hey, everybody. good morning to you. good to see you. 11:00 a.m. in the east. 8:00 al pacific. i'm yasmin vossoughian in for jose diaz-balart. in iowa, right now, first responders were on the scene after a shooting at a high school in perry, iowa, about 25 miles from des moines. any moment now officials there are going to give an update. we're going to bring that to you as soon as it happens.

want to bring in ali vitali who is on the scene for us. this is breaking in the last hour or so. we're learning more by the minute. what do we know right now? >> reporter: learning more by the minute, yasmin. expected to get even more hard information as soon as this press briefing starts. i'm told that the sheriff is on his way over right now. and we'll start getting more information. when that happens, i'll go over and try to ask all the questions that we still have, which is effectively what is the official timeline of what happened here. i will say i caught up with a parent, who was picking her children up here, they were thankfully okay, but she described to me that moment where she got the text message from one of her kids saying that there was an active shooting at their high school, and she never thought that it could happen in this community, and to her children, and unfortunately now this has come to perry, iowa. she also told me that while this shooting may have happened before the official start of school, before kids were

actually at their desks and in their classrooms it was pretty typical, she said, for kids to go in early and sort of gather and congregate to start their day. it is likely that that's what happened here and why kids were at school so much earlier in the lunch room and hang out with their friends. we'll get more on the timeline here from the public information officer who as i'm just look over may be about to start speaking in just a few minutes. again, we don't have any sense of what exactly happened here. and we're looking to get more as the minutes go on. >> got it. so, we're keeping our eyes on that podium as you are, ali, as well. that's something new that we just learned or that i'm learning and i want to talk more about that is when exactly the shooting happened. it didn't happen when school was in session. it was in the early hours of the morning? >> reporter: yeah, it seems according to our affiliate network here that the first reports of this shooting came in around 7:40 a.m. local time. that's a few minutes before school officially starts.

school typically starts just before 8:00 a.m. here at perry high school. so if that's where the reports were officially starting, it does mean that this happened before school was officially in session. again, though, this mother was telling me that it was pretty normal for kids to come in and try to hang out with their friends, gather in the lunch room and start their day. she said they do that just like everybody else does that, just like every other adult would start their day trying to have a conversation with the people in the community around them. and so, again, we'll get the official timeline from police in the next few minutes, but it did seem like this happened before the official start of school. >> give me a sense of what you're seeing. bring us on the ground there, the type of police activity you're seeing, if there are parents gathered around the high school, where you are exactly, where this press conference is happening. what are you seeing? >> reporter: right now we are out behind the football field, waiting for this press conference to start, but you can see in the area behind me, yasmin, of course, you got iowa

state patrol here in our immediate background, but you go even further down the road to the school itself, and there were dozens of law enforcement vehicles, lights and sirens when we pulled up here earlier. i spoke with one of the law enforcement officials who was here, just trying to get a sense of what was going on when we pulled in here about an hour ago, and all he could say to me with this pained look on his face is that this was a situation that was in his words not good. he could not tell us about what the current status of the shooter was, only that this was no longer an active shooter situation. thankfully they have the scene locked down. but, again, you can just feel the palpable tension when you show up to school shootings like this, we have seen this unfortunately time and time again in this country, and i think what i was talking to this mother about, the conversation that we have frankly every time you see circumstances like this arise, this mother said she never thought it could happen in her community. she never thought she would be the person receiving the text

messages from her kids that it was one of the most terrifying moments of her life and she is just thankful they're okay. >> yeah, obviously i've covered many of these sadly active shooter situations, and every time i hear that from every parent until it happens to them, until it hits so close to home. any idea, i know you talked about it is no longer an active shooter situation. did you get any indication as to whether that meant the shooter had been neutralized and/or arrested, apprehended? >> reporter: that is one of the key questions that we'll want answered here in the next few minutes because it seems like the law enforcement officials that we have spoken to either don't know or aren't officially able to tell us, so, of course, that's going to be one of the first questions, but it does seem like they were able to lock down this scene, seemingly quickly after these first reports started happening. you'll notice, though, they also made sure that they evacuated and cleared the middle school, it is because this high school

shares a campus effectively with the middle school. it all sort of shares the same plot of land. in the ticktock we're going to get from law enforcement, i imagine that the clearing of the middle school and the elementary school, of course, will be integral to their explanation of how this process played out. but, of course, the main action and the main event here was at the perry high school here in iowa, 40 minutes outside des moines. >> i got one more for you and then i'll have you hang tight as we're waiting to see that press conference get up and going. i know you're just getting there, what is the sense you get about the community? what is the community like? >> reporter: this is a community frankly that i've covered politics in for years now. i'm about do my third iowa caucus. we come through perry and all of these towns outside of des moines quite often. most of us are here because we were here to start covering the 2024 presidential calendar. this is a community like so many in iowa that is small, it is close knit, and when i was

speaking to this mother, it is partly why, i know you had these conversations with parents too, it is partly why she says she never thought that it could happen in a place like this. kids are back to school after their holiday break, they're just starting off the new year, as we all are. the idea this could happen in their community is, of cours sh grief-inducing. there were tears in her eyes and it is a mix of relief because she knows her kids are okay, but we don't know what the status is and what the fate is of other kids who were in this school, when this happened earlier this morning. so, of course, we'll be waiting to hear that from the public information officer, but, again, the emotion of these stories is always the part that is just the most heart breaking and the most palpable and here we see the sheriff and the public information officers walking up to the podium about to give their briefing. >> four days into this new year and here we are yet again covering another shooting at a school in the united states of

america. i know they're just starting and getting up and going there. so we're going to go to them as soon as they do. and i believe they're coming to the podium now. the sheriff there i believe along with other members of the police department. as we're taking a look at this, we talked about the parents that you spoke to. are there in parents in the area that have now gathered -- here they go. let's listen in. this morning at approximately 7:37 a.m., we had a serious radio activation at the high school, which indicated an active shooter situation. our officer first arrived within seven minutes of that activation and located multiple gunshot victims. we're still unclear exactly how

many are injured, or what the extent of those are, but we're working on that right now. there is no further danger to the public. the community is safe. we're just now working backwards trying to figure out everything that happened and make notifications. there will be another update later on today. it is still very early, this happened at approximately 7:37 this morning, school didn't start yet luckily. students and faculty in the building, which i think contributed to a good outcome in that sense. but we'll have more information later on this afternoon. we will not be releasing any more information in the meantime, so please be patient with us so that we can talk with these victims and their families and try and figure out what happened. we won't be answering any questions today either for right now. we'll let you know later on this afternoon, after noon, what time

we'll be meeting back with you again and we hope to provide more detail then. >> just to be clear, you don't have a number of people who were injured in this? >> we're still working on that. >> have you identified the shooter? >> yes. >> what's their current status? are they alive or -- >> we'll get to that later on this afternoon. >> can you confirm any deaths? >> no, not right now. >> reunification center for families and students right now? >> great point. the reunification center has already been established and most of those -- i think all the kids have been reuniied already. we're get in that area. thank you. >> are there any faculty members that were hurt? >> i can't answer that question yet. >> have you made any arrests? >> i can't answer that question yet either. >> we'll take no further questions at this time. we'll see you this afternoon. >> i will let you know. we don't know. >> the department of public safety will push out a message

as far as location and time of the next press conference. so if you go to the iowa department of public safety website, it will be posted there, probably shortly after noon. >> any surveillance video available? >> there is nothing more we're going to be able to answer right now. thank you. >> all right, so an incredibly brief press conference to say the least. wanting to get out the first trickle of information for folks who are curious and wondering what exactly went on inside perry high school. we got some information there, not much, but some. 7:37 is when they had indicatn there was an active shooter situation inside perry high school. as ali vitali mentioned, along with the sheriff there as well, school had not yet begun when this active shooter situation was ongoing. they say there is no further danger. they did not elaborate as to the status of the shooter, however, tom winter is reporting that the shooter is believed to be dead and three others injured. those are the only numbers we have right now. i want to be clear, this is a

developing, breaking news situation. those numbers may very well change. i want to be transparent about that with you as we begin to watch and this story develops as well. multiple gunshot victims as was told by the sheriff there as well. want to bring in jim cavanaugh, retired atf special agent in charge and former hostage negotiator and msnbc contributor. jim, good to talk to you again. here we are, four days into a new year and we're looking at a shooting incident at a high school in iowa when we should be talking about politics in iowa. this is what we're talking about in the united states of america. we didn't get a lot of information there from the sheriff, giving us, you know, a little bit of a timeline, the shooting happening early this morning, 7:37 a.m., getting word, an indication. it seems as if they have neutralized the shooter.

what questions do you have right now? >> right, yasmin, maybe a suicide of the shooter. you know, i think they could have pushed out more information. this is really too much bare bones. you got a community on edge. if you know the shooter is dead, there is no reason not to say that. you don't have to give his name out. if you know he's dead, you can tell the community that. the shooter is dead. you don't have to say he's suicidal or police killed him even. won't even say that. they're holding information they don't need to hold back. they need to reassess that, because there is not going to be a prosecution if it is a lone shooter. >> why would they hold that information back? >> there is no reason to hold it back. there is no valid reason to hold back that the shooter is deceased. if that is the case. there is no reason for that. now, you can old back his name, if you haven't notified his family, or her family, you have to -- there is reasons for that. but you got to form your information to give the community the most information

you can. when a shooter is dead, there is going to be no prosecution unless there is confederates or conspirators which normally there isn't and they would know pretty quick what is going on there. they held back information they didn't need to. the only good sign is maybe in a couple of hours they'll have something else, but they need to release more. they don't know the number of wounded, and that does happen sometimes because wounded are transported, and they could go to multiple hospitals and medical facilities or even be treated at the scene by paramedics and released. so it would be hard to get that number right at this early stage. so i can understand the sheriff not saying how many. but he did not say if anyone was deceased at all, if there was any shooting victims. so we don't know that either. >> let me tell you -- let me update folks on this email i'm just getting in. kind of more specifics on our own reporting from jonathan deanst and tom winter when it comes to those victims. i want to be more specific about what we're getting in here. saying the shooter is believed

to be dead from apparent, as you actually just said, jim, self-inflicted gunshot wound. and may have been a student. we're also being told by jonathan and tom that three others injured including two students and an administrator. one could be fatal. but that investigation is currently ongoing, jim. >> yeah, right. so they -- they have some facts they haven't put out, but they do have family notifications to make. and that's critical. they have a family reunification center set up. so hopefully within the next couple of hours they'll be more transparent, get the families notified and get the facts out because they got a community on edge up here. and he did say that you don't have to worry, but people want information. you're the police, and the sheriff, and they want as much information as you can legally give them as quick as you can. that's part of your duty as well. hopefully within the next couple of hours they'll get that. it looks like probably, you know, a suicide in a child,

maybe. we see those often in school. and, you know, they want to kill along with their own death. suicide is, you know, such a prevalent problem in america. when you see people that are struggling, and depressed, and humiliation is always a big factor when people are humiliated for some reason, they just can't deal with it, and they strike out. so you are to have your antenna up always and certainly in schools, young people, that's always an issue. someone who is withdrawn, depressed, feels like they have been ostracized or humiliated, teachers need to look for those signs. sometimes you can pick the person out and get them help. >> i want to be clear here, though, we don't have any information when it comes to the motive of this shooter. we're being told by tom and jonathan that this may be a student, we don't have confirmation that it was in fact

a student. i want to reiterate as well this happened before the school day had actually started. i know my children get dropped off sometimes early at school before the school day gets started. a lot of kids gathering oftentimes in the cafeteria, having breakfast before they're able to get into the classroom or team throughout the day. i'm looking at iowa gun laws here, because it is not something i'm necessarily familiar with, and i don't know if you're necessarily familiar with iowa gun laws becoming a constitutional carry state for open and concealed carry for residents and nonresidents. anything else, jim, you can share with us that you know about the iowa gun laws? >> well, i don't know particularly iowa gun laws, but it follows closely with a lot of western and southern states where the gun laws are very loose. constitutional carry is passed in many states now. but what we don't have the fact is this an adult or a juvenile. of course, many student shootings are juveniles.

so if it is a juvenile, then you have to ask the question how did they acquire the gun. a juvenile under 18 cannot purchase a rifle from a firearms dealer, federally licensed dealer, and cannot buy a handgun unless they're 21. but, they can be given a firearm by their parents as a gift. even if they're, you know, 15 years old or 14-year-olds old if they want to take them hunting, they can be given firearms, no legal restriction there. so what happens often with school shooters is we see they got gun from home. they retrieved it from the desk drawer, it was unsecured, or in some cases students have broken into their parents locked gun cabinets to get the gun to go to shoot people at school. so, that's usually where it is obtained at home and then, you know they bring it in. if a young person, it could be stolen, you could get it from a

friend, but more often than not, a lot of times it comes right from the home. and, you know, they're in some state of distress, if it is tied to suicide, as tom winter was reporting, then, you know, it is tied to some distress there, and then the gun is obtained and, you know, they go to school. so -- we'll just have to wait. we need more facts. >> we certainly do. yeah. we certainly do. i'm being told the president has been briefed about the ongoing situation that is happening in iowa here. i just want to remind folks by the way, the president passing major gun legislation, the first major gun safety legislation being passed by congress in nearly 30 years back in, i believe it was 2022 after the mass shooting in uvalde, texas. i also want to remind folks about the establishment of the first ever white house office of gun violence in which david hogg, a survivor of the shooting down in parkland, florida, was a major part of getting up and going. as we're talking about this,

jim, ongoing investigation, getting more facts, learning more when it comes to the timeline and, of course, the numbers of people that have been injured, who was involved in this investigation, because as we look to the lineup at that very brief press conference, the sheriff of the police department there, we saw some special agents in the background. >> right. so the sheriff likely is the official who has school resource deputies in the schools in the county. so that's why the sheriff is the one speaking. he probably controls the school area, so sheriffs' detectives, the iowa division of criminal investigation, which you saw one of the special agents behind him who spoke about a future press conference, that's the iowa division of criminal investigation. they're the state's investigators. iowa state troopers there, of course, in uniform. and, of course, fbi arrived, atf arrived. those agents basically act as

detectives first, so atf and fbi, they're detectives, they interview like detectives investigate, gather facts, plug in there. they also add their own specialties. their own expertise. like atf will trace the gun immediately, they'll put an urgent trace in to the national atf tracing center, it will trace that gun. they'll see the whole history where it went to, provide that to all the investigators to track it down. it may be pretty simple because it may be his gun, but nevertheless that effort will go on. there is no prosecution, but, you know, they can forensically process the scene and they want to do normally on a shooting like this what we call the psychological autopsy, to go back the last three to six months on the killer, shooter, to see, gloi what was going on in their life, what motivated them and that's an effort in an case like this to stop another

shooting. and then it will be studied by behavioral analysis to see if you can stop a future one. >> you know, you and i were on the ground together in nashville, i believe, at that school shooting. i also reported extensively on uvalde. one thing i'm always curious about in the nashville shooting, the response time was obviously much faster than it was in uvalde. an incredibly quick response time versus the hour plus response time in uvalde and the casualties that were seen there. that is one of the most -- the things i'm most interested in, in learning, when it comes to information here because we got the time in which they had the call from the school, saying there was an active shooter situation. we did not get when the police showed up. >> right. i think we're probably going to hear there is a deputy sheriff on campus as a school resource

officer probably. that's normally what happens in a big campus like this, and the sheriff, one of his deputies was probably there. not sure of that. but we'll have to see. in nashville, yes, we were here together at the covenant school, a horrific case, but the metropolitan nashville police just had an exceptional response there. almost 2,000 strong, very professional, they have officers that quickly responded, were taking fire from the second floor from an assault rifle as you recall and went in against that fire and killed the shooter. and, yes, uvalde was very delayed and lots of mistakes and different things that caused just a carnage down there. the police response is critical in all of this. i love to see all the officers here, when your camera pushed out and ali was reporting, and we could see all these officers, you really never get enough officers because you have so

much to do. you have to hold the perimeter, you have to do searches, you have sweeps, evidence, you have to take care of family members. so, it is all intense for a while. so for a while you need all that help and the commanders and leaders need to manage that help, need to be prepared to manage that help because you need all those officers to come because you don't know what it is. you don't know if there is multiple killers running around and so you got to get there first, and then decide what happens. if it spins down real fast, no problem. you can back out easy. but it is always good to see that many officers, deputies, troopers and federal agents getting there as quick as they can. >> the only glimpse i see of the timeline is from the local affiliate saying around 8:25 a.m. the middle school was cleared, the second team clearing the high school. you're looking at a gap of 45 minutes or so. so, again, there is a big gap and i'm wondering at what point the police were actually able to

finally show up. i'm looking at the population of perry, iowa, just under 8,000 people, when you have a small town like that, what type of police force are you dealing with? how well are they trained to handle an active shooter situation like this one? >> yeah, that would be a small force, certainly. they may only have ten or 12 officers. but they'll be trained in active shooter protocols because we all were post columbine. law enforcement writ large was all trained in that. and the first two or three officers gather together, go in as a stack, you go alone if you have to, but try to get two or three and you get in there to confront the shooter. if there is a school resource officer in there, they would be there first. but then you will lay on the sheriff deputies, which is just the sheriff's department is larger, of course, and then you start having the state police and federal agents and surrounding communities, city

police and county coming in. so, you know, even though the town may be small, there is plenty of law enforcement around, they just all gathered together. it is a team effort. so, it doesn't necessarily mean big cities can handle it better than small towns. it is the training, it is the effort they put into it, and a lot of small town officers are involved in lots and lots of shootings and violence. it does happen everywhere. >> jim cavanaugh for us, thank you, sir, as always for jumping on this. we very much appreciate you. for folks just joining us, we have been following this breaking news story out of perry, iowa, a shooting incident at a high school there. we're learning at 7:37 a.m. police got the call in that there was a shooting in progress. we now know the shooter is believed to be dead, as is reported by tom winter and jonathan dienst.

three others injured. no further danger to the public. not a lot of other information we have. as we get more, we will certainly bring it to you. we are also following some more breaking news, folks, this time concerning the former president. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports." we'll be right back. atching "jo diaz-balart reports. we'll be right back. (vo) three lobster and shrimp entrees for a limited time. ♪

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all right, welcome back. we got some break news from washington. democrats on the house oversight committee just releasing a new report saying that former president donald trump accepted nearly $8 million in payments from 20 countries while he was president. want to bring in nbc news correspondent garrett haake, ken dilanian, michael zeldin, former federal prosecutor and special counsel to bob mueller, now an adjunct professor at american university's washington college of law. garrett, start us off. this new reporting breaking in the last couple of hours or so. what more do we know? >> this is something of a passion project for jamie raskin, who is the lead democrat on the house oversight committee, a staff report conducted by democrats here that found just over the first two years of his presidency, donald trump accepted some $7.8 million through his businesses directly from foreign governments. now, if this sounds familiar, this was very much a topic during the trump presidency, the idea that the then president didn't divest himself from any of his properties, didn't put

them in a blind trust and weighs making money from governments like china and saudi arabia and others who were buying rooms in his hotels or floors in his office buildings and customers of his real estate empire across the country. have not heard directly from donald trump on this matter since this report came out. eric trump is reported in a "new york times" story saying this was all proper and that none of this spending influenced any decisions trump made as president. it is worth pointing out here that the idea of receiving payments from foreign governments is at the heart of the biden impeachment inquiry that house republicans are attempting now. i think you see an effort here by house democrats to inject oh, yes, remember when the shoe was on the other foot into this discussion. >> before i move on to the other breaking news we're following as well, do you see any legal ramifications coming from what garrett was talking about? >> no. i don't think so. i think that this is really

pretty well known stuff, this is what was at the heart of the emoluments lawsuit against him. essentially what they were saying is if you want to do business with trump, you had to stay at a trump hotel or rent a trump office or play golf at a trump golf course. that was the quid pro quo for doing business with trump. i don't think that anything will legally come of it, but the appearance of it continues to remain as shady as it was during the emoluments investigations. it was business as usual for trump, make money in any way you can. >> ken you got the former president and his attorney saying they want to hold jack smith in contempt of violating the stay in his election interference case. walk us through that. >> what trump's lawyers are saying is that this case is supposed to be on hold while the appeals court and perhaps the supreme court decides this question of presidential immunity. but while it is on hold, what they're saying is that jack smith and his lead prosecutor have continued to turn over

discovery and have filed motions. and trump's lawyers say that's improper, they're accusing jack smith of trying to rush this case to what they call an unconstitutional early trial to undermine what they said was donald trump's commanding lead in the polls. there is a lot of theater in this motion. but it is true that the case is supposed to be on hold. ordinarily defense lawyers want as much production and discovery, that means the documents in the case turned over to them. in this case, the trump lawyers want everything to stop because their number one strategy is delay. they want the judge to enforce this and hold these jack smith attorneys in contempt of court, to tell them to stop filing any motions. we'll have to see exactly what the judge does, but whether she grants this or not, what another interesting implication here is the other judge and the other case in florida, aileen cannon, has been much more hostile to jack smith than judge chutkan in d.c. she's going to read this motion as well, so it may have implications for that case down

in florida. >> so, keep us honest, michael, can you file motions, continue to file motions as jack smith has done when judge tanya chutkan has essentially put this case on hold until a decision from the d.c. circuit? >> yes, i think so. i think what smith is doing is continuing his investigation, marshaling his evidence, putting it forward into the court docket so that it is available should donald trump lose his appeal in the case goes to trial. what they are not asking trump do is respond to any of this, so it is really sort of a sand box in a sense, they're putting the stuff in there and when the kids are allowed to play again, the stuff will be all there and ready to go. smith is not buying into the notion that i have to put everything on hold until this is all done. i can get everything ready to go so that if the case is ready to go, it is ready to go. >> so, you don't think the judge is going to grant this motion

from the former president and his attorneys? >> i think it is political theater this motion. i think these lawyers know better than this, but they're trying to poison the public perception of jack smith further to say that this is as trump calls him a renegade sociopathic prosecutor. so i think it is part of a little strategy, i don't think it holds water as a legal strategy. >> so, garrett, this shows five minutes into this trump segment and we're now just getting to the news that broke yesterday evening and that was the appeal to the colorado decision by the former president and his attorneys in removing him from the ballot. just sneaking in under the deadline. talk us through that. >> it speaks to how many legal challenges donald trump faces across states and courts around this country. in colorado, his attorneys filed an appeal in which they make two broad arguments. one kind of a big d democracy argument that it should be only the voters who get to decide who

their presidents are. and if congress makes laws, they need to be clear and not the interpretation of state judges or state election officials for that matter. more specifically they make two technical arguments, donald trump was neither charged with nor convicted of insurrection, which is what the 14th amendment, the basis for his exclusion from the colorado ballot is all about. and as president, he wasn't an officer of the united states, a very fine linguistic point that is much under debate because there are other positions that are named specifically within the 14th amendment that would be disqualified for insurrection had there been an insurrection to claim here. so, what is going to happen now is we will see if the supreme court takes this case up. a lot of legal experts think they will. in part because what we're seeing now is a patchwork of decisions around a very thorny constitutional issue being made in real time as ballots are being decided and printed and soon there after voted on all around the country. >> so, michael, answer that question for us, from your

perspective, and your expertise here, do you expect the supreme court to take this up and will the decision be based on whether or not the former president engaged in an insurrection or will they sidestep that? >> it is a great question. i would think they should take this case up, so we don't have this piecemeal state by state analysis of whether a person is qualified to be on the ballot or not. i think the two fundamental questions they have to answer first are is this statute -- this 14th amendment section 3 applicable to the office of the presidency, and, second, if it is, does congress need to give -- through enabling legislation. it can answer those questions and settle a lot without having to get to the ultimate question of whether or not trump engaged in an insurrection. so you might not get to that ultimate question of did he engage in the insurrection, but might say look, this applies to the president and, yes, the congress needs to pass

legislation -- enabling legislation or they don't and that could end the disposition and they could get back to the lower courts. >> thank you, guys, appreciate it. coming up next, we're going to go live to iran, where leaders were vowing revenge for a double bombing that killed 84 people and we're learning about a secret operation to rescue the mother of a u.s. soldier from the fighting in gaza. we'll be right back. soldier fr the fighting in gaza we'll be right back. (ella) we get more control of production, efficiencies, and greater agility. (jen) that's enterprise intelligence. (vo) it's your vision, it's your verizon. [deep exhale] [trumpet music plays] 579 breaths to show 'em your stuff. every breath matters. don't let rsv take your breath away. protect yourself from rsv... ...with abrysvo, pfizer's rsv vaccine. abrysvo is a vaccine for the prevention of lower respiratory disease from rsv in people 60 years and older. rsv can be serious if you are 60 or older.

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all right, welcome back, everybody. iran is vowing revenge after twin blasts killed 84 people on wednesday in the city of karamon.

want to bring in nbc news tehran bureau chief ali arouzi. we're getting breaking news on who is taking responsibility now for this attack, just happening in the last 60 seconds or so. what are you learning? >> reporter: that's right. a lot of new information coming in just before we came on air. so let me tell you what the iranians are saying first. state tv here saying that investigators believe that the attack was conducted by suicide bombers. you'll remember yesterday they were saying these were suitcases laden with explosives that were remotely detonated. now state tv here is saying it was carried out by suicide bombers during the commemoration for qassem soleimani. a report by air now, state run tv here, quoted an informed official source saying that surveillance footage from the roof of the commemoration from the cemetery clearly showed a male suicide bomber detonating

explosives. the report added that a second blast probably also came from another suicide bomber. but they're still trying to determine exactly what happened with the second blast. the report also said that the bomb was likely chose the location because they were outside the security perimeter for the commemoration. and as you mentioned, just after that report came out, the islamic state on their official telegram channel claimed responsibility for the attack. they said that two bombers using explosive belts detonated them and they took great pride in saying they had killed around 100 shias who are -- who they are obviously very opposed to. so, this goes against everything iranian officials have been saying since last night, pointing the finger at israel and the united states. and now this islamic state have apparently taken responsibility for this attack.

also to update you, the officials here have revised the death toll, they brought it down now to 85 from 95 and 103 originally. nonetheless, still marks the deadliest terror attack in iran since the islamic revolution in 1979. the big question now is how are iranian officials going to deal with this new claim by the islamic state? are they going to back track on everything they have said about israel and the united states? something they do here as well, yasmin, they'll say, well, the islamic state was working on behalf of israel in america. so we're going to be waiting for comments from iranian officials now. >> yeah. unbelievable. major developments there to say the least, the islamic state reiterating, claiming responsibility for the twin suicide bombings that happened in the south of iran. just so folks understand, the majority of the iranians are shia muslims where as the majority of members of the islamic state are suni muslims.

thank you. please remain safe there. this morning, nbc learned the mother and uncle of a u.s. service member have been safely rescued from gaza. th's according to a u.s. official with direct knowledge of the operation into u.s. sources familiar. the u.s. military was not involved outside of locating both individuals. meanwhile, secretary of state tony blinken set to leave for his fourth trip to the region since the israel-hamas war began. joining us now is nbc's raf sanchez from tel aviv. if you will, walk us through this rescue operation. >> reporter: so, this played out on new year's eve. we're still getting the details, but here is what we know. there is a 24-year-old palestinian-american u.s. military service member whose mother and his uncle, the uncle is also an american citizen, were trapped inside of gaza, fighting raging all around them,

unable to get out, unable to get to safety and u.s. officials say they played a coordinating role between the israeli military and the egyptians to try to get the mother and the uncle out of this war zone and eventually into safety. now, as you said, the u.s. military is stressing there were no american boots on the ground this is not a case of american special forces operating inside of gaza, but they did play a role getting these two people out of harm's way. that is a little bit of good news, yasmin, in what is a very, very tense moment in the region. secretary of state antony blinken flying from d.c. tonight to a region that really feels on the brink from iran as you were talking about with ali, to iraq, to yemen, to lebanon, where hezbollah, the powerful lebanese militant group, is vowing retaliation in response to the israeli assassination of that senior hamas leader in beirut on tuesday. hezbollah saying israeli drone strikes in beirut, the lebanese capital, are a red line and that

there will be a response. israel's military says they are at peak readiness on the lebanese border in anticipation of some kind of retaliation. secretary blinken not due here for a couple of days, but amos hoch steen is immediating with israeli officials today trying to diffuse tensions. >> thank you, raf. the biden administration is intensifying its fight with texas over immigration at the southern border. the justice department filing a lawsuit against the state over a new law that lets state and local police arrest migrants who illegally cross the border. the lawsuit cams as house speaker mike johnson and dozens of members of congress visited the border to get a firsthand look at the situation there. back on capitol hill, a bipartisan group of senators trying to negotiate a border security and immigration deal are going to meet again today. with us now to talk more about this, texas congressman veronica escobar, who represents the el

paso area and sits on the judiciary committee. as always, it is a pleasure. thank you for joining us on this. first, give me your reaction to the trip made by speaker mike johnson along with others in congress. >> well, thanks so much for covering this issue. really appreciate it. you know, i have brought over 25% of congress to my border community of el paso, so that members could understand what is happening on the ground. but really the time has passed for these trips and these visits. it is time for action. border communities like mine have been addressing the challenge of the increasing numbers for decades.decades. and we are ready, willing and able to be a part of the solution. but we need congress to act. and so, while i appreciate that speaker johnson and many of my republican colleagues went to eagle pass, we really need to take action on this issue in a meaningful way.

and really, that begs the question as to whether republicans really want to resolve this issue, and really want to solve this. or if she simply love the performance and keeping the issue top of mind in order to win elections. >> so we're looking at pictures, congresswoman, as we've been speaking with mike johnson meeting with greg abbotts borders are, as he often calls them. he called for sweeping reforms yesterday after that visit. the right wing of the republican conference threatening to shut down the government if the border is not shut down. i also know the congressional caucus has not been involved at all with any of these negotiations on immigration. >> yeah. it's been a very tiny group of senators, and as you mentioned, the house republicans keep moving the goalpost. they keep changing what they want to see. as you mentioned, they're now

threatening to shut down the government. we've got to address this challenge. we have to meet the moment. there is a bipartisan bill on the books today that if we got it to the floor, it would address all of this, it's called the dignity act. and my colleague, republican from miami, she and i have 30 bipartisan co-sponsors that includes border security and more. so there is a compromise but what extremists on the republican side want to do, which is shut down the government, is not workable. what the senate is trying to do which is only focus on this issue as a border issue, we've been doing that for decades and it's a failure. the time dhas come for comprehensive immigration reform that's done in a. bipartisan manner and the dignity act accomplishes that. >> does the dignity act, though,

have any chance of getting passed in a speaker johnson house? >> we could if speaker johnson and the moderates who are on the bill would bring the bill to the floor for a vote. this is why, i think, yasmin, it's so important to ask the question of whether republicans, some of the extremist republicans including speaker johnson really truly want a solution. if they want a solution, months and months of bipartisan work has been done and put into the dignity act in order to address this in a way that both secures our border, but also meets the opportunities that come with immigration reform. >> have you had a chance, congresswoman, quickly, to speak with any of the senators involved in negotiations on immigration? >> i have. in fact, i participated in a bicameral, bipartisan congressional delegation visit to mexico city. and senator sinema was on that

trip, senator chris murphy was on that trip. two the folks involved in those negotiations. at the beginning of the process, i reached out to senator murphy, reached out to senator sinema's office as well, in order to remind them of the dignity act. and that we can get this done in a meaningful, thoughtful way, and not only look at the border but the broken immigration system and finally have congress fix it. >> congresswoman escobar, we appreciate it. i want to circle back, continuing to follow the news out of iowa where police are investigating a shooting at perry high school that left three people injured. back with us is nbc news correspondent ali vitali. ali, if you will, walk us through the details that we've learned in the last 40 minutes or so since the press conference. >> reporter: well, again, yasmin, most of the details that we do know at this point are coming from our team of

reporters, tom winter and mike cosma. that they believe the shooter is dead. there are a few injuries, as many as three. standing here and listening to the public information officers give their briefing from the ground, they gave basically no details to us. i asked were there any people killed, they couldn't give us that information. they wouldn't give us the number of injuries and really didn't want to take questions either. we'll hear from them this afternoon and have a hard and fast facts at this point. but in terms of what we're seeing on the ground, we've seen the police presence over the course of the last few minutes start to lessen here, a sense of calm, sort of returning to this place but students still reeling from the impacts of what they saw. one of the imbeds catching up with a read center here, she said she saw what happened at that school and still shaken up

by that scene and just shocked what has happened. >> yet another school shooting in this country, ali vitali, my friend, rest assured we'll remain on this for now. that does it for me now, i'm yasmin vossoughian. andrea mitchell picks things up after a very quick break. ak olay

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right now on "andrea mitchell reports," another tragic school shooting in america. this time in perry, iowa, just 40 miles from des moines.