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tv   Andrea Mitchell Reports  MSNBC  September 18, 2024 9:00am-10:00am PDT

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compromise, a clean continuing resolution through the end of the year, sometime in december. both sides haggling that out. democrats i spoke to, republicans as well, are giving johnson his opportunity to put this play on the floor, as he said. if and when it fails, the grown-ups as we call them will get in the room and try to negotiate something that goes until the end of the year. >> thank you so very much. that wraps up the hour for me. i'm jose diaz-balart. you can watch clips from our show at youtube. right now on "andrea mitchell reports," the middle east on edge amid a new wave of explosions across lebanon today after hezbollah pagers are blown up attributed to mossad killing
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12 yesterday and injuring thousands. a covert action that threatens any chance of a cease-fire and hostage release before president biden leaves office. former president trump on the trail tuesday in michigan. >> you wonder why i get shot at, right. you know, only consequential presidents get shot at. this hour, vice president harris talking to the congressional hispanic caucus after condemning the claims by mr. trump and his running mate about haitian immigrants in ohio. >> it's a crying shame. my heart breaks for this community. ♪♪ good day, everyone. i'm andrea mitchell in
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washington. personal communication devices are reportedly exploing across lebanon again today after an apparent covert israeli operation tuesday turned hundreds of pagers into bombs. early reports from lelebanon's health ministry say at least nine are dead, more than 300 injured today, this morning in another coordinated series of explosions. this after two u.s. officials tell nbc news israel was behind tuesday's highly coordinated attacks, triggering hundreds of explosions like this one, killing at least a dozen people, including children and health care workers and injuring thousands. u.s. and western allies are gathering information about the attack and how it was carried out. "the new york times" reporting that israeli agents planted explosives and a remote trigger into each pager. they were then imported into lebanon and distributed to hezbollah members, some even moved to iran and syria. the pagers were marked with the logo of a taiwanese company.
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they said the beeper model is made in a company in hungary. the sheer scope signaling extensive planning and a major escalation. tony blinken was arriving in egypt yesterday. his tenth trip since october 7th, trying to jump start diplomacy. the attack now throwing the gaza hostage talks into deeper chaos along with israel's defense military plan to return people. those people have not been in their homes since october 7th. the u.s. insisting israel did not give washington any advance warning of the attack. >> we have been very clear, and we remain very clear about the importance of all parties avoiding any steps that could further escalate the conflict that we're trying to resolve in
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gaza, to see it spread to other fronts. it's not in the interest of anyone involved to see that happen. that's why it's imperative all paries refrain from any action that could escalate the congress -- conflict. >> raf, that's implicit from a diplomatic standpoint, implicit criticism of israel's actions. >> reporter: yeah, absolutely. if you are tony blinken and you are trying to calm the region down and you have for a second day in a row a massive chain of explosions, that's not the right direction of travel. this is a very fast-moving situation. here is what we know at this hour. lebanon's state media is saying that nine people have been killed in today's explosions. that's on top of the 12 people, including at least two children,
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who were reported to have been killed yesterday. at least 300 people reported wounded today on top of the 2,700 wounded yesterday. this is a vast public health emergency in lebanon. once again, we are seeing explosions are not just limited to beirut. we are seeing them in the south of the country near the israeli border. we are seeing them in the east, which is another hezbollah stronghold. yesterday, as we talked about, it was pagers exploding in the hands, in the pockets of hezbollah members. today, according to lebanese state media, it's two-way radios, walkie-talkies exploding. it may be we are seeing more severe injuries and deaths because these are potentially larger explosives. >> thank you so much, raf, for all of your reporting on this. it's just incredible. joining us now, ronan
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bergman and frank figliuzzi. ronan, you have reported a lot of this exclusively. how did israel pull this off? >> i'm not sure it infiltrated. maybe it created the supply chain. >> that's a very interesting distinction. >> israeli officials are -- israel has a policy of not denying or confirming any of the covert actions. we can assess that when the prime minister of israel is completely changing the government's policy and one day before this series of explosions, it suddenly adds to the targets of the war another
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one, not considering gaza and hamas but considering the north, saying we will do everything we can, possibly by force to make sure that the refugees, something like 100,000 civilians that were evacuated because of hezbollah attacking israel, can go back to live in their house, in their homes peacefully and safely, and then this massive explosion. these operations done usually by israeli mossad, israeli military intelligence with the help of nsa, i'm talking in general, they take years. it takes a lot to build it. then to create the facade that covert companies and others, mediators to be able to sell such a product to hezbollah. the secretary-general of
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hezbollah, he had an -- he has an obsession against cellphones. in january, he gave a speech to all of his followers, do not use cellphones. he said, israelis don't need spies. they have the spy in your pocket. so hezbollah was moving to what it seen as a safer network, the pagers. the pagers do not send information. they only receive information. it was seen as something that cannot spy in the pockets as a cellphone. whoever was behind that, this commercial cluster of companies was able to sell between 4,000 and 5,000 devices, pagers that had been equipped with something like 20 grams of explosives. a trigger. we can assume, because it was used for sending texts to
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hezbollah operatives, as long as they existed, they were used to monitor these communications. >> i want to also bring our audience into some of the back story here. there has been a big rift over the gaza war between the defense minister gallant and netanyahu, gallant and the military saying they should end it, they have done enough, they can't achieve the goal of eliminating hamas, netanyahu getting angrier and angrier. there's political friction, suggesting he would get rid of the defense minister. the defense minister has been to my own personal knowledge from visits he made here and meetings i have had and what he said publicly two days ago to the chief u.s. negotiator for hezbollah in lebanon, he said, they now have to go for the military strategy, the military
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solution. he made that clear. they put that out there. the military is behind this as well. this is the one unified position of the israeli government. whereas, gaza and hamas is not. >> i'm not sure this is unified. i think the military thinks differently on this situation. let me just make two points to clarify. israel attacked by had a haas. the secretary-general joined on october 8 as solidarity with the front of resistance and solidarity with what he sees the palestinian people of hamas. ever since israel was attacked and attacked back. now he said and made it very clear that he will not stop fighting until the war in the south end. what happened in recent weeks,
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it became very clear that because of obstacles put by both sides, hamas and prime minister netanyahu, but mainly prime minister netanyahu who seemed to be not very keen to have a hostage deal, who put the integrity of his coalition in the highest priority, caring more for the coalition than for the lives of the hostages, the situation is israel is stuck with the war in the south that doesn't end because there's no cease-fire and in the north, because it doesn't end. what happened was the prime minister netanyahu, after not being able to achieve the two goals in the south, two goals of the war, to free hostages and to dismantle hamas, he added a new goal for the war to make sure that the refugees go back to live in their homes in the
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communities in the north. the only way to force, according to that belief, to force hezbollah to hold their fire and withdraw back to the river in a safe zone is by force. the problem with all of this, the covert actions, the bombing, the strategy is that it can also -- it can lead maybe to some political solution, negotiating it, but it can also bring on the other hand a serious escalation, possibly all-out war in the region. >> indeed. frank figliuzzi, let's talk about the extraordinary technology involved. the spy craft, the trade craft. >> yeah. look, they seized -- the israelis seized an opportunity
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here and did it extremely effectively. now today with the second wave, they are sending another message, which is, we own you. we own your coms. you can keep switch, but we own your entire supply chain and it has been said, we may have actually created your supply chain. it does take a long time to do this. i'm always fascinated by the behind of scenes operational discussions that have to go on for something like this. by that i mean, the israelis had to say, look, they have ditched their smartphones. we have lost that. we can't intercept them anymore. we have to do something else. now we understand they are switching to pagers. we could put geo location in the pagers. we would know where they are, at all the time. that helps us. the decision was made, you know what? we're willing to blow up these pagers. we are willing to just send a kinetic message. they had to make an operational
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decision. we would rather send this kinetic action to them, then own the location of their pagers. now today even blowing up two-way radios, again saying, yeah, we are putting kinetic action over the ability to intercept decisions. >> it's telegraphing there's no one else can do this. they are demonstrating superiority. thank you both. in 90 seconds, the price you pay. we will look ahead to the big decision an hour from now from the federal reserve -- or two hours from now. it will impact your bottom line. you are watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. eporc e fade defy plug. and i use this. febreze has a microchip to control scent release so it smells first-day fresh for 50 days. 50 days!? and its refill reminder light means i'll never miss a day of freshness. ♪
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you founded your kayak company because you love the ocean. not spreadsheets... you need to hire. i need indeed. indeed you do. our matching platform lets you spend less time searching and more time connecting with candidates. visit indeed.com/hire at 2:00 today, the federal reserve will make its long-anticipated major announcement on key interest rate cuts, the first since march of 2020. the first since the ripple affects of a global pandemic began to unfold. how much of a cut will we see? what will be the impact on your bottom line? joining us now is jason fuhrman, chair of president obama's council of economic advisors. now he teaches economics at harvard university. it's great to talk to you. it's hard to talk about the decision before it's announced. the market seems to be divided
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on whether it's going to be 25, 50, do you think they will go big, go small? what's your guess? >> i think 25. there's been a lot of signaling in the newspaper that maybe it's 50. the fact is, it doesn't actually matter that much how much they do today. what's important is they make it clear, number one, they are probably going to keep cutting rates at every meeting going forward. number two, that if the economy really starts to slow, they are willing to do more. if they do that, that's what has the most important impact. >> it takes a while to filter through to your credit card, your mortgage rate. >> yeah. mortgage rates have come down in anticipation because they knew the fed would cut rates. they have been coming down. i think they will come down more. in terms of jobs and inflation, yeah, that is six, nine months away.
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that's why it's so hard. the fed is making a choice today based on where they think things will be six or nine months from now. they don't -- no one has a crystal ball. >> all the economic polling indicates that people trust donald trump in the political polling on the economy by wide margins. what does kamala harris have to do if she can to gain confidence of the american people and of wall street that she can handle the economy? >> right. political advice to her, i don't know. she has an overwhelmingly strong case. donald trump is pushing tariffs that are just insane. 20% on every country in the world? on our allies, on things that we don't even make here in the united states for no particular reason? he is threatening the fed, which by the way is now potentially going to be among the most successful it has ever been in bringing inflation down and doing it painlessly. with the deficit, donald trump
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is talking did much larger increases to the deficit than anything she's talking about. i don't know exactly what she needs to do. she does have the facts on her side. he is much riskier for the economy than she is. >> it seems wall street and big business want their tax cuts, no matter what. ignore other data. >> you know, that's a factor. that's part of it. i would like to see taxes go up. i don't think we can afford to keep them where they are. there are some polarizing. i think there's a number of arguments. the truth is, they are not going to pass it. i wish they would. they are not going to. the idea that she's a socialist because she wants a capital gains rate around where it was under reagan is just the wrong way to think about her policy. >> jason, thank you so much.
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next, kamala harris responding to baseless claims by donald trump about immigrants in ohio as the former president returns to the campaign trail. you are watching "andrea mitchell reports." this is msnbc. is msnbc. eggs make all our family moments better. especially when they're eggland's best. taste so fresh and amazing. ( ♪♪ ) deliciously superior nutrition, too. for us, it's eggs any style. as long as they're the best. eggland's best. ( ♪♪ ) san francisco's been through tough times. london breed led us through the pandemic, declaring an emergency before anyone else, saving thousands of lives. from growing up in the western addition housing projects to becoming mayor, london has never given up on the city that raised her. london is getting people off the streets and into care.
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vice president kamala harris is about to address the congressional hispanic caucus in washington after j.d. vance rebutted criticism of the baseless conspiracy theory regarding haitian immigrants in springfield, ohio, that he and the president -- former president, i should say, have been amplifying. instead, j.d. vance is blaming the media for questioning those reports. >> i have residents of springfield who are coming to me with problems. they have been talking about it for months or some cases years. the american media totally ignored it until they showed up to fact check what some people were saying about pets. >> harris said yesterday that the hateful rhetoric has to stop when she was appearing before the black -- the association of
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black journalists. >> it's a crying shame. i mean, my heart breaks for this community. you know, there were children -- elementary schoolchildren who -- it was school photo day. do you remember what that's like? going to school on picture day? who were dressed up in their best. got all ready. knew what they were going to wear the night before. had to be evacuated, children, children. a whole community put in fear. >> joining us now, nbc news white house correspondent mike memoli and "washington post" national editor phil rucker. j.d. vance is blaming democrats' rhetorics for the attempts on donald trump's life.
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no evidence about the first one, because both donald trump and president biden were being threatened by that shooter. secondly, there's no reporting yet on the motivation in this case. the republican strategy seems to be to accuse democrats of the rhetorical excesses that are largely attributed to republicans. >> reporter: the response from the democrats is to say, look simply at what we are hearing from both of the candidates in campaigns at this moment. you hear vice president harris and also last night tim walz, her running mate, candidate for vice president, speaking about the need for political differences not to be resolved through violence but at the ballot box. we heard president biden as well as vice president harris reaching out to donald trump to express their relief that he is safe and express any support that they can offer in terms of logistics at this point to make
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sure everyone is safe. i have to tell you, the level of concern among democratic staffers at this point about the safety of all the candidates and surrogates on the campaign trail is high at this point. as we wait to hear from the vice president speaking to the congressional hispanic caucus, you will see a chance for harris to engage on another issue, which we have seen charged rhetoric around, which is migration. the vice president yesterday you heard it there calling it a crying shame what is happening in springfield. this is technically an official event. she's appearing in her capacity as the sitting vice president than as the democratic candidate for president, which may curtail some of the most pointed rhetoric in terms of what this means at the ballot box. but an opportunity for the vice president to speak about the contributions that immigrants make to this country and to rely on the congressional hispanic caucus to help the messengers. >> to flag our audience, we were
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showing something that happened saturday night, the congressional black caucus black tie dinner, which is a snazzy event. she was in evening attire. it did not relate at all. it might have been misleading to people. that's not her talking about immigration. she's at a black tie event. phil rucker, sara huckabee sanders -- the former white house press secretary was with trump in arkansas and went after vice president harris who is the co-parent of her two stepchildren for not having biological children. let's watch. >> not only do my kids serve as a permanent reminder of what's important, they keep me humble. my kids keep me humble. unfortunately, kamala harris doesn't have anything keeping her humble. >> phil, first of all, mispronouncing the name
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deliberately. kamala harris has helped to raise two stepchildren as attested to by doug emhoff's first wife, just overnight. the young people view her as a co-parent. can you explain the republican strategy in going after women who have not had biological children? >> andrea, i can't really explain the strategy. it's part of a piece of trying to basically feed the republican base and to make people feel like somehow harris is unlike them or is different or is other. by the way, it's not that she's been a co-parent to the stepchildren, she's been a very devoted and involved aunt to the children of her sister. >> we saw that at the democratic national committee. we saw the kids. >> it was evident in the speeches at the con convenience and the way they interacted on stage and family moments.
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to suggest that harris is somehow not a person of family is just not consistent with the facts. i think it's an effort there by sanders and you saw this reverberate a few weeks ago with the attention that j.d. vance's childless cat lady comment had to portray harris and other democrats as other and unlike the nuclear american family that is so comfortable for so many republican voters. >> phil, mike, thanks very much. appreciate you both. behind bars. the next steps for sean "diddy" combs as the media mogul waits in jail and his legal team returns to a federal courtroom later today to try to appeal his bail. this is "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. s "andrea mitl reports" on msnbc. moving piles of earth, just by moving a lever. towing up to 4,000 lbs with a machine that weighs less than half that.
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later this afternoon, sean "diddy" combs will be back in a new york city courtroom after spending the night in detention to appeal the court's denial of his request for bail. this after following -- this following the shocking three count indictment against the music and fashion mogul was unsealed yesterday. charging him with sex trafficking, racketeering and transportation to engage in prostitution. combs pleaded not guilty. legal analyst lisa rubin joins us now. combs is expected to learn in a few hours if he is going to continue to be held without bail.
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given his vast empire, his bottomless funds, how much of a flight risk is he? are there other reasons why bail was denied? >> usually, when you have a defendant with this wealth, private planes, you would expect that person to definitely be a flight risk. prosecutors cited that yesterday. on the other hand, his lawyers said, sean combs came to new york on september 5th voluntarily. he has been staying here in anticipation of a voluntary surrender to prosecutors, which they made impossible by arresting him on monday night. >> his attorney spoke last night to caitlyn collins giving a window into what the line of defense might be. >> there's not the slightest inkling of anything that's coercive, non-consensual. nobody was too drunk, too high. these were adults in a -- this
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is a ten-year relationship. you can't forget this. this is a ten-year relationship. it was adults and consensual. everybody who was there wanted to be there. >> lisa, the indictment includes references to that shameful video of him chasing his then girlfriend down a hotel corridor and beating her. how do you define consent? all the allegations about drugs being used. do you think this is going to be an effective defense strategy, that these are adults and it's a consensual relationship, if you can call these relationships? >> i don't. the way that he described mr. combs' relationship with his ex cassyie ventura. there are multiple victims. in a letter they submitted
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yesterday, they said they had spoken to more than r50 victims and witnesses. the lawyer you just showed there is trying to make this case solely about what he characterizes as a toxic relationship between sean combs and cassie ventuventura. the evidence will reveal it to be about more people and will show us that during these supposed freak offs, these sex performances, that consent wasn't possible to give because some of the people involved were so intoxicated or drugged that they couldn't have legally given consent. >> lisa rubin, thank you very much. state of play. a look at the battleground map for november. democrat control of the senate hangs in the balance. this is msnbc. hangs in the balance this is msnbc. i'm quite harmless, really. and when people ask, “but aren't you linked to dangerous flu complications like pneumonia, heart attack, and hospitalizations?”
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just 48 days until election day, down-ballot races are heating up. control of the senate possibly hinging on just montana. the seat held by a democrat john tester was just shifted from a toss-up to leaning republican last week by the cook political report. the dscc prioritizes montana, it is working on protecting and possibly even flipping other critical senate seats. joining us now, michigan senator gary peters, chair of the democratic senatorial campaign committee for the second cycle in a row, because you were so
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successful last night, with a narrow victory. >> absolutely. >> what's one seat among friends? >> that does make a big difference, as you know. >> when you consider confirmations, it's all about confirmations and judicial -- the supreme court. let's talk about montana. john tester -- this is really tight. he is a strong candidate. very popular. >> absolutely. >> but he has a strong republican opponent who is well funded. >> he is in a tough state. montana is a state that's going to vote for donald trump probably in excess of 20 points. that's tough. the good thing about john tester, he has proven he can win, as he has done in the past. he has won in tough conditions. he will win again. he represents montana. he is awe authentic as you can get in terms of a candidate. the guy he is running against moved in. he is an outsider. he is not connected with montana. he wants to open up public lands for private investors.
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those are things that are not popular. i'm confident he will win. >> you are spending a lot of money trying to open up other states. you have florida and texas. not considered great targets for democrats. you have some good candidates. what are your chances? are you going to spend real money? >> we have a good shot. it's back to candidate quality again like we have the contrast in montana. we have that in florida and texas. ted cruz is less popular in texas than the last election. he didn't win by much. we have a very strong candidate in collin allred. a member of congress from the dallas area. florid -- pro football player in texas. don't under estimate that. >> we have a strong candidate in florida, former congresswoman from the miami area against rick scott. we have an abortion referendum on the ballot in texas. we know how powerful that is turning out voters who want to protect their rights.
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we need resources. we are putting in resources. we announced $25 million in ground campaign across our targeted races in florida and texas. we still need help. that's all our defendthesenate.org is important to have resources. we have big money coming in against the races. we know if we have the resources and we run the ground campaign like we did last cycle when we made history, we can do it again. >> at the same time, they are both -- in texas and florida, they have donald trump in big leads. >> we are basically in the margin of error. we always knew that that would be a close race. after labor day and in the margin of error with strong democratic candidates in florida and texas, if they get the money in florida and texas, they can win. we know that's possible. we have to continue to push very hard. >> how is kamala harris replacing joe biden changed the
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equation? >> one thing is, energy. energy on the ground. there's no question the democrats are more motivated. we are seeing that across the country. in my state of michigan, we see the number of people signing up to get out and knock on doors and make ground contacts has gone up dramatically. that makes a difference in close races. it's how we won last cycle. these are won on the ground. when you are in the margin in a close race, every vote counts. to be able to identify who your voters are and make sure they get to the polls or send in an absentee ballot is a difference maker. it will be a difference maker this cycle. as long as we have the resources and volunteer help and we are getting the volunteer help with kamala harris at the top of the ticket. >> on that score, i want to ask you about michigan. it's so close, it's critical. to both campaigns. you have people resisting kamala harris on the economy when all the data are in her favor on the economy. but donald trump is still
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credited by many voters with being better equipped to handle the economy. >> she's very equipped. you talk about the past. >> that's not translating to the voters. what does she have to do? >> she continues to lean in on the issues that she's talking about, to helpeveryday families, to help afford to buy a house. we have many families that are struggling to do that. have actual concrete plans. kamala harris has a concrete plan. when it comes to helping small businesses, she's leaning into small businesses and starting a business. americans want to live their version of the american dream. often that means starting your own business. hiring other folks. we have kamala harris talking about real substantive issues. donald trump is unhinged and not talking about things that people really care about like kamala is. >> they are focusing on immigration, which is a big issue for them. finally, maryland, where you have larry hogan, a popular
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governor. >> we have angela brooks who say strong candidate. she's not as well-known as the former governor. when people get to know her, they vote for her. we're seeing numbers improve. it's a matter of running a campaign and making sure people understand that she's of top quality. and in maryland, they also understand you can't have a republican majority in the u.s. senate. when we elect kamala harris as our next president, she needs to have a democratic senate to get her appointments confirmed but also judicial appointments. when folks in maryland hear that, they understand it and they vote for angela. >> your priorities in terms of money, you have enough money so she gets better known, same in florida. >> and texas. but we have to hold our incumbents as well. my number one job is to bring all the incumbents back.
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they remind me of that every week. >> ohio, ohio, ohio. >> absolutely. we have to make sure they come back. we have outside special interests pouring money into ohio right now. he needs resources. we will provide that to him. he is as authentic as you can get as well. he has proven he can win in ohio time and time again, even as ohio has shifted redder over the years. >> donald trump has to win pennsylvania. if he wins pennsylvania and keeps north carolina and wins georgia, then he doesn't need michigan, wisconsin and the rest. pennsylvania, you have a very popular senator, bob casey. could that be a sleeper problem for you if donald trump does well in pennsylvania? >> it won't be a sleeper problem, because we are focused on it. we are focused on making sure bob casey has resources. we are working closely with the harris campaign because she needs to win there as well.
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there's no question that's a key state for both of us. that's another state where we have a billionaire that has come in and is pouring $30 million against bob casey. we are continuing to scramble to raise resources. that's why the ds is important and defendthesenate.org. they help us do what we have to do. giving to the candidates in all of the states is important. i would ask folks to really look at both florida and texas. >> senator peters, you were credited with working miracles last cycle. they rewarded you with the same tough job this cycle. even tougher. >> we're going to do it again. it's the same playbook. we have candidate quality issues. our candidates are superior. i say the republican candidates -- if i put them on a continuum, it's flawed to very flawed. most are towards the very flawed. versus strong democrats, both
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incumbents and ground campaigns. we will do it again. >> senator peters, thanks. we appreciate it. kamala harris has taken the stage as the congressional hispanic caucus in washington. the leadership conference here. we will let you know when she makes news. we will be right back. ht back. since my citi custom cash® card automatically adjusts to earn me more cash back in my top eligible category... suddenly life's feeling a little more automatic. like doors opening wherever i go... [sound of airplane overhead] even the ground is moving for me! y'all seeing this? wild! and i don't even have to activate anything. oooooohhh... automatic sashimi! earn cash back that automatically adjusts to how you spend with the citi custom cash® card. [mind blown explosion noise] your memory is an amazing thing, but sometimes it can start to slow down. but did you know prevagen can help keep your memory sharp? the secret is the powerful ingredient, apoaequorin, originally discovered in jellyfish
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at this hour we are following reports of more explosions of wireless devices in lebanon after tuesday's unprecedented initial covert attack that multiple sources tell nbc news was launched by israel's spy agency, mo sad, reports saying at least nine people were killed today, 300 injured in another coordinated series of explosions. fires broke out in dozens of homes and shops in southern lebanon. according to the health ministry, yesterday's initial blast killed at least 12 people
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wounding nearly 3,000 including iran's ambassador to lebanon. joining me is mark warner. there was new explosions today. it happened as secretary antony blinken arrived in egypt trying to negotiate a diplomatic solution. he said the u.s. had no warning, criticized anything that would impede a cease-fire. do you believe this will impede the cease-fire and hostage release negotiations? >> andrea, i have two concerns. one, we were so close, so many times on a cease-fire and hostage exchange. and we lost recently six hostages. hirsch, who i had gotten to know his family quite well, it was a huge tragedy. and anything that sets that back is enormously challenging.
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not only in terms of the conflict in gaza, but also because there's a series of nation states in the region, including saudi arabia that are looking for a major realignment away from china and russia, but that's not going to happen until we can bring cease-fire in gaza. what we are also seeing now, and again we don't know -- nothing has been confirmed yet about the source of the strike. but we are very concerned about an expansion of the conflict into lebanon. and moving this kind of tit for tat with hezbollah into a full-arm conflict, that is not in israel's best interest and obviously not in the best interest of lebanon and other nation states in the region. >> what does this mean with israel launching this just, again, as secretary blinken was arriving in cairo. it's his tenth trip to the region since october 7th. this delays any chance of -- of
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a deal? possibly during joe biden's presidency? >> i strongly support israel's right to defend itself and clearly israel, israelis said, you know, approximately 100,000 israelis have had to move out of their homes in the north, but i also -- there is no stronger ally of israel in the world than the united states. and it bothers me at times where the netanyahu government sometimes takes that for granted and i think that's not in the best long-term interest of the israel, it's not in the best long-term interest of those of us who are life-long supporters of israel. i'll leave it there. i think what we're seeing, a lot of time on the intel side and with our defense partners, we
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are seeing real time the changing nature of kinetic conflict we've seen it in ukraine with the advanced use of drones. look, ukraine has had to move from the most advanced tanks back from the front line we gave them because of drones. we are seeing technology manipulation in ways that -- kind of like james bond spy movies a few years back but happening in real time in nation states. this is why i continue to be on your show and everywhere else saying conflict is not going to be just tanks and guns. it's technology competition. and we'll highlight this afternoon about the ability of adversarial nations trying to interfere in our election process. >> that hearing that you're holding today, you and marco rubio, there have been a number of developments recently on this front. including the fact that the state department has sanctioned
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rt, the state-owned, kremlin owned media organization for covert activity. microsoft now says russia is using fake videos to target the harris/walz campaign. what can you do, what should be done against the interference? >> first of all i'm really proud of our bipartisan committee to elevate these issues we heard meta, facebook is banning rt and related russian outlets. the reason, you know, i know this feels like a repeat of what we've talked about in the past but the reason i'm so concerned is, it's not just russia, it's iran, china, our adversaries know election interference is effective and cheap. we know we have not had because of a court case, things are better now but we went for a number of months not having voluntary communication between our law enforcement and intel communities and the social media companies. that's better but we went for a gap. third, we see is this real-time
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play out on news stories every day. the willingness of americans and sometimes the american political leaders to leave stupid stuff on the internet without any validation is an all-time high. and final lewe have the artificial intelligence tools that can bring this at a scale and speed that's unprecedented. let me give you one example. this is where i sound like my republican opponents. i wish main stream media when there was the recent department of justice indictment of a group of individuals in tennessee, canadian citizens, who were knowingly or unknowingly taking russian funds to influence right wing commentators to spout russian prop beganda. folks focused on that, what they didn't focus on, we'll bring this to americans' attentions today. the same kind of activity where russia will create fake sites
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and we'll show in vivid detail washington post and fox news where a casual observer would not know. they would put the by line of a legitimate reporter on these and the balance of the site using these artificial intelligence tools but this is happening real time and my fear it ramps up as we get closer to the election. part is to educate the public to think twice but also to get the companies to be more forward leaning on taking this down. we have enough differences between ourselves, americans have the first amendment right to say crazy things but we sure don't need foreign adversaries amplifying or interfering in our election. >> we have only a few seconds left but let me ask you about donald trump and truth social and his rallies repeatedly suggesting that the election will be stolen if he doesn't win. >> the 2020 election was the
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most secure in american history. and kudos to some of the folks in the trump administration, people like chris krebs lost their job for telling the truth. i think election integrity will be safe but i am concerned about the misinformation issue. >> senator warner on a busy day, thank you for being with us. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." chris jansing reports starts right now. good day i'm chris jansing live at msnbc headquarters in new york city. is it a new form of wireless warfare? hezbollah blames israel for two days of deadly explosions targeting them, first from pagers and today reportedly from walkie-talkies what it says about where the conflict goes from here and what it says about the hostages in gaza. and new details about how