and your marriage survived that? you can almost feel the drag when people walk by with their phones. oh i can't hear you... you're froze-- ladies, please! you put it on airplane mode when you pass our house. i was trying to work. we're workin' it too. yeah! work it girl! woo! i want to hear you say it out loud. well, i could switch us to xfinity. those smiles. that's why i do what i do. that and the paycheck. right now, china lashing back. beijing today accusing the u.s. of disinformation at the white house repeatedly warns china

against sending weapons to russia for the war in ukraine. plus, a newly disputed intelligence report. did a lab accident in wuhan cause the covid pandemic? as house republicans are about to launch a new prime time investigation. and toxic fears. safety concerns spreading far beyond ohio after contaminated waste from that train derailment was shipped out of state without warning. the environmental activist erin brockovich is back with us today. plus, curveball. major league baseball's new rules already changing the outcome of the game. the mlb's dramatic changes to america's favorite past time. good day. tensions with china escalating a beijing accusing the u.s. of quote, fanning the flames in ukraine. china saying the u.s. is using a

double standard. arming ukraine while warning china against doing the same. secretary of state blinken and vice president harris had told the world about the possible change in china's policy not to provide lethal aid to putin. national security adviser, jake sullivan, repeating the warning on "meet the press." >> we haven't seen it yet. we're continuing to watch. we'll stay vigilant as president biden said. i think it would alienate them from a number of countries in the world and put them four square into the center of responsibility for the kinds of war crimes and bombardments of civilians and atrocities that the russians are committing in ukraine. >> linda thomas greenfield told me lethal aid from china would be a game changer. >> we've made clear that that is unacceptable. that they cannot engage in, with

the aggressor in this war and russia is the aggressor and russia's efforts have been condemned by the world. >> and cia director said on face the nation that he was confident china was considering arming china. china denying the accusations. all this coming amid a new classified report from the energy department's national labs on covid suggesting that covid likely started with an unintended lab leak in wuhan. but the report comes with major caveats. the energy department is just one of 18 intelligence agency, several of which seiko individual started with national transmission and said the report was made with low confidence. key lawmakers of the house and senate intelligence committees have been briefed and the new republican-led house committee on china is holding its first hearing tomorrow in prime time. here with me to start the hour, carl lee and nbc news intelligence correspondent, ken dilanian.

xi and putin are expected to meet this week. that is a very big deal. we know there's been no military to military communications at all since the dispute over the china spy balloon and since we shot it down. since secretary of state blinken canceled his trip to beijing and has not rescheduled that. there was that meeting with the top diplomat in munich. so, where do we stand on this? the intelligence, is it solid? don't have bill burns saying the confidence that china's at least considering it. it's clear this is an effort to deter china from doing something. >> that's right. the approach the administration's taking. the whole goal of this is deterrence. it's to have a campaign that is designed to make sure that china doesn't do this. we heard from jake sullivan that they, so far, have no evidence that china is sending any lethal aid to ukraine. we know from our own reporting

that things they're considering are things like ammunition and artillery, which russia very much needs. so that would be in that sense, a game changer potentially in the war, but in the broader context of the u.s. china relations, this is just another instance where tensions could not be getting worse and we heard the president say this he was going to speak with the president of china. our understanding is no, there is no call scheduled as of today. so where this goes from here remains to be seen, but they want to put the pressure on china to not do this. >> ken, in the midst of this, and there was a real concern in munich at the security conference, courtney and i were there, and were covering secretary of state blinken then the vice president of course both making these warnings. issuing these warnings. then lee gives a very aggressive speech. and the allies, france, germany, others at the meeting all you

know, on their back feet. then delay, delay all day. is blinken going to meet with him? finally, he does it very late. all this happening and then we hear this wuhan report. how critical do you think that one is? >> this is a report from the energy department with low confidence, andrea, which means there are significant questions about the credibility about the intelligence or sourcing. what it also means is that a second agency now in addition to the fbi has weighed in and said there's a plausible case that the covid virus originated from a lab accident. as you said in the opening, there are four other agencies that say the opposite. more likely came from natural origin. i think this underscores there's a lack of hard evidence in either directions. there was a lab there working on dangerous coronavirus experiments. also an animal market where there was an outbreak. three years later, they haven't found an animal that transmitted

the virus to humans. what my sources tell me is we may never know the answer to this because the chinese have made a lot of the fundamental information needed, they've made that go away. >> and you've got this new china committee, to both of you. you've got a very, very credible chair in mike gallagher, but there is a republican narrative in conspiracy circles that have been pumping this up for years. >> the difference with that theory is that this was intentional. what the administration is saying in terms of those who have any sort of confidence in what any intelligence points to coming from the lab say it would be accidental. that's the line there they were drawing. >> this has become so politicized. you remember when mike pompeo put out that intel document and said three employees of that lab had taken ill.

later, the house intelligence committee looked into that and couldn't figure out what the illness was and whether it was related so they decided that wasn't a persuasive piece of evidence at all. >> ken, great to have you back. i know you've been on travel, on assignment. and carol. and connecticut democrat congressman jim hines is a ranking member of the senate committee on intelligence. let's talk about covid-19 and wuhan. where do you come down on it? >> well, andrea, first of all, i think ken, your correspondent, got it exactly right. we know some things with fair degree of confidence and one of the things that we maybe not know, but we certainly a preponderance of evidence is that this was not deliberately created and you're well beyond my ability to know the technical aspects of this, but apparently when a genetic code has been manipulated, it is fairly obvious.

but look, the difference between a lab accident and natural spread in a marketplace is very, very difficult to determine when you've got perfectly transparent information where you can interview victims, go and literally look at the distances. we of course have the opposite of that. which is a chinese government which is stone walling that information. so again, i do think there's a little less than meets the eye year because you have one agency of several who has slightly adjusted their view on this, but until we get full transparency from the chinese government, it's going to be hard to reach a firm conclusion. >> let me ask you about the china, the intelligence and reporting that china is considering, seriously considering, arming russia with weapons with artillery. with these munitions so badly needed by moscow. you've got g meeting going to

moscow this week we think. how concerning is this? how credible is that? you know, and is there an indication that china is changing its policy after all these warnings? from president biden? >> i don't think, it's not clear that they're changing their policy. china tends to be pretty strategically smart on this. look, we can dispense quickly with the statement the foreign ministry made about how we're being duplicitous by arming the ukrainians and saying they can't arm the russians. that's just absurd. there's no equivalence because russia's brutal invasion and ukraine's desire to defend itself. that needs to be dispensed with quickly. what i think, they probably are considering it. they're probably having all kinds of conversations. we need to make it very plain to them, the scorn they would face internationally. the fact that as you'll note in their peace plan, in their suggested peace plan, item number 12 in their peace plan

was let's work on the reconstruction of ukraine. that's a lot of commercial business. of course if china were perceived and we would know quickly to be one of the aggressors of ukraine, they don't stand a prayer of getting any reduction business when that comes. so i do suspect they are considering it and we're just in the process now of making sure they understand how catastrophic their decision to join an aggressor, to join a criminal assessor to their own interests. >> do you think it's likely that the secretary of state, the vice president and head of the cia would come out and make these warnings before the world in munich and now at the united nations and on television two sundays in a row if it were based on false intelligence? just on foreign intelligence. giving your sense of the credibility of it. >> no, i don't think there's any chance at all that it's based on false intelligence. again, i'm sure there are advocates inside the chinese government to join russia.

to provide ammunition just as there are advocates in our government to provide f-16s yesterday. this is a debate i'm quite certain is happening. our point here is a little about like what we would do to classify intelligence prior to the start of the war, to make it very, very clear that the world is watching very closely and that the consequences of choosing to provide lethal aid to the russians would be disastrous. so i think it's an analogous effort to what we saw a year ago to try to dissuade the russians from their own invasion. >> congressman, thank you so much. joining us now is former cia director, john brennan. john, thank you very much for being with us because this all gets murky and a lot of us who covered the iraq war build up felt burnt by what the government with the u.s. was saying publicly and the credibility of the u.s. abroad,

of course, was challenging at the time. so can you put it in context, first on the wuhan labs. what do you think is happening here? >> well, andrea, i think it's quite clear that there's uncertainty in the intelligence community about the origins of the pandemic. i think as your previous guests said, it may be you know, never that we actually know. it's clear that there is some intelligence available that the department of energy believes tilts the balance in favor of saying that it probably started from the leak from the wuhan laboratory. but i think the jury is still out overall because the chinese have not shared information and will not share information about it. so this basically comes down to a judgment. analysis based on what intelligence might be available. expertise that is lent to this issue and then the individual agencies will make their judgments. but i must say that low confidence is the lowest level of confidence that is used

within the intelligence community vernacular. so it suggests the intelligence is very limited. maybe it's not strong and also, there might be contrary intelligence, but again, it's subjective at the end of the day about what the origin of this pandemic was. >> and perhaps more importantly the dispute over whether or not the u.s. is correct in warning that china is considering arming russia. which would be a game changer, people say. experts say it's a problem because russia has manpower and a huge advantage there. they don't have weapons. they're running out of supplies and china changed that in a long-term engagement. it's already gone a year. obviously it's going longer still. where do you come down on that? >> well, cia director burns is very careful when he makes any public statements. i read the transcript of his

comments yesterday. he said that the intelligence community has begun to collect intelligence that china is considering sending these arms munitions to russia. this is a very clear public signal to china, and i'm sure there have been private signals as well, that this would be intolerable and there will be consequences to this. i think what jake sullivan was saying that china would bear responsibility for some of these war crimes was that china would become a co-blej rant in a war of aggression. i think the biden administration is sending a very public signal to china that european security is a core interest. that's a term that the chinese are familiar with. a core interest of the united states. by european security, i mean the territorial integrity and the inviable sovereignty of all european nations. so it's quite clear that washington, the biden administration, wants xi to know they would be crossing a line if they came in on the side of the

aggressor and they will bear full responsibility for those actions. >> they've been very careful to specify what they would do, but it's clear they would have to consider sanctions and so would europe. so would the nato countries. of course, china has huge economic impact as the biggest market for european goods as well as a huge market for us. and financing our debt. so the impact would cause a lot of pain in both europe and here. do you think that china is really changing its policy? that this is at the level, the presidential level in terms of its engagement with russia? >> again, based on what senior u.s. officials have said, i think the chinese are actively considering it and i think it's clear they haven't made a decision. what we want to do is warn them off of that decision now. i do think china is trying to

figure out how it's going to continue this thread this needle. there's a special relationship with putin and china they're trying to support, but there would be global ramifications if they decided to support russia with lethal arms. not just with sanctions, but also it would alienate a large part of countries around the globe because china would be a co-belligerent working with russia. what signal does that send to others who are concerned that russia and or china might do the same to them one day. >> as always, great to have your perspective. thank you very much. and the toxic move. the epa allowing shipments to resume of hazardous waste from the site of the toxic train derailment in ohio. erin brockovich just back with from a town hall joining us next. this is msnbc. om a town hall jo next is is msnbc. mara, are you sure you don't want

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the epa is allowing norfolk southern to continue to ship toxic waste to two new locations in ohio. more than three weeks since dangerous fumes from a control burn after the derailment spread across the community and beyond. residents are worried about their health and safety. federal teams including the cdc are on the ground interviewing residents about their symptoms and their worries. erin brockovich nationally known for her advocacy fighting for residents in hinckley, california in the 1990s, spoke to palestine residents at a town hall on friday night. consumer advocate erin brockovich joins me now. good to see you again. there was quite a lot of concern. tell me about the reaction you had from the residents and your advice to them.

>> so, they're still very concerned. being down there on the ground, we saw a lot of things that would make your clearly understand why it would be confusing to the people, what is really happening, what is not. they are scared. they are united. they're wanting to be well informed. they're really worried about what the future holds for them. they are down there remediating and air yieting different creeks and rivers. there's booms out. as they air ate the water, it's very concerning when you go to the high school and they have all the drinking fountains locked. so there continues to be a very mixed message that i think continues to create angst within the community. so they're concerned. they don't seem to be trusting what they're hearing and they're really worried about the future

impacts of this for themselves and their children. >> and what are they saying about the federal response? because there's been so much political outcry about the president not going, being in kyiv. that's from the republican side. from the white house, they say they have fema there two hours after the accident. what are they telling you? >> well, again, they're frustrated and they don't trust. i really think that they want to focus to be on the train derailment and the environmental issue and impact that it has caused to them and their health. that is their focus. we're going to go back out there again on thursday and our message to them is you know, these things take time to unfold and a lot of missing information will fill itself in here soon about what the testing shows.

what they need to look out for. this won't be an overnight fix and that's the thing that creates angst for them and makes me so sad. this will be a long haul for them for monitoring the water, the ak fehr, worried about soil vapor intrusions, what should their doctors be looking for and what will that future hold for them in ten years. many of these train derailment sites, if not all of them we've seen happen that have similar chemicals as this site does, their water's still contaminated. so you try to just give them the best information even if it's something they don't want to hear, because they do well at least knowing so they can plan and prepare accordingly. that is the biggest thing that it's so difficult in a situation like this.

we're just not going to have every answer that everybody needs at this very moment, but what we do hope happens is that they pay very close attention to the municipal water. continue with remediation, monitor the air and it's good to see cdc down there. these people want answers about what to look for in their health, what their symptoms are, who can oversee that and what that would mean for their future. >> do they trust the epa? >> no, it's so hard for them. this is a lovely community and they're very united. they ask great questions. they're in a position now where they don't, they just don't trust the situation. even when i was down there, you hear that it's all clear and it's safe, but at the same time, they're remediating, their aerating the water. there's vocs in the water.

you have the well heads in the city near a park that's close to the site. they're aerating that area. what's in the air? what could be getting into the schools? it's such a mixed message. i do, and i am concerned for them that they are clearly in a position where they don't trust what's going on and at this point, they don't know who to believe. >> erin brockovich, thank you so much. you're such a great witness to all this. former vice president pence not ruling out running for the white house in 2024. in fact, signals that he's a go, but is he the clear gop alternative to donald trump? you're watching "andrea mitchell reports." this is msnbc. watching "andreal reports. this is msnbc. when they can enjoy the best? eggland's best. the only eggs with more fresh and delicious taste. plus, superior nutrition. because the way we care is anything but ordinary. ♪♪

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desantis. former vice president pence though has not yet officially announced a run and nikki haley are at 7% each. ali vitali spoke to mr. pence and asked about his 2024 plans. >> we're going to be disearning about it, but we'll be clear about it by the spring. >> saying you're considering running is the idea that you think you could be a different president, if not a better president, than your former boss. can you delineate just one policy difference you might have with him? >> i think the times call for different leadership and i'm confident we'll have better choices. >> and you're thinking about being one. >> than my old running mate come 2024. >> have you talked to him lately? >> i have not. >> joining us now is nbc news correspondent, ali vitali, ashley parker from "the washington post," and former democratic representative, donna

edwards. ali, what more did mike pence tell you about that subpoena? his attempts to fight it? >> it was one of the topics we covered on friday. you heard some of the news he made there on the front of starting to draw contrast with his former boss, but not going so far as to delineate a policy difference. instead, making a broader argument on leadership. on the idea that he thinks they'll have better options for republican voters in 2024. notably he is openly thinking about being one of them and said for the first time in that interview with me that that decision will probably come by the spring. so that's important, but looming over pence's potential candidacy are things like that subpoena from the department of justice where he has said and continues to say that he thinks it's unconstitutional to ask a former vice president to testify against the president that he served with, but what i asked him was if the special counsel, which he is, asks a federal judge to compel you to testify,

aren't you compelled to testify? and he didn't give a clear answer on that. simply saying he'd talk with his counsel and he would move forward accordingly with the constitution. but that's going to be a really important precedent setter, both for pence in the way he tries tooed this delicate dance around trump but also in the larger legal system, too, as the doj pushes forward into their investigations into january 6th. >> ron mcdaniel said that all candidates wishing to take part in the first republican primary debate between now will be in milwaukee, wisconsin. obviously the key swing state. you have to sign a pledge to support whoever the nominee ends up being. something that would be a problem for instance for hitch hutchison and others who say they would not support donald trump, who's the front-runner. how does that play?

>> this issue came up for the first time in 2016 where there was a lot of concern that then candidate trump would not support the republican nominee if he was not the nominee and most republicans didn't think he would be the nominee. so on the one hand, it's just a pledge. there's nothing purely binding about it. so for instance, i would not be surprised if donald trump ultimately signed the pledge. appeared in the debates then if he's not the nominee potentially reneged. you've also seen a little language where some of these other potential candidates who don't want to support trump if he's the nominee have said i'm happy to support the nominee because i don't believe it will be donald trump. so there's a lot of linguistic wiggle room for something that at the end of the day is not incredibly legally binding. >> and donna, let's listen to what the former house speaker, paul ryan, had to say about not

backing donald trump if he's the nominee. >> national convention in milwaukee, where will you be? >> depends on who the nominee is. i'll be here if it's somebody not named trump. >> you won't show up. >> no, not participating in that, no. >> even in wisconsin? >>. >> even in wisconsin. >> donna, we see the republican party divided over the issue of donald trump. most important issue dividing the potential candidates. >> i think paul ryan was very clear but i think some of these other republicans have not been clear at all. and i'm not really sure that it matters. i mean, i do think for example with that pledge, it's as good as the paper it's written on. it can be burned at any moment. i think that mike pence, nikki haley and ron desantis all have the same problem as these other

candidates jump into the race is that none of them are willing to directly challenge donald trump. and so how does that eat away at his base at all? i see a clear path unless that happens that donald trump is going to be the nominee then push will come to shove and many of these republicans will have to decide whether they're going to sit out 2024 or back their nominee, donald trump. >> and before you go, i want to ask ali, you cover the hill. slotkin announcing she's going to run. when she announced she's not running for election. >> yeah. that sent shock waves through the senate and capitol hill when she announced that as well, andrea. congresswoman slotkin, one of those front line democrats. she's in a very swing district in michigan, putting out a video today making it official she's going to be running in this

primary to succeed debbie stabenow. we thought there would be a lot of competition for it. one of the people waiting was debbie dingell, but a lot of other house democrats here especially with if they might be interested in challenging for this seat and many really demered and now it seems like slotkin could have a similar path through the primary. but that's one of the key dominos we were waiting to see if and when it fell in michigan. this is going to be really one of those marquee races because we know how swing in michigan is. democrats were able to really under the guidance of governor whitmer, remake their state legislature to get a democratic majority there. it's a state that's been bluer in recent cycles, but it's going to be a difficult race as the map is difficult for them especially as incumbents are stepping back. >> ali, ashley, donna, thanks to

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next on behind the series... let me tell you about the 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. overnight, russia launched new drone attacks across ukraine with drones. 11 of the 14 were shot down by ukrainian air defenses. joining us now is erin mcloughlin from kyiv. talk to me about you know, the latest on this horrible war. you've been there from the beginning, back and forth, and now president zelenskyy on sunday vowing to liberate the russian occupied crimea, which

russia took in 2014. which is a red line with putin. you spoke to one of zelenskyy's top advisers. what did he tell you? >> that's right, andrea. he was adamant that ukraine is going to restore its 1991 borders and he said that includes crimea. take a listen to what he had to say. is it realistic though for ukraine to take back crimea given the russians are thoroughly entrench there? >> translator: in a year, russia would issue military results and lose dozens and thousands of its troops. that's why when i'm asked whether something the realistic, i say undoubtedly. >> reporter: u.s. treasury secretary janet yellen is also in kyiv today. she is unveiling or announcing

the transfer of another trench of $1.2 billion worth of budgetary and economic aid for ukraine. seen as badly needed to keep this function, the government functioning and the economy running. president zelenskyy meeting her, thanking her not only for the economic assistance, but also for the russian sanctions which the ukrainians are counting on to help hold back russia. andrea? >> thank you so much and janet yellen also gave a very strong speech about ukraine in india at the g-20 finance meeting on friday and got a lot of pushback from india, the host country. brazil, and of course, china. and other parts of the world. putin sunday, his nuclear threat after suspending russia's participation last week in the new start treaty. the last remaining treaty limiting nuclear weapons. russia had earlier suspended

inspections, making its compliance limits impossible to verify. joining us now is former democratic senator, sam nunn. senator, it's great to see you. want to point out that putin, quote, when all the leading nato countries have declared their main goal is to inflict a strategic defeat on us, how can we not take account the nuclear accountableties? is this saber rattling? how concerned would you be about putin using tactical nuclear weapons? >> of course i'm concerned. you could have escalation, deliberate use of a tactical nuclear weapon, but also the rhetoric surrounding the ukraine russia conflict has been i think extremely destabilizing in terms of possible mistakes or blunders. the cyber war was a different era in terms of nuclear dangers and vulnerabilities where you could have false warnings. you could have simulated attacks

that lead to mistakes or blunders in a very big way. so deliberate use is certainly a big concern. the putin rhetoric, which i think has been reckless on the nuclear possible nuclear use, all of those things combined to make us certainly very significant danger and challenge. >> ukraine now says that it regrets having given up its nuclear weapons. so much of it was in ukraine. you and the late great senate richard lugar, your partner, helped to get ukraine to give up, to voluntarily give up its nuclear weapons. they now say they regret it. how serious is this as a signal to the rest of the world? >> i think it's very dangerous for possible proliferation of nuclear weapons that ukraine gave up their weapons and were given assurances by countries

including russia that their sovereignty would be respected. so these are terrible signals for nonproliferation. i believe ukraine made the right decision in giving up their nuclear weapons. i think that dangers we've seen and conflict and tragedy we've seen in recent months from russia's invasion would have happened much, much sooner if ukraine had tried to get operational control of those weapons. they had physical control, but not operational control and it's every indication that i had back at that time that there would have been a conflict much sooner from russia. to ukraine, toward ukraine, if they had tried to seize operational control of those weapons, but it is a tragedy for ukraine and for nonproliferation. of course, ukraine is going to have to have security assurances in the future if some form if they're going to have any sense

of believability about protecting their own sovereignty. >> i wanted to, while i'm talking to you, ask you about jimmy carter. as you know, he's decided to go home and have hospice care to be close to rosalynn as he goes through this very difficult pass age. you worked so closely with him. he gives you credit for the panama canal and other major initiatives. both georgians. former farmers. talk to me about jimmy carter and his character. >> andrea, a remarkable leader. a remarkable human being. and he married a remarkable partner in rosalynn. jimmy carter had deep faith and has deep faith. he was basically also evidenced that faith by good works. he set an example as a role model and a moral leader for all

of us. i think that that moral leadership is enormously, an enormous contribution to the world. he believed in equal opportunity for all. he had the conviction that human rights should be employed globally around the world. made a huge difference on that score. so i think jimmy carter is indeed a role model for future political leaders and future moral leaders. >> he certainly was an inspiration to me as a young correspondent covering him. thank you very much. thank you, senator. >> andrea, can i give you one other note. >> please. >> there are some bright spots in the nuclear equation even though we see nothing but dark clouds. there's going to be an independent review of all the ways that we could have blunders or mistakes in the cyber era.

this would be unilateral by the united states, but i hope it will spread to all the nuclear weapon states because the chances of blunder or accident in the seener world have gone up. the chances of false warning have gone up. that means we really need to go everything possible to give ourselves the tools to make sure we don't make a mistake or blunder. and of course, ukraine and the events there have made all of these things more dangerous. so that review will take place. it's not a treaty. not an agreement, but it can be an example for all the nuclear weapon states to conduct their own internal fail safe review. enormously important from my perspective. >> i hope you'll come back to talk to us about that in more detail. thank you. an effort to speed up america's past time. major league baseball starting offspring training with some new additions. some already game changers. additions. some already game changers rough,

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match-ups. nbc news correspondent sam brock has more from spring training. >> the start of spring training is usually reserved for tweaking swings, perfecting pickups, but this year has already featured quite the curveball. >> and now what? >> he's out. >> they called strike three. >> reporter: the red sox/braves preseason game ending when a braves hitter wasn't considered ready with eight seconds left on a pitch clock. >> the pitch clock, a lot of people early on talked about it affecting the pitcher. what you're seeing is it affecting the hitter. >> reporter: all-star jazz chisholm feels the new rule could be hard to apply. >> the determination of the umpire doesn't know when you're engaged unless he sees you looking at the pitcher. >> reporter: the other regulations, 30 seconds between batters, only 15 seconds between pitches. unless there's a runner on base.

then you get 20. >> of all these new rule changes, which are coming up the most in conversation? >> the clock, the clock, because most of relievers -- >> reporter: their whole routines are thrown off completely? >> yeah. >> reporter: enforcement is no walk in the park either. the pitch clock isn't automatic. it's run by a pitch clock manager who has to be paying attention to exactly when the ball goes back into the pitcher's mitt whether there's men on base or not. fans reacting to the new rules. >> will create more offense, more action, so to speak. >> i like the speed of baseball. i like going out and making a all day thing. >> reporter: you led the major leagues last year with 41 stolen bases. you're looking at this bag right here. >> nice and big. >> so this is a good thing? >> hopefully it cone encourages

more athleticism, nor base steal. >> reporter: a new era for a sport that owns a special place in american culture. >> and sam brock join us live from jupiter, florida, where the marlin and cardinals are about to get started. sam, 15 seconds, that's not a lot of time for pitchers. then the eight seconds for the batters. that's even less time. >> reporter: that's right. this gets a little confusing. the 15 seconds, it depends on the pitcher and their own pacing. 15 seconds isn't too bad generally speaking for starting pitchers. when you come about relievers that come in in high leverage situations, get in their stretch, looking at batters, pull up and wait again. a lot of time elapses. there's a subjective element to all of this. the rule is, andrea, you only get docked a ball if the pitcher hasn't released the ball when the clock strikes zero. when the umpire gets the buzz,

the motion has to start. they may say, look, i started my motion, and he may say no, you didn't. the same thing with the hitters. they have until eight seconds left on the clock to be in their batting stance. if the batter is looking at the pitcher but the umpire thinks he's looking down, which is kind of what happened over the weekend, there could be different interpretations. the players tell me all we care about is that this is applied evenly and fairly. >> it's going to depend on everybody's call. that's all subjective. sam brock, chaos, but interesting. thank you. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." follow the show online, on facebook and twitter @mitchellreports. "chris jansing reports" starts right after this. "chris jansing reports" starts right after this can make it eve. now ports can know where every piece of cargo is. and where it's going. (dock worker) right on time. (vo) robots can predict breakdowns and order their own replacement parts.

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good day. i'm chris jansing live at msnbc headquarters in new york city. ron desantis taking brazen steps, winning over allies and donors who once backed donald trump. he's not alone. from west palm beach to wall street, we'll dig into the race for high-profile support and campaign cash, plus where the gop race stands right now. breaking news from a couple hours ago. the jury in the alex murdaugh double murder t