powerball drawing is now a whopping $590 million. it has been subtly climbing since april with no wins and now ranks among the highest ever prizes in history. the drawing happens saturday, just before 11:00 p.m. eastern and in case you're wondering just how lucky you would need to be to win, odds of taking home that cash run about 1 in 292 million. good luck. that does it for us today. thanks for being here. up next, yasmin vossoughian. see you monday. next, yasmin vo. see you monday good morning, everybody. it is 11:00 a.m. in the east. 8:00 a.m. pacific. i'm yasmin vossoughian in for jose diaz-balart. a big show ahead. breaking news, new numbers just in about the jobs market. we're going to break down the report and what it means for the u.s. economy. also breaking, nbc news has learned the biden administration is expected to announce it is

sending controversial cluster munitions to ukraine. what that could mean for the war. also today, extreme weather. millions are at risk of record-breaking temperatures and severe storms as well. and then in washington, new fallout from the discovery of a bag of cocaine at the west wing of the white house. what congress is now demanding. and a medical breakthrough, the fda gives full approval for a new alzheimer's drug, but it comes with a serious warning about potentially deadly side effects. >> we begin this hour, everybody, with another sign, the economy may in fact be cooling. the government reported that employers added just 209,000 jobs last month. below the 240,000 the economists had expected. and the unemployment rate fell slightly to 3.6%.

when you break it down by race, black unemployment rose by .4%. and hispanic unemployment rose by .3%. the president reacting to the news in a statement saying in part this, we are seeing stable and steady growth. that's bidenomics, growing the economy by creating jobs, lowering costs for hard working families, and making smart investments in america. cnbc's dom chu joining us now it talk more about this. dom, good to talk to you this morning. thank you for joining us on this. i think the overarching question is this a sign that the job market is starting to weaken? >> yes and no, yasmin. it is not nearly as positive as what we got in terms of data earlier this week when private payrolls processor adp said they saw nearly half a million private sector jobs created last month. so that doesn't really reconcile with the numbers we got this morning. the labor department's number of 209,000 was decently below forecast, less than the 339,000

jobs from may. by the way, that was revised lower. it was also the lowest job gain since i want to say back december of 2020. so that's the negative side. on the more positive side, we did see wage as measured by average hourly earnings come in better than expected on both month over month basis between may to june, also on a year over year growth basis. so, what is probably more profound is just how more muddied the economic picture still remains. it is still, yasmin, to your point, job growth. that's good. it is slowing down. that's not good. wages are still growing, that's good. but not by as much. not as good. so that's kind of what this narrative has been reinforced with and, by the way, that just means that the economy is still good enough where market participants predict a 90% chance the fed will raise interest rates again this month by a quarter of a percentage point. >> yet another possible interest rate raise. that's major news there. you know the president has been

out on the trail throughout the country, touting bidenomics. are these numbers squaring with what the president is in fact touting there when it comes to job growth and industries like manufacturing, and economic investments throughout the country? >> so there is likely a narrative being woven by the biden administration to try to at least frame the discussion right now into an economy that is, by the way, not recessionary, but is in fact slowing down. what you did see, just from the numbers we saw today, labor force participation, the number of people counted as working in this country, it didn't really move. but the underemployment rate or so-called u-6, looks at people out of work as well as those working multiple part time jobs, that actually rose. a muddied picture. as for where the job gains were, we talked about some of the more higher paying jobs out there. this time around, we saw most of the job gains in government,

healthcare, social assistance, construction, some of those are more higher paying jobs, where we did see a falloff, though, in job momentum was in leisure and hospitality and you and i both know we saw a large gain over the last couple of years there as people spend more on travel. so we're seeing some moderation. what we did see is job losses in retail and transportation and ware housing. all of that stuff on balance has to be something the biden administration wants to address more fully if they want to talk about bidenomics. >> talk to me about the first day of the visit by treasury secretary janet yellen happening, high stakes visit to china as we all well know. what did she have to say during her meetings today. >> so just wrapped up the first full day on the ground in china. the secretary has met with american business leaders in china, also just reiterating some of the concerns that both xi and the administration have about what are seemingly these back and forth retaliatory measures by both governments on

the business front. now, this week china announced some export restrictions on certain raw materials that are used to make computer chips. the u.s. has moved to halt sales of certain high end computer chips to china because of national security concerns. also looking to restrict access, possibly the u.s. web services infrastructure, from chinese companies, and then china has banned certain u.s. chips from being sold and used in china. but overall, yasmin, the secretary did also emphasize that while they can disagree that the two biggest economies in the world have to have open communication so that's something to watch out for as well. >> certainly is, dom chu, thankful for you. we're following some breaking news, everybody, as well, with the biden administration expected to announce today that the u.s. will in fact provide ukraine with cluster munitions, according to administration and defense officials as well. these weapons, they disperse small bombs over a wide area that risk harming civilian

populations. more than 100 countries have signed a u.n. convention banning the use of these types of munitions. joining me is nbc news pentagon correspondent courtney kube, nbc news foreign correspondent kelly cobiella in kyiv, also with us is ambassador bill taylor, former u.s. ambassador to ukraine and the vice president of russia and europe at the u.s. institute of peace. welcome. what more are you learning about this expected announcement from the biden administration and how do these munitions work exactly? >> so we're learning there are upwards of 10,000 of these munitions already sitting forward in europe, ready to go into ukraine as soon as the biden administration makes that announcement and decides to send them in. they could be in a matter of days. what this means, the reason the u.s. made the decision to send these in now, after having talked about it for months and months and getting pressure from members of congress to do so is because of the need. there is a need to fulfill the

constant difficulty in filling the 155 artillery round short fall. ukraine is using a ton of artillery on the battlefield every single day. these cluster munitions could have the ability to sort of back fill some of that. it is a munition that when it -- as it -- when it lands, it lets off a whole bunch of additional bomblets or small munitions over a wide area. now, that has the ability, depending on what type of munition is in the warhead, it has the ability to pierce armor, to go through certain vehicles, and to have an antipersonnel capability. that means some of the munitions will fragment. you heard the word frag, right? the ability to wound and kill your -- the enemy on the other side. so, it has a usefulness on the battlefield. now, it is also a very controversial munition. you mentioned that the u.s. is not a signatory to this convention that more than 100 other countries are a signatory

to. that is because there is in certain cases there is a high dud rate for the munitions. that means when all these little bomblets disperse, some of them may not explode and what we have seen in other battlefields is civilians and many times kids will come upon them and sort of in a random area and then they may have the potential to explode, wounding and killing civilians after the fact. that's why many human rights groups are against this. we put this question to a number of administration officials over the last several weeks. the specific munitions that are forward, ready to go to ukraine, anytime now, they have a dud rate that ranges between 1.3% to 2.35%. it is relatively low. that's one of the reasons the u.s. made the decision to send these forward now. but, even note though the u.s. t a signatory to the convention, they need to sign a waiver because the dud rate is over 1%

before they can be exported to ukraine. >> kelly, with all that in mind, if we're looking at the possible munitions being sent it ukraine, what kind of impact are the officials there hoping these weapons could feasibly have on this war right now? >> reporter: we know we're just short of one month into this counteroffensive. progress has been relatively slow. and one of the big, big problems is russian defenses, they had months and months and months to set up these long lines of minefields first and then trenches, and the difficulty is getting to the russian troops, frankly in those trenches, getting beyond the front lines, beyond the minefields in order to breakthrough. so this type of munition as courtney was describing can have a wider spread area than your typical munition. so you could potentially have a much higher casualty rate among

russian troops. and be able to then have a better chance to breakthrough those lines. that's what the ukrainians are thinking and courtney hit on another important point for the ukrainians. they're low on artillery. they need more munitions on the front, it is something we heard from leaders, something that we heard from soldiers on the ground. they also have said repeatedly they're aware of the danger to troops and civilians. but when you think of it this way, the ukrainians are in a tough spot. either they use these munitions and risk the danger to their civilians down the road, months, years, however far down the road, and to their own troops, or they don't, and they risk not being able to take that land back. >> ambassador, if you will, weigh in on this, right? there is two things, both courtney and kelly just covered there, which is, a, right, the fact that the u.s., russia as well, ukraine, by the way,

signatories to not using these types of munitions but you have to reconcile that with kelly's pointing there where the ukrainians, amidst this counteroffensive, they're low on artillery. so how do you square all of this with possibly the united states giving these munitions to ukraine in the midst of what is seeming like a weakness of the russian president after the wagner mercenary group rebellion? >> you're right to bring that up. this is an opportunity for the ukrainians. they do need artillery ammunition. artillery ammunition is not available in the quantities that are necessary. production capacity is not available at this time. it is ramping up, but not going to ramp up in time to provide the regular, the normal artillery rounds that we have been talking about. these new munitions that we're talking about now are available as courtney points out. they can be there in days. the timing is important for the

ukrainians if they're going to make success if they have success on the battlefield in this counteroffensive. what we all agree on is ukrainians need to win. if they can get these companies, if they can get this ammunition, if they can pursue this counteroffensive, they can win. but they need that ammunition. >> it is interesting as you bring up timing, ambassador, seems like that is very pertinent right now considering again i have to reiterate the wagner mercenary group rebellion, the nato summit is happening next week. you have the ukrainian president voicing he's interested in joining nato. is this possibly a reality more now than ever? >> it is a reality more now than ever. the nato allies, most of the allies that i've been talking to here in washington, their ambassadors are in favor of providing some kind of an

invitation to ukrainealliance. not immediately. but over the next year there will be another summit in washington which may be time for the actual decision. an invitation now, a clear signal to ukraine that it will join in a reasonable time. that seems to be a near consensus among the allies coming up in preparation for building this. >> ambassador bill taylor, a pleasure, sir. courtney kube, kelly cobiella, thank you as well. a programming note, tonight, richard engel takes an inside look into the russian rebellion and the man behind it, yevgeny prigozhin. he explores how putin's former protege turned on his boss and threatened the kremlin's power. watch "on assignment: revolt from within." fascinating stuff. don't miss that. coming up next, monday was the average hottest day ever

recorded on planet earth. on planet earth. then it was tuesday. then it was wednesday. and then again yesterday. we're going to ask a climate scientist about what's happening when we come back in 60 seconds. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports." we'll be right back ching os"je diaz-balart reports. we'll be right bac to severe plaque psoriasis symptoms define me... emerge as you. with tremfya®, most people saw 90% clearer skin at 4 months... ...and the majority stayed clearer, at 5 years. serious allergic reactions may occur. tremfya® may increase your risk of infections and lower your ability to fight them. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms or if you had a vaccine or plan to. emerge as you. emerge tremfyant®. ask you doctor about tremfya®.

one prilosec otc each morning blocks heartburn all day and all night. prilosec otc reduces excess acid for 24 hours, blocking heartburn before it starts. one pill a day. 24 hours. zero heartburn. . welcome back, everybody. 15 past the hour here. this week, the world has broken the unofficial average heat record for the fourth consecutive day with a global average temperature yesterday surpassing 63 degrees fahrenheit for the first time ever, according to the university of maine's climate tool. phoenix has seen a week of temperatures above 110 degrees. while el paso is on a 21-day streak of triple digit temperatures as well. 8 million people in parts of the west are at risk for severe storms, bringing damaging hail, possible tornadoes and wind gusts up to 75 miles an hour. want to bring in emilie ikeda joining us from secaucus, new

jersey. it is hot. it is humid. how are conditions where you are and things across the country from what we're hearing? >> reporter: that heat and humidity absolutely setting in. parts of the northeast could see temperatures up to 13 degrees above average for this time of year. now, fortunately this region should see some level of improvement today. even if it is minor compared to the record-setting temperatures we have seen earlier this week. the impressive heat is more serious than other parts of the country as it continues to hover over areas impacting millions. in the southwest, for instance, in arizona, they have been seeing day after day after day of triple digit temperatures. earlier this week in arizona, u.s. border patrol agents rescuing two people hiking in those triple digit temperatures. they used a blackhawk helicopter to hover over the treacherous region and eventually hoist those two people to safety who were experiencing heat stress.

from the scorching heat to the poor air quality we have been witnessing throughout the week, a lot of residents have been describing it as a 1-2 punch, especially for those dealing with underlying respiratory conditions like asthma. another point of good news today, the air quality does appear to be improving. but other parts of the country today, not only are they facing the heat, also the severe weather as you mentioned. some 8 million people in the country's midsection could see more of the storms, storms we have seen snarl travel over the last couple of weeks. thousands of flights delayed yesterday, but i'll end on a positive point. you see the traffic moving a little bit slowly behind me. the national average for a gallon of gas as so many people are returning home is more than a dollar cheaper compared to this time last year. >> some good news i guess amidst all of this over the summer holidays where a lot of people are taking a lot of road trips. thank you. i want to bring in catherine

hayho chief scientist of the nature conservancy which seeks to combat climate change and distinguished professor at texas tech university. thank you for joining us on this. what is happening here? what is causing these record-breaking temperatures? >> well, what we're seeing is our summer weather as we have always had on top of a long-term warming trend. the planet is now warmer than anytime in human history and when you add on top of that warming trend our natural variability, we are getting increasing risk of record-breaking temperatures that are putting us all at risk. >> what are, as you say, increasing risks? what are the long-term impacts here because of these rising temperatures? not only in the air, but in the ocean. >> so, this is all caused by our heat trapping gas emissions. when we burn coal, gas and oil, in our cars, when we cut down trees, it provides heat trapping gases that are building up in

the atmosphere, wrapping an extra blanket of carbon pollution around the planet. and what that is doing is it is loading the weather dice against us. many people refer to this as global warming, but i prefer to call it global weirding. because wherever we live, the weather is getting weirder. heavy downpours are more frequent. hurricanes are intensifying faster. wildfires burning greater area and we certainly see this in the summer across canada and the smoke we're getting in the u.s. and the high temperature extremes are breaking new records every year. >> i love that. global weirding. it is exactly what i was thinking as i was sitting in new york city, just a couple of days ago, and we had the smoke from the wildfires, right, that was blanketing the city, certain areas of the city, we couldn't even see. so when you think about that, right, couple that with the rising temperatures across the globe, couple that with the rising temperatures in the ocean what are your biggest concerns? >> the biggest concern isn't the

planet. it is us. we have never had 8 billion people on the planet with conditions changing this fast. ten times faster than anytime we can see as far back as we go on the history of the planet. all of our homes, our infrastructure, our food and our water systems, they were all created for a planet that no longer exists. so what do we need to do about this? we need to reduce our heat trapping gas, carbon flugs emissions as quickly as possible, and thankfully doing that with the transition to the clean energy economy, but we need to do more. we need to invest in nature, to help take the carbon from the atmosphere and put it back in the soil and ecosystems where we want it and we need to build resilience to the changes already here today because the world is a very different place than the one that you and i were born into. >> yeah, very different place that is for sure on many levels. thank you so much. coming up next, we're live on the campaign trail with the latest on the republican race

for president including new desantis drama, the race for 2024 could be brutal for senate democrats as well. we're going to talk about that with democratic congressman colin allred, in his own battle against senator ted cruz. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports." you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports. thanks to skyrizi, i'm on my way with clearer skin. 3 out of 4 people achieved 90% clearer skin at 4 months. and skyrizi is just 4 doses a year after 2 starter doses. serious allergic reactions and an increased risk of infections or a lower ability to fight them may occur. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms, had a vaccine, or plan to. nothing on my skin means everything! ♪ nothing is everything ♪ ask your dermatologist about skyrizi. learn how abbvie could help you save. try killing bugs the worry-free way. not the other way. zevo traps use light to attract and trap flying insects with no odor and no mess. they work continuously, so you don't have to. zevo. people-friendly.

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all right, 26 past the hour, everybody. right now, 2024 hopeful and former governor nikki haley is holding a meet and greet in new hampshire, a critical early

state in the republican primary. this is happening as the current front-runner former president trump is set to hold a major rally in battleground, iowa, this afternoon. his visit happening just days after his former vp mike pence made his pitch in the hawkeye state as well. joining us, vaughn hillyard, live in council bluffs, and jennifer horn, a former rnc executive committee member and a former new hampshire republican party chair. she is the host of "is it just me or have we all lost our minds." the answer is, yes, by the way. we have all lost our minds. that's a podcast. vaughn hillyard, i'll start with you on this one. take us there today. what are the expectations on the ground? >> reporter: well, the expectations are, yasmin, that donald trump is going to make his way to iowa. i've been on enough planes over the last years covering campaigns that planes have a hard time getting through thunderstorms like the one we're living through right now. misery index is very, very high.

take a look at the number, hundreds if not thousands of people already gathered here in the cold rain to hear donald trump here in council bluffs, iowa, this afternoon. i had my producer just before we went on air with you run over and ask one woman who it would take her to get her to leave right now and she said a million bucks. donald trump is worth it. that's what ron desantis, mike pence, nikki haley are up against here. nobody gets these sorts of crowds. this is a loyal base of support that is going to be frankly very difficult to crack. i was talking with one iowa republican earlier today and anti-trump republican and he said his biggest concern right now is there are too many candidates and he doesn't know who to throw his weight behind. nobody is coming within striking distance of him, even ron desantis. after the super pac backing him spent $15 million on behalf of his candidacy at this point. >> jennifer, let's talk about money here, right? because we just got these fund-raising numbers for ron

desantis, trailing the former president. but making big money, right, getting big donors here. i believe the haul was $20 million, his super pac bringing in $130 million. by the way, numbers we got from the former president, 35 million in the second quarter after all of those indictments. how much -- here is my question. how much does money matter and specifically where the money is coming from. if you look at the former president, what we are kind of taking away from that haul he's bringing in is you got a lot of small donors in there. desantis is getting bigger more traditional republican donors. >> right. those numbers, those fund-raising numbers are really largely kind of a political insider's game. they're important because they sustain the campaign, they sustain the viability of the campaign. but what you just said is

actually more important. where do they come from? when donald trump's money is coming primarily from small dollar donors, you can translate that haul, those fund-raising numbers, into individual donors, into -- like ron desantis who is bringing his money in from, you know, larger fund-raisers, bundling all these different high dollar donors, that translates into fewer donors. i'm sorry, fewer voters. and we see that very much in the polling. you see that reflected in where -- in the polls right now as well. >> yeah. so i'm glad you brought up the polls, thank you for that transition, jennifer. fox news poll out taken between june 23rd and june 26th as well. see it there, you've seen this consistently since desantis entered the race and before he entered the race. the former president leading with 56%, that's a fairly big number. ron desantis trailing with 22

and everybody after that is in the single digits. i think about this primary and we're still so far out and we cannot emphasize that enough. but at this point, in the democratic primary, you think back to the 2020 race, right, the president was the dark horse. and it wasn't until the south carolina primary that he was able to pull it out. is there a sense at all that someone like ron desantis, the only other candidate who is registering in the double digits could feasibly be that dark horse, especially with multiple indictments in the former president's back pocket? >> i don't think there is a sense of that right now for anyone other than maybe the desantis team. the -- trump's lead is so large and so solid, his support is so solid that honestly, like, normally you might say, gee, it would take a federal indictment

to, you know, to try to cut into that support. and yet here he is with the federal indictment and it holds solid. i don't think that there is -- there is no indication so far that anybody else in this race is really going to be able to push donald trump out of that place and out of that first place. and when you go back and look at those and think about the fund-raising numbers again, if a candidate was really going to have an opportunity to try to take a bite out of trump's lead, it would probably happen on a debate stage, with a national audience. but we know that the rnc has this -- these rules in place in order for any candidate to make the debate stage that is very dependent on having exactly the kind of fund-raising that donald trump has. none of the others has those 40,000 low dollar donors. as much as they want you to believe otherwise, the rnc's debate rules very much are favoring donald trump right now.

>> you feel like the former president is campaigning with senator bernie sanders with the low dollar donors when it comes to rung for president of the united states. thank you. coming up next, everybody. the new demand for answers after the discovery of a bag of cocaine at the white house. what we know about where the cocaine was found. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports." we'll be right back. ching "jose diaz-balart reports. we'll be right back. just without the lactose. delicious too. just ask my old friend, kevin. nothing like enjoying a cold one while watching the game. who's winning? we are, my friend. we are.

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welcome back, everybody. 37 past the hour. congress now demanding answers over that small bag of cocaine found inside the white house. just this morning, house oversight committee chair james comer requesting a staff level briefing from the secret service on the discovery. want to bring in now nbc news senior capitol hill correspondent garrett haake who has more on this with nbc news white house correspondent allie

raffa. what is comer asking for? >> reporter: he's asking for the u.s. secret service director or designee to brief staff on the committee by the end of next week. he says he wants to explore any security failures that led to both the cocaine being discovered in the white house, and the evacuation that took place when it was still an unidentified white powder in the west wing, something that gets everyone's attention. what he may also want from a political perspective is just to keep this story in the news through the end of next week, indications of reporting from our white house team has been that this investigation could be wrapped up by as early as monday. a friday deadline next week with congress in town next week keeps this story into the headlines well into next week while the president is abroad overseas. >> so, with all that in mind, ali, we had new information yesterday about the location of where the baggie was discovered. couple that with what we're learning more about the

investigation and when things can wrap up, if we could even learn anything more about it. >> garrett mentioned sources familiar with this investigation are saying that the secret service could have wrapped up this whole investigation by monday, well before that deadline of next friday. they're tamping down expectations that there could be someone actually identified in this. and that's for several potential reasons. they're saying that as they comb through possible dna or fingerprints, they're doing additional tests on the baggie, they're going through visitor logs and surveillance footage of this area where this cubby is, where this baggie of cocaine was discovered. and they say that because of its small size, this is just the size of a dime, you can imagine how hard it is to identify and detect that in a surveillance video. also, the area where this was discovered is a very heavily trafficked area. this is not the west wing entrance that many viewers may recognize, maybe familiar with

from seeing in our coverage. this is something one florida below a much more private entrance, but that has a lot of white house staffers, administration officials, maintenance, cleaners, simply people that help the white house actually run as well as members of the public who attend private tours, all of those people would have had access to this area. it is a cubby there is an area where there are cubbies, you can leave personal belongings before venturing deeper into the west wing. so we do know that those tours continued throughout the weekend and on sunday when this baggie was eventually discovered. and so there is a lot of eyes on whatever updates could potentially happen on monday when we expect to the secret service to wrap up this investigation. >> ali, a lot of folks don't necessarily get to visit the white house for those private tours. civilians. when you're talking at the location of where this baggie was discovered and you know the white house pretty well, because you do cover it, and you know how you enter the white house,

right, are folks patted down when they go through the white house? do they go through metal detectors? is this something that could have been discovered by security upon entering the white house? >> everyone that enters the white house grounds is subject to -- i would compare it to the security at an airport. tsa you go through metal detectors, secret service officers there monitoring you, but they are checking for anything that could potentially be used as a weapon or a chemical weapon, not necessarily illegal substances. so that is probably how this -- how this cocaine was able to enter the white house, but it is really unclear whether any sort of additional security measures would have been able to detect this. this was, off all, identified during a regular routine surveillance of this area, where these cubbies are. >> right. i wonder what the discovery of this baggie of cocaine and if in fact they're rethinking the way in which they survey folks as they're entering the white

house, whether their administration officias or just regular tourists. ali, thank you, garrett, thank you as well. coming up next, congressman colin allred is joining us live. we're going to get his reaction to the u.s. expecting to send controversial cluster bombs to ukraine. we're also going to talk to him about the hard race that senate democrats are facing. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports." we'll be right back. chating "jo diaz-balart reports. we'll be right back. your car insurance...al cus so you only pay for what you need. that's my boy. ♪ stay off the freeways! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

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welcome back. 46 past the hour, everybody. today marks 100 days since "wall street journal" reporter evan gershkovich was detained in russia. he has been held on charges of espionage, which he, "the wall street journal," along with the biden administration all deny. the u.s. says he was wrongfully detained. his family released a statement this morning writing in part this, quote, every day that evan is not home is another day too many. we miss our son and will not stop until he is free. we are so appreciative of all the support from around the world. it is overwhelming and we are grateful. i'm staying overseas for a moment. we're following new reaction as the biden administration is expected to announce today the united states will send controversial cluster bombs to ukraine. with us now to talk more about this and much more is texas congressman colin allred who sits on the house foreign affairs committee. thank you for joining us on this. we appreciate it. the sending of cluster bombs

from the united states to ukraine, what is your reaction? do you think it is a good idea? >> every decision like this that reaches the president's desk, i think it is a difficult one. i think it has to be balanced against the reality of life and the war in ukraine. this is a war of choice, by vladimir putin and the ukrainians are fighting bravely and used the weapons we have given them effectively. but there are concerns with certain types of weapons. i'm sure president biden has to balance that with also understanding that what the ukrainians are trying to do now is retake territory that the russians have taken from them, having to live with occupation and try to restore their country. >> as you talk about this balance by the administration, the president specifically has to strike between giving munitions to ukraine with possible human rights violations, you think about the treaty in which countries have signed on to banning these

weapons or these types of weapons, ukraine, russia, the united states not signatories on that treaty. what is that balance and do we risk losing the moral high ground and giving these types of weapons to ukraine at this moment? >> the balance is that we have seen these can -- there can be duds in these cluster munitions, that they can then later go off and injure civilians and that is a very real and serious concern. but there is, i think, no chance of us losing the moral high ground here when the russians are every night purposefully attack civilian targets, when they're hitting apartment buildings that are not military targets, when they're committing, i think, basically daily war crimes, and in which this is a war of this irchoice. what we're trying to do, i think, is consistent with our values, help the brave ukrainian resistance kick the russians out of their territory and i'm sure

president biden thought about this deeply and his team and they decided this would help them do that and i'm sure they'll also try to have a plan to deal with any of the fallout on the back end. >> while i have you, a few other things i want to hit on as well. we have been talking all hour about this, right, strained relationship with relationship h china. a couple weeks ago blinken visited with his counterpart in china. there's a key meeting happening with treasure secretary yellen in china as well, wanting to strengthen economic ties there. what are your expectations with this trip? >> you know, i'm on the foreign affairs committee. i was in taiwan not long ago. i'm very concerned with some of the chinese aggression there and with many of the human rights violations. we have to keep that in mind. but the fact that they are our third largest trading partner, second largest economy in the world. we have to find a way to compete with them, to win that competition, but to do so in a

way that doesn't irreparably harm our economy or the global economy. that's what this administration is trying to do. i think it's why secretary yellen is there right now to say, yes, there are certain national security priorities we have that are going to lead us to, for example, not allow certain things to be exported to china. we understand that they are going to have a reaction. overall, we understand we have deep economic ties. this is not like the cold war with the united states and the ussr. this is very much integrated economies. we have to recognize that. >> democrats, as we look at 2024, congressman, have a pretty uphill battle. they have to defend more seats. i'm wondering what the strategy is considering you are challenging senator ted cruz in texas. how confident do you feel you can take him? how do other democrats do it? what do you focus in on in 2024? >> there is no way we can afford

ted cruz. they have contributed to pitting americans against each other. we are dealing with an extremist version of the republican party. that's who ted cruz is. that's why i think we can't really talk about -- the past is not prologue here. what we have been seeing is that americans are looking for folks who will bring us together around the things we agree on, around our common values. that's what i'm going to be doing in texas. folks out there want to help us, i ask you to get involved. >> what type of common values, congressman? abortion? are we going to campaign on abortion in texas? you think about what happened with affirmative action by the supreme court recently as well. the supreme court has made some controversial decisions.

what do you mean by common values specifically? >> i was raised by a single mother in dallas who was a public schoolteacher. i am here because of teachers and coaches. there's so much that we share in common, that we want the same things for our families. there are issues like some of the personal decisions, like the decision about when and how to start a family, wherein texas we live in a state where there are no exceptions basically and in which every day we see women turned away by hospitals, not by their doctors, but by lawyers who say they don't meet the definition because they're not sick enough yet to have a dangerous pregnancy terminated. that's not who we are. i don't think that's an american value. >> thank you so much. appreciate it. coming up, new hope for the millions of people suffering from alzheimer's disease. you are watching "jose

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welcome back. 56 past the hour. in a historic first, the fda granted full regulatory approval for a drug that's meant to slow the progression of alzheimer's disease. it's designed to target a protein in the brain that's believed to be one of the underlying causes of the

disease. 6.7 million adults suffer from alzheimer's in the united states, that's according to the alzheimer's association. joining us now is a clinical professor of neurology and psychiatrist and an attending physician at lenox hill hospital in new york city. how much is this drug going to change the game for alzheimer's treatment? >> i think it's going to be a real game changer for a bunch of reasons. one, because it's the first time that a drug has been unconditionally approved by the fda for treating the pathology in alzheimer's. to change the course of the condition by removing at least one of the pathologic changes that we see inpatients with alzheimer's. secondly, it offers the possibility of preventing alzheimer's by possibly helping

some people who may still be in the pre-clinical stages. they may not have clinical symptoms. finally, it also, from the cost perspective, is going to be a big burden for all of us. we have to factor in how we are going to handle that. >> it could actually help with all out prevention if you are found to be more susceptible to developing alzheimer's? how soon would you have to take this drug to prevent the onset of alzheimer's? >> that literally is the million dollar question. when do you take the drug if you are somebody at very high risk for developing alzheimer's? if there's a strong family history of it and you've been found to have plaque in the brain, when do you start the drug? we don't know. it's a very exciting possibility in this category of drugs that we may be able to prevent it. >> with all of this, good news, i should say, there's also the

fact that the indications are that it slows progression by five months or so. the fda warns of seizures and death. how does a physician prescribing this medication to their patient balance that? >> not just seizures, but there's risks in this class of drugs of brain bleeding and brain swelling. about 22% of patients can experience this and can conceivably die from having this drug. taking this drug shouldn't -- it should not be a light undertaking. you have to go into it, make sure you have all the right tests to actually verify that you do have alzheimer's, that you are at the right stage where you can benefit from it. then there's the whole process of taking the drug, which is every two weeks you will have to get an infusion. that needs to be -- the patient has to have mris at periodic

times to assess whether or not they are having any of the side effects. it's a protracted commitment. >> thank you so much. some major news there, of course, with the fda approval of the drug. that wraps it up for me. you can catch me right back here tomorrow, sunday as well, 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. eastern on msnbc. jose will be back monday. "andrea mitchell reports" is picking up right now. right now, the new job reports shows the job market be cooling with 209,000 jobs added, fewer than expected. president biden in his re-election bid is focusing on the economy. targeting junk health insurance plans today. the president is reportedly agreeing to provide ukraine with cluster bombs, outlawed by many allies. president biden making the decision ahead of next