see. you could see the insurgents who was jamie raskin beat jerry nadler so there's two tracks working on that right now. you've got the governors and possible presidential candidates then you have the legislative people who will be pretty visible going forward as the vocal minority party but donald trump is going to make them very visible and the spread is very-very hard at this point. >> it's a whole new washington ahead and i'm sure you'll have lots to say about it. mark leibovich thank you for spending the closing hours of our holiday show with me tonight. i appreciate you my friend. happy new year. that's our show for tonight. have a great evening and that is our show for tonight. have a great evening, and thank you, again, for spending a little of your holiday season with us. we appreciate you. we appreciate you. ♪♪ hey, there, everyone,

welcome to this special edition of "deadline: white house", i am in for nicolle wallace. we begin this hour with a maga civil war that is erupting over immigration. elon musk and big tech. on one side, you have maga immigration hardliners, people who voted for trump based on his extreme integration plans, including mass deportation. and on the other side, elon musk and vivek ramaswamy, and other big tech leaders who supported trump with millions of dollars in donations, but rely on immigration for high skilled workers. the two factions now feuding over the so-called h-1b visa program, which allows foreigners with technical skills to work in the united states for up to six years, but this feud has quickly evolved into a referendum on american workers, elon musk claiming america needs more highly skilled immigrants to win. saying, "if you force the world's best talents to play for the other side, america will lose. end of story."

vivek ramaswamy, musks cohort in their department of government efficiency, coming to musks defense and posting on x, "our american culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long. " adding, "a culture that delivers the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers." hardliners reacting to this by saying the solution to america's problems are not more immigrants, and want to close the borders. while the right-wing conspiracy theorist, laura loomer, writing, "allowing big tech executives into mar-a-lago is going to be the death of our country." and soon after criticizing musks, loomer said her verification on x had been removed and all of her subscriptions, canceled. accusing elon musk, a suppose at free speech warrior, of censorship. former congressman and maga diehard, matt gaetz, saying of big tech, "we did not ask them to engineer an immigration policy." actio's summarizing the entire

dynamic, "the fight exposes one of the maga movements deepest contradictions : it came to prominence chiefly via the white, less educated, working class but is now under the full control of billionaire technologists and industrialists, many of them immigrants." the cracks in the maga wall starting to show all before trump even steps into office. joining our conversation, eugene daniels, msnbc political contributor and author of "politicos playbook" a must read in washington. and founder of the lincoln project, and molly john fowler, for vanity fair and msnbc political analyst. rick, that did not take long. i would like to start with you and get your reaction to this christmas celebration maga civil war that is playing out. we all could see it coming over the past several months, and now it has fully exploded into the wide open on x, nonetheless. >> it is an inevitability that

the hyper populace, noncollege educated of trump space -- which is the polarity of the minimum, or the majority if you make certain arguments -- were always going to be preconditioned to think that the word "immigration," or the word "visa," always in their minds mean "brown people bad." so, they had this belief that the guy with the ged, and his fake oakley sunglasses, and his goatee, and his pickup truck, the universal twitter bro that you see on every adult avatar on twitter, that guy is thinking to himself, i could have been the senior software designer at google if only if it weren't for dei or immigration. it is absurd. but, you see people who rely on that as a core part of their business -- as donald trump does, by the way, for service staff at mar-a-lago and other resorts -- you see this conflict, it is eventually -- you know, the hyper populace, they don't really care about the more sophisticated arguments about h-1b visas.

they carry "brown people bad." that is the whole driving conditioning they have had from fox, for years. >> and it is so rich, molly, when you see elon musk pretended to be a free speech warrior, or free speech absolutist, barely tolerating the criticism of laura loomer -- i mean, not someone who has a lot of respect, not somebody who i think everybody looks at and says, that is a champion of free speech, herself -- but, here she is, you know, taking aim at elon musk, who has now stripped her of her highly coveted verification badge, i guess. >> yeah. i mean, i don't think any of this should come as a huge surprise, but i think it is worth remembering that elon musk put 200+ million dollars into this campaign. and i think he thought, as a lot of billionaires did, that trump would be transactional, and that they could give him

money and get him to do what they wanted. now, what they want is skilled workers for their companies, right? and you will see, tesla is like the third-biggest user of h-1b1 visas and there is a reason for that, they need the workers. so, donald trump has a problem, he has a base that has elected him on "mass deportation now" they had it on signs. and then, you know, he has billionaires who paid for this campaign, who want workers. and i think this is going to come to a head pretty quickly. >> eugene, laura loomer went on steve bennett's podcast to blast musks, not just on x. take a listen to what she said. >> i also have a problem with his ties to china. they support his shanghai gigafactory, why does this guy have unfettered access to president trump? and what are the national security implications of this? >> you heard it, they are. i mean, she is basically now questioning and accusing him of

disloyalty, and being a national security risk to the security of america. >> yeah, she sounds like some democrats i have talked to over the years who had issues with musk being around donald trump, right? it speaks to kind of when you have these sort of alliances, built on mostly just winning, not a real policy description, not a long list of things that they all care about, other than mostly just winning, it is easy to turn on each other, right? we saw that in trump's first term around people and we will see this more and more, especially on immigration. at the end of the day, immigration and the economy are the biggest issues that donald trump voters cared about, right? it is the thing that he, especially, on immigration, seems to care the most about when it comes to actual policy in this country. so, he is not going to, it seems to me, allow elon musk and vivek ramaswamy to lead

the way on that. he is going to kind of follow his gut on this, and more importantly, he is someone who can be moved by public rancor. and that includes, most importantly, people in the maga movement. if he is hearing from folks who have been around for a long time that the maga faithful are upset with him because of h- 1b1 or any other piece of immigration that elon musk and vivek ramaswamy are for, they may see themselves on the outside, right? it could happen very quickly. and this is one of the things, when we reported weeks, and weeks, and weeks ago, it could be years ago at this point, but earlier in the campaign that elon musk around mar-a-lago was starting to get frustrated for people, they felt like he was going to wear out his welcome. this, along with the kind of kerfuffle he created around the continuing resolution a couple of weeks ago, are more examples of him trying to exert his

power in a place in politics that is much more nuanced than even he might understand. >> yeah, and to that point, if you take what both eugene and molly said, greg, you on -- elon dave at least $50 million to gop causes in this last election cycle. he has pledged more money to spend in the midterms. he can, to some extent, outflank trump with his influence. i mean, even if trump does want to get rid of elon musk in his orbit, musk can still carry some influence inside republican circles because of the money he yields and that really raises the question, whose wrath do republicans fear more? a second term president who want to be able to run for office again, in theory, or the guy who has billions of dollars ready to spend to prop up and by candidates, left, right, and center? >> i think it is also important to understand, the guy that controls these essential social media platforms, or the maga movement. and if elon decides, as he is

showing with these small fries like loomer, and owen shroyer, all of those folks, taking away their verification, taking away their monetization, if he is willing to put his thumb on the scale, he is all in favor of free speech, for himself. and he bought it. if he controls that platform, he can cause trump a lot more pressure than when laura loomer and these other renters can cause. but, i do think it is important to remember that the populist movement has been telling republican voters for a generation, arguably two generations, that immigration is the cause of almost all of the evils in the life. i think molly and eugene are both right. he will be hearing from those grassroots folks and it will cause a tension with elon that i don't think is reconcilable.

>> molly, so, to that point, it is the big first test of maga ability to govern. how would you rate their performance so far? >> i almost think the first big test might have been when donald trump asked them to shut down the government and then he was like, let's get this debt ceiling raised and that was something that just didn't even happen, at all. look, the problem is donald trump promised everything to everyone, so he said, i'm going to make things cheaper, i'm going to do this, i'm going to do that, and a lot of the things that donald trump promised are things that are not doable, right? and so, now, you have the chickens coming home to roost, and i think it is really going to be a problem, and i think this immigration thing is almost on reconcilable. between the two forces. and remember, elon musk really did bankrolled much of this. and so, he is not going to go away quietly. >> eugene, we are also hearing more from the incoming trump

administration over there, the mass deportation plans. let me play for you and our viewers a clip from the so- called border czar, tom sillmon. >> we have no intention to separate children and parents. the parents will have to make a decision, that is parenting 101. i am going to say it again, if you choose to have a child in the united states while you know you are here illegally and you know you are on a court order to deport, that is on you. so, i think most parents will keep their families together. >> it is almost as if he doesn't know that citizens who are american children have constitutional rights, they are not just simply up to the discretion of their parents' legality. >> yeah, that's right. also, apologies for the phone ringing, that is my grandmother's phone, usually not a problem at my house, with the landline. but, you are right, i think what we are hearing from him is also what you hear from donald trump, himself.

right? they look at the kind of blowback they had on family separation, and it seems like fix they have come to is, keep the families together, then everybody has to go. right? i don't know if that will be any less controversial, especially when the kids that they are talking about, many of them, if not all of them, will be american citizens if they actually go through with this. but, this is something that donald trump clearly sees as a fix to one, making true to the promise that he made to his voters about immigration in some type of mass deportation was going to happen. and that his border czar and a lot of other people are going to have to put their money where their mouth is and actually get these things done. this seems to be a place in which they want to do it. honestly, when you look at polling, mass immigration, mass deportation, i guess it polls well with a lot of americans, however, when you dig into what

that actually means, and you ask people, okay, your neighbor gets snatched out of their home, or the kid has to go because they are taking the parent out, then you are getting different answers from folks. so, this will be one of those places were donald trump -- who, as i said a little bit earlier -- has to be moved by public pressure. if the media is too bad around some of this, you might see some squishing us around it. but, what they are seeing right now, is that the fixed to the family separation is everybody has to go together, even if the kids are american citizens. that is not going to be uncontroversial. when i talk to democrats, they are ready to take that fight on because that is something they feel like they can win, and they feel they can take back the house in just a couple of years. >> not just politically, but legally, i expect there will be a lot of fights if something like that is attempted or implement it. eugene daniels, rick wilson, molly jean fast, thank you for

starting us off this hour. here is what is coming up later on in the program, photos like this one gripping the nation in a year full of historical stories that came to life through the lens of the camera. plus, new warning signs inside the intelligence community about trump controversial cabinet picks. but first, swirling rumors of russia's involvement in a deadly plane crash. all of that and more when "deadline: white house" continues after a quick break. rsv is a highly contagious virus if you're 60 or older with certain chronic conditions, you're at higher risk of being hospitalized from rsv. and there are no prescription rsv treatments. you know how to protect against covid and flu. so ask your pharmacist or doctor about scheduling pfizer's rsv vaccine, too. because moments like these matter. can neuriva support your brain health? mary. janet. hey! eddie. no! fraser. frank. frank. fred. how are you? support up to seven brain health indicators, including memory.

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and packaged with 45% less plastic. giving you outstanding dandruff protection. and leaving hair beautiful and moisturized. major dandruff protection, minimal ingredients. job done. head & shoulders bare. donald trump visit to take office in a matter of weeks, creating mounting uncertainty about the future of two major international conflicts. russian officials rejecting trump's calls for an immediate cease-fire in ukraine but signaled openness to peace

talks with the incoming administration after nearly three years of war. it comes after a catastrophic plane crash on christmas day near kazakhstan. the passenger plane taking off from azerbaijan on route to russia. 38 people died including passengers and crew. there were 29 survivors. investigators say physical and technical internal interference caused the crash, pointing to evidence that the plane may have been downed by a russian air defense system. u.s. officials also pointing the finger at russia, saying they now have intelligence saying russia thought that the plane was a drone. russia denying those claims, suggesting ukraine is to blame. and of course, the ongoing war in the middle east, growing fears of that conflict widening as israel targets iran útran26 rebels in yemen. an attack on the airport in the

capital city occurred while the head of the world health organization was traveling there. the escalating tension in the region comes as northern gaza's last remaining hospital is now under seized by israeli forces. gaza health ministry saying that the israeli military has stormed ahead and had the hospital forcibly removed healthcare workers, patients, and family members, his vehicle military surrounded the hospital. joining me now, pulitzer prize winning journalist, cnbc winning editor for national security and the author of "beyond war: reimagining america's goals and ambitions in a new middle east." and david, foreign policy expert who worked in the clinton administration and hosts "the deep state podcast." gentlemen, good to have both of you with us. david, i will start with you, donald trump pledged to end the russian-ukraine war in office, that seems unlikely to most experts. how do you see this unfolding when he does take office? >> well, that is not going to happen because he doesn't control all of the moving pieces there, and he never did.

putin, while he says he is perfectly happy to have talks, has also said that he wants to maintain control over the land that they claimed, that ukraine can't join nato, that ukraine can't join the eu, that it wants to be protected against possible ukrainian aggression, which is ludicrous. and he is going to continue to push forward to gain advantage during the talks. so, the reality is that the person that trumped wants to cooperate with isn't going to be cooperative. the ukrainians obviously want to fight for the best position they can. the europeans want to support the ukrainians. and so, i think what we are going to have is quite a long, drawn out negotiating process and one that could continue, not just for days or for weeks, but for months and possibly for years. >> david rothkopf, let me just follow up with that about the rossa -- russia situation. the azerbaijan airlines that

went down in russia has used air defense systems against ukraine before. what is your take, or the early take on what has happened, there? and what that actually means for the broader war? >> well, i think in terms of the broader war, the implications are fairly limited, it is becoming clearer and clearer that russians accidentally shot down this plane, but i would draw attention to the fact that the russians are going to come up with some kind of a story, which usually the u.s. would be skeptical of. but, president trump said he wants his director of national intelligence to be tulsi gabbard, somebody who has actively promoted, discredited russian conspiracy theories and propaganda, and that means we may be seeing russia's framing of this in a very different way than we may have in any other u.s. administration.

>> david , if russia is behind this, the crash eerily similar to the 2014 crash of the malaysian airlines flight 17 in which russia was also found to be responsible. how should the international community respond to this? i mean, we obviously see what russia is doing, intentionally or unintentionally, but it does highlight two major problems -- no accountability for their recklessness, and two, their incompetence. >> look, to be honest, i don't think there are many cards left for the international community to play. europe will, as david said, support the ukrainians, but, you know, the u.s. and its allies have unleashed unprecedented sanctions against putin and russia, and they haven't slowed significantly the russian war effort. and so, there is very little leverage left. and i would also agree that, again, trump came in and said he is going to quickly broker a

peace deal between russia and ukraine, but i agree with david, this could drag on for months and months. you know, despite the downing of this aircraft, putin and the kremlin will deny any russian role, and i think putin will press his hand, he will press trump to give him the best deal possible in ukraine. so, it is just a very difficult situation. ukrainians are slowly losing ground, but they are also running out of these long-range missiles that the biden administration provided to them, so it will just be an ugly, grinding ground war that could continue for a long time, and trump won't be able to deliver on his promise of a quick peace deal. >> let me turn, david rohde, to the middle east for a moment. obviously, hamas, decimated, hezbollah, decimated, the asad regime, toppled. israel has turned its sights on trend 26 right now. right now, you have donald trump coming into office, will that emboldenand others in

america, who have long set their sights on iran, who see iran now weakened and vulnerable, for a possible regime change? >> i think there is a very good chance of that. our colleague at nbc has been reporting on this a long time, and he thinks, there is a whole array of hardliners who really wants the israelis, with u.s. help, to try to take out the regime in iran. it has been an astonishing series of setbacks, as you said. hamas, decimated, hezbollah, decimated. the attacks today on yemen by israeli forces show that netanyahu really believes in israeli military power. so, i think there will be, there could be a large strike on tehran and the only wildcard here is the issue would be chaos. there is fears of chaos in syria, and the kind of sectarian and other strikes that could happen there and what might emerge in iran. but, i do think trump will give

a green light for netanyahu to try to hit iran's regime very hard and try to bring it down. >> david rothkopf, your thoughts on that very same question in whether a trump 2.0 emboldens netanyahu and others in america, the hawks, the neocons, who have always had their eyes set on a regime change in iran? >> i think it will involve them and i think netanyahu will take this as a blank check. i will add to it, however, that a lot of what we are going to see from netanyahu taking advantage of the blank check is going to happen near or within his own borders. i think you can see taking over land, and within the west bank, taking over northern gaza, being much more direct in its internal territorial objectives, perhaps permanently holding onto some of the land that it seized with regard to syria.

this is the moment netanyahu has been waiting for. things have been going his way in the past couple of months, and i think that is likely to accelerate over the course of 2025, certainly. >> two very important international stories we will be tracking closely throughout the incoming year. thanks to david rohde and david rothkopf, thank you so much, gentlemen. up next, career intelligence officials slamming trump's cabinet picks as dangerous and unqualified. we will explain. will explain. and i was done settling. if you still have symptoms after trying a tnf blocker like humira or enbrel, rinvoq works differently. rinvoq is a once-daily pill that can rapidly relieve joint pain, stiffness, and swelling as fast as 2 weeks for some. and even at the 3-year mark, many people felt this relief. rinvoq can stop joint damage. and in psa, can leave skin clear or almost clear. rinvoq can lower ability to fight infections. before treatment, test for tb and do bloodwork. serious infections, blood clots, some fatal;

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raising alarm bells over donald trump's controversial administration picks, a former head of the fbi and cia objecting to trump's picks to lead the fbi and national intelligence community, warning that kash patel and tulsi gabbard are on decidedly -- decidedly unqualified to serve in top intelligence jobs. in a letter to senators, kash patel's record of executing the president's directive suggest a loyalty to individuals rather than the rule of law, a dangerous precedent for an agency tasked with impartial enforcement of justice. patel is a known trump loyalist who has a so-called "enemies list," and has threatened journalists. concerns now ramping up as trump looks to corrode government guardrails, preparing for a second term of retribution. take a listen at what he said in the past. >> sometimes, revenge can be justified. everybody on that committee --

for what they did, honestly, they should go to jail. joe could be a convicted felon, with all the things he has done. somebody, if i happen to be president and i see somebody who is doing well and beating me very badly, i say, go down and indict them. i called my attorney general, i said, listen, indict him. >> if you are president again, will you lock people up? >> well, i will give you an example -- the answer is, you have no choice because they are doing it bad. >> joining me now is staff writer at the new york times magazine and glenn kushner, former prosecutor and host of the podcast "justice matters." great to have you both with us. emily, what is your reaction to this warning? >> you know, i think it is really important to think about how william webster comes from a different era of the justice department independence. he is chosen by president carter right after watergate, and watergate, of course, is

this moment in american history in politics in which the independence of the justice department is directly threatened by president nixon. and afterwards, congress enacts a series of reforms, one of them is that the head of the fbi is going to have a 10 year term and that is going to insulate him or her, in some ways, from presidential politics. so, you had webster serve under carter, and then under ronald reagan, and reagan is the one who actually picked him to become the head of the cia. donald trump has a fundamentally different view of how the president should be responding and controlling these offices. he wants to take that direct control of the fbi, put his own person in, kash patel, even though the current fbi director's term is not over. so, what i think webster is saying here, this is a real break from the way we have thought about the independence of the justice department and the fbi, since watergate. and trump really wants to change and dismantle the guardrails that congress put in

place, then. >> glenn, trump's former deputy of national security adviser, charles kupperman, also called kash patel unqualified, calling him "the dictionary definition of a sycophant." that this "is trump's ultimate statement that his second term will be driven by retribution." are these warning signs enough to impact the confirmation process? or, is the republican party right now -- certainly the senators that will have to confirm him -- too much in trump's pocket? >> what a great question, impossible to predict, but if we can use as a data point how quickly matt gaetz had to pull his name from contention, when the reporting was there was some behind the scenes resistance from multiple senators, i think that is encouraging, and when you look at william webster, it is sort of the headlines catch our attention, when we are told he was the only person to serve as both the director of the fbi and the director of the cia,

which makes them sort of uniquely positioned to express these concerns that he has expressed to congress. but, even before all of that, his wealth of experience with the fbi is extraordinarily deep, because we have to remember, he was a united states attorney in missouri. what did he do? he had to make prosecutorial decisions based off of the work of the fbi. he was a federal trial court judge. what did he do? he presided over trials at which fbi agents testify, and at least in motions hearings, the judge would have been making credibility determinations about fbi, agents, and that he was a federal appeals court judge, so in the event of conviction, he would be tackling issues of an investigation by the fbi that produced a conviction. and he then went on to become director. when he says things like he said in this letter to the senators -- and if i could just read one line, because this is as ominous and direct, i think, as a recommendation like this gets.

william webster told the senators, "i urge you to weigh the critical importance of nonpartisan leadership and experience. the safety of the american people, and your own families, depends on it." it seems to me that something senators should take very seriously. >> let me play for you one more thing, emily. this is what kash patel has had to say about retribution. >> we will go out and find the conspirators, not just in government, but in the media. yes, we are going to come after the people in the media who lied about american citizens. we are going to come after you. whether it is criminally or civilly, we will figure that out. >> emily, if patel is confirmed, could this, indeed, become a reality in america? >> yes, it could be. you know, there are still important safeguards, especially from the courts in the united states, right? at the same time, the fbi, in

opening an investigation, can cause enormous change, and sometimes damage to people's lives. you know, you sometimes have to spend a tremendous amount on legal bills, you have this shadow looming over you, and it becomes very difficult to just go about your business. whether the accusation ends up leading to a conviction, or not. it is important to remember, you know, this is how the fbi was sometimes used before watergate, when j edgar hoover was the head of it. but, hoover was using the fbi, for many years, really to his own ends, as opposed to serve the retribution desires of a president. and that is what patel is kind of lining himself up here to be. we don't really have a president for that, in american history. but it is, indeed, possible. >> glenn, the trump pressure campaign seems to have gone skeptical, senators on pete hegseth's side. i know we talked about matt gaetz in your previous answer,

but do you anticipate the same thing happening, here? >> you know, i think you are going to see a robust confirmation hearing. let's think back a couple weeks ago when donald trump was suggesting that the senate should go out of session so he can make a recess appointment. it sure looks like they rebuffed him on that request or demand. so, i think hegseth is going to be examined, and frankly, cross- examined, mightily by senators. and when it comes to kash patel, this is theater of the absurd, ayman. when you have somebody who published in his book, "government gangsters," what he calls a deep state list, what he has dubbed an enemies list, and there are 60 people on that list who he says he is going after on his revenge and retribution for, let's remember 11 of them are republicans. so, you know what? it looks like he will be an equal opportunity offender, going after democrats and republicans for, as best as we can tell, having committed no crimes.

this man should not be in the running for the director of the fbi. >> so, to pick up on that point, emily, do you think that president biden should preemptively pardon some of these names that are publicly known? >> you know, i worry about preemptive steps. one of the challenges with a figure like president-elect trump is that other institutions and actors around him can overreact or change what they are doing in ways that distort the system in their own right. so, i wonder if that is the kind of problem that president biden would set up here with preemptive pardons. one could imagine that in the future, other president's, including president trump, might also use preemptive pardons in a way that does not seem like a great thing for the country, so i think that is a set of considerations that is important to weigh here when you are talking about preemptive pardons. >> just one more example of how the norms in our country are constantly being pushed and tested. emily bazelon, glenn kirschner, really appreciate it, as always.

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[clears throat] sounds like you need to vaporize that sore throat. vapocool drops? it's sore throat relief with a rush of vicks vapors. ♪ vapocooooool ♪ whoa. vaporize sore throat pain with vicks vapocool drops. 2024 has been a historic year, and as we look back, images are an integral part of how we tell these stories. some iconic photos taken this year will tell future generations the story of 2024. in this year's heated and unprecedented election cycle,

this photo of kamala harris and her niece helped show an incredulous nation who harris was. in april, a total eclipse captivated the nation and a camera showed us what our eyes can't look at directly. and as the war in gaza trudges on, images like this capture the human toll of the destruction. here to review some of the years most compelling photos is ricky rogers, global editor for reuters pictures. ricky, looking at this photo of a wedding dress amidst the rubble in gaza, what does this image say about 2024? >> well, we know that this conflict is 1 of 2 major conflicts after the new year last year and continue. you know, life goes on as much as possible in place like gaza and there are stages in life is marriage and there are people that are continuing with their lives in spite of the tragedy that is happening. it is a bit surrealistic to see

wedding dresses in the middle of the rubble from the bombing, but we know it is a place where bombing is constant and people are dying, but there are people trying to carry on with their lives. >> of course, president-elect trump survived two assassination attempts, an attempted assassination this year was captured on camera. tell us about this image, right after that bullet grazed his ear at a rally in pennsylvania, and just the impact that it has had on the narrative of who donald trump is in his campaign? >> well, the strength of this photo comes from the fact that trump seems to be staring right down the barrel of the camera, the camera lens, and that is not very common. we know that donald trump knows where photographers are standing, but a lot of the photographers are standing underneath, below the stage,

and our photographer was way in the back. that gives this image a lot of strength, and we know this was one of the defining moments of the campaign. and trump stepped up to that. it was a bit of quick thinking on his part, of course, and he is there, defined, with his fist in the air and blood on his face. it was such a powerful photo. >> i was going to say, and a version of that has been used on the cover of his book, so it tells us just how iconic it has become in his own personal story. of course, the paris olympics captivated the world in the summer of 2024. what role did photos like this play, in telling the story of the olympics, and the humanity that we see in these moments? >> well, you know, what we expect from the olympics are just sport pictures, but these pictures are scenes. the beauty of that picture that you are showing right there is clear, but also, you know, it took so much planning for the

photographer to get that. it wasn't just a matter of stepping out and taking the picture. it was taken from a viewpoint. they used an app to locate basically where the moon would be at any time of the day, or night rather, in this case, and lined it up perfectly with the rings. it is just a beautiful photo, in the middle of an iconic place that the world was focusing on at the time. >> i was going to say, so many pictures are captured by photographers being at the right place at the right time. this one, you think about how much work had to go into setting up, and almost the mathematical science of determining where you need to stand in order to capture the perfect angle at the right time. it is truly a science to it, almost. >> absolutely. there are a few apps that actually allow us to predict where the moon is going to be, and the sun, as well. >> in a year that has been

marked, unfortunately, by extreme weather events caused by climate change, tell us about this image of animals in polluted waters? >> well, you know, we can necessarily tie this to climate change, it is about pollution and the environment, but it looks like cows walking through the clouds, right? and it looks like such a peaceful photo, but actually, it is toxic. those are toxic piles of foam and it is such a polluted river in the middle of one of world's biggest cities, which is new delhi. it is a fascinating picture to look at, but it is also very depressing. >> i was going to say, most people probably think of that and their initial instinct is probably to think of it as snow, but if you look closer, as you just described, it is actually foam that speaks to the pollution of it. and in some ways, when people

see those images -- and correct me if i'm wrong -- but when you see this, it is almost easier to understand pollution then it is if you were reading about it in an article or hearing about it in some type of scientific presentation. >> yeah, no, you are absolutely right, there. >> ricky rogers, thank you so much, greatly appreciate it. >> thank you. up next, donald trump, the first former president convicted of crimes, prepares for a second term. second term. chris! keke! ready tycoons? it's go time! cash grab! keke, i won again? ow! daddy will be back soon. [cries] -ha ha! -boom! we're swimming in it now. -rent's due. -toodle-oo! busted! nothing beats playing with friends, except bankrupting friends. did you know, sweat from stress is actually smellier than other kinds of sweat? that's why i use secret clinical antiperspirant. it works on sweat from: stress, heat and activity. it provides 3x stress sweat protection.

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was an unprecedented collision of multiple legal battles, while mounting one of the most stunning political comebacks in history. nbc's vaughn hillyard takes a look back at the trump trials that defined 2024. >> reporter: for defendant, donald trump -- >> donald j trump is guilty. >> reporter: the fate of the 2024 presidential election could determine both his political and legal future. >> they want to put me in jail. >> reporter: trump using his own potential imprisonment to rally supporters around his defense. >> our enemies want to take away my freedom because i will never let them take away your freedom. >> reporter: as a candidate arraigned on criminal charges in new york city, washington, d.c., florida, and atlanta, where a local fulton county jail formally booked, fingerprinted, and photographed him for a mug shot that trump capitalized on. >> when i did the mug shot in atlanta, you know that but mug shot is number one. >> reporter: trump turned it into a symbol for his freedom, turning it into merchandise and

fundraising. >> every time the medical right democrats fascists invite me, i consider it a great badge of honor. >> reporter: in 2023, the indictments coming in rapid succession. >> i got arrested four times in the last -- it is almost like i wake up in the morning -- do you think they will arrest me today? i never got arrested before. >> reporter: some of trump's primary opponents trying to benefit themselves from the cases. >> we can't keep living with indictments, and court cases, and vengeance of the past. we have to start going forward. >> that conduct is indefensible, in my view. >> reporter: but, instead, as trump made his way to new york to face criminal charges for falsifying business records to cover up hush money payments to stormy daniels and influence the 2016 presidential election, his narrow lead in the gop primary began expanding. >> at distorted the primary. just crowded out, i think, so much other stuff.

>> reporter: special counsel jack smith brought two cases against trump, in d.c. charging him over his efforts to overturn the 2020 election loss, and another for refusing to turn over classified documents and allegedly trying to hide them from the fbi, leading to federal agents executing a search warrant on his florida estate. >> they rated my house in florida, mar-a-lago. no notice, no nothing, they rated it. >> reporter: in a separate civil case brought by new york attorney general letitia james, a judge found trump and his family engaged in repeated financial fraud, finding him $460 million. >> donald trump may have offered the art of the deal, but he perfected the art of the steel. >> reporter: a jury in new york also finding him liable for sexually abusing e jean carol, and then defending her. >> is nothing, we don't need to be afraid of him. >> reporter: another jury, months later, ordering trump to pay carol more than $80 million

after the judge overseeing the litigation determined that he had defamed her, again, as trump called the prosecutions and lawsuits politically targeted, the justice system continued to turn. >> it shouldn't be allowed to happen, so i will stay around here. >> reporter: major witnesses taking the stand in the hush money trial, stormy daniels, michael cohen, the publisher of the national enquirer, david , and his white house close aide, hope hicks. meanwhile, his political allies, courting public opinion. >> the judicial system in our country has been weapon isaac and president trump. >> they are not prosecuting president trump, they are persecuting him. >> reporter: after seven weeks, the jury unanimously found him guilty on all 34 felony counts. the judge in scheduling a sentencing date for after the election, raising the stakes of america's decision. >> we are now projecting that the next president of the united states is donald trump. >> this was, i believe, the greatest political movement of all-time.

>> reporter: and with the result, concerns about immunity from prosecution and the ability and precedent of imposing a sentence on a sitting president, leading special counsel draw jack smith to drop his two cases. a federal judge agreed to toss the indictments out, his fulton county case indefinitely on hold, and the judge in his new york trial now deciding whether to toss the vertex against trump out altogether or suspend his sentencing date until he leaves office in 2029. von hilliard, nbc news. >> our thanks to nbc's vaughn hillyard. keep it right here on msnbc. we will take a quick break and be right back. back. r, so you wake up ready to go. uhh, hank! try mucinex nightshift and feel the difference. (dramatic music) time is running out to give a year-end gift like no other- -a gift that can help saint jude children's research hospital save lives. those that donate to st. jude, i hope that you will continue to give.

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good evening from los angeles point i'm jason johnson point we are less than a month out from a second trump presidency but what are we

really in for? we know what dona