trail in georgia, now just a half day away from that critical senate runoff with right now both candidates out and making their final pitches to folks. on the republican side, herschel walker, about to get some virtual help from donald trump, we'll talk about why the former president is phoning it in on election eve. on the other side of the aisle, democratic raphael warnock is taking a different strategy in the last few hours. we're live with the latest from boat campaigns. and inside the oral arguments of the supreme court

with conservative justices seeming to be leaning with a website designer. much more in a minute. i'm hall ji jackson in washington. with nbc in georgia, and mark murray is joining us too. and let's get a quick snapshot where the race stands before the polls open. the candidates are out on the campaign trail, intensely, as you may imagine, each of them have several events today. herschel walker finally getting high profile help from a former president, donald trump, and not in person though, he is set to hold a tele-rally later on tonight on the heels of an exclusive nbc news interview with a woman accusing mr. walker of domestic abuse are buse, her first time appearing on camera and many georgians can skip a trip to the polls tomorrow, a record number have voted early. let's start there, with georgia republicans split to a degree on

donald trump. how is the campaign managing that balancing act? how much are they looking at him being on the phone and do they think they will move the needle considering how they've been out-fundraised so far in this runoff? >> the rural parts of the state, where that i' trying to get the conservative turnout to make up the deficit in the greater metropolitan atlanta area. and donald trump will not be here to campaign in person, but will be holding a telephone rally with walker over the phone here this evening, and the last time donald trump was in the state was all the way back in march, and of course, just two months after that, was the governor's race, his endorsed candidate for governor, lost by more than 50 percentage points against the incumbent republican brian kemp here, which is exactly why donald trump is really not been seen here in the state of georgia, because he's not seen as a value add here in these closing days. >> talk to me about some of the other pieces to this, too, as it relates to the reporting you've been doing on the walker campaign. just like the general election,

walker continues to face allegations of wrongdoing by his former partners. you talked exclusively, for the first person to go on record, on tv to make the allegations which we should note the walker campaign denies. talk us through what you learned. >> right, trump is not a value add for herschel walker. really, the senate candidate himself has been plagued throughout this campaign with multiple individuals coming forward with serious allegations against him. and i want to let you hear directly from cheryl parsa who is in a five-year romantic relationship, was in a relationship with walker, in which she outlined one particular episode a physical attack against her and it is important to note, hallie, that herschel walker, nor his campaign, though they've had the opportunity available to them since thursday, have not commented or denied the allegation that parsa makes. take a listen to part of what she told me yesterday. >> who is the plan you got to know over the next five years? >> nothing like the man i met. absolutely nothing. there were glimpses of him, and

i thought i met herschel, the real herschel, and i knew nothing about his dissociative identity disorder at that time. he told me many times, when i was with him, i can sell dirt to georgia. in light of where we are now, there's a lot of relevance in that statement for me. >> hallie, we spoke at length, and she chronicled the difficulty of the dissociative identity disorder that herschel walker had during their time together. now, it's important to note that it is a complex condition here in which an individual can have multiple personalities, distinct personalities at different times, and walker is on the debate stage one month ago, he said he is not in routine therapy at this point, and that he is doing well. but what cheryl parsa has outlined is echoed by the likes

of 2008 when his ex-wife, herschel walker's ex-wife alleged that he held a gun to her head at one point and threatened to shoot her. and his own son two months ago alleged that his father threatened to kill the family at one time. >> thank you. marc, let me get to you before we get to trymaine, how you see these allegations, as vaughn notes, the denials from walker relate to the abortion allegations that were made here, in the general campaign, and he still was able to get to a runoff here with raphael warnock. can you talk through any of the kind of limited polling that we've seen from georgia, where things stand in this race. >> yes, well, we're, where things stand right now, this is a really competitive and close contest, even with some polls now showing raphael warnock ahead of herschel walker, although within the margin of error, but we are in the stage right now, where there's perfect information for georgia voters. we've seen, as vaughn was just

chronicling, allegation after allegation, against herschel walker, and whether it was allegations of domestic abuse, or allegations that he asked former girlfriends to have abortions. also, we have seen the republicans hurl accusations at raphael warnock including from his ex-wife, and with the hundreds of millions of dollars on tv air waves, all of the coverage, including from our team that's been on the ground, there is a lot of information out there, and what i'm actually most interested to see, hallie, is you know, the voters who ended up voting for brian kemp, for governor, and you know, who either ended up voting for raphael warnock, and splitting their tickets, or not voting at all in that contest, and completely dropping off, when did those people actually show up? and to me, turnout is going to be the whole game. >> while herschel walker is covering a lot of ground across

georgia today, raphael warnock is keeping it local. talk about his strategy as the rain enters its final hours. >> i think it says that senator warnock knows where his bread is buttered. lesf we forget in 2021, he got into office with a coalition of young people and black people and college people and the working class so he's spending time in the atlanta area and began his day with the union organizers and the u.p.s. distribution center, he was here moments ago, at georgia tech, rallying young people and later in a few minutes he will be meeting with black men, black barbers, to speak about issues that are important to him and why he wants their support. for a moment, i was able to pull him aside at georgia tech and i asked him in the last final hours what keeps him going and motivate and he said his faith. so in this community, his faith was shaped here, a pastor of ebenezer baptist church, a graduate of warnock college, and he is coming back to his base and the people with know him best and those who supported

him. but he warned folks here at georgia tech, these young people, even though we broke records in terms of early voting, georgians broke records in terms of early voting, that's not enough and he needs their help for him to win. >> thanks. and back to you, with warnock, the fact that he has outfundraised in large part, outspent herschel walker, you have republicans now who are looking to prevent the narrative from being warnock is the favorite here. talk about what is at stake as we move ahead in the next phase of the election which is the in person voting which starts in a matter of hours. >> hallie, you mentioned the ad spending. that is one of the areas in thi runoff contest, versus the general election where the candidates and at least when it comes to the campaigns and the outside groups backing them, it was almost parity over the air waves, but now there is a two to one advantage over herschel walker and traditionally those things matter. it sometimes doesn't matter when

there is parity when both sides are spending about the same, but one side has an advantage, traditionally that matters. and what's at stake here is there is a significant difference between democrats being at 50-50, which would be the case if they end up losing this race in the united states senate, versus 51-49. and whether that is the more breathing room, to be able to get nominations, and legislation passed in the senate or also how the committees are structured which is different in a 50-50 senate where there is a power sharing agreement, versus 51-49, where the democrats would have a majority on the committees, if they end up getting that 51-49 majority. >> thank you. appreciate you both. we will have special coverage of the georgia runoff tomorrow, right here on this show, obviously, and at 7:00 eastern, on msnbc. don't miss it. coming up, officials in north carolina in the next couple of minutes set to give an update on the targeted power grid attack.

we're going to bring you the news as we get it. plus, later on in the show, an nbc news exclusive, how hackers connected to china's government stole millions of taxpayer dollars meant to help people who lost their jobs here. but first, the white house, ramping up pressure on republicans in congress, to denounce former president trump, after he called to essentially terminate the constitution. what donald trump is saying now, plus the latest fallout in 60 seconds. we're back in a minutes. minutes. e on all the gifts you need for the gifts that keep on giving. because while they don't understand why you'd ever leave the house like this... they'll happily hold down the fort while you're gone. great prices. happy pets. chewy. if your business kept on employees through the pandemic, innovation refunds could qualify it for a payroll tax refund of up to $26,000 per employee. all it takes is eight minutes to find out. then work with highly qualified professionals to fill out your forms and submit the application. go to innovationrefunds.com to learn more. doesn't your family deserve the best? eggland's best eggs.

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and neither have commented on the post. ali vitali has more. there is a lot with this morass, and i guess it is a monday, it is a fly-in day, people are coming back and we don't see people until later on in the afternoon typically, although everyone has the internet. talk us through what you've seen. >> i think that's the important piece here, this actually reminds me of what we did one or two weeks ago, regarding the dinner that donald trump had with kanye west and nick fuentes, which if you want to say something, we all have access to our twitter accounts and certainly lawmakers have that option and over the weekend, nbc news reached out to the top republicans in the house and the senate and didn't hear any response, and in the last few minutes before i came on you with, our team ran into mitch mcconnell who wouldn't engage on the question of trump saying that the constitution should be

terminated, so that he can be installed as the president, even though he lost the election. though if i were a betting person, i would imagine that mcconnell could say something tomorrow at the leadership conference, but look the people we have heard from, it is also tracking with what we heard after the ye-fuemtes dinner. those who are likely to challenge him. larry hogan, the former governor of maryland, someone who could mount the 2024 bid condemning what trump said, saying he can't believe it has to be said, that the constitution is not the problem. and mike pence, not using the world trump in his condemnation, but saying that i think everyone that serves in public office, everyone that aspires to serve or to serve again, should make it clear to support and defend the constitution of the united states. >> pence walking the fine line where he is clearly condemning trump but not using his name. this is something that republicans will have to figure out. as you listen to the sunday show, that the few of them that

were on had to try to turn the page on trump, while also still having to be asked about him, and look, he's the only active republican candidate right now for president, and even though in the halls of congress, they're preparing to take the majority, and they would be rather focused on that, it is clear they're going to have to do both at once, even if most republicans aren't excited about the prospect of doing that. >> ali vitali, live on the hill. thank you very much. i'm sure you will stay on top of it and report back. in the next hour, we expect to hear from north carolina officials for an update on what they're calling this intentional and malicious attack on the state's power grid. with the fbi now getting involved, joining with state investigators to find out more about who is behind this thing. right now, something like 33,000 people still do not have power. after somebody fired shots at two energy substations in moore county over the weekend. saturday night. crews have been working and working to try to get the lights and importantly the heat back on. officials say some people may have to wait until thursday for that. they're trying to figure out a motive.

there is some speculation over whether the area was targeted because of a drag show that was happening nearby. officials have been worried about potential violence, had extra security in place, although there is no direct evidence, they say, of that link. they are investigating every possibility. antonia hylton is joining us from moore county. talk us through the latest on what we know. >> reporter: we're hoping to find out more about what leads the authorities are chasing here at about 4:00 this afternoon. not only will local officers, the sheriff, talk about this case, but we also expect to see governor roy cooper here at the sheriff's office behind me. and look, here's what we know, as you described it, there are rumors and concerns about possible connections here in the town but the reality is that none of those have been confirmed at this time. here's what authorities say they do know for sure. that this was a scary and dangerous incident. those are the descriptions that were used by the sheriff when he talked to our colleague blaine expand ther morning, that this was intentional, that the person

or persons who did this knew what they were doing, that the resulting consequences to the community here, that they're living, this is the desired effect. and that what we saw that night, you know, gunfire, taking out these two substations, breaking down a fence in the process, that all of this, they believe, was a very intentional criminal act. and you know, what we're now seeing in this community is that it has plunged people who live here into, you know, chaos, for the next couple of days, and while thursday being the day where people expect to have power back on it, may not sound that far away, it is a long stretch of town, when at night, temperatures are going down to freezing. and a lot of families here with elderly people in this community, people who need their oxygen connected for example, who have been reaching out for emergency assistance, and so the county has set up a shelter, and they're encouraging anyone who needs help to call for emergency assistance, to do to that shelter to get warm, to stay there with their loved ones if they need to, but a lot of people are hunkering down with each other in their homes and just trying to get by. i mean as you drive through town, traffic lights aren't working. there is really nowhere to get

food. nowhere to get gas. and so people are really depending on themselves, especially as their kids are out of school right now and there's a curfew that starts at 9:00 p.m. every single night. and it is likely to stay in place as we wait day by day for both the school administrators and the county officials to make decisions about what is possible and safe as they wait for the lights to go back on. what is striking to people as they try to get the community back on its feet, is the revelation how vulnerable our infrastructure is, not only in moore county but a wakeup call to the rest of the country. >> antonia hylton, thank you. millions of americans struggling with high prices have gotten some relief in the last few months with gas down to about $3.40 a gallon on average. 40 cents lower than a month ago. $1.60 from the record high set back in june. the question now is, will those prices perhaps start ticking up again sometime soon? starting today, the european

union price cap on russian oil goes into effect. over the weekend, there are lines of oil producers in the opec+ who decided to stick to a plan to cut production. business and data reporter brian cheung joins us now. a lot of now. a lot of variables at play. i know you don't have a crystal bought but when you look at the different variables we're talking about here, what is the expectation? >> i wish i had a crystal ball because i want to plan my own travel as well. we know gas prices are coming down there. is a number of reasons. one being for example china where lockdowns and issues with covid outbreaks are leaving the second largest economy of the world not to get out there and buy oil because everyone is trapped inside. that alleviated a lot of pressure and opec+ not further cutting production and you know they did back in october, but not doing that in december is helping the supply picture as well a lot of focus on what is happening with russia. the price cap of $60 a barrel, taking effect, in addition to eu bans on the importation of oil entirely, into any of the

european union nations, that's going to possibly provoke russia in offlining their supply of oil entirely. that could lead prices to spike up. in the absence of that, all of the demand and supply picture that we've seen so far are likely pushing prices down, which is one reason we've heard the likes of gas buddy, for example, projecting that gas could go below $3 a gallon in the united states before christmas. certainly a welcome holiday gift if we get that. >> seriously, at the same time this is happening though, as you well know, you have oil companies making a ton of money. the news today, some of the exxon executives are getting a boost in the base pay. >> looking at exxon, it is one of the best performing stocks compared to 2022 where every stock is essentially in the red. and we do wonder if the margins for these oil companies are going to change as these prices come down. that does ultimately pressure their margins but we'll have to see as that is a relatively new piece of development. >> brian cheung, thank you much. appreciate it. next up, we will talk about the supreme court case with really big implications for

lbgtq+ rights and free speech. and the justices back to business, and a business owner who refuses to work with same-sex couples, what would be the path forward? i will ask colorado's attorney general who was in the courtroom coming up next. s attorney general who was in the courtroom coming up next and ask your doctor about biktarvy. biktarvy is a complete, one-pill, once-a-day treatment used for h-i-v in certain adults. it's not a cure, but with one small pill, biktarvy fights h-i-v to help you get to and stay undetectable. that's when the amount of virus is so low it cannot be measured by a lab test. research shows people who take h-i-v treatment every day and get to and stay undetectable can no longer transmit h-i-v through sex. serious side effects can occur, including kidney problems and kidney failure. rare, life-threatening side effects include a buildup of lactic acid and liver problems. do not take biktarvy if you take dofetilide or rifampin. tell your doctor about all the medicines and supplements you take, if you are pregnant or breastfeeding, or if you have kidney or liver problems, including hepatitis.

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in iran, widespread unrest. in iran, widespread unrest so over at the supreme court not too far from where we're sitting here, you have the justices wrapping up oral

arguments between the latest fight between relg use conservatives and those with lbgtq plus rights and now at the highest court, the case is about a colorado web designer's refusal to work on wedding sites for same-sex couples. so here's what went down. you had the conservative justices, who seemed sympathetic, and justice sotomayor seemed more align with the state. listen. >> what's the limiting line of yours? justice kagan asked you about another website designer, but how about people who don't believe in interracial marriage? or about people who don't believe that disabled people should get married? where's the line? i choose to serve whom i want if i disagree with their personal characteristics like race or disability?

i can choose not to sell to those people on this website because it's my speech? >> here's the background, a colorado evangelical web designer who opposes same-sex marriage on religious grounds is trying to get out of colorado's antidiscrimination law, arguing she could get in trouble for turning away same-sex couples. that hasn't happened yet but she is arguing hey, it's could and that's why she is looking for a decision, the case is marking the second time in five years the supreme court is hearing from a business owner about same-sex weldings and in 2018, there was a narrow ruling by the court that made the main issues undecided in the bake shop case and since then the conservative majority has grown. i want to bring the nbc news correspondence yamiche alcindor outside the supreme court. this is such an important case. it could be one of the biggest potentially antidiscrimination cases in the supreme court's recent history and talk us through the clues because it is not often that you hear like ashley madison and jada getting brought up in some of the oral arguments here.

it was pretty interesting. >> certainly, these were fascinating oral arguments on what could be a consequential case dealing with free speech and guy rights in this country, and you heard from some of the liberal justices pointed questions, justice sotomayor as well as justice ketanji brown jackson, both of them bringing up the question of race. it did okay, on religious grounds, you decide that you don't like inter racial marriage or disabled people and ketanji brown jackson asked if you have a photographer who says i want to take pictures and recreate the christmases from the 1950s, and i say i only want to put white children and not black families and is that allowed with santa. and lawyers say there is a line that you can't compel anyone to have free speech that's related to somebody that goes against their personal convictions, but it's, in some ways, critics would say this is a very slippery slope, you have civil rights groups who are saying what lori smith is really looking for is a license to discriminate, but she is saying as an artist i want to be able to express myself, and that includes not making websites for same-sex couples that i oppose,

because i oppose on religious grounds. this could have a con consequencele and if you look at artistic expression that could turn into restaurants and could turn into chefs saying this pasta is part of my artistic expression and as a result i don't want to serve black people on those grounds shall and definitely an important case to watch and listen to as well. >> yamiche alcindor, glad you're there outside the supreme court. thank you. let me bring in somebody who was just inside the supreme court and oral arguments, colorado attorney general phil weiser, thank you for making your way over here. appreciate it. >> thank you. >> you were in the court chambers today. how do you think it went? >> we made our case which is a pretty basic point. if you undermine this commitment, this public accommodations requirement that you open up your doors to the public, you got to serve everybody, we will undermine not just recent history but long-standing precedent. this law goes back to having inn keepers having to serve it

everybody. if you create expressive interest exemption, that will run roughshod over this commitment and it won't just be gays or lesbians or jews or mormons or african americans, what have you, people not getting served. >> what about the point that i think it was justice alito that i think made an issue and you were talking about it in the commercial break, that there are companies that choose to serve certain sectors of the population. >> here is the thing that is important. you can say i've got a specialized product, but you can't stop people from accessing the product. now, you can go on jada and say i'm not jewish but i want to date jews but what the website can't say is you're not welcome here. it is like a book store. you can sell to only jewish books but you can't say you can't buy the books, or star of david cookies, only jews can buy them, if you start discriminating based on religion who can buy products and services we're going to undermine our civil rights

protections. >> you heard the reporting, i think a lot of reports who are supreme court soeb -- observers were sympathetic to the other side, and not your side. tlanld was the 2018 case that we talked about on the bake shop, obviously not on the sort of main issues at hand, but on some more technical stuff, that there was last year, they ruled in favor of a catholic charity that would not allow same-sex foster parents and used this term, the christian high school football coach saying he had a right to pray on the fields after the game. that was a case of free speech but not religious freedom. given the precedent though, what is your level of confidence, and given how the arguments went today, that you will come out with a win here. >> one of the cases you mentioned involving foster care access in philadelphia, the court was presented with a very broad argument. which would have undermined a long-standing precedent. in this argument, there's

another broad argument presented. effectively undermine this public accommodations requirement that says you open your doors to the public, you serve everybody. and this court in the same court, in that philly case said you know what, we will proceed cautiously here. that's what we ask this court, proceed cautiously. >> you talked about the slippery slope argument. if this happens then what is the next domino to fall. there are 29 states including colorado who have nondiscrimination laws. what is the impact if the court sides with smith? what is the impact for makeup artists and hair settings, and people who consider themselves have expressive professions? what is the actual big implication here if this case doesn't go your way as you see it. >> first off, we will start to figure out where to draw that line. if someone makes specialized lattes, express an interest, i don't want to serve mormons because i don't believe in the mormon religion, that set of hypotheticals could become reality if we lose this case. >> colorado is the tip of the

sphere for a lot of these cases. why is that? >> i don't know why colorado is in a number of these cases. it is maybe random, hard to say, i will say another case important to note, romer versus evans, one of the supreme court's first cases recognizing the rights of lbgtq+ individuals. we in colorado have a civil rights law, like a lot of states that protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity and we happen to be in the supreme court on this case and you're right, it is not just about colorado, it is about other states and the federal civil rights laws. >> what do you think the biggest misconception about this case, about the arguments that you're making that you want to talk about here? >> this case is about conduct. it is about whether or not you, as someone who is selling in the marketplace, get to choose who you sell to. this is not a case about an individual who has what you might call one to one relationships. this is about someone who is serving the whole public and it is not annie liebowitz with

advisized photographer, this is the photographer in the mall, i'm sorry i'm not going to photograph you because of your race or gender identity or religion, that is a very dangerous dynamic. if the court goes against us, we're opening that can of worms. >> if you go into the marketplace and offer your goods and services as opposed to the private marketplace, these nondiscrimination rules apply to you. >> that's exactly right. i'm not talking about someone who is a member of the church and creating a website and this one is i'm creating websites for all of the public but not for you because of your sexual orientation. >> we will see several months before we know what the justices' decision will be. thank you very much for being on the show. >> thank you. we reached out to the web design ner this case, her lead attorney will be joining us right here on set tomorrow. still ahead, some new reporting just out on democrats thinking about giving in to gop pressure, and ending the military vaccine mandate. we'll take you live to the pentagon in a second. first, one official in eastern, saying the morality

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the biden administration today casting doubts on reports outs of iran that the infamous morality mission had been disbanded, a states department spokesperson pushing back saying nothing we have seen suggests that iran's leadership is improving its treatment of women

and girls or ceasing the violence it in flicks on peaceful protesters. all of it comes from unscripted remarks from the iranian attorney general, who reportedly went to a religious conference over the weekend and according to state media, he said the morality police had been abolished. protests had been sparked by the death of a young girl who was arrested by the morality police for violating the strictly enforced dress code. the iranian attorney general says the government was reviewing the country's hijab laws and did note that the judiciary has not overseen the morality police. the iranian ministry has a lot of influence over the force. and it has not been confirmed by the interior minister r-industry -- or the police. there are a lot of caveats in the introduction. and that is because there are. this has to be taken with a huge grain of salt, right? >> absolutely, and the state

department has every reason to be skeptical because the regime in iran isn't exactly known for its veracity. look, they're scrambling there right now, they don't know what to do, there are all sorts of statements coming out, there's another senior cleric that came out, just about an hour and a half ago, and said look, the morality police has been disbanded, but they may come back in another form. so it is not clear what they're going to do. are they going to move the physical appearance of the morality police, and replace it with surveillance cameras that will fine women and stop them from doing their banking and other civil duties that they need to do. that's an option they're looking at. but this is all kinds of moot, hallie, because since the death of mahsa amini, many, many women in iran, about 60%, i would say, refuse to wear the hijab. it's no longer enforced by the morality police, because they're not on the streets. it's too risky for them right now. when mahsa amini died, women said enough is enough, we're not going to wear the head scarf or the mandatory coat, we want our

rights and they -- stuck to it for three months now. the airport in tehran is one of the most secure zones in the country. it is entirely run by the rgc, but most of the women in the airport were not wearing a head scarf, and they weren't ha rarsing them. so there has been a sea change. a lot of the time, i'm asked, are all of these protests in iran going to bring about any meaningful change? well, things have changed. iran looks completely different today than it did three months ago. and that's because of the resilience of this women's movement and the youth in iran that have been determined to get their rights. >> ali, thank you for that breakdown. appreciate it. and back in washington, jut outside of capitol hill, that congress, may end its requirement for members of the military to be vaccinated against covid. it's possible that you could see democratic leaders allow a bill to end the mandate, move forward. facing pressure from republicans. according to two republican

aids, one telling our team, it could happen soon and lawmakers could file the bill sometime in the next 24 hours, and bring in pentagon correspondent courtney kube, and i know you remember, and i do, too, what a big deal when the rule was put in place for members of the military who are required to get other vaccines to be required to get the covid vaccine. talk to us about this plan from congress here, the response from the administration. >>z that's right. so it started out as a controversial decision, and then it has continued to be one for the last year plus. and in 2021, the pentagon announced they were making it mandatory for all service members to get the covid vaccine, and the services have the time line where they try to implement their own time line, so over the course of the next year or so, each service had a deadline set for service members to get their vaccines. and the vast majority have complied. it's in the 90% for most of the services at this point. that includes the guard and reserve, whose numbers are a little bit lower. now as you mentioned the national defense authorization act, the ndaa, may include some

language that would call for that mandatory vaccine requirement to end. so this has been something that the republican leader kevin mccarthy had spoken about for several days now, and he said initially, over the weekend, that the white house agreed with this decision. a white house spokesperson says the president was considering, but then today, we heard from john kirby, the nsc spokesperson, who said in fact on the covid mandate issue, obviously, we're aware that congress is considering putting a repeal in the ndaa, the repeal of the vaccine mandate. secretary austin's been very clear that he opposes the repeal of the vaccine mandate. and the president actually concurs with the secretary that he continues to believe that all americans, including those in the armed forces, should be vaccinated and boosted for covid-19. so the white house now saying that they agree with secretary austin and the secretary of defense, but the mandatory vaccine requirement should stay in place. but we're all waiting for, when the ndaa language comes out. it could be as early as today.

will it include this new provision that says it's no longer going to be mandatory? two other things to keep in mind here, hallie, one is what will happen to the service members who have been kicked out, for refusing the vaccine over the last year or so. and it is unclear at this point what would happen to them, whether they would be reason stated or not and how that would work. the other question is how much is the ongoing recruiting crisis playing into this decision making here. all of the services have been struggling with recruiting, especially the army over the last year or so, in some cases there are people who have said that they don't want to get the covid vaccine. you mentioned that service members have to get a lot of vaccines but this one has been controversial. helping recruiting going forward, that may be another consideration. >> is that something that is being talked about, the recruiting aspects specifically? i don't know if there are numbers that would quantify how much the covid vaccine is playing into whether or not the military could recruit but i wonder how much you're hearing about it behind the scenes. >> it is very anecdotal at this

point. but we do hear what is one of the things that recruiters have heard about, that there are people who don't want to get the vaccine, and that may be factoring in. when you're in a tough recruiting environment, every little thing has to be taken into account that might actually help their bottom line. we heard from the commandant of the marine core over the weekend saying the covid vaccine requirement may be playing in some of the recruiting problems. >> courtney, thank you. still ahead, an nbc news exclusive. how hackers connected to china's government stole millions of taxpayer dollars. plus, rnc chair rona mcdaniel on defense with the republican ally reportedly trying to challenge her for the top job. a little more on the fight inside the party in just a minute. fight inside the party in just a minute sounds like something. ♪ when you have nausea, heartburn, indigestion, ♪ ♪ upset stomach, diarrhea. ♪ pepto bismol coats and soothes for fast relief... when you need it most. there's a different way to treat hiv.

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special unemployment benefits designed to help people who lost their jobs during the pandemic. as we have previously reported, a shocking amount of that was stolen. at least 160 billion according to the government and as much as 400 billion by some private estimates and as much of have of the looted funds went to foreign criminals who use fake identities to prey on a system that was not designed to detect fraud. one foreign criminal gang is a well-known chinese hacking group believed to be linked to chinese intelligence. the secret service said they got at least $20 million, but it may be much more. this may be the tip of the iceberg. our sources don't believe the chinese government ordered this hack. it's more likely the group was freelancing to make money. it's a disturbing new twist because if hackers with intelligence agency-level skills start hacking for money on a large scale, they could really reek havoc.

the secret service says it was able to recover half of the 20 million. the vast majority of covid unemployment money that was stolen is gone. that's money that could have been paid for schools, roads, bridges, food stamps, veterans benefits, you name it. it's a scandal that congress that be surprising by silent about. >> ken dilanian live for us with that new reporting. thank you. with the fight to lead the republican party from that perspective may be heating up. you have "politico" reporting that ronna mcdaniel is set to get a new opponent for that position. with one of donald trump's attorneys. dylan is planning to launch a bid to be chair within the next few days. it's the most serious challenge to mcdaniels leadership spot yet. thanks for being back on the show. listen. if re-elected, she will be the longest-serving chair in a long time. she may be tough to unseat. what are the chances that dylan

has here. >> taking out ronna mcdaniel is going to be uphill for anyone looking to unseat her and that includes dylan who is the san francisco attorney, trump ally. it's going to be hard for her to do it. but there is going to be some calls for change in the republican party, especially if, as some people expect, herschel walker goes onto lose in tomorrow's georgia senate runoff election. everything is really going to start after tomorrow's runoff and we're then going to have an election at the end of january and see who ends up leading the rnc into the critical 2024 election cycle. it's not just dylan. there's lee zeldin. mike lindell said he was going to be running for chair. can you -- can you surmise anything, alex, from broadly the fact that ronna mcdaniel is being challenged at all. that there will be a fight about

what this says about where the republican party is headed, what kind of a showdown this could be. >> there's going to be some kind of challenge. lindell, unclear how series of an opponent he would be. and zeldin said he's going to announce whether or not he's going to run on wednesday morning right after the runoff ends. and so the fact that we have dylan in this case tells you that we are going to have some kind of debate about the future of the republican party. and that is going to manifest itself to some extent in the context of this rnc chair race. you're already seeing ronna mcdaniel, she's saying that she's gotten a lot of support, our allies say she's got a lot of support. but you have a lot of people in the maga crowd, kari lake, other people who are kind of associated with the fox news elements of the republican party, they're lining up behind dylan. it's going to be really

interesting to see how this race plays out over the next couple of months. >> alex, it's great to see you. thank you very much for being on. thanks to all of you for watching this hour. you can find us at twitter for the latest on the show, the new reporting there and, of course, as always, over on our streaming channel for nbc news, nbc news now. for show number two, that's tonight and every weeknight at 5:00 p.m. we have "deadline: white house" after the break. we have "deadline: white house" after the break. advantage. ♪wow, uh-huh♪ now she's got a whole team to help her get the most out of her plan. ♪wow, uh-huh♪ with coverage that's better than ever for dental... ...vision... ...prescription drugs and more. advantage: me! can't wait 'til i turn 65! aarp medicare advantage plans, only from unitedhealthcare. take advantage now at uhc.com/medicare my asthma felt anything but normal.

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♪♪ it's 4:00 in new york. we start with what is an extraordinary statement even by the standards of a failed wannabe autocrat who plotted a coup against his own government and recently dined with white supremacists. the disgraced ex-president made his contempt for our democracy as clear as ever when he called for the united states constitution to be, quote, terminated. from "the washington post," quote, trump's message on the truth social platform reiterated the baseless claims he's made since 2020 that the election was stolen. but he went further by suggesting that the country abandoned one of its founding documents. that post came a day after twitter's new owner elon musk claimed he would expose how twitter engaged in free speech suppression in the run-up to the 2020 election. but his