my dad is driving a bus for the pittsburgh regional transit authority, and i'm a first generation college graduate. we want to make sure every pennsylvanian has that same opportunity to succeed and join the middle class in our commonwealth. >> and please send your father the best from all of us. it's an inspire story. >> thank you. >> pennsylvania lieutenant governor austin davis, thank you for being with us. i'm jose diaz-balart. ryan nobles is in for andrea mitchell and picks up news right now. thanks, jose. right now on "andrea mitchell reports" five detained americans finally get their freedom after years in iranian custody. >> husbands and wives, fathers and children, grand parents can hug each other again, see each other again, be with each other again. it's a day that i'm grateful for. >> all this as president biden

kicks off a critical week of foreign policy meetings at the u.n. general assembly ahead of a white house meeting with president zelenskyy. andrea mitchell will join us live from the united nations with the developments. speaker mccarthy works overtime to get his narrow house majority on the same page, but their short-term solution to avoid a government shutdown may not have the votes and is dead on arrival in the senate. autoworkers and the leaders of the car companies are back at the negotiating table. a deal remains elusive putting added pressure on the u.s. economy and the biden administration. >> we still have a long way to go, and it's going to be up to the companies how this plays out. we'll see how things progress the next few days and, you know, if we have to amp up pressure that's what we're going to do. hello and welcome.

i'm ryan nobles in washington in for andrea on assignment at the u.n. and will be joining us shortly. we're following the breaking news from the middle east. five americans wrongfully imprisoned in iran for years have been released and arrived in doha, qatar. the americans include morad tahbaz imprinned eight years, emad shargi and siamak namazi. iran accused all three of espionage. the other two have asked not to be identified. president biden releasing a statement today saying in part, quote, five innocent americans who were imprisoned in iran are coming home after enduring years of agony, uncertainty and suffering. i'm grateful to our partners at home and abroad for their tireless efrlgtss to help us achieve this outcome. moments ago, secretary of state antony blinken said he spoked to the released prisoners. >> i can tell you that it was

for them, for me, an emotional conversation. it's easy in the work that we do every day sometimes to get lost in the distractions of foreign polls and relations with other countries and forgetting the human element at the heart of everything we do. >> in this delicate prison swap the biden administration is releasing five iranian prisoners and unfreezing $6 billion in iranian oil revenues that were frozen under u.s. sanctions. some republicans blasting president biden for what they are calling a ransom payment. arguing that iran will use the money to fund attacks against the u.s. and allies. >> the administration says we're really only giving them their own money, but it's money they didn't have. the other aspect, these moneys can be used to support terrorist organization, hezbollah and hamas, and, you know, actions of iran. >> the biden administration, though, saying the $6 billion

can only be used for humanitarian goods like food and medicine. joining me now is nbc's tehran bureau chief ali arouzi in iran now. ali, for the families this has been a years long nightmare. when do we expect the americans to return to the united states? >> hi, ryan. that's right. it's the end of a really arduous ordeal the families and prisoners went through. they left iran about an hour and a half, two hours ago and arrived in qatar. they're expected to go through some preliminary medical checks in qatar, just to make sure they're okay. they're expected to leave qatar this evening, about 7:00 in the evening in qatar. we're not expecting them to overnight there. from there, they're expected to fly to washington where they are going to get more rigorous medical checks with physical and mental. the time these guys have spent in the prison, one of the most

notorious prisons is not only going to take a major physical toll on them but taken a very major mental toll on them as well. that from what we understand is the plan. they will be leaving qatar back to the united states for medical checks and, of course, to be reunited with their families and friends that they've been away from for so long. >> there's been a great deal of criticism about the $6 billion here in the united states particularly from republicans. we played some of that a while ago. what's the reaction in iran? >> the government here in iran is, obviously, pretty happy. they've just gotten $6 billion of funds unfrozen, getting five prisoners back from the united states helping them circumvent u.s. sanctions, so for the government here it's a win. there's been a lot of criticism of the biden administration for

paying what essentially people are saying is a ransom, and they say that's only going to edge courage the regime ---en courage the regime here in iran to take more because it's profitable and puts u.s. troops and contractors in the region at risk, and it also gives iran a lot of money. lester holt had an interview with the iran been president -- president a few days and iran said it will decide what they want to do with the money. it's not up to the u.s. the u.s. fired back saying there are strict measures to make sure iran doesn't spend that money on things they're not meant to and they could refreeze it. even if the $6 billion is under strict u.s. control it frees up $6 billion here in iran for them to spend on whatever they want. >> okay. ali arouzi live with the latest from tehran. to doha where josh letterman is standing by. do we have any more information about when they'll be heading

home? >> very soon, ryan. we are told that they're not expected to spend very long on the ground here in qatar. really the only time they're going to spend here is for the quick medical checks that ali mentioned are taking place right now and then they will be boarding the aircraft for the final leg of the journey back to washington where they'll then have the opportunity to undergo much more substantial evaluations. this trip to the u.s. will really be the first time that they are able to speak in person with these u.s. officials who have flown from the white house from washington here to greet them. remember, on that two-hour or so flight from tehran to here in doha, there were no american officials on board. there were iranians and there were qataris including the qatar ambassador. even though they knew they were headed towards freedom this is going to be the first time they'll be able to hear about everything that was involved in bringing them home.

these painstaking negotiations that went through stops and starts and what is going to be awaiting them back in the u.s. in terms of government support, counseling, other services as well as when they're going to have an opportunity to reunite with their families. >> and josh, we know that there were the prisoners themselves on board this plane, but we understand there were family members who weren't imprisoned in iran but couldn't leave the country, correct? >> that's right. this was a bit of a surprise, but we learned today that there were two relatives of the -- two of the americans who had been imprisoned and they, as you point out, had not been imprisoned, this was a wife and mother, but not allowed to leave the country. so they were given an opportunity as part of this swap to leave on that aircraft. they will now be heading home with their relatives who had been imprisoned to the united states and that certainly adds one more layer to the relief

these families are experiencing, but we know that there are others who remain imprisoned in iran, including some u.s. green card holders who are married to american citizens who wanted to be included in this swap. they have complained about the fact that biden administration wasn't able to include them in this swap. a bittersweet moment for others who want to see americans detained brought home. >> we appreciate that. as we speak, andrea mitchell is meeting with the president of iran. we'll hear from her later in the broadcast. let's make a deal. are house republicans taking steps to avert a golf shutdown? the latest from capitol hill next when "andrea mitchell reports" is back in 60 seconds here on msnbc. re on msnbc. tv: try tide power pods with 85% more tide in every pod. who needs that much more tide? (crashing sounds) everyone's gonna need more tide. it's a mess out there. that's why there's 85% more tide in every power pod.

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legislative and political hurdles with a government shutdown now just 12 days away. over the weekend leaders from different factions of the house republican conference agreed on legislation that would punt the spending deadline through the end of october, but their conservative bill faces long odds of passing the senate and may not have enough support to pass the house. after a tumultuous week that included a response to threats from his far right members speaker mccarthy's message to his conference is clear stay united and avoid a government shutdown at all costs. >> some people say you should shut down. think about this. i've been through shutdowns and never seen somebody win a shut down. when you shut down you give your power to the information administration. any time a republican wants to stop the floor from working when republicans have the majority, that puts us in a weaker position to win at the end of the day. >> nbc's senior capitol hill correspondent garrett haake

joins me now. there's an issue for kevin mccarthy in that he's got to get a deal that can pass the senate and get passed by president biden. but at this stage, it's not clear that he's even got a deal 218 of his republican members will support? >> that's right. the ultimate goal here is to get something joe biden will sign. this bill isn't it. one way to look at this bill is that it's a ransom payment to get the department of defense funding bill they had to pull off the floor last week across the finish line. it's expected to get voted on on wednesday ahead of this bill getting voted on on thursday. there's ap agreement to do that. it gives house republicans a seat at the table and eventual spending negotiations saying we need to pass something, we should be part of a conference or a bipartisan deal to ultimately fund the government. this bill seems to be designed to give far right members something they can support, majority, hopefully all the conference on board and extend the clock. really maybe only extends the clock in the sense it gives them

something to keep talking about into next week because there's no way this bill gets through the senate and joe biden's signature. it's one piece in a puzzle that looks like it's going to take it up into the deadline to solve still. >> a lot of late nights for you and i. thank you so much. appreciate that. >> let's talk about it now with former michigan republican congressman fred upton. told me to call you fred. you've been through this before. you went through the 2013 shutdown. seems like rinse and repeat for these members of congress they never seem to understand there's no political upside to this. >> the senate is never going to pass this. the game plan is to do what they did on the debt ceiling the last summer. muster through a bill in june, barely have it pass by one or two votes. you're at the table with the senate and negotiate something and it's done. the margin is four. we lost another member who

resigned on friday because of his wife. so the margin is four. already 10 or 12 republicans are saying they're voting no. i don't think any democrat is going to vote for this. kevin is going to be in the box of saying we can't pass it now in the house. senate will never take it. what is the senate going to do? pass their bill with bipartisan support along the lines of what they agreed to with the debt ceiling. but they'll get out of town. they'll leave next week and say, kevin, it's back in your lap, let the government shut down and you will take the blame because you're the speaker and you have this bill to keep things open and kevin will be able to say we tried and cooperate get the votes on our side for an alternative. it's trouble. >> under any scenario, this ends with kevin mccarthy needing democrats. >> that's right. >> the problem is he has to get that twice because he needs it for the continuing resolution and for the final budget bill. if he has to go down that road,

a, will democrats help him out given they've entered into this impeachment inquiry, and is his speakership in dang sfer. >> it probably is. as i told andrea last week, the democrats are like screw you and everyone that looks like you. why will we bail you out. jeffries said that. don't expect us to help you out after you did this impeachment inquiry. they will stay loyal to the cause, and it makes it even more difficult for kevin who at least up to this point he's been mr. houdini. 15 ballots to get to be speaker. they've been able to keep things under control. when you interact the senate is going to insist and so will the administration on money for ukraine, as they should, and you have these disasters, whether hawaii or the hurricanes coming through, no money for fema and here we are at the end of the fiscal year it's a tough sled. it's -- you don't have a lot of

cards in your hand for kevin. >> you're a moderate by nature and maybe can't get into the psyche of what's going on in kevin mccarthy's head but it would seem to me there would be benefit to finding a coalition of moderate democrats and moderate republicans to help him out as opposed to capitulating to the freedom caucus every time because at the end of the day, they may never vote yes for this legislation. >> they approved it. kevin came through with the impeachment inquiry last week and -- >> they didn't care. >> okay. it's like they keep changing the goal posts. they've done that all year long and at some point the clock hits zero and for now, it's september 30th. >> against the backdrop of this is the former president donald trump who kind of flirted with the idea that a shutdown would be okay and -- >> so did pence. they're going to pile on and talk about deficit spending and all of that. it is a nightmare scenario without a lot of exits. >> all right. fred upton thank you for being

here. and when we come back, we're going to hear from andrea mitchell who is in new york coming out of that meeting with the iranian president and we'll talk about the strike, historic autoworkers walkout could expand to other critical plants. the latest next on "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. a mitchell reports" only on msnbc. e and i saved hundreds. with the money i saved, i started a dog walking business. i was a bit nervous at first but then i figured it's just walking, right? [dog barks] oh. no it's just a bunny! calm down taco. sit duchess. stop! sesame no no. archie! walter don't, no, ahhhh. ahhhhh! you're lucky you're so cute. only pay for what you need. ♪liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty.♪ oh... stuffed up again? so congested! you need sinex saline from vicks. just sinex, breathe, ahhhh! what is — wow! sinex. breathe. ahhhhhh!

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joining me with more on our top story about the five americans leased from iran is the host of this broadcast andrea mitchell who got out of a meeting with iran's president at the u.n. thank you for rushing out after that important meeting that you had with president raisi. tell us what he had to say about the prison exchange. >> well, that was what was so fascinating about this. i have been to many of these sessions at the united nations where he told an off-the-record meeting with journalists and editors, a small group of 10 or

15 of us, and it's always off the record. we can't report it. he occasionally we can get one sentence or two out of it. i said at the opening we were asked to ask our questions first and then he would give the answers. so it was a list of questions from us and then a list of answers. no follow-up to anything that he said. i said, can we, given the news of today, have at least some comment about the release of the prisoners. at the end of an hour he said he wanted -- right away, he said although they told us it was off the record you understand this so well, then said, but we want you to disseminate this to your readers and viewers. and to the larger community. so at the end he repeated that. we waited until we got the all clear that this is all on the record, which is never happened before. of course he had that fascinating interview just a week ago in tehran with lester

holt, of course, our anchor and narrator of "nightly news" and i asked him to clarify when he said to lester that the humanitarian aid that was going to be -- the $6 billion of their oil money would be used for, now that it has been deposited that that would be used for anything they wanted, and he repeated it would be used for the needs of iran. interestingly he said he thought that the prison exchange should be better framed as a humanitarian gesture involving the release of five iranians unjustly held in the united states. we know now and can report those five include three who may well stay in the u.s. because of ties here. they were accused of nonviolent crimes, sanctions and things of the like. that prisoner exchange has taken place as you know the americans are on their way back. the $6 billion has been deposited. he went on and accused the u.s. and europeans of meddling and

inciting the riots and protests and the prisoner exchange was delayed much longer than it would have been if we, the united states, had not meddled in what the u.s. has said is a grassroots protest, large-scale protest, just a year ago that started with the death of mahsa amini in custody. a lot of their point of view, but i will be coming back to the studio and giving more reporting on this. on the prison exchange, he said that it was a humanitarian gesture and thought that this could lead to other collaborative cooperation with countries that wanted to be collaborative and cooperate. there was a lot more on iran, possibly negotiating with saudi arabia and other persian gulf countries. saudi arabia negotiating with israel he calls a zionist state, something he will not even deal

with. but a lot about the women, protests and prison exchange and nuclear agreement. >> first of all fascinating reporting as always, but i'm interested, you talk about opening this up with diplomatic countries in the middle east. did he talk about whether this would open up with the united states as well? the two countries have had a conflictual relationship after president trump pulled out of the iran nuclear deal. what is the status between the united states and iran in the wake of this prisoner swap? >> even u.s. officials have said there's been no iranian attacks in syria to the u.s. forces and 12 to 13 months no attacks against u.s. forces in iraq. there's been relative calm. there has been a cessation of incidents of tankers, u.s. and other tankers, and that the u.s.

is still going to sanction iran according to the officials we speak to last night, u.s. officials briefing us late last night on all of this, which we were able to report this morning once the americans were out, that is going to be a very delicate balancing act. we'll see how aggressive he is when he goes before the general assembly tomorrow. he said there were ways to be cooperation, and appealing to us to not tell what he said were 36,000 lies about the women's protests in the first 48 days of those posts. they view everything we were reporting last year as being, quote, unquote, lies. there was a lot of propaganda today. always is. we are adversaries as defined by the u.s., but from my interpretation, having covered so many of these, he was looking for way forward and also saying so on the nuclear agreement, but as you know, they're the ones --

well let me say this, he said there was an absence of faith and confidence in the united states of trust because we and the europeans, he said, got out of the nuclear agreement, we first, and that is undeniable. the trump administration canceled the multilateral, you know, multirelation agreement, all of the u.n. five permanent members, the european union and the united states, and the u.s. administration dropped out of it for at least a year or two. the iranians abided by it and said they never broken it. what they have done is because the u.s. broke the agreement, they have begun enriching nuclear fuel at a much higher rate up to 60%, 90% would be weapons grade. secretary blinken told us they're weeks away if they continued at this pace for having enough of one weapon. so that is very much in play. >> andrea mitchell, i'm sure we're going to hear more about

your conversation with the iranian president throughout the day on msnbc and nbc news. thank you so much for your reporting, andrea. now on to other news of the day here domestically, four days into the historic u.s. auto strike there's no deal between the uaw and the nation's big three automakers and the consequences are starting to grow. ford has laid off about 600 nonstriking workers in michigan because of the walkout and despite what the uaw calls reasonably productive conversations with ford over the weekend, union officials warn the strike could spread to plants in kentucky, one of them the companies a most profitable plant globally. local 862 represents 12,500 louisville workers working without a contract. its president todd dunn joins me to talk about what is at stake. tell us about the latest counter offer now on the table and where is your union willing to compromise? >> you know, they have spoken to

us over the weekend and said they met with negotiations somewhat this week and are getting back on it this monday. one of the things we want to share with our leadership,p intel we're getting locally and how prepared our membership is and ready to strike, we spoke with all of our leadership here at the union halls this morning and we're really dialed in ready to go. >> expand on that a little bit. obviously, there's got to be a lot of concern and anxiety with your members about the possibility of going on strike. what is their morale like right now? >> so a lot of our workers are nervous, anxious, trying to be prepared. some of the things that our membership is saying is they're worried about where they're going to be, how long we're going to be out. they're concerned about the other members on strike right now. we're trying to focus on putting a perimeter around our membership and keeping them informed as much as possible and letting them know the rules and regulations and what they're dealing with as far as working without a contract inside the

plant. they worry about work rules. will the company keep up with the things they need to keep up with and we assure them that's our full intention, take the protection in the plant just as much as outside if we have to strike and the concern for their families. >> he yeah. talk about that. what type of support can you provide to your members if the kentucky plants are pulled in. how will you help them and their families during that difficult time? >> we've worked on our new platform trying to keep membership informed and letting them know there's perks an incentives that are out there. we're working locally with our metro united way labor liaison, also for ford motor company, works for the labor council and we're putting everything together with 411 and equally getting prepared to help metro united way. we will have almost 8,000 man

hours and 7,000 workers at the kentucky plant they would have to cover those lines, all the shifts 24/7 and approximately 3,000 of the assembly plant. two assembly plants in louisville, lap and ktp. you have the diversity and the solidarity between hose two plants and concern for one another and we're trying to back each other up. >> okay. todd dunn, thank you for the update. we appreciate it. joining me to talk about this is ellen hughes cromwitch worked as an economist at ford and inside the obama administration. been on both sides of these conversations. you know we had reporting about how involved the white house is in these negotiations. they seem to be at an arm's length right now. do you think they need to be a little bit more involved? >> i do think that we've got to see some convergence here of a common set of facts and surely

the biden administration can help with that. you know, we've got some top line kind of macro trends that are important right now, ryan. number one, we're in the middle of this transition to evs. gm in the first half of this year, produced 50,000 evs. i mean it's under way. we need a skilled, high quality workforce to make that happen and the d 3 have that. so i think there's a lot of wood to chop here. we've got to get some aligned incentives now in terms of what the future is going to look like. hopefully we'll see that happen with, you know, a lot of the negotiators at the table. >> and you mentioned this kind of move to electric vehicles. that seems to be one of the major issues against the backdrop of the negotiations. the white house pushing hard for evs and worried about china's industries the dominance they have in the area right now.

the simple fact is that evs need fewer parts and could mean fewer manufacturing jobs and the jobs that come out of the ev revolution may not be union jobs. how does the white house balance that? the economic needs of the sustainability but showing support for these union workers. >> let's step back and look at how this happens. as you know, the product cycle for a vehicle is three to five years, from the beginning of planning to when you see that job up with coming off the assembly line. we have plenty of time to adjust our wonderful workforce to meet the requirements as evs are launched. we're talking about an extended period of time and that's why the biden administration pushed so aggressively for these subsidies to really help the industry make the adjustment. as you know the ev tax credits

will be around for ten years. why ten years? because we need a long period for these factories to be retooled and up and running. we've got to have a success outcome here. it's so important for our domestic economy. i don't know if like a lot of people realize that the auto sector is about 3% of gdp. you may have heard that stat. it's just really critical to see that. >> yes. it impacts all of us. ellen hughes cromwick thank you for your expertise. >> thank you. your move, one of the key players in donald trump's alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election tries to get his case moved from fulton county, georgia, to federal court. what the chances of that happening are next here on "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. or an unbearable itch. this painful, blistering rash

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a key trump co-defendant in the georgia case is back in the spotlight today. jeffrey clark is trying to succeed where former trump chief of staff mark meadows failed getting his case moved to federal court. clark claims his actions in the final weeks were on behalf of the federal government and, therefore, should not be adjudicated in a state court. he was also a key player in the january 6th committee's presentation last year. >> i made the point that jeff clark is not even competent to serving as the attorney general. he's never been a criminal attorney and never conducted a criminal investigation in his life. he's never been in front of a trial jury. he kind of retorted saying i've done a lot of complicated appeals and civil litigation and environmental litigation and things like that, and i said that's right, you're an environmental lawyer. how about you go back to your office and we'll call you when there's an oil spill.

>> today in georgia former president trump is joined a motion from his former campaign lawyer sidney powell asking the court to dismiss the rico charge in the indictment. joining me, gary grumbach outside the courthouse in atlanta, university of georgia professor and former deputy district attorney melissa redman and former u.s. attorney harry lipman. gary, start with you, what's happening today including the argument that jeffrey clark's lawyers are prague to get this move approved? >> there's a couple interesting things happening. first, in this case, the defense's burden of prove to prove why they believe it should be moved to federal court and the kefts isn't here. he waived his appearance. his attorney doing all the work. he has to prove two things. one is not in question. one he was a federal officer at the time. he worked for the doj and the environmental section as we heard and later on in the civil division. two, that he was working under the color of law. that's legalese for doing the job that he was supposed to be

doing at the time. and that he was assigned to be doing. the defense says he was doing that. that's what they say. the prosecution says he was not because of the inexperience he had as an environmental attorney in the civil division not specifically related to the election. we also heard from another former trump administration official, a high-level doj official named jody hunt, he is testifying against jeffrey clark here on behalf of the district attorney's office saying that, in fact, jeffrey clark was not supposed to be doing what he was doing and his bosses, richard donohue and jeffrey [ inaudible ] and jeffrey said they are not signing the five-page letter and would not allow this to go to the governor of georgia and other state officials. mark meadows had the same judge, judge jones. he said you're not going to get this moved to federal court. we're not going to get a decision today from the judge we're told. it should come in the coming days. ryan? >> so harry, let's go to you

now. as gary points out mark meadows was not successful, he was the white house chief of staff, does jeffrey clark have a better argument his case should be moved to federal course? >> far worse. meadows was able to point to a pan know plea of activities that feels like he's doing what chiefs of staffs do, setting up phone calls and the like. character is charged with one piece of conduct. he wrote a letter telling georgia officials the doj had found irregularities in the election. that letter was a lie. it's clear it was a lie. and even apart from all the good points that gary makes about his not really having the position to write the letter in the first place, the fact that it was, you know, trying to meddle in state elections and doing so with a lie, takes it pretty strongly

outside any argument he's doing his job. >> so melissa, we've already seen so many legal motions from jeffrey clark, mark meadows, hearings regarding kenneth chesebro and sidney powell. how difficult are trump and his co-defendants making this on the prosecution and fani willis? >> it is difficult, but i think this is something that prosecution had to have anticipated watching what happened in the other cases against trump and other jurisdictions. so i would imagine they anticipated there would be motions for removal for those who are either federal employees or alleged to have been acting as federal agents, that those motions would be litigated, possibly appealed, along with the plethora of other pretrial motions to dismiss the indictment. that is kind of par for the course in any criminal indictment and you would imagine even more so with an indictment of this magnitude. >> harry, let's switch gears and talk about the latest

development with hunter biden. he's suing the irs on claims his private tax information was shared unlawfully. is this a pr lawsuit or does it actually have something substantive that will get somewhere in court? >> you know, i think there is substance here. it does seem people played fast and loose with his information and for a good deal of time. on the other hand it's such a 180 degree reversal. he's going at it very aggressively. he has a very good lawyer so i'm sure they thought it through. this can't help but kind of keep things in the public eye and really emphasize, you know, his sense of having been a victim. i doubt the white house is too happy about it. but both this lawsuit and another, i think, states a potentially pretty good claim that people were penetrating confidential information and waiving it around for political reasons. whether he wants to be undertaking this broad aggressive campaign with the

charges still potentially pending in criminal court is another question. >> i mean it's already out. the information, right? it doesn't change the trajectory of the case against him, right? >> that's exactly -- not the criminal case. on the other hand let's say he prevails at this, it does sort of show that, you know, his rights were violated and they made him a kind of political punching bag. i'm sure he believes that strongly. and there may be good basis to believe it. the big point is what a total change in strategy it is and how much more aggressively it inserts him into this overall conflict that's going to play out during the election season. >> and melissa, back to you, what should we expect next in terms of the georgia case with the rico case there? >> even more motions. we have motions today. we'll have motions again for other removal hearings before judge jones on wednesday and i believe there may be motions in

front of judge mcafee in state court on wednesday as well. some of those, including those motions to dismiss, several defendants are alleging that the [ inaudible ] cause defense for immunity saying i was acting as a federal agent and you state have no right in prosecuting me at all and those will be interesting of those motions that we'll be watching closely. >> motions upon motions upon motions. we'll be talking about motions maybe for the next year or so. gary, melissa and harry, thank you all for being here. we appreciate. >> "meet the press" what donald trump told kristen welker that could spell legal issues for the former president. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. ...to not only enhance the fan experience, but to advance how the game is played. now's the time to see what america's largest 5g network can do for your business.

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terrible mistake. >> donald trump is stepping back into the fight about abortion access telling my colleague in a "meet the press" kristen welker a six-week ban goes too far, but a 15-week federal ban is something that could be on the table if he's re-elected. >> people are starting to think of 15 weeks, a number that people are talking about right now. >> would you sign that? >> i would sit down with both sides and i would negotiate something and we'll end up with piece on that issue for the first time in 52 years. i will not say i would or wouldn't. >> joining me now is the political white house bureau chief and host of "way too early" jonathan lemire and "boston globe" columnist and co-host of sisters in law podcast kimberly atkins. ron desantis camp is firing back saying he will never, quote, sell out conservatives to praise

win -- to win praise from the left. i wonder if he has a point here. is president trump trying to have it both ways? he appointed three of the supreme court justices who helped to overturn roe and put us in the position we're in now. >> well, yes. we are here because of donald trump, because of the pact that he made with evangelical christian voters in order with the supreme court and the result was the overturning of roe v. wade. what donald trump also clearly sees is how unpopular that decision to overturn it is and that abortion is motivating democrats and hurting republicans in every election since. he's looking at that reality while ron desantis continues to also try to run to the right of donald trump as he has been doing and doubling down on his position here. it's just showing what a difficult issue this is for republicans because of donald trump and how donald trump himself in between all the falsehoods he spews in every

interview is at least acknowledging that little bit of reality. >> it's almost as if he's pivoting to a general election and sees the polls that show him ahead of the field at this point and trying to reach out to middle of the road voters. jonathan, talk about another issue that came out of the interview with kristen welker where trump was pushed about the legal adadvice he received after the 2020 election. >> you called your outside lawyers you said they had crazy things. >> you know what i listened to myself, i saw what happened and watched that election and thought the election was over at 10:00 in the evening. >> you were listening to your instincts? >> >> my instincts are a big part. >> were you listening to your lawyer's advice? >> i was listening to different people and when i added it up the election was rigged. >> were you calling the shots? >> as to whether or not i

believed it was rigged? sure. >> you wrote the book "the big lie" about the 2020 race. what's your reaction to how donald trump responded? >> saying he's the one that decided to act upon it and pushed it forward. we should note, i can only imagine just how anxious donald trump's lawyers are every time he appears on television. everything he's saying is admissible and seems like he is more or less confessing to a piece of the federal probe that jack smith is investigating, and he has been indicted for. it does strike me listening to this how many times this happened during the trump administration as well, where trump, no matter the consequences, had to have ownership of an issue. he couldn't stand the idea that it appeared that someone else was calling the shots, that he was following someone else's wishes. even though this may have added to his legal jeopardy, he wanted to say the buck stops with me

and i said i have to do this, and i'm sure his lawyers are shaking their heads. >> if you were his lawyer how concerned would you be he was giving interviews like this and solidifying his ownership of what he thought about the efforts to overturn the election. >> there are not enough in the world to be a part of donald trump's legal team. i was listening to the interview and writing down a list of admissions he was making in real time and so is jack smith and everyone on his team doing the same. the fact that he is continuing to do these interviews and speak this way, is only making his attorneys' jobs a lot harder and prosecutors' jobs a lot easier. >> he could also run into trouble with the judge, right? she's already put somewhat of a limited gag order on some of the things that he's been trying to say in public. he attacked pretty viciously the special counsel in this interview. how much trouble could he be in

that respect? >> that's true. while the admissions about his role on and before january 6th would not be a part of any limiting order, attacks against judges, prosecutors and even trying to tamper with potential jury pools would be. so that is yet another area that the attorneys must be very concerned about and could if the judge chose to take this approach end up if he is found in contempt against this order land him in jail. >> all right. thanks to both of you. we appreciate it. the children of ukraine, the efforts under way to save the kids taken from ukraine to russia and get them back to their parents and families. this is andrea mitchell reports only on msnbc. c. ♪♪ we're not writers, but we help you shape your financial story. ♪♪ we're not an airline, but our network connects global businesses across nearly 160 markets. ♪♪ we're not a startup,

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those who make the world run and deserve our thanks. i'm going to start myself with this garbage collector. his name is cody. i see him all the time valiantly doing his job and doing it with a great attitude. we need to thank these people whose essential jobs make our world go round. now to ukraine and the youngest victims of the war. ukrainian officials estimate hundreds of thousands of ukrainian kids have been illegally deported and forcibly transferred to russia and russian occupied territories since the start of the invasion. that is a war crime. today nbc news' digital team is launching a new documentary called saving nikita, the fight to return ukraine's children. foreign correspondent molly hunter explores one ukrainian mother's harrowing 3,000-mile journey to bring her son home.

>> reporter: on the school's social media account there are videos of children dressed up singing patriotic russian songs. ♪♪ >> reporter: there are also photos of nikita in the classroom. in one photo boys in military uniforms, artem with a z on his sleeve a popular russian symbol of support for the invasion. the city is just about 200 miles from kharkiv but getting there through ukraine was impossible, through dangerous, active fighting, and constantly moving front line. to find nikita oksana had to travel some 3,000 miles through four countries just to wind up pretty close to home. [ speaking in non-english language ]

>> joining us now is nbc's molly hunter. as a parent i just watch this and the only word i can think of is heart breaking. these numbers are absolutely shocking. why is russia specifically targeting children? >> reporter: i'll get to that answer. so many parents who have watched portions of this, and i am not a parent but speaking with oksana i said oh, my gosh how could you do this? this is a woman from a small village in eastern ukraine who never left the country, has never gotten on a flight. she said, if you were a mother you would understand. she said it was her only option. incredibly brave but for her the only way to get her son back. the ceo of safb ukraine one of the main ngos working to reunite these children to answer your question he said it is part of putin's ideology. it is always part of his plan, he says. we asked kind of the main ukrainian official charged with the reunification who basically laid out the russian playbook from the ukrainian point of

view. he says first target children, the most vulnerable, the youngest who may not have the agency in that moment to fight back. indoctrinate them. teach them a russian curriculum. and then tell those children they were always russian. that there was never a ukraine. that they were always russian children. the ukrainian officials have two big fears. for the youngest children they may get lost in the system. there is a window to get these hundreds of thousands of kids back and that is shrinking. for the older children that they may be indoctrinated and may be past saving. >> how does someone like oksana even find her son and then go through all the logistical hurdles to be able to bring him home? >> there is no one pathway and certainly no clear pathway for someone like oksana. she is from a village occupied by russia very early on, very poor, very vulnerable. didn't have a lot of resources. this organization save ukraine basically reaches out to these mothers, trains them, provides

planning, funding. we are talking though about hundreds of thousands of kids and the current number of children brought back to ukraine, 386 according to the ukrainian government. save ukraine says they are responsible for 176 of those children. but we have a hopeful story in our documentary to share. ryan? >> okay. there are so many awful aspects of this war. this is just another one. molly, thank you so much for highlighting it. we appreciate it. thank you for being here. you can watch the new documentary molly and her team worked so hard on called saving nikita, the fight to return ukraine's children. watch it right now by going to nbc news.com. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." andrea will be back tomorrow anchoring from new york for the 78th united nations general assembly. remember to follow the show on social media @mitchell reports on all of the social media platforms.

for now "chris jansing reports" is up next. good day. i'm chris jansing live at msnbc headquarters in new york city. first, mark meadows. now jeffrey clark trying to escape the grasp of the fulton county da and face charges in federal court instead. the former acting assistant ag doesn't dispute his claims about election fraud were lies just that the state doesn't get to weigh in. we have the latest from the courthouse right now just ending that hearing. plus as tens of thousands of auto workers strike for a fourth straight day the impact is starting to spread beyond the picket lines. more than 2,000 nonstriking workers were told not to come in today because there is simply nothing for them to do. more on that and what the workers might learn from the union strike in hollywood, which has been going on for nearly five months now. and just minutes from now we