larry gersten, our political analyst. thank you so much for your insight. always appreciate it. >>> president biden announced new diplomatic relations with two pacific island nations today. the announcement comes during the second day pacific island forum summit at the white house. the president said the relations and nations would deepen the u.s.'s cooperation in addressing climate change and protecting maritime borders. >> one of the great opportunities for security, prosperity, and dignify for all of our people, no matter where they live, that starts by building stronger partnerships with each other, and that's why the united states has delivered on the promises we made last year to one, open new embassies in tonga and the solomon islands, establish a usa id mission in fiji, and return the peace corps in tonga. >> the president said the administration is working with congress on an initiative to invest $40 billion in pacific island infrastructure. >>> a big shot in the arm for california's hig sed rail project. it's getting more than $200 million in gran

we woke up early this morning, our political analyst larry gersten. i know probably not the phone call that you were expecting to receive on this friday morning. thank you so much for getting up early. i mean, we are talking about an incredible legacy lost here of dianne feinstein, larry. >> we are, laura. she had such a consequential career, you go back to the early days when she was a member of the board of supervisors, she was chairwoman, the first female chairwoman of the board of supervisors, and that fateful day, of course, when george moscone and then the mayor was assassinated, i mean, the whole thing has been a roller coaster for her from beginning to end. her run for the senate in 1992, winning, of course, against an incumbent, john seymour, and i think of all the things you've discussed, the one that stands out more is the assault weapons ban of 1994, way ahead of its time. they fought like the dickens to get everybody in line. it was an uphill battle, but she was so tenacious, incredibly tenacious about this, and it got in, and it was a te

. >>> raj joining us now as our political analyst, larry gersten, thanks for joining us on this day. president biden vocal about his support for unions, especially aflcio. how important is organized labor unions in presidential elections? >> they can be very very important. if you think about it, unions, 14 million members represent one out of every nine workers, that's a pretty good chunk. they've got goals, their goals are wages, pensions, retirement, health, things like that. and in the case of united auto workers, which we heard about a lot lately because of a pending strike, they want to preserve jobs because as the cars go to electric instead of fossil fuels, it's complicated. they want to make sure they don't lose jobs. >> what about past presidential electihat out influence. >> there's a story here, it's inatg, the role unions can c't have, democrats tend to get more of the vote, but not al the question is how much more. take a look at that study right there. the difference in 2020, where joe biden therat won, 16%, that is to say, more votes going to democrats, much more than

larry gersten joins us to discuss what happens next. >>> and governor newsom and florida gover

. >>> political analyst larry gersten has spent years knowing the senator's wins and losses. >> larry, we just mentioned that senator feinstein at 90 years old, she had recently battled severe health issues and calls even from her own party to resign. it's not surprising the condition she was in. it's still shocking. you never want to hear when we've lost such a great leader. >> yeah. you know, people wondered why doesn't she leave, why doesn't she leave? because obviously she was frail, dianne feinstein was, and it was hard for her to concentrate. she had people all around her helping he were. this is hard for some of us to understand, but when you're in the middle of power and that you have the ability to change or affect or move things in one way or another, unless like the rest of us who are sitting back, it's hard to leave the decision because you know whatever you're getting done now is going to be more than what you get done if you're not there anymore. and that's what consumer sentiment her there, the idea of moving on, trying to get things done whenever she could, literally t

our political analyst larry gersten says why barbara lee is upset with the governor. >>> and the latesteen cleared by the fda. when they will be available and what you need to know if you're uninsured. >>> welcome back, everyone. the news at 5:30 starts right now. thanks so much for joining us. i'm janelle wang. >> and i'm raj mathai. we begin with disturbing video from vallejo, an illegal and dangerous sideshow that went on for hours last night moving from one location to another where people set off fireworks and reportedly shotguns. people in the area are fed up and tired of police doing nothing or very little to stop these sideshows. here's nbc's jodi hernandez. >> reporter: you're looking at video of a vallejo sideshow that got entirely out of hands. hundreds of people in the street as spinning and screeching cars flew by. at one point a spectator appears to get grazed and falls to the ground. >> it's getting a little bigger every time. >> reporter: this man says he and his neighbors have been dealing with it for years, but he says calls to police have gone unanswered. >> this is g