11:00 a.m. eastern, 8:00 a.m. pacific. i'm jose diaz-balart. we begin with a major about-face by president biden. before he left for a trip to africa last night the president pardoned his son hunter, a full and unconditional pardon for any offenses the younger biden have may have committed or taken part in from january 1st 2014 through december 1st, 2024. the pardon comes days before hunter biden was scheduled to be sentenced for his conviction on federal gun charges and in a separate criminal case he pleaded guilty to federal tax evasion charges. the president and the white house insisted for months the president would not pardon his son. >> have you ruled out a pardon for your son? >> yes. i said i abide by the jury's decision and i will do that and not pardon him. >> i want to clarify, president biden has ruled out any type of

commutation for his son hunter biden? >> he has. >> does the president have any intention of pardoning him? >> we've been asked that question multiple times. our answer stands which is no. >> the decision set off a political firestorm in washington and beyond. mike johnson reacted on x saying in part, quote, trust in our justice system has been almost ir rep pewbly damaged by the bidens and abuse of it, real reform cannot begin soon enough. with us white house correspondent mike memoli, betsy swan, political national correspondent of politico and msnbc contributor and barbara mcquay, an msnbc legal analyst. mike, the president insisted for months that he would not pardon his son. what changed his mind? >> well, jose, one of the most important pieces of the reporting that first broke this

story from our colleagues was to point out that after hunter biden was first convicted in that delaware trial on gun-related charges in june, the president and his team had not taken this idea of a pardon off the table, even as publicly you just played some of that, the president himself, the white house, press secretary, and i spoke with first lady jill biden in june and asked about the idea of a pardon whether she wished her husband could use that power to take the burden of their son, she and her husband respect the rule of law. something they've been considering, but it's clear as well, that the election in november certainly influenced the president's thinking here, at least as far as it relates to the breadth of that pardon. see the pictures i was with the president in nantucket over the last week it was a place rich with significance to the president and his family. he's been going there for nearly half a century with his family at this holiday season and the most extensive time the

president has had one on one with his son since the election and the fear over what a trump justice department might do in terms of broadening the scope of investigations which have been limited thus far to the gun related charges as well as tax charges in los angeles, i think was a concern of his. jose, i'll point out to you, i'm listening to you in my right ear and left ear a gaggle happening on air force one, being asked as i speak about her public denials and i'll take a listen to that and get back in a moment with the new reaction from the white house. >> that's great, thanks. appreciate that. betsy, you wrote hunter biden's pardon looks a lot like richard nixon's. how so? >> that's right. the only pardon that multiple pardon experts i spoke to that look like hunter's is gerald ford gave to richard nixon after he reside as president because

both the nixon pardon and hunter biden's pardon don't limit the pardon to a specific crime. in the case of nixon he hadn't been subject to any criminal indictment or charges when ford pardoned him and ford's pardon covered anything nixon did during the four years he was president regardless of what investigators could have turned up, regardless of what crimes he potentially could have been charged with. similarly, hunter biden's pardon is deliberately vague, deliberately covers all conduct from 2014 up until present day, more than a decade, including not just the conduct for which hunter biden has pleaded guilty and convicted by a jury, but anything else. it's an extraordinary level of protection and even though trump himself, of course, took a very creative, aggressive and expansive view of the presidential pardon power he himself never actually gave anyone carte blanche. he never gave someone a pardon

that covered unspecified activity, uncharged activity, any activity within a certain period of time, and now the expectation is, since president biden has crossed that rubicon basically giving his son the same type of treatment that ford gave to nixon, now the expectation is that when trump returns to the white house, he's more likely not just to issue controversial pardons but extremely broad pardons in the same vain as the one that the president issued and trump, of course, will be able to point to the hunter biden pardon if he decides to take that move. >> i mean, a broad pardon like the one that the president set out to announce last night, that includes anything and everything, right? any level of crime? >> well, any federal crime dating back to 2014. and i think although this is unusual, it covers really kind

of three buckets of conduct here. the gun charge, which in my experience is not a charge that would have been filed against any other defendant. i can recall in my 20 years as a prosecutor filing the charge once and it was against someone who was dangerous that we wanted to get off the streets. the second bucket is the tax charges. hunter biden entered a guilty plea to those things but it was for unpaid taxes for which he had repaid the taxes, the interest and penalties. that is not the kind of case for which a prosecutor would ordinarily use their scarce federal resources. it would be handled civilly and the end of it. those two, this pardon makes sense to me. the other for everything else, i think comes in a response to donald trump's pledge to use the justice department to exact retribution against his political rivals. we know that there have been suggestions that hunter biden lied on his father's name to get a board position with burisma,

allegations of misconduct related to ukraine and china. i'll note despite vigorous investigations both in congress and by the special counsel no crimes were ever found, despite great effort to find them, but perhaps joe biden thought it was necessary to protect his son from the promises of retribution. >> yeah. i mean on that note, the president wrote in that statement that, quote, no reasonable person who looks at the facts of hunter's cases can reach any other conclusion that hunter was signaled out only because he is my son and that is wrong. in effect is the president making the case that the doj is politicized, that it was going after selective prosecution? >> i think he is. i think he is suggesting that eye the gun case and tax case would not have been brought against an ordinary american. i think the case began with an effort to look for more serious crimes, even the way david weiss, the special counsel, tried to initially resolve this

case, suggests that even he found it to be not a tremendously important case. remember, that he offered a plea to no prison time preeshgs trial diversion for the gun and misdemeanor on the tax case. it was only after that plea deal fell apart that they went and filed indictments for felonies in both of these cases. i think that's exactly what joe biden is saying, that hunter biden was signaled out because of politics and he's going to do that to protect his son. >> mike, wondering if you're listening to anything that has been referenced by the presidential spokesperson about this issue and also -- let me start with you, anything on there? >> jose, i've been listening in the last three minutes to a very animated back and forth between the reporters traveling with the president to angola on air force one right now with karine

jean-pierre. for the most part jean-pierre is referring to the text of the statement last night emphasizing he made this decision over the last week while with his son in nantucket, that as jean-pierre said he made this decision himself. what i find interesting is that she is appointing to the -- some of the defenses of the decision from the likes of former attorney general eric holder and abbe lowell hunter biden's attorney in the way in which they view hunter biden has been prosecuted only because he is the president's son, that the severity of the charges that were brought against him would not have been brought against him had his name been hunter smith. so what's interesting about that, jose, that has not been something we heard directly from the president or from the white house in the last six months. it had largely been an argument that was left to the president an hunter biden's allies. so for now after this pardon decision has been made for the

white house to adopt those arguments about the fact that they feel the justice system in some ways was tilted against hunter biden, i think is a noteworthy development that speaks to the whiplash many are feeling at this moment considering the denials we had been hearing from the president an his team up to this point. >> and betsy, any thoughts on how this will be seen by historians? what do you think this could do to the president's legacy? >> undoubtedly historians will look at this pardon and say that for many, many months, the president and the people of the highest levels of the white house were not telling the truth about his view of this prosecution of his son. that's the way -- that's going to be a koda to every single historical reference to this pardon not just controversy about the substance of the pardon but raising serious and grave questions about the white house's honesty regarding the president's thinking. the white house and white house press secretary can say whatever they like to make it sound like

they were forthcoming, i find it doubtful the people are going to buy that. one other important difference here between the pardon that biden handed down for hunter and pre-trump norm for presidential pardons. until about 1950 through the trump administration, it was very, very unusual for presidents to justify pardons by arguing that the criminal justice system had engaged in unfairness. rather, presidents basically issued pardons in the frame of this person has done the wrong thing, paid their debt to society and we're giving them forgiveness. trump, of course, blow torched that norm and many of the pardons he issued said that the people he was pardoning were victims and had been treated unfairly. biden returned to the white house on the promise of restoring norms, but in bringing forward this pardon of his son, by arguing his son was a victim of a miscarriage of justice, he's actually continuing down the road that trump very much opened up in using the

extraordinary platform of the white house to accuse the criminal justice system of treating someone in a way that was unfair. what this is going to do is result if a ton of pressure from criminal justice reform advocates as well as from senators on president biden to say, to issue more pardons and more grants of executive clemency to people who they believe are also being treated unfairly. notably, drug offenders, nonviolent drug offenders, offenders serving extraordinarily long federal prison sentences, what advocates are going to say, okay, president biden, you believe your son was treated unfairly, he merited a pardon, what about the hundreds if not thousands of federal prisoners we believe are also being treated unfairly but, of course, who don't have the opportunity to eat thanksgiving dinner with the president, shouldn't those people also receive some sort of grace, some sort of clemency? >> mike memoli, betsy swan and barbara mcquade thank you very much. up next, new reporting

surrounding trump's bid for defense secretary pete hegseth. and what it could mean for his path to senate confirmation. what we know about the man president-elect trump has tapped to lead the fbi after pledging to purge the agency of his perceived political enemies. could tariffs keep the u.s. dollar on top? we'll break down the target of trump's latest tariff threat when back in just 90s seconds. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. g diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. type 2 diabetes? discover the ozempic® tri-zone. i got the power of 3. i lowered my a1c, cv risk, and lost some weight. in studies, the majority of people reached an a1c under 7 and maintained it. i'm under 7. ozempic® lowers the risk of major cardiovascular events such as stroke, heart attack, or death

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15 past the hour. new allegations of misconduct involving donald trump's pick for pete hegseth. previously undisclosed seven-page whistleblower report obtained by "the new yorker" alleges hegseth was intoxicated while serving as head of the group concerned veterans for america. three sources, one of whom contributed to the whistleblower report, tell "the new yorker" he was forced to step coun in part because of concerns about his mismanagement and abuse of alcohol on the job. nbc news has not independently verified the report or the allegations. hegseth's attorney declined to comment on the "the new yorker" article. nbc news has reached out to the trump transition team for comment but have yet to receive a response. hegseth's attorney told "the new yorker," quote, we're not going to comment on outlandish claims laundsered through "the new yorker" by a petty and

disgruntled former associate of mr. hegseth's. with us garrett haake and david rohde, executive editor for national security. what could the new reporting on hegseth mean for his chances of getting confirmed? >> it could potentially complicate his path to confirmation in two different buckets here. both the questions it raises about hegseth's personal character, which i think will come up in confirmation hearings and private meetings with senators even before those hearings begin, much like we saw with matt gaetz just a few weeks ago, and second, in his management style. this is based on a whistleblower complaint from the veterans group hegseth briefly ran which only had about a dozen employees, in the process of being nominated to lead the single largest bureaucracy in the federal government with millions of employees stationed all around the world. if he can't lead one organization, one might ask, what does that say about his leadership of the other. it's going to come down to,

perhaps, a handful of republican senators who will be the deciding vote on not just hegseth's nomination but these other would-be trump cabinet appointees. the senate back today and this will be top of mind i think for a lot of lawmakers as they likely digested or started to digest this reporting on their flight backs to the capitol. >> garrett, "the new york times" has comments on what hegseth's mother made about him there. >> you think you had an awkward family thanksgiving, the hegseth family table could have been more so after the "times" obtained the e-mail from hegseth's mother to him which was sent in 2018 during the middle of his second divorce. it includes, quote, like this one on your screen saying i have no respect for any man that belittles, lies, cheats, sleeps around and uses women for his power and ego. you are that man and have been for years. the e-mail contains several other quotes of similar nature. now, hegseth's mother then told the "times" she regretted

sending that e-mail to him, didn't believe those things were true anymore, it's unclear, she said if she believed them to be true then, except for a bit of a heated moment, and the trump transition is trying to kind of cast doubt on this reporting at all basically saying this is just purely an effort to discredit hegseth. again, this raises those personal character questions which are sure to come up in this confirmation process not the kind of thing you want hanging over you when you're probably more than a month away from getting your opportunity to more forcefully defend yourself in a hearing format. >> this came out as president-elect trump picked kash patel to be his fbi director. who is he and why is he a controversial figure for many? >> patel is a 44-year-old who has risen rapidly in the trump universe. he worked as a public defender in florida for about nine years and then worked for three years in the justice department as a prosecutor. i talked to a former law enforcement official who

interacted with him and said he didn't distinguish himself as a prosecutor and rose by attacking the russia investigation during president trump's first term. he claimed many things about the fbi and in short, he's promising now he's also a supporter of saying that the 2020 election was stolen. he's promising systemic retribution at the fbi. he's said on podcasts that he wants to close the fbi headquarters and make it a museum for the deep state. he claims that there's a secret deep state kaball that tried to force president trump out of office. he's written a book about this, but the parts of the book that i've reviewed has no clear evidence that any of this happened. so it's a trip -- a pick that people, many people, in the fbi and doj hope wouldn't happen and it's arguably one of the most extreme picks that donald trump has made for his second term cabinet. >> yeah. david, have you heard from people inside the fbi about this

pick? >> they hope that he won't get confirmed but there's real concerns because he -- kash patel has been very outspoken and maybe to his credit he's open about this but thinks there are people throughout the fbi who should be prosecuted because they investigated donald trump for what happened on january 6th and for holding on to those classified documents. you know, many of them, those people who could be prosecuted that were involved in those investigations, some of them have told me they are not worried. they did a proper investigation, a grand jury indicted former president trump and they did nothing wrong. but patel is determined to prosecute them and that they, you know, are part of this, again, this deep state. just quickly there was a special counsel investigation by john durham for four years during the trump administration he never found crimes committed by fbi officials or any clear evidence of deep state plot. this is yet another

investigation to things that have been looked at before. >> garrett haake and david rohde, thank you very much. meanwhile new details after donald trump threatened to impose tariffs on the brics coalition of countries includes brazil, russia, india, and china, trump says he would impose a 100% tariff on their imported goods unless they make a commitment to, quote, either create a new brics currency or back any currency to replace the dollar. trump wrote on saturday he had a productive meeting with canada's prime minister justin trudeau at mar-a-lago after trump threatened a 25% hike on canada and mexico. nbc's senior business correspondent christine row plans is with us. good to see you. what is this tariff threat against bric countries ability? >> president-elect donald trump loves tariffs. he knows that they are a powerful weapon and the beginning of a negotiation in some cases for the former

president and he's wielding that important powerful weapon right now against this group of countries, some of whom together see themselves as a counterweight to u.s. influence and from time to time, you hear in these big brics conferences once a year, talking about ways to move away from the american dominance on the global stage and potentially using more local currencies, doing business together in their local currencies, and from time to time you'll hear the brazilian leader talked about trying to develop another foreign reserve currency that isn't the dollar. i will say we've heard this from, you know, for decades really about somebody trying to upset the u.s. dollar as the dominant, you know, currency of the world but a lot of these countries do a lot of business in commodities and how they fill their coffers and commodities are traded exclusive in u.s. dollars. about 80% of trade around the world is in u.s. dollars. the dollar is really the biggest currency out there.

it would be difficult for all of them together to have some sort of currency union and build up the institutions to have their currency. donald trump is saying even try it and you're going to get big tariffs from us. >> christine romans, thank you very much. coming up a new propaganda video from hamas showing an israeli american hostage as the war in the middle east wages on. later, pardon backlash. president biden faces criticism from members of his party after pardoning his son hunter. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. u diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. plus a rush of vicks vapors. ♪ vapocooooool ♪ woah. dayquil vapocool. the vaporizing daytime, coughing, aching, stuffy head, power through your day, medicine. (♪♪) if you're on medicare, remember, the annual enrollment period is here. the time to choose your coverage... begins october 15th... and ends december 7th. so call unitedhealthcare and get... coverage you can count on for your whole life ahead,

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28 past the hour. we have new information about two americans who went missing during hamas' massacre attacks on israel. joining us now from beirut nbc's matt bradley. what do we know about this? >> reporter: yeah, that's right, jose. this is a sad state of affairs for these two americans the fact is despite what we've seen, despite this new information, the prospects for some sort of cease-fire that would release the remaining hostages in the gaza strip is as far away as ever. this morning, breaking news of the death of an american who was thought to be a hoing in gaza. israel's military announcing omer neutra, a soldier, was killed in the october 7th attacks. his family had thought he survived as a hostage. >> he was strong. what gives you hope? >> the thought that he's alive and that he's waiting for us to

rescue him. that's what gives me hope. >> reporter: the idf says his body is held in gaza. the news after hamas released this propaganda video showing another israeli american hostage. >> my name is edan alexander. >> reporter: edan alexander begging incoming president donald trump to negotiate for our freedom. edan's mother ramping up the pressure for a cease-fire with hamas that would free her son and other hostages speaking saturday with israel's prime minister. >> i ask him please, benjamin netanyahu, be strong for the country, be strong for israel and release them. >> i am the father of edan alexander. >> his family rallying in central park as the biden white house makes a new push to release the hostages despite pessimism it will suck lead. >> our hope is we can generate a cease-fire and hoing deal but we're not there yet. >> reporter: while in gaza fresh outrage from relief workers after the world central kitchen

said saturday three of its local staff members killed in an israeli air strike. israel said one of the three had participated in hamas' october 7th attacks the u.s. based charity said it has no knowledge any of its members are affiliated with hamas. this is the second time israel has killed workers again causing the group to pause operations feeding people in gaza. and, jose, on those air strikes the israeli air strikes that killed seven world central kitchen workers in gaza in april, now the world central kitchen said those were deliberate strikes. the israeli military apologized and said those strikes were an error. error jose? >> matt bradley, thank you. after the break what the polls got right and wrong about the historic 2024 race for the white house. plus, pam bondi, donald trump's pick for attorney general will head to capitol hill today. we'll tell you who she's

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it's been hours since president biden announced his decision to pardon his son hunter and some democrats are criticizing him. democratic governor jared polis of colorado saying, quote, as a father i certainly understand president biden's natural desire to help his son by pardoning him. i am disappointed he put his

family ahead of country. this is a bad precedent that could be abused by later presidents and will sadly tarnish his reputation. joining us mark murray, [ inaudible ] dean of the clinton school of service and msnbc contributor and former republican congressman of florida carlos, a political analyst. what kind of a cedent this set? >> unprecedented times politically so it's tough to answer that one clearly but i will say that the political atmosphere sets the stage, right. as we saw in the latter part of the campaign where donald trump said he would go after folks he considered enemies, i think that sets the stage for why a president biden made this decision. that being said, i think from the framing perspective, there's the question of why didn't you allow for some wiggle rooms. that is a lot of the frustration

that democrats are voicing right now. >> yeah. democratic congressman stanton wrote, quote, i respect president biden, but i think he got this one wrong. this wasn't a politically motivated prosecution. hunter committed felonies an convicted by a jury of his peers. what do you make of this pardon and for nearly a year the president was saying he was not going to do this? >> for those who care about the institutions of united states, the perception of integrity, the trust which these institutions rely on, this is just devastating. i mean democrats said that they were different, that people should choose them over donald trump because, unlike donald trump according to them, they did not use the institutions of government for their personal gain or benefit. this really, i think, erases any advantage that democrats had on this issue. obviously, it was not a decisive issue because trump won anyway,

but now, this looks like a massive hypocrisy and it's going to continue damaging the democratic brand. >> why? this isn't the first president to pardon a family member. it's certainly not the first president who has pardoned someone who i know could be considered controversial >> but the context matters here, jose. president biden said he would not do this. this was a major campaign issue in the 2024 election. democrats said that this is something that distinguished them from republicans and donald trump. and now i think most americans are going to view them as being in the same bucket. people who are using the institutions of government for their personal gain to protect their families. >> and mark, do you think there's a political cost to the president's decision? >> yeah. jose, we're going to have to see in the polls that come over the next month or two. i'm sure we're going to get

plenty that gauge the popularity or unpopularity of this action. i am kind of reminded after bill clinton's presidency after he ended up having some controversial pardons of his own, he did take a hit in the polls that we ended up seeing, and it wasn't helpful for his party after they ended up losing the white house in the 2000 election once they were in the wilderness to deal with the repercussions of the controversial pardons. we're seeing a democratic party put on the defensive and divided and as carlos was saying, you know, one of the debates democrats will have being out of power from the white house is what does the democratic party stand for? we heard during the biden years and the first donald trump term, that the democrats stood for the rule of law, stood for norms and institutions, and this action yesterday kind of ends up complicating that at the very least. >> mark, i want to turn back to the election a bit more for a

moment. you you have been reporting on what pollsters got right and wrong in the lead up to the election. >> almost all the ballots have been counted it took a while and the conclusion is that the polls got more right than wrong. they weren't perfect but when you look at the overall horse race, the final national polls, including nbc showed a race that was tied or incredibly close and that's what election turned out to be. the polls might have under stated donald trump's but compared with past presidential cycles the polls more right than wrong. i think one of the biggest lessons from this election season and in past ones is, the polls can't be precise instruments. you have a 49-49 or 49-48 result, that's not necessarily going to say the polls are going to say we're going to predict that. all it can tell us is if the election is close and uncertain and that's what that election turned out to be. >> and victoria, what should

democrats take away from the findings as they look to move forward after the loss? >> what mark just said, amen about the polling getting better. we live in a world of margin of error and we will read the polls and forget about that. i am quite happy at how the polls did in terms of predictive power, given all the errors in the last couple elections. one of the things that the polls demonstrated and it was a telemundo poll, which showed this early on was the trend for latinos. i think this is going to be the demographic to watch. latinos had swing tendencies but this defined latinos as a swing electorate. we saw this in the polls and in the electoral results and it's going to be interesting to see how donald trump engages with

latinos, especially that new electorate that he added on, that 20, 30 percentage points, to see how they stick with him or never mind i'm going try something else. >> yeah. that is i mean just one of the takeaways i'm quoting here like, for example, one of the interviews that we held after the election, latino men said they want relief from the rising cost of living and job and business opportunities and they felt this election those better job and business opportunities were with donald trump. is that something you think that could be a lasting shift or just a, you know, wait and. >> >> jose, what it means is that the pressure is on for donald trump and republicans because these are new supporters. a lot of these people voted republican for the first time ever and they want to see results. number one issue for them, the economy. this is complicated for donald trump because some of his proposals like tariffs, mass

deportations could actually lead to more inflation, so if republicans want to solidify the latino support they're in good position to do it, but economically, which is more important, they need to deliver for these voters. a lot of these latino men they want that upward moeblgts. they want to buy a home. they want to own a home as opposed to renting. they want to make more. so the pressure is on to deliver for this group or they could easily swing back in the next election. >> and mark, something i've been saying for the longest time is that there is no latino vote. there are latino voters. this election latino voters, many of them, went with their pocketbook. i'm wondering if you think that's a tendency that could continue? >> it's possible. a lot depends on the success or failure of the trump presidency, whether he's able to win them. but jose, that did stand out to me in our polling and other polling on how even more focused

latino voters were on the economy than the electorate at large and also as you ended up saying that the latino vote is not monolithic. we saw the liberal conservative, urban versus rural breakdowns we saw for the populous and the electorate at large play out with the latino voters as well. >> hey, mark, the whole thing of the shift in the rgb area and some texas counties that, you know, were very latino centric and they certainly continue to be, that was a substantial change. >> jose, the rio grand valley where i grew up and, you know, that had been a reliably democratic area pretty much over the past several decades. one of the biggest democratic bastions in the state of texas, and with donald trump not only being able to win star county, cameron county and hidalgo county, part of i think the explain nation goes to the urban

versus rural a lot of that area is rural, there are a lot of people who drive pick-up truck, lot of people who have guns, and in our current politics if you have pickup trucks and live in rural areas and you have [ inaudible ] a gun [ inaudible ] for a democrat. >> mark, victoria, i would say both of you are on the mostly texas camp. former congressman carlos, and i in the camp, thank you for being with us this morning. what we're watching in a meeting between one of the most powerful republicans in washington and donald trump's pick for attorney general. what happened at the hearing for former sheriff deputy charged for the murder of a black woman shot in her own home. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. ♪far-xi-ga♪ ask your doctor about farxiga.

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that committee and a firm outspoken ally of donald trump and precisely the kind of person that donald trump is going to want strongly in favor of this nominee making the case to other senators to support her. we'll be paying attention to what he says coming out of the meeting. if he's not strongly on board with her that could be a problem. we don't expect trump to have problems with this senator in particular. she was also expected to meet with the incoming chair of this committee, chuck grassley, during this hour but that was postponed due to flight delays and that could happen later today. jose? >> what other trum picks are scheduled to be on capitol hill this week? >> the big one we're watching for is tulsi gabbard. reported just before the thanksgiving break she was expected here in the first week of december meeting with senators. she's an unconventional pick and senators will have questions for her including about her warm sympathetic rhetoric towards

russia. we don't have anything confirmed yet in terms of meetings. pete hegseth, the secretary of defense nominee, who's face a little bit of controversy on his side, here meeting with senators before the thanksgiving break, we expect him back this week continuing those meetings with senators. >> on capitol hill, thank you very much. appreciate it. after the break we'll take you to illinois where a hearing related to the murder of sonya massey who was fatally shot in her own home by a sheriff's deputy after calling police for help just wrapped up. what her family is saying. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports." e diaz-balart reports.

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56 past the hour. we're following breaking news out of springfield, illinois, where a hearing for the former deputy charged in the murder of a black woman who called police for help wrapped up. in july sonya massey was fatally shot by sean grayson in her kitchen after calling 911 about a possible prowler inside and

outside her home. nbc's maggie vespa joins us from outside the courthouse in springfield. what came out of today's hearing? >> reporter: so, jose, basically what came out of this is the news that now former deputy sean grayson who's been held in custody leading up to this trial could walk free ahead of his trial as early as friday. that news incredibly upsetting as you can imagine to sonya's family and community supporters out here protesting in front of the courthouse. basically here's what happened. last week an appellate court here in the state of illinois overturned the trial court's ruling holding grayson in custody heading up to his trial saying the state failed to proof that grayson is dangerous and likely to re-offend which is a key requirement holding someone ahead of their trial even a murder trial. friday, the judge said they will figure out when he's going to be released per that appellate court order and ha that is going

to look like. for a quick refresher and reminder and warning this video isedy is disturbing from july here in the springfield area of then deputy sean grayson arriving at the home of sonya massey, she had called again about a possible prowler and picked up during their conversation a pot of boiling water on the stove. see in the body camera video from grayson's partner him yelling for her to put it down and she crouches that's when he fires his weapon shooting her in the eye and that's ha killed her. the deputy held sings his arrest could walk free ahead of his trial and here today after this hearing we talked to sonya massey's dad about his take on this latest twist. here's what he said. >> this appellate court ruling was a serious miscarriage of justice as far as i'm concerned, and we're going to get justice for my daughter whatever it takes. when my daughter can get up and walk out of that cemetery, then

he can get out of jail. >> reporter: james wilbur, the last part about his daughter getting up and walking out of the cemetery was a response about the judge's statement in the hearing that they're going to have to give sean grayson when he's let out the least restrictive conditions possible per that appellate court ruling, that phrase really stuck with her father. it's worth noting that sean grayson's attorney declined to comment on the record about this case. his client pleaded not guilty to first-degree murder charges and the state's attorney plan to appeal the appellate ruling to the illinois state supreme court so this could get dragged out longer. we've reached out to see how soon that might happen. we'll keep maggie vespa, thank much. thank you for joining me. i am jose diaz-balart. you can always join me on social media.