proceedings. it will also be live streamed on the court's you tube channel, and it's not just the trial. next week's arraignment is not viewable to the public, donald trump plus nine codefendants and counting have already waived their appearances for next wednesday and pleaded not guilty, so when could the public actually see them? and does the judge's ruling on camera still apply if some defendants manage to get their cases transferred to federal court? mark meadows still has not gotten an answer from the judge overseeing his attempt to toss the charges from state court. right now, he has yet to enter a plea or waive his arraignment. now, in the meantime, some of those hoping for a speedier trial are now trying to separate themselves from each other. why kenneth chesebro filed his second severance motion of the week. lots to get to. we're going to start with the reporting. joining me from the fulton county courthouse is nbc news correspondent, blayne alexander, and former federal prosecutor, and msnbc legal analyst, paul butler, welcome to you both. blayne, you first here, could most or all of the defendants enter a plea and waive their appearance before wednesday. what's the latest on that? >> i think it's very likely that we could see a lot more people join that number, alex. in fact, just through the course of the day, we have seen a lot of people enter the waivers. we are up to ten if you include the former president. we heard from a spokesperson for giuliani who says he intends to. we're talking about eleven or so people who have or are going to waive their arraignment appearances and have entered the not guilty plea. i should put this into context, though, it is not surprising. this is something we somewhat expected. we certainly didn't expect for all of them to come down here again to fulton county and go before a judge. they still have until monday. we could still see more people enter the waivers and choose to not go before a judge during their arraignment. >> can you walk us through judge mcafee's rules on allowing the proceedings to be televised. >> absolutely. alex, this is something we expected. because of georgia law, if there is a trial proceeding in a courtroom here in georgia, not a federal court but of course a state court, county court, anything like that, then, yes, cameras will most likely be inside. ultimately it's up to a judge's discretion. typically the judge signs off on that, unless there are very specific circumstances that would cause a judge to rule otherwise. judge mcafee confirmed what we've known all along. it's going to be live streamed on the court us you tube channel. there are a number of ways to watch it. what happens if some get removed to federal court? if you go to federal court, then you're abiding by the federal court rules. that means no cameras inside. even if there are some still being tried in the fulton county superior court, yes, that will be televised but the rules will not change in federal court meaning the cameras will not be allowed inside. that will be certainly a major difference if there is removed to federal court. >> i appreciate you answering that question, and i'm sure that all landed with a heavy thud inside the defense circles, that's for sure. so, paul, the fact that the televising rules would not apply to federal court, might that influence more codefendants to move their case there for the lack of publicity they would anticipate having others? >> absolutely. that's really one of the main differences, the other difference in federal court is the jury pool in fulton county. for a federal trial in atlanta, the jury pool is more diverse in the sense that it contains more white people. more people who live in far out suburbs, which trump seems to view as more favorable jury pool for him. but in terms of television, again, think, you're accused of participating in a racketeering organization that was designed to change the vote in georgia. you got to answer those charges. would you prefer to do that on television in a criminal courtroom, or have your lawyer just call it in? essentially that's what all of these defendants are likely to choose. >> it doesn't at all affect the legal proceeding, right? it's kind of almost a political interpretation when you look at what happens with or without cameras. >> that's absolutely right, alex, especially for the former president. trump clearly wants all of his trials to be after the election. since this is the only trial that will be televised, he really really wants this to happen after the election. >> absolutely. >> and i think he's likely to get his wish. legal trials take a long time. and i think that's regrettable because high profile televised trials are often teachable moments for americans on important issues. we may have that teachable moment at some point, but it would only be in georgia, and now, again, likely to be after the election. >> you know, paul, you talk about rico taking such a long time, and the fact that there are these attempts to break it up. when it comes to logistics, you have lawyers for ray smith, the first codefendant to plead not guilty and wait for his arraignment who has filed a motion to sever the codefendants into these manageable groups for trial. you have kenneth chesebro who's filed a motion to sever his trial from that of sidney powell's. who does that help more, codefendants or the court itself? >> it helps the prosecution, the fact that the codefendant are filing motions, asking for different remedies, some want the case moved from state to federal court. others want their trials severed from the other trials, others want a speedy trial. trump wants a very delayed trial. all of this helps the prosecution because every defendant is looking out for his or her own interests. so it's not like 19 defendants and 19 defense teams versus fani willis. it's every woman and man for themselves. one thing that means is that they're likely to implicate each other. one codefendant can turn on another codefendant. one example we have already seen is mark meadows, his admission, he's trying to get the case moved from state court to federal court. in his pleadings, he admitted that everything he did was directed by donald trump. now, that's not a defense for meadows, but it's very incriminating for the former president. >> and by the way, we are still waiting for the judge to rule as to whether or not mark meadows would get his wish and move this from atlanta to the federal trial. blayne and paul, thank you so much. we are watching the d.c. district courthouse where the third proud boy has been sentenced. dominic pezzola has been handed down ten years, half the time prosecutors were seeking. before the sentence, he told the court he was a changed and humbled man. he described his actions on january 6th as the worst, most regrettable decision in his life but reporters in the courtroom say after receiving his sentence and once the judge left the bench, pezzola turned toward the audience as he was let out of court, raised his fist and shouted quote, trump won. next up for sentencing is former leader ethan nordean who could be looking at 27 years. joining me now nbc news justice and intelligence correspondent, ken dilanian, this is half the time prosecutors were seeking for pezzola. remind us of the charges he was facing and this outburst he had as he was let out. what was that about? >> right. alex, prosecutors called dominic pezzola, an enthusiastic fist thrower in the plot to thwart the certification of the election. as you said, his ten-year sentence was half of what prosecutors sought. that really was in keeping with how the other proud boys have been sentenced by this judge so far. it is a bit of a setback for the justice department. pezzola as you said had expressed remorse for his actions in the trial. his remorse was less than genuine. the proud boys saw themselves as donald trump's army, prosecutors said, and apparently pezzola still does. >> i'm calling it absolute bs, is what he said in court when he turned around and what he said, and the tenor with which he said it. let me ask you what we're expecting for the proud boy, ethan nordean. >> now, nordean was convicted of seditious conspiracy. his sentence in theory should be longer. it's clear that this judge just does not see the severity of the crimes, committed by the proud boys in the same way prosecutors do. they are asking for 27 years for nordean, they clearly won't get it. they wanted stiffer sentences for the proud boys, because they say the proud boys used every physical breach of the capitol. it will be interesting, alex, to see what the judge does on tuesday with the proud boys leader, enrique tarrio, who was not physically present on january 6th, but this view of prosecutors, one of the key instigators of the whole thing. >> you read my mind. i was asking what you would expect on that, we will see. thank you so much, ken dilanian. the biden administration's plans to close the so-called gun show loophole, what they're planning and how it might help. plus, nbc news exclusive reporting. the white house has set up a war room, what is it preparing for? but first, what will it cost to rebuild after hurricane idalia. we're back in 60 seconds. d aftea we're back in 60 seconds (ella) fashion moves fast. setting trends is our business. we need to scale with customer demand... ...in real time. 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(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. at 11:00 past the hour, we're getting a live look at georgia governor kemp, touring the damage left by tropical storm idalia, and meeting with officials hearing what they have to tell them. tomorrow, president biden will be traveling to florida, where idalia made landfall as a strong category 3 hurricane. biden has approved a major disaster declaration releasing federal funding to affects individuals in seven florida counties, on board the brunt of idalia's force. it could cost more than $20 billion to rebuild what was lost. well, joining me now, we have from horseshoe beach, florida, nbc news correspondent, guad venegas. welcome, guad. horseshoe beach, by the looks of it and by your reporting, certainly one of the communities cut off from mainland, florida, how are the residents doing today? >> reporter: -- >> you know, guys, we are having a little bit of trouble. guad, if you can hear me. is your mic on, can you double check that quickly. we would love to hear what's going on in horseshoe beach. >> there you are. >> reporter: the microphone is on. >> green light. >> reporter: as i was saying, alex, this is one of the hardest hit communities. you can see the destruction behind me. there's washing machines. i think that's a dryer, air-conditioning unit, and just heavy items that have been moved out of the way. down there, you can see a giant pile of debris from the structures that were destroyed, and this is just one of the blocks here in horseshoe beach. most of the community was affected. most of the buildings are destroyed. there are a few newer ones that were on stilts that are still standing, but the destruction here is massive. authorities have warned people about the dangers, also as they're doing this clean up, alex, because we have dirty water, bacteria, mosquitoes that are also a danger. we also have other issues that they have to be careful with like the carbon monoxide that comes with generators, so these are things that people have to keep in mind. as the crews are trying to remove power, they are dealing with issues. power lines as far as the eye can see, have been affected. the poll is sort of standing, and it's leaning and we have power lines on the ground. this is the damage we have seen. the home down in the end is a home that's still standing, sometimes a lot of these properties, alex, if you look at them, they look like they're okay. the surge damaged a lot of stuff inside. we're going to hear from the owner, william, who spoke to us earlier today. >> this place is a piece of paradise. when we bought this house down here, we had no intention of moving. we weren't looking to buy the house. i have been where i was for 30 years and was perfectly happy. we went out riding one day after the covid quarantine. came down here, saw this place. came back on monday, and bought it. this is a beautiful little community, and i think in a year or two, it will start to get back that way. right now, it's one day at a time. believe it or not, we're here, we're alive. there are no complaints. there really aren't. >> reporter: and as residents are doing the clean up that you can see behind me, authorities right now are focusing mainly on restoring the power and the waters so that they can continue with this process, of course, having those services as they also wait for a lot of this debris to be picked up. alex. >> what a wonderful outlook that man had considering everything he was facing. thank you so much, guad. joining me now is florida state fire marshal, and chief financial officer jimmy petronis. you heard the things that folks in horseshoe beach are facing. they have dirty water. there's excessive concern about co2 exposure. dangerous waters. start with that, let alone everything else. what do the next few weeks of recovery look like from your perspective? >> sure, so thanks for having me. hurricane michael hit my hometown of panama city, so very similar coastal community that was devastated by a catastrophic hurricane. part of the struggles faced with right now like the reporters said is getting electricity reestablished and cellar services reestablished. once some of that takes place, you wouldn't believe how much we depend on things like traffic lights, getting our schools back open. when schools get back opened up. mom and dad can start to sort through some of the other challenges going through. we have 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 at night, we would multipurpose the schools in order to help stabilize the community in order to get those families back to normal. but it's going to be a long road with what took place with idalia, but the state of florida will be there every step of the way. we'll make sure those folks get back on their feet. >> let me ask you specifically about your statement, the state of florida being there every step of the way. as you well know, florida is better equipped to handle insurance claims, mostly because of beefing up the state's insurance levels of the reinsurance, which is designed to insulate insurers with the high claims. and state backed insurance, citizens state property corp., that's the fastest growing in florida as more companies prepare to leave the state. here's the question, can the state of florida afford to fill in the blanks and be a major insurer in the state? also taxpayers, are they the ones footing the bill for this across the state? >> sure, so, again, state of florida, we had learned from every disaster, we learned a lot from hurricane andrew. we learned a lot from the storms from '04 and '05. that's why we created the fund our own state's reinsurance fund, about $17 billion there. citizens, had about $8 billion in reserves even though it operates as the insurance of the last resort, it has become somewhat attractive as we are migrating four new companies this year alone into the state of florida. so the legislative changes that were passed last year have created an environment that has made it attractive for companies to come to florida, and during these times, it's happened before, citizens insurance, it grows and it shrinks n. 2020, -- in 2020 now 1.2 million again. there's also 300,000 requests for takeout right now as we speak with as many as up to 500,000 by the end of the year. again, the trends we are seeing are good, but it's also because we've made some tough decisions when it comes to the policies legislatively that we had to embrace and change to put the policy holder at the table and make sure we're focusing on them. >> let me ask the last question from fema. can florida pinch hit if fema can't handle this. >> so we did -- we learn after every storm, we created a half billion quick action fund before ian last year, so that same fund sits in place. we're in the best fiscal help as we have been in state. we have $4 billion in reserves. so, again, those dollars become a quick closing fund because sometimes fema can't respond financially, as quick as the state of florida can. at least the state of florida will float the debt until we work out our financial repayment program with fema. so again, we're going to be here and thank goodness we have prepared for instances like this. >> i'm thinking that is certainly music to the ears of those. jimmy petronis, thank you so much. >> you and me both. coming up, he's been indicted not once or twice, not even three times, now four times, what is still convincing republicans that donald trump is their best chance to beat joe biden. first, new nbc news exclusive reporting, what the white house is doing to prepare for a possible impeachment inquiry. prepare for a possib ilempeachment inquiry. 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get the bank of america customized cash rewards card, choose the online shopping category and earn 3% cash back. what do we always say, son? liberty mutual customizes your car insurance... so you only pay for what you need. that's my boy. ♪ stay off the freeways! only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ we saw with bill clinton in 1998 and donald trump twice in four years, could joe biden be the next president to face an impeachment. new exclusive reporting suggests the white house thinks it is a possibility and is ramping up a war room in preparation for a vigorous defense of the president. on the by line to that story, is nbc news white house correspondent monica alba, excellent reporting monica, let's get into it. what can you tell us about why this aggressive response is significant? >> well, alex, this really started at the beginning of the year when republicans took control of congress in the house of representatives, and this was something that any white house, and any incumbency facing reelection, of course, through their natural work would do. they would set something up in their white house counsel's office, where they would handle oversight and response to the other party, but what's different is that now that speaker mccarthy has said that impeachment would be a, quote, natural step forward, they have really now amped up this response. and so we know there are about two dozen or so staffers who have been detailed to this war room of sorts out of the white house who really spent a lot of the month of august gearing up for this possibility. now, again, this is expected but what the white house is going to continue to say and argue is they feel there's a sense that there isn't even a crystallized reason for why impeachment should be brought against president biden and republicans have evidence and things that they have been trying to claim that they don't have a lot of backing for. again, that's their argument. they are sort of in this position of, if they are going to bring an impeachment inquiry here, that they will be ready to respond and try to fact check to the best of their abilities. they have been studying impeachments in the past, and in particular looking at the 1998 bill clinton impeachment as a little bit of a road map for how they can try to respond what they feel will be an aggressive manner, and that they will try to make republicans pay a political price for going after the sitting president while arguing that he is focused on trying to get things done for the american people. >> can i ask you quickly if kevin mccarthy has given any indication about when he thinks they're ready to launch an impeachment inquiry. >> and that's the exact question, certainly one that the white house and my sources have because we know that also this could be barrelling towards the coming potential government shut down. and there's real risk here, the white house says, that republicans will look like they're potentially responsible for shutting down the federal government, if they can't come to an agreement, and simultaneously launching an impeachment inquiry, and the white house said if that happens, they will look in their argument, even more out of touch with what people are concerned about every day when it comes to the economy, when it comes to precipitation drug prices, all the things that this white house and administration has spent a lot of time talking about this week, and will continue to of course heading into the election. >> very much focused on that. to which i say, buckle up. thank you very much, monica. notable problem, what the ukrainian army says it has been able to do, but first, a new rule proposed that would close the gun show loophole. what it means in the fight to end gun violence. and she would just walk right past them. she didn't know they were talking to her. i just could not hear. i was hesitant to get the hearing aids because of my short hair. but nobody even sees them. our nearly invisible hearing aids are just one reason we've been the brand leader for over 75 years. when i finally could hear for the first time, i started crying. i could hear everything. call 1-800-miracle and schedule your free hearing evaluation today. from big cities, to small towns, 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. ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ get it with gurus. cargurus. 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>> listen, my initial reaction is one of tremendous hope. president biden keeps leading to do something about gun violence. you know, let's not forget 30 years ago this november the brady background check bill was passed. it was 30 years ago. at that time, you didn't have an internet where people were able to freely buy guns, unchecked. at that time, you didn't have an industry pushing these massive gun shows that we see today. what president biden is proposing is a rule to make sure we capture all of those who attempt now to sell guns for profit. and who, unfortunately, are doing so in a way where no background check is required, and that's where, you know, we always hear about the bad guys with guns. guess where they're getting them. i am hopeful, i think this is such a big deal, it's such an important thing, and i just urge americans to do everything they can in the next 90 days to make sure they make it known they want this done. >> so you're saying that this atf oversight will allow them to better control the prospect of getting guns into the hands of the bad guys, just to put it simply. here's my question to you, fred, are you at all worried that this is going to risk putting gun sales further underground in some arenas? >> no, the reality is, and again, i'll go back to 30 years ago when the current background check bills asked, it didn't even foresee or think about, let's just say, internet gun sales, because it didn't exist, and so by capturing who is a gun seller, who is our retailer for guns, what it's going to do is put more background checks out there for those who are looking to buy weapons, and, no, i'm not worried about putting it further underground because the reality is we must do something. we must stay in front of this technology. we must continue to do every single thing we can to stop the next one and save lives and that's what this does. >> before i get into the law with senator gutierrez, let me ask you, what is a viable argument, fred, that the gun lobby and gun activists can say, like, you know, we don't need background checks? does it exist? >> no. >> okay. >> there is no viable argument. listen, when my daughter was born 20 years ago, we had 200 million weapons in america. and ar-15 sales were less than 2% of all guns sold. today, 20 years later, we have over 400 million weapons, and ar-15 sales are all 25% of guns sold. when someone is walking into a store for an ar-15, i want to know that that person is capable of passing a background check. >> amen to that. as i get to you senator gutierrez, this will be challenged in court, but it is rooted into the bipartisan law that pass in the week of the uvalde shooting that who qualifies as a dealer. does that small change which originally was overlooked as a detail in this bill, is that going to garner the support you think it needs on the state level to get over the finish line? >> i hope so, alex, i think that people need to understand that 65% of texas voters wanted to see an age limit increase. they wanted to see extreme risk protective orders. republican voters, and they wanted to see universal background checks closing the gun show loophole. the fact is people should go to these gun shows. if you're wondering what happens here, go on the last day, on the last hour, and look at the people that show up buying from these so called hobbyists. look at how many guns they buy from the so called hobbyists. >> senator, they're cheaper, at that time, aren't they? they call them fire sales because they want to get rid of everything, and they buy not only in quantity, but the reason they can do in this kind of quantity is because they're cheaper? >> i hate to pigeon hole people, but go in the last hour as you'll be afraid as an american citizen at the kind of people that are showing up and the amounts of guns they are buying from these so-called hobbyists. republicans need to check their values because they have clearly have a set of values that chooses guns over people, killers over kids. now, i've seen what my constituents have had to deal with, what fred had to deal with. i saw it firsthand with these folks in uvalde, and it's horrendous. we need to do something. >> here's part of it, background checks don't necessarily guarantee that mass shootings are going to stop. the scope is very narrow, right, the jacksonville shooter last weekend, passed his background check. the uvalde shooter bought his weapons online, would have passed a background check. the parkland shooter also passed a background check, despite his history of an involuntary commitment for a mental health exam. others take firearms from family members. so is this rule as consequential as the biden administration is hoping and saying? >> it's a step in the right direction. we need protective orders, we need to close the gun show loophole. we absolutely need to be able to do something about assault weapons. i have seen the damage that it does to a child's body. i have seen hundreds of hours of footage that nobody has seen. and it is devastating. we need to do something now, and this is now our time. >> amen to that. fred gutenberg and texas state senator rowland gutierrez, you guys are welcome on my broadcast, anytime, thank you so much for showing up. coming up, a hopeful sign for the ukrainian counter offensive, what this means for the war in ukraine, but first, is donald trump the best chance the gop has at beating biden in 2024. nbc's steve kornacki breaks the numbers down for us, next. e numbers down for us, next. and there he is. chaz. the rec league's self-crowned pickleball king. do you just bow down? no you de-thrown the king. pedialyte. 3x the electrolytes. 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. heading on a family trip? 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(vo) learn more. it's your vision, it's your verizon. i have not seen any evidence that d.a. willis's actions or lack thereof warrant action by the prosecuting attorney oversight commission. a special session of the general assembly to end run around this law is not feasible, and may ultimately prove to be unconstitutional. as long as i'm governor, we're going to follow the law and the constitution. regardless of who it helps or harms politically. >> well, that was georgia governor brian kemp, shutting down calls from his own party to remove fulton county d.a. fani willis. it is the latest example of fissures within the republican party of those who are ready to move on from donald trump, and those still believing his baseless claims that the 2020 election was stolen, and while that divide might exist among gop lawmakers, a majority of republican voters still think donald trump should be the party's nominee. joining me now, nbc news political correspondent steve kornacki, my good friend. let's get to these numbers. how do they think the path to beating biden in the election goes right to donald trump? >> it's interesting. our average of the polls out there on the republican side, you continue to see just a dominating trump lead. there's been a talk out there, certainly from trump's opponents who are telling republicans, hey, look, he's going to have an electability problem. republicans were dragged down by him in 2022. there's all the legal drama, lost in 2020, 2018 was a bad midterm for republicans, but what's interesting when you start looking behind these numbers is that trump's strength with republican voters really isn't so much in spite of electability concerns, it's because they believe he's so electable. at least in part. this has been asked a number of different ways recently, the most direct morning consult poll this week, ask republicans who has the best chance of beating biden, more than 60% said donald trump. "the new york times" did a head to head of trump and desantis. one is sort of the ideas behind the desantis campaign is that you get trumpism without trump, offering republicans maybe a more electable version of trump, but republicans were asked, who's more electable, trump or desantis, better than 2-1 margin, they said donald trump. there's a new poll out of georgia this week, where all the legal drama you were talking about is playing out. they asked republicans there. donald trump is he definitely, is he probably the strongest to beat joe biden, nearly 70% put him in the definitely or probably category. only 25% said somebody else would be better against joe biden, so republicans believe very much donald trump isn't just electable, that he's the most electable, and democrats meanwhile, are hoping that trump will be the republican nominee because they believe he's very unelectable. one thing to keep in mind here is take a look at the average of the polls right now, trump versus biden head to head. biden is leading. the margin is less than a point. it's a close race. if he went back to the same point in the 2020 cycle, which would be the fall of 2019, biden had a double digit lead in the average of the polls, so trump is running. he's behind. but he's running better in the polls than he was the last time around, and in fact, this is the trend line of the poll average of the 2020 campaign. i mean, look, biden led straight through by solid margins, and yet trump came, he came close to winning, just a handful of states there. i think if you're a republican, you're remembering 2020, and how far behind trump was in the polls, and how close in the electoral college he ended up coming to winnings and 2016, you look at the poll numbers right now, maybe he's not unelectable. as a democrat you look at numbers in comparison to the past, you might have to ask yourself, are you sure trump's unelectable in 2024. >> it's a big huh. the numbers don't lie. it's hard putting it all together. are they all thinking big picture. we shall see with your help, steve kornacki, thank you. political analyst and chief strategist for the bush cheney election campaign, matthew dowd, what do you make of those numbers? >> i think it's a couple of things. first, there was a window of opportunity for the other republicans when there was a large share of republican voters who thought donald trump was not electable. that has disappeared. in large part because they have solidified around donald trump, probably because of the indictments, it got them angry, and so they went back and supported donald trump. the other part of this is keep in mind that voters are not weighing electability as the most important attribute. when you look at the polls of republicans, the most important attribute they look at is not can he beat joe biden, it's do they align with basically the maga agenda, and that's donald trump, so that's a problematic thing. the other part of this thing is there's no question in my mind that gop voters aren't always based in reality anyway. they don't believe in climate change, you just had a panel about guns. they think the moreguns. they think the more guns the better. the more guns we are, the safer we are. two-thirds of these voters think joe biden stole the election. two-thirds of republican voters think that joe biden stole the election. so it's not surprising to me that they in their base, they think that donald trump is the strongest candidate right now. >> that's extraordinary. let's get to some of the details. we have seen state republicans struggling, not just with internal divisions but big-time financially. the state of michigan comes to mind which is starving for cash and in a virtual state of chaos if you look at a recent state committee meeting that erupted in fist fights. are republicans at all connecting their fundraising issues to the ongoing legal drama of their front runner for president? >> well, i'm glad you asked that. you bifurcate this question about donald trump and republicans in general. the problem is donald trump has always been able to succeed on his own. then you saw in 2018, republicans lost overwhelmingly. then in 2020, republicans lost. in 2022, they lost a bunch of races they thought they would win. so donald trump is a drag. he's a drag on other republicans in the republican party. other republican organizations. especially on fundraising. donald trump seems to be able to raise whatever money he needs to keep going. the problem is he can raise it. the other republican organizations can't. that's why you hear this talk in the background among republicans who are either running or trying to support other republicans that they fear donald trump less for what will happen to donald trump and more what will happen to them. >> okay, matthew, good to talk to you today. by the way, you're welcome on my show on the weekends any time as well. coming up, a hopeful signal in the ongoing war in ukraine. what military officials there are celebrating, next. anything! ugh. well, i switched to swiffer wetjet, and it's awesome. it's an all-in-one, that absorbs dirt and grime deep inside. and it helps prevent streaks and haze. wetjet is so worth it. love it, or your money back. 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try nervive nerve relief from the world's number one nerve care company. nervive contains ala to relieve nerve aches, and b-complex vitamins to fortify healthy nerves. try nervive. and, try nervive pain relieving roll-on. having diabetes isn't easy, but i found splenda diabetes care shakes which help me manage my blood sugar and give me the energy at breakfast to take on whatever the day brings... they're smooth and creamy have 16 grams of protein and unlike others, *splenda* shakes have zero sugar they're a perfect snack between meals. or lunch on the go. splenda shakes are made by the #1 doctor-recommended sweetener brand. splenda diabetes care shakes: find them in the pharmacy aisle today. military officials in ukraine announced a rare break-through as the war with russia grinds on. a military spokesperson said they have achieved milestones near several russian-controlled territories in the southeast part of the country. officials there say the ukrainians have now pushed through the first russian main defensive line and punctured a second. now, if they can get past the third and hardest, it could bring the ukrainians closer to crimea. joining me now, matt bradley. what more do we know about this advance? how significant is it? >> reporter: well, i mean, there is a lot being said about this. is this a break-through? is this just sort of the ukrainians advancing a little bit and kind of breaching this one line in one specific place? the fact is it can be both. we are hearing from u.s. officials and others saying this is a breakthrough. mostly on the symbolic level. you mentioned the three different lines. the first one named after a russian general. this is a line essentially just sort of land mines. after that, there's antitank placements. that should be hard to get through. this third line is trench warfare. that will be regular russian soldiers who will be inhabiting those trends. that will be the hardest line to breach. we're talking about a modest achievement. but the importance of this, again, symbolic. it goes to slow the ukrainians can breach this line because the russians have had months to put up formidable defenses all along this massive sprawling front line that goes from the southwest of the country all the way up to the northeast. now, the fact that they can get through, it could mean they could be making progress toward their main goal of this much-anticipated counter offensive that has been launched months or weeks ago, to cut russian forces, to create, to block their land ridge from russia proper all the way to sort of, you know, the odesa region. this is something the russians had in mind before they invaded back in february 2022, and breaking that, stopping that continuum across the southern part of ukraine, that would make it much, much more difficult for the russians to provide and feed their soldiers and get them weapons on the western part of their flanks. that would make it very difficult for them to remain. they might have to retreat into crimea. but if the ukrainians are successful, if they're able to reach the black sea, if you're following me on the map there, they will be putting crimea within distance of their large guns. their artillery. most of this provided by the united states. this breakthrough such as it is comes just in time because the ukrainians, kyiv has been weathering so much criticism over the last several months from their been factors in the the west. from washington, wondering where all the high-tech equipment is going in improving ukraine's standing when it comes to pushing back the russians. >> well, job well done so far if these reports are true. thank you so much. here's a program note for all of you. this sunday, there will be a special called heart health. lives in the balance. it was inspired by her own health scare. that will be on sunday at 3:30 p.m. eastern. i'll be back at noon:00 eastern on saturday and 1:00 p.m. eastern on sunday. "deadline white house" starts right now. >> reporter: hi there, everyone. it's 4:00 in the east on the friday before we are all hopefully set to enjoy a long labor day weekend. we are tracking a flurry of activity in the multiple ongoing criminal cases facing donald trump. today kenneth cheesboro, scott hall, michael roman and just within the last hour, robert cheeley, all formally entering pleas of not guilty and waiving their rights to arraignment. the district attorney fani willis has charged them with trying to overthrow the will of the voters in georgia. they are just the latest in trump's co-defendants who have chosen to waive