and if they, including some critically injured, get out, more humanitarian aid is getting in. but neither development is altering the big picture inside the war zone where the already horrific situation is getting worse by the hour. plus, donald trump's eldest son and the head of his business empire expected to take the stand in their civil fraud trial in new york. his testimony potentially critical to the judge's decision on whether he or his father will ever be able to occupy a c suite in manhattan again. >> and a dramatic decision by a kansas city jury that could fundamentally change the way people sell their homes in america. realtors found guilty of conspiring to jack up their fees and ordered to pay nearly $2 billion in damages. the ultimately penalty could be triple that amount and more lawsuits impacting more states are already in the pipeline. but we start with that sign of hope today in gaza. for the first time since the start of this war, a handful of americans are among a group of about 500 foreigners expected to cross into egypt today. that's according to a list compiled by the gaza border control authority and that list was obtained by us here at nbc news. the americans represent just a small fraction of around 400 americans who want to get out right now. that's according to the state department, but a u.s. official says that even the ability to broker this deal is encouraging, with foreigners and a group of injured palestinians able to get into egypt. hundreds of others remain desperately crowded at the border as the situation inside gaza continues to crumble. with the health system hitting its breaking point, the gaza ministry of health which is run by hamas, has given what they call a final warning as generators run out of power today at their main hospital, and at the indonesian hospital as well. inside el sheefa one doctor paints this dire picture. >> this hospital will cease to exist as a hospital and will slowly start turning into a mass grave. this has been a massacre that's been unfolding and now we're getting to the final chapter of this massacre where even the wounded will not be spared. >> i want to bring in nbc's meagan fitzgerald from cairo. you were just at the rafah border crossing. what's the scene like there? >> reporter: well, chris, there's a lot going on. driving up to the rafah border crossing, the street is just lined with dozens and dozens of trucks that are waiting to go in. speaking of which we just got confirmation that 55 are in en route through the crossing. we know that tomorrow 100 of those trucks are being prepped to be able to cross into the border. so certainly a lot of progress on that regard, as it relates to what we saw last week, which was just a trickle, according to aid workers is how they described it. while we are seeing an increase of these trucks going in, it certainly isn't fast enough. then of course the news from today, which is where hundreds of foreign nationals getting the green light to be able to cross through the rafah border crossing and into egypt, and in fact, we have some new reporting that i want to share with you. this is according to the director of media for the rafah border crossing who says that six buses left rafah with 335 foreign passengers on board, unclear how many americans were on those buses. we do know there was at least one. we have been in contact with the niece of a 71-year-old woman who went to gaza. she's a prosthetics expert, she went there to try and fit children who need prosthetics with limbs doing this work and then she got caught. she was on board that bus, her family, of course, elated, but important to keep in mind as you mentioned, there are still hundreds of other americans trapped inside gaza. nbc news had an opportunity to speak with one who was unaware of when he would be able to leave. this is most certainly progress, a glimmer of hope, but it certainly is a reminder that there's a lot more work that needs to be done. >> without a doubt, meagan fitzgerald thanks for that update. i want to bring in raf sanchez. just a day after a previous strike killed dozens at the jabalia refugee camp, a second strike hit the camp. a lot of people have been trapped under the rubble. what can you tell us? >> reporter: yeah, chris, palestinian officials from the health ministry run by hamas say a significant number of palestinian civilians lost their lives in this second strike earlier today in the jabalia refugee camp in the north of gaza. as you said it came 24 hours after the israeli military target add senior hamas commander involved in the massacre using very large explosives to hit what they said were tunnels underneath the camps causing these just enormous craters that basically swallowed up neighboring buildings. dozens of people killed according to a local hospital, and you can see just the scale of the devastation, the kind of homelessness crisis that people in gaza are going to be facing when this fighting finally ends. among the eight and a half thousand people who have been killed according to the health ministry, there are around 3,000 children. unicef is describing gaza right now as a graveyard for children, and i want you to take a listen to a little bit of sound about how one 4-year-old girl is struggling to deal with everything going on around her. >> and we have the youngest, she's 4 years old, and she's showing severe symptoms of stress and fear, and resorts to self-harm like ripping her hair off and scratching her thighs until they bleed. >> reporter: and chris, this is a message that we're hearing from parents over and over again across gaza over the last three weeks, that one, they have no way to explain to their children what is going on, little kids who don't understand the rights and wrongs of this war. they have no way to explain to them. they have nowhere where they can take them where they can feel safe, and many of them, these parents say they feel like they're failing as parents because their number one responsibility is to keep their kids safe, and it's something that they feel that they can't do right now, which is just total, total chaos around them, chris. >> raf, thank you so much for that. i want to bring in retired united states army lieutenant general ben hodges, the former senior adviser of human rights first, and former commanding general of the united states army europe. it is heartbreaking to hear those reports, to hear from children, to hear from their parents obviously, and it makes israel's situation all the more complicated, right? they say that when they struck and continue to strike today this refugee camp, it was a hamas stronghold, but there have been a wave of human rights complaints, a wave of international condemnation including other governments in the middle east, uae, for example, bolivia has severed diplomatic ties with the country. what do you make of this decision now, understanding that every major military decision like this also carries political and humanitarian consequences. >> chris, first let me say the way you and the rest of your colleagues have described the situation there is it is gut wrenching, very compelling, and as i looked at the video, obviously the buildings around the site are also unstable, so it's not -- would not be a surprise if some of those buildings collapsed that had not yet fallen. so this is going to continue to be a dangerous situation there. i think that the white house has been working very hard making it clear to the israeli government that what we're all watching right now is going to be almost impossible to justify, no matter who was killed, whatever hamas had, the tunnels that were underneath there, that's going to be extremely difficult to justify and the israelis risk losing some of the support from around the world that they're going to need, and this is why i i think it is so important that the israeli government transition from destroying hamas to working with the u.s. and others to getting to a solution, a political solution that can help bring this to a close. >> but what is a political solution? i mean, the two state solution, which has been talked about for years and years seems impossible certainly under this leadership in israel. prime minister netanyahu says he will not stop until the mission is complete, defined as destroying hamas, which many analysts believe isn't even possible. so where does that realistically leave those who are concerned about civilian casualties and the humanitarian toll this is taking? >> i think you're correct that the current israeli government leadership is not interest ed in a two-state solution. that was clear from before october the 7th. i certainly would not want to minimize in any way the challenges associated with getting to a two-state solution, which is a u.s. policy, and i completely support the u.s. policy goal of a two-state solution. it's going to require, i think, what secretary blinken has been working to achieve, external forces, agencies, governments with the arab countries, u.s., european union, the united nations putting the pressure on israel and also, though, on the supporters of hamas to make this a possibility. if i put myself in the shoes of an israeli commander, and i've been told your mission is to destroy hamas, i know that that's not even a feasible end state because it will not be possible to completely isolate hamas from external support, number one. number two, we have to address the root cause of hamas. why do people continue to come forward to want to be a part of hamas, as brutal as hamas is, they have to be able to eliminate their support and i don't see the current approach even addressing that. there has to be a clearly defined political in state for the idf to accomplish their task. >> so if it's not reasonable to consider the end game, the total and long-term elimination of hamas, you also understand that israel was attacked, that this was something that was started by hamas, which has continued to be a security and continuingly escalating security risk to israel. so what is an end game that can be achieved? >> well, again, you touched on a very important part here. this is not about good guys versus the bad guys here. i mean, secretary blinken earlier today in testimony describing the what happened to some of the israeli citizens, innocent people who were murdered back on october the 7th, and how they were murdered. so i think that the only way to get to this, to some sort of solution that numerous american presidents have attempted to do is to find other countries, other agencies that are willing to participate in this and to make it a possibility. that means hamas has to -- or the leaders of the palestinians i should say are going to have to play a role as well, and we know from the last couple of decades, it's very dangerous for palestinians or israeli leaders who are trying to come up with a solution because there are too many people on both sides that don't want that kind of a solution. so this is a place where the united states and our allies are going to have to play the leading role, and we're going to have to deal with those both internally and externally that benefit actually from this continued chaos. and by the way, i think russia benefits from this chaos. it distracts all of us from supporting ukraine, and so russia with their iranian allies, they're the ones that are at the root cause of what is happening right now. >> we are out of time, but if you can, just a couple of sentences given your background and your expertise explain in context the scope and the gravity of the humanitarian crisis that's unfolding right now, general. >> well, i mean, just think of basic needs for 2 million people in normal times, water, food, sanitation, a place to sleep. that's in normal times. now you add to it thousands of people being killed or injured and without hope right now, it is difficult to describe the scale. >> lieutenant general ben hodges, it is always terrific to have you on the program. thank you so much. we do appreciate it. and we're continuing to get a raw and emotional firsthand look at life inside gaza right now. in our latest nbc news digital documentary, we hear from gazans on the ground including a young, 20-year-old and a mother of two just trying to survive. >> i woke up on a strange and weird and scary sound of bombing. it's like our building is collapsing on us over our heads, like something we were blown up in the same room. >> the blast took out the windows in the room where her kids slept. they don't sleep there anymore. >> i fear for my children, for my family because what's happening, it's like more than a scary movie. there's no word that can describe what's going on here right now. >> i've been here in the south for maybe nine days. i don't really know. because when you're under such circumstances, you lose track of time, and your brain just doesn't think about checking the time. it's full of other things. life currently is extremely slow and difficult and you feel like you're suffering even if you're just sitting down with every passing moment. pray for us. thank you. >> you can hear more of their stories by checking out search for safety, the desperate struggle to survive in gaza on nbcnews.com. up next, it is double trouble for donald trump. we're back in 60 seconds as his children prepare to take the stand in the fight for the family business. two people who just left court moments ago will join us with the very latest. latest. this is american infrastructure, a prime target for cyberattacks. but the same ai-powered security that protects all of google also defends these services for everyone who lives here. ♪ right now get a free footlong at subway. like the new deli heroes. buy one footlong in the app, get one free. it's a pretty big deal. kinda like me. order in the subway app today. take a moment to pause and ask, why did you get vaccinated against pneumococcal pneumonia? i help others. but i need to help protect myself. honestly? i couldn't afford to get sick. i want to be there for this one. i can't if i'm sick. pneumococcal pneumonia is a potentially serious bacterial lung disease. you may be at risk if you're 19 to 64 with certain chronic conditions. or if you're 65 or older. don't pause a moment longer. ask your doctor or pharmacist about getting vaccinated against pneumococcal pneumonia today. this is a huge day for donald trump, two court hearings unfolding simultaneously. now, the big one involves his eldest son don jr. expected to testify today in an attempt to fend off allegations that he, his brother and his father fraudulently inflated their company's assets by up to $2 billion. depending on what the judge decides, the civil trial could not only take a bite out of the former president's family fortune, but bar him and his adult sons from ever running a business in new york again. according to the washington post, it's also the trial that's most deeply personal to donald trump. quote, he told advisers he wants to attend because his children's inheritance and his family's brand are on the line. several people close to him describe him as livid about the trial. one adviser saying, quote, everything about it makes him angry, including that it's hurting his children. but instead of attending that trial as he has seven times in the past month, the former president has been in florida because that's where sources familiar with the matter tell abc news he spent yesterday examining classified documents that are at the heart of the other trial moving forward today. as we speak, judge aileen cannon is set to kick off a hearing to determine whether trump and his team need more time with those documents, something that would push his case and the classified documents trial itself deeper into next year. i want to bring in msnbc legal analyst lisa rubin and sue craig, investigative reporter for "the new york times," both just came out of the courtroom in new york moments ago. so i guess it's lunch break. nbc's ken dilanian is following the hearing in florida. danny cevallos is here with me in new york. he's a criminal defense attorney and an msnbc legal analyst. so lisa, take us inside that courtroom. where do things stand, and what did we hear so far today? >> reporter: today, chris, has largely been about the testimony of the attorney general's expert, a guy named michael mccarty who was an investment banker and now does some expert testifying, but primarily is being offered to talk about what a reasonable bank would have offered donald trump in terms of lending conditions. what interest rates would they have charged, and the attorney general cares about that because in terms of the discouragement, the profits they want to claw back from the trumps, their argument effectively is it's not that you didn't pay back your banks and lenders, donald trump, it's that they would have made so much more money in the tens and hundreds and millions more money if you had disclosed to them accurately the value of your assets and liabilities. mr. mccarty is now on cross examination. jesus suarez who's one of chris kise's partners is examining him, and the thrust of his cross examination is that mccarty's estimation of what the banks would have made is pure fantasy, that he didn't consult with deutsche bank and the other lenders about how the truth would have changed the lending conditions for trump if at all. >> so at the heart of this and at least what we're waiting for, sue, is to hear from the trumps themselves. what are the chances we hear from don jr. today? >> i'm always bad at predictions, but i think we could get to him towards the end of the day, but right now we're going through this expert witness. on the one hand, he's very important. he's also kind of boring for a lot of the people listening and waiting for don jr., and it's been dragged out. i think we could probably potentially see don jr. on the stand maybe around 4:00. but he has just walked into the courthouse, and i think we're going to see him at the defense table because, of course, he is a defendant in this case. so he'll be sitting there listening to the witness this afternoon. lisa, the judge and help people understand this. the judge already decided that fraud was committed here, so they may be wondering why are they bringing all the trumps in. they already have made essentially a decision so what is going on? >> reporter: so chris, the judge's decision so far that there was persistent and repeated fraud in the use of these statements of financial condition is one of the several count thes the attorney general brought. they didn't ask for judgment before trial on the remaining six. the remaining six are civil claims, but they require proof of unlawful criminal conduct and that itself requires intent. the reason that the trump sons and trump himself likely will find themselves on the stand is because the attorney general is looking to establish that the falsities in this financial statements weren't just accidental, weren't just persistent and repeated, that they were intentional, deliberate, and knowing, and i would tell your audience that the witness that we really should be excited about is less don jr. and more eric trump who has taken a much more active role in the operation of the trump companies but also in the valuations of the assets at issue, particularly seven springs, some of the golf courses, and even the triplex apartment, the valuation of which is one of the most egregious errors in those statement of financial condition. we all know that trump said that that apartment was 30,000 plus square feet. it's a third of that size, and there were other ways in which they exaggerated that value as well. >> i think the value pay put on the apartment, no apartment in new york city, which i can tell you with certainty, the prices are off the charts, no apartment had ever sold for that amount of money. but look, i want to go back to the idea of the emotion, right, and what's at stake here. i think for the former president, who built a political career largely on the idea that he was this incredibly successful businessman and was going to fix the economy and make life better, right, and for his sons who we know have wanted to be a part of this and obviously please their dad, what's the other side of this that's not legal and that you'll be watching for as we see the trumps testify this week and next? >> well, i think you hit it, it's a very raw issue for them when you think back to 2016, donald trump ran on this idea that he was a self-made man and it takes that kind of know-how in order to fix the country. and for his whole life, he has been inflating the value of what he is worth since he was in his 20s, he has been doing this. and it's just -- it's part of his essence, and i think you're seeing and the reason that he is showing up so much and that it's really personal now that children are showing up is because it's at the heart of who he is. i think we're going to see. it's just interesting, first of all, that the children are even testifying, that they're all here. but i think you're going to see that sort of emotion play out through next week. in addition, eric trump will now probably be up tomorrow, potentially friday. you're going to have the former president up on monday, and his daughter, if all goes as scheduled should come up on wednesday. she's not named in this suit, but she is potentially a witness to two very important, you know, lending arrangements that they had. one was on a hotel in washington called the old post office and the other is on a large golf course they have in doral. we're going to be waiting for all of that, i think it will come to an end mid next week, late next week. you can tell it's very personal and you've seen outbursts of donald trump in the courtroom, just him showing up himself shows how personal it is to him. >> sue craig, lisa rubin, thank you both. i'll hopefully let you grab a little lunch before you have to go back into the courtroom. danny, i want to go back to the point about how the sons fit into this, right? in the complaint, it makes it clear that from 2017 o donald trump jr. was the one signing these financial documents, signing off essentially on this stuff. que,his is what it says in the mplaint, as executive vice presidents of the trump organization, donald trump jr., ivankaru, and eric trump were also aware of, and knowingly participated in, the scheme. indeed, the fraudult scheme was integral to the business of the trump organization and required the participation of mr. trump and his children. so what's the defense? >> look for two themes to emerge during the trump children's testimony. number one is going to be something along the lines of, look, this is real estate. its value exists in the eye of the beholder, the seller, the purchaser, whoever's looking at it. these pie in the sky numbers aren't so crazy as the attorney general's making it out to be. that's going to be theme number one. >> okay, can i just say as somebody who has -- >> sure. >> we've all at a certain age maybe bought and sold a certain piece of property. i can say i want to sell my property for $10 million, but if it's only worth 50,000, it's only worth 50,000. >> exactly right, and of course that kind of evidence has come into this case. but, you also have trump real estate -- some of this has never been sold. it's just being valued so the argument they may make is look, even if it wasn't for sale, that's what we deem its worth to be. and in addition they will blend in the trump brand that nebulous value that is attached when you stick the name onto a piece of property. i would expect you're going to hear that theme in their testimony, that this is real estate valuation. it's not as inflated as you're making it out to be. >> because the trump name is so valuable in their eyes. >> in their eyes, exactly, yes. these are just themes we're going to see during their testimony. >> could it also be, look, the bank's accepted it. >> that's the other thing too. that's a huge part of this for the trump defense, is that look, other people looked at this, they didn't see anything wrong with it. that leads into the second theme that i think you're going to see, which is for the trump children, they're going to argue -- or excuse me, testify that, look, we may have signed off on these things, but we relied on other people. we are jet setting around the world. we're opening new hotels. we've got a lot on our plate. we didn't sit down with these line items and value these properties, and yes, we may have signed this or that document, but it doesn't mean that we went through each and every page to make sure and verify that it was completely accurate. i think you're going to see those two avenues. i don't think you're going to see a lot of assertions of the fifth amendment. a lot of this information has already koumt. i think they're going to testify consistently with the information they've provided in the past. that is what you're going to hear from both trump's sons. i would add one other thing, you had michael cohen testify last week. you're going to have the trump sons testify this week, maybe a trump daughter, but they may be the splashiest witnesses, but the most substantive witnesses are experts like we're hearing from today. people are getting into the nitty-gritty of valuation. the trump kids, i don't think they're going to testify in a bombshell manner. we're not going to hear anything we don't already know, and they're mostly going to be hostile witnesses against the attorney general. so don't be surprised if they may make a lot of headlines, but quietly the work is being done by experts that we're hearing from today or giving the hard numbers on valuation. hard numbers you're not going to get from michael cohen or the trump kids. >> all right, ken, let's move south. what do we know about what's happening in florida? >> so a couple of things to tell you about, chris. judge aileen cannon, that trump-appointed judge who's presiding over the case down there issued a ruling today favorable to donald trump and kind of sticking it to the special council a little bit on the question it's a complicated matter about classified procedures, but essentially the special council wanted some rules in place to prevent the defense council from showing to the clients certain pieces of classified information without permission from the special council. the judge declined to impose that condition saying that the special council had misread the law. that's point one. now we have this hearing that's ongoing as we speak on the question, really the bottom line is here that the trump team wants more time, they're not getting the documents, the discovery in the case quickly enough from the prosecution. they want to extend the deadlines which could have the effect of pushing the trial until after the 2024 election. remember that the judge, judge cannon set a trial date for may 20th in this case. there's been a lot of questions about whether that date could hold given the classified information and the procedures involved in the litigation. the trump team of course has been pushing all along to have this trial happen after the election, and that's what they're going to ask for today. we'll wait and see whether the judge rules from the bench or whether she issues a ruling afterwards in writing, chris. >> in either case, danny, what goes into her decision? >> this is a classic dispute between prosecution and defendant that has dated back to time in memorial. yes, the issues here are complicated. yes, this involves classified documents, which adds another layer of complication to the case. this is as simple as the defense saying to the prosecution, hey, you're not giving us documents and discovery, enough documents in discovery, and not in enough time, and government responding not only have we turned over more than enough discovery, we've turned over more than we even have to turn over. one example, some of the categories of documents, they're not required to turn over until trial and the government, credit to the government, they do that routinely in cases. they turn over documents early before they're even required to do so. so look at the numbers, for example. the pages of documents disclosed so far, number around 1.3 million pages. now, since july, the government agrees that it's turned over additional documents, but only -- and maybe air quotes are appropriate, only 160,000 pages of documents. now, let's say that is a small fraction of the overall documents that were disclosed back around the time of the arraignment, but the defense is also arguing, look, that's still a lot of documents. and that goes to the modern state of federal especially white collar prosecutions. the number of documents have grown. they have bloated. they have exploded into the gigabytes, and now it's not uncommon to get hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions of pages of documents, and what adds to the complexity here is that you have two tiers of documents. you have unclassified documents and classified documents. the defense is saying that's a factor the judge has to consider, but really what this is about is an age old debate, the defense saying we need more time because the documents are not coming fast enough, and the government's saying not only have we provided them in a timely manner, we've given you more than that to which you are entitled. >> we await the decision, danny cevallos, ken dilanian, thank you, guys, appreciate it. will the senate take a battering ram to tommy tuberville's military blockade. and president biden sets his sights on the primary challenger with a trip to his own turf. f. right now get a free footlong at subway. like the new deli heroes. buy one footlong in the app, get one free. it's a pretty big deal. kinda like me. order in the subway app today. 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(vo) make the switch. it's your business. it's your verizon. right now get a free footlong at subway. like the new deli heroes. buy one footlong in the app, get one free. it's a pretty big deal. kinda like me. order in the subway app today. is it possible my network could take my business kinda like me. to the next level? it is with comcast business. powering all your devices with gig-speed wifi. and you get fast downloads and uploads. pick it up! pick it up! oh we got this! because it's powered by the next generation 10g network. more speed for your business? it's not just possible. it's happening. get started for $59.99 a month for 12 months. plus, ask how to get an $800 prepaid card with a qualifying internet bundle. comcast business, powering possibilities. the pressure is growing on capitol hill to confirm top military leaders with u.s. forces increasingly under attack at military bases in the middle east. senator tommy tuberville who has held up hundreds of military promotions over the pentagon's abortion policy now wants to force a vote on the marine's second in command after the top officer had to be hospitalized. but senate majority leader chuck schumer says that medical emergency is proof there needs to be votes on the president's nominees for top officers in the air force and the navy as well. nbc's julie tsirkin is on capitol hill for us. julie, where do things stand right now on these military confirmations, which have been on hold for many months? >> reporter: tuberville's office says that schumer, the majority leader is caving. for the second time he's going to deny tuberville the opportunity to try to move some of these key nominations forward by putting them on the floor himself. he'll put three top officials on the floor for a vote. we expect that to happen tomorrow. that includes the number two y see the three on your list, t number two to the current marine kol man dan eric smith who suffered that attack. the leadership vacuum this has created at the top level across all three brarchls of the military. take a listen to what he said on the floor. >> the situation at the marine corps is precisely the kind of avoidable emergency that senator tuberville has provoked through his reckless holds. lieutenant general mahone is one of more than 300 nominees he's blocking. while the senate will proceed quickly to vote on the nomination, these holds cannot and must not continue. >> reporter: certainly this is a big moment because for the first time since the summer, the full slate of the joint chiefs will be confirmed if and when these three positions are confirmed as they are expected in the senate this week, but it does nothing as you heard the majority leader say to address the hundreds of military nominees top level people that tuberville is holding with his hold over the dod abortion policy, that is why we're hearing senator reed who is the top democrat on the armed services committee is actually readying a resolution to change the senate rules. this would be the first time that this happens to confirm the military nominations, what's called as enblock, meaning all of them together. i spoke to senators on both sides of the aisle, because certainly a move like this would require 60 senators to vote for it. that means republicans too. a lot of them seem open to this, including senator lindsey graham who told me this is not his first priority of rules change that could set a negative precedent down the line. it's something that the situation could require and could demand, chris. >> julie tsirkin, thank you. a new court ruling could drastically change the way we purchase homes and reduce what we pay for broker fees. a federal jury in kansas city found the national association of realtors and some of the biggest real estate brokers in the country liable for $1.8 billion in damages for conspiring to artificially inflate commissions for home sales. that award could skyrocket to more than $5 billion under u.s. antitrust law. it followed a two-week trial in a case brought by the sellers of 260,000 homes in missouri, kansas, and illinois. it's just one class action lawsuit against the defendants, and could lead to actions in even more states and potentially long-term changes to brokers' fees. racing to recapture rural america, president biden heads to the home state of his democratic primary challenger, that's next. ride it out with the tradeoffs of treating? 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[girl squeals with glee] with ring you're always home for the holidays. learn more at ring.com. at this hour, air force one is en route to minnesota for what the white house bills as an opportunity for president biden to highlight investments in rural america. but this is much more than a typical presidential trip. biden is heading to the home turf of his newest primary challenger, democratic congressman dean phillips in a show of political force. last week phillips bucked the party establishment and launched a political firestorm announcing his campaign. the president's supporters say phillips is showing disloyalty. nbc's gabe gutierrez is in minnesota ahead of the president's visit. basil smikle is a democratic strategist and former chair of the new york state democratic party. so gabe, how does the white house explain this choice of starting the president's barn storming tour of rural america in what just happens to be phillips' home state? >> reporter: hi there, chris, good afternoon. greetings from a very chilly barn here in northfield, it's about 33 degrees or so. but look, white house press secretary karine jean-pierre said she couldn't comment because of the hatch act. we're just hearing from a campaign source who tells us that another campaign event later on this evening had been planned for months, well before he jumped into the race. this action and acknowledgment perhaps by the biden team they need to do more to win back rural voters compared to republicans who have increasingly made gains over the last election psych ms. 69% of rural voters went for republicans during the 2022 midterms, and former president trump had been widening his gap over democrats over the last two presidential election cycles as well. the biden administration saying that they are touting $5 billion in federal funding for rural americans to help create jobs, to expand access to broadband and also to promote new farming practices to fight climate change. the president expected here in just a few hours, and he's kicking off his two-week blitz to win back those rural voters. chris. thanks so much for that, gabe. so basil, for the majority of democrats who have told pollsters they want a younger alternative to joe biden, in spite of maybe what was a plan previously to have a fundraiser there, is his choice of minnesota to kick off this today? it may be a little bit of an acknowledgment, the campaign knows that phillips could be a threat, maybe not for the nomination, but along the path for sure. >> yeah, i do think it's sort of dual purpose, in one sense it's a sign of strength for the president to show up as an incumbent with all the bells and whistles of a president showing up anywhere in the country to show any potential challenges that, look, this is what the president is, this is the kind of power that i have. it is concerning that he'll have a challenger in the primary, perhaps talking to, if not directly, indirectly all of the concerns that some voters have about joe biden whether it be his age or anything else. so democrats don't want to see this in the primary. it's a party primary. you've got democratic activists voting in it, so it remains to be seen whether or not he'll actually get on the ballot anywhere. but you know, to have him going around the country talking about it and hinting at weaknesses of joe biden, it's just not helpful in this moment. >> his decision to run against the president touched off a bit of a feud, right? he got -- and this is a little inside baseball, but you're our inside baseball guy and it's interesting. phillips got significant pushback because he has made his announceme i new hampshire. that used to be the first primary location for democrats. instead of the new first, south carolina. so south carolina congressman jim clyburn wrote that phiips is not respecting the wishes of the itular head of our party and the loyalties of some of our party's most reliable constituent thes. so then phillips responded this way. >> i'm disappointed, mr. clyburn a man i admire and respect knows better and that's exactly the political conversation that is dividing the country right now. >> that statement got pushback from doug jones, theormer senator who called it deeply insulting and wildly off base. what's going on here? >> well, i'll add another layer to this. if you remember in 2020 in the midst of the primary was jim clyburn's endorsement of joe biden that really put him over the top and sort of changed the direction of the race. so jim clyburn sees himself not just as a member of congress who endorsed the sitting president, but as someone who has brought the first primary to south carolina. as you said, in an acknowledgment of the importance of black voters. so yes, you could say that congressmen phillips is sort of thumbing his nose at the importance of black voters and being more strategic in going into new hampshire saying he might not win in south carolina, maybe he'll be able to get some votes in the new hampshire primary and reset the narrative. but again, just the fact that he's in the race, that he has to make these types of decisions, really doesn't not only undermine his own intentions, but it really does create a conversation the party doesn't want to have at a time when every vote is going to matter, and every enthusiastic voter for joe biden is going to matter. >> here we go, basil, you ready for the next one? 13, 14 months. >> ready as always. >> thank you, good to see you, my friend. families in lebanon are fleeing for safety over fears of war there. we'll talk to some people staying at a christian village on the country's border. you're watching "chris jansing reports" only on msnbc. like the new deli heroes. buy one footlong in the app, get one free. it's a pretty big deal. kinda like me. order in the subway app today. we come from people we can be proud of. seeing all the places i come from, i know. if it's a serrano, it's something to be proud of. give the gift of family heritage with ancestry. 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(vo) make the switch. it's your business. it's your verizon. i'm kareem abdul jabbar. i was diagnosed with afib. the first inkling that something was wrong was i started to notice that i couldn't do things without losing my breath. i couldn't make it through the airport, and every like 20 or 30 yards i had to sit down and get my breath. every physical exertion seemed to exhaust me. and finally, i went to the hospital where i was diagnosed with afib. when i first noticed symptoms, which kept coming and going, i should have gone to the doctor and told them what was happening. instead, i tried to let it pass. if you experience irregular heartbeat, heart racing, chest pain, shortness of breath, fatigue, or light-headedness, you should talk to your doctor. afib increases the risk of stroke about 5 times i want my experience to help others understand the symptoms of atrial fibrillation. when it comes to your health, this is no time to wait. with powerful, easy-to-use tools, power e*trade makes complex trading easier. react to fast-moving markets with dynamic charting and a futures ladder that lets you place, flatten, or reverse orders so you won't miss an opportunity. e*trade from morgan stanley. border, the u.n. says 29,000 people have been displaced inside lebanon by border clashes between the two nations. nbc's matt bradley reports from one village where almost all of the women and children have left. >> reporter: the church bells still ring, but there's hardly anyone left to hear them. ever since fresh fighting came to the middle east, the women and children have almost all fled this christian village in southern lebanon. >> i am telling all the families that are in beirut, please don't return now. let's wait and see what will happen. >> only the men remain to watch and wait. a familiar kind of ritual. the distant sound of explosions has emptied out all of these houses. it's because this community knows all too well the horrors of war. the last war that ripped through this place was in 2006 when hezbollah and israel fought for nearly 30 days. more than two decades later, the memories are still fresh. the scars haven't faded. this is a christian village, an island in the sea of shiite muslims. it's the main reason the men have stayed behind despite the danger. they worry if they leave, their muslim neighbors could take over. but some have no choice. for the ioufb family, fleeing is a luxury they can't afford. they tried to go to beirut but seeking safety there required cash and connections, so they have to stay and wait and watch the war come to them. the explosions are getting closer and closer. despite the talk of christian martyrdom, of fear and fate, this is a village of noncombatants. hezbollah is rattling its sabers, but no one here is asking for war. rakan's young child and pregnant wife are waiting out the war in beirut. >> no one asks you that. it just goes on without us even taking into consideration our own opinions. what is our right to decide our own fate? >> reporter: he says he stayed behind to help safeguard his village's christian identity. this is how it goes in the middle east, you have to lay your body down to keep your place. >> it's ridiculous. but up until now, this place has meant to us more than our physical integrity and safety. >> reporter: an obligation they have inherited, a burden for which they never asked. matt bradley, lebanon. will interest rates hold steady? we're just minutes away from the fed's decision. what it could mean for your bottom line. you're watching "chris jansing reports" only on msnbc. rts" onlc this is american infrastructure. megawatts of power, rails and open road, and essential services of every kind. all running on countless invisible networks, making it a prime target for cyberattacks. but the same ai-powered security that protects all of google also defends the systems running america's infrastructure. for these services. for the 336 million of us living here. ♪ right now get a free footlong at subway. like the new deli heroes. buy one footlong in the app, get one free. it's a pretty big deal. kinda like me. order in the subway app today. 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