First, new year, new congress and new problems for Kevin Mccarthy as he struggles to secure the speakers gavel. The pushback hes getting from his caucus with time right nowing out to secure the votes he needs before republicans take control of the house. Its one of the busiest travel days for what has been one of the craziest travel seasons in recent memory. Ahead, were on the ground at one of americas busiest airports. And youll want to turn up the volume for this one. Who stands to benefit from new big changes for Retirement Plans and Student Loan Payments this year . How it could affect your bottom line. Plus, the new restrictions for women in afghanistan that groups say will cost lives. About 25 hours from now, the 118th Congress will convene with republicans in charge of the house of representatives. But its still far from certain who their next speaker will be. Nbc news has obtained a letter Written On Sunday by a group of nine current and incoming House Republicans expressing skepticism over mccarthy as the new speaker saying he is not done enough to address their specific concerns. But the fight over the speakership isnt Kevin Mccarthys headache alone. He also has to deal with the controversy surrounding George Santos who has admitted to lying about parts of his background. Last week, santos apologized for, quote, embellishing his resume. Nbc news has reached out to santos and Republican Leadership for a comment on this but have not yet received a response. With us now to talk about all of this, allie raffa, geoff bennett, donna edwards, and susan del percio. Theyre all msnbc contributors. What do the hold outs want from mccarthy here . Reporter thats whats still unclear at the moment and thats what Kevin Mccarthy is talking to these members about and asking them the same question right now as he tries to lock in every ounce of support he knows hes going to need before this make or break vote tomorrow. In this letter by these nine House Republicans, theyre saying that mccarthy is too late in making these concessions that hes already made. Hes really missing the mark as a whole and theyre also saying that, you know, after nearly 15 years in gop leadership, he is part of the problem and theyre looking for someone else to be part of the solution. This is, steven, after all coming after mccarthy made some key concessions over the past few weeks so these farright holdouts in the Republican Party in exchange for their support. Concessions that could make mccarthy even more in a vulnerable position if he is elected speaker tomorrow. He knows this is going to come down to a tricky game of numbers. He has to reach 218 votes to win this and right now you have these nine House Republicans in this letter in addition to five that have been publicly opposing him for months now, so the numbers are not adding up as of right now for Kevin Mccarthy. Pretty incredible those concessions and also incredible that they may not be enough. As the politico playbook pointed out this morning, this doesnt look good for republicans as one lawmaker told politico, were supposed to be hitting the ground running here, but instead its just a big belly flop. Just how bad could a long, Drawnout Fight for the speakership, just how bad would that be for republicans . Well, it would be very bad because that means the business of the house could not be conducted without a speaker elected. And, you know, theres something called a strong minority. We saw that with nancy pelosi in 2016. And Kevin Mccarthy is proving that there could be such a thing as a weak majority. Because no matter who decides to whoever is decided upon to become the next speaker is probably going to have to adopt some of these rules from the far right which will mean they will always be looking over the shoulder and theyll never be able to put forth a real legislative agenda. Geoff, that same lawmaker who spoke with politico also said a big fight over this would just aggravate people. If all this is going to do really is cause some aggravation, why do it in the first place . Why fight over who is going to be the next speaker . Its because it speaks to the fractious nature of the Republican Caucus. Kevin Mccarthy Rose to the top because hes a fantastic campaigner. There are a number of republicans who owe their careers to him. But in this congress, with such a small margin, he needs he cant lose more than four votes. Right now there are between five to ten republicans who are saying no, and theyre saying no come what may. Mccarthys Office Released a package for the next Congress Last night brimming with concessions, steven, to the far right of his party, and even that is not good enough. And so this could be a scenario tomorrow where it goes to multiple ballots on the house floor, it devolves into a fight. We havent seen a speakers race go to multiple ballots in 100 years. Were watching to see if these never kevin republicans, will they then come around, or will they be a hard no to the very end . And then it becomes a real mess because there is no viable alternative on the republican side. And brendan buck who worked for two Republican House speakers pointed out that no matter who ultimately emerges as the top house republican, the prolonged spectacle would lead the majority damaged from the start along with the institution of the house itself. So just what would a Drawnout Fight like this, what would it mean for the house as an institution . Every hour that goes by when this decision is not solidified on the republican side begins to weaken that majority thats coming thats coming in. And i saw when Speaker Boehner lost 28 votes and when speaker ryan lost nine votes in their bid to become speaker, they had wider majorities. That but that weakened them and it met that a lot of deals had to be cut with the minority on key issues like the debt ceiling or appropriations and things like that, and so i think whether or not Kevin Mccarthy gets those votes, he is going to be if he gets them, hes going to be a very, very weak leader. If he doesnt get them, it will continue it will be the beginning of the chaos that is going to ensue throughout this next 118th Congress under Republican Leadership. And, susan, i wanted to talk to you about representativeelect George Santos. He takes the Oath Of Office tomorrow. So what is the thinking here for Republican Leaders . Do they think that this situation could just sort of blow over and go away with time . Do we know how other leaders what are they thinking here . Well, youre absolutely right about Kevin Mccarthy. George santos made one smart political decision and that was saying he would back mccarthy and support his speakership. Now moving forward, the most likely scenario is that santos is told were not going to put you on any committees until this is sorted out. Thats the only option that republicans have to sideline him but not necessarily put it up to a vote to see if he should be expelled. Patrick leahy who joined the senate after watergate talked with nbcs frank thorp and said he was worth about another constitutional crisis, telling frank, heres a man who doesnt believe in the constitution, has probably never read the constitution, im talking about trump, who announced just a week or so ago, well, we should set aside parts of the constitution. But we have someone who has been in the senate now for 50 years saying that his biggest threat to our country could see another constitutional crisis over this. Other lawmakers have also said theyve had deep concerns about the country, where its headed politically over the past few years, what should we take away from all of this. Your people use the phrase constitutional crisis all the time. I dont want to become numb to that. What are we actually looking at here . Its interesting. And to hear someone like Patrick Leahy say that, i think should make us all take note that the fight for democracy continues. And even though in the last major package that the last president passed rewrites the electoral count act, the provision that donald trump sought to use to overturn the election. The effort to make sure that our elections are protected and that the counts are accurate and favor, that it all goes on. Ali, i want to get back to you with more news were getting in today. Today is the final full day of work for the House January 6th Committee and a long road it has been. And theyve issued their report now, the recommendations and they just dropped a fresh batch of interview transcripts. What can you tell us about that . Steven, this has been a slow drip of these tranches of transcripts that the committee has been releasing really over the past week as they prepare to dissolve as they prepare to dissolve when this new congress is sworn in tomorrow. We saw several key parts of these transcripts reveal some admissions as far as Security Failures into the attack on the capitol when the transcripts were released last weekend. In the latest batch, we have transcripts from testimonies from people like mark meadows, dan scavino, ronna mcdaniel, kellyanne conway, some people within former president trumps inner circle who played a huge role in the committees over a yearlong investigation. These transcripts now under the watchful eyes of some of our producers who are sifting through them as we speak. More to come from the transcripts. Thank you all for being here. Well, its the bookend to a busy Holiday Travel season and a chaotic one its been. 113 million americans hit the road and took to the skies for what aaa estimates will be the third Busiest Travel Season since they started tracking these figures since 2000. And to historic weather and that unprecedented Travel Meltdown for Southwest Airlines, Many Americans hope to just leave all that chaos behind in 2022. Antonia hylton is at Laguardia Airport in New York City. Thanks for joining us this morning. What are you seeing there right now . I know a lot of people are tired of all the ruckus for air travel. Reporter that might be even be an understatement. People are tired but theyre also actually in a pretty good mood because it seems like the systems have course corrected. Most people are not flying southwest. Some people are shaken by what they saw happen this past week. People describe waiting in airports for 12 hours. Making it barely in time to join their loved ones for the holidays. But right now they say things are smooth. Ive spoken to people who are going to d. C. And the opposite side of the country right now, and it looks like delays and cancellations are more in the hundreds than the thousands, and theyre hoping that this is, you know, going to continue through the rest of the week as people kind of make their way back to their different places. Take a listen to some of the conversations i had with travelers today. I made it here just in time. If i would have left the next day, i would not have made it. Every flight was canceled. Its a little disappointing. Ive always had really positive experiences with southwest. With their i dont know if its Computer Glitch or their whole system and everything else. When people two days, three days, four days, thats disappointing. But my experience has been pretty good with them. Systems seem to be mostly back to regular business. Southwest has really a reputational and trust issue on its hands right now. Of course, theyre facing a federal investigation. The Department Of Transportation is going to be ensuring that they follow their own required Customer Service guidelines and make their customers whole. But there are people that weve spoken to today who said they might not book a Southwest Airlines flight again. They have a different relationship with the airline now and its going to change some of their decisionmaking. And that kind of reputational fallout could take months or years to repair, steven. My husband and i were some of the southwest passengers who were stuck at an airport trying to sort all of this out. Reporter sorry. Flight attendants and workers are dealing with this. A lot of people struggled with this situation, a lot more to come on this. Thank you for that report. 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I can do better yes you can i can do better, too see how easy it is to save hundreds a year on your wireless bill over tmobile, verizon, and at t. Talk to our switch squad at your local xfinity store today. Welcome back. New details in the new years eve attack on three officers in New York City. Investigators say the suspect, 19yearold Trevor Bickford of maine, was allegedly wielding a machete shortly after 10 00 p. M. He swung at their heads before being shot in the shoulder and taken into custody. Officials tell nbc news the suspect likely arrived in New York City by an amtrak on thursday. He had a backpack with personal writings, what authorities called terrorist propaganda, a pocketknife and 200 in cash. In middecember, he was interviewed by federal Law Enforcement after being alerted by a concerned relative. Kathy park is in times square with the latest. The officers are out of the hospital and theyre recovering. What do we know about the suspects condition right now . Reporter yeah, steven, so our producer was able to make some calls a few moments ago and we know that Trevor Bickford currently is still being held at the hospital right now. Right now we dont have any sort of timeline on when he will be released. We also know that charges are pending. A lot of things still fluid. Meanwhile, the investigation is still ongoing and over the last 24 hours, we got some new details about the suspect, as you mentioned. He headed to the New York City area on thursday via amtrak and officials were able to get ahold of personal items, including a backpack. In that backpack were personal writings, terrorist propaganda, he had some cash as well and a pocketknif