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infamous snapchat video taken by paul murdaugh that puts alec at the scene of the crime that night. despite his denial that he had been there. >> four minutes later the state would have you believe that alec murdaugh up and blew his son's brains out of his head and murders his wife, after having that conversation about bubba having a chicken. there's nothing on that tape that indicates there's any strife, any conflict, any anger, any planning, anybody being afraid, anybody running, anybody scurrying. nothing. maggie, paul, and alec down at the kennel. that's it. >> and john stood up after the

defense to offer the rebuttal, meadors was brought on my the south carolina attorney general's office. maybe he got angry at paul. maybe he got angry, he started all of this. and maybe he just lost it. maybe he just lost it. maybe it looked like a suicide, and then maggie came and he had to shoot her. >> maybe he just lost it. the jury set to begin deliberations any moment. as judge clifton newton finishes reading instructions. with me is laura jarrett and former federal prosecutor and msnbc legal analyst, paul butler as well. ellison, as i mentioned, the jury set to begin deliberations a little bit later on today after the instructions are concluded by the judge here, take us to the time line, if you

will. >> yeah, i mean, the big question is how long will they need to deliberate here. i can tell you that court sources have told our team here that the judge plans to have the jury deliberate until 10:00 p.m. today and tomorrow, if necessary. we were able to actually get a look inside the room where the jury will be deliberating. it is a small room with a very big table. they have some snacks set up for them. there's one bathroom in there. really only four windows, the blinds closed. there are yellow legal note pads and a box of pins. but other than that, that's really all that's in there, there are blankets or there were this morning that some of the jurors have been wearing when they are in the courtroom. if they want to see any sort of video that's been played throughout this trial, we've listen told they have to make the request to the judge and leave the jury deliberation room to see that in the courtroom

because in this courthouse, according to sources, they don't typically allow them to have any sort of laptops, ipads or even just a video monitor to review things in the jury deliberation room. what they will have access to in there is every single document that has been entered into evidence, any of the photos they want to see, they can see that there. obviously the question everyone is speculating on is how long will this take, and we simply do not know. but the charges that they're considering here are relatively simple. there are four counts to two murders and then deadly weapons charges, and all of those if it's not guilty on one, you would think it has to be not guilty on the other, and vice versa, in terms of the complexity of the counts, these are pretty big counts. the big thing is motive. we have seen the defense try to poke holes in that to say they believe the question of why would he do this still has not

been answered. at one point in their closing remarks, the defense made a point of saying it would be insane for someone to murder their family because they were dealing with financial issues and other troubles. the prosecution's counter to that is they are saying this is a crazy story. this is a different case than you have ever heard because this is a different irrational man who was obsessed with maintaining his legacy and very afraid of any sort of shame. >> laura jarrett, ellison brought up the very moment that i wanted to get into in part of the defense's closing, kind of trying to blow up the motive that the prosecution has presented. let's take a listen right to that moment, and then we'll talk. >> even if the financial day of reckoning was impending, if it was right there, alec would not

have killed people he loved the most in the world. there's no evidence that he would do that. we do have evidence of what he would do, and did do and he gets this drug dealer to shoot him in the head. so he couldn't go on. it was all going to come crashing down, and he had a big life insurance policy. so when alex is at financial collapse, he doesn't go kill somebody else. he tries to end it himself. >> laura, what did you make of this moment, essentially saying, listen, going out and getting yourself killed and collecting on that life insurance policy, that actually is quote unquote more sane than going and killing your wife and your son because you are in financial distress, that's their argument. >> i think it's effective to attack the theory of motive. it's never hung together in an intuitive way.

it may very well be the truth. because it's not intuitive, the defense is right to poke holes and say that doesn't make sense. there can be doubt there. this is a loving family. the prosecutor has to prove motive here. not motive but they have to prove malice, and they have to prove there was an evil intelligent. a loving family, no history of domestic violence, no history of fighting, then it's harder for the prosecutor to really satisfy that burden of malice, and that's where i think you see them try to focus. >> at one point you heard the defense call paul the apple of alec's eye, and they said that over and over again, wanting to drive that point home. paul butler, weigh in for me, if you will, on the rebuttal that we heard from the prosecution, specifically meadors' performance here. he was brought up because he went against the defense and won.

i want to play a little bit of what we heard from him, and then hear from you. >> mr. harpootlian, an automatic smoke machine, what the defense is doing is more like an eclipse. >> paul? >> you know, the prosecution has a difficult job in part because there is no compelling motive. they don't have the weapons that they say were used by mr. murdaugh to kill his wife and son, and there were no eyewitnesss, and especially in a case where there are no eyewitnesss, jurors want evidence of a strong motive. the prosecution is focusing on the time line, especially mr. murdaugh's admission that he was at the crime scene near the time of the crime. that's a very late admission. he denied it immediately after these people were killed, and essentially the prosecution is hinging its case on his lack of

credibility. on cross-examination, he got him to admit he lied to 50 people about various aspects of his life, and he committed numerous acts of fraud, but prosecutors are hoping that the jurors will believe when he told them he did not kill his wife, he did not kill his son, that that was also a lie. >> laura, you and i were talking off camera before the show started. you talked about how you feel this rebuttal was incredibly effective. in a way it seemed as if he honed in more on alec murdaugh may have done this because he went crazy, not necessarily because of the motive the prosecution is building. >> you heard him say over and over again, use your common sense. you don't have to have specialized knowledge to do this job. he pointed to things that i think you did not hear in the

main closing argument from the prosecutor. you heard him talk about the odd behavior we saw from murdaugh afterwards, trying to get his stories straight with the housekeeper, the care giver, trying to convince them, if law enforcement comes to you, tell them this instead of what actually happened. that's a curious thing to do for somebody who's innocent. now, maybe he thought he was being framed, but again, using those types of common sense, i think, pieces of evidence for the jury, instead of focusing on the financial fraud and all of those things which are way more confusing, focusing on is this the kind of behavior you would see in an innocent person: that's what you saw in the rebuttal. >> what about the defense honing in on the fact that alec murdaugh was a drug addict. he was a liar, they said this over and over again, yes, he lied but he was a drug addict, that is what drug addicts do in defense of so many of his actions and the things that happened on that very day, and especially after the murder of

his wife and son. >> i think that's a really difficult streak for the defense to go down. basically they're saying that you should attribute some of his deficiencies to his drug addiction, but not attribute to his addiction or character the idea that he would kill his wife and kid, so again, they have to explain his financial improprieties, and his other misdeeds, basically crimes he commits, so they're doing that by looking at his drug addiction. when they say, you know, he killed or tried to kill himself but he wouldn't have tried to kill his wife and kids, it's like saying he's a little bit crazy but not crazy enough. i don't know if that's going to work with these jurors, when you open the door to something like an addiction or a physical problem, it's hard to contain that. you can't say it's the reason

for a certain course of conduct but not for other courses of conduct. >> all right. laura jarrett, paul butler, thank you both. ellison barber, thank you as well. we're following breaking news this hour as well. congressman george santos is being investigated by the house ethics committee, i want to bring in now nbc news capitol hill correspondent ali vitale, this broke in the last 30 minutes or so. we are learning by the minute. bring us up to speed if you will. >> by the minute here. i think up here on capitol hill, we had long surmised that this ethics investigation was coming. what we're talking about here is bipartisan in nature, this ethics committee. usually ten members, five on each side, republicans and democrats, but what they're doing here is announcing that they're, a, looking into santos, but be, forming a subcommittee to do that with four members. they're going to be pushing forward with their investigation, and it's happening on a few fronts here.

in the release they detail whether or not santos engaged in unlawful activity, whether or not he failed to properly disclose required information on statements filed with the house, both of those sounds like they are campaign finance related things, and then they're also looking into that claim of sexual misconduct toward an individual seeking employment in his congressional office. that's something that a person who was trying to gain employment in the santos office physically dropped off a letter to susan wild, making these allegations, and then of course also had a series of tweets regarding what he says happened during the time he was trying to gain employment in the santos office. now, for santos's part, he's saying this is an investigation, a, that is happening, which we know, but b, that he is going to be cooperating with it, and frankly, at this point, he's not commenting any further, we're also probably not going to hear from the ethics committee

anymore, until they render any kind of financial decision or make a recommendation. >> a lot of folks wondering what's going to happen if in fact they find anything. kevin mccarthy gave us a little bit of a clue of that last month, saying, quote, if ethics finds something, we're going to take action. at this point, that is a very real possibility with this official launch. so what does action from your reporting look like? >> they could do a series of things, and they could make a series of recommendations, especially if they're looking on the campaign finance side of this, there are other entities looking into his campaign finances. yes, george santos has a congressional ethics problem which he's always had, but he's also got problems at the state and local level because other entities and agencies are looking into specifically the campaign finance pieces of this, and whether what he filed was

truthful where, some of that money came from. this is the same story we have been following since santos came to office. b, meant for this to be able to go through the natural processes that these allegations go through on capitol hill. santos is a situation where it's just gotten so much attention because of the nature of the lies that were made, regarding his resume, who he was, what his experience was, all of these different parts of his biography, it's gotten outside attention. this is a committee that does this work consistently here on capitol hill. mccarthy laying that out as a metric is important. note, though, he doesn't say what action they'll take, just that they'll take action. still open ended. >> as it is most of the time there, ali vitale, we thank you. still ahead, the latest sign that the new york criminal investigation into the former president could be heating up. and speaking of donald trump, he will be at cpac, some of the biggest names in the republican party will not. what is driving them away?

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and the pain in your eyes burns like a red-hot chili pepper, it's not too late for another treatment option. to learn more visit treatted.com. that's treatt-e-d.com. welcome back, everybody, a new development out of the manhattan d.a.'s criminal investigation into donald trump, and the latest clue of how close we may be to news on whether trump and his closest allies are about to face criminal charges. kellyanne conway meeting with prosecutors in the d.a.'s office according to reporting from the "new york times." she's the latest in a parade of witnesses who have testified in that investigation, which according to the times both suggests that he's nearing a decision to seek an indictment of the former president. a spokesperson from the manhattan d.a.'s office declined to comment to nbc news. one of many tea leaves we have had to read about the multiple

investigations that are encircling donald trump, the subpoenas for mike pence, jared kushner, and ivanka trump, along with jack smith special counsel probe, quote, underscoring how deeply into trump's inner circle jack smith is reaching, and in georgia, fulton county d.a. fani willis telling us decisions are imminent as the foreperson on the grand jury teases multiple indictments recommended as well. joining me now msnbc legal analyst. kellyanne conway, talking to the d.a., what do you expect she has to offer them in this investigation? >> she has a small detail about the campaign finance allegation that's at the heart of the hush money scandal. michael cohen when he paid stormy daniels $130,000 for which donald trump reimbursed him. he tried to call donald trump. he says trump didn't return his call. he got a call from kellyanne

conway that said i'll pass that along to the boss. >> we know she she have had into the january 6th investigation. what does this tell us really about the stage of the investigation and really where it's head snd. >> -- head snd. >> we're talking about the manhattan d.a. trump understood who was making the payment, how the payment was being made, and those are the things they're trying to establish with her. whether she went into the grand jury yesterday is something we don't know. she was seen going in and out of the building, whether or not that's an informal visit with prosecutors or a trip to the grand jury remains to be seen. >> there's also this new court filing where the justice department has taken the position that the former president does not have absolute immunity for multiple civil lawsuits. how big of a deal is this? >> i think it's a big deal, and i want to give context to our viewers as to why. when trump was sued by e. jean

carol, they said what trump had to say about her when he was president was awful but he was entitled to absolute immunity within the scope of his official acts or employment. what they're saying today is there's no conceivable way that inciting imminent private violence falls within the scope of what any president could do officially. it's not in the outer perimeter, it's not a closed choice. they go out of their way to say the united states isn't telling the court that trump did these things. these are allegations by the plaintiffs in the civil lawsuit. but they are saying incitement of the imminent violence, that doesn't qualify for the immunity trump says. >> to be liable, civilly, as former president of the united states. >> for acts during the presidency, i can't think of any other that compare.

former president clinton faced some civil lawsuits in relation to things that had nothing to do with period of time for which he was president but during his presidency, i can't think of anyone that was subject to this, much less a justice department that says you don't have the immunity that you're claiming. >> do you know why -- i want to switch gears here. we're playing ping-pong because there's so many investigations going on. i want to talk about fulton county d.a. fani willis. it was january in which she said charging decisions are imminent. it is march. why do you think we haven't heard from her yet? >> the special grand jury, all they are entitled to do is investigate. they are not making charging decisions, all they do is make charging recommendations as we know. fani willis and her team have to go before an actual grand jury, it meets twice a week in fulton county, and present their case in order to get an indictment.

while the amount of time that should take should be shorter than the usual amount of time because they have all the summary evidence, it's going to take some period of time, i would expect if fani willis is being truthful with us about actual imminent charging decisions, i would expect we'll hear something in the next couple of days. >> do you feel as if we're heading towards this crescendo moment as we're hearing about what special counsel jack smith is doing, as we're hearing about what's happening in fulton county, and the manhattan d.a., that this is all going to get doved at the same time? >> yeah, and as i was listening to you read at the beginning of the segment, all the different things that are happening, it reminded me of michael jackson's thriller video when he enters the shack at the end and all the monsters are coming at him. donald trump's current legal situation is not unlike that. >> i know that part, and it shows our age, lisa rubin.

last, i want to play you chris christie commenting on kind of all of these investigations together. >> do you expect an indictment of the former president? >> i think the most likely place it will happen is new york. and i think the least harmful matter to him. in terms of likelihood of incitement, i put new york first, the special counsel second, georgia third. but in terms of the seriousness of the peril for the president, i put the special counsel above either of those. >> what do you make of his assessments there? >> i don't know that i agree with chris christie's assessment, but of course chris christie and i are sitting on the outside, right, we're former lawyers, both of us. none of us have any insight into what's going on in these offices. i think he's right, though, that the special counsel is the one that poses the most risk for donald trump. i would guess that -- i would put fani willis on top, followed

by the special counsel. chris christie if you're out there, let's make a bet. up next, used to be a can't miss event for conservative hopefuls. where is anyone at this year's cpac, and what president biden just had to say about marjorie taylor greene, we'll be right back. t marjorie taylor greene, we'll be right back and that's... how you collect coins. your money never stops working for you with merrill, a bank of america company.

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cpac lost its spark, a wave of gop heavy hitters are skipping this year's gathering

which kicked off yesterday. no senate leadership, just one member of house leadership, one republican governor and a very noticeable lack of potential 2024 candidates. so where is everyone? a lot of familiar names, including governor ron desantis, former vice president mike pence have opted for a rival event in florida hosted by the conservative club for growth, donald trump, who is slated to close out cpac on saturday was not invited. joining me now from the national harbor in maryland where cpac is being held is nbc news correspondent dasha burns. we know it's obvious the former president's invite did not just get lost in the mail. this is very deliberate. what is the message here? this split that we are seeing? >> reporter: well, we're seeing the split screen within the republican party, right? the club for growth has been sort of distancing itself from former president trump for the

last few years, which trump is of course not thrilled about. he's been going at them on his social media web site calling them the quote club for no growth desantis and pence trying to carve out their own slice of the republican pie there, but make no mistake, cpac is the trump show. i have been hearing people calling it tpac in the hallways here. he has very much remade this conference in his image, which is why it's so interesting, yasmin, that despite the absence of desantis here, i keep hearing his name brought up from the attendees. several telling me that they wish he was here. some still hoping he might make a last-minute appearance which we are not expecting, by the way, but take a listen to some of what we heard from our conversations today. >> it's unfortunate that desantis is not going to be here. mike pence, i don't really care for him. >> what do you think about a trump/desantis '24 match up? >> i like it.

>> it may be an indicator he's not throwing his head in the ring. may be an indicator, he's not ready. it's interesting. i don't particularly care. >> do you want to see him here? >> i don't care. >> reporter: trump or desantis, which way would you go? >> any way but biden. >> reporter: if you had to pick. >> if you forced me, i think desantis would be a very good appealing candidate only because he has none of the baggage, and all of the policies. >> reporter: yeah, a lot of folks still really split but hoping that desantis does throw his name into the ring. he hasn't done so yet, but he certainly started some of the movement behind the scenes. he's launched a book tour. we just learned that he's going to be in iowa next week, a critical early state for republicans. and at the end of cpac, one of the traditions here, there will

be a straw poll, and desantis will be on the ballot alongside trump. it will be interesting to see if desantis can run up the numbers a little bit. that could be telling in early stages. >> i'm a bit surprised hearing so much support from even those small sound bites you showed us for desantis at cpac when he's not speaking there. dasha burns, as always, we thank you. republicans still have not clarified whether their plans to balance the federal budget include cuts to the affordable care act and medicaid, and the longer they wait, the more ammunition it is giving president biden. earlier this week, he called out a handful of maga republicans for playing politics with people's lives, warning voters in virginia that they are quote trying to take away people's health care. last night he continued to take shots at most extreme members on the right. this time marjorie taylor

greene. >> marjorie taylor greene, in a few more, we're going to have a lot of republicans running our way. isn't she amazing? oof. >> let's bring in punch bowl news cofounder and msnbc political contributor, jake sherman. i have to say, this is certainly a strategy that came auch the state of the union. he's really naming names when it comes to the right wing of the republican party. what more are you hearing about the strategy? is this going to become part of the strategy of the democratic party going forward? >> it's a good strategy in that it ties every republican or attempts to tie every republican to marjorie taylor greene. obviously she's the outlier of the party. he made those comments behind me, the house democratic retreat in baltimore. i mean, listen, to your earlier question, the main question

facing republicans right now on policy is what they want to cut. they say they want to revert to earlier spending levels, they say they want to reign in the federal budget, right size the federal budget but they're not going to balance the budget without cuts to entitlement products and there are not going to be cuts to entitlement programs because they said there will not be cuts to the entitlement programs. it's a knot they have to find their way out of. >> can we talk a little bit about -- i know you're not where you normally are, and that is on the hill but the president was there today after visiting where you are last night. and he huddled with senators today over lunch. anything you're hearing in your reporting from that meeting with the president today, what's coming out of that strategy sessions? >> reporter: do i got you?

it seems we lost jake sherman. that's what happens when you shrug your shoulders and say i can't hear what she's saying. we're going to try to get her back, when you have a president visiting senators over launch talking strategy and a major division inside the gop. coming up, a wave of suspected poisonings against school girls in iran. who politicians believe is behind them, what the michigan attorney general says is behind a threat against her as well. we'll be right back. we'll be right back. p was magical. i mean the tender chicken, the peppercorn ranch... i love my rings but i'll cherish that lunch... forever. the subway series. the greatest menu of all time.

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welcome back, everybody. we got him back, i think. punch bowl news cofounder, and msnbc political contributor, jake sherman who does a great on air shrug, just can't hear. jake, let's pick up where we left off, and that is any reporting that you're getting from the hill today of course, the president's lunch, strategy session, that he had with senate democrats today? >> reporter: the interesting thing that came out of it, yasmin, and he said this is a parochial issue in d.c., and speaks to larger overtones in national politics. and speaks to larger overtones in national politics. in d.c., but speaks to undertones in the democratic party and national politics, he said hes, would basically us is

sustain a resolution of the columbiati code, they rewrote t criminal code and lowered the penalty for carjackings. now, why does this mat in a larger context? crime say huge issue for voters across country and we see that in baltimore, san francisco, los angeles, across the countrywe a biden is going against the d.c. city council, democratic city council and is.c basically sayi that what they did to the criminal code is not proper. this is something that a lot of democrats are not happy about, and good number of democrats arf not happy about, and he is siding with republicans, mitch mcconnell and small m number of democrats to basically say they shouldn't lower the -- the

district should not lower penalties for carjackers and things like that. he made this announcement in a meeting of senate democrats today in the capitol, that came after his visit last night. >> something hielse, jake, we'r hearing from the president as we kind of look towards 2024.ar i bring this up because we're just talking about talking with dasha at c-pac, touting the legislative successes of the dems going into the election season. you thinknt about the economy, being the number one concern fob so many americans, i want to bring up this poll from factory towns across six states. and the top concern out of this polling is rising cost of living at 37%.t and the main complaint they have with the biden administration is there is no real economic plan. when you'rere thinking and talkg about how democrats can kind of tout legislative successes, why is it, you think, some of the

success they had with the economy and what seems to be possibly avoiding a recession as some folks have predicted is not resonating with so many americans? >> yeah, i think it is what we call mood music. i think people are upset with the economy because it has been not great for so long because of covid and they blameus the occupant of the white house. if you think about whether you -- democrats think what they have done in the last two years is historic and will help right the economy. they think theri inflation reduction act, the infrastructure bill,he they thi these are transformative things. and they think if they only talk about them more, then people will start believing they're transformative and seeing the sf impact in people's lives. i think that's their strategy going into '24. they're going to run a campaign in 2024 that is based on legislative success they had in 2021 and 2022. we'll see have to see if that works. in defense ofo democrats, a little enbit, some of these pies

of legislation have longer lag times, loright? you don't immediately see what they have done. you don't needily see that tunnel being built or bridge being fixed and have to wait for it a little bit. i think athat, the more democro talk about that, the more they will get people to believe and understand that. >> jake sherman, as always, glad to have yous back, twice, in o hour. >> thank you. >> sorry about that. >> not your fault, obviously. michigan attorney general dana chnessel says she was targeted by a heavily armed man last month. federal agents arrested jack eugene carpenter iii accused of tweetingcc threats against anyo that is jewish a in the michiga government, acording to thesh suspect's mother he was in possession three ofe handguns , a shotgun and two hunting rifles. joining me now is ken dilanian. this is incredibly disturbing to say the least. what more are we learning about this. >> the kind of case we're seeing more of. the fbi got on to this man

because ofth his twitter accoun i've been through, the work of a very disturbed individual, and includes atu lot of anti-semiti and these threats to michigan state officials, and when the fbi began investigating, they learned that hebe was also unde investigation by the michigan state police, who suspected him of stealing a handgun, as you said, theygu learned from his mother he was heavily armed, he had access to military style weapons and they became concerned,th tracked his phone, they arrested him a few weeks ago and he's now in custody charged with making threats. as you said, the attorney general of michigan, this is not in the courthi documents, but s said publicly she was one of the people he was targeting. also reports he was targeting elissa slotkin who is jewish, but this comes in a context in anes uptick in anti-semitic incidents and hate motivated extremist motivated attempts at violence nationwide. >> so, ken, i just -- we have 40 seconds left or so. the fbi is connecting this with

this rise we are seeing across the country it seems. >> that's y right. just ams few weeks ago, there w another incident in michigan, a man has been charged with state and federal charges, making threats to women and children outside a synagogue. this is a national contagion, getting worse, i was speaking tk an fbi official today, very disturbed about it. they say they're on top of it. there is only so much the federal government can do.so this is a whole of government of program. >> ken dilanian for us, thank you. up next, what iranian officials think might be behind more than 100 alleged poisonings of school girls. we'll be right back. d poisonings of school girls. we'll be right back. it's deeply uplifting. yes, it is. we're walking in their footsteps.

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russia invaded ukraine more than a year ago, tony blinken met with russian foreign minister sergey lavrov on the side of the group 20 meeting in india. one state department official saying the two leaders talked for less than ten minutes. and that blinken mainly urged moscow to reverse russian president vladimir putin's decision so suspend new s.t.a.r.t., the last remaining nuclear arms control treaty between the two nations. blinken also reiterated the need to release u.s. citizen paul whelan from detainment. moving over to iran, authorities there now investigating the possibility that hundreds of school girls across the country were poisons. officials downplayed the incident and now saying they may have been deliberate attacks designed to keep girls from seeking out an education. joining me is nbc news correspondent josh letterman who has more on this. i've been following this story pretty closely, josh, and it is disturbing to say the least.

i'm interested to hear more of what you're learning from your reporting here. >> reporter: one of the things that has been so bizarre as we are learning more about this is the fact that while there have been very serious concerns about women's rights for quite some time in iran, obviously the source of those protests that we have been following since september, traditionally iran's government, unlike, say, the taliban in afghanistan, has not targeted girls education. in fact, the government there is very proud of the fact that the majority of university students in iran, for example, are women. that's perhaps one of the reasons that iran's leaders initially were downplaying concerns about this, even as these reports started to emerge all the way back in november. now, as this has spread to some 30 schools across iran, a member of parliament saying the number of schoolchildren affected is up to about 800. iran's government this week for the first time seems to be

confronting this head on with the president making his first public comments about this, tafg tasking his interior minister with an investigation. they're doing a lot of investigation that involves toxicologists, parliamentarians said some of the health officials found nitrogen gas evidence at one of the schools and say they believe this may be an attempt to try to prevent girls from going to school and to shut down those schools. but so far this remains really a situation with a whole lot of unanswered questions about who is doing this, exactly why and how to stop it as this situation does not seem to be ending. just yesterday, according to the official news agency, there was an incident at a school that sent about 100 girls to the hospital. >> i want to hear more from your reporting as this situation in iran and the government, the way it is structured there, is a bit convoluted as well.

let's take a listen to that. >> reporter: outside a high school in tehran, confusion, victims of poisoning, local media reporting girls were sickened in 30 schools across iran. one iranian lawmaker putting the number at about 900 students injured since november. this woman said it smells like cooking gas coming down into the classroom. while this school girl says it made her feel dizzy. she says my entire body feels very numb. and it doesn't allow me to walk. but amid fears this is a campaign to shut down girls' education, tonight, iran's president taking action. iranian state media reporting he's tasking iran's interior minister with investigating the cause and coordinating the response. a criminal investigation by the prosecutor general is also under way. a big step after senior iranian officials had been downplaying the incident as recently as

today. iran's deputy interior minister saying, more than 99% of this is caused by stress, rumors and psychological war by hostile tv channels. he says their goal was to force schools to close. unlike the taliban in afghanistan, iran's government has not traditionally targeted girls for seeking an education. but other women's rights issues have been front and center for months. amid protests set off by the death in september of a 22-year-old. iran's morality police detained her for violating the law on head scarves for women. hundreds more died in the protests that followed. do you believe what we're seeing now is connected to the protests? >> there is no coincidence it would suddenly happen at this moment and the government knows that the protests are not dead. >> reporter: in iran tonight, parents in fear, some reportedly pulling their kids and why.

>> the question is are tthe tru of what is transpiring in iran there? not necessarily the most transparent government to say the least. josh lederman, thank you for your excellent reporting on this. we appreciate it. that does it for me, everybody. to help you achieve it. so let us focus on the how. just tell us - what's your why? (bridget) with thyroid eye disease i hid from the camera. so let us focus on the how. and i wanted to hide from the world. for years, i thought my t.e.d. was beyond help... but then i asked my doctor about tepezza. (vo) tepezza is the only medicine

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