his death now raising fears of a potential escalation in the region which could expand into a wider war israel has eso far avoided. plus, three years after rioters stormed the capitol, donald trump further cements his dominance over republicans. what brand new polling is revealing about the gop s increasing loyalty to trump and their thoughts about the legitimacy of president joe biden s election win. and also ahead hours from now house speaker mike johnson and 60 republicans will head to the southern border as senate negotiations resume. we llbri you the latest on where those talks now stand. good morning, and welcome to way too early on this wednesday, january 3rd. i m jonathan lemire. thanks for starting your day with us. we ve got a lot of news to get to this morning. we ll begin overseas where hamas is now blaming israel for the death of one of its leaders, who was killed in an explosion in lebanon yesterday. what appeared to be a drone strike happened in a densely p
but there s one section that didn t receive as much attention as the rest . media luded detailess about how media organizations and big tech, including formerg employees of the department of justice, agreed to working iof n concert to protect joe biden against damaging storiesn again this all happened at the aspen institute in august of 2020, labeled a tabletop exercise on combating disinformation, it quickly morphed into smothering a perfectly legitimate story. now, due to new emails given to us by shellenberger, we know the effort was organized by vivian schiller, former npr president and former twitter global chair of news. and once we started pullingwc the thread of which journalists and social media employees were involved, we found other past association that should raise eyebrows. first is nathaniel leiker,ad o current head of cybersecurity policy at facebookcybers, formef the department of justice. and these two, andrew grado and janine zakharia, both fromfh sta
ii hero who showed us the meaning of courage. announcer: this is nbc nightly news with lester holt good evening, everyone she captured the nation s attention with her recounting of what she said she saw and heard from within president trump s inner circle on january 6th. tonight some of the accounts of former white house staffer cassidy hutchinson are being disputed including what happened inside the presidential suv when then-president trump angrily demanded to be taken to the capitol where crowds were gathering. tonight her attorneys writing on her behalf, ms. hutchinson stands by all the testimony she provided yesterday. and this evening hutchinson s testimony about senior trump staffers expressing fears that they might end in violence has the january 6th committee looking to speak to a new potential key witness. the then white house counsel who according to hutchinson warned, we re going to get charged with every crime imaginable if we make that movement happen pete
army style. bent over just shooting at people and i saw three people laying down. officials say that peyton gendron, a white 18-year-old man was wearing body armor and military-style clothing when he pulled up yesterday at the top s friendly market, and began shooting. he picked that spot specifically for its demographics, according to officials. they say he drove more than 200 mile ace way to carry out the attack in an area that had a significant black population. he was very heavily armed. he had tactical gear. he had a tactical helmet on. he had a camera live streaming what he was doing. the suspect was immediately arraigned on first-degree murder charges and more charges are expected to follow. federal agencies are now investigating the shooting as a potential hate crime and a case of racially motivated domestic terrorism. they are reviewing a 180-page manifesto, reportedly written by the shooter, where he describes his perceptions about the dwindling size about t
meanwhile, unicef saying gaza has, quote, become a graveyard for thousands of children. we re going to talk to the head of a children s aid group there about what his team is seeing on the ground. over to capitol hill, a showdown is now set over aid for israel. what is expected to happen to the house republicans $14 billion deal once it hits the senate. and the fall, my gosh, of the crypto king. what is next for sam bankman-fried now that s found guilty of stealing billions from investors? and former president trump s son eric back on the stand today in the civil fraud trial against members of the trump family and their business in new york city. hi, everybody. good to see you. we begin this hour with the very latest on the israel-hamas war. and the threat of this widening conflict. just this morning, the leader of hezbolla spoke for the first time since this war began. he addressed the lives lost in gaza, but added the october 7th attack on israel was 100% palestinian. ju