NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas - Thursday, February 6, 2025

Episode Date: February 7, 2025

Judge pauses deadline for Trump's buyout offer to federal workers; After mid-air collision, FAA temporarily reducing air traffic at Washington airport; Trump says no U.S. troops would be involved in controversial Gaza plan; and more on tonight’s broadcast.

Tonight, a federal judge blocking that midnight deadline for millions of federal workers under pressure to take buyouts. The growing nationwide protest says the Trump administration races to shrink the federal workforce, now saying 60,000 government employees have taken the offer to leave. All of it as serious questions emerge about Elon Musk and his Doge allies' efforts to access sensitive data. The winter storm wreaking havoc, whiteout conditions in the Midwest, a tornado touchdown in Kentucky as West Virginia's capital floods.

Thousands of flights delayed, plus the coming storms ahead. Al Roker tracks it all for us. Also tonight, Washington-Reagan Airport scaling back flights after that deadly midair collision that Blackhawk involved hoisted today from the icy Potomac. The flu explosion, one of the worst seasons in years, leaving classes empty and schools closed. The warning about addiction to nitrous oxide known as whippets, the popular flavored gas that's easily available, one woman's stark warning after she

had to relearn how to walk. Our bird's eye view above Bourbon Street, the epic effort to secure the Super Bowl after the deadly New Year's terror attack in New Orleans. And the right stuff, how thousands of people like you are joining the race to preserve handwritten notes dating back to the Revolutionary War. This is NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt. Good evening and welcome. New roadblocks are standing in front of Elon Musk's efforts to slash government spending. A federal judge today placing a hold on the Trump administration's offer to pay federal workers to resign their positions, an offer that was to expire tonight.

The buyouts accepted by over 60,000 employees, according to a senior government official. But NBC News reporting the Trump administration is applying new pressure, now warning workers their jobs may be in jeopardy. Opposition to the billionaire's unprecedented access and authority, including to certain government systems, continues to swell with protests across the country, Democrats ramping up their own pressure, decrying Musk and the hastily created office he runs as part of an illegal power grab. Republicans cheering the cost-cutting efforts as so many federal workers worry about their futures. Peter Alexander has details. Tonight, just hours ahead of the White House

deadline, a federal judge has paused the Trump administration from implementing its buyout program for all federal workers. That buyout offer, part of the president's campaign pledge to save taxpayer money by slashing the federal workforce. But labor unions went to court to block it, arguing it violated multiple laws. And now that judge has put the buyouts on hold until Monday. A senior administration official says more than 60,000 federal employees have accepted the offer. That represents more than 2% of the federal government's civilian workforce. Officials here previously said they expected 5 to 10% to take the buyout.

What President Trump and Elon Musk and this entire administration is trying to do is make our bloated bureaucracy here in Washington run like a profitable business. And tonight, the Trump administration is ramping up pressure to take the buyout. An email to all eligible federal workers obtained by NBC News warns those who do not could lose their jobs, reading in part, At this time, we cannot give you full assurance regarding the certainty of your position. The president today touting progress on his pledge to slash spending. We got rid of woke over the last two weeks. And praising Elon Musk at his Department of Government Efficiency, including its effort to dismantle USAID that

distributes billions of dollars in foreign aid. They can't believe they're getting caught. And I have great respect for the people that are doing it. Elon Musk is helping us on it. And he's pretty good. Tonight, The Washington Post reports Doge employees have gained access to highly restricted government records on millions of federal employees, including Treasury and State Department officials in sensitive security positions, according to four U.S. officials with knowledge of the developments. And the White House confirms a Doge staffer approved by a federal judge to access Treasury Department payment systems has resigned after The Wall Street Journal asked about his links to a deleted social media account

that advocated for racism and eugenics. Meanwhile, federal workers tonight are in limbo. Alfonso McCree accepted the buyout offer. The timing couldn't have been any better, but there was also that concern of like, well, this is kind of weird. Is this actually legal? While Hawley, who asked we don't use her last name, did not. Well, I'm glad I didn't take the buyout at all. I don't trust that the administration will keep their promise. Meanwhile, Musk's ex-profile now reads White House tech support and Democrats are slamming his effort to downsize the federal government as illegal. What we are seeing unfold is an unlawful power grab by a unelected and unaccountable billionaire puppet master who's pulling the strings of House Republicans and apparently

the Trump administration. But Republicans are applauding Musk's cost-cutting mission. I think it's very popular with the American people. Trump derangement syndrome is a virus that the Democrats have had for four years. It appears that that virus has mutated into Musk derangement syndrome now. Peter, if we can turn back to the USAID, the agency that provides foreign aid. You've got some new reporting about major cuts there. Lester, the Trump administration is expected to reduce the ranks of USAID to roughly 290 workers out of more than 5,000 foreign service officers, civil servants, and contractors currently employed there.

That's according to people familiar with the plans. The Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, Lester, says they are not trying to be punitive, but are trying to align the agency with America's national interests. Peter Alexander, thank you. The backlash is mounting after President Trump floated a controversial proposal to take over Gaza. The president tonight saying he would not send in American troops as part of that rebuilding plan. Here's Kelly O'Donnell. New fallout on President Trump's abrupt aspiration for an American-led renovation of Gaza. We're going to take over that piece and we're going to develop it. While the president did discuss the Middle East on camera today, he chose to use social media to outline his controversial plan,

declaring the Gaza Strip would be turned over to the United States by Israel at the conclusion of fighting so that the U.S. and development teams from all over the world could build what he called spectacular developments. Met with swift criticism from Republicans for leaving open the door to sending U.S. troops. It would seem to me to be an inappropriate use of U.S. troops. Today, the president writing no soldiers by the U.S. would be needed. He will not be sending boots on the ground. He also has made it clear that American taxpayers will not be funding this effort. The suggestion of U.S. troops also rejected by visiting Israeli Prime

Minister Netanyahu. But the president's Gaza plan dismissed by many Middle East countries who insist Palestinians should be able to remain in Gaza. Today, the president acknowledged the fragile ceasefire deal with Hamas to release hostages. We have more hostages to come, and we hope they live up to their word. An emotional Aviva Siegel, a former hostage, just welcomed home her American husband, Keith. It's difficult for me to think that he was there so many days without me. And there were so many moments that he needed me to be with him. And I wasn't there. President Trump is expected to meet with one of the regional leaders who rejected his plan. Jordan's King Abdullah is due here next week. Lester. Kelly O'Donnell, thank you. The weather

has been a mess for tens of millions across the country. Twenty states socked in earlier today by a dangerous mix of snow, sleet and rain. There were whiteout conditions in Michigan and flash floods in hard hit Charleston, West Virginia, where they got more than three inches of rain in just a few hours. Al Roker joins me now. Al, this is the start of a pretty volatile week of storms. That's right. We've got a parade of storms, Lester. This next one coming in out of the Midwest for tomorrow with large storms. It's going to bring northeast ice, rain and snow, possible power outages, and then continues off the coast on Sunday.

Getting out of here with some snow left over in the Great Lakes, we're talking the heaviest amounts from Buffalo to coastal New England with up to eight inches of snow and up to a tenth of an inch of ice from Cleveland all the way down to Richmond. And then a second, more powerful storm possibly getting together Monday evening. Starts in the midsection of the country by Tuesday. Heavy snow, wind and rain likely in the northeast. A messy commute. We're talking anywhere from heavy snow from Kansas City into New York and New England.

Lester, we'll have the latest tomorrow morning on today. Okay, Al, glad you're with us tonight. Thank you. After the mid-air collision last week that claimed 67 lives tonight, the FAA is taking steps to scale back air traffic into and out of Washington's Reagan National Airport. Tom Costello reports it comes as Elon Musk is poised to help overhaul air traffic control. Eight days after that mid-air crash over the Potomac, recovery teams today raised the Army helicopter from the river, critical to the investigation. Investigators believe it was flying above its designated altitude before the crash. With two runways out of service, the FAA has notified airlines that it's cutting the number

of arrivals from 28 to 26 per hour at Reagan National, with investigators concerned for air traffic controllers, who have an increased level of stress while also having a front row view of the accident recovery. Today, President Trump suggested the nation's antiquated ATC system played a role in the accident. We should have had better equipment. We don't. We have obsolete equipment. The new Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy. I had a conversation with Elon Musk yesterday. Says Elon Musk will help overhaul air traffic control, which the FAA has spent years trying to upgrade, but without full congressional funding. If Elon Musk or anyone else can provide great ideas,

I mean, they are certainly on the cutting edge of technology, then I think that's great. But Democrats are concerned about Elon Musk's promise of rapid safety upgrades, noting the FAA oversees Musk's SpaceX rocket launches. It's a clear conflict of interest, and Secretary Duffy should make sure that Mr. Musk is not part of the FAA air transportation system. Meanwhile, praise for new D.C. firefighter Sean Wathan, a Marine veteran who stood silent guard for hours by the remains of Army Staff Sergeant Ryan O'Hara lost in the crash. While firefighters saluted flight attendant Ian Epstein, his remains brought home to Charlotte.

And Tom, meantime, there is some late news from the NTSB regarding the helicopter crew. Yeah, that's right. The NTSB now says it appears likely that chopper crew was wearing night vision goggles at the time of the crash, but we don't know what type of goggle and whether they would have actually aided the pilots or made it more difficult to see an oncoming regional jet, Lester. Okay, Tom, with that late word, thank you. Let's turn now to what's been a vicious cold and flu season. As flu cases flourish, some schools are left without much options other than to cancel classes. Maggie Vespa with what parents need to know.

Across the country, classrooms sit empty, schools shut down, with administrators from Texas to Tennessee, Oklahoma to Ohio, citing a surge in the flu. One district near Louisville going remote for three days, telling parents more than 1,700 students and 200 staff members were absent due to illness Monday. Photos showing masked maintenance workers deep cleaning classrooms near Cleveland. Have you seen schools closed due to the flu before? No. Outside Cincinnati, Superintendent Kelly Spivey shuttered Edgewood City Schools for the week yesterday. We're seeing the influenza strand A. We're seeing the RSV, pneumonia, strep throat. All of it.

All of it. And at a high rate. COVID as well. The CDC says at least a quarter of a million Americans have been hospitalized with the flu this season. 11,000 have died. This late season surge catching New Jersey mom of three Gabrielle Heimerling off guard. I am surprised that two of my kids went down that fast. We haven't had the flu in this house for years. These numbers don't surprise you. No. Doctors at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus point out flu infections are still rebounding post-pandemic,

while vaccination rates among kids fall, plummeting nearly 14 percent in five years. We have to do better. And it's a hard time right now when it comes to vaccines. We know that. But we know they matter. Maggie Vespa, NBC News. We'll be right back in 60 seconds after a terror attack rocked New Orleans. We'll show you the view from the air at the massive Super Bowl security plans

ahead of Sunday's big game. More than 100,000 people are already starting to pour into New Orleans for Super Bowl Sunday, just weeks after a deadly terrorist attack in the city. Jesse Kirsch got an inside look at the plans to protect the big game. While tens of millions are glued to their TVs on Super Bowl Sunday, federal agents will be circling above New Orleans and along the Mississippi River in the French Quarter, heavily armed National Guardsmen patrolling on foot. In all, nearly 3,000 law enforcement personnel will be spread out across the city. So they know where the crowds are, where the crowds aren't, and if anything happens that changes that scenario,

then they'll be able to identify that. Beyond surveillance, these federal agents will also be ready to respond if someone violates game day flight restrictions. On the water, boat crews watching for unusual traffic. We're also going to be a response force for any sort of safety emergencies. At the Superdome, canines will sweep row by row. We're very excited about this weekend and we are really quite prepared. But that planning came under renewed scrutiny after a terrorist barreled down Bourbon Street, killing 14 people here New Year's Day. I don't know that we've had a major change because the plan for Super Bowl has been in place, working on that plan for 18 months. That's not redirected by New Year's Day. No, no. We actually take our lead mainly from NFL security.

Highly visible security reassuring fans like Twyla Moore, who says she considered canceling her trip after the New Year's attack. How are you feeling now? Oh, safe, safe. I feel like this is the safest place in America right now. And the Secret Service says on Sunday, President Trump will be the first sitting American president to attend a Super Bowl. New Orleans police says that means even more security.

Lester. OK, Jesse, thanks. We're back in a moment with a dire new warning about the drug known as Whippets, the overdose dangers and one state's crusade to keep kids safe. You may have heard of Whippets, also known as laughing gas or nitrous oxide. It's a concerning drug trend among young adults. Valerie Castro spoke to one woman who was addicted and now has this for others. This was Jenna Comble a little more than a year ago.

Relearning how to walk after she says her addiction to nitrous oxide, which she started using when she was 19, left her temporarily paralyzed. I was using throughout the day 10 to 16 full tanks to where they would be empty. Commonly known as whippets, the small cartridges, also used in culinary-grade whipped cream dispensers, have been around for years, as well as their abuse. You get euphoric side effects, hallucinations sometimes. It can create oxygen deprivation to your brain. But what's changed, experts say, is the way they're packaged and marketed. It's being sold in containers with a much higher volume than usual little Whippet containers. And they're also being sold with flavors. 25-year-old Comble, now back on her feet, is warning of the drug's dangers and the way it's being sold. They're all marketed as like they're for making whipped cream, which is just not, that's not the case. Poison Control says there was a 58% increase in reported intentional exposures from 2023 to 2024.

A quick search online and there are a variety of brands and countless flavors like cranberry mango, cookies and cream, and pink lemonade. NBC News reached out to several of the brands and did not hear back. Many of them state on the packaging the gas is meant for culinary use, sometimes even warning that it's not meant to be inhaled. But those warning labels didn't stop Comble from using it on a daily basis or buying the tanks at her local gas station. Last year, Louisiana became the first state in the country to ban the sale of nitrous oxide in stores to the general public. You can see the canister that's here before you. That would be over 22,000 servings of whipped cream if that's really what they wanted to do.

But that's not what they're doing. But the substance itself, which is also used as a medical sedative, hasn't been outlawed. Nitrous oxide remains legal in the United States because there are so many legitimate uses that don't correlate to the abuse. Comble hoping her own story serves as a warning to others and puts pressure on the companies making the product. Valerie Castro, NBC News. When we come back, preserving the first draft of history in cursive, how AI and eagle-eyed readers are helping save the words of the founding fathers from being lost in translation. Much ink has been spilled about

the Revolutionary War, but fewer Americans can read it as cursive fades from our public grasp. Hallie Jackson has good news tonight about the thousands helping preserve it for the TikTok generation and beyond. TikTok's cursive challenge. Write your name without picking up your pen. Introducing Gen Z to the lost art of longhand. But if you want a real cursive challenge, you've got to go old school, like very old. I see a year 1764. At the National Archives, a new project asks volunteers to help decode documents like these from the Revolutionary War. Every box has a story. Pension records from soldiers telling the stories of America's very first veterans, if you can read them. In their something. I think records. Okay. Of something. It's hard to read.

Something. Yeah. How do people do this? This is impossible. The archives asking, is cursive your superpower? And while it's clearly not mine, they've found 100,000 volunteers who, with the help of AI, are converting these records into a searchable online database to give more access to more people. It really connects you, I think, to the past and helps make these stories come alive for the new generations. The project timed to next year's 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence with its famous signatures. And at the archives, we decoded another. I think that's George Washington. It is.

Along with the story of a soldier who joined Washington. That on Christmas night of that year. During the famous crossing of the Delaware. It was snowing at the time. And the night was unusually stormy. It is literally the first draft of history. Exactly. This cursive challenge, flipping the script, proving handwriting's not yet history.

Hallie Jackson, NBC News, Washington. Nice. That's nightly news for this Thursday. Thank you for watching. I'm Lester Holt. Please take care of yourself and each other. Good night.