NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas - Thursday, March 20, 2025

Episode Date: March 21, 2025

Trump signs executive order to dismantle Education Department; DOJ charges three for Tesla arson as attacks against the carmaker continue; Judge temporarily blocks deportation of Georgetown University researcher; and more on tonight’s broadcast.

Tonight, President Trump takes on the Department of Education. The president tried to make good on a campaign promise to shut the federal agency down, but does he have the authority? White House correspondent Garrett Haight, one-on-one with the education secretary. The federal charge is just filed on the Molotov cocktail attacks on Tesla, cars, and charging stations, three suspects facing up to 20 years in prison. The Georgetown researcher detained and facing deportation over alleged terror ties. Gabe Gutierrez on the order a federal judge just issued to the Trump administration.

Are America's bridges at risk? Nearly one year after the deadly collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, Tom Costello on the new warning that dozens of bridges, including the Golden Gate and Brooklyn Bridges, could be vulnerable. The dangerous weather ripping across the country, the wildfire growing in Florida, and the devastating tornado hitting Indiana. The frightening Southwest mix-up, the plane that nearly took off from an Orlando taxiway instead of the runway.

Liftoff canceled just in time. This is NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt. Good evening and welcome. Following threats and promises, President Trump has now officially moved to start dismantling the U.S. Department of Education, granting a longtime wish among many conservatives. The president ordering the department to take all lawful steps to shut it down. But one of those lawful steps is getting approval from Congress. Critics of the directive, including the NAACP, calling the move unconstitutional. The president saying the intent is to turn control of schools to the states.

The White House says the executive order leaves student loans and Pell Grants under the agency's purview. The plan to close the DOE being announced on the heels of massive personnel cuts to the agency. Garrett Haig has late details and reaction. President Trump tonight looking to keep a campaign promise. I will sign an executive order to begin eliminating the federal Department of Education once and for all. At a White House event with schoolchildren and Republican governors. The Democrats know it's right and I hope they're going to be voting for it because ultimately it may come before them. That's because this order may have little practical impact.

Only Congress can abolish an executive agency, a move Democrats oppose. And the White House said today core department responsibilities like managing student loans and Pell Grants and supporting special education will be preserved. Beyond these core necessities, my administration will take all lawful steps to shut down the department. We're going to shut it down. But the American Federation of Teachers Union firing back, see you in court. The Trump administration cut the department's workforce in half last week, including terminating some 1,300 career employees. Katina Stapleton was fired after 20 years working as a research analyst. I wanted to change things for students. And I'm sad that that just went away without really any consideration.

Tonight in Denver, teachers protesting, saying the cost-cutting will hurt students. He's showing where his priorities lie, and it's not with the children of our nation. NBC's Morgan Chesky spoke to a special education teacher. Our money's not where our mouth is as far as education goes. Education is already largely a state and local responsibility. Just eight percent of funding comes from the feds. Some state education officials are applauding President Trump's move to shift more power away from Washington. Frank Edelblue heads New Hampshire's Department of Education. What we're essentially doing is optimizing the funds for the students, the parents, and the teachers by allowing these processes to get closer to where

they are being used. The White House pointing to low test scores as a reason to shake things up. The latest national report card showing 40 percent of fourth graders don't meet basic benchmarks for reading, despite increases in federal funding. If you're a parent out there with your kid in a public school, will you notice changes in your child's education immediately because of this? I don't think anything happens immediately. I'd like to snap my fingers and have education reformed, you know, throughout the country, but it's going to take a bit. And Garrett, before we let you get away, there's also a new headline in that story we've been following involving the Trump administration's deportation flights of alleged migrant gang

members. Yeah, that's right, Lester. The judge today blasting the DOJ for what he called woefully insufficient answers to his questions about those flights, which he had ordered to turn around to the U.S. He's now asking for sworn responses to come from a cabinet-level official due tomorrow morning. Lester. Garrett Haig tonight. Thank you. The DOJ charged three suspects today for attacks on Tesla cars

and charging stations, what the attorney general is calling domestic terrorism. This as the company announces a recall of nearly all their cyber trucks. Here's Liz Kreutz with the latest. Tonight, Attorney General Pam Bondi announcing federal charges against three people nationwide accused of using Molotov cocktails to set fire to test the cars and charging stations. We have charged multiple people. Get ready. More coming. Investigators saying these images show one of the suspects in Salem, Oregon, carrying an AR-15 style rifle while throwing an ignited device into a showroom. The Tesla Center saying it led to about $500,000 in damages. Two others in Colorado and South Carolina also charged. Bondi writing,

Let this be a warning. If you join this wave of domestic terrorism against Tesla properties, the Department of Justice will put you behind bars. The attack's part of a growing movement to target Tesla as a form of protest against the company's CEO, Elon Musk, and his wide-reaching role in the Trump administration. This week, Tesla's at a service center in Las Vegas also vandalized, and a website surfaced targeting individual Tesla owners, showing some names, personal contact information, and addresses for Tesla owners, showing some names, personal contact information and addresses for Tesla drivers, putting some owners on edge. If I had known Elon was going to turn into what he kind of turned into, I don't know that I would have bought this car necessarily. But even so, people have good reasons to buy electric cars and attacking people just because they own a Tesla doesn't seem like a good way to protest.

It's unclear who's behind the website, which appears to be taken down. Musk calling those behind the attacks bad people. They want to hurt Tesla because we're stopping this terrible waste and corruption. This all comes amid a difficult time for Tesla. Just today, the company recalling nearly all of its Cybertrucks over an exterior panel that can detach and increase the risk of a crash. Tesla's stock now down 50 percent since its high in December. Meanwhile, as the White House rallies behind the company, Trump Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick urging Americans to buy its stock, which some experts say is a potential violation of government ethics. Buy Tesla. It's unbelievable that this guy's stock is this cheap.

It'll never be this cheap again. And Liz, what more do we know about these DOJ charges announced today? Yeah, well, the three suspects arrested face serious federal charges ranging from unlawful possession of a firearm to arson and if convicted, they each face up to 20 years in prison, Lester. Okay, Liz, thanks very much. A federal judge tonight temporarily blocking the deportation of a Georgetown University researcher. The Trump administration is looking to remove him from the country, accusing him of ties to a terror group. Our Gabe Gutierrez has late details. Badar Khan Suri, a graduate student and father of three from India who was teaching at Georgetown University, is now accused of having ties to a

terror group. But late today, a federal judge temporarily blocked his deportation after the ACLU filed an emergency motion. Freedom of speech in this country should never be limited and it should never be chilled by the government. But the idea that somehow he is a threat to our national security because of, you know, his views on the Israel-Palestine conflict is just ridiculous. But a spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security says Suri was actively spreading Hamas propaganda and promoting anti-Semitism on social media. A U.S. official tells NBC News his father-in-law was a Hamas advisor. Georgetown University says it's not aware of Suri engaging in illegal activity and that he was granted a visa to the United States to continue his doctoral research on peace building in Iraq

and Afghanistan. The Trump administration is using a law that grants the Secretary of State power to deport visa holders whose presence has adverse foreign policy consequences. We will continue to look for people that we would never have allowed into this country on student visas had we known they were going to do what they've done. Meanwhile, Columbia University is now signaling it'll comply with the Trump administration's demands in return for restoring $400 million in federal funding, canceled because the White House accused Columbia of continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students. During pro-Palestinian protests, campus buildings were occupied and vandalized. Jewish student Sashana Ofseen says she was trapped inside one of them.

There comes a point where speech is, you know, it's not protected speech anymore if you're inciting violence, if you're supporting terrorism. As for the Georgetown graduate student, his lawyer says he's done nothing wrong and that he's still in custody at a detention facility in Louisiana. Lester. All right, Gabe, thanks. Following a string of concerning incidents involving air travel, there was an alarming mix-up on a runway in Orlando today. Emily Aketa joins me. Emily, what happened? Lester, this was a major mistake. Authorities say a Southwest plane headed from Orlando to Albany started its takeoff roll on the taxiway instead of the runway, which run parallel to one another. Southwest says the plane was able to stop safely and no one was injured.

Meanwhile, we're getting the first report from investigators on that fiery crash landing in Toronto. Yo, I was just on this plane. A month after a Delta plane flipped over on a snowy Toronto runway, Canadian authorities today releasing new details on the harrowing moments on board the regional jet, now moved into a nearby airplane hangar for investigation. The preliminary report says less than three seconds before touching down, an alert sounded indicating a high rate of descent to the pilots, 1,100 feet per minute. Just how hard did the plane hit the ground?

This was probably at least twice of what the normal rate of descent would be. So all of that force was concentrated in one area, which was far above what that component was designed for. The plane came down hard at a steep angle on the right main landing gear, which partially broke and retracted. The right wing detached, releasing a cloud of jet fuel, which caused that fire as the plane rolled over and skidded down the runway. The crash left passengers like Pete Kukov hanging upside down in their seats, suspended by their safety belts. I remember just hanging there and me and the lady next to me, we got out pretty quick. Remarkably, all 80 people on board survived. Delta says it remains fully engaged in the ongoing investigation into the cause of the terrifying crash landing. Emily Ikeda, NBC News. Nearly a year after Baltimore's Key Bridge

collapsed, killing six people, the NTSB says Maryland authorities failed for decades to review the bridge's vulnerability to collision, and dozens of other bridges could be at risk. Here's Tom Costello. Nearly one year after a Singapore-flagged container ship crashed into a support pier bringing down Baltimore's Key Bridge, the NTSB today said for decades Maryland authorities failed to assess the bridge's vulnerability to a collision, despite contributing to the national guidelines that called for the assessments. Had they done that, the collapse could have been prevented. Today, the NTSB warned many more bridges that ocean-going ships routinely pass under could also be at risk, naming 68 bridges that need urgent risk assessments, including some of America's most iconic. The Golden Gate and Coronado Bridges in California, the Sunshine Skyway Bridge in Florida, the Huey P. Long, Crescent City, and Hale Boggs Bridges in Louisiana, the Bay and Chesapeake Bridges in Maryland, the Verrazano, Brooklyn, and GW Bridges in New York,

and many more, including in Ohio, Texas, and Massachusetts. What we are telling bridge owners is that they need to know the risk and determine what actions they need to take to ensure safety. Bridges built after 1994 must have vessel collision mitigations like protection islands around bridge supports. Tonight, the Maryland Transportation Authority has not responded to NBC's request for comment. Maryland Governor Wes Moore says the new Key Bridge will be far more robust. We are going to make sure that we are going to get this bridge built on time and on budget. And it is going to make sure that it leads up to all industry standards on safety. With so many bridges at risk nationally, an urgent national push now to protect them from the kind of disaster that brought down Baltimore's Key Bridge.

Lester. Okay, Tom, thanks. It's been a day of dangerous weather across the country. Wildfires are raging in Florida, spreading near Miami-Dade, the flames even cutting off some roads in and out of the Keys. And in the Midwest, at least 10 tornadoes reported ripping across the region overnight. One of them in Gary, Indiana, left buildings in splinters. We'll be right back. Now to the remarkable mission to help children in Gaza get out of a war zone for urgent medical treatment, an effort led by the

U.S. It's a story Andrea Mitchell has been reporting on for more than a year. The youngest victims in Gaza, these children injured just yesterday. Also desperate for treatment, Palestinian children with cancer, like these kids leaving Khan Yunis and heading to hospitals in Italy. And this rescue operation finally bringing the first cancer patients to the U.S. yesterday. We were there as they arrived, 12-year-old Lean and her family, and 17-year-old Nesma and her mom, on a humanitarian flight from Cairo. A program NBC News has been following since the war began that has now rescued 240 children, including kids we saw in Egypt after their

hospital in Gaza was bombed in November 2023. Twenty more children got out in June of 2024. Spearheaded by Biden chief of staff Jeff Zients, a team from St. Jude Children's Research Hospital and Palestinian doctors on the ground. Getting the children out of Gaza was incredibly difficult with urban warfare and for months only one exit, which shut down when Israel's tanks invaded Rafah for an operation against Hamas last May. Doctors say 12 children died waiting for Israeli security clearances. After the U.S. election, one doctor made a personal appeal to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who went to President Trump, the president tasking special envoy Steve Witkoff to help the kids. How did you cut through the red tape? No

matter what side of the battle lines you're on here, these are young kids and they couldn't, they needed to get proper care. Now the first children are in the U.S. What does that mean now? I think it means so much. You know, maybe one day someone's going to remind them about all these wonderful things that happened. And that'll be a bridge, you know, like there's just too much hatred in that region. This remarkable wartime mission started by one White House, carried on by another, continues. Despite the renewed fighting, six more children in Gaza have been diagnosed with cancer and need care. Lester.

All right, Andrea, thank you. 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.