the 10g network, only from xfinity. one giant leap for mankind. 11:00 a.m. eastern. 8:00 a.m. pacific. coming up this hour, a better than expected jobs report. we'll bake down the numbers and how it could impact you. plus, new legal developments for former president trump.

he is told he can testify before a grand jury investigating a hush money payment to an adult film star. is this a sign criminal charges are coming next? meantime, new 2024 polling from iowa puts trump at the top of the list in favorability. florida governor ron desantis right behind him, and making his first visit today to the state is a possible contender. we're live from iowa. new developments in the kidnapping and killing of americans in mexico. what the drug cartel blamed for the violence is now claiming in a new letter. and another devastating storm system in the forecast. heavy snow in the chicago area, and in california, a fear of flooding as people are still trapped. and we're keeping a very close eye on the white house, where president biden is expected to speak at any moment on the better than expected february jobs report. we'll bring you those remarks when they begin. there you see our live shot at

the white house. the president expected to speak any moment now. this comes hours after the government reported that employers added 311,000 jobs last month. that's more than the 225,000 jobs economists had expected. the unemployment rate ticked up to 3.6%. and when you break it down by race, the hispanic unemployment rate jumped by .8%. while the black unemployment rate rose by .3%. with us now to talk more about this, nbc news white house correspondent monica alba. good morning. what are we expecting to hear from the president when he speaks any moment now? >> reporter: this has become a sort of familiar event for the president, jose. good to be with you. working normally on these days of job reports, does like to come out, update the american people on the white house's interpretation and assessment of what these numbers really mean. time and time again, we have

heard the president talk about this and put it into context of really the economic recovery being more of a marathon than any kind of a sprint. you have see him talk about that all throughout the pandemic. pointing to what the white house really views as the key indicators here, which is that unemployment number that has been at a historically low point. they'll continue to talk about that even though we did see it go up a little bit. we got a preview just recently from the labor secretary, marty walsh, who was on msnbc last hour who called this jobs report great overall, saying more people are trying to get off the sidelines and get back into the workforce. that is something you're going to see the president today probably talk about in relation to what he was traveling on the road for in philadelphia, pennsylvania, yesterday. and that is his 2024 budget. i think you can expect him to talk about some of the programs that he thinks will continue to help with this economic recovery. specifically, he'll mention things like child care and home care, and that's something that secretary walsh was also

pointing to. he said you still see a lot of people who are still working at home or can't leave to go take another job because of the issue of child care, for instance. that's something they want to help with in the next year possibly as they have put these programs forward, though of course, we know this budget blueprint and what the president proposed yesterday is likely dead on arrival when it comes to actual congressional negotiations with republicans who have said as much in response to what the white house put out yesterday. so those talks, of course, will continue. i think you can expect the president to again point to what they see as the bright spots here, while also speaking to a lot of uncertainty today in the market specifically related to silicon valley bank and some questions about the tech industry. i think you'll hear the president try to give an overall assessment of how he views this economic picture while speaking to some of the urgency of the questions many americans have today about where this all may be heading. >> and i want to bring in cnbc

senior markets correspondent dominic chu. as we await the president's arrival. the podium set up. don't really have an exact information on when he is going to be speaking, but it could be any moment now. so dom, what stood out to you from this report? >> what stood out is that the markets and a lot of investors are interpreting this as a very goldilocks type report, jose. the reason i say that, monica mentioned marty wash said this is a great report. the is a great on a number of fronts but not great all over the place. and it's still positive, but just not positive enough. the reason why i say that, you mentioned the 311,000 jobs created. way better than economists were forecasting for 225,000. if you take a look at where you saw some of the gains, right, in terms of job creation, it was leisure and hospitality, an increase of 105,000 there. in line with the six-month average. retail saw a gain of 50,000

jobs. government jobs added 46,000. professional business services also a performer there. what it comes down to is there's good news in the american economy, and it continues to remain strong. but at the same time, you mentioned the unemployment rate ticked higher than last month. average hourly earnings, by the way, also grew but grew by only .2% on a month over month basis. that brings the year over year to around 4.6%. the reason why that's important is that both measures of wages came in slightly worse than expected. growing but at a slower pace. there continues to be job creation with less upward pressure on wages. there's a reason why that's important. it's not that we don't want people to make more money. it is because when you do see a slower pace of wage growth, it means less possible inflationary pressure on goods and services, which means jose that the fed might not have to act so aggressively to cool the economy down. so this is very much a scenario

where we're seeing, yes, positive job growth. it's still there, and wages are still growing, albeit at a slower pace. the fed has a fine line to walk here, jose. >> and dom, there's a question i kind of had when we look and break down those numbers, right? as we always do here on this broadcast. we saw a significant jump in the black and hispanic unemployment rates. is there any sense of what's driving that? and take a look at the numbers and look between january and february. i mean, the unemployment rate from hispanics from 4.5% to 5.3%. >> so jose, there's no easy way to try to explain how some of those stats are playing out right now. but we do know that over the course of the pandemic recovery, now, the pandemic did interject a lot of economic i guess volatility, uncertainty, and trend breaking into the overall picture. in the recovery that we have seen for the american economy,

since the pandemic lows, we have seen an uneven distribution of where the positivity has been. the job creation has been, and where it's benefitting people. it's very hard to stereotype or generalize about the types of wages jobs we're talking about here, but what we do see are some signs the marginalized communities are the ones taking it the worst here. and by the way, inflation plays a big part of that story. also, by the way, the fed and its recovery efforts to try to normalize rates, here's what i would say. to put it in a nutshell, if you were to try to put your finger on the reason why we're seeing some of those upticks it could be as simple as something monica mentioned before. in certain parts of the market and economy, there are certain groups out there who don't have the ability to go seek work because they have child care responsibilities or duties or that the jobs they would take are not enough to pay them to make up for paying for child care costs. there are all different kinds of

variables here, but again, this is one of those social structural issues that the fed i'm sure and policymakers are looking very strongly at right now. >> so my understanding is the president should be out in literally seconds. so until that happens -- oh, there he is. let's go to president biden. >> look, i think we got a good jobs report. i'm happy to report that our economy has created over 300,000 new jobs last month. and that's on top of a half million jobs we added the month before. all told, we have created more than 12,000, 12,000 jobs since i took office. nearly 8,000 of the manufacturing jobs. that means overall, we have created more jobs in two years than any administration has created in the first four years. and i think all of this matters. it's no accident. it means our economic plan is

working. and when i took office, the recovery and the economy was -- there was no recovery, and the economy was reeling. and 18 million people were unemployed. on unemployment insurance, compared to less than 2 million today. unemployment was 6.3%. and nonpartisan congressional budget office predicted it wouldn't get below 4% until 2026. because of our economic plan, unemployment has been below 4% for 14 straight months. since january 2022. last month, unemployment rate remained near the lowest level in 50 years. 50 years. and that's really good news. people who were staying out of the job market, this is particularly good news, are now getting back into the job market. they're coming off the sidelines, getting back in the job market. the share of working age folks who are in the labor force is higher than it's been any time since 2008. that was one of the big predictors everybody was looking at.

tomorrow, it will be two years since i signed the american rescue plan into law. it led to the fastest recovery of any major economy in the world. it laid the foundation for the progress we have been seeing and see today. record new business applications. more americans with health care coverage than ever, including more than 14 million americans saving $800 a year on their health insurance. unprecedented tax relief for nearly 40 million families with 65 million children thanks to the child tax credit, cutting child poverty in half. since we passed the chips and science act and the bipartisan infrastructure law and the inflation reduction act, we have seen companies commit more than $300 billion, companies from around the world, commit more than $300 billion to invest in future manufacturing and innovation here in america, creating jobs. we're going to invest in america again. we're going to make it america again, and the federal

government is going to buy american. that's been my economic vision. what does this progress really mean for families trying to get by? i'll tell you. it means more people with good jobs and the dignity and security that comes with a paycheck. and while we still have more to do, and there may be setbacks along the way, inflation is now down 30% from what it was this summer. gas prices are down more than $1.50 since the peak. at the same time, take-home pay for workers has gone up, especially for lower -- this is important in my view, especially for lower and middle income workers. this all adds up to a little bit of breathing room. but i think that's how people think about it, a little more breathing room for working families. and today's job numbers is clear, our economy is moving in the right direction. yesterday, i went down to a hall in philadelphia to lay out my budget. and outline my budget with builds on the progress we made

growing the economy from the middle and bottom up and not the top down. it's a plan that keeps investing in american manufacturing, inovase, and creates more good paying jobs that don't require a college degree. it protects and strengthens medicare, social security, two bed rock programs americans have been paying into with every paycheck they have earned since they were a kid, and we're paying for these investments. we're paying for it all. my plan after all is said and done, is going to cut the deficit nearly $3 trillion over the next ten years be making the wealthy and incorporations just begin to begin to pay their fair share. you know, when we talk about 28% tax rate, ronald reagan was 28% tax rate. you know, that wacko liberal guy, you know? the idea that that's an unreasonable amount, i'll get into that later. anyway, it continues to lower

costs for family. building on the work we have already done, the lower cost of insulin and other prescription drugs to make health insurance more affordable. it brings down home energy costs and bills for home energy costs and our plan is a stark contrast to the maga republican plan in congress where they're doubling down on the same failed policies of the past. that would give special tax breaks to the wealthy, keep the tax breaks that were put in place by the last president, wealthy tax breaks for big oil, tax breaks for pharma, at the expense of seniors and families. it's kind of a top down trickle down economics that never, ever worked. i know when i grew up, as you heard me say before, not much trickled down to my dad's kitchen table. my dad used to have an expression. i don't expect the government to solve my problems but i expect the government to understand my problems. not solve them, understand them. building a budget requires some really hard decisions.

but all over america, families are sitting around their kitchen tables making decisions that are equally consequential. that's who my budget is for. it's about a value set, i said yesterday. working people, middle class, the backbone of the country. small businesses who are responsible for around half of all the jobs in the economy. you know, big corporations, they're big, but small businesses account for half the people employed in the economy. my budget reflects what we can do to lift the burden on hard-working americans. today's news tells us that thanks to our efforts, 12 million more americans have jobs. the job is about a lot more than a paycheck, as i said. it's about dignity, it's about your family's dignity, and 12 million more americans can look their kids in the eye and say, honey, it's going to be okay. and mean it. you know, there's -- that's a little more dignity for 12 million americans. it's not just good numbers. people can feel it. people are moving back into the

work force. this may be the part that pleased me the most about the jobs report. people who have been staying out of the job market are moving back in. beginning to move back in. jobs are available. people are working again. they're becoming more optimistic about their future. and now, the biggest threat to our recovery is the reckless talk, reckless talk my maga friends, it's not your father's republican party, but the republicans in the united states congress. what they want to do with regard to the debt limit. they're threatening to default on our national debt. in fact, planning to default, as some republicans seem to be doing, puts us very much at risk. i believe we should be building on our progress, not go backwards. so i urge our extreme maga republican friends in the congress to put their threats aside, join me in continuing the progress we have built. we got a lot more to do. so let's finish the job. and by the way, you know, we

talk about -- i just saw, my staff handed me as i was walking in, the house freedom caucus. members of the caucus will consider voting to raise the debt ceiling contingent upon the enactment of the legislation. you know what the essence of the legislation was, cut all spending by 25%. 25%. across the board. that means cops, firefighters, it means health care, that's what they call discretionary spending, and on top of that, what they're really focused on, i saw here, i shouldn't get into all this now, but is kind of surprised me, they want to make sure we don't have enough irs agents. those irs agents we had, they're going to check on the accounts of the super wealthy which require a lot of accounting. a lot of agents to look at it. they want to get rid of them. i don't know.

we just have a very different value set. anyway, i'm optimistic we're going to get the cpi next week, hopefully we'll be in some solid shape. but anyway. yes. >> mr. president, are you concerned that rising interest rates will put a damper on this job growth and impact the economy? and you mentioned the freedom caucus. do you have any openness to negotiating on any of the issues they mentioned? >> well, first of all, we don't know what the cpi is going to be this week. but it's been down, interest rates have been down. inflation has been down for many weeks in a row now. and i said we're going to see blips going up. but i feel confident that we're headed in the right direction. and there's a lot of talk about what the fed will do and not do. we'll see. we'll see what the fed will do. but we'll see what the cpi is.

i guess it's tuesday or monday? next week it's coming out. the idea that i'm going to agree that we start to figure out where we cut 25% across the board -- by the way, their entire program does not lower the deficit one single penny. if what they say they mean, they're going to keep the tax cuts from the last president, number one, almost $2 trillion. if they're going to in fact no additional taxes on the wealthy, as a matter of fact, reducing taxes, and in addition to that, on top of that, they're going to say we have to cut 25% of every program across the board, i don't -- i don't know there's much to negotiate on. but i'm prepared. i told the speaker, soon as he's ready to lay out his budget, i'm

willing to sit down. now i'm hearing things like, well, we're fought going to have our budget until april or may, maybe even june. all this talk pushing me to get my budget done. i said i would have it done by the 9th, i had it done by the 9th. i handed it to you guys, i handed it to them. why all of a sudden can't they get it done in march or maybe even april, maybe even may? i don't know. it doesn't sound like they're on the level yet. thank you very much. >> what are your thoughts on saudi arabia and iran reestablishing diplomatic relations, sir? >> between israel and their neighbors -- >> will you sign the bill that the house approved on -- . >> well, we saw the president of the united states with some comments on today's economic news. i want to bring back dominic chu and monica alba.

monica, the president was insistent on the fact that he wasn't able to negotiate or talk with the republicans until they present any kind of budget plan. and now they're saying, according to him, that they may not have anything until may or june. just seems as though, how do you negotiate when you don't have the other side's basic in writing proposals? >> reporter: and that's what really sets up this major political battle. you're absolutely going to see the president and the white house continue to say this is our value set. that's a traz the president just used in these remarks, saying here is where our priorities are. and this is what we would like to invest in when it comes to the budget. then you have republicans who had said before this they were going to put out their own proposal some time this spring, but that's right, they haven't committed to any kind of a date on when actually that negotiation will begin, and any good faith, because before they put forth their plan, the

president is arguing that will be very difficult to do, and then we're talking about some really key looming deadlines when you look to june, for instance, that is when the debt ceiling is supposed to be hit. that is by then when the united states needs to raise its ability to borrow so that the u.s. doesn't default for the first time in history. so that's a big part of the backdrop to all this. then of course, you look to government funding later in the year as well. that is when both parties really will have to come together to some kind of an agreement. this is a white house that says look, this is why this is the beginning of a dialogue. that's how they framed these conversations about putting the budget forth all week long. but you see the president there talking about the fact that he also wants to look to what's coming in the next week or so with that key inflation marker to see where else the economy is heading. but when it comes to this very bruising political battle, this is really just the beginning of that part of the conversation, jose. >> and dominic, where want to talk to you about something that

monica kind of mentioned before the president's comments. treasury secretary janet yellen says that her department is very carefully monitoring a situation involving a few banks. bank stocks have been taking a hit because of issues with silicon valley banks. what's going on there? >> so, to put it simply, silicon valley bank, jose, is important. it's not important -- it's not always in the headlines, but this is a bank that has a banking relationship with an estimated half of all venture capital u.s. based companies. the reason why that's important is this is a bank that helps finance the expansion of entrepreneurs and small businesses looking to get bigger in america, especially when it comes to technology and health care. this bank, through the course of the last several months and quarters, has been exposed to a macro environment, a big picture environment, with regard to interest rates. the fed policy and everything else. also, a lack of activity or

slowdown in the tech sector and media and telecom sectors that has had an impactful, negatively impactful position on its business. because of that, it is facing a good amount of financial stress right now. stress so much that it's lost the majority of its market value in just this week alone and is trying to raise more money. the reason why it's important, jose, is this bank is also through no fault perhaps of any other bank, the problems here are starting to bleed or ripple into others. many west coast regional banks are now starting to see their stocks getting hit in sympathy with the moves at silicon valley bank, and the reason the fed and secretary treasury janet yellen are tuned in closely, there's talk of a possible contagion. this is not the base case scenario now, not a time for panic, but regulators want to make sure the banking problems happening at silicon valley bank are not going to spread elsewhere into the banking system and that's the reason why

it's so important right now. but again, a lot of investors watching those banks specifically to see if there's any kind of ripple effect. now, to be fair, jose, the biggest banks in america right now, we're talking about jpmorgan chase, bank of america, citigroup, wells fargo, are seeing their stocks hit but nowhere to the degree of silicon valley bank. >> dominic chu and monica alba, thank you very much. now to a major development in the investigations into former president donald trump. two of trump's attorneys tell nbc news he has been invited to testify before a grand jury in new york city next week. as part of an investigation into $130,000 paid iphush money to adult film star stormy daniels before the 2016 election. trump's attorneys say the former president was not subpoenaed or is being forced to appear. they also did not indicate whether he would testify. and the manhattan district

attorney's office declined to comment. four people with knowledge of the matter tell "the new york times" the d.a.'s office has signaled to trump's lawyers he could face criminal charges but trump's attorneys told nbc news he was not told charges could be forthcoming. with us now, vaughn hillyard, geoff bennett, msnbc political contributor, and chuck rosenberg, former u.s. attorney and senior fbi official and an msnbc contributor. so vaughn, how has the former president responded to this news? >> right, this is another situation which donald trump is looking to capitalize off of what would be the first indictment if he were to be charged of a former president in the united states. he referenced it at cpac over the course of the weekend, trying to galvanize a base against what he says is politically motivated prosecutors from the federal government to the district attorney's office here in manhattan, and his first contention is look, this is about the 2016 hush money

payments to stormy daniels. this grand jury, to our understanding, is looking specifically at that 2016 transfer of $130,000 from donald trump to michael cohen, his former lawyer and fixer, to stormy daniels, to essentially silence her story in the lead-up to the 2016 presidential election. and this has nothing to do with the trump organization, to our understanding, or anything related to the 2020 election, but specifically that payment, michael cohen to note, he has already served time for not only other crimes but also including this hush money payment specifically. i want to let you listen to michael cohen just a bit ago in lower manhattan because for the 20th time now, he met with the district attorney prosecutors. take a listen. >> i have to applaud district attorney bragg for giving donald the opportunity to come in to tell his story. knowing donald as well as i do, understand that he doesn't tell

the truth. it's one thing to turn around and to lie on your untruth social. it's another thing to turn around and lie before a grand jury. i don't suspect he's going to be coming. >> now, of course, michael cohen is the key witness in all of this here, and he's expected to go before the grand jury himself next week to testify. and of course, then the question is whether donald trump chooses to go. if he were to choose to go in front of the grand jury, he would have to testify under oath. >> so chuck, what charges could trump end up facing here, if any? >> right, well, if any is an important part of the equation, jose. but if he were to be charged, my understanding is that the prosecutor is looking essentially at two things. one would be making false business entries. that would be a misdemeanor under new york state law. and then there's a more convoluted theory. i don't mean that in a derogatory way, but maybe a more

attenuated theory, if you commit that crime, the crime of making false business entries in your records, to perpetuate some other crime, in this case an election fraud using hush money to silence a witness, a potential witness against him, that could be a felony. but that's a rather strained theory under new york law. it's also untested. and so if he is charged, and it's still an if, i think we should look at either the misdemeanor charge of making false business entries and then perhaps a felony charge of making those false business entries in order to perpetuate, to perpetuate a second crime, in this case an election fraud. >> so geoff, trump hassed he would stay in the presidential race even if he is indicted. is this process hurting him,

helping him, or not affecting him? >> it's a good question, jose. i think a potential indictment would likely not harm donald trump all that much in a republican party primary. and it's because he has invested so much time sowing disinformation and distrust among his base in the institutions that seek to hold him to account. vaughn mentioned the former president was at cpac this past weekend. what he told his supporters was that they're not coming after me. they're coming after you. so a potential indictment, underline the word potential, could have a rallying effect for the former president. and the gop's winner take all delegate system could benefit someone like donald trump who has anywhere between 30% to 40% support of the republican base, not a majority, but enough to deliver him the nomination if there are a number of other republicans running who split the vote. the other side of this coin, jose, is this. in talking to republican

strategists, when they look at the republican base, they say yes, you have the pro-trump wing yorb you have the never-trump wing, but the largest faction as they see it is the maybe trump wing. there are a number of republicans who don't dislike donald trump. they voted for him twice, supported him as president, but these republicans think other people dislike donald trump and that he's not electable. what they would rather do is see what comes of a desantis cant december of a nikki haley candidacy or former vice president mike pence candidacy. someone who could occupy the white house for eight years instead of four years if donald trump is re-elected. there are other republicans who can get you some of that same quote/unquote policy without the trump personality. is there someone else who can own the mantle of trumpism without trump himself. more legal exposure whether it's

the case in georgia or the manhattan d.a., or the special counsel looking into his mishandling of classified documents, all of that adds to the perception of baggage and unelectability that could torpedo a trump candidacy. >> vaughn hillyard, geoff bennett, and chuck rosenberg, thank you so much. coming up next, all you need to know about the extreme weather across our country, including in california where many people are still trapped. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. ee you don't want -to go bowling with us tonight? -yeah. no. there's my little marzipan! [ laughs ] oh, my daughter gives the best hugs! we're just passing through on our way to the jazz jamboree. [ imitates trumpet playing ] and we wanted to thank america's number-one motorcycle insurer -for saving us money. -thank you. [ laughs ] mara, your parents are -- exactly like me? i know, right? well, cherish your friends and loved ones.

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. 35 past the hour. a stunning development. a cartel has now apologized for the kidnapping and killing of americans one week ago today. in a letter obtained by the associated press, the gulf cartel condemned the violence, said they turned over members who they claim were involved in last week's attack. a senior law enforcement official tells nbc news the u.s. believes the letter is legitimate. the apology comes as the remains of the two americans killed are now back in the u.s. after a recovery effort that took several days. turning now to the extreme weather people are waking up to across the country this morning. 87 million people are under alerts nationwide as storms bear down. in the west, a barrage of heavy rain and snow as california

braces for severe flash flooding. officials in one county near san francisco advising residents to stock up on enough essentials for the next two weeks. they're providing sandbags in preparation for floods. meanwhile, in the midwest, a wintry storm system still cutting through chicago and parts of michigan. both pummeled with up to 8 inches of snow overnight. let's bring in nbc's bill karins to make sense of all this. bill, good morning. what's going on? let's talk first about the california reality. >> yeah, the california stuff is getting serious in a hurry. we have what we now call a flash flood emergency that's in place. i was just told that in springville, california, that they're doing high water rescues because the river has come up so quickly, it caught people by surprise. they're having to get people out of there. a life-threatening situation. that's springville, california, not too far from fresno. they're getting the rain, and springville is in the foothills so they're getting the snow belt

plus all the rain. we also have a high risk from the coastal areas. we have a very serious flood situation setting up now from areas north of santa barbara, san luis abibeau. if you look at the radar, we're getting a break from san francisco bay northwards, all the focus is on the foothills north of fresno, south of mammoth, and all the rain in the coastal mountain rage. those are the two areas we'll be watching through the rest of the day. flood watch includes 16 million. where you see the maroon colors, those are flash flood warnings or the one flash flood emergency. this is where if there's life-threatening damage or problems because of high water it's in these areas. additional rainfall, we're still going to get another inch or two in many areas. that's why this problem will continue through tonight and be ending tomorrow morning. high winds along with this, too, could knock out some power. we expect the highest gusts this

afternoon and this evening, maybe 40 to 50-mile-per-hour range, nothing as bad as the blizzard last week, but everybody would like to keep their power on. you mentioned that storm rolling through the midwest. it was snowing pretty hard this morning in detroit. now that snow is heading to erie, buffalo. it will eventually move through southern portions of new york and pennsylvania. you can see the blue showing up. not a lot of heavy snow, but anyone traveling on the pennsylvania turnpike or the new york thruway, that will be kind of the worst of it. we'll keep you posted on that situation in california. again, it's going to get worse before it gets better with that snow melt and heavy rain. >> bill karins thank you so much. up next, all eyes on iowa, as the 2024 season heats up. and new numbers show support for former president trump in that state dropping. who else is gaining traction? we'll talk about that. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports." no. he's making real-time money moves with merrill.

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41 past the hour. we're getting new pictures of senator john fetterman who has been batting depression in the hospital. his wife tweet these pictures just a short time ago of the family visiting fetterman at the wendy's at walter reed medical facility. she said she was proud of her husband. checked into the facility on the 15th of february. last year, during his campaign, he was hospitalized after suffering a stroke. turning now to iowa where florida's governor ron desantis is today, promoting his new book and reportedly testing a potential presidential run. "the washington post" reports that desantis has privately indicated he intends to run for president. as the post points out, quote, republican private movements underline how far along desantis and his allies are in their preparation for the 2024 campaign. even as the florida governor has not said publicly that he will enter the race. meanwhile, a brand-new des

moines register poll finds that former president trump's support is eroding in iowa, down 11 points since september of 2021. joining us now from davenport, iowa, is dasha burns. good morning. what can we expect from desantis' visit there today? >> reporter: well, jose, this really does seem to be the unofficial kickoff to iowa caucus season, even though we are months away from that. but desantis' debut in iowa comes on the heels of nikki haley's visit and just ahead of former president trump's stop here on monday. his first event here in davenport just wrapped up. and it saw a full house, and a pretty enthusiastic crowd. several standing ovations here. and as you mentioned, the governor is here as part of his book tour. a book that is largely a playbook of florida policies. he's described it as the blueprint for america's revival, and it's really been a vehicle for delivering his message. so we're expecting to hear --

>> dasha, are you still there? >> oh, i'm sorry. i just lost you. i just lost you for a moment there. he is largely using this book to deliver the message of touting his what he sees as the biggest successes he has had in florida and how those could apply here in iowa and nationally as well. and while he has not yet declared his bid for the white house, he certainly is positioning himself as the kind of leader who could appeal to voters outside of his home state. take a listen to just some of what he said today. >> one thing i can say, if you talk to floridians, there's no drama in our administration. there's no palace intrigue. they basically just sit back and say okay, what's the governor going to do next? we roll out and execute, and we

do things and get things done. and in the process, we beat the left day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year. >> here's the thing, though, jose. in iowa, it is all about retail politics, voters here take their jobs extremely seriously. we just talked to some folks who saw desantis speak, said they were impressed but they're waiting to see who else comes through the state. they're waiting to shake hands, to ask questions of these potential candidates, these presidential hopefuls. and so this is going to be a big test for the governor. his first real foray outside of florida to see if he can appeal to voters in the state, the hawkeye state, jose. >> dasha burns in davenport, thank you so much. joining us now is nbc's mark murray, also with us, former republican congressman, carlos

curbelo. you served with desantis when you were in the house. how do you see things working for him? he hasn't announced anything. we were just talking about for all intents and purposes, many people believe he actually is already in campaign mode. how do you see it? >> well, jose, i think the big question and we kind of heard a little bit of this in that report, is desantis is extremely popular in the state of florida. obviously, in order to get 60% of the vote in florida, he got significant support from independents in his re-election campaign. he got some support from democrats. now, iowa, new hampshire, south carolina, these are different states. so the question is going to be, number one, is the florida record going to be impressive enough for republican voters in these primary states? i think the governor has an advantage there, a good chance. secondly, is he going to be able to connect with these voters?

these are small states compared it florida. retail campaigning is critical. in florida, it's such a big state. you really just get on tv, do mass advertising, and that's the way you connect. that's not how these primary states, especially these early primary states, work. so that's going to be the true test for desantis. the other thing is, is he going to be able to overcome donald trump? you hear in his messaging he's already preparing for that confrontation with donald trump, talking about how his administration has no drama, when we know of course donald trump's administration for four years as president was replete with drama. so desantis has some challenges, but certainly he's in a very strong position as he ventured into these early states. >> and let's talk about those early states, mark. let's take a closer look at that des moines register polling. trump's unfavorable rating is at 18%. 1% are unsure about trump. desantis, unfavorable, 6%. 20% say they're unsure about

desantis. could that leave an opening for desantis or for others? >> yeah, jose. you look at ron desantis' numbers as he's stepping into iowa today. it shows him with a sky high favorability rating. very few iowa republicans who view him unfavorably. in with some room to grow. but jose, it's also worth noting the higher you go, sometimes the quicker the fall. when we end up getting into a very mature presidential race, and if ron desantis does enter it, with all of the ads flowing, with all of the attacks back and forth, high numbers typically end up going down. and the way that i actually look at this poll and as well as other national polls that have come out on the republican race is this is a contest at this very early juncture where you have two front-runners. the former president donald trump and ron desantis, and then it's everyone else. it's important to know it is very early. a lot of things can change.

but those two front-runners right now really do stand out to me. >> mark murray and former congress carlos curbelo, i thank you both for being with us this morning. coming up, a major breakthrough in the middle east. iran and saudi arabia agree to restore diplomatic ties after years of tensions. we'll break down why this deal is so important, next. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports." r bargain't keep up. turns out it's mostly water. so, we switched back to tide. one wash, stains are gone. [daughter] slurping don't pay for water. pay for clean. it's got to be tide. i think i changed my mind about these glasses. yeah, it happens. that's why visionworks gives you 100 days to change your mind. it's simple. anything else i can help you with? like what? visionworks. see the difference. next on behind the series... that performance was legendary. they just piled it on. roast beef, ham, oven roasted turkey.

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think he's posting about all that ancient roman coinage? no. he's making real-time money moves with merrill. so no matter what the market's doing, he's ready. and that's... how you collect coins. your money never stops working for you with merrill, a bank of america company. 51 past the hour. new this morning, a couple of hours ago, rivals iran and saudi arabia agreed to restore diplomatic relations after years of tensions. it's a deal brokered by beijing. they will arrange for the return of their ambassadors and attempt to improve bilateral relations. i want to bring in josh

lederman. this is a significant bit of news. >> reporter: significant news and truly a shock to this region. while we had known that saudi arabia and iran had held previous rounds of talks on restoring relations in iraq and in ahmann, there were no indications that this most recent round of talks in china was bearing the fruits announced by all three countries today. within the next two months, iran and saudi arabia intend to reopen embassies in each other's countries. there's still so much that we do not know about how this is going to reshape the middle east. what implications it will have in yemen, where iran and saudi arabia have been fighting a proxy war for years. what it means for iran's nuclear program or for israel. remember, iran and saudi arabia

have long been arch rivals. israel and iran have been arch rivals. but israel has been working on its own to try to normalize relations with saudi arabia. the fact that saudi arabia is now getting closer to iran could raise problems for israel's efforts to normalize its own relationships with the sunni arab states in the persian gulf. we are looking to see what exactly some of those ramifications are going to be. clearly, a lot more chips to fall. >> the fact that china is so involved -- it's surprising, it's striking to a lot of people. what happens with yemen and the plates where iran has been so involved for years? >> reporter: yeah, exactly. as far as china is concerns, this is a huge diplomatic win for the chinese. national security experts in the

u.s. that i have been speaking with in the last few hours are very concerned about this. they see this as a sign of china able to step up its influence and stepping in to avoid that a lot of people in the middle east have been saying has been left by the united states, as it has shifted its attention to ukraine, to asia. the chinese able to play this broker role between two countries, iran and saudi arabia, that both are pretty close to china. they both sell oil to china. the chinese able to capitalize on this. >> thank you very much. i want to turn to a different story in the u.s. the oscars are this sunday night. it promised to be full of surprises and firsts. a major change, the red carpet won't be red. it will be the color of champagne.

joe fryar has a sneak peek. >> reporter: on sunday the movie most likely to win is "everything everywhere all at once." it has 11 nominations. it's the favorite for best picture. the film's lead, michelle yeoh, could be the first asian woman to win best actress. she faces tough competition from "tar" star cate blanchett. jamie lee curtis could capture best supporting actress. that's another tight race. angela bassbasset is up.

she would be the first actor to win for a marvel movie. the best actor crown is up for grabs with the king, "elvis" star austin butler. last year's real life drama will hover over the festivities. will smith slapping chris rock, a moment that is providing material for jimmy kimmel. >> that's good. i can't get slapped. cry a lot. >> reporter: even though it's hollywood's biggest night, a few singers will take the stage, including best original song nominee rihanna, exactly a month after her monumental super bowl halftime show. >> thank you for that report. that wraps up the hour for me. i will see you tomorrow night on "nbc nightly news" saturday. you can reach me on twitter and instagram. you can catch highlights from today's show online.

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right now on "andrea mitchell reports," the february jobs report showing more job growth than expected despite rising interest rates and inflation. >> what does this mean for families trying to get by? i will tell you. it