Five others remain missing. Good morning. Its thursday, december of6th. Im Ayman Mohyeldin alongside Yasmin Vossoughian and louis burgdorf. Youre looking at live pictures from st. Martins Episcopal Church in houston. After a funeral service, the bush family is returning to a tradition not used since president eisenhower died a half a century ago. A funeral train launching from Union Pacifics facility in spring, texas, will carry the former president some 70 miles to college station. The train will make no stops, but travel slower than usual. The smithsonian notes that funeral trains were used following the deaths of president s, including abraham lincoln, grant, garfield, mckinley and Franklin Roosevelt as a way for the American People to honor the office of the president and its legacy. Wednesday marked a national day of mourning as the country paused to remember and celebrate the life of george bush. The 41st president s casket left the capitol to a 41gun salute. As the casket is carried from the capitol rotunda, theres a tear for what once was, what is now missing and all the lost meaning of a politics that, while never perfect and had deep flaws, was filled with devotion to and love of the country. At the national cathedral, bush biographer and friend jon meacham delivered the first eulogy. He never slowed down. On the primary campaign trail in new hampshire, he grabbed the hand of a Department Store mannequin asking for votes. When he realized his mistake, he said, you never know, got to ask. [ laughter ] you can hear the voice, cant you . As dana carvey said the key to a bush 41 impersonation is mr. Rogers trying to be john wayne. His life code, as he said, was tell the truth, dont blame people, be strong, do your best, try hard, forgive, stay the course. And that was and is the most american of creeds. Abraham lincolns better angels of our nature and george h. W. Bushs thousand points of light are companion verses in Americas National hymn. For lincoln and bush both called on us to choose the right over the convenient, to hope rather than to fear, and to heed not our worst impulses, but our best instincts. Later willie geist actually tweeted with the Memorial Service finished, jon meacham has given me permission to report that he had the chance to read that beautiful eulogy to president bush before his death. President bush said characteristically, thats a lot about me, jon. The final eulogy was delivered by the president s son george w. Bush. At age 90 george h. W. Bush parachuted out of an aircraft and landed on the grounds of st. Anns by the sea in kennebunkport, the church where his mom was married and where he worshipped often. Mother liked to say he chose the location just in case the chute didnt open. Your decency, sincerity and kind soul. A great and noble man. The best father a son or daughter could have. And in our grief, i smile knowing that dad is hugging robin and holding moms hand again. Emotional words by the president. Yesterday was the first gathering of all the living president s during the trump presidency. It was perhaps the first time the current occupant of the white house did not speak to some of them. President trump and First Lady Melania Trump entered last and shook hands with those directly next to them, former president and first lady barack and michelle obama. Quote, first President Trump said barack obama was i illegitima illegitimate, then the president he called the worst abuser of women, bill clinton, then the first lady and secretary of state he said should be in jail, hillary clinton, and then the president he said was the second worst behind obama, jimmy carter and his wife roslyn. President trump is reportedly not concerned about the potential risks of the countrys ballooning debt. Currently more than 21 trillion and growing, because in his eyes it will ultimately be someone elses problem. According to a new report, ever since his president ial campaign, trumps aides and his advisors have attempted to convince him that getting control of the debt is a top issue. But sources close to the president say the president has repeatedly shrugged off the warning because wont be in the white house when the debt becomes completely untenable. The report says the issue came to a head in 2017 when senior officials offered trump charts and graphics laying out the numbers and showing a hockey stick spike in the National Debt in the nottoodistant future. Trump reportedly commented, yeah, but i wont be here, according to a source in the room. Lets talk trade here, everybody. Chinese ministry has released a new status on trade talks days after President Trump and president xis dinner meeting at the g20. While the statement calls that meeting very successful, it does not make any mention of the specific items trump claims were agreed upon during the dinner. It is also vague on the 90day deadline for negotiations trump and his team have touted, saying only that china will, quote, actively push forward with the negotiations within 90 days. While the Trump Administration has stated several times that china agreed to take certain actions, quote, immediately, beijings statement describes its time frame as, quote, the sooner, the better. One top china analyst at the Kissinger Institute says its all part of chinas primary goal of drawing things out as long as possible, staying beijing must keep the fish on the hook by giving the Trump Administration reason to believe progress is within reach. Hours after he called himself a tariff man, President Trump tweeted this. Very strong signals being sent by china not to sound naive or anything, but i believe president xi meant every word of what he said at our long and hopefully historic meeting. The Senate Judiciary and it tee has once again postponed a series of judicial nominations because of a standoff over legislation to protect the special counsel. The committee was expected to consider those nominations today, which would have included six Appeals Court nominees. But republican senator jeff flake has refused to vote for President Trumps judicial picks until the Senate Considers a bill to protect robert mueller. The judicial nominations were originally expected to get a vote last week, but Committee ChairmanChuck Grassley also postponed that meeting because of flakes stand. Last night senator flake tweeted, the senate needs to protect the special counsel. Lets bring in capitol Hill Reporter for the hill molly hooper. Good morning to you. Thank you so much for joining us today. Good to see you. Good to see you. Lets talk about the funeral yesterday, george h. W. Bushs final day in washington as so many of us were watching there, president s past and present gathering to mourn him there. We heard louis run through the depiction of President Trumps presence at the funeral there. How is it being seen and viewed on capitol hill . Well, from the people that ive talked to, no major gaffes on President Trumps part. You know, there were moments during the funeral perhaps brian mu mulroneys speech you could see him pointing out how nafta is a big deal and how were partners with nato. Aside from that, the president really didnt react. Thats good, because yesterday was about what a wealth of history that we were exposed to and people who didnt grow up with president george bush, who at the time took a lot of flak from the media. I thought it was pretty sunny. Alan simpson sort of did bring the cathedral down when he was relaying all these stories and talking about how the media was not friends with him and hes had frosty relationships. That helped to kind of bring President Trump in, but by and large the people that i talked to on capitol hill were glad that President Trump did appear, melania was there, no major gaffes, shook obamas hand and Everything Else pretty much went off without a hitch. Lets switch gears for a moment because i want to ask you about this report about the growing National Debt. Its traditionally been a huge issue of congressional republicans, something theyve always used to champion their fiscal policies. Has that focus disappeared under President Trump, who seems to now, at least according to this daily beast article, express no concern about it happening during his time in office . Well, it may not have necessarily gone away, but its going to be back in full force when republicans are in the minority. I remember the last time republicans were in the minority with a republican in the white house, president george w. Bush. You had these cost cutting conservatives led by one mike pence, who actually brought down a spending bill that had to do with funds for afghanistan, the military in afghanistan and iraq because it would raise the deficit too high. So this was under a republican president with democrats in the majority in the house and the republicans were able to kill a measure because it spent too much money. So i have a feeling that come next year when republicans are in the minority, we can expect to see that again. These conservatives who are cost cutting conservatives and are focused on fiscal spending and cutting fiscal spending and reduces the deficit, President Trump may have quite a bit of a time with those guys getting them on board, especially if he wants to push this 1 trillion infrastructure package. Its not going to go too far, i dont think. It is interesting this story considering that we have a republican president right now and that has always been their major speaking point, which is the growing debt. Still ahead, lawmakers are demanding answers after a millionaire sex offender got a sweetheart deal with the justice department. The details of that shocking story coming up. Plus the latest on the search for five missing u. S. Marines after two military planes collided in midair off the coast of japan. Those stories and a check of your weather when we come back. Oh, look. Another antiwrinkle cream in no hurry to make anything happen. Neutrogena® rapid wrinkle repair® works in just one week. With the fastest retinol formula available. Its clinically proven to work on fine lines and wrinkles. One week . That definitely works rapid wrinkle repair®. And for dark spots, rapid tone repair. Neutrogena®. See whats possible. I am a techie dad. N. I believe the best technology should feel effortless. Like magic. At comcast, its my job to develop, apps and tools that simplify your experience. My name is mike, im in Product Development at comcast. Were working to make things simple, easy and awesome. Welcome back, everybody. Lawmakers are demanding an investigation into the justice departments extremely lenient deal with accused serial child molester jeffrey epstein. The miami herald reported that federal prosecutors led by then u. S. Attorney, now labor secretary, alex acada entered into a deal with epstein that allowed him to spend just 13 months in county jail when they had enough evidence to put him away for life. Ben sass fired off a series of letters calling epstein a monster and writing that the, quote, pathetically soft sentence is a travesty that should outrage us all. Federal prosecutors identified 36 under age victims. The miami herald has identified 80 women who say they were molested as girls as well, yet the deal allowed the wealthy friend of bill clinton and trump to plead guilty to soliciting a prostitute who was just 14 years old. The department of justice did not respond to that request for comment. Both federal and state investigators have launched probes into possible Election Fraud in north carolina. Investigators are canvassing irregularities in at least two counties. The board has twice declined to certify republican mark harriss 905 vote victory over democrat dan mccready. They have also since issued subpoenas to harriss campaign according to local news station wsoc tv. 1,873 unreturned absentee ballots were sent to democrats and 519 unreturned absentee ballots were sent to republicans in the ninth district. That is a low percentage when compared to the werest of the state. A large majority of those unreturned ballots belong to africanamericans and nativeamerican voters. Nbc spoke to one woman who learned through the investigation that her absentee ballot was not counted. A young lady came to the door. She knocked on the door, asked if she could get the absentee ballot. I told her sure. I broke the seal in front of her, i filled out two boxes. She said she would fill the rest out, that it wasnt important. I signed it, gave it to her. It was not sealed. She said she would seal it and come back to me and show me that it was sealed. I never got a show back from her. You found out, though, that your absentee ballot was never turned in . Yes. The investigator came and showed me that my name was on a list where my absentee ballot did not come up in the system. Vice chairman of the House Oversight committee and democratic virginia congressman Jerry Connolly has demanded an emergency hearing to investigator those claims. The Charlotte News observer is also calling for a redo of the tainted race. U. S. And japanese authorities are currently searching for five missing marines near japan after a pair of planes with seven marines on board collided during a fuelling training accident about 200 miles off of the coast. Two Service Members have been rescued by japans maritime selfdefense force, one of which is receiving medical treatment while the condition of the other is currently unknown. Officials say the incident is under investigation. Lets switch gears, get a check on your weather with nbc meteorologist bill karins. Were still waiting for that big storm to move on shore in california and then head east. Its going to be a coast to coast event. A lot of rain and some areas are going to get maybe major to historic snow. Remember the woolsey fire . They picked up two inches of rain last night. Have not heard any reports of mud or debris flows. As far as windchills, if were going to get a winter event, it has to be cold. Windchills down to 23 in atlanta, Oklahoma City 29. It is like winter cold invading much of the country. Let me take you into friday, because not a lot happens today. The storm is in california. By friday, especially friday night, the rain breaks out in texas here. Thats the four inch mark here. I10 san antonio to houston we could have some flash flooding concerns. Further north its cold enough for ice over to snow in areas of north texas through oklahoma. That could be enough for some plows and shoveling there. If you want historic to major and high impacts, were talking charlotte to green greensboro t asheville, some could get over a foot of snow. That could be enough to shut things down for a while, sunday into monday. Still ahead, a major trade in the major leagues and the scandal prone u. S. Gymnastics organization has filed for bankruptcy. Your brain changes as you get older. But prevagen helps your brain with an ingredient originally discovered. In jellyfish. In clinical trials, prevagen has been shown to improve shortterm memory. Prevagen. Healthier brain. Better life. What does help for heart the beat goes on. It looks like emily cooking dinner for ten. The beat goes on. It looks like jonathan on a date with his wife. Ladiladi. Entresto is a Heart Failure medicine that helps your heart. So you can keep on doing what you love. In the largest Heart Failure study ever, entresto was proven superior at helping people stay alive and out of the hospital. It helps improve your hearts ability to pump blood to the body. Dont take entresto if pregnant; it can cause harm or death to an unborn baby. Dont take entresto with an ace inhibitor or aliskiren, or if youve had angioedema with an ace or arb. The most serious side effects are angioedema, low blood pressure, kidney problems, or high blood potassium. Ask your doctor about entresto for Heart Failure. Yeah entrust your heart to entresto. The beat goes on. I cant say its the highlight dadof fatherhood. But id rather be here with my little man than not be here because of migraine. I have three words for migraine. I am here. Aimovig, a preventive treatment for migraine in adults, reduces the number of monthly migraine days. For some, that number can be cut in half or more. The most common side effects are pain, redness or swelling at the injection site and constipation. Talk to your doctor about aimovig. And be there more. Welcome back. Time now for sports. We begin in the nba and a historic night for Oklahoma Citys russell westbrook. To brooklyn, where the 108th tripledouble of his career moves westbrook ahead of jason kidd for the number three on the alltime list. Meanwhile, paul george shepherds the thunder back from a 23point deficit, scoring 25 of his 47 points in the game during the fourth quarter. Okc wins 114112. Turning to major league baseball. An off season move that has the diamondbacks sending first baseman Paul Goldschmidt to arizona. The 31yearold posted a. 290 batting average with 33 home runs last season. With only one year remaining on his contract and 14 million before becoming a free agent next winter, hell likely be a season rental for the cardinals. The usa Gymnastics Organization has resorted to bank