bare his dark history of drug abuse. we're live at the courthouse. plus, a new look at the raid that freed four hostages in gaza, the blistering cross fire and mishap with the get away car before a final dramatic escape by helicopter. we'll have those details. and when a former president meets his probation officer, donald trump faces questions on everything from his mental health to his living situation. what we know about his presentencing interview today. plus, what you haven't seen from the day of the insurrection. the new video obtained by msnbc of the chaos and confusion on january 6th, including the questions congressional leaders were asking in realtime about why the national guard hadn't shown up. our nbc news reporters are following all of the latest developments. but we begin with nbc's mike memoli outside the courthouse in wilmington. mike, the defense has argued that hunter biden's state of mind is critical when considering the charges against him. what are they saying right now? >>. >> we are minutes away from this case going to the jury. abbe lowell was making his argument. the defense rested its case with only calling three witnesses. there was some suspense about whether hunter biden would be one of them. that was not the case. the prosecution brought back one of its witnesses to bring back more evidence in text messages, that hunter biden was using drugs at the time of the purchase of the gun. they have introduced evidence that was personal, ugly, overwhelming but necessary. they called hunter biden a user of drugs from 2015 to 2019, and they believe that they have a rock solid case. then defense attorney abbe lowell called it an accordion defense. he said that while the prosecution certainly can introduce evidence over a long period of time, they need to really shrink it down to that specific series of weeks around the gun purchase which he said they did not do beyond a reasonable doubt. it's also worth noting, chris, that we have talked about the presence of the first lady. we talk about president biden who's in wilmington today. they have largely been out of the jury, the trial at this point, until the closing arguments. we saw the lead prosecutor in this case, leah wise, he said all of this was not evidence. people sitting in the gallery is not evidence. remember how he began his opening statements by talking about hunter biden and his famous last name. that was something abbe lowell took issue with in his closing argument, suggesting that the prosecution maybe was out of bounds in invoking the first family in this case. the most important part of this is what abbe lowell is trying to demonstrate right now, in hunter biden's mind, he did not knowingly consider himself an addict at the time he purchased the gun. that's going to be up to the jury to decide that. >> mike memoli, thank you. we're learning new details about the harrowing moments when israeli troops charged in to rescue four hostages in gaza. nbc's matt bradley is reporting from jerusalem for us, this was absolutely the most complex rescue operation from the war so far. what are we learning about how it unfolded? >> reporter: >> complex. it took weeks of preparation. they made mock models of buildings in order to practice the raid. this was conduct bid a special counter terrorism, it was across different branches of the civil defense in israel. so this was a very complicated operation. use mentioned earlier, this killed more than 270 palestinians, this according to the gazan ministry of health officials. of those dead, dozens were children. it's being celebrated in israel as a huge victory. this could create problems for antony blinken, the secretary of state who is once again in the region trying to shore up support for a hostage negotiation deal, in something that would resemble a temporary cease fire. those goals have evaded him up until now, and it doesn't look like the two sides are any closer. this incident, this rescue is probably going to make things more difficult because now hamas, and other people in gaza are outraged by the loss of life that came and went into this. but at the same time, we're seeing from the israeli side that finally benjamin netanyahu has something he can point to as evidence that he can pursue his two sort of competing goals in his war. we're seeing one of those goals defeating hamas, the other freeing the hostages and among the israelis, the intelligence and defense establishment, those two goals aren't seen very much add odds, even though netanyahu and his government have said they will be able to achieve both. now he can say he can achieve both. he has evidence to say that, even though the intelligence and defense committee here is not a practical operation to apply to the 80-some hostages thought to be live in the gaza strip. as for the reasons i just mentioned, the complications, the death toll, the amount of energy it took to free the four hostages so really, when we're talking about how this is going to affect politics, it looks as though both sides, hamas, and israeli are as far as apart as they have been. >> thank you. now to the latest chapter in donald trump's life as a convicted felon. nbc's vaughn hillyard is following his meeting today with a probation officer. what's involved in the meeting, vaughn? >> right, chris, this is a significant meeting. it's standard protocol here ahead of a sentencing in new york. and this is the opportunity for donald trump, who will be appearing virtually for this, an interview from mar-a-lago in florida, with this new york probation officer who is going to be interviewing the former president to prepare a report that he will deliver to judge merchan ahead of his july 11th sentencing. and it's part of this interview and the eventual report, the probation officer will detail not only donald trump's financial background, what he perceives his mental state to be, but also the extent to which donald trump's not only lack of criminal history but going through what is in his record, and when he prepares this report, it will be a recommendation of what he believes may be the best suited sentence for donald trump here, and so, again, appearing virtually, donald trump, we could expect to show little remorse for his actions, part of the standard interview to get the extent to which there is contrition shown by the defendant who is found guilty, and donald trump who's on the campaign trail in las vegas has shown no regret for the actions he took that led to his guilty verdicts, and yet, at the same time, donald trump, who will be attending this interview alongside his attorney todd blanche could, if he so chooses to, at least have an understanding or acknowledge what actions that the jury found him to have taken that violated the law. all of this could be consequential. we expect on thursday, the defense for donald trump to submit their own sentencing memo about what they believe the recommendation should be for his sentence. come june 27th, two weeks from now, that is when the district attorney's office will present their own sentencing memo to judge merchan about what they believe the sentence should look like that comes from judge merchan on july 11th. chris. >> vaughn hillyard, thank you. new video obtained by msnbc shows the dramatic behind the scenes effort by top democratic lawmakers to track down the national guard on january 6th. nbc's julia jester is following this story for us. what did we learn from this footage? >> the new footage obtained from congressional sources, underscores the frustration of chuck schumer and speaker pelosi as they watched the chaos unfold. house republicans are acting online, taking responsibility for the federal government who should have been better prepared. the former speaker was visibly angry, and here's what she and schumer said to members of the trump administration's response during these heated moments. >> going to ask me in the middle of the thing when they've already breached the inaugural stuff that should we call the capitol police? i mean, the national guard? why weren't the national guard there to begin with? >> secretary mccarthy and senator schumer, to know what's going on. okay. d.c. has requested the national guard and it's been denied by d.o.d., i'd like to know a good reason why it's been denied. we need them fast. i've never seen anything like this. we're like a third-world country here. we had to run and evacuate the capitol. i spoke to the secretary of the army. he's given the full okay to the national. he said it was not denied. i'm going to call up the ef f'ing secretary of d.o.d. >> these tense exchanges reveal the confusion surrounding the slow response to the violent scene by the national guard, which took more than three hours to arrive. you can hear the anger in pelosi and schumer's voice, frustration with the trump administration there. now, the january 6th house select committee investigated the insurrection in a detailed report. since then, house republicans have made an effort to re-examine the bipartisan committee's report to undermine its finding. and the new video revisits this panic as former president trump commented this weekend, calling insurrectionists warriors. a stark contrast to what congressional leaders and the country experienced that day, chris. >> julia jester, thank you. and still ahead, donald trump's post conviction rally sees him riffing on broken teleprompters, batteries and sharks. everything but his guilty verdict. is that a winning strategy? 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because i don't want anybody going on me. we need every voter. i don't care about you, i just want your vote. i don't care. if you start going down, we have people that will pick you up right away. are the teleprompters not working, not even a little bit. great job. and then i don't pay the company that does it. i don't pay contractors that do a [ bleep ] job, and that's a [ bleep ] job. >> brendan buck is the former press secretary to john boehner and msnbc political analyst. and here in studio, nbc's dasha burns who has been covering the trump campaign. look, 110 degrees. thousands of people came out, right. it is a critical battleground state. >> it is. >> i know you talked to voters. what do they tell you? >> it's a critical battleground state and one that the former president is bullish on winning. a republican hasn't won in quite some time, not since 2004. he talked about the issue of immigration, important to a lot of folks, oil and gas. also talked about kind of a much more local issue about taxing workers tips. he wants to eliminate tips, taxes on worker tips, which of course for the service industry is a pretty big deal, and the supporters that did stand through that sweltering heat, they came early. they stayed all day, and here's some of what they had to say. >> he's going to win, and he's going to bring our country back. he's going to save us. that's how i feel. >> reporter: he was asked this week about retribution, what does that look like to you? >> he's not going to get angry. he's got too much to fix. he's not a vengeful person. >> you think about jesus christ, everyone went against him because he was preaching love. trump's doing what's right for this nation. because he's doing that, everybody is against him. >> it's voters like that that give the trump team some confidence in what they can do in a state like nevada. the democratic party chair of nevada did come back on trump saying that he is out of touch with nevada workers, criticized his appearance there. but he's trying to win this state. >>. >> dasha burns, thank you for that. that leads me to you, brendan. there was a moment when donald trump was talking about a conversation he had at a south carolina boat company about sharks and boats with electric batteries. here's a little part of what he said. >> if the boat is sinking, do i stay on top of the boat and get electrocuted or jump by the shark and not get electrocuted. he didn't though the answer. nobody has asked me that question. i said i think it's a good question. >> look, rally goers may not pay attention to these tangents. they may think that the comparisons to jesus are apt, but at some point, do folks who say that they're worried about biden's age start asking these questions about trump? do people who are truly undecided start looking at this stuff and wondering? >> i think they start wondering whether or not he's a serious person, and i think that's something the biden team has been trying to do. obviously with the d-day events last week, elevating the moment that we are in. this is a time for serious people. you need serious leaders, and if he continues to demonstrate himself to be unserious, i think there's a potential opportunity. is that particular riff or like it, going to change people's perceptions? i don't know. i think people understand that donald trump has always been weird like this. it underscores, though, that he is more of an entertainer. people in the heat shows you as much as this feels tired and people are checked out of this election. at this moment, energy with the republican voters, they will put up with anything because they think this is a person who's going to fix all of their problems and biden hasn't really been able to figure out how to get the same energy with democratic voters. >> i think to that point, while trump avoided referencing his conviction in las vegas, democrats didn't. the dnc installed a billboard near the rally location that said trump was a disaster for nevada's economy. now he's back. they called him a convicted white collar crook who was unfit to serve. simultaneously, nevada's governor has an op-ed saying the reason trump is winning voters in his state is because they can't afford gas and groceries, purchase a home or plan for retirement. is the challenge for team biden, how effective is it to point the finger at trump if voters are hurting now? >> yeah, i mean, when you do a billboard, that's not actually trying to win an argument. that's trying to get a little attention. they have dipped their toe into the criminal conviction here and there. they realize it's not going to be a big winner for them. that's not what people are voting on. until the white house or the biden campaign can figure out what an economic message is that not only advances what they're trying to do, but sinks in that what donald trump is trying to do could be worse, they're not going to make headway. this is an election that's going to be about the economy, immigration, and inflation. they're playing defense. i don't know that dipping your toe into the criminal conviction is going to change a whole lot. look, it's not an easy thing to do to talk about how well the economy is doing when a lot of people are feeling not well about it. you have to drive to the core issue against your opponent about the things that people are actually worried about. >> let me switch gears just a little bit, but still on donald trump. you can tell the race to be his running mate is heating up by the sheer volume, right, of contenders who are making the rounds on tv. south dakota's governor, kristi noem, her prospects, as you know, were considered gone after acknowledging shooting her own puppy. she says he should still pick a woman to be his running mate! having a woman helping him campaign makes a difference. i could be home at bed or feeding my horses or rocking my grand babies but i'm in wisconsin because i believe president trump needs to win. his policies are right for america, and perfect for south dakota. i want him to women and the polling tells me he needs women on the campaign trail carrying his message. >> she and others may fit into what has been conventional wisdom, that a woman would balance the ticket, a person of color would help balance the ticket. does conventional wisdom mean anything when it comes to republican voters now for president? >> i don't know that that conventional wisdom held. i don't know that anybody votes based on your vp. you could pick a vp for one reason and one reason only. is this a person that could be president? >> he said that in an interview, i think it was with a local newspaper i was reading this morning. that was going to be his criteria. could somebody be president. >> yeah, and beyond that, you know, as somebody who you feel like is a good partner is going to advance your agenda. this is a unique situation. donald trump is going to put whomp is his vp into very uncomfortable situations, and anybody lining up to do this job needs to know that. i think it is overlooked how loyal mike pence was to donald trump throughout all kinds of crazy stuff that happened. and even behind closed doors. mike pence never broke character. there was never a story about mike pence thinking donald trump was a bad person behind closed doors. they need to know this is an unchecked administration. if he's looking for somebody who's going to carry his water every step of the way, and it's probably going to be tougher things to swallow than mike pence had to do. >> yeah, kristi noem was part of this blitz, right, of vp candidates who were on various sunday shows, and all of them were asked about the vetting process. take a listen. >> can you confirm whether or not you're being vetted formally? >> well, shannon, as i've said, i think only one person knows who's on the short list. >> i have not spoke about the vice presidential thing to the president directly. >> i would defer any questions back to the trump campaign team. >> so they're not saying anything except praising donald trump, the main criteria now. maybe both of those things, right, don't give anything away, that's for me to talk about, meaning donald trump, and say nice things about me, meaning donald trump. >> yeah, of course. the funny thing is, like, any vice president should be able to back up the person at the top of the ticket. it's unremarkable that you have to go to such lengths to stick out. i have talked to a number of trump folks who believe that donald trump doesn't want anybody who looks too desperate for the job. that was one of the appeals with