commitment to having an open internet. i think it's also going to, frankly, erode public trust further in institutions because the ban is, i think, a little illogical. you know, we're seeing people jump to different chinese owned apps. now, are we going to start banning them all? it's just it's a really wild moment. >> while we're still waiting on the supreme court to issue its ruling on whether this ban is constitutional. so, kate knibbs conversation to be continued. thanks for joining us. that's going to do it for me today. i'll see you back here tomorrow. same time, same place. i'm ana cabrera reporting from new york. jose diaz-balart picks up our coverage right now. >> good morning. it is 11 a.m. eastern, 8 a.m. pacific. >> i'm jose diaz-balart. >> we begin this hour with breaking news out of the middle east. at any moment, u.s.

secretary of state antony blinken is set to deliver his final address before leaving office next monday. >> this comes as israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu said there is a, quote, last minute crisis holding up to a ceasefire deal between israel and hamas. >> meanwhile, in khan yunis, there were celebrations in the streets to the announcement. the war began more than 15 months ago when hamas launched a surprise attack, a massacre killing 1200 men, women and children in israel and taking 250 people hostage over 15 months. >> more than 46,000 people have died, according to the hamas run ministry of health in gaza. now, this deal includes three phases, beginning with a 42 day ceasefire, followed by the release of israeli hostages in exchange for palestinian prisoners. among those expected to be released are first two american hostages. this morning,

white house national security communications adviser john kirby addressed the latest obstacle. we're confident that we'll be able to solve these last minute issues and get it and get it moving, and that this cease fire can take place starting on sunday. >> joining us now, nbc's daniele hamamdjian from tel aviv, ambassador alon pinkas, former israeli consul general in new york. miri eisin, senior fellow at reichman university's international institute for counterterrorism and former israeli government spokesperson and a retired fbi colonel. and major john spencer, chair of urban warfare studies at west point's modern war institute and a retired army officer. so, danielle, what's the latest on this latest hurdle? >> well, the israeli government hasn't clarified or provided any clarification on what exactly this issue is. but a senior israeli government official

tells me that among the new demands made by hamas, the issue of the prisoners, the palestinian prisoners, and as you've mentioned, there will be many palestinians released in exchange for the hostages. it's in the hundreds, possibly way over 1000. there will be women and children who've been arrested in the past year. i should point out, jose, that since october 7th, thousands of palestinians in the west bank have been arrested, many of them held in what's called administrative detention, which means they haven't been tried and they haven't been charged. but among those expected to be released are high profile palestinian detainees. and i think the issue here is there are some high profile ones who israel would describe as having blood on their hands. they are serving multiple life sentences. hamas has committed to releasing some of them. but israel wants veto. so i think that could be one of the issues. i'm here at hostage square in tel aviv, where, as you can see, it's not

very crowded. among the people i've spoken to, there is disappointment, but no surprise at the delay today. i was here again last night. i was in front of the defense ministry where protesters were. i mean, there was relief, yes, that there is a ceasefire, but there is a lot of anger knowing that this deal was on the table back in may. how many people have been killed since palestinian civilians, idf soldiers, hostages? so there's a lot of anger directed at the israeli government, specifically at the far right minister, itamar ben-gvir, the national security minister who admitted in the past 48 hours having blocked previous hostage deals in the past and hoped and said publicly he hopes to do so once again. so lots of questions being asked today. who exactly is behind this delay? obviously israel is saying it's hamas, hamas saying we're committed to the agreement. this has been the soundtrack to these negotiations

since may. both sides accusing each other of being the main obstacle. >> so. so, danielle, do we know how that proposal, which has been on the table, as you say, since may, essentially is now coming to possible fruition? >> so there's broad agreement on stage one, which you briefly mentioned before, is going to last 42 days, during which period we'll see 33 hostages released. they include women, children, civilian civilians over the age of 50, as well as those who are wounded and injured. in exchange, we'll see palestinians released 30 palestinians for every civilian, 50 palestinians for every female soldiers, female soldier, that is. and one senior israeli official told me that they know that there is a price to pay for the female soldiers and they are willing to pay it. now, during this period, there will be a gradual withdrawal of idf forces from densely populated areas.

they'll also withdraw from what's called the netzarim corridor, which is this highway that cuts the gaza strip in half north and south. and hundreds of thousands of gazans will be able to return to northern gaza. and critically, there will be more aid allowed into the strip. hundreds of trucks carrying badly needed humanitarian aid and food and medicine. >> jose daniele hamamdjian in tel aviv, thank you so very much. so, ambassador, what do you think is holding up this part of a process that seemed to be just a couple of hours ago as going through. >> well, there's a substantive element to it. >> there could possibly be a problem with the names of the palestinians to be released, that israel has not given prior consent to. >> but i think that most of it, jose, is grandstanding. >> it's political grandstanding by mr. netanyahu. he needs to placate his right wing coalition.

>> he's primarily anxious about the so-called second phase, the israeli withdrawal in the first phase and the second phase that called for a permanent ceasefire, something that president biden stated yesterday in his address in his speech. >> and while trying to placate his right wing coalition and convince them that don't worry about it, don't overdramatize everything, the ceasefire will probably not hold. they seem not to believe him, and they probably know why. on the other hand, he can't tell them one thing and then tell the incoming president, president elect donald trump and others. and if he is perceived, i'm sorry if he's perceived by president trump as reneging on the deal or introducing last minute derailing demands, there's excuse the cliche, there's hell to be paid. >> ambassador, how much do you

think president elect trump is figuring in this very prominently when it came to the agreement itself? >> look, this agreement and danielle mentioned that accurately, this agreement was on the table in march, but as a as a full plan, it was presented by president biden in late may and then even got the validation or the cover of a un security council on the 31st of may, 2024, and israel did not agree. it was then. reintroduced or re offered in july and in august. but at that point, mr. netanyahu was intent on prolonging the war for his own political reasons, using the eradicating, annihilating, obliterating hamas and striving for total victory as his explanations. valid or not, i leave it to you or to the to our viewers. now, once president trump was elected in

november, netanyahu had a deadline because trump three times said, i want this over with. i want this wrapped up. i don't want to deal with this. this needs to be done. he said this three times between november and early january. so netanyahu knew he had the 20th of january as a deadline. ergo, the convergence of the agreement, which again, is identical to the may agreement and who knows how many lives on both sides could have been spared and saved. so in that respect, while you know the heavy lifting of the negotiations was done by the biden administration via qatar and to a lesser extent, egypt, the introduction of trump's intimidation and in the form of pressure was a game changer, i think. >> and, mary, how do you see, colonel? how do you see this, this deal and how fragile do you think it is?

>> i think it's fragile. but here we are, both alone and myself in israel, israeli and i differ a bit on what alan was presenting before. i'm kind of wondering if it's the difference between diplomats and military people, because the devil is in the details, and we have said that over the last 24 hours. i have said this over the last 467 days, when you do a deal with the hamas terror organization. jose, until now, it's as if we're not mentioning that. it's as if this war, you mentioned it at the beginning of the program. this war was started by hamas. they took the hostages in last year, and i do not support the israeli government. but last year, even both blinken, john kirby all said that the reason we didn't arrive at a deal is hamas, not only israel. and so, yes, i can push back at my government, but as i look at it right now, hamas is at this stage along the way, interested in an agreement. if that means that we have done something to it, sadly, militarily, we have also killed a lot of people

inside the gaza strip. but we have changed hamas. and right now the devil in the details has to do with how do you do the exchange? here we are, 467 68 days later. we still don't really know. in the people that were taken as hostages on october 7th, we don't know who's alive, who's dead. what is hamas going to play with that? there's the other side of israel having to let out people. i'll give you one example, jose. that to me is part of the devil in the details. i have a good friend and she was attacked by terrorists and those terrorists were caught, put on trial, put on jail, in jail in israel as a for terrorism. they killed a friend that had been with her. they left her for dead and they are on the list to be left out. how do you think that's going to feel? and this isn't about right and left inside israel. it's also about the terror victims in israel before october 7th. and you're going to see on the list of people that hamas want to have let out of those prisoners

inside israeli prisons. you're going to see names like that. i say, for myself as a mother, you know, i'm the mother of three kids. and if i had kids right now and i had a boy and a girl that were in the military and they were hostages. so if i have a girl, she'd be let out on the first stage. but if you have a boy not being left out, think of what that does. also domestically, for us, this is part of hamas's terrible, from my point of view, the psychological terror of making us anxious and unhappy. there's no sense right now yet of relief. and that devil in the details means somebody has to go in, bring out the people, meet them. hamas is still holding that hamas in the last 24 hours have come out again in their masks, in their uniforms, showing it off again. and i say all of that, there's no winners in this war. a war is a horrible thing. and here we are towards the end. we have to get the hostages back. this is the commitment of the state of israel, including this prime minister. with all of my extreme

criticism against him. and we need to get past the state, please. >> sorry, i i'm sorry to interrupt you. >> i think we just want to go to secretary of state antony blinken, who was just starting to speak. let's go to that right now. that's gray hair. >> that's my daughter likes to point out. >> i spoke about how the work that we do to keep the american people and the world informed through you with you could not be more important. >> most of us have traveled well, more than a million miles now. >> together. we've done it with a remarkable press corps. people that i've gotten to know as as colleagues. if i said friends, that might actually create problems for you. but let me simply say how much i appreciate the partnership, the professionalism, the work that we've done. i have even greater respect, even greater appreciation for you asking the tough questions for you, holding us to account, being on the

receiving end. sometimes that's not always the most comfortable thing, not always the most enjoyable thing, but it is the most necessary thing in our democracy in gaza. >> were on the receiving end of your bombs. >> why did you keep them so flowing when we had a deal? >> i'm happy to address questions. >> we had a deal. >> everyone in this room knows we had a deal. tony, you kept the bombs. >> i'm happy to address questions when we get a chance. thank you. >> based order on the mantel of your design. >> do you want to finish? >> why did you allow my friends to be massacred? >> why did you? i'm happy to address your questions when we. >> when we get to questions. >> thank you, thank you. >> you helped destroy our religion by association. >> yeah. i have a statement. you have a statement to make. >> thank you. >> waved the white flag before netanyahu. >> you waved the white flag before israeli fascist. >> i look forward to taking questions when i get a chance to finish my statement. thank you. >> grandfather was an israeli lobbyist. are you compromised by israel? why did you allow the holocaust of our time to happen? >> how does it feel to have your

legacy be genocide? >> how does it feel to have your legacy be genocide? >> you two? you smirked through the whole thing every day and smirked through a genocide. >> thank you. >> thank you and thank you, matt. >> now i've got a few more things to say and i'm happy to take any questions about anything as we've done these past four years. and indeed, i'll talk a little bit about the developments the last few days as well. but i first really wanted to say thank you to each and every one of you, and also thank you to, well, okay, i was there's an asterisk and yes, thank you matt. but also to a remarkable press team here led by matt miller, who do the work every day of trying to make sure that you're informed the american people are informed. let me also just take a step back before diving into the developments of this week, these last days, just to consider how far we've come over these past four years, and also to think a little bit about where we might

be going from here. >> when president biden took office, the united states faced the worst public health crisis in more than a century. >> it faced the worst economic crisis since the great depression and unprecedented breaches with allies and partners around the world. our adversaries saw a historic opportunity to work together to challenge our interests, to challenge our global standing, to challenge the international system of rules and principles on which our security and prosperity depend. for the first time, i had an opportunity to speak at length in this role. i laid out how we would work to leverage american diplomacy to safeguard and accelerate america's renewal, how we would reimagine and revitalize our greatest strategic asset, our unmatched network of allies and partners to deliver on issues that actually matter in the lives of our fellow citizens, matter in their livelihoods, matter in their futures, and to defend against increasingly

assertive and aggressive revisionist authoritarian powers, and also how we modernize our own diplomacy to try to deliver on these priorities, to ensure that this department is ready to meet the tests of a more contested, a more complicated, a more combustible world. as president biden emphasized when he was here on monday, thanks to historic investments at home and around the world, the united states can now operate from a position of greater strength to tackle all of these challenges. our adversaries and competitors are weaker. our strategy of renewal to set the stage for america to win, the fierce competition, to shape a new era of international affairs to the benefit of our people, to the benefit of people around the world. and i think this week was another reminder both of the power and the purpose of american leadership and american diplomacy. over 15 months of devastating conflict between israel and hamas, we've worked to broker a deal that would

bring hostages home, that would stop the fighting, that would surge humanitarian aid to people who so desperately need it. that would create the space to conclude a permanent cease fire. we now have that, and we expect implementation of the agreement to begin on sunday. >> as president biden said yesterday, after more than 400 days of struggle, a day of success has arrived. i want to thank our fellow mediators, qatar and egypt, for their extraordinary partnership, and i want to thank my colleagues, in particular jake sullivan, bill burns, brett mcgurk, for their remarkable skill, tireless dedication over these many months of negotiation. >> will you recognize the geneva conventions apply to the palestinians? >> and again, i'm happy to address questions when we have a chance. i'm happy to address questions in a moment. >> thank you. >> this is a moment of tremendous relief for israelis and palestinians alike.

>> the daughter of one hostage spoke for many when she said, i can't wait to see them come back to their families. >> i'm so desperate to see them. a mother of five displaced from gaza city said simply. we are being reborn. >> it's also a moment of historic possibility for the region and well beyond. it's going to take tremendous effort, political courage, compromise to realize that possibility, to try to ensure that the gains that have been achieved over the past 15 months at enormous, excruciating cost, are actually enduring to manage the still profound risks, to deliver on the promise of a more integrated middle east, and, simply put, to forge this reality, there are two immediate imperatives. first, to fully implement the cease fire deal and then second, to finalize a plan, an effective plan. as i spelled out earlier this week that provides for gaza's transitional governance, its security, its

reconstruction, and that can make the halt in fighting endure. >> delivering on these two priorities will in turn create the conditions for israel and saudi arabia to normalize relations between them, which will require a credible pathway to a palestinian state. >> on each of these imperatives, we've delivered concrete progress and we've laid a foundation for success, which we will hand over to the incoming administration. together, they represent a historic opportunity to advance the long term interests of the united states, our partners in the region and around the middle east. in ukraine as well, we've seen the results of steadfast american leadership. we rallied and kept together some 50 countries to help ukraine defend itself from putin's war of aggression through ukrainian courage and also western resolve and firepower. ukraine repelled russia's invasion and took back half the territory it originally seized. we marshaled commitments from countries around the world that will help ukraine deter and defend against future attacks and stand on its own feet

militarily, economically, democratically. we've also imposed the most ambitious sanctions and export controls ever on russia, cutting off its biggest banks, reducing dramatically europe's reliance on russian energy, oil and gas almost to zero at this point, as a result of some of our latest sanctions, russian oil tankers are piling up along the chinese coast, unable to offload. >> ukraine will continue to stand as an independent, democratic nation anchored in the west, with the freedom to choose its own future. if we sustain our support for ukraine, if we continue to exacerbate putin's growing manpower and economic dilemmas, we can continue to help ukrainians gain leverage to negotiate a just and secure peace. now, i got back from what was my 21st trip to the indo-pacific in this job just a short while ago, a region where the united states is now competing from a position of strength. >> we brought our regional allies together, our partners together around a shared vision for a free and open

indo-pacific, where goods and ideas and people flow freely, where rules are applied fairly and transparently, where countries are free to choose both their own path and their own partners. we enhance bilateral relationships with our core treaty allies with japan, south korea, australia, the philippines. >> we forged a new era of trilateral cooperation with japan and korea, with japan and the philippines as well. >> we re-energized the quad with japan, india, australia strengthened our relationships with asean, the pacific island countries, elevated partnerships with vietnam and indonesia. as the dprk and the prc continue to fuel putin's war of aggression against ukraine, underscoring how european and asian security are indivisible. we've also built enduring bridges between our pacific and atlantic allies and partners. >> australia, japan and south korea have provided important support to ukraine. >> in 2021, european allies were on the verge of signing a massive trade agreement with china.

>> now, as we continue to listen in on secretary of state antony blinken, we will, of course, continue listening in and bring more of his comments to you in just a second. but i want to right now talk a little bit on the human aspect of what may or may not be happening right now in the middle east. and i'm talking about the fact that the biden administration says the first phase of this deal would include the release of two americans, sagi dekel and keith siegel. sagi decagon was taken from a kibbutz near the gaza border while trying to protect his family on the 7th of october. he has three children, one of whom was born after he was captured and with us now from israel. sergei's father, jonathan dekel. jonathan, i thank you for being with us this morning. i'm just wondering how you and your family are doing. and as we wait these eternal minutes to find out what is going to be happening there, how are you and your family doing?

>> well, we simply keep doing the work on behalf of sagi. >> and but, you know, another 28 hostages from our kibbutz that still are in captivity, and all of the 98, you know, that includes appealing to the outgoing administration, the biden administration, the incoming trump administration to keep pressure on all of the parties and not allow hamas or israel, for that matter, the israeli government, to sort of slip through the cracks here and, you know, really hammer it home, make this happen for the good of the hostages and the good of israel, but also for the good of the 2 million palestinians in gaza who need this madness to stop. >> yeah. i mean, i'm just wondering i know that you've been told that your son could be among the first hostages released as part of this agreement. what have you been told about your son and his condition?

>> well, before that, i think. just a clarification. i've certainly heard press reports about, you know, the sequencing, but we've our family has not received any official confirmation from the us administration or from the israeli government about any of this. so i really can't say very much in, in, in those terms, honestly, like the rest of the hostages, we really don't know what ziggy's condition is. and your viewers may or may not understand that hamas is never allowed the red cross, the red crescent or any other international organization to visit with any of the hostages. so the last positive proof of life we had was from over a year ago. and at that time we knew from hostages who had been released, women and children who were released in the first successful negotiation. a number of them had had seen sagi in the tunnels under gaza just before they were released. they were

able to tell us that he was alive and wounded, but at that time they also told us about other men from our kibbutz that they had been with in the tunnels for months. and we now know that many of those men were subsequently murdered by hamas. so at this moment, we really don't know the fate of pretty much any of the hostages. >> you know, it's been 468 days since the october 7th massacre. more than 1200 israelis, men, women and children killed massacred more than 250 people taken hostage, including your son. >> how do you go forward day by day? >> what? what keeps you and your family going? where is the light? where do you find the light? >> i'm not sure. there is very much light right now. the light will return when the hostages come home. but what keeps me going is an image that i've had in my mind since october 8th, which is entering some room or a hallway somewhere. i hope and

pray on his own two feet. and his three little girls, now, one of whom he's never met, a run and leap into his arms and he's then able to embrace his his beautiful wife. and we will not stop until that vision comes true. and for us, for other hostage families and also for those many, many hostage families whose loved ones have been murdered already, but to bring them home for a burial amongst their loved ones, you know, i guess there are some who may have forgotten what happened on the 7th of october, others who conveniently play as if they've forgotten about it. >> the death, the pain, the suffering, and certainly the pain and death and suffering that has happened since that massacre. what do you want all of us to know? well?

>> look, it clearly, the series of events that the tragic series of events since october 7th was set off by an unprecedented savage attack by hamas and islamic jihad on israel, on our civilian communities. in my community alone, of a little over 400 people, 59 were murdered that day, 79 were taken hostage, and multiple rapes and complete destruction of our civilian community. now, that's enough to sort of occupy one's mind for quite some time. but i think the challenge for all of us, and i say this to israeli audiences as well, is, is not to descend into that endless cycle of hatred which got us here, you know, without right now affixing blame, you know, for how we got here over this, these 100 years of conflict between arabs and jews in the holy land. that

would be victory for hamas if what has happened over the last year and three months, it just institutionalizes the hatred. so i hope and pray for my grandchildren and the grandchildren of my neighbors across the border. even those who came to murder and loot our home, that they somehow can, can grow into a better future. but believe it or not, that's all predicated in getting our hostages home, which will allow, then, for the cease fire to come into effect and somehow begin rebuilding all of our lives in the region. >> jonathan, you were saying that, you know, it's very difficult to find any light as of right now. do you find any hope? do you have any hope? what does hope look like for you? >> right now? i have, you know, very, very limited needs, very limited goals. it's to get home,

to get another 28 members of my extended kibbutz family home and to reunite people in israel, that of the 98 still remaining hostages. you know, beyond that, i pray that by virtue of having completed this agreement and on the israeli side, that we can somehow, somehow begin to heal our society, which came into this war just before the massacre, a very, very divided. and the only way, even now, a year and three months after this war began, the only way it can even begin to start coming back together as a coherent society with any measure of solidarity. and the hostages have to come home, and that has to precede and just be prioritized by our government. but we also need the help of our friends in the states. for now, both the biden and trump administrations

working hand in hand. but as of monday, the trump administration to continue to pressure as much as necessary both or both sides in this conflict, including the intermediaries, we have faith. and we've seen the energy emanating from the trump team that has brought us to this brink of peace and hostage return. but we need them to bring it home as well. >> jonathan, let's continue our conversation. i hope that we have a conversation where we have some great news to share and maybe some some celebrations to carry out within the framework of what is such so much death and suffering. and, you know, just talking about your 400 extended family in the kibbutz, 59 murdered that day. but hopefully let's let's continue and let's find hope and let's find light going forward, i hope we can continue our conversation going forward in the next couple of days. our conversation will have some good

news. i thank you for your time. >> thank you. from your lips to god's ears. thank you, thank you. >> let's go back to washington. secretary of antony blinken is now taking questions during his final news conference. >> and the question is whether leaders on all sides put the people behind them will find a way to seize on those opportunities. so as i laid out in some detail just the other day when we took office, we were very focused on pursuing greater integration in the region as the real answer to creating more security, more peace, more opportunity for people, not change, not trying to change individual countries, governments, societies, but bringing them closer together. and before october 7th, we've done a lot of work on this integration, building on the abraham accords of the first trump administration, pointing toward the normalization of relations between saudi arabia and israel. and as you all know, we were all planning to go to

saudi arabia and israel because we've made so much progress on the normalization of border on on october 10th trip. >> that, of course, didn't happen to do two things to try to help finalize agreements that were necessary to get to normalization. >> and as part of that, to find a clear way forward, a pathway to a palestinian state vital to saudi arabia, very important to us as well, even with everything that's happened since october 7th, i believe strongly, including from my many conversations with leaders in the region, whether it's in israel and saudi arabia or beyond that, the desire to pursue integration, the desire to bring countries together, remain strong, remains powerful and can be a driving force for finally resolving some of these other questions, including the palestinian question, israel's deepest desire from day one of its founding was to be treated

like any other country in the region, to have normal relations, and it's been demonstrated that that's possible and desired. but it requires, among other things, ending the conflict in gaza, which we are now on the verge of doing as a result of everything that we have put into this, an agreement that president biden put forward, put forward before the world in may, got the entire world to endorse. and in the months since, we've been working to negotiate the final details and get it implemented. and that's where we are now. >> so and goddess is one and then, yes, a credible pathway to a palestinian state is too. and leaders will have to summon the vision and the courage to do that. >> i laid out some ideas for how you can get there just the other day, but i believe that is possible. i believe the driving desire for integration is something that can carry this forward. finally, i'll say this. we've also seen, as a result of

so much of the work that we've done, what the possibilities are for israel when it was attacked in an unprecedented way by iraq and a direct by iran, excuse me, a direct attack with hundreds of missiles, hundreds of drones. not only did we come to israel's active defense for the first time ever, we brought other countries along to do that, including countries in the region. and israel now sees powerfully what it stands to gain from greater integration in the region, including in a common security architecture. all can see that this is a way to effectively isolate the troublemaker in the region, iran. so all of that is there. all of that is possible. and i think for the incoming administration, it will be important to continue to show here's one path and what can be achieved by following that path. and then there's another, which is perpetual violence, destruction, terrorism, despair for people. that's that's the

choice i think we've now put in place and done the work that handing it off can be used to build a strong foundation and move down that much more positive path. >> leon. thank you, mr. secretary. >> thank you for your service. >> thank you for doing this. i trust you're not going to miss the million miles that you've done in the last four years, and that you're happy to finally see your children. >> i wanted to ask you on gaza. of course, you mentioned tremendous relief in the region, both palestinians and israel. there seems to be uncertainty for the ceasefire. and basically, it was announced yesterday, and it's supposed to be implemented on sunday. that's four days, quite a long time. israel has been has led new strikes on gaza today or overnight. how confident are you

that this ceasefire is actually going to happen? and if i may, just a broader question. after the four years of your four years and now that your tenure is coming up, what is your proudest accomplishment in these four years, and what is your biggest disappointment? >> so on the ceasefire, yes, i am confident and i fully expect that implementation will begin. as we said on sunday. look, it's not exactly surprising that in a process and a negotiation that has been this challenging and this fraught, you may get a loose end or tying up that loose end as we speak. i've been on the phone in one way or another all morning with brett mcgurk, with our qatari friends, and i'm very confident that we this this is moving forward and we'll see the start of implementation of the agreement on sunday. in terms of my own tenure and what

i take from it. and i think there'll be plenty of opportunity to reflect on that in the in the weeks and months ahead. >> look, in terms of satisfaction, as i said at the outset, we came in knowing that we had to reset the foundation for american diplomacy and american foreign policy, and resetting that foundation meant, as i've, as i've said, reengaging, rejuvenating, reimagining these alliances and partnerships. >> it's the greatest strength that we bring to virtually every issue we have to tackle around the world. these voluntary partnerships and alliances that have stood us in such good stead over so many years, and i think, are vital to effectively operating in this more complicated, this more contested, this more combustible world. and that's exactly what we did. but the point is not doing that for the sake of doing it. the point is doing it for the sake of more effectively dealing with the world we're operating in. and i think we've demonstrated that when ukraine was attacked by russia, because of the investments that we've

made in our partnerships and our alliances, we were able to bring together 50 countries, keep them together and marshal their focus and their resources on helping to defend ukraine. and we've done that very successfully, and we've done that in a way where many other countries picked up, picked up the burden. when it comes to maybe the biggest systemic challenge that we face in the international system, and that is china and the capacity that it has uniquely, whether it's militarily, whether it's economically, whether it's diplomatically to reshape the international order, what we've been able to do through these stronger alliances and partnerships is to focus other countries in ways that we haven't seen before, on how to deal effectively with the secretary of state, antony blinken, pretty much giving a wrap up of his of his time as secretary of state. >> i want to bring in major john

spencer, chair of urban warfare studies at west point's modern war institute and a retired army officer. and we were talking right before the press conference began, major, but i just you want your thoughts on what the secretary of state just said is still confidence that the implementation of this agreement will occur starting sunday. what's your confidence and your reaction to what we've heard? >> i believe that the deal will the first phase of the deal will go through. >> i mean, i believe that not only is the devil in the detail, but this is a deal with the devil, but israel and even your previous guests hostage family is willing to do that. >> i mean, people forget what what we're talking about here. >> hamas took a nine month old baby, and israel's willing willing to exchange hundreds of convicted terrorists who are serving life sentences for the body, hopefully a living baby. that's the level of detail. >> but for secretary blinken's

comments, one of the details that also is discussed is we're not talking what is hamas saying about this deal? >> the billionaire negotiator, the head of hamas's political wing in qatar, did a press conference after the deal was supposedly agreed to and said, not only do we celebrate october 7th, we're going to do it again. >> so for blinken and for others to include israelis who want peace, the biggest obstacle to that is hamas. >> so the detail of the full ceasefire agreement is that phase one to phase two, where both the israelis, blinken, the entire biden administration, the incoming trump administration says that hamas will have no role in gaza after the peace deal. so. >> application here the greatest hurdle to peace, even the palestinian people in gaza is hamas. and we can't forget what happened to the hostages that were released. >> many of them, indeed. i'm

sorry, manager, i appreciate you being with us, and i apologize for bringing you in and bringing you out. when we have this breaking news of the press conference. i thank you very much for being with us. let's see then, that first phase that you're talking about, which seems to be the easiest phase to implement. well, there's some stumbling blocks just for that, and let's hope that they're solved soon. major john spencer, i thank you very much for being with us today. up next, breaking news. officials in california just moments ago confirming two more deaths from the wildfires there. we've got the latest. there. we've got the latest. you're to my son, i've never been the cool dad. i always wanted to know what he's up to online. but with tiktok's privacy settings being on by default for teens under 16, accounts are set to private. he cannot send or receive dm's, and only his friends can comment. so he can post away, and i've got one less thing, to worry about. so, dad, how old do you have to be to get a tattoo? uh, um. teen safety settings on by default.

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terms. thanks. medical guardian, five foot nine. >> man not included. >> 46 past the hour. >> just moments ago, officials in california announcing the death toll from the wildfires has risen. now standing at at least 27 people this morning, the winds have slowed down, helping crews get two blazes 100% contained. the first fire, which exploded nine days ago and has torched nearly 800 acres, and a new fire ignited yesterday in san bernardino. officials have arrested a man suspected of setting that blaze, the latest in a string of arrests tied to arson. attention now is turning to the cleanup and restoration efforts as investigators try to determine how the two largest wildfires started. nbc's steve patterson joins us now from altadena, california. steve, good morning. what's the latest there? that news conference where the number of people who have been confirmed to lose their life continues to

increase? >> yeah, yeah it does jose. it's a sad you know obviously situation for everybody here and those sort of cleanup efforts we've seen though thankfully signs of life coming back to an area like this. this is altadena affected by the eaton fire. the reason why i'm holding this mic because it helps filter out the sound, because of the number of trucks that we've seen coming by utility trucks really caravanning through this area, trying to do their best to restore power. but obviously so much has to be done at this point, including we're still hearing about grid searching for obviously the dead. they are still combing through some of the ruins left by the fires here, which is part of the reason why they can't welcome residents back. the other reason, obviously, is that there are still active fires. another thing we heard in that press conference, which is good news, is after the wind event passed and we're not out of the red flags, the potentially dangerous situation that we were once in, firefighters have been able to increase containment significantly. as you hear more

of these trucks go by, it is now 55% at the eaton fire. the beginning of the day yesterday, it was just 35%. so they're making extremely good progress. this is great news, of course, for the overall operation of knocking the hotspots, knocking the smoldering out, something we have seen on scene here. another reason why residents can't simply can't come back to their homes yet. there's been a lot of frustration, i think, from people who just want to see what is left, what's left of their community, what's left of their home. but officials say the firefighting operation square one, number one, the grid search, obviously. and then there's still power lines down. there's still, again, hotspots. there's still smoldering. there's still a lot of work to be done before those residents can come back. they're not estimating at least another week before they can make announcements about repopulation. but probably several weeks before those residents are able to come back. in the meantime, there are federal resources. federal resource centers have popped up around the area to help people. you know, obviously, with

coordinating with fema, with coordinating with their insurance. that is a big hill to climb for the next few months and even years for a lot of folks that have lost their homes. and the investigation continues. no new information from that presser on the investigation still under investigation as both fires continue to have the atf leading that. but there are obviously sort of sources of concern. the palisades fire may have been human means human hands, doesn't mean it was intentionally set, but that is something that they're looking into as well. the eaton fire may have been the utility company, which obviously there are a number of people who are upset. there are a number of lawsuits that have started to spring up. so a lot of movement here, but nothing as far as residents being able to come back. that's an announcement we should expect in the next coming weeks or so. >> steve patterson, i thank you very much, my friend. appreciate it. up next, we're watching several confirmation hearings happening right now on capitol hill. what's been happening today? you're watching jose today? you're watching jose diaz-balart reports on msn

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>> 52 past the hour. right now on capitol hill. four of president elect donald trump's picks for key white house roles are facing questions from senators in their confirmation hearings. and joining us now, nbc's ryan nobles live from capitol hill. ryan, good morning. what are you keeping an eye on today? >> well, hey, jose, and good morning to you. >> perhaps the most important hearing on the docket today is that of treasury secretary and scott bessent, who is donald trump's pick to lead that agency. of course, the treasury secretary has an enormous amount of say over american fiscal policy and the way that the budget is prepared. and so he's being pressed right now about senators, about how he will implement trump administration policy. he, of course, getting some questions from democrats about his own personal background and the taxes that he has paid or not paid over the course of his administration as well. but he's not the only one on tap for hearings today. also,

lee zeldin, who is trump's pick to run the environmental protection agency, is getting questions from senators today. he doesn't have a lot of experience specifically in that field. but as a former congressman, candidate for governor is someone who is thought to be loyal to trump and will implement some trump administration policies. and so most of these cabinet picks that we're hearing from today, they don't have a ton of personal baggage connected to them like we saw earlier in the week with pete hegseth, in which we may see with some other of the trump candidates coming down the road. this is really more about the policy implementation for the trump administration. but again, jose, most of the most, if not all of these cabinet picks seem to be on a glide path to confirmation. there doesn't seem to be a lot of energy in the senate republican caucus to buck donald trump after his election win in november, and it would require at least four republican senators to vote no on any of these nominees for them not to win confirmation. jose. >> ryan nobles on capitol hill,

thank you very much. joining us with more on this, former senator heidi heitkamp from north dakota. she is the director of the university of chicago institute of politics and former congressman carlos curbelo from florida. he is also an msnbc political analyst. so, senator, from what you've been seeing so far, who would you say is the most vulnerable in their path to confirmation? >> well, i would have said hegseth. but, you know, i think he he walked away with kind of a winning day. whether you agree with whether he's qualified or not, i think he's going to get confirmed. and so i think that the real trick here is that the democrats have been focusing on character on, you know, kind of the past. that might be the wrong strategy. the right strategy, it seems to me, is to talk about what they intend to do, how they intend to carry out the campaign promises that were made by the administration and what that looks like going forward. and so i'm anxious to

see kind of transcripts on getting to those points, because typically what the media covers is all of the kind of rancor on a lot of these issues, and not necessarily the substance of what these agencies do. >> so how do you think, senator, that change of tactic could actually be implemented? >> well, i mean, i did read a report that chuck had said, schumer had said, you know, get them on the record on what they intend to do. a great example would be doug burgum has been tasked with lowering the price of energy in this country by increasing drilling. what does he think that metric is? is that is that going to be more than 13 billion barrels a month, which is the record that we set in december? what's the appropriate price that's going to keep the drilling industry? i think, current and, you know, profitable. and these are all questions that are the gift that keeps giving because as they're

answering those questions, that creates a record that then creates the level of accountability. >> carlos, just in the last hour, meanwhile, governor ron desantis here in florida announced florida's attorney general ashley moody, will fill senator marco rubio seat as he seeks to become the next secretary of state. what's your reaction to that? and what do you know about her? >> well, jose, it's kind of an unexpected choice. >> the big question was, was ron desantis going to choose someone from his orbit? you know, his friends. >> and ashley moody is certainly someone who's close to him. >> or was he going to try to choose someone from president trump's orbit to kind of continue mending that relationship that we saw strained so much after the republican primary of last year? >> moody is definitely a close friend of desantis. >> she's popular among republicans in the state, has a very, you know, strong record of really pursuing conservative policies as attorney general. >> the question now will be, is she going to run for a full term

in two years, or is there some kind of deal where desantis is may actually run for senate? and now that creates a new vacancy that desantis can fill. >> he has to now fill the position of attorney general. >> a lot of people expect that he will pick his chief of staff to fill that vacancy. carlos, just yesterday on the hearings for marco rubio, for secretary of state, he talked about and was asked all kinds of questions from iran, ukraine, china and latin america. and specifically he was asked about the designation by president biden this week to remove the castro regime from the list of terrorist sponsoring states. marco rubio pushed back on that. but here in florida, for example, the state democratic party, as well as the mayor of miami-dade county democrat, immediately pushed back against the president's designation of cuba out of that list. what's going on here? why would this happen 5 or 6 days before the

biden administration leaves office? it's very peculiar, jose, and as you said, the condemnation in the state of florida has been unanimous. >> republicans and democrats really not understanding why the biden administration would make this move. >> there's no clear benefit to u.s. national security. there's no clear advancing of u.s. interests. so the only explanation is that this is some kind of ideological decision to appease governments like the cuban regime, the venezuelan and nicaraguan regimes in this hemisphere. i'll tell you what. we talk a lot about the latino vote in on this show, and i think this helps explain why democrats have lost so much hispanic support in recent years, this perception, and perhaps it's more than a perception that the democratic party, democratic administrations want to appease, want to somehow build relationships with governments that have proven to be enemies

of the united states, and whose victims or survivors live here in the state of florida and in other parts of the country. heidi heitkamp and carlos curbelo, i thank you both for being with us this morning. really appreciate it. that wraps up the hour for me. i'm jose diaz-balart. you can always reach me on social media at jd balart. you can watch clips from this show at youtube, at msnbc.com/jdb. and i want to thank you for the privilege of your time. andrea mitchell picks up with white house national security communications advisor john kirby next. >> right now on andrea mitchell reports infighting in israel's cabinet delaying ratification of the cease fire deal is new strikes in gaza leave more than 70 dead, including dozens of women and children, while at the same time there is a hang up from hamas. a key details about which prisoners would be released and where they would go while hostage families hold out hope that this is just a temporary setback, i'll talk to the mother