. >> he went on lester holt, lester holt's interview was as good as anybody could do, better than i think any of the people around mueller could have done. lester holt asked him, why did you do it? he said, i did it because i felt i had to explain to the american people the president was not the target of the investigation. >> we're going to hold that right there. hold that thought. when we come back to it we'll show you what the president actually said to lester holt, which was nothing like that. we are joined by phone by michael avenatti to get his first reaction to the president saying tonight to sean hannity on fox news that donald trump reimbursed michael cohen for the $130,000 that michael cohen paid to stormy daniels. let's listen to that exchange in the interview. >> having something to do with paying some stormy daniels woman 130,000, which is going to turn out to be perfectly legal. that money was not campaign money. sorry, i'm giving you a fact now that you don't know. it's not campaign money. no campaign finance violation. >> they funneled it through the law firm. >> funneled

lester holt asked him, why'd you do it.id, i did it because i thought i had to explain to the american people their president was not the target of the investigation. >> so you heard giuliani reference the interview with lester holt and paraphrase what trump said to lester holt. that's not what trump said to lester holt. this is what he said. >> regardless of recommendation, i was going to fire comey, knowing there was no good time to do it. and in fact, when i decided to just do it, i said to myself, i said, you know, this russia thing with trump and russia is a made-up story. >> so it's about russia, according to trump. so trump's lawyer, rudy giuliani, has a new reason for the trump firing. but bob mueller wants to hear from trump about it. in fact, the decision to terminate comey is one of the questions, "the new york times" reported on, and all of this coming as we're getting a rare look inside mueller's process. here's michael caputo on his interview. >> the mueller team knew more about what i did in 2016 than i knew

lester holt is next with "nightly news." >> we'll see you at 6:00. bye-bye. >>> tonight, a deadly crash, a military plane caught on camera plunging to the ground. slamming into flames on a busy highway. >> it started free falling backwards, like a huge ball of fire. huge explosion. >> tonight, at least two are dead and terrifying moments in midair when another window breaks on anher southwest flight weeks after a passenger was killed. >>> the major shakeup for president trump's legal team. his lead attorney on the russia probe out, a clinton impeachment lawyer in and new questions could mueller subpoena the president. >>> new tornado threat, tens of millions at risk for a major outbreak. al roker is tracking it. >>> new police body cam from the las vegas massacre. for the first time, see what deputies encountered when they breached the sniper's nest and skipping college with tuition rising and student loan debt soaring, even other students are saying it's not worth it. ♪ >> announcer: this is "nbc nightly news" with lester holt. >>> good evening and

i'm lester holt. for all of us at nbc news, thank you for watching and good night. g news in mill valley. within the past 10 minutes...we )ve learned the stand >>> right now at 6:00, a major update to our breaking news in mill valley. within the past 10 minutes we have learned that this standoff is over. multiple evacuations, multiple gunshots, and one death. we 'li we've live on the scene. ♪ . >>> the news at 6:00 starts now. i'm raj mathai. >> i'm jessica aguirre. the take matting confrontation has been playing out for the past two hours. i want to show you live nbc bay area sky ranger overhead of the scene. this is unincorporated mill valley. that apartment complex you are looking at is near blythedale exit off 101. deputies say an 80-year-old man shot two people and now that man has been found dead. >> nbc bay area sam brock has been on the scene for us for the last 60 or 90 minutes. sam joins us now with how this all ended. sam. >> reporter: raj, good evening. this took about two-and-a-half hours to resolve itself, but as you mentioned a second ago, when the la

he went on lester holt. lester holt's interview was as good as anybody could do.ny of the people around mueller could have done. lester holt asked him why did you do it. he said i thought i had to explain their president of not the target of the the investigation. >> so two weeks ago, the president tweeted this. sliply james comey, the worst fbi director in history, was not fire d because of the phoney russia investigation where, by the way, there was no collusion except by the dems. >> there was also this major admission about stormy daniels. giuliani now claims the president repaid his fixer michael cohen for the $130,000 hush money payment to stormy daniels. despite the claim that he knew nothing about it. >> the settlement payment, which is a very regular thing for lawyers to do, the question there was the only possible violation there would be was it a campaign finance violation. usually it would result in a fine. not this big storm troopers coming in and breaking down his apartment and his office. that was money that was paid by his lawyer, the way i would d

i'm lester holt. for all of us at nbc news, thank you for watching and good night. right now at 6: >>> i don't know why i did it. i just wasn't in my right mind, i don't know why i did it. >> right now at 6:00, a nbc bay area an exclusive. a jailhouse interview with a man accused of snatching the purse of a 93-year-old woman and knocking her down. >>> the news starts right now, i'm jessica aguirre. >> i'm raj mathai. >> no judges, no jury, but he did admit guilt. o he talked to us in jail and admitted to stealing the purse. the attack left the 93-year-old woman with a broken hip. jodi hernandez joins us with this interview. >> reporter: we are at the contra costa jail. we just got out from talking with him. he says he takes full responsibility for what happened. he admitted to the purse snatching and says he is very sorry. he appeared near tears as he admitted he indeed snatched the purses of two elderly women in a concord bank of america parking lot last friday. but he says he didn't mean to hurt anybody. he says he was hungry. he needed gas and was under the influ

i'm lester holt, for all of us, that's nbc news. have a good night and so long. >> reporter: i stood on this very street and reported about car break-ins. we know this is a very busy spot for tourists. if you look behind me, there's broken glass on the sidewalk right there. we asked the san francisco superior courts for a snap shot of how these car breaking cases got resolved will in 2017 and they spent months compiling that data. >> monday they just broke my rear window. >> reporter: people who live here -- even bombeding officers, all have been caught up in the cross hairs of the car break-in epidemic. auto repair shops say they're exhausted. >> a lot of employees are tired now because they don't get a break. >> reporter: nbc bay area requested a breakdown of the break-ins. the superior court granted our requests and dug up 417 cases. a little more than half ended with jail sentences and a sliver more in prison sentences totalling a 57% conviction r

i'm lester holt. for all of us at nbc news, thank you for watching and good night. now: good evening and thanks for joining us. i )m raj mathai. and i )m jessica aguirre. >>> the news at 6:00 starts right now. thanks for being with us, i'm raj mathai. >> i'm jessica aguirre. buyer beware. if you're house shopping, you may have more than the price to worry about. how about hot mics? some sellers now using security cameras to record what potential buyers are saying as they walk around those open houses. >> it's a privacy concern that's becoming a lot more common. our business reporter, scott budman is in san jose with this story and this really pushes the envelope here. >> reporter: when you shop for a hope, it home, it's natural to discuss what you're seeing, but due to the rise of security cameras, your comments aren't always private. in fact, real estate agents now tell their clients, be aware. you're likely on camera. >> absolutely. anytime an agent's in a home, a buyer, a seller, be mindful of what you're saying. >> reporter: this not only raises trust issues but

. >> lester holt joins us next anchoring coverage from "nightly news" in texas. >>> tonight, from santa fe, texas, it has happened again. another massacre at an american high school. >> he's actively shooting. he's in the art room. >> at least ten people are dead including nine students and a teacher. ten more are injured. some in critical condition after police say a student opened fire. >> i was scared for my life. nobody should go through this. nobody should be able to feel that in school. >> tonight, just three months after the massacre in florida that spurred a nationwide call to action, another community, a school that stood with parkland joins a tragic epidemic. >> also tonight, a horrific air disaster, over 100 dead and three survivors clinging to life as a passenger jet goes down moments after take off. >>> major health news, a game-changing new medicine approved by the fda, new help for millions who suffer from migraines. >>> and here comes the bride, hours from a royal wedding bonanza and american invasion tonight in windsor. is your alarm set? >> announcer: this is "nbc nigh

namely what, did you mean in your interview, lester holt about mr. comey and russia. here's this is interview with lester holt. >> but regardless of recommendation, i was going to fire comey. knowing there was no good time to do it. and in fact, when i decided to just do it, i said to myself, i said you know, this russia thing with trump and russia is a madeup story. >> well, additionally mueller wants to know what the president meant when he told russian diplomats that firing comey had taken the pressure off the russian investigation. mueller is also interested in the president's discussions about terminating him, that's firing him as special counsel as well as whether trump asked his attorney general jeff sessions to protect him. kim, i talked to myself and i thought to myself i might have a problem with russia. it's amazingly incriminating statement. he got rid of the guy because he was coming at him with the russian probe. isn't that sort of like obstruction? >> i think on its face it's really problematic for mr. trump. this is the president of the united states.

and he went on lester holt. lester holt's interview was as good as anybody could do.nk any of the people around mueller could have done. lester holt asked you why did you do it, he said i did it because i felt like i had to explain to the american people that the president was not the target of the investigation. >> regardless of recommendation, i was going to fire comey knowing there was no good time to do it. and, in fact, when i decided to just do it, i said to myself, i said, you know, this russia thing with trump and russia is a made-up story. >> so mimi, there you have it. the giuliani argument was interesting. we were unable to look up and see when hillary clinton had been president, but our researchers are still working on that. what do you make of that? >> well again, first of all, everyone here loses credibility. both trump and giuliani, because they can't even keep their store tri internally consistent. and, you know, we've ahead this before about trump. he can't keep his story straight. it's hard to keep your story straight when you're not telling the trut

lester holt is next with peter alexander filling in. >> we will be back at 6:00. see you then. ♪ weinstein in handcuffs, the disgraced movie mogul surrenders charged with rape. a watershed moment in the me too movement being hailed by other weinstein accusers. >> we got you. >> outside the courthouse, weinstein's lawyer raising eyebrows. >> mr. weinstein did not invent the casting couch in hollywood. >> is it a sign of the defense to come? >>> it'sappened again, a student opens fire at a middle school in indiana. a science teacher shot multiple times while tackling the gunman. now being hailed as a hero for risking his own life to save the students. >>> one of the largest auto safety recalls ever. 5 million cars, suvs and pickups, more than a dozen brands affected. what drivers are being warned not to do. >>> the first named storm of the season alberto formed tonight barrelling toward the gulf coast . and the crowd goes wild for the little team that could in the debut season. a triumph in the city overcoming tragedy. >> announcer: this is "nbc nightly news" with l

how about the lester holt interview when he explained precisely why he fired comey? for a noncorrupt reason. by the way, he didn't have to have a reason for firing comey and everything we've learned since then is my goodness, he should have fired him earlier. >> yeah. isn't that the problem? that there have been multiple explanations -- he said in that interview he fired him because of russia. . >> exactly. and that was the first time we had learned that that was obviously suspected, don. as you recall, before that, for 48 hours the white house maintained the reason the president fired him is because of a recommendation from the attorney general jeff sessions and deputy attorney general rod rosenstein. watching giuliani there in that sbri interview, i watch ed it live earlier, is like watching him coach the president ahead of a potential interview with robert mueller, teaching him what it would be like to say, we were watching a prep session essentially in realtime. you see jagiuliani sending a certain message, going out, defending the president, also sending certain

. >> as a reminder, lester holt joins us and coring from pittsburg next. >>> tonight, new images from inside the plane the moment those three americans released by north korea tasted freedom back in the u.s. and tonight, the summit is set. we know where and when president trump will meet face-to-face with kim jong-un. >>> fighting back against a surge in robocalls, chances are they are flooding your phone. tonight the fcjust levelled its largest fine ever to a man whose been called a robocall kingpin. >>> outrage after police questioned a black student that fell asleep while writing a paper in the common area of her dorm. what yale is saying about this video. >>> a consumer alert as the weather heats up about all those sunscreen claims, sport, natural, mineral and this one. >> i usually look for dermatologist recommended. >> tonight what all those words on the bottle really mean. >>> the surprising tech boom far from silicon valley. >> what's it been like to watch the change overall of the city? "nightly news" across america, why people are flocking to pittsburgh. >> announcer: this i

what did you mean when you told lester holt you fired james comey. why were you upset with jeff sessions? >> but you have to understand each of these questions had tro two dozen followups that prosecutors have written intending to ask along with evidence, e-mails, transcripts, phone records to confront dump to either get a damaging admission out of him or catch him in a lie. >> so then is that what sticks out to you as not being in this report? because there's a lot in the story, but it's almost like we read between the lines as to what's missing? >> what's missing is all the evidence that robert mueller's investigation has gathered that isn't public. that's miss pgts what's also missing, though, is other avenues of this information that we believe are ongoing. for example, investigation into donald trump's past business dealings, subpoenas to deutsche bank, bank records, russian business transactions. all that is missing. also any evidence of collusion that mueller may have developed, except that tantalizing thant he -- hint that he's got evidence t

trump said this in an interview with lester holt and laid out, he had gone through elaborate rituals to try to claim he was firing comey because of his handling of the e-mail investigation and then he says on television, i fired him because of the russia matter. what's interesting is if you look at all these questions, lawrence, the heart of the comey part of this is mueller going back and saying, hey, you know, here is this time period where comey had finished the e-mail investigation and you weren't going to him, and then you weren't going to fire him, and you weren't going to fire him, and all of a sudden after the russia thing heated up you fired him. i think the case laid out in these questions is a powerful case for the president having instructed justice. >> the use of the word idiot there is in reference to john kelly calling the president an idiot, it was not pulled out of the air. >>> we're joined by pete williams. this is a list of questions that the origin is the special prosecutor's office, but these questions were verbally given to john dowd, the former lawyer for the p

i mean, going back to the lester holt question and answer.hat makes that answer so significant is if you remember when comey was fired the white house put out the explanation that the reason he was fired was because of the way he conducted the hillary clinton investigation before the election. and the way he announced it. then the president comes around and says, first to lester holt and then to the russian diplomatic visitors, no, no no. it had nothing to do with hillary clinton. it was all about stopping the russia investigation, which is a much more suspicious explanation. trying to get the president to explain what the justification was for firing james comey is an absolutely critical part of the mueller investigation. >> all right, so let's take a quick break here, guys. we know that questions are out there. "the new york times" has them, but the question really becomes what are now the specific areas that the president would have to look out for the most. that's where we have to turn our attention. >> we have 37 more questions for jeffr

. >> announcer: this is "nbc nightly news" with lester holt. >>> good evening and welcome. we begin with a tense situation that's been unfolding all afternoon long in baltimore county, maryland. a female police officer killed and a neighborhood, the scene of an intense manhunt. schools were put on virtual lockdown and workers and residents warned to shelter in place. the killing of the officer during an apparent traffic stop brings to 56 the number of law enforcement members killed on duty so far this year around the country. pete williams has late details. >> reporter: in the air and on the ground, state and local police launched a manhunt in a suburb of baltimore, maryland after a baltimore county police officer was killed. >> can you let us know if you can get any vehicle description? >> reporter: she was dispatched to check out reports of a suspicious vehicle. police say it appeared that the people in the vehicle had broken into a house. >> she encountered the suspects and she was critically injured. our officer was transported to franklin square hospital where she was

. >> announcer: this is nbc nightly news with lester holt. >>> good evening and thank you for joining us on this monday. first lady melania trump is hospitalized tonight after undergoing a surgical procedure on her kidney. the white house saying it was for a benign condition and there were no complications, but few other details have been released. president trump this evening visiting the first lady that could remain in the hospital for several days. with late details, here is nbc's peter alexander. >> reporter: the first lady tonight recovering well at walter reed medical center after undergoing a surgical procedure on her kidney this evening. resting after a procedure to treat a condition her office describes as benign. the president tweeting successful procedure, she's in good spirits. thank you to all of the well wishers. >> if there is a cyst or tumor there, they use that catheter to block off the blood supply especially starving the tumor to hope it will shrink the tumor. >> reporter: president trump visiting his wife who is expected to remain in the military hospital for the r

lester holt is on the road and joins us next for nightly news. >> we'll see you back at 6:00, >>> tonight, shock waves around the world as president trump withdraws from the iran nuclear deal. major fallout, will iran restart it's nuclear program and what does it mean for a potential deal with north korea? >>> growing dangers in hawaii. new cracks in the earth spewing lava, swallowing homes and toxic gas filling the air in the hot zone. >>> driving whe high, as more places legalize pot. >> how much did you have to smoke? >> about half a joint? and how long ago was that? >> we're on the beat with cops who say there's an uptick in people smoking weed, then getting behind the wheel. >>> outrage over a shocking incident of high school hazing caught on camera. a football player pummeled by his teammates, so badly he needed surgery. parents now suing and sounding the alarm. >>> and the soldier salute, from his hospital bed. wait until you see the inspiring update we found. you didn't really know what recovery looked like, did you? >> i didn't know what the future was going to look like. >> on o

. >> announcer: this is "nbc nightly news" with lester holt. >>> good evening from los angeles once again. welcome to our viewers in the west. we start with the beauty and brutality of one of nature's most powerful displays, sending over a thousand people fleeing for safety tonight in hawaii. the kilauea volcano is erupting on hawaii's big island. tourists and residents alike have been ordered to leave. some homes already damaged by the fiery flow of lava, others at grave risk. miguel almaguer with the latest. >> reporter: the state of emergency on mount kilauea on hawaii's big aye land comes as molten lava spewed 125 feet into the air and covered roads in rivers of red. >> we have an eruption, about six blocks away from our house right now. >> reporter: with rock, soot, and ash exploding out of the earth, 1500 locals and tourists ordered to immediate evacuate. >> oh, my god! >> oh, my gosh! it's -- >> oh, my god. it's, like, big. >> reporter: after multiple eruptions, some overnight, lava flowed toward these estates, disaster brewing here for days. nearly 500 earthquakes rattling the isl

neat nightly news will have much more in about 25 minutes with lester holt. >>> another whale washed up in the bay area. this time between brighten and agate beaches. it is a female of whale and they will conduct a necropsy tomorrow. last week another whale was found in oakland, and another whale was found at tennessee valley beach. >>> a deja vu traffic nightmare for commuters. water flooded over interstate 280, causing lane closures, delays and numerous headaches. robert handa joins us from that flooded area. it is dry now, but for how long, robert? >> reporter: well, i believe thousands of commuters would like to know that, sense it is happening twice here along interstate 280, and we're also near one of the pump stations where craws have opinion workben it all day, which is one of the reasons the flooding keeps happening. >> right now, this is at high volume, you see in that's the two or three pump stations constantly on. >> reporter: or maybe just one pump doing the job of many, since cal trans says multiple water pump break downs led to the flooding. >> they know about the wate

. >> announcer: this is "nbc nightly news" with lester holt. >>> good evening. to our viewers in the west. we begin with news out of north korea which may have thrown an unexpected wrench into the summit scheduled in singapore between kim jong-un and president trump. nbc's peter alexander starts us off with the latest. >> reporter: tonight, a momentary summit setback, or more? north korean state media reporting the north is threatening to back out of kim's joint meeting with president trump next month. kim blasted military exercises. he canceled talks with south korea, notifying them by fax hours before a scheduled meeting where kim jong-un and south korea's president met last month. the announcement catching the president off guard. the pentagon confirming the long-planned exercises are routine. the state department insisting north korea hasn't notified the u.s. of any exchange. >> we will continue to go ahead and plan the meeting between president trump and kim jong-un. >> reporter: the north's dramatic shift in tone coming days after it released three america

lester holt is anchoring live from santa fe, texas tonight, nightly news starts in about 25 minutes right here at 5:30. >>> following developing news at this hour. this is a live camera in philadelphia showing this massive warehouse fire. parts of the building which span nearly a city block have collapsed as we span out you can see the breadth of this, almost the city block. this old four story building used to house the old field manufacturing company but it's been not in use for two decades. it was registered as a historic site back in 2010. also following developing news in cuba. a cuban airliner carrying more unanimo than 100 people crashed and caught fire. more than 100 are dead, four or five people were rushed to the local hospital. three women are in critical condition. the flight's destination was a city on the island's eastern end. the cause of the crash is unknown. cuban state tv said a jet veered sharply to the right soon after takeoff. >>> a disturbing discovery in san jose, a body was found in an alley behind a cremation business. initial reports called it a body dump. but on

i'm lester holt. for all of us at nbc news, thank you for watching and good night. : good evening and thanks for joining us. >>> the news at 6:00 starts right now. thanks for being with us. >> a teenage joyride ends with police gunfire. a 16-year-old was injured by a police officer. police are apologizing say the gunshot was an accident. the bullet ricochetted off the ground and a fragment hit the girl near her eye. >> the police chief tells me that officer is remorseful. according to the chief, this happened on sunday night after officers chased a 16-year-old boy who was on a joyride with two teenage girls in this stolen van. officers forced the van to spin out. it crashed into a fire hydrant, sending water shooting into the air. the girls got out and walked toward the officers who had pulled their guns. the chief says one of the officers accidentally fired his gun toward the ground. a fragment from the bullet hit one of the girls near the eye. she had to go to the hospital but was treated and is rec

i'm lester holt. we begin w/ two fires -- along 101 -- in two differnt parts of the bay area. >>> we begin tonight at 6:00 with two fires along 101 in two different parts of the bay area. the first one in san jose. let's bring in our skyranger on the scene. it's near 101 and capital expressway. you see there the firefighters working hard at this hour. it started near a homeless encampment. it is close to homes, but so far no homes have been damaged. you can see the smoke if you are traveling on 101. >> let's tell you about the second fire on the peninsula along 101 in redwood city. this is at the woodside road exit. skyranger was there when the fire broke out around 3:30 this afternoon. all lanes are open, but traffic still a bit sluggish in the area. the woodside on-ramp remains closed, as fire fighters try to mop up what's happening out there. of course we'll continue to monitor those situations. >>> our other headline, a rash of unusual attacks, someone firing paint balls, targeting houses, cars an

we know what he said in that interview with lester holt. >> yeah.said it, not only to lester holt, but to sergey lavrov and kislyak in the oval office. you have to wond fer this is a mind game. we have it on tape, we have the video and the reporting. it's not just what the president said. we have follow through over the last year since he had been fired from sources close to the president. that had been what had been bothering him and he thought it, in fact, by firing comey, russia would be off the table. little did he know he would be making the situation ten times worse. especially the rational that he would give lester holt would be something that is haunting him to this day. >> does he not remember that interview? >> there's a possibility he doesn't. though, you would think if someone, if he vetted his tweets in any way, shape or form, someone would have pointed it out. if he did, someone might say mr. president, you directly contradicted yourself. i always turn back to the cartoon image of the guy in the railroad car and he's putting down a tra

. >>> tonight, meek mill sits down with lester holt. the rapper's first in-depth television interview since being released from prison. >> how do you explain why your case has become so important? >> i was a public figure. i inspire a lot of young children. my brand is dream chasers. about chasing your dreams no matter what you do in life, everyone goes to sleep at night and has a dream and has something they want to inspire to be. >> rapper also opens up about what he thinks is wrong with the justice system. lester holt has that full story tonight at 7:00 on "dateline ft "right after "open road." >>> come of the world's best surfers gathered in the middle of expansive farmland in the central valley. yes, this is the correct video. lamore, 30 miles south of fresno, is home to a new surf ranch that kelly slater designed himself. teamed up with engineers to come up with a machine that could create the perfect wave every single time. the wave system can create more than 50 different types of waves. at the push of a button. the surf ranch h

lester holt is next with peter alexander filling in. >> we will be back at 6:00. you then. ♪ weinstein in handcuffs, the disgraced movie mogul surrenders charged with rape. a watershed moment in the me too movement being hailed by other weinstein accusers. >> we got you. >> outside the courthouse, weinstein's lawyer raising eyebrows. >> mr. weinstein did not invent the casting couch in hollywood. >> is it a sign of the defense to come? >>> it'sappened again, a student opens fire at a middle school in indiana. a science teacher shot multiple times while tackling the gunman. now being hailed as a hero for risking his own life to save the students. >>> one of the largest auto safety recalls ever. 5 million cars, suvs and pickups, more than a dozen brands affected. what drivers are being warned

still, regular that lester holt interview only a year ago. >> in fact, when i decided to just do it, i said to myself, i said, you know, this russia thing with trump and russia is a made up story. >>> good day, everyone. a busy day here in new york. a high stakes meeting just wrapping up here in manhattan between secretary of state mike pompeo and kim jong-un's right hand man. a former spy chief who has brought a letter from the north korean leader to the president. he may be delivering it in person to president trump at the white house tomorrow. the president suggested before leaving for texas today. >> i want to tell you we're doing very well with north korea. our secretary of state has had very good meetings. he's meeting again today. i believe they will be coming down to washington on friday. a letter is going to be delivered to me from kim jong-un. i like forward to seeing what's in the letter. it's very important to them. >> all this is signaling that enough progress is being made to justify holding that summit in singapore on june 12th as plan. the president hinting they might

. >> lester holt is next. >> we hope to see you at 6:00, by folks. >>> tonight, new devastation in hawaii as an angry volcano has now destroyed dozens of homes. >> i don't even know if my house is standing. >> people being warned to get out now before it's too late. >>> also tonight, breaking news from president trump and his critical decision to keep or kill the iran deal. >>> melania's moment, the first dy combatting bullying on social media. >> let us teach our children the difference between right and wrong. >> critics pouncing as her husband so often uses social media to attack. >>> an uproar after students are rushed, even pulled off stage while getting their diplomas. why a major university is apologizing. >>> cocktails and calories and the new numbers coming to a menu near you. the question is, do you even want to know? >>> and kicking off our road trip across america here in portland, oregon. their unique solutions to combat a pair of nationwide epidemics. what other cities could learn from here. >> announcer: this is "nbc nightly news" with lester holt. >>> good evening from the

. >> thanks for joining us, as a reminder, nightly news is next with lester holt on the road. >> see you back here at 6:00. bee. >>> tonight, three americans held by north korea set free. their plane in the air right now on their way home to their waiting families. >> i don't know what i would do. i don't know if i'll cry or jump up and down. i don't know will i faint because i miss him so much. >> president trump will be there to greet the plane. >>> bombshell new allegations about the president's personal lawyer michael cohen allegedly promising access to the trump administration. what one of the companies who secretly paid him big money is telling nbc news. >>> a major fight over the woman set to be the nation's next top spy and her role in a dark chapter in american history. >>> the mean season, for many hitting the hardest in years, including the pollen bomb. tonight how to battle those allergy blues. >>> here in chicago we're hitting the streets, cutting-edge technology keeping neighborhoods safe and we're with kids hitting all the right notes. ♪ >> "nightly news" across americ

our thanks to lester holt for that report. make sure to look out for the yellow envelopes.hrow it in junk mail pile. >> that's right. it could be your angel of relief. >>> this month for asian pacific heritage, early today is celebrating. today's honoree is a young entertainer who gets to represent his culture in the movie industry. derrick was chosen to star in "a wrinkle in time." his motto is to reach big and follow his dreams. for more information on derek and other stars like him, check outand the warriors are back at tonight. >>> it is tuesday morning. and the warriors are back at it tonight. the dubs will face off against the rockets in game four of the playoffs. and you know who we're supporting around here. go, warriors. >> good morning, thanks for joining us, i'm laura garcia. >> i'm marcus washington. of course we'll get to your traffic in just a moment. what can we expect today? >> it looks like a great day once again. we start out with clouds and it clears out with breezy winds and comfortable temperatures, here's a live look outside in san jose this morning as

less certificate ho lester holt's the other guy. lester holt introduces the show. he's weird.olt, i introduce the people introducing the show. [ laughter ] >> jimmy: i guess we're supposed to feel like lester's the whole -- even though he's there for 12 seconds -- >> it's not the news, relax. >> jimmy: isn't it weird that lester still has to do that gig? >> yeah, he starts to leave, whoa, whoa, lester, no, no, no, where you going, buddy? you got to go against this brick wall, you need to talk about the murdered people. >> jimmy: do your kids do impressions? do you i do do them for them? >> oh, yeah, they love keith morrison. my kids -- yeah. my kids don't like -- they don't like when it they hear me like an animated movies, they want to know when i'm not in it. i went and took my daughters to see "finding dory." i'm in the first scene of that. i'm kind of like looking at them. and i come up. and my middle daughter, harper, stood up and walked right out of the theater. [ laughter ] and i was like, what? i went out. she's 4. she was like, did we not have that conversation? [ lau

you saw the lester holt interview there.ld the russians in the oval office that great pressure had been taken off of him because he fired the quote/unquote, nut job james comey, so the president was making his intentions pretty clear at the time. he was channeling it in public comments n private comments, saying he wasn't under investigation. i'm not sure what the mccabe significance of that will end up being because -- the justification he gave was that comey was basically too harsh on hillary clinton. he mishandled that investigation, that he shouldn't have been so public with his findings. it was a long scathing letter that he wrote about comey's performance. i'm not sure how that would have changed. >> laura, from a legal perspective here, because it appears at least according to sourcing in the this article that what the president wanted mentioned aside from comey had done a bad job when it came to hillary clinton was that he wanted this exoneration to becoming right in this memo, basically rosenstein saying, hey, the p

so he fired him and he said, i'm free of the guy, and hee went on lester holt. ster h holt interview was as good as a anybody could do, betr than i think any of the people around mueller could have done, and lester holt asked them, why did you do it? he said i did it because i felt that i had to explain to the american people the president was not the target of the investigation. and even jake tapper pushed him really hard, talking about comey. comey had no answer about why he didn't say this, even though he had in the same thing for hillary. you can't blame the president for feeling, i am not being treated the same way they were. i mean, i don't expect that we are going to have an interview with exoneration -- >> sean: already written. i have a lot of questions for you. >> i would like to get one, not under oath. i want a videotape, not videotaped, but audiotaped, i want to make sure they don't matter is answers. this is an outrageous miscarriage of justice. please consider whether you are republican or democrat, whether you hate president trump or you love him

now we've heard the president say to lester holt, i was going to get rid of him any way. this russia thing is a joke. now we just heard rudy giuliani say the president went to comey said tell the people that i'm not a target, comey refused he's gone. silence cannot be a response, ken. >> we do get more pieces as it goes on. i think really the more comprehensive one is the lester holt interview and so that the rudy giuliani addition is pretty small in this regard. i think the real question is for mueller is on the obstruction front. i also, by the way, think the fact that this is a subject of consideration should already have rosenstein recusing himself from being the person to whom mueller reports at the department of justice. i've been a bit mistified why he has stayed in the role he has stayed in this matter, so i don't know that there's any more harm to the president than happened after the lester holt interview but the more this goes on, oddly enough, the more it looks like rosenstein is going to be a witness or needs to be a witness and needs to be out of the loop an

this is about the lester holt interview. what did you mean in your interview with lester holt about mr. comey and russia? he said i was going to fire comey knowing -- well, i'll let the president say it himself. here it is. >> regardless of recommendation, i was going to fire comey knowing there was no good time to do it. in fact, when i decided to just do it, i said to myself, i said, you know, this russia thing with trump and russia is a made up story. it's an excuse by the democrats for having lost an election. that they should have won. >> so the question what did you mean in your interview with lester holt, that seems like an important question. what do you see, michael, when you look at these questions? >> well, we see that there are a lot of broad topics that mueller probably relayed to the white house counsel's office and said we want to talk about this and that then questions were put forth from white house counsel to the president's in a circle to say this is what we would likely talk about. the questions that you

and then, of course, he does the lester holt interview, the president does the lester holt interview and says, russia was on my mind. he goes into the oval office and tells the russians comey is a nutjob, i face great pressure because of russia and that's been taken off. then rod rosenstein says in a roomful of justice department officials and andy mccabe, weirdly at the beginning the president wanted me to mention russia. so you can see why to mccabe, as he's trying to figure out what the heck is going on, he's thinking, well, gees, it sounds a lot like the president might not have actually fired jim comey because of the clinton investigation. and you take that memo because you're trying to get to the bottom of why and that is still a question they are trying to figure out, why did the president actually fire jim comey. >> and that is at the center, matt apuzzo, of the investigation to whether or not the president obstructed justice. i want to read a couple more pulls from your piece. i'd love to read the whole thing but, you know, we've only got an hour. so, you write -- >> don't d

he went on lester holt. lester holt's interview was as good as anybody could do. better than i think any of the people around mueller could have done. lester holt asked him, wihy did you do it? he said, i had to explain to the american people the president was not the target of the investigation. >> eyei'd agree, i thought lest holt knocked it out of the park. but here's what the president actually said during that interview. >> but regardless of recommendation, i was going to fire comey. knowing there was no good time to do it. and, in fact, when i decided to just do it, said to myself, i said, you know, this russia thing with trump and russia is a made-up story. >> but giuliani went further and offered a brand-new explanation of why the president fired comey. listen >> he fired comey because comey would not, among other things, say that he wasn't -- they targeted the investigation. he's entitled to that. hillary clinton got that. and he couldn't get that. >> but trump didn't say that either. in fact, giuliani's statement directly contradicts what the president t

giuliani is talking about why donald trump fired james comey but not the reason the president told lester holtwe are covering the other breaking story coming from north korea. reports on the three americans held prisoner there saying the release could be imminent. we have a lot to get to in the next 60 minutes. we start with kelly o'donnell at the white house. sarah huckabee sanders was thronged by reporters who were asking her a ton of questions about giuliani's comments just in the last hour. >> reporter: and sarah huckabee sanders has been pressed over time to explain some of these issues and she is on the record from the briefing room always pushing back. so to give you an idea -- here is the difference between what she has been saying and pointing us in the direction of the former mayor of new york. >> i think it is fair to say there is ongoing litigation and the president's attorneys who have the greatest amount of visibility into this have spoken about this both at length last night, again this morning the president has put out multiple tweets on this this morning. >> was he surprised?

regardless of what the president said publicly or on twitter or in an interview with lester holt. potentially he would have an interview with the president where he could ask the president directly. then you go back to the issue of the president's credibility. >> all of that is true. he has a wealth of evidence now. i don't think we can discount the interview. obviously you're not discounting interview. it really, it was contemporaneous right around the time where comey was fired. it was right around the time he was meeting with russians in the oval office and talking how comey was a nutjob. >> this is in plain sighting with lester holt. >> it gives a window into his frame of mind at that point in time, not the polished trump. >> late last night, trump launched another attack on jeff sessions over his decision to recuse himself from the investigation and in doing so, he quoted joe digenova saying the recusal of jeff sessions was and you forced betrayal of the president of the united states. i'm looking at this thing, michael. i want all three of you to talk about it. it seems like

. >> president troll trump told lester holt he had russia on his mind and he had a decision to fire you. he recently tweeted this morning that it wasn't a factor that james comey the worst in history was not fired because of /s/ investigation. but he didn't say it. why do you believe you are fired? >> i don't know. i took him at his word when he told that to lester holt he also said that proudly russians the next day i took him at his word. two days tweet which i have seen i don't follow him i actually think that illustrates part of the problem i try to bring up that it matters the president is not committed to the truth so i don't know what to make of it. >>host: victoria toensing what did you hear? >> those that were beating on the white house door saying get rid of comey he should not be fbi director from day number one. and actually criticism when he did not fire him one day number one. in fact i called a dear friend of mine that had to work with mr. comey and said watch your back. we never supported him basically because of the reinvestigation and then to violate the justice depart

even lester holt gets a cameo. what did you mean in your interview with lester holt about mr.omey and russia, mr. president. who cares. he's no brian williams. as the president has discarded the constitution and rule of law as suggested by your questions, he needs a stern course correction. these would be objective violations in any other era. but wrongdoing is a dynamic and suggestive sport that is only bad when your opponent does something. mueller seems to be compromised in his choice of legal elves and his choice of james comey. and he has a legion of anti-trumpers to make sure he's unfirable. this entire process is so politicized. it's not unreasonable knot not to see scene outcome. leftists see government as the ultimate tool of will-bending force to right the wrong decisions much dumb, simple people. that's the memo. [♪] are you sick of issues like the mueller investigation riding our great nation? our next guests will argue for the opposition. >> it's time to party swap. all right. look at them. here is how it's going to work. our liberal marie harf is going to argue f