new fears following james mattis's resignation. his highly critical letter to the president. part of the stop gap funng bill, but is it d.o.a.? the lenls las vegas heads back to the senate likely forcing a government shutdown. >> stranded, a lone drone is holding up over 100,000 passengers are flights canceled, diverted.or how is that possible? >> and it's another miracle on 34th street.

this one is real, and it is spectacul sp ttacular. "earay" starts right now. >> good friday morning. i'm phillip. >> i'm frances. shock wavesipple through washington after james mattis happened in his resignation. joins a high list of high-ranking trump officials to leave the white house. mark warner of virginia tweeted "this is chaos," adding that general mattis was an island of stability amid the chaos of thea trump adminion. the resignation comes after president trump ordered the withdrawal of troops from syria d afghanistan. in a letter the four-star marine -- sd president deserves someone better aligned with his views. what does this mean forhe country' national security? here with more on that is nbc's kristen welker. >> reporter: frances, this is a bombtaell. both sec mattis and the white house acknoliedging the differences between ma

mattis and the president played a significant role in mattis's departure. it has implications for national security and foreign policy. "thesenior official saying, wheels are coming off." the psident tweeting general jim mattis will be retiring with distinction after at thend e of having served my administration as secretary of defense for the past two years. the announcement comes after the president announced his plans to withdrawal troops f syria, a move mattis disagreed with, according to numerous defense officials. they were also at odds after president trump asked the military for plans to withdraw troops from afghanistan. tensions have been simmering for months, and president trump seemed to publicly criticize mattis in a r >> i think he is sort of a democrat. >> reporter: mattis said the president deserved a secretary of defense whose views were better aligned with his and talked about the importance of alliances and. partnershi a reference to the riffs he has

had with mr. trump over mr. trump's treatment of historically strong allies. mattis was among the president's first cabinet ck >> general "mad dog" mattis. >> repter: now he joins the ranks of departed top officials within the trump administration. president tweeting "a new secretary of defense will be named shortly. kristen welker, nbc news, the white house. i'm andrea mitchell in plans for afghanistan and nt's withdrawal from syria were the final stra a decision mattis strongly opposed. other key advisors arguing the fight against isis was over. >> we can just leave now. >> with stgard to ilization, we still have a long way to go. >> reporter: to the president it's a campaign promise kept, tweet, "does the u.s. want to be the policemen of the meelgds east?" mattis tught they had talked him out of it, but then big pressure from turkey three week ago, and again, in a call friday arguing america's partners in

the fight, syrian kurds, are really terrorists. the president overruling his secretaries of state and defense, announcing his decision on twitter with a slick white house video envoccing the sacrifice of fallen u.s. troops. >> we won, and that's the way wa want it, ands the way they want it. >> he is not qualified to invoke hose magnificent >> reporter: angry republicans pleading with mr. trump to change his mind. >> in this war you will not been it by giving up. this is akin to surrendering. >> thanks to andrea mitchell for that report. the house and senate are on a collision course just hoursm away f government shutdown. house republicans triggering a er nd-off with the senate a passing their version of the op gap spending ll, tacking on the $5si billion for pnt trump's border wall and, thus, raising the chances of a government shutdown. that bill is expected tbe dead

on arrival with senate democrats likely to block that measure. it's back to square one as the senate heads back to washington to vote before the clock strikes midnight. nbc's tracist potts joining us inw from washington. tracie, good mo it is turning out to be a pretty rough christmas weekend for the senators. >> right. especially for those who already left. take a look. e senator from hawaii, brian, tweeted pictures with his family. ot had already landed in honolulu when he word he had to turn around b and comek to washington. that's because the version of budget that the house passed, includes $5 billion for the president's border wall. the version that theenate passed does not. now they have to figure out can they reckooncile that? if not, t government goes into shut doub mode. this is the wall that the president ss he wants funded, but president trumn'says he

wot sign any budget without it. in fact, he is tweetg about this latest house version as well. president trump noting that nancy pelosi said they didn't have the votes to pass a budget with the wall money. yell, she was wrong. they did, but ton't have theot ves in the senate where they need democrats to go look. at this point this morning it is a real stalemate with the democrats saying they won't support the wall money with president trump saying he won't even thesedget, temporary versions through february 8th without money, and the question, can anyone break this stalemate before the government into shutdown at midnight tonight. it's a question this morning. we don't have ab answer to. phillip. >> well, ba humbug, tracie. thank you. staying onc, to remember that go fund me campaign for the wall we told you about well, it's now raised over $10 million. it was createdy an air force veteran, brian.r so far o 170,000 people have

donated,th but a veteran create a counter campaign. this she started ladders to get over trump's wall campaign. she says while the page says it's raising money to buy ladders to climb over the wall, 's being donated a nonprofit for refugeesnd timmigrants. good news for farmers. president trump signed an $867b ion farm bill securing more funding for farmers hurt by the trade war inchina. mr. trump called the measure a bipartisan success and thanked democratic lawmakers for are this irrole in crafting it. just before signi the bill, mr. trump hyped it up with this video hhee performing theme song for the 19 6 0 sit com"green vacres." theo is from a 2005 emmys performance with actresseg mulally. she wasn't so thrilled with that blast from the past,ng twee "if you need me, i will be in a hole in ground." >> she has a great sense of humor, evensefter all t years. nwell, to massive holiday

travel chaos in the u.k. flights into and out of britain's gatwick airpo were halted after drones were spotted two days in a row over the . airfie hundreds of thousands of travellers have been effected, and the airport is working to k get things bn track. we're joined now by vincent in london. is there any good news for flyers this morning?r: >> reporood morning, francis. there is some good news. you might be able to hear a plane overhead in a momen because flights are now landing and taking off here. in the past couple of hours the first one came in from shanghai, and the first departed aptly going to take families to see santa claus. this airport should normally have er110,000 passe going through it on 760 flights. it's one of the busiest airports in europe. understand today, though, it will be a limited service. some 100 flights have been canceled, and the advice is still to check with your airline whether or not you wil going today. it's going to take a couple of

days tolear up t disruption because the drone kept coming in and out of theirfield for over 36 hours. there are planes and crews in the wrong location. there's a backlog of passenger in there. some thousands who have had to sleep in the terminals they all need to get on board flights as well. this disruption will continue, and we have been whened if drone does reappear, it could once again suspend the runway, butn the past couple of minutes i've hearted from police officers here andrt the trans minister has confirmed that the army who have been deployed have put p ince some kind of technology to stop the drone from coming back on to the ie ai. there were police snipers down here yesterday who were possibly going to shoot it down, but they decided against that, but now some kind of technology will stop this police are continuing to try to find, though, the suspect who has been doing this. they say he must be -- he must really know what e is doing because he has been able to hack into the drone software and override the protocols that stop

it from getting on to airports. fran frances, back to you. >> hopefully thople can get to where they need to be for the holidays. vincent, thank you. police in florida are searching for the gunman. gabe gutierrez has the story, but, first, a warning, the video is disturbing. ♪ reporter: the music was blairing at this holiday party in miami dade county florida. 40-year-old ya had just walked in and sat down to hear some karaoke, which all of a sudden he slumps down andesperately reechds for the man next to him. the music continues to play and fellow party goers seem to have no idea what just happened. theyuily realize something is horribly wrong. maybe a heart attack. it turns out a str bullet had pierced his chest. he is rushed to the hospital where he later dies.

police say the bullet came from a home across the lake that borders the backyard. >> could be someone cleaning a their gun bident and it discharged or somebody could have been shooting up in the air super somewhere else. >> reporter: one neighbor says he has heard random gunshots in the area for years. i no longer go into my backyard anymore for fear o getting hit, he says. his family is pleading for answers. wondering why this stray bullet chose him. gabe gutierrez, nbc news. now to a massive storm hitting at the worst time. much of the east coast is facing heavy rain and bumper to bumper traffic. holiday travel shifto high gear. in tampa, florida, a powerful line of storms and possibly a tornado damaged 70 homes and injured one person. nationwide the tsarexpects to a record number of travellers close to 2.7 million people each day fromsaturday. the good news is that the worst of the weather and the travel delays should be out of theoray

by tw morning. >> getting a dose of reality here. o> you just wonder how many people were able change their plans and wait until the weekend. some people, not an option. you he to g out there and get out on the roads. it's going to be slow. rain all the way fromhe panhandle of florida all the way from northern new england, all the way back to the ohio valley. it's really har to avoid this storm, and the windy conditions and the heaviest rain, theorst oft will be early this morning into areas of new york city and then it will be towards boston this afternoon. it's about a x-hour window in a lot of the airports from philly to new york and then hartford to boston where thet wof it will be there, and then it will clear out after that. back side of the storm is not too bad. a little rain around pets burg. maybe snowshowers later on tonight. then the stormineally b to exit overnight and saturday. just looks breezy, and we clea od up all the eastern hatch of the country. if you can wait, that's the thatook at the big weather aadvice. story of the day. now here's a closer look at the day ahead. well, we're fine today in areas lakes. great we'll see improving weather conditions there. obviously, the worse of it this morning right along the east coas and especially in areas

of southern new england where it will be windy and heavy rain. the risk of some flooding. the southeast will clear up this afternoon. it's amazing that the rest of the holiday forecast was a million times better. we'll talk about that coming up. >> at least we got that. thank you. social media this morning is praising a young wal-mart cashier after he took care of a grocery bill for a woman in need. out of pocket $110. pe woman was in distress about the trouble she hing for her items, and that's when the clerk stepped in and asked her to wait 15 minutes so he could help out. the woman who made the now viral post says the young cashier has now renewed her faith in humanity. >> great to hear. still ahead, wall street in chaos.th 1,700 points since last friday. we'll tell you why next here on "early today." he thinks it smells fine, but his mom smells this... luckily for all your hard-to-wash fabrics...

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potential factored into yet another dismal day on wall street with the dow plunging over 460 points amid all the uncertainty, and the fed raising those interest rates. >> the market is now facing the worst december since the 1930s. >> reporter: the chaos in washington infecting wall street. >> the low, we were down almost 700. >> reporter: sending the dow on a roller coakoecoast of its own. >> the dow is now having its worst december since the great depression. on the heels of the federal reserve raising bench mash interest rates. th dow closing down 464 points, losing an astonishing 1, 00 points since friday. the tech-heavy nasdaq flirting with bear market territory, finishing just shy of a 20% drop from i august peak. >> why is the market so >> this market is negative because of unsesht. largely caused because of things like a trade war and policies they don'tndstand. >> and fears of economic slowdown giving investors a bad

case of the eytters. can't shake. >> ann thompson, nbc news, new york.ai >> st ahead, how your relationship at work could be impacting any extra holiday cash, and if you're not done with all your christmas shopping, don't worry. you're not alone. we'll tell you more when we come back. wrinkles just won't. neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair's derm-proven retinol works so fast, it takes only one week to reveal younger looking skin. making wrinkles look so last week. rapid wrinkle repair® pair with new retinol oil for 2x the wrinkle fighting power. neutrogena® i was on the fence about changing from a manual to an electric toothbrush. but my hygienist said going electric could lead to way cleaner teeth. she said, get the one inspired by dentists, with a round brush head. go pro with oral-b. oral-b's gentle rounded brush head removes more plaque along the gum line.

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what did you write down that you wanted for christmas?

>> a motorcycl and lester holt. >> lester holt. that little man right there, 5-year-old jovanni epps, he loves lester holt. his mom s they watch nightly news on nbc religiously, and he habeen watching wither since he was a baby. liz says that her son looks for people on tv c tonect with and that lester holt is a positive role mod forhim. now, mr. holt is a positive role model for me. >> everybody. lester holt better watch out becape he may grow one day and take over his place, but i think lester would actually >> yeah, he is that kind of guy. >> it seems there is a trend where a good number of people are in favor of last minute shopping for holiday gifts. acan rgd to a study by kpmg, almost one-third have people till have about half of their holiday shopping left. remember, it's just five days before christmas. many more still havep to a quarter of their shopping list to do, according to the same survey, and you won't be alone. if you procrastinate until the 24th, the national retail fedetion says 7% of holiday

hopping is done on christmas eve. on monday they call it panic monday. >> panic saturday, sunday, and monday. >> thank goodness for those 24-hour prmacy stores. if you're friends with your boss, it may cost you. a new study out with the journal of experimental social psychology says the closer you are to your boss, the less likely you are t receive a bonus. kind of counter intuitive there, right? it's perception. if office bonuses are -- they orund that boss says would decline a bonus a deserving friend and granting it tie lower performing non-friendinstead. it's all in an effort to appear unbiassed. when it's private, tho bonuses almost always go to the deserving friend. >> not a problem. sometimes you just don't get a bonus, so nothing to worry about there. >> right? that's one way to look at >it. ust ahead, the miracle on 34et stre not the one here in new york.

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trains stuck on the track at union station. problems created serious delays for holiday commuters. >> the government shutdown is drawing near. less than 24 hours left for congress and the president to

strike a deal to keep the government running. thousands of workers and a paycheck forch stmas. >> a jury hands down a surprising verdict for a man accused of setting his pregnant gifriend on fire. >> it's still raining a little bit this mornin >> iid cover my hair. >> a lot of people trying to travel for the holiday weekend.a let's take live look outside. >> we're getting rain with ate massive s that could cause problems for drivers and flyers up and down the east coast today. >> wtop is tracking the road for us this morning. let's start though with storm team 4 c meteorologick bell. i have to say, that radar pictureooked busier than the reality i dealt with this morning. >> i understand what you the heaviest of the rain may already be in the rear-view mirror but that doesn't