Morning. How about this weather. You know whats fun to do in the spring, go dn to washington and check out the cherry bless somes. You can apparently do that right now. December 14th. You said hey, baby, its warm outside. Cant believe you called america baby. Amazingly warm throughout much of the country. Al will have a forecast to tell us how long thats going to last. First on a monday morning, a breaking story overnight in egypt where investigators say they have yet to find any sign of an act of terror that brought down that russian jet over sinai back in october. Here at home, president obama heads to the pentagon today to tackle the issue of isis. We have two reports beginning with nbcs keir simmons and that crash investigation. Keir, good morning to you. Reporter matt, good morning. This is a vaguely worded brief statement, but it is stunning. Reporter it is a brieff sometime, but stununng. It garners the agencies around the world. The beginning. Isis bomb may not have brought down the russian passengng jet that crashed back in october. Debris from flight 9268 screen across the sinai. There is no evidence of terrorist action. Egyptt officials announce from cairo this morning. No evidence even of illegal intervention causing the crash of the russian passenger plane that killele autdll 224 people on board. Russian and western governments said airbus 321 was likely brought down by a bomb. The plane operated byetrojet lost control with air traffic after passing sharm el sheikh. And previously,gyptian officials were focusing on critical cockpit recordings pointing to an explosion. An isis affiliate last month homemade explosive made from a soda can. Now the head of the egyptian committee. Thegyptians are not saying what they think brought down the plane which is not a bomb. Privately, British Security officials are convinced it was a bomb. Britain reached that conclusisi. Since then, the Tourism Industry in egypt has been devastated. Keir, a story coming out from paris that a teacher on her way to school was attacked by a man that claimed he had ties to isis. What do you know . Reporter matt, nbc news is learning this has been part of the antiterrorism prosecutors office. A hooded man anttacked the Nursery School teacher in the same area where they were tracked dowowin an apartment. The man grabbed a box cutter from the table of School Teachers neck and stomach area. He appeared to have said this is from daish or isis. It is too earlyo draw conclusions so far, matt and savannah. Keir simmons, thank you. The strategy to defeat isis is on the president s agenda. He is making a trip to the pentagon with his National Security team. We have Kristen Welker with that part of the story. Reporter he is going to the pentagon to calm fears ahead of the Christmas Holiday and show he is ramping up on the fight against isis. This is his first visit since the paris attacks and attacks in San Bernardino. The vicicpresident will update the president on the campaign to defeat the terrorist group. Mr. Obama who had come under fire for not being tough enough against isis is hoping to put the pentagon recently stepped up air strikes and sent in Additional Special ops forces to fight in syria. Defense secretary a a carter says additional steps are under additional consideration. The white house cautions the president will not announce a change in strategy. In the weekly address, the president argued american air strikes, now more than 8,500 are taking out isis leaders in rerent weeks. Expepe the president to highlight that again. He will hold a similar briefing later this week. Savannah. Thank you, kristen. Lets turn to the president ial race. New numbers from the nbc news wall street journal poll. They are stacking up how the republicans are d dng against Hillary Clinton. We will break everything down first, Peter Alexander is in las vegas ahead of the gop debate. Peter, good morning to you. Reporter matt, good morning to you. Ben carsonn has dropped presipitiously. Ted cruz was risen among votets. Can cruz knock off trump . Is rning, donald trump and ted cruz are the duo dominating the republican field. The new nbc news poll shows trump leading nation wide, but cruz g gning steam up 12 points since october. In iowa, cruz up ten points over trump. Trump is blasting the freshman senator tweeting, i was disappointed that ted cruz would speak behind my back and get caught and deny it. World of poll tibiticpolitics. You look at the way he has dealt with the senate where he goes ithere like a frankly like a bit of a maniac. You cantalk into the senate and scream and call people liars. Reporter cruz is embracing trumps maniac. Tweeting the music video of the 1980s hit maniac. Quote, in honor of my friend donald trump and good hearted maniacs s everywhere. Im not looking to be politically correct. Im doing this to do the right thing. Reporter rubio says the motivatiwn is clear. I think he made them to rerepture the lime light. Reporter and as ben carsons numbers plummet, down 18 points in the last month. Is taking moreref a i have healers experience. Reporter carson a ripe target for saturday night live. With will ferrell. I can barely hear him when he talks. I tell you something, thats not going to work when you have to go to china or ajerbazjan. Where you have to talk loudly so they understand. 8reporter and the wall street journal poll shows that Hillary Clinton would trounun donald trump in a headtohead match up. It is closer with clinton and cruz. One other note tomorrow night, a new man on the main stage. Chris christie after all the gains he made in new hampshire. Matt and savannah. Peter alexander, thank you very much. Lets turn to chuck todd. Moderator of meet the press. Good morning. We have the huge surge for cruz. Cratering. This is not everybody wants to somehow s s trump is falling. He has gained in the iowa poll. He gained in our poll. Cruz is the traditional Christian Conservative candidate. What we normally see when it is a breakdown between two lanes in the republican party. Trump is his whole other entity. What do you get for a surge . Yoyo get attacked by donald trump. Cruz is careful not to criticize trump. He got caught doing it behind the scenes. Is h h strategy make sure the Trump Supporters like him enough so if trump craters, he will get their support . His only path through the nomination is with Trump Supporters. You look at this ashree ctions of the republican party. Cruz and evangelicals and establishment lane with marco rubio and donald Trump Supporters. Cruz has a better shot of the you talk to Trump Supporters. Their second choice a lot of times is cruz. In fact, i thought it was an odd decisi by trump attacking cruz. How he attacked him. By attacking him by going hey, this guy cannot work anybody in the senate. Trump is really shaking things up. That will be appealing to Trump Supporters. I would say, that is just surprising method of attack. It allowed us to use the flash dance video. We should thank him f that. I guess the queststn is are these trump voters transferrable . Will they only go to the polls for trump and stay home or might they go and vote for cruz . Is that the question . It is. Nobody can answer that question. These appear to not be frequent voters in primaries. When they vote, they vote republican. It is not clear they will show up. Trump got them involved. It is not the environment. It is trump that got them involved. At the debate. If trump throws the first punch at cruz, can cruz sit back and be nice . He has to counterpunch. He is trying to win over Trump Supporters. Trump supporters wantt tough. If cruz is not tough, that will hurt him. I will be surprised if the two of them decide to pounce on rubio. That is what cruz might do. Get rid of the other guyuy in your way. Rubio. Then postpone your fight with trump. It will be interesting. Chuck, thank you so much. Lets turn to the weather. It is dividing the nation. A blast of winter out west. Recordhigh temperatures in the heat. Lets start in washington state. Treacherous driving conditions at stevens pass. Accidents and spinouts kept crews busy. Sleet and heavy snow. It is a completely different midwest and the east. According to noaa, at least 574 record daily highs were tied or broken across the u. S. During the first ten days of december. That was before t t past weekend which saw temperatures soaring into the 60s here in the northeast. You can expect more of the se today with temperatures expected to be up 30 degrees above average. I have just done als job. I will throw to him. I should talk. We have theet stream way up to the north. Springlike warmth hanging out. Big area of High Pressure funneling this up. We have patchy dense fog in the northeast. There could be airport delays. By wednesday, it cools down. 72 in raleigh. 53 in pittsburgh. Charleston will see a temperature of 72. As warm with temperatures from 10 to 30 degrees anbove normal. We have much colder air funning down from canadada plus a big low pressure systemem we are watching this snow storm start to make its way further and further to the east. What we see for today is as the secondary storm comes out, look for intensisication of the snow. We are talking in the rockies anywhere from 12 to 18 inches of snow or more before this is all over. We are watching this system as it makes its way east. The good news, guys, we are not going to see a big, big drop in temperatures here throughout much of the country. Al, thank you so much. We have new information this morning on the San Bernardino shooting investigation andnd the warning signs that may have been missed. This as another survivor is speaking out today. Nbc National CorrespondentMiguel Almaguer is in San Bernardino. Miguel, good morning to you. Reporter savannah, g gd morning. The Regional Center where the shooting took place is a focal point for investigators. This as they piece together what after the bloodshed. As the fbi investigates the mosque that was fire bombed and another vandalized over the weekend, dive teams searching for a hard drive at the lake say the work here is over. Investigators believe Tashfeen Malik and Syed Rizwan Farook had ties here. Jenner jen stevens was shot twice. And i hit the ground. You dont sie the bullets, but you can hear thth. Theyeyre really loud. Reporter with farook and malik radicalized in 2010, investigors fear warnings signs were missed. The New York Times says malik posted on social media saying she wanted to be part of jihad today, federal agents are building a timeline with the shooting and shootout with police. In all, four and a h hf hours went by. What did the gunmen do before they were killed . I saw them putting on what i believe to be bulletproof vests. Reporter sergeantndy katz. We could not let them get way from there. It is parent. They were going to fight with us. They were going to hurt more people. We cannot allow that. Reporter another focus of the investigation is enrique marquez. Syedizwan farooks long time friend who bought the assault rifles. As he continues to work with investigators, he may be one of their best leads. Matt and savannah. Miguel almaguer, thank you. Sad anniversary now. Flagsst half staff in connecticut to mark the third at sandy hook in newtown. 20 children and 6 educators were killed. This is the First Time Since the 2012 shooting that the anniversary has fallen on a school day. Counselors will be on location at every school. There will be no mention of the shootings at those schools. And welcome news on the economy. Gas prices are dropping lower. They may stay low through the Holiday Season. We have tom costello with more. Reporter look at this gas station. 1. 94. My photographer paid 1. 71 last week. This is a few penningtononyiesyies below average. Tis the season for giftjng. Extra in their pockets. Gas prices lowest in years. At the pump, 2. 01 a gallon. Sansas at 1. 77. California pays the most. 2. 65 on average. Gas is now cheaper than a gallon of milk at 3. 34. On inflationnflationinflation, we are looking at the cheapest since the 1970s. Reporter last month, 2. 1819. The highest was july of 2008 when gas hit 4. 10 a gallon. The top reasons for the plunge, the u. S. Is swimming in oil. Producinin more than it imports. Saudi arabia keeps pumping more hoping to drive out iran and the u. S. It is good for car sales. 16 million new vehicles have 59 of them light trucks and suvs. As long as gas prices stay on the 2 rangng people will consider bigger vehicles more. Reporter thats what brought this woman in to buy an suv. The gas is below 2. Thatsretty good. Reporter and gas prices likely will lower in the coming weeks. Although most experts say we should stick around 2 a gallon more or less hugging that level for the next several years. S. By the way, look at heating oil prices. Inn unlikely to affect out the west coast, but down a dollar from a year ago. If winter does return to partsts of the country, it is likely cheaper to heat homes. In northern virginia, 63 degrees on this december day. Guys, back to you. Tom costello bringing good tidings. Hard to talk about heating your home with the temperatures a lot of places, it is just around the corner. People are saving money on thth heating bills. That is good news. We will get to what is going on in your local area in the next 30 seconds. And snow on wednesday, but the rest of the week should dry out. Stormtrack7 Live Weather Network cameras will be wet this morning and dry out later today. Rain continues to track north, but some dry air is starting to work into the southern counties. However. We have had plenty over the las couple of days. Many of s got 1 to 3 with some gettinggven more. Temperatures continue to be steady or already into the low to mid 30s out west. Winds are strong as the center of the system tras in. We are 15 to and thats your latest weather. Matt. Thanks very much. Too hot to handle. Amazon puts some brakes on hover boards after a series of fire. Plus on rossen reports, kids, car seats and a big mistake many parents make in the winter months. What you need to do. This is a really important today on nbc. Man at toysrus, you can buy one get t e 40 off all sorts s toys. En that life size ststk boy action figure . Nah, thats just steve. Buy one get one 40 off power rangers, crayola, nerf modulus and more. Toysrus. Awwwwwome this holiday i can count on someones kid mistaking me for santa. Im so sorry. Come on sweetie. Its okay. And knowing right when my packages arrive. Introducing realtime delivery notifications. One more reason this is our season. Daves been working on hisame, and starting each day with a delicious bowl of heart healthy kelloggs raisin bran. Hows your cereal . Sweet tastes like winning. How would you know what winning tastes like . Invest in your heart health, with kelloggs raisin bran. I got you something to keep you warm. On the inside. At jared, we only sell one piece of jewelry for the hidays. The one that melts her heart. And its waiting for you. At jared. The flu virus hits big. With aches, chills, and fever, theres no such thing as a little flu. And it needs a big solution an antiviral. So when the flu hits, call your doctor right away and up the ante with antiviral tamiflu. Prescription tamiflu is an antiviral that attacks the flu virus at its source and helps stop it from spreading in the body. Tamiflu is f approved to trere the flu in people two weekek of age and older the last two days. Before taking tamiflu, tell your doctor if youre pregnant, nursing, have Serious Health conditions, or take other medicines. If you devevop an allergic reaction, a severe rash, or signs of unusual behavior, stop taking tamiflu and call your doctor immediately. Children and adolescents in particular may be at an increased risk of seizures, confusion, or abnormalalehavior. The most common side effects are mild to moderate nausea and vomiting. Today, governor branstad makes history. Its day seven thousand 642 in Office Making him the longest serving governor in the country. Hes served in two blocks. First from 1983 until 1999. Then he took a short break to become the president of des moines university. In 2010. He announced another run and won later that year. He was reelected in 2014. Branstad takes the longest serving title away from new yorks george clinton. Whose Service Included some pre ccnstitution time. Moving on to decision 2016. A new poll of democrats is out this morning Hillary Clintons lea growing since the last Des Moines Register poll. She now tops Bernie Sanders 44 to 39 percent. Now, lets go to eileen with a at weather. Rain willnd from the south to the north, bu it will be ggty e next, weaker system tracks through. That will bring light well be back in 30 minutes, be sure to paris theres a lot to do on dairy farm. Nonodys gonna do it fororou. You have to get out there and do it yourself. Bernie sanders is a wellknown friend of family farms. Bernie cannot be bought out by big money. Bernies opinion cannot be purchased. Its time for our next president to get in there, roll up his sleeves, take off the gloves, and take on wall street, take on big business, take on big money, and get the working class back twhere they should be. Hes a rock. 7 30 now on this monday morning, december 14th, 2020, and it does not feel like it. Its an unseasonal warm day here in new york city and all across the eastern seaboard. We actually hit 67 on susuay, and that snapped a a 92yearold record. Were going to talk more about that with al in a investment more about stories making headlines. Our new natioiol nbc news wall street journal poll shows ted cruz cutting into Donald Trumps lead in the republican president ia