right now on "andrea mitchell reports" an unexpected new witness before the new york grand jury investigating donald trump's alleged hush money payments to stormy daniels.

this one is asked to appear in trump's defense as the grand jury makes a decision on whether to hand up an indictment. trump set off shockwaves by posting a prediction he would be indicted tomorrow and calling for protests against the new york d.a., law enforcement officials meeting today to prepare, just in case. also ahead, china's president arriving in moscow for his first visit since russia invaded ukraine, a three-day visit where vladimir putin hopes to strengthen ties and hopefully obtain aid for his failing ukraine invasion. we'll talk to ukraine's ambassador to the u.s. and nbc news's richard engel will join us live from baghdad with a view of how the country has changed on the 20th anniversary of the u.s. war in iraq.

good day, everyone. i'm andrea mitchell in washington. thanks for being with us. at the center of this investigation, alleged false filings about rush money payments by former trump legal adviser, michael cohen, to former adult film star stormy daniels in the weeks leading up to the 2016 election. mr. trump railing against manhattan d.a. alvin bragg in a series of social media posts. after a saturday morning post, he wrote, without any notice, officially, that he would be arrested tomorrow, calling for supporters to protest and take our nation back. joining, nbc's garrett haake, senior national political correspondent, ashley parker, and the former chief of the fraud section in the department of justice, and the former chief

of homeland security and intelligence for washington, d.c., plus former fbi assistant director for counter intelligence. garrett, what have we heard from donald trump today? what updates do you have on testimony today from this man, robert costello, a former legal adviser to michael cohen? >> reporter: well, donald trump has been attacking this investigation, really, since his prediction on saturday that he would be arrested on tuesday. today he's focused on some legal details of the case, although he does not appear to have them correct. he's complaining about the statute of limitations, which he believes should have already expired. but my understanding from talking to our legal experts at nbc is that being out of the state of new york for as long as mr. trump has been, including serving as president and then moving to florida, the statute of limitation gets put on hold for the crimes we believe the district attorney is going to try to assert that the former president committed when he was candidate trump. as for the witnesses today,

we'll hear from robert costello, who due to a unique element in new york law, gets to testify as a defense witness in the grand jury proceedings. costello served as a legal adviser to cohen when cohen was a legal adviser to trump. but his main purpose here today is going to be to undermine cohen's credibility. cohen, we believe, largely from interviews with cohen, has emerged as the prosecution's star witness. costello is going to try to undermine that and we understand that cohen will have an opportunity to rebut costello. he's been told to essentially be on standby today, as prosecutors believes he may need to answer more questions after he testified last week. the bottom line is every indication, both from what seems to be going on inside the grand jury room to how the former president has been reacting, we are nearing a conclusion to this investigation. what that conclusion will be and whether it will end up with criminal charges tomorrow or any other day is still an open question. >> and, andrew weissmann, what

is the importance, potentially, of costello or alvin bragg and michael cohen's credibility? >> specifically, we don't know how costello will attack what it is that michael cohen is saying about these payments. the oddity i see here, andrea, is the choice by donald trump and his team to have costello go into the grand jury. one of the key advantages that the defense has in a criminal case is surprise, and the idea that they're taking a witness who would provide important trial testimony that is sort of unknown to the government, is they're actually giving the government advance notice because they will actually get to hear what he has to say now, and they can prepare for it and potentially undermine it. so it's a curious choice, unless they thought that costello,

either, a, needed to be locked in, they weren't sure whether costello would be there at the end of the day, or that his evidence is so incredibly powerful that it could avoid the possibility of an indictment. the latter seems quite unlikely, because the standard for a grand jury presentation is just probable cause. in other words, the grand jury is to find, is there probable cause that a crime was committed and that standard is usually fairly easy to meet, particularly here where there seems to be such strong corroboration for what michael cohen has said in terms of, at the very least, a tape-recording and checks that were signed by donald trump himself. >> and while we have your expertise, can you take us through the potential charges here? we don't know what charges may actually come down, but the potential charges, and how a misdemeanor, which the false

filing would be under state law, can rise to a possible felony because of the federal campaign finance issues? how does one leap to the other? >> sure. so this is all emanating from these hush money payments. the hush money payments in and of themselves is not illegal under new york state law. but there is a law in new york that the manhattan d.a.'s office and others use when you have a false business filing. and here that false filing is, according to michael cohen and potentially other evidence in the case, massacre aiding as legal fees, when these were payments to stormy daniels to keep her quiet. that is, as you noted, a misdemeanor in new york. and here is the rub, if it is to

aid another crime or if it is to cover up another crime, it becomes a felony. and so the speculation here that people have been engaged in is, what is that other crime that the d.a. may allege here? it could be a state finance crime, it could be a federal crime, it could also include tax fraud, either by the former president or by michael cohen himself. so there are a number of different potential avenues for the crime to become a felony that is more serious, obviously, than a misdemeanor, that we're waiting to see what is charged. >> janelle, you've got interagency meetings, law enforcement officials meeting in new york city today just protectively to plan in case there are disruptions. and you have the former president, of course, calling for protests and, you know, take our country back, which does resonate, if you compare it to what he was saying before

january 6th. >> absolutely. this is being framed, at least by trump and his supporters, as stop the steal 2. they can't stop me at the ballot box because i'm the front runner, so come out and save us. if you look at his rhetoric, he says he's the only thing that's preventing the authorities from getting to his supporters and they need to rescue him because he's their savior. if you look at the post and you dissect it, it calls out a lot of the violent aspect of the far right and his supporters, you mentioned george soros, it's a bugle for many anti-semitic and hate groups who look at him as the boogeyman. i'm a new yorker. if you're in new york and you're watching this, rest assured, the new york city police department is the largest and most capable police department in the world. they handle activities on a routine basis and large-scale

demonstrations on a routine basis. what they're meeting on is how to do this safely without interrupting the normal operations of the city and doing due diligence in terms of planning. >> and, of course, you've got someone potentially who is going to be under arrest who is under secret service protection for life. he's a former president, which makes it more complicated, but also makes the importance of protecting him of high value. ashley parker, let's talk about the politics here, the political fallout, because there's a big push by the former president and fellow republican supporters to portray this as the least serious and maybe welcoming this as, you know, something which at root involved sex, to try to say that this is not really serious, it's not as big a deal as an insurrection against the u.s. listen to what the house speaker said this weekend. >> i don't think people should protest this, no.

i think president trump, if you talk to him, he doesn't believe that, either. i think the thing that you may misinterpret when president trump talks, when someone says that they can protest, probably referring to tweet, educate people about what's going on. he's not talking in a harmful way. no one should harm one another and this is why you should make law equal, because if that was the case, nothing would happen here. >> the fundamental thing he's saying besides trying to diminish what the president had tweeted and saying it was not inflammatory, is say this is an unequal treatment under the law, that donald trump is being victimized. >> right. well, the speaker is clearly spinning and misinterpreting what the former president put out on truth social, which is that he literally wrote protest, take back our nation. but putting that aside, you

know, in terms of the political fallout, you have concentric circles and ripples, and in the short term not just trump world, but also a lot of republicans who don't particularly like trump do believe that in the short term this can help him politically, because he may be successful in portraying it as he has already tried to, as a sort of political witch hunt, and of the various investigations he's facing, this is one that can be complicated. again, just from a political standpoint, to explain to the public, and doesn't necessarily seem like the biggest deal of the four. that said, you are also hearing and seeing in voter research and focus groups that this is the sort of thing that while it might make the trump stalwarts and republican base defend him, hurts him with moderates, independents, swing voters, the type of voter who is exhausted of the chaos and controversy.

and an open question which we don't know yet, if there is another investigation that comes to fruition, how will that second one play in light of this? will that take away some of his support from republicans? >> i want to talk about how former president trump's messaging ahead of the january 6th brought the massive crowds to washington. how concerned are you about his latest rhetoric, the speaker notwithstanding? >> evidence tells us that we should be quite concerned about where this is headed. in the infamous rally before the violence on january 6th, trump used the words fight or fighting 20 times to exhort the crowd and directed them to march to the capitol. so we all have to be tuned in. this is why you see security precautions being taken. but i think it's important to note that this is an interesting time. we've got republican leadership in the form of former vice

president pence and speaker of the house kevin mccarthy coming out and saying, we support trump and we think something is amiss with this prosecution, but we want peaceful protests. and as ashley said, even the speaker reshaping, trying to check trump and say he didn't really mean to imply anything. so everybody is going to cue off of him and we'll continue to monitor chat rooms and private planning. but so far we only see scattered talk of some form of violence, nothing yet looking organized. i'm looking forward to the subsequent cases that may come, because, look, this case is perceived as being about the president's conduct before he was president. if you look toward a fulton county, georgia, indictment, or eventual federal indictments, that is more about the big lie and overturning of what people think was an illegitimate election and thinking the violence was patriotic. that may mean indictments of

multiple republican leaders. i think that changes the security equation and then the threat becomes more real. >> thanks very much to all of you. so look who is coming to dinner. china's leader coming to moscow for meetings with vladimir putin, as russia runs out of ammunition and the war in ukraine drags on. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports". this is msnbc. there's a dr. scholl's for that. dr. scholl's massaging gel insoles have patented gel waves that absorb shock to hard-working muscles and joints, for all-day energy. everything's changing so quickly. to before the xfinityes 10g network, we didn't have internet that let us play all at once. every device? in every room? why are you up here? when i was your age, we couldn't stream a movie when the power went out. you're only a year older than me.

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russia's president vladimir putin made a defiant and surprise visit to ukraine over the weekend, traveling to russia occupied mariupol in the dark of night, a city that has seen some

of russia's most brutal attacks during the months-long siege. putin's nighttime trip ensuring none of the destruction that was caused by his military was visible to the rest of the world. mariupol is where russians shelled a maternity hospital last year, killing and wounding pregnant woman, claiming this life of this woman and her baby. the searing images have been seen around the world. it's where russia targeted and killed hundreds of civilians sheltering in an historic theatre. earlier in the weekend, he also visited the crimean peninsula seized by russia in 2014. all this just hours after putin had been accused of war crimes by the international criminal court in the hague for the illegal deportation of thousands of ukrainian children to russia and russian-held territories, complicating the outlook is president's president xi arriving in moscow for the first time since being enpowered with

a third term and first time since russia's invasion of ukraine. the chinese leader could change the trajectory of the war by providing putin lethal aid, something xi may be considering but has not decided to do. joining us is ukraine's ambassador to the u.s. madam ambassador, thank you very much for being with us. i was so eager to talk to you to get your reaction to this visit by vladimir putin to ukraine, first to crimea, then to mariupol, a territory seized by russia, the other city conquered by russia in a brutal battle. >> yes, thank you very much, andrea, for having me and thank you for paying attention to this brutal war, which we all know is a threat to ukraine, but also a threat to security everywhere. the president is a war criminal, president putin, now the order

for arrest, and during the night covertly visited the territory which illegally is occupied by the invading forces. and, you know, just a year after mariupol has been attacked and brutally destroyed, and i want to remind our viewers that it's a large ukrainian city, very successful ukrainian city, the size of tampa, florida, with more than 400,000 people living there peacefully before the war started in 2014, and we were able to defend it in 2014 and 2015, and now the russian federation and putin's military, war crime perpetrators, completely destroyed the city. so we have seen it. so it is, in a sense, you know, self-documented, his war crimes, by visiting mariupol and clearly showing that it's not a mistake,

the atrocities, and it's done according to what he and his commanders wanted to do. but also hitler also visited paris in 1940 and that didn't really help him. so paris, as the rest of europe were liberated, and ukraine will be liberated from russian invaders. >> the secretary of state today reacted to the chinese president xi visiting moscow and dismissed any peace proposal or cease-fire that does not remove russian troops from occupied territory. i want to play that for you. >> calling for a cease-fire that does not include the removal of russian forces from ukrainian territory would effectively be supporting the ratification of russian conquests. it would recognize russia's attempts to seize a sovereign neighbor's territory by force and enable russia to further entrench positionness ukraine and a cease-fire without a

solution would allow president putin to rest and refit his troops and then restart the war at a time more advantageous to russia. >> how concerned are you, madam ambassador, about the impact on the global south and potentially on allies like germany and france of this so-called peace initiative, which the u.s. is saying is not a peace initiative, but which could have significant propaganda value for xi and for putin? >> well, first of all, if there is an initiative on the table, it's been on the table for a long time since president zelenskyy provided it long ago and it's a very solid plan which is very straightforward, which starts with russian federation stopping the aggressive war and pulling out from ukrainian territory and there are other steps in the formula. and that formula has been widely supported by, of course, our

friend, number one, united states, but also with everyone who believes in territorial integrity and sovereignty, and we hear repeatedly china's leader referring to those principles being very important for china. so there is a peace formula on the table, we're ready to discuss it with everyone, we truly hope other countries, who until now did not vote to support it, will join and will discuss it. so we, of course, are watching carefully and very attentively to this visit, but, again, we have to all focus on what is the truth here. there is no dispute between us and russia, there is no conflict, territorial or whatever dispute. it's an aggressive war of authoritarian nuclear power that attacked peaceful ukraine and it's unprovoked. any peace talks should start

from russian federation getting out from our territory. >> the international criminal court that you referred to, it won't have any immediate impact because, first of all, russia is not a treaty signatory, neither is the u.s., for that matter, but he would have to go and be arrested, which is unlikely in the immediate future. but the yale observatory group, the head of the group has remarked that these children, that we're at a pivotal point, that if they're not rescued soon from russian controlled territory or russia itself, they may never get back to their parents. how concerned are you about that? >> very concerned. you're absolutely right. you know, this arrest warrant might not be executed tomorrow, but i think it's very -- it has an effect, it has an effect for everyone who believes in dignity and human rights, and everyone who understands.

and i think you don't need to be a parent to understand that you cannot kidnap and steal children. it's a constant amber alert for ukrainian parents who know that their children have been taken to russia, who know that they have been tortured, whether it's putting them through the re-education, or taking them far and telling them lies about their own country and parents, and we cannot even exclude physical violation of their rights or torturing of these children. so it's a very pressing issue and i think it's symbolic that the first arrest warrant is issued exactly for these crimes for putin and his co-conspirators, but we hope it's not the last one because there are so many war crimes. as of last week, there were already 74,992 individual

criminal cases in ukraine of war crimes or crimes related to war crimes. and it's only in ukraine, in addition to that there are other countries that are having their own investigations and plus international court. so we have to work faster, we have to, all of us, all people who believe in these principles, to join forces to get more support to ukraine and more sanctions to russia so that we can get peace and get the children back who are in russian prisoners and we don't know their fate yet. >> ambassador, thank you so much for being with us today. we appreciate it. and a shotgun wedding, the markets reacting to the rescue of credit suisse by ubs, as investors remain jittery about the banking sector. what it means for your money coming up next. you're watching "andrea mitchell

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the markets today are reacting to rescue plans to protect the banker sector. the dow is up more than 200 points as investors are hoping

that the plans hold off a deeper crisis. overseas swiss giant ubs is taking over credit suisse on the brink of failing in a $3.2 billion deal. a major chunk of signature bank is being purchased by new york's community bank. but acting california first republic bank suffered another downgrade. they have a large share of uninsured deposits similar to the ones that brought down silicon valley bank. all of this is complicating a federal reserve decision on interest rates as their meeting starts tomorrow. the fed is trying to cool inflation but has to worry about further undermining the banking system. so joining us now is chair of the editorial board and editor at large at "the financial times". so explain the impact of ubs buying credit suisse, how that compares to what's happening here and the follow-up would be, what do you see the fed doing? >> well, the good news is that

the deal has been done in switzerland and that takes the immediate crisis a little bit off the table in the swiss banking system. the bad news is that the way the deal was structured has created a lot of concern in the markets about whether the normal capital market rules are being upheld or not or whether it's basically a world where there's capricious government making policy essentially dominating things. in essence, the bond holders got wiped out but the equity holders got protected and that's unusual. so that's not good for investor confidence. the other problem is, of course, we've still got this really big problem around first republic and question marks about the regional banks more widely in the u.s. and those concerns are unlikely to go away any time soon. as you say, it means that jay powell, the fed, is facing a really nasty situation this week with the fed interest rate decision. up until this point, the fed has been trying to balance growth and inflation, should they let

the economy grow if inflation is high or try to crush inflation and crush growth. now they're trying to balance growth, inflation and financial stakt and that's a nasty trifecta. i don't think they're going to find it easy to square. >> that, plus the political heat. silicon valley bank was reportedly on the fed's radar, the regulators, for more than a year before the collapse. so what was the responsibility of the fed toward the svb? that's the question for fed chair powell. >> i wrote a column last week saying that part of the problem was that regulators were fighting the last war. they were so obsessed with what people call credit risk, the chance that people would default on their loans, they completely forgot to look at the issue of interest rate risk and how rising interest rates would blow up the portfolio of banks like svb. after that wrote that column, i got a bunch of anonymous

comments from people who i suspect were regulators saying that's totally unfair, the fed was doing more than you realize. there was an interesting story over the weekend suggesting that the fed had gone to svb repeatedly and said your controls are not good enough, you have a lot of risk. they had done that privately. it may be the case it happened, maybe regulators were more on top of the issue than we know. but the reality is they let them carry on operating and also let it pay -- let them cash shares before trying to raise capital and spark a crisis. so there are really big questions for the fed right now and i think a lot of people are going to be seeing whether or not jay powell actually addresses those at all, and also what the fed would report into the regulators' failings when it's published by may the 1st. >> as always, thanks so much. and 20 years later, nbc news

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coalition troops rolled into iraq, after an intense air campaign the night before, clearing the way for the massive ground invasion. we later learned, it was based on faulty intelligence and analysis that saddam hussein had hidden weapons of mass destruction. there's a new generation of iraqis seeing hope and program. chief foreign correspondent richard engel, who spent so much years covering the war, is back in baghdad. >> reporter: the united states invaded iraq 20 years ago today, launching what would become an eight-year war. now, iraq is finally springing back to life. the old bazaars are bustling and american troops have been replaced by american tourists. >> lovely people. they are so kind. >> reporter: this group is

traveling all across the country, without security. it's no longer needed. the cradle of civilization is inviting the world back. photos are no problem, iraqis are delighted tourists are returning. >> what do you think so far? >> people have been so friendly. i was not expecting them so be so friendly. they really are very kind and they'll ask if you're american and they say, i love you. >> reporter: this would have been unthinkable not long ago. in 2007, at the peak of the civil war, unleashed by the american invasion, this bazaar was obliterated by a suicide bomber. dozens were killed. iraq still has deep scars from the war. tens of thousands lost their lives. the country remains deeply corrupt and the government is dominated by iraq's neighbor, iran. but there are signs of hope. saddam hussein's former

lakefront palace is now the american university in baghdad. all classes are co-ed, all taught in english. >> and richard engel joins us now. richard, the interpret of what you had posted is just remarkable. so what are the biggest cultural changes you've seen over the years and now dramatically for the rest of us 20 years later? >> reporter: so the cultural changes here couldn't be more profound. under saddam hussein culture was quite homogenous, there was one kind of culture and that obedience to the dictator. it was a largely secular society, there was not major discrimination against women, beyond the prevalent

cheauvinism. but as long as you obeyed saddam hussein t government didn't bother you. so culture was more like north carolina. then the american troops arrived and unleashed a civil war and society changed dramatically yet again, people were afraid. women started wearing the vail, not because they were necessarily more religious, but afraid of the malitias that started to take over, so to wear a head scarf was a way to disguise themselves and blend into the crowd so that the malitias that were running the show wouldn't take much notice of them. now that the civil war is gone, american troops have left, there are still malitias, a lot of iranian influence, but now that the violence level is much, much

lower, andrea, you can get an uber in this city and drive around. imagine that. a foreigner. i spoke to foreigners yesterday on their phone, they call up the local uber service, a car comes up and you go from here to another part of the city. the center of the war in this country, they could never go to the hard-line sunni city. i spoke to a young man the other day who said he was going to have a barbecue. that kind of thing just blew my mind when i heard it. so there are profound changes. now culturally iraqis are starting to come out and express themselves, women wearing what they like, saying what they like, feeling much more confident. so we are at the start of a new phase for iraq, after 20 tumultuous years, to put it lightly. >> and, richard, it's just

astonishing, but one aftermath is that iran is empowered. >> reporter: so that is still the big lingering problem here. there are really two main issues remaining. one, profound corruption. iraq is a rich country, at least it has a lot of resources, oil, primarily. but there is a tremendous amount of poverty, the oil wealth is being dominated, controlled by a certain elite group, political powers, a lot of them dominated by iran, the iranian-backed malitias. you don't see them much on the streets, but they are a heavy presence here. and, actually, there's a good example, where i'm standing right now. this square sort of encapsulates everything. this was the square, and i'm sure you remember it from that night 20 years ago, where saddam hussein's main statue was, the giant, larger-than-life statue. it used to be right here and now it's gone. all that's left is a tiny piece

of the base. but what is in the square now is a huge billboard overlooking jerusalem and that shows the change in power here, the change in influence. saddam is gone, there was a civil war and now this late iranian general who was killed by a u.s. drone strike, is overlooking this square. so the corruption remains a problem, the iranian influence remains a problem, but the people here are starting to feel more confident, certainly more free, able to express themselves. young people are signing up in record numbers for the american university that he showed a little bit of before. so we will see. we will see where this can go. can they get beyond the iranian influence, can they get the corruption under control? certainly, for now, they have managed to tamp down the violence and that has profoundly

changed things. >> richard engel, thank you so much. and you can see more of richard's exclusive reporting from iraq 20 years later tonight on "nbc nightly news" with lester holt. and joining us is decorated marine corp. officer, seth molten of massachusetts, part of the first wave of marines to enter baghdad and served four tours in iraq. congressman, take us back two decades. what are you thinking now about the u.s. invasion? >> well, look, as richard was just explaining, it's a complicated legacy. the whole history of iraq is complicated. the invasion went very well and we were greeted with flowers in baghdad because so many iraqis were thrilled we had gotten rid of this vicious dictator. then the country descended into civil war and we came back with a surge that was a successful insurgency strategy, but then i think most people think we pulled out quickly and we had to

turn around and return a few years later with isis. today iraq has had glimpses of a real bright future, a potential to be a real democracy, a beacon for hope in the middle east, but it also has tremendous iranian influence, a lot of corruption, as richard detailed. so it's a complicated legacy and the point is that's why it's complicated. there's no simple answer to what is the history or the legacy of the iraq war. i think all of us who fought there are having mixed emotions on an anniversary like this. >> you, of course, became a critic of the war that you were serving in because the intel community truly believed that there were wmds, weapons of mass destruction, and it was just a false reading of the intelligence and analysis. how do you balance that with the fact that you served and, of course, are proud of your service? >> i never wanted anyone to go in my place. and that's not unusual. i think most veterans feel the

same way. i kept going back tour after tour, because i didn't want someone to fight for my freedom. you're right, thinking about 20 years ago today, when we were on the eve of the invasion or starting the invasion itself, we were all in chemical weapons suits, we fully believed the intelligence that said we would get hit with chemical weapons on the way to baghdad. that was our expectation. we were very young, a lot of the guys in my platoon were just 18 or 19 years old, and the very night of the invasion they brought two 17-year-olds to join us, who came to my platoon the night of the invasion, and that was their first introduction to the active duty marine corp. it shows you how young the troops are and we put so much of a burden on their shoulders. >> you've also been very active in getting the burn pit legislation through, so how

important is that, and taking care of our veterans, the high suicide rate and the way iraq war veterans were treated? >> you know, i've done a lot of work on mental health, starting with just explaining my own process of coming to terms with posttraumatic stress. first of all, you know, i call it posttraumatic stress, not posttraumatic stress disorder, because as one of my best friends said once, he said after what we went through, it would be a disorder if you weren't affected by it. but coming to terms with that as an individual, as a veteran, and then coming to terms as a country, it's been a struggle. i've done a lot of work on mental health, because in the 20 years, in the past 20 years, about four times as many american service members have died by suicide as died in combat. think about that. and think about how much more work we need to do to save veterans today. i passed a 988 bill to establish

a new three-digit nationwide hotline to ensure that anyone in america, veteran or not, can get help in a moment of crisis. and that very much came from my experience dealing with mental health in iraq, and having the inspiration -- i have to say this, too, having the inspiration of so many younger marines i served with coming to term with their own posttraumatic stress and getting themselves help. there are so many times when i look back on this war and i think about how much i learned from the young americans, the young marines, some of the most amazing americans i've ever met in my life that i had the privilege to serve with, even in that complicated war. >> thank you for your service, and it's so important that you are in congress helping to written form your colleagues about all of these issues, and we have put up the 988 number, which is so important. thank you. >> thank you. and investigating the

investigator, house republicans now want the manhattan d.a. to testify about what they say without any evidence is a politically motivated decision to possibly indite the former president. even though no indictment has been announced. this is "andrea mitchell reports." you're watching msnbc. a once-daily pill. when uc got unpredictable, i got rapid symptom relief with rinvoq. and left bathroom urgency behind. check. when uc got in my way, i got lasting, steroid-free remission with rinvoq. check. and when my gastro saw damage, rinvoq helped visibly repair the colon lining. check. rapid symptom relief. lasting, steroid-free remission. and a chance to visibly repair the colon lining. check. check. and check. rinvoq can lower your ability to fight infections, including tb. serious infections and blood clots, some fatal; cancers, including lymphoma and skin cancer; death, heart attack, stroke, and tears in the stomach or intestines occurred. people 50 and older with at least 1 heart disease risk factor have higher risks.

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and with price lock guarantee, we'll never raise your rate plan. so you can keep your focus on toe-turns and making sure the sauce is extra spicy. at t-mobile, there are no small businesses. ♪♪ republicans in congress today are escalating attacks against manhattan d.a. investigating donald trump in that alleged hush money probe. the top republicans on the judiciary and oversight committees calling alvin bragg's probe politically motivated and asking him to testify. that coming moments after ron desantis, a key 2024 potential rival to donald trump, attacked the d.a. as well. >> i don't know what's going to happen, but i do know this, the manhattan district attorney is a sore rose-funded prosecutor. if you have a prosecutor who is

ignoring crimes happening every single day in his jurisdiction and he chooses to go back many, many years ago to try to use something about porn star hush money payments, that's an example of pursuing a political agenda and weaponizing the office. >> joining me now is boston globe kol's kimberly atkins. desantis is criticizing for not jumping to trump's defense. he's now declared his loyalty. mccarthy jumped in this weekend. what does this tell you? >> everybody is circling the wagons which is not terribly surprising.

this all centers around that donald trump apparently allegedly paid hush money to a porn star to cover up an affair with his wivment i thought that was rather clever. nobody seems to be wanting to bring that up. you've got to understand. for years and years republicans have held up this idea that the federal government or i guess the state government are coming after donald trump. he's conditioned people to believe that. this zero sum politics, if you're not siding with donald trump, that is providing aid and comfort to democrats and that's a sin these days. they're rallying around him which is not surprising at all. >> kimberly, i want to get your reaction to the oversight and judiciary asking d.a. bragg to testify saying, you are reportedly about to engage in an unprecedented abuse of prosecutorial authority, the dimt of a former president of the united states and declared

candidate for that office. this comes after years of your office searching for a basis, any basis, in which to bring charges. there's a lot of false statements in that. it dud remain that these committees can throw sand in the wheels by calling him up and he might have to fight a subpoena to protect his investigation? >> yes. that's very much a possibility even though, as the letter states, there hasn't even been an indictment issued yet. they're talking about what they think might happen. it's also the very thing that they have been -- that republicans have been accused of doing, is trying to politicize prosecutions which are supposed to stay out of, and also accusing bragg of not paying attention to his own jurisdiction when congress is essentially looking into poking theranos into a separate local investigation by prosecutors. there's a lot wrong with this. again, it's a messaging tool that's no different than what brendan was talking about,

republicans doing what they can to signal their support of trump to betress his claim that he's a victim to stay politically on his side. i don't think there's going to be a lot of there there but they're flexing the muscles they have. >> two other republicans this weekend saying this will just help donald trump. let's watch. >> i think it's building a lot of sympathy for the former president. i was having coffee this morning, and none of them were big trump supporters, but they all said they felt like he was being attacked. >> he only profits and does well in chaos and turmoil, so he wants to create the chaos and turmoil on his terms. >> do you disagree, brendan? >> it's hard to disagree, at least in the context of a primary. we're already seeing the effects. everybody is rushing to him. it does provide similar think. that's why it's important for ron desantis to point out why we

or having this in the first place. maybe this person isn't electable. this may be the first indictment of several. if that's the case, i think there may be enough people who say i really want to beat joe biden, is this the person that can do it, at least in the short term, win the nomination. it does seem to be helping. >> that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." thanks for being with us. follow the show online, on facebook and twitter, @mitchellreports. chris jansing will be here after these brief messages. e here aftr these brief messages ugs! 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. let's roll, daddio! let's boogie-woogie!

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good day. i'm chris jansing live at msnbc headquarters in new york city. any minute two key witnesses expected to show up at a manhattan courthouse where anticipation is incredibly high. will a grand jury decide to indictment former president donald trump. his defenders in congress are launching an all-out war on the d.a., threatening to drag him in front of congress all for a decision he hasn't even made, at least not yet. two big banks rescued in the nick of time. the stock market loves it. is it a good thing for you and your money long term? alex murdaugh's surviving son for the first time defending himself as a hit-and-run cold case in south carolina receives renewed attention. what the mother of the teenager who died is now