MTP NOW Aug. 11 – DOJ Seeks To Unseal Trump Warrant; National Teacher Shortage; Escalation In Crimea

If it's Thursday, the Attorney General is speaking for the first time since the FBI raided Donald Trump's Florida home as the Justice Department prepares to

unseal

the

warrant

. Garland also defends his agency and the FBI from public backlash and political attacks, as well as our classrooms in crisis nationwide. the lack of

teacher

s is a huge disruption to millions of lives and shows no signs of improving; in fact, it may be getting worse. My interviews with two superintendents about what their schools are doing to keep kids in class and in classes small enough to learn and Later, Special Forces acquired by Target appear to have attacked a key Russian military base in Russian-occupied Crimea , but Ukraine so far has been mom on the details, what we know and what it means for the ongoing war ahead.

Welcome to meet the press now. I'm Chuck. Don and we begin with the latest breaking news after Attorney General Merrick Garland made an unannounced public statement from Justice Department headquarters in Washington last hour as his agency faces increasing pressure to speak out about This week's search at Mar-A-Lago, what was behind it, etc. Garland announced that the Justice Department is going a step further than anyone expected by asking a judge to

unseal

the court-approved

warrant

along with a receipt for what agents seized when they conducted their day-long search. That motion is now pending approval in a U.S.

District Court in the Southern District of Florida, which obviously covers Palm Beach County. The Attorney General did not release much information, but insisted that the Justice Department would obey his long-standing protocols of remaining silent, but he did reveal that he personally authorized the search of Mar-A-Lago and that the FBI had probable cause to conduct the search. He also discussed the Department's reasoning behind today's decision. The department made the motion to make public the order and receipt in light of the above. public confirmation of the president's search the surrounding circumstances and substantial public interest in this matter faithful adherence to the rule of law is the fundamental principle of the department of justice and our democracy upholding the rule of law means enforcing the law of uniformly without fear or favor under my supervision that is precisely what the department of justice is doing all Americans have the full right to the impartial application of the law due process of law and the presumption of innocence federal law the rules of The department's long history and our ethical obligations prevent me from providing further details on the basis of the search at this time.

So reading between the lines Garland is essentially saying that even though the former president is not your average citizen, the Justice Department will try to treat him like one under the law. Now, whether that's the right decision for Garland to make politically or reputationally, time will tell, but she's seeing where he's going legally and filling in some of the details about what led to the search. NBC News confirmed that the former president had received a subpoena for those documents in his possession earlier this year, the justice department and the former president's lawyers held a meeting about those documents in June, obviously the results of that meeting were not satisfactory to the Department of Justice and during his remarks the Attorney General also addressed some members of the public.

The backlash that the Justice Department and the FBI have received, particularly from the former president and his allies, since Trump himself made the search public earlier this week. I will not remain silent when the integrity of the men and women of the FBI and the FBI are unfairly attacked. The Department of Justice are dedicated, patriotic public servants every day who protect the American people from violent crime, terrorism, and other threats to their safety, while safeguarding our civil rights. They do so at great personal sacrifice and risk to themselves. It is an honor for me to work alongside them and they join me now.

On set is NBC's Ryan Reilly, who covers the Department of Justice. For us, Ron Hilliard is near Trump's house at Mar-A-Lago in Florida until Kapoor is on Capitol Hill. We're also joined by NBC News legal analysts and former federal prosecutor Carol Lamb. so let's get into what we've learned Ryan, first of all, some of the details here. I think we all expected Garland to feel the pressure to come out and say something. I think what's surprising is that it was more than saying something they had. made a decision, they want to reveal more to the public, they explain how unprecedented this is, I mean it's unprecedented, but it was largely within the rules of the department of justice, that's pretty much what he was doing, it's going as far as he can. within the confines of the guidelines, you don't want to do a James Comey essentially what you're trying to avoid here, you don't want to post derogatory information now, if you realize what I found interesting about this app that they opened it and noticed that the President Trump could argue that this will hurt him in some way or that he has privacy interests and they are giving him the opportunity to do so, so I think.

Basically, the ball is in Trump's court now that they've called his bluff and said, "Hey, okay, you sure want to get this open, let's get it all out there, let's release it, and if Trump's okay with it, they can release it." so that he." you might end up saying no, you don't want this to be revealed, so right now the dance went to a judge and essentially what you're saying is the judge is going to go to Trump and tell him if you want this in public in the in the public sphere they are precisely giving him that opportunity, are you sure about this?

They are giving him one last chance to say, are you sure? There is no turning back after this, if you approve of this and want to be transparent. This is going to come out okay Ryan stay with Vaughn Hilliard he's at Mar-A-Lago covering things from Trump's perspective and I know you have a quick statement from the former president reacting to Garland here because again like Ryan ends up to report that it is now in Trump's court, the ball is now in Trump's court, what did he say right? In fact, if you could before you read Trump's statement here, I think it's important the context in which we also came here this afternoon and that there was a subpoena issued to the former president's office here this spring that led to a meeting on the 3rd.

June between Justice Department officials, Trump's lawyers and Trump himself when they delivered several boxes of documents to the Justice Department here and I think that's where those two months in between, finally, that day when the Justice Department Trump voluntarily turning over the documents in the execution of the search warrant is important because clearly the Department of Justice determined that they did not receive all the documents that they were looking for, so if we turn to Trump's statement that just came out here in the last few minutes after Attorney General Merrick Garland's press conference appointment had been set, my attorneys and representatives were fully cooperating in very good relations, the government could have had whatever they wanted if we had it, they asked us to put an additional lockdown in a certain area fact everything was well better than most previous presidents, he says, they were too far ahead, crazy essentially Donald Trump is arguing that they complied with the subpoena that was issued, they turned over all relevant documents clearly The Department of Justice didn't believe that was the case and issued that search warrant, but Vaughn just to clarify that we don't have a reaction yet from the Trump uh World on whether they're going to stand in the way of the Department of Justice. attempts to open the warrant, I specifically contacted Trump's team and another of our colleagues contacted his two attorneys who are working on this case, they have not responded to us at this time and we are working to read Let's go over the lines right now of that DOJ motion to open to better understand exactly what that timeline is, whether they fight it or not, but it's important that I didn't want to notice it even though I was talking to the family source. with the matter on the Trump side just yesterday and I asked them if they would turn over and show the public the warrant on the property receipt because they have had a copy of that since the search warrant was executed to be very clear and they said no, We're not going to release that copy of the search warrant, but the argument was that because the burden of transparency was on the Department of Justice, so essentially the Department of Justice, America Garland, I just turned it around. to that argument and said, "Okay, here we go, we're ready to be transparent." I got you, Bonnie Hilliard.

I appreciate that report, so Ryan, let me come back to you now. So how long does Trump's team have to respond? this to this request from the department of justice, so actually the judge in this case a few minutes ago presented something telling the Department of Justice to inform the court about Trump's position in this case, so they are going to present this to the team of Trump and say and now the Department of Justice will make a presentation and represent what Trump's position is on this, so he's really going to do this on an expedited basis, at 3 p.m. m. on Friday, as I understand it, so it will be 3 p.m. m. on Friday when Trump's responses make the The Justice Department's representation of what Trump's position is that they are basically trying to rush the issue and whether this is the moment that Trump will have to suck it up or shut up and decide whether or not.

They're going to try to object to this or whether they're going to release him or not, as they've been required to do and as I think is a really important point that Vaughn made, they could post this right now, but they're not posting the desk right now and there's one reason they aren't posting this right now. List everything they seized. I would list which laws specifically are being investigated that are potentially derogatory information about the president that could Say, right? He made another important comment to me about who signed the order again. Make that point, there was a specific person who was just assigned this order, yes, so the accountant and a senior counterintelligence official at the justice department is the one who signed it. on this, so it's not like our line prosecutor that's working on this, that's the name that's at the bottom of this, so these are the highest levels, as we see, okay, let me bring in Carol Lamb here because Carol all my next questions that you're probably better positioned to answer, you just heard all of this, how unusual is a situation like this where you have a high appearance, a high profile, where you have the justice department willing to issue a search warrant, public willing to do the inventory public waiting for the person the other person to do this uh I'm just curious how often this happens yeah, there's a lot to unpack here Chuck, it's very unusual because generally , people who have had search warrants executed on their homes aren't really interested in creating a lot of noise around it and letting people know that their homes have been searched in this case, obviously the opposite has happened, no It was the justice department that made this search public, it was the former president himself, so now, as you have pointed out, the Trump team has to make a decision about whether they will accept the publication of this or not, but I want to be clear about it, although we will get some information even.

If the search warrant and property receipt are released, if the judge orders them to be released, we will get some information, but at this time we won't see the affidavits supporting the search warrant, so we won't see every little detail. From the investigation that the magistrate judge who signed this order saw, we are going to look at a very simple analysis, we are looking for evidence of this particular type of crime and these are the elements that we hope to find there. and we're going to seize and these are the items that we've seized, but that's all we're going to see.

It's very unusual again because of the particular circumstances here. Well look, none of us can predict what Trump is going to do and whether he wants this public or not now that the ball is in his court that is a unique decision the speed Carol that the judge is quickly dealing with this is a surprise to you that's not a surprise and I'm glad to see that it's happening because obviously everything about this is unusual, I don't know if I don't know if you perceive this the same way I do, but when Attorney General Garland came out today he was very angry , there was no small talk, there was no, uh, there was.

No preliminary statements, eh, for those who have seen Merrick Garland before and dealt with him, he is as measured a person as you can be and he is very, very angry, nobecause he let that get in the way of his duty, but um, this is really, this is really a step that the department has taken that it doesn't usually take and it's because the Attorney General is fed up, he's been fed up with the attacks on the department of justice and the FBI, sahil Kapoor, whom you cover. Congress, um, I would say today's statement is possibly a response to what Mitch McConnell asked for and I'm focusing on him because he's the only elected Republican who seemed to say anything publicly, but you have to measure it.

Satisfying Mitch McConnell well.it seems to satisfy at least part of Mitch McConnell's demand, he wanted the justice department to explain what happened and what led up to the events of that search at Mar-A-Lago on Monday and it seems that the attorney general has taken the first step. to explain that and of course there's more that they have to do, you know, follow this by the rules to make sure that that court order and that property receipt can be opened. Now the irony here and we have discussed this that Donald Trump has in his power. that information and if he trusts his narrative that many Republicans echo, he has the power to release it so I think you know that owner comes back to him in the meantime it remains to be seen Chuck if the Republican narrative Out of Mitch McConnell, Trump Defenders are going to change a lot, I mean the recent statements I have seen since Garland's comments from Republicans like Ted Cruz, they are not backing down, he again continues to argue that this was politically motivated even though no I have no evidence that at least Stefanic, the number three Republican in the House of Representatives, who could be in a very powerful position in just a few months, promised that the FBI investigations accused them of a double standard and then I want to point this out too, Lindsey Graham said.

He also said one of the most measured statements we've seen, but he did say that you know one of the reasons this is a problem is that there is a deep distrust in the FBI and the Department of Justice when it comes to everything related with Trump and this. It's where we get into a kind of circular logic because the reason there's that distrust is because the Republicans keep sowing that distrust and you know it's up to them at this point to decide whether to keep pushing that narrative or just take a pause. wait to see the fact and wait to see if Trump is willing to offer evidence for what he claims.

It doesn't matter if it's true, have them deny it and that's kind of how he processed through all that Ryan. I want to pick up on something Carol said. Carol was shocked by Mayor Garland's behavior. Would you classify him as angry? Yes, that's it for Merrick Ireland, who is very angry. I think he's a very stoic guy, so he was a little nervous up there and I'd like to point out that we don't know the motivation yet, but he would point out that. There was an attack just today at the FBI field office in Cincinnati, so I want to say that this is something that they are very concerned about.

We've seen that NBC News reported that there are a lot of attacks online against members of law enforcement, specifically the FBI because of this, all these people are agitated, there's a lot of talk about the Civil War and it's all based on nothing, no one knows which is the center of this, it's like they don't really know the details, they're just very angry about it. because that's what they've been told to be, it's been a six-year campaign of Donald Trump trying to delegitimize the FBI in one way or another, that's something we can't ignore, Carol Lamb, it feels like he's mayor.

Garland tried to do it, he didn't want to do a Comey, you know, that was on his mind and I'm curious if you thought he walked the line where it seemed to me like he was trying to say look, we know. This is not an ordinary case or an ordinary individual. We will make our decisions about whether to file charges, subpoenas or issue search warrants. We will do so without fear or favor, but we may change our protocol and how we inform the public. Because this is a unique public situation, it seemed like he was trying to create a distinction.

Look, we're not going to treat you differently when it comes to legal decisions, but yes, we're going to treat you differently when it comes to communicating these decisions, you walked that line well. I think he did walk that line well. You'd be surprised, Chuck, these situations come up where the justice department, of course, you hear about it all the time. The justice department speaks only through the actions it presents. an indictment brings a case to trial and doesn't say anything outside of that unless they've gotten a conviction or an indictment, but sometimes public outcry or war or things that politicians or the accused can say and they're not muzzled at all Anyway, they are free to say whatever they want and in this case they have been, sometimes it ends up in a situation where there is such a misrepresentation that the prosecutor feels like they have to come out and say something to correct the record in the most impartial way they can. , it happens and I think, I think Mary Garland really walked the line quite appropriately here and Carol, I, um, how much should I, how much?

Could you find out who signed the order? Ryan was able to report that he was the counterintelligence officer, basically the Justice official in charge of the counterintelligence investigation. Should we read something about that what you can read is the nature of the type of activity that they are investigating and that is, as you have been reporting for a couple of days, it is most likely the removal of classified documents in an unauthorized manner from the white house because that's the kind of crime that someone uh, in your position, would be signing that it's just not a drug crime, this is not a festival, it's probably not domestic and it's probably not domestic in nature, right, that's absolutely right, yeah, okay, uh, Ryan Reilly sahil Kapoor Carol lamb for that Von Hilliard.

This is a great story, uh, and we're just trying to give you the best of what we know and try not to speculate so much and you guys were fantastic at doing just that, so thank you all, let me move on now to a story that Ryan I referred earlier to Ohio which is still developing. State and local law enforcement officials are in a standoff with a gunman who entered an FBI office in Cincinnati today wearing a bulletproof vest and fired a nail gun at law enforcement. tells NBC News the suspect raised an AR-15-style rifle before fleeing the Ohio State Highway Patrol field office located there and chased the suspect into Clinton County, where he left his car and ended up exchanging gunfire with the Officials say no officers or bystanders were injured, the suspect has unknown injuries and they have not yet revealed a motive, but the incident comes a day after FBI Director Christopher Wray condemned threats against law enforcement after violent rhetoric increased online following the FBI search. of former President Trump's Mar-A-Lago residents, any threat against law enforcement, including the men and women of the FBI, like any law enforcement agency, is deplorable and dangerous, violence against law enforcement order is not the answer, no matter what bothers someone or Who is upset that he joined me now on the phone is my colleague Shaquille Brewster, who is on his way to the scene in Ohio, and Shaq.

I know you've been dealing with law enforcement in Ohio. What do we know this person is? in custody, but well, in fact, the last thing we have is that there is still an active confrontation. They have the situation contained to know where it is. It seems as if they are no longer saying he is an active threat to citizens in the area. Earlier today there was an actual blockade within a mile radius of this intersection, but we have not been told that this suspect is in custody yet and you mentioned that this started around 9:15 this morning at the visitor control facility at that FBI office two casualties, uh.

Law enforcement sources tell NBC News that a man walked in, fired that nail gun and then displayed an AR-15 style weapon before an alarm went off and then fled and that's when cops took him into custody about 15 minutes later after a chase in which they say the suspect actually fired a shot at them, a possible gunshot, there was a pursuit of the stopped vehicle and then that's when the suspect confronted the officers, so there were multiple shots fired and then shots were fired at that point, so from the last update we know that it's At a standstill, at this point they say it's a man wearing a gray shirt, they say he was wearing a bulletproof vest and you mentioned and it's important to note this because you know the context in which this occurs, it's not clear that there is a motive simply however, nothing has been described, as officials have not, no explicit motive has been articulated, however, Chuck, I think you should note that you know this is happening because we've been seeing conversations online about threats to law enforcement and to the FBI and our colleague Ben Collins is reporting that on those dark websites you know no, I'm not even going to list them. , but you already have people in that world where these threats have been made, people who say that this is a false flag that is being waved by the FBI perhaps or that this was triggered in some way and it is not a true story, but as now we know, there's no reason, it looks like an active standoff right now and we're waiting for more. updates from officials and look, you know when, when local officials feel overwhelmed, they call the FBI.

Here's a case where the FBI is calling in the Ohio State Police. Is it the Ohio State Police that is essentially in charge of this at this moment exactly? The update we received was from the Ohio State Patrol and they were the ones that were on the scene and stopped the car that was committed to them, but they also noted that they are state and county officials from the city and then also the FBI. involved, of course, in this matchup right now and I was looking at some earlier reports from local reporters closer to the team where that happened which is not in Cincinnati, it's about 30 miles away and it seems like they're keeping a pretty wide perimeter of that. intersection, but there are multiple law enforcement agencies involved in this standoff and that's why that video that you're seeing on the screen right now is pretty much the only video that we've seen that shows any law enforcement activity, it's because there is such a wide perimeter again because active shots were fired, the man on the right exchanged gunfire with the officers, at approximately 2:30 p.m. m.

It has been an active confrontation. I just shot a nail gun at the FBI active shooter. It's fascinating that this is still ongoing. Shaquille Brewster, who directs? to the scene to do more reporting for NBC News Shaq thank you, next panelists, next we will dive into a very busy day for the justice department and American politics, the next one will be welcome back, as we mentioned above. This afternoon we heard from the attorney general. Merrick Garland for the first time since the FBI searched Donald Trump's Florida residents at Mar-A-Lago, but was it enough for Republicans like Mitch McConnell who have been asking the Justice Department for an explanation without criticizing them or will the comments continue? of Garland today?

Gather up the Republicans who have already flocked to Trump's defense, let me bring in today's panel for a little discussion here. Nicholas Will is a congressional reporter for politician Naveen Nayak, president of the Center for American Progress Action Fund and Sarah Chamberlain is president of the Republican Main Street Association, um. Coming out and saying something, Nicholas, that was something that felt like the pressure was building. We had a report this morning saying that even people within the Department of Justice were saying something should be said. This was different. He tried to create. I think there is a distinction.

We will not treat you any differently than we would treat anyone else legally, but we will communicate differently. Did you walk the line? I mean, it's a very fine line that he's trying to walk and it seems like so far the Attorney General is doing so, I mean the Department of Justice has been severely affected in the past by the way he's made public statements. about some of these investigations, like look at what happened, of course, with the Hillary Clinton investigation, and now I think we see the justice department is trying to learn from some of those past mistakes and, you know, as move forward with this investigation, he should have had Christopher Race next to him, even if he hadn't said a word, there should have been Christopher Ray next to him.

It's hard to say, I mean, I think this is something that Attorney General Garment is trying to impose on himself instead of pointing it out correctly to allow him to take more of the criticism that's coming about this investigation instead of putting it underRay, who is he treating. I think the show is a nonpartisan player here, Sarah, do you think he would have been better or worse, better because he was appointed by Trump? Absolutely, that's what he was thinking, that you could have said look, you know, you know, and Chris Christie's Lawyer, all right, so there's a lot of Republican credentials, uh, absolutely for Christopher Ray.

I think it was a mistake, but Garland's statement, do you feel that it wasn't? Didn't you get to Comey's line? He didn't make it to the Comey Line. I think he said what he had and what he could and now he's in Trump's court, so I thought he did a good job. I think he did it 24 hours too late, even though he should have done it yesterday. Maybe really think about his statement. I was quite impressed even with the fact that he gave Trump something like he had the right to release him, he knows we were not going to make any mention of the search that Trump did as it is his right and I think it was important not to criticize what that the president had been doing in the last 48 hours, although at least in the end, I think he also made it really important.

I think this is what prompted him to attack the authorities. He really leans into the fact that these are patriotic public servants who are patriotic public servants that he's going to support and defend. I think the reason they forced his hand is because of the Republican response in the last 48 hours. Yes, if there had not been these attacks against him and against the authorities, I do not think they would have taken this step, but I think they would. There was no election given the way the Republicans responded, you know, it's interesting, we have Lindsey Graham's response and I think it's for someone who wants to rally around Trump, it's pretty measured, meaning he thinks let me read parts of it. of it here, the main reason for the Attorney General.

The FBI and are being pressured to reveal why the search was necessary due to the deep mistrust of the FBI and the Justice Department when it comes to anything related to Trump, such as the Hurricane Crossfire and the Mueller investigations, he continues to say. what I'm looking for. Was the rationale for the search that the information provided to the judge was sufficient and necessary to authorize a raid on the former president's home within 90 days of the midterm elections? It's not 90 days, we're not there yet, the math isn't right, but that's in. I'm urging his statement, I'm actually insisting that the Justice Department and the FBI put their cards on the table as to why.

This course of action was necessary until it is done, suspicion will continue to grow. I don't want to pursue that point, so Nicholas, by asking a judge to release this, in some ways they're not responding to that criticism, yeah, I mean, now it really puts the onus on Trump to try, you know, the file in court, they have until tomorrow to say yes or no they want this motion to be revealed, but I think what we are seeing the Attorney General do here is try to fill this information gap that developed in the last 48 hours and , in doing so, we have seen many Republicans. potentially going too far on their skis, you know, Leader McCarthy sat on Facebook saying that Republicans need to get out and get over this investigation, but the danger for Republicans is that they know that this investigation is just scratching the surface of what's going on. knows.

Sarah, this feels like an impossible box to fill for some of these elected Republicans. I know what they're saying, they're saying that all their base supporters should support Trump there and they're not stupid, they know that. Be careful, there's never anyone, um uh, who doesn't end up getting shrapnel when you're too close to Trump, that's exactly what you do to make the members of the Republican Ministry association that I spoke to today, a bunch of them, get stuck right in the middle. with us, yes, because they have a lot of people from the suburbs who want to get to the facts and they have a lot of achievers who say, hey, we know the facts, we don't care, Donald Trump is the saint, so they are walking. a very fine line and they are a little worried about the November elections.

You know this is not a failure, but Naveen is this. You know there have been some debates about whether Democrats should use Trump so much in these midterm elections. Certainly a critique of Tara McCullough, yes, since Trump is inserting himself so much, is he an asset or a liability? I mean, what do you do at this point campaign-wise? In fact, I think there's been an incredible amount of alignment on the Democratic side around this thing that's talking about mega Republicans, there's a lot, do you think I go ahead and mark them? I mean, they had a chance to get away from it when the gender sticks happen, right?

I just think the fact that this is who they are, it's so much bigger than Trump, like what you hear from these candidates, whether it's Blake Masters in Arizona or Doug Mastriano, they say we're bigger than Trump, they think their movement is bigger than Trump and I think it's really important, whether Donald Trump is on the scene or not, the Republican Party has now changed and they are a different party. Well, let me play Liz Cheney's closing announcement. It happened that she left today precisely so that this will come out in a few weeks. To get it out, let me play a little with the lie that the presidential election of '22 was stolen.

It's insidious. It takes advantage of those who love their country. It's a door that Donald Trump opened to manipulate Americans into abandoning their principles and sacrificing their freedom. justify violence ignore the rulings of our courts and the rule of law this is Donald Trump's legacy but it cannot be the future of our nation she did not plan another investigation another search warrant to be executed the week the chairs close statement , but what's fascinating is that he's almost responding to the current events of this week, which, of course, that's not what he was technically doing, well, he's running, he's getting ready to run for president, yeah, I don't think Let it be another question on Yes, and she has a lot of support behind her.

I think you'd be surprised how many Republicans actually rally around her when this is over. Well, I didn't see the last two seconds of what was fascinating to me and I saw that the first one. The point is that she doesn't mention Wyoming, that's not true, she's clearly trying to tell a larger story about what happened to the Republican Party and she's emblematic of whoa whoa whoa if this is what the party is going to be like, I can't be part of the that now on Tuesday Nicholas probably won't go, you know this, I've used this and I know others are getting this metaphor, it was probably an Obi-Wan moment for her.

Darth Vader is able to take her down, but Obi-Wan still lives. a long time true, Liz Cheney is probably Obi-Wan, yes, I guess Liz Cheney's Force ghost is still hanging around. I mean, she's still the vice chair of the January 6 committee, which you know all signs point to. She's going through, you know, the end of this Congress until January, so there's still a lot more they can bring to light and she'll still give him this great platform even if she loses this primary. I'm back with Sarah. He was I mean, Mitch McConnell stood his ground, oh, and he didn't jump on this Trump bandwagon.

I mean, it's the surprise where they ended up, I wasn't surprised, just the speed, it was the immediate advance and gathering around him, are you sure someone is right? ask a second question on this, yes, Main Street members asked the second question because as we lose, we'll probably go back to the Senate, it's very questionable from time to time, everyone's house members say, oh my gosh. , Why are we doing this? their districts Donald Trump is, probably not the biggest champion, this is what I would love to see more of, although it was actually quite shocking, how much it's maybe not shocking, this is who, what's going on with the calls for violence that were happening, I think.

It would be helpful to have more Main Street Republicans or more people saying whoa whoa whoa, whatever you think about whether this is right or not, let's calm down and stop blocking something else, have you noticed that it's been conflated with the IRS? Yes, okay, okay, and I understand. We don't like, you know, people don't like to pay taxes, but I was surprised, Nicholas, that I think Chuck Grassley was one of them. I've heard from others that suddenly they're like combining and then the IRS agents go to They suddenly act like FBI agents when they come and you know my answer to people who fear that more RIS agents often don't cheat on their taxes.

I mean, I think we're seeing any attempt to try to attack inflation. Reduction law, as it will be voted on tomorrow. I mean, this was something that you know, in many ways, could be a big win for Democrats. It addresses these corners of their platform that they've been trying to address for years. prices and such, and you know what you can do, so this may not surprise you, but I had a consultant friend of mine who said that in the mansion in West Virginia he is not happy with the attention that the IRS agents receive, it is true, that is somehow becoming the main issue that the right is taken away from him and that is what worries him a lot as he prepares for the elections, his cycle starts at 24 anyway, Nicholas Naveen and Sarah, thank you, another strange day in American politics, here's a story. which I'm convinced will have an impact on the November campaign, kids are going back to school right now, but in an increasing number of places there may not be a qualified

teacher

in the classroom when they get there, let's dig deeper in What is driving this huge teacher

shortage

across the country?

It doesn't matter where you go. This is a topic you want to know about. Now, welcome to the press as students return to the classrooms. School districts across the United States are facing a major issue without clarity. solution critical teacher

shortage

the men and women who educate our children are increasingly exhausted grappling with the consequences of more than two years of the pandemic increasing scrutiny over curricula that has put many of them in the center of the educational culture wars, not to mention fears for their own safety and, by the way, there is always the problem of low wages.

Nationally, there are more than 280,000 fewer teachers now than at the beginning of the pandemic. 280,000, according to the Department of Labor, is a crisis that is affecting school systems in both urban and rural areas, it is in all regions of the country. Virginia has more than 2,500 teaching vacancies right now, according to the Virginia Department of Education. Kansas could face its worst teacher shortage in state history this fall. They have about 1,400 vacancies right now. Arizona state schools will open soon and will be short more than 2,200 teachers. This shortage has forced some state and local governments to take drastic measures to attract more candidates or keep schools open.

Let me tell you about Alabama. I have had to lower their requirements to receive a teaching certificate. That's encouraging some districts in rural Texas that are struggling to find teachers. They have decided to move to four school days a week. I want to talk about unequal educational outcomes. Then there is Florida. military veterans, some of whom do not have any bachelor's degrees, to lead these classrooms. Getting to the root of what is causing this teacher shortage can be difficult because it is all over the map, but perhaps even more challenging is determining the effect of that shortage. and more importantly, how to fill the vacancies, let me bring in a couple of superintendents.

I have Carlton Jenkins with me, superintendent of the Madison Metropolitan School District in Wisconsin, and Jesús Jara, the superintendent of Clark County Schools in the Las Vegas area. I have two different geographic locations. I guess he has a lot of similar problems. Dr. Jenkins, let me begin. Tell me the story of your shortage in Madison. Well, Chuck, first of all, thank you for inviting me here today along with my colleague Dr. Jared, I tell you that our shortage here in Madison reflects that of the country, as we know that this shortage is real, this shortage has been going on for a long time. some time, we go back to the number of degrees awarded in education in 1970-71.

Almost 200,000 degrees were awarded each year and now we are left with less than 90,000 and in Madison, we are a great city, one of the main cities that has always been talked about, but we also face these challenges that we have. Approximately 2,333 employees, we have shown up to 571 openings in our district and right now for the last two weeks we have been working very hard and throughout this summer and we have about 141 openings right now approximately so Dr. Jarrett, tell me. your story a little bit uh in Clark County yeah no thanks Chuck and I really appreciate it and I'm glad to be here with Dr.

Jenkins as we are experiencing similar issues so we started school on Monday with approximately 1300 positionsvacancies in our schools for our kids, one of the things that I keep talking about is we've seen in some of our communities so large that we're the fifth largest district in the country, so we have some schools that open like significantly with seats vacancies in our most needy communities where we have, as I call it, a crisis of inequities because in our urban core, where our children need the most support, where we are seeing our vacancies, some of our suburban schools we are fully staffed. uh teachers have options, but we've seen a decline in the classroom. um educators coming out of the university system and Dr.

Jenkins mentioned, you know? Something he talked about is the attack that public education has been on in this country for some time. I still believe. and we hear that we're the best option in public schools, that's what we do, we serve all children, so it's that crisis that we're certainly experiencing here, what are you doing in these understaffed schools? Dr. Jarah, are you combining classes? You thought about short periods, maybe free periods, more free periods in a day, what are some of the tactics you are using? Yes, I know and I can't. I have to give credit to all of my building principals who have done a phenomenal job, it's truly one.

The things we're talking about are really the combination of classes, teachers selling their preparation. One of the things I have a great relationship with our bargaining unit and this last summer our board approved a big raise, often it's really not an incentive. just increasing the starting salary to over fifty thousand dollars a year and ending it at the end also increases the column butYou also know, using a retention and recruitment bonus for our Educators using ARP dollars, but it is a combination of all my Educators that are in the head office. I have now been sent to our schools to support our schools in our urban community.

Dr. Jenkins, I have I come from a family of many public school educators and a couple of them have already retired and they're not alone and I know you know some of this was going to happen anyway, you know we knew. This with Boomer retirements, but now you're getting older with Generation ? I definitely think it's a problem, first of all, we have to take it from a historical perspective and understand that education at one point we have had shortages for a long time in education, but the pandemic has really increased, it has accelerated the number of people who want retiring because they feel the lack of support in the classrooms coming back and going through the pandemic for the last 29 months or so, we haven't had all the resources even though we had the set of dollars from the era that Dr.

Jared I mentioned that we are Talking long term, we can give quick incentives to people right now, particularly recognizing all the hard work they've done, but we're asking for federal government involvement, state involvement in our state. Seeing this investment in education, it added a zero zero to our public school funding in terms of investment from our joint finance committee. We can't continue doing this. Right now, Wisconsin is always within that one to three in terms of the lowest return on investment. in public education, so retire to reduce part of the retirement and continue people have people in education.

I think we need to provide support, provide professional development, increase pay not only for our teachers but for our food service workers when we almost close the schools. it was because we didn't have enough food service workers, teachers want to teach, they want to follow their passion, but it's really becoming a point right now, it's disrespectful and disrespectful to have professionals to continue at this level and still having to pay to teach. You're almost there, now our EAS are paying well to follow their passion. Dr. Jerry, you mentioned an interesting phenomenon, you said I don't have problems in the basically more prosperous schools getting my teachers there, you're having problems in the less prosperous ones.

Rich schools, do you also see those in which parents take their children out of public schools if they can and that creates another bad cycle? Yes, we are and that's part of what we're seeing in the Choice competition and we're seeing Some characteristics of our student enrollment in some cases where their parents have the choice, we saw that during the pandemic and I think these are some of the things that we're addressing, as well as the inequalities that we're seeing in some of those. In cases and communities we are seeing smaller class sizes compared to my urban core and I think that is the biggest of the biggest challenges we face here in Las Vegas.

Is it simply a matter of money or do we need to rethink. some of the ways the public school system works, you know if it's nine months or if we go four days a week, but 12 months, you see where I'm going, we have to do, we have to say Okay, we have to rethink this. because we have a different group of you know to create a different way of teaching and encourage people to come do it. Yes, if I can, I'll start with I think so. It's more than just money. I think this is the first time this Administration has invested in K-12 education.

But it's actually to help us get through the pandemic. Now is what we must do to move forward. To get out of the pandemic and accelerate, we have to think differently about how we fund K-12 education, how we teach and some of those things that we are doing here at a very small pilot level to meet the needs of our children, but it is These are the working conditions of all employees. I will find the revenue that I think we need to have in K-12 education throughout the station. Dr. Jenkins answers the same question. I mean, obviously, money is always useful, but I guess that's not the case.

You just spoke. about you, money helps in the short term, but this long term trend and these long term challenges seem to me to require more than just money, it totally requires more than money. Right now, coming out of the pandemic, we want to talk. Regarding that, we have to recognize that young and older people have gone through some social-emotional mental health needs. These constant crises have pushed us all to a breaking point, but in terms of a fundamental change in the secretary of education, Corona said, uh, Cardona said in 2000, I think. June 22 that we need to look at more than just the money we need to see what kind of conditions our teachers have to face right now, we believe that we need to provide support to our students, to our families and to the teachers.

At this time, this process of historic underfunding of education has continued and is now harming all communities. I would be one of those who would say that it is not just hurting urban areas. I'm talking to my colleagues, other superintendents who are in Suburban, who are in Rural and we're all facing the same challenge, so, in my opinion, this is becoming the number one thing that we need to invest in for our defense . Public education is the key. It's a look. It's what he did to us. It is what has made us the envy of the world. sometimes it's our amazing public school system and there isn't a school in this country.

I don't care about a public school in this country that can't use a technology upgrade or whatever, just with that there are so many challenges anyway, so much to get to superintendents Carlton Jenkins of Madison Wisconsin Jesus Jara Dr. jar of county Clark Nevada of course home to Las Vegas thanks to both yet to come Behind enemy lines an apparent covert operation rocks a Russian air base and Russia occupied Crimea destroying fighter jets and cratering buildings it was quite an assault what this means for war in Ukraine after breakup Foreign images show extent of damage caused to a Russian air base in Crimea following an attack on Tuesday Satellite photos show the remains of two buildings and six planes and damage to several others planes NBC News could not independently verify that all the planes were airworthy.

The Ukrainian government stops short of claiming responsibility for the attack, but yesterday President Zielinski said the war with Russia began with Crimea and it must support Crimea in its liberation. Meanwhile, Russia has denied that any aircraft had been damaged and claimed that the blast was caused by a munitions explosion, but if the attack was in fact carried out by Ukrainian forces, it would be the first known major attack on a Russian military site. in Crimea and would be a significant

escalation

in Mark was joined Now by retired Admiral James Tabridis, former NATO Supreme Allied Commander, head of NBC News, inter

national

analyst Jim.

I have to tell you that when I read everything I've read about this, I feel like I'm reading the script of a dirty dozen three as it was, you know, you could imagine this as a ragtag group of special ops guys figuring out how to do this thing is that what we almost read is too good to be true, what what? What do you think of what we think we saw happen here? I think you got it exactly right, Chuck and the other thing that came to mind, you're going to get the historical illusion of World War II, uh, after Pearl Harbor.

FDR wanted counterattack um, he sent Jimmy Doolittle's long range bombers to Tokyo, that shocked the Japanese. I think this kind of shocks the Russians look at. I have been to Crimea many times. It's lovely. There are villas everywhere. This is where. Russians go on vacation and then see explosions and smoke. The surge is a great psychological moment and, finally, Chuck, it also hits Russia in what Russia at least claims is Russian territory. Remember that they are actually in Crimea, so in your opinion, this is an attack on Russia, your point is an

escalation

. Would you be surprised if NATO intelligence was not useful in this?

I would say there is a fairly open flow of intelligence information going back and forth between NATO, the United States and our Ukrainian friends right now. Let's face it, the gloves are off, we're going to do everything we can to give them the material, we also give them a lot of intelligence, you know, that's how it's been, it seems like this summer has been all about Ukraine, just holding on while you know more weapons are coming, more support will come and it's like making sure there isn't a big breakthrough from the Russians, it looks like they have, we've had kind of a status quo in the summer, what does that tell you?

He tells me that the Ukrainians are now gathering their forces in the south and that they are going to go directly to a town called Curson, which was the first big city that Russia conquered, they are going to try to take it back and here is a joke. Kurasan controls the water supply to Crimea, a rather dry area, they are going to put a lot of pressure on Putin there. Putin will have to shift forces to the south, which will further stagnate his campaign in the points crossing. It's no coincidence that Zielinski's comments began. in Crimea he is going to end up in Crimea, that is where the Ukrainians will go next.

Do we have some sort of three-month window here where things get pretty warm and then winter hits or do you think we're going to be like that? We will not have a quiet winter. I doubt we will have a quiet winter. There are two rates of burning going on here on Zelinski's side, he has to keep up the pressure while they are still fired up for this cause and NATO and the West is unified, my money is on him to do it effectively. The other burn rate is Vladimir Putin, who was just announced by the Department of Defense, has lost maybe 70,000 soldiers, a combination of killed in combat and wounded who were taken out of action, which is a high burn rate when You add that with the team destroyed, I think you are going to seek a negotiation at some point within the next six months, you almost have to, which is why what is happening now in Crimea is so important, Chuck and what Zielinski is saying about it, the fact.

I mean, if the idea is for them to get Crimea back, it's a negotiating tactic. I mean, do you expect Crimea to be part of a negotiation when all is said and done or not? I think it will be the last thing Vladimir Putin will do. I want to put it on the table um again he annexed it this is Russian territory in his mind in the mind of the Duma the mind of his people um I think Zielinski deserves and will receive all the support we can offer him and then it's up to him when he wants to decide when, how to negotiate, what he is willing to exchange for peace, I think a conversation is still months away, well the reason I mention that it sounds like Crimea is a bridge too far for Putin, it's something like that.

Well, if that's really what you want, then that's all you'll get. Can you imagine finishingthat way? um, let's put it this way, Chuck as a military analyst, I'll tell you it's going to be very difficult to dislodge him. the base strip Russians that they control, which runs from Don Bass to Crimea and includes Crimea and Crimea, are immensely important to Russian psychology, that's for sure, Admiral James always good to have on uh and get his historical context and analysis . So thank you and thank you all for being with us this hour. I'll be back tomorrow with more.

Meet the press now. NBC News Now's coverage continues with Tom Costello and the sit-in instead of Hallie Jackson.