what caused the sonic boom that rattled residents across two states and the nation s capital. the grand jury investigating the trump classified documents case is starting today. new video this morning as a chinese warship comes close to a u.s. destroyer in the taiwan strait over the weekend. the new warnings from both sides. and back at home, it s a big week for the republican race for the white house with at least three new candidates expected to make announcements. we begin this hour with federal investigators now on the site of a small plane crash, a private plane crash, that went off course and flew near the nation s capital on sunday. the plane took off from tennessee heading to long island, new york, but did an unexpected 180 heading south toward washington and crashed. four people were on board. no survivors have been found. fighter jets from d.c., the national guard there were scrambled to intercept the plane traveling at supersonic seems which caused the s
similar goals. we have exerted efforts for the prosperity of our respective countries. we can cooperate and work together to achieve our goals. reporter: but china has so far drawn the line at military aid for russia s war. there are concerns that may change, but right now it s only chinese diplomacy on the table. the kremlin-leaning peace plan calling for talks but stopping short of demanding a russian withdraw, a key ukrainian demand. translator: we have carefully studied your proposals onseting the acute crises in ukraine. of course we ll have an opportunity to discuss these issues. reporter: there s little sign putin is open to compromise. this was the russian leader on sunday, driving through the captured and devastated city of mariupol. local residents, according to state media, are shown thanking him and asking to shake hands when a heckler briefly makes her breath heard. none of this is true is the cry. it s all for show. the russian leader seems undisturbed. no
friends now that we ve developed. we ll make a lot more friends. that s what it s all about. will you sign the loyalty pledge for the debate stage? that last question everybody heard me ask was about the loyalty pledge. i tried two other times to ask him about it and that pertains to the new republican party s debate rules of what it will take for these republican candidates to appear on the debate stage in milwaukee just 2 1/2 months for now. they re requiring every candidate to commit to supporting the eventual republican party nominee, whether be donald trump or asa hutchinson. as you heard ron desantis, he did not answer that question. he has not answered that question. of course, donald trump has suggested this spring that he is not so keen on the idea of potentially supporting a republican party candidate that is not him. and so there is outstanding questions. but very much there was the notable absence of donald trump this weekend in iowa. several of those republican candi
exclusive. the justice department s investigation into former president donald trump s handling of classified information may be at a turning point. multiple people familiar with the investigation tell nbc news the grand jury hearing evidence in the case expected to meet again this week. if the former president were to be indicted, it would be the first time a former president has been charged with a federal crime. he has denied any wrongdoing arguing he had the right to keep classified materials at his mar-a-lago estate in florida. i took the documents i m allowed to. i had every right to do it. i didn t make a secret of it. all i know is this, everything i did was right. we have the presidential records act which i abided by 100%. and with us now to talk more about this, nbc news justice and intelligence correspondent ken dilanian and dave aaronburg. ken, you have new information this morning about trump attorneys at the justice
person who is the undisputed leader. yeah, it s okay that we have a lot of candidates now. what we can t allow to happen is what happened in 2016 when there were a bunch of them dividing up the vote and donald trump being the benfactor of that. if this is not somebody s year, if things are not going their way, six months from now, it s important that these people get out. i don t think chris christie actually thinks he s going to win this nomination. maybe he does. i don t know. i do agree that he s in there to take on donald trump and deny him the nomination. mike pence, you know, probably as well. i think these are people who firmly believe that donald trump has no place in the white house ever again. and that s why they re getting in. at some point, you can make a bunch of attacks, you can hurt donald trump s favorability, but