presale was delayed until later today. back to you. >> what the heck is going on, ticketmaster, come on. bad bunny made history in yesterday's grammy nominations, getting the first ever album of the year for a spanish language album. he earned three nominations in total. this also makes him the first artist to ever be in the running for album of the year at both the grammys and the latin grammys. there you go. bad bunny. that wraps up the hour for me. i'm jose diaz-balart. you can reach me on twitter and instagram at jdbalart. the internet does not break if you talk to me. and be sure to follow the show online at jdbalart msnbc. thank you so much for the privilege of your time. yasmin vossoughian picks up with more news right now.

>> good morning. i'm yasmin vossoughian live for you here at msnbc headquarters in new york city. tensions de-escalating at ukraine's border hours after the deadly missile strike in poland. officials now saying it did not come from russia. here is what nato secretary general yen stoltenberg revealed overnight. >> our preliminary analysis suggests that the incident was likely caused by a ukrainian air defense missile fired to defend ukrainian territory against russia cruise missile attacks. >> we're going to have the latest reaction from western leaders, including what we just heard from u.s. defense secretary lloyd austin. plus, 720 days until the 2024 presidential election. and the former president, donald trump, is now in the running.

the twice impeached president whose lies about the 2020 election have inspired an insurrection says he's running for president. this quote at the bottom of the page, florida man makes announcement. we want to start with the leadership battle intensifying on capitol hill. senate republicans there holding their leadership elections defying calls by some to delay them and senator mitch mcconnell is facing his first ever challenge in 15 years. florida senator rick scott. i want to go to capitol hill correspondent ali vitali who is standing by with us along with brendan buck who served as chief communications adviser for john boehner and paul ryan as well. ali, let me start with you on this one, tell us where you are at this hour. the vote began at 10:00 a.m. what have we heard from inside that room and what do you make

it of the challenge? i know mitt romney is quoted as saying, oh, i think it's fine, but it's not going to go anywhere. what about the other folks who are further right of him? >> romney is sort of echoing the mood that the -- most of the republican senators that i've talked to have. not all of them. of course, there is a challenge and there is about 7 or 89 republican senators who want to see this leadership election delayed. our team is down the hall from where i am and they're saying they just heard from senator john thune who said the discussion portion of this day has ended and it seems like they're beginning to vote on leadership slate. i'm going to keep looking down in case we get numbers here. but the stakes are this. rick scott is challenging mitch mcconnell is notable because it's the first challenge that mcconnell has had in over a decade and a half since he's been the leader of this

republican party in the senate. for scott's part, he has his own ambitions, clearly he says this is a way to challenge the status quo after a disappointing midterm election, but also, many of the sources that i've talked to, and we were texting about this this morning, this might be a way for rick scott to elevate his profile ahead of 2024. he's seen to have presidential ambitions. he's also someone who is close to former president donald trump who has made clear over and over again that he is not a fan of mitch mcconnell, trump is pointing fingers at mcconnell for why senate republicans did so badly. but there's more people here in this building pointing fingers at rick scott who's job was to retake the senate this cycle for why they ended up doing so badly. a lot of blame game. a lot of finger-pointing and this leadership election is really the culmination of that. >> brendan, ali brought up a lot of really good points. one of which was, it was rick scott's job, right? to get more republican senators elected to congress.

he failed at that job. and yet he is pointing the finger at mitch mcconnell. i kind of want to take folks back down memory lane if we can to jog their memories with the back-and-forth between these two folks and then we'll talk. >> i'm excited to watch what the voters do. i think the voters are going to come out and say, they need a republican majority in the senate. as you know, we have great candidates. they run great races. >> i think the -- there's probably a greater likelihood the house flips than the senate. candidate quality has a lot to do with the outcome. >> mcconnell saw obviously the writing on the wall there, right? how is this, though, being perceived within the party? especially with this fight over leadership? >> certainly this is about some conflict over strategy decision that is were made. mitch mcconnell has made it clear that we needs to be hands

on in who we pick as our candidates and that was met with some pushback. and rick scott's nrsc took a much more hands off approach and obviously we didn't have the results that we wanted. but this is a rivalry that's gone back a long ways. and it's not a surprise. it's been reported that rick scott was planning to challenge mitch mcconnell on the assumption that they were going to take back the senate. he was going to use this as his springboard. obviously, he failed. but it is notable that this is an open conflict. you don't usually see this in the senate. alibi brought up a good point about donald trump. i don't see this as any other way than trying to score points with the maga crowd. donald trump has really elevated his criticism of mitch mcconnell, but it's going to fall short. ultimately who you trust to be your leader is who you're placing your own political trust in. and there is no question that

mitch mcconnell is an exceptional senate leader, he understands the institution, he understands politics, he understands what is best for his members and willing to take slings and arrows for them. rick scott is seems to be someone who is motivated by his ambition. and a few people may be able to do that with donald trump, but they're going to lose here again, just like their side things lost us a lot of seats in the cycle. >> it's not often that we see this in-fighting within the republican party so publicly. what do you make of this fight over leadership across the board within the republican party? what does this say about the next two years for them? >> well, we've often had this kind of infighting on the house side. it's different now that the senate is acting in the same way. senators, i think, are starting -- you have a lot of

senators who have national ambitions. it's very easy to look at what donald trump did and gain a lot of power by fighting against washington, by fighting against the establishment. some of these people are very much establishment figures. rick scott was the governor of florida. he's now a united states senator. he wants to present himself as antiestablishment. that's what he sees is working with donald trump and the whole populous wing of the party. they're trying to position themselves that way. i don't think it's particularly credible, but it's hard to see it with any other real motivation than that. >> it's obvious rick scott is signing up for the trump calculus despite the loss that we have seen during the midterm elections so far. ali vitali, thank you, brendan buck, thank you as well. appreciate it. speaking of the former president, right, ready to go again. donald trump is now officially running for president a third time. he made the announcement last night from mar-a-lago and continued to tout hold and false grievances like voter fraud, corruption as well.

at one point calling himself a, quote/unquote, victim. president joe biden who has not yet officially announced his own re-election bid had this to say about the former president's announcement. >> vaughn hillyard joins me now, also with us tim miller, and adrienne elrod, democratic strategist. she worked in the biden/harris campaign. welcome to you all, guys. here we are again. vaughn, you're going to launch things for us if you will. twice impeached, currently under investigation by congress, grand jury, doj, new york ag, we could go on and on, and the former president making a run once again for the white house. where are we this morning? >> yeah, yasmin. it never really felt like the

campaign ever ended from 2020. i can't tell you how many rallies i went to over the course of 2021 and 2022. essentially he's been a consistent feature of republican campaigns over the last two years. of course, a great number of his endorsed candidates lost in major races for senate, governor, secretary of state, one week ago. last night he went through with an announcement, a 2024 announcement. and to note, there were no republican senators in attendance. of course, there was no former vice president mike pence or a mike pompeo or any governor in the house. this was very much a notable event because you have a former president announcing a presidential bid, but we're also 14 months away for what will be the iowa caucus. there's still a lot of run-up until really you are going to likely ever see a republican contest or donald trump going toe to toe with somebody on the campaign trail in iowa or new hampshire. and we're faraway from the point of hitting a debate.

yet he has set the temperature for this race, there's about a hundred million dollars in pacs that are going to go towards his candidacy. he's coming in here with obviously no need to run television advertisements compared to if a desantis or glenn youngkin would jump into the race. >> let's talk, though, about true prospects here and what lies ahead. tim miller, i'm going to bring you into the conversation here. i want to read you a quote of this, it is time for the republican party to turn to a new generation of leaders and i intend to support one of them in the presidential primaries. this is not the first time we've heard this since we've heard the midterm results coming out. there is challenges to the leadership in the republican party across the board. we talked about it in the

senate. there was challenge to leadership in the house as well. does trump have staying power? >> i'm welcoming all my new never trump brethren. it took them seven years. the water is warm over here. it doesn't really matter what hedge fund guys in new york or bloggers for the national review or back bench senators think about donald trump 2024. it matters what republican voter thinks. vaughn and i were in arizona last week. we went to some kari lake events. the type of voters at those events don't seem like they're ready to move on. may be they will be eventually. and maybe they've seen enough and they've gotten sick of the losing and they're ready to look somewhere else to a new generation. if that -- if that is the case, then i think donald trump is very vulnerable. but these king -- donald trump won in 2016 without any of these king makers. he didn't have any endorsements,

money, it was him and his golf caddie and hope hicks on an airplane and he won the primary. so these guys think they're more important than they are and, you know, i welcome anybody who wants to oppose him. i hope people actively oppose him in the primary. but i think we're getting a little over our skis if we're ready to bury him until we hear more from actual rank-and-file republican voters. >> i don't think, tim, anybody is ready to bury him. when you're seeing things like the success that ron desantis had in the state of florida, you have voters in florida saying, i still like donald trump, i like desantis to delay running for president and maybe there would be an issue if the two went head to head in the primaries and you have voters now saying possibly if someone else is in the running, i might consider it. that is certainly different, tim, than it was back in 2016. >> oh, for sure. well, no, i don't think it's that different than 2016. he only won about 45% in the primary in the 2016.

so here's the thing, the first group of voters he's got to win over are the people who weren't with him back then. if you were with marco in 2016, ted cruz, ron desantis is a safe landing space for you. they came around on it, right? the question is, can you get into the maga voters? can you -- are the maga voters ready to turn the page? ready. maybe these voters are sick of losing. i just -- what i'm saying is those are the one who is are going to decide whether or not donald trump has a future or not. these guys aren't going to be the ones who decide. >> adrienne elrod, jump in here, if you will. you heard the response from the president about former president trump's announcement there. the headlines from murdoch-owned "new york post" making this announcement. do you think the white house is at all worried of a donald trump run?

>> i think any democrat who is part of this 2016 campaign, part of the 2020 campaign has to say you can never underestimate donald trump. he still has about 35% of the vote. that's not going away. we'll see if he has a crowded primary. a 15-way primary. i think president biden's reaction to the question of, hey, donald trump is announcing today, what do you think, was pitch perfect. he's walking with president macron, he's overseas handling america's business, representing america on the global stage. that was the perfect place for him to say, you know, passively, good for him. i'm focused on what's happening over here. i'm focused on leading and governing, that was perfect. sure, of course, the white house, democrats, the dnc is paying attention to every single republican who is looking at running. there's a track record there. they've been doing a lot of opposition research. they're ready to go and take on

any republican who is running in the primary. i think trump is a little bit weaker going into this potential, i guess it is actually a run. we'll see how long he stays in, if he decides to full-on do this. and i think, you know, president biden will continue to lead and governor as he's been doing for the last two years. >> that's where we're ending it. thank you, guys. coming up next, everybody, after a blast in poland raised concerns nato could be pulled directly into the war in ukraine, this morning what officials are saying about the missile's origin. and the latest headache for elon musk and a historic leap forward for space exploration. >> back to the moon and beyond. y washed all day without heavy perfumes? try downy light in-wash freshness boosters. it has long-lasting light scent, no heavy perfumes, and no dyes.

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welcome back, everybody. so this morning we are learning

much more about the deadly missile strike in poland near the ukraine border that triggered global fears of a wider conflict. they believe it was caused by ukrainian air defense. also with me, helene cooper, pentagon correspondent for the "new york times" and an msnbc political contributor, michael mcfaul, former u.s. ambassador to russia. welcome to you all, guys. thanks for joining us on this. a lot of folks obviously breathing a sigh of relief with the latest news we've been hearing about what happened here. certainly there was some pandemic. we're now hearing from the russian foreign ministry summoning the polish ambassador. what does that mean? >> reporter: this is the polish ambassador in moscow being summoned by the russian

ministry. we don't know what the complaint is. but we can assume that it's probably to do with the fact that both nato and polish leadership are saying that even though this explosion appears to have been caused by an ukrainian missile fired by accident, russia is morally to blame here because the only reason the skies over europe are full of missiles right now is because of vladimir putin's aggression. as you said, we heard from yen stoltenberg, the nato secretary general, earlier on today. he said that there is no indication that russia is planning any kind of attack on nato territory either in poland or anywhere else in nato's overall alliance. and so it does feel like we have stepped back from the brink after these very worrying couple of hours last night where it looked briefly like nato's collective security agreement might be tested. that the u.s. and other allies might be called upon to fulfill

their treaty obligations to come to the defense of poland even if that means all-out war with russia. >> and it seems that has been the ultimate fear out of all of this, as this war has continued, that something would have to begin because of a mistake like this one. defense minister austin, they're going to have a meeting scheduled. i want to play this for you and we'll talk. >> we'll continue to work closely with poland and others to gather more information. we'll continue to consult with our nato allies and valued partners and what we do know is the context in which this is unfolding. >> we know this is going to require a larger, obviously, investigation as to how this happened and how these two lives in poland were in fact lost. how fearful, though, how worried

are folks inside the pentagon right now that something like this could happen again and the next time, it would come from russia and what would have to be done in response? >> hi, yasmin. thanks for having me. that's been a worry since february 24th. you have a war that's been going on for nine months now right on nato's doorstep, and the possibility of escalation is one that the biden administration has been trying to manage since then. the idea that nato could be drawn into this war is something that neither nato nor russia, to tell the truth, actually want because that would immediately be a great power conflict between nuclear-armed foes and that's something that nobody wants. but you have nato's article five which says that an attack on one of us is an attack on all.

which is why there was so much worry yesterday when there were reports that -- of an explosion in poland. the mood at the pentagon yesterday was sort of a -- kind of a controlled -- not panic at all, but it was very controlled chaos and defense officials came out and said yesterday afternoon that they were unsure at the time, they were pretty sure that this wasn't a deliberate strike on poland. they were unsure at first and then eventually came out and told us it was looking more like an ukrainian air defense missile that had been shot to protect ukraine from that barrage of russian strikes that we saw yesterday. so it's not ukraine's fault. this was part of their air defense system. they were trying to protect themselves. and this is something that the pentagon officials said that

russia likely started but it was not in the view of the defense department a russian strike on a nato country which is when temperatures started to go down yesterday when we started getting first indications that this was probably a ukrainian missile. >> ambassador, talk to me about what this says as to how quickly things could spiral. >> well, it's a wakeup call. we've been worried about it for i think since the beginning of the war. the administration has worried about something like this happening. i think it says a couple of things. number one, we need to rethink our air defense systems for the nato alliance and rethink what kinds of assets we need to put in place on the border. secondly, there's good news off this tragedy. it's a horrible tragedy that lives were lost, obviously, but notice how the russians responded. the russians wanted to say

emphatically they weren't responsible. if you go back eight months ago, we were worried about russians attacking our supply lines. nato alliance countries on the front line there are supplying ukraine. and in our normal military operation, those would be targets in a war. the fact that they have never even attempted to attack them i think is a good sign. it suggests that nato deterrence vis-a-vis russia is working. >> you don't haven't vladimir putin to turn and use this to his own advantage in this ongoing war, the narrative of this? >> he can domestically, of course, and he can say how bad the ukrainians are. but let's be crystal clear about why this happened. yesterday was the largest rocket attack on the ukrainian citizens. this is terrorism. he's attacking citizens.

and as a result of that, this unfortunate tragedy happened. the fault lies with vladimir putin not with the ukrainian armed forces. >> ambassador, thank you. helene cooper, thank you, raf sanchez, thank you as well. all right, coming up next, everybody. the university of virginia shooting suspect was arraigned just in the last couple of hours. we're outside of the courthouse with the legal road ahead. and surging rsv cases are filling hospital pediatric beds across the country. >> we're having a pediatric crisis with this and it's not quite over yet. er yet usiness, you can make it even smarter. now ports can know where every piece of cargo is. and where it's going. (dock worker) right on time. (vo) robots can predict breakdowns and order their own replacement parts. (foreman) nice work. (vo) and retailers can get ahead of the fashion trend of the day with a new line tomorrow. with a verizon private 5g network, you can get more agility and security. giving you more control of your business. we call this enterprise intelligence.

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late sunday night. new questions are being raised a about whether the university knew about previous gun issues with the student. the prosecutor revealing some new details today about the shooting. what do we know? >> reporter: as new details were brought forth by the prosecutor, i want to mention that the suspect christopher darnell jones who was seen over video conference didn't show any emotion as we heard the new details. one claim by a witness said that jones began shooting and it seemed like it was intentionally aimed. and one detail claimed from a witness that one of the football players devon chandler was shot on the bus while he was asleep. we're also learning more details about two prior suspended jail sentence and is that includes one of those was last february that undisclosed concealed weapons charge, uva police said that jones was required to disclose that to the university

and he did not. in fact, uva put out a statement about this yesterday. they were they were investigating that potential hazing incident a couple of months ago and as they were doing that, that jones had made a comment about having a gun to someone else, something that is not allowed on uva campus and it was through their investigation that they found out about those prior charges that were undisclosed. what they did, they escalated his case for disciplinary review. uva said that report was not given to the governing judiciary body. they didn't elaborate further. the only thing they said was that they're, quote, working to correct that. jones faces charges of second-degree murder and wounding charges. three players were shot dead and two students injured. one of those injured was a football player. and we're learning more about one of those football players. we're hearing from not just a lawyer but a family friend who likens to sean perry to one of

his own. >> he was like a son to me. he was a gentle giant who added value and purpose to my life as well as others. he'll truly be missed but we'll make sure that his legacy lives on. >> reporter: and that was actually a former coach of deshaun perry that we heard from just now. i want to end by saying, the whole team said they would make decisions moving forward together. today we learned that they have canceled saturday's upcoming football game, that would have been their last home game of the season. >> such an incredibly awful situation. thank you. in the past several weeks, experts have continuously warned of a collision of covid, flu and rsv cases triggering a crisis

across the country. we're seeing hospitals being inundated with a surge of children suffering from rsv. while we have new data from the cdc showing seniors are being hospitalized ten times higher than usual with the illness. gabe gutierrez is joining me now. it really seems like this thing has been persistent over the last, like, month or so and these hospitals, they're at capacity. >> that is right. we've been talking about this now for several weeks, right, but i went inside this children's hospital in boston and, you know, i spoke with one nurse who told me that, yes, rsv is common for parents, but they've never seen this many cases this early in the season. she did call it a bit of a crisis and now what's changing is that some hospitals in boston are delaying elective procedures to free up space. >> this nine month old boy is on oxygen and his mother is on

edge. >> did you think that rsv would be this serious? >> i thought it was a regular cold. >> reporter: she went to urgent care when her son first got sick last week. >> we were told to go to the emergency because his oxygen level was dropping. he was gasping for air. >> reporter: here in boston, mass general for children is scrambling to keep up with a wave of respiratory illnesses like rsv, even postponing some elective procedures to free up space. because the pediatric icu is so full, they transferred some patients here. in october the hospital saw 2,000 positive rsv tests, just halfway through november, it's already seen 1800. what does that signify to you? >> we're in a little bit of a crisis with this and it's not over yet. >> reporter: this nursing director that has worked here 33 years. i haven't seen it in my years starting in october that we've had this peak of rsv.

>> reporter: across the country, 25 states plus washington, d.c., are reporting at least three-fourths of their pediatric hospital beds are full. >> it's scary. you don't know what's going on. >> reporter: her son is just six weeks old. what would you tell parents who aren't taking rsv seriously? >> oh, my god, i tell them take it super, super, super, super serious, especially for little ones. >> and as you just saw right there, while rsv typically most seriously affects very young children, new data from the cdc also shows that the hospitalization rate for rsv among adults, ages 65 and older, is about ten times higher now than it was prepandemic. >> it's affecting those who are most vulnerable, the elderly and very young. and being a parent of two young boys, it's terrifying to have a little baby, six weeks old, get

sick. and there's nothing you can really do about it except wait. >> that's what we heard from the parents. a sense of uncertainty, a sense of hopelessness. and, yes, even though the illness might not be serious in most children, when you have a child who is six weeks old, nine months old and you can't help them or have to stand by, it's heartbreaking. >> and you can't help but think, it's not serious in most people, but what if it's serious in my mine? really important stuff. let's get more news from capitol hill. this afternoon, the senate is scheduled to hold a significant vote on a bill safeguarding same-sex marriage. it would require states to recognize all marriages. it needs 60 votes to pass and it's not clear which ten republicans are going to vote for it. but the bipartisan group of senators say they're confident that the votes are there. the mormon church has come out

in support of this bill knowing that it's preservations of religious freedom together with the rights of lgbtq individuals. coming up next, a new headache for the world's richest man. why elon musk is testifying in court this morning. we'll be right back. court thisog we'll be right back. (snorting) if you struggle with cpap... (groan) (growling) (chuckle) ...you should check out inspire. no mask. no hose. just sleep. (beeping) learn more and view important safety information

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to the new twitter or leave. ben collins is joining me now. take us inside, if you will, the courtroom first and foremost, and then we'll get, of course, to the fallout at twitter. what do we know? >> yeah, i think the most important thing that he said is that he said twitter is no longer bound by this ftc consent decree. they made that deal under duress. i don't know what that means, even, in the legal sense. but it means that this guy doesn't really seem like -- it means he doesn't seem like he's superjazzed about abiding by the law in running twitter. employees have until 5:00 p.m. to decide whether or not they want to stay and in his words get hard core with twitter, or take a three-month paid vacation, a three-month compensation package for leaving. so i'm not sure exactly what

he's going for here. but there are going to be a lot fewer twitter employees by the end of the day today. >> what does hard core by twitter standards mean? >> it means sleeping on the floor. doing 12-plus hour days at twitter. i think he's like it's like learning how to shoot free throws. but that's not how you run a communications platform and it's not -- it's a lot of deliberation, it's not action over and over again. he's learning this the hard way. the extremely hard way. i think he had a plan going in that blew up and he's turning excite a separate plan where this company gets destroyed. i don't know how this ends. but it's not going to be pretty for the actual website that people use. >> what about the tesla compensation package with elon musk appearing in court this morning to testify there? >> yeah, i mean, the twitter compensation package -- >> tesla. >> tesla.

look, he made a lot of money from this thing. he says he didn't specifically negotiate it himself. who knows who we can trust now with elon. he's a -- he is under oath. however, it's elon musk. and this guy has a lot going on right now. that's what -- that's his -- that's what he says is happening there. you can trust him if you want. >> trust him if you want to. i guess that's what you can say and how you can act when you're the richest man in the world. the question is, will it eventually catch up with him. in certain respects when it comes to twitter, it seems like it already is. thank you. coming up next, everybody, we finally have liftoff. what the artemis launch overnight means for our future on the moon. we'll be right back. we really had our hands full with our two-year-old. so naturally, we doubled down with a new puppy. thankfully, we also have new tide ultra-oxi with odor eliminators. between stains and odors, it can handle double trouble.

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>> what a moment. the third time wasn't it the charm for nasa. artemis is on its way to orbit the moon. it blasted off at 1:47 in the morning. nasa was forced to cancel previous launches in august and september. we remember that. and then hurricanes as well, ian and nicole delaying it once again. lindsey reiser is at cape canaveral with the latest. i saw your instagram post, what an amazing moment to be watching the launch of artemis. seeing that thing really blast off. history in the making. take us through it. yeah, it wa such an incredible fielding. the building we are on top of, you could feel the vibration, the power. you can't anticipate what it's going to feel like because there's never been anything like it before. it's the most powerful rocket. nasa achieved liftoff.

orion is on a lunar trajectory. this is the culmination of years and months of setbacks, this is just scratching the surface of the program. one on the panel said they won't sleep until the four-week mission is over. we know orion headed to the moon. will do a fly-by and go into distant retrograde, before testing the heat shields upon reentry. nasa wants to make sure they can receive it. let's listen to bill nelson talking about watching artemis go up in the air finally and some of the tests that they're going to do during flight. >> i'm telling you, we have never seen such a tail of flame. this is just the test flight. and we are stressing it and testing it in ways that we will

not do to a rocket that has a human crew on it. >> reporter: it has more sensors right now than the human flight will have. we are four miles away from that launch pad. it lit up the night sky. 8.8 million pounds of thrust hoisting that vehicle into the air, followed by a round of applause by spectators here that were on the ground. it's just one of those life moments. history. nasa hoping to inspire a new generation and continue to get that support from congress as they intend to fly back to the moon, eventually land humans back on the moon, build a lunar base camp and eventually go to mars. >> it really was an incredible moment to see. talk to me, if you can, quickly here, about how folks on the ground have been reacting to seeing history in the making.

>> reporter: i mean, this is an ordeal. people travel for this. parents come and bring their kids here. there's a whole economy surrounding the space coast and people that i have been chatting with that have been here, even locals, people who have lived here for decades say this time it felt different. this is different. the most powerful rocket. you could absolutely feel how yesterday was different. everybody hoping it would go off. there were a couple of hiccups. we were afraid that could delay the launch. but eventually, of course, everything went off. today it's all the talk here on the coast. >> can only imagine. good to talk to you. want to pivot and talk about what's happening overseas. the government crackdown in iran. it's intensifying this morning as the first known death sentences have been issued in connection to the protests. according to a news agency run by the iranian judiciary, five

protesters have been landed death sentences. at least ten protesters have been charged with offenses that could carry the death penalty. that's according to a spokesman for the u.n. high commissioner for human rights. joining me is the global opinion writer for "the washington post" who spent two years in an iranian prison. these numbers are astounding. you really can't get a clear picture of what's happening inside iran. what do you make of the latest reports? what should we be making of it? >> we saw that the vast majority of iran's parliament called for the death penalty for literally 15,000 protesters. does that mean that they all have a death sentence? no. but as they start to put people on trial -- you have to remember that this is not a normal trial like we see here in the united states. it's an assembly line. no witnesses, no evidence.

just a judge saying, you are guilty. here is your sentence. for me, in previous iterations of protests in iran, we have seen the death penalty handed out and people executed. i would say the biden administration and others should come out very forcefully right now and say, hey, executing peaceful protesters is a red line that you can't cross. it's horrifying what's going on there right now. >> these protesters want fundamental change. they want fundamental regime change in that country. the question is, will it actually happen? i can't help but think this regime is looking at the example that al assad said, if we stick it out, we will do no matter what, we will kill our own people to stay in power. where do you see this going? >> this is the fear that so many of us have had for years and years. protesters aren't going to back down. there are no answers that the regime has to the myriad of problems that people are facing

and the demands they are making. it's not a regime that's known to stand down. they have killed thousands of people over the years domestically and internationally. i'm fearful for the lives of protesters. at the same exhilarated to see iranians standing up for their rights. it's a situation that doesn't have a logical conclusion right now. >> it seems as if the protesters feel they have nothing to lose considering the dire economic circumstances they are dealing with inside that country right now. when you think about these protesters that are being held in prison -- you spent time there -- we don't have a lot of time left, but what are you most worries about when it comes to their time? >> you saw there was a fire a few weeks ago. as someone who spent a year of my life there, it was exill rate

-- it was exhilarating to see it on fire. there was also a fear. nobody is there to help them. we have a responsibility to call this out, amplify their voices and to continue to shine a spotlight on iran until these protesters reach their goals. >> you say fate of these people. what could they be facing inside that prison? >> they could be facing execution. they could be facing death from lack of medical attention. they don't have rights. it's one i wouldn't wish on anybody. >> jason, happy you are here with us. thank you so much. >> thanks for having me. >> appreciate it. an incredibly busy hour. that does it for me. "andrea mitchell reports" starts next. me. "andrea mitchell reports" starts next network. so you can do more than connect your business, you can make it even smarter. now ports can know where every piece of cargo is. and where it's going. (dock worker) right on time. (vo) robots can predict breakdowns and order their own replacement parts. (foreman) nice work. (vo) and retailers can get ahead of the fashion trend of the day with a new line tomorrow. with a verizon private 5g network,

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right now on "andrea mitchell reports," the deadly blast in poland near the ukraine border. the blast caused by a russian-made ukrainian defense missile, not an attack from russia. it was launched to defend

against incoming russian fire. we should learn more from the pentagon this hour. donald trump makes his 2024 run official, two years after losing the white house to joe biden. notably missing from his mar-a-lago rollout, leading republicans, including senators, the party chair, even daughter ivanka who says she loves her father but will stay out of politics and focus on her family. right now, republicans remain one seat away from gaining control of the house. third time is a charm. nasa's artemis lighting up the florida sky overnight on a test flight that paved the way for returning to the moon 50 years after the final apollo mission. good day, everyone. i'm andrea mitchell in washington. nato is reporting that the russian-made missile that landed in poland only miles from ukraine's border killing two people did not come from russia but from a ukrainian missile