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tv   Jose Diaz- Balart Reports  MSNBC  September 1, 2023 8:00am-9:01am PDT

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good day to fly. and if you're driving, get out on the roads early. back to you. >> tom, thank you very much. hard to believe it is already jacket time here in the d.c. area. appreciate your report. that's going to do it for us. jose diaz-balart is picking up our coverage right here. and good morning. it is 11:00 a.m. eastern, 8:00 a.m. pacific. i am jose diaz-balart. in a couple of minutes, president biden is set to give remarks on a stronger than expected august jobs report. we'll bring that to you live and break down the new numbers. president biden expected to visit florida tomorrow to survey the damage left by hurricane idalia as cleanup efforts are under way in some of those devastated communities. we'll go live to the big bend area on florida's west coast. plus, the judge overseeing former president trump's criminal case in georgia says the public will be able to witness this high profile trial live as more co-defendants try
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to separate their cases. an nbc news exclusive report finds hundreds of active duty u.s. troops will stay at the southern border through the next month. and right now, we are keeping a very close eye on the white house, where president biden is scheduled to speak about the august jobs report any minute now. we'll bring you those remarks when they begin. this comes after the government reported that employers added 187,000 jobs last month, more than the 170,000 economists had predicted. the unemployment rate rose to 3.8%, and let's break it down by race. the hispanic unemployment rate rose half a percentage point to 4.9. the black unemployment rate fell by half a percentage point to 5.3. with us now to talk about this is cnbc's seema mody.
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good morning. so what else did we learn from this report? >> the takeaway is this is a resilient jobs market with 187,000 jobs added in the month. yes there are some cracks that are emerging with the higher than expected unemployment rate, which did rise because there are just simply more americans who are starting to look for a job in the month of august. in fact, the most since january. wage growth also slowed as it the average hourly pay raises. these are seen as inflation indicators. so far they're pointing in the right direction. now, as to where we saw the biggest gains in jobs, healthcare, construction, and still hospitality with bars and restaurants. >> and, seema, the fed is keeping a close eye on this week's data. what does it suggest for what they may do regarding interest rates. >> great question. overall the report is being seen by economists as the perfect balance of adding jobs while also seeing the unemployment rate rise, which does give us the federal reserve justification that higher interest rates are working and
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sort of cooling down the economy. also, reinforcing this idea that with the jobs market slowing, inflation can continue to moderate. there has been this intense debate on wall street whether prices will continue to fall and we'll get to that fed target of 2% if the labor market remains exceptionally strong. but new evidence suggesting today with the support that that level can moderate and that's giving investors hope that inflation will also cool in the coming months, stop the fed from another rate hike in september. jose? >> pretty amazing that we're already in september. this month also brings big changes for federal student loan borrowers. >> it does. for the first time in over three years, jose, federal student loans will begin accruing interest starting today. it expires after several extensions we have been seeing. you have at least a month until you have to make that first payment in october. and you'll want to check in with your loan servicer as to know
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how soon you'll have to pay up and the exact date. >> seema mody, great seeing you. thank you very much. we are waiting the president's remarks and we will, of course, bring those to you live right here on msnbc. turning now to the latest on the recovery efforts following hurricane idalia. tomorrow president biden will travel to florida where he is expected to survey storm damage. right now more than 120,000 customers remain without power across florida and georgia. as the recovery continues, immigrants are already helping rebuild. our colleague julio spoke with three migrants from mexico who started rebuilding the hotel where they worked right after the hurricane. [ speaking in a non-english language ]
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>> maggie says there is a lot of fear and that florida is where you need immigrants. the governor wants to take out while there is a lot of work to do she said. joining us from florida is guad venegas. where does the recovery effort stand there this morning? >> reporter: you know, jose, i would like to also add that yesterday we were in cedar key, and i spoke to a person that is working also on this cleanup effort, a woman, an immigrant from mexico, walking around talking to the people cleaning up and she also talked about the fact that there is no help for people here. she said the business owners that she worked for there were the ones helping her and they told her they would take care of her as this recovery continues. so just another story of an immigrant that i ran into yesterday who is helping with the efforts there. so, here in horseshoe beach, jose, we have a lot of debris like in other places, the first step to continue with this cleanup and rebuilding process is going to be for authorities
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to come and pick up a lot of this debris because what residents are doing, they come back to their homes, jose, is piling up all the trash, all the remaining furniture that was ruined, sometimes it is walls or pieces that fell from their property, and then they're building these large piles outside of the property. those have to get picked up because there is also a health hazard when you have this debris and trash building up. so authorities are going to have to clean that up, as this process continues. we spoke to william who lives down the street. he bought a home two years ago. he fell in love with this community and decided to buy this home. of course, he evacuated during the storm and returned to all of the damage that we can see in these images. here is william speaking to us. >> when they talked about anywhere between like 8 and 12 foot storm surge, i thought if the house didn't blow away, it would probably be all right. but i knew everything i had downstairs, there were two big sheds, there is one of them, the
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other one is the next block over. >> reporter: you know, when he says downstairs, a lot of these properties, jose, most of the properties here are built on stilts so they sit very high. so people that have these high homes were able to save a lot of the stuff. but anything that was downstairs was exposed to that surge and to the storm. there is a pickup truck in a canal right over to our right. we see small piers that have been destroyed. just destruction everywhere because there were other structures that sat at ground level and we know what happened just by looking at these images. jose, also, we should keep in mind that this community is far away from a lot of the large cities, so for people that live here and now have lost their home, it is very difficult to continue with this cleanup process and then go stay at a hotel. the governor announced they'll be sending in trailers that people can stay in because they are homeless. that's going to be very good help for these individuals as
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they continue with that cleanup process. and they also announced they are going to be offering the emergency bridge loans for businesses. these are loans they can apply for that have no interest as they continue with their rebuilding. but that's the situation here in horseshoe beach. jose? >> guad venegas, good to see you, thanks. coming up, the fulton county judge overseeing former trump's case there says viewers outside the courtroom will be able to watch the trial live. we're back in 60 seconds. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. os you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. but, you also can't leave covered in hair. with bounce pet, you can cuddle and brush that hair off. bounce. it's the sheet. [sneeze] (♪♪) astepro allergy, steroid free allergy relief that starts working in 30 minutes, while other allergy sprays take hours. with astepro's unbeatably fast allergy relief
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counts in connection to his role in the attack. later today, fellow proud boys member ethan nordene is set to be sentenced, they're seeking 27 years in prison. today's developments follows the 17-year sentence issued to proud boys leader joe biggs who prosecutors allege served as an instigator and leader during the january 6th attack. in one of the longest prison terms issued so far, connected to the attack on the capitol. now to the latest on the legal drama surrounding former president donald trump. attorney kenneth chesebro, one of trump's 18 co-defendants in the georgia election interference case, waved his arraignment and pleaded not guilty. this comes one day after the former president also waived his arraignment and pleaded not guilty to charges he conspired to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election there. trump also moved to separate his case from that of his co-defendants. meantime, the judge overseeing the georgia case said the
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proceedings will be televised and live streamed. we continue to wait for a federal judge to decide whether the former white house chief of staff mark meadows can remove his case to federal court. with us now, nbc news correspondent blayne alexander in atlanta and carol lam, former federal prosecutor and msnbc legal analyst. blayne, several other co-defendants have waived their arraignments or moved to separate their cases. can we expect more of this going down the pike? >> well, jose, i think we can expect more to do the same thing. in fact, that's likely what we're going to see. we're watching for that. we know there is a number of those who are scheduled to have arraignments next wednesday on the 6th. they have until monday to wave their right to an appearance before a judge during that arraignment. we expect others to follow suit. and enter the same not guilty plea. the other thing we're watching is that when you have a case this complex, talking about 19 different defendants, of course,
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you're going to see a flurry of different motions, and filings to discuss how and where this is going to be tried. so, in addition to people waving their appearances, we're seeing like you saw with the former president people asking to sever from their co-defendants, and then, of course, as you mentioned, watch to see whether or not mark meadows can be removed to federal court and that will implications for the other defendants as well. >> what are the potential benefits and the pitfalls for trump and the others separating their case from that of their co-defendants. >> what we see happening here, jose, in georgia is probably somewhat unique to the georgia state court system. generally speaking you do see a lot of severance motions brought by people who are indicted in a conspiracy or rico count because they want to separate themselves from the others in the pack. they don't want the spillover effect, don't want to be tainted by actions of others, and they have a better chance of getting the judge to exclude evidence of
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acts that they weren't personally involved in. but when you have a conspiracy charge or a rico charge, you end up having all of these matters being tried in the same court, in the same trial, to the same jury. and that's what defendants like to avoid. they file motions to sever. severance motions are rarely granted. in this case, there is a unique aspect to georgia law, you can demand a speedy trial and that is what chesebro and sidney powell have done as well as one of the other skwlornlggeorgia e. they said i'm demanding a speedy trial here and that means we have to go to trial within just a couple of months. and that puts a lot of pressure on the prosecution. i'll venture to say that in this case, there is actually nobody who really wants to go to trial in october, not even the people who brought those motions. but they're doing it to put
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pressure on the prosecution and to separate themselves out from the others. and i think that's probably going to happen. >> and so, carol what is the benefit and you're saying you see no real clear benefit for anybody, you know, pushing this as close as october as possible. what would be the benefits of those defense counsel to pushing it to as soon as possible? >> yeah, the benefit is that they are going to end up removing themselves, severing themselves from the rest of the pack. here's why. when you demand a speedy trial like this in georgia, there are pros and cons to that as fani willis laid out in her responding brief. she said, okay, if you want a quick trial like this, recognize that the georgia courts have said you waive certain rights, you waive the right to certain notice that you get from the government about what witnesses are going to be called.
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you waive the right to getting discovery on an earlier basis because you have demanded this speedy trial. and that, jose, is the reason why they -- the judge is not going to force others to go to trial in october if they didn't request it because you give up certain rights when you demand a speedy trial. if they don't demand a speedy trial, if other co-defendants don't demand a speedy trial, i think the judge is going to be hard pressed to force them to go to trial in october. so that's the benefit. they get to separate themselves out from the pack. >> and, blayne, there have been calls for fulton county district attorney fani willis to be removed from office over the trump indictment. governor brian kemp has spoken out about this. what did he have to say? >> reporter: he said he's not going to do it. he's not going to call a special session to raise the issue of possibly removing her from office. fani willis is a democratic d.a. elected here in fulton county,
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which is a heavily blue area. so we have seen some republican members of the state legislature, a few, calling for a special session saying that it is necessary to impeach her. there have been other conversations about defunding her office. well, yesterday, governor brian kemp shut that down and said that if people are upset with the way that the d.a. is functioning, there are ways to address that, but calling a special session, he said he believed would be unconstitutional. he talked about it a little bit at a press conference. take a look. >> up to this point i have not seen any evidence that d.a. willis' actions or lack thereof warrant action by the prosecuting attorney oversight commission. the bottom line is that in the state of georgia, as long as i'm governor, we're going to follow the law and the constitution, regardless of who it helps or harms politically. >> reporter: so you heard him right there, in between that he talked about the fact that
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calling a special session is something that he believed would be proven unconstitutional. and, jose, for those following georgia for a long time, you'll remember that back in 2020, in the days after the 2020 election, he faced a very strong call from then president trump to call a special legislative session to overturn trump's loss in georgia. kemp pushed back on that and said he's not going to do it and that was the beginning of the very strong rift between the two republicans. jose? >> carol, the judge overseeing the georgia case says the proceedings will be televised and streamed. could that have any impact on federal cases? >> it is unlikely, jose. federal courts are very different from state courts. federal court systems move incrementally in new directions. and there have been, for example, pilot projects to experiment with the idea of having cameras in courtrooms and they very gingerly started with maybe allowing it in a couple of civil trials, for example.
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but those are pilot projects. they were very limited in scope and in time. and the federal courts have just never really been very enthusiastic about having cameras in the courtroom. i think the feeling is it changes the dynamic of the courtroom, and although it is important for folks to see what's go on in these cases, my guess is that the federal courts are not going to want to introduce something of such a different nature in a criminal trial in such an important matter without having done it many times before in other types of criminal cases. >> blayne alexander, carol lam, thank you very much. next, breaking news, body camera footage just released in the fatal shooting of a 21-year-old pregnant woman shot and killed by law enforcement. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. i thank you for that. "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. i thank you for that taking antd after antacid all day long but with prilosec otc just one pill a day blocks heartburn for a full 24 hours. for one and done heartburn relief, prilosec otc.
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23 past the hour. we have breaking news out of ohio. body cam footage just has been released in the fatal shooting of 21-year-old pregnant woman shot and killed by law enforcement. police say the woman who was suspected of shoplifting entered a car and accelerated the car toward a police officer. joining us now, maura barrett, also with us is cedric alexander, former public safety director to dekalb county, georgia, and former member of president obama's task force on 21st century policing. what more have we learned about this? >> jose, this is the first time we're seeing this body cam
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footage from the incident that happened on august 24th. just about a week has passed since we learned of 21-year-old ta'kiya young's death. from what we're seeing in the video, it shows a very hectic situation outside a kroger grocery store in blendon township, outside of columbus, ohio. what you're seeing on the screen, two officers were already in the parking lot helping assist in an unlocked car situation before an employee apparently ran out of the store and pointed at ta'kiya young as one of the suspects of an apparent theft. apparently a group of people that were involved. but the other members of the group, police say, fled via vehicle. you see one of the officers standing outside the driver's side door, telling young to get out of the car before the second officer stands in front of the vehicle. and then at that point after she refuses to get out of the car, she drives forward, into the second officer. that's when he fires one shot through the windshield and then you see her drive away.
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at the time, it does not appear the officers can tell she doesn't have control of the vehicle, they were able to break into the car and render medical aid as quick as possible. the statement details that they were able to get a chest seal on her wound, which indicates that she was shot in the chest most likely, within 70 seconds of all of this happening, but she did unfortunately pass away at the hospital just shortly after that. we learned her baby girl was apparently due in november, she unfortunately did not make it as well. young was already a mother of two boys and her family did get a chance to see the video this morning as well. they're understandably distraught and we haven't received a statement from them yet after viewing the video. they turned this over to the ohio bureau of criminal investigation and they remain tight lipped outside of the details we have gotten because
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they expect lawsuits to be filed. >> yeah. cedric, i was wondering your initial reaction to this video. >> well, you know, it is one of these videos i think, jose, we have seen one too many times. here is an incident, as unfortunate as it may be, and officers were doing their job, which they were invited to this scene to do. so, they were asked by peers, a store employee, that the person inside the vehicle had stolen some merchandise. and it is clear they approached the vehicle and somehow an incident involving a shoplifting turned into someone losing their life. i think that's going to be the bigger question here, procedurally, if you go to ohio state law, they operate within the boundaries of the law, you can certainly argue with it one way or another. one thing here, we have been training police to do over the last number of years, jose, very
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simply, do not stand in front of a vehicle. and that is taught over and over and over again. if you happen to get into an uncompromising situation, that is one thing. but in this situation, to stand in front of the vehicle, to pull your weapon, you're setting yourself up for something that maybe did not have to happen. but that is not going to be judged by me, it is going to be investigated by the state of ohio. but i think for the purpose of what the community is seeing here across this country, it does raise a major concern here, how does an incident that involves shoplifting turn into someone losing their life? that's a huge question that needs to be answered here. and we know for years now, we have been training officers -- >> senator, i'm sorry to interrupt. that's important. so, police departments throughout our country do
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undergo that training, which says do not get in front of a vehicle. and in at least the video we're seeing, it is very clear that the officer was in another vehicle and went over and went around the officer that was confronting her on the window and went in front of that vehicle. what are the general parameters for discharging a weapon in something like this? >> well, in this particular case, i'm quite sure it is going to be argued that the officer's life was threatened because he was standing in front of the vehicle. you do see his feet come up off the ground when she started to move forward. and they're probably going to be some questions around whether that was justifiable or not. i'm not going to make that assessment here. i think that involves a much deeper investigation on part of the state of ohio. what i'm referring to and i think what many people in the
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community regardless of where you live is going to question why did you put yourself in that type of position to stand in front of a vehicle, not knowing what could or could not happen next. that is basic fundamental training police 101 today. and we got to find better ways in which to manage these -- what appear to be very minor situations, even though she did not want to let her window down and she should have, the officers had the authority to be there, to carry out their duties, there are sometimes in which we have to exercise decisions that are going to be much different than what we have been able to do in the past. i think this is a case that requires further examination, but more importantly more training, more training, more training, because this needs to be emphasized, we don't want officers getting hurt and we don't want to have to have officers hurt people unnecessarily when there is possibilities those types of events could have been avoided. and one last thing here, jose, i
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think that is very important to remember too, this was a shoplifting case. it was shoplifting. and a person who refused to let their window down. many businesses don't even call the police for shoplifting cases. but they have the right to do so. as they did here in the state. so you really have to take a look at what is the incident that is being reported. and what do the level of involvement do we allow ourselves to get involved. in these types of cases as well too. there needs to be further investigation into all of this. there needs to be further training. the question is why would you allow something to escalate to this point over a minor shoplifting event. >> maura barrett and cedric alexander, thank you for being with us this morning. a manhunt is under way for a convicted murderer who police say escaped from a county prison near philadelphia yesterday.
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police say the inmate is extremely dangerous. he was convicted of first degree murder of his former girlfriend, sentenced to life in prison without parole last week. joining us now is nbc steven romo. what do we know about this? >> the man, 34 years old, has been missing since thursday morning. a massive search effort is under way right now. this happened at a prison near philadelphia. the search radius expanded now. schools in that area are on alert as they search for him. he was convicted just last week of the murder of his girlfriend, back in 2021, a brutal stabbing death that happened in front of her two children, a 7-year-old and a 4-year-old. that life sentence conviction came last week, he was waiting on a transfer. authorities are not saying right now exactly how he was able to escape that prison. they are, though, emphasizing just how dangerous they believe him to be. see that photo of him on the left side of your screen.
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he's described as 5 feet tall, 120 pounds, brazilian national, known to speak both spanish and portuguese. he is wanted for another murder out of brazil. authorities say that his girlfriend found out about that back in 2021 and they believe that is what led up to her murder. he was last seen by a neighbor around -- just before 10:00 a.m. on thursday morning, about an hour after he was discovered missing somewhere near that prison in chester county, pennsylvania, there, near that jail. the authorities gave a press conference yesterday and many times reporters asked how he was able to get out, they were not able to answer that question. authorities, though, are speaking with friends and family who they believe could know something. they're pursuing that theory right now, trying to get some answers. jose? >> steven romo, thank you very much, appreciate it. next, exclusive nbc news reporting on the white house response to a potential
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impeachment inquiry of president biden by republicans. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. ns you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. ♪ chevy silverado has what it takes to do it all. with up to 13 camera views. and the z71 off-road package. ♪ you ok? yeah. any truck can help you make a living. this one helps you build a life. chevy silverado. i used to wait to run my dishwasher 'til it was super full. now— i run it daily. weekdays— weekends— you might think that's wasteful, but it's not. even half loads use 80% less water than handwashing.
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34 past the hour. we're waiting remarks for president biden from the white house after a jobs report was released earlier this morning. we'll bring you those remarks as soon as they occur. meantime, the new nbc news reporting reveals new details about the white house response to an expected republican-led impeachment inquiry of president biden. people familiar with the plan tell nbc news the president's preparations include a war room of two dozen lawyers signaling that the administration is taking impeachment threats very seriously. nbc's peter alexander is part of the team behind this reporting and joins us this morning. peter, a pleasure. so what do we know about the white house plan? >> well, jose, you hit on it very clearly here. what is significant is this new reporting from nbc news, my
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colleagues at the white house now put together two dozen lawyers, the communications, aides and legislative aides as well to beef up this war room in anticipation of what appears to be a likely republican impeachment effort. the white house aides with whom we have been speaking, eight of them in total, familiar with this matter have made very clear that they believe this is and to this point there is no evidence of any wrongdoing by president biden that would necessitate a impeachment inquiry of any kind right now. they're planning to push back aggressively as it relates to this. we do have some interesting reporting as it relates to what they looked at for precedent here, focusing on the course of the last month on 1998 where the former president bill clinton, of course, was facing similar circumstances under very different time, of course. and that was the pushback that they view as a model going forward, for among other reasons they view that as a really
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effective way to mount an effective defense, his numbers went to their highest place ever, 73% approval rating in december of that year as this impeachment was going up. they really saw republicans overreaching there at the time. so that's a place that they have been focused on right now. and they try to wall off this effort, jose, as well, from the rest of the daily matters that the white house is focused on. they want to try to focus on the positive vision and view this as a split screen moment for the president, focused on the economy, like he'll be speaking about in the rose garden in a matter of minutes and that republicans in their view are focused on trying to litigate what they view as an evidence-free partisan sham. jose? >> peter alexander, thank you very much. and when the president begins to speak, we'll see it here on msnbc. the race for the white house, nbc news national political correspondent steve kornacki joins us with a look at where former president trump's strengths lie in the republican primary electorate. also with us, msnbc political
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analyst and writer at large at the bulwark tim miller. steve, what are you seeing in the latest polls? >> yes, so it is interesting, jose. look, first of all, this is our average of the republican race national polls here. you can see this is -- some of this was conducted after the first debate, some of the polls in this average were before the debate. there haven't been a ton of polls to come out after the debate. the ones that have, we have seen some slight movement here and there, but really the story is we hit labor day here, continues to be donald trump's dominance in the national polls, ron desantis, a very, very, very distant second place. everybody else in single digits here. so the race is pretty much where it was a who ago at least when you look at the polling average. what we wanted to zoom in on here is the reasons for trump's strength, one of them might be a little surprising because trump's critics on the republican side, you have heard this, you heard this from some of his rival candidates, the problem with trump is
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electability. the 2022 midterms went south, he lost in 2020, they lost in the 2018 midterms, he only won in 2016 because the electoral college he lost the popular vote. they say he's not electable. all the legal drama around him. and there are democrats who are openly saying they want donald trump -- trump's strength with republican voters is not in spite of electability concerns, it appears republican voters believe he's very electable and maybe the most electable. check this out. a couple of different ways this has been asked recently. this is a morning consult poll this is out this week. they asked republican primary voters who has the best chance to beat joe biden. you can see, look at that, donald trump, 62% in this poll. they say he has the best chance to beat biden. when desantis was getting in this race, the whole idea was that he just won 60% in florida. and a state that used to be or may still be a swing state, but wasn't when he ran for
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re-election. only 13% cite ron desantis. "the new york times" and sienna asked it more directly. they looked at trump and desantis, they said who is better when it comes to beating joe biden. 58/28, better than two to one, republicans chose donald trump. a new poll out in georgia this week, i think it is telling, georgia not one of the early primary states, but it is telling, they asked georgia republicans, remember this is the epicenter of some of that trump legal drama here, when it comes to beating joe biden, is trump definitely the strongest, probably the strongest republican candidate, nearly 70%, 69% of republicans in georgia say he's definitely or probably the strongest to beat biden. only 25% say someone else would be. you see that in poll after poll. republicans believing trump is electable, the most electable and it raises the question, there is a lot of conventional wisdom that's wrong, but is that
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wrong? take a look, here's one way of looking at it. if you average the polls that are being taken right now, trump versus biden, biden is leading, but he's leading by less than a point. if you went back to this same point in 2019, heading into the 2020 cycle, they were testing biden versus trump then. biden was leading on average by double digits. in fact, joe biden had a very wide consistent lead over donald trump in the polls throughout the entire 2020 election. biden won for the final margin, especially when it came to the key electoral college states, very small in 2020. so, if you're a republican primary voter, and you're looking at the poll, poll average that shows trump within a point of biden, now you're thinking, geez, he's in better position, trump is, maybe than he ever was in 2020. you're also probably remembering that in 2016 republicans heard constantly that donald trump had no chance against hillary
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clinton and ended up winning then. in the polling right now, against biden, trump is behind on average. but he's doing better than he did last time. he's doing significantly better than he did last time. so it does raise the question for all of trump's legal problems, for all of the issues with 2022 and 2020 at the polls for republicans, it does raise the question if a republican believes that donald trump has the best chance in this field to beat joe biden, are they necessarily wrong, are they sure they're wrong? if a democrat believes trump is the easiest to beat, are we sure they're right? >> steve kornacki, thank you very much. appreciate that. so, tim, that's a good question to try to throw at you, that steve was talking about. it is a far different world, politics-wise, than it was the 2016 when you were involved in it. what do you see here? >> yeah, i'm not sure that the
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democratic conventional wisdom that trump would be the easiest to beat is correct. i long thought that for a couple of reasons. you have ron desantis as the alternative to trump who has terrible interpersonal skills. bad candidate skills and has run to the right of trump on the culture war issues that are anathema to the suburban swing voters that move to the democrats in the last eight years. so, and donald trump for all of his problems, you know, always had this reputation as being, you know, a little bit less obsessed with the cultural issues, with the christian conservative issues than you would get out of a mike pence or ron desantis, that turns off secular voters, noncollege white voters who don't go to church, et cetera. i don't think it is necessarily wrong that trump is potentially stronger in a general election. the other thing is trump's cultish base might not show up for one of these other candidates. that is another factor to play. as far as the republican primary is concerned, just briefly, you also consider the fact that the
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media world, it is still true, they still believe, they're still spreading disinformation that joe biden did not win legitimately and every day in conservative media they talk about how joe biden is dementia riddled and can barely talk and all this nonsense. but if you were a viewer of that type of media, and you believe joe biden didn't win in 2020 and he has all these debilitating issues, then why would you think he would be hard to beat? i think that -- the media propaganda on the right is impacting the voters as well. >> but, where does logic not -- does logic never come into that equation? does it ever permeate? like, the guy is not in the white house. and biden is. it just seems as though you live in a world you decide what is true and what isn't, i guess, but doesn't that ever permeate in people's, you know, additions? >> i think it permeates some. you look at a quarter of the
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republican party. i wish this was inverse. i wish it was three-quarters of the republican party, but a quarter of the republican party is very ready to move on from trump for the reasons you just laid out. and i think that, look, psychology, people's brains are complicated. psychology is complicated. they don't want to be proven wrong. if they accept that, oh it was the msnbc host and the never trumpers who are right, that's like, you know, admitting that you made a bad judgment. and so i think that a lot of people on the right take the trump thing very personally. that's why there is a cultish kind of element to it. and so even if it does permeate, they're motivated to listen to the voices within the conservative media world and within the elected official world that say, no, donald trump didn't really lose. you don't have to -- you don't have to admit you were wrong. >> tim miller, thank you very much. good to see you. >> you too. coming up, exclusive nbc news reporting about how long u.s. troops will stay at the
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southern border. we'll explain after a quick break. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. k. you're watching "jose diaz-balart rertpos" on msnbc. have fun, sis! ♪♪ can't stop adding stuff to your cart? get the bank of america customized cash rewards card, choose the online shopping category and earn 3% cash back. my frequent heartburn had me taking antacid after antacid all day long but with prilosec otc just one pill a day blocks heartburn for a full 24 hours. for one and done heartburn relief, prilosec otc. one pill a day, 24 hours, zero heartburn. right now get a free footlong at subway. like the subway series menu. buy one footlong in the app, get one free. for freeee. that's what i'm talking about. order in the subway app today. ♪ tourists tourists that turn into scientists. tourists taking photos that are analyzed by ai. so researchers can help life underwater flourish.
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ask about vraylar and learn how abbvie could help you save. 47 past the hour. we have another nbc news exclusive about how long active duty u.s. troops will remain at the southern border. joining us now is one of the reporters behind this exclusive, nbc's julia ainsley. what do we know? >> we know that this started in early may when the pentagon, with the cooperation of dhs, sent 1500 active duty troops to the border because, remember, jose, we thought we would see a huge surge after the ending of title 42, this covid restriction. now we understand that there are 400 left at the border and they're extending their stay through the end of september. they were supposed to be relieved in early august, they kept those 400 there, they extended that deadline to august 31st. now they're extending it a month further. it is because we're continuing to see those numbers that took a
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sharp decrease after the end of title 42 slowly starting to creep back up. so i guess there is this understanding at least from dhs they're not quite ready to pull back those troops, they think they need the support. >> julia, a month ago, you were noting the number of families with kids crossing the border had tripled. "the washington post" now reports that the number has hit an all time high. tell us about that. >> well, and this is the thing we were hearing from officials at the very end of title 42 when we saw that number plunge. they said, the thing we're still worried about is families because there are a lot of families who have been waiting in mexico, they're desperate, they want to come across, and they're coming across with young children. the biden administration toyed with the idea of family detention, meaning anyone who crosses a border with a child under 18, if they're a parent, they would be detained together. something the obama administration did and the trump administration did, but the biden administration ended it. they thought about bringing it back right when title 42 was ending to keep the numbers low,
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but they decided against it. they still aren't bringing back the policy, but it could be one of the reasons why the numbers are growing. i was in arizona where we saw more women and children coming across the border in 110 degree temperatures and dangerous terrain because they're trying to get temperatures and dangerous conditions. jose, they are desperate and trying their chances. >> julia ainsley, thank you very much. talking about the extreme weather realities, a grim headline out of el paso. the toll of the crisis where scorching temperatures have pushed migrant deaths to a 25-year record high in the border city. one spokesman said, migrants told us they are held without sufficient food or water on the mexican side or waiting for hours in the desert for the
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opportunity to cross. joining us now is the journalist behind that reporting. she joins us from seldom park. what is it that you are learning about migrants and the crisis that they are facing? >> the numbers here are way down in terms of the number of people crossing. the number of people who are dying in this desert, just like this landscape behind me, are way up. at least 136 people have died. that's more -- almost double last year. the last highest year in el paso sector was 30 people dying. it's something that both law enforcement agencies, first responders, and border patrol are contending with in a way they never have before in this part of the country. >> telemundo have been following the story of a 29-year-old who died in custody of a reported
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heart attack after traveling to the u.s. with her two children. the children still in custody. let's hear what the father had to say. to say >> the folks that are listening to the show, he said they grabbed the hand of an immigration official to check on their mother but she was already dead. this is occurring over and over again with a growing number of migrant families arriving to the u.s. is this something we will see more of? >> it seems so. here in el paso sector, there's no shortage of heartbreak.
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many of the people who are scaling the wall here are ending up injured. the groups that they are traveling with are leaving them behind. sometimes they are within yards of help or rescue. i was out with the fire department recently. one of the firefighters was showing where he has performed rescues. sometimes near people's backyards. we were out at another death recently. the woman was just 200 yards from the highway where there are constant law enforcement patrols where she could have been saved. it's a different dynamic than what we had seen in arizona where the desert is vast. here just outside of el paso, there are neighborhoods, highways, industrial parks. yet, the temperatures, in part due to climate change, have gotten so hot and dangerous that
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even walking a mile in this desert has proved fatal for many of the migrants. >> lauren, i think it's important to underline the fact that just because we are not seeing in down town el paso what we saw just last year and throughout the beginning of this year, but there are still millions -- i should say, thousands of people on the mexican side of the border that are there and that are waiting for their opportunity to cross in, and there are tens of thousands crossing as we speak. >> yeah. i think it's important to note that even though the numbers are lower here in el paso, why are people crossing on the new mexico side? one reason is the texas governor has laid miles and miles of wire in the bed of the rio grande on the texas side. where i'm standing, this is a point where three states come together. it's texas, new mexico and on
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the mexican side chihuahua. you have the borderline, the wire and the texas national guard ends. in new mexico, you have an 18-foot fence and a 30-foot border wall. people are testing their luck and trying to scale that wall to disastrous affect. >> i thank you for being with us. your work is so important. i'm so glad that you are able to come with us and speak about something that is so important. i appreciate everything you are doing. >> thank you, jose. today, a texas state law banning gender affirming care for minors is taking affect, making it the most populous state with such restrictions on transgender children. joining us now with more is nbc news correspondent noah pratski. what kind of impact is this having? >> texas is cutting off access to puberty blockers and hormone
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therapy to any texan under the age of 18. they will ban any surgery. surgery for kids under the age of 18 is very rare when it comes to this stuff. the aclu, suing to block the law, put out in the media calling it cruel and dangerous. we take a step back, it shouldn't be a surprise, the very conservative texas supreme court overturned a lower, more liberal court's ruling on this, which allows the law, which was passed in june, to go into affect today. conservatives have argued that allowing this -- allowing gender affirming care is dangerous to kids. that's contrary to where most of the medical community is on this issue. the american academy of pediatrics, american medical association all support care when it comes between a familiar -- between a family and their
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doctor. texas and about a third of the country's population is affected. the laws are more popular. some states not satisfied with just 18 years old, some looking at blocking all sorts of gender affirming care for anyone under the age of 26. more and more momentum from conservatives. they are willing to step into this kind of culture war fight. in texas, we say that other states are allowing more access to gender affirming care. when you live in texas, most of the south now has these laws. you can't just drive a couple hours away. if you live in houston, your closest drive is nine hours to the new mexico border. we are talking -- if you live in any southern states that have these laws, it's very difficult get, getting harder to access gender affirming care. speaking of texas, this lawsuit does continue on to try and reverse the law that went into
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affect today. the aclu and a grew suing say their fight is far from over. >> thank you so much. in arizona, severe thunderstorms hit the phoenix area last night. the weather created a dust storm which led to delays and cancellations at phoenix international. look at the pictures. this is a look at the dust storm rolling in, taken from an airline. the dust also delayed a college football game. fans were asked to seek shelter. these are pictures of folks at the stadium there. you can see the reflection of the dust on the lights. there were no injuries reported. the game did resume with asu beating southern utah 24-21. i want to wrap up this hour and this week with some good news. a 5-year-old boy who was
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visiting hawaii with his family when the fires broke out is lending the island a helping hand. along with his mom, he held a lemonade stand in his neighborhood in seattle to benefit the maui community fund. >> popsicles and some sparkling water. >> more than one person came? >> 2,000. >> within a couple of days, he amassed more than than $16,000. there you see him making some of the lemonade that i am sure is delicious. that wraps up the hour for me. you can reach me on social media. watch highlights from today's show online. thank you for the privilege of
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your time. right now on "andrea mitchell reports," georgia's governor squashing efforts to remove the fulton county d.a. who indicted donald trump. fani willis will stay on the job and on the case. >> the bottom line is that in the state of georgia, as long as i'm governor, we will follow the law and the constitution. this as the former president is fighting to delay the georgia trial which will be live streamed to the american public. president biden set to speak on the jobs report any moment now. 187,000 jobs were added in august. unemployment ticking up, 3.8%. the capitol's attending physician saying mitch mcconnell is medically clear to continue working after he froze up suddenly. this ahead of another spending figh

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