Transcripts For MSNBCW Jose 20240703

It is 11 00 a. M. Eastern. 8 00 a. M. Pacific. Im jose diazbalart. Were tracking several breaking stories right now. Israel strikes back, targeting iran overnight. The fallout as tensions grow in the middle east. Here at home, a critical vote under way right now on capitol hill to advance a whopping package of aid to ukraine and israel. In new york city, Jury Selection back under way in Donald Trumps criminal Hush Money Trial, a full panel of 12 in place as they search for five more people to fill the alternate seats. And we begin with Breaking News on capitol hill, where happening right now the house is voting on whether to consider a package of bills with 95 billion in aid for ukraine, israel and the indopacific. Joining us now from capitol hill is nbcs ali vitali. What is happening right now . Reporter look, just in the last minute or two, jose, since we came on the air with you, democrats who had seemingly been holding their votes back from this rule vote just i think to get a sense of how many republicans would vote to pass it, and to get a sense of how Many Democrats would have to join them to help, we are now seeing that democrat dam breaking. All members of leadership from leader Hakeem Jeffries to whip Katherine Clark to the vice chair pete aguilar, all of them voting yes on the rule. This is a pretty wild moment, given the fact that this is not how things usually work up here. Rules are not typically passed in bipartisan fashion. But, it speaks to the realities that we have seen with this House Republican conference, many of the members who are voting no vocal about it just in the last few minutes here on the stills with me as they went in to cast their no votes. This is how we thought it was going to go, but it is also why this is such a politically thorny and tricky issue, not just for the democrats who are crossing over here, they say that theyre doing the right thing, aiding our allies in ukraine and in israel and the indopacific, but for republicans specifically Speaker Mike Johnson who basically said as much last night in an interview on a conservative network, he said, republicans only control one chamber here, and i barely control this chamber. Another nod that the conference has been a consistent thorn in his side. What this does tee jose, the time is technically zero, but it is the first and only vote of the day and sometimes it takes members a little longer to get on the floor and cast their votes. But what this does tee up is a saturday session where likely tomorrow afternoon we are going to see the house vote on these four separate bills that would provide aid to ukraine, to israel, the indopacific, and then a potpourri of other priorities that are included in a fourth bill, one of those includes legislation around banning tiktok. But this all tees it up. This is the procedural motion that had to happen in order for us to get to saturday. And now here we are, though, it is not official until the gavel is sounded in that room. And so, ali, we look at the numbers, pretty strong yeas, more than 300 yeas so far. But if you could kind of explain to us a little bit about how unusual it is that in the Rules Committee, the vote would be a bipartisan vote, when the Rules Committee, which is the committee that really determines what is and or not able to be discussed and voted on at the floor, normally just takes a party line vote. Reporter yeah. Theyre the gatekeepers, jose. The Rules Committee are the gatekeepers to whatever legislation will get a full floor vote. Thats why we are here today, watching this vote playing out. Because late last night the Rules Committee did something and they did it in a very rare way. Youre right, this is typically a committee that functions solely based on party narrow a. The problem is that three conservative republicans were outspoken about the fact that they were not going to vote yes on getting this rule to the floor, it was a big enough priority for democrats that all four of the democrats on that Rules Committee banded together and in rare fashion helped to pass this rule out of that committee, and on to the house floor, again, a reminder of the way this houseworks and the reminder of the way that republicans are effectively bucking their leadership in plain sight. What that vote is going to lead to, though, and we heard murmurs of this already before it even happened was many disgruntled republican members saying that if there are members on the Rules Committee who cant seem to vote with leadership and vote with the majority of this conference, then they should be taken off that committee. The three members were talking about here are ones that we talked about a lot during the motion to vacate of Speaker Mccarthy and even during his multiple balloting rounds at the start of this congress, they negotiated those seats on that all powerful committee for themselves so they would have levers of power throughout the rest of this congress. They are exercising those and so this is really a moment where the decisions that republicans and Kevin Mccarthy made in the very beginning of this congress are now coming back to sprout and to show what the impact of that actually is. Ali vitali on capitol hill, thank you so very much. And turning now to more Breaking News this morning. From Inside A Manhattan courtroom, where a Jury Selection and former President Trumps Hush Money Trial continues. Right now the prosecution on the defense are working through candidates to fill the final five seats for alternate jurors in a process expected to potentially take weeks, a busy thursday Afternoon Led the selection of a full panel of 12 jurors to decide Donald Trumps first criminal trial. They include five women and seven men whose identities the judge ordered to be kept confidential during the trial. Judge juan merchan said he hopes to select the remaining alternate jurors today and start Opening Statements on monday. A reminder, trump pleaded not guilty to all 34 counts. Joining us now from outside the courthouse, nbc news correspondent yasmin vossoughian, and with us barbara mckwid, former u. S. Attorney in michigan and msnbc legal analyst and david henderson, Civil Rights Attorney and former prosecutor. What is the latest from inside the courthouse this morning . Reporter we started out with 22 today, were down to 19. Three so far have been excused from the jury pool that showed up early this morning. One of them because of fear and anxiety, fear for her identity being revealed, one saying after thinking about it overnight, doesnt think they can necessarily be impartial. We have got some interesting characters, jose in this jury pool, which are fairly interesting when we get to the voir dire portion of the q a, when they ask their own questions of the potential jurors. Let me read the quotes from inside the courtroom from the potential jurors. The one that was excused said i dont think i can be fair and impartial. This was a potential juror who said they were watching fox news mostly reading the Wall Street Journal as well. At that moment in which she talked about watching fox news, he looked in her direction, he was interested in hearing more of her answers. Hes interested in those people who seem to be more politically ambiguous. Jurors more politically ambiguous, passing notes for instance to his attorney todd blanche and those moments in which he feels as if possibly maybe a juror would be more in their favor than not. Seat number 14 is a male and talked about volunteering for Get Out The Vote for the Democratic Party during the clinton campaign, and attending a womens march as well. Im told in that moment the former president kind of perked up looking in the direction of this potential juror as well. And there was another interesting potential juror, a woman who says her father is a life long friend of governor Chris Christie in this moment, im told, the former president kind of smiled, smirked, i should say, and talking about his former foe, back in 2016, governor Chris Christie, and at one point long time ally. And then went on to say that michael cohen, the star witness of this case, Michael Cohens son actually works at this potential jurors company. And so there is a lot of interesting kind of nuggets to take away from this potential jury pool and were all going to hear that come out, of course in that q a portion of the voir dire. The Voir Dire Process is extended by five minutes for each side, asked early this morning by attorneys if they could get five more minutes because of the larger jury pool, right . 22, now 19. And judge juan merchan granted that. David, Jury Selection was anticipated to pay weeks, maybe two weeks. But were nearly done after just four days. What do you make of the pace of this case so far . Jose, im less focused on the pace than i am how generous the judge has been with the defense, with regard to Jury Selection. Im not saying the judge has done anything improper, but what often happens in Jury Selection is you ask who here cannot be fair and impartial, people raise their hand, then you have followup, if i explain the law to you, are you telling me youre going to disregard the law or can you set your bias aside and sit and hear the evidence on this case and be fair and impartial, people often say yes and then it is a battle about who can rehabilitate those people or get them stricken for a reason that says they cant comply with the law. You take that out and excuse jurors when they raise their hands, things are going to move much for quickly than they normally would. And so, what would you think is probably the what would be the better way to sift through these people . I can tell you what i think the better way is for the perspective of a trial lawyer. A trial lawyer, you want more time to spend talking with the jurors. The only way you get that is to spend time talking to them individually. I had Jury Selection last as long as six weeks, though thats rare. Normally it takes a day. You dont have it go more than one day. But i say that because here when you look at this makeup, the people that make us nervous as Trial Lawyers are other attorneys and engineers also make us very nervous. The reason why is because they can say, you know what, i dont agree with this law, but it is still the law and im going to follow it. And so you typically want to know more about an individual like that, having one is a threat, here on this jury panel, you have three so far. Thats 25 of your jury. With limited information we do have, what do you make of the jury so far . You know, it is interesting, jose, because the Jury Selection is purported to be this incredible science and all of the scrutiny. But the end of the day, a lot of it is based on hunches and even stereotypes. Assumptions that people have certain world views based on the kind of job they have. We heard engineers or lawyers or people who think about things more methodically versus other people who might make decisions more on gut feeling than on facts. But it strikes me as a jury that although as david said we have not really met a lot up close, we have weeded out everybody who is identified by themselves biased against donald trump and with this 42 question series of questions, i think this is about as good as these lawyers are going to get in terms of understanding what these jurors are all about. There is always the opportunity for someone to be less than truthful or misleading and hiding a bias that they may have, but i think this is the best were going to do. So far i think this jury seems just fine. Yeah, and what about the fact that there are three attorneys on there . Is that unusual . It is very unusual. As a lawyer myself, when i pick a jury, i often would excuse lawyers from the jury because what i worried about wasnt that they were going to rule for me or against me, but that they were going to become someone that the rest of the jury would look to out of deference. Who am i to decide . Im not a lawyer. Lets ask the lawyer. When you have three, then maybe they neutralize each other. The other thing as a lawyer, i tended to want people who were educated, people who might be able to work through sometimes complicated jury instructions. Keep track of all of the evidence, and then make a very elemental decision about the evidence here. I could see so lawyers might be good for that reason. They might neutralize that jury of one concern that i would have. From a defense perspective, i might be less interested in having juries on board because they might be better suited to process all of the evidence and look at the elements. I suppose if youre the defense, one thing that you might realize about lawyers is they will truly hold the prosecution to guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. Not deciding based on gut, it seems like hes guilty or seems like he did something wrong, theyll look at that very elementally and look and parse each of those words. Maybe the defense feels like they get a better shake from lawyers in this case. And yasmin, i know you dont stop reporting on this. What has been the former president s Demeanor Inside Court today . He seems more involved, jose. Ive been getting a lot of notes from inside the courtroom, he seems more involved in picking these alternate juros than he has been in the last few days. I say that because of kind of being more animated, in the courtroom, especially when it comes to some of the answers were hearing from the potential jurors. I will say we also heard from the former president earlier today as well, talking about the gag order. Remember there are seven potential violations being filed for this gag order. The former president stopped for cameras before he entered the courtroom early this morning and he said the gag order should be lifted. Take a listen to what he had to say. The gag order has to come off. People are allowed to speak about me and i have a gag order. Just to show you how much more unfair it is. So, just to let you know there is going to be a hearing on the gag order on tuesday, right . I think the idea in anticipating this hearing and the gag order will be how judge juan merchan deals with it. We remember back to judge engoron and he held donald trump in contempt of the gag order two separate times, he had to pay a fee over those two separate times of 15,000, right. So well be watching to see how judge juan merchan sets the temperature for his courtroom throughout this trial. Yeah, david, is there any chance a gag order could be lifted . Under the gag order, i think well have an ongoing problem with this trial. Joe jamil, known for cursing in the courtroom, the judge said every time you curse in my courtroom, ill fine you A Thousand Dollar and the legend goes he shows up the next day for a check for 100,000 and said, judge, just let me know when that runs out. Former President Trump is going to push the envelope as much as he can and not going back off, violating the orders put in place where hes not supposed to make public statements. You got it treat him the way you treat any normal person who did this, not that normal people do this often, but dont think it is enough to stop him. I think the gag order stays in place, i think hell continue to violate it. It is going to be a lot of back and forth throughout the duration of this trial. Yasmin vossoughian, barbara mcquaid, david henderson, thank you. Back to capitol hill, Breaking News there. Ali vitali. What do we know . Reporter this rule has now passed in the fashion that we expected it to. But certainly in a considerably rare way, which seems to be the word of the day here because of the way that the house is conducting its business. The final vote total is 31694. 165 democrats and 151 republicans supported the rule. What makes this rare is not the bipartisan nature of it. Though it is not typical to see Democrats Join with republicans to pass rules in bipartisan fashion. What makes this notable is the fact that there are more democrats from the Minority Party than members of the republican Majority Voting to put this eventual vote on the floor on saturday. Now, we might hear from Speaker Johnson in the next few minutes, certainly thats something that were keeping an eye out for because the other thing that is now going to be very much alive is the threat of a motion to vacate because although this was being threatened before the vote, now that we see that 90 plus folks on the republican side were able to vote against this, there are a lot of people coming out here on the steps behind me voicing the fact that ali, sorry to interrupt you, here is the speaker. Into four separate measures for consideration and thats what we will have tomorrow. Everyone can vote their will and their constituents desires on the israel aid, the ukrainian aid, the indopacific and our Fourth National Security Package that has all of our innovations in it. Because we did this process, we got a better outcome here. We have a lot of innovations that the senate did not consider. We consider the repo act, the use of corrupt Russian Oligarchs assets to help fund the resistance in ukraine. We also included some really important sanctions on russia and china and iran, which i believe is the new axis of evil and many of us do and theyre the ones who are the aggressors in this situation. The reality here is that if the house did not do this better policy and process, allowing for amendments on the floor in the process tomorrow, we would have had to eat this Senate Supplemental bill. And that is because were very close, given the timeline in both israel and ukraine, to a Discharge Petition being brought. And Discharge Petition and laymans terms is that when a number of members or majority of members get together, they can override the speaker and bring something straight to the floor. That would have happened imminently on the Senate Supplemental. By doing this, even though it is not the perfect legislation, it is not the legislation that we would write if republicans were in charge of the house and the senate and the white house, this is the best possible product we can get under these circumstances to take care of these really important obligations. So, we look forward to the vote tomorrow. We look forward to every member voting their conscience and their desire and that is exactly how this process is supposed to work and how the house is supposed to operate. Were happy to provide that. Well give you more comment tomorrow. Thank you. Ali vitali, we just heard there what you were giving us a little update on, that it will happen tomorrow. So just for all of us that arent seeped in the minutia of the house rules and processes, what the vote was today, 300 plus, was to allow these bills to come to the floor and these four bills will then be voted upon tomorrow . Exactly right. Im happy to be the one of us who stews in the weeds here on capitol hill, jose. Basically what this vote was today and the reason it was such a big deal is because if a rule vote were to fail and thats been happening more frequently here, not only is it an embarrassment to leadership and in this case Republican Leadership who clearly dont know where their votes are, but it is also a sign that thats where the process would have ended. It made it through the full house floor and now it clears the way for all four of these bills that the speaker was there talking about to actually get their individual votes. And he basically made the point here that this is akin to the Senate Supplemental, which grouped all of these different aid packages together and by breaking them up, he is allowing members of both his conference and for democrats as well to vote their conscience on each of these various aid packages. I think tomorrow when we ultimately see this vote in the afternoon, were going to see some really fascinating vote totals, democrats who are willing to vote, for example, for ukraine aid but not israel aid, republicans who might do the reverse, there will be some interesting pairings were watching here. The other thing were going to keep watching, of course, is whether or not this amounts to a more urgent threat on Speaker Johnsons job. Of course, those threats have been percolating, chief among them from congresswoman Marjorie Taylor greene. She walked down the steps while we were talking and didnt talk to reporters. Thats rare given the way that shes been acting this week. Shes been more than willing to spend time in front of the cameras, but no update from her as yet. I do think just to zoom out a little bit, as we watch the transformation here of Speaker Johnson, this is someone who as a member of congress was skeptical about continued aid to ukraine, now were seeing him put his job on the line. Sorry to interrupt you. The speaker is back at the podium. If the house did not do this better policy and process, allowing for amendments on the floor, in the process tomorrow, we would have had to eat the Senate Supplemental bill. And that is because we were very close, given the timeline in both israel and ukraine, to a Discharge Petition being brought and Discharge Petition in laymans terms is that when a number of members or majority of members get together, they can override the speaker and bring something straight to the floor. That would have happened imminently on the Senate Supplemental. By doing this, even though it is not the perfect legislation, it is not the legislation that we would that video was moments ago. Ali vitali on capitol hill for us, thank you very much. And, ali, im sure well continue speaking. Tomorrow say big day on capitol hill. Oh, yeah. I want to comment on something i just love about just how much you know and care, you said, were going to see some fascinating vote totals. You know when people tell you vote totals are fascinating, i love it, because you know so much, care so much and thats why i so appreciate you every day. Ali, thanks. Thank you, my friend. Breaking overnight, and well have that for you just up next, israel carries out a strike inside iran. What iran is saying about it this morning. And, of course, back here at home, middle east tensions boil over on the streets of new york right on the campus of an ivy league school, where over 100 people were arrested. Youre watching jose diazbalart reports on msnbc. Ad youre watching jose diazbalart reports on msnbc. And special offers and deals. Dont miss out. Partner with our experts today. Sup . Who are you . 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What were focused on, what the g7 is focused on and reflected in our statement, and in our conversation, is our work to deescalate tensions. To deescalate from any potential conflict. Joining us now from tel aviv is raf sanchez, great seeing you. What has been the reaction inside israel, how are things looking at this hour . Jose, the Israeli Government is saying nothing on the record. Their Official Position is theyre neither confirming nor denying israel was responsible for that strike in iran. We have not heard from Prime Minister benjamin netanyahu. Were not expecting to. And this appears to be an approach designed to give the iranians an off ramp, if you will, to allow the iranian government to choose not to retaliate without losing face because you are not hearing Israel Crowing about this, gloating about this, rubbing the iranian face in it. From irans perspective, theyre downplaying this attack, we heard from the iranian president this morning, he said nothing about the strike, Iranian State media is saying the situation is calm, civilian air traffic is flying as normal. And despite all the bluster we have heard from irans Revolutionary Guard corps over the last week saying that any Israeli Attack of any size would be met with immediate retaliation, the iranian government at this point is not blaming iran and theyre not promising to retaliate. Now, it is worth saying this mornings strike did not happen in a vacuum. April 1st israel allegedly bombed near the iranian consulate in syria, killing seven senior members of the Revolutionary Guard corps and then the unprecedented attack by iran against israel itself, 350 missiles and drones launched towards this country. The vast majority of them shot down. At this point, jose, israels military is not imposing any new restrictions on the civilian population here. That is an indication that israel is not expecting iran to retaliate, at least not at the moment. In terms of the strike itself, we know that it happened around 4 00 a. M. Local time near the city of isfahan. We believe the target was a Military Base there, a source familiar with the situation says this was a limited strike and israel spent the hours afterwards assessing the effectiveness. Ill also just say on a separate note, in the last hour or so, the United States has imposed sanctions on an extremist israeli settler, his name is ben zhi, hes someone i actually met. The leader of an israeli group, a member of the far right, hes a political ally of israels National Security minister, a man who sits in Benjamin Netanyahus cabinet. So, while israel, to a certain extent, listened to american advice in that they carried out a limited strike inside of iran, a strike that appears designed not to lead to further escalation, it may be that these new sanctions lead to new friction with israels government. Raf sanchez, thank you very much. Joining us is retired four Star Army General barry mccaffrey, msnbc military analyst, peter baker from the New York Times and msnbc political analyst, and allyse labot, professor at the school of international service. What do you make of this overnight strike on iran . I think this morning is a great sense of relief among reasonable arab leaders to include the iranians and the israelis and certainly the Biden Administration which has been devoted to trying to deescalate and create conditions of peace in this struggle. Im astonished that the iranians have been able to ignore the Foreign Ministers of belligerent statements yesterday, not just the Revolutionary Guard that they would respond with overwhelming power to any Israeli Attack. So i guess the general said earlier today this is now a new normal. Very unstable, great tension in which most countries presume the other is capable of directly striking them. Iranians have a massive capability, and missiles almost 3,000. They have not expended. And the Israeli Air Force with the Stealth Fighter can clearly get into any strategic target in israel they choose to in iran they choose to attack. I think we have dodged a bullet for the time being, but it is a very unstable situation. So, general, interestingly, you were talking about how it seems as though as of right now the Iranian Military or the commanders are ignoring what the Foreign Minister of their own regime said. Is this, as raf was saying, nothing happens in a vacuum, are they maybe acting in a short period of time . Well, thats a concern. There has been no definitive statement by the iranians that theyre not going to respond in any way at any time to this. But i think for now it looks like were safe because the capabilities of iran are significant. But the threat from hezbollah is enormous. We keep using the number, 150,000 some odd rockets, ground force of over 100,000 fighters, so had iran triggered hezbollah to attack in the north, we would have seen a massive regional war break out. So, good news, Secretary Blinken has been relentless in trying to form a coalition of the suni arab nations, in particular, to say stick together, dont allow the shiite Iranian Regime to drag you into a regional war. This is very dicey stuff. And at the end of the day, you got to go back to the Israeli Attack that killed a dozen people and the Iranian Embassy in damascus and killed seven some odd senior members of the Iranian Revolutionary guard including the senior Qods Force Commander in retrospect was clearly a provocative attack that didnt diminish irans ability to threaten israel, but did goad them into responding with this over the top 350 some odd Missile Attack on israel. So, a lot of mistaken judgments are happening on both sides of this equation. Yeah, and, peter, as a general saying, we heard Secretary Of State Antony Blinken say that the United States was not involved in this strike. Nbc news learned israeli officials did notify the u. S. That a response was coming. What do you think this says about the relationship between the United States and israel . Well, of course, it is a complicated relationship right now because on the one hand the Biden Administration has been very unhappy with Prime Minister netanyahus government, conduct of the war in gaza, the president had just recently two weeks ago even threatened to change u. S. Policy toward israel if netanyahus government didnt do more to ease the humanitarian crisis in gaza, and restrict Military Activity so they didnt hurt civilians in the same dimensions that they have. At the same time, the president vowed iron clad, that is his word, iron clad support for israel against iran. Now, the result we have right here may be as the general talked about, a result that everybody can live with, maybe not great, maybe not satisfying in the longterm, but israel gets to say it did strike back. Iran gets to say didnt get hurt. And the United States gets to say we avoided the regional war the president has been worried about so much since october 7th. But as general mccaffrey said, that doesnt necessarily mean it is a longterm strategy for stability by any stretch. And anything could happen in the next 24, 48 hours if were not reading the signals right. Yeah. Lets talk about those signals, there is a new status quo in the middle east as far as iran and israel is concerned. What do you think the strike was meant to show and this new status quo is even more dangerous than it was before . I think it is a lot more dangerous, jose. As the general was saying, you know, iran escalated in a way on that april 1st attack and so iran felt that it needed to escalate, it could have responded with 20 or 30 missiles. Instead, it escalated with 300 and said you want to play, lets play. And so then the question was, was israel going to respond in kind . Or was it going to say to iran, listen, we can hit it deep inside your territory, we know where your Nuclear Facilities were, that wasnt the target, but this is a very Strategic Military area, not just that air base, but the missiles that iran uses to hit that iran uses to hit israel are in that vicinity. So very strategic place that they hit, but they didnt hit it with great force, they didnt go after the Nuclear Facilities, israel is saying we can come in, we didnt we used a tenth of the munitions you used, but if you want to escalate, you know that we can do a lot more damage. I think on both sides, message sent, message received, and i think as we have been hearing, we might go back to the shadow war, but with this new kind of status quo, that i think everybody in the International Community was very concerned about, but clearly neither israel nor iran wants that. I dont think it is over entirely. I think we could see some activity by the proxies, whether it is hezbollah, the houthis, it might be a lower level, it might not be a spectacular attack. But i think both sides are, you know, theyre not this isnt a detente, lets be honest. I think now for benjamin netanyahu, is he going to squander the International Support that hes had . Or is he going to go into rafah now which i think a lot of people expect that he will. And that would put more pressure on iranian proxies to maybe respond and so it certainly were Out Of The Woods for maybe the next as peter and the general saying, 24 to 48 hours, but were in for a rocky few months. Yeah, detente may be a matter of hours. Thank you so much for being with us this morning. Appreciate it. And the court is back from a break in the Jury Selection in Donald Trumps criminal Hush Money Trial. A live report on whats happening there next. Youre watching jose diazbalart reports on msnbc. Nt youre watching jose diazbalart reports on msnbc. 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What is the latest from the courtroom . Reporter i can tell you that donald trump, jose, just reentered the courtroom, upon his return for all of the tortured poets across america trying to make sense of the last decade, he was in fact asked about taylor swifts new album, to which he did not respond. He walked into the courtroom, where he is meeting 18 individuals who are left who could be the next alternates. Five slots left. Were down to 18 individuals who are about to go through the Voir Dire Process, which is the moment where the Defense Attorneys as well as prosecution can dig down deeper and ask them more specific questions. Over the last five minutes we saw one potential juror dismissed. She had previously served time in jail for a past conviction. She was notified that she could be excused. Upon walking out of the courtroom, she told those who remained, a cheery good luck. We have an individual who is not dismissed at this time whose father say life long friend of governor Chris Christie. We have another individual, a male potential juror who has a Court Officer friend who happens to be inside of that very courtroom today. So this could be a big hour ahead. We could very well have a full panel of 18 individuals, 12 jurors and six alternates by lunch time. Yet, if they cannot find among this group of 18 remaining individuals those five alternates, we will go into probably what could be a couple hour afternoon here as they look to close Jury Selection here on this friday, jose. And that apparently is happening right now. Vaughn hillyard, thank you very much. Thank you for the taylor swift references. I very much appreciate that as well. Turning to the latest flashpoint here in the u. S. About the israelhamas war, more demonstrations are expected today after 100 pro Palestinian Protesters were arrested yesterday at Columbia University in new york. It comes just one day after the Columbia University president testified on capitol hill about the universitys response to antisemitism on campus. The daughter of Congresswoman Ilhan Omar was among those arrested. Joining us is nbcs antonia hylton. Whats going on there today . Reporter were getting ready for another protest to begin around noon. We already can hear some students gathering on the other side of the campus here. You can see a Police Presence, a small Police Presence right in front of one of the main gates behind me here. This is day three of protests here at columbia. As you mentioned, starting on wednesday, while the president , a split screen moment, was down testifying on capitol hill, there were students setting up an encampment, so they can stay, not just protesting the war and trying to show support to palestinians in gaza, but also directly asking the administration here to cut ties with Israeli Companies or businesses here. And then what we saw happen yesterday, i was on the ground as police officers, some in riot gear entered campus, they took students about 114 we confirmed were arrested and then later released. And theyre going to be facing summons in the coming days. It created a flashpoint here, a debate over free speech and safety here on campus with propalestinian students saying that this was an aggressive move from the president , that there are protests on the campus lawns were peaceful, while jewish students are in some cases saying this created a fearful environment, made many of them unsafe. Really it is a sense on campus this is going to continue and that there will need to be further dialogue between the administration and a growing community of students who are now involved in these protests despite the fact that people were arrested, jose, were still seeing students out on the lawn there. Jewish students are saying they dont feel safe there, and in other colleges and meanwhile, switching coasts, usc canceled a speech by their valedictorian . Reporter thats right. The same debate on the other side of the country right now, usc informed the valedictorian, a muslim student, that she would not be able to give the typical graduation speech, and that has enflamed tensions there as well. Nbc news has spoken to students on both side of the debate, some felt she was involved in actions or statements that made jewish students feel unsafe and other students saying they looked forward to her speech, that she represented something or a type of person on campus who is not often heard from and celebrated in these moments around graduation. So, there is a demand there for her to be able to speak, but what we heard from the university is that they are citing unspecified threats and they dont feel safe Going Forward as planned, jose. Antonia hylton in new york city, thank you very much. Appreciate it. Up next, more on the fate of Speaker Johnson. Could he lose a gavel over the foreign aid packages . Well ask our next two guests who worked for three house speakers. Youre watching jose diazbalart reports on msnbc. Youre watching jose diazbalart reports on msnbc. Everyone. Baby liberty. Oh baby liberty. How many people did you tell . Only pay for what you need. Jingle liberty. Liberty. Liberty. Baby liberty. That grimy film on your teeth . Dr. G . its actually the buildup of Plaque Bacteria which can cause cavities. Most toothpastes quit working in minutes. But crest prohealths antibacterial fluoride protects all day. It stops cavities before they start. Crest. I have moderate to severe crohns disease. Now, theres skyrizi. Things are looking up, ive got Symptom Relief. Control of my crohns means everything to me. Control is everything to me. Feel significant Symptom Relief at 4 weeks with skyrizi, including less Abdominal Pain and fewer bowel movements. 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Their connection is unreal. And we could all unexperience this whole session. Okay, thats uncalled for. 53 past the hour. We have Breaking News from capitol hill where just moments ago, the house cleared the way for a final vote on foreign aid bills for ukraine, israel and taiwan. It comes as Speaker Johnson is facing threats to remove him as speaker. Joining us, two people who worked for house speakers, brendan buck, he is an msnbc contributor. I think republicans, including in the Freedom Caucus, dont see a lot of political value going through the disaster that happened on the floor last year when we were stuck and couldnt do anything for three weeks. Theres a small minority of the house who doesnt seem to get the bad politics, doesnt get that they dont gain anything from changing the speaker and seem intent on forcing this issue. I think they are going to lose this fight and it could be good for the house if democrats work with the overwhelming number of republicans to defeat the motion to vacate and take away this weapon from the Freedom Caucus where we dont have to worry about them so much. I dont know how long that dynamic will last. But in the shortterm, i think it would be good for governance in the house. How would that happen . What would have to happen for that to be removed . I dont think the motion to vacate is going away. Democrats have said if the context for a motion to vacate coming up is Speaker Johnson brings up ukraine aid as he is doing, they are not going to help Marjorie Taylor greene and a handful of republicans kick him out. If all of those democrats stand with the overwhelming number of republicans and defeat Marjorie Taylor greenes move to remove him, that threat is no longer hanging over mike johnson. He can govern the way he wants to so long as he doesnt alienate those democrats. If she comes at him again, whether or not they will be there the second time around. Democrats, considering Helping Johnson to save his job . Why would they do this . Here is the thing. Democrats have a history and a pattern of prioritizing the countrys needs and the needs of our allies ahead of the gop shenanigans. The country was on the line and democrats will always choose to put the country ahead of the politics. Here is what im watching. None of this is free. Nothing is free. The question for me is, what is Jeff Jeffries going to get . Im watching to see trump will be able to marginalize Marjorie Taylor greene. This is going to be a test if he can do that. His team has said publically that a speakership fight would be a distraction for the party and also one that trump doesnt need. Coming out of this, its curious to see how the gop responds to Marjorie Taylor greene, whether or not former President Trump steps in to sort of shut her down in her efforts to ignite a speakership fight. What were the secrets to Speaker Pelosi being able to be as effective as she was . I mean, theres some fundamentals to the game. Shes mastered the fundamentals. One of the major ones is really knowing your caucus. How to strike a deal. Knowing when to take a deal and when to walk away from a deal. Part of the problem with johnson is he let this whole debate drag on too long, to the point at which our allies have suffered. American stature in the world has taken a hit. He had no other choice at this point. When you find yourself in that type of a position, you find yourself giving away more than what you want to. Thats probably what he is going to have to do with jeffries. I think Speaker Pelosi was so effective. She knew how to get a deal. Brendan will attest to this or speak to this. The rules of their conference is very different than the rules of the democratic caucus, which puts their speaker in a very weak position. Brendan, boehner and ryan both had the possibility of, for example, carrying out comprehensive Immigration Negotiations that were going on in the house. They couldnt because of those elements in their caucus that simply wouldnt have let that happen. Thats right. Theres a group in the conference who always believes if you just fight harder, you can get something more conservative. What ends up happening is, they marginalize themselves. We have to write them off. Theres never anything they can be for. Policies end up moving to the left. Thats what happened with the debt limit agreement. Thats what happened with most spending bills. Time and time again, whether when they dig in, the result is things become less conservative. They have undermined themselves every step of the way. They might be doing so in the biggest way here, taking away the tool to take out the speaker. It has hung around the neck of every speaker for a number of years on the republican side. If it gets defeated, maybe the dynamics will change in the house. And we dont have to worry about Marjorie Taylor greene so much. Thank you so very much. That wraps up the hour for me. Im jose diazbalart. See you tomorrow night. Thank you for the privilege of your time. Andrea mitchell picks up with more news right now. Right now on Andrea Mitchell reports, israel strikes iran. Deliberately av avoids hitting targets. The u. S. Calling for both sides to