good morning and happy thanksgiving. the macy's day parade will be kicking off in less than two hours here in new york city. but will the weather ground bth balloons? plus, president trump and his friend rudy giuliani. why was the president's lawyer in discussions to represent the ukrainian government at the same time he was supposed to be representing president trump? and, new this morning, former navy secretary richard spencer unleashes a blistering new op ed in the washingt"washington post

blasting trump for interference in the sentencing of a navy s.e.a.l. any time now we'll be getting word if the balloons will be flying or grounded because of the high winds. but first, rudy giuliani that he was in discussions with the ukrainian government earlier this year at the same time he was representing president trump. giuliani ultimately decided not to take the job but his meetings with ukraine's prosecutor general appears to have helped lay the groundwork for two key aspects of the impeachment inquiry, the push to investigate the biedens and the firing of ambassador yovanovitch. i have the perfect group of people to talk about this this morning. national political reporter jonathan allen. elina, a russian expert with the brookings institution. and den by heinz is a trial attorney and former prosecutor. good morning to you all and happy thanksgiving.

jonathan, let's back up a second and reset this thing. can you please for us lay out for us what rudy giuliani is being investigated for in the first place? >> it's complicated, phil. >> it is. >> rudy giuliani's been very, very active under president trump. in fact, last night on brian williams show the 11th hour they laid out the national flags of the various countries that he's visited during this administration. there are business deals all over the place. but basically it's this relationship that he's got with these two ukrainian american businessmen, parnas and fruman, and the degree to which they have been engaged in had sort of or several sorts of fraud. that's the basic investigation going on there. those two were picked up in an airport, as you'll recall, on their way to vienna. giuliani obviously has not been

under arrest. there are subpoenas that have flown in that. parnas's lawyer has been active in suggesting that he would be happy to testify to congress or provide documents to congress. and giuliani's probably going to have to answer at some point. i mean, this is -- all of these stories are not according to his benefit and at this point i think mr. giuliani would prefer, perhaps, that his name was mr. houdini. >> a robust task, jonathan, but near flawless synopsis there. appreciate that. now that we got that stared away, elina, even though he didn't seal the deal, talking about giuliani here, what is your reaction to the idea that he could have been working for the president and the ukrainians at the same time? >> i think there's an untold story of another quid pro quo here, which is what was rudy giuliani doing in ukraine seeking out these quite lucrative contracts? what we know up to half a million dollars, potentially there's more out there that we don't know about. while at the same time using his

personal connections to the president to try to influence u.s. policy and try to push through various investigations in the president's interest. i think there's a deep and potentially scandalous story here of his own quid pro quo where he was seeking money in ukraine while at the same time pursuing investigations on behalf of the u.s. president. >> debbie, we have to give giuliani some credit for not signing the papers. he did not silent papers. so that being said, why is he still being investigated? >> well, the fact that he wouldn't silent papers is irrelevant. it doesn't matter that he didn't, because even attempting to do something illegal is still illegal, and that's the problem that he basically faces right now. so that's what he wants to say, but it's just like the president saying, oh, i ultimately gave the aid to the ukraine, it doesn't matter that it ultimately happened. you attempted to withhold the ukrainian money so it's the same thing in giuliani's case. he's not going to be able to get away if anything is brought against him in terms of federal

charges. he's not going to be able to get away saying i never signed anything, i never really did anything, i just kind of sort of looked around. >> that's an important point to me because a lot of times the republicans made that argument, if it didn't happen, what's the problem. >> right. and that just doesn't fly. an attempted crime is still a crime. the fact that you, in my scenario, attempted to murder someone is still going to be a charge. the fact that it wasn't successful or you didn't ultimately go ahead with it and it didn't prove fruitful does not knee nate ganegate the facta crime. >> jonathan, did the biden narrative and the opposition to yovanovitch start with lutsenko? what does it mean it went from this one ukrainian official right to the president's ear? >> i think what it really means is it is not very hard to get

conspiracy theories into the president's ear. what we've heard repeatedly in testimony over the course of these impeachment hearings at the against committee is that these theories have been entirely debunked and fiona hill, the former national security official, said that some of those are, in fact, russian propaganda perpetuated and propagated in the first plate by vladimir putin. so, it's amazing it gets in the president's ear, he repeats it and his faction on capitol hill repeats it even after they've been told that some of this stuff is completely bogus and in some cases fabricated by the russian government. >> debbie, forgive me before i ask this because it's almost impossible to get in former mayor rudy giuliani's head. but he wasn't being paid by the president and he never got paid by the ukrainians, where's the motivation here? or does it point to some other motivation? what do you think he was doing that? >> the motivation is he was still trying to get hundreds of

thousands of dollars in business from ukraine. that would clearly be the motivation, the fact that he had the clout of being able to say, i represent the president of the united states. that was enough for him to engage in activity to obtain hundreds of thousands of dollars from the ukrainian if not the government, but from the ukrainian officials there. so that's what he gets out of it by basically not getting any money from the president, not getting any fees from any where else. he ultimately stood to gain. >> so it's the influence that would have led eventually to the money? >> absolutely. absolutely. >> all right. elina, fiona hill testified that russia's been trying to frame russia for the 2016 election. how is russia benefitting from all of this unfolding here? >> the clear winner here from all of the impeachment testimony as you heard over the last week and this fictional narrative that ukraine is really behind the very well documented, very well known mass russian interference campaign in our democracy and our elections and that somehow ukraine was

responsible for this hack of the d in h dnc these are all russia disinformation campaigns. the fact that we have top level officials, the president himself, individuals close to the president repeating these disinformation talking points, i think, is absolutely detrimental. because it shows how deep and how effective these russian disinformation campaigns have been. and it may go down in the history books when written as the most effective disinformation campaign plantd by the russian intelligence agencies against the united states going forward. and certainly having ukraine being discussed as the most -- country in the world, which of course it's not, plays very well into russia's hands which really wants to see ukraine fail as a state. and really everything that's happening right now is helping that motivation from the russian federation. >> so, jonathan, playing off of that, just yesterday the state

department, they put out a statement reaffirming its unwavering support for ukraine's sovereignty and keeping the pressure on russia. what is the state of u.s./ukraine relations? >> it's complicated. if you've got a facebook page you yo saying some about that. they say that the u.s. support for ukraine is unwavering. for those of us who have been living through the last couple months of the united states, it's been very clear that that's not true. the united states' support for ukraine was very much wavering during the summer because we've been providing them with money uninterrupted for many years and then we froze the money for them. that's the definition of wavering, especially when we then turned it back on. so right now the entirety of the united states government recognizes that it's in the best interest of the united states to help ukraine fight against russia and for a brief period in

the summer the president of the united states thought it was worth pausing that money not necessarily because it was in the best interest of the united states, but certainly because it was in the best interests of the president's re-election campaign. >> all right. jonathan allen, elina and debbie heinz, thank you so much for joining us on this holiday. we turn to break news. the thanksgiving day parade if the isn't just the same without those giant balloons and we have just got word moments ago from the new york police department commissioner that, yes, in fact, the balloons will fly. gabe gutierrez is just a couple of blocks afrway from me here a 30 rock. happy thanksgiving to you. >> reporter: good morning and happy thanksgiving to you. and for the millions of people that are expected here in new york along the parade route, they also hope it will be a happy thanksgiving again. just a few moments ago, nypd announcing on twitter that as of 7:00 a.m. eastern time, as of now, the balloons will fly. right now the weather is cooperating here. you can see how many people have

lined up here along sixth avenue. more than 3 million people expected to watch the macy's thanksgiving day parade. 93rd installment of thissa raid. tens of millions more will be watching this around the country. now, we -- hey. we've been speaking 'people throughout the morning from across the current. the big question was going to be were those balloons going to fly? per city regulations, if the wind gusts exceeded 34 miles per hour and sustained winds exceeded 23 miles per hour, those balloons would not fly. so i was just talking to you a few moments ago, ma'am, you're here on a mother/daughter trip. >> we are. we're from virginia beach. >> why was it important for you to come today? >> it's been a bucket list item. my sister and i have been talking about it since the girls were little. it was finally our time to bring our kids. >> reporter: what's your name? >> jenna. >> reporter: how excited are you to see the balloons today?

>> very excite jood i was just talking to you a few moments ago and there was a question of whether those balloons would fly within the past few moments. they announced on twitter the balloons will fly. what do you think about that? >> so excited. we were going to enjoy the parade either way, about that does make our day. >> reporter: thanks so much. philip, excited people along the parade route along sixth avenue. this will get started at 9:00 a.m. eastern time. again, many people here excited that those 16 iconic character balloons as of now will be in the air. philip. >> that's great news. all right, gabe gutierrez reporting from along the parade route. thank you. coming up, former navy secretary richard spencer is blasting president trump in a new opinion piece saying the president has, quote, very little understanding of what it means to be in the military. and china is furious after president trump signs new legislation supporting pro democracy protesters in hong kong. could that doom any hope for a

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ousted navy secretary richard spencer is firing back at his former boss this morning slamming president trump over his handling of the war crimes case involving navy s.e.a.l. eddie gallagher. an extraordinary "washington post" op-ed, sper, spencer says a shocking and unprecedented intervention in a low-level

review. it was alsoa a reminder that th president has very little understanding to be in the military, governed ethically or governed by a uniform set of rules and practices. i'm joined by the white house columnist at the hill and also joined by retired army colonel jack jacobs, medal of honor recipient and nbc analysts. good morning to you both. >> morning. >> colonel, let me get your reaction and the takeaway from this op-ed as well as how extraordinary it is to see this type of dissent within the military for all of to us see. >> well, it is extraordinary. i can't remember in the 50 years since i first put on the uniform of this ever occurring. it's -- it doesn't happen. it just doesn't happen. and it only happens in circumstances in which, as spencer says, the president just doesn't understand exactly how the military is supposed to operate. there have been other presidents

who have not served, but unlike president trump, they knew what they didn't know. trying to effect a situation like this in which the military establishment is trying to police itself and has done in this way for a long, long time is destructive to the chain of command. it's pernicious, it's poisonous, and i think it has had and it will continue to have a very unsettling effect on the operation of the military establishment, phil. >> nile, we saw your tweet from last night and you took this note from the last line. our allies need to know that we remain a force of good and to please bear with us as we move through this moment in time. why did this jump out to you? >> because it was so remarkable. colonel jacobs has noted a number of other remarkable

aspects of this op-ed. but here you have recently ousted secretary of the navy publicly appealing to american allies and essentially saying, wait this out. wait the trump presidency out because it is so aberrational. just bear with us until the president of the united states is off the scene. that speaks, i think, to just how unusual the trump presidency has been and how even respected people like mr. spencer see this president as someone who transgresses norms, not just within the military establishment, but in the broader field of information relations. >> i want to change topics now and talk about north korea. colonel, i want to ask you about a developing story out of north korea. south korea's defense ministry is reporting that north korea launched two project tiles into the sea of japan. what do you think kim jong-un

support to? do you think there's any coincidence this is happening on a u.s. holiday? >> no, there no coincidence. symbolism is very big for kim. look, it's business as usual in north korea. north korea's continuing criminal -- going to give up its nuclear weapons, it's not going to continue testing delivery systems despite all the recei rhetoric, particularly what came from the white house during this administration. they're going to continue doing what they're doing and nothing is going to change. north korea is not interested in giving up its nuclear weapons and will not unless forced to do so, phil. >> what do you think this means for the president's policy on north korea and those stalled denuclearization talks? >> it's bad for the president's policy, but think what we're seeing here, philip, is the difficulty that the president has in sticking with a plan an getting beyond the visuals into the granular kind of level.

the president began his tenure threating north korea's annihilation, then he and kim became best friends. that happened on trump's part seemed largely fueled by the sense that he could have the summit meetings that provided dramatic television footage. but when it comes to the much more difficult process of edging forward in these difficult and treacherous negotiations, the administration is nowhere really. >> we've come a long way since the little rocket man comment. let's talk about hong kong now. we're also following developments between the u.s. and china. china's furious with the u.s. after the president signed two bills backing the protesters in hong kong. what do you think the fallout is here? does this have the potential to derail trade talks with china? >> it certainly could have the effect of retard progress as far as trade talks are concerned. those talks have scraped along

in a rather slow fashion. there's been constant promises that there's about to be a resolution or a deal and temperature hasn't been. clearly this bill does make that more difficult. in saying that, i do think we have to be fair to president trump in one regard. he is often, rightly, in my opinion, criticized for being very transactional for not doing the morally right thing because of some other ulterior motive. here i think most people believe that the signing of the hong kong bill is doing the right thing irrespective of its ramifications on those trade talks. >> all right. thank you for spending part of your holiday with us here. coming up, mayor pete buttigieg is rising in the polls and embracing comparisons to another long shot democrat, but does his weak support among minorities make him only that, a long shot? minorities make m hionly that, a long shot? ns are all

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election. [ applause ] >> no two campaigns are the same or no two people are the same. i do think there are a lot of lessons from that race. i want to leave by making the case for something that i know went out of style a little bit in american politics. and that is hope. >> on the 2020 campaign trail, pete buttigieg has not shied away from comparisons to another democrat whose presidential bid was also one seen as a long shot, ba iraqi obama. but "politico" is writing how mayor pete got knocked off the obama track. the one glaring difference, their respective relationships with the african-american community. we go to des moines, iowa. good morning. >> reporter: good morning, philip. we mentioned that latest quinnipiac poll and it showed him at about 16%, which was in second place to vice president joe biden. he has certainly grown in the polls nationally, and that's

something that we've seen reflected here in iowa where he has been gaining traction over the past few months. but iowa is a predominately white state. and so when you look at some of his poll numbers out of south carolina and dig into those demographics, in the latest poll there he was at about 0% among african americans. he's got work do there. it's something that i've asked him about on the campaign trail, and he says, look, i don't have the name recognition of joe biden so, you know, i've got to work to build that up. this week specifically he was asked, well, what are you going to do to change that and change your standing among african-american voters. look at what he had to say. >> is there anything specific that we'll see in terms of changes on that front? >> well, you're certainly going to see increased engagement and new forms of engagement and a lot more to come. >> reporter: and so those new forms of engagement are going to be starting right after the thanksgiving holiday. he's heading to north carolina,

south carolina, and to alabama and he's going to do a lot less of the town halls and rallies that we see here in iowa and many more round tables and meetings at churches and business tours to sort of shore up some of that support through these intimate gatherings. he also is going up on tv there in south carolina, only the second candidate to do so. my colleague broke that news yesterday. it's part of a larger $2 million ad buy. it will be interesting to see if that helps him improve in the poll numbers in that state. >> all right. nbc news campaign pricilla thompson, thank you. with me now, republican political consultant along with democratic strategist. good morning to you both. >> good morning. >> shermichael, i want to start with you. one former obama staffer tells "politico" that he disagrees with the obama/buttigieg comparisons. it offends me personally because

obama had made serious outreach to communities of color. there was lots of outreach and focus and care taken to those communities in a way that i think has been very heavy handed and perfunctory at best with pete's campaign. do you agree with that? >> i do agree. and i think the difference is that for many african americans while there was some excitement about president obama initially, there was also some concern that i think black voters recognized that black voters alone could not help him win, that he needed to be able to win over white voters. and once he did prove that as a black person in iowa, then i think that's when you saw african americans say, okay, he's proven that he can win over white voters. they accept him, we will stand behind him wholeheartedly. i don't think mayor pete obviously does not have that luxury. i do think that there are some concerns going down south not only with african-american women, but this is something we it don't talk about often as well, african-american men, how will they receive mayor pete.

so, look, i think for his campaign, his candidacy, while he's doing well in iowa, if he cannot shore up support among african americans, it's very clear that after new hampshire i think you'll see his candidacy falter. >> let's stay on that. in that new quinnipiac poll, pete buttigieg surged to second place nationally. but as we engs manimentioned he at 4% among black voters. emily, do you think he can win with those numbers? >> i think it's still early. we're getting closer and people's preferences are being locked down to some extent. but people really are still gaming out what conditioned date they feel very strongly about. and the thing that's so different about this election cycle than past years is that people are willing to put aside their personal preference for who they think can beat donald trump. and -- in a general election. and every candidate has a theory of how they parse that coalition together. and basically everybody candidate's right, because trump won by such a small margin,

basically 77,000 votes over three states. in heap of of those three states he won both by persuading some people in the middle, bringing out conservatives, but also because there was a drop off in african-american votes in theec each of those states. >> stay on that poll. elizabeth warren had a 14 point drop nationally. 14 points. should she be concerned? it is, after all, just one poll. what you to think? >> i do think her campaign needs to look at it. i think this is the first kind of second wave of popularity of her. she wasn't necessarily considered a front runner from the beginning. i think the same for buttigieg, that now they're being looked at in a much more critical light. so, yes, they should be concerned. but if they are sticking to the same track record, warren has had a lot of success by stick the same track and buttigieg is changing tactics by showing how he can have more outreach and possibly more resonance with

african voters. >> when you're at the top they're gunning for you. shermichael, in other 2020 news, a few of the candidates are spending their holidays on the trail including kamala harris. last night she invited the press into her home in iowa where she made thanksgiving dinner. she's going all in on iowa, yet her poll numbers have barely moved. do you think her campaign is cooked like that turkey that we're seeing? >> i mean, you know, there are was some data that suggested i believe about 60 -- a little over 60% of iowa voters said that they are still open to changing from their number one pick. which tells me that there's still opportunity for some of these campaigns, if they do have the proper infrastructure in place in iowa to appropriately target voters there with the right message in hopes of mobilizing them come that february 3rd vote when it's time for voters to vote. i'm not certain yet that kamala harris and others don't have the ability to slightly improve or move up those numbers. again, it's going to come ultimately down to the ability

to target those voters with the right message. and going back to that poll, it shows that voters are at least open to hearing from other candidates. think it's smart for them to be there, to spend time there trying to learn more about voters and also trying to tell voters more about themselves. >> and especially because of the format in iowa, that caucus, it's important to be the second choice for a lot of people just in case. all right. shermichael singleton and emily, thank you so much. please stick around, we'll hear from you again a little bit later. up next, a warning from the secret service as you do your holiday shopping. e secret service as you do your holiday shopping. - [narrator] meet the ninja foodi air fry oven.

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on small business saturday, november 30th, and see how shopping small adds up. as holiday shopping shifts into high gear, the secret service is out with a warning, counterfeit money meant for hollywood movies is showing up in some cash registers. and it could wind up in the hands of shoppers. here's nbc pete williams with what to be on the lookout for. >> reporter: when hollywood studios want to show actors tas tossing around lots of money like this scene in casino. >> everything looked on the up and up, right? wrong. >> or in the wolf of wall street. >> i'm talking about this. >> reporter: it's seldom the real thing. they use fake currency that looks real from a distance. but millions of dollars of it is showing up at america's retail cash registers passed off as genuine, even though temperatures got disclaimers saying it's not real, for motion picture use only.

an expert from the u.s. secret service says it takes a second look to realize it's fake. >> in this case, for motion picture use only is written in a similar font to a genuine $100 bill. >> i could see that a hurried cashier could skip over this. >> that's what they're hoping for. >> just last week they seized a huge pile of movie money shipped from overseas. another type of counterfeit rapidly on the rise is made to look as real as it could be except for foreign language characters. it's widely available online, sometimes advertised as intended for training cashiers to handle money or as a gag gift. >> these are clearly just almost exact copies apart from the foreign writing. >> reporter: real money has features that are very difficult to counterfeit, like watermarks that show up when the bill is held up to the light. $5 bills have a security thread embedded in the paper. $10 bills and hire shifts from green to copper when tilted.

and the 100 has a 3d ribbon that shifts to the number 100 to the image of a bell. so the advice from the secret service, take a moment look closely at the money you get back in change. don't assume it's real just because it's green. philip. >> wise words. pete williams, thank you. coming up, how to survive the thanksgiving holiday if the topic of impeachment comes up at the dinner table tonight. topict the dinner table tonight. a lot will happen in your life. 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. neutrogena® ♪needs somebody ♪everybody needs somebody to love♪ ♪someone to love ♪someone to love ♪i got a little message for you...♪ ♪when you have that somebody, hold on to them,♪ ♪give them all your love.... wherever they are♪ ♪i need you, you, you ♪i need you, you, you

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trump is currently at mar-a-lago to celebrate thanksgiving. he's actually excited about the holiday because this year eric and don junior are going to pull the wishbone and loser takes the fall for ukraine. >> likes that agreement. thanksgiving dinner with a side of impeachment. a preview of what families nationwide will be nav getting a today. not a recipe for calm dinner in this political environment. what are some ways to keep things from getting out of hand today? darryl west joins me with strategies for that. he's the author of divided politics, divided nation, hyper conflict in the trump era. and back with us shermichael singleton and emily. all right, darryl, you wrote the book on this.

you came one six ways to handle trump's impeachment during holiday dinners. please walk us through that list. >> yeah. i mean, certainly impeachment is going to come up and it's a polarized time in america. 30% of american marriages are divided by politics. this may be a thanksgiving when people should use plastic forks and knives in order to make sure that things don't get out of hand. but in terms of the strategies, certainly avoidance is the classic strategy, just not talking about it because people know that it's going to be very divisive. some people like to confront the issue. they believe if they can introduce some new fact they will persuade the other side to come over. of course that's never going to happen because a conversion almost never takes place. probably the most difficult strategy, but one that people need to engage with, is what i call active listening. where you actually engage the other side, listen to them in order to understand their perspectives. >> novel concept.

>> trump support irers, i talk h them and that helps me understand how they feel about trump. >> those are helpful for any major nish your life come to think of it when i'm reading through the list. shermichael, what's your go-to strategy for these types of conversation zbls humor and not to talk about it, if i've got to be honest. i'm sort of happy this year spending thanksgiving with my girlfriend's family. her mom made it very clear you talk about this enough for a living rfr we' living, we're just going to have a good time. >> and like darryl said, the plastic cutlery. i like that. >> just in case. >> just in case. emily, your turn had t. how do you diffuse a conversation that might get tense? >> i like the humor. i thought that was a great recommendation in darryl's list. one of the things in an interview that i did on impeachment on my podcast was with representative spanberger who is one of the key democrats on the impeachment intel committee. and what she said was important going into this was to

understand that not just if trump actually engaged with foreign governments, but actually if he didn't. so i think pointing to that as an opening, that that is how the democrats are going into this, it's how a lot of members of congress are going into this conversation is to prove the dispositive. if he didn't do it, it was important to see that too. so at least trying point to that in good intentions, pointing to good intentions can always be a good strategy. >> and, you know, some people out there that are just so wound up about it because they're like there's nothing funny about what's happening in our country right now. but it's thanksgiving and, hey, this time next year there will be a new president-elect or we're going to have this discussion about four more years, one way or another, it's going to happen just like that. all right. darryl, i want to ask you, why did you write this book? >> i wrote the book just because we know that polarization is at a high point in america. the book covers the 40-year political history from reagan to trump and it seems like with each presidency the country has grown more divided.

it's very dangerous in the united states now and the impeachment certainly illustrates the problem that we have. and we need to get a handle on this. in the book i talk about strategies like take a conservative or a liberal to lunch. like people need to start engaging other points of view and diversify their sources of information. if we don't get a handle on polarization, it's going to be difficult for our country to address the problems that we have. >> coping mechanisms, i like it. all right. quick lightning round, keep it light here. darryl, start with you here. give me your favorite thing to eat on thanksgiving? >> oh, absolutely pumpkin pie, no question about it. my mother made the best pumpkin pie. i've always loved it throughout my life. >> shermichael, your turn. >> i'm a southerner so sweet potato pie. >> i like it. emily. >> mac-n-cheese, i'll never say no to it. >> never. >> love it. >> my mother would make chito

c conqueso. thank you so much for joining us. the parade will quick off a little more than an hour in new york city. and al roker is in the thick of all of it. good morning. happy thanksgiving and how's it look in your neck of the woods? >> well, i tell you, philip, we had bright blue skies and now we've got some gray skies. winds are starting to pick up. come with me, take a look over here. they've brought out the macy's star balloons which, you know, are fairly medium to lower size balloons. there's snoopy getting ready to join the parade, astronaut snoopy. if i were to bet money, the ba loorns going to go bballoons ar but they are going to fly them at a lower height. but the problem is as we go through the morning the winds

are going to pick up. so, you know, this is going to be one of those very touch and go situations. that, again, that said, there are so many floats, smaller balloons, things like that that i don't think will, you know, cause any problems for people with their enjoyment level. but that said, while the air company's in the low 50s, the windchill makes it feel like it's in the low 40s to upper 30s. so we got -- weather is a factor, although still not as bad as last year when it was the coldest thanksgiving day parade ever, philip. but for the most part, looking pretty good. the morgan state university, this is their first time marching in the parade and they are going to do their alma mater proud from the you go. so that's the deal. we've got some wind, we will keep the balloons probably lower. again, not official, but that would be my guess. back to you, philip. >> yes. this is the super bowl for the marching bands. al, i don't know how many of these parades you have seen over

the years. i'm always curious. what are you most excited to see? do you have a favorite float? >> you know, it is funny. this actually happens to be my 25th year doing the thanksgiving day parade. i always love seeing snoopy. snee snoopy is to me one of my faves. i wish they would bring back the bullwinkle. i'm of a certain age, you probably don't know who bullwinkle. >> yeah, rocky's friend. >> yes. and superman was also always good. i'm old school. i remember when they didn't have balloons, just old people walking here. they hadn't even built the store yet. >> i'm glad we won't see snoopy on a leash today and, al roker, you might be my favorite part of the macy's thanksgiving day parade. >> thank you very much. >> thanks for joining us, buddy. coming up, black friday may still be a day away but it is not stopping some retailers from opening their doors this morning. we got some pretty major deals

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at your local xfinity store today. it is thanksgiving, which not only means lots of turkey and stuffing but also lots of holiday shopping. in fact, more than 165 million people plan to shop between today and cyber monday according to a new survey. nbc's jo ling kent is at a walmart in minneapolis. jo, what can we expect on this preblack friday thanksgiving?

>> reporter: phillip, first of all happy thanksgiving from my home state of minnesota. what we're seeing here are a lot of deals. you may not even realize that more than half of americans have already started their holiday shopping. we are here at walmart. they're open 24 hours on turkey day. there's thousands of deals out there, right? some are really good, some maybe less so. but what we know is that for most of those great discounts, you don't even have to leave home to get them. an estimated 56% of american shoppers have already started on their holiday purchases. if you aren't one of them, today may be the day to make your move. right after today's thanksgiving dinner, major retailers like best buy, target, kohl's and macy's open their doors to shoppers at 5:00 p.m., and walmart kicks off its black friday deals at 6:00 today and stays open through black friday tomorrow. >> reporter: are the deals the same online as in person here at the store? >> they absolutely are the same online as in the store.

occasionally online we will sell out of them and people will come to the stores to find the next batch, but the deals are the same in either channel. >> reporter: with deep discounts of up to 50% off available now on electronics, tvs, computers and smartphones will likely sell out fast. target is offering black friday prices on the lg 65-inch smart tv, regularly prized at $700 now for less than $500. you can buy online and pick it up at a local store between bites of leftover turkey. the discounted for the del 15-inch laptop, $500 down from $700 and along about the savings free two-day delivery. >> reporter: what's the best thing to buy on this weekend? >> consumer electronics would be the way to go because you could knock out everyone on your list. there's nothing to avoid. it is a great time sho shop. >> reporter: amazon is rolling out black friday deals by the minute. some of the best prices, 50% off

some printers and 45% off streaming devices. one of best buy's deal busters, $500 off a canon dsl camera, and $350 off a smart tv plus free delivery. >> you see how much joy people have. >> reporter: something to be thankful for now through cyber monday. >> so not all of it will be a good deal. you may want to avoid fitness equipment, furniture, bedding and even toys. wait closer to christmas to get a better deal on those, phillip. >> all right. i looked it up. it is about 22 degrees right now in minneapolis, so hopefully nobody is lined up outside waiting for any of those deals to get started, right? please tell me. >> reporter: yes, exactly. we drew the long straw today. we're inside at least right now for the shots. it is cold outside, and the weather can affect how shoppers show up.

that's why the stores have the deals online and in person. for the deal bisers, the lines will start forming in minnesota. i have seen it happen before for the door buster deals for the massive tvs that are $200, $300 off. some folks will get in line. it is a hearty group of people here in minnesota. we don't play around, phillip. >> jo ling kent, happy thanksgiving and thank you for joining me. that will wrap up this hour. i'll phillip mena. more news with alison morris. good morning. happy thanksgiving to you. >> a very happy thanksgiving to you. i'm alison morris here at msnbc headquarters in new york. flying high in spite of the heavy winds in the forecast, those iconic balloons will fly in the macy's thanksgiving day parade. the former navy sharply

criticizes president trump for interfering with a seal charged with war crimes. what is behind the democratic reshuffle? we begin with the thanksgiving parade kicking off an hour from now only a few blocks from where i'm sitting. despite the winds, the nypd says the iconic balloons will take to the skies over the streets of new york. i want to bring in gabe gutierrez, along the parade route in manhattan. michelle grossman is here at the weather center. gabe, i imagine there must be a sigh of relief out there. what is the macy's thanksgiving day parade without the balloons. >> reporter: good morning. yes, it is a sigh of relief. many people excited along the parade route. how excited are you? so excited! >> reporter: wow. more than 3 million people are expected here in new york. alison, i'm not very far from you. the nbc office is just a short distance that way. we are here on 6th avenue. you can see people as far as the eye can se