how to prepare when your opponent plays fast and loose with the facts. top of the hour with a good day to all of you from msnbc world headquarters in new york. welcome, everyone, to alex witt reports. we begin with extreme weather, with more than 90 million americans under heat alerts as temperatures reach triple digits in some areas. at the columbus, ohio zoo, workers are working around the clock to keep those animals cool. >> our polar bears have a cool pool. they also have access to an air-conditioned building. are red pandas have boxes and they have air-conditioning in them, and we allow that has many choices and options as possible, so they can use the environment to alleviate themselves from the seat. meanwhile, people are flocking to the beach today from some relief from the sweltering temperatures. we have several reporters in place covering all these developers for us. we will begin with nbc's george sully's outside a hospital in philadelphia. i hope it is not too busy in the e.r. with heat related concerns. what is it like? >> yeah, alex, doctors are telling us they are seeing a spike in people coming in with heat related injuries across the health systems. that is mainly have comorbidities or pre-existing conditions. nevertheless, it tells you just how seriously officials are taking these days of unrelenting heat in and around the philadelphia region. we know the new york has had a lot of brutal heat, as well. i was there a few days ago in central park, and it was brutal. in fact, just because we are talking about what the temperature feels like, it is that heat index. i have a thermometer here, kind of taking a gauge of different attempts. at the as is rating at 120 degrees fahrenheit. obviously these are not temperatures to be playing around in. drinking water, wearing loosefitting clothing, finding the shade, all things important to listen to. in philadelphia proper they have opened up the cooling centers, which are essential for those who do not have access to air conditioning. the pools are open, something new york city hopes to do next week. nevertheless, though, at this point no heat -related deaths in this part of the country we can report. but it is something officials are obviously keeping a close eye on. every single year, according to the cdc, you are talking about thousands of people who can succumb to heat related deaths because these temperatures are getting more and more brutal. one thing to keep in mind is that june was a bit of a milder season, if you will. so it is taking some time for our bodies to acclimate to this extreme heat. we just wrapped up an interview with the doctor here at the hospital who tells us yes, we are seeing more people coming in because they are maybe extending themselves a little too much. they are hanging outside, maybe not listening to their bodies. so it is so important to do all of those things when these temperatures are sweltering, as they have been. and here in philadelphia, in the area, we are expected to break a 100+ year record for this heat. that tells you how hot it has been getting and how long the summers are starting to prolong. some people say look, we were complaining about how cold it was a few seasons ago. but this heat is something you definitely don't want to fool around it, alex. >> no, not at all. don't do anything in this heat, if you can. thank you so much, george solis. let's now go to the out-of- control wildfires in new mexico. steve patterson with the latest. steve, to you. >> yeah, alex, this has to be one of the most harsh double- edged swords we have seen in central new mexico and quite sometimes. the fires that have been chewing through this area, now more than 20,000 acres in total, destroying 14 structures, what is thought to be 500 homes have continued to lay seeds to communities here. they are starting to slow, and that is because of the significant rainfall that we had it just yesterday, dumping rain on those fire zones, obviously creating more humidity , cooling temperatures, as well. that is good news, it has slowed the progress of those fires and has led to, finally, firefighters adding somewhat of a foothold on the two huge fires that have been burning now. there is some containment, as well, nearly 30% containment on one fire, the south fork buyer. and nearly seven containment on the salt fire. firefighters making significant progress. but with the rain came another is a disaster. flash flooding. some areas got up to eight inches of rain, which they don't see necessarily in the entirety of a single year. dumping on the firefighting effort, needing some first responders had to be evacuated themselves on the front of the fire lines. it led to, of course, downed power lines, gas lines that were ruptured, localized flooding remains in certain areas. it is a disaster situation on both fronts. but, good news to residents now hearing that they may be returning to their homes soon because the fire growth has slowed so much. for the first time you can go outside and you can't smell any smoke, you can't see any hint of the fire near population centers. they have managed to push that away, but they are still dealing with erratic winds. the conditions obviously still pretty poor here, although improving. still very dangerous for firefighters on the front lines. still about 1000 fire personnel dealing with this. we have the governor who is here, she will tour some of the devastation that is left over in what has really been a dual disaster for these communities dealing with not only fire, but flooding. back to you. >> all those plumes of smoke, very scary. now to decision 2024, preparations underway for the first high-stakes debate between donald trump and joe biden, now five days away. >> mr. president, how is debate prep going? >> president biden signaling confidence as he headed off to camp david, where he is surrounded by advisers this weekend, honing his attack lines and policy proposals. donald trump, meanwhile, is taking a more informal approach, practicing on the campaign trail today. first at a conservative christian event in washington, then at a rally in philadelphia. but the debate is on his mind. >> i look forward to the debate on thursday night, and we have to show that the man is grossly incompetent, he doesn't know what he's doing. >> both candidates are expected to paint the other as unfit for office. biden's message, trump is even worse than before. let's go now to nbc's julie sirkin in washington, where donald trump is headlining the faith and freedom coalition conference, as we mentioned. what are you hearing from the former president about expectations? >> reporter: alex, he just took the stage about 15 minutes ago. he says that this is his ninth time speaking at this event. that is something the organizer of the faith and freedom coalition also pointed out in introducing the former president. he started this speech appealing to conservative christians, to activists, to those who perhaps feel like they were wrong somehow. to those who want their religion, christianity, to be at the pinnacle of government in the u.s. certainly that is why trump has started speaking about culture war issues. he has talked about the border extensively, for example. so far, though, in contrast to his speech last year which came also a couple of days before the anniversary of the supreme court decision has not brought up abortion yet, something a lot in the audience tell me they do want to hear him talking about. i spoke to two interesting perspectives. there are two women from california who are antiabortion activists. one of them, the first you will hear from, is actually a noncitizen. she says she is married to a citizen, however, so she cannot vote. the second describes herself as a progressive. watch this. >> i don't know what i would do. i don't know if i would vote for him or not. i am a one issue voter, even though i can't vote. but if i were able to vote, that would be, i would lean towards know. >> i am undecided. i don't know, i have a lot of issues that i care about. i do think abortion is a huge issue. that is one of my main priorities. there are a lot of other issues. i actually consider myself a progressive, but i have trouble voting for progressive presidents for the abortion issue, pretty much. i am undecided. i might vote one way or the other. it really depends. if he wants to strengthen his pro-life position, it would be something that would make me more enticed to vote for him. >> reporter: so, alex, i spoke to michael watley, the head of the rnc, just before trump took the stage. he told me on abortion he expects the former president to say what he has been saying privately with republicans, and publicly, which is that there should be exceptions for the procedure, it should be back to the states. that clearly does not go far enough for some of the people in this room. but trump is going to touch on other issues. just yesterday he posted on his truth social platform, standing behind the new law in louisiana that would force public schools to post the 10 commandments in their classrooms. this is something that is favored by this crowd behind me. certainly at the beginning of trump's speech, he still has a lot of topics to get through, and we expect him to touch on those. >> that is interesting. it has been suggested that donald trump is using this platform to help prep his debate, that he is getting out and campaigning, and that is how he is honing in prep for thursday night. what are you hearing on that? >> that's interesting that you bring that up. has towards the beginning of his remarks he did talk about the debate briefly. he said who is even going to watch that in this room? he was making fun of president biden's performance, of course, as he has done so often, as republicans have done, literally behind me right now he is talking about president biden once again, and that the debate. looking forward to that on tuesday. he has a reality -- rally in philadelphia, going nonstop until the election day. he also mentioned quickly that this was not supposed to be a stop on his campaign trail this week. this is something he felt like he needed to add back. certainly trying to appeal to a lot of conservative christians, the activists in this room. and talking about those culture issues is, perhaps, a preview to what his platform will be on thursday on the debate stage. >> we will see how much he gets in the policy. thank you very much, julie. this hour i will be talking to ramin setoodeh , author of a new book on donald trump on the apprentice. his observations and audiotapes from those interviews a bit later on. meantime, the who, what, and where behind a story that has many attorneys in america scratching their heads. the biggest question, we don't have an answer to this one. why? 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>> it is a significant decision in that they supreme court finally found a gun regulation it was willing toppled. but i think the reality is the supreme court opened up this avenue for courts to strike down commonsense gun regulations when, two years ago, they announced their decision in berlin that said a gun regulation is constitutional only if it falls within the nation's tradition of firearm regulation. and, importantly, the author of that decision was justice thomas. he dissented from the ruling yesterday, and the majority which upheld the law did not disavow that test, the brewing test. so, lower courts are still going to be left to sort out exactly how similar does a gun regulation have to be to previous forms of gun regulation for them to uphold it? >> let's take this into this one dissenting opinion a little further. because justice thomas upheld his view, as you are saying, that the history of similar laws at the time of the nations founding is determinative, writing not a single historical regulation justifies this statute an issue. this is interesting, because some legal scholars are suggesting amy coney barrett, the newest conservative on the court, may be pulling away from that originalist view. how much could this philosophical clash, if you will, apply to any other cases we are waiting on? >> well, i am not sure that she is pulling away from original is him, as such, she is just taking a view that originalist them actually require something different than justice thomas says that it does. and, interestingly, in this case you had several justices explaining what they believe original is and requires. and they all seem to think it means something different, at a different level of generality that you are supposed to be looking for particular historical tradition. i think that suggests original is him may not be the restraining force that some of its proponents thought that it would be. has different justices are applying it in different ways, and, in fact, describing in a different terms. >> that brings me to this question. there are five different opinions on the view of originalism. are they looking at that the review of history? are they looking at present-day interpretation? are they looking at that was good then, so that has to stand? it is hard to figure out. >> it is hard to figure out, and i think that is part of the problem. i think all of the opinions are really doing something different. justice thomas is doing something that i think is very clearly originalism . he is saying look, i need to find basically an exact replica of a gun regulation around the time that the second amendment or the 14th amendment were adopted. whereas the majority opinion written by chief justice roberts says no, what we are looking for is kind of the principles undergirding the second in the, and looking to see whether a law is consistent with those principles. justice barrett wrote separately to say she was doing something she described as original contours originalism, which included some type of traditions which, in some ways, is not originalism since it considers evidence well after the founding and ratification. and in that respect is kind of a living constitutionalism, more similar to what democratic appointees are set to do. it really includes many things, which we saw on display in yesterday's opinion. >> can i ask, before we move on, the more liberal leaning justices, are they typically as divided on something like this? or do they tend to be more a cohesive group? >> so, they wrote separately to say they agreed that this law was constitutional and they agreed it was constitutional under the majority's clarification about what the legal test for the second amendment is. they also said we disagree with bruins focus on history and tradition, because we think that is misguided. i think it is somewhat common for the democratic appointees to vote together in these high profile cases. but i think that is more reflection, not, but instead of the fact that the republican justices are hearing a lot of cases and deciding a lot of cases in which they are changing the law, and moving it in a more conservative direction that favors republican interests. so it is not that surprising that you would see the democratic appointees basically saying look, let's just keep the law as it is and respect precedent. >> lets me do what we are waiting on, a big one. presidential immunity. specifically whether donald trump should be immune from prosecution on charges he tried to overturn the 2020 election. president obama's attorney general, eric holder, is concerned about what is holding up the court. he spoke with my colleague, nicolle wallace. take a listen to this. >> the notion, for instance, that apparently some justices are fooling around with, well, if the president violated the criminal law but was doing so in his official capacity, there may be some basis to say that is okay. we need to step back and think about that. wait a minute, a president can violate the american criminal law if he or she is doing something in their official capacity? that is an absurd and dangerous conclusion. and i am worried, given the length of time that it has taken for the supreme court to decide this case, that something along those lines might come out of the supreme court. >> then there is that new york times op-ed in which you write that there is reason to be suspect about the delay, even to think something is rotten at the court. what are you worried about? >> so, one of the things i'm concerned about is that the supreme court, even if it ultimately rejects donald trump's a very broad claim of immunity, which, to be honest, is a little ridiculous from a legal perspective, that they have effectively given him a type of pre-election immunity by slow walking the case and delaying its resolution. and that events a trial before the election, so there won't be a jury of his peers that will determine whether he interfered with the peaceful transition of power, and attempted to basically overturn the results of a validly conducted election. and that is a real problem for our democracy, to basically not let the american people here what a jury of their peers decided the former president did as he was leaving office. >> so, this slow walking, is it with intent to do that? or are the justices trying to parse every syllable, every tiny detail and do a very thorough job in their rulings? >> i think it's a little bit difficult to say exactly what is motivating them. but two of the things i pointed out in that piece you are highlighting that raise concerns for me are, one, that they don't actually have to say a bunch of things or resolve any big question in this case. because whatever the precise scope of a president's official duties include, it does not include attempting to throw out the results of a validly conducted election or interfere with the peaceful transition of power. you don't have to confront those difficult questions in this case. and second, we have seen the move much more quickly to decide cases, when the outcome of those cases favor donald trump or republican interests. if you remember, back to earlier this year when supreme court decided the case involving whether colorado and other states could disq