Top Story with Tom Llamas - Tuesday, January 9, 2024

Episode Date: January 10, 2024

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, it's being called a winter hurricane, that deadly winter storm, unleashing tornadoes, powerful wind, and flooding rains across the country. The images coming in from New York City were a plane collapsed amid high winds and heavy rain. Several people removed from the scene in stretchers. That same system, responsible for a deadly tornado outbreak along the Gulf Coast. Widespread destruction across the Florida panhandle, roofs ripped clean-off. and a home in Panama City Beach knocked off its foundation, a person killed by a falling tree in Georgia. Blizzard conditions bringing parts of the Midwest

to a standstill again today. When will this system finally taper off? Bill Karen standing by with the timing. Also breaking tonight armed gang members storming a TV station in Ecuador, the group taking employees hostages while live on the air, one appearing to put what looks like a dynamite stick in the pocket of a news anchor,

Staffers tied up on the studio floor, is this linked to the prison escape of a dangerous gang leader that has sent the country into a state of emergency? Pentagon Protocol Question. Officials in Washington revealing Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was diagnosed with prostate cancer. And complications from a procedure had led to his hospitalization. Tonight, mounting questions on why it took his own senior staffers and President Biden days to find out where he was, and what was going on. Appeals and accusations, former President Trump in court while his lawyers argue he's immune from prosecution on charges he tried to overturn the election. But a three-judge panel appearing skeptical and a new twist in the Georgia election interference case. One of the co-defendants alleging the state's district attorney is in a romantic relationship right now with the special

prosecutor on the case. Plus, Aaron Rogers publicly responded. to Jimmy Kimmel's skating seven-minute takedown against the Super Bowl champ, who suggested Kimmel would appear on Jeffrey Epstein's guest list. The insults the two traded each other over the air. And federal officials sounding the alarm over a new scam where criminals trick people into thinking they missed jury duty, even using real case numbers and then forcing them to pay up, what you need to look out for to avoid falling victim to this big scam.

Top story starts right now. And good evening, that monster winter storm carving a deadly and destructive path across much of the country. And as we come on the air, the northeast is getting the brunt of it. In New York City, parts of a construction crane collapsing as winds and rains kicked up in the area. Several workers, you see them here, taken from the scene in stretchers, at least three people. people in critical condition. Winds toppling over a semi-truck on a highway in Dunkirk, New York. In nearby Buffalo, 70-mile-per-hour winds recorded at the airport. Those winds leaving many in the dark and in the cold. As of 6 p.m., nearly 70,000 customers without power in Pennsylvania alone.

Just one state, another 56,000 in New York and 2,000 in New Jersey. And take a look at this new drone footage showing the roof-wrip clean-off a home in Mariana, Florida on the panhandle. The same system spawning a dangerous tornado outbreak along the Gulf Coast. You see some of the damage here. And we're also getting new video of widespread flooding in Covington, Georgia. That's about 34 miles east of Atlanta. Also in that state, unfortunately, a person killed when a tree toppled over it on them. Meanwhile, in the Midwest, blizzard conditions, shutting down roadways for another day. Winter alerts still in effect. Forget this, 32 million people in the region. It will be another dangerous night for many.

Bill Cairns will have the live forecast in just a moment, but we want to begin with Maggie Vespa live tonight from Iowa. Tonight across the U.S. are once mild winter, taking a sudden, violent turn. Holy breath. A sprawling monster system sparking a rare and deadly tornado outbreak, with more than a dozen tornadoes reported along the Gulf Coast and in the southeast. Homes toppled like dominoes, some obliterated in time. entirely.

I just put all the kids in the bathtub with a mattress on top. Authorities confirming three people dead across the south, including one hit by a tree in Georgia, another in North Carolina. Two people there also critically injured after a possible tornado touched down an hour outside Charlotte. They had got under the house and then it just sucked them all up and set it back down. Across the south, flooding is a major problem. Ross parking lot near Atlanta underwater. Meanwhile, blizzards blinding the Midwest, dumping several

inches overnight, whiteout conditions, making roads treacherous. I'm ready for it when it comes, but it's kind of nerve-wracking. Tonight, 178 million people across the south and northeast remain under window works. Seventy-five million in the southeast and on the east coast under floodwatches. hard-hit Iowa with less than a week until the caucuses snow forcing Nikki Haley and Vivek Ramoswami to cancel campaign events. Downtown Des Moines, a ghost town. I can imagine that it's going to disrupt a lot of other people who are traveling and trying to get here. A sudden whiteout marking just one layer of this triple winter threat. All right, Maggie Vespa in the middle of all of it there in Des Moines, Iowa. So Maggie, I want to go back to those power outages. You know, you never want to

see people without power, but in the winter it can be dangerous. What's the latest on those outages. Yeah, Tom, it can be absolutely brutal with temperatures like these. Our team just tallied up the latest numbers. This has been mounting throughout the day. Well over half a million Americans still don't have power going into tonight. And a lot of these brutal cold temperatures, brutally cold, are moving into the regions that are affected.

It's mainly the Southeast and the Mid-Atlantic especially that still don't have power. And it speaks to kind of the one, two, three punch that is the system. The South dealt with the tornadoes that we talked about, the mid-Atlantic dealing with the winds. just had snow over the weekend. So trees were already weighted down ahead of this system. So obviously crews have their work cut out for them tonight, Tom. This is going to be a long road ahead. It is. Maggie Vespa leading us off tonight. Maggie, thank you. For more on these deadly winter weather conditions and the dangerous night ahead, I want to bring in NBC News meteorologist Bill Karens. And Bill, I want to remind our viewers,

you're the one who described this as a winter hurricane last night. And that's exactly what we're seeing now tonight. Yeah, the winds, the rain, the severe side of this. I mean, three tornadoes. Officially, this goes down as a tornado outbreak. A lot of them around the Panama City areas. We've scattered a couple through Georgia and even South Carolina, and it wouldn't surprise me if we get a couple confirmed in North Carolina. The tornado portion of the storm is almost over with. We have one tornado watch still from Orlando to Fort Myers with one new tornado warning there. Raleigh to Wilmington, the southern Virginia is the other tornado watch. That'll be expiring at 9 o'clock this evening. So as far as the worst of it goes,

right now in the Mid-Atlantic, right around Washington, D.C., up to Philadelphia. That's where the heaviest rain is, the greatest flash flood threat, and also the strongest winds are right along the North Carolina coast, and those will move northwards along the coast. We still have life-threatening flash flooding ongoing, all through areas of North Carolina in southern Virginia, including the Richmond area, and right around just outside of Charlotte, North Carolina. Later tonight, the flash flood threat will move into areas like Philadelphia, almost all of northern New Jersey, the tri-state area around New York City. And as far as the winds go, still 178 million. We're starting to lose some in the southeast,

but the worst of these winds is now heading into areas right along the east coast. We're seeing wind gusts from the 54-mile-power range in Wilmington. I've already seen confirmation of 69-mile-power gust in Raleigh, 69 in Charleston, and that tonight is what's going to knock out power for hundreds of thousands, maybe even up to a million people in the northeast when we get these peak wind gusts. 62 Atlantic City, 60 New York, and Long Island, we could have wind gusts up to 70 miles per hour. That's like a strong tropical storm moving through. And then the final element of this, it's now snowing in Chicago again.

winter storm warning still continued from Milwaukee northward only an inch or two expected but the next storm Tom is right behind this one and this is going to be really cruel it's almost going to be extremely similar to what we just dealt with today wow all right bill karen's giving us a heads up on that third storm now we're going to be tracking bill thank you for that we want to go to some breaking news out of south america that we're following tonight armed gang members taking over a tv station in ecuador during a live broadcast this disturbing incident just the latest in a string of attacks across the country. It comes a day after the president declared a state of emergency following a dangerous gang leader's escape from a prison.

NBC Sam Brock is following this one. A broader war between gangs and government burst into the studio of an Ecuadorian TV station today, where armed men wearing masks and holding pistols and long guns broke onto the premises this afternoon and took employees hostage. The men flashing what a person, appeared to be a grenade in front of the camera lens, jamming what looked like dynamite into one anchor's pocket. As the man pleaded not to be hurt, all of it broadcast on live TV.

Police then pushing warnings on social media about the hostile takeover in Guayaquil, telling the public, our specialized units are deployed on site to attend to this emergency, news in progress. Witnesses reacting in real time. I was going along normally when behind me there were many, many police cars. One man told local media. They stopped the traffic and uniform policemen were getting out of the patrol car with the machine guns next to us. And I said, this is not normal. Something is going on.

Ecuadorian police documenting their rescue efforts. And after about 30 minutes, they stormed the studio and ultimately corralled the mass intruders. and their weapons, incredibly, all hostages were released. The dozen-plus men later shown handcuffed and spread out against the wall as police stood over them with machine guns. The backstory is a broader conflict against armed drug groups that the president has termed terrorists. Ecuadorians, the time when the people condemned of narco-traffic, murder and organized crime

dictated over the government in place, has already finished. He told the public earlier this week, while declaring, a 60-day state of emergency, empowering the army to neutralize these groups. It all comes after a gang leader escaped prison over the weekend, and Ecuador has been overwhelmed with an explosion of gang activity. And with that, Sam Brock joins us live from Miami. Sam, this story is just so wild. You mentioned this escalated with the escape of that drug lord serving the 30-year sentence.

What's the backstory here? Yeah, Tom, the backstories that Guayaquil is a port city in Ecuador, extremely strategic. strategically important for the drug trade, Tom. If you look at a map, there's Guayaquil. Just to the north, you have Colombia, just south of that. Peru, and you have all of these rival gangs competing for that space, which is right on the Pacific Ocean. Now, the drug lord who escaped, his name is Adolfo Macyas. He's part of Los Chieneros, which is aligned, according to federal authorities, with the Mexican cartel, the Sinaloa cartel.

So they're vying with Colombian cartels and other Mexican cartels for that space since he escaped, Tom, which he had already done previously in 2013. This situation essentially exploded. You had seven police officers kidnapped in just the day or two since his escape. The police right now are being told they need to do whatever they have to do to try to get the situation under control. Yeah, it's a geopolitical criminal crisis happening there in Ecuador. All right, Sam Brock, we thank you for tracking that.

That is some breaking news out of Washington, where we are learning. Finally, Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin was being treated for prostate cancer. Today, doctors at Walter Reed Medical Center saying he is expected to make a full recovery. That's good news. This coming as the Pentagon continues to face intense scrutiny over the lack of transparency regarding Austin's hospitalization. Courtney Kuby has the latest. Tonight, the mystery surrounding Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin's Secret of Hospitalization revealed he was being treated for prostate cancer. His doctors say he was diagnosed in early December, but defense officials say he hid the illness from top.

Pentagon officials and even the president. Nobody at the White House knew that Secretary Austin had prostate cancer until this morning. A statement from Walter Reed saying his surgical procedure on December 22nd was to treat and cure prostate cancer. They say he was under general anesthesia, but released the next morning. But on Monday, January 1st, Austin was rushed back to Walter Reed via ambulance with severe pain, suffering from an infection and fluid buildup that was impairing his small intestine. On Tuesday, January 2nd, Austin was admitted to the intensive care unit and transferred some authorities to his deputy, Kathleen Hicks, while she was on vacation in Puerto Rico. But Hicks and the White House were not told he was in the ICU until Thursday,

January 4th. Members of Congress, senior Pentagon leaders, and the public were not informed until the night of Friday, January 5th. This guy shouldn't be in charge of our military now. Well, I'm going to continue calling for a full disclosure. I'm calling for a full hearing. The Pentagon now reviewing who knew what, when, and why the White House wasn't told. Clearly, we could have done better and we will do better. Austin's chief of staff now ordering that these officials be told when Austin transfers authority to Hicks and why. Austin remains hospitalized tonight, having now spent all of 2024 in the hospital.

Doctors there saying he's expected to make a full recovery, but it can be a slow process. All right, Courtney, Cuby joins us tonight from the Pentagon. Courtney, there was a lot of news today, right, and a lot of new information. I know our teams, your team at the Pentagon, our teams at the White House, really pressing everyone for answers. What did you really learn today? What you think was the most important information we all learned? So, I mean, I think I was surprised by the severity of this illness that Secretary Austin. I mean, look, he's been in the hospital for over a week, so we all assume that.

that there was something very serious here, but the fact that he was diagnosed with prostate cancer early in December and that he had such a severe complication that I have to say, Tom, is going to keep him in the hospital for several more days, most likely. And as the statement from Walter Reed said today, there will be a, it will be a slow process for him to recover. But what we don't know is how long that slow process will last, and could it impact his very demanding job as Secretary of Defense in the weeks and months going forward, including travel. Those are answers that we just don't have. Yeah. And then did we get any better understanding of the breakdown? What happened between him and the DOD officials and the White

House? No. And I have to say now that they have ordered this review where they're looking at exactly what happened, who was notified when, now when we ask the questions, they fall back on the review and say, well, the review is going to uncover all of that. So I suspect we won't get specific answers for at least another 29 days. It's a 30-day review. And I I did ask Pat Ryder, the Pentagon Press Secretary, today, if they vowed that they would release those details publicly? He said that they would. So the big question remains, how is it that Secretary Austin's chief of staff, his senior

military aid, were both notified on Tuesday of this hospitalization that he was in the ICU and that neither of them notified the White House for at least 48 hours? We have no idea still here, Tom. We hope to get that answer sometime soon. All right, Courtney Cuby at the Pentagon First. Courtney, thank you. Now to the latest on the legal battles of former President Trump. A federal appeals court now hearing his appeal that he is immune from prosecution for crimes he allegedly committed while in office because he was president at the time.

But all three judges on the panel expressing some skepticism about his argument. Laura Jarrett has the latest. Tonight a ruling expected any time from the federal appeals court which appeared deeply skeptical today of Donald Trump's efforts to derail the case about his attempts to overturn the 20. election. I did nothing wrong. Absolutely nothing wrong. I feel that as a president, you have to have immunity. The Republican frontrunner watching on in court is his lawyer, John Sauer urged the three-judge panel to break new legal ground and find the former president immune from prosecution, emphasizing everything he's been charged for took place when he was still in the White House. We have the prosecution of the chief political opponent who is winning in every

poll and is being prosecuted by the administration that he's seeking to replace. While the Justice Department argues nothing in the Constitution supports shielding Mr. Trump from prosecution now. Never before has there been allegations that a sitting president has with private individuals and using the levers of power sought to fundamentally subvert the Democratic Republic and the electoral system. It would be awfully scary if there weren't some sort of mechanism by which to reach that criminally. Judge Florence Pan, a Biden appointee, posing stark hypotheticals on. on what a future president could do if Mr. Trump's view prevailed. Could a president order SEAL Team 6 to assassinate a political rival?

The answer in Sauer's view, yes, so long as the president was impeached and convicted first, pinning much of his argument on the Senate acquitting Mr. Trump at his 2021 impeachment trial, a position DOJ cast as frightening. What kind of world are we living in? The president has a unique constitutional role, but he is not above the law. All right, Laura Jarrett joins us now in studio. So, Laura, I want to go right back to the top of your report. You said this ruling on immunity could come down at any time.

Does that mean tonight, tomorrow? I mean, this week? I would not be surprised if we see it by the end of this week or next week. The judges have already sort of signal that they want to take this up seriously. They want to move fast. This is the kind of thing that usually you don't see an appeal set like this for weeks. It can take months. They've done this now within days because the special counsel,

The council's team has said they want the court to rule expeditiously, because remember, the trial date is the thing that's in jeopardy here. That March trial date right now, frozen in time. That can't move forward at all until this gets resolved. Okay, I know you're juggling 20 million cases. Only a few. I want to go to the civil fraud trial here in Manhattan, and there's reporting out there that possibly former President Trump will deliver a portion of his closing argument. I don't know if I've ever seen that. Is that even possible that a defendant delivers the closing? an argument. Usually that's the attorney, right? I haven't checked the bar rules in New York to even see if that's possible. I think that his presence in the courtroom

has been on purpose. Obviously, he's used the courtroom hallways almost as campaign stops and stump speeches regularly. He's expected to be there Thursday whether or not he does a portion of the closing or not. But I think he's sending a signal, certainly, to the court and to the attorney general, both of which he's attacked. All right, Laura Jarrett for us, Laura, thank you for that. Staying with issues now, there's a new twist in the Georgia election interference case. One of the co-defendants, a former Trump campaign official in 2016 and 2020, now seeking to get the charges dismissed, alleging that district attorney Fannie Willis hired a romantic partner, a special prosecutor, on the case.

We should note, though, the filing doesn't provide evidence to support that claim. NBC News correspondent Blaine Alexander has been. following that Georgia election case and joins us tonight from Atlanta. Blaine, I want to get into some of the specific allegations here. What stands out to you about this filing? Well, a number of things, Tom, this is a 39-page filing, including a number of exhibits. But basically at the heart of it, they're alleging that DA Fannie Willis and Nathan Wade, who is a special prosecutor on this case, are engaged in what they call a clandestine romantic relationship.

So they say that they travel to destinations together in a personal, capacity, including places like Napa Valley, also saying that they've been seen around Atlanta together in a personal capacity. Now, as you mentioned, and I certainly want to underscore this, this filing does not provide any sort of hard substantial evidence as to how these claims are being backed up. What they do instead of cite sources with knowledge of the situation and question the methods by which Willis hired Wade in the first place. But I want to read from you just one passage of this filing that basically is why they're

trying to get the entire case and the charges against Michael Roman dismissed. They basically say they're seeking dismissal on the grounds that the DA and the special prosecutor have been engaged in an improper, clandestine personal relationship during the pendency of this case, which has resulted in the special prosecutor and the DA, in turn, profiting significantly from this prosecution at the expense of the taxpayers. Now, one thing I want to add in there, Tom, this came yesterday. It was the last day for any of these co-defendants to file any motions in this. this case. So what we saw yesterday were a flurry of filing seeking dismissal from different

co-defendants. This was one of them, Tom. You know, Blaine, this could be potentially explosive if it's true, as we both mentioned. A spokesperson for the DA's office says they will respond to these allegations in a court filing. I'm curious, is it possible or have we heard yet from the special prosecutor who's also being accused here, Nathan Wade? We've not heard from either of them. I spoke with a spokesperson for the DA's office, and we do know that Fani Willis is going to respond, basically respond in the same way that these allegations were leveled against her in a court filing. They declined to comment any further. Now, there is certainly a possibility that there could be a hearing on this. Remember, Judge Scott McAfee can act any number

of ways, and one of those could be to call a hearing, and that would bring with it the potential or the possibility of both Wade and Willis potentially being called to testify or speaking in that case. And it's still sort of unclear how this will affect the, larger case if it affects it in any way, right? Has Fawney Willis ever justified or explained why she hired Nathan Wade to be in charge of this high-profile case, even though, according to some of the allegations, he apparently doesn't have experience with RICO cases? Well, I don't think she's spoken to us specifically, but I do know that he has been somebody who has been an integral member of this team from the very beginning. You know, this is something

that's stretched on for more than two years, certainly before the sprawling indictment came down last summer. So he was somebody who was working on this case, who was kind of in the lead, even before witnesses started appearing before the special grand jury. So this is back before charges were filed, before Rico was even part of the picture. So certainly he's also a prosecutor here and somebody who's been involved with us from the very beginning. Blaine, Alexander, with all those developments out of Atlanta tonight, Blaine, we thank you for that. Time now for power and politics with all eyes on Iowa. Big news out of New Hampshire today. Two new polls show Nikki Haley is growing in popularity in the Granite State.

The first poll from USA Today, Boston Globe and Suffolk University shows former President Trump ahead of Haley by 20 points among likely primary voters. But this other poll from CNN and the University of New Hampshire shows a much closer race, with Haley closing the gap, only seven points behind Trump. All of this while the Iowa caucus is less than a week away and weather is threatening to disrupt events on the campaign trail. We want to bring in our panel tonight here on Top Story. Julia Manchester is a national politics reporter for The Hill. Hogan Gidley, a former Trump White House deputy press secretary, a friend of top story, and another

big friend of Top Story. Carl Scribello, former Florida Republican congressman and an NBC News political analyst. Julia, I want to start with you. We see those numbers out of New Hampshire, and you just wrote an article for The Hill. We'll put it up on the screen here for our viewers. The headline, Haley looks to defy expectations in Iowa. What do you make of this surge we're seeing now from? Haley and what this could mean for her position in the presidential race. You have this good

news at New Hampshire. You also have some good metrics coming out of Iowa as well. Yeah, look, Tom, I don't think it's surprising that we are seeing a bit of a surge from Haley in New Hampshire. Now, our average at the Hill and Decision Desk HQ shows Haley up by about 11 points on average in New Hampshire, which is much more narrow than in Iowa, where we see Donald Trump leading the field by an average of 35 percent. according to, you know, our average of polls. So it's definitely a steep hill for Haley to climb in Iowa. But, you know, looking back at her comments last week when she talked about how New Hampshire would correct Iowa, I understand that might have ticked some Iowa voters off,

and her critics certainly seized on that and tried to criticize her with it. But she's not necessarily wrong, because we know historically New Hampshire has a better track record of predicting a nominee. So she has very much put all of her eggs in that basket and sort of relied on the fact that New Hampshire may have more of a libertarian or a slightly more moderate electorate than Iowa. But, you know, Trump, even though Haley's doing well in New Hampshire,

Trump is still the very clear frontrunner. Right. Desantis using that Nikki Haley comment in a new ad in Iowa. Hogan, should Trump be worried at all in New Hampshire? Let me give you a scenario here, right? All bets are that he wins Iowa. She poses a competitive second, and then they head to New Hampshire, and she has this momentum. Should he be a little nervous?

I don't think so, in large part, because he'll be 2 and 0, and the rest of the field will be 0 and 2 at that point. Then you head to South Carolina, Nikki's home state. She's not all that popular there. Trump has a commanding lead there in South Carolina as well. Look, a lot can happen between now and then. A lot can happen between now and Iowa, for that matter. But the fact is, Donald Trump still leads the field by 20, 30 points in most polls. It looks like he has a really strong ground game there in Iowa as well because it's about getting people to those polls.

Nikki's not going to perform there, not just because she hasn't been there that much, but also the comments you just highlighted what she said about Iowa voters. She's kind of staking her claim in New Hampshire to say, look, I'm the era parent to the DeSantis faction. I'm the era parent to the Chris Christie faction. I'm the one who needs to take on Trump, mono-a-mano at this point. The problem is I don't think she has enough to get over the, the finish line. Trump still has that commanding lead. So, Carlos, we've been talking about these primaries on this show for at least more than a year, right? And it seems like a funny thing happened on the way to Iowa. Every time a candidate dropped out of the race, the conventional

wisdom was, well, if it gets smaller, it'll help those other anti-Trump candidates. But it really hasn't. And it's actually helped Trump, if you look at a lot of the polls. What happened here, right? Is the anti-Trump vote not as big as the Trump base at this point? Well, I think that's pretty clear, Tom. Donald Trump is the dominant force in the Republican Party. However, we can't yet discard this race for second place in the Republican Party. That's what we've been covering because we've always had the theory, or a lot of us have, that if one candidate gets the opportunity to go one-on-one against Donald Trump,

maybe, maybe they can build a coalition to overcome Trump. And that's exactly what Nikki Haley is hoping to do in the state of New Hampshire. If she comes in second in Iowa, I think all eyes are going to be on Chris Christie and what he decides to do ahead of New Hampshire. He has said many times that he doesn't want Donald Trump to be the nominee. Well, if that's the case, he's going to have the opportunity to throw his 10, 12, 15 percent of the vote behind Nikki Haley and make her even more competitive in that state. So I do think that there still could be an alignment of the stars in Nikki Haley where she could either win in New Hampshire or come in a very close second and really. shake up this race that has been stable for quite some time? I don't know why Christie does that.

If he's spending no time in Iowa, he's putting all his eggs in New Hampshire. I don't see him dropping out just before and just hearing him. He's not indicating that in any sense. Julia, I do want to ask you, the weather has been a concern this week in Iowa, right? It always sometimes is it's very cold right before the caucuses. It's going to be crazy the day of the caucuses. But my larger point is that I feel like this campaign has been a little bit different in the sense that you have the frontrunner, Donald Trump,

who hasn't spent a lot of time campaigning in person in Iowa. You hear from reporters and longtime Iowa watchers, and they'll tell you they don't see as many yard signs out as much anymore, right? And so there's this part of the race that is somewhat invisible, if you will, but it's very active on social media. Has sort of the game changed in the way people campaign in Iowa now, you think? Yeah, absolutely, Tom. And I think you don't need to look any farther than what happened today.

President Trump chose not to go to Iowa and said he was here in Washington, for that court appearance for the federal January 6th case. Donald Trump is relying on a strategy of going, you know, running a national campaign. And I think he's able to do that because he's an incumbent president. He has such a wide lead and he already has all of this support in Iowa. And that being said, though, looking back at Trump's support in Iowa, it's interesting because I think his campaign has really worked to correct. itself since 2016, when we saw Trump lose in Iowa, they very much have perfected the strategy

down to the precinct captain, so they're really not looking to take any chances, but definitely a different kind of campaign strategy. Hogan, you know Trump probably better than anyone else on that panel. You know, he's going to campaign in Iowa, I think, starting Saturday, two days before the caucuses. There's this new poll out of New Hampshire. He's obviously got his mind on some of these legal cases. Is he sweating this primary at all? No, but they're not taking anything for granted. Look, the fact is Trump does have a stranglehold, I think one of the other panelists said on this process, at least up until this point. And the support is there. I think he has the votes in Iowa. The question is, can you get them out in the weather to go caucus for you? And that's a tough

task for all the candidates when you consider it's going to be, I think, negative 12 degrees, not windchilled, just negative 12 degrees plus, of course, the snow. But Donald Trump as a team on the ground, the 2,000 caucus captains right now, I think 400 caucus training centers to get people kind of in line, to understand the process, and then get them out to those caucus locations. They do have a massive apparatus there. And while the other candidates have been working it and going around, Julie is absolutely right. I mean, he's a former sitting president with a record of results as president of the United

States. They know who he is. He did a lot for that state in their agricultural industry as well. So right now, he's sitting in a really good position to go back a couple of days before. And on top of this, you're talking about him in court today, not in Iowa. Typically, you'd say that's a bad thing. But he has the ability to suck all the oxygen out of Iowa, even when he's not in Iowa. Because we're talking about him in court and not Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis.

It's still all about Donald Trump. He has to use that, though, to parlay it into caucus goers, and I think he will. Because, and before we go, Carlis, I do want to get to you on DeSantis because not a single vote has been cast yet. You know, when you look at the top three issues for Republican voters, it's national security, it's immigration, it's the economy. That's where you had to beat Trump on. Desantis checked off a lot of those boxes a year ago for Republican voters. What happened to his campaign? Why is he now competing with Nikki Haley and struggling to possibly be third in Iowa, New Hampshire? And again, I know no votes have been cast, but what happened to his campaign?

Well, Tom, after the pandemic, Ron DeSanis was on top of the political universe. He had a big reelection here in the state of Florida landslide win, which is not typical here. And then he started trying to copycat Donald Trump's campaign. He started trying to outdo Trump on every single issue rather than charting his own course, as he had done successfully during the pandemic. That copycat strategy didn't work. There's only one Donald Trump. If people want Donald Trump, they're going to choose a real thing. And I think this is a lesson for the DeSantis campaign with what appears to be a weak result.

they're going to get in Iowa, and he's virtually non-existent in the polls in New Hampshire. We're going to have to wait to see what happens. Guys, a great conversation. Julia Hogan, Carl's. Thanks so much. I know we're going to talk a lot more in the days ahead. Still ahead tonight here on Top Story. An update in an alleged poison plot, a Minnesota doctor and former poison specialist

accused of giving his wife a drug she did not need resulting in her death. Yes, essentially poisoning her. Those are the allegations, the upgraded charges he's now facing. Plus, the major scam warning how federal officials say criminals are using the names of real judges and real case numbers to trick people to thinking they should pay a fine for missing jury duty. We'll explain it all for you. And Jimmy Kimmel's scathing takedown against Aaron Rogers after the quarterback accused him of being a guest of Jeffrey Epstein, how the Super Bowl champ responded today with his own insults. Back and forth when we come back. All right, we are back now with the very latest in that very public feud between Jimmy Kimmel and quarterback Aaron Rogers.

Kimmel delivering a searing monologue on his late night show after the Jets QB implied he was connected to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein with no evidence. Rogers responding late today on the Pat McAfee show on ESPN, but stopping short of apologizing and getting in some jabs of his own. NBC entertainment correspondent Chloe Malas reports. I'd like to put this to bed to move forward. Tonight, New York Jets quarterback Aaron Rogers speaking out. Less than 24 hours after late night host Jimmy Kimmel's scathing seven-minute monologue. He genuinely thinks that because God gave him the ability to throw a ball, he's smarter than everyone else. Kimmel reiterating his lack of involvement with convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein after Rogers implied that Kimmel may appear in court documents related to Epstein last week.

And then it did come out. And, of course, my name wasn't on it and isn't on it and won't ever be on. I don't know Jeffrey Epstein. I've never met Jeffrey Epstein. Even threatening legal action against the Super Bowl champion. I suggested that if Aaron wanted to make false and very damaging statements like that, then we should do it in court so he could share his proof with like a judge. And Roger's issuing a pseudo apology today on ESPN's The Pat McAfee show.

I'm not stupid enough to accuse you of that with absolutely zero evidence, concrete evidence, that's ridiculous. So I'm glad, and I think we can agree on something, is that, one, those crimes are heinous. The same show last week, where Rogers implied a connection between Kimmel and Epstein. A lot of people, including Jimmy Kimmel, are really hoping that doesn't be. But Rogers claiming he never explicitly accused. accused Kimmel of having ties to Epstein, but seeming to hint without evidence that more could be coming. I was referring to the fact that if there is a list, which again, this hasn't come out yet,

this was just a deposition, right? And there are names on it. While stopping short of apologizing, Rogers condemning those who have called Kimmel names. Don't do it in my name. Like, that's not cool. Before digressing into a rant about COVID-19. They lied to us. Many times. over. They locked us up. They closed our businesses. Both men ultimately using their platforms to get in jabs about each other's intelligence and education. Aaron got two A's on his report card. They were both in the word Aaron. I think it's impressive that a man who went to Arizona State and has 10 joke writers can read out of a prompter. As this day's long feud may finally be coming to an end.

just now from Los Angeles. So, Chloe, there's been so much back and forth this past week. Are we expecting Jimmy Kimmel to respond on his show tonight, or have they finally sort of squash this beef? Most definitely, Jimmy Kimmel is going to say something in his monologue tonight, because last night, he left it open-ended, waiting to see if Rogers was going to say anything. And as we know, just hours ago, like I said in my piece, he had this pseudo-apology. And again, more digs, and they both went back and forth. with Diggs equally about each other's emotional intelligence. I know that Kimmel is, I'm just assuming, but I think it's a sure bet that Kimmel is going to address it head on, not be thrilled that it wasn't a groveling apology. But I don't think that we're going to see this end up in a courtroom, Tom.

And that is just because you heard Aaron Rogers say, you know, he did at least say, he called on his fans to stop using the P word. And he said, I don't condone this. don't invoke my name in attacking anyone, and we are moving on from this. So I don't think that he is going to be mentioning Epstein and Kimmel in the same sentence ever again. All right, Chloe Malas for us.

Chloe, thank you for that. When we come back, did this summer feel like the hottest one ever? Well, it was the alarming new report from the European Union's climate agency. We'll explain next. All right, back now with Top Stories News Feed. We begin with an update on the Minnesota doctor accused of fatally poisoning his wife. 30-year-old Connor Bowman now indicted on first and second-degree murder charges and upgrade from his previous second-degree charge. Investigators told NBC News he may have used his knowledge as a former poison specialist to give his wife a drug for an illness she did not have.

If convicted, Bowman faces life in prison. The Department of Justice warning about a nationwide jury duty scam. The agency says scammers are posing as U.S. marshals or government officials telling people they missed a jury duty appearance. Here's what to look out for. According to the DOJ, the scammer will say the person can avoid arrest by paying a fine through a purchased prepaid debit or gift card. The DOJ says they often provide convincing information, like some of your personal data, the names of real judges, cases and badge numbers. They've also used phone numbers that imitate the real number of government agencies. To protect yourself, the DOJ says summons will only ever be sent by U.S. mail. An order will always be in writing and signed by a judge, and you will never be asked to pay a fine with a gift card.

All right, good tips there. 2023 was Earth's hottest and recorded history, according to the European Union's climate agency. The agency saying global temps were the highest we've seen since 1850, with July and August the two-war. warmest months ever recorded. Temperatures over the years average about 2.6 degree warmer than pre-industrial times. U.S. agencies, including NASA, are expected to release their own reports this week. Okay, coming up, detained in Russia, a teacher with dual American and Russian citizenship taken into custody and will be held for at least two months as he awaits trial, what he's accused of, and how the State Department is responding tonight. Stay with us.

Back now with Top Stories Global Watch and a check of what else is happening around the world. We start in Russia where a U.S. citizen has been detained on drug charges. Russian authorities say Robert Woodland, a teacher with dual Russian American citizenship, is suspected of illegal drug possession and trafficking. If convicted, he could face up to 20 years in prison. The U.S. Department says it is aware of the arrest, but at this time will not provide further comments due to privacy concerns. Okay, a major victory for animal rights activists and dog lovers in South Korea

as the government bans dog meat consumption. Lawmakers ending the controversial practice by outlawing the breeding, slaughtering, trade, and sales of dog meat. Those found guilty of doing so could spend up to three years in jail or pay thousands of dollars in fines. This new legislation will officially go into effect in 2027. Okay, staying in Asia, China is on course to become the world's leading calls. car exporter. The number of Chinese auto exports jumped by millions last year, with more than five million vehicles shipped overseas, overtaking Japan sales by more than a million cars, that according to the Wall Street Journal. This thanks in part to a surge in Volvo and

Great Wall motor car sales in Russia. All right, time now for the Americas and the rise of FinTech giants in Latin America. Two of last year's best-performing tech stocks were both based in the region as Wall Street looks to these emerging companies as investment opportunities in the new year. We'll start with New Bank, a tech forward banking firm based in Brazil. Their stock price, get this, grew 144% last year. And here's why it's getting so much buzz. Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway say New Bank was the best performing stock in their portfolio in 2023. Mercado Libre, essentially the Amazon of South America, Amazon the e-commerce site, not the river, also seen massive gains in its stock price, rising 75% last year.

For more on these trends and where there could be headed, I want to bring in NBC, NBC technology reporter Kate Rooney, who joins us now from San Francisco. Kate, South America is known for many great things, but not really fintech, maybe not to the average consumer. What's fueling this? Yeah, so Tom, so South America, Latin America, it's seen as this big disruptable market for tech investors. So there's a lot of upside.

There's a lot of growth potential, which tech investors love, and they tend to chase after. It's also this heavily cash-based economy, depending on which country, but overall, very much cash-heavy society. So if you're a bank or a fintech company, a financial technology company, there's a lot of opportunity to get the people who might not have bank accounts already. They also use their phones for their financial services. That's a big opportunity. So tech companies and fintech companies, like New Bank, have really been able to leapfrog some of the existing infrastructure and banks by offering. essentially a bank on a mobile phone. It's worked really well for New Bank. Mercado Libra, you also mentioned sort of the e-commerce version of that.

They have really been the frontrunners in banking and e-commerce, and also in part thanks to the rise of smartphones and the popularity there. But they both had great years last year. So going back to New Bank, which was on Warren Buffett's radar, I know you spoke with the CEO, David Veles. What did he tell you about this really massive milestone for his company? So one of the things he talked about, Tom, was, first of all, cost discipline. and so they were able to sort of tighten their belts on the expenses front.

But he also talked about that pivotal smartphone market. That basically it's a young population in Latam. Talked about some of the growth. Here's what he told me, though. One of the things that are interesting trends about Latin America is also the technology adoption, especially the smartphone, is pretty significant. Brazil is generally called as the social media capital of the universe. Very quickly was one of the top five markets in the world for Instagram, for Facebook,

for WhatsApp, for YouTube, partly because of the demographics. Half of Brazil is under 33 years old. Half of Mexico is under 31 years old. So you have relatively high income per capita than Africa, for example, with much better, with very good demographics, with access to digitalization and trends that are right at the very beginning. So really a perfect landscape and table setting for a tech investor looking for that upside, Tom. And then, Kate, finally, Latin America, as you know, it's not a monolith, right?

Different languages, different cultures. What do analysts see as the different growth opportunities within these different regions? So absolutely different opportunities, different risks in different countries. But Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia appear to be the ones that market analysts are really the most excited about next. There is this relatively friendly regulatory landscape. Governments there have been a bit more open to some of the new entrants. There's also relative currency stability, but on the other hand, you look at a country like Argentina, for example, a bit more uncertainty there and what it's going through with some of the economic shop and devaluing its currency. Inflation there are also seen as an issue of 160%, which is hard

to fathom for a lot of American investors, but a less stable place to launch a business. Venezuela is another example of its own political risks for the private sector too, and something investors have been a bit nervous about when it comes to some of the Latin American investing, but a very good point, that they're quite different country to country. And when it comes to Argentina, sometimes crisis, there's opportunities. We're going to have to wait and see. Anyways, great to have you on Top Story, as usual. Coming up, we're going to take you into the future.

The Consumer Electronics Show, an all-electric flying taxi, AI, keeping your calorie count when you eat something, and even mixing you the perfect drink. We'll show you it all. That's next. Finally tonight, the future is now. In Las Vegas, the annual Consumer Electronics Show, the largest tech conference in the world, offering visitors a taste of the state-of-the-art, AI bartenders, air taxis, and a smartphone you can navigate with just your mouth. Steve Patterson shows us at all.

From holograms. Hi. How you doing? To new gaming tech. We want to unlock the power in the human hand. To inventions designed to pump you up. I feel like a million bucks. The future is on display at the 2024 consumer.

electronic show. Check this out. This is cool. Supernal and Hyundai unveiling their air electric taxi. This is just a mock-up and it's going to be ready in about 2028 or so. But when it is, get ready to fly around town. Vertical liftoff, zero emissions and in theory, zero traffic. This one can fly nominally 120 miles per hour. Artificial intelligence here is front and center. AI is even coming for your plate of food. Forget the fries. Newvilab is using AI to serve up beside of data with your meal, letting you know your calorie intake in real time.

It is a mouse for your mouth. And then there's mouthpad from Augmental, allowing you to use your tongue to navigate a smartphone or tablet. Our primary folks are working with right now are people with disabilities, particularly severe hand impairments. CES even paving new roads for happy hour. This cocktail mixed by an AI. bartender from the South Korean tech giant Dushan.

In my lifetime, I'm going to walk into a bar and get a drink served by an AI robot. Sure, of course. Think it takes less than five years? Okay, you heard it here first. Cheers. All right, with that, Steve Patterson joins us tonight from the Consumer Electronics Show there on the floor in Las Vegas. So, Steve, I have to ask you, how did that drink taste?

And what did he actually make for you? Okay, quick disclaimer. First of all, Tom, I only took a few sips, but what I did taste was delicious. I cannot lie to you. It was something akin to like a tequila sunrise because it was trying to match my mood, which was happy. But the thing that's so cool about this is according to the people that develop the AI and the robot, they don't make like exactly the drinks that you and I might think of like a screwdriver. Each drink is bespoke. So each ingredient balance is supposed to balance to exactly what you're feeling, which is the cool thing. So bespoke Steve Patterson, Tequila Sunrise is how I would describe it.

And yeah, it was very good. All right. That sounds like a lot of fun. Is there anything else out there you've seen that's completely blown your mind? Yeah, I mean, okay, we saw a flying taxi, right? Now, they call it something different than a flying taxi. It's a vertical system that is supposed to take off straight up and down. In years previous, that would have been the most mind-blowing thing. I think it was most mind-blowing about that. is how sustainable it was, that it's all electric, that maybe in 2028, it'll be running in a city like Los Angeles

where it'll be able to take you over the 405 or something like that. But a lot of that tech has already been promised. We've seen so many flying car mock-ups at shows like these. I think the coolest stuff is the mobility tech that actually helps people who are disabled, who are mobility limited. There was one piece of technology. It looks like a retainer, but it actually allows you to use your smart devices with your tongue.

which sounds superfluous, but if you can't use your arms, being able to use that and to see that example in that demo and to hear the stories that they told us about people who were disabled that changed their lives, that was definitely the most mind-blowing tech, and I'm so happy it's here. Steve Patterson for us. Wow, those all sound like incredible inventions. We thank you for that.

We also thank you for watching Top Story tonight. I'm Tom Yamison, New York. Stay right there. More news on the way.