Top Story with Tom Llamas - Tuesday, November 12, 2024

Episode Date: November 13, 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.

Breaking tonight, a massive building explosion, rocking suburban Louisville, the blast blowing apart a huge chunk of the building, the all-hands-on-deck situation as first responders rushed to pull people trapped inside the rubble. Several people hospitalized, the shelter and place order just lifted, the new details about what might have set off that explosion. Also breaking tonight, President-elect Trump filling out his foreign policy roster, selecting John Radcliffe as his CIA director. Trump expected to nominate Florida Senator Marco Rubio for Secretary of State and South Dakota Governor Kristy Noem as DHS Secretary.

How will Noem handle the situation at the border? And former Arkansas Governor tapped to become the ambassador of Israel, the crucial role he will play as war rages on in the Middle East. On Capitol Hill, who will be the next Senate Majority Leader, the battle heating up between the top contenders as they make their case for the lead position? Will Trump try to tip the scales before it heads to a vote? The fiery anti-Semitic attacks in Amsterdam, a tram car, set on fire as rioters spew hateful chance against Jews. The alarming situation coming on the heels of that attack on Israelis after a soccer match,

what were learning about the Israeli citizens also arrested after that assault, and could more unrest be unfolding in the coming days. An NBC News exclusive to sit down with the founder of One Taste, a company that promoted sexual meditation and was endorsed by celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow. But that CEO now criminally charged with forced labor conspiracy accused of praying on individuals dealing with sexual trauma, how she is pushing back as she prepares for trial. The tropical threat brewing in the Caribbean could a late season hurricane impact Florida? Meteorologist Bill Karen standing by with the latest.

And the emotional father and son reunion, a young L.A. Rams fan getting the surprise of of a lifetime, his Marine dad catching him off guard, returning home when he least expected it. We'll show you the incredible Veterans Day homecoming, months in the making. Plus, the FAA banning all U.S. flights to Haiti after three planes, yes, three different U.S. carriers, were struck by gunfire on Monday. You'll hear from one man on board while his plane was shot at. Top story starts right now. Good evening. We are tracking several new developments at this hour as President Elect Trump continues to roll out his picks for his administration. Trump just announcing who he

wants for CIA director. We'll get to that in a moment. But we start tonight with the breaking news, a large explosion at a commercial building in Louisville, Kentucky. Here's video of the aftermath. The blasts severely damaging a portion of the structure, dozens of first responders racing to the scene, rescuing at least one person pinned beneath the debris. Several people rush to the hospitals and officials triggering a shelter-in-place order over concerns of hazardous materials in the air. Look at this. This is new video, Justin, showing debris from that blast landing right on top of a train. You can see how powerful the explosion was with the sheer size of the scattered metal. NBC, Shaquille Brewster starts us off with the late-breaking details.

Tonight, a commercial plant in Louisville, Kentucky, torn apart after a massive explosion. Here's the large explosions occurred. We got smoke. shown. The blast seen from this sky camera blocks away happening just after 3 p.m. I live about a mile away from here and I was just inside of my house and heard a huge boom and the whole house shook. The power went off for a couple of seconds. At least 11 people were rushed to the hospital, two in critical condition. We had one person that was pinned. We were able to get them out and rescue them as well as assist the others in evacuation. The explosion blowing out windows, Residents within a mile of the building temporarily ordered to shelter in place, as Louisville Emergency Services initially called it a hazardous materials incident.

Tonight, multiple patients are in decontamination. We started air monitoring immediately. It is ongoing, and rest assured that nothing at this point has ever shown any type of chemical problems in the air in this entire region. A prior explosion at the same plant killed a worker in April 2003, according to a federal government report. The investigation, concluding the incident, was preventable. But tonight, officials praising the plant's emergency action plans that they say helped first responders on the ground. Just another show of heroism today here in Louisville. All right, Shaq joins us now live. Shack, what more do we know about that shelter-in-place order?

Well, Tom, that shelter-in-place order has now been lifted, but there's still an evacuation order in place for the surrounding blocks around this plant. Meanwhile, we just heard from a doctor at one of the hospitals that received some of these patients. He says that there are several people experiencing burn and blast injuries, as well as some patients who have crush injuries from debris that fell on them. But he did praise the first responders there for treating the patients on the scene before they were rushed to the hospital, Tom. All right, Shaq, we thank you for that. We want to turn out to our other breaking headline, the Trump transition. At this hour, President-elect Trump announcing a flurry of new appointments. to fill his second administration.

We were just learning that Trump has selected John Ratcliffe as his CIA director. Ratcliffe served as Trump's Director of National Intelligence in his first term, but was met with pushback at first over controversial statements he made as a federal prosecutor in Texas. He had claimed that he put terrorists in prison,

but NBC and other news outlets found no evidence of that, and he removed himself from consideration. Trump later nominated him in 2020, where he was confirmed by the Republican-controlled Senate. It hasn't even been a week since Trump was elected, and he is quickly, quickly filling up his roster. You can see the columns here showing who he has officially announced for top roles and who he's expected to announce. Also just announced Trump has tapped Steve Whitkoff to be special envoy to the Middle East.

Whitkoff works in real estate and was with Trump when that second assassination attempt on his life happened on his golf course in Florida. No word on if he has any experience, though, in the Middle East. Let's take a closer look at the people emerging. at the top of Trump's list tonight. That includes Florida Senator Marco Rubio, who's expected to be nominated for Secretary of State. If selected, he would be the first Hispanic to serve our country in that capacity.

Also, South Dakota Governor Christy Noem expected to be picked to serve as Homeland Security Secretary. That is a major role as Trump has vowed to carry out large mass deportations. And former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee has been selected to become the U.S. ambassador to Israel. The pro-Israel politician would be tasked with handling the war.

ravaged region, if confirmed, he would be the first non-Jewish person to hold that role in more than a decade. The battle for Senate Majority Leader also kicking up a notch, the top three contenders making their case to their fellow Republican lawmakers. Tomorrow, we expect to learn who will win that influential position. Also tomorrow, President Biden, he's going to welcome President-elect Trump to the White House, a courtesy of the president-elect did not extend to President Biden four years ago. NBC's Garrett Haake, following it all tonight. He leads our coverage. Tonight, President-elect Trump tapping top allies to his foreign policy and national security teams.

Expected to announce Florida Senator Marco Rubio is his pick for Secretary of State, according to multiple sources familiar with the transition process. He would be an historic choice, the son of Cuban immigrants, he'd be the first Latino to hold that position. Rubio was a fierce Trump rival in 2016 and vocal supporter during this year's campaign. You know what Donald Trump is saying? When he's president, that ends. Our enemies will know we're strong.

and that will bring about peace and avoid war. His hawkish views on China, Iran, and Russia honed in the Senate. He's also embraced Trump's position that the war in Ukraine should come to a swift end. I think the Ukrainians have been incredibly brave and strong and standing up to Russia. But at the end of the day, what we are funding here is a stalemate war. It needs to be brought to a conclusion. A Trump ally describing Rubio as, quote, less MAGA than other options, but someone who Trump's base could trust.

And he's already getting bipartisan support. Democratic Senator John Federman posting Rubio, quote, is a strong choice, and I look forward to voting for his confirmation. Meanwhile, the president-elect picking another Florida Republican for a key role inside the White House, announcing Congressman Mike Waltz as national security advisor. Waltz is a decorated green beret and combat veteran who takes a tough stance towards China and shares Trump's view that NATO allies must pay more for their own defense. What I want to see are portions of NATO truly step up and do their fair share of defense spending. And today, Trump announcing former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee is his pick for ambassador to Israel.

Huckabee has previously rejected the notion that the West Bank is occupied by Israel. Late tonight, Trump's selecting his former director of national intelligence, John Ratcliffe, as CIA director, a Trump ally who Democrats argued politicized his role. For days, Trump has stayed out of the public eye as he interviews. finalists and make selections from a Mar-a-Lago war room, two Trump world sources say, watching videos of their television appearances to see how effectively they can deliver his message. One more pick he's expected to announce soon, four sources tell NBC News, Republican South Dakota Governor Christy Noam, to serve as his Secretary of Homeland Security.

Noam, an outspoken Trump supporter, with little experience in some of the areas she would potentially oversee, including FEMA and the Secret Service. DHS also includes the Border Patrol and ICE. recently touting Trump's mass deportation plan. President Trump has already indicated that he wants to start by making sure we're deporting the most dangerous first, those criminals, murderers, rapists that are threatening safety in our communities. Garrett joins us tonight from Washington.

So Garrett, explain to our viewers, in some cases in real time, right? We're seeing Trump build out his top staffers and AIDS. But with others, like, say, Senator Marco Rubio, there are reports that he's going to be tapped to be Secretary of State, but no official announcement. Do we know what the difference is? Well, look, I think the transition team is trying to put a process in place around Trump to roll these things out in a way where they can have surrogates on TV defending it. They can have the biographies ready for some of these people that they've selected.

But this is still Trump world, this is still Mar-a-Lago. There are a lot of leaks, and there's a lot of internal promotion, and that's creating an environment where you have the official announcements coming on one hand, and you have the leaks and the reporting coming on the other hand. It's muddled any attempt to tell a story through the oral. of the rollout, but I think the picture that's being painted about Trump personnel as policy is still pretty clear on foreign policy. Strong on China, strong on Israel, strong on Iran, and perhaps less so on backing up Ukraine and there were against Russia. Yeah, and we're going to

talk more about Ratcliffe right after you with Kendolynian, but I do want to ask you about former governor of Arkansas, Mike Huckabee's appointment to the position of Ambassador to Israel and Steve Whitkoff, a special envoy to the Middle East. Do we know, what their credentials are for those two very important positions because of the ongoing war in Gaza and, of course, in Lebanon as well? Yeah, the Huckabee appointment in particular was very much a surprise. Huckabee, an evangelical Baptist minister, not somebody known for being especially dialed in on issues of the Jewish state, but he is exceptionally loyal to and supportive of Donald Trump, and some people will argue that's more important in foreign policy

than the particular expertise that you have the ear of the ultimate decision maker, the president. That's also the case with Steve Whitkoff, who I've interviewed before, who describes himself as one of Trump's personal best friends. I think having people who Trump trusts in the region to negotiate on behalf with Prime Minister Netanyahu, who Huckabee is also quite close with or fond of, is the way the Trump team would sell these two pretty unconventional picks for some very difficult diplomacy ahead. Right, Garrett Hake, Garrett Hake, appreciate that. We are also following more breaking news right now. We've just understood that President, like Trump has announced a new defense secretary as well. He's a Fox News host and a military veteran with two bronze stars,

Pete Higgseth. We're going to have much more on that in a few minutes, but first we want to go to that other breaking news, John Ratcliffe, his new director of the CIA. Ratcliffe served in the first Trump administration as director of national intelligence. He also represented Texas's fourth congressional district in the House for several years and worked as a federal prosecutor in the Lone Star State. For more on this appointment, I want to get right to NBC News, Justice and Intelligence correspondent, Ken Delanian. Ken, Ken, what more can you tell you? Tell us about Radcliffe. Tom, John Radcliffe is a politician.

He's not a foreign policy expert, and he's a very partisan political figure, who is when he was Director of National Intelligence for about eight months at the end of the Trump administration, showed a willingness to shade intelligence, to use intelligence in a way that he knew benefited from Donald Trump. At the same time, he's viewed in foreign policy circles as a grown-up, as somebody who has some grounding, having held the job of director of. of national intelligence and as somebody who was not willing to go along with Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

But I'll go back to the partisan stuff. One example that stands out during his tenure is that he declassified some intelligence that the U.S. intelligence community had obtained from Russia that purported to show that Russia had concluded that Hillary Clinton was trying to concoct a story of Donald Trump's connections to Russia in order to damage Donald Trump. that was disinformation. And even at the time he released it, he said that they weren't sure whether this was true or whether this was Russian mischief. A lot of Democrats saw that as kind of a dirty trick, a way to use intelligence to benefit Donald Trump. So that's what Democrats would say are the negatives about him. On the positive side, though, testimony from the January 6th committee showed that he was not willing to go along with Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the election. He advised against White House officials participating in that. He said it would be bad for Donald Trump's legacy. And he was, he was did not come up in any of the criminal investigations of what happened during that period. Ken, you've done a lot of reporting on the CIA.

What do you think? How do you think he'll be received by the agents there? Wearily, cautiously. But the thing about the CIA is there are very few political appointees, really just the director and the general counsel. Everybody else there are career people, and they have long memories, and they know how to handle, and they know how to win over directors. And so I think they're going to make an effort to wrap their arms.

around him and try to take him into their confidence he's going to have access to the most esoteric secrets in the government. And look, big picture here, as we're seeing with Marco Rubio and Mike Waltz, the National Security Advisor, a combat veteran, some Democrats are pleasantly surprised with the caliber of people. They're not people they're going to ever disagree with on a partisan basis, but these are people with records in the foreign policy area, people who understand the world, and who are not necessarily on board with shrinking and, you know, this America-first idea that the United States should not project power around the world,

which is a bit of a surprise so far, Tom. Okay, Ken Delaney and Ken, we appreciate your reporting on that. We want to move on now at the expected selection of South Dakota governor, Christy Noem, to head up the Department of Homeland Security. It's being met with questions over what her leadership and the role will look like. I want to bring in our guest tonight here on Top Story,

Chad Wolf, former acting department of Homeland Security for the Trump administration, and John Sadwig, he's a former acting director of ICE under the Obama administration. Chad, I want to get to some breaking news for you first. I know we were going to talk about Christy Nome, but with this situation, the news comes out pretty fast. We've just learned that President-elect Trump is going to nominate, and excuse me, if I get the last name wrong, but Pete Hegseth from Fox News. He's also been awarded two bronze stars and served combat duties in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Guantanamo. to lead the Department of Defense. What's your take on this?

Well, I don't know, Pete. I know of his service. Obviously, I've seen him on Fox quite extensively. I think he's got certainly the background to lead the department. So I look forward to learning a little bit more about him and how he's going to lead. Okay, Chad, I appreciate that. I appreciate your honesty, too. Let's turn to Christy Knoem here. What do you think about the decision to name Christy Knoem, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security? I think she's been a successful governor. She has leaned in on the border security mission.

She's provided her National Guard down to the border for Governor Abbott in the state of Texas. I think she's dealt with FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and a lot of different natural disasters in her state. And so, look, I think she's got the leadership to do that job. I think, again, she can lean in. She's going to have individuals like Tom Homan in the White House that will help support. So I think, again, I think it's a great pick. and I think she's going to do a great job. John, Christy Knoem, you know, governor of South Dakota,

and, you know, she sent the National Guard to the southern border. What is your reaction to this election? You know, Tom, look, I think she'll be the third governor to be the Secretary of DHS. And as you know, and Chad knows very well, DHS is a massive agency, 260,000 employees, seven operational components with missions of diverse of disaster recovery to cybersecurity. I think the executive experience is helpful in that regard. Obviously, look, she doesn't have extensive experience when it comes to immigration and border. I do think it will be interesting because, you know, at the White House, you'll have Tom Holman,

and there's very few people with as much operational experience as that. And then Stephen Miller, who's, of course, the architect of, you know, the legal and policy side of the immigration and the mass deportation approach. So I think it'll be interesting to see how all this plays out, because, candidly, sometimes tension forms between the department and the White House. And despite what every secretary wants, which is to be seen as a national security leader focused on and all the other mission areas of DHS, the bottom line is ultimately the immigration mission and the border mission tend to dominate the job and dominate the headlines. And it will be interesting to see this dynamic, recognizing that there's a very strong team at the White House. You think she's up for it?

Oh, sure. I think, look, she was the governor of a state. She got elected governor. I think those are great credentials. She has a lot of learning to do, but she'll learn on the job. I worked for a former governor, Janet Napolitano, who was the Secretary of DHS. Obviously, she was at a border state. She knew a lot about immigration, but there's still, candidly, a lot to learn. Worked with Secretary Johnson. He had a lot to learn coming from the Pentagon. I think Chad will tell you that, you know, look, there's a really good team at DHS who will, you know, I mean, great career staff there who carry out the mission every day and make the job a lot easier

just by their very presence. Chad, talk to us about the dynamics, right? Because you've been in the rooms, you know, you've been listening to, to the president-elect and to the other people around him. So you're going to have Nome there leading the Department of Homeland Security, in addition to Tom Homan and Stephen Miller in the administration as well. How do you think that's all going to work out? Well, again, the secretary, the governor in this case, once confirmed,

will actually be the one that's deploying her resources at the department, right? And so you're going to have individuals like Tom Homan and Stephen Miller and others that are giving direction, policy, advice, things of that nature. Her job, her task, her challenge, really, is to turn those policies and those direction into operational realities on the border. How is the Border Patrol? How is ICE? How is USCIS going to implement these policies to turn that into actual change along that border and to accomplish the president's goal? So I think for her, you know, once confirmed and in the seat, that's going to be the challenge, is trying to understand how do you marshal the resources and to really change the focus of the department from the. the last four years to that America First vision that President Trump has. And so, again, that will be the learning curve for the governor, but I'm confident she'll do a great job at that.

Yeah, and John, I guess that's my question to you too, because as somebody who's been in these sort of rooms as well, you have someone like Stephen Miller, right, who obviously makes his opinion known, has very strong feelings about the border and the way immigration policy should be carried out. And then you're going to have a governor, yes, a governor of a state, but not a border state who's now going to lead a huge department, right? One of the most important departments, I would say, in the entire country and definitely in the cabinet. So how does she sort of, I don't want to say stand up to Stephen Miller, but at least try to work with him to make sure she doesn't get bulldozed? It's all it can be tricky. I mean, I'll just be honest here. Like I said,

the secretary's reputation ultimately hinges on what happens at the border and obviously what happens in the interior. President Trump made a lot of promises about the border and Christy, Noam, Governor Noam, will be, you know, frankly held account. by the public and probably by the White House for the success or failure of the administration's policies. That said, I mean, just being candid with you, there can be tension between the White House and the department. And certainly in the Obama administration,

it was a very collegial, collaborative relationship, but there were times when there were disagreements. It's also difficult and frustrating sometimes when the governor, you know, this future secretary, is now she's in charge of the department, she's the one who's accountable, but maybe there's disagreement about the policy, or there's frustration with how,

quickly the policy is being executed, or frankly, the results aren't just what, you know, you hoped for. And I guess, you know, it'll be interesting to see how that plays out. Ultimately, I think everybody's, you know, the president's in charge. The president calls the shots, but, you know, definitely perhaps behind the scenes, maybe even publicly, there will probably be some drama along the way. Yeah, Chad, I do want to ask you, what do you think her number one priority should be? Well, the number one priority is obviously to change the operations along that border, right? You've got to stop catching release. You've got to stop the massive influx of individuals coming into the country. And only then can you deal with the population that's

here. And you can start to remove them and start to take a real effect. And you can see some noticeable change. You've got to deal with these parole programs, these unlawful parole programs that have been put in place. So I think there's a variety of things that need to be done to send the cartels, to send the smugglers a clear message that it's not going to be business as usual. It's not going to be business as it has been in the last four years. And so the idea is to disrupt their business models and to do that on behalf of the American people. John, obviously the Biden administration had some serious issues the first few years when it came to handling the border. The Washington Post reporting, the number of illegal crossings along the Mexico border soared to $2 million per year between 2021 and 2023.

And all-time high, as you know, as migrants from South America, Asia, nations around the world arrived in historic numbers. We should note illegal crossings are now at the lowest level since 2020. And Trump priorities you think could actually help solve the nation's immigration problems? You know, look, Tom, at the end of the day, I think that there's more work that could be done in terms of focusing on criminal aliens, right, individuals who are at large. The problem, though, is that that is surgical, targeted work. And I can tell you that ICE is very good at apprehending all the individuals who are booked into our nation's, you know, prisons and jails, right? You commit a crowd in this country, you get booked into jail, and you're undocumented.

ICE is going to get you. What we're not as good at, and what I think we could do better at is getting those at-large criminals, apprehending them before they commit a crime. It's slow-moving, painstaking work. It requires you to develop sources and work undercover operations. ISIS-Sister agency, HSI, is very good at it in terms of enforcing criminal laws. But it's not going to be mass deportation. It's more like surgical deportation. And I think what, unfortunately, I would like to see is a shift more towards a targeted approach where you get high-value targets, right?

and instead of just getting mass numbers. Look, we know a couple of things about the demographics very quickly of the undocumented population that's in this country. Of the 11 million people, over 66% of them have been in this country for more than 15 years. There are 4.4 million U.S. citizen children who have an undocumented parent.

And I worry that as we get into this idea of deporting a million in a year or 11 million over four, it's that population that we're targeting. There's no way around it. Yeah, Chad, before we go, have you heard from the Trump transition team And would you welcome the opportunity to serve in the Trump administration, if asked?

I haven't heard from them. But let me just touch on that last point, because I think it's a really important point when you talk about removing criminals from the country. What we've seen from this administration on convicted criminals, there's been about a 74% decrease on their removals over these last four years than what we saw from the first Trump administration. So even if you just stick with the worst of the worst, right, the criminals in our communities, there is an immense amount of those individuals that you should be removing. from the country today, and it's just not occurring. And so I think that's what the new Trump administration, hopefully, will be focused on, is prioritizing those removals to get all of the criminals, all the bad actors, out of American communities. Okay, Chad Wolf, we appreciate your time.

As always, we thank you for joining a top story tonight. And, John, we thank you as well. We're also keeping a close eye on the battle for Congress tonight, a full week after the election. Control of the House is still up in the air as three prominent Senate Republicans. and Republicans face off to become the next leader of the upper chamber. For more on all of this, I want to bring in NBC News congressional correspondent, Julie Sirk. And Julie, thanks for being here. Let's start in the Senate tonight.

Three Republicans vined to become Senate Majority Leader in January. We introduced you to them last night, John Thune of South Dakota, John Cornyn of Texas, and Rick Scott of Florida. Earlier tonight, all three men making their case to Senate Republicans in a forum hosted by Senator Mike Lee of Utah. What did each of them say to their colleagues and who's considered the frontrunner tonight? Yeah, Tom, great questions. Look, I was just at that forum. It's being held behind closed doors. We're getting to the hour and a half mark. And I'm told they just finished hearing from the second of three candidates giving their presentation to Republicans. So we're potentially in for a long night here. And that is because all of these three men are pretty much outlining the same things. They're all saying that they are close with President-elect Trump, that they will reform the way that this chamber does business, that they will make sure that his nominees, that his appointments to all this cabinet posts, to,

the judicial bench, all of those things will be sped through. That is exactly what MagaWorld wants to hear. We know that they've been pushing Rick Scott all through the weekend. I've actually been told that even elected senators, that even elected lawmakers are not only hearing from MagaWorld on X online. They're actually seeing protests at their offices, getting phone calls, getting emails, getting spam to have their senator vote via secret ballot, meaning nobody will know who votes for who for Rick Scott, who, I got to tell you, up until this last.

last weekend has really been seen as the outlier here, as the two Johns, as we call them. John Thune, currently a member of leadership, and John Cornyn, a longtime senator, was a member of leadership, duke it out for this top spot. Again, though, only the senators who vote for these candidates will know how they voted because it is all done behind closed doors. So we'll see what happens in about 14 hours from now. Yeah, let's move on to the House, and Republican Speaker Mike Johnson, working to keep the gavel in the next Congress.

He was asked earlier today if he has the votes to keep the speakership in tomorrow's, internal elections, and he seemed confident. Take a listen. Are you confident you're winning on the first ballot from January? I am. Everybody has ideas on how to better improve our processes and some of the frustrations that we had over the last year with the smallest margin in history, control of only one half of one third of the federal government, will not be our concerns going forward because we have unified government. So, Julie, I understand you have some new reporting tonight. That's some right with

in the Republican caucus, far right, may try to nominate someone else? Look, they'll try. We heard from members of the House Freedom Caucus, the new chair, Andy Harris, who told my colleagues that they will try to bring forward someone known as a protest candidate to challenge Mike Johnson tomorrow when they have, again, their closed-door leadership elections. We saw what a fight, what a slog it was, for Johnson to get this gavel in the first place, about 13 months ago back in October. We saw this very public fight play out among the Republican conference, that is something that the former president, that the current president-elect Trump paid very close attention to the fact that Republicans are perhaps

on the verge of retaining their majority in the House is a surprise to many Republicans, and they know it is because of Donald Trump and the popularity that he had the sweeping nature of his campaign across all those battleground states. All that being said, Johnson has worked very hard to try and strengthen his relationship with Trump. If Trump wants him to stay on in power, he'll stay on in power, Tom. and Julie, we are still waiting on a call for control of the House. Where does the balance of power stand now? Well, here's the thing.

Republicans are about at 2.15. They need just three more seats to get to that 218 number, cinching them the majority once again in the lower chamber. Democrats, as you see on your screen, have a lot more work to do to get there. So everybody that I'm talking to feels confident that Republicans will keep the majority. The thing is, though, they've already sent warning signals

to Trump, to his team, saying don't take other members that we have. We need to pad the majority so we can pass all of those policy initiatives that you have. He already took Elise Tefonic, for example, to the cabinet. He already took Mike Walts to the cabinet as well of Florida. And as you saw on that map there, there is not a lot of numbers that they can work with here in terms of having a lot of space for defections, for example, to try and get this very overarching, overwhelming mandate through, as Trump calls it, through Congress, through both chambers. So certainly a very tight margin for Republicans.

And they're going to want to keep all their members in line here. That is true. Okay, Julie Serkin, we thank you for that. Okay, we're going to turn now to other big stories. This one out of Haiti, where tonight the FAA has announced it's banning U.S. flights to and from the country. The move coming just one day after three commercial jets were struck by gunfire over Porter Prince, a bit escalating gang violence. NBC's Tom Costello has more. Tonight, American Airlines is the third carrier to report one of its planes was hit by gunfire as it left Porta Prince Haiti on Monday, headed for Miami.

where it landed safely. A post-flight inspection was completed, indicating the exterior of the aircraft had been impacted by a bullet. Also hit by gunfire over Porta Prince, Spirit Flight 951, forced to abort its landing after bullets tore into the passenger cabin. It was several loud crashes right behind. It was kind of like if somebody had a medical cart and tipped it over. It was like, and JetBlue Flight 935 hit Monday as it departed Haiti landing safely in New York. While no passengers were hit, a spirit flight attendant did suffer a minor injury. We're always aware. When we're going to Haiti, we're always aware of what's going on. Today, the FAA issued an immediate order prohibiting U.S. airliners from

flying below 10,000 feet over Haiti due to safety of flight risks associated with ongoing security instability, no flights into or out of Porta Prince. Also today, Haitian police, posted outside the now closed Port-au-Prince airport. 85% of the city is controlled by heavily armed rival gangs. Roughly 400 police officers from Kenya operating under a UN mandate are outnumbered and outgun. The U.S. Embassy warning of armed violence around roads, ports, and airports. For quite some time, even before the Biden administration, Haiti has been at a level four a do-not-travel country.

All right, with that, Tom Costello joins Top Story tonight. So, Tom, you now have three carriers that were attacked by these shootings. How long will that FAA ban not to fly into Porto Prince do you think last? At least 30 days, and it could be extended if the security situation does not improve. American, today said its flights will remain suspended at least until February 12th, depending on the situation on the ground. But, Tom, I think now we've had three commercial airliners hit by gunfire. Whereas you might have bought the first one or the second one, maybe they got caught up and they flew over a hot firefight. When you've got three, I think you've got to wonder whether these were purposely targeted.

Okay, Tom Costello for us, Tom, we thank you for that. Now to the weather and wildfires raging on both coasts, much of the northeast under red flag warnings tonight as a historic drought continues to grip the region. One of the largest wildfires, the Jennings Creek fire, spreading the 5,000 acres along the New York, New Jersey border. Let's get right to NBC News meteorologist Bill Karens. Bill, this has been a historically. dry fall and there's no precipitation in the immediate forecast. We had a little bit over the weekend. What's going on here? We have to wait. We may have to wait to almost like Thanksgiving until we get a heavy soaking. So this is the forecast right over the next seven days. Notice from Philadelphia northwards, not a drip. So any day that we have low humidity and

gusty winds like we did today, we're going to get these red flag warnings and the threat of any fires spreading rapidly will be there. Now this is for tomorrow. Elevated risk from Connecticut all the way down through New York, once again, New Jersey included. We have a major drought in this region and with the gusty winds, the leaves are down. It's going to be very easy for any fires to spread tomorrow. And the winds will be out of the northeast, Boston, the Harford, to New York. So whatever fires we have out there, Tom, you have to kind of pay attention to the wind direction, because that depends if you're going to get smoke in your area or not. Okay. And I know there's something happening down in the tropics, and I know it hasn't even formed yet. But I want

you to take your time tonight, Bill, and tell us what exactly is it and the possible places it could go. Yeah, so the hurricane season doesn't end to the end of November. And, you know, for a reason, we can get some systems here. But after November, it's very rare to get them in December. So we're well away from the peak. So it's kind of unusual to get strong systems this time of year, but that is a potential with this one. And the reason is that this area of development in the Western Caribbean, this is the warmest water on the planet.

The water is still 90 degrees. You only need 80 to get, you know, a tropical storm to develop or a hurricane. So this has a chance, and the upper level winds look favorable to not only become. hurricane, but maybe even stronger than that. So the immediate concern is going to be towards Honduras and Nicaragua. That's where it's going to be this weekend. Our GFS model has it as a hurricane. The euro is going to be a little weaker than that. And there's a lot of questions about how much land interaction, because after it, you know, dances here near Honduras and Nicaragua, then it's going to start heading towards the northwest. It may impact areas here

from Belize up towards Cancun and Kaosmelt. It looks like Cuba should be on the eastern side of this. And then this is about seven days from right now. Our American GFS model has this, has a stronger storm in the Gulf of Mexico. The euro is a little weaker because of the land interaction. But regardless, all signs are that we're going to have a storm system that we'll be tracking. The name will be Sarah. And after this, unlike what we dealt with, Raphael, the last one, this will then head towards Florida. So we don't know yet in the middle of next week if we're going to have a hurricane or a tropical storm or just a messy area of rain.

But regardless, Tom, this is on that. that we have to take seriously, despite what the calendar says. Bill, before you go and keep that graphic up there, the Euro model, where would the Euro model go, do we know? Well, so if I was to take this from what the thinking is right now, the GFS has it going up somewhere here to the west coast of Florida. The Euro model would kind of come up and go a little further to the south. Anything is in play now from the, you know, the Florida Straits here all the way up through the Florida Peninsula. But this is eight, nine days away, Tom. A lot can change.

And a lot's going to depend on how much this storm, Sarah, interacts with land, either Cuba or in Mexico. If it kind of skirts right through the middle here, then it could definitely be on the stronger side. You know, we've had major hurricanes this late in the season before, but this one will be probably either the second or third latest. But I want to make sure I understand you here, though, Bill. Do we think something is going to hit Florida towards the end of next week? I'd be shocked if it's not at least rain. It could be anywhere from a tropical disturbance to. a hurricane. So it's way too early to even guess what that's going to be, but if people in Florida

need to watch this closely. Bill Cairns, we thank you for walking us through that. We know it'll be several days out, but we're going to be watching it every single one of them. All right, thanks, Bill. Moving overseas now to that violent demonstration of folding in Amsterdam, multiple people arrested after setting fire to a tram car and shouting anti-Semitic phrases. The city already on edge after last week's violent attack on Israeli soccer fans and some other fans reportedly chanting death to Arabs in the streets. NBC's Claudio Lavagna is in Amsterdam with the latest. Tonight, authorities in Amsterdam warning of plans for another night of rioting. Oh, my God. One day, after dozens of people smashed the windows of this tram,

setting off fireworks on board, while some of them screamed, cancer Jews in Dutch. The tram, which was empty at the time of the attack, left three. shuddered and charred. Dutch authorities say three people were detained in connection to the attack. The unrest coming just days after an attack on Israeli soccer fans who were in the city for a match between Amsterdam's Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv last week. I got a punch in my face, in my lip. It was organized.

After the match, Dutch officials say people on scooters sought out Israel. punching them and kicking them. What we've seen this weekend of the anti-Semitic attacks against Israelis and Jews are nothing short of shocking and reprehensible. On Monday, the city's police chief said there had been incidents on both sides, starting the day before the game. Israeli fans seen on video chanting death to Arabs. And this Palestinian flag was ripped down.

Authorities saying Israeli fans were also seen walking towards the city's red light district. They say some had taken off their belts and attacked a taxi. Other taxis were also vandalized. According to Amsterdam's mayor, 62 people were arrested in connection to the violence surrounding the game, including 10 Israeli citizens. In a letter to the city council, the mayor calling the attacks a toxic cocktail of anti-Semitism, football hooliganism and anger over the war in Palestine and Israel and other parts of the Middle East. Tonight, the capital city remains under strict emergency orders, with protests banned until

Thursday, police detaining those who defy the order as the city remains on edge. On Tuesday evening, Amsterdam's main square, Luft calm. But this is where everyday pro-Palestinian protesters gather despite the protest ban. Now, all eyes are also on Paris, where on Thursday, the Israeli national soccer team will play France. Tom? OK, Claudio, we thank you for that. We want to get back to that breaking news now. President-elect Trump naming Fox News host Pete Hagef as Secretary of Defense.

I want to get right to lieutenant colonel Danny Davis. He served more than 21 years in the military, including four combat deployments. Lieutenant Colonel, we thank you for being here. We noted that Hegsseth has served in Iraq and Afghanistan, and he does have two bronze stars. What is your reaction to the news? I understand you've been on his shows before on Fox News? I have, yeah, several times, actually. And listen, I mean, I think he's a good pick.

He's definitely unconventional, which is kind of standard data for Trump, I guess, because no one saw this. He wasn't on anybody's radar. And I'm talking to a number of people who are on the Trump transition team, and he didn't hit any of those radars. So this kind of came out of left field. But look, you've got to look at his policies and the things that he's talked about. And Trump wants somebody in there who's going to bring his America First Agenda that wants a strong

military, but that also doesn't want to use the military and, you know, fighting any wars that are not necessary unless it's for our national defense. And I think that we can count on Hegset to come in because if he's, he really understands veterans issues. He understands the value of human life, and he's not going to want to, you know, to move things in any direction that's, you know, that's neocon kind of thing, or get us into wars. We don't need to fight. So, you know, he's somebody who's obviously defended our country, right, and he's been awarded with two bronze stars, as we mentioned, along with other awards, too, in the military. Went to Harvard and Princeton, from what I understand here, from reading

this release here. But he's now going to manage this massive department, right? The Department of defense. What does it take to run that department? Obviously, he knows warfare, he knows combat, but he's going to have to manage a massive staff along with all of our different branches of the military. Yeah, there's no doubt about that. That is a monumental task. I worked in the Pentagon almost three years, so I know firsthand what that's like and how huge the challenge is. And I feel confident that they're going to make sure that he gets probably a deputy secretary of defense who does have lots of time in the building, as they say, and that does have experience with that.

I'm very confident that they'll do that because they're going to recognize that he doesn't have, you know, a lot of the firsthand experience at managing this massive organization like that. But I think the primary purpose that Trump probably wanted was somebody whose vision he shares at the top and then they can bring in other people to help manage some of those other bureaucratic issues.

That's what I would expect to see. Looking back at secretaries of defense that have been successful, and some that have been not so successful. What do you think are the keys to making sure that that secretary knows what they're doing and they're able to sort of implement, and obviously, at the end of the day, it's to protect our country? Yeah, the most important thing, I think, is frankly, to be honest and to not just say, hey, everything's rosy if it's not. And we've seen too much example of that over many years.

I won't go into the details of those. But if you see that there's a problem here, and then it's not possible. popular, then we can't just say, yes, we'll keep going down that path. For example, there's lots of people who want to say we should potentially go to war with China over Taiwan if they invade them. But right now, we don't have the military capacity to do that. In every computer simulation you want to look at for the last half decade or so has validated that, it is time for the Department of Defense to say, okay, I get what the policy we want, but if we don't have the capacity to succeed, then we can't go down that path. And the other issue that's playing really

big in the Russia-Ukraine war is if we see our stocks of our national defense going down too low in key areas, then we have to say, hey, we got to do something different. We can't just keep giving this stuff away to everybody else if we're not even going to have enough. And that is going to call for some hard decisions and some hard choices on the policy side. Lieutenant Colonel Davis, we thank you so much for joining Top Story and such quick notice and for helping us out and understand this new appointment. We appreciate it. Still ahead tonight, Sentencing Day, the Air National guardsman who leaked highly classified Pentagon documents, learning his fate in court just how long he'll spend behind bars. Plus, an NBC News exclusive are Chloe Malas sitting down with a once popular

wellness guru now set to go on trial for forced labor charges, how her celebrity-endorsed business could land her in prison and what she says about those allegations. And firefighters racing to save a two-year-old trapped in a burning building the frantic moment they broke a window to get him to safety. That's next. We're back now with federal charges against a wellness guru. You may know the name Nicole Dadeon from the 2020 Netflix doc about her company, One Taste. Now she's breaking her silence about that film and the charges she'll face in court, speaking exclusively with NBC News Entertainment correspondent Chloe Malas.

And a warning, the story contains very graphic details. We have a pleasure deficit disorder in this country. There is a cure, and that cure is orgasm. That's Nicole Dadeau. the founder of the sexual wellness company One Taste, which taught the practice of orgasmic meditation, a partnered experience which involves manual female genital stimulation that the company said would help members achieve enlightenment. The viewers watching who may, they're learning about you in One Taste for the first time,

and they hear orgasmic meditation, and they think it just sounds wild to them. What do you say to your critics? Well, I would say it sounded wild to me, too. I mean, come on, it sounds crazy. But there was something that said, no, really do. Just try it. This is for me. It can't hurt.

And so, you know, everything is in the dark under the covers. You know, you don't talk about it. Well, what would happen if we actually talked about these things with transparency and openness? Over 13 years, Diodome built one taste into a $12 million business with thousands of members, even endorsements from celebrities like Gwyneth Paltrow and Chloe Kardashian. But last year, New York prosecutors charged DeDone in a one-taste executive with one count each of forced labor conspiracy. De Diodone sat down with Top Story in an exclusive interview ahead of her trial this January, where she faces up to 20 years behind bars if convicted.

What do you say to the charge against you? It's not true. It's definitely not true. And I want to go to court because I want all of this. transparent. I want it to be exposed. But the indictment alleges De Donne preyed on individuals who had been victims of previous trauma, force one-taste members into debt by opening lines of credit to finance courses, subjected them to constant surveillance, had them sleep in communal homes and share beds,

groomed members to engage in sexual acts with investors and clients, and encourage them to allegedly limit contact with people outside of the organization. I'm going to just say it. It's a boilerplate indictment. We were rooted 100 percent in consent. If I talk to you about the practice, from the very moment that I would say to you, would you like to own, you can say yes or no. No is a perfectly acceptable answer. It's all based in consent. We had an ethics committee. This is the antithesis of what this company was. According to Dr. Nicole Prouse, who studies sexual psychophysiology at UCLA, there are health benefits to orgasmic meditation.

People who do this practice report feeling better, more positive emotions, and fewer negative emotions. People also seem to feel closer to the person that they're interacting with, regardless of their relationship history. So if you're worried about a loneliness epidemic or people who may feel isolated, this could be a way to address that kind of issue. De D. D. Donne's attorney, Jennifer Bonjean, who has represented some of the most high-profile celebrity cases in recent years from R. Kelly, Bill Cosby to Harvey Weinstein, says, her client was simply swept up in the Me Too movement. I do not think anyone would be interested in what Nicole's life practice was, what one

taste was doing without the Me Too movement. That's my personal view on it. And I think it was driven by media coverage that was not fair, that was not vetted, that was salacious, that was designed to rile people up. Much of my work was about exactly what happened in the Me Too. movement. There's nothing I want more than women to know how to give consent, to know how to say no, to know how to say yes, to know what her desire is, to know what the bottom line is, to know how to get up and walk out of a room. Bonjean also blames the 2022 Netflix documentary Orgasm Inc about Daydome,

which interviewed former One Taste members who said that they were subjected to a toxic environment, even brainwashed. People were getting hurt. People were getting hurt badly. Ex-members would describe something that I might look at and think like, oh, you were being told to have sex with a customer in the hopes that that would pay money to the company. People were psychologically brutal with each other. Make no mistake about it. Without the tabloid sensational coverage, there would be no indictment. I will stand on that. You have been called a sex cult leader. You've been compared to Keith Reneery.

The most honest thing I can say is it makes sense to me on the one hand. And what I mean by that is we do not have have a culture that understands women's power, women's relationship to sexuality, women owning their desire. There's a whole series of things where we were triggering. And so, in a sense, I understand it. And because of that, I trust that, I mean, not just sound cliche, but that justice will prevail. The Eastern District of New York declined to comment. Are you prepared to potentially serve jail time?

I don't know that you can necessarily prepare. I do know that I have the inner strength, resilience, and most importantly, what I have is a conviction of purpose. The jury, meanwhile, likely to hear from Nicole in her own words. Will you testify? For sure, absolutely. Chloe Malas joins us now in studio. So, Chloe, something interesting about all of this is that Nicole Daydone,

who you spoke to, sold this company in 2017. but now it's rebranded and operating again? So it's now called the Institute of Ome. And although Nicole DeDone says that she doesn't actually run the day-to-day of this business because she sold it, she's still practicing and she's still lecturing for the company. I also want to point out that this trial in January is not just going to have Nicole, it's going to have that executive that's also been charged with the exact same thing, which is conspiracy to commit forced labor.

And her name is Rachel Churowitz. So they will be facing trial together in just a couple of months. and Sherwitz has denied all of the accusations against her. And I also want to point out that Netflix documentary, Orgasm, Inc. Well, Nicole is actually suing Netflix, and that's been ongoing since that documentary came out. And we've reached out to Netflix for comment, and we haven't yet heard back.

Chloe Malas, the big exclusive tonight, Chloe, we thank you for that. When we come back more of the Trump transition, the appointments just announced, including a job for Elon Musk. That's next. Okay, we're following more breaking Trump transition news at this hour. elect Trump tapping Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Vivek Ramoswamy to lead a, quote, Department of Government Efficiency.

He's also confirmed just moments ago what we would have been reporting that he will name South the Court of Governor, Christine Nome, to be Secretary of Homeland Security. NBC's Vaughn Hillier joins us tonight now with the latest in all this. Von, obviously, the big news right now that just happened moments ago, Elon and Vivek Ramoswami. What do we know about this new government agency and how will it work? Exactly. A lot has developed since the start of the show, Tom. For Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, this idea of the Department of Government Efficiency, number one, exactly how is it created? What does it actually look like? Is there a budget and a staff behind it? These details are very unclear. What I can tell you, though, is that Elon Musk over the course of the last week, has been a consistent presence at Mara Lago ever since Donald Trump's election. But even before election day, Elon Musk had been on the campaign. trail on behalf of Donald Trump. And Elon Musk had talked about the fact that the U.S. annual federal budget is about $6 trillion. And he had been telling crowds that he would be able to cut

$2 trillion out of the federal budget, which would be slashing it by one-third annually. And Donald Trump himself had echoed this on the campaign trail saying that he would put Elon Musk in charge of government efficiency and bring him in his administration to do just that. And now, one week after his election. He is now promising to go forward with that campaign promise. And when we're talking about $2 trillion out of the federal budget, we're talking about staggering numbers that Elon Musk, even himself, admitted, would be causing hardships for Americans on the outset, but that it would be financially beneficial for the country in the long term. Of course, we're talking about the federal budget. You're talking about defense spending, immigration spending. You're talking about Social

security, Medicare, Medicaid. There's no details that have been provided here at this time, but Donald Trump suggesting that the two men, Ramoswamy, and Musk, will have until mid-20206 to figure this out and bring efficiency to the federal government. Again, very little details is exactly what that means at this point. You know, Vaughn, do you think, and I know you would be speculating here, but do you think Elon Musk and Vivek maybe are, I don't know if the word is disappointed, right? But there were such staunch supporters of President-elect Trump And I know, you know, Elon Musk spoke about this agency. This is a big thing for him.

But for Vivek, I mean, weren't there other ideas and plans for him? That was the question mark as to where Vivek Ramoswami would potentially go. But though he was also in discussion as potentially an appointment to fill J.D. Vance's Ohio U.S. Senate seat, he's Ohio resident himself. And so I think for Vivek Rameh, he'd actually be tied to the world's richest man, Elon Musk. It's not necessarily a bad gig depending on exactly where it goes and how long of a leash that they have. But again, so much of the budget is going to also rely on lawmakers and the Republican majorities on Capitol Hill to sign off on said budget. So this is going to be complicated in intense few months, I think we should expect in Washington, D.C. Vaughn Hillard, we thank you so much for being on Top Story and walking us through this breaking news.

We really do appreciate it. And we're going to be right back. Okay, we're back now with top stories news feed, starting with the former Massachusetts National Guard member sentenced to 15 years in prison for violating the espionage act. A federal judge handing down the sentence to Jack Tashara for illegally collecting and leaking highly classified military documents about the war in Ukraine on discord. The 22-year-old pleaded guilty in March to six federal charges. And dramatic new video showing the moment Texas firefighters rescued a toddler trapped in a burning apartment. building. Video shows officials racing to the scene in Gransbury, about 50 miles south of Fort Worth, one firefighter using an axe to shatter a window clinging, climbing inside, excuse me, and then pulling

a two-year-old to safety. His mother unable to reach him due to the smoke. He was airlifted to a hospital, but tonight he's doing okay. All right, when we come back, the show-stealing moment at the Rams Dolphins game. You're going to love the story. A young fan thought he was getting a video message from his Marine dad who was deployed overseas, but his dad was actually there. The beautiful reunion next. Finally, yesterday was Veterans Day, but last night there was an incredible homecoming at the Dolphins Rams game in Los Angeles, a Marine coming home and surprising his son. The video is incredible, but the story is even better.

Here's Jesse Kirsch. Please welcome Captain Vega home. This hug was six months in the making. Marine captain, Justin Vega, surprising his eight-year-old son, Leo, after a deployment to Japan. Ladies and gentlemen, please turn your attention to the field to recognize our season ticket member of the game. That special moment pulled off at the Rams Dolphins game Monday with help from Leo's grandmother. We're so thrilled to have you. It looks like you brought a very special guest.

Who do you have with you? Oh, this is my grandson, Leo. He's a big man, and his dad is serving overseas right now. Leo and a stadium full of fans watching his helicopter pilot dad up on the big screen, seemingly thousands of miles away. The Marines and I and Okina are working super hard, but I hope you guys are having a blast. I hope the Rams are winning, and I'll be home soon. Say hi to Rampage for me. But when the video ends, the big reveal. Leo, turn around.

I was kind of terrified, and it was a big moment. Obviously, I haven't seen him in six months. I just wanted him to be excited. That precious moment stealing the show on social media. In the stadium. Biggest roar of the night thus far. And even on ESPN's broadcast. We salute our veterans everywhere. I can't look at that stuff.

It'll make me cry, man. That's the best. Leo and his dad, who usually have to communicate on FaceTime, now together again, just in time for the holidays. I feel excited and I leave shot. On a veteran's day, the two will likely never. forget. Jesse Kirsch, NBC News. And a big thank you to the L.A. Rams for their help on that story. And a big thank you to Captain Vega for sharing that moment. And to all of our veterans,

once again, we thank you for your service and we thank your families. That does it for us here on Top Story. I'm Tom Yamas. Have a great night. Stay right there. More news on the way.