good to be with you. i'm yamiche alcindor. and there is a lot happening

right now. after a year's long legal battle, donald trump's tax returns are now public. the thousands of pages show that during the first and last years of his presidency, trump paid very little in federal income taxes, claiming huge losses to shave down his tax bill. we have experts ready to break down the six years of filings plus a member of the house ways and means committee into what went into the decision to make everything public and the precedence it sets going forward. we've got more developments from the january 6th committee. another batch of deposition transcripts just dropped. among the interviews, rudy giuliani, jared kushner, and mick mulvaney, and what they said and how it all impacts the former president coming up a major break through in the quadruple idaho murder cacy a 28-year-old man has been taken into custody in connection with the case according to multiple law enforcement officials. what we know and what we could find out at today's news conference ahead.

we begin with the breaking news on donald trump's tax returns. shrouded in secrecy for years. now out in the public domain. joining me now is nbc news senior capitol hill correspondent garrett haake, outside trump tower in new york city, is antonia hylton and with me, sue began craig, investigative reporter for "the new york times" who has been all over trump's taxes. garrett, first to you. what is the biggest take for you. >> for a billion dlar real estate developer, donald trump is not paying taxes like you would expect from a billionaire. zero dollar tax bill in 20206789 and he is basically using every legal means possible to reduce his tax collection and possibly some not as legal. and that is where some of the most interesting reporting continues to dig into, things like charitable donations, and he claims some large charitable donations in some years, and zero dollars in 2020 bit way, which we know his businesses were hurting, and when remember,

he had said, throughout his presidency, that he was donating his salary to charity, and that doesn't show up on the 2020 tax returns, a lot to look into here as we continue to parse thousands of pages of documents. >> and what you're talking about, what garrett is talking about here, is the idea that donald trump told us when he was running in 2016 that he was going to take advantage of any tax loophole. antonia hylton, what are we hearing from trump's team? >> well, the remarks today from president trump have been a bit contradictory in the sense that first he has argued as many republicans have that this has been a breach of privacy, that this is unfair, that it is not representative of the full picture of his finances. but then, in the next breath, also arguing that there is really nothing to see here, because it ultimately proves what he said all along, which is that, you know, his view, he has been an incredibly successful business man with complicated finances, and that he's created lots of jobs.

in a video though, that he released to supporters this morning, he goes even further at one point to sort of signal some potential retaliation coming as republicans take over the house. pretty much directly, asking those republicans, to now take a microscope to president biden, and his family's finances, in return. but you know, as garrett just spelled out there, the reality is that when you look at these numbers over the last several years, and the fact that he fought so hard for this not to be released ultimately, that it raises serious questions about his finances, about the story that he has told, about himself, as a business man. take a listen to some of the remarks that he shared with his supporters in this video this morning. >> if you look at what they've 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. >> reporter: for democrats, of course, a lot of the focus has of course really been on the

irs, and the fact that as they argued and have been put in this report, that they had been dormant during much of trump's years, and that they hadn't done the required audit of the president until democratic lawmakers had asked them to. and so while there may not be major bombshells, again, much of this has been known either through reporting or through the report released by lawmakers the other week, the reality is that from the story, the story may continue not just because of the retaliation signaled by president trump, or former president trump, but by sort of the questions now, about the irs's lack of action, and what that means and what kind of accountability there may knot need to be for the agency going forward. >> and that's obviously a lot coming from former president trump. i also want to, suzanne, talk to you a bit about this, you've been all over the trump tax beat, if there was a beat, it would be only your beat, you would be owning it, so tell us a bit about, if anything surprises you, in this, given the fact that antonia hylton is saying and other people are saying there are no big bombshell

bombshells. what's your take? >> it doesn't break the narrative, which is the businesses that donald trump runs for the most part loze money and he has been supported over the years, you know, by kind of two or three cash waves, one came from the inherited money that he got from his father, and the other came from the apprentice and the licensing deals. and it is interesting, because i know people are sort of wondering what's in there and what are we seeing. for example, in 2018, it was actually the year for the first time in years, that he had positive income and it happened because he had a sale of an asset, and that asset happened to be something that, an investment that his father made in the 1970s, and he got a gain from, it and it helped him in 2018. we're also seeing that in the white house, he was still getting money, not a huge amount but thousands of dollars from trusts each year that were set up in his childhood, that is sort of interesting. but we're not seeing anything that breaks the narrative of, you know, interesting things, so for example, there was a, he lost a million on an investment

that was written off, that don jr. made in prefab homes, things like that, that were interesting to see. but i do think, and other people have said it, what happened with the irs, and their lack of scrutiny, and not just with the presidential audits that happen every year, but the audit that was going on, and audits that should have been taking place and questions that should have been asked, the report that the committee put out last week, dedicates three or four pages to all of the questions that our 020 reporting raised, 2020 reporting raised when we got decades of his tax information. serious questions that required further investigation. and the irs, it seems unwilling, or didn't want to go further. they had an excuse almost at every turn for why they weren't looking into the questions that we raised. >> as you talk about interesting information as well as questions, i want to refer to something. we know in 2017 alone, president trump received 18,000 dollars in interest from a loan made to

ivanka. he claimed almost 9,000 from a loan made to don jr. and 24,000 from a loan made to eric. it is so big, you got to read it on the paper. so tell us about these loans, his children, and these interest payments, what's going on there? >> it is actually just before i got on, i was going through some of them, and each year, there are, it's interest income that is being paid to donald trump from three of his children. and those are, they're loans, they may be, you know, so that they can buy a house, often parent does that, they loan their children money, and that has to be recorded, and interest income is then paid back. the question there, and i think just more investigation is required, you know, without seeing more documents, are these just disguised gifts? should there be gift tax that is owed? that is one of the issues that the ways and means committee flagged, that they feel that the irs should be looking further into. there is a lot of little things like that in the returns. charitable donations, when

they're made with cash, we would like to see the underlying documents, who were those donations made to. are they legitimate or did he just write in $50,000 here and 50,000 there. >> well, a lot of questions certainly, as these tax returns are public now. thank you so much garrett haake, antonia hylton and susanne craig. i want to now bring in democratic congressman from michigan dan kilde, he serves on the house ways and means committee. congressman, tell us why was it so important to make these tax returns public in your view? was there anything in particular when you saw them? you said the public has to see this. >> well, i think it was the combination of two factors. one, that the irs completely failed to do what they had committed to do back in the 1970s. and that is to provide a complete audit of presidential tax returns. but looking at that fact, it is only possible to understand the gravity of their failure, when looking at the returns themselves.

looking at the questions that the committee, the joint committee on taxation raised, for example around charitable contributions. some of the things you've been addressing. around the potential that loans maybe were used in a form of gifts that were not properly reported. and then when looking at the returns, noting that very many of the losses, that the president, former president used to avoid paying taxes, pre-date the period that we were reviewing. and so it appears that the president has used every mechanism possible to avoid paying taxes. and then fails to provide documentation in order to satisfy the questions, even those modest questions being raised by the irs. when looking at all of that, it appeared to me, and i know the other members of the committee, that the only way to understand the report, the only way to understand the need for the legislation, is to have a look at the documents, and so we sent

those to congress. as we also sent to congress legislation intending to correct this problem. we felt that that was the right thing to do. i can understand arguments in both cases. but when you're actually in a position to having to make the decision, to safeguard the integrity of our system of government, we felt like this was the only alternative we had. >> congressman, i also want to ask you about that irs audit, and the failure to do so, it seems, what's your take on how this even happened? and who should be held accountable and how that would even happen? >> well, the unfortunate thing is now we're going into a period where the republicans will be in control and a lot of the questions that we would like to pursue, they may not be willing to pursue. there's a very serious question, as to why president barack obama was audited each year that he was in office, before president trump, president joe biden has been audited since president trump left office, but not until the chairman's letter landed at

the treasury department did they even initiate an audit two years into trump's presidency. why is that? how could that be? is that his taxes are so complex that they didn't feel they had the resources to go after them? i don't buy that argument. not when hundreds of thousands of americans simply for filing returns that includes the child tax credit get an audit from the irs. something as important as the audit of the president of the united states, going back to the nixon era, this notion that they didn't have the resources, is unacceptable. so something else was going on. and we have a right to know the answer to that question. >> congressman, quick question, are you concerned, worried, that republicans might seek to have some sort of revenge or some sort of retaliation, because these tax returns have now been made public? >> let me say this. there's been a lot made about this notion of a president having been -- a precedent having been set. that's what they're referring to. if in the future a democratic president fails to have his

taxes subjected to a mandatory audit by the irs, and upon review, whoever happens to lead the ways and means committee, determines that there are serious red flags, that ought to be addressed, 100%, those returns should be subject to absolute scrutiny and potential release. the president of the united states is a unique figure in american government. so the notion that there is some precedent that is being set, i'll accept the precedent that the president has potentially failed in a way that it looks like mr. trump has, they should be subject to scrutiny. i'm more worried about the precedent that the ways and means committee looks at all of this and decides well, we need to keep it to ourselves and we need to let it go. i was not going to let it know. the chairman was not going to let it go. and i don't think any future congress should let it go if they find a similar set of circumstances. >> certainly a topic we will continue to talk about.

congressman dan kildee, thank you very much. >> thank you. coming up, what's next for congressman-elect george santos, as he faces a federal investigation after admitting to quote embellishing his resume. plus, southwest airlines says everything is back to normal after a nightmare week for travel. so what kind of consequences could southwest face? but first, an arrest was made today, in connection with that murder mystery after four university of idaho students were killed earlier this year. what we know and where the investigation goes from here, next.

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we're following breaking news, law enforcement officials tell nbc news that a person of interest is in custody in connection with the killings of four university of idaho students. 28-year-old bryan kohberger was arrested in monroe county pennsylvania for a warrant on murder in the first degree, a

judge has ordered extradition back to idaho. a local idaho law enforcement official, expected to hold a press conference at 4:00 p.m. eastern. gadi schwartz joins us now. tell us more about the arrest and what we know about the case right now. >> reporter: we understand that bryan kohberger was arrested in connection to the murder scranton pennsylvania in the poconos and held in a monroe county prison and awaiting extradition to idaho. we have been looking into the background it looks like a student by the same nay and the same picture was listed as a ph.d. student as the washington state university criminology department, less than ten miles away from the crime scene that so far once again, it is so far difficult to pin down the details because moscow police have not said anything officially yet and instead only announcing the press conference that is scheduled for about two hours from now. there is still a lot of outstanding questions about what led to this arrest.

was this solved with dna? we know there were 100 pieces of evidence taken from inside the home is, this another case where genetic genealogy might have led to a break in the case. and could this have been linked to the white hyundai elantra that police were looking for and asking the public for help in identifying. those with the suspect, does the suspect have any direct ties to even the victims or possibly this house. you might remember, very early on, that back and forth, as officials said this was a crime of passion and then they said it was a tarlged attack, and then they had to walk all of that back, so there are still a lot of questions, questions about that large knife that was used, has that been recovered, and we're expected to learn a lot more about in two hours. >> well, there are so many, so many questions, and gadi, we're happy to have you on this heart-breaking story, and thank you so much. southwest airlines says it is back to, quote, normal operations today after a week of chaos with thousands of canceled flights and stranded customers

and lost luggage. as travelers hunt for their bags and get to their final destination, the company is facing growing call force accountability and reimbursement. the transportation secretary pete buttigieg spoke to nbc's blayne alexander about the situation. >> i don't want to resort to fines and penalties but we'll do whatever it takes to make sure passengers are taken care of. and frankly i'm disappointed that the airline has not been more proactive kmup cating this to the public. i don't know why the ceo of southwest hasn't been on tv ten times as much as i have to explain to passengers what they can expect from their airline. >> and joining us now is nbc news correspondent dasha burns. what can you tell us about the flights there and the situation overall? >> reporter: well, look, right now, it's a pretty quiet day at the airport. most people we talked to say their travels are going smoothly so far. and now, normally, that would not be headline news, but today, it is, because of what we have

seen over the course of the last week. a big turn-around for southwest airlines in particular, yesterday, that they had canceled more than 2300 flights. and today, so far, according to flight aware, only 43 flights canceled. so big change, but the fallout is far from over. you mentioned the chaos, the baggage that people are still waiting on, a lot of people still need their bags, and southwest says that they're taking every possible approach to get people reunited with their lost items, they say they're using trucks, fedex, u.p.s., they're putting bags on their own airplanes to try to get them where the customers need to get them. but you know what, this has been pretty unprecedented, and really, a lot of distrust between passengers and airlines. we've got another holiday weekend here, january 2nd is going to be a very busy travel day, and flight experts are telling folks that you should really have a backup plan in place. on these busy days. you can't expect smooth sailing here anymore, especially when it

comes to these really, really packed days. so make sure you download the apps for all of the airlines, make sure you've got, you know, your points ready to go, in case you need to rebook. and right now you can go on southwest airlines page, and get the reimbursement, they're reimbursing for other airline tickets and reimbursing for hotels, for lodging, for transportation, so get that money back right now, because it is an our and as you heard from the secretary there, pete buttigieg, the government is watching to make sure southwest gets money back it their passengers. >> certainly a situation we will keep watching and hoping that people get their bags and get on those flights that are taking off. thank you very much, dasha burns. and still ahead, the latest on the multiple investigations surrounding republican congressman-elect george santos, after he admitted to quote embellishing his resume. plus, new witness transcripts out today from the january 6th committee.

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a stead ji drip from the jab january 6th committee continuing this afternoon, releasing two dozen new transcripts from the interviews, including big names from former president trump's big circle. while the release bringing the number of transcripts made public to nearly 150, that leaves more than a thousand, yes a thousand still in the hands of the committee. the question now, will we ever see them? let's bring in brick and mortar's congressional reporter nick class wu and former u.s. attorney of michigan and msnbc legal analyst barbara mcquade. nick, first to you. what jumped out to you in the latest batch? what is the big take-away this time around? >> well, we're seeing the committee do now is put out a lot of big names that don't necessarily, they're not necessarily huge bombshell revelations but they do note a lot of the gaps to understand what happened and what the committee was up to over the last year and a half. one of the most prominent names in the most recent batch is

ginni thomas, the wife of supreme court justice clarence thomas and it was interesting to see what she told the committee, which was all to say, not a whole lot. she talked about her interests in some of these conspiracy theories about the election, but otherwise, there wasn't a whole lot of substantive new knowledge that she gave to the committee. and we found that she only gave them one email. >> that's pretty incredible. and i also wonder, it is hard to think about the fact that there is almost a thousand, or more than a thousand transcripts still with the committee, what's your sense of how the committee is deciding which to release? cherry picking this? is it possible that we have some really great bombshell material that might not ever get released because of the timetable? >> well, we've done the math here and we've seen over, you know, maybe about 150 or so transcripts or so that have come out over the last week, and the committee, remember, has said that they interviewed 1,200 people over the course of the whole investigation. not to mention all of the documents that they collected

along the way. so importantly, if we hold them to their word, that they are going to put everything out by the very end, which is january 2nd, 3rd, then, you know, this could mean that we're seeing transcripts coming out through the weekend or they might all arrive en masse in the last days of this congress. it doesn't really seem like there is a lot of planning behind which transcripts are coming. there is not any single theme behind a lot of these. the only major thing that we saw so far was the very first batch of transcripts which is all people who pled the fifth during their interviews. >> that's a good way to put it and a good way to categorize it. from the legal point of view, barbara, is there any motivation for keeping some of these transcripts under wraps? we know the d.o.j. will get some of this. what is your sense of things? >> yes, there is a risk that when these transcripts are publicly disclosed, it could be strategically difficult for the justice department to conduct its investigation. ordinarily, the justice

department investigates cases in secret, no one knows what anyone else has had to say, and if witnesses can read what other witnesses testified to, then they can shape their testimony to align with the testimony of other witnesses. it can also allow trump or others to do some advanced messaging. and poison a jury pool, based on what witnesses said by undermining the credibility. and the biggest worry is witness intimidation. somebody who said something harmful, cassidy hutchinson and others, they could be intimidated, or they could be induced to tell a different story. so with the transcripts in the public domain like this, it creates risks that are just not usually present for the justice department when it conducts investigations. >> that's really fascinating to think about the risks versus the benefits of putting this all out. nicholas wu, thank you very much, and barbara, you're sticking with me. now, incoming congressman george santos, after allegations that he embellished major parts

of his resume, is facing investigation on multiple fronts today. nbc news can now confirm santos is getting scrutiny from the federal prosecutors, in the eastern district of new york, and that's in addition to the probe from the nassau county d.a. that is on long island. and noted interests from new york's attorney general. the investigations come as santos faces more allegations by the day. "the new york times" reporting overnight, peculiar payments, to a cleaning company for a rental prop ty on long island. they say santos was living at that property, a possible violation of campaign finance law. we should note nbc news has not reviewed the records of the payments, and has not reached out, and has reached out, i should say, to the santos team for comment. in a statement at this time, a lawyer for santos says a firm hired by santos' campaign has spent money, quote, unwisely, and that all campaign expenditures were legal. i'm joined by now nbc news senior national political reporter jonathan allen and back with me former u.s. attorney

barbara mcquade. we couldn't have you go anywhere. but i will go first to john. is there any sense, john, that this, that mr. santos won't become congressman santos? is there any chance of that? or do we think that he is basically going to be going into congress and being sworn in? >> he will be sworn in to congress. there is a 1969 supreme court ruling involving the late congressman adam powell, powell versus mccormick where the house had decided not to seat adam clayton powell, who was in legal jeopardy at the time. and what the supreme court ruled is that the house only can rule, can only basically prevent the seating of someone if they're in violation of one of the three criteria that the constitution has for being a member of congress, meaning that he is at least 25 years old, he has been a citizen of the united states for seven years, and is a resident of the state in which he was elected. other than that, they really don't have any power. >> that's pretty incredible to hear. now barbara, i wonder what you think federal prosecutors are possibly eyeing here, we know there are so many alleged lies here. what's your sense?

>> i think there's probably two batches of lies that prosecutors are likely looking at. one relates to campaign finance laws. there are a number of disclosures that have to be made when you file, sources of income, sources of campaign donations, and in light of the shear number of lies, and the audacity of the lies, i think it is fair to scrutinize all of the contents of those filings. for example, he claims to have made a 700,000 dollars donation to himself. yet when he ran previously, for congress, he reported that his sources of income was substantially lower. where did all that money come from? the big concern of course would be foreign influence, that there is some foreign source that is supporting him and owning him, which would be very dangerous to national security. the other batch of investigation i would imagine relates to pure fraud. was this a wire fraud? fraud is a lie to obtain money

under false pretenses, so to the extent his website included all of his lies to induce supporters to make campaign donations to him, they may have made the donations under false pretenses, that he had particular jobs or going to particular schools or his mother died on 9/11, all of those things could be telling someone to make campaign contributions and i would imagine the investigation relates to one or both of these types of crimes. >> all big questions. so many questions here. i have a question also about all of the investigations that are happening, so you have the nassau county d.a. on long island, you have the new york attorney general and the federal investigation. is there any sense or possibility that they might collaborate here? or do you think we're looking at three distinct different investigations? >> well, best practices always to collaborate. i have encountered this frequently in my own work as a u.s. attorney because sometimes different jurisdictions will step on each other than can be difficult. so information sharing is very important to making sure that the investigations go smoothly.

but sometimes people have turf battles and don't play nicely together. but if they do collaborate, they can share information, and each likely has different crimes that they're looking a local crimes. federal crimes. federal campaign crimes. state crimes. consumer crimes. and so there is likely a role for each of them to play and a way for them to collaborate and a way that creates synergy instead of competition. >> jonathan, a quick question to you, when you look at all of this, there's a "new york times" report that george santos spent something like $40,000 on travel. now i used to work on long island, you might drive two hours, but $40,000 on travel, what is your sense of the possible complications there? >> it is a ton of money. you can certainly use campaign fund force travel. i've never seen anything like this. i looked at congressman-elect right next door, for getting the name right now, lolata, earlier today, 6 or 7,000 dollars worth

of travel, hotels, things like that. santos, you're looking at limousines, and luxury hotels, and flights all over the country, and it doesn't add up to what you would need to do to run for that office, but also, the laws are pretty lax in terms of of how much travel you can do. one of the lines that jumped out to me is 800 dollars for brooks brothers shirts attributed to campaign staff, buying brooks brothers shirts for his campaign staff. no one has heard of anything like that. >> that is incredible. this story is going to be something ha we will just have to follow and follow and follow. so jonathan allen, barbara mcquade, thank you so much. and still ahead, vladimir putin and xi jingping meeting again today, as the two leaders face difficulties at home. that, plus a live report from inside ukraine straight ahead. but first, we're live from rome, where the vatican says retired pope benedict's health is stable but still concerning. we've got the latest on his condition after a quick break. q.

i'm jonathan lawson

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your acceptance is guaranteed. and this plan has a guaranteed lifetime rate lock so your rate can never go up for any reason. so call now for free information and you'll also get this free beneficiary planner. and it's yours free just for calling. so call now for free information. prayers continue across the world for pope emeritus benedict, a mass was held today for the 95-year-old retired pontiff at rome's cathedral. vatican officials say he has been resting and is in stable condition. molly hunter is in rome, so molly, what's the latest on what we've heard about pope benedict's condition? how is he doing? >> reporter: well, he's still

stable. so i think that's the good news, we did get another statement from the holy see press office today about, two lines and they were very clear that they were only giving a statement responding to reporters' questions. so they are not giving us an hourly update. that statement in full read, last night, the pope emeritus was able to rest well. he also participated in the celebration of holy mass in his room yesterday afternoon. at present, his condition is stationary, is the world they used, we understand stable the same as yesterday. there was a mass this evening in honor of the former pope and we managed to speak with a couple of people going in. take a listen. >> we are concerned about pope benedict, we heard his health is not good, and pope asked us to say a prayer on pope benedict's behalf. >> last time i heard he was lucid, so he is very old, you know, and i hope he is at peace. >> i'm very worried, and i think

that, i hope he's not going to die. >> reporter: he is 95, of course, he is very old, and his health has been failing in recent year, now the cardinal leading that mass tonight, i just want to read a couple of excerpts because he really addressed benedict directly, he said we are here to support him with our confident prayers, support him with all of our affection, to express to god the gratitude of this diocese that he love and cherished and served with selfless love and they started the mass for him and ended with notes im, and it is up to him to pray, and to support the path of the pope emeritus, pope benedict, we do this with great joy and a great moment of strong communion of our church in rome. a gathering of hundreds of people to pray tonight. i think this is what we will hear from pope francis in days to come as we get small updates maybe from the holy see press office about his health, from francis, and this invitation to the world's faithful, to join him in prayer for pope benedict. >> and certainly, a lot of

prayers pouring in from around the world for pope emeritus benedict. thank you very much, molly hunter, for that report. and "the new york times" called it quote two strong men meeting in a weak moment. russia's vladimir putin, and china's xi jingping, met by video today and vowed to ramp up their economic and military coordination, against what putin described as a quote unprecedented pressure and provocations from the west. their meeting comes on the heels of another wave of russian drone attacks striking terror across ukraine. 16 iranian made drones were launched overnight, including seven on kyiv, according to ukrainian officials, all were shot down. nbc news foreign correspondent matt bradley is on the ground in kyiv. also with us evelyn, the former adviser to nato's supreme commander and deputy assistant of defense and executive director at the mccain institute. matt, we're hearing that there might have been some successes there in ukraine, tell us what

you're hearing on the ground and what the latest is. >> exactly like you said, the 16 drones, the vast majority of them, have been shot down. but the fact of the matter is, when we talk about these drones that are intercepted, or even the missiles that are intercepted by this very effective counter aerial defense system here in ukraine, you know, when they intercept drones and intercept missiles, that shows how effective those systems are. those systems are mostly provided by the west, by the way. and you know, the danger isn't over. when those missiles or those drones are intercepted, they're still dropping debris on to places. i was yesterday at a children's playground where we saw, there was a basketball court, where a bunch of debris had been dropped. this was before dawn. so there wasn't anybody there. nobody was worried about their children being hit. but you know, we were out there a couple of hours later, and the fact of the matter is, if you had your kids out there, that

would be very threatening to you, and your children, if you thought that there was debris falling from the sky. and then a couple of hours later, we went to the home of an elderly man, who had been, you know, living there for 40 years, and with his son, and the early hours of the morning, he woke up and suddenly there was debris falling from the sky and basically destroyed half of his home. it was only because neighbors came and broke him out of that house that they were able to escape alive. actually, the two of them, escaped uninjured. so when we talk about these missiles, these drones, that have been intercepted, the danger isn't over. it's not entirely over for them. and the fact is, there is still death raining down on this country, regardless of whether they're intercepted. >> a poignant message, the danger isn't over. thank you so much for all of that heart-breaking but important reporting, matt. and evelyn, i want to come to you, of course, there is these,

this meeting, as "the new york times" said, both of these leaders, the leader of russia and of china, they're facing sort of a weak moment for both of their nations, what do the two men stand to grand especially as we see -- gain, especially as we see coordination and trading going between russia and china. >> i think it is more important for vladimir putin right now, because obviously he is not winning this war by any stretch of the imagination, and he's looking around for allies. he's looking around for help getting military equipment. as you just pointed out, you know, and matt, with the footage about the iranian drones, he is getting help from iran and north korea and we love some help from china. but president xi has limits. he's already facing a declining economy, because of the covid crisis, and his mismanagement of it, inside of china, so he's not interested in incurring international and especially u.s. sanctions if he helps out russia. so it's more important for putin

right now, because he's weak domestically, and because he's not winning. for xi, it is probably, you know, along with the meetings that he's had with other heads of state, it gives a chance to show that he is still there and china is still the number two economy. >> i wonder, as you talk about those dynamics, what should the united states and its allies be doing if china, or if china does step up its military support to russia? what sort of, should the west be doing here, in response? >> right. that "new york times" article also quoted a russian official, saying that, you know, the chinese were trying to help evade the sanctions. if that's true, then we really need to get whatever evidence we have and confront the chinese and make sure that they stop as fast as possible. because again, i don't think that the chinese, certainly they want to help russia, but not if it means having sanctions imposed on them. >> i wonder, when we, as you're talking about sort of those

issues, ukraine is saying that it wants a peace summit, that there's negotiations possibly being talked about. what's your sense of sort of where this could go and the possible end game here? >> well, i think both ukraine and russia are saying they want peace, because they know that there's an audience in europe, and the countries like india, and indonesia, and the countries basically that have been warning president putin that now is not a time for war, those countries want to hear the kremlin talk about peace and they want to hear president zelenskyy also talk about peace. but the reality is, neither leader is ready to make a compromise, which means there can be no negotiation at this moment in time. the russians feel like they can just wait out the ukrainians, that eventually they'll have enough personnel and enough commitment. the ukrainians on the other hand are still in the winning position. they still have the momentum. and of course, they have additional western assistance coming, some of it pretty

significant. >> with the momentum in ukraine, i think about the fact that volodymyr zelenskyy made sure to come here and to continue that momentum and to make really clear that he wants the support of the united states, so all of course important information, evelyn farkas, thank you so much. >> thank you. and next, as we close out 2022, we're looking at a difficult milestone, the third straight year that our countries that had more than 600 mass shootings. our team has a look back at the communities impacted after the break. power e*trade's easy-to-use tools like dynamic charting and risk-reward analysis help make trading feel effortless. and its customizable scans with social sentiment help you find and unlock opportunities in the market

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you quit smoking. now do the easy part and get scanned for lung cancer. if you smoked, you may still be at risk, but early detection could save your life. talk to your doctor and learn more at savedbythescan.org for the third year in a row, the u.s. has passed a difficult milestone, more than 600 mass shootings across the country. nbc's tom llamas covered many of these tragedies, and spoke with the families of victims, survivors, and police officers responded. >> 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. >> days later, uvalde, texas, a shooting rampage at rob elementary school left 19 children and two teachers dead and a community shattered. more than 300 officers responded to the scene, with video showing armed police officers waiting for more than an hour to enter the classrooms. >> i was there in uvalde, pushing the police for answers. >> was there a school officer on campus and was that school officer armed, because that's what we've been told. >> no, there was not an officer readily available armed. no. >> was there an officer? >> no. >> why? >> two grieving fathers whose children died that day told me more needs to be done. >> how many more kids have to die? you think that all of this doesn't happen to me, or it doesn't happen here, until it does. and it will. >> then, on july 4th, in the chicago 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. >> i don't want to think about that. >> the trend is crazy? >> it's random. you live or die by just random. >> this fall, in colorado springs, a drag show interrupted with bullets, a gunman killing five at an lbgtq nightclub, a survivor describing the moments the gunfire broke out. >> bodies on the ground. blood. shattered glass. people dead. it was sad. >> 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. >> three days later in chesapeake, virginia, a walmart employee opened fire in the store's break room, killing six people. >> as another deadly year comes

to a close, this december, we mark ten years since the sandy hook massacre, when 20 first graders were shot dead in their classroom. >> at the time i was only seven years old. i heard and saw things no child, no person should ever have to see. >> a decade since that tragedy, hundreds of more mass shootings. president biden signed gun safety legislation, it is intended to expand back ground checks, red flag laws and mental health care, but stopped short of banning assault weapons. >> i don't know where we go from here. except i've been asked the question, what would i say, like there's nothing to say. >> right. >> it's been said. and we as a society are unwilling to change. >> tom llamas, nbc news. a moving reminder of where we've all been and endured this year. nbc's tom llamas, thank you and more ahead next hour, including kevin mccarthy's battle to become house speaker. we'll tell you what is happening behind the scenes. but first, a house committee

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