executive producer casey dolan, and not to be left out here with me in our d.c. studio is none other than jason neil, jason, the camera over here, son of our executive producer jasper, jasper i used your daddy's name and i am so sorry. this is jasper neil, son of michelle perry neil and jason neil jasper is bilingual in english and spanish, an ace math student, and he's going to be taking over the show one way or another in about 20 years. so thanks to all of you, jasper, eleanor, and daphne, and that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." follow the show online, on facebook, and on twitter @mitchellreports "chris jansing reports" starts right now. good day, i'm chris jansing live at msnbc headquarters in new york city. ron desantis is halfway around the world but still feeling the heat back home, from donors, supporters, and of course donald trump. is it enough to get him to finally commit to launching a presidential campaign? our new reporting that he's r re ready to launch, but even if he does, has he already missed his best window? in new york it's the former president feeling the pressure on day two of his defamation trial with the wonl aman accusig him of rape. e. jean carroll back on the stand today, cross examination started just about 90 minutes ago, the questioning turning political almost immediately we'll bring you the very latest from in that courtroom. and more than four months after her release from a russian prison camp, brittney griner is for the first time revealing details about the darkest period in her life. we'll bring you more on that in just a minute. but, we start with florida governor ron desantis poised to pray his political trump card, so to speak, and officially announce his candidacy in an attempt to defy the polls and his critics and knock off the prohibitive favorite in an exclusive nbc news report, four republican operatives familiar with the conversations say desantis could jump into the race by the middle of next month, but the governor asked about it during a trip to jerusalem this morning said not so fast. >> there's not been anything said, i've beenfocused on this mission that we've been doing. we're going to end up making it pretty much around the world by the time we're done, and if there's any announcements, those will come at the appropriate time, but it's not -- if anyone's telling you that somehow they know this or they know that, that's just inaccurate because there's not been any decision made >> one thing is clear, the last few months haven't been kind to the governor's political fortunes polls that had him leading the republican field by double-digits in january now have him losing to donald trump by that same margin. and while desantis has been focused on fighting the culture wars and legal battles in florida, including a new lawsuit filed by disney, trump is in attack mode trying to derail desantis's campaign even before it begins. i want to bring in nbc's natasha ka ruk key who broke this story, also with me, "washington post" deputy national editor phil rucker and former rnc chairman michael steele, both phil and michael are msnbc political analysts so so natasha, you heard the governor he said no decisions have been made what are your sources telling you? >> that's partially true in the sense that one thing that our reported showing yesterday that there was a lot of internal debate in desantis world over the launch date. we were getting told that, you know, some people were settled on may 11th. others said that was way too soon what four sources told us was definitively that he was going to dip his toe into the water, jump into the fray in mid-may. that could look like an exploratory committee fist, and then that followed by a full launch of his campaign and you know, as you said, there has been a lot of pressure on ron desantis right now to get into this race, really start throwing some punches, being able to hire up in the way that he should be, being able to push back appropriately on some of these attacks by donald trump. i mean, right now we have a super pac doing that, but this also allays a lot of anxiety by donors who really want to see him doing those things >> so michael -- >> that's where we are right now. >> i think a lot of people would say, even though he hasn't announced, obviously ron desantis is running, and he's got the infrastructure, he's got the super pac, he's, you know, doing the requisite tour as he just put it around the world, but what's it going to take if he's going to get the mojo i mean it has been a rough three or four months for him >> it has been a roughthree or four months, and that was -- to be honest with you, it wasn't that rough i mean, come on, seriously >> i think when you go from double-digits up to double-digits down it's not good >> well, but that happened with nothing really happening i mean, what explosive political moment occurred in the last three or four months to cause that turn-around in his poll numbers? oh, he opened his mouth. he engaged in a fight with disney, and donald trump threw a couple of lines at him this campaign hasn't begun so people just need to sort of settle down and understand exactly where we are here. if he gets into this thing, now he has donald trump on one side and as you've already seen, nikki haley may be shy about going after trump, but she's not shy about going after him. and certainly if chris christie gets in, you've got two trump-like characters in this race with this guy sandwiched in between the two of them. so if you don't have the -- if you can't manage the easy part, which is where he is now, when this becomes difficult, that's going to be the thing that really will stress the hell out of his donors, who are thinking he's going to be the sort of -- the political savior for this election cycle for the gop donald trump is not going to go that easily, and chris christie should he get in, certainly won't go that easily, so i think there's going to be a lot more fight that the governor's going to have to show he has. >> michael, since you brought up nikki haley, i want to play something that she said yesterday, and we'll talk about it on the other side >> he's announced his, you know, that he's running again in 2024, and i think that we can all be very clear and say with a matter of fact that if you vote for joe biden, you really are counting on a president harris because the idea that he would make it until 86 years old is not -- is not something that i think is likely >> it sounds like she thinks he's got five more years maybe, and first of all, what do you make of that is that her trying to get back into the conversation, which is hard to do when you're up against a sitting president and the former president or donald trump in any case. what do you make of that >> that's not the way to get back into conversation you know, that is not something that -- it's an unfortunate statement to make on a number of levels you don't have to project the man's death to say that he shouldn't be president and i think, you know, again, it shows sort of the earliness of her campaign, the ineffectiveness of messaging and message preparation. there are cleaner, better ways to talk about this talking point, which is going to be a talking point from the gop about biden's age and, you know, voting for sbbiden is voting fo kamala because kamala is perceived to be the weakest link in this ticket there are ways to do that without projecting the president's doom so she's got to clean that up, tighten that up, particularly if she thinks she's just going to be able to throw bromides at president biden and ignore what likely would be a larger field of really, really rough and tumble politicians in chris christie and donald trump in her primary. >> speaking of donald trump, phil, he and some of his supporters have been running ads already. they don't pull any punches. let me play a little clip from one of them. >> polls reveal desantis was failing so bad he was losing by a staggering 17 points then desantis was saved by the endorsement of president trump unfortunately, instead of being grateful, desantis is now attacking the very man who saved his career isn't it time desantis remembers how he got to where he is? >> so no issues, no policy, the message is pure donald trump i helped him and now he's trying to stab me in the back seems to be, phil, the basic message there. how do you think that plays with the republican electorate? >> well, i don't know how it plays, chris i mean, there's a lot left out of that ad for example, it is true, of course, that trump's endorsement helped desantis win the republican primary in 2018, but desantis won re-election just last year by a very large margin and trump didn't really have anything to do with that that was really all desantis trump was not an active surrogate on desantis's behalf in his re-election campaign. look, i don't think voters are going to make judgments about the republican nominee based on an argument like that. i think they're going to look much more holistically at sort of style, policy, sort of who they think can defeat biden and who they think they want to be their standard bearer into the future and that's what this contest is really going to come down to. >> and if we believe it's going to come down to at least to some extent the economy because it always does, i want to ask you, phil, about ron desantis's fight with disney. that company now suing the governor this is a mess, and he was asked about it today, and here's what he had to say. >> they're upset because they're actually having to live by the same rules as everybody else they don't want to have to pay the same taxes as everybody else so it's -- it's a little bit much to be complaining about that i don't think the suit has merit. i think it's political >> we already saw nikki haley say, hey, if disney wants to bring all of its jobs and revenue to south carolina, she tweeted this as well, i'll be happy to talk to them. does this fight ultimately help or hurt desantis is there a possibility he miscalculated here >> well, it was a big calculation that he made in picking this fight with disney, and it's been going for several months now, and desantis is clearly trying to galvanize the sort of far right social conservative part of the republican primary base with with this fight, but he has to remember that disney has sort of general popularity around the country. there are lots of sort of everyday middle americans that like disney films, that travel to disney world. it's a very complicated fight for him to make politically, not to mention the economic impacts in florida it's an employer of 75,000 people in the orlando area, a huge moneymaker in terms of revenue, but also in terms of providing jobs in his home state, and so these are all factors that make this a very complex path for him to be taking right now. >> big picture, may calichael, e to ask you about the republican autopsy report on the 2022 midterms according to "the washington post" it talks about abortion, it talks about fund-raising. it does not mention donald trump. you've made the point repeatedly, but i'll bring it up again. the party can't get past trump until someone takes him on >> right >> and beats him, frankly. what do you make of this report and is desantis the guy to do it >> well, you know, i always thought an autopsy eventually -- the cause of death, right? it tells you why the patient's on my table, and this doesn't. it doesn't name the illness, it doesn't name the thing that ails the party the themost that has caused it to lose in election cycle after election cycle so you can pretend and you can think, oh, you know, we're going to -- as it said in the report, we're going to play up the abortion issue we didn't talk about that enough, really okay if you think that's going to turn that corner for you, you still have sitting there lying on the table what donald trump has given the party, and until they deal with that and acknowledge this is the cancer, this is the problem, this is the thing that are taking out our candidates, that are taking away our message, the reason we don't have a platform as a national party. the reason the american people are falling off of us, not coming into us, guess what, you've just -- you've just written the 2024 election results before you get started >> michael steele, natasha karecki, phil rutger, always great to have you on the program. former president trump's legal team taking a huge hit in one critical investigation while making aing a move in another. we're back in 60 seconds like a free 5g phone. get started today with verizon business. it's your business. it's your verizon. about two years ago, i realized that jade was overweight. i wish i would have introduced the fresh food a lot sooner. after farmer's dog, she's a much healthier weight. she's a lot more active. and she's able to join us on our adventures. get started at betterforthem.com health insurance commercial. take 1. cut! cut! one more. i got this. cut! take 37. cut! i don't actually play tennis. i'm just an actor in a commercial. most insurance companies don't know me. but humana does. when i was diagnosed with copd, they helped me to manage it and keep my medication costs low. even got me playing harmonica to help my lungs. motorcycle scene. take 1. i can't ride this thing either. better care begins with listening. humana. a more human way to healthcare. major moves in two of the myriad cases against former president trump, first the former president's legal team losing its bid to block mike pence from testifying in a special counsel's investigation. that's the one into trump's role in efforts to overturn the 2020 election in the classified documents probe, they're taking the extraordinary step of asking congress to intervene. nbc news senior legal correspondent laura jarrett is with me along with andrew weissmann, former fbi general counsel and an nbc news and msnbc legal analyst. so laura, you've got this washington appeals court refusing trump's request, right? so when might we see the vice president? >> well, the former president could theoretically still appeal this to the u.s. supreme court i say theoretically because in the past he hasn't taken it that far. when the d.c. circuit has allowed other senior aides to testify, hasn't blocked lower counts on that, he hasn't fought it, and so he could try on pence, but he isn't faring so well on this executive privilege claim that he keeps asserting. so if he doesn't appeal and doesn't get a stay from the supreme court, pence could theoretically go in pretty soon and tell his full story. as we know the special counsel is very interested inparticula about trump's efforts to block the certification of the election, something pence knows a lot about. >> all right, andrew, do you see any reason for the supreme court to intervene in this >> none whatsoever i mean, there are two potential grounds, one is speech and debate clause, and the other as laura said is executive privilege. neither one is likely to be something that he's going to -- executive privilege as laura said is something that he has repeatedly lost, so i just don't see the supreme court intervening in this, and speech and debate clause is really a privilege that mike pence has but not the former president so what really remains now is what is mike pence going to say in the grand jury. i mean, obviously the former president doesn't think it's going to be helpful to him because he's obviously trying to prevent him from testifying, but the real issue is will he sort of tell the truth about his conversations that were one on one with the former president. and that's really the key here because essentially there are no more plays for the former president to prevent that from going forward. >> so i'll go back to the original question, which is let's say he decides just to leave it lay, laura, or the supreme court says, no, we're not going to look at this, could this all happen pretty quickly >> oh, yeah, oh, yeah. pence has agreed to testify. the only thing stopping this was the former president trying to block it, so you know, once that's no longer an issue, pence could go in pretty soon. all eyes are on that d.c. courthouse as you might imagine. >> in the classified documents case, trump's legal team is now claiming doj misled the courts about why the classified documents were at mar-a-lago, basically blaming the national archives they wrote this letter to the chair of the house intelligence committee and say, a legislative solution by congress is required to prevent the doj from continuing to conduct ham-handed criminal investigations of matters that are not inherently criminal what do you make of that legal argument >> i think this is basically a pr move, and i don't mean that in a disparaging way that's sometimes all you really can do when your defense counsel is signaled to your allies what kind of things they should be saying there's no way that congress, the house and the senate and then the president are going to be intervening to say that the department of justice cannot go forward on a case. and i think sort of getting to the substance, that letter really addresses one new potential defense for how the documents got to mar-a-lago, but it doesn't say anything about why they remained there, in other words, why didn't the former president return them and apparently obstruct the investigation as well. so it really isn't in any way sort of a complete defense that's been articulated, but i think it's sort of the best you can do if you're defense counsel with a very, very difficult set of facts. >> we've only got 30 seconds left, andrew, but i'm curious if you think another possibility -- and you've been around a lot of legal maneuvering in your day -- could it be a hail mary, maybe a sign that team trump or trump himself is nervous about just how serious this case is >> oh, absolutely. i think that is what's going on, which is, you know, trying to make some hay politically, try and get the house to do what they're doing with alvin bragg to try and in some way get the public to disagree with what's going on here. but as i said, it's really -- at most it is a sort of partial pr defense because it does not deal with why the former president didn't just return these in other words, if he just mistakenly took them, why didn't he just do what mike pence has done and say, oh, here's what we have, and i'm going to turn this over, and you can come look at all the documents to make sure they're actually all returned, so it's really not a great pr move as i said, remember, this is defense counsel, and you know, sometimes you don't have a lot to work with >> andrew weissmann, laura jarrett, good to have both of you here thank you. and all of that is not to mention the actual trial that trump's legal team is fighting in a manhattan courtroom, even as we speak. that in our next hour. but first, brittney griner at the podium, the wnba superstar's first public remarks since her release from a russian prison just in the last hour we've got the highlights next. >> you're going to be faced with adversities throughout your life this was a pretty big one, but i just kind of relied on my hard work, getting through it special offers. like a free 5g phone. get started today with verizon business. it's your business. it's your verizon. back when i had a working circulatory system, you had to give your right arm to find great talent. but with upwork, there's highly skilled talent from all over the globe. right at your fingertips. ♪ this is how we work now ♪ i think i'm ready for this. heck ya! with e*trade you're ready for anything. marriage. kids. college. kids moving back in after college. ♪ here's to getting financially ready for anything! and here's to being single and ready 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behind me is a mural they just unveiled with the team, it says #bringourfamilieshome and she says that's what she's trying to bring awareness to her heart is still with the at least 53 americans that are still being wrongfully detained abroad take a listen. >> i have that mind-set, you know, no man left behind, no man or woman, no one left behind so you know, it hurts. it hurts because no one should be in those conditions like hands down, no one should be in any of the conditions that i went through or they're going through, so you know, i hope that we -- everyone continues to bring awareness and fight to bring home everyone. when i did lose my hope looking at photos of my family, that brought my hope back just being able to see their faces. that did it for me >> reporter: behind me on this mural, chris, 13 american detainees across four different countries, and she also had a special message to them. she told them that her advice is to stay strong and keep fighting the home opener here for phoenix mercury is set for may 21st. what a moment that will be, chris, for her to be back with the fans who have been cheering her on through all of this, hoping that she'd one day be able to return >> they may take the roof off that arena when she returns, niala charles, thank you so much appreciate it. now to new developments in the wrongful detainment of another american by russia wall street journal reporter, evan gershkovich today three major newspapers, "the wall street journal," "the washington post," and "the new york times" all took out this full-page ad calling for the biden administration to fight for gershkovich's release. the russian foreign ministry has rejected a request for a consular visit russia says that is a response for the u.s. refusing to grant visas to a group of russian journalists who were supposed to join sergey lavrov during his trip to new york this week. and my nbc news colleague savannah guthrie sat down for an exclusive interview with the parents of the 25-year-old gunman who shot and killed five people at a bank in louisville earlier this month l lisa and todd sturgeon say they are shocked and heartbroken by the actions of their son. >> in the days leading up to this incident, what did you notice about connor? was he struggling? >> yes, he called me on the tuesday before the event, and he said, mom, i had a panic attack yesterday, and i had to leave work, and i said, okay, well, what happened? what was the cause i don't know i don't know what it was, but i think i should take off a while, and i said that's fine, you know, we're here to help you. >> did you worry he was su suicidal >> that's also inconceivable to me he was willing to talk to me he had told us before he would never do such a thing like that to us. i said i want to see you i had lunch with him on wednesday. >> the next day? >> the next day. i set up an appointment with his psychiatrist we met with the psychiatrist on thursday. >> you joined the meeting with the psychiatrist >> in fact, lisa intervened and insisted that it get moved up. >> and we thought he was coming out of the crisis. >> the final time the sturgeons saw their son was easter sunday. >> what was his demeanor this is the day before the shooting. >> he was fine. >> i've got a big extended family on my mom's side, so there's like 60 people, and this egg hunt and he's helping people, the last people that are finding their eggs, he's out there doing that he's joking. went home with his buddy, and they're watching the last round of the masters. >> the night before this happened >> the night before. >> and little did you know that five days earlier he had purchased a weapon. >> no idea. >> no clue >> when asked what she would say to the families of the five victims, lisa sturgeon said we are so sorry we wish we could undo it, but we know we can't. the montana house votes to censure a transgender lawmaker with more people saying just how much power is in the hands of state 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-yup, socal, norcal... -monterey? -all day. -a branch in ventura? that's for sure-ah. atms in fresno? fres-yes. encinitas? yes, indeed-us. anaheim? big time. more guacamole? i'm on a roll-ay. how about you? i'm just visiting. u.s. bank. ranked #1 in customer satisfaction with retail banking in california by j.d. power. montana state law mmakers hv now officially followed in tennessee's foot steps, silencing a democratic lawmaker over violating house rules and decorum. republicans wednesday voted to censure montana's only transgender lawmaker representative zooey zephyr barring her from participating in person on the house floor it comes roughly a week after she told lawmakers they would have blood on their hands if they supported a ban on gender affirming care for trans youth here was zephyr just a few hours ago. >> what we're seeing is that there's a rising wave of state legislatures and citizens who aren't willing to just sit down and let these really harmful bills pass, and the people in power are trying to use rules, fuzzy rules applied unevenly like decorum, to try to silence the communities that rise up >> zephyr now joins the tennessee three, a club of first term legislators getting a lot of o'attention for their commitment to progressive issues and adding to the growing realization by a lot of voters of just how much power state and local officials have over our everyday lives joining me now is amanda litman, cofounder and executive director of run for something, an organization that has helped more than 100,000 progressives run for state and local office since 2017 it's good to see you again, aym amanda i've been thinking about this a lot lately i'm wondering what's happened with these lawmakers in tennessee and montana is emboldening potential candidates because they see the potential stakes and they're burning up your phones, or do these events have a chilling effect making, frankly, possible candidates wonder if it's worth the risk to them, to their families to get into politics right now? well, i am thrilled to tell you, chris, that nearly 2,000 people have signed up with run for something since the beginning of april. this is a record number for us given the conduct of what's going on in the political environment. young people, especially young people of color, young lgbtq ia folks, young women are seeing what the republican party is trying to do to state legislators who challenge them, and they are saying screw this, i am ready to fight back they are jumping in, and they're excited to run and run for something is going to be here to help them. >> i think one of the big things that's happened with many of these grass roots groups is they've given people more of the big picture, and i thought about that when you tweeted about montana. if you aren't sure why what's happening in montana affects you, somebody who probably doesn't live in montana, a reminder that the democratic u.s. senator from montana is on the ballot next year and having energized democrats can and will make a big difference. what's important for people to know >> well, you've got to think about the big picture here we're not going to expect joe biden to be doing campaigning and advertising in a place like montana, but we can absolutely count on the folks who zooey zephyr a run for something alum has inspired, has gotten furious at montana republicans to show up, to knock doors, to make calls, not just on her behalf and not just on another dm democrats behalf but on senator jon tester's behalf. all of that is going to help get that senate seat across the line especially in a state that honestly joe biden isn't going to fight for nor should he given the dynamics at play so we are really looking ahead how can these local races, not just win for their own sake but help gin up turnout for the rest of the democratic ticket. >> let me go back to what you said earlier, which is that you're getting this record number of people who are interested we see that zooey zephyr, justin jones, justin pearson all just pretty much took office, and are they representative of what you're seeing? give me the broader look at who's calling you and saying i want to run. never done it before, give me some help. >> well, one of the cool things about this particular wave is that more than half of them are coming from historically red states they know that -- >> really? >> yeah, they know that the odds are long they know it's going to be hard. and they know that for the most part, most national organizations aren't going to be there to have their back now, run for something will. this is our bread and butter, but we are acutely aware that these are long shot races. i think that's worth noting the dynamic, in a lot of these red states, the cities are blue. that's something that scares the republican state legislatures, who understand that their power is waning. we're thinking about how we can help these young folks running in these broader tough dynamics. i'm especially thrilled that a lof lot of the folks identify as people of color. they are reflective of their community, and they are not going to sit quietly while republicans try to hurt them. >> it sounds like you've got a lot on your plate, so i thank you for taking the time to come on the program, amanda litman, appreciate it. >> thanks. a slow-moving disaster, communities along the mississippi river now at high risk for major flooding, and it's likely only going to get worse. the mayor of one city under threat joins me next and evacuees from sudan are describing the horrors they face saying shooting is everywhere and food and supplies are running low for those who can't get out. that's ahead save up to 30% on moving and storage. and see why pods has been trusted with... over 6 million moves nationwide. save up to 30% now. this offer won't last long. visit pods.com today! 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(vo) with verizon unlimited for $35 a line, your family now gets disney+, hulu, and espn+. all three included. verizon one prilosec otc each morning blocks heartburn all day and all night. prilosec otc reduces excess acid for 24 hours, blocking heartburn before it starts. one pill a day. 24 hours. zero heartburn. turning now to the gulf coast where wild weather has been wreaking havoc. in texas, violent storms caused so much massive hail to rain down, it completely covered the ground and as the mississippi river rises to historic levels, nearby communities are cut off from gas, and we're still days away from peak flooding dozens of households finding themselves suddenly without hot water, without heat or a stove to cook food as those gas lines have been cut off. with some houses and farms already sub memerged and roads turned into river, the only way to get essential supplies or even evacuate is by boat let's bring in nbc's maggie vespa from davenport, iowa, what are you seeing there >> reporter: yes, we've been seeing the river kind of -- you know, that forecast of this being a slow-moving disaster really come to fruition. i mean, typically the mississippi is basically hundreds of yards that way, and now we're standing sort of on the new banks of the river here in davenport the crazy thing is, as you point out, we are days away from peak levels here in davenport forecasters say this is likely tocrest on monday, so we still have about four days to go, and we just talked to business owners in town who are blocks away from us, and they say they absolutely expect the forecast to kind of come to fruition in that way they said forecasters usually nail how high this is supposed to get, and they're really worried that this could be one of the worst in davenport's history. that being said, as you point out, some communities already in really dire situations, especially those low-lying ones that are closer to the river we've talked to people in pleasant valley, iowa, that's about 20 minutes from where we are. a lot of their homes already flooded. a lot of people having to evacuate by boat, and that is where the local gas company, local utility provider is cutting off gas service. they say they have no choice they say it's a safety issue if water were to rise to their gauges, to those fuses, it could be a really dire situation but because of that, it still gets cold enough at night that a lot of families are having to stay in hotels, pay for that out of their own pocket, and they're just getting really frustrated with this already concerning situation. take a listen to one conversation we had earlier. >> we've never had a problem in all the years i've been out here with any problems with gas, any water getting in their lines they're worried about their stuff. they're not worried about our stuff or our comfort >> reporter: and again, we're reaching out to the local utility company again in light of sort of these newer conversations, we're doing that every day. they've been telling us this was a safety issue they say they have no choice in the matter they also can't tell us when they expect to turn gas back on. in the meantime, another new stat that we just saw, the national weather service now reporting that 22 gauges now reporting kind of up and down the mississippi, 22 gauges are at major flood stage that's from the minnesota area down to burlington, iowa, and burlington in particular forecasted to stay at that major flood stage for at least another week so the end date to this crisis, chris, seems to get pushed further and further down the calendar we'll keep you posted. >> okay, maggie vespa, take care out there. we appreciate you and your crew. i want to bring in mike watson who is the mayor of davenport, iowa thank you, mr. mayor, i know you've got a lot going on right now. if i can, i want to ask you to respond to what you just heard from that gentleman, he said about the gas companies, they're not worried about us they're worried about their own stuff. are you confident that they've made the right decision here, and that this is a critical safety issue >> chris, thanks for having me on yeah, i'm in constant contact with them. we were talking with them yesterday as we were walking in the west end in our lower levels there about the concern with gas. we're emphasizing to let folks know well in advance and then work with them, and we've reached out through our emergency management folks here, which i'm a part of, and they've been very good about working with the red cross and finding assistance, and we have a shelter here now in davenport that is open we have numerous opportunities for folks, if they choose, to go to different places. and we have assistance provided if they want, and the red cross, salvation army are all good partners in helping with this. but we're used to floods here, chris, and this is what we do. >> but are you used to floods like this, and what is your biggest concern right now knowing that the worst may not be here, that you still have more problems to come? >> yeah, so in 2019 we had a record flood 2020 it was a pretty good one, but the last two years we haven't had one. so my father always talks about 1965 as the standard, so we've been doing major we have been doing major floods a long time. we know what to do the city has a flood plan that we execute our public works folks are doing great work we've set barriers, we have talked to businesses, we see what they need we just did a whole walking through yesterday with people. major public services, and our people that assist like the american red cross are fully engaged. we understand some folks are being put out, but we want to make sure they have a place to go and they're taken care of and that's what we're doing. >> i was looking at your local newspaper, and i saw a photo of a business i think it was called the levee inn, but they had markings for where the various high floods were before. could you break a record here? i mean, long-term, what are you hearing? when i say long term, the next two, three, four days, week, what are the projections and where will you be a week from you, do you think? right. the best information we have as of today, we will not break the record the record's 22'7", we expect something just over 21, so a foot below the record. that's still a very big flood even for our area, so, again, we pre-position our equipment we rehearse, we practice, we talk with folks well in advance, and this type of stuff, unfortunately some people don't like it but we're used to dealing with it. we know all the players, and everybody has a job to do, and we engage them early on. a big part also -- >> go ahead, finish. >> we use the coreps of engineers, what do we need to do better and that's what we do now. they're with us every day. >> i'm glad you're getting the help you need, and we wish you all the best of luck, mayor mike matson, thank you very much. to an incredible story which proves that hard work does indeed pay off when 16-year-old dennis malik barnes started his college application process he wasn't looking to break any records, but that is exactly what he did. the louisiana high school senior currently has, all right, you ready for this 170 college offers, scholarships, totaling a whopping never before seen $9 million barnes, who's graduating high school two years early boasts a 4.98 grade point average he's bilingual, his extracurriculars include track, basketball, serving as national honor society. he emphasized the power of education, particularly for black and african-american students barnes is expected to decide where he's headed by may 2nd i don't think he'll be flipping a coin. we're hearing from tucker carlson for the first time since he left fox news and learning from new reporting about his private text messages that surfaced in a fox news lawsuit we've got that coming up but first, legendary talk show host and former cincinnati mayor, jerry springer has died at the age of 79 the cause of death has not been disclosed. his talk show was full of drama, controversy, even physical fights at times, but it was also incredibly successful airing for 27 years and no matter how raucous or how wild the content got, he'd end every episode with the same parting thought, take care of yourself and each other. we'll be right back. 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(psst psst) flonase. all good. as a small business owner, your bottom line is always top of mind. so save up to 75% a year with comcast business mobile. all on the most reliable 5g network. with no line activation fees or term contracts... switch today. comcast business. powering possibilities™. we're now hearing from tucker carlson and don lemon, two of the biggest names in cable news for the first time since their shocking network departure. here's nbc's stephanie gosk. >> reporter: overnight, two men known for speaking their minds talking for the first time since losing their jobs. >> good evening, it's tucker carlson. >> reporter: carlson posting a video message to his more than 6 million followers, the fire brand anchor did not address his exit but was critical of tv news. >> the other thing you'll notice when you take time off is how unbelievably stupid most of the debates you see on television are. trust me as someone who has participated. >> reporter: fox recently settled a defamation lawsuit with dominion voting systems for nearly $800 million which alleged the network repeatedly lied about debunked election fraud claims private texts emerged during the lawsuit, including redacted messages about fox news executives the "wall street journal" reporting according to people familiar with the matter that one referred to a female executive by the c word. fox has not commented on the reasons for the split. this morning, "the new york times" reporting according to two people with knowledge of the discussions that top fox executives learned of the contents of many of the private messages the day before the lawsuit was settled. the times reporting that highly offensive and crude remarks in the messages set off a crisis at the highest level of the company. the times reporting it obtained a video of carlson discussing his quote post menopausal fans and referring to a woman as yu yummy. carlson's future is uncertain but he suggests he will take his show somewhere else. >> where can you still find americans saying true things there aren't many places left but there are some. >> reporter: don lemon spoke