desantis is attempting a reset of his campaign, a new media strategy, firing some people. as we saw two days ago, that strategy does not include any direct criticism of donald trump, the man he's trying to catch. >> there you go. that does it for us this morning. ana cabrera picks up the coverage right now. right now on "ana cabrera reports," the grand jury investigating donald trump meets again today as the possibility of yet another criminal indictment swirls around the former president. the witness expected to go before that panel in washington. plus, more extreme weather, in a summer already defined by extreme weather, from a suspected tornado tearing up a pfizer factory in north carolina to kentucky, a state still dealing with high temps where nearly a foot of water fell from the sky in just 24 hours, surrounding and swamping homes.

>> it's coming up fast, you know, you hear about this and you see it on the tv and then when it's your own town, it hits different, and it's scary. and later, jackpot. there's finally a power ball winner, so who woke up a new billionaire? hello on this thursday. it is 10:00 eastern. thank you for being here. i'm ana cabrera reporting from new york. we begin with important action today in the election interference investigation into former president donald trump. a federal grand jury weighing whether trump will face a third indictment will meet at this courthouse in washington, and we've learned they're going to interview at least one more witness. we're on the lookout for this man, william russell. he is someone with direct knowledge because, as you can see here, he was with trump during january 6th. joining us now is nbc news justice correspondent ryan

reilly outside the courthouse in washington, nbc news correspondent vaughn hillyard here with me in new york, and joyce vance, former u.s. attorney in alabama and msnbc legal analyst. vaughn, we already know russell has testified before in this grand jury process, so what more we learning about who he is, why the grand jury wants to have him back? >> we don't know why the grand jury wants to have him back, but william russell is particularly of interest to us because the january 6th house select committee, they never interviewed william russell. this hits at the point that the department of justice and special counsel's office likely has much more testimony but also evidence that the house select committee never was able to get their hands on. you see that image there, william russell was serving as an aide in the trump white house. he was there just before the ellipse speech that donald trump gave that day on january 6th. we are trying to fill in those puzzle pieces and i'm sure the special counsel's office as well

as to what extent he may have been privy to conversations with donald trump on that day of the attack and exactly where he was at other points of that day. as you said, he's appeared now multiple times before the grand jury and it also hits at the heart of the fact that the special counsel's office continues. one other point, will smith, he is still being paid through his firm by the trump 2024 campaign, $12,000 a month here. so he is somebody who is still very much in donald trump's orbit and a part of the current operation. >> will russell. >> will russell. >> and he's a young guy, in his post-white house life. election law matt sanderson is joining our conversation as well. as we expand the conversation, i want to bring in ryan who's at the courthouse. do we know any details about when exactly the grand jury is going to be meeting with russell, and what else could happen with this grand jury today? >> reporter: you know, it's a lot of reading the tea leaves. what we can say is his lawyer

has a separate appointment in this federal courthouse in the afternoon. that case actually involves a verdict from a judge who heard a bench trial, and that was involving an actual trump administration official who himself stormed the capitol and was in the tunnel that day. based on scheduling alone, we suspect we're looking at a morning appointment here. the confluence of events all coming together on this day, thursday being the last day that donald trump could testify before the grand jury, according to his own social media post saying he was given four days. that checks out to thursday, and also having a witness return to give testimony basically checking out what they've done before, you know, giving him another sort of shot here and firming up some facts really does suggest that we're getting down to the wire on a decision here. you know, i think that this is basically the opening day of being on stand by mode for a potential trump indictment to come down as a result of this investigation. you know, this was something that really started before jack smith even took over in november, and of course the existence of the special counsel

investigation is a result of donald trump's announcement that he was running for president, and that's when merrick garland decided that it was time to have a special counsel to have some sort of outside influence on this. so this is really, i think, the day that we should start looking for when we're going to get this indictment handed town, and based on how this came out last time, it was also a social media post from the president informing us that that indictment had came down out of florida. >> you've got your eyes open there at the courthouse, we're all watching are truth social to see if trump makes some other announcement at any moment. joyce, the special counsel already sent this target letter, so what do you make of the fact the grand jury is still hearing from witnesses? >> well, a target letter is something you send either when you're preparing to make your charging decisions or sometimes when you already have them in hand. in this case it's very unlikely a target letter would have been sent to a former president, a pretty inflammatory action to

take, unless prosecutors had already made the decision that trump would be charged. and we know from reporting that there are at least three sorts of crimes that they're considering, but russell's testimony today is intriguing. it could just be that some witnesses have triggered additional factual inquiries prosecutors want to make, but it's also possible -- and this is of course speculation, but old prosecutors like to read the tea leaves -- russell has previously testified. it may be that there's a deal in the works with him or perhaps prosecutors have identified inconsistencies in his earlier testimony. they're going to put him back in front of the grand jury to ask him about those inconsistencies. and sometimes that's the sort of situation that forces a witness to decide whether they want to be a defendant or a cooperaing witness. we'll have to see how that plays out here, but increasingly it does begin to look like we're pretty late stage on this

investigation. >> vaughn, one of the criminal statutes mentioned in this target letter sent to trump was conspiracy to defraud the u.s. of course conspiracy by definition means there's somebody else involved. do we know if anybody else received target letters? >> we are not aware of anybody else receiving target letters at this time, but we also know that the special counsel's office is not obligated to send target letters to other individuals so they could bring charges without giving them a potential heads-up or inviting them to come speak before the grand jury here. at the same time, when we're talking about the conspiracy to defraud the u.s. government, we know that they are looking at the fake elector scheme. seven different states they transmitted a fake elector slate to the national archives and to the congress to hypothetically be counted by mike pence on the day of january 6th, 2021. and so we know that there was john eastman, rudy giuliani were having conversations around the scheme, but also the actual electors in states themselves

from michigan to arizona, to georgia, exactly what do those conversations entail, and to what extent was donald trump potentially directing them? that is the information that we would be waiting for from the special counsel jack smith. >> matthew, the three criminal statutes mentioned in this target letter, there's the deprivation of rights under color of law, conspiracy to defraud the u.s. and witness tampering. i want to ask you about that first one. "the new york times" reports that this statute dates back to post civil war reconstruction, that it was used to help federal agents crack down on kkk members who were stopping recently freed black americans from voting. more recently, according to the times a series of 20th century cases upheld application of the law in cases involving alleged tampering with ballot boxes by casting false votes or falsely tabulating votes after the election was over, even if no

specific voter could be considered the victim. how could this statute apply to trump's case? >> this is a law that makes it a crime to injure oppress or threaten any person in the free exercise or enjoyment of their constitutional or legal rights. this has been applied in election law context multiple times, and it basically entitles americans writ large to an honest count in the election and so what did donald trump do to interfere with an honest count, we already know that trump asked georgia's secretary of state to find 11,780 votes. we already know the trump campaign facilitated the completion of fake electors and that trump's white house counsel said the scheme was not legally sound. the trump campaign's lawyers, the general counsel and deputy general counsel eventually refused to participate in this scheme. so we already know quite a bit. what would make this case even more compelling is if the

special counsel can add something else to what we already know, particularly evidence showing that donald trump either knew or should have known that he failed to win the election. so if you're trump's lawyer, if you're one of trump's lawyers at this point, you really are wondering if anyone gave up the goods, if anyone provided this type of testimony to the grand jury and provided that evidence to the special counsel or this case could be more compelling than what we already know. >> joyce, trump has given us a prevau of his possible defense . he writes i have the right to protest an election that i am fully convinced was rigged and stolen. how strong is that defense? >> it's a terrible defense. what he's trying to do here is knock out one of the elements of some of the crimes that are being discussed, which is knowledge. knowledge that he had lost the election. there's abundant evidence that

he knew or that he should have known, and the way the law works in this area, willful blindness, a legal concept can be a substitute for knowledge. that means you can't stick your head in the sand and ignore obvious facts. you couldn't avoid criminal liability if an element of your crime was knowing that mars was a planet in our solar system and you said i've never heard of mars. i have no idea what that is. everyone knows what mars is, and that form of willful blindness does not constitute a defense. similarly here, there's testimony now that the former president was told, was directly confronted with the fact that he lost. there has been some testimony through third parties that he had conversations where he acknowledged the loss and said it was embarrassing, and of course there's the plethora of lawsuits where his lawyers tried to claim that there had been fraud pervading the outcome of the elections and repeatedly lost over and over including in cases that were handled by trump appointees to the bench. this defense isn't going anywhere.

>> matthew, this seems to be a much more sprawling probe compared to the classified documents case. does that make it harder to prove? >> no, i think if you're looking at potential conspiracy charges, the fact that this is widespread, it gives you more points of evidence -- it gives the prosecutor more points of evidence to cite. this was a broad scheme, this was an attempt across seven different states to pressure state legislatures, to pressure state election officials. to pressure the vice president of the united states, to overturn a free and fair election. so it is, you know, just by its nature going to be a broad case, but i don't think that -- i think that actually helps rather than hurts. >> matthew sanderson, joyce vance, ryan reilly, vaughn hillyard, thank you all for being part of this discussion. and when we're back in 60 seconds, an onslaught of extreme weather from floods to tornados. who is at risk today? plus, a new flash point over

race and education. the controversial changes to how florida will now teach slavery. also ahead, winner winner chicken dinner, someone just woke up a power ball millionaire. i should say billionaire with a b. and later, mere hours in, there's already a big upset at the 2023 women's world cup, i'll talk to 1999 champ brandy chastain about the u.s. team's chances. 's chances. nexium 24hr prevents heartburn acid before it begins.

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extensive flash flooding, and that's where we find nbc's maggie vespa. fill us in. >> reporter: we'll begin in mayfield, kentucky, with a bit of a hopeful sight. the water here overnight definitely started to recede, but that break is not expected to last long. another round of severe showers and storms is headed to this still soaked community as this brutal one-two punch of heat and rain takes aim at millions nationwide. dueling hallmarks of this summer's severe weather stretch. >> trees are down all over i-95. >> reporter: in north carolina, a confirmed ef-3 tornado near rocky mount, wind speeds up to 150 miles per hour wreaking havoc on a highway and destroying part of this manufacturing facility owned by the drug maker pfizer. >> we really don't know exactly what the amount of injuries or if there's any deaths at this time. >> meanwhile, farther west, more devastation. kentucky the latest state to get slammed with violent flash floods. in hard hit mayfield, initial

reports show nearly a foot of rain falling since midnight. if verified, it would smash the state's decade-old record for the most rain in 24 hours. water swallowing neighborhoods and submerging cars. >> started coming through the side walls, opened up the back door and it started gushing inside the house. >> reporter: jeremy martin scrambled to get his fiancee and their five kids out. >> like, it's ruined, and we don't have renters insurance. it sucks. >> reporter: authorities say no injuries have been reported. kentucky's governor declaring a state of emergency urging people to heed evacuation warnings. >> remember we can replace stuff and we can rebuild homes. we don't want to lose any lives. >> reporter: these floods, fresh trauma for mayfield, a community still healing from 2021's monster ef-4 tornado that killed close to 60 people just before christmas, with another severe system barrelling east, weather-ravaged communities brace once again as violent signs of our climate crisis intensify. so back here in mayfield, kentucky, we mentioned that

deadly 2021 tornado, sort of an eerie reminder that this city is still rebuilding. traffic lights damaged in that storm still don't work two years later, and of course now some people here are starting the recovery process all over again. back to you. >> wow. talk about a long recovery. maggie vespa, thank you. developments this morning in the mysterious disappearance of an alabama woman. police revealing they have been unable to verify most of carlee russell's initial account of events. the 25-year-old vanished last thursday after calling 911 to report a toddler on the highway prompting a search. then she returned home two days later saying she had been abducted. police say that she had done several internet searches before she disappeared including searching whether you have to pay for an amber alert and the movie "taken". russell's family is not commenting at this time. someone in california is waking up a billionaire.

a single winning ticket for that giant power ball jackpot was sold at a store in downtown los angeles. it's only the third time ever that that the jackpot has reached a billion dollars, and nbc's miguel almaguer is joining us with more on this. miguel, do we know who this lucky winner is? >> ana, not yet. it's definitely nobody here at nbc because everybody is here at work, so we know there's no winner here, and it's an especially good morning for that person that bought that winning ticket here in los angeles. now, in just a few hours -- or just a few hours ago we know that those winning numbers were called, but we don't know who won. we do know the location and we know that lives are about to change in a very big way. >> this is powerball. >> this morning, one american is waking up a billionaire after weeks of powerball pandemonium. >> it's already going, i'm dreaming. >> reporter: the jackpot rising to over a billion dollars.

overnight a winning ticket finally drawn. >> your power ball number tonight, good luck, everyone, is 24. >> reporter: the lucky location, this convenience store in downtown los angeles. cementing someone's status as the winner of the third largest jackpot in powerball history, and the sixth largest u.s. lottery jackpot ever, $1.08 billion or a lump sum payment of $558 million cash. as jackpots have been swelling for both powerball is and mega millions this month, it's the fist time both jackpots topped $500 million each, simultaneously in more than two years. americans flocking to buy tickets and building dreams. >> i'd like to stop working. that's the thing. >> that's a lot of money. >> sometimes more money, more problems too, you got to think about that. >> reporter: and after nobody won the mega millions prize tuesday, that jackpot now stands at an estimated $720 million for

the next drawing on friday night keeping hopes and dreams alive. powerball winners here in california cannot remain anonymous, so the winner, whether they like it or not, will become public. it may be time for them to change their phone number. we should add that the store that sold that winning ticket gets a $1 million payout for their role in selling that ticket, ana. >> i love the guy who says more money, more problems. that's what all of us are saying because we didn't win, right? >> i'll take those problems. >> i'll take it indeed, miguel almaguer, thank you so much. up next, new reaction from the family of the u.s. soldier detained in north korea. plus, new 2024 polling and you may be surprised how many americans would be open to supporting a third-party candidate. ndidate. ♪ ♪

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welcome back. we are now hearing from the family of a u.s. soldier detained in north korea after running across the border. the uncle of 23-year-old army private travis king telling nbc news that he was struggling with the loss of a cousin and the distance from home calling reports of his nephew's behavior out of character. >> i know he a real bad place, a bad situation, and i'm hoping they let him come home and be back around his momma or get him some help or something like that, just be back around his family. >> nbc news foreign correspondent matt bradley joins us now from south korea. matt, at this point, do we know if the north korean government is communicating at all with the u.s. about king? >> reporter: we don't know. we know that the united states is trying their best. they're working through their swedish representatives, which is the only real diplomatic representation that the united states has in pyongyang, but it

doesn't -- we we haven't heard anything from pyongyang, we haven't heard anything from the north koreans. they haven't even acknowledged they have custody of private king nor in state media they haven't said anything. this is one of the interesting things about this, we're now going into day three of trying to track down this young man, and so far we've heard nothing from the north koreans. ana, that is the real decisive thing here. once we hear from the north koreans and only then will we have a better sense of this young man's fate. we don't know how they're viewing this situation or how they're treating this man's -- well, we don't know if it was a defection. we have so few details on his motivation. we're presuming that the north koreans are probably trying to get all of that out of him right now as we speak. you mentioned those family members. now, one of the tragedies that we've been hearing from the family members is just how out of character this seems to be and the sense of loss and

absence that they all feel. a family that, though they said that this young travis, that his father was absent, so this is kind of a familiar feeling for this family, and it must be fwuting to have to go through this again. looking at this, they all express this belief that this was a young man who was in crisis, who was in trouble to willingly go across the border and effectively turn yourself in to one of the strictest dictatorships in the entire world. that just shows that you're willing to take extreme steps to avoid some sort of prosecution or military discharge in the states for crimes that private king committed here in seoul. that was why he was headed back to the united states. but if that was his motivation, to try to avoid further punishment by the military, then he really did jump from the pan into the fire by putting himself with the north koreans. but the fact is, regardless of his motivation, i spoke with otto warmbier's father. you remember this name, he was a young man who back a couple of

years ago, he was in north korea. he wasn't -- he didn't push his way in like private king. he was a guest, and he was arrested at the airport because he was accused of trying to steal a propaganda poster. i asked him what the difference is between his son and private king, and here's what otto warmbier's father told me. >> he willingly ran across the border. that makes him quite a bit different from your son. >> absolutely. but now that he's there the facts are exactly the same. they're going to hold him hostage, and they're going to use him as a political prisoner. >> so this is, again, a grieving father who sees his late son's fate in that of private king's. it's a really, really sobering message and one that a lot of american officials hope is not going to be the fate that is going to be meeting private king. >> matt bradley, thank you so much for that update.

back hear in the u.s., we are taking you to the 2024 campaign trail now, and despite growing legal jeopardy, donald trump continues to hold a commanding lead over his republican opponents. new polling from quinnipiac university finds trump at 54%, and you can see that's more than double the numbers of the next six candidates combined. look at this, the poll also shows nearly half of voters would actually consider voting for a third-party candidate. joining us now is basil smikle, former executive director of the new york state democratic party and republican strategist susan del percio, good to see all of you, as always, both of you having you here is an extra treat. susan, of course these polls were taken prior to the news of this new target letter by the special counsel. but i do wonder, is there a cumulative effect of these indictments, these investigations, all the legal troubles, and could that, in fact, rev up voters or is it a

fatigue factor? >> well, in the republican primary it's a zero sum game. if you took that poll five days from now, it'd probably be very similar even with the charges there. voters are -- yes, they may be tired of donald trump, republican voters, but they're still with him for now. and until he does something -- and i can't even imagine at this stage what is worse than what's already happened, there may be a weak point with donald trump like there was at the end of 2022 where his numbers softened, but unless that's the case, he's just going to sail through the republican primary. but where this does have an interesting effect is when we start looking at the head to head biden/trump numbers. i do think that's starting to take a toll on center right republicans and maybe republicans that voted for donald trump -- i mean for joe biden in 2022, they're staying with biden because donald trump continues to show who he is. >> do you agree? >> absolutely. i think that makes him, donald

trump a weaker and weaker general election candidate for those independent voters, disaffected republicans. he's not giving them any reason to come back to the republican party. i also think it hurts a lot of the down ballot candidate, the state legislative races but also members of congress and u.s. senators. think about the fact that new york is now in the midst of another redistricting opportunity in the hopes that democrats can get some more seats. this does not help the republican cause to retain the seats that they won in 2022. and i would also add that for donald trump's potential opponents in this primary, they are making an intellectual case for why he should not be president, but what is intellectually persuasive may not be emotionally compelling, and when you listen to what donald trump says, he's like i'm doing this for you. i am your retribution, he's talking about himself as a martyr. that's what brings people in emotionally unless his opponents can consolidate around one candidate to make a clear

alternative, it's really a donald trump race at this point. >> that is such a good point. i just wanted to like go into that only because -- donald trump -- >> two different parties, you guys agree, i love this. we're not used to it. >> donald trump voters are committed to him, not policy. >> yeah. >> so that's why i think what -- when basil says that, it's spot on. they don't care about what the policy is. they're just in it for donald trump, and then also, the prior point you made to that, basil, about republicans down ballot. governor john sununu just announced that he's not running for re-election in new hampshire. he's wildly popular, but he doesn't want to go out there and constantly have to answer for donald trump. >> and yet, this other party of the poll that we just mentioned, when it comes to a potential third-party candidate and whether voters would support whoever that is -- there's nobody currently running -- i guess there are a couple -- 47 said they would. 47% said they wouldn't support a

third-party candidate. that's a lot of people. does that surprise you, basil? >> it doesn't surprise me. we've been hearing a lot about biden's numbers and of course what's happening on the right is disconcerting for a lot of voters. the problem is that a third-party candidate really does create problems far general election if you're joe biden. and that -- >> but 47%, everyone says a third-party candidate could never win the presidency. >> that's fine, but what you're doing is hurting joe biden, and if he wants to win re-election. those votes on the margin in specific states, that really does -- that really does hurt the cause, and it probably, based on who might be running, hurts joe biden more than it does donald trump. >> the first debate, of course, is a month from now, almost exactly, and we just learned doug burgum, the governor of north dakota hit that 40,000 donor threshold, which is part of the requirement, unique donors. but he was one of those who had some interesting tactics to get the donors.

he was offering gift cards to donors who gave just even $1. now, he's a businessman billionaire, so he could afford to do that. it must have worked. >> well, that's the strategy. i mean, also, when you look at online donation, like that's -- it shouldn't be so hard to hit that number if you have any type of following or if you have a couple of million dollars that you can do a 20 to 1 match. that's very appealing for some people. the question is he gets into the debate, and then what? you know, you still have to have something to say. you still have to appeal to someone, and frankly, with trump running it away and much more well-known candidates who have started to fill certain lanes in the primary, yes, it may fill his ego, but i don't think it does anything as far as changing the race. >> and yet, mike pence says that getting that $40,000 donor threshold would be a challenge. that speaks volumes when he's a former vice president. got to leave it there, thank you so much. up next here on "ana cabrera

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yet another flash point in florida over race and education. the state board of education just approved new rules for how to teach black history in public schools. according to "the washington post," the new standards say students should learn that enslaved people developed skills that, quote, could be applied for their personal benefit. and that during lessons about mob violence against black residents, teachers should include acts of violence perpetrated against and by african americans. so let's bring in michael eric dyson, professor of african american studies at vanderbilt university, he's also the

co-author of "unequal: a story of america," first your reaction to these changes? >> ana, thanks for having me. it's quite ludicrous, it's devastatingly deceitful, it's mendacious, and it doesn't recognize the central place of pedagogy. why is the state trying to impose its hand on the teaching of history of african american people for the state's students? this is something that should be generated with educators, experts at disseminaing information. this would be akin to saying that native american people when we teach their history, we should not only talk about the smallpox blanket that were districted by the attempt of native americans to defend themselves that was equally violent. this would be like teaching the holocaust saying that there were some good things that jewish brothers and sisters picked up in those death camps that they

survived would be helpful for them to make their way in life. this is ludicrous. this was an institution of enslavement. now they're saying we should teach both rosa parks and thomas jefferson. no problem there, except to say that thomas jefferson, while being a creative interpreter of american history and a contributor as a founding father was also enslaving human beings. rosa parks was not. so this false equivalency between experiences of african american people and others being dictated to by the state of florida is a grave disservice to true education in america, and those who were on the right wing who supposedly want to keep government out of the classroom and the bedroom are doing the exact opposite. >> context always matters, right? florida's education commissioner arks that these changes will make the history curriculum more, quote, robust. so he's claiming this means

students will learn more of the history. what do you see as the longer term impact of all of this on the next generation? >> right. it's ridiculous. how is it more robust? help us understand what that might mean. robust in terms of when? more rigorous in its approach? no, it's not. it is distorted. it is taking u.s. history, in this case african american contributions to history, and not just history but culture, politics, sociology and the like. it is taking the experiences of marginalized peoples and putting them on the chopping block of a ideology and a politics that is destructive. what impact will it have? it will deny young students access to rigorous history. to robust history, to an accounting of america for what it has done in the past that has been glorious and has been grievous. the point of history is for us to learn from that past in order to apply lessons to the present.

what florida wants to do is to distort what happened back then so they can manipulate what's going on now. the two are intimately webbed, and i think tragically so in the case of florida. >> michael eric dyson, i always appreciate your passion. thank you so much for sharing your perspective with us. >> thank you so much. a prestigious university is making a big change to its admissions process. wesleyan university is ending legacy admissions, removing the preference for alumni's children, and this move comes just weeks after the supreme court struck down affirmative action in the college admissions process. so now wesleyan joins the small list of schools including m.i.t., johns hopkins, carnegie mellon, am herself and caltech eliminating legacy admissions. >> coming up on "ana cabrera reports," the blockbuster news netflix just unveiled about their password sharing crackdown. but first, world cup fever, the u.s. women's team is on the hunt for its third straight win. i'll talk with 1999 world cup

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firsts, the first time it will be held in the southern hemisphere, the first time with more teams participating, the field expanded from 24 to 32 and another potential first we're watching for, the u.s. women's national team first in world rankings seeking their third straight world cup title, a feat no national team, men's or women's has ever achieved. nbc news foreign correspondent molly hunter is in new zealand for us. molly. >> reporter: that's right, we're in a bar in central auckland, new zealand, and it is all excitement, both host cities, the co-host australia and new zealand. it is late at night and they are still excited. sydney played in front of a huge home crowned. new zealand played in front of a large crowd. they beat norway 1-0. that is the first win for a new zealand team ever. we're of course watching the u.s. team, number one ranked in the world. a lot of newcomers, a lot of veterans. we sat down with co-captain alex

morgan. take a listen. it's the biggest women's sporting event in the world, and today new zealand's beauty and culture on full display welcoming 32 nations to both new zealand and australia for the women's 2023 fifa world cup. but here in auckland, the fanfare interrupted this morning by a rare and deadly shooting incident, locking down parts of the city and closing the fan zone on opening day. >> underway -- >> but the first matches kicking off as planned. new zealand peat beating norway. auckland, new zealand is the other main host city. it's also the home for the u.s. women's national team over the next couple of weeks as they fight through the group round to defend their title. the americans are looking for a record setting three peat led by co-captain alex morgan. >> we do set expectations for ourselves. we do want to find ourselves at

the end. we do want to be hoisting the trophy at the end. to get there is a long way. >> reporter: the 23-person roster, which of course includes veteran megan rapinoe who announced her retirement following the tournament, but also 14 players who have never been to a world cup including star forward sophia smith. >> we are obviously honoring what this team has done in the past, while at the same time recognizing this is a new team. this is the first world cup this team will win. >> reporter: cheering them on here is second gentleman doug emhoff. >> i talked to the vice president this morning, she's like say hi to everyone. >> reporter: morgan and her cotan presenting emhoff with a jersey of his own. morgan says they're laser focused on their first game. >> all of our attention is on vietnam right now and how we can work together as a team to succeed in that. alex is 34, but this is her fourth world cup. we asked her about that

generational divide. they called her 18 to pino, megan rapinoe a super star veteran is the oldest player on the team. who chooses the music on the bus, everyone said it was megan. guys, i'll send it back to you. >> thank you so much. joining us now is the one and only brandy chastain, two-time world cup champion famously scoring the game-winning goal to clinch the 1999 title. brandy, i'm so happy to have you with us. thanks for taking the time. you have been a hugely influential figure in the sport since that first world cup was played. how do you think it's evolved ahead of this one? >> thank you very much for having me on this morning and talking women's soccer. women's soccer is an all-time high and only rising. it's like a meteor. it's just taking off. the fact that 1999 spring boarded us into what the potential future could look

like. the exponential growth in numbers in terms of young girls and women playing in the game has gone up. i think what we're also seeing is finally the attention, awareness and engagement in women's soccer in a way that has been happening in men's sports and i think what we're now seeing is that you've got a population of women who are showcasing their skills, their talent, their intelligence and it's a well that has been untapped really in my opinion and now we're seeing it just blossoming, these flowers blossoming in front of us in a way that is igniting i think the imagination in a way that has never been ignited before. >> let's talk about meagan rapinoe for a second hear. this will be her fourth and final world cup. she says she's retiring after this one. she has been huge for this sport both on and off the pitch. what do you think is her legacy? >> oh, gosh.

i think we don't have enough time to talk about all the things that meghan's done. i think number one is i love to see all the new colors in her hair. that kind of gives us a time line of how long she's been around. i think honestly the substance of megan is that she pushes out the fact we are athletes. i think she has shown that we all have a responsibility to the greater human -- to humanity and that she's willing to put herself out there in a way that i think makes a lot of people uncomfortable. she speaks her truth. she reminds people that she is present and that she is not going anywhere and that i think that's a good philosophy, that we have to stand up for ourselves. we have to have our voices heard and we must be accounted for. >> we've had a few little audio hits, but i do want to try to get in this last question and coming back to your personal

story and that iconic moment, your game-winning goal in 1999 and be the celebration that followed when you tore off your shirt and then suddenly that's what everyone was talking about, soon to be dubbed the bra seen around the world. since that moment, since the fight over equal pay, how do you think the sport and more broadly the perception of female athletes has changed? >> well, i think, number one, this crest that i'm wearing on my shirt is the newest expansion team that will be joining the nwsl. we are at an all-time high for investments in women's sports, in women's socer specifically. we see decision dollars on the corporate level, we know that women who are in c suites, 94% of them come from sporting background so we understand that these big moments have led to young girls dreaming about being

part of sport and then they're taking those sporting experiences off the field and into different areas and making big change. so i'm very proud of what happened in 1999. these 32 teams, the 14 players on the u.s. team and i can hardly wait until we see the game kickoff on friday. i haven't skipped one whole game. it's great. i'm very excited. >> so exciting. brandi chastain, thank you so much for talking with us. so nice to see you and everybody can watch team u.s.a.'s opening match tomorrow night on telemundo and streaming on peacock. coverage starts at 8:30 p.m. eastern. up next on ana cabrera reports. so much for netflix experiencing a chill after the password crackdown. the surprising new subscriber numbers the company just released. that's next.

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we're back. the netflix crackdown on password sharing seems to be working. according to the streamer nearly 6 million people, no matter how annoyed they were, signed up for a new account. we have more. the. >> reporter: hey there. this new earnings report is the first since netflix cracked down on password sharing. it sure looks like their bet paid off. the company revealing wednesday they added nearly 6 million

subscribers last quarter further entrenching them in the top spot among streaming services. >> i'm so sorry we are having audio problems there. again, long story short, netflix is gaining millions of subscribers so this whole password sharing is working for that company. that's going to do it for us today. i'm going to take a quick break and you'll see jose diaz ballart right now. >> it's 11 a.m. eastern. right now in washington, d.c., a former trump white house aide

expected to testify before the grand jury investigating efforts to overturn the 2020 election. we'll get information from pete aguilar. also on capitol hill, democratic presidential candidate robert f. kennedy jr. testifying before a house panel probing what it calls the weaponization of the u.s. government. how many in his own party are pushing back. meantime, the said judiciary committee is set to vote today on a new code of ethics for the supreme court. we'll talk about that, i should say, with senator alex padilla of the senate judiciary. more extreme weather as a tornado cuts a path of destruction in north carolina. somewhere someone on the west coast is waking up to a whole lot richer bank account soon. the sole winner of the massive powerball jackpot.

and we begin this hour with the very latest developments on the investigations into former president donald trump. nbc news has learned a d.c. grand jury investigating interference in the 2020 election is scheduled to hear from william russell, former white house aide who now works with the trump campaign. he was also with former president trump on january 6th. this as a federal judge in new york has blocked trump's efforts to move his trial in the hush money payments case from the state court to federal court. with us now to talk more about this, nbc news correspondent garrett haque who covers the trump campaign and jessica roth, a former federal prosecutor in new york who is a professor at a law school. garrett, who is william russell? why is his testimony important? >> reporter: well, russell was a trip director