Top Story with Tom Llamas - Monday, December 5, 2022

Episode Date: December 6, 2022

Georgia Senate runoff smashes early voting records as both candidates barnstorm the state, some Republicans disavow former Trump's call to terminate parts of the Constitution, Elon Musk promoted a series of tweets that revealed internal documents about how Twitter handled a news article about Hunter Biden in 2020, two massive volcanoes erupt in Indonesia and Hawaii, and the Waukesha Christmas Parade makes emotional return.

Tonight, the final Senate battle just one day left in the critical Georgia runoff. Senator Raphael Warnock, the Democrat, fighting to hold on to his Senate seat as Republican challenger Herschel Walker looks to score a victory for the GOP. The former football star facing new allegations of abuse. What his ex-girlfriend told our Von Hilliard about the tumultuous relationship? We have full-team coverage on the ground in the Peach State. Trump versus the Constitution, the former president, calling for the, quote, of parts of the Constitution as parts of his ongoing efforts to overturn the 2020 election. Tonight, how top Republican leadership is responding as Trump continues his scandal-ridden bid for

the White House. Global eruptions a volcano roaring to life in Indonesia, unleashing a massive plume of smoke and ash, thousands forced to flee their homes, and the largest active volcano in the world still spewing lava in Hawaii. The warning for tourists on the big island tonight. Parents fight back. Two frightening animal attacks caught on camera, both in broad daylight, a coyote snatching a two-year-old from her driveway and a raccoon attacking a girl on her front porch. That little girl and her mother join us tonight, how mom turned into Mama Grizzly and pulled off that incredible rescue. Plus, political punches, the shocking video from Senegal, lawmakers brawling on the parliament floor, one of them throwing a chair at her colleague. what led up to that unbelievable fight. And the explosive accusations from Harry and Megan

with a couple of saying about their split from the royal family, including allegations of racism and planted stories in a bombshell documentary that drops this week. Top story starts right now. And good evening. We are now less than 24 hours away

from that critical runoff in Georgia. Republican Herschel Walker looking to, seat incumbent Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock after neither managed to win 50% of the vote in the general election. Here's a reminder of where things stand right now in the Senate. Republicans hold 49 seats. You can see it right here. Democrats hold 50. That's enough to serve as a majority with the vice president breaking a tie. But a 51st seat would give the Democrats some wiggle room, and that's what Republicans are looking to prevent. Voters in Georgia already turning out in droves, a record 1.85 million already casting their ballots. 52% of those early voters

were Democrats, 39% Republicans, but Republican voters traditionally more likely to vote in person on election date. So it all comes down tomorrow. Both parties bringing out the heavy hitters in the final stretch, former President Obama. You see him there hitting the trail with Warnock multiple times, and Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, who is widely popular with Republicans in the state endorsing Walker. A football star turned politician bogged down in yet another scandal. Are Von Hilliard sitting down with the latest woman to come forward with allegations of abuse. We begin first with Chief White House correspondent Peter Alexander, who leaves us off tonight.

Tonight, the final countdown, both Democratic Senator Raphael Warnock and Republican challenger, Herschel Walker, making a late push for votes ahead of the last midterm contest in the country. Are you ready to win this election? We've got to do it together, and that's how we're going to win. Warnock, who was first elected in 2021, is now facing his second runoff in just two years. The Democrats have already secured a majority in the Senate. Why does a 51st seat matter here? Oh, this is a Georgia seat.

It matters to Georgians. Here's what I believe. Georgia is better than Herschel Walker, period. Walker's attacking Warnock is a rubber stamp for President Biden, voting with the president 96% of the time. We need to get back to people who become leaders. We don't need followers no more, so he's been following Joe Biden around. Tonight, the former football star is facing a new accusation of physical abuse.

Cheryl Parsa, who says she had a five-year relationship with Walker, tells NBC's Vaughn Hilliard Walker tried to punch her in 2005. He had his hand on my throat and my chest, and then he leaned back to throw a punch. And luckily, I was able to avoid that. Parsa is a registered Democrat. We reached out to the Walker campaign that did not provide a response to her accusation. Walker has acknowledged suffering from mental health issues during that time period. Even before tomorrow's vote, a record number of Georgians have already cast their ballots.

Republican Judy Sardin, a lawyer and mom, says she's voting for Walker. We need someone in the Senate who's going to consistently vote for conservative. conservative Republican values to help get this country back on track. And we met college students in John Adas, who's supporting the Democrat. Why are you voting for Raphael Warnock? I'd say it's because he's just a catalyst for change in all the areas that I'm really passionate about, like, the women's right to choose. Peter, Alexander, joins us tonight from Atlanta. Peter, despite the growing allegations against Herschel Walker, several establishment Republicans,

including the governor there and some prominent U.S. senators have campaigned by his side in this but no sign of former President Trump who endorsed Walker early on. Tom, you're right. We have not seen the former president here in Georgia campaigning for Herschel Walker since it was determined last month that there would be a runoff in this state. We are told that the former president, Mr. Trump, will be participating in a virtual rally for Walker tonight on the eve of the election here. But if Walker is to lose, it would also be a defeat for the former president, who, as you noted, helped propel Walker to the Republican nomination. Tom.

Peter, from being on the ground there, can you get a sense of where the energy is? I know you asked Senator Warnock about the importance of this election, even though the Dems will hold the majority regardless. Yeah, Tom, it's obvious that there is energy unclear which side it's on right now, but notably more than 1.85 million voters, a record already cast their ballots in this race, and that's ahead of election day. And notably, 77,000 of those voters did not vote in the vote. midterm just a month ago. When we spoke to folks today, they say they plan to be out there

that there's simply too much at stake. Tom. Peter, Alexander, leading us off tonight. Peter, thank you for more on this critical election, including the record early vote and some issues possibly getting in the way of voting tomorrow. I want to bring in Vaughn Hilliard, who joins us now from Atlanta as well. So, Vaughn, we've already seen record turnout. Does it seem like voters have changed their minds over the last month, or do most seem to be reaffirming their vote? Everybody that I have talked to is voting for the exact same person they voted in last November's election. The big question, though, is how many voters is Herschel Walker going to be able to turn out for him who maybe did not vote for him in the last go-around? Maybe voted for Warnock or the Libertarian candidate who received 81,000 votes in that race here.

Herschel Walker's going to need those voters in order to close that gap. There was a 38,000 vote deficit for him just one month ago. The big question is going to be who turns out to vote tomorrow. We are expecting rainy and cold conditions, 40, 50 degrees, much like it was today here, which is a concern here, because the early vote favored the Democrats here heavily over the last week and a half. And now the expectation is that those that vote in person, those go trend towards the Republican. Now, Herschel Walker needs that reality to play out, but in big numbers, Tom. Yeah, the big question was there were so many voters who voted for Governor Brian Kemp,

who did not vote for Herschel Walker. What will they do with this early vote that's been coming in and tomorrow? I do want to talk to you about tomorrow. We look at your live shot there, Vaughn. We know it's cold, it's rainy. What's the forecast like on Election Day? Yeah, we're talking about cold conditions here yet. Georgians have showed just two years ago in 2020.

It was a similar type of day in the primary and folks came out there. You saw them willing to wait along lines. And that's exactly what we expect to play out here tomorrow. We saw in the early vote that lines lasting for an hour to two hours, and it's quite remarkable when you're talking about literally just one election, one race that is on the ballot, but we saw those 1.85 million folks that came out in the early voting realm, and there was no voting here over the course of this weekend or today, so the polls are opening back up tomorrow, and the folks here in Georgia, they're not naive to the fact that the whole country is watching this race. We saw back two years ago when they had a runoff for those two U.S. Senate seats that not only for Democrats, but particularly black voter shirt out in a greater share than they did in the general election race. And that is what Democrats are hoping for for the case of Raphael Warnock this time around as well. Finally, Vaughn, with such strong early voting numbers, I know election officials in Georgia are already setting expectations on when they will be able to declare a winner. Right. We could know the result as soon as midnight tomorrow, but more likely to be 1, 2, 3 a.m.

There's a good shot. By the time the sun rises on Wednesday, that we're going to know who is. the victor in this, unless we're talking about a race, which it very well could, that comes down within hundreds or even thousands of votes here. But because most voters here in the state of Georgia for this runout are not voting by mail, which those mail ballots are the ones that cause the delayed counting process in the general election, just a fraction of voters here are voting by mail. And so we should, over the course of the night, get a pretty good idea by the time folks go to bed who the winner is going to be here in the state of Georgia.

time. All right, Von Hilliard for us in Atlanta as well, Vaughn, we appreciate it. Staying with politics, former President Trump drawing attention for calling for the termination of parts of the Constitution. He cited baseless claims of widespread election fraud in the 2020 election and said he should be put back in power. It's just the latest in a string of controversies for the former president since announcing his third bid for the White House just weeks ago. NBC News Capitol Hill correspondent Ryan Nobles has this story. The Republican Party tonight, once again, forced to answer uncomfortable questions about Donald Trump. I vehemently disagree with the statement that Trump has made.

The parties only announced candidate for president and the GOP's de facto leader, proposing on his truth social channel that parts of the Constitution should be terminated to allow the 2020 election to be overturned. Trump's claims of widespread election fraud are baseless, but he argues that, quote, a massive fraud of this type in magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, and regulations and articles, even those found in the Constitution. Our great founders did not want, would not condone,

false and fraudulent elections. It is a position some Republican leaders were forced to navigate. Well, obviously, I don't support that. The Constitution is set for a reason to protect the rights of every American. And so I certainly don't endorse that language or that sentiment. While some, like Congressman-elect Mike Lawler, were able to distance themselves from the former president, other Republican leaders, like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and the House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy, have yet to respond, despite repeated asks of their offices.

Today, Trump walking back his words with the following statement. The fake news is actually trying to convince the American people that I said I wanted to terminate the Constitution. This is simply more disinformation and lies. John Bolton, the former national security advisor under Trump, now one of his critics, speaking out today with harsh words for his former boss. It's not merely wrong and outrageous. It is disqualifying. This, just the latest in a long line of controversy that continues to surround the former president since he announced his intention to run for president again. I am tonight announcing my candidacy for president of the United States. It was less than a month ago that Trump was dining with rapper Kahneman.

and a white nationalist, Nick Fuentes. Trump has yet to apologize for hosting the pair. And just days after their dinner, yay, as he is now known, went on Alex Jones's info wars to declare his admiration for Hitler. Thursday night, Trump expressing solidarity with January 6th insurrectionists in a fundraising video. People have been treated unconstitutionally, in my opinion, and very, very unfairly. And we're going to get to the bottom of it.

While Trump remains the most prominent member of the GOP, there are signs, even some of his Republican supporters may be open to other nominees. I just don't think that at this point he will be able to get there because I think there's a lot of other good quality candidates out there. And the new Democratic leader, Hakeem Jeffries, warning Republicans that Trump is only part of their problem. The Republicans are going to have to work out their issues with the former president and decide whether they're going to break from him and return to some semblance. of reasonableness. All right, Ryan, joins us now live from Washington. Ryan, you know, for the past few years, the RNC and Ronna McDaniel,

the head of the RNC, they've been a mouthpiece for former President Trump, and to be fair, that is what the national parties do, but has there been any recent daylight between Trump and the national GOP? Well, they certainly haven't gone out of their way to condemn Trump and his comments, but they're also

not running to the front of the line to also show support for him during this difficult time, where Trump continues to mount controversy after controversy. Of course, Ronna McDaniel is up for re-election as the chair of the Republican National Committee. She's already facing challenges from some on the far right. Those closely are aligned with the former president. Donald Trump himself has yet to endorse someone in the race for R&C chair,

although some of his biggest supporters have put their support behind Ronna McDaniel. But to answer your question, as simply as I can, Tom, no, there's no daylight still between the head of the R&C and the former president. All right, Ryan Nobles for us tonight here. on Top Story. Ryan, we appreciate your reporting. We want to turn out to another big story we're following the latest on the internal investigation at Twitter. The Tech Giants' new CEO, Elon Musk, promoting a thread by journalists Matt Taibi, which claimed to reveal how Twitter made its previous decision to block users from retweeting

or direct messaging a 2020 New York post story about Hunter Biden's laptop and its contents in the days before the election. Taibi said he saw, quote, thousands of internal documents about how the company made its decision. NBC News has not seen or verified those files. At the time, Twitter claimed the article violated its policy against distributing hacked materials, but there was apparently internal confusion why and how they came to that conclusion, a move that then-CEO Jack Dorsey later called unacceptable. The New York Post and Republican critics said the move showed clear bias on the part of a big tech company

to not run a story that could potentially hurt Joe Biden. I want to bring in Alex Stamos. He's the former chief security officer at Facebook, and currently as a partner at the Krebs-Stamos group. We do want to mention that we invited Matt Taibi to be part of this conversation but did not hear back. So, Alex, I want to start. Why do you think Musk didn't just release the documents?

Why do you think he got a third-party journalist like Taibi involved? I think he did want some credibility from an outside journalist. But also, he was clearly trying to make it as splashy as possible. So, you know, if he had just released thousands and thousands of emails, you would have not, he would have lost control of the narrative as all these different media outlets reported what they saw as the facts. And Taibi, you know, spun a pretty strong tale, which then wasn't really supported that aggressively by the actual emails he attached to his Twitter thread. So, yeah, what did you think about the emails that were released and some of the reporting by Taibi that's been out there? It's clear that Twitter looked at this issue.

It's clear there were some confusion. And clearly people were raising red flags, but Twitter, just like Facebook did at the time, cited these FBI warnings about hack materials coming out in the days before the election. Right. So to understand what happened in 2020, you have to look back to 2016. There were two different Russian campaigns against the 2016 election. One of those campaigns was on the social media platforms itself. It's the famous troll farms. Some of the people pushing these memes about Trump and Hillary and a variety of topics in American society. The other was the hack and leak campaign, and that was actions by the GRU, Russian military intelligence, to break into the email servers and accounts of critical democratic officials and to leak their information. When the companies reacted to 2016, they came up with policies that dealt with the trolling on their own platforms, but they also wanted to have something related to the hack and leak. And in the end, the hack and leak campaign does not really target the platforms himself.

targets the media. And I do think Twitter made a mistake here. I think having a policy to block something that is in a mainstream media outlet like The New York Post, whatever you think of their journalistic ethics, I don't think it's Twitter's responsibility to do that. But their decision to do it was based in a factual thing that happened in 2016. And like you said, in warnings that they had been provided over the year from the FBI that wasn't specifically about this topic, but that a hack and leak was a possibility in 2020. You know, you took a lot of heat as you were mentioning about what happened in 2016 with Facebook. Of course, there was that fear there. But Republicans and some journalists on the right are convinced that big tech in 2020 was on

the side of Democrats, without a doubt. Do they have an argument here now that more of this information is coming out? So I think the Taibi documents that he released, the stuff that we've seen so far actually makes the opposite argument. The conspiracy theory that's been pushed by number of figures in the right was that there was a specific request from Democrats or pressure from parts of the Trump administration that did not like Donald Trump, the deep state,

so to say, asking specifically for this to happen. And what these documents showed was that the decision was made internally. There's a bunch of confusion, a bunch of arguments, a lot of dysfunction. You know, Twitter has never been known as an incredibly well-run company, and you had a lot of

confusion about who had the power to make the decision. But in the end, Twitter had a policy that they had created based upon the Russian behavior in 2016, and they applied the policy when they figured out that there was no evidence that this was actually leaked or hacked documents, they decided to allow the New York Post story to go back up. And so, you know, the idea that a two-day delay on just Twitter of just this one story, but not all the related discussion, affected the election is kind of silly. In fact, what we saw here was what people call the Streisand effect, which is by doing this, Twitter really, drew attention to the story and made it a huge deal in the last couple weeks of the campaign. Right. But at the same time, there was also a growing course, especially from former intelligence officials that had signed a document saying that this was definitely looked like it could possibly

be Russian misinformation, classic Russian misinformation. Turned out all those intelligence officials were wrong. And Twitter apparently made the wrong call here. Hindsight, of course, is always 2020. Some Democrats, though, like Representative Rokana basically told Twitter, this was not a good idea. Democrats were very concerned. I agree with Rohe. I just, I don't think it's appropriate for Twitter or Facebook or any other platform like that to decide to substitute their decision for that of a media outlet like The Post. Now, the problem here is that the Post had not provided any evidence to any other media outlets, and they didn't provide any evidence that authenticated the hard drive. In fact, now that other media outlets have gone access to the hard drive, they have found that it has been modified since Biden last used it. And so, you know, it is a very complicated story. And it is, Alex. And I want to ask you about that because it's weird, right? Because you have big tech. They're communication companies. They're information companies. But as you mentioned, they're not newspapers. They're not NBC News. They're not CNN. They don't

have the same boards that we have, you know, standards and lawyers. They do have them, but we have them just dedicated purely to journalistic principles. How difficult is it for them and will they ever be able to really control this and be able to release this information in a safe manner. I think the right thing for them to do is in situations like this, you're just going to have to let the media run with it and all the arguments to happen in the public space. When it's right on the platforms itself, that is their responsibility. So, you know, they should not allow the GRU to create hundreds of fake accounts to try

to leak information directly to people. They should not, Twitter should not allow the Ministry of State Security of the People's Republic of China to manipulate the platform with thousands of fake accounts. That is, I think, an appropriate focus for the platforms. The problem of possibly leaked or hacked information being the media is just the cost of living in a free society. This is something that, you know, is having a free press means that possibly that press can be manipulated by outside forces. And we just have to kind of live with that and hope that the American people make intelligent decisions based upon the information they have. You know how to run a successful social media company, or at least, and what I say successful, I'm not taking a shot here, a social media company that has,

millions and billions of users. My question to you is, and others are trying this right now, is there a marketplace for another social media, like a Twitter, more dedicated to journalism or that can get the parts of free speech maybe better than Twitter has? Well, I mean, the problem here has never really been the journalistic side. It's that if you run a Twitter,

you end up with hundreds of millions of users, and a handful of them are journalists who work for company with ethical standards, and, you know, compliance teams and lawyers and such. And then you have hundreds of thousands or millions of citizen journalists, some of whom are very ethical and thoughtful, and some of who just make stuff up. And, you know, this is just the reality of our age,

is we don't live in a world where people tune into the three major channels plus CNN and two newspapers. You know, we have this explosion of media outlets that people can see, and there are good sides of that. The bad side is that you can have people select themselves into media, ecosystems that are not trustworthy and that lie to them all the time. And I think there's some responsibility for the platforms around that, but most of that should be around the design and trying to support good journalism economically. I don't think through content moderation, you're going

to improve the overall quality of the media ecosystem online. Yeah, and I think there's some responsibility that lies with the public as well. There's a strange phenomenon that has happened over the last 10 years where if somebody reads something, they immediately believe it, regardless if it's a text, regardless of if it's a tweet by some random person. So there needs to be some responsibility with the public as well. Alex, I could talk to you all night, but we have to move on. Thank you so much for coming on top

story tonight. We want to take you now to a developing story out of North Carolina where authorities say a targeted attack on a power substation has left tens of thousands without electricity for a third straight day. Families now scrambling for shelter as temperatures remain frigid. Here's NBC's playing Alexander.

As the sun sets on Moore County, North Carolina, tonight, Tins of thousands of residents are left in the dark for a third straight night. How did you guys stay warm? A lot of blankets. A lot of blankets. The work of at least one criminal vandal, officials say, who intentionally targeted the county's electrical system. What happened here Saturday night was a criminal attack.

The FBI says it's investigating willful damage after officials say at least one gunman broke through gates accessing two Duke Energy substations and started shooting. Enough damage to knock out power to more than 45,000 customers, the majority of them still in the dark. This was not in a random act. This was something targeted. The folks that had done this knew exactly what they were doing. And that's scary. Tonight, the county is under a state of emergency with mandatory curfew at 9 p.m. Schools closed. One of the area's main hospitals forced to operate on a backup generator. Businesses, roads, and busy intersections all in the dark.

Is this situation? It's very dangerous. We've had several accidents involved already due to power outages. We had some shots fired. We had robbery attempts. Duke Energy would not detail security measures around the substations but says they do meet industry requirements. Are these energy stations secure enough? You know, we have robust security measures and requirements as an electric utility.

We're regulated. We do look for opportunities of how we can improve that process. that process, things that we can do. And we'll take learning from this. As temperatures dip into the low 40s, for many, this grocery store, one of the few with power, is the only refuge. It's cold, and I come over here a couple of times a day to get from hot food. Just to get warm. Yeah. We have no heat. We have no cooking for sodas. We have none, you know that. How are you getting by? Barely. You feel for all those people, especially with those chilly temperatures, Alexander joins us now live from Carthage, North Carolina. So, Blaine, I have two

questions for you. The first, why is it taking so long to get the power back on? And I know this is sort of out of the left field, but it's been connected to some of the reporting there, at least speculated. There was some type of drag show. Did it have any kind of connection to possibly what happened at this substation because people were protesting that performance? Yeah, Tom, let's tackle that one first. You know, officials so far are saying that there is no motive. They don't have any suspects. But they also say that they're not ruling anything out, including that possible connection. This was a drag show that was taking

place in the area. There were a number of protests already kind of taking place. And so certainly they say they're looking into whether there was a possible connection there. Now, as for the length of time to get this back on, when I spoke with a representative from Duke Energy, he tells me this was very extensive damage. In fact, some of the parts of these

substations were destroyed, so they have to bring in replacement parts from other areas in the country. That's going to take a rather long time. They're going to have to essentially rebuild those areas, that were damaged in order to get the power back on, they are hoping to have everyone back in light by sometime Thursday. Okay. We hope they can get it on faster than that. Blaine, we appreciate it.

Now to the two volcanic eruptions, thousands of miles apart. New video, check this out. It shows a massive plume of smoke spewing from a volcano. This is in Indonesia, a mountain of ash streaming down on one of the most densely populated islands in the country. Thousands of people there are forced to evacuate. All of just one week after the world's largest happening, active volcano erupted in Hawaii. Look at that. The lava, now threatening a major highway

on the big island. Our Steve Patterson has the latest. Tonight, thousands of Indonesians in a desperate scramble to evacuate the East Java province. After this terrifying wall of ash erupted from Mount Semiru on Sunday, the volcano, unleashing a river of lava and smoke on Indonesia's most densely populated island, covering some in a layer of soot. and sending plumes of ash thousands of feet into the sky. Nearly 2,000 people have fled their homes, according to Indonesia's disaster management agency.

So far, no deaths have been reported. But this eruption comes exactly one year after Mount Semaroo's explosion last year, which killed 51 people. This, just the latest volcanic activity across the globe. In Hawaii, the world's largest active volcano, Manaloa, erupting last week and is now edging closer to the Big Island's main highway, only two miles away. We have such limited roadways on this island, and any time we lose a roadway, it just shifts all that traffic to somewhere else. But officials say the speed of the lava has slowed, now moving at about 50 feet per hour. We feel pretty certain that the lava is not going to impact any population area.

But people are flocking to the island to catch a glimpse of the volcano, and local officials are still warning them. What are you telling people right now who want to see the lava? As long as you stay by your car and you're not, you know, start trekking out into the lava fields, we highly recommend against that. That is dangerous. Geologists with the Hawaiian volcano observatory expect the eruption to continue, possibly for two more weeks. A lot of my family is on the Puna side, and we have other family in Kona, and we use this road to see each other. especially with the holidays coming up. When I think about how it's going to affect me, it's really devastating.

Tom, the good news back in Hawaii is that that lava is moving 50 feet per hour. That is incredibly slow. So the hope is that the eruption ends before the lava reaches the road. However, officials say that these eruptions are incredibly unpredictable, that lava flow could increase. And vigilance is being stressed for anybody that's in that area. Tom. Okay, Steve Patterson for us.

Still ahead tonight, the serial killer confession, the chilling new admission from a man already serving a life sentence for the murders of several women in the northeast. Plus, the shocking video from Senegal. Have you seen this? Lawmakers throwing punches and even a chair on the parliament floor. Why tensions are so high in that country? And two animal attacks caught on camera, coyote?

Look at this, snatching a two-year-old from her driveway. And a raccoon attacking a little girl on her own porch. That little girl and her mother joined top story. next. Stay with us. All right, we're back now with two terrifying animal attacks caught on camera. The two little girls screaming for help after coming face to face with aggressive animals right outside their homes. Horrified parents springing into action, wrestling their children from the jaws of a coyote and a raccoon. Stephen Romo has these stories.

Their screams for help are enough to get most any parent to spring into action. Two little girls on both coasts of the country in horrific daytime animal attacks. Both of them caught on camera. The first in Los Angeles, where a two-year-old girl was attacked by a wild coyote. Her screaming and cry, I thought she fell down, and then I saw the coyote with her. The little girl's parents still in shock are speaking out. Her pants were stained with blood. I took it off and then I like noticed, you know, the, the scratches that it made on her.

The couple's ring doorbell camera captured the moment the coyote first approaches the toddler and her dad as they stand near their car. The wild animal then snatches the girl from behind and knocks her to the ground where it tosses her body around. Soon after the father is seen staring off the animal by throwing. a water bottle at it and rushing off to get help we had to get rabies shots on her and just hope everything is going to be okay the family says they've lived in this location for three years and nothing like this has happened to them before there's a lot of coyotes here that we see nothing ever like this they're always they always just run away officials telling NBC Los Angeles that they took bloody clothes in for DNA matching to begin the process of trapping the coyote just like

Last summer, there was another coyote attack on a two-year-old girl in Huntington Beach. That coyote was shot and killed by officials. In Connecticut, another terrifying animal attack caught on camera. This time, a raccoon, seen attacking a five-year-old girl. Her mother, Logan McNamara, rushing out to help. At one point, her daughter was in one hand, and the raccoon. cocoon in her other. Go inside.

Go inside. Get out. Get out. Get out. Get out. The animal clinging on until the mom manages to fling it into their yard. A little girl was taken to the hospital to get rabies shots.

Animal control was not able to track that animal down. The family now setting traps around their home to avoid any future incidents. Well, both raccoons and coyotes can be out in the daytime, and that doesn't necessarily mean they're sick or a danger, but it is still best to avoid them. Experts also say if an attack does happen, whether it's a bite or a scratch, even if it doesn't seem too severe, you should still get medical treatment. Tom?

All right, our thanks to Stephen Romo, and joining Top Story tonight, the five-year-old that you saw in that video, Riley McNamara and her mother, Logan, who rushed to say. from that aggressive raccoon. Logan, welcome the top story. And Riley, I actually want to start with you tonight. How are you feeling? Good. What was it like?

What was going through your head? I mean, that looked pretty scary. It was scary. Yeah, I'm sure it was. Logan, if you could walk us through what happened, 7.45 a.m., your daughter's waiting for the bus, and you hear this yelling on the porch. What goes through your head?

I thought she slammed her hand in the door I thought maybe her hand or her finger was stuck in the door and I'm running to her and telling her that I'm coming and I see a raccoon wrapped around her leg So how big was that sucker? It looked like it was kind of big It had to have been at least 25 pounds That thing was huge 25 pounds

And this fat It was fat, Logan? Yes Yeah, it was like this fat Oh my gosh, Riley, I can't even believe that There was this call. Oh, my gosh. I can't believe that.

So, Logan, explain to me. So you run out there and then, you know, Mama Grizzly just sort of takes over, right? Yeah, you just grab that raccoon. It was just the instincts that kicked in of a mom hearing her kid needing help. Yeah. And, I mean, you were fearless, right? You just, you grabbed that thing. Where did you grab it?

I grabbed it by the scruff of the neck. That way it wasn't biting me, and I was able to. pull it off of her leg, too. And so it was... Yeah, go ahead. She just bent it down and then then scrapped it by the scruff. Yeah, yeah, your mom was so brave, huh?

Yeah, I think so, too. And someone on my bus gave me a scarf because I was so brave. You were brave, too. Yeah, that's good. You definitely deserve that more. So, Logan, I want to ask you, you grab the raccoon, and then what happens is things start trying to go after you?

It was latched on to Riley's leg pretty good. Once I finally got it off her leg, then yeah, I wanted to go after me because I was the one that was holding it. And then it looked like you were trying to shake it off, but I guess you essentially just sent it airborne? Yeah, the first time that I threw it, it latched onto my sleeve,

so it got stuck and I couldn't let it go or it was just going to come right back up at me. That's why I had to go and try and throw it again and make sure that it wasn't holding on to me. that time. Oh my. And then after you launched it, that it sort of just was in shock? It just walked away like it had just done nothing wrong. Oh my gosh. And then what were the extent of the injuries on Riley? We just have a few scratches. Riley's got a couple of punctures on her leg. A little bruise. It's really not bad. Okay. I think she's got worse injuries falling off

of her bike. Yeah. I guess the wild part about all this is that. that it attacked during the day, right? Yeah, and I had just had my dogs outside 15 minutes prior. I've got two German shepherds and a Norwegian duck troller that were all just right outside. And any idea why that... Yeah, go ahead. And then it just came out nowhere. It really did. It was so strange.

Yes. Any idea? Has animal control been able to tell you what happened there? It was just sort of maybe a crazy raccoon? So I haven't spoken with animal control. Nobody's contacted me about it. We put a trap out ourselves. It's on the side of our house that we've been trying to catch it. So if we do, then we'll take care of it, but we haven't seen it since.

Good luck with that. And then if I could ask you, what exactly, what advice would you have for other parents out there? Just expect the unexpected and really anything can happen. Stay prepared. And Riley, you have any advice for any other kids out there? Have they see some wild animals? What should they do? Stay away.

And Morgan was where we... I don't know who Morgan is. What did Morgan do? It's okay. And he ran into the house and told his grandma, something's wrong with Riley. Oh, Morgan was... Oh, okay.

They were trying to help out, too. Well, guys, thank you so much for joining Top Story tonight. I know that was kind of a wild morning. Yeah, go ahead. And my mom said, no, go back because if she dropped it right when they were coming, they were going to, it was going to come back to them. Yeah. Did you give your mom a big hug to thank her for saving you?

Uh-huh. Yeah, all right. That's good. Guys, thanks so much for joining Top Story. We appreciate it. I'm glad you guys are both doing okay. Thank you. All right, when we come back, a consumer alert.

more than 1,000 cases of frozen raspberries recalled over hepatitis A concerns. What you need to know next. Okay, back now with Top Stories News Feed, and we begin with the infamous Northeast serial killer confessing to five more murders. Richard Cottingham pleading guilty to the murder of a 23-year-old mother on Long Island and four other unsolved cases from the 60s and the 70s. He's been known as the torso killer or the Times Square killer and claims to have up to 100 victims. He's already serving life in prison for five other murders in New York and New Jersey.

Oversee to that shocking fight inside Senegal's parliament caught on camera. Take a look. New video shows a member of the opposition walking up to a ruling party MP slapping her across the face. Several members then jumping into the fray, one even hurling a chair at a call league. Tensions have been high in the governing body since July when the ruling party lost its comfortable. majority. And more than 1,000 cases of frozen raspberries back here in the U.S. have been recalled over hepatitis A contamination. The FDA says testing found traces of the disease in the James Farm products. The cases are exclusively sold through Restaurant Depot and JETRO locations in nine states.

So far, no reports of any illnesses. Consumers are urged to return the product or throw them out. All right, coming up, Prince Harry and Megan Markle like we've never seen them before, we'll explain. We're back. We're back now with the explosive new trailer for the upcoming Netflix special, Harry and Megan. A teaser trailer was released last week, but now we're getting a closer look at the six-part docu-series that will chronicle the couple's relationship, their riff with the royal family and their life in the U.S. Take a listen. It's really hard to look back on it now and go, what on earth happened? You hear that? That is the sound of hearts breaking all around the world.

She's becoming a royal rock star. Everything changed. There's a hierarchy of the family. There's leaking, but there's also planting of stories. There was a war against Megan to suit other people's genders. It's about hatred. It's about race. It's a dirty game. Pain and the suffering of women marrying into this institution,

this feeling frenzy. I realized they're never going to protect you. I was terrified. I didn't want a history to repeat itself. No one knows the full truth. We know the full truth. The series will drop in two parts. Episode 1 to 3 will begin streaming this Thursday, December 8th,

and episodes 4 to 6 will be added one week later. Later, Megan and Harry first signed the multi-year, multi-project deal with Netflix in September 2020 for what was reportedly worth upwards of $100 million, but NBC News has not independently verified that number. For more on what we can expect from the series and how the royal family is handling it all, I want to bring in NBC News Royal Commentator Daisy McAndrew. So, Daisy, I guess my first question to you is, they are truly leaning into all the drama in this documentary, and the phrase that stuck out to me was,

there was a war against Megan. Is that true? Well, of course, with so many things like this, it depends who you ask, and it depends where you're sitting and in what direction you're looking at. I suspect from where Harry and Megan were sitting, they probably did feel very embattled.

They clearly felt very unloved and rather unprotected. But the other important word you use, Tom, there is drama. This is a trailer. It's meant to suck you in and make you make an appointment. to view, which I think it has done very, very successfully. It's very dramatic and poses a lot of questions that, of course, the viewer will think they'll get answers to only by tuning in. Yeah, whoever edited that trailer definitely deserves some type of merit because it definitely

does suck you in. How was the Royal Family going to deal with this production? Are they going to be putting out statements after every accusation, every episode, or do you think they're going to try to ignore this? I think they'll do their best to ignore it. But, of course, the big question is, will they be able to ignore it? And if by ignoring it, they make matters worse, then they might feel they cannot ignore it.

You know that there's this famous expression in royal circles, never complain, never explain. And that's what they will try to do. But if there are cast iron accusations, as they were in that infamous Oprah Winfrey interview, then I think the royal family will feel they've got to get somehow back on the front foot and address some of those accusations, whether or not they wait until all six episodes have been at,

whether they wait and see quite how damaging and inflammatory the accusations are, I think we'll just have to wait and see. But in some ways, if they are being accused of racism, if they are being accused of not looking after the young couple, if they're being accused of not protecting them when there was an actual valid threat against Megan's life, which seems to be a hint of what we might be getting, then I don't think they'll have any option,

to address those issues head on. How are the British tabloids responding to these trailers? Well, of course, these trailers are very squarely and obviously laying some of the blame for the royal couple's unhappiness at the feet of the tabloids. And I have to say tomorrow morning they are coming out fighting. I was just having a look a few moments ago at some of tomorrow's front pages.

The male, which has been a long critic of the couple, is saying, fury at Sussex's claim of war on Megan, the son, another critic, Sussex lies and videotape. You can see what they've done with their front page. They express all out war. And one of the things, Tom, that they're picking up on, is that in this trailer, there are some quite misleading using of footage.

They're saying it's fakery. And I have to say, it is a bit stupid of the editors, have used footage that wasn't even appropriate, that wasn't even what the trailer seems to be suggesting it is. For instance, there's one shot where it looks like an unauthorized photographer is taking photographs over a wall of baby Archie and Harry and Megan. Well, it wasn't that at all. They were on an official visit to see Desmond Tutu. He was the official photographer okayed by the palace. So you can see why some of the tabloids are a bit irritated. Yeah, yeah, the editing maybe went a step too far there. I totally understand that.

You do this for a living. You've been watching and studying the Royals for decades. What stands out to you? I think a couple of things. What stands out to me is very many people assumed that they'd sort of said it all and that there wasn't a lot more to say. Well, clearly if this trailer is anything to go by, they have a lot more they want to get off their chest.

The implications that perhaps Megan really did have a threat on her life. And just interestingly, Tom, just six days ago, a former very senior metropolitan police officer said that he had seen some threats that had been prosecuted by people who wanted to do Megan some serious damage. Well, if that's the sort of accusations that are going to come out, that's very serious. And of course, the way they have used Kate, the Princess of Wales, in some of these trailers, portraying her in a bad light, I think that could be very inflammatory to the royal family. You know, Daisy, as much as people maybe love the drama, the royal drama, I do think that

people would love to see Harry and William, and maybe both couples come back together. We saw some of that during the funeral of Queen Elizabeth, which we both covered. And I wonder if you think there's any coming back after this documentary, and then, of course, after Harry's book, which is called Spare. Well, to the first part of your question, Tom, you're absolutely right. people really long to see the fab four back together. The romantic bit of me is desperate to see that. However, my head tells me that really we are at the stage.

I think certainly in the short to medium turn of no return, I don't think that this documentary is going to do anything but untold damage. And I think the book as well, because of course, let's not forget, the publishers, Netflix, their businesses, they need some bang for their buck, and they're going to want controversial stories. And I fear that that's what they're going to get. And that is going to do no good at all to the relationship.

I can't see this family getting back together anytime soon. Daisy McAndrew, we appreciate your analysis. We always love having you on Top Story. Thank you for joining us tonight. When we come back, marching on, the Waka Shock Christmas parade, once again, filling the streets one year after a deadly car attack there, how participants honored those victims while bringing holiday cheer Back to the city. Stay with us.

We are back now with the Waukesha South marching band. You saw them right there, marching in memory of the victims killed during a car attack on the city's Christmas parade one year ago. You may remember we were there with Top Story. The city determined to keep the answer. annual tradition going, honoring the victims while marching on. NBC's Moira Baird was there. Waukesha's Christmas parade is back, stronger than ever, one year after tragedy struck. The community, resilient after a man drove an SUV through the parade, killing six people and injuring dozens more. But this weekend, the turnout broke records as old traditions were revived.

The dancing grannies who lost some of their own, donning their pom-poms and dance moves. What does it mean to you that you're back here dancing again after being injured? It means that I have lots of angels surrounding me. That's up of them right over there. And it means that I had a miracle because I'm functioning and able to dance. And I keep crying, but their tears of joy. Their perseverance on the parade route a promise kept. Last year, the group told our Tom Yamis that coming back was the best way to honor their fallen

friends. We're going to make it continue. We're going to get more people who would like to be a part of us, and we will build up to where we used to be. This year's parade theme, Peace on Earth. First responders served as the Grand Marshals, while six snowflakes led the parade, honoring the lives lost. Their legacies still living on, while their families bonded forever. We all support each other, and we all have a connection.

You know, I don't know if that will ever heal. There'll always be a void there. Sherry and Aaron Sparks lost their eight-year-old son, Jackson, who was marching in the parade with his brother and baseball team. They weren't comfortable going back this year, but some of his teammates did. How did you get the strength to come today? Because you can never let the bad guys win. Just to show support for everybody in Jackson especially. To ensure safety, the city quadrupled police officer presence

and altered the parade route from past years, along with an $800,000 investment in new vehicle barriers. The most important one is the community feels safe. And that's something we can't put a price tag on. They want to show how resilient Waukesha is to the world, because we know the world's watching today. I think remember what a Christmas parade is. It's bringing everyone together in the joy of Christmas.

Think about how terrible it is that, you know, there's been a stain on that, and it shouldn't be. You're as cuddly as a cactus. You're as charming as an eel, Mr. Grace. That stain now starting to fade. Mora Barrett, NBC News, Waukesha, Wisconsin. We thank Mora for that story, and we are thinking of all the residents from Waukesha. We thank you so much for watching Top Story tonight. I'm Tom Yamis in New York.

Stay right there. More news on the way.