right now on "andrea mitchell reports," vladimir putin retaliates for the u.s. and german tank announcements with 55 missile attacks across ukraine. former defense secretary and cia director leon pennetta joining me to talk about the tank deployment, the russian response and the expanding scandal of mishandled classified documents. this as bipartisan leaders of the senate intelligence agency explode over the administration's refusal to brief them on what national security secrets may have already been compromised by former president trump and president biden. this hour, dr. gupta joins us as fda leaders meet to debate whether to simplify the covid

booster vaccine schedule for all americans regardless of their coronavirus vaccination history. good day, everyone. i'm andrea mitchell in washington. vladimir putin's forces are responding to the decision by the united states and its allies to supply president zelenskyy's forces with dozens of abrams and leopard 2 tanks by launching a new group missiles. defense forces shot down 20 missiles. one civilian did die from falling shrapnel. joining me now, raf martinez. there were 55 missile attacks. they were self-exploding drones. what are you hearing from military leaders and city officials?

>> reporter: andrea, the only good news, if you can call it that, on this very bloody day across ukraine is the ukrainian air force is saying, they shot down most of those 55 missiles. the russians followed what at this point is a grimly familiar pattern. they sent a wave of those iranian-made self-destructing drones in what appears to have been an attempt to overwhelm ukraine's air defenses. then they followed up with another wave of cruise missiles. some of those missiles did get through. ukrainian authorities are saying at least 11 people are dead across the country. the targets appear to have been civilian power infrastructure as they have been throughout this war. human rights groups warn that that is a potential war crime by the kremlin, what appears to be an effort to force the ukrainian population into submission in the depth of winter. it's below freezing here. ukraine's energy minister says this seems to have been a -- the

russians appear to be forcing a systemic failure in the energy system. there were some emergency power outages in kyiv. there was also damage to the energy infrastructure down in odessa. as far as we can tell, for the most part, the russians do not appear to have succeeded in crippling the energy infrastructure. we also heard from president zelenskyy today. he said he is deeply grateful to the u.s. and to germany for sending those tanks. but he will not feel a sense of relief until they are here on the battlefield in eastern ukraine. andrea, we are getting some sense of the time line. the german defense minister believes the leopard 2s could be here by the end of march. it's likely to be a significantly longer time line for those m1 american abrams. president zelenskyy also was asked, would you considerate this stage, nearly one year into the war, sitting down for peace

talks with vladimir putin? he said, that is something that does not interest him right now. we have not heard from the russian president yet today. but he has made his message pretty clear in this form of dozens and dozens of missile strikes. >> raf, thank you very much. dimitri, your group is out with a report detailing how russia -- vladimir putin has been propped up by imports from china in recent months. tell me about that. >> absolutely. what we found is while russia prosecuted this military campaign very competently, their trade and economics people have been much better in making the country much more resilient to the sanctions and export controls the west has instituted against russia. they have been helped by china that's supplying a lot of goods, especially semiconductors that are critical to the military and economic needs. also shipments through former soviet states like armenia and kazakhstan.

effectively, getting around the sanctions that have been put in place. >> isn't belarus sanctions as well? >> they are not as comprehensive as on russia. >> we have known that china was helping but not weaponizing. but this certainly is a big support to the failing russian military operation. let's talk about the tanks and the decision making here in the states. you are such an expert on vladimir putin and all things russia. whether russia was responding to the tank announcement, which was signalled from washington on recent days, our own reporting, or whether this was independently an overnight attack, in either case it's again civilian targets, civilian deaths and war crimes, arguably. and we are about to hit an anniversary. is there anything that's going to get vladimir putin to the table? will the tank announcement or anything else that the u.s. resolve is showing get vladimir putin to sit down and talk with

zelenskyy? >> i don't believe so. frankly, the ukrainians are not interested, as we just heard, in those talks either. i think this war is going to go on for many months, potentially years. that's why ukrainians need more help, more weapons. they need fighter jets. without air cover, tanks are not enough. they need humanitarian aid. that's why we are having an event tomorrow. they will need a lot more of that going forward. >> i'm glad you mentioned that. i was about to. let me also add, what about the other things that zelenskyy is asking for? he was already asking for through his deputy defense minister last night. >> the biggest thing that the ukrainian military need is range. ability to project power into russian territory that is currently out of range of their weapons. i think the administration is holding back because they are worried about escalation.

the russians know it could be a game changer in this conflict. this would be a red line for them. >> thank you very much. >> thanks for having me. >> thanks for all you are doing for ukrainian support. joining us now is leon pennetta, former cia director, i could say former budget omb director. you have done it all. let's talk about this. the criticism has been immediately after we had the president on live on this program and john kirby from the white house, we had mccaffrey saying, it's not enough, it's too slow. it's the right decision but it needs to be accelerated. they need the other things, they need fighter jets to go on the offensive and be able to put vladimir putin on his back foot. >> there's no question that this decision took too long.

it was almost four months to be able to come to a decision. they came to the right decision, thankfully. i think it's very important to be able to provide these tanks to the ukrainians in order to deal with the potential offensive by the russians. and i think it is important to provide additional support as well. i think, frankly, everything should be on the table. when it comes to trying to help the ukrainians be able to ultimately defeat the russians and be able to protect their democracy. this is all, frankly -- everything we are talking about is not offensive. it's defensive for the ukrainians in order to protect their country. >> the criticism is also that we are overestimating what putin could do in escalation, that he is bluffing, and that we should not be so afraid of putin's response. we should give ukraine what they need.

>> well, i think there's some merit to that argument in the sense that putin's forces are exhausted. putin is flailing by sending these missiles. this is not any kind of war strategy. this is a pure terror strategy, trying to break the will of the ukrainian people and break the unity of the united states and our allies. as a consequence, i'm not sure he has got a lot of places to go. he is basically caught right now. the issue is going to be whether or not he recognizes that ultimately with the support that we are providing, that he is going to face a choice between whether he negotiates some kind of settlement or whether he is going to be totally defeated. that's really the choice that putin is going to face. frankly, it's the choice that we

have to make him face. the only thing he understands, unfortunately, is force. that's why it's important to continue to provide the ukrainians with what they need in order to provide that force to be able to take on putin and russia. >> are you concerned about the house republicans, kevin mccarthy but certainly members of his coalition who helped him become speaker, who are saying, don't give ukraine a blank check, we are not going to spend another dime? this is not ronald reagan's republican party. we don't have a bipartisan consensus on ukraine any longer. >> what i would say to the republicans and the republican leadership is that this is about national security. this is not just about ukraine. whatever happens in ukraine and our ability to be able to protect a democracy in ukraine,

if we can do that, that's a very important message to send to xi in china, if they are worried about china, the most important way to send a clear message to china that they should not go into taiwan is to be able to be successful in ukraine. it's the same kind of message we need to send to kim jong-un. and it's the same kind of message we need to send to the supreme leader in iran. this is not just a war in ukraine. it's a pivotal war that will determine the future of democracy in the 21st century. >> i want to turn to the classified documents controversy. you are a former cia director, white house chief of staff, a cabinet secretary, obviously, the defense secretary. speak to the bipartisan frustration that leaders of the senate intelligence committee offered yesterday, because they refused access to any damage assessment or informal

assessment or whatever is immediately known about those classified documents in the trump and biden group, rather than mike pence, which just happened. listen to some of what both warner and rubio, the leaders of the senate intelligence, had to say yesterday. >> every member of the committee, regardless of democrat or republican, were unanimous in that this position that we are left in limbo until somehow a special counsel designates it's okay for us to get briefed is not going to stand. >> how can we conduct assessment whether it's sufficient if we don't know what it is -- what the material that was exposed potentially is? >> mr. secretary, the lawmakers are saying that they were

briefed in real time on the russia investigation. now they are getting the cold shoulder. they need to know whether this is as obvious a systemic failure as it seems to be. >> they certainly have a responsibility, as the intelligence oversight committee, to be able to determine whether or not what's happened with classified information has impact on our national security in any way. look, as a former cia director, toughest job i had was to deploy our agents into harm's way. they are out there putting their lives on the line in order to gain critical information on our adversaries. and it's about our national security. that's why this information is classified. the fact that we have had this kind of careless handling of classified material raises a

serious question about whether any of this has impacted our national security. i really do hope that the administration, all of those involved will cooperate and will be able to provide information that's critical to the intelligence committee. but more importantly, we need to strengthen the process of protecting our classified material. what's happened here is basically and could be the tip of the iceberg with regard to the abuses that have taken place with regard to classified information. we are not effectively protecting our secrets. that needs to be -- that needs to be improved. >> president biden and former vice president pence have explained it by saying, we are cooperating, at least we're cooperating. we're not donald trump who they say was obstructs and there's evidence pointing to that. is that a good enough explanation? what excuse is there for mike

pence or joe biden, as well intentioned as they may have been -- we don't know that yet -- to have done this? >> you know, i take them at their word that they will cooperate and that their lawyers and others will fully cooperate. but it's cooperating not just with the special counsel that's involved. it's cooperating with the intelligence oversight committees that have the responsibility, ultimately, tot national security. i do hope everyone recognizes that this is a moment in time where we have to be concerned about whether or not we are fully protecting the secrets and the classified information that is critical to our national security. this is a national security issue. i realize there's a lot of politics involved. but let me tell you from the perspective of the country, this is a national security issue.

and it ought to require the cooperation and the collaboration of both the administration, the congress and those involved in intelligence to make sure that we're doing everything necessary so that this doesn't happen again. >> i want to -- speaking of national security, i want to ask you about adam schiff being kicked off the intelligence committee and also his declaration today that he is going to run for the senate from your state of california. >> it's probably not the secret that everybody thought. i think everybody assumed. i know adam was very interested in the race for the senate. so i'm not surprised by his making the announcement that he is running. i am concerned that the expertise that he has with regards to intelligence, with regards to national security, that that expertise, which is the reason he was appointed to

the intelligence committee, as the ranking member, the republicans ought not to be afraid of that. frankly, they ought to embrace people that have the experience and knowledge of what to do when it comes to national security issues. i'm concerned that that happened. but i wish adam the best with regards to his race for the senate. he is a very distinguished leader from california. >> would you endorse him? >> pardon me? >> would you endorse him if that seat opens up? >> adam and i are very good friends. i will wait and see what diane feinstein ultimately decides. if she decides to step down, then i certainly would support adam. >> thank you very much, leon pennetta. good to see you. over classified? a closed door briefing by the top intelligence officer as we have been reporting about the biden/trump classified

documents, she was asked about it, now fuelling bipartisan frustration. this is "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. nbc. greatest roster ever assembled. the monster, the outlaw... and you can't forget about the boss. sometimes- you just want to eat your heroes. the subway series. the greatest menu of all time. it only takes a second for an everyday item to become dangerous. tide pods child-guard pack helps keep your laundry pacs in a safe place and your child safer. to close, twist until it clicks. tide pods child-guard packaging.

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now taking a deeper dive into the frustration among leaders of the senate intelligence committee, both parties, over the refusal of the administration to brief them on potential damage from the mishandling of classified documents and whether the latest revelations about former vice president pence point to a wider problem. they exploded over national director's refusal to reveal anything until they complete their investigation, which could take months. this was at a hearing previously scheduled on a different subject. tom cotton threatening to slow down all white house appointments until he gets answers. >> it in no way interferes with the department of justice's investigation, whether it's

blocking nominees or withholding budgetary funds, congress will impose pain on the administration until they provide these documents, and that is coming from both parties. >> joining me now is kristin welker and yamiche alcindor. the white house and justice department are getting a lot of heat from republicans and democrats now as well as from the press. is there any plan to change how they are handling this inside the white house? >> reporter: it will be notable and interesting to see what the justice department decides. as it relates to what we are seeing inside the white house, they are dug in on this strategy of essentially referring all questions to the white house counsel. what has changed is that the white house counsel's office has been giving reporters more background briefings, more background information to try to fill in some of the major blanks

and major gaps in questions that exist surrounding the president's handling of classified documents. there doesn't seem to be a wholesale shift in strategy here or any intention to do so. they continue to make the point that they do want to be careful about the justice department's investigation. doj, as you know, has come out and said, we haven't told the white house not to say anything. it's really up to them how much information they want to disclose. officials here very concerned that they might say the wrong thing that could hurt the investigation. >> leon panetta just said that he does not think that the classified documents are being properly protected. he is really concerned about it. there's no point -- there's no reason why legally the white house could not explain, nor the trump -- former trump team could explain what those documents were. they don't have to wait on the special counsel. that will be months.

you have another scoop. the president announcing a so-called invest in america cabinet later today. is this window dressing on the national economic council? what are we seeing here? >> reporter: effectively. what we are seeing is potentially a preview of the messaging that we're going to hear from this president into the run-up to the state of the union address and if and when he does announce he is running for re-election in 2024, the invest in america council will include cabinet secretaries as well as mitch landrau, john podesta. essentially, the goal is going to be to focus on getting the private sector to grow and invest. that'smessage today. he will tout what he sees as some of his biggest accomplishments. he will take aim at republicans. no surprise there.

i want to go back to the top of what you were saying, because i do think it's an important point. i ask the press secretary about that fact yesterday. does the president think that the system for handling classified documents is broken? does he want to do something about it? will he do something about it? she referred those questions to the white house counsel's office. i think it underscores the fact the pressure is going to mount on this administration to try to deal with that fundamental issue. what is happening when it comes to the handling of classified documents? the white house believes the heat has been taken off a little bit because of former vice president mike pence. but it's going to stay at the forefront. >> they were really celebrating that mike pence revelation to try to spread the blame a little bit. as much as they want to talk about the economy, he is going to virginia today, and he has the state of the union coming up february 7th, this is hanging over their heads, it's a big

cloud. >> it certainly is a big cloud when you think about the fact there are so many unanswered questions when it comes to classified documents. i don't think it's good enough for biden, who campaigned on being the adult in the room, who campaigned on having the "a" team, to say it's not as bad as what's happening with trump and it's like what happened to mike pence. you are the president of the united states, someone saying that i am doing a better job than other people that had this office before me. you have to come up with something better than that. that being said, i think it's questionable how this all happened. i know they have been talking to experts who say maybe they over classified documents. maybe we are a nation that, as we talk about national security, are not focusing enough on who has these classified documents. there are big unanswered questions that president biden is in some ways not answering. >> ben rhodes was on the program yesterday and said this is all digitized now. you could go to a digital footprint and track it very easily. you would know what is missing more quickly.

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u.s. covid deaths are inching up again. there is positive news if you get your shots. the new vaccine efficacy study says the current covid booster cuts your risk of a symptomatic infection by half but only a fraction of eligible adults have gotten the shot. in an effort to bring those numbers up, a panel is meeting right now on the fda's proposal to treat the vaccine like a flu shot. just one dose every year. joining us is a critical care pulmonologist, have gupta. thank you for being with us. talk to us about the booster. people aren't getting it. you get your flu shot, you get your covid shot.

>> it's nice to see you. thank you for having me. that's right, people are not getting their booster shot, not staying up to date. only 16% of those eligible for the updated shot have received it. the motivation behind the fda's decision, which i think is a smart move to move towards an annual vaccine campaign for most of us at least, akin to the flu shot campaign that most of your viewers will be familiar with, we really are targeting what the vaccine dozen well, which is four to five months of robust protection. we want maximum protection. we know the shots do that well. that protection wanes quickly. i expect they will approve that for those 50 and over medically higher risk. will there be enough support for everybody? that's the open question.

>> is there any problem with reactions, those who get a bad reaction from the flu shot or the covid shot, to combine the two, that it could become uncomfortable for some people? >> you know, the data we have suggests that receiving both shots at the same time, separate arms, for example, we have not seen a signal that there's any increased risk of adverse events. there is data being discussed today just to really pressure test those assumptions, look at the data that does exist. to your point, there's an innovation happening as we speak where biotech companies are looking at combining the covid shot with the flu shot. that could be very helpful. safety, efficacy is top of mind. >> another issue is whether it's better to give people the original shot or one that's for the latest variant. >> that's exactly right.

let's say for less than 20% of america that has not gotten their shot yet, should they start with the original, get vaccinated against that and then get updated shots? do you start and just start protecting yourself against what's circulating in the current day? that's a topic today. i suspect just like we do with the flu shot, the most up to date shot, regardless of your vaccine history, is recommended for people. if you decide to get the booster shot in the fall of 2023, you will be recommended to get that most recent shot and not have to play catchup. >> dr. gupta, always valuable hearing from you. thanks so much. fuel to the fire. a deadly day in the west bank adding to the inflamed tensions in the region. i will talk to a former foreign minister. that's next. you are watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. dry skin is sensitive skin, too.

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it has been one of the deadliest days in the occupied palestinian west bank as israeli forces killed at least ten palestinians, wounded several others during a raid, according to palestinian health officials. the israeli military said it was conducting the rare daytime raid at a refugee camp because they received intelligence a military group was set to carry out attacks against israelis. secretary of state blinken is going to hold meetings in israel and the palestinian territories next week. many outside experts are warning the key decisions to embrace anti-palestinian policies by prime minister benjamin netanyahu to retain power paving the way for more explosive conflicts to come. joining me now is the former israeli vice prime minister and foreign minister and an outspoken netanyahu critic and opponent. it's good to see you again. >> hello.

>> thank you for giving us some perspective here. you gave a speech recently. to regain power, to set the stage, netanyahu gave key cabinet posts in defense and international -- in national police security, excuse me, internal security to extreme right wing partners. one of those ministers had previously been labeled as a terror leader of the extreme right. is this now playing out in real time with the palestinians? >> the situation is explosive. i think we need to make a difference between the need to fight to rule and this need exists no matter what is the israeli government. but yet it is clear that the current israeli government is completely against any solution with the palestinians based on two states for two peoples. their vision is about getting more settlements. there's no political horizon. i believe the right thing to do

is fighting terror when needed is also to have a political horizon, hopefully, to bring peace in the future between u.s. -- between us and the palestinians. it's not going to happen in the near future, unfortunately. >> was one of the minister's visits to most sacred arab site in old jerusalem, was that provocative? >> he visited the most holiest place to jewish people as well. netanyahu promised the status quo in the holy places will remain. he will keep it. this is just one situation that can be explosive but not only. when the israeli government is against the solution with the palestinians, the palestinian side i must say that there is no leadership willing also to make decision.

i believe that the most important challenge now for blinken and for the american administration is to find a way to keep the road for peace open. namely, not to legalize illegal outposts, not to build or expand settlements. hopefully, this will keep the road open for future negotiations. something that will not happen now, unfortunately. but we cannot afford that during this time the vision, the idea of two states for two peoples will cross the point of no return. so this is the challenge, i believe. it's very important. >> by changing, of course, the situation on the ground in terms of where the settlements are and what is israeli land and what is palestinian land. >> settlements. also supporting palestinian

economy. working with the palestinians in order to ease the -- lots of steps that can be done that are -- giving hope and keeping the road open for peace in the future. >> netanyahu has rolled out a plan to limit the power of israel's very independent supreme court. what would this mean for israel? >> not only, the new government is taking steps that they're going to change, if he will succeed, hopefully not, it's going to change the nature of democracy. it's not only the supreme court. they are attacking and putting legislation, bills against watchdogs within the government that are working against corruption. attorney general, free press and also politicalization of the supreme court.

for 75 years, israel kept its democracy, human rights, equality for everyone without discrimination based on race or gender or religion. without all this institutions that are keeping this, they can change the nature of israel's democracy. the good news is that people are taking to the streets and are fighting for democracy. it's going to be difficult for netanyahu to do so. >> he was re-elected because of violence that had existed. he clearly found support for a lot of these hardline policies. what do you do about the fact that the israeli people voted for him and gave him this power to create this coalition? >> he has a majority, of course. he established the government. but it's a democracy. election doesn't give you the

permission to ruin and to destroy the institutions of democracy itself. you get permission to promote your own ideology and vision as long as you are acting in accordance to the best of israel's democracy with an independent supreme court, with free press, with watchdogs within the government, with an independent attorney general. there is no permission in democracy to change democracy itself. this is something that we are fighting for. you know, the people gave him the permission. yes, he has the majority, a political majority. around 50% of israelis are completely against this because they want to keep israel in accordance to the values that were established and defined in the declaration of independence, which is close to constitution

in israel, saying that israel is the nation state of the jewish people with equal rights to everybody, as a democracy. after 75 years, it's in danger. we are fighting for it. >> it's a pleasure to talk to you again and to look at the underlying causes here, which are profound. thank you very much. >> thank you. we have breaking news. we are expecting anupdate from the shelby district attorney into the investigation of nichols. all five memphis police officers have been fired. the police chief says they were, quote, found to be directly responsible for the physical abuse of mr. nichols. police video from the traffic stop is expected to be released to the public as soon as tomorrow. naacp memphis branch president van turner tells msnbc,

indictments are likely. >> we know that the officers will likely be indicted today. part of the rationale behind holding the tape was to allow the grand jury to give an indictment and to move forward on the criminal case. it seems like that's going to occur today. >> joining us now is former u.s. attorney barbara mcquade. i received a news release from the defense lawyers who say they are going to have a news conference an hour and a half after this from the prosecutor. it seems as though they have been notified. we are expecting something in terms of a prosecution to happen. >> yeah. i guess we can't predict what's going to happen. we know these police officers were fired. we know that nichols was killed in police custody. he was a healthy man one moment, 8:30 p.m. on january 7.

he was stopped for allegedly recklessly driving. then went to the hospital and died three days later. there's a lot of that story we don't know. certainly, a lot to concern us. at the time that they were fired, the police department said the police officers violated department policy regarding use of force, failure to intervene and failure to render aid. the question a prosecutor looks at in deciding whether criminal charges are appropriate is whether the person willfully violated the civil rights of the motorist and acted beyond what we would expect from a reasonable police officer at the scene. certainly, sometimes use of force is necessary. the standard we look at is whether a reasonable officer on the scene would have used the same force. if it exceeds that willful nature, that's sufficient for criminal charges. >> the nichols family, their family attorneys did view the video. they called it, quote, an

unadulterated beating. >> what i heard there was that there is an intent to release it publically. they want to get the grand jury to make its decision before this was in the public domain, because they seem to be anticipating a great deal of outrage in response to it, if it's as the family describes, as certainly would be a reasonable expectation. in an effort to avoid influencing a grand jury with the public reaction, they wanted to get the grand jury's decision. it could be a thumbs up, could be a thumbs down. seems like all signs are pointing toward an indictment. they have made a decision. now that document can be released -- that video can be released. the prosecutor will explain the charging decision and will show the video so it can be in the

public domain. >> we released this update just now while you were talking. there is reporting -- i think we confirmed that one has surrendered and is in custody. our affiliate in memphis is reporting all five are in custody and have surrendered. it's obvious that that is imminent. barbara, thanks for setting the context here for what is a terrible tragedy in any case, the death of tyre nichols in memphis. back to politics. former president donald trump will be allowed back on facebook and instagram in the coming weeks. meta, the company behind the platforms, says they are putting some guardrails in place to control the spread of mr. trump's posts, like his lies about the election, continuing lies. the decision coming as meta continues to lose eyeballs to tiktok.

>> all sorts of people say all sorts of things all the time on internet. politics is full of good, bad, ugly. it's a rough business. we're not trying to sensor everything that everyone says in an open and free democracy. >> it sounds like what you are saying is, if former president trump delegitimizes the next election by lying about it, that's not enough to get him suspended? he would have to go further and do something you believe would create real world and imminent harm? fair? >> yes. there's a distinction between accuracy and harm. >> way to go, hj hlk. joining me now is garrett haake, who recently interviewed donald trump by phone. talk about saying inciting violence is where they draw the

line, not lies. >> reporter: meta made a decision that political speech should be heard, even it it's ugly or inaccurate. remember, their initial us is suspension of trump was open ended right around january 6th and said it would be a two-year period they found that any specific harm had passed. they wanted to open up the door to back to the platform. the guardrails they have discussed about election denialism and con tent casting doubt, those would be tested. i follow donald trump on truth social and rarely does a day go by where he doesn't talk about his claims, his believes that the 2020 election was stolen from him or suggestions that other elections could be stolen or have beenen in the recent past president the decision will be very much tested in the weeks and months to come. for the trump campaign, he doesn't use facebook like

regular folks do necessarily for them facebook is a huge fundraising tool. it will be critical for them as the campaign heats up, when the campaign heats up to reach so many voters and supporters who are still on that plat tomorrow. and ask them to support the former president. >> trump's phone habits are also changing now. he's texting after famously avoiding e-mail and text. >> this has been one of the more interesting things about donald trump's time in public life. he does not leave a lot of written records. he didn't text or e-mail. he would talk on the tone and tweet. when it came to e-mails or tweets, he would have aids do that work for him. according to the times now, that pattern is changing. with trump starting to reach out to people via text. i have not text with him myself. i don't know personally if that is true. but we will see if this becomes more common method for him to communicate, especially as he's not yet resumed his mantle on twitter. his desire to get his thoughts

out there has not reduced in any way over time. and texting them to allies or supporters or to the people who cover him seem like it might be more common. >> you apparently, according to the "new york times," there was an nbc reporter who did get him on the phone. you called donald trump? >> reporter: i did. "the new york times" reporting indicates now that he's change ed the way his phones are set up so he won't recognize -- or outside numbers that aren't saved in his phone would go to voice mail. i will be calling him again as he remains a presidential candidate. >> beware what you wish for. garrett haake, thank you very much. republican national committee chair rona mcdaniel is faing a serious challenge to another term at the annual winter meeting.

they are gathering in southern california. mcdaniel, a trump loyalist, to the point she dropped her middle name romney, is opposed by an even more maga choice. a third candidate with far less support is the mypillow ceo mike lindell. vaughn hillyard is at the rnc annual meeting in california. that's quite a race. >> reporter: it is. all this was is going to up foldover the next 24 hours. tomorrow morning is when the vote will take place for rnc chair. it's up to the members of the rnc. there's three members from each stiet state, who ultimately this decision will come down to. right now, rona mcdaniel appears to have the votes, but dillon has been insistent she's making a play to switch the votes of some of these members here.

she's thot somebody who is making a case that the gop should somehow moderate itself. she's also allied to donald trump. last night she was here making her case alongside kari lake, who is saying that the republicans have not put enough resources towards election integrity and that so many of these races, they could have been won it the republican party had more heavily focused resources on actual voter turnout and then also the legal battles to make sure these races were not so close. that she had not lost. >> the rnc is still reeling from the mid-s losses. are they examining what went wrong? >> reporter: i asked dillon whether she thought the losses of 2022 were a result of the

ideological positions or the structural execution of the party. she said it was, in her opinion, the latter here. that's where she's making the case that rnc raised $4 million and yet they did not win the u.s. senate and only narrowly won the u.s. house. and she believes that the rnc should have a restructuring. after three terms, mcdaniel should step aside. and just here this morning in the last few moments, i i got sent around a new interview with ron desantis, who is for the first time putting his own opinion about thises race out there. and he is suggesting that he's backing now dillon. so this is going to all develop here in data point, california, as she's trying to make a last-minute play to try to swing these votes away from mcdaniel. >> another former possible republican entrant is asa hutchinson. it's a beautiful setting for those meetings. the republicans know how to choose their locations.

dana point, california, thank you. stay with us. we expect to hear from the da in shelby county, tennessee, we can now report that all fired memphis police officers are in custody facing charges. follow the show online on facebook and on twitter. "chris jansing reports" with peter alexander starts right after this. peter alexander starts right after this my network has gone kaput! (cecily) oh, you tried to save a buck on it? (einstein) i got what i paid for. not so smart. (cecily) nah, you're still a genius. but, there is a smarter way to save. (einstein) oh?! (cecily) switch to verizon! for a limited time, get welcome unlimited for just $25/line. (einstein) $25?! (cecily) and it's guaranteed for 3 years! (einstein) brilliant! (cecily) well, you would know. (einstein) i'm switching! (cecily) i think the bike's probably faster. (vo) now is the best time to switch to verizon. for just $25 a line. guaranteed for 3 years. the savings that last. on the network you want. verizon. lactaid is 100% real milk, just without the lactose. tastes great in our iced coffees too.

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