tonight that swimmer sharing her story in an nbc news exclusive. announcer: this is nbc nightly news with lester holt good evening an unsent letter described as a murder-suicide pact by a former trump white house lawyer stood at the core of testimony in today s january 6 committee hearing. three former top justice department officials describing former president trump s efforts to enlist help from the department to perpetuate his unsupported claims of election fraud, including pressure on the doj to send an official letter to georgia election officials. that letter falsely stating the justice department had identified significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the election. when doj leaders refused to sign it, the president reportedly telling them just say the election was corrupt and leave the rest to me today s hearing focusing on the actions of former assistant attorney general jeffrey clark who witnesses say stood ready to do mr. trump s bidding. let
of big news, joe, on capitol hill. what a significant day. and i will tell you, i was away from the tv for a good part of the day, and started getting breaking news alerts about the hearings, started following some i had to come back, rewatch the entire hearing all over again. it really, yesterday, about as compelling of any hearing we ve seen on capitol hill since the days of watergate. i was young when the watergate hearings were on. i was upset because we had only had four channels then, and i wanted to see the flintstones and mr. ed, but my parents were sitting front, watching watergate. like everybody. and it was so compelling. and you see those clips, and it s history and you don t think you re ever going to see anything like that again. like a movie. but actually, willie, we did see something and we keep seeing, every one of these january 6th hearings. you re looking at history, you understand it, because, again, it drives home the point that maybe we ve
to carry a gun. the justices this morning throwing out a new york law that required residents to prove they had a reason to carry a gun outside the home. the ruling was 6-3 with justice clarence thomas writing for the conservative majority. he said the special cause to carry a concealed handgun was a violation of the second amendment right to bear arms. we have more details on this dramatic decision. reporter: the immediate affect is to strike down this gun law in new york. it required people to show proper cause to get a license to carry a concealed handgun in public. it s now struck down similar laws in six other states will also be struck. more consequentially, this decision will also prompt challenges to all kinds of gun laws across the country. and that s because this decision is really changing the framework on how judges will evaluate gun laws moving forward, and this conservative court is saying for the first time that the constitution guarantees the right to carry
congress. would this really help or a ploy for political mileage? and president biden will have to counter this dismal sal by barack obama in 2008. we re arguing over a gimmick to seau half a tank of gasp. if so everyone in washington can pat themselves on the back. let me tell you something. this isn t an idea designed to get you through the summer. it s an idea designed to get them through an election. phil mattingly joins us at the white house. this is another effort by president biden to deal with gas prices. he s released oil from the strategic reserve. he will travel to saudi arabia in efforts to increase production. he s called on refineries to ramp it up. but even some democrats don t support a gas tax holiday. help us understand the white house thinking here. reporter: it s just a myriad of reasons why they have been reluctant to give their support. it s been on the table. it s been something that s been under consideration by president biden and his team ask t
tens of thousands of people have been demonstrating across the united states, demanding stricter gun laws in response to a series of mass shootings. president biden encouraged the protesters to keep marching and called on congress to pass common sense gun safety legislation. the democrat controlled house of representatives passed a package of gun reforms last week, but republicans in the senate are likely to block them. barbara plett usher reports. another march against gun violence, banging on the doors of the nation s capital. this is a movement powered by young people, demanding the country s leaders take action after yet another school shooting a horrific massacre in uvalde, texas. if our government can t do anything to stop 19 kids from being killed and slaughtered in their own school, and decapitated, it s time to change who is in government! all: vote them out! again! vote them out! for years, congress has failed to pass gun safety measures, blocked by opposition fro