For america and for our allies thousands of miles away. Plus, a pair of Courtroom Dramas playing out right now, one in new york where Donald TrumpsAre Fraud Trial is pushing ahead, albeit without the former president in attendance. And in georgia where his former Attorney Sidney Powell says theres proof she had nothing to do with breaching local elections equipment, accusing prosecutors of Holding Back Information this whole time. But theres yet another twist, and witnesses in oregon say they literally could not believe what they were seeing, a small plane making a deadly plunge into a home packed with people. Well explain what happened later in the show. But we begin with congress at a crossroads, testing the notion of whether a government created for and by the American People is truly up to the task, with the speakership vacant and no clear path forward, the basic functioning of government is now in question, whether we can pay our bills, avoid a Government Shutdown and support our allies and democracy. Most pressingly right now in ukraine. Nbc is reporting that aid for that country is in serious jeopardy due to what our Jonathan Allen calls the political annihilation of kevin now, the answers to all those questions hinge on whichf these seven candidates chosen as the next speaker, and this is what were hearing from the far right as they lay out their priorities and the stakes. The American People want somebody whos going to fight to secure the border, whos going to fight to cut the inflation by cutting our spending and hopefully then bringing Interest Rates down, whos going to fight to hold accountable mayorkas, which Speaker Mccarthy promised we would impeach mayorkas back when he became speaker, someone who will defund Homeland Security because its not securing our border, someone who will hold Christopher Wray and Merrick Garland accountable. I want to bring in nbcs ali vitali, steph twitty, an msnbc military analyst, and matthew dowd is senior msnbc political analyst. Good to have all of you here so Ali High Stakes at this moment seems kind of an understatement. You just talked to one of the front runners for speaker. Give us the lay of the land. Only two people are officially in the ring vying for the next speaker of the house. Thats jim jordan and congressman steve scalise. On scalises part, hes currently the number two house republicans. Many see him in some ways as an Heir Apparent for this job because hes already serving directly in leadership. But then theres someone like jim jordan who is also a wellknown commodity within this conference. Hes a Founding Member of the freedom caucus. I talked to them this morning one on one and asked him specifically what hed do in the next shutdown and how as one of the chief agitators and investigators not just of the current President Biden but also hunter biden, how could he work in good faith with biden as speaker . Watch what he told me. You work with him if thats what it comes down to. Thats how you deal with it. I think Kevin Mccarthy is the one who said were in an Impeachment Inquiry Phase and he was working with the white house. Worked on the white house with an agreement to get a 1 cut in the debt ceiling agreement. Thats how our government works. Reporter that is how our government works, but whether or not thats the Permission Structure within the republican conference, chris, is clearly up for question given the fact that mccarthy and thusly republicans are in this position because mccarthy effectively got in trouble with his right flank for keeping the government open and banding together with democrats to do it. So matthew, let me give you another example of the problem, okay . So you just heard congressman bob good. He is not alone in bringing up Impeaching Mayorkas and garland, something senator ted cruz said he thinks would unify republicans. How does that help them get to other things they say they want like cutting spending . Its one thing to say this is how you do it, it gets done. Its another thing to actually do it, matt. Well, the problem is probably at least twofold if threefold, one, the way the Republican Caucus, gop caucus is set up today. Theres nobody thats going to be able to unify it. You have people that are the farrest right crazy, and then you have the far right, and then you have the less far right, and then you have about ten members who sort of are moderate to their degree who dont want to who are worried about their reelection, and so you have that problem. So in my view, mccarthys election taking 15, shows the unlikelihood youre going to be able to unify it. The other problem is theres not a desire in the Republican Caucus and among Republican Voters to compromise and to build consensus, which they would have to do with the United States senate and with a democratic president in this. So when you have an ungovernable caucus combined with a bunch of members who have no desire on compromise, who actually think compromise is a dirty word and their voters say stand on principle, dont compromise, it leads to a complete dysfunctional government. So to me Kevin Mccarthys tenure as short as it was was symbolic of the fundamental problem that the gop caucus has. They dont to want govern and they cant govern themselves. So i also want to bring in phil rucker, National Editor for the Washington Post and an msnbc political analyst. I know how closely youve been following all of this, one of the most immediate concerns, phillip is funding for ukraine with Speaker Mccarthy gone, did that get even more fraught . It certainly became much more questionable, chris, for a couple of reasons. One, Public Opinion surveys in the last few weeks have shown a decline in public support for continuing to fund ukraines efforts in the war that russia started last year, and that complicates the political calculus of members of congress, while mccarthy has been supporters of ukraines funding, a number of the hard right of his Republican Caucus are not, its unclear who the next speaker will be and if that speaker is going to be able to muscle through additional funding support. The funding did not get approved last week when Congress Passed that short gap Government Spending bill and were coming up on a deadline in november for a longer term budget deal, and The Big Question hanging over that is going to be whether congress will pony up to support ukraine as divided administration would like. Yeah, general, the ask is for 24 billion to take through the end of 2024, to fight an enemy that president zelenskyy said just this morning killed 51 civilians by firing a mist sill missile into a cafe and grocery store. Whats the real world impact on the battlefield . Let me just say first, chris, its more than an impact on the battlefield. Whenever we tell the ukrainians and the world that were going to be with ukraine for the past year and a half, we said were going to be with ukraine until the end of this thing. We lose all credibility with the ukrainian people and we lose all credibility with the world when we say stuff like tha and we dont follow through. Now, the impact on the battlefield, if you think about all of the abrams tanks, weve got 31 or so abrams tanks in there. We have 100 or so bradley fighting positions, machines in there. We have Patriot Missile systems in there. All of those are u. S. Equipment, and that equipment needs spare parts, needs ammunition to go with it. You lose all that if you lose funding. They will not be able to use that equipment because theres no funding to support that equipment. In addition to the other ammunition that the u. S. Is pouring in there as well. So it will be a huge impact. So if theres no funding or they significantly scale back funding, what other options does ukraine have . Im trying to figure out if our allies would fill a gap, which could be significant. So you have the germans, they have committed somewhere in the neighborhood of about 20 billion, and you have uk, theyve committed somewhere in the neighborhood about 10 billion. So next to us, you have those two countries. After that the others in nato and the other partners somewhere between 3 billion and lower, so were the heavy hitter on The World Stage here, and so trying to make up that u. S. Gap would be extremely significant, but i go back to much of this equipment is u. S. Owned, which means u. S. Manufacturer, and you cant get that equipment in europe and elsewhere, so thats what im concerned about. So before we get to what exactly happened, you have to get to who is going to lead, right . So im going to play what garrett graves had to say about the timing of all of this. There are scenarios where this could be going on for weeks. I think the first step is letting people go home and decompress a little bit. The second step is letting us come back together, and i think before we have a single discussion about speaker, weve got to discuss the functionality of the position f. Were going to continue to have clowns like matt gaetz as part of the republican conference, as part of this congress, then youre going to have to have rules in place that prevent him from doing his charade every single week, every single month. So ali, are rule change conversations being had in a serious way right now . It doesnt sound like it, chris, because i asked this of congressman jim jordan. Would he support changing the rules, and he said that hes open to it if the conference in full decides that its something that they want to do, but that a rules change requires a Majority Vote and hes not going to be looking to democrats to help him change those rules, which is to say that republicans, especially those hardliners who have frankly done so well by leveraging this power over the speaker, i would be surprise firstdegree they would just willingly give that up. But it doesnt sound like jordan is going to be the one to pressure them to do so if hes in the speaker position. I think what was striking and what ive pressed him on was i said how does that put you in any better or different position than mccarthys been in for the last eight months. He thinks that he can be the one to unite the conference itself. Now, thats central to his message. That doesnt mean that he doesnt still have numbers problems in terms of actually being able to get together the votes that he needs to win this vote, and i do think that as ive been talking to republican members who are in large part home, decompressing, but also fielding calls from people like jordan, scalise, and kevin hern who all are in the ring trying to see if they have what it takes to get this job, the thing ive heard from members is there is no consensus. Someone said to me earlier this is kind of a joke because no one has the votes right now to get to 217 and actually become speaker. So i know that were looking at the calendar and looking at tuesday is the day they make their pitches to the gop conference and wednesday is the day they vote behind closed doors. Im not entirely sure this is going to be settled by wednesday. So when you consider all that weve talked about so far, phil, theres a great article in your paper that suggests, they talk to a bunch of scholars, and they say all of this combined is a warning sign for democracy. It reminds us that the rebels that forced mccarthy out of the speakership collectively represent less than 2 of the caucus, and they by the way, of course are all in safe republican districts. So matt gaetz and others like him dont seem to have any incentive to do anything different. I mean, hes basically been called a hero in his home state. They say hes the leader of the base, besides donald trump. Theres talk of him running for governor. Where does that leave us, phil . Under incredible strain, my colleague Sarah Ellison wrote that smart piece laying out based on interviews with scholars and experts how much what has happened in congress in the last two weeks reveals the weaknesses of our system, of our institutional structure because you have people like Congressman Gaetz who are using the rule. Theyre acting legally, theyre using the rules to manipulate the system and manipulate the government, you know, in their interests. These are representatives who represent a very, very small fraction of the minority of this country, and yet have extraordinary ability to grind the functioning of the legislative branch to a halt and to, as happened a couple of days ago to evict the speaker of the house. So matthew there was this recent poll that showed a majority of republicans, 54 , said their representatives should stand on principle, even at the expense of compromise. Ill ask you the question i just asked phil, where does that leave us . Well, im glad for that article. This is a fundamental problem thats deteriorating our democracy. Its all of a combination of things from gerrymandering to the political polarization, and i would say the u. S. Senate is the next thing on the to keep this sight because its deteriorating there. You have 10 of u. S. Senators who represent 10 of the population can basically stop anything from happening in the United States senate, and so and then you couple that with voters now who Republican Voters who seem much more interested in grievance and taking a stand than getting things accomplished, which is why this sort of underlying problem is we have a tyranny of the minority, and the founders were worried about a tyranny of the majority, but what we have today is a small group of Republican Voters are able to stop or do things detrimental to democracy, and its a fundamental bones and Structure Problem in this Constitutional Republic that has to be fixed. Ali vitali, philip rucker, Lieutenant General steph twitty, thank you. A new move from the judge in Donald Trumps civil trial and what it means in the Family Business. Were at the courthouse when were back in just 60 seconds. Wn were back in just0 6seconds. When Migraine Strikes are the tradeoffs of treating worth it . Ubrelvy is another option, it quickly eliminates migraine pain. Do not take with strong cyp3a4 inhibitors. Allergic reactions to ubrelvy can happen. Most common side effects were nausea and sleepiness. Ask about ubrelvy. This month join the new Subway Mvp Rewards program and get rewarded. Get 50 off any footlong when you join Subway Mvp Rewards. So many all star options. Its just for subway mvps right . You catch on quick herbert. Join now and get 50 off any footlong. A pregnant woman was shot while sitting on a bus when a fight that she had nothing to do with broke out on the street nearby. Crews in holyoke, massachusetts, rushed her to the hospital, they delivered her baby, tried to save its life, but the baby died, and at last check the mother is in critical condition. Police say they identified three men invved and took them to the hospital to be treated. A woman who lived nearby told our nbc station in boston, quote, i moved from new york to get away from gunfire and dumb stuff like this,nd now its right here on the corner of my block. I wanted to have a safe place for my kids, and its right at my doorstep. And an alarming new study finds gun deaths are rising sharply among children. 2,590 children and teenagers under the age of 18 died from Firearm Injuries in 2021, up 87 from 2011. Thats according to the American Academy of pediatrics. The studys authors say changes like mandatory, like boosters and seat belts save lives but the opposite is happening with firearms and opioid poisonings. A man who unleashed a hail of gunfire is being sentenced. Frank james pled guilty to ten counts of terrorism in january after setting off Smoke Grenades and opening fire on a Crowded Subway Train last year wounding ten people victims who have long been battling injuries and psychological damage will give impact statements. Prosecutors are asking for a sentence of ten concurrent Life Sentences for the 64yearold. The defense has argued for an 18year sentence. And right now, folks on the inside say its a whole different mood on day four of the Civil Fraud Trial against donald trump. This time without the former president in court or the attendant tensions. The trial is currently in a lunch break, but when it resumes, Jeff Mcconney, the controller of trumps Family Business will continue his testimony after trumps longtime accountant Donald Bender wrapped up his third day on the stand earlier. The judge issued a