say in court. again, when trump has lousy lawyers like alina habba, they don't advance his case. any lawyer worth her salt would have known the way trump was acting in this courtroom, not only disrespecting the law, disrespecting the judge and the jury, that the jury would let him have it. that's exactly what the jury did. >> we'll see what happens in the civil fraud trial, potentially $370 million in a judgment. make sure to catch rachel maddow's interview with e. jean carroll tonight at 9:00 eastern right here on msnbc. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." remember the follow the show on social media. you can follow me on facebook, x and graham. @ryanobles. "chris jansing reports" starts

right now. good day. i'm chris jansing live at m headquarters in new york city. nearly 24 hours after president biden vowed to strike back, we're waiting for his critical decision. how will be u.s. retaliate for the attack that killed three u.s. soldiers and wounded dozens more in the middle east? what's it going to take to get them to back down but not trigger a bigger war in the process. he's not president and not in congress. how is it possible that donald trump could pull the rug out from under a border deal that both parties say they want and that the country desperately needs? it's the race the american people have been dreading. the two oldest candidates in u.s. history duking it out in what may be the longest presidential campaign we've ever seen. what it's going to take for them and us to make it to election day. we begin with the deadly attack on american troops in the middle east, opening a new

potentially explosive chapter in the israel-hamas war. president biden right now is working through options to retaliate for an explosion that killed three service members and injured dozens at a u.s. base in northeast jordan. the president met this morning with his national security team in the situation room. >> we lost three brave souls in an attack on our base. we shall respond. >> these are the first known american military deaths since iranian proxies started attacking u.s. and allied tests across the middle east. more than 160 attacks in all since october 7th. some republican lawmakers are demanding direct strikes within iran, a sharp escalation that warn could plunge the ent region into war. negotiators from the u.s., israel, egypt and qatar say they have a framework of a deal to free the 130 remaining hostages

in gaza in exchange for extended pause in the fighting. nbc's courtney kube is at the pentagon. also with us, andrew bore wren, former senior official at the office of the director of national intelligence and national counterterrorism center and current director at flashpoint. good to have both of you here. courtney, military analysts have told us it's only a matter of time until american troops were killed in attacks. that day has come. what are the options the biden administration may be considering now? >> reporter: they're looking at everything, and i do mean everything. we have seen several times where the u.s. military, the biden administration, has responded to other attacks. you mentioned those more than 160 attacks that have targeted bases with americans in iraq and syria since october 17th. in some of those cases, there have been u.s. service members who have been injured. in some cases pretty badly injured. there was one critically injured just over a week ago in irbil. the u.s. has responded with

strikes. what the u.s. generally calls proportional strikes. for instance, they'll take out a warehouse or maybe some location where the attacks are launching from. there have been cases, in fact, chris, where they have killed some militia members they believe are responsible for these attacks. as you said, this is the first time we have seen u.s. service members, three u.s. army soldiers killed by one of these proxy groups since all of this uptick began on october 7th. so what we expect now is they're looking at a much broader range of opti not just the sorts of attacks against these militia groups, but even beyond that. now, i do want to stress that all the officials we're talking to here say they have not yet made a decision. they are still working through options. we know president biden met with his national security team just today. as you mentioned, but it doesn't seem they have come to any final decision here. our own savannah guthrie pressed john kirby from the national security council on this earlier

today. here is what he had to say. >> i hope you can understand that i'm not going to get ahead of the president's decision and talk about what the options might be. he said we'll respond. we absolutely will. we'll do it at a time and in a manner of our choosing certainly. obviously this requires a response. >> but it's not ruled out. would you say that? >> we're not looking for a war with iran, not looking to escalate the conflict in the region. there will be a range of options that the president will take a look at. >> reporter: that's another big question. we keep hearing the u.s. is not looking for a broader conflict or a war with iran. the question we keep asking is, well, is iran interested in a broader conflict or a war. the u.s. officials we speak with continue to tell us that's not the case. when you look at the attacks like we saw yesterday, this deadly attack, upwards of three dozen americans wounded, it's a question that begs continuing to be asked. is there an effort here to expand this conflict in the region? >> that's the key question.

i can only imagine the intensity inside the situation room where the president met with his national security team. can we be sure iran doesn't want a wider conflict? >> no, we can't be sure. i think that's actually what really elevates the risk in this entire situation for anyone involved in planning a response. got to take in kind of three core considerations when we talk about strategic or operational planning. first, we want to take into account what is the adversary thinking? what is the adversary's motive? what is the adversary's desired end state? right now with i'm not sure it can be said with certainty what the iranian state's desired end state is. it certainly looks as if there's been a very big appetite for expanding violence, expanding terrorism, expanding attacks on commercial shipping in the red sea. and now ultimately killing u.s.

soldiers on friendly soil in jordan. as someone who served in the middle east in iraq in 2003 and later on military bases in the region and in jordan, i can tell you i certainly would not have been expected to be killed by an iranian-aligned militia group during my time there. this is a significant elevation of the stakes, and i don't believe anyone can say what iran really desires in the end state of this escalating violence. >> so is there any answer that isn't incredibly fraught that can say to iran, listen, you cannot do this, because that is absolutely the message that president biden wants to send and the american military wants him to send, but that will not give them an excuse to widen this conflict? >> i think the conflict is widening. not just i think. we can observe it. the conflict started with the hamas attacks on october 7th. we saw expansion into hezbollah

attacks on israel. then we saw a significant expansion by houthis in the red sea to begin attacking -- let's remember this. they are attacking commercial shipping from more than 30 to 50 countries that move 10% to 15% of the world's global commerce through the red sea into the suez canal which impacts our mediterranean allies, our european allies. this is not just a united states problem. this is a global challenge, and now we've also seen strikes by iran into pakistani territory. so all of the violence that has been cacaing since october 7th as a common denominator in support from the iranian regime and through these militia and terrorist groups who they have been funding and training for decades. >> courtney, you have exclusive new reporting on how the biden administration is looking at new ways to pressure israeli prime minister netanyahu to scale back the assault on gaza.

what have you been able to learn? >> reporter: along with our colleague, carol lee, we learned that there were discussions ongoing in the biden administration about looking at some of the weapons systems. primarily ammunition and munitions that the u.s. is selling to israel to see if there was some way to either slow roll some of the deliveries or even frankly postpone or stop some of the deliveries as a way to force israel to heed the u.s. call to be more careful about the humanitarian situation, so being more careful about civilian casualties and maybe open the aperture about allowing humanitarian aid in to the people in gaza. i should say, chris, this is still a discussion. it's not a decision that's been made or a policy change by the biden administration. we're told this is happening at relatively senior levels within the administration across various agencies, looking at the possibility of things like slow rolling the 155 millimeter artillery shells, maybe some of

these large bombs we've seen the israelis use. again, the decision hasn't been made. the administration -- it's something they're discussing, chris. >> andrew, let's talk about pressure. it seems like we've been saying for quite a while the pressure is amping up on the israeli government. now they're really getting it from all sides. they're getting it from the biden administration, they're getting it from the hague, unrelentingly from the hostage families who feel time is running out if it hasn't already. how long can they hold out or does benjamin netanyahu not feel the pressure or at least doesn't care? >> you know, this is similar to talking about -- that's the state of a friendly force and a friendly regime.

just as i said i don't believe anyone can tell you specifically what the iranian regime's end game is, i don't know that i can weigh in and tell you what the prime minister of israel's end game in, much less what the level of unity is in government and public support. obviously there has been amazing levels of human suffering in gaza, and obviously the terrorist attacks on october 7th were unprecedented in the carnage, in the targeted sexual violence, targeting children, disabled people. there's so much suffering to go around that it's very difficult when it's this emotional of a situation to kind of say, hey, here is what an individual leader is thinking or here is what government leaders are thinking because governments just like people can also be driven by emotion, and undoubtedly there's a lot of emotion in the middle east right now. >> i want to play a little bit for you, andrew, of a

conversation andrea mitchell just had with the qatari prime minister talking about this. here is what he had to say. >> we are a much better place than where we were a few weeks ago. there was a clear demand of a permanent cease-fire ahead of the negotiations, which i believe that we moved from that place to a place where it has potentially might lead to a cease-fire permanently in the future. this is what we're all aiming for. >> does that sound promising to you, andrew? or is the more realistic assessment, you've got to say i'll believe it when i see it? >> well, look, just as winston churchill said, i'm here in london, it's better to jaw-jaw than to war-war. that's always true in human affairs and in affairs that involve the level of violence we're seeing in the middle east right now. so i absolutely believe it is worth every minute, every hour

spent in negotiations whether that is formally from the state department, whether that's informally through ambassador burns, the cia channel, diplomacy to try to reach some peace between warring groups. the short answer is we have to be optimistic. we have to believe in the negotiators, and we also have to believe that the white house now needs to think about responses when they go further up stream to disrupt the root cause of all of this chaos and violence and terrorism in the middle east we've been seeing since october. >> courtney and andrew, at a very fraught time, thank you for helping us with your expertise to help us understand where we are and what the options are. in just 60 seconds, new reporting on just how badly mitch mcconnell wants to win back control of the senate. is it another republican, donald trump and his border battle that's the biggest obstacle?

>> we want either strong bill or no bill and whatever happens happens. >> if that bill were law, i'd shut down the border right now and fix it quickly. e border rigw and fix it quickly even a little blurry vision can distort things. and something serious may be behind those itchy eyes. up to 50% of people with graves' could develop a different condition called thyroid eye disease, which should be treated by a different doctor. see an expert. find a t-e-d eye specialist at isitted.com dry skin is sensitive skin, too. and it's natural. treat it that way with aveeno® daily moisture. formulated with nourishing, prebiotic oat. it's clinically proven to moisturize dry skin for 24 hours. aveeno® (tony hawk) skating for over 45 years has taken a toll on my body. i take qunol turmeric because it helps. with healthy joints and inflammation support. why qunol? it has superior absorption compared to regular turmeric.

qunol. the brand i trust. a bipartisan group of senators appear to be close to a deal on immigration and foreign aid with senator chris murphy saying the bill could be ready as early as this week, and president biden apparently on board. >> if that bill were law today, i'd shut down the border right now and fix it quickly. a bipartisan bill would be good for america and help fix our broken immigration system. >> house speaker mike johnson warning any agreement is likely dead on arrival. here is what two key negotiators think about that. >> i'm hopeful we'll still have enough republicans in the senate who want to fix the problem at the border rather than just do donald trump's bidding. we will see over the next 24-48

hours. >> we all have an oath to the constitution, and we have a commitment to say we're going to do whatever we can to be able to secure the border. >> nbc's guad venegas is reporting from the u.s. southern border in eagle pass, texas. julie tsirkin is with us and jake sherman, an msnbc political contributor. jake, i want to play what i think has been a pretty typical statement by donald trump on the border. >> we want either a strong bill or no bill. whatever happens happens. >> so not exactly heavy on specifics, jake. what's the level of frustration by those on the hill who are serious and seriously want to find a way to at least start to fix this problem at the border? how much is trump hanging over this mess? >> listen, it's not a surprise that house republicans and senate republicans defer to donald trump. we've seen that for a long time now. to be clear, trump did not get a strong border or -- a strong

bill or any bill when he was president. he wasn't able to get any big immigration legislation through congress, and that was a hallmark of his presidency, his inability to build this border wall, et cetera, et cetera. listen, the negotiators are frustrated because they've been working on this bill behind closed doors now for some time. it's been criticized by the right as not being strong enough. they say let it come out and then make your determination about it. they've continued to punt on when it's going to come out. we heard last week it could see floor action. now we're hearing this week. the goal here, so to speak, is get it out this week, have people review it and put it on the floor for a vote in the senate. i think when it gets over here to the house side, it's going to be a very heavy lift to get anything through the house. >> in punchbowl today you point out how republican effortso retake the senate could be impacted by this battle. mitch mcconnell badly wants to win back the senate majority, you write.

senate republicans have a great map to do that in november. if trump returns to openly attacking mcconnell, that's going to be a big problem throughout the year. how much will this relationship between mcconnell and trump -- actually even speaker johnson -- determine the republican party's future? are donald trump's aspirations going to come at the cost of gains by senate republicans? >> listen, mcconnell and trump have effectively zero relationship. mcconnell barely even utters his name. there is really no relationship to speak of. if trump is out there and this bill does end up getting a vote and trump dumps all over it and says it's weak and anybody who voted for it is weak, that's not a great look as republicans appear to be favored to take back the senate later this year in 2024. but this is an age-old story, chris, where donald trump and hill republicans are not on the same page. donald trump is looking to win re-election. he might care secondarily about

taking back the senate and keeping the house, but his primary motivation is obviously to get in the white house. >> let's go to the source of all this. guad, the stakes. what's the current situation at the border looking like as all this is unfolding in washington? >> reporter: chris, things have changed dramatically from what we saw in december. this happened after dhs secretary may jersey shore kiss and secretary of state blinken went to mexico at the end of december, spoke to mexican authorities and things began changing with a lot more enforcement on the mexican side from immigration. what we've seen in mexico since then is immigration agents sending a lot of the migrants back to southern mexico and enforcing a lot of those checkpoints that they weren't enforcing in december. when you look at the numbers, customs and borde protection rerted about 370,000 encounters jn december. that was that record number. almost 250,000 of those were illegal crossings between the ports of entry.

in the firstar of january, the first two weeks, they already saw a 50% decrease. so we no longer have a surge at the southern border. i'm located at shelby park. this has been the epicenter of the latest surge. it's also been part of the battle where state authorities came in and took over this park, federal authorities not allowed to come into the park. but they are allowed to use the boat ramp behind me. this ramp is used in eagle pass for both border patrol and state troopers to get the boats in the water and help a lot of the migrants crossing the river and taken by the currents or many that can't swim have to be rescued. just this morning we did see a group of migrants cross with a child. they had to get rescued. it was very cold this morning. the water was very cold. we heard some of the agents say the word hypothermia. that could have been a possibility as they were bringing this baby out of the water. about an hour later we saw another child come in with a family. we've only seen two groups today.

very, very few migrants arriving here at the southern border with that new enforcement happening on the mexican side. some are still arriving. another thing that's changed dramatically in eagle pass, texas state authorities have informed that migrants being detained here are charged with criminal trespassing in the state of texas. that's a different process. in december when federal authorities were arresting migrants, they were processing them after the migrants began the process to seek asylum. now things are changed with state authorities patrolling this part of the border and charging them with criminal trespassing. all of this happening, chris, with this deal happening in washington. in texas we also have a law that is set to take effect in martha would give local authorities -- this is local police and state troopers, to poidls that are crossing into the country illegally. under that law, it says they would be allowed to take them to the port of entry and expel them

back to mexico. chris. >> julie, at the same time all that is happening, where guad is on the border, the republican-led house on sunday released two new articles of impeachment against dhs secretary alejandro mayorkas. they're charging him with refusing to uphold the law and breaking the public's trust. tell us about this. >> reporter: this is the same alejandro mayorkas in the room with senate negotiators. he has his fingerprints all over the border deal that has yet to be released that you heard jake run through already. the house meantime is taking up these articles of impeachment. tomorrow morning they're going to meet in a committee markup, try to process the articles. mark green, the homeland security chair, had said these articles are worthwhile pursuing. spoker johnson saying the house will take it up in a full vote. the margins he's working with t. we keep talking about this. but you also have some republicans who didn't want to get to this place with mayorkas to begin with.

that's going to be tricky for johnson once this gets on the floor. does he even have the votes to make this pass, to get this through before it dies in the democratic-controlled senate. the department of homeland security, in addition to democrats on the hill lik bennie thompson who is the rankembe of the homeland securi cmittee calling this out to be asham i want to read partf their statement saying, quote,hi markup is more of the same political games from house homeland security republicans. they don't want to fix the problem, they want to campaign on it. that's very similar rhetoric we're hearing not only from democrats, but by other republicans namely in the senate painting their counterparts, their other republican colleagues on the border negotiations. they're saying their negativity towards it, pulling apart what's in the deal before they even read it is reminiscent of republicans who are just trying to have this as a political issue and a campaign issue. certainly all these things not happening in a vacuum. they are happening together. it will be interesting to see if and when the senate processes

this bill, what happens in the house as they're pursuing impeachment against the guy who is in the room negotiating it. >> julie tsirkin, jake sherman, guad venegas, thank you all. new details what happened the day ethan crumbly killed his michigan classmates. what a school counselor says he told ethan's mother before the mass shooting. the unprecedented sentencing for the man who leaked donald trump's tax returns. you're watching "chris jansing reports" only on msnbc. "chris jang reports" only on msnbc with boost high protein, complete nutrition you need... ...without the stuff you don't. so, here's to now. boost. students... students of any age, from anywhere. using our technology to power different ways of learning. so when minds grow, opportunities follow. ♪ i know what it's like

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right now we're hearing chilling new details about the hours before ethan crumbly opened fire and killed four classmates the school counselor is on the stand at the involuntary manslaughter trial of ethan's mom. this is the counselor who called jennifer crumbley into school to talk about the disturbing drawings her son was making in class. nbc's adrienne broaddus is following this for us and also with us msnbc legal analyst joyce vance. adrienne, was us through court today. >> let's take a step back and start from the beginning. we heard from jennifer crumbley herself before the jury entered the courtroom. she went on record saying she is okay with a piece of evidence being entered. we're talking about facebook

messages between jennifer and her husband james. now, on friday there was a lot of back and forth about these messages, saying that some of those messages would be redacted. with her attorney at her side and her defense attorney shannon smith saying they don't want any of those messages blacked out because they don't want it to appear they're hiding anything from the jury. on the stand right now is a guidance counselor from the high school, shawn hopkins. he has a caseload or had a caseload of about 400 students including ethan crumbley. he interacted with ethan on the day of the shoeing as well as his mother jennifer. he called his mother to that school today. there's been a lot of focus on these two drawings. there was a map work sheet which was disturbing to school leaders. here is how that guidance counselor assessed that drawing.

listen in. >> when i looked at it and i saw one body, when i looked at it and saw words that were internalized, i started becoming concerned about the students' well-being and made the decision i needed to involve parents. i let her know i had the student in my office and i had some concerns and i was hoping she would be able to come into the school. >> he did testify that he spoke with ethan. he wanted to know more about those drawings. ethan told him it was a drawing for a video game, but he did not take what the shooter told him at face value. his assessment, he was fearful the shooter was going to hurt or harm himself. after talking with him more, he testified and said ethan shared with him he was sad, he was struggling with school. this was during the middle of the pandemic. he got in trouble the night before and had an argument with his parents about grades. his dog had recently died and a

grandparent. chris. >> adrienne, thank you for that. joyce, that phone call to jennifer crumbley coming hours before the shooting concerned. how crucial about the fact that the school is calling saying we'd like you to come in, and that timing, if they want to prove that she should have done more? >> right, chris. that's the issue here because she's charged with involuntary manslaughter. that means prosecutors have to show that she acted with gross negligence, more than just mere carelessness, that she was actually aware that there was a risk of injury to other people, if she used ordinary care, xi could have prevented it and failed to do so. this testimony sets the stage to show she was aware that her son posed a danger to either himself or the others.

>> earlier today the owner of the barn where they stored their horses laid out how much money, how much time they spent there. a key part of the prosecutor's argument is that she was neglecting her child, focusing on the horses instead. legally can that help them establish their case? >> the same form of argument, establishing she was aware a risk existed but she ignored it. jennifer crumbley even had conversations with the woman stabling her horses indicating her child was difficult, that she had had difficult days but she would nonetheless show up at the end of the day after work to spend time with the horses rather than going home. so this is layer upon layer, piece upon piece of evidence showing a pattern of conduct. >> joyce vance, always good to have you on the program. thank you, joyce. a campaign unlike any we've ever seen before, more expensive, more vitriolic and almost certainly more of what the vast majority of voters say

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less than a third of americans are willing to vote for someone over 80. not great news for president biden who will be 81 on election day. donald trump will be 78. the oldest pair of nominees if that's who they turn out to be, in history. add in the fact that if trump wraps up the nomination before march 3rd, it would be the longest general election campaign in modern history in the u.s. critics are pointing to the candidates' verbal slugs as proof they aren't up to the jobs, whether it's president biden mixing up the names of his cabinet secretaries or donald trump getting tripped up on the number of things he says he had to remember for a cognitive test. >> sir, i'll give you six names. good. i look at him. a chair, a hat, a badge, a necklace. those things. we're going to give you six things. i said good. what's going on? can you name any of them.

i name them. they go back. if you can do it in order, that's even better. >> that was five. i want to bring in a man who knows what it's like to run for president. former ohio republican governor john kasich and cornell belcher, democratic strategist and pollster. both men are msnbc political analysts. it's never good when you say this is how i aced a cognitive test remembering six things and you mention five. but you know what it's like to be on the campaign trail. give us some insight into the kind of endurance test these men are facing over the next nine months. are they up to it? >> you know, it's not going to be like it was back when i was running because it's going to be kind of a rose garden strategy for both guys. i don't think you're going to see joe biden at all these whistle stops. i think you'll see donald trump doing selective rallies. i don't think it's going to be like what we've seen before.

my view is that both of them have to figure out how to, number one, motivate their base, and secondly, how they begin to think about how they're going to get independent voters. i listed three things here for biden. one is, what are you going to do on the border? he should be down there complaining that trump is trying to block a deal. maybe he didn't have it always right, but he's trying to fix it now. secondly, it's critical what he does with iran. if they just kick the can down the road, people are going to say he's not capable. that doesn't mean you wag the dog and go into war because you think you're going to gain politically, but we can't keep ignoring the problem of iran. finally, it's all about the economy. that's what's going to motivate independents the most, chris, in my opinion. that is biden, first of all, has to start hoping it gets better and he's got to stop saying everything is fine because it isn't, not in the minds of the voters. >> can they rose garden it,

cornell, effectively, because obviously that's something their campaigns will have to figure out? they're going to have to figure out the schedule for both sides. i'm also a little amused this is expected to be the most expensive president race in history for two guys that may be better known than any two candidates in the history of running for president. so where does all that money even go? >> those are really good questions. i will take on the last one first here. we spend way too much money in politics. as someone who has traveled overseas and actually done work overseas, it's absurd the amount of money we spend in american politics. at some point we do have to think about some form of more campaign, political campaign finance reform. i know the supreme court has put a real block to that. we've got to do a work-around because many of us would argue we're losing our democracy and it's awash in money.

if you look at the money and the special interests with the super pacs, in 2008 when i was working on the obama campaign, we defined on the campaign -- we defined what the message and the issue was going to be that we talked about. when you look at desantis, the last presidential campaign time around, most of the spending and conversation about desantis was actually done by outside big money. i think we lose our democracy in that. on to this point about rose garden campaigning, i think you'll see both men have to lean into surrogates. particularly with biden -- and they're already talking about a joint fund-raiser with obama and clinton. so i think there's going to be an effort to actually pull in more surrogates. i think this time it's going to be really important -- americans are saying they want younger, new leadership. i think the democratic party has

a lot of young new leaders. one in leader jeffries right there in congress who hopefully will be speaker of the house who the biden campaign will need to put out on the road and meet these new venues. the other part about this why it's important is it's so fractured. just broadcast television, and as much as i love msnbc, a lot of voters, especially these young voters are just not getting information from these sort of sources. we're going to have to use surrogates to flood the box. >> there's a report from "the new york times" that joe biden would love to have taylor swift. i wish we had more time to talk. we have to go to the briefing room at the white house guys. thank you. this is nsc coordinator for strategic communications, also known as spokesman john kirby following the attack on u.s. soldiers in the middle east. let's listen. >> we also wish a complete recovery for all those wounded in this attack. they are receiving and will continue to receive the very

best medical care that the military can provide. second, these troops were conducting a vital mission in the region aimed at helping us work with partners to counter isis. even as the defense department gathers more information about the attack, that mission must and will continue. third, the counterisis mission is separate and distinct, indeed it's been longstanding and unrelated to our efforts to support israel and prevent a wider conflict in the region. we do not seek another war. we do not seek to escalate, but we will absolutely do what is required to protect ourselves, to continue that mission and to respond appropriately to these attacks. i know the first set of questions i'm going to get, well, what does that look like? what's appropriate? and what response options is the president considering? i hope you can understand why i'm not going to telegraph any punches here from the podium, nor will i get in front of the president or his decision making. he's met twice with his national

security team, yesterday and today. he's weighing the options before him. as we said yesterday, we will respond. we'll do that on our schedule in our time, and we'll do it in a manner of the president's choosing as commander-in-chief. we'll also do it cnizant of the fact that these groups, backed by tehran, have just taken the lives of american troops. i think i'll leave it there. now, quickly just on one other topic, over the weekend -- sorry. over the weekend national security adviser jake sullivan held more than 12 hours of meetings in bangkok with his counterpart from the people's republic of china. they took stock of progress on key issues following the meeting between president biden and president xi in november. that includes discussing efforts to discuss military and military communication which has occurred, addressing artificial intelligence safety and risks and advancing bilateral

counternarcotics cooperation. in fact, the launch of a, working group on counternarcotics will be launched tomorrow. the two sides also held constructive discussions on global and regional issues including those related to russia's war against ukraine, the middle east, of course, the dprk, south china sea and burma. they also discussed cross-strait issues. questions. >> can you confirm the reports that suggest that the attack drone that killed the u.s. forces was misidentified for a u.s. drone that was returning to that base? >> i cannot. >> had the u.s. definitively confirmed attribution of the attack beyond vaguely iran-backed militia? do you have a special militia group that launched the attack? >> we're still working on that. >> you said the president is weighing his options. is that that the president

hasn't made a decision -- >> i don't get ahead of the president's decision making. as i said, he met twieps with the national security team, including not long ago. when we have something to speak to, we'll speak to it. >> speaking of speaking to it, will we hear directly from the president? will he speak to the american people about this attack and his response when it happened? >> he mentioned it yesterday on south carolina. i don't have anything on his schedule to speak to. i have no doubt he'll continue to communicate with the american people how important it is these missions continue. >> lastly from me, has the president directed any change to force posture in the american -- >> we don't talk about forced posture changes one way or another and we certainly don't pre announce them when it comes to areas on the ground potentially under threat. i can tell you the president is confident that the defense department undersecretary austin will do what he has to do to look at forced protection

issues. >> do you expect the president to go to dover for the dignified transfer when these americans are returned to the united states? >> i don't have anything on my schedule. >> -- it's been a while since we have had this kind of incident resulting in deaths. do you think that is a consideration of the public type of response? there are a range of responses the president could use. they go from military strikes to sometimes it's cyber, sometimes it's things the public cannot see. do you believe this event rises to a level where whatever the president's decision is would have a public -- we would know -- >> you mean you're going to know? >> again, without getting ahead of the president's decision making. i won't do that. as i said in my opening statement i'm not going to telegraph punches. we'll make these decisions on our own time, as i said. the president will choose for himself how he wants to respond. as i said in the opening

statement, we'll do it fully cognizant of the fact that now and just and what just happened, american lives have been taken. his decisions, whatever they are, will be informed by all those circumstances. what that looks like and when that comes, i'm just not able to say right now. >> -- different from what american forces might be facing -- in other words, does the u.s. believe this was a deliberate attempt at escalation? >> fundamentally different now because we have three families who just got the worst possible news. that's different. the scope of the wounded now, more than 30 injured, some of them seriously. that's also different, and it's possible that the number of wounded could go up. as you may know, traumatic brain injury symptoms don't present themselves right away and that's a very serious physical injury itself.

look, it is -- this wasn't the first drone attack on an american facility in the region. there have been others, and the consequences doesn't mean that the previous ones weren't intended by these iran-backed militias to have that same effect. this time they killed americans and they wounded a lot of them. it doesn't mean they wouldn't have preferred that outcome in the past. >> an official has told abc news confirming the report about how the troops there had mistakenly identified the drone as one of their own. can you talk about how this might have gotten past the defense systems? >> i think i'm going to let the defense department talk about the forensics on this. i'm sure that they are already picking it apart and trying to figure out how this happened, and might be inappropriate for me to get ahead of that. >> i in of your interviews, you didn't rule out a strike.

can you talk about the array of options in front of the president. could this be in phases, could we see a smaller scale one and a larger scale one, that's the option? >> i'm not going to do that. i appreciate the question. that's why i tried to take it out of consideration in my opening statement. i'm not going to talk about that right now. >> do you think this could complicate the ongoing cease fire negotiations to release more hostages? >> there's no reason, whatever our response is, there's no reason for that to have an impact on our ability to get the hostages released. those discussions are ongoing. we believe they have been constructive and are moving in a good direction. don't want to sound sanguine here. there's a lot of work left to be done. we don't have an imminent deal to speak to, but based on the discussions we've had over the weekend and in recent days, we feel it's moving in a good direction. >> thanks. john, how does the president balance the desire to not see us

-- escalation in the region with the decision to respond. >> that's the hard part of it. that's what being commander in chief is all about is acting in accordance with our national security interests. what's unacceptable to those interests and what has to be done to protect those interests. there's no easy answer here and that's why the president was meeting with his national security team, weighing the options before him. he'll do that as he's done in the past in a careful, deliberate way. >> has the president, has the administration communicated via a third party to iran what the message that you're saying on tv about not wanting to have escalation. >> i'm not aware, as you and i are speaking that there's been a private message related to leaders in iran. we have done that in the past. but as you and i are speaking right now, i'm not aware of such a mechanism. >> and just on the hostages, can you give us an update on the

latest there and what you expect in terms of a cease fire? >> again, the discussions have been pretty constructive. and i want to be careful here because don't want to say anything that would torpedo the deal we're trying to put in place. what we're trying to work on is another humanitarian pause of sufficient duration that will allow a large number of hostages to get released and as you've seen in the past, as you did back in november, you've got to have a pause in the fighting to get them safely out. so that's what we're aiming at, and then of course if you get that period of time, whatever that ends up being, then you can take advantage of it to get more humanitarian assistance in, and certainly when there's a pause in the fighting, that means there will be a reduction in the civilian casualties which will be a goal of ours.

>> can you confirm, is the president currently actively considering potential attacks inside iran? >> we are not looking for a war with iran. we are not seeking a conflict with the regime in a military way. and as i said until the opening, we're not looking to escalate here. this attack was escalatory, make no mistake about it. it requires a response. make no mistake about that. i will not get ahead of the president's decision making. >> you're not saying either way -- >> we're not looking for a war with iran. i'm not speaking to the president's decisions. >> the administration has said iran does not want a direct war with the u.s. either, does yesterday change that assessment? >> i'm not at liberty to discuss or to speculate about what the supreme leader wants or doesn't want. clearly these attacks continue, and now they have had lethal

consequences. we know these groups are supported by iran. make no mistake about that. we know that, and this administration has taken action in the past to hold them accountable and we have taken action over the last three years to hold iran responsible for a range of activities, issued 500 entity sanctions since we came into office. we'll just, i mean, we'll continue to look at the options available to us. >> is it clear to you now whether the attack yesterday was at or was direct urging or if this was more of a proxy group that was mostly acting on its own? >> i'm not going to talk about intelligence issues. we know iran supports these groups, the degree to which they order and direct is something intelligence analysts will look at. we know they support them, resource them, train them, we know they're certainly not

discouraging these attacks, whether it's attacks by the houthis, what hamas did on the 7th of october and what the militia groups do in iraq and syria and now jordan. >> and one last one on the controversy, israel says they have information about 13 employees who were connected to the october 7th attack. do you have any reason to believe that that might have been more widespread, that there could be information that later indicates that it was beyond those 13 people? >> i haven't seen any information that affirmatively makes that case, that it's more than now 13. i think last week we were looking at a dozen. that's why an investigation is so dang important here. so that we can look at the scope of the problem set. but, you got 13,000 unra employees. 13,000 in gaza alone. as i said last week, let's not impugn the good work of a whole

agency because of the potential bad actions by a small number. i am not dismissing the seriousness of the allegations against those employees, and whether there's going to be more that will be found. hopefully the investigation will give us more insight. it is important. the staff and commission general and u.n. secretary general said they're taking this seriously. that's our expectation too. it's important that the investigation be as thorough and transparent and as credible as possible, and we're going to be watching closely. >> can i punish you more on the hostages and the potential linkages on the hostages whatever action you guys decide to take. one of the things you talked about since october 7th is how intertwined the region is, whether it's lebanon or hezbollah or hamas or iran, or, you know, the houthis, and the

difficulty with not wanting to set fire with a spark in one place that goes all around the region. what gives you any confidence that if you guys are close to a deal on the hostages and then the president orders a strike that that deal doesn't fall apart as a result of outrage and anger in the region at the actions of the united states and how does the president, you know -- how does the president make that calculation given, you know, six americans still in gaza and the other hostages and everything else. >> i didn't say we were confident, mike. we are mindful of the way some actors in the region are trying to make connections across the region. what i said was there's no

reason why or work on the hostage deal needs to be affected or impacted by what happened over the weekend or what we do about what happened over the weekend, and we will respond. we still want to keep the work going. our shoulder to the wheel and this hostage deal, and we'll have to see where it goes. i also want to repeat what i said earlier. we're not overly sanguine here. we're not cocky. we understand there's a lot of hard work ahead, and that work ahead of us, diplomatically, certainly, might be affected by events elsewhere in the region, not just what happened in jordan and what might come as a result of that. there's no reason why it should, and that's why we're going stay at that task. >> over here. thanks, kirby. does the white house acknowledge that the previous retaliatory strikes that it has taken in the region have been ineffective at protecting american troops? >> the strikes that we have