trump's second term has previously petitioned the government to revoke its approval of the polio vaccine. is this creating waves in the senate that could hold up senator kennedy's confirmation? >> i think so. i'm not sure that was the smartest move on rfk junior's front. mitch mcconnell is a polio survivor. if you want to -- same point with kash patel and pete hegseth, you want mcconnell to support your nomination, probably best not to attack the thing that mcconnell thinks is really, really key. he is a survivor of polio. >> faithfully expected to save something problematic can be done by supporters, criticizing

the fda and food coloring, waiting until waiting until the most polarizing things like vaccines. i think you will see a sharper steer away from more controversial topics. >> okay, hugo, thank you so much for that. and for all of you at the top of the hour, we will begin with breaking news with president- elect donald trump, who is mingling with his allies and some controversial cabinet picks on the sidelines of the army-navy football game in landover, maryland. just ahead of the kickoff, there you see him waving to the crowd a number of people in that sweet with him. we've seen jd vance and his wife, senator john thune, speaker mike johnson, we can see him there to donald trump's right. you can see they are a couple of people over. we see the pennsylvania senator elect dave mccormick. that you see jd vance to the president-elect left. let's go to nbc, right there for us at northwest stadium.

let's talk about all of this and the kind of reception he is getting. you are there, tell me what it's like. >> reporter: i can tell you just from the tailgate and the hours leading up to this, you definitely saw donald supporters here. there was nose shortage of donald trump hats and flags and other things of that nature. people here are excited he has come. those who are not too excited were more so unhappy because of the enhanced security was put in place because it was his attendance here. i don't know if you can hear it, but we heard the cheers when he was shown on the screen. so he definitely has no shortage of supporters here, as he is joined by a coterie of allies, as you have named, from elected officials like mike johnson, senator thune, senator elect dave mccormick. also florida governor ron desantis is expected to be here today. and also, plenty of his potential cabinet picks. we've been told that tulsi gabbard can make a appearance, director of national intelligence. we also know that ramaswamy was

here, chosen to lead the department of government efficiency. and one controversial name we've been talking about, pete hegseth, is also going to be here today. of course here after appearing on capitol hill over the last couple of weeks in a bid to woo republican senators who at times a bit hesitant about supporting him. we know that as of now democrats are prepared by all likeliness to not support his bid, for reasons that adam smith laid out earlier today. representative out of washington, for bigoted views, as he put it. take a listen. >> this sort of ticketed, outdated thinking that pete hegseth had exhibited. not 20 years ago when he was a college student or something. i'm talking about in a book that he put out a year and a half ago, two years ago navy. allegedly he has been saying behind the scenes now, i would never do such a thing. but i don't trust him, and i

don't trust the trump administration to not give in to the far right. >> reporter: now, those views that the congressman were referring to obviously had to do with past comments by hegseth that were critical of the idea of women serving in combat roles in the military. he has since walked back to remarks. but the views were said to have made a couple of the republican women serving in the senate hesitant and reporting him. we know he has been a lot of time with one of them, jody artz, of iowa, and seems to have done some damage along the front. we will have to see how much that pays off in the next couple of weeks. >> just giving everyone a sense of who all is in there, we see the cameras moving around, but you see donald trump speaking with mike johnson, speaker of the house. you also see jd vance to the president's left, and just to his left, we saw pete hegseth, so we can confirm he is there. and somewhere in the back if you look over the shoulder of donald trump and mike johnson, there is tulsi gabbard . so we can confirm, we have eyes on

them all for you. thank you so much for that. who else are we going to? all right, we have alexi coming up right now, i guess. let's go to you, alexi. again, host of the podcast in sync with alexi. we're going to talk about trump's time magazine interview, including how far he plans to push the limits to enact mass deportations. so let's chat about this right now, and if you look at president-elect trump and his coterie of supporters there, talk about this crew that he has surrounded himself with at the army-navy game in landover, maryland today. >> alex, good to see you, welcome back. my first thought is that it is surprising to see jd vance. because he has been pretty much in the private i for the last several weeks since the election. and we have seen the likes of elon musk and the back ramaswamy spending more time publicly with president trump

and we have with the incoming vice president. so it is good to see them together, i suppose. and of course, mike johnson, and the house of representatives, has proven to be a staunch ally of donald trump and willing to go to whatever length it takes to get through his agenda. >> can i just ask, if you are a fly on the wall in that stadium sweet, what would you be listening for? or do you think is going to be all jovial? it is football, that's what it is? >> yeah, i think it could be a little light, but as you were talking about earlier, president-elect trump is continuing to make announcements from the sidelines, and focus on who he wants to surround himself with even more. i mean, obviously these folks have a lot that they need to get done in the coming weeks, in terms of convincing people, senators, most importantly, that they want to confirm people like tulsi gabbard sitting next to him, pete hegseth standing next to him.

those two figures in particular have really been controversial, and it is still an open question whether or not they will be able to get them confirmed. so the light conversation they may be having now is great, but they will have to get to work very soon. >> how much do you think putting all this as a visual, you are seeing the president- elect and seeing the team that he wants to be surrounding him in this administration. how much does seeing them altogether solidify their chances in the senate? almost like a veil complete. >> i think that is what we have known or come to know about donald trump, is he will stick it out and get what he wants in the end, even if it takes some sort of stiff arming of people who even consider themselves to be allies of his. and it looks, he is not afraid to not only appoint people who are facing various allegations or controversies that might take another nominee, but he wants to be seen with him

publicly, to your point, and sort of welcome these people into the fold, no matter what other people are saying, no matter the questions or controversies coming up with these people. and i think we are going to see a lot more of that throughout donald trump's second term as president. i feel like being re-elected has just shown to him even more than he felt before that he can do whatever he wants. >> point well taken, as usual, with you. don't go too far, we are going to come back with you in just a few minutes. but thanks for jumping on camera on us to talk about what we were seeing there in landover, maryland at the big sweet in the army-navy football game. we will go back to the suspect charged in the death of united healthcare ceo brian thompson. luigi mangione is bolstering his legal team by adding a top veteran attorney as he faces extradition to new york. we are also waiting for manhattan prosecutors to file a

criminal indictment, in fact, at any moment. a new report says mangione is keeping to himself and does not have access to a television while in lockup in a maximum security prison. let's go to nbc's priscilla thompson in hollidaysburg pennsylvania for the very latest on legal proceedings. priscilla, another welcome to you. one we hearing from new york officials? what are they hoping to achieve? >> yeah, alex, new york officials are being very clear that they want to bring him back to new york to face those murder charges that have been filed against him. we heard from the manhattan district attorney earlier this week, saying that they have some indication that he could waive extradition and potentially be in a pennsylvania court as early as tuesday in order to do that. but that is contrary to what his attorney said in court this week, saying that they would be fighting extradition. but of course, we now know that he has this new attorney representing him in the new york part of this case, a high- powered new york defense attorney, karen friedman. she

is someone who works in the manhattan district attorney's office for seven years as the chief assistant district attorney. she comes with a lot of experience in all of this. we did reach out to her team to see if they intend to fight this extradition or not. they declined to comment on that. they also declined to be interviewed by us. but i want to play for you what mayor eric adams had to say about this earlier this week. take a listen. >> we committed to upholding the law and relentlessly going after those who break it, including the investigation of last week's brazen killing of united healthcare ceo brian thompson here in town manhattan. i know the d.a. is going to alluded to that, but this morning i was briefed by the police commissioner. he has not waived his extradition yet. we are going to continue to move forward. but he should be, and i will

continue to say, be prosecuted here in new york city. >> as we await the possible extradition hearing, you heard mayor eric adams saying it there, you heard the manhattan d.a. saying it earlier this week that they are still pushing forward on all accounts here and that there is the possibility that they could be looking for a grand jury to hand up and indictment as early as this coming week. alex? >> okay, priscilla, thank you so much for that. a bit later this hour i will be joined by the president of rady, chris brown, to dive into what exactly a ghost gun is. that is the weapon allegedly used in the shooting and how accessible they are in the u.s. all this breaking news, as well. former speaker nancy pelosi is on the mend after undergoing hip replacement surgery overseas this morning. that is according to her spokesperson. pelosi was injured during a congressional trip to luxembourg. joining us now from capitol hill we have nbc's gary graham buck with an update. what the speaker pelosi's update looks like? why has your

team been so tightlipped about the details of how this injury happen? >> yeah, hip replacements are easy for anyone, let alone an 84-year-old. i am sure will get more information about her recovery as she gets back in the u.s. in the coming days. but it may be a few days. this all started friday, midday, and luxembourg when she was over there for a congressional delegation of official events marking the 80th anniversary of the world war ii battle of the bulge. the white house sent folks over, congress sent folks over, she was part of the congressional delegation. she reportedly fell at the grand palace, where the grand duke of luxembourg lives. she was taken to a local hospital there and luxembourg, and medevac over to the area around ramm stein air force base, to a u.s. military hospital there. that is where her spokesman says she underwent her hip replacement surgery in the past few hours. she is on the mend, her spokesperson today calling it a successful surgery, thanking the folks, both at ramm stein air force base and the folks in

luxembourg for their well wishes and their support and their medical expertise. the hospital she was in in germany is the largest american hospital outside of the u.s. so she was certainly in good care. no word on exactly when she will be making it back to the u.s., but i imagine it will be several days, given she is 84 years old and it does certainly take some time to recover from hip replacement surgery. >> listen, crossing the atlantic is a tough flight, either way you look at it, that makes it doubly, triply more difficult. thank you so much for that update. why donald trump is backing off his big promise about the price of your groceries. we are back in 90 seconds. period ng fun these days? family cookouts! ♪♪ playing games!

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14 past the hour with breaking news. president-elect donald trump is attending the annual army-navy football game being held in maryland, as we give you a live look at the suite in which we know the president-elect is occupying right now, along with others that would include incoming vice president jd vance , who is there. he is expected to bring daniel penny as his guest. penny was recently acquitted in the chokehold death of jordan neely on the new york city subway. also in the crowd, florida governor ron desantis, who was reportedly being considered as trump's secretary of defense if pete hegseth's nomination gets withdrawn or he does not pass in a confirmation hearing. meantime, we have new insights

on trumped mindscape plans to deport millions of undocumented immigrants. in his person of the year interview with time magazine, trump said, quote, i will only do what the law allows, but i will go up to the maximum level of what the law allows. it comes as nbc news reports the trump administration plans to scrap long-standing policy preventing ice from arresting undocumented people at sensitive locations like churches, schools, and hospitals. joining me now, once again, we have alexi mccammon, msnbc political analyst and host of the podcast in sync with alexi. thanks for coming back with us, and as we have donald trump also saying the law prohibiting the use of the military for domestic law enforcement quote does not stop the military if it is an invasion of our country. and i consider it an invasion of our country. how far can we expect them to push the limits, and how strong our existing safeguards? and by the way, is the word invasion clearly defined

relative to this or not? >> yeah, i mean, it is tricky. of course i feel like any president-elect is not going to admit in an interview that they might try to break or bend certain laws, especially as it relates to immigration, one of his signature policies since the first time he ran for president. but we also know that donald trump and the people he is surrounding himself with, namely the folks behind project 2025 and others, have already made arguments to the tune of we are living in a post- constitutional society. they have already made arguments that they can interpret laws and define things in ways that benefit their agenda. so it might sound like it is legal, or like it is lawful, what they are thinking of doing. but we know that donald trump has broken laws, we know that he has tried to get around safeguards in the past, and we know that immigration, and especially pulling off what he has referred to as the greatest mass deportation of illegal

immigrants or immigrants in general, really, this time around, is something that he wants to be part of his legacy. he cares so deeply about numbers and facts as it relates to what he has accomplished or what he hasn't. we can expect him to go to great lengths to make that number of mass deportations as high as it possibly can be, as he said himself he is willing to do the maximum amount, because of the things that he cares about. >> i am curious what you think about him backtracking on his assurances to bring down prices. he now says it's going to be very hard to do it. why do promises like that work so well with the american public, even though we know politicians often overpromise? why is it that americans are willing to believe something when you say well, logistically, how is it going to be done? and any politician will skirt answering the question and they are like well, he said he's going to do it.

>> it is so interesting, especially when you consider back to the campaign when kamala harris became the democratic nominee, she put out an 82 page plan for her economic policy and her economic vision, and that was after people were sort of demanding and saying hey, we need more specifics for what you're going to do. and yet, to your point, donald trump would often just say these general statements, sweeping statements like your income will go up, insurance will go down, the price of groceries will go down, women won't have to worry about anything, don't worry about abortion or reproductive rights. everything will be safer. you will have no illegal immigrants in the country. he paints this picture that feeds on the feelings and fears that people have. and he's really a businessman at heart, who thinks about things in terms of marketing and branding. and when you have built this persona as a quote unquote successful businessman, that allows people to believe what you are saying, even when you don't have specifics. now, i think it will be really interesting is if we start to see his own supporters turn

against him if and when they are in the thick of, god forbid, an economic recession, but a situation in which they cannot afford basic groceries because of tariffs and other things that donald trump himself is either doing explicitly or basically admitting now that he can't do, like bring down the price of groceries. >> he was also asked about project 2025, and he said it was inappropriate for it to be released before the election. he also said he had nothing to do with it, but he did not disagree with many parts of it. do you think he was likely frustrated that it got so much publicity and revealed much of the plans for his administration? >> yeah, i think to his point, he says in there, it, located the election. and that is referring to how much coverage project 2025 got, the exact intentions they had with their sweeping policy agenda that they laid out. it is easy for trump to sort of say look, that has nothing to do with our campaign, because

technically it did not come from his campaign. so that is fair. but it is not fair to suggest that he had no idea who they were, or what they were proposing, or that it had nothing to do with what he would ultimately want to do as president. because now we know he is not only following certain things that they have put forward, but he is hiring people for announcing that he intends to hire people who are the architects of project 2025. >> and speaking of hiring people, last question here, because trump has appointed multiple members of his extended family to government posts. you have kimberly guilfoyle, engaged to donald trump jr., although multiple reports this week say they have broken up. she is being tapped as u.s. ambassador to greece. trump's son-in-law, jared kushner, charles as a method of france. and when you combine trump's extended family with some cabinet picks with scant experience, what happens when the government is filled with his inner circle instead of people with careers in diplomacy and actual expertise?

>> extreme fealty to donald trump and fulfilling whatever wishes he has, whatever winds he decides. and i think it is striking how many members of his family he has appointed. it is striking that he is appointing people to these top cabinet positions don't have nearly enough experience to hold those positions. and that is especially concerning when you consider the way in which trump and his allies have proposed overhauling, sometimes ending or abolishing these different agencies in his image. and as long as he has yes-men and yes women around him, i think the sky is the limit for what trump and now his family running the government, running the country will do. >> extraordinary times. glad you are here with us, though. thank you very much, alexi mcammond. what we know about the prospects of peace with the new leaders of syria. for easier heartburn relief, one beats ten.

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breaking news, in the future of syria's government today, u.s. secretary of state antony blinken met with several leaders of arab nations to support a peaceful transition of leadership in syria. it comes less than a week after several rebel groups overthrew the 50 year assad family regime and nowhere to consolidate power. joining me now with more , we had nbc's matt bradley joining us from damascus, once again. who did blinken meet with today, and how will the u.s. continue pushing for syria's

future when he returns home stateside ? >> reporter: this is been a meeting of people, diplomats throughout the region. mostly in those countries that are bordering syria. all of these meetings by blinken focused on syria and the fate of this brand-new government, of which there is quite a bit of concern. because while this government has been welcomed by the people here, and i can tell you, welcomed with open arms. teeple here are ecstatic. there's a lot of anxiety, particularly among diplomats about their past associations with al qaeda, with islamic states, the fact that they are actually listed terrorists in the united states and other european countries, including in one of their backers, turkey. the fact is that this is an effort that is still ongoing, and we are also still talking about diplomacy going on elsewhere, in the gaza strip. antony blinken addressed that, as well. his efforts to finally, after well more than a year, secure some kind of deal that would secure the remaining hostages and bring a measure of peace to

the gaza strip. here's what he said. >> i also use the meetings we've had over the recent days with our counterparts encounter, in egypt, to press forward on the agreement of the release of hostages from gaza and a cease-fire, as i did earlier this week in turkey. we continue to work relentlessly for that goal. >> reporter: i can tell you, alex, the big bombshell that he dropped his that he is actually in touch with the islamist group that took over damascus and ousted president bashar al assad, whose family has ruled this country with an iron fist for the past half-century. as we have seen with other places where the u.s. has had negotiations with hezbollah, with hamas, the americans can have negotiations listed with designated terrorists, but it has to be done with intermediaries. and there's a big effort by western countries, international advocacy groups, and eight agencies to try to actually delist with some caution from the terrorist designation, so that the new

government here, which no one knows that much about, will be able to communicate with the international community. >> that was a bombshell, i'm glad you classified it as such. thank you very much, my friend. 20 right now, we have dana strohl, research director for the washington institute of policy, and former deck at terry secretary of defense for the middle east. we know that the u.s. has been looking for information on the missing american, austin tice. how does the state department go about go gathering any leads among the fall of the assad regime? there has to be a level of chaos going on there. does it reach out to rebel leaders? is it up to our intelligence community? where do we start? >> thanks so much for that question, alex. what is so heartbreaking about this story is that austin tice's family has repeatedly gone public this week and talked about firm, credible evidence that they believe he is still alive.

and in that very press conference with secretary blinking today, what he said was that entities within the u.s. government are talking to hts, the rebel group that is in charge of syria right now, in order to locate austin tice. they even send a representative from the state department to lebanon to actually try to coordinate. so i think there is both intelligence agency communication and diplomatic negotiations to locate austin, which just shows you how committed the administration is dividing him. >> i was going to say, that is clearly a priority. so, the biden administration used the chaos during the assad's regimes last hours to strike isis targets. will the administration and the incoming trump administration work with a new syrian government to keep suppressing isis? or do you think the u.s. will keep acting on its own discretion? >> well, right now u.s. forces, there's about 900 in syria working with an entity called the syrian democratic forces, which are predominantly syrian,

but also arabs. they are there to continue doing military strikes against isis, but also the syrian democratic forces are maintaining custody of 9000 isis fighters who are still in detention. and also displaced persons, there is 40,000 women and children who still would like to go home. and until the world has a solution to those two groups of people, the enduring defeat of isis is not achieved. president trump has talked about the u.s. having no role in this fight and getting out, but i think we have seen at this point is that what happens in syria does not stay in syria. so we need to continue to keep pressure on the terrorist group. >> and matt bradley touched on this, but officials are mulling on lifting the terror as a nation from the syrian rebel group hts, and the $10 million bounty from its leader. what are the challenges establishing a working relationship? can there be trust between both

parties this early? i mean, he is saying positive things, but is that enough to start talks? and last question, i'm throwing a lot at you. would trump restore the terrorist designation once in office? >> i think at this point, the assessment is that hts and its leader is saying the right things about governing in a way that is reflective of the will of all syrians, regardless of ethnicity, religion, geography, et cetera. and secretary blinken actually laid out criteria that the u.s. is looking at in order to move forward with hts, which is that inclusive governance, continuity and services, making sure that syria does not become a base for al qaeda or other global jihadist groups to export terror and planet terrorist attacks. and also the security of the chemical weapons stockpile from assad that we still have not completed. i think it's also important to remember there is a u.s.

terrorist designation, but also united nations terrorist designations. this is not something that one country can decided on its own, it's the entire security council. and that is going to take some time. >> okay, thank you for clarifying that last point. i do want to turn to the drone sightings at home, because reports indicate numerous sightings in maryland, connecticut, new jersey, pennsylvania. house speaker johnson was given a classified briefing as state and capitol hill officials are calling for transparency. the white house has downplayed the sightings, saying dhs, fbi, state and local law enforcement have not corroborated the sightings and don't believe they pose a threat. and yet, is there something we don't know publicly, which speaker johnson may have learned in his briefing? from what you know, what is your assessment here? anything to be concerned about? >> well, i certainly cannot speak to what happens in classified briefings. i think what is important here is if the american people are concerned, then the u.s. government needs to be concerned

, and they are investigating it. but when it comes to different aerial phenomena that are flying around u.s. military bases, whether in the united states or in the middle east, that base commander has all the authority he or she needs to shoot it down if it is believed to be a threat. and that is what we do in the middle east. i think part of what is happening in the united states is that around these critical installations it is not yet deemed to be an imminent threat. so the administration is not at the point of taking military action. they want to be methodical about it and make sure they know what they are dealing with. >> and also, where they to shoot it down, it may injure people on the ground. they've got to be careful with that, too. good to see you, thank you so much. next, what can be done to regulate ghost guns in the wake of a ceos murder. . with liberty mutual. customize and sa—

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new details and the rest of united healthcare ceo murder suspect luigi mangione, reveal a homemade weapon. police say mangione made a ghost gun made from a 3-d printer and assembled it from a kick purchased online. mangione is currently being held in pain after being denied bail. his next hearing is scheduled for december 30th. joining me now is our friend, chris brown, president of brady, an organization dedicated to reducing gun violence. chris, i want to get right into

this weapon used in the attack. what exactly is a ghost gun? what sets it apart from the typical firearm? is it the materials used? is it the anonymity of this gun? and do these differences make ghost guns more or less dangerous? >> thanks for having me on, alex. yes, ghost guns are un- serialized, untraceable guns. they are showing up, or were showing up until president biden issued a rule regulating the sale of ghost guns in crime scenes across the country. just to give an example, in 2017 there were nine ghost guns recovered at crime scenes in baltimore, in 2022 there were 518. so what we saw are these kits being sold, because ghost guns, and until president biden has this regulation regulating ghost guns, the sale of these kits, not fully finished firearms, but kits, which allow people to assemble a gun, was not regulated. so people were buying these un-

serialized, untraceable guns with no background checks at all. president biden change that. that was in effect, but it is being litigated and it is before the supreme court right now. >> oh, boy. so are they expensive, these kids? are they hard to create? this gun with 3-d printed. can anyone just make one at home? >> well, the 3-d blueprints were the subject of significant litigation. president trump in his first term basically said to the justice department we are not going to enjoin the access to 3- d blueprints, so that anyone could print a gun at home. brady and other organizations stop that from happening. and right now you are only supposed to be able to access 3- d blueprints if you have a special license from the department of commerce. i think we need to look very carefully at that, though, alex. because this particular shooter, all of the reports indicate that he actually accessed some of the designs to

be able to print out parts of this firearm at home, on a 3-d printer, and other parts of the gun he assembled with a kit that he purchased, apparently, online. all of this needs to be looked at very closely, and congress needs to act to regulate these pieces. there is legislation pending right now to ensure that 3-d blueprints are not easily obtained, that they are unlawful. you cannot access them. and we also need to eliminate entirely any market for ghost guns, we need to pass the untraceable firearms act, which would do just that. >> but let me ask you, legislation the potentially went past relative to ghost guns, will be effective without a broader sense of legislation on gun regulations, on people being able to get them with a license, different things. would it have to all work in concert to have it be effective? >> really, we do want it to be

in concert to be effective. i want to give another shout out to president biden, who has issued more than 20 different executive orders relating to the buying, selling, and possession of firearms, including a rule by atf, he engaged in the business rule, which basically requires that a background check be done on a gun sale, whether that is at a gun show or it is over the internet. but you are raising a really good point, alex. president biden went as far as he could go by executive action. president trump has pledged to overturn every single one of these regulations. and without congress acting, it puts our entire background check system at risk, which, by the way, we just did a poll on this, 80% of americans across this country want an enhanced and better background check system. and they don't care whether that is for a fully finished firearm or ghost guns. they want to make sure that

this entire system is regulated, and that includes also 74% of trump voters. the only mandate that president trump has going into this next term is to keep americans safe, and we can only do that with better gun violence prevention laws. and a system that actually really works. >> i continue to be so impressed and grateful for your efforts, chris brown. come see me anytime. keep on keeping on. the uproar over the lack of information about drones flying in the skies over new jersey and several other states. ♪♪ over 600,000 usps employees working in sync to ensure everything sent on its holiday ride ends with a moment of joy. ♪♪ the united states postal service.

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new developments today in new jersey, where what looked like mysterious drones have been hovering for weeks, putting people on edge. earlier today, lawmakers demanded answers as the federal government continues to downplay the sightings. >> so, for washington to just showing off those types of issues and say it is all planes is not good enough. >> nbc's sam brock has been tracking today's developments. sam, i understand you have some new information, so share. >> yeah, there have been a chorus of calls for reform, to empower states to be able to take action on their own to address drone crises or the drone drama we have been washing unfold for really close to a month now.

it started on november 18, it is been pretty much every single night except for thanksgiving since then. a couple things that happened in the last 24-48 hours. i want to address you to this. the new york governor, kathy hogle, said this has gone on too far. she is calling for some kind of intervention in terms of new laws to allow new york state law enforcement to deal with the shutdown of an airport runway last night, and friday night in orange county, new york after reported drone activity. from 9:45 to about 10:45, you cannot use the runway because of drone activity or reported drone activity. the other significant development today, chris smith, the fourth district republican congressional representative for new jersey, held a press conference in seaside heights where he said he would like to see new legislation and he is going to be championing it, to empower state police to shoot down drones if they feel in their risk profile assessment that it could be endangering people or critical infrastructure. the legality of that would obviously be a huge question. that is the fbi's job in terms of determinate national security risks.

here he is earlier today, lambasting the federal government over the information they have shared or not shared in this whole saga. take a listen. >> for weeks we have asked for the truth, and action to mitigate any and all threats to people and property. now we are demanding it. i have written defense secretary lloyd austin, asking the pentagon to authorize the use of force to down one or more of these unmanned threats, to uncover the mystery. bring them down over the ocean, or an area where there is no population. bring them down, and i doubt who's doing it >> i mean, you can obviously hear how impassioned he is. here is the problem with bringing them down. he is saying over the ocean. if you were to start shutting down drones and populated areas or near areas where people are living, that could prove to be incredibly dangerous. some of these drones are the size of refrigerators, so there has to be some sort of policy nexus here. clearly you have the fbi with

its task, but the fda creates rules, they don't enforce the violation of them. so the question becomes how does the federal government craft a situation that works for everybody and allows for quicker responses? right now feeling that's all we have. >> when you get the answer, come back and let us know, thank you. a crowning moment in sports that is coming with a lot of controversy. controversy.

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this week time magazine announcing wnba player and women's college basketball superstar caitlin clark as its athlete of the year. but her crowning moment got a bit tarnished. clark was criticized for some on the right after acknowledging her privilege as a white athlete and saying more should be done to elevate and recognize black women in the sport. joining us now, athletic staff writer sabrina merchant, who covers women's basketball. sabrina, welcome. this is a lot for a woman who is only had one season of professional basketball and record. how is katelyn handling the

criticism, and wider comments set people off? >> yeah, i think katelyn has been a remarkable ambassador for the sport thus far, with her ability to draw people to the game and also understand the history of the wnba in terms of how it has elevated white women comparatively to black women. you look at great players like asia wilson, who have not gotten the attention that katelyn has gotten in her career. but i think the reason that her comment set people off is because people had turned katelyn into an avatar for what they wanted to be, as opposed to just letting her have her own opinions. and if that means that they want her to be a spokesperson for the right-wing culture, the method they want her to be, and she has not exactly been that to this point. >> and does media training for athletes prepare someone for this kind of scrutiny, when the professionals try to teach them what to say with the interviews before and after games? and are people assailing her now, her character, as a person? >> you know, i don't think there's any possible media

training to prepare her for the amount of attention that is come her way over the past few years. just the firestorm of attention is unlike anything we've ever seen in terms of women's basketball. so in terms of training, i don't it's possible. but i'm not sure that people are assailing her character, they just want her to be something that she isn't. and she is a fan of the wnba. she has been a fan her entire life. her favorite player was a black athlete named maia moore, and she understands that her experience has been different than that of my is, and it is just something she is bringing light to. >> let me ask you about those that are not happy about clark's recognition. washington mystics team owner sheila jackson argues times athlete of the year should be given to the league as a whole. what are your thoughts on that? >> i don't really understand the logic there. it is an athlete of the year situation. as much as i appreciate all the athletes that have come into the wnba in 2024 and all the great work that is been done to this point to help grow the league, it is undeniable that

katelyn has brought more atteelse in the league right now. i'm not saying she is the best player, but she is definitely the biggest star. in her spotlight is bringing more eyes to the league itself. so i think it is an entirely well-deserved honor. >> 100%. ratings are really up. very quickly, wish you cool with the fact that she was not put on the u.s. olympic team for the paris games? >> i think she desperately wanted to be on the team, and is still considering that a slight that she has to work past, but she would never tell you that she, i think of the other 12 players were undeserving. that is just not the katelyn standard. >> sabrina merchant, thanks for the chat. that's going to do it for me on this edition of alex witt reports. i will see you tomorrow at 1:00 p.m. eastern. up next, the beat weekend. we have news about how the government will be run in this period of rising inequality and this populist anger atit