international criminal court said he has requested arrest warrants for prime minister netanyahu, other israeli officials and hamas officials for alleged war crimes. joining us from tel aviv is nbc's raf sanchez. what is the very latest? >> reporter: so, jose, as we speak, prime minister benjamin netanyahu is meeting with senior government ministers. earlier he spoke to his legal advisers and they're formulating israel's response to this ruling from the international court of justice, which is both final and it is binding. and so if israel does not abide by it, then it is technically in breach of international law. but what is key here, jose, is that the court does not have powers to enforce its rulings, and we have seen icg rulings ignored in the past, by israel, by other countries, and in theory, if there is a dispute, this could move to the united nations security council, which does have the power to enforce its own binding decisions, but israel is hoping that the u.s. will use its veto power to shield it at that forum. now, jose, about 800,000 palestinian civilians have been displaced in rafah since the start of that military offensive earlier this month. it is also plunged the distribution of humanitarian aid, really across gaza, and into crisis. the rafah crossing is closed and it is becoming much more difficult now to get aid through any of the crossings in southern gaza, and get it out to the rest of the strip. there may be a little bit of legal wiggle room here in that the court has ordered israel to submit a report within one month, explaining how it is complying with the judge's rulings. some here in israel are interpreting that as as long as israel wraps up its military operation in rafah within the next month, as long as it can say to the court one month from now that that operation has come to an end, that it will be in compliance with international law, the judges did say they must halt this operation immediately. jose, our team on the ground inside gaza says rather than halting, they say israeli air strikes are intensifying at this hour. >> and, meanwhile, the military says they recovered the bodies of three hostages killed during the october 7th massacre? >> reporter: yeah, that's right, jose. so this is three bodies recovered from northern gaza in the middle of your screen, orion hernandez, dual french mexican national, kidnapped, killed from that super nova music festival with his girlfriend and her body was recovered in the same area of northern gaza, a week ago. so, another grim discovery by the israeli military in northern gaza. this does give these grieving families perhaps a little bit of closure, and an opportunity to bury their dead. there are 125 hostages still inside gaza, according to israel's government, 39 of them are confirmed to be dead. but the fear here in israel is that the actual number may be much higher than that. jose? >> and, cia director bill burns back -- heading back to the area in an effort to revive cease-fire negotiations? >> reporter: yeah, once again, jose, cia director bill burns heading to paris, he's due to meet with the head of the mossad spy agency and the prime minister of qatar and he's trying to jump start these cease-fire talks which have been so badly stalled for so long, you'll remember, jose, the last time there was a cease-fire, the last time hostages were released was the end of november, last year. it is now 231 days since october 7th. 231 days of those hostages being in captivity, 231 days of this intense, intense fighting, causing such misery inside gaza. and i have to tell you, jose, there is not a whole lot of optimism that the cia director or anyone else is going to be able to get these cease-fire talks back over the line again. jose? >> raf sanchez in tel aviv, thank you so much. back here at home, we are also following the latest developments in the race for the white house. for the first time in years, former president donald trump held a rally in new york. the event in south bronx was framed as an effort to reach out to black and latino voters. >> african americans are getting slaughtered, hispanic americans are getting slaughtered, and these millions and millions of people that are coming into our country, the biggest impact and the biggest negative impact is against our black population and our hispanic population who are losing their jobs, losing their housing, losing everything they can lose. >> with us now, nbc news correspondent dasha burns, who was at last night's rally. ashley etienne, former communications director for vice president harris and brandon buck, former press secretary to house speakers boehner and ryan and msnbc political analyst. so, dasha, what was it like there last night? >> yeah, jose, you said it there, he was in the bronx, in a blue state, in a very blue area of the state that he lost by a really wide margin in the last election. but this was part of that push to engage black and latino voters and i will tell you, it was a diverse crowd, there were some folks from new jersey, from westchester, but i met a lot of people at that rally who were born and raised in the bronx, black residents, hispanic residents, immigrants who actually this might be counterintuitive but did agree with former president trump's position on immigration. there was a lot of talk in his speech that was pretty new york centric, he painted a pretty bleak image of new york city as a city in decline at one point, talking about, quote, encampments and lunatics killing people, but as i talked to voters in that crowd, jose, it was really fascinating because we have seen these numbers, we have seen the polling, where biden is struggling to shore up that base, with black and hispanic voters, and we have seen some of those folks start to gravitate towards trump. i want you to take a listen to some of the conversations i had at the rally. listen. >> so much crime, everything is going downhill. the economy is going bad. the food is expensive. it is, like, affordable housing is too -- not for everybody. it is terrible. >> i want food to go cheaper, the gas, i want gas cheaper. when i came and he was president, gas was a lot cheaper than it is right now. >> now we becoming the bronx second class citizens. we have this influx of migrants coming in and they're getting everything. everyone in the bronx in the city of new york is forgotten. >> and, jose, a lot of the people i talked to were first time voters, some had never been to a trump event before, some had voted for obama twice and voted for biden and are now saying they are going to vote for former president trump in november. look, a lot is going to happen over the next six months. but this is something i've been hearing consistently from voters, and that's why you're seeing some of the more aggressive push from the biden campaign to try to shore up their base to try to rally those voters, but some really fascinating and somewhat unexpected conversations last night, jose. >> yeah, i mean, the last republican to win new york was reagan in '84. is there any thoughts in the trump team that anything similar to that could happen in 2024? >> i sure hope they don't think that, no, that's not going to happen. but i think it is a very real dynamic here, that black and hispanic voters for a long time now have been showing much higher interest in voting for somebody other than joe biden. i don't think this is a situation where all of a sudden they love what donald trump has to offer. donald trump is very good at blaming people and telling people who to blame for their problems. and that's, i think, what is going on here. it is very early. i don't think donald trump is going to win 20% of these populations by any measure. i think the biden campaign is probably going to be able to close this gap significantly. the problem i think for the biden folks is the opportunity cost of doing that. this should be a core part of your coalition who you don't have to be worrying about at this stage of an election. rather than being able to focus on, say, nikki haley voters, soft republicans, they find themselves trying to shore up what has been particularly for joe biden a core fundamental part of his voting block. so, trump is very good at being showy, very good at blaming people, the biden team has a lot of work to do, this is real. not a lot of easy solutions, especially with cost of living, but my bigger concern for the biden folks is what you're not doing while you're trying to win back this argument. >> you know, ashley, i think it is also somewhat dangerous to buy into the narrative that biden and democrats are losing african american majority votes or latino vote is, you know, up for grabs en bloc. i don't see anybody looking close to what george w. bush got from the latino votes, for example. wondering, though, but from the biden campaign perspective, what is that this message is? >> well, i mean, i think that there are those within the black and the latino community that identify with president -- former president trump's grievance message. there is no doubt about that, there is a lack of trust that exists between those communities and those communities and the democratic party. so that means that the president biden has some work to do, but here's the other reality that i -- that came to me as i was watching the rally last night that i don't think we have an appreciation for. it is incredibly hard to message against someone who is a liar, and who isn't being held to account on those lies. trump gets to the mic and just spews one after the other and there is no one holding him account to those lies. and then you got an entire conservative media apparatus that is perpetuating these lies. so, that's really the challenge. and, you know, that's the hardest thing to do, to go up and message against a liar and we have never seen one to this extent that is willing to go as far as trump is, to really not just stir the pot, but to really cause divisions within the party and fracture the country and the nation honestly about these issues. >> yeah, and talk about fracturing and about divisions, dasha, trump's rally came one day after former rival nikki haley said she would vote for him. trump responded to her comments last night, what did he have to say? >> yes, so this is where we're seeing some really interesting -- i don't want to necessarily call it realignment -- but a shift among democrats and republicans. what you're seeing now is those nikki haley voters, she's been getting some 15 to 20 sometimes above that percent in some battleground states after -- months after she dropped out of the race. so for former president trump, for his campaign, it is important to try to extend that olive branch to win over some of those voters that are really skeptical that clearly wanted to send a message when they voted for nikki haley, that they're not comfortable with trump leading the party. so listen to how he responded to her saying she's going to vote for him. listen. >> well, i think she's going to be on our team because we have a lot of the same ideas, same thoughts. i appreciated what she said. we had a nasty campaign, it was pretty nasty. but she is a very capable person, and i'm sure she's going to be on our team in some form. absolutely. >> and while there is some concern among black and latino voters they may be getting chipped away at by trump, the biden campaign has been starting to try to go after those haley voters, particularly in pennsylvania. they doubled their ad spending, targeting haley voters specifically trying to bring them over to their side. so, it is just a really fascinating landscape out there, jose, when talking to voters who are trying to figure out what camp do they belong in right now with their politics, kind of upside down at the moment. >> and "the new york times" reporting today that arkansas republican senator tom cotton has unexpectedly emerged as a top contender to be trump's running mate. that according to three people with direct knowledge of trump's thinking. what do you make of that? >> yeah, interesting. what donald trump is going to be looking for is somebody who will repeat his messaging, without any pause, and tom cotton is a very aggressive conservative, who particularly on matters of foreign policy makes no apologies for having very conservative views and somebody who i think donald trump will be able to rely on pretty consistently to back him up. now, usually you think about things like does this person expand my coalition at all, i don't know that that does that here, but i think donald trump is looking for things a little bit differently, particularly after the mike pence experience. his number one priority is going to be loyalty and i think tom cotton is somebody he thinks would probably be pretty loyal to him. >> and, ashley, we were listening to dasha talking about the top issues that the folks that were at the trump rally were talking about. immigration is clearly one of the top issues. and everyone seems to have a different perspective or even definition of what immigration is or is not. how important is immigration for both biden and trump this year? >> well, i mean it going to be a weapon that both parties are going to try to use to their advantage. you've seen the votes in the senate where, you know, schumer sort of compelled votes, double down on this narrative that republicans are banning a bill they actually wrote. on the other side, republicans are, again, pointing the finger at and blaming joe biden for what is happening at the border, although they refuse to come to the table in advance of a bill they actually have written. that is a sort of a dream wish list for conservatives. but i love to go back, if you don't mind, to this issue of -- >> yes. >> it is really important. what we're seeing right now is the republican party is in a complete and total identity crisis. it is no longer the party of reagan, no longer the party of lincoln. they're all behind donald trump. what was a party that staunchly was for the constitution, now is supporting somebody who said they're going to walk away from the constitution on day one and lead as a dictator. so, i think pence is the model and the example that nikki haley and cotton and all these people should be at the forefront of their minds. this is what you get when you cozy up to donald trump. you get threats on your life, you -- also, run the risk of -- the party runs the risk of becoming another failed enterprise of donald trump, just like the bogus universities and his claims to be a billionaire. that's the real risk this party continues to run, they're going to continue to be on the losing end and american people see right through it. >> dasha burns, ashley etienne and brandon buck, thank you very much. appreciate it. up next, congressman ritchie torres, who represents the bronx, joins us. why he says instead of holding a rally, trump owes the bronx a major apology. great to see you. we'll chat in just a minute. and what closing arguments in trump's criminal hush money trial might look like when the trial goes back into session next week. and another round of violent storms in the midwest, kicking off the holiday weekend. what you need to know before you head out. we're back in 90 seconds. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. os you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. 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(vo) it's your vision, it's your verizon. it doesn't matter whether you're black or brown or white or whatever the hell color you are, it doesn't matter. >> 18 past the hour. that was donald trump yesterday holding a rally in the south bronx area of new york city, part of his appeal to black and latino voters. with us now is democratic new york congressman ritchie torres who represents the area where trump held his rally last night. always a pleasure to see you. i thank you for your time. you wrote a piece for "the new york daily news" in which you wrote, quote, instead of holding a rally, trump owes the bronx an apology for the lasting damage he has done. what did you mean by that? >> well, donald trump's presidency was a catastrophe for the bronx. his gross mismanagement of the covid-19 global pandemic left a death toll of more than 7,000 fatalities in the bronx, which is greater than the death count of 9/11 and pearl harbor combined. so, donald trump has brought preventable death and deep suffering to the people of the bronx, and as i noted, instead of holding a rally, he should be issuing an apology to the people of the bronx for the long and lasting damage that he has done, not only to the bronx, but to our country. >> congressman, you represent an area, very richly diverse area. and very compact as far as people living together. what is it that the -- trump's message, you know, his apparent appeal to latinos and african americans, what is the message that the bronx sends to donald trump? >> look, the bronx is not trump country. it is the antithesis of trump country. we in the bronx are no stranger to donald trump. we know that he's fundamentally a fraud. and i predict that the voters of the bronx are not going to buy this snake oil that donald trump is selling. president biden has delivered for the people of the bronx. i'll give you one example, he capped the price of insulin at $35 a month, which is a game changer and a life saver for the people of the bronx, which has among the highest rates of diabetes in the country. president biden early on expanded the child tax credit, which cut child poverty by 50% in the south bronx and throughout the country. by contrast, donald trump republicans are intent on imposing the steepest cuts to snap, to nutritional assistance, in nearly 30 years. that's not an act of fiscal responsibility, that's an act of cruelty against the people of the south bronx, which is one of the poorest areas in the country. >> yeah. congressman, another issue i've been looking forward to speaking to you about, you continue to have -- raise your voice in support of the jewish population, the jewish people, and to israel. what is your reaction to the international court of justice's order on israel to halt its offensive in rafah immediately? >> well, i have concerns about the politization of the international justice system. i'm not familiar with the latest order from the icc. but i do share the view that the protection of civilian life should be a priority. everyone agrees that israel should not go into rafah without first evacuating palestinian civilians and my understanding is that there has been a humanitarian evacuation of up to a million palestinians. but we should be crystal clear, the cause of the war was not israel. the cause of the war is hamas. and if hamas remains in power, it will rearm, regroup, and launch even deadlier terror attacks than the atrocities of october 7th. as long as hamas remains in power, there will never be security for israel and never be peace between the israelis and palestinians. >> congressman, why do you think there has been a visible, tangible rise in antisemitism in our country? >> look, i mean, antisemitism is the most ancient form of hatred. at the core of antisemitism is a conspiracy theory. it is common for societies to scapegoat the jewish community after everything that is wrong in a particular society. scapegoating, fearmongering, conspiracy theories, these are all symptoms of antisemitism and intend to be symptoms of a society that is riding from within. >> congressman ritchie torres, a pleasure to see you, thank you for being with us today. >> absolutely. e you, thank you for being with us today. >> absolutely. >> thanks. up next, millions of people are under the threat of severe weather and that could have a major impact on travel this holiday weekend. one of the busiest holiday travel weekends ever. what you need to know. plus, we'll tell you about the landmark agreement just reached that could be a revolution in college sports. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. ss you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. 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>> we're going to track it from the midwest to the planes and eventually to the east coast by the time we get to monday. already this morning we had numerous reports of tornados in areas of iowa, spreading into illinois, with this line of thunderstorms. it is approaching chicago, so we will have some airport delays when that blows on through. but it looks like it is weakening a little bit. i mentioned the davenport area, we had semitruck blown over, we had three reports of -- just south of the city of tornadoes this morning. this line is at least weakening. when it gets to chicago, as far as the rest of this afternoon, the dallas area and oklahoma, huge hailstorms late today, maybe an isolated tornado or two. expect delays out of dallas and little rock. saturday is not bad. during the daylight hours we're just fine. late in the day, after the sun sets, we have a tornado risk in oklahoma, that storm system and then on sunday moves into areas from st. louis to chicago, all through the ohio valley and then to the midwest, that could be a tornado outbreak. so we have been -- if you're in this region, make sure you're weather aware come sunday afternoon and evening. really nasty storms could be headed your way, as i mentioned, this all heads to the east coast, with some downpours for your monday holiday, unfortunately, for the parades out there and the festivities. so, again, severe weather, jose, day after day, we're getting it, if you remember green field, iowa, the town that got hit with the big tornado, last night they had a 75-mile-per-hour wind gust when that line of thunderstorms went through. >> oh, gosh. hey, bill, meanwhile, officials issued their highest ever hurricane forecast. what does that mean? >> that means we're going to have a lot of storms. that doesn't mean we know where they're going. we don't know until they form. but conditions are favorable. this year, la nina is developing. last year, el nino. la nina is more favorable when we talk about the development for hurricanes and the water temperatures are roasting. they're record highs, all through this main development region, which comes off africa, into the caribbean and into the gulf and because of that, they're saying we're going to have record numbers possible. so, up to 25 storms, the number we really care about, the ones that do the most destruction, the hurricanes and major hurricanes. can you imagine if we get seven major hurricanes. we like to get these storms, we call them fish storms, they head out to the open water, the more storms we get, the better chance one of them or a couple of them will hit. if they're major hurricanes, we're talking multibillion dollar weather disasters. the bottom line is make sure you're prepared. >> and the hurricane season for the atlantic starts june 1st, right? >> next week. >> can you believe it? it is el nino, la nina, los ninos, all over the place. thank you. a preview of closing arguments set to begin on tuesday in donald trump's criminal hush money trial. plus, with hunter biden's federal trial on firearms charges set to begin in just over a week, we'll tell you what is expected to happen today when he walks into court. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. feeling sluggish or weighed down? could be a sign that your digestive system isn't at its best. but a little metamucil everyday can help. metamucil's psyllium fiber gels to trap and remove the waste that weighs you down... so you can lighten every day the metamucil way. 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(vo) it's your vision, it's your verizon. 38 past the hour this morning, the court is dark in trump's hush money trial as both sides gear up for closing arguments, which are scheduled to begin on tuesday. they'll be followed by jury deliberations, where jurors will decide whether to convict trump or not. lawyers from both sides expected to receive the jury instructions for those deliberations yesterday. but judge merchan has not released them yet. joining us now, david marcus, criminal defense attorney and professor at the university of miami law school. david, great seeing you as always. just wondering, the fact that judge merchan has not issued those instructions yet, is that unusual? >> you know, jury instructions, especially in this case, are really complicated. if this was a murder case, everybody knows what the jury instructions are, they're standard. this is an odd and difficult case to make the jury instructions, so, we all want them all, all the lawyers are waiting to see what the jury is going to be instructed and i'm sure the lawyers in the case are dying to know, because they'll craft their closing around those technical aspects of the instructions. >> why are the instructions so critical? >> they're critical because the jury needs to understand exactly what the prosecution needs to prove and there has been a lot of wrangling over the technical aspects of the law. what needs to be proved, what is the other crime, what needs to be proved with the other crime, and so, you know, that -- the jury needs to hear about that and the lawyers need to craft some arguments around that. >> so i know you've been approached in the past by trump's team to work on cases. if you were on the defense team in this case, what would you be thinking about for closing arguments? >> so, you know, closing is where the lawyer gets to shine, where the lawyer gets to do his thing or her thing and in this case, i would try to focus it on three basic areas, the first is michael cohen. i would start by talking about there is a debate about the greatest of all time between michael jordan and lebron james, right? there is no debate, the greatest liar of all time is michael cohen and the prosecutor tried to put lipstick on a pig with him. i would focus on michael cohen. then i would talk about reasonable doubt and what it means beyond a reasonable doubt, because that's the highest standard of the law. so, they're going to have to prove that the jury should believe michael cohen beyond a reasonable doubt, if they're wavering on michael cohen, if they think he probably told the truth, that's not enough. they have to believe him beyond a reasonable doubt. and finally, i would say, where is allen weisselberg? you didn't hear from him, the prosecution knew he was a critical witness, knew he could support or not support michael cohen, where is he? i might blow up a big picture of allen weisselberg and put him in the witness box and say where is this guy. >> what about the prosecution? >> they have a lot to work with there, they're going to focus, be very methodical going through the documents, one by one, they're going to say, michael cohen was just there to corroborate the documents, the documents speak for themselves. they had witness after witness for five weeks. they have -- they will walk through in a very methodical way each witness and each document. and so the defense has to move away from that. the defense has to try to focus the case on this -- on what they will call michael cohen. that greatest liar of all time, i have to give props to my friend robert herschel for coming up with that. the trump team should use it and go after cohen in their closing. >> so, what are the options going forward for the jury? what are the possible conclusions of this trial? >> right, they could either convict or acquit or there could be a hung jury, which then the government would have to decide do we want to try it again, or there could be a mixed verdict. there is 30 something counts here, they could say, we're going to convict on some and acquit on some, and the defense needs to run a perfect table to win here. they need to say, don't compromise jury, you need to acquit on everything, one count here is fatal to the former president, so they're going to be going for all or nothing. the prosecution will be happy with a couple convictions, they don't need to run the table to win the case. >> so, david, so what do you think timing-wise we can expect next week? >> i expect a quick verdict. because the jury has been sitting there, hearing this for over a month, they have had off now for a week. i think they're going to come back next week. i think it is going to be pretty quick one way or the other. there is a lot of people predicting, it is impossible to predict what a jury is going to do i think they know they have been sitting there a long time, they're going to come back quickly. >> david marcus, great seeing you, thank you very much for being with us today. >> thank you for having me. >> stay with us on msnbc as the trial resumes next week. ana cabrera and i will kick off special coverage tuesday at 10:00 a.m. eastern, 7:00 a.m. pacific here on msnbc. just moments ago, hunter biden arrived at a courthouse in wilmington, delaware. we'll tell you why. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. hy you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. 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>> reporter: good to see you, jose. this is a typical pretrial hearing. the prosecution and the defense and the judge have to hash out some important questions that remain before her. mainly about what kind of evidence can and can't be heard by this jury when it is selected starting june 3rd. for example, the government wants to be able to site passages from hunter biden's memoir "beautiful minds" and wants to exclude any reference by the defense to the idea that this is somehow malicious prosecution or that any of these allegations stem from a russian disinformation campaign. the defense wants to make sure the government doesn't mention the other pending criminal trial and charges against hunter biden over tax evasion in california, and also want to exclude any mention of his child support dispute in arkansas and the fact he was discharged from the navy after testing positive for cocaine. it is a remarkable tableau here to see hunter biden walk into this courthouse, having been at the state dinner last night at the white house, for the kenyan president. he's now in court facing charges that could land him in federal prison, jose. >> ken dilanian, thank you very much. and now to an historic development in college sports, for the first time, a new agreement that allows schools to pay student athletes directly for their skills. joining us now, cnbc's dominic chu. dom, good morning. what is part of this deal? >> so, jose, this is a landmark settlement, paradigm changing settlement between the national collegiate athletic association and five of the biggest conferences that are part of the ncaa against a slate of lawsuits being brought against them based on antitrust grounds. it is going to ultimately lead to college athletes getting paid to play while still in school, now this agreement is still tentative, and finer details will need to be ironed out. but the price tag is nearly $2.8 billion. that amount is going to be paid over the course of the next ten years to roughly 14,000 former and current student athletes. the bulk of that settlement will be shouldered by schools in the southeastern, big ten, big 12, atlantic coast, and other conferences. now, if and when a federal judge approves the settlement, it will ultimately lead to a brand-new model for how college athletics works. also, how athletes athletes wil participate in the revenues that are generated by the schools that showcase those talents. the new model will let school but not require them, just let them set aside up to $21 million in revenue to share with athletes each year. that value is a cap, but it could be subject to being raised at revenues go up. it's not just the most popular sports like football and basketball that are eligible. schools will have the latitude in how they allocate the compensation. it's capped. not to give any one school a bigger payroll break, so to speak, to lure athletes. this is going to replace the current scholarship model. instead of the number of scholarships offered being the limiting factor, schools are limited by the cap and how many restrictions on athletes they can keep on their rosters. a big deal but ultimately the bottom line is, this is going to change the way college athletics works. it will give student athletes a piece of the action when it comes to overall revenue. >> thank you very much. appreciate it. up next, what louisiana lawmakers did that could make access to the abortion pill harder. you are watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. to take our operations to the next level. 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(vo) it's your vision, it's your verizon. 55 past the hour. new fallout in the fight for abortion rights after the louisiana statehouse and senate passed a bill to reclassify two popular abortion pills as controlled substances. it heads to the governor's desk where it's likely to be signed, making louisiana the first state in the nation to include abortion pills in the same category as highly addictive drugs. joining us now, dr. patel, a former white house policy director and nbc news medical contributor. great seeing you. if this gets signed into law, what kind of an impact is it going to have in louisiana and, really, i mean, across the nation? >> i think we're all trying to think about what the impact for the rest of the country could be. louisiana, just to be clear, this is one of the strictest states with abortion access and reproductive access, period. in addition, this bill would create more than anything else confusion. there's all this defensiveness on behalf of louisiana legislators saying, it's only intended for non-pregnant people and rare cases. actually, what it appears to be is to be scolding anybody, including doctors, that prescribe this by making it incredibly difficult to access these drugs when, as you said, the majority of abortions that are performed are through medication like mifepristone. >> doctor, wondering what a state is doing -- i'm thinking even standing-wise, what a state is doing determining whether it's a controlled substance or not. >> there are different levels of controlled substances. the category this would be added to is the same level that we see ativan. those substances specifically have this potential for habit formation or harm, neither of which has been shown in decades -- let me underscore that, decades of research for these drugs. never has that been a problem that these drugs create habit or could be intentional harm through erroneous prescriptions. we are prescribing this in limited cases when we know that we have a person who this is appropriate for. it's not as if it's easy to get on sale somewhere without a doctor's prescription, which is incredible. the overall affect on access is disturbing. but the impact and confusion, which is what i think this will contribute more to, is worse. >> the impact on patients directly. >> right. right. patients will read the headlines and they will say, my goodness, there must be something wrong or it will scare even more women into corners and into dark spaces. this is exactly the opposite of what we want to do. we want to make it clear they are drug, non-harmful and that you can have a conversation with a health care professional. but that's become difficult not just in louisiana but in many states around the country. there's so much happening that women are scared. reproductive freedom and again health care is being threatened through acts like this. i expect this to be signed into law. >> dr. patel, thank you so much. it's a pleasure seeing you. >> thank you. as we wrap up this hour on this friday, i want to bring you back to two years ago today in uvalde, texas, when a shooter entered robb elementary school. today i want to honor them and remember them. these are just some of the murals that have been painted in uvalde in their honor. let's always remember their faces. let's always remember their names. people who lost their lives two years ago today. thank you for the privilege of your time. andrea mitchell picks up with more news right now. right now on "andrea mitchell reports," the bodies of threeisraeli hostages are found in gaza. the cia director will try to revive talks. the humanitarian situation in rafah is disastrous. the order is largely symbolic. where do we stand in the 2024 campaign? joe biden lags in the polls and donald trump prepares for a verdict in his hush money trial. a day after being a guest at the state dinner at the white house, hunter biden is back in a delaware court for a pre-trial hearing in his federal gun trial. that trial is set to start a week from monday.