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killed in lebanon. why the strike is sparking new fears that the war could spill into the wider region. and breaking news out of iran. more than 100 people killed in explosions commemorating an iranian general killed by a u.s. drone strike back in 2020. children amongst the dead and nearly 150 injured. we're going to have the very latest in just a moment as well. ♪♪ good morning, everybody, it's 10:00 a.m. in the east. i'm yasmin vossoughian in for ana cabrera. good to see you this morning. we're going to begin in iran in the city of care monowhere just within the last couple of hours two explosions killed 100 people and injured nearly 150 people at the memorial site for ha sam soleimani. he was the head of the revolutionary guard corps.

i want to bring in ali arouzi in tehran to talk more about this. this morning iran saying more than 100 people were killed in these blasts. what do we know? >> reporter: yeah, i mean, this just broke a few hours ago, yasmin, as you said. what we know so far is the two explosions occurred about ten minutes apart from each other at around 3:00 local time. they've killed so far at least 103 people, wounding well over 143 others, at a cemetery in iran where a ceremony was being held to mark the 2020 death of iran's top commander at the time who he was killed by a u.s. drone strike at the time. iranian state media reported one blast first and then a second explosion during the ceremony in karmon in the southern eastern part of the country. apparently the first blasts struck around 2,300 feet away

from soleimani's grave. this was very well planned. the blasts were caused by terrorists attacks, there have been conflicting reports on state media about what caused the blast. some reports say the two explosive laden suitcases were detonated remotely. another says bombs were place instead a rubbish bin, while another state media report says it was a suicide bomber. now, officials here say that they have some information, but while the investigation is ongoing, they're not going to release any more details. but yasmin, you can see from the images that this was a massive blast. >> right. >> it's a scene of carnage there, and this has certainly been the worst terrorist attack the islamic republic has seen in its 45-year history. as of yet, nobody's claimed responsibility for the attack, but officials in the country haven't accused anybody for the attack, but if you're watching state media here, there are

analysts on state media. i have to point out nobody officially in iran has said this is the work of mosad, but analysts close to the government are already saying that. another possibility, it could be the work of jundala, a sunni militant organization based in southeast iran. they've been behind a spite of attack over the years, only a couple of weeks ago they attacked a police station in that region killing 11 police officers, and they vow to carry on their attacks. so they are a suspect as well that people are talking about. but nothing official. i can tell you this, yasmin, whoever it is, this has been a major embarrassment for iran at a time when they want to project . >> just quickly, ali, do you know of any high level officials that were attending this commemoration of the killing of qassam soleimani?

>> they would almost certainly have been some very high level officials that was by his grave site, that would have wanted to be seen there, but we don't have any reports about any of them being injured or killed. >> got it. ali arouzi, thank you my friend. i want to get to the latest around the former president as well, the former president officially appeals maine's decision to remove him from the primary ballot a handful of days before the three-year anniversary of january 6th. trump's lawyers writing the decision was a product of a process infected by bias and pervasive lack of due process and railing against the democrat who made the decision, maine's secretary of state, calling her quote, unquote, partisan, a biased decision maker, and accusing her of making multiple errors of law. i want to bring in nbc's ryan reilly, carol lam, a former federal prosecutor and peter baker, "new york times" chief white house correspondent as well. ryan, if you will, start us off. trump has appealed this decision in maine. what happens next? >> yeah, so i mean, this is the one that i think is easiest for

him to sort of take aim at. you're dealing with one person who was an elected democrat. it's a little different from the situation in colorado where, you know, this is justices who made the decision, a panel of justices who are looking at the law. it's a lot easier to point to her social media platform or media appearances she's made and accuse her of being biased in this matter and for a lack of due process in the procedure overall. this is, i think, one of the things that politically speaks at least is requesting to be easier for donald trump to point at. legally speaking, that's a separate matter. ultimately all of this is going to boil up to the supreme court, is what is ultimately going to happen here, and they're going to be the ultimate decider of what is going to happen to donald trump on the ballot in maine. >> talk to me also about the timing of an appeal in colorado. we know the colorado gop already appealed the decision there by the courts, but we haven't yet heard from the former president and his team on this.

>> yes, the colorado decision, we expect that to be appealed as well. i mean, that's all basically going to boil down ultimately to the supreme court. the supreme court's going to have a lot on its docket this year in terms of deciding these cases. they're going to have these 14th amendment decisions to make. they're also going to have the ongoing litigation in the jack smith case. that's going to boil up there. there's a question of presidential immunity working its way through the d.c. circuit. there's also one of the laws that donald trump was charged in his january 6th jack smith case is also currently before the court, and it's going to be a question of how that decision the supreme court makes there is going to apply to his ongoing case. really all this is going to be on scotus in the next few month s. >> carol, as you well know ryan is right mere. a lot is going to be on scotus on the lead up to this election in november.

do you know why it is or can you suspect why it is the former president and his team have not yet appealed the colorado decision? >> i think it's pretty clear that the former president would like things to take as long as possible because to move things quickly just sort of forces him to face the music earlier. delay will delay more things. he's on the ballot right now because the ballots are being printed now. there were stays in both the maine and the colorado case meaning that the status quo remains in effect. so the longer he can put off any decision to the contrary the better. and so he is, as we've seen, not filing things until the very last moment under his deadlines. but that's his right. he can do that. the question i think would be whether the supreme court deems the republican party in colorado to have sufficient standing and they probably do. for them -- for the supreme court to go ahead and take the case up on review, if that's

what they choose to do. but with respect to donald trump's motivations, delay i the name of the game. >> i want to read for y, carol, if i can from trump's former attorney general bill barr writing this about the decisions in co and maine. as a legal matter, state s do nt have the power to enforce the lification provision of the 14th amendment, by using their own ad hoc procedures to find an individual has engaged in an insurrection. if the justice department in pursuing its criminal case had found that trump had engaged in insurrection it would be another story, but it has not. what do you make of this from bill barr, who we know is not a fan of his former boss? >> yeah, this is one of the two arguments that if the supreme court were to invalidate the application of section 3 of the 14th amendment to donald trump, this is probably one of the two stronger arguments, maybe not stronger, but the two more likely arguments that they would

use to do that. the first is the question whether a candidate for president is an officer of the united states for purposes of the 14th amendment. that is actually not clear, and that's one of the issues that has been litlitigated, but the other issue is the one bill barr is talking about and that is whether section 3 of the 14th amendment is what is called self-executing. is the fact that it's just there in the constitution mean that any state can apply it any way they want, or does another section in the 14th amendment, which says that congress shall legislate the way that this is carried out, does that mean that congress has to act first? congress has to say this is the way you determine whether somebody is an insurrectionist and, therefore, is barred from running for president. so even conservatives do not agree on the correct interpretation of the constitution in that regard, and

so if the supreme court were to say we're taking this up on appeal, and we're going to decide this issue, this is a constitutional issue and the supreme court would have to decide it. >> peter baker, i want to read for you a quote from the ap and republicans and conservatives essentially the reporti saying that they could possibly use this cause, the 14th enent clause as a weapon, if, in fact, they move forward with this in taking trump off the ballot in ine and colorado. political groups will routinely use section 3 against opponents in unexpected ways. it could be used to remove vice president kamala harris because she raised bail money for people arrested after george floyd's murder at the hands of minneapolis police in 2020. i'm sure you and i specifically had this exact same conversation when it came to impeachment when we were in the midst of multiple impeachments of the former president when he was president of the united states, and republicans talking about how they would then use that as a

political weapon against the next democratic president in which they are now doing launching an impeachment inquiry into president biden. believe them when they say this. >> yeah, i mean, that's a fair point. obviously this is a stretch of an argument to suggest that bail money, even if we accept their argument, you know, it constitutes the same thing as insurrection, obviously, rioters or looters who were arrested for disorder are not the same thing as trying to topple federal government, the same thing as sending a mob into congress to stop the transfer of power to the presidency. that doesn't mean you won't hear the what aboutism, the notion that we'll do what you did against us is a feature of today's politics. it does tell us how much donald trump has taken us into uncharted territory. we are in an era where we are applying standards that have never been applied before in a presidential election. trying to figure out what it all means. it's because donald trump

continually pushes the boundaries, if not going past the boundaies we always thought governed our politics. >> we recognize there's loopholes in our institutions and laws that can be broken when, in fact, there are people that want to break them. peter baker i want to read for you this poll that we're showing from "the washington post" showing fewer americans thinking trump bears responsibility for the attack on the capitol down to 50% from 60%. what do you think is happening here? >> yeah, look, he's winning the public argument in that sense, right? he is, you know, enforcing in effect his version of reality out there, through repetition and political persuasion and the other side hasn't managed to counter that. he has defined january 6th on his terms, right, that this is somehow just a political protest, that he had nothing to do with the violence and that --

as the further time goes, we forget the shock value of those pictures that we saw of what happened on the hill that day, and that's of course bolstering his position going into this coming year's election. >> and coming up, we're actually going to be talking about how the former president is going to commemorate january 6th as well. your dog seems quite upset about what's happening behind you. thank you along with carol lam and ryan reilly, appreciate you device. we're back, everybody in just 60 seconds. a major hamas leader killed in a drone strike in lebanon. i'm going to talk about worries of a wider regional conflict. harvard's president stepping down after a tumultuous couple of weeks. and the intensifying push from house republicans to impeach homeland security secretary mayorkas about the border. what he said it earlier on msnbc. r on m msnbc. up to 50% of people with graves' could develop a different condition

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official, saleh al-arouri was killed in a drone strike. hamas blames israel for his killing. this morning nbc news learning that israel did not notify the u.s. in advance of the strike but did tell washington once the operation was underway. that is according to two u.s. officials, a u.s. defense official and a person briefed on the operation. again, israel publicly, though, has not claimed responsibility. nbc's matt bradley has more from the west bank. >> reporter: this is where palestinians are gathering for a day of rage, a direct reaction to last night's assassination in beirut, and there's very real worries here that this rage could spill over borders and engulf the entire region. today an already volatile region braces for a potentially wider war. the assassination of a top hamas leader left a massive blaze in beirut. hamas accused israel of killing its second in command, saleh

al-arouri among other leaders. he had a $5 million bounty on his head. this eyewitness said it was a drone, it had a low sound. israel neither confirmed nor denied responsibility for the attack. >> whoever did this strike was very surgical and went for a hamas target because israel is at war whoever did this has a gripe with hamas. >> reporter: he was one of the founding members of hamas's military wing and a key liaison with other countries and military groups. he's praised hamas's october 7th terrorist attack against israel. in al-arouri's birthplace the anger started boiling last night. killing him in the center beirut will never put an end to our struggle to achieve our goals this man tells me. >> reporter: but many here are worried the rage could spread beyond these borders. israel's military spokesman saying we're on high readiness for any scenario.

hezbollah and israel have exchanged fire over lebanon's southern border for months. they've stopped short of an all out war but last night's attack right in a hezbollah stronghold could represent an escalation of the conflict. hezbollah's leader has pledged a response to any assassinations in lebanon. and yesterday a u.s. intelligence official said the intelligence community agrees with the israelis that hamas had been using the al-shifa hospital in gaza as a command center. now, the israeli attacks on the al-shifa hospital in november had caused controversy. >> thank you to matt bradley for that. i want to bring in alon pinkas to talk more about this and the assassination in lebanon. as always, it's a pleasure to talk to you, sir, thank you. talk to me about the calculation that is being made there. i know israel has not claimed responsibility for taking out this hamas leader. we have reporting that they certainly informed the united

states it was happening while it was happening. what do you make of this calculation and taking out this leader and the possibility that the war could spread beyond the borders of israel and gaza? >> well, yasmin, happy new year, yasmin. look, after the assassination itself, targeted killing is more our clinical term being used. it's been israeli policy for many years to do that in order to shake, in order to destabilize, in order to interfere with the chain of command of their organizations. so in that respect, there's nothing out of the ordinary. by the way, it would not destroy hamas and it would not really break down the chain of hamas's command, al-arouri was living in beirut. he was active mostly in the west bank rather than in gaza. his relations with gaza, the

hamas leader are considered to be not very good. but nonetheless, he was on the top list as you indicated and there was indeed an american bounty, $5 million bounty on his head. now, what makes this special in materials of the possible escalation is the fact that it took place and was conducted in beirut, in lebanon. now, i don't think that hezbollah and their masters and mentors in iran would consciously and deliberately escalate the war because of a sunni muslim hamas representative being assassinated or targeted in beirut and they are shiite muslims of course. but i do think -- the secretary general of hezbollah said a few

months ago and repeated that that any israeli action in beirut against hamas would entail a hezbollah reprisal. the conventional wisdom, i can't argue or validate it, is that a retaliation will take place somehow but not necessarily soon and not necessarily in lebanon. so the likelihood of escalation is not -- i don't think it increased that much because of that. >> we're actually hearing from hassan who i believe is going to be giving a speech in lebanon in about 40 minutes or so, the leader of hezbollah, and we'll likely learn more then. you couple that with what's happened in iran at the commemoration of the killing of qasem soleimani, they're already pointing the finger at israel, we don't know who's responsible

for this. however, these two things coupled together certainly are worrisome for the spread of this war. >> yes, yes, they are. but look, this is the axis of resistance, the axis of disorder, the axis of anarchy, chaos and terrorism that the iran knees have established throughout the middle east. it's iran, syria, hezbollah and lebanon. it's hamas in gaza, and it's all mentored or under the -- with the encouragement of the russians no less, and that is an axis that the u.s. is trying to counter by forging and former an axis of its own. the u.s. and israel and saudi arabia and egypt and the palestinian authority in qatar and the united arab emirates. so in that respect, the plausibility of what is called a horizontal escalation, you know, when conflict expands or spreads

geographically, that remains a main concern because aside from what happened in tehran -- by the way, the iranians are going to blame israel no matter what. >> no matter what. >> because if it's indeed -- >> no matter what because if indeed, yasmin, this is a domestic but luch sta knee, the attack, this would make the regime in iran look so bad, they would deny it from now to eternity. they're going to blame israel no matter what. the escalation is right now -- we're on the precipice of an escalation. however, i am not sure that it's going to be imminent. i'm not sure that it's going to be a -- there are other factors here. the u.s.s. gerald ford, the aircraft carrier strike force is being pulled out of the eastern mediterranean according to the u.s. navy. it's being reassigned back to norfolk, virginia. and so there are all these

movements and all these dots that it's somewhat premature to connect them and get a clear picture. >> ambassador alon pinkas i wish we had more time to talk. thank you, sir, appreciate it. i want to turn to cambridge where cludine gay has announced her resignation after weeks of mounting -- and accusations of plagiarism in her work. erin mclaughlin is with us to talk more about this. 700 or so faculty members signing this public letter asking harvard's governing board to resist pressure to remove dr. gay. so what led to this decision? >> reporter: well, it's unclear, yasmin, what exactly went on behind the scenes, especially considering on december 12th harvard's governing body voiced its support for gay.

but allegations of plagiarism soon following. gay then making the decision that this was in the best interest of the university. harvard president claudine gay announced she's redesigning. her departure comes just six months into a turbulent tenure at the university writing in a letter to the harvard community, this is not a decision i came to easily. >> i am claudine gay, the president of harvard university. >> reporter: gay says her decision comes after discussions with harvard's top governing body about unrelenting critics, as well as plagiarism allegations in her academic work which she has denied. writing it has been distressing to have doubt cast on my commitments to confronting hate and to upholding scholarly rigor, two bedrock values that are fundamental to who i am. calls for her resignation

growing. alongside the presidents of university of pennsylvania and m.i.t. last month. this exchange with republican congresswoman elise stefanik going viral. >> the answer is yes, and dr. gay, at harvard does calling for the genocide of jews violate harvard's rules of bulling and harassment, yes or no? >> it can be depending on the context. >> it does not depend on the context, the answer is yes, and this is why you should resign zplort. >> reporter: growing pressure against the university started before that testimony. alumni pulling back donations over the school's response to the hamas terrorist attacks of october 7th. harvard's governing body accepting gay's resignation writing in a statement she acknowledged missteps and has shown remarkable resilience in the face of deeply personal and sustained attacks. tuesday's move spliting the harvard community. >> she lost the ability, at least in the perception of many students and faculty and alumni

to lead the university. >> i think that there were attempts for her to force her to resign for quite some time starting with her congressional testimony. >> reporter: harvard's governing board says the university's provost alan garber will be positioned as the interim president as they search for a new leader. meanwhile gay will remain on at harvard university as a faculty member. yasmin. >> erin mclaughlin for us, thank you, appreciate it. this morning in illinois, mourners have gathered to remember the life of 60-year-old, at the same time a man charged with his murder expected in court for a hearing. 71-year-old joseph zuba has pled not guilty to murder and hate chime charges after he fatally stabbed the palestinian american 6-year-old. his mother was also injured but survived. an intensifying political battle over the border voflg more impeachment threats. we're going to have the very latest coming up next. g to havey latest coming up next.

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here's why you should switch fo to duckduckgo on all your devie duckduckgo comes with a built-n engine like google, but it's pi and doesn't spy on your searchs and duckduckgo lets you browse like chrome, but it blocks cooi

and creepy ads that follow youa from google and other companie. and there's no catch. it's fre. we make money from ads, but they don't follow you aroud join the millions of people taking back their privacy by downloading duckduckgo on all your devices today. moving forward with formal impeachment proceedings against secretary mayorkas next week. a committee spokesperson confirming to nbc news, they're accusing him of ignoring border security measures. when he was asked about it this morning on "morning joe," mayorkas said he was committed to securing the boarder and would cooperate with the investigation. >> before i headed to the hill, i was in the office working on

solutions. after my visit to the hill, i was back in my office working on solutions. that's what we do in the department of homeland security. that's what this administration is focused on, solutions to problems. >> but you will cooperate with the hearings, the investigation here? >> i most certainly will. and i'm going to continue to do my work as well. >> all right, so the impeachment push is also coming as house speaker mike johnson is visiting the southern board we are a -- border with a group of some 60 republicans. julia, let's start with the investigation into this impeachment. what can you tell us about this push and how it could impact negotiations on the border? >> well, it's important to remember that when this started in november, there was a vote. they wanted to bring this impeachment to the floor for a vote, but eight republicans actually crossed party lines to block it. it got referred back to the house homeland security committee, and they are going to start hearings on january 10th that. will be two days after mayorkas

returns from the border. we understand he has plans to go down there on january 8th, and it will be really to try to address what's going on at the border and work on those negotiations. mayorkas is a key voice in that room. he's been spending hours every week if not every day up on capitol hill talking to some of those members, even over holiday break trying to go through not what the biden administration's position is but what the technical ramifications of any policy would be. if you're going to detain every migrant that's crossing the border, do we have the space for that, the money. impeachment is a huge manpower drain at dhs and it's particularly concerning when they do have what you saw was record numbers in december. >> let's talk about what's happening at the border specifically. i know numbers are down this new year. and also we're hearing from the administration reopening four ports of entry amidst these numbers coming in. >> yeah, that's right.

i mean, here we are three days in. i certainly hear from a lot of sources. there's no time to take a victory lap. they do think these numbers will go back up. they've come down so significantly. they are seeing a 2,500 migrants being apprehended just in the new year per day, by border patrol. that's down from 8,000, which was the 21-day average previously. so that's a huge drop. they saw just about 500 arrests in eagle pass. that was an area we used to see thousands coming through. and so now what they're doing is they're able to open up these ports. it's a huge boom for the economy, both on the mexico and the u.s. side of the border! julia ainsley for us, thank you, julia, appreciate it. coming up next, a new op-ed from donald trump in the des moines register as we enter the final stretch at the iowa caucuses. new charges filed against new jersey senator bob menendez, what he and his wife are alleged to have done after federal agents raided their home in 2022. about three or four years ago,

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welcome back. the final stretch before the 2024 primaries, it is here. several gop hopefuls are in iowa ahead of the caucuses on january 15th. new hampshire voters are going to have their turn at the polls just a week later, nbc's vaughn hillyard joining us from outside iran, desantis event in iowa. vaughn, if you will, take us through it. what are we expecting? >> reporter: right, this is the final countdown, if you will, yasmin. there are 13 days left of

campaigning for these candidates and ron desantis is at his first of four events, we are at a suburb west of des moines right now. he will be hopping around the state later today. asa hutchinson is still running for president. we will be hanging out with him later this evening at his campaign event, but you've also gotek ramaswamy who continues to hit town to town, six, seven events a day, but also christi noem making a stop in sioux city, iowa, for the likes of donald trump who when you're looking at donald trump's schedule, it's quite light. he has nothing on the calendar this week until he gets here on friday for two events and then two events on january 6th on saturday, but he's having some surrogates stand in for him on the days he's not here including marjorie taylor greene will be making a campaign appearance as well as his son eric trump. >> vaughn hillyard, thank you, vaughn. appreciate it. former obama campaign manager jim messina joins us, and former republican governor of ohio john kasich.

welcome to you both, thanks for joining us on this. jim, i want to talk about the primary calendar and how important these two races are, the iowa caucuses and new hampshire, in precedent with history here! yeah, look, yasmin, someone needs to move here and become the presumptive challenger to donald trump. desantis's hope was always that was going to be iowa. that's unlikely. nikki haley is betting heavily on new hampshire. precedence says you've got to move and get some sort of excitement. barack obama obviously surprised everyone and won iowa, and then surjd to the nomination so people are going to be looking closely at whether anyone can slow down the donald trump train. >> is there any possibility here, jim, as we're looking at the polls that he could feasibly not win this nomination if, for instance, nikki haley took new hampshire because she's been

surging there? >> i don't think so, yasmin, and the reason i don't think so is because the republicans changed their rules and now have winner take all primaries in these super tuesday states and it's likely he's going to have enough delegates after super tuesday to basically be the nominee. >> governor, we've been talking about the border. the former president has penned a new op-ed in the des moines register talking about immigration saying there's a nightmare he says on the southern border calling it a, quote, unquote invasion. he wrote this, on my first day back in office, i will terminate every open borders policy of the biden administration and immediately restore the full set of strong trump border policies. then we will begin a record setting deportation operation. governor. >> well, i mean, again, it's a very divisive language, and the problem here with the border is both administrations have had these problems at the border. people want to come to america. they want to escape where they

were. we've not done enough to comprehensive immigration reform. one of the things ought to be to allow people to come into the country and leave the country once they've worked. we need more protection on the border but we need more courts. we need a whole number of resources but it has to be done in a bipartisan way. the failure at the border is really rested for a number of years inside both administrations. republicans are going to use the border and say things have gotten much worse. it's a pretty potent issue to be honest with you. >> let me ask you this, speaker mike johnson as well as other lawmakers as well are at the border today meeting with other lawmakers down there with the borders for texas governor greg abbott as well. is there ever a time in which members of congress actually speak with migrants to understand the story, to understand what they are fleeing, the plight they have

faced, the journey they have taken? >> i think that some have, obviously, spent time trying to understand how difficult and excruciaingly difficult some of these lives have been. i think what americans themselves, not just republicans, but republicans or americans would like some sort of a border policy that makes sense. something that is compassionate, but at the same time controls the ability of people to just enter in the united states and then somehow disappear. i think there is opportunity for some sort of a bipartisan agreement on the border, but it's going to mean that both sides have to avoid -- not worry about antagonizing the extremists on both sides and sit down and work this out. i was actually in congress when we came up with a program under ronald reagan. i think it is possible to do one here, and it's necessary to do one, both in the name of compassion and also in the name of making sure that america does have secure borders. there is a path to doing that. >> jim, i want to circle back to the election if we can. i want to talk about the iowa

debate. vivek ramaswamy saying he's not going to participate. i'm being told he wont qualify anyway. the former president is not going to qualify either. this is going to be a nikki haley, ron desantis faceoff. how much of an influence is this going to have on voters in the final days? >> probably very little. the reason is they've seen all these folks repeatedly. they've seen these candidates in each one of their town halls, seen them over and over. the ad buys are huge. you can't pick up your phone in iowa without getting a phone call from one of the campaigns. it's unlikely there's going to be breaking news here, and i find it humorous that vivek ramaswamy is going to take his toys and go home because he can't qualify. that's a little silly, yasmin. >> governor, last one to you, we're take ago look at the president's campaign strategy here. we're learning he's essentially going to go after the former president being a threat to democracy in the run up to the

election. how much do you think this could actually resonate with swing voters? >> yasmin, listen, it all gets down to the pocketbook. good news for joe biden is there are now reports suggesting that inflation is waning. it all gets down to the pocketbook. it always has in every election for president because people are worried about the kind of support they need for their families and can they have a decent future when it comes to economics and the opportunity to pass something on to their kids. so i think those are issues that matter, but the single biggest issue that affects joe biden is the strength of this economy. if it comes roaring back in time, not late, but if it comes back roaring, you know, in time, you know, then he'll be able to take advantage of that. my opinion. >> yeah, it's a big moment for the president in communicating about this economy inflation right now at 3%, just 1% above where it actually should be, unemployment remaining pretty steady as well, and avoiding what everybody thought we would be in right now, which is a recession, actually, doing quite well with markets rallying over

christmas. new jersey democratic senator bob menendez facing a new set of federal bribing allegations, part of a superseding indictment that chooses the chairman of the foreign relations committee of providing assistance to two governments, qatar and egypt. nbc's tom winter is here with me to talk more about this. what else are we learning, tom? >> well, a couple of different things. the first thing to note is this is a superseding indictment, but it's an indictment that raises additional allegations. there's not additional charges here. in other words, we're not talking about the possibility of more jail time for the senator. what they are alleging in these court documents yesterday and what the grand jury decided to indict the second superseding indictment now is this idea that this senator on behalf of a new jersey developer also charged in this case, he's pleaded not guilty, fred day byeses that he solicit add qatari royal that has ties according to the

indictment, to the qatari government asked them to invest with this new jersey developer. what federal prosecutors through this indictment are alleging is that the senator received some of that cash in gold that we've seen over the past couple of months since the indictment was first brought against him, that some of that cash in gold from fred dabies was in exchange for this investment. that's the heart of this. the senator of course has pleaded not guilty. put out a strong statement yesterday. we'll just have to see. >> prosecutors are saying we have more evidence? >> we have more evidence and now they'll also put this on trial, might potentially strengthen their arguments about the type of behavior that the senator has been up to the last three or four years. >> got it, tom winter, thank you, my friend. chilling video from japan showing the harrowing moments aboard a japan airlines flight after it collided with a coast guard plane. th a coast guard plane.

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guard crew members dead. questions still remain over what could have caused the collision. nbc news foreign correspondent janis mackey frayer has more. >> reporter: investigators are pouring over the crash site at haneda airport, which is just behind me. on ground collisions between aircraft are very rare, so they're trying to figure out exactly what went wrong. in the charred hull of the destroyed passenger plane, investigators are hoping to find clues. in a statement, japan airlines says flight 516 from sporo was cleared to land at haneda airport. then, footage from runway cameras show the jet appearing to hit something, bursting into flames and eventually skidding down the runway to a stop.

inside the packed airbus a-350, thick smoke and panic filled the cabin. 17-year-old anton dee was on board with his family and saw flames outside his window. >> finally open the doors and everyone ran out and you had to jump out of the plane. >> reporter: the safe evacuation of all 379 passengers and crew with black smoke and flames billowing over the fuselage has been hailed as remarkable, taking less than 90 seconds. i can only say it was a miracle, this passenger says. while the japanese coast guard's much smaller dash 8 aircraft was on the same runway as the jumbo jet isn't clear. five of six crew members were killed in the collision, only the pilot making it out alive. the plane, due to deliver aid to areas on japan's west coast, devastated by the new year's day earthquakes that have killed at least 64 people. rescuers still racing to save

those trapped in the rubble with aftershocks continuing to shake the region this morning. japan's transport safety authorities along with the forensic team from airbus will consider everything from miscommunication to equipment malfunction to human error. nbc news learned that the voice and data recorders from one of the flights has been recovered. but they're still looking for the black boxes from the other plane. >> all right, thank you to janis mackey frayer for that. coming up in the next hour, i'll speak to congressman ro khanna about the big agenda and bigger fights we can expect on capitol hill this year, immigration to impeachment to keeping the government open. we're going to be back after a very short break. don't go anywhere. g to be back a very short break don't go anywhere. 579 breaths to show 'em your stuff. every breath matters. don't let rsv take your breath away. protect yourself from rsv... ...with abrysvo, pfizer's rsv vaccine. abrysvo is a vaccine for the prevention

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welcome back, everybody. it is 11:00 a.m. in the east. 8:00 a.m. pacific. i'm yasmin vossoughian in for jose diaz-balart. dozens are dead in two explosions that went off as thousands gathered to remember the assassination of a former iranian military leader killed in a u.s. strike in 2020. meantime, new fears of an escalation of the war after the assassination of a top hamas leader in beirut. israel is not confirming it was behind the attack, but says it is, quote, prepared for any scenario. back here at home, former president donald trump's lawyers filing a challenge to maine's ruling that he's ineligible for the 2024 primary