Top Story with Tom Llamas - Thursday, October 5, 2023

Episode Date: October 6, 2023

Tonight's Top Story has the latest breaking news, political headlines, news from overseas and the best NBC News reporting from across the country and around the world.

Tonight, the stunning reversal, the Biden administration announcing plans to build a border wall as the election creeps closer and migrants continue to pour in. The White House waiving 26 federal laws, clearing the way from miles of new border wall to be built in Texas as a surge of migrants crossing to the U.S. This despite Biden's campaign promise not to build a single foot of wall, why he's claiming his hands are tied, and why former President Trump is demanding. demanding an apology tonight. The crush of migrants crossing into the U.S. shaping up to be a critical issue in the race for 2024. Polls showing Republicans with a major edge over Democrats on

their handling of immigration, how this border whiplash could shake up the presidential race. Plus, Representative Tony Gonzalez and the mayor of Laredo, Texas, Victor Trevino, join us live with their scene on the ground. Killer caught, an 18-year-old arrested for that deadly attack that shocked New York City. An activist stabbed in cold blood at a Brooklyn bus stop and where police tracked that suspect down and the charges he's now facing. Running out of money, the DeSantis campaign hemorrhaging cash as the Florida governor slips in the polls. So is this campaign dead in the water or can they turn it around? We'll take a closer look. Riders bail on Barrymore, the three head riders of the Drew Barrymore show, declining to return, even though the

strike has ended. Their departure coming weeks after Barrymore tried to bring back the show without them a move she later walked back. What we're hearing from sources close to that production tonight. Plus, mile high manners, a new survey outlining the rudest things you can do on an airplane from talking on speakerphone to hogging the armrest and taking off your shoes, what your fellow passengers are begging you not to do. And firefighters dispatch to this home that appeared to be on fire, A closer look, the huge sigh of relief as everyone realized it was just Halloween. Top story starts right now. Hey, good evening.

We begin top story tonight with the growing crisis at the southern border. It's an issue we cover night after night on this broadcast. But tonight, the debate over how to handle the crush of migrants flooding into the U.S. is taking on a new political shape. The Biden administration tonight waiving 26 federal laws, clearing the path for the construction of more miles of border wall. The Secretary of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorka, saying there is an acute and immediate need to construct physical barriers to prevent unlawful entries into the U.S.

Pushing the White House to this point, images like these, these faces, these crowds, some of the 3 million migrants that crossed into this country illegally over a 12-month period, some wading across rivers, others climbing through barbed wire fences, or even lining up for days as they wait to be processed. The call to reinforce the southern border, one often heard at rallies, for former President Donald Trump, his supporters echoing calls to build that wall. But tonight, President Biden, the reluctant face of this new border wall expansion, despite campaigning on the promise not to build a single foot, we'll have much more on the political fallout and how this could impact Biden's campaign for re-election straight at. ahead. Plus, Representative Tony Gonzalez of Texas and the mayor of Laredo, Victor Trevino, will join us live with this reaction of what happened today to the news and what they're seen at their borders. But first, NBC's Peter Alexander leads us off.

Tonight, a major reversal of the Biden administration announcing it is waiving 26 federal laws to permit more border wall construction in southern Texas amid a record 3 million migrants crossing the border in the last year. The head of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas overnight, declaring there is presently an acute and immediate need to construct physical barriers and roads to prevent illegal crossings in Star County, Texas. But President Biden today appeared to contradict his own DHS secretary. Do you believe the border wall worse? No. Insisting his administration is not building more wall because of the surge in migrants, but because

they were required by law to spend money Congress allocated during the Trump administration. They have to use the money for what it was appropriate. I can't stop that. I'm speaking a direct contradiction to what his own home and secretary says. I hear you. I'm speaking for the president. I'm saying that he has said that he does not believe a border wall is effective. And late today, this from the DHS secretary traveling in Mexico City. There is no new administration policy with respect to the border wall.

Still, it comes after the president repeatedly slammed the wall and former President Trump during the campaign. There will not be another foot of wall constructed on my administration. I refuse to believe that we're a nation that builds walls, whips up hysteria over immigration. Tonight, Mr. Trump arguing he's been proven right, posting there are only two things that have consistently worked, wheels and walls. Will Joe Biden apologize to me and America for taking so long to get moving? The latest NBC News poll shows Americans give Republicans an 18-point advantage when asked who would better handle immigration, the largest ever deficit for Democrats on this. issue. All right, Peter Alexander, who was trying to get clarity from the White House,

as we just saw in his report there. Peter, we also know the administration tonight announcing it will resume deportation flights for migrants from one country? Yeah, Tom, that's right. Border officials are currently seeing more migrants from Venezuela than from anywhere else, and now they will once again face deportation flights. This notably comes after the Biden administration, Tom, gave temporary legal status to half a million Venezuelans. Tom. All right, Peter Alexander, us off tonight, Peter. We thank you for that while the Biden administration zeroes in on the southern border. The migrant crisis is being felt thousands of miles away in cities like Chicago. Officials say resources are running thin. NBC's Julia Ainsley is there tonight.

Tonight, officials warning Chicago is approaching a breaking point. Tense full of desperate migrants lining Chicago's iconic Lakeshore Drive, migrant shelters inside O'Hare Airport. A total of 17,000 migrants showing up since last August, and officials expect 1,200 per day to keep coming. Now Chicago is building sprawling tent camps to get migrants off the streets of places like this ahead of the cold winter months. Democratic Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker slamming President Biden for not doing enough, writing the federal government's lack of intervention and coordination at the border has created an untenable situation for Illinois. The White House blaming Congress for not acting and saying they've accelerated work permits and provided a billion dollars to cities

nationwide. I don't want them there. But protests here are growing. To have the government come in and dump 300 people right next door to me, it is not fair. The Latino Pilsen neighborhood was the first to build a shelter for migrants, and they're now preparing a new shelter to take up to a thousand more. Community leaders tell us they want to help migrants, but they're worried about resources for poor Chicagoans too.

I'm concerned because of the slow response for the federal and the state government. When winter comes, not only will you not have enough room for migrants, who also might not have enough room to take in some homeless people who live on the streets here in Pilsen, American citizens? Absolutely. We met these migrants sleeping outside a police station.

Stephanie tells us she boarded a free bus in Texas because she thought Chicago had a refugee camp. Some of us have been here weeks, she said. She told us she's desperate for a job to support her one-year-old son back in Venezuela. Julia Ainsley joins us tonight from Chicago, and Julie, I think it's important you explain to our viewers exactly where you are in Chicago tonight. That's right. I'm in the west side of Chicago outside a police station. There are multiple police stations just like this across the city where migrants are sleeping on the streets. I just walked through inside where it's packed on the floor with your.

women and children sleeping in the lobby of the police station. And just behind our camera here, there's a park full of tents with more families who mainly are from Venezuela and came to Chicago because they expected what they called a refugee camp. Now, the city is planning on building bigger, tent cities that can accommodate larger numbers. But right now, these migrants are sleeping outside the elements. In fact, those behind me slept outside in the rain last night with nothing over their heads. Yeah, we can definitely see the crowd behind you. And all of this, Texas Governor Greg Abbott says he's going to continue bussy migrants from the border towns in his state up to cities in the north. That's right. In fact, here in Chicago, they're expecting 1,200 migrants per day to be coming on those buses.

Abbott says he won't stop until Biden secures the border. Now, of course, if you ask anyone at DHS, they would say we've never had an operationally secure border. It's always been something where people can come across and make claims for asylum. But Abbott's going to continue to bus people up here. In the meantime, DHS has an assessment team on the ground here, trying to work with city officials about what they can do to prepare for the winter ahead. Because some people in the city are worried about not just what they can do for these migrants, but what the strain on the resources will mean for the many homeless Chicagoans who are already living here. And, Julia, before you go, you cover immigration for us.

I always tell our viewers, you're so well-sourced when it comes to this beat. What are your sources telling you about this reversal from the Biden administration and this incredibly confusing messaging coming from both DHS and the White House? Well, the question there is whether or not it is a reversal. Now, the message from DHS officially is that, no, this was already appropriated by Congress. We had to do it. We have no other choice. But sources I've spoken to today said they were actually caught by surprise.

the DHS did decide to go through with building these barriers. The key thing that just sped this construction up is that they're waiving federal laws in order to build more barriers and places like the Rio Grande Valley. They're citing the acute need based on those surging border numbers. That was actually something DHS Secretary Mayorkas said in the Federal Register. So they're waiving these laws, which means they're speeding up the process. You could have just had this money sitting there without awarding contracts, without starting. construction. This is the first sign. They're speeding ahead to actually follow through on that. And I think it's catching a lot of people by surprise, but it's in response to these surging numbers

and the fact that they don't think they're getting as much cooperation from other countries as they thought they might get to stop migrants from getting here in the first place. All right, Julia, Anzi, with a lot of new reporting there. Julia, thank you for more on the immigration crisis and the latest at the U.S.-Mexico border. We are joined tonight by Republican Congressman Tony Gonzalez, whose district includes 8,000. miles of the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas, and the mayor of Laredo, Victor Trevino. We thank you both for joining Top Story tonight. Representative Gonzalez, I'm going to start with you first. When you heard this news today, what did you think?

Thanks for having me, Tom. Look, walls work, more Border Patrol agents work, technology works, deporting people that do not qualify for asylum works. These are all things, I think, are positive. But let's be clear, the Biden administration is talking about, 20 miles of the southern border. The southern border is 2,000 miles. They're going to put up 20 miles of a wall. That is a drop in the bucket compared to what is happening. So what we need to do is we need to enforce the laws that are in the books. Behind me is, I'm in San Antonio, about 150 miles from the border. Behind me is a shelter that is over capacity. There's over a thousand people here. And San Antonio, as you know, Tom, is a very warm and welcoming city.

We're doing everything we can. The local administration is working. You know, the city mayor and the city council and the city manager. We're all working to try to make this thing get better. But it starts by enforcing the laws that are already in the books. And I'd like to hear the Biden administration talk about legal immigration for a chance, other than just blaming somebody else for what's wrong. Mayor Trevino, how do you take this news? Do you think walls work?

It was $200 million. The Biden administration saying if they didn't take that money, they were going to lose it. Are you happy they're building more of this wall? Well, first of all, thank you for having me. Now, we need to understand Laredo as under state of disaster that I issued last week as a precaution in case of federal government shut down during this migrant surge happened. It goes to show that to the point where we're underserved. I just came back from a meeting with Mayor Adams in New York as Mayor Fentanyl Summit, and I saw migrants there in different locations. You know, my heart goes out to them because they're overwhelmed.

they just can't take any more people. And as a doctor, I know humanitarian efforts that would have been caused with this shutdown, especially with no pediatric ICU here in our locality, and we're short of doctors and nurses in our community. So in regards to your question, you know, this could have been solved many years ago with immigration reform that has not happened. And we need to overhaul that. We need to ask for binaational health from Mexico also.

Representative Gonzalez, I mean, you were talking about the shelter where you are being overrun. You've been up and down your border, telling me similar stories. Are you seeing the flow at all slow down, or is this a surge that is ongoing and will continue for weeks, do you think? Tom, it's getting worse, and it is the worst. I have seen it in three years. I'm not exaggerating. More and more places are at capacity. More and more people are in desperate situations.

What I'm seeing now, the folks that are coming over, mostly from Venezuela, they don't have any money. They don't have a place to go. They're desperately trying to find, scrape together funds to get to the next stop along their journey, if you will. It's a very dire situation. It's not stopping. It's only getting worse. And also, I'm hearing more and more people in the local community that are upset. You know, there's a school not too far from here.

There's a church not too far from here. The biggest mall in San Antonio, North Star Mall, is a couple blocks away. So Americans, once again, San Antonio is a warm city that comes together to solve problems. Everyone has had enough. This is no, Tom, this is no longer a border crisis. This is an American crisis that has continued to spread. We have to work together to solve this, the administration, the Senate, and the House, and local municipalities to get this under control before it gets worse. Mayor Trevino, have any mayors from up north?

or big cities reached out to you for help to ask how you handle when you have an influx like this? Because they've been dealing with it for months, if not a year now. Right. No, the only thing that has been happening is that we've been going up to different places and trying to explain how we are a number one port of entry in the United States. And we have to understand that keeping 15 to 17,000 migrants a day coming in and to be processed, we can only process about 1,000. in a day. So receiving migrants from overheld communities like Eagle

passes what we do here. So we can't afford even a hiccup and our local resources would be overwhelmed. I've been born and raised here. I know that other measures could have been taken, but the thing is that at this point maybe we have no other choice than to do what we're doing. Okay.

Mayor Trevino, Representative Gonzalez, we thank you so much for joining Top Story tonight. For more insight on the political implications of this border policy, Chuck Todd joins us now. Chuck, We just gave our viewers sort of a 360 view of the border, right? What's happening in Washington, Chicago, and then right down there at the southern border. You've been in Washington for a long time.

Were you surprised with what happened with the Biden administration today? Well, in some ways, not really, because this is how they've dealt with the border, which is when they absolutely have to appropriate funds or make a decision because a deadline is coming, they'll do it. But I'll tell you this, this is a White House that is petrified of this issue. They simply want to do the minimum political heavy lifting on this because the Democratic Party is very divided on this issue. You know, we always seem to focus on the Republican side, right? But the reason that the Democrats don't want to touch this issue is they're very divided. And the fact is the left flank of the Democratic Party does not want to support any of the proposed. security proposals that many centrist Democrats and centrist Republicans like Tony Gonzalez

and that sort of what the public and the polling shows would support. And, you know, it's, so this really is a failure of leadership on the president's part because they just want to avoid a political hot potato in their own party. But if we were a healthy democracy and this were a healthy presidency, there'd be a summit at the White House with border mayors, big city mayors. And let's go, let's solve this problem. There's been none of that. And in fact, when it's suggested to this White House, they want nothing to do with it

because they think it's simply a political loser. And it's interesting because former President Obama was known by critics as the deporter in chief as a Democratic president. I want to go back to that NBC News poll because you touched upon this. Peter had it in his report from September on voter confidence of what party handles immigration better, right?

Republicans with the biggest ever lead I think they've had is what I'm being told, 18 points lead on this issue. So, Chuck, do you think immigration is sort of a tipping point, or it's a point that could cost Democrats' votes, or you don't think it's there yet? Here's the thing. And, you know, one of the sort of the lessons that I always tell people about, you know, why does a party take action and why don't they take action?

And I said, well, usually it has to do with whether it costs them an election. And there's not an election yet. It's sort of like, why won't Republicans, talk about gun issues because they haven't lost an election over being two pro-gun. The Democrats haven't lost an election on immigration yet, right? They don't really have a Senate seat that they could say, oh, they lost because of the immigration issue. Shoot, they've won two Arizona Senate seats, right? If this were an issue that was costing them in elections, that would be a place that you could point to, but you can't. So to be totally cynical about it,

it's simply that. And I think maybe this because, if you're gets the second term and he doesn't make this a priority, then that's really a policy malpractice. Let's turn over to the Republicans now because there's still a primary going on. And the reporting goes that as Donald Trump was sort of building out his first campaign and trying to figure out what to say in that speech as he came down the golden escalator at Trump Tower, you know, he was advised, right, to talk about immigration, that it was all people were talking about on AM conservative talk radio. And it propelled. him, right? I mean, obviously he had the name recognition, but it propelled this campaign. A lot of people

said he used racist language when he first delivered that opening speech. Does he own this issue of being tough on immigration, or will any of the other candidates also get a bite of that apple? I think it's his issue, right? And in some ways, he's owned it, right? The border wall, it's such a branded aspect to him. So, but look, this is sort of standard, you know, In the same way, a Democrat has to talk about reproductive rights, almost as a given, no matter where you go in the country, no matter where you're running, a deep blue, red, swing, you name it, a Republican candidate on any level has to come across as tough on the border, ready to do more border security. But as far as the presidential race, this is Trump's issue. But this is the question I have. Is this an issue that will move? swing voters. And right now, when you look at swing voters, and this is why I think the Biden White House would prefer to just put their, you know, stick their head in the sand on this issue.

Swing voters care about this issue, but they care more about the abortion issue and they care more about the democracy issues. If this moves up, then I would see more focus. But, you know, what should be done right now and what's being done, the reason it's not being done, politics. The only caveat I want to bring up, though, is that for the first time ever, voters are seeing this in cities that they were not seen this before. So, again, they're obviously, they're very democratic cities, they're urban centers,

but again, it is something new. I want to turn to something sort of out of left field. By the way, one quick point. Governor Abbott said, hey, when other cities start to deal with this migrant thing, they'll understand what I've been saying. Whatever anybody wants to think of Governor Abbott and whether this is a good idea or a bad idea of what he's done, whether it's humane or inhumane, the fact is he's right. And he was pointing this out that, hey, this is overwhelming no matter who you are.

This is going to be sort of out of left field, but people may be hearing this, and I want to explain it. You don't have to be a member of Congress to be speaker. And people have been floating this idea that could former President Trump be the Speaker of the House? I know a lot of things have happened that you never thought you'd see before in your lifetime. We get tired of saying that. But is that true? Could he be the Speaker of the House? It is true.

There is no, that the Speaker of the House does not have to be an elected member of the U.S. House. Hard stop. But let's get realistic here. He's got to find 218 votes as well to become Speaker. If Kevin McCarthy can't find 218, I don't know if Steve Scalise can find him. Donald Trump cannot. There's still two members of Congress in the Republican side of the aisle, Tom, that voted to impeach him. Okay? Never mind others who are in districts that if they somehow voted for him

as speaker, they'd lose their re-election. So he's actually about the, probably among the most divisive candidates they could put up there to do it. So I don't think he could actually get the votes to win. I think we're more likely to see a fusion speaker before you'd see Donald Trump as speaker. All right. Chuck Todd. fusion ticket. Always great to have you on the show. We appreciate you. We want to turn out of power and politics and the race for the White House. There are new warning signs for Ron DeSantis, the Florida governor, running low on cash. The campaign now has just $5 million on hand for the primary. It comes as the GOP frontrunner Donald Trump has been

raking in tens of millions of donations. Dasha Burns has the latest. Tonight, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis's campaign touting what it calls a significant significant third-quarter fundraising hall, $15 million. I will be sworn in as the 47th president of these United States. The DeSantis campaign saying the new cash should silence his naysayers. But beneath the headline, the numbers spell trouble for the man once considered the heir apparent to the MAGA mantle. The campaign only has $5 million in cash on hand that can actually be used in the primary.

Donor rules require the rest to be left for the general election. But to get there, he'll have to get past Donald Trump, the runaway frontrunner in the GOP primary, and a fundraising juggernaut. But under sanctimonious, as you know, I got him elected, but now he's a failed candidate. He failed. He went down like an injured bird out of the sky. Boosted by the Republican voters fury at the legal peril facing the former president, the Trump campaign says they raise. $45 million in the third quarter with nearly 36 million cash on hand for the primary, more than seven times DeSantis's total.

Why is he raising that money and where's that money going to? Isn't it going to a lot of lawyers? Governor DeSantis's campaign is a flashing red warning light right now. It's hard to turn around a presidential campaign, especially this late. At this point in the 2020 primary, Kamala Harris had $10 million on hand, double DeSantis' current cash, and she dropped out before the Iowa caucus. Before DeSantis, a critical lifeline. His super PAC never backed down is flush with cash and has been footing the bill for events

and other expenses typically funded by the campaign and testing the legal limits around coordination between super PACs and campaigns. It doesn't work. I don't think you can get elected president of the United States just because a couple millionaires like you. And now the DeSantis team taking a critical step, flying in, staffers from his Tallahassee headquarters to Iowa in an urgent effort to shore up support in the first-in-the-nation caucus state.

Hello, Iowa! More than three months out before caucus goers have their say, a campaign dogged by donor woes for months, now facing renewed concerns about the power of its purse. All right, Dasha Burns joins us now in studio. So, Dasha, before we get to the fundraising issue, I know you have some new reporting about the DeSantis campaign and some demands or ask they're making of the R&C. Yeah, that's right. We just learned from a source familiar with the DeSantis campaign strategy that they've asked the R&C in a letter to raise the threshold for this next debate. The debate

on November 8th in Miami, they're asking them to raise the polling threshold. Now, we don't know exactly to what number, but essentially they're hoping that there's going to be a smaller number of candidates on the stage. Again, they're trying to just consolidate the field. You talk to any political expert, Tom, they say if there's any hope of beating Trump, the field's going to have to narrow. wonder because the debate's right around the corner if the R&C will suddenly sort of change the rules. But we could see it happen. Let's talk about the fundraising. So the Desantis campaign learning, easy come, easy go. They're raising a lot of money, but as you're reporting shows, they're spending a lot of money. That's exactly right. And this is an issue that they had

over the summer. Their burn rate, meaning the amount of cash that was going out was just really significant. Now, what they're saying now with this number, though, while their cash on hand is low, that 5 million. They're saying that they've steadied the ship, that they are in a very different place now than they were over the summer, where the amount that they were spending was significantly higher than the amount that they were bringing in. They're saying right now that five million, they're saying that they're actually in a pretty good place with that. And remember, you know, we're making the Kamala Harris comparisons. The difference here is they do have the super PAC, which does have a lot of cash, and they've been putting together a lot of

these events and spending a lot of money. Exactly, exactly. So we're, I don't think we're going to see him drop out before Iowa or anything like we've seen with some of the other candidates in past races. Well, let's talk about Iowa, because I know NBC News had that new reporting also that he's moving a lot of resources to Iowa, moving staff at a Tallahassee. I want to put up on the screen now for our viewers, the winners of the Iowa caucuses over the last few caucuses. Obviously, in 2020, former President Trump ran unopposed. But I put these people up here because three out of the four did not become the nominee. So my point being that former President Trump can still be vulnerable in Iowa. Ted Cruz beat him in 2016.

And Iowa sometimes is open to the idea of somebody who is not the frontrunner. Governor DeSantis is not the frontrunner. My question is, though, it takes organization. You have to be organized. You have to be disciplined on your message in Iowa to win. You've been with the DeSantis campaign. Are you seeing that on the ground in Iowa? Well, look, the images you put up on the screen there, I think those were upsets.

Those were not expected wins. And I think that's exactly why the DeSantis campaign is focused. so hard on Iowa because Iowa sometimes picks people that folks don't necessarily expect and they make their decisions close to the last minute. And what I've seen is insignificant organization on the ground. They've had boots on the ground since early summer. They started way before a lot of these other campaigns started. They've had a lot of ground game organization. They've been at doors before a lot of other campaigns. So they've taken this really seriously because they see Iowa as really their best shot at making this thing happen.

Dasha Burns off the campaign trail, but here in studio, we appreciate you. Still ahead tonight, an update in a deadly stabbing here in New York, police arresting an 18-year-old for stabbing a community activist to death while he was at a bus stop with his girlfriend when investigators say they found at the suspect's apartment. Plus, a woman in Indiana taken into custody while filming police officers. The new state law that led to her arrest, we will explain. and the headwriters of the Drew Barrymore show refusing to return, saying bye-bye to Drew despite an end to the rider's strike.

What we're hearing tonight from sources close to that production, top story, just getting started on this Thursday night. We're back down with an update in that shocking stabbing of a Brooklyn activist who was randomly attacked while waiting at a bus stop with his girlfriend, NYPD arresting an 18-year-old suspect. He was found in an apartment just around the corner from where it happened. Valerie Castro has the new details, and a warning to our viewers again. This video is disturbing. Tonight, an arrest in the deadly stabbing of Brooklyn activist Ryan Carson.

Brian, are you sorry? You killed him? The suspect, 18-year-old Brian Dowling. Who are you crying for, Brian? Now charged with murder and appearing to cry as he was led from the police precinct to a waiting squad car. What happened? The NYPD tells NBC, New York, he was taken into custody. at a Brooklyn apartment where officers say they found a knife and the sweatshirt he was allegedly wearing during the murder. His arrest ending a days-long manhunt after chilling surveillance

video showed a suspect yelling at Carson and his girlfriend at random as they waited at a bus stop after a wedding Sunday night. Carson tries to diffuse the situation. Police say Dowling is the man in the video who appears to be hoaxed. holding a knife, swinging it at Carson. As Carson turns to get away, he trips over the bench and is then stabbed multiple times. The attacker returns moments later and spits at the girlfriend before kicking his victim. An unidentified woman appears, and police say she apologizes to the couple before leaving the scene with Dowling. My name is Ryan Thoris and Carson. Carson lived his life

as a social policy worker and poet, remembered for his passion as a community activist. He's you know, a slap on the back type of guy, big laugh, always smiling and willing to, you know, give you the shirt off his back if he needed to and was very interested in social justice issues across the board. Candles now memorializing the place where his life came to a tragic end. All right, Valerie Castro joins us now in studio. I guess the big question is, why did this happen? And what more have we learned about that woman who was also in the video? Right. So the little bit that we've learned is that police sources tell NBC, New York. York that Dowling apparently was arguing with his girlfriend before this incident, and she is

apparently that woman that you see in the video. Again, this still appears to have been a random attack. Police also charged him with criminal possession of a weapon. We should say we also reached out to Dowling's family members to see if they had anything to say about the arrest, but we've not heard back. Terrible, terrible incident. Okay, Valerie, we thank you for your reporting. Now to the latest on the scandal from battled Senator Bob Menendez and the accusations against him. Police records show Menendez's wife struck and killed a pedestrian with her car in 2018. That car of Mercedes badly damaged in the collision. Federal prosecutors alleging the couple got a new one four months later as part of a bribery scheme. Jonathan Deans has the latest.

As Richard Coop was lying critically injured in the street, the family's lawyer says the driver, the soon-to-be wife of Senator Robert Menendez, sat in her car for several minutes before calling 911. while when you're emergency? Yes, hi. Some guy just jumped in front of my car on my windshield. Before that call, Nadine Menendez sat for three minutes before anyone is seen coming over to help.

She let him lie in the ground and she took some time to sit there watching before she backed up, moved her car again and then drove around him. A witness nearby did call 911 and Bego to police soon arrived and Coop would soon be pronounced dead. Police determined it was an accident.

accident saying Coop had jay walked after his night out drinking with friends. The attorney for Coop's family has a different view. He just had to cross the street to get to his home when the defendant came barreling down the street and struck him. Recordings from that night show Nadine Menendez telling police Coop darted in front of her car in the middle of East Main Street. Why look the guy in the middle? Well, that's what we're trying to figure out. Senator Menendez on Capitol Hill today. That was a tragic accident. And obviously, we think of the family. But questions remain about the police handling of the accident and why it's only coming to light now.

The dash cam video appears to capture the voice of a retired police supervisor who arrived on scene to assist Mrs. Menendez, although it's unclear who called him to the scene. Your retired, he said? Yes. From where? Back in turn. News of this accident comes amid the sprawling bribery investigation into Senator Menendez, his wife. and three New Jersey businessmen. The FBI says one of the bribes was payments on a new Mercedes

just after the damage done in the Bogota accident. Tell us about the Mercedes. Who paid for the Mercedes? Prosecutors say Jose Uribe helped provide the new car. They say it was in exchange for the senator pressing the state attorney general regarding a criminal investigation of concern to Uribe. All the defendants deny any wrongdoing. As for the accident, the Burden County Prosecutor's Office says

its investigation team assisted after Bogota police determined there was no criminality. Public integrity investigators from the New Jersey State Attorney General's office are now reviewing how police and prosecutors handled the 2018 fatal car crash investigation. An AG spokeswoman declined comment. But two sources tell us public integrity investigators were inside the Bergen County prosecutor's offices today, asking questions and asking for doctors. documents. Tom? Jonathan Deans on those new developments. Jonathan, thank you. When we come back, Adnan Syed back in court. His murder conviction overturned after his story was made famous

by the serial podcast. But could he go to prison again? We'll explain. All right, we are back now with Top Stories News Feed. Adnan Syed back in court today to argue for freedom. A year after his murder conviction was overturned in a case made popular, of course, by the podcast serial. The Maryland Supreme Court hearing arguments over the reinstatement of Syed's conviction by an appeals court in March. That court saying the victim's family didn't receive adequate notice to attend the hearing in person. A woman in Indiana arrested under a new state law for filming police within 25 feet. Mary Nichols says she started recording officers from afar when she saw them making an arrest at a gas station just outside Indianapolis.

She moved closer as police put the person in an ambulance, then was asked to step back. She claimed she obeyed but was handcuffed anyway. And Senator Dianne Feinstein honored at a funeral service in San Francisco today. Warner's gathering to pay tribute to the longest serving female senator who died Friday at the age of 90. The vice president and other high-profile Democrats spoke during the private ceremony held at City Hall where Feinstein began her career in politics on the city's board of supervisors more than 50 years ago.

And firefighters in upstate New York spooked by a Halloween display. Take a close look. Glen Falls fire crews were called to put out this, which appeared to be the inside of a house engulfed in flames, but when they arrived,

they realized it was a convincing Halloween decoration. The local fire department was so impressed they shared video to Facebook and invited the public to check it out until the end of the month. Okay, now to the latest fallout surrounding the Drew Barrymore show. Sources revealing to NBC News of the show's top three head riders won't be returning after the strike. It's just the latest setback Barrymore faces after flip-flopping on her decision to bring the show back during the strike.

NBC's Dana Griffin has a story. Five months off and we are back. I've got a show to do. Tonight, as TV studios open their doors again following the months-long rider strike, The Drew Barrymore Show, facing another production setback, forced to return without its headwriters. Sources close to the show say offers were extended after the strike and all three writers declined. The Drew Barrymore Show now interviewing new writers to fill the top positions. The fact that there are hurt feelings here, leading to senior writers deciding that maybe they can find opportunities elsewhere, doesn't surprise me in the least.

What do we want? It's the latest obstacle for Barrymore, who just weeks ago faced harsh criticism after saying they would continue production during the writer's strike. I would just take full responsibility for my actions. Posting and then deleting this apology video addressing the controversy. I just wanted to make a show that was there for people. And I thought if we could go on during a global pandemic and everything that the world, world is experienced through 2020. Why would this sideline us? The move, drawing major backlash from union members on the picket lines. Barry Moore later backtracking that decision and pausing

the premiere until the strike ended. Good evening, Mr. Smith, Myers. This is late night. How are everybody doing tonight? Many shows like Late Night and The Tonight Show already making their return with others like The Talk expected to follow close behind, all avoiding the public condemnation, that Barrymore faced. I think the more lethal or the more challenging consequence she's going to have to come up against is, you know, these are her colleagues. So she's going to have to look these people in the eye, and they're going to say, why did you make this decision?

And really, the crisis here is a crisis of trust with her own colleagues. The show now set to premiere on October 16th under a cloud of controversy. All right, with that, Dana Griffin joins us live tonight from Los Angeles. Dana, have the three lead writers said why they chose not to return to the show? show. So, Tom, according to the Hollywood reporter, which broke the story, the three co-head writers and the show declined to comment. But during the strike on September 11th, the show's first day back in production, the trio

told THR that they found out Drew was returning, not from their boss, but rather audience ticket giveaways, which sent a message that union writers are not valuable. Tom. Okay. Wow, that's crazy. Dana, we appreciate it. Still to come tonight, the search for survivors in India. torrential rains, causing a glacial lake to burst, triggering flooding and landslides.

Now over a dozen dead and scores are missing what that desperate rescue looks like on the ground. Stay with us. Out of top stories, Global Watch, and U.S. officials say they have shot down an armed Turkish drone in a rare confrontation between the NATO allies. The Pentagon says the drone flew near American troops in northeastern Syria and was taken out by an F-16 fighter jet after repeated warnings. Turkish military says their drone did not belong to them. No one was hurt. Deadly flash flooding is ripping through northeastern India. New video shows raging floodwaters in India's Himalayan region after heavy rains caused a glacial lake to burst. Landslides have

been reported and hundreds of homes were washed away. At least 14 people have been killed with more than 100 still missing. More than 2,000 people have been rescued, though. And an update on American fugitive Nicholas Rossi. The Scottish government has approved a U.S. warrant calling for his extradition from the U.K. Rossi is wanted in Utah on rape charges. As we've reported here, he has been accused of faking his own death in 2020 in order to avoid prosecution. No word yet on when he might return to the states. Staying overseas now in a devastating day in Ukraine where officials say a Russian missile killed more than 50 people, including a six-year-old child. The missile tearing through a

small village in eastern Ukraine. As residents were gathering for a memorial service in one of war's deadliest attacks. Richard Engle has the late-breaking details. A huge Russian missile effectively wiped this tiny village off the map today, flattening what was Main Street in Hruza in eastern Ukraine. There's hardly a trace of the grocery and coffee shop that were here. Residents say there were only 330 people living in the village. In an instant, more than 50 were killed. Relatives from the surrounding areas rushed over as soon as they could search for loved ones. Valeria Herosemenko, looking for her mother,

says the villagers were holding a memorial for a soldier when the missile hit. There was a coffee shop here, she says. Ukraine's President Zelensky called today's attack a deliberate and brutal act of terrorism. While at an economic forum in Russia, President Putin took no responsibility for any of this. He claimed Russia did not start the war in Ukraine, the opposite.

And he says Russia is trying to end it. That's his message to the Russian people, even though Russia invaded Ukraine and is continuing its daily attacks that today devastated a sleepy village. President Zeletskyy said today that President Biden assured him of ongoing U.S. support, even though it's still an open question if Congress will pass more military aid for Ukraine. Tom? It's a question every Ukrainian wants to know, especially those on the front line. Okay, Richard, thank you for that.

Coming up next, if you travel a lot, if you fly a lot, you're going to want to watch our next story, because it's all about if you are that annoying passenger. We'll tell you the top list of things that is driving people crazy when they fly. And we ask Mr. Manners what's socially acceptable and what's not. Stay with us. All right. back now with the ultimate test to determine whether you are an annoying airline passenger. SkyScanner came out with a survey of the worst airplane behaviors. How many of them do you do?

So here's the list. Switching seats using both armrests, reclining your seat, taking off shoes or socks, unwanted conversation, using speakerphone on your phone when you're in the plane, and personal grooming may be the grossest on this list. We have the man who knows manners better than anyone, Mr. Manners himself, aka Thomas Farley, who's coming to us from an airport lounge in Charlotte. And as you can see, he's wearing his earphones because he has manners. He doesn't want to use the speaker. Maybe not everyone wants to hear my voice in that beautiful lounge. So, Thomas, on your take, what do you think is the worst here?

I mean, personal grooming. Talk to us about what some people are doing. Are they actually clipping their toenails on flights? Tom, I got to say, I trouble a lot, as I know you do as well. And this is one of the behaviors that tops the list. It is not one I have ever seen, thankfully. And I'm on planes a couple times a week sometimes. But this one in particular, tonal clipping,

seen it on the New York City subway, but not yet on an airplane. But I hope people are taking heat because that one would be pretty often. Let's talk about some of the other ones here. I mean, what's the deal with taking off your shoes? I can understand taking off your socks. I mean, that seems to me maybe you're crossing a line there. But can't you take off your shoes if you have a long flight? You know, I think if you're going to do that, you want to make sure that your socks are nicely freshly washed.

Some airlines actually will give out, mostly on international flights, will give out slippers for this purpose, because when your feet do swell on a plane and it can be very uncomfortable, but also uncomfortable is sitting next to someone who's got either stinky feet or stinky socks. So as long as you're clear that your socks are freshly laundered and not stinky, I don't have so much of a problem with that one. Mr. Manners, I think you just... back of my chair. I think you just called me out of my own show, but that's okay. What's the deal with reclining your seat, right? Because you have the button. You're allowed to recline your seat after takeoff. I was talking with some members of our staff about this, and there was really like two sides of this debate. Some people said they will only recline their seat after asking the person in front of them or, or behind them, I should say, or waiting till, I guess, the

person or after the meal service. I thought you could recline your seat after takeoff and it was okay. It's funny, Tom. So I'm fairly tall. I know you are as well. And I think one of the issues with the seats of airlines getting smaller and smaller by the year, this is where we've seen the increase in bad manners. And I think as people are trying to relax and trying to get comfortable by reclining, which they feel is they're right, people behind them, their coffee is being spilled, their laptops are being pushed into their laps. So I think the key here, if you really want to be a mannerly recliner, is to ensure the meal service is over for sure. and to gently ask the person behind you, would it be okay if I leaned back a little bit? Not do that super quick move where suddenly you're in somebody's lap in a span of a millisecond. Give them some heads up

so they can move anything they need to move and make sure it's okay with them before. I'm learning a lot from this segment, and I'm a million miler on Delta, so that's pretty sad. What can you do if your seatmate is either, you know, talking too loud on their phone, watching a movie without headphones,

and it's blasting or, you know, taking up the armrest, that kind of thing? This is, frankly, Tom, something I'm very concerned about is the facts that with Wi-Fi in flight, the domestic air carriers are all looking at enabling WhatsApp calls and internet-based calls where you could be sitting next to someone on a plane who is talking the entire flight. We're not there yet. Some of the international carriers are enabling this. So I dread that day.

But in the meantime, I think it's important for all of us to get in that habit of realizing voices carry, headphones are readily about. whether it's a plug-in headphone, whether it's Bluetooth, whether it's over here. This is really important. Now, the study does also say one of the worst behaviors is people who talk too much. And I agree on that front as well.

But I also think, let's be friendly to our fellow seatmates because I've actually made some nice friendships and had some good conversations about a local destination, which wouldn't have happened if I put in those earbuds right away and never took them out. How do you tell someone, hey, wrap up that call, you know, like you're a little too loud

you know, I don't want to watch Top Gun next to you. I mean, can you please put on some earphones? So how do you say that in a polite manner? I think there's a nice way to do it. What I usually say in that type of situation is, I'm so sorry, you probably don't realize. I know this cabin is pretty noisy. I'm trying to get some shut-eye,

or I'm trying to watch my own movie. Would it be possible to have some earbuds when you watch your movie or when you have this phone call? Or could you keep your phone call a little bit short? Because, let's face it, We are sitting inches away from the perfect strangers, and we don't always want to be seeing their content or hearing their phone calls. And that's the moment you get punched in the face,

and then you're the lead story on Top Story. I also want to point out, look at Mr. Manors. Look how he is traveling. He's got the jacket on. He's got the tie. I remember those days when people used to dress up on airplanes. All right, Thomas, always great to have you on the show. And we thank you for watching Top Story Tonight.

I'm Tom Yamison, New York. Stay right there. More news on the way. Thank you.