this is nbc nightly news with brian williams. good evening, while the rest of the nation watches, washington has blown up into a caustic partisan fight and a showdown is coming over the power of the american president. just tonight, a house committee voted to hold president obama s attorney general, eric holder, in contempt of congress for refusing to turn over documents related to a badly botched sting operation involving guns and drugs in mexico called fast and furious. this contempt vote comes after the obama white house for the first time invoked executive privilege. charges of stonewalling and coverups are flying, the kind of stuff we first learned during the watergate era. for those not following the complexities of it, it just looks like more of our broken politics and vicious fights now out in the open. we begin tonight with capitol hill correspondent kelly o donnell who was there to see all of it today. kelly, good evening. reporter: good evening, brian. there
with bargain hunters. that s right, serious shoppers are out in force this morning, snapping up black friday deals at some of the nation s biggest retailers, and this year, the official holiday shopping season actually kicked off even earlier with some stores offering deep discounts thursday night. nbc s janel klein is in new york city for us this morning. janel, these people are like late to the game, at 5:00 in the morning. it s like, you know, people have been out there for hours. reporter: they re pretty serious about this, lynn, and like you said, a lot of stores opening last night, so many people went straight from thanksgiving dinner right to the shopping mall. many stores doing this for the very first time, and that is just one sign that the rush to lure black friday shoppers is more intense than ever. bargains are on, and so is the bedlam. one in four americans are shopping today with high stakes and low prices. black friday is the beginning of the season, it s a huge day
stubbornly high unemployment growth with retailers pulling out their best deals, there may be hope yet. janel klein at the manhattan mall in new york city. you ve been there most of the day. what s the mood like out there? reporter: well, the mood certainly is excitement. there s quite a buzz in the air as you might expect for black friday. but i think that definitely it was a lot different this morning during those door busters than it is now. by which i mean to say a lot of people are coming out early, early this morning, some stores as you know opened earlier than ever, as early as 9:00 p.m. last night and shoppers wanted to take advantage of those deals. they knew these were some of the best prices they would probably see on some of these items all year round. so despite the economy that everyone s keeping a close eye on, they wanted to take advantage of those prices. now we are seeing people still coming out. you can see there are still big crowds here. however, people are maybe
with bargain hunters. that s right, serious shoppers are out in force this morning, snapping up black friday deals at some of the nation s biggest retailers, and this year, the official holiday shopping season actually kicked off even earlier with some stores offering deep discounts thursday night. nbc s janel klein is in new york city for us this morning. janel, these people are like late to the game, at 5:00 in the morning. it s like, you know, people have been out there for hours. reporter: they re pretty serious about this, lynn, and like you said, a lot of stores opening last night, so many people went straight from thanksgiving dinner right to the shopping mall. many stores doing this for the very first time, and that is just one sign that the rush to lure black friday shoppers is more intense than ever. bargains are on, and so is the bedlam. one in four americans are shopping today with high stakes and low prices. black friday is the beginning of the season, it s a huge day
with bargain hunters. that s right, serious shoppers are out in force this morning, snapping up black friday deals at some of the nation s biggest retailers, and this year, the official holiday shopping season actually kicked off even earlier with some stores offering deep discounts thursday night. nbc s janel klein is in new york city for us this morning. janel, these people are like late to the game, at 5:00 in the morning. it s like, you know, people have been out there for hours. reporter: they re pretty serious about this, lynn, and like you said, a lot of stores opening last night, so many people went straight from thanksgiving dinner right to the shopping mall. many stores doing this for the very first time, and that is just one sign that the rush to lure black friday shoppers is more intense than ever. bargains are on, and so is the bedlam. one in four americans are shopping today with high stakes and low prices. black friday is the beginning of the season, it s a