it is good to be back with you in this second hour of "chris jansing reports." at this hour, three notches in the rust belt. kamala harris tackling three battleground states today in an effort to shore up the blue wall, making stops in pennsylvania, michigan, and wisconsin. the campaign buddy she's bringing along and the voters

they're targeting. plus, going on offense, that's how a top super pac aligned with senate democrats describes its latest move in texas, announcing a multimillion dollar digital and radio investment, where the race between democrat colin allred and ted cruz is tight. early earn in-person voting starts in six states. while recovery from hurricane helene continues. we'll have a live report outside a polling station. narrowing the focus, donald trump in battleground north carolina, visiting a community devastated by hurricane helene. his message there while touring the damage before heading to an event organized by a known conspiracy theorist. our nbc news reporters are following the latest developments. we start in wisconsin. the third of three states kamala harris is going to today, trying to make the most of these final 15 days. nbc's kelly o'donnell is in walk

shaw. who is the harris campaign trying to reach there? >> reporter: they have a very specific target in mind, chris, and that is vote rs who were drawn to nikki haley during the republican primary process and what they found is that even after she left the race, thousands of voters in these critical republican-leaning counties actually continued by counting their vote, casting their vote for haley even when she was no longer in the race. that is a clear sign they are no longer comfortable with donald trump, and could be voters that the harris campaign can attract their way. she's doing that in part, the vice president is in these three blue states that have strong republican areas, red pockets, red counties, red neighborhoods where they are looking for particularly suburban women, but also voters who are independent-minded, who have voted republican in the past and are interested this time around in being open to something that

is not donald trump. that's of course while the campaign on the republican side is trying to bring them all back to the republican home base. that's the challenge for kamala harris and part of what she's setting out to do here. liz cheney has been talking about it in what they're calling moderated conversations, working with kamala harris. here's part of what she had to say. >> in this race, we have the opportunity to vote for and support somebody you can count on. we're not always going to agree. but i know vice president harris will always do what she believes is right for this country. >> we have in our grasp the ability to determine the course of our country. you know, every election we've said this is the one. this is the one. this truly is the one. >> reporter: so there's a time for democrats to go to their base. that's not today on the campaign trail. the vice president is saying again she will have a republican

in her cabinet, and urging those voters who might be open to coming her way to not consider all the different policy issues but the overall question of leadership and character, and asking for their vote, which is something she's specifically doing is asking for the vote. chris. >> kelly o'donnell, thank you. now to texas where the democrat aligned senate majority pac is pouring its time and money into colin allred's race against incumbent ted cruz. ryan reynolds on the road in ellis county, texas, following colin allred's campaign. i understand you got a one-on-one interview with him. what did he tell you? >> reporter: yeah, that's right, chris, and i think it's an indication that texas democrats are feeling somewhat emboldened by their possibility of polling off an upset here in texas. for a long time, democrats have felt they got a shot at winning this state, turning it blue. that hasn't manifested itself in the poll results, the ultimate outcome of these elections.

colin allred thinks things are different this time, and he's getting support from a democratic aligned super pac, a multimillion dollar ad campaign, targeting digital and radio ads in the massive state with 20 different media markets, and that's going to help him in what has become a multimillion dollar race against ted cruz, and trying to buttress against these attacks that colin allred has taken on from ted cruz, where ted cruz is specifically zeroing in on the issue of transgender rights, in particular, girls and boys and who's playing in what sports teams, things along those lines. just a relentless on air barrage against colin allred. i asked specifically about those attacks and how he would respond to them. this is what he told me just after he finished voting. >> i think it's a desperate attempt to distract from his own record, from what he hasn't been able to do. he has nothing to say about what he's running for or that he's

going to do positively for the state going forward. all he has is fear and division, and i think texans have had enough of it. we have seen this for 12 years, we've seen this play book. this is a different play from the same play book. i don't think it's going to distract folks. >> reporter: when you want texas to know where you're standing, boys playing girls sports? >> of course i don't support that. let's be very clear, i also don't think folks should be discriminated against. and senator cruz should explain to texans why they should be. you mind your own business and leave other folks alone. >> reporter: and of course early voting has become a big part of the base of voters here in texas. this is the first day of early voting at this polling location that we are at, just outside of dallas. there was a long line of people, the entire time we were there. this wasn't just an early morning rush or a lunch rush. the line was going the entire time. we're now headed to houston to meet up with senator cruz and

hear his side of how this campaign is going to shaf befo. and there is a real possibility that this senate race in particular could be very close on election night. chris. >> ryan nobles, thank you so much. in-person early voting starts today in six states, texas being one of them, but also in parts of florida where some polling places had to relocate after hurricanes helene and milton. nbc's jesse kirsch is in doral. i wonder if hurricane recovery is impacting voting. what are you seeing there on the ground? >> reporter: yeah, well, chris, for people who don't have their florida geography handy, who may not have been here recently, a reminder for everyone watching at home, we're on the eastern part of the state, the western, the gulf coast of florida, most directly and heavily impact bid those pair of major hurricanes,

helene and milton. of course milton stretched the impact across the state, including we saw tornadoes. a lot of devastation across the state. in terms of direct impact, things can be going smoothly in dade county. the governor has issued an executive order giving flexibility on multiple fronts when it comes to mail-in balloting procedures, when it comes to polling location procedures on election day itself, so trying to create some flexibility for where people are going to be voting and how the voting processes are carried out because of the impact from the storms. a couple of other things to keep in mind. the sunshine state is having ballot measures that are getting attention and people are voting on, starting today in person, with early voting in person kicking off today. there's a ballot measure to make recreational marijuana legalized and then there's another one that's focused on abortion. one that's meant to enshrine broader protection for abortion rights, compared to what is currently available.

this is one of ten states that is voting on an abortion ballot measure this fall. we caught up with a voter earlier today about what he is focused on. he said he's voting for vice president kamala harris and as much as anything, he said he's voting against former president trump. when we look at the enthusiasm aspect of things. that's something to keep an eye on. here's part of my conversation with that voter. >> why did you come out now? >> just get it out of the way. very important this year. abortion, i think, is a big deal, and the presidential choice, something has to happen. get him out of the way, one way or the other. >> reporter: so that, again, just anecdotal from one voter's perspective. getting a quick check, from miami-dade county, these are unofficial numbers, more than 20,000 people who have voted in person early and again, it started today. that's more than 20,000 people going to the polls here in the miami area today. back to you.

>> jesse kirsch, thank you. donald trump is spending his day in north carolina, and nbc's dasha burns is covering the campaign for us. i know he was there to visit devastation from hurricane helene. i wonder also what he had to say. >> reporter: he got a question as he was talking to the press from our vaughn hillyard who asked him about the impact of helene on the election. take a listen. >> reporter: two weeks out from the election, have either of you seen any incidents of cheating that leads you to believe this election will not be fair? >> well, i haven't. unfortunately, i know the other side. and they are not good. but i have not seen -- michael, have you seen anything that looks suspicious? we're very early in the process. >> we're very early in the process, and we are tracking across all 50 states right now to make sure that the systems that we want to have in place are in place, and we're very happy with the initial results.

>> let me ask you, do you think i'll win north carolina? >> you'll win. >> i think we're going to do good. >> reporter: chris, he also said that the impact of hurricane helene on these communities, he's still seeing a lot of enthusiasm from voters wanting to cast their ballots. he is spending a lot of time in north carolina today, three different campaign stops. remember, this is a state that republicans have held for the last few elections, the last democrat to win it was obama in 2008. it is very much in play this cycle. so he heads next to greenville for a rally, and then this evening, he'll be speaking at a religious event, cofounded by michael flynn, and clay clark that has roots in christian nationalism. it's a group that has spread some conspiracy theories in the past, chris. >> dasha burns, thank you. those pictures, i should tell people, that they were just seeing is the crowd that's waiting for donald trump in asheville. >> coming up in 90 seconds, we're going to dig into the

early voting numbers with one of the experts gathering that data state by state. among the millions already filling out a ballot, one woman who says her vote was influenced beyond what happens in the next four years. >> i have a daughter, and although she's 3 years old, her future matters to me, you know. n e wing stain. this bottle says i need to pretreat. that stuff has way more water. a little bit of tide goes a long way, so you can save your shirt and maybe even a little money. moat the... library.s right... for a better clean with less... it's got to be tide. ah, these bills are crazy. she has no idea she's sitting on a goldmine. well she doesn't know that if she owns a life insurance policy of $100,000

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six states and parts of florida. an nbc news analysis of target smart data reveals that 14,071,994 mail in and in-person votes have been cast in the 27 states where early voting was underway before today. 46% of those democrats compared to 36% cast by republicans. 56% of the mail-in and early in-person ballots are from voters 65 and over. that's more than double the next closest age group. joining us now t senior adviser for target smart. brendan buck, former aide to house speakers, john boehner and paul ryan and an msnbc political analyst is here, and so is adam jentleson, former chief of staff to senator john fetterman and deputy chief of staff to senator harry reid. welcome to you all. you sent us notes on the early data. very interesting.

first, you say it shows the blue wall states look strongest for democrats so far. what are you seeing in those states to suggest that? >> well, you know what was surprising to me is we're getting into the data in those states. we've got several hundred thousand votes, millions of votes cast just across those three states. there was an expectation going into the early vote, not just by me but many analysts, we see a big move toward republicans. we have to republican in 2020, there was the pandemic. democrats were more covid conscious. they were much more likely to vote early. republicans were told that voting by mail was fraudulent by donald trump, so they really avoided it. it was a big problem for republicans, and they have changed their strategy, so we expected to see a big shift and to see the early vote get much more republican. in michigan and wisconsin, the early signs we have is that the early vote is actually slightly more democratic, which is surprising. we have to keep in mind, this

early vote analysis isn't indicative. it doesn't mean that vice president harris is running away in those states, but it's a good early sign. in pennsylvania, republicans have moved the needle slightly but not nearly as much as i thought or i think most analysts thought. still a significant democratic advantage among the early vote in pennsylvania. >> so, tom, we actually spoke to trump supporters in detroit over the weekend to get their thoughts on early voting. it's interesting what they had to say, it's anecdotal. take a listen. >> i've always voted the day of, but now i'm considering voting earlier because i understand it helps out the campaign. >> why did you choose to vote early this time around? >> we wanted to make it too big to rig, we wanted to vote early, and make sure our vote was banked and make sure that we could turn out more votes for donald j. trump. >> i'm going to vote in person on election day. >> reporter: why? >> i don't trust the system. >> reporter: what do you say to people who don't trust the early

voting process? >> i don't have so much to say. i think what happened in 2020 was interesting. i think they put some measures in place and i think it should be trusted. >> i wonder what you think about what you're hearing as you compare it to the early data you're seeing, obviously, these are probably republicans. they're trump supporters and you can see a little bit of a mix of age there. >> yeah, you're seeing some movement, and, again, you know, those stories are interesting. it's interesting that you're in detroit because in detroit, it's actually where we've seen the biggest increase in democratic votes. in fact, black voters in michigan are now a larger share of the early vote. almost 2 point share compared to this same point in 2020. we remember what donald trump said about detroit where he made disparaging comments a couple of weeks ago, as the mail voting was starting. perhaps that's having somewhat of an impact on the numbers. >> the rest of the country could look like the city of detroit,

something along those lines. i wonder what you think at this point, should republicans be concerned by this strong showing for democrats in the blue wall states? >> they don't need to be concerned yet, but it's certainly interesting. i think you have to go state by state. i think party infrastructure is a big part of the equation here. in michigan, the republican party is a dumpster fire. it's not surprising they haven't figured it out. you look at a state like georgia, you have brian kemp as the governor and a much more sophisticated political operation. while donald trump himself has obviously been quite inconsistent in his messaging on early voting. the reality is that there's a lot of machinery of the campaign that is trying to change that, and encourage voters. i'm glad that you caught that one voter talking about too big to rig. ironically, a lot of messaging is we don't trust the system. you have to vote in such large numbers you can't steal the

election. they found that is one of the things that have been most receptive to republican voters. the big struggle is convincing people to put trust in the system and that's been hampered by their own candidate. >> whenever you hear a voter repeat your messaging, that's a good day for people who run campaigns. without a doubt, the harris campaign has put focus on reaching out to black men. there was a ton of events just last week alone. what do you think about these early numbers, as it relates to black voters, black voters in detroit, black voters in michigan, and i wonder if that says to you their message might be landing? >> well, that's the tricky part about early vote, right, you see the numbers by party registration, but you don't know how these people are actually voting. so in most cases, you assume that democrats are voting for the democratic candidate. and that's true, you know, kamala harris will win 85, 90, something like that, percent of democrats in this election.

what these numbers don't tell you is are there any registered democrats who are breaking away and voting for trump. and so when you see those numbers demonstrating black turnout in detroit, it tells us that black turnout is significant, and certainly seems to be in a good place overall, which generally you would say is a good sign for democrats. what those numbers don't tell us is whether any of those folks you might expect to vote for democrats are breaking away and voting for trump. harris has been putting a big focus on maintaining her high levels of support with black men. i'm optimistic that those efforts are going to be successful. but that's the tricky part about early vote you can see the party affiliation, but can't see the vote. you're left to see guess work and piece things together based on other pieces of information. >> i wonder, brendan, we showed steve kornacki reporting on this earlier. given the problems that some of

the polls have had, obviously in 2016, but some in 2020 as well. if you think that there are still things that are pretty dependable in early voting that either campaign can take away from? >> well, i think maybe the interesting part for republicans is they are trying to persuade what we call low propensity voters. the trump campaign has been built around turning out people who are potentially new voters, talking about younger voters, a different demographic make up of their coalition than usual. what that requires is a lot of education into the system of how to vote, how to actually register, how the different ways that you can vote. they're spend ago lot of time and energy trying to educate those people. it's a risky strategy. instead of going after more reliable groups, you know, we talked about the nikki haley voters who are high propensity voters come out and vote every election, they have embraced a completely different approach

and the question remains can you not only reach those voters, but then get them to turn out, and i think they're actually trying to do that in early voting as well. >> on top of the presidential race, there are two states where voting starts today, texas and florida, that have critical senate races. do you look for anything different in early vote numbers when you're looking at a senate race as opposed to a presidential? not really. i mean, you know, in our partisan political era, the top of the ticket candidate tends to track closely with the other statewide races i'm sure the allred team is looking at these numbers and the things they are seeing that they find encouraging is the same thing the harris campaign is looking to find encouraging and vice versa in terms of looking for worry spots. generally, both races, the presidential race and the senate race are going to have similar turnout strategies, similar strategies about who they want to turn out, and who they don't want to turn out. good news for allred is good

news for harris, and vice versa. the one thing is allred is trying to flip a little bit more of soft republicans, independents and moderates his way. that probably accounts for the differential, why he is polling better against cruz than harris is polling against trump. probably a little bit more emphasis on turning out those kinds of voters. generally good news for allred is good news for harris as well. >> thank you both, and brendan you're going to stick with us. coming up, the billionaire, and a million dollar sweepstakes for swing state voters. but is it legal? you're watching "chris jansing reports" only on msnbc. y on msnc

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ask how to get an unlimited line free for a year. plus, a free samsung galaxy s24 fe. a big legal debate right now over billionaire elon musk handing out million dollar checks via his pro trump superpac to one random american every day to november 5th. the catch, you've got to be a registered voter in a key swing state, and sign his conservative leaning online petition. what we have to do is sign a petition in support of the constitution. it's very straightforward. you don't even have to vote. you don't have to vote. you just have to sign a petition saying you believe in the constitution. which if you already believe in the constitution, you're signing something you already believe. >> the big bucks give away as "the new york times" puts it is

testing the bounds of election law. i want to bring in professor of law and political science at ucla law school, rick hassan. he's also an nbc election law analyst. good to see you. fair to say we have never seen anything quite like this before. is there anything legally that says musk can't do this or shouldn't do this? >> right. so there are federal laws that apply anytime there's a federal candidate on the ballot, which is what we have coming up in november that say you can't pay anyone to register to vote or to vote. so what essentially he's doing is setting up a lottery, and the only people who can participate are people who are registered to vote. so it's actually either creating an incentive for people to register to vote or reward for them having already registered to vote. and it's clear that this violates the statute, and the department of justice has an election crimes manual that specifically mentions lotteries as an impermissible basis on

which to get people to register or vote. >> a former chair of the federal election commission told the times that because musk isn't directly paying people to register but instead paying them to sign a petition, even if it's only open to registered voters, he, quote, comes out okay here. i mean, you even heard musk telling the crowd in pennsylvania there that they don't even have to vote. he says, in fact, that twice, so i just wonder what you think the case might be. is it strong enough that somebody might bring it? >> well, first of all, if you want to sign the petition, you go to sign the petition and look up what the eligibility is, and also the eligibility to get the $100 payments from musk, it says you must be a registered voter in a swing state. imagine we have a contest. anyone can win a million dollars if they wear a pair of glasses. they also have to be a registered voter. the glasses is a make away, really saying we're going to give you a chance to win if you

register to vote. this is a federal law. it would be enforced by the united states department of justice. i don't expect we'd see anything before the election. doj moves very slowly on the criminal prosecutions, nothing would stop doj from putting out a notice saying this kind of contest is illegal. doj put out a notice saying states can't have wholesale purchases of voters in the 90 days before the election because that violates federal law. >> rich people giving money to campaigns in one way or another is nothing new, right, but i wonder if you look at it big picture, if there are laws that need to be considered here. we're in a place we have never seen before. a lot more billionaires than have ever been, very publicly influential. musk, for example, not only has money to burn, but he has x, formerly twitter. trump has said he would make a new cabinet position for musk if he's elected. so i wonder, are there laws out there?

do laws need to change because of the kind of changing influence we're seeing from people with deep pockets? >> to be clear, under current law, it's unconstitutional for the supreme court to limit spending in elections. the supreme court decided that in 1976. they reaffirmed in the citizens united case in 2010. congress tried to pass laws limiting spend big the ultra rich in elections and the supreme court said that's a violation of first amendments. all the other things that musk is doing, his work with x, giving the money to the super pac, those are all considered legal under current system and then the question is, you know, do we want to think about amending the constitution to change the role of the ultra wealthy. that's different than what musk is doing with this lottery, which seems to be a clear violation of federal law. >> rick hassan, thank you very much. the brand new polling on latino voters and what it tells

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there's new evidence today that kamala harris has outreach to latino voters is working. a new poll tracked battleground states from august to october. the vote latino survey conducted by gqr shows harris now leading

donald trump 63-31% among latinos. her 64% favorability rating better than trumps at 38%. while 59% view him unfavorably. joining us now, maria theresa kumar, also an msnbc contributor. back with us, brendan buck. so i'm curious, maria theresa, does this new data you're seeing push back against a lot of headlines we are seen recently that harris is struggling to win over latinos? >> you know, one of the biggest differences between this poll and the one that we saw, for example, last weekend with "new york times" was that the "new york times" was a sample size of 902 registered latino voters across the country. this poll that we conducted, the gqr, specifically 2,000 latino voters only in four states, and what we found was interesting is that she's very strong in philly, and pennsylvania at 77%. but there is a weakness that she

needs to work on in nevada where it's almost 5050. so, again, what we're seeing is that in certain battleground states, she's a lot stroker. she's grown up to 12 margins more than what we saw in biden. in places like nevada, we did see folks, not that they were going to vote for trump but they were going to stay home. it's really important right now that people get out the vote, they do a lot of door knocking. we were there with a partner organization, brought in over 500 folks from outside nevada to do that work. so i do still think that it's going to be closer in nevada when it comes to the latino vote, less close in arizona when it comes to the latino vote, based on what we're seeing in our polls. >> if you talk to anybody who tracks votes, they will tell you deciding not to vote is a vote in its own way. >> exactly. >> so when it comes to specific issues, and nevada might be a good example of that. i mean, harris has an advantage across the board, they trust her to do a better job than trump.

but i wonder what you heard in nevada in particular, since it is 50/50. and among folks who are undecided, is there an issue you think might swing it? >> regardless of age and how long they have been in this country, whether they were first, second, third generation, chris, alarmingly what we saw is the rent is too damn high. it was too expensive. we were listening to a young college person, i was paying $700 in rent, i went from 700 to $1,200, but my wages have not gone up. that's significant. one of the things that we are really tracking is what is the housing issue that kamala harris is going to tackle. i know she has spoken about providing 3 million new affordable housing units in the event that she gets elected. that needs to be talked about a lot more. it really is this idea that they can't make ends meet. it is something that is, yes, related to inflation, but it means, how do i balance the

checkbook. i think it was markedly different there than pennsylvania. >> brendan, the support for a third-party candidate has faded. not a surprise because rfk junior dropped out, 5% for a third party. "the new york times" says democrats are focusing on the green party's jill stein. they are preparing a negative ad blitz, the first time they have ever directed one at a third-party candidate. jill stein helped trump once, don't let her do it again. i wonder if the 5% we're seeing in this poll prove enormous, outsized in battleground states, every one of which has been neck in neck. >> yeah, you certainly can't take that for granted after what happened in 2016. in some ways, you know, it's not surprising to see the number drop. kamala harris had to introduce herself.

there were a lot of people who didn't know, especially sort of the fallout of the biden campaign. she had to step in and prove to herself that she was an incredible alternative. a lot of people had a lot of questions about her. now you've got two people who have presented their case to the country, and i think democrats have gotten wise to the threats that exist from a third party. you're never going to completely eliminate that vote, and i think they probably appreciate that. again, i think what you have hit on is the key thing. how do you make sure your people are showing up and turning out in the last two weeks. >> i wonder what you make of that in your opinion, maria theresa? >> i think you're absolutely right. one of the reasons, you know, curious listening to you before, talking about how a lot of the republicans are encouraging vote advocates to vote early. it's the same message you have heard forever. i think the reason is neck in neck, and we're not sure with the surge of early voting who is passing a ballot for whom. this is a different ball game. normally you expect democrats to cast votes early. republicans to wait in line on

november 2nd, i mean, november 5th. election day. that's not what's happening. it's going to be interesting for us to see how the early votes translate into the candidates themselves. >> maria theresa kumar, and brendan buck, thank you both. so how long will it take to actually find out the winner of the election? the city of philadelphia is hoping to speed up the process there, according to a local online paper, after signing off on old and new machines used to open ballots. so counting them faster. it's part of an initiative to accelerate vote counts across battleground states. nbc's shaquille brewster is tracking it for us. >> reporter: they're two battleground states, michigan and wisconsin, whose late into the night vote counts four years ago descended into chaos but only one has made major changes to help avoid this. >> reporter: what we see here is essentially an increasing

mob-like scene protesters harassing poll workers in detroit. >> my life was threatened. my staff's life was threatened. >> reporter: now a new law in michigan gives clerks a head start, allowing them to process absentee ballots well before election day. >> i think it would show voters that the process is clean, that the process is open. >> reporter: the changes will likely limit a so-called red mirage on election night. that's what happened in 2020 when many cities reported in-person voting results first, which tended to favor republicans, but absentee ballots which were more democratic leaning took longer to count. >> 100% reporting didn't take place until wednesday morning. >> reporter: trump's lead in michigan vanished that morning when detroit's wayne county reported nearly 150,000 votes, predictable changes that were used to fuel false claims of illegal ballot dumps. >> and then boom, all of a sudden, i go from winning by a

lot to losing. >> reporter: with this new law, when will detroit have its results posted? >> by 11:00 news. 90 to 95% of our results will be posted by then. >> reporter: in the week before election day, you'll see envelopes opened and the ballots put in vote tabulators in michigan. here in wisconsin, you may see results come in later. that's because absentee ballots stored here cannot be opened until election day. >> regardless of the efficiencies we make, just the sheer number makes us be one of the last people, if not always the last jurisdiction to report results. >> in 2020, milwaukee finished counting at 3:42, pushing biden ahead in wisconsin. >> do you have any projection for when milwaukee will have its vote reported this year? >> i don't. i think what we should expect, though, is not before midnight. >> 43 states allow clerks to process ballot envelopes before election day. despite bipartisan efforts to

change election laws, that doesn't include critical battlegrounds, pennsylvania and wisconsin. >> if the american public wants to see our results sooner, there has to be legislative change. >> reporter: a change to speed up the count in the most competitive states. shaquille brewster, nbc news, detroit. >> in other words, get ready for a late night. still to come on "chris jansing reports," israeli strikes targeting banks and creating civilian panic around beirut. what's behind it. that's next. that's next. switch to shopify so you can build it better, scale it faster and sell more. much more. take your business to the next stage when you switch to shopify. when i was diagnosed with h-i-v, i didn't know who i would be. but here i am... being me. keep being you... and ask your healthcare provider about the number one prescribed h-i-v treatment, biktarvy. biktarvy is a complete, one-pill, once-a-day treatment used for h-i-v in many people

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today, hezbollah fired dozens of rockets over the border to israel. the move, retaliation from the panic in the streets in beirut yesterday after israel issued immediate evacuation warnings ahead of a devastating wave of air strikes on hezbollah's financial system. nbc's matt bradley is in beirut for us. tell us more about these strikes

and what they indicate about israel's war against hezbollah. >> reporter: yeah, so these were basically targeting banks. they were targeting islamic banking institutions which do a lot for charitable donations, providing financing, particular those of shiite, muslim faith, adherence to hezbollah, but these are also people who are, you know, not necessarily shiite muslims of any sect here in lebanon. particularly after lebanon's 2019 financial crisis. that's what got people really going to some of these banks. they land on islamic terms to people, which means, without interest. the israelis have said that this was a front used by the iranians in order to provide financing for hezbollah through iran. now, it's no secret that iran lavishly funded hezbollah, and hezbollah owes a lot of allegiance to the iranians. this is not a secret. whether or not this particular bank plays an essential role,

the israelis seem to think so. the united states put this bank under sanctions all the way back in the 2000s. these strikes, the fact that they're targeting these banks right now and that they're no longer just targeting what they were doing before, which was decapitating the upper leadership of hezbollah, a couple of weeks ago. they had a medical unit or a hospital in downtown beirut, not in this neighborhood of a shiite hezbollah stronghold. they really are showing they're expanding their targets beyond simply hezbollah's leadership, its rank and file, and its military targets like missile silos and other military installations in the country. now they're going after medical institutions and banks. the israelis really are not going to be leaving any stone unturned when it comes to overthrowing hezbollah. they want to make sure they don't commit some of the mistakes they have in the past, the cliche when it comes to islamic groups, hezbollah, the

taliban, al qaeda, hamas. just because you cut off the head of a steak, doesn't mean it's going to grow back. looks like the israelis are trying to kill the whole snake this time. they do not want to decapitate the leadership of hezbollah. they want to make sure they are completely destroying and even dismembering the group by cutting off health and financial institutions that actually a lot of folks here in lebanon rely on. >> matt bradley, thank you. paul whelan, a former marine, released in one of the biggest prisoner swaps since the cold war era is now for the first time describing the psychological toll of his more than five years of detainment in a russian labor camp. attending the wedding of a fellow marine, he went from a hotel room to arrest to a 9 foot prison cell in a matter of hours. he told my colleague andrea mitchell how he kept up hope, despite the devastating disappointment of being left behind in two separate prisoner

exchanges. >> do you have flashbacks? >> you know, i do. when i look online, especially, i see pictures of me in court, it takes me back to the camp. it takes me back to the court and the things that were happening there. >> do you have trouble sleeping? >> i do. and the reason i have trouble sleeping is the entire time i was being held hostage, the russians interrupted my sleep. they harassed me in the labor camp in moscow. they always kept the light on, you know, many my cell, 24 hours a day. >> 24 hours a day? >> 24 hours a day, every night they came and woke me up. >> there are at least nine other americans currently in russian custody, including one dual citizen who was serving 12 years for donating $51 to a charity supporting ukraine. that's going to do it for us this hour. make sure to join us for "chris jansing reports" every weekday from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. eastern right here on msnbc. our coverage continues with

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good to be with you. i'm katy tur. there are 15 days left until the election, and we are down to each candidate's final pitches. the most convincing arguments and policies, the stuff that will get voters like this guy charlie in pennsylvania who told us over the weekend this. >> i'm