right now on "andrea mitchell reports," the suspected gunman who killed five people in philadelphia monday night has been formally charged with murder, aggravated assault and weapons charges and held without bail. the mother of a 15-year-old victim speaking to the gunman after her son died, shielding his 13-year-old friend. >> i shot toward children and innocent children that had nothing to do with anything. my son happened to be one of the people that get killed. i hope you get everything you deserve. export control. beijing throwing a curveball, impacting a key metal vital to the u.s. tech sector. how washington could push back as janet yellen is heading to china for that economic series of meetings. in the west bank, fallout from israel's two-day raid on a

palestinian refugee camp. matt bradley caught in the firefight last night. good day, everyone. i'm andrea mitchell in washington. we begin our second hour of "andrea mitchell reports" with the gun violence epidemic in our country. according to the gun violence archive, there were 17 mass shootings in 15 states over the long july 4th weekend. leaving 18 people dead and more than 100 others injured. it brings the annual tally to 351 this year on track to surpass previous records. right now in el paso, texas, sentencing is underway in one of the deadliest mass shootings in u.s. history, the 2019 walmart shooting, where the shooter pleaded guilty to federal murder and hate crime charges for targeting hispanic migrants. family members of his 23 victims are making impact statements in court later today. the gunman is likely to be

sentenced to 90 consecutive life sentences. in philadelphia, a 40-year-old man has been charged with five counts of murder after allegedly opening fire while walking through southwest philadelphia. witnesses recall the shooter was wearing a ski mask and bulletproof vest as he fired at random. he was fired more than 50 rounds. the youngest victim killed was just a teenager. a pair of 2-year-old twins were hurt in the attack. we expect to hear from the d.a. and city leaders next hour. george, the suspect was heavily armed. he was wearing battle gear, camouflage gear. did he say anything during his arraignment? this was a virtual. >> reporter: he appeared virtually. did not say anything other than answering yes or no to instructions from the judge and

from the public defender, which was appointed to represent the suspect in this case. he appeared in that white jumpsuit and was told not to discuss the case with anyone other than the public defender. five counts of first degree murder and several other ring a assault. charges for illegally carrying the weapon. another victim, a 10-year-old was also -- he is part of the investigation, in the same vehicle where the two toddlers were injured. there were four people in a jeep, as we understand it. a woman who was injured by the glass shattering from the windshield. a toddler injured by a bullet and the other sustaining eye injuries from the debris. the 10-year-old charged with

aggravated assault in that case. a lot of people in the community are outraged by the violence. you heard from the mother of the 15-year-old who was outraged and so upset her son lost his life trying to help another victim who was shot during this rampage. you mentioned the suspect was wearing that black ski mask, the bulletproof vest, had the police radio. we asked the commissioner, danielle outlaw, if they believe it was premeditated. she said based on everything they are seeing, it does seem to be the case. investigators looking for a motive in this rampage. >> george, thank you very much. joining us now is james densley. he is author of "the violence project, how to stop a mass shooting epidemic." tell us, how do you stop a mass shooting epidemic? we had 17 mass shootings over the long holiday weekend. your numbers differ slightly based on how you define a mass shooting from the archives. last year, we had the highland

park shootings at the 4th of july parade. what makes a holiday period more common for the mass shootings? >> it's a great question. there does seem to be a confluence of factors. july 4th is one of the worst days for gun violence in america. i think it's a few things. number one, the 4th of july holiday happens to fall in the middle of the summer. it's hot. people are outside and gathering in public. you have these mass gatherings of people which make a mass shooting just sort of more likely. you then have the availability of alcohol. people are partying, celebraing and challenge can get people in trouble. you have the accessibility of firearms. there's something interesting about the 4th of july. not only are guns more available and accessible in american society in general now and people are carrying guns more in public, but there's something about the 4th of july that is

symbolic around firearms. the firearm is an expression of freedom for some people. they are more likely to carry it to a 4th of july celebration for this reason. of course, when an argument ensues, pushing and shoving can become a shooting when guns are present. there's a lot of things that are going on that make july 4th particularly dangerous now, unfortunately. >> in philadelphia, the gunman was armed with an ar-15-style rifle, bulletproof vest, police scanner. we were talking to the former atf top agent. he said that indicates certainly that this was premeditated and that he might have had some knowledge of the neighborhood and of how police might respond. >> yeah. there's an element of mass shooters, particularly these public mass shootings, they tend to study other mass shooters. we have to remember that a mass shooting is always intended to

be a spectacle. it's intended to grab the headlines, to have people talk about it. there's an element here of conforming to the expectations of what a mass shooting in public looks like. unfortunately, that means using certain types of weapons like an ar-15 or dressing in body armor or fatigues and other things to make this appear to be a mass shooting to the public. there's a sort of -- almost like a convention that these individuals are following the rules of what a mass shooting in america looks like. that's what's heartbreaking here. we actually have a script for these individuals to follow and that they are actually copying one another and following suit with the clothes they wear and the weapons they use. >> what we have to prevent is it becoming normalized more than it has already. that's on us as well. james, thank you very much.

breaking news on the indictment of former president donald trump and the evidence that led to that indictment in part. tom winter joining us now with more. tom, what do we know? there's a new court filing about to happen. >> that's right. after the former president was indicted last month, media organizations went back to the judge to re-visit an old fight. it was the effort on behalf of this news organization and others to try to get the original search warrant, of the mar-a-lago property last august, to get some of the further un-redacted. there were a successful fight to see some of it. based on my quick paper math, over 65% -- or approximately 65% of the 80 paragraphs in the search warrant, which the fbi uses to show their math to the judge to prove that they should be able to search somebody's property, were redacted in part

or in full. we have a lot of details contained in there that we weren't able to see. the documents frequently look like this. you can see all the lines redacted and blacked out. now since the indictment, the media organizations went back and said, now that there's more details about this, the former president has been charged, do we have the ability to see more of the search warrant? the judge agreed. he ordered the justice department to file a redacted version. we should be able to see more. how much we will see, that's up in the air. there's no indication as far as how much of this will now be available for us to review and to talk about. on top of that, it's typical that redactions that they propose wouldn't jam up the indictment. i don't think we will see a lot of new conduct in here that they haven't already put in the indictment that obviously was filed last month. >> let me just better understand. this would give you the predicate for probable cause,

why they had reason to believe it was justified to go into mar-a-lago and why that was approved by a federal judge? >> that's right. we have seen some of that already. the question is, how much more will we see? were there other things that aren't contained in the indictment, perhaps unlikely we will see it, but things that weren't included in the indictment that could allow us to understand how this came to be or the behind the scenes activity that was going on that led the fbi to conduct that search? >> tom winter, thank you very much. good to see you. out for now. israeli troops say they have left the west bank after their biggest incursion into the occupied territory in 20 years. a live report and a look at the impact of the violence. that's coming up next. you are watching "andrea mitchell reports." we will be back in 60 seconds. don't go anywhere. we are right here on msnbc. herc

for people who are a little intense about hydration. neutrogena® hydro boost lightweight. fragrance-free. 48-hour hydration. for that healthy skin glow. neutrogena®. for people with skin. israel's military announcing that it has withdrawn all of its

forces in the occupied west bank after a two-day operation in the refugee camp killed 12 palestinians and one israeli soldier. it was the largest raid in the area in at least two decades. prime minister netanyahu calling the operation a success. palestinians are mourning the dead at a mass funeral broadcast live. nbc's matt bradley is live. >> reporter: i'm in the west bank. we are here and we were -- what we saw was basically palestinians picking up the pieces from an incredibly violent, very focused raid around the refugee camp which is right around in that city. we saw what was the impact of missile strikes. that's rare. we haven't seen the israeli army launching missiles into the west bank for 20 years.

they do this often in the gaza strip, but they don't normally do it in the west bank. that marks a paradigm shift in the way the israeli military is engaging palestinian militants here in the west bank. we also saw a blistering firefight while we were there. as you mentioned, this has been a really difficult situation for palestinian civilians who are not part of the fighting necessarily. thousands were forced to flee. that has been a real impact on the population here. they really do feel demoralized by the constant incursions. netanyahu called this essentially a successful mission. but he opened the door or left it open for further incursions not only into jenin but other cities in the west bank. he has been the backing of his newly minted right wing cabinet who have been basically championing everything he has been doing for the past couple of weeks in the west bank to try to clamp down on militant

activity here. we could see more and more violence in the days and weeks to come. >> certainly could be escalating as well. matt bradley, thank you very much. joining us now, ben rhodes, an msnbc contributor, and peter baker, an msnbc political analyst. ben, to you. the palestinians are cancelling all security cooperation with israel. as well, the embassy spokesperson was just here on our previous hour telling us that that is part of the problem. at the same time, aren't we facing a more escalating situation? there's the claim by hamas of the sponsorship of a terror attack in tel aviv just the other day in retaliation against the jenin incursion. >> yeah. it feels like we are heading into a more volatile period.

keep in mind that there has not been an incursion like this into the west bank, which is supposed to be under the authority of the palestinian authority, whereas, we have seen incursions into gaza, which has been under the authority of hamas. i think what it does to palestinian authority is it very much humiliates them in front of their people. they didn't control a lot. they lost control of some of the places like this particular part of jenin where we see militants gaining more support or at least being able to operate. for the palestinians, there's no clear pathway towards security cooperation or engagement. this is an israeli government that doesn't support a palestinian state, that is more aggressive when it comes to things like settlement expansion, more aggressive now when it comes to incursions into the west bank. i just think in the absence of any kind of political process with the palestinian authority badly weakened and with the

israeli government moving to the far right, we are going to be heading into a season where there are going to be more of these activities in the west bank. it's obviously going to inflame palestinian opinion. it's going to complicate regional diplomacy. this is going to be a tough few months ahead. >> peter, by my count, there hasn't been diplomacy since 2014. the settlement policies under netanyahu are the most expansive ever into areas that had previously been palestinian. as ben was saying, i don't see any solution. this is also likely or could -- could affect -- we don't know this, but could affect what could have been saudi arabia's recognition diplomatically of israel. >> this doesn't work in favor of israel's recent breakthroughs diplomatically with the region. one thing israel had done

successfully was to put the palestinian issue to the side in terms of creating a new relationship with its neighbors. in the last few years, they have opened up diplomatic relations with uae, bahrain and others. they had hoped to do so with saudi arabia. they had made progress toward that with saudi arabia in terms of over flight and everything because the arab countries had gotten tired of the palestinian dispute and because it had been on a low simmer rather than a hot boil. it looks like it's on a hot boil, that complicates everything for israel as is trying to create this new paradigm in the region. it doesn't work in israel's favor to have this boil back up into a hot conflict. we will see whether this is sort of a spurt right now or whether it's going to spiral into continuing conflict in the weeks and months ahead. >> ben, let's turn to russia for a moment and the dilemma of imprisoned "wall street journal" reporter evan gershkovich.

there was an apparent reference by the kremlin spokesman the other day to the possibility of back channel talks. that was interpreted, combined with the visit of the ambassador, the first consular visit since april, to be some sign that something is afoot, something is on the table. i think that may be overly interpreting it from my understanding as to where things stand. do you see any sign that they are willing to do something? certainly, not before august when the next hearing is. their rules are that there won't be a trade of any kind until someone is tried and convicted. >> i think the russians are signaling that they might be interested in a trade. i think what's really difficult for the united states, when you have these repeated detentions, is are you incentivizing these detentions by having repeated exchanges? also, really importantly here,

the united states government completely rejects the absurd notion evan was a spy. i think what the russians are trying to do is they will exchange him for a spy. they say it was espionage saying it will be resolved through a spy swap. the difficult thing is because it's hard to have any faith whatsoever in the russian legal system, we have to assume that the only way to get evan out of prison in the near term is some kind of exchange or release. the question is, can you make that a bigger deal, a bigger negotiation? i think we are early stages here. it's not surprising me that the russians are signaling they want something in return for this. whether the united states is comfortable doing that and how they approach it i think are issues that are still being worked through in the administration, i'm sure. >> don't want a spy for a spy. we say we don't have. we have an accused cyber

criminal who was visited by russian consular officials. that may be what's afoot. the russian arms dealer was freed last december in the swap for brittney griner. he has been chosen as the candidate of a far right party for a local election. it's somewhat surprising. he was the crown jewel of prisoners they wanted back. that was a very high price to pay for brittney griner, willingly by the u.s. they left paul whelan behind. he has been disappointed three times now. if he were not included in the next deal, it would be devastating. he has been there for four years on completely unwarranted espionage charges. >> the problem as ben alluded to is the notion that the russians

want to trade somebody who is seen as being equivalent. who is equivalent for a spy, if you believe that, and we don't, paul whelan or evan gershkovich, and as you say rightly the united states doesn't have somebody who would meet that description. the one they were looking for in trade for paul whelan in the past was an assassin held by the germans who had killed somebody in broad -- very brazenly in germany. the germans, for good reason, understandable reason, don't want to release him as part of a trade. the americans don't pressure them to do that anyway. who is it that they would want to get as a result? it's a practical question. ben's larger question is whether it's a good idea is one that's haunted the u.s. government for years, decades, going back to carter and reagan. this administration has come to the conclusion that swaps are fine. it's a political cost. but it's not that big a deal. they decided they probably should be going ahead and doing

trades when they are manageable and rational. they don't have that reluctance if they can find somebody that's worth trading. that problem is that that's not clearly on the table. >> ben rhodes, peter baker, thanks to both of you for your expertise. a judge limiting the contact the biden administration can have with social media companies. what that means and the legal questions it sparks. you are watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. snbc somedays, i cover up because of my moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. now i feel free to bare my skin, thanks to skyrizi. ♪(uplifting music)♪ ♪nothing is everything♪ i'm celebrating my clearer skin... my way. with skyrizi, 3 out of 4 people achieved 90% clearer skin at 4 months. in another study, most people had 90% clearer skin, even at 5 years. and skyrizi is just 4 doses a year, after 2 starter doses.

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blocking heartburn before it starts. a house full of screens? basically no hiccups? you guys have no idea how good you've got it. how old are you? like, 80? back in my day, it was scary stories and flashlights. we don't get scared. oh, really? mom can see your search history. that's what i thought. introducing the next generation 10g network. only from xfinity. a major legal setback today for the biden administration's ability to work with social media sites to moderate content. a federal judge in louisiana issuing an injunction in response to a lawsuit from louisiana and missouri attorneys general accusing government officials going too far when they encourage social media sites to remove posts that they said could contribute to covid

vaccine hesitancy or upend elections. joining us now with more is justice reporter ryan reilly and with us andrew weissmann. ryan, what more do we know about the injunction? you would have thought it would be an automatic appeal. this seems like a very big deal. if the white house can't talk -- it's not an order, but talk to social media companies about content when there are erroneous covid information -- misinformation going on the air and interference in elections. >> it's very important for there to be some sort of communication. it's important for those things to be regulated in some way. we shouldn't have the government suppressing speech. i think in the examples that we have seen come out of the litigation and some of the discussions about this have been discussions about whether or not content violated twitter's existing rules.

it was government officials flagging things that violated twitter's ongoing policies. we have to be cognizant of the first amendment considerations here, you also have to look at the evidence of what the communications were. this trump-appointed judge made this -- purposely chose to make this declaration on july 4th. this would be one of the biggest violations of the first amendment, which is a big caveat i think to his entire entry there. that's the context we need to consider, who this youth is, -- who this judge is and what date it was chosen on and what the facts are and opposed to what is alleged. >> that's why i'm surprised it is taking the justice this long, or the solicitor general this long to respond or the white house counsel.

you could argue that the pandemic in some instances and election interference is a national security issue. >> absolutely. the judge tried to deal with that. i think in a, frankly -- it's not -- the judge says you can have communication about national security matters but not in any way that would induce a tech company to do something. that's inconsistent. the reason you would flag things of national security -- i remember to give you a concrete example. learning of information that was online that revealed the location of military leaders in a foreign country. we alerted the general counsel of the tech company because we

didn't knew if they thank you -- we didn't know if they knew. it is inconceivable to me that this will not be appealed. one, it's legally wrong. two, because the harm to our national national security and to just domestic crimes that are brought to the attention of tech companies is so severe. very hard to imagine that this won't be appealed. >> i know the white house, andrew, is looking at a policy of how it should or should not be regulating this issue in terms of the media, social media. they are a long way away from having a decision on any of this. of course, there's regulation that's been proposed in europe and elsewhere. we are in a new world here, aren't we? >> i think we're in a whole new world because of the politicalization of the issue. i should tell you when i was at

the fbi and the general counsel, you did not lightly make a call to a tech company to alert them to an issue. you also didn't ask them to do anything. you didn't say, take this down. you don't have the power to do that. but you had calls where something was of a severe national security or criminal threat, and you would alert them to the fact that it was on their website. they actually have policies -- their own policies against this. against having that on their website. so they just take that information and they make their independent decision about what to do. the idea that the government cannot do that is really fanciful. just to be clear, the plaintiffs are the same people who have no problem with banning books in public schools. this really isn't a first amendment issue. this is a conservative agenda.

i think that as we have talked about, this is one where if you take the politics out of it, this is doing something that's such a harm to our security. >> like the first amendment was the root argument in the supreme court decision that led to a is he -- led to a setback for lgbtq rights. it's interesting thousand can be used in different ways. thanks very much to both of you. we have breaking news from the gulf of oman. courtney y joins us.

an iranian navy ship, a conventional navy, approached it and tried to get it to stop. presumably so that they could board and seize it. in this case, the uss mcfaul, a destroyer, came to the scene and as it approached the two ships, the iranian navy vessel changed course and took off with no incident. fast forward three hours later, south of that area, about 20 miles off the coast of oman and something similar happened. another iranian navy vessel approached and was trying to get a separate tanker, this one called the richmond voyager, to stop, to slow down and presumably so they could seize it, board it and seize the vessel. that ship let out a distress call that was answered by the uss mcfaul, which came upon the scene. it was in communication with the vessel the entire time as it was

making its way there, the iranian navy ship fired on this tanker, this oil tanker, striking it several times. according to a u.s. military official who i spoke with about this, it was -- the tanker was struck several times near where the crew living area is. there were no casualties. the ship did sustain some minor damage. it's not -- it is described as not very significant, but it's damage. it's noticeable damage to the exterior of the ship. the u.s. navy by the time the mcfaul got on scene, the iranian vessel took off with no further incident. we are expecting to get more information in the coming hours, including video and still photos of the incident. >> do we know what countries were these tankers flagged to? >> at least one of them was flagged to the marshall islands, the first one that occurred early in the morning where there were no shots fired. we are still trying to figure out where the second one was flagged to. we know it was heading from

united arab emirates and heading to the u.s. with oil on board. >> thanks very much. rinse and repeat. donald trump refreshing his 2020 and 2016 playbooks, staying on the attack against republicans and democrats alike. will that strategy work again? you are watching "andrea mitchell reports." this is msnbc. hing "andrea mitchell reports." this is msnbc. tv: try tide power pods with 85% more tide in every pod. who needs that much more tide? (crashing sounds) everyone's gonna need more tide. it's a mess out there. that's why there's 85% more tide in every power pod. -see? -baby: ah. (vo) this is sadie, she's on verizon. and she's got the new myplan, tide in every power pod. so she gets exactly what she wants and only pays for what she needs. she picks her perks and saves on every one. make your move to myplan. act now and get it for $25 when you bring your phones. it's your verizon.

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former vice president and

republican 2024 candidate mike pence is in iowa. later this week his rival and former president trump will be in the state. trump skipped the july 4th parades, unlike his republican rivals who were out on the trail. the 2024 frontrunner has solidified his lead in recent polls despite being indicted. joining me is brendan buck. and a.b. stoddard. brendan, you would say it's another biden/trump rematch. how firm is donald trump's lead early on given what's happening since the indictment? does it matter -- i was going to say, does it matter whether or not he takes part in the first debate, about a month from now? >> there are only so many big moments in any one campaign.

obviously, debates are a big one. you would think the leading can't being indicted would be a big moment that may have an impact on his fortune. that hasn't hurt him. look at the situation and say, what's going to change? what is going to happen over the next few months that's going to shake him lose? i don't know he is inevitable, but something fundamental has to change because we are heading that way. you have a lot of candidates out there hustling in the early states. donald trump doesn't need to do any of that. frankly, he doesn't need to show up for the debate stage. if i were him, i would say it's a good strategy to not engage there. the rest of the candidates all need to not only take on -- take out donald trump, but they need to get on the debate stage. this isn't 2016 where we can have 12 candidates running around months into primary voting. you need to be able to say you have a chance to knock him off or you need to get out or making

things easier for donald trump to win the nomination. >> mike pence is campaigning in iowa. boasting about his role in the supreme court's abortion ruling. let's watch. >> how proud are you of the three justices on the supreme court of the united states? [ applause ] i couldn't be more proud to have been vice president in the administration that appointed three of the justices that sent roe v. wade to the ash heap of history where it belongs. [ applause ] >> that will work for pence in iowa maybe. what about the general election and the support overall for abortion? especially after the recent supreme court decisions. >> we saw the energy that the decision created on the other side for democrats and independents. in the midterm elections, when normally only the most politically engaged turn out to

vote. it's a huge problem in the republican field. you see everybody squirming on this issue except for mike pence. from the day the decision came down on june 24th of 2022, he was calling for a national ban and being behind a movement to codify more restrictions on abortion in the overturning of roe v. wade. he is leaning very hard, hoping there's a lane of voters who will get past their adoration for donald trump and prefer him as the most outspoken on this issue. what that would mean in a general election would be a huge problem for mike pence. right now, he is trying to catch fire in a pimary where he doesn't have a constituency. >> trump is claiming that the law is weaponized in a social media post. he is saying the law is against him. he was going against the biden white house as well as jack

smith, justice department. how popular is his attack on doj with republican voters? >> it works for him because he has been doing it for so long. there are so many voters who firmly believe that doj and the fbi are out to get him. donald trump's superpower has been his shamelessness. once again, this is a shameful thing to be putting out there. it harkens back to january 6. there's an audience for it. it works for him. it's the reason he got off politically on these indictments, because people do believe him when they say they are out to get him. when his opponents, none of them call him out for that, it only perpetuates and makes him stronger. the next time an indictment comes, he laid more groundwork and is stronger. it's a cycle we have seen over and over again. no one, other than chris christie, seems willing to break it. >> to be continued.

it's a long season. thanks to both of you. guns in america. after a holiday with multiple mass shootings across the country, how survivors of the horrific attacks are reacting to the continued violence. that's next. you are watching "andrea mitchell reports." this is msnbc. andrea mitchell reports." this is msnbc.

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along. we are on this earth for such a short time. >> that mother would later find out her son drew was among those killed at pulse. joining me now is drew's friend who survived the shooting. brandon is the press secretary for equality florida. his new memoir is entitled "a place for us" it's out now. it's good to see you. again, under the terrible circumstances of an epidemic of mass shootings across the country. all these years after pulse. after what you went through and still no federal ban on assault weapons. in fact, we have seen gun laws being taken back and watered down. talk to us about that. >> thank you. i appreciate that you named that it's a uniquely american crisis that we are experiencing, because it is uniquely american. other countries don't have this problem. that's because they have had rational, reasonable conversations about limiting --

putting guardrails on the right to own and carry firearms in public. i also -- it's not lost on me that this -- there's irony to the fact that there were mass shootings this week, because this is the week that we as americans celebrate freedom. but there is no freedom for my best friend who went to a club and had a drink with me and his partner and never made it home to say good-bye to his mother. there's no freedom for the students in sandy hook or in parkland who went to school and came out in body bags. there's no freedom for tens of thousands of people who have their lives ripped from them because of this country's obsession with easy access to firearms. i know it's easy to feel numb when the numbers keep pouring in. it's one city after another. part of the reason that i wrote there book and centered my best friend drew so much in it is because i want us to remember the human cost every single time we choose to do nothing about the american crisis of gun

violence. they are not just numbers. they are missing faces at birthday faces, empty seats at dinner tables, people who have their futures stolen from them, their freedoms stolen from them because we are obsessed with handing out guns on every street corner to whoever wants one. >> we are dealing with a supreme court, which has taken another case, a gun case for the next session. that could even roll back a landmark decision which kept guns out of the hands of convicted people convicted of domestic abuse. >> this supreme court really right now poses a serious threat to civil liberties, to freedom, to american democracy. every time they take up a case, this country holds its breath. so often they are redefining laws, they are acting outside their normal purview. they are taking i would say -- there's a lot of creative

license they take with some of the readings of the constitution. they are reshaping the way this country works. it's a terrifying time whether you talk about gun safety or lgbtq civil rights or the right for people to have control over their bodies. we have a supreme court that feels uniquely positioned against the popular wishes of the american people. it's quite terrifying to be an lgbtq person and a survivor of gun violence when every time -- every summer rolls around, every fall rolls around, we hold our breath awaiting the next decision from the supreme court. >> what concerns do you have about the governor of florida, ron desantis, who had a strange new ad that we showed the other day. i'm not going to show it again. going after another republican -- and other republicans going after the lgbtq community. >> this governor has staked a bizarre and out of touch lane in the 2024 presidential race.

he decided that he is going to run to the right of donald trump, he will build a brand on raw homophobia. the amount of damage he has don catastrophic for us. there are hundreds of books that have been challenged across the state because they feature lgbtq characters, dozens of them have been banned. we have school districts that are refusing to recognize the historical contributions of our community. we have a hostile climate towards trans people that would see them arrested at the bathroom at the miami airport that they would normally use in new york city. things are scary for lgbtq people here in florida right now. we should take ron desantis at his word when he says he wants to make america florida. >> brandon wolf and the author of the new book "a place for us." congratulations on the book and thanks very much for being with us. >> thank you. and beijing bound, treasury

secretary janet yellen taking off today for high level talks as american businesses realign their relationship with china, it's the first time she'll be visiting china as treasury secretary. that's coming up next. you're watching msnbc. oming up . you're wchating msnbc.

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so you can put dieting behind you and go live your life. head to golo.com now to join the over 2 million people who have found the right way to lose weight and get healthier with golo. and we're following the developing story of a small amount of cocaine found at the white house over the weekend. nbc news white house correspondent mike memoli joins us now. what's the latest? there's a lot of confusion over what this was. mike pence is weighing in, the mischaracterizations of where it was found. >> reporter: that's right, andrea. as this story was breaking yesterday and everyone was trying to discern the facts behind it, there was a lot of attention being paid to a publicly available recording online of a transmission between d.c. fire personnel who were part of the team that responded to this report of a suspicious

powder. during the course of those communications, there was a reference in the recording to a library. now, frankly, a lot of those in the public who listen to this and unfortunately perhaps too many journalists who are also reporting on this took a leap from the invocation of library in this recording to mean that that was where in the west wing or in the white house generally this item was found. now, as we have been reporting, our sources are telling us that this was located in a highly trafficked common area of the west wing where especially those who are coming for visits or even tours might have been asked to leave some of their personal belongings. library, as we understand it in the context of this transmission was referring specifically to the protocol involved in testing the powder that was there and the basis in which it was initially in this preliminary field screening determined to be cocaine. so library was more about the sample that was being studied and not about the location in which it was found. >> mike memoli, thank you very

much. thanks for clarifying that. and right now the treasury secretary janet yellen is on her way to china in an effort to improve relations with beijing, especially on the economy. her trip comes as china threatens to impose export -- the biden administration according to "the wall street journal" is preparing to restrict -- or is considering restricting chinese companies access to the can cloud, computing services in order to protect advanced technology. joining me now is julian tet, chair of the editorial board and editor at large of the financial times. we see this could be a breakthrough, john allen going, the highest level cabinet official since the real breakthrough was secretary of state. but china slowing economy, not recovering as rapidly as they would have expected from the pandemic, the lockdown, an escalating war over chips, especially in the high-tech

area. >> yes, you have a rather confused mixed picture right now. on the one hand, you have both sides poking each other in the eye in terms of putting more controls on the exports of chips, et cetera, quite a lot -- you know, potentially aggressive moves on both sides right now, which is making the relationship worse. and yet, both sides are signaling that they would like to find a way to at least be in dialogue with each other and to try and improve the wider atmosphere around this incredibly important bilateral relationship. and on top of that you've had these subtly different signaling emerging from the treasury department and the national security council. and the latter is very aggressive and very hawkish. however, the treasury has repeatedly in recent months even before this trip been trying to send out more positive overtures to china and of course you've

had a lot of big business leaders and wall street leaders trying to reach out to china as well. so it's a very mixed picture. the one thing that's clear is that the treasury department, like the rest of the u.s. government, are certainly looking for tangible small steps on which they can build some cooperation hoping that that may actually then expand to wider areas of more collaboration or at least a lessened temperature. so the type of thing they're talking about is either some type of collaboration around the environment or perhaps surprisingly, some kind of collaboration around artificial intelligence. there have been tiny, tangible breakthroughs in the last couple of years. the s.e.c. did a deal quite remarkable deal with the chinese about the listing of chinese companies, for example. so you know, it's really about whether you can actually focus on nitty-gritty, granular small steps to try and start on a bigger journey to improve the relationship or not. >> and of course so much else is

happening in the world, their relationship with china, what's happened with putin. there's just, you know, this enormous, you know, layer and layer of issues, obviously taiwan, which is less a problem with yellen, although the chip and semiconductor business is critical and taiwan's leadership in the world on that. what about -- what about any future trip, the commerce secretary, gia gia raimondo was supposed to go as well. >> the big one whether biden will meet xi or not. whether you could see a replay of nixon moment. if gina raimondo goad, that will be significant, particularly controversial, but it's important that these trips with all their theater take place because, you know, without that we're heading for a very nasty situation. >> gillian tett, thank you very

much. that does it for us, a double edition of "andrea mitchell reports." follow the show online, on facebook and on twitter. lindsey reiser is in for chris jansing reports right now. good afternoon, everybody. i'm lindsey reiser in for chris jansing here at msnbc headquarters in new york city. any minute now we'll get an update from philadelphia after the deadliest mass shooting in that city in decades on monday left five people dead. this morning the suspect behind the attack made his first appearance in court where he now faces 11 charges including several counts of murder and aggravated assault. the tragedy and fear of the moment captured in this image from the philadelphia inquirer, a child's mint green bicycle abandoned at the scene. the mayor now demanding change. >> this country needs to re-examine its conscience and find out how tge