called former president trump's party, the maga party, that's going to get more stark. >> carol, pete williams is back with a statement from the court. pete. >> the supreme court has basically confirmed that this is a real leak, and it's also announcing that the chief justice has directed the court's marshal, the top official in the court to investigate what happened. let me read to you the full text of a brief statement the chief just put out. he said to the extent that this betrayal of the confidence of the court was intended to undermine the integrity of our operations, it will not succeed. the work of the court will not be affected in any way. he said we at the court are blessed to have a workforce, permanent employees and law clerks alike, intensely loyal to the institution and dedicated to the rule of law. court employees have an exemplary and important position of respecting the confidentiality of upholding the trust of the court. this is a ling lar an egregious breach of the trust. that was an affront to the court and the public servants who work here. i've directed the marshal to dire

. >> tom, thank you very much >>> justice correspondent pete williams joins me now. and, pete, ever since the shooting at columbine high school, police have typically sought to engage campus gunmen quickly, to go to the threat as we've heard. what happened here >> well, lester, one big question that is yet to be answered how quickly ramos fired the fatal shots inside the school some of the timelines that we've seen suggest that he did it shortly after he got inside, but even so, it is correct that police nationwide preach the importance of getting in and engaging as quickly as possible when there's an active shooter. law enforcement officials say ramos was shooting at the police through classroom walls with his high-powered rifle. it may be that because they couldn't see him, they couldn't shoot back, but texas authorities said yesterday that ramos was also shooting at people outside the school through the classroom windows, so that raises a question did the police try to shoot at him through those same windows many police officers i've talked to are surprised at how

we have pete williams coming up in a second. i know pete will say you can never tell how somebody's going to decide at the end, because often you'll have justices play the devil's advocate, ask the tough questions about the side that actually they're opposed to, to try to get the answer, to try to figure out exactly why they shouldn't move in a different direction. so i do believe, despite the fact this is unprecedented, a lot of assumptions are being made that are premature. >> chief justice roberts said as much yesterday in his statement, saying this is a draft opinion. yes, it's authentic. it's a draft opinion. it could change by the time we get to a final ruling. let's bring in justice correspondent pete williams. pete, good morning. i'll let you take up that question from joe about the consistency or inconsistency between what we hear in oral arguments, what we hear in a draft opinion like the one that's been made public and what ends up happening at the end. >> joe is right about one thing. the final decision won't look exa

down at the end of this contentious term which will be dominated by the issue of abortion. >> pete williams our newsroom. cheering this remarkable career and, pete, we wish you plenty of well-deserved fun in a long and active retirement. k and jack. piled high with tender shaved steak, topped with delicious pepper jack cheese, and kicking it up a notch with smoky- baja chipotle sauce? yep, they're constantly refreshing. y'all get our own commercial! subway keeps refreshing and- (driver) conventional thinking would say verizon has the largest and fastest 5g network. but, they don't. get our own commercial! they only cover select cities with 5g. so, for me and the hundreds of drivers in my fleet, staying connected, cutting downtime, and delivering on time depends on t-mobile 5g. and with coverage of over 96% of interstate highway miles, they've got us covered. (vo) unconventional thinking delivers four times the 5g coverage of verizon. and it's ready right now. t-mobile for business. (johnny cash) ♪ i've traveled every road in this here land! ♪ ♪ i've been everywhere, man. ♪ ♪ i've been every

before we go, some bad news for all of us, but some very happy news for pete williams, our longtime justice this summer. pete has been at nbc news for just shy of 30 years. as you well know because you guys are part of our family, too. he is the one person you want by your side when the rundown gets tossed into the air. i speak from experience. when you need someone say the mueller report or endless doj indictments to give you steady and rei believe accurate information during breaking news like 9/11 or the boston marathon, or translate or put in context, supreme court decisions that change the country like marriage equality, citizens united, or marbury versus madison -- kidding. throughout his career, he was first bite a bit, including on the imminent retirement of justice stephen breyer. most importantly, though, pete williams is a good dude. i can say that from experience as well. so while we and our coverage will miss him dearly, we want to wish him well. after all, it's hard to turn away from that red on-air light, most of us don't get to do it on our own terms. we're thrilled whatever

that's something we are looking into. >> pete williams. kristin welker, i want to play more of a powerful speech, the president learned about this flying back from tokyo. when he got to the white house, gave this speech. >> what struck me was these kinds of mass shootings rarely happen anywhere else in the world. why? they have mental health problems. they have domesticputes in other countries. they have people who are lost. but these kinds of mass shootings never happen with the kind of frequency they happen in america. why? why are we willing to live with this carnage? why do we keep letting this happen? where in god's name is our backbone? it's time to turn this pain into action. for every parent, every citizen of this country, we have to make it clear to every elected official in this country, it's time to act. >> you know that he as vice president was the point person after sandy hook for president obama. this is something that he has been dealing with for years and years. today, there's no sense at all that the senate is going to act

here's pete williams. he joins me now. pete, again, let's just start with the details.e learn this and how serious was and is the threat? >> we learned about it because forbes website published a an excerpt from a search warrant affidavit that was mistakenly unsealed and then immediately sealed earlier today. it first disclosed the evidence of this education. how much of a threat to the president, i say the answer is zero, but the fbi was all over this man, who is appearing in federal court in just a few minutes in columbus, ohio, where he lives. he's from iraq. he entered the united states according to court documents in september 2020. whalgs apparent from reading the court documents we have seen so far is that the fbi's initial interest in him was as somebody who was trying to smuggle people into the u.s. illegally. not necessarily terrorists, just people he wanted to try to get into the u.s. from iraq and at one point talked to confidential informants, there were two of them active in had this case, he said he would charge as much as $40,000 to get iraqis who were n

some very happy news for pete williams.e has been at nbc news for just shy of 30 years. as you well know, because you all are a part of our family, too, he is the one person -- the military assault. >> it's a big and bloody battle on the eastern front of the country. >> there's real fear of fresh russian attacks. >> the humanitarian crisis. >> steady, reliable and accurate information stream during big breaking news like 9/11 on the boston marathon bombings or to translate supreme court decisions that change the country, like marriage equality and citizens united. throughout his career, he knew being first wasn't more important than being right. although, he was first quite a bit. including on the imminent retirement of justice stephen breyer. most importantly, pete williams is a good dude. this, too, i can say from experience. while we and our coverage will miss him dearly, it is hard to turn away as you know from that red on air light, most of us don't do it on our own terms. we are thrilled for whatever is on the other s

my gosh, pete williams, i -- i congratulate him and i thank him.or anyone who comes to nbc and is trying to learn the ropes. >> you just touched on it, mika. not only is he the very best that has ever done what he does, which is covering the justice department and covering justice in america, but he's also one of the kindest people you will ever meet. one of the most generous people you'll ever meet. you see that in tributes to him online. since his announcement was made, young reporters, veteran reporters saying what he meant to them and how he changed their lives of and careers. he was, mika, you'll agree with me, when there was breaking news, there was the person you wanted on the screen with you. pete's here, he's going to put it down in simple terms, explain it to us, make it die gettable. it was always about the news, about his reporting. there was no self-grandizement. it is pete williams, and it's a gut-punch he's leaving to all of us but we're happy for him. >> and we'll see more of your fabulous focus groups. really insightful. can't wait

let's get right to pete williams. pete, what is it? >> this is a defeat for the city of boston. it involved a controversy over flying a religious flag over boston city hall. the supreme court opinion today contains a helpful photograph of city hall in boston. it has three flag poles in front of the building. one flies the city flag. one flies the massachusetts state flag. which you can't see in this photo. it's up there at the top. and one is available for community groups to use to fly various flags to commemorate city events. and the city has largely allowed all comers except for a group called camp constitution which wanted to fly what it called the christian flag, which was a red latin cross on a blue background, against a white field, and the city said no, we can't do that, because that would be a violation of the establishment clause. that would be a government endorsement of religion, so we can't let it fly. and today, the supreme court said that argument doesn't fly. the court's ruling was 9-0. it unanimously said this was a public forum. boston created a public forum, o

pete williams joins us this morning. pete, do we know anything about this meeting? it's a regularly scheduled meeting, josÉ. the court normally meets in a closed door conference just the nine justices every thursday. they do it throughout the term and do it for several reasons, to decide which cases they are going to take for next term, and which cases they are not going to take which is most of the ones that will come to them, and which decisions are waiting to be handed down. it's one of the 37, and we're probably looking at the court ending at the end of june. this should not surprise anybody that it is happening, and that's point one. point two is we are not going to know what happened in there. these are closed door conferences. i was about to say, and the contents of them never leak, but i don't know, all bets are off it would seem on leaks from the supreme court. it does seem a safe bet even though it's not on the agenda, that at least the chief justice will brief them on how he expect the leak to be investigated, what he has done and what the marshall has do

. >> pete williams, thank you.are going to show you a stunning moment today during a news conference, where greg abbott and beta o'rourke burst in and accused him of inaction. >> sir, you are out of line. please leave this auditorium. >> why don't you get out of here? >> beta o'rourke was escorted from the room, he also called on greg abbott to schedule an appearance at today's nra convention in houston. as we have seen after tragedies like this in the past, the chances of it happening in washington are very slim. garrett joins us now, what is the political reality here in the prospect of congress to act? >> this is an issue over 10 years, congress has failed to do anything but fail, democrats would like to see a stronger background check put in place, there was one negotiation after sandy hook, it didn't have the republican vote then, and it doesn't now. republicans would like to see the schools be hardened, more of a focus on mental health. democrats say that is besides the point, you have to focus on the guns. c

starting off our reporting, pete williams, carol lee, yamish, in jackson. d kimberly atkins, columnist for "the boston globe." pete, we're going to start with you. how did the news come about? >> we don't know. that's the question that the supreme court would like, too. i can't think of a time in supreme court history, where anything like this has happened. especially in such a high-profile case as this. this is going to be something that the supreme court is going to want to know exactly what happened here. i doubt it's one of the justices that cast the suspicion on the clerks that work in the court, that support the justices' work. i'm sure there's going to be a top-to-bottom review of how this happened. the court isn't saying anything. it wouldn't say it's investigating. if it did that, it would be confirming this was a leak. they can't be doing that. it's just remarkable. i'm at a loss for words. lots of leaks in washington. you don't expect them from the supreme court. >> have there been cases of this happening in the past? and how hermatic is the supre

joining me now is justice correspondent pete williams. this is an accidentally unsealed document. >> it was. although, i think this case is going to be much more public here. because we believe this man that has been accused of all of this is going to appear in court in a short time. i think more documents will be unsealed. yes, briefly, the search warrant affidavit was unsealed and reported by forbes this morning. but what we now know is that this man's name and he entered the united states in september of 20. and sought a tourist visa in essence. the state tried to get immigration status to get a green card. this is all according to search warrant affidavit, which we have obtained. according to documents, he lived in the columbus, ohio area. the fbi initially got on to him. we are looking at pictures of president bush right now this part has nothing to do with president bush. the fbi says early on in this case, his main interest was in getting people into the u.s. illegally to make money. he told two fib february under cover operatives

pete williams joins me now. hey there. i'm going to savor this. this is one of our last.e the amount of hate in america. but these are efforts to respond to the rise in crimes motivated by hate. one of the biggest challenges the justice department says is getting a good understanding how widespread these incidents are. one initiative is intended to help police identify hate crimes and encourage people in minority communities to report these incidents. the justice department is launching a program to take calls from immigrants who don't speak english. the attorney general is announcing $10 million in grants to help states set up new hotlines for reporting the crimes and to encourage police to do a better job of recognizing hate crimes in the first place and gathering the data. he says the justice department has a long history of countering hate. >> this department was founded in 1870 in the aftermath of the civil war with the first fundamental purpose, to fight the white supremacist attack on black civil rights after the civil war. 152 years later, the task to combat hate-

. >>> nbc news correspondent pete williams is set to retire. our team tweeted out the announcement after nearly 3 decades. he has decided to retire at the end of july. he has covered many historical events in washington throughout the years. and offered such valuable context. we wish him well. >>> let's talk about the warriors. off to a great start with the western conference finals. >> hopefully game 1 becomes a trend. >> the nation had a lot to cheer about. even before the game, chase center had serious a buzz as the winner of the series goes on to the nba finals where the warriors last were when they played in oakland. game 1 was what the warriors needed with the head coach, steve kerr back on the bench from his bout with covid. steph curry led the way with 22 points. seven warriors hit double figures. the final score, 112 to 87. the warriors have not lost a postseason game at chase center. they are now 8 and zero. >>> we have all been there. too tired to cook and too much to pay to have the food delivered. >> one texas mother had no choice.

. >> pete williams, barbara mcquaid, thanks to the both of you. we'll go live to houston where the nra is holding its annual investigation, the politicians who are there and the push back on the ground. and a bipartisan group of senators looking to find a way forward on gun safety reforms. and in just about two hours from now we expect another update from texas governor greg abbott speaking in uvalde. n uvalde and do more incredible things. ♪ ♪ miss allen over there isn't checking lesson plans. she's getting graded on her green investments with merrill. a-plus. still got it. (whistle blows) your money never stops working for you with merrill, a bank of america company. when it comes to tech, your money never stops working for you with merrill, everyone wants the next best thing. now with xfi complete from xfinity, you can get updated wifi technology with the new tech upgrade program. plus, protection from cyber threats at home and now on the go. so staying up to date is easier than ever. you look great by the way. right? unbeatable internet. made

joining us now, pete williams and jim kavanaugh, a former atf special agent. u clear up some of the discrepancies for us? early reports in the fog of this terrible situation, was the school resource officer armed during the initial altercation with the shooter outside? did he try to take him down? >> the simple answer to your question about whether i can clear this up is, no. we don't have definitive answers to these questions. whether the school resource officer shot at him and then what happened, what happened in the school and why it took so long. i will say a couple of things that are apparent now. one is, we have been told that the police officers inside, when they got to the locked door of the classroom -- that was the first problem, the door was locked when they got there. he was firing at the police officers through the wall. he had a very high powered rifle that was capable of shooting through the walls of the school. he was shooting at them. obviously, they can't see him. they don't know where he is. they're not going to shoot back. they don't know wh

far the prosecutions that durham has brought are about people accused of lying to the fbi. >> pete williams d.c. pete, thank you. >> you bet. >>> still ahead coming up on this hour, the status of two subpoenaed for the january 6th committee and where that stands. . -seriously? -denied. can we go back to meeting at the rec center? the commute here is brutal. denied. how do we feel about getting a quote to see if we can save with america's number one motorcycle insurer? should flo stop asking the same question every time? -approved! -[ altered voice ] denied! [ normal voice ] whoa. i'm still drawn to what's next. even with higher stroke risk due to afib not caused by a heart valve problem. so if there's a better treatment than warfarin that's a trail i want to take. eliquis. eliquis reduces stroke risk better than warfarin. and has less major bleeding than warfarin. eliquis has both. don't stop taking eliquis without talking to your doctor as this may increase your risk of stroke. eliquis can cause serious and in rare cases fatal bleeding. don't take eliquis if you have an artificial heart va

will republicans find a way. >> getting to some analysis with pete williams.upporter of abortion rights. before we get into a substance of the opinion, it is beyond unheard of i'm sitting here holding a draft opinion, what makes you feel this is legitimate? this is not some is kind of a fake? >> i've held draft opinions and they look exactly like this. i could imagine some deep state foreign government coffin vested the resources but this is impossible. it uses language justice alito would use. what this draft opinion says is that five justices after they heard oral argument from mississippi adopted the first full-throated opinion which was to overturn roe v. wade which has no exception for incest. >> there appear to be five justices ready to overturn roe. how far does the opinion go? they found a right to privacy used for all kinds of constitutional rights. how narrowly drawn is this opinion? >> it says that roe is fatal from the root on down. one of the things that is sr prizing about this leak. i don't know what the point of it is. i don't see how this chan

we begin this hour with uvalde, with nbc's shaq brewster and nbc justice correspondent pete williams.haq, today the focus is on the victims. there continues to be scrutiny of the uvalde police chief. tell us where that stands. >> reporter: another visitation starts just this hour. over the course of the weekend we've seen so much pain, grief and sadness. this is one of the memorials in uvalde where you have people coming to pay their respects. you can see the constant flow of people we have here. so many flowers, candles, teddy bears, flags. people coming to just write a note. so much grief in this town. you have a feeling that so many people are coming out to do whatever they can to honor the victims of this shooting. you mentioned, the first visitation we saw started yesterday. it was a visitation for am merry jo garza who was shot while making a phone call in the room. she's described as a beautiful and loving girl. there's also a marine biologist, she wanted to be. her oh built air read knows who know and loved her were blessed with her kind, ambitious, friend left-hand asweet sou

. >> joining me is pete williams, tom goldshtein and yamisha tindor. pete, you obtained the full statement. take us through that. >> on top of the extraordinary leak comes an extraordinary statement from the court say, yes, this really was a leak. the supreme court says, although the document described in yesterday's report is authentic, it doesn't represent a decision by the court. then the chief justice says he has directed the marshall to launch an investigation. it was intended to undermine the integrity of our decision, it won't work. he said this was a singular and egregious breach of the trust that's an affront to the court and community of public servants who work here. the court decided after last night having no comment to say, yes, this is the real draft. but the court says, things can change. this is not the final opinion. we are nowhere near there yet. we will investigate how this leak happened. >> tom, let's talk about the broader issue of the court potentially overturning 49 years of constitutional law and rejecting precedent, which sever

there's an investigation into who di, which pete william bs has been reporting on. but if there's a link to a supreme court justice, do you glae with your colleague in the senate that that justice should be impeached? >> well, i think we need an investigation first. we do need to know how this leak happened. nonetheless, i think the information was important for us to know. and it just raises the alarm bell for all of us in terms of what will happen to millions of women across this country if they do not have this choice. 1 out of 4 women have had an abortion. and my congress members have had an abortion. this is something that is part and parcel of every woman's life. and they need to know what is at stake. we found what was happening through this leaked decision, and that means that we have to fight even harder to ensure that we have the right to determine what's going on with our own bodies. >> congresswoman, i know it's a busy day for you as well. thank you so much for joining us for your perspective. we appreciate it. >>> coming up next, a "mtp daily" exclusive

pete williams, thank you so much for being with us this morning., obviously, people are going to be talking about the political impact of not only this leak but also of the decision that, as pete williams says, appears to be coming, that's going to strike down a 50-year precedent that has the support of 70%, 73% of americans. i must say, i expected this to have more of an impact, what happened with mitch mcconnell, merrick garland, amy coney barrett, and basically mcconnell's might makes right approach. the republicans' might makes right approach i expected to have more of an impact in the 2020 election. susan collins showed that was wrong. she was -- she won her state by 9 points after saying she was pro-choice her entire career. that was a state that joe biden won by 9 points. it certainly didn't seem -- the politics of abortion certainly didn't seem to have the impact there that i thought it'd have, or across the country. is this going to be any different? >> look, joe, i don't know the answer. i think it is really one of the most profound and u

justice correspondent pete williams has more >> reporter: demonstrators flocked to the supreme court shortly after politico broke the news monday night, an unprecedented leak of an entire draft opinion in one the court's most consequential cases saying roe v. wade should be overruled. written by justice samuel alito it says there is no support for roe in any part of the constitution and, quote, a right to abortion is not deeply rooted in the nation's history and traditions the authority to decide whether abortion is legal, he says, should be left to the people and their elected representatives. while the publication of the draft is a shock, the conclusion of the draft shouldn't be it was apparent when the case was argued december 1 that at least five justices were prepared to overturn roe, including justice alito, who was an aggressive questioner. >> can it be said that the right to abortion is deeply root inside t history and traditions of the american people >> reporter: the draft opinion says because abortion involves taking the life of a fetus it's in a class of itself, striking

joining me is garrett haake and pete williams. 's start with you. >> reporter: he said it would be absolutely foolish for the person responsible for this leak to think it will have any effect on the court's decision-making process. he said what upsets him is it might give the wrong impression of the court's workforce. he said he hopes the actions of one bad apple won't do that. and he called the breach a betrayal and breach of trust and he ordered the marshal to launch an investigation. she is the court's security officer and is in charge of the court's police force. the court has so far declined to provide any details about how the leak investigation is being conducted. i would note josh gerstein of politico, who co-wrote this bombshell story about the alito draft, he said as far as he knows nobody from the court has contacted politico about the leak. i don't think that's very surprising. i don't think there's any way politico is going to reveal anything about its source. >> absolutely. garrett, i interviewed senate murphy on andr

joining us is pete williams and phil rucker. ustice and what they are looking at? as you know, the committee is not happy with garland because of the delay. they have yet to hear back about mark meadows. >> i suspect at the justice department, they understand the concern that garland isn't moving fast enough. you have a letter from the justice department a month ago asking for access to these documents. they still don't have it. on the one hand, the committee is saying, you are not moving fast enough. on the other hand, the committee is saying, we're not going to help you. our understanding is that just as you reported, that what the committee said is you can't have these transcripts, but you can look at them. >> is that going to satisfy doj? >> i don't think so. ultimately, the justice department will want them. what bennie thompson said is, we're not done yet. maybe when the committee is finished it will give the justice department access to these. it's a little strange here. normally, these things work in the opposite directio

pete williams is joining me. and claire mccaskill joining us. pete, with you. we keep an eye on the court. what do we know about the marshall leading this investigation and how we anticipate it will move forward? >> we have no idea how it will move forward, peter. that's the easy answer to the question. i'm not sure that the marshall knows exactly how to do this. that's certainly an experienced lawyer. she has a long career in the u.s. military. she was an army judge advocate general and supervised many prosecutions during her time in the army. she's the chief security office he for the court. she's responsible for the police department at the supreme court. she can call on the help of her own staff to do this work. whether she can bring in outsiders to help out, i'm just not sure. there's a potential federal crime here, conversion of a government document. i can't imagine that anybody would ever be prosecuted for it. the other question is, could nonetheless somebody from the fbi, for example, be asked to help with the investigation, which would involve potenti

this morning the supreme court handed down new decisions and joining us now is our very own pete williams texas republican, and it places a limit on how much can be paid when they loan their own campaigns money. ted cruz was challenged by beto o'rourke, and the federal law capped the repayments at $250,000. senator cruz lent his campaign $260,000 to challenge this law, and today by a vote of 6-3, the supreme court said the law is unconstitutional and it's a violation of a candidate's free speech. the supreme court long said because money buys ads and that's the way you reach voters, limits on campaign spending are restrictions on campaign speech, and roberts said this limits the risks the candidates hold back on spending, and that would respect therefore their speech, and the three dissenters said, no, this was actually -- there was an anti-corruption point of this. justice kagan wrote, the money goes directly into the candidate's own pocket and that increases the chance for corruption. >> thank you. i am josÉ diaz-balart. thank you for the privilege of your time. katy tur is up with more

pete williams is going to retire at the end of the supreme court term this summer. een an institution in washington journalism for nearly 30 years. fortunately part of the nbc family for that whole time. people live by the motto "in pete we trust." he always gets it right. he is superb as a human being, journalist, friend, and generous klieg. from big breaking news stories, 9/11, the biggest supreme court cases that changed the course of history, obama care, marriage equality, the 2000 presidential election, voting rights, he doesn't just get it first, he gets it right all of the time. even when a lot of other people, everyone else, does not. even his close friends don't know what his politics are. if you call people at the court, the fbi, the doj, republican and democratic administrations, they would say he is the most fair, most honest, most reliability, most genuinely nice person. my personal congratulations to my dear friend, he has so many other interests he will have a very exciting post nbc time. we have so lucky to have months more to appreciate pete's incred

the reporting of my colleagues, jonathan deems and pete williams, according to texas, authorities briefedthe investigation. it appears victims were in four classrooms. we don't know whether the gunman fired the weapon in four classrooms or they were injured. this is a high powered rifle. was there any sort of ricochets, as an example. did bullet goes through a wall? it's possible, depending on the type of walls there, through windows. we see classrooms have windows. that is a key thing we want to find out. what windows where is there? windows to the outside, to the door where the shooter could have been engaged, and an important component, you know, people focused on active training, if the shooter is engaged with the police, trying to shoot the cops or the cops or firing back at that active shooter, at least they are not shooting at kids. >> reporter: or people in an office building. that is an important part of it. really interesting information i just received from kxas in dallas, a great investigator and colleague. he sent to me a guideline, a handbook for officers in texas. this is p

there was some sort of partition in the middle that could open or close but now my colleagues pete williamsonathan dienst say their sources within texas are reporting there were victims in four classrooms which suggests that the gunman was moves through the school, down the hallway, down the hallway and barricading into that one shared classroom as it were. the news conference raised several questions really about the time line so at 11:28 the gunman in a stolen pickup truck crashes in a ditch, gets out. witnesses believe somebody's been in a car accident. go out to help. the gunman gets out of the passengers side, has a bag, which we know has ammunition and a long gun, which was some ar-15 type weapon and he begins shooting. so those people skedaddle. somebody dials 911. in the process he goes over the fence. 911 call is made around 11:30. there's a 10-minute period where he is getting over the fence, getting onto the school grounds and finding an open door. the police department is 1.2 miles from here. even if you were driving the speed limit and doing all of the stop signs, it would only

pete williams is joining us. before we get to you, morgan. i want to go over the latest timeline that's being provided by dps. a lot of this is based on 911 call ts. 11:27 a.m. the school door is propped over. at 11:28 the gunman crashes into a ditch. at 11:30, a teacher calls 911. a minute later the shooter jumps the fence, starts shooting at the school. the school safety officer heard the 911 call the drove past the killer in the parking lot. that point the shooter enters the school. he gets in through this open door, starts shooting into room 111, 112 shooting more than 100 rounds. seven police officers get on the scene three minutes later. two of them were kind of hit. they got what are called grazing gunshot wounds meaning the bullet grazed them on some part of their body. over the next seven minutes, there were 15 rounds of gunfire. as many as 19 officers were in the hallway. at 12:03 there was a 23 second 911 call saying mull approximate people were dead. another 911 call. at 12:16, said eight to nine kids were still live. that's impor

we are just into a new term, pete williams is set to retire.n 20 out the announcement after nearly 3 decades at the network, he has decided to retire at the end of july. he has covered many historical events in washington throughout the years. he is so connected. he is often at the forefront of so much breaking news. we wish him well. we hope he really gets a chance to enjoy his retirement. >> he will be missed. >> it is a quarter to seven right now. may is mental health matters much. california rolling out events and programs that are aimed at raising awareness. >> they are getting some help from one of the stars of the tv show. we talked about his own mental health journey. >> i was dealing with anxiety and suicidal thoughts. i was also dealing with a lot of color and some, mental abuse, emotional abuse. it spiraled into drug use for a little bit. i just was, i don't know how to get out of this. >> he told me that he also had to learn what the signs were of his own mental health. he is partnering with take action for mental health.org. this i

officials said the children died in one classroom, but pete williams is reporting that dead children for found in four different classrooms. these are among the questions we're trying to answer today and also, what was that shooter's background? did he have previous encounters with the police? we're digging on that today. >> law enforcement initially said there's no criminal history. there could be juvenile. those records are sealed. ken, you pointed to the heart of the matter. the question that really matters here. would any of those kids survived had there not been that hour lapse? that hour delay. again, we want to say that brave officers did confront him. they went in first and fired at him. they were outgunned, had to fall back. but my goodness. to wait an hour and seven minutes, any parent standing outside that school has to wonder if their child might be alive today had it not taken so long. >> of course they do. and this is compounded by the videos that we're seeing of parents begging police to go in. and the accounts we're hearing about that. you know, as i've been thinking

according to nbc's pete williams several top lawmakers were scheduled to speak at an nra conference this weekend. john cornyn has informed the nra he has a scheduling conflict in washington and dan crenshaw will not attend he has a scheduling conflict in washington governor abbott and senator ted cruz are still on the schedule and an appearance by former president trump will require metal detectors. because of that, the nra says no firearms will be allowed in the event earlier at the white house, president biden again called on lawmakers to pass common sense gun reforms and suggested even the 2nd amendment was tailored to save lives. >> the 2nd amendment is not absolute when it was passed, you couldn't th own a cannon or certain kinds of weapons. there's always been limitations. >> the president has called for a restoration of a ban on assault weapons that expired in 2004 the white house says the ball is in congress's court. >> kayla tausche live in our washington newsroom tonight. >>> senate majority leader chuck schumer slamming republican leaders today, accusing them of choosing the n

what you've been asking underscores what pete williams and i were discussing, that state and federal officials don't have a good sense of the timeline. it's the state -- it's the department of public safety and the texas rangers that are holding this investigation, so this is not something -- or running the investigatio to us t least a preliminary timeline. usually by this point of the investigation, we do have a preliminary timeline. so, it's difficult to tell from that video when that video specifically occurred and what was going on at that moment. it would be awfully helpful to know at this point when the first shots were fired, who fired at whom, and how long this did go on in the classroom, as gabe referenced. yesterday we heard it could be approximately 40 minutes or so that this was going on. though, i will remind everybody, and i looked over the investigaive report from newtown and the school shooting that happened there. from the moment adam lansa started firing and fired upon himself, it was approximately -- he had fired 154 rounds. this is the type of situation, if it is

to the best of our knowledge, and they are in that is my colleagues pete williams, andrew blanksteinnd myself based on multiple local and federal law enforcement officials, they're telling us the following things as of 1:00 p.m. eastern time. first off, to your point, the school was always the intended target. it was not something where an accident occurred or something involving law enforcement got him to this point. there was some speculation as to whether or not this elementary school was always the intended target based on where the investigation stands now, yes, the school was the intended target of the person who did the shooting salvador orlando ramos. second thing, as of this hour, there's no determination on the motive of the shooter why he did this. not that presumably anything they could develop to a motive would make sense to the rest of us. but at this point, still no sort of motive has been determined. regarding the guns -- i think there's a lot of questions about this. the headline here is that the guns all appear to be purchased legally. we're talking about ar-15 styl

i want to bring in pete williams with more.dence the government has, et cetera. >> the government says it has a lot of etched because of the extensive monitoring by two undercover informants, confidential informants of the fbi. they say he was trying to smuggle people into the u.s., not terrorists, but just doing it for money initially the fbi interest was a potential immigrant smuggling case. then starting last fall, he started to tell the informants that he wanted to talk about his isis connections, that he had taken explosive-lading vehicles op onto roads in iraq to kill american soldiers. he also said he wanted to bring as many as six iraqis into the u.s. to assassinate the former form. he did take a trip last february to dallas according to court documents, he rode in a car that drove past the former president's office, so he could make a video. he never sent that video anywhere, never managed to get any iraqis into the u.s., never had firearms himself, but he didn't know it, the fbi paid for his trip to go to dallas so, h

nbc's pete williams is here with more on this. epublicans were not ultimately successful in having the results challenged, talk about the argument from the people who filed this suit and its significant. >> reporter: they say first of all they want a court to order that this was wrong and nobody should be able to do this again. what they say is because donald trump did not win the popular vote -- as you know, when you go to the polls and check biden or trump, you're not actually voting for joe biden or donald trump, you're voting for a slate of electors who will then meet in december and cast the actual vote in the electoral college, which is cast in early january. what they say is because biden won the election they had no right to gather, to cast their votes to sign this certificate and send it into the archives. that all of that violated state law and was misleading. then they say this, they say all the people did this in the various states, the seven states where republicans did this, despite that biden won the to l foundation

. >> and with us to start off the coverage this hour, nbc news justice correspondent pete williams, msnbc anchor yasmin vossoughian, and amy weinstein, a legal analyst and nbc news capitol hill correspondent ali vitali. pete, what will the supreme court's investigation into this leak look like? >> i think the supreme court couldn't even answer that question for us. this is not the kind of thing that the marshal normally is in charge of. she's the chief security officer, but she has a lot of options it seems to me. one is she can try to look at the document itself and see if there are clues in that. a sort of hire outside experts that could forensically analyze, that's a possibility. question people in the court, of course. in the past, chief justices upset at leaks have even suggested that people could be polygraphed. whether it would come to that or not, i don't know. i suspect that she's just beginning to get the answer to that question herself, jose. i just think it's going to be a long and difficult thing for her. leak investigations always are. even inside the government. even invest

it is pete williams, and it's a gut-punch he's leaving to all of us but we're happy for him. >> and we'll see more of your fabulous focus groups. really insightful. can't wait for it. jose diaz-balart picks up the coverage right now. >>> good morning. it's 10:00 a.m./7:00 a.m. pacific. i'm jose diaz-balart. very busy thursday. right now on capitol hill, the head of the fda is ed testifying before lawmakers as millions of families scramble to find baby formula. as president biden now takes major steps to address the shortage. >>> also happening at the white house this hour, leaders from finland and sweden are meeting with president biden as they apply for nato membership amid russia's invasion of ukraine. we'll ask the head of the foreign relations committee, senator bob menendez, about what's next for the u.s. response to that crisis. in new york, the suspected gunman in a racist shooting in a buffalo store is in court this morning as they launch a probe into the suspect's social media footprint. >>> we begin with the dire situation facing families across the country, the baby formula sho

now as pete williams has point out today, that really seemed to be the case just based on oral argumentst when the mississippi case came before the court and just seeing the right writing on the wall, seeing how conservative the justices and their bench have become since the trump administration. now what this could mean is that there are a lot of laws put on books that could not be enacted because of roe versus wade that would be instantly put on the books of states if roe versus wade is lifted and if this opinion stands, they would be this summer. so now you would see a vastly different abortion access landscape across the country depending on where you live. some places like where we are here in d.c. have laws on the books that would enshrine the right to abortion access. others could make it criminal or at least liable for someone who performs an abortion. think of the texas law that would then allow someone to be suing an uber driver who drives somebody to get an abortion. these are the things that could be so different across this country. i've spoken to some here today who were fr

i want to bring in justice correspondent pete williams and legal analyst danny sa val loss. can you bring us up to speed on the ruling coming in to us, the significance of it in. >> sure. i should say this is not the last chapter in this saga. there's one more step here. this is a find big an administrative law judge. the way it works under georgia law, if somebody challenges the qualifications of a candidate to be on the ballot it goes before an administrative law judge who has a hearing, this judge had a hearing in april, the judge reaches findings and then that is recommended to the secretary of state. so this is going to be up to the georgia secretary of state brad raffens burger to make the final decision. his office said he will. having set the table, what the issue here is, the 14th amendment says no candidate can run for office if they have engaged in insurrection, that was the claim here, her support for the trump claim about the election being stolen or saying on an interview this is our 1776 moment, but she was egging on the people who eventually stormed the capit

justice correspondent pete williams has the latest for us.ing and is this significant? how significant? >> it is a defeat for durham. it's his first persecution and it isn't about his homework assignment, it's about something different. his claim in september of 2016 a law officer for had hillary clinton went to the fbi headquarters and made a claim that experts on data analysis found a link, some sort of communication back channel between the trump organization and the bank in russia with close ties to the russian government. according to the prosecution in this case, when he said this, he said he was acting as just an interested citizen. he was not representing any specific client when in fact durham charged he was doing this on behalf of the clinton campaign to try to stir up tribble trouble, get negative news story about the trump campaign at the height of of the election. that's what durham said the lie was. but the jury deliberated just seven hours and found him not guilty. his lawyer had had said that the man he talked to at the fbi, t

according to local and federal law enforcement officials to myself, jonathan dean, andy blankstein and pete williams, they were certain the school was a target. that was a question as to whether or not he just randomly chose it or ended up there after he shot his grandmother. clearly he was going to do what he did yesterday. we learned that information in addition to that, there were two ar-15s that he purchased after his 18th birthday, just on may 16th of this year. not clear which date that was or if he purchased them over the course of two days. we do know, according to these officials that the smith & wesson m&p ar-15-style rifle was purchased, a more common weapon, that's something that people know what it looks like and familiar, another is a daniel defense ddm v-7, a lesser-known manufacturer, not something you typically might see. we're not sure which weapon he brought with him inside of the school but for practical matters, hallie, it was purchased legally. based on the laws in texas federally, there's not something from a gun control standpoint that would have stopped this, just based on t

joining me now pete williams and frank figluci and national security analyst. what do we know?ow from reading the court documents that there never really was any threat to the president. this is certainly a person who wanted to try to do harm to the president but never had the capability to do anything. it's quite clear that the fbi initially got interested in him because he was trying to smuggle people into the u.s. for money. there's no suggestion, when the fbi began to pay attention to him, that he was trying to smuggle terrorists in here. he just wanted to smuggle in people who were not otherwise legally able to enter the country from iraq to make money. according to court documents, he is from iraq. he entered the u.s. in september '20. there's in indication that he himself committed visa fraud. that's when the fbi began to have two undercover operatives talk to him, constantly record conversations with him, when he discussed his idea about bringing people in here to make money. then as the conversations went along, at one point he begins to talk about his connections to i

. >> i can hear the voice of pete williams in my head pointing out that the justice department often doesn't like to act on politically sensitive things the closer they get to elections. so put that in your file here a little bit, too. jackie alemany, i want to bring you. we heard from the chairman bennie thompson about whether these republicans will comply and why he thinks it's important they do so. here's the chairman. >> i hope they do. i mean, it's important based on our investigation. and we kind of outlined in the letters. they have come up in a number of ways and we feel that information in responding to it is important. >> they feel that information is important. jackie, you've done such a great job chronicling this committee's work. what are the missing pieces that these five men hold that the committee is so desperate to get at? >> that's a really good question, garrett. and it's something that we asked bennie thompson in that gaggle as well, as soon as he walked off the house floor he actually had to do his day job today, he was telling us and was not as focused on his co