>> i guess my question is -- >> if i suddenly turned around and said no. i do love it. i have seen it once. >> that's normal. >> what he does is not normal. >> well. >> thank you tradition. >> you watched "elf" a million times. i'm not going to watch my own thing a million times. >> what's your favorite christmas movie? >> "die hard". >> yeah! >> okay. >> definitely. >> i understand you completely. >> by the way, she takes a side on that issue too. >> i do. >> and yes, it is a christmas movie. >> fully explained in that answer. the series "black doves" is streaming now on netflix. actress and executive producer keira knightley, thank you very much for coming on the show. right now on "ana cabrera reports," dramatic results in the killing of united healthcare ceo. the suspect now charged with murder. what we are learning about luigi

mangione, his privileged past and the trail of evidence tying him to the killing. plus a rapidly spreading wildfire in california, forcing thousands to evacuate and threatening pepperdine university. students hiding from the flames in the library. we're on the ground in malibu. also ahead. defiant and digging in. trump's pick. but are senators on board? it's 10:00 a.m. eastern, 7:00 a.m. pacific. thanks for joining us. i'm ana cabrera reporting from new york. the manhunt is over. a murder charge now filed against the suspect in the killing of united healthcare ceo. 26-year-old luigi mangione now charged with one count of murder in new york along with gun and forgery charges in pennsylvania. this morning he's being held at maximum custody level in a state prison in pennsylvania. we're also learning more about

the evidence against mangione as investigators piece together how a young man born to a life of privilege in maryland became the soul suspect in a targeted assassination of a health care executive in manhattan. the evidence includes a ghost gun and silencer reportedly found on mangione after his arrest after an altoona mcdonald's along with the same fake id used at a new york city hostel and a reported manifesto. we have reporters and analysts covering every angle. we're in altoona, pennsylvania, former assistant manhattan district attorney and fbi special agent cliff watts are also with us. mangione being held in altoona this morning. what are we learning about his arrest and the evidence police found when they took him into custody? >> reporter: ana, five days after investigators used drones and canines and scuba divers trying to find evidence to find the suspect, it all came down to good old-fashioned see

something, say something. that's what happened at the mcdonald's in altoona when a patron saw something suspicious -- somebody suspicious in the corner of the restaurant, notified an employee that worked there. that employee recognized him from the photos that had been circulating and called law enforcement. the nypd said that particular man luigi was not even on the law enforcement's radar until that phone call happened. according to court documents when altoona police showed up and started questioning him about whether he had been to new york recently, he started shaking and getting visibly agitated. our team spoke this morning with somebody at the mcdonald's when this all went down. here's what he had to say. >> the guy came in the door and i didn't really look at him. i thought it was -- everyone was kidding around. the one guy said, that looks like the shooter from new york. oh, my god. they arrested this guy at mcdonald's. so, then i came back. and i said to the one worker, i

said, was that here? they said, yeah. i said, was i here? they said, yeah, you were sitting over there. >> reporter: now, investigators found several things in luigi mangione's backpack that will lead to discussions of possible motive as we get to that point. he had $8,000 in cash, including four in currency. he had three pages of writing, general distaste of the health care industry. quotes that included, quote, frankly, these parasites had it coming, and i apologize for any strife or trauma but it had to be done. he also stated he acted alone. he had a weapon on him but it's unclear if that's the same weapon used in the murder of the health care ceo. that suspect, as you mentioned, is now sitting in maximum security in a state penitentiary about half an hour outside altoona. >> thank you for that reporting. talk to us about the process now of getting him from pennsylvania to new york to face this murder charge? >> the process actually isn't

very cumbersome. assuming he doesn't agree to come back on his own, which often they don't, then the manhattan da's office will file what's called a governor's warrant -- will seek a governor's warrant. governor hochul, the governor of new york, will ask the governor of pennsylvania, shapiro, to send him back. as soon as they file the criminal complaint, arrest warrant, that allows them to prepare the paperwork for those states to sign off on and bring him back. it also gives them enough time to get the case together to present to the grand jury. so, in many ways, it's a gift they have this little bit of time now. >> we're talking more about the evidence. of course, gary talked about these writings. we learned about the gun, police believe it was a ghost gun. we have understood they recovered several fake ids, including mark rosario, which is the same id he used when he checked into the hostel here in new york city. clint, how strong is this evidence and what does it tell you about potential planning

that went into all of this? >> what's very strange about this is the remarkable amount of planning that this individual put into this shooting, and then up to a point it stopped. that he had still had the weapon on him, that he still had the fake id on him. this essentially ties him back to the crime scene. if that physical evidence wasn't there, it would change it. the other part is he's not trying to evade his connection to it. he has a manifesto there. he talks specifically about his plot. so, kind of a strange twist as he did all these things to hide his action up to the event of it and even to do the egress. and then at a certain point he just stopped. now all that evidence ties him back to the shooting. >> we're learning more about the background of luigi mangione. with we found out he graduated from an all-male high school, graduated with multiple degrees from baltimore. what are police doing digging

into that background? >> the da, the investigators, analysts, his social media presence he apparently has. they recovered devices from a laptop and other devices. they are getting search warrants to go into those devices and any information he has on the cloud. now that he's even identified, they'll trace all of his steps before he allegedly committed this shooting and talk to anyone who saw him, his movements, everything. so, he appears not to be the blue collar dad with the sick child. he appears to be a wealthy, privileged young man. i sense, and he hasn't -- he doesn't have an attorney yet here that there will be some type of mental health defense because it makes no sense. >> our tom winter is also here with us. tom, you've been reporting on this story since it broke last week. and i know you've been looking into some of his digital footprint as part of the evidence police have collected, including some writings on a website called good reads, book

reviews, where he reportedly reviewed the ted kaczynski unabomber manifesto. >> that's right. there's a whole host of things that investigators, now that they have time, the focus the last five, six days, who is this person, can we get him? that's been solved and this individual has been charged. they have the advantage to go back and say, now that we know who it is, what's their online footprint? to your point, they have all sorts of information he has posted online before or, and sometimes even more helpful, what are their accounts, what are the things they're reading, and what are they opining on? in this particular instance, he's talking about the unabomber in his thoughts on the unabomber. that's one thing they're looking into as they try to make sure is this, in fact, his account. and then what does this mean? does it help us with motive or help us understand and could we be looking at other people in the future that want to do what he wants to do? one thing they've been looking at also is a photo of a spine

that has screws in it. is that his spine? was that somebody else's spine? is that another type of thing that could have helped fuel this? when we look at this, it will take a while to sort through all of this. that work is ongoing. we're reporting that. we just have to see what i think in the coming couple of days where this all goes. one of the downsides of him being in the new york court system is they typically don't put a lot of that information in their charging documents. that's going to be a bit of a challenge for us. normally if this was in the federal system, even in pennsylvania, we might get a lot more information as far as what they were uncovering as it pertains to motive should they want to introduce that in the charges in new york state. unfortunately, just the way the law is, has nothing to do with the manhattan district attorney's office. that's going to be a challenge. >> clint, "the new york times" actually has some additional reporting on this. this spinal x-ray that's been circulating online, or at least related potentially to that. and here's what they report out. mangione was in regular contact

with friends and family until about six months ago when he suddenly and inexplicably stopped communicating with them. he had been suffering from a painful back injury, friends said, and went dark. a friend told "the new york times" that his spine was kind of misaligned and, quote, he said his lower vertebrae were almost a half inch off and i think it pinched a nerve, end quote. how significant is this? >> i think it's quite significant for two reasons. one, it may point to motive and why united health, why this direction. even if you look at the other evidence that might be out there in the open source, nothing really points to health care. that's one dimension of it that might be looked at. the other is the dimension that katherine was talking about which is, what was his mental health status? if he's in persistent pain, would that contribute to this or maybe put him in a different psychological state. >> and i also just have to come back to the fact that he had been on the run for days. and it seemed like it was unclear which state even he was in. we know there were authorities in georgia where we thought he may have, you know, ordered a

bus because that's where a ticket originated to new york city. they ultimately tracked him down at this mcdonald's in pennsylvania. katherine, your thoughts on just how he was eventually caught. >> well, it was by chance because, really, they didn't track him down. he was having, you know, food at mcdonald's and someone there, because of the photo that was spread all over nationwide tv and social media saw him. so that's how they got very fortunate. as they say, someone saw something and said something. clearly, he was not hiding. he wasn't going back to hawaii. he was walking around. he even -- the reason why we have a clear photo of him is because he pulled down his mask. that's why we were able to get a clear photo of him when he was at the hospital. >> gary reported out, tom, about the gun that was found on him when they arrested him in pennsylvania. authorities talked about a ghost gun, potential 3d printer involved. what more are we learning about the murder weapon? >> when we say a ghost gun, we

mean a gun not manufactured by a company that is registered with the federal government. in other words, it doesn't have a serial number, it's not from a licensed firearms manufacturer. it's a ghost because it doesn't exist in the federal system. so, they could be made a number of different ways. sometimes people buy a number of different parts for guns and assemble them. in other instances we see people use 3d printers. there have been diagrams online about how to make these. number one, they're unreliable, which is might have been guy the gun jammed. second thing is, did he make it himself? if he didn't make it himself, did somebody else make it? in which case that person could be on the hook for charges as well. that's a question we'll be closely tracking. not specific to this crime, this is an issue law enforcement has been very concerned about for the last several years. the proliferation of these types of weapons and how difficult it

makes it. the fact that it's difficult to trace where these are coming from and how many of them there are. the fact that somebody could not have to go to a store and buy this gun. they would have had a hard time, if they had a name, to be able to run that name and say, oh, de ever purchase a weapon? that might help them solve this crime. if they had a name before this person called it in from mcdonald's, they would have checked that name. they purchased a gun, they purchased almost the exact gun we saw on that camera. in this case it wouldn't have helped them out because this gun is not registered at all. i want to explain and underscore why that's a problem in this particular case. >> clint, yo you are thoughts about the details of the gun. what does it mean for a case like this? >> one of the key things, just what tom is talking about. if you look at the physical evidence, a fingerprint, even the round shot from this trying to trace it with the atf, there's nothing there. there's nothing on record. that's why i was mentioning in the beginning, if he hadn't had

the id, the weapon with him on the scene, a manifesto confessing to it, he could have evaded or this investigation might have taken a lot longer because those things were not easily traceable. i think on the first two days the question was, why is law enforcement not closing on this if they have physical evidence? everyone's fingerprint is in not in a database and accessible. that weapon was not registered in the federal databases in any way. that leaves you with very little to go on. the two big things from ten years ago to now has been in cryptic communications and ghost weapons. those are the two things law enforcement has been struggling with. technology moves forward, how are we going to do these investigations. >> to piggyback on this. we have spoken about the idea of facial recognition and could it be helpful. it's a technology that still requires a photo of high enough quality and other metrics to be able to get those types of

matches. he had no criminal record, as clint said, in new york state. >> he wouldn't have had to have the photo in the system. >> doesn't appear he had a driver's license in new york state. there are different ways he might have been able to access it. this photo is just probably not enough of a high enough quality for them to be able to match in the facial recognition system. there are some other issues with it but we're not in the business of helping criminals. >> it's all fascinating. as we learn more about this case, it becomes more and more interesting and there's a lot of unknowns and more pieces to connect the puzzle. thank you all for joining us. tom winter, clint watts, and more coverage ahead, including more on the suspect. who is luigi mangione. new details from a reporter who talked to his high school teachers and classmates in maryland. plus, the new wildfire threat raging out west. that's already burned over 1,000 acres. this morning is threatening the shores of malibu. also ahead, pushback. who pete hegseth is blaming for

the tough confirmation slog he's facing on capitol hill. later, diplomatic chess. why the assad regime's collapse in syria could be the opportunity to kneecap regional power players like iran and russia. we're back in 90 seconds. 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. e*trade from morgan stanley. ♪♪ with powerful, easy-to-use tools power e*trade makes complex trading easier. react to fast-moving markets with dynamic charting and a futures ladder that lets you place, flatten, or reverse orders so you won't miss an opportunity. e*trade from morgan stanley your parents have given you some amazing gifts, celebrate the ones you inherited with ancestrydna. explore the detailed family roots, cultures and traits that shaped who you are today for only $39.

( ♪♪ ) the best moments deserve the best eggs. especially when they're eggland's best. taste so deliciously fresh. with better nutrition, too. for us, it's eggs any style. ( ♪♪ ) as long as they're the best. eggland's best. ( ♪♪ ) we are back with breaking news out of southern california where a ferocious wildfire is rapidly spreading and forcing thousands to evacuate.

wind gusts as high as 93 miles an hour reported in the area. you can see how close those flames are to residential buildings now in malibu. one of the places that was directly in the fire's path, pepperdine. the worst of the fire has past that area now, according to the university, but you can see, the flames right there as students are walking on campus. and check this out. this is the view from inside the library at pepperdine. those flames literally just outside the window. nbc's liz is in malibu with the latest. >> reporter: this is very much an active fire fight right now. we are here in malibu in the evacuation center right now. you can see behind us here, the smoldering here up in the hills. there's spot fires all around as we showed up here with several fire crews here trying to put out these flames. if look you up into the hills, these is an area with very nice

homes. the fire getting close to those homes. we saw firefighters walking around those properties as they try to save property here. we're next to city hall as well. when they showed up, there were flames all near here. again, firefighters working to keep the flames away. if you can even see own here, we're very close to the ocean, just a couple miles away. pacific coast highway, the fire in certain areas jumped the highway. right now it's about 1800 acres fueled by really these strong erratic santa ana winds that just flared up overnight around 11:00 p.m. last night is when thousands of people got evacuation orders, told to get out at a moment's notice. this really impacted pepperdine university, which is nearby with students having to shelter in place on the university. they had to come to the center of campus where there is -- at the library and cafeteria there. they could even see flames out

the window. that was the safest place for them to go. there's defensible space. these are buildings built with fire resistant materials. still students e saying it was a very scary, tense situation with flames surround, the campus. thankfully pepperdine saying they believe the worst of the fire has passed through that area. again, it is still very active here with multiple agencies across southern california responding. thousands remain evacuated. we do expect an update some time in the next hour. right now this fire remains zero percent contained. ana? >> stay safe, my friend. thank you. up next here on "ana cabrera reports," the picks for fbi, pentagon making their case to skeptics. the new signals to senators about their chances. how middle east politics are being redrawn by the collapse of the assad regime in syria and why it matters here at home. i'll be honest. by the end of the day, my floors...yeesh.

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trump's pick for secretary of defense digging in and vowing to fight on after a swirl of controversies putting his confirmation chances in doubt, including those prior comments that women should not serve in combat roles. hegseth will be back on the hill today trying to convince on the fence republican senators to back his bid. let's go to nbc's dasha burns following the transition, and ali vitali on capitol hill. hegseth is never backing down, taking his case to the airwaves. what's the reaction in trump world to hegseth's pushback? >> yeah, look, ana, as recently as last week it looked like this confirmation could be dead in the water. now there are signs of life. that's because hegseth and the trump team have taken a familiar page out of the maga playbook. defy and deny and take to the air waves. look, one of the controversies that he's facing is that sexual assault allegation. he went on sean hannity last

night to defend himself. take a listen. >> it was fully investigated at the time years ago and i was completely cleared. that's why, you know what, sean, i look forward to the fbi background check. i look forward to the actual under oath conversation with senators as we go through the process because, again, this is what the left does, sean. it's the anatomy of a smear. >> after gaetz pulled out, they don't want to see any other picks here to fail. they really want to make sure they assert that power and that control over these skeptical senators you saw with joni ernst, who was one of those skeptics, a pressure campaign from the grassroots of the maga movement and from folks like donald trump jr. and charlie kirk kind of going after her and saying, look, this isn't going to be easy for anyone who tries

to show resistance here. that's a model that we could see used for some other controversial choices as well. >> we just showed some headlines of the allegations against hegseth. i'm wondering there on capitol hill, who are the holdouts at this point? are all hegseth's meetings making a difference? >> reporter: it looks like curb idea iz dropout is imminent. last week the mood on capitol hill around hegseth's nomination was dark, the potential for him to continue forward as a nominee for this defense department chief position. now it seems some public skeptics are softening, at least in the case of joni ernst who went from a terse readout of his conversation with hegseth to now being a little more open about where she sees this process going and her support of it. listen. >> you're supporting him? >> so, i am supporting him through this process and i'll just refer you back to the

statement. >> is that a yes vote on the floor? >> did you change your mind? >> it was a very productive meeting, though. i think we're just moving through the process. but he does respect that i'm taking the time to -- >> back up, back up. >> did he talk about the allegations? >> thank you. >> did you talk about the allegations as well, senator? >> i'll refer back to my statement. >> two important points to make. first, a little hill speak translation, if you will. when senator ernst is saying, i'll support him through the process, that's not her saying i'm suddenly now seeing the light and backing this nominee. no. she's instead saying, i am going to allow him to continue forward, let's do a public hearing. that's what many of us on the hill are reading into those comments because certainly ernst is a skeptic of hegseth's. the conversation around hegseth is both the policy piece, things like those very comments you showed at the top about not wanting women to serve in combat. there's the policy piece that's controversial about his nomination. and then the character

developments, the questions about his drinking, the questions about his mismanagement of funds at veterans' organizations, the questions around that alleged sexual assault. all of those are in the character column. those are the other piece of the things that hegseth is dealing with that other nominees who are on the hill right now, like tulsi gabbard, kash patel, they have character questions. all these people flooding capitol hill trying to make their case. >> it's a lot to keep up with. we just got reporting in that pete hegseth was asked, did senator ernst say she would support you in your meeting with her? he said i would never speak for senator ernst was his response there. thanks for joining us for the latest. by the way, ali, congratulations on your new role coming up as the new "way too early" morning anchor. coming up, an historic opportunity with considerable risks. how the diplomatic cards are being reshuffled in the middle

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welcome back. an interim government is beginning to take place in syria, two days after rebels swept into power and toppled a

decades long dictatorship. al bashir ran the rebel government. regional powers are acting to secure their interests in bolster stability. nbc news chief foreign correspondent richard engel is on the ground with the latest. richard? >> reporter: the sudden collapse of the syrian dictatorship has changed this country and this region profoundly. the entire map of the middle east is now being redrawn by the hour. this morning israel is using the stunning and swift collapse of syria's dictatorship to take over a buffer zone. new footage shows israeli tanks in the golan heights along contested area along israel's northern border with syria. arab states have denounced the move as an illegal and provocative land grab. israel says it's temporary. prime minister benjamin

netanyahu called it necessary. our control of the golan heights guarantees our security. it guarantees our sovereignty, he said. israel is also bombing in syria now, striking heavily in and around damascus. israel says it's targeting military and scientific research facilities to destroy stockpiles of chemical weapons. israel clearly does not trust the new rebel movement that toppled bashar al assad and doesn't want it to have the dangerous weapons. the rebels' leader once commanded an al qaeda faction but split from the group years ago. abu mohammed al golani is still considered a terrorist by the u.s. and in the turmoil of syria taes 's collapse, the parents of austin tice say they have renewed hope. >> in chaos there's opportunity. this is an opportunity and it

feels stronger than any that we've seen or felt in a long time. >> reporter: thousands of syrians are also searching for their relatives. and this morning they came to the notorious prison to search, but all they found were nooses. they call this a human torture device that prisoners, like this man is demonstrating, could be put on this slab and crushed in order to torture them. in another torture room, this woman showed me a photo of her son missing for ten years. he was sentenced for being a militant. my son was a nurse, she says. despite all their searching, families got few answers. no prisoners were found alive. this is one of the most brutal prisons i've ever seen and now it's being exposed to the world in all of its horror.

>> incredible reporting, richard engel. thank you. next, a high school valedictorian, a upenn graduate, now the suspect in the shooting death of a health care ceo. who is luigi mangione? who is luigi mangione? patrick! patrick! people was tripping. where are you going!? he was actually saying goodbye to his old phone. i'm switching to the amazing new iphone 16 pro at t-mobile! it's the first iphone built for apple intelligence. that's like peanut butter on jelly...on gold. get four iphone 16 pro on us, plus four lines for $25 bucks. and save on every plan versus the other big guys. what a deal. that's a lot if you ask me. ya'll giving away too fast t-mobile, slow down.

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in the hour since police caught you up with the man now charged with murdering a health care ceo in manhattan last week, a complicated profile of the suspect is beginning to emerge.

with new details about luigi mangione's privileged maryland upbringing, his elite education and the trail he left online. nbc's sam brock has been looking into mangione's background. take us through everything you learned in the last 24 hours about this person. >> one of the most surprising aspects of all of this is the deep social network. the fact he went to an ivy league, penn, was a fraternity brother, had friends across the country. in hawaii lived in a co-living space. developed deep relationships there. we're talking about someone who is highly intelligent, highly educated and also have a provocative and long trail of social media posts. overnight in new york, luigi mangione was charged with murder in the death of united healthcare ceo brian thompson. it comes after a multiday manhunt led police to altoona, pennsylvania, where mangione was taken into custody. authorities finding three pages of writing which say, in part, frankly these parasites had it

coming. a senior law enforcement official briefed on the investigation confirms to nbc news. the writings also include a line that says, i do apologize for any strife or traumas, but it had to be done, the official said. now more background on the suspect's past emerging. his family carving both financial and political footprints in baltimore where they own two country clubs. and his cousin, nino mangione is a republican legislator. >> thank you for being here to celebrate founder's day. >> reporter: he attend the the private all-male school in baltimore. he was also ivy league educated. the university of pennsylvania confirming he earned a bachelor's and masters in engineering. investigators say they're doing a complete scrub of mangione's online post, including good reads, where he quoted this take of the unabomber. when all other forms of communication fail, violence is necessary to survive. mangione calling it interesting. and a post elsewhere of an x-ray

of a back. two senior law enforcement officials tell nbc news investigators are looking whether it belongs to mangione and whether it has anything to do with his crime. his last known address was in honolulu. a friend from hawaii told cnn mangione struggled with back pain. >> he confirmed he had surgery. he sent me the x-rays. >> reporter: another friend telling "the times," his family said they had not heard from him in several months after his surgery. a friend from college telling nbc he's shocked. >> he struck me as another ivy league student who enjoyed going to frat parties, good looking, confident. nothing particular about him. >> police affirming today that mangione had no criminal history, ana. they say initially he was cooperative with responding officers and then was not cooperative after that. >> sam, you've been covering the story since the very beginning. do we know anything? are we learning what he's been up to at all in the days since the shooting? >> this is fascinating that police right now are reaching on

you the to people in the public with pictures to say, please provide any information you have about his whereabouts when he was in pennsylvania. what we found out last night is they believe he went from new york to philadelphia and pittsburgh and altoona. some back and forth in between but they are trying to retrace his steps. the fact there is still this much ambiguity at this stage of the investigation as to where he was, tells you there's a long way to go. >> specifically, what do they want to know about his time in pennsylvania? does he have any ties in pennsylvania? >> maryland, ties to san francisco, hawaii. why pennsylvania did he have contacts there? certainly he went to college there. he spent four years at the university of pennsylvania. undergraduate and masters degree there. perhaps there were some contacts that he could have been in touch with. this is someone who literally according to people that knew him said went off the grid for at least six months. from friends, family and then suddenly he's now in this position. >> do we know anything more about the bus trips he took coming into new york or exiting? >> right. we also know greyhound was

mentioned a bunch of times. they said they're cooperating with investigators. there is no actual video of him getting onto a bus from the gw bus terminal. so it's still unclear as to what path he took. all of these are relevant questions. >> i know there's a lot of questions you can't answer and authorities have an answer. one of the questions i have, too, given he spent days in pennsylvania. he went to college there, you mentioned. and we don't know what he was up to. have authorities ruled out he had help? >> so, he says in this document, according to the multiple law enforcement documents, he acted on his own. it's still something being explored right now, whether or not there could have been an accomplice. there was video image of mangione on the street, 54th street, prior to the shooting on the phone. could he have been communicating with someone? to this point law enforcement says they don't believe he was working with another person. it was done on his own. but is not a closed case, at least that's the impression we're getting. >> sam brock, thanks for your reporting. good to have you here. for more on what we're learning

about the suspect, i want to bring in dan diamond of "the washington post." dan, i understand you went to high school, the same school as mangione, where he was valedictorian back in 2016. you didn't know him permanently but i know you've been in touch with teachers and classmates. how are they reacting to this news? >> i should hasten to add, we didn't overlap. you can see the gray noo my beards. the teachers i talked to spoke very highly of him. they said he was a leader, charismatic, optimistic, obviously smart and someone they never would have expected. i talked to a teacher that said it felt like a gut punch. this is someone that could have been changing the world for the better, not sitting in a jail cell today. >> you have also spoken with community members in maryland where his family is from, who are familiar with the mangione family, as sam laid out in his piece. they are very well known and entrenched family in that community. what did you learn about his life and upbringing? >> they are well known. i've been reporting on the

united healthcare killing for a week. as soon as the suspect's name was mentioned, i recognized the last name. there is a foundation in maryland that has donated to a number of hospitals, civic causes. they own some country clubs. they owned a hospital where i believe my dad worked at a time as a physician. his upbringing was very privileged. it was a path that led him to the ivy league and seemingly to success until these past couple of years. i think that's going to be a big focus of my reporting today, trying to understand where things turned for luigi mangione these past couple of years. >> looking at his background from a wealthy, well connected family, ivy league educated, seemingly well liked, a successful student and athlete. reportedly played soccer, ran track or cross-country. you're a veteran reporter. does anything in particular stand out to you as someone who also knows that area he's from well? >> i'm about to head up to baltimore after this so i might have more answers on that.

i will say there's a lot of anger towards the health care industry. and some good reasons to be angry. there are people that can't get the care they need. they get bills that are too high. the popularity of the health care industry in america, according to a gallup poll out on friday, is at an all-time low in the 24 years since they've been doing that poll. it's not an excuse for violence but i think it explains why we've seen this outpouring of emotion. even some celebration as misplaced as it might be, about what's happened this past week. >> as you head up to maryland, what are your key questions? >> i want to know what happened to luigi the past couple of years that took him off the path he was on. i'm curious to talk to people who knew luigi and his family. i'm hoping to catch up with them soon. >> dan diamond, thank you for taking the time with us. good luck in your reporting. back now to our breaking news of wildfires raging in southern california. take a look at this new video. we just got this morning. flames literally just a few

hundred feet away from people's homes. knbc reporter lauren coronado just filed this report from malibu moments ago. >> reporter: we're on pch right now, which is closed off, of course, for this fire. you can see where it is still burning here on the hillside right now. still threatening, from what we understand, 2,000 homes. just a terrible situation. we were able to talk with neighbors who had to evacuate, a lot of them who woke up to sheriff's deputies knocking on their doors. they said they grabbed whatever they could, pets, documents. they were able to make it to safety. unfortunately, they are still monitoring their homes. some from pch, watching the flames burn very close to their homes. i was on sara road not long ago, which is one of the communities heavily impacted. and i saw at least two homes burned to their foundation. it was just really difficult to see those images.

>> all right. that was knbc reporter lauren coronado with that reporting. the latest on the wildfires burning in southern california right now. they're still dealing with tremendous winds, the santa ana winds creating even more of a dangerous situation. we'll stay on top of that. also ahead up next, what president biden is doing today to make sure president-elect trump doesn't try to take credit for some of his accomplishments. nothing brings us together like eggland's best eggs. always so fresh and delicious. plus, superior nutrition. for us, it's eggs any style. as long as they're the best. eggland's best. jon hamm: in this as lofamily, we choose best. to be here for each other. because here at st. jude, we believe there are families who were born into and families you choose, families who choose to show up, lift up and never give up. one in five kids still won't survive cancer. it takes all of us together to give them

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welcome back. in just a few hours, a court hearing that could have major implications for reproductive care across the country. a federal appeals court will hear arguments in the case of u.s. v. idaho. the justice department sued idaho over its strict abortion ban back in 2022 arguing it conflicted with a federal law requiring care for emergency room patients, including pregnant women suffering complications who require abortions. the supreme court had this case earlier this year, but then sidestepped a ruling on the merits, sending it back to the lower court, meaning emergency abortions in idaho have been allowed to continue for now. in just a little over an hour, president biden will deliver one of his final economic speeches, arguing his policies have delivered for americans and boosted the country's long-term economic prospects. one official tells nbc news, the

speech is partly intended to prevent president-elect trump from taking credit for economic wins that started under this administration. nbc news senior business correspondent christine romans is here to discuss. hey there. >> hi there. >> it sounds like president biden is really arguing that when the history books are written, it's going to look favorably upon his economic policies. of course, voters didn't necessarily feel the love in that department. the ballot box. what are the arguments for his basis and what he thinks history will write? >> this is about joe biden's legacy. and the white house has been really optimistic about the story they have to tell for about the past year. but the public has want been optimistic about how they feel about the economy. but they're going to tick through -- he will tick through his economic achievements like 16 million jobs created, the lowest unemployment rate in 50 years, average unemployment 20 million new business applications, ticking down the line here. there's even a new website,

whitehouse.gov/economies where they are showing these visuals to people, saying, take a look for yourself how this record compares with predecessors and how this is changing the playbook, they say. we're at an inflection point as he's in the lack weeks of office and he changed the playbook from just tax cuts and trickle down to building an economy, as you've heard him say before, from the middle out and bottom up. i think this is a farewell economic speech. >> are there some things in the biden administration that take longer to be felt and so the full impact hasn't been realized? >> you look at bipartisan infrastructure, something that happened early in his administration. some of those projects haven't begun yet. shovels in the ground will happen next year, the year after. the c.h.i.p.s. act, investment in c.h.i.p.s. just starting to get under way. there are some things in his economic agenda that will start playing out. you're in the early innings of those. unless, of course, the next

administration tries to undo those investments in green energy or rebates for green energy investments and the like. i think this is putting down a marker on what has been accomplished. i think we'll hear -- we heard the president's advisers say for some time is that the u.s. recovery is much better than the rest of the world. certainly better than the other developed nations. they all suffered that big inflation spike. not just the u.s. many blame inflation of the u.s. on joe biden. you look at the charts of inflation in other countries, it looks exactly the same, but the recovery has been better here. i think you'll hear the president say that today. >> bottom line is donald trump inheriting a strong economy? >> he is. and he has a very different kind of outlook and playbook for what the next chapter will look like, including tariffs, big deregulation, which could be good for some industries. certainly good for the stock market. tariffs could raise prices for american consumers. you know, donald trump has said he told our own kristen welker, he knows he was -- he was

elected with a mandate about the border and about prices, grocery prices and the prices we pay. but some of his other policies, including the border and tariffs, could actually raise prices in other parts of the economy. it's a fascinating sort of changeover and handover. you're seeing some numbers we're showing that show in normal times the strength, underlying strength of the american economy but the american psych y the american confidence about the economy has been lacking for some time. >> kristen romans, as always, you do a good job explaining these things to us. we appreciate it. that does it for us. we'll see you tomorrow. you can catch our show online around the clock on youtube and other platforms. thanks so much for joining us. o. thanks so much for joining us. good morning. it is 11:00