>> i want that. >> it's so good. the decision to withdraw an american presence in syria is a colossal in my mind mistake, a great error. >> the trump doctrine on isis is said as the vice president struggles tohe explain decision that even the secretary of defense isn't behind. we'll have major reaction this morning. the stock market continues getting hammered. with the dow and s&p bothy significantlown this year as the fed shows no signs of slowing down those interest rate hikes. >> shoppers have just five days before christmas but mother nature hasome 68 million americans in the path of nasty weather ahead. here's one guy whoas no problem delivering some christmas cheer. can you guess who the secret

santa is? we'll give you a clue. the number 44. from a floating bae, home town decorations take on a whole different approach. happy thursdayefore christmas i'm phillip mena. >> i'm frances rivera. with christmas less than a week away milli of americans may see major delays tod and tomorrow as severe weather moving through the south strethens. >> the national weather service says the storm is bringing heavy winds, hail and even possiblend tornadoest's expected to start affecting parts of the northeast tonight. c's gabe gutierrez has more. >> reporter: phillip and frances, good morning. the lines are running smoothly here in atlanta so far but that could change latertoday. wicked weather is on the move. a nearntonio thick fog is being blamed for this massive pileup arfr texas through florida rain is slogging sross the south a storm system strengthens in e gulf of mexico. already watching some eavy rainfall move in. this after high winds hit the

west coast this week, stirring up powerfuf and even a rare devastating tornado outside seattle. >> and i saw the tornado like spinning and i thought i was going to get sucked up. news forer: it's bad anyone trying to get away this holiday on the roads, rails, and in the air aaa expects a record-breaking 112.5 million travelers this holiday season. what's the best game plan? >> okay. so if you have not btiked your et yet but you still want to make it home for the holidays, fly out on christmas day. why? because nobody wants to fly on christmas tday. t's when you're going to get the cheapest ticket. >> reporter: the oliver family in atlanta chose to fly to florida to beat the rush. >> we felt like if we waited till the 21 or 22nd to travel it would just be chaos. >> reporter: on the roads the national weathes service mates that at least 67 million americans are at risk for flooding over the next few days. phillip and frances. >> all right, gabe, thank you. let's bring in bill karins to tell us what's going on. >> it's almost like a spring

setup. we're not talking about sno or e at all. severe weather today, especially areas of central florida.ha ed risk area from tampa to sarasota to fort myers all the way back to atlanta. that's where we could see isoled storms to produce a few tornadoes. wind damage threat in areas fron charleo wilmington. then we mentioned all the people at risk of flooding from this storm. about one to three inches widespread. isolated totals up to four inches that goes from florida all the way tove new england the next 48 hours. then on top of that this could with the the problem airports. friday in the northeast the wind gusts could cause a lost issues. you get the hvy rain and the winds, 40 to 50 miles per hour and that's going toqu significant -- hopefully just delays. hopefully not too many cancellations but be prepared. >> fingers crossed. >> and people keep safe out there on the roads too. bi, thank you. just 24 hours left until a government shutdown. hthe senate throws al mary approving a short-term spending billnm to keep the govt open through february.

the stopgap bill provides a total of $1.6illion to fund border security and other agencies until february of next year, when new congress would be sworn in. what it doesn't include is the 5 billion for that border wall. so all eyes are on president trump. as the question becomes will he sign it and avert a christmas crisis? hallie jackson has the details. >> reporter: a christmas crisis pushed offef to juste valentine's day it seems now that congress hammered out a short-term compromise. >> republicans will continue to fulfill our duty to governor. >> reporter: democrats o board but will the president sign it? republican senator john cornyn says he's pretty confident. >> my understanding is he's accepted the reality of it. >> reporter: the white house has signaled back the temporary fix. that's a reversal from the president's previous position. $5 billi or bust for his border wall. now that wall's stall is not hotting well with some conservatives whink the president is blowing his last best chance before republicans lose conol of the house.

>> it is becoming clearer and clearer that all we're getting is words, words, wo ws. >> peopl voted for him and want the wall want to know why softening his stance this morning. >> the president is not softening his stance. >> reporter: but how he talks about the wall has changed. >> who's going to pay for t wall? [ crowd answering "mexico" ] >> mexico will pay for the wall. i promise. >> in the end mexico's paying for the wall. >> reporter: based on the president's tweets now it's like who's going to pay for the artistically designed steel slats at the border? mexico indirectly. and frances, even if everybody signs off on this before the friday deadline keep in mind we could be right back here before the next deadline on february 8th. frances, back to you. >> hallie jackson for us. thank you. if the senate does not fund president trump's border, while ay get that money from a very unlikely source, go fund me. a florida air force veteran,

brian colvage started a campaign to help raise money for the id prt's border wall and in just three days it has already racked up well over $2 million. the campaign is called we theil femalefund the wall. the goal is to raise $1 billion. he says if the 63 million people who voted for trump eac pledged $80 we can build the wall. the only thing left to see is w high it will . now to a major u.s. foreign policy shift. a withdrawal of u.s. troops from syria has. nounced as president trump makes this declaration in a white house-produced video for twitter. >> we have won against isis. we've beaten them and we've beaten them badly. we've taken back the land. and now it's time for our troops to come back home. >> thisnnouncement took man by surprise and has drawn swift and often harsh criticism from the media and even fellow rpublicans. for more on thection on capitol hill we turn to tracie potts. what senators about the decision? >> reporter: some of them, even some of the president's closest allies,ances, are not

thrilled about this decision. some calling it "an obama-like mistake. take a look. six lawmakers have sent the president a letimr asking to reconsider withdrawing these troops. they include fours, republic one democrat, and one independen in that letter they argue that this is simply not a good idea. a quote from the letter here where they're asking the presiden toreconsider, saying that "we believe that such action at this time is a premature and costly mistake." and the concern is what if isis comes back? >> the decision to withdraw an american presence in syria is a colon my mind mistake, a grave error that'sve going to significant repercussions in the years and months to come. >> reporter: the president said he'sopringing his t home.

he did not say when. the pentagon issuing a statement that said we are transitioning to a new phase in sizyr but did not give details about that. and what about our allies in that region? the kurdsaid a u.s. pullout theyde would conan abandonment. frances? >> now critics call it a victory for isis. o tracie, thank you for the breakdown. another big slide on wall street wednesday. the d finished down over50 points to a new low for the year after the fed brurk aside objections from president trump raised interest rates for the fourth time this year. here's nbc's costello to tell us why andho what tse higher rates mean for you.r: >> reporte amid compelling evidence of a strong economy the federal reserve ignored president trump's criticisms and raised interest rates again. the nin rate hike since 2015. chairman jernse powell iisting the fed is independent and dedicated to prefrk a strong economy. >> political considerations play

no role whatsoever in our discussions. >> reporter: in recent weeks mr. trump has accused the fed of hurting the economy and stock mark by raising rates. >> i think the rate's too high. i think we have much more of a fed problem than we have a problem with anyone else. >> reporter: the decision and talk of more rate hikes next year sent stocks into a nose dive. the dow up 300 points before the announcement did a nose dive closing down 352. down 5% f. the ye in new jersey investor michael gibb ni is telling clients not to panic. >> we build clients' portfolios to weather storms like this. this is something that's not unexpected. >> reporter: the rate hike means higher interest rates for student loans, new credit cards. those higher rates will show up n your credit card statements early next year just as the holiday gift bills come due. >> when reali sets in. tom, thank you. l>> now to a video from the children's natioedical center in washington, d.c. showing former president barack

obama bringing cheer to the young patients there. ♪ and a happy new year [ cheers and applause ] ♪ we wish you a merry christmas and a happy new year ♪ [ cheers and applause ] >> i just want to say thank you to all of you guys. i had a chance to talk to some of theonderful kids and their families. at a time that obviously ish toor folks, and as the dad of two girls, you know, i can only imagine, in that situation, you t know,have nurses and staff and doctors and people who arearing for them and looking after them a listening to them and just there for them and hoing their hands, that's the most important thing there is.

what a great reminder ever what the holiday spir t's supposed be all about. >> it's hard to get a hospital to light up like that. >> this time of d year that'll it. he's out there. michelle obama's out there.k around 30 r surprising tourists too. >> putting smiles on people's faces. great this time of year. let's check back in with bill. ? no smiles here. unfortunately the rain from louisville to cincinnati all t b wak to florida. we do have the flood watches for north florida. as we go throuy.out to they should end by this evening. then flood watches for south carolina, north carolina. 8uge area of the northeast. that's why we haveillion total people under flood watches. a lot of that snow that fell in november is melting in northern new aengland. thatook at the big weather story of the day. here's a closer look at your day ahead. so the warm air is snaking right up the eastern seaboard. that's the chance of those thunderstorms even for this time of year. we will watch the rain moving

to d.c. as we go throughout the late afternoon. philelphia into this evening, new york city until late.e we'll t you through the itmplete holiday forecast coming up. gets a lot better than this mess. five-time olympic champion missy franklin says she's retiringrom competitive swimming at the age of 23, says she suffers from a chronic shouer pain. it's affected her for years. >> we're getting our first look at will smith as the genie. he stars in disney's "aladdin." >> i thought aladdin was blue. and one florida family has more than justorch pirates t worry about. a doorbell cam captured a bear cup snoopingou a family's front door and acting a little too much like the grinch. the furryriend appeared to sniff, taste, and knock down those holiday decorations. we'll be right back. moderate to severe plaque psoriasis. with tremfya®, you can get clearer. and stay clearer. in fact, most patients who saw 90% clearer skin at 28 weeks stayed clearer through 48 weeks.

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you hear about this facebook story it just came out that they were letting companies like netflix read your privateme facebookages. which explains why netflix doesn't just ask are you still watching. now,t also as are you and stacey going to work things out? what? >> that was of course jimmy fallon taking a shot atoo fac after it revealed another privacy scandal. the social network admitting that it allowed other tech giants to see users' private messages. i it says only did so with users' permission, but do you remember giving it? thompsonc's anne >> reporter: more and more people deciding facebook is not theirfriend. "delete facebook" trending on twitter. people fed up after "the new york times" reported facebook allowed 150 companies including microsoft, amazon, and netflix access to users' personal data. some partnerships gave compani the ability to read, write, and delete private messages without

users' knowledge or t. >> what's the driving force behind these partnerships? >> the driving force is growth at all costs. erowth at all costs and selling your privacy to m money. >> facebook admitted it gave paners like spotify access to users' private mesedges if it sin to the sites using their facebook accounts but denied they did it without user consent. spotify says it never aessed private messages. facebook under fire over privacy and access to ausers' d for years. founder mark zuckerberg apologizing in the "new yorker" in 2009 for colle text messages calling people dumb who trusted him with theirin rmation. just this year mea culpas to congress for allowing a political consulting firm to get users' data without their on permis >> that was a big mistake, and it was my mistake, and i'm sorry.ep >>ter: this time sorry may not be enough. anne thompson, n news, new york. >> we're going to see what the backlash is this time around. >> maybe people leave but maybe

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my most secret possessions. i have them when i have a crush so intense i don't know what else to do. >> that's a good watch. netflix has announced that the hit summer movie based on the

trilogy by jenny han "to all the boys i've loved before" is getting a sequel. the movie became one of the streaming service's most rewatched original movies of 2018. lead actress lana condor took to instagram to help make the announcement and express her excitement. netflix is doing something rig when it comes to the teenie bopper rom comes. that's one of them and it's deelnitely worth a se it's a fun one. >> i'm going to ride home and watc that. that one, "the kigs booth." all kinds of fun when you want to get that teenyopper fix. which i apparently do. >> the language learning app babble and the u.s. captioning company they've chosen the ten most mispronounced words and names of 2018. let's see if you can get them. let's see if i can say them. beto o'rourke. he's the texas democrat who ran agains c tedz for senate this year. this one here is erirish-an actress. >> this is tough. >> saoirse ronan. there you go. other words -- it gets harder. other words that made the list.

entomophagy. that means the consumption of insects. ne super grain freekeh. that's not bad. and they saved the hardest for last here. here we go. halapoulivaati vaitai. there you go. he is a philadelphia eags offensive tackle. he can't even go but his initials either because you don't want to be called hpv. >> i don't think he really likes that. hpv. zblur not going to mess with that guy.l >> you hear t the time from announcers in games. >> they wrote it phottically rihere on the prompter. that's my best shot at getting it right. ia neeltsen has released its list of social mv stars based on engagement on social media during their show when it's going on. "america's got talent" host tyra banks is number one with 2,213 social engagements.d she's follo by msnbc's host o a"all in" chris hayes. then cardi b. for hosting the american music awards. sean hannity of fox news. >> still to come "avengers"

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you e waking up to the busiest tvel day of the holiday season. millions of travelers are expected to hit the road and take to the skies today. news 4 is tracking what you neeo to know handle the crowds. aate-night bargain in the senate might be the move that

keeps the government open past friday. there is still a bigin stick point between congress and the white house. and the movie mogul at thee centf the me too movement is set to be in crt to answer some of the most serious allegations against him. this is likely the most peac >> you and me right here. >> i tried to sell kit. i thhere's supposed to be an outside picture. we're going to skip over all that and sayood morning. >> the joy and the love. >> it's 4:00 a.m. let that sink in. i'm aaron gilchrist. >> and i'm eun yang. news 4 isorking for you to make sure your holiday trips get off trt a good s even if you're not one of the millions of people taking a trio y, you will still have to deal with heavy traffic. >> you are committed. i love the way you just plowed right through that. >> what do you want me too? it my job. >>