for dipping. try the roast beef or pastrami french dips today. only at togo's. right now on "ana cabrera reports," we're tracking several major breaking news stories as we come on the air, including horror in hawaii. the death toll from devastating wildfires on maui climbing to 36, a stunning loss that authorities expect will still grow as search and rescue efforts continue this morning. aerial video of a once picturesque town showing complete destruction. history dating back to the 1700s wiped off the map. also breaking this morning, donald trump's two co-defendants in the classified documents case appearing in court this hour in florida. our cameras caught one of them arriving just a few minutes ago.

this as we're learning more about the special counsel's other probe into election interference. so what did jack smith find in trump's twitter files? also breaking, multiple arraignments this morning for alleged false electors in michigan. the charges they face in connection with the 2020 vote. good to be with you. it's 10:00 eastern. i'm ana cabrera reporting from new york. we begin with the breaking news out of hawaii this morning and the near apocalyptic scenes from the wildfires in maui. authorities confirming that the death toll now stands at 36, an unfathomable number. as they say, it will still climb likely because search and rescue efforts are still underway at this hour. the pictures of the destruction on this island are just hard to wrap your brain around. the town of lahaina, a historic

place in hawaii has been reduced to ashes. nearly 300 homes and businesses now gone. >> my mom's place is gone. my place is gone. pretty much everybody i know lost everything that we have. i mean, i haven't been able to assess, but everybody told me that front street's gone. >> meteorologist angie lassman is standing by for us. first let's go to hawaii and nbc news correspondent dana griffin. so many people there just lost so much and the fires are still burning. communications are still down, evacuations are still underway. i know you're at one of the shelters where people are trying to seek cover and comfort. tell us what you're seeing and hearing right now. >> good morning, ana, right now it's about 4:00 in the morning. we're outside of maui high school where about 3 to 400 evacuees slept here overnight. everyone is devastated. a lot of people are still sleeping this morning. so we haven't -- we've seen a few walking around. as you mentioned, this is just unprecedented and it's

devastating. people have lost loved ones. they've lost pets. they've lost homes. some 300 plus businesses, homes, and landmarks are now destroyed. we are about 13 miles from the historic lahaina district, popular for tourists. this community fueled by the tourism industry. it is just devastating not only for people but also for the local economy. you know, yesterday just before sunrise when this fire really ripped through town, it forced people to evacuate. some even had to jump into the ocean to get to safety. here's one survivor's story. >> i was the last one off the dock when the firestorm came through the banyon tree and took everything with it. i just ran out to the beach. >> reporter: at least a dozen people were pulled from the water. some had to be flown to oahu for treatment at a burn center. right now there are some 4,000 tourists that are trying to evacuate the island.

they're planning to ship them out, put them up in buses and hopefully put them on planes to take them to another island. right now the extent of the damage is unknown. we know that the maui fire department is heading out at first light in about two hours to assess the damage and to also continue search and rescue. the number 36 fatalities likely to climb as they get out into those communities and see what else is left behind. ana. >> dana, just to be clear, are the fires now under control? are they contained? >> reporter: well, that's the big question. they have not been able to assess that. it is nightfall. we know that they are still actively burning. they have not released any information on containment numbers, so hopefully we'll get those updated today. >> thank you for the work you're doing there, and angie, we still don't know what exactly sparked the fires. we do know that hurricane winds and dry conditions really fueled them. are conditions changing at all for the crews still battle? >> they're improving in short. that's what's going to happen

basically from now through the next couple of days. we'll see those winds die down. we know the setup of those pressure systems that were to the north and south of the islands that really picked up those trade winds and brought them to gusts 50, even 60, close to 70 miles per hour over the past 36 hours. the high pressure to the north and hurricane to the south, they're going to start to move away. with them those winds will start to lighten. that doesn't mean the winds are going to go down to zero. we'll still likely see some breezy conditions in this area. it won't be quite as windy as it has been which of course made it a struggle for firefighters to get up in those helicopters to fight these fires. over the next 24 hours these winds will start to subside. 38 miles per hour here is what we're calling for in the short-term. by the time we get to this time tomorrow, say late into the overnight hours for thursday going into friday on the island, we'll see that come down to 10. again, we could still see some gusty conditions, so maybe gusts as high as 20 miles per hour. we know that it's still fairly dry there. they have limited all of those

wind warnings and fire warnings. those have all come down. but we still are dealing with drought conditions in that area. now, it's not severe in the specific area that we've seen the worst of that damage. they do need the additional rainfall. this is fire season for them. the worst of their wildfires usually occur in august into september. so typical for this time of year. but of course all of those ingredients coming together with the really strong winds of those pressure systems sandwiching the island and bringing those winds up along with the dry conditions, the low humidity. if rain is on the way is the question. there is some passing showers. you saw it in part of dana's shot there. we're going to see maybe a little more rain working on shore here over the next couple of days. no substantial amount of rain to battle that drought. it will help as far as the winds are concerned coming down over the next 24 hours. >> really heartbreaking to see what's happening. angie lassman, dana griffin, thank you. more breaking news this hour, donald trump's co-defendants in the classified

documents case appearing in a courthouse in florida. walt nauta and carlos de oliveira are set to enter pleas on new charges linked to a scheme to delete surveillance video at mar-a-lago. the former president has waived his appearance at this hearing. also with us is nbc news justice and intelligence correspondent ken dilanian along with joyce vance, former federal prosecutor and msnbc legal analyst. so ken, what can we expect from today's court hearing? and explain why the former president was able to just waive his appearance. >> former president trump has been able to waive his appearance because he's already been arraigned in this case. this is a superseding indictment. he's not required to appear to answer these latest charges. but the new co-defendant, carlos de oliveira is required to

appear. walt nauta also expected to be there. if it does go forward, it's a very standard, pro forma, routine kind of thing. we wouldn't be expected to learn much new about this case, which is a pretty dramatic expansion of the obstruction of justice charges in the classified documents cases. but it's possible judge aileen cannon may address some of the other issues she's been raising lately including she criticized the special counsel and asked questions about a grand jury that it was using down here in d.c. to continue to investigate aspects of this case, and so we may see whether she -- there's also an issue about former president trump requesting to view classified documents at his home in mar-a-lago. he wants the government to set up a special facility there where he can review the documents so he doesn't have to go to an fbi office. she may talk about that as with el. >> we'll talk about that as well in just a second. coming back to today's hearing, joyce, and these two

co-defendants, who will be appearing in court. we've seen de oliveira have some problems getting a florida-based attorney. do you think that's a legitimate issue for him? are attorneys not wanting to be part of this case and his defense, or do you think this is a delay tactic? >> well, there are a lot of attorneys, a lot of qualified defense attorneys in the southern district of florida who would likely be delighted to be involved in a high profile case like this. so this looks more like delay than a legitimate search for an attorney, and at some point, the court can step in. they can even appoint standby counsel to handle the arraignment in the entry of his initial guilty plea, that's pro forma, and give him a deadline for finding an attorney. if he qualifies financially, the court might go ahead and appoint one for him. >> so trump asking the justice department to reestablish a secure facility in mar-a-lago so he and his lawyers can safely discuss classified documents.

we know he had what they call a scif at mar-a-lago during his presidency. joyce, does this seem like a reasonable request? >> it's not a reasonable request. for one thing, this is trump asking for special treatment that no other defendant would get. no one gets a scif built in their home or in this case i suppose their hotel when they're involved in this sort of litigation for a lot of obvious reasons including cost, and yet again, time and delay. for trump this is a particularly disingenuous request because a federal judge does not have the ability to order the intelligence community to locate one of these highly secure facilities in a specific place, and it's easy to understand just the lunacy of the notion that someone who's accused of mishandling documents would be entrusted with a scif. it would require 24-hour surveillance to maintain its integrity and even then the intelligence community might have very legitimate concerns

about doing something like this in this particular location. so this is a request that's out of bounds in all regards. >> ken, let's pivot to jack smith's other investigation into election interference. what more do we know about the special counsel obtaining a search warrant apparently in 2020 for donald trump's twitter account? >> yeah, we learned that yesterday for the first time it had been secret since he applied for and obtained that search warrant in january of this year, and he also got an order against twitter that twitter not reveal the existence of that search warrant to donald trump and his legal team. now, twitter contested that. they delayed and they were ordered to pay a $350,000 fine as a result. so we are seeing an appellate decision in that case that revealed the existence of this warrant and the decision does not tell us had what material jack smith was seeking. it tells us that he had probable cause to believe there was evidence of a crime associated with that twitter account, and look, we all know that twitter

accounts are public, right? you can go online and look and read donald trump's now dormant twitter account, but what's not public are any direct messages that were sent by or to that account, potentially drafts of tweets that were not sent and metadata and other kinds of data associated with the account that might show whether he was tweeting from a phone or a computer. all that kind of information could be relevant to jack smith's investigation, ana. >> this was a search warrant in 2023, i think i misspoke, said 2020, obviously they were looking at his behavior and what he was doing on twitter in 2020. so joyce, why would they need this search warrant, though, when trump's tweets are all out there for the world to see, and what do you make of the special counsel getting permission to not tell trump that they were obtaining this search warrant? >> right, so ana, ken has the most important detail here, which is that in order to get this search warrant, the government had to convince a federal judge that there was probable cause to believe that

they would find evidence of crimes when they obtained the information about the twitter account, and that would seem to point directly to the direct messages that trump either sent or received in twitter. we know that he infamously does not text. that leaves open the question of whether he dms, but it's possible that they could be based on information that they got in searching other people's telephones or other people's cell phones have decided that there would be information inside of the former president's account that would be revealing about some of the elements of the crimes they have to prove. this nondisclosure order suggests that this is anything but routine. if all the government was trying to do was authenticate trump's tweets or get surface level information, they wouldn't be entitled to the nondisclosure order. this is a very telling detail. >> okay, we'll hope to learn more. thank you so much, joyce vance and ken dilanian. i appreciate the conversation. when we're back this just 60

seconds, multiple arraignments in michigan this morning for people charged in that state's fake electors scheme. what we know about the allegations. plus, the fbi tried to serve a search warrant on a man they say threatened president biden and others, why it ended in gunfire. also, new supreme court ethics questions, propublica's fresh reporting involving supreme court justice clarence thomas and wealthybenefactors. and starships were meant to fly, one small step for virgin galactic is one giant step for space travel. what... y'all this is nice. salad plates? kelly clarkson? i'm fancy now! i have always wanted statement lighting. get nice things at nice prices at wayfair! ♪ wayfair, you've got just what i need ♪

(christina) wanna know the secret ingredient to running my business? (tina) her. (christina) being all over, all at once. (tina) all the time. (christina) but my old network wasn't cutting it. and that's not good for baking. or judging. or writing. so, we switched to verizon, the network businesses rely on. with verizon business unlimited, i get 5g, truly unlimited data, and unlimited hotspot data. so, no matter what, i'm running this kitchen. (vo) make the switch. it's your business. it's your verizon. more breaking news, this morning out of michigan, where the arraignments for the majority of people charged in the fake elector scheme are happening right now. michigan attorney general dana nessel announing the charges last month alleging the defendant signed paperwork falsely claiming donald trump had won the 2020 election and that they would cast the state's

official electoral votes for him. and of course that would be when the electoral college certified the results. some of this evidence that was uncovered here you may recall came out during the house january 6th committee's work. so far the seven people who have already entered their pleas all have pleaded not guilty so far. joining us now from outside that courthouse in lansing is nbc news correspondent shaq brewster. shaq, seems like a lot of activity, these back-to-back arraignments. how's the court navigating this? >> reporter: they're relatively quick proceedings that we've been witnessing and they've been mostly happening via zoom, the judge there in person but the defendants appearing via zoom. we saw the judge read through the counts, eight felony counts that all of them are facing. we heard the judge read through their rights. at this hour all 16 defendants have pleaded not guilty. the attorney general is arguing these defendants attempted to

defraud the state of michigan by signing a certificate of votes that would have, if accepted, given the state's 16 electoral votes to donald trump instead of joe biden who earned the most votes in this state, but i've been talking to the defendants -- rather than their attorneys, and they're saying this is a political prosecution at worse and a stretch of the law at best. they're saying that despite the signatures that you saw, that was never a document that was intended to be used, despite it being sent to the national archives. listen to a little bit of one of the conversations i had with one of the attorneys. >> it was just sent -- it was signed and sent to washington, d.c., just in case something else came up? >> it's to preserve an objection. it was not to supersede the certificate of election that was sent, so no one really would think in their right mind i would maintain whether, again, in d.c. or if we take a look here in michigan that this was to sort of have a forgery.

again, their document doesn't have the signature of the secretary of state. they didn't try to forge that. >> reporter: another attorney told me that his client never actually saw the certificate of votes, but only signed the second page where there was just a line for him to put his signature. this is just a preview of the arguments that we will hear in court if this ultimately goes to trial. we do know we're expecting to see these defendants back in court later this month, ana. >> shaquille brewster, thank you very much. now to new details this morning about the fatal fbi shooting of a utah man accused of making online threats against president biden and other public figures just days before the president's trip to that state. nbc's senior white house correspondent kelly o'donnell is tracking the latest for us, kelly, what have we learned about these threats and what led to the shooting? >> reporter: well, good morning, ana, there are many more questions, and this will unfold.

one thing we do know is the fbi had been aware of this particular suspect for several months. they were tipped off by a social media company that had concerns about the nature of his posts, and we know that they were particularly specific and graphic and violent. officials say those posts crossed the line from political speech and commentary to what they think is the real potential for political violence, and of course this comes at a time where we're seeing more of these events play out with threats and attacks against politicians and their families. new this morning, this video of the deadly encounter outside a utah man's home wednesday. the fbi was there to arrest him for alleged threats to assassinate president biden. the suspect was shot and killed by agents just hours before the president was due to land in utah. the fbi says it had been tracking months of as a rule

-- vulgar and violent threats against the president and other prominent democrats, made by craig d. robinson. wednesday morning the fbi says it shot and killed robinson while serving a warrant at his home. >> the s.w.a.t. team went through his back door with a battering ram. they called for my neighbor to come out, and he's like, i'm not coming out [ bleep ]. >> here is a look inside a weapons stockpile displayed on his social media. the timing became urgent wednesday when the suspect made fresh threats tied to the biden's scheduled visit. the fbi says robinson knew about the trip. i hear biden is coming to utah and referred to cleaning the dust off the sniper rifle. investigators told the court his photos and comments showed robertson had the gear and was prepared to use sniper tactics. in the arrest warrant robertson's own posts described him as a maga trumper.

the fbi also noted he had been wearing a trump hat when he was under surveillance. pages of detailed and graphic death threats targeted many of the same public figures mr. trump often talks about. officials responsible for prosecuting the former president, including manhattan d.a. alvin bragg. >> the criminal is the district attorney. >> reporter: more than angry words, the official papers charging robertson with crimes say he had, quote, intent to kill, at a minimum, d.a. bragg and president joe biden. the fbi says robertson threatened federal agents too. president biden later arrived in utah and was briefed on the deadly incident and the threats. and of course the secret service deals with threats against the president. they have deferred to the fbi in this, and the fbi will at some point perhaps give us more details about the moment that weapons were discharged that ended the life of this suspect.

what we do know is that some of the posts that he had used did make direct and explicit messages to the fbi, as if he knew they were watching his social media posts saying that if they came to his home, he would greet them with weapons. ana. >> kelly o'donnell, thank you. and joining us now is rob d'amico, retired fbi agent and hostage rescue team member. rob, this happened after agents had gone to the suspect's home to serve an arrest warrant. given his history of threats including even against the fbi, knowing he had weapons, how would they have prepared for this kind of visit? >> yes, so this is going to be one of the worst warrants you're going to have to do. you know he's armed. he's very well-armed. he showed pictures of nine of his weapons, sniper rifles, ar-15s, all of those can penetrate a lot of gear that you even wear in protection. so it's a bad one, and he actually mentions in a social

media post about when they show up next time, they better have their guns ready because he's going to have his. it's really one of those the worst-case scenario for a s.w.a.t. team. kind of surprised a hostage rescue team wasn't brought in, but timing-wise the real threat to president biden on sunday, the warrant on tuesday, and then they decided to do the warrant in the morning before president biden showed up. and they're very specific. he demonstrates he shot a hole through a nickel back in '92 or '82, i think, but he has weapons, suits he put all that in his page. one of the things he actually talks about when the fbi first surveilled him to identify him, they got the tip on march 19th from the national threat center, when they talked to him, they said, hey, we want to talk to you. he said oh, i was just talking about a dream. and in the reference they talk about is to the d.a. bragg where he actually says he's going to

fulfill a dream by traveling to new york and then later tries to cover it up by saying, hey, i was just talking about a dream. there is a big difference in those. >> so you talked about some of what makes this case actionable for law enforcement to take action because of his behavior online, but sadly, so many threats are on the rise we're told. there are new studies showing that 500 federal threat cases involving public officials have occurred in the last ten years. that sounds like a lot. we know the kind of polarized climate we're in. we know, you know, what we see on social media. do you think law enforcement needs more resources to handle these kinds of threats? >> it is. it's getting -- and every president gets them. so this threat showed, again, it wasn't just first amendment intellectual like thoughts, i wish so and so would be dead or something like that.

it actually shows intent. it shows that you have the means to do it. it shows you're starting to look at operationally operationally planning an event that you talk about. there's a big difference, behavioral science unit has many people that look at it. you can tell in writing when someone's just going on and on, and then you also have to look at proximity. if someone's maing a threat and they're across the country, obviously it's a little different. all those come into play. we're very conscious of first amendment rights. people can say what they want, and then we have to monitor it for when it starts taking that operational look at it. again, we've been doing it for years. secret service has been doing it for years. they may start to need more just because of the rhetoric on both sides. it's starting to gear people up on the fringes. >> rob d'amico, as always, appreciate you. thank you for joining us. now back to the breaking news out of florida, we just learned the hearing for former president trump's two

co-defendants in the classified documents case has just wrapped up. i want to bring in msnbc's katie phang who was in the courtroom for us. katie, tell us what happened. >> reporter: so the long story short, ana, is that carlos de oliveira, the newest co-defendant in the classified documents case brought by special counsel jack smith was not arraigned today. he still does not have local counsel. the judge set his arraignment for next tuesday august 15th at 10:00 a.m. at the force pierce federal courthouse. it's interesting because there was a gentleman by the last name morel who appeared who may be local counsel but when questioned by the judge indicated, quote, the details still haven't been hammered out yet but we're ready to go indicating there's something left to be done to secure his retention. walt nauta did appear with his counsel and counsel for donald trump in the form of chris kise

and todd blanche were here. mr. trump not here. fascinatingly, again and again, his counsel kept on referring to him, as, quote, plump. the magistrate jump referred to him as mr. trump. there was an attempt by this counsel for de oliveira, mr. irving who's not local, said can we set this over for august 25th, which is the next major hearing in this case, and the magistrate judge said no. judge cannon wants to make sure that counsel is in place as well as de oliveira being arraigned before the 25th of august. >> while i have you, i want to ask about new reporting we just got in about the judge in donald trump's d.c. federal case there, now receiving extra security. in fact, she was seen this morning with three u.s. marshals. is that typical in a high profile case? >> reporter: yeah, so it's not atypical to increase security not only for the judges but for the staff as well. just, for example, ana, here at

this small federal courthouse in fort pierce, there was a number of people that appeared, many of whom were supporters of donald trump, and so you can imagine at a larger place like d.c. with the bigger courthouse there's a possibility of there being something. but right now it is not rare to be able to obtain additional security for somebody like the judge. obviously it is not good that the judge would be having the need for additional security as well as any of the staff. >> we know that the former president has been publicly attacking all the people who are involved in trying this case including prosecution, judges, and so forth along with family members. katie phang, appreciate your reporting. thanks for joining us. up next on "ana cabrera reports," inflation nation. is your wallet in for some relief anytime soon? we're breaking down new inflation numbers just out a short time ago. plus, the new reporting from propublica about supreme court justice clarence thomas, billionaires, private jets and lavish vacations. jets and lavish vacations

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welcome back. we have breaking economic news this morning, a key indicator of inflation, the consumer price index shows inflation rose 3.2% year to year in july, a sign that inflation has lost at least some of its grip on the u.s. economy. here to break it all down is nbc news business and data reporter brian cheung. brian, walk us through the numbers and what it means for all of us and our pocket books. >> good morning, ana, largely as expected that's the economist talking point in response to the report this morning. 3.2%, that is the change in prices from july of this year to july of last year. that is an uptick from june of this year to june of last year. this is the first time reach seen an increase in this figure. we're talking about the peak of inflation, which is june of last year. we're no longer comparing against that anymore. mathematically that might be behind the reason we've seen a slight uptick. where in the price categories

did we see price inflation in the month of july. we did see it in the form of food prices going up by 22%. we also saw energy prices going up, gasoline has been going up in the past two months up 0.1% between june and july. and shelter, mortgage payments, rent payments, that increasing by 0.4% between those two months. i do want to contextualize this within the things we buy on an everyday basis if we're talking about july of this year compared to july of last year. prices for a lot of these categories have gone down. broadly speaking we've seen food, gasoline, and also a milk decrease. things like bread have increased almost 2 bucks now compared to a buck 72 last year. different take place of price categories are increasing, others are falling, but broadly speaking, good to see that we're past that peak inflation we've had in the summer last year, ana. >> that is such good news. really happy to see some of those food prices going down. you all need to eat, that's for

sure. up next here on "ana cabrera reports," supreme court justice clarence thomas in the spotlight again. the new reporting from propublica about the wealthy benefactors who have treated him to a luxury, i mean, luxurious lifestyle. plus, the gop presidential contender who says he will not sign the loyalty pledge for the first primary debate. but i manage it well. ♪ ♪ jardiance ♪ ♪ it's a little pill with a big story to tell. ♪ ♪ i take once-daily jardiance, ♪ ♪ at each day's staaart. ♪ ♪ as time went on it was easy to seee. ♪ ♪ i'm lowering my a1c. ♪ jardiance works 24/7 in your body to flush out some sugar! and for adults with type 2 diabetes and known heart disease, jardiance can lower the risk of cardiovascular death, too. jardiance may cause serious side effects including ketoacidosis that may be fatal, dehydration, that can lead to sudden worsening of kidney function,

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truck when those gun shots began to ring out. a suspect died from wounds in the firefight that followed while the president suggested organized crime was behind the killing. the election is set to be held in about a week and a half. back here in the u.s., new reporting this morning about supreme court justice clarence thomas and dozens of luxury vacations, courtesy of some friends with deep pockets. propublica is uncovering even more gifts thomas has received, at least 38 destination vacations including a yacht trip around the bahamas, 26 private jet flights, eight private helicopter rides, a dozen vip passes to pro and college sporting events, two stays at luxury resorts in florida and jamaica, and a standing invitation to an exclusive resort on an atlantic coast golf club. this is almost certainly an undercount. the story goes on to note that while some of these stays may

not have required disclosure, ethics experts told propublica that thomas may have violated the law by failing to disclose the flights, the yacht cruises and some of those sporting trips. nbc news reached out to justice thomas for comment this morning. we haven't heard back at this point. let's bring in justin elliott, a propublica reporter who contributed to this story. justin, these vacations all sound quite luxurious, but let's say you have rich friends who want to do something nice for you, what's the problem? what exactly are the rules for supreme court justices on accepting gifts? >> yeah, it's a great question. you know, one of the striking things about this reporting is that there are very few rules for the supreme court compared to other parts of the government. i mean, we've spoken to federal employees who say they can't even let somebody buy them lunch, let alone $100,000 vacation, but there is a code of

conduct for judges that says you're not supposed to be taking gifts that would make a reasonable person think there was something improper going on, and we've talked to i think seven judges now from both parties who say they would never take anything close to this, just violates judicial norms. and as a public servant, you shouldn't be sort of living the life of a billionaire essentially on the dime of people that might be trying to influence you, which is, you know, what we found is happening here. >> i mean, accepting these gifts is just the first step. i guess maybe they wouldn't accept, but if you accept, you're supposed to disclose, right? to have that level of transparency, have there been any disclosures? >> that's right. so i mean, one of the firm rules there are actually in the law passed back in the '70s after the watergate scandals is that even if you accept these types of lavish gifts, you have to disclose it publicly, these judges and justices file these annual disclosures, and justice thomas for more than 20 years now has not been disclosing

these trips, you know, as you mentioned, you know, dozens of private jet flights provided by billionaire businessmen, vacations around the world to places like indonesia, the bahamas, jackson hole, wyoming, and the fact that he hasn't been disclosing these gifts is really in contrast to other judges including his colleagues. i mean, the late justice ruth bader ginsburg as far as we know took one of these trips a single time. but the reason we know about it is she disclosed it, which everyone we talked to said is what she was supposed to do in accordance with the law. this disclosure statute, which ethics experts tell us justice thomas has been violating, you know, does not appear to be something that's been enforced for, you know, decades now. >> and justin, the piece notes that the total value of the undisclosed trips since they've given thomas since 1991, is

difficult to measure, but it's likely in the millions. so who? who's paying for all of this, and how are these wealthy people benefitting, if at all? >> yeah, it's a great question. so what we found is that so far we know of four very wealthy in some case billionaire businessmen who are picking up the tab for these vacations and private jet flights. you know, we've written a lot about harlan crow, the dallas real estate billionaire, in this story, you know, the wealthy businessmen include a guy named david sokol who was a top executive at berkshire hathaway, warren buffett's company, the late wayne hizenga who owned the miami dolphins. these are people who are broadly ideologically aligned with thomas. we didn't find that they had actual cases before the court, but some of them are very generous political donors and have given to causes related to the courts and the law, so

clearly have ideological interests. and you know, one sort of unanswered question still is what are they talking about with justice thomas with so much private time, you know, while they're taking him on vacation or flying him around on private jets. you know, it's something that we're still reporting on and we don't really fully know the answer yet. >> you've been doing incredible reporting. this is a very long and thorough piece. explain for our viewers how you and your colleagues uncovered all of these details and all of that leg work that went into really doing your due diligence before publishing this. >> yeah, i think the insight with this reporting is that if you're living essentially like a billionaire, which is how justice thomas has been spending his leisure time, it requires a huge number of essentially service workers, you know, the people that fly the private jets, the fishing guides, the

white river rafting guides in wyoming, and my colleagues and i have been spending a lot of time talking to those people as well as legal experts, you know, getting flight data from the government to piece all this together, it's taken months, but we're still reporting if anyone out there, you know, knows anything we should, please get in touch. >> justin elliott, thank you so much for taking the tame. great reporting. encourage our viewers to go to propublica to read it for themselves. thank you. up next on "ana cabrera reports," corn dogs, fried butter and some good old fashioned retail politics. we're live in iowa for the state fair as the gop contenders look for a leg up before the first primary debate. plus, the future of space travel, virgin galactic is about to launch its first space tourism flight with private customers in a matter of minutes. a ticket to ride could cost you some big bucks.

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...and new adventures. you hope the more you give the less they'll miss. but even if your teen was vaccinated against meningitis in the past... they may be missing vaccination for meningitis b. although uncommon, up to 1 in 5 survivors of meningitis will have long term consequences. now as you're thinking about all the vaccines your teen might need, make sure you ask your doctor if your teen is missing meningitis b vaccination. welcome back. this week an election tradition like no other gets underway. 2024 hopefuls are now hitting the iowa state fair. the home of the famous butter cow and just about any kind of fried food you could think of to make their pitch to voters. later today, doug bergam, larry elder and mike pence are expected to speak there. all of the major candidates are expected to stop by in the next

ten day or so. let's bring in dasha burns in des moines, iowa, for us. walk us through who we can expect at the iowa state fair. >> reporter: ana, this is the opportunity for candidates to show they are the real deal, by, you're right, eating anything and everything fried. i've got my eye on these fried cheese curds here. we've got deep fried oreos, brownies and twinkies, pickle dogs over here. look, this is a storied tradition, and while it could be a lot of fun, it could also be an opportunity to have to cross some land mines here. this is a place of some historic political gaps. are you going to wear the right shoes? are you going to eat the right fried stuff and eat it the right way. so this is a chance for voters to really sniff out the authenticity from these candidates, and today we're going to see mike pence here. we're going to see doug bergam,

on saturday is the clash on the titans a lot of folks have been waiting for. donald trump is going to be here and ron desantis is going to be here on the same day. the same day also we're going to see nikki haley, vivek ramaswamy and robert kennedy jr., of course and robert kennedy jr., the democratic candidate. everybody is going to be coming to the fair at some point. it is a ten-day event. and they have got a lot to prove to these iowa voters. we have been talking to them and they are ready to sniff out who is the real deal and who is not. >> i see the dogs behind you. it is calling my name. it is lunch time after all. thank you so much, dasha burns, live for us at the iowa state fair. up next on "ana cabrera reports," some lucky people are about to head to the edge of space aboard a virgin galactic space tourism flight. you're looking at live pictures as they get ready for the flight and i believe that's the plane that will be carrying the

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welcome back. come take a look at this. this is the mother ship for galactic's second space flight, the first with private customers. once it reaches high enough altitude, the shuttle will separate to take flight. on board is retired british olympian jon goodwin who paid close to a quarter of a million dollars for his ticket and this mother and daughter duo who won admission in a giveaway. here is the plan for this flight. the first part is called a made it climb where it goes through the thickest parts of the atmosphere and at around 50,000 feet the mother ship releases the spaceship, which is boosted by a rocket to climb close to 250,000 feet above the earth's surface. at the flight's highest point, 300,000 feet up, the astronauts will experience several minutes

of weightlessness and they'll see the curvature of earth against the blackness of space. nbc's marisa potter is following the latest for us. also joining us, theoretical physicist mishu. when we will see takeoff here? >> any minute now. hopefully we can pull the live stream up for you in a moment, you might be confused, you might be saying we're talking about a flight that is supposed to happen in five minutes. the flight is under way. it is a 90-minute flight overall. that mother ship and the spaceship together are flying through the air right now. they're going to reach a height of about 50,000 feet. that's about 9 1/2 miles. those final safety checks are being done every step of the way. and then once it reaches a safe altitude, then that rocket ship will launch just over the mother ship and that will be 50 miles

above earth and then there will be several minutes of weightlessness. when we talk about some whole experience, those three minutes are what this whole entire experience are about, ana. we're talking about a 90-minute flight in total for three minutes of weightlessness that every single one of them has probably spent their entire life waiting for and at the very end, that spaceship will glide on it a runway. virgin galactic takeoffs and landings, not like anything we have seen before. >> let's keep watching this. this is space tourism now. this is a new age of travel. do you think the world is ready for this? >> well, we'll see. but i think richard branson of virgin galactic has done it again, a number of firsts. the first time we have a mother/daughter combination, the first time we have citizens of the caribbean into space, the first time we have an ex-olympian being on board, and the second time we have somebody with parkinson's disease being sent into space.

so, we're entering a new era. we're no longer in the era of competition between the old soviet union and the united states with military pilots manning these things. now wealthy individuals and if you're lucky you can win the lottery, you can get tickets to go on board. i think eventually we'll enter stage three, where mom and pop go into outer space and who knows, maybe one day you'll be able to honeymoon on the moon. >> oh, my gosh, can you imagine? i just -- i guess i thought it took months of preparation for astronauts to go into space. so how much risk is there for just any average joe to take this kind of trip? >> well, just remember that there are risks involved. rocket misfire, for example. we have seen many rocket misfires, about 1% of the time we have them. so just remember that going into outer space is not like a sunday picnic. just remember that the history of space travel is like the history of the railroads. when the railroads first came

out, it was basically used for the military to send troops and lumberjacks and industrialists. station two is when wealthy individuals used the railroads for luxury liners, and then stage three is when mom and pop can take a ticket on a railroad. we're now entering stage two of this space exploration. and in other words, wealthy individuals at $450,000 a pop can now go into outer space. so if you have spare change, or half a million, you too can go into space. >> a little spare change, if you are a billionaire, maybe, because, again, $450,000 per passenger for a 90-minute trip, that is, like, the very tip of the top 1% who could afford something like this. richard branson says his mission is to make space accessible for everyone. how far off is that, do you think in. >> realize we have a three-way

race. this competition involved. jeff bezos of amazon has his blue origin rocket, which takes up and goes into space and back down again like a conventional rocket. and then we have elon musk who is actually selling tickets to go to the moon. think about that. a japanese billionaire has already bought up all the tickets for the first commercial flight to the moon, complements of spacex and elon musk. so we have a three-way race with elon musk leading the pack. he wants to go all the way to the moon and eventually to mars. >> when are you going to go, michio? >> well, given the fact that 1% of the time we sometimes have rocket misfire, i think i'll be more comfortable sitting in my chair. >> okay. now we know. you're not much of a risk taker, are you? but just incredible to think that this is possible, what we're watching. thank you, both, so much. marisa, michio, great to have both of you as part of this

discussion. that's going to do it for us today. we're going to hand it over it our friend jose diaz-balart to pick up our coverage as we continue to follow this amazing historic day with the galactic space shuttle, mission number two under way. thanks for being here. good morning. it is 11:00 a.m. eastern, 8:00 a.m. pacific. i'm jose diaz-balart reporting from new york. we're following several breaking stories. in new mexico, we're just moments away from history, virgin galactic is set to blast into space with its first flight carrying paying customers. in hawaii, dozens are confirmed dead as officials desperately search for survivors. residents escaing wildfires in maui with just moments to spare. >> i was the last one off the dock and the firestorm came through the trees and took everything with it. >> in florida, former president donald trump waving his in