coroner is saying about how she died. plus, the multiple court cases going down today with jury selection in the trial of this guy, lev parnas, the former associate of rudy giuliani. and we're seeing the two accused american spies in court for the first time. the big question, whether a hard drive and peanut butter sandwich could land the couple life in prison. on access to abortion what the supreme court is saying about a new law in kentucky. and in texas, the state now set to tell an appeals court why its near total abortion ban should stay in effect. good afternoon to you. i'm hallie jackson in washington along with leigh ann caldwell on capitol hill, and punch bowl news founder and msnbc political contributor jake sherman. so, guys, here's what we're watching, right. let's throw it up on the calendar. sometime in the next hour or two the house vote to extend the debt ceiling. you think, okay, that might get us through to december 3rd that happens to be the day government funding runs out. but there is some new analysis from experts that the nation is not going to hit that borrowing limit until mid-december or early january. that could buy congress more time. as for that social spending bill, the target for a vote is by the end of the month. leigh ann, the debt piece, right, the thing most in front of us here happening tonight, no drama expected, fair to say? >> reporter: yeah, that's fair, hallie. speaker pelosi just walked behind me to go toward the house floor, and i tried to ask her a question, she was on the phone. but that is right, there is expected to be very little drama tonight in the house regarding the debt limit. but most of the body's attention is turning toward this bigger multitrillion dollar piece of legislation that the house is trying to pass. of course, it is central and key to president biden's agenda. and speaker pelosi and her press conference earlier today, she gave a lot of clues into what she is thinking. she said that, like she said in a letter to her colleagues last night, that overwhelmingly house democrats want to focus on fewer priorities, and do them well. but she also mixed messages in a little bit by also saying there could be some programs that are funded for a less period of time, so that they can actually include some of those programs. let's listen to what she said and we'll talk about it on the other side. >> the timing would be reduced in many cases to make the costs lower. but it only would be in such a way that does not undermine the transformative nature of it, because some of it has to have enough money in order to be -- have sustainability that is -- can be counted on. >> house democrats have a lot of decisions to make, speaker pelosi said she hopes those decisions are made in the coming days. but meanwhile, progressives who wanted everything funded in this bill, just for a shorter amount of time, they held a press conference about an hour ago pushing back on this idea that fewer things would be included in this package, and so it is going to be a very tense days of negotiations after they vote to lift this debt limit, hallie? >> you have laid this out in punch bowl news today, the path forward are more programs for less money, shorter duration, fewer programs for more money, some kind of mix of both. feels like we're heading into mix of both territory, no? >> yeah, hallie. i don't know what they're doing. we don't know what they're doing because this is all happening behind the scenes here. so let's just -- let's take a -- let's take a pause for one second. pelosi last night said she wants to do fewer programs for more money and today she said she wants to shrink the duration of the programs that she is using. those are in conflict. those are two different ideas in my estimation. >> i can just jump in, i know you hate -- i hate interrupting you and you're only my friend so i feel like i can do this to you and it is okay. drew hamill, who folks know as somebody who is very close and an aide to speaker pelosi, tried to clarify saying, yes, to your point, jake, she actually does want both. does that help that clarity, right, and ultimately does it help with progressives? >> sure. i guess you could do both. you could say you want to shrink the duration of programs and you want to have fewer programs with more money. that's fine on both accounts. there is a political argument, though, hallie to do more programs for less money and the political argument there would be once you introduce the government program, it is very tough to get rid of it, it is very tough to pare it back. it is very difficult to know what they want to do. this is all being negotiated behind the scenes. we don't have any idea what their intent is. we don't have a topline number yet. this gets sent to your point, hallie, about the time crunch in that we're in the middle of october now. and i asked pelosi at the press conference today, when do you anticipate you're going to get this done? is it going to be this month? she said she's hopeful it gets done in due time. we don't have a top line number. we don't have the programs, how much they're going to get funded and pelosi's point how long they will be funded for. so all of those -- so, like, where are we here? we're nowhere. democrats are really not anywhere when it comes to getting this done. and there is no deadline and that's what the progressives are saying here as leigh ann alluded to, a conference call with bernie sanders and pramila jayapal where they said it is all arbitrary. they probably want to get it done this calendar year, but beyond that they don't have a deadline. >> you don't see a lot of optimism about getting this done around halloween, the self-imposed deadline originally stated. >> i don't think so. unless leigh ann disagrees with me here. i don't see how they get this done in the next 18 or 19 days. it doesn't seem realistic to me. >> they could have some sort of agreement, perhaps, in theory, but getting this done and through both chambers of congress is a very tall order, hallie. >> love having you both on. thank you so much. appreciate you both. with me, congressman ro khanna, deputy whip of the democratic caucus. let me just dispatch with this quickly here, this vote coming up in the next couple of hours will be to raise the debt ceiling. given what you said in the past, safe to say you're a yes here? >> i am a yes. i expect the entire democratic caucus will be a yes. i hope some republicans will do the right thing. >> let's talk about that. that is a question of how republicans will vote. we'll find out soon. let me ask about the sort of broader issues right now facing your party, the negotiations over this big climate in social spending bill. we know there was a call this afternoon, among progressives. speaker pelosi said she's disappointed democrats will have to lower their price debt. that seems to be where this is heading. are you comfortable, are you prepared to accept roughly $2 trillion as the top line? we'll get to the policies, but as the top line, are you good with $2 trillion? >> i'm prepared to accept less than $3.5 trillion. we have to figure out what that number is. but i understand it is going to be significantly less. we need the programs. child care, universal preschool, giving seniors dental benefits, vision benefits. these are extraordinarily popular and my concern is that these stay in, even if we're doing them for less years. >> are you not concerned about the potential cliff aspect of this. something that the house speaker raised earlier this afternoon, that if you do them for fewer years, you create the cliffs where you have to bring up funding again, institutions can't rely on that money like they would if it was longer term. >> cliff is something people talk about in the beltway, most people outside the beltway say give us child care, give us paid family leave, let seniors have dental care, and then you know what, we can argue in 2024 whether those programs should continue. so we just should speak simply and plainly, here's what we're going to deliver, we're going to deliver it as long as we can, and if the republicans try to take it away, we can find another presidential election over it. >> one of the things we talked about a lot on the show are the policies that are in this. there is a lost attention to that topline number. many americans know the spending or proposed spending, not so much the policies, right? some of the policies you mentioned. universal pre-k, child care subsidies. those are in many ways and our first read newsletter lays it out this morning very well, intertwined. the model works when you have both of them, right? so how do you find that cut? you got to cut something. how do you do it if the model falls apart if you don't have these things trending together? >> appreciate that. you're absolutely right. you need the confidence of policy when it comes to child care. need to make sure that every american kid, whether 3 years old, can get education this he do that in france very, very successfully. in other countries. and you also need to make sure that parents are working, have some sort so that they can send their kids to preschool and you need to make sure if someone falls sick they're able to look after their kids. this is about giving kids a fair shot starting out. people who want to cut programs, the burden is on them to say what do they want to cut. that's why it is much easier to say if we have budget constraints, let's do it for less years and take the case to the american people. >> take us behind the scenes in negotiations then. what are you hearing from the speaker's office as to what she wants to cut? >> we haven't heard. she said she doesn't want to cut any of the programs and that's why i believe that the compromise, the logical compromise will be around reducing the years. it seems to me that's the easiest thing, given that off the charts all of the programs poll very well. the american people want programs that are going to help their kids, help seniors, help them to pay for college. the two senators that are the holdout are the real issues. we still don't know what senator sinema wants and until that goes forward, it is very hard to come it a deal. >> one other potential compromise, a piece of this, could be the idea of means testing, which is another word we use inside the beltway, people outside of it, somewhat irrelevant, the idea that you focus these programs toward the lowest income americans, right? reasonable option to you or is that a deal breaker? i get that's not your first choice. i get that's not your second choice. is it a deal breaker or not? >> it is reasonable for certain things. if you're saying that the earned income tax credit should go to working families and not the rich, i agree. if you're saying that the child tax credit should get phased out, it already is. we can discuss where it should get phased out. is that $200,000, $150,000? i'm willing to look at that. if you're saying that we shouldn't have universal pre-k or universal community college, i say, no, there are some things we're in it together. i'm glad k through 12 education isn't means tested. some things shouldn't be means tested. it depends what the program is. >> before i let you go, we heard from jake sherman, a friend of the show before you came on the air, who suggested unlikely that this october 31st deadline is going to be met. your assessment? >> who am i to contradict jake sherman. >> all right. >> i think it is difficult. it is difficult. i think end of the year is more realistic. >> all right, nice ad for punch bowl, congressman ro khanna, thank you for coming on the show. appreciate your time. coming up, more breaking news as we're coming on the air in that investigation into the death of gabby petito. the final autopsy results on her cause of death. plus, we're taking you inside the west virginia courtroom, these new sketches just coming in where the couple accused of being spies have appeared in court for the first time and we're learning some new very interesting details about how they allegedly smuggled government nuclear secrets. smu government nuclear secrets growing up in a little red house, on the edge of a forest in norway, there were three things my family encouraged: kindness, honesty and hard work. over time, i've come to add a fourth: be curious. be curious about the world around us, and then go. go with an open heart, and you will find inspiration anew. viking. exploring the world in comfort. working at recology is more than a job for jesus. it's a family tradition. jesus took over his dad's roue when he retired after 47 year. now he's showing a new generation what recology is all about. as an employee-owned company, recology provides good-paying local jobs for san franciscans. we're proud to have built the city's recycling system from the ground up, helping to make san francisco the greenest big city in america. let's keep making a differene together. right now, we're following breaking news out of wyoming in the gabby petito case. with the last hour, the county coroner releasing the findings of petito's official autopsy report, and in just the last couple of minutes we're getting in a new statement from the family of brian laundrie, a person of interest in this case. i want to bring in nbc news' dasha burns who has been following this. >> i've been following this story from the beginning and from the beginning there have been many more questions than answers. and i'll tell you seemingly with every development the mystery has actually grown. but today, just moments ago, we got perhaps the first concrete answers in this case, the teton county coroner not missing a beat at the beginning of the press conference, getting right to the point, take a listen to what we heard. >> the teton county coroner office is filing the following verdict in the death of gabrielle petito. we hereby find the cause and manner of death to be the cause of death by strangulation and manner is homicide. >> and there you have it, hallie. the big question that we have all been wondering, what was the cause of death, ruling it a homicide, saying it was death by strangulation. and the other big question here has been the timeline. this has been a puzzle we have been putting together piece by piece through information from law enforcement, through social media, through some police body cam video that has been revealed. the question has been when did gabby petito die. the coroner said that she passed away about three to four weeks before her body was found. that puts this around the end of august, which is about the time that her family stopped hearing from her. one question her mother has been asking is whether or not that final text message she received from gabby's phone on august 27th, she's been suspicious whether or not that actually came from gabby. we know the last time her mother actually spoke to her and knew she was talking to gabby was on august 25th. the coroner denied to give specific dates, he said even the death certificate will likely have an approximate date. we did not get a specific date and time of death. and the other big question here, hallie, now moving forward, what does this mean for the investigation, for the search for brian laundrie? as you mentioned, he is a person of interest in this case, but a suspect has not yet been named. there is a warrant out for brian's arrest, related to alleged financial fraudulent activities. but, again, will this news, will the information we just received, will that change things? we just reached out to both the petito family and the laundrie family and just moments ago we received a statement from the laundrie family, via their family attorney. and they said to us that gabby petito's death at such a young age is a tragedy. while brian laundrie is currently charged with the unauthorized use of a debit card belonging to gabby, brian is only considered a person of interest in relation to gabby petito's demise. at this time, brian is still missing and when he is located we will address the pending fraud charges against him. and, hallie, we're in week four of that search for brian laundrie. >> that's right. dasha burns, thank you so much for that update. in other news this afternoon, the so-called sandwich spies will stay behind bars, we're learning, after finishing a first court appearance. jonathan and diana toby appearing in separate hearings before a federal judge. navy nuclear engineer and his wife accused of sharing military intelligence secrets. one time allegedly passing something through a peanut butter sandwich. that info included classified documents on the government's most sophisticated nuclear powered submarines. ken dilanian is on top of this one for us. a lot of questions as to why this couple allegedly did this in the first place. what else have we learned? >> hallie, the tobys had an initial appearance in a west virginia courtroom, each wearing orange prison jumpsuits with hands cuffed, chains around their waist. there were two separate hearings with jonathan appearing first, followed by his wife. a judge explained the charges against them and read them their rights. the pair has been in jail since they were arrested saturday. they will remain there at least until detention hearing scheduled for friday. the justice department told the judge they were a flight risk, given the charges against them carry life terms. no lawyers appeared with the couple at these hearings and it looks like they will have public defenders appointed to represent them. but you're absolutely right. the hearing obviously didn't answer the big questions at the heart of this case, including what motivated this highly educated middle class couple to allegedly seek to sell state secrets and which country were they trying to sell them to? they're accused of making a pitch to an unnamed country and that information soon fell into the hands of the fbi, which suggests their target was not an adversary like russia or china. the fbi ran a sting operation, paying jonathan toby $100,000 in cryptocurrency for secret information about american nuclear subs in the exchanges, he asked for a total of $5 million for all the data he said he collected quietly over his years of working as a navy nuclear expert. whether the only motivation money remains to be seen. jonathan was a nuclear physicist who could have made a good salary in the private sector. diana had a ph.d. in anthropology and taught at a private high school in annapolis, which is now suspended her. diana offered a hint in the hearing that her interest may be diverging from her husband when she answered a judge's question, she responded to the best of my knowledge, which is very limited. >> that's interesting. ken, thank you for that. appreciate you being on top of the story for us and all the twists and turns. coming up, new signals from the supreme court today on the future of kentucky's restrictive abortion law and where the one in texas stands right now. first, in another courtroom, jury selection not happening in the trial of rudy giuliani's former associate lev parnas. remember him? we'll remind you why he's on trial and why this matters coming up. why he's on trial and why this matters coming up. ♪ ♪ there are beautiful ideas that remain in the dark. but with our new multi-cloud experience, you have the flexibility you need to unveil them to the world. ♪ is now a good time for a flare-up? enough, crohn's! for adults with moderate to severe crohn's or ulcerative colitis, stelara® can provide relief, and is the first approved medication to reduce inflammation on and below the surface of the intestine in uc. you, getting on that flight? back off, uc! stelara® may increase your risk of infections, some serious, and cancer. before treatment, get tested for tb. tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms, sores, new skin growths, have had cancer, or if you need a vaccine. pres, a rare, potentially fatal brain condition, may be possible. some serious allergic reactions and lung inflammation can occur. lasting remission can start with stelara®. janssen can help you explore cost support options. the trial against a former rudy giuliani associate starts today with jury selection in a federal court in manhattan. you might remember the name, lev parnas, right? talked a lot about him in 2019 related to a supposed shadow diplomacy campaign involving then candidate joe biden and the ambassador to ukraine. today's proceedings are not related to do any of that. they focus on an array of campaign finance related charges against parnas involving a series of donations and a gift worth hundreds of thousands of dollars to a trump superpac. there is one other name in all of this you may remember. you may remember igor froomen. he was parnas' alleged partner in crime, he pled guilty to charges in september. parnas pled not guilty and denies the charges against him. i want to bring in tom winter. so, tom, take us through these charges, these schemes and why this matters. >> yeah, basically, hallie, you file or submit something to the fec, which oversees the campaign donations in this country federally, you have to be truthful with them. the series of donations from the russian national, it is illegal in the united states for a foreign national to contribute to a u.s. election. and if you do that, passing it through another person or through yourself, if you can lawfully make those donations yourself, then you violated the law. so that's the first scheme, this andre was trying to set up a cannabis business in the united states, and allegedly parnas and another third person involved in this who also has been charged, also part of this trial, were involved with funneling his donations as part of straw donations on his behalf. that is scheme number one. scheme number two is the $325,000 donation to a pro trump super pac. the donation was not illegal. but when they made representations of the company that was making the donation, essentially their front, if you will, according to the indictment was not a political operation, but was, in fact, a legitimate business, that prosecutors say it was anything but, the business existed to make this donation, essentially, that that's where they ran afoul of several laws there. so it is those two schemes that are on display in part of this trial. what we're not hearing is any sort of allegation involving rudy giuliani and any sort of allegation involving ukraine. and the most explosive allegation that happened back then and the reason you and i spoke so often about this case and about lev parnas was he was involved in the -- according to the first indictment in an effort to spear the ambassador to ukraine at the time in an effort to get her out. that was dropped from subsequent indictments and second superseding indictment and the third superseing indictment which serves as the bedrock for this trial coming up. so we're not going to hear anything about that. and that's why it makes it doubtful if folks are asking why we're probably not going to hear a lot about anything that the former president did or anything that rudy giuliani did, hallie. >> tom winter. thank you so much for that. you'll be all over this one as it moves forward. the fight over abortion rights keeps up on multiple fronts today. the supreme court signaling this afternoon it may let kentucky's republican attorney general weigh in on a restrictive abortion law. that law, which bans a common procedure trimester abortions. farther south, you have developments in the battle over that abortion law in texas, and appeals court is giving the state until thursday to respond to the department of justice after the doj filed its own response calling the texas law, a quote assault on the rights of its citizens. i want to bring in pete williams who is tracking all of this and the supreme court and around the country. pete, let's start what's going down with the kentucky law. talk about the reaction to the kentucky ag's argument, what it might mean for the future of that law. >> so, i should say at the outset that the word abortion came up just once during the 70 minutes of oral argument, this was all about when people like the attorney general can intervene, if the state initially decides it wants to stop defending a law. that's what happened here. the law was signed in 2018, it would ban the most common kind of surgical abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy. the state did defend it, against a lawsuit. it was immediately blocked by the lower courts. the state defended it in both the trial court and 4-3 judge panel and the state, there was an election, a new party came in and took control, and the state basically said, okay, enough's enough, we're not going to defend it anymore and the new republican attorney general daniel cameron said, okay, i want back in on the case, and the federal appeals court said no, sorry, buddy, you waited too late, you had your chance early and that's the question, when can a state attorney general or another official step in, pass the baton from one state official to another, if somebody decides they don't want to defend the law anymore? that was the technical question and it did appear that a majority of the court probably will let the new ag take a shot. let me give you an example of who statements made by justices today. stephen breyer said you have an attorney general who thinks it is a pretty good statute. he wants it defend it. why can't he come in and defend it and the chief justice said the situation changes when the deck is shuffled after an election. so based on that, it seemed likely the supreme court will give him a chance. now, even if he gets that chance, all he gets to do is ask the 6th circuit court of appeals to hear the case. they might say no or might say yes and still rule against the state and, of course, at that point he presumably could appeal it to the supreme court. >> okay. let me talk to you about texas now. we heard a little bit of the response we read in the introduction. talk about next steps there. is there any chance that the texas law does not make it to the supreme court? is that not where it is headed? >> it is definitely headed to the supreme court one way or the other. footnote, it is already there. a separate lawsuit was filed within the state. the one in the court of appeals now is brought by the justice department. there was a state challenge as well, it is also before the 5th circuit and the opponents of the law are saying to the supreme court, why don't you take it now and bypass the appeals court so it is technically before the supreme court. they haven't decided to hear it. i can't imagine they will at this early stage. so the next step here is for the court of appeals to rule. you're right. texas has until thursday to reply to the government's brief. then the 5th circuit will rule and the loser, if it is the justice department that loses, can ask the supreme court to take it. here's the complication. the supreme court -- the justice department's argument is premised on the idea that the texas state law denies people the constitutional right to abortion without giving them a chance to challenge the law in court. what if the u.s. supreme court decides in the mississippi case that there isn't a constitutional right to abortion, what then does it do to the texas law? i just think if the texas law gets there, it may not be on a fast track. the court may hold it until it decides the mississippi case. even though the texas law is not really about abortion, it is really about whether a state can pass a law designed to make it impossible to challenge in court. so if it does get to the supreme court, i'm not sure that it is going to have a quick resolution. >> pete williams, breaking it all down for us. pete, thank you very much for that. appreciate it. want to tell you about an important story out of north carolina, with today all classes at one of the state's biggest colleges canceled. not because of anything like weather, but for what they're calling a mental wellness day. that decision is coming at the same time as two suicide investigations at unc chapel hill. over the weekend, authorities found one student dead in a residence hall, in addition to getting a call about an attempted suicide. suicide is the second leading cause of death for those who are college age and the pandemic has been more of a problem. 18 to 24-year-olds reported significantly higher rates of suicide at thoughts than the general population. issa gutierrez is in chapel hill for us. this is a campus of 20,000 undergrads. talk about what the university is saying about the two investigations, the campus wide class cancellation. >> reporter: that's right, hallie. in a statement the university chancellor said that right now the school is in the middle of a mental health crisis. especially following the deaths of two students just in the last month here on campus. they said that this wellness day today with canceled classes is just one step to try and address the issue of mental health among students. i spoke with some students hear on campus today, they were really part of the reason why this happened. the student government, formally filing a request to university leaders over the weekend asking them to get two mental health days to grieve, process and also look for mental health services uninterrupted. they only got this one day, and they're saying that just one day is not enough. take a listen. >> this is hard. it is hard. i would like to see unc put more money into caps, the counseling resource we have on campus for people who can go to therapy or just talk about their mental health. >> reporter: now, the chancellor said that the school will be starting some new mental health support networks for students and faculty. they'll also be hold a mental health forum later this month to get university leaders together and try to figure out how to best support their students in this difficult situation. hallie? >> isa gutierrez, thank you very much. appreciate it. if you or somebody you know is struggling, know that there is help, there are people who want to help. call the national suicide prevention lifeline or text talk to 741741. that's on your screen. we'll put that up on our twitter page as well. we'll put that up on our twitter page as well coming up, why it seems democrats might be getting a little bit nervous about virginia's race for governor and whether they should be with three weeks to go. or and whether they should be with three weeks to go. hi, my name is cherrie. i'm 76 and i live on the oregon coast. my husband, sam, we've been married 53 years. we love to walk on the beach. i have two daughters and then two granddaughters. i noticed that memories were not there like they were when i was much younger. since taking prevagen, my memory has gotten better and it's like the puzzle pieces have all been [click] put together. prevagen. healthier brain. better life. at humana, we believe your healthcare should evolve with you, and part of that evolution means choosing the right medicare plan for you. humana can help. with original medicare, you're covered for hospital stays and doctor office visits but you'll have to pay a deductible for each. a medicare supplement plan can cover your deductibles and co-insurance, but you may pay higher premiums and still not get prescription drug coverage. but with an all-in-one humana medicare advantage plan, you could get all that coverage plus part d prescription drug benefits. you get all this coverage for as low as a $0 monthly plan premium in many areas. humana has a large network of doctors and hospitals, and telehealth coverage with a $0 copay. so call or go online today and get your free decision guide. discover how an all-in-one humana medicare advantage plan could save you money. humana - a more human way to healthcare. fine, no one leaves the table until your finished. fine, we'll sleep here. ♪♪ it's the easiest because it's the cheesiest. kraft. for the win win. people with moderate to severe psoriasis, or psoriatic arthritis, are rethinking the choices they make like the splash they create the way they exaggerate the surprises they initiate. otezla. it's a choice you can make. otezla is not an injection or a cream it's a pill that treats differently. for psoriasis, 75% clearer skin is achievable, with reduced redness, thickness, and scaliness of plaques. for psoriatic arthritis, otezla is proven to reduce joint swelling, tenderness, and pain. and the otezla prescribing information has no requirement for routine lab monitoring. don't use if you're allergic to otezla. it may cause severe diarrhea, nausea, or vomiting. otezla is associated with an increased risk of depression. tell your doctor if you have a history of depression or suicidal thoughts or if these feelings develop. some people taking otezla reported weight loss. your doctor should monitor your weight and may stop treatment. upper respiratory tract infection and headache may occur. tell your doctor about your medicines and if you're pregnant or planning to be. otezla. show more of you. this... is the planning effect. this is how it feels to have a dedicated fidelity advisor looking at your full financial picture. this is what it's like to have a comprehensive wealth plan with tax-smart investing strategies designed to help you keep more of what you earn. and set aside more for things like healthcare, or whatever comes down the road. this is the planning effect from fidelity. three weeks to go until election day and the governor's race in virginia and democrats seem to be getting nervous/anxious about it. why do we say that? look at the addition of who's coming after the campaign trail. former president obama, with terry mcauliffe next week. the race getting tighter and that is getting a lot of attention for what it might mean for next year's midterms and control of congress. check out the last four off year virginia governor's races. if you go back to 2005, the party that has won the governor's mansion has gained in the house the following year and three of the last four cycles. both campaigns seem to recognize those stakes, both campaigns have this all-out blitz of events as we get closer to election day. big names, big things on the calendar. and today, earlier on this network, mcauliffe previewed a big part of his closing message. >> if i were not to win this, this would be the comeback of donald trump, this would lift him off the mat, he would use this as the launchpad to campaign in 2022 and set him up for 2024. >> mark murray has been in the weeds on this race for months. very long time. joins me now. mark, good to see you. you remember, i had terry mcauliffe on this show a few weeks ago when the polls were showing this is really starting to get tighter. do you think at this point this push down the homestretch is a sign that maybe democrats are getting a little bit nervous or have been a little bit nervous about this race? how do you read this? >> yeah, hallie, democrats are always nervous, look back at that california recall election where they were nervous, gavin newsom won that contest very comfortably. but there are some important signs that, you any, virginia is not california. and what we often end up seeing in this election is that the party that ends up controlling the white house ends up usually faring very poorly in this contest because after a victory, after a presidential victory, your side gets complacent and republicans are seeing a lot of enthusiasm on their side. one of the reasons why terry mcauliffe and democrats are trying to get out the barack obamas, the stacey abrams, the jill bidens is to juice that democratic base. the good news for democrats is that joe biden ended up winning virginia by 20 points in 2020. if there is falloff, that could still point to a terry mcauliffe victory. but democrats are nervous and the polls show this competitive race now, where the last four really good polls all showed terry mcauliffe with a lead anywhere between 3 and 5 percentage points. that's all within the margin of error. >> we heard what i think you could call terry mcauliffe's closing argument. it has been his beginning and middle argument too about, you know, putting donald trump front and center as it relates to linking him to glenn youngkin as much as possible. i assume that's the continuation of what we'll see in the final few weeks. how do yous playing out? >> this has been a nationalized contest. we have seen them put donald trump front and center. if it works, maybe this is a message you'll see democrats take throughout the 2022 midterms. one of the dangers for democrats is if they end up losing, all of a sudden, you know, even playing the trump card in a joe biden plus ten state isn't a sign of victory. some of the other real important national issues, hallie that are playing out in this contest, we haveeen terry mcauliffe make a big issue of mandates. and glenn youngkin hitting education and crime. >> mark murray, live for us there in our d.c. newsroom. thank you. we should seen terry mcauliffe here. we asked glenn youngkin to join us. why the trump name may be coming off the former president's marquis and controversial hotel here in washington. first, how netflix is responding both publicly and privately to the growing controversy over dave chappelle's new stand-up special. y over dave chappelle's new stand-up special. fries or salad? 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somebody less known or profitable? >> i don't know if we can answer that. i think dave chappelle is sort of tapping into this set of comedy fans who were frankly tired of second guessing jokes and in particular, standing up for marginalized people and underrepresented people in jokes. you know, they feel handcuffed by so-called cancel culture and so you know, i think there's a lot of comics with a sort of mind that sentiment and increase their fan base because of it. but dave chappelle is one of the biggest names this stand up comedy and considered one of the most talented in the business. so for him to do something like this is certainly a big statement. >> and there's also a discussion around this idea of cancel culture and like netflix standing by this comedian even over the complaints, at least some of them, from some of their employees, including the trans employee we talked about. >> certainly. and you know, i think we're on ground here where i as a critic, i wrote a column that was highly critical of the special and i would certainly encourage people to read pieces like that so they understand why, what his special said. so many things in it were troubling. >> i want to -- let me just -- i'm sorry, i wanted to read from your review. i want people to know what you said. you write the quote, untangling home phobia, trans phobia, racism and white privilege requires a lot more effort and understanding that chappelle makes here. you should note you also call him the greatest of all time in your review. it sounds like he just isn't equipped to make these kinds of social commentaries via comedy. >> he has a long history of saying insightful things about society and race and people in his comedy, but this special, to my ears, cosigns a lot of troubling ideas about transgender people, about gay people, about jewish people. i couldn't understand why he was trying to justify these sort of backyards ideas and i really don't, i think it's really counterproductive for people of color, black folk, for example, to compare the gains they made in civil rights to gains gay people might have made in their civil rights because those types of oppression are different and those movements were active and successful in different time periods and we, you know, oppressed people should be working together to make sure that everybody advances forward rather than doing this weird practice of saying you got something, i should get something. or why did you know, the world react to oppression of these people but they're not reacting to oppression of these people. that's a zero sum game where nobody wins. >> eric, great to have you on the show and for your analysis. one source of income for the former president, donald trump, may be going away. his hotel not too far from where we're sitting. just down the street in washington. people telling "the wall street journal" is family is deep in negotiations to sell it, but the price tag, near 400 million bucks. that would be more than what the hotel first cost to renovate in the first place. hey, craig. good afternoon. thanks for being on. >> thank you for having me. >> your reporting is that there's this investment firm in miami in talks to get the lease for this hotel. also in talks about taking the trump name off. in favor of another brand manager. tell us more about this buyer and what you know. >> it's a group called cgi in miami. they're not well-known. probably known by alex rodriguez for their hotel portfolio and their socially conscious approach to investing. in one of their funds, they donate 1% of their revenue to local non-profits. they've been engaged in these talks with the trumps for the d.c. hotel, the hotel is actually owned by the federal government, but the trumps have a nearly 100-year lease on it. with extensions, it would be a 100-year lease. >> talk to us, too, about how significant this is. people who covered the trump administration as i did know it was a hub for people in that orbit during his time in office. what will happen to it now? do you think that brand association might, as it has for other buildings and properties that donald trump has owned, tarnish the reputation at all? >>. >> you know, that's a good question. i think most people think it probably won't if there's a clean split with a past of the hotel. as you noted, it was something of a republican clubhouse. it was a very popular place when doing business with the white house to stay. i think the new owner would have the burden of completely changing the hotel. one thing that cgi is doing is talking to other brands including the waldorf astoria. they're hoping that would change the image overnight of this property that is you know, very closely associated with the former president. >> great reporting. great scoop. thank you for being on. and thanks to all of you for watching this hour. deadline white house starts after this quick break. deadline white house starts after this quick break why give your family just ordinary eggs when they can enjoy the best? 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