headquarters here in new york. welcome to alex witt reports. we begin with a holiday shutdown averted. the president signed a funding relief act. president-elect donald trump and billionaire elon musk had derailed an earlier bipartisan bill threatening primary challenges against any republican who supported a bill that did not suspend the debt ceiling. nbc's sahi cupure reports that bill failed dramatically and 170 house republicans joined democrats in defying trump and leaving what one republican described as a big mess. democrats today are celebrating the relief act as a big win for their agenda. >> we got the fund bill

president biden was asking for. we continue to fund government that was set by democrats last november and set by president biden, but we've never had a republican funding bill this cycle that wasn't done by democratic votes. >> speaker mike johnson's handling has prompted new calls for him to be ousted next congress. nbc's julie sir kn asked him directly about keeping his job. >> do you still want to be part of this experience? >> being speaker of the house is a challenge in this modern era, but it's a challenge we accept. it's a great honor to serve in the position. i wouldn't say it's the most fun job in the world all the time, but it's an important one. >> we're going to build on that in julie's full report in a moment. meanwhile's trump's transition team are pushing back on critics who depict musk.

president trump is the leader of the republican party, full stop. and new reaction to musk today from congressman james clyburn. >> i think elon musk and a few others look upon this as some kind of a game that they want to play. we are playing with people's lives here. and we as elected officials ought not be giving up our responsibilities to someone who's never been elected to anything. >> we have reporters now in place covering all of these new developing story lines, and we're going to begin on capitol hill with nbc's julie sirkin. julie, welcome to you. got to say i felt it was the truth when johnson told you it's not the most fun job in the world, but anyway -- that's because of days of political wrangling after much congress ultimately avoided a government shutdown, but are lawmakers

satisfied with the outcome? >> reporter: yeah, alex, i do think if speaker mike johnson is re-elected january 3rd given how unpredictable and chaotic the last 48 hours have been. what leaves the bill is both sides unsatisfied and satisfied, a shutdown would have had devastating impacts especially so close to the holiday. what wasn't in this final package was anything to do with the debt ceiling, that was that 11th hour demand from president-elect trump. they did manage, however, to take this bill from a 1,500-page bill plus to something closer to 200 pages. they took a lot of extraneous items out of the bill. ultimately democrats needed to provide nearly 200 votes to get this across the finish line in the house. house speaker mike johnson praising the democratic process, but you'll also hear from a democrat on the other side. watch this. >> we're grateful that everyone

stood together to do the right thing, and having gotten this done now as the last order of business for the year, we are setup for a big and important new start in january. >> they came back with the rulickdous self-serving plan for billionaires. we know elon musk was calling the shots. we knocked that down. republicans needed us, and we were very strategic. no one fights stronger, better for the american people than democrats with hakeem jeffreys, and so we were able to prevail. it was a big victory for us last night. >> so, again, of course they didn't get that original bipartisan deal that johnson struck when nobody was worried about a government shutdown, but they did block a version of the package that had that debt limit suspension for two years in part so that president trump doesn't have to deal with it when he's in the white house so he can pass those tax cuts and everything else he wants to do without needing leverage from democrats, but you see that democrats blocked that from happening. ultimately, though, providing the votes to keep the lights on

in this building. we'll see if johnson keeps his gavel about a week and a half from now. >> okay, we will see indeed. don't go anywhere because a few questions for you to come. let's go right now to alli rafa in west palm beach, nra. >> how big a role did donald trump play in the final negotiations? >> reporter: yeah, al, it's a great question because we know the president-elect did have a heavy influence on the evolution of this funding bill and how long it took to get across the finish line. but a final version of this that's now been signed by president biden is missing a key ingredient president-elect trump demand be included, and that was an extension of the debt ceiling through his term, through 2029, or the complete elimination of it from this altogether. and the last minute changes and influence from the president-elect as well as elon musk were really key in the -- in how long it took to get this bill across the finish line but also what this bill ended up

looking like at the end with hundreds of pages stripped from it and critical legislation stripped from it as well including health care reforms, a crack down on junk fees as well as legislation to give lawmakers a pay raise. i want to give a listen to what house speaker johnson had to say about the influence of the president-elect as well as elon musk through this process. listen here. >> we -- i was in constant contact with president trump throughout this process, spoke with him most recently about 45 minutes ago. he knew exactly what we were doing and why, and this is a good outcome for the country. i think he certainly is happy about this outcome as well. elon musk and i talked within -- about an hour ago, and we talked about the extraordinary challenges of this job. and i said, hey, you wanted to be speaker of the house, i don't know. i said this may be the hardest job in the world, i think it is. but we're going to get through this. >> reporter: and alex, musk's

intervention and influence throughout all of this is sort of the genie that can't be put back into the bottle because we saw how angry lawmakers on both sides of the aisle how frustrated and angry they were becoming with how much influence and rhetoric elon musk was having about this process. the trump team, though, as you mentioned is down-playing this influence saying that all of elon musk's comments and his commentary throughout this were by the blessing of president-elect trump. but there are still questions and concerns about the influence that elon musk is going to have over the next four years but especially after march 14th, rather, when this funding bill is up and how much influence he could have on what comes next, alex. >> yeah, 100%, we're going to be following all of that, and you're going to stay with us to help us do that. we're going to bring in right now melanie zanona to the conversation. punch bowl news senior congressional reporter. melanie, we just heard speaker mike johnson say he talked to

president-elect trump 45 minutes before the vote, then he added he spoke to elon musk right before that. was johnson looking for musk's aproofbl? and if so, are other republicans okay with that? >> he had to get musk's approval, he had to get trump's approval. that is how the congress is operating right now and trump is not even in office. and that's going to be how it's going to operate for the next two years. there's going to be a real reluctance by whoever is the speaker although that's mike johnson or someone else to get out ahead of donald trump and elon musk, because they've seen what has happened when they moved ahead with a bill that didn't already have their blessing. there were problems with the initial spending package they put together even before elon started trashing it on twitter. it was really donald trump who blew it up and threw the 11th hour debt ceiling into the mix that complicated things for mike johnson. i do think going forward he's going to want to prenegotiate, prediscuss what's going to

happen because he wants to avoid big blow ups. what i will say this episode has reminded us, yes, it's a lot easier to blow up a bill, to tank a bill than to actually find consensus among republicans and govern, and that's going to be a lot harder over the next few years with a razor thin majority. >> and democrats, why did they decide to go along with the bill? >> reporter: they are really wrestling what to go along with here. i think for them they felt like they got their win by denying that second bill which did have the trump demand of the debt ceiling in it. they essentially got to embarrass johnson in front of his own conference, so i feel like they walked away with a win. they're going to save that debt ceiling fight and save the leverage that comes along with it for the new year. ultimately, they didn't want to shutdown either. this has been the story line of the entire 118th congress. it's been the democrats that put up the votes that got all these significant bills over the finish line. they're the ones who saved mike

johnson's speakership. they've been an incredible governing partner despite being in the minority. i think one thing democrats are wrestling with is where we do work with the administration and where we do the story line as well over the next few years. >> does trump not think or even worry the chaos prompted by a shutdown by elon musk and his own demands might indicate a future administration just filled with chaos and driven by an unelected billionaire? by the way, the trump transition team has to put out a statement that trump is the leader of the republican party? what does that say? >> reporter: yeah, alex, well, the whole time we knew that the president-elect had scene this as a low risk scenario. we know under his first term there were three government shutdowns, one that ended up being the longest in u.s. history at over 30 days long,

but throughout this process we have seen how quickly republicans especially on the house side could come to his aid and could aid him in getting what he wants across the finish line. but what we've also seen throughout this process, this transition process is how some republicans have really bucked his desires. you saw republicans put up a front after he picked matt gaetz, i'm sorry, for attorney general and the opposition we saw from republicans on the senate side. you're seeing how house republicans, over 30 of them voted against what he wanted to be included in this final package on the second vote. and so there are republicans that he is learning he cannot get full support from when he wants to get this through, something, though, that i'm sure he's considering after january 20th, when he does take office with legislation that will happen over the next four years, alex. >> julie, you contributed to this article that was written by

sahill kupur, with whom we're going to be speaking with gep later. >> it'll look like the last year and a half despite the republican trifecta in the house, the senate, and across pennsylvania avenue in the white house. that is because as melanie said johnson is going to have an even tighter majority. think about this, he can only lose one republican vote january 3rd if all democrats vote for hakeem jeffries as speaker, which they're expected to do. that is so tight when you consider you have a handful of republicans this week not committed to voting for him, floating elon musk as speaker. this is going to be extremely challenging to legislate, to do anything. if he does end up securing that vote that could be perhaps the easiest thing they have to do in the next two years. they have a ten-week session at least in the senate right when they get back in january. in the word of one senator included in that article with

sahill senator ron johnson told me what they're trying to do is actually under-promise and over-deliver. i'm not sure if they are actually under-promising anything, but you're going to have multiple fights next year, government funding, a debt ceiling hike which republicans aren't happy about, by the way, so trump knows he's going to need democrats to do that, and it's going to be just a huge mess, which isn't my quote but what many lawmakers have told us in this article and of course in our reporting the last couple of days. >> can you imagine to your point, one vote away from the prospect of hakeem jeffries being speaker of the house. anyway, melanie, many republicans still did not vote for the final bill. so generally speaking who are they, and were they daring to defy trump? >> yeah, i mean they were. especially on that one bill that had the debt limit demand. you had 38 republicans who voted against it, so that was a little surprising even for some of us on capitol hill to see that

level of republicans. most of them were fiscal conservatives, people who have made, you know, cutting back spending really a hallmark of their congressional careers, a lot of freedom caucus members, but there were some surprising votes in there as well. there was a membership of the leader teal, blake moore, and interesting votes if you're in congress in two years anyway. i think the pig picture here is that there are some moments where there's going to be some willingness to defy trump. i don't think there's going to be a lot of those moments, but there's going to be some clashes between the executive branch and the legislative branch. as far as the primary threats, i was talking to some members on capitol hill this week, and they said guess what, trump can't primary all of us. in the end i think it was 170-something republicans who voted to primary that bill. >> there's strength in numbers. >> reporter: chip roy he was leading the charge on the idea

of raising the debt ceiling. he has strong name i.d., strong name in his district. he is liked amongst his constituents. i think, you know, once this plays out, it's going to get old hearing all these primary threats. for the most part, most republicans are going to want to do whatever trump asks, though. >> quick take away from what we learned. i'll start with you, allie. allie rafa, are you hearing me? i think we might have lost ifb. let me move to you, julie. quick thing what we learned about this. >> i'll tie to be quick. it's that we're going to be living in the capitol. in the words of speaker johnson to me last night, get ready for the hardest work of your lives, that's journalists included here. >> last word for you, melanie? >> i was going to say there are limits to trump's influence on capitol hill, number one. and number two, elon musk is

going to be quite a pest i think for the gop leadership over the next few years. >> i think we have allie back. do ayou want to weigh in on one thing you learned quickly from this whole incident, whole episode? >> reporter: yeah, alex, i think the one thing that we've learned is just to expect there to be republicans that aren't willing to do everything that trump is demanding, and that could possibly be a growing number over the next four years, alex. >> we shall see. ladies, thank you all so much. meantime, at least one key question unanswered today in that german market tragedy, and it's a big one, plus the drama sparked by elon musk. i'll asked congresswoman sara jacobs about that next. back in 90 seconds. sara jacobs about that next back in 90 seconds and then i wake up. and you have this dream every night? yeah, every night! hmm... i see. (limu squawks) only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪

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breaking news in germany. that death toll now stands at five as the country mourns the day after a driver slammed his car into a crowd of people at a christmas market. nbc's danielle hemogin is following this story for us. good morning to you. what details are you learning about this attack the. >> reporter: we're learning quite a bit about the suspect, but you are right this is a city very much grieving at the moment, the city of magdeburg west of berlin. the images you're about to see very difficult to watch. it shows a car being driven into

a crowd who were trying to enjoy themselves at a christmas market in the city of magdeburg. according to the latest figures, five people were killed, among them a 9-year-old child. 200 people -- 200 were injured, many of them with life threatening injuries. now, olaf scholz, the chancellor, visited the site today and promised no stone would be left unturned. here's what we know, alex, about the suspect. he is a 50-year-old man from saudi arabia. he came to germany in 2006 at the age of 32, and he has worked as a doctor, in fact, a psychiatrist. this was confirmed to us by the clinic where he worked or has been working since 2020. this was in a nearby town. according to the interior minister, he has expressed over time islamaphobic views, had a history of anti-islam rhetoric. his motive is still unclear according to officials, but they

are investigating the possible connections to saudi causes. so, again, motive still unclear, but his connections to saudi arabia will be part of the investigation. authorities say that this all happened within a 3-minute window, that he managed to enter the market area through the emergency access route, approaching slowly, still able to injure people, but then accelerated very quickly into that scene you saw just a few moments ago. and olaf scholz also referenced, and it's impossible not to, what happened almost eight years to the day in berlin when a man pledging allegiance to isis slammed a vehicle into a crowd killing about a dozen people, injuring dozens more. so it was already a traumatic time for many germans, even more so now. and i should point out u.s. president biden has also said they are in close contact with

their german counter parts to see, perhaps, if there were any americans among those 200 injured. that is still unclear, but they are in close contact. alex? >> it is chilling. it is a nightmare. danielle, thank you very much for that reporting, though. joining me right now sara jacob. she's a member of the foreign affairs and armed services committee. always good to see you, though. i do want to start off asking about your reaction to this tragic, horrific attack on the christmas market in germany, as americans are beginning their own holiday celebrations this weekend. are there any concerns about a wider threat? >> my heart goes out to all of the families in germany who should be celebrating this holiday season and instead are dealing with this horrific violence. we -- our intelligence officials are continuously monitoring even over the holidays. at the moment there is no indication that this is

something widespread or beyond, you know, an individual's actions, and we'll continue working and monitoring over the holiday season to make sure that we keep families safe across the united states. >> okay. let's go to the crisis averted on capitol hill. how do you explain to your constituents how keeping the government open became such a mess? >> it's actually really hard to complain to my constituents. i represent the biggest military community in the country, san diego. and it's literally their paychecks on the line. it's our borders patrol, customs and border protection paychecks on the line. and i heard from so many of them who were so worried during this holiday season they might not be getting those paychecks all because elon musk decided he didn't like the bipartisan deal that was agreed to and decided to start tweeting. and then at the last minute donald trump decided he wanted

the debt limit. i will say i spent a lot of time explaining to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle how bad this shutdown would have been in my district and across the country, and i'm very glad we were able to avert it, but it really shouldn't have been that hard, and shouldn't have come down to unelected elon musk swooping in and deciding how we in congress should do our jobs. >> yeah, we have to see the extent to come he's going to have influence in the days ahead. despite donald trump's threat to republicans they're going to be primaried if they don't abolish or extend the debt limit, 38 of your republican voted against the first trump back billed and 170 republicans voted for the continuing resolution that also did not include the debt limit provision. does this signal there are limits to trump's power? >> i mean i certainly hope so, right? i think it's going to come down to my colleagues on the other side of the aisle deciding that they are more beholden to the

american people than to elon musk and donald trump. and we are starting to see that, but i don't want to give them too much credit yet because this was an early vote. we're going to wait and see and hope they're going to continue doing the right thing when it comes down to it. >> and look, speaker johnson he's been under fire for his handling of this mess including from members of his own party. congresswoman margery taylor greene and senator rand paul are saying elon musk should be speaker of the house, noting the speaker does not have to be a member of congress, in fact any elected official. maybe they're just trolling with this. but how much influence does the billionaire have on the government and the future president right now and ini'm just going to ask you do you think elon musk could do a better job as house speaker? >> i'll start with your last question first. i absolutely do not think elon musk would be a good house speaker.

the man has no understanding of how the government works, no understanding of what it takes to pass legislation. and it's always hard to know with our republican colleagues how much of it is real and how much of it is just for show. i do think, you know, come january 3rd when we have the speaker election it will be interesting to see what happens. i am very confident that house democrats are going to all stay united and be voting for hakeem jeffries for speaker. but, you know, i think it is really concerning how much power elon musk has. he put out a bunch of tweets and decided he didn't like this deal. i will say while it's true we were able to prevent the debt limit from being increased in this bill, one thing elon musk really wanted taken out, which got taken out in the end was this provision that would have had restrictions on what out bound investments could be made going into china, which really would have impacted elon's businesses, and that he was successful in getting taken out. i think there are real questions about his motives and the rorole

he's playing and what checks and what transparency are going to be put on that. >> you're asking that question. democrats are asking those questions, but when it comes to off-the-record what you're hearing from your colleagues on the other side, are they grumbling? are they worried? are they angry about the level to which elon musk seems to have influence and really infiltrated this whole situation? >> absolutely, yes. i mean, i can't speak for all of them, but the ones i've been talking to are definitely frustrated. you know, there's been grumbles among both sides of the hill in congress calling him president musk, you know, really talking about the role he's played here. and i think it is concerning. no one elected elon musk. >> good point. given your role on foreign affairs, i do want to head overseas for a moment because you know in the first time for over a decade u.s. diplomats visited damascus yesterday to meet with the leader of the rebel group that overthrew

bashar al assad. members of the delegation said he came across as pragmatic and they removed him from the terror list. how carefully does the u.s. need to proceed in this relationship, and do you really believe that iran is going to have no role to play in syria going forward as the diplomats suggest? >> i think that this is such a crucial moment for the syrian people who have finally overthrown the brutal assad regime and have a real opportunity now to build a more inclusive, prosperous syria. and i think it's incumbent on us as americans to be doing everything we can to help push and help, you know, create that inclusive, democratic, peaceful syria that i know so many syrian people want. it's why i collated a resolution with ranking member meeks that says the u.s. should be supporting this process.

and, you know, it's early, it's too early to tell exactly what's going to happen, but i think we should be holding them to their words and holding them to their actions and not presupposing what they might or might not do but actually giving them the opportunity to take this time to rebuild their country. >> okay. congresswoman sara jacobs, always good to see you, my friend. thank you so much for your time. so are you ready for it? ready for all those lines and all that traffic as we give you a look at lax and bradley international airport in connecticut there. will it really be all that bad? we're going to take you to chicago re next for some answers. chicago re next for some answers. donat♪♪now. vicks vapostick provides soothing non-medicated vicks vapors. easy to apply for the whole family. vicks vapostick. and try new vaposhower max for steamy vicks vapors.

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today a new round of winter weather is threatening to put a damper on travel plans, as we closeout this year. snow fell here in the north east, one massachusetts town, in fact, getting over 9 inches. heavy winds and rain are causing numerous delays and cancellations. and that comes as tsa agents are preparing to screen more than 40 million flyers over the next few days. aaa projected over 19 million travelers overall, which brings us to abc's adrienne broaddus from o'hare international airport. i know some kind of snow or ice caused a delay yesterday, but how about today? how's it looking? >> reporter: right now, alex, it is busy. i'm sure you see the folks behind me.

the wait right now at the security checkpoint line, 20 minutes. before this moment right now the average wait had been 5 to 15 minutes. we see the average wait time going up. yes, there was a ground delay here yesterday that weather caused some challenges here. and all of this is happening as aaa estimates nearly 120 million people are expected to travel this week for christmas or hanukkah. and when we say travel, we're talking about going 50 miles away from home. the tsa planning to screen nearly 40 million passengers, and we spoke with some of them on their journey today. take a listen. >> a lot of delays, so we've been traveling for over 20 hours, yes. and we have our overnight here, but me being from chicago i stopped and got a chance to see family. >> i've never seen it so busy, yeah. >> tell me about that. >> well, we're just so used to just walking in and getting

right on, but for 5:30 in the morning or 6:00 in the morning it's just really busy, so, yeah. but we're happy to be on vacation. >> reporter: that family going to disney world. meanwhile, so far today there have been more than 4,000 delays and more than 200 cancellations. so if you are traveling today, you may want to get to the airport a little early. for those of you planning to drive, there's some good news. gas prices are down compared to this time last year. just above $3 this year nationally. and back here at o'hare, the wait time has dropped by 5 minutes since we started talking. it's now 15 minutes at the security check point. back to you, alex. >> okay, well that is the good fuse. we'll take it and check in with you again. the number 170 and why it's so significant in washington and at mar-a-lago today.

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today president biden signed the stop gap government spending bill after congress passed the legislation in the wee hours of this morning avoiding a government shutdown. but president-elect trump and republicans now face a tumultuous new start to the new year. joining us now on the shutdown

is nbc news senior national political rapporter sahill kapur. 170 house republicans went against him. can we expect a similar level of chaos when funding comes up again in march? >> reporter: we absolutely should expect a similar level of chaos next year, alex, for a couple of reasons. the first is that congress didn't acheer much in this funding bill. they continued the status quo and punted the deadline now to march 14th. when republicans come back they will technically control congress, but they don't have the numbers to do a deal on their own. they're going have to cut a deal with democrats. that means chuck schumer and hakeem jeffries will have a lot of say. that's just one of the items they have on a growing to-do list next year. take a look at some of the other things he needs to do. resolving the debt limit some time by the plidal of the year. trump eagerly tried to get congress to take that issue off his plate, but as you mentioned

170 republicans refused even he threatened primary challenges for those who continued without the debt limit. they'll also have to confirm trump's nominees during the first few months of next year. that's going to take up real tile in the senate. in addition republicans want to do bills on border and immigration, tax cuts maybe, too. these are all going to be difficult tasks to get done, and they're going to have a wafer thin house majority. and finally republicans tell they can't have this chaos next year. they can't have trump and his team whether it's allies like elon musk or whoever else throwing last minute demands and wrenches into the works. they have to communicate better and they have to get on the same page. >> quick question about a vote for speaker. january 3rd former house speaker mccarthy lost his job. will mike johnson also get voted out or do you think republicans are behind him? >> reporter: it's a tough road

for speaker johnson. it's going to be january 3rd because matt gaetz is not going to take his seat. that means speaker johnson can only lose one republican and a second republican defection could tank him. there's no alternative. you can't be something with nothing. especially with january 6th coming up they all want to certify donald trump's victory for the presidency. they might not be able to do that if they don't have a speaker, which would be a massive crisis. unless an alternative emerges, mike johnson is still in his seat. next why some judges are using the words frightening and ined ieble incredibly disturbing to describe one of donald trump's plans. incredibly disturbing to describe one of donald trump's plans. and build a treatment plan with you. visit makeapdplan.com today.

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visit makeapdplan.com today. now to new fears that president-elect donald trump's retribution threats are already taking shape. trump says former congresswoman liz cheney could face fbi investigation for her work on the january 6th committee after the gop-led oversight committee's january 6th report accused her of witness tampering. in response cheney says in part, the report fabricates lies and defamatory allegations to cover up trump's actions. adding, quote, no reputable lawyer, legislator, or judge would take this seriously. joining me now is our dear friend, timothy hathy. welcome, tim. republicans are now claiming improper communication between

cheney and cassidy hutchinson. what can you tell us about how hutchinson's testimony came together? >> yeah, absolutely false allegation, alex. thanks for having me, and thanks for the question. ms. hutchinson changed lawyers. she told the committee that she had additional information beyond that which she had offered, and she told us that she didn't offer it before because she had a lawyer that was hired and paid for by affiliates of the former president. she got a new lawyer, and she gave additional information. that's not witness tampering. that's the evolution of a witness feeling more comfortable with different representation and coming forth with additional information. so the allegation cheney or anyone else somehow suborned perjury or encouraged a witness to say something that's not true just has now foundation. and the report doesn't even provide a foundation. it just kind of states without supporting evidence this notion

that somehow ms. cheney coached ms. hutchinson to lie. again, absolutely false. >> a witness who has every legal and constitutional right to change her mind and decide she needs a new lawyer, so you have that. it's a 128-page gop report and in it claims the house january 6th committee destroyed records and blamed them for this january 6th capitol attack. >> it does contain essentially a criminal referral. it does suggest ms. cheney and the committee should be investigated. it normally, and i emphasize normally takes some sort of evidentiary threshold, some violation of federal criminal law to launch an investigation. again, i don't know what that is here. and if the fbi is consist to its

historical practice, requires some threshold showing that, hey, there might be something here, then there shouldn't be any follow-up investigation. this notion, alex, of the destroyed evidence, if i could to respond to that, again no foundation. the select committee meticulously archived official records, and the official records of all the witness interviews were the transcript, the verbatim word for word transcript, the video recordings of those interviews were not the official record. every word the witness said on the record was in the transcript, and there are a handful of transcripts that we did not make public or turn over because they involved sensitive national security information, some secret service agents, some aides, white house aides whose identities and frankly their role in and around the white house could be a national security problem if it was disclosed. the condition of our access to them is we would return -- we

would not identify those individuals and we would return the transcripts to the white house. so, again, and i believe congressman loudermilk and his committee ultimately got those transcripts. there's been something destroyed, no attempt to hide information the select committee found. >> i was going to ask what would an investigation by the fbi even look like? but it sounds like you just laid out the things they would examine thoroughly before deciding, and there's nothing there. >> yeah, again, the fbi traditionally requires some evidence -- some evidentiary threshold to even open what's called a preliminary investigation. i just am very familiar with the record here do not see such evidence. now, that doesn't mean, alex, that in a new fbi they disregard that rule, and they do issue subpoenas or they do seek to interview people. i wouldn't be surprised if there are investigations of some kind because of the fact they won't respect those traditional norms, the threshold for a preliminary

investigation. but the more they look, the more the truth remains, there's just nothing here that gives ms. cheney or anyone else any exposure. >> let me ask you a question about the d.c. judges this week, which are expressing alarm over trump's pledge to pardon january 6th rioters. they're using words, tim, like frightening and incredibly disturbing and saying the attackers actions should be met by consequences. do you expect trump to go through with these pardons? >> yeah, hard to say, alex. he has certainly said he intends on day one to issue pardons. my sincere hope is that he draws a line of conduct between what will be pardoned -- even that is troubling. these are people that have been found guilty or pled guilty in a fair criminal justice process, but let's assume he pardons nonviolent offenders and draws a line there. i'm hopeful that there will be

some principal distinctions because they're not all the same. not everyone convicted of offense surrounding the capitol are the same. up to seditious conspiracy, the use of force to disrupt the lawful government, very serious charges that result in lengthy periods of incarceration all the way down to trespassing, misdemeanor offenses. i hope he draws some lines of relative culpability if he decides to issue pardons. >> okay, we've got a month to see until his inauguration. thank you so much. meantime, a wrinkle today after all those recent drone sightings, but is it reason for more uh-alarm? next. sightings, but is it reason for more uh-alarm? next visit makeapdplan.com today. liberty mutual customized my car insurance so i saved hundreds. with the money i saved i thought i'd get a wax figure of myself. cool right? look at this craftmanship. i mean they even got my nostrils right. it's just nice to know that years after

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new today, an effort by the faa to limit drone flights in some areas after the rash of sightings in new jersey, which birdfeeder and more than a few extreme theories on their origin and intent. joining me now is priscilla thompson. tell us about the new bans and if officials remain at all concerned about the drones. they seem to be very few detailed answers. >> yeah, alex. it is still too soon to see if these bans are working. one in new york went to affect yesterday, including all the major airports. it follows a similar measure that went into effect on wednesday in new jersey, covering about two dozen communities. we reached out to about a dozen police departments across both

of those states and we weren't able to get a definitive answer on if there has been a decline in the number of sightings, but the nypd did say they welcome this measure. listen. >> this is the kind of measure we have been looking for some time, as we have seen more and more drones and commercial drones and hobby drones being seen around the city. having more restricted spaces that allow fewer drones to be flying in the sky is a good thing. that should absolutely quell public concern even further. >> the nypd says they have seen a steady uptick of drones over the years, but they are not seeing an influx all of a sudden the past month. what they actually think it is as more people are just looking at them, they're looking up in the skies and when they see them, they reporting them. authorities say this is not any sort of adversary