could set a standard nationwide. not just in the barnes case, but if the supreme court actually adopts the standard that she wants, jose. where you can actually look back larger in time to rather just not that just moment of threat. jose, it could be a real windfall for plaintiffs all around the country. jose. >> laura jarrett, thank you so very much. appreciate it. and that wraps up the hour for me. i'm jose diaz-balart. you can always reach me on social media at jd balart. and you can watch clips from our show at youtube at msnbc.com slash. jd, thank you for the privilege of your time. andrea mitchell picks up with more news right now. >> right now on andrea mitchell reports. president trump pressed by nbc news chief. foreign. chief white house. correspondent over pardoning roughly 1500 january 6th offenders, including those who committed violence. >> the vice president, jd vance. he said, if this is a week ago, he said, if you committed violence on january 6th,

obviously you should not be pardoned. why is your vice president wrong? >> well, only for one reason. they they've served years in jail. they should not have served. excuse me. and they've served years in jail. and murderers don't even go to jail in this country. >> the decision. >> sparking widespread criticism, including from victims. more of that in a moment. also, the president's choice to lead the defense department, facing another potential scandal ahead of an expected confirmation vote in the senate. plus, three top democratic senators dick durbin, mark kelly and chris on the pardons, the di decision and a lot more. good day everyone. i'm andrea mitchell in washington. president trump being forced to defend what we now know was a last minute decision to pardon all the january 6th defenders, including the 174 january 6th

defendants charged with using a deadly weapon or causing serious injury to a police officer in his blanket. day one pardons of 1500 people. two officials who worked on mr. trump's transition, telling nbc news that the decision for a sweeping pardon was made just days before the inauguration. at the white house tuesday, chief white house correspondent peter alexander asking the president about one of those defendants, d.o.j. rodriguez, who pleaded guilty to violently assaulting d.c. police officer michael fanone with a stun gun. >> why does he deserve a pardon? >> well, i don't know. was it a pardon? because we're looking at commutes and we're looking at pardons. okay, well, we'll take a look at everything. these people have already served a long period of time, and i made a decision to give a pardon. >> rodriguez had served about 18 months of a 12.5 year sentence. fanone is now seeking protective orders against the five people who assaulted him. today on morning joe, he described the threats that he, his family, even his mother have faced for the past four years.

>> i didn't even make it through my. >> testimony before i received. >> the first threatening phone call. my mother. >> has been the. >> victim of swatting incidents. she has had bricks thrown at her home in the middle of the night, and recently, while she was raking the leaves in her front yard, she had an individual pull up in a truck and throw a bag of on her. >> another major story that we're following today, the senate armed services committee, is considering new allegations against defense secretary nominee pete hegseth before the full senate votes on his confirmation. in a signed affidavit obtained by nbc news, hegseth former sister in law danielle hegseth, claiming the nominee's behavior caused his second wife, samantha, to fear for her safety. that was a quote, and allegedly used a code word to activate an escape plan to quote, get away from hegseth. the affidavit was provided in response to a request by ranking armed services committee member senator jack reed. through his

lawyer, hegseth has denied he was abusive toward his ex-wife, claiming his former sister in law had has had an ax to grind against the entire hegseth family. close quote his ex-wife, samantha hegseth, insists there was no physical abuse during their marriage, and both signed a 2021 court document that said neither parent claimed to be a victim of domestic abuse. denials that do not specifically contradict the assertions in that sworn affidavit. and across the nation, in just five hours, all federal diversity, equity and inclusion employees will be on paid leave. by order of president trump. he signed an executive order last night promising to close all dei related programs, calling them radical and wasteful. a memo sent to agency heads instructs them to draw up termination plans by the end of the month. left unclear at this moment, the long term employment of those employees or how many are affected government wide. we begin with nbc news senior white

house correspondent garrett haig, former u.s. attorney barbara mcquade and former press secretary to speaker boehner and ryan brendan buck. so, garrett, you've learned that the decision to make those sweeping january 6th pardons, in contrast to what had been suggested by his own vice president recently, j.d. vance, that that was made in the last couple of days before the inauguration. do you want to give us more and how that all came together from what you know? >> that's right. andrea, our team had had some reporting in the weeks leading up to the inauguration that there wasn't, frankly, a lot of legwork done. there had been some suggestions that trump was going to go through these cases on a case by case basis, and that decisions might be made about where to draw a line around violent or nonviolent offenders related to january 6th. but as we got closer and closer to the inauguration, it was clear a lot of that work had not been done. our new reporting is that in the days leading up to the inauguration transition, officials say trump made the decision to listen to those who had been telling him to go big and essentially pardoned everyone involved in the attack

in any major way. as is often the case around president trump, there was sort of a lobbying campaign from various voices in his ear about what direction was best to take this. he has chosen to go the maximalist approach, believing in part, that this was something that he had campaigned on. and also one source told me that he was a bit of a kindred spirit. he felt like with these many of these people who were convicted, that they were all, he believes, targets of the same biden justice department in one way or another, and that that is why he's chosen to go big. although i don't know that he or his team have entirely anticipated the backlash that's still continuing. and andrea, on a different topic, forgive me for looking at my phone, but i have just been able to confirm some reporting originally from reuters. so the senior white house official telling me that in another major campaign promise, the president is now preparing, or the white house is now preparing to order as many as 1000 active duty u.s. troops to go to the border to supplement officials there, trying to control or improve border security. i don't have details yet on what their orders will be or where they will be

deployed, but that this is something that the white house and the pentagon are now actively working on. >> we'll get reaction from three of our senators who are coming on the show today, because that is something that had been resisted previously under the previous pentagon officials, some of whom, of course, had been criticized and targeted by president trump for resisting that, that very decision. garrett, thank you so much. and, barbara, the president told peter alexander yesterday he will he will take a look at everything. when peter was questioning him about the pardons for even the violent perpetrators. and once a pardon has been issued, how can it be revoked? as i understand it, there are very limited circumstances. if people have not been properly informed of the pardon. >> it can't. and so when donald trump. >> says, we'll take a look at. >> that, that's just a tactic to deflect the question. >> and not. >> answer it. he has awarded these pardons and they cannot be

revoked. >> you know, you heard j.d. vance say that what. >> trump would or should. >> do would be. >> surgical and to not grant pardons to people who are violent, to look at. >> cases on a case by case basis. >> that's not what he's done. the other thing. >> we heard him say there in that clip you played, andrea. >> was that the reason. >> when asked, how could you do this? the man who used a. >> stun gun against officer fanone. the answer. >> was. >> well, there are murderers who don't get charged in this country. think about what he's saying there. >> certainly it is true. >> that. sometimes murders are unsolved, or sometimes a. >> murderer is successful. >> in. >> asserting some sort of. >> defense, like self-defense or something, and is not brought to justice. does that therefore mean that every other offender should go free? of course not. sometimes we fail in holding people accountable. that doesn't mean we fail to hold everybody accountable. and so i think this is a very significant decision, and i think that donald trump should not get a pass. it should not be overlooked that he is normalizing political violence by granting pardons to these violent offenders. >> and barbara, after being

notified of the pardon, the so-called qanon shaman jacob. chansley. i'm sorry, i think it's chansley posted that he is going to go buy some guns. so now he's been pardoned. felons who have been pardoned can buy guns. and that's certainly threatening to many of the people, including family members whose own family relatives had reported them as january 6th rioters and violent and violent rioters, and are now afraid or telling people, you know, telling reporters that they're now afraid. >> absolutely. so one of the consequences of a felony conviction is that there's a statute that provides that they may no longer possess a firearm. that is the law in this country. it is an effort to protect public safety, and it is probably one of the most commonly charged crimes in u.s. attorney's offices. someone who is a felon in possession of a firearm by being pardoned, people like jacob chansley and

all of these other offenders, including violent offenders, have now had that wiped away and can certainly possess and go out and buy guns. and also, andrea, you raised a really important issue, which is many of these people were identified based on video put on social media by the fbi, saying, please help us identify these violent attackers. and family members stuck out their neck and said, i know who that person is and shared that information. some of them even testified at trial against these offenders. and so now they're back. they can get guns and they're really mad. >> joining us now is voto latino president and ceo maria teresa kumar. maria, thanks for being with us. the president is facing likely legal challenges to many of these decisions, especially the anti dei actions. in addition to the lawsuits already filed over immigration orders. but he's fulfilling his campaign promises. break that down for us. >> well i think that he is. >> he is delivering on. his his

promises. >> but when we were actually polling. >> folks, a. lot of. >> the. american people didn't know. >> all of the breadth of what his. campaign is. and what barbara right now. >> is talking. >> about is this idea of a blanket pardons for over 608 folks that. some of them clearly who violated the law in a time where folks died, officers died. i think this is actually an unforced error on the. on president trump. and one of the things that we keep talking about in the democratic circles and in the progressive movement is that, yes, he's doing a flurry of executive orders and it's an attempt to flood the zone. but in that he's going to make really big mistakes. that is just simply not going to sit well with the american people. this does not sit well with the capitol police. this does not sit well with law enforcement. and when we start looking at the dei programs, we can talk about and debate what does diversity matter? but really what dei at its core is preparing our country for the next generation of leaders. and what i mean by that is that my child right now, she is 12 years old. andrea,

you've met her. she represents the very first part of the alpha generation, the majority minority. and if we are not preparing the boardrooms, if we are not preparing the halls of congress for such a diverse group of americans that are right now in america's classrooms, how are we going to make sure that we are continued stewards of american leadership at home and abroad? >> well, in fact, it is poorly understood. but military leaders say it has been a critical part of really making our our defense, our posture, our military forces ready for this century, if not for the future, as well as certainly our intelligence community and our diplomats who have to deal with people from around the world of all kinds of backgrounds and colors. brandon pete hegseth nomination is already out of committee, but the democrats are demanding unanimous consent, which will delay a vote on the floor unless someone changes because they need all 100

senators or all those present. so that requires then 30 hours or delay 24 hours, i think, before they can start the 30 hours for debate. it could push it into the weekend, which always accelerates deadlines at the last minute because people have such busy schedules and want to have travel and they have they have commitments to go back to their districts, their states rather. but what is next because of these, this last minute affidavit, a sworn affidavit that has not been denied because the denials will deal with other aspects of other allegations. and can they reopen the hearing? they did that in the thomas nomination back in 1991, less likely with the republicans in charge, though, right? >> yeah. >> i can say with a high. >> degree of confidence this is not going to derail pete hegseth s confirmation vote. look, there

were. >> all kinds of. >> reasons to question pete hegseth background and. previous behavior. if you were interested in doing that, and whether it's the allegations of drinking on. >> the job, other. >> allegations of sexual misconduct, of course, all of which he denies. but if you wanted to probe on those things, you could have done that if you were a republican senator and nobody really did. now, of course, you also have in this situation his actual ex-wife saying that there was no abuse. so if you were, again, if you were looking for a reason to be against pete hegseth, you had plenty of reasons to do that. i don't think any point being, i don't think anyone is searching for a reason to be against him. they probably don't want to know the answers to some of these questions, as they've made made very clear. i expect they're going to plow ahead with this. they'll point to the statement from his ex-wife and, for lack of a better term, keep their heads in the sand on all of these things because they know that they need to get this over the finish line. they will have

the vote, and i expect he will be confirmed. >> and i take your point. and having covered the senate, that that's very likely the conclusion. i just wanted to also point out that today the ranking member, jack reed, longtime chairman, said that this information had been provided to the fbi and it was not in the background check that the fbi handed over to the chair and the ranking member. so that is, again, raising questions about what the fbi is actually providing to the senate. barbara mcquade, maria teresa kumar, brendan buck, garrett hake, thanks to all of you. and in just 90s major cities across the country bracing for potential deportation raids as we learn more about plans to send active u.s. military personnel to the southern border. you're watching southern border. you're watching andrea mitchell reports on ( ♪♪ ) eggs make all our family moments better. especially when they're eggland's best. taste so fresh and amazing.

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price cheaper. see if you qualify at that is their question. and nobody knows shoppers better than shopify. the undisputed, undefeated, checkout champion of the world. businesses that want to win, win with shopify. his immigration crackdown, the new administration dropping restrictions on raids at places that have been traditionally sanctuaries such as schools, churches and hospitals. this is. officials at the justice department, under new leadership, are pushing for the prosecution of state and local officials who try to stop deportations in their jurisdictions. nbc's julia ainsley had an exclusive look last week at migrants being deported from south texas, most of them shackled except for children and parents traveling with kids. >> the trump administration wants to deport more migrants. they're going to have to spend

more money, not just on planes like these, but on the pilots, the staff and the detention space to hold migrants before they board these planes. >> okay. >> nbc news homeland security correspondent julia ainsley joins me now. julia. so talk to us about what you what you're seeing, what you know, and then we can talk about the military, which. yeah, we now do know from nbc official sources. >> okay, good. all right. we've got a lot to talk about then. well, so first of all, just to put in context what we're hearing today, borders are tom homan has been saying publicly that in 24 hours, ice arrested over 300 people. but i just got off the phone with a spokesperson at ice who said, this is all part of normal operations. this is what ice would have been doing in their daily operations. and seeing that flight makes you realize this is not new. to make arrest. what is new is going into places that used to be sanctuaries. what is new is that although they are targeting criminals, they're picking up what they call collateral arrest. so some of those people, some of those 300 could have been non-criminals. the spokesperson

couldn't confirm the criminality of every single one of those. but this isn't one big raid and a big show of force in one city. this is spread out across 25 different locations. >> and we should also point out that there is a concern among many community advocates that people who need medical care, who need care for their children if they are not documented, or even if they are just afraid of contact with authorities, they might not go to hospitals or clinics if they need to. >> you could see it as a public health risk. no matter your opinions about whether or not someone should be in this country without authorization, you want more people in your community to be immunized. see a doctor to seek emergency medical care. you want people to be able to send their children to school. we know that that helps communities. so there's a lot of pushback right now on rescinding this policy that we should say started in the obama administration and was kept in the first trump term. >> and let's get to what garrett haig was reporting, which is that the us military is going to

be sent to the southern border. and this is something that they had suggested during the campaign. this is not a surprise, but it does go against past military practice, bipartisan practice, except in extraordinary circumstances. i remember, you know, sometime in the 2000 when there were some riots. well, there were they were needed. >> my memory is going back to october of 2018, when i went to the southern border in arizona before trump thought a caravan was coming, a caravan that never showed up and there were hundreds of troops stationed there over the holidays, thanksgiving and christmas. and those people never came. they were playing cards. >> with those national guard which are under the jurisdiction of governors. >> he did send military in his first term. and what we have learned is that in the way he's worded the executive orders, it is similar to the way he used them previously, where they are not allowed to actually arrest immigrants because that would violate the comitatus, which prevents the military from enforcing domestic law within us boundaries. and so they're there to do a processing. they're

there to build facilities they can transport. and in this case they can provide detention space, which is what's really going to be key on the border if he wants to ramp up the arrest. so there's a place to hold people, perhaps on u.s. military bases. but i think a lot of this is going to come down to where he sends them and exactly what their directions are. >> because this was a big issue on the insurrection act, which caused the breach between him and defense secretary esper and joint chiefs chairman milley. when they pushed back against that decision that he wanted to do. julia ainsley, thank you so much. and joining us now is arizona's democratic senator, mark kelly, a former u.s. navy pilot, astronaut commander who now serves on the intelligence and armed services committees. senator, thank you very much. good to see you. and first, i guess i want to ask you about the us military. do you think that they can provide a useful role sending active duty troops to the southern border? do you think they're needed? >> well, andrea, right. now at

the border in arizona, i represent a border state. border security is incredibly important to me. when you look at the numbers today. compared to where they were at the end of trump's first administration, they're lower now. so these are border crossings. the border. you know, it gets chaotic at times. the numbers go up. they go down. what we need is our lasting solutions to the border security problems that we face. and we're going to get that hopefully by democrats and republicans working together on this issue to provide some lasting solutions. >> and you have been such an advocate for a bipartisan immigration law. of course, we know what happened last time around, because really, after the suggestion of former president trump at the time, you know, to some of his allies in the senate, in the house, that's when that was unraveled. >> yeah, it that was unfortunate. but i think what that demonstrated is that there

is support on both sides of the aisle. democrats and republicans can work together on this, and we can accomplish something that's pretty significant. it's much better to do it this way than for republicans just to go it alone on this. so if we work together, we can come up with some border security solutions. we can protect dreamers and farm workers and doing those other things that will provide a safe and secure border. we can't have chaos at the southern border. we've seen this, you know, time and time again from one administration to another, policies change. but in the senate anyway, right now there seems to be, you know, the support there for us to work together. so i just sent a letter to senator thune. there's about a dozen of us, you know, stressing that we can accomplish something significant on this issue. >> let's talk about pete hegseth. you're on the armed services committee. the senators

now have, according to jack, read, an affidavit from his former sister in law. nbc news was the first to report this, saying that his behavior toward his second wife caused her to be fearful for her safety. his ex-wife said that there was, quote, no physical abuse in their marriage. through his lawyer, hegseth has denied any abuse as a member of the committee, though that doesn't deny the specifics. in this affidavit, which stand uncontested. and i want to ask you whether, with action on the floor, perhaps after a cloture vote, which would just needs a simple majority on on hegseth, you think he'll still be confirmed? >> well, he shouldn't be confirmed, andrea. and i think anybody who watched our committee hearing last week, a couple of weeks ago on pete hegseth, will realize he wasn't being transparent with the committee. he's got a lot of personal issues. even beyond that. he's he's not qualified for the job. this is probably

one of the hardest jobs in government. you're managing one of the biggest enterprises on the planet. he doesn't have the management experience. he doesn't have the leadership experience. and on top of that, those personal issues that that you pointed out are just disqualifying. i asked him specifically about a number of issues with regards to, you know, drinking excessively and how he, you know, dealt with his employees and being drunk in front of employees. and he didn't really want to answer the questions. i made it very simple. are these things true or false? the affidavit you're talking about goes through a list of another a bunch of other occurrences in great detail. so i think it's clear, certainly is clear to my democratic colleagues. i think it also is to some of the republicans. we'll see if they actually get there on this, but that he is not the right person for this job. >> senator reid made it clear today, democratic former chairman, ranking member, of

course, made it clear today that these this affidavit, this witness had been presented, talked to the fbi, but that her information, the sister in law's information was not in the background check. is the fbi being completely open with the committee? >> well, i did not have the opportunity to see the fbi background check. that was just for the ranking member and the chairman. it should have been made available, i think, to everybody on the committee, especially when you consider mr. hicks, you know, issues and that information, it would make sense that that would have been included in an fbi background check. but like senator reid said, it was not. >> and one more question about a washington post report today that nbc news has not independently confirmed that tulsi gabbard has a meeting with former syrian leader bashar al

assad when he was in power that lasted as long as three hours, and that it was not reported that way back, you know, through officials, because her house staff got her to cover it up or they covered it up. and in some way, it was reported as a much shorter meeting. any meeting, some say, was inappropriate without proper authorization. >> well, i discussed congresswoman gabbard's trip to syria, specifically about what she learned when she was there and in cases of assad using chemical weapons against his population. i was unaware of the length of the meeting. this is new to me, but i will certainly look into it. and when you're trying to be as a member of congress, when you're trying to be transparent about your travel and who you met with, i think if it is true, you know, i think that's something we need to look into. i mean, a three hour meeting with assad is something

i would be concerned with. but beyond that, we've got other issues. you know, her views on edward snowden, pardoning snowden, her views that have changed recently on fisa and our ability to get intelligence from foreigners overseas, making a recent 180 on this. these are some of the things that concern the committee. and we still have not scheduled, you know, her confirmation hearing. we'll be doing that in the near future. >> senator mark kelly, thank you as always. thanks very much. >> thank you, andrea. >> and next, the top democrat on the senate judiciary committee, dick durbin, as the committee has just received the background check on kash patel, the controversial nominee to lead the country's most powerful law enforcement agency, the fbi. enforcement agency, the fbi. this is andrea if you're living with diabetes, i'll tell you the same thing i tell my patients. getting on dexcom g7 is one of the easiest ways to take better control of your diabetes and help protect yourself

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investigators. >> we see how. >> this system can be. >> weaponized and. >> we need people. >> like pam bondi. >> kash patel and the rest of trump's cabinet to right all. >> these wrongs. >> joining me now is senator dick durbin, ranking member of the judiciary committee and democratic whip. senator, thank you very much for being with us. you met with kash patel, i think, yesterday. is he the wrong choice to lead the fbi? >> definitely the wrong choice. definitely the wrong choice. andrea. >> when you. >> consider this as. >> the leading. >> criminal investigative agency in the world. >> and. >> how much. >> we rely on it to keep us safe, he is not up to the task. he has neither the experience nor the judgment, nor the temperament to be in such a powerful position where he can literally decide who's going to be investigated and who is not. >> talk to me about his judgment and what leads you to that conclusion. >> i read his book. if you want

to know where he stands, he tells you exactly where he stands. a list of 60 enemies, political enemies, people who have slighted him in the past or offended him in some way or another. he makes it clear that retribution is part of his responsibility in the future, and i think that's absolutely unacceptable. we did our best to depoliticize the fbi position with ten year term. mr. patel, unfortunately, will bring politics to the administration of that agency. >> the your committee now has received the fbi's background check. first of all, do you think it's complete? >> and i don't know. that's a tough question. you don't you don't know what isn't there, andrea. but i will tell you, we're reviewing it carefully. members of the committee are going to be given an opportunity to do the same. we're going to go through this because it's very serious. the position he would have is extraordinary power in america. and unfortunately, his political background and his promise of retribution do not give me confidence that he'd be the

right leader. >> well, that's that's different than the way the armed services committee is now being run, because other members besides the chair and ranking were not allowed to see the background checks. that committee was also run in a very unusual way. when requests were made for second rounds of questions, they were, you know, summarily denied. what do you make of the sweeping pardons for the january 6th defendants, including those who were violent? >> i just went on the floor and read when it came to eight of these individuals, what they were charged with doing and what they were sentenced for. it is an outrage, the violence that they perpetrated against the men and women in uniform, and capitol police and d.c. police and others. they were there, those people to guard us, to keep us safe. and they were beaten up unmercifully, several within an inch of their life. and to think that they have now been given a full conditional, d trump after what they did to

these members of the capitol police is just outrageous. >> have you heard from any republican colleagues, though, enough to defeat either patel or pam bondi as attorney general? >> well, i don't know that anybody's made enough public announcements to guarantee the outcome of any of these nominations. i just hope that what i've said and what i'm offering to individuals to read will be taken very seriously. >> pam bondi did testify that she would consider pardons individually, rather than 1500 at a time. on day two of the administration. >> yes, she did, and she made it clear she was against violence and law enforcement police officers. that was very explicit. and unfortunately, president trump did not follow that guidance. >> what's your reaction to the trump administration reshaping the department of justice by removing and reassigning several top career officials, especially from the national security and criminal divisions? >> disappointed, but not

surprised. he's going to put his team in place. he's already told us, with his executive orders, that he is not going to slow down, even with the explicit wording of the constitution. he has an agenda. he's going to pursue it. he'll have to deal with congress in some instances, but the courts in most instances to achieve his goal. >> he has a new memo to the justice department workforce saying that the department is going to prosecute state and local officials who resist or fail to comply with the immigration demands, with the deportations or the arrests. do you think that's appropriate? >> well, of course not. we want to make sure we have cooperation with state and local sources. i've spoken to governor pritzker of illinois this morning. we understand that we may be a target of this effort. people are going to be treated fairly in our state as best we can manage. i hope that the threats from the trump administration don't discourage people from doing the right thing in illinois. >> and i want to ask you about the di decision, because that affects it seems like everyone in government and by

implication, the way it's worded, it seems like it's also a directive to universities, to corporations, to others around the country. >> well, there's no doubt about it. it's designed to discourage efforts to have diversity in the leadership of companies as well as agencies of government. i happen to think that diversity is america's strength. obviously, the trump administration sees it just the opposite. we should continue to encourage individuals and agencies and corporations to do the right thing anyway. >> do you think it's necessary, under this order of an energy emergency, to not only suspend drilling, but also to stop what congress already approved on solar and wind programs in the ira? >> it makes no sense if we can find alternative sources of energy to fuel our economy and do it in an environmentally responsible way, we should do that. but unfortunately, president trump has declared war

on that particular aspect of the energy economy. drill, baby drill may be a cute little phrase that he uses at a rally, but we have to think of the next generation and the one beyond and the impact that this is having on the environment. >> senator durbin, thanks for taking all of these questions. it's a busy time. let's stay in touch. >> thanks very much, sir. >> and next, president trump's choice for un ambassador is signaling a major shift in u.s. policy toward the palestinians as fighting erupts in the west bank, and more is on the way. you're watching andrea mitchell you're watching andrea mitchell ♪♪ amazing. jerry, you've got to see this. i've seen it. trust me, after 15 walks, it gets a little old. ugh. stop waiting. start investing. e*trade ® from morgan stanley. aveeno introduces new daily moisturizing cream. it's clinically proven to moisturize dry skin for 48 hours. and instantly strengthen skin's barrier. for softer, smoother skin.

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you'll love how it feels and how you look. learn more at laura geller.com. >> during her confirmation hearing for u.n. ambassador tuesday, new york congresswoman elise stefanik was grilled by senator chris van hollen about her views on human rights and self-determination for the palestinians. >> i'm rarely surprised by answers in my office, but i. did ask you whether you subscribe to the views of finance minister smotrich. >> who i'm. >> sorry, this. >> is the israeli finance minister, smotrich, and the former national security minister, ben gvir, who believe that israel has. >> a biblical. >> right to. >> the entire. >> west bank. >> and in that conversation, you told me that, yes, you shared that view. is that your view today? >> yes. >> joining me now is retired nato supreme allied commander, admiral james stavridis.

admiral, thank you very much for being with us. so the violence in the west bank has been intensifying. and janine, israel is now saying that there will be a more active military action against what's going on in the west bank. congresswoman stefanik's statement is against what has been longtime us policy, but it is in accord with those two ministers, one who has just resigned. ben-gvir, who've been pressing netanyahu, the prime minister, so, so strongly to have israel take over the entire west bank. it's also in line with the proposed ambassador to israel, mike huckabee's position. how will that go down at the united nations, where the u.s. was already isolated by all of our vetoes under the biden administration? but this goes far beyond anything that was in any of those u.n. resolutions. >> yeah. >> it will go down badly. and let's face it, team trump could care less about.

>> what happens at the united nations. >> they've just pulled. >> out of. >> the world health organization. they have pulled out of the paris climate accords. i think it's pretty clear that they will be extremely disdainful of what is generated politically. >> in the. >> united nations. here's the swing vote in all this. it's not the united nations, and it's not the trump administration. and we kind. >> of know. >> where israel is. the swing. vote and all this, andrea, is going to be the arab world, and it's going to be notably the. >> kingdom of. >> saudi arabia, but also uae guitar, the gulf arabs who have the money to do the reconstruction could provide troops for a peacekeeping force. i think that is the counterparty with which the trump administration is going to have to, if you will, negotiate. and i think that one could come out reasonably well, as in the gulf,

arabs will be somewhat supportive of the palestinians and have long term support for a two state solution. the quid pro quo for them to recognize israel. the kingdom is going to be whether or not there's some level of restraint on israel in the west bank. watch that space. watch what mohammed bin salman, the de facto leader of the kingdom of saudi arabia, has to say about all this. >> no, exactly. because benjamin netanyahu does have aspirations still for that saudi recognition. the saudis are not going to demand a state for the palestinians. they would have just wanted, you know, sort of lip service. but now it's really a pathway to something because of all the violence in gaza that they have to worry about the arab world as well, and about their populations. and this just seems to me that netanyahu is caught between the ben-gvir,

smotrich, you know. coalition leaders or former coalition leaders, but and also his own desires for a broader peace and besides which, any palestinian leadership that could be developed with some of the really extraordinary palestinian people, as i say, who are in the diaspora, you know, fayyad and others are well known to you and to people around the world could not possibly be engaged in gaza if the west bank has been taken over by the palestinians. yeah. exactly. >> right. and we haven't even mentioned really the third piece of all this, of course, is in tehran. and this is why, from the perspective of the trump administration, it is so important to build on the abraham accords from the first trump administration and turn it into kind of an abraham alliance. my words, not theirs. but security guarantees between jerusalem, washington and

riyadh. that triangle saudi, israel, the united states that presents the best bulwark and threat to iran, which could deter them from moving toward a nuclear weapon. i think that's the grand strategy that's in mind here. the saudis are going to be the key to the whole thing. >> i just want to note that the israel's top general, general halevy, did resign in the first significant resignation, acknowledging the failures on october 7th of the israeli military. netanyahu and his coalition have prevented any real independent investigation, but the army is doing its own. let's turn to ukraine briefly. let's listen to what president trump had to say about sending arms to kyiv. >> i'm going. >> to keep sending weapons. >> to ukraine. or are you going to send. turn off the tap soon. >> well, we're looking talking e going to be talking with president putin very soon, and we'll see how it all happens.

>> just today on truth social, the president has posted that, you know, a number of questions and threats about russia, how they're going to be threatening taxes, tariffs, sanctions. they've been sanctioned so much because of the war. but if they don't make a deal concerning the war in ukraine. so i think it's he's playing good cop and bad cop at the same time, perhaps. >> well. >> that's exactly right. and frankly, you have to think of this as being on a scale that runs from as one memorable tweet, not from the president, but from someone close to him said a while ago, president trump is going to cut off kiev's allowance. in other words, a complete just shut it down. that's one end, and the other end is the kind of strong support that kyiv enjoyed from biden. i'd say that president trump has landed kind of in the middle here, and he's going to put significant pressure on russia, it sounds like, to me,

and that's good. he is also going to nudge the ukrainians toward a settlement. and the final thought here, andrea, he's put somebody pretty good and pretty experienced in charge of this. lieutenant general keith kellogg, who is a retired three star army general, pretty senior guy. he was deputy national security advisor in trump one. he knows the players. he knows europe. he knows war. he is the individual who's going to drive this toward, i think initially a cease fire probably in the next three months and then get the parties to the table to negotiate a conclusion. we've got a long way to go, but i think you see the sketch of it in that truth social post which says, i'm going to put big pressure on both sides to get to the table. >> and keith kellogg is someone that we know has been in the white house and at various stages and is a good person to be put in charge of this. thank

you so much, admiral stavridis. appreciate it. my pleasure. and next we'll look at what the new trump economic and energy policies and some of the other policies he's just outlined mean for you. senator chris coming up. you're watching andrea mitchell reports on msnbc. >> are you overwhelmed with identity management in the context of omnipresent threats to your organization? >> hi. so no one. >> knows what that means. >> what's happening? >> just explain. i want to help secure digital identity. keep it simple. >> like what? >> like when delivering a fresh uniform. >> or viewing your results. >> yeah. it's bad. >> or making bread soon at the high school reunion. >> oh, i love that color. >> cue. >> cue. (man) robinhood gold members get an ira transfer boost of 2%. when you transfer in an ira or old 401(k) by april 30th, robinhood gold will boost it by 2%. diet and exercise.

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while working around environmental protections already in place and putting a halt to clean energy projects like wind and solar that were approved under the biden administration. federally approved and passed by congress. joining us now, democratic senator chris of delaware, a member of the appropriations, foreign relations and judiciary committees. just a technical questions. can is the president overstepping his authority in these executive orders on energy and the environment? since a lot of this is embedded in law? >> yes, andrea, there's a number of these. >> executive orders. >> this blizzard of executive orders that ultimately will have little effect because they violate law or the constitution. but what. >> is striking to me. >> andrea. >> about the. >> scope and the reach. >> of these hundreds of executive orders signed by president. >> trump is. >> they really won't. >> reduce prices. >> the average american. >> who voted for. donald trump. says they. >> did so because they.

>> were concerned about high prices. >> and his. >> threat today, repeated. >> recently of double digit tariffs on our biggest trading partners. on mexico and canada. >> and china. >> will only increase the prices average americans face. >> one of. >> the executive. >> orders he. >> signed tries. >> to roll back. >> some of the innovations to reduce prices for health care and prescription. >> drugs that. >> was led by the biden administration. i frankly think instead of just trying to stick it to biden with executive orders, he should be working with all of us to try. >> and actually. >> reduce costs. >> and when you talk about the tariffs, i was going to ask you about that, except that those are threats. and you could argue that that's his bargaining position. but when he says he's canceling projects wind and solar and the prescription drugs, those were passed by congress. >> so where there is. something that. was legislatively enacted by congress, his executive orders will have little effect. where there's a project that is already. permitted and already

underway, they will have limited. >> effect. but that. >> will end up being tied up in court. for some time. so if you had a company that was involved in an offshore wind project, for example, and his executive order puts the permits at risk for that project rather than litigating over it for years, they may simply move to investing in a different country. >> and i may have misspoken because i'm looking at the health orders. so those were the prescription drugs. was that an executive order by president biden, former president biden? so that can be reversed? >> yes. so to be clear, he can't reverse the parts of the inflation reduction act that are moving towards really reducing prescription drug prices across the board for ten major medications this year, 15 more this coming year. that's in statute. but he did reverse an executive order to study ways to reduce prescription drug prices and costs in the health care system.

>> now, since you're on judiciary, i don't want to let you go before i ask you about the pardons and a lot of the sweeping decisions that are being made involving the judiciary and the removing of key figures, experienced public servants from the national security, counterterror and criminal prosecution and departments of justice. >> andrea, i think one of the most alarming things that president trump did on his first day was to pardon roughly 1500 individuals who stormed the capitol, hundreds of whom assaulted police officers, and both the fop, the fraternal order of police and the international association of chiefs of police put out a statement saying that it was disheartening and inappropriate for president trump to have pardoned hundreds of violent criminals who assaulted police officers. they also condemned some of the pardons of folks who were serving long prison sentences related to drugs and minor drug crimes that president

biden issued on his last day. but i think what matters most here about this issue is that hundreds of violent criminals who assaulted police officers were pardoned just because their assault on police officers took place as part of the january 6th riot, something that president trump thinks was fine. i do not, many others do not. this did not contribute to our public safety. >> senator chris, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> and before we go, just a moment to pay tribute to cecile richards, the fierce advocate for women's rights and reproductive health care, who passed away this week after a battle with brain cancer. she, of course, was the daughter of the former celebrated texas governor ann richards. she led planned parenthood for more than a decade, helping women get access to critical reproductive rights and health care. she was a frequent guest here, a friend of our program for decades, and our thoughts and prayers are with her family. lily adams and all the rest of them. and that does it for this edition of

andrea mitchell reports. remember, follow the show on social media at mitchell reports and rewatch the best parts of the show anytime on youtube. just go to msnbc.com/andrea, and follow us at instagram. at msnbc follow us at instagram. at msnbc reports. chris jansing reports arghh! [explosion] ugh! here we go again. wait there's a red hulk now? excuse me... what do i do about this? we use tide oxi boost. it's a lifesaver. the most powerful clean in any universe. lookin good. thank you. see captain america: brave new world. my grandfather's run meyer the hatter for over 75 years now. 99 years old and he'd come five days a week if we let him. shape is great, the color's nice, that's a swell lid for you, baby! finding the exact date on ancestry that our family business was founded, really struck a chord with my grandfather. i've never seen this before. look at it - where has this come from? all the stories that's he's been able to hand me throughout the years, for me to hand him that information.. you don't get that moment every day.

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