is coming to miami. he will sign a contract to sign inter miami. it was thought he would return to barcelona or play in saudi arabia where he was offered a $400 million a year deal. he told sports out loutlets he d to get out of the spotlight, focus on his family. he owns a home in south florida. that wraps up the hour for me. i'm jose diaz-balart. reach me on twitter and instagram. watch highlights from today's show online. thank you for the privilege of your time. the great andrea mitchell picks up with more news right now. right now on "andrea mitchell reports," a big victory for voting rights advocates at the supreme court, with chief justice roberts and justice kavanaugh joining the liberals in deciding alabama's

redistricting map violates the voting rights act. former president trump in a familiar position, under threat of indictment as the target of a major investigation entering its final phase, over the mishandling of classified documents. unhealthy skies across the northeast impacting tens of millions of americans. the dangerous air quality levels caused by canadian wildfires are causing ground stops at major airports. president biden meeting with britain's fifth prime minister in the last seven years to deepen the economic ties between the two nations and reinforce the importance of continued support for ukraine against russia. >> very happy to have spent many years working, living and studying here. it's a country that believes in freedom, enterprise and opportunity. i believe in all those things, too.

>> good day, i'm andrea mitchell in new york. the supreme court rules today on voting rights. in a surprising decision written by chief justice roberts, joined by the three liberal judges and in part by justice kavanaugh, upholding a lower court decision, in a case challenging an alabama redistricting plan. joining me now, nbc senior legal correspondent laura jarrett, michael waldman, president of the -- laura fill us in. >> the high court citing with voting rights advocates who argued the way that bam had gone about drawing up the congressional districts had violated section two of the voting rights act, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of race.

the voting rights advocates said the way that alabama had gone about doing it had crammed the majority of black voters into one single district in a way that diluted their power to elect the candidates of their choice. today the high court agreed with the voting rights advocates that the lower court had found that the way that the legislature had gone about doing it had violated section two. while the court isn't breaking new ground by just simply reaffirming what the law has been for several decades, it was a surprising decision, especially from this conservative majority. >> michael, i think we have a graphic of the way they had redistricted. this was, of course, relevant for the 2022 midterms. the election was decided on that. it's obvious from this graphic how this was made to just have one black -- one minority representative. >> in alabama, the election was run using a map a lower court

declared illegal and racially discriminatory. this is a big win. it will have an impact across the south and the country. the south is the fastest growing region. it comes in communities of color. they are not being represented in the maps that legislatures have drown. this will have an impact beyond this one case. the rulings often do. it's upholding what had been the law for decades. >> doug jones, this is a victory for fellow democrats in alabama. potentially, states like louisiana and georgia, where there are pending cases. >> there's no question about it. i think people forget sometimes -- michael just alluded to this. in south carolina, georgia, alabama, mississippi and louisiana, the black population is growing faster than the hispanic population. it's very, very significant. those cases in georgia and louisiana are almost identical fact situations.

also, i think people forget this sometimes, when you are dealing with a house of representatives that only has a four or five vote majority, this could have made a big difference in the 2022 elections and what we see playing out right now in congress. this is a major victory. i gotta be honest. i haven't seen so many people out dancing in the streets since alabama won their last national football championship. it's really exciting down here. >> that's a big deal when we talk about elections and football in the same breath. laura, we now have how many cases left? seven big cases. >> over 25 left by my last count. i have to go through my ticker. >> there are seven that are controversial, potentially affirmative action. >> of course. this is an interesting decision, given you have the chief justice who in previous decisions had gutted parts of the voting rights act. he is joined by kavanaugh here. i think it's leading some to sort of look for tea leaves to

speculate about what this might mean in future decisions the court is facing on some controversial issues. i think it's a mistake to read tea leaves on this to see what might they do on affirmative action, what might they do on the present student loan forgiveness plan. those are different. we will see what they do on that. >> because the supreme court -- this chief justice had written before he was on the court even about voting rights. in 2013, they gutted the 65 act. >> this comes after a decade when they gutted the entire rest of the act, especially as it relates to voting rules. not just redistricting. you are right, john roberts opposed the provision he said precedent requires them to uphold today. the question is, they have to be aware -- john roberts is aware the court's credibility with the public has collapsed in all the polls because of the rulings last term and with big rulings coming up now, one of the lessons is that people raising their voices, people saying we

don't want them to rule this way on something like voting rights, sometimes it might make a big difference. >> doug jones in alabama, you talked about how popular this is in terms of the minority community and democrats. what kind of reaction are you seeing from republicans? >> i think they're going to try to double down on what they have been doing the last ten years. especially the last three or four years. they will double down on trying to subvert elections and trying to suppress votes. we saw a month ago when they had a donor conference in nashville where one of the lawyers was saying that we need to stop college kids from voting at their polling places on college campuses. this fight is not over. this sends i think a stronger message than just voting rights. the real point of this is that. i think it's a broader message that this court is basically acknowledging -- discrimination still exists. we need to do something about it. we need to put laws in place and

keep them in place that has a much broader impact than just the discrimination in voting rights. i think this is a major decision for all of that as we go forward in this country. what's going to be a very difficult time. >> this opinion was, laura, written by the chief. it does show that he is willing to take on some of these issues, perhaps not as intimidated as some might have suspected by what was being said. >> perhaps. you might think it shouldn't be so surprising that they merely just decided to uphold the law as it was written. it is seen as, wow, it's a surprise that they decided to uphold the law. >> they upheld judges appointed by president trump who said, this is discriminatory. this is where congress has a big role. they need to act to restore the strength of the voting rights act. they have that power. it needed it yesterday. it still needs it today. >> we are talking about that since john lewis was approaching his final hours here.

good to see you. thank you, laura. you have so much on your plate. michael, as always, the super majority, the decisive book right now, and, of course, senator doug jones, thank you. indictment pending? former president donald trump told that he is a target of the special counsel's investigation into classified documents found at mar-a-lago. the latest on what we know at this hour when "andrea mitchell reports" returns. we are back in 60 seconds. don't go away. this is msnbc. the subway series is taking your favorites

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and former u.s. attorney paul charlton, devlin barrett and jeh johnson, a former assistant u.s. attorney, a prosecutor here in new york's southern district. ken, today you are in florida. tell us why. we know why. you tell all us, why does it make sense to take action in florida versus d.c. on at least the mar-a-lago classified documents part of the jack smith's investigation? >> reporter: right. good afternoon. what legal experts are telling us is that there are some technical legal issues that argue for what they call venue, where they bring the case, being more logical in south florida. it's obvious to everyone that most of the conduct at issue here, whether obstruction of justice, alleged, or mishandling of classified information or dissemination, if he showed it to people, most of that took place in florida. in the federal system, there's a

lot of creative ways prosecutors can bring a case in another jurisdiction. for example, the investigation is in washington, d.c. if the investigation was obstructed, you can bring an obstruction of justice case in the place where the investigation originated. there's some quirky d.c. case law that makes that complicated in washington in particular. there's also a pending supreme court case that really raises the stakes on getting venue wrong, suggesting if you get venue wrong -- it hasn't been decided yet, but it's possible the rule could be, you can't refile the case. the person gets off. that really raised the stakes for where they bring this case and appears to make it more prudent that if they do file charges against donald trump, they file the bulk of them here in south florida. even though they have been investigating for months in washington, d.c. it feels like there was a change at some point, maybe some appellate lawyers said, wait a second, it makes more sense to file in florida. that's where we are. that's where we saw a senior member of jack smith's team walk

into the courthouse this morning. >> paul, there are critical questions about how long any federal prosecution would last and the experience of the judge who might get the case. in fact, florida would arguably, on the face of it, not be as favorable to the prosecution against donald trump given the fact the jury pool would have a lot more trump supporters down there, the judges down there don't have as much experience handling classified documents. this could prolong a lot of the decisions over evidence. >> that's right. if charges are brought in florida, it shows that the prosecutors have a great deal of confidence in their case, as they should. prosecutors have to know they have a reasonable likelihood of success to convince a unanimous jury the defendant is guilty. if prosecutors made the decision that some or all of the charges related to the classified documents will be brought in the southern district of florida, it

means they are confident they have met each one of those standards and that they can meet those standards even in the face of judges who may be and have proven themselves to be inclined to be favorable to former president trump or a jury pool -- a jury pool that may be more receptive to hearing former president trump's arguments. that would be different and more distinct than it would be in washington, d.c. we are only talking about the potential charges that relate to the documents case. there are other cases relating to elections and the last election that may be coming or may be forthcoming or the grand jury in washington, d.c. is looking at as well. there's a possibility that you could have the grand jury in washington, d.c. looking at one set of charges and a grand jury in the southern district of florida, miami, looking at another set. >> we did see, jeh johnson, as a former prosecuprosecutor, you s the feds went through in the

immediate aftermath of the search with all of the delays from that judge who was completely rejected by all the appeals courts, but it prolonged the whole thing. they don't have that much time right now given that there's an election going on. >> there is a political calendar at work here in the backdrop. it's days like this when my experience as a former federal prosecutor is more cred than having been secretary of homeland security. this case should be brought in the southern district of florida. the weight of the venue is in southern district. the target is there. the documents were there. the discovery of the documents were there. the search was there. his home is there. i have seen criminal cases dismissed, including one i defended, for lack of venue. if it occurs during the trial, double jeopardy might kick in. the challenge in my view -- i'm sure jack smith's team is thinking this through. how do you get a panel of lay

jurors to appreciate the serious compromise of national security if they can't see the classified documents? do we pick a jury that can pass a security clearance? that's going to be an interesting challenge. do you redact the documents and give them some description? i haven't seen too many cases where the issue at hand before the jury involves classified documents. that's going to be a real issue here. >> if it goes to a judge, they can do things and make some decisions. but if it's a jury trial, as this one will -- >> judges have security clearances, particularly in washington. there have been other cases where the judge presiding on the case has to have a security clearance. >> devlin, i want to play what we heard from a former trump attorney who resigned over disputes with boris epshteyn and the way the issue is being handled, the way the trump legal team was being handled.

in terms of his interview with lawrence o'donnell last night, he raised the issue of prosecutorial misconduct and they believe they had grounds for dismissal on that. let's watch. >> issues like misconduct committed by jay bratt and his team in bringing the case to this level. that is something that you want to consider. you don't expect that jay bratt has informed jack smith and jack smith informed the doj, by the way, these are the things we did wrong. that's part of what we would present to them. >> it's fair to assume that jay bratt has told them everything that he did. >> i don't think it's fair. >> it's clear he is signaling that's what the trump team is planning to do. >> right. to be honest, that is a legal strategy tailored to dealing with a special counsel. the way the justice department regulations are written, the attorney general can only

overrule a special counsel decision on charging or important steps if they believe the special counsel hasn't followed doj practice. they are not in a situation where they can argue this is a weak case, this shouldn't be brought. they have to argue that the doj did something wrong itself. that is a much higher legal threshold to reach. it's a long shot. >> how damaging is this? you are a former general counsel at the pentagon, among your many other top jobs. how damaging is this to our allies and our five closest, the five with whom we share everything? just about everything. >> we asked that question, when there's a compromise of national security, classified information. we asked that after president trump said what he said to the russian foreign minister in the oval office. we seem to always overcome those

bumps in the road, in my experience. our allies, i believe, continue to trust us. it was true on my watch. i think that will always be the case, given the strength of our intelligence community and the importance of information sharing among our allies. >> especially at a time of war, as right now. >> especially at a time of war. >> jeh johnson, thank you. to paul, ken and devlin, thanks to all. the smoke across the east coast and midwest and other worldly haze from the canadian wildfires. how it's impacting travel and health. that's next right here on "andrea mitchell reports" in smoky new york city, only on msnbc. msnbc. and new adventures you hope the more you give the less they'll miss. but even if your teen was vaccinated against meningitis in the past they may be missing vaccination for meningitis b.

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the dangerous smoke from the canadian wildfires is impacting more than 120 million americans across the states. moments ago, the white house announcing a pride event scheduled for the south lawn tonight is postponed until saturday. the washington nationals tweeting they are postponing this afternoon's game as the smoke moves down the eastern seaboard. new york city's skyline almost completely unrecognizable throughout the day yesterday. looking like an apocalyptic haze. the worst air quality two days

in a row. this is from monday to wednesday in new york city. the haze triggering a domino affect on airline travel with delays, cancellations and ground stops at la guardia and newark. a yankees and a game in detroit had to be postponed wednesday because of dangerous air conditions. the nats game in d.c. as well. what is the latest? >> things off to a bumpy start as we expected with this smoke that hit much of the northeast and parts of the midwest. delays rampant. la guardia reporting an hour or so delays. newark, half an hour. it's not as bad as it could be. obviously, if you are trying to make those last-minute flights, this is something you need to stay on top of, check with your airline. the faa is good about sharing

updates. philadelphia did have ground stops this morning. they are able to resume flights here normally. a sigh of relief for many travelers who were worried. this transitions from concerns about travel to health. many people here at the airport wearing masks. reminiscent of the pandemic era travel. a lot of people telling me they don't want to risk out there in this terrible air quality. we know it's very hazardous to unhealthy in many parts. things are starting to improve. it's not safe to be out there for an extended period of time. we mentioned delays and cancellations of sporting events. the phillies canceled their game yesterday. they are supposed to play today. we will see. as i'm looking at the philadelphia international airport, we are able to see more than we were earlier this morning. a sign that things are looking up. with this wind and this weather pattern, you can never be too sure. a lot of people taking those

necessary precautions. >> thanks. bill, is there any help in sight? >> eventually. not yet. this is day three in new york city. this is really -- it looks like the color swaths when you are about to paint a room going from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. in new york city. the reason that the air starts to look orange or martian-like by the time we get to 1:00 or 2:00 is the thicker the smoke particles, the green and blue wave lengths get refracted. you get red and orange hues go through. a lot of us can't wait to see that baby blue sky once again like we showed you monday. it's not today. today we still have dangerous and hazardous conditions. it shifted. yesterday, it was horrible syracuse to scranton to albany to new york city. it shifts south.

now it's sitting from philadelphia, central pennsylvania to washington, d.c. this is the first code purple day in washington, d.c. history. code red for bad air quality. this is a step above that, that's never happened before. that's why you hear about events canceled in the greater washington, d.c. area. d.c. is at 224. anything over 150 is considered the air is bad. 200 to 300, that's record breaking. that's happening in philadelphia. harrisburg is at 341. bethlehem, pennsylvania, yesterday was the first city in the northeast or mid-atlantic to finish a 24-hour period in the horrendous category. that's where we are sitting. when is this going to clear? here are the clouds in northern new england. this is a change in air mass. that's why it's better today in syracuse. we need to shift this through.

here is the forecast. this is 6:00 p.m. tonight, still smoky in new york. you can see the plume of smoke that's coming down over lake erie. that will sit from philly to d.c. tomorrow morning, it's not going to look better. maybe the air quality is slightly improved. friday evening we start to notice it pushing out of pennsylvania, new jersey, new york city gets dramatically improved. d.c., i think you will wait until saturday morning to noticeably have an improved air mass. there's smoke out there, but it won't be as thick and intense. it may not be until monday or tuesday of next week we get those sunrises and sets that look normal once again without that orange hue. >> help me here. i have never seen anything like this on the east coast. we have seen it out west. i see wildfires when we are in wyoming or montana or idaho. what is different about what's happening in canada? is this climate change?

>> i would say that climate change has a piece of it but not a huge piece. we would have seen these fires. very little soil moisture. they have a record breaking start to the fire season. if you have been paying attention, we haven't talked about wildfires in our western u.s. we are off to a slow start here. there's not a big correlation. what climate change does, it is like steroids to events. i will say we would have had the fires, but it's worse. the last time that we will big fires in quebec that impacted new york and the east coast was 2002. that was a long time ago. not many people remember that. that was the last time we had air quality close to as bad as what we have now. >> we are hoping for the changes sooner rather than later. thank you very much. and to george in philadelphia. the white house visit. ukraine and china, the economy, closer trade ties, all of that tops on the agenda as the

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president biden welcomed the prime minister of britain to the white house this morning as the two allies aim to strengthen economic ties between the u.s. and the uk and focus on next steps in ukraine.

>> providing economic and humanitarian aid to ukraine in their fight against the brutal invasion. we don't have a closer ally than great britain. >> joining me now is john kirby. britain is clearly our strongest ally in supporting ukraine. does the administration believe ukraine's anticipated counteroffensive is under way? we have seen intensified fighting overnight. >> we have seen levels of violence increasing in combat over the last several days and even weeks, i would say. we will leave it to the ukrainians to describe their operations and what they're doing. i don't think it would be appropriate for us to speculate or characterize it here from the white house. what i can tell you is that as you heard the president say, we are going to continue to make sure that they get everything they need to be successful in

the weeks and months ahead. we will continue to make sure they can succeed on the battlefield. >> as you know, president zelenskyy has made it clear, as have his cabinet ministers, that they need more. they are running out of ammunition, patriots. the russians have been hammering them the last couple of weeks. are we able to step that up? do we have our own supply chain problems? >> i would tell you that, without getting ahead of where we are here this afternoon, you are going to see continued support and security assistance packages making their way to ukraine, not just from the united states but from other allies and partners, including the brits. we know they are in a significant scrap right now. we know that the fighting could get more intense in the weeks ahead. the united states, the united kingdom, all our allies and partners across nato, we are going to do what we can to make sure they have what they need. that's a dynamic process. it's going to -- we are going to move as fast as we can. we will stay in touch with

ukraine in real time to make sure we are meeting their needs. that's not just about quantity and speed, but it's about quality. what kinds of systems do they need as they get into more offensive operations? >> it's clear that the f-16s and the abrams tanks are for down the road, the fall and after, for the long-term security of ukraine. that's not for this counteroffensive. isn't the counteroffensive going to determine whether they have leverage at the negotiating table, with pressure mounting from within europe and elsewhere for them to start sitting down? >> certainly, whatever offensive operations they conduct here this summer are going to be critical going into the fall and into the winter months, when the fighting usually subdues. certainly, we would like to see this war end today if it could. president zelenskyy has to determine how he wants to use his military to push the russians out of russian occupied territory and take back the territory that's rightfully his. that's really the goal here. it's not just to get leverage at the negotiating table.

neither side is ready to sit down for talks right now. certainly, mr. putin has shown no inclination to pursue did i diplomacy. >> we have been told the u.s. and allies are leaning toward russia being responsible for the bombing of the dam. >> we are still talking to the ukrainians. we are not in a position right now where we can say how this breach occurred at the dam. the nature of the explosion that allegedly set that breach off, we just don't know. what we do know is that that breach has caused a humanitarian catastrophe in southern ukraine. people are without their hopes, without water, without their homes.

it looks like tens of thousands of people have been affected by this. >> to that point, can we bring in major supplies? can usaid help? what more visibly can we do to help people with evacuations, with clean water, with other equipment that they need? >> i would tell you that within hours of the breach, usaid had reached out to their partners on the ground and were already working to help ukrainians. that includes within hours, just having buses on the ground to escape the flooding and take belongings with them. we had pre-positioned -- with our partners on the ground -- we're not on the ground. with our partners on the ground, pre-positioned things like water and water for -- and water purification equipment. even working to get them boats and rescue gear on the ground. that will continue going forward. we were ready within hours to help them and that aid has persisted. >> china and cuba have reached a

secret agreement, we are told, for china to establish an electronic facility on the island which would allow chinese intelligence services to scoop up electronic communications throughout the southeastern u.s. what is your reaction to this? >> i have seen that press report. it's not accurate. what i can tell you is that we have been concerned since day one of the administration about china's influence activities around the world. certainly in this hemisphere and in this region. we are watching this closely. we will -- we have and will continue to take steps to mitigate any potential threat that those activities might pose so we can make sure and we are -- we are positive that we can continue to defend this nation. >> you are saying it's not accurate that they are planning this? >> i'm saying, we have seen the report. it's not accurate. we are focused on making sure we can mitigate any threats from china in the region. >> with secretary blinken reportedly heading to china in

the near future, within weeks, let's say, could this be a turning point? could this set the stage for president biden and president xi to finally have that phone call that in february the president said was going to happen soon? >> again, i don't have anything to announce with respect to the secretary's travel. we do expect that he will be able to get over to beijing. that's what we want. that visit may be followed by leaders besides just secretary blinken. we want to get those lines of communication back open. that was the purpose of secretary blinken's desire to go in the first place. we will see where that takes us. we hope it will be positive and constructive and we will get lines of communication back open. as for the president, he has a relationship with president xi. they have known each other a long time. you heard him say this before. he looks forward to talking to president xi at the appropriate time. when that is, we will let everybody know. >> thank you, john kirby, for coming out on a smoky day there on the north lawn. we appreciate it. >> yes, ma'am.

pence's problem. the former vp trying to work around his prior allegiance to donald trump as he runs against the former president. you are watching "andrea mitchell reports" only on msnbc. a mitchell reports" only on msnbc.

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the party's eventual nominee. he did not rule out a pardon for mr. trump if he is tried and convicted. >> i believe anyone who puts themselves over the constitution should never be president of the united states. [ applause ] anyone who asks someone else to put them over the constitution should never be president of the united states again. >> you spent a lot of time here and earlier today explaining why you think that the former president did not uphold his oath to the constitution. then how can you say you would support him if he is the nominee? >> because i don't think donald trump is going to be the nominee. >> what if he is? >> i don't think he is going to be the nominee. >> joining me now, dasha burns in iowa, jonathan lemire and eugene daniels.

dasha, mike pence is coming out stronger against donald trump but he is being careful. >> reporter: we saw a really interesting strategy play out over the last 24 hours when it comes to mike pence. his speech yesterday was a pretty spicy one. that's not a word i would typically use to describe mike pence. he was the sharpest he has been when it comes to his attacks on his former boss. as you just played there, he sort of later hedged his words on some aspects of the former president's leadership. he elevated some of what he did during the trump administration. he touted the administration's success while trying to strike a contrast with former president trump. the area that is most interesting to me, he spent a lot of time on january 6. he knows -- the team knows that this is the day that hangs over his candidacy, potentially hangs over his entire legacy in the

republican party. there seems to be an understanding that the only way out is through. they have to tackle january 6 head on and speak directly to the voters about what he believes he did that day. today, his superpac released an ad that goes directly to that day, calls donald trump weak and really tries to turn what could be his biggest liability into an asset on the campaign trail. time will tell how that will play with voters. he plans to go heavy on iowa. this is the place where he has the best shot at really gaining momentum. he is headed to this pizza ranch. he plans to make a stop at all 71 pizza ranches in the state. it's pretty much iowa or bust for this candidate. the messaing on january 6 and his contrast with the former president while threading that needle, it's going to be interesting to see how that plays. >> jonathan, i want to play more

of mike pence from last night. this is pence speaking out against indicting donald trump. >> indicting a former president sends a terrible message to the world. i hope the doj thinks better of it. >> i want to clarify. you are saying if they believe he committed a crime, they should not go forward with an indictment? you just talked before about committing to the rule of law. >> no one is above the law. >> if donald trump is convicted of a crime and you are elected president, would you pardon him? >> i don't want to speak about hypotheticals. >> jonathan, what do you make of this? >> first of all, i'm impressed mike pence will go to all 70 plus pizza ranches. i hope he has a workout routine that goes along with that campaign plan. i think this was reflective of how pence has a very, very

delicate balancing act he has to perform. he doesn't want to completely alienate trump or his supporters. at the same time, he is trying to make the point he is his own man and speaking strongly, defends what he did on january 6. his pledge to say he would support trump if trump is the nominee, he has to say that. in order to get on the republican debate stage, all of the candidates need to give this pledge that they would support the eventual nominee. whether it's trump or not. there's nothing holding him to that pledge later in the election. that's an empty promise. they all need to say versions of that. in term what was pence is doing here, this is an example, he is trying to take the temperature down by saying he wouldn't hope that trump is not indicted. at the same time, elsewhere in the interview, he said he would not offer pardons to any january 6 rioter, which goes in contrast

to what trump and ron desantis said. this is going to be hard for pence to pull off. at this point, he is a significant long shot. they think it is the only path they have. >> eugene, ron desantis is defending flying migrants to california, acknowledging the migrants were from florida. he was at the arizona border yesterday saying that the problem is, quote, probably as bad as it has been. numbers are way down. the biden administration points out migrant arrests have dropped by 70% since title 42 expired. >> that's right. you have all of these candidates trying to find ways to make their lanes cleaner. you have ron desantis going to the border talking about this and admitting he did what we had heard from lots of reporting that he had done, because ron desantis continues to see the fight against the culture wars,

the fight against immigration, very important to his campaign. he can differentiate himself from the other candidates. he made it clear he doesn't seem as scared to go against donald trump in the last few weeks. also, he is the only person in the race that has used the power of the governorship to fight these culture wars. using the tools of the state in order to do that. that's something only he can say he has done. he with will keep seeing that from him. back on pence and chris christie, who announced this week as well, both of these men are people who are defined by their connection to donald trump. what they won't receive is points for being with him and now no points for being against him. donald trump. i can bet that's something both of them will have an issue contending with. there's only 10 to 15% of the trump party never trump and they are not jumping to these two men for representation for that side

of the party. >> jonathan, eugene, thanks to you and thanks to dasha before. the top republican on the house oversight committee, representatives james comer, has canceled plans for the contempt vote against fbi director chris wray, after the fbi agreed to allow all committee members access to a redacted document alleging a bribe to joe biden when he was vice president, an allegation that was never substantiated according to a senior law enforcement officials. joining me is capitol hill correspondent ali vitali and former assistant fbi director frank. my understanding the speaker would not let him go to the floor with a contempt vote? >> it's interesting that you say that, andrea, in part because the speaker can't let him go to the floor with a contempt vote because the floor is paralyzed due to a revolt within the republican party, but even putting that aside, when i spoke with speaker mccarthy a few days ago when condepartment was on

the table, mccarthy said he was open to moving on the contempt referral as soon as it passed out of committee. you're right, we expected that to happen this morning and late last night the committee, through james comer, said the contempt vote was off their docket because they were able to review this document. that's what they've been doing all day now, down in that senate house scif area, the classified area they're able to view these documents in, and we've seen members coming and out throughout the day talking about what they saw in that document and while contempt might be off the table today and this week, what some of them have said on the republican side is, contempt is not off the table forever but they view this as a win. >> and frank, what is your read of the claims that a bribe was made, chairman comber saying there was a bribe in the document, senator grassley saying so. we've heard quite a different version of this from the democrats on the committee? >> senator grassley, of course,

also said publicly that he wasn't concerned about whether or not the allegation was accurate or not. he wanted the document in hand. i think that tells us volumes about what this is really about. look, let's recall here that a republican, trump appointed attorney general, barr, handed this allegation, which appears to have come from a tranche of documents brought back from ukraine by rudy giuliani, handed it to a republican appointed u.s. attorney in pittsburgh, told him to look at it, look at the allegation. it came back as not credible, which barr agreed to. so what's really going on here is not so much the idea that fbi didn't fully investigate or is covering something up about biden, but rather, a battle of wills about whether or not this oversight committee can get anything it ever asked for from the fbi and the fbi director saying i have an obligation to protect the institution's confidential source program. if you're asking me to provide you this document that's unredacted, with the source's

names and other people's names exposed through public sight, i can't promise any confidential source that we're going to preserve their identity moving forward. i think this is win-win, quite frankly. now they've got a look at the document. they don't physically have it to wave it around like a prop. they'll interpret it as they see politically fit for each of them. >> frank, how troubling is this ongoing push to undermine the fbi and justice department including mike pence saying we need equal treatment under the laws as it relates to donald trump? >> yeah. well ali referenced it. this isn't likely the last time we'll see this staredown between oversight committees and the fbi. it's attempt by a thousand cuts of the fbi. they seem intent on he eroding the fbi's ability to do it's job. it's fairly transparent to most americans the ire is up because the fbi is the institution investigating their guy, donald trump, with the special counsel,

perhaps investigating some of them, the members of the oversight committee. so it's understandable that this is political action, but it has real life implications in the fbi's mission and their ability to really secure the nation. >> and ali, there's a mu tiny on the floor by the freedom caucus, angry about the debt ceiling deal and not allowed anything to go on the floor. the house is basically frozen. >> exactly. house is in a state of paralysis and has been since earlier this week. we thought coming into this week that republicans were going to be able to move forward with a series of bills that would protect and save gas stoves so a real messaging bill for the base. instead, when they tried to move on to that to do the procedural vote that would be required in order to move on to the actual vote on protecting an saving gas stoves there was a surprise revolt to leadership and 11 house freedom caucus members voted against the rule, thusly paralyzing the entire floor and it's why they're not in session

and coming back monday when they hope to try again. >> ali and frank, thanks to both of you. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." follow us on-line on facebook and on twitter @mitchell reports. "chris jansing reports" starts after this short break. arts after this short break get a pri. so you can do more than connect your business, you can make it even smarter. now ports can know where every piece of cargo is. and where it's going. (dock worker) right on time. (vo) robots can predict breakdowns and order their own replacement parts. (foreman) nice work. (vo) and retailers can get ahead of the fashion trend of the day with a new line tomorrow. with a verizon private 5g network, you can get more agility and security. giving you more control of your business. we call this enterprise intelligence. from the network america relies on. [♪♪] if you have diabetes, it's important to have confidence in the nutritional drink you choose. try boost glucose control®. it's clinically shown to help manage blood sugar levels and contains high quality protein to help manage hunger and support muscle health.

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