of their son. we re going to talk to evan gershkovich s freshman year college roommate in just a few minutes. we ll talk about the person he calls a, quote, exceptional friend and journalist. plus, we have breaking news to share. the man accused of shooting and killing 23 people at an el paso, texas, walmart in 2019 has just been sentenced to 90 consecutive life sentences on federal charges and that is just his first round of sentencing. we re going to have the very latest for you any moment when we get our nbc news reporter who s there on site for us. we begin this hour at the site where republican primary race begins, that being iowa. right now former president donald trump is hitting the campaign trail in council bluffs as he continues to campaign and fund-raise. the republican leader writing in a lengthy statement last night that the doj is going after him and claiming that special counsel jack smith, quote, purposefully omitted the presidential records act. are quote,
wanted to try to stay in this race by following donald trump, even excusing or supporting some of his conduct, that leads to a dead end. they have to shift strategy here pretty soon if their goal is to win. okay, and vaughn, quickly, when s trump supposed to get to where you are now. you said he d recently landed, right? it was on approach. reporter: right, he s slated to speak here about 40 minutes from here. it s a matter of how the landing into omaha went and how his travels across the missouri river here into iowa go. okay, we ll check in with you next here and see what he s saying there behind you. appreciate all of you, vaughn hillyard, carol lam and carlos curbelo. carlos, i ve got more questions for you later on this hour about ron desantis. the breaking news we referenced at the top of the hour, the shooter who killed 23 people at a texas walmart in 2019 has just been sentenced. he s got a heavy sentence to face right now. let s bring in nbc s guad
stronghold on minority voters, particularly black voters. we recognize that is extremely important as the democratic party continues to expand and south carolina, quite frankly, saved joe biden. it s been a bulwark for the democratic party. iowa s one of the most lily white places in the country, it s a very small point. the viewpoints small state. what they choose is not anticipate indicative of what the democratic party wants to be, and they totally clustered the last caucus. [laughter] i ve been willing to see iowa go by the wayside for years now, finally that a day is dawning. howard: yeah, the caucuses are so complicated. jim, i ve got less than a minute. what about the argument that this is just, this is 2024. biden s not saying you have to do it in 2028. the media said he was toast, he shouldn t be running, he was too old, too out of touch, so so really isn t this, again, about biden wanting to have an easier run if yeah. unless you were going to say we
early in-person paper basically caucusing. people can offer their preferences via paper. but that would poerly move the iowa caucuses a little bit close to a primary. so these are all sort of questions up in the air. i mean, what was clear today is that the idp does not quite know how it s going to move forward. they rolled out this plan in february. they were expecting it to go ahead, and the dnc didn t weigh in until basically this past week. you know, look, we had this debate internally this morning. the caucuses made a lot of sense when people weren t that interested in how this process was done. it doesn t make a lot of sense in the 21st century. it is harder to defend. there s nothing wrong with letting iowa go first as a primary. sorry, new hampshire. alex jaffe with the associated press in des moines. it will be a great story to cover. thanks so much. the more things change, the
to learn more about the community wildfire safety program and how you can help keep your home and community safe, visit pge.com/wildfiresafety in just four weeks, you will have the chance to render your verdict on the democrats outrageous conduct, on november 6. and you can do early voting. in iowa go, just vote, get it over with. president trump tonight urging iowans to get out the vote before expressing his disappointment over the number of nebraskans at the event. there are two distinct plot lines we ll be watching on election night in this very room. the house and the senate. where the senate is concerned the dream of democratic control may indeed be too lofty to be attainable.