that category, two women and one young child. we have reason to believe that one of those americans will be released today. until we see her out safely from gaza, in the hands of the authorities and ultimately in the hands of her family, we will not be certain. >> let's get right to nbc news correspondent, eric mclaughlin, in tel aviv, erin, thank you for joining us. what more can you tell us about what's expected to happen today? >> well, we're waiting for a news, still no word on today's expected exchange. there is this new hope that an american could be among the hostages released. this of course follows last night successful exchange of 13 israeli hostages and 39 palestinians. one of the israeli hostages released is nine year emily hand, she was -- on october 7th, she had been staying at a friend -- hamas militants, stormed into gaza and initially she had been reported dead, that's what her father says he was told, that was corrected weeks later. last night, we saw, just a heartwarming reunion, father and daughter reunited. it was a union that many in the region feared might not happen last night given that earlier in the day hamas had said that there was going to be a delay, citing a litany of issues that it said it had with the agreement, israel's compliance with the agreement, one of them being hamas is perceived lack of aid, humanitarian aid, getting to northern gaza. that lasted for hours but was rectified by the help of qatari officials, as well as egyptian officials, as well as the president of the united states himself. the exchange happened, giving new hope but also underscoring just the fragility of this overall situation. i was texting with a spokesperson from the icrc earlier today, she was telling me the preparations are underway, also cautioning given how complex the situation is that anything could go wrong. >> erin, thank you for your reporting, we'll check back in a few moments. now, we turn to a big week ahead in american politics, and a brewing crisis that some of the most countries influential conservatives have to address. not a single vote has been cast in any of the 2024 primaries, but donald trump and his lackeys have already started a game plan for how they will wield power if they win a second term in the white house. here's a spoiler, this game plan promises to be even more severe and more draconian than his first term in office. all signs are pointing towards donald trump's plans to seek vengeance against his perceived political enemies and drastically overhaul the federal government as we know it. a second trump term means more extreme immigration policies that involves sweeping -- and the deportation of millions of people each year. now, in order to carry out these drastic policies, an effort is already underway to stack the federal government with trump loyalists who are all willing to carry out his orders. a major part of that effort starts with identifying and hiring lawyers who won't restrain trump from acting on his worst impulses. now, as a lawyer, i can tell you that that last point is really the crux of what these plans are all about. remember, donald trump came very very close to stealing the 2020 election, but he didn't act alone. he had help. the help he had came from experienced attorneys who pushed bogus legal theories around baseless conspiracies about election fraud on his behalf, even as they knew that these things weren't true. some of these attorneys were later criminally charged in fulton county georgia by d.a. fani willis. some have already accepted plea agreements and are now even cooperating with prosecutors. in an op-ed published last week, a trio of respected conservative lawyers, including george conway, retired federal judge michael luttig, and former congresswoman barbara comstock, called attention to this very problem in the legal profession. they write that many of their conservative colleagues appeared to have been led astray and they're alarmed by it. writing, quote, the growing crowd of drifters, frauds, and conman willing to subvert the constitution and long estaished constitutional principles for the whims of political expediency, the actions of these conservative republican lawyers are increasingly becoming the new normal. now, i've been skeptical of recent efforts to use the 14th amendment to disqualify donald trump from the ballot because even if those efforts are successful, it doesn't solve the problem. see, you are only getting rid of trump, not getting rid of trumpism. that's the root of the issue that we're dealing with right now. the movement that this is true of lawyers are proposing is one step closer in the right direction. it's an active effort that places the responsibility of defeating trumpism at the very feet of republicans. the same party that's responsible for elevating trump in the first place. joining me now, stuart stevens, a senior adviser for the lincoln project and author of the book, the conspiracy to end america five ways, my whole party is driving democracy to a top or see. also with us, my friend, reena shaw, a republican political strategist and the principal and founder of relaxed ravages. good morning, thank you both for being here. stuart, you've dedicated an entire chapter of your book to fringe legal theories and the people who helped legitimize them. what do you think they are doing to undermine our democracy? >> well, look, these are people who decided that democracy is the enemy, they're not able to win -- 85% of trump's coalition is white, a country that 60% white, becoming less so every time. the party has failed to appeal to these non-white voters in any large numbers. their answer is to curate the vote. that's really what they're doing. it's a classic move of how democracies, a classic step and how democracies slide into a top russi. these are dangerous people. they're very smart, they're competent, they're well financed, and they're absolutely convinced that they're going to win. >> reena, stewart just said the republican party has failed to reach out to non white voters. you are still someone who is forcing and moving the line forward within the gop. is there an interest in turning the corner with respect to that narrative? if so, is that one of the ways they begin to move beyond donald trump and where he's taken the republican party? >> what i found in traveling the country with younger conservatives, people who are actually more fiscally conservative and socially liberal, the more -- there is that appetite for a real republican that -- a real republican in the sense of how we talk about reagan, we talk about him in a way that almost idolized him and forgets anything that went wrong during the reagan administration or anything by the former president himself. again, these people are looking at fiscal conservatism and these candidates speak uncertain ways, like nikki haley, for example. you look at the economy around you, you look at the upward mobility we were told we'd have, like our parents. we have a two story house with a two car garage, that white picket fence, that dream is not possible for a large number of millennials like me. the state of the world has changed, of course. when we look at who's been in the white house, and i don't want to take this back to president obama, but i want to look at capitol hill during obama's time, i could draw direct line from the rot of trumpism today to the tea party movement that i saw as a young staffer when i served two republican members in the house. the tea party starts is this very almost noble organic cause. people who are frustrated with the economy largely. and then, it went off the rails. you know who's to blame, charles? it's the elders in the republican party, -- consultants who wouldn't let candidates be themselves, and largely, it's the same people who wouldn't make room on the bench for younger votes such is -- therefore, she converted herself and prostate at the altar of trump. so, it's an all of the above approach from people that needs to happen right now. in order to get to the root cause the problem. >> reena, the one thing i didn't hear, maybe we can talk fiscal conservatism, we can talk nikki haley, the tea party all we want, but the one thing i did not hear you say is that the republican party has to take some level of responsibility with respect to what they created in donald trump and how you deal with that at this point. i don't think that the gop is gonna be able to simply walk over that and present a new candidate for a new party to the public without dealing with that issue. >> how do you pivot? you have to make a hard pivot to get from there to hear. there was donald trump, the sort of harkening and really talking about the things that were in the backs of our minds, right? he spoke to these americans who were so frustrated with members of congress that just didn't serve them. h member of conthey had this anger, the visceral anger is still very much there. they feel like these members of congress are fat cats serving themselves. there's all this evidence that shows that is true. you can't get out of that lane unless you do a hard pivot. so, yes, there's a lot of people within today's gop that still bear responsibility for the monster that became trump. but i think at this point, the only way to save the party, that's why i remain and i, i believe we need two healthy parties at least in the system in order for our democracy to thrive. that's why we still remain right-of-center. am i anti trump? absolutely. and my all about working to defeat him in every way possible? yes. it's an exhausting task when you have so few people committed to that cause. >> i think it remains to be seen whether the people who claim themselves to be hard-line conservatives and adhere to conservative values can still remain under the same tent with meghan nation. we'll have to see how that works out. stuart, the op-ed, it takes particular aim at the federalist society, saying, quote, the federalist society has conspicuously declined to speak out against the constitutional another legal excesses -- white house lawyers are inventing theories to stop the peaceful transition of power and copping pleas to avoid jail time, it's clear that we have, in the legal profession, come to a crisis point, and quote. how big of an influence have they've been in helping push trumpism? the federalist society? >> the federalist society is a massive influence here. what's fascinating here from the op-ed's all three are former supporters -- but they have all been supporters of in the past. look, the federalist society began in this nice little weekend retreat in the mid 80s at yale, the future of the conservative judiciary. after that benign title, it's grown this process that's completely changed the american judiciary. those same people now have 1.6 billion dollars, given a couple years ago, the largest political contribution in american history, mostly dedicated to change how we vote. when you look at how this started, a little weekend retreat at yale, and what it ends up as now, it's hard to say the federalist society didn't win. and i think that's where we're headed now. this has got to be taken seriously. it's every level of the voting system that they are challenging from the very top to local precinct levels. and we have to realize this, this is a very serious threat to how we vote in america, donald trump, trump want to be winds in the next election, odds are it'll be the last election we can recognizes anything we've known previously in america. >> now, given that, that's a really powerful point, stewart, in terms of the threat to democracy and free and fair elections here in america. reena, we're listening to some really violent, really fiery vitriolic rhetoric from donald trump on the campaign trail. he's still, foreign away, remains the front runner for the republican nomination. what does that say in terms of your notion of a hard pivot from donald trump when he continues to do the same thing and it seems like the republican voters, at least those who are being polled, are standing in lockstep with him? >> well, charles, i've said this in many places and many ways, we ought to be careful about these polls. again, who is answering them, right? we're getting a lot of the hard right folks coming out and answering them. i think when you really take all the layers away here, with that play? it's the donor class has still backed trump up to some extent. it's also a lot of these elected officials in a lot of posts around the country, not just at the highest level, when trump knows he can continue to pray on the average voter who isn't plugged in, isn't paying attention, and really drive and drill down into their fear about the country changing, that's when he knows he winds. so, i submit to you that it's not as powerful as it looks, and therefore, it's not that we should discount what trump is out there doing and saying, it's still very dangerous, i'm extremely concerned about political violence, not just its uptick, but it's almost normalcy nowadays. what i really wish to say here is people should have hope about today's younger right leaning conservative, they have woken up, they're in tuned with a lot of what's in our system right now that's made it so bad, that made the donors of the federalist society so powerful unable to do the work they've done from the top down to the grassroots. therefore, these younger conservatives want to see it overturned, they want to see and end to gerrymandering, they want to see independent redistricting commission. they also want to see -- so their interests and their choice is represented. we need more systemic reform that younger right-leaning folks can get behind. today's republican party at large, at the top level, again, the donor class and -- continues to make it seem like that's not what we want and that's what's hurting the country the most, when the select few donors can rid the system and make it what it is, it continues to win every time, my friend. reena shaw, thank you for getting us started this morning. so much we could talk about but you've done a great job framing our conversation. still ahead on velshi, hamas is expected to release another batch of hostages today, and, u.s. officials say there is reason to believe american citizens could be among them. at least one. this as we enter the third day of a four-day pause in fighting here in tel aviv. next, on the latest. then, more than a dozen lawmakers have announced they will not seek reelection this month. this exodus is a big problem for congress already given that they're steeped in chaos. i'm charles coleman junior, we have more to talk about right next after this break on velshi. next after this break on velshi velshi >> the subway series? it's the perfect menu lineup. just give us a number, we got the rest. number three? the monster. six? the boss. fifteen? titan turkey. number one? the philly. oh, yeah, you probably don't want that one. look, i'm not in charge of naming the subs. teeth sensitivity is so common. it immediately feels like somebody's poking directly on the nerve. i recommend sensodyne. sensodyne toothpaste goes inside the tooth and calms the nerve down. and my patients say you know doc, it really works. you want to be able to provide your child with the tools or and resources they need.. with reliable internet at home, through the internet essentials program, the world opened up. fellas, fellas. that's how my son was able to find the hidden genius project. we wanted to give y'all the necessary skills to compete with the future. kevin's now part of this next generation of young people who feel they can thrive. ♪ ♪ welcome back. i'm charles coleman junior filling in for ali velshi today. now we are in the third day of the four-day truce between israel and hamas. just in the last hour, u.s. national security adviser, jake sullivan, told christian walker on meet the press that it's possible that americans will be among the hostages released by hamas today. >> do you expect american hostages to be released today? >> well, kristen, the initial hostage deal involves the release of women and children and there are three americans in that category. two women, one young child. we have reason to believe that one of those americans will be released today. until we see her out, safely, from gaza, in the hands of the authorities and ultimately in the hands of her family, then we won't be certain. >> now as was the case yesterday, the situation is very fluid. the timeline of today's release remains unclear. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu's office says israel has received a list of hostages that are slated for release today, and, that they have been for their families. yesterday, there was an hours long delay of the hostage prisoner exchange. hamas allege that israel did not release palestinian prisoners and their agreed upon order is part of the swamp. hamas also cited insufficient aid and violence in northern ga. eventually, it was 17 hostages, including 13 israelis, and for ty nationals, who wer transferred by the red cross to egypt. then to israel, where they were reunited with their families. last month, after the october 7th attack, nine-year-old emily hand's family thought that she had been killed. she was out asleep over and h friends where she was kidnapped by hamas. weeks later, her family was informed that she may have been abducted. and this, video released by the idf yesterday, emily is back in the arms of her father. the other grow in that video, 13-year-old -- was also reunited with her uncle. hi liz mother is still being held hostage. now, as to the other side of the deal, 39 more palestinian prisoners were freed from israeli prisons yesterday. people gathered last night to celebrate their return to the west bank despite violence continuing to spike in the west bank since the truce. palestinian health ministry says eight people have been killed in the west bank in the past 24 hours. joining me now our nbc news correspondent, erin mclaughlin. she's in tel aviv. megan fitzgerald who is in london. thank you both for being here. erin, good to have you back. after yesterday's affair, what's the mood in israel regarding today's expected hostage release? >> well i would call, it, charles hopeful apprehension. hopeful that there will be a third release of hostages for the third consecutive day. apprehension and anxiety given the volatility of the situation, especially considering the pause in the situation that we saw play out yesterday. hamas delaying the release of 13 israeli hostages, pointing to a litany of complaints. among those complaints, not enough aid had been reach in northern gaza. specifically. also violence in gaza on the day the cease-fire began around 7:50 in the morning. israeli soldiers opened fire on palestinians trying to return to their homes, killing at least one. according to a hospital official, that was listed among their grievances. also then, the order in which the palestinians had been released as part of this deal. hamas wanting the longest running, serving prisoners to be released first. they said this did not happen. it led to this multiple hours long pause that was just absolutely excruciating for the families as they were waiting for their loved ones to cross the border order into egypt. there's underscored the fragility of the situation, and the complexity of the situation. ultimately, those 13 hostages were released with the help of qatari officials, egyptians, even the president of the united states. charles. >> megan, part of the deal that we're talking about is increased humanitarian aid into gaza. the number of trucks that are expected today is around 200. what is the progress on those trucks, and can you tell our viewers what is expected to be inside of those trucks? >> well, charles,