look at that, there s a whole lot of crazy right there. election deniers. insurrectionists. weirdos, freaks, you have it all. the republican candidates in arizona, all of them extreme, all of them insurrectionists, all of them people who actually don t believe in american democracy. they believe in their form of government, where, well, you only recognize elections where your side wins. and this is what folks on the far right have been working on for quite some time. what this says about trumpism and the future of the republican party. also, a russian court sentences wnba star brittney griner to nine years in prison. we will have reaction from president biden and the latest on efforts to get her home. and monkeypox now declared a national public health emergency. we ll speak with a top health adviser about this later this morning. willie, we have a lot to talk about. we also have some polls out of ohio. it seems that butter is down by 10 or 11 points, according to h
hook parents for calling the massacre a hoax. also tonight, four current and former officers now facing federal civil rights charges for the raid that killed breonna taylor. what the justice department alleges they did. the biden administration declaring monkeypox a public health emergency. what it means for the federal response. the record-shattering heat. nearly 80 million on alert. al roker is standing by. the new twist in a nearly 40-year-old cold case. he spent decades in prison for a murder he didn t commit. who authorities have now charged. and the nfl preseason kicking off on nbc. why tonight s game head coaches. announcer: this is nbc nightly news with lester holt. good evening, everyone, from las vegas, where i m attending a gathering of black and hispanic journalists. we start tonight in moscow, where american pro basketball star brittney griner was sentenced today to nine years in a russian prison. the sentence coming right after the court pronounc
reporting. this is our lead story. it matters for justice, for lives in politics. here s the lawyer for those families just moments ago. the jury just returned a verdict for compensatory damages exceeding $4 million. that s a darn good start. we now have the punishment phase. i think it s perfectly expectable we re going to see an over nine-figure judgment against mr. jones. that is a lot of figures. and you can see in this long quest with so much ugly, terrible, reprehensible conduct by mr. jones, and conduct which the court has found lies and defamatory, you can see a note of encouragement there for the people harmed by him. a little bit of what you saw there, a triumph in what is just phase one. let s explain the second phase, because boy is mr. jones worried about that. punitive damages. the punishment. tomorrow, the jury looks at mr. jones, his conduct, which has already been of course judged, and what he has, what he s profited of, and how this all works. again, as
my thanks. welcome to the beat. i don t have time to goof around him. i have cecile richards here on the policy and political earthquake. later tonight, we have an update with stunning developments in the push to punish lives in society and our broken politics. a twist in the alex jones trial we have been covering. you are going to want to see it and he s going to wish you didn t. later tonight, new subpoenas in the january 6 and coo conspiracies. we begin with one of those seemingly unexpected developments that i can report tonight, again shows the limits of these beltway pundit predictions that we share so much. it shows how action and persistence and organizing can beat predictions or cynicism even in today s politics with everything we all live through and feel about what is wrong with today s politics. you probably have some idea of what i m referring to. ever since the supreme court struck down roe v. wade, with republican appointees shredding their own claims the
Fight maybe in a different manner. I will not run for speaker again. Ill have the Conference Pick Somebody Else. All right. What a difference nine months makes. Kevin mccarthys speakership is over after a small group of far right republicans joined all democrats in voting to remove him. Well go through what led to his undoing and whats next for the house after a truly chaotic, historic day on capitol hill. Plus, the other big story we are following this morning, donald trump now under a gag order in his Civil Fraud Trial for what he posted on social media. Well go through what the consequences could be if he violates the judges ruling. A bad day in court for the former president. Good morning. Welcome to morning joe. Its wednesday, october 4th. Along with joe, willie and me, we have the host of Way Too Early Jonathan Lemire, Senior Writer for the dispatch, David Drucker and cohost of showtimes the circus jennifer palmiary. And nbc News National Affairs Analyst John Heilemann. Willie, o