the white house tomorrow, as president biden intensifies his plea to congress for more aid to the war-torn country. new pressure this morning for two top university presidents to resign after their controversial testimony to congress about anti-semitism on campus. and why former president trump abruptly changed his mind about testifying today at his $250 million civil fraud trial. we begin this morning with the cleanup after the deadly weather ravaged part of our country. this morning nearly 20,000 people in tennessee remain without power after a series of tornados ripped through the state over the weekend killing at least six people including a 2-year-old and injuring more than 80 others. this highway camera captured a twister tearing through the sky before destroying homes and entire neighborhoods leaving some residents with absolutely nothing. one woman says a tornado split her home apart while her family was inside. >> i just remember opening the closet door and just turning around. the wind just took me, and i just remember waking up on this side of my house. >> joining us now, nbc's blayne alexander in clarksville, tennessee, a hard hit area. blayne, good morning, what's the latest where you are? >> reporter: well, jose, good morning. you talk about clarksville, but this of course is just one of the areas across this middle tennessee area that really was ravaged by these storms. we're about an hour outside of nashville just to give you some reference. as you drive through, you see a number of homes that unfortunately look like this, homes that are really left in splinters just uninhabitable, i mean, have just fallen down around the residence around them. it also -- this neighborhood kind of speaks to that cool and unpredictable nature of tornados. if you look over there, there are some houses that we passed through that have not even been touched that just kind of carried on as though things were normal while over here you see homes that are left unrecognizable. i want to show you one house that really is just stunning. this home, we spoke with jeffrey. he's the owner of that home. he was inside with -- or his children were inside, his teenage daughters and their infant son were inside. he decided that when he saw the tornado coming, he was outside working on a car. he saw the tornado coming, rather than seek shelter inside, he got them in a car and drove away. drove away to safety, even though the tornado was literally behind him. jose, when you hear about stories like that not just here in clarksville but scattered around this region here in tennessee, you understand why there were more than 80 people taken to the hospital, six lives already claimed and some 600 structures that were impacted by this. let's listen to one family who talks about what they went through on the night of the storms. take a look. >> it literally felt like the whole house was shaking, the foundation. we could hear all the trees just snapping. >> we all hunkered down in the floor right there, and then the next time we know it just sounded like an explosion went off. you could hear stuff flying everywhere. it was crazy. crazy. it is terrifying. >> so jose, you heard that person there talk about how terrifying it is. back here in clarksville, i want to show you what you're looking at right now is the upstairs window of jeffrey and his family's home. that's the window to the bathroom near their bedroom. he told us that in the very next room, that's where his 12 and 14-year-old daughter were as well as their infant son. they look at it now and everything is in splinters. there's wood collapsed on the couches, the fact that had they stayed in that room, none of them would have survived. that just speaks to the nature of how these are so many close calls, how seconds can count, and how really unpredictable all of this really is, jose. >> talk about unpredictable. what's amazing is right behind you is a house that literally looks like it was blown off its foundation. the house that you were showing us right to your right, but then a few houses next to it they look pretty much untouched. >> reporter: that's exactly what we've seen. not only have we seen this here, jose. we were in another neighborhood about 15 minutes away. we were in front of a house that looked very similar to that one. i talked with a woman who was walking her dog. i said did you guys have any a impact? my fence got a little bit of damage, but that was it. she was just one street over. when you come through, you know, covering as many storms as so many of us have, when you go through places like this, you always see this just traces of just how unpredictable these storms are. it's like they can come down, land on houses sometimes, and then ones across the street will be almost as if nothing ever happened, jose. >> yeah. blayne alexander, thank you so much. appreciate it. five weeks from today iowans will gather at schools, churches, l libraries and other caucus locations to choose who they want to run for president in 2024. a brand new des moines register media com poll gives us a look at where the race stands in iowa. the poll finds that former president donald trump continues to dominate the republican field in the hawkeye state, actually even gaining ground since the last poll in october. nbc news national political correspondent steve kornacki joins us this morning from his big boards. what else did we learn in this poll? >> some interesting numbers here. you take a look, as you mentioned trump leading in our new poll with the des moines register and now significantly an outright majority of republican caucus goers in iowa, 51% say they support the former president, desantis 19, haley 16, the other two in single-digits. as you mentioned as well, that is for trump a gain of eight points since the last time we polled in iowa, which was back in october. trump is the one from this list who's got the momentum, at least according to this poll, and i think what's significant about that is if you think back over to last month or so, ron desantis has been really trying to make a play in iowa to really use that as a launching pad for his campaign, and in the last month, he picked up the endorsement of the governor of iowa. he picked up the endorsement of the key evangelical leader in iowa. he got a lot of press for completing a tour of all 99 counties in iowa and participated in a debate on fox news with the democratic governor of california gavin newsom, had millions of viewers, presumably many republicans, presumably many liked seeing desantis in that situation. there was some thought desantis would make a move in this poll, but it is trump who moved up in the poll. trump who spent more time in the courtroom over the last month than he did on a debate stage, which was zero on a debate stage, trump is the one moving up in this poll, and nikki haley who had been showing some traction growing over the summer and early fall months, stagnant now at 16%, taking a look deeper evangelicals, donald trump, this group he struggled with in 2016 when he ran. in iowa, he came in third with evangelicals in 2016, now totally different story. he's getting 51% of the evangelical vote. that mirrors what he's getting statewide. in 2016 evangelicals made up two-thirds of the entire caucus electorate. this is a huge group on the republican side in iowa. trump being powered by folk say they're going to attend the caucuses for the first time. a group that tends to be much younger than the overall republican electorate, look at the advantage trump is racking up with them. 63%. we asked about the basic question of electability to republicans at the outset of this campaign, trump's opponents thought this would be his achilles heel, this would be their opening, the idea that republicans would be skittish about nominating him for fear he wouldn't be able to beat biden with the legal drama. we asked here, do you think trump can win despite all of the legal issues ongoing, or do you think he is going to be very difficult to win because of those legal issues? look at this, 73% believe he can win. high number and that is a jump of about eight points from our last poll. so as this campaign progresses, more republicans in iowa coming around to see donald trump as electable against joe biden, taking that argument away from opponents. we are a little more than a month away. can anything change here in iowa? there is a history when sometimes we've seen candidates surge at the very end in iowa. two notes of caution here for his opponents, for those who want to stop trump. look at the depth of trump support. seven of ten, 7% of voters say their minds are already made up. they're not going to change their minds. that's a totally different story than desantis. last time you had a republican heading into an iowa caucus this far ahead, this close to caucus day, you got to go back to 2000. it was george w. bush, and george w. bush did win the caucuses and did win the nomination. that's the history trump is trying to repeat here. >> steve kornacki, thank you so very much. and now to breaking news from russia where a spokesman for opposition leader alexi navalny says his whereabouts are unknown. megan, what do we know about this? >> what we know is according to a spokesperson alexei navalny was expected to appear in court today via video, and he didn't appear. now, the spokesperson says that prison officials are saying there was an electrical issue, but we also know that allies are saying that navalny's lawyers have not been able to locate him for several days, that they went to two different penal facilities not far from moscow and the region navalny was expected to be, and they say that he was not there. they were told that he was not there. i also want to read for you this tweet that was posted on x, formerly twitter, bhi a spokesperson who says it's already a sixth straight day we don't know where alexei is and what's happened to him. the process of transporting inmates in russia, we have seen in times past it can take weeks. again, now we are seeing that his allies are raising the alarm. they are concerned because he has not been seen or heard from in the last several days. jose. >> so this is really concerning. meagan fitzgerald, thank you so very much. up next, ukrainian president zelenskyy set to plead his case for more aid for his war-torn country before congress tomorrow. we'll get a preview of the kind of reception he'll likely receive. a state supreme court stepped in to block a pregnant woman from getting an abortion. you're watching "josé diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. ée diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. ukrainian president zelenskyy will meet face to face with members of congress and president biden in a push for critical military aid. his timing is also critical. this marks congress's final week in session for the year, and right now new aid to ukraine and israel is essentially frozen as republicans are holding firm in their demand to include border security measures as part of any aid deal. joining us now, nbc news senior capitol hill correspondent garrett haake. garrett, good morning. is zelenskyy's visit going to move the needle at all for him? >> jose, it may be too little too late for zelenskyy's presence here to change anything. his previous visits to the capital capitol were received quite powerfully by lawmakers. at this point the argument here isn't really about ukraine aid. it's about trying to tie it to some kind of enhanced border security measure, and so even lawmakers who are, you know, on the fence or perhaps even leaning no on this broader package aren't really doing so because of anything to do with this situation on the ground in russia. we've heard as much from some of those republican lawmakers late last week. the domestic side of this bigger deal, not the ukraine aid side of it. zelenskyy can raise awareness and he can raise kind of the threshold of people understanding how dire and urgent the need is. but whether that actively leans on, lobby, pressures lawmakers in this circumstance, i think it's unlikely. >> and so meanwhile, and speaking of the domestic aspect of it, the congressional hispanic caucus is frustrated with the white house over bipartisan discussions on the border? >> yeah, that's right. and this is the other side of that coin, and if i'm volodymyr zelenskyy, i might read that story with a little bit of optimism. what you have here is this border negotiation has been conducted by a very small group of senators that right now doesn't really include anyone from the congressional hispanic caucus, usually someone like bob menendez might be in the room. he's obviously frozen out right now because of the indictments against him. what you're seeing here is chc members who tend to be more progressive, more liberal on border matters, concerned that the president might strike a teal they find unpalatable. might strike a deal that makes his border policy look more like former president trump's border policy. they're complaining about this from the outside. they have not been granted a meeting from the white house that they have requested. their concern might suggest that those negotiations that i just talked about may be farther along than we publicly know. we're on the outside too, jose. we're trying to watch this. you see the pressure that these negotiators are under from the right and now here from the left in the form of the chc being concerned that any deal to unlock ukraine aid and israel aid might go too far to be palatable to them. >> and garrett, meanwhile, this morning capitol police responded to protests inside one of the office buildings. what do we know? >> here's the third leg, we saw significant protests this morning. you see pictures there of capitol police making arrest in the hart senate office building. protesters demanding a cease fire in the israel-gaza war. the third part of this aid package is to israel. we've seen lawmakers come under increasing pressure here to weigh in on the issue of a cease fire, to weigh in on the use of american munitions in that war. i don't know if we have the clip other than this arrest, we also saw one of these protesters climb that statue in hart that many of our viewers might be familiar with from having seen as a site in other protests. i have never seen anyone attempt to scale the statue. but these protesters announced that they would be coming and announced broadly speaking they would have this protest. they believe more pressure needs to be brought to bear specifically on democratic lawmakers to lean on the president on the issue of a cease fire. >> garrett haake on capitol hill, thank you so very much. up next, just moments ago, bright flares seen over the skies of gaza. now israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu says hamas is, quote, at the beginning of the end. plus, new calls for the president of m.i.t. and harvard to resign amid blistering criticism over their testimony to congress about the rise of anti-semitism on campus. you're watching "josé diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. ée diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. ♪y condition. ♪ ♪ get iphone 15 pro and ipad and apple watch - all on them! ♪ (mom) please forgive him. 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we really need to work on your people skills. 21 past the hour, and we are having, i understand, some live pictures to show you as it's 5:21 in the afternoon. these are live pictures that you see, the israel-gaza border and those two lights that you see on the right part of your screen and if you're listening to us on radio, what we're seeing are two, now three different illumination bangles or some kind of flare that it seems the israelis would have sent over gaza to illuminate parts of that area. you can see that of it is in darkness on the gaza side, and right in front of you are -- that's the israeli area. now, we see three flares on the right. one or two going up in the left part of your screen, so there's a lot of illuminations being carried out as we speak at 5:22 p.m. local time. the israeli defense force says, meanwhile, that sahar baruch, a 25-year-old man taken hostage on october 7th has been killed by hamas. hamas claims he was killed in a failed rescue mission, but the idf says it is investigating the details of his death. israel stepped up its attack on southern gaza, there is evidence that hamas has begun to collapse militarily. 137 people we have to remember are still being held in gaza as israel now says 20 hostages have been killed by hamas since the october 7th massacre. earlier today, aid trucks were seen entering gaza through the rafah border crossing. the u.n. says, however, the situation there is growing dire. joining us now is nbc ease hala gorani from tel aviv. hala, thank you, where do things stand right now? >> reporter: well, jose, you described the situation well. it is dark inside of gaza because there is very little in the way of fuel and electricity, and when you see those border villages and towns on the israeli side, that's where you can tell where the border lies and those were flares indeed perhaps launched probably, i should say most certainly launched by the israeli military to illuminate some of the targets. they are continuing to bomb relentlessly hundreds of targets down to the south in rafa where they initially told people to evacuate to, you'll remember. the gaza strip has a population of over 2 million, and they're pushed into smaller and smaller enclaves, and this is putting so much pressure on the infrastructure, on the hospital system, which has all but collapsed in the north and is collapsing, we're told, in the south. this to give you a sense really, jose, of just how bad the situation is, it's not just people who aren't getting the kind of care they need when they're wounded in strikes, but it's people who need basic medical care for things like intestinal issues or chest infections or people who have disabled children like the mother that our crew in gaza spoke to and who are telling us that they cannot access basic health care. listen. >> . >> reporter: and this was another hospital in khan yunis where a young girl brought in covered in dust you saw there after an air strike we're being told was screaming where is my family? including where is my mother? so you get a sense of humanitarian disaster unfolding there, jose. >> it really is a humanitarian disaster, hala gorani, thank you so much. there is growing pressure meanwhile on the presidents of harvard and m.i.t. to resign after backlash over their testimony last week during a public hearing on anti-semitism on college campuses. this comes after the president of the university of pennsylvania stepped down on saturday over her testimony. today the governing board of harvard is set to meet and could decide the future of its president claudine gay. joining us now is nbc's antonia hylton. what are we hearing about the fate of these two presidents? >> well, jose, the outrage has been growing for days as you mentioned, since this hearing, and the question really since saturday has been what will happen to claudine gay of harvard, the president there, and then of m.i.t. the calculation, the political considerations on those campuses may look different here, certainly those two presidents haven't indicated any steps towards stepping down yet. but just on harvard's campus, for example, we're seeing a swell of support for claudine gay, hundreds of faculty have signed a letter that they delivered to the harvard corporation that all powerful governing body saying that they support her, and this includes people, faculty who have criticized her for how she handled that hearing, acknowledging that she fell short of their expectations, that the president could have made much clearer their stance for calls on genocide and their support for jewish students at this particular time, but they do not want people, the leaders of the schools here to cave to political pressure as they put it or to donor pressure skpshs and that's what we've seen happen. there have been calls from dozens of people in congress, but also from some of the megamillion dollar donors who support programs, fund operations at the school and offer support and have close relationships with those leaders. the students' concerns and the faculty concerns is that they shouldn't take action or make decisions about leadership just based on their requests. so the calculus may change he. that's what people are going to be waiting to see from the harvard corporation and m.i.t.'s leadership. some students, as disappointed as they are, they don't want people outside of harvard deciding what harvard's future is going to look like. i think it's really very much up in the air right now. people are waiting to see, do we get a statement from the harvard corporation, are they going to show her additional support. i think all of this remains to be figured out in the coming days, jose. >> antonia hylton, thank you so very much. and turning now to an update in the fatal stabbing of detroit synagogue leader samantha woll who was found dead on october 21st. police say they have taken a person of interest into custody. they have not identified them, and declined to say why they are a focus. the news comes a month after police arrested a person but released him after several days without charges or even an explanation. police declined to say whether this new person of interest is the same one they had initially arrested. they say they have no evidence suggesting woll's killings after an anti-semitic hate crime. up next, why a texas woman who was granted an emergency abortion is now being blocked from having the procedure. plus, former president trump doubles down on his dictator for a day remarks. we'll play for you what he said over the weekend. you're watching "josé diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. t. which is why downy does more to make clothes softer, fresher, and better. downy. breathe life into your laundry. the subway series is taking your favorite to the next level! like the #20. the elite chicken and bacon ranch. built with rotisserie-style chicken and double cheese. i love what i'm seeing here. that's some well-coached chicken. you done, peyton? 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ask about the power of 3 with ozempic®. 33 past the hour, right now in texas, a major legal battle over the state's abortion ban after the texas supreme court temporarily blocked a lower court ruling that initially allowed 31-year-old kate cox to receive an abortion at 20 weeks. it comes after her doctors told her that her fetus has a rare genetic disorder and that carrying a pregnancy to term could jeopardize her health and future fertility. joining us now, nbc news senior legal correspondent laura jarrett. laura, what's kate cox's reality this morning, and what does it mean for the case now that the state supreme court has stepped in? >> yeah, jose, the reality for her is she's in a holding pattern. she's waiting to see a substantive decision from they high court in texas. we're going to put a stay in place to maintain the status quo so we can get up to speed. maintaining the status quo is not like any other case because every other day that goes by, the health risk increases. it's her doctor's explanation she needs this procedure to protect her own fertility. this is somebody who wants to be pregnant again. this is somebody who wants a third baby, and her doctors have told her if she does not get this abortion, it is going to make it more difficult for her to conceive again and hold that pregnancy. >> and so as of right now, she's still not able to. >> as of right now, she can't do anything because of the stay. now as soon as the supreme court makes a substantive decision, either side that loses that decision could try to then appeal it to the u.s. supreme court. th't he to take up th case, but that ups the ante, as soon as the supreme court in texass. >> laura, meanwhile, i kentucky an unnamed woman who is eight weeks pregnant filed a suit challenging the state's abortion ban there. what do we know about that? >> that's a different one. she's still going by a jane doe. she has not come forward for her own privacy reasons. she's decided to not do that. it's an interesting case, jose, because she's only eight weeks pregnant, but she cannot get an abortion in the state of kentucky because that case, like the other one we're talking about with kate cox here in texas has what's known as a heartbeat ban, which means you cannot get an abortion as soon as a doctor detects a heartbeat, which can be sometimes as early as six weeks. the woman in kentucky is suing under obviously a different state law but challenging under the state constitution, also trying to see if she can get an emergency abortion. >> and then laura, lastly as early as today, the supreme court could decide whether or not to take up the case centered around a widely used abortion pill? >> yeah, it's interesting. the justices actually had that case behind closed doors. they decided not to say anything yet. they're still obviously trying to figure out what to do, but it's closely watched, it's the most widely used abortion pill in the country. and jose, again, if the court does nothing in that case, it's actually doing something because in this case as well, if they decide to punt and not take up the case, it means that the lower court decision goes into effect, and the lower court is the one that decided to put more restrictions on that pill. so we wait to see what the supreme court does in that case, jose. >> laura jarrett, thank you so much. great seeing you always. >> sure. up next, why former president donald trump decided last minute not to testify today in his civil fraud trial, and what it could mean for his case. you're watching "josé diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. é diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. honey... honey... nyquil severe honey. powerful cold and flu relief with a dreamy honey taste. nyquil honey, the nighttime, sniffing, sneezing, couging, aching, fever, honey-licious, best sleep with a cold, medicine. known for following your dreams. known for keeping with tradition. known for discovering new places. no one wants to be known for cancer, but a treatment can be. keytruda is known to treat cancer. fda-approved for 16 types of cancer, including certain early-stage and advanced cancers. one of those cancers is early-stage non—small cell lung cancer. keytruda may be used with certain chemotherapies before surgery when you have early-stage lung cancer, which can be removed by surgery, and then continued alone after surgery to help prevent your lung cancer from coming back. keytruda can cause your immune system to attack healthy parts of your body during or after treatment. this may be severe and lead to death. see your doctor right away if you have cough, shortness of breath, chest pain, diarrhea, severe stomach pain, severe nausea or vomiting, headache, light sensitivity, eye problems, irregular heartbeat, extreme tiredness, constipation, dizziness or fainting, changes in appetite, thirst, or urine, confusion, memory problems, muscle pain or weakness, fever, rash, itching, or flushing. there may be other side effects. tell your doctor about all your medical conditions, including immune system problems, if you've had or plan to have an organ or stem cell transplant, received chest radiation or have a nervous system problem. keytruda is an immunotherapy and is also being studied in hundreds of clinical trials exploring ways to treat even more types of cancer. it's tru. keytruda from merck. see all the types of cancer keytruda is known for at keytruda.com and ask your doctor if keytruda could be right for you. hi, i'm janice, and i lost 172 pounds on golo. if keytruda could be right when i was a teenager i had some severe trauma in my life and i turned to food for comfort. i had a doctor tell me that if i didn't change my life, i wasn't gonna live much longer. once i saw golo was working, i felt this rush, i just had to keep going. a lot of people think no pain no gain, but with golo it is so easy. my life is so much different now that i've lost all this weight. when i look in the mirror i don't even recognize myself. 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(vo) whichever. get your competitve offer at opendoor.com. 41 past the hour, turning now to the civil fraud trial facing former president trump, his two adult sons, and his company. in a surprise reversal on sunday, the former president said he will not return to the witness stand today as planned. his attorney said, quote, there is really nothing more to say to a judge who has imposed an unconstitutional gag order and thus far appears to have ignored president trump's testimony, and that of everyone else involved in the complex financial transactions at issue in this case. joining us now, katie phang, msnbc legal analyst and host of the must watch "the katie phang show" here on msnbc. great seeing you. the new york attorney general said friday expert witnesses called by trump's defense have helped her case. does it surprise you the defense team have changed course here? >> yeah, jose, always so good to see you. i'm actually really glad you asked that question. i want to point to that statement that was issued by donald trump's attorney saying that there's this, quote, unconstitutional gag order. jose, you and i have been around a while. we've seen lot of cases. there's some conflating of issues that are being made by trump defense. that gag order, it has nothing to do with the facts of the case. donald trump likes to say that he's so courageous and brave and he has so much to say in his own defense, and yet when given the opportunity to do so during his case in chief he doesn't do it. so he's chickened out. he's not going to testify today. in fact there's nothing happening in the courtroom today. that gag order only spoke to him being prevented from saying horrific things about justice engoron's courtroom staff. so once again, donald trump having the chance to be able to explain how he did not perpetrate a fraud to the tune of billions of dollars, he doesn't do it. and so the new york attorney general, letitia james, to answer your question, jose, she's right. the expert witnesses, the defense in this case have been nonexistent, and it's definitely helped her case. >> we're entering without the former president's testimony scheduled for today, where does it head next? >> so we're going to end up having closing arguments. again, no jury, just a judge. it's a bench trial, and then we're also going to have the chance to have each side submit more arguments in terms of why if you're the new york attorney general, why justice engoron should find on your side for the remaining six counts of their original complaint, and then the justice will issue his ruling later on. there's actually a schedule that's been set forth to be able to have these dates met. a lot of the fire works are now pretty much done and over with, and we're just going to wait and see what justice engoron decides to do. >> katie phang. nice seeing you always. and returning to our top story this hour, a brand new nbc news des moines register media com poll gives donald trump a commanding lead over his republican rivals in iowa with just five weeks to go until the iowa caucuses. with us now to talk more about this and other political headlines. stuart stevens, chief strategist for mitt romney's campaign and a senior adviser for the lincoln project. he's also the author of "it was all a lie: how the republican party became donald trump." also with us, victoria defrancesco soto, dean of the clinton school of public service at the university of arkansas. the poll shows donald trump with a 32 point lead over his nearest rivals in iowa. what does that tell you about the state of the race there? >> it's just such a commanding lead. back in october when i saw the lead, i'm like, oh, my god, this is huge. and again, same reaction, but the caveat here is not only that top line number, jose, but the strength of the support. so it's not only that he has that lead, but people who say that they're locked in because, remember, in iowa, there's someone that you can change later on. here folks are like it's him, period, end of story. so i think that's a huge piece as well as within this iowa poll, you see the favorability toward donald trump also being very strong. so he's not just that top contender, but the depth and the strength of that support is really quite incredible. >> it is. i mean, stuart, let's look at the numbers on this specific issue that victoria's talking about. most of donald trump's supporters have already made up their mind that they will vote for him, more than double that of ron desantis and nikki haley, is there anything you think at this stage of the race that could change how things are going to turn out for donald trump in iowa? >> well, look, when you have a guy who's facing 91 indictments and he seems to go up in the polls, what do we think is going to make him go down? he'll get acquitted? you know, what's happening here is that trump is really functioning as an incumbent are president, running in a primary in his own party, and this is the most stable race we've ever seen for an open nomination. i mean, compared back to bush in '88 where, you know, he lost iowa. we really have never seen anything like this. he has a 27, a 29 point lead in new hampshire, in south carolina. you have nikki haley in this latest monmouth poll has gone from 3 to 12%. while she goes up, her favorability rate drops. so now when no one really knew who she was, she had a 40% favorable -- net favorable rating. now she has just a ten-point favorable rating. so she's coalescing a non-trump, non-maga support, but that really limits her rise. so these are really bleak numbers for all his challengers. >> so stuart, and you just talked about the 91 indictments and the facts that it seems like nothing has slowed down the former esent's momentum within the republican party. how do you explain that, stuart? >> oh, you have to get inside their head, jose. so look, it's an alternative universe. it's not on earth, but let's talk about it. they believe, a majority of his voters believe that he won the last election, so therefore, what does that mean? it means we have an illegal president, so therefore it's important to vote, it's essential to vote for donald trump to restore democracy in america. now, to a lot of us, that just sounds nuts as a bunny, but that's how they see it, and it becomes a test really of donald trump against the deep state. they stole the election from him last time, they say, so the only way that they can stop him this time is to put him in jail. so it's sort of a unified theory of the universe that they see. it's not one that at all coincides with reality, but it's the world that they live in. >> yeah, i mean, and just thinking, victoria, talk about something that doesn't coincide with the reality of the world as we have seen it, trump is actually doubling down on his comments that he would like to be dictator for a day. listen to this. >> a baker today in "the new york times," he said that i want to be a dictator. i didn't say that. i said i want to be a dictator for one day. but "the new york times" said -- and you know why i want to be a dictator? because i want a wall, right? i want a wall and i want to drill, drill, drill. >> victoria, does this kind of semantical discussion, i mean, he clearly thinks this is helping him. >> so a couple of points here, jose. i think the first is i do want to double click on what stuart said that donald trump is really running as an incumbent president. so there are a whole bunch of folks who thought that he won, who thought he was a great president, who liked his strong man, authoritarian twist to how he governs. i think there's that. in terms of these comments, you know, right now we are in the midst of, you know, instability globally, instabilitylocally. we know that even though the economy and the top lines are getting better, folks are still going hungry. the hyper polarization and a dictator, a strong man, an authoritarian regime, provides stability. you know. takes away your freedom, but it provides a known and stability. and i think there is a chunk of the population that just wants stability and they think that their world view matches up with trump's. like well, hey, why not. it's a win-win. stability and the world view that i buy into. the problem is that once you go down that road, you really can't go back once you abandon democracy. >> stuart and victoria, thank you so much for being with us this morning. really appreciate it. up next, a new hampshire man under arrest charged with threatening to kill a presidential candidate. plus, what's happening today to determine how much money rudy giuliani will have to pay to election workers. a court says he defamed after the 2020 election. you're watching jose diaz-balart reports on msnbc. ction. you're watching jose diaz-balart reports on msnbc ipad and apple watch - all on them! ♪ (mom) please forgive him. 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>> reporter: so, this was a threat against ramaswami. this reply to a mass text message advertising his campaign is how the threat came in. when fbi seized the phone, they found another threat that had been sent to a separate campaign, which is not identified. the campaign has confirmed this was indeed a threat sent against their candidate there. so this is a 30-year-old man from new hampshire. it speaks to the really you know, i think divided and political environment that we're in where political campaigns are having to deal with a lot of these threats on a regular basis. >> and meanwhile, ryan, you're outside a courthouse in d.c. for rudy giuliani's defamations damages trial today. what can you expect? >> that's right. so jury selection is now underway here and they're making their way through several jurors. they have to sit eight in this case. rudy giuliani showed up late to court today and missed a hearing that he was supposed to attend last week so didn't get off to a great start. once the jury is seated, it will be deciding just how much in damages he'll have to pay. he is found to have defamed. that was the penalty inflicted because he failed to cooperate with the discovery so the case is already in a way decided and ultimately will be about how much money will go to these two election workers that he was found to have defamed, making false claims against them about their involvement in the 2020 election and what. as part of this broader campaign by the, broader effort by the then trump campaign to assert that the presidential election had been stolen in 2020. >> and so what happens is the courtroom will decide one way or the other or is there an expected appeal that will continue this down the road? >> what they're going to try to land on is a figure. he's found to have been responsible for these deflamatory language against these two. they're seeking millions of dollars in damages and we can expect dramatic testimony from these two workers. they previously testified before the january 6th committee and talked about how this tore apart these lives. they received all these threats. they're seeking significant damages here. the bill for them starts where they would like around $14 million but they could go up to you know, $43 million potentially here. it will be up to a panel of eight jurors from the district of columbia who will decide that. the big issue here on the back end is that giuliani is facing significant financial hurdles. he owes a lot of money to various people and it's unclear how or when they can potentially collect on this ultimate judgment here from the jury deciding just how much he owes these two individuals that he defamed. >> so you're talking about that so far, giuliani has failed to cooperate with this process, this one specifically. do we expect him to be testifying in this case going forward? >> we do. his attorney told potential jurors during the process here that they can expect to hear from rudy giuliani himself. there are a number of witnesses who are expected to testify on behalf of the plaintiffs first, but then he'll ultimately take the stand at some point. >> ryan riley in washington, d.c., thank you so very much. before we go, just to share some good news. it's so important that we, if we can, bring up the good news. there's so much about bad news. but i want you to watch as one student finds out that she has a dream coming true and what that dream coming true means to her family. take a listen. >> in california, that's jacenia nunez surrounded by family waiting to get the results of her bar exam. at last. the results they all prayed for. she's a first generation salvadoran american who always dreamed of being a lawyer. >> my parents are from el salvador. they're farm workers. i think this moment was a big moment for our entire family. it feels like the american dream. >> big moment for the entire family. and to many of us as well. that wraps up the hour for me. i'm

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