right here on nbc at 8:00 p.m. eastern tomorrow. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." remember, follow the show online, on facebook, and on twitter @mitchellreport thes. make sure to watch "inside with jen psaki" on sunday at noon eastern when she speaks with katherine clark, ron klain, and british ambassador to the u.s. karen pierce. alex witt is in for "chris jansing reports" right now. ♪♪ a very good day to all of you. i'm alex witt in for chris jansing live at msnbc headquarters in new york city. donald trump proclaiming confidence in mike pence, even after his former vp spent hours testifying in front of a grand jury. so what questions are left to be answered, and what does all this mean for jack smith's effort to build a case against trump? plus, nearly two dozen people are dead in ukraine including several children after russia launches a devastating

predawn attack. the target, an apartment building hundreds of miles from the front lines. and abortion rights advocates score victories in the unlikeliest of places, attempts to impose new bans fall short in a pair of red states. are they one-offs or warning signs for the republican party? we start with federal prosecutors poring over hours of new testimony from vice president mike pence. one of the few people with firsthand knowledge about former president trump's efforts to block certification of the 2020 election. pence's testimony came less than a day after a judge rejected trump's last ditch effort to block it. i want to bring in nbc's ryan reilly who's been covering all of the developments for us. also nbc's vaughn hillyard with the former president and his supporters in manchester, new hampshire, brendan buck who served as an aide to republican house speakers paul ryan and john boehner, and an msnbc political analyst, and carol lamb is a federal former -- rather former federal prosecutor, also an msnbc legal

analyst. welcome all. ryan, we'll go to you first here. what do we know about pence's testimony and where it's going to fit into jack smith's investigation? >> you know, we know it was rather lengthy. there was plenty to talk about obviously. you can talk about all these things leading up to january 6th on january 6th itself, a lot of material to cover. we saw those vehicles enter yesterday early in the morning and they ended up leaving not until very late, several hours before the grand jury on the third floor of that courthouse here in d.c. a lot of material to cover. it's a really big moment in this investigation, but there's two sort of separate tracks happening. there's the political track and then there's the legal track and i think the way that these two things are intertwining at this moment is really interesting because you have mike pence, who of course, you know, is considering a run for office, and squaring off against his former boss, donald trump, who obviously is running for office,

and you know, pence essentially has to walk this line where he can make it seem like to people that supported donald trump that, he, oh, shucks did his best to try not to testify against his former boss here. and that's why we saw a lot of these filings talking about the speech and debate clause, but ultimately all of those things that they sort of litigated and appealed aren't at the center of what this investigation is really about, and that's i think why the justice department was sort of willing to set that aside. because he can make those claims about the speech and debate clause and his limited role as president of the senate on january 6th, and this investigation can go on. they don't really need to touch a lot of those materials. what is more central to this is what donald trump told him in the lead up to the attack on the capitol on january 6th. >> yeah, 100%, but carol to you now, because pence has been really open about the events around january 6th. look, he's talked about him at length publicly. they're in his book, so what is the value of having him testify about it under oath? how much can what ryan was just saying, how much can smith and

the team dig in and have pence not push back? >> so he has been very open about what happened in the days leading up to january 6th and january 6th itself, but what we don't know is how much he didn't say, and he was probably very careful in his book to make sure he didn't come close to the line of violating executive privilege and perhaps the speech or debate clause itself, and he probably had attorneys he was consulting with in that regard because he didn't actually have any court rulings when his book came out last fall. so there's a lot that he may have said in the grand jury yesterday that we don't know about yet in his speeches, in his book, in other venues that he's talked in. so we don't know, but i will say from the prosecutor's point of view, they need to know everything that he's willing to say, good, bad, or ugly for the

investigation because the last thing they want to do is bring an indictment in this case and then have a surprise on the witness stand if mike pence ends up testifying. >> what do you make of the hours of time that pence must have spent there speaking to the grand jury? and let's remind our viewers lawyers still come in, right? i mean, they're outside of the grand jury. there's not even a judge in there, right? >> yeah, you don't see many portrayals of grand juries on tv. you see juries in courtrooms, but this is a grand jury. a grand jury has 23 normal, typical citizens on it, but when you present evidence to a grand jury, which is only charged with investigating potential felonies under a probable cause standard, when you have a grand jury, you only have a prosecutor, acourt reporter and the grand juries in there. you don't have a judge, you

don't have a defense attorney. sometimes -- i imagine this took place yesterday as well -- the proceedings can be somewhat laborious. pence does still retain some privilege under the speech or debate clause for the role he played as a member of the senate, and we also don't know -- because it's all under seal -- what the court of appeals actually said with respect to how much he can say about his conversations with donald trump. it sounds like they have to pertain directly to the january 6th events. so he may have had to ask for permission to leave the grand jury room after many questions and consult with his attorneys. it can be a somewhat laborious process. >> so that may have -- that may be why seven hours of time it was probably whittled down in reality to a bit less in terms of actual testimony. that's a very good point you make, carol. what about you, vaughn? i'd like to have you since you're there in new hampshire, what is the president saying about pence's testimony, and what are the voters saying?

>> the timing of this was really hard to ignore last night as i was receiving our own nbc internal notes about mike pence leaving the d.c. federal courthouse, wrapping up that system. donald trump was actively standing on stage for 2024 campaign event. well, his former vice president was wrapping testimony about donald trump's failed efforts to overturn the 2020 election. and that is where, for donald trump, he has continued to call this as he did last night a rigged election, and that is how he is trying to square up to voters why they should give him a shot in 2024 again. i want to let you listen to donald trump's exchange with our own colleague john allen yesterday as he left this event and headed towards a stop at a local diner in which john asked donald trump about mike pence's testimony. take a listen. >> success or failure -- >> mr. ppt -- >> safety anarchy, between peace or conflict. >> i have a lot of confidence in

him. >> reporter: now, the political part of this here, alex, is that mike pence has remained quite unpopular figure in this republican party, and when you're looking at this gop field here, we're 28 months removed now from the january 6th capitol attack, and we're just nine months away from the 2024 gop primary. if mike pence were to choose to get in, he'd be squaring up a one-on-one battle with his former president donald trump, take a listen to two of the folks here who came to hear donald trump just yesterday. >> mike pence is still considering getting into this race. >> he's a has been, has been. he's a traitor, don't like pence. >> he turned his back on america when he didn't want to tell the truth. >> yeah. >> and stand up for what he should. >> he's kind of bad mouthing trump, too, when he should have been right there with him. >> reporter: now, this is where the question comes in, ultimately the special counsel and the department of justice

are going go about their proceedings as they will, but it's going to be up to voters to determine who they want the republican nominee to be, and you see mike pence still in the single digits in nbc's new national polling here released just earlier this week, while donald trump holds on to a very sturdy lead, alex. >> let me by the way, call myself out. i referred to donald trump as the president, former president, i'm not giving any credence to any of those who still think he is legitimately the president. just calling myself out there. let's go to you brendan, i know that pence has not officially announced he's getting into this race, but given his testimony and what you've heard from voters, is there a lane for him? >> yeah, it's honestly really tough to see, but clearly mike pence has something he wants to get off his chest. he thought coming in to have to testify, it seemed like he threw in the towel pretty quick and seemed like he was comfortable doing it. look, there are a lot of people who have heard a lot of stuff about mike pence, and there are

a lot of people who he will be -- he will be explosive, let me say. if he shows up in an indictment of his former boss contributing to that indictment, we have seen all the intense blowback against alvin bragg in new york for what happened there. if mike pence is seen as party to donald trump being indicted, i can only imagine what that would do. now, mike pence clearly, listened to him talk in recent months does not think donald trump should be president again. he's made that very clear, whether he's going to be a candidate or not, this could end up being something of a kamikaze mission, gets some things off his chest, those people at a trump rally, they're probably never going to vote for anybody other than donald trump, but if mike pence can illuminate for the rest of the world what donald trump was saying and thinking in that moment and damage him to the point where maybe he has not seen as a credible candidate, either in the primary or a general election, i think he will think he's done himself a service to the country and that's probably the way he's looking at this.

>> that means he's walking a certain tight rope for sure, brendan. there's also something notable, it was a moment from manchester, that january 6th defendant who said she drove all the way up from texas. she got to speak to the former president. here's a little bit of that. take a listen. >> president trump, i'm the college republican president, can we get a picture? >> thank you, president trump. >> take this. >> thank you, sir. >> i'm good. >> okay, i'm not sure you all heard that as cleary as i'd hoped, but this was nicki larson olson. she hugged trump. she's taking selfies. he was supporting her and saying -- he's saying take care of yourself. does that kind of thing help or hurt candidate trump, brendan? >> yeah, obviously we talked a lot about the legal peril that he may be in from january 6th.

it's obvious political peril as well. remember the video that joe biden put out this week announcing his run starts with a shot of january 6th. it's something that they are going to try to hold against him. but donald trump is of the school where you never admit error, never show weakness. he has fought back against all of this on january 6th. now whether that is strategy or whether it's just part of his personality failure where anybody who's for donald trump is good, we saw that obviously in charlottesville. he doesn't really care what you did, as long as you're for him, you're good. but it shows this is a person who's -- if he's going to embrace what happened on january 6th, it reveals he's quite a flawed candidate. it's going to have significant problems if he can't at least admit what happened that day was bad because i think the rest of the country saw it with very clear eyes. >> vaughn, let me ask you quickly, nicki larson olson who in that video looks like kind of a knockoff of uncle sam in her getup and her garb, remind us what exactly she was charged

with. >> reporter: alex, she was charged with refusing to leave the capitol grounds on january 6th. it took multiple officers to remove her from those grounds. if i may, i actually talked with her a few months ago before another trump event right before the midterm elections, and in our exchange she said that members of congress who did not -- who certified joe biden's election victory should be, quote, executed. i think that we have to underscore how dangerous some of these individuals including her are. and these are folks who donald trump has suggested, if he were to get back into the white house, that he would potentially grant full pardons to. this woman is not an unknown entity to the trump orbit. she comes to a great many of these events here, and you have heard donald trump remain sympathetic making these january 6th defendants martyrs. he has a history of continuing to associate with individuals from kanye west to january 6th defendants, individuals who have openly promoted the undercutting of the democracy. and i think it is important

every step of the way that we point that out here because this individual was not an unknown entity, and yet, you saw him warmly greet her, call her, quote, a terrific woman. this is a moment here as we're talking about of a special counsel bringing potential charges against him, something that he has not openly regretted the events of that day. he continues to call the election rigged, and he continues to suggest that the events of that day were not his fault and instead has suggested that he should be in the white house here today and not joe biden. >> which is exactly why we asked you for the perspective there, thank you, vaughn, as well as you ryan and carol. brendan, i know you're sticking around. a race against the clock to find survivors after russian missiles rained down on part os of central ukraine. we're live on the ground right we're live on the ground right in the middle of all the want luxury hair repair that doesn't cost $50? pantene's pro-vitamin formula repairs hair. as well as the leading luxury bonding treatment. for softness and resilience, without the price tag.

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and rescue operation is underway in central ukraine after a russian missile struck an apartment building in the city of uman early this morning. at this hour, at least 23 are dead including four children. that's according to ukrainian officials. that attack reaching an important jewish cultural site far from the front lines, just one part of a wave of drone and missile strikes across ukraine. it is russia's largest air assault in weeks. let's go right to nbc's ellison barber who's on the ground for us there in uman where the rescue teams are racing to find survivors. welcome, what are you seeing there? >> reporter: yeah, it's starting to get a little bit dark. we've seen as they've brought out some light so they can continue their search through the night because they still have a lot of work to do. most of the day they've spent time focusing on trying to search through the basement apartments. now we've started to see -- and you can see one person walking up on top. we started to see them move up towards those upper levels searching for any survivors or any missing people, recovering

any additional bodies. the death toll has continued to rise just throughout the day, but earlier this afternoon when i spoke to one of the spokespersons with the search and rescue team, she says despite seeing those numbers rise, she was still hopeful that maybe there would be some survivors. you look a little further down and you'll notice something i've been staring at all day. wall paper. there's lavender looking wallpaper that seems to have some kind of floral design on it. russia's ministry of defense claims the strikes overnight were high precision missile group attack, and that they were targeting military-related facilities, but i have never seen a military related facility with wall paper like that. the people we have spoken to on the ground, they tell us this is a community full. and you look around and you see all of this, of apartment buildings. this is a residential area. this building nine stories. you mentioned the death toll. among the dead here, 23 in all. four of those children, people

have been here waiting throughout the day. a lot of them still over here trying to see what has happened, some coming here to try and help. some still waiting for answers. this area further down here, alex, you see some people wrapped up in blankets throughout the day. that's actually where people who have been waiting to find news of their loved ones have been sitting. as we went and took a bathroom break a little while ago, a woman came up in the line behind us, and she was crying and she told the woman next to her, one of my grandchildren is dead. this is a residential community despite what russia's ministry of defense has said. and you see here again, still very much an active, ongoing search effort. but as the sunsets and the hours tick by, the question is how many people are still missing. when we've asked that to authorities on scene, they say they're not entirely sure. at some point maybe in this section of the building, around 109 people lived there. we haven't been able to find out

for sure how many people are still missing. what we do know is that the death toll keeps rising and there are still people here trying to figure out what happened to their loved ones. we've watched as someone with the search team walked by with a bull horn a couple of hours ago asking anyone who had missing relatives to come and give their dna. alex. >> okay, very sobering report and a very astute observation on your part about that lavender wallpaper. thank you very much. three american soldiers were killed and another injured in a helicopter collision in alaska last night. it is the latest in a string of deadly accidents involving military aircraft. nbc's stephanie gosk has more. >> hey there, this happened overnight in a really isolated area of alaska. each helicopter was carrying two people, two soldiers died at the scene, another on route to the hospital. the fourth now being treated for injuries as the investigation unfolds. overnight, two u.s. apache helicopters crashing midair

killing three soldiers and injuring one near remote healy, alaska, 200 miles north of anchorage. soldiers based at fort wayne wright from the 11th airborne division were flying two apache helicopters back from a training mission when the crash happened. army officials saying this is an incredible loss for these soldiers' families, their fellow soldiers and for their division. >> it comes weeks after several crashes involving u.s. army helicopters. last month nine soldiers were killed in kentucky when two army blackhawks crashed in a training exercise west of fort campbell. and back in february, a blackhawk from the tennessee national guard crashed in alabama, killing two crew members. just terrible news for any community, but in that statement, the head of the 11th airborne division pointed out fort wayne.

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this week strict abortion bans falling hours apart in conservative legislatures in both south carolina and nebraska. the six-week ban in nebraska failed to advance by just a single vote marking the second straight year where an effort to restrict access collapsed in the

state. then in south carolina, what would have been a near total abortion ban faced the state senate's five female senators, three of which are republicans who joined forces to filibuster against the bill and the major implications it would have had on women in their state. >> some of it has sounded condescending, demeaning, cold, and judgmental. no matter the intent, there are millions of women, millions of women in this state who feel like they've been personally addressed in this legislation. there are millions of women who feel like they have not been heard, and that's why i'm standing up here this long. >> i want to bring in boston globe columnist kimberly atkins stohr, she's also an msnbc political analyst. welcome, kimberly. you know that old famous phrase by tim o'neal that all politics is local, it seems when it comes

to abortion access, this has gone national. does this tell you that republicans across this country are taking note that passing these kinds of draconian restrictions actually hurts the party? >> yeah, certainly republicans in these states are taking note of that and saying that outwardly even some of the supporters and co-authors of some of these bills have expressed concern that the way that they are moving forward is harming the party, and you saw republican women standing up and explaining exactly how these laws would impact women and saying that that wasn't something that was being considered when these laws were passed. these are pro-life republicans that are speaking in this way, and it sort of belies this idea that this is and should be a national push. remember, alex, republicans used to say that this should be something that was worked out among the states on a state by state issue, but the more we see

this national push for something resembling as close as possible to a nationwide ban, the more you see this pushback because people including local lawmakers, state lawmakers know that the voters are not going to stand behind these sort of actions, and they really fear what the political repercussions are going to be. >> when i think of the makeup here, kimberly, these five women banding together in south carolina, three of them republicans, two of them democrats, they took on this legislation from a majority male state legislature, which brings to mind the importance of having women, having people from different diverse backgrounds in the room because had that not been the case this would have likely passed, right? >> i think that's a great possibility. i think but for that, but for women speaking up clearly about the impact of this and also women, including voters, who have come out in recent election in reaction since the dobbs

decision came down really understanding the impact of this was really a wake-up call to a lot of male dominated legislatures that just saw this as a clear black and white morality issue and didn't really fully understand what these laws would do. you've seen in other states, lawmakers withdraw support for some of these laws once they realized it could have impacted things like miscarriages, impact things like, you know, complications that can happen along the way and that they, people who are not obstetricians didn't have a full understanding of exactly what this law would do. >> yeah, risking the life of the mother potentially, all right, kimberly atkins stohr, thanks so much. ron desantis's tour continues after he dined in israel. and former president trump gets a new key endorsement, from prom dresses to workouts and new adventures you hope the more you give the less they'll miss. but even if your teen was vaccinated

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ron desantis's foreign tour continues with a stop in london, but it is the florida governor reportedly dining with a number of gop mega donors in jerusalem that is making a lot of waves. "axios" reports desantis had dinner on wednesday with miriam add lson, one of donald trump's top financial backers in 2020. nbc news has not independently verified that story. the widow had told potential republican candidates she planned to stay neutral in the

2024 primary. nbc's josh lederman is joining us from jerusalem with more on all of this. first of all, what more do we know about the dinner, and could this be the big backer that desantis needs for his possible bid for the white house in 2020? is there any indication that she will back a candidate? >> reporter: it all depends on whether she decides to break that neutrality and support one of two republicans that she's supported before. ron desantis and donald trump. miriam adelson and her late husband were the largest donors to the trump campaign the first time around. but over the years, they've also donated millions of dollars to the desantis gubernatorial effort and to theparty of loda e why this could be a difficult choice. but meanwhile, the adelsons have also long played this king maker role in the republican party, not only because of their own massive contributions to candidates, but also because of their ability to kind of bring along other republican donors

who might be sitting on the sidelines and looking for signals of who -- which horse to bet on. and the adelsons have also long made it clear that staunch support for israel is key to getting their backing. in fact, when the trump administration was moving the u.s. embassy here in israel from tel aviv to jerusalem several years ago, i reported that the adelsons offered to the u.s. government to pay for that embassy themselves. so you can see why there may have been a reason why desantis was casting himself during his visit to israel as the future most supportive president of israel, u.s. president most supportive of israel in the history of the united states. we also, frankly, took credit during his trip here for having cajoled the trump administration into moving and he certainly got a lot of face time with miriam adelson during his trip here to israel. she was at thatt speech he gave. she was thereee when he signed agreement between israel andhe university in florida,tw so you know that donald trumpun has toe

watching this very closely from home asng republican donors are starting to decide which candidate they may support in this presidential campaign. >> you know donald trump was not pleased to see them sitting elbow to elbow at that dinner table, nor the fact that as you point out he did sort of cajole and say i was actually behind moving the embassy s from jerusalem to tel aviv.sa anyway, thank you very much for that report, josh. fo as potential 2024 challengers appear close to the race, donald trump0 gets a key endorsement, while many republicans blame the former president forp losses in the 202 midterms, the man in charge of taking back the senate for the gop sees him as a secret weapon. senator steve daines, the head of the national se senatorial committee endorsed him for president, giving him arguably the most significant endorsement of the cycle. brendan buck is back with us, so allen, you first here. i know you hadad a sit down interview with senator daines, what reasons did he give for

making the endorsement? >> he started off by mentioning obviously policies that the former president advanced in office but really the sub text of the interview was with the nrsc chairman being on board with the former president, they would have much moree influence in helpingh have him get on boad with what daines described as candidate who is can win primary and general elections. we're atma a point right now whe a lot of the losses the party suffered in key swing state senate races last fall has been pinned on thec candidates that the former president endorsed. been too out of step with the mainstream, fully embracing the false statements about 2020 and january 6th, and so on and so forth. so daines sees this as an opportunity to have trump and the s nrsc swimming in the same direction. now trump has the support of both of the top campaign chairs in the party. this is a cycle where the map that republicans have on the senate side, it's as good as it

will ever s get. they've got about eight opportunities for pickups, whereas the democrats are playing defense upeverywhere.re as we saw last cycle, there's no sure t thing. >> so given those pickups versus defense, brendan, after the gop's autopsy report did not mention trump as a reason for those 2022 losses, he's now being called the party's secret weapon. do you agree? >> you know, actually, i can't fault this strategy at all. look, we lost -- we didn't win the senate last time purely based on candidate quality. we had people like herschel in georgia, dr. oz in pennsylvania, kari lake in arizona. all veryi winnable states where we should have wonon those race and didn'ta because donald trum chose the candidates there. mitch mcconnell with his teamm basically went to war trying to pick more electable candidates in thosele states, and donald trump overpowered them. steve daines clearlywe thinks h can convince donald trump redirect some of his energy towards candidates, work with him for candidates that can win

and they'll be in a much better position. steve daines, he's from montana. jon tester a perfect example, a clear obvious pickup opportunity for republicans, and if they can nominate someone electable, it should be very easy to take that seat back. try to work with him rather than against him, and i can't really fault him foror it. >> but is it all about lack of quality candidate, brendan, or are there lessons from 2022 that daines and others in the gop may not have yet learned? >> there were lots of problems. don't get me wrong. and i don't think anybody should be running as a trump candidate, but to get to the general election, you have to nominate somebody. you have to have a enominee, an i thinky. they understand that donald trump cann be a force fo good here. he could also be a force for really hebad, and if you get on his badd, side, he can put you a really bad position. this is very much playing a little bit of defense to play offense. look, we got a lot of problems, but if you can't get somebody who can win a general election,

you're starting from way behind. that's what this is really all about. i wouldn't read anything more to it than steve daines thinks that he is going to be a better job, which is s to elect republican senators, having donald trump on his team rather than going to war with him. >> but you know that point you just made there, brendan, saying that donald trump can be good but then he can all of a sudden be reallyhe bad. how much do you think donald trump has shown the kind of discipline needed to rein himself in and not go bad as you just suggested? which he can do on a dime. >>n yeah, and to be clear, this is not safe bet that he is going to play well with others here. donald trump has made clear many times he does not care about the republican party. he cares about himself. >> himself. >> he's going too run -- yeah, e cares about himself, and he's going to run the - campaign tha run, and he's the nominee, i don't think it's going to be very easy for republican candidates to distance themselves. he blocks out the orsun. he'sem going to be the frame in which everybody is talking about this.

that really you can't change that ifth you're steve daines, you're running senate races. you got to just accept that's what that is. you want to put yourself in a better position, though, to have a candidate at least have a fighter's chance of winning an election, rather than a herschel walker type, dr. oz candidate who was flawed from the very beginning. a new bipartisan push to protect cannabis businesses from thieves, and it's all about how they bank. that's ndnext. and a medical advancement that could potentially be a game changer, what we know about a new diabetes drug reportedly helping patients lose even more weight than current drugs on the market. that's in our next hour. so stay with us. ♪♪ the only thing i regret about my life was hiring 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. (vo) verizon small business days are back. april 27th through may 3rd. from all over the world. get a free tech check and special offers.

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and this is their playground. there's a story in every piece of land, run with us on a john deere tractor and start telling yours. the nationwide fight for legalizing marijuana is getting a major boost of support from an unlikely ally. on capitol hill a red state republican senator is leading a bipartisan push to protect cannabis businesses from thieves, and it all comes down to how they do their banking. let's go to nbc's julie tsirkin who's joining us with more on this. this bipartisan push is revealing some rather strange bedfellows. tell us more about who's sponsoring the legislation and what they hope it's going to achieve. >> reporter: alex who's behind the bill is almost as interesting as what's in it. you were just talking about senator steve daines. that's right, the chief election official here in the senate tasked with operating and running the senate races here

and ensuring republicans get that win in 2024 in control of the senate. hegs working with progressive jeff merkel and it's all being born in big sky country. they say this bill which would give cannabis businesses access to. >> the last best place is probably the last place you'd expect to see this, dispensaries and grow houses dotting montana's stunning landscape. >> this is in ruby red montana where last year 57% of voters moved to legalize recreational marijuana. to give you an idea, two years before, president donald trump received that same chair in this state. >> today 22 states and the

district of columbia have legal access to cannabis, but the lack of federal legislation is leading small dispensary owners with big problems. >> this is one of the highest testing strains in montana. >> the owner of bozeman based dispensary grizzly pine. >> we need to move past the conversation about whether or not cannabis exists or should exist and move towards regulated industry that is normal. >> even legal cannabis businesses are anything but normal. every week elliott drives hours in an unmarked van to deposit cash at one of the few banks willing to work with him. as a dispensary owner, he can't access most major financial institutions or take credit cards since selling marijuana is still against federal law. >> we have been fortunate enough to fine a local credit union. >> reporter: elliott's careful not to ruin his relationship with a local bank that keeps his business compliant with the law. >> is there anything else that you as a cannabis business

owners that other businesses don't? >> oh, man, there's a lot that we have to deal -- there's a laundry list. >> reporter: operating a legal dispensary is expensive, even after purchasing a license. >> i don't know that there's a whole lot of consumer-based businesses where you would be required to wear a badge like this one. >> owners could face hefty fines for failing to follow strict rules amid unscheduled inspections from state authorities. since cannabis is still a schedule one drug, legal dispensary owners don't qualify for tax exemptions like traditional businesses. gal tin county sheriff dan springer backs federal legislation that would give marijuana give marijuana businesses access to banking services. >> i will say it's confusing when you have a federal statute, it creates it as a crime or doesn't clear it, then you have state laws different than federal laws. >> safe banking's biggest

advocates say they don't support legalizing marijuana, now that voters chose to do it, they say it's a public safety issue not to take action. now leading the charge in washington on the bipartisan bill. >> we want to help law enforcement, safer by allowing businesses access to our banks. >> working with top democrats on perhaps the biggest marijuana reform bill that could pass this year. >> if we're going to have businesses doing this, let's treat them as businesses and not as drug dealers. >> reporter: this bill already passed the house seven times, even earning the support of now speaker kevin mccarthy, but this year feels like the one to marijuana advocates and to senators on both sides of the aisle with majority schumer, promising a vote on the senate floor. >> is there anything else on the docket that could pass in congress this session, when it comes to marijuana policy? >> that's tricky.

i talked to lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, particularly republicans attending the first of its kind cannabis summit. congresswoman nancy mace told me it's past time republicans get a seat at the table of this conversation. you're seeing 22 states and counting with support for this. 70% of voters support legalizing marijuana. there are other ideas on the table, including giving veterans access to medical cannabis in states where that's legal. after a vote to research that failed this week, some marijuana advocates i spoke to see that as a huge setback, even getting to the point of passing that, and eventually descheduling the drug all together. >> a very comprehensive report coming from you, my friend. thank you. new developments in the idaho college murders investigation. how a surviving roommate is playing a critical role. that's ahead. msnbc films presents the third episode of leguizamo does

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we have a major update in the case against the man accused

of killing the four university of idaho students, one of the roommates who survived that attack is now agreeing to be interviewed by the suspect's defense team ahead of his preliminary hearing. nbc's erin mclaughlin has more. >> reporter: two roommates survived the stabbing attack inside this house last november that left four other students dead. bethany funk was one of the survivors, and now she's agreeing to be interviewed by the defense in the murder case. attorneys for the suspect bryan kohberger issuing to testify. she has exculpatory information that might exonerate him. ms. funk's information is unique to her experiences and cannot be provided by another witness. funk's attorney fought back. filing a motion to quash the subpoena writing even if funk possesses exculpatory evidence which remains unknown, there is no place or reason to present it

at a preliminary hearing. but new court documents made public show she's now agreed to an interview with the idaho based defense council. funk will testify in reno, nevada, where she's from, instead of taking the stand in the idaho court where kohberger's preliminary hearing is set to begin in late june. ahead of the hearing, the prosecution expanding its team as they look to bolster their case against kohberger, two deputies from the idaho attorney general's office, jeff nye, and ingrid have been appointed to assist. kohberger was charged with the stabbing murders of xana kernodle, the other surviving roommate saw a male figure with bushy eyebrows, a mask and black clothing in the home that night. funk's account of that night is not included in those documents. prosecutors allege dna evidence, video surveillance, and cell

phone records led them to kohberger, who is pursuing a ph.d. at nearby washington state university. he has yet to enter a plea but has said through a former attorney he believes he'll be exonerated. erin mclaughlin, nbc news. chilling, we have a lot to cover in our second hour of "chris jansing reports" reports, so let's get right to it. >> at this hour, the comment you do not want to miss from the white house, what one spokesperson said in reaction to 2024 republican candidate nikki haley saying joe biden is not likely to make it to 86 years old. and continued fighting inside war torn sudan, despite the extinction of a critical cease fire meant to help civilians flee the country. heavily outnumbered, the fbi director says there's an unparalleled threat, chinese