we begin today. good morning, everybody. i'm yasmin vossoughian from msnbc world headquarters. i'm in for alex witt here. we begin with the republican presidential contest heating up. with the two nomination conventions heating up. caucus is taking place in missouri and idaho.

the candidates are out on the, stop with several rallies planned. nikki haley is speaking today and raleigh, north carolina. donald trump also will speak in greensboro, north carolina and rich burn, virginia. a new poll of registered voters showing president joe biden facing political headwinds. trailing both trump and haley in hypothetical match ups. even as a majority of voters say they think trump has committed serious federal crimes, as haley expresses doubt about what trump would do during a potential second term in the oval office. >> do you think donald trump would follow the constitution if he was elected to a second term? >> i don't know. i don't know. i, mean you always want to thank someone will, but i don't know. you know, when you go in and you talk about revenge, when you go and you talk about vindication, when you go and

talk about, what does that mean? like, i don't know what that means. only he can answer for that. >> trump is capped off a week of legal maneuvers in his push to delay his federal criminal trials until after the election. the showdown over those trial dates is looming large as the supreme court's intervening in a d.c. january 6th case. with no final decision in florida after a day of hearings there, in the mar-a-lago classified documents case, just yesterday, the analysts were standing by to go over today's developments. i want to first go to ryan riley, nbc news contributor and author of the book's hunters, how january 6th broke the justice system. and dan ehrenberg, attorney and palm beach county. thank you so much, ryan, start us off with florida and what it came to -- that is nothing. we thought we were gang gonna end the day with a date set and or judge cannon was going to

say it's indefinitely delayed because of what's pending in the supreme court hearings, april 22nd. neither of those happened. there was a date proposed by jack smith's team of july eight. trump's team said august 12th, but really, we don't want to happen until after the election. where are we on things? >> it seemed like a lot of people had written off this trial potentially happening before the election, given the judges maneuvering here previously. her previous rulings, you know, in this, case just the entire way they approach this case has left people skeptical about what actually happened before the election. they thought maybe this could get on the books like what happened with the other jack smith case given that that's going to get bumped back. you know, i think the trump team pretty reluctantly brought forward that august date potentially.

but i was skeptical about that actually being operational, if they're actually going to get -- before the actual election here. >> i would echo that sentiment, considering i was in palm beach yesterday. with, that dave, i'm coming to you spending some time in your neck of the woods. so, there was talk of the 60-day rule. just for folks to really understand what this is, it was in court yesterday, urging prosecutors that -- could affect the outcome of the election. jay brad -- brett had gone through this with the doj. this was not about a trial. this is about, essentially, an indictment. the indictment, for instance, were to be brought before the former president at the 60-day margin before the election, that would be problematic in influencing the election. but going to trial does not apply to this rule. >> correct. it was great having you in our

community, yasmin, please come back and spend your dollars there. >> it was great. nice and warm. >> very warm, very nice. but don't expect to see the mar- a-lago documents case to be tried before this election. and that was never going to happen once judge cannon was assigned the case, she's, knew she's inexperienced, she's given a lot of rulings in the past -- a complex matter, dealing with federal law involving classified documents. this thing was always going to be slow walked by the new experienced judge. as much as the doj wants this to go, and the fact that jey brad said, we will try, it even six days before the election, it really is up to the judge. the judge gets loss of discretion on the calendar. this ain't happening. which, is a shame, because as a prosecutor, this is the strongest case against donald trump. >> i found it interesting that there was a moment in court yesterday, david, which trump's attorneys said okay, the fbi is part of the prosecution team. the prosecution team stood up

and said yeah, the fbi is part of the team. they were the ones who initially sees the documents. so that is kind of part of the course as to how we operate within our justice system. they went one step further though, they alleged the entire intelligence community is part of the prosecution's team. and the person who is in the courtroom for us said that it seemed like if judge cannon was possibly thinking about holding a hearing over this very accusation, can you talk to the merit of an accusation made like that? >> this is the stuff that team trump says on right-wing media. this is for the public opinion. in a court of law, it gets dismissed, it gets rejected. when you're dealing with the judge, and judge cannon was bent over backwards to accommodate donald trump every step of the way, and as, such i'm not surprised she wants to have another hearing about it. other judges would have never had a hearing or rejected it

outright. but this is what i mean by judge cannon slow walking, give donald trump every bit of deference to delay and delay this matter. that was up to trump he would set this trial for the 31st of never wary. but at some point it has to be tried. it won't be tried before the election though. and you saw clearly exactly why judge cannon is not trying this anytime soon. >> reporter: we've had this conversation a lot, and that, is why does donald trump show up to these hearings when he doesn't need to? he's gonna have to be in new york for six weeks or so when they are overseeing the hush money case. but he didn't have to be here and he was. and i certainly took note of the fact that when he arrived he was waving, he had lots of supporters there, they were chanting trump, trump, trump. i'm sure that gave him an ego boost emits it all. it was, as it's always, been somewhat of a campaign stop for him. i want to play some of the possible explanations to why the former president decided to show up yesterday.

i will have you react to this. >> he was there the entire time, basically as a compliment or a wave to her. i think he recognizes that most of the litigating world where -- you, know she's really gone out of her way we and it got hurt rebuked by the 11th circuit, to favor trump in these proceedings. i think he wanted to repay the favor by showing up. >> it's interesting, it's speaking, dave, to what you are just talking about. but when you look at the trials of judge kaplan, overseeing the e. jean carroll case and judge engoron, when it comes to the case in which now the former president has to pay $450 million plus, there was a lot of outpour from those courtrooms. there was a lot of talk back in those courtrooms as well. there were gag orders in those courtrooms, even for this day in which the former president had to sit all day.

he sat very calmly. he did not speak back at all. what do you make of this explanation? >> he understands that because he used to work for donald trump, trump is transactional. trump, for example, in his words about the supreme court, he said look, those are my justices. i appointed them. i'm sure they'll do the right thing. he does believe that you give something and you get something in return. he appointed judge cannon. so, yeah i think the reason why he showed up in judge cannon's chambers was just to be there to remind her that hey, i'm the one who appointed. you he didn't have to say it out loud. he's hoping for great deference from the judge. so far she has given him a lot of that. now, as far as other doctors, he may show up to play to the court of public opinion where he goes outside and blasts the judge as being a liberal democrat who is out to get me, each judge he treats differently. interestingly, not surprisingly, the one judge he has never condemned, never criticized is judge cannon. >> quickly, try, and i want to

talk about this d.c. election case. we are now going to be with hearing about the oral arguments on april 22nd, the hearing on that on the immunity appeal. it is really going to push this timeline way down the road. what is the likelihood this thing even goes before the election at this point? >> it's really tight. the biggest holdup is frankly that judge chutkan, when she first schedule this, set out this idea that she was going to give the trump team a full seven months to prepare. basically, that froze the timeline where the appeal took place in december. essentially, whenever this ultimate ruling comes down, if it does, they say that the president is not a king and he doesn't serve blanket immunity for trying to overturn the results of an election to stay in power. as i think most legal minds expect of the supreme court ultimately to do in some fashion. that means that the 88 days is going to start then. so then it really becomes more complicated, about whether or not chutkan can shorten that or whether or not he can's guinea

down this case. there is also the question of the four charges that he is facing, two of those charges are also sort of pending before the supreme court in terms of the instruction charged. that's a charge that is also apply to a lot of january six defendants overall. more than 300. so i think that, you know, that's a complex part of this too. theoretically there is a world in which they really narrow this down and ultimately only go with two of the four charges going forward. trying to speed this up, bring down that window of how long they need for the prosecution team. but i think that, you know, this is really up against the wall here before november. >> yeah, to say the least. nbc's ryan riley, thank, you dave aaron, thank you as well. later on this hour, folks, we are going to talk about us real moment during yesterday's fani willis hearing. it involves lawyers for the donald trump defendants using michael isikoff and dan clayton 's new book, michael was watching it all unfold on television and he's going to explain what the attorneys got so wrong later on this hour. up next, new aid for gaza,

raining down from the sky today. some key questions need to be asked about this. why airdrops? why did it take so long? we're back in just a 60 seconds. ef agility. fir (marquis) with a custom private 5g network. our customers get what they want, when they want it. (jen) now we're even smarter and ready for what's next. (vo) achieve enterprise intelligence. it's your vision, it's your verizon. why choose a sleep number smart bed? can it keep me warm when i'm cold?

wait. no i'm always hot. sleep number does that. now, save up to $1,000 on select sleep number smart beds. plus, special financing. shop now at sleepnumber.com breaking news u.s. military planes today making the first airdrop of humanitarian aid into gaza as famine looms amongst the population. the emergency aid is coming as questions loom over the killing of 100 palestinians at an eight gone boy in gaza city on thursday. israeli forces are accused of opening fire on a crowd, hoping to get food. let's bring in nbc's matt bradley who's in london for us with the very latest on this. matt, if you can, what do you know about this first round of drops? >> yasmin, the u.s. officials have said that this was done in cooperation with the jordanians. they've been conducting their own eight drops into gaza ever since early november.

so according to u.s. central command, it was three transport planes that delivered 38,000 meals. these are much needed supplies, yasmin, the gaza strip has already been suffering from what age agencies call famine. we saw incredible desperation among palestinians. many international organizations contributed to the stampede and israeli mass shooting in gaza two days ago you just mentioned. the death toll, for that instance, it is going up to 118. it is still the most single lethal incident about -- against civilly and since this began. now aid agencies have also been saying that this american a drop is not enough. some even warned of the lying on a drops, which the aid community considers expensive and inefficient, normally just used as a last resort. they become a distraction to what they say should be the real diplomatic goal, which is getting israel and egypt to stop their siege on gaza, and lift their let blockade and let in much larger amounts of aid.

president biden said yesterday that more aid is on the way, here's what he told reporters. >> the truth is, aid flowing to gaza is nowhere near enough. now, -- innocent lives are on the line, and children's lives are on the line. we will stand -- we will not stand by [inaudible] we should get hundreds of trucks in. >> yasmin, israel's limits on food aid are becoming a worsening problem in gaza. the u.n. has not been able to get aid into northern gaza for more than a week. yasmin? >> can you talk to me about where we are with hostage negotiations? >> that's a big story, president biden said last week that he hoped the deal will be finished by monday, two days from now. just today, nbc news heard from egyptian officials who said that high level delegations from hamas and israel will visit cairo tomorrow to discuss the deal that might see a 40- day pause in the fighting over

the holy month of ramadan. the deal could see the release of israeli hostages and palestinian prisoners. but yasmin, these negotiations have been going on for months. they've seen a lot of false dogs. yasmin? >> matt bradley for. us thank, you matt, we appreciated. we want to bring in democratic congressman, we madeleine dean, a member of the house foreign committee. thank you for joining us on this. let's start with these airdrops , if we can. usually airdrops are used in situations in which to avoid hostile actors. technically, israel is an ally of the united states. people in gaza desperately need this aid right now. is there a sense that the president is somewhat losing a grip on his influence over prime minister bibi netanyahu by using these -- instead of

getting more trucks into gaza or humanitarian aid? >> i don't think so it all. what i think is that it's a recognition of the desperation on the ground. mr. netanyahu has been dishonest about it. i happen to just come back from israel. we were in tel aviv, we were in the west bank. we were in jerusalem. we met with officials from unrwa, who were on the ground and gaza we, had a meeting with them. these airdrops are so critically important. but they cannot replace what is desperately needed, and what mr. netanyahu is responsible for delivering, and that is the hundreds of trucks of aid. take a look at what happened, 118 people dead, desperate people trying to get food. what we met with the head of unrwa in rafah, where he was, he said that three days that week, no trucks got through. he said we were out of everything. we did not have a single thing left to distribute.

and we asked, how many trucks a day do you need? he said we should be having 600 trucks a day. 300 for commercial purposes. 300 trucks for humanitarian aid, including unrwa. it is unconscionable what is going on in gaza. these people, the palestinian people, they are trapped and desperate. and mr. netanyahu and his coalition must fix this now. that is why i have called what this -- for a bilateral cease- fire. the suffering has to end. the humanitarian aid needs to come in. the hostages must come home. dead and alive, sadly. mr. netanyahu needs to come to the table and make that happen. >> how do you make sure the president puts more pressure on netanyahu? how do you make sure that netanyahu and his conservative cabinet listen? >> well, i believe the

president is already working very hard on this, but to your point, what do we do as legislators? we deliver a statement, the six of, us we just returned from israel, we deliver a statement to call for a two-state solution, to call for an end in hostilities with and -- on the ground. the unrest folks and the u.n. folks described incredible desperation, famine, people eating animal feed, if they can get it. going back into their destroyed homes to try to reclaim bags of flour, sacks of flour, if they can get it. trying to clean through filthy rice, if they can get it. it is unconscionable what is going on. i also, yesterday, called the white house and spoke to a representative there, a chief counselor of the president. just to convey the serious things. and she assured me, and i know this to be true, from speaking with the president and secretary

blinken and others, the president believes the very same thing. he will continue to do the efforts -- >> but why not outright say it? why aren't we hearing more from the president? from the secretary of state for netanyahu to stop? to allow this humanitarian aid in? in addition to the airdrops, why hasn't their language changed more consequentially? >> i don't know the answer with -- obviously you'd have to ask the white house that, except i've spoken with the diplomatic secretary -- secretary blinken. they respect the diplomatic effort. what has to happen here is a future, a two-state solution for two peoples with not just security, but also dignity. what i believe is, the president is using his diplomatic fort to

travel to the region, to work with the region, because this end of hostilities is not just going to be between mr. netanyahu and hamas, it has to be a regional peace. it has to be structured. peace and security for both peoples. in the meantime, mr. netanyahu is killing innocent civilians, indiscriminately killing innocent civilians and keeping them in southern gaza, where they have no outlet and insufficient food, water and everything else. >> so you are watching this humanitarian devastation happening in gaza. we and then we see how it is affecting what is happening here at home, the political fight ahead that president biden has for -- michigan -- i sudden with others there. all of them told me they were gonna vote uncommitted. we saw what happened in the michigan primary because of that. two of them told me there is no way they can vote for president

biden for reelection in november. they're not voting for trump but they also can't pull the lever for biden because of his stance on israel and gaza. these are people that lost family members in gaza. how worried are you about this policy affecting his reelection bid? >> i'm less concerned about the politics of. it i'm more concerned about the humanity. this president gets the humanity. he gets the need for peace and security and humanitarian aid and hostages. this election is going to be a referendum on character. we have one candidate, the president biden, a man of extraordinary character. it's going to be a referendum -- we know the person on the other side has little to no character. it's always going to be a referendum on our freedoms. on our standing in the world. can you imagine where we would be if president trump were in office at this time? this extraordinary global

turmoil? ukraine, the middle east, we might have a scene at lafayette square where protesters on any side, any of these issues would be threatened with horses, police on horses or gas. so i know that this election cycle is going to be about leadership and character and president biden will win. >> congresswoman madeleine dean, thank you so much. >> can i do one personal privilege. >> of course. >> just to lighten it up, happy birthday to my big brother, chris. thank you. >> happy birthday, chris! enjoy your day. thank you, congresswoman. we appreciate. it way to lighten it up. thank you for that. a massive storm, everybody, is burying parts of the west. imagine 2 to 4 inches of snow every hour for days and days. more pictures, up next. helph hi protein, complete nutrition you need...

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welcome back everybody. breaking news out west. california's sierra nevada is buried under a rare relentless blizzard with 10 to 12 feet, yes, feet expected in some mountain areas. half 1 million people under blizzard warnings. this visibility is near zero, causing 100 miles of highway in the nevada state line to close for poor conditions. the weather service is warning of avalanche dangers from tomorrow afternoon. steve patterson is on the ground for us in truckee, california. this is not, by the way, steve, going to be a quick storm. people are really hunkering down there for the long haul. >> reporter: yes, and they really have to, yasmin. the thing about this storm is that it is relentless. the most harrowing part about all of this is not necessarily everything you just listed, although all of that is a problem, it's not necessarily the temperatures, the speed, or even the totals, it is the stamina. it is the fact that, if you wipe off your car, no matter how long you go into your

house, there is going to be fresh snow. it is just nonstop. we're hearing now that there are places where there's 3 to 5 inches every hour, since this storm started. it -- there's really no signs of it slowing down. here's what we found, take a look. >> this morning, relentless waves of wind whipped snow, pounding the california sierra's. the national weather service issuing a rare blizzard warning for the region, with life- threatening bank blankets of blinding whiteout on the road. the interstate, already shutting down after accidents like this big rig in truckee. cars and trucks stranded on interstate 80, with 100 miles of roads closed by the california highway patrol. >> if you don't have to travel, do not. skiing, snowboarding, sledding, it's not that important. your lives are way more important. can see anywhere from 5 to 10 feet of snow with more than 12 feet of snow, gusting in at over 100 miles per hour

in the mountains. >> it's going to be the storm of the winter so far. so we're just gonna hunker down. >> this -- it's no fun for anybody. you can't sleigh, you can't ski. >> several ski resorts shutting down lifts. yosemite national park closed until at least sunday. local residents preparing to be snowed in four days. >> generators, lanterns, flashlights, batteries, anything that you can think of that somebody would need for a power outage or a severe storm, they're common in for it. >> at its worst, officials warn of 2 to 4 inches of snow every hour for days. >> this one is a 96 hour cycle. so it is really going to affect us in the next 24 to 48 hours. >> this morning, an entire region, bracing for impact. >> i just got off the phone with officials from the transportation department. i can tell you that interstate 80, the major artery in the mountain region, is still mostly shut down. about 100 miles from here, all the way to the sierra's. locally, you, know who -- we

see them with big plows trying to keep up with this. the problem, is it just keeps coming. >> that is a lot of snow. steve patterson for us. thank you, steve. we appreciate it. all right, so what if you wrote a book about one of donald trump's legal cases? then a trump attorney held up your book and mentioned it in court. it happened to my next guest. the one and only, michael isikoff, author of find me the votes. joins me to talk about this next.

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democrats agree. conservative republican steve garvey is the wrong choice for the senate. ...our republican opponent here on this stage has voted for donald trump twice. mr. garvey, you voted for him twice... as your own man, what is your decision? garvey is wrong for california. but garvey's surging in the polls. fox news says garvey would be a boost to republican control of the senate. stop garvey. adam schiff for senate. i'm adam schiff, and i approve this message.

the clock is ticking with a new timeline in place. superior court judge, scott mcafee, saying he will decide in the next couple of weeks, the next two to be exact, whether willis will be disqualified after closing arguments on friday. if willis, who was in the courtroom yesterday, is removed, it could completely up and the georgia election case against the former president. joining me next is michael isikoff, author of find me the votes, a hard charging georgia prosecutor, a rogue president in the plot to steal american election. looks like you have another book on your hands as well. for -- the last couple of weeks or so. let me just ask you, were you surprised to see your book cited yesterday? then we will get into the details of how it may have not necessarily been accurate. >> look, this is not the first time the trump lawyers have waved around a copy of fine made the votes.

happy to see, it it's great for business. but that said, they keep misquoting in the book, they are misstating it. the reason it came off yesterday was, mr. mcdougal, the lawyer for jeffrey clark, one of the defendants in this case, quoted from the book jacket that we had exclusive access to thousands of internal documents, text messages, audio recordings and other material, trying to imply that fani willis or the district attorney's office had provided us this exclusive access from grand jury material and other investigative files. completely wrong. they obviously did not read the book closely because if they checked chapter six, it is quite clear where this material came from. it is from sources we at the south carolina plantation, owned by lynnwood, one of the -- where a lot of the trump

lawyers, sidney powell, others including michael flynn, were gathering, concocting these wild conspiracy theories that were then used by trump and his lawyers to promote their stop the steal project. it had nothing to do with fani willis. it was quite significant, there are audio recordings that we have in the book. >> michael -- i want to pause for a moment. the fight the fact that you expertly explained the information, the way and when it was presented by the attorney, harry mcdougal, i want to play it for folks to remind them of how this all went down, the quoting of your book, then we'll come back. >> sure. >> the second conflict is her political ambition, for which she was -- judgment bernie. that is also present in this book. the inside flap of this book says, they were given, quote, exclusive access to thousands of

secret documents, emails, text messages, and audio recordings. the court has twice tonight the motions to unseal special purpose grand jury materials. she helped herself to get the glory of this book. >> so, you are watching this moment at home, i assume? or you heard about it? >> no, i was watching it in realtime. you know, again, great to see him waving around the book, but totally misrepresenting the contents. this is not the first time they've done it. you know, two weeks ago in one of the hearings they waved around the book, trying to imply that there is a passage in the book that fani willis was in financial straits when she became dea, and therefore she had this incentive to give this lucrative contract to nathan wade, who then reimbursed her by taking her on these lavish trips. in fact, the passage they were

quoting from referred to fani willis's financial issues in 2018, two years earlier, and she gets a judgeship, on her law practice picks up. by the time she ran for dea she was not in financial straits at all. so once again, they misstated the book. but again, i'm glad they are calling attention to it. hopefully it will encourage some people to actually read it and see how they are getting so much stuff wrong in their presentation. >> in your book you talk about the choice that fani willis made in choosing weighed. you talk about how he was the third or so choice for this role, after people like the former governor, roy barnes, and others, they turned down this job because of potential threats. when you talk more about what you learned and how it was that he came on this roll? >> absolutely. it is pretty important, because

it sort of undercuts the entire premise of what the trump lawyers are arguing here. that there was this corrupt bargain, by which fani willis decided, calculated, from the beginning, they use that word -- calculated -- to get the job to nathan wade, so he could get paid a lot of money from the taxpayers of fulton county, then we take her on all these trips. in fact, as we report in the book, fani willis had trouble getting anybody to take this job because of the heightened atmosphere and threats, encouraged by donald trump from the start. roy barnes is quoted in her book saying that he did not want to take the job because, hypothetically speaking, he tells us, do you want to have a bodyguard following you around for the rest of your life? he then gave exactly that same testimony under oath, when he

was called as a witness. -- another highly regarded federal prosecutor, who she reached out to, really wanted him to take the job, again, because his wife was concerned about threats to their family, he did not take it. so the idea of that this was a calculated decision to enrich nathan wade for the purpose of helping fani willis out, taking her on trips, it's undercut by the fact, as laid out in the book. >> with that in mind, 20 seconds or so, michael, what are your predictions? >> hard to say. i think the judge showed some skepticism that the trump lawyers and -- they had shown a real conflict of interest here. but he was also open to the idea of doing this on appearance of a conflict standard, which is a much loosey-goosey or standard. you know, it's hard to say.

the judge has been pretty poker face throughout this. we're gonna have to wait for his opinion. >> michael isikoff, thank you so much, we appreciate it. the next big date on the political calendar is creeping up on us. what to look for tuesday night, coming up.

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in massachusetts -- nikki haley is vowing to fight on >> we had 14 people in the race. we defeated a dozen of the fellas. i just have one more i've got to catch up to. >> republicans in three other states are weighing in on whom they want as their nominee. there are caucuses in missouri, idaho, nominating conventions in michigan as well. several porters in place covering all of the campaigns for. as they join us now first. i want to go to nbc shaq in grand rapids, michigan. shaq, great to talk to you. michigan is holding a nominating convention to award the remaining 39 delegates after trump obviously won the primary on tuesday. what is the latest there? when are we going to get these results? >> yes, the process is still going on right now. people are still casting ballots. both at the presidential level and for a party visits. i want to send you inside one of the rooms.

this is district to, there are plenty rooms going on throughout this entire process. you can see that these are -- there's not much suspense over the delicate allocation that will come out of this. this is a pro trump group of people. he is expected to -- the party chair says he's expected to get the mass majority of the delegates to come out today. the true suspense was in whether or not this was happening in the first place. and the divide that you're seeing with the state republican party, there were multiple conventions that were to happen, one in detroit, one here and it goes into who is actually leading the republican party in the state of michigan. the question was whether the divide would actually overtake the suspense or the question of the delicate allegation for some it was the dominating factor, for others it wasn't. listen to what the delegates told me. >> i don't see this convention of the first district as legitimate one. trict as the chairman of the convention

lawfully, and that is where the convention is. >> that is the thing, right? it doesn't matter what hoax this party is part of. trump's going to get in. it doesn't matter, it's nonsense to me. >> reporter: a bunch of nonsense. i never heard anyone describe politics like that before. bottom line, again, the vast majority of allocate -- delegates will be allocated today. we'll see how many delegates donald trump won from this thing. >> reporter: i am surprised, shaq, that you've never heard anybody else describe politics in that way. i actually don't believe you. nbc's, shaq for us, thank, you shaq. we want to go now to nbc's greg hyatt with the haley campaign in north carolina, talk about what's going on there. haley forging ahead through super tuesday, despite not winning a single state so far. how is she now making her case to voters? are they still showing up for her? >> reporter: good afternoon,

yasmin. and yes, voters are still showing up for former governor, nikki haley. here in raleigh, north carolina, she had a big crowd. probably around 800 people. she had a big crowd yesterday in charlotte. she's had big crowds as she continues to crisscross a lot of super tuesday states. the message she's telling voters, yasmin, is that she is quite literally the only republican candidate that is standing in the way of another trump ascendancy to the gop nomination. you hear the sense of frustration from gop voters who are looking for that new alternative, or as nikki haley likes to say, the new conservative generational leader. someone who's younger, someone who can serve potentially eight years, two terms. where as president trump could only do one term, at four years. even governor haley is talking about the contrast of leadership. she says the republican party is a transition under trump, it laments on some of the losses that took place under trump and other local elections. earlier today in raleigh she mentioned that certain things that trump is stating on the campaign trail are, quote, not

normal. take a listen. >> it is not normal to have all of these worse around the world. it's not normal under donald trump to sit there and mock the military. it's not normal under donald trump to side with the terrorists over our allies. it's not normal for donald trump to spend campaign contributions on his own personal court cases. it is not normal for joe biden to call opponents fascists and for donald trump to call his opponents vermin. none of this is normal. >> reporter: and as they say, in politics, yasmin, the show will continue to go on through at least super tuesday for governor haley's campaign. later on this evening, she will be in massachusetts, holding a rally just outside of boston. tomorrow she will continue in the new england area, hitting maine and vermont. on monday, she will hold two events in texas and then, according to governor haley compress -- herself, on super tuesday when voters are voting across the country, she will actually be in south carolina. and that is where we stand so far with the governor haley campaign.

>> greg hyatt for us, thank you, greg. we appreciate. it will he or won't he? the big questions about president biden's upcoming state of the union address. we'll be right back.

following this breaking news everybody, u.s. military dropping 66 bundles containing 38,000 meals into gaza. it's coming just days after a deadly attack in northern gaza that killed more than 100 people seeking aid. we want to bring in peter baker msnbc political analyst and correspondent for the new york times. peter, great to talk to. you take me inside the white house, if you can, and the recording you have on how they decided to drop this aid now. >> well, the fact that they have been meaning to do this for a long time, for a lot of reasons, there are a lot of drop backs to this idea that you first of all have to deconflict airspace with the israelis. you have to be careful that your drop shipments don't hit

somebody or hurt somebody on the ground. if you don't have them on the ground to distribute them, it's chaotic. more importantly, it doesn't deliver as much, in terms of humanitarian aid, as trucks do. they have not wanted to do this up until now. given the resistance to getting more trucks in, they're only getting several dozen a day, given the killing of 100 people just the other day, the humanitarian supply mission in northern gaza, they decided they had to at least give it an effort. it's more symbolic than it is substantive, because there's only so much you can do from the air. but they want to show the world, and they certainly want to show the people in gaza that they care, that they're doing everything they can to help alleviate the suffering right now. >> picking up on some of what you just, said did they have organized support on the ground in gaza? you're talking about this humanitarian effort in which 100 people were killed because they were rushing for food. in part because they were rushing for food.

they have an organized effort to deal with this drop on the ground? >> that is the problem, right? the u.n. agencies that normally would be there on the ground to do this kind of thing aren't there right. now they are not considered to be safe. so if there is not the infrastructure that you often have with these kinds of combat zone situations or humanitarian disasters sewn situations to be dealing with it. so they're doing what they can in an ad hoc way, as best they can. this administration official was saying that this is not the ideal way to handle. it what they want is israel to open up more quarters and to allow more trucks in to have a more organized way of getting food and supplies to the 2 million people in gaza right now. >> so we don't know if there was a behind the scenes negotiation with the israeli government to say, this is when it's happening, so could you at least cause you're fighting for this two hour, three hour period when we drop this aid? we don't know if anything like that happened? >> i don't have any reporting on. that but i have to imagine that

they did deconfliction with the air assets that israel has. obviously nobody wants there to be an accident because of a misunderstanding of what an american plane or jordanian plane entered into the airspace there. i have to imagine they have coordinated in that regard. >> let's look ahead at the state of the union. i know there's a lot of pressure put on the president to call for a cease-fire. democrats getting on board with this. i just spoke to madalline dean early on in the hour. aoc calling for the president to call for an all-out cease- fire in his state of the union remarks. any possibility he could get even close to this? >> well, look, he used the c word, use the cease-fire word last week in new york while waiting for a temporary cease- fire as part of a deal to release the hostages as early as the end of this weekend, we are in this weekend right now and there's no sign that that is going to happen. so whatever he thought was going to happen last monday when

he made those comments, at this point anyway, it does not seem likely to be the timeframe that he outlined. so before thursday, when he delivered the state of the union address, obviously if there is a deal, that is better for him in that regard. but if there is not one, i don't think you will hear him talk about a permanent cease- fire or an enduring cease-fire. he may talk about a need for a set temporary cease-fire as part of the deal to at least -- release the hostages. he has now crossed that line, in a sense. but he has resisted the idea of an all-out cease-fire that has been -- a lot of people in his own party wanted him to call for. >> peter baker, thank you, sir. appreciate it. welcome to alex witt reports. i'm yasmin vossoughian, in for my friend, alex. we're going to start with this breaking it