. thank you so much i need to go to willie for a second. willie, we just got -- i just got something -- hold on -- from our silicon valley chief beverage correspondent out there, who has done reporting on beverages that are drunk at conferences -- >> chai latte. >> no, no. this is fascinating. it's something that perhaps -- well, he can tell us about. kombucha, tea fungus. i'm sure candidate butters when he was wearing that vest -- >> patgonia.

probably patgonia. it's a sweetened black tea commonly consumed for its reported health benefits. sometimes it's called kombucha tea to distinguish it from the culture of bacteria and yeast that is drawn from. this is from, again, john and that's probably maybe, who knows, maybe if butters becomes senator, he can have people -- >> he can be a kombucha candidate -- >> god only knows what he's cooking up in his lab in his basement in brooklyn. you and i, joe, we stand by drinking berry blast mountain dew before the show. and that will be served at our conference if we ever have one -- >> up next -- >> sometimes i pour it over

tricks. captain crunch -- >> i love crunch berries. okay. >> lucky charms. that's good stuff. i even -- sometimes i can find some boxes of -- you pour typical mountain dew over that. that gets you going all day. it's really great stuff -- >> up next. >> it's not kombucha, but it's -- it does the trick for me. >> thank you. up next, the latest from ukraine after u.n. inspectors release a startling report after their time inside europe's largest nuclear power plant. alexander vindman who was just in ukraine joins us next. plus, a terrifying moment played out live on air for a local tv anchor and now she's using the health scare to educate others about important warning signs. we'll have her story when morning joe returns. n morning joe returns.

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a remarkable story out of oklahoma this morning where julie chin, the anchor for our nbc affiliate in tulsa is recovering, we're happy to say, after she experienced what likely was the beginning of a stroke while on the air. sam brock has the story. >> reporter: as difficult as it is to watch -- >> tulsa -- are -- the tulsa -- space museum -- >> reporter: julie chin experiencing a medical episode on live television. >> a launch today at the -- at the -- at the event -- >> reporter: which she now says doctors diagnosed as the beginnings of a stroke. the anchor and journalist from nbc affiliate in tulsa is producing smiles four days later after saturday's on-air scare. >> there's nothing you can't handle, tv news. well, i guess god got me on that one. >> reporter: julie getting

through it with help from her co-workers who said recognized she was having a medical emergency and called 911. >> we needed to make sure that julie was getting attention. >> reporter: in a facebook post, the emmy award winner writing a simple thank you before detailing what happened saying the episode seemed to have come out of nowhere. i felt great before our show. first, losing partial vision in her eye, then she said her hand and arm went numb. finally she was unable to read the words on the teleprompter. >> and i thought my contact is not in my eye right. >> reporter: she turned the show over to her colleague. >> i'm sorry. something is going on with me this morning and i apologize to everybody. let's send it over to our metrologist. >> reporter: she wants to make sure others recognize the warning signs of a stroke. perhaps most importantly, time

is of the essence. if you're experiencing any of those symptoms, seek medical help as soon as possible. >> hopefully this story helps somebody else. >> sam brock reporting for us there. so glad julie is doing well this morning. coming up next here, there are now urgent calls for action in ukraine to prevent a nuclear meltdown at europe's largest power plant. as we go to break, an update on that record heat wave out west as well, as more than 30,000 residents in the san francisco bay area yesterday lost power due to heat-related issues. temperatures in the region broke all-time highs in half a dozen cities. scientists say the heat wave is heightened by climate change. we'll be right back. be right ba. an amusement park is like whooping cough,

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6:51 there, 9:51 here. urging russia and ukraine to establish a nuclear safety and security protection zone around europe's largest nuclear power plant after inspectors found serious damage there. nbc megan fitzgerald has more. >> reporter: this morning there are fears the zaporizhzhia nuclear plant in southern ukraine is accelerating towards a potential disaster after five days inside the plant, a report just released by a team of u.n. watchdog inspectors found seven pillars of nuclear safety have been significantly compromised including physical integrity of the plant, safety and security systems not fully functioning and urging concerns about an off site power supply. >> a nuclear power plant without external power supply may lose crucial functionalities including the cooling of the reactors and the spent fuel without this we could have a serious nuclear accident.

>> reporter: artillery strikes on monday caused a fire at the plant forcing the only working reactor to be disconnected from the grid. ukraine and russia traded blame for intense shelling around the facility. >> we are playing with fire and something very, very catastrophic could take place. >> reporter: meanwhile, a senior u.s. defense official tells nbc news moscow is also in the process of buying millions of rockets and artillery shells from north korea, a move the white house says shows desperation as russia's weapon supply shortage intensifies. while u.k. intelligence suggests russian moral is deteriorating. we spoke with a former russian paratrooper who fled. he says the kremlin didn't tell the truth about the invasion so for me he said, just as for many others, the reason for this war did not correspondent to my moral world views. >> megan fitzgerald reporting from ukraine for us there.

as the war rages on, there is a million dollar scholarship for students studying in the united states. behind the scholarship program. gentlemen, thanks for being here. appreciate it. fascinated to hear from this colonial where the idea came from. you teamed up with gary casper and jose andres of world central kitchen as well and who will this help? tell us more about the program. >> this initiative started with daniel and his team, foundation looking to try to help as he's done throughout this war since the beginning he's been active and in various activities. we are connected through the renewed democracy initiative and that's what three out of four of the members of this particular

team are involved with rdi and looking to try to see how we can apply this prodemocracy activity we're already keenly interested in with what is going on in ukraine. having folks come in from ukraine, share what their experiences are defending democracy and what is going on on the ground and we share our values and educate and provide an education they can come home back to ukraine and after they win the war, they can also win the peace and reconstructing the country as a democratic economic power house. >> and daniel, talk about how this pilot program will help ukrainian college students already here studying in the united states. >> yeah, we felt that we want to start right away exerting 1,700 ukrainian students here. there is 700,000 students that have been impacted by the war over 2,000 educational institutions bombed over 200 completely decimated and colonel

vinmen and andres and i thought there is humanitarian work to do to help the students and take inspiration from the ukrainian people to remind all of us about the importance to defend democracy and work together to not take this values and freedoms for granted. >> yeah, you know, daniel, you're also of course the founder would start with us, which is a civic movement to fight polarization of the united states. i find it interesting that the ukrainian war, the invasion of ukraine has been one of a few issues that unite most americans that you night most politicians in washington d.c. i've said it time and again. i look for opportunities to commend my former party on the issue of the ukraine fight against russia for the most part, this has been a bipartisan effort. >> yeah, i think that's a very good point, joe. i think it reminds not just all

of us in the united states but across the western world about how we can't just take things for granted and how we can't take things lying down and to see inspiration from president zelenskyy and his people, who didn't take it that way and who just fought and given their lives literally and done everything to try to protect their democracy and their freedom from this attack and i take a lot of expression from my partners like colonial vinmen. what is interesting, joe, every one of us that co-founded this initiative are immigrants and all of us saw other things elsewhere like i was born in mexico city but my father was a holocaust survivor in a concentration camp. neither place was rule of law or democracy of freedom have achieve this potential and for all of us, we adopted the united states as our home to see it threatened and see orderly

transitions of power and democracy and even the amount of polarization that has been happening in our country scares all of us that this could happen anywhere. you know, nobody thought it would happen and republican german was a democracy. >> as you say, you've seen that firsthand in your family. colonel vindman, we've been talking about zaporizhzhia and the concerns there and more broadly your view where the war stands and what more or what else the united states could be doing to help the effort. >> more than six months into the war it's a very dynamic war, very hot war from a geopolitical space, you have russia basically banning a gas supply to europe, which means it's going to cut itself off from the european market way long past this war gets into a more static phase. there are price caps going on russian oil, which means russia will start to have significant budget effects and on the battle

field in ukraine, it's been an amazing week with ukrainians making significant gains in the northwest -- correction, the northwest around kharkiv making, you know, a small offensive but taking a lot of ground as well as gaining ground around kherson. so the russians are on their heels in multiple different areas, both kind of gio politically as well as the battle field itself. it's going to get harder for them. the question is do we -- does this come to an end before there is a natural disaster or man-made disaster? and that nuclear power plant potentially meltdown would be something that affects russia, ukraine but frankly the whole region. >> the iaea sounding the alarm about that. retired u.s. army lieutenant colonel alexander vindman. thank you both for being here and good on you for this scholarship program for ukrainian students. we appreciate you coming in. that wraps things up for us.

jose diaz balart picks up coverage now. good morning, 10:00 a.m. eastern, 7:00 a.m. pacific. i'm jose diaz balart. two developments involving former president donald trump and his associates, the first a new report with details that the documents seized by the fbi in mar-a-lago included a foreign government's nuclear capabilities and in less than 24 hours, steve bannon is set to turn himself in to face state charges in a criminal case. we'll break down what we are learning next. meanwhile, in uvalde, five officers from the state's top law enforcement agency are now under investigation for their response to the massacre at robb elementary. in ukraine, what officials are considering as fears of a major disaster at europe's largest nuclear power plant grow. out west, california's power grid is being pushed to the brink as residents