you in this second hour of "chris jansing reports." at this hour, more on the breaking news just in the last hour, an unexpected move from special counsel jack smith. he wants the supreme court to immediately take up whether donald trump is immune from criminal prosecution. what it means for a criminal trial starting before the election. plus, israel's prime minister says it's the beginning of the end of hamas. the escalating push into southern gaza as aid groups warn of apocalyptic scenes on the ground. six killed, dozens injured as more scenes of destruction emerge. and alex jones, the conspiracy theorist who claimed sandy hook was a hoax and made money off of it returns to x and gets a warm welcome from elon musk. our nbc news reporters are following all of the latest developments. we begin with that breaking news on that fascinating legal move by special counsel jack smith. msnbc legal analyst lisa rubin is with me. i know you've had time now to start going through the filing in more detail. what have you found? >> there's a concession in this filing from the special counsel's office that trump's appeal of judge tanya chutkan's decision last week on whether he can end the case on grounds of presidential immunity, that appeal effectively stays the trial, and the special counsel's office is now conceding that. that is why they are asking the supreme court to let the leapfrog the initial level of appeals courts in the federal system, the courts of peals. here it would be the d.c. circuit, and immediately take the case through a maneuver before judgment. in the petition, they effectively say, this is a novel question of federal law that this petition presents to you. you have no precedent on whether a former president or current president for that matter can be immune criminally, and therefore, this is not only urgent, but it is novel, and if you're looking for historical precedent as to why you should do this, you treated the watergates tape litigation exactly the same. we went from the district court directly to you, supreme court, on an expedited time frame. that case was decided in the district court in may of 1974. by july of 1974, there was a decision and trial, not of former president nixon, of course, but others went forward that fall, either on schedule or shortly thereafter the originally scheduled trial date. it will be very interesting to see how quickly the supreme court responds to this and sets a briefing schedule as to whether or not they'll grant certiorari, and on the merits determine whether or not the former president is indeed immune from prosecution. >> lisa, i'm going to put you on the spot. we got other breaking news unrelated to donald trump. this is the case of kate cox. she is the woman in texas who had a pregnancy that was almost certain in nearly every case the fetus does not survive and beyond that puts her health at risk. she was first granted, allowed to have the abortion. then that got stayed. there was an urgency, obviously, to getting this done. but there was no ruling. so what we just learned is that after weeks of what her lawyers say are legal whiplash that have been hellish for her. she has decided to go out of state. offers have come in from kansas to colorado to canada, having said that, does this case point to the need to clarify these new laws and even if they aren't clarified now to move quickly in the courts to make decisions on these kinds of very real world issues that are coming up time after time? >> absolutely. and, chris, it also points to the fact that kate cox is few and far between. she was not only able to secure representation by the center for reproductive rights, but she was willing to go forward and public with her story at 31 years old with two children already, a person who wants a big family. but the ambiguity is the point. that's why ken paxton threatened ms. cox, her doctors, and others with future prosecution, notwithstanding the fact that they had secured that order, and that's why kate cox ultimately decided to take matters into her own hand and leave the state. millions of women throughout this country are looking for clarity, and like kate cox, many of them will not find it in time. >> lisa rubin, thank you, we appreciate it on two pieces of breaking news. overseas meantime, israel seems optimistic about its battle against hamas as they push further into gaza. nbc's hala gorani is in tel aviv. what more can you tell us? what's the latst on the battlefield? >> reporter: the prime minister is saying this is the beginning of the end for hamas, but realistically, hamas is holding 137 hostages. it is still able to launch rockets, and the battle against the israeli military is ferocious across the strip, with many civilians caught in the cross fire or victims of buildings and residential blocks targeted by israeli air strikes, and you have mentioned it in your program today and over the last several weeks, chris, aid agencies are saying that the situation is now apocalyptic. the israeli government has released the names of 20 hostages they say were killed in the gaza strip, in hamas captivity, and this includes the latest confirmed name, sahar bahur killed a few days ago in what we believe was an attempted rescue, though the israeli government and military are not confirming that. now, we are hearing from a released hostage who spoke to the reuters news agency. 34 years old, she was captive with her husband and 3-year-old twin daughters. we're starting to hear, chris, a little bit more from hostages about what the conditions were like in detention. here's how she described her time in hamas captivity. . >> translator: every minute we're waiting is like russian roulette. will they live through the day or not. and the conditions are difficult, conditions that no one needs to live in, especially not children or adults without medicine. we saw that many have already lost their lives in captivity, so each moment is critical, and we need to do everything to put the aim of releasing all hostages prior to anything else. >> reporter: so sharon akuno was held in captivity for 52 days. her twins were separated. for ten days, she did not know how one of her two twin girls was doing. thankfully, they were reunited with 12 other hostages. her husband, chris, remains in detention in the gaza strip. so it must be very worrying for her and her family, and obviously the families of the 137 other detainees. back to you. >> without a doubt. hala gorani, thank you. right now in tennessee, we're seeing more scenes of utter destruction after severe storms and tornadoes killed six people, including a 2-year-old child. nbc's blayne alexander is on the ground in clarksville. what have you been seeing? what have you been hearing? >> reporter: there's no shortage of examples of how devastating these storms were. everywhere you look in this neighborhood, while there are still some homes standing, you see these devastating sights of houses that simply no longer exist. across the storm's path, we're talking about six people who were killed. we're seeing more and more scenes like this. but we're also hearing more stories, chris, we're learning the stories of survival. i want to show you this house behind me. you see the red check mark on the window shutter. they have gone in, checked the home, they have seen there are no more people inside. i spoke with the people who live in the house, though, jeffrey, and his three children and his wife. he tells me that the children were actually inside the home. if you can see right up there where the broken glass is, that's where they were sitting, watching tv. he happened to be outside detailing a car when he saw the tornado on the horizon and decided to get them out. take a listen to what he had to tell me. >> it was a dark cloud, spinning with debris on it. >> reporter: what did you think when you saw that? >> i thought it's coming this way. these houses are made out of paper. get the kids, run. i went inside, and as i'm going inside, power went out. i yelled at my kids, come down and they were walking, and i was like, we got to go there's a tornado. i told them to get in the car. drop the baby and we'll go. and i just drove out. >> reporter: so, chris, this truck here, you're looking at the truck. this is the reason jeffrey was standing outside. he said this very likely saved his family's life because they talk about what the inside looks like. he was right here working on this truck when he saw the storm and made the split second decision to get them in the car and get them out. he says when he and his wife came back, they saw wood, glass, just completely caved in on where the children were. every room was uninhabitable. there was no safe space in the house. that's why they had to get out. this area is littered with stories like that, stories of survival and close calls, and the utter devastation as people are seeing the long-term effects in tennessee. chris. >> blayne alexander, thank you. alex jones, the man convicted of defamation for spreading lies about the sandy hook elementary school shooting is back on x, formerly known as twitter. morgan brennan joins me n cnbc on msnbc, and so he got reinstated by the same guy who pledged never to let him return. and i wonder what the reaction is. this is a platform that's been losing advertisers. >> this is a platform that's been losing advertisers, and this is very notable, sort of the latest development for x, chris. elon musk allowing jones back on x on sunday conducted a poll on the platform that garnered nearly 2 million votes with 70% in favor of the info wars host reinstatement. musk saying the people have spoken, and so shall it be. he has repeatedly said x would be the global town square, and iterated that permanent bans should be extremely rare, and he can not break the law. if jones does spread misinformation, he could be corrected by community notes. this is the crowd sourced fact checking feature on the platform. jones was previously suspended from twitter in 2018 for violating the company's abusive behavior policy. the suspension was deemed permanent under the company's primary management, weeks after apple, you tube and facebook had banned his content, amid that defamation lawsuit against jones for spreading the fall claim that the sandy hook elementary shooting was a hoax, a suit that resulted in a 1 1/2 billion dollars judge against him. musk had previously pledged not to allow him back. the reversal came after a widely watched 90-minute interview of jones by tucker carlson released on the platform. x has been a source of controversy thanks in part to some of musk's own posts. recently he told advertisers trying to quote, blackmail him to go f yourself. i think the broader take away here is that it highlights this broader societal and debate about hate speech versus free speech, where the line lies and also the power that companies have in making those decisions amid minimal regulation, and legal guidelines, companies making content on their own criteria. so right or wrong, for or against, hate speech or free speech, that case can be made about twitter's decision to ban jones and the decision by x to let him back on. on the edge of financial ruin, former trump confidant rudy giuliani is facing what could be the biggest financial blow yet as he stands trial in a defamation case. we're outside the courthouse in 60 seconds. rz ds rz thanks to golo and release, i've got my life and my health back. . $43 million, that's how much rudy giuliani faces in damages as the man oncenown as network's stands trial in a defamation suit brought by two georgiaction workers he baselessly accused of ballot ing. as "the new york times" writes, the trial could not have come at a poorer moment for mr. giuliani who is near the edge of financial ruin. he is being hounded for money, including by his one-time lawyer, and cannot currently work as a lawyer himself because of disciplinary actions against him. nbc's ryan reilly is at the d.c. courthouse. tim miller is former communications director for jeb bush's 2016 campaign and msnbc political analyst. what's the latest in the courthouse, ryan? >> reporter: they're just getting to opening arguments shortly. it was interesting listen to judge howell go through and tell the jurors here who are going to decide how much money rudy giuliani is going to have to pay exactly what the basics of this were. the facts are not really in dispute now because rudy giuliani had blown off this entire process and not cooperated with some discovery matters that were going through. he's already been found liable for defamation, and the jury has to assume that he did a lot of this purposefully, and was purposefully inflicting harm on two individuals who said they famously testified before the d january 6th committee in tearful testimony telling the american public just what this did to their lives, being targeted by trump supporters who believe these lies about the election, and were willing to believe the two election worker volunteers were doing something dubious when there's nothing something of the sort happening. one of the critical allegations he had made about these two individuals is that they were passing around what he claimed was a usb drive, saying they are trying to steal the votes somehow, and saying they're handing around a vile of drugs, when, in fact, they were handing a ginger mint back and forth. that's all this was. we should see extraordinary testimony we're expecting from both defendants, as well as rudy himself is expected to testify in his own defense later in the week. >> ryan, thank you for that. rudy's fighting this case. he's also fighting the georgia election interference case. he's facing possible disbarment. he's put his upper east side apartment on the market because he needs to pay legal bills. all of this because he peddled donald trump's election lies. i mean, i don't know that there are many downfalls this epic. he was once considered presidential material. is he, though? here's my key question, time. is he in any way a cautionary tale for others? >> i think he's a cautionary tale for the whole country right now since donald trump is winning in the polls in 2024. you know, donald trump has somehow managed to, despite being indicted four times, continued to stumble forward in his life and be able to, you know, hang out at mar-a-lago and his club, and has not yet, you know, had to suffer any consequences of his actions. hopefully that is coming, but a lot of people around him have suffered a lot of consequences, the people that have already pleaded guilty in the various trials against him, a couple in georgia. rudy giuliani, i think, is a prime example of someone who has seen consequences for going along with donald trump's lies, and they're deserved consequences. i'm hopeful that ruby and shaye get their compensation for the horrible lies. it's a cautionary tale. is anybody getting the caution? >> that's my actual question. >> the republican party i lock step behind him right now. >> yeah. look, donald trump's leg woes are also costing him an awful lot of money. but he has it because according to campaign finance reports filed with the fec this summer, trump save america super pac spent $20 million on legal fees in the first six months of this year. 2/3 of his political operations total spending in the first half of the year, legal fees, his supporters just keep sending him money, tim. does that continue indefinitely, do you think, or is there a bottom, is there a point at which people say, okay, these 20 e-mails i'm getting every day, asking me for money, i can't keep sending you 20 bucks. >> i think if he loses in 2024, it might stop. he's running the definition of a scam pack right now, and people are funding his legal fee. look, i think there's been a lot of good reporting. "the new york times" has done so. some people have gotten scammed and have automatic prechecked boxes. they don't know they're giving donald trump money. they're happy to give him money, and they don't care how he's spending it. >> to that point, we have learned that the expert witness returning to the stand tomorrow in the civil fraud trial for donald trump was paid nearly $900,000, almost a million bucks to say he doesn't think he committed any fraud. do you think that even raises an eyebrow with his supporters? >> to have somebody tell people that i don't commit fraud, commit fraud. pay for play on saying there's no fraud. i don't think it does. no. i really don't. i think that folks that are giving him money right now are blindly loyal to him, and i think it is unlike what any other politicians relationship with their supporters, and i think we need to be eyes wide open about what is happening with donald trump and the fact that he has this base of support that is happy to let him, they are happy to be defrauded, as long as they feel like he's making the case for them. that's where his power seminating from. >> tim miller, ryan reilly, i want to go to somebody who knows about trump and his money. author of "dark towers" deutsche bank, donald trump, and an epic trail of destruction. it's good to have you back, david, when it comes to expert witnesses, the guy that i was just talking about is an nyu accounting professor, named eli bartov. do you think trump has gotten his $900,000 worth? >> i don't know about that. look, there's a history in these types of trials of expert witness receiving sums of money to testify, and it's clear which side of the debate they're going to come down on. look, there is part of this trial that is going to depend on the judge's understanding of the issues, and they're complex issues. i think having a well regarded accounting professor saying, look, i have spent countless hours, hundreds of hours on digging through this stuff, and i agree with the trump camp's assessment of this. i think that probably does carry some credibility. on the other hand, there's one expert witness on the prosecution's side as well, and i think it's a little unclear how it will really shake out. to me, i'm not that surprised by the fact that the trump campaign and that trump himself is paying hundreds of thousands of dollars for an expert witness's testimony. that is something you see a lot in high profile trials, involving complicated concepts. >> very common, but 900,000 seem like a lot to me. >> i would be happy to take a fraction to testify, if it anyone wants me to. >> noted. >> i want to talk about something specific bartov said in his testimony. he has deutsche bank knew what they were doing, talking about giving trump's loans. in your reporting you have explored why banks were willing to do business with trump, so help us to understand that testimony in the context of all of your great reporting. >> yeah, well, i think that deutsche bank did know what it was getting into. when i was doing most of the reporting which was a few years ago, one of the things i kept hearing from the people who had signed off on the loans was that they knew trump had a very pronounced long standing pattern of not just defaulting on his loans but exaggerating his finances as he tried to get the loans. deutsche bank is a bank that had repeatedly made loans to him, some of which he had previously defaulted on. i think the trump camp has a viable argument here that deutsche bank went into this with its eyes wide open. now, that doesn't necessarily change from a legal standpoint. if trump's intent was to defraud the bank in order to get lower interest rates or to get larger loans or even to get some of the other provisions to kind of liberalize, didn't have to put up so much personal collateral, that still under the law can constitute fraud. so i think the question of what deutsche bank knew and when they knew about it is obviously very important, but i don't think it necessarily, even if you can stipulate that deutsche bank should have known and maybe they even wrote down the value of assets in internal accountings, i don't think that necessarily gets trump off the hook in the way that his side has been arguing in court. >> so when you talk about the hook, it could be $250 million, whatever their fines, but there's also the possibility that he can't do business anymore in new york, and so what is the company's standing now among bankers generally? can we say what that is? because certainly when you listen to eric trump, donald trump, they talk about what a great company it is, how profitable, how the banks love them? >> the banks definitely do not love them anymore. it was a question about premise for a long time, whether any bank other than deutsche bank loved them. and deutsche bank was for a long time willing to look the other way every time they went hat in hand. one of the enduring mysteries a bt this, and i think one of the missed opportunities that the prosecution had last week or two weeks when trump's banker was on the stand, to penetrate why the bank was willing to look the other way. did the bank have the opportunity to make through introductions that trump was going to make to other rich people, and some of the same people, the bank at the same time it was loaning money to trump was doing a ton of business with russians. there are a ton of unanswered questions that we still do not have good answers to. >> david enrich, great to have you on the program. >> thanks for having me. >> if i ever get in a situation where i have billions of dollars, you'll be my first call if i need a witness. >> thank you, i appreciate it. still ahead, steve kornacki, standing by at the big board, his inside look at our brand new poll numbers with 35 days to go until the iowa caucus. plus the big name democrat emerging as a key player in president biden's reelection battle. all of that coming up next on "chris jansing reports" only on kavm kavp. -- on msnbc. ♪ limu emu & doug ♪ [bell ringing] and doug says, “you can customize and save hundreds on car insurance with liberty mutual.” he hits his mark —center stage— and is crushed by a baby grand piano. are you replacing me? 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matter and pray for the safety of all americans. with the presidential race shaping up to be incredibly close and those elusive independent voters key to victim -- victory, are there independent thinkers who might influence them. liz cheney is pushing her influence, and so might romney. >> it sound like you're not ruling out voting for president biden. >> i'm not going to rule out other than president trump. >> why haven't you endorsed a candidate yet, senator, and do you plan to do so? >> if i endorse somebody, it would be the kiss of death. shall i endorse the person i like least right now? i'm not going to be endorsing president trump, obviously. i've made that very clear. >> so not trump, he might sway some voters in the general election but for now, for the primaries, how many republican voters are truly persuadable. nbc's steve kornacki is at the big board to break down our brand new poll. steve, 35 days until the iowa caucuses, how is it looking? >> it's donald trump, you're looking real good. if you're one of his opponents, real shaky, running low on time. our nbc news des moines register poll of iowa, likely caucus goers. donald trump not only with the commanding lead of 32 point over his nearest foe, critically, he is over 50, a majority in our poll of iowa republicans likely to attend the caucuses say they are backing the former president. if that gap isn't daunting enough for desantis, haley, they have a deal with the trend here. look at the change from the last time we polled iowa in october. trump that has gone up eight points since then. he was at 43. now he's at 51. desantis has gone up 3. that's a much more modest gain right there. when you put it in context, put it last month for desantis. he got the endorsement of a key evangelical christian in iowa, a much hyped 99 county tour of the state. he had a fox news debate with the democratic governor of california, you got a sense that maybe something could be developing for him, and then this poll comes out and it says, no, it's actually trump. it's trump who's made the big gains in the last month. didn't participate in the most recent debate. take a look further. we mentioned evangelical christians, he's getting the exact same number, 51% that he has overall statewide. this is a group that trump struggled with. he lost the 16 caucuses to ted cruz. a big reason he finished third in the 16 caucuses, among evangelicals. no such problem now according to our poll. he's doubling up ron desantis. trump here with a more massive lead, 63-12. this is first time caucus goers, folks who say they're going to attend for the first time. this tends to be a much younger group than the overall republican electorate, and you see trump here racking up big numbers. this is an ingredient in the lead you see statewide for him. if there's a weakness for trump and take this in relative terms when i say weakness, but it's independent voters. nikki haley doing well here. 23%. desantis 17. trump leads among independents, just not as massively as other groups. and independents, a relatively small share of the republican electorate in iowa. the overall perception they have of these candidates. a couple of things are notable. trump, the last time we polled this was the second most popular, a little bit behind desantis in the month and a half since, look at this, the trump the most popular republican, it's not that republicans in iowa don't like ron desantis, they like him very much. they prefer donald trump as their candidate. nikki haley a touch below where desantis s but popular with iowa republicans. she hit sort of a stagnant point in the poll. she was 16% in the poll before, she's 16% in this poll, and you see it here with chris christie, who has run that sort of frontal assault on donald trump. 20% favorable with republicans. nearly 70% unfavorable. he's had those numbers all along. it shows you the more directly you go after trump, this seems to be what happens to your image, what chris christie is dealing with now. republicans in iowa, ask about electability. this is what his opponents thought his achilles heel would be, the idea that, hey, court cases, indictments, this stuff is going to turn off general election voters, and republicans should be wary of that. we asked iowa republicans a lot of words. do you think trump can win, despite all the cases against him. nearly 3/4 said yes. only 24% said those legal challenges would make it nearly impossible for him to beat biden. and again, the confidence in trump's ability to beat biden has gone up by eight points and, this question here with just over a month to go until the caucuses, how many votes are up for grabs. there are 46% who say they could be persuaded. trump, seven out of ten of his supporters say their mind is made up. they are back in the former president, where you see more persuadable voters among desantis and haley. i know there's a temptation to say, if you can unite the two groups of voters, it could be a close race. a lot of desantis voters and haley voters say that trump would be their second choice if their first choice got out. again, if desantis got out, haley got out, there's no guarantee the other may be the main beneficiary. it might be trump who benefits from desantis detectors more than haley. >> steve kornacki, always great with the deep dive. thank you so much. with his poll numbers lagging, president biden is leaning on a very familiar democrat to help him with his reelection fight. hillary clinton remains popular with female voters and is a major fundraising draw. i want to bring in allie raffa who's outside the white house for us. for some independent voters, hillary clinton can be seen as a divisive figure. how does theiden campaign see her role? >> reporte ts choice is a potential risk that the biden campaign considers worth taking for a few major reasons. one of them no doubt being as you heard steve talk about the poll numbers and where the former president stands and his impressive lead in polls. in a hypothetical head-to-head match up, and that is outside that poll's margin of error. the biden campaign is attempting this all hands on deck approach to get the president as much help as he needs, and one of those top surrogates that is included in that effort is hillary clinton. this is someone because of her past positions on the global stage, she comes with her own faithful base of supporters. she's also a prolific fundraiser, she raised almost a million dollars for the biden campaign, and she's also popular with key parts of the democratic base that may be harder for the biden campaign to tap into. she could use her power and her words to really try to change the minds of democratic women. as you mentioned, independent women, as the biden campaign tries to rally more people around this. they say that we could expect her role to expand over the next year, eventually she'll be joined in this top tier of high profile surrogates by former president obama who is expected to sort of play a major role closer to the 2020 election, but democratic strategists are saying that's too late, that the democratic party, and specifically the biden campaign needs his help right now, chris. >> allie raffa, thank you for that. the group that could decide the fate of harvard's president is said to be meeting today. what will they do as 650 faculty members argue to keep her in place. we'll discuss it, next. and ipad and apple watch se - all on us. only on verizon. ♪ if you struggle. ♪ and struggle. ♪ and struggle with cpap. you should check out inspire. ♪ no mask. no hose. just sleep. inspire. sleep apnea innovation. learn more and view important safety information at inspiresleep.com it took only 24 hours for 650 faculty members at harvard university to sign on to a letter that could help the school's embattled president, claudine gay to keep her job. they are urging calls to resist. the letter argues that defending a culture of free quire in our diverse community cannot proceed if we let its shape be dictated by outside forces, including political sources. nbc's george solis is following this for us. he just joined me. the pressure escalated when u penn's president stepped down. what's the latest. >> we have been following liz magill stepping down, and the harvard alumni executive committee is expressing their support for dr. claudine gay to stay. a 13-member committee unanimously saying they want her to stay. that's on top of the 650 plus faculty members that have issued that letter to the harvard corporation also expressing their support. this is very different so far than what we saw at u penn, and of course this also follows that 70 house member letter spearheaded by new york congresswoman elise stefanik who was at the center of the grilling on capitol hill, calling for all three university heads, the head of upenn, harvard and m.i.t. to step down. whether this plays out, we're closely watching. at some point it seemed magill might have been able to stay, and obviously over the weekend she then resigned alongside the board of trustees chair, scott bach as well. >> m.i.t. put out a statement saying they stood behind their president. we're still waiting to find out what harvard has to say. it doesn't seem at least from my reading of the background on this not everybody who signed this letter, the 650 professors agree with how she did in front of the that committee or even necessarily how she has performed generally, particularly in the area of the anti-semitism. their problem is outsiders, whether it's donors or politicians, right, saying we're going to tell you what to do. >> there's a lot of pressure there, obviously, when you have discussions about people pulling funding from the universities, that changes the landscapes. the one thing we're seeing from dr. gay is apology from her in the crimson, where she walked back a lot of comments saying frankly, admitting she may have been caught up in the questioning on capitol hill, which upenn tried to do in that video she posted on social media. it did not land with the same level of impact that we have seen so far that this message from dr. gay has. >> george solis. thank you. good to have you on the show. and still to come, a major warning for holiday shoppers. what you need to know so you don't fall for the new gift card scam next. you're watching "chris jansing reports" only on msnbc. hi, i'm kevin, and i've lost 152 pounds on golo. i had just left a checkup with my doctor, and i'd weighed in at 345 pounds. my doctor prescribed a weight loss drug, but as soon as i stopped taking the drug, i gained all the weight back and then some. that's when i decided to give golo a try. taking the release supplement, i noticed a change within the first week, and each month the weight just kept coming off. with golo, you can keep the weight off. 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[dog barks] no it's just a bunny! only pay for what you need. ♪liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty.♪ ♪ if there's pain when you try to poo ♪ ♪ and going sometimes feels like you ♪ ♪ pushed through a pineapple or two ♪ ♪ colace is the brand you need ♪ ♪ to soften stools, we're all agreed ♪ ♪ #2 should be easy to do ♪ trust colace to soften stools with no stimulants for comfortable relief. my name is caron and i'm from brooklyn. i work for the city of new york as a police administrator. i oversee approximately 20 people and my memory just has to be sharp. i always hear people say, you know, when you get older, you know, people lose memory. i didn't want to be that person. i decided to give prevagen a try. my memory became much sharper. i remembered more! i've been taking prevagen for four years now. prevagen. at stores everywhere without a prescription. families of hamas hostages still being held in gaza warned today that time is running out, and officials from qatar say the window is narrowing, but just now, we're getting an early look at a brand new and powerful conversation between my colleague richard engel and a former israeli hostage. here is a bit of that exclusive interview. >> there was a cease fire, a truce, and dozens of hostages got out. how concerned are you about the ones who didn't get out and why? >> translator: time is limited for life, and when you are over there, the lack of air in the tunnels, as well as the shortage of food and medicine could bring people to complete exhaustion, and they just won't make it. they need to get out today, otherwise they won't live. >> and you can catch more of that exclusive interview tonight on nbc's nightly news. well, with the holiday season in full swing, gift cards have become a hot commodity, but police are warning that scammers have found a way to steal the value of the card even before you buy it. so that means you give somebody a gift card, and it's got a zero balance. nbc's maggie vespa explains how to make sure that doesn't happen to you. >> called this an undercover look at capturing a modern day grinch. >> nope. >> reporter: body cameras rolling, detectives in sacramento tackle a suspected shoplifter. later, allegedly finding this jaw dropping loot, 5,000 stolen apple and target gift cards. part of an ongoing scam, they say, to tamper with retail gift cards and steal your money. a scam so pervasive, it's got authorities coast to coast sounding alarms. >> we wanted to give you guys the info, so you don't fall victim sot scam as well. >> reporter: and across the country, victims learning their gifts are worthless. >> my gift card was wiped out of funds. it was declined. >> both of our $200 gift cards were just completely drained. >> reporter: the scam is complicated. thieves not only have to steal the gift cards out of the store, they then have to sneak them back in, all the while zeroing in on these numbers and bar codes that tie the cards to your money. a perfect example in pennsylvania, where police say surveillance cameras caught to men entering a supermarket. that's one of them in the green hat. then there in the top right, you can see them allegedly putting 75 gift cards back on store shelves. detectives say the men now facing felony charges stole the gift cards, removed them from their packaging, copied that key info, then repackaged and restocked them. the goal, for unsuspecting customers to put money on the cards that the thieves could spend. >> you'll never know grabbing that gift card off the rack and purchasing it that it's been tampered with it unless you inspect it. >> or try to use it, sadly. >> or try to use it. >> reporter: if it looks tampered with, don't buy it. buy cards kept behind the counter or online. save your receipts so if the card is drained, you can make a case for getting your money back. >> a lot of folks having a tough time putting food on the tables and playing bills. these folks ruin christmas for everybody. america's favorite doll roller bladed her way to nine golden globe nominations, "barbie," the most nominated movie, three for best song, including fan favorite "i'm just ken," following close behind the other half of the phenomenon, oppenheimer. and meryl streep, a 33 nod for her appearance in "only murders in the building," she is so good.

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