Of history. It scared me a little. It should, maybe. How can this happen . It is so topical at this moment. Thank you for writing it in between Everything Else. You are very, very kind to er say so. Thank you, my friend. Much appreciated. And thanks at home for joining us this hour. Ive been happy to have you here. One note before we get started. I know things might look a little different than usual. Fe thats just because im doing the show from someplace new. Ro i am in los angeles tonight. Im at what is essentially the mid point of this book tour for my new book. Thats why im here. I am not a great traveller. I am not great at this. But i just, before i start the e show, i briefly wanted to say thank you to all the book stores and the venues weve been at and all the moderators who have been on stage with me. Thank you in particular to everybody who has come out to one of these events. It has been thousands of people so far which is crazy. But its just been really nice to be out there at so many events and so many cities to meet people who value this show. Who love msnbc. Ive heard a lot of love from my msnbc colleagues. So its been fantastic and i do this very, very rarely. And i know that it is a huge amount of work and a pain in the butt for everybody involved in y making this happen, in part because i personally am a pain e in the butt. It makes me all the more grateful. Out of the rest of this book tour, were about halfway done. There are only two dates left that still have seats. Those are events thiweek. Phoenix wnesday and tulsa, oklahoma on friday. So if you want to come to either of those events this week, phoenix and tulsa, for those two remaining events, you can get tickets. Everything else is sold out. Ls i wanted to start with that before we get underway. I will not mention it again. I wanted to say thanks to everyone had a has been so kind and reading the book and coming out to hear me talk about it. Thats why things look a littlet different in terms of this set. We have a ton to get to. It will be a really busy week in the news. Tonight, of course, we are coming up on three weeks since republicans fired their own partys Speaker Of The House. In so doing, they basically got rid of congress. They barely avoided shutting down the whole federal government but then they did shut down the legislative branch of government. Th the House Of RepresentativesCannot Function without a speaker. The republicans fired their speaker. They appear to have no idea how to hire a new one. They also appear to have no real urgency about it eat. So we are three weeks in with government effectively being closed. Theyre apparently going to trye again for a speaker vote tomorrow. Well talk specifically about how republicans idea for a plan b sort of trick play theyve been hinting they might want to poll to avoid having to pick a leader. Thats a trick play that will not work. It is something they cannot do. It puts all the more pressure on them tomorrow. At the same time that drama will get underway in washington tomorrow, up the corridor in New York City tomorrow, were going to have drama of a different kind. This is likely all going to be happening literally at the samee time of day tomorrow. Former President Trump as you know, hes facing more than 90 Felony Criminal Charges in four different jurisdictions. The case where hes been showini up in court already is none of those criminal cases. It is the civil case against him and his business that was filed by the new York Attorney general. You do not have to show up for a civil case. Former President Trump does not have to be there in court for this case. Nevertheless, he has been there. And im pointing that out because tomorrow we are expecting live testimony in that trial. Testimony against him from his i former attorney and his former fixer Michael Cohen. Both Michael Cohen and trump are expected to be there in court in realtime in person. In im flagging this to you not just because of the expected interpersonal drama, the spectacle of it all, but because trumps role in this case, including his behavior in the courtroom has already been a substantive issue in this case. This is the case where the judge imposed the first gag order on trump after trump attacked a member of the judges staff. This is the case where the judge hauled everyone into court and threatened trump with jail after trumps attacks on the judges staff were nevertheless left up on a campaign website. This is the case where trump was admonished, legally smacked down by the judge because trump became so animated during Life Testimony from some Real Estate Appraiser that trump could not control himself in the courtroom. He was speaking out loud and gesturing and making a scene in the courtroom which caused the judge to admonish him in the courtroom. So this case has been a little touch and go so far in terms of the former president s behavior. Hes used to doing whatever he wants without any consequences his whole life. This case in particular seems to be really bothering him. The judge in this case thus far appears to be quite unimpressed by the former president s behavior. The judge seems to be unafraid to held to former president to the same standards any other defendant would be held in a federal court civil trial, including just how you need to physically behave yourself when you are in a courtroom. Im just, im pointing all this out because if trump already go admonished by the judge in this case because he was so overwhelmed by his feelings and his anger about some appraisers testimony, tomorrow hes going to be sitting there through testimony by Michael Cohen which is likely to be way more provocative and way more upsetting to go former President Trump than anything that has happened in the courtroom before. And hes barely been able to hold it together in the cruise missile, in the courtroom. And it is likely to be like the fourth of july. So thats going to be tomorrow. That will happen live in a new n york courtroom in front of a judge who does not play. And maybe everything will go smoothly and everybody will be calm, cool and professional. This is the case where the judge has already threatened to jail trump related to his behavior in this case. So just a heads up for tomorrow. For that, that will likely be happening at the exact same time the house is voting again on trying to pick a new speaker. It is all worth watching for. So i want to start tonight with what feels like it might be an important new stage in the war between israel and hamas. Now, we dont want to overstate things. I want to be clear The Big Picture remains the same. Israel in response to the Terrorist Attack by hamas that killed more than 1,000 israeli civilians has continued its airstrikes inside the densely populated gaza strip. While there has been so much question about when israel will launch a Ground Invasion and when theyre going to do that, in the meantime, theyve launched these devastating airstrikes day after day after day. More than 4,000 people in gaza are believed to have been killed since the israeli retaliation for the hamas Terrorist Attacks began 17 days ago. Civilians cannot leave gaza, even the u. S. Citizens who are among civilians there. The first trickle of aid has been allowed in. A small convoy of aid trucks was allowed in on saturday and another convoy was allowed in on sunday and then another small convoy was allowed in today. That is good. Thats not enough. That is something. The aid that has come in thus far does not involve fuel. The u. N. Is raising urgent concerns about the remaining hospitals inside gaza and whether they can keep their si generators running, to keep Ey Electricity on inside the hospitals to keep things like ventilators running and Life Support Machines for people grievously ill and also for newborn babies. Shothe u. S. Military has moved considerably resources and personnel to the region. There are ongoing worries with other countries and other armed militias in the region. The u. S. Embassies in iraq and lebanon have sent out new ve warnings about the safety of u. S. Citizens and u. S. Diplomatic staff and their families. All that to say, the biggest of big pictures here remains as precarious as ever. But there is a tiny little piece. We saw two hostages taken by hamas, an israeli American Mother and daughter released ond friday. Tonight two more hostages released. This is two frail elderly israeli women. Both in their 80s, both held by hamas for more than two weeks. The two were released tonight. R there had been some reports today about the potential release of a much larger group m of hostages. Maybe four dozen or more hostages potentially set to be z release in the some sort of arrangement but nbc has not been able to confirm independently any of those reports. It remains just a glimmer for people trying to maintain hope here. So far only four hostages have been released. Joining us found, nbc news chief Foreign CorrespondentRichard Engel live from jerusalem. Thank you for being here. I know it is the middle of the night, 4 00 in the morning there. I really appreciate you. Reporter its always the middle of the night with you. No matter where you go in the country, its always the middle of the night and its always ht talking about something grim. How are you . Its true. Im okay, richard. Its true. We need to come one some other beat that you and i cover together and at better times. Let me ask but the hostage situation. Obviously, everybody, everybody is overjoyed to see two hostages released on friday. To see two more released today. There was some reporting today which nbc has not independently confirmed that maybe we should expect additional hostage releases in larger numbers. What is your understanding of that . What do we know about the older women released today . Reporter so what aware trying to do is to track these O Negotiations in realtime through the negotiators. Obviously, the negotiators are working with hamas. Working with the israeli authorities. Were talking about egyptian and qatar negotiators. It is a very difficult process to follow. For security reasons, they dont want to give away too much. They are actively trying to trade things. Hamas wants certain things. The wants the more access for humanitarian supplies into the gaza strip. Hu it wants some of its prisoners to be released. It wants to engage in a resumption of a peace process. To have a path toward statehood. Were hearing more and more from hamas about its specific demands. I spoke to a senior hamas leader tonight about the specific issues. There is hope that there will be more. And during the day today, i was one of those people who thought, okay, there will be more. There are these rumors, reports of a potentially larger group that could have come out today. But these negotiations dont always go well. And even when these two israeli women were eventually released, hamas released them but sort of issued a complaint saying, were releasing them even though israel violated the terms of our agreement eight times. And there had been, although we didnt notice it, a mini ceasefire, a pause today according to hamas. And another pause, six hours long in the airstrikes on friday. So theyre negotiating thing big and small. Sometime its just a pause for a few hours, or much larger issues about opening access to the gaza strip, potentially prisoner swaps, potentially more than that. So this could take some time. And every time that there is hope, there is a lot of chance that things could go wrong. That theres another airstrike, a change in complications, communications are difficult because this senior hamas leader told me tonight, the hostages are held in different places. Communication from one place to the other is difficult so that theyre face go some logistical challenges just to gather these people and try to free them if they want. That could be hamas coming up with excuses. But you said is there a glimmer of hope . Yes. At least theres some movement. At least theyre not executing the hostages every hour or anything like that. Es there does seem to be some progress. There are lines of communication to hamas. And there are efforts ongoing by friendly nations to try to secure the release of these people. Rich, it strikes me as a pretty incredible thing in its own rate that youve been in ha touch with senior hamas officials about this issue. Did they explain or did they put it to you in any way that you xp can convey to us why they took these hostages . If they planned from the outset that they would hold the hostages in order to try to extract conceptions or ceasefire or anything theyre asking for now as just the first four had been let go . It almost feels from some of the reporting ive seen, the hostage taking, that hamas didnt necessarily know what they would do with these civilian hostages when they got them. Let alone in these large numbers. More than 200 of them. Did they give you any sense, any clarity on what their intentions are in the long run with these people . Reporter my interpretation, and some of this is just my analysis having covered this for a long time. Covering the middle east, Covering Hamas for many years. Id i think they bit off more than they could chew. What were seeing in gaza is a result of hamas not realizing how far it would get. How devastating its attack would be. How many people they would take. Theyve also the group has also hinted at that. There was one statement from their Chief Military Spokesman who said that they swept up all these foreign nationals by accident because as people were being dragged over the border, they didnt have a chance, according to them, to verify their identities. And they ended up with too many nonisraelis. Even they acknowledged it was a chaotic time and they ended up with more people than they wanted. On the other question, what do they want to do with them . They clearly intended to take people. To kill people and capture people. But probably not this many and probably not this many foreign nationals bringing the entire world against them. What they want, they want concessions. Every time theyve taken people in the past theyve been able to secure the release of prisoners. Many of the top leaders themselves. They were running the group. They. They were prisoners in israeli jails who were swapped when other members of hamas grabbed an israeli soldier and then demanded, part of that, part of the demands was a prisoner nd release. So the top leadership themselves know this process from personal experience. It secured their own release. So i think at the end, as we get closer and more and more hostages come out, and hopefully that will happen. Hopefully that will happen soon and in large numbers. I think well start hearing notn just demands about more access for humanitarian aid into gaza and more access for fuel and other things, but theyll start asking for more specifically for the demands of prisoners. And theyve already said that as well. One of the hamas leaders i was talking to said in order to release the soldiers, and they make a distinction between the civilians and the soldiers, although here in israel, with hamas, its quite difficult. A lot of israelis, until theyre quite old, can that he tensionally be he rev sifts in this country so who gets considered a soldier is a little up to hamas interpretation. For the soldiers, not specifying exactly who theyo consider a soldier. If youre active duty, nonactive duty, serving, in uniform, not in uniform, they said they want the release of all Palestinian Y Prisoners in israeli jails and there are thousands of them. Richard engel, chief correspondent for nbc news. T this has been a day of ups and e downs specifically on this issue of the hostages. Ta thank you for keeping us up to date on this. I appreciate it, my friend. Sure thing. Te weve got much more ahead tonight. Lots of news going on tonight. Stay with us. Rement, but i wishd more cash. You think those two have any idea . That they can sell their Life Insurance policy for cash . So theyre basically sitting on a goldmine . I dont think they have a clue. 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They were allowed to sleep in a little more than usual on Sunday Mornings and this was a Sunday Morning. October 23rd. And while they were sleeping, a yellow mercedes truck, a multiton truck drove up. It blasted through the not much of a barrier that was supposedly protecting the building. It smashed into the lobby of the building. That truck was driven by a suicide bomber. It had been expertly packed with enough sophisticatedly arranged explosive thats the entire fourstory building was obliterated in one flash. With all the american servicemen sleeping on Sunday Morning inside. Three u. S. Soldiers were killed in that truck bomb explosion. Three u. S. Soldiers, 18 u. S. Sailors, and 220 u. S. Marines. The largest single day loss of life in the u. S. Marine corps since iwo jima in world