two more. he's already appointed two that have been very negative in terms of the rights of individuals. the idea that if he's reelected he's going to appoint two more flags upside down is really, i really mean it. >> could this be the scariest part of all of it? >> i think it is one of the scariest parts. look, the supreme court has never been as out of kilter as it is today. >> here's why appointments on the supreme court matter. on friday, the conservative majority of the court reinstated bump stocks, the device that allows a semiautomatic weapon like it is an automatic weapon. it's what the las vegas shooter used to fire more than 1,000 rounds in eleven minutes and kill 58 people at a music festival in 2017. critics say the obvious. this decision just made it a whole lot easier for somebody to almost instantly kill a whole lot of people. and those somebodies are out there. in fact, just a day after that decision to roll back what little gun restrictions we have left in this country, a seemingly random gunman targeted a splash pad in detroit, shooting families and kids. quote, under no circumstances is it normal for ice cream cones and flip-flops to be strewn amongst blood and bullet casings, said michigan state rep after the gunman opened fire. except it is normal. now it is normal. and that's not all. on thursday, the court unanimously struck down a ban on mifepristone, while still leaving the door open on a future attempt to ban the bill. conservatives working on project 2025, a presidential transition project, intended for a second trump term want to pursue. abortion pills pose the single greatest threat to unborn children in a post roe world. and they argue the next conservative administration should pursue all options available within the federal government to ban abortion nationwide. but wait, there is still more. there are still a host of other major societal changes. the supreme court has to rule on this june, including whether a state can refuse emergency medical help to pregnant women. whether one state can pollute the air with another state, with toxic smog linked to premature baby deaths. whether an accused user can possess firearms and whether a president like donald trump can truly shoot someone on fifth avenue because of presidential immunity. those are big decisions and the court has them in their hands right now. whatever the voters decide in november could determine which direction the court and thus the country goes next. joining us now, nbc news correspondent, vaughn hillyard. msnbc legal correspondent, lisa rubin. "new york times" chief who's correspondent peter baker, and "new york times" opinion columnist david french. on the one hand, you have the $50 million ad buy, talking about character and calling donald trump a convicted felon. you have president biden up on sage at a fundraiser, talking about the threats to the supreme court and what he sees as a potential, if donald trump is elected again. expand on that, what's the biden team talking about? >> yeah, i mean, look, if you care about the supreme court, elections matter. had hillary clinton won in 2016, the 6-3 conservative majority on the supreme court today would be a 6-3 liberal majority of the supreme court. it's as simple as that. that's what the president was saying in his fundraiser, these high dollar donors, but also to the larger audience of democrats who may think it doesn't matter much who wins the election because they don't particularly like either candidate. polls show up to 25% of voters are double haters, people who don't like trump or biden. what he's trying to say to them is you may not care about me or trump, you may not like inflation or may think i'm too old, but there are stakes involved here. if you care about issues like abortion rights, gun issues and so forth, there's a consequence to who you vote for one way or the other. the election turned not so much on whether biden convinces trump voters to vote for him. he's not likely to do that. and what's at stake is people who voted for biden last time. largely, they didn't like trump, and they needed to convince that trump matters this time too. >> the people in the middle, they want to convince that they shouldn't have a convicted felon in the white house. they also want to convince them, the stakes for things like the supreme court are high, stakes for day-to-day lives are high. abortion, gun restrictions, former president when he was running for office in 2016 put out a list of supreme court nominees. it was effective to convince evangelical voters to get on his side. is there any talk about president biden releasing his own list if he were to get a supreme court nomination. >> i haven't heard him talk about that. his aides talk about that. he might be resistance. he was chair of the judiciary committee in the senate that confirmed a number of today's supreme court nominees, and i think he has a real respect for the process as it has played out in the west, and probably thinks it's a good idea. he made a specific promise in 2020 to appoint the first black woman to the supreme court. it's possible he could make some sort of a, you know, a commitment like that in the months to come, in order to galvanize democratic voters. we haven't seen, you know, a list. i think you could premium the kind of people he would pick would be along the lines of the justices he already picked. that would be the argument he picked and made. and the justices that barack obama put on there as well. sotomayor is kagan. >> let's look at what is to come. i laid out a little bit of it in the open. lisa, talk to me about the cases that the supreme court has yet to rule on. i'll put them all in front of us. abortion is not out of the picture yet, and neither are guns. >> no, they're not, and, katy, on one hand, it's attempting to say the two decisions that remain on guns and abortion are the two most eagerly anticipated decisions and the ones that could have the greatest impact on the lives of americans, and in particular on women and mothers. the rahami case, which is the gun case, having to do with whether those with the a domestic violence conviction can be blocked from gun ownership and the moyle case, having to do with whether a federal statue basically takes precedent over state law that is stringent with respect to abortion, if a woman presents in an emergency room and needs abortion care in order to preserve her life or health. those are decisions i'm really looking to see how the court rules on. in a broader sense, the two decisions that i think will have the greatest impact on our democracy overall are obviously the presidential immunity decision, and trump versus united states on one hand, and then think about this as the sleeper hit of the supreme court season. it's the loafer bright case, that case is about whether congress can write statues in a broad way that delegate to federal agencies, the authority to construe them. if the court as expected in the decision rescinds something called chevron deference, that will be a radical change in how federal agencies and administrative law is interpreted and conducts itself for decades to come. it's probably also the largest aim of the conservative legal movement short of what they have already accomplished through dobbs. >> i want to talk more about abortion, and, david, i want to bring you in on this, and lay foundation with vaughn and reporting on something called project 2025. this is a heritage foundation, i want to say document, but really more like a book. it's 300 pages long. i think it's actually more than that. 900 pages potentially. 900 pages long that lays out what they believe a conservative administration should do if given another opportunity, and these are legal maneuvers that they'd like a conservative administration to make to tighten things up in this country. to tighten up lgbtq rights, tighten up education and tighten up abortion. they want abortion banned nationwide. what is this? >> right. the heritage foundation is a conservative group, right there on capitol hill, about the closest nonprofit to the confines of the u.s. congress that there is. and they are an entity that prepared such a document for ronald reagan, back when he was sworn in 1981. they say in these 900 pages, they provide an outline for him to use about policies that he could implement in year one of his office. and when we're talking about it, not just legislation that he could partner with, republican majorities on capitol hill over, we're also talking about potential executive actions. you know, having these written so he is prepared on day one to be able to actually sign those and have those implemented. so when you hear about lisa talk about the extent to which, you know, federal departments and agencies are able to interpret the law, this is where this is going to become key. >> this is also appointing heads of administrations that are more aligned with conservative views. so putting somebody in charge of the fda who could say, i don't like the way mifepristone was authorized. i'm going to roll back that. using the come stack act. all of these things that enabled the federal government to go around congress to try to ban things or to strictly regulate things that are not in line with their views. >> the executive branch is large and when you start looking at who's executing the secretaries, the under secretaries, but who are the heads of agencies, those who are the ones writing policy or working with members of congress or working at the state level, you know, these are where those positions become so key. and over the last year, they have been building a personnel data base. you can call them trump loyalists, those that want to see what is in that 900-page book to be executed on so that the trump administration, during the transition in november, december, january, if he wins the election. they are able to already have names and resumes of these individuals who are they are confident, again in january of 2025, pull the levers that make the policy. >> they tried to execute in donald trump's term, couldn't go further because he wasn't reelected. that allows him to take anyone in a policy position, reclassify them as a political appointee. dismiss them at will and replace them with people in line with donald trump or whatever the administration is. how much has the trump team endorsed project 2025. >> very much so, in large part because of the allies who have been around donald trump, and you have heard him even suggest jd vance has been the leading voice, i would contend, within congress on this front by making the claim that, again, this is not based on statistical fact, they make the case that 90% of the civil work force, working through the federal government of the executive branch are liberal, and that conservatives are held up from executing on their agenda when so called liberal work force individuals are holding up implementation of policy, and they want the ability to go in and move some of the civil work force. they push back, not the completely removal of every federal government worker, but go in and make those political positions. >> and maneuvers they believe will be upheld by the conservative majority in the supreme court. they have seen glimmers of that in the decisions made, the overturning of roe and the mifepristone ruling, very much on a procedure and opens the door for more challenges to come. david, in light of all of that, i'm curious to get your take on this. we have conservatives who have always voted on the issue of the supreme court, voted on the issue of conservative justices. it's been very reliable. but it's now not just abortion. now it is ivf on the table. we saw that with the alabama supreme court ruling, state supreme court ruling and now with the southern baptist convention coming out and condemning it, and pointing evangelicals in a direction. i wonder do you see that potentially driving a divide within the republican party between evangelicals and their more conservative, harder right views and the rest of the republican party who is in favor of a thing like ivf and fertility treatments and potentially in favor of abortion just abortion with some limits. >> you know, one of the things that i'm seeing is a lot of people are missing the fact that the right is very divided on judicial philosophy. the current supreme court is really a -- it's still a province of the pre-trump right, and by that i mean the justices tend to be classical liberals, they tend not to be authoritarian. they have turned back a number of maga legal initiatives over the past several years from the election steal effort to the independent state legislature theory, to maga related efforts to undermine the voting rights act. even the mifepristone decision was turning back a reach goal by more conservative lawyers. there's actual division on the right, and how they view the current justices. one of the things you're going to see is that maga is going to look for a different kind of justice, from neil gorsuch or amy coney barrett. they're going to look for a justice who's much more open to the use of state power. for example, if chevron is overturned, that hurts project 2025. because project 2025 depends on the judges having deferential approaches to executive power. but if you overturn chevron, that removes a lot of deference to executive power. that would be a setback to project 2025. it's one of the reasons why these judicial arguments are a lot more complicated than they tend to play out in the media. the ride is now very divided over judicial philosophy, and the current supreme court is not the apple of maga's eye. i can tell you that. >> if donald trump is reelected again, how much pressure would there be on justices alito and thomas to resign, and who, you're talking about them not liking this supreme court, would it be federalist society approved lawyers and judges or would donald trump be reaching for others? >> i think he would be reaching for others. the federalist society by and large is not authoritarian, it's not maga. i speak to a lot of federalist society gatherings over the years. 2/3, 1/3, very very maga. and since the rise of the trump movement, there is now an independent sort of trump legal movement right alongside of maga, and i think you would start to see them being tapped for judicial nominations in a way that a lot of people would look back at the federalist society nominations and say i wish we could go back to that because the newer, more maga focused, they are totally focused on outcomes, totally focused on the use of power to accomplish right wing aims. they are not focused on individual liberty. they are not focused on limiting the reach and scope of government. it's a very different world view, and so i think people are missing that. that the civil war on the right has come to the legal community now as well. >> david, let me get you back on the first question i asked. do you think there are republicans out there that look to these decisions made on the courts, regarding ivf, regarding abortion and the potential for abortion being banned nationwide, even through maneuvers like we were talking about with vaughn, and do they say, god, i'm not comfortable with this. are there people on the margins who say i'm not comfortable with this, i'm going to vote for president biden or do they stick by trump? >> i think it's very complicated. some will still vote for trump but be not comfortable with the legal developments of the maga movement. there are a lot of people in the conservative legal movement who are very much opposed to this maga, more authoritarian development. and you're going to see, and i think i would be very surprised if rahami comes out, this is the gun control case involving domestic violence restraining orders, i would be surprised if the supreme court sides with the gun rights groups on rahami. from the oral argument, they were skeptical with the idea that you still had a right to own a gun, even if you had a domestic violence restraining order. by the end of this term, you're going to see sharp differences between the traditional conservative legal movement and maga, and they are going to be very plain and obvious by the end of this term. when trump talks about judges, he's going to be talking about a different kind of judge in many ways than the current composition of the court. >> we got to get into that more when we have a little bit more time. again, this is a conversation i think we should be having from now until november. it does have widespread ramifications. david french, good to have you, same to you peter baker, vaughn hillyard, and lisa rubin, i appreciate the launching of a really good conversation. muted mics and no audience. what to expect when donald trump and president biden meet one on one in the first and most anticipated debate. that is next week. and the first major wildfire of the season has hit los angeles county. what firefighters are facing as they attempt to get it under control. and what this says about this summer. plus, president netanyahu disbands prime minister netanyahu, excuse me, disbands his war cabinet. what it means for hopes of a cease fire between hamas and israel. we're back in 90 seconds. ck in s ? try the swiffer powermop. ♪♪ an all-in-one cleaning tool that gives you a mop and bucket clean in half the time ♪♪ our cleaning pad has hundreds of scrubbing strips that 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(vo) new and existing customers get iphone 15 on us when they trade in any iphone. verizon it's time to feed the dogs real food, not highly processed pellets. the farmer's dog is fresh food made with whole meat and veggies. it's not dry food. it's not wet food. it's just real food. it's an idea whose time has come. no opening statements, no audience to play off of. two minute answers and muted mics if you don't wait your turn. how rowdy can things really get when donald trump and joe biden take the debate stage next week. joining us now, former deputy assistant secretary former spokesperson for hillary clinton, it's really good to have you. how do you prep for a debate like this? >> you know, i think joe biden has prepped a couple of times for this, and they were four years ago. the only way to prep for it is to do it. and it's probably going to turn out to be the best experience he has. to answer questions, we're going to see how bad it can get. it's probably not going to get better than it was, especially the first debate of 2020 was a bit of mess. >> the talk out there is maybe this helps donald trump because part of what turned voters off in 2020 among covid and a whole host of other things was how erratic and how loud and how intrusive trump was during those debates. by muting his mic, are you helping him? >> if you mute his mic for the entire 90 minutes, you're absolutely helping him. if you mute it for half the time, i mean, i think we're at the point where we are all so conditioned to fearing donald trump winning no matter what, no matter what he does, we keep coming up with crazy notions no matter what he does helps him, if he comes up with 34 felony convictions, it helps him. if his house is raided, it helps him. i don't think it helps him because he will stand there gesticulating or making faces. more important, what he says when his meek is on will be probably pretty problematic. it will be pretty gibberish, pretty mad, again, referencing the first debate in 2020. he was pretty unhinged as compared to 2016. in 2016, i hate to say it, he had message wrapped in bluser and -- in bluster and lying and himself. 2020, he had nothing other than grievances. >> if you're in a room with somebody, and you both have mics, you can hear the other person on the mic, unless you're using a super powerful single direction mic. >> i think it's going to be a very confusing setting for them. i think for the viewers, i think there are going to be millions of couples arguing over the remote saying did you hit mute, why can't i hear that person, i think it's going to be confusing. the debaters are going to hear what each are saying, but i think the gist of it, the intent of it will be better for the voters that we're not hearing them talk over each other. the real responsibility, though, is going to go to the moderators to keep it focused and to keep it honest in the sense that when donald trump is speaking if he is making up facts, if he's making up events or both of them, that they say, sir, that is just not true. and, again, donald trump can do plenty of damage to himself and to others in 45 minutes of his mic being on. he's going to end the middle of the debate claiming he didn't know that the mic was off. he did this a couple of weeks ago when he complained about his teleprompter. >> hold on, let me ask you something before you go on this. >> you need to mute me when i'm not talking. >> you helped me out of a sticky situation in the past, which i will be forever grateful. i can't help but shake something that david frum wrote, he thought it was a bad idea for biden to stand on the stage with donald trump because it lends him credibility, and he's a man who tried to overturn a democratic election. tried to inspire an insurrection, and he thinks just the talk to me about the economy and grocery store prices diminishes. how do you have that conversation? we're going to put the insurrection and the time that you tried to stage a coup to the side, and we're going to talk about grocery prices. he finds that to be, in his argument, to be just absurd. >> in the course of the horror of the last few years, i got to know david well enough that i respect and agree with almost everything he says. in the world he was talking about, these two men would not share a stage. mostly because donald trump would be in prison. i understand what he's saying. in that world, joe biden would have 90% of the vote if not more. the world we live in, it's tight as a tick, and i'm hoping the reason that joe biden wants to do this is because, you know, we never see these two together. we talk about them constantly. constantly. these two men have not been in the same place at the same time, for 1,400 days. since the last time they debated in nashville in the summer of 2020, trump did not go to his inauguration. this is the only time we see the biggest choice in america's, you know, history, right now in this day and age is then. we need to see the contrast. particularly what david said and what you're quoting is the question of democracy. i love when joe biden talks about democracy for a couple reasons. he's doing it because he feels it. he did it when he announced in april of 2019. did it in the midterms and doing is now. he feels it. he does it because he really believes it's what's at stake now, and he gets incredibly animated. that's the joe biden people need to see. frankly, it's what democrats need to see. it's democrats that tend to be the most annoying about what they're seeing in joe biden. they want to see him fighting and this topic really gets him going. >> philippe reines, u thank you for joining us, appreciate it. what ukrainian soldiers on the ground are telling nbc news. first, we're going live to california where there is a giant wildfire that firefighters are struggling to get control of. and what it means for this summer. don't go anywhere. nothing dims my light like a migraine. with nurtec odt, i found relief. the only migraine medication that helps treat and prevent, all in one. to those with migraine, i see you. for the acute treatment of migraine with or without aura and the preventive treatment of episodic migraine in adults. don't take if allergic to nurtec odt. allergic reactions can occur, even days after using. most common side effects were nausea, indigestion, and stomach pain. it's time we all shine. talk to a healthcare provider about nurtec odt from pfizer. 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>> reporter: much more wind, katy. i can attest to these red flag winds. any minute we'll get a gust of 20, 30 miles per hour, and because of where we're standing, which is this burned out complex, you can feel every bit of it. this fire has been hot and heavy, it has been growing since we have been on the ground here. now more than 16,000 acres. there is more containment from 2% to 8%. that's a good sign. pushing it away from city center. the damage is done. look at what crews are doing now. this burned out lot is the path of the wind we were speaking about. this bone dry brush serves as a runway for the wind to push the flames. look at this. this structure is moving. you can see the dust being kicked up as we speak. we spoke to a fire captain who told us why the fire conditions are perfect for the worst case scenario. here's what she said, listen to this. >> it seems early in the season: it's an indication and warning to what's coming. we have had so much rain over the last 2 1/2 years. a ton of brush. the kindling that starts the big fires. if you combine with the right topography and wind conditions, you've got what you're looking at now. we did have high temperatures this weekend. >> reporter: and again, the thing that's so concerning about this is this is essentially -- look at this, this is essentially day one. this is june 16th. there's a whole, you know, several months of this fire season still left and already we're seeing so much of this happen just today. katy. >> steve, thank you so much. and what dozens of countries said this weekend about russia's demands in ukraine, and what ukrainian troops on the ground are doing in response. plus, what is happening with prime minister netanyahu's war cabinet, and what it means for the cease fire deal, not to mention his hold on power in israel. are so many tina feys i could be. so i hired body doubles. mountain climbing tina at a cabin. or tree climbing tina at a beach resort. nice! booking.com booking.yeah. my parents worked long hours and i helped raise my younger brother. when college felt out of reach, the kpmg future leaders program was there for me. it was more than a scholarship. it was four years of mentorship and support. today, i'm an investment banking analyst and i'm just getting started. the kpmg future leaders program. empowering young women to reach their potential since 2016. these days everyone is staring at screens, and watching their spending. good vision is more important than ever, but so is saving. that's why america's best includes a free eye exam when you buy two pairs of glasses for just $79.95. book an exam online today. my frequent heartburn had me taking antacid after antacid all day long but with prilosec otc just one pill a day blocks heartburn for a full 24 hours. for one and done heartburn relief, prilosec otc. one pill a day, 24 hours, zero heartburn. . israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu has dissolved the war cabinet, days after benny gantz resigned from the government. netanyahu says with the war cabinet disbanded, he will consult a smaller group that he called the kitchen cabinet instead. joining us now from beirut is nbc's chief international correspondent keir simmons, what's this going to mean for the war, keir? >> reporter: the decision making in the israeli government is fairly opaque. potentially it's going to get more opaque. the expectation was that prime minister netanyahu would dissolve the war cabinet after benny gantz left it because, frankly, he would need to politically bring in two of the far right members of his government, and that would be very difficult, for example, for washington to except. instead it's going to be decisions made by the security counsel, which is a bigger group. and as you mentioned, prime minister netanyahu is also talking about, you know, his kitchen cabinet. now, look, i think it really underscores, katy, some of the tensions that you have seen over the last nine months within the israeli government. just now there is an argument between prime minister netanyahu's office and the idf, the israeli military over the question of whether or not they should allow more aid to go into gaza. the idf proposing to do that in daytime hours. it's not clear how it's going to work. it often isn't with these proposals. it looks like the prime minister's office doesn't like it, and that again is another physio within the israeli establishment, as they continue this war in gaza. >> keir simmons, thank you very much. all the stats say the economy is strong. americans still aren't happy. why is that? director of the economic council joins us on how the administration is trying to change perceptions. 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>> look, the president wants to enable people to buy their first homes. he proposed a $10,000 tax credit other the next two years to ensure first time home buyers can afford a new home and to enable people who have starter size, so that's how we would get the housing market moving. he also wants to bring rents down, and he's had a rule that essentially on low income housing tax credit units will cap rent increases, so he's pushing really hard. >> so these are proposals. they've got to go to congress. >> on the capping of rent increases for units that are financed with federal dollars, that's something that's going into effect as we speak. the homeowners tax credit, the tax credit to get people to put their starter homes on the market, that is something that we would love for congressional republicans to join us on. they won't even move the tax credits on the senate side that were passed with bipartisan support on the house side. >> what about child care? i mean, i can tell you child care is insane live expensive. there are a lot of families out there paying much more than they can afford on child care, especially for the youngest kids that aren't eligible yet for day care or 3's program through a public school. how does the administration address the cost of having children? >> the cost of having children is a huge issue for parents. keeping some parents out of the work force. so we've got some really great programs. we saw they worked. the child tax credit, put money back in the pockets of americans. also for low income americans, they currently have a cap on their child care costs, about $10 a day. the president wants to make that available for more people that republicans are just blocking every action he wants to take. >> why isn't child care, why aren't day cares subsidized in this country? in other countries, they're subsidized no matter how much you make. $50 max or a hundred dollars max to put your child in a day care in a absolutely. canada has a great policy that's very similar to one that president biden put in place for low income families, which will cap your weekly child care costs as a share of your income, make it affordable, and we want that to be available to all working parents. again, congressional republicans have a very different vision. they want to tax middle income households by putting an enormous tariff on them which will cost them thousands of dollars a year in order to make room for tax cuts for the wealthy? >> is there any executive action he can take or is this something that has to be squarely in the hands of congress? >> so on child care, we have a proposal that is sitting with congress to fund child care centers, which is an extension of what the president did during the pandemic. it's being blocked. so we really do need partners across the aisle. this is a bipartisan issue. parents across the country can attest to how important it is, and again, congressional republicans should stop calling attention to inflation and join us in solving the problem. >> what about grocery store prices? they're persistently high. inflation's coming down, but you know, going and buying a dozen eggs feels a lot worse today than it did three years ago, four years ago. what can the administration do regarding grocery store prices? >> so this is a major focus for so many american families. you know, grocery store prices are the things that people see every week, and so when the price of eggs goes up, people are high aaware of it. it affects their budget. the president has been pushing really hard, worked to solve the supply chain issues, worked to solve the issues that arose result of russia's invasion of ukraine, which froze grain shipments. commodity prices have come all the way down, supply chains are fixed, supply chain prices have come down, but grocery stores have been slow to pass on the savings. so the president has been calling on grocery stores to give consumers a break. we're finally seeing some of the major grocery stores cutting prices on thousands of items. food prices were flat or down over the last few months. the president's going to keep pushing on that. again, congressional republicans, they want to tax groceries by putting a tariff on all the food imports that we purchase, that means bananas. it means chocolate and coffee, so they want to actually increase food prices for american consumers. >> lael brainard, thank you very much for joining us. appreciate it. >> thank you very much. coming up next, what dozens of countries just said about the ukraine war. speaking of ukraine. and what ukrainian troops told nbc news about it. ukrainian trd nbc news about it. here's to getting better with age. here's to beating these two every thursday. help fuel today with boost high protein, complete nutrition you need... ...without the stuff you don't. so, here's to now. boost. have heart failure with unresolved symptoms? 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(mom) my turn. ♪ i have type 2 diabetes, but i manage it well ♪ ♪ jardiance! ♪ ♪ it's a little pill with a big story to tell ♪ ♪ i take once-daily jardiance ♪ ♪ at each day's start! ♪ ♪ as time went on it was easy to see ♪ ♪ i'm lowering my a1c! ♪ jardiance works twenty-four seven in your body to flush out some sugar. and for adults with type 2 diabetes and known heart disease, jardiance can lower the risk of cardiovascular death, too. serious side effects may include ketoacidosis that may be fatal, dehydration that can lead to sudden worsening of kidney function, and genital yeast or urinary tract infections. a rare, life-threatening bacterial infection in the skin of the perineum could occur. stop jardiance and call your doctor right away if you have symptoms of this infection ketoacidosis, or an allergic reaction. you may have an increased risk for lower limb loss. call your doctor right away if you have symptoms of infection in your legs or feet. taking jardiance with a sulfonylurea or insulin may cause low blood sugar. ♪ jardiance is really swell ♪ ♪ the little pill ♪ ♪ with a big story to tell! ♪ in ukraine, soldiers battling russia's offensives say they are emboldened by renewed support from the west, and one commander of a drone unit told nbc news, quote, if we stop fighting we die. to that point, ukrainian president volodymyr zelenskyy rejected vladimir putin's demands to begin peace talks. joining us now nbc news chief foreign correspondent richard engel in kyiv. tell me about these conversations you've had with these ukrainian troops, and also, if you can, about why president zelenskyy rejected vladimir putin's peace talk negotiations. >> reporter: so we just returned to kyiv from the east. we were out in the front line areas around kharkiv for the south of kharkiv, and we spoke to drone units, we spoke to a tank unit, a unit operating american abrams tanks, and spoke to local officials in kharkiv and i think got a good sense of the battle picture out there, and things are improving. and things are improving, and they told us for two main reasons. it looked very bleak out in the east. about a month ago, the russians were in the midst of an offensive to try and take the city of kharkiv in particular, and they were trying to capitalize on the fact that all this money and weapons and support was delayed in congress, and the russians were trying to use that to their advantage to get some -- to get some ground and also to try and demoralize the ukrainians while they felt that no one is paying attention to them, that the aid was held up for political reasons. but now the weapons are starting to flow and they are starting to stop that offensive. they're also encouraged by the political talks, the fact that president biden just announced this ten-year deal. yes, it could be ripped apart by a future president if donald trump were to be reelected, he very likely would tear up that agreement, but they see this happening, and they even saw what happened just over the weekend with this conference on peace with 80 nations expressing their support, rallying around president zelenskyy, all of that gives commanders here a sense that ukraine is important, is a priority. they don't have too much faith in conferences, but they do have faith in the results and so far each one of these meetings is producing billions of dollars in results. this conference in geneva was not a peace conference because the russians weren't there. president zelenskyy was asked specifically about this, what's the point of having a diplomatic conference if the main person, the main party involved in the war on the opposite side isn't there? >> richard engel, thank you very much. that's going to do it for me today. "deadline white house" starts right now. hi there, everyone, it's 4:00 in the east. the biden campaign came out swinging this morning wielding the most powerful rhetorical weapon there is against donald trump. team biden calling out the disgraced convicted twice impeached four times indicted liable for sexual abuse and financial fraud