So here we go. The walls may be closing in on President Biden as he faces the biggest fight of his political life and what may be the biggest moment of his presidency so far. Set to take questions from reporters in a solo news conference scheduled to happen later on during our broadcast. We're obviously going to bring it to you live. During a day in which even more democrats, during an hour, in the last hour in which even more democrats are now publicly calling on the president to withdraw, we've got it covered from every angle. Then, devastating extreme weather touching nearly every corner of the country tonight, from deadly flooding in Vermont to a crisis in Texas where there's extreme heat and no power for AC, what it means for the life saving care some people need. Plus, a string of seemingly random shootings totally freaking out locals hiding indoors in North Carolina. But police now say a couple of teenagers may be responsible. And how one woman's dip in the ocean turned into a 37 hours long nightmare. As we're getting a first look at the dramatic video of the rescue, then new warnings about photox, ie, fake Botox, and why the CD says CDC says one woman got so sick from it, she ended up on a ventilator.

That's later in the show. Hey, I'm Hallie. And in just over an hour from now, President Biden will take the stage for the kind of news conference he hasn't held in months in the middle of the kind of political crisis that he has never seen before. And let's just real talk for a second. You've heard the cliche, right? High stakes. This is a high stakes night. Obviously, a lot of presidential pressers are, but this tonight, it is existential for him. Now, listen, the president is not hemorrhaging support, not quite yet. But the Band aids his campaign's using clearly are not sticking. Now, even several of his allies, people on his side, are telling NBC News the chances he can win come November are zero. One person directly involved in his reelection says, and I'm quoting here, no one involved in the effort thinks he has a path. And a campaign official says President Biden will never recover from this. Now, the campaign officially says that is just not true, that it is patently false, that the team stands behind their boss. But NBC News can now also confirm the campaign is starting to survey voters over the strength of Vice President Harris.

If she were to move up to the top of the ticket and faced off against former President Trump, according to a source familiar with that decision, one of the big questions still could the pressure building on Capitol Hill and the growing number of Democrats calling on him to drop off the ticket, could that change his mind? It's all, look at this graphic scram. I don't mean to be glib, and I'm not being scrambling to update that even in just the last few minutes because there have been more and more Democrats today coming out and putting themselves on that list who say President Biden should drop out. Here's the thing. This is all still a hypothetical right now. The only person who can make this decision is the president. And publicly he says he has made it. He says he is staying in. He has been defiant and sticking to that message so far. Question is, could his performance in just over an hour from right now, at least that's the schedule. Could that change things? We've got team coverage. Ryan Nobles standing by on Capitol Hill. Chuck Todd is joining us as well. But I want to start with Aaron Gilchrist at the White House.

And Aaron, tee us up right. Because you are standing not too far from where this NATO news conference is going to be. What are the expectations? What are you hearing from your sources there at the White House and in the campaign?

Well, the expectations as you laid out very clearly, Hallie, are pretty high for President Biden in this news conference today. The White House has said that he spent the last several days preparing for this news conference being sort of brought up to speed on news of the day. And the reality is the news of the day, the news of the last two weeks has been whether President Biden is fit to run for another term and fit to serve another four years in office. That's likely to be the line of questioning that the president will have to entertain when he meets with members of the White House press corps and others in this news conference that we expect to be happening in the next hour. We do know that the Biden campaign also spent some time today talking to members of Congress, members of the Senate, as a matter of fact, about their strategy going forward. They do believe, they say that they do have a path forward here. And so when this news conference happens today, we'll be looking to sort of see from the president physically if he's up to this sort of an exchange.

He will likely get very pointed, direct, maybe critical questions from members of the press. He'll be unscripted. There won't be a teleprompter or anything like that. He'll have to answer these questions as they come. And this is the sort of setting where we'll be able to see does he have vigor? Does he have a command of the issues to the point where he can explain his position on policy, his position on what he wants to do in another four years, and we'll be able to see, hallie, if this is a point at which the president can say that the debate night was the exception and not the rule for him, as the campaign has been trying to lay out with appearances that he's made in front of voters, appearances that he's made with lawmakers on Zoom calls and such over the last couple of weeks here.

There's always a difference, or there can be a difference, between what any campaign or White House might say publicly versus what's happening behind the scenes for reasons that are unrelated to politics. In this instance, it seems like there is a growing divide between the chatter that NBC News and others are reporting on from the president's allies, from those close to him, and then what the campaign in the White House are saying out there publicly and putting their names off.

Yeah, you're absolutely right. You just ran through some of the things that have been reported as of late in terms of the shakiness, both from legislators on Capitol Hill and from different places within the Biden team, the White House and the campaign, for the campaign's part, in this memo that NBC News has obtained that was put out today by the campaign chair and the campaign manager going into this meeting, we believe that this memo is sort of the foundation of the meeting they had with the Senate Democrats today. You can see that the last line of the memo is on your screen here. It said, no one is denying that the debate was a setback, but Joe Biden and his campaign have made it through setbacks before. We are clear eyed about what we need to do to win, and we will win by moving forward unified as a party, so that every single day between now and election day, we focus on defeating Donald Trump. And so to some great extent, I think the campaign has been trying to reassure Democrats around the country, both on the hill and in governor's mansions and in legislatures and mayors, for that matter, in different cities around the country.

But the core message that they're carrying is going to voters. They believe that President Biden, Vice President Harris, going out and talking to voters, groups of supporters and people that they think can be turned into supporters is really their bread and butter of their campaign strategy. They believe there is still a path to 270 electoral votes, particularly focusing energies on Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania. And they believe that they'll be able to gather up that support that they need with voters if they continue to use the strategy that they've been using. President Biden, we know, will go to Michigan tomorrow and then we'll be on to Nevada, as a matter of fact, middle of next week. Ali.

Aaron, thank you. I want to bring in Ryan Nobles for the conversation here. And if you can stand by, please do. If you can't, I get it. But Ryan, you know, I want to talk with Chuck about this, too. Like, even in the last couple of hours, I just want to pull back the curtain for people. Your team has been tracking the number of Democrats, elected lawmakers who have been calling on President Biden to withdraw from the race. And that number kind of ticked up, maybe, I guess it was end of last week, earlier this week. Ticked up a little. Ticked up a little. Tonight it's ticked up quite a bit. I mean, you've got at least three, four, I want to say five just since the midday to tonight who have come out and suggested that this is what President Biden should do. Can you give us a sense of the mood there on the hill, especially after that meeting between top Biden allies and Senate Democrats has been critical?

Well, first, to answer your question about the meeting, Hallie, I don't think it moved the needle at all. The sense that we got from senators walking into that meeting was very similar to the sense that we got coming out of it. They're concerned that there isn't a path to victory for President Biden and they're worried that he may not have what it takes to beat Donald Trump in the fall election. And, you know, I've used a lot of pretty tired metaphors with you, Halle, as we've been talking about this story, but I'm going to use another one. I mean, it does feel like the dam is starting to break. There are cracks all over the place. This was a slow drip, drip for about two weeks. And now it seems like every time I check my phone there is another democratic member of Congress coming out and saying that they think that Joe Biden should step down and that marries what we're being told behind the scenes as well. Just the discontent is off the charts. And, you know, I think why, one of the reasons that this is important is that the Biden campaign really thought on Monday that they had held this off, that they effectively convinced them and the democratic, their democratic colleagues to kind of cool their jets and just give this some time.

And it seems as though the anxiety has just increased by the day. It's just this gathering storm that continues to get bigger and bigger. And I know that we've talked a lot about pointing to this press conference tonight. It's obviously going to be really important. Like if it ends up being a disaster, as bad as the debate, then the calls will come exponentially greater. But I do think there's even a sense that there's almost nothing that President Biden can do to change some of these minds. They believe the only way to be competitive in the fall is for him to leave the ticket. And something needs to change sooner rather than later.

And here are some of the Democrats. And, Ron, I want to keep you for this conversation here, if you can. Here are some of the dynamics that I think some of the Democrats might be looking at. Chuck, number one, as Nancy Pelosi almost explicitly suggested, came very close to saying, if you're going to do it, wait until the NATO leaders leave. Don't do it while the president is surrounded by allies from the international stage. And this is just a reality here in Washington. It's a flyout day. They're going home. They've got recess now for a week and a half. And maybe that is what some of these members are waiting for to get home. Maybe they hear from their constituents. They don't get chased around in the halls of Congress by people asking what they think.

They were also home last week during the holiday week. And so many of them have said they talked to their constituents. Those that have spoken out.

That was pre George Stefanopoulos, pre President Biden coming out and being his definitive, why he didn't do that earlier is, I think, an open question.

Look, and I go to something that I still can't believe even I understand this week has been busy for three days with NATO. But, you know, his political, he's some political life support here. He's not talked to these members directly. He's not had these phone calls. He's had a few phone calls. Correct. But, you know, he should have showed up at that Senate meeting today. You want to put them in a tougher spot. You really want to jam them. You really want to make it so that it's much harder to call this out because, look, I do think the window is narrowing right there is, you know, for what to sort of get out and for Biden to get out and give the Democrats a fighting chance. Okay. I think if he refuses to get out, there's going to be a point of it's going to be tough to stop him. And I'm not saying, you know, the fact is, you know, the convention may not be easy for him as this goes forward, but let's step back. The last 24 hours, it feels like every elected Democrat I've talked to or those close to elected Democrats, they're looking for a reason to leave the Biden ship, to jump ship.

They're not looking for reasons to stay. That's why this press conference, I think, is, it's just sort of a green light to go. I don't know if there's anything he can do today to stop the hemorrhaging.

A state of the union style, energetic.

Coming out forcefully, honestly, some sort of random. I mean, it would, I don't think we can come up with the scenario. I'll just be honest. I think it has, it would have to be that sort of, that commanding, that sort of spontaneous something, you know, where it's a he, he needs some massive leadership moment, I think, to sort of change the perception and trajectory of where things are right now. I think just a meh performance today doesn't stop this. You know, if there's a leak in the dam. And as Ryan, I know we're all running out of metaphors, right. You know, the dam's gonna, it just feels like it's about to burst. And certainly I can tell you this, there's many members of the Biden campaign at this point, and I don't mean the top levels. I'm talking to sort of the senior to middle management at this point. They don't know how they survived the.

Weekend, which is a pretty stark political reality for them considering talking about the president of the United States of America. Right. Runner for reelection. Here. Let me, we've talked about this on the show, Chuck and Ryan and Aaron, the idea that there is a pretty big spectrum, right, between drop out now, stay in forever. There's like a pretty big gray area there. And to absolutely beat to death this damn metaphor. Right? Like, if it's not a full on bursting, it is leaks. It is. It is the specter of, you're seeing the water on the floor. Let me play a little bit. And Ryan, you well know this, that of some of the things that you and your team have gathered from Democrats who are speaking out today.

Listen, I think the president's team has to present a path based on facts and data. Well, I wrote about it.

I mean, it's everything that I think.

Is in my statement. Who knows when the right time is.

What you are not hearing, Ryan, is a perhaps what you're not hearing, except perhaps, save for John Fetterman, the senator from Pennsylvania, who rather memorably this week said the Democrats either got to get on board or grow a pair. You are not hearing people go, and Joe Biden's our guy.

We support him.

We're behind him 100%. And that's important to note here.

Yeah. You know, Halle, I think it's really important to know. Right. I mean, we sometimes get lost in the moment and we forget about the context of the earth shattering way that these Democrats are responding to the standard bearer of the party in any way.

Can I just stop you there, though, because it does, I think, to a lot of lay people, people who don't cover this, you know, building for a living, it doesn't sound that earth shattering because it is somewhat couched in, like, the Washington, you know, respectful nuance of somebody talking about a member of their own party. It's not like people are coming out and saying, screw that guy. Just, you know, to be, I mean.

Put it into the context of when Barack Obama and Mitt Romney were running in the 2012 election and Barack Obama had a very rough debate, if even one member of the House of Representatives, even one Democrat, had come out and said that he should not run anymore because of that bad debate, the news cycle would have erupted. He would have put a huge just stain on his campaign that would have been very difficult to overcome. We're now more than a dozen members of Congress that have said that about President Biden, and I think even more than the people that have come right out and said that he should step down. One member even suggesting, a democratic member suggesting a few minutes ago that he should resign completely. The idea that you can't even get rank and file Democrats to enthusiastically support the nominee with a basic question, this kind of dithering, like, well, you know, we'll have to see what happens. You know, he's got to make a decision that Nancy Pelosi saying that that is earth shattering. That is something that I don't think that the campaign has completely comprehended will be difficult to overcome if President Biden is to stay in this race.

I guarantee you that Chris La Sovieta, Susie Wiles, and the members of the Trump campaign are taking ahold of every single clip of these democratic members who are raising questions about Biden's ability to continue and putting it into a big mashup and just creating a whole group of ads that are going to run from now until November. If President Biden stays in the race, it's almost death by a thousand cuts for another bad metaphor by his own party. And it does seem as though it's almost past the point of no return. Which is why, you know, this press conference tonight's going to be important, but I don't know if it's going to be enough to recover from the damage that they've inflicted upon themselves over the past two weeks.

Look, I will say this. I think that Joe Biden cannot win this campaign. That doesn't mean he doesn't win the election if he somehow stayed on the ballot. There's a difference. What I mean by that is you can win a campaign and lose an election. You can lose a campaign and win an election, meaning you may be able to dictate everything that a campaign is about, but there's just not enough voters that support what you're for, even if you've dominated things. So my point is there's no way Biden can turn this campaign around, but there's clearly an anti, there's a majority of folks that don't want Trump in the White House. And so theoretically, this is what's comforting the Biden, those left that are trying to defend Biden is that, look, the numbers haven't moved that much. That's right. I was just saying more and more, it is in theory, winnable. The problem goes to what Ryan said. This is a death spiral that the campaign is in. And there's a great Haley barbarism from the nineties that he used to say, good gets better, bad gets worse. And so right now it's a bad moment, but bad moments become worse for what he just said.

You take everything that's been said this week by all of these swing state senators and members of Congress, and then suddenly they're used in the fall. Imagine being on a debate stage and you're Sherrod Brown and you've had some questions about, do you think President Biden can serve a full four years? Right. They're all sitting there thinking about that debate question and having to answer that question on the campaign trail. So then you're going to have a whole bunch of people sort of separating themselves from Biden. Right. You already have it publicly. Tammy Baldwin wouldn't go to an event. She'd somehow, oh, sorry, I had a scheduling, they're all going to have scheduling problems if Biden is showing up in swing states. And what that does is so you, you know, it's just a, it just makes it where they can't run as a ticket. And in these battleground states, I mean, and that to me has been the biggest tell of all this. Not a single person. Bob Casey, finally today seemed to be somewhat supportive. It's the only person that's sharing of the ballot with Biden in a remotely competitive race that has been said anything that positive.

Anybody who has a competitive race is in a swing district or a swing state right now, has all raised questions about Biden's ability to do this campaign or even finish his term.

But you know as well as I do that the campaign's rejoinder to that, based on conversations I've had with sources, there is a couple of things, is, number one, as you point out, they don't think the polls have moved that much significantly. They don't think that this is something that is going to have a long lasting impact. And number two, I think an argument, the case that they're trying to make is that the news media, Democrats, et cetera, are taking their eye off the ball as it relates to former President Trump. And I have heard from at least one source saying we got to get unified before the republican convention next week to be able to spotlight Donald Trump and what they see as the extremist.

Republicans, Callie, they're the ones that created this situation. They demanded the debate because they wanted to reset their campaign. They did this. They said, no, no, no, watch me. Right? He asked for the early debate. He asked for this. So this idea, this fantasy that, number one, somehow the media's supposed to do the campaigning for him. If he can't push back on Trumpism, who's going to do it for the democratic party? This is not the media's job. This is his job. He had one job and he couldn't do it.

Ryan yeah.

And to Chuck's point, not only is it not our job, but it is the Democrats that are telling us that it's a problem. We are just reporting what they're saying. They could easily put all of this to rest. They could have a press conference with Chuck Schumer, Nancy Pelosi, and Hakeem Jeffries and tell us this is over. Joe Biden is our candidate. We believe in him and we're moving on. And they have refused to do this. The reason that we have this perception is because what they are telling us.

Aaron, I'm going to give final thoughts to you. Apologies if I had to run to a different hit. I'm glad you're still with us. Wrap it up. Take us home. As we lean now into the last hour or so before this news conference begins.

Yeah. I think the final thought from, from the Biden campaign would be that they, they have leaned into this idea that they can continue to put President Biden in front of voters. And what they have to say is really what is ultimately going to matter. The president, in that interview he did on MSNBC earlier this week seemed to indicate that he was less worried about what the folks inside the Beltway have to say and less worried potentially about what big donors have to say in this moment and more worried about getting out, making those contacts with voters. And ultimately they are going to be the ones who decide. November is the perspective that the president has articulated and what the campaign seems to be leaning into. They are still full steam ahead with the campaign and showing no signs, at least at this point, that they intend to shift that in any way.

Listen, guys, the good news is we get maybe an hour, as much as that next hour to talk about all of it again, Ryan, Chuck, Aaron, thank you all very much. Lots to discuss here on a big and busy developing news day. Appreciate it. It is not just Washington where we're seeing a lot of headlines. When I turn to our other top story now coming out of the extreme weather sweeping a lot of the country right now, a dangerous and devastating situation for so many. Look at what's happening right now in Vermont, rescues, evacuations. This is a picture overnight from deadly flooding from the remnants of that hurricane that slammed into the US earlier this week. Apparently the flooding knocked out power, flooded streets. It comes a year to the day that the state was hit with massive flooding in 2023. And then look what's happening down south in Houston. It's super hot, potentially record breaking temperatures. And a lot of people, thousands of them, still do not have power. That means no ac. They're on clean water boil water notices essentially, in that state. So they're in an absolutely difficult situation here with water treatment plant plants shut down because, again, no electricity.

You've got the fourth day in a row of people lining up for hours to try to get gas. You saw some people looking for ice heading to these cooling centers. And the concern now is these especially vulnerable patients that are crowded into the city's hospitals. Bill, Karen's is on top of all of this, and it is coast to coast. Let's start with Vermont, because now exactly one year after that headline making flooding in 2023, they are dealing with something very similar again.

Yeah, they can't believe it. I mean, it's not historically as bad as what just happened, but stuff that was just repaired just got destroyed again. And if you've driven through Vermont, all of the roads follow the rivers north, pretty much north to south through Vermont. So this is Vermont here. This is Rutland and this is Burlington. It was mostly the northern half of the state that got hit the hardest. This is the rainfall estimates, by the way. The yellow shows one inch orange is three inches in a couple spots. Got up to five inches of rain. Tropical rain in mountainous area is bad news. It doesn't matter where in the country it happens. And this just happened to be barrel going through. And northern portions of New Hampshire went through and got hit pretty hard too. Four different separate towns had evacuation orders last night, including St. Johnsbury, that's located over here. They had about three to three and a half inches of rain. And this is Burlington and heading out. The main interstate is Interstate 89. Thankfully that is still functioning. But a lot of the smaller highways, Halle, that go north to south, those are the ones that are still closed at this hour.

And no other heavy rain is coming. The rivers are going down, the damage is done. But enough send up. Vermont's took it on the chin again.

Well, Texas is taking it on the chin too. With these Houstonians dealing with a double whammy here. Not just crazy, crazy hot temperatures, but.

Also no power, that's always an issue. It doesn't matter if it's Louisiana, it's Florida, or where it is. Like whenever you get these hurricanes. Typically, typically it's at the end of summer, but this is like the beginning or middle of summer. So it's like there's definitely no relief coming. Now I will show you one thing. The heat index right now is in 84 in Houston. I guarantee there were people running outside because it started raining. It was really hot. It was over 100 in the heat index and that dropped because of the rain. But over the weekend it actually tend to get hotter. Should be 92 on Saturday, 94 by the time we get to Sunday. That's just the temperature. And here's the Houston area. There's a rain shower right overhead. So this is probably the coolest the temperatures have felt in Houston since the hurricane hit. So that's a little piece of good news. And hallie, we're also still tracking, of course, our epic heat wave. It has been a break day in the east, but the west is just exceptionally hot. Salt Lake City has hit 104. That's tied their record high. Even grand junction.

Anyone ever been to the western beautiful portions of Colorado? It's 100 degrees there. Vegas is 115 again. I think that's like six or seven days in a row. Over 115. So yes. And that heat is coming to the east coast again. I know you missed it, but it'll be back.

Oh, yeah. Desperately. Thank you, Bill, bearer of good news, as always. Appreciate it. Listen, we've also got some big news on the economy tonight. And guess what? It is not completely gloom and doom. That's because a new report shows inflation dropping the most that it has since you were cocooning in your pandemic pod back in 2020. And now it's all eyes on the Fed. Will they cut interest rates? That's something that could affect everything from mortgages to car loans to credit card payments. Inflation in June saw a 3% increase year over year, down from what we saw in May. And it's showing up in places where it counts, airfare, gas, used cars, all cheaper than they were a year ago. NBC's Christine Romans is all over this. Ok, so the question now that this report is out is like, ok, Jay Powell balls in your court Fed chair, what are you going to do about it? It's so interesting. And he has been sort of signaling, right, that they're getting to a point where these numbers are starting to come in the way they'd like to see them and they don't want to keep interest rates too high for too long because that could really hurt the job market and hurt the overall economy.

Right. So you're coming into that sweet spot, I think here the markets, Hallie, are projecting that there will be 25 basis point rate cut in September and maybe another one later this year. So sooner rather than later, I think, is what everybody's feeling about the interest rate, the interest rate situation, assuming these numbers stay like this. Yeah. When you talk about where the economy is and not to bring everything back to where I live in Washington and the people I cover, but there is definitely a political neck. We know that the economy and inflation are the biggest issue along with immigration that voters say matter to them right now. And we've talked about this, Christine, with, even with the numbers showing in many ways positive improvement, only about, you know, just about half of people say the economy is doing well. About 48% say it's poor. Help us understand some of the context behind this and where this goes between now and the 117 days until election day. Not that we're counting. I am actually not counting, but I know that you are. No, look, I mean, I think it's a really important point to make.

And I was speaking with senior administration official just a few minutes ago actually, and I said, when will the vibe session give way to what we're seeing in these numbers? These are good numbers. You know, this Wall street, this White House person I was talking to called it a milestone number. And now a year of wages rising faster than inflation, he told me, is essentially at some point you're, that will catch up with people and you'll set a new baseline and people start to feel better. But you're right, there's only 100 1717 days left. And I think it's interesting that this is the kind of story that in normal times for another administration might be just heralded. But there's a lot going on where you live, Hallie Jackson, that makes this not the top story of the day, quite frankly. Christine Roman, still super interesting. And he'll be joining us as well later on next hour. Christine, thank you so much. Tonight. First responders rushing to Rouen, France, after you see it here, look at that. A fire in the spire of a thousand year old medieval cathedral there. It happened while parts of the building were being renovated.

And this was a concern. It felt reminiscent to a lot of people of what we saw in Paris a few years ago. And parts of Notre Dame went up in flames. Fortunately, in this instance, Cruz managed to put out the fire very fast, and the cathedral is expected to reopen as soon as tomorrow. A lot more to get to coming up here on the show, including a string of deadly shootings in North Carolina, apparently all connected. What we're learning about the teenage suspects tonight and Copa America chaos, why players got off the field. Look at that. To fight fans. The family of a black man whose death at the hands of hotel security guards is being compared to George Floyd is calling for justice tonight. The Reverend Al Sharpton delivering a passionate eulogy at the funeral of Devontae Mitchell.

Listen, a lot going on in the country, but nothing more important than what they did to Devante. People ask me, why do I get involved? Because the only difference between Devontae and any of us is they didn't grab us yet.

Mitchell died last month after four security guards pinned him face down as he was being escorted out of a hotel in Milwaukee. His family says he may have been suffering a mental health episode when this happened. Milwaukee's police department said it's investigating, but they haven't followed any charges so far. I want to bring in Adrienne Bratis, who is live for us in Milwaukee. She's following all of it. Bring us up to speed on the investigation. Is it a criminal investigation? Is this right now a preliminary inquiry? Where do things stand?

Well, the district attorney here, Hallie, is investigating this case as a homicide. And as you mentioned, no charges have been filed, even though this happened last month on June 30. And today that 43 year old husband and father was laid to rest. His funeral happened inside of this church behind me, Reverend Al Sharpton delivering the eulogy. Inside, more than 200 people attending, family, friends and activists. We spoke with some who were here. One thing that keeps coming up in our conversations, people are comparing what happened with 43 year old Mitchell to the killing of George Floyd. But let's be clear. Floyd was killed by police. And this case, the 43 year old died after he was pinned down by hotel security. At least that's what police officers are telling us. Here's more of my conversation with a friend of the family. But these weren't police officers. These were regular security guards. So this is an employee. Right. So I feel like what I'm feeling the highest should be held responsible in some form for this action. So this is nothing, just a random act. This is, this is a homicide. And it could be or take up to six weeks before we have any additional answers.

An autopsy report is being done.

Hallie, also worth noting here that Milwaukee, of course, is going to be the site of the RNC in just a few days from now. Obviously, given you have described some of the similarities to the, what happened with George Floyd, are there any preparations for protests? We know that demonstrations were already very likely for the RNC.

Yeah. Milwaukee is going to be in the political spotlight. And here we are. This is happening as the city is already bracing for thousands of people to be here. But we took that question to the chief of police in Milwaukee, and he says that this will be on a case by case basis in terms of determining if they need to do anything. Additionally, and Rev. Al Sharpton delivered the eulogy and he mentioned, he referenced the RNC happening here. And I do want to point out some things that he said. He mentioned there's a group of people coming to make America great again. That is their message. But he left. Members of the congregation who attended this funeral today with the question are saying, and I'm paraphrasing here, it's not great in 2024 if you think you can put your knees on a man's neck and choke his life out. So a lot of people are asking questions and they want to know what led to all of this. It's still unclear.

Adrian brought us. Thank you very much. Let's get you over to the five things our team thinks you should know about tonight. Number one, the israeli military says it's operating in central and southern Gaza, including Rafa, a city Israel previously said was a safe zone. This comes as the IDF is dropping leaflets telling Palestinians to evacuate Gaza city and head south. We do not know how many people have left the area. Gaza's ministry of interior and national security run my Hamas is telling people not to follow the evacuation orders. Number two, today Shelley Duvall, the star of the Shining, died at her home in Texas. She was 75 years old. Her partner says she was bedridden for the last few months because of complications from diabetes and died in her sleep. Number three, a big brawl between players and fans at the Copa America semifinal after Uruguay lost to Colombia. Look at this. The fan. Okay, so here's what happened. The fans of both teams start fighting each other. They're throwing drinks. Then he had some players from the uruguayan side walk into the stands. They're punching Columbia fans. The president of the country soccer association says the players were trying to protect their families.

Number four, customs officers at the Hong Kong China border caught a smuggler with more than 100 live snakes in his pants. I guess they were in bags. You see the bags there? So he stuffed them into the bag, sealed them up, and then put those bags into his pockets. A lot of these snakes are not native to China. TBD on what his punishment may be. But they do say, officials, that anybody who bring in, brings in live animals will be held legally responsible. Woof. Number five, Pfizer says it's going to move forward with a once daily obesity pill development. After some early studies showed what they described as encouraging results. The company says it'll do more trials. They think they should have some results early next year. Last year, Pfizer scrapped the twice daily version of the same pill because of some bad side effects. We're learning tonight. Police have arrested two teenagers in North Carolina in connection to a series of deadly shootings that happened around Charlotte this week. Police say the suspects were driving around the city, appearing to shoot off bullets randomly at, like other drivers, bicyclists into homes. One person was killed.

At least two others were hurt. Officials today say it could have been so much worse. They described already horrific, obviously. They described making that first arrest after noticing a suspicious car near one of the scenes early this morning.

And there was one driver in the vehicle, a 16 year old juvenile male. Also located in the vehicle was a firearm. We have reason to believe that the 16 year old juvenile intended on continuing his violent crime spree.

Emily Ikeda is joining us now. So, Emily, what else are police saying about these arrests, the charges these teens are now facing, and the impact, of course, on the community after this deadly shooting?

Hey there, Hallie. Well, what's not clear at this point is what led investigators to arresting and identifying these two teenagers as their suspects. But we know that the 16 year old was arrested earlier today, and upon arrest, they found a stolen firearm with within his car. He, along with an 18 year old identified as Carlos Roberto Diaz, are now facing first degree murder. The 18 year old also facing other charges, a whole list of them, like attempted murder and shooting into vehicle, just to name a few. It comes two days after they're accused of shooting, as you mentioned, randomly at different people, bicyclists, drivers, people in their homes, people on the block, according to police. And police really underscoring today just how unusual of a situation this is. This isn't where it's two, it's beef between two gangs. This is completely random, they say. And that's what really left so the community and so many people there on edge throughout the manhunt, they're also revealing that they are convinced that the 16 year old suspect would have continued to carry out violence had he not been arrested. This rampage, I should note, comes amid an alarming rise in juvenile crime within Charlotte.

The Charlotte Police Department putting out these stats. Auto thefts with offenders under 18 surging 120% in 2023. Over 2022 shootings up 33%. Hallie, they do not believe anyone else was involved in this shooting spree.

Emily. Ikeda, thank you very much. When we come back, new video of a plane just barely avoiding crashing into a mountain in Colorado. We're going to show it to you. We're going to tell you what went wrong in just a sec. Right now, a federal judge is getting a jury ready to decide the fate of a sitting uS senator, with deliberations set to begin tomorrow in the trial of Bob Menendez. That federal bribery case. This is after prosecutors argued throughout this nine week trial that the senator traded political favors for all kinds of fancy gifts, like those gold bars, like that Mercedes. And he's facing some serious charges, from bribery to wire fraud to illegally working as a foreign agent for Egypt. Remember, investigators raided the senator's house. They found a lot of cash, the aforementioned gold. You can see some of the money here, which prosecutors say this is evidence, in their view, that Menendez took bribes. Remember, this is the second Menendez bribery trial to go to a jury. The first ended in a mistrial back in 2017. Menendez has denied all wrongdoing. Obviously, his defense says he is innocent. NBC's Tom Winter is outside that courthouse in New York.

And boy, here we are months after you and I first talked about the opening statements beginning and the jury selection for this high profile trial, that and maybe any other news cycle would be a lot higher in the rundown than it is right now. Now, talk us through the dynamics here, because the jury has spent 32 days in court. They've heard from nearly 40 witnesses. They're now going to have to weigh 18 different complicated charges against the senator. How tough is the job that they're being asked to do?

Right. On one hand, Hallie, it's easy. On the other hand, it's a little bit of a challenge. So one of the things that's important to remember here, it's not just Senator Robert Menendez that is facing trial, that is facing these charges. It's two New Jersey businessmen who are alleged to be part of these bribery schemes. They're also on trial here. And when we talk about length of trial, think not only are federal prosecutors trying to prove the charges against Menendez, but also those two individuals, and also you're getting defense from those two other individuals, including on cross examination and that type of thing. So that's been a little bit of the reason why we've seen this trial take a long time on top of all the witnesses that you laid out. But I think when the jurors actually get these instructions and get the verdict sheet, because these individuals are charged and are part of this alleged bribery scheme, I think you're going to see jurors basically say, look, did they all take part in it? Did they all meet the elements of the crime? And so I think in that, from that standpoint, it might be actually fairly simple for them.

A lot of the government's case centered around the alleged aggressive push by the Egyptians to try to curry favor inside the us government, essentially espionage. But throughout all of this, the amount of military aid we give that country has stayed the same, about a billion dollars. Help us understand the context there. And the defense on the part of Senator Menendez.

Right. And I think that's something that, you know, obviously we've paid attention to. The gold bars, the cash. You just saw them for obvious reasons, given the fact that a senior United States senator could be involved in a bribery scheme. That got the attention. But the Egypt component here is huge. It's something that federal prosecutors spent time on today in their rebuttal, reminding jurors that Senator Robert Menendez reached out to the State Department. The State Department expressed concern about his questions as to how many diplomats were at the egyptian embassy in Egypt and that he passed that information through Nadine Menendez that would ostensibly go back to the egyptian government important information for their intelligence services. So obviously, big concern for the United States and what the Egyptians are up to. But put in the broader context of what's going on in Israel and what's going on in Gaza and the US's need for the Egyptians to remain involved and engaged in the diplomatic process, potentially in the relief process and the counterterrorism process, it's really difficult. So it's not surprising that that relationship changed, has not changed.

Yeah. Tom Winner, thank you very much. On verdict Watch, I guess starting tomorrow, then officially. Tom, thanks. NBC News covers hundreds of stories every day. And because it can be tough to read or watch or listen to them, all our bureau teams have done it for you. This is what they tell us is going down in their regions. At a segment we call the local out of our western bureau. Look at this close call for a plane that barely avoided crashing into the mountain in Colorado. Oof. There it is again. That small plane starts to kind of nose dive but then recovers. The FAA says it's stalled. They're now investigating. We don't know how many people were on board. Fortunately, it did land safely at its destination out of our midwest bureau, Minneapolis police removing a. Yep, yep, that was a, that's a boa in the backseat of one of the rideshare cars. Officials say they don't know where the boa came from. They were not able to track down its owner, but the snake was taking animal control. Unfortunately, nobody was hurt. Also out of our western bureau is this spray paint or something else.

Geologists in Hawaii are trying to figure out what the latest volcanic eruption there left behind. Kilauea erupted last month, leaving a crack in a bed of rock. And these bright deposits of crystals, geologists say these yellow lines are actually made of sulfur. Want to take you now over to President Biden. I Biden speaking at the NATO summit here in Washington after he introduced the ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, as Putin leaders.

And your societies, your people, of course, and thanks to all partners for the patriots and other air defense systems, provision of f assistance so that our people and our country could withstand russian attacks on our energy sector, as well as training, cybersecurity, intelligence cooperation and the development of the defense industry. This Ukraine compact we are forming takes our relations to a new level, a significant achievement for Ukraine and all of us. Slava, Ukraine.

So you have been taking a live look now at President Biden alongside you see them walking off, off stage there. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky at the NATO summit here in Washington, DC. Remember, this is that summit that President Biden has been hosting in this critical moment on the world stage two weeks to the day after that debate performance widely panned as disastrous, that has sent his campaign into crisis mode. Want to be very clear here, that was obviously not the press conference you were seeing. There is a number of meetings that happened at these NATO confabs, essentially. But we do expect that press conference to happen at some point later on tonight. Remember, this is the solo news conference that the president will hold. Undoubtedly, he will be asked by reporters about those calls from now, more than a dozen sitting democratic members of Congress, members in his own party to go ahead and withdraw off the presidential ticket, to come off the 2024 ticket, a critical moment for him. We talked about it earlier in the show. People say that it is high stakes. It is absolutely high stakes, in part because there is a question of whether more democrats down the road in the days to come, perhaps tomorrow or this weekend, could now come out and add their names to the chorus of those.

Again, about 1213 members at this point, at least as a 548 eastern time, who say they do not want to see the president on the ticket, concerned that, in fact, if he stays on, it is former President Trump who will win this election come November. President Biden himself has been insistent is in this race to win it that he is not going anywhere. I want to bring in our political editor, Chuck Todd, who is joining us here now. And, Chuck, looking for the quotes there from President Biden ahead of this moment with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. I think it just goes to show you that every moment on the world stage here at NATO is going to be very highly scrutinized.

Look, we've all had moments. You're focused on a subject and you say somebody else's name that's involved in the same conversation. But this is the, but this is what Biden is under right now. Right, which is an intense microscope. And so, you know, these are, nothing is helpful to him now. But again, it goes back to what we discussed earlier. I don't know what Biden could do to stop this hemorrhaging. And that's ultimately and obviously little, look, you know, I hate to say every little flub matters, but this is unfortunate, the situation he's in right now, because even though I think this is not, you shouldn't, this shouldn't be the thing that blows everything up. But if you're already looking for a reason to get off the boat, and that's the problem. Biden.

And to be clear for our audience of what happened, it was when President Biden went to introduce the president of Ukraine, Vladimir Zelensky. He said, ladies and gentlemen, President Putin. He said, President Putin. He said he's going to beat President Putin. President ZelenskY so just so people know what they're saying.

And again, to me, it's sort of like he had no other issues. This is not a big deal.

Right, right.

Had the debate gone, fine, we don't even mention it. We don't even mention it. The problem is this is the type of scrutiny he's under. And it's not just from us. He's under the scrutiny from democrats. He's under the scrutiny from voters.

Chuck Todd, any last thoughts now as we enter this last hour before the news conference, chatting with your friend and colleague Savannah Guthrie this morning on the Today show. And she asked me a question. She said, are we going to hear 15 versions of the same question here at this news conference?

Well, that's the question. You know, it's interesting. This is an angry press corpse. We've been, you know, not too navel gazing. No, no, no. But White House press scores, you know, when they feel as if this has been a really frustrating White House to cover. Okay. You know, you and I both covered, we covered frustrating, no, but they're frustrating for different reasons. Weirdly, with your, with the White House, you covered with Trump, you had access. Access wasn't an issue, so you would be upset about other stuff. But access was, wasn't a problem with Obama. It was a very controlled White House. There'd be frustrating ways. But again, it was also, you felt like you could, you know, this White House has been very anti press, been very hard on the White House press corps, not given them much at all. And just constantly be, they hate the media. Right? They have the same attitude about the press that most conservatives have about the press, the way this White House functions. And this is why this is going to be an extraordinarily unfriendly press conference that I will, that I won't be surprised. We saw a preview of it a couple days ago with Corinne Jean Pierre when they just unloaded on her.

This is sort of like, you know, they feel that they've been lied to or they feel that they've been maybe gaslit instead of lied, you know, because they've all seen how little action they get, how little interaction. They haven't had an opportunity to do these things. And so, and now all of a sudden, all their worst fears were confirmed. This is open season.

Chuck Todd, I'm going to ask you to stay close. Thank you. We're going to sneak in a quick break. We'll be right back on the other side with more as we get ready to watch that news conference live right here on NBC News now. We'll be right back. We are coming on the air now with breaking news here on NBC News now. I'm Hallie Jackson, and we are now just minutes away from that high profile, highly watched presidential news conference from President Biden. He is set to take the stage at the NATO summit here in Washington and answer questions from reporters. Two weeks to the day after that debate performance widely panned as disastrous and one that has sent his campaign into a sort of tailspin here with now more than a dozen elected members of Congress calling on President Biden to withdraw from the ticket, he insists he will not. He has been defiant and dug in. The question is, has that been enough to try to stem the tide of Democrats who think it is simply not enough? The walls appear to be closing in on the president. That is why there is such scrutiny on his every move, on his every word, on all of the meetings that he's held at NATO, including one just moments ago with the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

We want to play the beginning of that for you now.

Determination. Ladies and gentlemen, President Putin. President Putin, you can beat President Putin.

Audio dropping out there, of course, where President Biden then introduces him as President Zelensky. We've got team coverage tonight covering all of it, including the view from Capitol Hill. But I want to start with Aaron Gilchrist, who's posted up now for us outside the White House. And, Aaron, help us, help us understand the scope and the stakes of what is about to go down tonight. Give us a sense of how long we expect this news conference to go and what you're hearing from your sources in the campaign and at the White House.

So our understanding is that the president is going into this news conference expecting to take at least several questions. We don't have a real estimate on how long he might be speaking. We know that the time of that news conference has moved a couple of times. It was originally scheduled for 530. The White House had indicated that it was moving to 630. We know also that the day now is running pretty far behind. The event that we just saw the president speak at briefly there was scheduled for 415. It just happened. I think it was after 530 when it started and was very brief. So it likely means that the 630 start time for the news conference may also have to slide a little bit in order to accommodate some of the movements that need to happen there at the Washington Convention Center. I do think it's worth noting that in the comment that you just played, we heard the president speak for a few minutes about the relationship between the United States and Ukraine, the relationship between NATO and Ukraine, referencing President Putin several times in his comments, obviously referencing the need to stand up to President Putin.

And in the clip that you just said the president was indicating, I think the quote was something along the lines of talking about the president of Ukraine who has as much courage and has, and determination. Ladies and gentlemen, President Putin is what the president said. And then you saw him sort of drift away from the camera and then almost immediately bounce right back realizing that he said President Putin, saying he's going to beat President Putin, and then introducing President Zelensky, who sort of joked himself and said, I'm better than him. And President Biden said, you are better. And then President Zelensky spoke for a couple of there as well. Hallie.

Aaron, I want to have you stand by for just 1 second there as you're outside the White House for us. When I bring back in now our political editor Chuck Todd for more. And Chuck, you know, this, there is this moment, there will be other moments that will be closely watched at this news conference that is set to begin. As Aaron notes, if things are running a little behind schedule, maybe this thing isn't starting at 630 Eastern as planned. We will see.

We'll change our dinner plans.

Did we have dinner planned?

We don't now.

Exactly. And to the point, you know, there are Democrats who are, who have suggested that they want to get through this NATO summit. I mean, Nancy Pelosi among them, the former House speaker who has all but said explicitly to members, and she said it on morning Joe just yesterday on MSNBC. Hold your powder, keep your powder dry until after the world leader, after the world leaders leave.

Yeah. Look, you know, it's funny just watching that moment. It's a small moment. My goodness, George W. Bush had malapropisms all the time. You know, that would happen quite a bit. It goes back to the myth, the complete mismanagement of Biden in this white house and by this west wing, which is they fear his flubs and so they protect him more rather than, this.

Is the bubble wrap argument, rather than.

Let America get used to Grandpa Joe. And it is one of those things. In fact, I think one of the disconnects that's happening right now is you have an inner circle that's used to this. He's there with him all the time. And when you're with somebody all the time and some of their sort of weird thing, you just sort of, you figure it out, whatever it is. You're like, oh, I know what they're talking about. But when the public doesn't see it very often, it becomes very striking and very odd. And this was the mistake of doing what they've done. Had you gotten used to it? You know, it's like when you see, when I look, my kid had a growth spurt. So it's one of those recently, and some people hadn't seen him in like a year. And then, oh, my God, you're so tall. Right. And they're just sort of taken aback at how tall he is. I haven't noticed because he's with me every day. Right. You know, it's that incrementalism. And I just, you know, they, you know, there's so many ways that they've mismanaged this and Biden's mismanaged his own white house and why he's in this position, but not getting the comfort, letting the country be comfortable with who he actually is and getting him out there more and making mistakes and letting people realize.

Yeah, misspeaks a little bit. George W. Bush. Yeah, he misspeaks a little bit. And it never became as much of an issue for him. It might be a joke for a Jon Stewart or a Jay Leno at the time.

Yes.

I'm aging myself by telling you who.

The late night, who's Leno?

Exactly. Who the comics were back then. But that was sort of, you know, it becomes endearing if people get used to it. That would have, and that's, it is such a, this was, and look, maybe they didn't think he could do this, which of course, in itself is an indictment, but I don't think two years ago that was the case. I'm sorry. This is a, they're in this situation because of their bubble wrappedness of this president.

Let me bring in somebody who has had an inside look at that. Our colleague on MSNBC, Jen Psaki, who is joining us now, of course, the former press secretary for President Biden. And, Jen, thanks for being with us.

Thank you.

I think you've been listening to at least part of the conversation.

She's heard my rant before. Office.

A few offices away from each other. Yeah, exactly. But, Jen, we'd love your thoughts here on tonight, on the stakes on the moment here for somebody that you know?

Well, yeah, I mean, I was interested what Chuck was saying about how they haven't put him out there. And I'll just add kind of an additional detail, in my view, to that. Joe Biden's superpower is not press conferences. It is not even really interviews like the sit down, traditional television interviews. It doesn't mean he shouldn't do both. He should. Of course, his superpower as a politician over the course of the last few decades is his interactions with people. Right. It is him holding babies. It is him being with union workers. It is him being a retail politician. So what's happened here, and this is where I think I very much agree with what Chuck said, and he can disagree with me now, too. That's healthy, that's democracy, is that they've put themselves in a position where they're essentially going to do a primetime solo press conference.

That's right.

And people haven't seen him a lot. And if they'd seen him a lot, and I don't even necessarily mean like town halls across the country or whatever Owen is proposing, I mean, seeing him at campaign events, holding babies, being with union workers, shaking hands, you've got to do more than that. But that is something they could have done over the last week. So there would have been less pressure on this moment. And right now there's so much pressure on this moment, and people are going to look for any mistake, his level of energy, what his facial expressions are in a way, because there's been so much emphasis on it.

Can I ask you sort of the counter argument to that, Jen, which is something that Chuck and I talked about last hour, and I'll let you make the case that maybe it's actually, maybe it's somewhat baked in that perhaps some democrats are looking at this going, there's almost nothing that President Biden could do to make me change my mind.

There's no doubt the vibe on Capitol Hill and the Democrats I talked to, and Jen, I'm sure you've heard the same thing.

Yeah.

You get the sense they're looking for a reason to jump ship. They're not looking for a reason to stick with them. And that's a scary, that's got to be a scary moment. And I'd sit there and say, Jen, can you remember a moment like that? I mean, I can. Maybe Bob Torricelli being chased out. Maybe, you know, I can think of Senate camp candidates or senators who were forced into resignation or governors who were forced into resignation, where you could feel this moment. Look, I haven't we've not experienced it on this level in my adult lifetime.

No, I totally, completely agree. And I actually don't think that's the counter. I think that's entirely, well, I would hear it as very consistent. I mean, in the sense that this press conference is not about, I mean, maybe he gets himself a little bit more time if he knocks it out at the park and does a backflip and some push ups. I don't know. You know, and because there are, as Chuck said, there's a lot of people waiting in the wings, people who are waiting till post NATO, people who are waiting till maybe post this press conference. Do they come out? Do they feel like, okay, I'll give it a couple more days. That's a win for them right at this moment because running out the clock is part of the strategy at this point in time, but it is not about, wow, he crushed it. Now everybody's going to come back on board. It's, did he make a mistake that's going to open the floodgates further? And that's really, that's a very difficult place to be in to state the obvious if you're the president and the White House and the people working for him.

And Jen, when you say that. Right, okay, well, he crushed it. Now everyone's going to come on board. The campaign has been Uber consistent. That that is exactly what they want to see. And I'm sure you've talked to folks I have inside the campaign who say, well, wait a second, we're losing our focus stems have to come together to put the spotlight on former President Trump and what Democrats see as republican extremism. The issue with that, Jen, as Ryan Nobles well know, well knows who I think we're going to get to in a second here is that it is the calls coming from inside the House. It is Democrats who are raising the alarm here.

Right, right, exactly. And there's a discussion among Democrats, it's not just elites, it's not just donors, although certainly it's elites and donors, but it's also members of Congress, people hearing from their constituents. It's people out in the public. You know, it's a swath of the american people who are not, who are not certain and not confident that Joe Biden is the right person to defeat Donald Trump. So yes, the focus should be on Donald Trump for the Democratic Party, for the Biden Harris campaign. But that's why there, this whole discussion is happening to determine who the right person to face Donald Trump is. That's the point of it not because anybody hates Joe Biden. Actually, Joe Biden's pretty beloved by most Democrats, right? Or not, because people didn't think he had a good presidency in the party. People think he had a good presidency in the party. It's this existential feeling among Democrats that Donald Trump needs to be defeated. And it's a fear that Joe Biden is, is not up to the task to do that. But I do think, Halle, that time is, time is the friend. I mean, meaning if they get more time, then it might still be Joe Biden.

Right. It is not out of the realm of possible. And I think if you're part, and as I've been watching sort of the parsing of some of the statements of party leaders, one, they're waiting certainly to hear from people within their party. As we all know, we've talked to a lot of those people, but they also understand the reality that it could still be Joe Biden and they don't want to go out there and completely weaken him further. And I think that's part of their calculation, how they're doing statements.

You can see that we are joined now by our varsity team of reporting and analytical all stars here with Ryan Nobles on Capitol Hill, Monica Alba at the White House, Vaughn Hilliard. Brian Stelter is joining us as well. Brian, I'll go to you here, because jen raises the issue of time. Time, question mark, how much time does President Biden actually have? Because there, I think is a sense among some Democrats, Democrats, period, that they were going to give him through NATO, give him, you know, get past this moment, get the world leaders back home so that there was not this sort of airing of internal laundry on the international stage here. So the question mark is what happens tomorrow? What happens on the Sunday shows as you look ahead to the weekend before, of course, the RNC starts on Monday and Donald Trump sucks up a lot of the oxygen.

Yeah, I don't think that there's a specific answer to that question, Hallie, outside of the physical moment that he needs to be nominated as officially the nominee for the Democratic Party. And I think depending on which democrat you talk to, that timeline is either immediate and urgent or they still want to let this process play itself out. The overwhelming sense I get, though, when I talk to Democrats is that they just wish Joe Biden would come to this conclusion on his own. They don't want to have this difficult intervention, if you will, where he sits in the Oval Office with Barack Obama and James Clyburn and Nancy Pelosi and Hakeem Jeffries and Chuck Schumer. And they say to him, President Biden, you're a great man. You've had a good run, but it's time to step aside. They would prefer that he come to this conclusion on his own. The problem that I think we're seeing manifest itself right now is that he's not getting this subtle message. And there could be a million reasons why he's nothing. Maybe he's being isolated from the coverage, from what these members of Congress are saying by his staff.

Maybe he's hearing it but not actually reading between the lines. That's a real possibility. But there is truly a disconnect between the message that they're sending and the way that the White House and the campaign are responding to that message. I think the way Nancy Pelosi behaved this week is a good example of that. When she was asked repeatedly about what she thinks Biden should do and she said that he needs to make a decision. And our colleague Jonathan Lemire was like, well, he's made a decision. And, you know, that indicates more than anything that whatever message they're trying to send him, he's just not getting. So, you know, it seems as though with each passing moment, the frustration that many of these members of Congress have about trying to be subtle about this is quickly going to become a sledgehammer because they just do not believe that this is the path forward. And they need to be more emphatic about that. Now, there's a universe, and I think Chuck alluded to this, where they do all these things. They finally do come out. They do say publicly and emphatically that you can't do this job, Joe Biden.

And he says, well, I'm going to stay in anyway. And I think that's the nightmare scenario that so many of them are bracing for and why they're still trying to kind of talk around the edges as opposed to specifically taking on this issue head on.

Ryan Nobles on Capitol Hill. Ryan, I know I got to let you go. Come back when you can. Thank you very much. John Allen has joined us here on set. And John, you are part of the team behind some of our new, very attention getting NBC News reporting suggesting a real despondency among those close to President Biden about his future and about what's next.

Yeah, I mean, there's no question that the morale is low around Biden. When you talk to campaign officials, you talk to people in the Democratic Party proper. But Natasha Korecki and Carol Lee and I reported today that people who are involved, deeply involved in electing President Biden. Three of them said to us that they see no path for him forward, that they don't believe that he can win. One of them said he needs to drop out now. He can't recover from this. And I think, you know, it's interesting what Ryan just said. I think he really got into the minds of members of Congress, and I think a lot of the people around Biden in that they really don't want to be the ones to go out and make a call for him to leave because that is something that is divisive within the Democratic Party. And so it doesn't benefit most of, of these members to either be on the leave side or the stay side, which is why so many of them.

Are not on either side, publicly pretty.

Silent about it or leaving themselves wiggle room and then privately telling us they wish he would just leave because they're worried not only that he might lose, but that he could take down their House candidates, take down their Senate candidates, take down their gubernatorial candidates, their state legislative candidates, and they're going to be, they're not just looking at the polling that's coming in. They're not just looking at the donors who are saying they're not going to give any more money. Or the ones like George Clooney have come out in the paper, New York Times and said he needs to get out. They are also looking at what they see as not just a press conference tonight, but every single event from now until November that Joe Biden does, using Jen Psaki's bar that she set for him, is he going to be able to do backswitch?

How many push ups, perhaps today?

And so, you know, and they don't. And to Ryan's point, they don't want to pull out the rug from under him and find out that when he hits the ground that he just stays there and continues to be the candidate. So they're being very careful about all this. But Nancy Pelosi is providing cover to a lot of other Democrats by continuing to say Joe Biden has a decision in front of him instead of the decision behind him that he believes he has.

Look, that to me was Nancy Pelosi telling him, you don't have any more support, that you've got to go. She's trying to be as delicate as she possibly can because I think she does understand she might be the only one with influence on him on this. You would assume that Joe Biden would have influence on him, but it seems the family is pretty defiant on this. And so this is where you're at. But look, I'm not convinced his delegates stick with him. So this is why I think we're coming to an end quicker than people think.

Chuck, John, stand by. Because in anywhere from 20 minutes from now to TBD minutes from now, we expect to see that news conference beginning not far from where we're sitting at the NATO summit here in Washington. Monica Alba has been among the tips of the spear, reporting out all of it from the point of view of the Biden campaign. And, Monica, just to bring viewers up to speed, again, this is a summit that's been happening for several days now. President Biden is hosting it. That's why it is here on us soil. And in this moment that we saw not too long ago within, I would say, the last hour, he went to go introduce the ukrainian president, Zelensky, and stumbled a bit. I'm just going to play it for folks so they can hear it.

Now. I want to hand it over to the president of Ukraine, who has as much courage as he has determination. Ladies and gentlemen, President Putin. President Putin. He's going to beat President Putin. President Zelensky, I'm so focused on beating Putin, we got to worry about it. Anyway, mister President, I'm better. You are a hell of a lot better. Thank you so much.

So Vladimir Zelensky, throwing him a bit of a lifeline there, saying, hey, I'm better than Vladimir Putin. And Monica, in our conversation with Chuck Todd about 20 minutes ago or so, Chuck made the point that perhaps, you know, in any other setting, if that debate two weeks ago hadn't happened, this would go unmentioned. This is just one of those things. You misstate a name, etcetera. Obviously, there's a lot of scrutiny on every single thing, every single word that President Biden says right now from fellow.

Democrats, it would go on the list of, oh, that's a Joe Biden gaffe. We've seen him do a bunch of those before. And really for a long time, that's what he was known for. That's what people did come to really recognize. And sometimes his verbal stumbles. So you're right, it takes on a whole different meaning and significance now. But I think something that's really key here, and you guys have been touching on this, is that the pressure valve is turned up to such an intensity level because the president hasn't taken some really difficult questions on some of these issues, that there is this level of scrutiny that the White House has really brought upon themselves. And if you just look back to the last couple of days, Hallie. There were so many questions that the White House stumbled on when it comes to the president's own health, when it comes to his neurological exams that were part of his physical. There were so many things that happened just in the last 24 hours or so that really the president is going to have to potentially answer for in this news conference that everything has been building to this in such a really, again, intense manner that I think the expectations that are being put on this to the point of what Ryan was saying earlier, it almost doesn't really matter what he comes out and what he says here because many people, many democrats have already made up their minds about where they stand on this.

So the fact that now it is being scrutinized word by word, expression by expression, his body language, all of it, it just really tells you the immense pressure that he is coming under. But I have to also tell you that people really know Joe Biden. For somebody who appreciates being underestimated, who likes to say things like, you guys have counted me out before, you're doing it again. And I am told by people close to him that that is where he finds himself today. That is truly what he believes he is thinking, that it is possible to weather this storm. So you're right about talking about these different kinds of aides and allies and advisors who could maybe have these difficult conversations, but they're not having those conversations with him at this moment. As best we can tell, those are happening outside. And then the question is, at what point do they become completely inner circle conversations, whether it's with the immediate family members or some of his closest, most dedicated, most loyal advisors? Do they start talking about a different path forward than the one he has publicly committed to? We're going to be watching for all of that and any signs of that and how he answers some of the questions related to that tonight.

Monica Alba, lots to follow as we head into the evening. Mon, thank you. Brian Stelter, special correspondent for Vanity Fair and a longtime media watcher, want to bring you in here because, Brian, you know, so much of this, too, is about what the american audience sees, right? As much as President Biden will undoubtedly be delivering a message to our allies around the world and to our adversaries around the world, he is also delivering a message to the domestic audience here at home, some of whom, maybe 50 million of whom watched that debate performance. Right, a couple of weeks ago, two weeks ago tonight, now you have this moment. It got pushed, the time slid. That's what happens when you have all these world leaders having meetings. Things run late. But here we are pushing into the evening, even after the president acknowledged, based on our NBC News reporting just about a week ago, that he'd like to maybe get a little bit, would like to get a little bit more rest. Would maybe that is something that is a factor for him as well. I mean, there's a lot to this here.

Yes. And this is going to be shown live everywhere. This is the rare presidential event that all the major networks have already said, basically, we're going to be showing this one live. We know that in the ABC interview last week with George Stephanopoulos, Biden said he didn't know if he had watched the debate. And I found that to be a very interesting comment. Whether he has watched the debate or not matters because what he thinks happened at the debate might be very different from what viewers saw. I remember that's the first thing I learned when I joined television network, Holly, that what you think happens when you're on air might be very different from what the viewers see. You know, there can be a gap. There can be a difference. And that's very true at a press conference as well, where Biden's performance might not be what he thinks it is. So rewatching the debate is important. Re watching the press conference is important. But I think that might get to the disconnect that your guests have been talking about. What information is Biden getting? Is he hearing criticism? Is he hearing dissent? Or is he only hearing from a bunch of yes men and yes women?

Rewatching the debate, re watching these gaffes might be helpful for him. So I'm curious to see if anyone asked him tonight if he has watched the debate. But, of course, at this point, Hallie, this is about so much more than a debate, right? The new reporting from NBC, the reporting from the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal about how he has been more frail, how he has been diminished. You know, New York Times reporter Peter Baker, a regular on your program, he said to me last week, you know, this is a situation where there's probably been a big change in the last few months, right? We're not talking about a situation where this is the same president that we all saw at Inauguration Day in 2021. So Americans are watching for good reason tonight to judge his fitness for office.

Bryan Stelter, thank you, von Hilliard. I want to turn to you now, because while former President Trump is obviously not at the center this storyline, he is watching it. He is comment on, commenting on it, as he is getting ready to gear up for a critical week for him, announcing his running mate as soon as 30 seconds from now or maybe seven days, and also getting ready for the republican convention in Milwaukee.

Right?

He's only had one public campaign event since that Atlanta debate over there was two weeks ago. He has another campaign rally this upcoming Saturday just outside of Pittsburgh before he heads to Milwaukee for the start of the republican convention on Monday. Of course, he has still not named his vice presidential running mate. Donald Trump has made it clear that he feels like he had a, what he described to be a knockout blow to Joe Biden in that 90 minutes debate there. Just this week. He suggested that Joe Biden could call him up and schedule another debate at any time that he would like to try to prove himself. This was a campaign event on Tuesday night in Doral, Florida, in which Trump also notably went on the attack against Kavala Harris. It is clear just less than four months out that for the Trump operation, which now for a year and a half has planned what would be a general election campaign against Joe Biden, this is now one that could potentially be open to Kamala Harris or somebody else, notably Halle. Also today at Mar a Lago, he was meeting with the prime minister of Hungary, Viktor Orban, for the second time.

Of course, that is a key ally of Donald Trump and would be in 2025 and somebody who has called for cutting off financial aid to Ukraine. Out.

Vaughn Hilliard, thank you very much. I want to thank everybody who has joined us so far and preemptively thank everybody who will be joining us as we get you ready for that critical moment for President Biden happening in just a few minutes from now. But, of course, there is a lot of other news to get to tonight, a lot of other headlines across the country. It is not just Washington where we're seeing a lot of headlines. When I turn to our other top story now coming out of the extreme weather sweeping a lot of the country right now. A dangerous and devastating situation for so many. Look at what's happening right now in Vermont, rescues, evacuations. This is a picture overnight from deadly flooding from the remnants of that hurricane that slammed into the US earlier this week. Apparently, the flooding knocked out power, flooded streets. It comes a year to the day that the state was hit with massive flooding in 2023. And then look what's happening down south in Houston. It's super hot, potentially record breaking temperatures. And a lot of people, thousands of them, them still do not have power. That means no ac.

They're on clean water boil water notices essentially, in that state. So they're in an absolutely difficult situation here with water treatment plant plants shut down because again, no electricity. You've got the fourth day in a row of people lining up for hours to try to get gas. You saw some people looking for ice heading to these cooling centers. And the concern now is these especially vulnerable patients that are crowded into the city's hospital. Bill, Karen's is on top of all of this. And it is coast to coast. Let's start with Vermont, because now exactly one year after that headline making flooding in 2023, they are dealing with something very similar again.

Yeah, they can't believe it. I mean, it's not historically as bad as what just happened, but stuff that was just repaired just got destroyed again. And if you've driven through Vermont, all of the roads follow the rivers north, pretty much north to south through Vermont. So this is Vermont here, this is Rutland, and this is Burlington. It was mostly the northern half of the state that got hit the hardest. This is the rainfall estimates, by the way. The yellow shows one inch, orange is three inches. And a couple spots got up to five inches of rain. Tropical rain in mountainous area is bad news. It doesn't matter where in the country it happens. And this just happened to be barrel going through in northern portions of New Hampshire, went through and got hit pretty hard to four different separate towns had evacuation orders last night, including St. John's Barry, that's located over here. They had about three to three and a half inches of rain. And this is Burlington and heading out. The main interstate is Interstate 89. Thankfully, that is still functioning. But a lot of the smaller highways, Hallie, that go north to south, those are the ones that are still closed at this hour.

And no other heavy rain is coming. The rivers are going down, the damage is done. But enough send up. Vermont's took it on the chin again.

Well, Texas is taking it on the chin, too, with these Houstonians dealing with a double whammy here. Nothing, just crazy, crazy hot temperatures, but also no power.

I mean, that's always an issue. It doesn't matter if it's Louisiana, Florida, or where it is. It's like whenever you get these hurricanes, typically it's at the end of summer, but this is like the beginning or middle of summer. So it's like there's definitely no relief coming. Now, I will show you one thing. The heat index right now is in 84. In Houston, I guarantee there were people running outside because it started raining. It was really hot. It was over 100. And the heat index and that dropped because of the rain. But over the weekend it actually tend to get hotter. Should be 92 on Saturday, 94 by the time we get to Sunday. That's just the temperature. And here's the Houston area. There's a rain shower right overhead. So this is probably the coolest the temperatures have felt in Houston since the hurricane hit. So that's a little piece of good news. And Hallie, we're also still tracking, of course, our epic heat wave. It would been a break day in the east, but the west is just exceptionally hot. Salt Lake City has hit 104. That's tied their record high. Even grand junction, ever been in the western beautiful portions of Colorado?

It's 100 degrees there. Vegas is 115 again. I think that's like six or seven days in a row. Over 115. So yes. And that he's coming to the east coast again. I know you missed it, but it'll be back.

Oh, yeah. Desperately. Thank you, Bill. Bearer of good news, as always. Appreciate it. Listen, we've also got some big news on the economy tonight. And guess what? But it is not completely gloom and doom. That's because a new report shows inflation dropping the most that it has since you were cocooning in your pandemic pod back in 2020. And now it's all eyes on the fed. Will they cut interest rates? That's something that could affect everything from mortgages to car loans to credit card payments. Inflation in June saw 3% increase year over year, down from what we saw in May. And it's showing up in places where it counts, airfare, gas use, used cars, all cheaper than they were a year ago. NBC's Christine Romans is all over this. Ok, so the question now that this report is out is like, ok, Jay Powell balls in your court fed chair. What are you going to do about it? It's so interesting. And he has been sort of signaling, right, that they're getting to a point where these numbers are starting to come in the way they'd like to see them. And they don't want to keep interest rates too high for too long because that could really hurt the job market and hurt the overall economy.

Right. So you're coming into that sweet spot, I think here the markets, Hallie, are projecting that there will be a 25 basis point rate cut in September and maybe another one later this year. So sooner rather than later, I think, is what everybody's feeling about the interest rate, the interest rate situation, assuming these numbers stay like this. Yeah. When you talk about where the economy is and not to bring everything back to where I live in Washington and the beat that I cover. But there is definitely a political nexus here. We know that the economy and inflation are the biggest issue along with immigration that voters say matter to them right now. And we've talked about this, Christine, with, even with the numbers showing in many ways positive improvement, only about, you know, just about half of people say the economy is doing well. About 48% say it's poor. Help us understand some of the context behind this and where this goes between now and the 117 days until election day. Not that we're counting. I am actually not counting, but I know that you are. Now, look, I mean, I think it's a really important point to make.

And I was speaking with a senior administration official just a few minutes ago, actually, and I said, when will the vibe session give way to what we're seeing in these numbers? These are good numbers. You know, this Wall street, this White House person I was talking to called it a milestone number. And now a year of wages rising faster than inflation, he told me, is essentially at some point you're, that will catch up with people and you'll set a new baseline and people start to feel better. But you're right, there's only 117, 117 days left. And, and I think it's interesting that this is the kind of story that in normal times for another administration might be just heralded. But there's a lot going on where you live, Hallie Jackson, that makes this not the top story of the day, quite frankly. Christine Roman, still super interesting. And I'll be joining us as well later on next hour. Christine, thank you so much. Tonight. First responders rushing to ruin France after you see it here. Look at that. In the spire of a thousand year old medieval cathedral there. It happened while parts of the building were being renovated.

And this was a concern. It felt reminiscent to a lot of people of what we saw in Paris a few years ago. Remember this? When parts of Notre Dame went up in flames. Fortunately, in this instance, Cruz managed to put out the fire very fast and the cathedral is expected to reopen as soon as tomorrow. A lot more to get to coming up here on the show, including a string of deadly shootings in North Carolina apparently all connected. What we're learning about the teenage suspects tonight and Copa America chaos, why players got off the field. Look at that. To fight fans. The family of a black man who's death at the hands of hotel security guards is being compared to George Floyd is calling for justice tonight. The Reverend Al Sharpton delivering a passion at eulogy at the funeral of Devontae Mitchell.

Listen, a lot going on in the country, but nothing more important than what they did to Devante. People ask me, why do I get involved? Because the only difference between Devontae and any of us is they didn't grab us yet.

Mitchell died last month after four security guards pinned him face down as he was being escorted out of a hotel in Milwaukee. His family says he may have been suffering a mental health episode when this happened. Milwaukee's police department said it's investigating, but they haven't filed any charges so far. I want to bring in Adrienne Bratis, who is live for us in Milwaukee. She's following all of it. Bring us up to speed on the investigation. Is it a criminal investigation? Is this right now a preliminary inquiry? Where do things stand?

Well, the district attorney here, Hallie, is investigating this case as a homicide. And as you mentioned, no charges have been filed, even though this happened last month on June 30. And today that 43 year old husband and father was laid to rest. His funeral happened inside of this church behind me, Reverend Al Sharpton delivering the eulogy. Inside, more than 200 people attending, family, friends and activists. We spoke with some who were here. One thing that keeps coming up in our conversations, people are comparing what happened with 43 year old Mitchell to the killing of George Floyd. But let's be clear. Floyd was killed by police. In this case, the 43 year old died after he was pinned down by hotel security. At least that's what police officers are telling us. Here's more of my conversation with a friend of the family. But these weren't police officers. These were regular security guards. So this is an employee. Right. So I feel like what I'm feeling, the hire should be held responsible in some form for this action. So this is not just a random act. This is, this is a homicide. And it could be or take up to six weeks before we have any additional answers.

An autopsy report is being done.

Halle, also worth noting here that Milwaukee, of course, is going to be the site of the RNC in just a few days from now. Obviously, given what you've described, some of the similarities to the, what happened. George Floyd, are there any preparations for protests? We know that demonstrations were already very likely for the RNC.

Yeah. Milwaukee is going to be in the political spotlight. And here we are. This is happening as the city is already bracing for thousands of people to be here. But we took that question to the chief of police in Milwaukee, and he says that this will be on a case by case basis in terms of determining if they need to do anything. Additionally, and Reverend al Sharpton delivered the eulogy and he mentioned, he referenced the RNC happening here. And I do want to point out some things that he said. He mentioned there's a group of people coming to make America great again. That is their message. But he left members of the congregation who attended this funeral today with the question or saying, and I'm paraphrasing here, it's not great in 2024 if you think you can put your knees on a man's neck and choke his life out. So a lot of people are asking questions and they want to know what led to all of this. It's still unclear.

Adrian Brodes, thank you very much. Let's get you over to the five things our team thinks you should know about tonight. Number one, the israeli military says it's operating in central and southern Gaza, including Rafa, a city Israel previously said was a safe zone. This comes as the IDF is dropping leaflets telling Palestinians to evacuate Gaza City and head south. We do not know how many people have left the area. Gaza's Ministry of Interior and national security run Mahmoss is telling people not to follow the evacuation orders. Number two, today Shelley Duvall, the star of the Shining, died at her home in Texas. She was 75 years old. Her partner says she was bedridden for the last few months because of complications from diabetes and died in her sleep. Number three, a big brawl between players and fans at the Copa America semifinal after Uruguay lost to Colombia. Look at this. The fan. Okay, so here's what happened. The fans of both teams start fighting each other. They're throwing drinks. Then he had some players from the uruguayan side walk into the stands. They're punching Columbia fans. The president of the country soccer association says the players were trying to protect their families.

Number four, customs officers at the Hong Kong China border caught a smuggler with more than 100 live snakes in his pants. I guess they were in bags. You see the bags there? So you stuffed them into the bag, sealed him up and then put those bags into his pockets. A lot of these snakes are not native to China. TBD on what his punishment may be. But they do say officials that anybody who bring in, brings in live animals will be held legally responsible. Wolf number five, Pfizer says it's going to move forward with a once daily obesity pill development. After some early studies showed what they described as encouraging results, the company says it'll do more trials. They think they should have some results early next year. Last year, Pfizer scrapped the twice daily version of the same pill because of some bad side effects. We're learning tonight. Police have arrested two teenagers in North Carolina in connection to a series of deadly shootings that happened around Charlotte this week. Police say the suspects were driving around the city, appearing to shoot off bullets randomly at, like other drivers at bicyclists into homes. One person was killed.

At least two others were hurt. Officials today say it could have been so much worse. They described already horrific. Obviously, they described making that first arrest after noticing a suspicious cardinal near one of the scenes early this morning.

And there was one driver in the vehicle, a 16 year old juvenile male. Also located in the vehicle was a firearm. We have reason to believe that the 16 year old juvenile intended on continuing his violent crime spree.

Emily Iquetta is joining us now. So, Emily, what else are police saying about these arrests, the charges these teens are now facing, and the impact, of course, on the community after this deadly shooting?

Hey there, Hallie. Well, what's not clear at this point is what led investigators to arresting and identifying these two teenagers as their suspects. But we know that the 16 year old was arrested earlier today, and then upon arrest, they found a stolen firearm within his car. They are. He, along with an 18 year old identified as Carlos Roberto Diaz, are now facing first degree murder. The 18 year old also facing other charges, a whole list of them, like attempted murder and shooting into vehicle, just to name a few. It comes two days after they're accused of shooting, as you mentioned, randomly at different people, bicyclists, drivers, people in their homes, people on the block, according to police and police really underscoring today just how unusual of a situation this is. This isn't where it's too, it's beef between two gangs. This is completely random, they say, and that's what really left. So the community and so many people there on edge throughout the manhunt. They're also revealing that they are convinced that the 16 year old suspect would have continued to carry out violence had he not been arrested. This rampage, I should know, comes amid an alarming rise in juvenile crime within Charlotte.

The Charlotte Police Department putting out these stats. Auto thefts with offenders under 18 surging 120% in 2023. Over 2022 shootings up 33%. Holly, they do not believe anyone else was involved in this shooting spree.

Emily Ikeda, thank you very much. When we come back, new video of a plane just barely avoiding crashing into a mountain in Colorado. We're going to show it to you. We're going to tell you what went wrong in just a sec. Right now, a federal judge is getting a jury ready to decide the fate of a sitting us senator, with deliberations set to begin tomorrow in the trial of Bob Menendez. That federal bribery case. This is after prosecutors argued throughout this nine week trial that the senator traded political favors for all kinds of fancy gifts, like those gold bars, like that Mercedes. And he's facing some serious charges, from bribery to wire fraud to illegally working as a foreign agent for Egypt. Remember, investigators raided the senator's house. They found a lot of cash, the aforementioned gold. You can see some of the money here, which prosecutors say this is evidence, in their view, that Menendez took bribes. Remember, this is the second Menendez bribery trial to go to a jury. The first ended in a mistrial back in 2017. Menendez has denied all wrongdoings. Obviously, his defense says he is innocent. NBC's Tom Winter is outside that courthouse in New York.

And boy, here we are, months after you and I first talked about the opening statements beginning and the jury selection for this high profile trial. That and maybe any other news cycle would be a lot higher in the rundown than it is right now. Talk us through the dynamics here, because the jury has spent 32 days in court. They've heard from nearly 40 witnesses. They're now going to have to weigh 18 different complicated charges against the senator. How tough is the job that they're being asked to do?

Right. On one hand, hallie, it's easy. On the other hand, it's a little bit of a challenge. So one of the things that's important to remember here, it's not just Senator Robert Menendez that is facing trial, that is facing these charges. It's two New Jersey businessmen who are alleged to be part of these bribery schemes. They're also on trial here. And when we talk about lending of trial, think not only are federal prosecutors trying to prove the charges against Menendez, but also those two individuals, and also you're getting defense from those two other individuals, including on cross examination and that type of thing. So that's been a little bit of the reason why we've seen this trial take a long time on top of all the witnesses that you laid out. But I think when the jurors actually get these instructions and get the verdict sheet, because these individuals are charged and are part of this alleged bribery scheme, I think you're going to see jurors basically say, look, did they all take part in it? Did they all meet the elements of the crime? And so I think from that standpoint, it might be actually fairly simple for them.

A lot of the government's case centered around the alleged aggressive push by the Egyptians to try to curry favor inside the us government, essentially espionage. But throughout all of this, the amount of military aid we give that country has stayed the same, about a billion dollars. Help us understand the context there and the defense on the part of Senator Menendez.

Right. And I think that's something that, you know, obviously we paid attention to. The gold bars, the cash. You just saw them for obvious reasons, given the fact that a senior United States senator could be involved in a bribery scheme. That got the attention. But the Egypt component here is huge. It's something that federal prosecutors spent time on today in their rebuttal, reminding jurors that Senator Robert Menendez reached out to the State Department. The State Department expressed concern about his questions as to how many diplomats were at the egyptian embassy in Egypt and that he passed that information through Nadine Menendez that would ostensibly go back to the egyptian government, important information for their intelligence services. So obviously, big concerns, concern for the United States and what the Egyptians are up to. But put in the broader context of what's going on in Israel and what's going on in Gaza and the US's need for the Egyptians to remain involved and engaged in the diplomatic process, potentially in the relief process and the counterterrorism process, it's really difficult. So it's not surprising that that relationship changed. Has not changed.

Yeah. Tom winner, thank you very much. On verdict watch, I guess starting tomorrow, then officially. Tom, thanks. NBC News covers hundreds of stories every day. And because it can be tough to read or watch or listen to them, all our bureau teams have done it for you. This is what they tell us is going down in their regions. In a segment we call the local out of our western bureau. Look at this close call for a plane that barely avoided crashing into this mountain in Colorado. Oof. There it is again. That small plane starts to kind of nose dive but then recovers. The FAA says it stalled. They're now investigating. We don't know how many people were on board, but fortunately, it did land safely at its destination. Out of our Midwest bureau, Minneapolis police removing a. Yep. Yep, that was a, that's a boa in the backseat of one of the rideshare cars. Officials say they don't know where the boa came from. They were not able to track down its owner, but the snake was taking animal control. Unfortunately, nobody was hurt. Also out of our western bureau is this spray paint or something else.

Geologists in Hawaii are trying to figure out what the latest volcanic eruption there left behind. Kilauea erupted last month, leaving a crack in a bed of rock. And these bright deposits of crystals, geologists say these yellow lines are actually made of sulfur. We'll be right back. We are just minutes away now from President Biden's news conference at that NATO summit with a lot on the line for him and our teams spread out across every angle as we wait for the president. NBC's Julie Serkin is with us, along with our chief foreign correspondent Andrea Mitchell, our political editor Chuck Todd, our Washington reporter John Allen. But I want to start with Aaron Gilchrist, who's over at the White House. Okay, Aaron, so we are now just minutes away. This press conference had been scheduled to start at 630. Not a surprise it's running a little bit late. These things happen when you are leading a world summit and meetings go long talk through where things stand at the moment.

Well, you're right. Firstly, is the reality around the summit you just referenced? Obviously, President Biden has been on the ground at the convention center not far from here at the White House since about ten or 11:00 this morning in sessions with other world leaders. The last session of the day that was supposed to start at 415 ended up starting at least an hour late, maybe a little more than that. And of course, there is now this wait that we're in for the president's news conference today. And this really is something that has been anticipated for the last week or so because it is a point at which the president will have to answer questions from the White House press corps without any aid, really. He's going to be getting a barrage of questions that will likely focus on his fitness to serve in the office, his fitness to run for the next four months ahead of the election, all the result of his debate performance a couple of weeks ago now. And there are going to be a lot of people watching not only what he says from a substance perspective to try to see whether he can articulate the policy ideas that he has for a next term and be able to articulate what he's done in the last three and a half years as well, which we know was something that during the debate there was some difficulty with for the president.

And so that's something that people are going to be watching. But there's also this question about whether he physically is up to the challenge. He will have to stand behind elector in there in this news conference, answering questions from the press, and people will be watching his body language in this moment as well. We don't know how many questions he'll take or how long this press conference might go, but we'll all be watching that closely.

Aaron, thank you very much. If you're wondering what that somewhat shaky live shot you're looking at on the left side of your screen as that is the aforementioned elector and the president Biden will be speaking from at that news conference set to begin potentially any minute, we understand that folks are getting ready. They're doing, obviously, you can see it there, those last minute preps. Andrea Mitchell is there. She has been at the NATO summit. Andrea, I don't know where specifically you are location wise. You're relatively close, safe to say. I know you weren't in the room for the sort of preamble to this news conference, the introduction, of course, to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy by President Biden. But give us your sense of where things stand right now and the stakes considering in my conversations with, for example, a senior Biden advisor, they're trying to say that this is a meaningful opportunity for the president to flex his muscle on foreign policy chops. All that said, there is a very different political reality, one that focuses much more on the domestic issues versus the foreign ones right now.

No, it's very clear, Hallie, that the whole clamor, the crisis really of leadership here in the US has cast a shadow over this 75th anniversary, which was supposed to be celebratory. And Joe Biden was supposed to be really the king of the world here celebrating his leadership. The fact that he did bring NATO back together, did reassert its authority, dealt with the war, the buildup brought them all together, he and his team. But the reality is that at this summit, certainly theres so much talk about his problems and everybody watching him so closely. And there was a stumble. He recovered quickly just at this last event for Ukraine where he was introducing Vladimir Zelenskyy and was thinking about Vladimir Putin and defeating Putin and said, you know, here is Putin. And then quickly said, no, the president Zelenskyy, we're going to beat Putin. So he recovered very quickly. But it was, you know, it was notable because everyone's eyes are on him. And Hallie, this is not the Joe Biden that these leaders knew before. They've known him for years as vice president. Publicly they are saying, I just interviewed the secretary general and Jen Stoltenberg says he's known him.

He was vigorous. He did everything they were supposed to do. What he has not done is the large number of bilaterals, the meetings, aside from the new UK prime minister. And, of course, Zelenskyy, he's not done all those meetings. He did do the evening sessions has been a long day today, but this is not the Joe Biden of just two years ago.

Andrea Mitchell. Andrea, thank you very much for that. A busy day for you as well. I believe that we have Julie Sorkin live for us on Capitol Hill. Because, Julie, that tease you up for the developments even late tonight here after you saw Nancy Pelosi, the former House speaker, go out on national television yesterday and suggest that Democrats should give perhaps President Biden a beat, wait until the world leaders depart and then come out and say whatever they're going to say publicly. We have still seen a number of other elected lawmakers inside the Democratic Party come out and do just that. Call for President Biden to withdraw from the 2024 ticket.

Exactly. Hallie, you had four House Democrats come out today while the NATO leaders are still in town, while the president was meeting with Zelensky, the president of Ukraine holding this press conference later today. You see them there on your screen coming out forcefully and saying that Biden should exit the race. One of the Democrats took it a step further, suggesting that perhaps Biden cannot even be a functional president right now. These are definitely stark warning signs for the Biden campaign. But you also had on the other side of the Capitol, remember, Biden campaign advisers sitting down, meeting with Senate Democrats, trying to persuade them and assuage concerns that Biden does have a path to victory through the most crucial, critical battleground states to beat Trump in November. That is a question that was not significantly answered. Hallie, in our conversations with Senate Democrats who attended that meeting publicly, we heard from Senator Richard Blumenthal, who has been a fierce ally of the president's from Connecticut. Of course, he said, look, I have more questions than answers. I want to see more data, more analytics, more polling. I want to see more. And I want to see, most importantly, that Biden can be aggressive with Trump directly, not just holding these press conferences and these interviews.

Because while they're great, it doesn't necessarily assuage voter concerns, things that they're hearing from constituents that Biden perhaps is not the strongest to go and take on Trump in November. Privately, I was told that the most heated part that is, in the words of a democratic source I spoke to of the conversation today during lunch, was during that polling presentation, you had multiple senators who asked specifically of the campaign team, show us what you have. And what they showed them was not enough.

Julie, certain, thank you very much. I'm joined here on set by Chuck Todd and John Allen. John, you have been the tip of the spear of some of our reporting today that is making headlines coast to coast about the concern inside the president's own camp. This is not coming from outside lawmakers. This is not coming from Democrats in his own. This is coming from people who are trying to get him reelected, who, based on your sources, now think he cannot.

Yeah. Natasha Korecki, Carol Lee and I, our colleagues reported today that there's several members of Biden's apparatus, basically people who are working for entities trying to elect him, including one of his campaign officials, who told us that they don't believe there is a path for him to come back at the very same time that General Mally Dillon, the chair of his campaign, has to tell the campaign staff staffers that they still have a path. I mean, think about this. That doesn't happen very often. She sends a memo, says, hey, guys, don't worry, there's still a chance we could win this election. That's a pretty big news on itself. At the very same time, we're being told by insiders that they don't really believe there's a path. In fact, one of them said to us no one involved in this effort, meaning the president's reelection effort, believes that there's a path. So morale is super low on the Biden campaign right now. Obviously, you've seen the members of Congress who have come out publicly. There is a large swath of members behind that who would like to see Joe Biden just drop out. They are hoping that he doesn't bring down democratic ticket altogether, the House secretary.

Down ballot races, candidates, etcetera.

So this is a bad moment for the Democratic Party. And I think what they see is it's hard to envision how this issue doesn't continue to be a problem for Joe Biden for the next several months, that the members of Congress aren't asked about it every time they're back in their districts when they are candidates in debates, that they're getting asked about it so they don't see a way for him to turn around.

We are told now that members of the media are filing into the room, which I share because it is a signal that we are at least getting closer to the start of this press conference. Chuck Todd, you've been with us now during our broadcast for the last 90 minutes or so. What haven't you said on tv today that you think we should be talking about here?

Look, I just think that when you look at we're at the two week mark since the debate, two weeks, exactly two weeks ago tonight. And I don't think there's, you know, I was, I was responding to a question somebody gave me, like, what? It was one bad debate. Why is, why is the party in a panic? And I said, it's, it's because the Biden campaign themselves were, they had green lit this early debate. They had sent signals to the entire elected democratic community. Those are the sort of campaign apparatus that, look, guys, we've got a really great plan now for the start of summer. We're going to have this debate. We're going to set up this binary choice here, be able to spotlight Trump, and then Biden's on the world stage with this NATO meeting. The bad debate just, it upended the entire game plan. And so that's why there's panic, because no one can figure out. And then you look at how Biden has spent his last two weeks. John and I were talking before. You were racing on, racing to come back over here.

Thank you for holding it down.

And we were discussing how Biden's only made like 20 to 30 calls over the last two weeks to try to fix his position. And then he's been defying, he's not, acted like a guy whose house is on fire. And the old Joe Biden would have made two unfair. And so I'm sorry. I look here and watch how he's tried to, how little he's been able to do to save his own candidacy. I mean, how's Mark Warner not had a conversation with him and all this stuff. And it really tells me if he hasn't done it, it's probably because he can't.

Hallie, if I could just jump in here. It's not just a bad debate. A bad debate is Rick Perry not remembering the three departments that he wants to shutter. Right. A bad debate is Barack Obama coming out against Mitt Romney and just not.

And then Mitt Romney's binders full of women. That was a bad moment.

Bad moments, bad debates. This was somebody who looked lost on the debate stage. This was somebody whose train of thought went off track repeatedly. This is somebody who claimed that he had beaten Medicare rather than pharma. And people can't really unsee that. And then after that, the cleanup, to Chuck's point, has not been particularly aggressive or urgent. And in addition to that, when you saw him with George Stephanopoulos on another network, he looked bad in that we see him mix up Zelensky and Putin today. It's just going to continue to be a problem for him, that he's going to be under the scrutiny and does not appear to be able to hit the bar.

You mentioned that Stephanopoulos interview. I'd be remiss not to know that the president is going to be sitting down for another one on one coming up in just a couple days from now with our own Lester Holt with a lot of people watching that.

I've had some people on the campaign say, I don't know, know if Lester's gonna get his interview. I said, why? I don't know if he survives the weekend.

You said on the campaign or close to the campaign.

Just close to the campaign.

Close to the close. That is fascinating.

I mean, it was a little snarky.

Yeah. Yeah.

But it was also like, like they don't know what. Like if we get to Monday on that interview, it means something went better than we thought.

In the Stephanopoulos interview, one of the things that he said was this idea that he's gonna do the best he can. He's, I'm gonna do as good of a job as I can. When Stephanopoulos, the anchor, asked him, you know, do you think you can beat Donald Trump? That, I think irritated some Democrats who were like, this is the fundamental issue.

He does not understand how he won in 2020, and he doesn't understand the fear of Trump coming back with this own party.

We've got about 1 minute left before I've got to hand it over to our colleagues over there at top Story. Andrea Mitchell, final thoughts to you here. What do we need to be thinking about as we head into these key moments?

Well, this test is not going to stop. Let's say he gets through the news conference, but every single thing he does from now until November is going to be watched like a hawk if he stays in this race and survives. I don't know how he survives that test.

Lightning round, Chuck.

John, look, it's almost, it's funny. He had such a low bar two weeks ago for the debate. Now the bar is probably impossible for him to meet for most Democrats, as.

Jen Psaki memorably said about an hour ago. Was he going to get up there and do a backflip? Would that satisfy people?

Jack Palance, one arm push ups. I'm aging myself here. But he went on the Oscar stage one time and did one arm push ups at the age of 90.

I think it's a very poor choice. I would just say that the Democrats have to pray that this is their lowest moment. And I know that some of them are hoping that Biden just doesn't do great tonight so that it can that sad ripped off.

They almost want it to be worse so it becomes easier to do.

We'll see. Listen, the only people that know are President Biden, and he may not even, because he doesn't know what questions he's about to get. Aaron Gilchrist, Julie Serkin, Andrea Mitchell, Chuck Todd, John Allen, for all of you over the course of these last two very busy hours, thank you so much for being with us. We are going to continue to have live coverage right here. Do not go anywhere on NBC News now. I'll see you in just a sec as our coverage picks a up with Tom Yamis.

Thanks for watching. Stay updated about breaking news and top.

Stories on the NBC News app or.

Follow us on social media.