what's happening, mr. crump? what's happening >> there are people who want to take us back versus taking us forward and try to marginalize and disenfranchise and play on the least common denominator on what makes america great we have to challenge the enemies of equality at every front if we do that, we will win this war and we will win against racism and discrimination. we can do this. >> thank you very much for being with us. i appreciate your time >> thank you, jose that wraps up the hour for me i'm jose diaz-balart thank you for the privilege of your time. right now on "andrea mitchell reports," the $1.6 billion legal showdown between fox news and dominion voting

systems underway in a delaware courtroom. with dominion seeking damages for repeated false claims about the 2020 election promoted by fox news guests and anchors on some of the network's highest rated shows. this hour, jailed american "wall street journal" reporter evan gershkovich losing his appeal of russia's baseless espionage charge, appearing in a glass box in a court for the first time since he was arrest nearly three weeks ago the u.s. ambassador at his side. president biden speaks to the unarmed black missouri teenager who was shot in the head by a homeowner after the boy mistakenly went to the wrong house to pick up his younger twin brothers with the alleged 84-year-old homeowner, the shooter, now facing a potential life sentence. ♪ good day, everyone i'm andrea mitchell in washington opening statements begin this afternoon in that $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit brought by

dominion voting systems against fox news and fox corporation after jury instructions, dominion's lawyers wills open with their allegations that the voting machine company's business and reputation were damaged by a string of false claims and conspiracy theories promoted by fox news' anchors and their guests in the days and weeks after the 2020 election, including making up accusations that doe minion had ties to hug chavez and millions of votes were flipped to rig the election fox has argued it's about protecting the first amendment emily, what happened today so far? what's at stake? >> reporter: jury selection wrapped up in the last hour or so 12 jurors seated, 12 alternate jurors seated as well. that was after the judge made

the decision to give each legal team an additional strike in the process. they were instructed to avoid social media over the next six weeks and talking about the case that speaks to why we are seeing such extreme efforts in terms of protecting their privacy, including they are being referred to as numbers in the courtroom. right now they are breaking for lunch. when they return, they will be listening to opening statements from both sides, first dominion and then fox, which is part of the reason we likely won't see any witnesses take the stand until potentially tomorrow that witness list, the fopotenta for some figures to take the stand is one of the reasons why we see this as a highly watched case name like rupert murdoch could take the stand, for some of fox's most popular hosts, including sean hannity, mtucker

carlson. five to six weeks is the estimated time line. dominion had 7,000 exhibit items. email, text, similar mass submission from fox as well, more than 5,000 items. the judge in the case has already ruled that the conspiracy theory suggesting dominion played a role in r rigging the election are false what dominion has to do is prove fox acted with malice. in other words, fox knowingly aired false claims about voter fraud or acted with reckless disregard. >> barbara -- emily, i know you have to get back to the court. barbara, how hard is it to prove actual malice by fox news? >> malice is a high bar. it's the standard the supreme court set in "new york times" versus sullivan. the idea is, we want to give

freedom to reporters to report aggressively, even if they might from time to time make a mistake. what they have to prove is that they knew it was false and they printed it or broadcast it anyway, or they were reckless and they should have known, they did know, and they put their hand under the sand and ran with it anyway. based on some of the evidence we have seen so far spilling out about depositions and emails, it may be that the executives and hosts did know in this case. that is what dominion is counting on, that they will be able to meet that high bar that fox knew these were lies and they published them anyway because it was good for ratings. >> ken, let's talk about the first amendment. there's no question that from all of the evidence that's come out that the fox anchors knew they were repeating lies about an election that was won by donald trump, because they were saying privately something completely different however, if dominion does win this, what's at stake for the

first amendment? could this lead to a supreme court decision >> that's the big concern. there are two views of the case. many legal experts say they have never seen a stronger defamation case if there could be a finding of defamation against a major media organization, this is the one. this is likely to end up in the appeals court and the supreme court. there's a real concern that that actual malice standard set by "new york times" versus sullivan could be tampered with there are conservative justices who expressed doubts about how tea it's been interpreted. that's a concern it protects what we do here. it allows for honest mistakes and only punishes reckless or intentional falsehoods >> emily, we thank you ken and barbara, obviously, this is the biggest case to hit journalism and broadcasting, cable news in decades.

coming up, putin's russia. an american journalist and a kremlin critic behind bars the latest on their cases when "andrea mitchell reports" returns in 60 seconds. stay with us ♪♪ the only thing i regret about my life is that i did what everyone else did at the time. i hired local talent. if i knew about upwork, i would have hired actually talented people from all over the world. instead of talentless people from all over my house. -grandpa... -shh.. shh.. shh.. -but... -shh.. shh... shh... -but... -oh... ♪ this is how we work now ♪ oh booking.com, ♪ i'm going to somewhere, anywhere. ♪ ♪ a beach house, a treehouse, ♪ ♪ honestly i don't care ♪ find the perfect vacation rental for you booking.com, booking.

yeah. you need to deliver new apps fast using the services you want in the clouds of your choice. with flexible multi-cloud services that enable digital innovation and enterprise control, vmware helps you innovate and grow. jailed "wall street journal" reporter evan gershkovich appearing in a russian court to appeal the espionage charge against him. he was denied bail and ordered held in prison until his trial, which could be months from now he is the first u.s. correspondent since the cold war to be arrested in russia for alleged spying, which he, "the wall street journal" and the u.s. strongly denies here is the u.s. ambassador outside the court. >> i can only say how troubling it was to see evan, an innocent journalist, held in these circumstances. i can report that he is in good health and remains strong

despite his circumstances. >> in a letter to the family published in t"the wall street jou journal", the journalist wrote in russian, i love you very much writing, until we meet soon. russian is the language the family spoke at home his parents having emigrated from russia. they released an interview with his parents and sister >> i know he felt like it was his duty to report he loved russian people. >> he still does >> he still does, yes. >> he was passionate about showing other sides, the nuance. >> they released video of gershkovich as a child playing sports and playing the cello it's heartbreaking to see this joining us now is a congressman who is the ranking member of the house select committee on china. it's good to see you we saw each other at the rare

be reagan library the u.s. government calling for the immediate release. to what affect what more can the u.s. do? >> i think the u.s. is doing everything they can. i'm glad that the ambassador had a chance to meet with mr. gershkovich. those pictures that you show of him in his childhood, his parents, are very moving remind us ultimately that we are not going to do to the russians what vladimir putin is doing to us he is kidnapping americans to use as bargaining chips in whatever negotiations that he is going to do. we would never do the same with russian people, nor would we ever prevent americans from covering the news. those are american values. i think we are going to keep pushing for his release. we're going to obviously continue to observe our values

and do everything we can to be who we are >> paul whelan, one of the obvious problems is that his appeal was denied immediately. once you are charged with espy knowledge, a false charge, and he doesn't have another hearing until maybe may 29th a trial is way down the road they won't release him until the trial is over, which is probably more than a year from now. >> that's right. it's going to be some kangaroo proceeding we know how these things go down we should continue to put pressure on the regime and our friends and others who believe in journalism should do the same one thing the russians should know, enjai jailing a journalis, they will attract attention on this that will increase pressure

until he is released >> on monday, a moscow court sentenced a russian putin critic and "washington post" contributor to 25 years in prison over his criticism of the war in ukraine his criticism was he said the war is a war what is the hope for him with navalny, they are saying he is being slowly poisoned in jail and ill. an ambulance was there the other day. these are the two leading opponents to vladimir putin. >> that's right. again, when people ask here, why are we helping the people of ukraine in their fight against russia, ultimately, it's about they are fighting a war so we don't have to and they are defending democracy, human rights and the values we hold sacred one of them is to be able to freely criticize your government and to be able to speak your mind

those are fast disappearing in russia, where speaking your mind or any number of things, including journalism, is now a crime. we can't tolerate that >> congressman, thank you very much for being with us today appreciate it. >> thank you joining us now is ben rhodes, former deputy national security advisor to president ob obama. you have had to deal with vladimir putin you know what the biden white house and state department are up against he has hardened his positions in the last couple of years and now with the war he showed up today in kherson. >> yeah. i think what we have seen is a trickling down of putin on the direction he is going. bear in mind how extreme this is we lived through tensions with russia without there being this detention of american jou journalists. for putin, with the detention of

a "wall street journal" reporter, he is accomplishing a bargaining chip he can use to extract spies that have been detained in the west he wants to categorize evan as a spy so that he can make some kind of exchange number two, he is chilling any independent reporting on what's happening in russia. evan was showing people the nuances in russian opinion about the war. putin doesn't want the world to see that he wants to project the propaganda front that he is leading. that's why his target was any reporter that might go out he is doing a couple things at once again, chilling reporting, and then having that thing to trade you for spies detained in the west >> we were talking with the congr congressman. he has sentenced to 25 years this is what his wife had to say

at a "washington post" live event yesterday. >> that he would keep on fighting this sentence shows that they're so afraid of him they hate him so much for his consistency, for his courage, for his -- his amazing bravery they are so afraid of him and they hate him so much that they want to lock him up for a quarter of a century >> why did he get such a stiff sentence >> i know him. you have probably met him. >> of course >> what's so notable is he was out of russia. he was safe. he traveled back to russia when the war began because he felt like he needed to be there to be a voice in opposition to the war. all did he is call this a war. it has to be a special operation. arbitrary laws that putin uses

to suppress and crush dissent. the message is, here is a high-profile guy we are sentencing him to 25 years. this is a russian who might think of protesting or even in their private lives, reports of russians detained because someone saw them texting something about the war. he wants to completely chill dissent. nav navalny, who i remember speaking to they were poisons. navalny i spoke to, once you are in prison -- i will never forget what he said when the cell door closes behind you, they can do anything. he was poisoned in prison before there's indications he may have been poisoned now. i think what putin is doing is saying, he is going to crush any semblance of dissent that emerges inside of russia what you have had since the war began is this flow of people that are opposed that are leaving.

>> it's very hard for american journalism companies to send people in. other print reporters are leaving as well because of evan's arrest. >> if you fwhithink about this,s is part of putin's objective if we send them there, are we comfortable with them leaving moscow you could end up with people sitting in moscow getting the press releases from the kremlin. this is a huge loss to the rest of the world we need to know what's happening in russia. we need to know if there's opinion against the war, if there's any indication of political change if he succeeds in walling it off and shutting out voices -- he stamped out russian independent journalism -- we will not have a lot of insight we have seen in russian history, things can change fast >> ben rhodes, great to see you. you have had so much experience with putin >> more than i would like.

>> thank you see you soon, i hope hold ing the pattern. supreme court holds whether upholding controversial restrictions on a widely used abortion pill should be decided and have to be decided by midnight tonhtig this is "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc ♪tell me why♪ because it stinks. ♪have you tried downy rinse and refresh♪ it helps remove odors 3x better than detergent alone. it worked guys! ♪yeahhhh♪ downy rinse and refresh.

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midnight deadline on how it will handle the restrictions on the abortion pill. if the high court does not extend its temporary stay, access will be thrown into regulatory chaos the anti-abortion plaintiffs who brought the original lawsuit in texas just filed their brief with the court opposing the biden administration's request for a longer stay. laura jarrett joins me now along with yamiche alcindor. laura, to you. we know chaos is going to ensue if the court does not do anything they have set this midnight tomorrow deadline. i misspoke earlier it's midnight tomorrow, is that correct? they have gotten briefs from the plaintiffs what happens next? >> they could rule at any time they don't have to wait until 11:59 tomorrow night we hope they don't we hope we hear from them sooner for selfish reasons. the bottom line here is that the plaintiffs are suggesting that

the court can let these restriction goes into affect and that it won't be the parade of horribles the justice department suggested. the reason for that is that they are pointing to the fact that for 16 years, there were restrictions on this drug. essentially, what the lower court would be doing is reverting back to this regime that existed in 2000 where you couldn't get the pill by mail. had you had to have numerous visits with a doctor. the plaintiffs are pointing to the fact that all of that existed for 16 years and nobody complained i don't know that the justices will find that convincing. the justice department and the pill manufacturer have strongly objected to that and said, look, by going back to the 2000 regime, it has serious consequences, because what it means is now all of the doses of mifepristone that are in the world are mislabeled they are labeled under the regime as it exists in 2023, not

as in 2000 they are saying that mismatch in the labeling could cause a complete disaster on the market. it's interesting to see -- it will be interesting to see how the justices treat that. >> to say nothing about the doctor's offices try to get a doctor's visit. you have to physically take the pill, according to the ruling, in the doctor's office you can't take it at home. it is an incredible burden plus the travel that is involved because of the other abortion rulings because of dobbs. >> the people, of course, who are against the idea that this would go back and revert back to the 200 rule 02000 rules are sas would be a new barrier on women who are trying to access abortion case and this would impact health care as we have been reporting on, it's not just about this pill being used for an abortion it's being used for people that

are having miscarriages. there are women worried about this some pharmacies stockpiling this drug the other side of this is that conservative movement that got the big win and wants to continue to have that. you have a white house based on our reporting and a story we have out about the role that kamala harris is playing, you have a white house trying to combat republican efforts they see as trying to curb abortion you have the vice president being the face of this battle. there's a lot at stake in the president's mind and vice president's mind when it comes to the sort of barriers you are talking about, especially when you think of women of color and women who have economic challenges who it is easier to have a telehealth appointment, and you might not know you are pregnant there's so many things they are saying make this a landmark case and possibly the most important case to go before the supreme court on abortion after the dobbs ruling we covered.

>> certainly laura, the plaintiffs are trying to make it as difficult as possible for the procedures to take place there's another wrinkle here the anti-abortion activists say the 1873 act prevents sending anything related to abortion through the mail is this a matter of definition seems to me that in 1873 that they did not have the same medical procedures or pills >> yes i think that is safe to say. it's an issue that the judge in texas really keyed in on he basically condoned this argument that essentially had just been dormant for the better part of years because of roe v. wade once roe versus wade took out the right of a constitutional right to abortion, they have used comstock to say you cannot send anything related to abortion through the mail. you can't send the abortion pill through the mail

the justice department disputes that even in states where abortion isn't legal on the books, there's an exception for health and safety in which case you could be able to use mifepristone the justice department is saying as long as the sender doesn't know it is illegal, it should be okay it's interesting the plaintiffs are saying, in the latest brief, that if the court is inclined to take up this case, they should rule directly on comstock which would have enormous ramifications. >> laura, i hope you are not up until midnight tomorrow night waiting for this. >> we will see >> for all of our sake but else yours. yamiche, thank you so much. trauma and charges the 16-year-old shot after ringing wrong doorbell accidentally, mistakenly he is home out of the hospital the man who shot him faces criminal charges that's next. you are watchi "ngandrea mitchell reports" on msnbc that's why you choose vmware. with flexible multi-cloud services

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an 84-year-old white man is facing charges in the shooting of a black teenager in kansas city he was going to pick up his twin brothers last week but rang the doorbell at the wrong house. he was shot twice, including once in the head the homeowner, andrew lester, claims yarl was attempting to break in he was shot through a glass door the young man never even entered the house. moments ago, students and faculty from his high school walking out in support, chanting, we love you, ralph and, justice for ralph maggie vespa is live we are getting details about president biden calling the young man. bring us up to speed. >> reporter: the white house confirming that call we heard about from the family attorney yesterday and releasing a statement about the things the president said to try to chief up the 16-year-old who is home from the hospital recovering from being shot in the head and the arm. among the things they included in the statement, talking about

ralph telling the president how lucky he is to be home with a mom who is a nurse and a physical therapist he told the president that he wants to study chemical engineering at texas a&m that's one of the hardest programs to ge the president said you should consider the university of delaware they talked about their love of music and some somber moments. the president vowing to continue his vietfight against gun violee he was invited to the white house. this left ralph on cloud nine. his aunt telling us he is five days after this freak shooting happening, he is in utter disbelief. take a listen. >> he has his goodtimes where

he is -- we will remind him, you are alive. he has times where he is like, why? i did not wrong. why? i did not wrong. he just cannot understand why. >> reporter: i will show you the video of students at his high school he is 16 years old walking out of school today in kansas city, moismissouri, and calling for justice. prosecutors say in this case, it could carry a sentence up to life in prison >> the prosecutor said there was a racial issue involved after they interviewed him he was initially not arrested. this teenager, he is an accomplished musician. he has been in the science club. he has done so much. we are wishing him well. thank goodness he is out of the

hospital >> reporter: absolutely. the eight police officers involved in the shooting death of jayland walker last june will not be charged an ohio grand jury concluded they were legally justified in their use of force police said walker fired one shot in this direction from his car during a car chase he was then chased by foot when police fired more than 90 shots striking walker roughly 46 times. jesse kirsch joins me now. what's the reaction >> reporter: i want to give you a state of play. you can see downtown akron quiet and peaceful we do have buildings that have been boarded scenes like this. there are other parts that look like any main street across the country. police there were six arrests overnight. as best we can tell, demonstrations so far have been largely if not entirely peaceful there have been demonstrations

there have been protests people continuing to speak out, feeling that justice has not been served. at this point, according to the state attorney general here in ohio, because the grand jury -- the special grand jury declined to issue any indictments, there will be no state level criminal charges against any of the eight officers who shot a combined roughly 90 plus rounds at jayland walker in last june. that's the state of play at the state level. we are looking for the possibility perhaps of federal action that's something that's being called for we are being told by an attorney for the walker family that a civil suit is forthcoming. we will watch for that as well >> jesse, thank you so much. joining us now is the president and ceo of the national urban league, former mayor of new orleans first of all, i want to talk to you about these cases. the whole issue of police and

race and gun violence are now at the heart of so much in your own report, the state of black america, your annual report. what's your reaction to what happened to ralph yarl >> let me thank you for having me, andrea, and say that the case in kansas city, yet another example of a hate crime. that's all we can call it. a teenage boy looking for his siblings, just accidentally goes to the wrong door. without any conversation, he finds himself being shot this cannot be sanctioned. this cannot be excused this cannot be justified it's being fuelled by this movement of hate, intolerance and extremism in this country

that impacts people and turns them into being p paranoid and fearful of people who are black for no reason. our report connects the dot between hate extremism and public policies like voter suppression, censorship of books, the attack on renewable energy that we see in this country. the attack on women's reproductive rights is being fuelled by a movement of hate, extremism and white supremacy. as far as akron is concerned, our leaders in akron have indicated to me that they thought that the grand jury was predetermined from the very beginning. we hope that the department of justice and merrick garland and the civil rights division will

look at what happened to jayland walker it appears to be a violation of his constitutional rights and far beyond any justifiable use of force of a man who was fleeing. that grand jury did not serve up justice. in fact, it acted like an old-time grand jury and it just seemed to want to push the entire matter under the rug. we will not be silent in akron or kansas city, louisville or anywhere we see this this is a call to action for all americans to stand up. >> where do you see the gun issue going in terms of the 2024 campaign it doesn't seem as though there's any ability in this closely divided congress, to get anything done. >> that does not mean we should not continue to advocate and educate people look, banning assault weapons,

universal background checks are very popular with the american people they poll 60 plus percent, sometimes higher, because they are common sense and they are sensible in the 1990s, after the assault weapon ban was passed, we saw a reduction in violence in many major american cities. the availability and easy access to assault weapons is a contributing factor to mass killings, racially motivated killings just go back and look at the weapon of choice for many of the people in buffalo, in uvalde, at the school in nashville just last week has been a military-style assault weapon. they must be banned. we will not be intimidated by the nra or any other special interest groups because the will of the people says, ban assault weapons.

just because congress is confused about it doesn't mean that we should not continue to advocate for it and to push for it will it solve all problems no public policy measure will solve our problems we it make a difference? i'm confident it will make a difference, and it makes good sense. let's continue to push for it. let's continue to demand that elected officials support it let us do what the will of the american people say. >> thank you very much >> thank you witness to history the man who changed the trajectory of the vietnam war by leaking the pentagon papers, weighing in on nuclear threat to e thworld and contemporary leaks. you are watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc r turw we'll make it up again. ♪ ♪ we'll build freelance teams with more agility. ♪ ♪ the old way of working is deader than me. ♪

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you need to deliver new apps fast using the services you want in the clouds of your choice. with flexible multi-cloud services that enable digital innovation and enterprise control, vmware helps you innovate and grow. the man who made history by leaking the pentagon papers recently announced he has been

diagnosed with terminal cancer he is now 92 years old he copied the military's secret 7,000 page history of the vietnam war and leaked the documents to "the new york times" and then "the washington post." the government sued to stop the publication, the nixon administration in june of 1971, president nixon had discussed daniel with his attorney general here is part of the conversation from the neixon tapes

>> he faced numerous charges the charges were dismissed in 1973 because of government misconduct, including breaking into his doctor's office to try to get other information on him. i spoke with daniel just yesterday. you were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in february. the doctors gave you three to six months to live you decided to speak out i wanted to ask you, how are you feeling? how are you doing? >> i'm having a very good month here without pain. they will give me stuff for the pain eventually. it's turning out that it's good to work under a deadline it turns out, it's good to live under a deadline, too. i'm eating things i haven't been able to eat for seven years

because it was supposed to shorten my life from congestive heart failure. the cardiologist said, indulge. i have been having bacon, thai, indian food, all the things i have been deprived of. every day is a holiday. >> what do you want your legacy to be? you are thinking about that, clearly. >> it doesn't pay for me to think about legacy very much, because in reality, this is where i came in. when you and i were at a press conference after i had came up after unloading the fbi, you were at that press conference, i wasn't sure whether you would want your listeners to be made away that you were at this half a century ago. >> that's all right. s >> i felt honored to be interviewed by andrea mitchell the point was that at that time i felt i was in position of news nobody else had. if president nixon was making

nuclear threats to break out of what was clearly a stalemate, although he was refusing to admit that just as lbj had done also sooner or later the other side would try to break through that in something that would lead us to use nuclear weapons against vietnam. it was two years later, after that press conference, and two years later we have the tape which you probably have of nick on sayin ing-- nixon saying, i y rather use a nuclear bomb. kissinger said, i think that could be too much. nixon said, i want you to think big, for christ sake we had reached a point which i had been afraid of for several years. that's why i copied the pentagon papers to try to shorten the war before nuclear weapons were used we came very close to using them in that case

here we are again, 50 years later, in this case we are on the other end of the barrel. threats are being made to us by putin in this case saying that he will use nuclear weapons to hold on at least to crimea and eastern donbas, which is if not to the rest of -- it's obviously, i would say, monstrous, evil, wicked, criminal, terrible to be threatened to blow up most people on earth, which is the result of a nuclear war, to decide who controls crimea it's the same threats that the u.s. has been making for 70 years in nato. it's making right now implicitly in taiwan. we should be in a position to be able to say that it is an unthinkable, insane threat to be making we are not in a position to do that, which we should be i think, for example, if biden

said we will not use nuclear weapons under any circumstances, anywhere, which is the same position in the nuclear era, then he would be accused of inviting a chinese invasion of taiwan, whether or not that made it more likely, the fact is we have been using that threat for over half a century to determine who runs taiwan. i think over such issues we really are playing with the possibility of setting hundreds of cities on fire, spending smoke into the stratosphere, blocking out sunlight, freezing rivers and lakes and above all killing all harvests worldwide that should be the problem we are working on making sure that doesn't arise. on the contrary, putin is at this moment simply imitating a monstrous threat the u.s. has made over and over >> let me finally ask you about

this 21-year-old, the airman in the national guard, now being charged under the heespionage a. what do you make of the leaks? >> they seem to be random. we don't have an official secret secr secret the espionage act was not designed to give a fair trial to somebody giving information to the public not in secret to a foreign power. it doesn't allow discussion of motive, impact, should these things have been classified, should they be classified. look at the information that's come out in the press so far ask yourself, which of those items should still look classified in one year or two years? i would say none of them which of them will be top secret

15, 20 years from now? all of them. that's a system the american public doesn't understand. it's a system that negates the first amendment and the law under which they do that is unconstitutional the supreme court has never chosen to address that i would say, no person tried under this act for giving information to the public and unable to tell why she or he was doing that, what the effects were, whether it should have been classified, no one has gotten or could get a fair trial. every american should get a fair trial. that applied to donald j. trump. he can't be fairly tried for having information that was stamped stamped classified any more than i was, actually. i think i can say that without being suspected of being a secret troll for donald trump. >> daniel elsberg you have not

lost a beat since the last 50 years when we last talked. i wish you peace and the best of everything too as you go through this passage >> well, peace, in my life, very well, peace in the world is something that seems as elusive, i'm afraid, as it did 50 years ago and that's an unhappy recognition. >> well, thank you very much thanks for sharing your thoughts with us today. >> thank you, andrea daniel ellsberg, still fighting the good fight for peace in the world his 92nd year and facing, you know, a terrible -- a terrible outcome in his prognosis and coming up next, mr. desantis comes to washington what the florida governor may find when he comes to call on his fellow republicans this is "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc.

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florida governor and potential 2024 hopeful ron desantis is making a rare visit to washington today, hoping to lock in support among republicans. but just this morning, other of his fellow floridians, dr. stoop, announcing his endorsement of donald trump. let's bring in former republican in national chairman michael steele and sam stein michael steele, five members of florida's congressional delegation are endorsing donald trump. and exclusive nbc news reporting says that desantis' team had reached out to members of florida's congressional delegation, to try to keep them from endorsing trump and now the congressman has joined in. what does this is a about his support back home? >> it is not as strong as he thinks it is you're believing e ing a lot ofe media hype about his viability against donald trump when he's not shown the capacity to actually take on donald trump. let's keep in mind, this is not lost on these members in the caucus, that when donald trump

was indicted, what was the first thing that ron desantis did? he went and defended him he went and lent support to trump. that says a lot about where the power center still remains inside the gop primary process and look for more endorsements, not just out of florida, but around the country, which will make this harder for someone like desantis who is trying to shore up support among, you know, the high end donors, and that to get them on board, that he's going to be a viable option against trump. and right now that's not shown to be the case. >> sam, desantis is upping the fight against disney, suggesting that he might be able to prison next to disney world now that disney has done an end run and figured out how to preserve their tax favorable status he's trying to fight that in the legislature. he signed a six-week abortion ban, one of the most restrictive in the country and he supports restricting certain books, we

know he's taking concrete steps to appeal to the base how is this going to translate into -- it could be clearly a problem in a general election, but in a primary against donald trump, how does that match up? >> well, you know, it is interesting, it is not just appeals to the base, it appeals to the base on a culture war issue. abortion for everyone, but ron desantis is extremely -- extremely online, they pick these fights that animate conservatives online he's a vanguard of this latest bud light controversy urging personal boycott of the beer obviously the disney fights are also centered around originally lgbtq acceptance and rights and so, you know, this is -- to your point, it is about animating the base, playing well to the base, i'm not sure, i guess, how it affects him and making it out of

the primary. i would argue the six-week abortion ban in florida, we have empirical evidence that will probably hurt him in a general election we know from recent elections, the midterm elections for instance, that this type of restrictive legislation does not play with a wide swath of voters but, you know, he has to get to the general election first i think that's a calculus that they made, you know, we need to animate conservatives, we need to play a little pit on trump's turf, but not be -- from his baggage and i would argue, and the chairman has as well, it is not working right now. >> well, michael, another candidate, asa hutchinson, about to declare, but he made it clear he isn't going to run, he's the first just about declared rival to take explicit aim at donald trump. you hear things from sununu and chris christie and other people, but asa hutchinson is out there, here he was in iowa with nbc's vaughn hillyard.

>> why does the party need to move on from donald trump? >> because donald trump has taken us back to bitterness. he's taken us back to, you know, what's a personal vendetta whenever you look at what he wants to do as president, it is more about getting even with his political enemies than leading our country. >> so, michael, how does he shape up in a primary race >> it, you know, it's important that he's staking the ground he's staking, andrea, where he's trying to get the base to understand exactly where we're headed not forward, but backwards the second important part for him is how does he now speak to and carve a lane out with the remaining 60% of the republican base because everyone focuses on the 40% that donald trump controls but you're leaving a lot of republicans out of play. and so, if asa hutchinson along with chris christie and others

should someone like chris get in the race are able to pull that 60% and create a different lane, then you're probably looking at something that sis a little bit more competitive but it is very hard to do given the dynamics with the base right now as it is set up. >> michael steele, sam stein, thanks to both of you. and that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports. remember, follow the show online, on facebook, and on twitter at mitchell reports. we'll be back tomorrow "chris jansing reports" starts right now. good day i'm chris jansing live at msnbc headquarters in new york city. right now, 16-year-old ralph yarl is home his physical scars healing but his family says he will never fully recover from the trauma of being shot, simply for showing up a