Transcripts For MSNBCW Jose 20240703

Good morning, it is 11 00 a. M. Eastern, 8 00 a. M. Pacific. Im jose diazbalart. We are tracking an incredibly busy day on capitol hill. Just moments from now a Veteran Boeing Engineer will testify before a Senate Subcommittee that the 787 dreamliner could break apart in midair due to safety flaws. The president of Colombia University is defending her handling of antisemitic incidents on campus and accusations she failed to protect jewish students after october 7th. And in two hours, the senate will open the Impeachment Trial of Homeland Security secretary alejandro mayorkas, the first impeachment of a Cabinet Member in almost 150 years. But, we begin this morning with the very latest from former president Donald Trumps hush money trial, that is now taking shape after hundreds of new yorkers were summoned to court this week. Seven have now been sworn in to serve as jurors in the very first criminal trial facing the former president , centered around hush money payments made to stormy daniels. Prosecutors say trump falsified Business Records as part of an effort to bury a story about a Sexual Encounter Daniels alleges she had with trump. Trump had pleaded not guilty to all 34 counts, and denied the affair ever happened. There is no court today, Jury Selection resumes tomorrow morning to fill the 11 remaining seats. Joining us now, nbc News Senior National political reporter jonathan alan, msnbc Legal Correspondent lisa rubin, both have been inside the courthouse during the trial, catherine christian, former assistant District Attorney for the manhattan d. A. s office, she is also an msnbc legal analyst, and former republican congressman Carlos Curbelo from florida, an msnbc political analyst. So, lisa, what do we know about the seven jurors who have already been selected . Jose, theyre a Cross Section of new yorkers. We have got two attorneys on the jury, we got two residents of harlem, we have an oncology nurse, a salesperson, a teacher, and a software engineer. One of the things i find notable is that several of the jurors are young, appear to be in the early stages of their career, for example, one of them said that a year and a half ago, before they started the job that theyre in now, they were in college and so we can infer from that the person is in their 20s. The other thing that i find interesting about these folks is that none of them have small children at home. That may be in part because at the very beginning of Jury Selection, judge merchan said that anybody who was unable to serve either because they were unable to be fair and impartial on one hand, or because they had other responsibilities that rendered them unable to serve could leave with no questions asked. That may have resulted in a number of people with care giving responsibilities, including Young Mothers of young children, taking themselves out of that pool. So what were left with is a number of people on this jury who are either childless or have Adult Children and grandchildren. So, catherine, seven jurors selected in this period of time. Is that typical . Thats very fast. I call it remarkable. There are only maybe a handful of judges who can do it that quickly. Particularly for this type of case. When i say it is remarkable, because on a regular case with a no name defendant it doesnt happen that quickly. But clearly judge merchan is moving it fast, if you saw yesterday, it was he he was on a go. And he worked over time, typically court ends at 4 30, he went over an hour to get those seven jurors. And he told those seven jurors who are now sworn jurors to come back monday at 9 30, which means judge merchan intends to have a jury in place on monday, so there can be opening statements. And so, catherine, why do you think it has been a remarkably fast process, versus other more traditional, i guess, court cases . Two reasons, one, the judge, judges are controlled, judges are the ones that really can move the process along. Two, there were 96 people who were called, 50 automatically said as lisa said i cant serve, i cant be fair and impartial, it could be because they dont like trump, they love trump, or as lisa said they had care giving. What was left were clearly people who there were not a lot of issues, there were challenges for cause, granted. And the lawyers both sides used a number of their peremptory, but as i call them, they were normal people, who would want to serve, who will take this seriously, both sides hope. And, john, in a new piece, you describe the way both sides are grappling the reality that most people have an opinion one way or another about donald trump. What did you see from both sides and the judge . Yeah, i mean, what catherine said is so important. It really doesnt serve anyone either the prosecution or the defense or judge merchan for anything other than a perception of a fair trial for these jurors to all be able to separate whatever they may feel about donald trump from the question of whether the, you know, facts apply to the law suggest or Beyond A Reasonable Doubt prove that hes guilty. We have seen the judge also trying to make sure that this is an impartial jury, in particular, when objections were raised by trumps council yesterday after social media posts were surfaced by trumps team. There were questions about whether some of the judges based en what they posted on social media could be fair. We saw the judge agree with trumps lawyers in a couple of those cases that those jurors could not be seen as impartial because of what they had said about him in the past, and also in one case the judge said youre going too far here, because it was basically one of the Perspective Jurors husbands posting something. There has been a lot of care taken in this. I think by the end of the process, the jurors will have been advised repeatedly that they need to focus on the facts at hand and not anything else and if you have ever been on a jury before, thats a pretty solemn thing and i suspect most if not all of them will take it very seriously. And, lisa, the judge admonished trump for saying something in the direction of a jury yesterday, the judge said he will not have any juror intimidated. What could the judge do or consider that if trump steps out of line again . Jose, early in the trial judge merchan gave trump something called parker warnings. That basically included the warning that although donald trump has a right to be present during his trial, he can waive that right if he engages in misconduct during the course of the trial. So, one thing that he could lose, if he continues to behave in a way that the judge finds not consistent with the administration of justice is to take him out of the courtroom and have the trial continue. I dont think he will do that on a first or a second offense. But that is certainly available to him. The other thing that is available to him is to hold him in contempt of court. Again, we know that Criminal Contempt in New York City can include a punishment of up to 30 days in jail and some fines. I suspect that the sticks that judge merchan has available at his disposal include jail time and banning trump from the courtroom. Hes hoping, however, that just the threat of using either of those will keep donald trump primarily in line. Lisa, how would it actually physically be carried out if you want to get a defendant out of the courtroom . Do you just physically take him out . How does that work . Look, were talking about somebody who is not the former president of the United States, they are escorted out of the courtroom by Law Enforcement specific to the court. Where you got somebody on the other hand who is entitled to Secret Service protection, im not sure how that would work. There is no historical precedent for it. My guess is that he would enter some sort of order after a trial date, banning him from coming back if that were to occur. It depends on how flagrant the violation is. It is judge merchans hope that we dont have to get there, and that by admonishing the attorneys yesterday that we dont have to go down that road. No one wants to be in the position of presiding over a trial where a criminal defendant is absent. So, carlos, after his trial yesterday, trump went to a bodega where in 2022 a clerk fatally stabbed a man in selfdefense. D. A. Bragg initially charged him, that clerk, with murder, eventually dropped the charges. What is the former president s political message here . Well, jose, if we follow donald trump closely, he has used all of these legal controversies, all of these indictments and trials as part of his political campaign. We know that during the primary it really worked out for him because a lot of republican primary voters perceived him to be a victim, someone who is being persecuted by the left. That really consolidated his support. Now what hes trying to do, primary is over, hes looking at what are the voters, who are the voters he can speak to that he can steal from democrats, so, in this visit, what do you see . Minority voters, he goes to a town where a lot of minority people live, republicans think that donald trump can win more black and hispanic voters than he did last time, and also looking for sympathy because he believes, republicans theorize, that minority voters will be sympathetic to what donald trump is going through. That they will be able to relate to him because he is going through this difficult legal situation, so, everything trump does, legal defense, also combines with a political element to try to boost his chances this november. So, now that trump is going to have to be in court almost every day or every day, how could he use that in his Campaign Going forward . Well, to your point, earlier and to congressman curbelos point, we saw yesterday how he was using it to his advantage, not only does he go to a bodega and broader question of whether hes appealing to hispanic voters, minority voters by going to that bodega in the neighborhood, but particularly with the back story behind that. In the 2020 campaign, his campaign concluded that every time he talked about cracking down on crime, it was helpful to him, particularly with hispanic voters. So, were seeing him deliver that message there. Also delivering the message that d. A. Bragg has not prosecuted crimes, particularly serious violent crimes, and so were seeing that matched against what hes saying as an unfair, unjust targeting of him for political purposes. So, yesterday was a perfect microcosm of a lot of the arguments that hes making. In addition to that, well see him i think during this according to his aides, during this period when he has wednesdays free go out and do some campaign events, maybe locally, maybe on the east coast, and then on weekends were more likely to see some of the traditional trump rallies. Hes going to make the argument hes being prosecuted as a form of persecution and to stop his political ambition and those of the Republican Party and we have been hearing it for a long time, were going to continue to hear it more and hes got visual evidence he would like to show of him being in court to support that now. The d. A. Believes he has committed crimes for which he should be held accountable. And, lisa, meanwhile, Jury Selection resumes tomorrow morning. What can we expect . Jose, one of the things im really interested in and watching for is whether or not the defense has the opportunity today to do their research on the 96 jurors who will be part of tomorrow mornings pool. Assuming that they have from last night through all the way through today and tomorrow morning to do so, expect them to come armed with more social media profiles and other ammunition to try and excuse jurors for cause. Thats particularly true since of their ten peremptory challenges, they already used six. That means they have four remaining challenges to strike jurors for any reason whatsoever, and theyre going to have to use those judiciously. Their alternative is to try and convince judge merchan there are jurors who are incapable of being impartial, and they will rely on whatever evidence they can glean from the internet to do so, particularly because they have these 96 jurors perspective names. Thank you, all, so very much. Congressman curbelo, stick around. Still ahead, what the u. S. Is doing right now to prevent a fullout war from breaking out in the middle east. Here at home, were just hours away from a Senate Showdown as it takes up articles of impeachment against Homeland Security secretary alejandro mayorkas. And moments from now, a boeing whistleblower about to Tell Congress why he claims the 787 dreamliner could break apart midair. Were back in 60 seconds with what he exclusively told our very own tom costello. Youre watching jose diazbalart reports on msnbc. Youre watching jose diazbalart reports on msnbc. And year after year, you weathered the storm and just lived with the damage that was left behind. But even after all this time your Thyroid Eye Disease could still change. Restoration is still possible. Learn how you could give your eyes a fresh start at tedhelp. Com. My frequent heartburn had me taking antacid after antacid all day long but with prilosec otc just one pill a day blocks heartburn for a full 24 hours. For one and done heartburn relief, prilosec otc. One pill a day, 24 hours, zero heartburn. Heres to Getting Better with age. Heres to beating these two every thursday. Help fuel today with boost high protein, complete nutrition you need. Without the stuff you dont. So, heres to now. Boost. And we have breaking news, according to the faa website, Alaska Airlines asked for a nationwide ground stop. We are going to monitor this story for you and bring you any updates as we get them. Meanwhile, any moment now, a boeing whistleblower is set to testify before a Senate Committee about what he claims is the Aerospace Giants broken Safety Culture. That hearing is getting under way right now. But in an exclusive interview with nbc news, the whistleblower, who is a boeing Quality Engineer, delivered his first on camera interview detailing his allegations that the companys 787 dreamliner planes could fall apart midflight due to assembly flaws. Boeing disputes accusations the plane is unsafe. Joining us now, tom costello, who spoke with that whistleblower and jeff gazetti, Aviation Analyst and former faa and ntsb investigator. So, tom, what do we expect this witness to tell lawmakers today . Can i first give you a caveat on the news about Alaska Airlines. We believe thats related to a computer outage, nothing we believe related to the ongoing discussions with boeing on capitol hill. As you mentioned, there are three actual whistleblowers today testifying, right now on capitol hill, concerned about Quality Control lapses at boeing. We spoke with one of them yesterday here, he was on Nbc Nightly News and the today show. He alleges the Dreamliner Fuselage is joined, pieces of the fuselage are joined in the manufacturing process, he alleges that there is too much of a gap, too much of a gap between pieces of the fuselage, and as a result, he worries and warns that the plane could go under enormous stress and that could lead to Fatigue Failure and the plane could break apart. Take a listen to what he told me. The plane will fall apart at the joints, where the where were talking about. Once you fall apart, youre going to descend all the way to the ground. Reporter you think the plane could break apart in air . Absolutely. Okay, thats a very dramatic claim indeed. We would hasten to add the 787 dreamliner has flown millions of people safely for 13 years. Boeing is out with a statement, we need to read what they said to make sure you understand, boeing says this is absolutely inaccurate. It says extensive and rigorous testing of the fuselage and heavy maintenance checks of nearly 700 in service planes to date have found zero evidence of air frame fatigue. Or any cracking whatsoever. Nonetheless, because boeings reputation has been so damaged over the last five plus years, its own word, it has been doubted and has in fact been undermined by its own actions, now you got multiple whistleblowers on capitol hill. Others who have contacted the committee, concerned about Quality Control breakdowns at boeing. Jeff, how when you heard that, how serious do you think we should be taking that . We should be taking it very seriously, jose, but we should also take it in context of one particular whistleblower concern. And this particular one, boeing is stating that it is composites, all of their data indicates no Fatigue Findings in the entire fleet. So while this may be a well meaning, well intentioned whistleblower, perhaps a he just didnt receive the kind of explanation he needed to receive from boeing with regard to the robustness of the 787 structure. So, jeff, the whistleblower is a Quality Engineer. What kind of information would he have access to . Well, day after day he bo have access to measurements taken with holes and hes alleging gaps being produced, and he is alleging hes not seeing the data to indicate the gaps, which are beyond boeings specifications, are being carried out properly. So, he has day to day access, i dont know how much access he has to the corporate body of Engineering Data and test data that boeing says that they have to refute this whistleblowers testimony. Boeing is facing multiple investigations. Can you update us on where those stand . It continues to be under investigation from the ntsb related to the door plug blowout in january. An faa investigation on that as well. An faa investigation about the quality breakdown of Quality Control Safety Control inside boeings facilities. There is also an fbi Criminal Investigation into that door plug incident because that is all about Whether Boeing violated a previous agreement following the max 8 crashes overseas. If that all seems like a heck of a lot, absolutely right. And boeing has been, candidly, its own worst ally in this because it has for the better part of five plus years, put out statements that then proved not to be true or were undermined by yet another incident. Boeing recognizes they have a Credibility Problem right now, not just with the faa, not just with congress, but the American Public and the airlines, which, of course, buy their planes. And, jeff, i mean, tom was bringing up the major issues that we have seen over the last just couple of recent years, those two fatal crashes involving their max 8 planes, the door plug falling off the max 9, now this. What are your concerns with the company . Well, my concerns mirror toms concerns. Right now they lost the trust of the regulator, the faa, congress, the public, or they lost a level of trust. When things like this come up, they cant be easily dismissed away. And this particular event, though, with this whistleblower, the Quality Engineer, it might be a case of piling on. Every little thing that boeing does that is even accused of being wrong gets a lot of attention. And as tom indicated, thats because boeing hasnt had a good recent track record of building the trust with the American People and the traveling public. Hey, jose, i need to stress one point, can i stress one point . Please, of course. If you have an emergency landing, that is a normal part of every single day. There are more than a dozen Emergency Landings a day because a light goes off in the cockpit, they want to be sure, or a medical emergency. And ive used this analogy, but it is important. If you buy a brandnew car and you drive off the lot and the engine falls off, thats the carmakers fault. If you fail to maintain it, and eventually you dont put any oil in it and the engine burns up, thats your problem. We need to distinguish between maintenance issues with the airlines, if you have a plane that goes off the end of the runway, thats not boeings fault, right, or if you have an engine problem, boeing doesnt make engines, these are different issues, compared to very serious Quality Control breakdowns inside boeing. So, jeff, and tom, if you would, stand by, were going to go right into capitol hill, that hearing is getting under way. The three whistle blowers have just been sworn in. Lets take a listen. Chairman blumenthal, Ranking Member johnson and honorable members of the subcommittee, thank you for convening this hearing. My name is Sam Salehpour and im a Quality Engineer at boeing. I have over 40 years of i have over 40 years of experience as an engineer. Im not here today because i want to be here. Im here today because i felt that i must come forward because i do not want to see another 787 i do not want to see 787 or 777 crash. I have serious concerns about the safety of the 787 and 777 aircraft and im willing to take on professional risk to talk about them. First, a little bit about me, i came to the United States in 1973 and got a Mechanical Engineering degree from University Of Missouri where senator hawley is from. After that, i work for companies that were involved in Space Shuttle. I had a friend who worked on the Space Shuttle, he was always complaining about the quality of the o rings we had in the Space Shuttle rocket boosters. He was scared they might fail. He raised his concerns and he was heard and he wasnt heard and seven brave astronauts, including the teacher in space, died when the challenger o rings ultimately failed. Just as he predicted. At the moment, i know that if i were ever in a similar situation i would have to come up and speak up. I have analyzed boeings own data to conclude that the company has taken manufacturing short cuts on the 787 program that may significantly reduce the airplane safety. And the life cycle. Since 2013, there have been serious issues on the 787 program, not proper Closing Thousands of gaps in the assembly of the fuselage on major joints. Boeings standard says these gaps must be closed, usually by a small shim or filler called a shim when they exceed 5,000th of an inch. This seems very small. Boeings pr team likes to call it the width of a human hair, when youre operating at 35,000 feet. Details are that the size of a human hair can be a matter of life and death. In a rush to address the bottlenecks in production, boeing hit problems pushing pieces together with Excessive Force to make it appear that the gaps dont exist, even though they exist, the gap didnt actually go away and this may result in premature Fatigue Failure. Effectively, they are putting out defective airplanes. I respectively i repeatedly produced reports for my supervisors and Boeing Management, demonstrating that the gaps in this 787 not being properly measured or shimmed in two major joints of the 787, evaluating from boeing from the 29 inspected airplane data, i found gaps exceeding the specification that were not properly addressed, 98. 7 of the time. I want to repeat that, 98. 7 of the time the gaps that they were supposed to be shimmed, they were not shimmed. The other issue that i found when you have these gaps, and you drill through them, you get some debris in the stackups. This is known to be a problem, you know, not a good thing for the airplanes by boeing, but boeing data also, you know, from the inspection of the data shows that the debris ended up in the gaps 80 of the time. Again, you know, you have debris in the gaps 80 of the time. I want to make clear that i have raised these issues over three years. I was ignored, i was told not to create not to create delays. I was sold frankly to shut up. At one point, Boeing Management got sick of me and raising these issues and moved me out of the 787 program into the 777 program. Under 777 program i found problems again. I found that boeing started a new process to build the airplane, without taking into consideration the design of the airplane and how the airplane was designed. As a result, i witnessed severe misalignment when the planes were assembled. Boeing manufacturing used unmeasured and unlimited amount of force to correct the misalignment. And this also weakened the airplane in the long run. I literally saw people jumping on the pieces of the airplane to get them to align, i call it the tarzan effect, among other improper methods. I raised concerns internally. I was sidelined, i was told to shut up. I received physical threats. My boss said i would have killed someone who said what you said in a meeting. And then this is not the Safety Culture when you get threatened by bringing issues of safety concerns. I hope that your work on this issue signals the boeing that they must make real changes and get back to building the airplane safely. Ill be more than happy to answer your questions. Thank you very much, mr. Salehpour. Mr. Pierce . Good morning. Thank you for inviting me today. My name is ed pierson. My father was a washington, d. C. Homicide detective and my mom was a nurse. I learned the importance of telling the truth from them, my teachers, and coaches. And this was reinforced at the naval academy. The military demands people tell the truth and admit their mistakes, because if you dont, people will die. Since the first boeing max airplane crash, i spent every day thinking about the victims, their families, and the millions of people that fly boeing airplanes. Im here today to share four key messages, first, the Manufacturing Conditions that led to the two 737 max disasters, also led to the alaskan accident and these conditions continue. In 2019, i testified as a boeing whistleblower, i had previously warned the 737 general manager, before the max crash, to shut down the factory. I also warned boeings general counsels, the ceo and the Board Of Directors before the second crash to shut it down. They ignored my warnings. During my 2019 testimony, i described the chaotic manufacturing, the horrible job government authorities were doing investigating the two crashes. The world here is the testimony of the second of three whistleblowers that are today at the senate, at this hearing, when talking about their experience in working in boeing and the fact that according to them, Quality Control issues were not being followed or at least their Quality Control questions were not answered to their satisfaction. I want to bring back jeff guzzetti, former faa and ntsb investigator. So, jeff, this is these are very serious allegations about people who say they were in very important, critical times of either building these airplanes or certainly continuing to build these airplanes. And that they saw very serious issues being occurring in the production and manufacture of them and they were saying they were ignored for many in many things. Yes, jose, these are anytime anyone makes allegations like this, in a commercial airplane factory, it should be taken seriously. And but, again, they are just allegations. I must tell you, im a little bit skeptical of some of these allegations, just based on my knowledge of how commercial airplanes are built up, and also from Information Boeing has provided to the public, to the media, about their Buildup Process and just being in the faa and seeing how the faa follows along whenever there is a problem. That said, employees shouldnt have to feel this way. They shouldnt have to feel like theyre being retaliated against. So the climate, the culture within boeing still needs to change, so when you have people that have complaints about serious complaints about how an airplane is being produced, you need to address those to the complainants satisfaction. And apparently that hasnt happened in these cases. That said, there is a lot of different issues coming up with regards to 787, 777. I just i just dont think that there is a significant problem right now in the fleet of 787s and 777s. That said, these whistle blowers need to be heard and the faa needs to investigate. Yeah, jeff, thank you so much for being with us. And we have just to expand on a story that we told you about, as we began this part of our program on Alaska Airlines and the statement that they have released a statement and im just going to read it to you because it says, this morning we experienced an issue while performing an upgrade to the system that calculates our weight and balance. A ground stop for all alaska and horizon flights was instituted at approximately 7 50 a. M. Pacific. Were working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. Apologizing for the inconvenience and encouraging guests to check the status of their flights on alaskaair. Com or the alaska app prior to heading to the airport. This from Alaska Airlines as they had to institute a ground stop for all alaska and horizon flights. Again, the issue, very clear, different from what we have been seeing on capitol hill, is that they experienced an issue performing an upgrade to the system that calculates our weight and balance. Up next, well tell you what you should expect in just over about an hour when the Senate Begins its Impeachment Trial against Homeland Security secretary alejandro mayorkas. Youre watching jose diazbalart reports on msnbc. As youre watching jose diazbalart reports on msnbc. Infused with vitamin b3 and hyaluronic acid, st. Jude commercials on tvubg and wondering, is that place legit . Those commercials are nice, but is that a real thing . And having lived it, i can say for sure that money is being put to incredible use. Ive never once had to wait for insurance to approve a test or approve a medication. We didnt have to worry about any of those things thanks to the donations. And our family is forever grateful because its completely changed our lives. vo Verizon Small Business days are coming. April 22nd to the 28th. Get a free tech check. And special offers and deals. Dont miss out. Partner with our experts today. 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As that proceeds, im here in New York City on wednesday morning, fighting online Child Sexual Exploitation and abuse. Joining us now, ali vitali, nbc news correspondent david noriega, and back with us, former congressman Carlos Curbelo. Ali, what can we expect in the senate today . Well, there is what we know, which is that theyll likely kick off around 1 00 p. M. And then after that, unless anything significantly changes in the next two hours, were not really sure how this hearing and this moment on the senate floor is going to go. Thats because there was an attempt overnight to make an agreement about the hours of debate, and the motions that would be offered on the senate floor, during this mayorkas impeachment. And that was objected to by one of the conservative senators, senator eric schmitt of missouri, who says he doesnt want to, in his words, aid Senator Schumer is lighting the match to set hundreds of years of precedent on fire. What hes saying there is he wants to have a trial, and there have been a group of conservative republican senators pressuring Senator Schumer to do that. I heard from republican senators who say that they dont think that mayorkas has done enough to be impeached, but they worry about the precedent it would set to just simply dismiss these allegations against him. It is why were seeing senators try to come to agreement on being able to debate this for several hours as opposed to just immediately dispensing with it. But regardless of how this ends up shaking out, jose, what the reality is in the senate is that they dont have anywhere near the amount of votes they would need to actually convict the Homeland Security secretary. Thats not going to change here. And so, carlos, it is very clear that it is not going anywhere in the senate, but there is a precedent or concern of precedents being set, i guess on both sides on this. Well, jose, on the one hand what republicans want is as long a process as possible because they want attention on the issue of immigration. There is no question that this is political, there is no question that there isnt a clear case that the secretary committed high crimes or misdemeanors as the constitution outlines the process for impeachment and removal. But this is about November Of 2024 and republicans want to drag this out as long as possible because they know that the longer that this trial is ongoing, the more the country is going to be focused on the issue of immigration and thats where they perceive a big advantage in this election. David, youve been covering this story and you spoke recently with the secretary. What did he tell you and what is the impact, you think, of what has been going on in the border to this political move on capitol hill . Yeah, jose, so when i sat down with the secretary recently, his main point was that the Immigration Enforcement system of the United States, as it exists now, is not designed to handle the kind of migration that were seeing at the border. When i asked him directly about the impeachment, heres what he had to say. We are enforcing the law. Accusation is were not. Thats unequivocally false. Fundamentally, our system is not equipped to deal with migration as it exists now. Not just this year, and last year, and the year before. But for years preceding us. And we need that system fixed. We cannot unilaterally resource ourselves, we need congress and it requires a whoistic solution. His position is that the situation on the ground on the border cannot change without major congressional action. Now, the politics of the impeachment are one thing. The reality and the policy on the ground on the border are another. The fact is anyone who looks at this objectively agrees that the u. S. Immigration enforcement system is badly severely overwhelmed. Thats a reality that has been true for at least the last three administrations. Obama couldnt solve it, trump couldnt solve it and biden hasnt been able to solve it. In the process, the situation has become more and more severe. I also asked the secretary about the republicans contention that he could solve this with executive actions in place under the trump administration. He rejected that wholeheartedly, said those executive actions didnt solve the problem in 2019, theyre not going to solve the problem today, and the last thing ill add is the nature of migration to the border changed dramatically in the last couple of years in the sense were now seeing a massive rise in the number of migrants coming from far away countries, india, china, russia, not the usual countries we normally see, mexico and the northern triangle countries of Northern America that creates challenges that will be unique and difficult for any administration to address, whether it is a biden or a trump administration. Unique challenges that each administration has dealt with in a different way. Certainly president obama dealt with it one way. Trump another way. And President Biden another way. Marcia, you worked for the department of Homeland Security under Secretary Mayorkas and two other secretaries before him. How has the security at the border issue evolved to what it is today . Well, today were obviously seeing higher numbers, but like lets just look at the irony of this situation that were facing today. You just showed Secretary Mayorkas in New York City today announcing a new effort to fight child online sexual exploitation, yesterday he was on the hill, fighting for funding, before that, he was negotiaing not negotiating, but advising a Bipartisan Group of people on a border bill to actually solve the situation. What were seeing on the other side is republicans introducing impeachment matters as a policy difference. There is no evidence here, no facts, this is political theater. And it is quite the juxtaposition, you see Secretary Mayorkas out there doing the work, focused on his work, while on the other side here theyre playing politics as usual. Yeah, and going back to the numbers, there has been a Record Number of Border Encounters since 2021, encounters were above 1. 3 million this fiscal year so far. Theyre on track to surpass the last three years. The secretary has called the Border Situation A situation in crisis. How does dhs Handle Crises . Well, the department is no stranger to crises right, they deal more with immigration, cyber, extreme weather. But in terms of the numbers at the border, this is something that the Border Patrol does best. They deal with the situation, they process, and put people into immigration proceedings, but the fact is what Secretary Mayorkas said is true. Were experiencing a high number. We need to focus on the root causes of immigration before people land at our border, and the border bill that they were working on would have done just that. So, why couldnt republicans cross the aisle and vote on the bill, rather than cross the aisle and introduce articles of impeachment. It doesnt make any sense . We need more Border Patrol agents, more asylum officers, more funding for immigration judges, and money for the cities and states who are facing these encounters. And, ali, were also expecting to hear today more from House Republicans about the foreign aid bills, the ones that would benefit ukraine, israel and taiwan. Where does that stand . Stand alones . All split up . Whats going on . This is new, in the last 30 or so minutes, jose. The Speaker Of The House texting his members, what his plan is here, and it is going to be three distinct bills for ukraine, indopacific and israel. There is also an overarching rule over all of them. You have to vote on each of the substantial bills. Within the bills there is going to be a fourth bill, republican priorities, thats going to include things like the repo act which allows this aid to ukraine to be loaned from frozen russian assets, a piece of this deals with accountability and security for the money and the aid that is sent to places like ukraine, and then there is also going to be a border piece that is new, and added, and im interested to see the text on this, because it is meant to assuage conservatives who were upset that speaker johnson yesterday said that their pet project border bill hr2 was not relevant enough to this ongoing package to be considered in its totality as something that can be added. So, a lot of moving pieces here, but i think to underscore something that as were talking about the border writ large and these ongoing impeachment hearings, in my conversations yesterday, with senators and in my conversations with sources up here, david alluded to this, your panel alluded to this, this is not just a question of Holding Mayorkas Accountable for republicans, there is also clearly a need to do something legislatively about the border. There was an opportunity for that, in the senate, a republican, a democrat and an independent, came together after weeks of negotiation to come up with something that could have gotten bipartisan support at least on the senate side, and it was killed in large part because former President Donald Trump wanted to keep this alive as an election issue. Those senators, those aides, they worked on that, that was a possibility legislatively, it is just not anymore because the politics and the policy are so intertwined up here. Yes, and carlos, theyre now two republicans that are calling for speaker johnson to resign. What is going on there . Jose, being Speaker Of The House is a very difficult job, being a republican Speaker Of The House in recent decades is particularly treacherous and this will be the toughest week for mike johnson, this will be his biggest test because we know that motion to vacate is out there. Marjorie Taylor Greene joined by thomas massie, want to remove the speaker, theyre threatening him. If this ukraine bill does end up passing, how that unfolds will be the biggest test for speaker johnson. Hes clearly worried about it. He went to stand next to donald trump just a few days ago to seek cover, to seek some strength from donald trump. But this is a big test for him. If he can get through this week, he might have a much easier time the rest of the year. Ali vitali, dave noriega, Marcia Espinoza and Carlos Curbelo, thank you. I have another update on the news that we have been reporting for you just in the last half hour, moments ago, Alaska Airlines announced they have lifted that ground stop, they requested this morning. The airline says travelers should expect some delays and to please check their Flight Status on their app, or online. But that Ground Stoppage has been lifted. Coming up, the president of Columbia University facing tough questions on capitol hill for the universitys handling of antisemitism on campus. Youre watching jose diazbalart reports on msnbc. Diazbalart reports on msnbc. With Schwab Investing themes™, its easy to invest in ideas you believe in. Spot a trend in electric vehicles . Have a passion for Online Gaming . Or want to explore the Space Economy . Choose from over 40 themes, each with up to 25 stocks identified by our unique algorithm. Buy it asis or customize to align with your goals. All at your fingertips. Schwab investing themes. 40 customizable themes. 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Two proisrael and jewish groups complained about the choice, pointing to her social media activity, specifically a link to a free palestine slideshow on her instagram which calls for the abolishment of the state of israel. The university has to make the decision about whether this valedictorian and her propagation of antisemitic vitriol online is worthy of being the representative of the class of 2024. Reporter she is shocked and profoundly disappointed that they are succumbing to a campaign of hate. Unfortunately, its clear, if you are a Muslim Student today, you dont expect the university, your administration, to stand by you. Reporter the provost says the issue is how to maintain Campus Security and safety. The decision has nothing to do with freedom of speech. The commencement typically draws 65,000 people. University leadership has not shared details about potential threats. It makes people uncomfortable but they arent willing to elaborate on safety concerns. Reporter the controversy the latest example of heightened tensions related to violence overseas spilling over on college campuses. Right now on capitol hill, the president of Columbia University is being grilled by lawmakers over the rise of antisemitism at her university and what speech is and isnt protected on campus. Her testimony comes after the explosive december hearing before this same senate i should say, House Committee that resulted in the resignation of two other Ivy League President s. Whats the latest out of the hearing, julie . Reporter this hearing is up on its twohour mark. Certainly, this professor, columbias excuse me the head of columbia, she was supposed to be here in decembers meeting that led to the ousting of two University President s. They werepressed whether genocide was against the code of conduct. She penned an Opinion Piece earlier denouncing that. That did not spare her from more questions from others on this panel. Watch this. I share with you your repug repugnance at those remarks. On my watch, faculty that make remarks that cross the line, there will be consequences. What are the consequences in this case in. I have five cases in the moment who have been either taken out of the classroom or dismissed. Is he one of those . He will never work at columbia again. He has been terminated . He has terminated. Not just terminated. His files will show that he will never work at columbia again. Reporter jose, that Faculty Member that she was talking about is somebody who was hired after the October 7th Hamas attack against israel. They also questioned the head of columbia and the board of Trustees Members that were present about another Faculty Member who is still listed on the universitys website, despite the fact that she said he has been terminated from his position, despite this, you can tell, jose, just bipartisan outrage on antisemitism. In sitting in this Committee Room behind us, witnessing a portion of the testimony, you can tell that those questions are not only coming from republicans on the panel, but also democrats. Some of them pointing out islamaphobia you have seen on college campuses. You can see there are protesters here, students at columbia included, who are propalestine who want their voices heard on the issue. The Committee Room is packed. They are not letting those students in because of that. This Committee Hearing is ongoing. Virginia fox, the chairwoman, said this wont be the last meeting to hold the College President s accountable. Julie tsirkin, thank you very much. Before we go, some good news. The best news. One of our producers, kelly betts is back to work more than a year after she was diagnosed with cancer and had to take leave to focus on Getting Better. In february of 2023, she was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia. Kelly is in remission. Her fight is not over. We will be supporting her every step to recovery. Kelly, welcome back. You are an inspiration. We couldnt be more grateful that you are okay and back with us. Someone who never, ever