payments. and the american people, look, i'll just say it this way. as soon as this week, your savings in your pocketbook could be directly impacted by this republican stunt. >> reporter: i just want to be very clear. can you guarantee that the u.s. will not reach the debt ceiling, that that will not happen? >> no, i can't. that's up to mitch mcconnell. >> reporter: so is it possible that the u.s. will not pay its debt? >> i can't believe that that will be the end result, because the consequence is so dire. i don't believe that. but can i guarantee it? if i could, i would. but i can't. >> if that seems like scary stuff, it is, if the u.s. defaults. president biden was also asked about the other brewing crisis on his plate, that's reaching a deal on his infrastructure and social spending plans. look at this. >> reporter: why were you unable, mr. president, to close the deal with members of your own party on key parts of your legislative agenda last week? >> i was able to close the deal on 99% of my party. two. two people. >> reporter: mr. president, it sounds like you're putting the blame squarely on two u.s. senators for your inability to close that deal. senator sinema and senator manchin. am i incorrect, is that who the blame lies with? >> look, need 50 votes in the senate. i have 48. >> reporter: joe manchin had people on kayaks show up to his boat. senator sinema last night was chased into a restroom. do you think those tactics are crossing a line? >> i don't think they're appropriate tactics. but it happens to everybody, the only people it doesn't happen to are people who have secret service standing around them. so it's part of the process. >> so it's not appropriate, he says, but it's part of the process. and there you see what president biden was just asked about. senator kyrsten sinema followed by activists on the campus of arizona state university where she is also a lecturer, as they urged her to support the president's economic agenda. she told them, actually i'm headed out, and walked into the bathroom. one of the activists followed her into the restroom standing outside the stall as the confrontation continued. joining us to start the hour is nbc news capitol hill correspondent leigh ann caldwell, punchbowl news co-founder john bresnahan and politico's eugene daniels. great to have the three of you with us. leigh ann, let's talk about the debt ceiling since that's the most existential of the crises before this white house. mitch mcconnell sent a letter to biden today telling him to act but it's really republicans blocking democrats from taking a simple majority vote in the senate to get it done. we should be clear to our audience, because a lot of this stuff can be confusing. democrats are asking the republicans to stop filibustering a bill. you heard the president use the phrase "get out of the way." why won't mitch mcconnell do that? is it because he can't keep his caucus in line or is this a leverage play, he's holding out for something else? >> geoff, it's unclear. the letter that mcconnell released today saying he's asking for nothing in return other than the fact that they want no part in lifting the debt limit. of course if the republicans do, quote, want to get out of the way, that would take consent of all republicans. but mcconnell is pretty good at keeping his party in line when he needs to but it doesn't seem like that's something he's wanting to do right now to get out of the way on this issue specifically. now, moving forward, this is a staring contest like one we haven't seen in a long time. now, democrats know they can use this process of reconciliation which will take several days, perhaps up to a week, that they know it will be messy, they know it will be complicated. but this is the tool at their disposal and this is the tool that mcconnell is saying that they need to use in order to do it. but there is another complicating factor with this process of reconciliation, and that is instead of just suspending the debt limit as if it doesn't exist for the next year and a few months, they would actually have to lift the debt limit, which means they would have to put a top line number on it, trillions and trillions of dollars. it's a scary number that the democrats might not want pointed out. the reality is this is complete politics. mcconnell knows this is good for the republican base. my question is, democrats don't tend to care about the debt limit, democratic voters, anyway. but schumer is taking this stance, and at this point there is not a lot of time to fix it, geoff. >> i think most people don't care or think about the debt limit until we get into these situations where we're in crisis mode. bres, president biden said today he can't guarantee the u.s. won't default and even if democrats wanted to raise the debt limit via reconciliation, what leigh ann was just talking about, the process would be so cumbersome that that's a route they don't want to take. so look into the future for us. how does this go? do republicans blink, does mitch mcconnell allow unanimous consent to move forward and the democrats can do it with their 50 plus one majority? >> i'm as surprised as you were by the president's language today, it was pretty dire, a meteor about to hit the u.s. economy. i wouldn't count on mitch mcconnell blinking, that's not mitch mcconnell's style. i think right now you couldn't get ten votes in the republican conference to go and do this, you know, to break a filibuster. there's just not ten republicans who would vote that way. they're looking at the democrats, this multitrillion dollar tax and spending bill, which is basically the big part of it is an attack on the 2017 republican tax cut, and they're saying they're not going to vote for it. now, the democrats made a decision a couple of months ago, they didn't want to do this through reconciliation, for the reason leigh ann said, they don't want to vote on a number. so they were aware of this issue in july, back, you know, a while ago. both sides have kind of moved toward this showdown. now, democrats are pretty certain that mcconnell will blink at some point, they seem very certain about it. but i'm not sure if that's a misread of mcconnell, where he is and where his republican conference is. >> let's talk about infrastructure and social spending. eugene, it felt like president biden sharpened his focus on senators manchin and sinema today, indirectly, we should point out. someone asked him, you have half a century in public life, why weren't you able to bring my party together and the president's response was, i brought together 99% of my party minus two people. he didn't name them but he didn't have to. >> not at all, we all know who he's talking about, if you've paid attention for three days, you know exactly who he's talking about. that's one of the things we haven't talked about enough, is that democrats spent so much time talking about the b.i.f., looking at that bipartisan infrastructure deal, talking about negotiating it. it feels like they forgot about their reconciliation bill, they didn't spend time negotiating it this summer. so they were taken aback with how difficult this process has become, right? they didn't know whose number was what. we saw the letter, the agreement between chuck schumer and joe manchin that his is 1.5. it seemed like he would go higher than that. the white house told playbook 1.9 to 2.3 is the number they're thinking they're going to land on. but today when president biden asked what sinema's number was, because she has told him, he wouldn't tell us. we don't know if the number is less than 1.5 or more than that. that's one of the things that people in the white house and also democrats on the hill are getting frustrated with. they don't know what sinema wants. jim clyburn said today we need to stop focusing on the top line number and what goes in it or comes out of it because we don't know that either. >> the question about that, bres, what i haven't heard lawmakers articulate, and maybe we're not at that point in the process yet, if you go from $3.5 trillion to $1.9 trillion, what of substance do you lose? does that mean no universal pre-k, does that mean no subsidized community college? do you have any sense that have? >> this is exactly what they're dealing with now. $2 trillion is still an awful lot of money. you can do a lot with $2 trillion. but you can't do everything that the democrats are talking about. remember, bernie sanders and congresswoman jayapal, pramila jayapal who is the head of the progressive caucus, they were talking about a 6 to $10 trillion package. now, you would probably -- there would be difficulty on sanders pushing medical expansion, health, dental, vision programs. those are very expensive expansions of the medicare program. they may be in trouble. you may not be able to fully phase them in for a couple of years. there could be problems with, you know, community college, paying for community college. manchin, senator manchin, has talked about means testing, which progressives hate, but that's one way to hold down the costs of some of these provisions. the house and senate democrats are still fighting over whether or not to make, you know -- to expand medicare or to make obama subsidies permanent. so all these are popular provisions. they're popular. you take them and you poll them, americans like them. but then the price tag on them is huge, and so the democrats are looking, maybe we can too this for a couple of years, then phase it out. they'll play games on this just like republicans played games on this in their 2017 tax cut. there's lots of ways you can skin this cat, so to speak. and we'll see what they try to come up with. >> and leigh ann, in the 20 seconds we have left, we all know members of congress are a lot like college students, they need a deadline to focus their minds. now the house speaker has given them a new deadline. >> the new deadline is october 31st. that perhaps is something they'll be able to stick to this time. but bres is absolutely right, they can't even agree to the top line number. and that is the easy part. the harder part is figuring out the details. if it's going to be scaled back, it's going to be very complicated and difficult to meet that october 31st deadline especially when they also have to deal with the debt limit, geoff. >> eugene daniels, john bresnahan, leigh ann caldwell, our thanks to the three of you. ahead, the frantic race to slow the spread of a major oil spill that's closing beaches and threatening wild life. also ahead, major social media platforms are down. the outage that has facebook, instagram, and whatsapp going dark. that's as a former facebook employee turns whistle-blower. more on her claims that the social media giant is amplifying hate, misinformation, and political unrest. and later, guns, god, and abortion. a preview of the pivotal cases before 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damage. but the damage may have already been done. local officials report that dead birds and fish began washing up onshore over the weekend. joining us from california with the latest is nbc news correspondent erin mclaughlin. erin, where does the race to contain the spill stand right now? >> reporter: geoff, it's an all hands on deck effort led by the u.s. coast guard. it's been a bleak 48 hours for these coastal communities that are so reliant on their beaches. but finally today, a glimmer of good news. we just had an update from wildlife officials who have been assessing the impact specifically on the bird population, which is always a concern in case of an oil spill. officials say they're cautiously optimistic. >> we have grave concerns about this impact. in our initial assessment of the area, the number of birds in the general area seems to be lower than we had feared. we do have active overflights from a specialized plane that the department owns that is going to be covering this area daily to look at animals, the locations, the concentrations they might be in, which will help us more target those areas. but at this point, we're cautiously optimistic. >> reporter: and it has to be said, though, that is only one component of an overall impact that an oil spill of this magnitude could have on these communities. they've shut down beaches, stretches land, all the way from huntington beach to dana point. beaches, fisheries, wetlands and marshes as well. authorities are very concerned about continuing to stop the spread of that oil. they've managed to deploy thousands of feet of booms to that effect. and they're appealing to the public for help. they need supplies such as protective equipment, gloves, and n95s. they're also very concerned about the health impacts of the toxic oil, not only on the environment but also on the local population, the people who live here, saying that anyone who is experiencing adverse health effects, particularly by the air quality in those areas, nausea, headaches, or dizziness, should seek medical attention immediately, geoff. >> erin mclaughlin, thank you. katrina foley, supervisor of orange county's second district in california, it's good to have you with us. the pictures are devastating. what is it like to experience this firsthand, what are you seeing, what are your biggest concerns? >> it's really terrible. thank you for having us on and thank you for covering this important environmental issue. we here in orange county love our beaches. we love our ecological preserves. the oil has penetrated into the talbot marsh area. we're standing up barriers to prevent it from coming into our conservancy/preserve area and our wetlands there. and it's just devastating, not only to the ecological devastation but also our economy. after a pandemic, after coming back and really starting to get back on track, we're now dealing with this environmental crisis. and we are all hands on deck. everybody's collaborating together and we're doing everything we can to mitigate the damage. >> residents, as i understand it, have been complaining about the fumes, starting on friday. on sunday, you said you could feel the vapors in your throat. are beach closures and water warnings, to stay out of the water, is that enough? is the air safe for orange county residents to stay there along the coast? >> well, our orange county health office and our environmental team at the orange county health office is working closely, monitoring, doing testing. there is a health advisory that has been issued to avoid exercising, running, walking along the beaches, in the area impacted. and so we are hoping that people will, if they live along the beach, they'll try to stay indoors. it is, i know personally, if you're hanging out in the area too long, it does impact your throat. you can feel it. you can kind of taste it. but as the oil moves more sougtd, the wind will carry that. so i heard this morning there wasn't as much vapor in the wear, but why take any chances? we're encouraging people to stay away. another reason to stay away is we're trying to clean this area up and we cannot have people going to the beach and spreading the tar around. we won't be able to clean it up for the long term if that happens. >> are you satisfied with the preventive measures that were put in place there? i think people who don't live in southern california don't really realize that there are oil refineries that dot the landscape. there are legitimate questions about the pipeline infrastructure as it aged. what do you make of the preventive measures? should more be done going forward? >> that's the question we all want to know the answer to. my office is monitoring closely. i'm traveling with congressman levin who represents the southern portion of the area. we'll do a tour along the coast this afternoon to see the impact of this but yes, what measures were being taken, what systems were in place by the oil company? did the oil company comply with all of the safety standards that would prevent a pipeline spill? these are all questions that we will be insisting be investigated, because they must be accountable and responsible for this. our beautiful coastline, our style and way of life, our economy, our ecohabitat, all of the work that we've done for decades to improve the quality of our wetlands and to protect the ecosystem here, has just been devastated in a day because of something that happened in a pipeline. >> katrina foley, our best to you and the people you represent there in orange county. thanks so much for making time for us on this really busy day. coming up next, a whistle-blower pulls back the curtain on facebook. more on her allegations that the social media giant puts profit over public safety. and later, the national women's soccer league in turmoil. the allegations of abuse and sexual misconduct against a prominent coach and the high profile attorney who has been called in to 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for the tech giant, shared tens of thousands of internal documents with "the wall street journal" and with congress. she claims her former employer put profits over public safety and is amplifying disinformation and conspiracy theories. >> one of the consequences of how facebook is picking out that content today is that it is optimizing for content that gets engagement or reaction. but its own research is showing that content that is hateful, that is divisive, that is polarizing, it's easier to inspire people to anger than it is to other emotions. facebook has realized that if they change the algorithm to be safer, people will spend less time on the site, they'll click on less ads, they'll make less money. facebook over and over again has shown it chooses profit over safety. it's paying for its profits with our safety. >> joining us with nbc news correspondent jake ward from san francisco and nbc news senior reporter brandy zadrozny. welcome to you both. jake, i'm trying to fire up facebook here on my phone and no dice. so who's up with this outage? to the degree that we know more about it. >> certainly, geoff, the outage's timing is pretty extraordinary. but there is no indication currently that it is connected to these new revelations. we do know, however, that facebook is down, and not just facebook. all of its products, all the way through to oculus, the vr headset. and not only its external products, also its internal products. the head of instagram describing this as being like a snow day. one facebook employee told us that everyone is just standing around. so a pretty thorough shutdown today here, geoff. >> so let's talk about the allegations from this whistle-blower, the former facebook product manager, frances haugen. what's been the response from facebook? >> facebook is on a media blitz, trying to push back against these allegations. it said in a statement to nbc that it has a strong track record of using research in order to inform the development of its apps and that they have invested heavily in people and technology, that if any of this research -- if any research had identified a simple solution to these complex problems then there would have been a solution a long time ago. and we'll see, i think, more facebook executives coming forward on nbc and on other platforms in the coming weeks, geoff. >> so brandy, how does that strike you, what's your reaction to the facebook statement, especially their claim that they cannot identify a solution to this problem? haugen says show knows what the solution is, it's facebook changing their algorithm. but they don't want to do that because as she puts it, they're putting profit over public safety. >> well, i would be a little suspect of anyone saying that this is a simple solution or there is a simple solution to this. the leaked documents she so bravely gave the world revealed a lot of issues within facebook, right? you had the algorithm around feed, which is i really big win for disinformation and polarization. but there is another internal document on the negligent health of teen girls on instagram and the solution to that is going to be separate. it will be around incentives, likes and follower counts. we talk about the algorithm a lot, but this is an incredibly complex problem. it's going to take an incredibly complex solution for sure. but the first step, lots of folks are saying, is actually taking some of the power away from facebook so that they're not the only auditor of their data. researchers testified just last week in front of a subcommittee hearing and they said that independent outside researchers should be let in to assess the damage instead of relying on facebook to sort of grade their own homework and decide what to do about their failures with little public oversight. and that might be a place to start. >> so haugen, the whistle-blower, as i understand it, has filed eight complaints with the sec alleging that facebook has lied to shareholders about its own product. might we see some regulation come from that as a result? congress is holding a hearing tomorrow. are there chances for legislating any of this? >> particularly with the sec, the claims are that -- [ inaudible ]. i'll give it a go. okay. so with the sec, the claims here are that all this internal research that this whistle-blower has provided, it conflicts with its public remarks. so while facebook is standing by their statements and said that they're ready to answer any questions that regulators might have, there is a chance that the sec will be formally investigating these charges. and, you know, whether that investigation will lead to legislation or regulation, that's still unclear. but it would be another drop in the bucket of public and congressional support to do something about facebook's unchecked power. >> and where does this all lead, based on your reporting? >> well, it definitely is true, i think brandy has it exactly right, there is some possibility here of some regulatory oversight. it's also really important that the securities and exchange commission is involved, not least because of their investigative power, the interest that congress will have in looking at them, but because it affords whistle-blower protections to someone like haugen in a way that would not have been the case if she had simply come forward as an employee. going to the sec brings new legal protections to her. >> jake ward and brandy zadrozny, thank you. the supreme court is coming back for their most conventional consequential term in the nation. on the docket, abortion rights, the secretary amendment, the death penalty. all as new polling shows approval of the supreme court has dropped to 40%, its lowest point in 20 years. joining us is nbc news justice correspondent pete williams. pete, the supreme court term, you've got abortion, guns, and god. give us a sense of what's on the docket. >> those are the big three, certainly. the abortion case is the most important abortion case probably in 30 years. this is a challenge to a mississippi law that would ban abortion after just 15 weeks of pregnancy. that's a direct challenge to "roe v. wade" because "roe" in a follow-on case at the supreme court cannot ban abortion before 20 weeks. now along comes mississippi which wants to ban it before 15 weeks. if the supreme court were to do that, it wouldn't make abortion illegal nationwide, but it would be up to the individual states. and women's rights groups say as many as half the states would probably ban abortion outright. >> so what can you glean from the makeup of the court in their decision to take specific cases as for what that might mean for a potential outcome? >> generally speaking, the supreme court agrees to take a case when they think the lower court got it wrong. so it only takes four votes to grant a case. so that must mean that at least four justices on the supreme court think lower courts were wrong to strike down this mississippi law. that plus the fact that you've got now solid 6-3 conservative, including some justices who have been very critical about "roe" in the past, that's why many people are saying this could be the term that overturns "roe v. wade." >> it will be a busy year for you, pete williams. thanks for coming. >> my pleasure. ahead, home for the holidays. why dr. anthony fauci says it's still too soon to tell whether we'll be able to gather together. the pandemic, he says, is tough to predict. plus a mandate for new york city teachers goes into effect as california becomes the first state to require the shots for students. stay with us. ♪♪ things you start when you're 45. coaching. new workouts. and screening for colon cancer. yep. the american cancer society recommends screening starting at age 45, instead of 50, since colon cancer is increasing in younger adults. i'm cologuard®. i'm convenient and find 92% of colon cancers... ...even in early stages. i'm for people 45 plus at 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approval this week for its booster shot. that's according to "the new york times." the drug maker declined comment to nbc news but did confirm it sent the data to the fda. and today a new vaccine mandate takes effect for new york city school employees. that's despite a legal bid to the supreme court by a group of teachers there. already the city's mayor says 95% of staffers are vaccinated. that's well over 140,000 people. that's all happening as california becomes the first state to mandate the covid vaccine for eligible students. that mandate will go into effect next school year and will eventually impact nearly 7 million schoolchildren. joining me now is nbc news correspondent steve patterson, in north hollywood, california. steve, what can you tell us about this upcoming mandate for schoolchildren there? >> reporter: geoff, we know the mandate will roll out in waves. and it's all pretty indicated based upon fda approval for specific age groups. for instance, kids in grades 7 through 12 will get the impact of the mandate before kids k-6 because of the way the approval is likely to roll out. we may see it as early as january of next year but much more likely sometime around july or so. meanwhile, this is california. when you're talking about the reaction to it, a lot of people here are used to the state being first on a number of things, taking an aggressive posture against combating covid. this is a state where the governor essentially staked his political life on being aggressive against covid. and so far the numbers have borne out recently. we've seen a 40% drop in hospitalizations from the last peak. we've seen more than 80% of people 12 and other get at least one dose of the vaccine. the daily case count has dropped significantly. the governor felt emboldened to put this in place. people are used to the rhetoric coming from the governor's office as well. this is less about transmissibility among the student population and more about a kid bringing it home to a parent or grandparent who may be more susceptible and that parent or grandparent spreading it, continuing the cycle of community spread. the governor says he wants to stop that. we saw to a professor at uc berkeley, a doctor who told us about why that's important. >> schools are places where children are going to get infecte and fortunately they have a much lower morbidity and mortality rate than the general population. but unfortunately they're going to bring it home to their parents or grandparents. >> reporter: the question left unanswered here is about exemptions. again, this is about regulation and not legislation, which means unlike other vaccines which require strict mandates, there are expected to be exemptions for religious beliefs or even personal beliefs. however those exemptions will go, we're not sure yet because the language hasn't been written yet and there could be legislation to pull out those exemptions entirely. it's too early to tell. >> steve patterson in north hollywood, california, steve, thank you. a decline in new cases and hospitalizations has many hopeful for an end to this latest wave of covid-19. but dr. anthony fauci made some headlines this weekend when he said it is, quote, too soon to tell about spending christmas with our families this year. today he clarified that comment in an interview. >> i said we don't know, because we've seen slopes that went down and then came back up. the best way to assure that we'll be in good shape as we get into the winter would be to get more and more people vaccinated. that was misinterpreted as my saying we can't spend christmas with our families, which was absolutely not the case. >> with us now is msnbc medical contributor dr. blackstock, the founder and ceo of advancing health equity. it's great to have you back with us. dr. fauci is making the point that we can't predict the path of a pandemic. we know by now that that's true, having dealt with covid for almost two years now. but what can we read from sort of the current decline in both infections and hospitalizations, about what that might mean for the coming weeks and months? >> thanks so much, geoff, for having me. i agree 100% with dr. fauci. we've been here before. we've seen surges and we've seen declines. obviously it's a promising time. often we really don't know exactly why these declines happen. it could be human behavior. it could be the course of the virus. but i still am concerned. we're heading into the winter. there's cold weather. people are going to be moving indoors. and so there is a likelihood that even though we have parts of the country that have high vaccination rates, that we're still going to see other surges over the winter. >> i want to ask you about what's been described as the two-month cycle of this pandemic. you can see this chart from "the new york times." it's really sort of perfectly illustrating it. epidemiologists have tried to pinpoint an explanation, as you just mentioned. what do you make of that pattern, two months of an incline and then a dip? >> right, i know, it's very confusing. it could be a number of factors. we've seen it actually across the world. we've seen it in the uk, we've seen it in parts of asia, this sort of two- to three-month cycle that the virus takes, these surges, and then go down. and that's another reason why we know that it's possible for another surge to happen. again, it may be biology of the virus, it may be human behavior that when surges happen, humans tend to be more cautious after that. but either way, we know that we have the tools really to prevent additional surges. right now we have only seven states with indoor mask mandates statewide. so we know masks also help. we can increase testing. and we can also increase vaccination rates. again, we have the tools to prevent those surges and we need to put those into effect to prevent additional ones. >> i'm almost afraid to ask, but is there another variant to the horizon? we could see what delta was doing in india well before it happened here. is there another one that health professionals like yourself are concerned about? >> right, and this is the concern because we know vaccination rates especially in the global south are quite, quite low. only 6% of the continent of africa is vaccinated. so there are variants out there. there are no variants of concern per se that we need to be worried about right now. but we know that if we don't get the rest of the world vaccinated, then we're going to see other variants of concern, it's only a matter of time. >> lastly, i want to ask you about this vaccine mandate for california schoolchildren. what would be your advice for parents who say, you know, i'm not anti-vaxxer, i'm not vaccine hesitant or anything like that, but i'm just going to wait this out and see what happens because children when they get covid, if they get covid, the infections that they get typically tend to be less severe, there's no urgency here. what would be your response to that? >> right, geoff, i know there's more concern from parents about getting their children vaccinated than themselves vaccinated. but i will say, and as the physician previously said, children can be vectors of community transmission so they can infect family members. there's also so much we don't know about long covid. and we've seen what happens in areas with low vaccination rates. in general we've seen overrun pediatric icus. we've seen children hospitalized and die from this virus. i would recommend to those partners, once your child is eligible, to get them vaccinated. >> dr. uche blackstock, appreciate your advice and insights as always. >> thanks, geoff. >> sure thing. next, sex abuse allegations shake women's soccer. details on a bombshell report that has already resulted in fired coaches, canceled games, and a new investigation for a high profile prosecutor. this is the planning effect. if you ask suzie about the future, she'll say she's got goals. and since she's got goals, she might need help reaching them, and so she'll get some help from fidelity, and at fidelity, someone will help her create a plan for all her goals, which means suzie will be feeling so good about that plan, she can just enjoy right now. that's the planning effect, from fidelity. as someone who resembles someone else... so good about that plan, she can just enjoy right now. i appreciate that liberty mutual knows everyone's unique. that's why they customize your car insurance, so you only pay for what you need. oh, yeah. that's the spot. only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty, liberty, liberty, liberty ♪ tonight, i'll be eating lobster ravioli with shaved truffles. yes! you look amazing! no, you look amazing! thank you! thank you! thank you! thank you! thank you! thank you! haha, you're welcome. ♪ ♪ thank you! ♪ ♪ just two pills for all day pain relief. aleve it, and see what's possible. the national women's soccer league canceled all of its games over troubling information about their coach. they have hired a prosecutor to investigate allegations of abusive behavior and sexual misconduct in the game. they've installed an all-women executive committee. nbc correspondent sam brock has more. >> reporter: jeff, good afternoon and good to be with you. these accusations surfaced for the first time in 2015 when coach riley was with the portland thorns. they ran the gamut of sexual abuse to aversion. shortly after he found another head coach position within the league, one of the reasons players are so irate. the women's soccer league includes some of the biggest names. the accusations against coach paul riley were devastating, but not surprising. >> it hurts my heart knowing this has happened to so many players in this league, and it's unforgivable. >> reporter: a bombshell report from "the athletic," interviews of more than a dozen players describes a coach who can be verbally abusive and in some cases acts of sexual coercion. paul riley has denied all ak significances and was not available for comment. last week the carolina courage fired him, demanding much more transparency and accountability. if you talked to players within the nwsl and asked them, do you feel safe, what would they say? >> absolutely not. how do we know this isn't going to happen to us again? it did happen again and again and again, and no one in the position of power or ability stopped it. >> reporter: late sunday, usa soccer, the sport's governing body put in sally yates to conduct an investigation, adding, they plan to take meaningful steps to keep this from happening in the future. alyssa baird resigned over the weekend. they refused multiple times to investigate the allegations. players said it's time for the nwsl to do better. >> i want to play in a league that i'm proud to play in, and things have to change, or else i don't think it's a league worth playing in. >> reporter: just since august, three coaches in the league have been dismissed for cause or allegations of abusive behavior. we reached out to the national women's soccer league. they have not reached out for comment and professor baird is expected to make her own statement later. back to you. >> thank you, sam brock, for that important reporting. no one has won the powerball since june, and that means tonight's drawing is worth an estimated $670 million. but that number could go up before 11:00 p.m. eastern tonight. if someone wins tonight, it would be at least the eighth biggest prize in u.s. lottery history. so if the 2:00 p.m. hour of nbc tomorrow is just power bars and cricket noises, you'll know our show's pool has won. we're heading out to 7-eleven to buy more tickets. hallie jackson takes over now for "msnbc reports." 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