more than 100 hostages of which we know very little. >> reporter: of which we know very little. there are around 134 hostages being held by hamas according to the israeli government. officially, around 34 of those hostages have been confirmed dead. remember, hamas seized the bodies of hostages as bargaining chips. not as valuable as live hostages, but bargaining chips. those are part of the negotiations. >> raf sanchez in jerusalem for us this morning. thank you so much. that wraps up the hour for me. i'm jose diaz-balart. you can reach me on social media. you can watch clips from the show on youtube. thank you for the privilege of your time. andrea mitchell picks up with more news right now. right now on "andrea mitchell reports," as first reported by nbc news today, in a sharply worded opinion, critical

of fulton county fani willis, a judge rules she can stay on the case if she removes her lead prosecutor nathan wade. the judge adds that the romantic relationship between willis and wade has the appearance of impropriety and that she should not have given a speech accusing critics of racism. we will have the trump team's response and our legal experts on just how this could impact the prosecution. the president makes his first comments about chuck schumer's controversial speech about prime minister netanyahu as hamas offers a new cease-fire and hostage release deal while israel proposes a military plan to invade rafah. this as some emergency food, some, arrives by ship for starving palestinians. it's not yet on shore. a live report from moscow on putin's so-called election and a new g7 warning to iran not to send ballistic missiles to russia. president biden's top national security spokesman john kirby will join me next.

♪♪ good day, everyone. i'm andrea mitchell in washington. a major development in donald trump's election interference case in georgia. scott mcafee ruling that d.a. willis can stay on the case but only if she dismisses nathan wade. the judge scolded willis for her lapse in judgment or the unprofessional manner of her testimony during the hearing. he added an odor of mendacity remains over the case, raising questions about whether they told the truth in their sworn testimony about when the relationship first started. donald trump and his attorney saying -- >> joining me now, blayne

alexander who broke the news in atlanta. former federal prosecutor paul butler and robert james, former district attorney. a partial win for fani willis. she stays on the case but with big caveats and big criticism. tell us more. >> reporter: that's exactly it. the long and short of it is, this can proceed. that is certainly a big win for fani willis and probably a sigh of relief as well. the initial ask had been for the indictment to get thrown out all together and for she and her office to be removed from the case. that's not happening. however, nathan wade has go in order for her to proceed. i think what's interesting is the wording in this. i looked through this 23-page ruling from the judge, he certainly didn't hold back. he found that while the law doesn't show that the defense basically met their burden by proving any sort of impropriety

or conflict with the d.a., the appearance is certainly there. let me read you one section where he says that. the defendants failed to meet the burden. a significant appearance of impropriety that infects the current structure of the prosecution team is what he found. there were other things. he strongly took her to task for a number of things throughout this course. one, having the relationship in the first place while he was working on her team. secondly, the fact that she got on the stand, that shocking testimony that all of us watched. he called that out as well. it's very clear that he wanted to point out that, yes, legally, didn't do anything wrong. you can stay on the case. bottom line, this wasn't a good look. the other thing that i think we have to talk about is while that's the legal aspect of it that's kind of pulled in, it's really important to look at the fact that this has bled over into a number of different areas. there's a georgia state senate

investigation that's going on right now. fani willis will likely be subpoenaed to testify before that. the shadow of what we have seen over the past two and a half months will linger for some time to come. >> andrew, let's talk about this case and get past the appearance of impropriety the judge is referring to. he is raising questions about the truthfulness of sworn testimony. does this give a wide opening to the defense? >> it does in a way that was just outlined. there are a number of ways that if the current structure of the leadership remains, there's going to be a lot -- i mean a lot for the defense to work with. i think you will see the defense trying to appeal this. i don't think they will get very far, but that will be a distraction. also, if you look at the decision on page 9, judge mcafee

gives a road map of all the other people who may be interested in testimony that he is obviously questioning. he does not -- to be clear, he does not come out and say, i found that credible. that would have been a big win if he said, i found the d.a. and mr. wade were credible. instead he says quite to the contrary -- he doesn't quite say the l word that i thought they lied, but he leaves that distinctly off for other parties. he lists the georgia state ethics committee, the state bar of georgia, fulton county board of commissioners in and the voters, those are places where the defense, as is their right, are going to seek to raise this issue. it will be an enormous distraction even if mr. wade is removed from the case. it leads to the question that i have been raising is whether fani willis for the good of the case should recuse herself and

have some other lead person in her office oversee this case, just so that she doesn't become a distraction for what is such a singularly important case regardless of its outcome, it's so singularly important there be no questions about the leadership of this. regardless of what you think of the judge's decision. >> robert, talk to us about whether you think she should step aside and start over. would she have to start over with the rest of her team minus nathan wade, because he is controversial? could they pick it up with a new prosecutor without losing too much time or would it really delay it? >> the first thing is that nathan wade has to go. the judge was clear about that, that there's no pathway forward with nathan wade as a lead prosecutor. i want to point out i don't believe d.a. willis indicated she's going to be the lead prosecutor in the courtroom.

i think the current structure of the team is such that it is already going to be someone else that's going to be presenting evidence. i think there's sufficient separation between her and the case. i think this motion brought her back into the case because her actions were called into question. >> paul butler, her judgment is being questioned. she's still in charge of the prosecution. can she stay on the case credibly or does that itself jeopardize the future of this case given the possibility that the defense will raise objections that judge mcafee may take positively or view positively? >> she can stay on the case. i think that she will stay on the case. the other commentators have been right. this is only a partial victory for the d.a. it comes and substantial

professional and personal cost to her and mr. wade. it's a win because now the d.a. gets to go back to prosecuting donald trump and the 14 remaining defendants. it's just a partial win though, because it's the proper legal result that everyone expected. there was no evidence presented that anything about the relationship between d.a. willis and mr. wade prejudiced the rights of the defendants. if the goal was to get the case dismissed or to get d.a. willis thrown off the case, that was never going to happen. what defense attorneys did accomplish is putting the d.a. and her lead prosecutor on the witness stand. treating them like they were defendants selling their reputations and raising questions about their credibility. the defense team got the lead prosecutor kicked off the case. which i think is certainly the

option that d.a. willis will choose rather than removing her entire office from the case. the judge also implied that he will be open to a gag order which would apply to the d.a.'s office but not to the defendants. we don't get to say this a lot about trump's attorneys, but this was quite an effective defense strategy, even if d.a. willis remains on the case. >> this is such a setback. she's on the ballot, isn't she, running for re-election? >> reporter: she is. she's running for re-election. judge mcafee is also on the ballot. he is running for re-election and has two opposing candidates. what's interesting is when you are here in fulton county. i talked with people here and outside of fulton county about this. how people view this depends on where you are when you ask them. in fulton county, she's very popular. people told me they have been watching her. they have been watching this whole thing play out. they say, maybe there were

missteps in judgment when it comes to the relationship. the felt the way she was treated on the stand, having so much of her personal information aired in the courtroom and aired on live tv for all to see, they thought that was unfair. when you go to people who are maybe outside of fulton county, outside of the blue area of metro atlanta, they see it differently. people believe this is like an embarrassment on georgia. it makes a mockery of this. it's unnecessary. i think that's something that's important to point out as well. one thing that i want to go back to, you and robert were talking about how this might impact her posture in the courtroom, might she take a step back? one thing that fani willis told me in an interview a couple months ago is that nobody should ever be surprised to see the district attorney in the courtroom arguing the cases. the prosecution she's bringing. saying that she's not going to leave it to her deputies all alone. in the pretrial hearings that we have seen, we saw fani willis in

the courtroom herself when they were trying to make the case to revoke the bond of one of the co-defendants. she was there. she was questioning the witnesses. she was doing the heavy work. she was sitting lead at the table. that was just one of a lower level pretrial hearings. fani willis, she's not one who is inclined to back down from anything, as we have seen. i certainly think her posture is that she does plan to be involved heavily in the prosecution of this case in the courtroom. it will be a standing question of what that looks like and whether this impacts that going forward. >> blayne alexander, congratulations. you beat everybody on this. you have been on top of it throughout. it's great to have you there. robert james, thanks to you for your insight. andrew weissmann, we will come back to you. is there a breach? tensions between the u.s. and israel owe gaza.

new hamas offers -- a new offer on hostage negotiations as well as a cease-fire. president biden praises senator schumer's speech calling for elections in israel. "andrea mitchell reports" is back in 60 seconds. stay with us. you are watching msnbc. with e*trade from morgan stanley, we're ready for whatever gets served up. dude, you gotta work on your trash talk. i'd rather work on saving for retirement. or college, since you like to get schooled. that's a pretty good burn, right?

hey, dad. i got an a on my book report. that's cool. and i went for a walk in the woods and i didn't get a single flea or tick on me. you are just the best. -right? i'm great. -you are great. oh, brother. this flea and tick season, get 20% off your first pharmacy order at chewy. president biden within the last hour meeting with ireland's prime minister, praising schumer's speech calling for israel to vote israel's -- calling for israelis to vote prime minister benjamin netanyahu out of office. >> he made a good speech. i think he expressed serious concern shared not only by him but by many americans. >> schumer had said in that speech on the floor yesterday that netanyahu is an obstacle to

peace in gaza. this as israel's war cabinet met today to consider a new cease-fire offer from hamas which apparently did identify hostages it would be releasing. also demanded the release of 100 palestinians serving life sentences. also, the ratio of palestinians to hostages being released caused netanyahu to initially rejecting it calling it unrealistic. he did agree to send a delegation to qatar to discuss it. that aid ship carrying 200 tons of food from world central kitchen arrived off the coast of gaza today. if the new sea route is successful, it would be a drop in the bucket for what is needed to deal with the crisis. joining us now is john kirby,

assistant to the president. john, thank you very much. so much has been happening today. in the last hour. in the last hour, the president appearing to endorse senator schumer's comments, comments that he called a good speech. that's praise from the president of the united states in the oval office. that clearly was thought out. >> the president has great respect for leader schumer, as you know. he also has respect for the passion with which leader schumer spoke yesterday. he knows where it's coming from when it comes to chuck schumer. he knows that the sentiments that lead are schumer expressed in that very passionate speech yesterday are shared by many, many americans. the president, for his part, is going to keep working as he has been with prime minister netanyahu and that war cabinet that you talked about to make

sure more assistance can get in and we can alleviate the suffering of the gazan people. we know israel has a right to defend themselves. we will continue to help them do that. but they have an obligation to take care of the innocent civilians. >> the president had a choice about the words he would use by calling it a good speech and saying that he understands chuck schumer -- has respect for him and understands chuck schumer's passion, views of many americans being represented. does he agree with those views that prime minister netanyahu is an obstacle to peace? >> the president knows that the israeli people get to determine who their elected government representatives are. >> of course. >> that's what democracy is all about. he respects that. he has been nothing but candid and forthright with the prime minister about ways in which we think things can be done differently, things can be done better, things can be done more stridently to get more assistance in to the people of

gaza, and to reduce the number of civilian casualties. my goodness, these are two guys that have no problem being honest with one another. the president has done that. >> that's in private. of course, those differences have been expressed by others and by secretary blinken. does the president of the united states think that the prime minister of israel is an obstacle to peace? >> the president will continue to work with prime minister netanyahu and his war cabinet to do everything we can to alleviate the humanitarian suffering in gaza. we have been honest that there have been times in the not too distant past, in recent days, where we don't believe that the israelis have done as much as they can do and should do to increase the level of trucks getting into gaza. there have been obstacles to moving forward in terms of getting them the food, water, medicine, fuel they need. we have been very frank about that. >> let me just say that that answer -- that question was not

answered three times. that's all right. that was your answer. let's move on to the fact that israel says it has presented a plan for rafah. the implication is that's the military plan, which we have been waiting for, but more importantly perhaps, has the u.s. now received a plan to relocate 1.2 million people who were relocated into rafah, before that takes place? as of yesterday and the day before from the state department, it had not been received. has it been received? >> no. the prime minister's office, their statement this morning made it clear that there is a plan not just for the operational aspect of rafah, the military aspects, but according to the prime minister's office, that that plan includes the effort to evacuate gazans out of harm's way. we have not seen it. >> what about the hamas offer?

they were more specific about the hostages. they may not have reached a threshold that israel will accept on the number and the particulars of the palestinian release. they are sending a delegation to qatar. do you think there's a chance that this is a new window for opening cease-fire negotiations? >> we sure hope so. we just keep churning on this. we are staying dedicated to the task of trying to get this temporary cease-fire in place. as i understand it, the israeli war cabinet was meeting this morning to talk about this new hamas proposal or this counterproposal if you want to call it that. i don't know where they will come out on this. i don't know if they made decisions. it's encouraging they are willing to send a team to talk. we are cautiously optimistic. until everything is negotiated, you don't have anything negotiated. we have to stay at the task. >> you have to go.

but quickly, the g7 issued a strong statement today. the u.s. is a big part of that. warning iran not to supply russia with ballistic missiles, with consequences. iranian commercial aircraft would not be able to fly over europe. is there any evidence that aside from the drones -- we know the other weapons supplied -- that ballistic missiles have gone to russia from iran? or do we have information to believe that that is happening? >> what we have information to give us concern in this -- this gets at the statement you are talking about. the iranians and russians are talking about this potential transaction. that would be greatly destabilizing not just to the region but to the people of ukraine. that's what prompted the statement by the g7. we endorse that statement. there would be severe consequences should iran choose to move in that path.

>> i know -- again, i know you have to run. do you have time to give us the latest with the russian sham election going on? what's the latest hope for getting any kind of u.s. aid -- i know you did $300 million. that's nice. but they need the billions of dollars in that supplemental. >> they do. there's no substitute for that. we were able to garner some savings from contracts that dod had to pull off sums. then move that to ukraine. it's an emergency package. it will be mostly artillery ammunition and some rockets, things they need in the fight they are in right now. it's nothing more than a band-aid. it may last them a couple of weeks or so, depending on how they -- the rate at which they expend it. there's to replacing that supplemental funding we asked for, more than $60 billion, to help them from a security assistance perspective for the long-term.

they are up against it. especially in the donbas. russians move west. they are not moving at a great rate. a little gain every day or so. by no means are they backing up. they are going right up against those lines of defense that the ukrainians are trying to install and to protect as the russians are on the move. this is a critical time for them, particularly in the donbas area and donetsk. that's where we need to help them answer that pressure. >> john kirby, as always, grateful to you. thank you very much for being with us today. >> yes, ma'am. on the case. how the trump campaign is reacting to today's legal decision in fulton county, georgia. and what it might mean for the 2024 campaign. stay with us. that's next on "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. ... now with skyrizi, i'm all in with clearer skin. ♪ things are getting clearer...♪ ( ♪♪ )

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with today's ruling, fani willis is in charge of the georgia election interference case. the criticism in the judge's ruling gives the trump team strong ammunition this their effort to undermine the prosecution. trump's campaign has plans to use his court appearances in these cases as part of their political campaigning, as they continue to delay trials from taking place before the election. joining me now, ashley parker,

philip rucker, co-author of "a very stable genius." ashley, with the questions today about fani willis and her judgment, does the appearance of impropriety and potentially of not telling the truth on the stand in a sworn appearance, does that help mr. trump in the election cycle? >> it absolutely helps donald trump. donald trump is someone who has an ability to politicize just about anything. fani willis has given him a ton of legitimate ammunition in what emerged about her personal life, the judge's ruling in finding that at the least this appearance of impropriety, and even in a speech she delivered that felt very political in nature. he hopes he can make it seem like a partisan witch hunt where

he is a martyr. this is something he and his campaign have tried to do even when it's clearcut and pretty impartial. democrats now even are worried that regardless of what actually happens with this case, that -- the power has been did i -- diminished by everything that happened so far. >> phil, talk about the political dynamics. you would think with the first indictment, that would hurt donald trump politically. he used it to his advantage, as you know. his polling has gone up with every court appearance. he was in florida in court when he didn't need to be yesterday. now this is more help for him in this political campaign. >> yeah, it certainly looks that way, andrea. what the trump strategy has been is to try to use legal maneuvers to delay these trials as long as

possible to get closer and closer to the election, because what he has found is that while the indictments are there and while the trials are ongoing, this seems to be helping him solidify his support within his political base and allows him as a candidate now for president to feel like he is the one being persecuted unfairly as he argues to his supporters. the big question politically i think is whether and if there's any sort of a conviction, if a jury actually convicts him in one of these cases ongoing here, if that could somehow shift public opinion in some way. the longer the trials get delayed, the less likely it seems there would be an end in one of the cases before the election takes place. the developments this morning in fulton county, the narrative the judge put forward, the language in that decision is currency for trump. it's a characterization of fani willis and the conduct within her prosecutorial team that he

can use to really undermine credibility in the prosecution. >> the delay tactics have worked in every instance in the four cases. ashley, there's another side of this. his campaign fund-raising. he needs money. he has to pay off the judgments in new york. his campaign needs money. he has been able to fund-raise off of these. i don't know if we have seen a blast yesterday today. >> that's right. he owes at least about $500 million in new york judgments alone. that's half a billion dollars. that's a tremendous amount. it's an open question if he has the liquidity and cash on hand to pay for that. his campaign also needs money. again, this argument of he is a martyr and this is a witch hunt -- when you hear him talk about it at rallies to supporters, he casts himself as, i'm doing this for you. i am martyring myself, i am

taking these arrows for you. it's something that as phil said, if there's a conviction, it may turn off those 40,000 voters across three states who will be crucial. in terms of his base, his supporters, the ones who smash the buttons to donate small dollars every time he makes an appeal on something like this, it's financially valuable for him. >> ashley parker, phil rucker, thank you both so much. the domino affect. we talk about this, the federal cases in d.c. and florida, the criminal and civil cases in new york, the fulton county case today, how donald trump's team is handling all of this or not. that's coming next. you are watching "andrea mitchell reports." this is msnbc. 's to getting better with age. here's to beating these two every thursday. help fuel today with boost high protein, complete nutrition you need...

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the name of the game for donald trump and his legal team

in all the court cases has been delay. the decision by a georgia judge to allow fani willis to remain on the election interference case will delay that trial in . judge cannon has yet to rule on motions yesterday. one motion she did rule on could be problematic during the trial. in new york, after new documents were handed over, bragg said he is open to a 30-day delay. joining us now, lisa ruben, with us again andrew weissmann and paul butler. lisa, we are learning the southern district of new york is handing over 15,000 documents today to the manhattan d.a.'s office. that's the second new tranche. trump lawyers will receive this

for the first time. there were 73,000 before. what does this mean for the hush money case? why did they not put this material out a lot sooner? this was material from a previous southern district consideration before alvin bragg took over apparently. it's information they had that had come from michael cohen that did not lead to the prosecution under vance. but it did need to go to the trump team. doesn't this seem like a big error? >> first of all, we don't know yet what the communications were like between alvin bragg's office and the southern district of new york last year. in a filing they made yesterday, alvin bragg's office said, we asked last spring for a lot of the same records that they have now produced to us. we didn't get them then. we only got a subset of what we asked for. everything that we had we turned over to trump and his legal team

at the time. they didn't complain. instead, they sat on it and did nothing until january when they served a subpoena on the southern district of new york. after some correspondence back and forth to convince the southern district that the requests they were making were relevant to the preparation of their defense did they then get what is now almost 120,000 pages of documents. why this happened i think is an outstanding question. when alvin bragg responds substantive to the motion that donald trump's team filed, we might have some more insight into that. their response on the underlying discovery violation motion is due next week. i want to emphasize to you, in terms of derailing this case, trump put in a letter today to the judge where they said, it's well that the d.a. will agree to a 30-day adjournment, but we are saying if that's all we are

entitled to, we want 90 days. but we are asking you to dismiss this case. >> wow. andrew, weigh in on this. what is your take on what the judge, who has been pushing forward, might do with this? >> i think with respect to the underlying motion that lisa is referring to, that's a standard motion that defense lawyers make under relatively new rules in the state system. i don't expect that's going to go anywhere. you never know. i'm confident in a case like this that the d.a. will have turned over everything that they are required to turn over. i'm not that worried about it. i do think to this idea of a tranche of huge documents being turned over a couple days ago from the southern district, a new batch, i think there will be tranche warfare.

you will see the d.a., i think, as they have in their papers, taking to task what the judgment call was with the southern district. i think the big open question is really for -- the one that i have is, what was the southern district of new york thinking a year ago when by all accounts they were asked for the material that would be needed, whether it's inculpatory or exculpatory. they want to provide that to the defense. that's really the open question. i do think that it may be that a couple of months from now, after the trial has started, that we look back and we have that question. we still may fault the southern district new york prosecutors in terms of their judgment call. but it may be a mountain out of a molehill. in light of what's going on

here, in light of the decision in georgia that we talked about earlier in your show, it's not a really good day for both state and federal prosecutors in looking like they have the white hat and are acting responsibly. there are a lot of questions i think that people rightly have in both. >> andrew, i want to follow up and ask you about judge cannon in florida. i heard you last night talking about how this dismissal on the one issue was actually potentially damaging to the prosecution because if she dismissed it out of hand, since it was such a frivolous motion in your view, it would have been overturned by the 11th circuit and she was probably trying to avoid again for the third time it would be being overturned by the 11th circuit. >> right. >> by going along with it for now but not totally dismissing it, saying she might re-visit it

once the trial gets underway and more evidence is introduced, once the jury is seated, it would be double jeopardy as you were explaining it. therefore, she might be able to dismiss it and they would have no appeal. am i right that this could be damaging down the road? >> that's exactly right. i think the most important thing for people to understand is that what the judge said is this was dismissed without prejudice. what that means for non-lawyers is that it can be raised again. it will be decided anew. when you dismiss something without prejudice, as opposed to with prejudice, it means the defense can still raise it. it may look like a victory, but it's really just -- it's literally the kicking the can down the road. if she had actually ruled against the government, that's something that the government could have immediately appealed and gone to the 11th circuit, as

you noted. but she didn't do that. if she had sided with the government, of course, that would have been something they wanted. of course, i think many people, including myself, think that the motion itself was so frivolous. here she basically is saying, i will re-visit this at a time that it may be more harmful to you, the government, in terms of your options about how to appeal this. >> paul, let's talk about a new statement now from ashley merchant, the attorney for michael romain, one of the co-defendants, the other defendants in fulton county. she brought suit in fulton county to get fani willis dismissed. she said --

>> she's overclaiming on the merit. she wanted the case dismissed. the judge refused to do that. she wanted d.a. willis kicked off the case. the judge refused to do that. the judge certainly gave her ammunition in terms of a critique of d.a. willis. the judge strongly rebuked both d.a. willis and mr. wade. but it's mr. trump who remains on trial. so i think that trump himself, who ashley merchant doesn't represent, may score some political points. at the end of the day, the only voters who matter are the 12 people who will be on the fulton county jury that considers this case. we will have some sense of where they are on d.a. willis with the election, which is coming up, which will almost certainly occur before the trial.

>> lisa, paul, andrew, thanks to all of you. catch andrew and melissa murray for the trump indictments, breaking down these cases tonight at 10:00 eastern on msnbc, based on their best selling book. thanks to all of you. deal or no deal? the details of hamas' latest offer for a cease-fire and how israel is responding. our report from israel next. this is msnbc. zyrtec allergy relief works fast and lasts a full 24 hours so dave can be the... deliverer of dance. ok, dave! let's be more than our allergies. zeize the day with zyrtec.

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israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu has approved plans for a ground offensive in rafah, the idea of preparing for the operation side and for the evacuations of the population. more than a million are sheltering in rafah, many after escaping israeli attacks in other parts of gaza. but according to john kirby, the u.s. has not seen any such plan. joining us now is raf sanchez. so i don't know if you saw john kirby at the top of the show, but for one thing, he did not disagree with what the president said today. he didn't try to walk it back. the president praised chuck schumer's speech calling it a good speech, one that represents the views of many americans. and he detailed a litany of

disagreements between the white house and netanyahu and said they have not received those plans for rafah. >> reporter: yeah, it is just a long list of friction points between the united states and israel right now. i can tell you in netanyahu's circle, that speech by chuck schumer, the most senior jewish official in the u.s. government, landing like a bombshell. a lot of anger. prime minister netanyahu's right wing party rushing out the statement saying israel is not a banana republic and it will not allow even an ally as close as the united states to interfere in israel's democratic process. we should note chuck schumer's speech came a couple of days after that unclassified u.s. intelligence threat assessment which kind of ventured into political analysis saying that prime minister netanyahu's time at the top of israeli politics appears limited at this stage.

so there is a lot of frustration on the right wing in israel that they feel the united states is not only putting a lot of pressure on them to scale back this war before it is finished, including before the assaults on rafah, but they also feel the biden administration is pushing benjamin netanyahu in a way that is inappropriate between fellow democracies. >> and this is all happening of course in the middle of an american election and a time when the president was in michigan yesterday for the second time and being widely criticized for arab and palestinian americans for not visiting members of that state's large aura and palestinian community. so he is walking a very fine line, trying to balance it, but he has really come down against israel this week. and that is going to have big implications here as well as of course in israel. raf sanchez, thank you. we'll have to leave it there. putin's power grab up next, we're live from moscow where russians are voting in a presidential election that will

likely result -- well, will result in a fifth term for vladimir putin. a sham election. keir simmons is covering it. is. all my stresses just melt away. i hear that. this bad boy can fix anything. yep, tough day at work, nice cruise will sort you right out. when i'm riding, i'm not even thinking about my painful cavity. well, you shouldn't ignore that. and every time i get stressed about having to pay my bills, i just hop on the bike, man. oh, come on, man, you got to pay your bills. you don't have to worry about anything when you're protected by america's number-one motorcycle insurer. well, you definitely do. those things aren't related, so... ah, yee! oh, that is a vibrating pain. breathing claritin clear is like... (♪♪) is he? confidently walking 8 long haired dogs

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only question is whether he gets the turnout he wants in order to claim legitimacy or will russians simply stay home. joining me now is keir simmons who is in moscow for us at a polling place. so tell us how the turnout is, if you can judge it, what are people saying about the election today. >> reporter: you're right to say if you can judge it. it is impossible to be standing here in in middle school polling station in central moscow and make any assessment, but that being said, we have seen a steady stream of voters. you can see the paperle ballots are piling up and next to did you can see the electronic voting booths. russians are also being encouraged to vote online. president putin voting himself online. and that has observers wondering -- one here says he

can't tell us what is going on when the electronic votes are counted. clearly president putin will win the election. the question is about how many people vote. 2018, 67.5. the kremlin will be aiming for something better than that. or something similar to that. because in the end, this is a referendum on president putin and the illegal war in ukraine. >> and alexei navalny's wife is questioning the legitimacy of it, authenticity of it, she's calling on the west not to accept the vote. not that the west really has anything to say about this though. but he has eliminated any political opponents, hasn't he who were trying to get on the ballot? >> reporter: well, crushed anyone who was against the war.

i mentioned alexei navalny of course died in prison during the election campaign. we've seen fragments of opposition. there has been dye put into a ballot box here and polling station in moscow, there is molotov cocktails thrown at a polling station in st. petersburg. but this is being framed by the kremlin as all about the so-called special military administration in ukraine. take a look there, the v, that is an emblem of the war in ukraine. so russians are voting here with that kind of messaging all around them under no illusions of what they are being asked to vote for. and that being said, president putin does have a lot of support here in russia. we spoke to one woman, 90, says she was there for stalin's funeral and she now says

president putin is the only person that she can trust. what is happening after the weekend, the kremlin want to stand up and say russian people are behind me, we are unified, we will not be intimidated even while there are continuing drone strikes for example. >>. and he is talking about in bell gore rod. and so this is an election, but not the kind of election that you know over there.and so this not the kind of election that you know over there. >> it is so great that you are there. thank you very much. that does it for andrea mitchell reports. you can follow us on social media. and you can rewatch the best parts of the show, highlights, anytime on youtube. happy st. patrick's day to those observing which means