she came up to the car and shawna got in the car and i told shawna just to stay away from her. >> i was like, well, my parents aren't controlling. you can come over to my house and we can do whatever we want to do. if we want to go out and drink, we can go out and drink. >> he would give us a hundred dollars, drop us off at the mall and say have fun. my mom was strict. she was really strict. it wasn't just like, i met this girl at school, let me go and hang out with her. we had to go to the house and hang out at the house for quite a while before i was allowed to go out with her. >> she spent weeks lobbying to spend the night at her house. >> lisa returned from work in an immaculate house. i said, shawna, what do you want? i said okay. she said before you say no, just lisp to me. i said okay. and she said she wants to spend the weekend. i said i'm not going to discuss that now. >> later that night, cathy and her dad came over to the house to meet shawna and shawna's grandmother. >> the girls are going to go and clean condos. i'll make sure she calls you and shawna is begging me and begg

shawna worked 7 to 3:00 a.m. at the casino. george a firefighter worked long shifts and got lots of days off. their daughter shuttled back and forth between them and when they were both at work, the girl spent nights with george's mother. >> what shift did you work yesterday. >> a 24-hour shift. >> he was at work when shawna was killed. of course, they did some checking just to be sure. >> you know if he was there on every run, if he had left for he reason. >> but he was on every run. did not leave work at all. so not the husband this time. >> he had nothing to do with the attack of shawna. >> but george did offer a possible lead. >> the garage door was open, which is unusual. so we were worried because we got broken into a week or two ago. >> the chief in the earlier burglary used shawna's bathroom to take a shower and left with several pair of shawna's panties and some jewelry. he left behind a pair of boxer shorts size small. back then shawna immediately suspected some neighborhood teens, said george. >> so she had discussed

that shawna, when she does that, she is shawna. >> i met shawna, she was driving a very fast, very expensive car. she was bragging about how many money she makes and she said, i am not wendy anymore. >> when "dateline" continues. opdivo plus yervoy is for adults newly diagnosed with non-small cell lung cancer that has spread and that tests positive for pd-l1 and does not have an abnormal egfr or alk gene. opdivo plus yervoy is the first and only fda-approved combination of two immunotherapies opdivo plus yervoy equals... a chance for more starry nights. more sparkly days. more big notes. more small treasures. more family dinners. more private desserts. opdivo and yervoy can cause your immune system to attack healthy parts of your body during and after treatment. these problems can be severe and lead to death. see your doctor right away if you have a cough; chest pain; shortness of breath; irregular heartbeat; diarrhea; constipation; severe stomach pain, nausea or vomiting; dizziness; fainting; eye problems; extreme tiredness; changes in appetite, thirst or urine; rash; itching; confusion; me

that's shawna. when she does that, she's shawna. >> i met shawna.ery fast, very expensive car. she was bragging about how much money she made, and she said, i'm not wendy anymore. >> when "dateline" continues. >>> pfizer no covid-19 pill could have life threatening interactions with medications. due to concerns of potential side effects. the drug is restricted to adults and only in specific scenarios. hundreds more flights cancelled sunday. u.s. airlines including delta and united cite staffing shortages because of the omicron variant. back to "dateline." >>> wendy ratte. the sweet free spirit of prince george, british columbia, had vanished from her life as slick as a magic acted. her passport nowhere to be found. and as unlikely as it seemed, police had to consider could, would a dedicated wife and mother of two simply skip town, run away from her own family? which brings us to the greyhound bus station a few blocks from the place wendy's van was found abandoned. gabriel was putting up a missing persons poster there. and -- >> i asked the lady who

shawna thomas, always great to see you. eli stokols, josh lederman, a happy christmas eve. >>> and this morning, with 27 days to go, there's another big question -- who else will president trump pardon because 26 more people got pardons last night, include something key allies. paul manafort who pled guilty to financial fraud and lying to investigators. roger stone, who was convicted of lying to congress and witness tampering and charles kushner, jared kushner's dad who was locked up for tax evasion and lying to the fec. joining me, chuck rosenberg, now an msnbc contributor. good to see you, chuck. let's start big picture. look. controversial presidential pardons are not new. marc rich comes to mind. but a harvard count has 60 of the 65 trump pardons before wednesday going to someone with either a personal or a political connection to the president. have we ever seen anything like this? >> not in this volume, chris. the harvard study is a professor named jack goldsmith who pointed out that overwhelmingly, trump pardon goes

that's shawna. when she does that, she's shawna. >> i met shawna. was driving a very fast, very expensive car. she was bragging about how much money she made, and she said "i'm not wendy anymore." >> when "dateline" continues. try new vicks vapocool drops in honey lemon chill for a fast-acting rush of relief like you've never tasted in... ♪ honey lemon ahh woo vicks vapocool drops now in honey lemon chill and there's moving with move free ultra. it has triple action support for your joints, cartilage and bones. and unlike big glucosamine chondroitin pills, it's all in one tiny pill. try move free ultra now. feel the difference. >>> hello, i'm dara brown. here's what's happening. president-elect joe biden is the apparent winner in georgia, hooking the state for the first time since 1992 as north carolina was called for president trump. the final states to be called in the 2020 election. biden now has 306 electoral votes to trump's 232. and word of biden's victory came as auditors in georgia began the laborious task of counting nearly 5 million ballot

but, shawna, that's her brother. grandchildren and his daughter here, that's his daughter and their granddaddy, just gone for helping out a neighbor, a friend, during the christmas season and getting back in his car and all of a sudden, those that are sworn to protect him, he's gone with no rationale. we know one of the officers involved in this shooting has been fired. the other placed on administrative leave, and a special prosecutor has been appointed by the county. obviously no one can bring mr. hill back. but please tell our audience, attorney crump, what you and the family need to see from the city. >> reverend al, it's important that we remember the facts of this case. he was holding a cell phone. he had no weapon. he was completely unarmed. it was a 3119 emergency, non-criminal call, so it's inexplicable why police would get out with their guns, and as their partner said, officer cory shot him multiple times, claiming he had a gun, even though she said she saw no gun. she says she felt no threat, and she said

>> i see shawna sometimes. >> do you see other people?ybody agreed that noel stevens is as crazy as the outhouse rat. >> how can you believe a man as crazy as that? >> you are outside of reality at that point. >> you can't trust the primary witness. they just didn't have it. >> so a man who hears voices? that got the jury's attention. one jury submitted a question read by the judge. >> did the voices you said you would hear from time to time ever tell you to kill shawna? >> no. >> there was the choice for the jury. george used noel as a murder weapon, or the drunk who heard voices killed shawna and blamed an innocent man. the lawyers, the friends, the family from both sides could only sit and wait. >> it was nerve-racking. >> for three days they waited. the prosecutors once confident were worried. >> of the hung jury situation. by day three, you think, uh-oh, is there a hold-up. >> count one -- >> then finally, here it was. >> guilty of first-degree murder. >> guilty. george tiaffay, his face almoster almost sere serene, charged with murd

so to shawna thomas who worries about the less successful graduate, shawna, i'm here to tell you, you the best new thing in the world today.

and i have an incision here and i have one up here. >> watching the surveillance footage, shawna seesow the accident happens. and why brittany's able to survive. >> what they figure is that the cinder block in the front slowed the truck down. so he didn't hit it with the full force and we had a computer stand and that's where brittany landed and that was probably better for her, because those doors that we had up front, they came flying out and if she hadn't fallen down, they would have hit her right in the head and brittany looks up and she sees it coming but there's nothing that she can do and then you don't see brittany anymore. how did that poor little girl who maybe weighs 100 pounds, took the whole brunt of that dodge ram pickup. >> i can't even express how blessed i truly am to make it out of there alive. >> but how could this happen? it turns out an elderly customer, roger mays loses control of his pickup truck. >> well, mr. mays was coming to drop his clothes off. one of our customers had been at counter and he was waiting -- >> after the other customer pulls out, mays attemp

>> well, i agree with everything that shawna said.ikability is a universal question that we ask about every politician. there's an element of sexism in evaluation of candidates, less so now than there was ten years ago or 20 years ago. i do think hillary clinton was sueyjen risk. there was 25 years of history layered onto evaluations of hillary clinton's candidacy which simply don't exist with elizabeth warren, so all of that leads me to say it's just early. we've got wide-open field. she has a lot of assets. she's very talented. she's extremely bright and a leader in important policy areas for the democrats. we will see how she plays on the ground, and i think the idea of force feeding an early comparison to hillary clinton is just not time for that. >> so i put this question out there on twitter as we were pulling together the show tonight, if candidates were president, is what are some of the things they would have to ask about, and bill crystal wrote back. he said some of the differences would be one, is she likable? men don't hav

shawna, how do you see the landscape in 2020 as different from 2016 in this strategy? clearly it was one that worked against hillary clinton but also right in the wake of president obama. >> well, i think one thing you have to realize is that especially 2020 also involves all of the republicans who have to republican for re-election. you had people like max thornberry of texas, ranking member is now of the house armed services committee, who basically before this hand was like please, president trump, please, please, don't go this national emergency route because i don't want to have to tell my constituents military construction money is being shifted from msg construction to a wall. he's actually created a weird 2020 problem for some republicans possibly. but i think less when it comes to the presidential election, the members of congress who are running this time, the senators, these democratic senators, he's basically set up a situation where they have something very, very clear to run against. and if everyone is right and his base is not enough -- if you're right a

shawna? >> you don't want to get blamed for something. >> for sure.ou remember, you covered the obama administration as well. we talk about how this white house gets angry about leaks. in the obama administration, leaking was a cardinal sin. but it also didn't happen as much. and they would argue, i think, that it's because people believed in the boss and they would probably explain the leaking in the trump white house as in some ways a lack of loyalty. do you think that's what's going on? >> i think also the obama white house, or people who had worked for president obama, would say that they had each other's backs as well. they didn't feel like they were in a, to use the term that jonathan swan used, mexican standoff. that they were all in it together and they also, i think, had a pretty good idea of what the boss wanted to achieve with specific goals. and there wasn't as much confusion about what he would want and, therefore, there wasn't as much to leak about, about like internal disputes. i think there is a lot of confusion even when the president

store manager, shawna rhea, is out on a delivery when she receives an urgent call. >> a car had comeo the cleaners and hit brittany. >> all i can remember seeing a big old front of the truck and just glass coming at me. >> i didn't know britany's condition. so i mean, i got here just as quick as i could. >> when shawna arrives, she sees the parking slot a disaster zone and a hole where the front of her store used to be. >> it was chaos. the ambulance people were still with her. they still had her behind the counter. when i got here, she didn't come out from behind the counter for probably ten, 15 minutes. >> it was huge. it was twisted. i couldn't bend it. >> they stabilized her and her neck and everything because they didn't know the extent of her injury. >> as awful as it is to get the call for shawna rhea, it's nothing compared to the call britany's mother has to endure. >> i was at home and they called me and told me that there had been an accident here and they were getting her out and not to worry. that they would get her out and i lost it. i pretty much couldn't figure out whe

so i mean, i got here just as quick as i could. >> when shawna arrived she sees >> the parking lot isr zone, and a hole where the front of the her store used to be. >> it was chaos. the ambulance, people were still with her. they still had her behind the counter. when i got here, she didn't come out from behind the counter until probably ten, 15 minutes. >> it was huge. it was twisted. i couldn't bend it. >> they stabilized her and her neck and everything because they didn't know the extent of her injury. >> as awful as it is to get the call for shawna rhea, it's nothing compared to the call britany's mother has to endure. >> i was at home and they called me and told me that there had been an accident and not to worry. that they would get her out and this, i lost it. i pretty much couldn't figure out where i was going and what i was doing at the time. i was scared. all i knew is that she was pinned but that she was alive. >> somehow brittany escapes death despite the truck coming right at her. but the crash leaves its mark. >> you can see the differences in her knees. and there's brui

you just heard that explanation from shawna. government slowing down the government because of a government investigation, different entities. >> well, it's all the same entity. you can try to pick pieces out of it if you want, but the truth is that, you know, in a federal court, the possibility that an fbi agent would come try to interview a translator that worked for me or a member of my team is zero. i don't understand what even -- i'm not involved in that case so i don't really understand what's going on. >> i'm just curious sdpl-- >> it's ridiculous. >> did the fbi ever try to do that to you? did you get evidence of the fbi trying to infiltrate your defense team? >> of course not, it's preposterous. i don't understand what they're talking about. if they have a belief that some member of a defense team has violated some rule, they can take it up with the judge. they can -- i just don't understand it at all. it just to me is a sideshow. gives you a good understanding of why nothing is happening and i don't think anything is e

so to shawna thomas who worries about the less successful graduate, shawna, i'm here to tell you, you are the best new thing in the world today. i'm sorry, beyonce, there's no contest. and, by the way, shawna's team, the flakes, beat congress 13-10. whoo-hoo! now it's time for "the last word with lawrence o'donnell." have a great night. >>> indecision 2012 continues. mitt romney has now completed his fifth day of having absolutely no idea what he thinks about president obama's new policy on immigration, and that's not the worst part for romney. this immigration thing is making it wicked hard for romney to continue to tell his lies about the president's kmim record. >> the white house got a surprise boost today. >> there is a fascinating new poll out this morning. >> a new poll by bloomberg news. >> surprisingly good news for the white house. >> a new bloomberg news survey gives the president a 13-point edge. >> with a whopping 13-point lead. >> president obama with a huge lead over mitt romney. >> this is the widest spread we've seen in quite some time. >> we're not going to ride up a

eugene and shawna are here too. jeff, if you're michael cohen, representing michael cohen and you see this, what are you thinking? >> i think the message is clear that what is happening is the pardon power's morphing into if you have been charged with something similar to what michael cohen can be charged with, what flynn was charged with, what manafort was charged with, you may be getting a pardon. i think the message is, hey, guys, don't cooperate, stay low, eventually we can help you out. >> do you think it is that explicit the thought process in the president's mind ore sees folks on fox news, he hears his pals on the phone talking about this and he wants ton please the people around him? >> i think it's more likely to be those advising and supporting trump trying to help him realize he should stay calm and not have much to worry about. i would be surprised if trump had come to this conclusion on his own. but i think it's interesting when you look at the individuals pardoned that the period in the past, three pr

shawna made the tough decision to keep the baby. she gave birth to a baby girl.ed her child in an environment of love and safety. imagine her shock, then, when just a few months after her daughter's birth shawna was hit with a custody suit from the man who has raped her. the man who had took so much from shawna wanted to take her child, too. he wanted full custody. shawna said, quote, i was struck with terror not only with the idea of letting my child be around him, but also having to spend the next 18 years tied to him. but guess what? in pruitt's home state of missouri it was perfectly legal for her rapist to demand custody. and in 30 other states it is also perfectly legal. every year there are between 25 and 32,000 women in this country who get pregnant from rape. at least a third of them choose to keep and raise the children. but only 19 states have laws addressing parental rights for children conceived through rape. and even those come with major caveats. in idaho, for example, the state will only restrict visitation rights if the victim was a minor at the

shawna thomas is the washington bureau chief for vice news. ginger gibson is political correspondent for reuters. and jonathan allen's a digital reporter for nbc news. hard question to you, shawna, which requires some real interpretation. are they with trump because they really agree he's not kissing butt over there in helsinki or do they just agree with him all the time because they hate the media and the liberals? >> well, i think it's a little bit they hate the media and the liberals. but even nbc news's own poll, nbc news/"wall street journal" poll, said 88% of republicans approve of the job president trump is doing. >> his very being. >> the job he's doing. and if you believe the economy is getting better and the unemployment numbers are down and the stock market is doing okay and the trade thing hasn't affected you yet and what you vote on is the economy, then why wouldn't you stick with him? >> let me go to ginger. you give lip service to what happened in helsinki. if you're a business person. less regulation on the environment. i like

and shawna is absolutely right. look at all these vice presidents of the past.there one black person? no. is there one woman who served as vice president? no. there's only been one traditional practicing catholic in the whole history of the vice presidency. doesn't mirror our glorious diversity. when you look through history, not only do a lot of these vice presidents in various ways become future presidents, for instance, every vice president since 1928 has explored the idea of running for president. so these are possible future presidents. but at the same time, one choice can change history. ronald reagan, at the last minute, put george h.w. bush, as you well know and remember, andrea. 1980, on his ticket. the result was that bush served for eight years as vice president, four years as president, and later on his son served for eight years, totally changed the whole history of the next 30 years. that could be happening today or tomorrow. >> and we also saw, of course, the kennedy/johnson, you know, partnership. we know how they were rivals. and joe biden has s

shawna, great to see you. thanks for getting up early.t we learned about in georgia last night, and now it's going to play out here in washington. because what's going to play out in congress is related, of course, to how the republican party thinks it should be conducting itself. the schism among those who need to conduct ourselves accordingly and oh, by the way, the constitutional thing to do. and looks lick republicans are on track to lose control of the senate here. we haven't called that second race here, so we have called control of the senate. but the lessons we learn in georgia send a pretty strong message to republicans in washington about how the country feels about donald trump. >> yeah. it does. i mean, i think what we learned in georgia, especially with a runoff that had many people show up and vote which is almost crazy is that nationalizing that particular runoff worked. i think part of why -- and this is just my analysis, i haven't talked to senator mitch mcconnell, maybe part of what mitch mcconnell was sort of like, okay

shawna thomas, ana palmer, thank you. stick around.will see you back at the end of the show for "sources say" >>> the fight over immigrants centering around money. congress debating plans as we speak for emergency funding. why did the government move to move hundreds of migrant kids? we're live at the border, next. we're live at the border, next hi. maria ramirez! mom! maria! maria ramirez... mcdonald's is committing 150 million dollars in tuition assistance, education, and career advising programs... prof: maria ramirez mom and dad: maria ramirez!!! to help more employees achieve their dreams. four zero expense ratio index funds directly to investors. and now we have zero account fees for brokerage accounts. at fidelity, those zeros really add up. ♪ so maybe i'll win, saved by zero ♪ at fidelity, those zeros really add up. "fine. no one leaves the table "fine! we'll sleep here."." "it's the easiest, because it's the cheesiest" kraft. for the win win. will transform not just the automobile, but mobility itself. an autonomous-thinking v

shawna, how do you think that tension will evolve from here? >> i mean, it's pretty clear that the president wants people to get back to work. he wants to reopen the country. but even as we saw in the town hall as people were asking questions that fox news had gathered, he was also putting it back in the hands of the states. he was saying that he was answering questions basically saying, hey, that kind of question depends on your governor. i think one of the things, that tension you're seeing in politics, one of the ways he's working through it, is to make sure you know that the governors are responsible -- i'm not saying they're the only ones responsible, but i think that is kind of one of the tactics he is using. and as things open up, and if things go well, he'll get to say, hey, i put the plan together that these governors used and be able to use that. if something goes wrong in one state, he'll be able to say, hey, that governor didn't follow the plan. >> jonathan, let me play another cut from the town hall that aired this evening on fox n

i'll ask shawna and aaron to stay where you are. it's a game of is your viefbl, how one official is characterizing the white house, as the president ramps up his attacks on the attorney general. it seems to have reached a fever pitch and what sessions is now saying about morale that may surprise you. about morale thaty surprise you >>> we have breaking news out of aberdeen, maryland. pete williams, what do you know? >> not much. reports of a workplace shooting in aberdeen. we know that the county sheriff is on the scene. we know that atf and fbi are both responding and we heard that there have been a number of victims, but we don't know the number. and we don't know the extent of the injuries. we don't know whether these are shooting victims, whether anyone has died as a result of this. we also don't know whether the person who is apparently responsible for this shooting is now in custody or is still at large. it's very early on. the police and the county sheriff and the feds are just now getting there. very sketchy information at t

shawna, i am curious if you'll speak to that point. every president likes to own the positive and walk away from everything else in the country and the federal government does not literally control everything. but i think trump supporters and opponents would agree or be aware that donald trump has an approach to race and policing and civil rights in america. it's different than the obama administration. i think everybody knows that. there comes a disturbing question what leadership he is setting. i say that to get your response to the kenosha, wisconsin police chief making comments that are extreme if you think of the logic of them. i say it so viewers can think of it when you hear them. if somebody is arrested for killing people, they're the guilty party in the views of law enforcement and they get a trial. here we heard something different that seemed to play it down. take a listen. >> everybody involved was out after curfew. i'm not going to make a great deal of that. point is, curfew is in place to protect. had persons not been out

shawna and yamiche are here as well. frank, let's start with you. there are some real questions about what happens with chris wray. you've seen a lot of classified memos. explain why the fbi is so worried about this release and what you expect to see when it comes to potential redactions? >> yeah, so a couple of thoughts. first, we see the use of the word "grave" when the fbi and department of justice come out and say they have grave concerns about the release of that. there's significance in the word "grave" within the intelligence community. >> why, what does that mean? >> it's the word that's used when you define top secret. grave damage. top secret information is information if released that would cause grave damage to national security. it's also a word that's used when you conduct a damage assessment. you determine at the highest level whether there was grave damage. so there's a clue there that we're probably talking about top secret. with regard to what christopher wray might be doing, i've got to tell you something, i'm going to put politic

matthew continetti, shawna thomas and howard fineman. all right, guys, i want to share with you rudy giuliani who is paying his respects to john mccain on capitol hill. garrett haake caught up with him and he brought up the 60-day window. take a listen. >> the justice department has a rule that you should stay out of politically charged investigations within 60 days of the election. i hope he respects that. >> reporter: or what? >> or nothing. it just affects how people look at the legitimacy of his investigation. is it political or is it a real law enforcement investigation. >> all right. howard fineman, let me go through a few things here. first, here's what the inspector general in june of 2018 said. the 60-day rule is not written or described in any department policy or regulation. nevertheless, high-raning department and fbi officials acknowledged the existence of a general practice that informs department decisions. here's what the doj guidelines say. this is a minneapolis/st. paemo wrote. how about that. law enforcement officers a

shawna, i know this is -- this is drawing now some bipartisan complaints.ave congressman carlos curbelo, republican from south florida, he was denied entry into one of these shelters earlier. he says hhs only said he didn't follow protocol. they're not making any -- they're not making any friends here, left or right. >> no, they're not making any friends. i think one of the things that's interesting is hhs secretary azar did a conference call yesterday. that's when this 3,000 number came out when everyone was like, wait a second, that wasn't what we thought the number was. what's really interesting is the guy in charge of the office of refugee resettlement, which is the one who is in charge of these kids who have been separated from parents or kids who come over by themselves, scott lloyd, who has been in the news before but not that much, no one is really asking like how is he doing this? now, i realize hhs is overall, but he is the guy who is in charge of figuring out what to do with these kids. congress has not called to talk to him. he is -- basically h

. >> joining us now, nbc news and msnbc contributor shawna thomas. shawna, thanks so much for getting up extra early with us this morning. it's really great to have you to break down this vice presidential debate. setting aside the fact that at the end of the day, it's possible the fly will become the most memorable piece of what we saw last night, that remark that we just heard there from mike pence raised a lot of eyebrows, where he said, stop playing politics with people's lives, considering -- and they talked about this later on in the debate -- what we learned from bob woodward about the president saying that he always wanted to downplay the virus, and harris talked a little bit about that there. what were your key takeaways from last night, especially on the question of the coronavirus? >> i think on covid-19, which we all knew would be the first question out of the gate, is the plexiglass made it a part of the debate stage, basically. i think one of the things that struck me is that senator harris kind of just had to list the facts on this one