NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas - Thursday, May 2, 2024

Episode Date: May 3, 2024

Hundreds arrested in violent clashes at UCLA; Biden condemns violent protests on campuses; Trump defense attacks former lawyer for Stormy Daniels in hush money trial; and more on tonight’s broadcast.

Tonight, the major crackdowns as the number of arrests on campuses surpasses 2,000, more than 200 of those arrests happening at UCLA. Police using flashbangs, firing non-lethal projectiles as they moved in to rip down the pro-Palestinian encampment. New body cam from the NYPD officers the other night breaching that building at Columbia and arresting protesters inside. Our report coming up. Also tonight, President Biden condemning the clashes on campuses, saying violent protests

is not protected. His 2024 rival, Donald Trump, praising the NYPD crackdown, calling it a beautiful thing. The massive fireball on I-95, a fuel tanker colliding with a tractor trailer and a car in Connecticut. No injuries. How long could the interstate be shut down? Evacuations ordered in Texas, widespread flooding, submerging homes, roads and cars. Former President Trump back in court as his criminal trial resumes. The former attorney for Stormy Daniels on the stand testifying about hush money payments as prosecutors ask the judge to hold Mr. Trump in contempt again. New troubles for Britney Spears. An ambulance called to a landmark L.A. hotel after sources say

the pop star got into an altercation with her boyfriend. And the Lego legend, turning the landmarks in our nation's capital into mini-masterpieces. This is NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt. Good evening and welcome. More dramatic takedowns at college protest encampments, leaving hundreds more arrested. But tonight, the pro-Palestinian movement they joined is still alive and playing out at dozens more of the tent camps that have popped up at other campuses across the country. California Highway Patrol officers on the front lines of a crackdown at UCLA overnight,

tearing down the makeshift barricades erected by pro-Palestinian supporters and moving in to arrest those who defied orders to disperse. The sweeping operation captured on live TV, President Biden breaking his silence on the demonstrations, expressing his support for peaceful protests, but adding we're a civil society and order must prevail. An NBC News count shows over 2100 people have been arrested nationwide since the demonstrations began. Tonight, we take you into the chaos. Here's Liz Kreutz. With the clashes between college campus demonstrators and police reaching new heights today, President Biden condemning violent, disruptive protests. Vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows, shutting down campuses, forcing the cancellation of classes and graduations. None of this is a

peaceful protest. Threatening people, intimidating people, instilling fear in people is not a peaceful protest. It's against the law. Dozens of universities and colleges across the country continuing to grapple with how to handle the growing movement of pro-palestinian demonstrators this morning at ucla law enforcement breaching the massive encampment just before dawn all right please sit by again right now you hear the flashbangs there but the police they are breaking the barrier trying to make their way into the encampment the students though they were pushing back and trying to make their way into the encampment. The students, though, they were pushing back and trying to hold the line.

Demonstrators, many of them in hard helmets and gas masks, appearing to use fire extinguishers aimed at police trying to fend them off. Police pushing back with overwhelming numbers. California Highway Patrol officers making hundreds of arrests. We're not going to back down. We have to be forced. Students demanding divestment from Israel, but also taking their protests beyond the war in Gaza, calling for defunding the police as well, and asking supporters to bring them supplies, including material for shields, umbrellas, and water.

Today, the campus left covered in trash and busted tents. The university's iconic Royce Hall defaced with graffiti. Some of those arrested now released from a downtown jail speaking out. How do I feel? I've never felt more proud of myself or my community. Across the country at Columbia University in New York, the NYPD today releasing portions of body cam video from Tuesday night's raid to clear Hamilton Hall. Police finding protesters sitting on the ground with arms linked. Nationwide, more than 2,100 arrests have been made connected with campus protests.

Today, Portland State University campus closed down as police made 12 arrests and cleared the school's library. Overnight, four arrested at Yale, 90 removed from campus at Dartmouth. And at the University of Wisconsin's Madison campus, defiant students reestablishing their tents just 24 hours after police disbanded the encampment there. We're going to be here indefinitely until they meet our demand. Back at UCLA, cleanup is underway. Professor Graham Blair, who was arrested this morning in the encampment, is defending the students' right to protest, despite some of the tactics they've used. I think anyone who is worried about graffiti on buildings on a college campus

needs to come visit a college campus. It's 18-year-olds who are learning for the first time how to express themselves. Liz, what is UCLA saying about what played out there this morning? Well, Lester, the UCLA chancellor says that protesters were given several warnings to leave, but that ultimately the encampment here was unlawful and had become a huge disruption here on campus. They said because of that, it had to be removed to restore campus safety. Lester. Much different scene behind you, Liz. Thank you. All this is having an impact in the 2024 presidential campaign. President Biden facing pressure over the ongoing protests as former President Trump praised the NYPD campus crackdown.

Gabe Gutierrez is at the White House. President Biden's condemnation of violent campus protests are his first on-camera comments about the growing controversy in more than a week. There's the right to protest, but not the right to cause chaos. The president says he won't call in the National Guard, and he bluntly rejected the protesters' demands to change his policy in the Middle East. Mr. President, have the protests forced you to reconsider any of the policies with regard to the region? No. President Biden is facing mounting political pressure. Some Democrats want him to do more to support Palestinians, while many Republicans are blasting him for not speaking out earlier. In moments like this, there are always those who

rush in to score political points. But this isn't a moment for politics. It's a moment for clarity. Still, the war is playing a larger role in the 2024 campaign. We command a ceasefire! For months on the trail, the president's faced growing pro-Palestinian protests. I used the phone until I realized who he was. But the tensions are boiling over this week. These are radical left lunatics.

And they got to be stopped now because it's going to go on and on. Former President Trump is praising the police response at Columbia University. It was a beautiful thing to watch. New York's finest. But Mr. Trump is also drawing controversy for an interview where he would not commit to respecting the outcome of the election, saying if everything's honest, I'll gladly accept the results. If it's not, you have to fight for the right of the country. The president firing back late today. Mr. President, are you worried that Trump says he won't accept the election results?

And Gabe, we can circle back to the protests for a moment. The president's remarks, I understand, were a last minute add to his schedule. Yes, Lester. But the White House insists the president was not bowing to political pressure. Biden campaign officials, meanwhile, previously downplayed the college protests, arguing that young people care more about other issues like the economy and abortion rights. Lester. Okay, Gabe Gutierrez, thank you. A traffic nightmare in the Northeast after a fiery crash in Connecticut

shut down part of Interstate 95 in both directions. Emily Aketa is there. With thick plumes of smoke darkening the sky. A nightmarish scene today in Norwalk, Connecticut. I can feel the heat from here. After a crash involving a passenger car, tractor trailer, and fuel truck ignited this massive fire on I-95. Flames fully engulfing the tanker that officials say was carrying 8,500 gallons of gasoline.

I couldn't believe what I was seeing. It looked surreal. Remarkably, no one was seriously injured, but tonight officials are urging people to avoid the area as the aftermath, coated in fire-suppressing foam, continues to clog traffic. I can't stay home, take the train. This critical northeast corridor sees 160,000 drivers a day now being diverted onto local roads and other interstates. Hour 40 minutes to get to work today. Stop, start, stop, start. A section of I-95 will remain closed for several days in order for this bridge scorched by the flames to be demolished.

Gasoline-fueled fires can get hot enough to deform even steel, leading to bridge collapses like this in Philadelphia last year. Back in the tri-state tonight, drivers bracing for this travel headache to linger. The now-charred bridge, less than 10 years old, will begin to be removed first thing tomorrow. Then crews will have to repave the road with the goal of reopening this major traffic artery at the earliest Monday morning. Lester. Emily Akeda, thank you. We're watching severe flooding tonight in Texas with the Houston area hit hard after more than five inches of rain. Cars and trucks were submerged.

Some mandatory evacuations were ordered and at least nine rescues were carried out. Tonight, six million people remain under flood watches in parts of Texas and Louisiana. Dramatic moments at the former President Trump's hush money trial today as a key prosecution witness was cross-examined about the alleged payments he helped arrange. Laura Jarrett has the latest. Former President Trump arriving at court today watching his defense team go on offense, casting a key prosecution witness as out to extort him for money. The defense hoping to discredit Keith Davidson, the lawyer who negotiated payoffs for Stormy Daniels and Karen McDougal.

Both threatened to go public with stories of sex with Mr. Trump ahead of the 2016 election. Mr. Trump has denied the allegations of both women and denied any advanced knowledge of sex with Mr. Trump ahead of the 2016 election. Mr. Trump has denied the allegations of both women and denied any advanced knowledge of the payoffs. His defense team suggesting today Davidson had a habit of shaking down celebrities like Charlie Sheen for money. Davidson saying he never extorted anyone, testifying at length about his negotiations with Michael Cohen, Mr. Trump's former attorney. But admitting today, he never met nor spoke to the former president. Instead, he dealt exclusively with Cohen, who he painted as desperate and despondent that then-President-elect Trump would not make him

Attorney General or White House Chief of Staff, describing a phone call where Cohen lamented, I can't believe I'm not going to Washington. Cohen saying he'd saved Trump so many times you don't even know. Davidson testifying about Cohen, I thought he was going to kill himself. A helpful point for the defense as it tries to cast Cohen as having an axe to grind against Mr. Trump. The former president is accused of illegally doctoring his internal records to disguise his repayments to Cohen, making Cohen's testimony critical for prosecutors, who are now seeking additional fines against Mr. Trump,

saying he violated a gag order again by calling his former fixer a liar. While the defense argues the former president should be allowed to defend himself against Cohen's frequent criticism. That I'm unconstitutionally gagged. He gagged me. So I'm not even supposed to be, I would say, talking to you because he gagged me. The judge hasn't yet ruled, but expressed concern about Mr. Trump's statements and the effect they might have on other potential witnesses. Lester. Laura Jarrett here in New York tonight. Thanks. We'll turn to the developing news out of Los Angeles involving Britney Spears and a late night incident with her boyfriend at a famed hotel.

Chloe Malas is here. Chloe, what do we know? Lester, NBC News has learned that authorities responded to an incident involving Britney Spears at the landmark Chateau Marmont Hotel early this morning. Now, two sources close to the singer say that she got into a fight with her boyfriend, Paul Solis, but went home with her security team and is safe. The sources disputed a report that Spears threatened hotel employees, but did say that she was screaming and crying. Now, late today, Spears took to social media acknowledging an incident had happened,

saying that she twisted her ankle and that paramedics showed up at my door illegally. This comes just hours after Spears and her ex, Sam Asghari, settled the terms of their divorce and two and a half years after she was publicly released from her 13-year conservatorship. Now, Spears' representatives and the LAFD, they have not responded to requests for comment tonight, Lester. All right, Chloe, thanks very much. In 60 seconds, what's behind a surge in opioid overdoses with at least nine people dead since Monday in one city alone. We're with first responders stunned by what they're seeing. In Texas, first responders are racing to contain a surge in opioid overdoses. Calls for help spiking a thousand percent this

week. Priscilla Thompson is on the front line. We have two overdoses running right now. Wow, right now. We go out to every overdose. For Austin EMT Randy Chabra, it's been a harrowing week. In a typical day, how many overdoses do you all usually get called for? Three, maybe five. What does that number look like this week? We've had, I think we're up to 73 across the three days. A more than 1,000% spike in overdose calls, likely caused by drugs laced with fentanyl, unbeknownst to users, Austin officials say,

confirming at least nine people have died of suspected overdoses since Monday amid a flood of hospitalizations and 911 calls. This morning it's been like 15 people that's been, I guess they smoked something that was bad. Two children in the car, I can't get into the front seat, the mother is packed out. Do you need a Narcan in just 48 hours, which can reverse an overdose before it's too late. The DEA says fentanyl is now the leading cause of death for young Americans. My girl, she died. She died of an overdose. Oh, no.

That fentanyl. Those on the front lines in Austin worry outbreaks like this could be the next wave of the crisis. My fear is that it's just the start. That what's next? The fear that it becomes just unmanageable.

Right. The fear that we have no ambulances left and that we still have overdoses occurring. It's happened on Monday where you would go and it's not one person, it's four people, right? But what happens if it's 10 people? Priscilla Thompson, NBC News, Austin. We will take a break and then coming up, alerting drivers when someone is going the wrong way, how it works next. We're back now with a possible way to prevent the deaths of hundreds on the road,

technology that could detect drivers going the wrong way and alert others to the danger. Scott Friedman of our Dallas station on how it works. Along a turnpike near Dallas, a car makes a U-turn, re-entering going the wrong way. The highway is one of a growing number of U.S. roads with directional sensors detecting the car, alerting police. We have a wrong-way driver in your city. We're just tracking him on camera right now. But authorities are unable to stop the driver who travels eight minutes before slamming head-on into another car. Killing the wrong-way driver who investigators say had a blood alcohol level twice the legal limit, and the other driver, 41-year-old Michael James Jackson, on his way home to his wife, Wendy.

It was just a kind soul, and he was just so undeserving of this. There's a car driving the wrong way. Wrong-way crashes kill about 400 people each year in the U.S., despite an increase in road sensors and highway message boards that can warn of wrong way drivers. The trouble is alerting people in the path of danger, not just police. Everyone knew except for the people that were driving the right way and were in imminent danger. And that's what you want to change? Absolutely. Her husband's friends, who used to work with Michael and are now spread across some of the nation's biggest tech companies,

believe cell phone alerts are the answer. We need to make the people that are in harm's way aware so that they can take action. Michael Lineman points out state officials can already send alerts through a federal cell phone warning system used for Amber Alerts. He says alerts could be tailored to reach only phones moving near a wrong-way vehicle. It's a concept proving possible, as we saw in Detroit, where German technology company Bosch showed us a cloud-based wrong-way driver warning system test vehicle. We obviously can't drive the wrong way. So for this

test, Bosch engineers have briefly flipped the direction in the detection system just on this freeway ramp up ahead. So when we enter going the right way, we should get a wrong way alert. Halfway down the ramp. Check your travel direction. If you're in the wrong way, stop at the nearest shoulder. We got the alert, still with plenty of time to pull off the road. It can also warn other cars and cell phones with apps using the Bosch software nearby. In Europe, Bosch says it issued more than 600 alerts in one year. The company now trying to make the system more widely available. We are working with many partners to bring this feature

into their apps and we're in active discussions with car makers. Meanwhile, Jackson's friends are hunting for state highway systems, willing to do more with their sensors and cameras to move beyond message boards on the road and send alerts directly to drivers in harm's way. The technology is there. It's just getting the authorization and getting the right people in place who can allow us to do this. Her hope that car makers in states find the funding and the will to implement

technology that can save lives. Scott Friedman, NBC News, Dallas. Coming up after a short break, he builds masterpieces piece by piece. Next, how 100,000 Lego bricks really add up. Finally, the artists recreating landmarks one Lego at a time. Here's Hallie Jackson. For Richard Paulus, it's the little things. The really little things. So this is my Lego studio. The longtime Lego lover building a business brick

by brick. When you first started out, was it just for your own pleasure at first? Just for the challenge of it. If you could look at something and say, how can you possibly build that out of Lego's challenge accepted. His inspiration, his city, replicas of the Capitol, the Kennedy Center, the White House, even the famous Ben's Chili Bowl inside Reagan National Airport. From the little napkin holder to the soda machine, even a little hot dog. The tools of his trade tucked into bins lining his basement. Oh, here. All of these matched by color, totally coordinated. By his estimate, nearly 100,000 Lego pieces in all. But what you won't find? Any kits or directions.

Paulus builds as he goes, like he did for his first big sale. I've always loved Dulles Airport. You have? Six months and 70,000 bricks later, the airport itself offered him $10,000 if Paulus could move it. I actually had to tilt on about a 30 degree angle to get out of here. And then I had to actually saw the railings off of my stairwell to get it out. It's a business. It's also a passion for you. It really is.

With more commissions coming in, each click a connection. When you miniaturize everything, when you scale it down, it makes it more human, more personal. Personal for everyone. I can't let you leave empty handed. Thank you. Even us. So just something more human, more personal. Personal for everyone. I can't let you leave empty handed. Thank you. Even us. So just something I whipped up for you. Hallie Jackson, NBC News, Washington. I like his style and he's building a following too. 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.