NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas - Friday, December 13, 2024

Episode Date: December 14, 2024

Wave of new mystery drone sightings in several states as officials call for answers; New details of how authorities found CEO murder suspect; Fellow prisoner reported seeing American Austin Tice in Syria; and more on tonight’s broadcast.

Tonight, the search for answers about those mystery drones intensifying as the sightings spread to more states. The growing alarm after nearly 80 reported sightings overnight in New Jersey alone. And now the mystery objects spotted in several other states in the Northeast. Maryland's former governor saying dozens flew over his own home. Where are they coming from and who's controlling them? President-elect Trump now demanding answers saying let the public know or shoot them down. Also tonight, the new timeline in the CEO murder investigation, the tip the FBI got before the suspect's arrest from a police officer on the other side of the country,

and why police believe he may have targeted United Healthcare's CEO even though he wasn't insured by the company. The new lead in the search for an American missing in Syria, the witness who says he saw Austin Tice alive, and the new photo, what Tice may look like now. This is NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt. Good evening and welcome. Official reassurances to the public have only increased the calls for hard answers about unexplained nightly sightings in the skies over New Jersey and now several other states.

And now dozens of new reports coming in overnight, including some from high-profile figures. While widely presumed to be drones, the mysterious craft have so far displayed No malicious intent and their presence hasn't seen to be generating the level of alarm in Washington many think is warranted But that is changing lawmakers feeling the heat from worried constituents are becoming increasingly vocal in demanding answers About what they are saying and who is controlling the objects and now tonight even president-elect Trump is weighing in saying the public has the right to know what's going on they are seeing and who is controlling the objects. And now tonight, even President-elect Trump is weighing in, saying the public has the right to know what's going on. Our Aaron McLaughlin has the latest. First drone of the night, just getting home from work.

Tonight is the mysterious sighting spread from Maryland to New York, New Jersey. I've never seen anything like it. And beyond. So, too, do calls from local and state officials for answers and accountability. No state can become the Wild West of drone activity. And now high-profile officials are among those reporting sightings. Last night, former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan says he captured this video appearing to show dozens of large drones hovering over his home. The same evening, U.S. Senator Andy Kim says he saw this

over a reservoir while out drone hunting with local police. Some appear to hover or at least seem to be in position. That's citing among the 79 reports overnight in New Jersey, according to a senior official, with reports every evening since November 18th, except for Thanksgiving. The state's governor firing off a letter to the president demanding answers, saying that existing laws limit the ability of authorities to counter this activity. We don't know who's flying them or what information they're collecting. While in Mendham, New Jersey, the mayor is taking action, setting up a task force to track the activity.

So this started in November. Is it possible that people just started looking up in November? I think it's possible. I spoke to the sheriff. He told me drones have been around for a while, but not to this degree. The Naval Weapons Station, Earl, also confirming several instances of unidentified drones entering the airspace above the facility. The FBI should be standing at a podium of the Department of Homeland Security and briefing the public. Tonight, the FAA responding for the first time on camera to the drone sightings, reminding the public of the rules. It's okay to fly them in most areas as long as you stay below 400 feet. And if you're flying at night, the drone must have certain lighting. With anxiety spreading online.

I'm freaking out over here. Officials acknowledge there are still many more questions than answers. All right. Well, Erin, you are in New Jersey. You've seen a number of aircraft tonight. That's right, Lester. In the last half hour, we've seen a number of what appear to be drones all flying erratically with flashing lights.

Lester. All right, Erin McLaughlin, thank you. There are new details emerging tonight about a tip called into investigators as they search for a suspect in the killing of the UnitedHealthcare CEO. Stephanie Gosk reports that tip coming from police thousands of miles away. Police say Luigi Mangione was on the run for five days after allegedly murdering UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson. The NYPD saying they didn't ID him until after his arrest. But tonight, two senior officials tell NBC News someone did think they recognized the face in that now infamous photo from a Manhattan hostel. A police officer in San Francisco made the

connection to a missing person report filed by Mangione's mother in November and notified the FBI. It was one of hundreds of tips the NYPD says it received in the days following the murder, but it did not stand out to investigators because of its general nature, according to the officials. In the report, Mangione's mother said she last spoke to him on July 1st. On October 1st, a former classmate tells NBC News Mangione's cousin reached out to his high school classmates, mentioning he'd been missing for months and had suffered a back injury. Mangione is now locked up in a maximum custody Pennsylvania prison, while the NYPD says investigators are still trying to determine a possible motive. UnitedHealthcare says the 26-year-old was not covered by its health plan,

but written pages found on Mangione mention the company by name, according to the NYPD. He does make mention that it is the fifth largest corporation in America, which would make it the largest healthcare organization in America, so that's possibly why he targeted that company. Suggesting the murder was more ideological than personal. The shooting unleashed a torrent of criticism aimed at the health insurance industry, with concerns that it could turn into copycat violence. In Florida, a woman was charged with threatening her health insurance company after she told an employee, delay, deny, depose,

you people are next, echoing the words law enforcement officials say were written on the shell casings at the murder scene. She's pleaded not guilty. Wendell Potter is a former health insurance executive who left the business disenchanted. He now advocates for reforming the $1.4 trillion industry. The anger is not new. I saw it when I was in the industry. I think this was some kind of a catalyzing event that made people want to respond in some way and vent their anger. In an op-ed today, the CEO of United Group, the parent company of United Healthcare, says his colleagues provide critical health services and are being barraged with threats,

but also acknowledges the health system does not work as well as it should, adding, our mission is to help make it work better. A new detail we are just learning from two sources familiar with the matter, that after the FBI received that tip from San Francisco police, a member of law enforcement reached out to Mangione's mother Sunday night, the night before the arrest, and she said the suspect could be him. Lester? Stephanie Goskin, New York. Thank you. Let's get to the search in Syria for missing American Austin Tice and new information about a reported sighting of the journalist two years

ago. It comes amid new celebrations of the end of the Assad regime. Here's Richard Engel. After Friday prayers, public celebrations for the toppling of Bashar al-Assad's dictatorship. But so many here are also still searching for those who disappeared under Assad. This woman showing a photo of her brother missing for 14 years. I don't know what he looks like, even if I find him, she said. American journalist Austin Tice has been missing in Syria since 2012. But tonight, a lead. We spoke to Saher Al-Ahmad, now in Dubai.

He told us he was in a prison cell across from Tice and last saw him alive in July 2022. I saw him twice. On one occasion, I stole a glance while he was walking and exercising, he said. Ahmad told us he and Tice were held at Assad's General Intelligence Prison, and he gave us a detailed description of the layout Ahmad said he memorized the location here and he said you had to descend 27 steps to get to the right area 26 and 27 it all checks. He said the stairs would lead to a row of cells 100 yards long. This is the tiny, exactly, solitary confinement cell where Ahmed was kept with a tiny slot in the bottom. And just opposite, this is the cell where Tice was kept.

We showed pictures to Ahmed, who confirmed we're in the right place. The men in these cells had time. They made art, some of it exquisite, passageways to a world out of reach. Ahmad said this wing mostly housed foreigners. They turned one wall into a blackboard. Donkey, homar, monkey, card. So someone was learning and teaching English and Arabic. Tice has been missing for so long. Tonight, the FBI put out a photo of what he might look like today at 43. The rebels who are now in power here tell me

they are looking for Tice, and today they handed over another American who'd been held by the Assad regime, Travis Timmerman, to U.S. forces. Lester. All right, Richard Engel, thanks. Also tonight, there is renewed hope for a ceasefire and hostage release deal in Gaza. Andrea Mitchell has our new reporting. Andrea, this could happen in the coming weeks or even days. ANDREA MITCHELL, The Washington Post-Columbian Journalist, Exactly, Lester. U.S. and Israeli officials say there is growing optimism about a deal because Hamas has agreed to big concessions.

A senior Biden official says a big factor was President-elect Trump's warning that Hamas will have hell to pay if they don't release hostages before he takes office. The biggest factor, Hamas backers Iran and Hezbollah have weakened by Israel, and Assad's regime has collapsed. U.S. and Israeli officials tell us Hamas has now agreed Israeli forces can remain temporarily in parts of Gaza. They will release some hostages and account for those remaining. But there are still differences to be resolved.

They have been close to a deal before and had it fall apart. Lester. Major development. All right, Andrea, thank you. With less than 40 days until the inauguration, President-elect Trump is increasingly being courted by big tech and not just Elon Musk. Gabe Gutierrez now on what's behind it. He often used to tussle with tech titans,

but tonight President-elect Trump is basking in their support. Mark Zuckerberg's been over to see me, and I can tell you Elon is another, and Jeff Bezos is coming up next week, and I want to get ideas from them. Mark Zuckerberg's Meta, Jeff Bezos' Amazon, and now Sam Altman, who runs OpenAI, are planning to donate a million dollars each to Trump's inaugural fund. Zuckerberg recently had dinner at Mar-a-Lago, even though earlier this year Trump publicly threatened him with life in prison if he did anything Trump viewed as illegal during the presidential campaign. Since then, their icy relationship has apparently thawed, especially after Trump survived his first assassination attempt. He called me after the event and he said that was really amazing, he was very brave.

Bezos, meanwhile, is touting Trump's promise to reduce regulation. I'm actually very optimistic this time around. He seems to have a lot of energy around reducing regulation. And billionaire Elon Musk has been by Trump's side virtually nonstop since the election. Musk owns X, formerly known as Twitter, as well as SpaceX, so he's a direct competitor of both Zuckerberg's Meta and Bezos' Blue Origin. Trump joking about his new dinner meetings with business leaders. But I say jokingly, would you have been here at dinner if I lost?

And the answer was probably not. Look, I'm getting called by everybody. It's very interesting. For tech companies, the next four years will be crucial. The Trump administration will be weighing policies on artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency and antitrust enforcement. Lester, when we come back in a moment, why millions of children have been cut off from their health care insurance, in some cases over paperwork. What families need to know after this. A major product safety alert to tell you about.

Stanley announcing a recall on more than 2 million of its popular steel mugs because the lids may detach and pose a burn risk. The recall involves switchback and trigger action mugs sold since 2016. Well, turnout to a crisis facing so many Americans, millions, including children, losing their insurance amid one of the biggest shakeups in Medicaid's history. As Jesse Kirsch reports, many families blame paperwork errors, but they can take months to fix. At first glance, Isabella Quintana looks like so many toddlers. But what you can't see are her health challenges. What's it like to have a 16-month-old daughter with no health insurance coverage and a heart murmur? It's a lot of things all the time, you know, and it's hard for us because we're like always thinking when she's going to get sick, you know. Her father, Gorman, says Isabella should be covered by Medicaid,

the government program ensuring low-income and disabled Americans. But over the summer, she lost coverage, even while her brother kept his, due to what her parents believe is a paperwork issue. They say since then, a bronchitis follow-up appointment cost around $1,100 out of pocket, a big chunk of the roughly $35,000 the Colorado family makes a year, which is why another time the family tried to wait out a fever, hoping Isabella got better at home. She's far from alone. After the COVID public health emergency, the federal government required states to re-evaluate every Medicaid recipient's eligibility.

The process, called unwinding, caused more than 25 million people to lose Medicaid coverage, the majority for procedural reasons. As of August, more than 5 million fewer children were enrolled. And overall, it's not clear how many Americans who lost coverage were actually still eligible. So in August, you started trying to get it restored. And here we are in December. Yeah, nothing. The exodus created a paperwork backlog. And while unwinding largely ended in the spring, kids like Isabella appear to still be facing the consequences. It shouldn't take four months for that connect to happen. It shouldn't. And if that happens, there's something

wrong. Something has fallen through the cracks. Kim Bimsteffer oversees Medicaid in Colorado, where unwinding sent safety net enrollment plummeting more than 30 percent. Over 550,000 people lost health insurance through the state's safety net programs, nearly 150,000 of them children. Some individuals will fall through the cracks, and we are working really hard and have been working really hard to find them and get them reconnected. A third of Coloradans who lost Medicaid got their coverage restored, but Bimsteffer says the state's uninsured rate has gone up. That's a problem. People are not finding private health insurance. Yes, it is an absolute problem. Every American should have health insurance, right? Bimsteffer says the state created a new way to escalate reviews and is expanding automation to make a dent in the backlog. But change is not coming fast enough. Every Child Pediatrics says the number of its uninsured patients is climbing,

and even short gaps in coverage can be devastating, especially for children. A lot of them are not getting their preventative care, their immunizations. They're falling behind on things like developmental screenings. We could miss an opportunity to intervene early and get kids speech therapy, occupational therapy, what they need to help achieve those milestones. And it really does change their developmental trajectory longer term. So it's a huge deal. A huge deal for kids like Isabella, whose futures hang in the balance. It's tough because you want them to be healthy right away, you know. You don't want to wait until something else happens.

Jesse Kirsch, NBC News, Denver. That's nightly news for this Friday. Thank you for watching, everyone. I'm Lester Holt. Please take care of yourself and each other. Good night.