very dangerous, and i hope that as the nation watches that we to say we should sound the alarm across the nation we re entering dangerous territory. that was one of two democrats in tennessee that was just expelled after participating in a gun violence protest on the floor of the statehouse. we ll have much more on this partisan punishment just ahead meanwhile on capitol hill one of donald trump s most vocal allies in congress sends a subpoena to a former prosecutor in the manhattan district attorney s office we ll explain why this move may backfire on jim jordan, and we ll dig into a bombshell report exclosing years of lavish vacations taken by supreme court justice clarence thomas, all paid for by a gop mega donor all right, good morning. and welcome to way too early on this friday, april 7th. i m sam stein in for the irreplaceable jonathan lemire. republican legislators in tennessee voted yesterday to expel two black democrats from the statehouse over their protest o
announcer: this is nbc nightly news with lester holt good evening, and welcome. after a dangerous confrontation in the skies, a warning tonight from russia to the u.s. not to fly aircraft near its airspace throwing the onus on the united states for that midair collision between a russian and american plane over the black sea yesterday. the u.s. making clear its pilotless surveillance plane was flying legally in international airspace when it was knocked from the sky by a russian fighter jet that had been flying close and aggressively the act raising alarms in the pentagon. secretary of defense lloyd austin confirming he spoke by telephone today with the russian defense minister, though not revealing the nature of their conversation. the u.s., however, accuses the russians of reckless and unprofessional behavior, and we have new reporting tonight on just how high up the orders came from in russia. peter alexander is at the white house with more reporter: tonight, for t
and governing act of 1978. that act says that any gifts of more than $415 must be reported to avoid a, quote, appearance of impropriety. now, according to propublica in 2019 justice thomas and his wife ginni took crow s private jet to indonesia for a nine-day island door on a super yacht. i don t know what makes it a super yacht, but it s a big yacht. propublica estimates the trip would have cost get this more than $500,000. that wasn t thomas only trip on the super yacht. he also took an extended cruise in new zealand roughly a decade ago. crow said in a statement he has never sought to influence the justice. the supreme court, meanwhile, did not immediately respond to requests for comment thomas did not respond to propublica s questions as well in a statement yesterday, however, senate judiciary
the threshold to avoid a, quote, host of catastrophic changes. they were aiming not to reach that threshold for another 80 years. but we are already seeing those catastrophic changes right here at home. joining me now one of the journalists behind this report washington post environment and energy reporter chris moony. chris, great to have you with us and thanks for putting all this together. this is a startling report. and i know that your team found that 71 american counties have already hit the 2 degrees celsius mark. their average temperatures have gone up 3.6 degrees farenheit. you call them, quote, isolated 2-degree celsius clusters from high-altitude deserts in oregon to stretches of the rocky mountains to the northeastern shore of lake michigan. explain to us what you meant by why they are scattered and is it surprising that these places have already crossed that threshold? these are the fast parts of the united states. it is a little surprising to find so many.
obama said the u.s. military mission in libya is, quote, succeeding and has helped avoid a, quote, humanitarian catastrophe. but he also stressed the boundaries of u.s. involvement. as i pledged at the outset, the role of american forces has been limited. we re not putting any ground forces into libya. our military has provided unique capabilities at the beginning. but this is now a broad international effort. the president briefed mostly by phone conference, congressional leaders from both parties on friday. the group included house republican speaker john boehner, majority leader eric cantor, minority leader nancy pelosi, minority whip steny hoyer. senators were mitch mcconnell and foreign relations committee chair democrat john kerry. a spokesman for boehner said after that meeting that, quote, much more needs to be done by the administration to provide clarity, particularly to the american people on the military objective in libya, america s role, and how it s consistent with u