to try to knock trump out of the race are counter productive. they backfire. as you know he feeds on grievance just like a fire feeds on oxygen. and this is going to end up as a grievance that helps him. did colorado just hand donald trump a political gift by barring him from the ballot? why some say the effort to rue the former president could actually help his campaign. plus how president biden is responding. this as nbc news has learned the colorado supreme court justices who ruled in the case are now facing a flood of threats after their historic decision. also ahead, we ll bring you the latest out of the israel-hamas war as israel defense forces uncover hamas extensive tunnel network in gaza city. and the blunt warning from chinese president xi jinping to president biden about beijing s intentions with taiwan. all right, good morning. welcome to way too early on this thursday, december 21st. i am not jonathan lemire. i m sam stein in for jonathan lemire. now, th
insurrection. the questions tonight, could it happen in other states, and will the supreme court weigh in? also tonight, the grim milestone in gaza. an estimated 20,000 now dead just as hopes grow for another cease-fire. the deal to free ten americans in a prisoner swap with venezuela and who the u.s. released in return. the powerful storm slamming the west coast while in the northeast, new rescues and evacuations days after that deadly storm. the christmas travel rush kicking off inside the tsa as they brace for massive numbers. our nbc news exclusive, the warning china s president gave to president biden at their summit last month about taiwan. nbc news investigates why patients are dying when they are not properly monitored. the lapses one woman says led to her husband s death. and the touching tributes at the secret christmas tree in central park. announcer: this is nbc nightly news with lester holt. good evening, and welcome, everyone. even as they tr
white house, thanks very much. let s go to dallas. cnn s ed lavandera has been covering the story for us for a long time. what s the latest there, ed? what are you seeing, what are you hearing? we just saw marine 1 land here behind this building where president obama, rick perry and other leaders in the dallas area will be meeting. president obama just shuttled over from dfw airport and had had a one-on-one meeting on marine 1. rick perry met the president at dfw and they met privately in the chopper ride over to love field airport where we are and that took a little less than 15 minutes and now they re inside. we are told they do have the opportunity to continue their one-on-one dialogue inside the building behind me, but we re still waiting on updates on what was said we re told, and the president may have to make comments with various community leaders in dallas that are discussing the immigration crisis issue and they ll
hail. the average has been a quarter in diameter. but all those aircraft are exposed. there s no way to bring them in. there s nothing you can do about it. make sure there are no passengers on them. so american airlines, the hub, of course, at dfw, has a big problem on its hands. the only other thing i would add, dylan, we are used to reporting these storms moving at forward speeds of 40 to 60 miles an hour during tornado season. that s the bad news here. these upper level winds are kind of pokey and these storms have only been moving across the landscape at about 25 miles an hour. in the military they call that time over target, and that has added to the damage we re seeing. it hit some of the nicer suburbs of dallas, texas. arlington, texas was in the bull s eye a few moments ago, so it s going to take a while. this kind of curtain comes down any time there s been a tornado.
and that heat can cause and create another thunderstorm ind behind it. wichita, texas, was hit by two large and deadly tornadoes just hours apart. right down the exact same line. here s what we have. let s do a reset. about two hours ago, we had a severe thunderstorm watch. we had hail coming down, the size almost of tennis balls. then all of a sudden that watch was upgraded to a tornado watch because the storms are beagaining to rotate. then we had two storms out by themselves. those two storms were right in the dallas and the ft. worth area. this is a picture of it earlier. this is near hutch kins. this isn t current. this is about one hour ago. we had this video live on the air just to the east of 35-e. it s now not rotating enough i don t believe to put down a significant tornado as it moves just to the west of necessary kweet. it could regenerate. they do that. these tornadoes can skip up and down. to the west of this big storm that you re seeing now was another tornad