find your beat your moment of calm find your potential then own it support your immune system with a potent blend of nutrients and emerge your best every day with emergen-c good morning, everybody. it is 10:00 a.m. in the east, 7:00 a.m. pacific. i'm yasmin vossoughian. jose diaz-balart is on assignment. incumbent senator raphael warnock and his challenger, rerch el walker, delivering

their final in this race. here what walker's ex-girlfriend says he did to her. >> he had his hand on my throat and my chest and then he leaned back to throw a punch. >> we will get into that. also this morning, the fbi getting involved in the search for suspects who shot up two power substations in north carolina leaving tens of thousands of people in the dark. and then over to the supreme court. about to take up yet another case involving lgbtq rights. how will it play out in front of the conservative court? and then to iran. reports the so-called morality police will be abolished, but what is the real story? we will talk to iranian american actress nasim pedrad about her fight for iranian women's rights and what she is doing at the united nations today. then the long-feared recession may not happen.

the signs that inflation could be easing. welcome, everybody. good to see you on this monday morning. we will begin this busy hour in the state of georgia though. we are now less than 24 hours away from the state senate run-off between senator warnock and republican challenger walker. 1.7 million georgians turned up to vote in person. for scale, that's about the entire population of west virginia. i want to bring in now with the very latest, nbc's steve kornacki at the big born. vaughn hillyard joining us from land. take us through the record smashing on the two separate days. follow up with those who didn't vote in the midterm elections but now voting earl tee. what do you make of it in the lead-up to tomorrow? >> one thing to keep in mind is

that it is a shorter period of early voting. this run-off campaign is only a month long here so we get very high numbers that come out day to day. it is a condensed period, so comparing the early voting now to the early voting before november, there are numbers in there democrats have been encouraged by but there remains a giant x factor and that is simply who turns out and shows up at the polls tomorrow and do the early voting numbers look different when we see the same-day numbers. the dynamic that was set in place in the general election, look at this. obviously the importance of this seat right now, 50-49, the democrats will have a majority, but could they get the 51st seat out of georgia. in the governor's race, the republican, brian kemp, won that race easily. he beat stacey abrams by eight points in that race, 53.5% for kemp. you see herschel walker, kemp's fellow republican under performed kemp by five points.

walker finished about a point below warnock it it means there were a large number relatively speaking, large number who cast ballots for the republican for governor but did not cast ballots for herschel walker, the republican in the senate race. why is that? will that dynamic change? will those voters end up being for walker? will they end up staying home tomorrow? i think it is a key question here, why it happened. look at this. how did independents break in november? in the senate race independents went for warnock by double digit margin. in the governor's race kemp won over stacey abrams. in the exit poll they were asked about the judgment of each candidate. the question was asked does warnock show good judgment. among all voters 50% said yes, he does. look at the number for herschel walker. only 34% in the exit poll in november said walker shows good judgment. 63% said no. break it down by party.

who said that warnock -- that walker does not show good judgment? almost all democrats, no surprise there. look at that. nearly 30% of republicans said. >> wow. >> that walker doesn't show good judgment. nearly three out of four independent voters said that he doesn't show good judgment. so he -- there is -- brian kemp showed you in november there's a universe of voters out there willing to vote republican statewide. kemp got 53.5% of the vote. those voters kemp got walker couldn't get, do they turn out tomorrow? do they stay home tomorrow? if they turn out, do they hold their nose and vote for walker or vote for warnock. >> two things when you are talking about the split-ticket vote, do you think it will shift anything now that kemp has come out for walker as he did not in the run up to the midterms, a? b, what will you be watching for tomorrow night? what is the timing going to look like for everything? >> 7:00 p.m. eastern time polls close in georgia.

if you remember from the 2020 election, georgia was one of th in terms of getting to -- we didn't get to a result in the senate race but in terms of knowing we would get to a run-off. we knew a little after midnight in the election night. warnock finished a point ahead of herschel walker. that dynamic we're talking about, though, those voters who were for kemp but weren't for walker, some of the places we're going to be looking, you know, we're going to look at some -- core atlanta area has now become a core democratic area. but sort of the outer edges of the atlanta, metro area a place like cherokee county here, this one produces a ton of votes for republicans historically. you look on paper, herschel walker did great in cherokee county, look at that. 46,000-vote margin over raphael warnock. compare how walker did in this county without brian kemp. kemp got 75% of the vote. this is a huge one for republicans. they get more votes out of this county than any other county in

the state of georgia. they get -- the bigger margin of cherokee than anywhere. kemp got 74 in this county and walker only got 67.5. that's one of those -- there's a bunch of counties like this. we're going to be keying in on those tomorrow night and be seeing, walker's campaign hopes, kemp active for him in this run-off will get that 67.5 in the county like cherokee up over 70 into a place where walker could have a chance to win. >> you think we'll see the results by midnight, go into the next day, what do you think? >> super, super tight it could go into the next day. >> yeah. >> but i think we're going to have the bulk of the results certainly by midnight. >> kornacki for us as always, steve kornacki although i call you kornacki. appreciate you. von hilliard talk to me. i know you spoke to a former romantic partner of walker. accusing him of assault. >> reporter: when you look at what steve just broke down about those exit polls from the general election with just 34%

of individuals saying that herschel walker is somebody who they believe has good judgment, it is damning because of the litany of allegations that have presented -- been presented against herschel walker over the course of this year. you have the likes of multiple women coming forward and saying that herschel walker paid them to have abortions. you have now three children of herschel walker that were previously not disclosed to the public. now you have the likes of a woman named cheryl parsa. we flew to dallas, texas, yesterday and spoke with her directly. she is the first woman to go on the record. she shared her story first with the daily beast with roger sollenberger but then went on camera with us yesterday. the first woman to put her name and go on camera. i asked her why she wanted to share her story. she said it was for the other women that did not feel comfortable putting their names out there. i want to let you hear a little bit of her experience over the course of a five-year romantic relationship that she shared with the republican senate candidate. take a listen.

>> told me you want to see a man? i'll show you a man. but it was from -- it was the deepest, most guttural, painful, angry delivery of those words. that shook me still to this day. and he was pressing his forehead against mine. my head was against the wall. he was speaking with so -- such force that his saliva was all over my face. and he had his hand on my throat and my chest. and then he leaned back to throw a punch. and luckily i was able to avoid that. and the punch landed on the wall instead of me. >> reporter: much of cheryl parsa's story is directly tied in to the identity disorder which herschel walker directly acknowledged having. herschel walker says that he is no longer going through routine

therapy, that he is all right. but so much of her story and the story of other women is tied directly through herschel walker. you heard the physical assault allegations and heard other conversations with other women detailed history of lying and infidelity on behalf of this republican senate candidate. again there's a very real potential that that man could be the next u.s. senator from georgia if, in fact, enough republican voters show up to the polls on election day tomorrow. >> real potential there. the question is will stories like that that you just shared with us drive voters tomorrow to make their decision one way or the other. von hilliard, thank you. steve kornacki thank you as well. make sure you stay with msnbc for live coverage and analysis of the runoff. going to break down the results as votes are counted tomorrow, 7:00 p.m. eastern, 4:00 p.m. pacific. and if you cannot get enough of kornacki, a bonus episode of his podcast "the revolution" is out this morning. he's very excited, everybody.

steve sits down with newt gingrich. congrats on the podcast, kornacki. we're happy for you. over to north carolina, everybody. more than 30,000 customers remain without power after two substations were damaged by gunfire after authorities calling an intentional and malicious act. the fbi and the north carolina state bureau of investigations look into this incident. today schools are closed. shelter is open. and a 9:00 p.m. curfew has been set for residents who could be without power for days to come. joining us now is nbc news correspondent blane alexander. good to talk to you, blayne. give us the latest if you can on the investigation and any update on when residents could actually get their power back. >> reporter: well, right now we are talking about two very time-sensitive issues. let's start with the issue of power. now, when we talk about the fact that there are still tens of thousands of people here in

north carolina that don't have power, they don't have heat and that perhaps is the most crucial because overnight the temperatures got as low as 31 degrees. we're talking about below freezing temps. now we are in the second-straight morning that they have had to awaken with no power. you know, when we drive around this area, we see that there are just few spots of places that are powered only by generator. we found a local grocery store, for instance, where the parking lot was full. the line was almost out the door because those are just the very few places that people can actually go. but officials say that even though duke energy is working around the clock, we saw a number of power trucks driving in and out of one area trying to fix the power, they say it could still be as late as thursday before some people have their power back on. now, the other piece of this, of course, is the investigation. remember, officials say that they believe that this was an intentional, a malicious act. they say that at least one person, possibly more, actually just broke down a gate to get into one substation, fired shots in order to disarm that and did the same thing with another one.

so, the damage is so severe that it could take several days to actually get parts of the electricity back online. you know the sheriff said whoever is behind this knew what they were doing. they had some knowledge of how the power system works and knew specifically how to take it out. so they're going to be looking at all possibilities here to try to determine a motive and who was responsible for this. >> a lot of questions still out there. that is for sure with these people still without power. thank you so much. all right. let's talk about the supreme court, everybody. beginning to hear oral arguments right now. one of the big cases on the docket today is a same sex discrimination case. it looks at whether colorado law prohibiting discrimination by sexual orientation violates a web designer's free speech right to refuse to design a site for a same sex couple's wedding. something interesting though to note here, no one has even asked the plaintiff to do this yet. she sued based on the premise that one day maybe she could be.

want to bring in former federal and state prosecutor in new york and msnbc legal analyst. talk to me about this, if you will. because if you take a look back at another colorado case, it was, of course, that colorado baker, which the supreme court decided in favor of the colorado baker who refused to make a wedding cake for a same sex couple. you look at now the makeup of the supreme court decidedly more conservative. what do you expect from this? >> good to see you, jasmine. you're right that this is something of a manufactured case to return to the court the question that they considered five years ago and didn't decide. they found for the baker but on very narrow grounds. they said we're going to have to deal with this again. now we have a different business in colorado, as i understand it, just down the road from that baker, and represented by the same lawyers. and i say manufactured because as you said, she hasn't made any

wedding websites for anybody yet but they particularly wanted to bring to the court a case where they could say what this business is offering is something artistic. and here is why. they want to make the case about the following question, can the government force an artist to say something that she doesn't believe in? but of course that's not how colorado is presenting the case. the question from colorado's perspective is if you decide to be a business that is open to the public, can you then discriminate against some customers and not others? >> i have to say, i'm confused as to how a case like this can be elevated to the supreme court, why they would choose to hear a case like this considering nothing has happened as of yet. this is a situation that seems of which this woman designed this website, wanted to take on these services of creating kind of wedding websites and then said specifically in her design of promoting what she's going to do that she will not service

same sex couples and said to herself, wait a minute, you know what, if i put this out, i might get in trouble. and so, that subsequently was elevated to the supreme court. how does that even happen? >> well, so that is possible to go to court, to lower courts and make your way up to the supreme court and say, i need to know if i'm going to -- if i exercise my rights, as i understand them, i'm going to be in jeopardy. and it really kind of gave them an advantage here because as i said, they really want to focus on this question of something expressive or artistic. but jasmine, we really have to -- we have to mind that because that, of course, is not a small category. that can describe lots of things, that lots of businesses can do. i mean, imagine a nail salon that says i am not going to do the nails of brides who are going to get married of someone of a different race because i don't believe in interracial marriage. and so on and so on. this could really blow a big

hole in anti-discrimination laws for businesses that serve the public. >> seems certainly like a slippery slope, especially so preemptively. we thank you. appreciate it. everybody, still ahead, we have a lot more to go. former president trump's call for the termination of the constitution to put him back in power. what, if any, reaction we're getting from republican leadership. but up first, we're going to hear why one iranian protester told me there is no stopping these demonstrations. we're going to talk to activist and actress nasim pedrad what she is asking the united nations to do about iran. we'll be right back. ♪♪ out iran we'll be right back. ♪ network. 'tis the season to switch to verizon. they'll give you the new iphone 14 pro. (scrooge) amazing phone! (vo) this holiday season verizon gives you the new iphone 14 pro. plus an apple gift, like apple watch se, ipad and beats fit pro. all on us. that's a value of up to $1900. (scrooge) wow! (vo) and there are unlimited plans for everyone

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welcome back, everybody. it's 20 fast hour this morning. the status of iran's morality police remains unclear. after reports iran's attorney general said the controversial agency would be, quote, abolished and the mandatory hijab law was being reviewed. the reported comments come amidst months of protest in iran after ma is a aeeny died in the hospital after being taken into custody by the country's morality police. but a senior biden administration official telling nbc news the u.s. is skeptical iran is loosening laws regarding the hijab. and this might just be a tactic to quell planned protests this week. iranian state media pushed back on the initial report and there has also been no comment or confirmation on the matter from

iran's supreme leader or police. the official who made the statement is not responsible for overseeing the morality police and according to nbc news bureau the morality police have not been visible for some time and are not the chief enforcers arresting and punishing protesters. joining us now teheran bureau chief and correspondent. it's great to talk to you on this. i got to say, as i listened yesterday to the attorney general in his statements, it was very convoluted, as it often is with many of these individuals. when i spoke to iranians on the ground there yesterday as well, they didn't necessarily buy it. the context or what he was ultimately saying. what more are we learning about this moment? >> reporter: hey. you're absolutely right. it's deliberately convoluted. that's what they do. they don't want things to be clear for anybody. and they have reasons for doing that. so, what's very important to point out is this isn't some

massive concession that the government is making. from what i'm understanding right now and what's being discussed in parliament is that they want to remove the physical presence of the morality police from the streets and enforce it remotely, with cameras, with facial recognition systems that would spot women that are not wearing their head scarves and then fine them or stop them from going to the bank or doing whatever other normal activities you need to do during the day. so they're going to try to force it, not physically on the streets. that's not something of their own doing. that's something the people of iran have brought about because they simply can't enforce it anymore, jasmine. about 60% of the people in teheran and other major cities and towns refuse to wear the hijab. they don't even wear the loose-fitting gown that you have to wear. so you see women walking around in jeans and a t-shirt like any other city in the world, refusing to wear a head scarf. if they were going to try to enforce that, you would have to arrest over half the population

of every city and town. it's unenforceable. another reason they probably made this statement right now is that the timing is suspicious. on the eve of the day that they are calling for mass protests and strikes in iran, they suddenly make this announcement as sort of ruse to deflect people's attention but it didn't work. everybody on social media saying we don't care about that. we have got much bigger issues to resolve in this country. and it's us that got rid of the hijab, not the morality police and we have a lot more strides to make. so i wouldn't make any big deal about them coming out and saying we're going to loosen the restrictions on the head scarf. and i think things are just going to carry on the way they are right now. >> it's such a fantastic point, ali, this different iteration of what it seems of the morality police it's not a result of any concessions that the iranian government is making. it's a result of the continued protests of the iranian people day in and day out over the last couple months. also there has been so many

different versions of the morality police over time, of course, at one point as you well know being the name change to subsequently the morality police. so it seems faz this is yet another version of that. ali, thank you for your reporting on this. following those comments about the disbanning of the morality police, i spoke to one of the thousands of protesters on the ground in iran. we are not identifying her due to concerns over her safety. here is some of what she told me. >> i don't think that the protests will stop. even if the morality police or as some in the past have liked to use the euphemism fashion police were to be legally and formally abolished, that would not dissuade the iranian public from attaining the higher collective goal that has formed, which targets the core and the sense of the dictatorship we've been living under. with all the murder and bloodshed and arrests and the looming danger of execution for those detained, most u.s. iranians have grown

exponentially angrier and see it as portrayal to pretend that nothing has happened. >> let's talk more about this, activist and iranian american activist nasim pedram. great to talk to you. thank you for joining us on this. you just heard from that protester inside iran i spoke to yesterday along with our correspondent ali arouzi, it obviously seems as if the story is it is a different iteration of the morality police result of the continued protests of iranians on the ground. all of that being said, what is your reaction? >> you know, listen, thanks for having me. women are going into the streets without a hijab, but it's certainly not because of it in laws have changed. in fact, they're literally risking their lives in order to freely express themselves. and two months into this revolution, you know, approximately 18,000 citizens have been detained and arrested.

but even if the government were to ease up on restrictions, that would be a great development if this revolution was only about that. but it's not. compulsory hijab is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to this regime's systemic oppression of women. i mean, misogamy and oppression is in the dna of this regime. you know, in particular with gender discriminatory laws that are enshrined that this government is quite proud of. so, you know, while the death of mahsa amini in custody of the morality police was certainly the entry point and what sparked this, the revolution has become so much broader than that. iranian people do not want reform. they want this government gone. they want this government removed. that is what they're chanting in the street. they want a secular democracy. they want freedom of speech and expression. they want to not be disconnected

from the western world, like they have been the last 43 years. so, you know, in a revolution where things have escalated to the point where women as young as 14 are being raped in detainment and small children are being killed on the streets, you know, the morality police at this stage is truly irrelevant. we're so past that and it wouldn't surprise me if the government were to -- they tried this before in lobbying with the u.n., doll out crumbs of concession around the guise of reform, but the iranian people aren't falling for it and i would caution the international community not to either. >> so nasim, i want to talk about the work you're doing as part of the dies a por ra. i know you're here in new york meeting with the u.n. with u.n. ambassadors. the goal here for you alongside other activists -- we're showing an image of you here, is for iran to be removed from the u.n. commission on the status of

women. what would that removal mean? i believe the vote is happening december 14th. >> that's right. well, you know, we're asking the u.n. to remove iran, like you said, from this commission. and this would be a precedent setter which with the u.n., member states are red cent or concerned about creating a precedent. they should be far more concerned about the islamic republic being on this commission and actually determining what women's rights are globally. keep in mind this is an open vote. this won't be done by secret ballot. so we should all be paying attention to the countries that are voting. and if any of the states vote no or even abstain, that is a vote for the gender apartheid islamic republic and it would be shameful. you know, the csw is a place where complaints about the violations against women's

rights, everything from arbitrary, you know, detention to the torture of women are brought forth. and so it's outrageous that those complaints would then be assessed by the islamic republic, which is the very perpetrator of all the violations the csw is trying to warn against. so, you know, i don't know how this many countries were asleep at the wheel in letting them on the commission to begin with, but they did. and they need to right this wrong and vote to remove the islamic republic on december 14th. >> and you along with other activists are doing the work on the ground there that is needed on behalf of the dies a para. i appreciate it, my friend. thank you for joining me. coming up next, everybody. we're just minutes away from jury deliberations in the trump organization fraud case. we are live outside the court with what is at stake. you're watching "jose diaz-balart reports" ch i'll be right back. t reports" ch i'll b right back then own it

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schemes. trump himself is not charge in this trial. the company facing up to $1.6 million in fines if they are convicted. we're joining by nbc news investigative correspondent tom winter at the courthouse for us. tom, what are some key components here that the jury will be mulling over and when do we expect to hear from them? >> reporter: right, jasmine. so actually just in the last half hour the judge began his jury instructions reminding them that the former president is not on trial here. that this is a trial involving two of his company's part of the larger trump organization umbrella. and really the focus of this here and the reason why these instructions are so important is it's going to seek to guide the jury as to the elements of law that they need to find to convict or not convict these two companies. as a reminder here this is a criminal trial, the only potential outcome, if in fact, the companies are found guilty is a fine up to just shy of $1.6

million. to answer your question, when we might hear from the jury, that goes back to those instructions all the elements of law here. so, you know, when you look at this, the trump attorneys and the trump defense attorneys saying, look, this is a case that involves the actions of allen weisselberg in an effort to line his pockets. any sort of benefit to our companies are really minimal. on the other hand, the prosecutors are saying, wait a minute if they received all these benefits the cars the tuition payments, the apartments in a way they didn't account for on their taxes if they had to account for it, you would have had to pay a ton more in salary and also payroll taxes, medicare taxes we didn't get result of it, we being the state of new york, that's what the prosecutors argued. it's really up to the jury to determine two things. one f there was some benefit to the trump organization. two, if it involved high managerial position that's how it's defined in law, obviously allen weisselberg is the cfo is the center of it and pleaded

guilty. see if the jury tracks it somebody in a high managerial position provided some benefit to the trump organization. a bit difficult to tell when this jury might come back with a guilty or not guilty, but presumably they won't start deliberations in earnest until probably after lunch. >> tom winter for us. i know you'll keep us updated on this throughout the day. we appreciate you. so this morning, yet another political fire storm surrounding the former president since announcing his third white house bid. on saturday, trump called for the termination of the u.s. constitution to put him back in power. once again, citing baseless claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election. while democrats and the white house were quick to condemn trump's remarks, mitch mcconnell and kevin mccarthy remained silent. joining us more is peter baker, also an msnbc political analyst and co-author of the new book "the divider, trump in the white house 2017 to 2022."

peter thanks for joining us. we appreciate it. so i mentioned it, right, a lot of republicans essentially either remaining silent or kind of sidestepping any commentary when asked about what the former president told the country to do essentially sidestep the constitution. right? put it to bed so he could become president once again. let's take a listen to some of what they had to say and then we'll talk. >> all elected leaders swear to uphold the constitution. does calling for its suspension -- is that disqualifying for presidential candidate? >> it certainly is not -- >> you know why i'm asking the question. >> i do. it's not consistent with the oath we all take. >> i certainly don't endorse that language or that sentiment. i think the question for everyone is how we move forward. >> i don't know what came out on whatever his new social platform is, but people were not interested in looking backwards. >> not necessarily obviously

direct rebukes there, right? peter? so talk to me about the strategy here. i'm curious, do you see this as still republicans kind of worried about the backlash they'll get from the former president? or wanting to distance themselves from the 2020 false election lie narrative because they recognize after the midterm elections it just doesn't work for them anymore. and even by commenting on this, it reminds folks where republicans stand with this. >> well, i think that's right. look, the midterms showed that looking backwards not forwards was a mistake or at least not a strategy that was a winning strategy. they would like not to give oxygen to former president trump and his, you know, constant domination of the conversation they would like us -- the republican party to move on. they would like the country to pretend that they had moved on, at least, from donald trump when, in fact, they haven't really. but you know, this is a remarkable moment, i think, because we all have become enured over five, six years to every outlandish or provocative

statement that donald trump has made. >> yeah. >> and you know, obviously republicans have been tired of being asked about it again and again and again. but i think this one is a different order. i mean, it's not just saying something, you know, that's incendiary. he's saying out loud something that we have all talked about the last certainly two years since january 6th this idea that he doesn't believe in the constitution. that he believes the constitution can be put aside. that it can be terminated in order for him to take power again. now, it doesn't mean he's going to be able to do that. so some people say he can't do it, so what does it really matter? he wants to be the next president again and he's the front-runner for one of the two major parties and telling the american people that he is willing, he believes, that he has the right to essentially terminate or suspend the constitution when it comes to his own power. that's an extraordinary thing. and effect what he's telling you is what he would do if he came back into office again. >> also speaks to how we now

know how his followers often take his word as gold. i find it ironic, peter, i stood outside the capitol on january 6th after the insurrection, i saw so many hats with 1776 on it, so many trump supporters have rallied around this idea of quote unquote upholding the constitution. right? and yet now here you have the person that they have rallied around the most, the former president of the united states, donald trump, saying terminate the constitution. the very idea in which they have supported and rallied around for so long. >> well, they try to make the idea -- the case that basically what he was doing and discrediting the election and trying to get mike pence to throw out electors for joe biden all these things were in fact, constitutional. they had constitutional experts like johnestman making the argument that most rejected that this was within the constitution to do things like this. now he's saying outloud what

everybody often suspected or all suspected which is that, of course, it's not constitutional to throw out legitimate election. of course it's not constitutional for a former president to retake power without the vote of the people simply because he doesn't think he should have lost the election. and what's really striking about it is how overtly explicit it is. that's, i think, an important moment for us. >> peter baker, as always, thank you. coming up next, everybody, tragedy in texas. who police say is responsible for the kidnapping and killing of a 7-year-old little girl. and what one former fbi agent said parents should teach their kids. we'll be right back. ts should t their kids we'll be right back. which is a lot. so take care of that heart with lipton. because sippin' on unsweetened lipton can help support a healthy heart. lipton. stop chuggin'. start sippin'. i started screening for colon cancer because of my late husband jay. i wish he could have seen our daughter ellie get married, on the best day of her life.

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crime. joining us now from texas, morgan chesky. this is, morgan, an awful story. what have we learned from police there? >> reporter: yeah, well we're continuing to learn new details. but just an absolutely heart breaking ordeal for the family of little athena strand. we know she was initially reported missing last wednesday and authorities say there was a fedex truck that was spotted near that home. this launched a massive search, an amber alert was issued that ended friday when her body was found. authority were able to track down that driver. he is in custody in texas jail and confessed to the killing. he has yet to share why. >> it hurts our hearts to know that that child died. >> reporter: this morning, the family of athena strand, grappling with a nightmare. their 7-year-old daughter kidnapped from her home and

killed. athena's mother taking to facebook to share her grief, writing in part, we feel like we failed you. no one deserves what happened to you, but especially you. investigators say the suspect, a delivery driver, was dropping off a package at the time of athena's disappearance. her body found two days later, about ten miles from her home outside ft. worth, texas. after 31-year-old tanner horner confessed to the horrific crime. athena's stepmother was home at the time and contacted police after she spent an hour looking for the child. with the help of fedex, investigators identified horner. he believe he killed the 7-year-old within an hour of taking her. horner a contract driver with fedex, the company said in a statement that employees are subject to criminal history background checks. no criminal record for horner was found in a search by nbc news. with frequent deliveries to homes as the holidays are fast approaching, former fbi agent

brianna fox says parents should caution their children. >> what would you tell a parent that has a child at home? >> sometimes kids are taught, you know, be polite and they then don't want to scream even though things are really off. so sometimes even just telling our kids, scream if something happens. that's enough to just deter the offender. >> reporter: other advice for parents -- get a doorbell camera. even a dummy one is enough to potentially deter someone with bad intentions. have your packages delivered to your office instead of your home. and if your child is young and has gone missing, don't wait to call police. now, as for that suspect, he remains here in this wise county jail charged with murder and aggravated kidnapping. the bond is set at more than $1.5 million. >> that poor little girl and that poor family. morgan chesky, thank you. we appreciate it. all right, up next, everybody, there are new signs that sky high prices may be

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that the worst of inflation is behind us. as this headline is putting it, from chicken wings to used cars, inflation begins to ease its grip. we're seeing prices drop at the pump too. the national average cost of gas hitting $3.40. oil prices falling as well. opec+ opted against trying to stop the slide of prices by choosing not to make further cuts. i want to bring in steve leaseman to talk more about this. i'm curious as the signs you're specifically seeing when it comes to inflation. do you feel as if it's starting to ease here, starting to come down, and should we with all that information involved expect to get another rate hike from the fed? >> yeah. two obviously related questions. all the things you mentioned are accurate in terms of the declining prices and i think it's important to say we're back

now to gas prices that were below the level before the start of russia's war on ukraine. i think that's significant. just to be clear, inflation is the rate of increase of prices. it doesn't mean prices are falling. it means that the rate of increase is falling and intend that's happening. many economists think we've gotten to what we call peak inflation. unfortunately, it's coming down relatively slowly. we got some better than expected inflation reports from october hoping, again, for more in november in the next rate hike cycle -- or next inflation cycle of data which is next week. but this fed is still going to raise rates. the fed wants to make sure that it stamps out inflation. inflation is still too high and it will be raising rates. the best we can hope for is that the peak of inflation, the muting of the rate of increase means that the fed has to hike less than we think rather than more. >> we're going to be watching

for that. thank you. great to talk to you. we want to remember one of your favorite neighbors, bob from "sesame street." ♪ well now who are the people in your neighborhood ♪ ♪ in your neighborhood ♪ ♪ in your neighborhood ♪ ♪ say, who are the people in your neighborhood ♪ ♪ the people that you meet each day ♪ >> bob mcgrath passed away this weekend. he made his debut on the pilot episode back in 1969. he was known for spreading kindness, singing unforgettable songs. bob embodied "sesame street" like nobody else. that wraps it up for me, everybody. i'm yasmin vossoughian.

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good morning. i'm chris jansing live at msnbc headquarters in new york. right now the final countdown in georgia. one day until the senate runoff. and this morning, democratic senator raphael warnock and his republican challenger herschel walker are out making their final pitches. both men are sticking to very different strategies in these closing hours. >>