air defenses were ready because american troops could be a potential target if iran was going to retaliate. now, ali, almost as important as the strike itself is what both israel and iran are saying about it. at this point, it is really noticeable. the iranians appear to be down-playing what happened in the early hours of this morning. the iranian military saying the explosions people heard were the sounds of explosions going off. they're saying there was no major or significant damage inside iran. and state media is actually being kind of mocking. there's one meme going around on iranian channels basically showing a small hole in the dirt, a laughably small hole, a couple of inches. and they're saying, look, this was israel's response. so that is telling the iranians

are down-playing this. they are not at this point pointing the finger at israel. they are not at this point promising revenge. we are expecting to hear the iranians speaking fairly shortly. this is preplanned speech. it's not specifically in response to this strike, so we'll be closely monitoring that. in terms of israel, they are not officially claiming responsibility one way or another there are no plans of address from netanyahu and no official comment from the israeli government and israeli military. and that, too, is really telling. it feels like the israelis are trying to give iran space to not escalate this further. they're not trying to rub iran's face in this. they're not crowing, not claiming victory. so you have this kind of war of words playing out on top of the actual strike itself, so at this moment despite those iranian threats we've been hearing all week that any iisraeli attack would be met with massive

retaliation, it does not look like iran is trying to escalate, and here inside the idf is not giving new instructions to the civilian population. it is not canceling large gatherings or anything like that, which is not the case last weekend when there were severe, severe restrictions on people inside israel. that another indication possibly ali, israel right now at least is not bracing for retaliation. >> the conversation here in the u.s. has been u.s. officials including the president urging the israelis to use restraint in this. it seems at least from these initial reports that we're getting overnight, that that's exactly what happened. now, my understanding from my colleagues at the pentagon department is that they were given, the u.s. was given a sort of heads up by the israelis on this. i mean tease out what the israeli-u.s. conversations have been and any impact on those on what we ultimately saw play out in just the last few hours. >> yeah.

so let's rewind the week, right? at that point it was israel bracing for an iranian attack. the conversations between the u.s. and israel were that the united states would be there to help protect israel in those chaotic hours. and in the skies in jordan and iraq taking down a lot of these incoming drones. president biden spoke to prime minister netanyahu shortly after the iranian attack on saturday night. and he told them, quote, take the win. israel succeeded in this unbelievably complex operation. they hit an air base in southern israel, and the israelis were being told not to escalate further. all week the israelis have been getting that message from the united states, from germany,

from the u.k. and other countries. and while they have chosen to respond, it does appear they have responded in a limited way. they have left both military and diplomatic space for iran to potentially choose not to retaliate. and i think as long as israel does not claim credit, it is possible for the iranians to kind of wave this away, to keep talking it down in front of their own people, but we will see in the coming hours what path they take. >> yeah, to keep talking it down and hopefully not continue seeing it escalate in this region. nbc's raf sanchez live from tel aviv, thanks so much. i want to bring in now former fbi agent clint watts. can i get your reaction to this news, and what are you going to be watching for in the coming hours here. >> i think the first thing we're

going to be looking is is there any evidence at all we can discern. these are locations you're not going to have a lot of media and access. i think a key point is what do we know about the attack? you'll see both sides posturing trying to scale these things down. at the same time, they did have to do something. the israelis felt for their government they had to do something to respond, so really trying to parse out what was the actual damage of an attack, how severe was it, what was the scale of it. were they trying to -- was the israeli government trying to retaliate and hit a target important to them, that being the natanz facility, for example. a key point everyone is trying to understand is what's the level they can push for. iran was trying to push towards their own domestic audience about their retaliation even though it was not successful

ipany way. israel also seeing an opportunity here to maybe go after a nuclear facility that they very much worry about. but at the same time also having to meet some sort of response internally and domestically after suffering what was really the largest attack on their country ever. >> i think the other thing i think about here, clint, is the role that mis and disinformation can play in a situation that is so delicate and that we're watching at least according to what is on the ground right now. both countries seem to get to a point to de-escalate, but what's the role of disinformation, what's the role that could play here? >> last night when i was looking at telegram channels in both directions and both languages trying to discern what was going on, it was difficult to know both in iranian media and israeli state media. it's just almost impossible to

discern what the actual part of it is. some of it is acting or posturing to show the other side doesn't have capability or successful. at the same time it's very difficult to get to the truth, so you can imagine the confusion about what's going on. i would say obviously the israeli media very different from the iranian media. they will get to the bottom of it. there's a lot of vices and competition. but anything coming out of iran is very much one way. it's all iranian state media. amost of the programming in farcei, for example, or arabic languages is going to be other what the intelligence community might tell us we probably don't have a good handle on the scale, sophistication and success from an israeli perspective of this operation. >> i'm glad you bring up the u.s. response about this, because if we track back to the initial moment those strikes initially that spurred iran's

retaliation, the u.s. government made clear or tried to iran, hey, we didn't know this was going to happen, we didn't get a heads up on this from the israelis. of course now we know the israelis did give the u.s. some kind of acknowledgement that a response was going to be coming from them. but as you look at this landscape now in light of this latest round of attacks, what is the thing you think could draw the biden administration's gaze on this, the thing that could maybe make them perk up and say, hey that's a red line for us? >> yeah, it's really curious what the stance is going to be generally in negotiations or public statements, countries don't take options off the table, and they basically did that in the early hours and were criticized by it particularly by people like john bolten. they quickly wanted to signal to iran they were not going to be the ones to escalate, and it seems like they're reinforcing that message again here. so their big goal from the u.s.

perspective is not to see regional escalation or rolling out of this war in multiple theaters. behind the scenes, though, it's already been happening. if you look at houthis in the red sea, iraqi militia and shia in iraq and syria that did the tower 22 attack, there's been a broad-based proxy war between iran, israel, iran and the united states boiling for many months. so i know they're trying to make sure and assure people they're not escalating, they're not tipping off a larger regional war. a very delicate line to cross. i think any sort of attack or direct action against u.s. military personnel again in the region or u.s. civilians would be a red line for the u.s. where they would have to move up escalating and i would also note there's the irgc, the iranian revolutionary guard corp and hezbollah in the past have directed terrorist attacks towards foreign targets, so that would be something else to watch out for if the iranians would

want to escalate. i don't see any reason to believe that right now or any indication of that, but that would be a major indication that would tip it off i'm sure into a much wider regional war. >> i think that's important to point out as we continue to track what the biden administration's response is going to be. clint watts, thank you for bringing us your expertise. we've got a busy morning and still got more ahead because jury selection in donald trump's hush money trial is now almost complete. we'll take a look what happened in court yesterday and have some legal analysis. plus on capitol hill democrats on the rules committee advance speaker mike johnson's foreign aid package finally. what the he's saying across the aisle. those stories plus a check on the weather when we come right back. n the weather when we come right back

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morning. the jurors made up of 7 men and five women, one alternate was also chosen, but five more alternates are still needed. the process appears to move faster than expected yesterday after two jurors seated on tuesday were excused at the start of the proceedings. one said she was not sure she could remain impartial after identifying information about her was made public. another was excused following concerns from prosecutors that one of his answers during questioning wasn't accurate. if none of the jurors are excused jury selection should wrap up as soon as today. judge juan merchan sez he's hopeful opening arguments will begin monday. a former u.s. attorney for the district of columbia. thanks for waking up early. your reaction to the speed at which these jurors and alternate jurors were selected yesterday i think i thought and many of us would have thought this was going to go a little more slowly. >> pretty surprising, ali. and i think it's a tribute to

something judge merchan did really unorthodox, in fact, unprecedented in my experience. when we pick injuries we generally don't start by having the judge say if there's anybody here who thinks they can't be fair and impartial, raise their hand. about 50 of the first batch of 196 jurors raised their hand, and they were summarily dismissed. i can tell you that's not the way jury selection is ordinarily conducted. usually if a juror says they don't think they can be fair, we ask a bunch of probing questions to really test whether they can be fair or not. but in this case, judge merchan basically decided to let those jurors who feel like they would have a hard time being fair sitting in judgment of donald trump just opt out. they could summarily leave. and i think that is one of the reasons we saw jury selection progress really rapidly. 12 jurors in the box in less than three days of jury selection is pretty impressive.

>> but it speaks to the sensitivity around this case, right, and the fact that although jury selection doesn't go like this, usually jurors are not sitting there in front of a former president of the united states who's facing criminal charges. it was striking two previously seated jurors were dismissed. what's the chance that we see more seated jurors excused during the selection process today or going forward prior to monday? >> it wouldn't surprise me at all. it's not that unusual for jurors to be selected and then overnight think about the implications of jury service and come in the following day and say, judge, i slept on it and i have some concerns. now, these jurors seem to have real concerns because donald trump is forever trying to inject fear and intimidation into a process, and that's a real perversion of the administration of justice. i can tell you, ali, the last

thing anybody wants is for jurors to feel like they have a personal stake in the outcome of the case they're about to decide. caseerize to be decided exclusively on the facts, the evidence presented during the course of the trial and the legal instructions the judge gives to jurors, but we've already seen donald trump posting about jurors. that injects fear into the process. and what i can tell you i've had to contend with this over the years as a prosecutor when a defendant or a defendant's criminal associates injects fear into that jury box, it generally does not to the benefit. so donald trump for self-preservation reasons might want to ratchet back what he's saying and posting about jurors. >> maybe, glenn, jurors were also presented with seven new instances of former president trump violating his gag order. prosecutors pointed to trump's

social media attacking the credibility of his former personal attorney and expected witness in this trial, michael cohen. prosecutors want trump to be held in criminal contempt for violating the gag order, filing a formal motion late yesterday. one of trump's attorneys argued the posts not violations and that the situation brings to light, quote, some of the ambiguities of the gag order. hearing on the matter and whether trump's social media posts qualifies for violations is set for tuesday. as much as you say trump might want to continue dialing it back, it doesn't seem like he's going to, and it feels like he's trying tot up that pressure, so what are the chances that the judge finds that trump did violate the gag order? and does this kind of keep growing throughout the trial? >> yeah, chances are high that judge mer hp chan is going to find that donald trump violated the gag order. seven alleged violations in just the first three days of trial is pretty impressive in a really

bad way. when what i've seen judges do, ali, when i've seen defendants insist on violating court orders is the first time they violate a court order they give a stern talking to, the second time they'll impose sanctions probably in this case money, penalty and fines, but i'll tell you that that second violation judges will say three strikes and you're in a jail cell, do it one more time and i will impose the up to 30 days of incarceration that the law allows me to impose, in the event you continue to violate court orders. i would bet the buck on donald trump ending up inside a jail cell because we all know that he can't help himself. he will continue to post things and say things that are likely to violate judge merchan's gag

order. >> glenn, that would put us obviously in such uncharted territory. that is of course where we are in all these proceedings, but i think it would ratchet up the reality of what's happening here. if it were ever to come to that, we'll be listening to what the judge says in regards to his violation. thank you for coming on with us. and still ahead we'll continue to bring you updates out of the middle east following israel's strike on iran overnight. as the price of oil is rising this morning. we'll get more insight on that from our friends at cnbc. and we'll hear from house speaker mike johnson who was pretty candid last night about the rebellion happening in his own party over his foreign aid bills. "way too early" is coming right back. id bills. "way too early" is coming right back smile! you found it. the feeling of finding psoriasis can't filter out the real you.

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officials had notified initials a response was coming but the u.s. was not involved in the strike. so far both the u.s. and israel appear to be playing down the significance of the strike. we'll have more on this developing story throughout the morning. first let's go for a check on the weather. angie lassman, a meteorologist and my friend, please tell us what's going on in the world. >> good morning, my friend. we've got some rain, no surprise. we've got this next system that's been working across the eastern half of the country. it's bringing potential for rain, some folks are waking up to it. detroit, columbia, lexington, all waking up to that rain this morning. and folks even down through the southeast could see showers and thunderstorms on the table through the day today. and then as we transition into the weekend, it's kind of a soggy one for the southern tier of the country. we've got some showers that will develop over parts of texas, louisiana, oklahoma, arkansas. that's where we'll see some of the heaviest of rain the last cup oldays, but parts of the

southeast through sunday periods of heavy rainfall and gusty winds associated with this, and this will leave us with potential of flood concerns and we're expecting upwards of 1, maybe 2 inches. and places like texas, oklahoma, arkansas, louisiana, stretching into mississippi. some isolated spots wouldn't surprise me if we received up to 4 inches in a few of those. meanwhile, temperatures what a difference your location makes especially today. we've got 50s on tap for kansas city, 40s on tap for minneapolis. running more than 15 degrees below normal this time of year. feels like summer across parts of the south. specifically florida, you're going to see potential for records today. we'll see temperatures well into the 90s for some folks, tomorrow even jacksonville hangs onto those 90s, but the cooler air strarts to spread further to the east and south and parts of the north east, and spring kind of returns here as we get back into our next workweek, columbus mids 60s on monday to the upper 60s on tuesday. andali, we'll see boston hang out in the 60s.

washington, d.c., though, 70s by tuesday. >> hey, i'll take that. angie lassman, thanks for the good news. still ahead much more on israel's air strikes on iran and the impact on the turmoil. we're back in a moment with more. e turmoil. we're back in a moment with more power e*trade's award-winning trading app makes trading easier. with its customizable options chain, easy-to-use tools and paper trading to help sharpen your skills, you can stay on top of the market from wherever you are. e*trade from morgan stanley power e*trade's easy-to-use tools make complex trading less complicated.

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new ways of catching up on their favorite sport. welcome back to "way too early." it's 5:30 on the east coast, 2:30 out west. israel carried out a strike against iran overnight and the scope of the attack remains unclear right now. a person familiar with the situation tells nbc news

officials are currently assessing the damage. iranian state media reports explosions were heard in two cities, one of them near the site of the largest nuclear research complex. but the national atomic energy research agency confirms there's been no damage to any nuclear facilities. a source familiar with the situation tells nbc news the u.s. was not involved in the strike. meanwhile, some countries in the middle east are weighing in on israel's actions. egypt's foreign minister put out a statement a short time ago saying the country is deeply concerned about an escalation between israel and iran and warned about the consequences of expanding the conflict and instability in the region. meanwhile, the u.s. has imposed a new round of sanctions in iran in response to its attack in israel last weekend. the treasury department announced yesterday the biden administration's actions will degrade and disrupt iran's drone program. the sanctions also target exports by the country's steel industry, which generates billions in annual revenue. officials say the u.s. has imposed sanctions on more than 600 iranian related entities

over the past three years. joining us once again former fbi special agent and national security analyst for nbc news and msnbc, clint watts. clint, we're expecting to hear from secretary antony blinken in the next hour or so. he's in italy this morning meeting with foreign ministers from the g7. what are you going to be watching for in his remarks in light of these latest attacks overnight? >> i think the key thing we'll all be looking for is have they communicated with prime minister netanyahu and israel. just to get a sort of scale and understanding of what the israeli response is, remember they just sent a warning nearly overnight for us in the u.s. they would do some sort of response within 24 to 48 hours and absolutely did that. so just looking at the scale of response is there any subsequent actions, do we think we'll see any follow-up up attacks and what is the overall strategy and plan to deal with iran, that would be the question because it

seems everyone in the region you just notice there from egypt as well wanting to make sure there's no sort of escalation or further attacks by iran and response to the new israeli attack. all indications at least are this morning there's no intention at least by iranians down-playing the attack that's successful, but what we'll want to know is what the u.s. posture is on this or what it is to make sure it doesn't expand to aer regional war. >> when you see other countries like egypt saying that's their concern, who else do we need to hear from in the region that would make you think everyone is in agreement that this cannot get any worse or anymore urgent? >> obviously both the iranians and israelis said we won't be looking to them this morning, but then there are other regional countries that can weigh in here. one would be turkey, for example. they were allegedly notified by the iranians there was going to

be an itack on israel. egypt has already weighed ip. you might listen to jordan and some of the others in the region to see what their take is on it. the separate part of this is are there any iranian proxies that start to speak up this morning and talk about retaliations. i'd be looking to the houthis and in yemen, any of the iranian backed militias in syria and iraq as well. those would be key voices to listen to today, to get some sort of idea would we see some sort of asymmetric attack, regional attack on a u.s. or israeli target. the last one not to be overlooked is hezbollah. there has been some back and forth exchange of air strikes and rocket fire between israel and hezbollah the last few days right after that iranian barrage last weekend. that would be a key voice to listen to. >> clint, not a neighbor in this region but certainly someone with ties to it. what's the role of russia here especially given the ways iran has backed them in ukraine. could we expect any role from

the russians in this? >> the russians likely will speak up, and they see it as part and parcel, you know, of a larger strategy of teaming up with iran, so the iranians would supply drones that they've been using in ukraine. you may see them trying to divert some attention to it or use it for their own strategic play just because this is larger regional issue and they have a large state they're always playing particularly in syria and you might remember they worked with the assad regime trying to repel what was essentially syrian domestic uprisings. the military was the one that came in, so you might look to them to see hoy they posture as well visa vi iran and syria both being allies of the russian government. >> clint, thank you so much for coming on with us again this morning. still ahead we've got u.s. futures that are in the red this morning as conflict reignites between israel and iran.

we'll go live to cnbc for an early look at the reaction from wall street. "way too early" is coming right back. street. "way too early" is coming right back [coughing] copd isn't pretty. i'm out of breath, and often out of the picture. but this is my story.

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wow, smart cow! global markets are reacting to the latest turmoil overseas after israel struck iran overnight. for more on that let's bring in silvia amaro live from london. how are stock futures reacting to these developments? >> so at this stage futures suggest it will be a negative start to the trading session on wall street. what's happening in the markets at this stage. we saw investors searching for safer assets such as gold in the initial moments after those announcements that israel had gone ahead with a limited strike on iran. the fact this was a limited strike has since then led to some of these fears dissipating in the markets.

and so what we're seeing at this stage is a muted response to some extent to all these developments when it comes to geopolitical tensions. looking at europe, that's also what we're tracking at this stage. we are seeing european equities moving lower as well. but the point here is that there are other themes playing out in the markets. investors are concerned about higher rates state side. they're also tracking the earnings season, so it's not just about geopolitics. it's not just the main theme for the markets at this stage. so it's worth reiterating in the initial moments we did see investors searching for those safer assets. but at this stage those initial fears have dissipated and that is translating to global equities. >> that's interesting context you bring there, but what about the impact on oil prices, too? >> so oil prices they jump off

the back. we saw brent reaching 90s per barrel at one point. the fears i was telling you have also disappeared when the comes to the oil market. now brent is basically trading at about $87. annalist told me early this morning if we see significant escalation in the middle east, we could see oil prices reaching $100 a barrel. of course this significant escalation is not what we're seeing at this stage, and therefore that's also not the base case at this stage. naturally, however, it's important to monitor what's happening in the middle east and what is the reaction in the oil price. because if we see significant moves in oil, that could also become a headache for the fed because higher oil prices mean higher inflation, and then it basically could push back

expectations of a rate cut from the fed. also when it comes to the oil price, those initial fears have dispainted, have come off. however, worth continuing to monitor it also to understand not just what happens when it comes to the oil price but also how the fed reacts to it later on this year as well. >> cnbc's silvia amaro live from london, thank you for urging us to take a bit of a pause and look at the larger landscape. still ahead as israel fights on yet another front congress is set to consider new foreign aid bills including one to israel. we'll have more when "way too early" returns. israel. we'll have more when "way too early" returns

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just hours before israel struck iran, house democrats last night saved the package of foreign aid bills proposed by speaker mike johnson. in a rare move all four democrats on the house rules committee joined five republicans in passing a procedural vote which allowed

the bills to advance to the house floor. usually it's the majority party alone who passes these rules in committee and on the floor. so a stunning fashion in which this happened. the democratic votes were needed, though, because three republicans on the committee voted against the bills in protest against the aid for ukraine not paired with border security measures. in an interview last night speaker johnson acknowledged the rebellion in his own party and admitted he'll need these democrats to get the aid package passed. joining us once more is nbc news correspondent raf sanchez and joining us senior politics reporter eugene scott. it seems like a fair assumption this thing is going to pass, but it's going to look a little strange in terms of who's voting for it. it's going to be bipartisan. >> democrats have been clear they want see aid move forward for ukraine.

and they've made it aware to johnson that he cannot rely on his own party for support, which he already knows, but he can rely on them. and one of the reasons we know when we talk to voters, the swing voter project, they've been very disappointed with that lack of legislation that has come from congress, and this will be something that democrats will be able to campaign on heading into november while criticizing republicans. >> i think that's right especially given the conversations i've had with democrats who say they even would take the politics out of this and just look at the national security implications of it. raf, we've been talking about israel's ability to fight as this domestic front is happening over the policy, israel is fighting in gaza, on the border with lebanon, and now on iran or with iran. how critical is this american aid coming? >> absolutely critical, ali. and one of the key, key components are the missiles for

those israeli air defense systems. we don't know exactly how many interceptors israel fired on saturday night as it was stopping that incoming barrage of iranian drones and rockets, but given it was 350 missiles and drones altogether, you can bet it was a lot of interceptors and those are expensive. they're around $100 thousand each, so israel will be looking to the u.s., to congress to help replenish those funds. the major, major concern as well as obviously a full-scale war with iran is that this back and forth between israel and iran would draw in hezbollah, the powerful lebanese militant group, which has been firing into northern israel since october 7th. israel has been firing back. in the last couple of days israelis say they've killed two senior commanders and there were 14 soldiers wounded by a hezbollah drone attack. now, at this point as i was saying at the beginning of the

hour, there are no new restrictions on israeli civilians, not here in tel aviv and not up in the north. and that seems to indicate that the israelis are fairly confident at least for now that there is not major retaliation coming. i can tell you here in central tel aviv it's quiet, it's calm, we're heading into shabbat, the jewish day of rest. you're not seeing the sense of alarm you did last saturday when absolutely everybody in this country glued to their phones, glued to their tvs waiting for news of that iranian attack. >> certainly that's important to keep in mind as we're tracking what retaliation from iran could look like if it comes to that. but, eugene, i'll turn back to the debate we're having in congress which is republican hard liners even as they're continuing to consider this aid, they're threatening to oust the speaker from his job. yesterday it got really tense as republican conservatives were telling him do not do this.

it would be a really bad move. talk about the personal politics for the speaker. >> it's gnat surprising when you realize what hard line republicans can't hang on, and one of them is, you know, not providing more aid to many international crises. >> it's very trumpian. >> very trumpian because that's where the base is. so these people have to go back to their districts. they do go back to their districts, and they want to be able to say we stood up to johnson. whether they're going to be able to keep doing that and end up to his removal, that doesn't seem to be as clear as it was when mccarthy was in the situation, but it could get there and get there soon and we might see democrats leaning on johnson. >> i think in my view as i was talking to folks yesterday is, cool, maybe you're disappointed in the speaker maybe his role is

diminished in your eyes. but who has the right answer? >> that's been the issue before. if they get rid of him, who are some of the replacements? that could just find us in a new situation looking for a new speaker, which no one likes on the hill or outside of washington. >> on the hill or outside of washington, and i'll speak for the press corp. nbc's raf sanchez from tel aviv, thank you. and senior reporter for axios, eugene scott, thank you as well. up next we'll talk about the weight of president biden's influence on israel as the country ignores white house warnings against retaliation. that after overnight strikes on iran. and coming up on "morning joe," live reporting from israel throughout the morning as details about the scope of the attack emerge plus a panel of military and foreign policy experts is analysis amid growing fears of a wider conflict in the region. "morning joe" is just moments away. you'd like to be. like here. and here.

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♪austedo xr♪ you'll love this! centrum silver is clinically proven to support memory in older adults. so you can keep saying, you mastered it! you fixed it! you nailed it! you did it! with centrum silver, clinically proven to support memory in older adults. israel strikes on iran overnight, raising questions on the level of influence the biden administration can exert on the jewish state. president biden urged prime minister netanyahu to refrain from striking back after an

international coalition successfully fended off a barrage of iranian missiles and armed drones over the weekend. biden also made clear that the united states would not participate in any offensive israeli response against iran. the two leaders have known each other for decades. while president biden is a steadfast supporter of israel, he has grown increasingly at odds with netanyahu's approach to the operation in gaza. joining us now, former white house director of communications to president obama, jennifer palmieri. as a person familiar with the white house during these kinds of high-pressure situations, how do you think the biden administration might respond to israel's retaliation against the advice of the president? just take us inside what you think those conversations are like right now. >> well, i look to see clues in recent statements that the administration has made. obviously, the united states, you know, is speaking with iran. the united states also has very good intelligence sources.

i would expect to understand that this attack was going to happen. the cia director, bill burns, was in dallas at the george w. bush library. he didn't say israel should not strike. he talked about continuing on the path of de-escalation. i think that whether this is what the united states expected or intended, but that's what you're going to see the white house do, is try to keep this on a path of de-escalation. i know that the iranians have not reacted yet. i know the hope is that they also see this as a limited strike. that the banner in which their attack went down was seen as not something that was going to cause another escalation, and that that is how both sides here treat this attack. but the next few hours are very dicey, and that will determine whether or not -- how the iranians react to it.

next is the most, you know, important indicator, but i think that the white house will try to keep it, make this all seem as if it is a part of the path of de-escalation. if you make it seem like that, you know, you have to operate as if that's what's happening, and that'll probably be the most important thing they can do to make that happen. >> jen, i think you're right. especially since the word of the week, it felt like, in conversations between president biden and netanyahu, was restraint. it seems like that's potentially what they got in this strike here. of course -- >> portrayed as such, i think, right? you can portray it as such. as you noted, the u.s. was quick to note, saying, "we are not part of it." the u.s. is trying to make it as comfortable as possible for iran to treat this as if it is part of a path of de-escalation. tough when you've just been attacked, i know. >> yeah, i think that's exactly right. it is a delicate situation there. it is also delicate when you

translate this international moment to a domestic politics stage. there is such divide, especially among young voters, over this ongoing issue between israel and gaza. how does this latest overture factor into that? it does feel like as long as president biden is talking about it, there will be pressure at the roots. >> gaza is a problem. the white house is aware of the political threat it poses for them in november. i think, for now, they are right to not be looking through a political lens, but what is the best policy? i happen to think it is also the best politics, which is de-escalation, to get netanyahu to back off, to make sure everyone knows that's what he is trying to do, to get more aid to gaza, to, you know, just for the israelis to de-escalate in general on that side of this conflict. but, you know, chaos in the world is also not great for a

sitting president usually. i think that you keep this off the campaign trail for now. when you do need to draw a contrast, there is a strong contrast to be made with trump at a time when the world is particularly volatile. you need seasoned leadership that you have with president biden, and you see that with his ability to bring nato together. i suspect the israeli/gaza conflict will be a problem for the president until election day, but, for now, the best thing you can do is be a strong president and keep the politics of this off the campaign trail for now. ultimately, you'll have to do that. >> while you're talking about the ways that this administration engages with its allies on the world stage, we're currently waiting for secretary of state antony blinken to speak at the g7. that's something coming in the next hour or so. what's the message that you're looking for for him to deliver here, and what will it tell you about the way the u.s. and the

biden administration are viewing this latest round of strikes? >> i think that he will -- i suspect the secretary will do what he can to make this be a path to de-escalation. i don't know if it was planned, that this is when blinken would be out, but it is fortuitous he will have an opportunity to speak publicly at this moment and not have to address -- i don't think the white house will want to address this strike proactively. if there is something built in, which you can do it, you know, that can help with the u.s. being able to be heard and do it in a manner that can be seen as part of de-escalation. i suspect he'll want to talk about the foreign aid bill that is coming, that the house is debaing as discussed earlier. normally, democrats weighing in to get republicans to vote for a foreign aid bill is not a great way to get that done, but it seems this is going to be a

bipartisan effort. i think he'll talk about that, too. >> definitely a bipartisan effort on the hill. we'll certainly be listening to what the secretary of state has to say overseas. jennifer palmieri, thank you for getting up with us. thank you for getting up "way too early" on this friday morning. "morning joe" starts right now. >> it is just before the top of the hour. good morning and welcome to "morning joe." it is friday, april 19th. let's get right to the breaking news out of the middle east. israel has carried out a limited strike against iran. that's according to a person familiar with the situation who tells nbc news officials are now assessing the damage caused. the attack was carried out overnight. iranian state media reports explosions were heard in one city near the site of the country's largest nuclear research complex. the int