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Top Story with Tom Llamas

6 Nov 2026 · 50m · 20 chapters

Episode artwork

Thursday, November 5, 2026

In short

This episode of “Top Story” covers a fast-moving news roundup anchored by markets, politics, and major breaking incidents. Topic: A tech-driven Wall Street meltdown tied to AI/data-center backlash after voters approved restrictions; political aftershocks from a “blue wave/tsunami,” including possible replacement talk about Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth; and several major U.S. disasters (flash flooding in Georgia/Tennessee, a Tampa Citibank shooting, and other incidents).

Guests

Matt Gorman (former National Republican Congressional Committee communications director; NBC News contributor) and Megan Hayes (former Biden White House messaging director).

Key claims

AI/data-center stocks fell sharply (Nasdaq down 5.5%+) amid voter-imposed limits; Trump is considering replacing Hegseth despite his insistence he’s staying; Democrats and Republicans are arguing over leadership and investigations vs impeachment.

Notable examples

Mississippi Senate race down to ~1,100 votes; Alaska “fake Dan Sullivan” ballot controversy; Newsom commuting California death sentences; a cancer-coverage denial reversed after an email to an insurer CEO; “The Pit” lawsuit over similarities to “ER.”

Written by AI. May contain mistakes.

Chapters

0:30

Breaking News Overview

A rundown of major news events including market trends and political updates.

“Major developments out of the White House.”
2:38

Wall Street Meltdown Analysis

Discussion of the significant stock market decline and its causes.

“We begin tonight with the massive market meltdown.”
3:38

Midterm Election Aftermath

Analysis of political repercussions following the midterm elections, focusing on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

“As sources tell NBC News, President Trump is considering possible replacements for him.”
6:33

Alaska Election and Cabinet Changes

Update on Alaska's election results and potential changes in the President's cabinet.

“Garrett Haake reports from the White House.”
9:21

Democratic Leadership Challenges

Discussion on the challenges facing Democratic leadership after the midterm elections.

“LET'S BRING IN OUR POLITICAL PROS TONIGHT ON TOP STORY.”
14:01

Democrats' Primary Calendar Changes for 2028

Discussion on the finalized Democratic primary calendar and its implications.

“they might want to sit this one out and regroup before they come out the Democrats with where their disarray is.”
16:21

Gavin Newsom's Clemency Announcement

Overview of Governor Gavin Newsom's decision to grant clemency to death row inmates.

“In California tonight, Governor Gavin Newsom announcing he will grant clemency to hundreds of death row inmates.”
18:01

Severe Flooding in Georgia and Tennessee

Report on the extreme flooding emergencies affecting communities in Georgia and Tennessee.

“who took down a gunman on a deadly rampage at a Citibank campus in Tampa.”
19:31

Heroic Actions During Citibank Shooting

Details on the security guard who neutralized a gunman at a Citibank.

“All new Line of Fire, the thrilling new crime drama.”
21:52

Senate Race Update in Mississippi

Analysis of a closely contested Senate race in Mississippi and its implications.

“My father's business is right on the river over there, and his work van and all that was in it, and it was completely submerged.”
Show all 20 chapters
25:45

Nithya Rahman's Mayoral Victory in Los Angeles

Discussion on Nithya Rahman's significant win over incumbent Karen Bass for mayor.

“We're back now with a razor-thin Senate race in Mississippi.”
28:00

Political Upset: Nithya Rahman's Victory in L.A.

Explore the implications of Nithya Rahman's election as mayor and the dynamics of her victory.

“but civil rights groups and Democrats are also saying the same thing.”
33:02

News Feed: Tragedies and Protests

A roundup of significant news events including a deadly fire, protests in France, and unusual incidents.

“WE START HERE IN NEW YORK WITH A DEADLY HOUSE FIRE IN BROOKLYN KILLING SIX PEOPLE.”
37:57

Battling Insurance Denials: A Personal Story

Hear Elizabeth's fight to get cancer treatment covered by her insurance.

“and the long friendship that's made it possible.”
41:44

Legal Drama: The Pit vs. ER

An exploration of a lawsuit involving the hit show The Pit and its resemblance to ER.

“Kate, it's great that Elizabeth was able to get those results, but what happens if you don't write for Vanity Fair?”
42:01

Understanding Health Insurance Appeals

Learn about the importance of appealing health insurance denials.

“Whatever you have to do if you've been denied.”
42:30

Legal Drama Surrounding 'The Pit' vs. 'ER'

Explore the legal challenges faced by the show 'The Pit' regarding its similarities to 'ER'.

“An on-screen fictionalized health care challenge just plays out in the award-winning series The Pit.”
45:02

Steve Kornacki on Election Night Highlights

Steve Kornacki reflects on memorable moments from election night.

“Could a lawsuit like this stop production?”
45:45

Preparing for Election Night

Kornacki shares insights on preparing for election coverage and common practices.

“How many times am I going to say wow tonight because I'm seeing things I've never seen in this board before?”
53:10

Steve Kornacki Look-Alike Contest

A light-hearted discussion about a look-alike contest featuring Steve Kornacki.

“Oh, actually, we have just a little bit more before I go.”
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Transcript

Automatic transcript. May contain errors.

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1:01Breaking news tonight. Stock market wipeout. Tech stocks tumbling. The Nasdaq plummeting to correction territory over AI fears. Meltdown on Wall Street erasing post-midterm gains. The S &P having its worst day in more than a year. Chip giant NVIDIA losing more than a trillion dollars from its peak. How long could it last and what it means for your 401k? Also breaking tonight the aftershocks from the Democratic blue wave. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth speaking out and digging in amid our reporting that President Trump is discussing replacing him. Chilling new video of the deadly shooting at an office complex near Tampa.

1:40The heroic security guard taking down this man with an AR-15 and the moment the shooter rammed his car through the gates. Catastrophic flash flood emergencies. Dozens rescued along the Georgia-Tennessee border. reports of people trapped on their roofs. This propane tank exploding. Neighborhoods underwater still. New clashes in France. Cars set on fire. Riot police launching tear gas. More than a half a million people in the streets. What they're demanding. The legal battle brewing between two top medical dramas. Is the pit too similar to the 90s hit ER? What a California court just ruled. And the Kornacki craze election night sensation Steve Kornacki is in the house with his biggest takeaways and why his 10-hour marathon at the board is going viral.

2:29Plus, a rider battling cancer denied the treatment her doctor recommended, how the threat of a magazine essay may have gotten her the care she needed. We'll explain. Top Story starts right now.

2:45Hey, good evening. We begin tonight with the massive market meltdown. Stocks plunging in the worst day on Wall Street in more than a year. that post-election bump wiped out entirely. Last night, we showed you a sea of green. Now, it's a sea of red. The tech-heavy Nasdaq plummeting more than 5.5%. The Dow and S &P also down sharply. So what caused the floor to fall out? Data Center and AI companies taking some of the biggest hits after voters overwhelmingly voted against them on the ballot this week. The fear now that Democrats may slow down the AI build-out, but their majority in the Senate could grow even larger.

3:20We're watching the race in Mississippi still too close to call. Less than 2 ,000 votes separating the Democrat and the Republican. And Alaska still too early to call. Could Dems pick up both seats? We'll have more of those races later in the show. And the political aftershocks from this election still shaking up the Republican Party. Defense Secretary Pete Hanks at Defiant today saying he's not going anywhere. As sources tell NBC News, President Trump is considering possible replacements for him. We've got a lot to get to tonight. And our Christine Romans leads us off from the trading room floor.

3:53Tonight, the tech-driven meltdown on Wall Street. All the worst performers are AI hardware. As investors further absorbed the midterm elections results, yesterday's market enthusiasm, today, wiped out, and then some. It's not good. There's no way to spin it. The Nasdaq plummeting more than 5.5%. The Dow and S &P also down sharply. Why are stocks down so much today? I think this is a crisis of confidence, confidence in the AI trade itself. I also think it is a little bit of pushback on the midterms, right? And so we've had a lot of state and local governors push back on new data centers. Companies connected to data centers and the artificial intelligence build out took some of the biggest hits after voters supported dozens of ballot measures across the country, imposing restrictions on the construction of new facilities.

4:43And the people have spoken, right? This has been unpopular to build data centers. NVIDIA, the leader in the chip sector, down more than 9 % for the day, the company erasing$1.4 trillion in value since its peak last month. Elon Musk's companies, SpaceX and Tesla, also fell dramatically today. The world's first trillionaire spent$168 million supporting Republicans in Texas, where both companies are based, only to see Democrats win handily across the state. Today's sell-off begging the question, is it a bit of air coming out of the AI boom or a sign of more difficult days to come? Tom, very big swings the last two days, unusually big swings.

5:26When you see numbers like we saw today, obviously it really gets our attention. One of the things that traders are telling me here today is it felt a little bit like an overreaction. Sometimes that happens when you have really big news. You had a lot of earnings news last week that was causing people to wonder whether there might be a little bit of air coming out of the AI boom. And then you got this big, huge transition of power in Washington, again, causing some questions, soul searching about just the durability of that AI trade. But many people telling me they feel like it might have been a little bit exaggerated because that's what markets tend to do.

6:00It also is a reminder that on AI news in particular, it is so important to the economy and to the stock market over the past few years, it tends to have a very big impact. For example, the Nasdaq is up about 75, 76 percent over the past three years. So there are plenty of people who say a move like this today is not that unusual. Tom? All right, Christine Romans for us. We're also following breaking news out of President Trump's cabinet tonight. Secretary of Defense Pete Hagseth says he's not going anywhere. As sources tell NBC News, the president is considering replacements. Garrett Haake reports from the White House.

6:35Tonight, with that crushing midterm defeat for Republicans, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth digging in, releasing this new video as he prepares for a potential impeachment battle. Didn't work against President Trump, and it won't work with me. Two people familiar with the situation tell NBC News President Trump has told some allies he's considering replacing Hegseth, though the president today insisted he has no intention of removing him. All as the midterm's blue wave could crash further into Republican territory. In Mississippi, Democrat Scott Colombe leading by fewer than 2 ,000 votes. Are you still confident that you'll win?

7:15Yeah, I'm confident, very confident. Republicans say there are more than 20 ,000 remaining ballots. The significant number of these, we believe, are in and remain in Republican-leaning districts. And in Alaska, an alleged Democratic scheme to sabotage Republican Senator Dan Sullivan's campaign by placing another Dan Sullivan on the ballot may be working. Democrat Mary Peltola now leads Senator Sullivan by just 637 votes, while the other Dan Sullivan has drawn 3 ,600 votes. And another GOP candidate who told The New York Times he was also recruited to run, receiving nearly 5 ,000 votes as the count continues.

7:56President Trump posting that the votes for the, quote, fake Dan Sullivan and that other candidate should be, quote, immediately given to the real Dan Sullivan. State and federal officials are investigating, all while Republican recriminations continue. 2026 was not simply a blue wave. It was a blue tsunami. It was an ass kicking. OK, Senator Ted Cruz putting it pointingly there. Garrett Hake joins us now from the White House. So, Garrett, that Senate race in Alaska, still too early to call. Where do you think, Stan, at this hour? This is going to be a complicated one, Tom, and people should probably be patient.

8:34First, the votes have to actually get in and get counted in a state where some communities are only accessible by boat or by plane. It could take some time for all the vote to actually be tabulated. And then in Alaska, once it's tabulated, it gets run through this ranked choice system in which, if no candidate reaches 50 percent of the vote, which seems likely based on the numbers we're seeing so far, people are actually asked to vote for their second and third choices and so on. And so each candidate will essentially drop off the ballot with their voters reassigned to second or third choices until somebody gets over 50 percent, all of which is to say it's going to BE CLOSE, IT ALREADY IS, AND IT COULD BE A WHILE BEFORE WE SEE THAT TABULATION AND WHO ALASKANS ACTUALLY PICKED, PERHAPS WITH THEIR SECOND AND THIRD CHOICES COMING INTO PLAY.

9:20ALL RIGHT, GARRETT, WE THANK YOU. LET'S BRING IN OUR POLITICAL PROS TONIGHT ON TOP STORY. MATT GORMAN IS THE FORMER COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR FOR THE NATIONAL REPUBLICAN CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEE AND AN NBC NEWS CONTRIBUTOR. AND MEGEN HAYES IS A FORMER MESSAGING DIRECTOR AT THE BIDEN WHITE HOUSE. I THANK YOU BOTH. THE PRESIDENT'S CABINET, PRESIDENT'S CABINET, THE PRESIDENT'S CABINET, THE SACRETEGOAT FOR WHAT HAPPENED TUESDAY NIGHT. DO YOU THINK SECRETARY PETE HEGSETH KEEPS HIS JOB THROUGH THE END OF THE YEAR? I THINK THAT REMAINS TO BE SEEN. IF THEY ARE GOING TO MAKE A CHANGE, THEY HAVE TO DO IT QUICKLY.

9:51I THINK YOU ARE GOING TO SEE A COUPLE OF CABINET CHANGES. I THINK THERE IS A WINDOW HERE WHETHER IT'S PETE HEGSETH OR THING IS THAT THE OTHER THING IS TO BE ABLE TO GET OUT AND GET SOMEBODY CONFIRMED FAIRLY QUICKLY. YOU ARE RIGHT. USUALLY AROUND THESE TIMES, IN 2006, THERE IS A SCAPEGOAT. IN 2006, IT WAS RUMSFELD. BACK IN 2010, OBAMA CHANGED HIS CHIEF OF STAFF. I DON'T KNOW IF THAT WILL HAPPEN HERE. USUALLY THERE IS ALWAYS SOMEBODY THEY POINT TO AND TRY TO MAKE A BLAME OUT OF. Matt, as you know, Vice President Vance blamed the blue wave on the war with Iran. I want to play with Democratic Congressman Ro Khanna said about that.

10:25You're the sitting vice president who is responsible with Donald Trump for this war. So if you're serious about that, then why don't you come out and support my call for a zeroing out of any funding for Iran military combat operations in the continuing resolution? We could end this war before the end of the year and bring down gas diesel food prices before Christmas. You think the vice president breaks that sharply with the president? I mean, I don't think he's supporting anything Ro Khanna does. I THINK THAT WAS A BREAK. IT ABSOLUTELY WAS WITH THE PRESIDENT. I THINK THAT WAS ALSO THE START OF THE 2028 CAMPAIGN IN ESSENCE.

11:08YOU SAW OTHERS WHETHER IT'S RON DESANTIS OR TED CRUZ. I THINK YOU 'LL SEE OTHER PEOPLE START DIPPING THEIR TOE IN THE WATER. YOU'RE RIGHT. WITH THAT TWEET OR THAT POST, 2028 BEGAN IN EARNEST. ALL RIGHT. LET'S TURN TO THE DEMOCRATIC SIDE. CAN PROGRESSIVES LIKE ROA KANA USE THIS MOMENT TO PUSH CHANGE OR DO YOU THINK THIS BLUE tsunami cements Democratic leaders, Jeffries and Schumer. It will be interesting to see. I think you're seeing a lot of calls from a lot of different places asking for new leadership for both Schumer and Jeffries. I think Jeffries probably has a better chance to remain and to become the speaker than Schumer does at this moment in time.

11:43But we'll definitely see there definitely is a call here and it's getting louder by the day. You know, Megan, Democrats are already making moves for leadership in Congress. Congressman Robert Garcia put in his bid to chair the oversight committee preparing to use every tool available to investigate the Trump family, ICE and Epstein. But we've already seen Democrats go down this path. They tried to impeach, but voters still reelected President Trump. So how do Democrats balance those priorities without falling into that same pattern? I think there's a difference between impeachment and I think, and doing investigations.

12:14And I think that if Democrats were smart, they would stick to investigations and they would stick to getting people, holding people responsible like the Trump I DON'T THINK IT'S A FOOL'S ARRAND. I DON'T THINK IT'S A FOOL'S ARRAND. I DON'T THINK IT'S A FOOL'S I DON'T THINK WE SHOULD GO DOWN THAT PATH. I DO THINK THE INVESTIGATIONS WILL ANSWER THE MAIL FOR THE BASE OF THE PARTY THAT WE WERE GOING AFTER AND HOLDING SOMEBODY ACCOUNTABLE FOR THE CORRUPTION THAT'S TAKING PLACE IN THE ADMINISTRATION. MATT, WHAT'S YOUR VISION FOR REPUBLICAN LEADERSHIP WITH MIKE JOHNSON OUT? WHO'S ON THE BENCH AND WHO CAN MAKE THIS WORK AS MINORITY LEADER?

12:45I MEAN, LET ME PUT IT THIS WAY. EVERYBODY IS GETTING A CHALLENGE RIGHT NOW. YOU KNOW, THE ONLY QUESTION HEADING INTO ELECTION DAY WAS WHETHER OR NOT MIKE JOHNSON WOULD MAYBE TRY AND STICK AROUND. CERTAINLY NOT AFTER WHAT WE SAW ON TUESDAY NIGHT. BUT EVERYBODY IS GETTING A CHALLENGE. EVEN TOM EMER WHO THOUGHT HE RELATIVELY STABLE GETTING CHALLENGED BY AUGIE PFLUGER. JIM JORDAN AND STEVE SCALISE FOR THE TOP JOB, MINORITY LEADER IT WOULD BE. YOU KNOW, JORDAN MIGHT HAVE THE EDGE THERE. But again, it's anybody's game. I think the first thing is you've got to figure out what members you're whipping.

13:14And we're still having races called out in Alaska, California, or some of these tight races. That's the first step, though, is figuring out who the heck is going to be there next year. Yeah. And then, Megan, I want to play a comment President Trump made on election night when asked on Fox News if he had any formidable Democratic contenders in mind. I'd rather not say, because I actually know some that I think would be formidable, but I don't want to put them in play. They're absolutely not in play. that people aren't even thinking about him. So I don't want to put him in play. I mean, all of a sudden we'll end up with a real opponent.

13:46Who do you think he's talking about? I mean, who knows? It could just be a fool's errand again that he's on now. But I do think there are a lot of people who are in play for the 28 cycle that would be very formidable candidates to Republicans. And after the schlacking they took on 26, they might want to sit this one out and regroup before they come out the Democrats with where their disarray is. Matt, who do you think he's talking about? DO YOU HAVE ANY SENSE OR DO YOU THINK IT WAS JUST KIND OF A GAME THERE FOR THE PRESIDENT? I THINK HE'S PLAYING A LITTLE GAME. LOOK, ONE THING WE 'VE LEARNED CONSISTENTLY, CERTAINLY IN 24, BUT ALSO WITH ALL THESE OPEN PRIMARY, PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARIES, YOU NEED TO RUN ACTUAL CAMPAIGN.

14:20PEOPLE LOOK GOOD ON PAPER, RON DESANTIS DID IN 24, RIGHT COMING AFTER HIS REELECTION IN FLORIDA, AND HE FIZZLED ON THE CAMPAIGN TRAIL. THESE THINGS ARE MARATHONS AND IT really test the candidate, you've got to be good at it. So on paper, it doesn't mean too much. All right, Megan, I want to ask you this one. Democrats have just finalized their primary calendar. I'm looking at my notes here for 2028. It starts in South Carolina, which may get a lot of Democrats very excited. That state helped catapult Joe Biden to the presidency. It actually brought the party back from more progressive candidates back towards moderate candidates.

14:53You've seen the calendar, right? Nevada's up there. New Mexico's up there. What excites you? But maybe the bigger question is, who's the candidate you think that can survive and emerge? I think that there's a lot of candidates. Again, these Midwestern governors, whether it's Bashir or Pritzker, even Westmore in Maryland, these governors have a real chance here. And I think the calendar really helps them out. I know in 2020, going to Iowa, then New Hampshire, then Nevada, then South Carolina, we had to go through all of that before Joe Biden got the nomination. But this adds to more diversity in the electorate.

15:24And that's really where you win elections. is the country is very diverse, and the people who are voting are not people just in Iowa and New Hampshire. So I think that the Democrats chose wisely to mix up the primary calendar to get people who actually represent the entire country to pick the nominee. Megan, I hear about diversity, but I'm also hearing more and more, like you just said, you know, sort of your traditional white governor as the candidate when your party just had Kamala Harris, you know, a historical nominee two years ago. Matt, what do you think happens? Who do you think the Democrats end up with?

15:57Well, put it this way, I think we might have a better shot at having a diverse nominee than they do. You're right, because all their main guys are white males. But I think you're right. I think it depends. You know, Gavin has made a lot of noise in 2025, 2026. We'll see if he's a good campaigner. Who knows what Kamala does throughout all of this as well? I think there's a lot of unknown questions, but we're going to start seeing folks out in the campaign trail very subtly and very soon. So we'll have some answers. Megan and Matt, always love having you guys on. Thank you for being here tonight.

16:23Thanks so much. Thank you. All right. In California tonight, Governor Gavin Newsom announcing he will grant clemency to hundreds of death row inmates. Our Laura Jarrett is looking into what happens next.

16:34Tom Llamas: Tonight, the lives of more than 500 inmates on California's death row now spared. Governor Gavin Newsom today issuing the broadest commutation of death sentences in modern American history, reducing every sentence in the state to life without the possibility of parole. writing in an open letter, I firmly believe that state-sanctioned killing is incompatible with California's values, undermines the foundations of our legal system and diminishes each of us. It's a move the Democratic governor had mulled over for months with more inmates on California's death row than any other state. I have to prepare for my own consciousness, my rocking chair test.

17:18Do I commute the largest death row in the Western Hemisphere.

17:22Tom Llamas: Anti-death penalty advocates urged the governor more recently to clear death row entirely, while opponents of the move expressed outrage today, like the father of 12-year-old Polly Klass, kidnapped and killed by Richard Allen Davis in 1993. I'm terribly disappointed by what he did. It's a knife in the back to the victim families. Though Newsom may not have the final word in most cases, as California's law requires the state's highest court to review his clemency move for the majority of those on death row with multiple felony convictions. Laura Jarrett, NBC News. All right, still ahead tonight on Top Story, new video of the heroic security guard who took down a gunman on a deadly rampage at a Citibank campus in Tampa.

18:07Plus the extreme flash flood emergency dozens of people rescued along the Georgia-Tennessee border. Our team in the storm zone tonight. And L.A. is getting a new mayor, Democratic Socialist Nithya Rahman, unseating Karen Bass. How she pulled off the upset win. Stay with us.

18:45starting around a dollar a day. Right now, get 70 % off your new system with professional monitoring at simplisafe.com slash sxm. 30 seconds response time requires monitoring plan with outdoor protection starting at$49.99 a month. Visit simplisafe.com slash licenses for alarm license information. Over the years, I've met people whose lives were changed forever in a single moment. In my new podcast, Before and After, I explore what happens after that decisive moment. Personal, powerful conversations with Colin Kaepernick, Jeremy Renner, Gabby Giffords, and others. Join me wherever you get your podcasts.

19:20Listen to all episodes of Before and After with Lester Holt now, wherever you get your podcasts. Monday on NBC. U.S. Marshall! All new Line of Fire, the thrilling new crime drama. The world sees us as heroes, but they don't know what the job really costs. One family of federal agents. It's one thing to put yourself in danger. It's different when it's your family. Balances duty to their country. An assassin is still out there. Stop! And each other. How do you protect the world and the people you love at the same time? Every case hits home on Line of Fire, Monday on NBC. We're back now with catastrophic storms triggering rare flash flood emergencies in Georgia and Tennessee.

20:05Neighborhoods washed out, leaving some stranded on their roofs. George Solis joins us now from the flood zone in Georgia. And, George, what's the situation in the town where you're at tonight? Tom, this town has been completely devastated. Take a look here at some of the debris that is washed up here at the Toccoa River. Now, keep in mind, this is flooding that this group has seen in as many months. They were hit with a really bad flood in August. And then back in the 90s, they were hit with an even more severe flood. Folks telling me this actually exceeds that. And here, take a look at this. Right here, this sign, this is grass.

20:38This is a sense of just how high that water got. TONIGHT, RIVERS ROARING AFTER RAIN DELUGE COMMUNITIES IN THE BLUE RIDGE MOUNTAINS NEAR THE GEORGIA-TENNESSEE BORDER. MULTIPLE FLASH FLOOD EMERGENCIES OVERNIGHT AS FAMILIES SLEPT, RAIN FALLING AS FAST AS THREE INCHES AN HOUR. FLOODWATERS TEARING THROUGH MCKAYSVILLE, GEORGIA AND COPPERHILL, TENNESSEE. FIRST RESPONDERS MAKING DOZENS OF RESCUSE, CAREFULLY HELPING THIS WOMAN OUT OF A BOAT AND ONTO DRY LAND. THESE BUSINESSES AND HOMES ALL INUNDATED. Authorities going door to door, a Black Hawk helicopter flying overhead. We had reports that some people was on the roofs of their house, so we put drones up in the sky and then we got the Black Hawk as well.

21:22The power of those waters sweeping away propane tanks and this frightening moment. Oh, jeez, you've got to be kidding me. Watch again, a massive fireball from a propane tank igniting, crews racing to extinguish the flames. Not far from there, shops downtown completely destroyed. We're inside of a business here on Main Street, Donna's. To give you a sense of just how high the water got, well above my head. Take a look at the flag there. That is where the water line is. Riley Kendrick's family owns a cabinet store.

21:53Tom Llamas: My father's business is right on the river over there, and his work van and all that was in it, and it was completely submerged. It's ruined. But many business owners are vowing to rebuild. My daddy didn't raise a critter. He did not raise a quitter. All right, George joins us once again from the flood zone in Georgia. And, George, we see the debris there next to you. The river there reached a record height. And what is that, a picnic table? Yeah, that's right, Tom. The Toccoa River cresting above 18 feet. And, yeah, this is a picnic table that washed away from somewhere and ended up on this building.

22:29And, again, as we were showing you earlier, this water level really reaching staggering levels. Look at the windows here. They are completely covered. The inside of this business completely demolished. Now, fortunately, the water levels are returning back to normal. But as you can see here from what we've shown you, the cleanup just getting underway. Tom. All right, George, thank you. Now to the deadly shooting in Tampa, new video showing the moment a hero security guard took down the gunman who opened fire at a city bank complex yesterday. Jesse Kirsch has this one. Tonight, new horrifying images of a security guard taking down an active shooter near Tampa, Florida.

23:05Got a possible shooter inside. The surveillance footage released today by the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office shows Citibank Security Officer John Fraley Wednesday afternoon preparing to engage with a gunman who had just killed a woman in the office courtyard. He takes a tactical position in the men's restroom. He sees a suspect coming and he engages this suspect. You can see the suspect, 35-year-old Jacob Pearson, fall to the ground, appearing to shoot back before the violence finally ends. Pearson later died at the hospital. The sheriff says that security guard is a Marine Corps veteran and this week heroically saved lives on a campus filled with more than 3 ,200 people.

23:49The gunman's rampage began when he allegedly crashed his vehicle into this courtyard. According to the sheriff, Pearson owed Citibank$2 ,500 and said this to a bank collection attorney's office hours earlier. Unless you want me to go over there with my AR-15, my bulletproof vest, and my insanity, you MF and cancel this court case. And today, officials also identifying the victim as 41-year-old Citibank employee Leanne Selman. She was valued. She was beloved. She was described as a bright light. And her colleagues and all of us are grieving. All right, Jesse joins us tonight from Miami. Jesse, that's some wild video there.

24:31Four other workers were also hurt. That's right, Tom. Four people hurt, according to authorities yesterday. We got some more details today. Officials now saying there were two people who had busted lips. One of them with some abrasions as well. Then there was someone who was pregnant. They wanted her to get checked out. And finally, there was someone who was experiencing chest pains. Good news. Authorities say all four of those people are all now cleared and have been released. Tom. Okay, Jesse Kirsch for us from Miami. Still to come, new clashes in France. Demonstrators and police facing off in one of the biggest protests yet.

25:03Plus, flattened by a tire, the surreal moment caught on camera, an airborne wheel knocking this man to the ground. Ouch. We'll tell you what happened. But first, Top Story's top moment and the incredible half-court shot that had the crowd at Cal State, San Marcos, going wild. Freshman Riley stepping up to the line and draining it. Take a look.

25:31That's an awesome shot. Nothing but net. That shot earning Riley free parking for the entire semester. That's it. It's worth about$300, but still pretty cool. All right, stay with us. More top story after this.

25:51We're back now with a razor-thin Senate race in Mississippi. still too close to call tonight. 96 % of the vote is in, but Democrat Scott Colombe is leading incumbent Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith by just about 1 ,100 votes. This is a state President Trump won by more than 20 points in 2024. Our Yamiche Alcindor is on the ground in Mississippi with the vote still coming in. Yamiche, what have you learned? I'm here at a ballot processing center in Jackson, Mississippi, where this state is really home to now a nail-biter of a Senate race. No one thought that this was going to be so close, But the Democrat here, Scott Colombe, he is giving Cindy Hyde Smith a run for her money, the Republican incumbent.

26:31Looking at this race, you can tell that this is really a state that is, in some ways, the story of the midterm elections, the South really turning blue here. This state has not sent a senator, a Democratic senator, to the U.S. Senate in decades. That being said, there's also not a recount law here. And this race is coming down to likely be a few thousand provisional ballots. Those are ballots cast by people where they have a vote and then where people say, well, you might not be eligible to vote. They have to review them and then they have to decide whether or not the person can vote. I also caught up with the Democrat, Scott Colum, and talked to him about his historic run, the fact that it's this close.

27:07Take a listen to what he told me. Somehow we got in this cycle where they were like, well, we can't win, so we're not going to try. That's a shame, right? Because morally, how could you not compete in a state where people are denying folks health care? How could you not compete in a state where folks are getting betrayed on tariffs, farmers getting betrayed, consumers, small businesses? How could you not compete in a state where voting rights are being attacked left and right? When you say, listen, I can't win those voters, what you're saying is I don't care enough about those voters. And when you show voters you don't care, they don't show up.

27:37So what I did is I showed up. And it turns out when you show up, people start to believe. So there you have it. he is telling the Democratic Party, the National Democratic Party, that they needed to do more here in this state, but also across the South. So it's going to be very interesting to see what happens with this race. Republicans are already saying that they may have some sort of legal action. They're saying that they want to make sure that all the votes are legally counted, but civil rights groups and Democrats are also saying the same thing. So we'll see how all this turns out. Back to you.

28:06All right, Yamiche, thanks. Now to a major upset, another political battle we've been following here on Top Story. NBC News projecting Nithya Rahman will be the next mayor of Los Angeles, defeating the incumbent Karen Bass there. Rahman's victory marking a major moment for progressives. In 2027, the cities of New York, L.A., and D.C. are all going to be led by Democratic socialists. Joining us now is Noah Goldberg, who has been covering this race for the L.A. Times. Noah, thanks for being here tonight. We appreciate it. This was a hard-fought race. At one point, Spencer Pratt was the name being thrown around.

28:38So going into Tuesday night, it was kind of unclear who was going to win. What PUT NITHYA RAHMAN OVER THE TOP? I THINK ONE THING THAT PUT NITHYA RAHMAN OVER THE TOP IS JUST THE FACT THAT KAREN BASS WAS SO UNPOPULAR IN LOS ANGELES. IN EVERY PUBLIC OPINION POLL THAT CAME OUT BEFORE THIS ELECTION, KAREN BASS WAS AT ABOUT 65 % UNFAVORABLE, WHEREAS NITHYA RAHMAN WAS HOOVERING CLOSER TO AN EQUAL FAVORABLE UNFAVORABLE. SO THIS WAS REALLY JUST A CHANGE ELECTION. And then if you combine that with the blue wave of the midterms and Nithya Rahman being the more progressive of the two candidates, young voters turning out in record numbers, it just all kind of combined to create this lane for her to beat the incumbent.

29:22I think at one point Nithya was backing Karen Bass until that sort of political operation fell apart. What do people in L.A. expect from a mayor, Rahman? Well, it's complicated. She was backing the mayor at first, and she's had a little bit of trouble getting along with her council colleagues. Everyone in the city council, including the other Democratic socialists, endorsed the mayor over Nithya Rahman. But what you can expect from a Rahman mayoralty is a push for more housing. She really believes in opening the city up to developers so that housing prices can come down. She's also going to be pushing very hard on homelessness and lowering the number of unsheltered homeless people before the 2028 Olympics, which are coming very, very soon.

30:06Yeah, that's going to be a big one. Spencer Pratt, as I mentioned earlier, kind of jumped on the scene. He was a candidate his entire campaign almost based on sort of the aftermath of the fires and what led up to it. Stats still very much, I got to imagine, on the top of people's minds in your city. So what does Nithya Raman have to do when it comes to the fires and rebuilding and making sure L.A. is prepared for the next wildfire? Yeah, Karen Bass has already done a lot of work on that, but people are clearly still so frustrated with the fact that, one, she was gone in Ghana at the time of the fires.

30:40Two, that she got in this big fight with her fire chief and appeared to not have even been warned about the fire risks while she was gone. Nidhiya Rahman, it wasn't her top issue, the wildfires. She was more campaigning on fixing streetlights, fixing potholes and ending homelessness. But as the campaign went on, she did start taking more of a stance on the mayor's lack of emergency preparedness, being here. She started trying out this MIA, BASWA's MIA during the fires. So she hasn't talked a lot about what she would actually do at the fire department, but that will definitely be a critical issue as she comes into the mayoralty.

31:17You know, here in New York City, Mayor Mamdani came in fiery against the administration, but he's actually met with President Trump multiple times. They have an interesting relationship. Can we expect the same from Rahman? I don't know. I've heard it called a bromance a lot in New York City. I don't think that Nithya Rahman will have that same stance toward Trump. I don't think she's talked to him throughout the campaign. And he actually just spoke about her. And I think he said it was a disgrace or something like that today about her winning. And he was still saying that Spencer Pratt was robbed and saying that it was an unfair, raped election.

31:54But, you know, this is a new position. It's very DIFFERENT FROM BEING ON THE COUNCIL, ALTHOUGH, YOU KNOW, NEW YORK MAYOR IS VERY DIFFERENT FROM BEING A STATE ASSEMBLY MEMBER. THIS IS A BIG POSITION WHERE YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE TO DEAL WITH DONALD TRUMP. AND THAT'S SOMETHING THAT KAREN BASS WAS PUSHING IN THIS CAMPAIGN. SHE WAS SAYING I 'VE BEEN IN CONGRESS. I KNOW HOW TO DEAL WITH WASHINGTON, D.C. AND PEOPLE ACROSS THE AISLE. NYTHIA RAMAN IS IN A CITY WHERE BASICALLY EVERYONE ON THE COUNCIL IS DEMOCRAT OR EVEN FURTHER TO THE LEFT OF THE Democrats. So we'll see what she does when it comes to talking to Trump.

32:22Yeah, real quick, do we know what happens to Spencer Pratt? I mean, has he become a political force there in LA or is he just sort of a flash in a pan, if you will? Well, he's doing a lot of writing. He has a sub stack that I think a lot of people are following. He, during the campaign, the general election, he was neither endorsing Karen Bass or Nithya Rahman, but mostly talking about how both OF THEM ARE TERRIBLE OPTIONS FOR THE CITY. AND HE SAID THAT THERE IS A QUOTE DEMONIC ENERGY IN LOS ANGELOS. SO HE'S STILL TALKING, BUT I DON'T KNOW IF HE'S PART OF THE POLITICAL CITULARLY ANYMORE. OKAY.

32:57WE THANK YOU FOR COMING ON TOP STORY. I'M SURE WE 'LL CHECK IN THROUGHOUT THE NEXT COUPLE DAYS AS THE NEW MAYOR GETS STARTED. NOW TO TOP STORY'S NEWS FEED. WE START HERE IN NEW YORK WITH A DEADLY HOUSE FIRE IN BROOKLYN KILLING SIX PEOPLE. VIDEO SHOWS FLAMES SHOOTING OUT OF THE TWO-STORY HOME, CONSUMING the entire structure. At least nine people were injured, including three firefighters and two police officers. Four people were rescued, including two who were trapped behind window bars. Right now, the cause of that fire is still unknown. Another wave of massive protests in France. More than 600 ,000 taking to the streets across several cities, some lighting cars and trash on fire.

33:34Riot police clashing with protesters deploying tear gas. Today marks one of the biggest DEMONSTRATIONS AMID GROWING DEMANDS FOR HIGHER WAGES AND UNREST OVER EDUCATION. BACK HERE AT HOME IN GEORGIA, A TRAIN COLIDING WITH AN 18-WHEELER STUCK ON THE TRACKS. TAKE A LOOK AT THIS.

33:53YOU CAN SEE THE TRAIN BARRELING THROUGH A SEMI TRUCK THERE, SENDING CARGO SPILLING OUT OVER THE STREET. THE TRUCK DRIVER ESCAPING JUST MOMENTS BEFORE THE TIME LAPSE, BUT SEEMING TO KIND OF WATCH THE IMPACT THERE AS WELL. OFFICIALS SAY NO ONE WAS HURT. All right. And wild video out of Santiago, Chile. After a runaway tire hit a man walking down a sidewalk. Surveillance video capturing the moment. The car wheel goes airborne and slams right into the poor guy, knocking him to the ground. You can see a group of people rushing over to help him. That man is expected to be OK. Terrible. OK, we're going to turn out of the major verdict handed down in London.

34:28British comedian Russell Brand found guilty of rape and sexual assault. The judge now saying he could face a significant prison term. Danielle Hamamjin reports. Russell Brand, the convicted rapist. A London jury today finding the British comedian and actor guilty on one count of rape and three counts of sexual assault involving incidents that occurred between 2004 and 2009. Brand was convicted of raping one woman at his former home in London. Russell Brand used his influence, status and fame to prey on and exploit women. The sexual assaults against three women also took place in London, at a bar, a radio station, and then later while Brand was working on a British television project.

35:14The victim says Brand forced her to give him a massage despite her objections and claims Brand then placed his head directly into her groin area. After the verdict, London's Met Police released these videos of Brand's interrogations after allegations were first reported by the Times of London and the UK's Channel 4. allegations which Brand strongly denied. I led a very promiscuous life in the past which I've spent years openly denouncing. I've never engaged in non-consensual sexual activity. And tonight London's Met Police saying Brand is being investigated on further rape allegations made by two women.

35:53Brand became a fixture in UK media before making a name for himself in Hollywood with films such as Get Him to the Greek and Forgetting Sarah Marshall as well as a brief marriage to Katy Perry. Brand is now in custody with the judge telling him he should expect a significant prison term. And as Russell Brand spends his first night in prison, he'll be back in court on Monday for sentencing. Tom? Danielle, thank you. Just ahead tonight, one writer's fight to get her cancer treatment covered. The letter she sent to her insurance company CEO that turned a denial around. Plus, ER versus the pit, why the TV medical dramas are now locked in a legal fight, and what it could mean for HBO's Emmy Award winning show.

36:40My six-year-old little sister is taken from her bed and violently murdered, and we don't have any answers? It's been 30 years. It's not okay. We will find this person. It's not a question of if, but when. Who killed JonBenet Ramsey? You think you know this mystery? But do you know about the DNA at the crime scene? Can science finally solve this case? And who is unknown male one? An intruder, a third party male. So unknown male one is out there somewhere. Yes. The stunning all new Diane Sawyer investigation tonight on ABC. The real cost of a break-in isn't your valuables. It's the feeling that your home stopped being safe.

37:16SimpliSafe keeps danger away from your family with three layers of protection. One, smart AI cameras and live U.S.-based agents help stop intruders before they break in. Two, we sound the alarm at points of entry. Three, our agents request emergency response. Plans starting around a dollar a day. Right now, get 70 % off your new system with professional monitoring at simplisafe.com slash sxm. Outdoor deterrence plans start at$49.99 a month. Visit simplisafe.com slash licenses for alarm license information. Hey guys, Willie Geist here, reminding you to check out the Sunday Sit-Down Podcast. On this week's episode, I get together with the boys of Smartless, Will Arnett, Sean Hayes, and Jason Bateman for a rollicking, frankly unhinged conversation.

37:56about the surprise success of that SmartList podcast and the long friendship that's made it possible. You can get our conversation now for free wherever you download your podcasts. We're back now with one woman's battle to get her cancer care covered, even though her doctor recommended a specific kind of chemotherapy. Her insurance wouldn't cover it until she sent an email to the company's CEO saying she was prepared to publish an essay about her experience. Kate Snow has her story. AMNA NAWAZ, The New York Times, New York Magazine and Vogue. When she found out the lump in her left breast was definitely cancer in October 2023, she When she found out the lump in her left breast was definitely cancer in October 2023, she had a question.

38:39ELIZABETH NICHOLAS, New York Times, New York Magazine, If I do what the doctors tell me, will I be OK? And I was very lucky that the answer to that was yes. She started on standard chemotherapy at Memorial Sloan Kettering and had terrible side effects, nausea, pain and tingling in her fingers, pain in her muscles and joints. I lost all of my hair, which was quite difficult. Following a mastectomy in April 2024, her oncologist prescribed a milder form of chemo, with a lighter symptom load. The doctors sought prior authorization from Elizabeth's insurer. But hours before the new treatment was scheduled, it was put on hold.

39:15A nurse had called with the news it was unlikely to be approved. The insurer said the requested mix of drugs is not supported in the National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines. Elizabeth's oncologist called her with the news. She said, I'm so sorry, but they are not going to approve this treatment. Elizabeth asked us not to name her insurance company for fear of retaliation. Her situation is not unique. A recent survey found 21 percent of working-age adults with private insurance said they or a family member experienced a denial of doctor-recommended care. 41 percent of them said the denial delayed their care.

39:54Elizabeth worried going back on standard chemo could be crushing. What were you most worried about as a writer? The functionality of my fingers. To be able to type? Yes. Writing is my purpose, and the prospect of losing that That was terrifying. LISA DESJARDINS, Author, The CEO and Director of Communications at her insurance company. Elizabeth introduced herself as a member with breast cancer and also a writer working on an essay about her treatment. ELIZABETH CHENGEL, CEO, I thought, well, the one thing that I believe that I can do is to ask the CEO of this company, why do you believe that this is appropriate?

40:36LISA DESJARDINS, Author, The CEO and Director of Communications at her insurance company. for them to continue denying me. Suddenly, in a situation where patients are expected to have no power and to feel no power, I had a chance of having some form of power to respond with. Because if you wrote an article that was embarrassing to them as a PR issue. That's right. 14 hours after hitting send on the email, the chief medical officer wrote and said regimen approved. Do you think that they reversed their decision because of your email? Certainly. Certainly. She was enormously relieved, but also sad.

41:17A very small number of people have some form of other access or leverage like I did. Where does that leave everybody else? In September, Vanity Fair published Elizabeth's article. Is the message to just keep fighting if you don't agree with your insurance company? The message is to make them share the costs in any way that you can. Elizabeth is in remission now and still writing. Kate joins us now on set. Kate, it's great that Elizabeth was able to get those results, but what happens if you don't write for Vanity Fair? Right. It's a good question, and it's hard. I mean, look, Elizabeth, you heard her say, use any leverage you have.

41:56It doesn't have to be a writer for major publications. I think the first thing, Tom, this is obvious, but contact your insurance company, like, call them. Email them. Whatever you have to do if you've been denied. Find out what your rights are under your plan. And then go ahead and appeal if you can. It's surprising. That study that we mentioned in the piece, they actually found that only about half of people who are denied, half, go ahead and file an appeal. A lot of times because they're unsure it's going to make a difference. Elizabeth would say it is worth trying. That appeal is so, so important.

42:28All right. Kate Snow, we thank you for that. An on-screen fictionalized health care challenge just plays out in the award-winning series The Pit. But now the hit medical show is facing a real-life legal drama. A California appeals court clearing the way for a lawsuit against the creators of The Pit over its alleged similarities to ER. NBC's Steve Romo has to take a closer look. Hey, welcome to The Pit. The drama is spilling out of the emergency room and into the courtroom. Okay, this isn't going to hurt at all. The California appeals court ruling the award-winning drama The Pit and the classic medical drama ER, both starring Noah Wiley, have enough similarities for a lawsuit to move forward.

43:0842-year-old male Sam Wallace, blunt head with agonal respirations. The estate of the late Michael Crichton, one of the creators of ER, claims The Pit is an unauthorized reboot and that Warner Brothers violated an agreement requiring the estate's permission to develop anything based on ER. These are panels.

43:28What was that set on? ER ran on NBC from 94 to 2009. The Pit premiered in 2025 on HBO, the appeals court citing clear and numerous similarities between the two shows, including fast-paced dialogue, ER-focused plot lines, and graphic depictions of injuries. The original lawsuit pointing out similarities in the pilots. In ER's pilot, viewers are first introduced to Dr. John Carter. This is the admitting desk. If you need someone paged or a chart called up, you do it here. Nearly 30 years later, The Pit opens with this scene. This is Dana. She's our charge nurse. She is the ringleader of our circus.

44:04Do what she says when she says it. Wiley, who is also an executive producer of The Pit, recently acknowledging that an ER reboot was discussed. We were going to start down an ER reboot road that didn't come to pass. Saying the team pivoted to a new story. While ER was set in Chicago, The Pit takes place in Pittsburgh. And it embraces a unique format. Each episode covers one real-time hour of an emergency room shift. When it comes to copyright law, I find that whether a work has been copied is one of those truly subjective situations. Everyone feels differently. That's why this is a case that the parties will likely consider settling because it's such a coin flip.

44:45NBC News reached out to Wiley, Warner Brothers TV, the defendant in this case, and Crichton's estate and did not hear back. And so it begins. A show built around extreme emergencies, and its big drama could play out in court. Steven Romo joins us now in studio. So, Steven, The Pit is such a big show. Could a lawsuit like this stop production? Yeah, a lot of people are asking that question because they love the show. Right now, it's a little far off to be able to tell. This can move forward with the discovery phase, and then a settlement could be possible. But this could eventually go to trial.

45:17Right now, this ruling does not say that this is a knockoff of ER, but it's leaving that door open for this next phase of the case. Okay, Stephen Romo. Stephen, thank you. When we come back, the man, the myth, the Kornacki. Steve is lacing up those sneakers one more time, back in the house to break down the election night moments that left him stunned and the memes and tributes taking over social media. Stay with us.

45:45Oh, whoa. Wow. Oh, my gosh. This one is like shocking me. How many times am I going to say wow tonight because I'm seeing things I've never seen in this board before? That was a supercut of all the times our Steve Kornacki was stunned by the historic results on election night. That compilation alone viewed more than three million times across social media. Millions more tuning in live to watch Steve break down the results in real time during our special coverage and on the Kornacki cam. Steve's back at the big board tonight for us here at Top Story after spending more than 10 straight hours on election night.

46:19Steve, you've been standing long enough, so why don't you come join us at the desk and take a load off just for a bit. Let's kick back, talk some politics, talk some math, and maybe talk some life as well. So you were up there for so long. I've got to ask you, when you finally got a break, what was the first meal? Did you have a drink? I mean, did you take an ice plunge? How did you relax at least for a little bit? I sat down just off the set, and they brought over a bunch of snacks. I think there were Cheez-Its, grapes, trail mix, a couple things like that. I just ate what they put in front of me.

46:50And that got right through you. Yeah, I needed something at that point. So, you know, throughout the night we were covering this, and you never want to get ahead of the story, right, because you always have a blue mirage, a red mirage, and you just got to be careful. When did you sense that this was going to be sort of a blue tsunami? Was it early on or kind of in the middle of the night? Because we tried to be very measured the entire night. Yeah, I mean, I think there's a balance between what you see and then making sure you're seeing it to say it. I will say the first result I saw of the night, which came in the 6 o 'clock hour from a county in Indiana, was kind of shocking to look at.

47:20Now, you want to see if it's just more than that county where it's happening. But the thing that happened was every single county, practically everywhere that came in after that, I was seeing the same thing. With the way you prepared AI, the prediction markets, any of that have any effect? Has it changed in any way in the way you do your job? You know, I still think like that the prediction markets are really picking up what the polls are saying. And so the question about both of them was, the polls have been wrong before. They've missed, in the last 10 years, they've missed Trump voters before.

47:49Was that going to happen again? And I think that was obviously on everybody's mind heading into this. And then you saw the results and you said, no, the polls actually weren't right this time. And there was, there's, you can't separate them, right? Because it seems like the prediction markets follow the polls. There wasn't really a lot of daylight between the two of them. Yeah. So the prediction marks that are trying to take credit for predicting this, I mean, they were really watching a lot of the polls, right? I think so. I mean, this has been my year, I think, to kind of watch the prediction markets and try to sort of see what's going on there.

48:16The observation that I've kind of made from it is just if the prediction market is in one place and a poll comes out that's over here, the market moves that way. In most places, this is anecdotal. You go in to vote and the people who are volunteers there anywhere across the country, they're so nice, right? They're doing great work. They're doing great civics work. Have you noticed anything different about the vote counts? Was it faster, the same, slower than in previous years? Yeah, I mean, it's a great, diverse country here. We have some states that count super, super fast and efficiently. Florida.

48:46Yeah. We have some states that take a while that we're still waiting on. So we've got the—we run the gamut. And in Mississippi, people are watching that race there, and we covered it earlier in the broadcast. But it's taking long because it is so close. Yeah. Well, it is. They take a—they allow a few days after the election for the vote-by-mail ballots that were postmarked to come in. In a race that's about 1 ,000 votes between the candidates, obviously, every vote can matter. though I will say each update the Democrat has been ticking a little bit further ahead there. The way you prepared for this election any different from the way you prepared for other ones?

49:16Well, I mean, this one was the added challenge here was if the polls were right, it meant that the landscape we were looking at was going to be much broader than usual. It meant that Democrats were going to be competitive in places they normally aren't. So in terms of preparation, it was there was a lot more breadth to what I was trying to cover. And I think early in the night, I realized good thing we did that because it is going in that direction. You know, I've worked the board before, you can't go in with preconceived notions, right? Because then you'll get surprised. When you prepare, I mean, you prepare for every scenario, right?

49:43A red wall, a blue wave, a blue trickle, a blue tsunami. It's not like you go in there and you know what's going to happen. It's one of my favorite lines. I think it was Mike Tyson who said, everybody's got to play until they get punched in the face. Yeah, that is so true. Anything we can pull from this election, and people may try to read tea leaves for two years down the road. As we've seen, every election is different. Well, I, to me, that's always the lesson in these things. Everything seems so permanent when we see it. Two years ago, we were talking about this Trump coalition, this majority coalition, all these new voters he'd brought into the party two years later.

50:15We're talking about how they're gone. We're talking about these incredible inroads that Democrats made. I don't know what we'll be talking about two years from now. As far as best practices, you know, a lot of people, especially students, they prepare for big exams. Preparing for the big board is like that, like you're preparing for, you know, your boards or a law school exam. What are some best practices you do and how do you prepare you and your producer? Yeah, I mean, hopefully I'm a little more, my worst habit in college was waiting till the last second and cramming and you absolutely can't do that with this.

50:44So I've gotten much better about sort of prepping kind of year round for this. And yeah, I do. I have flashcards, I have spreadsheets, I have nightmares before elections about getting things wrong. So it's nice to get through, but It's fun. Once you get out there on election night and the returns start coming in and you just start figuring out what it actually is, that's fun. And your team, do they sort of do game scenarios with you? I mean, you guys are gaming different scenarios out and trying to figure out, OK, if this happens and it's here. Yeah, absolutely. We do basically, you know, dry runs in the October leading up to it.

51:13They give us fake data in the board. We try to figure out early. Is this a good night for Republicans in this scenario? Is it for Democrats? Without memorizing that data because it's going to be different on election day. Well, that's it. You don't want to get too married to any of the habits, the patterns that you see right there. But that is part of it. You went so viral. So many people tuned in thanks to, like, all of your knowledge and your incredible board work. We have a compilation of some reactions from your growing fan base. Here's what we got. So you've got people turning you into the meme from It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, digging through some evidence there.

51:41People are also sharing a set of you. What is this one here? This one is, I think these are all the reaction shots. And they are fan edits and hype videos. and tons of questions for you on TikTok. Let's take a listen.

51:59This was his, like, game seven of the NBA finals. This was his Super Bowl.

52:07This video is for Steve Kornacki and Steve Kornacki only. What do you eat before you start this? You're on here for hours. How do you pick the tie? How do you pick your tie? Do you hibernate before or after Election Day? I love that these are such young viewers, too, and young fans. So wait, can you answer some of our questions? I mean, yeah, so what do you eat before, how do you pick the tie, and when do you sleep? I read a biography when I was a kid of the great basketball coach Red Auerbach, and they said he never ate on game days because he was afraid it would take away his edge. So I do as Red did.

52:40I don't eat on game days, on election days. The tie is easy. This is the only tie I own. I don't know. Wait, let me get this right. You own one tie. I own one tie. Do you ever dry clean it? Here's the thing. I don't even know how to tie it, but I know people who know how to tie ties. That's the key to getting ahead in life. That's incredible. Then do you sleep before? Do you kind of make sure that you're smart about how you're sleeping? I mean, you can't. What do they say? There's a sleep gap, but you can't bank the sleep. So I just try to get enough and then do it afterwards. All right. Steve Kornacki, man, we thank you so much.

53:11Oh, actually, we have just a little bit more before I go. This is crazy. I don't know. I could forget this. This was our top moment here on Top Story last night. It's Steve Kornacki look-alike contest. Did you see this yet? This was in Queens. This is a bar in Queens. They don't really look like you, but they sort of look like you. Here's the man who actually won. What is your reaction to this? This is the guy who won the – I mean, come on. He doesn't look anything like you. Well, listen, imitation is the sincerest form of flatteries. That's pretty funny. You should go to that bar and see if they give you a free drink.

53:42Steve, thanks so much for everything you do, and thank you for being part of NBC News. It was so great. Ty, it's great to be on with you next night. Thank you, Ty. Appreciate it, man. All right, so we thank you for watching Top Story tonight. I'm Tom Yamas in New York. Stay right there. More news on the way.

54:06My six-year-old little sister is taken from her bed and violently murdered, and we don't have any answers. It's been 30 years. That's not okay. We will find this person. It's not a question of if, but when. Who killed JonBenet Ramsey? You think you know this mystery, but do you know about the DNA at the crime scene? Can science finally solve this case? And who is Unknown Male One? An intruder. A third party male. So Unknown Male One is out there somewhere. Yes. The stunning all-new Diane Sawyer investigation, tonight on ABC.

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