natural as they leave their apartments and go on this adventure to the island and go in the forest and encounter fireflies, they cross an ocean together. and i think it is about how we -- the human need to, one, connect with nature and, two, how there is a responsibility to take care of each other. >> and this is a musical comedy, by the way. this is, like -- >> i'm laughing, i'm laughing. >> we're talking about what the show is about, but the story, yeah, we set with this future scape with robots and you think that sounds so silly, but the same thing if i was trying to explain to you without it being popular "phantom of the opera," "the lion king" or "sweeney todd," "wicked," on paper, they're absurd, but there are characters that are so enduring that more than meets the eye. >> and critics pick. >> and the new musical "maybe happy ending" is playing now at the bolasco theater getting

raves. darren criss and michael arden, thank you, guys, thank you both for being here. and thanks to all of you for watching this morning. that does it for us today. ana cabrera picks up the coverage right now. today. ana cabrera picks up the coverage right now the police report detailing sexual assault allegations against donald trump's defense pick as pete hegseth heads to the hill with vp elect jd vance to court gop senators. the debate over the matt gaetz ethics report embroiling washington. democrats taking their fight to make that report public to the house floor. also ahead, more breaking news from d.c., the fbi director and director of homeland security backing out of a hearing set for this hour in the senate. the dramatic back and forth over the 11th hour cancellation. and later, the international criminal court issues arrest warrants for benjamin netanyahu and his former defense chief.

we'll have reaction from israel. f we'll have reaction from israel. good morning, it is 10:00 eastern, 7:00 a.m. pacific, i'm ana cabrera reporting from new york. we begin with major new developments in washington as another polarizing cabinet pick descends on capitol hill. right now pete hegseth is trying to win over republican senators to become donald trump's defense secretary. and he has vice president elect jd vance offering an assist. but ahead of those meetings, more details are coming to light about a 2017 sexual assault investigation, which ended with hegseth not being charged, but six years later, he did pay an undisclosed amount to his accuser. the 22-page police report is now public. and it includes explosive allegations, police interviews with the accuser and hegseth as well as key text messages. no charges were filed.

hegseth denies the allegations. and his attorney maintains the 2017 encounter was consensual. the trump transition team did not immediately respond to nbc news' request for comment, but as for these new details emerge, nbc news learned trump's transition team is speeding up efforts to name a reliable pick for the pentagon's number two spot, according to two officials familiar with the planning. nbc's vaughn hillyard is covering the trump transition in florida. ali vitali is tracking all the movement on the hill. also with us, founder of the so what substack chris cillizza and "washington post" senior national political correspondent ashley parker. vaughn, take us through this police report and the response from hegseth's camp. >> reporter: right, this report was released late last night by the city attorney of monterey. this is an account that goes back to october of 2017. and, of course, this is details that are coming directly from the police report here in which no charges were ultimately

brought against hegseth, though several years later he did settle and provide money to jane doe in this report. we do not have the name of this woman, but throughout the report she is referred to as jane doe. there is competing stories in this police report over the course of 22 pages in which at a conference that jane doe met hegseth it is detailed in here that hegseth says that over the course of many hours, they ultimately left the conference bar, they went to the hotel pool and then ultimately went back to a room where they engaged in consensual relations. jane doe, however, described to police at the time in this 2017 report that she met hegseth at a bar, that there was another woman who was with her, because hegseth gave off creepy vibes, is how the report described it, and that ultimately she said she had a little champagne, had a few other drinks, did not remember having hard liquor, and

then that's when she believed that there was some sort of a drug that was slipped into her drink because it became fuzzy from there, but she said she remembered going back to a hotel room with hegseth in which they engaged in sexual intercourse and that it was not consensual, and that she had repeatedly said that she did not want to engage and that's when she left the -- ended up leaving the hotel room and several days later went to the hospital. and, again, this is where the police report outlines there was video surveillance that included seeing these two individuals, hegseth and jane doe, walking with arms linked in the 1:00 a.m. hour that night. these competing stories, again, led to no charges. but if you look at the statement from hegseth's attorney and all of this is so relevant with hegseth literally on capitol hill here as we speak, tim parlatore, the attorney for hegseth, writing this is a situation where consensual encounter occurred.

the transition team here for donald trump stood by hegseth saying that they believe his account of what took place. this is all here, coming at a moment in which hegseth is defiant, through his attorney, but also himself he's completely innocent and up on capitol hill now this is ultimately who he is going to have to make the case to, these particularly republican senators if he wants to get confirmed. >> already, vaughn hillyard, thank you for bringing us that reporting. so, ali, this report is now public. these details about the sexual misconduct allegations, what is the state of play with hegseth there meeting on the hill with senators this morning? does this change anything? >> reporter: we'll see. we know that senators were certainly aware of these claims, though they certainly have much

more texture to them now in seeing these text messages, police reports corroborating witnesses who spoke to what they saw and who this woman was around, including hegseth on the night of this alleged encounter. so we'll see the ways that senators either question hegseth or don't. i will tell you, we have seen sort of a downplaying already of these allegations in the form of one senator, senator haggerty, leaving a meeting with hegseth and vice president-elect jd vance in the last few minutes where he likened this current moment to one we all followed very closely in the past. that was then supreme court nominee brett kavanaugh, now haggerty coming out of this meeting with hegseth saying it is a he said/she said moment and seeming to downplay the allegations here. there are many meetings that hegseth is going to have to have and it is a very similar dynamic with gaetz, where if their

nominations go through the typical process here on capitol hill, they will have to go through a committee, and then be voted out of committee in order to then advance to the full floor vote. many of the people on the committee are likely the people that hegseth are meeting with today, but there are several meetings that i think are of particular interest to me and one of those is with senator joni ernst who is a veteran herself and hegseth is carrying the baggage of saying he doesn't think women should be serving, but then also the fact that ernst herself is a sexual assault survivor and has detailed her experience in that capacity as well. so she is one of the senators on the committee that hegseth would have to go through, in addition to a republican senator that would have a vote on this. she is someone i'm watching closely in the meetings and as the days go on tries to get himself on more fertile ground. >> let's play that sound of

haggerty emerging from his meeting. listen. >> did you talk to him about the sexual assault allegations? >> it is a disgrace -- those allegations that are he said/she said, this is a case that has been dismissed. this is judging up something to try to smear a candidate, reminds me of what happened to brett kavanaugh. >> you heard him say it was a he said/she said case. ashley, do you see this police report swaying any senators or will they argue no charges, nothing to see here? >> well, again, of course, it depends on the senator and as ali said someone like joni ernst likely to have a different take, a different perspective, perhaps a higher bar than someone else. i was just struck by the comments referencing now justice

kavanaugh because to me, i remember reporting on that moment at the time and when he came out during his confirmation hearings and he was angry and he was furious and he was fighting, denying the charges of sexual misconduct against the women who had made them, and that was the moment that turned the tide for him in a positive way. that was what republican senators responded to, and more relevant that was what then president donald trump liked to see. he wants to see someone who fights against these charges, and denies them and gets angry and is defiant, much the way he has behaved when he has faced similar allegations. and so, if you're performing for an audience of one, which, again, these members need to perform for an audience of slightly larger than one, this is what president-elect trump wants them to do and that's why i think we should expect,

regardless of the police report and any other details that come out, that's what we should expect to see going forward. >> chris, yesterday it was gaetz, today hegseth, how helpful are the face to face meetings? >> i think you always have to remember that the senate is just like high school. it is just a bunch of relationships, right? it really is. i see ali laughing, but i think it is generally true. you know, it is all relationship-driven. i would urge anyone who doesn't know much about politics but is interested in it, go and sit in the senate gallery for ten minuring a vote. the pairings of people talking, you'll be, like, wait, i thought that person hated that person. this is about personal relationships. it is harder to hate or vote against someone who you see in person. so, yeah, i think they can help. the one thing i note is, for all of the oddness and weirdness and

radicalness of the donald trump second presidency, this is in some ways a very traditional washington cabinet nominee scandal, which is this person is picked, revelations come to light we didn't know about, there is more reporting on it that he had paid this woman, though denying that he had done anything, and this is -- we see this -- i hate to say it, more often than not, not to downplay the allegations in any way, it does happen. usually it means this person doesn't make it. donald trump's universe and donald trump defied political gravity so many times that i don't think we can bet on that now. but in some ways it is like a very traditional scandal for a very nontraditional administration. >> so, we just got a tweet from senator john barrasso following his meeting with pete hegseth and he says pete is a strong nominee to lead the department of defense. we had an excellent discussion about the need for america's military to remain the best in

the world. i look forward to pete's hearing in a vote in the senate in january. so, he has some momentum perhaps there on the hill, after what we're hearing from a couple of republican republican senators who had meetings today. matt gaetz was going through the senate meetings yesterday. he came out of those voicing optimism as well. watch. >> going great. senators have been giving me a lot of good advice. i'm looking toward to a hearing. folks have been very supportive and saying we're going to get a fair process, so it is a great day of momentum for the trump/vance administration. >> that's gaetz's spin. what are senators saying about their meetings with gaetz and what happens next regarding that ethics report in the house? >> reporter: senators, even those who we expect to be reluctant or even potential no votes to gaetz have all sort of said the same thing when i and other members of our team here have talked to them, they're open to giving gaetz a fair

process. you heard the former congressman mention that in his very brief readout of what his meetings looked like yesterday. for example, listen to the way senator joni ernst, an interesting figure, not just in the hegseth nominating contest and also as it relates to gaetz, listen to how she talked about this yesterday evening. watch. >> he will go through a very fair confirmation process with senator grassley and i think a lot of this will get flushed out then. >> did you actually talk to him about allegations, i mean, concerns about the allegations? >> yes, he volunteered that. >> i asked him why kevin mccarthy hated him. >> you did? what was his answer? >> he said he wasn't truthful and in various promises he made. i was curious. all i said to him was that there were not going to be any secrets here. everything is eventually going to come out. >> reporter: so it is unclear

how he means that. i heard from thom tillis who said whether or not the ethics committee report is actually transmitted to either the senate judiciary committee or the public in any kind of fashion, the general allegations are widely known at this point. of course, i think it is different for some lawmakers and certainly for the public to see it in the form of tangible documents that a house ethics committee was able to procure as well as witness testimony and the like. but the house ethics committee yesterday was not able to come to a conclusion on whether that report would be released. and so they will meet again after the thanksgiving break, whether or not this is directly on the docket, i think it is fair for us to assume it is, it is rare for us to know what the ethics committee is talking about, what they're meeting about. we rarely know until they are ready to tangibly release something and that's what makes this moment such a departure from the traditional way of doing things on capitol hill. i also just want to make one point when it comes to these very early comparisons to the kavanaugh moment that we're hearing from some senators.

there is some really clear intangible differences here, pete hegseth actually paid a settlement to this woman, his lawyer is saying that it is because he wanted to keep his career, but there are some really tangible differences including the police report, including that settlement, that make this less of a he said/she said from many decades in the past, as it was with kavanaugh and christine blassie ford, and this current moment that we're dealing with. i want to level set at the outset while we're starting to hear the comparisons, there are differences. >> so important to point out that distinction. ali vitali, thank you for doing that for us. thanks for your reporting. keep us posted there on the hill. i know you're going to continue to work it. former president clinton sat down with msnbc's jonathan capehart and he weighed in on trump's cabinet picks. watch this. >> he's interested in people who are loyal to him 100% of the time no matter what the issue, no matter what the facts, no matter who gets hurt.

he wants people who just say yes. and then get after it. first. second, he believes that his supporters have no confidence whatever in the federal government. and lord knows he's done everything he could to destroy that confidence. >> chris, are you expecting massive transformations to be carried out at these agencys? it is one thing to blow things up, but another to rebuild. is there a day after plan? >> yeah, well, i think the blow things up part is definitely going to be attempted. it is the rebuild thing i really wonder about. i always go back to the one and only debate we had between kamala harris and donald trump, where he was asked about healthcare and he said, yeah, well, i have the constructs of a plan. which means he has no plan. again, it is much easier to say we need to get rid of the department of education, we need

to get rid of all the civil service employees, even we need to get 11 million people who are here illegally out. the question is, all of those things have real world impacts. and how do you handle that piece? i do agree with former president clinton there in that i think that, look, donald trump ran on a promise and belief that washington and experts and elites are rotten to the core and that the only way that you can affect real change in your government is to put people in these critical jobs who would never be picked by the democratic president, for sure, but another republican president. so, he didn't hide the ball. he did say he was going to do these things. i don't think we should be shocked. i do think you hit on it, it is, okay, like, yes, we take a sledgehammer and knock down a wall in my house. well, now there is a hole in my

house. and i need to do something to fix it. i'm not sure that stuff has been fully fleshed out yet. >> i want to give v everybody a look behind the scenes. we have a photo of ete hegseth's meeting with senator barroso right now. as we take a step back and you look at trump's selections, many that have been controversial so far, you have gaetz, hegseth, rfk jr., they have all faced sexual misconduct allegations. you also have elon musk sued by former employees for sexual harassment, linda mcmahon named in a wwe sex abuse lawsuit. what do you make of that? >> well, first of all, the tone is always in any administration or any campaign set by the person at the top. and donald trump is someone who has made clear he does not consider these sorts of scandals, controversies, allegations, disqualifying in

any way. and going back just briefly to something chris said earlier, he is right on the one hand that these are sort of traditional ways or controversies of nominees, someone selected, something comes out, and often they would go down. but i do think it is important to note that the thing that normally traditionally would come out is something far more benign, like they had a nanny who they paid under the table instead of through a payroll system in paying taxes, or they had a house cleaner who it turns out was in the country illegally and they hadn't fully vetted that person's papers. very rarely are so many of the controversies of this magnitude and part of the reason in the case of someone like pete hegseth is because trump's team did absolutely no vetting where the traditional vetting you would do where you find out, you know, this person i would like to choose has these allegations against him, there is a police report that looks pretty devastating, as ali pointed out,

he paid a settlement to keep this woman quiet, even though he claims he did nothing wrong and it was consensual, normally the president-elect and his team would know this was coming and they would make a decision not to choose that person because of this. >> ashley parker and chris cillizza, i appreciate you both, thanks so much for the discussion. big news from capitol hill, where we are also learning the fbi director and homeland security secretary have refused to appear at an open senate hearing. the chairman of the committee, a democrat, calling it shocking. plus, the path forward for democrats, i'll talk to former governor martin o'malley, who is looking to lead the dnc, about his vision for the party. also, thousands without power from a bomb cyclone out west. why folks are not out of the woods just yet. stay with us. we're back in just 90 seconds. stay with us we're back in just 90 seconds. [♪ take a little ♪] giving without expecting something in return. ♪

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we're back with breaking news on capitol hill, where christopher wray and the homeland security secretary alejandro mayorkas are refusing to appear before a senate committee this morning. that hearing had been planned for months, but this is an 11th hour back out. in a statement the chair of the committee democrat gary peters saying, quote, for the first time in more than 15 years the homeland security secretary and the fbi director have refused to appear before the committee. their choice to not provide

public testimony about their department's efforts to address wide ranging national security threats robs the american people of critical information and the opportunity for public accountability. let's get over to nbc's ken dilanian for more on what's going on here. ken, senator peters says this is a, quote, shocking departure from tradition. is it? >> it is fairly shocking. in part because this hearing had been planned for weeks and it was only on monday that these two top officials decided that they weren't going to testify in public. and they did so both on the house version of this hearing and the senate version. and it is pretty clear what is going on here. these two men are not expected to continue for very much longer in their jobs and these congressional hearings are very unpleasant for them. they get grilled by members of both parties on all sorts of issues. they even get death threats in some cases after these hearings. so, they're choosing not to appear in un. the fbi is saying in a statement to us that they have provided lots of information in public

settings over the last year about all kinds of threats and that's true. but this was a chance for the taxpayers to hear from these people who work for them, about significant threats facing the nation and they're not going to get that chance. >> mr. mayorkas, he was a biden appointee, he will leave his post when the next trump administration begins, we know governor kristi noem is tapped to be donald trump's nominee for that position. trump himself appointed director wray. it is interesting they seem to not see eye to eye anymore. he's on the outs. what has wray done or not done that has trump so unhappy with him? >> clearly donald trump has been savaging the fbi for several years, calling it corrupt and unethical and a lot of it relates to fbi involvement on those two special counsel investigations and then which resulted in indictments of donald trump and, of course, christopher wray signed off on the fbi search of mar-a-lago, which donald trump has denounced. it is interesting, you know, he

did hire chris wray and for a long time during the trump administration, wray managed to survive and navigate the choppy waters. it does seem like from everything we know donald trump wants to bring in somebody who is going to take the fbi in a different direction. the potential options it a wide range between a figure like kash patel, a maga bomb thrower, and a figure like mike rogers of michigan, a former fbi agent, former army officer, headed the house intelligence committee, a mainstream pick. it remains to be seen what donald trump does here. but from everything we can tell, it does seem like chris wray will not serve out his ten-year term. >> ken dilanian, thank you for staying on top of that reporting. joining us now is former homeland security security secretary jeh johnson. thanks for coming in. we have so much we can discuss. let's start with this hearing cancellation. what is your reaction in the fact that, you know, we're even hearing from democrats say this is shocking and really back, you know, no traditional path.

>> well, first of all, nothing on capitol hill shocks me anymore. the operative phrase in that statement you just showed us was public testimony. my understanding is that the secretary of dhs and the fbi director are willing to provide some form of threat assessment in a classified setting. >> and let me stop you for a second, we have a statement attributed to the fbi saying fbi leaders have testified extensively in public settings about the current threat environment and they believe the committee would benefit most from further substantive discussions and additional information that can only be provided in a classified setting. >> correct. and i'll also add what ken alluded to, mayorkas is on his way out, it is reported that the fbi director may be on his way out. and they probably simply don't want to subject themselves to

the circus that has become congressional hearings. and frankly, i've been through these threat hearings myself for a number of times now when i was in office, with all due respect to chairman peters and some other members of the senate, these hearings are not a meaningful exchange of information. it is political accusations, and innuendo and, you know, you can -- they can do a printed unclassified statement to convey threat hearings and i'm sure they have in multiple different contexts. so they're on their way out and probably thinking why do i need this? >> on their way out. >> they won't say it, but i will. >> fbi director christopher wray may be on his way out, a trump appointee. what kind of instability does it create if he ends up fired? >> so, all kinds. this transition period is even more unsettling than the one we went through eight years ago with an incoming trump

administration, which i was part of, i was part of the outgoing administration. and you have an entire bureaucracy and justice defense, odni, dhs, that are all very, very anxious about the leadership that may be coming in the door. and we can talk about each of the individual nominees. i have thoughts about that. >> what is your biggest concern? what are you worried about most? >> well, i have a number of concerns. one, first of all, we're having conversations about settled claims of sexual assault, and not for public house ethics committee investigation, claims of paying prostitutes for people who are being evaluated for the most important powerful positions in our united states government. we're not talking about hiring somebody for a blue collar job with all due respect to blue

collar jobs. we're talking about hiring somebody for the most important positions in the most powerful d the discussion has ld. degenerated into whether or not somebody -- a nominee paid a prostitute and whether or not a nominee engaged in sexual assault. and it is not, frankly it is not the answer that lindsey graham puts forth that just because the president is of your same party, he gets a pass on nominees. the senate has a constitutional obligation to advise and consent on a nominee, irrespective of party. i went through three presidential appointments, senate confirmations, and i certainly did not get a pass when i was nominated by a democratic president and confirmed by a democratic majority senate. the vetting is and should be quite extensive, down to the

nationality of the person who cleans your house, to the summer job i had when i was age 18, the vetting should be -- >> i guess the question is, even if that vetting were to turn something up that is more egregious than what we already learned, will it matter when you have someone like donald trump selecting people who in many ways don't have the experience or resumes that are traditionally the type that you would expect for these positions? >> correct. all of that sensational stuff aside, which deserves to be aired, you take the nominee for the department of defense, frankly i do not believe he's qualified for the job. the department of defense is the largest department of our government, 1.3 million active duty service members, something like 3 million employees, the largest budget of our government. i was the general council of that department for four years, before i became secretary of

dhs. congressional relations, inspector general reports, organized training and equipping the largest military, close to the largest military in the world, and you're in the war fighting chain of command, part of the national command authority. that job, in my humble judgment, takes someone like a bob gates or leon panetta, not someone with all due respect to cable news hosts, a cable news host. we're losing sight of that. we're losing sight of the senate's obligation to evaluate the basic qualifications of the nominee. >> let me ask about something that you have a lot of experience in when it comes to the department of homeland security issues of immigration and border security, let's talk about this mass deportation plan. one trump campaign official saying there will be changes at a pace that is, quote, like nothing you have seen in history. and here is trump's pick to be

his border czar on fox news last night discussing what will happen if people try to stop them. >> first of all, those people who say they're going to stop us from what they're doing, they will not. i'm going to do this job, men and women are going to do this job, you're not going to stop us. let me give you a word of advice, if you impede us, there is going to be consequences. >> a key part is partnering with local and state authorities. how do you see this playing out? >> so, tom homan used to work for me. he was director of i.c.e. enforcement operations. and what you just heard makes for good cable tv. but it is not the reality on the street. even tom would say, and has said, that you have to have enforcement priorities in who we remove from this country and the

enforcement priorities, whether it is a trump administration or an obama administration or biden administration, our public safety, national security threats and recent border crossings, you have to start there. you just have to. >> you think he's just blowing hot air? >> well, it becomes a question of resources. and i would much rather see ero going after those who are already in jail, who are then deportable, once they finish their sentence, because they're undocumented, national security threats, gang members, recent border crossers, and going after somebody who has been in this country 10 or 12 years, committed no crimes, have children who are born in this country, who are u.s. citizens, simply turbocharges the sanctuary cities movement to make it harder to work with local law enforcement on getting at the priorities, on getting at the public safety threats because local law enforcement, their city councils will tell

them do not cooperate with i.c.e. >> former dhs secretary jeh johnson, thank you so much for coming in. appreciate it very much. some breaking news now in the middle east this morning. the international criminal court is just issued an arrest warrant for israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu for alleged crimes against humanity and war crimes. the icc also issuing warrants for israel's former defense minister and the military chief of hamas. let's go to nbc correspondent raf sanchez in tel aviv. walk us through these allegations and the arrest warrants and what reaction we have seen from netanyahu. >> reporter: this is a real bombshell from the international criminal court, the icc, they say having studied the evidence presented to them by prosecutors, there are reasonable grounds to believe that both netanyahu and israel's former defense minister yoav gallant committed war crimes in gaza, specifically, they were accusing these two leaders of

using starvation as a weapon of war, by blocking humanitarian aid to palestinian civilians and they are saying in some cases israel deliberately attacked palestinian civilians inside of gaza. so this means netanyahu is now in a lonely club along with vladimir putin of major world leaders who are wanted by the international criminal court for war crimes. netanyahu is denouncing this as he's calling it an antisemitic decision by a corrupt prosecutor, by biased judges. i want to read you the statement that his office put out earlier today. they say, no anti-israel resolution will prevent the state of israel from protecting its citizens. prime minister netanyahu will not give in to pressure, will not flinch and will not withdraw until all the war goals set by israel at the start of the campaign are achieved.

practically, ana, it is very unlikely that we are going to see netanyahu in handcuffs, in the dock, at the international criminal court in the hague, in the netherlands anytime soon. but this does mean that netanyahu may not be able to travel to countries that are signed up to the icc. so that is the uk, france, germany, all of western europe, he could still travel to the united states. we are hearing from the white house they are saying they fundamentally reject this decision by the icc to move ahead with arrest warrants. we're likely to hear something similar from the republican side. some republican senators have talked about sanctioning the chief prosecutor if he moved ahead with these warrants. this is a major, major moment in this year-long plus war. ana? >> thank you. and we also have updates on ukraine's war with russia. u.s. officials now throwing cold

water on ukrainian claims that russia launched an intercontinental ballistic missile overnight. in what would have been the first use of its kind for a weapon like that since the war began. a u.s. official with the military officer with knowledge of the matter tells nbc the missile was actually an experimental intermediate range ballistic missile which has a shorter range. this attack, though, does come after ukrainian forces were finally granted permission by the biden administration to launch u.s.-supplied long range missiles inside russia. just days ago. u.s. officials had temporarily evacuated and shut down the u.s. embassy in kyiv out of caution and that has since reopened. next here on "ana cabrera reports," it is not the economy or the border that is taking priority on capitol hill for republicans right now. it is transgender people using bathrooms. now how the only transgender lawmaker is responding to the gop's new bathroom ban. plus, democrats looking to

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powering possibilities. welcome back. on capitol hill, house speaker mike johnson's now officially backing republican congressman nancy mace's stance calling for banning transgender women from using women's bathrooms in congress. johnson saying, quote, women deserve women's only spaces. this just escalates the push for mace, just weeks after delaware sarah mcbride became the first transgender candidate to be elected to congress. and joining us now from capitol hill, nbc's ryan nobles. ryan, why are republicans picking this fight now and what are we hearing from their apparent target, representative-elect sarah mcbride? >> reporter: well, ana, you have to believe that this is the outgrowth of what we saw play out on the campaign trail, where

republicans made the issue of transgender rights a major part of their pitch to voters. you saw the new president-elect donald trump using it in the tag line to many of his ads that ran incessantly during the campaign season and republicans believe that resonated with voters who are still uncomfortable with the growing rights that transgender people have across the country. and at the center of all of this storm is sarah mcbride, who is set to become the first transgender woman of congress when she is sworn in, in january. she won an election in delaware despite this rising tide of opposition to transgender rights. and i talked to her before the election, and she was very specific with me that she didn't want the whole focus of her time in congress just to be that she happens to be transgender. she wants to focus on economic issues and quality of life issues and echoed that in a statement yesterday after speaker mike johnson came out with this new policy that specifically states that anyone on the capitol campus must use

the bathroom that is associated with their biological identity. this is what mcbride said in her statement, she said, i'm not here to fight about bathrooms. i'm here to fight for delawareans to bring down costs facing families. like all members, i will follow the rules as outlined by speaker johnson, even if i disagree with them. and speaker johnson also said that he believes that mcbride should be treated with dignity. he pointed out she has her own private bathroom in her office, or she will once she takes office and there are unisex bathrooms throughout the capitol, many are not readily available and not necessarily close to the house floor. so this is an issue we saw play out in the campaign and now the real world consequences of that divide happening here on capitol hill. ana? >> ryan nobles at the capitol, thank you. what is next for democrats after their stinging defeat in the 2024 election cycle? well, one of the first steps

deciding who will yo oversee th party's path fort ward as the d chair. my next uest, joining us now martin o'malley who earlier this week was the first candidate to throw his hat in the ring to be the next dnc chair. we heard lots of explanations for what went wrong in november. some democrats say the party moved too far left to on culture issues, others say not enough focus on the economy. what do you think went wrong? >> well, i believe that, you know, there is going to be a proper after action to get to the answer to that question. but from the many state chairs, congressional leaders, governors i've spoken with, it would appear we became disconnected from the concerns of working people and the most important place in america, which is the kitchen table of every family. democrats win when we chart a forward course that makes life better for the hard working people of our country.

and we got away from that and we need to reconnect to it at the same time we rebuild our party on a 50-state basis from the ground up. >> so let me dig into the details and how you do what you just said needs to happen. we know noncollege-educated voters broke for trump over harris 2-1. the problem is in front of you. i want to play what former president bill clinton told my colleague jonathan capehart about how democrats just aren't talking to voters in a way that is relatable. take a look. >> right. >> politics is the only business in which you can prove your authenticity by not knowing anything. you know, and i think that's a problem. and we pay for it unless we get over it. but that's a problem for the democrats too.

we have to learn to talk to people in ways that they can relate to. >> so, governor, how does the party win back working class voters? >> we have to engage. we have to engage with voters and appreciate unlike some of our cynical consultants that they actually do want to have a conversation about economics, how it impacts their own jobs, how it impacts the costs of things they have to buy in order to keep a roof over their children's heads. look, i ran for governor for re-election right after the last recession. it was hard every day to have those conversations because people weren't feeling it. but we had those conversations. we linked the choices we were making as democrats back to the reality of the kitchen table. and we want -- i won that election by two touchdowns. there are places all over our country where many of our candidates did that so well, like, for example, leader jeffries flipped six house seats and each of those candidates

made the kitchen table argument about why our choices are better for their families. and that's what we need to do. and this time of fear, where a lot of americans are more afraid of the future than they are hopeful about the future, that puts an additional burden on us to chart the way forward and to make sure we lay out the actions we it take as a people, so our economy works for everybody. it is not money. our economy is people. and we immediate need to talk t about their economy. >> ruben gallego was a bright spot for your party, winning a tough race in arizona. i want to play what he said about the disconnect between the democratic party and many latino voters. >> i think we are missing two things that were very -- in 2024. la tino men feel very insecure about their position their

families. during covid we shut down businesses and we had too make sure we were keeping -- spread of covid. if we don't answer the economic pressure, the bottom line pressure that these men have, and it is not just latino men, men in general, we will continue having these problems. >> what are you going to do about that if you're dnc chair? >> well, about the separation and the sense of alienation that people aren't being listened to? that's true across the country. and it is that atmosphere that fear takes hold. ruben gallego was a great success and he was listening and he was there on the border and as a party we need to listen to our leaders on the border who understand that we must do both comprehensive immigration reform and a secure border so we can have secure communities, so we

can stop the flow of fentanyl and give resources to our agents that are on the border. so, this is the way forward, but we can't -- until people know that you're listening, and that you care, they don't care what you have to say. and we need to do a better job of the party, we need to learn from this. we need to focus our message on jobs, opportunity, and the actions we can take now to make progress for every american from the reality of their own kitchen table. >> former governor martin o'malley, thank you for your time. appreciate you joining us. up next on "ana cabrera reports," a 1-2 punch of storms, thousands without power on the west coast, from a deadly bomb cyclone. flooding, landslides and hurricane-force winds all still possible. in the northeast, finally some relief, three months without steady rain and 300 brush fires in new york city. we're tracking both of these storm fronts. stay with us. we're tracking bote storm fronts stay with us

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welcome back. now to those massive storms hitting coast to coast, in washington state, two people are dead and more than 300,000 don't have power as a bomb cyclone slams into the west coast. meanwhile, parts of the midwest and the ohio valley are forcing -- are forced to face these whiteout conditions as the season's first snowstorm hits. while the northeast is welcoming some long overdue rain after a months long drought and multiple wildfires. nbc's sam brock is in brooklyn, new york, with more on this. hi, sam, what are people dealing with this morning? >> reporter: sure, ana, good morning. it was heavier rain overnight, on and off so far today, but just the fact that we're talking about rain in new york right now is a win, ana, because earlier this week for the first time in 22 years, new york city declared a drought warning. i'm standing in prospect park right now, this rain continues to come down, this place was on

fire a couple of weeks ago, now, though, the fire risk for the whole area is declining steeply. this morning, two major storm systems slamming both coasts. the rain overnight, a sight for sore eyes in the new york metro area, mired in historic drought. those dry conditions leading to hundreds of brush fires, including the jennings creek wildfire that chewed up more than 5,000 acres. >> no words for it, you know, for what, almost three months now without any steady rain. >> reporter: while the rainfall douses a weeks long fire rescue, the northeast is still dealing with the severe drought that has prompted a slew of precautionary measures in new york city, from a ban on fireworks to voluntary calls for water conservation. the storm sweeping through a region desperate for water, from the northwest to all of new england. >> we're excited to have any rain we can get. >> reporter: out west, washington state feeling the full force of a bomb cyclone,

cutting power to nearly 400,000 customers that could last for days. at least two people also killed by falling trees, including a woman outside of seattle who died when one crashed into her home. just to the south, whiteout conditions in weed, california, near mount shasta, a small taste of the several feet of snow expected to blanket the region. northern california residents trying to prepare. an atmospheric river event could bring up to five feet of snow in the mountains and up to 15 inches of rain in parts of the golden state. and nbc's steve patterson is in fortuna, california. >> that river behind me, a foot high, but scientists say for the next 48 hours it is going to rain so much that will be 23 feet high, submerging that entire area. it is a great example of the flood threat that people are facing at this moment. >> reporter: in the meantime, close calls have jolted several communities, including kelso, washington, where a tree puncture a roof nearly killing this mother's two children.

>> it is hard. it is a lot. it is. i wasn't here to protect them. >> reporter: back now on the east coast. and there have been some encouraging developments that includes the new jersey forest fire service lifted all fire restrictions across the state with the caveat that they are asking people not to be complacent and the jennings creek fire in new york had its emergency declaration lifted. the city of new york also saying no more fireworks, and certainly precautions being urged for folks including no open flames heading into the holiday week. ana, back to you. >> a lot going on across the country. thanks for wrapping it all together. that's going to do it for us today. woo el we'll see you back here tomorrow, same time, same place. i'm ana cabrera reporting from new york. jose diaz-balart picks up our coverage next. new york jose diaz-balart picks up our coverage next.

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