right now on "andrea mitchell reports" breaking news. the head of the u.s. military in iraq says a key isis leader was killed on christmas eve and he has a direct connection with the man who led the paris attacks. >> we will continue to hunt isil leaders who are working to recruit, plan and inspire attacks against the united states of america and our allies. and trump versus the clintons. the republican front-runner says the former president is fair game. >> he's being wheeled out and we're going to see what happens but frankly, he did very very poorly. he was not good for her and obviously, she lost to obama and that was the end of that. plus, captured. the teen whose affluenza defense kept him out of jail after killing four people while drunk

driving has been busted in mexico. >> felt like at the time that the court system did not adequately assess any punishment or adequate punishment, at least, so it was a very high priority for us to make sure that we found him and got him back. a very good day to you. i'm kristen welker in for andrea mitchell. we are following two big stories that are converging in iowa today. winter weather sweeping across the state as the republican presidential candidates make their final push with the caucuses just around the corner. donald trump, chris christie and marco rubio are the headliners in the hawkeye state today for voters getting ready to pick a winner from a long list of candidates. we are live in council bluffs

where we will hear from donald trump later on this evening. i know a number of candidates had to cancel events yesterday. today we are going to actually get some campaign events. give us a preview of what we can expect and how it's feeling out there. a little chilly, right? >> reporter: it is. big snow day yesterday when we had those canceled events but we are back today and back from the holidays. historically, this is crunch time when it really matters, when the iowa electorate really wakes up and the candidates know this. trump has an event at the center behind me later tonight. he's expecting a big crowd. cruz of course, who is doing very well in this state, isn't back until next week when he has a six-day bus tour. marco rubio, who is trying to make a play here in iowa, is in the state today with three events. he's with representative trey gowdy as we know, who gave him that endorsement. they are on the trail today, as well as chris christie, who is not doing very well in the polls in iowa, but trying to make a difference in his numbers here. as we know, trump has said he is about to make a shift in his

campaign, promising to spend money. he said that before but he was more clear and forceful this time around. he hit, of course, chris christie and the new hampshire union over of course, that editorial but now he's focusing back in on iowa. we know that he's had some trouble here lately. he was in the polls at number one until recently when he and cruz are now trading and cruz in the des moines register poll of course is up ten. so trump is back after the holidays, he knows this is the time that really counts. he's planning to spend that money and planning to get his -- those who come out to his rallied riled up. the big question is can trump turn those people who come out to his rallies, those huge crowds, who are not likely caucus goers, many of them not even registered to vote, into caucus goers. trump's campaign has a huge goal of 48,000 which is bigger than anybody has ever done. the question is can he turn

these big crowds into caucus goers. >> great final point. we will chew on all of that right now. we appreciate your reporting. before donald trump's trip to iowa, he called into the "today" show this morning and did not back down from his attacks on hillary and bill clinton who will make his first official solo campaign trip next week to new hampshire. here's what trump said this morning. >> he's going to be out and i like the fact he's campaigning for her. he failed in 2008. he failed very badly. frankly, he did a very poor job in campaigning if you want to know the truth. perhaps he will do well or perhaps he will do poorly. but if she's going to play the woman card it's all fair game. >> joining me now for the daily fix, "the washington post" triple threat, chris cillizza, ruth marcus and michael gerson. thanks to you for being here. what a fantastic panel. ruth, i want to start with your column today in the "post." i will read an excerpt. you write quote, hillary clinton has made two moves that led me

gulp to agree with trump on the fair game front. she is smartly using her husband as a campaign surrogate and simultaneously in parentheses correctly, calling trump sexist. these moves open a dangerous door. it should surprise no one that trump has barged right through it. strong words. you are also making a nuanced point here, though. explain. >> well, hence those parentheses. look, let's be clear. donald trump has said incredibly offensive and sexist things. i didn't happen to think the, i can't believe i'm saying this on television, schlonged comment was among them, but totally fair to call him out on his sexism. at the same time, when you have a campaign surrogate, i.e. bill clinton who i will use the word nuanced, a nuanced past, bill clinton i find had a very successful presidency but also it had a blot on it. let me be clear. i'm not complaining because that's hillary clinton's issue about his sexual behavior in

terms of whether he had extramarital affairs during or before or after the presidency. i'm not suggesting anything about after. my concern is his behavior in office with a subordinate and alleged behavior with others, and his lying about it. to the american people and under oath. i think that's fair game. >> right. and michael, as ruth points out, he was the president. ruth says his record's fair game. secretary clinton's putting him out on the campaign trail as really, her top surrogate. is it smart politics, though, and do you worry that ultimately it could backfire if trump becomes the nominee or whoever the republican nominee is? >> i think ruth is right on target here. this is -- bill clinton did things, abuse of power while in office, that would have gotten a corporate head fired by his board, okay, but the american people didn't fire him. the question here is i think he has an upside and downside and the question is how much the

american people have discounted from his past. this is not a revelation of anything new. he's going to be saying a lot of things that republicans like because they say it in their own heads, okay, and he says it in public. which i think gets him a lot of traction in the republican party. the attacks themselves i think may well be discounted by the american people already. >> you talk about his upside and downside. that was on display in 2008. i want to play a clip from 2008 which offended a lot of voters and get your reaction on the other side. >> it is wrong that senator obama got to go through 15 debates, trumpeting his superior judgment and how he had been against the war every year. give me a break. this whole thing is the biggest fairy tale i have ever seen. >> so those comments infuriated a lot of african-american voters. in 2012, president obama used him as one of his surrogates quite effectively. >> bill clinton, i feel like

he's both the best and worst of human nature all in one person. he is tremendously gifted in some ways as a communicator. he also has tremendous personal flaws as a communicator. he also compared barack obama winning south carolina to jesse jackson winning the state which was another big controversy. when he is, as michael points out, when he is big, when he is talking about sort of the state of the country, sort of the ombudsman in chief, he's quite good. he's very naturally gifted as a communicator whether or not you like his politics. when his smaller side, he can be quite petty, he loses his temper quite easily, does not like to be challenged, that's what you saw in 2008, how could this guy be beating us -- >> especially when his wife is the target. >> right. he's much less good in those circumstances. so he is a very talented political weapon.

you just have to deploy him properly and when not deployed properly, he can be disadvantageous to your candidacy as we saw in 2008. >> pick up on that point. how does the clinton campaign make sure he stays on message in this cycle? can they? >> kristen made a funny joke. >> i think you go to the campaign with a surrogate in chief that you have. but i think you know that he is going to be the best explainer in chief of your campaign and your campaign message until the moment when he's not. and you just need to really cross your fingers and pray because there's not going to be much more on that. but i do think that in terms of the impact of this discussion that we're having about the past and impeachment and monica lewinsky, i think it's interesting for trump to bring up, interesting and predictable move on his part. i don't think it's going to have a big political impact because

it's already baked into the cake. everybody knows how much they think that's important. >> well, i think it could have a big political impact in favor of trump. this is a good move for him to be using this issue. his own people in his own party, the audience in a primary, primary voters would i think respond to this. it also fills air time between now and the beginning of the caucuses, where he is in the lead in the polls. i think this is the perfect kind of issue. >> that's a fair point. i just meant in a general election, bill clinton's past is not going to determine a lot of voters' decisions. >> to michael's point, could the negatives outweigh the benefits of having bill clinton on the trail? for the clinton campaign? >> sure. i think as we saw in 2008, everyone thought in 2007, let's say, that her great secret weapon was him, right? he was someone who left office very popular, including especially among african-americans, that would counter barack obama in some way, shape or form.

lo and behold, he gets on the campaign trail and what he does, she wasn't going to win south carolina anyway. she winds up losing by a massive margin in part because of him and they largely shelve him and use him selectively in places like west virginia, ohio, places where with white working class voters he's a very good communicator. so i always hesitate to predict yes, he's going to be a good or bad. i would say in general, if he can be managed which is sort of the -- he probably can't be, i think he is probably a net positive but this idea that he will be all good and to ruth's point, this idea that the past will of course, the idea that bill clinton has baggage and hillary clinton, yes, that is always a part of them. they bring good but they don't come without these other things. when he's on the trail, he can remind people of these other things to a degree that is not helpful to her. >> i want to shift topics a little bit to trump's spending. little bit of news late last night. he indicated he's going to start spending really big in some of these early voting states, as much as $2 million on ad

spending. first, do you believe him? do you think he's actually going to go forward with that? does he need to? he's already so far ahead in some of the polls. >> he promised it before, it didn't happen. so there's a track record here. i mean, his campaign has actually said he hasn't needed to. he floods the air waves. he is the face of the republican party in a way that i think is profoundly destructive to the republican party but he's been unbelievably effective of using the new methods of communication to dominate this space. and i don't know what's changed on that. in fact, this issue about bill clinton is evidence that he doesn't need to. we have another round of talking about what he's doing in the campaign, how he's attacking. >> ruth, how does anyone else break through? >> that's a really good question, because trump is brilliant at being able to occupy the air waves, so one way to break through is to be more

outrageous and i don't think he can really manage that. the other thing is what some candidates have tried, is to take him on and to explain why many of the things he's saying are so offensive and really also, so policy-free. >> we see more and more republican candidates actually start to take him on more aggressively. chris, final point to you. ben ginsberg has a column in the "wall street journal" where he talks about the various possibilities of having a brokered convention or a number of the republican candidates coming out very close in the electoral race. do you actually anticipate we will see that? >> look, ben is, if you look up establishment republican in the dictionary, you see a picture of ben ginsberg, election lawyer. this is sort of the establishment speaking and saying be wary of this. i'm skeptical of the most important point ben makes, about 16% of all the delegates will be allocated winner take all. that means 84% will be allocated by congressional district which means yes, this is nerdy but

important, it means that by congressional district, you can get, everyone can get a little piece which means lots of people can add little pieces up, up, up and no one can look like the big front-runner. so that is the thing to watch, the allocation by congressional district. it's in the weeds but it's very important. that's where most of the delegates are getting and that's the danger for republicans of seeing trump, rubio, cruz and maybe somebody else have enough but not enough to get over the top. >> chris, we like nerdy. we like to get into the weeds. thank you. >> the nerd panel. here we are. >> chris, ruth and michael, thanks for a fantastic discussion. we really appreciate it. coming up next, striking isis. the u.s. military says it's taken out ten isis leaders in the past month, including one with a direct link to the paris attacks. we'll have the very latest next.

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we have breaking news from the defense department. an isis leader with links to the paris terror attacks was killed in air strikes on thursday. colonel steve warren made the announcement in the briefing from baghdad this morning. take a look. >> last but certainly not least, this is your headline, charaffe al mouadan, he was a syrian based isil member with a direct link to the paris attack cell leader. we killed him on december 24th in syria. al mouadan was actively planning additional attacks against the west. we will continue to hunt isil leaders who are working to recruit, plan and inspire attacks against the united states of america. >> there are new developments out of belgium today. federal prosecutors announced two arrests over a suspected new

year's terror plot. a series of raids that started sunday in brussels turned up isis propaganda material but no weaponry according to officials. the investigation is not tied to the terror attacks in paris. nbc's cortney cuby is at the pentagon and chapman bell is in london to break all of this down. cortney, you were in the briefing. bring us up to speed. you listened to the briefing, i should say, on what the very latest is. >> reporter: well, there was the individual who was killed that you played the tape of colonel steve warren announcing. there was actually another individual who was killed. there were ten during the month of december that colonel warren mentioned. but one of them was another one that had ties to the paris attack network. he was just killed last weekend. he was another -- the u.s. military calls them external operations planner, so basically what that means is they are people who are working on planning attacks outside of that area, usually in the west, in europe, potentially even in the u.s. homeland. defense officials who i spoke with can't give us any real specifics, was he working on

attacks in europe, more attacks in paris, what kind of attacks, were they large population centers, were they airliners, we don't know anything like that about either of these two individuals. what we do know is they were actively planning attacks against the west. there was one other name that stood out to us. that was a bangladeshi national killed earlier in the month in an air strike in raqqah, syria. he was working on creating terror networks between bangladesh and back in syria and iraq, and he was actively working on attacks, planning attacks, against the west and potentially against bangladesh. he was a high value target that was a name that we actually knew around here. there are a lot of names that are sort of thrown around that we don't necessarily know, but that one definitely stood out as well. >> thank you for all that great information. as you and i both know from our reporting, the administration has come under a lot of scrutiny, people who say they are not doing enough to fight against isis and what the military and what the obama

administration continues to say is that their strategy is always under review. talk a little bit about what that means for our viewers so they can understand it, particularly on a day when you have an announcement like this. >> reporter: so ramadi is a good example of the obama administration's strategy in action. it was -- it's taken months. the initial phase was what the u.s. military and iraqis were calling an isolation phase. the u.s. and coalition pounded around ramadi with more than 600 air strikes over the last five or six months, and what they were doing is cutting off any kind of lines of communication for the isis fighters in ramadi. there were several hundred over the course of the last few months. they were cutting them off. a u.s. military official actually said that they struck so many targets around the city, so many of the roads and whatnot, that the roads leading into ramadi look like the surface of the moon. they just had enormous craters everywhere. what they were able to do was give the iraqi security forces mainly the counterterror forces,

the breathing room and the ability, the cover to move into the city. we saw yesterday they got into the government center, they were able to raise the iraqi flag, so that is -- it's an example of the strategy which many people are critical of because it's slow. it's taken months to move into ramadi and the city still is not cleared. there are still large swaths in the north and in the east that are held by isis. the iraqi security forces still have quite a job ahead of them. but this is the same strategy that we are likely to see in mosul in the coming months or year or so where they are going to surround it, coalition air strikes will pound the area and the iraqi security forces will move in and take down isil. >> fantastic information. thank you. chapman, i want to switch to you now. what more do we know about those arrests in belgium? >> reporter: well, we know that the federal prosecutor's office in belgium says two people have been arrested on suspicion of planning a possible terror attack around the new year's celebrations. one of these for allegedly

leading and recruiting for a terror group. the other for allegedly participating in a terror group's activities with the aim of committing terror offenses. these arrests coming after an investigation brought to light the threat of a series -- serious attack targeting symbolic locations in brussels during this time. police carrying out a series of raids over the last couple of days across belgium. searches did find military style training uniforms and isis propaganda material, but no weapons or bomb materials were discovered. >> great reporting. thank you both so much for bringings up to speed on the breaking stories. we really appreciate it. coming up, the pressure is mounting in chicago after two high profile deadly police shootings calls for rahm emanuel's ouster are getting louder. constipated? trust number one doctor recommended dulcolax use dulcolax tablets for gentle overnight relief

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now to chicago, where former police officer jason van dyke appeared in court today and entered not guilty pleas to six counts of first degree murder in the shooting death of laquan mcdonald. the 17-year-old was shot 16 times in a 2014 incident caught on dash camera video. the father of quintonio la greer has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the city after his 19-year-old son was shot and killed by chicago police on saturday morning. the city of chicago said they have not yet reviewed the suit and therefore, cannot comment. police say their neighbor, bettie jones, a 55-year-old mother and grandmother, was also shot accidentally. her daughter tearfully sharing her grief with nbc news. >> my mom was so scared of my older son that's 15 to get shot by the police officers but who gets shot and killed? her. >> and in cleveland, a grand jury decided not to bring

charges against the police officers in the fatal shooting of 12-year-old tamir rice. joining me is janae nelson, associate director of the naacp legal defense and educational fund. thank you for joining me. i want to start with the news of the day. the arraignment of jason van dyke. he pleaded not guilty as i just said. what are your expectations for this case? there is that dash cam video. how does that impact the proceedings? >> well, the dash cam video i think is incredibly powerful evidence and it shows that officer van dyke not only initiated the shots when laquan mcdonald was walking away and was posing no threat, but that he continued in a very barbaric way frankly to continue to shoot the young man once he was already down on the ground and posed absolutely no threat to the police officer or anyone around him, or himself. so i think that this is going to be incredibly damning evidence in this case. it's evidence that i think has

already stirred the public and stirred many people who have seen it, and completely contradicts his version of events and the version of events that his colleagues brought forth when they were questioned about this incident. so it not only calls officer van dyke's credibility into question, but also those of his fellow officers and i hope that the case will expand to include them as well. >> as you well know, mayor rahm emanuel has cut his vacation short to return to chicago to deal with this latest shooting in his city. he said he's going to do more to try to prevent these types of tragedies from happening. are you convinced, are you satisfied that that's enough? >> well, it's important that any elected official that is facing these sorts of tragedies in a jurisdiction that he governs take a firm stance and make it clear that these types of incidents are not tolerable. it's important that he lead in this moment and make that clear. of course, there are a lot of questions surrounding his

actions. the fact that the videotaping the laquan mcdonald incident did not come out until a judge compelled its release and only came out at the very last minute. it really gives many people pause about the real intentions here of him and many other involved in the case. >> because of that very fact, you have a lot of people in chicago calling for him to step down. do you think mayor rahm emanuel should step down? he says he's not going to. >> you know, i leave those ideas to others to think about the political ramifications here. voters should know they absolutely have the power and that's one thing that is important for everyone to recognize. you can't vote police officers out of office but you certainly can vote for or against elected officials who do or do not represent your interests. that's incredibly important for us to always remember that we hold that power, and there's always a political backdrop to any of these cases. if we think about the prosecutor

in the tamir rice case, mcginty, he's up for re-election soon as well. there is always that dimension. >> let me jump in there. i'm glad you raised that point. we heard from him yesterday on the case of tamir rice and the decision not to bring charges against the officer who shot him. take a listen to what he had to say. i want to get your reaction on the other side. >> simply put, given this perfect storm of human error, mistakes, miscommunications, by all involved that day, the evidence did not indicate criminal conduct by police. >> a perfect storm of human error. that's what he described this as. is that how you see this? >> that's not at all how i see it. this was not a simple mistake. this was not an error or just someone who made the wrong decision here. this is a case that represents the worst of everything in our criminal justice system. racial profiling, inept 911

services, the systemic bias that supports police officers no matter what actions they take, and it's incredibly important that we start to think about these processes and how the legal standards are being applied, how much discretion prosecutors have in these situations to create a grand jury process that is usually unlike any other unless it involves a police officer. what we saw prosecutor mcginty do in this case was really unprecedented, to leak out expert reports before the grand jury process had been concluded, to not allow or to allow, in fact, written testimony from the officers after they had been subpoenaed to testify, to allow that to substitute for their in-person presentation to the jury, really makes everyone question the integrity of that process and then when you add to the fact that prosecutor mcginty tried to disparage the family of tamir rice, it makes you wonder how we can have any faith in the outcome of this process in the

criminal justice system in general, when it involves use of force cases with officers. >> thank you for coming on to discuss this very painful topic. we really appreciate your insights. >> thank you for having me. coming up next, on "andrea mitchell reports," paper tiger? donald trump takes on a leading new hampshire newspaper after a scathing editorial. we talk to the publisher of the union leader next. this is the one place we're not afraid to fail. some of these experiments may not work. but a few might shape the future. like turning algae into biofuel... ...new technology for capturing co2 emissions... ...and cars twice as efficient as the average car today. ideas exxonmobil scientists are working on to make energy go further... ...no matter how many tries it takes.

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♪ (vo) some call it giving back. we call it share the love. during our share the love event, get a new subaru, and we'll donate $250 to those in need. bringing our total donations to over sixty-five million dollars. and bringing love where it's needed most. love. it's what makes a subaru, a subaru. so this guy, his name's joe mcquaid. no, he's a lowlife. i'm telling you. you have a very dishonest newspaper up here. it's also a failing newspaper. it's going down the tubers. i remember when this was a big paper. look at the size of this thing. if they cut it down anymore, you

won't be able to find it. it looks like the things you know when you go to the grocery store where they give you a little handout, what do they call that, coupons? >> new hampshire union leader publisher joe mcquaid probably expected that criticism of donald trump in monday's front page opinion piece, including calling the republican front-runner a crude blowhard was going to draw that exact type of response that we saw last night. so let's ask him. joe mcquaid joins me live. thanks for being here, joe. >> you're welcome, miss welker. how are you? >> great. we appreciate you being here. we want to get your reaction to everything you heard donald trump say last night. he called you a lowlife, said your paper's going down the tubes. what's your response? >> history repeats. 32 years ago, guy named ed muskey pulled up in front of the union leader and said william loeb was a liar and he didn't walk, he crawled. i'm trying to figure out, just ask the guy in the studio

whether a lowlife is better than a crawler or a walker and how he gets around. >> so you're not backing down from what you published earlier this week, that's for sure, but what i want to ask you is what type of impact you are actually seeing it have on new hampshire's republicans. you called on them not to vote for trump. as you know he's got a lot of support in your state. he is leading in the polls handily. are you actually seeing what you wrote have an effect at this point? >> well, as i know -- i don't know what mr. trump's support is in our state or nationally, for that matter. i think the polls are pretty much bunk and are name recognition, not real substance. it's a crowded field and i think iowa and new hampshire and south carolina are going to win over the field and all this poll business is going to be history, past history.

as far as the reaction in the state of new hampshire to our piece yesterday, it's mixed. there are some trump supporters, most of them appear to have commented online under the editorial and said we were some sort of dog excrement which was kind of nice but we have also gotten quite a bit of support summed up in it's about time somebody called this guy out. >> let me let you respond to a few more of the allegations that donald trump made last night. take a listen. i will get your reaction on the other side. >> he endorses christie and that was okay. i figured that was going to happen because when he called me up couple of months ago, to see if i can get christie on to the main stage, i said i think he's going to endorse christie, right, why would he be doing that. the first time i met with him, he said i'll never endorse christie and the reason he said that, he hated that christie embraced obama so strongly before the election, right before the election.

>> is there any truth to that, joe? >> absolutely none. the guy makes stuff up as he goes along. i have been fascinated right along because we did endorse christie on some of my readers said you can't do that, he endorsed obama. he endorsed obama after obama and the feds came in with help as they should after a hurricane in new jersey. i never ruled out christie for any reason, obviously, because we endorsed him. trump also said, he said that there were different reasons why i wrote that editorial and one was because i was upset that he didn't do a voters forum that we had last august. >> any truth to that? i was going to ask you that next. >> no. >> any truth to that? >> no. as a matter of fact, we mentioned in this morning's paper two letters that he sent. one was just before the event in

which he said he was -- he had a great business sense and his sense was that we weren't going to endorse him and therefore, he wasn't going to do our event. well, he was right about that. he had a good sense. we didn't endorse him. but a day after the event, and i'm paraphrasing here, but he said pretty much dear joe, your event sucked, everybody said so, they said i was really smart not to do it, and by the way, when you get around to it, please endorse me. >> i just want to go back to what you said about the polls. you said they are bunk, you don't believe them, but if you look at the polls, he's not leading by a few points, joe. he's got a pretty strong lead in some of the polls, double digit lead in some of those polls. so do you think that something can happen between now and primary day that will be able to knock him off of that pedestal and which candidate are you expecting will be able to break through? >> yeah. i think the polls are bunk. the polls four years ago said

obama was going beat hillary up here and i knew that wasn't going to be the case. knock him off a pedestal? it will be up to the voters. i said in the editorial that the great majority of new hampshire republicans would repudiate trump and that will be true. he may come in first with his very high core supporters and then what's going to happen is the others are going to shake out. new hampshire is going to winnow the field, not fox, not you guys deciding who gets on the main stage, and there will be fewer people and one of them will take on trump and i'm sure beat him soundly for the republican nomination. so not to worry. >> joe mcquaid, fantastic conversation. thank you for joining me. >> you're welcome. coming up, triple threat. snowstorms, deadly tornadoes and severe flooding across several states. all of it hampering a week of holiday travel. what you need to know next.

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plows are in action across the northeast today. a mix of snow, sleet and floods are threatening the entire region. the same series of storms that tore through the middle of the country causing blizzards, tornadoes and heavy rain, killing 43 people over the past week. it's not over yet for the midwest. a round of temperature drops and changing weather patterns have created major delays and a messy forecast. let's get the very latest now from new england. nbc's ron mott joins me live in massachusetts, following all this severe weather. i know it has stopped coming down out there but still treacherous, right? >> reporter: yeah. we are getting some of the last bands of this system coming through here, dropping just a little light mist. it was actually quite beautiful here outside city hall when we got here early this morning. the crews have come by and cleared the walkways and steps and so it's not quite as beautiful, quite as wintry but

still very messy out here. there were probably a few white knuckles as people made their which to work and elsewhere this morning because it was a little dicey on the roadways this morning. the evening commute we think is going to be much better because a lot of the crews have been out to get the roads in pretty good shape for folks going home. the question is, into tonight as we dip back below freezing, is how much road surface will be frozen come morning time. so the morning commute tomorrow could be just as treacherous as we saw this morning. the good news is that the accumulation was not nearly as great as i think a lot of people were fearing here in worcester we think we got two inches on the ground. they were anticipating much heavier snow totals in northern new england, especially northern maine where they were forecasting as much as a foot of snow. this is all obviously good news for the ski resorts. again, as we said, tomorrow still look for some potential driving issues in the morning but it's expected to warm up here across massachusetts, into the 40s tomorrow and into

thursday. so this snow might be gone by then. but the first snowfall of the season is always a little cause for celebration. it's muted of course by the fact that so many people as you know lost their lives as this system made its way across the south, the midwest and finally arriving here in the northeast and new england overnight. back to you. >> ron mott, thank you. we appreciate your reporting this afternoon. coming up next, busted. the teenager who used his family's wealth as a way to avoid jail time after a deadly drunk driving incident is now in custody in mexico. we will have the very latest after this. what if one piece of kale could protect you from diabetes? what if one sit-up could prevent heart disease? one. wishful thinking, right? but there is one step you can take to help prevent another serious disease. pneumococcal pneumonia. if you are 50 or older, one dose of the prevnar 13® vaccine can help protect you from pneumococcal pneumonia, an illness that can cause coughing, chest pain, difficulty breathing, and may even put you in the hospital. even if you have already been vaccinated

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welcome back. we are continuing to learn more about the so-called affluenza teen, ethan couch, who was captured by authorities with his mother while on the run in mexico. the 18-year-old texan became infamous after invoking an affluenza defense while on trial for a fatal drunk driving crash

and was sentenced to ten months of probation after pleading guilty in the four deaths. the tarrant county sheriff says their flight to mexico appears to be premeditated. >> as we were trying to determine if this was premeditated as we believed it was, a statement was made that they basically had a gathering before they left and kind of characterized it as more or less a going away party which to us, meant that what we suspected had happened, that it was carefully planned and timed to get out of the country. >> nbc's gabe gutierrez is live in ft. worth with the very latest. gabe, we just heard him talk about a going away party? what more do we know about this very bizarre story? >> reporter: good afternoon. yes, a very bizarre development and the sheriff when pressed on that going away party, offered very few details. he didn't say exactly who attended this going away party, if other family members were involved, and if those family members may have known exactly what the plans were. when reporters asked the sheriff

whether ethan couch's father may have somehow been involved, the sheriff said no. according to our investigation so far, he has not -- he is not involved and had been cooperating with police. mexican authorities say that couch and his mother were detained yesterday around 6:00 p.m. in the popular resort town of puerto vallarta. in a news conference just within the past hour and a half or so, authorities didn't go into detail on how authorities tracked them down, but mexican officials say that they had been investigating the pair since saturday and in these types of situations, the u.s. marshals and fbi were involved, typically what happens is some type of electronic surveillance, perhaps cell phones. we don't know the exact details of that yet. but authorities do say that the pair was believed to have driven from the ft. worth area and taken a truck down into mexico and spent the past several weeks

there. the mug shot that was released overnight by mexican authorities, you can see that ethan couch had much darker hair than he previously had. authorities believe and in the news conference said they believe he altered his appearance to avoid detection. now, there are still some questions about what the pair did over the past several weeks before their capture. there are reports citing mexican officials that he might be returning to the u.s. soon, although authorities here at this news conference would not give a timetable on when he would be extradited or deported back to the united states. what we did learn is that authorities do plan to charge his mother with hindering apprehension. that is a charge that could carry some significant jail time. in addition to that, there is -- there was -- the sheriff was critical in a way of what happens next for ethan couch when he comes back here. he will have a hearing in january to see if his case is

transferred from the juvenile system to the adult court system. after that happens, the judge could order him held in jail for just 120 days based on his fleeing and violating probation. if he were to violate probation again, the prosecutor could ask for up to 40 years in prison, ten years for each of the deaths that were caused back in 2013 when couch was convicted of killing four people in that drunk driving incident. so very bizarre story. this situation where ethan couch and his mother were captured after several weeks on the run. again, authorities say they are very thankful they were able to bring this to a conclusion and now his mother might be facing more serious charges. the investigation continues to figure out who else may have known about this, what authorities are calling a premeditated escape from the country. >> just very quickly, do we know what caused them to run in the first place?

>> reporter: well, the tarrant county sheriff has said, he said he still believes it was a cell phone video that surfaced earlier this month and in that cell phone video of a party, tarrant county district attorney's office has said they have interviewed several witnesses at this party who claim that couch was there and alcohol use would have been a violation of his probation, and although he's not seen in the video drinking, tarrant county sheriff believes that was the trigger potentially that he feared he would be sent to yal for violating his probation. the sheriff believes that was the trigger that may have caused him and his mother to run. >> gabe gutierrez, you have been all over this story from the beginning. thank you for that. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." see you back here tomorrow. follow the show online on facebook and on twitter. our coverage continues with "msnbc live" next. search shows t people really like

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good to be with you this afternoon. i'm frances rivera in for thomas roberts. we start this hour in new hampshire, waiting to hear from hillary clinton at a rally in portsmouth and whether she will hit back at donald trump's latest attacks on her husband, former president bill clinton. the democratic front-runner in a statement last night said she wouldn't be pushed around by trump who said bill clinton's past relationships with women will be quote, fair game. listen to what he told nbc news' savannah guthrie this morning. >> there was certainly a lot of abuse of women. you look at whether it's monica lewinsky or paula jones or many of them, and that certainly will be fair game. certainly if they play the woman's card with respect to me, that will be fair game. >> let's dive in with two reports for you now on the trump versus clinton dynamic. nbc is live in council bluffs, where trump will b