NBC Nightly News with Tom Llamas - Tuesday, March 17, 2026

Episode Date: March 18, 2026

Trump slams senior official who resigned over war with Iran; Historic snowstorm and record heat; Members of Congresswoman’s security team shot in police standoff; 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.

Tonight, a top counterterrorism official resigns in protest over the war with Iran. Now, the fallout as President Trump hits back. Sounding the alarm, the high-ranking officials saying he can't support a war launched against a country, he says, posed no imminent threat. The fierce pushback from the White House tonight as Israeli forces take out a top Iranian official amid new attacks on the U.S. embassy in Baghdad. Now the State Department ordering all American embassies to immediately review security. Winter's last stand stunning images of snow piled so high it's reaching the rooftops in Michigan. Drivers stranded in the snow, some passengers forced to sleep on cots in airport terminals, and the major airport now closing multiple security checkpoints.

New body cam video showing a deadly standoff between Dallas police and a member of Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett security. detail, what we're learning about how he got hired. An Amtrak train crashes into an 18-wheeler in Texas. Nearly 100 passengers evacuated. A nation on the brink, our team, the first cameras inside a Cuban hospital in a decade as doctors race to save patients amid blackouts and gas shortages. Crashing down to Earth, the moment a rare meteor streaks across the sky above Cleveland and the huge bang that shook the city. Thick black smoke over. the heart of New York City as a high-rise fire erupts just blocks from the St. Patrick's Day parade. Her side of the story, it was the kiss cam seen around the world.

The woman at the center of that viral cold play moment sitting down with Oprah, what she's revealing now. And there's good news tonight. The tears, the cheers, the cheers, and the moment years of hard work finally pay off as the next generation of doctors meet their match. Nightly news starts right now. This is NBC Nightly News with Tom Yamas. Good evening. I'm Kristen Welker in for Tom tonight. We begin with the growing fallout from the war with Iran. A top U.S. counterterrorism official announces he's quitting in protest. Joe Kent writing in his resignation letter,

he cannot in good conscience back the president's war with Iran saying there was never an imminent threat from the country. That bombshell setting off an internal White House. battle with the president and his allies attacking Kent. President Trump today also lashing out at NATO allies for so far refusing to help open up the strait of Hermos. He now says the U.S. can do it alone. And there are other major developments in the war tonight, Israel, killing Iran's security chief in a new strike. And we're tracking major attempts to attack the U.S. embassy in Baghdad. This video showing the moment air defenses took out a suspected Iranian drone. We are covering a at all tonight, beginning with senior White House correspondent Gabe Gutierrez.

Tonight, President Trump is slamming, his former director of the National Counterterrorism Center, after Joe Kent resigned in protest over the war with Iran. I always thought he was a nice guy, but I always thought he was weak on security, very weak on security. Kent, posting Iran, posed no imminent threat to our nation, and it is clear that we started this war due to pressure from Israel and its powerful American lobby. Kent is a retired Green Beret, a former CIA officer, and a longtime Trump supporter. When I read a statement, I realized that it's a good thing that he's out because he said that Iran was not a threat.

Iran was a threat. Every country realized what a threat Iran was. Kent's statement also drawing rebukes for alleged anti-Semitic overtones. Republican Congressman Don Bacon blasting Kent, posting good riddance. Anti-Semitism is an evil eye to test, and we surely don't want. in our government. But former GOP Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Green calling Kent a great American hero. Today, the president also lashing out at European allies. We helped with Ukraine. Yes. And they don't help with Iran. Who are declining to help defend the crucial Strait of Hormuz from Iranian attacks on oil tankers. We don't need too much help. We don't need any help, actually.

You would have thought they would have said, we'd love to send a couple of minesweepers. It's not a big deal. It doesn't cost very much money, but they didn't do that. President Trump also confirming his meeting with China's president Xi Jinping will be delayed. Is Iran now a bigger foreign policy priority for you than China? Iran is just a military operation to me. Iran is something that was essentially largely over in two or three days. There's nothing they can do right now because everything is knocked out. And Gabe joins us from the White House now.

Gabe, there are new signs of the impact of all of this on travelers and people's bottom line? Yes, Kristen. The Delta Airlines CEO said today, airfares have already gone up over the last two weeks because of the rising costs of jet fuel. Kristen? All right, Gabe Gutierrez. Thank you, Gabe. We appreciate it. Now to those strikes killing top Iranian regime officials responsible for recent brutal crackdowns on Iranian protesters. All as Iran is launching new attacks on its neighbors. Here's Richard Engel. Ali Larijani was last seen in public on Friday during a government rally in Tehran.

Proof to Iranians that their government was still functioning and unafraid. Today, Israel killed him. Prime Minister Netanyahu announcing it, saying we are undermining the regime with the hope of giving the Iranian people a chance to remove it. Larijani was a hardliner with a $10 million U.S. bounty on his head. He was close to Iran's supreme leader, and he oversaw much of January's crackdown when state enforcers, known as the besiege, killed thousands of Iranian protesters. The top Basij commander was also assassinated.

It's an evil group. I mean, they killed much more than 32,000 people, and the man who is responsible for that was also killed yesterday. But Iran is still fighting back, including firing cluster bombs at Israel. This train station was hit by a cluster bomb. You can see where the little bomblet penetrated the roof right there and caused a lot of damage down onto the staircase. These cluster bombs are not very large. It didn't destroy this station.

It didn't even cause any casualties, but it has a psychological effect because they're very hard to stop. So for a moment, as the weapons are dropping, it feels like the sky is raining hand grenades. More Iranian bombs rained down on Baghdad. The U.S. Embassy compound took a hit. There were no serious injuries or damage.

And Richard joins us now live in Tel Aviv. So Richard, Iran's attacks are now sparking a new alert from the State Department. What can you tell us? They are, according to a cable reviewed by NBC News. The State Department has ordered all embassies and consular facilities around the world to immediately review their security because of a spillover effect from this war. And, Kristen, let me just share with you some video we captured just moments ago. It shows a cluster bomb exploding over Tel Aviv.

And those tiny little dots, dozens of them that you see in the sky, each one of those is one of those small bomblets that I was talking about that hit the station earlier today. Well, it underscores the enormity of the attacks. Richard Engel, thank you so much. Our other major story tonight, the homes across the Midwest still trapped under feet of snow following that blizzard this week. And the new air travel chaos, passengers now forced to sleep on Cots in one airport. Here's Maggie Vespa. Tonight, stunning new video shows this Michigan neighborhood completely submerged under mountains of snow, here reaching as high as roofs.

Now, sub-zero wind chills, freezing piles, twice as tall as parked cars. This family's front door, impassable. In Wisconsin, car after car stranded along this Green Bay Highway. Entire cities buried. Storms raging out east too, with more than a dozen semis and cars wrecked in upstate New York and severe winds toppling massive trees in Massachusetts and Maryland. This week's wild weather, exacerbating America's travel mess. Strong winds grounding flights at Houston's Bush International Airport, stranded passengers sleeping on cots.

United Airlines sending hundreds to hotels and transforming Terminal C into sleeping quarters. Atlanta's airport seeing long lines as TSA callouts mount amid the government shut down. At Philadelphia International, TSA closing additional security checkpoints starting tomorrow due to staffing woes. Today, more than a thousand flights canceled nationwide. Mother Nature's wrath also felt out west. With triple-digit temps roasting, Arizona, Nevada, and California, and windy, and windy, dry, conditions fueling historic wildfires in Nebraska, leaving one person dead and more than 700,000 acres burned.

The days ahead are really, really high risk. A brutal combination of fire and ice wreaking havoc coast to coast. And speaking of ice, this massive 20-foot mountain behind me is all snow cleared just from the streets of Waukesha clean up across the Midwest, expected to take days. Kristen? Looks like it will. Maggie Vespah. Thank you. We have new body cam footage tonight showing a deadly police standoff with a man who served on a U.S. Congresswoman's security team.

Ryan Noble is now with the video and the questions being raised about how the suspect ever got the job. Tonight, new police footage of the lead up to the death of a man who once served as a member of Congresswoman Jasmine Crockett's security detail. Hey, stop the car. Move your car. Move your car. car. Thirty-nine-year-old Diamond Robinson was shot and killed after appearing to point a gun at police during a standoff. That video shows police chasing after the car he was driving, which had been flagged for having stolen plates. He's going through a red light. They followed him into a garage where he refused to get out of his car. Officers offered him opportunities to speak with family members to resolve the situation peacefully.

Police fired tear gas to force Robinson out of his car. When he emerged, he put his hands to his waist, and police say eventually pointed a gun. Police freezing the video and circling what appears to be a weapon. That is when officers opened fire. Robinson was killed by the gunfire. Police say Robinson, who was known as Mike King to Congresswoman Crockett and her staff, had multiple aliases and accused him of wearing police-style uniforms to falsely represent himself as a federal agent. Congresswoman Crockett, who recently lost a primary for U.S. Senate in Texas, said that Robinson's past, quote, doesn't fit the person we came to know as Mike King. Congressman Crockett wants to know how Robinson got through the vetting process to make it on her security detail,

calling the situation incredibly alarming. Kristen? Ryan, thank you. Tonight a rare look inside a Cuban hospital as doctors struggle to treat patients amid a power and energy crisis there. The Cuban government giving our George Solis access to the hospital the first time they've done so in more than a decade. Yonekis Polo Garcia is fighting for her life at this hospital in Havana. The mother of two young boys has leukemia. Administering what in most places would be routine cancer treatments is almost impossible here.

Garcia lives about 20 miles away from the hospital. Too far to walk. She tells me without fuel or affordable transportation, life has only gotten harder. We are fighting every day, she says. My biggest fear is going to bed and not waking up next morning. This is a supply room where all of the medicine is stored, but power can go up for up to eight hours at a time, which is enough to make the refrigerated medication spoil.

They've had to come up with other ways to keep it cold. You try to save it. Of course. Doctors here say across the country, people are dying because of the fuel crisis. So far, they tell me this hospital has been lucky. Yadda Colas, his 11-year-old son, got here today in an ambulance. She says she feels grateful for that because transportation is so scarce. Ambulance is not on the road,

are in places just like this one, some broken, some in need of repair, others just in need of gas. That's so hard to come by. In fact, 300 ambulances are sitting idle. There are only 25 being used for the entire country, all electric. Everywhere you turn, Cubans are suffering. The streets have been dark and homes, dangerously hot. Garbage is piling up on every street corner. Carlos Montez-de-Osa says he tries to stay calm, but it's overwhelming.

The stress gets you. could have a heart attack, he says. Families huddle around in the dark. It makes you want to cry, Yisabelle Garcia tells me. They feel devastated. Patience is running thin as these power outages affect every aspect of life here, from keeping food cold to getting clean water. It is a huge challenge for all of these families. Kristen? George Solis, thank you. And back here in the U.S., a mysterious loud boom woke up residents across Cleveland this morning. The cause A meteor crashing to Earth. Here's Sam Brock.

Tonight, meteoric levels of confusion in Cleveland. After a loud boom rang through the region. Frightening the pets in this person's backyard and stopping drivers in their tracks. The fireball also spotted as far away as Pittsburgh streaking through the sky. Anyone that's in Northeast Ohio, did you hear the loud boom? It sounded like a freaking bomb wet. in the Cleveland area. NASA says it was a meteor, fracturing into small pieces when an asteroid

nearly six feet in diameter and wang around seven tons entered the atmosphere. The ground beneath my feet was no longer stable. Ralph Harvey studies planetary materials like these at Case Western Reserve in Ohio. We're just basically talking about space debris that's falling into the Earth's atmosphere, right? Why don't we hear about this kind of thing more? Well, the main reason is it's actually more common than most people think. what's different about this one is it came during daylight hours right over a major metropolitan area. So it turns out.

What are we dinosaurs? It's nothing prehistoric or even life-threatening. Just a fiery moment shaking up some shocked Ohioans. Sam Brock, NBC News. And when we return in just 60 seconds, the woman caught in that cold play kiss cam controversy speaks out for the first time on what really happened. And we're back now with a viral moment that had the whole country talking last summer. Now the woman caught on camera in an embrace with her boss on a cold play concert.

Kiss Cam is telling her side of the story. Here's Stephanie Gosk. Oh, look at these two. All right. A moment lasting less than 20 seconds. The Kiss Cam embraced at a cold play concert last summer became an instant online sensation, watched by billions around the world. And Kristen Cabot's life would never be the same. Well, there was paparazzi there for weeks. They wouldn't leave. There was, I had people trespassing and looking in my

windows. We had people doing drive-bys and yelling and honking. We had my phone. With your children home. Yes, with my children home. Cabot speaking out for the first time on camera in an interview with Oprah. It wasn't even calculated where we thought to ourselves like, oh, no one's looking. Cabot revealed her husband, who she had separated from, was at the concert too. and that CEO Andy Byron told her he was going through a divorce himself. But the former head of HR says the vitriol was largely reserved for her. Andy Byron, your boss, were people coming up to him? No. Not at all.

And women, she says, were the cruelest. How I looked, to how I was dressed, to how I behaved, to, you know, sleeping my way to the top, to the gold digger, the husband's stealer. Both Byron and Cabot resigned from their jobs. People were united in their judgment. And I feel bad for us as human beings that that's what we did to you. Thank you. Cabot says she made a mistake that night, but did not deserve this. Stephanie Gosk, NBC News.

And we are back in just a moment with the wild video, a police officer jumping on the foot of a stranger's car, then making the driver chase down a suspect. That's next. We are back now with a massive fire erupting in Manhattan. Flames and smoke billowing from the roof of a high-rise building. The plumes visible for blocks just before the St. Patrick's Day parade got underway nearby. Now, no one was injured. In Texas, an 18-wheeler collided with an Amtrak train carrying more than 100 people aboard. The shipping container was thrown from the mangled truck while the train's windshield was shattered.

Incredibly, though, the fire chief says just two people. suffered minor injuries. And wild video out of Oklahoma, a police officer jumping onto the hood of a car to pursue a suspect fleeing on a mini bike. You can see here the officer pursuing the suspect on foot when he stops a passing car, climbs on the hood and begins directing the driver. Once the officer gets close enough, he jumps onto the bike apprehending the rider. That is some fancy police work.

When we come back, it's a match. the emotional moments for medical students years in the making. That's next. Welcome back. And a look at New York City's St. Patrick's Day Parade. Just one of the major celebrations across the country today. We hope you have a happy St. Patrick's Day. And before we go, there's good news tonight. Every March, medical students all across the country match into residency programs. And for one Iowa mom, it was a big step toward her dream of being a doctor. We have two more minutes still. Should we see if it's there? For Addie Rosa, this is a moment years in the making.

The single mom is also a med school student. And this notification revealing whether she matched into a residency program. I started second semester when she was four weeks old. And it was definitely the hardest year of my life. It's just incredible how much my community has shown up for me and made it possible. I got the email. Congratulations. Addie is one of thousands of med school students across the country finding out if they matched.

Can you see it? Can you see it? Oh my God. Then on Friday, they'll find out where. I'm going to be a doctor. I'm matched. I'm going to be a general surgeon. The next generation of doctors answering the call. I hope that people look at stories like mine and other stories. of mothers in medicine and know that it's hard, but it's absolutely possible. Those smiles say it all. We salute them tonight. That is nightly news for this Tuesday.

I'm Kristen Welker in for Tom Yamis. For all of us at NBC News, thank you so much for watching. We hope you have a wonderful night.