Meet the Press NOW — Dec. 6

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Welcome to Meet the Press Now. I'm Ryan Nobles in Washington. As we continue to monitor the breaking news out of Las Vegas, where a gunman is deceased and there are multiple victims after shooting at the University of Nevada. We'll head back to the story coming up.

And as we learn more and as authorities continue to respond to the scene, and we'll bring you any updates from police as we get them. But first, turning to the top politics story of the day. Four Republican presidential candidates will meet on the debate stage tonight for the fourth time this cycle, without Donald Trump, who maintains a commanding lead over the field. And Trump is now telegraphing what kind of general election campaign he's going to run.

And ultimately, what he wants a second Trump term to look like. Here's what he said at a Fox News town hall in Iowa that aired last night. You use the words, I am your retribution. And now, before that, you said if you've been wronged and you used other words as well, but I want to be very, very clear on this.

To be clear, do you in any way have any plans whatsoever, if we elected president, to abuse power, to break the law, to use the government to go after people? You mean like they're using right now? So under no circumstances, you are promising America tonight. You would never abuse power as retribution against anybody.

Except the day one. Except the day one. Except the day one. Meaning I want to close the border and I want to drill.

That's not a drill. That's not a retribution. I'm going to be, I'm going to be, you know, he keeps, I love this guy. He says, you're not going to be a dictator, right?

I said, no, no, no other than day one. Don't the phrasing of those questions, which gave Trump the opportunity to say that he would not abuse his power in the Oval Office, but he didn't say it. The Biden campaign, which continues to trail Trump in the early 2024 polling match-ups, put out a statement seizing on those remarks. And quote, Donald Trump has been telling us exactly what he would do if he's reelected.

Americans should believe him. And folks brace yourself for a lot more of statements like that from the Biden campaign, focusing its fire on their likely 2024 opponent. In fact, the president made comments yesterday, telling a crowd of donors that for him it's personal. Quote, if Trump wasn't running, I'm not sure I would, I would be, but we cannot let him win.

And here's what he told reporters today in response to a question about taking on former President Trump. Do you think there is any doubt about Trump with the beat Donald Trump other than you? Probably 50. You do believe that there are.

I'm not the only one who would be the leader, but I will be the leader. And this sparring between the two frontrunners and the 2024 presidential race right now is a clear indication of what's ahead, with Trump not ruling out strong man tactics and retribution, and with Biden framing himself as America's Trump firewall, which like he did in 2020. And for the candidates on the stage tonight, they will once again have the chance to weigh in on what Trump said. But from what we've seen the last three times they've been on the stage, we're not likely to see much direct criticism, even with just six weeks to go until the first votes are cast.

NBC's Ally Vitaly is at tonight's debate site in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, and NBC's Mike Memley is outside the White House. Ally, you're there at the debate site, and this comes as a new Monmouth pullout today has Trump up 40 points on the rest of the field. What are we watching for tonight? And is there any reason to believe that this time will be different than the last debate?

Look, it's the continued race for second place, Ryan. And you and I both know you don't become President by coming in second in the primary. Nevertheless, we are watching these candidates continue to duke it out. I think the one thing I'm watching for tonight in light of these latest comments from the former President is the ways in which the candidates on the stage choose to contend with or not contend with, criticisms of their former boss, and still ostensibly the head of their party, even though they're trying to succeed him in that.

I think the only person who might go there, is frankly former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, we've seen her in the past few months, really, be willing to criticize the former President for the things that he's said on the world stage, the ways that he's praised strong men in the past. Haley has said that that's not indicative of America's values on the world stage, certainly that's true, but whether or not she's willing to say that in front of a massive audience like this one, arguably one of the bigger stages that she'll have to leverage that criticism, that remains to be seen. The rest of the field though, safe for Governor Christie, has really tiptoed around the former President by way of criticizing him, and I have a feeling that this might not be any different. Ally, you've covered Donald Trump as long as anybody, I know at least his political career for that matter, and what can you tell us about that exchange that we played with Sean Hannity?

I mean, he didn't really shy away from his second term desires. No, and it's really more of the same, right? I mean, all of us went through the Trump era when he was in Washington. The first thing that I thought of when I was watching Sean Hannity, really try to serve up on a plate, you can, you're really giving him the opportunity to say no, I will not be a dictator.

Trump, as you pointed out, Ryan, not taking that opportunity, but it reminded me of what he used to say about Chinese President Xi Jinping when she was able to really coalesce power several years ago, Trump was praising him for effectively solidifying his dictatorship, and that's something that has really stuck with me. The reason the Biden campaign is saying, believe him when he says this, take him at face value, is because one of the things that I used to hear from voters throughout the period between 2016 and 2020, was that they didn't think that Trump meant it, when he said he was going to put in place a Muslim ban or go forward with contesting the election results, ultimately leaving office right after an unprecedented insurrection that many people would argue he helped to phone. This is someone who truly at each turn has said what he's meant, and that's why we're looking at these comments as closely as we are right now. All right, so the one candidate that does appear to be surging, even though it may not be in Donald Trump's orbit yet, is though, candidate you cover closely in Nikki Haley, she's picked up some big money backers in the last few weeks, including the prominent LinkedIn founder, Reid Hoffman, who is a prominent Democrat.

He said this about his donations, the first chance to defeat Donald Trump is in the 2024 primaries, that's why even though I'll be voting for Joe Biden in November, I'm supporting Nikki Haley in the Republican primary. I'm sure she's happy to take the money, but could this hurt her with Republican voters at a big time Democratic donors helping her campaign? This could definitely be something that we hear from one of her opponents, probably the big Ramiswami or Governor Ron DeSantis. Both of them probably willing to get out there and say that Nikki Haley is willing to take money from anybody, even Democrats.

And of course we know the way that that looks within a Republican primary of this nature. I would be surprised to see what Nikki Haley says on the stage, whether or not she tries to disavow this kind of money coming in, or whether or not she embraces it as a sign of her deeper electability argument in a general election, but that remains to be seen. I do think that it's notable that we're watching some in the donor class seem to fall in behind Haley, especially because at the beginning of this race, it really seemed like people were all in on Ron DeSantis. He has really fallen short of all of those expectations and metrics for success that many donors wanted to see him prove at this point.

And they know that campaign that all eyes are on them and frankly knives are out for their candidate on this stage. All right, thanks, Haley. We need you back on Capitol Hill. So cover this and then we'll see you back in a little bit this week.

I'll break that, Ryan. All right, Mike, let's go back over to you now. You're our resident Biden whisperer and I want to walk you through the comments that he made at the fundraiser on the South Lawn last night and then this afternoon at the White House. I mean, what's your read on how he's responding to the situation with Donald Trump?

Well, that's so interesting, Ryan, because electability and Donald Trump was so central to then former Vice President Joe Biden's argument for why he was going to get in to the 2020 race. He said ahead of his announcement, that cycle that he would only run in the primary. If he was sure that he was the best Democrat to beat Donald Trump when he had his stumbles in the 2020 nomination contest and Bernie Sanders jumped out to that early delegate lead, it was the perception that ultimately it would be Joe Biden as the best Democrat in November that helped spur that unbelievable comeback starting with South Carolina into Super Tuesday. And even a year ago, just before the midterms, when the outlook looked pretty grim for Democrats, President Biden himself was saying, trying to get ahead of the questions about whether he should run for a second term by saying, listen, can you tell me what other Democrat would beat Donald Trump?

President Biden still believes that he is the best Democrat to beat Donald Trump. And it's important to know though, Ryan, that what Biden said last night was similar, but not the same to this idea of I am the best Democrat to beat Donald Trump. He's now saying I wouldn't be running if not for Donald Trump. And one of the things I'll be looking forward to in this debate tonight was does one of the other Republicans say, hey, listen, we have a much clearer path, make that electability argument in the Republican primary to winning the presidency if we defeat Donald Trump in the primary first, but I think we know the primary politics on the Republican side may not lead that to be a wise strategy for some of the candidates there.

But it is interesting, Mike, that he is essentially framing his entire campaign as being the alternative to Donald Trump, right? Does that play as well in 2024 when he has an incumbency record as much as it did in 2020? Well, it'll be interesting to see as the campaign really does ramp up how much Donald Trump is part of the public messaging versus some of the response that we're seeing on a press level at this moment, because when you talk to Biden campaign officials and they talk about the key categories of voters they're most concerned about, Donald Trump pulls them back away from engaging with the campaign rather than engaging with the campaign. They think the country is in a very sour mood and that Trump actually has a counter-effect of what they want, which is engagement trying to get Joe Biden reelected.

So they're gonna be talking more about the issues than the personalities, but it's absolutely clear at this point though that the Biden campaign sees an imperative to seize the contrast element whenever they can, especially with the president's approval rating continuing in a dangerous place. Okay, thank you so much, Mike. I appreciate that and joining me now on set for some more insight into the 2024 campaign as NBC's chief political analyst Chuck Todd. Chuck, thank you so much for being here.

Let's start with these Trump comments. Had every opportunity to say he wouldn't be a dictator and didn't take it. Does this resonate with Republican voters? I think it doesn't surprise me with Trump, right?

Trump, remember how he is effectively taken critiques against him and flipped them. Think of the phrase fake news, right? He was able, you know, the attacks were coming in and they were putting out fake news and then he flipped it and ended up with Boomerang and it really sadly stuck on a lot of these news organizations. The Steele dossier is something that he would turn on its nose and I think this is a case where, and Mike brings up at a very important point here, which is the voters Joe Biden needs are the ones that don't want to hear anything about Donald Trump.

You can sit here and scream at them 100 million times with a bullhorn. Did you hear Donald Trump saying he's going to be a dictator? And they're literally like Charlie Brown's parents, you know, la, la, la, la, la. And I think that's the challenge they have because I think the younger staffers on this campaign, and I think you can feel the tension in this campaign.

I think the older team understands, look, there's a small group of voters that do get activated by Trump, but we've got to talk to these voters about what we've done for them, right? We've got to knock it, but the younger staff sees the existential fight, they live on social media, social media, the currency is this conversation. So I do think they've got to be careful not to check on little lists and just say, dictator, dictator, dictator, to the point where we're numb to it. And then he has captured the word.

Meanwhile, you've not actually pointed out what you're trying to point out is, look what he's trying to do over here. So let's talk about the column that you wrote today. It's about the divide that Republicans feel and how Republican voters feel. Tell us about your thesis.

Well, no, it was based on a poll that came out of, it was an interesting poll that our friends at UMass Amher State. They polled former members of Congress using the former, and believe it or not, there's a trade association for everything, including former members of Congress. So they reached out to about 500 of them, they got about a little less than 300 to respond, 55, 45 split of former Democratic lawmakers versus former Republican ones. I focused in on, and what they did is they asked some of the same questions to these former members of Congress that they'd asked the general public.

Republican members of Congress versus Republican voters where they couldn't have been in more opposite directions. It was basically only one in four voters believed Biden was elected legitimately in the Republican sign about. It was over 80% of former Republican members of Congress who thought he was legitimate elected. And you won't be surprised, because Ryan, you cover Congress.

And then I used the best example I could use to show. This was Tom Cole, the Tom Cole January 6th statement to me is one that needs to be in the Hall of Fame of explaining what happened in the Trump era, where he explained that he was gonna object to January 6th. Never once saying he agreed with the idea that with the premise. He just simply said, my constituents have made it clear they care about this, and I'm a representative.

So I'm going to represent their views. Either the cynic in me says he was worried more about a primary challenge, right? Is there a part of the pay, this is what the founders intended with representative democracy? We can also have that debate.

But the point is, the larger concern I have is that why are voters misinformed about what's going on because politicians are letting them pay? This is not the media's fault. This is the elected officials who are afraid of their own voters. I wonder if you took a survey, if you took it twice with the current group of elected leaders and cover every day.

I mean, if they do it, it was anonymous. If it was an anonymous survey versus a public survey, what do you think there was a public? Well, you and I both know the answer to that question. How often do you even have, look, you have no idea what would follow me.

I have to say what I've got to say. I've got to vote the way I've got to vote, because most of these folks who rationalize their way into not criticizing Trump publicly, all believe they're somehow irreplaceable, and all believe they're are what holding back even crazier. And I think that is what's gotten us into the situation where, yeah, so Trump controls everything. I mean, that whole dictator, right?

Constitutional Republicans should be more outraged by his non-answer, frankly, than anybody else, you know? And you're, it's one, I'm not surprised to hear Democratic courses, notice, you heard from any Republicans not English, any of us? No, right, exactly, exactly. So last question for you, our friend Mark Murray has a stat in first read today that a Republican member of Congress hasn't endorsed a candidate other than Trump since June.

It's amazing. What does that tell you about the current Congress? We've even seen some like Doug Bergum had a few of his fellow North, right, all the North Dakotans as soon as they had a chance. Oh, okay, you know.

And what is our friend, Tim Scott? Right. Waiting for his endorsement, he's still not to endorse it all. You know, that tells you where the elector is.

These guys, they wouldn't be endorsing Trump if they didn't think they'd do it or so. And I think that, that should tell you, look, you've talked to this North Dakota delegation. You know, it's the North Dakota delegation, it's kind of like the Nebraska delegation, the South Dakota delegation, they're not MAGA. But they have to, they have to placate MAGA.

And I think that's what, and the more you see these members of Congress feeling like, I think we all know if they need a secret ballot, right? And there was a congressional Republican primary. Nick Haley, one's doesn't she? Probably.

Yeah, if it were secret. We have to leave it there. All right. And you can catch even more debate analysis, breaking news, and live interviews with the campaigns tonight, as Kristin Welger anchors underneath the press, special coverage of the fourth Republican primary debate.

It starts at 10 p.m. Eastern, right here on NBC News Now. Still to talk more on the breaking news in Las Vegas, where we have just learned that multiple people have been killed, and we're expecting authorities to give an update any moment after this afternoon's shooting at the University of Nevada. All right, we're gonna turn now back to that breaking news out of Las Vegas.

Two senior law enforcement officials are telling NBC News that multiple people have been killed in the shooting at the University of Nevada. We do not yet know the exact number killed. Now, as we reported earlier this hour, Las Vegas police say that the suspect has been located and is also deceased. We are awaiting a briefing from authorities with the very latest on this situation that could begin at any minute when it happens we'll take it live.

The FBI is on the scene and assisting law enforcement in the investigation. Now, the University is also asking people on campus to shelter in place as police evacuate these buildings one at a time, and the University also remains closed for the day. Joining me now is Emily Aketa, who is tracking the situation for us. Emily, it does, as we just reported, the police now say that there appear to be multiple victims, but we don't know how many at this particular moment, correct?

Yeah, that's correct, Ryan. One of the many unanswered questions at this point and what has been really a rapidly developing situation. It seems we're getting these updates by the minute. We hope to get some more answers at a scheduled news conference expected to begin at any moment now.

But as you mentioned, police to law enforcement sources confirming the NBC news that multiple people have been killed in this incident. On top of the suspect who has also been located and is deceased, what's not clear about that is whether that's from a self-inflicted gunshot wound or if that was from responding police forces. As you mentioned, the University of Nevada Las Vegas remains under a shelter in place at this hour police. Authorities going from building to building room to room to evacuate the area.

We know that a nearby highway has been temporarily closed as a result of this. The nearby major airport in the area, also the FAA issuing a ground stop for it and other nearby schools including the College of Southern Nevada, also closing today and they are being evacuated. Just to give you a sense for the chaos and confusion we've heard from students who were in buildings. They heard shouting, they're dropping to the floor.

They're avoiding buildings. The reports of the active shooter came in near a building called Beam Hall which according to the school belongs to the business school and it is one of the instructional facilities. Keep in mind, Ryan, this is at a time just ahead of finals week. So so many people, so many students on campus preparing for those upcoming exams coming up.

The mayor tweeting, just pretty recently saying, tragic and heartbreaking news coming out of the University of Las Vegas, praying for everyone on campus as law enforcement responds to the situation. Remember this is a city that is all too familiar with mass shootings, the deadliest mass shooting in US history, modern day US history, panning out just three miles or so from the school at Mandalay Bay, the Las Vegas Strip a couple of years ago, Ryan. Okay, Emily, okay, stand by. If we get new information, please let us know.

But we're gonna go to Jim Kavanaugh now who's our law enforcement analyst or retired FDA, ATF I should say, special agent in charge. Jim, I want you to talk to me a little bit about the difficulty here for police to respond to a situation like this. And I've been on this campus before, it is just steps away from all the nightlife and activity in Las Vegas. I don't wanna say it's a stone store from the Strip but it's not far from the Strip.

So it's already a pretty densely populated area. And then you take into account that it's also a college campus, a pretty major college campus where there are thousands of students. So you've got a major entertainment destination coupled with this very active and vibrant college campus. How difficult is it for police to respond to a situation like this and keep as many people as safe as possible?

Yeah, it's very difficult and it's often very confusing when you're the first patrol officer to arrive at these kind of mass shootings. And what really complicated is sometimes the shooter is a student or a faculty member and they are very familiar with the campus. So they can move between buildings. Just one example is the killer in Virginia Tech who killed 32 people with two pistols.

He moved from a dormitory where he killed his first victim, he moved to another building, he locked the doors, he moved around, he knew the territory. And we don't know whether the shooter is familiar with the campus but if he is, it gives him a little advantage over the police initially. Their task initially is they've got to find him and they're running into a situation that's all chaos. The first reports are at Beam Hall, then there's reports he said to Student Union.

That's how they're following those reports until they can get their own feet on the ground and hear the shots or have people pointing them in the right direction. And this is an era of mass shootings in this country where students go to college campuses and they've been prepared for this in some ways. They've gone through active shooter drills in their schools. My kids have gone through active shooter drills in their schools, their elementary and high schools and then oftentimes colleges have a system in place where they prepare their students for something like this and they're like, hey guys, can you hear me?

There was a situation where an alert went out to the students and told them to run, hide and then fight which has kind of become the standard protocol here. Do you think, and we don't know the sum total of loss of life here, but is it possible that being, having that somewhat level of preparation or how you have a really prepared situation like this but at least having some knowledge of what to expect could have maybe prevented the loss of life from being even more? Yes, I think it always does help to have a citizenry that is alert and they're not discombobulated when they hear the first reports of a shooter. People that are under game say, well, you know, I need to do somebody to barricade, lock the classroom or I need to get out of here quick or, you know, if there's nothing else left, I need to fight for my life.

So yes, it is important that we think about those things. It's sad that we have to think about those things. You know, I think we should change the saying to vote, run high tight. When you have a chance to vote against this stuff, vote for the people who won't change the laws that we can put an end to a lot of this stuff.

So we could do so much better in America on this, but we just won't do it. We really need to change it earlier than, you know, leave it all on the last minute of citizens being alert and policemen have to be heroes, they're rushing, we need to stop it because. Well, to that answer, you know, when this debate plays out on Capitol Hill, which I cover every day, a lot of times what you'll hear from the Republicans side of the aisle is that we just need to harden these targets more. And we've seen that happen in elementary schools and high schools where all the doors are locked, there's no coming and going by students and even parents have to show their IDs before they go into many elementary and high school buildings.

That's not the case on a college campus, right? I mean, part of the environment that you sign up for when you go on a college campus is kind of the free flow between all these different buildings across the campus. Is there a way to harden these targets more than they already are and could that impact kind of the culture and the vibrancy of a college community? The freedom of movement, I mean, you can have more and more security and you get more and more isolation than difficulty.

Yes, some of that is needed. But what's needed is legislators and leaders who realize that you have to attack this problem on all fronts and that they don't just use, you know, oh, it's one thing because they don't want to address the other thing. So you have to, you have to attack on all fronts, sure, campus security, business security, school security, hardening buildings, but you have to also pass laws that allow these people because 77% of mass shooters leak before they do their killing according to the FBI study. And we're not stopping those 77%.

And we could if we had some better laws to allow us to do that to make it easier to prevent those people from to leak their intent to buy guns or have guns. So we could do that. You know, we could make better gun laws. Okay.

Jim, I don't, I don't mean to cut you off, but we are now going to go to a briefing on this situation in Las Vegas. Let's listen to what authorities have to say. Now is that we do have a reunification center that is opened up at the convention center. That's at the North Hall.

It will take time to transport students over to that area. But if you can't get ahold of your loved ones right now, your kids or somebody that you're concerned with, then that would be the place to go and to try to go ahead and do that reunification. We will have people there to assist you. We also have a phone number.

It is being staffed. It's 702-455-AIDE. And it'll be a website opened up and it's emac of southernnavada.com. Okay.

And so that is our current information that we have for victim services. And that will change also as, or be updated as necessary. But we will have those resources there. Understand when you call that number or you check the website, the information right now will still be limited.

And there won't be any specific information as far as individuals that have been injured or deceased. I'm not sure what's happening on the campus now. It has to be believed. So as you can imagine, the campus is a very large area to cover.

Much like we had it in the aftermath of one October, there's a lot of additional calls coming in that students hunker down. They're afraid, they're scared. Our officers... This is an NBC News special report.

Here's Lester Holt. Good afternoon. We're coming back on the air with breaking news about shooting at the University of Nevada in Las Vegas. NBC News is reporting, according to law enforcement sources, that there are multiple fatalities and police say the suspect is also dead.

There is, as you might understand, a massive police presence on and around campus. There was even a ground stop in place at the airport, which is virtually next door now. The University with an enrollment of about 30,000 students has closed for the rest of the day. Las Vegas Metro PD holding a news conference with new information, it just got underway.

Here, this is still a very active and dynamic scene. So if you can avoid the area, we would appreciate it. And we'll be providing additional updates in the very near future. Thank you.

Yes, there are victims. Yes, on behalf of the entire first responder community, of course, our hearts are acting in the families that are affected by this. Our update right now is that we do have a reunification center that has opened up at the convention center. That's at the North Hall.

It will take time to transport students over to that area. But if you can't get ahold of your loved ones right now, your kids, or somebody that you're concerned with, then that would be the place to go and to try to go ahead and do that reunification. We will have people there to assist you. We also have a phone number.

It is being staffed at 702-455-AIDE. And it'll be a website opened up in its FAC of Southern Nevada.com, okay? And so that is our current information that we have for victim services. And that will change also, or be updated as necessary.

But we will have those resources there. Understand when you call that number or you check the website, the information right now will still be limited. And there won't be any specific information as far as individuals that have been injured or deceased. Sheriff, what's happening on the campus now?

I think we'll leave you. So as you can imagine, the campus is a very large area to cover. Much like we had in the aftermath of one October, there's a lot of additional calls coming in that students hunker down. They're afraid they're scared.

Our officers are going unit by unit building, by building with the university police officers, firefighters, EMS, to make sure that we don't have any additional victims and or subjects. So we'll be back with you in the very near future to provide an update. Thank you. Sheriff, I have an update as well.

I'm sorry on that website. That's going to be FAC of Southern Nevada.org. I believe I said dot com. That is dot org.

Thank you, sir. All right, so we just got the latest information on the situation you're in. All right, we've been dipping into that news conference there in Las Vegas. Let's get right to NBC, investigate, of course, on Tom Winter, who's tracking developments.

Tom, we heard that Sheriff say there are victims. What more do we know beyond that? Right, Lester. So we know from the Las Vegas Police Department posting on social media some time ago now that the suspected shooter in this incident has been found deceased.

Then on top of that, we've been told by multiple senior law enforcement officials that there are perhaps one to two others that are not involved or not the shooters of this incident rather, that are also deceased. And the numbers are very fluid right now, as you can imagine, as we just saw, this is a very dynamic scene with a lot of law enforcement arriving on scene to help clear these buildings. So the specific numbers are a little bit in doubt. And of course, knowing that these are students, their parents are probably watching.

We want to be cautious as far as what we know so far. But we do know that multiple people have been shot at least two others besides the shooter are believed to be dead. The shooter is believed to be dead. And at this point, there's no indication that there are any additional threats.

But of course, they're doing everything that they need to do, which is going for building, to building room to room, to make sure that there are no additional victims and that there's not any other potential suspect that they're looking for. And so that's the current state of the investigation. Just too soon to say here, Lester, what the motive might be. So we'll hold off on any sort of speculation, certainly, on that, and continue to wait for officials to breathe from the scene.

It's clear at this point, listening to the sheriff and to the chief there, who oversees the school's policing department that there's a lot more details to figure out. All right, Tom, thanks. We are starting to hear more about the shooting. Here's one parent describing what her daughter, a UNLV student, told her about those terrifying moments.

She, well, first, we were getting the text messages from UNLV, thank God. And then I ran out of work. I came over here, she wasn't answering. Her phone was going straight to voicemail.

So that was scary. We came out here, and then she finally called in text and says that they're in a dorm. She was crying. She was hysterical saying she heard the gunshots.

She heard the screaming. And they're putting her in a dorm. And now they've moved her, you said. And they moved her again right now.

In a room with all the lights off. And they don't know what's happening. Carmen Bessie is a retired Seattle police chief and joins me. Thank you for being with us.

I want to get your sense of the suspect apparently is deceased, as they say. So it would be probably likely they'll have an ID on the person soon. Would that be the next crime scene, the next place that officers would want to go? Well, absolutely.

There'll be multiple things happening as we speak. There'll be large teams of officers, as we stated earlier, going through the facilities and the buildings, making sure they know the decedents, know other issues, know the persons or perpetrators, and as well as the folks that will be responding as investigators to get a suspect, to identify him, to start reaching out, finding out how he may have got there. If he was a student, he or she, I'm not sure the gender, was a student, or if they were faculty or what have you. So a lot of things are going to be going on simultaneously.

Clearly you have the ATF and others on scene to try locate the weapon, find out where it came from, if it was equally purchased, and that sort of thing. All right, Chief Bess, thanks. Let's go right back to Tom Witter right now. Tom Witter, if you have some new information.

That's right Lester up, police now saying on the record that there is no further threat in their eyes as far as this investigation is concerned that there's no other shooter that might be out there. They're saying that they don't have any idea about what the motive might be at this stage of the investigation, and of course it's early in the investigation. They also say that a number of victims have been transported to area hospitals, and that they're hoping to provide some more details on that soon, the investigation is, of course, active and ongoing, and as we're very much watching right here on the screen. Tom, let me turn to Chief Bess one more time.

We obviously see far too many of these, but there are lessons embedded in them. What are some of the main lessons that law enforcement has learned about handling these kinds of incidents? We know, unfortunately, and yet fortunately, because we've had so many of these law enforcement chains with these situations, they also train to use mutual aid in these instances, so they're quick to respond, to set up containment, to locate, go directly for the threat we've learned since Columbine, not to set up and stage outside, but to actually immediately go in and try to eliminate and contain the threat to others. Unfortunately, that's the nature and state of things today, students and faculty also are well aware of locked-off procedures and other things that are in place to provide the maximum safety in these types of situations.

And I always wonder about first responders and these situations, the first people on these scenes, how difficult it must be and how it has to affect them. Yes, it's incredibly dangerous, as you know, but that's what they're paid for, and that's what they're trying to do, and in many of these circumstances, you see officers and others going right directly and immediately taking action, and that is the nature of the training for these situations. All right, Chief, thanks very much. That concludes this NBC News Special Report.

More coverage ahead on our streaming channel, NBC News Now, online as well at NBCNews.com. I'll be back with more tonight on NBC Nightly News. I'm Lester Holt, good day. And we're back now with more on the breaking news out of Las Vegas, Emily and Katie joins me now live.

So Emily, we saw this briefing from police there. They do say there appear to be multiple victims, but how much more do we know about how many people could have lost their lives in this incident? Yeah, hey there, Ryan. A brief briefing, and we expect to have another news conference later this evening, but police revealing that at this time, there is no further threat and underscoring that message.

However, confirming a number of people have been transported to nearby hospitals. We've also learned from law enforcement sources that multiple people in this incident have been killed. As we've been reporting, the suspect has been located and is deceased still. It's not clear if that was from a self-inflicted gunshot wound or from responding police.

Police responding to the campus of University of Nevada, Las Vegas after reports of an active shooter near Beam Hall, which we know is an instructional building connected to the business school of so many students on campus right now, as a result of finals, upcoming finals preparing for those exams right now. Police continue to go building to building room to room and police just pointing out in the news conference that this is a very large area. They're continuing to look for people, evacuate people and hoping not to come across more potential victims. A professor who was on campus described hearing seven to eight gunshots from what he believed was a high-powered gun.

No details though from police on that front. We hope to learn more information throughout the evening, Ryan. Okay, Emily, thank you and we'll continue to track this breaking news. But we are now going to turn to one of the top politics stories that we've been following today.

And that is that some elite universities are coming under fire for comments about anti-Semitism on college campuses. And they made those statements while testifying in front of Congress yesterday. Take a listen to one exchange between New York Congresswoman Elise Stefanik and Harvard's president, Claudine Gay, yesterday. I will ask you one more time.

Does calling for the genocide of Jews violate Harvard's rules of bullying and harassment, yes or no? Anti-Semitic rhetoric. Anti-Semitic rhetoric. Anti-Semitic rhetoric when it crosses into conduct that amounts to bullying, harassment, intimidation.

That is actionable conduct and we do take action. So the answer is yes. That calling for the genocide of Jews violates Harvard code of conduct, correct? Again, it depends on the context.

The other university president testifying not in a similar tone. The White House condemned their responses to the questions earlier today. President Gay has released a statement aimed at clarifying her remarks and quote, there are some who have confused a right to free expression with the idea that Harvard will condone calls for violence against Jewish students. Let me be clear, calls for violence or genocide against the Jewish community or any religious or ethnic group are vile.

They have no place at Harvard and those who threaten our Jewish students will be held to account. And joining me now is Democratic Congressman from Florida, Jared Moskowitz. And Congressman, at first want to get your reaction to the statement of clarification from President Gay. You have called on all three of these university presidents who spoke yesterday to resign or even be fired.

Do you think this clarification is enough? Well, obviously she had to clarify it because she completely failed the course on being a university president. I mean, you know, do her students get a clarification after they give the completely wrong answer to an exam question? I mean, where was their prep for this?

Hey, you're gonna get asked all these questions. You're gonna ask questions by Democrats. You're gonna ask questions by Republicans. This was not a trick question by Elise Stefanik.

Does the genocide of Jews? Does the calling of the genocide of Jews, the killing of Jews on campus? Is that harassment? I mean, it was a deer in the headlights.

And so look, I'm glad she clarified it, but it shows that she has recognized what a debacle of an answer that was. And so look, that's a judgment for the board. I just don't see how time and time and time out. They continue to struggle with this question of how Jews should be treated on campus.

And if you sub out Jews and you put in other minority groups, black Americans, Hispanic Americans, LGBTQ plus Americans, would this really be their answers? And no way, absolutely no way. If people were marching on Harvard saying we should lynch the black students, it would be harassment. Those people would be gone.

No one would be saying it's free speech. And so look, these presidents have failed their students. In my opinion, they shouldn't be there anymore, but I thought it was up to their boards. Now, so what do you think these schools do need to do to ensure the safety of their Jewish students?

Well, look, obviously, the first thing they got to do is they got to show that there's repercussions for the behavior. So when Jewish students have been assaulted for not being able to go to class because they're being surrounded by students and they're not being able to move, those students should be suspended from the university. Those students should have repercussions because that will stop this from happening with other students. At the end of the day, these are adult kids, right?

So if they see they can get away with it, they're going to continue to do it, right? If they see that it's going to go viral on social media, they're going to emulate it. So first they got to make sure that when this happens, they come out with repercussions. I think they also need to make clear what the code of conduct is to students and what is and is not acceptable.

So students clearly know what they can do in the free speech area versus what is not a free speech issue and border lines on harassment. Let's turn out to the funding negotiations on Capitol Hill earlier today. President Biden urged Congress to pass a Ukraine aid before the resources run out at the end of the year. He said that would make the border changes.

He would allow that to get through, at least open to those negotiations. What do you know about the current state of negotiations over aid and can a deal get done before the end of the year? Well, first the negotiations are absolutely nowhere. That's why the president is intervening.

I was happy to see him do that. I thought he was very clear in his speech today. But let's also not talk about what Speaker Johnson did here. Speaker Johnson had a moment to pass Israel funding in the house to bring everybody together, put him on the Capitol steps pass an Israel aid package right in the aftermath of October 7th.

By the way, it was the speaker's first weekend office. And instead, what he did was, he's divided us by doing this IRS nonsense. He was told that thing was dead in the Senate. So the speaker killed Israel aid right before we could even get it out of the gate and get it over to the Senate.

So the speaker deserves some culpability here of why the talks have completely broken down. I agree with the president. I think we need to do more at the border. I think Democrats are coming to the table to do more at the border.

But at the same time, we need our Republican colleagues to come with Ukraine and Israel and humanitarian funding. And let's put that in a big package together and get it done. And show our allies. We can do big things still in Congress and show our enemies that we're still the United States of America and that we can work together when it comes to trying to keep peace and security in the world.

And you weren't everything yesterday on Ukraine's security. What were your takeaways? How dire, I should say, will the situation be if that aid runs out? It's dire.

It's dire. And Putin is laughing at us, right? Republicans are a complete mess, because his plan is that when winter is done, if Ukraine doesn't have the weapons and the resources they need, he's going to take a complete advantage of that, right? And we're going to let someone invade a foreign nation and just get away with it if we don't come to the raid.

By the way, we got to replenish our own supplies. Part of this bill is to replenish our own military supplies, because we've depleted our supplies to help Ukraine. So some of this is trying to help ourselves. And so this is just absolutely outrageous.

It goes right into the chaos of the 118 Congress, which seems that the only two things that we can do under Republican control is expel a member and get rid of a speaker. Well, let's talk about your role in the oversight committee. I talked to the chairman of that committee, James Comrie yesterday about the potential impeachment inquiry into President Biden. Today, he's threatening Hunter Biden, the president's son with Contemptive Congress.

If he doesn't appear, I mean, doesn't Hunter Biden have a legal obligation to answer this congressional subpoena? Well, first of all, I thought your interview was very interesting. James was like a deer in the headlights. He was being hit with facts.

And he's like, this is not what Newsweek does to me. And he was all confused about it. You know, right after that, he must have looked in the mirror like Stuart Smalley, the Al Franken character. He was like, I'm good enough.

I'm smart enough. And people like me, because he couldn't answer your basic questions, right? I mean, at the end of the day, back his dad alone on the floor truck. By the way, thank God it was an American truck.

Can you imagine how mad the Republicans could be if the truck was not American? But look, Hunter has said he'll come to the hearing. Comrie went on TV three times and said, we invite Hunter to come to a deposition or to a public hearing. I mean, that's the chairman speaking.

So Hunter said, I accept your invitation to a public hearing. And now they're like, no, no, no, oopsie. My bad. We want to invite you to be a basement dweller.

So we can ask you questions away from the American people. They have prosecuted Hunter in the public for the last year. The American people want to hear from Hunter. Let the Republicans ask the tough questions.

Hunter should give those answers. Look, Hunter's gotten himself into some trouble. He's indicted, right? And obviously, he needs to go through that process.

And if he's done something wrong, then he'll have to deal with it. And he should get no special treatment. I just think it's important, because in the past, it's not out of the realm of reasonability in Congress for someone to come and have the original closed door deposition and then do the public hearing. That is normally the way it does.

It is done. Why should it be different for Hunter Biden? Because they're never going to call him publicly. They're never going to do that.

They want to tell their story to their echo chamber. This is also the first time a witness is saying, I'll come right away, right away to the public hearing. You get me in a public setting with the media. More transparency.

All of a sudden, it's like transparency, bad. Donald Trump asked for cameras in the courtroom. Republicans seem to love that idea. Hunter says, I want the same thing.

And all of a sudden, we're like, no, no. We can't let Hunter tell his side of the story. And so look, Hunter deserves his day to explain his behavior. But the Republicans don't want to do that.

They just want to tell their narrative and their misinformation. Oh, by the way, 50,000 pages of documents have been turned over to the Republicans, not a single shred of evidence on Joe Biden. And yet, they continue to try to move this forward probably with an impeachment inquiry vote next week. It's just garbage.

All right, Congressman, we're going to have to leave it there. Jared Moskowitz, thank you so much for your time. We appreciate being here. Thank you.

And thank you for being with us this hour. Kristen will be back tomorrow with more Meet the Press now. And of course, tune in for the Meet the Press special coverage of the fourth Republican primary debate that is at 10 PM Eastern right here on NBC News Now. Kristen will have reaction from the top campaigns, as well as reaction from voters who are watching the debate in some key states.

Of course, we are still tracking that breaking news out of Las Vegas. We're shooting to place on the campus of UNLV. We have complete coverage of that and more as NBC News Now coverage continues. I'm joined now by my colleague, Hallie Jackson, and her program, Hallie Jackson, right now.

I'm Craig Malef, cheers, cheers, cheers. I've always been a glass half-hole kind of guy. And now, I'm talking to some people who look at the world that way, too. Some really fascinating folks who shared their defining moments, their triumphs, their challenges, their stories are funny, and my candid.

So I hope you'll join me each week. And who knows? You might just come away with your own glass half-hole. Search glass half-hole with Craig Malef, from today.

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