NBC Nightly News Broadcast (Full) - December 23rd, 2020 | NBC Nightly News
tonight president trump threatening to derail covet relief for millions of desperate americans just before christmas the president traveling to florida for the holidays after making a last-minute demand for congress to raise those stimulus checks from 600 to 2 000 also at stake extra unemployment benefits and small business aid will he now veto it and amid that political standoff the reality across the country massive lines of families who can't afford to put food on the table for christmas the holiday crush 85 million expected to travel even as the pandemic rages hospitalizations at record highs but new hope as the u.s hits a milestone one million people have now received initial doses of the covet vaccine and the deal to double the nation's pfizer doses the new body cam video a man approaching an officer with a cell phone in his hand the officer fatally shooting him what investigators revealed late today the christmas storm on the move blizzard warnings in effect were tracking it the explosion rocking a high-rise window washers left hanging on for dear life several others trapped inside the daring rescue and letters to santa going virtual what kids really want this year this is nbc nightly news with lester holt good evening just as it seemed help was on the way to millions of americans struggling in this covet battered economy president trump tonight appears to have thrown a monkey wrench into the plan suggesting he may veto the coronavirus relief bill agreed to by congress this week the president demanding bigger amounts in those direct payments to americans than what congress spelled out a position that democrats are eagerly embracing kelly o'donnell tells us where things stand tonight leaving today for christmas at his mar-a-lago club president trump said nothing about his surprise threat that could tank covet relief for millions in need people like 36-year-old bartender and graduate student nick mott i do feel scared all of my savings is gone mott's income and tips cut by more than half as diners stay home counting on emergency aid from that massive 900 billion dollar covid package that includes six hundred dollar direct checks three hundred dollar weekly enhanced unemployment benefits rental and food assistance i was really hoping for that i was really hoping that that uh that i could at least have a little bit of comfort again but in a white house made video president trump injected chaos demanding congress increase those direct payments to two thousand dollars send me a suitable bill or else the next administration will have to deliver a coveted relief package today speaker pelosi put pressure on republicans to answer the president's demand so far only silence small businesses on the brink need a second round of loans like denver restaurant owner stephanie bonan who was forced to lay off 25 employees at duo that is a really really frightening moment for any entrepreneur any business owner and tonight a separate and stunning veto of the national defense bill the president rejecting that bipartisan measure in part because it calls for renaming military bases that honor confederate leaders lester all right kelly o'donnell tonight starting us off thanks and as the political sparring continues millions of americans remain in need my colleague gotti schwartz met some of them as they waited in a long line of cars for food in the los angeles area today during a live report on msnbc's gotti's reaction to one couple's story was one most of us could identify with this food that you guys are picking up today but a case he says that uh the food that they're picking up here is for um for their christmas meal gracias gracias gracias this is this is just one of the stories i mean you've got a parking lot uh filled with people they're gonna be picking up their meals um picking up meals for christmas sorry um it absolutely tears your heart out gotti has more now on the struggles hitting home for far too many families this holiday at any given food drive there's always someone at the front of the line and today in santa monica it was maria and satornino viegas who showed up three hours early like so many others saturnino lost his job at a restaurant he says they had a little bit of savings and now they're going around and they're looking for cans and and bottles to recycle and as these lines wind all across the country inside cars are families that never thought they'd be waiting for food donations two days before christmas coming from last year going to restaurants on a regular basis and living life to the fullest it definitely was a shock to us the los angeles regional food bank has given out 120 million meals since a pandemic began but when an estimated one in four people have been food insecure here during the pandemic it's still not enough the food bank's distribution has increased by 145 percent since the pandemic hit and we're not necessarily reaching everyone who needs help and as the viegas receive their food they tell us what volunteers hear again and again they plan on sharing this blessing with others in their community that need it too catty schwartz nbc news santa monica despite calls to stay home some 85 million americans are expected to travel for the holidays stirring fears of a new post-holiday covet surge but there is encouraging word from the cdc tonight 1 million people in the u.s have now received their first doses of the covet vaccine and the u.s just cut a deal to double its pfizer doses more now from tom costello tonight health experts fear a super spreader event is playing out in real time as a million travelers a day fill airports nationwide i don't have any pre-existing conditions i'm thin and i'm feeling confident if i do get call bed that i'll survive the most travelers since the pandemic began despite official pleas to stay home to ensure loved ones are alive next year too many people say they can't stay away from family any longer we haven't seen my two granddaughters and my daughter since last christmas and they grow so much and we see them on skype but it's just not the same thing 20 states plus d.c now have travel restrictions for new arrivals concerned about a more infectious strain of covet in britain new york mayor de blasio today ordered anyone arriving from the uk to self-quarantine sheriff's deputies will conduct verification visits violators will be fined if you violate quarantine one thousand dollars for the first day if you violate any day thereafter thousand dollars for each additional day with vaccinations continuing nationwide the cdc reports just one million americans had received the pfizer vaccine by this morning out of 5 million pfizer doses shipped while there is a lag in states reporting vaccination numbers commanders concede vaccinations have been slower than expected meanwhile the government is now doubling the size of its pfizer vaccine purchase enough for 100 million people by the end of july we come out of the holidays we're in a steady drumbeat of continuous vaccine delivery the urgent push to vaccinate expected to pick up steam fast tom costello nbc news washington i'm erin mclaughlin in los angeles inside california's hospitals there's desperation patients spilling into hallways conference rooms even parking lots we are down to 1.1 percent icu capacity now the crisis epicenter on the cusp of 2 million confirmed coronavirus cases and days before christmas a chorus of cries for help from the front lines if we continue to gather indoors at the rate that we are many more of us will not see the holidays next year and outside los angeles dozens gather without masks to sing christmas carols led by actor kirk cameron nationwide almost a thousand hospital icus hitting 90 percent capacity nurse holly pike watches as her colleague fights for her life i actually have the wonderful privilege of taking care of her and being her nurse for quite a few nights and it was hard after caring for covid patients utah icu nurse and mother of three jill hulker is on life support waiting for a double lung transplant we're just hoping that she can come home as soon as possible a christmas wish amidst real fear things will only get worse erin mclaughlin nbc news new body cam video is out tonight showing the deadly police shooting of an unarmed black man holding a cell phone the incident sparking outrage in columbus ohio blaine alexander has our report but let me caution you the images are disturbing this just released body camera video shows the final moments of andre hill's life there is no audio because the columbus police officer who shot him did not activate his camera until after pulling the trigger here you see officer adam coy approaching a garage hill is inside walking toward the officer with a cell phone in one hand the other out of view within seconds the officer shoots the officer then turns his camera on hands out to the side now and those 60 seconds of video showing the shooting are recovered we've got a medic coming but the camera also captures hill afterward lying on the ground for more than five minutes before anyone rendered aid to see him lying in the driveway minute after minute after minute after minute with no attempt to render aid and comfort that is a stunning disregard for life and in this case black life my commitment my legal obligation is to conduct a fair impartial hearing and that is what i intend to do hill was not armed the initial call came from a neighbor concerned after hearing a car running in the middle of the night tonight hill's family is asking for privacy the video was made public on the same day the city mourns casey goodman another black man shot and killed by county law enforcement just this month what does it take to get it to stop and tonight officer coy a 19-year veteran of the force has been relieved of duty with pay we've reached out to the police union for comment but have not heard back lester all right elaine thank you we have more now on president trump facing backlash after issuing a series of eyebrow raising pardons and communications here's pete williams in the first act of clemency related to trump relatives the president pardoned charles kushner the father of trump's son-in-law jared kushner the elder kushner a millionaire real estate developer pleaded guilty in 2004 to tax evasion and making illegal campaign donations the president also pardoned paul manafort his former campaign chairman who was convicted of hiding millions of dollars in income from political consulting for the pro-russian government in ukraine the president also gave a full pardon to former campaign advisor roger stone whose sentence he earlier commuted three former republican congressman convicted of corruption gut clemency duncan hunter of california and chris collins of new york were pardoned steve stockman of texas had his prison sentence commuted and full pardons went to four former blackwater security guards convicted in the deaths of 17 people including civilians at a busy intersection in baghdad in 2007.
the white house said there were problems with the prosecution at their trial a lawyer for some of the iraqi families tweeted a photo of the youngest victim today a nine-year-old boy and said quote trump pardoned his killers white house officials say more pardons are coming before the president leaves office pete williams nbc news washington terrifying moments today when an explosion rocked a high-rise in baltimore stephanie goss now with a heart pounding rescue a high-flying drama unfolding over the streets of baltimore this morning an explosion at the baltimore gas and electric building rocked downtown partially collapsing the roof we have victims on the roof i have at least one victim down window washers were left dangling from their cables and workers inside were trapped fire crews smashed windows on the 10th and 11th floor to reach the two men holding on for their lives one rescue worker scaling the scaffolding himself to assist 21 people were rescued altogether according to the mayor nine are in critical condition at the hospital we're fortunate that right as of right now we only have a serious injury no deaths the company says construction work being done on the building's air handling and boiler system was likely to blame thankfully the offices were largely empty because of the pandemic and the upcoming holiday a much larger tragedy was avoided stephanie gausk nbc news all right let's talk now about a major winter storm sweeping the country just in time for christmas meteorologist dylan dreyer is tracking it for us dylan what can we expect lester we're going to see it all with this storm we're looking for heavy rain and gusty winds from the great lakes all the way down to the gulf coast through the day on thursday we are going to see the heavy rain start to move eastward and then eventually impact the east coast on christmas day we could see up to three to four inches of rain combined with the melting snow that could lead to significant flooding we could also see about 9 to 12 inches of lake effect snow on the backside of the storm and lester one major concern will be wind gusts up to 40 to 60 miles per hour possible thursday and friday thanks very much all of us have been impacted by the pandemic but for millions of children with special needs losing vital services has been devastating arcade snow now with america under pressure shawn and ashley garan are getting their nine-year-old max ready for the day his autism is severe [Music] he's sometimes aggressive and can't verbalize how he feels he's doing his therapies on a regular basis he's much more calm in his body it took years to find him the perfect specialized school in connecticut but after the pandemic hit it shut down he had a whole team of of people that would help him with his educational track i used to go to meetings with eight people yeah and it's like being on a baseball team and losing eight players and you're the only person left max's behavior regressed in a may survey by one advocacy group forty percent of parents said their kids hadn't received the special education supports they should i know that life has been really difficult for all of us ashley and sean joined with other parents to fight we blanketed the area with like please help us it does work social media does work eventually they convinced an investor to open a new school in their city you are awesome but ashley worries about more closures it would just be devastating the families they meet with regularly wish policymakers would see programs for kids with special needs as essential it's been a difficult year but one that's brought them closer we've grown as human beings just we figured out how far we can stretch it's way farther than we thought max shawn says has always shown them what it means to love unconditionally kate snow nbc news greenwich connecticut in just 60 seconds did you rack up new subscriptions during the pandemic you no longer want how to cancel and avoid the fees this year homebound americans subscribe to more and more memberships and services but what happens when you want to cancel may surprise you morgan chesky with the price you pay when the pandemic hit college student in a park re-evaluated her subscription services entertainment next one was for academia the third one was for fitness health lifestyle ana racked up more than six hundred dollars in unwanted fees and says canceling the services was difficult it should be as easy as clicking a couple of buttons but it's not in june those subscription services soared to 70 percent in october that number dropped to 30 percent one reason consumers decided they didn't want the services anymore in other cases faced surprise charges when free trials ended even worse the average price per subscription rose mid pandemic by almost 20 percent we all know that businesses are facing tough times and unfortunately they're passing those tough times onto consumers by making it harder to cancel their subscription some companies offer free trials but make it tough to cancel so they're relying on consumers to forget so that they can keep billing them visa and mastercard now require online merchants to notify customers before trials end to keep track of charges experts say monitor your bank account and use a mobile app that tells you when a deduction has been made morgan chesky nbc news up next charities in crisis and how to help [Music] this holiday season charities are in crisis amid the pandemic stephanie rule now on the best ways to support others this season at the hunger task force in milwaukee food distribution has doubled since last year but normal influx of holiday volunteers are forced to stay home you went from having 12 000 volunteers to 12 full-time employees yeah working like 80 hours a week and doing our best to move the food out to the programs that remained open it's a similar story for many charities with few in-person volunteers and drop-offs most charities are only accepting financial donations for those who want to give back how do you choose one of the best things to do is give to the groups that you already know if you're going giving to a new organization check them out check out their website look carefully at what they're doing in addition check to make sure the charity is registered on the website of your state attorney general look at their annual report and if you're pressured to give stay away it could be a scam if you're stretched too thin right now you can always give in the future even though the covet bill passed the government won't get that help to us for 45 or 60 more days and so that means january and february are going to be rough and remember there's a tax break if you give even if you don't itemize your taxes you can deduct up to 300 for charitable donations and if the next stimulus package goes through that will extend through next year lester all right stephanie thank you up next a holiday tradition goes virtual letters to santa are a childhood tradition this year many of those notes are being shared so others can play santa to those in need kevin tibbles reports a letter to santa from a friend she's never met i know that the weather is changing and hopefully you can help us with a warm coat and gloves thank you so much santa micaela dean is just nine years old and already a santa's helper i don't want her to feel sad especially at christmas her six-year-old kid sister paisley feels the same way so the bedgood family in florida signed on with the u.s postal service's operation santa virtual this year it connects letters from kids many who are in need to would-be santa's across the country they're not asking for an xbox or the new playstation or you know a phone they're asking for a coat the post office has been receiving santa's mail addressed to santa claus at 123 elf road the north pole of course for more than 100 years putting countless smiles on children's faces the bed goods adopted two letters this year and went shopping to make sure some wishes do come true how does it make you feel when you help someone else giving really does give you that warm feeling inside kevin tibbles nbc news santa has built quite the network hasn't he that's nightly news for this wednesday thank you for watching i'm lester holt please take care of yourself and each other hey nbc news viewers thanks for checking out our youtube channel subscribe by clicking on that button down here and click on any of the videos over here to watch the latest interviews show highlights and digital exclusives thanks for watching
2020-12-26 10:55
