>> this issue will destroy new york city. destroy new york city. and an nbc news exclusive, what secretary of state antony blinken told our very own richard engel about a possible meeting between putin and kim jong-un. and we begin the hour with the latest on the legal drama surrounding former president donald trump. the judge overseeing the georgia election interference case says he remains very skeptical of a plan by prosecutors to put all 19 defendants, including trump, on trial next month. prosecutors told a judge a trial for all the defendants would take about four months and feature 150 witnesses. two of trump's co-defendants in the georgia election interference case kenneth chesebro and sidney powell will go on trial together on the 23rd of october. they hope to be tried separately, but the judge denied their motions. meantime, the former president told radio host hugh hewitt he would be willing to testify in his own defense, but it was unclear which case he was talking about. >> so if you have to go to trial, will you testify in your own defense? >> oh, yes, absolutely. oh, on that -- >> you'll take the stand? >> that i would do. that i would look forward to. >> with us to talk about all of this, katie phang, msnbc legal contributor and host of "the katie phang show," and garrett haake. kenneth chesebro and sidney powell got their speedy trial, but were unable to separate their cases. what could that potentially mean for all the other defendants? >> well, to your point, jose, kenneth chesebro was desperately trying to convince judge mcafee yesterday to make sure he didn't have to sit next to sidney powell during his trial that will begin on october 23rd, both filing demands for speedy trials. the judge was required to set the them as quickly as he did, but what do you do with the remaining 17? as you look at the screen, there is 19 in total, the other 17 have not filed demands for speedy trial. some of them have filed motions to sever, however, donald trump included, saying he does not want to go to trial with any of the speedy trial defendants, again, only being kenneth chesebro and sidney powell. you did play some of the sound from the judge yesterday and it was important to note that the judge said logistically speaking there is not enough time between now and october 23rd to address the myriad of pretrial motions, motions to suppress, the issues that are typical in any criminal case, jose, that need to be addressed and disposed of prior to jury selection. jury selection alone would take a lot longer than people could anticipate. for example, the ysl trial, a rico case that brought the indictment last year in 2022. it is on month nine of jury selection. so, jose, you can imagine trying to actually get a jury that can sit for four months and sit in service for that long and sit through 150 witnesses, the state making it clear yesterday, quote, evidence for one is evidence for all, and as a result, they intend to present 150 witnesses each and every time this case goes to trial. >> and, what did you take away from the hearing yesterday? >> well, i was impressed with the judge, jose. he is relatively young and inexperienced, but you can tell he had a command of the courtroom. and that's what we're going to need in a case like this. it cannot go down the rails. you're exactly right. i don't know any way that they could get all 19 defendants ready for trial by october 23rd. there would be a serious problem of failure of due process if you tried to put these defendants all together on the 23rd. what's interesting, as you know, georgia has cameras in the courtroom, so we will get a preview of what's to come by watching the chesebro trial. they'll put up every witness in that trial they'll put up in the trump trial, we get a chance to see what the witnesses are actually going to say under oath. >> and, just thinking, just the amount of time that will no doubt take. i mean, it is speedy trials or no, it is a lot of time. >> it is a lot of time and it is a lot of defendants. i would not be surprised if the judge on his own severs some of the defendants to make it a more manageable trial. they have learned their lesson in this rico case going on as you said, and they're still in jury selection after nine months. if you have 18 defendants on trial it will take forever to take a juror and what jury will want to serve a four-month trial anyway. >> meanwhile, donald trump said he's willing to testify in court. what is the strategy there? >> i don't know if strategy is the right word or not for it, jose. it speaks to the way trump views all of the legal challenges as political problems and ones he can talk his way out of. he's not been shy about address the specifics of any of the cases against him. in interview after interview, and on the campaign trail. it is the kind of things lawyers would warn against, but trump tried to treat all of these problems as political problems that he can solve. i think that's a little bit of what you saw in that interview yesterday. he had sort of flirted with the idea of sitting down with robert mueller when he was president and that investigation was going on and that interview never happened. there is a long way to go before we see donald trump on the stand in any of these cases. it is a useful look na the way he views all of the cases that are stacking up against him right now. >> yeah, i mean, katie, most times lawyers don't want their clients testifying in court. what do you make of that? >> well, i think it is to garrett's point, it is a part of the donald trump playbook. the idea i'm willing to speak and tell the truth, but my lawyers tell me in the end i can't do it. as a result of that, somebody is muzzling me from being able to tell the truth. but fundamentally there is the court of public opinion we talk about all the time and the court of law. and any criminal defendant who would be looking at a scathing cross examination from a d.a. like fani willis would certainly not want to take the stand in his or her own defense. but i would add a little bit of a quick footnote. there have been these attempts to remove some of the cases to federal court. and the federal judge has ordered evidentiary hearings. mark meadows, himself, took the stand last week for hours testifying in his own defense, talking about the facts of the fulton county case, all of that testimony that was provided, jose, could be used against them if he took the stand here in the state court in fulton county. so there is a lot that is actually very complicated when it comes to fifth amendment issues, but at this time, again, it is all bluff and bluster and nothing substantive from donald trump. >> and, garrett, there is another big development in the classified documents case. according to a new court filing, the head of information technology at trump's mar-a-lago resort reached a deal with prosecutors to cooperate. how worried is trump and his team about this? >> well, jose, i don't think they are especially in this moment. this is a development confirmed in court documents recently. but we have known about for a while. this is yuscil taveras who we identified as mar-a-lago employee or individual number four. he had already provided some information to prosecutors and we know that it was his information that ultimately led to that superseding indictment against trump and now to -- a third defendant on the idea that there was an attempted obstruction here, the idea of trying to delete some of this surveillance video. so, i think there is more to be said about exactly how this cooperation agreement came into play. we have seen fiings suggesting perhaps it was improper the way that prosecutors pressured taveras to work with them. but the fact that they're now working together is basically already built in to the most recent superseding indictment we have in the classified documents case. >> how big of a case do you think it is that this mar-a-lago guy decided to flip? >> i think it is very big. it is a very big move for the prosecution. and it would be interesting if that case could go first. put we know it's not. it is going to be the jack smith case in d.c. that will be the federal cases. so, it is a good move for the prosecution. >> yeah. katie phang, garrett haake and jay tom morgan, thank you so much for being with us this morning. and turning now to a legal development regarding president biden's son. in a court filing yesterday, special counsel david wiese wrote his office would seek -- this comes after a plea deal collapsed last month that would have allowed hunter to avoid prison time. joining us now is nbc's ken dilanian. good morning. what is the hunter biden potential -- what he is facing here? >> good morning, jose. he's facing not only this felony gun charge, but also a potential tax charges, even felony tax charges beyond what he was ready to plead guilty to, the misdemeanors, in this plea deal. that plea deal called for no jail time to misdemeanor tax charges and a diversion program for this gun charge where he would admit he lied and failed to say he was using drugs when he bought a gun, and then if he complied with certain conditions, that charge would be dropped. that plea deal fell apart. and now the special counsel is saying he's going to seek indictments against hunter biden and his legal team has to be geared up for a tougher case because when you do a plea agreement, they make a compromise. now there is no compromise. the prosecution will throw everything they have at hunter biden and we know from some of the irs investigators and fbi officials who testified before congress that there is evidence at least some investigators believe that hunter biden may have committed felony tax evasion. whether that can be proven in court is another matter, but that may be what we're going to see as -- in terms of charges from these prosecutors before the end of the month, likely in the central district of california, or in the district of columbia. >> so, ken, remind us if you would, this special counsel is the same guy that was involved in the plea deal that was rejected in the past. >> that's right. he was the u.s. attorney in delaware, trump appointed, he had not yet been appointed special counsel when he reached this plea deal with mr. biden. so they brought this case in wilmington, delaware. but once that plea deal fell apart, he needed to be appointed special counsel and he was by the attorney general so he could bring a case in any jurisdiction in the country. there has been a lot of reporting, there is clearly frustration among hunter biden's attorneys that they believe that this special counsel, this prosecutor double crossed them, but what the special counsel is saying is that hunter biden's attorneys were asking things they couldn't give, a guarantee of immunity for future prosecution and other potential charges because what they're saying is they're still investigating hunter biden's foreign business dealings. >> ken dilanian, thank you, i appreciate you clearing that up for us. coming up, a new video showing how a convicted murderer crab walked, that's him on the left there. look at him. take a look at this we'll talk about this in a minute. this is how he escaped from the prison. he literally just went, adios, i'm crab walking out. we'll bring you the very latest on the intense manhunt in pennsylvania for him now stretching into a second week. plus, what the top republican in the u.s. senate said when pressed about his health after he froze at an event last week. and as the nation sees a rise in covid cases, we'll ask a doctor how soon we can expect a new round of boosters. we're back in exactly 60 seconds. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. have fun, sis! ♪♪ can't stop adding stuff to your cart? get the bank of america customized cash rewards card, choose the online shopping category and earn 3% cash back. 13 past the hour. this morning we have new video of how a convicted killer crept out of prison in pennsylvania. the search for him enters its second week, this new footage shows the beginning of danelo cavalcante's escape. you see him on left with the t-shirt on. he checks around, looks at what's going on and literally crab walks up and out of there. walked up a narrow wall. this is by the prison's exercise area. officials say it is the same exact route another inmate used to escape that prison in may. nbc's emilie ikeda joins us from chester county, prison, in westchester, pennsylvania. great to see you. how could this happen twice? >> reporter: hey there, jose. that's the question we have been asking and posing to security officials. you think back to that may incident when an inmate had escaped. they brought in security analysts to look at and make recommendations to how to improve the security at the chester county prison, which you can see behind me. they increased the amount of razor wire in the area. then we saw cavalcante, he took yet again a similar approach and then he pushed through not once, but twice, through that razor wire. in the words of police, they describe we thought the security measures were sufficient, but cavalcante proving otherwise. the video is stunning. you can see he's got his hands on one wall, his feet on the other and shimmying his way up. here is the key difference between the may escape and the one we saw pan out right around this time last week. the tower guard in may noticed the inmate making an escape. he was able to be apprehended within just minutes. in this case, the tower guard who is now on administrative leave, he did not notice cavalcante making his escape. he essentially got an hour head start until the prison was eventually shut down, put on lockdown. here we are, eighth day of this massive manhunt playing out, we continue to see the search zone, the perimeter of it continuing to shift as they continue to receive all of these tips with -- and based on the latest site sightings, they say they're confident he's within their perimeter. while the sweltering heat is something officials have to contend with as they're searching in these high temperatures, they're also hoping that it is working in their favor. take a listen. >> i'm quite confident that we're wearing him down. these are hot, humid temperatures, he's not living in shelter. has no regular means of obtaining food. imagine if you're being hunted. it adds a whole different level of stress. that level of stress has to be wearing on him. >> reporter: and so prison officials here at the chester county prison are ramping up security as a result of cavalcante's escape. they're going to be adding additional security cameras, adding and adjusting officers' positions outside of the prison and fully enclosing the exercise area, which now we have seen two inmates escape from. we know that the state's attorney general's office is also investigating cavalcante's escape and that reward for critical information leading to bringing him back into custody, it has been bumped up to $20,000. >> emilie ikeda, thank you very much. and turning now to capitol hill, where senate minority leader mitch mcconnell vowed to complete his senate term after two alarming medical episodes and has raised questions about his health. the capitol physician says there is no sign of a stroke or seizures. he was asked by reporters yesterday if he plans to step down. >> i have no announcements to make on that subject. >> what do you say to those -- >> i'm going to finish my term as leader and finish my senate term. >> his term as minority leader will expire on january 2025. his senate term lasts to january of 2027. just as millions of children returned to school across the u.s., covid cases are on the rise again. covid hospitalizations increased for the seventh week in a row, according to the cdc. the cdc reports covid hospitalizations are up for the seventh week in a row, with last week seeing an increase of nearly 16% over the prior week. now the fda is set to green light new covid boosters as early as friday. nbc news learned exclusively. after the fda signoff, the cdc advisory committee will provide more information about who would be eligible for the shots. joining us now, dr. natalie azar, nbc news medical contributor and associate professor of rheumatology at nyu langone. why are we seeing a sudden rise of hospitalizations? >> they're not sequencing all of the bugs that are infecting people who are in the hospital, jose, but we do think right now that one of the subvariants that is making up the majority of cases is a descendant from the xbb, which is the strain that is going to be covered in the new booster. that's definitely good. there was concern over the last number of weeks about a different variant that begins with ba and it popped up in ten different places around the world and it had a significant number of mutations that would have predicted that it would be more immune evasive. but we have data from just this week, jose, that doesn't appear to be the case, that prior infection and prior vaccination with the vaccines that have been available does offer good protection. even against that one. but none of the new variants is causing more severe disease, which is a good thing to keep in mind for folks. >> who should be getting this booster that could come out or the process starting as early as tomorrow? >> so i think it is fairly predictable that the cdc is going to make a recommendation that the booster should be prioritized for people who are immunocompromised, co-morbid medical conditions that could increase their risk for severe covid, obesity, heart disease, hypertension, diabetes. i think we're also going to see them make a recommendation that pregnant women, you know, should be receiving the vaccine. i think the big question mark will remain for, you know, sort of the general population, if you're otherwise a reasonably healthy young to middle aged adult is this something you need? we know each time you get vaccinated, you have protection from infection. that is not endless. it is finite. it lasts for a couple of months. we have good data that prior vaccination and boosters protect the majority of us from severe disease. in fact, the majority of people who are hospitalized and sadly succumb to coronavirus now are older and/or immunocompromised. we'll see how the cdc weighs on that for the general population. >> dr. azar, thank you so much. great seeing you. appreciate it. >> you too. coming up, strong words from the mayor of new york city. the issue he says that will destroy the city. we'll play that for you next. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. you're watinchg "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. 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trying to accommodate thousands of new students, including the children of asylum seekers. joining us now to talk about this, nbc's guad venegas, antonia hylton in new york city and anna nawaz. what is the significance at the border? >> a judge ordered the state of texas to remove the buoys that we have seen quite the controversy, right? so they have, as you mentioned, until september 15th to remove the buoys. the federal judge saying that the federal government has jurisdiction in this area, and the state of texas, jose, should have asked the army corps of engineers before installing the buoys. now, texas has already responded, abbott tweeted information saying they will appeal this decision. they plan to take it, it would go to an appeals court and they plan to take this to the supreme court if they can. this, jose, as you know, is part of the lone star operation where texas is using the state resources to patrol the border. they have the national guard, they have state troopers and now they have these buoys doing the job that greg abbott says should be done by the federal government. the argument here is they shouldn't be installing these buoys and using these resources to do the job that should be done by immigration authorities. of course, as of now, we're going to wait and see what happens at the court of appeals to see what the next step would be, but, again, they have until september 15th to remove the buoys. >> even the government of mexico has spoken about these buoys. >> they have. initially they were arguing that the buoys were in mexican territory. they're in the river, right? there was a humanitarian issue with them, they wanted them removed, but they're against the buoys. the government of mexico has never been in favor of the buoys being there. now it is waiting and seeing what happens in the courts. >> school districts across the country are dealing with this issue. let's listen to how new york city mayor eric adams framed it yesterday. take a listen to this. >> never in my life have i had a problem that i did not see an ending to. i don't see an ending to this. i don't see an ending to this. this issue will destroy new york city. destroy new york city. >> destroy new york city. antonia, what does the mayor say this -- why does he say this crisis cannot be solved? >> well, the challenge, of course is that we're seeing so many of these families being bused from the border and then up here to new york city. and this has been going on for months on end now. and so, you know, it is not to diminish the challenge that the mayor is describing. what i will tell you this morning as many of these families arrive and they're bringing students into the new york city school system for the first time is that the feeling is not one of a crisis. i've spoken to several families this morning who tell me they're actually excited for their kids to have classmates who are from diverse backgrounds, and then there are other challenges. there is the heat here and that kids aren't going to be able to spend as much time in recess because there is an advisory in place, covid, an uptick of cases in new york and across the country and we don't have great data tracking all of this. we don't have full information about what we're really facing. parents have to make individual decisions about masking, about getting their kids vaccines, waiting for them in booster shots. and so all of this is bearing down on teachers, on students, on their parents, and one piece of this is the number of migrants who have arrived here. but new york city has always been a diverse city, you know. you know that, jose. there are schools here where over 100, 180 or so languages can be spoken. so administrators are trained to handle these challenges right now. but there is a resource question. so, new york has invested over $100 million, they're going to have teachers who are getting certifications who are already certified in many cases to work with students for whom english isn't just a second language, but a language that they need to learn. but all of these adjustments will take a couple of weeks' time right now. when you're here on the ground in front of a school, it is not feeling like a crisis. a lot of kids are very excited, very welcoming to their classmates, and they're ready for a fun school year, jose. >> and antonia, i think a lot about those kids that have done what very few people have done to get here. some of them have had to go through the derrian strait and go through central america and go through mexico and what they see and experience is just horrendous and now they're starting in a new country, in a new language, new idiosyncratic differences. what are those children facing? >> well, you laid it out so well. this is so much bigger than just a language barrier, which is often what people think about, we're going to need to find new spanish speaking teachers. that is an issue here. there are people from all over the world arriving. and then they have faced this trauma. and so, the journey here has been harrowing, adjusting to being here, living in the shelter system in new york city, it is not ideal for anybody. and so they have to have a number of counselors on hand to serve these children. but the one upside is this is a community this is an incredibly diverse city, where people are accustomed to having kids from all over the world. so there is a sort of positivity, a friendliness i'm seeing here in the bronx this morning from other parents. take a listen to a conversation i had with one dad who, you know, talks about how this might be a challenge, but who seems to have a more open mind. take a look. >> a little bit. a little bit. but not too much. you get to make new friends and stuff, new cultures and stuff, learn a new language. it is a win-win. could be bad, could be good. like they said, once they got their shots, they good. >> and i spoke to the union president here in new york city. and he told me that really the biggest issue right now is making sure there are those counselors, those trauma specialists here to start working with the kids. he described how for some of students the biggest issue is that because of what they have been through, they just shut down. they're quiet in class, maybe not trying to speak with the other students, and that's what they're trying to get the kids out of their shell, trying to make sure they feel welcomed. that's the biggest hurdle right now. he felt confident that as they make some of the adjustments in the first couple of weeks of school, these kids are going to be able to get as part of the community, they're going to feel better and teachers are going to be able to, you know, teach their classes and the school year might not feel so different after all. >> just putting a bigger perspective on this, there have been about 6 million encounters of migrants at the u.s. border in the last three years. the u.n. says about 20% of those who had crossed the derrian jungle are children. these children have experienced all kinds of trauma. i'm thinking this is more an issue about school and the first day of school and kids. it has to be a bigger issue and a bigger discussion. >> jose, you're absolutely right. it is so much more than just about school as antonia laid out, and guad mentioned as well. i'm glad you mentioned some of the figures that are coming out today because the issues that new york is facing, the challenges they face, and even the challenges that they are absolutely facing in texas, these are not unique to texas or to new york. as you know, arriving communities do not tend to stay in the border area. they tend to move on to other communities, where there are existing communities of support from their countries of origin and the like. and then migration has changed. it changed here in the united states and worldwide. so we have people coming from nations like venezuela, and haiti, and cuba, and india, and china, all of these communities show up at the u.s. southern border and there is overall numbers are down, they're ticking down because of a number of biden administration policies and rules, the number of families has been going up. august preliminary data showed there is a 90,000 people who arrived as a family unit and the numbers of children specifically as you mentioned have been going up. you just look at that dangerous darien gap crossing between colombia and panama, some 20,000, 30,000 children made that crossing in 2021. 40,000 in 2022. in 2023, an estimated 60,000 children have migrated through that dangerous crossing. and so it is up to the nations at which they arrive who have a duty and obligation to protect the most vulnerable among us to figure out how to provide for the unique resources that the children specifically need. >> yeah. guad, you lived in places where people have crossed the border on both sides in and out, constant fluid manner, but this is different. >> it is completely different. it changed completely. i grew up in the '80s and '90s in the california border and every state handles things differently. we see texas versus california, arizona, they each have a different way to handle this. i think what we have to understand, jose, is that even going back to the '90s and the '80s, we have millions of undocumented migrants in the u.s. who are still undocumented, who are part of this country, who continue to work and are sort of in limbo because these are individuals that are still undocumented and the immigration reform has not happened. so we have got that. and now we have this new wave of immigrants, and you and i talk about this, that's completely changed. as amna said, we have migrants coming from other areas. we need that immigration system reform in order to proceed because we have to deal with the influx we have now and also the migrants that are part of american society. and one last thing, jose, we still have a need for labor force in the u.s. despite all the people that arrived, when you look at the stats, we still have a large need of labor. >> and i'm glad you bring that up. we do talk about this off line, often, you and i. there are 12, 13 million people living here for decades, many of them, many of them have u.s. born children, and grandchildren, and they are seeing what's going on and saying, well, we're here waiting to see what happens and it seems like that focus has been totally lost. >> they got stuck in limbo because we didn't see any legislation to help many of them from mexico and other latin american countries and you have people from other parts of the world as well. what happened is in the last few years we saw new legislation that has helped some of these migrants with the new tps or the asylum seeking process being expanded, but the people who are here, who have kids, who are american, who pay credit, who own homes, they're still stuck in limbo. and the daca recipients are part of that group of individuals. >> guad, antonia, amna, thank you for being with us. this is an important conversation and i'm glad we're having it. coming up -- we're going to talk about new polling that shows just one candidate beating joe biden in a general election matchup outside of the margin of error. it may not be who you think. an nbc news exclusive, what secretary of state antoy blinken said about a potential meeting between putin and kim jong-un. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. n. you're watching "je os diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. 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i'm with you. i can, yes, yes. it seems that you cannot hear me. i will keep -- jose, i will try one more time. he has left the country. he is on his way out of the country, i should say. he is wrapping up his trip. the point of this trip was to -- there we are. we are back in business. secretary blinken is wrapping up his trip. he is on the way out of the country. before he left, i had a chance to talk to him. the point of the trip was to get an assessment of how the ukrainian counteroffensive is going, to refocus attention on this war in ukraine, to give a boost of confidence to the ukrainian government and the ukrainian people that the united states is still with them. the story had dropped out of the news for the summer. i asked him how the offensive is going. he said that over the last several weeks, they are starting to have real progress, that it is tremendously difficult, because they are fighting against these fortified russian positions. one of the things that we are seeing right now as this counteroffensive is underway and we are back into a very heavy combat phase is that both sides are burning through ammunition. the ukrainians are running low on artillery. the russians are running low on artillery. this is where the north koreans come into it. they are not just one kind of artillery, not one type of weapon season. nato uses one kind of weapon system. nato uses mostly american-style weapons. the former soviet states use russian-style weapons. the big advantage that north korea provides is it makes weapons, still makes them, and has vast stockpiles of weapons that work with russian systems. you don't need to modify them. you can put them right into russian artillery and right into russian missile launchers. because they have not used these weapons for a long time, they have enormous stockpiles of them ready to go. i asked the secretary how serious of a threat it is if they are suddenly going to get a new, fresh resupply from north korea. >> all indications are that president putin and kim jong-un are going to meet next week. do you know when? >> don't know when. we have seen that. i think that speaks volumes. it speaks volumes about the desperation that russia has if it's going around the world trying to find support and weapons from north korea. that's where things are. largely because of the sanctions and export controls that we and many other countries have imposed on russia for its aggression in ukraine. it's desperate to find weapons and technology that's being denied because of these sanctions. >> i want to thank richard engel for that report. wasn't to clear up what happened. this is live tv. this is the first time in a long time i have seen what seemed like a 12 or 15-second satellite delay between when i said something and then when richard was able to hear it. he being the extraordinary pro he is, was able to go right through that. that's what happened. satellite delays, pretty long in this case. richard engel, always a pro. thank you. you can watch more of richard's interview with secretary blinken tonight on "nightly news" with lester holt. coming up, how one major hotel chain is working to make your life easier if you are trying to go green. you are watching "jose diaz-balart reports" on msnbc. n. shelves that know what taste buds want. shelves smart enough to see, sense, react, restock. ♪ so caramel swirl is always there for the taking. 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[sniffs] what is — wow! baby: daddy. sinex. breathe. ahhhhhh! right now get a free footlong at subway. like the subway series menu. buy one footlong in the app, get one free. for freeee. that's what i'm talking about. order in the subway app today. since the citi custom cash® card automatically adjusts to earn me more cash back in my top eligible category... suddenly, life's feeling a little more automatic... oooooohhh... automatic sashimi! earn cash back that automatically adjusts to how you spend with the citi custom cash® card. 57 past the hour. there's a new effort by a major hotel chain to help people with electric vehicles. hilton will start installing up to 20,000 tesla universal wall connectors at 2,000 hotels in the u.s., canada and mexico. dominic chu joins us with more on this. this is good news. what more can you tell us? >> jose, one of the biggest hurdles to ev adoption is the fear of not being able to charge when you reach a destination or before you leave for a new one. that lack of charging infrastructure is one of the biggest headwinds for the industry. while tesla has the most robust charging network out there, this partnership between them and hilton will give travelers, both business and leisure, more access to the ev traveling charging stations. like you said, 20,000 stations across north america. hilton says it is seeing a lot more demand and requests from its customers for ev charging capability. for tesla, it is about having the ability to secure locations, to actually put some of the wall connectors in for parking lots and structures. it's just one more way to help speed up adoption of evs overall. it's not just for tesla cars. the universal wall connectors can charge any ev model sold in north america. that begins next year. what some travel and leisure experts have noticed over the summer is that hotel rates and occupancy have fallen off relatively speaking because more travelers are opting for international travel. what adding ev charging could do is give these hotel operators another marketing point for doing and driving business domestically. what it does do, jose, and why it does matter is because according to hilton themselves, the most important search criteria for their customer base is actually airport shuttle access, and number two is ev charging availability. >> wow. the fact that it's tesla, because ev charging availability, if they don't work, the charging system doesn't work, it is equally as bad. teslas seem to always be working. great seeing you. thank you so much. it's good to see you. that wraps up the hour for me. ryan nobles is in for andrea mitchell. thank you. right now on "andrea mitchell reports," the fallout from a georgia superior court judge's ruling in a key case that could impact former president trump's defense. this hour, we will take a deeper dive into the new legal jeopardy facing hunter biden. mitch mcconnell brushing aside questions about his health. >> what his report addressed was concerns people might have