>> 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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