threat of a government shutdown. polls, polls and more polls. you see them there. steve kornacki will join us live from the big board this hour to look at why republicans still think donald trump is their best bet to beat joe biden. ♪♪ good to see you. the battle over the timing of donald trump's trial in georgia, it is intensifying. we have confirmation the trial, which trump is trying to delay, will be televised, potentially while the presidential primaies are underway. the former president is trying to sever his case. the d.a. is standing firm, trying all defendants together. some georgia republicans are trying -- pushing to remove or discipline willis in a special session. a move the governor is dismissing. >> there have been calls by one individual in the general assembly. outside of these walls by the former president echoed for a special session that would ignore current georgia law and directly interfere with the proceedings of a separate but equal branch of government. in georgia, we will not be engaging in political theater. these are the distractions that get you to lose elections. >> let's get into this. joining me now, blayne alexander in atlanta. peter baker and harry litman. blayne, start us off. give us the context surrounding the governor's comments. >> reporter: yeah. this is something that -- this comes after a couple of days of seeing some far right republicans calling for a way to remove willis from office or discipline her. this is not a mainstream call among republicans in statehouse. these are far right members of the party and some other republicans have been pushing back against that. what we saw yesterday from governor kemp was the strongest pushback against that. if you have issues with the way the d.a. is doing her job, there are proper proceedings by which to raise those complaints. he is not going to call a special session to raise the issue of looking at impeaching her saying that that with likely be proven unconstitutional. he went a step further and said that he really hasn't seen any evidence that she has violated her oath or dog done anything improper. it's interesting when you see the fact that governor kemp pushed back and said we're not going to focus on that. for many people who have watched georgia over the past few years, we know that echos his pushback against then president trump who also called on him to call a special legislative session in order to overturn his election loss here in georgia. of course, the governor didn't do it at the time. that proved to be the beginning of their strong rift between the two. >> we will get into that in a moment. if you will, bring us up to speed on the legal filings that we have been seeing over the last day or so. >> reporter: when you talk about 19 defendants and one case, you are going to see this. especially at the beginning. a lot of the legal filings have to do with when, how and where this case will be tried. what we have seen and what we are tracking are those who have waived their right to an arraignment appearance next week. we know former president trump is among them along with five other co-defendants who have waived their right. they entered a not guilty plea. they said they're not going to come down here and appear before a judge. the other legal filings that we are seeing are from some defendants looking to sever their case from their co-defendants, saying for whatever reason, they don't want to be tried along with everybody else. they want their own trial. the former president is also among them. he said that he doesn't want to be tried with those who have expressed that they want a speedy trial, people like ken chesebro, who a judge said will go to trial on october 23. the president and his team say they don't have enough time to prepare when you talk about something that's less than two months away. the third bucket of the filings are those who are looking to remove the case to federal court. that's what we are watching closely led by mark meadows. we know that yesterday meadows and his team put in a number of supplemental briefs at the request of the federal judge who is overseeing this process. we are really waiting at any moment, any day for the federal judge to make a ruling on that motion. >> harry, moving to federal court, severing cases from others, right to a speedy trial. give us the 30,000 foot above kind of view of this whole thing with all of these updates. what are you watching specifically for right now in georgia? what is most important to you? >> 3,000 foot view is an unbelievable traffic jam with cars piled all on top of each other and uncertain how we will unpack them. what i'm watching for is, first, what's going to happen with mark meadows? will he be able to remove? it's dicey for him. it's a low standard. if he goes to federal court, there's suggestion under georgia law that others have to go with him. that's first. second, will people be able to sever? in a similar way, one defendant has said i want a speedy trial and has gotten it as a matter of right. the people who want to be peeled away from him need to make a specific argument. the one that donald trump made yesterday is not the sort of thing that gives you severance, i don't have enough time. you have to show problem if you are tried together. these are two puzzles for one state court judge and one federal court judge to try to untangle. it's amaing the stakes of this. we are getting our news with a side order of criminal practice in georgia. >> i'm glad you brought up mark meadows. you wrote a brilliant piece about mark meadows and the legal defense that it seems as if he is mounting. essentially saying he was just doing his job. i want to read a quote from the piece you wrote in which you said, it defies credulity. talk more about this. >> sure. for not just -- not removal but immunity, which for him is the whole game. he will have to show a valid federal purpose. it's not just to just be raising phone calls. there are a couple things he had to cop to where he helped with this false electors effort. he had to be asked, what's your purpose there? just trying to help the boss doesn't cut it. he had to say, well, i just wanted to make sure elections were free and fair. i think the fair response to that by a prosecutor and jury would be, come on, are you kidding us? he is forced into that if he wants to get not just removal but immunity. you have to show a valid federal purpose that the state can't nullify. that was a big tell that, why did he take this huge risk of testifying because he wants to be in federal court without cameras? that doesn't make sense. he did it because he is gambling the house on trying to get immunity, meaning the whole case would go away. >> peter baker, talk to us about how televising this trial, live streaming it, different from the three others that will take place as well, will set this apart from everything that donald trump is facing. >> exactly. this will be the first time, of course, we see it play out that way. the federal courts do not have cameras in the courtroom. we don't believe the new york state trial, if that goes forward, would have cameras in the courtroom. you have a nation literally watching day after day, perhaps week after week, this could be a long trial, watching the evidence presented, the witnesses provide testimony, watching the president scowl as you show him sketched. it will play out, presumably, in the thick of an election campaign in which he would prefer to be on the road at rallies. i don't think we can think of anything that would be quite comparable in american history. perhaps the watergate hearings in the 1970s in front of the senate. we have never seen a trial of this import on live television, on live streaming that the american public could watch and at the time they are deciding not just whether donald trump is guilty but whether he should be president again. >> it's incredible to think about the possible split screen moment we are looking at come march of 2024 in the middle of a primary calendar and watching this trial play out for the american public to see. what are the next 12 months of our lives going to look like? blayne alexander, thank you, peter baker, harry litman, thank you as well. unexpected rise. as employers added tens of thousands of new jobs, the unemployment rate ticked up last month. we await president biden to speak from the rose garden. what the white house is saying and how that might impact the spending fight on capitol hill coming up next when "andrea mitchell reports" is back in just 60 seconds, only here on msnbc. we'll be right back. msnbc. we'll be rig bhtack. e] (♪♪) astepro allergy, steroid free allergy relief that starts working in 30 minutes, while other allergy sprays take hours. with astepro's unbeatably fast allergy relief you can astepro and go! from big cities, to small towns, with astepro's unbeatably fast allergy relief and on main streets across the us, you'll find pnc bank. helping businesses both large and small, communities and the people who live and work there grow and thrive. we're proud to call these places home too. they're where we put down roots, and where together, we work to help move everyone's financial goals forward. pnc bank. [it's the final game, folks. this one wins the series.] struck out with the cheap seats? important things aren't worth compromising. at farmers, we offer both quality insurance and great savings. (crowd cheers) here, take mine. (farmers mnemonic) the jobs report out today showing employers hired more than 187,000 people in august. the unemployment rate jumped to 3.8% compared to 3.5% last month. we are expecting to hear from the president on the jobs report shortly from the rose garden. we are watching that. we will bring it to you live as ithappens. joining me now is peter alexander, the co-anger of "sunday today," ali vitali and kitty richards. welcome to you. thanks for joining us. peter, start us off with this and how we are expecting the president to speak on the economy today after the release of the jobs report. >> reporter: i think we are likely to hear the president say what the acting labor secretary said. this is part of the soft landing that has been talked about that the administration has been focused on to avoid a recession and keep the economy churning as it goes forward. certainly, there has been a cooldown. this number, 187,000 new jobs added in the last month, marks the third straight month after 29 months above 200,000 that the jobs numbers have been below that mark. as one economy described it to our friends at cnbc, what was a sprint in the past is now closer to a marathon pace. the white house really views this and the economy as the biggest asset going forward into the next year, even though a lot of americans -- i was in nevada a matter of weeks ago, who complained they are not experiencing, feeling what the white house describes as bidenomics. the white house does believe things are going in the right direction. health care jobs adding 71,000 jobs last month. unemployment ticked up by .3% which could be startling to some. it really does indicate that more people are going back into the workforce. why are they re-entering the work? it's a sign of optimism. others question whether it's concerns about the state of the economy or inflation. this is another good indicator for this white house. >> kitty, weigh in. we are watching the podium in the rose garden. excuse me if i jump in amidst awaiting the president addressing the jobs numbers. talk to me about this slight jump that we have seen in unemployment from 3.5% last month to 3.8% this month. is there any concern to you on this and how you expect the president to address it? >> sure. i do think that it's important to zoom back and remind ourselves that this is the 19th month, that is a record, of unemployment below 4%. that's something that many economists didn't think was possible a year ago. frankly, we haven't seen ever before. i think the unemployment rate is still really historically low. as we just heard, an important thing to remember is that the unemployment rate can tick up even as jobs are being created if more people are coming into the labor force. we are seeing that. the labor force participating rate is ticking up. we haven't reached pre-pandemic levels. i think we are seeing that -- >> kitty, the president is walking out now. let's take a listen. >> take a step back and take note of the fact that america is now one of the strongest job creating periods in our history, in the history of our country. it wasn't that long ago that america was losing jobs. my pred serz was one of two presidents in history who entered his presidency and left with fewer jobs than when he entered. look at where we are now. just this morning, we learned the economy created 190,000 jobs last month. all told, we have added 13.5 million jobs since i took office. around 800,000 of them manufacturing jobs. we created more jobs in two years than any president ever created in a four-year term. we did it in two years. what's more, when i took office, the unemployment rate was 6.3%. the non-partisan congressional budget office predicted it would not get below 4% until the end of 2025. now unemployment and the rate has been below 14% for the last 19 months. the longest stretch in over 50 years. we recovered all the jobs lost during the pandemic. we have added a million more new jobs. more than 700,000 people joined the labor force last month, the highest share of working age americans are in the workforce now than at any time in the past 20 years. people are coming off the sidelines, getting back to their workplaces. job satisfaction is higher than it has been in 36 years. we have been -- we have seen record lows in unemployment for african americans, hispanic workers and veterans and workers without high school diplomas. the lowest unemployment rate in 70 years for america's women. the same time, inflation continues to fall. it's around 3%. one-third of what it was one year ago. we learned yesterday that over the past three months, inflation will close -- was close to what it was before the pandemic. incomes are higher now than before the pandemic. pay for low wage workers has grown at the fastest pace for low wage workers in two decades. remember, some experts said to get inflation under control we needed higher unemployment and lower wages. i never thought that was the problem. too many people having a job or that working people were making too much money. now months after -- after months of bringing inflation down while at the same time adding jobs and growing wages, it matters. it's no accident. i came to office determined to build the economy in a different way, from the middle out and bottom up, not the top down. to move away from trickle down economics and focus on the middle class. when the middle class does well -- this is not hyperbole. when the middle class does well, everyone does well. everyone does well. the wealthy do very well. the poor have a shot. the middle class can make a living. the "wall street journal" started calling my plan bidenomics. it's about investing in america and investing in americans. it's working. a key pillar is empowering and educating workers who are the backbone of this country. i want to mention a few actions y administration took to support workers by raising pay and helping more workers get good paying union jobs. first, we proposed a new rule to extend overtime pay for up to 3.6 million workers across the country, additional 3.6 million. here is why that matters. until now, salary workers who were not paid by the hour were often not guaranteed overtime pay unless they made less than $36,568 a year. that was the threshold. if you were a fast food manager or made $1 more in salary, you were not guaranteed overtime pay, even if you worked an additional 40-hour week. the new rules we proposed this year -- this week raise that threshold to $55,000 a year. that means a mom in north carolina who makes $37,500 a year and sometimes works a 60-hour workweek could be guaranteed time and a half whenever she works over 40 hours in that week. plus, moving forward, that salary threshold automatically will update every three years so it stays up to date with wage growth and purchasing power. what would make it easier for workers to overtime. the automatic update was something we did in the obama/biden administration. my predecessor scrapped it. we worked to bring it back. it will make a big difference for a lot of american families. next, thanks to the inflation reduction act, which i might add not a single member of the other party voted for, we are making the most significant investment in clean energy and combating the threat of climate change that's ever been made anywhere in the world. according to outside experts, the inflation reduction act is projected to create more than 1.5 million jobs over the next decade, which i said when i was writing the legislation. this week, the department of treasury and the irs announced guidance on new tax incentives for companies that invest in clean energy, like building wind turbines and installing solar power. in the previous administration, companies got a tax cut, they could go wherever they wanted to, including overseas, and hire whoever they wanted in order to get that tax cut. on my watch, we use tax cuts for companies to stay in america and create american jobs in america. we are providing a tax insinnive for companies to pay their workers prevailing wages, wages you can raise a family on. if they hire registered apresent siss, like those trained and sponsored by unions, that's what happens. some clean energy projects will still be worth millions of dollars. this is a major incentive to pay prevailing wage and hire union workers. it's good for workers. it's good for the environment. as companies are beginning to figure out, it's good for a company's bottom line as well. plus, many auto companies, significantly ramped up their investment in electric vehicles. my administration announced more than $15 billion in funding to help automakers convert existing auto plants while retraining the existing workers at good wages, giving them a first crack at the new and different jobs for electric vehicle versus the combustion engine, bolstering the domestic supply chain and ensuring auto manufacturing jobs remain good paying jobs, including union jobs. the auto industry has long been a pathway to the middle class and provided good paying jobs. i'm not going to let that change on my watch if i can help it. if anyone wonders whether unions make a difference, take a look at the new report from the treasury department. it's the most comprehensive look at the impact unions have on the economy. it concludes that unions rage workers' income, increase homeownership, increase retirement savings, increase access to critical benefits like sick leave and childcare, and reduce inequality. all of which strengthen the american economy. plus, even workers who aren't in unions, workers laid off, see benefits. unions raise standards across the workforce, pushing up wages and strengthening benefits for everyone. you heard me say many times, wall street didn't build america. the middle class built america. unions built the middle class. let me close with this. we faced some pretty tough times in recent years. a pandemic that took more than a million of our friends and neighbors. a million viewer people at our dining room or kitchen tables. people we raised and loved. people we grew up with, gone. the worst economic crisis since the great depression. it wasn't that long ago that 20 million americans were out of work. the american people didn't give up. they never give up. they have never given up. today, we have the strongest economy in the world. the lowest inflation rate among the major economies. 13.5 million new jobs. you heard me say before and i will keep saying it, my dad said a job is about a lot more than a paycheck. it's about your dignity. it's about respect. it's about being able to look your kid in the eye and say, it's going to be okay, and mean it. that dignity is coming back to places all across the country. while i'm proud of the historic legislation my administration passed and the policies we enacted, the real heroes are the american people, average americans. they're the ones getting up every day, putting their heads down and going out that door and going to work. they're the ones starting new businesses, taking chances, hiring workers, fulfilling their dreams. three weeks ago at a clean energy factory in milwaukee, wisconsin, i met an ibew electrician who builds and repairs america's wind turbine engines. he said, i quote, in america, with hard work and a little faith, anything is possible. in america, with hard work and a little faith, anything is possible. that's my father's generation. that's what these folks believe. every day across this country ordinary people get up and do extraordinary things. thanks to them, we will continue to grow our economy from the middle out and the bottom up with good paying jobs. more breathing room for families and american workers building industries of the future. they remind us of who we are. i'm going to keep saying that. we're the united states of america. nothing beyond our capacity when we set our mind to it and do it together. have a good labor day weekend. god bless you all. >> the president walking out of the rose garden there getting shouted questions. addressing the nation there ahead of the labor day weekend, touting the latest jobs numbers we got earlier today and talking about the legislation that his administration put into place to strengthen the u.s. economy during the time in which he has been in office. back with me now, peter alexander, ali vitali, kitty richards. brian chung joining me as well on set. that sounded more like a stump speech, i gotta say, than just about touting the august numbers, which is expected, considering we are heading into an election year. he talked more about donald trump than we have heard him talk in previous times in which he addressed jobs numbers, but gave more of a 30,000 foot above view of the economy versus specifically addressing the numbers that just came out earlier today. >> yeah. i think you are right. that was my impression as well. this was as much if not more candidate biden than president biden there. he was a little behind schedule, it seemed as if, he was engaged in his remarks. it was not any remarks that at the end of his first set of words, even the end of his first sentence he made the point the former president left office with fewer jobs than when he came to office. the president recognizes the first jobs report since the republican campaign has heated up after the first debate took place where joe biden's name more than donald trump was on the top of the tongue of so many candidates, trying to criticize his handling of the economy. i think he wanted to do his best to push back on that, recognizing that not all americans are feeling these gains right now. the numbers, the data has shown -- i have been struck by conversations with white house aides, allies of the president who acknowledge there's a lag between when americans feel this movement and the way the numbers demonstrate it's taking place. the president made the case for what he has accomplished so far. there's no imminent sign of any recession that so many americans had feared. the president is trying to really just cast the country as being in a good place going into this holiday weekend and looking ahead to the year. >> kitty, peter is right. there were predictions that were being made just a couple of months ago that we could have been headed towards a recession right about now, possibly october, november, fall of 2023. it looks as if, because of the numbers and what they are saying to us, that's not happening, it may be because of the efforts of the administration, because of the fed chair as well and these interest rate hikes. when you look at the polling numbers, 60% of americans disapproving of the biden administration's handling of this economy. what does i say when he gets out there to move that number? >> first i want to focus on these numbers are really good. i think that this jobs report really shows that we never had to choose between falling inflation and an economy that delivers for workers and families if we invest in people. i think that's what the inflation reduction act and other key policy initiatives coming out of the biden administration have done. i think that's a really important message for the fed to get as well. we have had a record spell of low unemployment. at the same time as falling inflation. the people who thought that we needed to throw millions of people out of work to get inflation under control were just wrong. i do think it's important to remember that wages are only now ticking up, beginning to grow at a faster clip than inflation. that's partly because workers are banding together across the country to organize and demand better from employers. those wages are bringing more people off the sidelines and into the labor force. it's going to take time. inflation has come down. prices are still high. people are still struggling to afford housing, childcare, higher education. the things that they need to feel economically secure. we need to focus on how policymakers like those at the fed and folks in congress can continue to invest in people and keep this job market growing at the rate it's growing now. >> all that in mind, brian, what are we expecting come september, i believe, when we hear from jerome powell, are we looking at the another hike? seeming as if the hikes are working. what's going to happen? >> analysts i heard from in reaction to this morning's job report have said the numbers reinforce that the fed is likely to not raise interest rates when it gets to the meeting later this month. of course, there's a lot of data that will come in between now and then, family the -- namely, this is an interesting situation where the fed has been race rai rates to slow the economy. if we look at the unemployment rate, ticking up from 3.5% to 3.8%, does the federal reserve say, maybe that bite is a little more substantial than we thought. we can pull back. or if you look at this and say, maybe the rise in the unemployment rate is because of the labor force actually expanded, which is a good reason. there's a lot of ways to read this. either way, to see that the unemployment rate is below 4%, president biden said under 14%, i think what he meant was 4%, that's still largely something that policymakers would say, that's a good thing. >> how is wage growth keeping up with inflation right now? >> for the first time in over a year, this summer we did see the wage growth pace for first time in a while actually higher than the inflation rate. real wages, that the pace of price increases -- >> that's huge. >> great news. that hasn't been the case in the latter part of this last year. >> ali, talk to me. you are on capitol hill. amidst all of this, the economic news we are getting out of washington from the white house, hearing from the president, we know there's also a spending fight ahead. mitch mcconnell talking about that. we know that he has been cleared to return to work by the physician there. talk to us about what we can expect to hear there. >> we are in for a funding fight come september. some conversations i was having over the august recess had me a little concerned for lawmakers to come back in town. on the house side, you have republicans really dug in on this. they feel like they were sold a bill of goods by speaker mccarthy during the debt ceiling battle. he obviously brokered a deal between republicans and the white house to avoid a debt ceiling crisis. now it has lost him trust within his ranks. that's one of the things that we will look at. no one likes a government shutdown. republicans, on the far right flank of the conference, feel like it's worth it if it means getting their demands in terms of cutting spending. that's where senator mitch mcconnell will come in. we know the latest health concerns are going to factor into the confidence his conference has in representing their interests, which are different than republicans on other side of the building in the house. >> ali, thank you. brian, peter, kitty, thank you all. appreciate you hanging with me. we are following breaking news out of washington. a judge has just sentenced members of the far right group the proud boys after their conviction on seditious conspiracy charges related to the january 6 attack on the u.s. capitol. ryan reilly is outside the d.c. courthouse with more on this. talk to us. what are you hearing? >> the individual who use aid -- used a stolen police cheeld to break a window has been sentenced to ten years in federal prison with judge kelly saying he acted -- he opened up the capitol like it was a can opener and let the crowd flood inside and was a key part of the initial breach. kelly's partner spoke during sentencing, as did dominic himself. his partner said that he was getting drunk and watching fox news in the lead-up to january 6 and called him an fin' idiot for his conduct and basically was asking for leniency from the judge along with a daughter who spoke there saying that her dad had always been there for her. this is one of the higher sentences we have seen from the january 6 attack thus far. he was the only individual who was not convicted of the top seditious conspiracy charge. he was a little of an outlier here. the other sentences that have been handed out went for 17 years for joe biggs and for 15 years for zachary reel who was a philadelphia proud boy who used pepper spray against officers that day. joe biggs played more of a leadership role. we have another sentencing happening this afternoon. the final sentence in this group will be on tuesday when enrique tarrio has his. prosecutors are seeking 33 years as they did with joe biggs. probably unlikely to get that high. there's the potential on tuesday for another record setting sentence. the current january 6 record is currently at 18 years. >> ryan reilly, thank you. appreciate it. a leader of the pack. how donald trump maintains a commanding lead over his challengers for the gop presidential nomination. steve kornacki will break down the polls right here on "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. mitchell reports" only on msnbc. (ella) fashion moves fast. setting trends is our business. we need to scale with customer demand... ...in real time. (jen) so we partner with verizon to take our operations to the next level. (marquis) with a custom private 5g network. (ella) with verizon business, we get more control of production, efficiencies, and greater agility. (marquis) so our customers get what they want, when they want it. (jen) it's not just a network. it's enterprise intelligence. (vo) learn more. it's your vision, it's your verizon. 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. power e*trade's easy-to-use tools, like dynamic charting and risk-reward analysis help make trading feel effortless. and its customizable scans with social sentiment help you find and unlock opportunities in the market. e*trade from morgan stanley. the power goes out and we still have wifi help you find and unlock oppoto do our homework.rket. and that's a good thing? great in my book! who are you? no power? no problem. introducing storm-ready wifi. now you can stay reliably connected through power outages with unlimited cellular data and up to 4 hours of battery back-up to keep you online. only from xfinity. home of the xfinity 10g network. welcome back. he has been called teflon don. despite mounting legal challenges and skipping the party's first debate, the majority of republicans say donald trump is their best chance for beating president biden in 2024. steve kornacki is at the big board for us. no matter how this question is posed, republicans are saying, through and through, donald trump is their man. >> i think this is the interesting thing. as we pull up here, what you will see first, the average of the polls nationally on the republican side. it's a continuation of what we have seen for months. trump far ahead. desantis in a distant second. everybody else in second place now. there's been a question about, did the debate change anything? this is an average. some of the polls here are from before the debate, some are from after. there are a few after the debate that indicated maybe some slight movement here or there. as you can see, the overall average continues to be trump dominating this race. i think what's interesting, as you say, he is facing all these indictments, all of these legal problems. you have his republican opponents saying he is not electable because the 2022 midterms went poorly for republicans. the trump candidates had a lot do with that. he lost in 2020. republicans had a material midterm in 2018. a lot of republicans make this in saying reasons shouldn't nominate him. there are democrats who want trump to be the nominee for all of those reasons. believing that he would be the least electable republican candidate. i think what's notable when you go inside the numbers is this trump lead is not in spite of concerns among republicans about his electability, it may be because republicans believe he is their most electable candidate. it has been asked a number of ways. it was asked directly in a morning poll this week. they asked republican voters, who is the most electable republican? who has the best chance? 's interesting poll from "the new york times." they looked at desantis versus trump. desantis, the idea was a lot of republicans believe he is a more electable form of trump. that was the idea. asking in this poll, head to head trump desantis, who has the better chance against biden? more than two to one said it's donald trump. there's a poll out of georgia this week. georgia is not a key early primary state. this is the state where trump is facing some of the legal trouble. asking republicans in that state when it comes to beating biden, is trump definitely or probably the strongest option? nearly 70%, 69% said he is. only 25% said another candidate is. you could see it, no matter how it is asked, the republican voters view trump as the most electable option. a lot of democrats are happy to hear that. they believe trump isn't that electable. it does raise the question, is there anything to this? we looked at -- this is an average of polls right now. trump versus biden. >> unbelievable. >> biden is leading in the average. but trump is within a point. the reality is, trump ran in 2020, ran in 2016. in both of those races, he wasn't this close. he was far behind in all of those races. at this point in the 2020 cycle, september of 2019, in an average of polls, it was a double digit lead for biden. >> unbelievable. >> this is what the trend looked like through the campaign in the polling. biden had a consistent wide lead over donald trump in the polling. it was trump lost but it was a surprise how close it ended up on election night. a couple states, 10,000 votes here, 9,000 there could have swung it. if you are a republican and you are saying, i remember 2020, i remember 2016, i'm looking at this poll right here within a point for trump, are you necessarily wrong about his electability? if you are a democrat counting on him being unelectable, are you sure you are right? >> wow. steve kornacki, appreciate it. a lot to digest there. want to bring in david jolly, jonathan lemire and sabrina siddiqui. david, let's start with you. as you are looking at the numbers, they are shocking to see all together, especially in that head-to-head matchup between president biden and former president donald trump. is there anything that you think could actually shake those numbers for the former president? >> not really in the republican primary. i think at this point, we know the indictments and charges have helped him. they strengthed his hold of a lead. the one unknown is if he went on trial. it's not to suggest it takes him down. it might move him up. there appears to be no trial that would occur before he has the nomination secured in mid march. i would suggest one of the reasons is because it is very hard -- if all of the other republican candidates -- recall when they were asked, will you vote for donald trump if he is a criminal convict? they raised their hand. how do they say, i would vote for this guy but you shouldn't, you should vote for me? donald trump has this thing wire to wire in the republican nomination. >> jonathan, let's talk about ron desantis. when you look at desantis' numbers as well as kornacki was taking us through, all you see was a slide for desantis. i know he is dealing with the disaster in his state of florida. often, he gets a little bounce within florida state lines when it comes to responding to disasters. that does not necessarily resonate nationally. >> no, there's no guarantee it will. certainly, to be clear, the governor is acting in his role as chief executive of the state of florida. it's twin tragedies. the shooting in jacksonville and now this hurricane. people around him note how more comfortable he seems doing this than he does retail politicking. there's a possibility that he will get a little bump here. certainly, donors who were hot on desantis to start have cooled because of his polling slide and tough appearances on the campaign trail. they noted this, conversation picked up about how they think he is showing competency here. that's part of his argument, that he can beat trump -- bring trump politics but be more effective in enacting the policies. that's the thought process behind the campaign. as you note, it has been a real, real struggle to this point. there's reporting now that the largest superpac that supports him, they acknowledge this is a crucial time for the governor. even though voters don't go to the polls or the caucus for many months, they think the next month or two he has to reverse the slide or they believe the nomination will be over. donald trump will have sing got it. >> when you look at the matchup -- we heard from president biden. it sounded like it was a stump speech he delivered in the rose garden just a couple of minutes ago. it's understandable considering how he is polling when it comes to his handling of the economy, whether it's true or not. we also have this new reporting coming out of nbc about how the white house has prepared a war room in responding to any possible impeachment inquiies into president biden. they reportedly have been studying past impeachments. the administration clearly thinks this is a possible threat. >> the white house has been preparing for a likely impeachment inquiry from the moment that republicans assumed the house majority in january. they very much see this as an effort by republicans to muddy the waters going into the 2024 election where. >> dale: -- whereas we talked about, trump is the front runner for the republican nomination and has been indicted four times. there is a sense in the white house that republicans are going to try to use this impeachment inquiry to cast doubt on president biden when even many house republicans have actually acknowledged that there is no evidence that biden abused his power as vice president to help his son hunter biden. when they are studying these past impeachment inquiries, i think what they are looking at is that president clinton actually enjoyed his highest approval ratings when house republicans were pursuing articles of impeachment against him. even former president trump also saw a jump in his approval rating when the first articles of impeachment were brought against him. when you talk to the white house, they believe if they it can make it clear this is a partisan exercise, it's politically motivated, it could help biden and democrats in some of the swing districts. white house aides are candidly saying -- they are not rooting for an impeachment inquiry. but they want republicans to pay a political price if they go down this path. >> i want to read for you a little bit of this op-ed from karl rove about ramaswamy who is polling at 6%, according to the numbers steve had up for us. a performance artist who says outrageous things and appeals to the dark parts of the american psyche. there's a gop candidate who does all those things and worse. republicans deserve a choice, not an echo. sabrina? >> vivek ramaswamy's strategy has been very clear. he cast himself as an outsider. he makes outlandish claims. he ends up in the news. he is trafficking in trafficking in the kind of conspiracy theories that increasingly are believed by a large share of the republican primary electorate, and if it sounds familiar it's because that's what donald trump has done very successfully, and the problem for vivek ramaswamy is that trump is also in this race and the overwhelming favorite in the primary, and so he may be having a little bit of a moment that more people know who he is today than they did a month ago, but he's still polling in single-digits when you look at that national average, and it's hard to believe that anyone, regardless of the moment they may be having will come close to giving trump a run for his money. it's very much trump's primary to lose. >> thank you guys all, appreciate it. all right, everybody, this sunday i hope you can join me here on msnbc for a half hour special that is very personal to me and many others as well. in december of 2022 i had some chest pain and was told that i had a simple case of acid reflux. when it didn't get better, i listened to my body, went to the emergency room and learned that the pain was coming from my heart. eventually was diagnosed with pericarditis, which is inflammation of the lining of your heart. and i had fluid around my heart as well. for heart health lives in the balance, airing this sunday, i interviewed two women who also suffer from pericarditis, carol ann divine, a mother of two young kids and a teacher, and dawn staley, a legend many women's basketball and a current coach for the south carolina gamecocks. >> as an athlete, you're used to certain pains, in, you know, the orthopedic area. this was actually my heart, and it was a different pain. so i immediately sought out our team doctor to see, you know, what was going on, and he really didn't tell me anything besides giving me some tylenol and, actually, tylenol calmed it down, and then i had another episode in rio, and i just -- i just handled it with tylenol. but when i got home, i had one more episode, and i ended up going to the emergency room, and basically they can't tell you anything besides you probably need to see a cardiologist, so i went to see a cardiologist, and he basically said you have a classic cake of pericarditis, and i was like what's pericarditis? >> hear more from dawn staley, top medical experts and others this sunday 3:00 p.m. eastern on heart health: lives in the balance right here on msnbc. coming up, a mother's crusade. moms of students who survived a national shooting pushed the republican legislature to pass new gun control laws. we're going to talk to one of those moms here on "andrea mitchell reports" on news. i'll be right back. " on news. i'll be right back for a full 24. for one and done heartburn relief, prilosec otc. one pill a day, 24 hours, zero heartburn. david: i'm david goldberg, a bilingual elementary school teacher and president of the california teachers association. as we start a new school year, there's something new happening in california's public schools. jessie: they're called community schools. david: where parents and families, students and educators are making decisions as one. damien: it's a real sense of community. leslie: we saw double-digit gains in math, in english, and reading scores. david: it's an innovation that's transforming our public schools. narrator: california's community schools: reimagining public education. i would like to speak directly to the senate leadership, listen closely. the shooter confronted our children with guns, but now you are stabbing our families and all tennesseans in the back. >> powerful, gut wrenching words there from melissa alexander. her 9-year-old son is heading back to school without any new major gun laws protecting him. he survived the covenant shooting last march, but three of his classmates and staff members did not. they wrapped up a special session without passing any of the major gun legislation the parents had demanded. thank you so much for joining us on this. appreciate it. >> thank you for having me, yasmin. >> your son saw his classmates murdered as he walked out after having to seek safety when that school shooter was in his school. what is life like for him right now when he goes to school every day? what are the conversations like between the two of you? >> well, it's different for every child. for our son, most of our children are in therapy and we're trying to work on communicating and making sure that whatever is buried inside comes out and doesn't stay inside. but you know, the trauma is not a linear thing, so a lot of times we'll see it come out when surprising things happen like loud noises, like when we go to my daughter's track meet, and we hear the starter pistol go off, that's when we really feel the effects of it because he was on the second floor, and he heard -- there were 152 rounds, most of those on the second floor. he and his classroom, their door didn't really lock, and so it was -- i can only say is by god's grace that she didn't try and enter the room, but they heard everything around them, all the shots, all the smells, everything happened, and again, like you said, when they were rescued by the police once the situation was secured and the police came to rescue them, the bodies were there. and so we knew immediately that night once we were reunified with him that he told us who he had seen, and he said that they had fainted. >> wow. i'm so sorry. this is something that you, your family and your son are going through, but it's one of the reasons you are doing the important work that you're doing, and we all know that. i want to talk about the work you're doing. republican governor bill lee wanted red flag laws passed in this special session. it did not happen. i know that red flag laws are also high on your list of priorities. they would have likely stopped this school shooter, police saying the shooter was under a doctor's care for an emotional disorder and the family felt their child should not own weapons. why is the republican super majority against it? >> i can't really specifically say because i will say that their republican constituents have no problem with what we call an erpo, which is basically an order of protection for someone that could do harm to others. we don't feel like they are speaking for their constituents right now, and taking careful consideration, you know, these simple protected measures that still abide by the second amendment that can keep our children safe. you are right, she bought what we're hearing is seven guns, in a short period of time, and if there had been a way to put her on some sort of protection order on a list where she couldn't acquire those guns, maybe this would have been prevented. >> you are a lifelong conservative. >> yes. >> republican. you taught your children to shoot, i believe, at the age of 5. >> yes. >> you are appealing, you are protesting your own party now. >> i am, but i know there's a vast majority of republicans that live in tennessee that agree with what i'm saying. the disconnect, again, is with the legislature. i'm not sure if they are really listening to what folks are saying. governor lee put out a questionnaire ahead of the special session, and i believe it was 80 to 85% of the respondents say they were for stronger gun measures in our state, and so i think that speaks volumes in the fact that no action was taken. the special session was, like i said, i would say a slap in the face, but yeah, we felt like we were being stabbed in the back by their inaction. >> but melissa alexander, we know that you are not backing down with the t-shirts that you wore at that last session stating get used to seeing these faces. melissa alexander, thank you so much for all that you're doing and for lending your voice to this cause. we appreciate you. >> thank you. that does it for this dex of "andrea mitchell reports." join me this weekend from 2:00 to 4:00 p.m. right here on msnbc. "chris jansing reports" starts right now. good day. i'm chris jansing live at msnbc headquarters in new york city. from the white house to the courthouse and now former president donald trump is facing new political pushback from within his own party. his criminal case in georgia is sparking harsh divisions within the state gop, so what will happen if the trial is aired live all afternoon the world for everyone to see? and it's all on tape, the newly released police video of the fatal shooting by an officer in ohio. what we're learning from the body cam footage showing the moment that a 21-year-old pregnant woman was s