don't want to go back to the law and order state where people of color are put in prison for a long time when they shouldn't be, but i also don't think my toothpaste should be locked up at the duane reade. >> i couldn't get batteries yesterday. >> there's the intellect cat word and standing up for what you believe in and not saying anything that is actually offensive or racist. >> i think the most sensitive -- i loved the governor of utah when he was talking about this issue, about people who have transitioned and whether they should be excluded or not. of course, his veto was overwritten, but he talked about, we have to remember the humanity on both sides. the humanity of those who want to swim and those who want to compete and we need to balance and interest and always remain compassionate and humane. >> all right. that's very lovely, joe. that does it for us -- >> is that the way you tell me

to -- >> yeah. zip it. >> that does it. jose diaz-balart picks up the coverage right now. and good morning, 10:00 a.m., 7:00 a.m. pacific. i'm jose diaz-balart and we are just five days away from the critical midterm elections with many key races neck and neck. president biden and former president trump hit the trail. we are live in two battleground states this morning. plus, the economy is top of mind for many voters as things like mortgages, credit cards, loan payments will soon be even more expensive. we'll talk to president biden's senior adviser public engagement and keisha lance bottoms including biden's warning to the nation about the threat to democracy. also north korea just launched another suspected intercontinental ballistic missile. we'll have a live report from seoul. back here at home, the feds say they busted a nationwide crime

ring involving the theft of catalystic converters. we'll break down the details of the operation worth more than half a billion dollars. >> and we begin this morning with our top story. candidates around the country are now making their final campaign pitches to voters with just five days until election day. so far over 30 million people have already made their voices heard at the ballot box, and both parties are pulling in major political stars in hopes of getting an 11th-hour boost. today former president trump kicks off his major campaign blitz for his republican allies including tonight in iowa. president biden will head west to new mexico and california before holding a joint event with president obama in philadelphia this weekend in that heated senate race in pennsylvania. all this just hours after

president biden in a prime time speech said that democracy is on the ballot. >> as i stand here today, there are candidates running for every level of office in america, for governor, congress, attorney general, secretary of state who won't commit. they will not commit to beinga senting the result of the election that they're runninging in. this is about the caste in america. you can't love your country only when you win. >> joining us now keisha lance bottoms, senior adviser to the president. good to see you this morning. thank you for being with us. >> thank you for having me. >> the president emphasize the need to protect democracy in the american experiment. what has this administration done to protect that, those sacred institutions. >> we heard the president speak last night reminding everyone how important our democracy is.

it's not something that we can take for granted. the administration has continued to work through the department of justice and homeland security and working with local and state election officials, making sure that we are giving up-to-date threat assessments. as of now there are no credible threats towardses any polling places on election day, but just the fact that we are having to have this conversation in 2022 really speaks to the necessity of the speech that the president gave last night. >> and so, for example, like your reaction to it. senate minority leader mitch mcconnell that read, quote, president biden is desperate to change the subject from inflation, crime, open borders. now he's claiming that democracy only works if his party wins. americans aren't buying it. what's the white house response to the criticism that the

administration isn't speaking enough to the also critical issues of the economy, et cetera, to the american people? well, the president has been out on the road and if anyone has been paying attention they want to remind the american people that this uptick in crime was experienced in 2020 and this is when this began and the people know who the president was at the time. president biden is very much aware of the issues and challenges facing our country. for he's been out on the road speaking about these issues and reminding these people what this administration has done to make their lives better including through the inflation reduction act, making sure that prescription drug costs are capped, making sure that the cost of insulin is capped, student loan debt relief and the list goes on. >> so, keisha, you're saying

that the uptick in crime is due to president trump? >> i am saying that i served as mayor in 2020 and we experienced this uptick in crime in 2020. this is where it began, but that being said it's not to place blame on any one person, but it is to say that there are many challenges facing the american people. the president's very aware of that but to lay blame at his feet for one challenge or another is unfair. president biden thinks about the american people each and every day. he gets up each and every day with the american people in mind and how he can create and implement policies that will make the lives of the american people better. again, i said i was mayor. i served as mayor during one of the most difficult times in our country's history. i know that when the biden-harris administration came into office the tide changed for us. not just in atlanta, but cities across america through the

american rescue plan funds. we were able to directly put money towards crime intervention programs. we were able to make sure that our police officers had the equipment that they needed and that we were able to pay our sanitation workers and make ends meet in a way that we were not able to do that before the biden-harris administration came to office. >> on wednesday, the federal reserve raised interest rate again as the economy and the cost of living are the top issues on voters' minds. what is the white house doing on those specific issues? >> well, as you know, the fed is an independent body, but the white house has a very talented team of economic advisers continuing to focus on the things that this administration has the ability to impact. we know that the onmarket is very strong. under this administration, 10 million jobs have been created and preserved.

700,000 of those jobs have been in the manufacturing sector with the chips act and with the inflation reduction act. we are seeing more jobs and more companies put things in line that will help employment across the nation. so, of course, the administration continues to work with its economic advisors to continue to implement policies that will impact the daily lives of people and give them an opportunity to have jobs that pay a decent living wage. >> keisha, the president is out campaigning on his allies and can we expect an announcement on his decision to run in 2024 soon? >> i'm standing right in front of the white house so any decisions or announcements of the president's plans, of course, will not come from me, but as the president has said he will make an announcement or he will share more after the midterm elections. >> and keisha, finally, there's been so much talk about georgia

and voting. there's been a record advance, early warning or early voting pattern in georgia. how do you see that going forward? >> well, it's very encouraging and you can't think about elections without thinking about congressman lewis who was my congressman. he reminded us that the right to vote is almost sacred. he also said he was concerned he would wake up one day and our democracy would be gone. ambassador andrew young, when we saw these efforts come through georgia where you can't give out water in lines and where drop bockes were removed across the state and he reminded all of us that in spite of these things we still have to get out and vote. i'm inspired that we're seeing the numbers that we're seeing in georgia, and i really hope that those numbers continue through election day. >> keisha lance bottoms, it was great seeing you.

i thank you so much for being with us this morn. i really appreciate your time. >> and joining us now, cnbc senior congressional correspondent ylan mui and brian chung, thank you for being with us. ylan, you've been watching how the issue of housing and homelessness has become a flashpoint issue in phoenix. what more can you tell us? >> yeah, jose. well, this area has the highest inflation rate of any major city in the country and a big part of that is housing. housing prices here have gone up 17% over the past year and as you've seen that number increase so has the number of homeless people and that's creating all of the tension between businesses and residents here. the homeless themselves who, of course, are living in tents and on the streets and between elected officials.

kari lake, the republican candidate says her strategy is they have to get treated or get moving. some people says that's too harsh and she says it's tough love. katie hobbs used to be a social worker and she's focused on affordable housing as well as a $200 million investment into a trust fund for the homeless. you can see, these are polar opposite strategies that show you how divided this is. >> what's the reaction to the president's prime time speech last night. what are you hearing there? >> so i was at a campaign event with kari lake yesterday and remember, she is someone who has questioned the results of the 2020 presidential election. she's also repeated some false claims of election fraud. so i asked her to respond to the president's message that election deniers are a threat to democracy. >> the left is about silencing us, taking away our free speech.

that's going to be more destruct testify democracy. we will speak out against elections that are corrupt and not a damn way that any one of you say will take that right away from us. >> jose, clearly, she is leaning into her role here within the maga movement and it's blaming the media as being the real problem. we've heard that before. >> indeed. brian, meanwhile, the economy remains the top or a top issue for voters going into tuesday's contest and soon things like credit card debt will be more expensive. what are you seeing. >> when you talk about the economy, i have numbers to contextualize, and a lot of americans are feeling the crunch and it's not necessarily coming from the labor market. 3.5% unemployment and we'll get an updated figure tomorrow morning and that's the lowest we've seen since 1969, but what you have a job, what you don't like is the fact that your wages and earnings are getting eroded by this, 8.2% year over year inflation and a big part of

that, the largest expenditure is rent and how putting a roof over your head and that up by 7.2% nationally and that's why we've seen cost of living and the overall economy ranking among the top issues voters are going to the polls with as reported by a recent nbc news poll. >> so brian, you've been also taking a look at some key swing states. tell me what you're watching there. >> there are a number of battleground states and we want to highlight three specifically here. wisconsin, pennsylvania and arizona. i want to show you one stat for each of these that show you the different ways that inflation and the economy are entering the fold. $5.26. that is the amount for a gallon of milk in america's dairyland. that, by the way, is 32% higher than it was a year ago and underscores the rising food prices that we're seeing not just in dairy, but other things across the board and food lines at banks in wisconsin and around the country riding throughout

the past year and this is something that ylan was talking about. we've seen an increase in rent in the hot phoenix area where people have moved into the area even during the pandemic and rent going up by 21% and i spoke someone in the scottsdale area who saw their rent go up by 20%. you don't have the option to re-sign because guess what? everything else is going up contributing to the homelessness problem there. >> on the jobs market things look good, but take a look at this statistic. job postings down 28% in the state of pennsylvania since march. that tells you that the story is starting to change, perhaps, in the state of pennsylvania when you compare this to the national job postings decline of about 9%. in pennsylvania you're seeing employers start to pull back more aggressively and how much they need to hire ahead of next year. one explanation, they're bracing for a possible recession and that story on the market may be showing signs of cracking in each of these states and you're seeing the many ways in which

the economy is taking different shapes. >> so, brian. explain that to me. in pennsylvania it's 28% below and that's the number of jobs that are available and offereded there? >> the interpretation is job opening and it's the amount of job postings that employers like truckers and small businesses are putting online to try to hire people. we know there was a huge gap because there was a demand for services and goods and right now you're starting to see some anecdotes of employers and we're not going to get as aggressive in filling the job postings and they're different than the amount of people that you're hiring and it doesn't point to any sort of layoffs and it could be the first domino to fall if employers at some point in anticipation of recession want to down size to get ahead of that, and that number getting to where the healthy market is about to turn soon. >> thanks for explaining that to us. i appreciate it.

brian chung and ylan mui, thanks to you both. coming up, japan's coast guard said north korea fired another ballistic missile. hospitals pushed to the brink with children suffering from rsv. we'll talk to the physician and chief of one of children's hospital who says his state may need more resources for the national guard. you're watching jose diaz balart reports. rt reports. just buy any footlong in the app, and get one free. free monsters, free bosses, any footlong for free! this guy loves a great offer. so let's see some hustle! the abcs of ckd free monsters, free bosses, any footlong for free! a is for awareness, because knowing that your chronic kidney disease in type 2 diabetes could progress to dialysis is important. b is for belief that there may be more you can do. just remember that k is for kidneys and kerendia. for adults living with ckd in type 2 diabetes, kerendia is proven to reduce the risk of kidney failure,

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19 past the hour. breaking this morning, south korea says it just detected three short-range ballistic missiles fired from north korea and follows the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile overnight which appears to have failed according to a south korean government official and it's the late of the of a barrage of launches from north korea including missiles on wednesday. joining us from seoul, south korea, is raf sanchez. what more can you tell us about this launch? there's been a whole barrage of launches. >> this barrage just continues and continues, jose. there have been six missiles so far today. three in just the last hour or so, as you said and three more earlier today about 12 hours ago. now one of those earlier missiles, as you said, an icbm, an intercontinental ballistic missile and a south korean government official is telling

nbc news they suspect it's aiwa song-17. this is north korea's most advanced missile and this is a missile that, jose, in theory could hit inside the continental united states united states, miami, new york, washington, d.c., all in theory in range of this missile. it does look like the one they fired today failed. it appears to have fallen in the sea of japan, but it caused alerts to go off in japan because officials thought the missile would go all of the way over the island. people were told to seek cover in underground shelters and some of the bullet trains were halted. the u.s. has condemned that launch as a flagrant violation of u.n. security council resolutions and in response, the u.s. and south korea have said they are going to extend these massive military drills that they've been carrying out this week involving thousands of troops and hundreds of aircraft and we are expecting to hear more from lloyd off thein later today.

he's meeting at the pentagon with his south korean counterpart. the whole world now watching to see if this missile barrage is a prelude to a feared north korean nuclear test maybe to come. jose? >> raf sanchez in seoul, little south korea, thank you so much. they are providing russia with a significant number of artillery shells. >> to other korea denied intelligence support that it supplied weapons to russia and had no plans to do so. today antony blinken is in germany with fellow g7 ministers focusing on keeping the west united behind ukraine. also this morning, ukraine's largest nuclear power plant once again disconnected from the power grid following russian shelling according to the company. they will return to the agreement which allows shipments of grain to leave ukrainian

ports just days after russia announced it would leave the deal. joining us now nbc news pentagon correspondent courtney kube and a former commanding general of the united states army. courtney, along with the report that they're supplying russia, and there are reports that russia may require less conventional weapons from iran? >> yeah. that's right. i mean, in this case, there's a lot of news out there and a lot of these roads are leading back to russia. on the korean front, we've had the excellent laydown from raf sanchez who pointed out there's been an uptick of missile launches. what's important to point out about the icbm launch and those are uncommon for north korea and have been, even though it failed, every time they launch an icbm they are learning and it advances their missile program and every launch is significant in this case. when we did learn yesterday from john kirby, jose is that there

is some evidence that the u.s. has that north korea may be planning to provide artillery shells to russia for use in ukraine. very different from missiles and these are artillery and they have been a critical part of that fight in ukraine and particularly what we've seen these past couple of months in the east and down in the south. artillery has played a different rel there and they've expended hundreds, if not thousands of artillery rounds and they need a resupply. what's important to point out is so far the u.s. does not have any thaefrz in fact, any of these artillery shells have made their way to russia or into ukraine. at this point it seems according to john kirby, they're trying to obscure the route that they're taking and they're taking from north korea into parts of north africa into the middle east to obscure where they're coming from. turning to ukraine, also a place where we're hearing a lot of headlines, one of the things i'm watching there right now is in

addition to the fact that iran is trying to send more weapons according to u.s. officials and they've provided hundreds, if not thousands of drones that have been used inside ukraine, but now there is some concern that they may be working to get some of these shorter or medium-range surface to surface missiles to russia inside ukraine. this all underscores why the u.s. and allies like secretary blinken and what happened in germany with him meeting with the allies, it underscores why there's been such an emphasis on getting the ukrainians air defenses. there's a whole wide array of defense systems that will protect against missiles and these suicide drones that are inside being used inside the military, jose. >> general, your thoughts on all these stories that courtney has brought up. you know, president zelenskyy

has been talking about the fact that maybe israel can help with the iron dome situation in ukraine. general, what do you make of this? and the biggest concerns you have about north korea and iran having such an important part in supporting russia's invasion of ukraine? >> thanks, jose. courtney, as usual, is all over it. three storylines coming out of your excel end lead-in. this shows how desperate russia is, and they have three allies in the world, north korea, iran and belarus. that's who they're having to turn to for ammunition and they're losing in every facet of this conflict. the first thing i thought about when i saw the report on the missiles being launched by north korea, this is a reminder of how

important it is that we do not give into russian nuclear threats because countries like north korea are watching to see, will we buckle under? will we put pressure on ukraine to negotiate and to cave in because of the potential use of a nuclear weapon with russia? north korea will learn from that just as from the many launches. so it's important the artillery ammunition that john kirby reported is being sold by north korea and delivered exactly as courtney describes. i'm trying to figure this out myself. if north korea is in a place where they're launching missiles over japan or in a very threatening way, it doesn't seem prudent that they would be prudent to sell or give away artillery ammunition which would make them vulnerable if their use of rockets and missiles leads to something else. but if they are trying to say

launder these rounds by moving them to other countries around to russia that provides a lot of opportunity for us to disrupt that flow through various mean, the economic means, the physical means and the same thing with iran. i think a comprehensive response to iran that not only means giving ukraine the ability to defend itself, there's got to be some sort of transaction under way. why would iran do so much to help russia unless they were getting something really, really use nfl return search as technology or nuclear weapons? >> dangerous times. lieutenant general ben hodges and courtney kube, thank you for being with us. let's take a look at news beyond our borders. a close aid to former pakistani prime minister imran khan says

he was shot and wounded in the leg during a protest march and was taken to a political party. he was waving to supporters after the attack. police have arrested two in the shooting. >> bolsonaro is asking those around the country to lift the blockades. thousands of supporters are protesting the election loss calling the election fraudulent. the country's electoral authority saying luis ignacio lula da silva won the vote. coming up, an unprecedented surge in the respiratory virus rsv. we'll talk to the chief of the children's medical center next. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports." e diaz-balart reports.

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33 past the hour. this morning orange county, california, declared an emergency due to pediatric emergencies for viral infections. across the country there's been a spike in past years with babies and children with severe

cases of rsv, a virus that causes infections of their respiratory tract. maggie vespa has this report. >> pediatric occupancy rate is 75%. it is four times higher than during last year's winter peak. struggling to breathe, 10 day old pipa pritchett became one of these missouri cases. mom rushed her daughter to a kansas city hospital where the baby took nine days to fully recover. >> you give birth to a healthy baby and all of a sudden she's in the hospital on oxygen which is an emotional roller coaster. >> doctors spotting severe symptoms like pneumonia in school-age kids. covid isolation has left kids' immune systems weakened. >> you're talking about babies and kids as old as 5 on breathing machines?

>> correct. it's like the reverse pandemic. when covid came it was all of the adult hospitals are full and now we're having the reverse where the children's hospitals are swamped. >> our thanks to maggie vespa for that report. joining us now is dr. juan salazar, physicians in chief at connecticut children's medical center. thank you for being with us. what's the situation at children's medical. >> thank you, jose, for having me this morning. it's critical. obviously, we have seen truly an unprecedented number of children that have come into our hospital not unlike what you just reporteded in other children's hospitals where our emergency room is swamped and at any given time we have 25 to 30 kids waiting to be admitted. obviously, getting the services and most of them with rsv. in the month of october we saw 350 children that were admitted

with rsv and that's really an unusual number, much higher than any number that we saw with the covid pandemic. so this is really challenging us in many ways. our teams are delivering the service, providing the care for the children and, but it is a challenge like anywhere else in the country right now. >> and so, dr. salazar, how dangerous is this and why now? >> that's a great question, jose. the first thing i do want to tell parents that for the most part and the majority of cases this will be a simple cold. so i don't want to create panic. most of the kids will do fine with symptomatic care and a little bit of tylenol, just cleaning their nose and providing the care that they need, but in a small group of children they will require medications in the hospital. they will require a visit to the emergency department and perhaps the icu and perhaps in those cases we need to look at them 37

what parents have to look out for is children that have difficulty breathing. they can't eat, they can't drink, nasal flaring and if you start seeing any of those things that is a time when you call your pediatrician or come to the e.d. to take a look at the child. most of the time they can manage at home, but in some cases it does require care in the hospital. >> doctor, i mean, so there's rsv, there's the flu and covid. there are a lot of people who are sick all around us. why -- it's like a perfect storm of three and it's a tripledemic. >> that's true, jose. we are masked and socially distanced during the covid pandemic and we need to do that. that has created a lack of the immune response to these viruses that normally circulate on any given year, so any of these children have not been exposed

to any viruses and therefore the children are completely non-immune to the common viruses that are coming around and now that we're back in school and the masks are off and people are gathering together and the viruses have found what i call the fertile ground in the children and they're coming to the hospital. flu is coming and one of the messages i want to give everyone is please get your child vaccinated. any child over the age of 6 months is able to get the flu vaccine. it's still time to prevent flu and rsv is out of the box and influenza, i can still do something about and i urge parents to please connect with your pediatricians and get the children vaccinated with influenza. [ speaking non-english ] >> dr. juan salazar, it's a pleasure to see you. >> thank you, jose.

up next, they're only a minute to steal and thieves sell them for a thousand dollars a pop. the half billion there are catalytic converter theft ring the feds just took down. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports." e diaz-balart reports. (vo) with their verizon private 5g network, associated british ports can now precisely orchestrate nearly 600,000 vehicles passing through their uk port every year. don't just connect your business. right on time. make it even smarter. we call this enterprise intelligence. this week is your chance to try any subway footlong for free. like the subway series menu.

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been affecting so many people across the country. >> it really has, jose, and the reason this is happening is because it's easy money for thiefs. it takes less than 30 seconds to remove a catalytic convertes and the precious metal between platinum, palladium and this has fetched $1,000 on the black market, but what's driving this increase in thefts is that there's an organization here and that's exactly what the federal government says they took down yesterday. a half a billion dollar criminal enterprise and 21 arrests in eight stateses. they seize luxury cars, jewelry, cars, cash, mansions. these people were extracting the precious metals and making a fortune, jose. hundreds of millions of dollars off the backs of -- and this is a big case by the department of justice, the fbi, the irs and homeland security was involved

and they made a number of facilities and made a number of arrests and one had a necklace with a pendant in the shape of a catalytic converter, jose? >> i am so glad they got these people. it really has affected so many people and it hurts so much when you wake up and this thing is gone from your car. ken delanian, thank you for being with us. appreciate it. >> you bet. up next, latino voters are going to be critical in the midterm elections. are both parties doing enough to reach them? what some new polling shows. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports." e diaz-balart reports.

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48 past the hour. just five days from the critical midterm elections. we're taking a closer look at the impact of latino voters across the country. including a poll commissioned by the national association of latino elected and appointed officials, 44% of registered latino voters nationwide have not been contacted by any political party, campaign or organization. joining us now is arturo vargas, naleo's executive director. thank you for being with us.

what are the top issue, arturo, that are resonating with latino voters across our country. >> >> good morning, jose. it's good to see you again. the top issues that we have been tracking in the naleo tracking poll over the past nine weeks is the cost of living in inflation is the most important issue consistently for latino voters in the '22 midterm cycle and coming in as number two for the first time ever is women's reproductive rights and abortion rights. now what's significant about that second most important issue is that we've been polling on this in 2016 and that issue of women's reproductive rights has never risen above 4% and it is now coming in as the second most important issue, and it's even the most most -- second most important issue for more latino voters in the state of texas than any other state we were able to survey. >> interesting. when you look at the list of the top ten, number one and number three are kind of economic related, right?

lowering health care costs, number five. protecting immigrant rights, number six. climate change, number seven. this is an interesting top ten of top issues. now, from what you're hearing from voters, how would you assess both parties' efforts to reach this growing voting bloc? >> both parties are not doing enough and it's uneven. we're seeing more activity, for example, in arizona where you have some competitive races, but in the states of texas and california, the parties are asleep at the wheel. what's concerning to us is that nearly half of the latino electorate are in those two states. so if you ignore latinos in texas and california, you are suppressing the latino vote nationally by not engaging latino voters. what we have heard consistently from latino voters is that they want to be engaged. they want somebody to reach out to them and say, hey, i want your vote. this is what i stand for.

they do not want to be ignored or taken for granted. too often, that's exactly how they feel. >> why is that in 2022, it seems as though they're not reaching, coming to your door and speaking to you and letting you know what the issues are that they stand for that will make you a much more informed and quite frankly effective voter? >> you know, jose, i've been in this business now for over 35 years and i've been monitoring this issue. it's consistent that the political parties always come in at the last minute with dumping tons of money, trying to mobilize voters. and what we have said, you need to have consistent sustained outreach to engage the latino electorate that now is the second largest segment of all u.s. citizens eligible to vote. if you ignore latino voters, you're leaving votes on the

table. they're investing in competitive races, but ignores more and more of the u.s. electorate. >> thank you very much for being with us. this morning. >> likewise, jose, take care. up next, a brand-new season of "sesame street" kicks off today and it's making history. i'm so looking forward to what we're going to do just after the break. [ speaking non-english ] giorgio, look. the peanut butter box is here. ralph, that's the chewy pharmacy box with our flea and tick meds. it's not peanut butter. i know, i know. but every time the box comes, we get the peanut butter. yes, because mom takes the meds out of the box and puts them in the peanut butter. sounds like we're getting peanut butter. yes, but that is the chewy pharmacy box. ♪ the peanut butter box is here. ♪

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♪♪ today the premiere of "sesame street's" 53rd season. it's ushered in by a new executive producer. the first latino executive producer in the show's history. he grew up in california, started at "sesame street" when he was still in college in 2006 and he sal joins us this morning. how are you? >> very good. excited to be here with you today. >> i'm excited to see you. you've got a great friend behind you. what are the themes you're going to be focusing on on season 53? >> we're talking about a lot of positive self-identity stories.

authentic stories to their backgrounds and belonging. everyone belongs on "sesame street." >> i'm thinking of big bird, so many characters that are ingrained in our growth. you worked at "sesame street" for years. but only recently had a daughter. you said that he watches the show with you. how has that influenced the perspective on the work that you create. >> well, i grew up on "sesame street" as a kid. then i grew up on "sesame street" in my career, and now i get to share that with my daughter as she grows up. it's exciting to be able to share with her, whether it's rough cuts, things that we're doing and see how she reacts, laughs, does she take the lesson away. it's an instant focus group that i have in my house. i take that and take the importance of my family into everything we do into "sesame street." >> it's been a landmark show for

representation, representation across the board, but latino characters. just how cool is it for you to now be the et of this? it's a little daunting. it's so exciting. i try not to think of the legacy of what it means. there's been so many incredible executive producers in the history of "sesame street" that i hope to make them proud and as a first latino in this, i also think a lot about -- who passed away earlier this year but the legacy he brought to "sesame street." i'm hoping to get that behind the street and continue that legacy as well. >> do you have a favorite character? [ speaking non-english ] >> so i grew up loving grover because he is -- flails all around, a little bit like i do. as a producer, you love his self-confidence even though a disaster might be happening all around him. growing up in my career i also

love lola. i cannot not love lola who is a 3-year-old girl. so that will always be in my heart as well. >> sal perez, it's great to see you. i congratulate you. looking forward to this new 53rd season. thank you for being with us this morning. and the new season debuts today on hbo max with new episodes dropping every thursday. sal perez, thank you. >> thank you. >> i'm jose diaz-balart. you can always reach me on twitter and instagram. be sure to follow the show online at jdbalart on msnbc. thank you for the privilege of your time. yasmin picks up with