NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas - Tuesday, September 17, 2024

Episode Date: September 18, 2024

Sean 'Diddy' Combs charged with sex trafficking, racketeering after arrest; Trump thanks officers, blames Democrats after apparent assassination attempt; Harris blasts Trump's 'hateful rhetoric' during rare interview; and more on tonight’s broadcast.

Tonight, Sean Diddy combs behind bars facing federal charges of sex trafficking and racketeering. The Music Mobile today pleading not guilty, but the judge denying bail hours after his arrest at a New York hotel. The indictment describing combs as the head of a criminal empire who abused and coerced women to take part in drug-fueled sex parties with male prostitutes that he often filmed. Plus, the caches of guns and drugs allegedly seized from his properties. Also tonight, the explosions across Lebanon. Hezbollah accusing Israel of blowing up its members' pagers in a deadly coordinated attack that injured thousands. Donald Trump back on the trail for the first time since that apparent second

attempt on his life and blaming Democrats rhetoric for the incident. While opponent Kamala Harris condemning Mr. Trump's own rhetoric as hateful for pushing baseless claims about Haitian immigrants in Ohio. The big change from Instagram on teen safety and our NBC News exclusive, the Polaris Dawns crew, their first sit-down interview since returning to Earth, opening up about that iconic moment, the first private spacewalk. When we opened that hatch, I'd say it was like sensory overload.

Inside their history-making journey. This is NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt. Good evening and welcome. He was once hailed as a visionary music mogul, but tonight Sean Diddy Combs is in custody in New York, denied bail after he was federally charged with sex trafficking and racketeering conspiracy. We will warn you some of the details you're about to hear are quite graphic. The sprawling indictment accusing Combs of kidnapping, using forced labor and running a criminal empire. Using his fame and wealth to exploit women for at least 16 years. Prosecutors alleging the abused and coerced victims into taking part in drug-fueled sex parties with male prostitutes that lasted hours or even days and that Combs often filmed.

Also revealed the stashes of guns and drugs allegedly seized from his homes. Our legal analyst is standing by, but we begin tonight with Chloe Malas at the courthouse. Tonight, Sean Diddy Combs behind bars. A federal judge denying the music mogul bail following his arrest and indictment. As federal prosecutors allege, Combs is dangerous and poses an ongoing threat to the safety of the community. In court today, Combs pleading not guilty to three federal counts. Sex trafficking, racketeering, and transportation to engage in prostitution. Sean Combs led and participated in criminal activity, including sex trafficking, forced labor, kidnapping, arson, bribery, and the obstruction of justice.

In an indictment unsealed this morning, federal prosecutors say since 2008, Combs abused, threatened, and coerced women and others around him to fulfill his sexual desires, protect his reputation and conceal his conduct. As alleged, when Combs didn't get his way, he was violent and he subjected victims of physical, emotional and verbal abuse. Combs is arrested in New York City Hotel Monday night comes six months after federal authorities raided the Grammy winner's homes in Los Angeles and Miami, today revealing what they say they found, firearms, including three defaced AR-15s in his bedroom closet, and videos of elaborately produced sex performances with multiple victims, known as freak-offs, according to prosecutors. Fre Freak offs sometimes lasted days at a time, involved multiple commercial sex workers and often involved a variety of narcotics such as ketamine, ecstasy and GHB, which Combs distributed to the victims to keep them obedient

and compliant. An attorney for Combs maintaining his client's innocence. Mr. Combs is a fighter. He's going to fight this to the end. He's innocent. Today's federal case following a string of civil suits, including one filed last week by a member of the girl group Danity Kane, as well as a settlement with singer Cassie seen in this 2016 surveillance video being physically attacked by Combs. Cassie later filing a civil suit accusing Combs of raping and physically abusing her. The terms of their 2023 settlement were not disclosed. An attorney for Combs telling a judge today that Mr. Combs is not a perfect person.

These toxic relationships were mutual, adding, Is it sex trafficking if everyone wants to be there? We don't want the federal government in our bedroom. But tonight, federal prosecutors are leaving the door open for even more arrests, saying Combs did not act alone. I'm not taking anything off the table. And Chloe was in the courtroom. Chloe, how did Combs react to the judge's decision to keep him in custody? Lester, I was sitting just a few feet away from Combs during his arraignment, and he was completely expressionless as the judge denied him bond. And

then he was cooperatively escorted away by U.S. Marshals. His attorney now saying that they plan to appeal this decision as early as tomorrow. Lester. Chloe Malas, thank you. Our senior legal correspondent, Laura Jarrett, is here with us. Let me pick up on that train of thought. Why? What was the judge's reasoning for not giving him bail? Yeah, Combs had offered to put up 50 million dollars as a bond, but it simply did not work. Lester prosecutors went into day saying he's a flight risk, a danger to the community. And the judge agreed, finding that she was worried about his substance abuse issues as alleged by prosecutors and anger issues. She also described here. Now we've seen

high profile defendants detained pre-trial before. You think about R. Kelly, you think about Jeffrey Epstein. His attorney says he's going to try to appeal this denial of the bail. But if it doesn't work, he could be denied appeal for a long time here and behind bars for more than a year as this goes to trial, Lester. OK, Laura, thank you. We'll turn now to another major story, Hezbollah blaming Israel for an unprecedented attack that involved blowing up its members' pagers across Lebanon. As Raf Sanchez reports, it comes amid fears of a wider war in the Middle East. Tonight, explosions like this across Lebanon. As the Hezbollah militant group says, hundreds of pagers belonging to its members detonated simultaneously,

calling it a massive coordinated attack and blaming Israel. Look again. The explosion injures the man with the pager, but causes almost no damage around him. Lebanon says almost 3,000 people were wounded, including the Iranian ambassador, and at least nine killed, among them several children. Iranian-backed Hezbollah uses pagers to avoid Israeli surveillance. Israel Tonight refusing to say if it was behind what appears to be an unprecedented intelligence operation. Have you ever seen anything on this scale before? No, no, I haven't. It really is a remarkable sort of milestone in the pantheon of intelligence security activities.

Hours earlier, Israel said it foiled a Hezbollah assassination plot using a landmine. The latest escalation in a conflict many fear is now spiraling towards all out war. And Hezbollah is vowing it will retaliate against Israel. The Israeli military's top generals met earlier to prepare their defense. Lester. Okay, Raf, thank you. And back here in this country in the race for the White House, former President Trump returning to the campaign trail tonight for the first time since the second apparent attempt on his life and looking to place blame for the incident on Democrats. Garrett Haik is in Michigan. Tonight, former President Trump thanking officers who caught the suspect

in the apparent assassination attempt against him and describing the alarming moments on his golf course. All of a sudden we heard shots being fired in the air, and I guess probably four or five. Secret Service knew immediately it was bullets. And they grabbed me. An agent had fired on the armed suspect who was able to hide in the bushes undetected by Secret Service for nearly 12 hours. Trump revealing a phone call from President Biden.

And late today, Vice President Harris said she also called him. I checked on him to see if he was OK. And I told him what I have said publicly. There's no place for political violence. It was not fireworks. It was pop, pop, pop, pop. Steve Witkoff was golfing with Trump and heard the agent fire on the suspect as they stood on the fairway. How quickly does the Secret Service act? Two seconds, maybe three. The entire team converged on top of

him, except for the snipers. He is the priority and he is the protectee. And they had him off in 20 seconds. This is the second attempt on Trump's life in nine weeks. Trump blames Democratic rhetoric against him. And so does his running mate. No one has tried to kill Kamala Harris in the last couple of months. And two people now tried to kill Kamala Harris in the last couple of months. And two people now have tried to kill Donald Trump in the last couple of months. I'd say that's pretty strong evidence that the left needs to tone down the rhetoric and needs to cut this crap out. The Trump campaign pointing to comments like these as stoking fear. Donald Trump is an existential threat to our democracy and our most fundamental freedoms.

While Democrats argue Trump's rhetoric sparked the January 6th attack and that he's used heated language against them. If we don't win on November 5th, I think our country is going to cease to exist. And Garrett, the former president about to take the stage now. This will be his first rally since the apparent assassination attempt. That's right, Lester. This crowd has been chanting fight, fight, fight, Mr. Trump's rallying cry after that first assassination attempt. But unlike then, when he briefly spoke of unity, his campaign is rejecting the premise that he needs to do anything else to lower the rhetorical temperature in this country. Lester. Garrett Haig, thank you. Meantime, Vice President Harris condemning Mr. Trump's own rhetoric as hateful

and after he pushed debunked claims about Haitian immigrants in Ohio. She sat down today for a rare interview. We get more from Gabe Gutierrez. Vice President Harris with her first extensive public comments on the false claims being made about Springfield, Ohio. It's a crying shame. I mean, my heart breaks for this community. She says former President Trump and J.D. Vance are amplifying hateful rhetoric

that Haitian immigrants are abusing pets, which local officials say is not true. And I think most people in our country, regardless of their race, are starting to see through this nonsense. When you are bestowed with a microphone that is that big, there is a profound responsibility that comes with that. Harris speaking to the National Association of Black Journalists, which held a contentious session with former President Trump in July, where he falsely questioned the vice president's racial identity. I didn't know she was black until a number of years ago when she happened to turn black. Harris also responding to criticism from Republicans that she caused the problems she's now vowing

to fix. It's like Kamala. Day one was 1400 days ago. What the hell have you been doing the whole time? Why don't you stop talking and get to work? As she was pressed, are Americans better off now than they were four years ago? We had been a lot of work to do to clean up a mess. As of today, we have created over 16 million new jobs. Is the price of groceries still too high? Yes. Do we have more work to do? Yes. She never directly answered the question yes or no, and also gave an indirect answer when pressed

about whether she would continue the Biden administration's policies in Gaza, only saying the war has to end by getting a ceasefire deal done. Lester. All right, Gabe Gutierrez, thank you. In just 60 seconds, Instagram's new teen safety features. Do they go far enough? And what was it like to pull off that historic private spacewalk? I'll ask the Polaris Dawn crew exclusively. We're back now with a struggle so many families have over social media, with Instagram's parent company, Meta, rolling out new protections for kids on the app,

features with built-in restrictions. But will it work? Savannah Sellers has more. Tonight, Meta rolling out Instagram teen accounts, a feature with built-in restrictions for users under 18, like default private accounts so teens have to accept new followers, messaging restrictions, and time limits prompting breaks. Meta says users under 16 will need parental permission to opt out of these settings, but enforcing this could be a challenge. We've built new technology to try to identify people who may be misrepresenting their age. How confident are you that you can identify a teen's age properly? This is one of the big challenges for industry.

There's no sure-proof way to verify somebody's age. We ask for age when someone joins the platform. We use signals to ask teens to then verify their age. Because if a teen is able to say that they are older than they actually are, they could, in theory, escape all these protections. We anticipate that some of them will try to do that, which is in theory, escape all these protections. We anticipate that some of them will try to do that, which is exactly why we've built these mechanisms. This comes as Meta's been hit with several lawsuits alleging the company is harmful to young people. Meta says parents will now have more control. They'll be able to see who their teens are messaging with and even block access to the app. For parents who aren't convinced that

this is enough to keep their teens safe, what do you say? Well, we've been consulting with parents for many, many months, and it's our sincere hope that they will find that these answer their biggest concerns, these protections. But we will be taking continual feedback from parents. And Savannah joins me here. What about the dangerous content teens are exposed to on the app? Yeah, Lester, Meta says that these accounts will limit the type of content recommended to teens. Think sexually suggestive or content that deals with self-harm. In some cases, they say they'll hide it altogether. Lester? Savannah Sellers, thank you. Now to a health alert for breast cancer patients. The FDA has

expanded the approval of the drug Kiskali, a drug for metastatic breast cancer, to also be used by patients in earlier stages. The news means tens of thousands of women diagnosed with early stage breast cancer can access a drug that decreases the chances of their cancer coming back. When we come back, my exclusive interview with the crew of Polaris Dawn and what they told me about their history-making spacewalk. We're back now with my exclusive interview with the crew of the historic Polaris Dawn mission. I spoke with the four civilian astronauts earlier today in Florida, and they shared what they learned floating more than 800 miles above Earth. The crew of Polaris Dawn brought me along today as they retraced the steps that led up to their historic mission, riding to the launch pad. Oh man, it's good to be back. An elevator ride to a top floor unlike any other and climbing the steps of the

launch tower. Jared Isaacman is the commander of the all-civilian crew. What is it like emotionally to stand here where your most recent mission departed from? This is a very emotional experience. It's an intense experience. It all began here and to be back at it is, yeah, it's very special. They had an ambitious agenda, raising money for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital while conducting 40 research experiments and testing new spacesuits in the first all-civilian spacewalk. When we opened that hatch, I'd say it was like sensory overload because it's not just the visual stimulus of seeing Earth right in front of you. There are pressure changes, there are big temperature transients.

It gets colder. Only Isaacman and SpaceX engineer Sarah Gillis ventured outside the hatch, but pilot Scott Petit says they were all in it together. There's no airlock on this space capsule. So once the hatch is open, you're all essentially in the vacuum of space. And we all felt these same sensations. What was it like to look back at Earth? And does it make you more reflective? Absolutely. I don't know how it can't. The fact that we had such an intense schedule,

there was moments that you would be scanning and you'd catch a glance of the Earth or a sunrise, the dawn, a sunset, and it just, it's so mesmerizing. Gillis becoming the first person to play the violin in space. For me, it was such a special moment to see a wooden violin floating in a 21st century spacecraft. I think sharing the music of John Williams from the stars, there's no more perfect a message than that. How are the acoustics up there? Really good. Awesome.

Really good. We have front row seats. The crew using every moment to push forward and learn, including passing through the Van Allen radiation belt. There is a radiation belt that goes around our earth. And so when we went to this higher altitude, we were getting much closer, really kissing the inner portion of that. And so what that means is that we, as well as our spacecraft, were exposed to higher radiation doses. We were taking all sorts of data to be able to learn more through science and research about the human response to that environment. So you got more than a few x-rays there in terms of exposure. You've still got bandages on your fingers.

You're still human guinea pigs at this point. Absolutely. We want to identify some of those challenges associated with long-duration spaceflight. Do you come back now with more questions, more things you want to know in future flights? You know, all of that question answering didn't stop when we splashed down. It is imperative that we learn as much as we can from all of this information to make future astronauts' lives better and enable that future where there are thousands of people living in space. They had a lot to do in just a five-day mission, but say they ticked off all the items on their checklist.

Well, up next, there is good news. Tonight, we'll introduce you to the family paying the American dream forward to the tune of $5 million. Finally, there is good news tonight about two families bound by a history of kindness. Now, one of them paying that American dream forward. Here's Steve Patterson. A historical homecoming. Hello. We've been waiting to meet you. At the very heart of the American dream. There used to be a hallway.

This small Southern California house, home to just two families over the last century. My brother and I both lived in that room. For a long time, it belonged to the Dongs. But before that, the Thompsons, their great-grandchildren, visiting for the first time. It was quite emotional to be in the house. Great-grandfather Gus Thompson was born into slavery, enduring the Jim Crow South for decades before moving west, buying this property with his wife, Emma, a pioneer at a time when the state's Black population was less than 1%.

In 1939, the Thompsons rented the house to the Dongs, one they eventually bought, an act that defied a legacy of exclusionary housing practices, forging a timeless bond between a Black and Chinese-American family. The Thompsons gave my parents the ability to make the American dream a house and a safe place to live. Now, decades later, the Dongs are passing that dream on. Selling the home and donating $5 million to the Black Resource Center at nearby San Diego State University. All in the name of Gus and Emma Thompson. I think the world is ready for more of the Thompson-Dong spirit.

One home, two families, a dream made real just by doing the right thing. Steve Patterson, NBC News. That'll put a smile on your face. That's nightly news for this Tuesday. Thank you for watching. I'm Lester Holt. Please take care of yourself and each other. Good night.