primary contest. how people are reacting. plus, the city of new york ramping up security for the big party in sometimes square. how tensions over fighting in the middle east are playing a major factors. russia launching its largest aerial assault on ukraine since the start of the war. the images coming in as ukraine pleads for more military aid. we re beginning the hour with the new legal showdown over donald trump s eligibility to even be on the ballot. maine s secretary of state issuing a decision last night that the former president can t be a candidate in the primary, because he violated the constitution s insurrection clause. the weight of the evidence, all of the evidence made clear that mr. trump was aware of the by a multi-pronged effort to delegitimize a democratic election, the election of 2020, and then chose to light a match on january 6th. we should note on the same night we got that news from maine, the state of california made the op sid decision sayi
hey, everybody. welcome back. it is 11:00 a.m. in the east. i m yasmin vossoughian back for a second hour here. we re following the breaking news out of michigan that is putting pressure on the u.s. supreme court this morning. the state supreme court rejecting a case to remove trump from the 2024 ballot, just a week after a ruling by the colorado supreme court removing him from the ballot in that state. want to bring in nbc news correspondent vaughn hillyard, carol lam, and former republican congressman from florida david jolly as well. vaughn, if you will, walk us through this ruling out of michigan. it is most notable the supreme court, we should understand, is not actually taking up the appeal from the litigants. instead, they denied to hear any arguments and to take up the case. but by doing so, they are all but affirming the lower court s decision, which in the state of michigan is to not disqualify donald trump from the ballot, like the state of colorado did. on the p
retaliatory strikes against iranian-backed militant groups. the latest on the rising tensions in the region, plus, trump s christmas message lashing out at special counsel jack smith as the former president tries to get his election interference case thrown out. so, is the former commander in chief immune from criminal prosecution? we ll see. we ll talk about that coming up. and later on, the presents opened and the cookies devoured, millions of americans set to travel today in the post christmas rush. i m going to speak to a travel expert about some travel tips to help you survive the misery. hey, everybody. good morning to you. merry post christmas. we begin this hour with the breaking news out of the middle east. president biden ordering retaliatory strikes against iranian-backed militia groups in iraq after three u.s. service members were injured in a drone attack in northern iraq on monday. since october 17th, there have now been at least 103 separate attacks on u.s.
a very good day to all of you. i m alex witt. our top stories this hour, israel says the war on hamas could last for many months as it carries out new deadly strikes in gaza, including on refugee camps. that s despite growing pressure from the biden administration to change course. michigan s supreme court rejects an attempt to remove donald trump from the 2024 primary ballot. the opposite of a ruling by colorado s supreme court. we will dig into what that means for the former president s campaign. top u.s. officials led by secretary of state blinken set to arrive in mexico to try to tackle the record number of migrants crossing into the u.s. 8,000 moving right now toward the southern border. new storm warnings on the east coast threaten holiday travel plans. a blizzard pounds colorado as more than 6,000 flights are delayed nationwide. we begin this hour with israel and the u.s. at odds over the war in gaza. a top advisor was at the white house to talk about what come
atop israeli official is meeting with the house over israel s war over hamas. the lead starts right now. meetings are underway with a close confident and senior white house officials as the administration asks israel to scale back the war strategy and the prime minister says he s not backing down. a new caravan of thousands of migrants is headed to the u.s. border from southern mexico. one day before secretary state antony blinken heads to mexico city in an effort to deal with the crisis. if you re planning to return an unwanted holiday gift, it may cost you. we ll tell you why. hello and welcome to the lead. right now, top biden administration officials are set to meet with ron dermer in washington, d.c. a close confident of benjamin netanyahu. antony blinken and jake sullivan are expected to press dermer are moving israel to a more targeted phase of the war. this as netanyahu vows a long fight in gaza. israel defense forces are using the ground, air and naval troops t