♪♪ good morning. i'm lindsey reiser at msnbc headquarters in new york. and right now, new revelations from the white house about those classified documents from president biden's time in the obama white house. nbc news was first to report the

discovery of a second batch of documents. in the last 30 minutes, the white house counsel revealed all but one of the classified documents were found in a storage space in the president's garage at his home in wilmington. his lawyers found them while conducting a search after that first batch was found in an office he used in washington. we're going to start with those new details here from the white house on those. i want to bring in two reporters who broke that story. ken dilanian and carol lee. also with me, ali vitali and joyce vance. let's go ahead and listen, carol, before i ask you the first question. the president addressed this. let's listen. >> as i said earlier this week, people know i take classified documents, classified materials seriously. i also said we're cooperating fully and completely with the justice department's review. the department of justice was

immediately notified and the lawyers arranged for the department of justice to take possession of the document. so you're going to see -- we're going to see all of this unfold. i'm confident -- >> walk us through the new developments here and what we learned also from what the president said. >> reporter: sure, lindsey. the president is saying that what his lawyers have already said moments before he answered that question, which is that after those documents at the pen biden center here in washington, d.c., the president's office here after he left the vice presidency, the president's team conducted a search of his homes in delaware. his home in wilmington and rehoboth. they turned up a small number of classified documents in the president's garage, in a storage space in his garage at that home in wilmington as well as a single document with classified markings that was found in an

adjacent storage space next to the garage. what you're hearing from the white house and the president is, they've turned those documents over to the justice department so they can be part of that review that the justice department is undertaking. in addition to the fewer than a dozen documents that were found in his office here in washington, d.c., they now have this other batch. they're also saying, lindsey, that that search of the president's homes in delaware is concluded. that that review of all the president's materials was completed as of last night and that they found these additional classified documents among of political and personal papers that were packed up from the president's time as vice president in 2017. >> so, ken, the white house here saying that the doj was notified and that lawyers arranged for the department to take possession of the documents. does this add new pressure on typical department and the attorney general? >> it really does. we live in the real world here. you have republicans saying, well, if there was a special counsel for former president

trump and his document situation, why wouldn't there be in this case and the fact that more documents have been found just complicates the picture. we don't have good answers for -- to a lot of questions about how these documents ended up there, who requested them. presumably, the fbi, which has been reviewing this matter and the u.s. attorney in chicago, they know some of these answers. but we have an announcement from the attorney general, merrick garland, today scheduled at 1:00 p.m. we haven't said what that announcement is about. this is an attorney general that wants not only actual fairness, but the appearance of fairness, the appearance of nonpartisanship and it really -- i think we're in a climate now where there's a lot of pressure on the doj to examine the question of the special counsel. >> carol, another question here, so correct me if i'm wrong, but we have the first initial batch that was found in d.c., we have the second batch which was found in the garage, in a locked

space, and another document found in an adjacent room. the white house attorney saying that the search has concluded. is that to say, then, that we won't get anymore news, for example, of a third batch? >> reporter: well, that could be inferred from the statement. what the white house is saying is that they discovered this initial batch, they decided to get their arms around the problem and figure out what else might be out there and that they've done that, that the wilmington house and the rehoboth house are the only two other places where documents might be stored. what we -- there's still a number of outlining questions here, lindsey, though, that the white house has not answered. they wouldn't even answer when the president was first briefed on this. we know he was told after that november 2nd discovery that he first learned about it. he said he was surprised. how did the documents get there? these are all things that the justice department is looking

into it. one thing that the president did say in addition to saying, look, this is a locked garage. it's not like these documents were out there in the middle of the street, sort of down playing this. he said he will be able to speak to this more hopefully soon. so that suggests that this is something the president wants to talk about and we might get a more fulsome accounting of what has happened here from the president once the justice department's review wraps up. >> ken talked about the political climate we're in. speaker mccarthy is holding a press conference any second. they've been making a lot of comparisons to former president trump's case. how will we see republicans continue to push this issue and do you get a sense that the calls will spread across the aisle? >> there's a drum beat that's beginning on capitol hill. just in the last few minutes, calling for a special counsel and noting what they're calling, republicans saying, the hypocrisy of the way the situations are dealt with.

republicans have been eager to dig into how things went down around the mar-a-lago document search. now they have a moment where they're clearly trying to equivocate these two happenings between trump and between biden. even in the last few seconds, congressman comer is talking on another network about the hypocrisy that we're seeing right now. he's going to be one of those people who has already issued some requests of what he wants to see regarding the documents. but this is a drum beat that will steadily continue. we're going to see what the doj ends up saying this afternoon. but republicans are eager to pounce on this. we're looking on the other side of our screen as we wait for speaker kevin mccarthy to come to the microphones here. but in the last half-hour, we have democrats here on the hill standing by the president, here's what hakeem jeffries

said. >> i have full faith and credit in president biden. i believe he's doing everything to take the appropriate steps to determine what happened and how to move forward in a responsible fashion and i'm confident that he will continue to do so. again, i haven't been briefed on the full set of facts in this regard. but i have full faith in president joe biden. >> reporter: the house in session we're hearing a lot from lawmakers on this side of the building. but it's important to note that over on the senate side of this, both republicans and democrats have urged the senate intel committee that they want a briefing on what is at stake here, they want a damage assessment. i would point out, it's the same thing that we heard from them after the mar-a-lago documents became public, we're seeing on the senate side them treat this the exact same way, just trying to get answers. >> joyce, obviously the situations here between the two presidents, trump and biden, are

very different. in one case, former president trump was asked -- notified to return and refused. this is obviously a different case, president biden saying he was surprised to learn they were there. they learned them over immediately. given that and given these calls for a special counsel to step in, how do you think that attorney general garland should proceed? >> right. it's a good point that the politics of this question and the political fallout is a very different matter from the raw legal issues that merrick garland has to think about. initially, he has to make a decision about whether to appoint a special counsel. you only do that when you think that there's a crime that needs to be investigated. and that brings into stark focus the difference between the situations with trump and biden. with trump, there's clear evidence publicly of willfulness. trump knew he had the documents despite repeated requests, he refused to turn them over, defied a subpoena, complied

partially with the subpoena, and then lied to doj, said everything had been turned over which forced them to execute a search warrant. that's very different from bide biden who found out they had documents, call it had archives, alerted them, turned over and completed a voluntary search. that may be lost in our political dynamic. but that's important to make sure -- merrick garland. perhaps if it had been documents in one place, the attorney general might have said there's no evidence of a crime, no evidence that biden was willful, and that he knowingly and intentionally kept these papers from the government. now with two separate locations, it may be easier in terms of protecting the public's confidence in doj neutrality to

use a special counsel process for the biden situation as well as the trump one. >> so, joyce, question to you, so we know that merrick garland had tasked a u.s. attorney with the task. when do you expect and do you expect the public to ever learn what came out of that? how long of an investigation would that typically take and would the public find out the results? >> so he's doing a preliminary investigation. so the attorney general can decide if he needs to appoint a special counsel. it's not a full criminal investigation. and the reporting, it's not clear, but it looks like his work was actually complete, there was reporting that he had met with attorney general garland a couple of times, had no plans to meet with him again.

this new discovery may alter that. so this isn't a complicated investigation if you have someone who is cooperating. laush is trying to figure out who was involved in transferring these documents, what happened, when did it happen and did biden know anything about it. because ultimately the most important question here is whether joe biden willfully kept these documents out of reach of government for some period of time. it seems like that investigation is likely complete or close to complete. we may hear something from merrick garland shortly about his views on the issue. >> kevin mccarthy is talking right now. let's listen in. >> yes? [ inaudible question ] >> i'm glad you brought that up. passed a bipartisan bill with 146 democrats joining with us to create a new select committee on

china that congressman gallagher will chair. i met with leader hakeem jeffries on this. this will be a bipartisan committee. i think it's very important, a number of reasons why i believe we have lost jobs to china, our intellectual property, many times we don't speak with one voice from america. what i'm trying to accomplish is, get members on both sides of the aisle from all different perspectives, from agriculture and others, to bring those jobs back to america, to make sure china's not buying our farmland and others. get a level playing field for competition. we watched during covid for our medical supplies, controlling 50% of the market. we watch from our medical pills and other what is they control. this is something that is very -- not just disturbing to me, but for the future of america. i would say in this first five days probably one of the most powerful things that we passed,

a very bipartisan way, a step forward. i would hope the senate would do it as well and that we can speak with one voice as we move forward to bring the jobs back to america. yes, sir? >> reporter: a lot of reporting about -- side deals -- >> no. >> reporter: the american people deserve to know all the -- >> yeah, they deserve to know. you should look at the commitment to america. there's not a side deal to anything. you watch the rules package, exactly the same rules package we had back on january 1st. what does it do? the only change within that is they can vacant the chair from five to one. the other thing that we did, and i'm glad you keep bringing these up, we watch what is happening right now with the president of the united states. not once but now we're finding in two different locations classified information just out there in the open. it just goes to prove -- and we're finding out now after being sworn in that this was

discovered before the election. another faux pas by the biden administration, but treating law differently based upon your political beliefs. treats president trump one way, but treats president biden a whole different way. that's why we had to provide a new entity from our church style to look after the weaponization of what's gone on. you want an equal playing of the law to all americans. let him finish. >> reporter: regarding the classified documents, going before that committee -- >> i see it could go from that committee to others. but i think congress has to investigate this. here's an individual that's been in office for more than 40 years. here's an individual that sat on "60 minutes" that was so concerned about president trump's document and now we find it keeping it for years in different locations. i do not think any american believes that justice should no

be equal to all. and we found from this administration what happened before. every single election, whatever comes out, they utilize to try to falsify it, try to have different standards for their own beliefs, that doesn't work in america. >> reporter: do you trust someone who has admitted to lying, could be facing fraud charges to have access to top-secret information -- >> i don't see any way -- you're referring to george santos. he's got a long way to earn trust. you apply the constitution equal to all americans. the voters of his district have elected him. he is seated. he is part of the republican conference. there are concerns with him. he will go before ethics. if anything is found to be wrong, he will be held accountable, exactly as anybody else in this body will be. that is the fairway to handle anything -- that's how i'll deal

with any single issue that ever comes forward. yes, ma'am? >> reporter: do you see a deference that former president trump [ inaudible ] -- >> no, because from one standpoint, they knew the documents were there, they asked president biden to put another lock on so they were locked. you look at president biden, he wasn't president, he was vice president, he held these in different locations right out in the open. he criticized president trump. did he utilize the justice department to raid president trump? do you think that was right? they knew this has happened to president biden before the election but they kept it a secret from the american public? he goes on "60 minutes," criticizes president trump, even knowing what he has done and he wasn't president at the time. now we find another location that it's at, his press secretary won't answer the questions. you watched them leak photos of

files of president trump. where is the photos of president biden's documents? he knew this happened going into election, going into interviews. this is what makes america not trust their government. you cannot have one form of law because somebody has a different opinion for you and you can't use the justice department to go after people who are politically different as well. it has to be equal across. what i'm finding what's happening with president biden time and again, you go from a laptop saying not only that it wasn't true, but utilizing your own friends to go into companies to tell them to say the same thing, to try to knock down information, to try to make sure the "new york post" story couldn't be printed. you should be offended by that. you are of the press. you should be allowed to write even when you knew it was true. yes, sir?

>> reporter: would you be open to improving [ inaudible ] -- >> when republicans were in power those eight years, discretionary spending increased zero. i watched democrat takeover for four years, they increased it by 30%. i watched $31 trillion debt, i watched inflation grow under their fiscal policies. we got to get our house in order. we will always protect medicare and social security. we will protect that for the next generation going forward. but we are going to scrutinize every single dollar spent. it's the right, it's the hard-working taxpayer that actually pays it -- >> we have been listening to speaker kevin mccarthy's weekly address in which he did address the second batch of documents with classified markings found at president biden's home in wilmington. i want to bring back ali vitali. a couple things we need to

mention here. first off, essentially insinuating here that it was biden's doj who, quote, went after and was -- we should mention president biden has said he had zero advance notice of the mar-a-lago search. and also, there were some equivalencies there which we need to point out. the two cases are not apples and oranges. >> reporter: yeah, i think that's an important thing to point out here, lindsey. they're not the same. nevertheless, this is what republicans are going to try to do and they're going to be able to do so with full subpoena power behind them. the most important thing that we heard speaker mccarthy say there is that this is something that he will investigate now that republicans have control of these committees. he didn't say whether or not the weaponization against government -- the weaponization of government committee which is the select committee that they

instituted earlier this week, he doesn't know if that's the committee that's going to be in charge of it or the oversight committee. we were talking about congressman comer, he was talking about hypocrisy here. but this is the way that republicans are going to try to play this, equating these two scenarios despite the fact that they are different, that we're talking about hundreds of documents in the trump case versus just about a dozen or so, or less than a dozen documents in this case. all of these differences are going to be important as we continue to go forward here. again, republicans are going to try to muddy the waters on this and they will be going forward with at least one investigation into these documents. >> and the speaker had said that president biden was knowingly giving interviews on "60 minutes" saying how concerned he was about the trump documents. we should point out that the president has said that he was surprised to learn that these documents were in the pen biden center and at his residence.

some more news in that conference in addition to what you just said, saying that congress has to investigate this. he did mention george santos. he was asked if george santos will be on any committees, the speaker saying that he doesn't see that, he has a long way to earn trust. what can we expect from that house ethics committee investigation into george santos? >> reporter: honestly, probably nothing for awhile. this is a committee that the notoriously slow. we've seen george santos a few times today. he's defiant in the face of even his almost entire new york held delegation saying he should step down at this point. what's clear is that republican leaders, including kevin mccarthy are not likely to do anything about this. what our sources have said to us is democrats allowed santos to be seated. once a congressperson is seated, it's really hard to get them to go anywhere, especially if

you're george santos. the other piece of this too, is the politics of this, lindsey. they already have a very slim majority here in the house. they don't want to lose a seat. this is the one that could be in some cases seen as the majority maker because every vote counts here. you know if george santos resigns, given the dynamics of the district, this is theoretically a lighter blue district. it doesn't necessarily trend red. there's concern from republicans that this is a seat that they could lose. think about the millions and millions of dollars that would be poured into this one house race if it were to open up. that's not something that republicans have a desire for, certainly democrats would be ready for that eventuality if it were to come to pass. you listen to santos, he says he's not going anywhere despite the fact that everyone back home says they don't have confidence in him and they should. >> let's shift back again to this news that nbc news broke of

the second batch of documents. i want to bring back ken dilanian. when we listen to some of the potential grievances that speaker mccarthy is outlining right now, what are the questions you still have as a journalist that the white house needs to answer? >> almost all the fundamental ones, lindsey, who packed these documents? how did they get there to those places where they weren't supposed to be? what if anything was joe biden's involvement in those documents? did he request them? did he review them? because it's one thing to say you don't remember them now. this is five years ago. did he have any involvement with them? what's the level of classification. were any of them top secret which is a dramatically different kind of document, and then why didn't the white house tell the public when they learned about this or shortly thereafter back in november. why wait until it leaks and then

explodes into a -- kind of a scandal that they're losing control of. that's what's perplexing, is how the white house has handled this. classic of crisis communication, you rip the band-aid, and they've done the opposite of that here and it's very perplexing. >> joyce, we have been discussing here the difference between the political implications surrounding this and the legal ones. so to ken's point right now, why they waited, for example, several months when they found out just befores? joyce, is that a political question? does that have legal questions surrounding it as well? >> so i think that that's right. it's both political and legal. ken is absolutely right. ripping the band-aid off politically would have been the most expedient thing to do and controlling the story. we don't know whether the justice department asked the white house to not discuss this situation publicly and there's a third dynamic in these situations we haven't talked

about which is a national security assessment, a risk assessment of whether any damage has been done to the country because these documents were for a number of years in a nonsecure location. it's entirely likely, perhaps it's been completed, that the national security community has already done an assessment of what's in these documents and whether any damage occurred and that too could play a role in the white house's failure to talk about this before the story leaked. >> thank you so much for that context. ken dilanian, thanks to you as well. ali vitali, thank you so much. still to come, the suspect in the brutal murders of four idaho college students is back in court this hour. we have new details about how forensic genealogy was key to the investigation. even as california sees a break today after days of relentless rain, more is on the way. we're going to break down the risk over the coming days. risk .

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into our newsroom of bryan kohberger appearing for the second time since being extradited back to idaho to face first-degree murder charges. street patterson joins me. also joining me is joyce vance. steve, that court appearance just wrapped. what more do we know about what that was all about? >> reporter: yeah, this was a status hearing. it wrapped just moments ago. kohberger walking out of that courtroom just moments ago. the biggest headline here is that kohberger's attorneys chose to waive a speeding hearing. which means the next step will be on june 26th for that preliminary hearing at 9:00 a.m. it is scheduled to be about four or five days or so. kohberger will be held without bail until that point. we're learning a little bit more about the investigation itself. we've been talking to people, sources close to the investigation who tell us that

kohberger really became the sole suspect on december 23rd thanks to dna. and also learning a little bit more about his character, his background himself. our colleagues at dateline spoke to a school-aged schoolmate just about who he was growing up. listen to this. >> when i knew him he didn't have any girlfriends. i didn't think he was talking to any girls. again, he was just very -- kept to himself. yeah, he never really had any relationships like that when i knew him. >> reporter: so that interview and much more is going to air as part of a two-hour dateline special tomorrow night which will go over details of the case and much more on the background as well as the town here in moscow. that's tomorrow night.

but meanwhile, again, the next step in this judicial process is now june 26th. back to you, lindsey. >> steve, real quick. just a clarification here to make sure i understand correctly. what was decided in the hearing today, there will be a preliminary hearing, but it will be a little bit later, they need more time? >> reporter: yes. they want time for the discovery process to learn a little bit more about the facts of the case before they present for that hearing which will be in june. they waived the right to a speedy preliminary hearing. there still will be one. it's happening in june. >> joyce, break down the legal strategy for that. it was my understanding if the preliminary hearing was waived altogether, that would show the confidence level from the defendant. what do we know from that decision? >> so this suggests that the defense wants to do a larger examination of the evidence that ties their client at the scene of the crime and the key piece of evidence will be this knife

sheathe that the government discovered dna evidence on that they used through the genealogical process to link kohberger to the crime. it's an interesting piece of evidence. it has marine corps markings, likely the defense wants to pursue the strength of the government's evidence putting that sheathe, itself, in the possession of their client and seeing whether there's some opportunity there to defend whether it's arguing that his dna was at the crime scene, that assumes it's not found in other places. victims may well have had defensive wounds. it's a smart strategy for the defense early onto test the government before they head into the preliminary hearing. june 26th, we'll find out much more. thank you so much. this morning, we're keeping an eye on the weather situation on the west coast. some areas are getting a much-needed break from seemingly nonstop rain. but it won't last long. in california, the death toll

continues to rise. several days of heavy rain has left entire towns flooded with homes and cars submerged. and now forecasters are warning of more storms on the way, possibly even the most dangerous system so far in an unrelenting series. some spots could see up to 8 inches of rain by tuesday. marissa parra has a look of the situation there and nbc news bill karins is tracking what's coming next. thousands are without power, under evacuation orders, this is far from over. what are you seeing and how are people getting ready for the coming days? >> reporter: you can see for the first time that we've been going live this full week, we're not getting rained on, i'm not wearing a weather jacket. you can see behind me, this is an example of what people are dealing with. these types of trees, the roots are pretty much larger than i am. this is one of the many trees

across the state toppled over in this rain-soaked ground. and then you had the wind that didn't help things. this was over a week ago. we saw so many trees that have fallen overnight from this latest storm system and the thing is, we're continuing to see that. lindsey, it might see deceiving when you have a break in the clouds like this. people might think all of the danger is gone. there's a couple of factors here, though, you still have flooded roads. that can still be a danger. i spoke with the local sheriff's office and they were saying that they're still going out to make sure that people are not driving into roads that have standing water in it. because, again, you don't know how deep that water can get and another danger is we have landslides that are still a possibility. we also have sinkholes. highway 92, a popular highway around here, that is currently part of it is closed off because of a sinkhole that opened up

overnight. and so you have the aftereffects, the lingering effects of the storm system that has been drenching california, drenching the ground that we're standing on. this is a much-needed break. this is a chance for people to get some cleanup done, try to remove trees like this one while they can. we know the tree removal crews are inundated right now. we know pg and e, they have been inundated. this is going to be a busy day. people are trying to pack inasmuch cleanup as they can before the next wave hits. >> you're looking at a system south and northeast staring down weather there. what are you watching? >> well, just in the last half-hour, it appears a tornado has hit areas of alabama. winston county, alabama, 27 minutes ago. it was report that had a tornado and there's the wording on it, they said report of storm damage with people entrapped near del

mar. you can see where tornado reports have been today. red boxes and also right around brent, those are active tornado warnings. that's where the sirens are going off. they're all getting to their shelter locations right now. this is central portions of alabama. this tornado watch will continue until 1:00 and it looks like a new watch has been issued for the mobile area. that will go through match of the afternoon. to the north of here, birmingham, severe thunderstorm possible going through now. we're dealing with severe weather concerns. here's the area of everyone that has a severe chance of weather. right now it's towards birmingham. this afternoon central georgia

will be the concern. let's jump to the west coast. today is the break day. it's not going to last forever. the rain returns to central and northern california tomorrow. it sweeps through areas of central california tomorrow night. and then a more powerful storm will kick in on saturday and it looks like the end of our parade of storms will then be sunday night into monday. additional rainfall, this is not what we want to see. all those bright reds, that's up to 4 to 6 inches. so, lindsey, we are not done with our damage in california. we have a break today, but it's still coming. >> all right. thank you. coming up, is embattled new york congressman george santos going to hang on amid pressure to resign. the mixed messages he's sending this morning. e mixed messages h this morning

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resign, will you? >> if 142 people ask me to resign, i'll resign. >> well, in just the last 24 hours, four of his fellow members of the delegation have called for him to step down. but we heard from kevin mccarthy and he's not going that far. nbc news senior capitol hill correspondent garrett haake was there talking with the speaker, asking him questions. so, garrett, let's talk about how he addressed that in the last hour, and also, this would potentially lead to a special election if he was removed or if he resigned. that would be hotly contested. >> yes, first of all, i have no idea where that 142 number comes from. there's no math within the house that makes that number significant. there's certainly not any within his queens and long island district that makes that significant. i've heard from more than 142

people within my district talking about his resignation. we'll set that aside entirely. as the number of people calling for santos to step down has gone up, he's retained one key alley backing him up in his desire to they in power and that's speaker mccarthy. he doubled down at this news conference just a short time ago. here's what he said when asked about santos sticking around today. >> he's got a long way to go to earn trust. you apply the constitution equal to all americans. the voters of his district have elected him. he is seated. he is part of the republican conference. there are concerns with him. he will go before ethics. if anything is found to be wrong, he will be held accountable exactly as anybody else in this body would be. >> reporter: the ethics committee process is a bipartisan process, it is also slow. i wouldn't expect anything to

come out of that any time soon. the other things that hangs over santos the the possibility that one of the criminal investigations into him could lead to an indictment. that would increase the pressure on republican leaders to act. you mentioned the possibility here if santos were to somehow reverse course and resign. that will require a special election in new york state. i can't happen quickly. the state law says 70 to 80 days after the vacancy would be put forward. and then it's kind of a free-for-all. this is a district that joe biden carried by nine points i believe in the presidential election or would have transferred over if you do the math. this would be a district where a democrat is favored. it's a district where a republican won in this cycle and recruiting would be a big deal. i don't have to tell you, new york city special election, the most expensive market in the country, it would be the biggest political game in town for as long as that election were to be going on. should one end up being called for. >> any word on committee

assignments for santos? >> not yet. the house has only started to unveil committee assignments. three or four committees have announced their full makeup. we should know by the end of this week. >> but he did say that it's unlikely he'll be on any in which he'll have access to top-secret information. >> that's right. he won't be on the so-called a-committees, the ones that deal with tax writing, financial services, things of that nature. mccarthy indicated he wouldn't be on something where he would have access to classified information, intel, armed services, foreign affairs. it's hard to see exactly where george santos ends up. but it won't be on any of those top-flight committees. >> garrett haake, thank you. joining me right now is town supervisor from george santos's district. she demanded santos's resignation yesterday. thanks for being with us. you said yesterday that santos lied to you personally to secure

your endorsement. you say you're offended and disgusted. what's your reaction to his refusal to step down and how did he lie to you personally? >> i'm more disappointed than ever that he resisted our call for him to resign without considering it. i mean, these are 25 wonderful elected officials i was standing with yesterday who work very hard and we followed the rules. we submit the forms we're supposed to submit and we represent our people the best we can. so to stand there yesterday and ask him to consider resigning to show him that he's not one of us i thought was very powerful. i'm disappointed that he brushed it off. i don't know what 142 people means either, but i have heard from way more than 142 people that they want him to resign. as far as what he said to me personally, you know that he was

property owner, that he had had a lot of financial experience, the things that are impressive. he lied to impressive and a lot of what i've been following on your report here is, you know, that the people elected him, but we did not. we did not elect him. we elected a fake resume. so he was not elected by the people of the third congressional district. >> so supervisor, some of the lies on santos's resume are easily disapprovable, being a volleyball star, leading his team to a league championship. how much blame should be placed on the republican party for missing such embellishments and lies. >> those are not the type of questions that you ask someone to give you proof of. when you say you went to a certain college, how often do you ask someone to see their diploma, how often do you verify those things? that's why the scale of his

lying is incomprehensible. there's no way that anyone could have checked all these things. >> supervisor, we've been talking to our congressional reporters on capitol hill today and they say, yes, speaker mccarthy said that the house ethics committee will handle santos now but they said that process is slow and may not go anywhere. since he wouldn't resign, is there anything you and your colleagues in new york are looking at doing or urging congress to do? >> i'll tell you, we feel quite helpless and frustrated that the only recourse seems to be to wait and vote him out in the next election in two years. we really would like something better. i am -- i'm glad that our other -- the rest of the delega. they are going to keep us informed. they will be available to us. obviously, you know, i'm available to the people of the town of north hempstead.

we will do the best we can. we have a lot of great leaders. we will get what needs to be done for our people. i'm very hopeful that with the scale of the lies, especially some of the financial misrepresentations, that there will be some enforcement mechanism, whether it's from the local investigators or the house itself. >> supervisor, thank you so much for your time. appreciate you joining us. >> thank you very much. new numbers out this morning show inflation continues to drop. cooling again in december. inflation has fallen to 6.5%, in line with estimates. on a month to month basis, it fell by .1%. that's the biggest drop since april of 2020. the markets are reacting. the dow is in the green 135

points. in the last hour, president biden spoke about the outlook for the u.s. economy. >> roads and bridges are being built. factories are coming online. people back to worth. families breathing easier. i can honestly -- you heard me say this before and i mean it. i have never been more optimistic about america's future than i am today. we have to remember who in god's name we are. >> joining me now is morgan brennan and robin farzad. what does it mean for taming inflation going forward and what do you think is going on in the minds of investors? >> we still have a ways to go, inflation is easing. that december consumer price index actually marked the sixth straight month of deceleration in consumer prices since the peak we saw last summer. the biggest reason for that, big drop in gasoline prices.

those were down almost 9.5%. they are lower on a year over year basis. used car prices fall further. new vehicle prices came off a little bit for the month. we haven't seen the relief yet, food prices are continuing to climb. perhaps promising news, smallest monthly increase we have seen since march of 2021. rents have remained high. utilities are more expensive. if you strip out volatile categories of food and energy, core cpi, that claimed .3%. it was up 5.7% on an annualized basis. inflation is stickier on the services side of the economy and where rent factors in. u.s. inflation cooling as consumer prices, at least some consumer prices fall. the labor market, still tight. >> robin, this is the last cpi report we will get before the fed meets february 1st.

are these numbers enough to maybe make the next increase, sunl assuming we will see an increase, less severe? >> isn't that cold comfort? we hike by a quarter point instead of 75. we used to hike by a quarter point all the time. you wouldn't be celebrating rates approximating 4.5%. i think this is problematic. it's one thing to read government statistics. it's another thing -- i swear it's the last time i bring up egg prices. i have been around markets for such a long time. i never recall a dozen eggs costing more than the average cost of a gallon of gasoline. these are things that very much -- that vex consumers. i don't know what this does. how much pain do you have to get from the economy to get inflation back down to the low single digits? we're not there yet.

>> robin, when we talk about -- dive a little into eggs right now. it's because of bird flu. it's not necessarily because -- it's supply and demand. but it's because of this horrific virus that killed off a bunch of chickens. >> how much will go away? will you see eggs go back to 89 cents? morgan mentioned stickiness. they are sticky upwards. once it crosses a threshold, once you aren't paying $5 for a footlong, i don't care what the fed does. inflation is here to stay. i'm missing the days when we would have something like 4% unemployment and 2% to 3% inflation. i don't know how the fed gets us there. i don't think it's anything to celebrate anything we are seeing. we would expect lower inflation. >> a former sandwich artist, i do recall fondly the $5

footlong. before we go, is inflation cooling right now quickly enough to avoid a recession? >> i hope so. this economy is strong. it's deep. joblessness is low. opening are high. hope springs eternal. >> thank you so much. that does it for me this busy hour. i will be back tomorrow. "andrea mitchell reports" starts next. with angi, you can connect with and see ratings and reviews. and when you book and pay throug you're covered by our happiness check out angi.com today. angi... and done. the hiring process used to be the death of me. but with upwork... with upwork the hiring process is fast and flexible. behold... all that talent! ♪ this is how we work now ♪

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right now on "andrea mitchell reports," the president's classified document controversy is getting worse for the white house. with biden aides finding a second small batch of classified documents, this time at his wilmington, delaware, home, raising new questions about his handling of classified materials. president biden addressing the situation this morning. >> my lawyers reviewed our places where documents from my time as vice president were stored and they finished the review last night. they discovered a small number of documents of classified marking in storage areas in file cabinets. we will see all this unfold. under this hour, the congressional investigation into hunter biden. ramping up as "the new york times" today reporting that the justice department could