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tv   Andrea Mitchell Reports  MSNBC  December 17, 2024 9:00am-10:00am PST

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now back for a limited time. powering five years of savings. powering possibilities™. right now on "andrea mitchell reports," ukraine is claiming responsibility for the shocking bombing death of a top russian military general inside moscow. the latest escalation as president-elect trump pushes for
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a deal to end the conflict. and in wisconsin, a deadly school shooting by a 15-year-old female student, rocking the madison community. >> the second grade student called 911 to report a shooting had occurred at school. let that soak in for a minute. robert f. kennedy jr., mr. trump's choice to lead the health and human services department back on capitol hill today as he and the president-elect revive the rebunked false theories linking vaccines to autism. >> why is the rate so much higher than it was 25, 30 years ago? it's 100 times higher. there's something wrong and we're going to try finding it. and a mother's appeal for help to find her missing son in damascus.
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good day, everyone. i'm andrea mitchell in washington. this morning in moscow, a brazen assassination by ukraine, leaving a russian general accused of using chemical weapons in the battlefield dead. then lieutenant general and his assistant were killed in an early-morning blast set off remotely, we're told, from an explosive device set off in a scooter. he was sanctioned last month for allegedly deploying banned chemical weapons in the ukraine war. video from state-run tv showing the moment of the blast as he and his assistant walk out of an apartment building. keir simmons has more. >> reporter: a dramatic explosion killing a key russian general and his assistant, the blast so powerful it blew the bricks from the walls. and the remains of a scooter, it
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was loaded with explosives, ukraine says. the operation both awe udaciousd precise as he moved between the building and a car, and the most ambitious operation since the war began. the lieutenant general was chief of the russian army's chemical weapons division. he was sanctioned by the u.k. in october for the alleged use of chemical weapons in ukraine, according to a ukrainian security source briefed on the matter, he was an absolutely legitimate target since he gave orders to kbruz little use proh chemical weapons against ukrainian military. the source asking for anonymity because they aren't authorized to discuss it publicly. russian state evision saying the bomb was remotely operated. it comes as the war started by
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russia invading ukraine in its third year, both sides taking massive losses. russia is calling the bombing an act of terrorism, but they will be under pressure to explain another high-profile assassination in the russian capital. >> joining us now ben rhodes, former national security advisor in the obama white house. thank you very much for being with us. this is about as brazen as the ukrainians have been, a remote bomb going off in moscow and taking out a general, whom they had accused of war crimes. >> i think what we have seen is since the front line has become this battle of attrition somewhat favoring russia given its greater size and manpower, you've seen ukraine turn to more awe udacious maneuvers and a nur
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of these targeted covert operations. it's a way for the ukrainians to shake up the russian battle command, to shake up the political dynamic around the war. frankly it's probably a morale booster for ukrainians, who are suffering huge losses inside the country. it also speaks to this volatile moment where everybody anticipated some negotiation with the incoming trump administration, but both sides trying to strengthen their positions heading into that dynamic. >> you've got this pressure from the trump seemed to refer to it as a real estate deal, pressuring e e ing zelenskyy to give up territory
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in the kursk area. >> sometimes the president-elect talks about this like it's, you know, a game of risk or something that you can easily do something in washington and bring about the end of this war. he's about to confront an international reality that's far more complex and volatile than anything he walked into in 2017. these players all have their own interests separate from whether or not donald trump gets a win on the diplomatic board here. the russians want to consolidate control over four provinces of ukraine they have claimed to annex, even though they don't currently control all that territory. to the ukrainians, this is not a real estate deal. the ukrainians stuck in those occupied territories of their country are deeply vulnerable. we've seen children taken from their parents and sent for adoption in russia. it's a huge political
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vulnerability to make concessions on that. north korean troops are fighting with the russians in the kursk region. kim jong-un is getting more practical assistance from the russians than he'll get from the united states in the form of high-tech military equipment and probably oil and gas and energy as well. so the reality here is that all these different players are not going to want to make a deal because donald trump says he wants a deal. actually this notion that there's a negotiation coming and the united states may be trying to lean on parties, that incentivizes everybody to escalate right now. people have to be prepared for a period of weeks and months where we see more brazen activity from all sides of this conflict as people try to get in a stronger position knowing there's going to be an international push
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around this negotiation. >> those north korean troops, at least from public reports, have suffered some early casualties. as president trump comes to the table, you have the collapse of the german government, the collapse of the french government. in canada, christopher friedland, the longest-serving advisor of prime minister trudeau, has resigned this morning. >> what you have in autocracies like china and russia is you don't get a turnover of leadership with elections. so you've got a lot of consistency at the top of those systems, particularly russia and china, the principal geopolitical adversaries of the united states. on the other hand, you have this massive vacuum in democrats. if you just take the g7, which is the body the united states
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tends to focus on the most in terms of like-minded countries, you've had a turnover of almost all the g7 by the time the trudeau situation plays out. macron is term limited and is a very lame duck right now as he deals with chaos in his own government. you have a situation in which the g7 is turning over. for trump, it's an opportunity. it's moving to the right. with the exception of keir starmer, it might be moving to all right-wing parties. it also means we're not running at full speed here in advanced democracies. there's an isolationist trend. at the same time, i don't think china and russia are going to be withdrawing their own ambitions. it's a dangerous year with the war in the middle east, the
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situation in syria. you ever a blending of these conflicts with north korea come into the ukraine conflict. you have turkey seen as a key hand in what's happening in syria. all of this is connecting. trump's impulse to negotiate is one that i think is needed, but whether or not he can manage these multifaceted dynamics and manage the fact that xi jinping and vladimir putin believe they'll be there after donald trump, that they'll be there in four years when he's term limited. it shows the lack of levers the united states has to pull right now in terms of negotiating. >> i just want to briefly set the table here, because president trump's tweet of december 2nd warning hamas do a deal now before i take office or there will be hell to pay is one ingredient that u.s. officials tell me not the major agreement with the fall of assad, the
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weakening of iran, the weakening of hezbollah, but hamas is isolated and they are now making concessions to israel. all sides are telling me this. we reported it friday. now today it seems even closer to coming together. both u.s. and other officials are telling me that the trump team is working very closely with the white house and the state department, with others, with envoys to try to do this deal. cairo is a big piece of it. the egyptians have put together something. this could come together in the next couple of weeks, i am told. >> i've heard the same thing, andrea, talking to not just u.s. officials but to people in the middle east that there is this kind of de facto coordination even if it's not necessarily active. everybody is pushing in the same direction. there is a high likelihood that by inauguration day you have
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some kind of cease-fire in place and hopefully the return of hostages in gaza. we've already had a cease-fire with hezbollah. who's going to administer gaza? is gaza going to be reconstructed? what's the future of the people there? does israel try to annex parts of, say, northern gaza or the west bank? it would be a step forward. if -- it by no means ends the dynamic in the middle east, whether it's gaza or the west bank or the future of syria and whether the u.s. will lift terrorist negotiation on the government right now. these are not things that lend themselves to the kind of quick and easy announcement that everything is solved that trump is inclined to do. >> there's no political
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component at all that israel is agreeing to. that said, if some americans have survived or some of their bodies can be returned, that would be a blessing for christmas and hon ka on -- hanukkah. new details on the shooting inside a madison school. on the inside a madison school. 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 their best chance to live. this holiday season, choose to join our st. jude family. we need you. please donate now. [music playing] life, diabetes, there's no slowing down. each day is a unique blend of people to see and things to do.
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a terrible day in madison, wisconsin, where students, parents, culty at the christian life school in wisconsin are reeling after that deadly shooting. a student and teacher were killed, six others injured, including two students who remain in critical condition today. the shooter, dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, has been identified as a female student of that school. a second grade student called 911 to report the shooting. just moments ago, vice president kamala harris addressing the tragedy as she spoke to students nearby in maryland. >> our nation mourns for those who were killed and we pray for the recovery of those who were injured and the entire community. but, look, as we hold our loved ones close this holiday season,
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we as a nation must renew our commitment to end the horror of gun violence, both mass shootings and everyday gun violence that touches so many communities in our nation. >> and joining me now is nbc news correspondent shaquille brewster in madison, wisconsin, and retired atf special agent in charge jim cavanaugh. welcome, both. shaq, so what are the members of the community telling you, and what are you hearing from the investigators? i am so touched and troubled, frankly, by the fact that a second grader -- we're talking about a 6-year-old, a 7-year-old -- called in 911. i guess that's the new reality since sandy hook. >> reporter: yeah, that unfortunate detail we learned last night. police saying they were able to respond within minutes partially because of that call from a second grader. here on the ground, there's a
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mix of heartbreak. there's some frustration you saw reflected in the vice president's comments that you just played, but there's also that search for answers. i just had a conversation with the parents of an 11th grade student at this school who says she was down the hall from that classroom where shots rang out during that study hall period. they knew their daughter was okay because they got a text message from her fairly early into the response. it took about six hours for them to be reunited with their daughter. the father told me their daughter doesn't usually show much emotion, but he got a hug from her yesterday when he was finally reunited with her. i want you to listen to a little bit of my conversation with another parent i talked to yesterday where you hear some of the frustration of this reality
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that parents now find themselves in, not just here in madison, but frankly across the country. >> if your kids are in school, they are not okay. if they are at church, they are not okay. if they are outside, they are not okay. where are they going to be safe? >> reporter: that is partially why this investigation is well under way, police saying yesterday that they searched the house of this 15-year-old female suspect who died in an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound. as you mentioned, they interviewed her father for hours, saying both parents are cooperative. and they're going through her online profile and social media to see if they can find any hint of an actual motive here all while, again, the community is
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grieving. we know there's another vigil set for later today. again, this is a small school of about 400 students between pre-k and 12th grade that are reeling in the wake of this shooting. >> the shooter in the abundant life christian school was a 15-year-old girl, a teenage girl. this does not fit the profile at all. what are investigators looking for in terms of identifying what drove her to this? >> you know, i think they're going to find something in her personal writings, andrea. it is very rare to have a female in any mass shooting. in the school shootings, it's very, very rare. just a couple few percent of the shooters are female. most are young males. a 15-year-old with a 9
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millimeter pistol, atf agents are tracing the gun now. i'm sure they are well on their way to knowing where it originated. we don't know that yet. half the guns in school shootings come from the home. they're stolen from parents or grandparents or an unlocked pistol in a car. firearms dealers couldn't sell a gun to anyone under 21. she couldn't purchase it at a gun shop. did she own it? was it stolen? was it trafficked? when a young person was so impressionable, that changes their thinking right there if they're not supervised with it. if parents are supervising them and taking them hunting and shooting sports, that's one thing.
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but when a child gets their hands on a gun and there's no adult supervision, they start feeling this power here, i can hurt someone, i can kill someone. they handle the gun and they start thinking about it. their brains aren't fully developed and they don't have the emotional control to make decisions. all teenagers are under stress. that just goes with the age and the development as a human. we have to lock the guns up as parents, and schools have to encourage that. >> the parents are cooperating and there's no indication at all for any liability for them. we've seen a case in virginia and illinois, i think -- i'm trying to remember -- where the parents actually faced prosecution for buying the gun, buying it as a christmas gift, in fact. that doesn't seem to be the case
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stuff your stockings with tons of entertainment and tons of savings. bring on the good stuff. xfinity. he should fire his lawyer, the one that petitions the fda to get rid of the polio vaccine.
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that's bold deep down to the marrow stupid, as far as i'm concerned. >> that's louisiana's republican senator john kennedy, one of the more colorful republicans joining polio survivor mitch mcconnell, pushing back hard against robert f. kennedy jr.'s vaccine skepticism. in fact, his lawyer and close advisor asking to revoke the fda approval for the polio vaccine a year or two ago, the president-elect's choice to lead the nation's 13 health agencies is meeting with senators today on capitol hill. rfk junior is again being forced to explain some of his opinions. the polio vaccine has been used to eradicate the scourge of the deadly disease for more than 70 years. joining me now is vaughn hillyard near mar-a-lago,
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michael steele and former u.s. attorney joyce vance. vaughn, who does the transition team have rfk junior meeting with today? because he's already got two republicans expressing doubt about his skepticism. that doesn't mean voting against, but he's being called to task and they're trying to soften his position. at the same time, you know, president-elect trump raised questions about the growing number of autism diagnoses over recent decades, and the suggests were that it's somehow related to vaccines, which is totally debunked. >> reporter: he's been very deferential to kennedy. if kennedy were to be confirmed,
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right, if you're president of the united states, there's a broad number of agencies and departments under your purview. and of course, in the oval office there is a lot that would be missed by the sitting president of the united states. that's where you have somebody serve as secretary of hha, for example, to oversee the 13 different health ieagencies. that is where you have kennedy up on capitol hill today. so far he has met with three republicans. we expect him to visit several others today. not only facing questions for the last few years but also dating back to the early 2000s. he has written books about vaccine skepticism and research papers and teamed up with folks like dave wheldon.
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senators are going to be asking him throughout this process and by no means is there any evidence this is going to be an easy confirmation process for kennedy, who is going to meet the scrutiny of these senators once donald trump is naughted. >> this is kind of a sleeper controversial choice, because senators are hearing from not only constituents, they're hearing from spouses. they're hearing from their doctors. they're hearing from people very close to them and authoritative that this is crazy stuff. >> yes. i think that's very impactful in ways that may not register on the front screen, which you have the senators going out there being, i guess, senatorial and saying pablum kind of phrasing
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and very soft. behind that there is a roiling concern not just from people on the hill, but from people around that senators know, their constituents and family members. you have it not just with kennedy. you have it with kash patel and other nominees as well. i think that's something that's going to be interesting to see how it's weighted by the senators. i was kind of chuckling at senator kennedy saying, well, you know, rfk junior needs to fire his lawyer. well, rfk junior shouldn't be hired in the first place. you know, we don't have that problem. we don't care whether or not he fires his lawyer. he should not be in the position to take this particular job, particularly given where his advocacy is. as i said before and will continue to say right through this, i don't know how anyone expects someone who's held these
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views as long as he has to suddenly expect them to back off. donald trump is agnostic on this stuff. he is not a policy guy. he doesn't even know a tenth of what robert kennedy is thinking and feeling about the substance of these issues. that's going to have some downstream issues on medicare and medicaid and elsewhere across the system. i think the senators kind of realize that. whether it amounts to whether they're moved from ntention. i don't think the senators have it in them to have that kind of fight with trump, but we'll see. >> as i was just suggesting with michael, jeff, if you're a mom or a dad in the senate and you're hearing from your pediatrician or your spouse
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about your kids' vaccinations and what is going on here, that has an impact that normal lobbying may not. you were in the room for that wide-ranging news conference yesterday. there was a lot of fact checking that could take place. your take on donald trump continuing to, you know, try to moderate the positions, but also at the same time saying that he would look for an investigation. once you open an investigation into autism, you're going down a dark hole. >> yes. i mean, i think what vaughn said and what michael said are both correct. this is somebody who, first of all, was standing by rfk junior. one of the things i think he tried to do in that press conference when asked about some of his cabinet picks, was downplay controversial about them. he said rfk junior wouldn't be as controversial as people would expect. he also gave an answer specifically on polio and said
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he is not looking to have the polio vaccine pulled. but that said, he did indicate an interest in getting a report from his health secretary if he ends up being confirmed about autism and vaccines. so not only not shutting the door on that, but leaving it firmly open for exploration, and leaving it firmly open for exploration by somebody who has made it clear there is some skepticism there and with vaccines in general. if pediatricians and moms and dads or other people who have children, this is going to be a broader topic of concern that the senators will be faced with when they're considering his nomination. >> it's not just rfk junior,
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because it's curt wheldon. it's a whole litany of people who are supposed to go these agencies from rfk junior. joyce vance, switching gears here, there is another issue which is the legal issue. donald trump just reached a $15 million legal settlement with abc. now today he's suing, as he telegraphed at that news conference yesterday, ann selzer for consumer fraud over an election week poll. this is what trump said yesterday before he filed this new lawsuit. >> i have to do this. i shouldn't really be the one to do it. it should have been the justice department or somebody else. it costs a lot of money. we have to straighten out the press. our press is very corrupt.
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>> now, there are a couple of things in that comment, one of which i just want to flag. he's saying that the justice department should do this, file a civil suit on behalf of him. so is this what he expected the justice department to do for him when he's president, being his personal lawyer, not the legal system for the united states? that's kind of wild. and also what are the merits of a case like this against ann selzer, one of the most esteemed pollsters, who acknowledged he got it wrong in the week before the election. >> so it seems to confirm these comments, some of our worst fears about trump's view of the justice department. the fact that he just comes out and says it, it's not controversial enough to expect him to keep it to himself.
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he expects the justice department to be the captive law firm for donald trump that does his bidding at will. that is extraordinarily dangerous. i don't need to tell our viewers that. we all understand how remarkable that is. the irony here is this isn't a particularly appealing lawsuit. it's brought under a state consumer protection act. the claim is it was an illegal effort to influence the election. of course, we know that it did not do that. there is in these sorts of proceedings a defense good ith that would seem to make this not a very good prospect for a successful lawsuit. but because it comes on the heels of this abc settlement with trump for defamation claims, i think the concern we all have to be clear eyed about is this notion that whether through intimidation and fear the press will stop doing its
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job. people like pollsters will stop doing their jobs. i'm reminded that thomas jefferson shortly after the constitutional convention wrote a letter that talked about how important the free press would be to our system of democracy, saying that he would prefer a free press over other institutions. >> just ly judge merchan refusing to throw out the felony conviction. what does that tell you? >> right. so the issue is whether donald trump will be sentenced on the conviction in this case. judge merchan has tossed one of trump's main complaints, which is that the conviction was based on evidence that was barred by the supreme court's immunity
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decision. still spending is a nice talks about whether or not you can elect someone who's been sentenced to the presidency. i expect we'll see a ruling from judge erchan. the real question is if he'll take the deal offered which will allow sentencing to remain open until trump leaves the white house. next, the mother of austin tice joining me. debra tice joins me as her family and the biden administration want to find and free the journalist missing in syria for more than a decade. debra tice and her appeals coming up next. her appeals coming up next i can turn it up... that smells good! or turn it down... hmm. nice and light. enjoy 40 days of freshness, your way. ♪ lalalalala ♪ harry and david is small batch, gourmet, and delicious. so, of course they run out fast. whether you want to say, "thank
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the chaos after the collapse of the assad regime has raised new hope that there could be a new opportunity to finally find missing american journalist austin tice, who was abducted 12 years ago while covering syria's civil war. in a letter obtained by nbc news austin's mother debra writes to prime minister netanyahu that her family has, quote, credible information that austin may be held in a prison outside of damascus. she's asking for pause in military strikes in that area to allow rescuers to search for her son. i'm so pleased to have joining
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me now austin's mother debra tice. >> very nice to be here. >> thank you for everything you are doing. i can't imagine how painful and how difficult, but you are just ferocious as an advocate for your son, and that is exactly what needs to be done. >> yeah. it's just what a mother would do, right? >> well, and in this light, let me ask you about the letter to prime minister netanyahu, which was sent over the weekend. the israelis are all over syria and they've also been bombing on a daily basis. netanyahu visited the golan heights, the buffer area, there today with his defense minister. have you gotten any response? do you have any indication this letter did get to him? >> yes. i've had an indication that he did receive that letter. it has been dispersed widely, and there was a response to the united states government.
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our understanding right now is that there has been a pause so that these places can be searched. >> who are the rescuers searching for austin tice? >> they're really searching for the hidden cells, you know, because there are a lot of them. you know, kind of at first they saw the people pouring out of there, and there were other prisons also known and full. so it was important to do those first. and now there's more of looking for this sort of hidden one under and behind things. >> you write in the letter that this prison has a secret tunnel which connected to to the
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presidential palace. >> yes. >> i've been to that palace with clinton with bashar al assad's father. you think the prison could be located underneath the military museum that you refer to here? >> right, yeah. >> do you know if anyone has been able to get there? >> they have been up. they were able to go through the tunnel and go up. but in the absence of the bombing, they'll be able to make a more thorough search inside the mountain. >> you have suggested publicly and the president repeated this -- president biden repeated this, that austin tice is alive. >> right, yes. that's what i say he was born alive and has been ever since, so yeah. we've had a lot of verification, you know, that he's hanging in there.
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>> now, the french and the brits are going in now. they are trying to, you know, make contact with the new military leader even though he's under terror designation from the united nations and the u.s. there's an effort by him certainly to moderate his position and there is some pressure for the u.s. to lift its designation. do you think the u.s. should be lifting that designation so we can deal with him more directly? >> i've been thinking that for quite a while, yeah. i really don't think violence is the best way forward. >> let me play something that the state department spokesman said yesterday when asked if we're going in, if the u.s. is going in on the ground. >> okay. >> no u.s. government organization has been on the ground in syria as of yet. we have been in communication with groups on the ground in syria, and that includes not just hts, but other groups in syria including the white
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helmets who do a lot of important work in locating detainees and other groups. >> is that good enough with no u.s. people on the ground? >> well, this is how i feel about that. there are a lot of people on the ground and there are a lot of people that are searching. we work with hostage aid world wide. they are on the ground. they are fully fluent in arabic and they want to be there. they want to be there. they want to be looking for austin. you know, i have seven children, and i found that if you're pushing someone to do something they really don't want to do, you're not going to get a good job anyway. so for the people that dover -- dove right in and got right in there, those are the ones we want to have working for us. >> the implicit suggestion is you think it could backfire if you push the administration more? should they be there?
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>> i've been pushing for 12 years and four months, and apparently i don't have much strength in my arms, i would say. >> and at this point, your hopes are pinned on the hostage rescue people? our own richard engel went in, as you saw, went in and found a cell that he told had been a place he had been held in as recently as 2022. >> yes. and we were able to verify that. so he was in that prison in 2022. and my children and i because of something that was written on the wall, we do think that austin may have been in that specific cell. >> really? i saw the wall paintings. richard was pointing that out. we're showing it now on the screen. and i was wondering if there's anything you could identify from that imagery that either was his handwriting or some coded
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message. >> you know, it wouldn't be his handwriting because they're kind of scratching in, but there was something there that really seemed to us like austin, yeah. >> that's so encouraging. >> the thing that they didn't have, they didn't have blue light. if you have blue light, you can see other things that are written on the wall. i think they now have that. we let them know that they needed to get that. so we might get some more information. >> debra tice, you are remarkable. [ laughter ] >> thank you so much, andrea. >> you know, you're all over there, and of course you are, because you have seven children and one of them has been held for 12 years. this is such a great opportunity. our hearts are with you. let's hope for a wonderful holiday season. >> oh thank you. when all my children were here this last weekend, the hole
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where austin belongs was so -- i mean, being all together made that absence so much more profound and painful, actually, yeah. >> our hearts are with you. >> thank you so much. thank you. and up next, how the medical community is reacting to the possibility of a vaccine skeptic in charge of the nation's health care. you're watching "andrea mitchell reports" on msnbc. "andrea mitchl reports" on msnbc. when i have customers come in i recommend prevagen. number one, because it's effective. does not require a prescription. and i've been taking it quite a while myself and i know it works. and i love it when the customers come back in and tell me, "david, that really works so good for me." makes my day. prevagen. at stores everywhere without a prescription. ♪
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we have more now on that controversial vaccine news which robert f. kennedy jr. could actually put into effect if he is confirmed for secretary of health and human services. that is putting fear in the medical community on dangerous impacts to an entire range of childhood diseases that have
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been eliminated by a century of vaccines. joining me is dr. patel. so thank you for being with us. this man named aaron seary is kennedy's lawyer and advisor. he wanted him to be general counsel of maybe health and human services. but he asked the fda to revoke its polio vaccine approval in recent years. is there any evidence at all questioning the effectiveness of the polio vaccine. >> no, andrea. to the contrary, we have surmounting evidence not just locally, nationally, globally that the vaccine works. you even heard it from mitch mcconnell. there are a number of people who still have a memory of iron lung, not just loss of life but loss of like any productivity in life. that's all because of the introduction of the elimination of polio due to the vaccine.
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it's disturbing to see not just rfk junior's comments, but officials such as this potentially being named into positions of power that would have widespread authority and the ability to undo so much of what science has taken literally decades, if not centuries to develop. >> i've had a lot of experience with autism speaks, the organization started by bob wright and suzanne wright here at nbc news many, many years ago. talk to me about that. yesterday mr. trump talked about the widely debunked claim that vaccines cause autism. >> it's unfortunate it's coming up again. you're right. not just autism speaks, but very important attention -- people should put attention into autism spectrum disorders.
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however, the link between autism and vaccines has been retracted in the journal that it was published in. the author of that study has actually kind of since that time as well as numerous editors from the journals have said this was not science that was publishable and it was certainly not credible. unfortunately, it's a little bit like pandora's box. once the cat is out of the bag, andrea, this is now becoming the myth that has taken on fact. we're just one tiktok video away from it seeming like a certainty. unfortunately the president-elect, the hhs secretary that's nominated and a number of officials across social media have been kind of propagating this myth. honestly, it's undermining the ability to take care of patients with autism. >> in fact, dave wheldon, a florida congressman, who is also
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a vaccine skeptic and memet oz, how much influence could they have? >> they could have incredible influence. it's not just the misinformation they'll say on a spur of the moment. but they can also take apart some of the programs being put into place just to get vaccines even to people who want them, vaccines for children, example, vaccine injury compensation programs as another example. there's a lot at stake here. we need to keep our awareness heightened. >> thank you. that does it for this edition of "andrea mitchell reports." chris jansing reports comes after a short break. chris jansi after a short break. even at 5 years. serious allergic reactions and increased risk of infections may occur. before treatment, your doctor should check you for infections and tb. tell your doctor if you have an infection, flu-like symptoms or if you need a vaccine.
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and a second unlimited line free for a year. good day, i'm chris jansing live at msnbc head quarers. police in madison wisconsin faced with a m