. >>> i want to bring in white house correspondent aaron gilchrist. aaron, what else are we hearing from the u.s. side? >> reporter: hallie, the white house is monitoring this closely. there are already very real fears that the israel/gaza war could spark a larger conflict. israel and iran attacked each other last month. the president's national security adviser is in israel this weekend working to get a cease-fire. contain any conflict and the death of iran's president could further destabilize that region. hallie? >> and aaron, president biden is where you are, at morehouse college in atlanta today to deliver the commencement address. any protests? >> reporter: this was a speech that was mostly well received here at morehouse, hallie. in his salute to class of 2024, president biden talked about faith, leadership and so democracy, among other things. he also faced the israel-hamas war issue head-on, calling for an immediate ceasefire and the return of the hostages taken by hamas, and he also said he supports peaceful protests and told the graduates i

i want to bring in nbc's aaron gilchrist near the white house, nbc's raf sanchez is on the phone from tel aviv, israel, "new york times" chief white house correspondent, peter baker is back with us as well as former democratic senator claire mccaskill. msnbc political analyst tim miller as well. raf, i want to start with you. obviously the president making an appeal that this is a decisive moment. don't lose this moment. it does seem that there are new parts of this proposal unlike what we have seen before. put it all in context for us. >> that's absolutely right, chris. we heard things tonight from the president of the united states that we have not heard be ever, and -- before, and most importantly, president biden saying that the israeli government has agreed to what he called a cessation of hostilities permanently and to withdraw israeli forces from gaza in exchange for this deal that would lead to the release of all the hostages. that is not something we have heard from the u.s. before. it is certainly not something we have heard from the israeli government before. ly i will tell

aaron gilchrist with the president in atlanta, thank you, aaron. former president trump, meanwhile, spoke at a gathering of the national rifle association on saturday accepting an endorsement from the gun rights organization in what could be his last campaign appearance before a verdict in the criminal hush money trial. nbc's priscilla thompson is in dallas with more. good morning. >> reporter: willie, good morning. former president donald trump proudly accepted that endorsement from the nra on that stage last night. he also rolled out his gun owners for trump coalition telling gun owners no one has done more for them than he has. and, contrary to what research shows, he accused gun owners of not participating in the political process. >> gun owners don't vote. it's so crazy. they should be -- i would think that they would vote more than any other group of people, and it's just the opposite. they don't vote. >> reporter: during the 90-minute speech, he also repeated his common claim that gun owners are losing their rights, comparing it to his curre

let me go to aaron gilchrist now. aaron, in spite of the fact that this has been a very intense and difficult relationship between bibi netanyahu and president biden, the u.s. has been very actively involved, obviously, in diplomatic efforts to try to come to a cease-fire. what are you hearing from the white house right now? >> reporter: chris, you're right. deeply involved in the process right from the very beginning, with the first set of negotiations that went on to achieve that first cease-fire and hostage release. we know cia director bill burns was deeply involved in the process back then and he has been deeply involved in the process up until this point, actually spending this past weekend in the middle east. as we understand it from our reporting in dohar qatar as part of the last round of negotiations that, in fact, if what we heard today from hamas is true, director burns would likely have been involved in that process of bringing this to the finish line if you will. this is something that the biden administ

>> aaron gilchrist at the white house. thank you. >>> it's time for today's cnn mup minute.is cutting back on their pride month collection and planet fitness is raising its membership fee. bertha coombs joins us now. >>> let's start off with t-mobile and verizon. they're reportedly in talks to carve up u.s. cellular, one of the company's last regional wireless"wall street journal" w give both access air waves. t-mobile could close as soon as later this month. verizon's deal might not result in an agreement at all or might take longer. >>> target is planning to cut lgbt pride month products from some of its stores next month in response to last year's backlash. bloomberg first reporting that about half of its 2000 stores will sell select items but target will offer the full line of products online. >>> and planet fitness is hiking its price for new customers for the first time in over 25 years. starting this summer, new members will have to pay $15 a month for the classic card membership. current members will continue to pay $10 per month for the duration of their membership.

nbc's aaron gilchrist is at the white house with the latest. aaron, good morning peter. good morning to you. the us will continue to provide weapons to israel. that's one of the top lines from that highly anticipated state department assessment of how israel is using american weapons in gaza. now, the report says it's reasonable to assess that israel may have violated international law, but that the country has not broken the terms of the us weapons agreement. now, this report calling the assurances israel provided credible enough to continue the flow of weapons, that news coming just days after president biden acknowledged that us weapons had killed innocent palestinians. he also acknowledged that he paused a new shipment of 3500 bombs to israel last week, and he warned that he would suspend further weapons shipments if israel carries out a large scale assault on hamas in rafah, where we know more than a million civilians are holed up now. the president's warning during an interview earlier this week drew praise and criticism from republicans and democrats. progressives

president biden and former president trump make a series of public appearances this weekend, nbc's aaron gilchrist is traveling with the president. he is in atlanta this morning. aaron, good morning. hey, laura, good morning to you. you're right. both candidates on the campaign trail this weekend. today, as a matter of fact, president biden here in georgia, former president trump in texas for the nra convention. but on his day off from court on friday, mr. trump, attending his son barron's high school graduation down in florida that before flying to minnesota for the annual lincoln-reagan dinner in a state that team trump believes can be in play, even falsely claiming he won in 2020. despite losing there, just like every other republican presidential candidate since 1972. mr. trump suggesting a new rule for the upcoming debates with president biden. i just want to debate this guy, but, you know, and i'm going to i'm going to demand a drug test, too, by the way, i am no, i really am my predecessor. in his extreme, maga friends are now going after diversity, equity and inclusion all across america.

we go to aaron gilchrist at morehouse college in atlanta. welcome.k about the president's message to the graduate class and what issues he touched on.>> he touched on several issues. some conventional. he talked about his faith and the faith that he hopes these young men have. and the 400 men who graduated today. he talked about leadership and talked about democracy and what it means. and i think we can help but notice that he talked about the elephant in the room and that's the conflict in gaza. the war between israel and hamas. we should note there were several graduates in the crowd today who had silent protest, if you will. some of them turned their chairs around. they turned their backs to the president and sat quietly as he spoke. we saw one young man with a palestinian flag over his shoulders. there were other symbols of support as well. the president said those protests are something he supports. he believes students to express themselves and he's listening to them. he said he's calling for an immediate cease-fire in gaza. there were also poi

. >> joined me now is nbc news aaron gilchrist. eric, we understand there was peaceful protest activity today, which we will get into. first, what can you tell us about how biden was received?>> reporter: 414 young man became morehouse man today at this graduation, rev. i think the president's message was mostly well received. there wasn't a group of graduate ruckus. we saw them listening attentively, not really applauding the president. no standing ovation. we did see that from some of the alumni. i think the president understood the exception -- reception he was going to be getting. understanding there are many students who graduated today who take issue with his position and his support of israel and the way he has handled the israel-hamas war in gaza, particularly as it relates to the death of so many palestinians in gaza. with the a handful of graduates wearing symbols in support of palestine. there were several graduates while the president spoke turned their chairs around, turned their backs to resident biden for the entiret

nbc's aaron gilchrist is reporting from the white house. raf, give us the outline of this.his potential deal? >> reporter: chris, in just the last couple minutes hamas released a statement from the leader of its political wing, ismaih haniyeh who says they've agreed to a cease-fire proposal by qatar and egypt, a prossal that's been on the table for more than a week, a proposal that the u.s. has been urging hamas to take. our understanding of the most recent iteration of

reporters and analysts ready to talk about all of these new developments and we will begin with nbc's aaron gilchrist joining us in atlanta. welcome. the last we heard about trump and biden was the back and forth regarding the debates. where does that stand now? >> reporter: the biden campaign, alex, has said the debate over debate is over. we know that this week the biden campaign announced that they were willing to participate in two debates with former president trump. they went to the networks that eventually won the debates, cnn and abc with a set of rules, a set of guidelines they wanted to be followed in order for them to agree to take the debates. those were agreed to and we later heard the trump campaign agreed president trump's would participate in those debates on cnn and abc news. the first one happening here in atlanta in june at cnn. later, though, the trump campaign announced it would also agree to bates or had agreed to debates at other points in time on fox news. the biden campaign said that, it talked about to the extent it was going to the debate it will participate in and that is

ahead of that, let's go to our abc news white house correspondent aaron gilchrist who is at morehouseor joining. what are we expecting to hear from the president this morning? >> reporter: the president will speak in a couple of minutes. i will have to stop talking when he comes to the podium. we expect to hear from the president , a message that we are told will be very deliberate. not necessarily for a national tv audience. the president wanting to talk to them about the role they will play in the future of the country and we understand from the white house officials that the president will talk about the accomplishments he believes he has had. i think the president is coming to the podium now. i will have to stop here. >> we will bring you president biden residence remarks. let's tune in. . >> thank you. thank you. president thomas. faculty and staff and alumni. and a special thank you. i will ask all the folks who helped you get here, your mothers and fathers and grandmothers and grandfathers, all those who got you here. all the way in the back, stand up. we owe you a debt of grat

. >> aaron gilchrist, thank you for that. claire mccaskill, i want to go to you. i want to talk about the president's statements, they were forceful but brief on donald trump's trial and conviction. you spent many years in the senate. if i'm remembering correctly, you were on the armed services committee, homeland security committee. this is an area of the world that you know well. and that you legislated in and around, and i just want to get your take on what we heard from the president in that regard. >> well, this was bold for him to announce this before it came from israel. it was a bold move. and assuming that he would never do this without israel signing off on it, i think this is a big win for him. assuming that when the sun goes down tomorrow in israel netanyahu backs him up and says this is what we have agreed to, if this cease fire happens, and if the hostages are returned, and if the u.s. remains involved in terms of keeping the peace and rebuilding gaza, this is a huge headache that maybe joe biden just took some serious advil or tylenol or headache me