f you have a history of infections or symptoms of an infection. vyvgart can cause allergic reactions. available as vyvgart for iv infusion and also as vyvgart hytrulo for subcutaneous injection. additional side effects for vyvgart hytrulo may include injection site reactions. talk to your neurologist about vyvgart. ♪♪ from chavez and huerta to striking janitors in the 90s to today's fast-food workers. californians have led the way. now, $20/hour is here. thanks to governor newsom and leaders in sacramento, we can lift workers out of poverty. stop the race to the bottom in the fast-food industry. and build a california for all of us. thank you governor and our california lawmakers for fighting for what matters. her uncle's unhappy. and our california lawmakers i'm sensing an underlying issue. it's t-mobile. it started when we tried to get him under a new plan. but they they unexpectedly unraveled their “price lock” guarantee. which has made him, a bit...

unruly. you called yourself the “un-carrier”. you sing about “price lock” on those commercials. “the price lock, the price lock...” so, if you could change the price, change the name! it's not a lock, i know a lock. so how can we undo the damage? we could all unsubscribe and switch to xfinity. their connection is unreal. and we could all un-experience this whole session. okay, that's uncalled for. the 11th hour with stephanie ruhle starts now. tonight, with just days to go until jury selection in the hush money case, donald trump is working overtime to delay the trial. we will get into all the days legal developments in this case and more. then, donald trump dodges on the national abortion ban is the biden campaign releases a

powerful new ad, plus president biden's new student that relief plan would impact millions of americans. what it means for student borrowers in the presidential race as the 11th hour gets underway on this monday night. good monday evening. i am stephanie ruhle, live from new york city. we are now 211 days away from the election. tonight, special counsel jack smith filed his brief to the supreme court as it prepares to hear arguments about donald trump's claims of presidential immunity. smith argues that even if the justices decide presidents do have some level of immunity for certain official acts, the prosecution should still go ahead. meanwhile, the new york

case is set to begin one week from today. can you believe that? you will believe trump's lawyers are pulling out all the stops to try and make sure that does not happen. trump's team argued today that the case should be delayed while they fight for a change of venue and against trumps gag order. i was after they made those arguments, the judge denied the motion to delay. we've seen this last-minute long shot before from his team. his attorneys tried the same light change of venue tactic last year to delay the civil fraud trial. an appeals court refused to delay the trial. meanwhile, there are huge questions tonight surrounding the $175 million bond trump posted to appeal the civil fraud case. according to the daily beast, the contract said trump would pay the money if he loses the appeal, not the company itself. everybody -- every expert out there says this completely than

-- negates the entire reason someone would secure a bond in the first place. on top of that, the report says the little-known company who provided the bond is not even licensed in the state of new york. dunellen is here, senior national politics reporter for nbc news, katie bennett, and former new york prosecutor and civil rights attorney, charles common. charles, you are here with me so you get the first question. what do you think of jack smith brief tonight? it seems like he's getting emotional almost. >> i think he is responding in a very strong manner to this notion of blanket presidential immunity and in your lead-in, you pointed out one of the strongest parts of his brief. he gave the supreme court and out, to basically say look, you do not need to rule universally that the president may not have any sort of presidential immunity regarding committed all

-- criminal acts were committed in office but in this case what you are talking about a private actor who worked with private individuals to affect a private outcome that would essentially denature the entire united states government, that absolutely cannot stand, so i think that carveout the jack smith made in his brief was brilliant because it's going to give the supreme court enough breathing room where they may not necessarily have to rule entirely against donald trump. i still think they are going to rule against him, but this was the icing on the cake that i think will give them enough room to find for jack smith in a way everyone can live with. >> janie, what do you think? >> i agree with that. also, i think the question of whether or not this was within the scope of trumps duties when he was president, the idea he was seeking out election fraud, what is so interesting we saw

at the district level the judge didn't want to rule on that question and also i think we can expect at the hearing to hear the supreme court justices ask a lot of questions about whether or not this was in the scope of trumps duties, the act he is accused of doing because again, to charles' point, what jack smith is saying, let's not argue about presidential immunity. let's argue about the acts on the table and if you are trying to stop the peaceful transfer of power that certainly against what it means to uphold the constitution. one thing the supreme court could do that would slow this down quite a bit as they could actually send that question back to be ruled on at the district court level, setting off yet another wave of decisions and potential appeals. >> no, boy. let's talk about the hush money case because that is set to kick off next week. today, judge marchant sent both parties a letter about how jury selection will work. katie, did anything stick out to you? >> a couple of things. first of all, the idea that the jury is going to remain

anonymous to everybody but the lawyers and the defendant is still, again, extraordinary to me that this is the sort of measure one has to take in new york. generally speaking, you see this happening gang cases where the jurors could be threatened, or they feel they could be at risk for participating in our legal system, so that is quite extraordinary. again, the sorts of questions, you know, the pushback that new york cannot be impartial. it is so clear in this ruling and another comments this is not the issue. you can have a very blue democratic area of the country, and still find 12 people who are qualified to serve on a

jury. you do not see the justice department saying we don't want the documents case to happen in florida because florida is a state that liens read. it's really saying we have no faith in the legal system and that we can't find 12 jurors, so again, this strong motion saying yes we can find the jurors and we are going to have to ask them a lot of sensitive questions about their feelings about donald trump, whether they participate in any extremist groups in the united states, the feeling about campaign finance. it will be interesting to see how people answer. >> charles, at what point will trumps lawyers run out of ways to try to push this trial. are you and i going to be sitting here next monday night talking about what went down in court? >> i'm going to say yes. i think there is an important caveat and with that i've got to take a point of personal privilege. right here in this chair i talked about the fact that a change of venue motion was likely coming way back when the indictment first dropped, and here we are. even though the motion to delay the trial was denied, they are still arguing for a change of venue and that could be something that could cause a delay but he is absolutely running out of different ways to try and delay this thing. i want to speak quickly about the notion of jury selection and judge marchand's letter.

>> after you did that i told you so dance. >> jury selection is undoubtedly one of the most important parts of any trial. 70% or higher of your trial is won and lost with your ability to choose a jury. what judge marchand did with that letter that stuck out to me that is really important as he said look, for any juror who self identifies themselves as unable to serve, we're not even going to interview them. that significantly cuts down the amount of time it's going to take in order to cheddars a jury. for a trial like this, it is unprecedented when you're talking about a former president of the united states finding a fair and partial jury in the state is not an easy dance. we're talking about people who already don't want to be involved in don't want to go to jury duty. if he has already decided we are not going to interrogate those people, he is being very serious about the effect of getting directly to the people who are going to be here. we are going to go through this

people and you're going to have to make some decisions. it's a very big deal. >> john, up until now, donald trump seems to like to go to court. he goes into court, he goes to the court had -- courthouse steps, he has his own little rally there. will this time be different? because he cares deeply about his image, and now he's going to be cooped up in a courtroom for weeks with his dirty laundry being aired out. are the people running his campaign going to be ready for how donald trump could react to this? >> the emotional duress of sitting in that courtroom for six weeks, and as you point out, having his dirty laundry aired is something i'm not sure anybody knows how he will react to but we know that he lashes out when he is angry. we know he lashes out when he's uncomfortable. one of the other things we know about donald trump is that this is the kind of trial, this particular one, that probably gets to him most emotionally, this idea that he's going to be out there embarrassed publicly,

not just minute by minute in the courtroom, but for the news coverage of this over the course of six weeks of sitting there listening to the details of his life. i will be in new york next monday if there is not a delay. i don't have a bet on the over/under of it starting on monday but i think it starts on monday i will be there in the court in new york and you know, i don't think we will ever have seen anything quite like this. trump is a former president, or one who cares so much about his image. i actually think of all the things he is facing, this is the most likely to go to trial and get under his skin personally. >> the other question, is the judge ready, katie? judge mershon is about to face one of the most challenging defendants in u.s. history, not to mention every single eye when it comes to people on the

world stage. what are you expecting to see from him when the trial starts? >> this is a really good question, especially given the question that trump is now basically said he would love to be put in prison. he's saying listen, i'm actually going to flood your rules because i want you to put me in jail. whether he actually decides to go through with that, whether in the end he decides he wants to spend a night or two in prison, we don't know. we can never really know what's going on in his head minute to minute, but he has basically threatened the judge and said i'm going to confront your authority every step of the way, so this is going to be, in many ways, a picture of what is to come if any of these federal cases come to trial. we will see trump under strain. we will see him much a parade of former allies, including people like david packer from the national enquirer, people who have helped him see their testimony in court. we're going to see people he feels betrayed him. there will be a lot of emotion and he has now said he's going to push the lot to its limits and push the court to its limits. i don't know that any judge is actually prepared for that moment, and we could see things

we never imagine, including donald trump campaigning from a jail cell and potentially working to his advantage. >> well, he would like it to. or it will work to his advantage with his base, but remember, he needs a lot more than his base. charles, let's talk about donald trump's pond he got last week while he appeals in this fraud case. $175 million from this company in l.a., the guy who runs it, basically a subprime auto lender, like a payday lender for cars. the way this is supposed to work, the underwriter pays if trump loses the appeal, but when people look at the details today, they don't. donald trump would be the one to pay, so what was the point of this bond to begin with? >> the point was to buy time

and get letitia james off his back but what we see now as they go through the contract -- >> as fraudulent contract from a sketchy bond guy for a case that was all about fraud? >> the irony, right? now donald trump is put letitia james in a precarious position because she has to make the decision as to whether she wants to undergo a bond source hearing. but that typically means is they will go into detail and examine the legitimacy of the course being provided to establish this bond. if that is done, it is not going to help the ag's office from a time perspective because it's just going to delay that further and further down the road, and it will allow him to do what he wants to do. if she does not make that move then donald trump sits with this fraudulent contract and allows that to cover the $175 million necessary to sustain the bond, so he is essentially playing checkers again while other people are trying to just get an honest answer and hold him accountable. >> my goodness. all right, so the guy in l.a. is a subprime auto lender. that's how he got rich.

over the weekend, there was a big fundraiser for trump in palm beach, cohosted by john paulson who became a billionaire betting against subprime just before the financial crisis. tell us what went on at this event, because trump had a special message just for that billionaire crowd, a much different message than he has when he is out there at rallies. >> campaign officials said he raised $50 million from a group of 117 people, many of them billionaires, and what we told them among other things is that he was promising to keep their taxes low. this is a huge contrast with joe biden, by the way, he says he wants to increase taxes on the rich. he's going to extend tax cuts for 2017. you will recall these were particularly new tax rates for many of these billionaires who have sole proprietorship's are what are called pass-through entities. you know very well how the very wealthy are able to reduce the tax burden through some of the structures of their businesses. many of those folks in private equity and hedge funds were at

this dinner with trump and we remember, if we look back at recent politics, just how outraged republicans were that say, hillary clinton would go speak to a group of wall street executives. none of them were donating $1 million to her campaign, certainly not 50 million in a night, and not release the transcript. nbc news asked donald trump's campaign for the transcript. we asked him to let us in to listen to his remarks. both requests were denied. >> well, raising $50 million is chump change of the message to all of them was you will not be paying one dollar more in taxes. things like taxes, things that carry interest will be safe if i'm the next president. what is extraordinary is you wonder, if donald trump space you care so much about populist messaging, those very same

people who judge joe biden for having a fundraiser across the street from us at radio city music hall, the wonder of those people are ever going to find out what was that at that party. probably not. they were invited. john, katie, charles. thank you all for starting this off tonight. when we return, donald trump finally clarifies where he stands on abortion and it has angered members of his own party and later, joe biden unveils a new plan for helping student loan borrowers. polls show that is working. the 11th hour just getting underway on a monday night. underway on a monday night. or an unbearable itch. this painful, blistering rash can disrupt your life for weeks and could make it hard to be there for your loved ones. shingles could also lead to serious complications that can last for years. if you're over 50, the virus that causes shingles is likely already inside you. and as you age, your risk of developing shingles increases. don't wait. ask your doctor or pharmacist about shingles today.

her uncle's unhappy. ask your doctor or pharmacist i'm sensing an underlying issue. it's t-mobile. it started when we tried to get him under a new plan. but they they unexpectedly unraveled their “price lock” guarantee. which has made him, a bit... unruly. you called yourself the “un-carrier”. you sing about “price lock” on those commercials. “the price lock, the price lock...” so, if you could change the price, change the name! it's not a lock, i know a lock. so how can we undo the damage? we could all unsubscribe and switch to xfinity. their connection is unreal. and we could all un-experience this whole session. ofrom chavez and huertaor. to striking janitors in the 90s to today's fast-food workers. californians have led the way.

now, $20/hour is here. thanks to governor newsom and leaders in sacramento, we can lift workers out of poverty. stop the race to the bottom in the fast-food industry. and build a california for all of us. thank you governor and our california lawmakers for fighting for what matters.

today, donald trump revealed his position on abortion, or at least, his latest position, and it is getting bipartisan criticism. garrett haake has all the details. >> reporter: tonight, after weeks of hints, former president trump went in on abortion, declining the call for a national ban, instead, saying it should be up to states to decide on any restrictions. >> the states will determine by vote or legislation or perhaps both, and whatever they decide must be the law of the land. in this case, the law of the state. at the end of the day, this is all about the will of the people. i am strongly in favor of exceptions for , incest and life of the mother. >> reporter: mr. trump's announcement creating intense bipartisan backlash. >> donald trump just endorsed every single state ban on abortion nationwide. donald trump is the reason row is ended. if you re-elect me, i will be the reason why it is restored. >> reporter: while mr. trump's former vp mike pence slamming him for not endorsing a presidential band. quote, his retreat from life light -- right to life is a slap in the face of americans who voted for him in 2016 and 2020. the supreme court with three

trump-appointed justices struck down roe v. wade in 2022 returning rights to the states for some have total abortion bands. >> i was probably the person responsible for the ending of something all legal scholars, both sides, wanted and in fact, demanded be ended, roe v. wade. >> reporter: but, just 36% of americans support the overturning of roe according to an nbc news poll and the issue has energized democrats. for prompt, -- mr. trump, the issue is politics instead of abortion. >> i am very pro-life. >> i am pro-life. >> what? we need some explanation. sam pfeiffer joins us, former white house communications director for president obama and former gop communications director, terrorist at mica. she is presidential scholar at the university of virginia center for politics. tara, you called this position a

copout. i don't even know what the position is. all legal scholars wanted roe v. wade overturned? what? >> well yes, it is typical word salad from donald trump because he doesn't believe any of it. he doesn't believe in anything. he is in the nihilist, his a malignant narcissist so he believes in whatever he needs to say to get elected which is what is so frustrating for those of us who actually have political ideology and principles, or people who continue to claim they have principal support the sky, because he continues to say whatever he needs to say to get elected. the reason he's coming out now is because republicans know and recognize that this is a very difficult issue for republicans. it is killer for them as an electoral issue, particularly in swing states, so they were trying to find a middle ground but you can't.

there is so much background for you saw trump's hypocrisy and his inconsistency on it, but also because you are seeing what is happening in the swing states, particularly with republican women, who are very uncomfortable with the republican party taking women's rights back 100+ years. this is not a secret. we see trump surrounded by these extremists to feel as though women's rights are something you can play around with and i think that is a very dangerous prospect politically, and they should be concerned about how women will vote in the swing states because that is where the election is going to be decided. >> , isn't it also a bunch of nonsense this argument that oh, temp just says whatever he needs to say in the room where you hear from really wealthy republicans who just care about tax cuts oh, don't pay attention to what he says. then, just pay attention to what he does because roe v. wade was overturned in we are seeing abortion bands in state after state so what he says is quite dangerous.

>> yes. look, we should not believe anything trump says. like you said, we should look at what he does. he overturned roe v. wade. he said he wanted to punish women. the thing we should pay the most attention to in the statement that i agree with his word salad, verbal applesauce, whatever you want to call it, is what he did not say. he did not say he would not sign a federal abortion bands if it comes to his desk because if he gets elected we know the most likely scenario is that he gets elected to a republican senate and republican house. is someone who has one of the most retrograde conservative positions than anyone in politics and we know whoever leads the senate is going to support an abortion brand -- ban and trump is going to sign it. what he's trying to be too clever about is the end result here is, if donald trump gets elected, a national abortion ban is a very likely outcome and that is why people have to turn out and vote against him. >> that is the thing.

in a room today where there were reporters in a position to ask no questions, he basically just restated where things currently stand. it is as though his goal here is to take abortion out of the political conversation, but how can he do that? at this point, his core most loyal base are white evangelical christians. they are the people who put him in office, who will likely get him back in office. they're not going to let him be quiet on this issue. this is their core issue. >> absolutely, and i think democrats should not let him be quiet on it either. the petition he took today which has been portrayed by some as politically savvy, he's triangulating against the far right, that is not what he did. what he did today was endorsed the most extreme abortion bands

and the most extreme abortion bands being proposed anywhere in this country so we should call him out on it. he can't take this off the table and it's going to be income but -- is going to face pressure from the right but also, democrats have to call him out on it every time and restate what president biden said in the state of the union, which is, if you elect him to the democratic pro-choice majority, he's going to sign a law to restore roe v. wade and that is the choice in this election. >> it was not just the state of the union. president biden again today made his feelings very clear in a powerful new ad. i want to share just a bit of it. >> this is just filled with some of the things we had started gathering for her while i was pregnant. there is her little baby book. this is the outfit she was going to maybe where home from the hospital. all of these. this is -- the

blanket she would've been in. and these are her little footprints. >> tara, how is an ad like that going to land with voters? >> that is one of the most powerful ads i've seen the biden campaign put out ever, between 2020 and now. those types of stories, telling the real story telling of americans and families of women who were impacted by these draconian laws is an extremely powerful tool. the journal of american medicine came out and said that 64,000 women who had gotten pregnant from being since these laws have gone into effect in

these 14 states -- 64,000 women and girls are pregnant from , so in these 14 states where you have these laws, they are being forced to carry the babies of the because they don't have exceptions, where they have to leave the state to get an abortion. how dare the federal government or state governments tell these women what to do with their bodies in situations like that? as a former republican, we always talked about individual freedom and in this case, you are taking away that freedom, that agency from women, because of what, because you want to install these autocratic hundred-year-old ginger rolls, oppressive gender roles for what, disenfranchising women? this is what republicans are doing in this is who they are supporting, so the fact that president biden is making these stories real so the american people fully understand because i'm not quite sure everyone fully understands what republicans are trying to do

here because they are being very careful. there being very obvious in some places but very wily and others using laws, going back to the comstock act of 1873, and using all of these extremes in all laws to try to take women's healthcare rights away from them. >> down, how is trumping savvy? tomorrow, south carolina is going to decide whether to enforce an abortion ban from 1864. it does not matter what donald trump told billionaires of the cocktail party because you know he was not mentioning an abortion ban at that party. he cannot possibly thread the needle while these things are

happening in state after state. >> that's what we have seen in every election since dobson 22. no matter what the republican position as they say leave it to the state whether they adopt a 15 week abortion ban like they tried to do in virginia in 2023. the same thing happens. it comes back to the fundamental fact that a supreme court was justices appointed by donald trump, confirmed by republicans, took away a constitutional right from millions of americans and now, republican state legislatures are putting in place these bands and they are not stopping there. they're going after ivf. contraception could be next and that is the fundamental truth and nothing donald trump says or does is going to change that fact between now and then. when we come back, president biden has a new plan to tackle student loan relief for millions of americans, but will he get credit for it? we break it down when the 11th hour continues. n the 11th hour continues.

you know we love talking numbers on the show in these ones are huge. during a visit to madison, wisconsin today, president biden unveiled a sweeping new student debt relief plan bringing the total amount forgiven to nearly $150 billion. dan, critics of this have argued oh, this is like buying votes. yet, those same critics don't say that when he cuts taxes for the superrich or for corporate america. what is your reaction to this move?

>> i think this is great news. it is evidence the president is doing everything in his power to fulfill his 2020 campaign promise to help deal with the crushing burden of student debt. this was a great amount announcement. they've already done a lot of work and relieved billions of dollars. it's not buying votes, it's fulfilling a campaign promise. >> tara, republicans are acting like voters don't care about this but when you look at the numbers, 73% of voters support student loan forgiveness and that includes 56% of republicans. is your former party not reading this issue correctly? >> i think that they recognize that for the constituency they need, this is not a big issue but for democrats, it's hugely important to firm up that coalition. they need those voters. it was very smart again of the biden camp to send the president to wisconsin to make this announcement where president biden of late only

won by 20,000 votes in 2020. he needs that 18 to 30-year-old vote to get out there and be energized and vote for him. it is a campaign promise he is trying to fulfill and he has been thwarted by legal complications with it, but most people don't care about that. politics is about perception and he is trying to make an effort to do this. hopefully, that among other issues will inspire that democratic coalition to get out there and vote. it's no different than the abortion issue. there is the majority of americans who are pro-choice but still you have republicans going after an extreme agenda. this is another issue that they look at the polling. they don't think it matters for the constituency that they need so they tried to hide it in fiscal responsibility in all of this and i understand certain

aspects of that but that is not really what matters here. it's about motivating people to vote in this is a good issue for that 18 to 30-year-old vote. >> the way it impacts perception is strategic communications. you know this well. whatever donald trump says goes viral in part because watching what he says is so crazy, but at the same time, president biden is doing a lot of constructive things to help the american people, to help american consumers. put student debt aside, president biden gets blamed for the inflation situation we are in yet millions of voters have no idea all the things he is trying to do to curb inflation. how does he start to change that? news deserts is one thing but from a communication standpoint, how does he get the message out, not even what his promises are, but what he is actually doing? >> well, part of this is going to be with paid ads. he's got the money to do it, but also the hardest constituency to reach is younger voters. they are the ones not consuming

is the traditional way through we always have, through digital websites or watching cable news or even being on twitter whether it is on tiktok. what you're going to have to do there is some targeted advertising to those people but also, he's going to have to empower his supporters, student to student, person to person, to tell the stories about what he is doing because that is who they're going to believe. that's who they're going to trust. that is why their opening field offices and recruiting volunteers because the modern way of communication in this fractured media environment is person the purpose -- person and that takes time and energy

and money and organization. i think today's event in wisconsin was sort of the starting and for that effort on student loans, to persuade younger voters. >> tara, new topic the new york times tackled today. corporate america, portions of it, seemed open to a donald trump second term because they like the idea of tax cuts and deregulation. why do they put no weight into the idea that our democracy isn't at risk? a bank ceo recently scoffed at the idea when i talked about our institutions been at risk. do they not remember he didn't and still doesn't accept the results of the last election? why wouldn't ceos of fortune 500 companies, whose number one job it is to be a risk manager, even acknowledge that is a huge risk to our country? if we don't have a functioning democracy, you will not have a strong economy. >> i agree with you, and i think what happens is people live in a bubble. they think it doesn't impact them. they have the money to leave and go to another country, a non-extradition country. the rest of us are the ones who are going to have to save

ourselves from the barges on the way to get more with tom gets re-elected again and that is this retribution agenda he keeps bragging about. they are so removed from the everyday life and impact of what it means. you know, i was speaking at an event recently where i use the example that democracy is like gravity or it is like oxygen. you know, you don't think about it. it's just out there in the air, until you don't have it anymore. i think a lot of these ceos and people in the elite don't think that the institutions are all that vulnerable because it has not impacted them directly. they have the means to circumvent whatever is coming. you know, they are like vichy republicans. they go along to get along until it is advantageous to them, so this is at their own peril and i blame people like this for being the enablers of why this autocratic march to our

country, it's because of donald trump and people around him. they are complicit in this. i've got news for them. they won't be able to escape it if this comes down to this country not having a democracy anymore. good luck with that and shame on them. >> , i did have a last question for you but with an answer like that, we've got to give it to tara. when we come back, basketball hall of famer, nancy lieberman, a.k.a. lady magic, is here to discuss an epic tournament and what happens after this winning moment in women's sports when the 11th hour continues. sports the 11th hour continues. own for, but a treatment can be. keytruda is known to treat cancer, fda-approved for 16 types of cancer. one of those cancers is advanced nonsquamous, non-small cell lung cancer, where keytruda is approved to be used with certain chemotherapies as your first treatment if you do not have an abnormal "egfr" or "alk" gene. keytruda can cause your immune system to attack healthy parts of your body during or after treatment. this may be severe and lead to death. see your doctor right away if you have cough, shortness of breath, chest pain, diarrhea,

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the women's ncaa tournament came to an end in south carolina claiming a third title over iowa. the game shattered records. 18.7 million viewers, and many have given iowa superstar caitlin clark the credit for drawing so much attention. >> i want to personally thank caitlin clark for lifting up our sport. she carried a heavy load for our sport, and it just is not going to stop here on the collegiate tour, but when she is the number one pick in the wnba draft, she's going to lift that league up, as well. >> i'm honored to welcome lady manage herself, two-time hall

of famer and nba coach, nancy lieberman. she is also on the board of directors at the national basketball retired players association. nancy, you have had one of the most extraordinary careers in basketball. how do you feel tonight? >> i feel excited and first of all, thank you so much. i love your energy and enthusiasm for everything we've worked for for 50 years during the stretch of time, so i will, as well, thank my friend, caitlin clark, for what she has done. you know, it is not only what she did, like don said, to lift the game up. think about the economic impact she's had like in iowa, is somewhere between 14 and $52 million this season and all of the sellouts paid what she did is going to affect the new contract that you know, ncaa president charlie beaker is going to negotiate, and think

about this. right now, the 32 teams that made it to the men's tournament, they were competing for $220 million and all that bonus money. the women got zero. so that has to be adjusted in the fiscal year of 2024-25, because you said it right. 18.7 million. do you know what they topped out at? 24 million? isn't that great? >> it's incredible, and do you think this will be the tipping point? historically we always hear listen, guys get more resources, they get the pay because they sell out the arenas. they get the fans. that is not the case anymore. you just laid out the numbers, so, can they still make that argument? >> i think that argument is done and over. we have star power in the arena. we had an undefeated team. we have don stanley and what

she's done for college basketball with her players, and congratulations to the gamecocks for just a magnificat season and there is juju and page becker's and you know, there are so many players that are coming after. look, we are a history of great women and great players. now, it is making economic sense because of everything you just said. you can't say well you know, ladies, we just want to be able to do this, but -- there is no more but. it is an economic fact right now and it is going to be worked into the collective bargaining with the nba and the w, because now, some of these superstars are going to bring their celebrity, their power in the workplace economically to the w, and they're also going to be able to do that at the ncaa level. we women have power. you know this. everything in this house is decided pretty much by women.

the color, the food, where we live. we, in a global world, it is trillions of dollars that women account for, and you know, the one thing i believe as of today, we are 131 years away from economic parity with men. it's pretty sad on that note. >> said today, and tomorrow, we change that. nancy, fantastic to see you here tonight. thank you for being here. i appreciate it. >> thank you for being a fan of the game. when we return, the great american eclipse. we take a look at the excitement across the country, but as we go to break, something i'm excited to see, montana's democratic senator don tester was not in the path of the eclipse, so he and his wife, charlotte, came up with their own version, making do with what they had, one another. look at them. dash.com right noe

how much you can save.

you already know what tonight's last thing is before we go, a total eclipse across america. today, tens of millions of people got a chance to see a once in a generation show. lester holt has more. >> reporter: it did not matter where you were. the reactions were the same. joy, awe, and wonder. a shared experience for millions of people today who had a front row seat to history on the horizon. >> just seen how it got dark, that was an experience that was unforgettable. >> i'm glad to be a part of

something like this. >> reporter: people flock to the path of totality, wider than it was in 2017, and stretching across 15 states from the pacific to the atlantic. in dallas, al rocher. >> there are the beads. look at this. >> reporter: and, in maine, kate snow, surrounded by thousands. >> have done this once before and i got emotional then and i feel myself getting emotional now. there is just something about it that is so incredibly special. i think it is maybe the commonality, that we are all experiencing one thing at the same time. >> reporter: for others, it marked a new beginning. hundreds of couples exchanged

vows in russellville, arkansas, including michelle and randy weller. >> we will always remember our wedding day because of this day. >> reporter: despite concerns about the cloudy forecast, the views did not disappoint. >> you can see the bottom corner coming out. there you go, right there on the right. >> reporter: pure magic inviting all of us to pause for a few minutes today and simply look up. >> all of us together. it is experiencing this one thing, togetherness. something we need more of. the solar eclipse has taken us off the air tonight, and on that unified note, i wish you a very good night. from all of our colleagues across the networks of nbc news, thanks for staying up late with me. i will see you again tomorrow. i will see you again tomorrow. as you probably know by now, donald trump has been claiming something so extreme, so far fetched, and so absurd