joining me is joyce vance, nbc legal analyst. all right, joyce, let's get to you there as we've heard from the judge. he's gotten a lot of criticism for his idiosyncrasies in court. how do you view his comments to the jury that we played? >> it's pretty typical for judges to make comments to a jury after a verdict comes in, thanking them for their jury service and reminding them that it doesn't matter what their verdict is, what matters is their commitment to listening to the evidence and doing their best and diligently trying to fulfill their duties. so, this wasn't that unusual. the problem is that it was the final stage of what had been a number of, if not outright efforts to put his thumb on the scale, then blunders by this judge, who didn't seem in any way committed to creating an environment where everyone who was watching the trial would believe it was fair. on many cases, he appeared to have a strong defense orientation and he did nothing once criticism surfaced to try to reinforce the fairness of the proceedings. in many

let's go right to nbc's julie tsirkin on capitol hill who's following this for us. these days it's kind of rare that we see public apologies like this. what exactly did lauren boebert say? >> reporter: i'll tell you, it's even more rare when we see a public apology from an ally of former president trump, and that that's certainly what congresswoman lauren boebert, a republican from colorado is. she's part of the so-called maga squad in the house, and she apologized on friday after some intense backlash she received over comments she made over the thanksgiving holiday in which she was captured on video describing a moment in a joking manner, in which she was in an elevator with congresswoman ilhan omar. she's, of course, muslim, and she's a democrat from minnesota, and she said in that video, well, she doesn't have a backpack, we should be fine, implying that the minnesota democrat was a suicide bomber. she apologized, like i mentioned. you just saw that tweet on your screen. she issued an apology to, quote, anyone in the muslim community i offended with my comment a

let's go to nbc's mike memoli, in wilmington, delaware. a wellm to you. what is the white house saying today as bbb is heading for quite a battle in the senate? >> well, alex, you have seen the white house over the last few weeks really trying to regain some political momentum in favor of this legislation. it's been a tough few months for the president. his approval rating dipping, but we have seen some indication of success as the president has really been hitting the road. so what's the worst thing when they feel like they're getting momentum, especially after that big vote in the house on friday, to pass the build back better act, it's the senate recess. the president, the white house probably wishes that senate was in session this week so they could try to get to a deal quickly. we know there are a number of stumbling blocks. julie laid out some of them. the higher deduction for the state and local taxes which some progressives have an issue with. you're talking about the parliamentarian who has a vote on some of the immigration provisions which the h

joining us now with more on this breaking news, nbc's raf sanchez. raf, a lot of people have been waiting for this. fill us in. >> reporter: yeah, alex, this is a call that may raise more questions than answers. here is what we know. in the last few minutes, the president of the international olympics committee, thomas bach, put out a statement where he said he was on a 30-minute phone call with peng shuai and he seems, from the readout from the ioc, to basically accept the line that chinese state media has been putting out over the last couple of days, which is that everything is fine and that there's nothing to see here. i want to read you a little bit of this statement. it says, peng shuai thanks the ioc for its concern about her wellbeing. she explains that she is safe and well, living at her home in beijing, but would like to have her privacy respected at this time. now, there's a couple of things to note here, alex. the ioc president was not alone on this call with peng shuai. also on the line was the vice president of the chinese olympic commi

a story just out from nbc news. unreported news on the shocking rise in threats to members of congress. much is

so, joining me now, from state college, p.a., is nbc's gary grumbach. i understand you're at a testing site, so who's showing up there and how concerned are residents as they're coming off of holidays with friends and family and travel? >> reporter: hey there, alex. there's a lot of conversation in the early parts of the pandemic about the idea of getting the resources out to the community where it's needed. this is a perfect example of that. this is a covid testing center inside what was actually a former sears automotive center just down the road from penn state university, and there's a lot of conversations happening, you know, it's a walk-up site so people have been coming in. it's a steady stream of people throughout the day, and people have been saying, they're getting tested because they were a close contact of somebody who was tested positive. and there are a lot of positive people here in pennsylvania. as you mentioned, more than 6,000 people are testing positive for coronavirus every single day. that's more than 60% from what it was just two w

let's go right to nbc's julie on capitol hill for us. how significant is this? >> reporter: alex, it's very significant for a couple of reasons. for starters it's unprecedented in nature and also crystallizes the scope of the january 6th committee and their congressional authority. you have the chair and vice chair of that committee releasing a set of scathing statements overnight aimed at steve bannon but also at future witnesses who are toying with the idea of following in bannon's footsteps. and right now they have their sights laser focused on mark meadows, the former president and chief of staff who refused to appear for his deposition yesterday. here's what they said in their statements. quote, steve bannon's indictment should send a clear message to anyone who would try to stone wall our investigation. mr. meadow's actions today choosing to defy the law will force the select committee to force pursuing contempt or others to enforce the speen op. you have republicans toy wg the idea of threatening democrats should this come around if they retake the majori

nbc's scott cohn is joining us from san jose, california. in addition to california, late friday new mexico became the third state to open booster shots to all adults taking its lead from california. so what has the response been now that everyone qualifies for a booster? what is california doing to reach the unvaccinated? >> reporter: yeah, california, colorado, and new mexico, alex, now trying to get boosters into everybody, and if this is any indication, this county vaccination site in santa clara county, home to san jose and the heart of silicon valley, it might be having an impact. now, this is a site that is giving vaccinations, original vaccinations, vaccinations to children who only recently became available 5 to 11, and then also the booster shots, but we are seeing some sizable traffic here. so maybe that's working. the message from california officials now to providers is don't quibble, even if people are not technically eligible for the boosters according to the cdc and fda guidance, let them get them if they want them, and then

let's go now to nbc's julie tsirkin from capitol hill. what kind of warning does this send to others? >> reporter: the committee hopes this will send a serious warning to other witnesses subpoenaed. steve bannon yesterday was indicted on two counts related to his defiance of the congressional subpoena, one, for not appearing for his deposition and the other for not producing those documents that were requested. each of those, by the way, carry up to a year behind bars and up to $100,000 in fines. let's turn now, though, to mark meadows. this is the next target of the committee who hasn't been cooperating with the panel whatsoever. he failed to produce documents this week and also didn't show up for a scheduled deposition yesterday as you mentioned. he was the former president's chief of staff, of course, and was there in the white house on january 6th, so the committee has a big reason that they want to hear from him. now, members on the panel spoke out yesterday after bannon's indictment came through. take a listen to what adam kinzinger

joining me is joyce vance, an nbc legal analyst. is the fact that the dobbs case even made it to the court alarming to you and what are the implications of it being taken up by the supreme court? >> it's always been clear that when the supreme court takes a case that would appear to be well-decided law, something has to be up. and that's precisely the issue with dobbs. the issues set forth in roe and casey, these are the cases that have guaranteed american people the right to access abortion for almost the last 50 years. and that law is well-decided. and dobbs, the statute in mississippi that's the source of this case, is the sort of law that routinely gets brushed aside by the courts because it violates that well-established precedent. so the fact, alex, that the court will hear this case this week is very alarming. >> well, let's look at justice clarence thomas. he is the court's longest serving member. he has for a long time been a vocal opponent of roe v. wade. last june, after the court struck down a louisiana law, he wrote tha

let's get to nbc's morgan chesky in dallas following thes toer -- following the story for us. walk us through when and how this tragedy took place. >> reporter: alex, good morning, incredibly tragic event that took place in houston that police say is very much under investigation. they're trying to find out what took place here, but when you see that video that you briefly showed, absolutely heartbreaking. this took place at a highly anticipated concert by popular musician travis scott. officials say it was around 9:15 last night that at some point this crowd, of which there were about 50,000 people at this concert, but particularly this crowd at the front part of the stage started to surge its way forward for an unknown reason. that is currently under investigation, and it's at that point that they say some people in the crowd started to fall down, get trampled on, and that's what led to this panic that has resulted in the deaths of eight people, 17 others were taken to nearby hospital and treated for their injuries. i want you to hear what the houston police chief had to say

i think nbc's pete williams reported early in the week. this is a central question. it may be a bad couple of weeks for the president. >> thank you so much. i'm sure we'll see you again. >>> it was a victory for the prosecution and an example for other racial justice cases. the fallout and reflection around the death of ahmaud arbery is far from over. over. us small business owners prosper during their most important time of year. when you switch to t-mobile and bring your own device, we'll pay off your phone up to $1000. you can keep your phone. keep your number. and get your employees connected on the largest and fastest 5g network. plus, we give you $200 in facebook ads on us! so you can reach more customers, create more opportunities, and finish this year strong. visit your local t-mobile store today. [music: "i swear"] jaycee tried gain flings for the first time the other day... and finish this year strong. and forgot where she was. you can always spot a first time gain flings user. ♪ look! oh my god... i want my daughter riley to know about her ancestors and

nbc's liz mclaughlin is in raleigh, north carolina. liz, what's behind these shortages? >> reporter: alex, the supply chain grinch is at it again. santa claus entertainers, there is a record demand for those. and basically less santas are available to fill those spots. of course we're not talking about the big guy up at the north pole but these friends or helpers, older men more susceptible to covid-19, deciding to hang up their beards and boots. if you're looking to get an appointment at your local mall, that might not be an issue especially if you book ahead online. but if you want a santa for a private party, you needed to reserve those months ago or you're out of luck. you can hear sawing going on here, that smell of fresh pine. lots of folks pouring into this farm in north carolina, they're one of the biggest producers of christmas trees in the company. a heat dome is affected the pacific northwest where a lot of trees come from. as you mentioned, economic concerns, smaller farms are closing year after year. we've seen an increasing shortage every year. we spoke to

but again, nbc's scott cohn is in the real pressure point there, san jose, california. gas prices are exceeding the national average by quite a bit, scott. so what is it that's causing the surge at the pump? >> reporter: yeah, alex, it's painful. $5.09 a ga unleaded behind me. we're seeing the rate of this rise, look at that national average again, $3.41. a year ago, we were paying in the $2 range. what's causing it? it's basic supply and demand. we're driving again, going back to work. that's the demand side. the supply side hasn't matched that. and there's competing demand for refined products like heating oil leading to a pretty complicated economic picture. >> i think that gas prices, high cost of energy, are certainly one aspect of why inflation has risen in the last year. and certainly part of it is the fact that the economy is booming. americans are getting out and about. vaccine shutdowns have basically been in the rearview mirror. and americans are just -- there's tremendous pent-up demand for gasoline. >> reporter: energy prices, the biggest factor in that hug

we're going to turn now to nbc's gary grumbach. what all is in this infrastructure bill, bipartisan we should note, that is awaiting the president's signature? >> so this is what has been referred to as hard infrastructure, think roads and bridges, basically if you travel on it or in it, there's probably money for it in this bill. so let's get into it and see exactly what we're talking about here. we're talking about $110 billion for roads and bridges, 39 billion for public transit. 25 billion for airports, and 66 billion for president biden's favorite mode of transportation, rail. there's also billions of dollars for energy, clean drinking water, and broadband. these are things that will make a significant difference, especially in rural areas of this country. and that's sort of the point, right? that was the point of this really late night last night for these members so that they could vote on this, send it to the president's desk and go back into their districts this upcoming week while they're way from and say, hey, guys, look

now with more on all of this, we're going to nbc's lauren egan in delaware. she's with the president and gary grumbach is standing by on capitol hill for us. lauren, we're going to start this hour with you. what are we hearing from the president about how he was able to finally get this done? >> reporter: we know that the president was deeply involved in negotiations over the past few days. he was in the oval office yesterday making calls to both moderates and progressives. he's continued to make calls in the white house residents late last night and his message was, we need to get this done and we need to get this done now. he did not want this to drag on any longer, alex. we have been talking and having these conversations now for almost seven months, and he wanted to see this finally get across the finish line. just a few hours ago, he spoke at the white house about how he was finally able to pull this off. listen to what he had to say. >> i've been doing this thing any whole life. i've been able in the senate to put things together when people said they c

nbc julie tsirkin there for us. facing challenges in the senate. how does this play out? >> reporter: alex, remember all of those things that the senate punted to end of the year? government funding, defense spending. well, it's end of the year bp so they're going to have a lot of work to do when they come back from thanksgiving recess that doesn't revolve around build back better, but that's okay, because they have time. that bill, the $1.6 trillion social safety net and climate plan that just passed the house yesterday, boy, it's got a lot of work in the senate before they're ready to consider it. let's take a listen to what congressman jamaal bowman said on msnbc earlier this morning. >> all eyes are now on the senate right now, and all eyes are on manchin and sinema. the last leg of the president's agenda passed infrastructure framework and house passed build back better. final leg is the senate. all eyes are on the senate. >> reporter: alex what the progressive democrat from new york said is really important because it brings me back to something that jayapal, chairm

nbc's catie beck is in houston following this developing story. welcome to you. what are we hearing about the investigation? what more do we know? >> reporter: well, hey, alex. first responders were here on the scene before travis scott's astroworld festival event ever kick aufd, but no one could have expected the mass casualty event that happened here. this morning, travis scott himself reached out to fans for the first time. >> i could just never imagine the severity of the situation. i'm honestly just devastated. >> rap star travis scott joining the city of houston in mourning today. while an official search for answers gets under way. >> it is important for us to ascertain from last night what took place, what happened, where missteps may have occurred. >> as scott took the stage to headline his astroworld festival friday, many of his fans were being crushed in a sea of pain. >> pushing, pushing, pushing. >> we just watched the bodies go past us, unconscious. >> with reports of people being trampled, unable to move and breathe. some unconscious and falling to

earlier today, white house chief of staff ron klain told nbc news he believes this will be fully litigated in their favor before it is set to take effect in january. >> i'm quite confident that when this finally gets fullied a jute kated not just a temporary order, the validity of this requirement will be upheld. it's common sense, chuck, osha can tell people to wear hard hat on the job, be careful with chemicals can put in place these simple measures to keep our workers safe. >>> vice chair of the january 6th committee a strong rebook to her own party. congresswoman liz cheney push back that the attack on the capitol was a false flag operation. >> so same kind of thing that you hear from people who say that 9/11 was an inside job, for example. it is -- it's un-american to be spreading those kinds of lies. and they are lies. and we have an obligation that goes beyond partisanship and obligation that we share democrats and republicans together, to make sure that we understand every single piece of the facts about what happened that day and to make sure the people who did it are held account

. >> nbc's liz mclaughlin is joining me from outside the courthouse kenosha. we're hearing from ritenhouse about that verdict. what is he saying? >> reporter: the nation watched his reaction in the courtroom after that jury deliberated for more than 24 hours over four days when the not guilty verdict was red but behind the scenes, a fox nation film crew was with the defense team embedded. tucker carlson tweeted a promotional trailer for a program that showed kyle rittenhouse's verdict as he was leaving. >> how do you feel, man? >> the jury reached the correct verdict. self-defense and not illegal. i'm glad that everything went well. it's been a rough journey but we made it through it. we made it through the hard part. >> reporter: one of rittenhouse's defense attorney says that he did not approve of the film crew being there. it wasn't his call. cited fund-raising as the reason that they were there to pay for attorneys and experts. he said that it was a distraction even that he threw the crew out of the room at times and he felt it was inappropriate for any ne

nbc's scott cohn is where it hurts right now, in san jose, california. that's the state with the highest gas prices in the country, scott. is there any indication that these numbers are going to drop anytime soon? >> the short answer to that, alex, is no. if you are in one of those parts of the country where you're paying the average $3.41, think you could be in california where prices behind me are not at all uncommon. dle 5.09 at this station for regular. state-wide average is $4.67. a lot has to do with the high taxes in the state, but there are just a number of factors at play. and you look at just how fast prices have risen. that $3.41, again, the national average, that's more than a 50% jump from a year ago. what's going on? part of this is a positive aspect, and that is that the economy is strong, demand has come back as the pandemic has receded. and so there is great demand for gasoline and other forms of energy. and supply is just not keeping up. but that means that we're going to be looking at prices like these at least through the holiday seas