do things and they can end up better on the other side. i don't know that i'm buying it at all here, given just the very short window. if he has had these substance abuse issues, how long ago was it? these are the kind of things that the fbi hopefully probed into, as they would any applicant to a high level of security clearance within the us government. and we really did not get any answers on that. on his patterns of abuse and on when and if he stopped abusing alcohol. >> you know, senator, people do want to be objective if they want to watch these hearings and learn something, and certainly feel free to answer the question about whether you think they actually learned anything. but there's a couple of things. one is, several democrats asked again, apparently there had been discussions before about having another round of questions that was denied by the republican chairman. and also what what was just brought up that these folks

are not under oath. and maybe there's a legitimate question about if you want to run one of the biggest bureaucracies in the world, if you want to be essentially a key linchpin in our national defense, including and i thought there were some very good questions from elissa slotkin about what if the commander in chief asked you to do something that's not legal or that's not constitutional? was the public well served here? >> well, it's clearly he was well coached even for conduct he's admitted to. he called them anonymous smears. well, you know, as mark kelly pointed out, you can't have it both ways. you can't say i'm a changed man and i am no longer drinking in excess. and i have stopped drinking as of this date in excess. and, you know, or i yes, i had sex with a woman when i was married to someone else and had just had a child with another woman. yes, i had sex

with her and my lawyer admitted i was inebriated. he just tried to say they were all anonymous smears. that was what he was coached to say. when anything bad came up, just say anonymous smears, which, by the way, on its face is not truthful. we all know the names of people that have come forward and made these allegations, both at his workplace, at fox news and his previous workplaces. so it but i'm not sure more questions would have revealed anything. i think maybe my biggest frustration, and i think the general will agree with me, is that no one pointed out there was so much talk about the withdrawal of afghanistan. no one pointed out that the withdrawal of the afghanistan was negotiated by donald trump. he's the one who signed the agreement that we would be out by that date. and he's the one who agreed to let all the taliban prisoners out of prison. so whatever damage the taliban in afghanistan after that withdrawal, that's on the back of donald trump, not joe biden.

he did that. and i was disappointed that none of the senators took the time to point that out. if it was repeatedly laid at joe biden's feet, when in reality, that really dumb negotiation that we were bound by, by a previous president was really in a large part to blame by for the problems that occurred when we withdrew. >> at one point, senator gary peters questioned seth's qualifications to run a department as big as the doj dod. and here's what he said about that. >> do you think that the way to raise the minimum standards of the people who serve us is to lower the standards for the secretary of defense, that we have someone who has never managed an organization more than 100 people is going to come in and manage this incredibly important organization and do it with a professionalism and has no experience that they can tell us that they have actually done that. i have real problems with that. >> general. you know how this

works. so when a senator says, look, we had steve jobs come in and build a company when he was a young guy, mark zuckerberg came and built a company, you don't necessarily have to have management experience. what does it take to be the secretary of defense general? >> well, i've watched a lot of very close range. one of the most inspirational, competent people i've ever met in my entire life was secretary bill perry, you know, phd in mathematics, stanford professor, entrepreneur, author, draftee, buck sergeant. and they not all of them had those qualifications. and we've had college professors only manage ten graduate students. we have had house congressmen who managed nine people. so i don't think that was the most fruitful line of attack. i think the problem is, look, this is a provocative appointment. there's no question about it. he's been spouting a lot of things over the last decade that aren't

going to withstand scrutiny in modern law based america, and he had to walk away from it. so, again, the enduring challenges, i think he's going to get confirmed one way or the other. he's very articulate, very quick, did a splendid job this this morning at the hearing. but the problem is going to be alcohol abuse. and the president of the united states, you know, are we actually going to illegally invade or use military power against greenland and denmark? are we going to seize the panama canal again and be unable to administer it? are we going to use military power in mexico against drug cartels? let's bomb them with b-2 bombers. are we going to threaten canada to coerce them economically into becoming part of the united states? this sort of goofy, nutty stuff will come to the secretary of defense for his decisions. and that's where people should be troubled about

this nominee. >> and i wonder what you thought when he said in his opening statement, very simply, very pointedly, politics should play no part in the military is that what we're seeing play out is a conversation about someone to head dod in. politics will play no part in all of this. as he had it, i found it. >> i found it very ironic that he harkened back to world war two, and how there were so few four star generals, and what a grander age. which, you know, granted, i want to give everyone that played a role in world war two due respect because they were badasses. they won the war. they did a lot of things really, really right. yet he himself can't even embody the open mindedness and the pragmatism of that era. and he was just he struck me as such a throwback from his views on women to his views on equality, his views on women or views on equality that

are also reflected in his language, on dei. and if you want the military to be the most lethal fighting force in the world, you want a military that brings in men and women from all cultures. you want to have some army officers, some army grunts, some marines want to have around the world who speak other languages, who have knowledge of other cultures. it just really struck me just how close minded. and he was just echoing those talking points that served him very well when he was at fox news and in those books that became best seller, but really offered nothing of substance at the end of the day. and i guess i would be curious what claire and general mccaffrey think, but i got no sense of what his actual worldview is when it comes to fighting for the national interest, modernizing the military, what are the areas of chief concern that he thinks are threats? how is he going to deal, grapple with ai and utilize ai? how does he see the future of modern warfare? i got no sense of that whatsoever in

terms of substance. >> yeah, general, i'm not sure anybody did. although he was quick to disparage his predecessors at dod or would be predecessors. take a listen. >> it is true, and has been acknowledged that i don't have a similar biography to defense secretaries of the last 30 years. but as president trump also told me, we've repeatedly placed people atop the pentagon with supposedly the right credentials, whether they are retired generals, academics or defense contractor executives. and where has it gotten us? he believes, and i humbly agree, that it's time to give someone with dust on his boots the helm. >> look, as you pointed out, you know, a lot of these people that he's clearly talking about. imagine you've served with some of the people who he's talking about. so what do you make of that? >> well, look, this is a bitter political contest. one of the most shocking things senator

mccaskill talked about is the fact that headsets wouldn't go do one on ones with the democratic senators. it's just outrageous, unnecessary. partizan, bitter, divisive, doesn't play well to the broader american community. he's going to have to lead. and by the way, secretary austin, you know, sprint's under machine gun fire, is an assistant division commander in third infantry division, the invasion of iraq. he's got some dust on his boots, and so does jim mattis. so it'd be hard to portray these two guys in particular as some pauper, you know, princes of the pentagon. these are real national security experts. look, we're in a very difficult position. the commander in chief incoming has disparaged our allies, has suggested illegal use of military power domestically and in foreign operations, is a friend of

putin. the criminal invasion of ukraine. that's the challenge we've got. and i think this secretary of defense nominees extremely capable. he's got a troubled past. he's got some language that he used to entertain people on fox tv, that he's trying to walk away from. but one of his greatest qualifications from the perspective of mr. trump is he'll do what he's told. other than that, i think the guy's actually very capable, very competent, and you don't have to have run general motors to be the secretary of defense. you have to be smart and have an understanding of the fundamentals of the building. i think he probably does have that. if they give him a deputy secretary of defense who has management acquisition credentials, if he acts in a reasonable manner when he enters office, you know, without firing all the politicizing, the serving senior officers in the

military, we got a rough go in front of us in the next four years. and mr. hedgepath may be part of it. >> you know, claire, there was a point, i think, just last month where it looked like hegseth nomination was on thin ice. and then, i don't know, in the space of maybe a week, it wasn't. the question is what changed? you know, the new yorker published an interview with senator richard blumenthal who talked about behind the scenes pressure campaigns on republicans, including, quote, an apparent pattern of intimidation or threats, whether it's legal action or reputational harm. he called it, and i'm quoting him again, the hardest of hardball. it's harder, he said, by several orders of magnitude than in almost any other confirmation that he had been a part of. and i wonder if you've had conversations with your old colleagues. do you have any insight into that? how does something change like this? >> well, i think garrett put his finger on it. jody was key. jody

was really someone who i know had to have been very uncomfortable with the things that hegseth has said about women, particularly in combat and women serving. but he went on a charm offensive. and i can see now watching him today that he's good at that. you know, trump is good at that one on one. look how he's brought all these billionaire bros to their knees. i mean, good lord, you know, zuckerberg and bezos, bezos and musk, they don't even know what they believe in. they're just like with the guy. and i think this guy goes in the same category. i think he looks good, which trump likes. he communicates well, which trump likes. he does well on tv, which trump likes, and he'll do whatever trump tells him, which trump likes. and by the way, i don't think he has a worldview. i think his worldview is whatever trump wants it to be. yes, he's going to and he's going to say the things that really energize the maga base about taking care of our soldiers. but by the way, watch carefully on the budget. watch

carefully on how they allocate allocate resources. i mean, sherry rosen, jacky rosen was on to something when she talked about the support of veterans. it's expensive. what we're trying to do for our veterans in this country. and, you know, i don't know how this is all going to come out in the wash. their idea that they're going to spend 3% of gdp on the gdp on the pentagon, they're going to take care of the veterans. they're not going to cut medicaid, medicare or social security. but by the way, they're going to find $2 trillion in savings before march. ain't going to happen, guys. ain't going to happen. >> well, there is part of the donald trump playbook that clearly he followed today. hegseth did you know when he talks about warrior culture, donald trump has always considered himself a fighter. never say, you know, you did anything wrong. he didn't answer a lot of the questions about some of the things that he himself has said, certainly as it relates to character, it is going to be interesting to see what happens from here. general barry mccaffrey, former senator claire mccaskill. elise jordan, thank you so much for a great

conversation. joining us now is brendan buck, former aide to house speaker paul ryan and john boehner and an msnbc political analyst. so look, democrats, as you saw brendan in their questioning, tried to paint hegseth as unfit for the post. but here's how republican senator markwayne mullin responded. >> how many senators do you know have got a divorce before cheating on their wives? did you ask them to step down? no, but it's for show. you guys make sure you make a big show and point out the hypocrisy, because the man's made a mistake, and you want to sit there and say that he's not qualified. give me a joke. i mean, it is so ridiculous that you guys hold yourself as this higher standard and you forget you got a big plank in your eye. we've all made mistakes. >> overall, how do you think the strategy on both sides, which i think was pretty consistent, played out?

>> yeah, it was interesting. i was searching for what exactly the democratic strategy was. i think they know as well as anybody that joni ernst is the key here. if joni ernst goes south on this nomination, it could spell trouble if she backs him. i think it's very clear that he'll be the next secretary of defense. and they were clearly leaning in on that issue of women in the military. and the sort of problem for democrats is he just readily conceded he's changed his views on this. he changed his position. he no longer holds that view. and it made it hard for some of that to stick. eventually these hearings, they tend to devolve into a little bit of shirts and skins. and i think that actually works very well to seth's favor. if democrats are looking as though they are being performative and just trying to score points, frankly, against donald trump more than they are against pete hegseth, that makes it really easy for them to sort of rally together and come together. i would be very surprised at this point if he is not the next secretary of defense. joni ernst definitely was not too

confrontational with him, and that may be the whole ball game here. there are still a few people off this committee. we need to think about, but he performed extraordinarily well. didn't back down. perhaps other than changing his position on women in the military, he didn't back down from a lot of the more confrontational questioning. and i think that's exactly what a lot of republicans wanted to see today. >> were you surprised by joni ernst because she didn't challenge him? >> well, it's hard to look at this situation and not remember that. joni ernst, i hate to say this is up for reelection in 2026 and has to win a primary. i think joni ernst, concerns about women in the military and sexual abuse are very legitimate and real, but we can't pretend that it's not politics going on here as well. and there was an obvious real campaign to pressure her before she basically said, i don't want to be in the spotlight anymore. i'm going to support the process to move forward, whatever that

means. and i think once again, she didn't want the spotlight on her. we all know that she's the most important senator here, so she didn't need to make it about herself. we're still all watching very closely what she does, but it just sort of reading the room and how it went. my sense is that she's probably going to vote to confirm him, and that might be all he needs. >> so if this was, as some people suggested, in fact, a lot of people suggested a test for republicans in the senate and the power of donald trump. is it a trump one? >> perhaps. they obviously focused a lot on his alleged personal failings. and i don't want to be cute with this, but if you're concerned about that, you probably weren't supporting donald trump in the first place, who obviously has had a number of similar issues, i guess not drinking, but with women as well, so that that probably wasn't going to land or or last too long. i was i was struck by

the gary peters questioning as something that just sort of missed the moment. there was sort of this appeal to the sanctity of the institution. and if we know anything about the politics of this moment, institutions are not exactly what people are trying to defend. sure, people like the military, but the bureaucracy of the dod is not anybody, anything that anybody is really looking to uphold. and hegseth did, i think, a really impressive job, if you want to call it that, of becoming a champion of the rank and file of the military and to a remarkable degree, throwing the top brass under the bus in the process, that certainly speaks to the trump worldview and the anti-elitism that has captured the country. he did, i think, relatively deftly, and i imagine it would be a relatively popular pick within the rank and file of the dod at this point. so i think he he did cast a very

trump like approach in the hearing, but in a way that i think was relatively effective and neutralized. some of the arguments the democrats were making. >> brendan buck, it's always good to see you. thanks, brendan. appreciate it. well, our coverage of pete hegseth confirmation hearing will continue. in a moment. we'll be joined by the head of a major veterans organization. after a quick break. >> stanley steemer is proud to be the leader in deep cleaning, cleaning over 1 million homes and businesses every year using powerful equipment custom built by us. it's not clean until it's by us. it's not clean until it's stanley ste prilosec knows, for a fire... one fire extinguisher beats 10 buckets of water, and for zero heartburn 1 prilosec a day... beats taking up to 10 antacids a day. it's that simple, for 24 hour heartburn relief... one beats ten. prilosec otc.

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>> you're not qualified, mr. hegseth. you're not qualified. you talk about repairing our defense industrial complex. you're not qualified to do that. you could do acquisition and cross-servicing agreements, which essentially are security agreements. you can't even mention that you've done none of those. you talked about the indo-pacific a little bit, and i'm glad that you mention it or mention it. can you name the importance of at least one of the nations in the asean, in asean, and what type of agreement we have with at least one of those nations, and how many nations are in asean? by the way, i couldn't tell you the exact. >> no, you couldn't, because i know we have allies in south korea and japan and in aukus with australia trying to work on submarines with them. >> mr. none of those countries are in asean. none of those three countries that you mentioned are in asean. i suggest you do a little homework before you prepare for these types of negotiations. >> joining us now, allison jaslow, an iraq veteran army captain who was the ceo of iraq and afghanistan veterans of america. it's good to see you

again. how do you think pete hegseth did? >> i mean, he clearly made it through the hearing itself. i think it was an unfortunately, a very short hearing. i don't know that enough questions were asked and specifically questions about his efforts to actively lobby to get convicted war criminals pardoned. and these are men who weren't indiscriminately targeted by washington politicians. these are men who had men serving alongside of them, who's experienced the same horrors of war as him, who felt he crossed lines we should not cross. they risked their reputations in some cases, but also had the courage to speak up about it. and we should be concerned that we are about to have a secretary of defense, potentially, who seemingly thinks war crimes are okay. that is a big problem for our national security, and it puts our troops at risk. >> there is a question. i mean, i think there are two major right buckets of questions that he was asked about. one about his experience and competence to run an organization the size of

the department of defense. the other is being at the head of the military and character. and you've said previously that the military holds itself to a higher standard when it comes to character. what are your concerns about pete hegseth that people should know? >> well, i mean, when you talk about standards of character, you know, there was a lot of discussion in the hearing today about standards, about standards that we hold men and women tyouf standards, but not enough about standards of character. and it's really important because as a leader, your character and the way that you lead by example sets the tone for your organization. and so when we look across, you know, this individual's background, we need to think about who we're actually elevating into such an important and consequential leadership position that tony is going to be sending from the top, and also the example he's going to be setting for the men and women who are serving underneath him. >> you mentioned standards, and

senator shaheen pressed him on his past comments on women in combat. and i want to play that. >> mr. hegseth. should we take it to believe that you believe that the two women on this committee who have served honorably and with distinction, made our military less effective and less capable? >> i'm incredibly grateful for the for the two women who've served our military in uniform and including in the central intelligence agency, contributions on the battlefield, an indispensable contribution. senator, i would like to clarify, when i'm talking about that issue, it's not about the capabilities of men and women. it's about standards. and this committee has talked a lot about standards and standards that we unfortunately, over time, have seen eroded in certain duty positions, certain schools, certain places, which affects readiness, which is what i care about the most. >> have standards eroded and have have standards eroded, particularly as they concern

women in the military? >> you know, i think first of all, it should be noted that one of those women that was just referenced, senator tammy duckworth, was shot down in iraq and lost both of her legs before pete hegseth saw combat. and so, you know, what you've seen in our military is an evolution in policy that meets the realities that i experienced on the battlefield, in addition to tammy duckworth. and so all we've done is make sure that any able bodied woman who wants to serve in this country can do so however she would like to. and i will tell you, you know, additionally, when you see those women who are graduating from ranger school, those women are objectively tougher and in both mind and body than many other men in the military. ranger school has a 50% dropout rate. so the women who are graduating not only are meeting the standard are not only graduating in the same course that a bunch of men are also graduating from, but there is a 50% dropout rate that includes a whole lot of men

as well. and i think that's, you know, there's a lot of perspective that's been lost in this debate. >> this is such an important it was such an important hearing. and look, i've never covered a hearing where people didn't complain that, you know, it didn't necessarily get to where most people would want to be getting the answers to questions. they would legitimately want answers to. but there was also a lot of just statements. right? and near the end of the hearing, a republican senator asked hegseth how many push ups he can do, and hegseth replied, five sets of 47 push ups. this morning, 47 happens to be the number of what donald trump will be the next president of the united states. i mean, do you care how many push ups your defense secretary can do? >> i think the job today of the united states senate armed services committee was to vet his qualifications. and i think the hearing that we just witnessed was a huge disservice to the men and women who are serving. a disservice to the american taxpayer. and it's

candidly, for me, a very sad day to be somebody who served and also an american. >> we're out of time. but what's your big concern, if indeed, as a lot of our analysts have suggested in the last 20 minutes or so, pete hegseth is indeed confirmed. >> you know, i think i mentioned beforehand that he seemingly thinks that war crimes are okay is concerning to me, actually disqualifying, i would say, and also that he doesn't think that we should adhere to the geneva conventions anymore. you know, i believe there was only one question about that in the hearing today, but that is very problematic as it relates to our national security. it puts our troops at risk. and as this proceeds to a committee vote or even a floor vote, i hope senators think of those two points and understand sort of the gravity of that part of his background. and, you know, think twice before they elevate him into the role of secretary of defense. >> allison jaslow, thanks so much for coming on the show. appreciate it. and coming up. thank you. we'll turn to the

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burned. a super scooper water dropping plane is back in the air, though, for emergency teams. that's some good news. la officials said this morning that emergency power shut offs are going into effect for at risk areas to prevent sparks from downed power lines, shut offs are going to prevent our next fire from starting. >> i know that this is a challenge, but it is necessary for our collective safety. >> helicopters are now dousing houses and driveways with bright pink fire retardant to stop anything from burning. and even as the battle against flames continues, arson investigators are on the ground in pacific palisades hunting for the cause of the fire there. new aerial images reveal the destruction block after block of blacked out houses. nbc's danny griffin is reporting from altadena, california. i know even as that area is preparing for increased fire risk again, you have residents wondering, where am i

going to live? where are my kids going to go to school? when are they going to go to school? tell us more about what's happening on the ground. yeah, it's so frustrating. >> we just had a woman that drove by here earlier and wanted to know, when are they letting us back in? and unfortunately, they are not until after this threatening windstorm passes and until the area is deemed safe. there are still some areas that are too hazardous. so a lot of people i know they're frustrated, officials say, but they will repopulate once it's safe. they're only allowing people in if they have, say, dogs that have been trapped inside their homes and they want to try to rescue them out. you know, officials say that they are doing everything they can to help provide services. they opened a new recovery disaster recovery center starting today. that's going to help people who need to get prescriptions, who need to get certain official birth certificates or documentation that may have burned in the fires. and also they're also trying to figure out what to do for those schools that have also burned down. the governor of california issuing

an executive order to help those schools quickly recover. and part of that executive order, he says, we are using the full force of the state government to respond to the los angeles firestorms and ensure recovery for the thousands of residents who have been impacted by this unimaginable loss, including school age children and one of our colleagues, liz croy. she was actually in the burn zone in, i believe, pacific palisades, where one school burned to the ground. but you could still see the lunchboxes inside those classrooms. some still have food in them. and she spoke to some of the students who are just devastated by all of this. >> listen, we didn't want to watch this happen. we wanted to find a way to bring our community together and our driving force that started our gofundme is that we are so much, so much stronger together. >> and the real important message right now is if you get an evacuation warning during this firestorm, you are to do it immediately because officials say a lot of the people that received burns were people that

stayed behind and didn't evacuate until much later. >> chris. dana griffin, thank you for your ongoing reporting. joining me now, captain sheila kelleher, chief spokesperson for the los angeles county fire department. good to see you again. what's the situation right now and over the next couple of days, what's the threat level? so right now i'm here at the palisades fire and we have got everybody in position. >> we've kind of pretreated those hills that could be at danger or risk. and tonight is when those big winds are supposed to be coming through. >> so we feel confident about our game plan. we are ready for what's coming. that's what's going on over here. again, this is a red flag warning for the county. >> so there's areas like in santa clarita, agua dulce that are also a threat to these winds. and hopefully nothing else pops off around the county. >> my colleague gadi schwartz encountered multiple instances of people. and i know you've seen this, you've heard about it, but people who've decided to defend their own houses. let me play that.

>> but i'm just trying to tell the firefighters. get here. >> you know, you were here fighting by yourself, right? >> yes. how long have you been out here? i've been out here since 4 a.m. 4 a.m. trying to protect your home? yes, you. they come. we're going to help you. >> what's your response to people who feel that they need to stay? that they have no choice but to stay with their property? we do know that there are people who died, fire hose in hand. that is correct. >> and there's a couple of ways to think about this. it's risk versus reward. that's what we do all the time when we assess if we're able to go in and you know, and assist and help, what's the risk versus the reward if we're going to save a life and i'm not going to lose mine in the process, that's obvious. then we're in there. we're going to do that. these fire winds that came through, no, there were no match for what we have in that moment when it's at that hard and it's very hard for civilian to make that assessment to really know. and i understand the need to want to save your home. but boy, it is

incredibly dangerous and you're really taking your life in your own hands. and someone said it really well when they said, you know, i've been to a lot of memorials before, but never one for a building. and it is. you got to really make a decision. our recommendation is please pack up and leave when you're told, because then you just create more of an issue when we can't get up there, and then you cause another rescue that we have to go make because you stayed behind. >> for folks who are desperate to get back to see their houses, or even whether or not they're standing, talk about the criteria that you use in terms of making decisions about when and if people can get back into a particular neighborhood. and could you say that by this weekend or in the next couple of days, more and more people are likely to be able to go back home? >> so initially it starts with, what's the imminent threat? right now it's that wind warning that's out there, because there's still, as i drive up and down the coast, malibu into the palisades, there are still things that are smoking and embers. so when that wind whips up, there could be something laying under the rubble that could start and reignite. so

that's a serious threat. so we want to make sure we pass that danger of anything reigniting in these strong wind conditions. there are still people doing recovery efforts looking for lost people. we don't want people walking through there. so it's truly just about danger and safety. we know people want to get back in, and that's our number one mission. as soon as it is safe and we can affect that, we're going to. right now, your viewers might want to know we have a website up in the disaster assessment. it's called recovery.la.gov. la county.gov. and they can actually put that map up in the palisades and see where their house is if they made the assessment on it or not. at least it's a resource. you can kind of see what's happening over there. there's pictures on it, whatnot. so as soon as we can we want to get you up there. but we have to have it make sure it's safe. >> captain sheila kelliher, burko, thank you so much, and thank you for all that you and your colleagues are doing out there fighting these fires. and right now, 13 million people are under the highest fire alert level in southern california. as you just heard her talk about

it, another santa ana wind event combined with low humidity is about to sweep through the region. now, this morning already winds peaked at 72mph north of la. they're expected to weaken slightly this afternoon, but then again, ramp right back up here with us. nbc meteorologist bill karins. so give us the idea about exactly where the biggest threat is and what we're expecting tonight. >> yeah, this is la county. >> this is outside of the downtown area. so that's why we're not talking about la city proper, the downtown area like the last time. and we're halfway through this event. it's about a 48 hour event. we're 24 hours in. but last night the winds kicked up. we had those gusts of 50 to 61. case 72, but no new fires have started. we have visible satellite imagery. we could see if there's any smoke plumes. there's none. right now. the air quality actually has been as good as it has been in the last week in la. so, you know, knock on wood or whatever else, say some prayers if we just can get through until tomorrow at this time, then we should be in the clear. the winds will be much lighter now,

of course, we still want it to rain eventually, but at least for this wind event will be good. so these are the particularly dangerous situation areas that we're dealing with here. north of the 101 especially. that's where the windiest conditions have been. and this does not include where our current fires are. and they've even gained a little bit of containment even during this wind event. relative humidity. van nuys 17 burbank 17%. so it's extremely dry. hasn't rained in eight months. and we do have some high winds. you know, we got a 63 mile per hour gusts right now. notice north of simi valley about 48. so we have a couple really gusty spots but it's not widespread. i mean downtown la has like no wind whatsoever. so that's good where we have our current fires, what's left of them, the palisades fire and the eaton fire. the whole concern is will any new fire starts happen in the next 24 hours? because as we go throughout this evening, once after midnight, especially, those winds kick up in the 60 mile per hour range. and that's when the aircraft will have a hard time fighting any new blazes. if they fight, if they form and then by 4 p.m. tomorrow, the winds come down to near normal. so again, chris, the big deal is 24 more hours.

then the humidity will increase a little bit. the winds die off and that lasts all the way through the weekend. and the hope is that the current fires we have out there by the weekend, they could really get those containment numbers way up. so you know, so far so good. >> all right, bill karins, it's good to have some good news. appreciate it. up next, special counsel jack smith penning a biting defense of the january 6th investigation. his very direct response to donald trump's allegations that it was trump's allegations that it was a politically motivated prilosec knows, for a fire... one fire extinguisher beats 10 buckets of water, and for zero heartburn 1 prilosec a day... beats taking up to 10 antacids a day. it's that simple, for 24 hour heartburn relief... one beats ten. prilosec otc. provider was terrible. surprise. >> we've changed your rate. >> we wouldn't get to talk to a person.

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instantly with code tv prize picks. run your game. >> in unambiguous language. former special counsel jack smith concludes that donald trump's words inspired his supporters to commit acts of physical violence on january

6th. now, that is from his 170 page defense of his investigation into trump's attempts to overturn the 2020 election. in the report, released just after midnight, smith insists he could have won a conviction if the case had gone to court. quote, indeed. but for mr. trump's election and imminent return to the presidency, the office assessed that the admissible evidence was sufficient to obtain and sustain a conviction at trial. trump blasted smith on truth social writing jack is a lame brained prosecutor who was unable to get his case tried before the election, which i won in a landslide. the voters have spoken. let's bring in nbc's ken dilanian. msnbc legal correspondent lisa rubin and barbara mcquade, former u.s. attorney and an msnbc legal analyst. so barbara jack smith refuted the very idea that this investigation was motivated by politics. he also wrote this quote to all who know me well, the claim for mr. trump that my decision as a prosecutor, decisions as a prosecutor were

influenced or directed by the biden administration or other political actors is, in a word, laughable. but as you read it, barbara. does this report justify the merits of the charges and show they were not politically motivated, but legally based? >> yeah, absolutely. >> i mean, this report over 173 pages details each of the counts and then each piece of evidence in support of those arguments. and it is overwhelming evidence. as jack smith writes in his conclusion, this is not any exoneration of donald trump. the only reason he is escaping a liability here is because of his election. and this opinion that a sitting president cannot be charged with a crime or undergo trial. that is the only reason that this case was dismissed. and so the evidence here, there's nothing about politics. it is about donald trump's own inner circle who testified against him and said that he did these things to defraud the

american people about the results of the 2020 election. >> there were other interesting insights into jack smith's decision making. can talk about why he chose not to charge trump with insurrection or inciting a riot. >> yeah, these explanations, chris, underscored what a thorny and complex case this actually was. they looked at this question of insurrection. they said there was some evidence to charge donald trump with insurrection. but the at the end of the day, this is a statute that has been rarely used in the history of the united states. and they were worried that it's not well defined and that, in fact, you know, the argument could be that he was trying to overthrow his own government, which didn't make sense. and so they opted not to do that in terms of incitement. that runs up against a very strong free speech protection. and they decided at the end of the day that while he clearly intended in that speech to sort of motivate that crowd to go down to the capitol, he didn't there wasn't any evidence that he foresaw the level of violence that was going to unfold as the hours pass. and so they decided

against that charge and went in another direction. >> chris, there is, as we've talked about before, lisa, a second volume of that report. it involves donald trump's handling of classified documents that is not being released because there are still potential case pending between two of his co-defendants. is that likely to ever see the light of day? >> i sure hope so. but i think a couple of things chris will need to happen first. first, people expect that donald trump will either dismiss the appeal of judge cannon's dismissal of that case and or pardon the two co-defendants, walt noorda and carlos de oliveira. if that happens, some of the objections to the release of the information will fall by the wayside. the other thing that will need to happen is that requests under the freedom of information act will need to be made for that report, because it likely will not be released before the end of this presidency. my understanding is once a request for a document under foia is made, it is unlawful to dispose of it. my understanding, and my hope is

that journalists like ken and me will make those requests. and ultimately we may have to litigate to get it. it may be months, if not years, but i do think this report will eventually see the light of day, particularly after nafta and de oliveira are no longer in danger of prosecution. >> all right, ken. also last night, special counsel david weiss released his report on the hunter biden investigation. and he condemns president biden for pardoning his son, suggesting it impugns the impartiality of the justice department. what more did we learn from this report? >> not a lot of new facts, chris. that was the most striking thing, really. the really strident language by the special counsel going after president biden for his justification for the pardon and really, weiss making the case that he did not act inappropriately. there was no miscarriage of justice, as president biden put it here, that actually hunter biden evaded taxes on a massive scale, that he actually bought a gun when he was addicted to drugs. he admitted to this conduct. and so these charges were justified.

historians will debate that. but it is absolutely the case that the comments that president biden made, really attacking the justice system did not sit well, not only with david weiss, but across the justice department. chris. >> well, barbara, david weiss wrote that president biden's pardon prohibited him from making any additional charging decisions as to hunter biden's conduct. tell us about that argument. what does that mean? >> yeah, i actually thought this was a little bit of a gratuitous shot by david weiss. >> and, you know, look, reasonable minds can disagree about what is and is not an appropriate charge in my former district. >> that's not those are not charges we would have brought, but they're based on law. they're based on fact. >> i don't know that they were politically motivated, but if he wanted to charge hunter biden with other crimes like foreign agent registration violations, other kinds of things, he could have done that he was prosecuting him for many, many months, and he went to trial on the gun case. he got a guilty plea on the tax case, and we

never saw any charges for these other kinds of crimes. and so to suggest that, oh, i might have charged him, but, you know, in december he got pardoned, so i couldn't do it anymore. i don't know, that strikes me as maybe a little bit of an overstatement. >> we spent so much time on this, ken, and, you know, talking about it. did we learn anything else in this report that people should know about? >> not that i can think of, honestly. it was very sparse in terms of additional facts because we really heard all the facts at a lengthy trial in one case and a detailed plea deal in another case. chris. >> yeah. so let me ask you, finally, we've got a minute left, if i can. barbara, it arguably all these things coming together set up pam bondi's hearing which is tomorrow for her possible confirmation as attorney general. what will you be watching for that key position? >> well, to me, the most important thing is whether she can convince these senators to

envoys at the department of justice. >> that is more important now than ever. it's kind of routine question that candidates for attorney general get asked. but now that we have a supreme court decision that a sitting president is immune for criminal conduct committed in his official capacity, it's even more important that we have a strong attorney general who will stand up for the rule of law. i will hope she gets asked that question in a dozen different ways, because i am looking to see how strong she can be in pushing back against a president who might direct her to violate the law. >> barbara mcquade, ken dilanian and lisa rubin feels like the old gang is back together. it's always great to have your expertise. thank you all very much. that's going to do it for us this hour. make sure to join us for chris jansing reports every weekday, 1 to 3 p.m. eastern, right here on msnbc. our coverage continues with katy our coverage continues with katy tur(vo)orts sail through the heart of historic cities and unforgettable scenery with viking. unpack once, and get closer to iconic landmarks, local life,

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