NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas - Monday, November 24, 2025

Episode Date: November 26, 2025

Likely tornado rips through Houston area; Federal judge tosses charges against James Comey and Letitia James; Pentagon opens misconduct investigation into Arizona democratic Senator Mark Kelly; and more on tonight’s broadcast. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Breaking news tonight, the tornadoes just touching down outside of Houston, tearing through neighborhoods. Now the same storm system plowing east during the busy holiday travel week. Twisters breaking out across Texas. Trees tossed into homes. This car smashed. Dangerous funnel clouds filling the sky. The wind so powerful, part of this building was torn apart while people were inside. Those same storms set to collide with holiday travel. Al Roker is tracking it all as we take you behind the scenes at the busiest runway in America. Are they ready for the holiday surge? The major legal blow for President Trump, a federal judge throwing out the criminal charges against James Comey and Letitia James, saying the prosecutor was not lawfully appointed.

Both Trump critics reacting tonight as the White House vows not to back down. Threatening court-martial, Senator Mark Kelly now being investigated by the penitably. after his video telling troops not to follow unlawful orders. So what charges could he face? The race to save a father and his five-year-old son clinging to their overturned boat for hours. Scary highway moments, a dump truck smashing through road signs, sending them crashing down. The life-saving moments caught on camera, a driver having a possible heart attack plowing into a building. The doctor who saved him telling me a wrong GPS turn put him in the right place

at the right time. Nightly News starts right now. This is NBC Nightly News with Tom Yamas. And good evening. We begin tonight with the severe weather breaking out across the south. Tornadoes touching down and this dangerous system now marching east as millions prepare to take to the skies and the roads for the Thanksgiving holiday. This was the scene just outside of Houston. Take a look at that. A massive funnel cloud forming over a highway. The dangerous weather ripped through this neighborhood, tossing trees on homes and on cars. The same storms pounded the major airports in Texas today with wind and rain causing massive delays.

And look at this. That storm system is now on the move, heading east and north, just as the busiest travel week, perhaps on record, ramps up. We're covering the forecast and the airports today, but we want to begin with Priscilla Thompson on the ground in hard-hit spring, Texas. tonight a menacing funnel cloud slicing through the Houston area that's crazy the likely tornado touched down this afternoon causing significant damage holy Houston downing huge trees and ripping pieces from homes Justin Vosquez's brand new car was smashed I dropped everything that I was doing ran into the bathroom grabbed at the toilet closed the door and the pressure was so bad it almost I thought it was going to blow my ear drums take a look at the mountains of debris

lining this neighborhood. Just got another natural disaster call. 9019 Bayou Bluffs, Klein FD for a friend's house struck by a tornado. Roof has caved in at this location, unknown if anyone's inside the residence. This image from the Harris County Emergency Response Center shows the likely twister, sending debris flying. I've never seen two men look more terrified. Nearby, two maintenance workers were inside this building when it collapsed on itself. He was just hanging on for dear life in his part.

was holding onto a metal rack, and he looked up, and the roof just sheared off. This haunting time lapse shows the dangerous storm approaching. It also dumped torrential rain on the area, a massive cleanup looms as this holiday week gets underway. All right, Priscilla Thompson joins us now live from that hard-hit neighborhood in spring. Priscilla, talk to our viewers about how widespread the damage is there. Yeah, Tom, it is damaged throughout this neighborhood, just about every house in this line. They just managed to clear one tree here, and already you've got another down tree here,

more of them back there, chainsaws everywhere. And these down trees have also caused gas leaks that officials are now out working around the clock to fix as it nightfall approaches here. Tom? We can hear that cleanup is already underway. All right, Priscilla, thank you. Those same storms are now on the move. Let's get right to our good friend Al Roker and Al, the timing. Not great for the holiday travel. Absolutely not, Tom. Right now, a line of about 700 miles from Nashville all the way down to Houston. And in fact, parts of Mississippi, Louisiana, we've also got in Texas tornado watches up for later this evening. And we've got severe storms for nine million people with tornadoes possible wind gust of 60 miles per hour or more. Travel tomorrow.

Snow and wind up around the Great Lakes. Rain in the Pacific Northwest. Well, there'll be some airport delays. Also, D.C. to Atlanta. Otherwise, roads in the northwest, a problem. I-95 may see scattered showers. If we move into Thanksgiving Day, we do have some snow around the Great Lakes, but it's going to be very windy in the northeast. Airport delays will be a problem. But good travel for much of the country, Tom, over the river and through the woods to grandmas for Thanksgiving. We hope so. All right, Al, we thank you for that. We're going to stay right here, though, because the big question is, how will that weather affect flights? Tom Costello is following that part of the story tonight. The holiday travel week off to a rough start.

The strategy is to get early. With that Texas storm delaying 45% of DFW's flights, percent at Houston Intercontinental. At New York's JFK Terminal 4, an IT outage Sunday caused hours-long delays into the night before it was fixed, while today... From the gate to the baggage hold to the cockpit, a full court press to stay on time. I thought I was going to miss my flight, but it's been smooth. Both the FAA and the airlines predict heavy volume. This is going to be the busiest Thanksgiving that we have on record. 31 million people flying by air, and while Atlanta is the busiest single airport, Reagan has the busiest single runway in the country. At towers nationwide, controller staffing is back to pre-shutdown levels, but most are still understaffed.

As some facilities, including Newark, struggle with antiquated radars and radios that will take years to replace. We've got a ground surface radar here that's got one operable channel on it right now. back in the concourse. It's a week after the government's shutdown, any residual impact? None at all. We're actually back to our full schedule. American Airlines says this week is their Super Bowl. We anticipate November 30th being the most busy travel day. Sunday.

Up until Monday the first. As a very big Campbell family flies off for Thanksgiving. You're traveling with seven kids. How's it been so far? So far, so good. But ask me when we land. Tom, that's the air. And that is the big question. Let's talk about the road now. We are also expecting heavy highway traffic to kick into high gear tomorrow. Yeah, so 90% of Americans who are traveling are driving, 73 million of us, Tuesday and Wednesday, afternoon and evening, the heaviest travel times.

And then, of course, Sunday on the rebound, everybody coming home, we're paying 306 a gallon nationally. That's pretty much where we were a year ago, Tom. Okay, Tom Costell for us, Tom, thank you. We have more breaking news tonight, a federal judge tossing out the high-profile cases. against former FBI director James Comey and New York Attorney General, Letitia James, saying the prosecutor had, quote, no lawful authority to present the cases. Here's Lord Jared. Tonight, the prosecutions of two long-time Trump targets upended. A federal judge tossing out the criminal charges against former FBI director James Comey and New York Attorney General Lettisha James.

Finding Lindsey Halligan, who President Trump handpicked to lead the U.S. Attorney's Office in Virginia, was wrongly appointed due to laws limiting how long prosecutors may serve without Senate confirmation. The Attorney General saying tonight the department will appeal. We'll be taking all available legal action, including an immediate appeal, to hold Letitia James and James Comey accountable for their unlawful conduct. The prior U.S. attorney forced out by President Trump this fall, after expressing doubts about the viability of indicting Comey and James. The president, nevertheless, directing his attorney general to charge them.

They should be judged, and we have to do it now. Just two days later, Halligan, the president's one-time defense attorney, tapped to serve as interim U.S. attorney, notably taking the cases against Comey and James to the grand jury by herself, despite having never served as a prosecutor before, both pleading not guilty. Comey charged with lying to Congress and obstruction just days before, the statute of limitations was set to expire, speaking out today. The message has to be sent that the President of the United States cannot use the Department

of Justice to target his political enemies. James facing charges of misleading her bank to receive a better mortgage rate, saying today, I am hardened by today's victory. I remain fearless in the face of these baseless charges. Laura joins us now live in studio. Laura, this sounds like this was doomed from the start. how did the issues with Halligan's appointment not get raised earlier? So Comey's actually the one who raised it right away because he was the first one that

Halligan charged herself. But Tom, the real question is even if these are to be refiled, who's going to refile them? Because now a federal court is the one that gets to decide who the acting U.S. attorney is, not the president, not the attorney general. All right, Laura, Jared, for us tonight. Laura, we thank you for that. The administration going after another Trump critic with the Pentagon now investigating Democratic Senator Mark Kelly over a video message he was in last week, even threatening

court-marshal. Garrett Hake reports from the White House. Tonight, the Pentagon opening a misconduct investigation into Arizona Democratic Senator Mark Kelly for his role in this video posted online last week. We want to speak directly to members of the military. Defense Secretary Pete Hagseth calling the video, quote, despicable, reckless, and false. After Kelly and five other Democratic lawmakers who all served in the military or intelligence urge service members not to follow unlawful orders. infuriating President Trump.

No one has to carry out orders that violate the law or our Constitution. The Defense Department now saying its probe could lead to the retired Navy captain and astronaut Kelly being recalled to active duty for a court-martial. The Pentagon has not outlined possible charges. Kelly responding, quote, I've given too much to this country to be silenced by bullies who care more about their own power than protecting the Constitution. Last week, President Trump posted that the video was, quote, seditioning. behavior, punishable by death.

Those are serious words. Coming from the president of the United States, he's trying to intimidate us. I think what Senator Mark Kelly was actually trying to do was intimidate the 1.3 million active duty service members who are currently serving in our United States Armed Forces. I'll be resigning from office. It all comes as the president also faces criticism from a former top ally, Georgia Republican Marjorie Taylor Green, who announced Friday night she would resign. her house seat in January admitted Epstein files feud with the president, suggesting that he and his

party have lost their way. Once I left her, she resigned because she would have, she would never have survived a primary. All right, with that, Garrett Hake joins us tonight. And Garrett, does Congresswoman Green want a future in politics? Well, Tom, Green had already ruled out a run for governor of Georgia next year and now says she won't run for president either. As for Congress, she said today the Republicans have wasted their majority, and she believes they will lose it the Democrats next year. Tom? All right, Garrett Hake at the White House for us. We want to head overseas now to the high-stake talks to end the war in Ukraine. Richard Engels in Geneva, where the talks are taking place. And Richard, both American and Ukrainian officials say progress was made

today. Clearly, Tom, some progress has been achieved diplomatically, not the end of the war, but going into these talks here in Geneva, the Ukrainian side was furious, believing that President Trump's peace plan was really Vladimir Putin's peace plan because it called for Ukraine to surrender huge amounts of territory along its border with Russia, to cap the size of its military, to never join NATO, all in exchange for some pretty vague security guarantees from the United States. Now they're talking about a pared down plan that they can work with. The details are still secret, but what has not been announced is a ceasefire, and Russian troops are continuing attacks on Ukrainian soldiers and civilians.

Tom. Richard Engel from Geneva tonight. Richard, thank you. We are back in a moment with a historic volcano eruption the first time in thousands of years, plus dramatic video of a father and son clinging to a capsized boat in dangerous waters. How they were rescued. That's next. We're back now with a historic volcano eruption in Ethiopia.

Take a look at this, the Haley-Gubi volcano, sending clouds of ashore. into the air, blanketing villages in the far region with dust. It marks the first time that volcano has erupted in approximately 12,000 years. Now, an intense rescue off Washington State video from the Coast Guard showing a father and his five-year-old son clinging to their overturned boat in choppy waters in the dark. They were stuck there for nearly two hours. A helicopter crew came to their rescue after their family called the Coast Guard, both the father and the son survived. And frightening moments on a major highway in Columbus, traffic cams capturing a dump truck driving with its bed opened up, smashing through two overhead signs. Officials say the incident

closed down the highway for about five hours while they cleaned it up. Okay, and when we come back tonight, the car crash caught on camera, how a doctor who took a wrong turn ended up in the right place to save the driver's life. That's next. finally there's good news tonight about a doctor who missed a turn that put him in the right place at the right time to save a man's life surveillance video captures the terrifying moments a car out of control flying over a curb then seconds later smashing into a wall dr kende idobu saw it all happen that's him right there jumping into action i fall chasing after the car his years of medical training kicking in.

I knew that time was at the essence. It was important that we got him out of the vehicle and started CPR as soon as possible. The driver who crashed had gone into cardiac arrest behind the wheel. This man probably had just seconds to live. This really was right place, right time, that a doctor like you was just behind him. Yeah, some people have actually described it

more of a God instance for all the fact this to occur, not just me being there, for the staff that came out to help me get him out, for the police officers or first respondent who arrived, they had a defibrillator. I look back and think that I was supposed to make two left turns but because I didn't, my GPS forced

me to make a U-turn and that's what led me to be at the right place at the right time. That timing, likely saving the man's life who is now recovering. Do you know how he's doing tonight? I do know that he's doing well. I'm waiting to wait more contact with the family and maybe meet up in the very near future. What do you want to tell him?

His story inspires me, and I hope his story inspires other people with how God can move in different ways and ways that we can't predict or get credit for. And that's nightly news for this Monday. I'm Tom Yamas. Thanks so much for watching tonight and always. We're here for you. Good night.