rest of the washington, d.c. republican apparatus responding to trump, and kevin mccarthy making headlines when he said he thought trump could win in a general election, but also saying he didn't know if it was the strongest candidate the gop could put forward. congress is in recess, but when they are back, we will be asking about that. >> thank you as always. that does it for me, everybody. i am back in for ana tomorrow, and right now "josé diaz-balart reports" starts right now. i am lindsey reiser in for josé diaz-balart. a short time ago the justices declined to impose new limits on state courts reviewing certain election-related issues, and this is a case from north carolina, so joining us is julie ainsley from outside the supreme

court and laura jarrett. i remember the reporting in december, you were reporting on what a critical impact this could have should the lower courts be overturned? >> yes, the state legislature said they should have the power to draw the lines, and what justice roberts saying today and the majority opinion is the way north carolina interpreted that theory, it was way over broad. he's not saying the court should never weigh in on this issue, but specifically, and the way

north carolina interpreted this, it was too broad and they went beyond their authority. what this case boils down to what it could have been, if the supreme court said, yes, the legislature was within their power to draw the districts, it could be within their power to manipulate a number of ways to conduct elections from the state level and it could fall into each state's individual party to see how people are registering to vote and how the congressional districts are drawn based on the parties ruling them, but the justices said that's too far and the state legislators do not have that authority and should be checked by their state supreme courts. >> essentially saying you can't remove this check. this is significant for elections moving forward. based on what you heard in oral arguments in december, does

today's ruling surprise you and what are other takeaways? >> does it surprise me? no. they seemed skeptical at the time of what they were being asked to do, and it would be a breathtaking change of a law, as we know it, and not to mention all their precedence would say the opposite. it seemed the court was going to find a compromised position and they didn't even do that. you get the impression they see where this is going for 2024, and they want to at least establish some bare minimum rules, and you remember all the cases that the former president filed trying to get the election overturned and trying to get the vote to flip in his favor, and the whole time the state court

said no. if this decision could have gone the other way, the state courts would have had no role to play in those decisions and it would have been extraordinary if they had gone as far as they were asked to. >> why did they take it up? >> you could ask that about this one and the other voting rights case it took from alabama, and you say why even take the case if the lower court got it right, which is what they are saying effectively here, why do it? it's an open question to try and figure out what is going on in those negotiations. you only need four justices to decide to take up a case. it's interesting. we will have to do some reporting to get to the bottom of it. >> you have deep sources in many federal agencies and this was a state court issue, but are you hearing anything from your sources watching this carefully about the significance this could have, for example, in 2024, and what else are we

watching for in the busy end of session? >> i think they are just glad this case got decided before we get closer into the 2024 election cycle. and it was pointed out it could have been an emergency decision if you would have gone closer to when people were going to the polls in those states, and they are sending a message to states now if they try to come up with more of the laws getting closer to 2024, they want to set a record of where this court stands in terms of voting rights and who the decisions are left up to. as far as what is next, really big decisions. we will be back on thursday and we will get a new round of decisions. we are waiting for affirmative action, whether or not the student loan plan from biden that would forgive up to $20,000 for student loan borrowers, whether or not that would be allowed to stand. there's a case regarding free

speech regarding lgbtq rights. they always save these big ones for the end. >> does that mean we are expecting all three on thursday? >> not necessarily. they could extend it into friday as well. they may try and pace them out or put them altogether, just have to wait and see. >> thank you both. we are turning to more breaking news out of the justice department, and a new report by the inspector general minds misconduct by the prison employees. ken, what more do we know? >> lindsey, when this notorious sex trafficker was found dead in his jail cell, a lot asked is there more to the story?

this exhaustive 120-page report looked at all the evidence and what it found was it agreed all the evidence points to suicide but it was the result of a cascading series of misconduct, negligent and other mistakes by employees of the federal bureau of prisons that ran that facility in new york city. the biggest errors appeared to be they left ebstein in his cell alone for hours when they were supposed to be watching him. they did make false statements, and there was some sort of misconduct. what this report says is that this is not a one off. the bureau of prisons have had a host of issues including remember the notorious mob boss,

whitey bulger was murdered where this inspector general also laid out a report listing the mistakes. it's a systematic problem, and there are staffing shortages and issues with following the rules and essentially the result is that jeffrey ebstein's victims never got a chance to face him in court and get justice. >> thank you. still to come, we will play for you the new tape of donald trump appearing to discuss holding on to a classified document. what it means for the charges he's facing in one of his two indictments. we'll be back in 60 seconds. you're watching "josé diaz-balart reports."

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authenticated by nbc news, there's a discussion of a highly confidential document, and the conversation took place with two staffers, a publisher and a writer working on a memoire of his former chief of staff, mark meadows. >> this was done by the military and given to me. i think we can -- >> we will have to see. >> declassify it. now i can't. isn't that interesting? >> the former president pleaded not guilty to a 37-count indictment accusing him of taking classified documents with him from the white house, and then obstructing efforts to get them back.

and for walt nauta, his arraignment was to happen this morning but it has been delayed because he could not get counsel. joining us is a professor at the university of michigan law school. does hearing the audio hit differently and is trump's camp commenting yet? >> it does, lindsey, for a couple reasons. hearing the audio in its entirety undercuts what donald trump's defense is on the element of the charges against him, and he argued on fox news there were no classified documents but there were news clippings, and he's clearly referencing a specific document in front of him, and you get

that he is showing this thing he has off. he's not looking at a "wall street journal" report, it's a thing he's got and it appears to be in his hands the way it's played out in the audio. as for trump's campaign response they are working aggressively to spin this back on doj and try to make it more politically palatable if not legally palatable. the former president himself posted on his social media platform, talking about the special prosecutor, and the trump campaign said it totally exonerates trump somehow. i am not sure how they get to that conclusion, and they have liked the politics of the indictment up to now, and i don't see that changing based on

an audiotape that builds on publicly reviewed evidence. >> "the washington post" also has a copy of the audio recording, and how does this tape fit into the broader context of the special counsel's case against donald trump and what are your takeaways? >> it's not the only piece of evidence that jack smith and the special counsel team, this big team of prosecutors have as evidence in the 49-page indictment that was released a few weeks ago that contains multiple examples but it's a key piece of evidence as garrett noted, it undercuts two defenses trump put forward. one, he was not aware of possessing documents to iran or that he declassified all of these documents before leaving office. that being said there are as we have seen laid out multiple pieces of evidence that undercut other defenses trump has put

forward. as discovery is now ongoing it's almost certain there will be blockbuster bombshell pieces of evidence that are going to come out in the future months. we have also heard this piece of evidence in particular was an important one that spurred and really sped up smith's investigation into the final throws of it before finishing and finalizing and making public the indictment and the 37 charges against former president donald trump. >> here is how trump spoke of himself. >> that was a massive amount of papers and everything else talking about iran and other things. it may have been held up or may not, but that was not a document. i did not have a document per se. these are newspapers and magazine and articles. >> after hearing the tape, how does that defense hold up? >> i think it doesn't. if you listen to the tape, it sounds like he's showing it to a

person with a female voice. it sounds like that person looked at it, but we won't have to have that kind of conjecture at a trial because the justice department to introduce this recording will have to have a live witness who was present at the time these statements were made. it's likely the person whose voice we hear on that recording will be that witness. i also note the indictment doesn't just say that this conversation appears, it says donald trump showed these people the document. the justice department knows what its evidence is. it has talked to the witnesses, and the justice department thinks it can prove he showed them this document. they are the only ones that have access to that information and i don't think they would make that allegation unless they believed they could prove it. >> to clarify, the doj would have a witness testifying to what happened in that room, and would it be the staffer or the writer or publisher, or does it matter? >> it doesn't matter.

to offer any exhibit into evidence you have to authenticate it, which is were you present when this happened? it could be anybody in the room, and the question is does this accurately reflect what you heard that day, and they say yes, it does, and you play the tape. >> what do you make of the fact that nauta has not found counsel? is that usual? >> i find it curious, because it's a matter of having your counsel find somebody from the local community to be part of the team, and judges don't want to have outsiders unfamiliar with the rules of a particular district, and it's not that difficult to find somebody. when you have a case like this that is so high profile, there's concern that the case could poison one's representation, and that could be why he's having so much trouble.

>> trump's attorney want time for security clearances, and does that mean jurors will decide his fate weeks and days before voters would? >> it's reasonable to assume the trial date might get delayed again, and as for the political implications, it's impossible to say for sure. we have never done this sort of thing before. up until now, the trump team has felt very good about the way the two indictments so far have played out in the media. they raised a lot of money off of them and blocked out any oxygen from going to any candidates below him in the republican field. the way trump describes the doj,

that's something the trump team would happily take. >> "the washington post" broke the news that jack smith's investigators plan to meet with georgia secretary of state tomorrow presumably for the january 6th component of what the special counsel is looking into. what more do we have? >> this is the forgotten peril jack smith and his team has been at while going forward with the mar-a-lago documents case. and that is another infamous tape-recording that trump has been involved with as there's a phone call "the washington post" first reported on now really almost three years ago of trump asking raffensperger to unearth more fraud, and he claimed it

did not exist. a lot of the information has already been made public, so it will be certainly interesting to see sort of the different questioning routes that prosecutors take when they bring him in as they have undoubtedly unearthed a lot more new evidence and threads as they have been endeavoring this investigation for the past year. >> we'll have to leave it there. thank you. coming up, we are learning more about where the man that marched in moscow is this morning. plus, more than 1,000 flights canceled or delayed today as severe weather hits the east coast. if you or somebody you know is like the woman in this picture, we will talk to our meteorologist about what you need to know. you're watching "josé diaz-balart reports." az-balart . get a whole lot of something with farmers policy perks.

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24 past the hour. new this morning the president of belarus said the man that led an up rising in russia over the weekend, prigozhin, is now in belarus. this is the first confirmation we are getting of his whereabouts since he struck a deal with putin. russian state media is reporting that charges against prigozhin were dropped per that deal, and now prigozhin's group is preparing to transfer heavy military equipment over to russia's armed forces according

to the russian defense ministry. joining us from moscow is nbc's keir simmons. i am sure you have been talking to people. is there a sense the worst is over or is there still a lot of angst this morning? >> reporter: clearly there are going to be many who are anxious, and there was a message by the kremlin that it's in control, and reasserting putin's authority. what you are seeing over the last 24 hours is part of that, so just this morning, for example, watching president putin stand in front of the ranks of his security services and thanked them as he described it for protecting the unity of russia, saying they saved russia from civil war and then overnight, too, seeing him late into the night going to the heads of his security, saying

the wagner group, this independent army, if you like, was funded by the russians, and it was always ours to terminate and stop. and that angry speech by president putin last night was fascinating, too, because he never once mentioned the leader of the wagner group, prigozhin. he said it was potentially criminal and soaking russia in bloodshed, and yet today the charges have been dropped so the culmination is not there of strength and flexibility. you asked about how the russian people are feeling, and we had a chance to go out and ask people, and listen to what one man said.

how do you feel about what happened over the weekend? >> awful. >> reporter: awful? >> for me, yes. >> reporter: why? >> because i want to live in a country without this problem. i was with my son and my family -- it's abnormal, i think. >> reporter: were you worried you would see russians fighting russians? >> yeah, worried. i worry about it. >> reporter: i think that gives you a picture of the long-term challenges for vladimir putin, and he cares about what the russian people think. clearly, it's just as clear from how the kremlin is behaving today, clearly they feel a need to reassure people. >> thank you for that report and interview. appreciate it. >> joining us, the former supreme allied of nato, and so

senator mark werner was on yesterday and addressed the status. >> he actually -- get this, there are just reports that he's in one of the only hotels there that doesn't have windows. >> what is your assessment between the strength of the deal between him and putin? >> i wouldn't want to see prigozhin. i think his chances of retiring to a nice countryside is zero. putin is the ultimate example of what we all learned watching "game of thrones," if you go for the king you better kill the king. he missed his chance and i think he's in deep trouble. the reports of the heavy equipment of the wagner group being turned back over to russia

tells you that the russians are very serious about simply dissolving this force. they are going to scatter those troops throughout the russian military, and at that point prigozhin is kind of out of cards to play. vladimir putin is the ultimate never-forget and never forgive kind of ruler. >> does putin want the troops absorbed into his forces, or does he not have a choice? >> the latter. 200,000 russians have been killed or grievously wounded in the conflict so far, and draft eligible males have voted with their feet and left russia. he's running out of manpower, and he will need these 25,000 or so troops.

he just doesn't want them all concentrated in one place under the control of his former private chef. >> that said, admiral, the ukrainian counter offensive has had a rough start. president zelenskyy travelled to the front lines and meeting with the troops, and according to the newspaper, those troops are facing mines everywhere that the russians have put in the ground everywhere. >> if you are sitting in kyiv you really wish this had turned into a pitch battle between prigozhin's troops and the regular russian military, but it doesn't. here's the problem. from a military perspective, defense is to offense as three is to one. meaning to overcome duggin

troops, it's mines and fields of fire preset, and long range fires where you know it will hand and it's "the hunger games" to get through all that. having said all that, lindsey, i look for the ukrainians to pick up momentum and i certainly would not discount the morale factor of what has happened. that has to give lift to the ukrainians. they know their cause is just and they will fight hard. look for gains in the coming weeks and months. >> i want to ask you about belarus's president, lukashenko. he said their military responded well. why point this out? is this a signal of a tiny little crack in the relationship? >> i hope so and i kind of hear that as well.

i think lukashenko who has his own basket of troubles in his own country, and he's immensely unpopular. putin is a relatively popular figure amongst russians, and that's not the case for lukashenko. he knows he is beholden to putin, and, yes, he would like to put maybe the slightest bit of distance. let's see how that plays out for prigozhin. >> always appreciate talking to you. thank you. >> thanks, lindsey. let's turn to washington. today president biden is hosting a special guest at the white house. monica alba joins us with the details. do tell. >> this is something the white house is telling us in advance of president biden is going to be hosting former president obama for lunch today. the two men, we do know, keep in

regular touch. they actually just spoke on the phone a couple weeks ago according to the white house, and there's likely contact between the two of them we don't hear as well, and this is a current president that likes to consult former presidents, and it's not just that relationship that has been there for a long time, and the president was the former president's vice president. you may remember on the affordable care act anniversary, president obama was here at the white house with president biden. and the couple was here at the white house for another occasion as well, and i am told by a source close to the former president that there's nothing unusual about the lunch and it's a regular check-in between the

two men, but as we have seen in their last couple of conversations they usually cover a range of topics, and i think you can anticipate everything from the major developments on the world stage of the last couple of days to what's going on in our domestic politics will be a matter of discussion between the two. again, the current president continually seeking advice from his former running mate, from somebody who has held the office on a range of issues, and i think something they will also likely be discussing is, of course, president biden's run for reelection and given the fact that former president obama mounted his own second bid for the white house successfully, and there could be pointers in that arena as well. >> thank you for that update. from tornadoes and severe thunderstorms, extreme weather is causing a travel nightmare.

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37 after the hour. so far today more than 1,000 flights in the u.s. have been canceled as storms brought seven tornadoes and hundreds of damaging wind reports yesterday. meanwhile a heat wave is sweeping across the south in texas, and the heat index in and around corpus christi reaching at least 110 and some areas reaching 115. are we talking about the humidity factor, too? >> it's always something. the humidity was responsibility for the hundreds of thunderstorms that messed up our airspace on the east coast, and we didn't have tornadoes or significant damage like what we had the last two weeks especially in areas like texas.

we have scattered storms in pennsylvania, and those will slide to the east. isolated downpours over baltimore, d.c. and possibly new york and philly. that could add up the ripple affect on the airlines. as far as severe weather, we will watch late today areas of kansas and oklahoma and tulsa, and isolated severe storms, and not too many tornadoes. 50 million people are now included from tucson to jacksonville, florida. the heat will drift eastward, and those areas that have not been brutally hot, it's moving your way. st. louis, 101 on thursday. the heat was in texas and still in texas but it's getting bigger and expanding. this is the heat index in certain areas, and that's little

rock, feeling like 114. and remember, this is all in the shade, too. when you are in the sun it's worst. a little relief in sight, and temperatures instead of being 100 in dallas will be 97 or so. the final thing, lindsey, the smoke is back. chicago right now has the worst air quality of any big city in the entire world because of the quebec fires. tomorrow that blows through areas of north carolina and d.c. you will see it in the sky, and this morning in milwaukee they could smell it, it was that dense. >> bill karins, thank you. moments ago in florida the judge in the scott peterson case denied the jury's request to use the bigger boards because they

were not admitted into evidence. peterson marks the first time a law enforcement officer has been tried for allegedly failing to act during a school shooting. he argues he did not know where the gun was firing because it echos between the buildings and the chaos at the scene. up next, the two top republican contenders just miles apart. vaughn hilliard is on the trail for us and joins us next. you are watching "josé diaz-balart reports."

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(vo) this is sadie, she's on verizon. the network she can count on. and now she's got myplan, the game-changing new plan that lets her pick exactly what she wants and save on every perk. sadie is getting her plan ready for a big trip. travel pass, on. nice iphone. cute couple. trips don't last forever, neither does summer love. so, sadie is moving on. apple music, check! introducing myplan. get exactly what you want, only pay for what you need. switch now and get iphone 14 pro max on us. offer ends july 5th. it's your verizon. 45 past the hour. just this morning house speaker kevin mccarthy weighed in on the 2024 presidential race in a new interview with cnbc, where he said the following about donald trump >> the question is is he the strong egs to win the election,

and i don't know the answer. anybody can beat biden, and biden can beat anybody. >> vaughn hilliard, toward the end he started to meander a little bit. that's a pretty new position from somebody that just days after the insurrection went to mar-a-lago to make amends with trump. >> he's been a close ally of donald trump since those two years have passed. kevin mccarthy really representative of the congressional house republican body there that is by and large support donald trump, and kevin mccarthy has helped to lead a caucus that was defined by donald trump, and you are

looking at a man that continues to propagate defenses that are meandering away and different. you heard kevin mccarthy say he believes donald trump could beat joe biden, but he's making a statement six months away from the iowa caucus. and donald trump is in new hampshire, 40 miles away where ron desantis just finished speaking. they will push aside the investigations and indictments into him, and they can turn to republican leaders around the country in states like new hampshire and also kevin mccarthy who largely defended donald trump. if donald trump loses some of the key microphones and key allies to defend him, that's when we can see something different among the republican electorate.

>> and then the miami mayor was ask this. >> will you be asking about a uighur -- >> what is a uighur? >> a presidential candidate not knowing the muslim minority population being targeted by beijing? >> it's significant, because he's running for the president of the united states and he is running for a national office and would be able to be the commander-in-chief and serve the country, and we should note the biden administration suggested that china has engaged in genocide. there are 1 to 2 million uighurs in re-education camps, which they are forced to renounce

their religion and forced into working conditions that frankly the united states and allies have not had full access to wholly understood. from personal accounts from uighurs, these are dire circumstances and for the man looking to represent the united states and the oval office it's concerning he is not aware of a human atrocity that is being engaged in by the united states' competing superpower, that of china. >> thank you, appreciate it. as we learn more about the candidates running for office, we want to bring in the director of the immigration hub. when we hear from the candidates like ron desantis and nikki haley who are unveiling their

foreign policies, and this photo is just so striking about what is happening and what these people are willing to risk just for the chance of a better life. what would national plan, for example, from ron desantis, we will put up bullet points, what would that look like? >> it's shocking. we witnessed four years under donald trump over 1,000 actions that not only harmed hundreds of thousands of real people, families and kids, but wrecked our immigration system. now we have ron desantis, who is trying to run to the right of donald trump. simply put, the policies that he is putting forward and the policies of other gop candidates, they are extreme, they are cruel, they are unworkable, and they are

unamerican. some of the highlights of these policies including mass deportation of hard working immigrants who are living in the country, these are people like daca recipientrecipients, farm key in helping us get through the pandemic. he wants to take away the constitutional right to birth right citizenship. this is part of the 14th amendment, enacted after the civil war to ensure equal protection under the law and to afford the formerly enslaved the full rights of american citizenship. he is talking about -- we have donald trump talking about bringing back family separation. we know that policy was absolutely abhorrent in taking kids away from their moms and dads. this does not reflect policies of a civilized society. i believe that the american voters are going to reject this type of cruelty and these type

of abhorrent policies. >> sergio, i wish we had more time giving all the breaking news, we have to leave it there. thank you for your time. up next, how four volunteers are on a groundbreaking mission to experience another planet without leaving ours. you are watching "jose diaz-balart reports." diaz-balart reports.

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55 past the hour. new data gives us a look at the state of the housing market. joining us is dominic chu. >> we have new home sales rising about 12% between the month of april to may. it translates into a 20% gain on a year over year basis. that was more than some economists' expectations. the gain size is big. but the gain itself is not a surprise. that's because it's a continuation of the real estate trends we have been talking about for some time.

there are just not a lot of homes for sale. many americans who own those homes right now, they are not incentivized to sell it they have locked into a lower mortgage rate. if they do end up selling, they have to get a higher price, but they have to buy another house at a higher price. the dynamic has been to the advantage of home builders putting new homes on the market. with interest rates on the rise, those in the market for new homes may actually be coming to grips with what the new normal for interest rates are. that's the reason why new home sales, not a surprise they're going higher, because everybody wants to get into those new homes. we will see how that plays out. >> thank you. right now, four volunteers are on a 378-day mission in a ground-based 3d printed mars habitat at the johnson space center in houston.

the volunteers will participate in various activities to try to simulate the challenges of a human mission to mars. joining us to talk about this is mike masamino, former astronaut. good to see you. what's the significance here of having these people, who aren't astronauts, never leave earth, how will this prepare for a future mission? >> thanks for having me. they are doing something completely different. going to mars is going to be completely different. we have had people living on the space station for basically six-month periods, sometimes longer. but you are close to earth. when you need help, help is only a couple seconds away. houston, we have a problem. you will get an answer in a second and a half. going to mars, when you are on mars, you say we have a problem and in about half an hour, someone will say, what was that? you are on your own. you are not going to have that help like you normally do.

you are not in contact with your family in the same way. you will be gone on the surface of mars for about a year. what they're going to do is look at problems they will face, using resources, growing their own food, giving them -- it's a simulation. give them problems to solve. they will be on their own. the psychological support, the teamwork and communication will be different. that's what they will check out. how are you going to do chores, pass your time? on the space station, what we have learned is that typically on saturday is your cleaning day. you talk about taking the trash out and doing the laundry, whatever you might be doing. a lot of those chores go to the weekend like for some of us on

earth working typical jobs monday to friday. they will have to come up with what schedule works. having a hobby is important. there's a lot of free time. you will not work all the time. a lot of my friends on the space station who are up there now take lots of photos. that's a productive thing to do and an interesting thing to do. that comes into the area of psychological support. what will they need to be able to psychologically get through this year? what's going to happen when there's conflict? not everything will be rosie. there will be conflicts from time to time. that's just as important as all the technical issues of protecting the crew from radiation and having the right habitat and so on. how do we support them psychologically so they can be successful? >> fascinating. thank you for joining us on this. that wraps it up for me. andrea mitchell picks up with more news now.

right now on "andrea mitchell reports," the supreme court rules against republicans in north carolina in a major election case of concern to voting rights advocates, a 6-3 decision with chief justice roberts writing the majority decision. kavanaugh rejecting a theory that would have given state legislatures authority over federal elections, stripping state supreme courts of any role. we will have analysis and reaction. former president trump in new hampshire today. lashing out over the release of damning audio from a new jersey meeting where he appears to show visitors a secret document about a war plan against iran.