thanks for being here. i m stephen romo in for yasmin today. it s a busy final day of 2023. just hours before the ball drops, the security is tight in new york s times square. celebrations are set to get underway, despite the heightened threat environment, following the october 7th attack on israel. we are live on the scene with the latest. of course, in many parts of the world, it is already 2024. we will show you the sights and sounds and the hopes so many have for the new year. meanwhile, tensions are high across the red sea at this hour, as the u.s. navy sinks three houthi boats and downed ballistic missiles fired from houthi controlled areas. we will have more on that. legal action in donald trump s world is not stopping. we will reveal that question special counsel jack smith has for an appeals court that took more than 80 pages to ask. and we begin this hour with a countdown to the new year. up to 1 million people are flocking to times square to witness new yor
and why, later this hour. that s a federal official. plus, the colorado ruling. why it s a political gift to biden, not donald trump. and just in time to ruin the holiday, this. breaking news on fog. very good day to all of you from msnbc world headquarters in new york. welcome, everyone, to alex witt reports. we begin with this breaking news. just before the deadline overnight, donald trump s legal team filed a brief with a federal appeals court in washington asking it to toss out the d.c. election subversion case against him. saying he should be immune from prosecution for his actions while he was presidents. it comes a day after the supreme court declined to intervene and the case, leaving it to the lower court to decide first. meanwhile, on the question of immunity, president biden, now, has weighed in. mister president, do you think that our [inaudible] i can t think of one. joining me now, nbc s julie tsirkin in washington. julie, welcome. what did we hear from tr
he defamed her by denying it happened. this is moments away. we will bring it to you live here and stay with it throughout this hour. national correspondent bryan llenas is standing by at the courthouse while we wait for the news that the jurors are about to present this verdict. hi, brian. yes, i m here in new york. we have our producers at the courthouse. we re waiting now what the verdict is. it said that they would be announcing it at 3:00. we re looking to see as soon as we get the verdict what it is. in this case we need to step back here, this is a civil federal case, which means that all nine jurors must come to a unanimous decision on whether or not they believe former president trump committed assault, a battery and whether or not he defamed e. jean carroll. the burden of proof here is lower than a criminal case. you must proved beyond a reasonable doubt in this case. the only thing they have to do is convince the jury that e. jean carroll said the events more tha
are in a fight for the finish, look at the map. you see the big names are hitting the trail in the final days. it tells you what you need to know about the race in states where frankly every single vote will count. and there is a remarkable ad we have to show you that claims to know what god wants. and on the 8th day god looked down on his planned paradise and said i need a protector so god made a fighter. oh my god. we are going to talk about that. i hope so. plus, the politics of pot, recreational marijuana is on the ballot in five states. most of them conservative red states. finally an issue that s bringing americans together getting high. [ laughter ] well, when you go low, they go high. i had to. i don t know why. it kalcame out as a whole thing fantastic. let s bring our experts on that. we have cnn political commentator scott jennings and keith and mark mckinnon. gent gentlemen, great to have you. i do live at 10,000 feet so i know something about