hi, there, everyone. it s 4:00 in the east. it took years and one court ruling after another, appeal upon appeal and even a trip to the united states supreme court, but today the american public finally has its hands on something donald trump has so doggedly sought to conceal his tax returns, six years worth. an unprecedented window into his financial picture. this public release, which among other things shows that donald trump paid very relatively in taxes in the years before and during his presidency, is the end product of an effort undertaken by the house ways and means committee. after securing the returns which cover the years 2015 through 2020, that panel voted along party lines to hand redacted versions of the returns over to the public. before we get into what these thousands of pages reveal, in a way, those of us who are not account tantants can understands worth note hough the committee got its hands on these returns in the first place. it s the end result of an
Point out we still need prosecutors to connect donald trump to the actual actions that are taking place here. Donald trump did not say set up this llc. Its important to remember that Michael Cohens testimony has to be supported at some point to where did donald trump instruct you to do this specifically. Its time for us to hand it over. Thank you all for being with us. We appreciate all of you. Thats going to do it for us this hour. Andrea mitchell and katy tur will pick things up after a quick break. Ill see you back at 1 00 eastern time. Keep it here. Lots going on. Good day, everyone. The star witness takes the stand. Now the critical figure in the hush money case. Michael cohen, once Donald Trumps loyal attack dog, is now facetoface with his former boss for the first time in months. Cohen is the lynch pin of the prosecutions case. They argue cohen acted at trumps direction in an attempt to illegally influence the 2016 election. The defenses counter, once a liar, always a liar. Pain
The chicago cubs do something that hasnt been done in over 100 years. Important to Pay Attention at work. Early today starts right now. Good morning. Im yasmin vossoughian. Im frances rivera. A horrifying ideal for so many families. Kids will be returning to school with counselors after a gunman opened fire in a San Bernardino classroom leaving three people dead. 53yearold Cedric Anderson walked into North Park Elementary School telling the desk he was dropping something off for his estranged wife, 53yearold teacher karen smith. He entered her special needs class and began firing, killing his wife and wounding two children who were behind her. Police say he then turned the gun on himself in an apparent murdersuicide. One of the children, 8yearold jonathan martinez, died at the hospital. The 9yearold is in stable condition. Nearly five hours after the shooting the evacuated children were allowed to reunite with their families who had been anxiously waiting outside. Its just like unimagi
Syrias civil wash. Abdel hamid al yusef lost 29 of his family members last week, including his wife and twin babies. I wanted my daughter to be a doctor, he told us. And ahmed was going to be my sidekick. He they were alive, he said. I loved them so much, and i know they loved me, too. Of abdel hamid told me he put them next to each other in their grave and told them not to be scared. Even in the cruelty and chaos of syrias sixyearlong conflict, the attack stands out for its brew at th brutality. It happened on his second anniversary with his wife. Six years ago, he told us, he was taking part in peaceful protests against the syrian president Bashar Alassad, an uprising that met with violence. Assad is a criminal, he said. All we wanted was dignity and freedom. Do you think that the american missile strikes will make any difference . I thought it was a good start, he told us, but the regime airstrikes havent stopped. His 16yearold nephew achmed was released from hospital yesterday. The
Off the white house grounds, there was word that Gordon Sondland, the president s appointed ambassador to the eu was also fired. Sondland gave incredibly damaging testimony about the president s behavior during the impeachment inquiry. As of tonight, he has also suddenly been recalled from his post. His lawyer confirming to nbc news tonight that Gordon Sondland was not just reassigned to some other job inside the government or within the state department. He was smarly fired. And we dont know if this is the full list tonight or if there are more long knives out for people who testified in the impeachment inquiry or are related to that scandal. Or literally are familially related to anyone who did so. But despite what feels like a historical parallel to nixon at the height of the watergate impeachment crisis, i think it is not fair to say that this is a modern day saturday night massacre. The saturday night massacre was the night in october 1973 when nixon decided to order the firing of