>> i mean. >> you talked about wicked. i am so excited for cynthia erivo and ariana grande. they're going to perform for the first time on live tv. they might defy gravity. i'm ready for that. also, queen latifah set to perform doja cat and rae, but i think wicked has swept the country. it's been a huge hit and we are all, i think, dying to see cynthia erivo and ariana grande just slay the whole day. >> all right, chris witherspoon, always fun to have you with us. thank you so much and happy friday. we'll be watching on sunday. it's going to be a fun one to dvr it though. too late for me. all right. that does it for us this busy week. i'll see you back here on monday. same time, same place. stay with msnbc as we prepare in just moments for ukraine's president zelensky to meet with president trump at the white house. for now, i'm ana cabrera, reporting from new york. jose diaz, balart picks up our coverage right now. >> and good morning.

>> 11 a.m. eastern, 8 a.m. pacific. i'm jose. >> diaz balart. >> we begin with breaking news from the white. >> house, where. any moment. >> president trump. >> is. >> set to welcome ukraine's. >> president zelensky for. >> a high. >> stakes meeting. >> the two leaders are. >> expected to sign a. >> deal giving the. >> u.s. access. >> to ukraine's. >> rare earth minerals. today's deal could be crucial in ending the war in ukraine. >> you're seeing live. >> pictures just. >> outside the white house. >> there, where we're. >> expecting the president of ukraine to arrive momentarily. meanwhile, nbc news has learned that president. >> trump is. >> expected to sign an. executive order today. >> that will, for. >> the first time, make. english the official language of the united states. according to a white house official. more on that in just a moment. but first, let's start with ukraine. joining us now, nbc's garrett hake. nbc's keir simmons in dubai. christina ruffini, a foreign affairs journalist and host of the one decision podcast. also with us, steven pifer, former u.s. ambassador to ukraine under president clinton.

he is also a nonresident senior fellow at the brookings institute. so, garrett, what do we expect to happen today at the white house? >> well, jose, at some point during this meeting. which really has three separate components an oval office meeting, a private lunch and a news conference, we will see the two presidents sign this minerals development deal that's been in the works between the two administrations for some time. i expect most of the conversation to be about their two essentially different versions of what a future partnership between the us and ukraine looks like. the presidents version. president trump's version focusing heavily on economic engagement, especially with this minerals deal. and president zelensky expected to continue to push for a more robust security guarantees from the united states, both now and in the event that a peace deal or a cease fire deal is ultimately signed. that's been a point of contention between the two leaders in recent weeks. although the president notably softened his tone about zelensky yesterday, suggesting this might be a more positive engagement today than we might have

expected it to be 24 hours ago. >> yeah, and garrett, it looks as though things are about to, you know, happen right now. let's of course, we'll keep that live picture up. but keir, meanwhile, how do we know how this deal got made in the first place? >> well, the deal. >> has. >> been fraught. >> it's been difficult. >> it was. >> the idea has. >> been. >> if you like, to offer. >> president trump a kind of a an economic justification for supporting ukraine, if not militarily. now, initially. the ukrainians didn't want to sign what. >> was put. >> in. >> the paper. >> that was put in front of them some. days ago, some weeks ago in ukraine. now it looks like zelenskyy will sign. >> the details are sketchy, though. >> exactly what. >> it. >> is that they. >> are signing up to. and frankly, some of ukraine's rare earths and minerals are a long way off.

>> in terms of establishing. >> how much there is and getting to the point of mining and making money from it. i think another interesting aspect with president trump, what. >> we've seen. >> this week. a full court press by the europeans to kind of try and get him back on side. >> to, to. >> wrestle him away from. >> how close he. was appearing to be to. >> president putin and the russians. politically. >> what we've seen from. president trump, which i think is fascinating. >> and it happened again. >> yesterday. >> is him now. described the prospects. >> of a peace. deal as. >> difficult. >> that it's going to. >> be hard. >> he said yesterday either it's. >> going to happen quickly or it won't. >> happen at all. >> that's quite a substantial shift from the campaign. >> and i. >> think that is a glimpse. into actually how many challenges the trump administration is realizing are there with the russians and also. >> of. >> course, with the ukrainians and with president zelenskyy, who president trump is about to meet. >> yeah. and. >> ambassador, let's. >> talk about those challenges, because it does seem, as is

brilliantly pointing out, that there has been a change in tone from the white house about what the prospects of a ceasefire or end to that war could. >> look like. >> what do you. >> think are the biggest challenges? >> well. >> i'm glad to see that the president's tone has changed because this will be a. very difficult conversation. >> even if. >> you get the russians. >> and the ukrainians. >> both at the table. >> unfortunately. >> i think the president has made several concessions over the last two weeks to the russian position. today is an opportunity for him to make a course correction. the two big questions for any settlement negotiations are going to be what happens to territory under russian control, but also security guarantees. and that's very important to zelensky because he suggested at the end of last year, i'd be prepared for ukraine to agree. we would not try to recover lost territory using military force. but he also wants a very strong security guarantee because he does not want to do a deal now

and then, give the russians three years to recuperate and. regenerate their military force, and then have vladimir putin launch a new invasion down the road. so he's looking for a solid guarantee. ideally, in his view, it would be nato membership, but if not nato membership, then something that is very firm that he would see as deterring a russian attack in the future. and that will be a. >> topic, i think. >> as you said, that. >> already the united states gave concessions to russia on this. what do you see. as those concessions being? >> well, the two big issues in this negotiation are territory and security guarantees. two weeks ago, the president and the secretary of defense said ukraine can't get all of its territory back and ukraine can't get nato membership. i don't know why. at the beginning of a negotiation before the russians and the ukrainians, even at the table, the united states is already suggesting those things. i think also that the way the russians negotiate, they're going to be encouraged to sit back and expect more concessions. and that's not the

way to deal with moscow. hopefully, today is an opportunity for the president to correct course and get back towards a more appropriate position for the united states if we're trying to broker a real settlement. >> and, christina, i mean, there's, you know, talk about change of tone. there's also change of rhetoric. last week, the president called zelensky a dictator on the eve of his visit. this is what he said about that issue. >> it was something that mr. zelensky has been tighter. >> did i say that? i can't believe i said that. next question. >> you know, it's. >> what do. >> you think of this? and i'm just thinking, christina, this, you know, rare mineral deal. do you think that it could have some substantial impact on the possible ending of the war? >> so i think a couple of. >> things are going. >> on here.

>> i would say. >> that that was a. >> bbc reporter who asked that question. that response i call the macron effect. emmanuel macron has figured out. how to kind of. >> move trump. >> in the direction. >> that. >> europe wants. and you saw that. >> in that oval office meeting between the two of them. and on the heels of that, you saw the british. >> pm come over. >> ingratiate himself. >> give president trump a letter. >> from from. >> king charles inviting him for a second state visit. >> something. >> that no one else has gotten. he was very excited about that. so this is the influence of these visits by european leaders. and look, there's a reason you're seeing all these people come here to dc, including zelensky, because this is how trump likes to do business. and there's also this issue of object permanence. we've heard from people who've dealt with him before. he usually tends to go with the last thing that was in the room. so they're trying to sway him to get to this deal. now, when it comes to the deal, this could be a win for trump. >> it may. >> not be everything it's cracked up to be. as as my colleagues here have said, you know, it's allegedly a $50 billion deal to develop these resources. it's not back facing. it won't go to pay down debts,

the us or alleged debts. trump says the us has already occurred, you know, paying for this war. the other thing is it's based off survey maps the soviets did 50 or 60 years ago. these are not minerals. this is not a mine that they can roll into and start taking money out of. they have to survey. they have to go in. and a lot of these resources are actually in territories currently controlled by russia. >> keir, do we have any response from russia to this us ukraine agreement? >> well, russia. >> is. >> watching and waiting. and negotiating. >> i think. >> there's an interesting aspect of this, you know. >> jose, which. >> is that. >> we talk about. whether who's going to be at the table when the negotiations happen. >> will it be ukraine, russia, the europeans? >> negotiations are. >> happening now. you're hearing from president putin and. >> members of. >> his kremlin officials. all the. >> time. >> consistently. >> and they're trying. >> to send messages. so effectively. >> what's happening. >> is you're actually watching

these. negotiations happen in plain sight. as we mentioned, with the europeans in washington and with zelenskyy, they're. >> there today. >> in terms of what the russians want, if. >> you like. i think. >> it's interesting that. we focus a lot on what's going to happen in ukraine. >> what i think we. >> saw from. >> the meetings in saudi. >> arabia. >> and particularly. because from president. >> putin sending a man he's now. >> appointed as an. envoy to be there to just talk. >> about economics. >> what i. read from. >> that was the russians are. >> really interested. >> in trying. >> to get. >> sanctions lifted, trying to have. a bilateral economic relationship with america. >> that it. >> hasn't had for years, that they would. >> be. >> satisfied with that. >> even if there. >> is. >> no deal. >> over ukraine. >> and i. >> suspect behind closed doors, that that conversation. >> has been. >> happening. >> with president. trump to say, well. >> hold on a second. >> the sanctions. >> that. >> we have on russia. are our leverage in order to try and get a deal with ukraine. another point. with all of this, you

know, the russians have around. 80,000 troops, including. just over 10,000 north korean troops around the kursk region, which of course, is a small. >> piece of land. >> that was taken by the ukrainians. those troops are there to try and get that land back. it looks as if that. >> that is an offensive. >> that russia. is still planning and trying to that more north. >> korean troops. >> just got sent, according to the south koreans. all of that suggests that president. >> putin would be. >> prepared to keep. >> fighting. isn't necessarily isn't. >> you know. >> rushing to try and. >> get a ceasefire. >> anytime soon. >> but what he would. >> love, what he. >> would like. i mean. >> he already. >> likes talking. >> directly with the with the. >> us in that kind of bilateral setting. what he would love. >> is. >> to get to some kind of a. >> place where. >> there was. >> where there. >> was a change to the sanctions and a change to the economic relationship. but that's what he has. >> been trying. >> to. >> get for years. >> yeah. and ambassador, just thinking as the past being, you know, such an important pattern of what we can expect in the

future. and i'm just what do you see as what russia has learned from its experience in ukraine over the years and the reaction of the united states to it? and i'm thinking, for example, you know, february 2014, when there was i don't know how to describe the action or inaction of the united states to that. what do you think that has taught russia vis a vis the united states? >> yeah, no, i think after february 2014, when russia illegally seized crimea and then annexed it, had there been a harsher western reaction, it might have sent a different message to moscow. so i'm not sure in the end that it would have deterred vladimir putin. vladimir putin seems to have this neo imperialistic drive to recover parts of the russian empire that were lost when the soviet union collapsed in 1991. so he talks about ukraine as what he calls historic russian territory, a territory that was

once russian. and that appears to be his drive that led him to make what i regard as an epic blunder the invasion in 2022. and lots of indications suggest the russians were expecting to be welcomed by the ukrainians. the ukrainians reported early on that they shot up a russian convoy just north of kyiv, and one of the trucks was full, not with ammunition or fuel or food. it was full of brand new dress uniforms for the victory parade that the russians hoped to stage in kyiv. this war now, i think, has been immensely costly. more than 800,000 russian soldiers killed and wounded in action. the economic sanctions, huge amounts of russian military equipment destroyed. i would have said three years ago that russia was a state in decline. if anything, i think putin's blunder has accelerated that decline. >> garrett haig, keir simmons, christina ruffini, former ambassador steven pifer, if you

would, please stay close. we're going to take a short break, but we're awaiting the arrival of president zelensky at the white house. and any moment now that will become a meeting between the president of the united states and the president of ukraine. we're going to talk to a member of ukraine's parliament about what she wants to see come out of these talks. plus, the mysterious deaths of actor gene hackman, his wife and their dog. why authorities are now calling the circumstances suspicious. and a judge's latest order to stop the trump administration's efforts to slash the federal workforce. you're watching jose workforce. you're watching jose diaz, balart prilosec knows, for a fire... one fire extinguisher beats 10 buckets of water, and for zero heartburn 1 prilosec a day... beats taking up to 10 antacids a day. it's that simple, for 24 hour heartburn relief... one beats ten. prilosec otc.

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makes my day. 15 prevagen. for your brain. past the hour. live pictures from just outside the white house structure. there you see everything is set and ready any moment now. the president of ukraine will be arriving to meet president trump. we will, of course, bring you all the developments as they occur. as a matter of fact, it looks like things are getting really close to president zelensky's arrival there. but first, this morning, new questions surrounding the mysterious death of legendary actor gene hackman and his wife, betsy arakawa. authorities are calling their deaths suspicious, despite no obvious signs of foul play. they say they were found dead in their santa fe home on wednesday, along with one of their dogs. a maintenance worker

called 911 after discovering the bodies. take a listen. >> are they moving at all? >> no. >> they're not moving. just want somebody out here really quick. >> joining us now from santa fe is nbc's liz creutz. liz good morning. and liz i hope i don't have to interrupt you. i apologize in advance if i do. when the president of ukraine arrives, we'll go right to that big picture. but. but where does the investigation stand at this hour? there. >> josie. good morning. of course. totally get that. so here, right now in santa fe, i'll just tell you where we are. we're outside the gated community where this happened. this is the gated community where they live. they were found inside their home. and right no, authorities are trying to piece together a timeline here to try to figure out when they may have died. that is what they still don't know. and authorities say it could have been days. it could have been weeks. so they're trying to figure out who last had contact with the couple to try to piece together the initial part of that timeline.

we're also learning about the results of an initial autopsy, which showed no signs of trauma to the bodies. and that goes in line with what we've seen with officials saying that there's no signs of forced entry, there's no signs of foul play at this point. so it adds to the mystery here around what happened. take a listen. >> i think i'm pretty confident that there is no foul play, just based on the lack of, of evidence of foul play. but we of course, we're not ruling that out. again. i think the autopsy results, the official results are going to help us, steer us in the right direction. okay. >> and again, the autopsy, the initial one showing no signs of trauma, but there is a more full autopsy underway. we might not know the results of that, though. for several weeks, as. >> and liz. so and the authorities haven't really been clear on when was the last time someone spoke with the actor,

his wife? because they're saying it could have been days or or weeks. >> yeah, exactly. so they don't know. that's what they're trying to figure out. and this morning on the today show, the officials that joined said that they're really private couple, which has made this very challenging. hackman's daughters and granddaughter released a short statement where they, you know, said that they're devastated by this loss, but they haven't revealed more than that. so there's really no sense of when they were last had any contact with anybody. the maintenance workers that spotted them said they had last seen them two weeks ago, but also said it wasn't common for them to see them. so that's a big question here. i think, you know, there's lots of tests underway, toxicology reports, still questions about whether it could have been some kind of gas leak. they sort of ruled it out. but then they also acknowledged that potentially the gas could have dissipated if it has been a few weeks by the time authorities got there. so big mystery. a lot of questions. we expect an update later today. >> jose luis, thank you so very much. really appreciate it. and let's go full screen right to

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>> well, no comments at all from either one of us. we're listening in there. it looked like a thank you very much. one of the questions that was asked of both president zelensky and president trump there was, what's your message to vladimir putin? but neither one of them appeared to say anything more than, thank you very much. back with us, journalist christina ruffini and ambassador steven pifer. so now, christina, the real important conversations are about to get underway. this is pretty much just a ceremonial reception, right? >> i mean. >> they've got to kind. >> of nail this down. look, they're not expecting to announce an actual agreement today. they're hoping to agree on a framework. but the thing that zelensky really has to try

to convince president trump is to put in there some sort of security guarantee, which is the whole point of this, right? why would you sign away this, this development deal for these natural resources if they're not getting something out of it now? so far, the white house and president trump have said if there's security guarantees, that will be europe's problem, that will be up to europe. but obviously that's something that they're going to need to hammer out. we talked earlier. we've been seeing a change of tone from president trump regarding the war in ukraine this week. and, you know, you just saw him warm welcome there. he got the trump finger gun point and showed him off to the press. and it seems like so far he's he's in a good mood and happy to see him. >> yeah. and ambassador, it's so interesting that christina was talking about about what exactly is each side getting out of what so far looks to be an outline for essentially a joint venture between the united states and ukraine. but security guarantees don't seem to be in there. it's interesting. what do you see as the biggest challenge for both

sides? >> yeah, well, i think right now the big challenge for zelensky is basically to use this agreement, which would allow the americans to have really a privileged position in terms of exploiting ukrainian rare earth minerals. but to try to use that to persuade president trump to provide some commitment to ukraine's security. you had earlier this week, both president macron of france and then yesterday, the british prime minister, starmer, they have said they are prepared to put troops on the ground in ukraine as sort of a reassurance for us. but i think in both cases they would like to have some connection to the united states. so this is the kind of issue that i think is going to be very much at the top of zelensky's list. bear in mind, he also has a domestic constituency. and back in ukraine, although polls show more than 50% of ukrainians favor negotiations, they also show a large segment of the ukrainian population opposes any territorial concessions to russia. so if president trump

expects president zelensky to accept some territory loss, zelensky has to be able to go back to kyiv and say, look, i've gotten these sorts of things in return from the americans. that's, i think, going to be really the hard conversation that takes place behind closed doors in the oval office this morning. >> yeah. and, ambassador, just the role of importance, significance of western europe in all of this new axis of influence that we're seeing is really fascinating. i mean, we saw that the leader of turkey said that, you know, maybe he'd be willing to send troops under some conditions. and you were just mentioning macron and others, you know, the k71 billin investment in the future of ukraine by the leader of spain, just this, this last week. but is it, ambassador, that western europe in this new era simply is not at the table?

>> well, this is, i think, a question initially two weeks ago, it appeared that the europeans were an afterthought. i actually think it's important that the europeans be at the table, because the trump administration plan is basically that the europeans will play a leading role in the implementation of the agreement, including in providing a reassurance force to the ukrainians. if the europeans aren't there in terms of defining the settlement, it may be hard to get them to make that commitment, to provide their forces to actually go into ukraine. former secretary of state george shultz, he worked for president reagan always used to say, if you want somebody in on the landing of negotiation, they have to be in on the takeoff. so i hope that one of the things that both macron and starmer were able to persuade mr. trump of, that they have to be involved as the settlement negotiations proceed. it's going to be a very complex affair if they get everybody at that table, but you're going to need

that right combination. if mr. trump wants to make his effort to broker a settlement successful. >> such an important and interesting point that you're bringing up, ambassador, i was just rereading recently, the reagan-gorbachev meeting in reykjavik, and then later i was actually able to cover the reagan gorbachev meeting in washington, dc, and there was so much surprise by so many of the secretary of state level and the ministerial level in, in the soviet union as to how these things were being discussed. christina ruffini and ambassador steven pifer, if you would stay with us, we continue monitoring the meeting between the president of united stes and the president of ukraine. but now to new developments in efforts by president trump and his allies to reshape the federal government. late yesterday, a federal judge ordered the office of personnel management, the government's human resources department, to rescind its memo calling on

agencies to fire recent hires, known as probationary employees. the judge saying, quote, the office of personnel management does not have any authority whatsoever under any statute in the history of the universe to hire and fire employees within another agency. meanwhile, the firing of federal employees is not stopped. here's how one federal contractor who attended a town hall in virginia last night described the feeling inside the government right now. >> everyone is on pins and needles. there are tenured professionals that are, you know, maybe within months of retirement. but, you know, they they're trying to stick it out for everyone else and be brave. >> with us. now, nbc news white house correspondent aaron gilchrist, new york times reporter jeremy peters and symone sanders townsend, former chief spokesperson for former vice president harris and co-host of the weekend right here on msnbc. so, aaron, what's the white house saying about this court order affecting the

office of personnel management? >> well. >> the white house has not really been responding to the court orders that have resulted from so many of these lawsuits that have been filed against the different parts of the executive branch over the course of the last month or so of the trump administration. we have seen instances, of course, where president trump himself has said that he would expect his the people who work for him to follow the court orders. at the same time, the department of justice has been pushing back, has been fighting, has been appealing many of the temporary restraining orders and other temporary actions that judges have taken through the course of these lawsuits. with this particular lawsuit and the order that we expect to see on paper from this judge in california directing the opm to rescind that memo, that was directions for the federal agencies to start looking at probationary employees for termination. the judge said, as you noted, that the that opm had no authority to do that. no federal agency has the authority to hire or fire

people from another federal agency. is the position that this judge is taking, saying that he believes that it was illegal for opm to present this directive. the lawyer who was in the courtroom at the time pushed back and said that there's a distinction between a request and an order, and in this case, asking is not ordering, was the comment from the lawyer who was arguing this case yesterday. and so it'll be interesting to see, jose, exactly what the reaction is, what the response is from the government likely to be a filing on paper to this judge's orders. >> and so, erin, meanwhile, what do we know about which federal workers have been fired recently? and then the next steps for doge? >> well, the most recent firings we're aware of, jose, have been at the national oceanic and atmospheric administration, noaa, as we call it. people would know that the two offices that are under that that agency would be the national weather service, the national hurricane center, the national storm prediction center. these are the people who monitor weather

phenomenon. they look at climate issues. they issue the warnings about tornadoes and hurricanes and nor'easters, major snowstorms that are coming. and as we understand it, from from an administration official, noaa hired about 5% of its workforce yesterday. so we believe that's about 600 or so people who were in that probationary status. we were told by an administration official that this did not affect people who were performing critical functions of that agency, that likely meaning national weather service meteorologist. although we've seen anecdotally, people who who served in those sorts of roles around the country saying that they had been fired. and then, of course, there the judge in this case in california yesterday indicated his expectation that there were going to be probationary employees at the department of defense who would receive termination notices today. jose, we haven't seen that just yet. but the judge did indicate to opm that he expected them to tell dod that those firings of

those temporary or rather probationary employees were not valid. >> aaron gilchrist, thank you so very much. jeremy. how significant is this opm ruling and the fact that it's this northern district of california? how much of an impact is it really having on the president's efforts to essentially, you know, cut down the size of government? >> jose. >> this is really. an example of how illusory. >> many of the. >> orders and mandates. >> coming down from. >> the trump. administration may turn out to be. not only. >> are courts. >> saying. with increasing frequency. >> that the president. is exceeding his authority by. >> firing so. >> many workers. >> and issuing. executive orders that are. >> unconstitutional, but his own administration is having a hard. time making the case that these

orders and actions are actually effective. just consider yesterday, dhs secretary kristi noem announced that arrests by ice officials immigration arrests had reached an exponentially larger figure than they had during the biden administration. some 20,000 arrests in january alone. well. >> when you look. >> at the data, what dhs didn't provide was any sort of meaningful comparison. so we don't know how much they might be cooking the books here or comparing apples to oranges, because in some cases, the statistics, you can't really trust them. and in other cases they've been scrubbed from government websites. so it's really hard to tell at this point what is real and what is not, what is meaningful and what is not. that is happening at the federal level. >> symone. meanwhile, the washington post reports a handful of republican senators, including traditional trump ally lindsey graham, have joined some democrats in expressing alarm

over the trump administration's foreign aid freeze and really cutting out of the us aid. they they wrote a letter to secretary of state rubio saying they believe the state department is not acting in accordance with the law by not notifying and consulting congress during the process. what do you make of this? >> well, what what day is it? it took about five weeks for congress to assert their constitutional authority as a co-equal branch of government. and i think it's a good thing that republicans, at least, are putting their names on pieces of paper, siding with their democratic colleagues, saying, hey, we are congress. we have the power of the purse, and we are concerned that you are encroaching upon our authority. i do think that the language is going to need to get a little bit stronger, and congress is going to need to get a little bit more aggressive. i would i'm waiting with bated breath for republicans in congress to exercise the oversight authority that they have, as they are the heads of the committees at this

point. the democrats are the ranking members and calls some of the trump officials in. i just want to underscore for folks out there, though, that it is very important. a lot of focus has been on elon musk and, you know, democrats, some democrats have referred to him as the co-president. but russell vogt is the director, is the is the director of the office of management and budget. he has said previously he's on record saying that if donald trump is reelected, their goal is to inflict trauma on the federal workforce, something that they refer to as the bureaucracy. the federal workforce is the federal government is the largest employer of in this country. so this is intentional. the chaos that we're seeing, this is not an unintentional consequence. this is the plan, the plan that was put forward by project 2025. i would have you add, so elon musk is not an outside actor, if you will. he knows that if he were just removed, things would be working a little bit better. this entire just breakdown, if you will, and intentional

dismantling of the federal government from the inside out is a strategy, whether they want to couch it under dei, which you know, is a direct shot, frankly, at the civil rights act of 1964 that established the protections for race and other characteristics so they would not be discriminated against in hiring. the federal government was the first the largest employer to enforce the civil rights act of 1964. hence why the. hence why the federal government has been the place through which black americans have enjoyed access into the middle class by simply being able to get their own opportunity. so i do think that there are many things happening at once, and it seems like we, as americans across the board, are drinking out of a fire hose because it's all happening so quickly. but i'll end with this i spoke with someone who is a career nonpolitical appointee, who is a general counsel in an agency, and they didn't want to say which agency for fear of retribution. and they have been placed on administrative leave with proposed termination. and i

said, what is it like in there? how are you all feeling? and this person told me, we are living through a coup. people should know that. >> and, you know, the other thing to point out is that all of this was part of donald trump's presidential campaign. none of this is a surprise. none of this is a changed tactic. he was very clear that this is part of what he believed he wanted to do if elected. jeremy peters, symone sanders, townsend, thank you both so very much. you can watch, of course, symone, on the weekend, tomorrow, sunday, 8 a.m. eastern, right here on msnbc. up next, we're going to speak with a member of ukraine's parliament about her expectations from today's critical white house meeting between president trump and zelensky. that meeting is happening right now. you're happening right now. you're watching jose diaz-balart when emergency strikes, first responders are the first ones in...

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have your cake and eat it, too. don't settle for t-mobile or verizon 5g home internet. get super fast xfinity internet you don't have to share. forty's going to be my year. happening right now. right there at the white house. president trump is hosting ukrainian president zelensky. it marks their first one on one meeting since the us began negotiating directly with russia to try and end the years long war in ukraine. they're expected to discuss the rare earth minerals deal. but i want to go right to ukraine. joining us now is kira rudik, a member of the ukrainian parliament. kira, thank you very much for being with us today on a really

significant day. what are your expectations today of what could come out of the white house? >> hello, jose, and thank you so much for having me. well, our expectations are, first that the relations. >> between ukraine and the. >> us will. >> warm up, because over the. last couple of weeks, we. have seen so many turns back and forth. and it has been so stressful here, especially for the people fighting at the front line who would receive those news and be calling me as a politician. and i will have to explain, why did donald trump say what he said, etc. second. we would expect that once donald trump gets what he wanted, the rare minerals framework deal from ukraine, that he can say to american people that he is having their best interest, that president zelensky can have something for ukraine. and this something would be realistic.

security guarantees or a practical path towards the peace. what we have right now is donald trump's illusion that putin wants peace. we have not seen any any fact that would support that. the attacks on kyiv and other cities of ukraine continue. the attacks at the front line continue. hosea, right now, when we are speaking, i'm talking to you being on diesel generator because there are emergency outages of energy in kyiv because of the russian attacks. so we think that it's a very dangerous illusion that putin wants peace. and it cannot be a baseline for any further peace deal. however, security guarantees and understanding how we can move forward towards the just peace can be this step that is taken. >> what are the security guarantees that you think ukraine needs versus what

ukraine could get out of the united states? and i think it's really important that you're, you know, giving us context of what the reality is in ukraine today. i mean, over the past, just 3 or 4 days, there have been almost 200 iranian drones and other missile attacks daily on on ukraine. ukraine has also been hitting russia back with some drone attacks of its own. but that reality, how does that reality play into what the united states could or should do for security guarantees? >> jose, i can honestly tell you there has not been a night over the last couple of weeks that i remember that we didn't have to spend half of the night in the bomb shelter or under the stairs. this is our reality. and this is why it is so weird to hear that president trump thinks

that putin can be trusted, or thinks that putin wants peace, or thinks that there could be an agreement on until like, oh, until the mutual trust. we have zero trust to putin. we can have sent more confirmations of how russia broke the deals in the past, if that is necessary. and this is what i hope president zelenskyy is doing right now, using the facts to prove that russia is lying. however, for the security guarantees, we need nato membership. this is the true and honest answer to what can really protect ukraine. other than that, the alternatives will be hard and will be complicated and will be absolutely much more expensive for everyone than the nato membership for ukraine. and we see that already, because how would you even stop those 200 drones if not with our army? >> yeah, but the issue of nato

membership of ukraine, membership in nato is one that one would guess would be a complete no. from russia's perspective. and i'm just thinking, other than that, and i'm just thinking what the uk and the united states promised ukraine when the budapest memorandum was agreed to, nobody respected that. but other than ukraine and nato, is there anything that you think could guarantee ukraine's independence going forward? >> jozy, how is a nonmember of nato an aggressor state can influence nato's decisions? why is it even we are living in the world where an aggressor can dictate to alliance that was created to contradict to this aggressor, decide who is getting into this alliance or not? this is what we cannot understand

here in ukraine, here on the ground. we are actually executing on nato's main goal to fight against and defend against soviet union and russia. we are doing that by hand, by by lives of our best and brightest people. and nato says, yeah, yeah, well, no, russia said, no, you cannot get in. but to your point, there are alternatives, perhaps, but they will essentially be closing the sky. so using the nato forces in ukraine to help us, to defend us from the air, getting us air defense systems and wide range weapons that can protect us from nightly and daily russian attacks, then helping us at the sea and helping us on the ground. so do you think what i'm explaining is really an alternative to nato, or just you want to call it differently, because her heard many different things from donald trump for the last two weeks, right. we heard

that ukraine is never joining nato, but we also heard other things about president zelenskyy, about ukraine being an aggressor. so we hope that today, when the relations are revamped, that statement will be revamped to. >> kira rudik, it's always a pleasure to speak with you. i thank you very much for your time. >> thank you and glory to >> thank you and glory to ukraine. psoriatic arthritis symptoms can be unpredictable. one day, your joints hurt. next, it's on your skin. i got cosentyx. feels good to move. feel less joint pain, swelling and tenderness, back pain, and clearer skin, and help stop further joint damage with cosentyx. don't use if you're allergic to cosentyx. before starting, get checked for tuberculosis. an increased risk of infections, and lowered ability to fight them may occur, like tuberculosis or other serious bacterial, fungal, or viral infections. some were fatal. tell your doctor if you have an infection or symptoms like fevers, sweats, chills, muscle aches or cough, had a vaccine or plan to, or if inflammatory bowel disease symptoms

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>> breaking news out of new york city, where two mexican cartel leaders will be arraigned this afternoon on federal charges, including murder and drug trafficking. one of the men, rafael caro quintero. u.s. officials believe he is responsible for the torture and murder of dea agent enrique kiki camarena in 1985. the two leaders are among 29 drug cartel suspects deported at one time yesterday from mexico. joining us now, mike vigil, former chief of international operations for the dea. also a very close friend and colleague of kiki camarena. mike. thank you. i've just been thinking about you all morning. what do you have as a reaction to see caro quintero there with handcuffs in. in brooklyn today. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> for having. >> me, jose. >> it's always. >> an honor. >> i looked at. it with. a tremendous sense of elation because. >> caro quintero.

>> was the intellectual author for killing our agent, enrique. >> kiki camarena. >> as you stated. >> in 1985. >> and we have. tried to bring. >> caro quintero. >> to the united states to, you know, confront us justice. >> it happened yesterday. this was. actually very unprecedented and. >> very historical, because never has mexico extradited 29 individuals at one. >> time in. >> past years. it's been about 60 or 65. >> during the course of a year. >> so i applaud. >> claudia sheinbaum. >> the president. >> of. >> mexico. >> and then also the republic. >> of mexico. because this was. >> a very extraordinary undertaking. jose, there were they took all of these individuals from at least eight penitentiaries around. >> mexico.

>> and then they took them to one of the international airports near mexico city. and then they transported them, which was a tremendous logistical situation, to eight major cities in the united states. not only did they send caro quintero, vicente carrillo. >> fuentes. >> the brother of amado. >> carrillo fuentes. >> who is. >> known as the lord of the sky. they also sent miguel angel trevino morales, his brother omar that were leaders of the cartel. one of the most violent drug trafficking organizations that was ever spawned in mexico. and then also on that list was antonio oseguera cervantes, the brother of nemesio oseguera. >> cervantes. >> the current leader of the jalisco new generation cartel.

so this was something to behold, and probably a shienbaum, i think offered it more so as an olive branch to the united states that she wants to cooperate on many issues, to include security matters. >> yeah. >> mike and i got to tell you, i mean, you're absolutely right. these are huge, huge members of different cartels. mike vigil, thank you very much. really appreciate it, my friend. still ahead, much more on the crucial meeting underway between president trump and zelensky. we're back after a quick break. >> consumer cellular. >> is lowering the price for those 50 and up. get two unlimited lines for $30 each. that's just $60 a month. so switch to the carrier ranked number one in network coverage satisfaction. visit consumer cellular comm today. >> safelite repair. safelite

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>> thing can help you give the best care. get pumpkin pet insurance at. pumpkin care. >> good day to you. noon eastern, 9 a.m. pacific. i'm jose diaz balart. that critical meeting between president trump and president zelensky of ukraine is currently