NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas - Monday, October 14, 2024

Episode Date: October 15, 2024

Trump, Harris in critical Pennsylvania as NBC News poll find the race even; Exclusive: Two men shot and wounded at Trump rally speak out about the attack; New violence and bloodshed in Middle East; and more on tonight’s broadcast.

Tonight, all eyes on a critical battleground in the race for the White House as our latest polling shows a dead heat. Just 22 days until the election, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump holding events in Pennsylvania. The vice president reaching out to black voters and her campaign seizing on remarks from the former president about using the military to go after the, quote, enemy within. Harris calling in big names like Bill Clinton, when he told us about his own concerns about a, quote, honest count. Also tonight, new images of the devastation from Hurricane Milton. The barrier island in Florida totally transformed by surge and sand. Plus, the North Carolina man under arrest accused of threatening FEMA workers responding to Hurricane Helene. Hezbollah launching its deadliest attack on Israeli soil since the escalation last month.

The powerful American defense system on its way tonight. Our NBC News exclusive, the two men who were shot and survived at Donald Trump's rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, speaking out for the first time. The new video of the men being struck and the anger they feel at the Secret Service. New lawsuits against Sean Diddy Combs, including one with an alleged teen victim. And the historic launch the mystery NASA hopes to solve

on Jupiter's icy moon. This is NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt. Good evening and welcome. We begin with a state of the race for president. 22 days to go now and with the polls about as close as they could possibly be, both Donald Trump and Kamala Harris are barnstorming across battleground states with greater urgency. The latest NBC News national poll conducted in early October shows the race is a dead heat among registered voters, showing former President Donald Trump now pulling even with Vice President Harris, erasing the advantage she had in our last poll. On the campaign trail, the numbers translating to a hyper focus on the places and voters that

will likely decide the outcome, bringing both Harris and Trump back to battleground Pennsylvania again today. While Vice President Harris has seen her popularity slip, our poll also shows a pronounced gender gap in support for the two candidates, with abortion as the top motivating factor when casting a ballot. Let's start tonight with Gabe Gutierrez. Tonight, with just 22 days to go, both candidates on a battleground blitz. Former President Trump going after Vice President Harris on immigration. When I win on November 5th, the migrant invasion ends and the restoration of our country begins. Harris hammering Trump for not agreeing to another debate. HARI SREENIVASAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT, CNN CORRESPONDENT, CNN CORRESPONDENT, CNN CORRESPONDENT, HARI SREENIVASAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT, CNN CORRESPONDENT, HARI SREENIVASAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT, HARI SREENIVASAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT, HARI SREENIVASAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT, HARI SREENIVASAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT,

HARI SREENIVASAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT, HARI SREENIVASAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT, HARI SREENIVASAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT, HARI SREENIVASAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT, HARI SREENIVASAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT, HARI SREENIVASAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT, HARI SREENIVASAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT, HARI SREENIVASAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT,

HARI SREENIVASAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT, HARI SREENIVASAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT, HARI SREENIVASAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT, HARI SREENIVASAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT, HARI SREENIVASAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT, HARI SREENIVASAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT, I think the bigger problem are the people from within. We have some sick people, radical left lunatics. And I think they're the big, and it should be very easily handled by, if necessary, by national guard or if really necessary, by the military,

because they can't let that happen. Today, Tim Walz firing back. Donald Trump over the weekend was talking about using the U.S. Army against people who disagree with him. While J.D. Vance defended his running mate late today. If you have a major reaction to an election in 2024, of course you ought to commit law enforcement resources to bring order back to our cities. It all comes as our new NBC News poll shows Trump gaining momentum,

erasing Harris's five-point lead from a month ago. The race now a dead heat within the margin of error. And asked about the Trump administration's policies, more Americans said those policies helped them, while more Americans described the policies of the Biden-Harris administration as hurting them. If we show up, we'll win. The Harris campaign now calling in reinforcements. Former President Clinton. What do you think this election comes down to? Who wants it bad enough, and whether we can get a you know, an honest open account.

Days after former President Obama warned Harris lacked enthusiasm among some black men, the Harris campaign is rolling out new proposals including loans for black entrepreneurs and money for training programs. I think that Kamala Harris has re-energized our party. I think that she has provided us with a sense of hope that we have not seen since the Obama days. But Trump supporters say that's not enough.

Because everything's just so much to live, and barely anybody can afford it nowadays. And Gabe, explain this new showdown we're watching over medical records. Yes, Lester, Harris is slamming Trump for refusing to reveal his medical records after she released a letter from her White House doctor who said she's an excellent help. Trump's team says it did release a letter from his doctor last year, although it wasn't as detailed. Lester? All right, Gabe Gutierrez, thanks.

In Florida, the destructive power of Hurricanes Milton and Helene coming into sharper focus tonight. The landscape changed in parts of the Gulf Coast. Stephanie Goss saw the damage by land and sea. Tonight, the barrier islands on Florida's west coast are digging out. Nobody ever expects this. Minnesota Key was slammed by the brunt of Milton's wind and surge. Very challenging times for sure. Fire Lieutenant Chad Wynn gave us a boat tour of the worst of it.

It's something we'll never get back. It's crazy part of history is truly gone. While the manatees swim unfazed, the key is likely changed forever. The land connected before the hurricane, but when the storm came in, it was so strong it blew a hole through the island.

Further down the coast, houses are decimated. That seawall is there to protect the houses, but Hurricane Milton was so strong that it actually picked up those huge boulders and hurled them into homes, some cases in their living rooms. In other areas, water still submerges roads and homes. Floodwaters rising days after Milton hit in towns far from the coast. After touring the damage Sunday, President Biden promised $600 million in federal funds to support the recovery. There's a hot tub that you can't see.

There's a buried hot tub up there. Jay Hager and his wife own timeshares at the Sea Oats Beach Club in Minnesota Key, utterly transformed by the surge and the sand. You help your friends out, we help our neighbors out, and then we come in and start working on our stuff. It will take the will of Floridians like themselves to rebuild. You go stand up on that tiki hut and you look out and you see that gorgeous aqua water. You're like, that's why we're here. That's just that view. It's priceless. That is sand cleared from the streets, first from Hurricane Helene and then from Hurricane Milton. It is a monument to the strength of those two storms. Lester?

Hard to imagine. All right, Stephanie, thank you. And there was word tonight of an arrest after authorities say an armed man threatened FEMA workers responding to Hurricane Helene in western North Carolina. 44-year-old William Parsons was taken into custody and released on a $10,000 bond. Amid reports of threats, FEMA said it made some operational changes in the area. In the Middle East, the U.S. now sending Israel an advanced anti-missile system and soldiers to run it as the violence escalates in the region. Here's Matt Bradley. Tonight, the U.S. set to send a powerful anti-missile defense system to Israel.

The THAAD missile battery plus about 100 American troops to operate it, after that massive Iranian ballistic missile attack against Israel earlier this month. Israel tonight is still weighing how and when to retaliate against Iran. Why did you decide to give the permission for the THAAD to be deployed in Israel? To defend Israel. NICK SCHIFRIN, Former U.S. Secretary of State for Defense, Iran, hours ago, Iran-backed Hezbollah fired more rockets into Northern Israel after Hezbollah drones evaded air defenses, striking an Israeli air base, killing four soldiers in a dining hall.

Israeli airstrikes today hitting a Christian region of Lebanon for the first time since Israel began targeting Hezbollah, killing 18 people, according to the Lebanese Red Cross. Meanwhile, in Gaza, officials say three Israeli airstrikes killed dozens, including at a hospital, which Israel also says housed Hamas, sending a tent shelter for displaced people up in flames. And this funeral for a toddler and his mother killed in a strike on a school, the IDF hasn't commented. This man, who lost both his grandson and daughter, saying a year and one month old.

I mean, what is his fault? Gaza is finished. JOHN YANG, Now, the U.S. Embassy here in Lebanon is once again strongly encouraging Americans to depart now. Lester. LESTER BROWNE, Matt Bradley, thank you. Perhaps no one symbolized the plight of the hostages and their families in Gaza more than Hirsch Goldberg Poland.

Tonight, his parents are speaking out for the first time since his brutal death. To our Erin McLaughlin. He was really a lovely, gentle person. He really believed that peace would be very hard, but that it could be possible. My name is Hirsch Goldberg Poland. The day 23-year-old Hirsch Goldberg-Poland was executed by Hamas, along with five of the other hostages. His parents, Rachel and John, were at the Gaza border. Stay strong. Survive. Hirsch was found on his knees, frozen on his knees with his back against the wall. He had put up his hands.

You know, he only had one hand. He put up his arms to protect himself. The gunshot, one of them was so, you know, right on his hand, went through his hand into his neck, and came out the side of his head. Hirsch was just shy of six feet. He weighed 115 pounds, 53 kilo, when we buried him. I think that it's really critical that the world knows that that is how these hostages are being held. Rachel and John say the month before Hirsch was killed, they'd had reason to hope there'd be a deal to stop the bloodshed in Gaza and to release the hostages.

So many of our leaders in the military and intelligence community in Israel were saying, this is a moment, we should do this deal. We subsequently did see a list, and Hirsch was on that list. How do you make sense of that deal being so close, and then weeks later, Hirsch being killed? It's one of the many things that we don't make sense of yet. I don't know that we ever will. Do you know what happened to the men who killed Hirsch? They do know that the IDF did kill two of them.

I have no interest in the people who killed him. I really don't. The footage of Hirsch, his arm blown off, being taken to Gaza, now a haunting symbol of the suffering of October 7th. Hirsch and all the hostages, and by extension, all the hostage families, were pawns in a game. And pawns in chess are expendable. Hirsch was our universe, and I acknowledge that he's not everyone's universe.

But it was very clear that he was expendable to everyone but us. Erin McLaughlin, NBC News, Jerusalem. We'll take a short break here when we return in 60 seconds. A new lawsuit against Sean Combs on allegations of sexual assault and rape. And for the first time, hear from the two men seriously wounded in the attempt on former President Trump's life, what they say about their injuries and security that violent day. Three months after they were wounded in the assassination attempt on Donald Trump at his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, the two men who survived are speaking out about the horror they

went through and the anger they still feel. They spoke exclusively to Tom Yamas. I was more mad about it than anything. I mean, I was in the service, went through a war, didn't even get a scratch, and then you go to a rally and you get shot in the crowd. What were you mad about? The security, the fact they tried to shoot the president, shot into a defenseless crowd. Pennsylvania residents David Dutch and Jim Copenhaver didn't know each other until they became linked by tragedy.

They each were hit with bullets aimed at former President Trump during that assassination attempt in Butler. Jim, when did you realize something was wrong? When I saw part of my sleeve go away, and I heard... during that assassination attempt in Butler. Jim, when did you realize something was wrong? When I saw part of my sleeve go away, and I heard, I mean, I heard it distinctly. And I turned around to my friend and I said, I think I was shot. Copenhaver, who is 74, now walks with a cane.

He was shot twice. One bullet tore into his tricep, a scar he could show us. But the other bullet is still lodged in his body, taking chunks of his colon and leaving him with nerve damage. It feels like somebody's taking a cigarette and burning right in my leg. GEOFF BENNETT, Author, The American Flag T- The American flag t-shirt. The bullet that hit Dutch split his liver. It was like getting hit with a sledgehammer right in the chest. I could feel my ribs were all busted up. So I was kind of just holding, holding it. You could feel your ribs?

Oh yeah. Pennsylvania's governor says firefighter Corey Compantore was shot and killed while trying to protect his family at the rally. Congress and the Secret Service are now investigating. The head of the Secret Service resigned. The agency has called Butler a failure, acknowledging communication breakdowns. Did the Secret Service fail former President Trump and fail you that day? Oh, yes. Big, big time.

It was a rush job, you know. It was put together too quickly, and they skipped steps. The FBI says there was a second attempt on former President Trump's life, which the Secret Service was able to stop. And just this weekend, a man in California was arrested, allegedly for having weapons and ammo in his car as he tried entering a Trump rally. That man has said he actually supports Trump and denies he was trying to assassinate him. Lester. Okay, Tom Yamas, thank you. Here in New York, new allegations of sexual assault and rape against music mogul Sean Combs filed in lawsuits

first reported by NBC News. Chloe Malas has late details. Tonight, Sean Diddy Combs facing a new wave of civil suits accusing him of rape and sexual assault. The six suits first obtained by NBC News were filed in New York on behalf of four men and two women, all of whom are remaining anonymous out of fear, according to the suits. The accusations date as far back as 1995 and as recently as 2021. One of the lawsuits include an allegation of assault and rape of a woman in a Manhattan hotel room when she was just 19 years old. One of the male accusers claims he was just 16 years old when he was sexually assaulted by Combs. Another alleging he was drugged and raped by Combs in a van at one of Combs' famous white parties in the Hamptons.

While a third male accuser claims that in 2021 at a party hosted by Combs he was raped by three men, including Combs. According to the lawsuits, there's an overarching theme here as you probably can see, which is basically Sean Combs feels like he can do whatever he wants.

The latest string of suits are the first from Texas attorney Tony Busby, who claims Diddy won't be the only celebrity named in future lawsuits. Certainly there will be people named in these suits that will raise some eyebrows. Last week, a federal judge set Combs' criminal trial date for May 5th to face sex trafficking and racketeering charges. Combs has pleaded not guilty to those charges and has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing as his attorneys continue to push for his release as he awaits trial. Lester?

Chloe Millas, thank you. We'll take a break here. Coming up, the epic mission to one of Jupiter's moons. Is there life out there? Next. The world's top scientists have their eyes on the Europa Clipper. The uncrewed spaceship is on its way to a corner of the solar system that could hold life. Here's Tom Costello.

Ignition. And lift off. Lift off. Falcon Heavy with Europa Clipper. Blasting off on a 1.8 billion mile journey, NASA's mission to answer a question as old as humanity itself. Falcon Heavy is supersonic. Are we alone? It will take nearly six years to reach Europa, one of Jupiter's 95 moons. Discovered by Galileo 400 years ago, it looks like an ice-covered rock. But scientists believe there could be a massive ocean under that ice, holding twice as much water as here on Earth. In terms of an ice-covered ocean, perhaps, that could be miles and miles deep. And if it's anything like Earth, where there's water... We believe that Europa has the conditions that are suitable for life,

the water, the energy, the chemistry, the stability. Arriving in 2030, Clipper will make 49 orbital flybys of Europa, using nine science experiments to search for the basic ingredients of life in what looks like the solar system's most promising sweet spot. HARI SREENIVASAN, CLIPPER's launch comes as SpaceX cheers another engineering marvel, landing a massive rocket booster back in the mechanical arms of its launch pad and sending the uncrewed starship around the Earth. A critical test flight to one day land humans on the moon and Mars as we also search for life beyond.

Lester? All right, Tom, I've looked at that landing a lot of times today. When we come back, she danced her way into history, a trailblazer now inspiring the next generation. Finally, there's good news tonight during this Hispanic Heritage Month. The story of a ballerina blazing a trail now for a new generation. Here's Monica Alba. In Salt Lake City, aspiring ballet dancers train to grace some of the world's biggest stages.

EVELYN CISNEROS-Lagate, a trailblazer shaping the next generation at Ballet West Academy. EVELYN CISNEROS-Lagate, I love to be able to inspire our youth in any way that I can for a better future. Though her start wasn't exactly on point. I was very shy as a child. I would get stomach aches and headaches and, you know, tell my mom, please don't make me go. She kept at it, auditioning for premier ballet companies at just 14, where at one, she says she faced discrimination from an instructor.

The ballet master kind of dug in and had me powdering my skin so I would look like everybody else. Before realizing... I just remember looking in the mirror and saying, you know what, he's right. I don't look like everyone else and I don't want to look like everyone else. I'm going to work so hard so I don't have to dance in a group. And that's exactly what she did, rising through the ranks at the San Francisco Ballet to become the first Mexican-American prima ballerina, performing for President Reagan at the White House, now dedicating her life to teaching.

Being able to show them visually somebody that is very successful, that kind of looks like them, I think is essential. For students like Raphael King. I see a lot of Hispanics nowadays dancing in Europe and the United States. To me, it's like I could be that person. And Miranda Aguilar. I think her story is so incredibly inspiring,

all the barriers she pushed through to become the first. Can you believe that that shy girl is now sitting where you are today, having had the life you have? Oh, I look back on that and I just I feel so blessed. Raising the bar as the first so that there won't ever be a last. Monica Alba, NBC News, Salt Lake City. And that is nightly news for this Monday. Thank you for watching. I'm Lester Holt. Please take care of yourself and each other. And brush let's turn in and out of

up and fifth and front and back and three and four and five.