entered hamilton hall, a storied building on columbia's campus where approximately 60 individuals -- we're going back to the police. stick with me. let's listen. okay,we're obviously dealing with a lot of moving pieces here, but you see a very robust police presence. police in riot gear used a ladder truckr to enter hamilto hall i i think about 60 protesters were inside, barricaded themselves inside. we have reports dozens of protesters have been arrested or detained by police. we do not yet know what the charges w are. nypd came to the campus at the request of columbia university, which requested assistance just after 9:00 p.m. tonight. we're going to leave it there. "way too early" with jonathan lemire is coming up next. breaking overnight, columbia university calls in the new york city police department to clear

out protesters from its campus. we'll show you how it happened and bring you the latest on demonstrations across the nation. plus, israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu has more defiant comments on a possible invasion of southern gaza ahead of his meeting today with america's topay diplomat. plus we'll get expert legal analysis on everything that happened in court yesterday in donald trump's ongoing hush money trial. good morning and welcome to "way too early" on thisgo wednesday, may 1st. i'm jonathan lemire. thanks for starting your day with us. and we'll begin this morning with the nypd clearing a columbia university building that wasng seized by protesters. dozens of officers arrived on campus late last nightwearing riot gear. they used a ramp to get inside hamilton hall, the main academic

building which was occupied by protesters overnight on monday. video shows special police units entering the building through a second story window. officers say about 40 people were arrested inside. the university released these images about damage and vandalism inside hamilton hall. you can see overturned chairs and furniture, broken windows and smashed paint and glass. in a statement they made the decision to call police after consulting with security experts and board of trustees. the statement reads in part this way, the decision to reach out to the nypd wasio in response t the actions of the protesters, not the cause they're championing. we've made it clear the life of campus cannot be endlessly interrupted by protesters who violate the rules and the law. the university says they believe thee group that broke into the building was led by individuals

who are not affiliated with columbia. in total police last night arrested nearly 100 people. they also cleared out the encampment that had been up for about twot weeks there on camp. now, the university is asking the nypd to stay at the school, to stay on campus until may 17th, which is two days after columbia's upcoming commencement ceremonies. additionally, police also cleared an encampment at the city college of new york, which is just a few blocks north from columbia. officers say they helped the school, quote, restore order on campus. 25 protesters were arrested there. meanwhile, out west at ucla, pro-palestinian protesters continued to clashle overnight with israel supporters. because of the violence, the university has declared the pro-palestinian encampment illegal. the lapd have now been called to help stop the unrest. overall, according to a tally

compiled by nbc news, more than 1,200 people have been arrested for protests in the war in gaza at colleges across the country. meanwhile, at brown university students have agreed to end their encampment. in exchange the school is allowing the group to present their case on divestment to the board of trustees in a meeting scheduled for the fall. yale protesters also ended peacefully after college administrators told them it violated school policy. we'll have more on these campusc protests and the possible political fallout a little later in the show. but now we turn to donald trump's hush money criminal trial, which will resume tomorrow following a pivotal day of ruling and testimony from multiple witnesses yesterday. the day began with judge juan merchan ruling that trump had violated his gag order on nine separate occasions, fining him a total of $9,000 and warning the

former president future violations will even land him in jail. the judge also granted trump's request to attend his son baron's high school graduation upcominggh on may 17th. testimony then resumed with a total ofh four witnesses takin the stand for the prosecution throughout the day. first up more testimony from the former banker for michael cohen. her testified about the creati of a company prosecutors say wassed to pay stormy daniels, the $130,000 hush money payment to keep her quiet about her alleged affair with trump. the day's most significant win was likely keith davidson who said he was subpoenaed to testify in the case and then secured immunity. davidson is the former attorney for both stormy daniels and former playboy model karen mcdougal, who also alleged an affair with trump. trump, again, has denied any sexual encounters with the two

women. davidson represented both as they brokered hush money agreements. he testified he believed the money given to his clients was ultimately coming from trump, but he could not recall cohen specifically saying that he was negotiating on trump's behalf. prosecutors will continue questioning davidson tomorrow with the court on recess today. also tomorrow a second hearing regarding trump's potential gag order violations. it's also scheduled to take place. this stems from prosecutors allegations last week that the former president violated the order fourth more times. joining us now msnbc legal analyst danny cevallos. danny, great to see you this morning. thanks for being here with us at 30 rock. so let's talk about keith davidson and what he had to say on the witness stand yesterday. what do you believe the prosecution is trying to establish with his testimony, and whybl do you think he could potentially be key to the case? >> couple things. one thing he establishes is theh

transaction. the transactions between mcdougal and daniels and cohen and/or pecker. in other words, he lays down -- he's book ending the hush money transaction. they begin with pecker or cohen and they end at davidson. literally you had testimony that's where the wire transfers ended up. you might argue on the elements the people induced elements of the transactions. one they couldn't testify too much about is the transactions of donald trump. he's the receiver of the money on behalf of people like daniels, so he wasn't going to have that much information about that, but still a critical witness. i think he's also helpful to educate the jury on this kind of seedy underworld of hush money

payment business, which who even knew that was a business or area of practice. keith davidson appeared to have had at least a few clients that's the kind of deal he brokered. so it's interesting testimony, maybe not as interesting as pecker's testimony. and it also really -- now you could say the people have laid down all the pieces they need for thatie underlying transacti, butnd they're not done yet. they need more on donald trump's the intent. >> so more on that. how could davidson's testimony potentially setup what we might here in the coming days or weeks from michael cohen and stormy daniels if they were to take the stand? >> michael cohen is probably the prosecution's most important witness. what you do is lay down data points that will corroborate whatin michael cohen says, becae the people know when michael cohen takes the stands he's going to get skewered on cross-examination for his credibility issues. not just his credibility issues,

separately his motive issues. he has a motive to come up here and get revenge on the defendant sitting of that table. he might even admit it. he's going to admit his animosity, i think his testimony is going to be really colorful, and so the prosecution needs to counter that on the front end by laying down all this documentary and testimonial evidence that corroborates so when the defense calls cohen liar liar, they can say okay even if you don't believe him here's all this evidence to corroborate his testimony. >> $9,000 obviously not a lot of money for a man that donald trump says he's aa billionaire. tell me if i'm wrong it seems like it sets down a marker, we're going to treat you like any other defendant and there's a real warning in terms of escalation of penalties. what was your read what happened yesterday, and what might lie in the uch fooer for potential violations including here and

tomorrow and beyond? >> it's exactly what need today be done because all gag order violations, all contemp violations need to follow a continuum. yes, the statutory maximum for monetary fines here in new york is not very much. $9,000 is not very much to donald trump. to a normal person in court $9,000 would be significant. but that doesn't really matter. the point they've established a floor, a foundation, a baseline so that going a forward no one n say donald trump wasn't warned when and if he gets to the point where the incarceration has to be considered. i don't think any judge in any trump criminal case wants to try and incarcerate donald trump. so it's a kind of game of chicken here where donald trump i don't think he really wants to go to jail, but he's willing to dare judges to send him, and judges don't want to go to through the administrative nightmare of havingth to send a former president and a falynx of

secret security personnel into some kind of custody. >> msnbc legal analyst danny cevallos, thank you for being here today. we're going to have a look at the biggest take-aways of donald trump's lengthy and frankly chilling interview with including what tluchl had to say about the possibility of violence were he to lose the 2024 election. plus house democrats come to speaker johnson's defense amid threats of a possible ouster. those p stories and a check on sports and weather when we come right back. a check on sports and weather when we come right back it's a beautiful... ...day to fly. wooooo!

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violence after november's election hinges on whether he wins. time magazine asked the presumptive republican nominee if he was concerned about violence stem from the outcome of this year's vote. quote, no, i don't think you'll have political violence, trump told a reporter in the first part of the interview which was on april 12th. two week later in the second part the reporter followed up asking trump what if you don't win. and trump respond this way, well, i do think we'll win. we're way ahead. i don't think they'll be able to do things they did last time, which was absolutely horrible. and if we don't win, you know, it depends. it always depends on the fairness of an election. of course multiple security agencies have called the 2020 election the most secure in u.s. history. but donald trump is not ruling out violence una separate part of interview trump said he would

consider pardoning every single person convicted the last time there was election related violence, meaning those convicted of january 6th related crimes. adding it's a two tiered system of justice and nobody died other than ashli. that ashli is ashli babbitt, the woman shot by police who stormed the capitol and later died from her injuries. but of course five police officers also died from injuries or trauma inflicted on that day. chilling comments on abortion which we'll get into later in the show. meanwhile, the former president will travel to two swing states today. he's finally back on the trail. first trump will take the stage in wisconsin where he'll hold a rally at an expo centered in milwaukee. then the former president will head to michigan to host his second rally at the

international airport. he did capture those states in 2016. still ahead we'll take a break and turn to sports with the latest playoff action in the nhl and nba including an overtime thriller between the knicks and sixers. plus, we'll explain why a bee keeper threw out the first pitch in the game between the dodgers and diamondbacks. those stories and a check on the forecast when "way too early" returns. the forecast when "way too early" returns.

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20 seconds left in game five. fires, he's gone. 8.1 to play. 41, three seconds left, drops it at the board. it's dropped of overtime. >> tyrese maxey, a rising star

saved the 76ers from elimination last night with 7 points scored in just the final 20 seconds of regulation including that tying three-pointer from the localo, which sent the game to overtime. he finished with a career lie 46 points in the context as the sixers outlast the new york knicks. they win game five 112-106. first round series now shifts back to philly for game six tomorrow night. all the pressure on new york. meanwhile elsewhere in the eastern conference the cleveland cavaliers picked up a big win last night beating the magic 104-103 after a clutch block right there by evan mobley preserved their lead in the final seconds of regulation. the cavs will try to finish.

the pacers still lead the series three games to two heading into game six tomorrow night in indianapolis. turning now to the stanley cup playoffs, and we'll start in the western conference. up in winnipeg the colorado avalanche clenched against the jets beating winnipeg 6-3 in game five. they'll now face either the dallas stars or the las vegas golden knights in round 2. to vancouver. the national predators kept their season alive with a 2-win victory over the kanucks. the carolina hurricanes clench the season. they'll face the new york rangers in round 2. and deep sigh in boston the bruins could not get the job done on home ice last night, falling to the toronto maple leaves 2-1 in overtime.

the bruins who have had a real lack of killer instinct the last couple of playoffs still lead the series three games to two but now have to go back to toronto for game six tomorrow night. consider me worried. we turn now to major league baseball and a melee last night in milwaukee. they came to blows that erupted. the two as you see here exchanged words near first base before the situation quickly escalating. he threw a punch who then took a wild swing at the reliever before both bull pens poured out onto the field. both players were ejected as you might imagine along with another brewers player and the team's manager. rarely seen punches like that thrown in baseball. now to phoenix where a swarm of bees, look at that, atop the

back stop behind the plate at the netting at chase field forced a nearly 90-minute delay to the start of last night's game between the home arizona diamondbacks and the visiting los angeles dodgers. and that bee keeper who came to the rescue rightly earned a heroes celebration with an invitation to throw out the game's ceremonial first pitch. the game is delayed 90 minutes, goes out there and holds the pitch. and pick things up in the bottom of the tenth and the diamondbacks trailing. >> good-bye arizona! >> there you have. two run homer, walks off the diamondbacks with a 4-3 win. time now for the weather and let's go to angie lassman for the forecast. angie, i wouldn't have gone anywhere near those bees. >> me neither and that's why we

have our lovely bee keeper who doesn't have a bad arm if you ask me. we do have some flood watches up as we gear up for more thunderstorms across midsection of the country, 4 million people under flood watches with already thunderstorms popping up this morning and later this afternoon into the evening hours we're once again gearing up for severe weather. we've also got heavy rain and because of that heavy rain you see those flood watches already been issued and likely see more as that comes through the day, and even tomorrow more of the same, strong thunderstorms, heavy rain all possible with flash flooding on the table. today the 14 million people included in this stretch from the northern plains to the southern plains. wind and isolated tornados for this section of the country. by the way, no joke of hail is what we're talking about. teacup sized hail will be possible across this region from kansas stretching to texas.

that's where we'll watch for the most impactful weather for the day today. a large part of this region could see the potential for 1 to 3 inches per rain per hour in some spots. that likely will lead us with the potential for flash flooding, and we could see upwards of 5 inches of rain by the time we get to next two days in this region so not skus the severe storms but also the flooding concern for folks there. next up here on "way too early," secretary of state antony blinken is in tel aviv this morning for a high stakes meeting with israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu. it comes amid concerns that an invasion of rafah could impair efforts to reach a cease-fire deal. alex ward of politico will join us. we'll have the very latest when we come right back. we'll have the very latest when we come right back total body deodorant with 24/7 freshness, and use it all over her total body and all over their total bodies? unbelievable. ♪ (old spice mnemonic) ♪ an alternative to pills, voltaren is a clinically proven arthritis pain relief gel,

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welcome back to "way too early." it's just before 5:30 a.m. here on the east coast, 2:30 out west. i'm jonathan lemire. thanks for being with us on this wednesday morning. earlier today in tel aviv secretary of state antony blinken met with israeli president during another trip around the middle east. blinken then spent yesterday meeting with officials in jordan as he continues to push for a deal. later today secretary blinken will meet with prime minister benjamin netanyahu following comments made by the israeli leader yesterday confirming his nation will proceed with its plans to move into rafah, quote, with a or without a deal to

secure the release of the hostages. meanwhile, the debate over israel's offensive in gaza, moscow is trying to manipulate the discussion in the united states as a way to aggravate tensions and damage americans around the world. that's according to two sources familiar with intelligence on the mamatter. russia's information war involves artificial intelligence, fake social media accounts, and disseminating propaganda through state media outlets. in one example russia's state run media outlet sputnik suggests that, quote, the threat of deadly police violence against demonstrators looms over protests in american colleges while reminding its audience of the kent state shooting back in 1970. joining us now national security reporter for politico, our friend alex ward. alex, good to see you. let's just start there with this effort from moscow, hardly surprising.

they never miss an opportunity to try to sow dissent. but this does seem like a moment primed for exactly that. we opened show with scenes on college campuses. is there anything the u.s. intelligence agencies can do about it? >> you're right. the russians never miss an opportunity to hit propaganda where they are. it makes perfect sense kremlin intelligence agencies would be go after the united states and sowing divisions elsewhere. i think there's no question u.s. intelligence agencies are doing the same to russians, but is there much the u.s. can do not much but sowing over divisive issues but of course we can't find them because these are sensitive matters. it's another thing to worry about when it comes to our

elections and our general societal fabric. doesn't make it any less troubling. >> preview for us this meeting of secretary of state blinken with benjamin netanyahu. is there a sense of optimism that a deal to get the hostages out in exchange for cease-fire, could it finally be on the horizon? >> you know, there's been mixed messages. just yesterday john kirby spoke to reporters, and he didn't sound overly confident, it might have been a sense of let's not get over our skis, and he was asked repeated how close was this deal. and he said we're getting there, it depends. and then you heard secretary blinken on this trip say, look, the only impediment now is hamas, so really everyone is waiting to see what hamas will do. and the israelis have made a lot of concessions moved let's say closer to hamas' wishes here on this six-week cease-fire which

according to david cameron, the british foreign minister, would be 40 days. they've moved closer to that position and hamas still has not said yes. is anyone optimistic hamas will change its mind, not really. >> lastly let's talk about this looming invasion of rafah. some bristled yesterday when netanyahu said we're going in. what's the latest you have heard here, how worried -- u.s. officials how worried are they about what could occur? >> certainly worried no question. but there's a lot of belief netanyahu is doing this for two reasons. one, he's got a domestic audience right now very worried about getting hostages out but is also -- he also has a government -- a far-right government that has basically threatened to teardown his government should he not go into

rafah, so he needs to hold them off. at the same time he makes the statement with the families of the hostage and you have this growing protest in israeli of being unable yet to get hostages out. netanyahu trying to triangulate let's say his right flank with public pressure and of course what he's hearing from his colleagues in the united states. at this point i think the general consensus still, though, is that netanyahu is trying to pressure hamas in saying like hamas make a deal otherwise we're going to go in anyway, so you might as well get what you can and get this cease-fire done. >> we'll see what comes in the next few days, crucial few days in this process. alex ward, thank you as always. still ahead here we'll go live to cnbc for an early look what's driving wall street including a surge in sales for amazon. what this means for the company as it begins to shift its focus to artificial intelligence. we'll be right back with that. e we'll be right back with that.

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welcome back. time now for business, and for that let's bring in cnbc's silvia amaro who joins us live from london. good morning, silvia. so stock futures dropped overnight as investors look ahead to the fed's interest rate decision coming this afternoon. what should we expect? >> so at this stage, john, futures do suggest it could be a negative start to the equity session on wall street today. and we know that indeed the federal reserve meeting is the main market event today. investors do not expect any changes when it comes to the actual rate policy. however, they will be monitoring very closely the remarks by jerome powell. of course there's a key question mark here about when and if the federal reserve will actually go ahead with rate cuts this year. now, i want to share this with you because the team here at

cnbc has actually gathered the thoughts among some of the major banks to understand what they're expecting in terms of rate cuts from the fed this year. and basically only morgan stanley expects the fed to cut rates three times this career. bank of america, deutsche bank and barclays they expect only one rate cut. let's see how hawkish jerome powell will sound later on today, but no doubt they will be monitoring the rates closely. >> plenty of red on the board to start the day. amazon reporting strong first quarter results after the bell. what should we learn from that? >> so amazon reported a 24% growth when it comes to their online advertising business. we know that the cloud and of course online retail are the core part for amazon. however, this trend, this number they posted when it comes to advertising does suggest there's a rebound in that part of the market.

we had seen other companies reporting similar positive moves when it comes to advertising, and that's an important one to also monitor when it comes to amazon and others. having said that, when you look at the share price performance for amazon over the last 12 months as of yesterday's close amazon was up by 15%. so clearly investors are still looking at amazon and thinking it is a good business. >> and lastly economic growth in the euro zone exceeded economist expectations the first quarter of the year. tell us a bit about that and how could that impact rate cut expectations there? >> so indeed when it comes to gdp the numbers we saw yesterday they came in a little bit above what analysts were expecting, but it's actually inflation that i want to drag your attention to. basically inflation figures came in at 2.4% for the month of april. that was in line with what analysts were expecting, but it was also the same reading that

we had seen for the month of march. all in all, though, when you ask analysts what this means, they say that the ecb is still on track to cut rates in june. this is very important because when you think about the ecb and the fed, the expectation at this stage that we're going to get a first rate cut from the ecb in june, but key question marks about when and whether we're actually going to see the fed taking that step later on this year. >> cnbc's silvia amaro live from london, thank you as aalways. next up we'll take another look at donald trump's interview with time magazine and how he answered questions regarding the issue of abortion. that's when "way too early" comes right back. when "way too comes right back a year after a heart attack, mike's feeling like himself again. but even though time has passed, his risk of a second attack hasn't. mike is still living in the red. with a very high risk of another heart attack or stroke. he doesn't know with his risk factors

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we're back with more from donald trump's important

interview with "time" magazine where he basically lays out what a second trump term would look like in all its chilling detail. this is important. the former president was asked about his stance on abortion issues, but he tried to mostly dodge the questions. trump was asked whether women should be able to get the abortion pill mifepristone. trump says he has an opinion on that but would not explain it adding that he has strong views and that he'd probably release it in the next week or two. all right. trump was further pressed on the issue by the reporter who highlighted some of the former president's allies want to use the comstock act to block the mailing of abortion drugs. trump replied, quote, i'll be making a statement on that over the next 14 days, i.e., his familiar two weeks answer. and trump was also asked if women should monitor. he said you'll have to speak to

individual states and he might also be okay with red states doing so. the former president then said it was irrelevant whether he was comfortable with women being prosecuted with women getting abortions after a ban because, again, states they're going to make those decisions. joining us now former white house director of communications to president obama, jennifer palmieri. jennifer and claire mccaskill, co-hosts of the msnbc podcast how to win 2024. jen, thanks for being with us this morning. and trump's comments on abortion come as florida's six-week ban goes into effect today. so an important moment here. give us your reaction, first of all, to what he had to say to try to dance around the issue of abortion. >> you know, it's just -- the most effective thing to do is look at the report's conclusions of what the president said, which is to say he will allow red states to monitor women's pregnancies. he's already taken the most extreme position he can, which is to -- which is to put into --

put the court into a position that it's overturning roe v. wade. right, once that happened, that left women vulnerable to the most extreme positions possible on abortion, and that is what's happening in dozens of -- more than a dozen states in the united states and taking effect in the state of florida today a six-week abortion ban, at a time when a lot of women don't even know that they are pregnant. and it is chilling to read these conclusions that the reporter makes about monitoring women's pregnancies, about women being prosecuted, but it is useful in laying it out in that kind of detail. there is no bottom when it comes to donald trump and what he will not tolerate on behalf of maga extremists when it comes to taking away women's rights. and, you know, it's pretty telling to have that story out on the day this six-week abortion ban takes effect in

florida. >> the idea he would allow states to monitor women's pregnancies. and we also mentioned earlier in the show trump suggested there could be very well violence again were he to lose. what's your take? >> it is -- this whole article is just stunning, just jaw dropping. and the conclusion is there just is no bottom. anything you worried might happen with this guy will happen with him. when he is confronted with these choices, he always -- he dodges and/or just says out loud the worst possible outcome. and, you know, he's ready this time around. he's not going to be nice about it, he's not going to have people -- he's gog to fire people who don't do what he says harb and he's red ready to implement the most extreme agenda possible. it's chilling. >> it truly is.

jen, as mentioned we opened the show with images from columbia university, other college campus sites of unrest, and police moving in to take protesters. setting aside the merits, obviously peaceful protest is encouraged and allowed in this country, but the political fallout particularly for president biden a lot of democrats tell me they're deeply worried about these scenes of chaos turning off young voters and potentially independents who don't like the scenes of unrest. what do you think? >> i'm going to answer in two stages. one is what happens in spring and what happens in the fall. it's always distressing to see police on college campuses, the columbia university situation seems as if it were resolved last night anyway there are protests in a significant but not overwhelming number of college campuses right now. a dicey couple of weeks to get through now till commencement and then what happens in the fall. when you look at the -- you

know, that would be a greater concern. and then i would look at, if i'm in the white house, do these protests reflect a big concern among young voters with the gaza/israeli conflicts and so far it ranks low that young voters are concerned about. the administration has four months before college returns and five months to sort of get the gaza/israeli conflict into a better place so that it is not, you know -- that will need to happen for lots of reasons. there are also political concerns with that and by the time we get to october being a very difficult place but i think for now it's monitoring the next two weeks and getting through the -- getting through to commencements. >> and the president is scheduled to give a couple of commencement addresses, white

house officials concerned about the protests he might see while speaking. jen, so glad you could join us this morning. thank you very much. up next, a show of force from house democrats. why they say they'll help save speaker mike johnson if he's facing a motion to vacate. and police are called to clear protesters at columbia and ucla. and florida's six week abortion ban as mentioned is now in effect. democratic senator elizabeth warren will weight in on that and the rights reproductive role will play in the 2024 election. and a judge hits donald trump with a monetary penalty in his hush money trial. >> today he was held in

contempt. >> it was nine counts of contempt. [ applause ] >> hold on. before they get too excited. do you want to tell them the total charges? >> it was nine counts of contempt for social media posts deemed to have violated a gag order. each count drew a fine of $1,000. and donald trump may not be as rich as he claims to be but he can still afford that. but he can still afford that. what they see, yeah ♪s ♪ in my bag like a bunch of groceries ♪ ♪ all this cheese and greens just come to me ♪ ♪ look at me on the go. always hustling. eyes on me ♪ ♪ all eyes on me, brand new drip is what they see ♪ ♪ these diamonds, diamonds on my teeth ♪ ♪ brand new whip is what they see, yeah ♪ freedom you can't take your eyes off. the new 2024 jeep wrangler and gladiator. jeep. there's only one. so this is pickleball? it's basically tennis for babies, but for adults. it should be called wiffle tennis. pickle! yeah, aw! whoo! ♪♪ these guys are intense.

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welcome back. house democrats announced yesterday that they will save speaker mike johnson should congresswoman marjorie taylor greene move forward with threats to oust him. in a joint statement, the democratic leadership said this, at this moment, upon completion of our national security work, the time has come to turn the page on this chapter of pro-putin republican obstruction. we'll vote to table representative marjorie taylor greene's motion to vacate the chair. it will not succeed. democrats will avoid a direct public vote on the matter. in response greene posted on

social media, mike johnson is officially the democratic speaker of the house. if the democrats want to elect him speaker and some republicans want to support the democrat's chosen speaker i'll give them the chance to do it. >> in response to greene the house of the chair caucus had this to say. >> i'm not going to get in the head of marjorie taylor greene, i don't know what goes on in there. >> fair enough. joining us congressional reporter for politico daniella diaz. good morning. let's start with the democrat's thinking here. why did they choose to go this route and suggest they'll save speaker johnson? >> jonathan, i've spoken to dozens of house democrats the past couple of weeks and they have all inched close er, leading up to that statement we saw yesterday from house leadership in wanting to avoid what happened last fall when republicans booted mccarthy from

the speakership and led to 22 days of disarray on capitol hill. we remember that, it was unprecedented first time in history that happened. but they also wanted to not so much -- they don't see this as helping speaker mike johnson, but they do see this as kind of an exchange while they're not getting anything new but mike johnson put ukraine aid on the floor, similar to a senate bill just passed two months ago and saw that as a way to motion to table this. they wouldn't vote to keep him, but they would motion to table or dismiss an effort to boot him. that's why they're saying they would do it when they didn't do it for kevin mccarthy. >> democrats buy johnson time, to be sure. but what happens down the road the next time the far right wingers get angry at him.

does marjorie taylor greene have a point? is it hard for johnson to lead republicans considering he got saved by democrats? >> to your second point, jonathan. that's what's happening. she lost steam on the effort to boot johnson from the speakership. that's why we haven't seen her launch this motion to vacate. she's been threatening it for two weeks, talking about it for longer. she has a press conference in a few hours where she's planning to lay out where she is on this position with another congressman on her side, thomas massey of kentucky. she hasn't said whether they plan to trigger the motion to vacate or not. but to your earlier point, democrats i spoke to said they won't continue doing this, unless there's some sort of bipartisan work with speaker mike johnson going forward. they saw, like i said, ukraine aid as a reason to not lose him from the speakership. if they continue seeing that kind of work ahead of november

which could change the whole dynamic in the house, they'll continue doing that but won't do it for free. >> and lastly and briefly, what has johnson said about all this? how has he responded to this move by democrats? >> he's been incredibly dismiss sieve, criticized marjorie taylor greene. he's defended what he's done. and really stuck to why he put that bill on the floor that would send ukraine, israel and taiwan billions of dollars. and he is just continuing to do what he's trying to do with his razor thin majority in the house and try to continue to pass legislation and a lot of it needs democratic support. that's really the dynamic here as well. >> publically the white house remained silent about this but privately, of course, pleased that got done in support of democrats' efforts to keep johnson in place right now. great stuff as always. daniella