Hallie Jackson NOW - May 4 — NBC News NOW

[0:10] We are coming on the air tonight with a shooting here in Washington just blocks from the White [0:13] House. People scrambled off the North Lawn. What we know about this incident involving the Secret [0:18] Service not far from the National Mall. Then the new details on the deadly car ramming in Germany [0:23] with police say about the moment a car plowed into a crowd in a busy street there killing at [0:28] least two people. Then what we're hearing from on board that cruise ship not allowed to dock tonight [0:33] with passengers stuck now because of a rare rodent virus outbreak that has killed at least three [0:39] people. We've got more on that in a minute. And then some breaking news in just the last half hour. [0:43] You know that blowout legal battle between Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni? It ends with a [0:48] settlement. We've got more on why in just a minute. Plus some of the biggest stars in the world set to [0:53] make their way up the Met steps in just about an hour from now. But what about the Bezos backlash? [0:59] A look at the protests that could play a role in fashion's biggest night with our look ahead at [1:04] the Met Gala coming up later in the show. Hey I'm Hallie. A lot to get to tonight and a lot of it [1:08] developing kind of late here starting with that breaking news in Washington. The Secret Service [1:11] is there was an officer involved shooting just steps from the Washington Monument. I want to [1:15] show you the map here. So this is the corner of Independence and 15th Street. So it's not super [1:20] close to the White House but it's not super far from it. It's right off the National Mall there. [1:24] And I want to show you what the scene looked like in the last couple of minutes. D.C. police look [1:28] looks fairly quiet at the moment but they still want people to avoid the area. They've closed it all off. [1:33] And this did have an impact to the White House. The Secret Service ended up evacuating the North [1:37] Lawn. Our Monica Alba was there when it happened. Come on tell us more because you know it's it's not [1:42] unheard of but it's not very common at all that they'd shut down the North Lawn like that. [1:47] Yeah I have to tell you Hallie a handful of times I have experienced that but typically the Secret [1:51] Service agents when they're notifying you that you need to move from this very camera position [1:55] into the West Wing they sort of tell you with a firmness but not a sense of urgency like the one [2:01] that we saw today where certain agents did have some long guns drawn and were ushering us in [2:06] almost encouraging us to run inside and of course we didn't know why at the time but we are learning [2:12] more information and Hallie I just got a message alerting me that the Secret Service just put out [2:17] a little bit more information. There are a couple of details we know but they are just sharing publicly [2:23] that this incident which you're seeing there on your screen at 15th Street and Independence Avenue [2:29] so closer to the Washington Monument than here to the White House that this incident quote resulted [2:35] from a confrontation between an armed individual and Secret Service police. So these are the kinds [2:41] of agents who you would see around some of these very significant landmarks here in Washington certainly [2:47] here at the White House and beyond that and what we know is that at least one person has been [2:52] transported to a local hospital. It is unclear in what condition they are in and again it's unclear [2:58] Hallie how these shots were fired who initiated the shots how was this person hit what was this [3:06] person doing all of that is still unknown but what we do know is that that area that you are showing [3:11] on your screen has been locked down for blocks and a significant amount in each direction as this [3:19] investigation begins to unfold. Again so to set the scene here at the White House where we are [3:25] President Trump was about to start an event remarks at a small business focused gathering [3:31] in the East Room and that had already been a little bit delayed before this incident took place [3:37] and we were waiting for him to come out and speak when this happened when then they moved us inside to [3:42] the West Wing and about five minutes or so after that the president did enter the East Room and began his [3:49] event without anything and certainly making no mention of that shooting as we were just learning [3:53] about it in real time. That's right no impact to the president to the interior of the White House [3:58] there it was sort of business as usual as you know it is the Secret Service says that one individual [4:02] was shot by law enforcement. Monica Alba come back when you learn more I know you will thank you very [4:06] much appreciate you being with us tonight. To Germany now in a deadly car ramming there police say at least [4:12] two people were killed after a driver plowed into a crowd on a busy street in the eastern part of the [4:16] country at least two other people were badly hurt there's a huge police presence look at this we'll [4:20] show you the video the smashed car you can see it there on the left side of your screen at this point [4:26] we still have a lot of questions including any kind of motive and you can see some new video of a man on [4:31] the ground being put in handcuffs in the moments after the crash I want to bring in Raph Sanchez who's [4:36] covering this for us busy busy road big crowd some 20 other people affected in the words of law [4:42] enforcement and officials there we don't know yet what that means. Yeah Hallie so this happened really [4:47] right in the center of the city of Leipzig it's in eastern Germany it happened a little bit before [4:52] 5 p.m there were a lot of people out and about when that white SUV just went careening into the crowd [4:58] now in the last little bit we are starting to learn a little bit more about the alleged perpetrator he was [5:04] arrested behind the wheel of that white Volkswagen SUV and German authorities are saying that he's 33 years [5:12] old he is a German citizen and at this stage we do not know much about his motives we do know two [5:19] people were killed at least two others severely wounded and as you noted 20 others affected that's [5:26] possibly shock it might be minor injuries from people who sort of tripped and fell running away [5:31] from the scene but it sounds like it was at least four people who took the direct impact of that car [5:36] I want to play you just a little bit of sound from the mayor of Leipzig speaking about the situation [5:42] in his city take a listen. I am deeply shocked and can only express my solidarity with the victims families [5:50] and note with dismay that two people have lost their lives as a result of such an act which remains [5:56] incomprehensible to this day and probably always will be. And Hallie this would be shocking under any [6:04] circumstances but this is the fourth car ramming attack in Germany in less than two years you might [6:11] remember there was that big attack at a Christmas market in the city called Magdeburg back in 2024 [6:16] and then there were two in rapid succession one in Munich one in Monaheim in February and March of last [6:23] year so Germany this is a grimly familiar pattern what we have seen among these different attacks is a very [6:31] wide variety of motives one of them back in 2016 was carried out by someone who had pledged allegiance [6:37] to ISIS we've seen far-right extremists involved and in other cases we have seen people with very [6:43] severe mental health issues I will say Hallie there are very strict privacy laws in Germany and so [6:48] authorities often don't release a whole lot of detail about these suspects and so it may be some time [6:54] before we get a better sense of a motive here. Hallie. Okay Raf Sanchez thank you very much also [6:58] tonight you've got President Trump out with this new threat against Iran he told Fox News in an [7:03] interview that Iran's going to be in his words blown off the face of the earth if it attacks U.S. ships [7:08] trying to guide other ships through the Strait of Hormuz that's right after the U.S. said it has blown up [7:13] Iranian helicopters and boats in response to some Iranian attacks in the strait all of it really but if [7:19] you're like well so does that mean the ceasefire is over or still intact your guess is probably as good [7:24] as anybody else's at this point it's not clear but here's what we do know the impact of this war the [7:29] impact of the strait being effectively paralyzed here having a major effect on gas prices up nearly [7:34] 50 percent since the war started in one part of California yep it's official seven bucks a gallon [7:40] you see it there now listen California's already got higher gas prices to begin with but how about [7:44] Indiana how about the Midwest in Indiana the average cost for a gallon is up a dollar just in the last [7:50] week so think about that a week ago you went to gas up your car now it costs a buck more all across [7:55] the country people are telling our team that the rising prices are really hurting them it's horrible [8:01] I know I can't deal with it so it sucks unfortunately I think we're getting close to the point where [8:06] people aren't going to be able to do it anymore for people who got to go to work and landscapers and [8:10] whatnot it's got to be crazy I want to bring in Maggie Vespa who's posted up in Chicago outside a gas [8:17] station it's Kentucky it's Ohio seeing the biggest increase increases in gas prices since this war began [8:22] California gets the attention seven bucks I mean that's but we know California's already got [8:27] expensive gas um that's why I'm interested in what's going on where you are I know it feels like [8:32] the west coast impact is really hitting like America's heartland we're talking about a couple [8:36] counties suddenly in Kentucky another one in Ohio that according to an NBC News analysis prices there [8:42] have gone up close to 90 percent since the war in Iran began here in Chicago it's gone up close to 60 [8:48] cents citywide just in the last week 579 a gallon here at this uh station in the city where I'm at [8:54] the reason why it's hitting the mess of Midwest so hard is kind of multifaceted number one obviously [8:59] the Strait of Hormuz remaining closed amid the war in Iran that's hitting everyone nationwide number two [9:05] there's a second specific factor a couple of issues and a couple of key refineries specifically [9:10] one BP refinery in Whiting Indiana a major one especially for this part of the country that went [9:16] down over the weekend due to an outage we've been out to BP all day they said it was a an electrical [9:22] outage a systemic issue that has now been resolved the refineries back up and running but it sent prices [9:27] soaring specifically here in the Midwest up into like Wisconsin Michigan Indiana Illinois you name it [9:34] everyone here we've talked to said they've absolutely noticed it a lot of them not filling [9:40] up their tanks anymore putting in like 10 to 15 dollars at the most and just trying to get by [9:45] with as little gas honestly as they can here's one woman we heard from I'm a mom of four kids and I run [9:53] my family I'm a single mom and it's crazy so definitely I'm cutting down on my groceries like which [10:00] are I'm just sticking up to very essential ones but being a mom and I need them but it's hard it's [10:06] hard to maintain my dress release I mean that's the universal truth right is that everybody says [10:12] I need to drive so kind of what else can I cut back on what trips can I cut back on Hallie I'll [10:18] just leave you with this right now the average here in Illinois is 50 cents above the national [10:24] average for the price for a gallon of gas so the Midwest really is kind of feeling that West Coast [10:29] effect right now it's weird but here's the other piece that's a real pinch for folks is that this may be [10:33] just the first wave experts have predicted there's another wave of things getting more expensive [10:38] beyond just your gas we're talking groceries etc totally I mean gas prices are kind of like the [10:44] canary in the coal mine as far as our coal mine as far as our economy is concerned and in fact [10:48] one expert called it the opening act these potential tidal waves of price increases really [10:54] across our economy so think basically everything else whether it's being affected by the cost of a [10:59] gallon of gas when it comes to goods being delivered across the country so you think of clothes you think [11:03] of shoes you think of groceries you think of prescription medicines all of those things [11:09] experts say could be part of this kind of second wave of price increases and they really kind of play [11:15] out over the course of months one economist basically saying basically by the end of the summer is when we [11:22] could really see all of this sort of hit at once saying that perhaps it could collide with the incredibly [11:27] busy back-to-school shopping season hitting these families Hallie even harder Maggie Vespa live for us there [11:33] in Chicago Maggie thank you let's take you to Oklahoma now where police are trying to figure out who [11:37] started shooting at a campground party with 12 people now in the hospital here's some audio from [11:43] dispatch as this whole thing was going down there's a shooting there's gonna be multiple victims [11:49] this is video that seems to show the party before the shooting happened officials say in all some 23 [11:58] people were heard Ryan Chandler has made his way to the scene he's on the ground for us in Edmond what else do [12:03] we know Ryan well Hallie almost everything that we're learning about the terrifying scenes that [12:08] played out in this campground behind me we're learning from people who were actually there I [12:12] just spoke with three young people 18 and 19 years old who told us that they were at this party with [12:18] some 250 other young people this was advertised that come one come all public event that was going [12:25] to go until midnight but you hear the gunshots ring out just about after nine o'clock local time [12:30] and that's when these people say that that they scattered one young man told me he actually ran [12:36] into the lake in order to escape the gunfire they describe a chaotic and terrifying scene as they [12:42] continue to pull for so many of their friends who are in the hospital tonight here's what one young man [12:47] told me it was honestly horrifying like you know it's something that nobody really wants to see [12:54] I thought about it all last night I barely even slept like it's just so much blood everywhere so many [12:59] people hurt innocent people like that said it half happened yeah they say this started with an [13:07] altercation between other party goers but they just say it's so tragic that uh it it became violent [13:13] with gunfire Hallie this is also coming as we don't know who fired these shots yet police are still [13:19] searching for suspects as still people try to recover in the hospital tonight Ryan Chandler glad you're [13:24] out there for us thank you for bringing us up to speed on that one let's talk about that cruise ship [13:28] now dealing with the deadly outbreak of a rare rodent virus the ship's not even allowed to dock [13:33] right now it can't get to dock that means like 150 people are stuck on board off the coast of west [13:38] africa one passenger is sharing this sort of scary situation what it's like for people who are on the [13:43] ship listen and what's happening right now is very real for all of us here there's a lot of uncertainty [13:49] and that's the hardest part all we want right now is to feel safe to have clarity and to get home [14:01] you can hear the emotion in his voice in this very uncertain situation we know that three people [14:08] have died two others are very sick staff on board have not been able to confirm that those sick [14:13] individuals for sure have hantavirus that's the virus that we're talking about here humans usually [14:17] get it from infected rodents it can be really serious according to the cdc about a third of people [14:23] who get hantavirus uh end up dead Camila Bernal is joining us now a horrific situation here the cruise [14:29] operator says the ship may try to get to a dock like around the canary islands what is going on [14:34] where does this go well highly you said it they're stuck there's really nowhere for them to go right [14:40] now because officials are saying they have to coordinate with health experts but also with [14:46] local authorities to make sure that it's safe to get this entire ship off of board essentially and so [14:54] what authorities are saying is that it could take some time as they continue to investigate they say [14:58] there are medical personnel on board to help the people that are currently symptomatic and then we [15:05] have a timeline essentially of what happened because first it was a 70 year old man who died [15:09] then his wife 69 year old woman they're both from the netherlands she had gotten off the boat and then she [15:17] dies then a third person dies which is the german passenger and there's one person who's at the [15:23] hospital right now and we know that they're the two crew members who are stuck on that ship who are [15:29] symptomatic at the moment and so again the big question is did they get this before they got on [15:36] the boat or was this something that spread while they were on the boat and authorities just trying to [15:42] figure out all of this as they test to make sure that it is this virus that's impacting so many people [15:48] along this ship hallie it has certainly put a spotlight or i should say a renewed spotlight on [15:52] hantavirus this of course is the virus people might remember more common in the southwest jean [15:56] hackman's wife i believe died from it i think it was just about two years ago now or a year ago [16:01] the transmissibility of it i mean i'm struck by how shaken that passenger that we showed you was i mean [16:06] they just want to know they're safe they can't know that right now what are experts saying like [16:10] what is the transmissibility of this thing yeah so it's rare it's usually small outbreaks but what [16:17] experts say is that when they do happen it's about a 40 chance of death so it is extremely [16:23] serious because this could progress to the point where you die essentially so it is serious but what [16:30] experts are also saying is that once they determine where it is and what it is it's easy to clean and [16:37] kill the virus so a lot of experts do believe that the people on the ship are safe at least relatively [16:43] safe at the moment here's what one doctor told us so for people who aren't on this cruise and aren't in [16:50] close contact with these people there is really no risk to them at all because it is such a confined [16:55] disease and such a confined area that the risk is minimal outside of that area and so experts believe [17:02] that the variant that infected these people is one that could result in person to person spread now [17:10] the thing is that they do have to be in very close quarters and so now that the people that have died [17:17] have been essentially taken off the boat and then you have the more serious people also at the hospital [17:22] and then likely the two that are still symptomatic secluded from everyone else that's why experts say [17:29] the risk is probably relatively low for the people on the ship and all obviously also the people off [17:34] the ship that encountered some of these passengers as they got on and off the ship Hallie [17:38] Camila Bernal thank you for staying on top of this for us appreciate that also tonight the airline [17:43] formerly known as spirit says everything's got to go the last couple of hours they told a bankruptcy [17:47] court they fought in their words valiantly to reorganize but they had no alternative to this [17:52] what they call orderly wind down what everyone else would call the sudden collapse of spirit so [17:58] we took spirit somewhere zero guarantee you can get back at least not on one of those yellow planes [18:02] as people have been finding out all weekend even today as they're showing up at the airport even [18:06] though they're being told don't go to the airport we have to call one of our uncles so if he can help [18:10] help us pay for the next flight because we did not have any money i just waited for my next flight and [18:16] it got canceled and the bags were somewhere inside the airport the affordableness that i was enjoying [18:24] is now gone away uh has been ripped from underneath of me some not so subtle moves by other airlines jet [18:32] blue for example reminding folks they plan to expand service out of fort lauderdale to 11 more [18:37] cities with two dozen more flights fort lauderdale of course is or was a big hub for spirit they're [18:42] going to also honor rewards points for some spirit loyalty members let me bring in tom costello who's [18:47] going to join us now um okay here's the thing at this point it's monday afternoon so if you were [18:51] flying somewhere in spirit this weekend you probably it's the memo you've gotten the memo that you [18:56] cannot get home you probably bought another flight you pay it out the nose maybe maybe you got one of [19:00] these deals that some of these other airlines are offering but at this point when do we start to see [19:04] the impact maybe across the board considering spirit has now shuttered that reduces competition [19:08] for other airlines so no matter what you fly your prices could go up yeah that's right but in context [19:14] here spirit is not the player it used to be right they only had about 1.1 of the entire domestic market [19:19] but here is the list of the most affected airports the airports that spirit had the biggest presence in [19:25] that includes fort lauderdale orlando newark detroit laguardia houston vegas dallas chicago atlanta [19:32] baltimore also on that list and so yeah if in and out of these cities you're going to feel it a [19:38] little bit more acutely by the way atlantic city new jersey 75 of their air service came from spirits [19:43] so they're really uh right now struggling and hoping that they're going to get more uh service now from [19:49] breeze that other low-cost carrier by its own acknowledgement by what it said itself spirit blamed [19:54] in part the rising jet fuel cost and that is because of course of this war against iran the [20:00] transportation secretary sean duffy had a different take on what is to blame for spirit's demise he's [20:05] pointing the finger at his predecessor pete buddha judge because he denied that jet blue merger watch this [20:10] we do want choices we do want competition that gives us the best price as consumers but he made the [20:17] wrong call right this if he hadn't taken a deep dive into spirit and in jet blue he would have saw [20:23] seeing that that merger would have been better for customers buddha judge's reaction to that is like [20:29] uh giving a very different kind of gut check you know it could be that both are true in a way i mean [20:34] first of all in the court filing itself today the bankruptcy court filing spirit cited essentially [20:41] the war and the high cost of jet fuel they're also in their second bankruptcy now is it possible that [20:47] in hindsight maybe that jet blue merger might have saved jobs it's possible but keeping in mind the [20:53] biden administration was interested and concerned about the loss of competition driving up airfares and [20:58] reducing options for passengers you know it may be one of those things where both sides there's there's [21:04] a nugget of truth to both sides here and buddha judge responding to saying he can't lower gas prices by [21:09] blurting out the names of a few democrats you see it here the administration he says needs to stop its [21:15] policies creating so much economic pain there's also this thing you may have come across it perhaps [21:20] on your feed tom i don't know if it's your algorithm but certainly maybe some of our viewers spirit 2.0 [21:24] this website that um 88 million people allegedly have pledged i should say 124 000 people have pledged [21:33] 88 million dollars how about that there's the numbers um to fix spirit to try to bring spirit back [21:39] so many people that the whole site crashed here's the guy who started the whole thing he sure thinks he [21:43] can pull it off it's a genius idea we nationalize spirit airlines owned by the people airlines gone [21:51] we make a new way let's buy an airline spirit in the sky you heard it in the background i like the music [21:59] is this could this have any chance listen i doubt it and here's why i say that um the government was [22:06] talking about a 500 million dollar essentially bailout lifeline and the creditors said no but keep in mind [22:12] spirit owes a lot of companies and a lot of people a lot of money right almost every one of their planes [22:18] is leased they've got to make good on all of that debt and the creditors finally said [22:22] we can't be sure that we're going to if they were to take the government lifeline for example they [22:28] couldn't be sure that they would eventually get paid themselves bottom line here is that those [22:32] creditors want this to go through bankruptcy court they want as much money on their dollar [22:37] as they can get all right i mean we'll see we'll see tom stranger this is america stranger things [22:43] have happened appreciate you thank you tom all right got to do some breaking news that just came [22:47] into us i got it maybe like 45 minutes ago not even you know that big it ends with us [22:51] humongous legal fight blake lively justin baldoni they have now come to a settlement in this years [22:57] long battle this is just weeks before the case was going to go to trial here's the thing don't ask me [23:02] how much it was for we don't know the terms yet those are not public yet but you'll remember that [23:05] lively accused baldoni of sexual harassment during the production of their movie back in 2024 it ends [23:10] with us lively also said baldoni's production company retaliated against her after she complained [23:15] about the alleged misconduct on the set of the film baldoni repeatedly denied lively's claims so here's [23:21] where we are tonight this joint statement interesting in and of itself a joint statement from attorneys for [23:27] baldoni and lively saying in their words we remain firmly committed to workplaces free of [23:31] improprieties and unproductive environments let me bring in chloe malas this thing was going to trial [23:37] we were going to see him at like this whole thing so many twists and turns on this very big deal moment [23:42] that that ensnared sort of a who's who of hollywood celebs i mean hallie it really doesn't come [23:49] as that much of a surprise why because this case was going to be so intense and their blake lively's legal team [23:57] had said that they wanted three weeks to put their case on not including what baldoni's team was going [24:04] to put on which would be likely equal time you were looking at a case that was going to dominate the [24:10] summer with text messages and so much private information coming out into the public for these [24:17] two major superstars and they probably ultimately decided hallie that they just didn't think it was [24:25] worth it so we don't know the details of this settlement but i do think it's interesting that [24:30] the lawyers say quote that they acknowledge the process presented challenges and recognize concerns [24:36] raised by miss lively which deserve to be heard but again it's not like an admission of any sort of guilt [24:44] on baldoni's side it's this like equal joint statement as you pointed out but can i ask you a question [24:50] like you talk about the the potential for damaging pieces of information to be revealed and i don't know if [24:55] we know the answer to this but based on some of the observers and experts that you've talked to [24:59] ahead of this was one of them going to come out looking kind of worse than the other do you know [25:03] what i mean like it was there was it was it going to be potentially more damaging to lively or baldoni [25:07] or we don't know i mean look we really don't know but you you were going to see a lot of the text [25:13] messages between the publicist that worked on behalf of justin baldoni you know the text messages [25:18] that we all saw in the new york times that you know we can bury anyone which was in reference to [25:24] burying blake lively metaphorically but also blake lively and her high profile marriage to ryan [25:31] reynolds her high profile friendship with taylor swift that had taken a major hit among this taylor [25:37] swift is getting married in new york reportedly this summer so you can imagine that blake lively was [25:43] weighing all of this they both have children they both have families they've both been very private [25:47] amid this drama over the last year and it probably didn't hurt uh the fact uh hallie here help that [25:54] the judge dismissed the majority of blake lively's claims against justin baldoni just a couple weeks [26:00] ago so really this was all going to be about the smear campaign the aiding and abetting we were going [26:06] to be hearing from colleen hoover who wrote it ends with us potentially co-stars evidence with us [26:11] jenny slate and these high profile people were going to be taking the stand but there was a lot [26:17] that was going to come out this was going to get so messy and again i've never thought that this was [26:23] about money even though blake lively said that she had like a hundred million dollars worth of damages [26:28] but i really think that this ultimately came down to their reputations and they probably decided and [26:33] blake lively probably decided that it would hurt her reputation more potentially going to trial [26:38] but obviously we're probably going to hear more in the days to come about how this all came together [26:43] chloe malas thank you very much we'll see a little bit later on for our look ahead at the met gala [26:47] appreciate you doing double duty tonight coming up here on the show the new detail is just into us [26:51] from the assault trial of one nfl star how he's responding to allegations he attacked a woman working [26:57] for him plus what the 9-11 attacks may have to do with rudy giuliani's hospitalization in florida [27:03] according to his team that's next so what's being called the man gioni effect tonight after [27:16] prosecutors say the man accused of setting the devastating palisades fire in california was in [27:21] their words fixated on luigi mangioni the man accused of killing of course the united health [27:26] care ceo it's not just him a different man charging connection to another big fire to paper products [27:32] warehouse in california allegedly compared himself to mangioni remember his alleged killing mangioni's [27:38] of the united health care leader set off a big wave of public outrage against the american health [27:42] insurance industry and it's created a kind of i don't know almost fandom you could say for mangi [27:48] himself look at all these different these are different court appearances from back last couple [27:51] months mangioni has had people show up outside with posters some people have like mangioni merch [27:57] basically we've heard from court that they've sent him like little heart-shaped notes of support like [28:02] this steve patterson is following this story for us and now you have others being accused of heinous [28:08] crimes citing mangioni right i mean talk about the palisades fire connection here yeah so this is [28:14] remember 30 year old jonathan rinder neckt is accused of lighting the fire that rekindled eventually [28:19] spread into the palisades did billions of dollars of damage destroyed whole neighborhoods killed 12 [28:24] people horrific stuff uh look some of this we know and this is all from this pre-trial memorandum [28:29] in regards to the trial that he's going to be facing a lot of it is just about how angry he was [28:34] prosecutors say he was really upset because of a failed romantic relationship and then therefore [28:40] didn't have a companion for new year's eve and remember the guy accused he was an uber driver at the [28:46] time of the fire so passengers have said things like he was angry at the world that he was driving [28:51] erratically that he was acting erratically that he was ranting and partially according to this new [28:56] document partially ranting about luigi mangioni and his trial um part of this memorandum says that he [29:02] had google searches like free luigi mangioni let's kill all the billionaires that he was really into [29:07] this eat the rich sort of ethos uh telling investigators when they arrested him they asked [29:13] him hey who would set a fire like this and he said uh that's what happens when the ceo uh when people [29:18] get desperate is what he alluded to when people are getting desperate crimes of this nature happen and [29:24] so just sort of going off into this mangioni theory there was also a chat gpt search where he's [29:30] sort of refining a search to make a gpt image that shows the rich watching a city burn which [29:37] according to this document and prosecutors almost looks exactly like what happened to the palisades [29:43] very stark very startling his attorney says this is all who we essentially that none of this really [29:49] fits with the profile of a person that's trying to burn a city down he called this reason for a [29:55] motive uh essentially not a reason for a motive and saying that his uh maintains the image the [30:01] innocence sorry of his client there what else can you tell us about some of these other cases that fall [30:05] under this umbrella of the so-called mangioni effect yeah look i mean again these are all [30:10] tangentially related some of them some of these people actually incited his name others are sort of [30:17] just tangentially tied to it right so you see the first one the palisades fire the second one there [30:21] remember this is this massachusetts woman 2025 accused of driving to the capital trying to kill [30:27] gop leaders saying that she was on a mission and partially influenced by mangioni the nfl shooting [30:33] that was something that prosecutors tried to tie because of the similar styling of course of the [30:38] shooting specifically like leaving behind sort of a breadcrumb trail for investigators similar to [30:44] what mangioni did and then this fourth one is the one that you were talking about this warehouse fire [30:48] 500 million dollars worth of product burned down the guy is filming himself burning certain products [30:54] talking about sort of the plight of capitalism and referencing sort of mangioni as the style [31:00] for what he did uh you know of course the u.s attorney has come out against this saying that [31:06] these political activities that are tied or influenced by mangioni should stop mangioni himself even [31:12] before all of this before right after the white house correspondence dinner his attorney released a [31:16] statement saying essentially keep my name out of your mouth mangioni had nothing to do with this [31:20] he does not endorse these this political violence whether that's part of course of the trial uh you [31:25] know remains to be seen as of course all of these people uh that we mentioned the warehouse the the [31:30] palisades fire mangioni himself have upcoming trials in the next recent months steve patterson super [31:36] interesting thank you for bringing this one to us tonight friend good to see you nbc news covers [31:40] hundreds of other stories every day and because it can be tough to read or watch or listen to them all our [31:45] bureau teams have done it for you this is what they tell us is going down in their regions in a [31:49] segment we call the local out of our northeast bureau schools in a new jersey town were forced [31:53] to close today because of well you're looking at it police say this fire started at a mattress [31:58] warehouse and then spread to some other buildings sunday fire is now contained but it's still really [32:03] smoky so that's a factor that they're dealing with out of our midwest bureau zoos across ohio are on [32:09] high alert after a string of bomb threats were called in all of them hoaxes police said [32:13] but officials say they're swatting incidents basically the cleveland zoo even had to be [32:17] evacuated yesterday so now the fbi is getting involved they're looking into it also out of our [32:22] southern bureau our first look at some of the 1500 rescued beagles looking for a new home animal [32:27] welfare activists say they negotiated a deal to buy the dogs from a research facility in wisconsin and [32:32] send them to florida you might remember that's after about several hundred protesters clashed with [32:38] police a few weeks back trying to free the dogs the activist group says it's hoping to get all these [32:42] vehicles adopted they say they've gotten 700 applications already coming up here on the show [32:48] our team's inside look at the trump administration's immigration crackdown what at least one ice [32:52] employee says happened when she tried to push back on the words scumbags that's next tonight new details [33:17] from workers inside ice and the department of homeland security who raised red flags that some policies [33:22] could lead to picking up the wrong people as part of what the white house called the largest deportation [33:27] force in u.s history here's one example an ice employee trying to push back on ice's demands was [33:32] fired she says and escorted out of her office by armed guards because she says she refused to call [33:38] immigrants who are alleged gang members scumbags scumbags in a press release she shared her story with [33:43] our senior homeland security correspondent julia ainsley who's joining us now for julia's new book [33:47] undue process and we're so glad to have you with us julia as you're talking about everything in this book [33:52] one of many stories of ways that immigration enforcement behind the scenes um has taken shape [33:58] right yeah that's right i mean really ali you know i've covered immigration since 2014 but what we saw [34:04] in 2025 was so different as you know the pace was just relentless and people i started to speak to [34:10] inside dhs said that they found a culture where it became harder and harder to push back i even detail [34:16] a time where christine ome is introducing her right-hand man cory lewandowski and telling ice leaders that [34:21] they don't start arresting more people he will rip your face off we assume that was a metaphorical [34:26] threat but that's just the kind of culture inside so i spoke to one woman who was a press officer she [34:32] was career she'd worked in dhs and in government for a long time and she says that there was a day [34:37] where she said what if we're wrong and it's because she was told to use the word scumbags in a press [34:43] release detailing immigrants who had been arrested for alleged gang membership but she said we can't really [34:48] prove that they're part of the gang what if we're wrong she believes that this is the reason for her [34:53] firing that came soon after and she said that her termination papers said that it was for a failure to [35:00] authorize a press release and a press conference now people i spoke to at dhs they didn't directly to [35:06] respond to this but they said she was fired for failure to do her job what about this professor you [35:12] spoke with who paid a professional price apparently for something that he told reporters [35:16] yeah that's right there was this amazing day of access actually where we got to go down to ice [35:21] headquarters and interview the ice director and learn how they were training new recruits they [35:25] wanted 10,000 new recruits by the end of the year and that was right at the time where the raids in dc [35:32] and chicago had gotten to such a point we're seeing a lot of car windows being broken and i asked this [35:36] professor who was training the new recruits what kind of evidence do you need that someone's committed a [35:41] crime before you break their window and he said that they needed reasonable suspicion that they [35:46] had broken a car window and you can see this here on page 20 of my book you'll see he told me i said [35:52] it was reasonable suspicion and that the person must be undocumented and the reason must be beyond [35:57] their skin color or native language that professor hallie was reassigned that very afternoon for what [36:02] he told reporters julia ainsley uh that is just a there's just a couple of things that people can [36:08] find out when they read your new book undue process it comes out tomorrow we are glad to have you here [36:12] today julia as i know you're up in new york promoting this thing we appreciate you thank you for your [36:17] reporting and for your time still to come we are taking you back to new york for fashion's biggest night [36:23] it is here and so is the controversy why the bezos backed met gala has triggered some boycotts as you [36:30] take a live look now at the carpet there's some looks there's some there's some there's some dresses [36:36] getting into that in a second to our original now and for it the first monday in may you know what we [37:01] have to do take you to the met gala where they are just starting to walk the carpet is that i think [37:06] that's zoe kravitz peeking through there did i catch a glimpse what does our camera look across the [37:11] street is that a bus welcome i think it is mbc i guess we didn't get a great spot on the carpet this [37:17] year but hey it's something look okay live stream here we go now we're closer very exciting a lot of [37:22] drama a lot of looks but did i say a lot of drama because there is a lot of drama it's the celebrities [37:27] turning heads but it's also jeff bezos and his wife lauren sanchez bezos that's anna wintoura by the [37:33] way arriving in a i'm not going to try to describe that uh that dress or this one i think it's [37:38] chaparelli i believe but there's lauren sanchez bezos she and her husband of course making a big donation [37:44] they were named honorary chairs of the met gala this year but you can see what that triggered [37:48] calls for boycotts subway ads hacked and more all of it putting a new spotlight on what happens [37:54] behind the scenes of fashion's biggest night chloe malas reports the met gala dubbed the party of the [38:04] year where the rich and famous celebrate celebrity and art and fashion too this year the focus not just [38:10] on millionaire stars but the event's billionaire funders lead sponsors amazon founder jeff bezos [38:16] and his wife lauren sanchez bezos named honorary co-chairs when the announcement was made that they [38:22] donated a reported 10 million dollars to the museum's costume institute the backlash was swift [38:28] with some accusing the couple of buying their way to the top of the fashion world [38:32] the met has always understood something the rest of the world is finally catching up to fashion [38:38] is art throughout manhattan signs of protest and boycott popping up like these in the subway [38:45] and an anti-billionaire group even lining fifth avenue with displays of empty water bottles a nod to [38:52] allegations about amazon's workplace conditions there are always protests around the met gala at the [38:58] press conference today lauren sanchez bezos really underscored her and her husband's charitable giving [39:05] to fashion in a way that i think was maybe directly addressing some of that criticism long-time co-chair [39:12] former american vogue editor anna wintour also appearing unfazed at a press preview attended by nbc news [39:19] touting that this year they raised more than 40 million dollars the fashion wing of the met typically [39:25] relied on this event's 75 000 tickets the institute telling nbc news it's now building an endowment [39:32] to safeguard for the future the costume institute did not answer our question about the controversy [39:37] around jeff bezos and his wife lauren neither did team bezos the night is a who's who of hollywood [39:43] sports and culture with co-chairs nicole kidman venus williams and beyonce making her first return in a [39:50] decade adding to the hype of winter's big event the successful release of the devil wears prada 2 [39:56] sorry who is this the theme here is costume art how artists have celebrated the human body through the [40:03] centuries we got a sneak peek of the new condé m nass galleries all right let's go check it out [40:09] tonight on the red carpet you can expect skin skin and more skin embracing the body in all different forms [40:16] an emotional moment for swimsuit designer sonia vera featured in the disabled body section as [40:21] somebody in fashion and then i became disabled about eight and a half years ago if you would have [40:29] told me that i would be here i would have never believed it even with the extra tension this year [40:35] through all the glitz and glam the gala can still make its stamp for some people chloe malas it is their [40:43] super bowl as we're taking a live look at the red carpet i should note we showed anna winter she is i'm [40:47] told she's wearing chanel a feathered chanel look for her um and it's a chanel hallie what'd you say [40:54] custom chanel not just chanel made for her hallie i mean when you're anna went tour that's what's [41:01] going to happen um what's so interesting here and i mean you got it i got it at the piece is this [41:06] tension that is inherent in a way that we haven't always seen with the met gala before talk us through [41:10] what else we can expect tonight i mean look there is always going to be criticism of an event like the [41:16] met right which is the pomp and the the met gala pomp and circumstance the opulence i mean let's just [41:22] put it this way tickets start at seventy five thousand dollars right and then you have a [41:27] billionaire at the helm with his new wife so a lot of people aren't happy about it um but again i think [41:32] people are here for the fashion and what i'm confused by is this morning when i was at the press [41:38] preview going through the exhibit you are seeing like you know cleavage and corsets and skin and [41:45] really we are seeing people be a little bit more conservative on the carpet tonight interesting a [41:50] lot of flowers um a lot of bright pops of color and that is the whole thing every year at the met gala [41:56] there is a theme that is encouraged but people really ultimately wear what they want to wear it's a [42:03] moment where you can have your uh 15 seconds that photo that is so important as a celebrity and [42:10] especially it makes and breaks the careers of fashion designers at the met gala i mean really [42:16] if you wear something that gets you on the best dress list it can you know really catapult you in the [42:21] fashion industry and if your celebrity ends up on the worst dress the morning after hallie that is not a [42:27] headline that you want at all you know who gets an award shout out to the valiant camera person who is [42:32] fighting for their lives across the street there of the met gala doing their best to try to give us [42:37] john let's go just a minute ago our executive producer joe balanti i've said if you want to send [42:41] me to the met i will only go up on the carpet hallie what is the carpet this year is it yellow brick like [42:47] it looks yellow brick road-esque or what is the theme you know your guess is as good as mine it looks like [42:53] a fairy tale right it looks it does yes you know sleeping beauty that's what that that is the vibe [42:59] chloe malas appreciate you thank you very much for all of it more to watch and we'll see those [43:03] lists tomorrow thank you that does it for us for this hour we've got a lot more coverage [43:07] picking up right now coming on the air tonight with the brand new details on a shooting here in [43:22] washington an update just in the last 45 minutes after secret service says somebody fired at their [43:27] officers just steps from the washington monument we've got more from police and a live report from [43:32] the scene in just a second plus some new details on that deadly car ramming in germany what police say [43:37] about the moment that car plowed into a crowd on a busy street there killing at least two people [43:42] plus what we're hearing from on board that cruise ship the emotional plea from one passenger with [43:48] that ship not allowed to dock people basically stuck on board because of that rare rodent virus outbreak [43:53] that's killed at least three people then breaking news late today you know that blowout legal battle [43:58] between blake lively and justin baldoni it ends with a settlement we've got more on why in just a minute [44:04] then the new sentence for britney spears is she's now pleading guilty to reckless driving after her [44:09] arrest for a dui last month that's coming up a little bit later in the show hey i'm hallie and [44:15] we are starting tonight with breaking news here in washington in just the last 30 minutes or so we've [44:18] learned a man was shot by secret service just steps from the washington monument with somebody else [44:23] apparently a bystander caught in the crossfire want to show you a map of the scene right near the [44:28] national mall it's on the corner of independence and 15th so this is not like super close to the white [44:33] house but it is very close to the national mall and it's in the same downtown vicinity basically [44:37] huge huge tourist area there i want to show you the scene here too you see dc police you see [44:43] you know people milling about right there secret service wants everybody to stay away they've locked [44:47] this area down the deputy director of the secret service says the person who shot at the officer [44:53] there hit apparently the bystander we understand it's a child he also says it's not clear whether there [44:58] have been any connections to that recent assassination attempt of course the white house correspondence [45:02] dinner just 10 days or so ago listen to this we're patrolling this area and every site we do 24 7 [45:11] hardcore whether or not it was directed to the president or not i don't know but we will find out [45:16] i want to show you some new video now our team capturing national guardsmen running toward the [45:21] scene all of it prompting a brief evacuation off the north lawn at the white house although reporters [45:26] have been left back out there you can hear that's a little bit of it from the white house there you [45:33] heard that officer saying you need to go now basically let me get to gary grumbach who has made his [45:36] way to the scene um we've gotten an update here from the secret service in the last couple of minutes [45:41] from law enforcement etc walk us through it all yeah exactly so in terms of who is injured in this case [45:47] we do know that a juvenile was injured uh being caught in the crossfire as you mentioned by the [45:53] individual that shot uh the bullet uh towards this individual we do know he was treated with non-life [45:59] threatening injuries he's going to be okay uh the secret service did engage gunfire with this [46:04] individual who was being suspicious apparently for several hours in this area uh that person has [46:10] been transported to the hospital of course we do expect charges to be filed against him in the coming [46:15] hours as well as for any secret service agents there were no secret service agents that were injured [46:20] in this incident even though there were several that were fired upon by this suspicious individual who [46:26] was tracked first by some plainclothes officers and then was immediately engaged by officers in secret [46:33] service clothing ali do we have any sense gary of the condition of that bystander we did the [46:40] bystander is a juvenile we know he's going to be okay he was treated with non-life-threatening [46:44] injuries uh and released uh on his own recognizes this is a real touristy area as you mentioned [46:49] yeah uh in in this area but we're about a half mile from the white house as the crow flies [46:54] right near the washington money right here we can show you white house this way monuments this way [46:58] the incident happened right here at this corner uh so certainly a ton of tourists it's it's it's [47:03] spring season it's eighth grade trip season right so a lot of young people in this area at all times [47:08] here hallie and no word on any kind of motivation here right but we do understand i think you briefly [47:13] touched on this but the vp's motorcade um i think was going by we think unrelated we don't know [47:18] that's a question mark yeah so minutes before this all happened the vice president was moving across [47:24] town in a motorcade so that did happen we do believe it was completely unrelated to what [47:29] happened here and we do believe the suspicious person was in the area and was being tracked by [47:34] some of these uh plainclothes officers before the market even went by so we do believe those are two [47:40] incidents completely unrelated from each other gary grombach and clearly obviously a a new big [47:45] news story here in washington as we see those cameras there behind you gary thank you very much [47:49] keep us posted on any other updates we appreciate you being there also tonight new details on a deadly [47:53] car ramming overseas police say at least two people were killed after a driver plowed into a crowd on [47:58] a busy street in germany two other people were badly hurt big police presence right there and you can [48:04] see the smashed car that's it the white one obviously to the left of your screen no word on the motive [48:10] from the suspect who right now is in police custody i want to get to raf sanchez who's joining us with [48:14] more and raf we have some of the new video of somebody on the ground who was getting put into handcuffs [48:18] after the crash what do we know about this person and what do we know about the status of this [48:21] investigation yeah hallie so police say they arrested the driver of that white suv he was behind the [48:28] wheel of the vehicle when they took him into custody you see him pinned to the ground there they say he [48:34] is a 33 year old german citizen they do not know the motivation yet and hallie germany has extremely [48:41] strict privacy laws so it might be some time before we even learn his name let alone details of the police [48:47] investigation but authorities are making clear they believe this was deliberate they are saying [48:53] this was a violent rampage it happened in the center of the city of leipzig and i want you to take a [48:59] listen to a little bit of sound from the mayor describing the mood in his city right now i am deeply shocked [49:08] and can only express my solidarity with the victims families and note with dismay that two people have [49:14] lost their lives as a result of such an act which remains incomprehensible to this day and probably [49:21] always will be so the mayor mentioning two people killed two more severely wounded 20 other people [49:28] affected authorities are saying we don't know exactly what that means it may be shock it may be people [49:33] who suffered minor injuries when they were running away from the sea and hallie this would have been [49:38] shocking under any circumstances but it is especially so because this is the fourth car ramming attack in [49:45] germany in less than two years you might remember back in december 2024 suspect rammed a car into a [49:53] christmas market in the city of magdeburg that killed six people and then last year there were two separate [49:59] attacks just two weeks apart one of them in munich one of them in monaheim and if you go back 10 years [50:04] hallie there was an isis attack in berlin again at a christmas market that killed a dozen people that was [50:10] the worst terror attack in germany in decades very wide range of motivations across these attacks some [50:18] of it islamist jihadist terrorism some of it right-wing extremism in some cases hallie just mental health [50:24] severe mental health problems we do not know at this stage the motivation behind the ramming earlier [50:30] today in leipzig hallie raf sanchez thank you very much for bringing us up to speed on all of it appreciate [50:35] it president trump back here in washington has a new threat now out against iran saying [50:40] in an interview with fox news that the country will be in his words blown off the face of the [50:45] earth if it attacks ships american ships that are guiding other ships through the strait of hormuz [50:51] that's right after the u.s said it blew up iranian helicopters and boats in response to iranian [50:55] attacks on ships in the strait all of it is raising questions if you're like what does that mean the [50:59] ceasefire is still intact or not it's raising questions about that very thing here's what we do know [51:05] though that the national average for gas prices has spiked like 50 since the war against iran started [51:11] in california one part of it gas is officially hitting seven bucks a gallon and listen we get [51:18] it california's always got higher gas in the rest of the country but how about the midwest look at [51:21] indiana the average cost for a gallon of gas is up a dollar in the last week think about that a week [51:28] ago you go to fill up maybe it's now time a week later you've done your commutes you go to fill up [51:32] again it's a buck more all across the country people are telling our teams they're really [51:36] feeling it it's horrible i know i can't deal with it so it sucks unfortunately i think we're getting [51:44] close to the point where people aren't going to be able to do it anymore for people who got to go to [51:47] work and landscapers and whatnot it's got to be crazy i want to get to maggie vespa who's live for us [51:54] in chicago in the midwest there there's a bunch of factors playing into this maggie and people are not [51:58] happy about it right yeah hallie for sure i mean you talk about the impact of the war in iran obviously [52:04] that's being felt nationwide as you laid out but here in the midwest it's a really interesting and [52:09] clearly impactful mixed bag because we also have the storyline of this key refinery in whiting indiana [52:16] it's a bp refinery that went down over the weekend stopped functioning bp now saying it's due to a power [52:22] outage that actually just brought the entire plant down they say they've now fixed it it's back up but [52:27] that's a big reason why you're seeing these massive spikes in particular really across the midwest including [52:32] indiana obviously also michigan wisconsin and here in illinois in fact some key counties our team [52:39] zeroed in on in ohio and kentucky they've seen nearly 90 spikes in the price of gas since the war [52:47] began and a lot of that because of this refinery outage a lot of it's spiking in the last week or so [52:51] here in chicago behind me 579 a gallon here at this mobile this is in the city it's topping six bucks [52:58] in some parts of chicago and people tell us they've been filling up their tanks and a lot of them not [53:03] filling up fully just putting in like 10 to 15 bucks what they need to get by they say the fact [53:08] that the war is exacerbating this so much here and nationwide that adds another layer of frustration [53:14] check this out i hope things go down go down back to normal because gas is something we all rely on [53:22] it's like our compulsory thing for every day yeah i think it's i hope it doesn't go bad but i don't [53:29] see anything getting better it's getting worse yeah obviously everybody feeling that tension um [53:37] hallie just in the last week or so to kind of drive this home midwest wise uh the gallon the average [53:42] price for a gallon of gas up 60 cents here in chicago just in the last week it's it's been a rough week [53:48] here in the midwest and it's a big spike and listen the driving factor behind it is as you have laid out [53:53] there is that war against iran which is also potentially going to have a ripple effect [53:57] experts are warning about this kind of second wave not on gas but on a lot of other stuff you need like [54:02] your groceries yeah exactly one economist called gas prices kind of the opening act of this like [54:09] massive ripple effect across our entire economy and they say obviously gas goes into the price of a [54:14] number of goods whether it comes with delivering those goods uh or in their production you can see [54:19] groceries with plastic packaging personal care items so things like beauty items also medicine [54:25] aluminum obviously prescription medicine and one economist said this could take months to really [54:29] play out saying potentially we could see the prices of a lot of these just everyday consumer goods [54:34] spiking in conjunction with the busy back to school shopping season obviously hurting [54:40] a lot of these families all the more hallie maggie vespa live for us there in chicago thank you [54:45] very much also tonight we'll take you to oprahoma where police are trying to figure out who started [54:49] shooting at a campground party with 12 people now in the hospital here's some audio from dispatch [54:54] as the whole thing was going down there's a shooting there's going to be multiple victims [55:02] want to show you some video that appears to show the party before the shooting happened [55:07] officials say in all 23 people were hurt ryan chandler has made his way to edmond oklahoma he is [55:12] live for us now near the scene bring us up to speed on the investigation well hallie we're learning [55:19] more details from people who were there last night we spoke with witnesses very young people 18 and 19 [55:25] years old who said they were attending a party along with some 250 other young people and that's when [55:32] gunshots rang out hallie it is one thing to hear the already appalling numbers behind this shooting at [55:38] least 23 people injured many of them very young but then you hear the the very disturbing details of what [55:45] it was actually like to to be in that panic in that chaos one one man told us that he actually ran into [55:51] the lake to avoid the gunfire one of his friends showed us where he was hit uh he says that he he [55:57] believes that he was hit in his hip as as this chaos uh rang out i want you to listen to a little of [56:03] their testimony here i'll see so many young girls in pain screaming crying for help i don't know where [56:11] shots are coming from it was coming it was like 25 shots coming from different areas they returned to the [56:19] scene in confusion trying to get answers as well today all as the police are still looking for who [56:25] may have pulled the trigger it's unclear whether they're looking for one or multiple suspects but [56:31] they have not not released any more clarity about the status of that investigation as we go into the [56:37] evening hallie okay ryan chandler keep us posted thank you very much for being there got to get this [56:42] some breaking news just into us in the last maybe 90 minutes uh the the unit's fight it's like legal fight [56:48] between blake lively and justin baldoni it's been going on for a couple years since their movie came [56:52] out in 2024 it's hit a fever pitch but now late tonight a settlement after this years-long battle [56:58] the case was supposed to go to trial just weeks from now we don't know what the settlement terms [57:03] are yet but remember keep in mind that this has been dragged out now uh for a little bit this is [57:08] the whole thing is after lively accused baldoni of sexual harassment during the production of it [57:12] ends with us lively alleged baldoni's production company then retaliated against her after she complained [57:18] about the alleged misconduct on the set of the film baldoni has repeatedly denied lively's claims [57:23] tonight we have something interesting here despite the bitter battle between the two [57:27] a joint statement from both of their attorneys saying you see it here we remain firmly committed [57:33] to workplaces free of improprieties and unproductive environments i want to bring in our legal [57:38] analyst danny savalos now this thing was going to go to trial in a matter of weeks um is it surprising [57:44] to you that they've they've come to a settlement here is the timing interesting give us your give [57:48] us your you know uh put your lawyer hat on and walk us through it no surprise whatsoever the vast [57:55] majority of civil cases settle before trial and often it takes getting to the eve of trial for the parties [58:03] to get real because especially in civil cases because the burden is just 51 percent it truly is the [58:09] closest thing to a coin flip for both sides and it is a very very expensive coin flip one that costs [58:15] hundreds of thousands of dollars for these litigants to eventually leave it ever in the hands of a jury [58:21] after they've assured their own mutually assured destruction through damaging testimony from both sides [58:29] um would what would the what would the terms look like here and i know i'm asking you to be a little [58:33] bit speculative because we don't have them yet but in a case like this do we have any sense of like [58:38] what the numbers would be like i think she's been asking i believe for like 100 million in trial right [58:42] in damages yeah i will i will definitely speculate because we will likely never know what the terms of [58:47] this agreement are oh interesting okay by many many confidentiality clauses and here's the thing hallie [58:54] don't be surprised if this was what we call a walk away this happens all the time in emotionally charged [59:02] litigation like this where you have individuals who are wealthy who are basically fueling this and paying [59:07] for this litigation a walk away is where after you've both spent hundreds of thousands of dollars [59:12] on attorney's fees you say you know what let's just walk away everyone bears their own costs i [59:17] wouldn't be surprised if not one dollar changed hands that's so interesting okay danny savallas [59:23] thank you very much for being with us appreciate it thanks also tonight the airline formerly known [59:28] as spirit says everything's gotta go they told a bankruptcy court late today that they fought [59:33] valiantly to reorganize but instead they had no alternative to an orderly wind down of operation [59:39] in their words and everybody else's words the sudden collapse of spirit obviously left tons of people [59:45] stranded with huge questions after the shutdown early saturday morning some people finding that out [59:51] when they showed up at the airport listen to this we had to call one of our uncles so if he can help [59:58] help us pay for the next flight because we did not have any money i just waited for my next flight and it [1:00:04] what got canceled and the backs were somewhere inside the airport the affordableness that i was enjoying [1:00:11] is now gone away uh has been ripped from underneath of me some airlines seem to be sensing an opportunity [1:00:19] here like jet blue for example reminding folks they plan to expand service out of fort lauderdale to [1:00:24] 11 more cities fort lauderdale of course was a big hub for spirit they're going to put in place [1:00:29] more than two dozen new flights jet blue will also honor rewards points for some spirit loyalty members let me [1:00:35] bring in tom costello who's covering this all for us here's the thing at this point it's monday [1:00:41] afternoon so if you were flying somewhere in spirit this weekend you probably it's the memo [1:00:45] you've gotten the memo that you could not get home you probably bought another flight you pay it out [1:00:49] the nose maybe maybe you got one of these deals that some of these other airlines are offering but [1:00:52] at this point when do we start to see the impact maybe across the board considering spirit [1:00:57] has now shuttered that reduces competition for other airlines so no matter what you fly your prices could go up [1:01:02] yeah that's right but in context here spirit is not the player it used to be right they only had [1:01:07] about 1.1 of the entire domestic market but here is the list of the most affected airports the [1:01:13] airports that spirit had the biggest presence in that includes fort lauderdale orlando newark [1:01:19] detroit laguardia houston vegas dallas chicago atlanta baltimore also on that list and so yeah if in and out of [1:01:27] these cities you're going to feel it a little bit more acutely by the way atlantic city new jersey 75 [1:01:32] of their air service came from spirits so they're really uh right now struggling and hoping that [1:01:37] they're going to get uh more uh service now from breeze that other low-cost carrier by its own [1:01:42] acknowledgement by what it said itself spirit blamed in part the rising jet fuel cost and that [1:01:48] is because of course of this war against iran the transportation secretary sean duffy had a different take [1:01:53] on what is to blame for spirit's demise he's pointing the finger at his predecessor pete [1:01:58] buddha judge because he denied that jet blue merger watch this we do want choices we do want competition [1:02:04] that gives us the best price as consumers but he made the wrong call right this if he had taken a [1:02:11] deep dive into spirit into jet blue he would have saw seen that that merger would have been better for [1:02:16] customers buddha judge's reaction to that is like uh give it a very different kind of gut check you [1:02:22] know it could be that both are true in a way i mean first of all in the court filing itself today the [1:02:28] bankruptcy court filing spirit cited essentially the war and the high cost of jet fuel they're also in [1:02:35] their second bankruptcy now is it possible that in hindsight maybe that jet blue merger might have [1:02:40] saved jobs it's possible but keeping in mind the biden administration was interested and concerned [1:02:46] about the loss of competition driving up airfares and reducing options for passengers you know it may be one [1:02:52] of those things where both sides there's there's a nugget of truth to both sides here and buddha [1:02:57] judge responding to saying he can't lower gas prices by blurting out the names of a few democrats [1:03:02] you see it here the administration he says needs to stop its policies creating so much economic pain [1:03:07] there's also this thing you may have come across it perhaps on your feed tom i don't know if it's your [1:03:12] algorithm but certainly maybe some of our viewers spirit 2.0 this website that um 88 million people [1:03:18] allegedly have pledged i should say 124 000 people have pledged 88 million dollars how about that [1:03:25] there's the numbers um to fix spirit to try to bring spirit back so many people that the whole [1:03:30] site crashed here's the guy who started the whole thing he sure thinks he can pull it off this is a [1:03:36] genius idea we nationalize spirit airlines airlines go we make a new let's buy an airline [1:03:45] spirit in the sky you heard it in the background i like the music is this is could this have any [1:03:51] chance listen i doubt it and here's why i say that um the the government was talking about a 500 [1:03:57] million dollar essentially bailout lifeline and the creditors said no keep in mind spirit owes a lot [1:04:04] of companies and a lot of people a lot of money right almost every one of their planes is leased they've [1:04:10] got to make good on all of that debt and the creditors finally said we can't be sure that we're going to [1:04:16] if if they were to take the government lifeline for example they couldn't be sure that they would [1:04:20] eventually get paid themselves bottom line here is that those creditors want this to go through [1:04:25] bankruptcy court they want as much money on their dollar as they can get all right i mean we'll see [1:04:30] we'll see tom stranger this is america stranger things have happened appreciate you so listen we got [1:04:37] to get to a new update now on that cruise ship that's basically in the atlantic unable to dock [1:04:41] because of the deadly rare rodent virus outbreak turns out there's now seven total cases of hantavirus [1:04:49] on board that ship according to the world health organization in just the last couple of minutes [1:04:53] so now you've got basically 150 people stuck on board off the coast of west africa because again the [1:04:58] ship's not docking one passenger is kind of emotionally here detailing what it's like to be on [1:05:04] board again three people have been killed watch and what's happening right now is very real for all of [1:05:12] us here there's a lot of uncertainty and that's the hardest part all we want right now is to feel [1:05:21] safe to have clarity and to get home humans typically get hantavirus from infected rodents [1:05:30] and it can be pretty serious according to the cdc about 35 percent of infections can be deadly [1:05:35] i want to bring in camila bernal who's joining us now a horrific situation here the cruise operator [1:05:41] says the ship may try to get to a dock like around the canary islands what is going on where does this go [1:05:46] well heli you said it they're stuck there's really nowhere for them to go right now because officials [1:05:53] are saying they have to coordinate with health experts but also with local authorities to make [1:05:59] sure that it's safe to get this entire ship off of the board essentially and so what authorities are [1:06:06] saying is that it could take some time as they continue to investigate they say there are medical [1:06:11] personnel on board to help the people that are currently symptomatic and then we have a timeline [1:06:17] essentially of what happened because first it was a 70 year old man who died then his wife 69 year [1:06:24] old woman they're both from the netherlands she had gotten off the boat and then she dies [1:06:29] then a third person dies which is the german passenger and there's one person who's at the hospital [1:06:35] right now and we know that they're the two crew members who are stuck on that ship who are symptomatic [1:06:42] at the moment and so again the big question is did they get this before they got on the boat or was [1:06:49] this something that spread while they were on the boat and authorities just trying to figure out all of [1:06:54] this as they test to make sure that it is this virus that's impacting so many people on this ship [1:07:01] hallie it has certainly put a spotlight or i should say a renewed spotlight on hantavirus this of course [1:07:05] is the virus people might remember more common in the southwest gene hackman's wife i believe died [1:07:10] from it i think it was just about two years ago now or a year ago the transmissibility of it i mean [1:07:15] i'm struck by how shaken that passenger that we showed you was i mean they just want to know they're [1:07:19] safe they can't know that right now what are experts saying like what is the transmissibility of this thing [1:07:25] yeah so it's rare it's usually small outbreaks but what experts say is that when they do [1:07:31] happen it's about a 40 chance of death so it is extremely serious because this could progress [1:07:38] to the point where you die essentially so it is serious but what experts are also saying [1:07:44] is that once they determine where it is and what it is it's easy to clean and kill the virus so a lot [1:07:50] of experts do believe that the people on the ship are safe at least relatively safe at the moment here's [1:07:57] what one doctor told us so for people who aren't on this cruise and aren't in close contact with these [1:08:03] people there is really no risk to them at all because it is such a confined disease in such a [1:08:08] confined area that the risk is minimal outside of that area and so experts believe that the variant [1:08:15] that infected these people is one that could result in person to person spread now the thing is that [1:08:23] they do have to be in very close quarters and so now that the people that have died have been [1:08:29] essentially taken off the boat and then you have the more serious uh people also at the hospital and [1:08:34] then likely the two that are still symptomatic secluded from everyone else that's why experts say [1:08:40] the risk is probably relatively low for the people on the ship and all obviously also the people off [1:08:46] the ship that encountered some of these passengers as they got on and off the ship Hallie [1:08:51] Camila Bernal thank you for staying on top of this for us appreciate that still ahead for us on the [1:08:55] show why broadway performances of the book of mormon could go dark for a while plus the race to rescue [1:09:01] survivors after a stunning plane crash in brazil let's get you over to the five things our team [1:09:21] thinks you should know about tonight number one officials say two people are dead two others badly [1:09:25] heard after a small plane crashed into a building in brazil you see the aftermath here the plane just [1:09:30] totally destroyed no word yet on what happened number two the supreme court has temporarily [1:09:34] restored nationwide access to the abortion pill mifepristone by mail that's just days after a [1:09:39] lower court ruled that people have to go to the doctors in person to try to get it the pause is [1:09:44] going to give the higher court some time to consider next steps in this case and what could be one of [1:09:48] the first major rulings on abortion since 2022 number three the book of mormons home on broadway is [1:09:54] going to have to be shut down for repairs after a fire at that theater luckily no performances were [1:09:59] happening when that fire occurred but officials say an electrical room was damaged they're still [1:10:04] looking into it number four dolly parton is out today with what she's calling some good news and [1:10:09] a little bad news the bad news she's got to cancel her las vegas residency because of her health she [1:10:14] rescheduled some of those dates last year for the same reason that's a bummer but here's the good news [1:10:19] she says she is responding well to her treatments that is good she's just not quite ready to return to [1:10:24] the stage just yet a lot of people thinking about dolly they're really pulling for her number five [1:10:29] check this out a very rare rainbow cloud in indonesia look at this it is it's like neon it's [1:10:36] amazing to look at meteorologists say most of the time it happens without rain when the sun hits a [1:10:42] cloud at a certain angle and then little ice crystals inside the clouds scatter the sun's light [1:10:46] very incredible also tonight one of president trump's closest confidants is in the hospital [1:10:52] apparently with pneumonia a spokesperson for the former new york city mayor rudy giuliani [1:10:56] says his illness is complicated by a prior diagnosis of restrictive airway disease which he [1:11:02] says giuliani got partly because of what he did on september 11th obviously giuliani the mayor at the [1:11:07] time for his part president trump calls giuliani a true warrior and alluded to giuliani's failed [1:11:12] push to try to overturn the 2020 election while working as the president's personal attorney of course [1:11:17] a push that was based on an election fraud lie the mayor former mayor is 81 he he seemed a little bit [1:11:23] sick or showed some signals that he maybe wasn't feeling 100 during a live stream on friday watch this [1:11:31] and my voice is a little under the weather uh ryan riley is joining me now what else do we know um [1:11:39] you know so the we have this expert who says you know this we've seen some of these 9 11 related [1:11:44] symptoms come up take a listen we see 9 11 related syndromes in anywhere from 10 to 30 percent of [1:11:54] workers and people exposed to the incidents around 9 11. it is not unusual to see this restrictive [1:12:01] airway disease kind of manifest and and demonstrate itself decades after an inciting event so she's [1:12:09] basically saying dr patel there that it could be 20 years later you know 25 years later that we see [1:12:14] something like this yeah and i mean that's you know that's what this spokesperson is telling us that [1:12:17] this is you know really potentially related to um that incident there but you know obviously it's [1:12:21] it's good news for him and his family that he's breathing on his own as before he was not um able [1:12:26] to do that by his own so there seems to be some improvement but they still say he's in critical but [1:12:30] stable condition okay and no timeline at all yet on if and when he'd be released from the hospital [1:12:34] okay got it ryan riley thank you for that update appreciate that uh today in other news to britney [1:12:39] spears pleading guilty to reckless driving after her dui arrest in la last month she was sentenced to [1:12:44] a year of probation and a night of jail which amounts to time served she'll also have to [1:12:48] extend a substance abuse program she wasn't required to appear herself in court but her [1:12:52] attorney did speak for her saying that she has taken significant steps to put in place positive change [1:12:58] she just got out of a rehab program she put herself in after the arrest police say they found both [1:13:02] alcohol and drugs in her system in an incident that was pretty worrying for her fans they were already [1:13:07] a little concerned by spears's apparently erratic behavior online she'd been posting videos of her [1:13:11] dancing sometimes with knives etc liz breutz is following this one she failed her sobriety test [1:13:18] right but but there's some questions of the alcohol limit and sort of where she was on that how did the [1:13:23] judge decide this sentence today yeah hey hallie so uh yeah she did fail her sobriety test at the scene [1:13:30] when she was arrested uh in early uh early march um authorities have never confirmed her exact blood [1:13:37] alcohol level or whether she was actually over the legal limit but she did show signs of impairment at [1:13:43] the scene and that is what then led to her arrest a judge did accept this plea deal as you mentioned [1:13:49] what it's actually specifically here in california called a wet reckless charge essentially a lesser [1:13:54] offense tied to alcohol and because he agreed to that plea deal that is what uh led her to avoid more [1:14:01] jail time she already served the one day required when she was arrested uh britney spears's attorney [1:14:08] as you mentioned did put out a statement um saying she has taken significant steps to implement [1:14:12] positive change which is clearly reflected in the district attorney's decision to reduce the charge [1:14:18] in this case and dismiss the dui and he went on to say britney appreciates this discretion [1:14:22] and is also grateful for the outpouring of support she's received it was also interesting to hear [1:14:27] them cite her rehab stint as part of this too right because she checked into rehab pretty much right [1:14:33] after her arrest yeah and that was a significant part from my understanding of why uh the they [1:14:39] ultimately did accept this plea and gave her this lesser charge uh because she showed that she was [1:14:44] taking it seriously she was uh working to take steps to make sure this wouldn't happen again she [1:14:50] checked herself into rehab they took that into account as well as the fact that this is her first offense [1:14:56] so uh that was another factor here and i will also point out hallie that a rep for britney spears [1:15:02] after the arrest did say that hopefully this is going to be a first step in long overdue change that [1:15:08] needs to occur in britney's life uh it went on to say her boys are going to be spending more time with [1:15:13] her her loved ones are going to come up with an overdue needed plan to set her up for success for [1:15:18] well-being liz kroyce live for us there in la liz thank you very much for that the state of emergency [1:15:24] tonight in new jersey with a big fire shutting down schools in one town why crews say the threat [1:15:29] isn't over yet plus luigi mangioni's name is popping up in another court case we'll tell [1:15:34] you why some are calling it the mangioni effect well beyond his own trials that's next so what's [1:15:48] being called the mangioni effect tonight after prosecutors say the man accused of setting the [1:15:52] devastating palisades fire in california was in their words fixated on luigi mangioni the man accused [1:15:59] of killing of course the united healthcare ceo it's not just him a different man charged in [1:16:05] connection to another big fire to paper products warehouse in california allegedly compared himself [1:16:09] to mangioni remember his alleged killing mangioni's of the united healthcare leader set off a big wave [1:16:14] of public outrage against the american health insurance industry and it's created a kind of i don't know [1:16:20] almost fandom you could say from mangioni himself look at all these different these are different [1:16:24] court appearances from back last couple months mangioni has had people show up outside with [1:16:28] posters some people have like mangioni merch basically we've heard from court that they've [1:16:33] sent him like little heart-shaped notes of support like this steve patterson is following this story [1:16:38] for us and now you have others being accused of heinous crimes citing mangioni right i mean talk [1:16:45] about the palisades fire connection here yeah so this is remember 30 year old jonathan rinder neckt [1:16:50] is accused of lighting the fire that rekindled eventually spread into the palisades did billions [1:16:55] of dollars of damage destroyed whole neighborhoods killed 12 people horrific stuff uh look some of this [1:17:01] we know and this is all from this pre-trial memorandum in regards to the trial that he's going to be [1:17:05] facing a lot of is just about how angry he was prosecutors say he was really upset because of a failed [1:17:12] romantic relationship and then therefore didn't have a companion for new year's eve and remember the guy [1:17:18] accused he was an uber driver at the time of the fire so passengers have said things like he was angry [1:17:23] at the world that he was driving erratically that he was acting erratically that he was ranting [1:17:28] and partially according to this new document partially ranting about luigi magioni and his trial [1:17:35] part of this memorandum says that he had google searches like free luigi magioni let's kill all the [1:17:40] billionaires that he was really into this eat the rich sort of ethos uh telling investigators when they [1:17:46] arrested him they asked him hey who would set a fire like this and he said uh that's what happens [1:17:51] when the ceo uh when people get desperate is what he alluded to when people are getting desperate [1:17:56] crimes of this nature happen and so just sort of going off into this magioni theory there was also a [1:18:02] chat gpt search where he's sort of refining a search to make a gpt image that shows the rich watching [1:18:10] a city burn which according to this document and prosecutors almost looks exactly like what [1:18:15] happened to the palisades very stark very startling his attorney says this is all hui essentially that [1:18:22] none of this really fits with the profile of a person that's trying to burn a city down he called [1:18:28] this reason for a motive uh essentially not a reason for a motive and saying that his uh maintains [1:18:34] the image the uh innocence sorry of his client there what else can you tell us about some of these other [1:18:39] cases that fall under this umbrella of the so-called man johnny effect yeah look i mean again these [1:18:44] are all tangentially related some of them some of these people actually incited his name others [1:18:50] are sort of just tangentially tied to it right so you see the first one the palisades fire the second [1:18:55] one there remember this is this massachusetts woman 2025 accused of driving to the capitol trying to kill [1:19:01] GOP leaders saying that she was on a mission and partially influenced by man johnny the nfl shooting [1:19:07] that was something that prosecutors tried to tie because of the similar styling of course of the [1:19:12] shooting specifically like leaving behind sort of a breadcrumb trail for investigators similar to [1:19:18] what man johnny did and then this fourth one is the one that you were talking about this warehouse fire [1:19:23] 500 million dollars worth of product burned down the guy is filming himself burning certain products [1:19:29] talking about sort of the plight of capitalism and referencing sort of man johnny as the style [1:19:34] for what he did uh you know of course the u.s attorney has come out against this saying that [1:19:40] these political activities that are tied or influenced by man johnny should stop man johnny himself even [1:19:46] before all of this before right after the white house correspondence dinner his attorney released a [1:19:50] statement saying essentially keep my name out of your mouth man johnny had nothing to do with this he [1:19:55] does not endorse these this political violence whether that's part of course of the trial uh you know [1:20:00] remains to be seen is of course all of these people uh that we mentioned the warehouse the the palisades [1:20:05] fire man johnny himself have upcoming trials in the next recent months steve patterson super [1:20:10] interesting thank you for bringing this one to us tonight friend good to see you nbc news covers [1:20:14] hundreds of other stories every day and because it can be tough to read or watch or listen to them all [1:20:19] our bureau teams have done it for you this is what they tell us is going down in their regions in a segment [1:20:23] we call the local out of our northeast bureau schools in a new jersey town were forced to close [1:20:28] today because of well you're looking at it police say this fire started at a mattress warehouse and [1:20:33] then spread to some other buildings sunday fire is now contained but it's still really smoky so that's [1:20:38] a factor that they're dealing with out of our midwest bureau zoos across ohio are on high alert [1:20:43] after a string of bomb threats were called in all of them hopes is police said but officials say [1:20:48] they're swatting incidents basically the cleveland zoo even had to be evacuated yesterday [1:20:53] so now the fbi is getting involved they're looking into it also out of our southern bureau [1:20:57] our first look at some of the 1500 rescued beagles looking for a new home animal welfare [1:21:02] activists say they negotiated a deal to buy the dogs from a research facility in wisconsin and send [1:21:07] them to florida you might remember that's after about several hundred protesters clashed with police [1:21:12] a few weeks back trying to free the dogs the activist group says it's hoping to get all these [1:21:16] beagles adopted they say they've gotten 700 applications already coming up here on the show our [1:21:22] team's inside look at the trump administration's immigration crackdown what at least one ice [1:21:27] employee says happened when she tried to push back on the words scumbags that's next tonight new [1:21:50] details from workers inside ice and the department of homeland security who raised red flags that some [1:21:55] policies could lead to picking up the wrong people as part of what the white house called the largest [1:21:59] deportation force in u.s history here's one example an ice employee trying to push back on ice's [1:22:05] demands was fired she says and escorted out of her office by armed guards because she says she refused [1:22:11] to call immigrants who alleged gang members scumbags scumbags in a press release she shared her story [1:22:16] with our senior homeland security correspondent julia ainsley who's joining us now for julia's new book [1:22:21] undue process and we're so glad to have you with us julia as you're talking about everything in this book [1:22:26] one of many stories of ways that immigration enforcement behind the scenes um has taken shape right yeah that's [1:22:33] right i mean really ali you know i've covered immigration since 2014 but what we saw in 2025 [1:22:38] was so different as you know the pace was just relentless and people i started to speak to inside dhs [1:22:45] said that they found a culture where it became harder and harder to push back i even detail a time [1:22:49] where christy gnome is introducing her right-hand man cory lewandowski and telling ice leaders that [1:22:55] they don't start arresting more people he will rip your face off we assume that was a metaphorical threat [1:23:00] but that's just the kind of culture inside so i spoke to one woman who was a press officer she [1:23:05] was career she'd worked in dhs and in government for a long time and she says that there was a day [1:23:11] where she said what if we're wrong and it's because she was told to use the word scumbags in a press [1:23:17] release detailing immigrants who had been arrested for alleged gang membership but she said we can't [1:23:22] really prove that they're part of the gang what if we're wrong she believes that this is the reason for [1:23:27] her firing that came soon after and she said that her termination papers said that it was for a [1:23:33] failure to authorize a press release and a press conference now people i spoke to at dhs they didn't [1:23:39] directly to respond to this but they said she was fired for failure to do her job what about this [1:23:45] professor you spoke with who paid a professional price apparently for something that he told reporters [1:23:50] yeah that's right there was this amazing day of access actually where we got to go down to ice [1:23:55] headquarters and interview the ice director and learn how they were training new recruits they [1:23:59] wanted 10 000 new recruits by the end of the year and that was right at the time where the raids in dc [1:24:05] and chicago had gotten to such a point we're seeing a lot of car windows being broken and i asked this [1:24:10] professor who was training the new recruits what kind of evidence do you need that someone's committed a [1:24:15] crime before you break their window and he said that they needed reasonable suspicion that they had broken [1:24:21] a car window and you can see this here on page 20 of my book you'll see he told me i said it was [1:24:26] reasonable suspicion and that the person must be undocumented and the reason must be beyond their [1:24:30] skin color or native language that professor halley was reassigned that very afternoon for what he told [1:24:36] reporters julia ainsley uh that is just a couple of things that people can find out when they read [1:24:42] your new book undue process it comes out tomorrow we are glad to have you here today julia uh as i know [1:24:48] you're up in new york promoting this thing we appreciate you thank you for your reporting and [1:24:51] for your time still to come we are taking you back to new york for fashion's biggest night it is here [1:24:57] and so is the controversy why the bezos-backed met gala has triggered some boycotts as you take a live [1:25:04] look now at the carpet there's some looks there's some there's some there's some dresses getting into that [1:25:11] in a second to our original now and for it the first monday in may you know what we have to do [1:25:34] take you to the met gala where they are just starting to walk the carpet is that i think [1:25:40] that's zoe kravitz peeking through there did i catch a glimpse what does our camera look across [1:25:44] the street is that a bus walking i think it is mbc i guess we didn't get a great spot on the carpet [1:25:50] this year but hey it's something look okay live stream here we go now we're closer very exciting [1:25:55] a lot of drama a lot of looks but did i say a lot of drama because there is a lot of drama it's [1:26:00] the celebrities turning heads but it's also jeff bezos and his wife lauren sanchez bezos that's anna [1:26:06] wintoura by the way arriving in a i'm not going to try to describe that uh that dress or this one i [1:26:11] think it's chaparelli i believe but there's lauren sanchez bezos she and her husband of course making [1:26:16] a big donation they were named honorary chairs of the met gala this year but you can see what that [1:26:21] triggered calls for boycotts subway ads hacked and more all of it putting a new spotlight on what happens [1:26:27] behind the scenes of fashion's biggest night chloe malas reports the met gala dubbed the party of the [1:26:37] year where the rich and famous celebrate celebrity and art and fashion too this year the focus not [1:26:43] just on millionaire stars but the event's billionaire funders lead sponsors amazon founder jeff bezos and [1:26:50] his wife lauren sanchez bezos named honorary co-chairs when the announcement was made that they donated a [1:26:56] reported 10 million dollars to the museum's costume institute the backlash was swift with some [1:27:02] accusing the couple of buying their way to the top of the fashion world the men has always understood [1:27:07] something the rest of the world is finally catching up to fashion is art throughout manhattan signs of [1:27:14] protest and boycott popping up like these in the subway and an anti-billionaire group even lining fifth [1:27:22] avenue with displays of empty water bottles a nod to allegations about amazon's workplace conditions [1:27:28] there are always protests around the met gala at the press conference today lauren sanchez bezos really [1:27:35] underscored her and her husband's charitable giving to fashion in a way that i think was maybe directly [1:27:42] addressing some of that criticism long-time co-chair former american vogue editor anna wintour [1:27:48] also appearing unfazed at a press preview attended by nbc news touting that this year they raised more [1:27:54] than 40 million dollars the fashion wing of the met typically relied on this event's 75 000 tickets [1:28:01] the institute telling nbc news it's now building an endowment to safeguard for the future the costume [1:28:07] institute did not answer our question about the controversy around jeff bezos and his wife lauren [1:28:13] neither did team bezos the night is a who's who of hollywood sports and culture with co-chairs nicole [1:28:19] kidman venus williams and beyonce making her first return in a decade adding to the hype of wintour's big [1:28:26] event the successful release of the devil wears prada 2. sorry who is this the theme here is costume art [1:28:33] how artists have celebrated the human body through the centuries we got a sneak peek of the new condé m [1:28:39] nass galleries all right let's go check it out tonight on the red carpet you can expect skin skin [1:28:46] and more skin embracing the body in all different forms an emotional moment for swimsuit designer sonia [1:28:52] vera featured in the disabled body section as somebody was in fashion and then i became disabled [1:28:59] about eight and a half years ago if you would have told me that i would be here i would have never [1:29:05] believed it even with the extra tension this year through all the glitz and glam the gala can still [1:29:11] make its stamp for some people chloe malas it is their super bowl as we're taking a live look at [1:29:18] the red carpet i should note we showed anna wintour she is i'm told she's wearing chanel [1:29:21] a feathered chanel look for her custom and it's chanel hallie what'd you say custom chanel not just [1:29:29] chanel made for her hallie i mean when you're anna wintour that's what's gonna happen um what's so [1:29:36] interesting here and i mean you got it that i got it at the piece is this tension that is inherent [1:29:40] in a way that we haven't always seen with the met gala before talk us through what else we can expect [1:29:44] tonight i mean look there is always going to be criticism of an event like the met right which is [1:29:51] the pomp and this the met gala pomp and circumstance the opulence i mean let's just put it this way [1:29:56] tickets start at 75 000 right and then you have a billionaire at the helm with his new wife so a lot [1:30:03] of people aren't happy about it um but again i think people are here for the fashion and what [1:30:08] i'm confused by is this morning when i was at the press preview going through the exhibit you were [1:30:14] seeing like you know cleavage and corsets and skin and really we are seeing people be a little bit more [1:30:21] conservative on the carpet tonight we're seeing a lot of flowers um a lot of bright pops of color and that [1:30:27] is the whole thing every year at the met gala there is a theme that is encouraged but people [1:30:33] really ultimately wear what they want to wear it's a moment where you can have your uh 15 seconds that [1:30:41] photo that is so important as a celebrity and especially it makes and breaks the careers of [1:30:47] fashion designers at the met gala i mean really if you wear something that gets you on the best dress list [1:30:52] it can you know really catapult you in the fashion industry and if your celebrity ends up on the worst [1:30:58] dress the morning after hallie that is not a headline that you want at all you know who gets [1:31:03] an award shout out to the valiant camera person who is fighting for their lives across the street there [1:31:07] of the met gala doing their best to try to give us john let's go just a minute ago our executive producer [1:31:13] joe blonte i've said if you want to send me to the met i will only go from on the carpet hallie [1:31:18] what is the carpet this year is it yellow like it looks yellow brick road-esque or what is the theme [1:31:24] you know your guess is as good as mine it looks like a fairy tale right it looks it does yes yeah [1:31:29] sleeping beauty that's what that that is the vibe chloe malas appreciate you thank you very much for [1:31:35] all of it more to watch and we'll see those lists tomorrow thank you that does it for us for this hour [1:31:39] we've got a lot more coverage picking up right now we thank you for watching and remember stay updated [1:31:45] on breaking news and top stories on the nbc news app or watch live on our youtube channel