images as the monster storm made its approach. the life threatening storm surge. up to 18 feet expected along florida s southwest coast. more than a million customers without power, and that number only expected to grow as we move into the night. the state of emergency from 2.5 million people under evacuation orders. the governor telling residents if you haven t gotten out, it s too late. and urging them to shelter in place to ride out the storm. tonight, the new track as ian begins its march across the state. where it s headed next. emergencies declared in georgia and the carolinas. our team in place across the storm zone. our special coverage begins right now. this is nbc nightly news with lester holt, reporting tonight from bradenton, florida. good evening, everyone, from the southwest coast of florida where we are still being buffeted by hurricane ian, just hours after the eye of the storm made its much dreaded landfall south of us this afternoon. blasting a
there is new information tonight about the statement to mar-a-lago. the former president asked one of his lawyers back in february to tell the national archives everything they wanted had been returned. but the lawyer refused because he wasn t sure it was true. the washington post also says that it was trump himself who packed up the boxes that will return to the national archives in january. we re going to bring in britney while, also former deputy assistant harry lippman and former assistants prosecutor nick akerman. good evening, one and all. nick, let s start with you. what does this new reporting mean for donald trump and the classified documents. it is all bad news. it shows that he is that guy who packed the documents, for starters. he knew it was there, he knew what he was taking. he knew he had classified documents. he can t blame it on anyone else. and then he tries to get a lawyer to life for him and he refuses. there are going to be at least two or three of dona
asked about whether evacuation orders came too late for some. nearly 2000 people have been rescued so far according to the governor. this is footage from santa belle island. loose skies overhead, the only way out is by chopper. we have two reports tonight. the first is from fort myers, our randi kaye was among the first reporters to get an and witness the enormous destruction and ongoing rescue operations up close. this is what she saw. this is our first look from the ground at fort myers beach. hurricane ian s winds combined with the storm surge, they chewed through homes and businesses sparing nothing in its path. massive devastation. we are somewhat used to it. the first toilet was hurricane katrina. we have seen a lot of hurricanes over the years. it is certainly a big disaster. jennifer brown is a canine search specialist with florida task force to. her dog fears and fame are searching for human remains. they have worked dozens of missions since florida s task forc
hurricane ian, and now questions are growing about why officials waited to order mandatory evacuations. and the person who helped recruit the migrants is a former u.s. army counterintelligence agent. so who is she? let s go out front. good evening, i m erin burnett. out front tonight, putin s chaos. this video shows one of the ambushes destroying three russian tanks. and videos posted online by ukraine s defense ministry show one town after another being liberated. you see the flags flying over the key city of lyman. the losses are leaving putin s forces in a state of chaos in. a story you ll see first out front, russian recruits are revealing the reality of putin s war. some claiming they were given no training before being shipped. and his commander telling the new recruits that it doesn t matter if they have hernias or plates in their heads, they re if fit to fight. putin throwing them in the line of fire as his options narrow. he s growing more desperate, threatening
Thatis on everything. And i do not know if that is new politics or whether its a return to the bare minimum you should expect but if you vote for the labour party you will get this. And if you do not believe me after 14 years of broken promises from the tories, that is understandable but as the Chief Prosecutor for the country i smashed terrorist gangs and i know we can smash the people smuggling gangs. I dragged my party away from the allure of Gesture Politics and i will do exactly the same to westminster. No more gimmicks, the character of politics will change. And through that, we will change. And through that, we will deliver higher growth, safer streets, and nhs back on its feet, more opportunity in your community, cheaper bills in your home and secure borders for our nation. An Asylum System rebuilt, criminal gangs smashed, the exploitation of some of the most Vulnerable People in the world prevented. An end to the chaos, turning of the page, politics returned to service and a c