Member from Jd Vances campaign did fact check the statement about ohio before it sparked the controversy. And are sean combs days as a free Man Over . His last Ditch Effort to get out of prison while he waits trial on charges that could put him behind bars the rest of his life. We begin with the Chaos And Confusion inside lebanon right now where for a second straight day more devices are exploing across the country including walkietalkies more than nine people are dead and 300 injured from the latest blast. Yesterday electronic devices used by the members of hezbollah exploded across lebanon killing at least 12 people and injuring up to 2,800. Two u. S. Officials confirm to Nbc News that israel was behind the attack. The new york times is sharing new details on yesterdays highly sophisticated Attack Reporting that israel planted, quote, small amounts of explosives in beepers that hezbollah ordered from a company based in taiwan. According to american and other officials briefed on the operation. I want to bring in national security and global Affairs Reporter dan delewis. International Correspondent Raf Sanchez is in telaviv for us and with us is political Contributor Ben rhodes, good to have you all here. What more do we know about the latest blasts in lebanon . Reporter chris, for a second day in a row we are seeing explosions tearing through lebanon, these are blasts isolated not just to beirut, the Capital City but seeing it in the south near the border with israel, seeing it in the east in a hezbollah strong hold. Yesterday it was pagers that were exploding in the hands, in the pockets, on the belts of hezbollah members. According to lebanese State Media, today it is walkietalkies that are blowing up. So this appears to be a second phase of what two u. S. Officials tell Nbc News was a vast covert israeli operation yesterday, targeting hezbollah members and targeting also its Communication Networks. Now, as you said, at this point, State Media in lebanon is saying nine people were killed today, thats on top of the 12 people killed yesterday. At least 300 people injured today on top of the 2,700 who were injured yesterday. This is a vast public Health Crisis for lebanon. It is a deep, deep Security Crisis for hezbollah. Which has found that its arch enemy, israel has penetrated its absolute most sensitive communications. But it is clear there are at least some civilians who have been caught up in this attack. At least two children were killed in the pager blasts that we saw yesterday. While The New York Times is reporting that israeli agents at some point smuggled small amounts of explosives into each of these devices what remains unclear is at what point in the Supply Chain the israelis were able to do that. Most of the beepers bear the logo of apollo gold, that is a taiwanese company but overnight the company saying they didnt make the models used in lebanon, those were produced by a company in hungary, which paid a License Fee to use that logo. We called that company earlier today, we reached a whom identified herself as the ceo. She sounded very shaken to find herself at the center of an international News Story and she was saying her company doesnt actually make the pagers they are just an intermediary. So its unclear exactly how the israelis got into these devices and thats one of the many, many questions outstanding right now. Theres no doubt about that, dan, at what point in the Supply Chain did they get explosives into these devices. Were they the Supply Chain . Thats just the beginning of all those questions. What are we hearing from the u. S. dan . Feels a little powerless at this point. This was a surprise. This was not something the biden administration wanted to see. Theyre desperately trying to diffuse tensions, secure a ceasefire that, a deal to get the hostages released and somehow avoid what everyone is fearing, a fullblown regional allout war or direct conflict between iran and israel. And as raf was saying, this is a humiliating setback for hezbollah. This is a total collapse of their security. I think theres another audience here for israel and that is their own domestic population. I think the October 7th attack by Hamas Last year was its own shock to their system. They have great confidence in the intelligence and the military and that was a failure and that attack took them by surprise. So youve seen extraordinary assassinations of hezbollah leaders in tehran, and now this, this is irans important malice sha here. They see it as the Bull Work of their defense. Their Communications Network completely penetrated. I think the White House is trying to again appeal to all parties to exercise restraint but it doesnt look like israel has been listening to that message. Dan, thank you for that. Ben, its good to see you. Youve been involved in high level conversations around situations that are extraordinarily sensitive, probably more times than you can count during the Obama Administration what are the likely conversations that President Biden is having right now with his national Security Team and what are the key u. S. Interests . Well, you know, the u. S. Interests are trying to avoid a fullblown escalatory regional War Number one that puts at riske months of u. S. Mediation trying to get a Ceasefire Deal, the hostages released, an end to the war in gaza. And members in Syria And Iraq are at risk. Global Energy Prices could spike if we see the conflict spreading as weve seen In The Red Sea already. So the u. S. Interest has been deescalation. As recently as a few days ago, the u. S. Was sending diplomats to lebanon to urge deescalation. Sb and so israel has decided its going to try to deal these blows to hezbollah. And at the u. S. Security level the u. S. Trying to understand whats going on. How far is this going . Is this a precursor to a broader israeli operation in lebanon. Is this israelis taking shots at a bunch of hezbollah guys or is it israel trying to break the communication network, rattle hezbollah, isolate them from one another so they can launch a Military Operation into lebanon because they want to kind of move their population thats been displaced by hezbollah rockets. So i think right now in the Situation Room theyre trying to understand whats going on. Its clear that israel did not give any kind of Advance Notice of this operation to the united states. Obviously this is not the first time that israel has ignored the biden administration but let me ask you about whats going on in cairo right now. That is where Secretary Blinken is and he went to have conversations about the possibility of finally reaching a ceasefire agreement. We just heard from Kamala Harris Yesterday when she was in front of nabj, there has to be a deal On Gaza that ends the fighting, frees the hostages. What does all this mean for that goal . I have just think it makes it much more difficult. Essentially all these things are ultimately connected and i think rightly the biden administration understands that the only pathway to truly deescalate the tensions in the region is a Ceasefire Deal in gaza. Hezbollah has been firing the rockets into israel since October 7th they see themselves as part of the conflict that israel finds themselves in with hamas. So as long as the war is in gaza its difficult to deescalate the situation in lebanon. The more you militarize the conflict the more unlikely it is that hamas and the israeli government will make the types of decisions necessary to get to a ceasefire. Weve seen in the past, the u. S. Getting close to a ceasefire and coming out and saying a ceasefire and then at the last moment prime Minister Netanyahu or hamas insist on conditions that scuttle the deal. When theres this degree of regional tension i think its that much more difficult to achieve a ceasefire. At a certain point the question is is this the best way forward to continue this constant negotiation while the israeli government and hamas and everyone else seems to be running a different play. Lets talk about how this got done, this level of sophistication. Because hezbollah stopped using Smart Phones because they were worried about them being infiltrated. They switched to pagers. Yesterday they blow up. So now a lot of what they were usingwalkietalkies. What is the level of Coordination And Sophistication it takes to pull off something like this two days in a row . Yeah. There are a couple of things that jump back to me, chris. First of all, theres an incredible level of sophistication because Number One they clearly got into the Supply Chain. So clearly there was something inserted in the devices. They physically were able to manipulate these devices and know where they were going to go. So they had to have sufficiently penetrated not just a Supply Chain of where theyre buying pagers and walkietalkies but they had to penetrate the Communications Network. They needed people on the ground who knew how these things were going to be distributed. We know that israel has penetrated hezbollah before, they were able to locate officials, disrupt weapons shipments. So its not a surprise but this is another level of sophistication. The other thing that jumps out to me, oftentimes if you have the ability to penetrate the Communication Networks you listen to those communications. Its a big decision to say instead of trying to use this capacity to understand what theyre doing and understand their intentions and how the network is operating, we are going to kind of blow our own operation literally because we want to send this message and achieve this Military Aim of Setting Back hezbollah tactically. And really trying to kind of rattle them internally. So its that decision to kind of weaponize this capability that is most interesting. I think theres divisions inside the israeli government about how aggressive to be. And prime Minister Netanyahu has decided to press the envelope there. Where that leads is the big question. How does hezbollah respond, what further operations does hezbollah have in mind . It does suggest that were going to be living with Escalation Risk and degree of conflict in this part of the world for longer than the biden administration would want. Or Kamala Harris for sure. Ben rhodes thank you so much. We have some other things to talk about so ill see new a bit. Theres another huge story were watching. Less than an hour away from a critical and hotly contested decision from the Federal Reserve its likely theyll cut Interest Rates for the first time since 2020 but how much . Brian cheung is at the big board. How did we get here and the major question, whats going to happen . Luckily for you i have the fancy graphics to illustrate the story here. The Federal Reserve is the steward of the american economy they have the Interest Rates to take care of things like inflation. We did see inflation as we know from feeling it at the store, peeking at 9 in the years after the pandemic. What did the Federal Reserve do to take care of that . They wanted to take steam out of the economy by making Borrowing Costs in the form of Interest Rates higher. They did that in the aftermath of the pandemic. Inflation in blue, Interest Rates in red from the Federal Reserve. They ratcheted them up and it did the job of taking inflation down. Heres the concern now, it made unemployment tick up a little bit. You cant necessarily see it all that easily because of the spike of unemployment we saw in the pandemic almost up to 15 . Weve been seeing the Unemployment Rate Rise from 3. 5 a year ago to as of the last measure 4. 2 . The fed is saying maybe we need to lower the Interest Rates to make sure that people dont get put out of their jobs and for that reason were expecting the fed to do an Interest Rate cut today. What does it mean for consumers . It means the Interest Rates paying on your 30 year fixed mortgage rates, autoloans, Credit Cards might go down. The 2020 Interest Rates for these products, yes, they went up as the Federal Reserve raised Interest Rates and the question now, 6. 1 thats the average 30 year fixed rate thats more than 3. 5 but that could go down depending on the size of the Interest Rate cut. The question is it a Quarter Point Change or half a percentage Point Change . Chris, it seems like a Toss Up right now. Well have to find out in about 45 minutes. Brian cheung, thank you. In 90 seconds, did the Trump Campaign know the rumors about migrants eating pets in Springfield Werent true before they spread the story . Thats Coming Up right after this. Ht after this heart failure. So when i had carpal tunnel syndrome, lower back pain, and shortness of breath, i thought thats what getting older felt like. Thank goodness. I called my cardiologist. I have attrcm, a rare but serious disease. And getting diagnosed early. Made a difference. If you have any of these warning signs, dont wait, ask your cardiologist about attrcm today. heres to getting better with age. Heres to beating these two every thursday. Help Fuel Today with boost high protein, complete nutrition you need, and the flavor you love. So, heres to now. Now available Boost Max why use 10 buckets of water when you can use 1 fire extinguisher. And to fight heartburn, why take 10 antacids throughout the day when you can take 1 prilosec. For easier heartburn relief, one beats ten. Prilosec otc. One pill. 24 hours. Zero heartburn. Now to new evidence that the Trump Campaign knew that are you mores about haitian immigrants eating pets in this springfield, ohio were lies almost from the start but persisted in spreading them anyway. According to the Washington Journal they knew because they were told nine days ago. Springfield City Mayor Brian Heck said that is one when one of Jd Vances staffers called them asking if the rumors are true about pets being taken and eaten, i told him no, there was no verifiable evidence or reports to show this was true. But vance tweeted it that day. And the woman who actually did report her cat missing, not eaten but missing, found the Cat Hiding in her basement days later and then actually apologized to her haitian neighbors for suggesting they were to blame but both Vance And Trump kept pushing the lies anyway. They havent stopped. This was last night. You say you have a responsibility to share what your constituents tell you, but dont you have a responsibilities to fact check them first . I think the media has a responsibility to fact check the residents of springfield not lie about it. Multiple people have come to my office, said on video, they talk about the Pet Story and thats all the american media wants to talk about. And, of course, the american media goes into springfield, dives in, harasses everybody that dares to complain about the condition of the town, thats not journalism, thats not seeking the truth. Thats bullying on a large scale. The City Manager i think i said mayor but the City Manager told a member of Jd Vances Staff It wasnt true. In any case, the result is a city is gripped by chaos where State Troopers are patrolling Elementary Schools for a second straight day and a local college suspended athletic events in response to dozens of bomb threats. Ohios Republican Governor didnt blame trump for those threats directly but made clear hes not helping. If these comments were not being made would those threats stop . Well, i dont know. I cant predict what would happen. But the statements are wrong. Ive said they were wrong. The mayor has said they were wrong. And frankly, they need to stop. I want to bring in nbcs ali vitali, traveling with the Trump Campaign. Robbie mook, former campaign for Hillary Clinton and michael steel, former rnc chairman. If they knew this wasnt true do we have an answer to why the Campaign Ran with it and is still running with it anyway . Reporter thats the question, because the call with the City Manager is not in dispute. The Vance Team did talk with the City Manager and you see the Washington Journal reporting around that now. I did get a statement from the Vance Team, a spokesperson, and ill put that up on the screen for you while i read it. They say that Senator Vance has received countless messages from residents of springfield on the disastrous effects of kairs Immigration Policies they list here a short of affordable housing, stressed public resources and declining public safety. But this is around the unfounded claim of killing pets, dogs and cats, in the Springfield Area by trump in the debate. And now we see the fallout in a town like springfield where you have officials at the state and local level trying to put this Genie Back in the bottle but the disinformation is out there at this point. Im struck this could be a conversation around policy, around housing and certainly those are the conversations that many republicans are stressing the trump Vance Team should be having as theyre trying to have a debate over the controversies in the Election Cycle. But the idea that the Vance Team and Trump Team are doubling down on the idea of rumor means it could be true or not. But the question is should national figures amplify things that they arent sure are true. Clearly were seeing the republican ticket do what its done since i started covering trump in 2015, having a moment of controversy and doubling down and continuing to say the thing. In all my years covering trump, i never heard him say i was wrong, i apologize, lets double back on this. Certainly that doesnt appear its a new strategy introduced any time soon. You see it from the former president , from his running made and they have it again there in their statement. Its true, robby, this campaign never seems to backtrack, even in situations like this. Is that because being right or wrong isn