NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas - Friday, August 16, 2024

Episode Date: August 17, 2024

Harris touts new economic plans in first major policy speech as Democratic nominee; Bermuda braces for Hurricane Ernesto; New details emerge about five people charged in connection to Matthew Perry's death; and more on tonight’s broadcast.

Tonight, the race for the White House. Kamala Harris in the first major policy speech of her campaign, unveiling her economic agenda. The vice president in Battleground, North Carolina, pitching her economic vision. Tax relief for middle class families, credits up to $6,000 for new parents, $25,000 in down payment help for first-time homebuyers. But how much will it all cost? The reaction from Donald Trump as he faces backlash for his new comments about veterans. Also tonight, Hurricane Ernesto gaining strength as it closes in on Bermuda. The Cat 2 storm expected to bring strong winds, life-threatening flooding, and the danger for the East Coast. New details on the depths of Friends star Matthew Perry's addiction, injecting ketamine six to eight times a day, as we learn more about the five people charged,

including a woman investigators call the Ketamine Queen. New video of Ukraine's troops breaching the Russian border, Russian soldiers waving white flags. The surprise incursion gaining more ground. But will it change the direction of this war? Extorting Elvis' family, the alleged scam to steal Graceland, the woman now under arrest. This is NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt. And good evening.

I'm Tom Yamas in for Lester. We begin on this Friday night with the race for the White House. Vice President Kamala Harris traveling to Battleground, North Carolina today. A state former President Trump won twice, but Democrats hope they can flip to blue come November. Harris taking the stage to roll out her economic agenda agenda and the first major policy speech of her nearly four-week-old campaign. The plan calling for relief for the middle class, expanding affordable housing, and a proposal to curb rising food prices. So how much will it all cost? Her Republican rival Donald Trump

saying Harris's proposals show the administration has failed on the economy as Trump faces backlash tonight for his new comments about veterans. Gabe Gutierrez starts us off from Raleigh. Tonight, Vice President Harris is rolling out her economic agenda, acknowledging most Americans are dissatisfied with the cost of living. Because look, the bills add up. For many families, there's not much left at the end of the month. But seeing her proposals will provide relief. Donald Trump fights for billionaires and large corporations. We, I will fight to give money

back to working and middle class Americans. Including an expanded child tax credit up to $6,000 for families with newborns and up to $25,000 in down payment assistance for first-time homebuyers. Crystal Harden calls that proposal a game changer for her two daughters. That is going to tremendously affect my family because two homes will be purchased right away. And tonight, Harris is also calling for a controversial proposal to fight inflation, a federal ban on what her campaign calls price gouging in the food industry. Most businesses are creating jobs, contributing to our economy, and playing by the rules. But some are not. But Harris is providing few details on her plans, which one nonpartisan group says will add $1.7 trillion to the deficit. And both Republican and Democratic economists have

argued against government price controls. Former President Trump comparing the policy to Venezuela's socialist leader, Nicolas Maduro. We call it the Maduro plan, like something straight out of Venezuela or the Soviet Union. This announcement is an admission that her economic policies have totally failed. Inflation recently dropped to 2.9 percent, but prices are up nearly 20 percent compared to four years ago. This is how the sausage is made. Fred Von Cannon blames Biden and Harris, telling us inflation has doubled the price of brisket at his barbecue restaurant here. Our food costs here are incredibly high. The everyday things that people feel are still, you know, way high.

Well, tonight, the Harris campaign is blasting the former president for suggesting the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which honors civilians, is better than the Congressional Medal of Honor, which is given to service members. It's actually much better because everyone gets the Congressional Medal of Honor. That's soldiers. They're either in very bad shape because they've been hit so many times by bullets or they're dead. All right, Gabe, let's pick up right there on Trump's comments, his running mate now coming to his defense. Yeah, Tom, Senator J.D. Vance, a veteran himself, says Trump was only praising the person who was receiving the Medal of Freedom and not denigrating anyone. The Harris campaign, meanwhile, says it was an insult to Medal of Honor recipients. Tom.

All right, Gabe Gutierrez leading us off tonight. Gabe, we thank you for that. And join myself, Lester, and the team starting Monday for convention coverage live from Chicago that starts at 4 p.m. Eastern on News Now and 10 p.m. on NBC. Now to Hurricane Ernesto strengthening into a powerful Category 2 storm as it closes in on Bermuda and brings dangerous rip currents to beaches up and down the East Coast this weekend. Guad Vanegas is in the storm zone for us tonight. And, Guad, what are officials and residents most concerned about there?

Tom, officials have warned this is expected to be a long-lasting rain and wind event with deadly force. The concern is that some people might not be taking this as serious as they should while taking the necessary precautions. Bermuda bracing for impact. The small island territory in the middle of the Atlantic. Shutting down businesses and its airport tonight as Hurricane Ernesto, now a Category 2 storm, approaches. Government officials warning residents and tourists. This is not a storm to be taken lightly.

We are about to endure at least 36 hours of hurricane and tropical storm force winds. Cruise ships escaping the island before the storm and airlines running final flights before a shutdown. Larry and Barbara Gordon from Philadelphia are on what could be the last flight out tonight. So we're lucky that we're getting out of town before all the hell breaks loose, I guess. Others with no choice but to ride it out. What else have you done today to prepare for the storm? Boat up windows, relatives' houses. Back in the U.S., Ernesto likely to trigger life-threatening rip currents along the East Coast. Officials reminding beachgoers not to fight the current and swim parallel to shore, hoping for the best possible outcome as Ernesto heads toward Bermuda. Guadalcanagos, NBC News, Southampton, Bermuda. All right, back here at home, we're learning much

more tonight about the five people charged in the overdose death of Friends star Matthew Perry. And we're also getting new details about the depths of his addiction. Here's Chloe Malas. Friendstar Matthew Perry had an out-of-control ketamine addiction, according to federal prosecutors, injecting the drug six to eight times a day in the week before his accidental overdose. This says new details emerge on the five people charged in connection with his death. They saw him as a payday and they saw it as an opportunity for them to make a lot of money.

Including Dr. Salvador Plasencia, who prosecutors say told a patient Perry was too far gone and spiraling in his addiction. But they say still sold the star ketamine through Perry's live-in assistant, Kenneth Iwamasa. Iwamasa has pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute ketamine, causing a death. Ketamine is a drug used in general anesthesia and prescribed in low doses as treatment for depression. It's also used as a well-known party drug. Iwamasa says he injected Perry the day he died, at 8.30 a.m. and again at 12.45 p.m. Just 40 minutes later, the document says Perry told the defendant, shoot me up with a big one, referring to another shot of ketamine.

Iwamasa later found Perry unresponsive, face down in the pool, according to investigators. Dr. Placencia charged Perry at least $55,000 for vials of ketamine in the month before he died, according to prosecutors. Court documents allege Placencia, who pleaded not guilty, taught Perry's assistant how to administer the drug to the actor. Placencia's attorney denies the claim. He wasn't giving extra doses for a layman to administer. The so-called ketamine queen Jasveen Sangha was also supplier of ketamine to Perry and an alleged drug trafficker for many others, according to prosecutors. Matthew Perry's death was last fall. And then we did a search warrant earlier this year, and she was still running a drug emporium. All right, Chloe, on that so-called ketamine queen,

she has other cases it found guilty. She's facing some serious time behind bars. Has she entered a plea? Tom, she's pleaded not guilty to the most recent charges related to Perry's death, as well as multiple federal counts of other drug-related charges. Now, tonight, she's being held without bail. If found guilty, faces decades behind bars. Tom. All right, Chloe Malas with that new reporting tonight. Chloe, we thank you.

We want to turn overseas now to Ukraine's surprise incursion into Russia, gaining new ground as Moscow's military struggles to respond. Our Erin McLaughlin reporting tonight from Ukraine. Tonight, new video shows the moment Ukrainian soldiers crossed the Russian border. In the video released by the Ukrainian military, you see the Russian border checkpoint in ruins. Russian soldiers waving white flags. Another video shows a Ukrainian soldier driving through the bombed out Russian countryside unchallenged, then celebrating

driving back a Russian tank. It's the largest attack on Russia since World War II. The goal to draw Russian forces away from Ukraine's Donbass region, where the Ukrainians have been steadily losing their own ground. A key advisor to President Zelensky telling NBC News he believes Russia will start redeploying their troops step by step, but on the front lines inside Ukraine. This Ukrainian drone operator, who asked we withhold his identity for security reasons, tells us that while the incursion into Russia has improved Ukrainian morale, all soldiers see that we can do something. There's no sign of a Russian redeployment. Ukrainian forces are still outmanned and outgunned, and Russia has constant reinforcements. So they're just throwing men at the situation? No, like Soviet Union in the Second World War.

Ukrainian military officials say the front line back here in Ukraine remains a concern and a top priority. Tom. Aaron McLaughlin for us tonight. Aaron, we thank you to our southern border tonight. News just in that illegal crossings are dropping to a nearly four year low after President Biden's executive action tightened asylum rules. It's left Texas with fewer migrants to send out of the state through its busing program. Julia Ainsley reports. Tonight, a stark contrast at the southern border, where streets once filled with hundreds of migrants are nearly empty

as illegal border crossings have plummeted. Now, fewer than 2,000 migrants are crossing the border illegally per day, down from 4,000 in May and a staggering 8,000 daily border patrol apprehensions in December. We traveled to El Paso, where we spoke with the mayor about the change the city is seeing. We've seen the numbers go way down back in November, December of 2022, where we had 2,000, 2,500 every day. Now we're averaging under 400. The sharpest decline he noticed was this June. This action will help us gain control of our border.

When President Biden announced new asylum restrictions. For Texas Governor Greg Abbott, the decline means fewer migrants to fill buses he has been promising to keep sending to blue cities like Chicago, New York and Denver. Those buses will continue to roll until we finally secure our border. Despite that promise just last month, we've learned that because that flow of migrants is drying up, Governor Abbott has been having a hard time filling those buses. He wants it daily from right here to those blue cities. We spoke with city officials from six cities who at one point were receiving thousands of migrants from Abbott's buses.

They tell NBC News they haven't received a bus in weeks. In New York, they told us they've got no buses from Texas since June. For Philadelphia and Washington, D.C., it's been even longer. No Abbott buses since December. The Biden administration says that drop is a direct result of the executive action. Immigration experts also point to increased arrest made in Mexico, which NBC News was first to report. We got rare access to immigration data showing arrest on the Mexican side have gone up threefold over the last year. Hot summer weather is also a factor, making the trek a potentially deadly one. We met Ruben Garcia, who runs El Paso's largest migrant shelter network. What we're hearing a lot now on the campaign trails about how the border is open, it's chaotic, it's not secure. Is that true? Is

this chaos down here? No, that's categorically not true. In fact, the numbers are very, very low. At Ruben's shelter, we met Yosani, who told us she crossed the day after Biden's asylum restrictions went into effect. Her husband was sent back to Mexico, but she and her son were allowed to stay here, she tells us. What is your dream for you and your son? Well, my dream would be... She says her dream is to be reunited with her husband and to keep her son in school in the U.S. Governor Abbott's office says Texas has seen an 85 percent decrease in

illegal border crossings, which they attribute to Texas policies. And they said until the Biden Harris administration secures the border, they'll continue busing migrants. Tom. All right, Julia Ainsley on the border tonight for us. Julia, thank you. When we come back, the alleged plot to steal Graceland from Elvis's family, what the woman charged told us when we asked her for answers. We are back now with the new charges filed today over an alleged scheme to steal Graceland and extort Elvis Presley's family. Emily Akeda has this one. Exactly 47 years since the king of rock and roll died in Memphis. After a private service at his home, a funeral procession led by 17 white limousines.

Today, authorities arresting a Missouri woman accused of trying to shake down Elvis Presley's family of millions of dollars and hold a fraudulent sale of Graceland, his nearly 14-acre estate, and now national treasure. As part of the alleged elaborate and brazen scheme, federal officials say 53-year-old

Lisa Janine Finley forged signatures of Elvis Presley's daughter and a notary, filed a fake creditor's claim and deed of trust, and even advertised an imminent auction of Graceland in the local paper in May, falsely claiming that Elvis Presley's daughter, Lisa Marie, had pledged the historic landmark as collateral for a loan that she failed to repay before her death. Priscilla Presley posting at the time, it's a scam. Years ago, she reflected on what Graceland meant to her ex-husband. Behind the gates, this is where he felt comfortable. Behind the gates, he could just be who he was. According to the criminal complaint, Finley operated under a slew of aliases, including executives for the fictional company, Nosony Investments. When the

plot was clearly unraveling and a judge halted the foreclosure sale, a so-called Greg Nosony told NBC News that he was part of a ring of Nigerian identity thieves, emailing in Spanish, we sit back and laugh at you idiots. But the Department of Justice alleging today the whole time it was Finley. NBC News went to her Missouri home back in June. When confronted about Graceland, she said, I have no earthly idea what you're talking about. Finley faces mail fraud and aggravated identity theft charges, which could carry two decades in prison time. Her attorney did not respond to our requests for comment. Tom.

Okay, Emily, thank you. Still ahead tonight, a judge benched after he put a teen in handcuffs while visiting court on a field trip. The outrage and what her mom said they'll do next. Stay with us. We're back now with a shocking story a detroit judge benched after placing a 15 year old girl in handcuffs on a field trip maura barrett has the details why are you being disrespectful to this court what was supposed to be a field trip to a detroit courtroom tuesday ended up traumatizing

a michigan teen according to her mother you sleep at home in your bed, not in court. Quite frankly, I don't like your attitude. District Court Judge Kenneth King admonishing 15-year-old Eva Goodman after she fell asleep in his courtroom. He then forced her into handcuffs and a prison jumpsuit. Eva's mother outraged and tonight planning to press charges. Yeah, she was having trouble sleeping, eating. A live stream of that court hearing was

recorded and then broadcast by local news outlets. You're old enough to know better. What is your problem? Tired because Eva and her mom don't have a permanent address and say they got in late the night before the field trip organized by a non-profit summer program. She's still having like problems with understanding like why would he do that to her. The judge who says he's since received violent threats removed from his criminal case docket as he undergoes quote necessary training according to the court's chief judge. Wayne State University also tells NBC News he's been removed from teaching classes there. Judge King declined to comment to NBC News, but told local media his reaction was because of Eva's attitude and told the Associated Press, I wanted this to look and feel very real to her.

She didn't disrespect the court or your honor in the courtroom. Following the sleep is not a crime. Maura Barrett, NBC News. All right, that's nightly news for this Friday. Thank you so much for watching. I'm Tom Yamas. For all of us here at NBC News, have a great night and a great weekend.