new fears following james mattis's resignation. his highly critical letter to the president. part of the stop gap funding bill, but is it d.o.a.? the lenls las vegas heads back to the senate likely forcing a government shutdown. >> stranded, a lone drone is holding up over 100,000 passengers are flights canceled, delayed, or diverted. how is that possible? >> and it's another miracle on

34th street. this one is real, and it is spectacul spectacular. "early today" starts right now. >> good friday morning. i'm phillip. >> i'm frances. shock waves ripple through washington after james mattis happened in his resignation. he joins a high list of high-ranking trump officials to leave the white house. mark warner of virginia tweeted "this is chaos," adding that general mattis was an island of stability amid the chaos of the trump administration. the resignation comes after president trump ordered the withdrawal of troops from syria and afghanistan. in a letter the four-star marine -- said president deserves someone better aligned with his views. what does this mean for the country's national security? here with more on that is nbc's kristen welker. >> reporter: frances, this is a bombshell. both secretary mattis and the white house acknowledging the

policy differences between ma mattis and the president played a significant role in mattis's departure. it has implications for national security and foreign policy. one senior official saying, "the wheels are coming off." the president tweeting general jim mattis will be retiring with distinction after at the ends of having served my administration as secretary of defense for the past two years. the announcement comes after the president announced his plans to withdrawal troops from syria, a move mattis disagreed with, according to numerous defense officials. they were also at odds after president trump asked the military for plans to withdraw troops from afghanistan. tensions have been simmering for months, and president trump seemed to publicly criticize mattis in a recent interview. >> i think he is sort of a democrat. >> reporter: mattis said the president deserved a secretary of defense whose views were better aligned with his and talked about the importance of

alliances and partnerships. a reference to the riffs he has had with mr. trump over mr. trump's treatment of historically strong allies. mattis was among the president's first cabinet picks. >> general "mad dog" mattis. >> reporter: now he joins the ranks of departed top officials within the trump administration. president tweeting "a new secretary of defense will be named shortly. kristen welker, nbc news, the white house. i'm andrea mitchell in washington where the president's plans for afghanistan and withdrawal from syria were the final straw. a decision mattis strongly opposed. other key advisors arguing the fight against isis was not over. >> we can just leave now. >> with regard to stabilization, we still have a long way to go. >> reporter: to the president it's a campaign promise kept, tweet, "does the u.s. want to be the policemen of the meelgds east?" mattis thought they had talked him out of it, but then big pressure from turkey three week

ago, and again, in a call friday arguing america's partners in the fight, syrian kurds, are really terrorists. the president overruling his secretaries of state and defense, announcing his decision on twitter with a slick white house video envoccing the sacrifice of fallen u.s. troops. >> we won, and that's the way we want it, and that's the way they want it. >> he is not qualified to invoke the sacrifice or to invoke the memory of those magnificent troops. >> reporter: angry republicans pleading with mr. trump to change his mind. >> in this war you will not been it by giving up. this is akin to surrendering. >> thanks to andrea mitchell for that report. the house and senate are on a collision course just hours away from government shutdown. house republicans triggering a stand-off with the senate after passing their version of the stop gap spending bill, tacking on the $5 billion for president trump's border wall and, thus, raising the chances of a government shutdown.

that bill is expected to be dead on arrival with senate democrats likely to block that measure. it's back to square one as the senate heads back to washington to vote before the clock strikes midnight. nbc's tracist potts joining us now from washington. tracie, good morning. it is turning out to be a pretty rough christmas weekend for the senators. >> right. especially for those who already left. take a look. one senator from hawaii, brian, tweeted pictures with his family. he had already landed in honolulu when he got word he had to turn around and come back to washington. that's because the version of this temporary budget that the house passed, includes $5 billion for the president's border wall. the version that the senate passed does not. now they have to figure out can they reckoncile that? if not, the government goes into shut doub mode. this is the wall that the president says he wants funded,

but president trump says he won't sign any budget without it. in fact, he is tweeting about this latest house version as well. president trump noting that nancy pelosi said they didn't have the votes to pass a budget with the wall money. well, she was wrong. they did, but they don't have the votes in the senate where they need democrats to go look. at this point this morning it is a real stalemate with the democrats saying they won't support the wall money with president trump saying he won't sign any budget, even these temporary versions through february 8th without the wall money, and the question, can anyone break this stalemate before the government into shutdown at midnight tonight. it's a question this morning. we don't have ab answer to. phillip. >> well, ba humbug, tracie. thank you. staying on topic, remember that go fund me campaign for the wall we told you about yesterday? well, it's now raised over $10 million. it was created by an air force veteran, brian.

so far over 170,000 people have donated, but another veteran create a counter campaign. this she started ladders to get over trump's wall campaign. she says while the page says it's raising money to buy ladders to climb over the wall, it's being donated a nonprofit for refugees and timmigrants. good news for farmers. president trump signed an $867 billion farm bill securing more funding for farmers hurt by the trade war in china. mr. trump called the measure a bipartisan success and thanked democratic lawmakers for are this irrole in crafting it. just before signing the bill, mr. trump hyped it up with this video here performing the theme song for the 19 6 0 sit com"green acres." this video is from a 2005 emmys performance with actress megan mulally. she wasn't so thrilled with that blast from the past, tweeting, "if you need me, i will be in a hole in ground." >> she has a great sense of humor, even after all these

years. well, now to massive holiday travel chaos in the u.k. flights into and out of britain's gatwick airport were halted after drones were spotted two days in a row over the airfield. hundreds of thousands of travellers have been effected, and the airport is working to get things back on track. we're joined now by vincent in london. is there any good news for flyers this morning? >> reporter: good morning, francis. there is some good news. you might be able to hear a plane overhead in a moment because flights are now landing and taking off here. in the past couple of hours the first one came in from shanghai, and the first departed aptly going to take families to see santa claus. this airport should normally have 110,000 passengers going through it on 760 flights. it's one of the busiest airports in europe. we understand today, though, it will be a limited service. some 100 flights have been canceled, and the advice is still to check with your airline

whether or not you will be going today. it's going to take a couple of days to clear up the disruption because the drone kept coming in and out of the airfield for over 36 hours. there are planes and crews in the wrong location. there's a backlog of passengers in there. some thousands who have had to sleep in the terminals where they all need to get on board flights as well. this disruption will continue, and we have been warned if the drone does reappear, it could once again suspend the runway, but in the past couple of minutes i've hearted from police officers here and the transport minister has confirmed that the army who have been deployed have put in place some kind of technology to stop the drone from coming back on to the airfield. there were police snipers down here yesterday who were possibly going to shoot it down, but they decided against that, but now some kind of technology will stop this. police are continuing to try to find, though, the suspect who has been doing this. they say he must be -- he must really know what he is doing because he has been able to hack

into the drone software and override the protocols that stop it from getting on to airports. fran frances, back to you. >> hopefully those people can get to where they need to be for the holidays. vincent, thank you. police in florida are searching for the gunman. gabe gutierrez has the story, but, first, a warning, the video is disturbing. ♪ >> reporter: the music was blairing at this holiday party in miami dade county, florida. 40-year-old yami had just walked in and sat down to hear some karaoke, which all of a sudden he slumps down and desperately reechds for the man next to him. the music continues to play and fellow party goers seem to have no idea what just happened. they quickly realize something is horribly wrong. maybe a heart attack. it turns out a stray bullet had pierced his chest. he is rushed to the hospital where he later dies.

police say the bullet came from a home across the lake that borders the backyard. >> could be someone cleaning their gun by accident and it discharged or somebody could have been shooting up in the air super somewhere else. >> reporter: one neighbor says he has heard random gunshots in the area for years. i no longer go into my backyard anymore for fear of getting hit, he says. his family is pleading for answers. wondering why this stray bullet chose him. gabe gutierrez, nbc news. now to a massive storm hitting at the worst time. much of the east coast is facing heavy rain and bumper to bumper traffic. holiday travel shifts into high gear. in tampa, florida, a powerful line of storms and possibly a tornado damaged 70 homes and injured one person. nationwide the tsa expects to screen a record number of travellers close to 2.7 million people each day from saturday. the good news is that the worst

of the weather and the travel delays should be out of the way by tomorrow morning. >> getting a dose of reality here. >> you just wonder how many people were able to change their plans and wait until the weekend. some people, not an option. you have to get out there and get out on the roads. it's going to be slow. rain all the way from the panhandle of florida all the way from northern new england, all the way back to the ohio valley. it's really hard to avoid this storm, and the windy conditions and the heaviest rain, the worst of it will be early this morning into areas of new york city and then it will be towards boston this afternoon. it's about a six-hour window in a lot of the airports from philly to new york and then hartford to boston where the worst of it will be there, and then it will clear out after that. back side of the storm is not too bad. a little rain around pets burg. maybe snowshowers later on tonight. then the storm really begins to exit overnight and saturday. just looks breezy, and we cleared up all of the eastern a

of southern new england where it will be windy and heavy rain. the risk of some flooding. the southeast will clear up this afternoon. it's amazing that the rest of the holiday forecast was a million times better. we'll talk about that coming up. >> at least we got that. thank you. social media this morning is praising a young wal-mart cashier after he took care of a grocery bill for a woman in need. out of pocket $110. the woman was in distress about the trouble she had paying for her items, and that's when the clerk stepped in and asked her to wait 15 minutes so he could help out. the woman who made the now viral post says the young cashier has now renewed her faith in humanity. >> great to hear. still ahead, wall street in chaos. the dow dropping 1,700 points since last friday. we'll tell you why next here on "early today." he thinks it smells fine, but his mom smells this...

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turmoil and confusion over a potential government shutdown factored into yet another dismal day on wall street with the dow plunging over 460 points amid all the uncertainty, and the fed raising those interest rates. >> the market is now facing the worst december since the 1930s. >> reporter: the chaos in washington infecting wall street. >> the low, we were down almost 700. >> reporter: sending the dow on a roller coakoecoast of its own. >> the dow is now having its worst december since the great depression. >> on the heels of the federal reserve raising bench mash interest rates. the dow closing down 464 points, losing an astonishing 1, 00 points since friday. the tech-heavy nasdaq flirting with bear market territory, finishing just shy of a 20% drop from its august peak. >> why is the market so negative? >> this market is negative because of unsesht. largely caused because of things like a trade war and policies they don't understand.

>> and fears of economic slowdown giving investors a bad case of the jitters. they can't shake. >> ann thompson, nbc news, new york. >> straight ahead, how your relationship at work could be impacting any extra holiday cash, and if you're not done with all your christmas shopping, don't worry. you're not alone. we'll tell you more when we come back. wrinkles just won't. neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair's derm-proven retinol works so fast, it takes only one week to reveal younger looking skin. making wrinkles look so last week. rapid wrinkle repair® pair with new retinol oil for 2x the wrinkle fighting power. neutrogena® i was on the fence about changing from a manual to an electric toothbrush. but my hygienist said going electric could lead to way cleaner teeth. she said, get the one inspired by dentists, with a round brush head.

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what did you write down that you wanted for christmas?

>> a motorcycle and lester holt. >> lester holt. that little man right there, 5-year-old jovanni epps, he loves lester holt. his mom says they watch nightly news on nbc religiously, and he has been watching with her since he was a baby. liz says that her son looks for people on tv to connect with and that lester holt is a positive role model for him. now, mr. holt is a positive role model for me. >> everybody. lester holt better watch out because he may grow up one day and take over his place, but i think lester would actually welcome that. >> yeah, he is that kind of guy. >> it seems there is a trend where a good number of people are in favor of last minute shopping for holiday gifts. acan rgd to a study by kpmg, almost one-third have people still have about half of their holiday shopping left. remember, it's just five days before christmas. many more still have up to a quarter of their shopping list to do, according to the same survey, and you won't be alone. if you procrastinate until the

24th, the national retail federation says 7% of holiday shopping is done on christmas eve. on monday they call it panic monday. >> panic saturday, sunday, and monday. >> yeah. >> thank goodness for those 24-hour pharmacy stores. if you're friends with your boss, it may cost you. a new study out with the journal of experimental social psychology says the closer you are to your boss, the less likely you are to receive a bonus. kind of counter intuitive there, right? the reason? it's perception. if office bonuses are -- they found that boss says would decline a bonus for a deserving friend and granting it tie lower performing non-friend instead. it's all in an effort to appear unbiassed. when it's private, those bonuses almost always go to the deserving friend. >> not a problem. sometimes you just don't get a bonus, so nothing to worry about there. >> right? that's one way to look at it. just ahead, the miracle on 34th street. not the one here in new york.

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time to check in with willie goois to see what's coming up on sunday today. have a really good morning. >> good morning, guys. good to see you. this week on sunday today" my guest is jennifer lopez. yes, j. lo. jennifer and i got together to talk about her new movie and her two decade rise from fly girl dancer on "in living color" to international superstar. she also explains why her burst of fame freaked her out for a long time and somehow had he got over it. also, talks about her relationship with alex rodriguez and how he has changed her life. our sunday sitdown with jennifer lopez. plus, the latest news and politics this weekend on "sunday today." you can catch us in the morning or set that dvr and watch us any

time you want. now i'll send it back to you, frances and phillip, and i will see you on sunday morning. >> all right. thanks, willie. i hope you ask for how she does it? she's never looked better, and she's rounding out 50. >> she has that benjamin button life going on. >> yes, she does. probably not the one that comes to mind first. it's a light show that draws in families far and wide. here's nbc's katie beck. >> reporter: winter feels warmer on 34th street in baltimore. it has for more than 25 years. this time of year families with stand the cold just stand beneath the lights. >> i like the one behind us. >> rowhouses dripping with decoration. each its own ornament hanging on the 700th block. >> to see these in the face there in awe. >> darlene and bob are the elves behind it. it started when bob strung lights between a few neighbor's houses in 1991. turns out, the spirit was contagious. >> i like decorating for

christmas. whether all these people come or not, it doesn't matter. i would still do it. >> reporter: from hub cap christmas trees to inflatable dradles to festive flamingos, eyes of all ages gaze in wonder. >> it doesn't feel like christmas until you come to the miracle on 34th street. >> it makes you really feel like all jolly and happy, and, like, really get into the christmas spirit. >> seeing these lights turn on is, like, total christmas cheer. >> a gift to the community, but also one for those who live here. >> just to see those smiles and know you made somebody happy for a few minutes. it's worth it. >> katie beck, nbc news. >> merry christmas. >> so fun when you have an entire neighborhood and one street that just goes all out. >> yeah. >> makes everything better. >> get ready to look outside. a rare cosmic statement. almost exactly in line with the winter solstice. it is the first time since 2010 that a big moon has synced up where, the last time for at least another 11 years if you want to catch the full moon that

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good morning. it is friday and we are peeking out our window over imryville this morning. what a difference a day makes. you can see the fog that shrouded us yesterday is mostly out. some showers, though in the forecast as we look live at the radar. thank you so much for joining us. >> let's get right toe the foreca forecast. what do we have? >> some showers mostly in the north bay, starting to make its way into the east bay as well. storm