Congress. The debate on capitol hill begins today wkemorning mess, looming tomorrow. So how will this all play out . Were live with the latest. Morning mess, a n snow, ice and rain creating a slow and slippery commute for snow, ice and rain creating a slow and tens of millions across the northeast, and today, temperatures set to plummet. Tens of millions across the northeast, and today, temperatures set als got everything you need to. Als got everything you need to know. Know. All that, plus new danger, overnight, more volcanic activity hampering Recovery Efforts at the site of that all that, plus new danger, overnight, more volcanic activity hampering recovery zed efforts at the site of that t cruise ship lawsuit, the family of the toddler who fell to her death taking royal deadly eruption in new zealand. Cruise ship lawsuit, the family of the toddler who fell to her death taking Royal Caribbean to court saying the tragic accident was 100 preventable. Preventable. And today and today exclusive, who shaped our world the most in wt 2019, were ready to reveal in 2019, were r times person of the year. Dy times person of the year. Today wednesday, december 11th, today wednesday, december 11th, 2019. From nbc news, this is, today with Savannah Guthrie today with Savannah Guthrie and hoda kotb. Live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. And hoda kotb. Hi, everybody, weo live from studio 1a in rockefeller plaza. Hank you for hi, everybody, welcome to m today, thank you for joining a us on this wednesday morning, and im sure some folks are nd waking up and going where is savannah this morning. Ur dear n our dear friend ms. Guthrie has the day off. S has the day off. He shes having some eye ome ey surgery. Surgery. Shes had laser shes had laser treatment, t and shes going through the he surgery. We wish for her a speedy recovery. We want to get right to the surgery. Y. Brea we wish for her a speedy overni. Recovery. On ye we want to get right to the ys breaking news overnight. On yesterdays hour long ff and standoff and a shootout in jersey city, six people were ton killed including a Police Detective and three civilians at a Kosher Grocery store. Six peo investigators are trying to killed including a Police Detective and three civilians at a Kosher Grocery sto figure out if that attack was driven by hate. Nbcs Gabe Gutierrez joins us from jersey city with details on this. Hey, gabe, good morning. Reporter good morning. The suspects have been identified. And there was a note with religious writing at the scene. A Police Officer and three bystanders and two suspects are dead after a terrifying shoot out in jersey city. It was a targeted attack on the jewish kosher deli across the state here. Cctv footage reviewed overnight shows it was a targeted attack. The motives are still part of the investigation. I said this location they exited the van and they proceeded to attack this location in a targeted manner. Anything else is open for investigation. Theres a few of us here engaged in the initial gun battle. Almost immediately there was a heavy police response. The neighborhood completely locked down. The faa shutting down airspace over the area as officers took cover, assembled portable shields and brought in armored personnel. We set up a tactual advantage, continued gunfire for hours. Reporter this chilling barrage of bullets captured by a crew from our station wnbc. The fire is getting louder and faster right now. Reporter the senior Law Enforcement official tells nbc news the suspects, unidentified man and woman had one long gun described as an ar type woman and at least 100 rounds were fired in the shootout. Resident says it sounded like a war zone. Ive never seen anything like it before. Reporter investigators say both suspects were killed in the gun battle. Three people were found dead inside the store. Police say they were not killed by officer fire. The fallen detective 39yearold joe seals was a 15year veteran of the force. He was also a husband and father of five children. So its a tough day for jersey city. So gabe, we know the several sources briefed on the investigation tell our station wnbc that one of the suspects social media pages had antipolice and antijewish writings and investigators are trying to see whether he, in fact, posted that material. As for the officer, he joined the Police Department in 2006 and he was responsible for getting guns off the street. He was a married father of 5. As for the two other officers they have been wounded and craig, both have been released from the hospital. G released now from the hospital. Gabe gutierrez for us, gabe, thank you. Thank you. Now to fast moving fwo developments on the imp now to fast moving eachment show developments on the impeachment show down. Back at demo President Trump firing back at democrats after being formally charged with high crimes and ode the debate begins on capitol looming, heres a look hill today with a key vote looming, heres a look at how some of the major newspapers are covering the story this mornings the wall street journal there, house panel lays out case to l, house panel lays out case to impe impeach president , the new york times, all caps, impeachment articles say trump abused power, damaging nations. Our team ready to break it down this morning, starting with nbc White House Correspondent kristen welker. Kristen, good morning. Reporter craig, good morning to you. President trump is now the fourth president in u. S. History to have articles of impeachment drawn up against him. Tonight the house of representatives will begin to debate those articles. The president defiant and digging in. Overnight, President Trump stumping in Battle Ground pennsylvania bracing for what could be his biggest political battle yet. Our poll numbers have gone through the roof because of her stupid impeachment. Reporter lashing out at House Speaker nancy pelosi and house democrats. The impeachment hoax is about overturning your great 2016 vote or in the alternative, trying to win the 2020 election. Thats not going to happen. Reporter earlier in the day, that history making moment unfolding with Democratic Leaders announcing two articles of impeachment against President Trump. Charging the president of the united states, donald j. Trump with committing high crimes and misdemeanors. Reporter the first article, abuse of power, charging the president with withholding a white house meeting and for a Time Military aid to ukraine in exchange for its leaders publicly announcing investigations that would benefit his reelection. The second article, obstruction of congress. Charging the president with rim defiance. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi warning. If we did not hold him accountable, he would continue to undermine our elections. Reporter the president s allies firing back. Speaker pelosi, adam schiff, and her counter parts have been abusing the power of impeachment because theyre afraid donald trump will get reelected on his own. Reporter so what happens next, on thursday the House Judiciary Committee led by democrats will vote on whether to send the impeachment bill to the entire house where a majority of votes is needed to pass it. Then the full house would debate it. If a majority passes that measure, the president would officially be impeached. Then the case goes to a trial in the senate. Supreme court chief Justice John Roberts would serve as the judge. Members of the house as prosecution. The white House Counsel would coordinate the president s defense and the senate serves as jury, 53 republicans, 45 democrats, two independents. To remove the preponderate, a 2 3 majority or 67 senators would ne t u. S. History. So after tonights debate on impeachment, that First Committee vote is expected to take place before the end of this week with the goal of having the full house vote before christmas. Now as for a senate trial, 20 republicans would have to vote to remove the president from office, and there is broad agreement all across washington at this point that seems highly unlikely. Craig. Kristen welker from the white house, thank you. Now to our exclusive interview with attorney general william barr on another issue hanging over the president. The russia investigation. Barr sat down with our justice correspondent Pete Williams and took aim at the fbi into its investigation in the 2016 Trump Campaign. Barr says he believes it may have acted in bad faith one day after an Inspector General report found no evidence of political bias. Pete joins us from washington with more of that exclusive conversation. Pete, good morning. Reporter craig, good morning, this is the attorney generals strongest criticism yet of the fbi for the way it started the investigation of the Trump Campaign, and then kept it going. Barr says the fbi needed much stronger evidence before it began looking into a president ial campaign. The Justice DepartmentInspector General concluded that the fbi had legitimate reasons for opening its investigation of the Trump Campaign and said it found no evidence of political bias. But in our exclusive interview, attorney general william barr says he disagrees. There has to be some basis before we use these very potent powers in our core First Amendment activity, and here i felt this was very flimsy. Reporter its barrs strongest break with the Inspector Generals conclusions about the investigation and it runs counter to the comments by the current fbi director Christopher Wray who said the fbi acted reasonably in launching it. When the fbi opens an investigation it does so with and the facts and nothing else. Trump continued his criticism of the fbi on a tuesday night rally in pennsylvania. Yesterday, the Justice Departments Inspector General released the report detailing the outrageous scandalous and unprecedented abuses of power. Reporter the Inspector General said while he did not believe the fbi was politically motivated, he could not find a satisfactory explanation for why the fbi repeatedly made serious mistakes in seeking to conduct surveillance on carter page, a former Trump Campaign adviser but barr says he believes the fbi was biassed. The core statement in my opinion by the ig is that these irregularities, these misstatements, these omission were not satisfactorily explained, and i think that leaves open the possibility to infer bad faith. I think a lot of people will hear what youre saying here and think, well, thats just bill barr defending trump. I think our nation was turned on its head for three years. Bogus narrative that was largely fanned and hyped by an irresponsible press, and i think that there were gross abuses of fisa and inexplicable behavior that is intolerable in the fbi barr has launched his own review of the fbis investigation of the campaign. Thats led by a career u. S. Attorney from connecticut, and barr says that probably wont be finished until this spring or summer the Inspector General appears today on capitol hill. Craig. Pete williams for us there in washington, pete thank you. Joined now by rich lowry, a leading conservative thinker, editor of the National Review also author of the case for nationalism. Good to see you another slow day news day in america. Lets start with bill barr left off that the entire investigation was based on this bogus narrative, intelligence agencies have disputed that, special Counsel Robert Mueller documented more than a hundred instances where there was contact between the Trump Campaign and a foreign person. What do you make of bill barr taking on his own Inspector General . I think theres a tension here, right, because the bar for the predicate of an investigation like this is very low, but you think commonsensically, you want to be extra cautious ithoutldish, i ts sense to have more facts but the chance of this being resolved to everyones satisfaction is basically zero. Lets turn to the impeachment now, democrats settled on two articles, abuse of power, and obstruction of congress. And not obstruction of justice, obstruction of congress. They did not go further, which surprised a lot of folks, no mention of bribery, no mention of extortion, why go narrow instead of going i think their practical concerns driving it, one, timing, if you wanted to do mueller related counts, you would have to have more hearings which will take more time, which they dont want to do, and the moderate democrats are nervous about going broader, they want to keep it narrower. I think this will be a tactual victory for nancy pelosi, shell get the articles through the house, does she lose more house democrats. She lost two on the initial vote for the inquiry. If she loses a handful more of them, it would be a sign of loss of momentum. A number of democrats that have suggested that censure might be a better route to go. Too late now. As you know, the white house heretofore has decided not to defend itself when the trial goes to the upper chamber, they wont have a choice, they will have to provide a defense. What does that defense look like it remains to be seen mcconnell deciding on what the senate trial will look like. I think well get a real trial, an expeditious trial, i dont think it will be drawn out for all sorts of weeks, hunter biden and the whistleblower, and all that Senate Republicans think what trump did is wrong, even if they dont say it out loud, but almost all believe it doesnt justify impeachment or removal rich lowry, thank you. Thank you so much. New developments surrounding last weeks deadly shooting at a florida military base. The u. S. Navy has now suspended Flight Training for more than 300 Saudi Arabian students trainees at three bases in northern florida will be grounded until further notice. No classroom instruction will continue last friday, a Saudi Air Force attendant shot and killed three people at a Naval Air Station in pensacola. The fbi is trying it to figure out a motive the navy says the grounding is an effort to ensure the safety of students as they recover from the shooting. Thank you. Now to that winter storm creating a dangerous morning commute for tens of millions here in the northeast. Were going to check in with mr. Roker and find out whats happening with that blast of cold air hey, al. Were looking at this system pushing through, a quick hit of snow, some areas away from the coast will see 1 to 3 inches weve got a weather whiplash going on yesterday, temperatures anywhere from 10 to 30 degrees above average ahead of this front but then the front moves through and boom, today temperatures 10 to 40 degrees colder than average a 23 degree temperature drop in the last 24 hours for new york a 14 degree temperature changedd you can see, look at these temperatures yesterday, boston, 63, 58, new york city, and look at temperatures today for highs anywhere from 19 to 29 degrees colder than average. Right now windchills brutal, fargo, 35 degrees below average. Tomorrow morning, windchills of 14 in new york city, 26 in st. Louis, and minus 3 in green bay. Hoda. All right, al, well check back with you in a bit also this morning, there are signs of new volcanic activity on that island in new zealand where tourists including americans were killed or injured during an eruption this week, and its slowing both the search and recovery operation as well as the investigation nbcs Janis Mackey Frayer has more for us from new zealand hey, janis, good morning. Reporter good morning, hoda. Days after the eruption, the tour boats are still idle here, and there is a strong chance white island could erupt again, posing a bigger risk to the sc s to set foot on white island, ash, gas and heat a concern, the rick of another eruption high. For a closer look, we went by boat, 30 miles into the bay of plenty the same churning route that tourists took the day the volcano erupted. That is white island, you can see the volcanic ash still hovering over the crater the island is still unstable theres a chance it could erupt again. Today were learning more about who was there when disaster struck, tourists, retirees, entire families. Several australians today confirmed dead, julia and Jessica Richards on a mother daughter trip, gavin dallow with his stepdaughter zoe whos still missing. Identifying survivors has been hard, many of them unable to speak and horribly burned. Blisters, we were trying to transport them, their skin was coming off, and holding people, it was very horrific. The burns so extensive, skin needed for grafting has been ordered from the u. S. To treat them with the death toll on the rise, frustration is mounting about why tourists were allowed to go. Brian dallow says his son wouldnt have if he had known the threat. If he were fully informed, otherwise, he wouldnt have gone. Reporter days later, there are few answers and little hope here, only a growing memorial of flowers at the shore the island right now is full of hazards, the blast reportedly containing rocks, ash, even a few boulders the