very good day to all of you. i'm alex witt in new york. here are the top stories in the final days of 2022. we have breaking news from law enforcement officials. a person in pennsylvania has been taken into custody in connection to the gruesome murders of four idaho college students back in november. this is huge news. we will get to that. former president trump's federal tax returns made public with redactions by house democrats days before losing their majority. we will have the latest on this huge news with analysis as well. also this hour, southwest airlines trying to end a disastrous week on a high note by helping frustrated customers reach their destinations and locate their luggage. we have major developments. the new developments in the murder case involving four university of idaho students. a suspect has been arrested in

monroe county, pennsylvania. taken into custody now in connection with the homicides. four law enforcement officials are telling this to nbc news. police in moscow, idaho, have announced a 4:00 p.m. eastern press conference to provide an update on this case. however, the moscow police department is not yet confirming the arrest. let's bring in steve patterson. welcome. it has been weeks with few if any developments. this is huge. what can you tell us about word of the arrest? >> reporter: it's huge and shocking. as you mentioned, police now confirming or at least saying alongside the fbi in pennsylvania that a person of interest has been taken into custody. this person is described as a man in their 20s. that's all we really know at this point. that would be about 2,500 miles from the crime scene, give or take, from moscow, idaho. this has been something that has been going on for seven --

nearly seven weeks, the four families waiting for any sign from police. it has been mostly quiet. i have spoken to the police chief. i have spoken to members of the police there in moscow. part of that they say is a tactical decision that they were keeping details close to the chest. for a while, all we knew, four victims inside that home. we knew their names, their ages. we knew it was a fixed blade knife and there was a suspect. beyond that, for the past six to seven weeks, there hasn't been a lot more. police do obviously reaching out for the public's help, wanting to track down what they described as a white hundai. that led to a flood of information from the public. nearly 20,000 tips in total from email, phone calls, all flooding their lines so heavily that they had to overflow to the fbi tip line. we know obviously they have been

working alongside the fbi this entire investigation. now this person of interest being captured in pennsylvania. we expect to know more, of course, at this 4:00 p.m. press conference a little later today. for now, shocking announcement from police. >> it is shocking, indeed. perhaps it will bring relief to the families. in fact, the entire community of moscow, idaho, that's been living on edge. thank you for that. let's go to the tax returns revealed. it has been years in the making, six years of president trump's federal tax returns have worked their way through the courts before finally making it to the powerful house ways and means committee and now released to the public with some redactions. we have reaction from the former president. >> if you look at what they have done, it's so sad for our country. it's nothing but another deranged political witch hunt which has been going on from the day i came down the escalator in

trump tower. >> except numbers don't lie. let's get to the latest. i'm joined by nbc senior capitol hill correspondent garrett haake in washington. we have antonia hylton in new york. we have "the new york times" investigative reporter suzanne craig as well as philip bump. we know our team will do this throughout the day. what have you learned, garrett, in the last couple of hours? >> much of the tax returns were laid out in the report that came out last week, a summary of what we would see. the top line picture, of course, is when it comes to federal income taxes, donald trump didn't pay much of them over the six years. in some years the numbers bouncing around from large tax burdens like you might expect someone who claims to be a billionaire to pay to some years $750 of taxes, based on losses he accrued. in 2020, zero dollars paid whatsoever and a $5 million

refund claimed. as we dig into the tax returns, one of the most interesting lines of inquiry is going to be on charitable donations. we see some major years of donations from donald trump, hundreds of thousands of dollars, a million dollars there. remember in 2016, there was great reporting from "the washington post" about claimed tax deductions, claimed charitable deductions that donald trump was claiming to have made at the time that could not be substantiated. i think reporters are going to be interested to try to track down where these charitable donations went. it doesn't appear the irs did much leg work to confirm that they took place. likewise, there were charitable deductions that weren't made. he stopped donating his salary in 2020, which is something he did publically. that appears to have stopped in 2020. there's a lot more to learn about where this money went and where it didn't go to make the tax bills add up in a favorable way for the former president. a lot of work for folks digging into the returns over the next

couple of days. >> that's interesting e. did take a salary in the year he was running for re-election. duly noted. what about you, antonia. we heard from the president. basically, the tenor and things and any other things you heard from the president and/or his team? >> the trump team was ready almost immediately with a response, both through a video that you shared a clip from, but also with a statement directly to nbc news. i should explain, this is a statement that has two parts. first, of course, trump is arguing that it's a violation that this information has become public. as everyone knows, he fought this vigorously over the last several years. then also he is saying that all you are going to find is that they substantiate what he has said all along, which is that he is a successful businessman who has complicated finances and has created lots of jobs. i will read a bit of the statement for you directly. he said this morning to nbc

news, the democrats should have never done it. the supreme court should have never approved it. it's going to lead to horrible things for so many people. he also said that trump tax returns show how proudly successful i have been and how i have been able to use depreciation and other tax deductions as an incentive for creating thousands of jobs and magnificent structures and enterprises. in another clip or part of that video you shared a bit of a little bit earlier, alex, he also essentially is warning that as republicans take over the house in the comes days that they may retaliate by looking into president biden and his family's finances. setting the stage for a next phase of the fight. >> that's not unexpected. very good point. to you, suzanne. >> start with the opposite of what donald trump is saying. his tax returns don't show someone who is really

successful. i welcome him to go on air somewhere here or elsewhere and walk us through that. they don't show that. we're going through -- there's a lot of stuff, as has been reported, has come out. we had years of his tax returns of these returns. in the ways and means committee did a report. i think when you are going through this -- there's a lot of little things that are jumping out. you are seeing broadly the need for oversight here. there's so many red flags that i think need to be tracked down that can't just be flushed out with the tax returns. they're going to require other documents. charitable donations have been mentioned. there's no underlying documents for that. that's just one. there's a lot. that's what i think is coalescing right now. early hours of going through it. to say he is a successful businessman, i think that's just -- we have litigated that. but it's not in these documents. >> this assessment may answer the question, but given your

reporting, the details, the boom or burst that has defined donald trump's financial history, why do you think he put so much time and effort into hiding these things was hinting at more broadly regarding his taxes? >> i think there's a couple reasons. i think the main one is they are his kryptonite. they laid bare, he is not a successful businessman. he ran on that. it was important to him. he has spent a good part of his life saying that he is a self-made man. he is not. he inherited hundreds of millions of dollars from his father. we have done a lot of reporting on that. the tax returns go against the narrative that he wants out there. i think the other thing, just contemporaneously, why he doesn't want them out there, they could become part of investigations that are ongoing. i sat through the state trial in downtown new york where his company was recently convicted of fraud. those tax returns were used there as pieces to put together

the fraud. i haven't seen evidence that the new york attorney general has the tax return information. i would imagine they are busy today going through it to see if it helps their case. there's a lot of reasons why he may not. i would imagine, he doesn't want his competitors seeing some of the numbers in here. a bunch of reasons. i think the overarching one is it lies bare that he is a good businessman. he is not. >> philip, you earlier you followed -- it happened this month. you followed trump's comment through the decade noting he would say for years that he wanted to release the returns, but he kept coming up with excuses to keep them out of the public eye. expand on the politics and his strategy. >> my apologies. it's a big day for dogs. i think donald trump has for years presented himself as being this exceptional business person. he sold all these books saying you can make money like me. if like so much else in donald

trump's empire, it was a facade, a front he put up, this glamorous outside that was hiding machinations where he would try to raise money and float debt and make all these various claims on his taxes, which were, of course, adjudicated by lawyers and accountants to make sure they wrung every dollar out of the system. it's not the face he wants to present to the world. in 2011 when he was first mulling an idea of running for president, he said, of course, i will release my tax returns. it will show what a success i am. then when push came to shove and he ran in 2016, he very quickly backed away from it. one of the fascinating things about what he said in this statement today was that he didn't center on this idea that he was this huge success. it's always been his argument that, of course i want to release the tax returns. they are under audit and i can't. they would show what a success i am. his first response was not, oh, look what a success i am. yes, it was part of the statement. his response was, how could they

do this? he understands that this is politically toxic for him. for most people, including myself, what this looks like is not someone who is a huge business success but someone who is pushing chess pieces around the board. >> you are echoing what suzanne said. do you think there are further financial secrets out there that donald trump is trying to hide that may get scrutinized? >> as a reporter, i have to say yes. we are always looking for stuff. this journey we have been on in terms of finding stuff, we set out early on in 2016 to find the tax returns. we along the way got a huge trove of documents from it turns out -- mary trump has talked about this. she was a source for documents that led us to a better understanding about his inherited wealth. there's another storage locker out there with more documents that will shed more light on his wealth. this is an important day for disclosure and understanding

donald trump's finances. but there's, i believe, always more information in gaps. we are going to continue. >> that's why you are who you are. we thank you. garrett, antonia, philip, many thanks. joining me is judy clu. welcome to you, representative. give our viewers a better idea why the years spent fighting for the taxes were so important, especially considering the fact we will not uncover illegality on the part of the former president from these documents alone. >> these years were selected because they were the years in which donald trump was president but also they were the two years leading up to his presidency. we needed to know what the truth was behind his claims.

he claimed he was a great businessman, leading up to his election. but what this shows is that he had mammoth business losses. in fact, in that year 2016, which you show him paying $750, he said that he made $30 million but actually had a business loss of $60 million. this was a carryover of a net operating loss. this was something that was not investigated by the irs. trump was able to manipulate the tax system in order to pay very, very little over his presidency. this should have been investigated by this mandatory presidential audit. the shock that came to all of us on the ways and means committee last week was that the mandatory audit was not being done by the

irs. there was only one mandatory audit done in one of those years. none of the audits were ever actually completed. donald trump was able to get away with all of that because of this. that mandatory tax audit needs to be reinstated with the proper resources that it needs to investigate somebody whose finances are as complicated as trump's was. >> is that what you think could bring an ability to make sure wealthy people pay more than $750 in taxes in a year? when any legislation will be fought by powerful lobbying groups and so many big donors to both parties. >> there are two issues here. one is the presidency. this whole presidential audit system is about the presidency as much as it is about one president.

there should be a mandatory audit so the american public can have confidence in the president and the president's finances. there's also a bigger issue which has to do with how the wealthy are treated in this country with regard to tax audits. over the last ten years, the tax audits of ultra-wealthy people have declined by 70%. those tax auditors who have specialization in this have declined by 30%. that has left those who have the means to evade paying their fair share of taxes free to do what they want. that is why we, the democrats in congress, have put in $80 billion to the irs to shore back up these audits of the ultra-wealthy so that they can begin paying their fair share.

unfortunately, the opposite has started to occur where low-income people are audited five times more than wealthy people. that has to be reversed. by the way, this $80 million would only be used to audit those who are making more than $400,000 a year. it would be the wealthy. >> okay. thanks for weighing in. much appreciated. a major travel nightmare possibly over for those hitting the skies, but far from over for the airlines. we will go live to one of the busiest airports to see how things are going. congressional scandal. they are investigating george santos. can any of the controversy prevent him from being seated in congress? the world leader set to pay vladimir putin a state visit in 2023 and what it could mean for the war in ukraine. that's all ahead here on msnbc. on the subway app. like this one!

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we are following breaking news from the white house. president biden has announced six full pardons in the final days of 2022. the white house has described the six people as individuals who have served their sentences and have demonstrated a commitment to improving their community and the lives of those around them. joining me now, mike memoli who is on detail. he is traveling with the president. i like to give you a hard time

given where you are. let's talk about this new round of pardons. what do you know? >> reporter: obviously, all presidents have this right to grant pardons and clemencies. it's interesting to see how they choose to exercise that power. in the six individuals that the president has granted clemency pardons to, five are people who served time for drug-related offenses. one of the stories of 2022, underrated compared to other stories, but was the president taking steps in the direction of decriminalizing marijuana, for instance. earlier this year he did grant some pardons to individuals who were serving jail time for marijuana possession charges. i want to highlight one of the other individuals on this list today. her name is beverly ann tomas. she's 80 years old. at the age of 33, she was charged and convicted of second degree murder. she killed her husband while she

was pregnant. this ultimately, as the white house puts it, was found to be one of the first documented cases of battered woman syndrome that led to a five-year seine -- sentence. it was being brought into consideration during a judicial proceeding. of course, we know president biden over the course of his career, the author of the violence against women act, is choosing in this case to highlight a case that shows how much progress has been made but how more could still be done. i mentioned the benign prerogative as it was called by alexander hamilton. itjust so happened he is from here. >> thank you, mike memoli. southwest airlines, the nightmare could be resolving itself. the airline had plans to return to normal operations with

minimal disruptions. so far, they have stuck to the promise with fewer than 50 cancellations within the u.s. a stark difference from the thousands of cancellations every day for the last week. the airline's problems are far from over because of what you are seeing there. thousands of customers still without their lost luggage and many needing reimbursement for canceled flights. here is pete buttigieg on southwest's responsibility to their passengers. >> we are going to be putting southwest airlines under a microscope in terms of their delivering these reimbursements and refunds to passengers. the airline said to me that they were going to go above and beyond what's required of them. i'm looking to make sure they actually do that. if they don't, we are in a position institute fines. >> joining me now, we have dasha burns.

let's talk about the worst of the southwest chaos. is it behind us? how are wayward passengers feeling about where they stand right now in their travels? >> reporter: normally, a quiet airport and smooth travel would not be news. but it is news today because of what we have seen over the last week. things are very quiet here. i was here about a week ago at the start of the meltdown watching the boards stack up with delays and cancellations. today, very little of that. when you look at southwest, yesterday they had more than 2,300 canceled flights. today, just under 50 cancellations. a good day today. still a lot of passengers who don't have their bags, even more passengers who had to spend unexpected dollars to change flights, to book hotel rooms, to book rental cars, to do all sorts of crazy things to get where they are going to or figure out accommodations wherever they were stranded. over the course of this

unprecedented disruption to travel, what's happened is a lot of trust has been roded between passengers and airlines. now they are not taking it so easy. people are looking to have backup plans as they look to the travel over the course of the next week. listen to one passenger we spoke to who says she only books nonstop flights because she's scared of missing connections. listen to what she said. >> i don't trust bags getting there with me or not getting sidetracked or missing a connection. as long as i'm going nonstop, it usually goes smooth. >> reporter: flight experts say, you have to take travel into your own hands. having a backup plan on busy days or where the weather isn't looking so good is so important. do what you gotta do. right now, go to southwest's website. they have a page if you had a delay or cancellation. you can get money back. >> let's hope it works out for everybody. thank you. congressional scandal.

what prosecutors reportedly are looking for as they investigate the finances of republican congressman-elect george santos. that new reporting is next. you are watching msnbc.

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we are getting some -- very few details about the suspect that's been arrested in the idaho college student killings. four people were killed. it's a story we have been covering. the name of the suspect who right now sits in the monroe county prison awaiting extradition is 28-year-old brian christopher coburger. we do not know where he lives. we know he was taken into

custody in monroe county, pennsylvania. he sits now in that prison. he is awaiting extradition. his name 28-year-old brian christopher coburger. he has been arrested in the killing of the four idaho college students. as we get more information, we will bring that to you. we will go to the federal prosecutors scouring the finances of congressman-election george santos. who sources tell nbc news, they are looking for potential irregularities involving financial disclosures and loans he made to his campaign. this is one of at least two different investigations looking into santos who has admitted to lying about pretty much everything in his background, including his education and work history, even lying about his faith. with new members set to be sworn in tuesday, can anything be done to keep him from taking the oath? let's discuss this with sabrina

rodriguez, susan del percio and david henderson. welcome all. david, you first. as "the new york times" looked at his campaign filings and reports that his campaign expensed $11,000 for the rental of an apartment for staff. one neighbor said mr. santos himself had been living there for months. a possible violation of the rule prohibiting the use of campaign funds for personal expenses. they go on to report, travel expenses include more than $40,000 for air travel. that's so exorbitant it resembles the filings of party leaders in congress. this is a guy who ran for congress in new york's 3rd district. it's not that far. you don't take a plane to go from one end to the next of that district. nbc news has not yet verified that reporting from "the times." nbc does report the investigation is in its early stages.

it's not zeroed in on any one of the allegations of wrongdoing yet. give me a sense, dave, of what prosecutors could be looking for. >> it comes down to this. it's hard to mount a defense when the beginning of your defense is, i admit i lied, but since i got caught, i'm now telling the truth. that's what the man has said. he said, my sins are embellishing my resume. he is trying to make it sound like, i said i could speak spanish when the truth is i can just say my name and ask where the bathroom was. that's a far cry between that and lying for a job to get a signing bonus when the bonus is based on a lie you told. that's more what this is like. you didn't just lie about your background. you lied about your background to get money from people who were contributing to your campaign contributions. that's called fraud. when you lie to get money over the internet, which every modern politician does, that's called wire fraud. politicians are going to be looking -- forgive me, prosecutors will look to mount charges against him. here is what's more dangerous. because this is about telling

lies, fraud, every lie that he told becomes a relevant basis for investigating. the longer the investigation goes on, the more lies it uncovers, the worse it gets for him. this is one avenue where he is facing trouble with regard to serving in congress. >> i appreciate that. you are looking at fraud and wire fraud. you have given reasons for why they might look into that. sabrina, to you. democrats have called on santos to step down. republican leaders continue stay ing silent. it's not clear where the house can refuse to seat him. bottom line, is there nothing that can be done to keep santos from taking office next week? >> at this point what we are seeing is republicans are also dealing with who is going to be the speaker of the house. house republican leaders have largely stayed quiet.

in part, that is because we are seeing that congressman kevin mccarthy is trying to shore up support to have the votes to be speaker come january 3rd. there's a lot of questions about what his position will be after that. with such a small majority going into the next congress, it's hard to see any calls for him to step down. there is the question of whether there will be a full investigation by the house ethics committee, which is something we have seen. >> now there's been this. just over an hour ago, an incoming member of congress had this to say. take a listen. >> santos seems to have an incredible lack of self-dignity. that makes me nervous serving with someone who doesn't have enough dignity in himself and what his message means for his constituents and america to step down. i think that's what really needs

to happen is he needs to step down. >> something also crosses my mind. if he does get sworn in, will he get the security clearance he needs? will there be anyone who says, you know, this guy isn't trust trustworthy. you need security clearance to be given sensitive information and get into meetings. that may be voided with him. is that possible? >> what's possible is that he doesn't get placed on any committees, which would limit the amount of background checks that he would have to go through and security clearances. my guess is that mccarthy will say something to the effect of, until this is cleared up, we're not putting you on a committee. i just want to go back to the issue of fraud. when it comes to what's going on in new york politics right now, santos' largest contributors were also his clients that passed through that money.

this is causing a big problem for local republicans who those donors have supported. my guess is that when the feds come knocking on their door, they are just going to tell them the truth. they're not lying for george santos. they're not going to jail for george santos. i think we're going to actually see this come together a lot faster based on testimony, maybe not in court, but certainly to the federal government. santos may have his hand forced enough to actually have to resign within a month. >> wow. okay. we will see if that comes to pass. this investigation, david, of santos that has been launched by the nassau county d.a., it's focus is not clear, yet you have given arguments why certain things need to be investigated. nbc news reports that last week the new york attorney general's office said it was looking into a number of issues surrounding him. it did not confirm whether it opened an official investigation. are we looking at three

investigations, federal, state and local, happening at the same time? would these three look at different crimes? would there be collaboration between them? what do you think about that? >> i think the easiest answer is to say yes to all. you are looking at these three simultaneous investigations happening. you are also looking at whether or not his fellow congress people will vote to exclude him. it's easy to dodge one bullet, but it's almost impossible to dodge four, even though they are not equally lethal. if you are facing this many different investigations, there's a high likelihood the authorities won't necessarily collaborate with each other. here is the real problem that he faces with these investigations. public servants have a credibility problem these days. if they are smart, what they legalize is it's a unifying factor. democrats and republicans should be able to agree on that. once you realize that, at a time when elected officials have been under high levels of scrutiny, due in no small part to what they have done, it's easy to

have a soft target to say here is an example we will show no one is above the law. i think he is poised to be that scapegoat. >> we shall see if that comes about. thank you very muc. russian president vladimir putin revealing one major world leader will pay him a visit in the new year as russia launches more deadly attacks across ukraine. a report from kyiv coming your way next. alice loves the scent of gain so much, she wished there was a way to make it last longer. say hello to your fairy godmother, alice. and, long lasting gain scent beads. try gain odor defense. be gone, smelly everything! (bridget vo) with thyroid eye disease... i hid from the camera. try gain odor defense. and i wanted to hide from the world. for years, i thought my t.e.d was beyond help... ...but then i asked my doctor about tepezza. (vo) tepezza is the only medicine that treats t.e.d. at the source

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ground from kyiv. to you, matt. >> reporter: ukrainians here in kyiv woke up again this morning to the sound of bombardments. 16 drones that the ukrainians say have been provided to the russians by iran were shot down before they reached their targets. this according to the ukrainian military. this is a repeat from the day before when the ukrainians said the russians fired 70 projectiles across the country. the vast majority of those were also intercepted by ukraine's defense system. again, these are all targeted -- almost all of them, at infrastructure. civilian infrastructure. ones that the rush sla russians legitimate military targets. we got a readout from the kremlin describing what everybody knew, that this was one of the most blistering attacks, one of the most biggest bombardments that has happened against ukraine since the beginning of the war.

most of the targets have been electricity infrastructure. that's why we are seeing rolling blackouts throughout the country and here in kyiv, where as of yesterday, 40% of households were out of power. they said they were targeting railways. the russians say this is a legitimate target because this is the way the west is able to send in weapons that the ukrainians have been using to devastating affect against the russians on the front lines in the east of the country and in the south. those two major rolling battles that have been going on for months and months. those battles are continuing. a lot of people here on the front lines, even during the holidays, they're getting used to living this war on the home front. >> matt, thank you. as 2022 comes to a close, we are looking back on another tragic year of gun violence in this country. the harrowing stories from survivors and victims' families next.

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shootings. tom covered many of these tragic events and spoke to families of the victims is and filed this report. >> reporter: in may two shootings in the span of ten days shocked the nation. in buffalo, new york, a domestic terrorist motivated by hate killed ten people at a supermarket in a predominantly black neighborhood. >> he came into my community with hate. he drove hours to come here and do what he did. >> reporter: days later uvalde, texas, a shooting rampage at robb elementary left 19 children and 2 teachers dead in a community shattered. 300 officers responded to the scene, but video showed armed police officers waiting for more than an hour to enter the classrooms. i was there in utah valuely pushing the police for answers. >> was there a school officer on campus and was that school officer armed? that's what we have been told. >> no, there was not an officer

ready available armed. >> was there an officer? >> no. >> why? >> two grieving fathers, whose children died that day, told me more needs to be done. >> how many had more kids have to die? >> you think that this doesn't happen to me or doesn't happen here or anything until it does. and it will. >> reporter: then on july 4th in the suburb of highland park, a rooftop shooter killed seven people at a parade. i spoke to a bystander who was there with his family, all of whom narrowly missed being shot. >> that's cray. >> it's random. >> this fall in colorado springs, a drag show interrupted with bullets, a gunman culling five at a nightclub. a survivor describing the moments the gunfire broke out. >> bodies on the ground, shattered glass, people dead.

it was sad. >> reporter: an army veteran risked his life to save others. >> i just know i got into mode. and i needed to save my family. and that family was at that time everybody in that room. >> reporter: three days later in virginia, a walmart employee opened fire in the break room culling six people as another deadly year comes to a close thrks december we mark ten years since the sandy can hook massacre, where 20 first graders were shot dead in their classroom. >> i was only 7 years old at the time. i heard and saw things child, no person should ever have to see. >> reporter: a decade since that tragedy and hundreds of more mass shootings, president biden signed gun safety legislation intended to expand background checks and men health care, but it stoed short of banning assault weapons. sgri don't know where we go from here. except i have been asked the

question what would i say. there's nothing to say. it's been said. we as a society are unwilling to change. >> reporter: tom ya mis, nbc news. >> let's discuss this tragic year with the executive director of giffords courage. peter, welcome as i was listening to that report, i just winced with every single one of those notable mass shootings. that's only a drop in the bucket. tlrn 600 count n this country this year. your organization there is led by gabrielle giffords, who survived a tragic shooting almost 12 years ago come this january. what is your reaction when you see a report like that detailing these hundreds of mass shootings this year? >> thanks so much, alex. at the end of every year, we do look back and we account for the devastation that gun violence has brought upon this country. we also look forward to the

mission ahead, the mugs to put in place the common sense gun safety laws that we're fighting for as an organization. that gabrielle giffords has dedicated her life to passing. a year ago, we looked backwards and we saw after the covid-related gun violence spike that nearly 50,000 americans had lost their lives to gun violence. an unspeakable number, unacceptable tragedy. this year we're looking back 640 mass shootings over the past year. and even more tragically i think as a parent, the fact that we have allowed gun violence to become the number one cause of death for our children. and i think that's why after a decade of fighting gun violence in the aftermath of sandy hook, we launched this organization giffords after shootings when gabrielle giffords said enough is enough. something has to change. and i think looking forward, we can continue to build on the

progress that was represented in the passage of the safer communities act, which 15 republican senators crossed the aisle to support and joe biden signed and continue the progress at the state level, where we passed 526 pieces of gun safety legislation in 49 different states. it's not enough, but it's an important start. >> we're going to applaud you for all those efforts let me ask you about the white house and the atf. they have launched a major crackdown on those things known ghost guns and "the new york times" reports that the biden administration is closing a major loophole and a new role intended to parts that can readily be turned into firearms. how significant is this and how effective will it be? >> it's a really important move for the biden administration. this happened in two steps.

to address the threat to our public safety posed by ghost guns. theses are, as you said, untraceable firearms many of which are mailed to people across the country with virtually no regulation. so what the biden administration did at first, a little over a year ago, it said we need to treat those guns as firearms themselves. they have to be serial liezed. >> thank you for ironing that out for us. thank you so much for what you do on behalf of giffords. that does it for us this hour. stay with us. we have much more ahead for you including the arrest made in connection with the murders of four idaho college students. details, after the break. details, after the break if you're age 50 to 85, and looking to buy life insurance

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thank you all for staying with us. i'm alex witt. we're following some pretty dig story this is hour as we have breaking news to share after more than a month of fear and frustration in idaho, law enforcement officials tell nbc news a 28-year-old male has been taken into custody in connection with the murders of four college students. we have also more details from donald trump's tax retu